"I have a brother?!"

Celestia gave Twilight an apologetic smile and sipped her tea. "I know it's awkward, Twilight, but —"

"Awkward? Awkward?! One of my friends is the Element of Honesty, Princess! What am I supposed to say when she asks me why I've never mentioned him before?"

Celestia's smile turned hard, but her voice lost none of its mild tone. "You'll forgive me, I hope, if I'm less concerned about my most brilliant protege's ability to shift her cover story than I am about ten thousand drones under the control of a deranged and rapacious queen."

Twilight exhaled, pacing around the room. "I know. I know. But there's got to be a better way."

"I assure you there isn't. They couldn't have arrived at a worse time — Cadance's ascension makes her so transparently important as to be a guaranteed target, but if they learn why she's so important, then we'll have an all-out war over the Crystal Empire before we can establish control of it. So I need to make it look like she's simply leverage." Celestia set her teacup down and strolled over to the window. "Being groomed for marriage to a stallion who has been reluctant to pop the question … a stallion who is one of the few entrusted with knowledge of spells that could tear our rule apart. Chrysalis — and we have to hope it's Chrysalis; Arachne might be too clever to fall for this — will be too busy chasing that golden prize to look at the platinum in her grasp."

"If you need that sort of bait, marry her to Providence Eye or to Blueblood. If my cover is blown, the implications could reverberate all the way back to Project Luna."

Celestia's voice, for the first time, got strained. "I'm aware, Twilight. But I can't falsify that kind of paper trail without bringing actual ponies in on it, and the instant the queen gets her hooves on them, this plan is dead in the water. Your lineage, on the other hoof, is under our complete control, and also clearly groomed for power. I need a new Equestrian hero on zero notice, and the only plausible source is from the bloodline that unlocked the Elements of Harmony."

Twilight massaged her aching temple. "What makes you think this is even going to work? Do we even have an exit strategy?"

"An anti-changeling kinetic burst —"

Twilight whirled to Celestia, jaw dropping. "What?"

"— keyed specifically to their hive. If we can stall them until the wedding, Luna can capture an infiltrator and adjust the targeting accordingly."

"You're talking direct confrontation! Starting a nationwide changeling panic! This is madness!"

"Then suggest a sane solution."

Twilight's mouth opened and closed. She plodded to the window, staring out at the spiraling towers of Canterlot and the city streets beneath, in scurrying perpetual motion like an anthill.

Finally, she exhaled, shoulders sagging. "Take me to him."

---

There was something almost guileless in his expression, Twilight thought, one hoof on the yet-to-be-decanted pod. The chitin was still softening and sprouting fur, leaving his muzzle curled into an artificially lopsided smirk, but his closed eyes were relaxed, fluttering in the rapid motions of empty dreams.

She stared for quite some time at his floating sprawl of electric-blue mane — had Celestia used Template 3 again? — then bit her lip and considered.

"Make her my old foalsitter," Twilight finally said.

Celestia blinked, turning back from her inspection of the thick, acrid-smelling tubes twining through the egg-chamber. "Pardon?"

"Cadance," Twilight said. "Give me a reason to know her well. Luna will need time, which means the queen will need a distraction, and I'm in the best position to provide one by digging in too deeply where I shouldn't. But more importantly, that makes his silence toward me even more inexplicable, which makes it a mystery I can latch onto. Either my friends will get caught up in my protestations of weirdness, or they'll write me off as out of touch, and either way that will punt the question of his sudden appearance until after the other hive is exposed."

Celestia thought for a moment, then nodded firmly. "Done. And … Twilight? Thank you."

Twilight stared at the thing which was to become her brother, then gave Celestia a shaky smile.

"You know me," she said. "When it comes down to it, I'd do anything for family."