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Heart of Loyalty

by PonyAmorous

Chapter 11: Chapter 10

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Chapter 10

***Present Day***

"Tell me Doctor, how is our patient?" Celestia asked as she took a seat in one of the office's plush chairs. From the other side of the desk, Dr. Resonance Image looked up from a stack of paperwork with a frown.

"Combative is the first word that comes to mind."

"I see. And how did..." Celestia's gaze lingered on the prominent black eye the doctor was sporting.

"Headbutt."

"Ah."

"Also, we now do all the bathing, sheet changing, and other such routines while she's sedated, after she managed to somehow flip a bedpan at one of the nurses. On the positive side, her near constant flexing and struggling should delay the onset of muscle atrophy."

"Good news, I suppose. What do you have to report on her current condition?"

"Physically, she's in perfect health. Mentally, well, it's difficult to get her to cooperate for most of the tests. We had to get a bit creative in our methodology, but as far as we can tell, there's no loss of mental acuity. She's suffered no change in logical or spatial reasoning ability, and the constructed personality profile matches what we have on record. She absolutely refuses to entertain the idea of any wrong doing by Twilight Sparkle, but given the notes in her file regarding stubbornness and extreme loyalty to her close friends, it's hard to label that an aberration."

"I don't understand. Are you saying she might not be under an enchantment after all?" Could Cadence have been mistaken? The idea brought a mixture of joy at the thought that Twilight was innocent, dread at the monumental apology she would have to give to Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and all their friends over this misunderstanding, and confusion over Twilight's now unexplained flight from the castle.

"No, she certainly is, but it's...complicated."

"How so?" Celestia asked, quashing the conflicting wave of relief and disappointment.

The doctor stood and turned on a nearby projector, pulling down the screen on the back wall and levitating up a small laser pointer. An enlarged image of a pony's brain appeared on the wall.

"It wasn't easy. It probably would have been impossible if we weren't looking for it specifically, but with the notes from Princess Cadenza, we were able to find traces of magical energy exposure within a band of neural tissue extending from the amygdala."

Celestia watched as the small red dot circled around a bright patch that stood out amongst the dim background.

"Extended monitoring has revealed a periodic magical surge through this area, stimulating growth. The good news is that it's all very localized. This gives us a lot of leeway in potential treatment options while minimizing the risk of any accidental damage to the rest of the brain."

"Can you develop a counterspell to negate it?"

"We're already working on it. It won't be simple, but it's nothing we can't work out with a little time. We can definitely deactivate the spell, but that's where the complicated part comes in.

"Oh?" Celestia asked apprehensively.

"First of all, I said the surges were coming periodically, but they're actually coming farther and farther apart each time. The frequency is decaying geometrically. By our current calculations, it won't be long until they are coming days apart, then weeks, then months, until they effectively stop."

"So the spell is fading on its own? Our job is done for us?"

"Unfortunately, that may not matter. All the spell appears to do is stimulate growth in this neural connection, and at this point, it seems viable on its own. The spell may fade, but the damage is already done. There's a small chance we missed something, that deactivating the spell might change something, but at the moment, it looks like we can remove the disease but not the symptom. That is unless..."

"Unless we actively destroyed that connection." Celestia finished.

An uncomfortable silence filled the room.

The silence was broken by somepony charging through the door. A light tan mare with a short blonde mane, glasses, and a cutie mark that looked like a pair of telegraph lines, stood panting, having sprinted across the compound and unused to such exertions in her daily desk job. She quickly remembered herself and gave a quick bow.

"Apologies your highness. There's an incoming crystal wave for you. From the Trottingham station."

"Can it wait? I'm somewhat busy at the moment." She worked to mask any irritation, maintaining the aura of serene calm she was known for, but the mare flinched anyway.

"I'm sorry, but it's from Princess Luna. It appears she arrived unexpectedly and commandeered the comm station. She says it's urgent. Well, to be honest, we're having trouble translating the more...colorful archaic expressions, but there was definitely something about heads and pikes in relation to anypony who made her wait. Also something about a 'thrice damned abyssal plane of shadow'?"

Celestia nodded. "Urgent then." She turned back to the stallion in the white coat beside her. "My apologies Doctor. I'm afraid I must go tend to this matter. Have your team keep working on the counterspell in the meantime. I'll meet with you again soon."

She followed the still rattled mare out the door and down the hall until they arrived at the communications room. She walked over to one of several small booths, set aside for private conversations, and took a seat, donning the attached headset. One of the nearby technicians called out.

"Patching you through now."

There was a brief crackle of static, then Luna's voice in her ears.

"Celestia!? Are you there? Is this accursed thing working?"

"I'm here Luna. What is it?"

"Finally. First question, would I be correct in assuming that you did NOT in fact send me an urgent message telling me to meet you fifteen miles from the northern outskirt of Trottingham, regarding a crisis threatening all of Equestria?"

"I certainly sent no such message. Why?"

"Well, such a message was received. Delivered by what appeared to be one of your guards."

That was unsettling. "And what did you find?"

"At first? Nothing. I waited ten minutes for you to arrive, but when I took to the air to search the horizon, I was suddenly set upon by changelings."

What?!

"What?! Are you-?"

"Worry not. I am fine. This was no assassination attempt. I'm certain they were merely meant to delay me. I fear this ruse was but a distraction."

"A distraction from what?"

"That leads me to my second question. Tell me. Has Twilight Sparkle yet arrived in Canterlot?"

"What? Why would Twilight be in Canterlot?"

"Because I apprehended her last night and was escorting her transport along with five of my guards when I was called away by that 'urgent message'."

Celestia's blood froze.

"The one I never sent. The one that led to a changeling ambush."

"Precisely. Shall I assume the transport has not reported in?"

The soundproofed walls of the private booth proved the competence of their crafters as they muted something entirely unprincesslike.

"My thoughts exactly."

***

"Wakey wakey little egghead" a voice called out in the darkness.

Twilight gave a groan in response as she slowly began to come around. She could feel dirt and solid rock beneath her, and from the acoustics of her own groan, it sounded like she was in some kind of cave. Something soft was spread over her back like a blanket. She slowly opened her unfocused eyes to see a blurry blue shape in front of her.

"Good to see you're still with us after all" the shape replied with a chuckle before moving slightly to the side.

Twilight flinched as she felt the sensation of teeth nibbling on one of her ears. She blinked as she tried to get her bearings through the haze in her head. She hadn't completely finished waking up, and though the teeth on her ear and the feathers being dragged across her back were starting to wake parts of her up, they certainly weren't helping her think any clearer.

"Nnhg. Wait...hang on a second..." she mumbled as she attempted to cast an innervation spell to clear her head.

Nothing happened.

Though the spell had failed, Twilight found herself wide awake anyway as she immediately lashed out with a front hoof to deliver an uppercut to the affectionate pegasus beside her. Unfortunately, her target was quick enough to jump back and only take a glancing blow to the chin, denying her the satisfying impact and possible crack of bone she had been hoping for.

"Oh wow, are we having our first fight? Does that mean we get to do the whole angry sex thing?" The fake Rainbow Dash taunted as she dodged another hoof strike then ducked as Twilight pivoted to buck out with her back legs. "Cause that is so totally super hot!"

Twilight kept swinging wildly as she shouted. "STOP! USING! HER! VOICE! YOU! STUPID! COCKROACH!

"Wonderbolts! Sonic Rainboom! Daring Do! Awesome! Coolness!"

"STOP IT!"

"Oh Twilight! Just a little to the left! YES!"

"RAAAH!" Twilight shouted as she kicked a small amount of dirt and pebbles into her opponents eyes, distracting her long enough to tackle her and bite down hard on a wing.

"OW! FUCK!"

Twilight was blown across the room by an invisible wave of force as the false Rainbow Dash erupted into green flame, replaced a moment later by Queen Chrysalis rubbing at her wing.

"Dammit! Who does that?! Who bites a w-" She didn't have time to finish as Twilight had quickly picked herself up and threw herself into a charge, horn lowered with goring intent despite the thick coating of green resin inhibiting her magic. Chrysalis swung out with a foreleg of her own.

*Shlck*

"Umm..."

Both combatants stared awkwardly at the strange development. Twilight's horn had become lodged in one of the leg's many holes. Chrysalis gave an experimental shake of her leg, waggling Twilight's head along with it. *Snrk* Chrysalis began to snicker as her mind filled with terrible innuendo.

"So I guess-"

Twilight braced against the ground and jerked her head, pulling Chrysalis off of her three leg balance and causing her to stumble around in an arc into the solid rock wall. Her horn still stuck, Twilight found herself yanked along as Chrysalis reflexively tried to pull in her leg to steady herself. Twilight found herself on her hind legs, a chitinous underbelly between her back and the cave wall. She repeatedly slammed herself backwards, knocking the wind out of her opponent. Finally, the changeling queen managed to get her foreleg free and throw Twilight forward before picking her up with her magic and knocking her out with a sleep spell.

"Shit! I just wanted a snack before work! Since when was the bookworm such a brawler?" She took a few seconds to catch her breath, then walked over to give the unconscious pony a quick pump of venom before lighting her horn.

"Okay, forgetting. Forgetting this whole embarrassing fiasco ever happened. Good." Her spell complete, she teleported herself outside the cell. "Alright. I'm going to go get a drink, relax, and we'll try this again in twenty."

***

Twilight stirred against the cold stone floor. It felt gritty and uneven, not at all like the smooth and carefully constructed masonry she would expect of the Canterlot dungeon.

Okay, probably not in official custody anymore. Possible positive note there.

That just left the question of where she was and the corollary of how she got there. She recalled Luna being called away and a gang of gryphons attacking the transport, seeking the bounty on her. She remembered the messenger and one of the gryphons approaching her cage together. Perhaps the gryphons had a guard on their payroll to tip them off, won the skirmish, and now she was being held in some kind of hideout awaiting ransom. That, or...

"Hello again Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight jumped to her hooves, taking a defensive stance and quickly scanning her surroundings. She was in a cell with bare earthen walls and floor. It looked like it had been roughly carved out of the surrounding bedrock, part of a larger underground tunnel system, given that the only source of illumination was torch light in the hallway. There wasn't a proper door. Instead, some kind of hardened green resin formed a series of vertical bars across the space where the alcove of her cell met the rest of the tunnel. A similar substance coated her horn, blocking her magic. On the other side of the bars, wearing a mocking smirk, stood Chrysalis.

Or changelings.

"I told you we'd be meeting again sooner than you thought." She took a final sip from a colorful drink levitating beside her, then tossed it aside for a drone to dispose of.

Twilight stared back icily. "Yes, congratulations on snatching me out from under Luna's hooves after she did all the heavy lifting to actually catch me. Now I suggest you let me go before she comes to retrieve me and blows this entire hive to pieces in the process."

"Thank you for your concern, but how exactly do you expect the dear Princess to find you?"

"The same way she caught me in the first place. By tracking me in my dreams. Normally, I'd be happy to leave it as a surprise for you, but I'm actually far more concerned about falling back into her hooves than yours."

"Well I wouldn't concern yourself with that" Chrysalis dismissed with a laugh. "As long as that is in place-" she pointed a hoof at the solid green substance around Twilight's horn "-you won't have any problems with nocturnal voyeurs. And I applied that myself, so I assure you, it's not going anywhere. Now tell me, have you given any further thought to my offer?"

"Which one? The one where I turn innocent ponies into love generators to power your invasion of Equestria, or the one where I become your 'pupil', despite the fact that it would be ME teaching YOU certain destructive spells, technically making you MY apprentice? In regards to the former, my answer remains 'go fuck yourself', which, depending on the transformation mass limitations of changeling drones, I'm sure is actually entirely possible for you. As for the latter, as temporarily amusing for me (and I'm sure kinky for you) as it would be to have you call me master, I'm going to have to refer you to the same answer."

"Oh, how disappointing. Perhaps you still need more time. Feel free to make use of these accommodations while you think it over."

"My answer isn't going to change."

"Not even if I sweeten the pot? Say, with a certain pegasus for a roommate?"

"I'm not interested in any of your changeling imitations." Twilight snarled.

"Who said anything about imitation?" Chrysalis answered back with a smug grin.

"What else? You don't HAVE Rainbow Dash!"

"Not yet, but we will soon."

"You know where she is?" Twilight asked skeptically.

"As I said before, my spy network is second to none. She's a little difficult to reach at the moment, but we've got eyes on her and it's only a matter of time before she's sharing that cell with you. Unless of course, you're still feeling so very uncooperative, in which case I suppose we can always find a nice feeding pod to stick her in."

Twilight bristled at the threat, but restrained herself from giving her the satisfaction of reacting any further. She satisfied herself with the mental image of smashing the arrogant bug's face into the floor while she reflected on a very important piece of new information. The changelings might know where Dash was. Assuming Chrysalis wasn't simply lying, which was no small assumption.

"A nice story, but how do I know you won't just pawn off some changeling fake on me anyway?"

Chrysalis gave a dismissive wave of a hoof. "You can watch as the drones help themselves to a snack, something they certainly couldn't do with another changeling. Or you could knock her around a bit until she passes out, or use whatever secret question or pass phrase your obsessively paranoid self probably came up with years ago, I don't care. It's all the same to me. But if you want her back, I suggest you carefully reconsider my offer." She turned to leave, planning to let the unicorn stew a bit, when Twilight interrupted her.

"Actually, I've got a counteroffer."

"Oh?"

"You let me go right now, take this gunk off my horn, and tell me everything you know about where to find Rainbow Dash, and I DON'T reduce this entire place to a smoldering ruin on my way out."

"HA! HAHAHAHA!" Chrysalis cackled in amusement as Twilight waited patiently for a response, the serious, unmoving expression on her face only sending her into further bouts of laughter. "And how-" she paused to catch her breath. "And how exactly will you accomplish that without access to any magic?"

"Well I guess that will just have to be a surprise. But really, this is your last chance to surrender and I suggest you take it. You're in my way, and that's a very dangerous place to be."

"Alright, I'm bored with this now." She turned to leave again. "Make yourself comfortable Twilight. You'll be staying here for a long time." The sound of a door swinging shut signaled that she had finally left. Twilight was alone.

Alright. So. Escape. No big deal. Just gotta come up with an escape plan. Easy. Step 1: Get this green gunk off my horn. Let's start with brute force.

Twilight closed her eyes and focused, pushing magic into her horn as hard as she could. After a few seconds, she could feel it getting slightly warmer. She raised a hoof to the exterior. Still cool to the touch. She continued to concentrate on pushing more magic. Perhaps if she could get it hot enough, the material would melt right off. She kept pushing, ignoring the headache she was starting to develop from the strain.

After two more minutes, the headache was getting harder to ignore and beads of sweat were starting to pour down her face. Suddenly, she felt something shifting. Despite the exterior remaining solid as ever, she could feel something against her horn start to melt and flow. Trying to ignore the splitting headache and the hot burning in her horn, she continued to push out magic with renewed vigor. The feeling of flow increased, though it didn't seem to be dripping downward like a melting candle would. Instead, it seemed to be circulating. She raised a hoof and felt the outer layer warming quickly. Much more quickly than could be explained by simple conduction in fact.

Damn!

The rise in temperature had triggered the creation of a convection cell, opening a small hollow pathway just under the surface for the liquid to circulate through. It absorbed heat as it passed along her horn, then carried it straight to the surface where it could more effectively be dispersed, acting as an efficient cooling system for the entire structure. She cut off the supply of magic with a defeated sigh and waited several seconds as it cooled, the liquid material quickly resolidifying.

Okay. Brute force is out. Time for something else.

She spotted two small buckets in the corner of the cell, one empty, and one filled with water. Standing over the water filled bucket, she tried to get a better view of her horn in the reflection. She was unable to get much detail from the weak reflection, but she was fairly certain it was made of the same material as the bars. The key to removing one, would be the key to removing the other. She walked over to the bars for a closer investigation. She started with a few hard kicks.

The material was strong, waxy in texture, and as she already knew, magic insulating. It also seemed to be bio-organic. Probably one of the numerous enzymatic oral secretions changelings were able to produce. She pushed away the unpleasant image of Chrysalis' mouth wrapped around her horn and tried to focus on what was currently known about such substances.

After the failed invasion of Canterlot, the scientists at the academy had recovered samples from feeding pods, fortifications, and various other structures the changelings had been hastily constructing when Cadence and Shining Armor's spell had ejected them. They seemed to be a complicated protein mixture designed to expand, contract, or dissolve in response to a specific cocktail of enzymes. Interestingly, the enzymes involved and the proportions of their mixture were not always the same between similar structures, suggesting a lock and key feature wherein an individual changeling would need to supply the proper formula as a kind of password.

Which means I can't just knock out a changeling and rub their spit on it.

She recalled something else that had been discovered. Though incredibly resilient, the structure did weaken substantially when exposed to strong shifts to a low pH environment.

Right. All I need is some acid then. Where do I get that?

She looked around at her resources. In one corner sat a large pile of hay. She wasn't sure if it was supposed to be her food, her bed, or possibly both. In another corner sat the two buckets. One with water, which she assumed was for drinking, and one empty, which she suspected was supposed to serve as the bathroom facilities. Oh, and dirt. Plenty of that.

No! There's more than that. Think! There's you. Tears, mucus, blood.

Not acidic.

Stomach acid, uric acid.

Way too dilute to do any good

If I can concentrate them...

If we had a few weeks and even the simplest lab equipment maybe.

With the right spell-

No magic!

Twilight kicked the back wall in frustration, knocking loose a few fragments of rock and dirt. She turned to look at the wall. Tunneling out wasn't an option. Never mind the fact that it would take decades to make any appreciable progress with her bare hooves, or that, being who knew how far underground, she'd have to dig her way up as well as out; there was no way she'd be able to hide such an effort from her captors.

She kicked at the pile of sediment beneath her hooves. There was a slight twinkling as light caught off the small bits of pyrite mixed in with the grains of silicates and feldspars. She looked up at the vein of worthless fool's gold running through a section of the wall.

No. Not worthless.

She quickly set to work. She slammed her hoof into the wall over and over again, falling into a steady rhythm as she mined her precious new treasure.

***

Applejack finished driving the last stake into the ground and made a final pass around the tent to check the tautness of the ropes. Satisfied, she returned to the small circle of stones to find Fluttershy dropping off her first load of gathered kindling. As Fluttershy left to gather more wood, Applejack got to work stacking the sticks into a box pattern, placing bits of bark and dried grass throughout while still allowing room for plenty of air to pass through. By the time Fluttershy returned with the second load, she had built a roaring fire and was digging out the cookware from the cart.

"Oh, you're cooking?" Fluttershy asked with a note of surprise.

"Well, yeah. Why?"

"Oh, nothing. For some reason I just thought we'd be stuck eating rations of bread and apples, or have to forage for edible moss and mushrooms and stuff."

Applejack gave a laugh. "Well you can have all the moss you want, but I brought along some peppers I was planning on making into a mean stir-fry and you're welcome to it. I won't be serving up any high class cuisine from Rarity's favorite restaurants, but I consider myself a pretty good camp cook, and can make do with limited ingredients. We'll eat just fine, so don't worry about that."

Fluttershy smiled as her stomach growled at the good news. She took a seat on a nearby log and watched Applejack cook as the sun dipped below the horizon. The first stars were just becoming visible in the eastern sky when Applejack finished.

"Alright, come and get it."

Fluttershy gratefully accepted a plate. Her ears perked straight up as she took her first bite of the surprisingly zesty dish.

“Wow. This is really good.”

“Thanks.”

“I knew you could bake, but I didn’t realize you were such a multi-talented chef.”

“No need for flattery now. There’s plenty of seconds to go around without needing to sweet talk the cook” Applejack replied with a faint bit of red glowing in her cheeks.

“No really, I mean it. I wonder why I never knew about this before?”

“Well, I don’t really cook that often for anypony other than Granny, Big Mac, and Applebloom. The only other pony I ever made meals for semi-regularly was Rainbow Dash.” There was a brief pause, as if weighing if the topic were okay to discuss, then Applejack continued. “Heh, and that was more out of necessity. She couldn’t cook to save her life, so we’d always be going out somewhere or ordering take out unless I made something.”

Fluttershy gave a nod. “That’s always been true as long as I’ve known her. I’m nothing special in the kitchen myself, but her cooking has always been…well, awful. After we became friends, I started making little lunches for her. After all she did to help me when we were fillies, I was so happy to have found something I could do for her. Ever since then, I’ve found cooking kind of relaxing, though I’m still just okay at it.”

There was another pause, the silence filled by the crackling of the fire. They both finished their food and Applejack stood up to start cleaning. Fluttershy joined her and began to help her wash the dishes.

“You know,” Appleajack spoke up “if you were interested, I might be able to teach you a bit more. About cooking I mean. I’ve also got a few recipes that run a lot smoother with a second pair of hooves.”

“I’d like that” Fluttershy smiled back.

The dishes finished, both ponies returned to the fire. It was fully night now. The fire cast a protective shell of light around their small campsite, a barrier to keep out the ocean of blackness that filled the rest of the world. Hopefully the fire would keep out the creatures that roamed in the darkness as well. They sat in silence, Applejack tending the fire, adding the occasional log and jabbing and breaking apart sections with a large stick to keep the airways clear. Fluttershy just stared into the dancing flames, lost in thought.

Applejack looked up at Fluttershy, thinking once again about the question that had been on her mind all day. She hadn't asked when they first set off that morning, just falling in behind Fluttershy and letting her take the lead. It didn't seem like they were just wandering aimlessly. She might not lead with much apparent confidence, but she did make clear decisions when branching paths were encountered. It definitely seemed as if she were heading somewhere in particular, but she hadn't said where, and Applejack still hadn't asked, mostly because of the natural corollary that came with it.

"Fluttershy?"

"Hmm? What is it?"

"Where are we going?"

"What? You mean like in a philosophical sense or-"

"No. I mean where specifically in these woods are you taking us to find Twilight, and why do you think she might be there?"

"Oh." Fluttershy shrunk back a bit. "Well, I don't know anything for sure. It's just an idea I had, but back when Twilight and I were...together, we'd both make trips to visit Zecora. Twilight would need rare plants for experiments, and I'd need medicines for my animals. Well, one time Zecora wasn't home, but Twilight didn't want to just give up. She wanted to go out and try to gather what we needed ourselves. I was a little scared, but I figured I'd be safe as long as I was with Twilight."

Applejack nodded and waited for Fluttershy to continue.

"Well we didn't have any problems with predators, but we did end up kind of lost for a while. Obviously we found our way eventually, but while we were lost we found a couple places that were memorable. Some of them had the plants we needed, but what I remember most is that they were all really isolated and really...romantic. Afterwards, we went back to a few of them once or twice for a date. A few even had little caves that two ponies could hide away in. So I just started thinking, well, maybe..."

"Maybe Twilight is using one of those conveniently secluded caves as a hideout. And if she took Dash to one of the really romantic ones on a date at some point, they'd both know where it is and be able to meet up there if they got separated."

"Right."

"Okay. I get that. But..." Time for that awkward second question. "You didn't mention this to anypony? Spike, Pinkie, Rarity, and I all got a barrage of questions about what Twilight had been doing for the last several weeks, and half of them were variations on 'does Twilight have any secret hideouts' so it's hard to believe it's as simple as 'nopony asked'."

"I wasn't lying or trying to hide anything! Not on purpose! I really didn't think of it at the time! Honest!" Fluttershy wilted, her ears pressing flat against her head and her eyes widening in fear.

"Whoa, hold on there. Calm down. I'm not mad or anything. I'm just curious. It's fine."

"It's just...everything was so frightenting, and I was still mostly in shock. I only remembered it later. Sorry."

"You don't have to apologize for anything. You're right, it was a stressful experience, and few ponies would be able to remember every important thing on the spot."

Fluttershy smiled in relief and began to relax a bit. Applejack gave a reassuring smile back until another question floated into her mind.

"Umm...so when exactly did you remember this bit of information?"

Fluttershy said nothing, but pointedly looked away, ears lowered once again. Applejack decided to let the matter drop. The situation was hard enough on Fluttershy without expecting the timid pegasus to do something as direct as actively contact the guards to provide information for a mare-hunt, even without considering the mess of complicated feelings regarding the target. Not wanting to end the night on such a sour note, Applejack took action to raise morale.

"You know what we need right now?"

"...what?" Fluttershy asked sullenly, still looking away.

"S'mores."

Fluttershy's ear gave a small twitch.

"And it just so happens that I packed plenty of fixins for 'em. And looky here, two perfect sized roasting sticks."

The dark mood soon lifted from the camp, replaced by sticky deliciousness and the occasional gasp of surprise and laughter when somepony's marshmallow was accidentally lost to the flame. It wasn't long before both ponies wore smiles that glowed as soft and warm as the embers of the fire.

When both had finally had enough, Applejack added some more wood to the fire to make sure it would live through the night. After double checking that the space around the pit was cleared of anything that might cause the fire to spread, they made their way to the tent and climbed into their sleeping bags.

Applejack stared up at the ceiling of the small tent as she listened to the breathing beside her grow deeper and more regular. The calm, hypnotic pattern was soon disrupted by faint distressed whimpering. Applejack looked over in concern to see Fluttershy starting to toss and turn. As she was debating whether or not to wake her, Fluttershy suddenly rolled over and curled up against Applejack's side, hooves grasping lightly through the fabric of two sleeping bags, and head nestling into her shoulder. She soon calmed down, and the slow steady breathing returned. Applejack turned back to the ceiling and closed her eyes to sleep.

***

Twilight watched from her hay bed as the changeling guard finished swapping out the buckets for her drinking water and toilet, quickly closing up the gap in the bars behind it once it had left her cell. She still wasn't sure how to distinguish genders in changeling drones, or if it was even a meaningful concept for a race of shape shifters. She watched as it methodically moved its mouth up and down, steadily secreting the rapidly hardening mucus to replace the section it had dissolved earlier to enter. Its partner kept a trained eye and a lowered horn on her the entire time, just in case she got any ideas about trying to physically charge her way out while the first guard was working. Their work complete, the two guards turned and left. Twilight waited until the sound of their hoofsteps faded.

She counted twenty more seconds for good measure, then leaped from her bed to resume her work. She pushed aside a mass of hay to reveal the pile of hoof crushed pyrite she had steadily been adding to over the past few days. Her hooves were in an atrocious state that would no doubt cause Rarity to throw a fit and confine her to the spa for a week, but the lack of any kind of proper mining or grinding equipment left precious few options. She looked over her small hoard. It was still lumpy and irregular, far from the uniform fine powder she would have preferred, but it would have to do.

Hopefully it's enough.

She went to check on the newly replenished drinking water.

Hmm...a bit too much. But that's not a problem, I can always pour some out. Yes. It's time.

Twilight grabbed the bucket handle in her teeth and carried it closer to the pile. Not wanting to be wasteful, she took several long drinks before carefully pouring out the excess until only a couple inches remained. Next she began to transfer her pile of crushed pyrite, scooping up large hoof-fulls and dropping them into the water. She swirled the mixture a few times before reaching for the object that had consumed the rest of the time she hadn't spent sleeping or mining and crushing pyrite.

Twilight had found several long and somewhat more rigid pieces of hay and, through painstaking effort, managed to weave them together to form a crude straw. Being limited to hooves and mouth only, it had been a slow and frustrating process, but she had finally made it rigid enough to stir with. It had taken even more work and the use of mucus as a makeshift sealant, but she was finally able to blow some amount of air through it.

She sat in front of the bucket and did her best to make herself comfortable. This was going to take a while. She placed her hooves on either side of the bucket, gently swirling the mixture as she lowered her straw into it and began to blow bubbles.

Oxygen. Oxygen. Get in there Oxygen. Go play in the water. Look, I brought you some nice FeS2 to play with. What's that? Why yes, you and sulfur do look good together. No, I don't think iron will mind, and it didn't need those electrons anyway. They look much better on you. What's that? You want your friends from H2O to split up and come join you in a kinky five-way with sulfur? Oh, and they just left all those poor hydrogens behind. And with not a single electron to their names! Don't worry litte H+. I like you just fine the way you are. Some say your breakup has left you bitter, acerbic even, but I for one find your caustic attitude endearing.

Twilight grinned around the straw in her teeth as she continued to stir and blow.

***

Chrysalis hummed to herself in satisfaction as she walked the tunnels of the hive. It was about time to check in on her new favorite prisoner. Perhaps she would be a bit more malleable now that she had been left to stew in isolation for a few days. She wasn't going to hold her breath though. From what she had dug up, Twilight was no stranger to isolation before her move to Ponyville. Then again, that was because she had books.

Hmm...maybe I can find a book to dangle in front of her. Offer a little something to fight the boredom before she goes stir crazy.

Finally reaching the entrance to the block of holding cells, Chrysalis entered to find Twilight muttering to herself in the corner, intensely focused on blowing bubbles in her bucket of water.

Or I may have been a bit too late.

"Uh...Twilight?"

"Shh! Can't talk! Escaping!" Twilight hissed back, not bothering to turn her head.

"Escaping...with bubbles?"

"Yes. Last chance to surrender by the way."

"I'm good. Well, I'm going to go get a drink, maybe take a nap. You keep doing...that."

***

Twilight didn't know how long she had spent churning and aerating her concoction. It was probably hours rather than the days it had felt like, but beyond that she couldn't be certain. One major drawback of this plan was that she didn't know exactly how long this step was supposed to take or how to tell when she was done. However, the steam rising from the surface of the water was a good sign she was getting close.

Wishing she had some kind of thermometer, she did some rough calorimetry, making her best guesses for water volume and temperature. She certainly wasn't going to stick a hoof in it. Ignoring secondary factors for the moment, such as surface area exposure and rate of heat exchange with the air, she mentally pulled up the relevant reaction enthalpy values and worked backward from total energy released to find an estimate of how much new H+ she had successfully introduced into the system. She repeated the process, setting a range of values to accommodate her uncertainty regarding temperature. Finally, she translated her guesswork for H+ concentration into the pH scale.

And...YES! That should do it! Even minimal estimates are within acceptable range, and any unaccounted for heat loss only moves it in the right direction!

Twilight spat out her straw and stood up to give a long overdue stretch. Glancing briefly outside her cell to make sure no guards were about to walk by, she stood in front of the bucket and carefully lowered her horn into the water. She once again began to pump magic to her horn, doing her best to heat the hardened goo from the inside while the warm and now quite acidic bath did its work from the outside. She began to feel that same sensation of flow as previously rigid sections began to uncongeal in the harsh new environment. Her eyes staring up at the water below her, she saw a small glob of green float past her vision. With a smile, she pulled her head up and raised her front hooves to begin scraping the soft jelly like substance from her horn.

As soon as she had cleared away enough to expose the end of her horn to the open air once again, she sprang into action. The water rose out of the bucket and swirled in a rapid high pressure vortex around the rest of her horn, stopping only once it had been completely scrubbed free. With a thought, she imposed a dialectric field on the floating sphere of water, now stretched into an obloid, pushing most of the H+ and OH- to opposite ends. She gave her hooves and horn a quick rinse with OH- side to neutralize any remaining acid. She was in no danger of having a hole burned through her like in one of Spike's comic books, but she could do without the irritated red welts she'd surely get otherwise.

Alright. To business.

Twilight turned to the thick green pillars that served as the bars to her cell. She could dissolve them with the water now returned to its bucket, slash through with a sharp blast of magic, melt them in a wave of fire, knock out the rock where they connected to the floor and ceiling and kick them over, or dozens of other options. Instead, she simply teleported to the other side.

Step 1: Regain magic and escape cell. Check. Twilight placed a large green check mark on her mental checklist. Step 2: Recover inventory.

She hoped the changelings had been lazy enough to simply dump her belongings nearby instead of stashing them in a vault somewhere on the other side of hive. She looked around to see nothing immediately outside the cell except a door at the end of the hallway. Keeping a hyper-alert eye and ear to her surroundings, Twilight crept down the hall as silently as possible. Pressing close to the walls and any shadows she could find, she hoped the accumulated dirt in her coat (that reminded her, she needed a bath after this) did something to dampen the color so ill-suited to stealth.

Slowly and carefully, and with a muffling spell on the hinges, she cracked open the door to peer into the next room. It was a small office that served as a checkpoint between the holding cells and the rest of the hive, visible through the large glass window in the wall opposite her position. A single changeling guard sat at a desk, its back to her as it tried to fold together a paper airplane.

Too easy.

Twilight pushed the door open wider and fired a stun spell to drop the oblivious guard before she could take the thought to heart. The door continued to swing open, revealing a second guard who had been outside her original line of sight. Even as the first guard was still falling, the second had sprung to its hooves and was currently swinging a hoof towards a large red button on the wall.

NO!

A violet bubble shield appeared around the button just in time to deflect a chitinous black hoof, which Twilight grabbed in her magic and pulled towards her. The hoof and the changeling attached to it lurched backwards through the doorway to the holding cells, landing in a heap against the wall. Quickly scrambling to its hooves, the changeling let out a low hiss and transformed into a lavender unicorn with a starburst cutie mark, horn glowing and ready for combat.

Twilight raised an eyebrow at her doppelganger, who responded by firing a bright purple beam of magic. Unfortunately for the imposter, taking Twilight's appearance did not confer any of her abilities or magical prowess along with it. She easily split the incoming beam into six pieces that all bent and arced back in the reverse direction, crashing through the fake Twilight's weak shield. A second unconscious changeling fell to the ground, and Twilight took a moment to scold herself for her carelessness.

Stupid, stupid Twilight! Did you really think they just left one inattentive guard? That there wouldn't be some kind of redundancy in case one were incapacitated?

Returning to the small office, Twilight began searching through various drawers and cabinets, eventually working her way to a small blue locker in the corner. Ripping the locked door off, she was relieved to find that her saddle bags had in fact been recovered along with her from Luna's transport. After strapping them securely around her barrel, she gathered the two unconscious changelings and deposited them back in her former cell, replacing the green resin bars with pillars of stone thrust up from the ground and into the ceiling.

Step 2: Check.

Returning once again to the checkpoint room, Twilight peered out the window into the rest of the hive, keeping her head low and ready to duck down if any of the residents looked in her direction. The short stretch of tunnel on the other side of the door opened up into a large central cavern with a large spiral path running along the perimeter from top to bottom. Dozens of entrances to side tunnels lay scattered along the path. Fixing her gaze on a particularly shady corner by some rock cover, Twilight focused her magic and disappeared with a flash.

She quickly dove into concealing cover as soon as she reappeared and scanned the area from her new position. She could spot maybe a dozen changelings at a time wandering in and out of the various tunnels. Not great, but still better than her more pessimistic estimations. There seemed to be enough shadowy corners around that she might have a chance of sneaking her way to the exit instead of fighting her way out. Assuming she could find it of course.

Well, up is a good direction to start.

Twilight began her ascent. Crisscrossing the great cavern as she jumped from shadow to shadow, she slowly made her way up the spiral ring. The changeling presence began to thin as she took rising opportunities to strike from the shadows and knock the occasional straggler unconscious before teleporting them back to her former cell. She figured they might as well be grouped in one place, as the alarm would be sounded as soon as it was discovered she was no longer in the cell anyway.

Appearing behind another changeling which she quickly incapacitated, Twilight discovered that she could smell slightly fresher air coming from a nearby tunnel. She followed the tunnel further up its steep incline and suppressed a squee of joy as she spotted sky. She carefully crept forward, wary of any exterior guards that might be posted. Finding none, she leaped forward and sucked in a deep breath of freedom.

Step 3: Check. Primary objectives complete.

Twilight cast a small anchor point nearby, allowing her to jump back to the spot in a hurry if she needed to. Once that was finished, she turned and started back down the entrance. Now it was time for the secondary objectives. Time to see whether Chrysalis had been bluffing or if she actually had a lead on where Dash was being held.

Beginning her descent back down the spiral, Twilight knew that she needed to hurry. It was only a matter of time before the effects of her personnel reduction became noticed. Unfortunately, she didn't know what she should be looking for or where. She decided to start at the bottom with the assumption that valuable information might be stored deeper inside the hive where it would be considered more secure.

Jumping straight to the bottom, she noticed an increase in humidity. The area had a wet smell, and she thought she could hear the gentle sounds of rippling water nearby. Exploring a nearby tunnel, Twilight soon found herself standing in front of an underground lake. It was likely the main source of water for the entire hive complex. Looking up, she could see buckets attached to a series of ropes and pulleys that led up through multiple holes in the roof to quickly distribute water to other parts of the hive. She also spotted numerous buttresses, indicating that the room carried a significant amount of structural support. Twilight took a moment to refill the canteens from her saddlebags before leaving to resume her search.

After a few minutes of fruitless searching, she spotted a tunnel two turns up that appeared to be actively guarded. Deciding that something important enough to be guarded might be worth looking into, perhaps even a records room, Twilight made quick work of the guards and followed the tunnel to a rather intricately engraved door. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and jumped in, horn glowing and ready for a fight. She quickly raised a hoof to muffle a gasp.

There, resting atop the satin sheets of a large four poster bed, was the sleeping form of Queen Chrysalis. Twilight had snuck her way into the royal bedroom. With the utmost caution, Twilight gingerly stepped towards a cluttered desk by the back wall. She kept an eye and an ear on the snoring changeling queen, alert for any change in breathing that might indicate she was waking up.

Finally reaching the desk, she stared down at a mess of letters strewn haphazardly across the surface. After scanning through the contents of one, a grin spread across her face.

Field intelligence reports!

Twilight quickly began searching through the rest of the stack. Several covered general guard movements. There was the notification of Luna's sudden deployment from Canterlot and capture of Twilight, followed by an after action report of the heist that had brought her here. Another discussed the evacuation and reassignment of several operatives to avoid the massive counter-intelligence crackdown effort Celestia and Luna had been pushing ever since that previous operation had exposed the presence of changeling infiltration. There was a note scribbled into the bottom margin referencing a list that had been subsequently updated, along with a date.

Twilight looked up to where several more pieces of parchment were pinned to the wall above the desk. On the right was a long list with the same date scrawled across the top. She quickly pulled her self-updating calendar out of her saddlebags to confirm that the date in question was only yesterday. She looked back to the contents of the list. There were three columns. One of what looked like serial numbers, one with names of towns and cities, and one with what appeared to be names of ponies accompanied by notes listing race and cutie mark. Twilight's eyes widened as she realized just what she was looking at. After doing a quick scan for magical alarms, and being almost disappointed at finding nothing (she guessed Chrysalis really didn't expect somepony to get deep enough in the hive to ever enter her room), she removed the small tack, rolled up the list and placed it gently in her saddlebags. Thinking better of it, she pulled it back out, searched around for a blank piece of parchment, and used a spell to quickly duplicate the list, putting the original back on the wall. If its absence was noticed after she escaped, they would likely just change the list immediately.

Twilight added a small bonus objective to her mental checklist and gave it a large green check mark. That still didn't help her find Rainbow Dash though. She resumed searching through the pile of letters until she finally found a lead. A report mentioned Celestia and Luna making regular trips to the Hoofington region. Further observations recorded the transport of several medical expert VIPs to the same area, and their lack of return along with their security detail. The location had eventually been narrowed down to a hidden bunker at a specific set of coordinates, but they were still working on getting an operative inside, as security was properly paranoid at the moment. Twilight's excitement was dampened by frustration as she struggled to make sense of the given coordinates.

R8 13 37 ?

The coordinates were useless if she couldn't understand the coordinate system. The R8 looked like a reference to a grid of some kind, but unless she had an associated map to reference, it wouldn't do any good. At best, she knew she was looking 'somewhere around Hoofington'. Twilight scanned the room for a map, eyes eventually settling on a large nearby table with many small figures on it.

Upon closer inspection, she found that they were tiny dolls. Tiny dolls of the princesses, her brother, and her friends. Her friends, minus Rainbow Dash, were all clustered together in one spot. Shining Armor and Cadence were paired off in a distant corner, and Celestia and Luna were paired together with a bright piece of string running from their location to Rainbow Dash. Twilight spotted the grid pattern on the map beneath them, and quickly pulled out a pen to circle what must be Ponyville, Canterlot and The Crystal Empire, as points of reference.

Now she just needed to know where the hive was. She eventually found a symbol that looked like a bright green H in a circle. She could also see a slight imprint in the thin layer of dust, as if another figure had recently lain there. Come to think of it, where was the piece that represented her?

A soft murmuring from the bed drew her attention. Nestled between two black hooves was a small purple unicorn, horn slightly worn from where it was currently being gnawed on by a sleeping changeling queen.

"Mmm. Tasty tasty Twilight....best since Shining....mmm....Sparkle family buffet."

Okay, that's....disturbing.

Growing increasingly uncomfortable by the second, Twilight levitated the small figures off the table to roll up the map and stow it in her saddlebags, making sure to place a bold X on Dash's location. She didn't have a blank map to copy to, so she'd just have to take this one with her. Having gotten what she came for, Twilight quickly made her way back out of the room, breathing a sigh of relief once she finally made it back to the central cavern.

Okay, I think that's just about it, unless... she paused as a devious idea came to mind. Okay, just one more thing.

Teleporting back down to the underground lake, Twilight pulled out a pair of rods and stuck one in the shallow water in front of her, embedding it upright in the ground. She teleported to the other side and placed the other rod in the same way. A long thread of wire stretched above the lake and tied itself on both ends to the two rods. Then she pointed her horn at the wire and started pushing out magic. An electric current ran along the wire, down one of the rods, through the water, and back up the other rod to the wire again. Water molecules unfortunate enough to be caught in the path of the more energetic electrons found themselves split apart.

Bubbles began to rise from the surface. Twilight continued her work, careful to take slow and steady breaths to avoid hyperventilating as she felt the local oxygen concentration rising. She pushed harder, creating more and larger bubbles. A bead of sweat dripped down her face as she glanced at the entrance, worried that one of the hive's residents would stumble upon her any second now. Finally, she spoke.

"Testing" she heard in a jarringly high pitched squeak from her own throat. It was the sign she needed that the room was heavily saturated with hydrogen, despite whatever had already leaked out through the entrance and the few holes in the ceiling that led up to other chambers. After delicately retrieving her two rods, she put down another anchor point and teleported back to the hive entrance. Making sure she was more than a healthy distance away, Twilight dug out a pack of matches from her saddlebags and struck one.

...3...2...WAIT! Almost forgot! Keeping the still burning match levitating in front of her, she opened her saddlebags once again. A pair of sunglasses floated out and gently lowered themselves over her eyes. 3...2...1...

There was a brief flash of light as the burning match disappeared, followed an instant later by the deafening sound of an explosion and several tons of rock collapsing into a smoldering ruin behind her. Twilight didn't look back, but allowed herself a small smile as she walked away.

***

Dear Princess Celestia:

First of all, sorry for the somewhat unorthodox delivery method of this letter, but I don't have Spike around to send it in the usual way. I figured if a message from me was found taped to the face of an unconscious guard, it would make its way to you fairly quickly. Speaking of which, please send along my apologies to the corporal. It was nothing personal, I just needed somepony to carry the letter.

I wanted to let you know that I'm doing fine. I've been doing a lot of camping lately, getting lots of that fresh air and exercise you always said I needed more of. I know things have been tense lately what with my, let's say, 'extralegal' status. I'm afraid Luna and I didn't exactly part on the best of terms after our last meeting. Things were said, objects were thrown, and there may have been some reciprocal face shooting. Still, I wanted to let you both know that there's no hard feelings. I know you're just doing what you have to do. And to underscore that sentiment, I got you both gifts!

Attached to this letter is a list that, considering recent events, I think you'll find quite useful. Luna's present can be found at the coordinates listed on the back, and it's where I found the first gift as well. It's a little banged up (couldn't help myself, sorry) but I think she'll enjoy it anyway. It's also the kind of gift that's best enjoyed with a lot of other ponies, like maybe a regiment?

Anyway, I'm sure you're very busy (or will be soon if you weren't before). I've got stuff to get back to as well. Though I can't sincerely wish you success in ALL your efforts, I wish you the best of luck for most.

Your still faithful student

Twilight Sparkle

PS: Sorry about your window.

PPS: Tell Spike I never meant I wanted if I could I would have I'm sorry.


Author's Note

Whoo boy. Finally got that doozy of a chapter finished. Of course I've been horribly procrastinating about much more important things I SHOULD be writing instead.

I've wanting to write that Twilight escape scene for a LONG time. Ever since I first learned about the acid mine drainage reaction (pyrite oxidation) I for some reason wanted to work it into a fic. This was back when this fic was still only half-formed in my head. The entire involvement of Chrysalis and the changelings in the story actually originally sprung from me finding some contrivance to write this scene.

For anyone still confused about references to previous interactions between Twilight and Chrysalis, I'm considering the first arc of the comics canon to this story. For anyone who may not have read that, relevant bits from 4:55 to 5:50 below.

Next Chapter: Chapter 11 Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 52 Minutes
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