An Affliction of the Heart: Volume Four

by Anonymous Pegasus

Rating: teen
Tags: Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Romance, Changelings, Original Character
Length: 48991

A hybrid develops new powers, a dark queen escapes, while a pegasus and a changeling try to normalise their married life.

Warden, the broken pegasus, his wife, Kuno the changeling, and their hybrid daughter, Swarm, continue their adventures in a wild, wacky world!

Published 2013-09-24 03:10:04 UTC
Last updated 2014-10-03 13:26:51 UTC

Continuation

Warden clenched his teeth, lifting his good hoof and pawing at the air for a moment as he hissed faintly.

“Still hurting?” Green Hoof asked with a deep frown, as she inspected the unripened aurora bulb in front of her.

“Yeah, stupid Gale making me do wing push-ups. I think he enjoys seeing me in pain. What do you call people who enjoy seeing other people in pain?” Warden asked with a grimace.

“Parents,” Green Hoof said dryly, testing the weight of the bulb with her hoof.

Green Hoof was an earth pony, and quite good at growing things; but she was nowhere near good enough to grow aurora without serious help. Green Hoof was a little larger than Warden, more strongly built, with a soft brown coat and flowing green mane and tail. Her cutie mark was a simple green shoot.

Warden was a pegasus, with a bad wing and severely bad hoof, causing him to be unable to fly and only able to walk with a limp. He was white from nose to rump, with a blue mane and tail and a cutie mark that was a trestle covered with vines. Strangely, for a pegasus, his special talent was growing plants.

“This stuff, aurora. It’s dangerous, yes?” Green Hoof asked bluntly.

“Quite dangerous,” Warden admitted with a frown. “Poisonous if eaten, explosive if prepared right. A powerful, addictive drug, and one of the best painkillers known to pony kind.”

“Right,” Green Hoof said brusquely. “But… are my family in any danger?”

“The explosion has a radius of about five metres for each fruit,” Warden said bluntly. “So unless you were holding it against them, I doubt it.”

Green Hoof snorted once, shaking her head. “I meant: will somepony attempt to kidnap them and use them as leverage to get me to give them aurora?”

Warden opened his mouth to respond, and then closed it, frowning deeply. “Well… I don’t think so,” he said, rubbing a hoof against his ear nervously. “I mean, sure, a few years ago it was a problem. But now? I’m the only grower of this stuff in the entire country. So there’s no one addicted to it to market it to. They’d have to establish an entirely new-”

Warden was brought up short by Green Hoof leaning in and kissing him full on the mouth.

Blinking rapidly, Warden paused and then lifted a hoof to gently push the earth pony away, brows furrowing. “What was that?”

Green Hoof frowned and looked, the faintest of pink tinges coming to her cheeks. “I… I couldn’t help myself. And I wanted to see… if you still felt like that about me.”

Warden gave a grimace, biting his bottom lip. “I’m not sure what to say…”

Green Hoof gave a long sigh and a nod. “You just did say all that you need to say… Kuno owns your heart.”

“She really does,” Warden admitted with a wry smile.

“But tell me…” Green Hoof trailed off, chewing her bottom lip. “If… if Kuno had never come back, do you think that we… that is to say, do you think that you would have… fallen in love me?”

Warden lowered his head slightly at that, and then shook his head slowly. “No, Green Hoof. I don’t think so. We’re just not… meant for each other. I’m damaged goods and I needed a changeling to put me back together. A normal mare would just be too much for me to handle.”

Green Hoof gave a slightly cold nod. “I… I understand. So… how do these pollinate?”

Warden pushed the front door of his cottage open with a shoulder, grimacing as his wing flopped down onto the ground listlessly.

Kuno, his wife, looked up from her magazine with a deep frown. “Did Gale Force push you too hard again?”

Kuno was a changeling, and even though her kind and ponies rarely mingled given their natural roles as predator and prey, they were quite in love with each other. Kuno was a little smaller than
Warden, and looked as all changelings did: covered in chitin, bug-like wings, oversized canines, frills instead of a mane, and her flesh, most often hidden underneath all her chitin, was a bright, vivid blue. The only article of clothing she wore was a red collar, well-worn with years of use, with a golden bell at her throat that jingled merrily and her name stitched into the side of the collar itself in gold lettering.

“I can’t even lift my wing,” Warden complained, literally picking the wing up with a hoof and folding it back in place. “I haven’t been this sore since our honeymoon.”

“You promised me whatever I wanted,” Kuno said with a soft giggle, motioning for him to come closer.

Warden stepped closer to his wife, sitting down beside her and wincing faintly as she lifted a hoof to rest on his bad wing, lightly massaging the top of it.

“Your father is kind of a douche,” Kuno admitted with a frown.

“I know, right?” Warden asked between clenched teeth, leaning sideways to rest his cheek on Kuno’s haunch.

Kuno ruffled his mane with a hoof, before curling down to kiss his nose delicately. “Given how far away Cloudsdale is, he must wake up at like, 4AM just to come down here to wake you up and torture you.”

“He enjoys my pain,” Warden grumbled, nuzzling his cheek against Kuno’s neck lightly, reaching a hoof around to stroke along her wings softly.

Kuno’s wings buzzed faintly and she gave a happy little croon. “Well, you’ve got an entire day to yourself before he comes back to torture you. So… how did it go with Green Hoof?”

Warden grimaced slightly.

“Did you two talk about… what’s-his-face?” Kuno queried.

“His name is Mint Green and he’s my illegitimate son,” Warden corrected, pursing his lips.

“Yeah, him, did you talk about him?” Kuno reiterated.

“Not really, no. She erm… kissed me and asked me if I would have fallen in love with her if you never came back,” Warden said with a strained smile.

Kuno’s eyes narrowed and she glowered.

“Kuno? Talk to me,” Warden said, slightly nervous.

“Warden, hun,” Kuno said, in her sweetest voice. “Where do we keep our sharpest knives?”

Warden’s ears splayed back, and he lifted a hoof placatingly. “Kuno, behave. You should know better than anyone just how much you own me.”

Kuno growled faintly, her eyes flashing with anger, before she took several long, deep breaths. “Fine. Fine. What did you tell her?”

“I lied,” Warden said with a long sigh, resting his chin on one of his wife’s legs. “I told her that no, we never had a ghost of a chance.”

“So… if I never came back…” Kuno began, staring down at him.

Warden nodded solemnly. “Especially as she was pregnant. I’m kind of easily manipulated like that.”

Kuno’s eyes flashed again, and she gave a low growl, wrapping her hooves around him and squeezing tightly. “Mine.”

“I know,” Warden wheezed, giving a smile and then leaning forwards to kiss her chin. “Now stop strangling me.”

“If she kisses you again, I want you to punch her in the throat,” Kuno said bluntly.

Warden gave a slow nod. “I shall try my very best to mortally wound her if she tries again.”

“Oh who am I kidding, of course you won’t,” Kuno said with a deep frown.

“You’re getting jealous again, hun,” Warden cautioned, nudging her lightly with his nose.

“It’s your fault!” Kuno huffed, nudging him firmly in response, before chewing harmlessly on his muzzle with her large canine fangs.

Warden gave a nod, batting at her bell lightly with a hoof. “Indeed. So, do you think that Swarm is having fun at school?”

“I hope so,” Kuno said, pausing in her chewing to frown deeply. “Kids can be such little pricks.”

“Hey, that’s not very nice,” Warden responded, frowning at his wife.

“Is it wrong?” Kuno challenged.

“Well… no, but still!” Warden said with a huff.

Kuno shook her head, and then went back to chewing on his muzzle.

“Fakeicorn!” one of the unicorns on the playground called, pointing a hoof accusingly.

Swarm shrunk backwards, her ears pinning against her skull. “W-what?”

“Fakeicorn!” the unicorn said smugly, striding forwards to stand in front of the young hybrid. “Look at you. You’ve got a horn and wings!”

Swarm lowered her head, trying to make herself look small. “W-well that’s how I was born.”

“Fakeicorn!” the unicorn affirmed, stamping a hoof. “Only Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadance, and Princess Twilight Sparkle are alicorns! Are you a princess?”

Swarm shrank backwards further, stammering. “W-w-well I-I-I-”

“Fakeicorn!” the unicorn said, stamping her hoof decidedly.

“B-but I-”

“Fakeicorn! Fakeicorn! Fakeicorn!” the unicorn taunted, dancing in place and drowning out Swarm’s protests.

“Hey, leave her alone,” a voice said, and someone stepped in between Swarm and the unicorn.

It was Wrought Iron, a young unicorn that Swarm had barely met. “She never said she was an alicorn!”

“But all alicorns are princesses,” the unicorn said, tossing her mane with a smirk. “So if she’s not a princess, she’s a fakeicorn!”

“Fakeicorn, fakeicorn!” came the chant from the group of fillies that had gathered.

Swarm covered her face with her hooves and folded her wings tight to her sides.

Wrought Iron scowled. “That doesn’t even make sense!”

“It makes perfect sense!” the unicorn said, stamping her hoof obstinately and narrowing her eyes. “I bet neither of you can even use magic yet!” A pile of dirt lifted from the ground and floated in the air, held aloft by the soft golden glow of magic from the young unicorn.

Wrought Iron’s eyes narrowed, and he lowered his head, concentrating hard, his eyes screwing closed. His horn sparked with blue energy, fizzling faintly.

The female unicorn smirked and the clods of dirt shot through the air, splashing across Wrought Iron’s face.

Wrought Iron cried out in pain, falling backwards onto his rump, hooves lifting to paw at his face and eyes in distress, starting to cry.

Swarm’s eyes narrowed slowly, and she carefully rose to her hooves, moving to stand besides Wrought Iron, staring at the female unicorn filly with a deadpan stare.

The unicorn stared back, unperturbed. “What are you gonna do, huh? Fakeicorn useless fakeicorn!”

Swarm’s eyes narrowed further, watching calmly as the unicorn levitated another pile of dirt. Very deliberately, Swarm lifted a hoof, and then slammed it down on the ground in front of her. Her horn glowed a ghostly green, and a ring of green fire spread from the impact of her hoof, scorching the grass around her. The dirt levitating between the unicorn and the hybrid seemed to fizzle before dropping to the ground, inert.

The unicorn filly blinked several times, scrunching up her face to try and lift the dirt again.

Swarm tilted her head to the side curiously, watching the other filly intently. For the barest of moments, Swarm’s eyes flashed green. “Something the matter?”

“W-what did you do to my magic?!” the unicorn asked, her voice cracking. The crowd had started to withdraw, backing away in a large circle on some base instinct.

“I think I made it stop working,” Swarm said smugly, taking a step forwards.

The unicorn took a step backwards, prancing nervously. “Y-you’re not allowed to hurt me!”

“Not allowed?” Swarm asked sweetly, taking another step forwards, head turning to the side and an ear perking towards the unicorn attentively. “Whyever not?”

“M-miss Acumen says we’re not allowed to hurt each other!” the unicorn stammered, taking another step backwards, her rump pushing up against the cold steel of a playground swing.

Swarm pondered on that, looking thoughtful, lifting a hoof to scratch at her chin slowly. “I don’t think she ever told me that. And if she never told me, it must not be true,” she said, a slow grin spreading across her muzzle, completely devoid of warmth.

The unicorn turned to dodge to the left, only for a beam of vibrant green enemy to pulse from Swarm’s horn and catch her in the side, lifting her up and sending her spinning in an untidy tangle of limbs across the grass.

Bumping to a heavy stop with a faint groan, the unicorn stirred faintly, eyes opening and blinking hazily. A shadow fell over her, and she whimpered helplessly.

Swarm smiled wickedly down at the foal, leaning down to whisper into one of her ears, “If you don’t leave me alone then my mommy is going to kill you.”

And without another word, Swarm turned around, brushed an imaginary speck of dust off her wing and then strutted confidently back towards Wrought Iron.

The soft echo of water droplets splashing down into a pool of liquid were the only sounds in the quiet dungeon beneath the Canterlot Palace.

Upon the ‘rediscovery’ of the dungeon, whose magical crystals were a strong source of curiosity, it had been converted into a dungeon for the most ruthless of Equestria’s criminals. The crystals were a peculiar type, and actively drained magic from those who spent too long in their proximity. Any unicorn spending more than a few hours in the dungeon soon found their ability to catch magic completely drained.

This was the reason that Chrysalis had trapped Princess Cadance amongst the crystals. With no way to regenerate her magic, she was trapped.

It was perhaps ironic then, that the very method Chrysalis had used to keep Princess Cadance contained was now being used to keep her from escape.

Five long, long years. Five years of torturous hunger with no chance of escape.

The magic that Chrysalis had taken from Kuno didn’t work on Shining Armor. Or rather, it worked perfectly well but each time she wasted her energy on using it, it was removed somehow when Shining Armor was away from the dungeon.

Chrysalis gave a low purr, licking her lips and stroking a hoof idly down the length of Shining Armor’s mane, pressing close to him and wrapping her hooves about his form.

Shining Armor pushed his nose against her chest gently. “I should go… they’ll be looking for me soon.”

“Five more minutes?” Chrysalis asked, affecting a weary tone.

“Five more?” Shining Armor asked with a strained expression.

“Just five. Only five is all I need,” Chrysalis crooned, kissing the guard’s nose lovingly. “You don’t want me to starve do you? You love me, don’t you?”

Shining Armor stared up into Chrysalis’ eyes, and bit his bottom lip, before nodding slowly. “Yes. Yes I do, Chrysalis.”

“Good,” Chrysalis purred, rubbing her cheek amorously against his own. “I miss the warmth of your body when you are gone.”

“And I miss the… well…” Shining Armor trailed off, prodding at her chitin. “The feel of this. It’s all smooth and nice, like the inside of my armor.”

Chrysalis gave a slow smirk. “If you can convince the guards to let you ‘interrogate’ me for a while more, I’ll let you feel what it’s like under my armor…” she said with a suggestive purr.

Shining Armor gave a faint smile at that, and then shook his head. “You know I can’t. If I go back to Cadance smelling like you… then they’ll figure out what’s happening. They’ll think you’re just… using me as a way to escape.”

“Why do I need to escape?” Chrysalis asked, tugging the unicorn closer and gently nibbling at the crook of his neck. “I have everything I need in here. I gave up my crown, my army, my goals… but I got you.”

“You… did,” Shining Armor said with a faint frown, ears lowering. “But… what do we do when Cadance finds out? It’s only a matter of time…”

“We tell her the truth,” Chrysalis said with a low purr, laying a slew of kisses across his cheeks, kneading his sides lightly with her hooves. “We tell her that we’re in love. She’s the princess of love… surely she’ll understand.”

“I’m not so sure…” Shining Armor admitted, frowning to himself. “She’s been getting mighty suspicious of the amount of time we’re spending together… and it was only you putting that spell on me a few weeks back that lowered her suspicions enough to stop her bursting in here herself.”

“That is a problem,” Chrysalis said, scowling. “You’re just going to have to stallion up and break up with her.”

Shining Armor winced at that. “I want to… but I’m not there yet, Chrissy. She is a princess after all. Breaking up with her and going to you…? Ponies would get the wrong idea.”

“I don’t care, as long as I have you,” Chrysalis crooned lovingly, squeezing him tightly with her forehooves. “Call me ‘Chrissy’ again…”

“Chrissy,” Shining Armor said with a smile, burying his nose against her chest with a content sigh.

Chrysalis purred, resting her chin between his ears and squeezing him with her forehooves.

Chrysalis’ eyes snapped open and she stared at the crystal wall for several long moments as she felt a disturbance. It was magic. Not particularly powerful, but definitely changeling-flavoured. But something about it was different.

Eyes narrowing at the wall, Chrysalis lightly rubbed her fangs against Shining Armor’s ears. “Soon, lover. We will be together and free.”

“Together and free,” Shining Armor repeated softly, nosing against her chest.

Cake

Swarm sulked.

Frowning deeply, hooves crossed and sniffling faintly as she sat in front of the principle’s office.

Barely two minutes had passed between Swarm’s display in the playground, and a teacher swooping in and almost physically dragging the foal to the principle’s office.

The principle, an older unicorn named Ramrod, was in the middle of a meeting with a parent, and thus Swarm was forced to sit in an uncomfortable chair, waiting, and sulking as hard as she possibly could.

The door creaked open, and the large, imposing form of the principle appeared, staring down at her with pursed lips.

“It’s not my fault!” Swarm protested immediately, cowering slightly under the disapproving gaze.

“Come into my office, young lady,” Ramrod said bluntly, holding the door open, while a unicorn adult stepped outside, waving farewell.

Ramrod smiled at the parent, and then turned back to Swarm, his expression returning to stern and disapproving. He made an impatient motion with a hoof.

Swarm slid off the chair and lowered her head, walking dejectedly into the office.

The office was an almost uniform white, broken up by the wooden desk, a window, and a large staff photo on one wall. The desk itself was almost completely bare, except for a notepad, inkwell, and a jar full of lollipops.

Swarm stopped awkwardly in the middle of the room, while Ramrod circled his desk and sat behind it, placing his ‘elbows’ on the desk and tapping his hooves together lightly in front of his nose, looking thoughtful.

“So, do you mind telling me what you did wrong?” Ramrod asked, raising a brow.

Swarm huffed softly, ears pinning back as she lowered her head. “I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Witnesses on the playground and a very distraught unicorn seem to think otherwise,” Ramrod stated bluntly.

Swarm scowled to herself but didn’t respond.

Sighing faintly, Ramrod leaned forwards, rummaging around in his jaw with a hoof and coming up with a red lollipop. He held it out at hoof’s length.

Looking up, Swarm’s ears splayed back further, and she move to take it.

Ramrod rolled his eyes, wiggling the lollipop temptingly. “It’s not going to bite you.”

Swarm took a tentative step forwards and then gingerly took the lollipop, pulling the wrapped off and then stuffing it into her mouth, sitting down on her rump and staring up at him.

“Now, as I understand it, you used your magic on another pony?” Ramrod asked levelly.

Swarm nodded, lowering her head slightly.

“This is a clear violation of our rules, Swarm. Using magic against another pony is a very serious offense. It is not allowed.” Ramrod sighed faintly, sitting back in his chair, tapping his hooves together thoughtfully. “Your parents will have to come in, and there are going to be consequences for this, you understand?”

Swarm nodded unhappily. “Bwuff thees weernt-”

Ramrod held up a hoof for silence. “Take the lollipop out of your mouth before you talk.”

Swarm huffed, tugging the lollipop out of her mouth. “But it wasn’t my fault!”

“Did you, or did you not, use your magic against another foal?” Ramrod asked bluntly.

Swarm scowled deeply. “I wouldn’t have used my magic if she wasn’t being such a bitch.”

Ramrod slowly raised an eyebrow, tapping his hooves together again. “I can see you are much more mature than your classmates. Probably smarter, too.”

Swarm perked up at that, ears raising.

“But you’re letting your emotions get the better of you. This is not how a pony acts. Where do you think I would be if I uses offensive magic on everyone that annoyed me?” Ramrod asked, eyebrows raising at the foal.

Swarm scowled deeply, looking away, mumbling something unintelligible.

“Be that as it may,” Ramrod said with an idle wave of a hoof. “You are to act civilised. And unfortunately, the only way to drill this into your head at your age is negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement. Right now, you’re going to get a healthy taste of negative reinforcement. But I want you to know, if you act right, you’re not going to get into trouble.”

Swarm snorted once. “It wasn’t even my fault.”

“Convince me that it wasn’t your fault and I won’t call your parents,” Ramrod said bluntly.

“The unicorn was throwing dirt in Iron’s eyes!” Swarm protested.

“Gilded Facet?” Ramrod queried.

“Stupid Facet,” Swarm corrected with a growl.

Ramrod gave a soft chuckle at that. “How very inventive. So you say that she threw dirt in Wrought Iron’s face?”

“In his eyes!” Swarm corrected.

“That matches what we were told,” Ramrod said with a thoughtful hum.

“Then why am I getting in trouble?!” Swarm protested, stamping a hoof.

“Well, using magic to protect a classmate is certainly not something I would persecute you for,” Ramrod admitted, sitting back in his chair and pursing his lips at her. “But you did it with clear malice. You threatened to have her killed.”

“And I will!” Swarm said, stamping her hoof with a growl. “My mommy kills bad people! And she’s bad!”

“And therefore, I’m going to have your mother come in and explain exactly why her daughter thinks this way,” Ramrod stated.

Swarm huffed, snorting once and turning away, stuffing the lollipop back into her mouth.

Warden gave a soft, low groan, stretching out lazily as Kuno slathered numbweed across his bad wing.

“So, you gonna hit him tomorrow?” Kuno asked.

“I already tried to and he just ducked it,” Warden complained, giving a soft sigh, his bad wing twitching faintly.

Kuno giggled, rubbing more intently at his wing with the cool green paste, massaging it in. “So how long before Green Hoof can take over production of the aurora?”

“Never,” Warden said bluntly, giving a long sigh. “There’s a reason I’m the only grower.”

“Because you’re special,” Kuno cooed, kissing one of his ears.

Warden rolled his eyes, giving a faint snort. “Hardly. I just have the patience and lack of a social life that allows me to tend to the needs of a dependant plant.”

“You sure Green Hoof couldn’t be taught to tend to them herself? You and her all alone up there all the time makes me… well, uncomfortable,” Kuno admitted, frowning to herself.

Warden rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to cheat on you. Not in the least because you’d eat me afterwards.”

Kuno snorted once, chewing on one of his ears playfully. “And you’d better believe it, mister.”

“It’s cute that you get jealous though,” Warden said with a faint smirk.

“So… tell me, why do we live here?” Kuno asked bluntly.

Warden blinked once, peering up at her for a long moment. “Live here?”

“In this cottage. Out of the way,” Kuno explained, kneading at his wing slowly.

“Because it’s my home,” Warden replied blankly.

“I know that. But… you earn enough money to live wherever you want, and yet you live out here… in the middle of nowhere,” Kuno stated with pursed lips. “And you have to limp into town to get supplies…”

“Well… This was my grandfather’s cottage, way back when,” Warden admitted with a faint smile. “My family used to use it as a retreat. A place to get away from civilisation.”

“And cripple ponies shouldn’t be away from civilisation,” Kuno said, poking him firmly.

Warden snorted rolling over and nudging her cheek with his nose. “Did you just call me a cripple?”

“If the horseshoe fits…” Kuno teased, training off with a smirk.

“Well… Swarm is buried here too. I have a lot of memories in this place,” Warden admitted, frowning to himself. “Not all of them good, really.”

“I’m just saying… we don’t need to stay here. Not on my account,” Kuno said, nudging him gently with her nose. “I enjoy being able to parade in my scary, creepy natural form, but I’d give up my sunning time if you didn’t have to limp miles to get stuff.”

“Last time I rented this place out, the pony was growing mushrooms in my cupboards,” Warden complained.

Kuno rolled her eyes, nudging his neck gently. “Plus, Swarm would be closer to school… we could get a bigger house, leave this thing behind and use it as a getaway. Plus, you could get an aurora field made instead of using that… whatever it is you use.”

“Oh I see, now you just want me for my wealth,” Warden accused, kissing her nose.

Kuno giggled, squeezing him with her forehooves. “Not to mention all the free love.”

“You already have a place picked out, don’t you?” Warden asked, suspicious.

Kuno shook her head. “No, what makes you think that?”

Warden slowly raised an eyebrow.

Kuno looked away for a moment, biting her bottom lip. “Daggertail’s old mansion. His family can’t pay the rates on it any more and so it’s going to auction. Pretty cheap, too, considering no one’s actually lived in it for the last few years. It’s all in disrepair.”

“You’d want to live in that place?” Warden asked, blinking once.

“Whyever wouldn’t I?” Kuno queried, tilting her head curiously.

“Well… because you kind of… murdered someone there,” Warden pointed out.

“It wasn’t so much murder as… post-game self-defense,” Kuno said carefully.

“Very nice defense,” Warden said with a roll of his eyes. “It doesn’t bother you, though?”

“I’m a changeling, remember?” Kuno said, poking his nose with a hoof.

“Vaguely?” Warden offered.

“We’re just pure awesome and it really doesn’t bother me,” Kuno explained with a soothing nod, nudging him once with her nose.

Warden gave a long sigh, wrapping his hooves around the changeling and lightly stroking a hoof along one of her wings. “Well… if I buy you a mansion, I hope you’re not expecting anything for your birthday.”

“We both know what you’ll be giving me for my birthday,” Kuno stated.

“Something that starts with ‘c’ and ends with ‘k’?” Warden asked with a teasing smirk.

“Cake?” Kuno asked, perking up.

Warden blinked once.

Kuno lowered her head slightly. “Okay, fine, I don’t spell words very well. Kinda wasn’t high on the list of things to learn.”

“But how can I love you if you can’t spell?” Warden asked, squeezing her with his hooves.

“Because you’re not an English teacher, so shush,” Kuno snorted, chewing at his nose playfully.

Chrysalis looked up as the door to the dungeon creaked open slowly. There was a pause, and then the guard usually stationed outside of the dungeon fell across the entryway limply. Shining Armor stepped over the body, stooping to collect the keys.

Wings buzzing in anxious anticipation, Chrysalis rose to her hooves, dancing slightly in place. The shackle around her ankle clicked and jangled. It was looped through one of the holes in her chitin, and was impossible to remove without grievous harm or the keys.

Shining Armor pursed his lips as he stepped closer to the queen, peering up at her with wide eyes, his chest heaving with excitement. “Tell me we’ll be together, Chrissy.”

“We’ll be together,” Chrysalis promised, a low purr building in her throat, idly turning away and offering him her hindleg.

Shining Armor immediately ducked under her tail, slotting the key into the shackle and twisting it, tossing the useless shackle aside.

Chrysalis gave a low purr, turning to face him again, her wings giving an eager buzz. “Let us be free of this place.”

“I need to stay here,” Shining Armor protested, shaking his head. “They’ll suspect me if I don’t.”

“They’ll already suspect you,” Chrysalis stated flatly, waving a hoof imperiously. “Now come, we’re leaving, together.”

Shining Armor looked back and forth between Chrysalis, and the doorway, frowning deeply, stamping a hoof in agitation. “But… Cadance…”

Chrysalis gave a low growl. “Forget that useless mare. You have me now,” she stated flatly, eyes narrowing at him. “You do love me, don’t you?”

“I… yes,” Shining Armor responded, rubbing a hoof against his temple distractedly. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Chrysalis gave a low purring hum at that, leaning forward to kiss his cheek lovingly. “Yessss… Now come, we’re leaving.” She turned in place, and then headed for the door, stepping casually over the unconscious form of the guard. Shining Armor followed after her, squinting slightly in what appeared to be pained confusion.

Kuno hummed faintly to herself, stirring a bowl full of cake batter with a wooden spoon. She was wearing a pink hoof-made apron that had the words ‘WILL MAKE FOOD FOR ♥’ stitched across the front. Warden was on the other side of the kitchen, setting up the stove, wearing a matching blue apron with the words ‘WILL MAKE ♥ FOR FOOD’ stitched across the front.

There was a rattle from a bronze tube sitting on the counter, and a puff of green flame was emitted from the top of it.

Kuno put down the mixing bowl for a moment, opening up a slot on the device and pulling out a letter, frowning down at it, and then giving a long sigh. “We’re being summoned to the school.”

“Oh, that can only be a good sign,” Warden groaned, heaving a heavy sigh.

“Does this mean no cake?” Kuno pouted.

“We can make cake when we get back,” Warden promised.

Rated 'Teen'

Warden sighed, staring up at the front of the school, pursing his lips in distaste.

“You really don’t like schools, do you?” Kuno asked, giving her pegasus wings a little flutter to get them comfortable.

“Not really, no. I wasn’t one of the popular kids so I can’t say that school was a particularly pleasant place. All the teachers pushed me towards athletics with the encouragement of my father… and I knew I didn’t want anything to do with all of that from a pretty young age,” Warden explained with a long sigh.

“I didn’t have much of a choice in my life direction,” Kuno teased with a smile.

Warden rolled his eyes, nudging her hip with his own. “C’mon, let’s go see what Swarm did this time.”

“It’s probably pretty bad if they called us to come to the school…” Kuno said with a frown, nudging his neck with her cheek in response. “I’ve… been a little bothered with how fast Swarm is maturing for a while now.”

“Bothered?” Warden asked.

“Bothered,” Kuno confirmed with a short nod. “We can’t ignore that she’s part changeling… and I just don’t think she’s going to fit in with the other children very well.”

“She’s aging the same,” Warden pointed out, pausing with a hoof on the door.

“But she’s maturing faster. Imagine if you were forced to go to class with a heap of teenagers all listening to canter-clap music and talking about who they’re ‘in love’ with this week,” Kuno pointed out.

Warden gave a shudder. “You’d kill me with all your jealousy when I ogle all the pretty fillies.”

Kuno gave a sly smirk at that, leaning closer to whisper into his ear, “If you want me to be a little younger, that can be arranged…”

Warden’s eyes widened and his face drained of colour. “Don’t you you dare.”

“Careful what you wish foooor,” Kuno sing-songed with a smile, pushing open the doors to the school.

Swarm was sitting outside of the office, scowling at the ground, scratching the edge of her seat with a hoof. She looked up when her parents arrived, blinking once in confusing at seeing Kuno in her pegasus form.

“What did you do?” Kuno asked bluntly, pausing in front of her daughter.

“I just told the truth!” Swarm protested with a huff.

The school principal poked his head out from the doorway, a brow raising. “Warden, Kuno, I presume?”

Warden and Kuno both nodded.

“Do come in,” the principal said, waving a hoof and retreating back into his office.

Kuno and Warden exchanged a glance, before stepping through the doorway and into the office. Kuno waved a hoof, motioning for Swarm to follow them. Head lowered, Swarm trailed after her parents, sitting down beside the chair her mother chose to sit in.

Warden pulled himself up onto a chair, turning around to get comfortable, wincing and stretching out his bad wing. “So… what did she do?”

Ramrod paused, peering down at the piece of paper on his desk, and then up at Warden, and then Kuno, and then finally to Swarm. “She threatened to have a fellow student killed.”

Warden jerked backwards slightly in surprise, while Kuno just pursed her lips.

Kuno turned, peering down at Swarm. “Is this true?”

Swarm muttered something indistinctly, turning her head away.

Kuno frowned deeply at that, and then looked up at the principal. “So, mister uh…” she paused, looking down at the nameplate on his desk and then back up again, “Mister Ramrod. What do we do from here?”

“I could punish her severely,” Ramrod said, lazily waving a hoof. “But I find that that is hardly a good deterrent in most cases.”

Warden splayed his ears back, chewing on the inside of a cheek. “She’s definitely going to get punished.”

Swarm pouted, curling up and hiding her head under a wing.

“I would rather examine the underlying cause for her attitude and seek to correct it in less… scarring ways,” Ramrod said tactfully, clapping his hooves together softly.

Kuno nodded slightly, and Warden pursed his lips uncertainly.

“First thing’s first, we’re not going to get very far if you’re deceiving me straight away,” Ramrod said, turning to peer at Kuno. “Adopt your natural form, if you would, please.”

Kuno paused at that, raising a brow at Warden. Warden nodded lightly.

With a faint hum, Kuno stretched, engulfing herself in green flames. When the flames faded, Kuno was sitting there in her natural form, wings spreading slightly, buzzing once and then settling themselves back down as the changeling gave a sigh of relief.

“Still don’t like it?” Warden asked conversationally.

Kuno wrinkled her nose deeply. “No, not really.”

Ramrod just stared.

“Isn’t that… you know, weird?” the principal asked, blinking slowly. “For both of you?”

“She was a pegasus for nine months with Swarm,” Warden pointed out with a shrug of his shoulders.

“But… just… changing into a random pony and then back again?” Ramrod ask, slightly awed.

“Well, that’s not really… random,” Warden pointed out.

“I swap between a few different ponies,” Kuno admitted with a smile. “Windshear is my pegasus. I made her for Warden because he likes big wings and firm flanks.”

Warden stiffened slightly at that, his cheeks flushing faintly. “T-that is hardly here or there. We’re talking about Swarm.”

“Talking about what led to Swarm, actually,” Kuno corrected with a smirk.

“I’m too young for this conversation,” Swarm chimed in.

“Swarm is entirely correct,” Ramrod said with a disapproving look between the two adults.

“Fine, fine, we’ll keep it ‘teen’ rated,” Kuno said with a roll of her eyes.

“PG?” Warden asked with a strained smile.

“Teen, and you’ll enjoy it,” Kuno corrected with a smirk.

Ramrod cleared his throat, looking back and forth between them. “Now, please tell me why Swarm thinks her mother is a vicious killer?”

“Because I’ve killed more ponies than most serial killers?” Kuno asked, arching a brow curiously.

Ramrod blinked once, slightly taken aback. “I... what?”

“Mommy is going to exposition, isn’t she?” Swarm asked with an air of long-suffering.

“‘Exposition’ is a noun,” Warden said with a shake of his head.

“Mommy is gonna talk lots?” Swarm offered.

Warden nodded slowly.

Kuno inhaled deeply, peering up at Ramrod for a long moment.

“Well, my first foray into killing, as it were, was back in my home country. I had taken up the guise of a nurse for a while, to leech from the love patients have for their healers. I never went to med school though, so I was sort of just… guessing on what to do. I made the wrong guess. The patient died. Apparently sedatives mixed with weak heart disorders are kinda bad.”

Ramrod stared, his ears splaying back, blinking slowly.

“The second was when I was first getting into the BDSM scene. I had left home, travelled to Singapone, and needed somewhere fast and easy to get some love from. You’d be surprised how much love a submissive has for their master… Well, during one of the ‘sessions’, involving asphyxiation play, my submissive dropped his panic ball. I was so very, very new at the ‘game’ however, that I didn’t know what it meant. He died in the restraints.”

Warden winced faintly at that, and Ramrod just continued to stare, the blood draining from his face.

“My third brush with death was far less… accidental-”

“-She means deliberate,” Warden chimed in.

“Deliberate,” Kuno corrected with a slow smile. “I tracked down a high-class unicorn to have a taste of the high life. I found out that his tastes, while including high-class things like fine wine, expensive food, and thread counts so high his blankets felt like sleeping on fresh white clouds, he also trafficked in foals. He used his contacts to adopt foals from orphanages and repurpose them for things I doubt you want to even know exist. I waited until I was alone with him and I murdered him. And it felt good.”

Ramrod blanched at that, inching back into his chair a little further.

“I was pretty tame in my following years. My hive died out… I’m one of the sole survivors. I came all the way across the ocean to find a hive… and I found a family instead,” Kuno said, shooting Warden a covetous smile. “But then some high-and-mighty prick decided to threaten all of that. He sent his crony down to my home, and had him break my husband’s wing and hoof, crippling him for life. So I repaid the favour.”

“You crippled him?” Ramrod asked weakly.

Kuno shook her head slowly, giving a wicked smile. “Of course not. I killed him. And his crony. You might remember the ‘famous’ murder of Daggertail and Sunshine? And how they couldn’t find a single lead on the killer?”

Ramrod gave a slow nod.

“Well they knew who did it, but had no interest in hunting me down. I believe that Princess Cadance convinced the guard not to pursue Warden and I,” Kuno said, humming thoughtfully to herself, rubbing her chin with a hoof.

“Hey, you did the murders, I was in hospital unconscious the entire time,” Warden protested.

Ramrod stared back and forth between them, shaking his head slowly. “I… I can see why Swarm would have some developmental issues.”

“She’s half changeling,” Kuno reminded with a faint frown. “And I’m not sure she fits in here.”

“She certainly exhibits a certain maturity that is far ahead of her classmates,” Ramrod admitted with a frown. “But the crux of the matter remains.”

Kuno gave a nod, turning to peer down at her daughter for a long moment. “Swarm?”

“Yes, mother?” Swarm asked, spreading two of her feathers so she could peer up at Kuno through them.

“I only kill ponies if they threaten our safety or are reprehensible assholes and have no chance of changing,” Kuno explained bluntly.

Swarm stared up at her mother for a long moment, looking thoughtful. “So… not just for being mean?”

“Ponies are mean all the time,” Kuno explained with a sad smile. “Unfortunately, I can’t kill them all. Or any of them, really.”

“Not even just once?” Swarm asked hopefully.

Kuno’s eyes narrowed slowly.

Swarm pouted and then gave a nod. “Fine… I’ll just pu-”

Kuno placed a hoof over Swarm’s mouth. “No, you won’t.”

Swarm huffed, closing her mouth and turning her head away. “Fine.”

Kuno looked up at Ramrod, raising an eyebrow. “Satisfied?”

“Not really,” Ramrod said with a deep frown.

“Well she’s not going to be threatening kids with death now, is she?” Kuno placated.

Ramrod pursed his lips. “You three have a very unhealthly relationship with eachother.”

“I’m a changeling,” Kuno reminded, her wings giving an irritated buzz. “We don’t do ‘normal’. Why, just a few years ago, were we in the same room, we’d be trying to kill eachother.”

“True, true,” Ramrod said with faint frown. “But rather, I am talking about what you teach your child. You are teaching her that it is okay to kill somepony.”

“And it is okay to kill somepony sometime,” Kuno said with a wave of a hoof. “I just don’t treat it like some high moral quandary. You do what you have to do. If it’s ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ doesn’t bother me. And I’m not going to teach my child that killing is some kind of… something strange or unnatural. It’s a fact of life.”

Warden chewed on his bottom lip, looking back and forth between Ramrod and his wife.

“Spit it out,” Kuno stated flatly, catching Warden’s expression.

“I… Well…” Warden started, looking away and wincing slightly.

“You agree with him but you don’t want to take his ‘side’, now explain to me why,” Kuno stated, stamping a hoof.

“Because ponies aren’t so… practical,” Warden said with a long sigh. “Plus, we’re talking about her threatening a classmate with death, not because it was a heat-of-the-moment flight-or-fight reflex.”

Kuno pursed her lips, licking at her fangs in irritation, wings giving a soft buzz. “I… Yes. I can see how that’s a problem.”

Ramrod looked back and forth between Warden and Kuno, raising a brow. “And how are you going to proceed?”

“I am going to teach her about when it is right and not right to kill a pony,” Kuno said stiffly, chewing on her bottom lip.

“Are you… capable of doing so?” Ramrod asked bluntly.

Kuno blinked once, staring at him for several long seconds. “I am quite capable of doing so.”

“I’ll help,” Warden assured with a shake of his head. “We’re never really… had a talk with her. Not about this. And she does have a crazy changeling for a mother. There’s bound to be some wrinkles.”

“I am not a wrinkle!” Swarm protested.

Kuno shushed her with a hoof, and Swarm poked her nose into one of the holes in the hoof, repeating herself. “I am not a wrinkle!”

“Yes, you’re not a wrinkle, hun,” Warden said with a faint smile. “So… are you satisfied with this, Ramrod?”

“I guess I will have to be,” Ramrod said with a frown. “I will trust to you two to see to this. This isn’t usually something I would just leave up to the parents.”

“Well most of your students aren’t half-changeling,” Kuno responded with a snort.

“Too true,” Ramrod said with a shake of his head. “I hope I won’t be seeing you in here again, Miss Swarm.”

“I hope I’m never in here again,” Swarm said with a wrinkled nose, painfully blunt.

Kuno smiled, stroking a hoof through Swarm’s mane. “That’s my girl.”

Warden just shook his head slowly.

“So… Swarm can return to class?” Kuno asked, raising a brow.

Ramrod gave a frown, looking from Kuno, to swarm, and then back again. “I… I guess so.”

“Good,” Kuno said, clapping her hooves together.

Swarm gave a soft groan. “Do I have to?”

“Yes, you do,” Warden said sternly, eyes narrowing at his daughter.

Swarm shrunk back a little, giving a long sigh. “Fine… fine. I’m going.” With a huff, Swarm rose to her hooves, and then slunk towards the door, slipping through it to head back for class.

Kuno slipped off the seat, stretching out slightly and then wrinkling her nose as she assumed her pegasus form again in a flash of green fire. Warden rose as well, shaking his bad hoof and flicking his bad wing. “So, back home?”

Kuno peered back at Warden for a moment, giving him a push with her hoof to get him moving. “No no no, we’re going up the hill a ways. I’m going to convince you to get a new house.”

“You already convinced me,” Warden complained.

“I’m going to make you excited for it!” Kuno said, bouncing in place eagerly. “Just think of all the new rooms for us to-”

Warden placed a hoof over her mouth, pursing his lips. “Teen rated, remember?”

Kuno scowled faintly, nudging him powerfully with her nose. “Only until I get you alone.”

Different Viewpoints

Kuno fairly bounced down the road, pegasus wings fluttering happily and hooves dancing across the cobbles.

“You sure are bouncy,” Warden said drily, peering at her.

“Don’t you ever want to just bounce and jump?” Kuno asked, perking her ears at him.

Warden stared at her for several long moments.

“I know, I know, you have a bad hoof. So bouncing might look a little silly, but… it’s fun!” Kuno said, bouncing a little more. “C’mon, try it!”

Warden gave a long-suffering sigh, giving a half-hearted jump that landed on three hooves, before he resumed his natural limping gait.

Kuno snorted, nudging him firmly with her nose in annoyance. “You are such a killjoy.”

“Hey, we’re doing this for you, remember?” Warden asked, nudging her in response.

“But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it too!” Kuno protested, huffing.

“You understand that this is a really, really big step, right?” Warden asked of her, frowning.

“Well duh,” Kuno retorted. “It’s a mansion!”

“I’m going to have to take out a loan to get the house… and then another loan to build a larger aurora field on the grounds, which is going to involve building specialised trellises, some kind of watering system that can overcome gravity to deliver water to the tops of the plants…” Warden trailed off with a faint groan. “I’m going to be in debt for at least five years.”

Kuno rolled her eyes, gently nudging his neck with her snout, making a soothing sound. “I can help out. I still have… some bits left over in one of my accounts. It’s not much, but it should at least help.”

Warden nodded, and then gave a long sigh. “I just… kinda don’t wanna move.”

“Why not?” Kuno asked, tilting her head to the left.

“It’s a mansion, Kuno. A giant huge house built for high-fallutin’ ponies and their servants. We’d have more rooms than we know what to do with,” Warden explained, frowning.

Kuno giggled and licked his cheek lovingly. “I know exactly what we’ll be doing in those rooms.”

Warden raised a brow slowly.

“Cakes! We’ll be making cakes!” Kuno said with an earnest nod.

Warden gave a faint laugh, shaking his head and nudging her hip lightly with his own. “And here I was thinking that you’d say-”

“After we christen them all with buttloads of sex,” Kuno corrected with a sly grin.

The entire classroom seemed to go quiet as Swarm stepped through the door. All eyes swung towards her, and then darted away, the foals hurriedly returning to their work and exchanging soft whispers.

Sparkling Acumen, their teacher, tapped a hoof on the desk to encourage quiet.

Swarm looked back and forth between the students, before moving to the teacher’s desk, stopping in front of it.

“Miss Acumen? I’m ready to return to class,” Swarm explained.

Sparkling Acumen barely even looked up from the book she was reading, nodding and waving her quill idly. “Take a seat then, Swarm. We’re drawing things again today.”

Swarm nodded, picking her way through the class. She paused as she stepped in front of unicorn who had been tormenting her. The unicorn seemed to be fine, but she twitched slightly when Swarm passed, her entire form visibly tensing.

Pausing, Swarm perked an ear towards the unicorn, and then took a step towards her and whispered ‘Boo!’.

The unicorn squealed in fright, hooves scrabbling against the floor as she screamed in fear and bolted from the classroom at high speed.

Sparkling Acumen looked up from her book with a long, weary sigh.

Swarm peered over her shoulder at the teacher, giving her most innocent smile, before prancing happily to the easel besides Wrought Iron’s.

“You got in trouble, didn’t you?” Wrought Iron asked. The unicorn colt’s eye was still red, but he at least seemed to have recovered.

“Not really,” Swarm said with a smile, watching Sparkling Acumen leaving to track down the unicorn. “And I doubt that she will be bothering us again.”

Wrought Iron nodded to himself, drawing a circle on his paper. “Well… thank you.”

“It was my pleasure,” Swarm said with a smirk.

The 'Manor Grandeza' dominated the skyline outside of Canterlot, a series of flat lines against the more irregular line of the mountain. The front lawn sloped all the way down to the gates. It was so far from the front gate to the front door that Warden felt his bad hoof start to ache in anticipation.

“It’s huge,” Warden said, staring. “What could we possibly want all that space for?”

“Well, we could have an amusement park over there, a pool over there, an above-ground aquarium and a second mansion made of smaller mansions over there,” Kuno explained, waving a hoof to various points on the grounds.

“It’s just… so over the top,” Warden admitted, frowning deeply. “I give it three months without a full-time gardener before the lawn looks like a clear-cut forest.”

Kuno rolled her eyes. “You’ll be growing more aurora and you’ll get more bits. It’ll all work out,” Kuno said with a wave of a hoof.

“And yet you haven’t even asked if I want to double or triple my workload, have you?” Warden asked flatly.

Kuno raised a brow slowly. “C’mon Warden. We both know that you love tending to your aurora. Not to mention that if you grow more of it, you can supply more to the hospitals that need it. Are you really going to turn all of that down?”

Warden frowned, biting his bottom lip. “I guess not… but it’s just… it’s huge.”

“I can have an entire room devoted entirely to cake!” Kuno said with a grin.

“More like five,” Warden said, slowly shaking his head. “There’s gotta be a hundred rooms in that thing.”

“I heard it has secret passages,” Kuno said with a knowledgeable nod. “Plus, it’s close to Canterlot, and has plenty of room for your aurora. Not to mention it’s within easy view of Canterlot itself so ponies can’t come rough you up.”

“And it’s likely to be exorbitantly expensive,” Warden said ruefully. “Five years of debt is not appealing to me.”

“Why are you trying to talk yourself out of this?” Kuno asked bluntly.

“I’m a pony, remember?” Warden asked, raising a brow.

“Vaguely. It crossed my mind once or twice,” Kuno responded dryly.

“Well we’re scared of change in general. And this is… this is a huge change.”

“Change isn’t always bad,” Kuno said with a sage nod. “And not to mention that, since it’s so damn huge, you can have other people live in the rooms we don’t need.”

“Other ponies in the mansion, for what?” Warden asked, blinking once.

“Ponies to help you grow the aurora, of course. Workers to keep the grounds looking nice… all sorts of reasons, really,” Kuno pointed out with a wave of a hoof.

“You’ve really thought this out, haven’t you?” Warden asked, peering at Kuno sideways.

Kuno nodded slowly. “I have.”

Warden sighed, kicking the ground with a hoof. “I’m just… I moved into the cottage when I left school. I was with Swarm, and then I was just… alone. I’m just really used to living out of the way and not… in some fancy castle.”

“Castles have keeps and towers,” Kuno said, examining the mansion carefully, head tilting to the side. “It’ll take at least two years to make us a nice private tower.”

Warden blinked slowly.

Kuno giggled, leaning sideways to nudge his cheek with her nose. “We could do anything.”

“We could burn it to the ground,” Warden offered conversationally.

“That would be quite a waste,” Kuno pointed out. “Especially after all the time we spent christening each room.”

“You understand there are at least a hundred rooms there, right?” Warden asked cautiously.

“So… two days?”

Warden winced, giving a nervous laugh. “I hope you’re joking.”

“If you keep acting like a goat being confronted with a lion, then no, I’m not,” Kuno responded smartly.

Warden gave a long-suffering sigh. “Fine… fine. So. Aren’t we supposed to be looking at this behemoth?”

“If you can jump the fence,” Kuno said with a giggle.

Warden winced again, ears pinning back. “Are you serious?”

“Well there’s no one up there… and it’s not exactly ‘viewing hours’ at the moment. So, feel up to some ‘breaking and entering’?” Kuno asked, bouncing slightly in place, excited.

Warden sighed softly. “Oh, I suppose, since I’ll be punished if I refuse.”

“Good boy!” Kuno crooned, before starting to the scale the fence nimbly. “Race you to the top!”

Warden was limping more heavily than ever as he and Kuno made it to the front door.

A quick twist and tug from Kuno’s hoof showed that it was securely locked.

Humming thoughtfully, Kuno reached into her mane and tugged out a bobby pin, twisting it out and starting to bend it into shape.

Warden watched with slowly raising eyebrows. “Where did you learn how to pick locks?”

“Changelings are awesome,” Kuno responded simply, snapping the bobby pin in half and then beginning to manipulate them in the keyhole. A green glow started in the area where Kuno’s horn should have been, but which was currently missing as she was in her pegasus form. After several seconds, the lock clicked and Kuno turned the handle with a grin towards him, pulling the door open. “After you.”

Warden slipped in through the opened door, squinting in the gloom. A long hallway led to what he assumed was the entrance hall.

Kuno brushed past him, leaving the door open as she stalked down the long hallway and into the entrance hall, peering around at the gloomy interior.

“Just think, this could all be ours!” Kuno said, bouncing happily in place.

Warden followed after her, much less enthusiastic, staring wide-eyed as he came out into the entrance hall, blinking slowly. “This… this is the entrance hall, isn’t it?”

“Yup!” Kuno said with a cheery nod.

“Our entire house would fit in here!” Warden stated in awe.

Kuno hummed thoughtfully, and then nodded. “Yeah, I suppose it would. Hey, you could have it shipped in and set it up inside. Then you could be in your house while you’re in your house!”

“This is insane,” Warden said with a slow shake of his head. “Why would anyone need this much space?”

“To show the rest of the world that they’re rich,” Kuno pointed out with a smile.

“Well I’m not rich,” Warden protested. “Not rich enough to want all this space.”

“I’m sure you could get assistance from the Crown if you tell them that you’re going to convert most of this into an aurora farm,” Kuno said with a knowledgeable nod.

Warden stared at his wife suspiciously for several long moments. “Why do I get the feeling that the decision has already been made for me?”

“Because you catch on quick!” Kuno said with a smile and a bounce. “Now c’mere, and I’ll show you where I ki-” Kuno caught herself, humming faintly, “Where I took care of Daggertail.”

“I hardly find this something to be excited about,” Warden admitted as Kuno grasped his wing and tugged him down a hallway eagerly.

“I find it exciting!” Kuno said, wings fluttering slightly in agitation as she dragged her husband to the east wing of the mansion and stopped in front of a door, pushing it open with relish. “I still remember stepping through this doorway. The look on Daggertail’s face…”

Warden raised a brow, pushing the door open and peering in at the room. It was in disarray, seemingly abandoned after Daggertail’s death. It looked to have originally been a library, except there were no books in sight. Instead, the shelves were filled with various jars and displays, showing a wide range of seemingly random objects, from crystals, to long-dead plants.

“I was Shine, so Daggertail didn’t suspect me until I got close. He asked me how the weather was, and I said it was fine, which was apparently the wrong ‘code’. So he snatched up a dagger and made a stab for me,” Kuno said, bouncing in place happily. “I took the dagger from him and shoved it into his throat.”

Warden raised a brow slowly. “Surprisingly efficient.You didn’t play with him?”

“I considered it,” Kuno said, drooping slightly. “I wanted to flay his fur while he was still alive and then place ground-up glass under the flesh before sewing it back in place and rolling him down a hill, but it all happened so fast.”

Warden took a step backwards, giving a nervous laugh. “Remind me never to break up with you.”

“I’d just zap you to make you love me again,” Kuno crooned, sidestepping to nudge up against his neck gently.

“I should really feel bad about that…” Warden admitted, chewing his bottom lip. “But I fell out of love with you once. Worst four hours of my life.”

Kuno giggled, wrapping a hoof around him tightly and squeezing.

“So where was Shine when all this was happening?” Warden queried.

“Dead in a ditch,” Kuno said with a shrug of her shoulders. “I took care of him first, and then I went after Daggertail.”

“Did you torture him?” Warden asked blankly.

“No,” Kuno admitted, looking away. “I kind of… lost control when I saw him.”

“Lost control?” Warden queried.

“Turned into a bear and turned his head until it was facing the other direction,” Kuno said, scratching the ground with a hoof. “It was… odd.”

“Why was it odd? You murdered Daggertail in much the same way,” Warden pointed out.

Kuno nodded once, frowning to herself. “But that was… logical. I did that because it had to be done. It was a net gain in terms of morality. I was removing a stain on the pony race, getting revenge for what was done to you, and removing a huge negative influence to you.”

“And Sunshine wasn’t any of those things?” Warden asked, confused.

“Not to the same extent as Daggertail. Sunshine was just a cronie. Just a dumb stallion that liked to hurt ponies. But when I saw him I went crazy. I was just so… angry. I wanted to literally tear off his limbs and then beat him to death with them. I’ve never… killed someone out of anger. Even the high-class pony I removed. He was just… a job. A chore. A thing I had to do. Killing Sunshine was something I did because I was angry.” Kuno gave a faint shudder, wrapping her wings tightly around herself.

Warden frowned, stepping closer to her and gently hugging her with a hoof. “I understand. I would have likely done the same.”

“No you wouldn’t,” Kuno said with a sad laugh. “You’re too… forgiving.”

“Yup,” Warden said with a wrinkled nose. “But I completely understand why you did what you did.”

“I don’t,” Kuno admitted, staring down at the floor between her hooves. “And it scares me sometimes to think that I could kill somepony when I’m just… angry.”

“That’s basically the only time it’s acceptable to kill someone. If you do it when you’re completely clear-headed, then you have some serious disconnection issues,” Warden pointed out. “Either that or you’re an executioner.”

“I guess that’s how I kinda saw Daggertail?” Kuno admitted, lifting a hoof to rub along the edge of Daggertail’s desk. Her hoof came away dark with accumulated dust. “Somepony had to take care of him… I was just the one that did. But with Sunshine, I did it because I was angry, because I wanted to kill him. It wasn’t logical. It was personal.”

“Taking a pony’s life should never be easy,” Warden said with a nod, nudging his nose into his wife’s neck gently. “The fact that you can be bothered by what you did is enough for me.”

“Other ponies would call me a monster,” Kuno pointed out.

“My monster,” Warden said with a smile, wrapping his hooves around her and squeezing gently. “If we buy this thing… this room has to be made into something cheery and productive.”

“Why not a storage room for your aurora produce?” Kuno asked, perking an ear upwards.

“That could work,” Warden said, looking around the room thoughtfully. “Plenty of shelves for jars. Room for some processing machines… we’d have to live in the other wing, so the noise wouldn’t bother us.”

“I think I can deal with that,” Kuno said with a short nod, tilting her head to the left, a slow smile spreading across her muzzle. A flash of green consumed her, and then Kuno the changeling was sitting there, smiling at him coquettishly. “So… wanna christen this room?”

“You killed a pony in here,” Warden said flatly.

Kuno nodded, smirking as she rose to her hooves and pushed him back into Daggertail’s desk, rubbing her muzzle powerfully against his neck. “I don’t see this room like that though. I see this room as the place where I regained your life for you, and broke the chains of your captivity. It’s also the place where I first realised I was in love with you.”

Warden blinked at that, surprised by the confession and completely compliant as his wife pushed him up onto the desk and then crawled onto it after him, straddling him and sitting on his belly, leaning down to kiss his nose.

“This is where you realised that you loved me?” Warden asked curiously, leaning up to kiss her chin and neck tenderly.

“Yes,” Kuno admitted, giving a faint smile. “When I was confronting Daggertail the first time… warning him away from you. That was when I realised I was in love with you. I was putting my life in danger for you, without even thinking about it.”

Warden wriggled a little bit under the changeling, wings giving a flutter before resting flat and comfortable across the surface of the desk. “And now you’re going to ruin that lovely memory of this room by having the worst kind of tired, exhausted, half-hearted sex imaginable.”

Kuno rolled her eyes, laying across him fully, squeezing him with her hooves. “I think it’s kind of romantic. Being here with you, right on this desk, happy and together in the very same place where your misery was orchestrated daily.”

“You are so weird,” Warden stated with a shake of his head and a chuckle.

“But don’t you agree?” Kuno asked earnestly, nudging his nose with her own plaintively.

Warden wrapped his hooves around her and shook his head, “I love you Kuno, but your viewpoint is just too far gone from my own for me to comprehend.”

Kuno huffed, pursing her lips.

Warden smiled, nudging her neck and pulling her against him, making her giggle and squirm, as he whispered into her ear with a grin, “You’re just going to have to convince me.”

Complications

Four months later

Days faded into weeks. Weeks faded into months.

Warden sat on a road on the outskirts of Canterlot, staring up at the larger mansion on the hill.

Kuno nudged him lightly with an outstretched wing. “Hey. You still with me?”

Warden nodded silently, lowering his head to peer down at the copy of the property deed he held clasped in a hoof. It had taken all of Kuno’s small fortune, grants from the crown, and two extensions of a credit line to win the bidding on the large mansion.

“I’m just… it’s ours now,” Warden murmured, staring up at the mansion again, his ears splaying back slowly. “All this planning and preparing and… it’s ours.”

“Well, you did pay for it,” Kuno pointed out with a faint giggle, an eyebrow arching. “That’s how simple sales work, you know.”

“But still. I own a mansion. We own a mansion. A mansion,” Warden pointed out, staring up at the large mansion with wide eyes, and then down to the deed in his hoof. “I mean, it’s a freaking mansion!”

“Could be a castle if we added a few towers, a walls, and a moat full of crocodiles,” Kuno said with a sage nod.

“Castle, mansion, either way, we have more rooms than we could possibly ever use,” Warden pointed out, sitting down heavily on his rump, his wings giving an agitated little flick. “I’m just… I don’t know what to do.”

“Well, if we manage twice a day, we could be done christening each room by this time next year!” Kuno said with a happy bounce.

Warden’s face paled. “I uh… I think you’d kill me.”

“Oh c’mon. A little magic, a good, hearty breakfast, and lots of coffee, and we could probably have them all christened by next week!” Kuno said with an earnest nod, pushing up against his side amorously.

“Not happening,” Warden squeaked, shaking his head firmly and taking a step away from her. “I’d be a withered husk.”

“A happy withered husk!” Kuno protested with a huff.

Warden pursed his lips, snorting once.

Kuno rolled her eyes, and then tilted her head towards the front gate. “So… are you going to enter your castle for the first time, Prince?”

“It’s a mansion,” Warden pointed out, ears splaying back slightly.

“Well… your mansion then, Duke!” Kuno said with a happy bounce.

“I suppose I can’t sit out here gawking at it all day,” Warden admitted, frowning as he stepped forwards and laid a hoof on the front gate. “It’s not even going to be ready to grow crops for another few weeks… and then there’s the fact that there’s all of two rooms actually livable at the moment with all the crap still in there…”

“If it helps any, think of it as less of a mansion and more of a… crop growing facility,” Kuno said with a short nod. “After all, that is why we bought it.”

Warden nodded, pursing his lips again, before pushing his shoulder against the front gate, swinging it inwards, stepping on to the ground.

“How’s it feel to own a mansion?” Kuno asked with a giggle, bouncing behind him.

“Undoubtedly strange. Especially since it used to belong to the guy who made my life a living hell,” Warden admitted, frowning and rubbing his chin with a hoof.

“Well now you can take all his things, put them in a huge pile, and burn them!” Kuno said with another happy bounce.

“You are far too cheerful about morbid things,” Warden said, shaking his head slowly.

“I’m a changeling, it’s just what you do when you’re awesome!” Kuno said with another little bounce.

Kuno frowned slightly, unscrewing the lid of a jar containing some kind of strange greenish liquid, and then taking a tentative sniff. She immediately jerked backwards, one eye twitching, nose wrinkled hard. She capped the jar, and then dropped it carefully into the bin, retching just faintly before moving on to the next jars.

Warden was sitting beside her, inspecting various jars, sorting them into ‘salvageable’ and ‘bin’ piles. The ‘bin’ pile was growing rapidly, as it seemed that when the mansion was abandoned, they left at least half of the pantry there to rot.

“Good lord. There are at least another hundred rooms. We’ve been here in the pantry for three hours!” Warden complained.

Kuno wrinkled her nose further, pushing a jar containing a black, fuzzy substance into the bin. “Well, we did pay for this place. We could always hire a cleaning crew.”

Warden gave a long sigh, wings giving a defeated twitch. “Yeah, you’re right. That would be expensive. We at least need some bits for food.”

“Correction: You need some bits for food. If I’m hungry I can just seduce you,” Kuno responded with a giggle.

“Not after this morning,” Warden protested with a shake of his head. “The smell and look of all of this is the least sexy thing I have ever witnessed.”

Kuno’s wings gave a faint buzz. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I haven’t really eaten anything in the last week and I want to throw up.”

“And we’ve gotta finish this up quick. I’ll have to leave soon to pick up Swarm on the way back,” Warden pointed out.

“Right, right. Can’t you just let the aurora die and start over?” Kuno complained.

Warden shook his head sadly. “Not really. We need the crop to pay for the startup of this little farm.”

Kuno sighed faintly and then nodded once. “Well… you go on ahead. I’ll finish the rest of the pantry.”

Warden frowned at that, pawing at the floor anxiously. “You sure?”

Kuno rolled her eyes, nudging him with the tip of one of her translucent wings. “Yes, I’m sure. Get going!”

Warden nodded once, tossing a jar into the bin and then leaning over to kiss his wife on the cheek. “I’ll be back later then!”

Warden was met at the front door by his parents, with Gale Force being in the process of lifting a hoof to knock on the door when it opened.

“We rang the bell for a good five minutes,” Gale Force said, frowning.

Warden winced slightly at that. “Uh yeah, well, the rope connecting the lever to the bell itself is broken, I’m afraid.”

“You should probably fix that,” Gale Force said sternly.

“Yeah, I’ll get around to it,” Warden responded, flustered. “Hi mom, hi Gale. What are you two doing here?”

“Well, I heard my favorite son bought himself a mansion so I wanted to come check it out!” Threadbare said with an earnest nod.

Warden blinked once. “Well, I was just leaving, actually,” he admitted with a strained smile. “I have to tend to the aurora crop and it’s halfway to Ponyville, so I can’t exactly dilly-dally.”

“You go on ahead, then,” Threadbare said with a smile and a nod. “We’ll, ah… well, we’ll wait.”

“Kuno won’t eat you, mom,” Warden said, pursing his lips

Threadbare snorted once. “I know that!” she protested, looking away for a moment and chewing her bottom lip. “But I… I guess we can go in and make nice.”

Warden raised an eyebrow at Gale Force.

Gale Force just grunted in response.

“Welp, I’ll see you two when I get back,” Warden said, pushing between them and then half-jogging towards the front gate, hobbling with his bad hoof.

Threadbare turned to her husband, an eyebrow raising. “How long has it been?”

“Four months or so,” Gale Force said thoughtfully.

“You’re probably going to have to push him out of the nest, so to speak,” Threadbare advised.

Gale Force gave a long sigh. “He already hates me, do you really think…”

“I’m sure he’ll understand,” Threadbare said, nudging him firmly with her hip. “Now go and do it or you’re sleeping on the couch.”

“Yes, dear,” Gale Force intoned, kissing underneath her ear gently. “You know I was going to do it eventually, right?”

“You’re waiting way, way too long,” Threadbare said with a shake of her head. “Now go.”

“I’ll be back!” Gale Force said, turning on the spot and then launching himself into the air after his son.

Warden was hobbling down the path towards Ponyville as fast as his three-hooved gait could carry him, an awkward kind of bouncy-hop, with his good wing spread for balance counter-balancing against the lack of hoof to step on.

Gale Force back-winged to a landing beside him, dropping into an easy ground-eating stride alongside his son.

“Did I forget something?” Warden asked, blinking once as he turned to peer at Gale Force.

Gale Force nodded. “Something important, actually.”

Warden skidded to a halt, wincing inwardly. “What did I forget?”

Gale Force stepped up besides him, corralling Warden towards the edge of the cliff. There was no guard rail there, but it was a wide, wide stretch of road and there was no danger of anypony falling off if they were in any way careful.

“Look over there,” Gale Force said, raising a hoof and pointing.

“That’s Ponyville,” Warden said, mystified.

“Now look down there,” Gale Force directed, pointing down the side of the cliff.

Warden frowned, leaning over the edge to peer down towards the base of the mountain. “I… I don’t get it.”

“Glad I caught you when I did. This part of the road is so perfectly jutting out from the side of the mountain. The drop is pretty sheer,” Gale Force said conversationally.

Warden took a step away from him, frowning deeply. “You’re… kinda weirding me out.”

“There’s nothing to worry about,” Gale Force said in a chipper tone, stepping closer to his son and throwing a hoof around him. “Just remember, you’re a pegasus.”

“Are you drunk?” Warden asked bluntly.

“Nope. But you’re going to wish you were in about three seconds,” Gale Force said cheerfully.

“What happens in three seconds?” Warden asked warily, leaning away from Gale Force.

Gale Force just smiled. “This.”

Without any warning, Gale force took a single step backwards, and then shoved his shoulder hard against Warden’s, sending the smaller pegasus tumbling off the edge of the cliff and out into open air.

Threadbare pushed the doorway open slowly, peering into the kitchen, where she could hear grumbling and the clink of glass bottles echoing.

“Hellllo?” she called, ears pricking forwards.

“Over here!” Kuno called back.

Threadbare barely caught sight of a tail flicking around a corner, before she head a very faint sound like fire. After a few moments, Threadbare poked her head around the door and saw Kuno in her pegasus form sorting bottles.

“You don’t have to do that, you know,” Threadbare said gently.

Kuno peered back over her shoulder, and then gave a sad smile. “I know it makes you uncomfortable.”

“Well I have to get used to it sometime,” Threadbare said with a wise nod, sitting down on her rump and peering along the shelves at all the jars arranged there.

Kuno pursed her lips, and then nodded once. “I uh… I guess you’re right.” A flash of green consumed the changeling, and when it faded, Kuno was there again in her natural form, vibrant wings giving a faint buzz before laying flat against her back. “So what brings you here?”

“Well, came to check out the mansion, really. It’s not often a family member acquires such a huge property,” Threadbare explained, moving to sit beside Kuno, using her magic to lift a jar and inspect it, not even opening it before throwing it out.

“Yeah, we just started this morning. Figured we’d better get the pantry done first so we have somewhere to store all our food,” Kuno admitted, throwing out another three jars that seemed to have once held pickles.

“That’s a good idea. So… how is Swarm?” Threadbare queried.

“Swarm is good,” Kuno said with a soft nod. “She’s doing better in school. Though she’s still only friends with Wrought Iron. She thinks I don’t know, but the teachers tell us everything.”

Threadbare gave a faint smile. “So she has her own little clique then?”

“More like a victim to steal love from,” Kuno said with a faint frown.

Threadbare blinked.

“Yeah, she’s an emotivore alright. I’ve felt it,” Kuno said with a thoughtful nod. “And she’s maturing more like a changeling than a pony.”

“But… she’s just a little foal,” Threadbare said with a slow shake of her head. “She can’t be… stealing love, can she?”

“She can, and she is,” Kuno said factually, licking her fangs anxiously. “It’s not like I can stop her from doing it… and I don’t know that she’s old enough yet for a serious talk about the morality of stealing love.”

“But… they’re just foals,” Threadbare said with a long stare at the changeling. “It can’t be real love, can it?”

“The definition of ‘love’ changes as you grow older, but a flame is still a flame, no matter how bright it burns. In fact, the love a foal feels for another is very strong. Their emotions are so screwed up at that age that everything eventually leads to one form or another of love, and it’s very, very potent. Tastes funny though,” Kuno said thoughtfully, wrinkling her nose.

“You’ve stolen love from a foal before?” Threadbare asked, aghast.

“Taught a preschool class once,” Kuno said with a nod and a smile. “After a week or so, half the foals loved me, half of them hated me. But the half that loved me kept me supplied for quite a while.”

“You’re with my son because you love him, right?” Threadbare asked stiffly.

“Of course,” Kuno responded, tossing another jar into the bin. “It’s been years. I could find steady love elsewhere. But none of it feels… well, none of it feels as right as being with Warden does.”

“I… I wish I could completely believe you,” Threadbare said with a faint sigh.

“I appreciate your candour,” Kuno said with a nod. “But I… I just don’t feel the need to appease you. I love your son. And we’re together. Whether you like it or not is immaterial to our happiness.”

“So… what are you going to use all the different rooms for?” Threadbare asked, changing the subject.

“Well,” Kuno started with a grin, “We’re going to make one for pressing and storing some grapes that we’re going to be putting in the north field, and then—”

Warden flailed at the air with his hooves, screaming in terror as he plummeted towards the ground at a very, very high rate of speed.

Gale Force idly feel beside him, on his back, seemingly at peace with the world. “I suggest you spread your wings.”

“W-what?!” Warden spluttered, but his words were ripped away by the wind.

“Open your damn wings!” Gale Force snapped, rolling over and grasping Warden’s wings, stretching them out for him.

Warden’s eyes widened and he gasped as his wings caught the air, his right wing folding on the impulse to reduce pain.

Gale Force held the wing out rigid though, hoof clasped around the end of the large primary to keep Warden from closing it.

Warden saw the ground rushing up to meet him, and closed his eyes, bracing for the impact.

After several long seconds, Warden opening his eyes, gasping as he floated aloft along the treetops.

He was flying.

The wind was whistling through his feathers and making his ears cold, stinging against his eyes, and a bung smashed against his cheek before tumbling away to the forest floor. Everything was just as he remembered it.

He was flying!

A powerful hoof grasped between Warden’s shoulders and literally lifted him upwards, flinging him higher into the air. His hooves brushed against the top of a tree he was about to careen into.

“Watch where you’re going!” Gale Force snarled, thumping his shoulder in rebuke.

Warden looked back over his shoulder for a moment, unable to help a grin from spreading across his face, before he looked back forwards again. A half-second later, he juked around a tall tree, curling his wings lightly to correct his course. His bad wing protested, but held steady.

A trail appeared in the forest below, and Warden stared down at it in wonder. It was the same trail he had walked to his home for the past five years. Without a second though, he dropped down into the tree line and sped down the trail, taking each corner with room to spare, wings flapping once every few seconds to keep him aloft. He wasn’t flying particularly fast, but to a pegasus that had been grounded for years, it felt like warp speed to him.

No time at all passed for Warden, and he was already at the cottage, tilting backwards and back-winging to a clumsy stop atop his the cottage roof. Several tiles were knocked loose by his overly-hard landing, and he bounced once or twice before steadying himself, grinning and closing his wings, ruffling them once, testing them.

Gale Force landed neatly beside him, grunting once in satisfaction. “See? Ya idiot. You could fly all along.”

Warden turned to peer at Gale Force, frowning slightly. “All these mornings you forced me into doing wing push-ups…”

“I did it because you’re lumpy,” Gale Force growled, shaking his head once. “I’ve seen better definition on a painting someone described to me.”

Warden snorted once, turning away, and then peering back at him a long moment. “Well… Uh… thanks for pushing me off a cliff and all.”

Gale Force smiled. “Any time.”

“And, you know, waking me up at five every morning, and basically beating the crap out of me,” Warden continued.

Gale Force grunted once. “You’re welcome.”

“Not going to have a bonding moment, are we?” Warden asked bluntly.

“Nope,” Gale Force said with a shake of his head.

Warden nodded quietly. “Well, I’ll uh… I’ll see you back at the mansion… dad.”

“Don’t be late,” Gale Force said, launching himself off the roof without another word.

Warden stared after him, giving a faint smile.

Warden back-winged to a slightly-less-clumsy stop, bouncing and wincing as he put weight on his bad hoof. He shook it out, gritting his teeth, before starting down the long ravine towards where he grew his aurora.

Warden frowned deeply as he caught sight of somepony already sitting amongst his aurora crop, facing away from him. Something about her felt somehow familiar. Even without seeing her face or cutie mark.

“Hello? Who are you?” Warden asked warily.

The pony turned, peering back over her shoulder, brushing a lock of a honey-gold mane out of her green eyes.

Warden stared, suddenly aware of his heart thumping hard in his throat. His head started pounding, and his legs started to get a little bit weak.

“N-no… Y-you died…” Warden whispered weakly, staring, eyes wide.

The pony turned, tilting her head at him, before she rose to her hooves and started towards him.

“Hello, Warden. There’s a few things I think we need to talk about,” Swarm said.

Escalation

Warden felt the dull thud of his rump hitting the ground, but wasn’t aware of any conscious movement he had made to sit down.

Swarm stepped closer to him, tutting. “Is that any way to greet your old wife?”

Warden stared. And stared. And stared.

“Y-you died,” he managed to say from around the lump in his throat.

“Died is such a… subjective term,” Swarm responded conversationally, sitting down in front of Warden and giving an idle stretch. Her horn glowed, brushing her mane out of her eyes. “The entity known as Swarm certainly died.”

“B-but you’re Swarm,” Warden murmured weakly.

“Also correct,” Swarm said, nodding once. “Or should I say, Swarm is part of me. Swarm is a… mask I assumed.”

“A mask?” Warden asked, completely wrong-footed.

“I’m a changeling, dolt,” Swarm said fondly, shaking her head. “Couldn’t you put that together in your thick skull?”

Warden stared at her for several long moments, head lowering. “But.. you couldn’t be. I would have known.”

Swarm rolled her eyes, stepping forwards and lifting her hoof to trace along his cheek gently. Warden flinched back, but Swarm persisted, holding his cheek. “You always were a little dense…”

“B-but… That…” Warden protested, shaking his head firmly. “You died.”

“I’m a changeling!” Swarm hissed, her horn glowing angrily, sending a spray of sparks shooting from the end. One of them landed on Warden’s nose, burning the fur and making him flail backwards in surprise. “I faked my death, you idiot.”

“T-there were death papers…” Warden protested weakly, ears pinning back fully.

“Faked as well,” Swarm said with an idle wave of a hoof. “Amazing what you can do when you can be somepony.”

“But… the funeral…” Warden said, holding a hoof against his head, clenching his eyes closed.

“Closed casket, remember?” Swarm cooed, rubbing a hoof along his cheek slowly, soothing him. “You never saw my body, did you?”

“I… I don’t…” Warden murmured, shaking his head, brow furrowing.

“Did you?” Swarm asked, a low growl creeping into her tone.

“I… no… I didn’t,” Warden admitted, taking a step away from the unicorn, shaking his head, the lump returning to his throat. “W-why are you here?!”

“Isn’t it obviously?” Swarm asked, an eyebrow raising. “I’m here to save you.”

“S-save me?” Warden stammered.

“From yourself. Or, more accurately, from your ‘wife’,” Swarm explained, snorting once. “She’s been getting a free meal ticket from you for the last few years.”

Warden’s ears splayed back against his skull, and his wings fluttered uncertainly. “S-she loves me...”

“Are you so sure about that?” Swarm asked bluntly, head tilting to the left and an ear perking up at him. “Tell me how much ‘falling in love’ you’ve done with her?”

“Well… the first time was definitely her using the spell on me…” Warden admitted, scratching at one leg with the opposite hoof, looking away. “But the second time… the real time…”

“Yes?” Swarm asked, tapping her hoof against the ground impatiently.

“Well… I was… I was at your grave…” Warden said, frowning deeply.

“This isn’t about me, this is about you,” Swarm said, snorting once and poking his chest with a hoof.

“She… she came after me. She was scared of losing me…” Warden explained, brows furrowed.

Swarm tutted. “Right. Scared of losing her abundant food source.”

“No… I fell in love with her. I… I remembered all the times we had together… all the things we’d experienced… once I stopped hating her for what she did, once I forgave her, I fell in love with her again,” Warden said, scratching a hoof against his head in agitation.

“Just like that?” Swarm asked bluntly.

Warden’s ears pinned back slowly.

“Just. Like. That.” Swarm tapped her hoof on the ground slowly. “Does this seem convenient to you? You fell in love with her moments after hating her? Doesn’t that sound like a spell to you, Warden? I know you’re dense sometimes, but geeze!”

Warden looked away, biting his bottom lip, feeling tears brimming in his eyes.

“And now you’re crying,” Swarm said with a huff, stamping her hoof. “Why, oh why are you crying?”

Warden lowered his head, staring down at his forehooves, watching a teardrop spill to the ground. “Because… because I’m feeling my world collapse all around me…”

“Well I never lied to you,” Swarm cooed, a purr in her voice.

“E-except for the time you faked your death to get away from me…” Warden said quietly.

Swarm gave a low growl. “I grew bored. What was I to do?”

“I don’t remember you being such a bitch,” Warden added, his tone just as quiet.

“That was me pretending. That was me being Swarm,” Swarm said with a sneer. “I am not Swarm. I am a changeling.”

Warden kicked at the ground with a hoof. “Why are you here? What do you want? Are you here to feed on my misery like a windigo?”

Swarm gave a thoughtful hum at that, and then smirked. “I want you back.”

“You want… want what?” Warden asked blankly, lifting his gaze to her own, eyes rimmed in red.

“I want you back,” Swarm purred, moving to stand beside him, brushing along his side, leaning in to lave her tongue gently against his neck. “Your love for me was never a construct. It was never a travesty. Never fake. I can make you happy. I can make every day of yours bliss.”

“B-but I’m happy with Kuno!” Warden protested, shaking his head firmly and trying to push away.

Swarm growled, wrapping a hoof around his shoulders. “Are you? Are you really, Warden? Now that you know that she’s kept you under the spell not once, but twice?”

Warden frowned, staring down at his forehooves, kicking at the dirt again. “But… I…”

“Say it,” Swarm hissed faintly.

“I… I won’t be happy with her…” Warden said quietly, biting his bottom lip as fresh tears spilled down to the ground.

“Good boy,” Swarm cooed, brushing her tongue up the arch of his neck slowly.

“W-what do you get out of this?” Warden asked plaintively.

“Besides the neverending supply of love?” Swarm hummed, her horn glowing happily. “Well… I’d have your happiness.”

“My… my happiness?” Warden asked blankly. “I… I’m happy with Kuno, and you’re destroying that!”

“What is happiness if it’s just a construct?” Swarm asked flatly, eyes narrowing. “I won’t screw you around, Warden. I won’t lie to you. I won’t deceive you. I’ll be frank and truthful. Would you prefer somepony who lies? Somepony who deceives? Somepony who lies to your face just to make you happy? Is that true happiness?”

Warden recoiled slightly, ears splaying, head lowering again. “N-no… No… that’s not happiness.”

“I’ll keep you happy because I know that keeping you happy will keep you loving me, which in turn, keeps me fed,” Swarm purred, squeezing his shoulders lightly with her hooves. “See? I won’t lie to you. My goals may be selfish… but it is in my best interest to keep you happy. As is the founding principle of all relationships.”

“You don’t love me?” Warden asked plaintively.

“Love is such a… subjective term,” Swarm said with a wave of a hoof. “We consume love, Warden. Do you feel food? Can you feel it?”

“I… no… no I can’t ‘feel’ food,” Warden admitted, looking away and biting his bottom lip.

“Thus, a changeling cannot feel love. We can’t love. It makes it rather a nice defense mechanism to keep us from consuming the love of each other,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders.

“But… Kuno… do you mean…” Warden murmured, staggering slightly, feeling dizzy.

“Does she love you? No. She just sees the perfect food source, and will do anything to keep it within her grasp,” Swarm said with a derisive snort. “Is that the life you want? To be a pawn to a love-sucking vampire?”

“But you… you’re a changeling too,” Warden murmured faintly.

Swarm gave a low growl. “But I am a changeling that will not lie to you, nor deceive. I will be straight with you. If I am going to steal your love,I will earn it rather than keeping you under a spell to steal it.”

“But… I just…”

“Silence!” Swarm hissed, stamping her hoof.

Warden fell silent, pawing at the ground dejectedly.

“Let me clear your mind, Warden. Let me remove her spell,” she purred, leaning forwards, her horn starting to glow a bright, vibrant green.

Warden shied away, an eye closing.

“Relax, Warden, this won’t hurt… physically.” The horn touched his brow, and Warden jerked backwards in surprise and pain, grasping at his skull.

“Oops,” Swarm said flippantly. “Guess that did hurt after all.”

Warden collapsed to the ground, holding his temple, writhing back and forth, kicking at the ground with his hind legs. After several long moments, he went still.

“How do you feel?” Swarm asked, stroking a hoof over his cheek slowly.

“Angry…” Warden murmured.

“Good… good…” Swarm cooed. “The spell has worn off then…”

Warden nodded stiffly, rolling to his hooves, biting his tongue rather hard.

“What are you going to do?” Swarm asked, eyebrows raising.

“Confront her,” Warden said, his chest heaving with suppressed rage. “Yell. Rage.”

“Not yet,” Swarm cautioned. “Wait to cool down a little bit... you never were the best when you were angry, were you, Warden?”

Warden frowned deeply, scowling. “Well… Well you’re right, I guess,” he said, taking a deep breath and then braying angrily.

“Good, good,” Swarm soothed, stepping close to him and lightly rubbing hooves down the length of his form. “When you confront her… she’s going to try to lie to you. To trick you. Deceive you. she’ll say that I’m lying. That I’m the one casting a spell on you. You can’t believe her, understood?”

“Not… not this time…” Warden said, slowly shaking his head, grinding his good hoof into the ground. “Not again. Not three times.”

“Very good,” Swarm said, satisfied. “I trust you’ll let her know exactly how you feel about her?”

Warden growled in affirmation.

“She’ll try to trick you, Warden. I can’t stress this enough. She will try to make you love her again, she’s too entrenched in this little cozy nest of love to give it up so easily,” Swarm explained, soothingly rubbing over his shoulders. “But… don’t kill her. Don’t end her life.”

Warden blinked once, shaking his head as though to try and clear it. “W-why would I kill her?”

“You didn’t want to?” Swarm asked, sounding surprised. “How very noble of you. I don’t know many ponies who would take this without wanting to kill the changeling responsible.”

“I…” Warden frowned deeply, rubbing a hoof against his temple slowly. “I want to hurt her. I want to make her scream… but I don’t want to kill her.”

“She has her hooks in you,” Swarm said, pondering for a moment. “It would be good for you to end her. It might end the spell entirely, instead of my clumsy dispelling of it. But it could destroy you, too. Her magic is surprisingly strong.”

Swarm hummed faintly, before shrugging her shoulders and smiling. “I’ll be here waiting for you to get back. End it with her. Make sure she won’t come after you. Return to me when you’re done.”

“I still can’t believe… that you’re alive…” Warden murmured, looking Swarm up and down slowly.

“We can talk more when you return,” Swarm said with a smirk. “Go… end it. Make sure she won’t get her hooks in you again. We can’t go back to what we were if you’re still under her spell. We’ll go away, just me and you”

“Yes… yes,” Warden said with a slow nod, his eyes narrowing slowly. “I’ll… I’ll be back for you.”

Warden thudded down for a landing, stumbling faintly before rising tall again. He was dressed in his guard armor, tarnished and dull after so many years of sitting in the cupboard, but still impressive.

Kuno bounced across the grass towards him, grinning from ear to ear. “You can fly!” she positively squealed, bounding towards him joyously.

Warden sidestepped her stiffly as she got closer.

“Warden?” Kuno asked, frowning deeply.

“Kuno,” Warden growled, his eyes narrowing under his helmet, his expression hidden by the helm. “If that is even your real name…”

“Warden, what’s wrong?” Kuno asked, her tone getting worried, ears pinning back and wings giving a faint buzz in agitation.

“I’ve had my eyes opened,” Warden said flatly, staring at her. “Swarm was waiting for me at the clearing.”

“Swarm?” Kuno asked, confused, frowning deeply. “What do you mean… Swarm? Little Swarm?”

“My wife,” Warden growled, stamping his hoof.

“You’ve only been gone an hour!” Kuno protested, her expression falling into a helpless frown. “You can’t… It’s… Swarm is dead, Warden!”

“She isn’t. She was a changeling. You knew, didn’t you?” Warden accused, lifting a hoof to push at her chest firmly.

“What...? She was dead, Warden. She is dead!” Kuno protested, her tone rising in octaves.

Warden snorted, shaking his head. “No, Kuno. She’s very much alive. And she also removed your spell.”

“My spell?” Kuno asked, brows furrowing. “But I don’t… I haven’t had you under a spell for years!”

“And yet here we are,” Warden growled, eyes narrowing at her again.

Kuno’s eyes widened. “W-Warden. She has you under a spell!”

Warden gave a hollow laugh. “No, Kuno. She told me you’d say that. She told me you’d try to trick me. That you’d try to deceive me.”

Kuno’s ears splayed back, and she frowned deeply. “W-Warden… what are you doing?”

“I’m ending this,” Warden said bluntly, poking her chest firmly with his hoof again. “Look into my eyes, Kuno. Tell me if you still feel my love. Tell me if you still feel your free meal!”

Kuno lifted rapidly moistening eyes to his eyes, staring into them, clenching her jaw as tears started to spill down her cheeks. “Warden…”

Warden snorted once, placing a hoof on her cheek and pushing her away firmly, turning away. “Don’t follow me, Kuno. I don’t want to see you again.”

Kuno’s bottom lip quivered, and she bit her tongue for a moment, and she whispered plaintively, “B-but… but I love you…”

“You won't be seeing me again,” Warden said bluntly, wings spreading as he took a few steps forwards and launched himself into the air, not even looking back.

Kuno stared after him, holding out a hoof as though to try and catch him, eyes wide and hurt, before she slowly collapsed onto the grass and started to sob brokenly.

Warden wound up back at the cottage, pacing angrily back and forth. His helmet was off, and his face was twisted into a perpetual scowl. He felt victorious, and like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. But he still felt empty. The sound of Kuno’s sobbing tugged at his heartstrings in ways that terrified him.

With a growl, he slammed his hoof down on the table, before leaping back in pain, grasping his bad hoof. The pain just made him angrier, and he kicked a hole in the wall with a firm shove of a hindleg. An old photo frame on the top shelf of a cupboard rattled and then fell to the floor, the glass shattering.

Warden frowned, kicking the picture over, staring down at it.

It was he and Kuno, right after Kuno had Swarm. She was holding the foal in her hooves in a pink bundle, and smiling at Warden, staring into his eyes.

Warden frowned deeply, grinding one of his hooves into the ground in agitation, face twisting into a sad expression. He bit his bottom lip so hard he tasted blood, and a teardrop fell across the broken glass.

Growling angrily, he stamped his hoof against the floor several times, until his hoof was aching and numb.

He tried to push the images out of his mind, but they were intruding on his mind. The warmth of Kuno’s body against his own in the bed. The soft, soothing touch of her hooves as she tended to his bad hoof. The look on her face as she fed him a spoonful of her own meal. The little smile she had when she watched him work, when she thought he didn’t know she was watching.

Warden growled, feeling tears spilling down his cheeks, dripping to the floor. The floor was bloody from where he was unconsciously grinding glass into it with his hoof.

Warden tried to cast his mind back to Swarm. But those memories were hazy, from so long ago. beyond the dark portion of his memories that were addled by drug addiction and pure, unmitigated depression. He could remember the gentle tone of her voice, her honey sculptures, her death…

Biting down on his tongue even harder, Warden tried to clear his head. His hoof ground even more firmly into the floor as he started to feel the sting of the glass sinking into it.

He remembered seeing Swarm laying in the hospital, dying from a rare illness. An illness that he had the ability to heal. But he had failed. He had failed and had to live with the knowledge that she died because of his failures.

Swarm had always been so peaceful, so graceful. Even at the funeral, she had looked serene and at peace, lying in her casket—

Warden’s head lifted slowly, and his pupils dilated.

If Swarm was still alive, then who had he buried?

Confrontation

Warden panted heavily as he scooped another shovel full of dirt out of the hole, throwing it over his shoulder haphazardly. Sweat drenched his form under his armor, making it a sticky, hot, unpleasant mess. His eyes stung from the sweat drips falling under his helmet, and his hoof ached worse than he’d ever felt it. But something compelled him to keep digging, to keep scraping and pawing at the top of the coffin he had unearthed.

With a mighty heave, Warden threw out another large pile of dirt, panting hard for several long seconds, before quickly pawing at the dirt around the top half of the coffin. The old oak was still dull and tarnished, even after so many years of being buried. But now, finally, he had managed to unearth enough of the coffin to reveal the entire top hatch. It could be opened.

Warden took a deep, steadying breath, reaching a shaking hoof for the edge of the coffin, and then heaving it upwards, opening the casket.

An absolutely terrible smell assaulted him, and he retched. Dirt fell into the coffin, displaced by the opening of the casket.

Warden stared down into the casket, feeling bile rising in his throat and the blood pounding in his ears. The skeletal face of his ex-wife was visible, no more than a leering skull with patches of stretched skin clinging to the bones.

Scrabbling out of the grave, almost tripping on the spear he had brought with him, Warden staggered several steps away, ripped off his helmet, and then vomited violently across the grass.

Weak-limbed and shaky, he sidestepped a few paces and then collapsed onto the ground, taking deep breaths, trying to control the sudden shaking of his body.

His mind felt clearer than it did before.

That wasn’t Swarm. Swarm was dead. Dead and buried. A skeleton in a coffin. And the Swarm in the ravine had been a changeling. And he had been under it’s spell.

“Tch, I told you to come back to me,” a honey-sweet voice said.

Warden looked up sharply, eyes narrowing at fake-Swarm.

“W-who are you?” he managed to rasp out.

“I’m your savior,” Swarm said with a smirk, stepping closer to him, her horn glowing. A tendril of green magic snaked towards Warden.

Warden stepped backwards, a wing lifting to shield himself. A series of metallic clicks were barely audible as the wing-underlay stretched under the movements of his wing.

The tendril of green magic hit his wing and then dissolved, while an amber half-sphere was visible around Warden for a split-second.

“W-what?!” Swarm spluttered.

“Magic deterrent,” Warden said grimly, unflexing his wing. “Standard attire for any pegasus guard.”

Swarm’s eyes narrowed slowly, and a low growl bubbled up out of her throat. “Fine! I was going to let you live. I was going to keep you happy just so that I could destroy Kuno with the knowledge that I owned you and she had no claim over you. But now I think I’ll just deliver your head to her on a spike!”

A flash of green consumed fake-Swarm, and when it faded, Chrysalis was standing in her place, lips pulled back in a snarl of rage, green eyes flashing angrily.

Warden took a step backwards, swallowing thickly. His hindhoof came down on his spear, and he quickly snatched it up, readying it.

Chrysalis took a step forwards, lowering her head to send a blast of green at him.

Sidestepping quickly, Warden brought up his wing again, shielding himself. His teeth bared in pain as the feathers along his wings were scorched with the raw magical power, the smell of the burning pinions filling the air, acrid and overpowering. But the magical shield held. The red gems inlaid in the underside of the wing-brace glowed a vibrant fiery red, glowing with all the magic they were absorbing, threatening to burn out.

“Why are you doing this?!” Warden asked, swapping to his other wing, deflecting another magical blast. The gems on the other wing brace started to glow just as brightly.

“Why do you think, idiot?!” Chrysalis shrieked, bounding forwards and slashing at him with her horn.

Warden was a little too slow to dodge, and a lance of pain ripped through him as the horn cut open his wing, scoring almost down to the bone. He snarled in pain, stepping backwards and giving a clumsy strike with the spear. The blow had no conviction behind it though, glancing off of Chrysalis’ tough chitin, barely marring its surface.

“Five years I was locked in that dungeon!” Chrysalis snarled, rounding on him and firing another blast from her horn. The gems on the wing-brace glowed so bright they cast Warden in red light before they shattered one-by-one in a cascade failure, sending razor-sharp shards of superheated magical gems spraying across Warden’s sides, sizzling against his fur.

As the last gem was overloaded and broke, the full magical force hit Warden, sending him ploughing into the ground like a giant fist had struck him. he bounced wildly across the grass, spear clattering from his grasp as he tumbled.

Warden was momentarily unconscious, but only for a second. His eyes fluttered open in time for him to lift his left wing and attempt to ward off another magical blast from the angry Queen. This one was more directed, and another spray of hot, overloaded gemstones assaulted him, burning his other side. He snarled in pain, teeth baring as he rose to his hooves again and staggered towards his spear.

Chrysalis snarled, charging him bodily, head lowered to gore him.

Twisted, Warden managed to deflect the blow, causing her horn to glance off his chest armor, leaving a long line in the armor, before her full weight caught across his chest, lifting him off his feet.

Chrysalis twisted, using her superior size to slam Warden into the ground, smashing the pegasus down on his back.

Warden wheezed helplessly, gasping for air, completely winded by the violence of the slam.

Snarling in triumph, Chrysalis straddled his form, a powerful forehoof grasping his own good hoof and pinning it to the ground.

Warden struggled as he realised his peril too late, even as the Queen sat on his stomach, pinning him in place. His bad hoof pushed up at her chest, trying to push her away, weakly scrabbling at her chitin.

“Poor, poor Warden, the broken pegasus. You picked a fight you can’t win,” Chrysalis cooed, lifting her free hoof and rather idly pushing it against his throat.

Warden’s eyes widened as a firm pressure was pushed against his throat, slowly growing in force, immediately cutting off his air supply. He gasped and struggled, spluttering, eyes bulging.

“Give in, Warden,” Chrysalis cooed, grinning down at him, malice in her eyes. “Die like a good little weakling.” She leaned in closer, to whisper into his ear softly, “When I’m done with you, I’m going to kill your wife. And then I’m going to turn your little hybrid bitch. She’ll be the most evil Princess Equestria has ever seen…”

Warden struggled weakly, darkness gathering at the edges of his vision. He had only seconds before he passed out.

“Give up, little foal!” Chrysalis snarled, putting even more weight on his throat, grinning in wild triumph as Warden struggled helplessly beneath her.

“Warden!”

“Daddy!”

Warden heard Kuno’s voice, and Swarm’s, as though from very far away. He wasn’t even certain that it was real and not just some figment of his imagination.

A pair of magical blasts smashed into the ground nearby, and both Warden and Chrysalis were sent tumbling.

The world rolled crazily around him, and Warden threw out a hoof to try and catch purchase, ending up sprawled across the grass, coughing and hacking violently as he tried to catch his breath. Blood and oxygen flooded his brain again, dazing him.

A figure reached his side, and he tried weakly to push her away, flailing ineffectually.

“Warden, it’s me!” Kuno stressed, slapping at his face with her hoof hurriedly. “Warden! Snap out of it!”

“K-Kuno?!” Warden gasped raggedly, throwing his hooves around her and pulling her close. “I-I’m so sorry! It’s Chrysalis! She’s here!”

“I know, we hav—”

Kuno was cut off by a ringing blow from the side, sending her sprawling backwards, a trail of blue blood spilling from her mouth. Chrysalis quickly reversed her hoof, smashing warden in the face, sending the pegasus likewise reeling backwards, dropping onto his back clumsily, staring up at the sky.

“Aww, how sweet, now I can take care of you both!” Chrysalis snarled, her horn lifting, glowing with a vibrant, terrifying green light. She looked back and forth between them, lips curling into a slow smirk. “Now, who f—”

Chrysalis trailed off into a snarl of pain as a small black shape smashed into her back, staggering her just slightly. But the tiny jaws sinking into the base of her wing were far more damaging.

Swarm, the half-pony, half-changeling hybrid, was almost unrecognizable. The soft fur and sleek mane and tail that usually comprised her form were gone. In it’s place was a snarling, hissing, creature covered in black chitin and with a mouth full of razor-sharp fangs. Glowing green eyes, like her mothers in everything except colour, narrowed down at her target as she sank her fangs into the base of the wing, tearing through muscle and touch chitin alike.

Chrysalis snarled and tried to scrabble the little hybrid off, flailing a hoof back at her and bucking her hindlegs in pain. She managed to grasp around one of Swarm’s hindlegs, and tugged her away, throwing her clear. But the damage was already done. Blue ichor dripped down her side, staining her smooth black chitin. The wing on that side hung limp, drooping to the ground, with a slick of blue slowly drooling down the underside.

A spearpoint touched at Chrysalis’ nose, and she jerked backwards, becoming aware of Warden and Kuno again. Warden had reclaimed his spear, and was holding it against her nose, while Kuno was picking her daughter up, gingerly brushing her off.

Chrysalis gave a low, soft laugh. “You think… you think that you can beat me?”

“We could kill you,” Kuno stated matter-of-factly.

“I could do it myself!” Swarm squeaked, spitting out a glob of Chrysalis’ blue blood.

“We could,” Warden said flatly. “I might do it just out of spite after what you tried to do.”

“Well, well, the weakling has a spine after all,” Chrysalis cooed, lifting a hoof to grasp the end of the spear, holding it rock-steady as her horn started to glow.

Kuno beat her to the punch though, sending a staggeringly powerful bolt of green magic directly into the Queen’s chest.

Chrysalis reeled backward, staggering for a moment, wrong-footed at the strength of the blow. She held her chest, wheezing softly, a crack in her chitin allowing a trickle of blue blood to escape. “Bitch!” she snarled, stamping a hoof against the ground, “I’ll kill you for that!”

Chrysalis’ horn glowed again, and her eyes seemed to glow with a manic fury.

Kuno send another bolt of magic at her, but the Changeling Queen just deflected it with a quick flick of her hoof, sending it smashing into the apple tree. The tree splintered in the centre, and the air filled the cracking sound of broken wood as the tree slowly keeled over, crashing to the ground.

Moving to unleash another blast of magic, Kuno was cut off by Chrysalis flicking her head and sending her own blast into the ground at their feet.

A massive surge of energy unleashed from the spot where the magic hit, sending a blinding flash of light radiating outwards and pushing all four of them away from the spot of impact with its force. Dazzled by the blinding light, neither Warden nor Kuno were prepared for the sudden vicious blows that Chrysalis unleashed on them.

Warden’s head was instantly ringing from a series of three hits across his helm, and Kuno reeled backwards as she took two firm hoof-smashed to her cheek and nose.

Swarm leaped at Chrysalis, intending to finish what she began with the Queen’s wing, but Chrysalis swatted her aside deftly, smashing the hybrid foal into the ground ruthlessly.

“Swarm, no!” Kuno cried, snarling in anger as she rose to her hooves and charged the queen.

Chrysalis just smirked, catching Kuno’s horn in one of the holes in her hoof, twisting viciously and spinning Kuno right off her feet.

Kuno was airborne for several long moments, before she crashed headlong into the ground, stunned and dazed.

“C’mon, how do you three expect to beat me?” Chrysalis asked with a smirk, rounding on Warden, the last standing member of the family. “The poor broken pegasus, last line of defense.”

Warden sniffed, and then swallowed, tasting blood. He hefted his spear, testing the familiar weight. Chrysalis was standing several feet away, seemingly out of reach. Seemingly.

Frowning, Warden reversed the spear, holding it point-down.

“Interesting… planning on bludgeoning me to death?” Chrysalis asked, a sneer in her tone.

“Something like that,” Warden said, taking a single step forwards.

Chrysalis didn’t even move, tilting her head forward, horn beginning to glow. “Bring it.”

Warden’s eyes narrowed under his helmet, and he quickly brought the spear forwards, and then threw it over his own back. His wings lifted just far enough to catch the spear, giving it a surface to rotate on. He caught the very end of the spear in his right hoof, his bad hoof, and let the inertia of the spear’s motion carry it back over the opposite shoulder. Only now, he was holding it at the very, very end.

With a quick flick of hoof, Warden sent the point of the speer careening for Chrysalis’ head.

Chrysalis was momentarily stunned by the move, not expecting such a huge range to be crossed by the spear. However, she was in time to duck, bringing her head out of the line of the spear tip.

Her horn, however, was not.

The tip of the speer, still sharp after all those years, sitting in the closet, scythed through the first half-inch of Chrysalis’ horn, before the cutting action stopped and the sheer weight behind the blow finish the job. Chrysalis’ horn was immediately sheared off, right in the first ‘arch’ of it, sending several inches of broken horn spinning to the ground, where it landed, point-down, in the grass.

Chrysalis snarled in pain and surprise, her hooves flying up to her head as she screeched in absolute agony. Blue spurts of blood pumped from the broken horn, spilling down over her face, dripping from her chin slowly. She spread her forelimbs, lowering her head and breathing heavily, her entire form rocking back and forth with the intensity of her breathing. Her mouth gaped as she tried to catch her breath, errant sparks of magic spilling from her broken horn.

“I… you… it…” Chrysalis stammered, her eyes clouding as she starting to collapse, her entire form twitching as she lost strength in her forelimbs and fell flat on her chest.

Warden dropped the spear from his bad hoof, wincing in pain as he hobbled over to it and picked it up in his good hoof, holding it aloft and then leaning in to push it against Chrysalis’ throat.

Chrysalis stared up at him, teeth baring in pain and defiance. “Do it!” she snarled.

“Do it,” Kuno said quietly from behind him, spitting out a stream of her own blood. “Kill her.”

Warden put his weight behind the spear, preparing to plunge it into Chrysalis’ chest.

“Do it!” a third voice said.

Warden froze, his ears splaying back. He looked back over his shoulder, to see Swarm, dirtied and bloodied, watching with a vicious expression on her little hybrid face. Her eyes were glowing that vibrant green in her new, half-changeling, half-pony form. She looked positively demonic. She looked almost evil.

Warden frowned, staring down at the Queen for several long moments, before shaking his head slowly and turning away. “No. No. She’s defeated. Killing a defeated prisoner is the act of a tyrant.”

“It’s an act of protection,” Kuno said quietly, eyes narrowing. “You’re protecting your family. She tried to kill us, Warden. She tried to take you from me.”

“And she failed!” Warden protested, waving a hoof firmly. “Do you remember how I found you? It was my mercy for you that led to us being together.”

“She’s not me,” Kuno strained, shaking her head firmly. “She is a tyrant!”

Warden growled, leaning over to whisper heatedly into his wife’s ear, “Look at what it’s doing to Swarm!”

Kuno’s eyes wandered to her daughter, the little hybrid, clamouring for the blood of a defeated foe, and her gaze softened. “I… you’re right…” she whispered, deflating, sitting down on her rump and staring at her forehooves. “Swarm, come here.”

Swarm gave a petulant huff, looking back and forth between the defeated queen, face drenched in blood, and her parents, standing together. Lowering her head, she stepped over closer, frowning deeply.

Kuno gathered up her daughter, brushing her off with a firm pat of her hoof. “Look at you. You’re all… changeling!”

“I got angry…” Swarm said quietly, wrinkling her nose deeply as she shivered. There was no flash of flame, but her entire form seemed to quiver and melt, leaving her as the grey-and-blonde filly that she had always been. “Why aren’t we killing her?” she asked plaintively.

“Because killing is wrong,” Kuno said, though it sounded like she didn’t even believe the words herself. “Even if… even if the person is truly evil, then killing someone when they are defenseless makes you evil.”

“I don’t understand,” Swarm said plaintively. “Let’s just kill her!”

“You’ll understand, some day,” Kuno said, biting her bottom lip.

“Fools!” Chrysalis snarled, launching herself from her prone position.

Warden turned, putting himself between Chrysalis and his family, defending them. There was some kind of blow against his side, and he staggered a step, feeling an icy spike of pressure pushing at his chest. His breath caught in his throat, and he frowned.

Kuno screamed.

Swarm screamed.

Warden frowned thoughtfully, staring down at his chest, eyes widening as he caught sight of a few inches of black chitin protruding from his chest, inserted past the hole in his armor where his leg fit. A small trickle of red blood was slowly spilling from the underside of it, making a mess of his white fur.

Frowning, Warden sat down on his rump, blinking down at what he realised was Chrysalis’ detached horn, embedded in his chest. The blood was starting to make a mess of his armor. Shining Armor would yell at him if he got the armor all dirty.

Warden swayed, and then collapsed.

Kuno’s eyes narrowed slowly, and lightning seemed to flash behind them. “S-Swarm,” she said, trying to keep her voice level. “Hold her.”

Swarm’s gaze hardened, and she nodded, her horn glowing with a vibrant green light. A pair of magical shackles seemed to materialise around Chrysalis’ forelimbs and neck, holding her in place. The queen struggled, but was held fast.

Kuno advanced on the queen, her chest heaving with suppressed rage, hooves grinding into the ground, her wings buzzing angrily. “You…”

“I am your Queen!” Chrysalis shrieked. “You will obey me!”

Growling, Kuno drew one of her hooves back. Green flames danced along the length of it as the limb lengthened and stretched, forming into a long, jagged spike of black chitin, even as Kuno lifted her free hoof to rest on Chrysalis’ shoulder. “A minute ago, you were telling us to kill you…” she said quietly.

Chrysalis’ eyes widened, and she spluttered, trying to escape, struggling to squirm backwards.

Kuno tightened her grip on the queen’s shoulder, and then shoved the lance of her right hoof into her chest.

Chrysalis stiffened as the pointed spire of chitin pierced her already weakened chest, scraping against her breastbone and deflecting past it, digging deep into her. Immediately she coughed up a gout of blue blood.

Kuno snarled, dragging the point out and then shoving it back in with all the force she could muster, sinking the pointed through the Queen’s breastbone, and directly into her heart.

Chrysalis stiffened, eyes wide, mouth in a silent ‘O’ of surprise, before she slowly collapsed onto her side, her eyes going lifeless and blank.

Kuno pulled the spire of chitin from Chrysalis’ chest with a very disgusting sound, before she shook her hoof, a flash of green magic removing the blue-slicked chitin spear. She turned, galloping towards Warden’s prone form.

Swarm growled, lifting the Queen’s prone form, and then sending her careening through the broken apple-tree in a spray of wood chips.

Warden’s eyes were already starting to glass over, and his breathing was extremely shallow. A single trickle of bright red blood was spilling from the corner of his mouth.

Kuno was already starting to sob as she surveyed the damage. “W-Warden! Stay with me! Warden!”

“M’here…” Warden managed to whisper, through he didn’t lift his head. “Cold.”

“Warden, Warden!” Kuno almost screeched, “Stay awake!”

“M’awake…” Warden muttered, his brows furrowing deeply. “Hurts…”

“I know it hurts, hun, I know,” Kuno said, gathering him up into her hooves and rocking him back and forth slowly, tugging off his head to kiss soothingly at his forehead and face. “I’m here. It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”

“Kuno…” Warden murmured, pawing weakly at her with a hoof.

“I’m here, I’m here,” Kuno assured, trying to stop her tears from splashing down over his face.

“Y’know I love you, right?” Warden asked worriedly, brow furrowing slowly.

“I know, I know,” Kuno assured, rocking him back and forth some more, laying her cheek on his own and rubbing against him anxiously. “I just… I just… I just broke down when I felt that you didn’t love me any more. I knew it was just a spell! I knew!” Kuno blubbered. “I knew that it was just a spell but it just… it hurt so much that you didn’t love me any more…”

“But I do love you,” Warden assured, trying to lift his head to nuzzle against her in reassurance.

“Hold on, Warden!” Kuno screeched, rocking him back and forth all the more intently. “T-the royal guard will be here soon! They can help!”

“No… they can’t…” Warden muttered weakly. “She’s killed me. The stupid bitch killed me…”

“No! No!” Kuno protested, shaking her head, sending tears scattering everywhere. “You’re not dying! You can’t leave me alone like this!”

“Everypony dies,” Warden said, heaving a soft sigh, and the coughing faintly. “Don’t cry, Kuno. I love you…”

“I know, I know!” Kuno wailed, squeezing him even tighter with her hooves, rocking back and forth. “I know you love me!”

“No… I really really love you…” Warden protested, pushing at her weakly with his hooves. “More than just love… I super love you…”

“I know,” Kuno blubbered, sobbing brokenly as she squeezed him against her chest. “I love you too, Warden… I can’t live without you. Don’t go, Warden. Don’t go…”

Warden shook his head, giving a pained expression. “Everypony goes sometime… but you… you made my life greater… Made it bright and happy… don’t cry, Kuno. I don’t like it when you’re sad,” he murmured, a teardrop spilling down his cheek. “Smile for me, Kuno. Tell me that you love me… please…”

Kuno sobbed all the harder, shaking her head rapidly. “No, no, no! Warden, you can’t die!” she wailed, slapping his face with a hoof. “Y-you can’t!”

Warden’s form relaxed imperceptibly, and he gave a slow exhale.

“W-Warden?” Kuno said quietly. “Warden?... Warden? Warden! Wake up!” she cried, sobbing as she rocked his form back and forth. “W-wake up! I love you! You have to let me tell you that I love you!”

Kuno bit her tongue so hard that she tasted blood as she laid her head on his chest. She could hear his heartbeat, ragged and slow, thumping against his chest.

It beat once.

Twice.

And then it went still.

Kuno stiffened, her eyes widening, bottom lip quivering as she shook Warden slightly, as though his heart might start beating again with the motion. “W-Warden…” Kuno whispered brokenly. “Warden… I love you… You can’t go…”

Warden remained limp and unmoving.

“Wake him up!” Swarm yelled from next to her. “Wake daddy up!”

Kuno turned to look at he daughter, tears streaming down her cheeks as she shook her head, pulling her daughter close. “I-I can’t honey… he’s gone.”

“Wake daddy up!” Swarm screeched, stamping and flailing her hooves as she started to cry. “Wake him up!”

Kuno turned away, tears splashing down across the grass rapidly as she tried her best not to just throw herself on the ground and wail in pain.

“Wake him up! Heal him!” Swarm screeched, clawing at her mother hysterically. “Wake him up!”

“I… I…” Kuno stared at Warden’s prone form, her ears splaying back. A shaking hoof lifted, to rest over the horn embedded in his side. She bit her bottom lip, and then grasped around it.

The end of the horn was slippery with mingled blood, and it took Kuno four tries to get a good enough grasp over it to tug it free. It slid out, catching on the flesh in the ragged, ghastly hole it had created.

Kuno tossed the horn aside, rising to shaking hooves, leaning over to touch Warden’s side with her horn. “S-swarm, honey… Give me your power…”

“I don’t kn-know how!” Swarm cried, shaking her head.

“J-just… touch your horn to mine…” Kuno murmured, as her horn started to glow.

“A-are you going to fix daddy?” Swarm asked, stepping closer to do as told, laying her horn against her mother’s. Their tears mingled, shining bright on Warden’s marred armor.

“I’m going to try…” Kuno whispered.

Kuno’s horn lit up, and she focused on healing him, closing her eyes against the sudden blinding light she was producing.

Five years of love energy started to pour into Warden’s form. Sheer magical energy focused on healing him.

His flesh knitted together, shards of crystal embedded in his sides popped free and the flesh cinched up behind it, leaving tiny scars behind. The ghastly, ragged hole in his side started to slowly close, healing right in front of them.

“I-It’s working!” Kuno gasped out, sounding surprised. She started to falter though, her magic starting to fizzle and her vision darkening.

“H-help me, Swarm…” Kuno muttered, her legs growing weak.

“I-I’m helping...” Swarm protested, brows furrowing deeply as she slowly collapsed onto the ground and passed out.

Kuno bared her teeth, redoubling her efforts, the entire world starting to spin crazily around her. Her vision darkened, and she staggered helplessly, losing her mark, thudding down hard next to Warden’s unmoving form.

With her last ounce of strength, Kuno lifted a hoof to lay against one of Warden’s. A teardrop fell down her cheek.

“N-no… Warden… wake u-up… I love you…” Kuno sobbed softly, before succumbing to the drain of attempting to heal him, surrendering to the darkness.

Renascence

Warden wished he was dead.

Constant, mind-numbing nausea assaulted his form. His insides felt like tiny demons were trying to claw their way out of his stomach. His head pounded. His throat was dry and scratchy. Every bone, every joint, every inch of skin ached. Every second was acute, mind-numbing agony.

Warden was strapped to the bed to keep his thrashing from injuring himself. Thick leather straps were bound around his head, chest, all four limbs, and his wings. His tail thrashed and whipped against the bed as he writhed in agony.

A collection of tubes connected him to a large machine with a pair of pumps on it, working to filter his blood. Blood went into the machine, was recycled, and then was pumped back into him.

Warden would have screamed himself hoarse if he didn’t have a breathing tube shoved down his throat.

Kuno stood at the window, listless and haggard.

Warden was completely unresponsive. He hadn’t even looked at her, even when she stood beside his bed and called his name, or shook him.

A doctor stood beside her, keeping a careful distance from the changeling, but holding a clipboard in a hoof.

“Ma’am… we need a decision. Our magical cures won’t work, and without it… he’ll die,” the doctor explained gently.

Kuno nodded glumly, lowering her gaze to the floor, and then lifting a hoof to rest on the window, staring in at her husband as he writhed in pain.

“I… do it. Just do it,” Kuno said, biting her bottom lip and trying to force back her tears. “Bring him back to me.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the doctor said, bowing his head slightly before hurrying away.

Kuno stared in at her husband, her ears splaying back slowly. “Forgive me, Warden…” she whispered faintly.

Warden took a deep, shuddering inhale, and then went still.

Kuno blinked once, moving cautiously to the side of the bed. “W-Warden?”

“Give him a minute,” the doctor cautioned, checking the monitors around the bed and then checking Warden’s pupils.

“He’s stopped thrashing around… that’s good, right?” Kuno asked, her voice a mix of anxious and hopeful.

The doctor nodded. “He is no longer in pain, at least. Though he is unconscious.”

Kuno’s ears pinned back. “When will I be able to talk with him?”

“You won’t be able to converse with him for quite some time,” the doctor explained with a shake of his head. “His condition is dire and his breathing tube must stay in place. We could try to give him something to encourage consciousness, but for now, he needs rest. Let our medicines do their work. Being hasty will only harm him.”

Kuno nodded glumly at that, pulling herself up on to Warden’s bed, and curling up against his side, resting her chin on his chest with a sad, disconsolate sigh.

Warden’s eyes shot open and he flailed his hooves in agitation, eyes wide and terrified.

Gale Force lifted his head from his chest where he had been napping, and gave a slow, weary blink. “S’matter?”

Warden rolled to the side, hooves clasping around the clear tube in his mouth and quickly stripping off the tape around his lips, and then rapidly pulling the tube out of his mouth. It was like a grotesque magic trick, inch after inch after inch of pale tube coming out of his mouth until he could throw it aside and then heave over the edge of the bed, throwing up violently over the floor.

A disgusting mix of bile and old blood spilled from Warden’s mouth, making a mess of the floor, dribbling from the corner of his mouth to make a mess of the bed.

He shuddered, gasping for air, before passing out.

Warden intermittently regained consciousness, eyes blinking open to stare at the ceiling in a stupor or idly watch the green line on the monitor in the room wiggle in time with his heartbeat.

His family was invariably with him. Kuno, Swarm, Gale Force and Threadbare took turns sitting with the completely non-responsive pegasus.

And the dialysis machine hooked up to his body kept pumping his blood around, filtering it carefully before sending it right back where it came from. His breathing tube hadn’t been re-inserted, as he was deemed to be stable enough to breath by himself.

It was a very, very long time before he regained consciousness enough to speak.

“Is that… is that my blood?” Warden asked weakly, staring at the dialysis machine hazily. “Why is my blood going over there? Is my blood going on holiday?”

Kuno lifted her head wearily, blinking slowly. Her chitin hardly conveyed her expression in an overt fashion, but it was obvious she was bordering on exhaustion. “Warden?”

“Come back…” Warden whined, holding out a hoof towards the dialysis machine. “Come back, blood!”

Kuno scowled, and slapped his hoof in rebuke.

Warden’s eyes immediately widened, and he arched, going rigid and tense, his wings shoving against the bed powerfully as he writhed and screamed in agony.

Kuno’s hooves flew to her mouth, and she took a step away from the bed, even as nurses rushed in to sedate her husband.

“W-what did I do?” Kuno asked quietly, ears splaying back, tears gathering in her eyes.

“You need to leave, ma’am,” one of the nurses said brusquely, pointing towards the door.

Kuno lowered her head, turning and leaving the room without another word.

Warden stared unblinkingly at the IV bag hanging above him, lulled into a complete stupor by the soft droning of the dialysis machine busily filtering his blood.

After several long minutes, he blinked.

Kuno caught the movement out of the corner of her eye, sitting up straighter and staring at him with an anxious expression tempered by her visible weariness.

“Warden?” Kuno asked cautiously, reaching out a hoof to try and find his own, but stopping before she contacted his fur, wary of hurting him again.

“K-Kuno?” Warden rasped.

Kuno was immediately at the side of the bed, forehooves resting on the edge of it, nearly touching it. “I’m here, Warden. I’m here! How do you feel?!”

“Feel like crap,” Warden said flatly, licking his lips slowly. “Throat is dry.”

“I can’t give you any water,” Kuno said, her ears splaying back slowly. “I’m not allowed…”

“What… happened?” Warden asked after a time, looking to be concentrating quite hard on his words.

“You died…” Kuno said quietly, her head lowering slightly. “But I… I brought you back.”

“Brought me back?” Warden repeated, confused.

“I healed you,” Kuno said quietly, peering at him with sad eyes. “I couldn’t let you go.”

“You did a really bad job,” Warden said with a quiet chuckle that turned into a dry, hacking cough.

“Me and Swarm put so much magic into you that it gave you magical poisoning…” Kuno admitted quietly looking away and biting her bottom lip. “I’m sorry, Warden. I should have let you go.”

“So that’s why it hurt so much?” Warden asked blankly.

Kuno nodded sadly. “The doctors explained it to me… basically, I pumped so much magic into you so quickly that it… uhm…” Kuno trailed off, looking for the right word. “It suffused your everything. Your body, your fur, your organs, and… and I forget,” Kuno said, scratching her cheek with a hoof sadly. “I can… call in a nurse to explain it to you better?”

“Please,” Warden rasped.

Kuno nodded sadly, pushing herself to her hooves and then heading out into the hallway. A nurse entered several moments later.

“Good afternoon, Warden. How are you feeling today?”

“Pain,” Warden said flatly.

“We’ve tapered off your medicine for now so that you can be lucid enough to talk,” the nurse explained with a faint smile. “I understand you need some explanations?”

Warden nodded, before wincing at the movement, teeth baring. “Why does everything hurt?”

“Magical poisoning,” the nurse explained simply. “There’s a very good reason we don’t bring everypony back from the dead. Magical poisoning is no joke, I’m afraid. Though to get a dose of magic high enough usually requires an alicorn.”

“Magical poisoning?” Warden asked blankly.

“Most unicorns know of it. It’s a condition where the magical potential in your cells reach a critical point. The magic starts to degrade the cells. It’s reversible, up to a certain point. Basically, the magic, instead of being carried around by your blood cells like oxygen or anything else, builds up and starts to directly affect the cells. It doesn’t behave like your usual run-of-the-mill sickness, because your body is constantly pumping blood around and moving the magic about it as it does. But long story short, the magic was degrading your liver, lungs, and kidney function, as well as directly connecting your nerve endings with a kind of electric magic.”

“I understood none of that,” Warden rasped.

The nurse gave a nod. “Well… look at this way. Your nerve endings work by sending tiiiny electrical signals back and forth which then tell your brain that you are feeling pain. The magic built up to such a point that it was overwhelming the natural electric conductivity and replacing it with magical electric impulses. Apparently, it’s the most painful sensation you’re capable of experience.”

“I don’t remember any of that… just aches,” Warden admitted, brow furrowing slowly.

“Well, of course you wouldn’t remember. That kind of pain is one of the most intense, beyond traumatic experiences you can ever have. Your mind natural blocks it out as a defense mechanism. Selective amnesia. You’re lucky you don’t remember, or you’d likely go insane.

Warden wrinkled his nose slowly. “Don’t feel lucky.”

“Oh you say that now,” the nurse chided with a warm smile. “Once we give you another hit of aurora you’ll be floating on a cloud.”

Warden’s eyes widened, and his pupils dilated. “A-aurora?”

“Our conventional remedies are all magical. They don’t work against magic poisoning,” the nurse explained calmly.

Warden tried to shake his head, before baring his teeth and growling in pain at the movement. “I can’t have aurora!”

“We know about your past… experiences with aurora. We’ll ween you off it, not to worry,” the nurse said with a smile and a nod.

“How long before I stop feeling… like I got hit by a boulder?” Warden asked with a strained expression. “I’m getting really sick of this whole pain thing.”

“Quite a while,” the nurse explained with a shake of her head, motioning towards the dialysis machine. “We can remove the magic from your bloodstream, but it happens in stages. And it doesn’t help that we can’t physically remove the magic in your soft tissue until it’s filtered into your bloodstream.”

“So much trouble…” Warden complained.

“Yes, bringing someone back from the dead with magic is generally a really, really bad idea,” the nurse chided. “You’re lucky a royal guard patrol saw the magic and arrived in time to restart your heart.”

“What?” Warden asked, confused.

“Your wife healed you, but she didn’t restart your heart. You were dead, for all intents and purposes. But the moment they tried to move you, you woke up and started screaming. We had to sedate you and shove a breathing tube down your throat to stop the screaming. And even then, you were in so much pain we had to keep upping the dosage to keep you unconscious, until even that stopped working and you screamed until you were coughing up blood.”

Warden winced slightly at that. “Sounds like it sucked.”

“I’m quite certain it did,” the nurse said with a short nod.

“How long before I can… move?” Warden asked hesitantly.

“Well, the dialysis is slowly filtering the magic out of your bloodstream. I’d give it another… month?” the nurse said thoughtfully.

Warden’s eyes widened slowly. “A m-month?”

The nurse nodded once. “Indeed. An entire month. You’re lucky. If we had got to a few minutes later then the damage to your liver and kidneys would have been irreversible. Though, to be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t take up drinking any time soon, if I was you.”

“My father will be positively crushed,” Warden said dryly.

“A doctor will be in later on to explain to you in finer details. There are some things you’ll need to know to manage your condition,” the nurse explained.

“M-my condition?” Warden asked, his ears slowly splaying back.

“Acute magical poisoning,” the nurse said bluntly. “It is, as with all serious medical conditions, no joke. But it’s no more unmanageable than certain types of diabetes.”

Warden heaved a long sigh, closing his eyes. “Why does everything hurt when I move?”

“Post-traumatic stress hypersensitivity,” came the explanation, as the nurse moved over to the bed and checked his IV. “The magic was firing your nerve endings literally for days on end. You went through a period of desensitisation, and now, hypersensitivity. Any physical contact will hurt. But don’t worry, we’ll dose you up with aurora until the magic is filtered out enough for you to move around on your own without crashing agony.”

“Thank you so very much,” Warden retorted, staring at the wall. “Can’t move. Have to be dosed up to even sleep or rest without agony…”

“Poor baby,” the nurse said, taking a needle and injecting something into his IV.

Immediately, Warden felt a lulling sense of calm overcome him, and he slowly relaxed, going slack.

“Now you rest up, and don’t go anywhere,” the nurse chided with a warm smile.

But Warden was already asleep.

Warden stirred weakly, giving a faint groan. His eyes fluttered open and he immediately pushed his head backwards, groaning in pain at the effort and the screaming of his nerve endings. A bright trickle of red blood was spilling from his nose, making a mess of the bed.

Kuno tutted, holding his head still with a hoof, starting to clean his nose with a moist washcloth.

Warden arched, biting down on his tongue and resisting the urge to scream in pain at the very mild physical contact.

Kuno was finished quickly and released his muzzle, and the pegasus visibly relaxed, head dropping back on to the now-soiled pillow. “Ow…”

“I know it hurts,” Kuno said with a deep frown, lifting her hoof to very, very gently stroke across his cheek.

Warden tensed and winced like he’d been struck with a whip.

“They say you’re out of the worst of it now. And they’ve dialed back the aurora so you can be coherent,” she soothed, gently touching at his brow with the moist cloth.

“How… how long?” Warden rasped, licking his lips to try and wet them.

“A month,” Kuno stated.

Warden winced. “A month…”

“An entire month,” Kuno confirmed, rolling her eyes slightly. “You act like this is the first time you ever woke up in hospital after a big chunk of your life disappeared.”

“You’re handling this a lot better than I expected,” Warden wheezed.

“I’ve had a lot of time to adjust,” Kuno said calmly, getting a clean washcloth and then holding it above his head. “Mouth open.”

Warden carefully opened his mouth, wincing slightly.

Kuno squeezed the washcloth, drizzling a small amount of water into his mouth.

Warden fairly purred, letting his swollen and dry tongue gyrate slowly against the inside of his mouth, coating it in the water, before he swallowed with some difficulty. He clenched his teeth, snorting faintly in the effort not to cry out in pain.

“Not disguised…” Warden observed, peering up at her.

“Well, there’s not much point to that now,” Kuno said with a shake of her head, sitting back down on the armchair that was beside his bed. It was strewn with various bits of rubbish. Empty candy wrappers, magazines, gauze, a half-empty styrofoam cup that had once held something that seemed to have been coffee. “They bought us all in. Me, you, Swarm… We were all pretty much out of it when they dragged us in here.”

Kuno pondered for a moment, scratching her chin with a hoof. “Swarm was the first to wake up. She was panicking and trying to wake us both up. But by that point, they were already trying to induce a coma in you, and their medicines weren’t working because they were magic-based and they were all being counteracted by my magic.”

“W-why were you in here?” Warden rasped.

“I almost killed myself saving you,” Kuno explained with a slight shake of her head. “I couldn’t even disguise myself when I got here… couldn’t for the first week, in fact.”

“So you and Swarm…?” Warden puzzled.

“We both pumped you full of every bit of magic we possibly could. Or, well… it was more refined than that,” Kuno corrected herself with a snort. “I just used a healing spell on you… the only one I knew. I just wanted to make you better… And well… it worked…” she finished with a sad kind of smile.

“I’m alive… after a fashion…” Warden admitted, licking his dry lips with his equally dry tongue. “Chrysalis?”

“Dead,” Kuno said flatly. “Dead and gone.”

“You’re sure?” Warden asked bluntly.

“I put a spike through that evil witch’s heart,” Kuno responded, just as blunt. “Most satisfying thing I ever did.”

“Even though she was your queen?” Warden queried.

“She stopped being my queen when she tried to ruin me and you,” Kuno said flatly, her ears splaying back and teeth baring in a reflexive angry expression. “But she’s gone now.”

“Good…” Warden muttered, heaving a heavy sigh. “How is Swarm?”

“Caught her kissing that colt from school on the way home from school,” Kuno said with a short nod and a wry smile.

“Kissing?!” Warden asked, straining. “She’s way too young for that! I’m gonna put that colt in one of these beds!”

Kuno rolled her eyes as that. “What’re you gonna do? Trip over him? Either way, she’s the one instigating it.”

“That… not good,” Warden said quietly.

“Of course it’s not good. But she has to explore the bounds of her talents on her own,” Kuno said with a soft nod. “At least she’s picked a colt too young to be world-wise, or I think she’d be getting some anatomy lessons far younger than most fillies do.”

Warden blanched. “That’s not even funny to joke about!”

“I’m not joking,” Kuno said with a worried frown. “It’s a very real danger. But I don’t know if she’s old enough for that talk.”

“Well if she’s old enough for you to worry then she’s old enough to have the talk!” Warden groaned, shifting slightly.

“Are you quite certain she’s ready for the safe-sex talk?” Kuno asked blankly.

“No, no!” Warden protested, shaking his head vigorously. “She’s ready for the ‘don’t-ever-ever-ever-ever-have-sex-talk! And by extension the ‘sex-is-dirty-and-disgusting-and-you-don’t-want-anything-to-do-with-it-talk’!”

Kuno stared at him for several long moments, before asking delicately, “Warden… Who are her parents?”

Warden paused for a moment, and then gave a defeated sigh. “Touche.”

“How do you feel?” Kuno asked sympathetically.

“Like shit run over twice,” Warden said bluntly.

“Cursing, that’s new,” Kuno observed.

“It should impress upon you just how bad I ache,” Warden pointed out.

“I’d crawl up there and give you a hug, but I’m afraid I’d hurt you quite badly,” Kuno said with a wrinkled nose.

“Just do it anyway…” Warden said, ears splaying back slowly. “Please… I kinda need a hug right now…”

Kuno frowned at that, biting her bottom lip, before carefully pulling herself up onto the bed, forehooves spread out to keep from touching him.

Warden snorted faintly, rolling underneath her and wrapping his hooves around her shoulders, tugging her down against him. He winced heavily at the contact, arching under her and baring his teeth, but held her firmly against him, squeezing tightly. “Thank you… thank you for bringing me back.”

Kuno wrapped her hooves tentatively around her husband, squeezing him lightly in response, pushing her nose against his neck firmly. “Thank you for coming back…” she whispered softly. “I… I couldn’t… I just couldn’t go on liv—”

Warden placed a hoof over her mouth. “I know, Kuno. I know. We’ll probably discuss your unhealthy dependence on my well-being some time when I’m not aurora-addled.”

“You… you forgive me for letting them put that in you, right?” Kuno asked quietly.

“Of course I forgive you,” Warden soothed, leaning up to carefully kiss her chin. “But… I can’t make any promises on what I’ll do or say when I’m coming down off it… it’s… well it’s not very pretty.”

“It’s going to be bad, isn’t it?” Kuno asked softly.

Warden nodded gently, squeezing her a little tighter with his hooves. “Just… just remember that the person I am when I’ll be… just… it’s not me. No matter what I say, or what I do…”

“You fought a queen for me,” Kuno said quietly, nudging her nose against his chin gently.

Warden winced at the nudge, before nodding. “Indeed I did. Though that was for a lot of reasons.”

Kuno placed a hoof over his mouth. “Shush. You fought her for me. Don’t ruin my fantasies of my knight in shining armor.”

“If I’m part of any of your fantasies then you have more issues than unhealthy dependence,” Warden said with a faint laugh.

“I’m not allowed to fantasize about my husband?” Kuno asked with a soft snort.

“Not according to any standup-up comic ever. You’re also not allowed to like your in-laws. Though, considering you recently killed the closest thing I have to an in-law, I guess I live up to that part of the stereotype,” Warden admitted, frowning thoughtfully.

“She did kill you…” Kuno said quietly. “And I avenged you. Pretty swiftly, I might add.”

“I don’t even remember much of that,” Warden admitted, frowning and rubbing his temple. “I just remember… Swarm. And not little Swarm. Big Swarm. My ex-wife.”

“Chrysalis was pretending to be her, yes,” Kuno said with a short nod.

Warden frowned deeply, looking away. “How in tartarus did I fall for that? There were death records… I buried her. I… I touched her cold, lifeless body before they put it in the ground. There’s just no way she could have still been alive. Not to mention that Swarm was an earth pony. That thing was a unicorn…”

“She was the queen, Warden. Changeling hierarchy is a meritocracy. She was queen because she had the ability, and the strength… It’s small wonder that she duped you. It’s a miracle you managed to break out of her grasp. If she researched her target a little better, then you wouldn’t have stood a ghost of a chance.”

“Why did she even attack me?” Warden asked blankly. “What could she possibly have to gain from making me hate you?”

“Petty revenge,” Kuno said, wrinkling her nose. “She wanted back at me for putting her in the dungeon.”

“How did she even get out?!” Warden growled, squeezing with his hooves and then wincing and relaxing the grasp.

Kuno frowned deeply. “A wall of silence has gone up at the castle… They want to give me a medal for ridding the world of Chrysalis, but they won’t reveal how she escaped. We may never know.”

“A medal, huh?” Warden asked, squinting at his wife.

“A medal,” Kuno said with a nod. “Presented by Celestia, Luna, and Cadance in a big, terribly loud ceremony.”

“Sounds like just the place a changeling would want to stand front-and-centre,” Warden said with a faint smile.

“I told them straight that I wasn’t leaving this hospital until you got better,” Kuno stated flatly, leaning in to kiss his nose gently.

Warden squinted up at her, licking her nose in response. “You can have a life, you know.”

“You are my life,” Kuno responded instantly.

“So, you went to all the trouble of healing my gaping chest wound and couldn’t even fix my hoof?” Warden said, wiggling his bad hoof at her. “I vaguely remember something sharp and pointy somewhere in the region of my lung.”

“Punctured your lung,” Kuno said with a deep frown. “And I was just trying to keep you alive… or, well, make you come back to life. I didn’t realise it would… well, screw up your life so bad.”

“I’m getting better,” Warden said defensively.

“And if you don’t get injected with medicine every day for the next five years the latent magic in your body will degrade your cells from the inside-out and kill you painfully,” Kuno stated flatly.

Warden’s eyes widened. “W-what?”

“I’m not joking, Warden,” Kuno said seriously. “Magical poisoning is a terrible, terrible sickness.”

“I don’t like needles,” Warden stated with a soft whine in his voice. “I really, really don’t like needles.”

“Well you’re going to get used to them awful fast,” Kuno said quietly, ears lowering. “Still forgive me?”

Warden bit his bottom lip, before giving a soft sigh. “I’m annoyed at daily needles… but at least I’m still alive. And I can fly again! Woo boy was that euphoria short-lived.”

“I noticed that,” Kuno said with a thoughtful hum. “I’d like to get you up into the clouds one of these days.”

“If you even think of putting your hooves all over me while my body is screaming with every single touch, then I’m going to bite you,” Warden warned.

“Already thinking about it,” Kuno said with a hum, leaning in to kiss his nose.

“Stop it then,” Warden whined, pushing his hooves against her chest firmly. “You’re not allowed to fantasize about me unless I can at least join in.”

“You can fantasize,” Kuno said thoughtfully. “But you can’t act on it.”

Warden rolled his eyes, pushing his hooves against her a little more firmly, before pausing, frowning deeply.

“What’s wrong?” Kuno asked, peering down into his eyes.

“My hoof…” Warden said, his frown deepening.

Kuno immediately pushed her weight up off of his body. “Sorry.”

“No…” Warden said, chewing on his bottom lip slowly. “Help me up.”

“What?” Kuno asked blankly.

“Help. Me. Up.” Warden pursed his lips, raising an eyebrow. “You know, so I stand on my hooves.”

Kuno frowned at that, before sliding a hoof under him to roll him onto his own hooves.

Warden winced at the contact, teeth baring in pain as he helped push his form over to stagger drunkenly onto his hooves. His limbs splayed outwards for balance, and he panted heavily, while the machines monitoring him started to beep more rapidly with his accelerating heartbeat.

“Are you okay?” Kuno asked, worried.

Warden nodded, putting his weight down on first one forehoof, and then the other, his eyes widening slowly.

“Does it hurt?” Kuno asked, perplexed.

“Y-yes…” Warden said quietly, swallowing thickly. “B-but… Not my hoof. My hoof doesn’t hurt like it used to. They hurt the same.”

Kuno blinked at him once. “What?”

“M-my hoof is fixed,” Warden said quietly, his tone strangled. He sat down heavily, staring down at his formerly-bad hoof with wide eyes, a silent tear coursing down his cheek. “I-it’s healed. I can… I can walk again.”

“Are you sure it’s not the aurora?” Kuno asked gently, hugging him from behind, lightly nuzzling into his wings.

Warden shook his head firmly. “It’s not the aurora. I can walk again!”

“But… how?” Kuno asked bluntly. “Warden, it makes no sense.”

“When you healed me,” Warden responded, chewing on his tongue thoughtfully. “It had to be when you healed me…”

“But the amount of magic required to reset that kind of injury…” Kuno retorted.

“Would give somepony severe magical poisoning, wouldn’t it?” Warden said, holding up the two lines that led from his hoof to the dialysis machine.

“I… I’ll wait until the doctors confirm it,” Kuno said guardedly.

Warden shook his head, reaching back to scoop her against his side, nuzzling firmly against her, barely wincing. “I don’t need the doctors to tell me anything. I can walk again!”

Kuno gave a helpless smile, nudging against his neck gently and pouting. “But… I won’t be able to beat you in races any more!”

“You mean you won’t be able to cheat to get first prize by racing a cripple,” Warden corrected with a wry grin.

“Cheating, racing, all’s fair in love and war, right?” Kuno asked with her most innocent smile.

“Right, right,” Warden said, before giving a pained shudder. “Now help me back down, I need to collapse immediately.”

Stage Fright

Kuno fairly quivered, flanked by royal guards, with a quartet of dark guards bringing up the rear. She was in her pegasus form, wearing her special marriage band that Warden had given her so many years ago. Instead of red, it was white, with gold threading, gold-plated letters spelling her name, and a white-gold bell with a white bow tied to the bottom. On her white pegasus form, it was nearly invisible, but on her changeling form, it was extremely noticeable.

Warden nudged her side gently, and Kuno almost leapt into the air, squeaking once in fear. “You’re so jittery, calm yourself.”

“H-how are you so calm?!” Kuno almost squealed, earning herself a look of reproach from one of the guards flanking them.

“Because I don’t have stage fright,” Warden teased with an easy smile.

Kuno’s eyes narrowed at him, and she gave a faint snort. “You mean you’re too drugged out to even know what day it is, let alone worry about a crowd.”

“You’re so tetchy when you have stage fright,” Warden crooned, leaning against her wing with a heavy sigh. “Whatcha think they’re saying out there?”

The muffled words of Celestia as she spoke to the assembled crowd of ponies were audible behind a purple curtain.

“Probably glorifying my exploits in killing Chrysalis,” Kuno stated flatly, ears splaying back.

It was an informal gathering for a medal ceremony. The first ever of its kind. The princesses were to give Kuno recognition for her ‘services to the crown’. It was also the first time Warden had left his hospital bed and the safety of his dialysis machine in months. His hoof felt decidedly strange where the intravenous lines had been sitting for so long. He was so doped up on aurora he couldn’t even recall how he had gotten to the castle. Walked? Flown? Carriage? Everything was just a hazy blur.

“Why does every major life event for me have to be accompanied by drugs?” Warden asked plaintively.

“Because you like hurting yourself,” Kuno chided, nudging him with her shoulder. “And this is mainly about me!”

“But you are my life, so this is sort of major for me, too,” Warden said blankly, head canting to the left.

“Excuse me, Mrs Kuno?” one of the guards asked, peering at her sideways. “We’re almost at the stage.”

“And?” Kuno asked, blinking once, peering up at the guard.

The guard gave an awkward motion with his head. “And… Princess Celestia was rather insistent that we ensure that you were, well… you.”

“I am me,” Kuno said blankly.

Warden nudged her firmly with his shoulder. “They’re talking about the sexy black you.”

Kuno blinked once, her eyes going wide. “B-but… N-no. I can’t.”

“They’re not going to lock you up,” Warden said with a smirk, nudging her reassuringly with his nose. “And they all know you’re a changeling.”

A deep frown passed over Kuno’s muzzle, and she lowered her head. “This… this doesn’t sit right.”

“Warden, Kuno,” Shining Armor said by way of greeting as he stepped from behind the plush purple curtain that muffled the sounds of a crowd beyond. He held a draped cloth over one hoof, with something bulky underneath. “I hope you’re both ready,” he said, looking Kuno and down and slowly raising an eyebrow.

“I-I’m ready just like this,” Kuno said with a shaky nod.

“She’s being stubborn,” Warden said with an easy smile.

“I can’t stand in front of a crowd!” Kuno hissed, pushing her husband’s shoulder so roughly that he stagged and fell.

Warden blinked, pushing himself back to his feet and stretching.

Shining Armor looked on, concerned.

“It’s the aurora,” Warden explained, catching the concerned stare. “Can’t really feel much of anything any more. So I sort of lose my footing a lot.”

“How… unhelpful,” Shining Armor said with a single blink, shaking his head and then making a motion with his nose towards the stage. “You’ve got less than a minute.”

Kuno bit her bottom lip, starting to stalk back and forth, pacing nervously. “Oh goddess… T-they’re going to stare…”

“Of course they’re going to stare,” Warden soothed, throwing a hoof over his wife and pulling her against his side. “They’re here to see you accept a medal.”

Kuno immediately began to tap her forehooves in rhythm against the floor, squirming against him anxiously. “I-I’m not good with crowds.”

“Stage fright?” Warden asked, frowning slightly.

Kuno nodded earnestly. “I didn’t say anything because I thought I could contain it but there’s so many ponies out there and they’re all going to know I’m a changeling and they’re going to say nasty things about me behind my back and mug me when I leave the house and throw rocks and tease Swarm and treat you terribly because you married me and-”

Warden placed a hoof over her mouth, shaking his head. “Calm down, Kuno.”

Kuno flailed a hoof at him. “I can’t calm down! I’m a changeling! Standing in front of a crowd is literally one of our worst nightmares!”

Frowning, Warden caught her hoof and then pulled her into a hug, “And I’m right here. I’ll be here the entire time, like thirty feet away. You can always just run away. Or turn into a dragon again.”

“I can’t turn into a dragon any more,” Kuno reminded, ears splaying back. “I used up all my energy beating Chrysalis. I won’t be back at that level for years.”

“You know what I mean,” Warden said with a shake of his head, kissing her gently.

Shining Armor cleared his throat, just as a round of applause rose from the crowd.

“That’s our cue,” Warden reminded gently, nudging his wife.

Kuno took a deep swallow, dancing from hoof to hoof, head lowering as she asked quietly. “Tell… tell me it’ll be all right…”

“It’ll be alright,” Warden soothed, giving her nose another kiss. “I’ll be right here.”

“No you won’t,” Shining Armor said, frowning at the pair. “You’re due on stage, too.”

Warden’s pupils dilated. “W-what?”

“Both of you, on stage, now,” Shining Armor said, pointing towards the stage. “You were told about this.”

“B-but…” Warden protested weakly, cut off as a pair of guards in golden armor stepped up beside both him and Kuno and began to march them out onto the stage. It took Warden several steps before he realised that he didn’t need to limp any more.

Warden lowered his head as his ears were assaulted by the cacophony of the cheering crowd. Beside him, Kuno was doing the same. Gently, he extended his wing, the feathers twining with Kuno’s own reassuringly.

Up ahead, Princess Celestia, Princess Cadance, and Princess Twilight Sparkle all stood behind a raised dias. Behind them stood a giant statue. She turned to watch them as they approached.

“And here are Kuno and Warden, the couple of the hour!”

The crowd cheered even louder, and Warden saw Kuno balk. He tugged at her wing, pulling her closer to his side and forcing her to continue forward.

“These are the two ponies that vanquished the evil Queen Chrysalis!”

The crowd cheered again, and Kuno frowned deeply, biting her tongue.

“S’matter with you?” Warden asked, frowning slightly.

“Well… Chrysalis wasn’t really evil,” Kuno murmured. One of the guards escorting them frowned at her at that. “She was just… misguided. But… evil?”

“We can discuss this later,” Warden said, motioning with his nose towards Celestia, who was only a few metres away now, and staring at them with narrowed eyes.

Kuno almost yelped, taking a single step backwards before Warden tugged her forwards.

“Ishouldhaveleftmycollaroff,” Kuno whined, reaching a hoof up for it. “H-hide it!”

Warden snorted once, lifting a hoof to grasp her own and squeeze it soothingly. “You’re fine as you are. Relax.”

“We here, are gathered to recognize the bravery and service to Equestria of…” Celestia paused, picking her words carefully. “These two citizens of our fine nation, in the vanquishing of the evil Queen Chrysalis. One of which earned himself serious injuries. We present to these two ponies the Numisma Virtus.”

Shining Armor stepped forwards, uncovering a pair of very heavy-looking bronzed medallions, neatly wrapped around his hoof underneath the sheet he had been carrying.

“This medal is given in recognition of services to the crown, and to the ponies of Equestria, and is one of our highest non-military honors.”

Warden lifted a hoof, gently laying it on Kuno’s wing. She was trembling so hard she almost vibrated. “Just don’t focus on them. You had no trouble in the hospital,” he soothed, lowering his head a little so the crowd wouldn’t notice him talking.

“That was different,” Kuno hissed, chewing on her tongue. She almost screeched as Shining Armor placed the medal over her head, and she whined faintly, wings flaring and quivering. She stared back and forth, from one set of eyes, to the other.

Warden frowned faintly, stroking at joints of her wing softly. “They all know you’re a changeling,” he reminded, as he leaned in to accept the heavy medal around his own neck. “They already know your secret, hun. It’s not like you’re protecting the information. They can’t discover that you’re a changeling.”

Kuno whined a little bit louder, hindhooves grinding against the floor. “IknowIknowIknowbutthey’reallrightthere,” she muttered, shifting her weight anxiously from one foot to the other, her cheeks flushing and ears unable to decide if they wanted to lay flat or rise to attention.

Warden gave an exasperated sigh.

Shining Armor stepped up to the dias. “We would also like to award the crimson shield to Warden for injuries sustained in the line of duty of protecting Equestria.”

Warden blinked once, before frowning slightly. “But, I—”

He was cut off though, as Shining Armor stepped closer and hung another medal around his neck, this one of a glowing red shield.

“But I wasn’t-”

Shining Armor held up a hoof to silence the pegasus. “You can argue about it later.”

Warden closed his mouth, frowning to himself as Shining Armor moved to stand next to Princess Cadance.

“And finally, we would like to officially recognize the first official changeling resident of Equestria: Kuno,” Celestia said, head tilting towards Kuno in a gesturing motion.

Kuno fairly quivered as all eyes were on her again. All three princesses turned to peer at her expectantly. She looked from the princesses, to the crowd, and then back again, uncertain. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath.

Warden lifted his hoof from her wings, leaning slightly closer. “They want you to change.”

“B-but I-I can’t!” Kuno almost whimpered. “I-I don’t want to.”

“I’ll make you a cake,” Warden bribed.

“Not hungry,” Kuno muttered in response.

“We could rent a hotel room?” Warden offered suggestively.

“I could get that whenever I want anyway,” Kuno hissed in reproach.

“A shiny new bell? Whips? Chains? Back massage? I’ll do that nibbling thing you love on your wings?” Warden listed off.

“A-all of those and you got a deal,” Kuno said with a faint whine.

“You’re just stalling while you drum up the courage, aren’t you?” Warden accused.

Kuno quivered and nodded. “Y-yeah.”

“They’re not going to stare any less… and it’s getting kinda awkward.”

“It’s been awkward already!” Kuno growled, shaking her head. She took a single step forwards, and then another, her wings flaring wide on reflex. She stood at the edge of the stage, biting her bottom lip, dancing from hoof to hoof anxiously. She peered back over her shoulder, ears splayed flat against her skull.

Warden nodded gently, waving a hoof.

Kuno turned back to the crowd, head lowering. She closed her eyes, her wings giving a little nervous flick, before she was engulfed in green flames.

The flames dissolved, and Kuno was standing there in her true form, black chitin shining in the sunlight, white-gold collar around her neck gleaming against the dark colours of her form. Ghostly blue eyes opened, staring out at the silent crowd, while her translucent wings extended delicately and buzzed anxiously above her back.

A cheer rose from the crowd, and Kuno recoiled, shrinking backwards, turning her head to the side as though expecting to be struck, her hooves tapping and thudding against the stage nervously.

Warden snorted once, moving forward and tugging his wife back to his side, wrapping a wing around her smaller form.

Kuno pushed up against the wing like a foal hiding under a blanket, trying to hide herself under it, pulling the edge of it down over her face, quivering against him.

Frowning, Warden squeezed her with his wing. “It’s fine, they don’t mind you. Listen.”

Kuno peeked out from around his wing, shivering, listening to the sound of the crowd cheering. “T-that’s nice but I don’t want to see them.”

Warden rolled his eyes, nudging her once with his nose. “Fine, fine.” He turned towards Shining Armor, raising an eyebrow. “Can we go?”

“Very well,” Shining Armor said, stepping away from Cadance and then heading for the extrane that they had come through. The two guards moved in time, leading Warden and Kuno away from the stage and to the much quieter back area.

Kuno fairly collapsed once they were out of sight of the crowd, shuddering all over. A flash of green consumed her, and she danced anxiously in place in her pegasus form, chewing at a hoof in a crazed way.

“Geeze, calm down,” Warden soothed, stroking over her wings with a hoof. “You’re being crazy.”

“T-they were all staring!” Kuno protested, her voice cracking and squeaking.

“That pretty much was the entire point of going out onto the stage. It was probably political too, what with having you show your face as a changeling to the entire crowd,” Warden said with a thoughtful nod. “I mean… a lot of people already knew you were a changeling, but now everypony knows.”

“And they all stared!” Kuno almost wailed, flailing her forehooves.

Warden rolled his eyes, nudging her firmly with his nose. “What’s with this sudden crowd anxiety?”

Kuno snorted once, pushing up against his side and wending her way under one of his wings, giving him a weak smile from under the wing. “I wasn’t scared at all. I was just acting that way because you find it adorable.”

Warden tilted to peer down at her, slowly raising an eyebrow. “You were really scared of the crowd, huh?”

“Terrified,” Kuno said, deflating immediately, huffing faintly up at him. “I can control one pony. I can control three, or four… but an entire crowd? Staring at me? There’s just… there’s so many of them… how can I stay disguised in front of them without them finding holes in my cover?”

“You’re not trying to stay disguised though,” Warden said, shaking his head firmly and squeezing her lightly with his wing. He frowned deeply after a moment, brow furrowing. “Uhm… where’s Swarm?”

Kuno blinked up at him. “With your parents, obviously.”

Warden rubbed his temple with a hoof. “Oh… right… so we have to go to Cloudsdale and bring her back, yes?”

“She’s staying with them for the weekend, Warden, and she was in the crowd,” Kuno said, shaking her head slowly. “You’re… forgetting a lot of stuff recently.”

“It’s this damn aurora,” Warden whined, rubbing the hoof against his temple slowly. “It just makes me so… out of it.”

“To the point where you forget everything?” Kuno asked, worried.

Warden shook his head. “It’s more a case of lacking the energy to bother paying attention to anything.”

Kuno wrinkled her nose deeply.

“I do remember one thing that has been nagging at me, though,” Warden said, rising to his hooves and peering at one of the guards. “Where is Shining Armor?”

There was a curt knock at the door before Cadance called ‘come in!’ and the door was pushed open. Warden and Kuno stepped through, while the two guards paused at the doorway, turning around to stand guard.

Cadance and Shining Armor were resting on their bed, with candy-pink blankets and yellow pillows. Shining Armor was pushed up under Cadance’s wing, much like Kuno had been under Wardens a few minutes previously.

Cadance caught Warden’s expression, and nudged her husband gently. “Shiny… I think you should go see if Celestia and Luna are okay.”

Shining Armor peered up at her for a long moment, brow furrowing, before he nodded slowly. “Yes. I’ll go do that.”

Warden blinked once as Shining Armor stepped off the bed, heading for the door. “Hey, I want to—”

“You can speak to me,” Cadance said in such a firm tone of voice that Warden immediately stopped speaking, letting Shining Armor walk past him and out the door.

Kuno peered back and forth between her husband and Cadance, frowning.

Warden snorted once, stalking towards the bed, pausing in front of it. “How in the hay did you all let Chrysalis get loose?”

Cadance gave a long sigh, lowering her head slightly. “I don’t rightly know.”

Warden blinked once. “That’s… ahh…”

“You were expecting me to defend my position?” Cadance asked bluntly. “To protest and say that it was inconceivable that she escape?”

Warden lowered his head, scuffing the floor with a hoof. “Kinda… yeah.”

“Shining Armor set her free,” Cadance said bluntly. “And then he left with her, for parts unknown. He tells me that he doesn’t remember what happened, and I beleive him.”

“Erasing memories is pretty common,” Kuno murmured, averting her gaze. “Stops the target from building on old memories and putting pieces together to realise they don’t really love you.”

“Needless to say,” Cadance said with a wave of a hoof, “I trust my husband.”

“But… how could you let her escape?” Warden asked plaintively. “She killed me.”

“I do not know. Shining Armor was the only one allowed in her cell… we decided that, given his experience with the subject, and with constant examinations before and after each visit, we’d catch wind of any duplicity before it became a problem. We were obviously mistaken,” Cadance admitted, adjusting her forehooves and resting her chin between them. “I apologize, Warden. But we were blindsided by her escape.”

“You couldn’t have told us?” Warden asked, ears pinning back. “Given us a chance to escape?”

“That is…” Cadance frowned deeply, before giving a long sigh. “That was a failure on our part wholeheartedly. We decided that it would be better to covertly seek her recapture rather than publicly reveal that our highest guard was under her influence… again.”

Warden gave a long sigh, and then nodded once. “I understand entirely.”

Kuno blinked. “What? They could have told us and they didn’t! How could you just understand?”

Warden frowned slightly, peering at his wife, and then shaking his head helplessly. “They had to weigh the greater good against the immediate gain of warning one or two ponies that she was loose.”

“The greater good?” Kuno asked flatly.

“Did your hive ever sacrifice something for the greater good of the hive?” Warden snapped.

Kuno fell silent, taking a single step backwards. “I… yes… several times.”

“Then you understand,” Warden said simply.

“Yes… yes I do,” Kuno said, staring at him for a long moment, expressionless.

“Thank you, Cadance,” Warden said, bowing. “Thank you for not trying to bullshit me.”

“You were in the royal guard once… you know how it is,” Cadance said quietly.

“I do,” Warden said politely, “I’ll not bother you any further.”

“Thank you, Warden. Thank you for standing up to her,” Cadance said carefully. “Wear that medallion proudly. You did something that we could not.”

“It wasn’t a choice,” Warden stated flatly. “It wasn’t my duty, either. It was something I had to do to survive… and I didn’t even manage that.”

Kuno scoffed softly.

Warden rolled his eyes. “Kuno likes to think I wasn’t dead.”

“Dead ponies don’t walk around and talk,” Kuno reminded bluntly.

Cadance waved her hoof. “She has a point, Warden. You survived.”

“After a fashion,” Warden responded softly, turning away.

“What do you mean?” Cadance asked, but was interrupted as the door behind them opened to admit Celestia into the room.

“Cadance, Warden, Kuno,” Celestia said with a gentle nod of her head.

“Princess,” Warden said, bowing in respect.

“Am I late to the conversation?” Celestia asked calmly.

Warden gave a short nod. “I’ve been put at ease as to what happened.”

“And that is?” Celestia queried.

“Chrysalis tricked Shining Armor, again, and she got free. You all didn’t tell me and Kuno because we weren’t worth the possible damages that the fear of a freed Queen might have caused, and would have disrupted your covert searches for her,” Warden explained mechanically. “It was nothing personal. It was just logistics.”

“That is correct,” Celestia said delicately.

“Just numbers on a board, like everypony else,” Warden added bitterly.

Celestia frowned at that. “Warden… you mustn’t take this personally.”

“Sure feels pretty personal,” Warden said, raising a hoof to his chest, to where Chrysalis’ horn had pierced his breast. “Felt really personal when she showed up at my aurora crop and tried to kill me.”

“We had no way to know if she would even target you,” Celestia said quietly.

Warden snatched off the heavy amulet, throwing it aside, where it bounced and thudded across the floor. “Well you should have bloody-well thought!”

Kuno rushed forwards, grasping around Warden’s wing and tugging at him firmly. “Apologies, Princess Celestia. Warden isn’t himself any more.”

Celestia frowned deeply, looking him up and down. “I take it his recovery is causing some strain?”

“You could say that,” Kuno admitted, shaking her head, grasping a hoof over Warden’s muzzle to keep him from speaking as he made to yell something else. “Warden, we’re leaving. You either come with me peacefully or I’m going to turn into a grizzly bear and carry you out by the tail, understood?”

Warden gave his wife a mutinous glare, but nodded, grinding his teeth.

Kuno nodded politely to the two princesses, “Thank you for seeing us.”

Celestia nodded gently. “Warden, when you come back to your senses, there is still that matter of the thing you wanted me to do for you?”

Warden broke free of his wife’s grasp for a moment, scowling deeply. “Like I’d want you to do that for me.”

Kuno growled faintly, grasping her husband and tugging him bodily towards the door.

It wasn’t until they were outside of the castle grounds Kuno released Warden, pushing him against the castle fence with a low growl. “What was that?!”

“I don’t know,” Warden admitted, hanging his head, chewing on his tongue, his wings drooping. “I don’t… I can’t…”

Kuno frowned, nudging his cheek with her nose. “Tell me what’s wrong, Warden.”

“Everything is wrong,” Warden said plaintively. “I’m just…” he trailed off, grinding a hoof against the ground slowly. “I’m starting to ache, and I’m so angry and I want to go back in there and grab that stupid long horn of Celestia’s and ram her face into the wall with it until I get some common sense through that thick bloody skull… but I know that that’s stupid and I know that it wasn’t personal… and… and I snapped at you…” he said quietly, lowering his head even further, looking pained. “W-why did I snap at you?”

Kuno frowned deeply, squeezing his gently with her hooves. “C’mon. Let’s get you back to the hospital. You need more medicine.”

Warden’s pupils dilated, and his ears splayed back. “I-I don’t want any more aurora.”

“Are you sure about that?” Kuno asked quietly.

Warden bit his bottom lip, tears starting to spill down his cheeks. “Y-yes… I need it… so badly,” he admitted plaintively.

“C’mon,” Kuno said, squeezing him reassuringly, starting to walk with him towards the hospital.

Depression

Kuno chewed on her bottom lip with one of her longer fangs, squinting down at the tangled mess of threads and fabric that comprised the sweater she was trying to knit. She was sitting in the foremost ‘tower’ of the mansion, a squat stone structure with a ring of windows at the top. An old loom sat in the corner, covered in spider webs and dusty with age from long disuse. Kuno had picked the room largely to keep an eye on Warden while he doddered about on his gardening duties.

Kuno shifted slightly, leaning forwards to in her chair to ensure that she could keep an eye on Warden as he went about his daily activities. He was in the garden now, wandering aimlessly from plant to plant, checking each vine over with an idle gaze even though Kuno had seen him check each twice already. A little further off, she could see Green Hoof tending to the much more intensive aurora growing. The aurora was growing in large trellises, as Warden had specified, each one ten metres high, with an improvised water system made from old copper piping that had been hoof-made to Warden’s special design.

But even now, when Warden wandered closer to the trellises containing the aurora, one of the royal guards held up a spear to halt his progress, and the pegasus slunk away, head lowered.

Kuno watched all this with a long sigh, shaking her head and returning to her knitting.

“Warden! You’re bleeding again!” Kuno tutted, turning from stirring a pot on the stove to pick up a dishcloth, wetting it in the sink and then dragging her husband towards it to dab the cloth against the end of his muzzle.

Warden wrinkled his nose deeply, averting his gaze. “I must have gotten a nosebleed.”

“You tripped again, didn’t you?” Kuno accused, gently dabbing at his lips with a deep frown.

Warden sighed and nodded. “Aye.”

“Open your mouth,” Kuno ordered.

Warden complied, opening his mouth for her.

Kuno tutted again, shaking her head and then peering at his tongue closely. “You bit your tongue again. Wash your mouth out.”

Hanging his head, Warden moved to the sink and scooped up a hoofful of water from the running tap, washing out his mouth and spitting out a glob of drying, coagulated blood. He wrinkled his nose deeply, cringing. “Oh that is disgusting.”

“Well it was in your mouth,” Kuno said with a wave of a hoof. “The doctors said you’d be able to feel things again soon, since they’re dialing back your dosage.”

“No such luck, yet,” Warden replied immediately, working his muzzle a few times and then giving a long sigh. “I can’t farm… I’m not allowed to fly… I can’t even…” he trailed off, sighing and hanging his head. “I can’t even play with you…”

Kuno frowned deeply, pulling him close and hugging him firmly, nuzzling into the base of his neck. “It gets better, Warden.”

“I can’t even feel you,” Warden sighed, lifting a hoof to lay against her wing and then dropping it, staring at the floor.

“I don’t know what to tell you…” Kuno admitted, nudging him firmly with her nose. “But you know that it’ll get better, once you get off the aurora.”

“That’ll be another six months,” Warden responded dejectedly, kicking at the floor with his hoof and then frowning. He lifted his hoof to his mouth, clasping his teeth around an old nail that had somehow made its way into his foreleg, and tugging it out, spitting it into the bin. His hoof began to bleed small pinpricks of blood across the floor.

“Oh come on Warden!” Kuno said, shoving him with a hoof. “Go get in the bath!”

Warden frowned, nodding and heading upstairs, leaving a trail of small blood droplets on every other step.

Kuno snorted once, picking up the washcloth, rinsing it out and starting to clean up after him.

Warden dropped into the bath, resting his nose on the edge of it miserably.

Kuno very, very carefully dipped a hoof into the water to test the temperature. Warden had gotten in the habit of having baths that were either as cold as ice or the general temperature one would most likely think a dragon would like.

Finding the temperature viable for living creatures, Kuno flicked on the hot water tap to get it up to a good, warm state, before slipping in herself. The warm water splashed up over her chitin, leaving it shiny and slick, while she crawled over closer to Warden and hugged him from behind.

“Depressed?” Kuno asked, gently nibbling at the side of his neck.

Warden nodded slowly, heaving a long sigh. “Yeah. I guess.”

Kuno frowned, hugging him from behind, resting her face in his mane. “You know I love you.”

“I know…” Warden said quietly, before giving a disconsolate sigh.

“Warden… I… I don’t know what I can say,” Kuno admitted, biting her bottom lip and gently nuzzling against his mane.

“There is nothing you can say,” Warden said, his tone dead. “My life is an ordeal now. An ordeal that I have struggle through. After Swarm died…” he trailed off, looking away and shaking his head slowly. “After all the aurora I did… I promised myself that I would be dead before I ever got on this shit again.”

Kuno gave a half-hearted giggle. “You’re a stallion of your word.”

“You know what I mean,” Warden snapped, angrily squeezing the edge of the tub with his hooves. “I’m addicted to this… this stupid shit again. I can feel it. And I hate it. But when I try to go off it it hurts. It hurts so fucking badly I want to curl up and cry and stop breathing until I die. And while I’m on it I can’t even feel your hooves around me… I can’t feel your chitin against my fur. I can’t even smell you. It’s like you’re there but you’re a ghost. What kind of a life is this? What kind of existence is it to have to choose between unending pain or the kind of shallow ephemeral chasing of sensations that I can only associate with when I was high off my ass every day?!”

Kuno splayed her ears back at the tirade, her wings twitching unhappily.

“Am I crying?” Warden asked, rubbing a hoof against his cheek harder than necessary. “I don’t even know if I’m crying!”

Kuno it her bottom lip, before she surged forwards and wrapped her husband up in a hug, pulling him to face her and tugging him until his face was in her neck, gently rocking him back and forth and squeezing him intently.

Warden sobbed against her neck brokenly, limp and weak. “I wake up and I don’t even want to live any more… I don’t want my life to be one unending chain of pain…”

Squeezing him intently, Kuno gently rubbed her nose through his mane. “Think of the things in this world that are worth the pain,” she suggested, tilting his head up to catch his gaze. “Am I worth the pain?”

A long silence stretched out between them, and Kuno felt her heart breaking.

“I-is anything worth unending pain?” Warden asked quietly, before looking away again, laying his cheek on her neck. “I want to say that you are worth it… I want to believe that… but my entire life is either pain or nothingness… sometimes I feel like I’ll never be happy again…”

Kuno frowned deeply, staring down at him, gently brushing some of his mane away from his face. “How did you feel after Swarm died?”

Warden twisted slightly to peer up at her, his ears splaying back. “Like… like I’d never be happy again…”

“But you were happy again, weren’t you?” Kuno asked gently.

“So happy…” Warden admitted, trailing off uncertainly.

“Remember that, Warden. Remember that you’ve already been through all this. You can do it again. You’re strong enough,” Kuno soothed, gently squeezing him.

“No… no I’m not,” Warden asserted, shaking his head sadly. “I was never strong enough for that…”

“Your current existence says otherwise,” Kuno retorted.

Warden frowned deeply, placing a hoof against his wife’s chest, wishing that he could feel her heartbeat. “No… that was you. That was you that made me strong. Without you, I’m a weakling. I’m a weak-willed useless piece of crap…”

“And I’m here for you,” Kuno soothed, squeezing him again, gently licking at his muzzle. “You know that. I’m here for you, no matter what. I brought you back from the dead. No amount of passive-aggressive bitching, drugs, depression, and lack of erectile function will keep me from being there for you.”

“I love that you put the most important one last,” Warden said with a hollow laugh.

Kuno nodded, pushing her muzzle up against his own firmly. “I love you, Warden. And you know how special that is. You know I’ll be here for you, no matter what. Forever.”

“But it’s hard…” Warden said, his bottom lip quivering. “It’s so hard… and it hurts so much…”

“I know,” Kuno crooned, gently rocking him back and forth, nuzzling against his neck reassuringly. “But I made a vow. In sickness and in health.”

“In sickness and in health…” Warden repeated quietly.

“And you’re going to owe me the craziest, kinkiest amounts of sex when you’re better,” Kuno reminded, nudging him firmly.

“You promise?” Warden asked, closing his eyes and nudging against her nose awkwardly, clumsily bunting his head against her own.

“I promise,” Kuno affirmed, holding him close.

Author's Note

Short chapter so you all don't have to wait more weeks! Apologies!

Just getting back in the swing of things. Longer chapters to follow.

Withdrawal

Swarm’s brow furrowed in concentration, and she held her breath, concentrating with all of her might, her horn sparking and glowing fitfully. The little red rubber ball in front of her wobbled and shook, a halo of green magic coursing around it in rhythm with the feeble glow of Swarm’s horn.

After several intense moments, Swarm gasped and dropped onto her stomach, exhausted, panting heavily.

A soft, malicious giggle from somewhere to her left made Swarm perk a single ear up tiredly.

Her unicorn tormentor idly swirled her ball in a slow circle in front of her own nose, making it spiral lazily. “Having trouble?” she asked sweetly.

“Shut up, Glimmer!” Swarm hissed, her little ears splaying back into her mane. Today, her mane was a vibrant pink, to match her eyes, just barely coming down to rest between her adolescent wings.

Golden Glimmer gave a mean-natured smile, and Swarm’s little red ball levitated from the bench, giving a lazy swirl in the air in front of the hybrid’s nose.

Swarm growled, swiping the ball out of the air with a hoof, glowering at Golden Glimmer. “I’m going to hurt you.”

The bully’s smile faltered for just a moment. “M-Miss Acumen says you’re not allowed to hurt us.”

“Do you think she could get over here fast enough to stop me?” Swarm asked bluntly, eyes narrowing slowly.

Golden Glimmer took a single step backwards, lips curling into a sneer. “You’re just a useless fakicorn anyway. Can’t even use magic.” With her accusation, she turned around and return to her own bench, idly swirling a trio of balls in the air in front of herself.

“Just ignore her,” Wrought Iron said, frowning deeply and dropping her ball back on her bench for her. “Some ponies just take longer to learn magic. And she is one of the eldest.”

Swarm glowered at Golden Glimmer’s back for several long moments, before snorting and turning to the colt, leaning close and resting her cheek against his shoulder. “I’m tired,” she admitted, rubbing her eye with a hoof and then nudging him firmly. “Cuddle me.”

Wrought Iron gave her a completely confused stare at the request, but did as asked, leaning in and nuzzling against her cheek gently. “Like this?”

“Mhmm-hmm!” Swarm crooned, nuzzling up at him in response. She flipped her head to the side slightly, letting her mane cover their faces so she could lean up and give him a quick, warm kiss.

Wrought Iron blushed furiously, jerking backwards after a mere moment of contact and looking around to make sure no one had noticed.

Swarm smiled, purring in the back of her throat, leaning against the colt. Her horn lit, and the red ball levitated neatly upwards, holding steady in front of them both.

Warden bit his bottom lip, swallowing thickly. He was rather hidden from the mansion, laying behind an old well at the edge of the grounds, up on a hillside. An old bucket lay in front of him, connected to the well by a frayed, dusty rope. The well itself was in disrepair, the crank rusted and one of the beams rotted through. It was a place Warden went to when he wanted to be alone. Which was becoming more and more frequent.

A medical bag was open in front of him, containing an assortment of objects in their own little sleeves. Syringes already filled with a carefully-measured dose of a clear liquid, individually-packed needles, a tourniquet, a pressure cuff, and a vial of glowing amber liquid. Aurora.

Warden had a tourniquet around his forehoof already, the end of it hanging loosely, not tightened at all. He didn’t even have a needle assembled for insertion yet.

Eyes red-rimmed, face tear-streaked and with a hoof shaking so badly it tapped against the ground, Warden was every bit the picture of a drug addict going through severe withdrawal symptoms.

Warden sniffed, wiping his nose with a hoof and blinking rapidly to try and unblur his vision. His ears splayed back heavily as he opened his book to a new page, having to hold the book against the ground to keep it steady enough to read. It was a botany book, and it was thoroughly ruined. Many of the pages were smudged and dirty. Dirt, blood, sweat, and no shortage of tears marred the pages of the book, with one particularly bad page carrying what looked like vomit-stains over the bottom edge.

The book had been perfectly pristine when Warden had purchased it, no less than a week beforehand.

Sniffling again, Warden tried to turn the page, tearing it in half before he realised that he had to take his other hoof off the book to do so. His wings twitched feebly as he pushed the book away with a growl of anger, before lunging forwards and smacking it away.

He growled to himself, fuming, refusing to look at the book, chest heaving with his fury. His hoof ached where he had hit the book, and a bruise was blooming beneath the skin. Everything ached. From his hooves to his ears. Parts of him ached that he didn’t even know could ache. from the region just beneath his hooves, to the insides of his nasal passages. The three neat lines on the inside of his right hoof also stung and hurt. But they were in a carefully-selected area that no one else would see.

“Warden?”

Warden looked up, and then looked away, hanging his head slightly. “Oh… hey.”

Kuno picked her way towards him carefully, gently settling herself down in front of him on her stomach, watching him carefully. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to stop myself from taking my aurora early,” Warden said airily, rubbing a hoof against the side of his neck. “Old addictions… you know…”

Kuno frowned at that, shaking her head gently. “We both know you’re lying, Warden. You’ve barely touched it in the last few days.”

“I’ve been taking it. I just don’t need to take as much. Doctors say that it’s hypersensitivity. Because I was addicted to it before,” Warden explained smoothly.

Kuno gave him a long stare, an eyebrow raising slowly.

Warden hung his head, wiping his nose again. “I don’t want it.”

“Yes, you do,” Kuno stated flatly. “I know you want it more than you want my love right now.”

“Damn you and damn your changeling nature,” Warden whispered angrily, biting at his hoof.

Kuno reached forwards, slapping his muzzle away from his hoof. “Stop fraying yourself. You’re going to regret it when you get better.”

“Well I’m better now,” Warden stated, thumping his hoof against the ground. “I don’t need any aurora. You said it yourself. I’ve gone so long without it.”

“Hiding up here on the hill, away from everyone, gradually destroying yourself?” Kuno asked bluntly. “Is that really ‘better’, Warden?”

“It’s better than before!” Warden hissed, slamming his hoof against the ground angrily. “It’s better than when I have to sit there in misery and not be able to even feel anything!”

Kuno frowned deeply, shaking her head. “No it’s not, and you know it. You’re just scared of it.”

“O-Of course I’m scared of it!” Warden admitted, burying his face in his hooves. “I’ll take the pain over that any day of the week!”

“It’s not healthy, Warden,” Kuno soothed, inching closer to him. “You need to gradually wean yourself off it, when you’re ready. This is only going to get worse.”

“Worse than having to… to… do things to myself to even feel anything?” Warden asked bluntly, his ears splaying back slowly. “I’m not so weak that I need aurora to help me fend off pain.”

“This isn’t weakness, Warden,” Kuno soothed, shaking her head gently and slipping up beside him, lightly wiggling in against his side, nosing gently at his neck. “You know it isn’t.”

“It’s weak… needing some drug,” he murmured in response, shaking his head defiantly.

“No, it’s weak to retreat into agony because you don’t like how it makes you feel,” Kuno said, gently mouthing against his neck, wrapping a hoof around his shoulders soothingly.

Warden leaned against her heavily, biting his bottom lip. “I prefer the pain…”

“You’re wasting away, Warden. You can’t keep food down when you’re like this. You go from full-on withdrawal to full-blown addiction every other day. I can see your ribs,” Kuno said, gently poking his side with a hoof.

“B-but I can feel you now,” Warden said, lifting a hoof to gently stroke down his wife’s back. “I can hug you… I might even be able to do… things to you.”

Kuno rested a hoof gently over his muzzle. “Using sex as a conversation-changer is my forte, Warden. You’re terrible at it.”

“I can’t even get it up any more,” Warden murmured sadly. “Not since…”

“I’ll help, when you’re healthy enough,” Kuno soothed, gently resting her head against his neck, nosing him reassuringly.

“I...I…” Warden’s voice dropped to a broken whisper, and he bit back tears. “I soiled the bed yesterday morning… I feel like a foal…”

Kuno frowned deeply, hugging her husband tightly as he burst into tears. “I resisted the urge to maim you when I saw you burning perfectly good sheets.”

“Perfectly ruined, you mean,” Warden countered, shaking his head heavily and sniffling, wiping his nose with a hoof. “This is no way to live. Aurora addiction is no way to live.”

“This isn’t aurora addiction,” Kuno said seriously, eyes narrowing up at him. “You’ve gone two days off it and you’re calling it an addiction? An addiction is where you can’t control it.”

“I told myself plenty of times that I could quit whenever I wanted last time I was on it, too,” Warden explained, hanging his head. “And I believed it…”

“But you didn’t have somepony next to you to back up those claims,” Kuno said fiercely. “I know you can do it, Warden. This isn’t an addiction. You need this.”

“I don’t want it,” Warden said, his bottom lip trembling. “I don’t want to go back to not feeling anything.”

“You could die without it, Warden,” Kuno retorted, her voice rising. “I did not go through all of this trouble to bring you back from the dead just so you can kill yourself by being a fool.”

Warden lowered his head, ears splaying back slowly. “You should have let me die.”

The slap caught Warden entirely by surprise. Ears ringing, he blinked dumbly at his wife, tasting blood.

“D-don’t you ever say that,” Kuno said, tears brimming in her eyes. “I need you, Warden. I gave up my entire life for you. I betrayed my hive for you. I killed my Queen for you, Warden. But I need you to wake up and take your fucking medicine!”

Warden stared at her, liking his lips, feeling blood dripping from his nose, tears spilling from his eyes again. “I-I’m sorry,” he sobbed, hanging his head and then dropping on his stomach. “I-I want to be strong for you but it’s so hard and it hurts so much… I feel like I’m already dead when I’m on aurora. Like I’m just an animated corpse. And I’m just so… sad and broken and pathetic… And I can finally feel you again and now you’re telling me to get back on it? I-It’s not fair…”

“Life isn’t fair,” Kuno said seriously, stepping closer to him and nudging his nose firmly with her own, uncaring of the small trickle of blood. “Life was never fair. You just trudge through from one bleak moment to the next and you pray that there are happy moments in between. This is just another bleak moment, Warden. And if you want to get to the happy part on the other side, you have to suffer through it. Nobody ever had a blanket-sweep happy life.”

Warden hung his head, sniffling faintly. “K-kiss me.”

Kuno blinked once, a single ear perking. “What?”

“Kiss me,” Warden said more firmly, rising to his hooves and then wrapping his forehooves around her, pulling her closer and kissing her with an furious eagerness.

Kuno resisted for a moment, before allowing the kiss, tilting her head to the side to deepen it slightly.

Warden kissed her hungrily for several long moments, before drawing back slowly, sniffling faintly and then wiping his eyes. “Thank you… Thank you for always being there to wake me up when I need it.”

Kuno nodded, withdrawing a syringe from his med pack, holding it up.

Warden presented his hoof to her, looking away and biting his tongue.

Kuno unsheathed the needle, and then stuck it into his hoof, injecting the contents.

Whining faintly, Warden bit back tears, as the horrible cold numbness started to travel up his hoof towards his chest, robbing him of sensation as it went.

Gently, Kuno pulled his muzzle around to face her, leaning forwards to kiss him gently, before hugging him tightly. “Thank you, Warden… for being you. You’re the strongest pony I know.”

“N-no I’m not,” Warden said, kissing her hungrily. “I just have a wonderful wife.”

Kuno shook her head gently, shushing him, and then kissing him intently again. “We’re going to get you back to what you were, Warden.”

“We’ll be happy again?” Warden asked helplessly, kissing her desperately even as the terrible numbness spread throughout his body.

Kuno nodded, squeezing him tight with her hooves. “We’ll be happy again. No matter how long it takes.”

Fatherhood

Warden harrumphed faintly, idly sliding the edge of a knife over his hoof, delicately parting the fur with the pointed tip.

Kuno raised an eyebrow slowly, eyes narrowing at him. “The last time you did that, you ended up cutting yourself,” she reminded bluntly. “And I’ll make you scrub the blood out of the floorboards this time.”

“I can almost feel it,” Warden said, frowning down at his hoof. “I know that if I just… plunged it in there and scraped it over the bone it would only tickle. But I can almost feel the blade touching over my fur.”

Kuno shook her head, returning to chopping up carrots for the stew for that night’s dinner. “Well, the washcloth is in the sink when you cut yourself.”

Warden snorted once, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, I don’t think that—Oh for the love of—”

Without even looking, Kuno raised a hoof in the direction of the sink. “I warned you.”

Warden growled to himself, limping to the sink and holding his hoof over it, watching the blood drip from the shallow cut with a wrinkled nose. After several long seconds, he heaved a heavy sigh, resting his chin on the sink. “This is garbage.”

“I’ve told you so many times not to play with sharp objects. At least until you can feel things again,” Kuno said with a shake of her head.

“Daddy, did you cut yourself… again?” Swarm asked from the doorway.

Warden nodded sadly. “Again.”

“You gotta put a bit in the jar,” swarm said, pointing with a hoof to a jar full of bits sitting on a high shelf. It was decided that the jar would have bits placed into it every time Warden hurt himself. It was pretty fully.

Warden nodded, waving a hoof idly. “I’ll put a coin in after dinner.”

“Promise?” Swarm asked earnestly.

“I promise,” Warden said, touching his chest with a hoof sincerely.

“Can I help with anything?” Swarm asked, stepping closer to her mother.

“We’re fine for now, honey. We just have to let everything stew to a uniform brown paste,” Kuno said, eyeing the pot on the stove critically.

“Is it stew again?” Swarm asked with a soft whine.

“Yes, it is stew again. I don’t trust your father around the stoves since last week,” Kuno said, glowering at Warden.

Warden idly curled to check the back of his hoof, holding it up to show the still-visible concentric rings from where the stove coil had burned his fur down to the skin. “It’s healing,” he said defensively.

Swarm snorted once, wrinkling her nose. “Can I have candy after dinner?”

“If you eat all of your dinner,” Kuno said smoothly. “How is the magic training going at school anyway?”

“It’s going good!” Swarm said with a happy little bounce. “It gets really hard sometimes but I just kiss Wrought Iron or make Golden Glimmer mad at me and I can do it perfectly again.”

Kuno frowned deeply at that, and Warden pursed his lips, turning away and deciding not to get involved with the conversation.

“You make Golden Glimmer angry at you and that makes it easier for you to use magic?” Kuno asked guardedly.

Swarm nodded once. “Yup! It’s a lot easier if I just kiss Wrought Iron. But making that stupid little bitch angry at me works well!”

Kuno raised her brows slowly, glancing at Warden.

Warden was already standing behind the filly. There was a rather loud smack! as his hoof connected with her behind, and Swarm howled in pain and surprise, bouncing away, eyes wide and fearful.

“Now go to your room!” Warden hissed, pointed sternly towards the door.

Swarm stared up at him, tears brimming in her eyes. She started to wail, and then bolted out of the room, slamming into the door on the way past, streaming tears.

Kuno arched an eyebrow at her husband slowly. “I know that I’m supposed to defer to you in matters of pony etiquette and such… but wasn’t that a little bit harsh?”

Warden blinked once, lowering his hoof, giving an awkward shrug. “I… don’t think so? You heard what she said. We have to curb that as soon as possible.”

“You could have said something,” Kuno said, frowning deeply. “Do… do all foals get spanked so vigorously?”

“Foals are, in general, utterly heedless and only listen when spanked,” Warden said simply, pursing his lips. “I was spanked all the time.”

“And look how even-keeled you are!” Kuno said with a completely blank expression.

“What do you want me to do? Just talk to her? Just say ‘that’s a bad word and we don’t say that’? She’s a foal, they don’t listen,” Warden said, waving a hoof. “If my parents tried that one me I would have laughed in their faces.”

“And instead, you’ve taught her just to never say it where we can hear it, because she’ll get hit,” Kuno said with a deep frown, shaking her head. “Is that really the lesson she should be gleaning from this?”

“That’s… kind of it, yeah,” Warden said dumbly, his ears splaying back slowly. “Why do I feel like I’m losing this fight?”

“Because you are,” Kuno said matter-of-factly. “Losing it quite badly, in fact. You’re teaching your daughter that it’s a naughty word and bad and she shouldn’t say it… around us. Did she use the word correctly?”

Warden gave an awkward smile, rubbing a hoof through the back of his mane. “Well… she is kind of a bitch, yeah.”

“So she used the word correctly, and yet you punished her for it, why?” Kuno asked bluntly.

“Because it’s a bad word!” Warden said instantly, pressing his advantage. “She’ll get in trouble for it at school and ponies will look down on her for saying it.” Warden crossed his hooves, a smug smile on his face.

“And… why didn’t you just tell her that? Why didn’t you just teach her that instead of trying to force it into her brain by spanking her?” Kuno asked sweetly.

Warden lowered his head slightly at that. “W-well… because she’s a foal.”

“So you just… move straight to the physical violence and screw any kind of subtlety?” Kuno asked bluntly.

Warden lowered his ears, wings dropping. “Fine... fine… what do I have to do to make this right?”

“I’m not the one you need to make it right with,” Kuno said simply, turning back to the pot and stirring it, humming to herself.

Swarm’s sobbing was audible from behind her half-closed door, and Warden winced, standing in the doorway, a hoof lifted to knock on the door, frozen.

Why was he knocking to go into the room of his daughter? It was his house!

Warden bit his bottom lip, knocking softly. “Swarm?”

Swarm looked up, sniffling and swallowing thickly, face streaked with tears. “G-go away!”

Warden frowned deeply at that, taking an uncertain step into the room.

“I said go away!” Swarm screeched, a book levitating from the bedside table and flying across the room.

Warden lifted his wing, brushing the book aside with a practised motion he had been taught in the guard with the intent on brushing aside projectiles. Before anything else could be thrown at him, he strode confidently over to the bed and gathered the sobbing filly up into a hug.

Swarm struggled at first, beating ineffectually at his chest with her little hooves, wings fluttering and flapping, trying to claw her way away from him, before just melting against him and wailing.

“Y-You… you… you… you h-hit me!” she wailed, sniffling loudly up at him, pink eyes rimmed with red.

Warden nodded awkwardly. “Aye… I… I kinda did,” he admitted, ears lowering. “Forgive me?’

Swarm shook her head vigorously. “N-no! I won’t forgive you! Ever!”

Eyes narrowing slowly, Warden lifted a hoof to shush her. “Now listen here, you. I’m trying to have an adult conversation with you. Stop acting like a foal.”

Swarm blinked up at him, sniffing a few more times, before falling silent. She glowered at him, but otherwise relented.

“I’m sorry for hitting you,” Warden started.

“You should be!” Swarm protested loudly.

Warden snapped his wing for attention. “I wasn’t done yet,” he said authoritatively.

Swarm quietened, glaring at him sullenly.

“I’m sorry for hitting you. I shouldn’t have done that. When I was your age, I got hit a lot,” Warden explained, chewing on his tongue for a moment, wincing when he tasted blood. He wiped his mouth with the edge of a wing, continuing. “That’s how I was raised. So it was sort of… sort of just my go-to solution. You said a very bad word.”

“Ponies use it!” Swarm protested immediately. “Why can’t I?”

Warden frowned deeply, his ears pinning back. He knew there were two ways to go about it: Blunt honesty, and bullshit.

“Because it’s not socially acceptable for a foal to say these words,” Warden said after a few moments, deflating slightly. “There are just some words we don’t say in public. They’re ‘bad’.”

“So… ‘bitch’ is a bad word?” Swarm asked simply.

Warden bit his tongue, resisting the urge to reprimand the foal. “Yes. That’s a bad word.”

“Are there any others?” Swarm asked suddenly.

“Yes, yes, a whole lot of others,” Warden admitted, hanging his head. “And you’re not allowed to say any of them.”

“So what are they?” Swarm tilted her head to the side, ears perking expectantly.

Warden gave an awkward wince. “I’m not going to tell you. They’re bad words.”

“But… How will I know what they are what not to say if nopony tells me what they are?” Swarm asked bluntly, her own ears pinning back. “That’s stupid! This is a stupid rule!”

Warden pursed his lips, glowering for a long moment. “Aye… you’re right. It’s a stupid rule. But you can’t say any of them. Not in public.”

“Why do we even have words that we can’t say?! Why do we have words that we can’t say?! That makes no sense!” Swarm said with a huff. “That’s like having food you can’t eat ever because it will kill you! Or a glass of water that you can’t drink!”

“Well… you can say them, when you’re much, much older. And you… understand that the words are only meant to be used at certain times…” Warden tried to explain, chewing on his tongue again, brow furrowed deeply.

“I already know words are only supposed to be used sometimes! I wouldn’t say that somepony is sick when they’re not! This is a stupid rule,” Swarm said suddenly, frowning deeply up at her father.

Warden nodded helplessly. “Aye… the more I think about it, the more I realise it’s a really stupid rule. Uhm… how about this: I’ll tell you what all the bad words are, and when to use them, but you can’t use them when talking to other ponies, okay?”

“But daaaaad—”

Warden held up a hoof for silence. “Take it, or leave it.”

Swarm crossed her little hooves, huffing. “Fine.”

“Good, now, well… to start off… I guess maybe we should start with ‘shit’,” Warden started, sitting down on his haunches to settle in to a long, awkward talk.

“Well, how did it go?” Kuno asked as she found Warden sitting on the stairs.

Warden looked up from squeezing his head with his hooves, blinking at his wife slowly. “You are handling the sex talk. That was the queerest conversation I’ve ever had with anyone. I haven’t felt that awkward and weird since my father taught me how to clean myself properly. That was just plain straight nuts.”

Kuno giggled softly. “Are you referring to the father/son bonding experience or your recent conversation with your daughter?”

Warden glowered at her for a long moment. “No, seriously. I went in there to explain that it was a bad word and to never say it to anypony ever and I ended up teaching her every bit of filth I know!”

“Even the c-word?” Kuno asked in hushed tones.

Warden nodded sadly. “Even the c-word. There is not a chance she is going to grow up normal.”

Kuno tutted. “Teaching a filly that young ‘cup’. You should be ashamed of yourself, Warden.”

Eyes narrowing slowly at his wife, Warden didn’t even respond, letting his expression speak for itself.

Kuno giggled softly. “Lighten up, Warden. When you were her age, how many of those words did you know?”

“Like… all of them,” Warden admitted, frowning deeply, rubbing his face with his hooves. “And a few made-up ones.”

“See? It’s better that she learn about this rather than get second-hoof accounts from other ponies behind the classrooms at school,” Kuno pointed out with a wave of a hoof.

Warden hung his head. “I know… I know. It’s just so damn awkward.”

“You’re going to be a wreck when she sleeps with her first coltfriend,” Kuno said with a sad shake of her head.

Warden’s eyes widened slowly. “I’ll be hunting him down with a spear, you mean?”

Kuno arched an eyebrow slowly. “No… I doubt it. I’ll have convinced you that education is better than outright prevention before then.”

“No, no you will not,” Warden said guardedly. “You will never convince me of that.”

“How many ponies did you sleep with before you met Swarm?” Kuno asked simply.

Warden blinked once, frowning deeply. “I… I don’t know. Can’t remember.”

Kuno gave him a dubious stare. “You could tell me what their manes smell like, Warden.” She clicked her hoof impatiently.

“Three,” Warden said, pursing his lips in annoyance.

Kuno clicked her hoof again.

Warden gave a long sigh. “Lilacs, strawberries, and dirt.”

“Dirt?” Kuno asked curiously.

“She worked on an apple farm,” Warden said with a wave of a hoof. “I fail to see where this is going.”

“Where this is going, is that… did your parents know you were sleeping with them?” Kuno asked sweetly.

Warden shrugged slightly. “Probably. I didn’t think they knew, at the time. But I was a teenager. Teenagers aren’t too bright. Quite convinced of their own fox-like subtlety, in fact.”

“And did you ever have somepony sit down and say to you that it was a bad thing and not to do it?” Kuno asked simply.

“I used protection,” Warden said with a shudder. “I didn’t want illegitimate foals running around.”

“So… you had somepony, maybe your parents, tell you that sleeping around was wrong and yet you did it anyway?” Kuno asked blankly.

Warden scowled. “I was young and stupid.”

“Your daughter is young. And will be young later, too,” Kuno said simply. “You can either teach her to do everything in the most dangerous way possible, or teach her to do it with adult supervision.”

Warden blanched. “Adult supervision? This is not a family activity!”

“You know what I mean!” Kuno scolded. “We need to make sure she feels like she can talk to us, instead of just hiding it from us and doing it anyway. Like calling ponies a ‘bitch’. She’ll be doing that forever now. The difference is, we can either have her hide it from us, and we know she’s hiding it, most of the time. Or we can have her tell us it to our faces and accept it gratefully.”

Warden sighed, hanging his head, resting his chin on the table. “I’m a terrible father.”

Kuno snorted, moving around the table to hug him tightly. “No, you’re not. You just need to treat Swarm like a pony and not like some… animal that is black-and-white without any grey areas.”

“She changes colour at will,” Warden pointed out. “She looked like a zebra last week.”

“But she’s more subtle than just ‘she said a bad word’, ‘I had best hit her!’,” Kuno explained, nudging against his cheek firmly. “Just… promise me that you’ll think about it, kay?”

Warden nodded in defeat. “Aye… I’ll think about what you said.”

Kuno smiled, turning away, humming happily to herself, moving back towards the kitchen.

“Kuno?” Warden called.

Kuno paused, looking back over her shoulder.

“You’re an amazing mother,” Warden said sincerely, resting his chin on his hooves. “I just thought someone should say it.”

Kuno glowed with the praise, smiling back at him. “Oh! Speaking of parenthoof,” she said, slapping her forehead with a hoof. “Green Hoof is coming around with her family tonight.”

Warden paled, swallowing thickly. “I… I…”

“You… haven’t seen him yet, have you?” Kuno asked, her voice hushed, lowering her head slightly.

Warden shook his head slowly, staring down at his hooves. “I… kinda was avoiding the subject, honestly.”

Kuno winced at that, awkwardly rubbing a hoof against her neck. “I can… call it off?”

Warden sighed and then shook his head. “No… No. I want to see him. And his new father. I want to see them all,” he said confidently, his expression set. “It’s past time I get a good look at what I brought into this world.”

Progeny

Warden jerked upright as he heard the doorbell ring, his mouth going dry and wings subconsciously springing outwards, stiff and quivering. He danced in place anxiously, ears pinning back against his skull and then perking upwards, before splaying flat again.

“Relax, Warden,” Kuno soothed, stroking a hoof lightly through his mane as she passed, heading towards the front door. “Does… err… Do they know about me?”

“Everyone knows about you,” Warden said with a shake of his head. “It was in the newspaper. But maybe…”

Before he even finished his sentence, a flash of green fire had engulfed the changeling and her ‘default’ pony form was standing in her place. A soft white pegasus with a flowing golden mane and tail.

Kuno opened the door, stepping back and smiling. “Good evening.”

“Hello, Kuno,” Green Hoof said with a faint smile, motioning to her right. “This is my husband, Stunning Facet, and my son, Mint Green.”

Warden craned his head to the side, trying to peer past his wife and spot the colt, but only managing to catch a glimpse of a blue/green crystal pony flank.

Kuno stepped back, nodding. “It’s very nice to meet you, come in, come in, we have the table set already.”

Kuno stepped to the left and Warden felt his breath catch in his throat. There, between the earth pony and the crystal pony, was a little colt. He was bigger than Swarm, more than a year older. He was an almost uniform brown from nose to haunch, with a tangle green mane and tail, and a little mint leaf as a cutie mark.

Warden could only stare.

Green Hoof and Stunning Facet nodded, stepping inside so that Kuno could close the door behind them.

Mint Green’s eyes met Warden’s, and Warden blinked once, suddenly apprehensive. He swallowed thickly, rising to his hooves and then stepping away through a doorway.

“Mommy, who was that pony?” Mint Green asked, tugging at Green Hoof’s foreleg curiously.

But Warden was already running down the hallway at full speed and didn’t hear the response.

“So what do you do, Stunning Facet?” Kuno asked as she poured boiling water into four cups.

“I mainly work in the gemcrafting business,” Stunning Facet said with an easy smile. “Rarity is my main customer, to be honest. Without her, I’d be out of business. She could get her gems from anywhere, but she likes my prismatic collection so much that she refused to let me leave.”

Stunning Facet was a large stallion, a unicorn crystal pony, with a blue/green body, stunningly blue, crystal-facet eyes, and a red mane and tail that looked like a cascade of shimmering rubies falling from his head.

“That’s fascinating. What are prismatic gems?” Kuno asked, placing the cups down in front of each of them and one at the seat where Warden would occupy.

“It’s a technique I developed. I found that if you use the right magic, you can splinter a gem along special fault lines. They tend to break the same way each and every time. So, if I splinter a lot of different gems, and then put them back together…” Stunning Facet explained with a slow smile. “You get a gem that’s the same composition as the original, but it’s a ruby, sapphire, diamond, amethyst, and whatever other precious material you can think of, all rolled into one. And if you shine light through it, it’s very, very pretty.”

“That’s very interesting,” Kuno said with a soft nod and a smile. “Are they expensive? I think Swarm would love to play with one of those.”

“Well, if you’re interested, I can probably make you one for free! What are her favorite colours?” Stunning Facet asked with a warm smile.

Kuno pondered for a long moment. “I honestly have no idea. You’d have to ask her yourself. Warden? Can you go fetch Swarm?”

Warden stiffened, skulking into view from around the corner where he’d had his ear pressed against the wall. “Can I what?”

“Can you go and get Swarm, please? Stunning Facet wants to know her favorite colours,” Kuno said with a faint smile, motioning with her nose towards the doorway.

“I’m… I’m Warden, by the way,” he said with a lame wave of his hoof in the direction of Green Hoof, Stunning Facet, and Mint Green, who was under the table reading a magazine about herbs. “I’ll go get Swarm,” he said awkwardly, stepping back out of view of the dining room.

“His medication sort of messes with him,” Kuno said with a sad smile.

Stunning Facet gave a slow nod. Green Hoof squirmed uncomfortably.

“So… I understand that you’re a changeling?” Stunning Facet asked, turning to Kuno, ears perked in curiosity.

Kuno nodded slowly. “That is correct.”

“That’s so… weird!” Stunning Facet said enthusiastically. “Why did you marry a pony?”

“Because he’s… well… he’s him,” Kuno said with an awkward smile.

“And you killed Chrysalis. Was that difficult?” Stunning Facet pressed.

Kuno gave a slight strained smile. “Her sternum provided the most resistance, honestly. Took a good amount of thrust to get past it.” Kuno demonstrated the motion with a hard shove of her hoof. “But after that, it was fairly easy.”

Stunning Facet wrinkled his nose, giving a slightly disgusted look. “Well… I guess so. Can I… see it?”

“It doesn’t bother you?” Kuno asked blankly.

“I’m a crystal pony,” Stunning Facet said, tapping his chest with the sound of something metal tapping on glass. “We disappeared a fair amount of time before the ponies went to war with changelings.”

Kuno gave an understanding nod. She screwed up her face, and a flash of green engulfed her. When it faded, the more diminutive changeling was standing in her place, wings buzzing awkwardly. She licked her lips and fangs nervously, peering up at the stallion.

“That is so cool,” Stunning Facet said, grinning from ear to ear. “Can you really be any pony?”

Another flash of green engulfed her form, and when it faded, Nightmare Moon was glowering at Green Hoof and Stunning Facet. “Thou darest question our abilities?!”

Warden and Swarm paused in the doorway of the dining room.

Kuno paused as well, ears pricking upwards, looking back over her shoulder. She was in the guise of Spitfire, and in the middle of a spiel about how awesome she was.

“What are you doing?” Warden asked blankly.

“Entertaining our guests,” Kuno said with a grin, waving a hoof. A flash of green passed over her, and she reverted back to her normal self. She poked her tongue out at her husband, before turning back to the guests.

Mint Green looked up from his magazine, blinking once at Swarm.

Swarm paused, squinting at the colt, before stepping forwards cautiously, sitting down in front of him.

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

“I’m Mint Green,” he said.

“I’m Swarm,” she responded.

Warden stood awkwardly to one side, staring at Mint Green.

Green Hoof bit her bottom lip, before giving Kuno a significant glance, and then turning to Warden. “Warden… why don’t you show Mint Green your vines? He’s quite interested in plants.”

Warden Swallowed thickly. “I… I…”

“Plants?” Mint Green asked, clambering to his hooves, stepping towards Warden. “I like plants.”

Warden splayed his ears back, before nodding. “Uh… sure. C’mon then,” he said lamely, motioning towards the door that lead outside.

“What’s this one?!” Mint Green asked excitedly, pointing at another vine.

“That’s just watermelon,” Warden explained.

“And this one?” Mint Green asked earnestly.

“Tomatoes,” Warden responded. “And those ones are jalapenos,”

Mint Green moved towards another vine.

“Chilli,” Warden said with a faint smile before the colt could ask. “And in between them is some kind of mutant strain that’s a mix of them both. Cross-pollinated, I think.”

“Can I taste one?” Mint Green asked excitedly, bouncing in place.

“Uh...that’d be a really really bad idea,” Warden admitted, frowning slightly. “The mutant strain is hotter than the other two combined, but here, try some grapes,” he said, picking off a bunch of grapes and handing them to the colt.

Mint Green smiles, immediately biting into the grapes, suckling several into his mouth to chew on thoughtfully. “They’re not sour or sweet! They’re perfect!”

Warden nodded slowly. “I do try to keep them from going either way. It’s a special kind of vine.”

“Can I keep some of the seeds?” Mint Green asked eagerly. “I’d like to try grow some myself!”

Warden nodded again, his wings giving a slightly anxious flick. “Yeah, yeah you can take as many seeds as you need.”

“But first…” Mint Green said, spitting a seed out onto his hoof and then peering at an empty spot in the garden. He bolted over to it, scraping away the top layer of soil and then pushing the seed into place, before ever-so-carefully covering it up with dirt. “There, now you’ll have a vine here, too!”

Warden swallowed thickly, biting his tongue, blinking several times to try and clear the sudden tears building in his eyes.

“Warden, are you alright?” Kuno asked softly, resting a hoof between the pegasus’ wings.

Warden shook his head, ears splaying back heavily.

Mint Green was ahead of them, carefully tugging and pulling vines in different directions, wrapping them around the steel pickets.

Kuno frowned slightly, wrapping her hooves around him and hugging him warmly. “What’s wrong?”

“I-I don’t e-even know,” Warden blubbered, tears spilling down over his cheeks. “Why am I crying? What’s wrong with me?”

“He’s your son,” Kuno soothed, gently stroking a hoof down his wings.

“H-he’s just so… so perfect… and he’s right there and I want to pick him up and hug him but I’m just some weird pegasus to him…” Warden said, staring at the ground and then pawing at the dirt slowly. “This sucks… This just sucks so fucking much. He’s right there.”

Kuno nodded knowingly, gently nuzzling into the crook of his neck. “I… don’t know what to tell you, Warden.”

“I don’t know what to do,” Warden said, lowering his head. “I don’t know what to do. I always know what to do. I’m not indecisive. But this… I just… I can’t…Tell me what to do…” he said plaintively.

Kuno shook her head, squeezing him with her hooves gently. “Nopony can tell you what to do in this situation.”

“Well I can’t… I can’t do anything. I can’t just walk up to him and say ‘hey, I’m your father. You don’t know me, and I have a family already. But you’re my son! Enjoy your future and here’s some bits for a psychiatrist’,” Warden said with a shake of his head, dropping onto his stomach and just staring at the colt. “I want to take him in… and teach him… I want to… I don’t even know any more. I want to do all the things my father never did for me…”

“He already has a father,” Kuno said sternly, nudging his neck with her nose. “Stop being such a pony.”

Warden raised an eyebrow at her slowly.

Kuno snorted, rolling her eyes. “He has your blood. But he has parents, Warden.”

Warden nodded slowly, rising to his hooves and brushing dirt from his stomach. “You’re absolutely right,” he said, turning on his hooves and marching towards the door leading back into the mansion.

Kuno watched him go, grimacing apprehensively.

“Got a moment?” Warden asked, staring at Stunning Facet.

Green Hoof and Swarm both looked up as well, each of them seeing something in his expression that made them shrink backwards slightly.

“Surely,” Stunning Facet said with a short nod.

“Good, I’d like to talk to you,” Warden said calmly, motioning towards the ceiling. “We’ll go up to the roof.”

Green Hoof looked back and forth between Warden and her husband, biting her bottom lip. “Fay…”

Stunning Facet shook his head, shushing her gently. “It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ll come, lead the way.”

Warden nodded, whirling on his hooves and stalking out the door and into the hallway, heading for the winding staircase that led higher into the building. Stunning Facet tagged along behind him, expression set, determined.

“Daddy is being very abrupt,” Swarm said to herself, as she rolled a small gem back and forth under her hoof, watching the way it split the light.

Wind whipped past the rooftop, carried down the mountain, chilled and refreshing. It swept Warden’s mane all over the place, while Stunning Facet’s barely moved at all.

“So… what did you want to talk to me about?” Stunning Facet asked carefully.

Warden paused, inhaling deeply, and then giving a slow exhale. “About Mint Green.”

“What about him?” Stunning Facet asked guardedly. “I saw you paying a great deal of attention to him.”

“Do you know he’s not yours?” Warden asked bluntly, rounding on him to stare into his eyes fiercely.

“There were… hints,” Stunning Facet responded blithely. “The biggest one being that Green Hoof was very pregnant when I met her.”

Warden deflated slightly at that, sitting down on his rump, his wings drooping. “...He’s mine.”

“That explains quite a few things,” Stunning Facet said carefully, brow furrowing.

“I can’t be his father,” Warden said quietly, his ears splaying back, staring down at his hooves for a long moment. His gaze slowly lifted, to find Stunning Facet’s own. “But you chose to take up the job. And you’re going to take it seriously.”

“I do take it seriously,” Stunning Facet replied, offended.

Warden’s eyes narrowed slowly, and his voice took on a slightly more dangerous note. “I’ll be watching. If you mistreat him… if you don’t do your job as a father then I’m going to swoop in and destroy you. And if I don’t do it, my wife certainly will. Am I understood?”

Stunning Facet was quiet a moment, before he nodded somberly. “Yes. I understand.”

“Good,” Warden said, turning his back on the crystal pony and resting his chin on crossed forehooves, staring out over the grounds.

Stunning Facet moved up beside him, resting his own hooves on the railing. “So tell me… you and Green Hoof…?”

“Over,” Warden said stiffly. “Over and done.”

“If things were different?” Stunning Facet asked bluntly.

“Things were different. It was just her and I on a grape farm out near where your empire reappeared. But then Kuno came back to me,” Warden explained with a shrug of his shoulders. “Green Hoof is… she’s great. But she doesn’t hold a candle to Kuno.”

Stunning Facet nodded slowly at that, looking thoughtful. “It’s not awkward with you two working together? There’s no… tension?”

“She kissed me,” Warden responded, painfully blunt.

Stunning Facet sucked in a breath, wheezing faintly. “I… I honestly don’t know how to respond to that.”

“You can hit me if you’d like?” Warden offered, raising an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t feel it, but it’d make you feel better, perhaps?”

“You said… that she kissed you?” Stunning facet asked uneasily.

“There are lingering feelings there,” Warden said with brutal honesty.

Stunning Facet’s ears splayed back. “And… and what did you do?”

“I explained to her that I belong to another and that pursuing me is ludicrous,” Warden responded calmly.

The crystal pony frowned deeply, pawing at the rail slowly, scuffing it with his hoof. “This is… a bit much to absorb…”

“She’s not cheating on you,” Warden said, exasperated. “I’m the father of her child, of course there’s some lingering emotions there. If my experience with love has taught me anything, it’s that love is like a drug. And coming down off it hurts. You’d do anything for just one more hit.”

Stunning Facet nodded slowly, visibly chewing on his tongue. “So… you didn’t have much of a relationship with your father?”

“Was it that obvious?” Warden asked with a slow, defeated laugh.

“Yes,” Stunning Facet said with a faint smile. “We fully intend to tell Mint Green that he’s not my son when he’s a little bit older. We could… let him know who his real father is?”

Warden frowned deeply at that, staring down at his hooves. “Everything in me wants to say ‘yes’... but… he has a father. Your presence is more of a claim on him than the fact that he has my blood in his veins… if that makes any sense at all.”

“It makes perfect sense,” Stunning Facet assured, looking at Warden sideways. “But if I catch you eyeing my wife I’m going to have to replace random parts of your anatomy with crystal shards, understood?”

Warden nodded, giving a slight smile. “I understand.”

Stunning Facet turned to him, offering his hoof.

Warden blinked once, turning as well and taking the hoof into his own, shaking it. Stunning Facet tugged on the hoof, pulling the two stallions together until their chest’s bumped, and he patted Warden’s shoulder with a hoof. Warden did the same to the crystal pony.

“You’re a decent pony,” Stunning Fact admitted. “You were straight with me when it would be easier to lie. And you’re not running away from the fact that you have a bastard child running around. I respect that.”

“And you’re with a mare that has a pre-started family. That takes balls. I wouldn’t be able to deal with Swarm on a day-to-day basis without the knowledge that she’s my daughter,” Warden admitted with a slightly nervous laugh. “Though don’t tell Kuno that or she’ll flay me.”

Stunning Facet smirked. “I’ll keep that in mind next time I need blackmail material.”

“Daddy, can we go home now? I’m tired,” Mint Green complained, tugging on Stunning Facet’s forehoof.

Warden stared at this for several long moments, before closing his eyes and looking away, biting his tongue.

“We’re going soon,” Stunning Facet assured, reaching down with a hoof to ruffle the colt’s mane. “Just hang on until we get home and you can have some ice cream when we get there.”

“Ice cream?” Mint Green asked, perking up instantly. “I could go for more ice cream!”

“Moooom,” Swarm started,

Kuno giggled softly, shaking her head and motioning towards the kitchen. “You know where it is, hun.”

Swarm beamed, bouncing to her hooves and bolting into the kitchen. There was a thud! as she ran into a cupboard, but bounced off immediately, making a beeline for the freezer.

“We really should be going, though,” Green Hoof admitted, looking out the window. “It’s getting late. I don’t think Mint Green wants to walk to the station in the dark.”

“There are scary things in the dark,” Mint Green admitted, frowning deeply.

“Scarier than me?” Kuno asked, licking her fangs innocently.

Mint Green frowned at her thoughtfully, before nodding. “You’re a nice scary bug, Mrs. Kuno.”

Kuno laughed at that, shaking her head, wings buzzing happily.

“Thank you for dinner, Kuno, Warden,” Stunning Facet said with a short nod to each of them in turn. “I won’t forget what you said, Warden.”

“Neither will I,” Warden promised.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Warden,” Green Hoof said softly. “The aurora is coming along nicely.”

“You’ve been rotating the fruits like I said?” Warden queried.

“Every eighteen hours on the dot,” Green Hoof assured.

Warden cleared his throat nervously, “You can… uh… bring Mint Green too, if you want. I’m sure he’d be fascinated by aurora.”

Green Hoof exchanged a glance with her husband. Stunning Facet nodded slightly.

“Okay, sure, I’ll bring him if he wants to come,” Green Hoof said with a faint smile.

“Aurora? Is it a plant?” Mint Green asked earnestly.

“One of the most difficult plants to grow in the world,” Green Hoof assured with a warm smile.

Mint Green bounced in place. “I wanna see it!”

“Tomorrow,” Green Hoof said, shushing the colt. “Now c’mon, we’ve got a train to catch.”

Mint Green nodded, turning back to Warden and Kuno, waving his little hoof furiously. “Byyye!”

“Bye,” Warden said with a lame wave of his own hoof.

And with that, the three ponies were gone.

Warden slumped over the dinner table, tracing a random pattern into the cloth with his hoof.

“Feel weird?” Kuno asked sympathetically, pushing up against his side affectionately.

Warden nodded, wings drooping. “I… I didn’t really know how I was going to feel. I didn’t know it was going to be… strong. If Stunning Facet tried to discipline him in front of me I might just have strangled him…”

“He is your son, and you are a pony,” Kuno said with a faint smile, rubbing the smooth fronts of her oversized fangs against his neck soothingly. “But you didn’t come to blows, so I’m proud of you. What, though, did you talk about up on the roof?”

“I just told Stunning Facet in no uncertain terms that if he mistreated Mint Green in any way, I would end him,” Warden said bluntly.

Kuno raised a brow, before laughing softly. “I love it when you get all macho. It’s adorable.”

“No, it’s rugged and handsome and sexy,” Warden said with a shake of his head, wrapping a hoof around Kuno and squeezing her very carefully. “What did you and Green Hoof talk about while we were gone?”

“School stuff, mostly,” Kuno admitted, wrinkling her nose. “I had forgotten how boring and utterly inane pony conversations are. There’s so much… fluff!”

“Some ponies just talk on and on and on,” Warden said with a helpless shrug. “Green Hoof has gotten a lot more tempered since she had Mint Green.”

“You ruined her fiery spirit,” Kuno accused, nipping the side of his neck lightly.

Warden smirked, squeezing his wife lovingly. “Well, I tamed you, didn’t I? She was just a mere cowpony!”

“You didn’t tame me,” Kuno said, shaking her head and nudging up against him firmly. “You convinced me that life with you was more fun and more rewarding than the life of a changeling.”

“Either way, I tamed you,” Warden pointed out, stroking over her wings lightly.

Kuno opened her mouth to respond, but the doorbell ringing cut her off.

“I’ll get it,” Warden said, stretching lazily and rising to his hooves. “Green Hoof probably forgot something.”

Warden moved towards the front door, and Kuno sidestepped out of view of the hallway, just in case it was somepony else turning up.

Opening the door, Warden was momentarily blinded by the setting sun casting golden rays right into his eyes from just above the horizon. He blinked once, squinting, before his eyes widened slowly.

At least a hundred changelings were standing at his door in a neat formation. The one closest was staring at him, eye-to-eye, wings extended, ready.

Warden backpedalled, clumsily bolting to the side of the hallway, snatching up a broomstick and moving to stand in the middle of the hallway, to try to halt the progress of the veritable army at his door. “Kuno! Take Swarm and run!” he yelled, his voice wavering.

The lead changeling took a step forwards, and Warden took a step as well, moving closer to the door, hefting the weight of the broomstick in his hooves. His wings fluttered, stiff and quivering anxiously as he tried to prepare himself, eyes darting from one face, to the next.

“What’s—” Kuno started, cutting herself off, eyes widening as she caught sight of the phalanx of changelings at their door.

The lead changeling moved, and Warden winced backwards, expecting an attack.

But instead of an attack, the lead changeling extended its wings, a glimmer of blue against the dark of its chitin, while forelegs bent. The changeling closed its eyes, sweeping its chest and head down, one hoof extended in front of itself, silently bowing.

And one after the other, the rest of the changelings behind the first did the same. Rank after rank of changelings bowed, all silently inclining their heads.

Warden quivered in place, uncertain, almost hyperventilating. “K-Kuno? What’s happening?!”

Kuno just stared, wide-eyed, before she slowly sank down onto her rump with a soft thud, looking dumbstruck. “...Oh no.”

Author's Note

Tiny edit to remove the names from the top of the story. Nothing to see here and I did not need to write down their names so I could remember them.

Queen Kuno

“Kuno?” Warden asked worriedly, taking a step backwards. He winced as he moved, trying to ‘feel’ his way back, even though that was physically impossible in his condition.

“W-Warden… put that down…” Kuno murmured, staring out the doorway, at the ranks of changelings bowing to her. She stepped forwards uncertainly, her wings buzzing anxiously. One of her hooves lifted, and her voice trembled as she tried to sound commanding. “R-rise.”

The soft clicks of chitin rubbing against itself was amplified a hundred times as all of the changelings rose as one.

Warden took another step backwards. “Kuno… what’s happening?”

“Who speaks for the hive?” Kuno asked, her tone levelling off, no longer wavering as strongly.

There was a murmur between the changelings, like wind rustling across grassy plains. After several long moments, the sea of changelings parted, and a single, nondescript changeling stepped forwards.

The changeling paused, bowing deeply. “I speak for us.” The changeling sounded female to Warden

“Do you have a name?” Kuno asked softly.

“I… do not,” the changeling said after a pause. “Should I?”

Kuno frowned deeply, biting her bottom lip. “It is irrelevant. Come, we will talk in the garden. Warden?”

Warden perked his ears upwards. “Yes?”

“You can wait here, if you don’t want to come,” Kuno said quietly.

Warden bit his bottom lip, dancing back and forth a few steps. “I… The last time I went anywhere near this many changelings I ended up under a spell. Will you be… you when you get back?”

“I’ll be me,” Kuno promised, nodding gently, and then raising a hoof towards the garden. “Come, all of you,” she ordered, stalking up the length of the path. The changelings parted for her movement, like a school of fish parting around a predator.

Warden frowned deeply, watching his wife disappear into the sea of changelings.

“It’s fine,” Kuno said, waving off the two royal guards who approached at the sight of the changeling army right there in Canterlot. They paused at Kuno’s dismissal, and exchanged words with eachother.

After a moment, the pegasus guard turned and took to the air, heading in the direction of the castle, whose spires were visible in the distance over the large manor. The unicorn guard was stuck awkwardly watching the crowd of changelings, trying his best to look imposing and failing miserably.

Kuno largely ignored the remaining guard, taking the rest of the changelings to a secluded part of the garden. A magical lantern hung in a tree was the only illumination, casting a soft blue light over the gathered changelings.

Swallowing nervously, Kuno sat down in front of the changelings, waving a hoof for attention. “Speaker?”

“Is that my new name?” the changeling asked earnestly.

“No!” Kuno snapped, eyes narrowing at the changeling, glowering slightly. “I am not your Queen. Not yet. My word is not law.”

“I… very well,” the changeling said, bowing deeply.

“What… what has happened?” Kuno asked helplessly. “Why did you choose me?”

The changeling looked left and then right, frowning slightly. “We… don’t know where to begin.”

“Start with… Chrysalis’ death,” Kuno said quietly.

Warden swallowed thickly, grasping at his old guard spear with clumsy hooves. He no longer had his chest piece, as he had never gotten it back after it was destroyed by Chrysalis. But his helm was sitting askew on his head, fitted wrong for his unkempt mane.

Shuddering faintly, and then setting his jaw, Warden marched out of the doorway. He paused then, confused, not seeing the changelings anywhere. Off to his left, the remaining royal guard that had been guarding the aurora field was watching a line of hedges with the alert kind of tension of a roused guard dog.

Warden turned, marching towards the hedges, managing to trip only once, recovering quickly. Rounding the corner of the hedge, he almost ran right into the back of a wall of changelings.

The closest changeling turned, regarding him with a cold blue gaze.

Warden swallowed thickly, feeling cold sweat trickling down his brow. “I-I want to be next to wife.”

The changeling stared at him, and then shuffled to the side, creating a narrow kind of pathway.

Wincing deeply, Warden squeezed into the gap, starting to walk through the crowd carefully, trying his very best not to touch anything. At one point, he felt the brush of a changeling’s wing against his haunch, and he yelped in a very non-threatening way, bolting towards the front of the crowd. He panted hard, leaning on the spear, moving to stand beside Kuno, half-protectively, and half for protection.

“You should have stayed in the house,” Kuno said quietly.

“I’m not letting you face all this alone,” Warden responded, planting the butt of his spear against the grass firmly. “Whatever… this all is.”

“They want me to be their Queen,” Kuno said quietly, turning to regard the speaker for the changeling again. “Leave us. I wish to talk to my mate.”

The speaker nodded carefully, bowing and then withdrawing. The rest of the changelings seemed to melt into the darkness, disappearing but for the eerie glow of their eyes in the darkness.

“Queen?” Warden asked blankly. “Because you killed Chrysalis?”

“That is usually how succession works in the changeling structure… but that’s not the only reason,” Kuno explained awkwardly. “We don’t have… strict rules like ponies. It’s a… a meritocracy. If you can overthrow the Queen, or convince the majority of changelings that you’re a better candidate, then you become Queen.”

“So tell them you don’t want it,” Warden said stiffly, staring into the shadows, unnerved.

“They need me…” Kuno said quietly. “Chrysalis… she destroyed the hive.”

“Destroyed it?” Warden asked blankly.

“Do you think it’s coincidence that Canterlot was attacked by changelings for the first time ever while Chrysalis was Queen?” Kuno asked earnestly. “Chrysalis changed how changelings operate. For the first time ever, she formed us into an army. She made us a cohesive group instead of a collection of fractured units. But that… it ruined our anonymity.”

“And nobody thought it might be a tiny bit of a bad idea?” Warden asked blankly.

“Chrysalis was Queen…” Kuno said softly, shaking her head. “If she succeeded, we would have never gone without love again.”

“So what was it like before Chrysalis?” Warden queried, taking a step away from the nearest shadowy area of the garden.

Kuno paused, chewing on her bottom lip. “It was… it was rough. But it was tenable. We just… picked a target and tried to survive. At least, back in my homeland, that was how it worked. But when I came here, Chrysalis was already in power and forming the army.”

“And why can’t you just go back that way?” Warden asked, confused.

“Because the ponies are aware of us now. They know what we are and what we can do. And there are far, far too many of us now to be absorbed by the pony population without them noticing,” Kuno explained with a heavy sigh. “I always knew the hive would be… decimated without Chrysalis. But I thought maybe the next Queen would lead them on to something new. I never considered they’d want to choose me…”

“But why you? You have a life here!” Warden hissed, lowering his head slightly, tightening his grip on his spear. “You’re an official citizen of Equestria now!”

“Exactly…” Kuno said softly, frowning and staring down at her hooves. “I’ve cracked the code on how to mingle with ponies.”

Warden blinked once at that, brow furrowing deeply. “That almost sounds like you’re saying you’re using me.”

“You know I love you,” Kuno said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “But the fact remains that I am alone in the changeling world in that I’m part of the pony society without having to be a pony. I have all this love, and I didn’t have to trick anypony to get it!”

“Except me,” Warden reminded, raising an eyebrow.

Kuno deflated slightly at that, frowning. “Yes… yes you’re right. But I could…” she paused, licking her lips. “I could lead them, Warden. I could make a difference. I could take them from the lowest point changelings have ever been in history, and take them to the highest!”

Warden looked his wife up and down for a moment, chewing on his bottom lip. “Do you honestly believe that, Kuno? That you can ‘save’ the entire hive?”

Frowning deeply, Kuno cast her gaze towards the shadows, where the glowing eyes were watching them intently. Her wings buzzed anxiously for a moment, before she nodded. “I know the potential for it is there. I know I can do this. Whether it pans out or not is a completely different thing.”

Warden stared down at the ground, slowly grinding the butt of his spear into it, before looking up at her. “And could some other changeling do it?”

Kuno pondered on that for a long moment, hoof scraping the grass slowly. “The speaker seems to be capable, at least. And she was the interim ‘leader’ of the changelings until they decided to implore me to accept the position.”

“So they don’t just blast you with magic and make you Queen?” Warden asked blankly.

“It doesn’t work like that,” Kuno said flatly.

Warden frowned slightly, digging a divot in the grass with the butt of his spear. “Well… if you… if you’re sure about this… if you know that you can make it better for them… then I won’t stop you.”

“You’re my husband, Warden,” Kuno said softly. “I need you to understand this and accept this entirely or I won’t do it.”

Warden gave a wan smile. “I died a few months ago. So a few changes here and there are nothing I can’t deal with.”

“Are you certain, Warden?” Kuno asked carefully. “This isn’t something that can be second-guessed. I can’t just abandon them in a few days time if you’re not okay with it.”

Warden held his wife’s gaze for a long moment, nodding slowly. “I understand. I’ll be right here beside you no matter what may come.”

Kuno nodded gently, leaning in to kiss his cheek gently, before giving a wily smile. “I’m going to be big enough to push you around, soon.”

“You’re going to be… all…?” Warden asked uncertainly, cringing.

Kuno nodded. “At least temporarily.”

“Uhh… but,” Warden started.

Kuno’s hoof over his mouth quietened him.

“Speaker?” Kuno asked, looking into the darkness.

A changeling stepped forward, bowing. “Yes?”

“You will henceforth refer to me as ‘Queen’,” Kuno decreed, eyes narrowing.

“Yes, Queen Kuno,” the changeling corrected, bowing deeply.

Kuno gave a faint smile at that, looking sideways at her husband. “I want to say something witty and clever, but all I can think to say is ‘I think I just levelled up!’.”

Warden blinked once, confused.

Kuno flashed him another smile, before a brilliant, almost blinding flare of green light consumed her. When the stars finished dancing behind his eyes, he saw Kuno still sitting there beside him.

But she was different now.

Kuno’s form had changed, most notably in height. Once shorter than Warden, she now towered over him by at least a head. She was almost as tall as Princess Luna! Her wings had grown in size and elegance, and her back was now covered by a lengthy blue carapace. A blue mane trailed down her neck, and a trail of it hung over one of her eyes.

Warden shuddered as he looked upwards, expecting to find the terror-inducing wickedly-curved and jagged horn growing from Kuno’s forehead, but rather than Chrysalis’ terrifying spire of spiked agony, Kuno’s was smooth and slender, with strange lines wrought into it. Her eyes were the same blue he remembered, but now they were slit-pupilled and very distinct.

She was definitely a Queen Changeling but compared to Chrysalis, she looked more… wholesome was the only word Warden could think of. Her wings weren’t as ragged, her mane wasn’t filled with holes, and she was far more blue than green.

Warden could only stare.

Kuno raised an eyebrow. “Never played tabletop games?” she asked, looking crestfallen. Her new voice was a little bit deeper, and ‘resonated’ more. But it was still the Kuno he remembered.

Warden shook his head slowly. “I can’t say I ever did.”

Kuno huffed, scuffing a hoof against the ground. “That would have been awesome if you got the reference.”

Warden coughed awkwardly. “Well, maybe I just failed my perception roll?”

Kuno’s eyes narrowed at him, and she opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off as a wedge of royal guards appeared over top of the manor, leading, and protecting, a royal carriage.

The carriage landed roughly on the grass, and Princess Luna stepped off it, eyes narrowing slowly. She looked up and down slowly at the new Changeling Queen, and then at Warden, a look of concern and confusion crossing her features.

The changeling army gathered themselves about Kuno, forming a wall between her and the royal guards.

“Cease and desist!” Kuno growled, raising a hoof imperiously, and making a motion. The changelings parted, drawing back, but standing at the ready.

Kuno stepped forwards carefully, her new wings extending and flexing slowly.

“Princess Luna,” Kuno said simply, by way of greeting.

Princess Luna looked Kuno up and down guardedly, eyes narrowing. “Who are you?”

“I request an audience with Princess Celestia,” Kuno said simply, before giving a thin smile. “Tell her Queen Kuno is now in office."

The Start of Something New

Author's Note

I'm not too happy with this chapter. I suck at writing the whole political aspect and such. So just power through it until we can return to the crazy changeling antics you know and love!

The Start of Something New

Warden felt out of place.

The entire changeling army sat, quiet and obedient, in the throne room of the Canterlot Castle. Kuno stood at their head, in all the glory of her new, more regal form.

The royal guard, with Shining Armor at their head, all armed and armored, were likewise crammed into the room. They bordered the edges, and guarded the door, forming a wall of spear-points to discourage any changeling from trying to leave.

All four princesses sat in their thrones on the raised portion of the throne room. Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Twilight Sparkle.

And Warden felt so out of place. He wanted to stand next to Kuno, but a changeling flanked her on either side. Her ‘praetorians’, the honor guard. They had procured purple armor with gilded gold edges from somewhere, and looked quite intimidating.

And so Warden was sitting to the side, neither a guard, nor a changeling. He felt more like a silent observer.

“You wish… for residency for each and every changeling present?” Celestia asked, slowly, carefully.

Kuno nodded respectfully. “Yes. Residency for each and every changeling under my rule.”

“You understand that this is… troublesome?” Celestia asked uncomfortably. “Your kind has… certain tendencies that are not… conducive to a relationship.”

“I can… offer assurances,” Kuno said awkwardly, frowning slightly. “I am committed, as are my subjects, to making this work.”

“Your kind feeds on love,” Celestia pointed out bluntly. “I allowed you residency as you were clearly enamoured with your husband and he was a ready source of sustenance for you. I could not, however, allow changelings to roam free when their only recourse for sustenance is to take the place of ponies.”

“You don’t know everything about changelings,” Kuno said quietly, her new, larger wings giving a slightly irritated buzz. “My kind can sustain ourselves with acts of kindness, among… other acts.”

“Sexual acts,” Celestia said knowledgeably. Luna looked away, her cheeks darkening.

“Yes,” Kuno responded candidly. “It is an intense form of love.”

“You intend to… what? Open a whorehouse?” Celestia asked, her tone turning disgusted.

Kuno’s eyes narrowed slowly. “Not… in that sense. Were you to allow us residency, I would create a… a kind of kind of guild. The Changeling Consortium. A… kind of one-stop-shop for pony needs.”

“Needs.” Celestia snorted once, wrinkling her nose.

“A changeling has no set special talent. And we can be anypony. There are services we can offer to ponies that they could get from nowhere else,” Kuno explained carefully, her wings giving another faint, irritated buzz. “Lost loved ones. We could give a pony an hour with their dead relatives. And all we ask is a small amount of love in return. A blacksmith, is something that a changeling could be at a moment’s notice. A baker. A seamstress…”

“And where would this ‘consortium’ be?” Celestia asked.

Kuno looked at Warden for the first time during the entire meeting, licking her licks cautiously and then turning back to Celestia. “We are in possession of a large property and manor that I feel would adequately work as both a consortium and an embassy.”

“I am familiar with the territory,” Celestia said carefully, giving Kuno a long, long stare. “You understand that you are asking for you and your subjects to be governed under the law of our land, correct? Pony law.”

Kuno nodded slowly. “Yes.”

“And soon to include a law against unlawful impersonation of any pony, living or dead,” Celestia added blankly.

Kuno blinked once, her ears splaying back. “Malicious unlawful impersonation,” she corrected.

“You are not even part of this country yet and you seek to advise me on laws?” Celestia asked carefully, her tone growing sharp.

Kuno gave a slow smile. “Yet.”

Celestia snorted once at that, tossing her mane slightly, her wings arching once, impatiently. “And before anything else is to happen, I have to ask… how many ponies have you all murdered? How many ponies have met death at your hooves?”

Kuno sucked in a breath, looking back over her shoulder at the changelings behind her. “Any of you that have caused the death of a pony, step forwards.”

There was a rustle of movement, and three changelings stepped forwards, moving to stand in front of their queen, facing Celestia.

Celestia’s eyes narrowed at them.

Kuno took a single step forwards, carefully sitting down at the end of the line of ponies.

Twilight and Cadance exchanged glances and whispers.

“Do they have names?” Celestia asked calmly.

“Ask them yourself,” Kuno said, inclining her head respectfully. “I have not had time to assign them names myself.”

“You are certain that they will be truthful?” Celestia queried suspiciously.

“Lying would not be in the interest of the hive. They would not lie to their queen… or their princess,” Kuno explained, bowing carefully.

The changelings behind, and beside her, all bowed.

“Very well. You. First on the right. Have you a name?” Celestia queried.

“I do not, your majesty,” the changeling said, bowing deeply.

“What ponies did you cause the death of?” Celestia asked simply.

“One, your majesty. A guard. He found me out. I snapped his neck.”

Shining Armor stiffened.

“Take that one to the dungeon,” Celestia said, waving a hoof.

Kuno straightened slightly, giving the changeling a sad look.

The changeling hung their head, nodding sadly as a pair of guards escorted them away.

“You, second in line, a name?”

“No, your majesty.”

“Very well... same question.”

“A young mare. I took the place of a cook for a day while he was… indisposed. I did not know that one of the regulars was allergic to sesame seeds. I mistakenly poisoned her with sesame seeds.”

“Mareslaughter…” Celestia said quietly. “Take that one to the dungeon as well.”

Kuno winced, ears splaying back as the second changeling was taken away.

“You, the third. A name?”

“No, your majesty. Though I am known as ‘Speaker’ to Kuno. It is more a title than a name.”

“Very well, your crime?”

“I killed a thief. An extortionist. A possible murderer.”

“Go on,” Celestia said, making a motion with a hoof.

“I killed them. Are you not sending my to the dungeon?”

Kuno’s eyes narrowed. “Answer the question, subject.”

The changeling stiffened slightly. “Yes, your majesties. I was confronted by a criminal pony who had discovered my true identity and attempted to commission me, under duress of torture, death, or turning me in to the authorities, to steal various valuables from homes using my natural talents as a changeling. I killed him before he could tell anypony.”

“You believed yourself in mortal danger?” Celestia asked carefully.

“Definitely so if I were to be detained by the guard. No love would be a slow, painful death,” the changeling said with a sad shake of their head. “Shall I show myself to the dungeons?”

“There will be no need,” Celestia said bluntly, waving a hoof. “Return to your changelings. What you did was a kind of… self-defense.”

“But not the changeling who defended themselves from your guard?” the changeling challenged.

“You may argue for your brethren in their trial,” Celestia said simple, her eyes narrowing. “Return to your group.”

Kuno straightened up, tall and regal, as the attention of the princesses turned to her.

“Kuno… your crimes?”

“The deaths of five ponies,” Kuno stated simply.

Twilight Sparkle and Luna exchanged worried glances.

“Very well, list them,” Celestia said, making a motion with a hoof. “Be descriptive.”

“My first mortality was an accident. But preventable. An older pony with a heart condition. I was pretending to be a nurse, as it is a good source of love. I prescribed the wrong medication, they succumbed to cardiac arrest.”

“A mistake, then?” Celestia asked carefully.

“Yes, but avoidable,” Kuno admitted, shaking her head sadly. “The second was a… sexual misadventure,” she said, biting her bottom lip awkwardly.

“This should be interesting,” Celestia said dryly.

“I was in with a group of intensely loving individuals. Dominatrixes and their submissives. I was taking the place of a dominatrix. They are largely anonymous and quite… loved. Strangely enough.”

“Strangely enough,” Celestia agreed.

“I mistook one of the cues and the submissive choked to death,” Kuno said blankly. “I regret it. But it was my mistake. I didn’t do my homework.”

Celestia frowned deeply, lips pursing. “Go on.”

“The remaining three are murder,” Kuno stated.

“Don’t keep us waiting.”

“The first of my murders was a high-class pony. I was with him for quite some time, and I became aware that he was part of a slavery trade. Trading in… foals,” Kuno trailed off, her eyes narrowing slowly. “I perforated his sk—

—We don’t need the gory details on what you did down to the minute details,” Celestia said, holding up a hoof. “You… eliminated him because of what he did?”

“He had his… thugs go to orphanages, adopt ponies, and then sell them. For anything. It was disgusting.”

“I… I cannot fault you for what you did,” Celestia admitted.

Twilight gasped softly.

“And the remaining two?” Celestia asked, ignoring Twilight.

“Daggertail and his cronie, Sunshine,” Kuno admitted, frowning deeply.

“The circumstances?” Celestia queried.

“Sunshine had, on orders of Daggertail, broken my husbands wing and hoof, crippling him. He also tried to have me killed by proxy, by turning me in to the guards, where I would have starved to death,” Kuno explained quietly. “I warned Daggertail to leave my husband alone or I would kill him. I gave him my promise. And when he refused… I killed him.”

“I understand,” Celestia said carefully, earning another gasp from Twilight. “But you must understand that what you have done violates the laws of this land.”

“I will do the time in the dungeon, where you held Chrysalis, no less, if you look me in the eyes and say that you believe me guilty of wanton murder,” Kuno challenged, rising to her hooves.

Celestia frowned deeply, her wings giving an irritated flutter. “For your kind to achieve residency in Equestria, they would need to learn the laws of our country. And they would need to obey them. They will need to be named, registered, and have some means of identification. No longer would your kind be allowed to lurk in the shadows. You would be monitored and policed, as regular ponies are. And any violation of our laws would result in severe repercussions. Understood?”

“I understand,” Kuno said, bowing.

“We will need time to converse, and decide your fate. Your kind are confined to your estate until tomorrow afternoon when our decision will be handed down. If any changeling attempts to leave, they will be considered as an enemy combatant and treated as such, understood?”

“I understand,” Kuno repeated respectfully.

“Well that was… weird,” Warden said, laying his chin on the kitchen table.

“My heart is still racing,” Kuno admitted, wide-eyed, rubbing a hoof through her mane anxiously, hoof tapping against the floor.

Warden was vaguely aware of the rustle of movement all around as changelings picked their rooms. He didn’t know the exact number of rooms in the manor, but there were definitely more changelings than rooms.

“So… what happens now?” Warden asked awkwardly, ears splaying back.

“We wait,” Kuno said simply, sitting down and then letting her head drop onto the table with a long, weary sigh. “Either Celestia and the other princesses agree to allow us all residency, or they banish us.”

“And if they banish you all?” Warden asked, his wings giving a tiny flutter.

“Then… we all start a new hive somewhere in the badlands...” Kuno said, trailing off, worried. “I just realised that if this all goes wrong… then I’m going to have to drag you with me, and the rest of the hive… maybe even out of Equestria.”

“Yes, you will,” Warden said tiredly, hanging his head.

“You… don’t even give any thought to possibly staying?” Kuno asked carefully.

Warden arched an eyebrow. “I died for you. Sure as tartarus not letting you get away from me,” he said with a firm shake of his head. “You’re stuck with me.”

Kuno smiled at that, rising up a little bit to her new, larger height. “Even though I’m bigger now?”

“Just all the more to love! Though the… errr… physics of certain activities escape me utterly. I’m going to need a stepladder,” Warden said, looking her up and down carefully.

Kuno snorted once, giving a soft giggle. “That would be an amusing prospect.”

“You… you’re still all the… uhm… same?” Warden asked cautiously, making a motion with a hoof. “No weird… eggbits or sacks or anything crazy like that?”

Kuno blinked once. “No. No! Why would I have… eggbits?”

“Because you’re the queen. Isn’t it like… your job or whatever to lay eggs to hatch an army?” Warden asked, wrinkling his nose deeply.

Kuno squirmed slightly in place. “Sort of. Sometimes. Though I very much doubt that it would ever, ever come to that. And certainly not since I’m married. It’s a very weird process and well… I don’t see that it would be prudent to explain it to you when the very adult details might be overheard by everyone and their uncle.”

“Not to mention all the royal guards flitting about,” Warden said, looking towards the window. The silhouette of a royal guard was visible, standing on the hill outside, just at the edge of the estate. “So this whole… ‘consortium’ thing. Were you being truthful about it?”

“Yes!” Kuno said earnestly. “Most ponies can’t do a thing outside of their cutie marks. Imagine if you had a project that required a dozen different talents. You could give that project to changelings to do!”

“Ponies aren’t that… useless,” Warden said, frowning deeply.

“Warden, you couldn’t cook to save your life,” Kuno pointed out bluntly. “You can grow the most amazing, stupefyingly tasty vegetables, but your idea of ‘cooking’ is to place them all in a pot and boil them until they are a uniform colour and consistency.”

Warden winced slightly. “Well… I could learn?”

“But you wouldn’t have to, if you had a changeling there for that. The consortium could be a one-stop shop for anything!” Kuno bounced in place excitedly.

“And what about the other thing? You said before? About… erm…” Warden trailed off awkwardly, making a motion with a hoof. “The whole… loneliness thing. Seeing dead relatives. And such?”

“What about it?” Kuno asked, head tilting to the left.

Warden gave an exasperated sigh. “Sex, Kuno. If you give the average pony an avenue for repercussion-less time with whomever they want, they’ll want sex.”

“And?” Kuno asked blankly.

“And!” Warden said, snorting once. “I don’t want this place to have a reputation for being a… a whorehouse.”

“Warden, imagine that I died,” Kuno said carefully.

“Okay, so I’ve committed suicide,” Warden said blankly.

Kuno glowered at him. “Be serious.”

“Okay, fine, you’re dead. What now?”

“You come here, to the consortium, to spend some time with ‘me’,” Kuno said, making a motion with a hoof.

“Yes? And? I don’t see how this is relevant,” Warden admitted, shaking his head.

Kuno gave a long-suffering sigh. “If it were me, Warden. If you were convinced I was back from the dead, even for a few hours… wouldn’t you want to hold me? Touch me? Enjoy the time with me one last time?”

Warden frowned deeply at that, chewing on his bottom lip. “I still don’t think that I would… You know… Sex wouldn’t be on my mind.”

“But we can’t disallow that option, Warden. That’s placing arbitrary limits on what can and can not be done in the privacy of the rooms. My changelings aren’t stupid. I doubt that you’d convince any of them to just… have sex with you as another pony for your enjoyment. That’s creepy and weird and a little off-putting. But if two ponies were to be in that state of mind, where sex might be something that could help them feel better, or better remember their lost wife or husband, or even, yes, in the rare occurrence, grant a fantasy, then that would be fine with me.”

Warden frowned deeply, rubbing his forehead with a hoof.

“Again, imagine… me. If you couldn’t have me whenever you wanted,” Kuno said with a toothy grin.

Warden frowned deeply. “Okay, fine. I’ll… I’ll permit it,” he said, chewing on his bottom lip. “But... I don’t like it. And it will be done discreetly. Swarm will never know it’s happening. Period.”

Kuno nodded. “I will make sure they use the utmost discretion.”

“I don’t believe I just gave you permission to turn my manor into a whorehouse,” Warden said, mortified.

“It’s not a whorehouse,” Kuno said with a long sigh. “It’s a consortium. It just happen to be what changelings are best at.”

Warden raised an eyebrow, giving a wry smile. “I… kinda have to concur.”

“I don’t know if you’re teasing me or trying to get into my pants,” Kuno said, scratching her chin thoughtfully.

“Maybe a little of both?” Warden offered with a slight smile. “Not like I could act on any baser urges, anyway. Still too drugged to even feel anything.”

Kuno gave a long sigh, resting her chin on the table again. “My new crazy-powerful form and I can’t even take advantage of you in it.”

“We all have to make sacrifices,” Warden said with a wry smile. “So… all these changelings… they live here now?”

“Until tomorrow, at least. Permanently if Celestia gives us residency,” Kuno explained.

“Going to need to soundproof rooms… and set boundaries on where they can, and cannot go. And where they can conduct their… ‘business’,” Warden said, rubbing hooves through his mane anxiously. “Can they… can they learn to grow?”

“I don’t see why not?” Kuno said, chewing on her bottom lip thoughtfully. “What have you got in mind?”

“Well, if they can take over the aurora growing… we could expand the fields,” Warden said with a motion of a hoof. “We take a percentage for running the operation, and the rest of the funds go to the consortium for basic upkeep and whatnot.”

“That’s… that’s not a bad idea, really. But there is so much to work out first…” Kuno trailed off with a long sigh. “Diplomatic things. Political things. They all have to have names… I need to get a new collar,” she rubbed at her neck with a hoof. “I broke my old one when I changed.”

Warden winced, and then nodded. “I’ll get you a new one tomorrow, from the store. And… why are you so… different?”

“Different?” Kuno asked curiously.

“Different,” Warden affirmed. “You have… individuality. I never noticed how stark the difference was until you were next to other changelings. They’re like… drones.”

Kuno nodded quietly. “Back in my original hive, my queen encouraged individuality. She encouraged us to become… ourselves. Chrysalis was completely different. She viewed the individuality as a hindrance. She… basically used her magic, as queen, to turn all the changelings into drones. She suppressed their emotions, and their individuality. She let me retain my sense of self because… she found me quirky,” Kuno gave a toothy smile at that. “Plus, I am somewhat of a wicked tactician.”

“I’ve noticed,” Warden said dryly. “So… can they be ‘fixed’?”

“They can be encouraged to develop their own personalities, now that Chrysalis is gone. But for now… I’d prefer they remain… reliant on the hivemind for their emotional state until we know what’s happening.”

“That’s… prudent, but still a little bit… strange,” Warden said uncomfortably. “Feels like entrapment or something.”

“I’m not doing it to them, I’m just not fixing it until we’re settled in and I can do it in a useful sense. And if they don’t have individuality, then I can assure Celestia that they won’t go off on their own and impersonate ponies,” Kuno explained.

“And… the ones that got thrown in the dungeon?” Warden asked quietly. “What about them?”

“I’ll visit them, give them some love so they won’t starve… but they did illegal things... If we’re committed to being under the rule of Celestia, and the rest of the princesses, then all we can do is submit appeals,” Kuno said sadly. “There’s nothing else we can do.”

“I thought, for a minute there…” Warden trailed off, biting his bottom lip.

“That I was going to go to jail?” Kuno asked with a faint smile.

Warden nodded quietly.

“Not a chance in tartarus. Celestia already knew about Daggertail and Sunshine, and the other three are across the ocean. Plus, I am the queen of the changelings. Throwing me in the dungeon without evidence of me wilfully hurting ponies would destroy any chance of our two species interacting. And Celestia might seem to be harsh… but she doesn’t want to exile us,” Kuno said with a firm shake of her head. “She’ll go through with this. It’ll be rocky, but we’ll make it work.”

“You’re so certain?” Warden asked carefully.

Kuno nodded firmly. “I’m certain of it. Celestia knows that exiling us would be death. And when she has a chance to turn what was a sworn enemy of Equestria into allies? She’d going to jump at the chance.”

“I hope you’re right…” Warden said, frowning deeply, scratching at the table with a hoof. “We spent a long time building a life here… I don’t want it to all just fly out the window.”

“But you’d still be with me, right?” Kuno asked earnestly.

Warden nodded firmly. “No matter what happens.”

“Then everything is going to be fine,” Kuno said, leaning across the table to kiss his nose gently.

First Flight Night

“Would you stop that?”

Kuno grimaced, pausing in her pacing, her wings giving an anxious buzz. “Why hasn’t the messenger arrived yet? What’s taking so long? Are they doing this deliberately?”

Warden gave a long, long sigh, resting his chin on the table again. “I don’t know. But pacing a furrow into the floor isn’t going to help.”

Kuno growled, stamping a hoof against the ground and then resuming her pacing.

“You were so confident yesterday,” Warden said with a resigned sigh.

“That was yesterday!” Kuno hissed, stamping her hoof again. “And now they’re late!”

There was a curt knock at the door, and Kuno started, dancing anxiously in place.

Warden sighed, sliding his chin off the table and moving towards the door, tugging it open. A royal guard stood at the door, holding a spear.

“The princesses require your presence,” the guard said, bowing his head respectfully.

Kuno danced in place a little more intently. “O-okay!” she turned to Warden, ears pinning back. “Are you coming with me?”

“Of course,” Warden said with a faint smile and a shake of his head.

“Should we bring Swarm this time?” Kuno asked awkwardly. “We kind of just… let her in her room last time.”

“She didn’t even know we were gone,” Warden said with a slight shrug. “There are guards outside at the aurora if she misses us.”

Kuno frowned, biting her bottom lip. “Okay... Well…”

“There’s no point putting it off, they chose what they chose, and having a panic attack about it won’t change that. Let’s just go find out,” Warden stated.

Kuno gave a long sigh. “Yes, yes.” She lifted her head, making a whistling noise. Her praetorian guards appeared beside her almost instantly, with a pair of vine-scythes strapped to their chests. Gardening weapons turned into wicked tools of warfare.

“Maybe they should uhh... leave those at home?” Warden asked carefully.

“The scythes? They’ll be fine. My guards can’t guard me very well if they’re unarmed,” Kuno explained bluntly.

“You’re not going to get attacked in Canterlot, Kuno, and preparing as though you’re going to be seems… confrontational,” Warden countered, frowning deeply. “Is it really wise to antagonize the princesses when it might be literally the very first few moments of being officially residents of Equestria?”

Kuno grimaced, but nodded. “I… I guess you’re right. Guards?”

The two guards stepped forwards, removing their scythes and laying them on the table.

“Hey, if you all get residency, you can get actual spears!” Warden said with a smile.

Kuno wrinkled her nose. “The royal guard have spears. The batponies have claws. I’d rather we not compete with another species for weaponry.”

“Swords?” Warden suggested, giving a slow stretch in preparation of the flight to the palace.

Kuno pondered a moment. “We can discuss that later. After Celestia tells us we’re allowed to stay.”

“Atta girl,” Warden said with a smile.

Swarm peeked out through the slit in the curtains, watching her parents walk down the path. With a smirk and an anxious quiver of her wings, she turned back to Wrought Iron. “So… they’re gone. Wanna make out?”

Wrought Iron gave a slightly nervous smile at that, ears pinning back. “I-isn’t that what we were doing before, anyway?”

Swarm gave a wide smile, her eyes flashing green for an instant. “Good boy.”

For the second time in as many days, Kuno sat in front of the Princesses of Equestria.

This time, Kuno had not brought along her entire army, and instead sat, with only her two praetorian guards, and Warden close at hoof.

“We have conversed,” Celestia said simply, inclining her head.

Kuno swallowed loud enough for Warden to hear. “I hope you see reason and allow us to stay.”

“We have misgivings,” Twilight Sparkle said, speaking to Kuno directly for the first time. “While we know that you are… on the whole, impartially ‘good’, we cannot say the same for all changelings.”

Kuno’s eyes narrowed.

Luna spoke next.

“I know, better than any, the wicked ways of temptation and jealousy. How darkness can take root in the hearts of us all. And there is already much darkness in your own heart. How can we trust you to lead a group of creatures who were, and could still be, our sworn enemies?”

“I can see the good in ponies,” Cadance said carefully, obviously thinking on her words before speaking. “I am not willing to judge an entire species on the actions of a few. I am not comfortable judging you and your kind without first knowing all of you.”

Celestia inclined her head, eyes closing. After a few moments, her eyes opened, and the one not hidden behind her mane stared deep into Kuno’s soul. “I, too, am not willing to judge your species without knowing them. But… I have my misgivings. I am troubled by your species’ proclivity towards violence.”

Kuno frowned further, fidgeting slightly.

“Do you have anything to say in response?” Celestia asked simply.

Kuno took a deep breath, shooting Warden a look, before rising to her hooves, starting to pace back and forth slowly. “You all said that you’re worried about my species’ tendencies for violence and darkness. But you are all the enablers!” Kuno pointed an accusing hoof at the four princesses.

All four princesses gave various looks of affront.

“You heard me!” Kuno challenged, stamping her hoof and resuming her pacing, wings buzzing nervously. “If you banish us to the badlands again, then you have guaranteed us as an enemy. You have guaranteed that we will need to turn to dark acts to sustain ourselves. I put forth a way for us to live in harmony. Not perfectly. Both of our species will need to make concessions, but we could make it work. For the first time ever, our species could work together instead of skirting around each other as enemies. But if you banish us, you force us to become your enemy.”

Celestia inclined her head. “We came to the same conclusion.”

Kuno sat down heavily on her rump, blinking once. “You did?”

“We did,” Celestia said simply. “But there is always the problem of rogue changelings. We cannot have your kind impersonating our kind. We have to keep that within boundaries.”

“We will do anything you need us to, within reason,” Kuno said, lifting her head proudly.

Celestia looked Kuno up and down. “I remember… you used to wear a collar.”

“I broke it… when I transformed,” Kuno said awkwardly, making a motion at her throat.

“If you could find the collar again, we could enchant the bell with a location spell,” Celestia said carefully.

“You intend for all of us to wear an enchanted collar?” Kuno asked, cringing.

Celestia nodded. “Yes. So that we could locate you all at any time.”

“That won’t work,” Kuno said, frowning deeply. “A changeling could just remove their collar.”

“I am fully aware of this flaw,” Celestia explained, her expression blank.

“And… collars? I, personally, love my collar. It’s part of who I am… but some of my subjects might find it… demeaning,” Kuno explained awkwardly.

“It can be any small object. Metallic. Anything that can be held on a pony,” Celestia conceded.

“That’s… better,” Kuno said, nodding to herself. “Does this mean that… that we’re allowed to stay?”

Luno straightened up slightly. “We have decided unanimously that it would be folly to throw away a resource such as the changelings and risk returning them to being our enemies.”

“We will hold talks in the coming days,” Celestia decreed. “And we will jointly create a set of rules for all changelings to follow. I will guess that there are many things you have to take care of at your embassy.”

“A-at my embassy,” Kuno said weakly, her eyes widening slightly, wings giving an anxious buzz.

“At your embassy,” Celestia said with a slow smile spreading across her muzzle. “Welcome to interspecies politics, Kuno.”

“This is… this is the embassy,” Kuno breathed, staring up at the front of the mansion.

Warden nodded slowly. “The Changeling Consortium, actually.”

“I… I don’t believe this is going to work,” Kuno murmured, eyes wide.

“C’mon now, you’ll make it work,” Warden said with a faint smile. “Death came for me and you scared it away. This is a lay-up!”

Kuno gave a long, low sigh. “No, no it’s really not. I have to lead all the changelings now. I have to help them all discover their sense of self… and help come up with laws to govern them!”

“Take it all one step at a time,” Warden said simply, waving a hoof. “First, come up with a main law. Like ‘don’t kill’. Or ‘try not to rape’. Or ‘drugs are bad’. You know, the classics.”

“Like… an oath?” Kuno asked blankly.

Warden pondered on that for a moment, before nodding once. “Yeah, an oath. The Changeling Oath. But make it a good one. Make it like… a motto!”

“A motto,” Kuno repeated, arching an eyebrow. “Are you treating my species like a sports’ team, Warden?”

Warden gave his wife the most innocent look he could. “Who, me?”

Kuno rolled her eyes. “I don’t mind the idea of an oath, though… Like... “ her eyes lit up, and she gave a toothy grin. “I’ll steal a little from an oath I already know!”

“I hope it has to do with peace being the best option and violence being a last resort,” Warden said carefully. “You’re creating a system of laws, Kuno. You can’t screw this up.”

“But it’s a good part of an oath! And it’s old! Old old old!” Kuno said with a faint huff, scratching at the ground with her hooves. “You’ll approve.”

Warden gave a long sigh. “Fine, fine, run it by me first.”

Kuno stood in front of the entire changeling army, gathered in the garden. It was sundown, and the last rays of sunlight were fading, while fireflies started to flit and buzz around the hedges.

Warden shifted his weight awkwardly from hoof to hoof, looking from one changeling, to the other, observing them. They were eerily quiet except for the occasional scuff of a chitinous hoof against the grass or the buzz of translucent wings.

“My subjects!” Kuno said, raising a hoof. “I have wonderful news!”

The changelings watched her intently, unwaveringly.

“The princesses have granted us citizenship to Equestria! You are all, as of this moment, citizens of Equestria!”

A ringing silence answered her decree.

Kuno deflated, giving a long sigh. “You don’t understand, do you?”

More silence greeted her

Kuno frowned deeply, her wings giving an irritated buzz. “Speaker, step forwards.”

One changeling parted from the group, sitting in front of Kuno. “Yes, my Queen?”

“What does being a citizen of Equestria mean to you?” Kuno asked simply.

“It means that I am a citizen of Equestria. I am a… pony of sorts?” the speaker offered uncertainly. “What should it mean to me?”

A low growl bubbled up out of Kuno’s throat. “It means that we don’t need to sulk in the shadows any more! We’re all citizens! You’re free to earn a living!”

“Excuse me, my Queen, but wouldn’t Chrysalis’ way have been better?” the changeling asked innocently enough.

Kuno’s eyes narrowed slowly. “No. Because it conflicts with the new laws that I will be handing down!”

The changelings all stared at her intently.

“My subjects, my last act as Queen, will be to pass down your new law. I will no longer be your Queen as of tomorrow, am I understood?”

An agitated buzzing of wings answered her.

“I will be your advisor, your leader, your spokespony, but I will not be your Queen. My word will not be law, but merely suggestion. I will lead you, but you can disagree. We are no longer a hive, or an army. We are a group of changelings united in what we share in common. But for us to be united, each and every changeling must have a voice, and their own opinion. Do you all understand?”

The speaker looked back at the changelings, and then back to Kuno, hooves scuffing the grass nervously. “We… understand, my Queen.”

“You may call me ‘Kuno’, it is my name. And you will all have names by the end of this day,” Kuno said with a sweeping motion of a hoof. “Tonight is your birth, this is our night! This is our…”

“Independence Day is taken,” Warden warned quietly.

“This is the night where we first spread our wings as members of Equestria! This is our First Flight Night!” Kuno said, stamping her hoof victoriously.

Warden winced. “That’s… a mouthful.”

Kuno stepped on Warden’s hoof rather powerfully, making the pegasus wince in pain. He got the message.

The speaker bowed her head in understanding. “We understand, Kuno.”

“And as my last act as Queen, I will pass down the first line of our oath. It may be… familiar to some of you,” Kuno said, looking from face to face. “But it is the most fitting that I could think of. It is our law, our rule. It is something that I request you all internalize. We will add to the oath in future, with your input! But this first law is paramount.”

Kuno looked back at Warden, giving him an awkward glance. “You sure about this?” she murmured.

“It works,” Warden said with a helpless shrug.

Kuno took a deep breath, licking her lips. “The most important of all vows you will ever follow, especially if we are to be members of the Equestrian society, is… well.”

Kuno trailed off, chewing on her bottom lip anxiously.

“First: Do no harm.”