Chapters Prologue: How He Got There
(Some years ago)appropriate . Maybe some wind and thunder on the side as well. That was how this sort of thing was supposed to go, wasn't it? 'It was a dark and stormy night'. But no, instead of violent gusts of wind, it was actually incredibly calm and pleasant, if just slightly warmer than it could've been. Above, some clouds floated freely through the dark purple sky, minding their own business.
None of this was improving what was already an incredibly foul mood, as she carefully made her way through the dark forest. For the hundredth time she wondered if perhaps it wouldn't have been quicker to just go through the town. No, it would have been quicker, and easier to make her way, but if somepony saw her and what she was carrying, or worse, if it woke up, her plans... well, it wasn't actually a plan yet. Plans had a bit more substance to them. This was more of a seed, the beginning of a plan, with all the potential to go disastrously wrong. Anyway, whatever it was she was up to, if she did get discovered so late in the day, everything she'd been up to would have been sunk.
Actually, now that'd she given it some thought, wind and rain wouldn't have been helpful at the moment, but she couldn't help but find something about the banal pleasantry she was mired in was ticking her off. Not that she was the picture of cheerful sunniness on her best days.
Any further internal monologues were cut off by a sudden cracking noise. Reflexively, she crouched low, trying to remain as hidden as possible. Then she heard the sudden mumbling from the bundle tied to her stomach. She gritted her teeth, and looked up, hoping she could see whatever had made that noise so she could spread her bad mood around a bit. Her eyes met with a small red and white creature of distinctly canine build, a fox if she had to guess, staring straight at her with mild curiosity. A fox. She'd panicked over a fox. And what was worse, her passenger had woken up ahead of schedule. The fox just slunk away, and she could only stare in outrage at it, before swearing violently under her breath. It had just been one thing after another these last few months. Although technically she had only herself to blame for her current course of action, ignoring her own better judgement in favour of petty gratification. And yes, at the time it had very rewarding, it did mean she was now traipsing through a forest in the middle of the night, miles from friendly territory, carrying a new-born, her new-born no less. And just because she hadn't been stupid enough to do this, she hadn't bothered informing her subjects about any of this. She had been meaning to think up a plausible lie for when she returned, but so far she hadn't even thought up anything, and all she could think about was the damned weather (or the lack thereof).
Still, she told herself, it wasn't that far to her destination now.
Slowly, she steeled herself and stood up again, ignoring the small noises from the little bundle. Her pace quickened now. After an interminable amount of time, of mud, and sticks, and bushes, and well-disguised stones, she reached a small clearing, indeed, an incredibly convenient one. It was just perfect. A wide open space, with some suddenly moonlight to make things even easier. She looked at a small gap in the bushes on one side of the clearing, and saw the faint outlines of a dirt path, which soon vanished into the darkness, though she could have sworn she could see some distant lights. That meant a house. That was good. She was in the right area, then, which meant it was time.
After a few deep breaths, she focused her magic. Her horn glowed bright green, lighting up the whole clearing, and then the small bundle came loose, wrapped in her aura. She set it down as gently as possible, which unfortunately meant looking at it. Or, more accurately, him. As she did, she felt a small pang of something in her stomach, although that could just have been hunger, she hadn't eaten a proper meal in hours.
And of course it just had to have his eyes, so bright and blue and beautiful, just to make this slightly more difficult for her.
Perhaps it wasn't too late, she thought. Perhaps... perhaps...
She wrenched her hoof away, eliciting a small coo from the tiny form in front of her. This idea could work. It would work. All it needed was time.still staring, turned away from him. Her horn glowed bright green, and she vanished from sight.
*****
A short distance away, on the absolute edge of the forest, which the locals knew (and feared) as the Everfree, there sat a cottage. And while this cottage looked small and unimportant, it was home to one of the most important ponies in all of Equestria, along with a not-inconsiderable amount of animals.
Inside, the cottage's owner, a bright yellow pegasus, was sleeping gently, enjoying a pleasant dream that revolved entirely around sitting at a table and having a meal without anypony talking to her, or crashing into the table, or jumping over the table, or performing random acts of magic on the table that caused it to come alive and instantly develop a thirst for pony-blood. It was entirely possible that in this dream there was an incredibly enjoyable cup of hot chocolate involved as well. And then, just as she was really beginning to relax, she was woken.
Years of experience meant that Fluttershy could in fact go from being fully asleep to being fully awake in an instant, though it did take the rest of her a minute to catch up. She saw the angry face of a white rabbit glowering right in front of her. She knew what that expression meant, sure enough. It meant that somewhere, there was a Problem, and since she was the pony of the house it was now her problem. She opened her mouth, and was about to ask what it was, when she realised she was hearing something beyond the angry thumping of Angel's foot against her bed, which certainly explained why the rabbit was currently wearing a set of ear-muffs.
Fluttershy frowned, and slipped out of her bed, pausing briefly to remove the bed-robe she was wearing. Her wings unfurled slightly as she set out of the room, while Angel calmly made his way back toward his bed, feeling mildly satisfied that the problem was about to be solved.
Fluttershy gently closed her front door behind her, and then listened, hoping to get an idea of where the noise was coming from. It was then she realised in horror what the noise was. It was a foal crying. And from the sound of it, it was coming from inside the Everfree Forest.
Instantly, she rushed into the forest, all her normal rules about saying completely clear of the forest forgotten.
She found the noise coming from a small bundle sitting in the middle of a very familiar clearing not too far inside the forest. Suddenly all suspicion about why it was there, or thoughts of retribution evaporated as she moved cautiously toward the bundle.
The reason she stopped was because she was now right next to the bundle, and could see the tiny face which was now staring at her, two amazingly bright blue eyes staring at her curiously. That wasn't the problem. The problem happened to be the charcoal grey skin, and the tiny, twisted stub of horn jutting out from the foal's forehead. It was a changeling.
Taken by surprise, she let out a brief squeak of terror, and leapt backward. Then, nothing happened. She relaxed slightly. Nothing continued to happen. Nothing leapt out of the bushes to eat her, or cocoon her, or drag her off to some subterranean cave and cocoon her and then eat her, so she approached closer to the bundle, even as part of her screamed at her to run. It was a changeling after all.
That was that, she decided. Being terrified could wait for later. Slowly, she took care to lift the bundle, at which point the reason, or at least one reason, that the foal had been crying was now abundantly clear. The stench was truly overpowering, even to somepony who had spent years cleaning up after animals.
Once the foal was safely lifted up, she turned and carried it as fast as she could out of the Everfree, back to her cottage. She quickly set down the foal, and then turned and locked the door, just in case something decided to follow her from the forest. She turned around to see Angel sitting on the sofa near the changeling, his gaze shifting from the foal to Fluttershy and back, and not changing at all from the look of disapproval.
She found herself unable to say much else, especially since now the smell from the infant was taking advantage of the opportunity to spread.
She began quickly looking about for anything that would help her in her endeavour, though it quickly occurred to her that she had no idea how to look after a changeling, even for one night, and she wasn't entirely certain if she could look after it for more than that. She shook her head, and made a note to send Angel to fetch her friends. She looked at the nearest clock, and decided to contact them in the morning, since she doubted her friends would really want to be woken up for a changeling foal at the late hour of half past midnight.
"You probably need a name" she mused, "But what?"
She rubbed a hoof against her chin as she wracked her brains for a good name for a changeling foal.
"You know what, never mind" Fluttershy sighed, "A name isn't that important right now. And I can come up with something better in the morning."
As it turned out, she wouldn't come up with a better name.
Author's Note
Sorry, but this story really is not about Fluttershy raising a Changeling. I'm not nearly good enough a writer to do that.
The years passed. Fluttershy raised the Changeling as her own, and by some utterly bizarre quirk of probability, he grew up to be completely and utterly normal. In Ponyville. He never displayed any unusual tendencies, never came up with ludicrously complicated means of solving simple problems, and never had any desire to go on adventures (Especially not after a bad camping trip gone hideously wrong).
In fact, he seemed perfectly content to grow up (and he did certainly grow, and became very tall, and by more than one account, particularly easy on the eyes) to be nothing more than a quiet, unassuming pony, which caused poor Fluttershy no small amount of concern.
And in all likelihood, had he been anypony else, that would have been that. He would have simply grown up, gone to university, graduated, married, moved to a big city and gotten a desk job for a prestigious accounting firm, or something similar. Though not necessarily in that order.
But he was a changeling, and not just any changeling, but changeling royalty. So naturally, because there were rules for this sort of thing, he had to meet her . Shining Sapphire. lesser Princess of the Crystal Empire, daughter of Princess Cadance and Shining Armor, noted bookworm, caffeine addict, and minor shut-in.
In total defiance of narrative convention, they did not fall in love at first sight, as one would've expected, though perhaps that was because they were both young at the time. Indeed, it was years before anything actually occurred between the two, in the form of a very long period of correspondence. And even then, it took their attending a suspiciously convenient dance before either pony actually realised they had Those Kinds of feelings for one another.
Of course, even once they realised this, there were a few problems remaining. The first was that Shining Sapphire's cousin (who was, incidentally, the pony who'd introduced them to each other) had begun to harbour a not-exactly-unnoticeable crush upon Whisper Wind, or as she tended to call him, 'Wisp'. The second was the phenomenal distance between Ponyville and the Crystal Empire, which made casual weekend visits incredibly difficult, especially with the high prices of train tickets. The third was the more serious one: Wisp's fear that the changelings would soon come for him, and force him into a life he wanted no part of.
Discussion was had, and while the first problem had no easy solution, the solution for the other two came quickly: Shining Sapphire suggested Wisp move to the Crystal Empire, which could defend against the changelings. Wisp briefly raised concerns about being near Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, both of whom would have had valid reasons not to trust a changeling.
At which point the changelings abducted Whisper Wind in order to force him into a life he wanted no part of.
But it all worked out in the end. Except, of course, for the changelings, who saw fit to abandon their queen when the invasion failed, and Shining Sapphire's cousin.
Once everything settled, Wisp realised it was probably an idea to contact Fluttershy and let her know that he was in fact still alive, given that the last she'd seen of him was when several changelings had burst into her house looking for him, and dragged him off into the night. At the mention of going to Ponyville, Shining Sapphire instantly 'volunteered' to go with him.
So, a few days after the impromptu family reunion, the two young lovers set off to Ponyville. However, the trip southward proved amazingly unromantic because of the continued presence of Shining Sapphire's cousin, who seemed to have shaken her interest in Wisp by that point, and that of five changelings, who had rescued Wisp from nearly almost certain death, and deemed themselves his bodyguards, regardless of what Wisp's opinion on this was.
Shining Sapphire, meanwhile, had started becoming slowly concerned about the potential reaction of Fluttershy to the events her son had been through.
For the next few days, Shining Sapphire began looking about Ponyville, not having much experience with the town and wanting to explore it, despite her coltfriend pointing out (repeatedly) that despite the best efforts of some of the more enthusiastic locals, Ponyville was not renowned for being very large or very scenic, unless of course one liked apple orchards and slightly ominous forests, before eventually packing up what little things Wisp actually had.
Their departure from Ponyville went surprisingly smoothly, with only two derailments: first was Fluttershy suddenly breaking out in tears, and after that, having to avoid member of the infamous Pie clan, who had somehow learnt that Wisp was about leave, and were determined to throw him what they had dubbed a 'see-you-later' party.
After their entirely uneventful return to the Crystal Empire, the two ponies found the days, and then the weeks just seeming to fly by, completely free of any unusual events, or distractions or disasters. Not even an interfering parent. But then, very quickly, a tiny flaw presented itself.
For whatever reason, Whisper Wind declined to share a bedroom with Shining Sapphire. He did not explain why, he just didn't. At first, Shining Sapphire was willing to accept this, but then, after a few days began to feel increasingly worried about this decision. She made it her mission to coax an explanation out of him. After a few days, he finally admitted why he'd been acting that way, that he'd felt uncertain about sharing a room with her. She had quickly and calmly pointed out there wasn't any reason to be concerned. Her parents had no opposition to their being together, and he knew that. After several moments, he finally agreed to share a room with her, to which she had teasingly replied he had to at least see where he was sleeping first.
His reaction to the room, which was several times larger than the small room he'd had in Fluttershy's cottage, was simply thus:
And so that night, almost exactly one month after the failed Changeling invasion, the two ponies found themselves finally sharing the same room. Their romance had overcome all other obstacles, and now they were free to do whatever they wished.
*****
There was a harsh buzzing noise, which seemed to fill the air and scrape at the nerves. Reluctantly, Shining Sapphire found herself being woken from the pleasant dream she'd been having. Her irritation was forgotten when she saw the sight directly in front of her, that of a golden-brown pony lying next to her, quietly breathing in and out. She did feel a momentary glimmer of annoyance, since his eyes were closed, and those were truly among his best features (not that she kept a list of her boyfriend's best features of course), but this was quickly replaced by joy and satisfaction that the events of last night hadn't actually been a cruel dream. Then she remembered the buzzing noise, which was in fact her alarm clock.
With great effort, the young princess slowly turned over, ignoring the odd wince or aching muscle, so that she was now facing in the general direction of her bed-side table. She raised a hoof, then brought it down upon the table. She missed the alarm-clock by some distance. She tried again, and after a few more tries eventually managed to get the alarm clock, as the buzzing stopped with a resounding click.
Her valiant quest fulfilled, the triumphant princess turned back over again to admire her strangely still slumbering beau, which was proving slightly difficult due to the low lighting in the room. She briefly considered just opening the curtains, but then decided not to. Her eyes would likely adjust in a moment.
Then, a though slithered into her mind, one managing to do the work of several cups of coffee. She remembered why the alarm clock had been going. For whatever reason, the staff who worked at the Crystal Palace operated on a strictly maintained schedule, and foremost on this schedule was making sure that she was up in the morning, and prepared to face the day. And while she was usually an early riser (especially compared to a certain other pony she knew), being dragged out of one's bed to have their mane practically assaulted took a lot of the fun out of getting up, especially when one had a mane like hers, which happened to have inherited much of its qualities from her father's, in that it was mostly bright blue (sapphire blue, in fact, hence how she had her name) and that it was amazingly difficult to brush. And the staff refused to let her wander the castle looking, in their words, 'like she'd been dragged through a bush'. Not that Shining Sapphire had a tendency to rush through bushes anyway, she spent most of her time in any one of the castle libraries. She had even tried, when she was younger, complaining about this barbaric assault on her mane to her mother, which in hindsight was a mistake, for her mother had just smiled, and talked politely, and made rational arguments explaining why she needed to nearly have her scalp torn clean off in the morning. Shining Sapphire had long held that her using her best 'mom voice' had been cheating of the worst kind.
It was also beginning to occur to her that she should perhaps have warned Wisp about this, since she doubted those Changeling bodyguards of his had let anypony into the guest room he'd been staying in, and she'd been so driven to get him simply to agree to stay in her room, she hadn't had time to discuss anything else. Slowly, she tried to nudge him gently with a hoof to wake him up. For some reason her leg felt oddly stiff. Then there was a sudden knocking at the door.
Shining Sapphire sighed. Too late to escape, she thought. Her horn glowed, and with a slight click the lights turned on. She nudged Wisp, eliciting a small mumble from him as he stirred. Then she turned toward the door.
"What happened to your crown?" Shining Sapphire shuffled nervously, trying to think of the best way to say she didn't know, before the mare continued, only she was facing Wisp as she did, "You haven't 'misplaced' it again, have you?"
"Oh. There it is" she announced, lifting the familiar looking object up and placing it on Wisp's head. Shining Sapphire frowned, wondering what it had been doing on Wisp's side of the bed at all. She was also feeling more than a little bit alarmed as to a number of things, not least the reason as to why her mouth felt so strange all of a sudden, and why she felt so sore all over. Then something occurred to her. She slowly looked down at her hooves. Her jaw suddenly felt incredibly slack. Slowly, she lifted a trembling hoof up to stare at it. She waved it back and forth, and nothing changed. She blinked, and by that point it had become alarmingly clear that she wasn't hallucinating, or dreaming.
Instead of bright pink fur, instead there was what looked amazingly like charcoal-grey chitin, with several holes scattered about the cannon. As she stared, she became alarming aware of a buzzing noise that sounded amazingly like it was coming from the middle of her back.
Staring back at her was a full-grown changeling, but with her eyes, and her mane (which looked like it had been a long time since it had been washed). In her still-open mouth she could see four prominent fangs. With some effort, she wrenched her eyes away from the sight, and toward her forehead, and the large, jagged horn jutting out from it. She gingerly placed a hoof against it, only to instantly flinch back when she touched it.
There were perhaps some ponies somewhere, who upon finding out on waking up that they had inexplicably changed species, would marvel at the sheer capacity of reality for surprise, grin and dive right into the madness.not one of those ponies. Which is why she chose to scream instead.
Author's Note
I apologise for that recap and exposition at the beginning. I really do.could go through the previous story for most of it, making someone go through all of that when you'd only need to read a few chapters to know about these characters.
After the initial panicked outburst, Shining Sapphire attempted to remain calm. And to her credit, she managed to remain so for more than a few seconds, before the panic reasserted itself, causing her to rush out of her bedroom in the general direction of one of the castle's libraries as fast as possible, up until her back leg started hurting again, at which point she slowed to a brisk walk.
The nearest of the libraries in the castle was located a solid few minutes walk from Shining Sapphire's bedroom, which was chiefly so that she had an actual excuse to get out of her bedroom once in a while, or alternatively so that she could actually go to bed. At the moment, however, the chance to think about things wasn't helping, though the fact that her mind was going at a hundred miles an hour did prevent her from running away with any ridiculous ideas, as so often happened with what her cousin glibly referred to as 'the family madness'.
Soon, she reached the doors to her library, and felt calmness wash over her as she entered, her gaze settling upon the many shelves of her domain. There were old books, and new books, special books, rare books, books that had been gifts, or birthday presents (Many of which tended to be doubles of books she'd already acquired), and all of them were hers, carefully arranged and stored in the most logical fashion she knew of, and a great many of them looked well-read.
She sat on a small chair, and began trying to get her breathing under control. After a few seconds she stopped, and smiled cautiously.impossible! "
She sat there, staring at nothing in particular. "Okay, now that we've established that, we can start figuring
She stopped as she felt a small stab of pain in her mouth. "Certainly hurts when my tongue catches on these fangs."
She looked toward her tail, then moved her eyes forward, trying to get a view of her mane. "Note that tail and mane appear to retain usual colouration, albeit with same gaps present on cannon and wings. Skin feels like chitin, eyes remain the same colour, voice definitely seems to be untouched."
She considered trying to talk to him, but then shook her head. Her horn glowed, and several books were wrapped in her aura, and brought over toward the desk.
She lifted one book and began to flip through it, "I suppose," she mused, "this could just be some prank of Disco-"
"You sound very sure about that."
"I am sure" he said, "Because if Discord had done this, he'd have bragged about it by now, to our faces. Or laughed."
"Does it matter? All that matters is figuring out how to un-do this. Working out who did it can wait 'till we've fixed this mess."
Then a horrible burst of recognition flared in her mind, and she adjusted herself to glance at her flank. It was completely blank. She gasped, even as she started questioning what that meant. Did it mean that her magic had been altered, her usual strengths and skills altered? Did it mean anything at all? Then another thought occurred to her. She looked back toward Wisp.
"Wisp, honey?" she said, as sweetly as she could manage, and tried to fight down the rising urge to blush furiously, "Can I see your..."
"What is it?" Wisp asked, since he was taking every care not to look at it.
She stopped and turned to look at him. "You could always check for yourself" she pointed out. Wisp shook his head. Shining Sapphire went back to looking at her shelves, and finally found a book that looked useful. She frowned as she stared at the book's title, Professor Snail's Guide to Insects, Arachnids and Arthropods . She knew every single one of her books, and she'd never seen that one before. Someone had put new books in her library, without telling her. Somepony had re-arranged her library. And there were new books, just when something like this had to happen, meaning she couldn't read them then and there.
She tried to get rid of those thoughts, and flipped open the book as she turned and made her way back to the desk. After a few hundred pages she saw something that looked promising, and set the book down. She began glancing up, looking from the page to Wisp's flank, and nodded.
"It's upside down" he pointed out. She turned the book around, and he looked confused.
"Anyway" Shining Sapphire said slowly, "Back to working this o-"
During the time she and Wisp had been corresponding with one another, so long ago, she'd asked him about all manner of Changeling biology. She still remembered feeling the need to bathe for several hours after hearing him describe moulting, but the most curious one was a unique form of vision they had. Since Wisp hadn't exactly been raised by Changelings, most of what he described had been guesswork, but it seemed that they had a way of telling what emotions their prey was feeling at any given time, though describing how that worked had been a stumbling point for the colt, who'd simply said that it was 'sort of like taste mixed with scent'.
And now she was staring such a bizarre concept right in the face (so to speak), and was finding it more than a little disturbing, especially since she had already built some nice, cosy assumptions about what had happened, and this was proving them all completely wrong.
"I seem to be experience this... emotion-vision... thing you told me about" she said, before adding, "And I can't seem to turn it off. Any advice?"
"Right" Shining Sapphire said, "'course it does. Pretty sure I asked you that already."
Shining Sapphire paused for a moment. "I..." she said, "Well, I had just assumed that somepony had made it so that I look like a Changeling and you look like a pony, but... I think we can lay that theory to rest."
Shining Sapphire tried smiling, "I'm sorry. I'm not entirely certain what has happened yet."
"I'll try and work out what's been done, Wisp, but this is just..." she groaned with frustration, "I just need time, and no interrupt-"
It had been a few days after the return from Ponyville, and Shining Sapphire had taken it upon herself to name Wisp's would-be bodyguards, since trying to tell them apart had already managed to get old. Of course, this quickly proved problematic, since they were Changelings, and not really known for individuality. They didn't talk to anypony, they didn't eat with everypony else, they didn't seem to have hobbies, or interest. Nonetheless, she'd taken to the task with some enthusiasm. After a few days, a few noticeable quirks became apparent. One of them seemed particularly excitable, almost comically clumsy, so she decided to name that one 'Impulse'. For the most physically imposing and quiet, the name 'Rock' had seemed fitting, and then for the next she choose the name 'Windsheer', but after the fourth she found herself stumped, so she turned to Wisp to name the fifth Changeling. After a few seconds thought, he dubbed him 'Angel Eyes'. Shining Sapphire had questioned Wisp about this, but he'd defended himself by saying the name seemed 'right'. Shining Sapphire found herself reluctantly agreeing. This was why she managed to recognise the Changeling in front of her as Impulse. The fact that he was looking incredibly skittish helped.
"Apologies for startling you royalty," he said, "but we felt your alarm and wondered if you required aid."
There were four shimmers, and she noticed Wisp stepping closer to her as the four other Changelings appeared. She could've sworn she felt concern from them, though they still seemed to have their usual ambivalence.
"What is it?" she asked. He tilted his head.afraid . Then she turned to see who it was who'd entered the room. Her eyes were assaulted by a flood of warm and alarmingly pink light that washed over the room, and she winced. Of all the ponies in all the world, the one who had to walk in at that very moment was her mother.
"Good morning, you two" Princess Cadance smiled, as she made her way across the room toward the two ponies, evidently not noticing the wincing Changeling in front of her.
"How about some breakfast first?" she suggested, "And before you try reasoning your way out of this, remember the last time we had this conversation? Breakfast, downstairs."
And then she turned and walked out of the room, stopping only briefly to glance at Shining Sapphire, a troubled expression passing across her face for a moment, before she closed the door behind her. Once she was gone, Wisp turned to look at Shining Sapphire, who was now blinking rapidly in the hopes of making the spots go away.
"Noted" she said quietly, before groaning, "That felt like my eyes had been doused with sugar. Sugar and honey."
He shuffled, "It wasn't pleasant."
"No."
"Oh, this seems to have worn off. Almost convenient, I suppose."
"So," Wisp said, "What do we do now?"
"Oh" Wisp uttered, to which she nodded glumly.
She sighed, then looked back to Wisp. "I'll try and figure this out, Wisp, I swear, but... first we need to figure out what's been done to us, and whether we can reverse it."
"But, like my mother said, breakfast first."
Her horn glowed, and then bright green flames appeared, and wrapped around her for but a brief moment. She turned to look at Wisp, who had a startled expression on his face.
Wisp just remained unblinking. "It has worked right?" she said cautiously, "I don't just look like a bright pink Changeling queen, do I?"
She smiled, and decided not to dwell on the fact that she had just managed to cast a spell she had no experience with on the first try.casual ."
Neither pony said anything as they headed out of the library, but the unspoken agreement in their eyes was that this was likely to be unbelievably awkward.
*****
As it turned out, just making their way to the breakfast hall was awkward. This might have been because neither pony had any idea how casual they were supposed to act, and therefore found themselves following the age-old traditions of acting casual, such as walking very stiffly, smiling like they were unhinged maniacs (which, given they way they were feeling, wasn't much of a stretch at that moment), glancing suspiciously at everypony who walked past, and speaking louder than was necessary. On the way, no less than fourteen ponies addressed Wisp as 'highness', while utterly ignoring Shining Sapphire, save one young mare who quickly ran off covering her face afterward.
Things did not improve on reaching the breakfast hall.
This didn't have anything to do with why the meal was awkward, but it certainly didn't help improve the mood of the young royals. Since neither were certain whether they were supposed to act differently, they simple chose their choice of breakfast and sat down, not saying anything or making eye contact. After a few minutes of utter silence, Cadance looked over toward the two ponies.
"You two are being incredibly quiet" she noted, her voice causing both ponies, who were deep in their own private thoughts, to jump. "Is everything alright?"
"So, what have you two got planned for today then?" he asked, before smiling, "Let me guess, same as usual?"
"What?" Shining Armor asked. Cadance just stared at him.
"Yeah, I got that bit" he said, "they sure weren't their usual sunny selves, that's for sure."that ."
"No," Cadance said immediately, "definitely not."
"Well, why don't you just try talking to him?" she asked, "he is your son after all."
He tapped a hoof against the table, then looked at Cadance again. "You know how he gets when he's nervous."
He walked over toward Cadance and kissed her on the cheek, "for luck. Just in case I don't make it back."
"So, what now?" Wisp asked as the two ponies walked through the corridor. Shining Sapphire stopped, and then shook her head.
"Question, why can't we just see a professional, you know, a doctor or something?"
She frowned, "I have no idea what this is. So I don't think a doctor would be much help."
"And I would like to see if there's anything that can help us figure out what's be-" she suddenly yelped.
"Bit my tongue" she said darkly, "Itth these teefh. Don't theem to want to thapethitht properly."
"I wasn't going to laugh" Wisp said, his expression stone-like, "I do know what its like to have teething problems."
"Fortunately," Wisp continued, "most ponies just assumed I was wearing false teeth."
"Also? Why don't we just tell your parents about this?" he asked. Shining Sapphire's face scrunched up, and then her wings twitched.
She trailed off, "let's just keep this to ourselves for now."
He nodded, and she turned, to see Shining Armor approaching slowly. She began to wonder if reality had some manner of grudge against her.
She tried smiling, unaware of the fact that her new fangs were showing, "Yes, yes. Fine. Perfectly okay."
She looked toward Wisp, who was burying a barely-controlled look of distress.
"I'll be in the library" she said, before correcting herself with, "well, a library, at any rate."
"So," he said slowly, "what was it you wanted to talk about?"
*****
Despite what she'd said, Shining Sapphire hadn't immediately headed to a library. Instead, she made her way back to her bedroom, and more importantly, the adjoining bathroom, where she proceeded to wash her hair, because otherwise the incredibly greasy feeling was going to drive her mad.
After drying it, she made her way to the nearest library and got down to work. Well, that had been the plan, at any rate.
She wasn't aware of it, but she'd begun to let out a low moan. Then she was aware of a gently feel of a hoof on her shoulder. Slowly, she looked up, to see a bright pink hoof. She looked further up, to see her mother, looking concerned.
"I'm having a... really off day" she mumbled. Cadance sat down and tilted her head.
She felt her blood freeze, even as her cheeks turned an impressive magenta colour, and she found it difficult to breath.
It then occurred to her, inbetween trying to will her memory into oblivion, that she had in fact shapeshifted to look like she normally did, but for all she knew, at the moment that would have meant she'd look like she was...
"Well, alright then," Cadance said, though she sounded unconvinced. Shining Sapphire tried smiling, but somewhere between thought and deed it got slightly confused, and she looked more like she'd been kicked incredibly hard. It faltered even further when Cadance smiled back.
"But you know, if you do need to talk to somepony, about anything, anything at all, you know you can talk to me, don't you?" she said calmly. Shining Sapphire nodded. She did want to talk, she wanted to tell her absolutely everything she could, but for she had no idea where to even begin, or how her mother would react. Oh, she knew she'd be believed, that much she knew, but beyond that, she had no idea what would happen. Especially since it had been a whole month since the Nightmare's visit.
She looked up, to see an oddly faraway look on Cadance's face. "I do know what it's like, that feeling" she said, her voice sounding worryingly far-away, "that one you get when you're a long way from home. And your friends. And your family."
Cadance just smiled again, and this time Shining Sapphire smiled back properly. "So it is" she said.
"Thanks, m-" Shining Sapphire caught her just in time.
"What is it?" she asked.
She looked down at her hooves for a moment, then back to Shining Sapphire, "Anyhow, never mind my rambling. If you're okay, I'll just go. But you know where me and my husband are if you need us."
She looked at the book in front of her, then, with utmost care she closed it and returned it to its proper place on the shelf, before marching out of the room, her face set with determination.
*****
Some time later, and a pony slunk through the streets of the Crystal Empire, ignoring all the ponies who tried to bid him 'good morning' or say hello, or bow, or curtsy. This pony made their way to the great library itself, and made their way inside, ignoring the cheerful greetings of the librarians, who immediately began wondering if something was dreadfully wrong with the pony. He stopped, and looked about, nopony daring to ask what he was up to. Then he made his way through the library, until eventually coming upon a small stack of books hidden in a corner. Slowly, he approached it, then lifted a hoof and knocked gently on it.
"Yes?" a voice called out from the fortress.
"Shining Armor and I had..." he paused, "a conversation ."
Wisp began slouching. "It was a conversation I didn't want to have, and never wish to repeat, or even think of, again."
"By the way" Wisp said after some time, "my name is now apparently..."
Shining Sapphire's mouth twitched furiously, and she stared up at the ceiling, trying to think of the technique used to make it so that she didn't laugh.
"How so?" Wisp asked.
"Please don't."
Her smiled flickered, "my mane saved me from that one. Well, mostly."
"Wisp, honey, what did you say he called you?"
There was a terrifying look in Shining Sapphire's eyes. "I see" she said, her voice alarmingly low, in a way Wisp had never heard before.
Her horn glowed, and the books began to start moving about. Wisp blinked.
"Because" she said, beginning to smile again, albeit in the way usually found on creatures approaching tasty morsels in the middle of the jungle, "my dear Wisp, there is no. Way. That my mother or father would ever, ever name any child of theirs... Shimmer , or any variation thereof!"
"So, what does that mean?" he asked, and she turned back toward him with an alarming look on her face.
She turned again, and started marching toward the palace, "And what's better" she announced, "is that I know exactly what to do about this!"
"Well, the thing is, nopony in the Crystal Empire should be able to do something like this, and it follows that nopony in the Crystal Empire could undo it."
"And it still doesn't matter" she said instantly, "because I know who we have to go see to get this fixed!"
"Who?"
"Princess Celestia?" he asked. Shining Sapphire shook her head.
"Really? Because she only has lifetimes worth of experience and knowledge, second only to none, after all, and you have carte blanche to visit her whenever you want."
She looked about, then motioned for him to move in closer. "The thing is," she whispered, "she is also my grand-aunt, which seems to give her license to spend most of the time I'd spend with her rambling whatever nonsense comes into her head. Now, don't get me wrong, I am all for sagely wisdom of the ages, or long circuitous monologues, but if there is one thing I never, ever wish to experience again, it is a lecture from my beloved grand-aunt on the history of tea-cups ."
"Indeed. Tea-cups. Do not ask, for the sheer tedium might tear your mind to shreds."
"I am. But I draw the line at tea-cups."
"You prefer coffee" Wisp said, to which she nodded.
"Do you?" she asked cautiously. Wisp shrugged.
"The bear" Shining Sapphire repeated, "that was... not what I was expecting you to say."
He smiled briefly. "So, then, if it isn't Princess Celestia, who? Princess Luna?"
"So," Wisp said, feeling a slight portent of doom at his words, "if we aren't seeing Princess Celestia, or Princess Luna, then I suppose the next most powerful magic-wielder would be..."
"Yep" the mare grinned, "Aunt Twilie."
The two quickly made their way to the palace, and then to Shining Sapphire's bedroom. She looked under the bed, and dragged out a small bag.
She shrugged, "might as well have the notes, it'll give me something to do on the way down. Now then," she clapped her hooves together, and rushed toward the bathroom, emerging with a small bag, and a towel. Wisp stared at the items.
"Late" Wisp supplied. "Very late, assuming we don't wait a while and catch a later one, and arrive there so late it'd be morning."
"You're being quiet" Shining Sapphire noted. Wisp nodded.
She nodded. "Yeah. Actually, I'm getting a bit concerned. I mean, there's no way it can be this easy for us. There's no way we can just... make our way downstairs, walk to the train station, get on a train and just go to Canterlot and get aunt Twilie to solve this, and be back by tomorrow afternoon, is there?"
The two ponies stood there, and then Shining Sapphire smiled slightly.
"It might not" Wisp suggested. "Maybe all the bad luck will move on to somepony else."
Author's Note
Can you believe I couldn't find a single good quote about madness in all of Romeo and Juliet?!
And so did the two young royals set out on their quest to restore themselves to normality, or the nearest possible approximation. This quest managed to last a grand total of seven minutes and fifty-three seconds before it encounter a complication, in the form of a set of guards standing in front of the main door of the Crystal Palace. One of the guards looked toward the two.
Shining Sapphire turned to look at Wisp, who then looked back toward the guards.
"Security reasons, your highness" the guard said automatically. "Apparently nopony's allowed out of the city on top of that."
"And, by the way, we're supposed to tell you two t' go talk to Their Highnesses 'at your earliest possible convenience'."
*****
As it turned out, they happened to be sitting in the throne room. Shining Sapphire and Wisp slowly approached the two, and then stopped, looking at one another. A few silent seconds passed as they tried to communicate non-verbally the fact that neither felt up to talking to Shining Sapphire's parents at that particular morning.
"Hey" Shining Sapphire responded weakly, before nudging Wisp with a hoof. He looked back at her, and could've sworn that there was something unusual about the way she was smiling at that moment.
"Well, we didn't want you two to worry, we just felt that, after the" she coughed, her smile flickering, "after what happened last month, some caution was required. But you two are both mature ponies, so we decided it was best to tell you."
"We've had a bit of a concern that there may just be some other changelings about in the city, and possibly some outside the city as well, so right now we're just double-checking everything."
"We don't mean the ones who were already here" Shining Armor said, briefly looking toward Shining Sapphire, "No."
Both Cadance and Shining Armor looked uncertain. "Well," Shining Armor said slowly, "that depends. I mean, after last month, they probably aren't feeling very scrappy, but at the same time..."
"We don't want a repeat of last month's events, so right now we have ponies checking the city, and the wastes outside, to see if any Changelings might be residing there, and it may take a while."
"A couple of hours, maybe more" he said, "maybe a lot more. The better part of a day perhaps."
"What's wrong?" she asked. Shining Sapphire shook her head.
She resisted the urge to facehoof for actually saying that, as she saw Cadance raise an eyebrow before turning to look at Shining Armor. From the look on Wisp's face, he had similar sentiments.
"Well" she said diplomatically, "we'll try and sort all of this out as quickly as possible."
She winced, trying to force herself not to think of the memories. Then she opened her eyes and noticed her mother was practically on top of her, a completely worried look on her face.
"Nothing" she blurted, "I just... just thinking about something."
"I think I'll just go and get some fresh air" she managed to get out, before turning and heading toward the nearest door as fast as her legs could carry her. Unfortunately, she only made it a few feet away from the door before her legs just decided to give out, resulting in her collapsing in an entirely undignified fashion, and incidentally biting her tongue once more. Time seemed to just stretch out as she lay there, breathing in and out. Then, she was vaguely aware of the feeling of somepony's legs moving around hers. She tried unfolding and looking at whoever it was, and smiled warmly at Wisp.
"Hey" she managed.
"Nothing" she said, and then she saw the disbelief on his face, "really, it was nothing."look like nothing" he simply said. Shining Sapphire just looked glumly at the floor.
"I don't want to talk about it" she said coldly, before seeing the look on Wisp's face.
For an instant, there was an odd look on his face before he finally just gave a half-hearted shrug, and she could've sworn he felt tense. "Not anything you'd really want to know" he muttered.
Both ponies just stared at the floor, before Shining Sapphire slowly stood up, before gently nuzzling Wisp, and smiling, to which he gave a small smile back.
Shining Sapphire sighed, and gently rubbed her forehead.
"And I get the feeling they probably won't give that approval for what they likely think is just some sort of romantic outing" Wisp suggested. Shining Sapphire blinked for a moment.
"I think that was the impression they got from what you said. And who can blame them? That is what young ponies tend to do, isn't it?"
"True" he said quietly, "true. But your idea of fun is reading."
"And I'm not actually complaining now. I was just..." he shuffled, "noting it."
"So... security checks" Wisp said awkwardly. Shining Sapphire sighed.
"We could wait and see if this... curse, or hex, or whatever it is wears off on its own" Wisp said dryly. Shining Sapphire just shook her head.
"Probably not" Wisp frowned. "Can't get that lucky, can we?"
"But... we're not allowed out of the castle" he pointed out. Shining Sapphire then did something that caused him to take a step back. She grinned, though she looked slightly more manic than she probably intended.
"Oh, don't worry about that" she said calmly.
*****
The imposing front doors of the Crystal Palace slid open, without even the faintest creak, or groan. After a few seconds, a bright pink pony stepped out cautiously into the warm summer sun, then stopped when she saw the group of guards in front of her.
The orange pegasus just gave a curt nod. "Ma'am."
"Not at all" the captain responded, "well... sort'a. Her Highness did... suggest that if you decided there was somewhere you really needed to go in the city that we were to escort you there."
"If you say so" the guard smiled back, "though I am wondering if this walk would take you anywhere near the city's train station."
"Well," Shining Sapphire said, "as you may have noticed, my coltfriend is not present, and you have no need to worry, since I am not planning to go anywhere at present."
He shrugged, "still, maybe I'm just forgetting. Been doing that all day. Forgot to put my helmet on earlier."
"Anyway" Flash Sentry said tensely, "do enjoy your walk, your highness."
*****
Wisp sat in front of the doors of the Crystal Palace, waiting, and growing slightly more tense by the second, not least because several ponies had passed by and asked him what was wrong, or tried to make idle chit-chat, and he wasn't feeling especially conversational. Eventually, the doors opened soundlessly, and he could've sworn he saw Shining Sapphire saying goodbye to somepony. Once the door was closed she turned to face him, her smile dropping a little.
"Captain Sentry" she said, "definitely a good pony, but when it comes to anything outside his job he's... well, sort of all hock."
"You know, he does sort of remind me of a younger, off-brand version of your dad."
Wisp nodded, to which Shining Sapphire looked alarmed. "Actually, now that you mention it..."
Shining Sapphire's expression became stone-like. "I have no comment on the matter" she said icily.
"Move on? Let's ."
Shining Sapphire rubbed a hoof on her head, "Well, unfortunately we will have to wait for several hours, probably until around dinnertime, before getting a train, which means it'll be a sleeper train."
"Really?"
"I don't know" she said, "maybe because of what I spent most of the last week trying to get you to do?"
"Carriage, more likely" Shining Sapphire pointed out. "You're really okay with this?"
Shining Sapphire smiled, "alright, then."
"Now what do we do?" Wisp asked. Shining Sapphire scuffed a hoof against the floor.
As it turned out, aside from ridiculously overprepared lunch, and a dinner that looked like a bunch of innocent vegetables that had been set upon by a gang of artistically minded chefs, finding something to occupy the next eight hours proved difficult for both ponies, especially since Wisp seemed to develop an odd unwillingness to talk.
"How do I summon those Changelings?" she asked, to which Wisp just shrugged.
"Your highness" a voice said, and she turned to see four of the Changelings trying to look-
"Shouldn't there be five of you?" she asked. "Where'd Angel Eyes get to?"
"We don't know" he said, "we haven't seem him for... some time."
Windsheer shook his head, though she decided not to ask further.
"Behave" Wisp supplied. Strangely, the Changelings actually looked like they were listening.
"Alright, let's go."
The Changelings looked vaguely hesitant, but they nodded.
As she and Wisp made their way to the nearest staircase, she felt slightly troubled that they had agreed so easily, but she decided not to dwell on it.
"Plan B then" she said. With that, she turned, Wisp following her. Her path went through several of the major reception halls of the castle, until eventually arriving at the small wooden door that led to the kitchens.
"Thinking about stuff" he muttered, "that's all."
"Nothing important."
And they were completely empty.always somepony here."
"Just in case anything should happen, he says. Like, just for example, my dad trying to make a few sandwichs in the middle of the night."
"I think it was always there" Shining Sapphire said, "Why?"mind-set of its previous owner."
Shining Sapphire just looked at the door. "Only a bit. Just because he was a horrible, insane, paranoid nutcase doesn't mean he wanted any contact with his serving staff, I guess. Or they didn't want contact with him. Or both. Now then..."
"Evening, your highness" the smug guard said.
"We have here a message here from Their Highnesses Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and Shining Armor, to be read unto you in the event you emerged from this door" guard number two said.
"Dear Prince Shimmering Stretto.
With that the guards carefully rolled up the parchment.
"That's okay" he said.
"See, that's the problem with the guard. Everypony always thinks, 'oh, look, Princess Cadance hired a boy band, they'll trip over themselves the minute they're asked to do something', forgetting who her aunt is! And then, oh look, mom and dad didn't just hire the pretty ponies, they hired smart as well."
"So... now what?" he asked. Shining Sapphire just began moving again. He followed. She made her way out of the kitchens, then, began a strange winding path through the castle, until eventually arriving at a completely non-descript corridor. She looked around, and then sidled over toward the wall, and tapped it with a hoof. Wisp just observed, hesitant to say anything at all.
"Come on" she said, motioning for him to follow. The two began walking, down, and down, and down, and down. Then, after a while, it went up again, until Shining Sapphire stopped, and lifted a hoof toward something. There was another click, and there was a sudden burst of light. The two ponies stepped out into what turned out to be an alleyway. Wisp turned to stare as a piece of brick wall slid into place, covering up the exit way completely. He raised a hoof to inspect it, and couldn't feel the slightest seam.
"What?" he asked, not expecting a satisfying answer.
She grinned, though in the light, Wisp could've sworn she was actually wincing.
"Yeah, just... out of breath" she said hurriedly, "lot of stairs. And I think I just stepped on a stone or something."
"Come on, you," she called out, "Almost there."
"How long has that thing been there?" he asked, as Shining Sapphire looked about cautiously, "and more to the point, how do you know it's there? I mean, you don't really leave your library."
"I'm guessing whoever paid for that one never caught on, then."
Both ponies stopped dead, and stared at each other, if only to confirm what they'd just head. Shining Sapphire clamped a hoof over her mouth, which muffled the series of squeaks from her, before she suddenly bolted in the direction of the train station.
*****
As it turned out, the train station was almost crawling with guards. They didn't actually seem to be blocking anypony's access, just standing around occupying space on the platform. Then, when they saw Shining Sapphire striding through the area, they suddenly leapt into action, surrounding her and Wisp.
Wisp noticed the guards were all looking at him. "No, nothing's the matter. We just want to get on the train."
"Orders" Wisp stated. The guard nodded.
"It doesn't."
"It's just... well, we have reports that there are Changelings out there, and given what happened previously..." he shuffled, "if you board this train, we cannot necessarily guarantee the safety of everypony on-board if there are Changelings."
"Yes, your highness, if there are Changelings."
"We don't know. And searching the entirety of the frozen wastes would be... difficult, which is why we're guarding this train."
"Look" he said, calmly, "Your Highnesses, we can stand here for as long as we like, but I cannot let you on that train."
The guard bit down in order to stop himself suggesting that whatever it was could've waited perhaps a day or two.ask ."
The guard sighed, and then fell silent for the longest time.
The guard sighed, then looked to the other guards. He suddenly had a vision of being called before Their Highness, who would talk quietly, and politely, and be disappointed , or worse upset .
Shining Sapphire nodded, and smiled sympathetically, as the other guards stepped aside for the two young ponies. Once they were out of sight, the guard let loose a mighty sigh.
*****
Shining Sapphire and Wisp made their way into the rearmost carriage of the train, noting several other ponies nervously making their way out of the carriage as they did. Shining Sapphire looked about at the almost-completely empty carriage, and then made her way toward one of the overly-large seats which, with some careful work, could be turned into a bed.
"Guess this means we've got the whole place to ourselves" she noted.
Shining Sapphire nodded, "and it means I can finally do this..."
"Holding that spell for several hours" she whispered, "or, trying to, at any rate."
"Learning to hold a form is always difficult" Wisp said quietly, as he sat next to her, allowing her the chance to lean on him, "not that I had any choice, or anypony to help me learn how to do it. My mom, she did try, she asked for help from Princess Twilight Sparkle, and any other magical authority she could trust, but... none of them were really knowledgeable enough to help."
"It... had its moments" he said, looking down at his hooves.
Wisp said nothing to that, and there was an odd look on his face. Shining Sapphire tried to adjust herself to look at him, earning herself only a quizzical eyebrow.
"Just... thinking" he stated. "You managed to hold that spell from before breakfast to now, with no previous experience with it."
"And in all that time, you barely showed any discomfort, even though it was hurting you? Didn't you ever consider just... dispelling it?"
"True" Wisp said, "but you parents were slightly older than we are right now when they did that, and more experienced, and those kinda were completely different circumstances. Your father for example, had expertise and years of training on his side, and..." his expression turned sour, "well, we all know how that one worked out. Meanwhile, your mother is a full-fledged alicorn, trained by Princess Celestia herself. And even she required rest, if I remember correctly. Several days worth, once she was done."
"I'm aware of that" she said coldly, before sighing, and slumping against him some more. After a few seconds he began stroking her mane. There was utter silence, which was shattered by the sound of a whistle blowing somewhere, followed by the train slowly beginning to move. Soon small houses and shops began to pass by the windows, and shortly thereafter the small fields and hills outside the city, then almost instantly after that the beginning of the snow-covered lands between the Empire and Equestria.
"Last night" he said, "we fell asleep really quickly, didn't we?"
Shining Sapphire's cheeks began to turn red, and she tried sitting up.never fall asleep that easily. Never. And I-"
Wisp saw her eyes staring slightly above his forehead.
"You didn't say anything" Wisp said, suddenly feeling the presence of the small tiara on his head. Shining Sapphire's eyes darted toward the wall for a moment, then back to the tiara. Her horn glowed, and then nothing happened, save a few sparks jolting from her horn.
"'Uh-oh'?" Wisp asked. Both ponies shared the same expression, realising the trademark signs of being magically drained.
"Not in any dramatic or life-threatening fashion" she said, "but I think that even the most basic spells are out of the question for the time being. A couple of hours, at the least."bit of a problem very quickly."
She quickly looked out of the window. "And I don't really fancy our chances of having to walk."
"Yes, flying. That's what I meant. Flying."
"Sapphy, what's wrong with your leg?"
"It's not nothing" he interrupted, "I know it's not nothing. You've been having trouble walking all day. I might have noticed a few times" he said on seeing the look on her face. "Over the last month" he added.
"Sapphy. You can tell me. If there's anything I can do, I... please."
"It happened when that... thing that had possessed Twinkie attacked me. Her first shot sent me flying, right into mom's throne, which broke my right wing and back leg, so in addition to having to fight a crazed monster with all of my cousin's magic, who was already physically stronger than me, I had to try and ignore that, even though I could barely make myself move, and... well, you know the rest of that story" she mumbled. For a while there was utter silence as the train just continued onward.
She paused again, and when she turned back to look at Wisp he noted she was fighting back tears. "And I didn't say anything because my mom and dad would get worried and upset and I didn't want to say anything after what happened with you and your birth mom and Twinkie and everything between us was going so well and I thought it would pass and it hasn't and now all this has happened and I just- I can't, I... I just can't, Wisp. Nothing's making any sense right now and I wanna scream but I can't and my parents look at me and it's like they don't even know me and I don't even know why this is happening and-"
"I'm sorry" she managed, "I have literally no idea where that came from."
"I know" she sighed, "I know. I know I know. I know I know I know I know. But..." she shuddered, "It just sounds so selfish of me, complaining about something like this.
"We will" Wisp said, before nuzzling her neck. For some reason she found herself grinning, which then quickly turned into a smile.
She suddenly laughed, and then found herself unable to stop. After a few seconds Wisp joined in, the two continuing their laughter for some time. Once they stopped she stared at Wisp.
"Yes?"
Wisp shrugged. "Lots of reasons."
There was a lengthy and discouraging pause before he finally answered "Yes."
There was another lengthy pause, which seemed determined to out-do the previous one.
"Were you trying to be funny there?" Shining Sapphire asked. He shrugged.
"Points for the effort" she deadpanned, "but the execution faltered."
"Anyway" he said defensively, "you looked like you were having one of those spurts of madness you and your cousin keep mentioning."
"What is it?" she asked.
"That's odd" she noted, "we've stopped. In the middle of nowhere."
Wisp shook his head. "Sleeper trains do, I am told, tend to take longer stops than some trains, but generally there tend to be stations where they stop. Although" he said cautiously, "it could just be a simple problem of ice on the lines."
"Even though, if I remember correctly, both the train and the tracks have been enchanted to prevent ice from building up."
"Of course," Wisp said, slightly louder than was really necessary, "it is conceivably possible that those spells and enchantment all just happened to fail today. At the same time" he gulped.
She stopped dead, and looked down at her legs, then back up at Wisp.
Wisp gave this some thought, about what the guard were likely to do if they found their 'prince' in an otherwise empty carriage, in a train stuck in the middle of nowhere, with what looked like a Changeling Queen, and didn't like the conclusion that lead to. And from the way she was still shaking him, neither did Sapphy.
"They, uh, they wouldn't throw us off the train, would they?" Wisp asked. Shining Sapphire stared at him, and he noted her mane seemed to have become slightly dishevelled all of a sudden, a few noticeable strands out of place.
She shifted about, then looked around.
Wisp's horn glowed, as he lifted the bag down and opened it. "Notepad?" he asked. She nodded.
"Oh, sure there are" Shining Sapphire said, "I wouldn't worry about that. I just wanted to get started on my notes for aunt Twilie while we're waiting."
*****
A few minutes later, and the carriage door slowly swung open, after which a guard pony cautiously stepped into the room. She wasn't entirely certain what she was going to see. She had been told there were two royals in the carriage, which she presumed made it the royal carriage by default (even though she'd seen the royal carriage, and that was magnificent and huge and didn't look exactly like all the other ones) and whatever two young royals got up to in private was their own business. She just didn't want to be accused of killing some sort of mood, and be sentenced to cleaning the barrack toilets, or scrubbing armour for a month, or whatever punishment was assigned to killers of royal moods.
"Your Highness?"
"I know how this looks" the prince said cautiously, before pausing, "actually, if I'm honest, I don't actually know how this looks, but there is a perfectly innocent explanation."
"We were all informed about the situation between you and her highness" she said, nodding toward the Changeling. The prince looked confused.
"Is there something wrong?" he asked. Then, she remembered what she was supposed to be there for.
The prince looked relieved, "Okay, thanks for that" he said.
*****
Shining Sapphire checked, and then double-checked the page, and satisfied with her work, continued onwards. After some time, she began to wonder when the guard was going to get there. She looked up. Wisp was sitting next to her.
"You could have said" she suggested. Wisp looked tremendously guilty.
"Why?" Shining Sapphire asked.
"On a train ? With the door unlocked?"
After several long, silent minutes, the train jolted, and began moving.
She went back to writing down her notes, occasionally stopping to look up at Wisp. Eventually she looked back up again, worried by the distant look on Wisp's face. She set a hoof on his shoulder.
"Nothing" he said immediately.
Wisp shifted his weight, and then looked toward the door, then back to her. "I was just thinking" he said, and something about the way he said it made Shining Sapphire feel nervous.
"When we fix this... this whatever it is, I was just wondering... if maybe..."
"If we could make it so I don't have to be a Changeling anymore."
"I don't want to be a Changeling anymore" he said. Shining Sapphire stared at him.Chrysalis , those Changelings have been waiting for me to do something, to do anything, and I... I don't want to be that pony. They look at me like they expect me to perform miracles."
He stared down at his hooves. "I don't want to be that pony. I don't want to be some amazing Changeling prince. I just want to be me. I just..." he stared at Shining Sapphire, his bright blue eyes practically trembling. Then Shining Sapphire realised that was because he was trembling.
"I just want to be Whisper Wind. With his life, and his family, and his stupid name and what few friends I actually have..."
Shining Sapphire held him slightly tighter, hoping desperately as she did that he didn't feel the need to continue. A horrible, horrible silence filled the carriage.
"No, you probably shouldn't have" Shining Sapphire found herself saying eventually, "but you did. And... well, after everything that's happened..."
"No" Wisp said, "it hasn't."
"Sorry" she said, much louder than was necessary, repeatedly, until she just curled up into a ball again, remaining completely still for some time, until her cheeks finally cooled down at least. Once she did, she looked up, to see Wisp just staring blankly out of the window on the other side of the carriage. From the looks of things, they were going past a cliff.
"I just... it just... I don't..."
"It's just everything. I have no idea how this could have happened, and I have idea if I'm actually doing the right thing about it, and... then there's me. And you. And us."
"I mean, everything was going fine, and then you got abducted and I got hospitalised and then... I'd swear we've just been going backwards since then, and you... you've been distant, and keeping things from me, and I know you probably have your reasons, but... it... it's just..."
"Do you want to get married?" he asked, his voice sounding both quiet and furiously loud at the same time. Shining Sapphire just blinked. She tried to say something, or indeed anything, but stumbled over the words.
"But not... not right away, not right now, I mean, we're not even in our mid-twenties, and there's still a lot of things I wouldn't mind doing before then. If I ever stop sitting around in the libraries, reading all those books of mine. Yes, I do want marry you, but... someday."
"I..." Shining Sapphire stopped, "I hadn't really given that any thought" she mumbled.
He slowly moved again. "I don't really want to be anypony's spectacle" he said coldly. "A wedding, at least I always assumed at any rate, a wedding isn't about how grand or romantic it seems, but a way of proving out love for one another."damn mind and had no idea what I was supposed to do, and I still did it! Doesn't that prove I love you?!"
She stopped, and looked down at her hooves. "I don't think I've ever sworn before" she muttered quietly, "or felt angry like this. Day of firsts."
She sighed, suddenly feeling more tired than she had in a very long time. "Look, we'll go to Canterlot, we'll get this nonsense fixed, and then, if you feel that there are any problems in this relationship, then I promise, we will talk about them."
*****
Meanwhile, a few hundred miles away, back in the Crystal Empire, Cadance and Shining Armor were taking advantage of the cool summer evening to relax in one of the palace's many, many drawing rooms, specifically one of the ones with a nice view of the city, and the brilliant orange colour that the city was turning as the sun set. The two were quietly sitting down on a sofa, reading, when Cadance suddenly looked around, then slid off the sofa.
"Honey?" Shining Armor asked, "what is it?"
"Something's wrong" she said.
"I can't tell what it is, but something's been wrong all day. Something... not quite right. Haven't you been feeling it?"
He shook his head. "Not kids, shouldn't call them kids. They aren't kids anymore, haven't really been for a while."
"That's not the only thing bothering you" he stated. Cadance just shifted on her hooves, before shaking her head.very sure it's just a headache" she said before he could say anything. Then her expression shifted.
"And I am very certain something just happened to... to..." she suddenly looked confused, which then moved to alarm. Shining Armor recognised the first part. As a pony whose talent was maintaining and strengthening the bonds of love between ponies, Cadance had always been sensitive to heartbreak, in a more literal fashion than most. She could feel it, and the stronger the feelings, the more it hurt. In an instant he was right next to her.
"Shiney" she asked, a very noticeable amount of concern in her voice, "what's our child's name?"
"Shimmering Stretto?" he said, though he didn't sound or feel entirely certain about that. Cadance's expression shifted to cast-iron determination.
Author's Note
Whoof. Emotions.
Now, I love the Hobbit, I really do (needs more dragon), but, seriously. No dwarf ever wondered if maybe, a door you can only find under highly specific circumstances was a bad idea? Really? I think someone got fleeced by the builders...
I'm also a bit unsure whether or not I did Sapphy justice in this chapter. I dunno... still, that was an awful lot of freaking out, so hopefully it's out of their systems...
Canterlot had fallen. The ancient streets were ablaze, and the many houses and shops had merely crumbled before them. Some of its former population had managed to flee the city, but they would not get far. The palace, the focus for their acts, was now a mere shattered shell of its former glory, much of its upper levels and spires torn away when his army had struck them, like the hoof of an angry god. Of the Princesses of the Day and the Night, there was no sign. From all indications they had simply ran from him, knowing in their hearts they would not have won a confrontation.
Now, he stood before his troops, his loyal subjects, basking in their rightful adulation and worship. And no wonder, given the prize he had obtained for them. He had won Equestria for the Changelings.
He allowed them to remain for some minutes, before reminding them to go about their business, rounding up any stragglers they could find, before turning toward the great bulk of the castle, allowing himself a satisfied smirk. As he made his way he stopped and turned, and saw that due to several of the outermost buildings of Canterlot being levelled, he could see all the way to Ponyville. The massive flame, now all that remained of all those cottages, huts, and trees, was glowing a truly beautiful green against the dying light of the sun. He smiled, and then continued making his way through the halls of the castle, footsteps echoing in the hallways, as he made his way around the rubble, occasionally passing a glance at the various scorch marks or smouldering metalwork scattered about the place. He passed through two oversized doors, and admired his new throne room. He glanced at the new throne, and then looked about, following with his eyes the small trail of rubble which led to the former thrones of the sisters, torn and discarded by his Changelings. Slowly, he made his way toward the throne. He'd won. He kept going over those glorious words. He'd won. He'd won. As he sat down, he wondered if perhaps he should've been more careful about whoever it was he'd eaten earlier, with the giddiness he was feeling.
There was a sudden clinking behind him, and the noise of somepony stirring in the gloom.
"Do you require something?" another voice enquired, as he felt a pair of hooves slip around his neck. He turned, trying to savour the look of annoyance on Sapphire's face as he turned around. He was mildly amused by the sight he saw, of the audacious grin on the second mare. She was not quite as attractive as the other, all things considered, but there was that roguish charm she had. A royal blue muzzle inched close toward his face. And closer, and closer...
~~~~~
Whisper Wind jolted violently, and then quickly repressed the urge to scream, or make some kind of noise, once he remembered where he was. He wasn't entirely certain if what he'd just dreamt could've been classified as a nightmare under the strictest circumstances, but if anypony were to ask he would certainly say it felt like one. He tried to resist the awful feeling clawing its way up his throat, until he became away of an odd rattling sound. He looked around, and then looked on the floor of the train carriage. It was Shining Sapphire's tiara, which had probably fallen off when he'd woken up. He focused, and light sprang from his horn, allowing him to see the inoffensive piece of metal. The tiara was slowly lifted into the air. He set it down gently beside himself and stared at it. Then, he tried looking over toward where Sapphy had been the last time he'd looked. She was still there, still looking like a Changeling, completely asleep. And then it all came flooding back, all those absolutely stupid things he'd said earli-
He looked around, trying to see if there was a clock around with which to tell the time. There wasn't. He looked out of the window. Featureless rocky landscape was all there was to be seen, with a low-hanging moon in the sky. All he knew was that meant it was either ridiculously late, or insanely early.
He tried to clear his thoughts, and then decided it was probably a good idea to return to Shining Sapphire something that was actually hers. She looked so peaceful asleep, which at least proved Wisp had been wrong about all those stupid reasons he'd come up with to avoid sleeping in the same room as her. And there he'd been worrying that all those stupid nightmares of his would've woken her up or something. And it wasn't as if that one was one of the worst. Disturbing, definitely, but not even near the worst.
He rubbed his forehead, which was suddenly feeling like it had been smacked against a tree. Soon enough, he realised he was still staring at Shining Sapphire. He tried thinking about something else, like where the trains was. From the way it was moving, he'd have guessed it was probably going through or over or around those mountains which cut off the Empire from Equestria, which probably answered the question of whether there were any Changelings about after all. Unless they were just as confused by what was going on with him and Sapphy as he was. Not that he could blame them.
Any further rumination was cut off by a sudden rumble from his stomach. Slowly, he got up and moved toward the door leading to the other carriages, and presumably the dining cart, where there was hopefully some food. At the door, he stopped, and turned to look at Shining Sapphire. He made his way over toward her, gently kissing her forehead. If she felt it, she gave no indication otherwise.
*****
There was the familiar warmth of sunlight on her cheeks. Slowly, blearily, she opened her eyes and yawned, before wincing. The summer sunlight was so bright it felt like it was going straight through her eyelids.
She tried to ignore the unpleasant feelings, before she noticed the tiara sitting a short distance away from her, just out of the range of her legs. She focused on the tiara, waiting to see if her magic had sufficiently recovered. There was a mild hum, and it slowly lifted into the air. She smiled slightly at the sign that her magic was already back, as she settled the tiara on her head. Then she noticed the fact that the train had apparently stopped somewhere. Had Wisp already woken up and gone to examine why? From the way she felt, she couldn't have been asleep for more than five hours, and from where the sun was hanging, it wasn't even six o'clock, so that meant the train probably hadn't even gotten halfway to Canterlot. She shook her head. Pondering could wait for later. At the moment what she needed was a good strong pot of coffee. But before that, it was probably an idea to see whether her magic had recovered enough to make herself look l-
"CHANGELING!" she heard somepony shriek. She turned to see a lime-green mare staring at her in shock. Before she could say anything, the mare turned and fled.
*****
"Again, very sorry about that" the guard in front of her said. The terrified mare had quickly attracted the attention of the Crystal Empire's finest, who had practically torn apart the carriage walls in their entrance, only to find a dishevelled looking mare in desperate need of coffee. What had followed was several seconds of muted whisperings, before sending the still-terrified mare on her way, followed by the guards apologising profusely for that,
"It's all right, really" she said calmly, "just a simple misunderstanding."
Shining Sapphire stared at the guard for a moment, trying not to look amused. "Well..." she managed, "thank you, anyway."
"He did?" she asked, genuinely taken aback. The guard nodded, but before he could say anything the door opened, and another guard entered, a unicorn carrying a small plastic cup.
She stared at the plastic container for a moment. Wisp had actually asked guards to fetch her some early morning coffee all of a sudden? Or early morning tea, at any rate. Suddenly it occurred to her, and she looked at the first guard.
"Not sure, miss." the guard said, but he did ask us to pass along a message."
"That he's okay, and that he had to go somewhere and 'think about things', and that you shouldn't worry about him."
"Excuse me, ma'am, but his highness suggested you'd probably want some coffee when you woke up" he then looked uncertain, "but apparently they were out of coffee. All they had was tea."
"Uh, we aren't sure ma'am" the first guard said hesitantly. She looked up.
"Well, thank you for the assistance" she said, "and the tea. But if that's all, I wouldn't mind being alone for a while."
She nodded, watching as the guard left, and then took a sip of the tea, if only to satisfy her curiosity. Then she gently set it down next to the window. After a few minutes it occurred to her she was staring at nothing. She could have, she reasoned, gone after Wisp, but given what had happened last night, she thought better of it. What would she do if she did? What could she say to him, after the things she'd said last night? No, if Wisp needed to think about something, perhaps it was best to let him.
She looked out of the window again. She couldn't see any signage telling her where exactly the train was, but it definitely looked familiar. It was a little village just out from the mountains leading to the Empire, and then knowledge came unbidden from the depths of her memories that the area was apparently considered a good place for family outings. Still, she thought, from here, it was a few hours to Canterlot, depending on whether one took the scenic route or not, or the weather. Actually, she wondered if perhaps the train wasn't being held up because of her.
Seconds passed, slowly. She began to regret not having brought a book. Although she probably have been unable to focus on it, instead thinking about Wisp instead.
*****
There was an odd mood in the Crystal Empire. Their Highnesses had asked for every guard, for whatever reason, and asked them some really bizarre questions. Some of them had wondered if it was a test, especially with some of those questions, but they answered them all the same, and were then dismissed.
"So" Shining Armor said, "where did they head off to? And what was so important about whatever they were doing?"
"So they'll probably be going to Canterlot, then," she tried, "Or maybe Ponyville. Or Canterlot and then Ponyville? Unless they decided to surprise us, and eloped."
"Something is definitely wrong" she pointed out, "although why they didn't feel it worth telling us is another question."
"So, if they had a dire problem, one they felt they couldn't trust us with, they'd go to Canterlot to get help from...?"
"Shining?" she said cautiously.
"You... did tell them about Twilight Sparkle, right?"
"Sorry, honey" he eventually managed, "Must've forgotten."
"No matter" she sighed, "besides, I think we have our own problems to deal with."
*****
There was a roar of magic, the strain pressing against her, and then, it stopped. Slowly, Shining Sapphire opened her eyes, and looked down at her hooves. They were bright pink, and completely void of any holes. She gave her tail a swish, glancing at it. Vibrant sapphire blue, and not a single hole. She gave her wings a cursory flap. Then, the illusion gave out, and she saw chitin and holes once more. Perhaps if she had been somepony else, she might have been annoyed about this, and true enough, there was quite a lot to be annoyed about. She was stuck in a foreign body, on a train bound for the absolute center of Equestria with no idea whether anypony there would even recognise her, and even worse, Wisp had utterly vanished. However, she just ignored these thoughts, and focused on her spells. It felt remarkably like she was fourteen again, only she was in a train, and didn't have her parents helping out.
She wondered if this counted as an adventure. If it was, she decided she didn't like adventures, especially since she'd missed breakfast by now. She could have been sitting at home, reading a book, perhaps with Wisp to keep her company, and a nice warm cup of coffee, maybe with the odd cuddle or snuggle every now and then. Maybe other ponies enjoyed this sort of thing, her cousin for example, but not her. Definitely not her. Adventure like this could go happen to somepony else.
*****
Whisper Wind sat, and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited . Time seemed to have stopped working properly, as minutes crawled into seconds, and seconds stretched into infinity. He could have sworn the hands of the clock he kept staring at were almost going backward by this point.
After he'd talked with those guards, told them about Sapphy and warned them about any accidents that could've occurred (not to mention suggesting fetching her some coffee when she woke up), he'd waited in the buffet car for the train to reach the next station, then simply walked off. It had been disturbingly easy, given he was much taller than he was used to, and the way ponies kept nodding, or bowing, or saying 'your highness', which still made him tense (and, he noted, a lot more than usual), not to mention the fact that some ponies were staring at him in odd ways. Even odder had been the pony at the ticket office, when he'd asked about trains to Ponyville. That young mare still had spots, along with a rather unfortunate stutter, if the way she'd responded was any indication, not to mention problems with eye contact. Still, she had valiantly overcome these minor problems and helpfully informed him as to when the next train was to arrive, which had led to him sitting on the bench, waiting. The train seemed to be taking its sweet time.
Seconds passed, second by second by second by second by second. In the distance, birds began chirping.
Somepony coughed.
Wisp gave in and lifted up the newspaper again.
*****
Shining Sapphire hadn't been to Canterlot many times in her life. In fact, the grand total of her visits stretched only into the lowest double digits at best. Oh, true there were the occasional visits to her grand-aunts, or her grandparents, or her aunt, but most of those had been when she was very, very little, but it seemed most of the time Canterlot was too far, and perhaps too expensive, to visit. Occasionally her parents would talk about it, and their eyes would go all distant, and their voices become very faint, and they'd probably sigh a few times. But then, to them, it was home, it was where they'd grown up, and met, and fallen in love, and married. To her, it might as well have been another country. Which, of course, it was. It was foreign, and weird, and filled with sights she didn't normally see, like mountains, actual mountains that loomed over everything, or all those tightly packed buildings, or the guards who wore gold or dark blue and looked exactly the same, right down to the expressions (even if her parents said there were actually nice).
She'd never been in a rainstorm before. The Crystal Empire's weather ponies didn't really go in for that sort of thing. They usually preferred the occasional shower, though most of the time the weather remained reasonably warm and cool, with the odd cloud thereabouts. Although, what with being a shut-in bookworm, she never really noticed the weather much anyhow. But she was very certain she didn't really want to get caught in a rainstorm.
Eventually, the train slowly came to a halt in the station. Shining Sapphire stopped to double-check her illusion. Everything seemed adequately pink, her tiara was safely set up her head. However, she made a note to try and make her way to aunt Twilie's place as quickly as possible, since with her magic levels as they were, she figured she had somewhere between fifteen and twenty minutes to get there.
She stopped at the door. She could do this. It was only a crowd of complete strangers, who were going about their business, and weren't likely to bother talking to her. With a glacial level of motion, she opened the door, and gingerly stepped onto the platform. She noted she didn't feel as nervous as she most likely should have, but nopony seemed to be staring at her. Nopony seemed to notice her at all, and if they had, they weren't making any noise about it. Unsure of how to feel about that, she decided to start moving. She managed to make it a few steps before she started smelling some really strange sensations, like at the marketplace back home, but much stronger. She winced, and when she opened her eyes, she looked about. Some ponies were now staring at her, and some weren't, but they all had one thing in common. Each was glowing in a bright array of colours. She stood there for a moment, trying to feel as calm as possible, when she felt a hoof on her shoulder.
"Your highness?" somepony asked, "are you alright?"
"Yes, yes, I just..." she laughed nervously, "fell asleep on the train, and there's this nasty crick in my neck."
"Wait, you recognised me? You know who I am?"
She stared at the mare for a moment, trying to work out what that meant. Was this mare shielded from what had happened? Had it only affected the Empire, or just not reached Canterlot y-
"Sorry, lost in thought for a moment there" she smiled, "just didn't expect anypony down here to know who I am."
Behind her, Shining Sapphire heard a sudden crashing sound, and two ponies arguing with each other. The guard's gaze turned toward it, then back to Shining Sapphire.
Shining Sapphire began walking off when she heard the mare cough.
She looked toward the now visible street. There did seem to be a few piles of broken glass about
"I'm not allowed to say, ma'am" she stated sheepishly. "Anyway, have a nice day."
As she made her way through the streets of Canterlot, she became aware of two things. The first was that there was a lot of broken windows about, and that she hadn't yet seen any that weren't broken, and the second was that it was beginning to rain. Actually, it was more like it was beginning to rain . She stopped, and her horn glowed. A bright pink light formed above her head, and with some careful shaping and moulding, she had herself a bright pink glowing umbrella, which while looking a bit odd did certainly keep the rain away. With the minor inconvenience of being soaked through dealt with, she continued onward, quickening her pace as she walked past brightly emblazoned shops and stores, all of which seemed to be going sans windows that morning.
Eventually the number of stores began to thin out, then they disappeared altogether, replaced by tiny little flats and houses, and then much larger, grander houses, some of which even had front gardens, or even gates. And then, soon enough, she stopped.
There was silence, save the rain pounding against anything unfortunate enough to get in its way.
Shining Sapphire sat there, ignoring the butterflies in her stomach. She was feeling remarkably excited all of a sudden, even though there wasn't anything to be excited about. True, there was the fact that it was her aunt, but all the same, she was here because of an alarming situation, and feeling excited about it was probably not the right reaction.
There was the sound of locks unlocking, and the door slowly swung open.
Shining Sapphire's smile, upon seeing who was standing there, didn't vanish, not exactly, not in as many words, but it did certainly shift a little. This might have been because the pony looking at her was not her aunt, Princess Twilight Sparkle. Oh, most assuredly it was a mare, and her first name was Twilight, and she was by all accounts an alicorn, but she definitely wasn't Twilight Sparkle. Instead, staring at Shining Sapphire with a look of increasingly manic cheerfulness was a distinctly royal blue coloured mare, who then proceeded to leap at Shining Sapphire and practically choke her with an enthusiastic hug.
"SAPPHY!" her cousin, one Twilight Twinkle, declared.
Shining Sapphire's opinions on her cousin, one Twilight Twinkle, could be summarised thusly: she was complicated. She did love her, and she owed her little cousin more than she could ever measure, since it was, however inadvertently, her actions that allowed Shining Sapphire and Wisp to meet. However, it was Twinkie's crush on Wisp that led to her getting brutally injured by a demented Nightmare. But she was her only cousin, even if she was slightly terrifying sometimes. Perhaps it was her near-total inability to lie, or her odd desire to become an adventurer, perhaps it was the noticeable cynicism she'd developed in her teenaged years, or the way she and Twilight Sparkle seemed to always be in a state of low-key hostility with one another. She was never entirely certain whether to hug her cousin or feel terrified for her. What she was sure was that at that very moment, she would have liked nothing better than for her cousin to perhaps relax her vice-like grip around her neck.
She tried expressing this in as concise a fashion as possible, given her sudden inability to speak, and evidently Twilight Twinkle recognised this, as she let go of her cousin's neck and stepped back, an unguarded smile on her face. There was an odd smell to the mare's breath that she didn't recognise, and very visible bags under her eyes, which were, she regrettably noticed, rather bloodshot, and seemed to have trouble focusing.
"Twinkie."
Shining Sapphire did so, dispelling her umbrella construct as she did. A few droplets of water briefly hung in the air, then splashed onto the small carpet in front of the door as she entered. She looked about. She honestly couldn't remember at that point when she'd last set hoof in the house, which definitely meant it had been too long. It still didn't look like the sort of house dwelt in by a Princess, even if that Princess was Twilight Sparkle.
Shining Sapphire considered this for a moment. "I think right now I could really go for some coffee right now."
"Sit down" she said, motioning toward the adjacent living room, "you don't need to stand around in the hallway looking slightly pathetic."
"Sorry about that" she said, "I was planning to sleep in this morning."
"Sorry" she said, "coffee's sort of completely banned in this house. Just to be on the safe side."
"I'm guessing this isn't a social visit. You didn't just happen to be passing through with Wisp and decide to drop by."
Twinkle's expression flickered slightly.
"Actually, Twinkie, I was wondering... is aunt Twilie up yet?"
"I'd have thought she'd probably have heard us by now, or at least wondered what's going on."
She sighed. "It's... well, perhaps I should show you first."
"Okay" the younger pony said, now eyeing her suspiciously. Shining Sapphire focused, and then the illusion just sloughed off of her. Twilight Twinkle stared at her, first in alarm, then mild horror, then suspicion, then finally outright confusion. Her mouth opened. Her mouth closed. She mouth opened again. Her mouth closed again. This repeated itself for some time.
"That's... new" she eventually got out. Shining Sapphire grinned, despite being right in front of a mare who, even though she was younger and smaller than her (even if not by much), was still very much capable of blasting her straight out (and through) the front door. She quickly tried to explain her predicament. Then she realised that it would've been quicker to sum up her situation. She did so. Her cousin just listened, not even reacting in the slightest.
"Twinkie, I can assure you that it's still me, if that helps" she said cautiously. Twilight Twinkle nodded.this " she said, staring at Shining Sapphire like she was about to explode.
"Yes" Shining Sapphire managed. There was an odd look in Twinkle's orange eyes that she wasn't liking.
"No." Twinkle stared blankly at her for some time, before she spoke again, sounding mildly confused.
Twinkle coughed nervously, her wings fluttering.
*****
Many, many, many miles away from Canterlot, there was a beach. It had fine white sands, brilliantly blue waters, impressive nearby cliffs, and was perfectly suited for the magnificent evening sunset. The nearby bar even had just the right shade to garish lighting ratio for true relaxation. All seagulls were carefully shoed away by the local resort staff. In short, the perfect place to get away and relax. It was one of the world's most exclusive resorts, which in part was because it was a resort that had, originally at least, been intended for the sole comfort of Princess Celestia herself. And in the whole time she'd known of it, she had used it a grand total of never. Of course, she still found uses for it, especially since, just to throw an example out of nowhere, it made a wonderful site for honeymooning.
At that moment, two ponies were sitting on the beach. One of them, a purple-furred mare, just lay there, a book she'd been reading now closed, as she breathed gently in and out, having fallen asleep some time ago. The other, a blue-furred stallion, was also completely asleep, having fallen asleep about the same time. The mare was lying more-or-less on top of the stallion, one of her forelegs streached out over his chest. Both of them had utterly content smiles on their faces.
*****
"SHE'S ON VACATION?!" Shining Sapphire asked. Or, far more accurately, hollered. After shaking her head, and refocusing her gaze, Twilight Twinkle nodded groggily.
The young mare scuffed a hoof against the floor, "and I may have sort of promised not to bother her."
At this, Shining Sapphire felt something inside her snap, and she groaned in frustration, as her legs just decided to give out, causing her to collapse into an undignified heap.
Shining Sapphire looked at her and smiled. "Okay" she managed. Then Twinkle shrugged.
"Maybe I can help" Shining Sapphire offered. Twinkle's smile flickered.
For a moment both mares stood there, staring one another down. Finally Shining Sapphire sagged. "Okay, okay, fine."
"I'm fine with waiting" Shining Sapphire said, though she wasn't absolutely sure about that. Time on her own would probably mean she'd start thinking about Wisp again. Her eyes darted toward the staircase, which led upstairs to the small library.
"Okay then" she said, though her enthusiasm suddenly seemed to have evaporated. She turned away, as Shining Sapphire began making her way up the stairs, when suddenly a thought occurred to her.
"Yeah?" the mare grunted.
"I..." her cousin paused, "am not actually allowed to say. Sorry, Sapphy."
For years, Twilight Twinkle had expressed what could have politely been called opinions of the legendary Star-Swirl the Bearded, holding him responsible for Twilight Sparkle becoming an alicorn, and therefore for some of the less pleasant parts of her life. And then, one month ago, that had all changed. She claimed she'd met him, repeatedly, and that he was an inexplicably likeable time-travelling maniac. Shining Sapphire wasn't entirely certain about any of that, but Twinkle certainly seemed sure about what she'd witnessed. Then she looked about the room, and saw there was in fact a bed, recently used by the look of it, not to mention several bookcases. If she had to guess, she'd have hazarded that the room she was in was the library, or had been, up until somepony had adapted it for their own use.
Then she turned again. She found herself staring at a picture. Or at least somepony's attempt at a picture. It was of a filly, or at least she presumed it was a filly, with... amazingly bright blue eyes. Clearly whoever drew it had been extremely focused on those. Then she saw the horn, that jagged, pointy horn, and she realised what she was seeing. Back when they had last met, after Twinkle hold told everypony present of her grand adventures in time and space, she had confided to her cousin of something horrible. She had been attacked by some manner of plant which dwelled within the Everfree Forest, which had somehow shown for her all her fantasies, including what would have happened had she managed to romance Wisp, which had eventually resulted in marriage and a foal. Twinkle had claimed she couldn't remember much about that dream, and that later she'd removed what little had remained, so how, she wondered, was she able to draw such a picture. Especially since the last time Sapphy had checked, Twinkle had no artistic leanings of any kind. Slowly, she turned away from it, since staring at it felt like she was seeing something she wasn't meant to, like staring into another pony's soul. She found herself staring at the bed again. Now that she thought about it, she did feel somewhat tired, even after however long it was she'd been on the train. And her back leg was beginning to ache. Perhaps a little sit down was in order. She looked over toward one of the bookcases, examining them to see if there was anything worth reading. There was an awful lot of fiction books, some complicated sounding scientific journals, a few books on Equestrian history, and one or two that didn't fit in anywhere at all. She chose a random book on herpetology, and began trying to read it.
She hadn't even gotten to the title page when she heard a small buzzing noise. She looked around, but then it seemed to have gone.
A few minutes beyond that, she had somehow managed to fall asleep again.
*****
Wisp stirred, shifting slightly in the warm sunlight. Then, he suddenly realised his eyes were shut, and more importantly, he'd fallen asleep. In an instant, he bolted upright, ignoring the flash of pain in his head that followed, chiding himself for falling asleep. The train, as it turned out, was one that went to Ponyville via the 'scenic route' which meant it took several times longer to get there, which probably explained why he'd fallen asleep again. He rubbed the side of his head with a hoof and winced for a moment. He sat on the train seat, trying to figure out how long he'd been out for. He looked out of the train, and saw that it was beginning to approach Ponyville. He stretched, and blinked a few times. Spending all that time sitting still with only his thoughts for company wasn't helping his already terrible mood. He sighed, and looked out of the window, waiting for the train to reach the platform.
Once it did, he set off, walking through the center of Ponyville, enjoying the feeling of warm summer sunlight pouring onto his back. And he began to notice things that felt different. He wasn't catching odd sensations of other ponies moods, he wasn't having to expend magic on looking like everypony else. Sure, there were ponies staring at him, just as there had all day, but then he was slightly taller than usual. And had wings and a horn as well, as he kept forgetting, but it wasn't that unusual, was it?
He kept walking, ignoring the slightly sick feeling in his stomach, as he made his way past the small restaurants, heading towards the outskirts of town, past the farthest edges of the apple orchards. A plum-coated pony with a blonde mane working on some trees turned to look at him and frowned.
"Whisper Wind?" the pony uttered, jolting Wisp out of his train of thought. "Y'back again?"
"'kay."
"Fine."
"Hey" the pony called out. He stopped and turned around. The farmpony was staring at him with a confused look.
"Not right now" he said. The pony just raised an eyebrow to this.
Wisp continued onward, soon reaching the small cottage on the absolute edge of the Everfree. He slowly approached the cottage, and then ducked. A carrot sailed through the air where his head had been seconds ago. He turned to glower at the rabbit that had thrown it, but said nothing. He quickly found the spare key, opened the door and stepped in. A few small animals looked up at him with general disinterest at best, before getting on with whatever they were doing. He made his way to the nearest chair and sat down, sighing as he did, and tried to relax and gather his thoughts.
Or at least, that's what he'd been intending to do. Unfortunately there was a shocked gasp, and the sensation of something heavy hitting the back of his head. Just before he passed out he could've sworn he heard several rabbits cheering. His last thoughts before everything went dark were wondering if that was even possible.
*****
There was an odd stench, assaulting her nose. It was hardly an offensive stench, as far as stench went. It wasn't like somepony had dragged a terrified skunk under her nose, but to Shining Sapphire's nose, whatever it was just smelled wrong. She woke up, to see whatever it was that she was being forced to sense.
It was a cup of tea. She reared back from it, and was startled to hear the slightly pathetic squeak underneath her hooves.
"Was it necessary to wake me up with... tea?" she asked, staring at the drink as if it were some kind of poison. Twilight Twinkle shrugged.
"Half past twelve?!" Shining Sapphire repeated. "Why didn't yo-"did " her cousin cut in, "about ten minutes after I went poking around in the basement I came up here and found you like this. I tried waking you, but you were out like a light."
"No kidding" Shining Sapphire murmured. Then she saw the look on Twinkle's face. The mare was staring intently at her, and it was making her feel increasingly nervous.
"Well, I was a bit concerned when my older cousin shows up on my doorstep so early in the morning, unannounced, without even so much as a letter, but then after she'd fallen asleep on my bed... I got to thinking" there was a noticeable amount of irritation in her voice at that, and she stopped for a moment.
"I..." she said. "I'm not really sure on that one."
"Last night I... might have scared him, or just been really stupid and..." she buried her face in her hooves, "I don't even know right now. Nothing about this is making any sense at all."
"And we weren't exactly... I mean, he seems to be hiding things from me, and-"
"I really don't know, Twinkie. I think I might actually be in the middle of some kind of breakdown. I think I might be going a little bit mad. None of this is making any sense."
"No" Twinkle said eventually, "you don't look like you're having a breakdown. I'd put this one down to just having a bad day."
"A bad day?" she repeated incredulously. Twinkle nodded.
She stared at her cousin for uncounted minutes, before shaking her head. "Maybe you're right. But then, I'm not used to this sort of thing. It's your domain, not mine."
Twilight Twinkle looked intrigued. "What's 'my sort of thing'?" she asked.
Twinkle stared at her cousin for a moment, before frowning. "What exactly happened to you two, then?" she asked.
"Oh, yes it is" her cousin said quickly. Sapphy stared at her, and saw from the look on her cousin's face that the mare wasn't going to give up easily, or (as was far more likely given what she knew of her) at all. She sighed, and then quickly recounted what had happened. Twinkle's expression didn't change in the slightest throughout her story. For several moments after she finished the mare sat there, not offering any opinion on Shining Sapphire's tale, just calmly drinking from her tea.
Shining Sapphire gave this some thought. "I... no."
"No" she said, with a bit more confidence.
"Yes."
"Because" Shining Sapphire said, "he said he needed to think about something, and if he needs to think about something, then fine. If he feels he needs to think about it in Ponyville, fine. And if he needs to be on his own to do it, then that's fine too. That's his choice, and I won't stop him, or harangue him about it."
"Because I know him. And because, let's face it, it's Wisp. Where else would he go?"
"By the way, why is your mom on vacation, anyway? I mean, I thought she'd just been on vacation, just last month, just before..." she shuffled, "you know, everything."
"She was" Twinkle said, her voice leaden, "and then the exact day she went on vacation, somepony had to get caught in an accident with time-travel. And then dad came back, and then I came back, looking slightly younger and with wings, and so she had to deal with all of that, and then there was all sorts of complicated legal stuffs and such, and eventually she decided not to bother being on vacation at all."
"Not done yet. You see, a few weeks later, it turned out mom wasn't getting any sleep. Some kind of night terrors, bad enough the house sometimes shook. And you know what mom can be like when there's something wrong. Took days of me and dad to convince her just to go see somepony, anypony."
There was something about the way Twinkle had said that last sentence that concerned Shining Sapphire, an odd amount of bitterness seeping into it, probably without Twinkle having even noticed. "At which point Celestia steps in, recommends her to some place somewhere. Well," she said, "I mean she sort of insisted mom go."
"And what happened next?" Sapphy asked. Twinkle just gave her what was usually referred to as a Look. Shining Sapphire shook her head.
"So, if auntie's on vacation, then-?"
"What's all this?" Twinkle asked, motioning toward the books, suddenly looking annoyed, though Sapphy could've sworn she saw a small hint of a smirk buried in there somewhere. "Well, some of it is my own research on... stuff, and some of it is because I agreed to help mom with some of her projects. Right now I'm having to go over all the records there are on Star-Swirl the Bearded, because ever since I met that 'Doctor', mom wanted to triple-check all the known facts on him, and anypony who's met him."
She stopped, and then sighed, taking another swig of her tea. "At least, I'm supposed to be doing that, but for one reason or another, I keep getting distracted."
"You're more of a distraction from the distraction" she grinned, then stopped, and then rubbed a hoof against her chin thoughtfully. "Or maybe..."
Twinkle's smile vanished, and for a time she said nothing. Her gaze flittered about the room, she shuffled her hooves, and generally looked like she was in all likelihood holding back a massive rant.
"And you've not been doing anything else?" Shining Sapphire asked.
"But what?"
"Which was?"
Shining Sapphire blinked in confusion. "You and Wisp keep implying something's wrong with Rainbow Dash. Why is that?"
Sapphy raised an eyebrow. "Which is?"
There was a sudden silence. "Still, most of the ponies she taught have gone on to enjoy highly successful careers, make of that what you will."
Shining Sapphire stared at Twinkle, waiting for her to say more. "So that's it?" she asked, when Twinkle said nothing else. "You haven't done anything else? Not tried to make some new friends, or met somepony?"
Twinkle scoffed. "I haven't really had time to do anything else."
Sapphy stared at her hooves, trying not to think about any certain changelings. "I do know how that feels" she reluctantly agreed.
Shining Sapphire however, didn't hear whatever her cousin had said, for her attention was now being drawn to an odd-looking book. The reason for the oddity was because in contrast to the general disorganised mess of the room, this book was set on a small stand, on its own. Indeed, everything around it seemed to have been moved away. She stared at the cover, which looked amazingly unassuming. It was a completely featureless dark brown cover, the words evidently having faded with sheer age. And there was something about it that was just... tantalising, pulling her closer, and closer, and cl-
A royal blue hoof suddenly stopped her from advancing, and suddenly it was like somepony had removed a pair of ear-muffs from her. Twinkle was staring intently at her.
"What's wrong with it?" she asked, edging backwards. Now she could suddenly feel it. There was an odd metallic taste in the air around the book, one she couldn't put her hoof on. Twinkle just shook her head.
Shining Sapphire felt her blood freeze, as she remembered what Twinkle had told her had become of the Nightmare that had tried to kill her. As it had turned out, it had survived being blasted with the Crystal Heart's energies, however barely, and had lain dormant in Twinkle for several months, until re-emerging and going on a violent rampage, until being removed from Twinkle, and sealed inside a storybook. The one she was staring at right at that moment.
"What's happened to your leg?" she asked. Shining Sapphire just bit down on her lip.
"You were walking oddly just after the Changeling invasion" she noted, "at the time, I didn't mention anything, because I figured after all the hardship, the last thing anypony needed was more drama. Then, this morning, when you were standing in the doorway under your glowing pink umbrella, you were finding it difficult to stand still, shifting your weight from one leg to another."
"So, I'm guessing your back leg didn't heal properly, and for whatever reason, and I'm thinking it was something to do with not wanting to upset your parents, you didn't mention anything. Am I right?"
"Yeah" she whispered, "you're right. You're always right."
Suddenly, Twilight Twinkle began to smile. Her horn glowed brightly, and a small beam of light shot forth from her horn, striking Shining Sapphire's leg. There was a strange tingling sensation throughout it, and then... nothing. No pain, no aches, no... no nothing. After a few seconds she stood up, cautiously. She felt nothing at all, save the feel of a hoof making contact with the carpet. She stared blankly at Twinkle.
"It's me, remember?" she said triumphantly, on seeing Sapphy's expression. "I may not be able to fix a broken relationship, but a broken bone? I can fix that."
"But..." Shining Sapphire stuttered, "how did-?"
Shining Sapphire paused, as she went over every reason she'd given for not going to see a doctor about her leg. Suddenly, and despite their having seemed sensible at the time, they sounded like so much nonsense.
"Thanks" she smiled. Twinkle just bowed her head.
"Now then, let's go see about getting this... Changeling nonsense checked out before something else distracts us."
"Just one problem" she announced, and waited for Twinkle to turn around.
"Meh" she declared, "I've seen better."
*****
Wisp slowly opened his eyes, and then, realising he was not about to be sacrificed by a horde of pony-eating rabbits, wondered what had happened. He slowly sat up, and then felt a sharp jab with a hoof in the side.
"Hello, Minty" he said calmly, "how's your mom?"
"That's nice" Wisp groaned. "I'm guessing that was you who hit me."
"Cockatrice, I think" Wisp said.
"Guessing you're here doing the chores" he said, to which the filly nodded, grinning slightly. Then she looked confused.
The filly leaned in closer, trying to look as threatening as possible. "You hurt big sis's feelings" she said. Wisp just looked down at his hooves.
"I didn't kick you in the back of the head" Minty said defensively, "I just-... oops."
Minty stuck her tongue out at him, then tilted her head. "But really, how come you're here?"
"Did you hurt somepony else's feelings?" Minty asked innocently, "like that pretty mare you were with?"
"Sort of," Wisp started, before he realised that might have been the wrong thing to say, especially once Minty gasped in horror.
Minty stared at him suspiciously for a while, then she suddenly switched to the familiar toothy grin of the Pies.
Then, quite suddenly, the door clicked open, and a pony stepped in. Then the pony stopped, and stared at him. Her jaw fell open slightly. Wisp, despite his low mood, couldn't help but smile.
*****
"Are you sure you know how this thing works?" Shining Sapphire (now looking more like a Changeling again) asked, trying to look at the odd bowl on her head. Twilight Twinkle gave her a serious Look.
She sighed, and looked back toward her cousin, "Unfortunately this thing just didn't come with easily labelled controls, or a several hundred page manual, so... just sit still and don't move."
"No sighing either" Twinkle stated.
"Because" Twinkle said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "you're sighing because you miss Wisp, right?
"Even though you two haven't broken up or anything, and are just by all accounts having an incident induced rough-patch, which you will sort out at the nearest opportunity?"
"Then don't sigh. Otherwise you'll start singing. And I'll have to hurt somepony."
"It's just... I am worried about him" she whispered, "he's been acting so strangely the last few weeks. Like he's hiding something from me. I mean, it's not like he can't talk to me. But he won't. He spends almost all of his time on his own"
"There's one way to check" Twinkle finally said, glancing over toward her cousin, "the real Wisp would probably have scars from those Timberwolves."
There was no response from her cousin, she turned to look at the mare, who was just staring at her like she'd grown a second head. Shining Sapphire just smiled back at her.
"Sorry" she said, "here you are trying to help me, and all I can do is go on about Wisp."
"Okay, I think that should be it" she said, as she flicked a random switch. After a few seconds there was a small whirring noise, followed by an odd clank. Then the machine began making a wide variety of noises.
"Let's hope so."
"Well?"
There was a complete absence of noise from the machine. Twilight Twinkle glowered at the machine, then turned to look at Sapphy's incredulous look. "Hey, gimme a break. This thing's over twenty-three years old, and it's been sitting in a basement for most of those years. The fact it works at all is a small miracle."
"Did that help?" Shining Sapphire asked. Twinkle just nodded.
"... yes " Twinkle said, through gritted teeth.
"No sighing!" Twinkle chided.
Twinkle said nothing to that, merely staring at the reams of paper pouring out from one end of the machine. Then she stared at Shining Sapphire.
Shining Sapphire blinked. "Pardon?"
"I..." Shining Sapphire stopped. "I'm not really certain. And I thought, perhaps, it was just a trick of perception, you know, making Wisp unable to perform whatever spells he needed to change shape, making me think my teeth were actually fangs, things like that, but..."
She shook her head. "Then I started seeing what ponies were feeling, which is utterly impossible, unless you somehow were able to rewrite biology."
Shining Sapphire blinked. What an odd question ask. She stared at Twinkle. "Does it really matter who did it?" she asked, "I mean, it could've been anypony but-"
"You really don't know what you just said, do you?" Twinkle said, quietly.
A sudden feeling of horror was beginning to creep through her. Twinkle's horn glowed brightly, and then she took a step away from Shining Sapphire.
"I tried to talk Wisp into sleeping in the same bed as me, I succeeded, we had dinner, we felt tired, we retired for the night, and then... and..."
Twinkle just nodded. "You've been feeling unusually tired today, right?"
Twinkle didn't respond for a while, before she finally said "No, but it probably hasn't helped any. Neither has your disruption to your regular sleeping patterns. Well, at least, I assume you have a sleeping pattern, and don't just fall asleep on an as-needed basis."Twinkie , what's wrong. With. Me?"
Twilight Twinkle bit her lip. She 'hmm'd' and 'hahhed' and looked about awkwardly. Then she sighed, and looked straight at Shining Sapphire.
There was a sudden near-silence, save the noises of the scanner. "With a sleeping potion."
"That's why you keep falling asleep. Because," and all of a sudden she actually started grinning, "whoever did this, in addition to being dumb enough to actually do this to you and Wisp, also apparently wasn't very good with measurements, because they used way too much."
"Also? You've been under a pretty nasty brainwashing spell" she said, so quickly it took Shining Sapphire a few seconds to realise and react to it.WHAT? " she gritted her teeth, if only because she wasn't certain how to feel at that point. Somepony had snuck into her room, and managed to brainwash her, and Wisp most likely, and she'd not noticed?
"How?" she asked, incredulous, "I mean... mom and dad made sure that I was brainwash proof! Dad even taught me all the stuff he knew."
"Well..." Shining Sapphire stopped. "I guess" she said weakly.
Shining Sapphire just felt her legs give out. This was too much, this was all too much. She just wanted to be at home, with her books, in her library, in her comfy chair with Wisp, and her parents, and if at all possible, with her sanity. That was all she wanted.
"Stop that" Twinkle scolded. She glowered at her.
There was a sudden abnormally loud rumbling from her stomach. "Hungry?" she asked, staring at her stomach, then back to Twinkle, who looked like she was fighting the urge to laugh.
"Well" Twinkle said, "I think the machine's got enough data on you to analyse now, but it'll probably need a while to run properly. So, yeah. Lunch might be a brilliant idea. Except..." she trailed off. Sapphy leapt to her hooves.
There was a sudden ringing sound. Twilight suddenly looked genuinely confused.
"Who?" Shining Sapphire asked, "who is 'early'?"
"Yes. You did."conversations mom and me have been having," her expression suddenly shifted, "about a lot of things, she still doesn't like the idea of leaving me on my own again. You know, she seems convinced I might just... vanish or do something crazy like time-travel again."
"Will you?"
"Twinkie, please, no dramatics. Who is it that's at the door?"
"Wait, did you just say-"
"Yeah" Twinkle said, an alarming smile spreading across her face. "Granma Velvet and Granpa Night Light."
'Oh, right' some part of her mind that was still working thought, 'she can teleport now.'
*****
The clock ticked slowly, as two ponies just sat there, as they had for several minutes now.
"Mom?" he asked, causing the mare to turn back toward him, "what are you doing?"
"I'm not feeling hungry" Wisp murmured. Fluttershy just looked at him.
"But I-" he started. Fluttershy was still just... looking at him.
Wisp stared down at his hooves. "Miserable isn't how I'd describe myself right now."
Wisp sighed. "I was meaning to write, mom, but... I... forgot."
"No, mom, I..." Wisp sighed again, but with an undercurrent of exasperation. Fluttershy just shook her head, and he could've sworn he heard her chuckle.
"Yeah" Wisp said. Suddenly, Fluttershy stopped dead in her tracks.her demented cackling everywhere.
"It..." he stopped, and saw the look on Flutter- his mother's face. He couldn't lie to her, couldn't not tell her the truth, especially since she'd just figure out he was lying and get upset.
"What about her?" Fluttershy asked, quietly. "Wisp, dear, what happened?"
"I love her."
*****
"Grandma!" Shining Sapphire heard Twilight Twinkle exclaim from upstairs, "Grandpa!"
"Oh, you know, same as always."
"Well, it might be a little bit better than usual" Twinkle responded. "How're you two?"
"Oh, by the way" she heard Twinkle say, her voice sounding slightly different now, "you'll never guess who showed up this morning."
"Oh," she heard Twinkle said, sound disappointed, "come on, granddad. Guess."
"Fine, fine, but brace yourselves."
There were two simultaneous gasps. "Really?" grandpa Night Light exclaimed, "Shining Sapphire is here? Right now?"
"She's not planning to surprise us, is she?" Twilight Velvet deadpanned.
"What's she hiding for?" Night Light asked.
Like a Nightmare attacking her, she found herself thinking, or meeting a nice colt and going out with him. That one was sort of self-explanatory. Going out . And all she did was sit indoors and read. She like reading, though. She was good at it. She always was. Like her parents used to say, she was usually more knowledgeable than her tutors, which is why they had to have aunt Twilie send them a recommended reading list especially for her. And they'd looked so confused when her Cutie Mark hadn't been a book or something along those lines.
And then she remembered how she'd met Twinkie. She'd been sitting in her room studying when Twinkie had first visited, and hadn't even bothered to leave her room for ten minutes and go say hello. Twinkie had only stumbled upon her because she'd wandered off (while being lectured about wandering off from her mother, no less).
Suddenly, she felt a lot smaller than she should have. She looked about the room. The whole place was too exposed, and they'd find her. Then she looked down at her hooves, and had an idea. She was in the body of a Changeling, after all.
"Are you sure she's down here?" she heard her grandfather say. "I can't see her."
She heard their hoofsteps continuing down the stairs.proper horror stories, not the wishy-washy tragic monster nonsense young fillies read these days, and some of the things in those horror stories have managed to stick with me, despite some very spirited efforts."
"Mmm-hmm" she heard grandpa Night Light say. "Of course, what I'm really curious about is two things. For one, why is our other granddaughter hanging to the ceiling?"
"Come on down from there, dear."
"Ow" she mumbled, before getting to her hooves and hugging both ponies.
"Sorry" she said instantly, "I just... wanted to show you I cared."
"Honey" her grandmother smiled, "we know you care. You don't need to prove that to us."
Shining Sapphire was certain her cousin had probably muttered something under her breath after that.
"Indeed" Night Light grinned, "after all, hearing from our daughter in-law about how wonderful you are is lovely, but we'd much rather hear about you from... well, you."
Shining Sapphire just smiled, before a small handkerchief wiped away her tears, before being gently folded back up again by her grandmother, who smiled warmly at her.
*****
After Wisp's initial outburst, Fluttershy had just simply stared at him expectantly. He, meanwhile, had just sat there, looking down at his hooves. His silence wasn't because of any difficulty of telling Fluttershy, the one pony he really felt he could be honest with, but more because she was his mother, and as far as he was concerned, always would be, regardless of tiny little unimportant bits of trivia like the truth.
"Sorry" he mumbled, "I'm just... I'm just trying to figure out how to explain it, because..."
He sighed, and then collapsed back into the sofa he was sitting on. "And, because I love her, when she asked me to move into her house, or palace, I didn't hesitate. Well, hesitate, for me."
"And it wasn't... I mean, even before she... before Chrysalis had me abducted, I didn't want to be prince of the changelings, or king, or queen or whatever damn thing they want to-" he stopped, realising what he'd just done, and turned to look sheepishly at Fluttershy.
"Sweetie, I'm not going to yell at you for a mild cuss."
"No" Fluttershy said, smiling innocently, "though I would like it if you tried not to do it again."
"You were saying?" she said. He just nodded.is ."
He sighed again, and sat up. "So, I fall in love with a beautiful, wonderful, genius of a mare, and she asked me to move in with her, and I just say yes. And it wasn't that, you know, I hadn't thought about the fact that, yeah, I'd have to be a prince, or prince consort, or whatever it is they call Shining Armor, and live in a castle and be a prince and do, basically, everything I never wanted to be, it's just..."
"I just didn't care. I didn't think about the consequences of what I was doing because I was with her. Because... she was hurt, really badly, by a Nightmare that had possessed Twilight Twinkle, and... I don't know the whole story, but it sounded like that was supposed to be it for her, but she woke up, just to save me. She loves me, and I love her. And..."hurts to look at her sometimes."
He sighed, but this time it was more contentedly than he'd felt in a long time, like some weight had fallen from his back. "She's worth it, mom."
"What a load of sappy mush! " declared Minty Pie, before the filly turned to Fluttershy and smiled. "the chicken coops are clean now, auntie Fluttershy."
"Thanks" the filly smiled.
"But, m-"
"It was mushy" the filly muttered, "even mom would think so."
Minty just stared at him blankly. "And Banana said you were boring."
*****
Before discussion could have turned to what Shining Sapphire had been getting up to, the mare had decided she was not going to go one more millisecond without any caffeine, and that was why she vowed to go get some.
"That's helpful" Shining Sapphire remarked. Twilight Twinkle had rolled her eyes and quickly filled Shining Sapphire in on where it was. The mare blinked, then frowned, then turned to the hallway to fetch her notebook. She stared at the coatrack hanging there, and frowned further.
"Twinkie?" she asked.
"Where did you put my saddlebag?"
"My saddlebag. That thing I had with me when I came here. It had my notes in it. And some other things."
"I did."
Shining Sapphire stared at the coatrack. She was sure she'd had her saddlebag. It had been with her on the train, and she was sure she'd put it on wh-
"Who, honey?" asked Night Light.
Shining Sapphire shook her head. Wisp must have either taken the bag by accident and not noticed, or taken it on purpose as an excuse for them to see each other once more, for whatever reason. She sighed, which quickly turned into an exasperated hiss. She'd been too long without sweet, sweet coffee. She focused her magic, reassumed her disguise once more, and then made her way out into the streets, determined to find coffee at any cost.
A few minutes later, Twilight Twinkle came into the sitting room, and asked her grandparents to watch the cooking while she checked the machine's analysis. She quickly made her way into the basement, and stared at the read-out. While she was the daughter of Twilight Sparkle, she didn't usually have her mother's tendency toward being thorough. Nonetheless she checked the results again, and again.
*****
It had been a gruelling search for Princess Cadance and Shining Armor, but eventually they'd found four of the five Changelings, all five of them just sitting calmly in one of the many, many drawing rooms the Crystal Palace had. When they'd seen the two ponies coming, they had almost looked... well, resigned, as a matter of fact.
Then, Cadance had slowly lifted her crown off her head, and their expression turned into outright terror. Shining Armor, for his part, looked shocked.
Her expression turned to blazing hot fury as she moved closer to the Changelings.
"What. Has. Happened. To. My. Daughter?!"
*****
"But it doesn't make any sense !" Twilight Twinkle said, pacing up and down the hallway, her wings occasionally flapping, "you can't just rewrite a pony's biology like that, even with the strongest magic available. Even with mom it was because there was already potential in her for alicorn-hood. I mean, if it was just Wisp it'd make sense because a Changeling would probably have to hold a form, makes sense they'd have to be able to hold it even when they're asleep, otherwise their cover would be blown in an instant."
She shook her head as she kept marching up and down, her grandparents exchanging increasingly concerned Looks.
She facehoofed. "Changelings. Of course, the damn Changelings. Nopony suspected them because they saved Wisp's life, but he doesn't wanna be king! And he's only half-Changeling anyhow, so he's probably no good to them. But if you forced the decision, made it so something happened that he had to be king..."
She bit her lip, and began pacing again. "Not getting everything, still missing something. AHA!" she yelled, startling both grandparents, "the BRAINWASHING SPELL!"
"If somepony tried to use it on Shining Sapphire, but she's trained to resist them, and after being abducted and nearly killed Wisp's probably more paranoid than anything, probably hears them coming. Of course, the sleeping potion! Neither of them are able to fight back, something goes wrong. Sapphy's connection to the Crystal Heart, it reacts somehow because she's in distress, maybe tries to absorb the Changeling's spell and diffuse it, but it's connected to everypony in the city and..."
She suddenly gasped. "No! No! No way, that's... no, it's just stupid, but... no..." she groaned, "No! Now that stupid idea's stuck in my head!"
She stopped, her mouth just hanging open as she saw the sight waiting on the other side of the door, her expression one of total disbelief, as the dark blue mare standing in front of her smile awkwardly.
"No" Twinkle said firmly, "Not now. Whatever it is, it c-"
"I don't care! "
Night Light hummed. Twilight Velvet raised an eyebrow.
"How far is Canterlot Castle?" he asked. Twilight Velvet shrugged.
"Well," Night Light shrugged, as his horn lit up, dragging the front door of the house closed, "I figured it'd probably not take little Twinkle more than a minute, half a minute tops to get back here if she tried."
"Ah, yes. Forgotten about those."
"True, true."
"Must've been pretty important for Princess Luna to be up so early" she noted. "And Shining Sapphire's been gone an awful long time just for coffee. I hope she's alright."
*****
The Changelings had quickly huddled together, whispering toward one another, before the one that had been labelled Impulse stepped forward.
"You don't know" Cadance repeated.
"I think you explaining what the hay is going on would be a tremendous idea" she said. "Don't you think so, Shining?"
"I'm waiting" Cadance said. The Changelings looked alarmed.
"Patience running very thin" Shining Armor stated.
He grinned the nervous grin of a being that didn't expect to see the next day.
*****
Wisp stared down at the empty plate, then over toward Fluttershy, who smiled sweetly.
"I think that may be the first time you've ever rushed to eat your lunch to get outside" she said, sighing slightly. Wisp quickly took this as tacit acceptance to leave, and practically leapt off the chair. He was halfway to the door when he stopped, and walked back over toward Fluttershy, giving her one last hug.
"You really don't have to" Fluttershy said.
"I'm your mother" Fluttershy said, "I will always worry about you. Even if you have foals, I'll be worrying about you."
"Thought you were already married" Minty Pie muttered. Wisp ignored her, gave Fluttershy one last hug, then stopped when he saw the saddlebag sitting on its own.
He looked at the bag, with the buckle styled after Shining Sapphire's Cutie Mark, and smiled at it. Then, he shook his head.
He opened the door, and then stared in confusion at the sight in front of him.
"Hello" she said warmly. "Whisper Wind, wasn't it?"
"Don't worry" Princess Celestia smiled. "That's what the tea's for."
*****
Several minutes ago.
She stopped, and looked about. There wasn't any sign of a coffee shop anywhere about, and she was beginning to feel slightly dizzy. Perhaps it was the altitude, she reasoned. Even though she'd been to Canterlot before and never had any problems then.
"Um" she said, "excuse me?"
"You wouldn't know the way to the nearest coffee shop, would you? I mean, I'm not really used to this city, you see, and..." she laughed, "I might be a bit lost."
"Thanks" she said. "You have no idea how much this means to me."
Then she realised.
"We do apologise, your highness. All things being equal, we'd rather not do this. But we have no choice..."
Shining Sapphire, her mind worn down by four Changelings casting on her at one, dropped over. The four Changelings exchanged glances, and then reluctantly lifted her up. Then, with a mild shimmer, they vanished from sight.
*****
Shining Sapphire blearily opened her eyes, wondering what was causing that odd noise, and why her head hurt so much, and how long had she been out, if it was so dark?
And the reason it was so dark was because... she looked about. She couldn't see anything, so she lit up her horn, and glanced at her hooves. She wished she hadn't.
And, she now realised, the reason her head was hurting wasn't just because of the Changelings zapping her mind. It was because they'd decided, just for giggles, to put her upside down.
"My, my," a voice said. A low, almost sultry voice, "what luck this is."
"What a lovely piece of luck this is" Chrysalis, the Changeling Queen, smiled, in the sort of way usually saved for things in dark alleys, "just the pony I wanted to see."
"Because, Shining Sapphire, I very much want to have a little..." the grin grew wider.Heart-to-heart talk with you..."
Author's Note
Urgh. Stupid writer's block! (shakes fist)
Whisper Wind found himself staring blankly, as his mind tried to catch up on what was happening. He'd just vowed to go find Shining Sapphire and try and apologise for what he did, so naturally Princess Celestia had just randomly appeared on his mother's front doorstep, with the offering of tea. Of course, considering he was supposed to be a Changeling currently stuck in the form of a pony, this was probably supposed to seem utterly ordinary and normal. But somewhere between Princess of the Day, and 'carrying tea', his mind has just totally disconnected, and was now wondering if she was going to address him as a 'highness'.
Hence why he was still having problems speaking in anything but sentence fragments. He paused, and tried saying something again.
"Yes" she said instantly, "I was wondering if you had time to talk about something."
"I'm afraid I must insist" she said calmly. Wisp's blood froze, finely honed survival instincts suddenly blaring away. He looked up at the princess of the day.
He stepped aside, allowing Princess Celestia into the cottage. Since his mother raised no objection, he assumed she had no problem.
Wisp turned and moved toward the kitchen. Then a thought occurred to him, and he stopped to turn and look at Her Highness. "What is it that's so important you felt the need to travel all the way here just to talk to me about?"
Much to his surprise, Wisp didn't have to guess as to who that could've been. It had to be Twilight Twinkle, since they had been going to Canterlot, where she lived (or at least spent much of her time), unless at some point in the last month she'd taken up residence in the Ponyville library full-time.
Then he saw something truly alarming. Princess Celestia looked worried. Suddenly he began wondering just how bad the situation had to be for that to happen, or if it was just because she couldn't stand the thought of somepony, much less her niece, having relationship problems.
Wisp blinked, trying to determine what he'd just heard. "Twilight Twinkle" he said slowly, "asked you, Princess Celestia, to help Shining Sapphire and me with our 'problem'?"
"And you agreed?"
Princess Celestia just nodded. Wisp stared at her, expecting her to suddenly grin madly, or turn out to be Twilight Twinkle playing some manner of joke, or for dozens of Pies to suddenly appear and reveal it was a massive prank. He glanced about uncertainly.
He could've sworn there was an odd look in Princess Celestia's eyes at that moment.
Wisp's mood soured. There it was. What it always seemed to come down to. Then he realised what she'd said.
"I have my ways."
"Hold on" a voice declared, and both ponies turned to look at Minty Pie, who had just been staring at the sight of a Princess sitting down in Fluttershy's house like she was just a friend visiting for tea, and was now marching over toward Wisp.
Wisp just nodded at the intense glare he was getting from the ten year-old, who then suddenly looked confused.
There was a gentle cough from Fluttershy, "Minty, I just remembered I need to fix up the chicken hutches. I don't suppose you'd be willing to help, would you?"
"So then," Princess Celestia said, "I think perhaps we should get down to business."
*****
"Well?" Cadance asked, looking at the four Changelings in front of her. The manic one, Impulse, had stated he was going to explain everything, and then had fallen utterly silent. By now her mood was rapidly approaching angry.
There was an annoyed sigh from Shining Armor. "Look" he snapped, "just explain what's been going on, and stop dancing around the issue."
He paused, and looked hesitantly toward the other four, then back to Cadance and Shining Armor.
"What?" Shining Armor asked. The Changelings exchanged glances, or rather they glared at Impulse, who just stared at Cadance and Shining Armor.
"But it involved our thinking your prince was our son?" Cadance guessed. Impulse looked hesitant, his wings buzzing.
"And where is he, anyhow?" Shining Armor asked. Impulse looked over toward the other Changelings, who were still glowering, then the turned back toward Cadance and Shining Armor. He frowned.
"This is getting ridiculous" she frowned. Shining Armor nodded.
"Let's make this clear. I am getting extremely annoyed. Cut out your nonsense and tell me what you know!"
That was it. Shining Armor, already sharing his wife's exasperation, felt something snap.
"Yessiryourhighnesssir!" Windsheer said, even throwing in a salute, before walking over towards the door, "right this way."telling them what to do.
Shining, meanwhile, just looked at Cadance, who had a pained expression on her face. He nudged her, getting a worried smile back.
*****
Shining Sapphire would have kicked herself if her legs were free, and she were actually capable of doing so. After waking up turned into a Changeling, after managing to badly damage her relationship with Wisp, after travelling all across Equestria in order to talk to her aunt who wasn't even there, and causing herself no small amount of embarrassment in the process, she'd assumed that would have been it, that from there things were going to improve. Now, hanging from the ceiling of a cave, she realised what a hopelessly optimistic assessment that was. Right in front of her stood one of the worst ponies she could possibly have been in front of. A mare who had hurt her father, her mother, her lover, and humiliated her aunt and invaded her home. And a pony whom, the last time they'd met, she'd somehow managed to best in combat, though she was willing to admit that was mostly due to having somehow absorbed the energy of the Crystal Heart, and some adrenalin.
Currently, the mare was circling her, glowering what almost looked like motherly disapproval, light coming from Shining Sapphire's horn barely revealing her face in an already dark cave.
"What?" Shining Sapphire asked. "What's so 'interesting'?"
Shining Sapphire blinked. That was a curious thing to say.
"Do you not love my son? Did I not attempt to kill him? Did I not attempt to kill you? And of course, the time I first met your parents, let's not forget about that. Surely you should be angry, that I did all these things."
"Better ?" Chrysalis spat.diminishes me. I am lessened by it."
Chrysalis stared at her, her mouth contorting into a rictus of fury, and she turned away. "BEHOLD!" she declared, "Behold, the glorious Shining Sapphire! Virtuous, noble, pure to a fault!"always this sanctimonious, or was it something you had to work at?!"
Shining Sapphire stared unflinchingly at Chrysalis. "You realise, of course," she said calmly, "if you were to kill me, or even hurt me, my family would probably hunt you to the ends of the earth. And I think your son would lead the charge on that one."
Shining Sapphire looked down (or, more accurately, up) at her hooves. She didn't reckon her chances of escaping from those any time soon, not with at least one Changeling Queen nearby. But on the plus side, she was definitely talking, all she had to do know was avoid the dreaded monologue. Or more singing.
"I didn't really plan to have" and there was the oddest pause before she said the next word, "him, but... oh, his sire was just so charming, and... well. Much sport had at his making, as they say. And I wonder, if perhaps I had taken the time to raise him, what would he have become. But instead, I decided to leave him near that wretched Ponyville, to learn about their ways, and how best to avoid all those other fiascos with your kind. Perhaps... if I'd gone to him, explained things... maybe we could've been happy"
"So, you left him by Fluttershy's house on purpose?" Shining Sapphire asked, before catching and chiding herself for interrupting the monologue.
There was a pause, punctated by what sounded like a hoof tapping on something. "But, despite certain vows, I kept tabs on my little pony, watching him grow, and... squander all the opportunities of his heritage. Helping those moronic apple farmers, or those ridiculous bakers. He cared about you ponies. And all the while he chose to hide what he was, wrapping himself in the trappings of a dull, boring, ordinary pony. I was terrified he was planning to get a job as a doctor, or worse, an accountant !"you . I suppose it is some form of irony that he would fall in love with you."
She blinked. That didn't sound like irony, to her. Situational irony, perhaps, but not irony proper. If anything, it seemed fitting. Maybe even appropriate.
"So, my dear child meets you, and nothing happens. At first, but then he went and got himself hurt by those ugly beasts, hurt so bad that I felt his pain and terror from half a world away. My own child, so badly injured and I could do nothing ."
Chrysalis stepped back into the dim light. "But he rejected my attempts to nurture him. He instead chose to seek solace from her . From that pathetic, simpering, whimpering cowardly pegasus. He called her 'mother'. I AM HIS MOTHER! ME! AND NO OTHER!"
She gritted her teeth. "And of course, he began dreaming of you. And he fell in love with you. And that was when I realised I had to act, I had to do something, or else lose him forever."
Suddenly her eyes began to water. "He refused. He refused emphatically. He even tried to flee us, though that naturally didn't work. But when we dragged him back..."mistake . But..."
She stared at Shining Sapphire, and shook her head.
And then, quite suddenly, she began to smile. "Of course, some of my subjects, it seemed, did object to my reaction. And that, I must admit, is one of the most curious parts of this tale. I can understand why my son, tainted by ponies as he is, would fall for you. I can see why he must have felt he was being heroic in resisting his birthright. What I cannot understand is how exactly he was saved by the Changelings he was saved by. Would you like to know why?"
"Yes?" she said, to which Chrysalis's grin grew.
*****
The four Changelings had finally made their way to one of the numerous identical guest suites of the castle. They had filed inside and then stood around the bed, looking at the form sprawled out on it. Cadance walked over to the prone Angel Eyes, and frowned.
"We don't know, precisely" the big one, Rock, if she remembered correctly, stated. "Yesterday morning he seemed fine, but around about the time you were eating your breakfast, he just collapsed."
She frowned in concern, and looked toward Shining Armor. Instantly, he realised what she was about to say, and turned to leave the room.
Impulse grinned nervously, "very well" he said, in the manner of a foal who'd been caught sticking their hoof in a cookie jar.
*****
"I know all of my Changelings" Chrysalis whispered, "from the lowliest pupa to the most stalwart worker, every one of them is seared onto my soul. I know everything about them, which is why I find what happened to Wisp so strange."
She leaned in closer towards Shining Sapphire, her voice getting lower and lower. "Somehow, and I've no idea how, my son was somehow saved by the five worst Changelings there are."
*****
"We're scavengers" Rock said glumly. "In basic terms, that's as lowly a position as a Changeling gets. We're the dregs, if you like. We're sent out to drain emotions from injured animals, or the lost, and the weak, and the helpless, the tiniest morsels, rather than get in the way of the actual workers."
"No" the fourth Changeling, whose name she couldn't recall, stated. "He's just been sampling some of your pony foodstuffs, and has taken a shine to what you call 'candy'."sugar-rush ?"
"Yes" Rock sighed. Impulse just grinned madly.
"Any other dramatic revelations you wish to share?" she asked. Impulse raised a hoof.
"Liar!" snapped his comrade, even as his wings buzzed furiously.
There was a sudden noise from the bed, as Angel Eyes stirred. He blinked slowly, and then froze when he saw Cadance staring at him. His eyes darted toward the other Changelings, then back to Cadance, before he looked about awkwardly.
"Oh" he uttered.
*****
"I am honestly not certain how those bumbling oafs managed to escape all the way to your Empire" Chrysalis muttered, staring off into the middle distance, "but they did. And what fortuitousness it was that they did. I had been contemplating how to do such a thing for a long time, but I worried that perhaps the way was blocked for Changelings. Perhaps a foolish concern, but given what had happened with previous dealings with your kind, I was hoping to avoid any ridiculous last minute surprises."
She frowned, and stalked off into the darkness. "And somehow it all managed to go wrong. Somehow you, a child, with no knowledge of how to fight, no expertise, no skill, terrified out of your mind, you managed to defeat me!"
"Which" Chrysalis sighed, "brings us to now. My Changelings have decided that I am too unstable, too dangerous, to rule properly. The Crystal Empire was just one failure too many. All I have left are my small retinue. The merest fraction of my Changelings, the rest all scattered and divided to the farthest corners of the land, with me unable to do anything about it, condemned to exile for my actions. All because you ponies corrupted my son, with your delusions and your ridiculous notions."
She then stopped, and gave off an angry snort, and then moved in toward Shining Sapphire, fangs glinting in the small amount of light. And then, she began to smile.
'Well' she thought to herself, as she felt her blood chill, 'so far so good on the get her talking front. Escaping, not so much.'
"I suppose at some point you are expecting me to reveal to you some great secret of Changeling-kind" Chrysalis said, with an apathetic air, "of our history, and how we came to be, or something along those lines."
"No. Don't be absurd."
Shining Sapphire said nothing, just staring at it. Chrysalis's smile returned.
"With a mouldy old crown?" Shining Sapphire asked.
Shining Sapphire stared at Chrysalis's face, and the manic expression she had. "And then?"
Chrysalis just chortled. "Well, my dear Changelings will sense the magic weaved throughout it, and follow you. And since the only way you could possibly have acquired this crown is through disposing of me, that would mean dear little Whisper Wind" her smiled twitched violently at the name, "would have to choose between remaining a nothing, letting you spend the rest of your life running from vengeful Changelings, or accepting his birth right, and becoming what he was born to be."
"Putting aside how ridiculous your plan is," Shining Sapphire said, "there's one incredibly large detail you don't know about."
"Ta-da" she deadpanned. Chrysalis stared blankly for a moment, her mouth twitching slightly. Slowly, she walked over toward Shining Sapphire, and lifted a hoof, prodding the mare in the face. When she did, her gaze hardened, and she turned away. Shining Sapphire could've sworn she heard growling.
"YOU IDIOTS!" she bellowed to the darkness, "YOU CAPTURED THE WRONG PONY!"
"What is this, anyway? A distraction? A game? What's your name, your real name?" she hissed.
Chrysalis glared at her. "Are you telling me... you've been a Changeling all this time?"
"But-" Chrysalis sputtered, "you- I- it-..."
"Actually," she said, "I thought you'd had some part in this."
Shining Sapphire felt her stomach drop. That meant that...
*****
"So..." Cadance said, "what exactly was it you did?"
"Force the issue?" Cadance asked.
"Which was?" Shining Armor asked.
Cadance gasped. "So it was because of you that one of the kitchen staff was injured."
"Which would explain why those two went to bed so early" Shining Armor said. Angel Eyes nodded.
He looked about, and shook his head. "I am not exactly certain what I did, or how exactly it went wrong, but whatever I did, by daybreak, Shining Sapphire had become a Changeling, or at least possessed much in the way of Changeling physiology. Of course, by then I realised I had... overexerted myself."no sense !"
Cadance turned to look at her husband, "Shiney, do you remember that time your sister told us about when she and her friends had tried to remove some fruit bats, and ended up turning..." she paused, "Fluttershy, I think it was, into some sort of pony-bat fusion?"
"But that still doesn't explain why everypony in the empire believed that Whisper Wind was our son."
"I don't see how that'd work" Shining Armor said, looking over toward Cadance. "Honey? What is it?"
She stopped, and hummed. "Although frankly I think that's far beyond the Heart's capacities."
"No kidding" Shining Armor frowned.
For some time, Cadance just stared coolly at him.
The Changelings exchanged glances, and quickly gathered together into a huddle. Occasionaly one of them looked up at the Royal couple, before Angel Eyes finally spoke up.
"Alright then" Cadance said, before suddenly her smile vanished, "but let me be clear, you just used up every possible chance you had. If you return, and something like this happens again, I will be very, very upset ."
As one, the five Changelings rushed out of the room, their hooves clattering along the corridors. Shining Armor walked over toward Cadance, who sighed wearily.
"And it's not even two o'clock yet" he said. Cadance grimaced, leaning in towards Shining Armor, who suddenly blinked in confusion.
"Yes, dear?"
There was a long period of uninterrupted silence as both ponies stared in silence, trying to determine the answer. Finally Cadance spoke up.
*****
Chrysalis looked at Shining Sapphire, utterly laughed out, an usual look on her face.
"Now then," she frowned, "back to business."
"Do tell."
"Because I know Wisp. I know him better than you do. I might even say I know him better than he knows himself, but that's because he has so little faith in himself. But I know he can be more than he is now. I have faith in him, I believe in him. That's what you don't seem to get. I love him. And he loves me."
"You still don't understand. Of course you don't. I wouldn't expect you to. You have no idea what love is."
"Yes. The point is, you are a fool."
"I think," she hissed, "I would not say such things if I were you."Love ."
"I would not say such things if I were you" Chrysalis repeated, her voice calm as the eye of the storm.
Chrysalis began bearing down on her, as she continued, getting louder as she went. "And when I say you are a fool, it is because you are the most witless worm there has ever been because you will never learn this fact!"I would not say such things if I were you ."
She loomed over Shining Sapphire, and then stopped. "Let's see what we can do about that" she hissed.
*****
It had been several minutes now since Wisp and Princess Celestia had sat down, and yet the stallion still couldn't get used to the fact that he was having tea with Princess Celestia. More so because most of that time had just been spent talking about absolutely nothing in particular, like the weather, or what the Crystal Empire was like, but he still found it incredibly surreal to be talking to a Princess, even after the last month in Princess Cadance's castle, but that was different, because she didn't tend to act like how he'd expected, although given most of the times he'd seen her she'd been near Sapphy, there was probably a reason for that.
And, he had to note, the tea was actually kinda good. The only problem was that he had a strange feeling in his stomach.
"You... did?" Wisp asked, startled out of his train of thought. She nodded.
Wisp found himself drawing a blank. "I'm sorry, your highness, I don't remember that."
Wisp just nodded. "You see, Fluttershy had just found you, and asked some of her friends for assistance. I believe it was Twilight Sparkle's decision that I should have been informed about your presence."
She just stared thoughtfully at her cup of tea for a moment. "Princess Luna said you were something of a curiosity to her. She said sometimes your dreams were blocked from her, and that, I would have to say, is an unusual thing."
"I'm sorry, your highness" he said, "but you said Twilight Twinkle had told you there was a problem, and yet here we are, drinking tea and chatting like there's nothing wrong."
"The reason I chose that specific blend of tea" she said, "was because it has a calming effect. I apologise, Whisper Wind, I just didn't want to rush in and startle you. That was why I did this, in an attempt to help you feel more relaxed."
He sighed, and took another drink of the tea. He suddenly noticed he'd started feeling really unusual. Then he saw the look on Princess Celestia's face.
"Okay" Wisp managed.
"However," Princess Celestia repeated, "she believes that whatever magic was used on you is going to be expelled from your body in a more forceful manner than usual."
There was a horrified gasp from Fluttershy, as Princess Celestia shook her head. "No, not explode, though..." she looked troubled.
"I think I can probably survive a little bit of pain" he said half-heartedly, "I know I've survived a lot of pain."
Three ponies stared blankly at her. "Thought that is being incredibly optimistic, I admit."
"Don't you have some sort of magic that can tell what might happen?" he asked. She nodded, and her horn glowed briefly. She suddenly looked more worried.
"Is it bad?" Wisp asked. She didn't answer.
"So... now I just wait?" he asked. Princess Celestia nodded. At the look on her face, he felt slightly less calmer.
There was silence, save the distant sounds of birds chirping.
Princess Celestia nodded. "Because you don't know what to expect?" she suggested.
There was another moment of silence, and Wisp frowned.
He didn't finish, mainly because quite suddenly his hooves, mane, horn and tail all started bursting with bright green flames, which wrapped around him, and then quickly spread out.
Author's Note
Whoof. Villain monologues.
Next chapter: KIDNEYS!
Wherefore Art Thou So Pony?
Almost immediately after the flames began to roar, there was a gasp from Fluttershy, who rushed over toward the column of fire, before stopping, wincing as the heat stung at her eyes, before backing away. She looked toward Princess Celestia, who simply returned the look, both ponies saying nothing.
After a while the bright green flames that surrounded Wisp slowly began to dim, then faded out completely. Left there was a full-grown Changeling, holes dotted about the cannon of the incredibly long legs, the twisted, equally be-holed horn, and the translucent wings glinting in the sunlight, and finally a golden-brown mane and tail, both of which were abnormally long, the only bright colours on an otherwise charcoal grey body, outside of three noticeable scars running along the right-hoof side of Whisper Wind's body, just passing by the wing. For a long time, there was silence as Princess Celestia just stared. Had there been somepony there who was an expert in analysing the nuances and subtleties of her expressions, they might have suggested she actually looked surprised. Then, in a loud clear voice did Whisper Wind speak.
"Ow!" Whisper Wind stated. "Buck! "
Princess Celestia didn't react at all to that, but she could practically feel Fluttershy's shocked glare, as the now former pony performed a quick self-examination, looking almost but not completely satisfied with what was there. Fluttershy coughed imperiously, to which Whisper Wind just looked bashful.
"That hurt more than I was expecting" Whisper Wind stated, before suddenly looking concerned. Slowly, bright blue eyes turned to look at Princess Celestia.
"Just a moment" she said.
In an instant flames wrapped around the pony's form once more, fading to reveal a golden brown pegasus stallion. After a few seconds, he sighed, then started blinking.
"And it all comes rushing back" he said, before turning to Princess Celestia. "Could you step back a bit, Your Highness?"
For a few moment, he said nothing, merely looking up into the sky, then sighed once more.
"Then what are you?" Princess Celestia asked. Whisper Wind's ear twitched.
Princess Celestia was staring at him, "if you aren't a pony, who and what would you want to be?"
"Whisper Wind, son of Fluttershy. Not royalty, not a Changeling. Not anypony important, or special. Just another pegasus. Just me." He pawed at the ground absent-mindedly.
Wisp nodded. "Can't help who you fall in love with."
"I'm alright" he said, trying to sound reassuring and, from Fluttershy's expression, failing.
"And it seems to me, the last time I checked," Princess Celestia continued, "your mother is mayor of Ponyville. And the former bearer of the Element of Kindess. And a former model. And the first pony to become friends with Discord."
"You're right though" he said, "I would like to be a normal pony, but it doesn't mean I am. "
"I am Whisper Wind, of Ponyville" he stated. "My mother is Fluttershy, and as far as I'm concerned, nothing can change that."
He sighed again, this time sounding angrier than before.
Wisp nodded. "So I've heard."
"And while these small things can, sometimes, be more trouble than they are worth, they don't automatically detract from the value of everything else. I accept that there are parts of being a Princess I do not enjoy, and never will, because there are other parts that are so much better, so much more important that one or two tiny troubles."
Wisp nodded, slowly at first, but then more confidently. "Yes. Of course she's worth it. She's worth Tartarus" he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Suddenly, Princess Celestia just smiled, and suddenly Wisp could have sworn everything seemed to have gotten just a little bit brighter.
He sighed. "I usually just keep it all bottled up. Which might, I suppose, explain last night's meltdown."
"Which doesn't hold much water when everypony either already knew, or just didn't care" he said, a small amount of what sounded like bitterness slipping into his voice.
He smiled warmly at Princess Celestia. "Thanks for the tea, your highness, and the help."
"I'll do that" he nodded, tensing and crouching slightly in preparation for taking off, before looking toward his back, and facehoofing. "Saddlebag" he murmured, rushing off toward the cottage, stopping briefly to hug Fluttershy, and then again once he had the saddlebag. He slowly tensed himself, and then took off into the air, soaring away in the direction of Canterlot.
A few seconds later he turned around, heading straight back toward Princess Celestia. He hovered a few feet away from her, and looked incredibly nervous.
Princess Celestia looked momentarily surprised. "Ask away" she said. Wisp drifted slightly closer, whispering into her ear. Slowly she began to smile slowly.
"Thanks, again."
And with that, Whisper Wind took off in the direction of Canterlot, rapidly becoming a dot in the distance. After a few seconds Fluttershy spoke.
"Really?" Princess Celestia asked.
"You know" Celestia said, "I had a similar experience with Cadance when she was that age, always thinking I'd never noticed her sneaking out on dates with Shining Armor,"
"Likewise" the mare smiled, as Princess Celestia's horn glowed, before she vanished an instant later. Fluttershy turned around to see Minty Pie still standing in her front doorway, mouth unhinged in a fashion that, had she not been one of Pinkie Pie's children, might have had Fluttershy worried. She walked over toward the filly.
"Banana said he was boring !" the filly said, insistently.
"'kay" Minty Pie nodded, vaguely aware somepony was speaking to her.
*****
Whisper Wind soared toward Equestria at phenomenal speeds. Not ludicrously fast, and definitely not Rainbow Dash-fast, but definitely somewhere above very fast. Of course, even at the speeds he was going at, it was still going to take time to get to Canterlot, and therefore he found himself thinking about things, about how he was going to talk to Shining Sapphire, and how he actually felt... pretty good, for a pony who had just seven minutes before suffered an uncontrolled magical burst. In fact, all his usual concerns and fears just didn't seem to matter as much. He was beginning to wonder if his brain had been scrambled from the sudden shock of going from pony to changeling in an instant, or because of (accidently) absorbing some emotions from Princess Celestia, or perhaps the tea had just been that relaxing. Or maybe all of them at once.
Either way, he felt good about things, for the first time in what felt like a very long time.
Something was obviously wrong.
*****
Shining Sapphire was not one for cussing. Perhaps this was to do with the fact that her parents would have disapproved of such a thing, or because outside of the events of yesterday, she'd never had cause to do so. However, if ever there was cause to cuss, then randomly bursting into flames, while feeling like she was being torn apart and put back together again would definitely be as good a reason as any.
Then she heard the low groan from somewhere in the darkness.
"You! " Chrysalis growled. "Nice try, but you aren't escaping so easily. Now, hold still..."
She smiled. Chrysalis stopped casting, and blinked.
"Oh, well" she said, trying to sound as calm as possible, "just thinking about something, is all. You see, if I had kidnapped a pony, brought her to goodness knows where and was preparing to brainwash the heck out of her so that she went along with my ludicrous plan, I'd make sure she couldn't cast anything."
"True" Shining Sapphire smiled nervously, "I'm not a fighter, or an adventurer like my cousin. I'm a scholar, at best. Heck, even my parents were surprised when my Cutie Mark wasn't a book, or book-related. But my point is, like all bookworms, I have on occasion stayed up long past my bedtime, reading under the bedcovers."
"Well," Shining Sapphire said, calmly, "that little illumination spell I was just casting? I can make it brighter."
"For the love of-" she heard Chrysalis mutter, "someone get her!"
She quickly tried opening the door, and to her joy found that it was not locked, but on the other side there was a corridor that was entirely pitch black. She stopped to review her situation. She was still in an incredibly poorly lit place, with no idea where she was or how to get to somewhere safer, and she hoped more well lit. Then she heard the angry buzzing sound, and remembered she was in a cave or a building designed to feel like a cave, but which apparently had a 'retinue' of Changelings in it. She wasn't sure how much Changelings there had to be to count as a retinue, but she was fairly certain she didn't want to know at that point. She began running, noting that the floor didn't exactly feel very cave-like. She stopped again, once she was aware the buzzing sound had stopped slightly. All she had to do was work out where she was. If she had to guess, she probably wasn't too far away from anywhere, unless the Changelings actually did live in a wasteland, as Wisp had said. Unless, she noted, they'd moved since then, which she supposed was possible.
Then she heard the sound of movement, and began running again. As she did, light started appearing around her, like lamps being turned on, but the light they provided wasn't actually enough to see where she was going. She looked ahead. She was almost in at the end of a corridor. She skidded to a halt, just managing to stop before she slammed into the wall. She looked about, and then saw it hadn't been a dead end, but there had been another corner. Hearing a skittering noise from somewhere in the darkness, she decided to keep going.
*****
Wisp made his way through the streets of Canterlot, glancing back-and-forth as he tried to determine which house was Twilight Sparkle's. He knew the general look of the building from her description of it, but he couldn't recall where exactly it was. He frowned, but continued onward, until he saw two ponies looking about, apparently concerned. He decided to try asking them.
"Excuse me" he said, trying to get their attention. One of them, a mare, turned around to glance at him.
"I was wondering if you knew where Twilight Sparkle's house is" he said. The mare stared at him for some time, then glanced to the dark blue pony next to her. To Wisp's eyes it looked almost like they were engaged in some unspoken conversation. Actually, now that Wisp thought about it, the mare looked amazingly like Twilight Sparkle, just older, and without wings.
"It's just there's somepony there I need to talk to. Or apologise. Or apologise and then talk with."
"Yes'm" Wisp said, "that's me."
"Disappeared?" Wisp repeated. Twilight Velvet (if he remembered her name right) nodded.
She shifted, "Twinkie was about to go find her, but then she got summoned to the castle."
"Yes, actually" she frowned, "how did you know?"
"She was talking about something that was bothering Sapphy" Night Light (Wisp was certain that was his name) spoke up, "who, I can't help but note, looked amazingly like a Changeling earlier. Why is that?"
He facehoofed again. "Sorry" he said, on seeing the slightly alarmed expressions on Twilight Velvet and Night Light's faces, "I said I was going to stop whining, and there I go whining again."
"I might have done something incredibly stupid things" Wisp muttered.
"Yes" he said awkwardly, "like... exactly, taking her saddlebag."
"Oh" Wisp said. "Okay, then."
"What is it?" he heard Twilight Velvet ask. He blinked.
"I think, though, I have an idea where Sapphy might be."
Wisp stared at the mare for a moment, his mind struggling to understand how the mare in front of him could possibly have been the mother of Twilight Sparkle. However, he did see the resemblance to Twilight Twinkle. Perhaps it was the annoyed look on her face.
Twilight Velvet just sighed irritably, then smiled, "yes. Nice meeting you. Hope everything works out with you two."
Slowly, he flapped his wings, taking to the air again. When he was suitably high enough over Canterlot, he turned this way and that way, until he seemed sure as to which direction to go in. Then he set off as fast as he could.
*****
Shining Sapphire stopped to catch her breath, after several minutes of corridors, more corridors, and the odd staircase. Now, she saw where she was. It looked like a massive hallway, one that was far better lit than anywhere else she'd been yet. And now that her eyes were adjusting, it looked incredibly ornate, especially for the Changelings. Columns, and bannisters, and a massive set of stairs, and odd shafts of light. It looked almost like something that belonged in a castle. She looked about, suddenly feeling the need to go slowly, and get a good look at it all. She had, once or twice in her youth, tried reading about architecture. It hadn't been as fascinating as, say, entomology, but it had its moments. However, she still couldn't tell what style the Changelings, if they were the ones who'd built it, had used. A part of her felt a sudden desire to go ask somepony if they knew anything, and that it wasn't going to stop until it got answers. She tried to force it down. Getting out of the building with her mind intact sounded so much more lucrative to her at that moment. She looked about, hoping to see a giant door of some kind. She saw arches, more bannisters, what looked like a candelabra, and then... she smiled, as she saw what was indeed a door. She cautiously made her way over toward it. She was just barely there when she heard a loud slamming noise. Quickly she dimmed the light from her horn, and tried to find somewhere small and out of the way. There were a few quick buzzes. Changelings were in the hall with her. She tried shuffling away from the door, without attracting any attention. She quickly found a small spot of the room, behind a column, and tried to think.
'Okay, Changelings have followed me. Great. Which means there's no way I can open that door without them noticing me, and mostly likely swarming over me. Wonderful. Of course, I can't panic about this, because then they'll just find me anyhow. Which means I've got to not feel anything.'
*****
Wisp found his wings beginning to ache. No wonder, really, considering he barely used them for more than a minute at a time, and he'd been flying now for much longer than that. He ignored the aching, and the stinging of the wind in his eyes, pushing himself further onward, going as fast as possible.
It was a universally recognised fact of science that regardless of things like wing-power, weight, aerodynamics and the laws of physics themselves that there was absolutely nothing faster than a pony fuelled by their own determination. However, scientists were still unsure as to the effect of love on a pony's speed. The cynical sorts most likely would have argued that the speed of a pony fuelled by love would most likely be going at the speed of 'not fast enough'.
*****
Shining Sapphire shook her head, trying not to feel anything again. She sat there, hearing the sound of a hoof tapping.
Shining Sapphire felt her wings tense up.
"Come on out, dear. Don't be so shy . If there is a problem here, why don't we talk about it?"
"I admit, I... over-reacted, earlier. A lot of things were said that, in hindsight, shouldn't have been, and I got.. swept up in my memories."
"We don't have to be enemies, Shining Sapphire. We both just want what's best for dear Wisp. We both know he'll never achieve anything by... hiding?"
"What a clever girl" Chrysalis smiled. "But really, what did you think running would solve?"
"This is our castle, after all. And we know every inch of it" she grinned, slowing her pace as she neared the young alicorn, whose expression hadn't changed in the slightest. She frowned.
Shining Sapphire offered no opinion on this, which gave Chrysalis pause. She stared at the mare for a moment. Then, Shining Sapphire dissipated, turning into a light smattering of bright pink fragments. Chrysalis's jaw dropped, and she glanced about wildly.
The real Shining Sapphire, meanwhile, shook her head, as her horn dimmed again. She hadn't been expecting her construct to work as well as it had, even with some extra spells thrown in to make it look more like her. But it managed to do its job successfully, allowing her to slip past the Changelings. Of course, she noted, she still had the problem of escaping from wherever it was she was, especially since that had looked tremendously like the front door. She looked about. She was in yet another featureless corridor. Then and there she made a vow, that if she ever had a castle of her own, she was going to ask the designer to add some variety to the hallways, rather than just reusing the same design over and over again.
She frowned. Thinking about interior design wasn't going to help her escape. She sat down, and pondered, staring at the wall, and staring. Then, an idea came to her, along with something her cousin had once said.
Her horn glowed, and in seconds a construct of a large sledgehammer appeared. She looked over at the wall, and smiled, pulling the hammer back. It took several blows, but finally the stonework cracked, and collapsed. There was a sudden burst of warm, welcoming light, and a gentle waft of air. She made her way over toward the edge and looked out. There was a vast expanse of nothing. She looked down. There was a very long drop, which apparently ended in what was most likely shallow water. She frowned. The Changelings had likely heard her little 'renovation', and were hurrying toward her. She took several steps back, braced herself, and rushed forward, then leapt, her wings unfolding as she did. She quickly began flying as fast as she could, not looking back for an instant.
*****
Wisp soared through the lazy afternoon air, trying to ignore the fact that he was in fact beginning to slow down considerably after what was now at least an hour of continuous flying, though he wasn't entirely sure how long it'd been, as he'd been distracted by what to say to Shining Sapphire on the way. He had considered stopping, even if only for a few minutes, but the way his wings were feeling at the moment, if he did, it was likely he wasn't going to be able to get back into the air again. And the noise of the Changelings was so loud now. If he had to put a hoof on it, they sounded furious about something. That and he hadn't seen any signs of civilisation for some time. So he kept going, trying to think of something, anything other than the fact that his wings were really beginning to hurt. It proved difficult, but he continued onward.
After some time, he was certain he could see something. Perhaps it was the heat, or the strain, but he was certain he could see a bright pink and blue something coming in the exact direction he was headed. As he got closer, he tried slowing down a bit more in order to get a better look, only to realise the problem that raised, as the ground beneath him got closer. He braced himself, but his crumpled landing still hurt. Slowly, he tried to unfurl himself from the heap he'd become, only to see the pink and blue blur was now approaching him. As it got closer, he found himself beginning to smile uncontrollably, as the mare landed gracefully in front of him. She was smiling widely as well.
"I was just coming to find you" Wisp said, now trying to get his breath back, partly from the fact that he was genuinely exhausted, and from the fact that Shining Sapphire had put a bit too much effort into her hug. Shining Sapphire just smiled at him, mercifully deciding not to point out what he meant by that.
"I... think I'm supposed to say that" he pointed out. Shining Sapphire leaned back, her face locked in contemplation.
Wisp stared at her for a moment, before she giggled. He looked down at his hooves, trying to steel himself. He'd been going over what to say to Shining Sapphire, and now he wasn't even sure how to say it.
"There's something I need to say" he started, "something I should've said ages ago."
"I love you" he said. She stared at him, with all the air of somepony who'd just been told rain was wet and that hay was edible.
He groaned, "I shouldn't have run off like that. I am sorry, and I know I can't make up for it, but, I just... I'm sorry."
She sighed, "I know. I do want to be mad at you for what happened this morning, but I'm not going to be. You had every right to be alarmed by what'd happened to us, just as much as me. And since this whole nonsense seems to have worn off on its own, I should probably be apologising as well."
He sighed, "what I was concerned with wasn't important."
"Well," she eventually got out, "I don't think we just stand around here."
She stared at Wisp, and smiled uneasily. "Don't get me wrong, I am upset with you, but that apology does go a little bit of a way toward making up for it."
Wisp nodded, smiling. "Got it."
Shining Sapphire shook her head. "Some Changelings showed up and zapped me. The next thing I know, I'm in this dungeon slash cave thing, with who else but your m-... with Chrysalis."
"She started mono-" Wisp guessed.
"My mom doesn't really have baby photos of me" Wisp noted. "But I think miss Pinkie has some stashed somewhere, knowing her."
She trailed off. "I don't even know what happened."
"When?" Shining Sapphire blinked.
Shining Sapphire frowned. "That explains why she didn't show up to perform some manner of daring rescue, I suppose. I hope she's okay" she added.
"I don't think there was that many. And from the way the ones who captured me were acting, I'd swear... I don't know. From the way she was speaking, most of the other Changelings don't want anything to do with her. I don't think they even consider her their queen anymore."
Wisp found himself sighing. "I know" he said. "I should. She does have a point, insane though she is. There are a lot of things I could stand to improve about myself, especially when it comes to my fellow Changelings."
The two ponies stared at one another for a few minutes, before there was a sudden gargling noise from Shining Sapphire's stomach. "Well," she said, "this conversation has been brilliant, but I think perhaps we should be moving on. I definitely need something to eat soon. And if I don't get any caffeine quickly, I might become capable of anything."
She smiled, "then we can go home."
Suddenly Shining Sapphire looked shocked. "Wow. What did grand-aunt Celly say to you?" she asked. Wisp just shook his head, as he slowly tried standing up. From the way his muscles were aching, he was going to be sore come the next day.
"That was nice of her" Shining Sapphire said, glancing at Wisp, who shook his head.
"Home" Wisp grinned. Then his smile faltered. "Unfortunately we'll have to walk. My wings... aren't going to be much use for a while."
As the two began slowly walking in what they assumed was the nearest town, Wisp leaning on Shining Sapphire, a thought occurred to her.
"Pretend the last two days didn't happen?" Wisp suggested. She looked at him with concern.
"I figure either this has really happened, or there's a chance I've just gone completely insane, in which case I'm just going to run with it."
"A lot of things" Wisp agreed. "A lot of things."
Author's Note
sorry it took so long just to get this out.
A Blooming Peace This Day Brings
The walk back toward civilisation took some time for the young ponies. It took several hours of walking before they found themselves coming upon a small town, and while there, quickly checked for a nearby restaurant. Shining Sapphire's first order of business on entering was to enquire as to the status of coffee. Wisp felt some alarm at the noticeable twitch in her eyes when she was told there was none. However, the princess quickly gathered herself together, accepting the absence of coffee as calmly as she could. The two youngsters sat down at a small table. After a few minutes, Shining Sapphire spoke.
"So," she said, idly nudging a pepper shaker, "are you going to explain now, or later?"
"Well" Shining Sapphire said, "for one thing, why you suddenly are acting so... different."
He stopped, and frowned. He had been trying to think of something to say about that, but all of a sudden the words just seemed to have vanished. "For the last month, I've been worried about things. About me, about changelings, and us. And I guess, maybe because of Princess Celestia, or that tea, I don't know, I just decided that perhaps, maybe, I was sick of it."
"The reason I was acting so weird when you asked me to share a room with you was because" he stopped, mulling over what he was about to say, "because I have been having nightmares. Not always, but I do wake up in the middle of the night more than I'd really like. And I didn't want to..."
He gritted his teeth, "I didn't want you to worry about me, I guess."
"The usual. Changelings swarming everywhere, blood red skies, diabolical laughter, Ponyville burning to the ground, that sort of thing."
If he had been intending to joke, and he wasn't about to say he was, but if he had, the fact that she wasn't smiling would have been upsetting. Of course, as far as Wisp was concerned, her not smiling was upsetting anyway.
"Years and years and years" he said, casually, trying not to react at her aghast expression. "After a while they just got annoying rather than anything else."
"You could have just said" she whispered. Wisp looked down toward his meal and grimaced. She wasn't upset because he'd been hiding things from her, but just because of the fact that it had happened. Which, he noted, was entirely like her.
The two slowly began eating their meals, occasionally glancing at the other, once or twice smiling nervously, but for the most part, they just eat in silence. As he did, Wisp became slowly aware that he wasn't feeling entirely hungry. It didn't take him very long to determine why that was, as he looked over toward Shining Sapphire. After a few seconds she looked up and smiled at him again, before going back to her eating. After a few seconds more she noticed he wasn't eating and looked back up again.
"Not feeling that hungry."
"So, once we're finished here, what then?"
"Assuming" Shining Sapphire nodded, "then we can head back to the Empire."
"What is it?" he asked, in-between glancing about cautiously. She just smiled slightly.
"Buttercup" Wisp said instantly. Shining Sapphire raised an eyebrow. Wisp glanced at her, and realised she was expecting an answer.
"Well" Shining Sapphire said slowly, "it's not that bad a name."
"I'm aware of that" Shining Sapphire retorted, before smiling again. "Buttercup."
"What a great idea" she smiled, which only grew when she saw Wisp's horrified expression. "I'm just kidding, dear."
"Seems like your good mood's wearing off" she noted. Wisp just nodded.
He stopped and placed a hoof against his forehead. "Alas, that I am undone by playful taunting from my marefriend."
"Or what?"Unabridged Laws of Equestria ."
Wisp stared at her, before finally shrugging. "Sounds nice" he said calmly.
"I've always listened before" he said calmly. Shining Sapphire stopped, rubbing a contemplative hoof against her chin.
She shook her head, and started walking again, Wisp following alongside her. After about half an hour's worth of walking, they reached the next town, and found their way to the nearest train station. A train arrived some fourteen minutes after they stepped onto the platform, and they quickly made their way on-board, Shining Sapphire taking the window seat again. Both ponies said nothing at that point, but both were finding it annoyingly difficult not to think about the events of the night before. As the train left the station, Shining Sapphire leaned in toward Wisp, who suddenly grunted.
"What is it?" she asked. Wisp shook his head.
He looked toward her. "Bearing in mind I did fly an incredibly long way without a break."
Then he could sworn he saw her smile, and felt the need to ask why.
She just continued smiling as she answered. "It's just... I like seeing you like this. Happy. Cheerful. You have a nice smile, honey."
He gave this some thought for a while. "Alright then."
She sighed, her smile decreasing slightly. "Still, even then, at least it's all worked out so far."
"What's bothering you?" he asked, seeing the exasperated look on her face.
"Species-swapped" Wisp said, "not bad."
"What happened with your aunt?" Wisp asked. Shining Sapphire quickly explained in as much detail as she could.
He felt a slight nervous pang from Sapphy again. "You know they'd help" he pointed out, "even if you weren't related to them, they'd help."
"Good point."
After a few silent seconds, a question occurred to Wisp.
"She wanted me to help her with some ludicrous scheme to force you to accept kingship. She was waving a crown about, saying that it would draw changelings toward it, and that they'd hunt after me if I had it, and somehow this would make you have to be king in order to save me."
"That is the most ridiculous plan I've ever heard of."
"From the way I've heard she seemed pretty confident just invading Canterlot would work. Doesn't mean it did" Wisp muttered darkly. Shining Sapphire paused.
"That would imply she had sanity to begin with."
"Sorry" Wisp sighed, "but considering everything she's done, not just what she's done to me, I'm not feeling particularly disposed toward her."
"Sorry" he said. Shining Sapphire said nothing to that, as she looked out toward the bright green landscape of the Equestrian countryside. He could tell by her current expression that she had started thinking about something, and in all likelihood it was the same thing he was thinking about, which was chiefly why the changelings had seen reason to chase after them. It didn't make sense. And there was something else in her expression. Curiosity. She had mentioned some manner of castle, which he couldn't recall from his time as a 'guest' of his fellows, which raised the question as to how they'd found it.
*****
It was late in the afternoon as the train finally arrived at Canterlot station. The two young ponies disembarked, trying to draw as little attention to themselves as possible, which considering they were a Princess and an abnormally tall pegasus proved surprisingly easy. Shining Sapphire strode through the streets, turning this way and that. She knew where she was going, and Wisp was content to follow, which was why he was surprised when she suddenly stopped dead, causing him to bump into her. She looked about the street, sniffing.
"I know that smell" she announced, sniffing again. Then, an almost predatory smile overcame her face, and she galloped off. Wisp quickly hurried after her. Her random path took her through several twists and turns, until Wisp found her at what appeared to be an ordinary coffee shop, save for one noticeable sign in the front window, which proclaimed to all the word that the shop was, in the owner's own words the 'proud caterer to Her Royal Highness, Princess Luna'. Inside, Shining Sapphire was testing out a sudden and unique theory in the proud Equestrian tradition of queuing, to whit that any line with a noticeably jittering princess tends to move at abnormally fast speeds. Wisp just watched as the line she was in quickly vanished, leaving her, now suddenly seeming to be a lot taller than she usually looked, standing over the poor pony (a young colt, if Wisp was any judge, though the pony's proportions, and the fact that there was several inches of Shining Sapphire blocking his view, made this difficult to determine).
"Coffee" she intoned, in an alarmingly chilling fashion, especially since she was still sounding pleasant about it. Several ponies nearby was haphazardly gulping down their beveradges, or fleeing. Wisp decided not to question this.
"Sapphy?" he asked. The noise of drinking stopped. Her eyes opened and focused on him with an alarming intensity, as she slowly raised a hoof. The message was clear, so he said nothing. After a few seconds, she resumed her drinking. There was the sound of a pony falling to the ground. Wisp found himself wondering if this was some bizarre sport that Canterlotians played, one to which only they knew the rules. Finally, the drinking stopped. Shining Sapphire lowered the cup, and stared at it, her expression neutral. There was the definite sound of somepony's teeth chattering. She turned toward the pony next to the cash register, and then, slowly, her mouth began to curve upward, revealing her teeth, as the room seemed to grow slightly brighter.
"Thank you" she said, her voice sugary sweet. She turned to Wisp, still smiling. "Come on, dear."
"No" somepony squeaked. She didn't look convinced, and turned to look at Wisp, who just decided to simply resort to one of the oldest tactics in the books. He shrugged.
Canterlot ponies, he decided, were just weird .
*****
Shining Sapphire looked like she was about to start glowing, or singing. Wisp honestly expected her to start the later, and if the behaviour of Canterlot ponies were anything to go by, she would likely have the entire city singing along with her without even trying. She was just in an incredibly good mood, the sort that spread from pony to pony at ludicrous speeds. And he would quite gladly have admitted he didn't mind one bit.
She didn't sing. She just continued onward merrily toward the house of the Twilights, and knocked on the door. For a short time there was no response, and then the door opened. Twilight Velvet was on the other side, and she smiled.
"Sorry" Sapphy said sheepishly, as the two ponies entered the room, "just glad to see you."
Shining Sapphire glanced about the hallway, "hey, is Twinkie back yet?"
Wisp, meanwhile, was taking the opportunity to finally remove the saddlebags, placing them in a small heap by the wall, as Shining Sapphire sighed.
"I don't think aunt Twilie will mind me borrowing one of her books" she said, once she reached the bottom of the stairs.
"We'll wait a while. If Twinkie doesn't show up, then we'll go ask Princess Celestia for help."
"What are you reading?" he asked. Shining Sapphire jolted from the sudden noise, and turned to look at him.
Wisp just nodded. "Is it interesting?" he asked. She looked at him, as if he'd just learnt rain was wet, then she went back to reading. Seconds passed, seconds which stretched into minutes. Then, Wisp heard something. A faint noise on the edge of hearing. His ears twitched as he looked around. He stood up, and tried to figure out where the noise came from. Then, the front door opened, and a certain royal blue coloured somepony walked through it, until a pair of bright orange eyes saw Wisp, and stopped dead.
"Wisp?" the startled Twilight Twinkle asked. Despite her alarm, she was beginning to smile. Before either pony could say anything, a bright pink blur zoomed past Wisp's head. There were a few seconds of muffled noises before Twilight Twinkle got her cousin off of her, although Shining Sapphire did take the opportunity to brush the mare's mane, before a hoof batted her leg away. Wisp couldn't help but notice parts of her fur looked noticeably singed, and she looked incredibly tired.
"You've got rubble in your mane" Shining Sapphire stated, sounding almost like a fussing parent as she did. Twilight Twinkle just closed her eyes for a moment.
"Right" she smiled, "sorry."
"Great" she sighed, "just... great."
"Twinkie" Shining Sapphire coughed as the mare was halfway up the stairs, "you remember the brainwashing spell you told me about?"
*****
Some time later, a slightly damp-looking Twilight Twinkle reappeared, occasionally stretching herself.
"Nothing much" Twinkle sighed, "just a temporal paradox, dramatic violation from space-time, and some awkwardness with mom."
"That was later on. Would've been nicer if somepony had started by dropping several tons worth of building on me, but we can't get what we want."
Her horn lit up, and she advanced toward the mare. There was a brief feeling in Sapphy's mind, like something connecting with her, and then she heard a small noise from Twinkle.
"There's a second brain-washing spell going through your head" she noted, "or... half of one at any rate."
Shining Sapphire stared at the mare, "oh, not much. I just managed to get foalnapped by some changelings while I was getting some coffee."what ?"
"Not my proudest moment ever" Shining Sapphire sighed, "I'll admit that. But then the next thing I know the Changeling Queen's ranting at me, and then she tried to brainwash me into going along with this ridiculous scheme of hers"
Wisp grunted, drawing all the eyes in the room toward him. "That was probably about the same time that happened to me."
Twilight Twinkle just raised an eyebrow. "Guess that explains that, then" she said, before turning back to Shining Sapphire. "Now then, just relax, and I'll try and do this as quickly as possible."
"What is it?" Wisp said instantly, placing a hoof on her shoulder.
"Remember what?" Twinkle asked.
~~~~~~
There was darkness. That was odd enough, considering it was mid-summer, meaning that whatever darkness usually lasted only a few hours at the most, but what was bothering Shining Sapphire was that she had just woken up, if only because she couldn't clearly remember going to sleep. She and Wisp had been talking, they'd gone into her room, and while she had been feeling unusually drowsy, she hadn't planned on going to bed immediately. From the looks of it, and from the way Wisp was gently breathing in and out in front of her, they'd both just completely fallen asleep. Deep down, she felt the smallest morsel of disappointment at that, though she wasn't completely sure why. But she never went to sleep that early, or that easily, she knew that. Something was wrong. Her hoof darted up toward just above her horn, where she felt something cold and metallic against it. Her horn glowed slightly, soliciting a small murmur from Wisp as it did. She slowly lowered the small silver tiara downward, staring at it. She hadn't even had time to take it off. Something was definitely wrong. She looked down, and felt her heart skip several beats when she saw Wisp's bright blue eyes wide open.
"Sorry" she whispered, before feeling the need to add, "go back to sleep honey."
"Very early" she smiled, "when everypony but the insomniacs and Lunas are asleep."
"What is it?" she asked. He slowly lifted a hoof toward her mouth, and another to his own. There was utter silence, the only noise being her clock slowly ticking, and the sound of her heartbeat.
"Nopony's up and about at this time of night" she said, "not even the guards."
"Pretend to be asleep" he murmured. Despite her reservations, and her concern for this sudden serious attitude Wisp was displaying, she decided to go along with it. After a few seconds, there was silence once more, save only the clock ticking. And ticking. And ticking. And ticking.
"What is it?" she said, trying to shore up whatever confidence she could trough the haze. The lights vanished for a second. Just the changeling blinking. Then, there was a sickly green glow around the Changeling's horn, and then a feeling of something smashing into her mind. She suddenly began to feel sleepier, and sleepier. The world was getting foggy, her eyelids so heavy. Then, there was the sound of noise, and a low hiss. Wisp had moved over toward the changeling, and had hit it.
"What are you doing?" he growled. Shining Sapphire frowned, and then looked down at the bed, wondering where her tiara had gone, before looking over toward the changeling. It was glancing between her and Wisp, but it didn't say anything. It-... his, she corrected herself, his horn lit up again, and she felt something wrenching into her mind. From the mild grunt she heard, Wisp probably had been zapped as well.
"I am sorry, your highness" she heard the changeling say, and she recognised which one it was in an instant. It was Angel Eyes. Why was he attacking them, she wondered.
She tried summoning the necessary spells to counteract what Angel Eyes was casting, but through at that moment just focusing her thoughts was feeling like an uphill struggle, like trying to gain footing on quicksand. Then she heard another noise, and everything began clearing up. In the darkness, she could see Wisp and Angel Eyes moving about. The changeling worker's horn lit up, and a blast of magic lanced at Wisp, who seemed to convulse. Summoning her magic, she tried to summon something, anything. She was rewarded with a glowing bright pink pillow. Any other time and she would have tried casting something else, but at that moment, she decided not to question her choice, slamming the changeling across the room. She rushed over toward Wisp.
"Are you okay?" she said hurriedly, placing a hoof again his... she paused, as she felt chitin under her hooves.
"You don't sound fine" she noted, nudging him with a hoof. It occurred to her far too late that she'd actually gone and turned her back on a changeling who seemed to have gone mad, which she was still wondering about. What possible gain did he expect to make by attacking them in her room, in the middle of the night?
She decided to ignore that feeling, as she felt magic touching her mind again. She slowly forced herself to turn, ignoring a sudden stab of pain from her back leg as she glared at Angel Eyes. Once she did, she noticed he was clearly struggling with something.
Everything was going dark, or rather, darker. Then she heard the noise from behind her. It was a growl, from Wisp. He actually sounded furious. Even as the darkness closed in, she could've sworn she heard him say something. To her distress, it sounded like he was cussing at Angel Eyes.
~~~~~
Five ponies shared worried looks for several moments, before Wisp finally spoke up.
"Maybe he told you before he finished" Twilight Twinkle suggested. Wisp shrugged.
Twinkle frowned, her gaze moving toward Shining Sapphire, then back to Wisp, then back to Shining Sapphire, then back to Wisp. She looked hesitant.
"I am" Wisp said. "My choice, Twilight."
He shifted on his hooves, "besides, you were willing to do it for her."
"Well?" Shining Sapphire asked, "do you remember anything?"
"No. Nothing."
"It's okay, honey. We already know who did this, it's already been undone. All we have to do now is get back home, and find a way to remove the spell from the whole city."
"I don't think you'll have to" Sapphy said quickly. "My mom and dad do know that spell, after all. They can probably cast it."
"Not that you're not welcome to visit anyway" Shining Sapphire pointed out. Twinkle nodded.
She sighed again, and walked over to the nearest chair, and collapsed onto it.
*****
As it turned out, nopony had any general desire to do anything with their evening, so grandparents and granddaughter settled for explaining most of what had been going on, while Twilight Twinkle disappeared upstairs. Eventually, after a pleasant light dinner, Twilight Velvet and Night Light announced they were leaving, much to Shining Sapphire's disappointment.
"Sorry, dear" Night Light said, "but somepony tends to get a bit twitchy if she's away from the house for too long."confused as to who gets twitchy and when."
Then, without any warning, she began smiling again, "anyway, it was lovely seeing you, Sapphy. And you, Whisper Wind."
"Now, now. You can call me grandma if you want" she said, glancing briefly at Shining Sapphire. "After all, you're already part of the family anyway."
"So" Shining Sapphire eventually managed, "tomorrow. We wake up bright and early, do a bit of gift shopping and then, we go home."
Shining Sapphire stared at Wisp, before smiling, "well we do have to get my parents something. If anything, it'll probably stop them being so upset about all of this."
"Well, we did sort of leave the city without asking them" she said, "or telling them, so they'll probably be worried about us."
"Alright then" he said slowly, "gift shopping."
*****
The hours quickly passed, as Shining Sapphire occasionally described excerpts from the book she was reading to Wisp, until eventually the time came for them to go to sleep. They made their way up the stairs to the guest bedroom, where there was a completely untouched double bed, which Wisp noted was several sizes smaller than the one Shining Sapphire was used to. She didn't seem to notice, as she gently placed her tiara on the nightstand. Wisp slowly lay down, and then realised how small the bed was when he found himself staring into Shining Sapphire's grinning face.
"Good night."
*****
There was darkness. In the darkness, he heard only the sound of hoofsteps against the floor, echoing into the distance. Hoofstep after hoofstep, until he came to the door. Slowly, the handle turned. The door swung open, revealing a room, lit only by moonlight. Outlined against the moonlight was a mare, her horn glowing, her eyes illuminated a curious bright pink by the glowing pillow hovering a short distance from her face. Slowly, his eyes turned toward the two other ponies in the room, one of who he could see the outline of, surrounded by an unpleasant green glow. The other, body suspended in mid-air as it hurtled backward, he recognised all too well. What little light there was playing off the edges of the dark chitin, glinting off those translucent wings, reflecting off of those amazingly bright blue eyes, and the golden-brown tresses that framed that familiar face.
He tried closing his eyes, ignoring the sight in front of him, and then paused. There was something moving in the frozen image. He turned, to see the tall dark blue pony watching him, as her mane wafted gently on a non-existent breeze.
"Whisper Wind, is it not?"
"I don't suppose, before we go any further, we could do something about... this" he said, motioning a hoof at the sight. Princess Luna nodded. Everything shimmered, and vanished. They were somewhere else, almost as dark. There were an awful lot of trees.
"Sorry" she said, "but I can only take you into another dream. Unless you wish to go to somewhere more crowded?"
"The Everfree would've been fine" Wisp noted, "but it doesn't exactly matter. I just wanted to ask you something."
Wisp shifted. "I wanted to ask you for a favour."
"I'm listening."
*****
There was a distant tapping noise, which slowly became more and more distinct as Wisp awoke, to a brightly lit room, thanks to the summer sun shining in the sky. Slowly, he moved, and saw Twilight Twinkle standing in the doorway, staring at him.
"You've got mail" she said. Wisp frowned, and slid out of the bed. Twilight Twinkle headed along the hallway, and then down the stairs. Wisp followed her into the living room. On the coffee table there was a simple, unmarked brown-papered package.
"Indeed" Wisp said, trying not to notice Twinkle staring at him every few seconds, or the slightly irritated look she had as she did.
"Where?" he asked. She nodded at it, and Wisp looked. And indeed, somepony had written exactly that on the top of the package.
"I highly doubt it."
"You going to open it, or should I just take it outside and burn it?" Twinkle asked. Wisp stared at her.
"Probably."
He quickly made his way upstairs and back to the bed, and lay there, feeling uncertain about hugging Shining Sapphire any further once he was there. However, he soon felt a leg draping across his barrel anyway.
"What time is it?" he asked. Shining Sapphire just nudged him further.
"I'm not used to doing this" she said, sounding excited about it, "it's weird. I've slept in a whole extra half an hour from normal."
So the two ponies quickly had breakfast, and then made their way out into the wide streets of the Canterlot market. Every now and then Shining Sapphire examined objects, flittering from store to store with unbridled curiosity. Wisp just tried keeping an even pace, while attempting to block out the various moods he was getting from the nearby ponies.
"I'd have thought your parents would be difficult to buy gifts for" he said, as they examined their fourth bookshop. Shining Sapphire stopped and looked at Wisp like he'd just replaced his tail with an extra head.
"Well," Wisp said, before finding that whatever explanation he'd had thought of had vanished, "I just assumed..."
"Your parents seem so happy with everything anyway. What do you get for the ponies who have everything?"
"Memories" she stated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Now, come on, just a few more stores."
"What are we going to do with that package?" she asked. Wisp stared back.
"Wisp" Shining Sapphire said, an oddly cold tone to her voice, "what did I mention yesterday?"
"I know" she interrupted, "but all the same."
"Let's hope not."
"You didn't honestly think I was going to let you two leave without saying goodbye, did you?" she grinned.
Twinkle grinned, and then opened the door for the two ponies. "Let's go then" she said, her smile growing dangerously wild.
"So" Twinkle said quietly, once they reached the platform, "this is goodbye, for now."
"Look" she said calmly, "I know it's been... horribly awkward between us for the last few years, but, Wisp, you are my oldest and... best friend. I think after every ridiculous thing we've done, we can survive one friendly hug."
Wisp made an overly dramatic sigh, then hugged the mare. When he pulled out, she was smiling even further.
Wisp stared at Twilight Twinkle, then to Shining Sapphire. He felt the desire to point out that if anything, it was likely to be the other way around, before he raised a hoof.
Twilight Twinkle stared at the sight for a moment, before bowing her head. "Flawless."
"Say hi to aunt Cady for me" she said. Shining Sapphire nodded.
"Good to hear" Twinkle said. Then, Shining Sapphire's smile vanished.
The mare tried to look innocent. "I'm not telling you" she said, brightly. Then, when her words registered wit her, she facehoofed.
Shining Sapphire placed a hoof on her cousin's shoulder, as she remembered the painting she'd seen the day before. "Twinkie, you will be alright on your own, won't you?"
"What's that?" she asked. Wisp swivelled, and stared. Something was approaching Canterlot, something large and flying.
"Your highness!" the shape blurted, quickly revealing itself to be a changeling. There was a disappointed noise from Twilight Twinkle, as the changeling rushed over toward Wisp.
Wisp stared at the changeling for a moment. "..." he said, once he realised he couldn't tell which one it was.
"Windsheer! What brings you here, when we told you to remain at the Empire."
"Her Highness... ordered us to find you, and her highness" the changeling said, slowly, and reluctantly.
"Hey, quick question" Twilight Twinkle spoke up, "but why's there a dragon up there?"
Suddenly, four more changelings fell onto the ground, and the dragon slowly began turning, heading away from the city.
"In a sense" the changeling said, "yes."
"In an incredibly accurate sense, royalty."
The five changelings exchanged glances, then looked toward Wisp, who by now was staring at Angel Eyes quite intently. He leaned in toward the pony.any idea of what you did?" he growled, "and for what possible reason?"
"Yes" Angel Eyes responded. "I do. I did what was necessary for the good of my blood, and I make no apology for it."
"When we return to the Crystal Empire" Shining Sapphire said, her voice utterly calm, "we will discuss what you did, and should we pass sentence on you, you will do as we say. Is that understood?"
Shining Sapphire's response to this was to raise an eyebrow, before she motioned to the train carriage. "Now let's get on-board before somepony does something they'll regret."
"You sure you don't want to stay here for a few more days, or weeks?" her cousin suggested playfully.
"Knowing them" Twinkle laughed, "they'd probably win."
The two ponies smiled warmly, before Shining Sapphire sighed, her smile vanishing in an instant. "Be careful, Twinkie. And if at all possible, be safe ."
"That's all I ask."
"Yes?"
"Yes?"
"Yes?"
Shining Sapphire stared at her cousin, aiming a swift kick at the mare, who just hopped out of the way. Shaking her head, Shining Sapphire got on-board the train.
'Deja vu' she thought to herself. As she sat down, she saw Wisp staring at the package intently.
"I probably should" he said, "but at the same time..."
She looked at the package, and shifted. She had a suspicious feeling about the box, and whatever was in it. "Not necessarily."
The two ponies stared at one another. Then, Shining Sapphire noticed something just at the edge of her vision, and turned to stare at the changeling balanced on top of the seating, an inquisitive look on his face.
"So, are you going to open that?" he asked.
"Off the chair" she said. He looked down at his hooves, smiled sheepishly, and hopped off the seat. Sapphy looked at Wisp, who just shrugged.
*****
Wisp stirred, yawned, and stretched, before looking about the carriage, trying to ignore the feeling in his forelimbs. He looked over toward Shining Sapphire, who from the looks of it was beginning to fall asleep herself. He gently nudged her with a hoof.
"Are there yet?" he asked, to which Shining Sapphire grimaced.
Wisp just nodded, numbly, fighting down the urge to yawn again, before his eyes turned toward the parcel, now sitting on the floor in front of their seats. He felt his stomach twist at the sight, as he remembered what he'd agreed to do. He sighed, and focused, his magic lifting the box so that it sat between himself and Shining Sapphire. He stared at it, then into Shining Sapphire's eyes.
Sitting there in the box was a black and green crown. If Wisp had to say, he would have said it matched exactly what he thought a changeling crown should have looked like. It even managed to look unpleasant, at least to his eyes, and there was an odd feeling about it. He looked up at Shining Sapphire, who looked alarmed, though she was rapidly moving on toward outright alarm. Wisp found himself recalling exactly what she'd told him about the day before.
"What should we do with it?" he asked. Shining Sapphire's face was one of stone-cold determination.
"But?" Wisp asked, his gaze not moving from the crown.
She stared into the box, carefully considering her next statement. "I think, perhaps, we should wait and see. If this turns out to be part of some plot, we'll deal with it."
*****
Across Equestria, in the darker corners of the land, minds stirred, as one by one they noted a feeling, a distant sensation that enticed them closer. In essence they were like moths, being drawn like moths to a flame they could not resist, even as whatever it was moved further and further away.
*****
Some hours later, as the sun began to lazily head downward, the express train slowly halted, and stopped. Shining Sapphire practically leapt from her seat, grinning at the sight of home. She turned toward Wisp, who had calmly closed the box's lid, and handed it to Angel Eyes, glowering as he did.
"Shall we?"
"Let's."
As they approached the Crystal Palace, Wisp saw somepony waiting on the front doorstep. Two ponies, actually, neither of whom looked entirely happy. And then, as they got even closer, and Wisp felt the usual side-effects of being anywhere near Princess Cadance, he noticed the five changelings disappearing.lot of explaining to do, young lady."
Wisp stood close to Shining Sapphire, who just stared.
"What happened?" Shining Armor asked gently. Shining Sapphire raised her head to look at them, her eyes quivering. Her parents just blinked, and looked at one another.
"You're... you're not mad at me?"
"Hey," Shining Armor said, "we're not angry at you, sweetie."
The two ponies looked at one another, then to Wisp, who tried to communicate non-verbally that he had no idea why she was surprised about this either.
"Because, because we left without telling you what we were doing, even though I thought we had a good reason at the time, and... and..." she trailed off.
"But" Cadance smiled, "we knew you'd be okay."
For a few seconds Shining Sapphire just stared at the two ponies before she began to laugh, before hugging the two ponies tightly. Wisp remained at a distance, not feeling entirely confident about approaching, and not wanting to spoil the moment in any form.
"Now then" Cadance said, once the hug was finished, "what have you two been up to?"
*****
Soon after, the four ponies found themselves in one of the many, many drawing rooms. Cadance and Shining Armor recounted what the changelings had told them, and once they were done, the two young ponies quickly tried to fill in the blanks as to what had been happening with them. Neither decided to mention the similarity to what they had done not one month previously, while Wisp made a mental note to come up with as degrading a sentence as he could managed for Angel Eyes. On the mention of the brainwashing spell, Cadance and Shining Armor suddenly reassured Shining Sapphire that they knew about that, and had taken steps towards dealing with it on learning about it. Sapphy and Wisp briefly shared a concerned look, but decided to not question the convenience, before resuming their tale.
Once they finished, there was utter quiet. For the longest time, nopony knew what to say, before Shining Sapphire spoke up.
Wisp stared blankly for a while, before quickly galloping after her. Cadance watched the two go, a small smile spreading across her face. She turned to look at Shining Armor, who smiled back.
"Nothing" she said, "I just..."
"It's just... seeing those two so happy" she smiled, before trailing off. Shining Armor just nodded.
Cadance looked about the room, before standing up. "I think I'm just going to go check on something for a while" she said, absent-mindedly. Shining Armor raised an eyebrow, or at least he tried to.
Cadance just smiled innocently, "I just think there's no harm in... being prepared."
"Yeah."
Shining Armor tried to maintain a neutral expression, and in a few seconds managed to fail completely. "Maybe?" he said.
"I thought you'd never ask."
*****
Later, as Shining Sapphire sprawled onto her bed, enjoying the full range of motion that a full king (or rather, princess) sized bed offered. There and then she made a silent vow to her bed to never take its comfort for granted again, as she smiled contentedly. She looked out of the window, seeing the cool blues and purples of the night sky. She was home, she was a pony again, she had Wisp, and all was fine. She was content. Or, almost at any rate.
A few seconds later and Wisp sat down on the bed next to her. Slowly, she brushed a leg against him, smiling as she did.
"Hey" he said, as she leaned closer.
"Well," she said, smirking as she went, "Wisp, darling, I think, perhaps, it's time we really got serious about this relationship, isn't it?"
"Oh" he said, his cheeks suddenly turning pink as he realised what she meant, "yes. Right."
"What is it?" Shining Sapphire asked, as she saw the look on Wisp's face. She shuffled.
Wisp's head shot up, "No, no" he said. "I do. I... I really do."
"Yes. I do" he leaned in closer. "I mean, I know... I know I've been stupid about this sort of thing, but... yeah."
"I would marry you" he said. Suddenly, she felt like her legs were going to give out. She tried to resist the urge to collapse into an undignified grinning heap.
"At least until I saw all the pink in this room."
"Sorry" he said quickly. He moved in closer towards her, their noses touching. "But I would marry you. I love you."
After several minutes, they stopped, staring at the other.
"I think what comes next is mandatory" he whispered.
The next morning, when they were woken up, they were found with their hooves around the other, utterly contented smiles on their faces..
Author's Note
I have no idea why this chapter took so long. no idea. no idea.
It was another glorious summer morning in the Crystal Empire, with the sun high in the sky, which was a perfect blue, with the occasional shade dispensing cloud wafting through the sky lazily.
"So, Sapphy, what've you got planned for today?" he asked. The young mare blinked, before just simply shrugging.
"That's a first" Shining Armor smirked, at which point she tried to glower at him. She failed miserably, and just shook her head. Soon enough, the two ponies finished their meal and then left the room, leaving Shining Armor and Cadance staring at one another. There was a loud click as the door shut behind Shining Sapphire, before Cadance just broke out into a massive grin.
"Yes!" she declared, before catching herself, and making an attempt at looking dignified, which was not a rousing success. "I mean, good for them."
Cadance bit her lip, clearly trying not to show any sign of mirth. "We'll leave them to it, Shining. I think the last thing our daughter would want is us trying to help her."
"You gonna finish that toast?" he asked.
*****
Shortly thereafter, having finished his meal and Cadance's, Shining Armor left to get started on the day's activities. He was barely halfway down the hallway when he heard an incredibly quiet cough. He turned to see Whisper Wind standing a short distance behind him, the colt looking like he wanted at that moment to be anywhere but there.
"Sorry to bother you, sir" he said nervously, "but... I was wondering if I could ask you something."
"Ask away" he eventually managed to say. The young stallion just shifted uneasily on his hooves.
"Yes?" Shining Armor asked. The colt paused, and then, quite suddenly a determined look overcame his features.
Shining Armor blinked. "You what now?" he asked. Wisp just looked about.
"Why?" Shining Armor found himself asking. Wisp shuffled again.
Shining Armor regarded the pony in front of him. He wouldn't have labelled the pony as miniscule in any sense, especially since he almost came up to his chin anyway, even without the obvious fact that the pony did have some muscles on him.
"Alright. When do you want to start?"
"Next week, then?" he suggested. Wisp nodded.
"It's okay, kid. And you don't need to call me 'sir', either. Makes me feel old."
"How about 'Shining Armor'?"
Shining Armor just stared at the colt. "Anything else?" he asked. Wisp paused for a moment.
*****
Shining Sapphire looked up from her book to stare at the item sitting on the desk. It was still there, and still a crown. She didn't like looking at it. She didn't trust it. It was a changeling object, after all. It could've been capable of anything, and neither her, her parents or Wisp had any magic that was able of determining whether there was anything truly sinister about it. Even the fact that she and four of the five changelings were staring at it didn't do anything in the slightest to alleviate this concern, and more than anything, it was beginning to bother her, since she just wanted to read her book in peace and quiet. She did have a lot of new books to read after all, including some fascinating ones on insects, though she presumed Wisp didn't share the interest, if his reaction was any indication. Not that she could blame him. The bit about bees was admittedly disturbing, even after last night had more-or-less proved that it didn't apply to changelings. There were some things that a stallion just didn't want to learn, it seemed.
She heard the sound of the library door opening, and turned to look as Wisp entered the room. He smiled at her.
"Great" Wisp said. "He agreed, and we're starting next week."
"What's that mean?" Wisp asked. She just looked at him.
Wisp paused for a moment. "No" he finally said, "but we weren't exactly enemies either."
"Yes" Wisp eventually said, "but I think it's traditional in this sort of thing for at least one of the parents to disapprove of me."
"Has it done anything?" he asked. Shining Sapphire shook her head.
She glanced at it, then back to Wisp. "I hope if it is going to do something it hurries up and does it already. The suspense is incredibly distracting."
"Do you really think Chrysalis would send this to us, and not lay in some nasty trap while she did?"
He sighed, and looked toward Shining Sapphire. "Not that I don't think she's above sending something that doesn't do anything, in order to get a perverse giggle from our going mad over it."
"Worse?" Shining Sapphire asked, before suddenly reconsidering. "Actually, no, don't tell me. I don't want to know what worse is."
"Well," he said, in an unusually bright tone, "I think I'm just going to go outside for a walk. Would you like to join me?" he asked. Shining Sapphire looked at him, then to her book, then to the smile on Wisp's face.
"Okay then" Wisp shrugged, heading toward the door. Shining Sapphire went back to her book. Then, quite suddenly Wisp returned and kissed her, grinning madly before he rushed out of the door, leaving Shining Sapphire staring after him. One of the changelings rolled his eyes at the sight. Shining Sapphire stared at the door for several seconds after he was gone, before she suddenly felt unusually warm and uncomfortable, and shifted in her seat, before she went back to her book.
*****
The hours passed, as hours have been known to do. Wisp briefly reappeared around lunchtime, then disappeared again to do something. Shining Sapphire felt a brief glimpse of concern about this, but she decided it was best not to worry about what Wisp was doing. When she was halfway through her second book of the day, just a while after dinner, he reappeared, an odd look on his face.
"'Hey' yourself" she replied. Wisp just stood there, as still as a statue.
"It..." he started, "I have something I want to show you."
"No," Wisp said, "it's... it's not really something I can explain. I do have to show it to you"
"Lead on." He paused, and then smiled nervously.
"Seriously, Wisp?" she asked incredulously. His face was practically the picture of seriousness.
Wisp said nothing to that, as she closed her eyes, allowing him to lead her out of the library. As she did, she began to ponder as to what it could've been that he was up to, and then, an idea came to her. It was ridiculous, and unlikely, she knew, but it was an incredibly alluring idea all the same.
*****
Several minutes of walking later, and Shining Sapphire was beginning to wonder what possible revelation could've been worth so much suspense. She wasn't entirely certain where she was, but she knew there had been a flight of stairs not too long ago, and now her curiosity was threatening to overwhelm her. There was the sound of a door being opened, and the feeling of a draft wafting past her.
She opened her eyes, uncertain as to what she would be seeing. She saw a view of the Crystal Empire, with the sun dipping behind the horizon, casting everything in sight in wonderful golden-orange colours. She blinked, and turned to Wisp.
"Wait for it" was all Wisp said, as he looked up at the sky. Slowly, she turned to look. There was nothing but the sky, without so much as a cloud to be seen.
"Wait for it" he repeated. She looked around, and waited. And waited. The sun set, and everything turned to dark blues and purples. She turned to look at Wisp, who looked slightly embarrassed.
"Miss what?" Shining Sapphire found herself asking. Wisp pointed a hoof skyward.
She swivelled, and looked. Up against the night sky was a single star. She turned to look at Wisp, then back to the star. She waited. After a few seconds another star appeared, and another, and another. And slowly, one by one, she saw a familiar pattern forming in the arrangement of the stars, one she knew very well indeed.
"Surprise" Wisp smiled. She tried to say something, but for whatever reason couldn't find the right words. She stared at Wisp, who was grinning excitedly.
"Explain" she stated. Wisp bowed his head.
"You asked her to make a constellation in the shape of my Cutie Mark" Shining Sapphire finished, staring at the sight, as some part of her wasn't convinced it was real. Several more were asking what Equestria's astronomers were going to make of it.
"She agreed to help because I asked nicely" Wisp explained, as he made his way over toward her, "and as for the why... well, actually, the 'why' is this: to distract you."
Wisp walked over toward the balcony, and looked downward. "From that."
"I kinda figured I owed you a ridiculously huge romantic gesture" he mumbled. "So I decided to ask about the city, asked a few ponies for some assistance. They were actually pretty willing to help out."
Shining Sapphire just alternated between staring at Wisp and the crowd of ponies. After a few seconds she resolutely closed her jaw, and stared at Wisp, who just shuffled nervously.
Shining Sapphire blinked, as she felt a rising mix of terror and joy. She was fairly certain she could tell what Wisp was going to say. Some part of her wanted very much to stop him, but for whatever reason she could only stand there and listen to what he was saying.
In an instant, she found herself somehow going from standing still to leaping on him and hugging him. There was a surprised noise from the pony as she did so, before she began kissing him. Down below, she was fairly certain she heard the crowd roar, and then felt the distinctive feeling of the Crystal Heart's magic washing over her.
She released her grip, and coughed, trying to fight down the urge to grin manically. "I think I said the other day, did I not, that I didn't want to get married right away."
Wisp paused for a moment. "I was in a terrible mood at the time" he said quietly, before looking at Shining Sapphire, "and I am allowed to change my mind, aren't I?"
Wisp twitched slightly at those words, and he turned to stare up the sky. The constellation of Shining Sapphire's Cutie Mark was already being disassembled by Princess Luna, now that its purpose was done.
"I..." she managed. "I think I stand by what I said the other day, that I don't want to get married right away. But..."
Then she saw Wisp fighting down a smirk, and jabbed him with a hoof.
"But you aren't answering my question" she said, "are you doing this because it's what you think would make me happy?"
She stared blankly for a moment, before shuffling. "It... it might. It just might."
"We don't?" Wisp asked, almost sounding genuinely surprised.
Quite suddenly, Wisp paled. His eyes shrank, and his entire body tensed. Then he fell over.
"Sorry" he said quietly, "not sure where that came from."
"It startled me, is all" he said. Shining Sapphire gave him a Look which managed to convey just how much she believed him, before she started smiling again.
"Shall we go inside?" Wisp said after a few seconds.
The two turned, and headed indoors. As they did, Shining Sapphire leaned in toward Wisp. Then she noticed he had stopped.
*****
Elsewhere in the palace, and four changelings looked at one another apprehensively, before slowly making their way toward the nearest window.
In an entirely different part of the castle, in the small room that had been designated their bedroom, and was now serving as a makeshift dungeon, their fifth suddenly began to smile joyously.
*****
It started simply enough. One changeling had just randomly appeared in the sky above the city, and it had taken a while to notice it against the dark of the night. Once they noticed it, the inhabitants of the Crystal Empire had felt concerned, but not truly alarmed, since one changeling could've been easily dealt with by the proper authorities. Then there was another, then another, then more, then much more, and before anypony knew it there were what looked like hundreds of changelings hovering over the Empire.
And of course that was the point at which everypony panicked, running for cover. Some ponies even bother to declare that it wasn't fair, the changelings had already tried invading the month before, and why had they come back?
"What's going on here?" she asked. The changelings just stared at her. She could've sworn some of them looked apprehensive, or nervous, but she disregarded this. From behind her, she heard the sound of hoofsteps, and turned to see her daughter and her colfriend approaching. They stopped in front of her, Shining Sapphire smiling sheepishly as she did. Wisp just nodded cautiously, his attention drawn towards the mass of changelings standing nearby.
"Sapphy, I'm assuming these changelings are here because of that crown you mentioned yesterday."
"You've got a plan, right?" Sapphy asked. Wisp just shook his head.
"Your highness" the changeling said, its voice surprisingly clear and eloquent, before bowing. Then all the other changelings began bowing as well. There was utter silence.
There was a concerned gasp from both mares. Shining Sapphire rushed over toward him. Cadance just stared at the changelings in front of her, some of whom were eying her daughter with suspicion.
"He's alright. He's breathing" she said, sighing with relief, before she looked between the changelings and her mother.
"What now?" Cadance repeated, "good question."
Shining Sapphire bit her lip, then, when the answer proved elusive, looked down towards the still form of Whisper Wind, who just groaned slightly.
Author's Note
Argh. Argh. Argh.