Twilight starts off by informing the reader of her experiments regarding the physical durability of the Elements of Harmony- i.e. smash them and see what works. Mare, if they turn out to be malign it's probably going to be your fault. Apparently only the will of the Bearers determines whether or not the Elements can be altered... or possibly the will of the Elements themselves.
(She also attempts to be foreboding by noting that several villainous forces have successfully "broken" the Elements, but the only one we've seen at this point is Nightmare Moon, who was more or less a former Bearer, so nyeah.)
Then it's back to Detective Hard Boiled, attempting to juggle his investigation into Dash and the construction site with medical issues. Turns out his horn will go melty if he doesn't use telekinesis enough, and it's not that rare for unicorns. Another symptom of so much magic having gone away? A colleague informs him of Dash's resemblance to "ancient mythology", though taking it as a disguise- and also that the dig was on the site where a cloud city, apparently containing a powerful artifact, fell to earth after the Schism.
Meanwhile, Dash thinks back on the encounter in the Everstorm with the "insect-pony thing", which Star had informed her was called a changeling, a term Dash vaguely remembered from school...
...wait...
...checks back at prologue...
...what the fuck?!
So, it's not that "Hurricane Fluttershy" apparently took place after the royal wedding, but whatever happened took a big chunk out of Dash's memory. Either that or there are even bigger, Homestuck-worthy time shenanigans going on.
Also, Dash and Star have to disguise themselves until they're back to safety. So now Dash is Firefly. Because of course she is. Then they're off again, much to our antsy ace's relief. (Not so antsy, though, that she won't slow down and provide an airstream once she realizes Star's limited magic won't let her keep up and keep warm at the same time.)
Speaking of disguises, Calumn awakes for a talk with Blaze vis a vis their screwed-up emotional states- as an Everstorm guide, Blaze has the knack for turning his care for another being on and off, and changelings don't have much in the way of family until their spymasters stick them with the relatives of KIA soldiers, who get the knowledge of their loss pushed down for a while. Though Blaze at least has his sister Holly (whose form Calumn briefly adopted), and we've already seen how Calumn cares for Mama Strongheart- in marked contrast to Star's warning to Dash that changelings are ruthless, vampiric psychopaths. And indeed this looks like the start of a beautiful friendship, as Blaze insinuates himself into helping with the rest of the mission.
And onward....
Comments
