Pony POV Series Season Seven: Not The Wedding You Remember

by Alex Warlorn

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Main 6, Princess Cadance, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Queen Chrysalis, Adventure, Shining Armor
Length: 488696

It's time for the royal wedding between Princess Cadence and Shining Armor: except events spiral out of control in ways you are not familiar with. Nothing is certain anymore, the future is no longer set, will the future still have a happy ending

Howdy hoo! The seven season of the pony pov series is here at last! (Was waiting for the cover art to be done).

And . . . it's the royal wedding Princess Cadence and Shining Armor!!!

Seen this a million times before right? Except . . . not. While there have been many experiences to the ponies now their timeline has broken away from the Heart World, something is VERY WRONG here. With fate no longer totally on their side, and no true certainly and against an enemy that takes 'fighting dirty' to a whole new level, can the heroes still pull off a happy ending for everypony?

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

The Audio adaption Is here:
ORIGINAL fan-art, ORIGINAL fan-music and VOICE ACTORS galore await!

And check out the trope page, please help keep it up to day please! Remember, you are awesome.

Recursive fanart and fan stories are here. http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/journal/MLP-FiM-Pony-POV-Series-Fanworks-audio-adaption-274110361 Many are rubber stamped by me as optional canon stories that reveal some of other sides of these stories.
Tropes page found here. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/PonyPOVSeries
Fan Labor Pages here http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/My_Little_Pony_Fan_Labor_Wiki:Workshop/Pony_POV_Series_Season_Zero:_Discorded_Ponies and here. http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/My_Little_Pony_Fan_Labor_Wiki:Workshop/Pony_POV_Series_Season_One:_Reharmonization

Published 2014-03-08 19:10:03 UTC
Last updated 2017-09-05 19:53:15 UTC

Episode 150: Under The Stars 2 of 2

Episode 150: Under The Stars 2 of 2

Pony POV Series
Fluttershy
"Under The Stars"
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic fanfiction
By Alex Warlorn
Edited by Kendell2 and Louis
Part 2 of 2

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): I'm back. Well, I got the two, three, ponies to bed. Jeez, Pinkie Pie should lay off on the sweets, I know Earth Ponies weigh more but come on. Couldn't we have left them in the field?)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Yeah, they looked so adorable.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): As much as Fluttershy is friends with the animals, I'd rather they didn't catch a cold.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Hey! As long as we're here, I should feed Pee Wee! There you go, good phoenix, you're a great phoenix aren't you?)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Stop saying such things, filly. Remember he's supposed to go to Spike eventually.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Ah, does he have to? I've gotten to really like him. Heheheeheheh, hey, that tickles! And I think he really likes me now.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): We don't belong here remember? Even if we've been forced to stay a lot longer than we were supposed to, we are still only a transient presence. Pee Wee is from this world, it's where he belongs.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Technically he's supposed to be dead since Spike was never there to save 'em. We kind of cheated, hence why the Wolf was after him.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): That is not the point. The point is that he's key to Spike learning how to raise and care for another, which is important for his own growth and maturity.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Then we should have put the egg under Spike's pillow with a note saying for the dragon to take care of him. Not hold onto the little guy ourselves.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): It has to be the right time and place. Ee have to do it in a way that allows Pee Wee to gain a concrete existence, or the timeline will reject him. Since Spike didn't go on the dragon migration, that means, as you said, never saved Pee Wee, so it needs to be a position where Spike will come to see Pee Wee as something he feels it's his duty to protect, before becoming emotionally connected to him and raising Pee Wee as a pony.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Uh, new flash, sis, this world's Spike sees himself as a dragon at heart, not a pony.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Again you're missing the point. The point is for Spike having to raise and teach another from scratch, teaching him the joy, and anguish, that comes with such a responsibility.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): You mean like she's doing?)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): There there, Pee Wee, I'll make sure you're all healthy and happy for when...for when we give you to Spike like my sisters say we need to.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): I said to stop that.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Somepony needs to look after him in the meantime.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): You're supposed to remain emotionally indifferent. So he doesn't become connected to you.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): But that would be cruel.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): It's a cruelty to be kind.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Hey, don't be so hard on her; what did you EXPECT her to do when given an adorable little animal to take care of? And in case you forgot, Pee Wee did kinda imprint on what he first saw, which happened to be her.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Don't worry, if need be, I can just regress him back to an egg, and have him imprint again.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): You can't do that!)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Hey, I'm all for helping Spike, but don't you think that'd be going too far?)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): It's what has to happen, for Spike. Not for any of our selfish personalized reasons or goals. He might NEED to be a clean slate when we insert him so time will accept him.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Didn't mom want us to do things that were the happiest, not the way we wanted?)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): This is not about that! This is not about I want, this isn't about what any of us want. This is about what Spike needs! And Pee Wee being with us is cheating. We can't take him with us when we go. This timeline's Wolf considered him a low level target, our timeline's Wolf will view him as an alien presence and not even we might be to protect him then. It's better this way.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Then maybe I don't want to go.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Now hold on, kiddo. That a no go! N! O! We -can't- stay here, we don't belong here. We're like bandages, we can't stay on forever.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Then maybe I don't want to be a bandage anymore.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): You don't get to decide what you are, kid.)

+++

Huh? Wha? I'm sorry the library is already closed, but if you really need something I'm sure Owlowiscious can get it for you if it's something simple. Oh, I guess I do look a little under the weather, well it is late. Why am I not in bed then? Well, I've been feeling too distracted for sleep.

Why would I be afraid of next Tuesday? Did I forget something on my schedule?

Oh, it's you. All of you.

Yes, I'm focused now, thank you for asking.

Whatever it is, can't it wait until morning? I'll be sure to work it into my schedule.

Because if you're going to put me through the gut-wrenching hassle and mind-bending inconvenience of dropping yet another world-shattering truth on my head, I'd much I'd like to have my day in order first. Uuuuugh.

No, nothing terrible happened recently, some terrible things almost happened, but this is Ponyville. Yes, I remember what the Crusaders said about dwelling on things. But this is something that is, not something that was.

Well, you see I was going over my schedule for one of Pinkie Pie's parties, when I realized I am dangerous. I always knew I was powerful, but as long as I kept myself in control it was no big deal right?

But what if I wasn't in control?

I never liked alcohol the first place. I prefer coffee and tea. I like having my wits sharp, thank you. The one time I drank was an experiment, that went horribly wrong. I told my friends it was because I hadn't gotten enough therapy for the Day of Chaos. But what if it was more than that?

All it would take is some pony slipping enough salts into a drink of mine...and I become something dangerous.

I considered simply building up a tolerance, since tiny amounts of spirits and salt are good for the body. But the thing with spirits, is that tolerance doesn't change the long term damage, and after you've built up a tolerance, if you stop drinking, it can take months for your body to adjust not having alcohol in your system and it wrecks havoc with your nervous system. It's a trap.

Just look at Berry Punch. She didn't chose to drink, she needed to. Drinks alone, hides bottles around the house, drink early in the morning, shaking when she don't have any. I'm glad she got help and Cheerilee supported her through her rehab.

But that doesn't change the reality: if my magic gets out of control just from some chemical induction...I'm a danger to those around me, just like when I was a foal. I'm trapped. Last time it was just a dancing house-tree, what if I'm, what if everypony isn't so lucky next time? What if I lose control like I did when I was a filly and Celestia isn't there to stop me?

Fluttershy got drunk, found out something depressing and turned into a Nightmare! Fluttercruel warned me about Trixie not getting depressed while drunk, but I didn't think about the full scale. After all, depressed, salt, and being an Element couldn't be all that's needed to make a Nightmare right? Right? Or that's what I told myself.

But I've been having nightmares, with a lowercase 'n.' Three of them, and I don't know which is worse.

In the first nightmare, I dumbed us all down, so we were all just smart enough so the only things we knew was that we were friends, what our Elements meant, and that we should always do what Princess Celestia told us. We had just enough collective brain-power to use our Elements on whatever or whoever Princess Celestia told us to and that it was always the right thing to do. We just smiled. Sometimes in these nightmares somepony impersonating The Princess tricks our limited selves.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): And the next nightmare?)

...I become a Nightmare.
...
...
...
...You all look so pale. I can't blame you. Can imagine me a Nightmare? It would be the end of the world!

It was horrible! I made ponies shackled to books and made them just read forever! I was Nightmare Library!

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Oh.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Nightmare Library?)

And I had Origami Wings! And my origami horn was made out of study book pages!

And my knights wore bookmarks and little reading glasses and carried about big 'overdue' stampers! But why would they do that when ponies can't leave the library anyway?!

I tortured 'rule violators' by reading them Equestria's Most Boring Facts then assigned an ESSAY on that book! And my book forts! They dotted Equestria towering over everything!! And I refused to let poor ponies read them because they might get out of order! I was completely evil!

Then Rainbow Dash turned into Nightmare Mare-vel-DC-IDW when I tried to ban comic books!

Why are you all face hoofing?

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Can there be a Nightmare that ridiculous?)

++++

"Why are we all going on two hooves? And why are our front hooves acting like magnets?" Roseluck asked Daisy as she held a cup of tea with one hoof.

Bonbon in royal armor shouted, "Tis the gifts of the beautiful and totally relevant Nightmare Anthro!"

"Lyra! Where'd you get those cheap wings?"

"It's Nightmare Anthro now! And we shall do as our ancestors and honor humans by imitating them!" The green Nightmare shouted. "And remember! It's not Nightmare Night anymore! It's Halloween!"

++++

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Sadly, yes.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): I don't think Nightmares are funny at all.)

You are a smart filly! So you can see why I'm so worried! And how could you risk showing me Razzaroo and Bon Bon's diaries? Imagine if the shock of learning all that made me go Nightmare like what happened with Fluttershy? How could you risk that?

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): There is no kind way to say this. But Fluttershy already had damage inside she was struggling with before that day.)

And the rest of us don't?

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): That's why we waited to show you until you had matured enough to begin asking the right questions instead of jumping to conclusions. Trust us, Twilight Sparkle, if there's one pony we know, it's you.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Pinkie Pie's memories of her previous self and before were going to return on their own regardless of what anypony did. She needed one of her best friends to understand the full truth of what she knew. The others, we hate to say it, wouldn't have been able to handle it as much as you could, and AJ is able to accept the truth, but sadly would not have been able to do as good a job. And Celestia, Her Parents bless her, has too many responsibilities to be there for her as much as you can.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): And just because it would drive most ponies crazy, still doesn't mean it should just be totally swept under the rug. Besides, it inspired you to get grants for those archeological digs right? That happened to know just where to dig, and how to properly interpret what they found right? Ponies can be inspired to reach for the stars again. And know not to grow proud because they know that they fell once already. And those ponies at the museum finally know what a 'DVD player' is. Heck, maybe finding and analyzing lost technology could start a new Golden Age!)

Then why didn't you explain that to me?

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Because Princess Celestia is the better teacher.)

The point is that what am I supposed to DO? I can't simply do nothing.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): You said you were having three different nightmares, what was the one you didn't mention?)

...I dreamed that Ponyville took a vote. I dreamed my parents discussed it with the doctors. I dreamed everypony petitioned princess Celestia until she signed the mandate. They didn't cut my horn off. I was too valuable as an Element of Magic for that, and they couldn't know how losing my horn might affect my Element if at all.

So they stuck a seal on my horn so powerful and so restraining that my magic and my mana sense were all effectively dead. Imagine of somepony shut off the nerves to your legs. And the worst part was? I couldn't argue with their logic or their reasoning. It was like I was back at the academy all over again as a filly. When the adults were telling my parents I was simply too dangerous to keep my horn or interact with other ponies, I thought if I was able to learn and grow as much as I have, that I'd always be in control. And somepony someday could pay for me losing control! And all because I'm not strong enough where it counts to control the power inside me! Because I'm just flesh and blood with a power that makes mages decades older than me green with envy. And all because I can't trust myself when my body is overwhelmed by a chemical.

...Thanks for the hug, filly, but I'm afraid hugs aren't the answer to everything.

You know there was a law for thousands of years that mage unicorns were forbidden to be intoxicated, they were seen as a danger to themselves and those around them. It lasted so long because unicorns aren't supposed to be able to cast complex or powerful magic when drunk in the first place! So no pony even examined it!

I considered trying to erase all alcohol and salt from Equestria, but that would include rubbing alcohol and the like used by doctors, and salt is NEEDED for ponies to survive. And I've SEEN what extremism can do.

Any of my friends could go Nightmare under the right circumstances. A slight chemical imbalance in my brain from a common drink is all I need to lose the control I've become so proud of, and I'd turn a pony's liver into custard.

Maybe those who have been scared of us in Canterlot have been right from the beginning. We're simply too dangerous to have around. And I'm several times more dangerous than all my friends put together. Who protects Equestria from Equestria's protectors? We're all walking time bombs, and I'm the biggest of the lot.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Twilight?)

Yes?

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Listen and think LOGICALLY to what I'm about to say.)

But-

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Sit...Good. Look, Twilight. Trixie is an Element of Magic, Fluttercruel is an Element of Kindness. Celestia and Luna are both Bearers of THREE of the Elements. Clover the Clever, Smart Cookie, and Private Pansy did something every bit as powerful, so who knows, maybe they were Bearers. How many of you have turned Nightmare?!)

...Two...But-

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Two in 10, maybe 13. You know from Bonbon's Diary that Patch and Logan fit the profile of Bearers because the Shards reacted to them, even if they weren't forged into the Elements yet. Can you say any of this was wrong?)

No...

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): During that several-hundred year period, multiple ponies used the shards, many for good ends. They changed hooves who knows how many times...and yet not ONE Nightmare was born. And during that time, salt and wine were a REQUIREMENT to survive due to water quality after The Day. And that's not even talking about the Paradise Ponies who were chosen by the Rainbow and thus in no different a position than you and your friends. Now, after this history lesson, does the existence of two Nightmares a thousand years apart from one another, one of which could have NOT been a Bearer and STILL became a Nightmare, compare to the countless ponies who were in the same exact position you eight are right now who DIDN'T?)

20 to 15.38% of the chosen ones turning into end of the world monsters is NOT encouraging.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Ok, let's look at this more closely then. How many years have the Elements existed? Three thousand years. How many years did the Rainbow of Light, which chose the Paradise ponies, who contained dozens of members over their several THOUSAND years of existence? From the beginning of the Age of Myths till the beginning of Discord's reign. In all that time, how many people connected to them have gone Nightmare? Two. One of which would've gone Nightmare whether or not she was a Bearer PERIOD.

(Which means the ONLY Bearer in the history of the Elements and the Rainbow of Light to have gone Nightmare that we can decisively say went Nightmare BECAUSE she was a Bearer was Fluttershy; who was ALREADY an emotionally vulnerable wallflower who was already repressing the pain of what Discord did to her, got drunk, and was FORCED to witness the CAUSE of all that repressed pain, the Cruel Side of Nature, be presented to her in all its gory detail, in a manner that could ONLY happen to her. ONE Nightmare born from an Element Bearer in what amounts to LONGER than recorded history. How are THOSE statistics?)

Ok, so the Elements do not equal Nightmares...And I guess neither does drinking...

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Do you have any idea how much it takes to get an Alicorn drunk anyway? Celestia would need to drink an entire liquor store, on a solar eclipse, to get drunk.)

That doesn't change the matter that I'M still a dangerously powerful unicorn that could destroy the town if I get drunk! Or that...I'm dangerous period...

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Twilight, take a look at this.)

Huh? A tabloid...

'Local pegasus filly performs what is being called the 'Sonic Rainboom.' Rainbow Dash, a Cloudsdale native filly, performed the legendary Sonic Rainboom during an unofficial race at the Junior Speedsters. One of the school instructors, speaking on condition of anonymity, is of the humble opinion that...that her wings should be clipped because no one pegasus should be able to generate something so destructive that no pony else can even replicate?! In particular when held in the hooves of a filly! Even more so one known for impulsiveness and making friends with unsavory sorts, violent emotional outbursts, and an aggressive attitude with no respect for authority with the longest demerit list in the school's history?!'

That's terrible! By that logic, Trixie's mother should have her horn chopped off just for having the potential for destructive magic! Rainbow Dash is the most trustworthy pony around! She'd never use her Rainboom where it'd hurt someone by accident! She's reckless but not careless!

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Look at it from their point of view.)

Frankly, I don't see the point of that.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):...An anti-social filly delinquent known for not having a grip on her emotions suddenly being powerful enough to shatter boulders miles away. That kind of power would seem rather dangerous to any outside observer for an adult to have. Maybe it's better Rainbow Dash couldn't do the Sonic Rainboom again until she was a mare.)

'Maybes' and 'What-Ifs' are for idiots like this...this...fear-monger, hiding behind anonymity! Too cowardly to attach his own name to his beliefs! As well he should! Mutilating a foal because they might do something destructive with an unknown power? THAT'S INEQUINE! The day that happens is the day the Equestria I know is dead! I hope that stallion got found out and lost his job.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Actually he worked there until he retired, he wrote a bestselling book, and is enjoying a job as a lifeguard on a tropical island.)

But did he get found out? Did he ever have the guts to own up to this awful proposition of his?

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): No. And there are pegasi even today who are very worried about Rainbow having that kind of power.)

They don't know her! I do. She is not that kind of pony who'd use what she can do to hurt others.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Even though Rainbow has a big desire for hard cider.)

She never gets drunk without having one of her friends come with her to keep an eye on her...or at least I think she doesn't. Her flying is too precious to her for her to risk crippling herself flying drunk! That much I know!

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): What if somepony slips something in her drink?)

Then it's not her fault! It's the blasted jerk that slipped it to her! And...oh...

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Often times, Twilight, the only thing we need to solve a problem we can't overcome, is to see another in the same position. You said it yourself, Twilight; destroying something just because it MIGHT be a threat is jumping to a conclusion, and few things are more dangerous.)

...

I did say that, didn't I? Back when I was told the Flashstone was destroyed so it couldn't be misused. You're right, it would be foolish to give into paranoia. Be stupid to fear others just because their abilities are beyond that of the rank-and-file. That's racist logic. We'd be damning our society to mediocrity forevermore, because we'd be too scared of the exceptional. I really need to stop jumping to conclusions...

And I guess you're right about being able to help another with a problem we can't deal with ourselves...like at the Winter Wrap Up and with the tornado, I never once thought to try helping organize things to help MYSELF fit in...but then I saw how badly the others needed help and realized I could provide it, and later I had no problem encouraging Fluttershy to try something she didn't think she could help with...I think that might be a good friendship lesson...When Spike wakes up maybe I'll have him take a letter.

Uh...why do you seem so confused, my little pony?

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony):...Why are you so worried about drinking? Don't you need to drink water to live?)

...If you don't know, I won't be the one to tell you.

...Oh, and about Rainbow....

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Don't worry. As a filly most ponies were more surprised at her NOT being able to do it again. Then 'Rainbow's Sonic Rainboom Saves Wonderbolts (And Fashionista)' hit the headlines, and THAT is how the Sonic Rainboom exists in everypony's mind!)

Happy to hear it....And I think I might be able to sleep better tonight. I really needed that. Thank you.

"Who-who!"

"Yes, Owlowcious, I think I will have sweet dreams tonight."

I hope you three have sweet dreams too. And that's a nice phoenix chick you have little filly, you look cute together. Maybe I should write the letter myself for once.

'Dear Princess Celestia, I have so many fears and worries, they can rise up at random either when I'm sleeping or awake. But I have friends to help me face them rather than bury them...even if I didn't know they were my friends.'

There. Hello Smarty Pants, nice to have you back in bed with me, hope you don't mind me hiding you in the pillow during the day. What a beautiful night, goodnight Princess Luna.

++++

You're welcome Twilight Sparkle. Young Silver Spoon and her father lay under my moon and stars, staring up at the Heavens. Silver Tongue takes pains to point out the beauties of my night and make it interesting for his daughter, something for which I am grateful. I remember when the filly's dreams were filled with nightmares of her father attempting to murder her. Helping ponies with their nightmares is not always an easy feat, particularly when they are not simply bad dreams but nightmares stemming from that which they have refused to face.

Thankfully, the young one has faced her monsters.

"Alright, Silver Spoon, I think it's time to go to bed," Silver Tongue tells his daughter.

"...Do we have to?" the young one asked, she seemed to relish the moment and not want it to end, despite the rather large yawn she gave.

It is ironic...for the longest time I hated hearing ponies say 'time for bed' worse than any foal...in my insanity, I'd forgotten that many ponies loved my night because they could sleep and dream. And I had forgotten that even living concepts need sleep, if only to rest their weary minds...I suppose I was acting like a foal after all.

"Sorry, but how about we go to a play tomorrow night?"

"...Ok, Daddy..."

With that, father takes his daughter and puts her to bed. I know her dreams will now be far sweeter than they previously were.

Now I can enjoy a little reading. Hmmm. Chess through the ages? Couldn't hurt...Wait a minute. You can't castle while in check! CELLY!

++++

"So how was it?" Scootaloo asked from under the bed, crawling out, apparently Cutie Mark Crusader Boogie-Mares was a dud.

"Pretty," Silver Spoon said, "Thanks for giving me that private time, girls."

"Don't mention it," Sweetie Belle said, giving a small smile. "I know what how important time with your dad is."

"No prob," Applebloom finished. "...Ah do too."

"Me three," Scootaloo said in a low whisper.

"And it's great ya've figured that out too." Applebloom nuzzled her.

"Thanks guys." Silver Spoon returned the nuzzle.

"...Can I keep the bits I found under here?" Scootaloo asked after letting the moment pass.

Silver Spoon chuckled. "...Sure...so, what exactly do you do at a normal sleepover?"

"But you had them with Tiara," Sweetie Belle said in a way that wasn't a question.

"Yes...but it was always just the two of us. And I was still trying to be a lady, not a filly. I want to learn how fillies have a sleepover."

"Ya tell spooky stories," Applebloom said, making a ghost noise.

The fillies looked at each other, considering Applebloom had lived a ghost story according to her, they were surprised she'd suggest that first.

"What? Ah still like a scary story. Unless yah all are scared."

"What? Me, scared? No way!"

"Yeah! bring it on!"

"Alright, anypony have one?"

Silver Spoon spoke up. "Alright, I think I know a few..."

++++

"Remember dear you're going back to regular school tomorrow!" Derpy said tucking Dinky in. Derpy had considered trying to get her little muffin into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns after realizing how smart the filly had become on their trip to Canterlot...but the idea of her baby being so far away...it just scared her. Sure, the Doctor said he could make sure she'd see her all the time, but...it wouldn't feel right.

"Yes mama!" Dinky actually thought it might be fun to hang out with the foals in class instead of homeschooling like she had been doing for most of the year. And she couldn't wait to show Miss Cheerilee everything she knew now! "Miss Cheerilee says she'll be happy to have me back!"

"Goodnight my little muffin." Derpy kissed her goodnight.

++++

"Your cutie mark is for being graceful isn't it, Alula?" Ask the giant feather for a face.

I look back at it, I wasn't wearing the flower sticker today. "Y-yeah, it is. But it's nothing special. I mean, so many pegasi have feather cutie marks too."

The feather frowned at me, looking sympathetic, or I thought it was. "Oh, I know how awful that must be; after all, what could be more horrible than being the same as everypony else?" The feather then got a smile. "Well, what if your cutie mark was super extra special? What if your wings were special? If you dislike you cutie mark, then you must dislike being graceful, won't worry, your wings will make sure you'll be anything but graceful now! And don't blame me, blame that big dumb sister of yours, after all, who pressured you and made sure you always practiced whether you wanted to take a day off or not?"

--

"What that big dumb meanie Discord did to you was awful Alula, you don't need to feel that pain anymore. Just look around at the crowds cheering for you, they love you, you are special."

"Thank you Mama Princess Gaia!"

I did, and I smiled so wide! They all loved me! "Alula is coolest!" Shouted a filly Cloudkicker.

I know a lot of ponies hated Miss Fluttershy for making all the adults foals, but what's wrong with being a foal? I've been one all my life after all. And it was all that weird darkness alien thing's fault, the newspapers they sell next to the banana flavored gum said so!

I kept this from my big sister Cloudkicker, she didn't like Fluttershy for making her my age for some reason. Until after Fluttershy saved the water tornado that Equestria needed for all the rain. Then she seemed to accept her back as part of the herd. I know my big sister isn't really mean now too. Mama Princess Gaia helped me see that too.

"I had another dream about Diamond Tiara last night, big sister."

"That's...interesting little winglet."

"I wonder if I'll have one tonight too."

"Only one way to find out you know."

"Oh! Right. I guess. But this time we were flying."

"An Earth pony flying without wings, that sounds interesting."

"Oh she wasn't an Earth pony in my dream."

"She was a pegasus?"

"Kinda. She had a horn too. She was saying how she'd need me for something important."

Big sister went super silent for a bit before saying. "Alula. I'm worried. Diamond Tiara's been gone since last year. I'm worried that she's...erm, not as nice as you dream about her being."

"She's just lonely, big sister, she's not sure how to make friends. I'm sure she'll be making lots of friends when she comes back."

"Alright dear, you should see what Diamond Tiara has for you that's so important then. Goodnight, little winglet."

"Goodnight, big sister Cloudkicker."

++++

"Thanks for letting me sleep over tonight Twist!" Truffle said, formerly Chubby Cheeks before his Mark-Mitzvah.

"Ith's perfecthly fine!" Twist whispered to the little colt. Her parents had seemed surprisingly delighted at the idea of the sleepover. Truffle's were more surprised than anything and mostly just nodded.

However, Applebloom was confused and upset when she was not invited. Twist promised they were still friends, she just wanted a chance to get to know Truffle better. After all, if Applebloom could make new friends, why couldn't Twist?

Silver Spoon was genuinely sad she couldn't invite the CMC for a sleepover at her house in return, but she already had gotten time to spend with her father, which was few and far between and very much needed.

Then Silver's father changed his schedule and choose to help her have both, acting like a typical father with a duty to spoil his little girl. Silver Platter hadn't seemed thrilled, but politely relented.

Twilight was worried about Spike being upset about missing this with his new friends, being too tired to attend himself (Twilight had giggled to herself at Spike WANTING to sleep over with a bunch of fillies), but planned to make up for it with a sleep over with Spike possibly at the library (and had begun CMC-proofing the shelves and putting a double lock on her lab).

As far as Twist herself was concerned, right now she was just helping the pudgy colt grow out of his shell. He certainly liked her sweets, and she did love making sweets. But he said she was cute too. That was nice. He was cute too! Mayor Mare's husband even attended Cubby's Mark-Mitzvah.

Speaking of cutie marks...Twist suddenly wondered where Diamond Tiara's parents were when she had HER party. Oh well, they likely had some super giant party at her house with guests from all over Equestria waiting for her after Applebloom finally stood up to that bully.

But Twist wasn't going to let things like that distract her. Nothing would spoil this.

"Did you sneak that book out like I asked?"

"I don't think adults want us reading this kinda book," he said.

"Who cares what adults thinks right now? This is the night, it's all ours."

"We're not vampire ponies."

"Nope but this is a sleepover!"

"Shouldn't we be sleeping then?"

Twist giggled, "Chubby, I mean Truffle, you should know, all girls do, and so should boys, nopony sleeps at a slumber party! Now open the book. Oooh, oooh, this is delicious, I could eat this right up, don't you want to try this Chubby?"

"Aren't we a little small to do this?"

"You're never too young! Come on now, aren't you just a little bit curious?"

"...I guess. Okay. Let's do it!"

"Okay! This recipe is gonna be great! Don't worry, my parents trust me with the kitchen. I swear one day I'm gonna put Sugar Cube Corner out of business!...Or just sell them the royalties to my whistle candies and make a fortune!"

"Then you'd be rich like Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara!"

"Naw. Not like them. I'll never start treating ponies like junk. You can count on me staying Twist!"

"That's great to hear. I like Twist the way she is."

"Oh you." They nuzzled.

++++

Trixie looked over her mail. She had had not gone over it today yet. Mostly cause she was busy, but really cause she was lazy about that sort of thing. While she liked to pretend before that she got tons and tons of fan mail a day, the reality was much more humble. Besides, if Twilight or the others had something to tell her she'd notice a floating scroll appearing out of a burst of green flame. Or Twilight would just appear at her window in the middle of the night again. And her friends in Hoofington...oh right, she didn't have any.

"Sis you really need to start making friends in Hoofington, not just long distance relationships with mares in Ponyville," Nyxie had told her.

"Trixie is...I'm not quite sure how to make friends who aren't friends of friends who saved Trixie from a catatonic state then helped in saving Equestria."

"Then maybe Pixie and I can start teaching you. You've already really improved Trixie, I'm sure we can find someponies willing to socialize at one of her concerts or one of Lexy's performances."

"Lexy? You mean HEXY," Trixie said with alarm at the imp she had for a little sister who had never quite grown out of her 'mischievous filly' stage. The trickster characters she often played as were a natural to her. Lexy claimed she had learned from watching Trixie. Trixie would have to introduce her to Fluttercruel, Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash, they'd get along swimmingly. Trixie shuddered, perhaps too swimmingly. She wasn't sure if Ponyville would survive the resulting prank war...

"Now now, that was never a nice name to call her."

"She loves it and writes it on her personal checks. She'd've legally changed her name to that, except Mom and Dad didn't approve remember?"

"I'm saying you shouldn't think of her like that. You know she loves you. All of us do. And you're finally able to make bonds with a good pony outside the family."

"Trixie is not giving mother grandfoals."

"I NEVER SAID THAT!"

"Sorry. Been spending too much time around some ponies..." Trixie didn't say who might have been trying to set her up on dates she couldn't have had less interest in, and Nyxie chose not to pry. "...We'll see what happens..."

"Well." She hugged Trixie, "Goodnight big sister, sleep tight."

Trixie returned the hug and finally looked at her mail. Nothing out of the ordinary.

There was a knock at the door. She opened the door to find a strongly familiar gray pegasus with a bubbles cutie mark. What was the blue shed from Ponyville doing here?

"Special delivery!" She handed the letter to Trixie, not even asking for her name or signature and rushed into the blue shed that vanished.

Trixie stared for a few moments at the blank space Ponyville's shed had just occupied, then sighed. "After Discord, Loneliness, Princess Gaia, and discovering she is an Element of Magic, Trixie believes that seemed almost normal."

Trixie didn't know the Doctor would be getting another lecture, from Princess Luna this time, about abusing his TARDIS and meddling in mundane pony affairs.

Trixie looked at the letter and all other things were forgotten. The royal seal?! Address from Canterlot?! Her magic shaking, all sleepiness gone, she cracked open the letter and began to read,

"Greeting Trixie Midsummernight of the Lulamoon Clan,
You are cordially invited..."

~Fin

Author's Note

The CMC and their friends go to bed, Twilight Sparkle gets a late night visit. And the three interviewers experience increasing individuality, but is it a good thing? And Trixie get an important invitation.

"Discord is beaten. The world is restored to it's proper balance and sanity and Celestia rule the day once again. But it's the scars ponies bear that you can't see that take the longest to heal. What was going on in those three weeks between episodes two and three of the second season? How did they recovery and heal from this ordeal that we didn't see?"

If this was Kingdom Hearts, this is where we'd get a montage of the previous installments to the techno-beat theme song!

Reharmonized
Princess Gaia
Butterflies
Mind Games
Seven Dreams/Nightmares
Dark World
Shining Armor

The ponies of the reharmonized verse are BACK!!!!

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Reharmonized-Pony-POV-Series-Under-The-Stars-1of2-432278619

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Queen-Chrysalis-Part-1-Birth-433204560

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Image by Atomic Chincilla. http://atomic-chinchilla.deviantart.com/art/We-ll-Make-it-Through-304909770

"MLP: FIM" Copyright Hasbro

Edited like mad by Kendell2 and Louis.

Episode 151: Reach For the Stars Part 1

Prince Blueblood: Reach for the stars
A tribute to: My Little Pony Friendship is Magic
Healing Pony POV Series by alexwarlorn
Status: canon (yes, you are reading this right)
WRITTEN BY ItsfromPeople

Close the doors! CLOSE THE DOORS! I... I think I still need some time before I can see sunlight again. You can laugh about me if you want. I know most of my simple-minded servants find this idea simply hilarious. They are all just too happy to not see me outside of my own luxurious room.

Servants act obediently when you are standing before them but they constantly talk behind your back about you and will spread rumours about you if you are not careful. Sometimes this happens even if you are careful. The slightest mistake or misunderstanding will be turned against you. You can never trust lowly commoners. Princess Celestia is still haunted by countless idiotic and baseless rumors.

Silence? And since you have forgotten to introduce yourselves like you SHOULD have to a prince, it is my turn to start introductions. My name is Prince Blueblood. It is about time you show up to interview the third most important pony in Canterlot. My two eternal aunts are of course the two most important ponies in this legendary place. So they must have been your first choices for interviews. After all they are the Princesses of the Night and the D-D-D-Day.

Once the last Grand Galloping Gala was over I thought that this was the worst possible thing that would ever happen to me. I was wrong for once.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Have you ever planed or considered revenge against Miss Rarity for "ruining" the gala for you?)

How stupid do you think I am? Wait, do not answer this question. I know Twilight Sparkle and I was there when the window, celebrating the victory of her and her group over Nightmare Moon, was unveiled. It was one of the more important events of the year. I know the names of every single one of the Elements of Harmony. Despite not any of them being of a noble bloodline, they have somehow managed to do something wonderful and brought Auntie Luna back to us.

This made Miss Rarity a more then acceptable choice for the Gala. An entourage of somepony like me needs to shine on her own to let me shine even brighter. A mare of an ancient noble family or a famous celebrity is the best choice for me. And as the Element of Generosity, Miss Rarity was a member of the later category. Since she wasn't even a noble, this also meant that I had a servant for the evening with me. She was also a very good shield once I was attacked. It was so convenient!

Of course there are the disappointing evenings when I am unable to find a mare with neither of these qualities and have to take a mere beautiful mare.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): They are ponies and you treat them like accessories. Do you ever think how THEY have felt about that?)

No, why should I? I have my standards and it is the fault of the others if they are not able to live up to it. For example being the Element of Honesty, didn't mean that I would accept lowly common carnival fare from that mare. Imagine the talk if my royal self was seen eating such base things! And as a colt I was taught that the food of commoners is unclean and infectious.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Now I don't know if I want to punch you or take pity on you.)

And then got an entire cake worth of the poisonous material on my royal person! What right did Miss Rarity have to speak to me in such a base manner? I give her the privilege of being with me for one evening, and the honor of protecting my royal person, and she thinks she has the right to speak to me in such a rude manner and ruin my coat!

Of course I wanted them to face justice for their rube-like actions, having ruined my coat and publicly humiliating me and making me a laughing stock for months to come! Oh and I guess maybe ruining the evening of many other high-class ponies, trampling some under wild animals, traumatizing many animals of Auntie's private zoo, damaging or destroying ancestral musical instruments, ruining a priceless work of art, costing thousands of bits in property damage, and psychologically scarring some of our more fragile high class ponies with a crippling phobia of the color combination of yellow and pink. But most importantly dirtying and humiliating me!

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Oh... Oh I'm sorry. I guess... I guess they didn't go and think about everythin' after they had so much with-)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Shush!)

But Auntie insisted on paying for everything out of her own personal funds, including the psychological care for guests and her animals, visiting each one personally (I suspect some at the same time). And she commissioned a replacement statue. I don't know how she found a replacement for the cello that was destroyed. She also privately and personally pardoned her favourite and her five friends before the paper work had even finished processing.

If I did something like that, I'd be on the face of every tabloid for a year, be banned from the Gala for the rest of my life, and likely be suspended from the rest if I was lucky! I wonder if I saved the world that I'd be allowed to destroy property and ruin evenings and get away scot-free.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): I...I really am sorry. It's just, after seeing how boring the Gala was, a lotta them were heart broken.)

And that gives them the right to-

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Let us concentrate on the topics. What did you experience when Discord was freed from his imprisonment?)

You still not know about it? I thought the traitorous servants already bragged about that.

I was just relaxing in my own room and went over some of my personal maps of the Canterlot Castle. It was a hobby that started a long time ago, around the time I had gotten my cutie mark. I had drawn every single one of these maps myself. I took a break and looked over the pictures of myself that hung on the walls.

Suddenly the most magnificent and detailed compass I had ever seen appeared before me. I wanted to buy ten copies of this object instantly. It was almost divine but suddenly it began to talk.

"Oh what luck I have, good old Galaxia had a few kids and even today a few of them are still around."

I had absolutely no idea who the compass was talking about. This was about the moment when I realized that a talking compass was there with me in the same room and I did the smart thing and ran for the door.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): So you just ran away?)

Did you expect me to stay and talk with a floating compass?

As I opened the door as fast as possible a stallion made of fire was standing before me and blocked my exit. He looked great, he reminded me a lot on myself. The compass continued to talk.

"There is no need to run. I won't do the same thing I did with Galaxia. That was over way too soon. And didn't you always want to be more like Auntie Celestia? I can make that happen."

It was crazy, it was like the compass was reading my mind!

I had to admit that being made out of fire looked kinda amazing. Maybe something inspired by Princess Luna would also improve my appearance. A mane flowing with stars for example. It is really hard to come up with ideas how I could look any better. But the look on the face of this twin made out of fire did unnerve me more then I wanted to admit.

"I... erm, that is... let's see... but first... could you... but..."

The compass face sighed irritably.

"You see... yes I suppose but... if I had to choose... if there's that could be improved... of course then there's..."

A fiery mane or a mane made out of stars? Maybe that would shut-up those absurd college students who popped up every few years claiming that I was no way actually related to Auntie and therefore had no right to be called a Prince and should be thrown out of Canterlot. What should I chose? Would my suits or coat still go with that? What was this thing made of fire anyway? An illusion or something?

Princess Luna and Auntie gave some of their magic to their royal guards, why couldn't they give some to me?! Don't I deserve it more?

"And I thought 'fun and games by proxy' was supposed to be poetic. It is no fun if you don't talk back. You're boring. So we'll just skip the build-up and go to the next part and I move on to some more interesting ponies. But here's one bit of fun. Remember: the sun is trying to kill you."

Suddenly the compass was gone and the stallion moved closer to me. It was this moment when I noticed that I was made out of ice. Ice! I could see right through myself! I couldn't see any ice internal organs or bones, just ice! This wasn't what I had in mind when I thought about Princess Luna. And the stallion closed in on me. I was so hot. Wait! I started to melt! The stallion grinned wider.

It was trying to kill me, just like the compass had said! I had to get out of here. I had to get somewhere, anywhere where it couldn't reach me. I briefly noticed that I left small patches of ice on the floor as I stumbled around the room.

"You can not hide from the warmth of the sun."

The fire creature spoke in my own voice!

I didn't think much and picked up the small table with all my priceless, unique maps and smashed it against this fire creature and ran to the door. Do you know how long it took to draw all these maps and add all the details to them? Days of my hard work were ruined!

"Why are you afraid? Embrace me, beautiful."

Outside I had to find some of these lazy guards and let them arrest this fire thing. They are never there when I needed them. Only then did I notice that everypony else had gone insane. I heard disturbing shrieks from the library. It sounded like somepony was dragged back into something and suddenly everything was silent.

Instantly I ran into the opposite direction. I saw ponies ramming their heads into the walls until they started to bleed. Others jumped around like hyperactive children, ignoring the damage when they hit the ground. There had to be somepony left to help me, someone to fix this.

Then I saw Princess Celestia. It was wrong. It was just so wrong. She looked like a little filly. The eternal goddess of the day that was always the calm center of this ever-changing world was standing before me like a parody of the wise ruler she was supposed to be.

As an Alicorn she was high above any mortal pony and because her family shared her blood with me, it made me more important to any normal noble, rich pony or lowly commoner.

This had to be a trick, an imposter, an illusion or a fake. This simply couldn't be! How could this thing dare to impersonate the Sun Goddess herself?

"Ah! A cute icy mare! Are you Lulu's pet made cute?"

"I am not a mare or a pet, you brat! I am a stallion!"

What happened to my voice? Why was it suddenly so different?

Unfortunately the wall right next to me had turned to glass and I could see my reflection. I had turned into a mare. When did that happen? I guess I was too concentrated on the fact that I was turned into ice to notice this additional transformation.

And damn was I hot. No pun intended. I mean just wow. I never thought about what I would have looked like if I wasn't born a colt but I should have known that I would still look amazing. Once I get back to normal it would be hard to find a mare for a night that could compete with this.

"Come to me beautiful Princess Blueblood!"

The fire thing had found me again. I had to do something. I desperately looked at the demented filly standing before me. But she had turned her attention to the few guards that had bothered to come to my aid and turned them into clockwork creatures walking around in circles. Was she trying to get me killed?

I could feel my body melting as the fire thing came closer and closer. Then it hit me in the face. These powers, this ability to change the guards at will... This was not some cheap knockoff.

Princess Celestia was truly standing before me and she did nothing to help me. Then she was just gone.

She left me all alone with this fire thing! Was the compass right? It was my cutie mark after all. Did it try to warn me that Celestia herself was trying to murder me? Was this fire thing a creation of hers?

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): You got this all wrong.)

"There is no need to be afraid of the sun."

How could she hate me so much? Did I really matter so little to her? Was it a punishment for not being born as an Alicorn like Cadence?

But... I am a pony born from the noblest bloodline and related to the Alicorns themselves. I am important. You can't just throw me away like nothing!

I just ran away, away from this fire thing, away from all the insane ponies, away from all the things the ponies had turned into, just away from everything. But there was no escape from this chaotic hell.

I tried multiple times to escape the castle but somehow all ways just led back inside. Exploration and map-making were my special talents but that was completely worthless as this entire castle had stopped making sense. I already ran past my own room six times despite running away from it.

Suddenly I saw Princess Luna. She wasn't a filly, she wasn't a thing and in fact she looked refreshingly frustrated. She was still sane! She would save me from everything!

"Help me!"

The worthless guards did nothing for me. They really never do anything but stand around.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Had you already forgotten the guards that did try to come to your aid and risked there own lives for you mere minutes ago?)

At this point, yes I had completely forgotten about them.

"Auntie Luna! Please! Save me!"

"....Blueblood?! What the...?"

I had to roll my eyes at her reaction. My sorry state might have something to do with all the CHAOS GOING ON HERE!

"Of all the foalish questions at a time like... Oh no, he's coming!"

The fire thing had found me again. How did it keep following me? Did I watch too many horror movies?

"Uh... Well, for once I can deny I set anyone on fire..."

I did the sane thing and hid behind my immortal invincible aunt as ice begins to form on her wings. Like I care about that right now, just do something! Anything! Don't leave me all alone. Not again. Please not you too.

"Please! Stop him! Extinguish him! Before he melts me!"

I found myself crying. A prince doesn't cry but this chaos had taken even this away from me.

"Blueblood, if it's another transformed pony putting him out would kill him... her... was it a her before?"

She does care more about the fire thing then about me. I was abandoned again. Did nopony care about me anymore? Had anypony ever?

I continued to run away. I raced through another door when it suddenly closed itself behind me. For once I had luck and it blocked the fire thing long enough to allow me to get some distance between us.

Soon I could hear its voice singing close to me. How the hay does it keep finding me? Was it the sunlight that gave my position away to this fire thing? But there is no escape from the sun.

I don't even know how long I lasted. Time didn't seem to matter in this chaotic hell.

Eventually I couldn't run anymore. I was completely spent.

The fire thing closed in on me. I didn't even care anymore.

"Lovely Princess Blueblood, now you will be mine."

That was it. I knew that this was the end of the line for me. And nopony even cared.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Did you regret anything at this point? Something you had said or done?)

No, in this moment I was too exhausted to think about anything like this. I just wanted it to finally be over.

Suddenly a bright light covered everything but instead of melting me completely, it felt warm. Like an embrace of something long forgotten.

For a moment I saw an Alicorn I had never seen before. She was simply wonderful; it was like seeing the entire beauty of the stars compressed into a single being. Her expression was hard to read. Was she disappointed? Was she sad? Was she trying to hide tears? I wondered if she was one of my ancestors... I KNOW I have an Alicorn for an ancestor! I know I do!

For the fraction of a second I felt free before the light vanished and I couldn't see the fire thing anywhere. There was a cute maid next to me. I had to focus! But where was the fire thing? It must be hiding. It must still be after me! There was no escape. So I ran back into my room. Only the darkness was safe.

I heard voices outside but I was too afraid to take a look. Eventually a few servants came and tried to get me to go outside into the dangerous light. It took me some time to realize that I found my own room without any trouble. This meant that the architecture of the castle was back to normal. But I was still too afraid to walk outside. It was around then I realized I was no longer made of ice and again my handsome stallion self.

Why are you three still not laughing? Isn't it hilarious? Prince Blueblood is afraid of normal sunlight. I must have become the laughing stock of every servant in the castle. Some had their fun with little mirrors. Of course I never saw who.

I've had therapy since then. It took a lot of expensive and extended therapy but I think I need a few more months before I am able to walk normally in the sunlight again. As long as the light isn't too bright I don't get any new panic attacks for now. Do you know how much of a hindrance this is for diplomatic missions?

The therapist also said that somehow I manage to have a superiority complex and an inferiority complex at the same time. Saying I needed to learn about something called 'em-path-e.' I love making maps and I've never even heard of that road.

I guess it may be connected to the fact that after all these evenings spend with mares, not a single one of them ever came back. I always awake alone.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): That is... erm... could you tell us how you got your cutie mark?)

Now this is a sudden turn in conversation. And it feels somewhat strange to talk about it.

It was a long time ago when I was the most important young prince in the entire castle. I never had left the castle at this point but I knew the insides of it perfectly, every single piece of furniture.

The instructors and my mother had forbidden me to leave this castle until I was old enough to protect myself. And I was told to always follow the rules they made for me and to never talk with others, especially commoners. I was told that to represent my bloodline, my behavior had to follow these guidelines perfectly.

Playing with others was of course forbidden as well. There was the danger that somepony working for a tabloid would take a picture and turn it into a story that could ruin my life forever mother said.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Where are your parents anyway?)

Lady Pure Blood had a diplomatic position and was always... always busy representing the bloodline and Equestria around the world. I think I have seen Princess Celestia more often then my own mother... I mean Lady Pure Blood. She always insisted on being called by her title. Not that I have seen the Princess that often... Lady Pure Blood died when I was eight years old because of a sickness... on one of her diplomatic missions.

She made sure I always spoke addressed as mine title, a ruler on the flanks made sure I remembered that rule, don't look like that, it was for my own good, she said so. Her will made sure my instructors continued to mold me into the proper Prince I was destined to be.

My father? ... His name was Blue Zenith. His biggest joy was to explore the world in his personal airship the Windfish I. He... left us in an accident in one of these dangerous light airships when I was about three years old.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): I am sorry, I had no idea.)

Maybe that is one reason that I do volunteer for so many political missions outside of Canterlot... It allows me to be closer to my parents... both of them... and to be free. I deserve it after all.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): So let me get this straight, you grew up most of your life without your mother AND father, and your mother's will made sure that you weren't to have any foalhood friends?!)

She also left the family fortune so I would continue to be well cared for as a Prince should be. A Prince Blueblood is a Prince Blueblood after all. We are a staple of Canterlot itself as much as Auntie Celestia.

But I don't want to bore you with that any further... you wanted to know about the cutie mark.

Back when I was just a young good-looking prince, I had to find something that I could do alone and I soon started to explore the castle. There was always something new to find and there are even a few hidden paths in the castle. I always had some drawing utensils and paper with me to draw my own maps.

Getting away from the servants that were supposed to watch over me was easy. I got really good in hiding behind furniture and ponies if they were looking for me.

Princess Celestia was mostly busy either teaching the antisocial bookworm Sparkle about magic or instructing Cadence how to use her powers. So I saw the Princess about once a week. But I was sure that she was watching over me. We were related after all.

As a fellow Alicorn Cadence was of course much closer to her. This was surely the reason she spent so much time with her. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I was born as an Alicorn as well. Would the Princess have given me the title of a prince, instead of Lady Pure Blood declaring me one, shortly after father had died? Would have Princess Celestia spend more time with me?

I tried to concentrate on learning magic that would be useful for my little adventures. I might not be a mage unicorn but seeing in the dark and seeing through walls were one of the first spells I learned. Now that I am older, seeing through walls has other uses. As long as the mares don't find it out, I am safe.

I know a few stallions who would give a lot to be able to do this. Ace would absolutely love this ability.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Okay, now I want to punch you.)

Don't be silly, I only use it on commoners.

I even had found the secret passage under the Royal Entryway but to this day I have no idea how to open it. There were a ridiculous number of protection spells on that one.

Maybe I will just ask Auntie Luna one day what is hidden under it.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Did you ever sneak into Princess Celestia's personal chambers?)

You don't really expect me to answer this question, do you? That kind of behavior would be unfit for a prince anyway.

I did manage once to sneak into this one tower chamber that didn't have any doors and only windows, and found some flowers at the base of statues of an Alicorn, the three tribes, and some kind of butterfly and fish pony. And there were some odd cutie marks lining the room, including Cadence's and Auntie's. Of course I had trouble getting down so in a princely manner screamed for help.

Nopony asked about what I said seen, and I never spoke of it to anypony.

One day I had found another passage and it led to underground caves with countless crystals and gems there. Later I heard that long before the Princesses ruled Equestira unicorns forced earth ponies to mine vulnerable gems in that place.

Hating earth ponies or pegasi for being well... earth ponies or pegasi seemed even back then very pointless to me. After all an Alicorn embodies all three tribes, so how could any of them be inferior? The race of somepony doesn't matter as long as he or she is a noble. Why are you facehooving?

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): If you are asking this, then you are really clueless.)

Whatever, I spent hours exploring the place and drew wonderful maps of the entire place. I think at one point down there I gained my cutie mark.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): And...?)

What? I was so exited about the entire thing that I didn't take the time to watch my rump every minute. I know these kind of stories usually have the cutie mark appear in the most important and meaningful moment but sometimes ponies are simply too concentrated on something else to care.

I think I gave a few servants panic attacks with my long absence. I knew that they would be punished for not watching over me like they were supposed to. But if they were unable to do this task, then it was simply their own fault.

Princess Celestia was - of course - busy with a lesson for Twilight Sparkle and didn't even notice that I was gone for hours.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Did it hurt to realize this?)

Well it was a bit strange to see Princess Celestia not even noticing that I was missing for so long but she simply had more important things to do. If nobles stand above the common ponies, then of course the Sun Goddess is standing high above us nobles.

I guess in the end our mortal activities don't matter much to her. The only pony that is able to reach her is Cadence, another Alicorn.

It is just like I never bothered to read the letter the cowpony Element of Harmony had written to me. What does she know about me anyway?

I think I understand it all better now. Princess Celestia didn't care much for me when the chaos monster ripped everything apart, so it makes perfect sense that she didn't care much back then either. I wasn't born as an Alicorn, so I may simply be inferior in her eyes.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): You got this all completely wrong! The Princess would never... It pains her so much...)

Sometimes I actually envy Twilight Sparkle. She does get so much attention from Princess Celestia despite not having the noble bloodline I have. What does make her so special? What does make her so much more important then the rest of us? Is it her magic? Sometimes I just wish that auntie would not hate...

Hey! Get this foal off me! Stop hugging me!

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): No.)

Let go. I said LET GO!

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): And I said no.)

Fine, I give up. You really don't want to let go.

You are really stubborn you know that, do you? You remind me of somepony...

Is that a Smarty Pants doll next to you? It looks so old. But you took good care of it. I can see that. Looks customized. Now don't look so surprised. This doll was very popular back then. I drew a mini map on the miniature notebook of my doll.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Do you still own it?)

Of course. I collect every single map I draw. When the chaos monster attacked us, many important documents located inside the castle were destroyed but luckily I had placed most of my collection on the Wind Fish V. Thankfully my latest yacht wasn't affected by the day of chaos.

Thinking about my collection brings back memories.

I think I will take a walk and take a look at my collection again. The sun is slowly rising outside. Farewell.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): You know that pain doesn't simply go away with a simple hug?)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): No, but it can be a start.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Sometimes when ponies lash out in pain, they need a reminder that they are still loved.)

You three again? It's been some time since I last saw you. A lot had happened since then. It is slightly hard to order my thoughts at the moment. I just don't know why.

A few days after the fire monster tried to kill me a really cute maid was standing before my door but suddenly ran away. I wouldn't find this that strange but ever since then I saw her multiple times standing before my room. This nice spell that allows me to look through walls is sure very handy to know who is standing before your door.

But she always turns back and looks so sad. She never smiles. Maybe I should talk with her? What do you think?

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): I don't think that you should ask any of us for dating advice.)

I had ordered a few clothes from Miss Rarity to make up for the ruined evening at the Gala and because I could need a few new tuxedos and she has a rather impressive reputation. While I loathed it, the simple fact was that she was in fashion, and it would be unfashionable for a prince to be in anything less. But I think either she has a very strange humor or the order was mixed up. I got ten elegant dresses. I think I will give my next date one as a present. Maybe Sunny Day would like one for herself as well.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Focus! Don't turn into Pinkie Pie!)

Oh! I completely forgot the interview! Ask away!

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): What was your encounter with Princess Gaia like?)

Who knew that Lady Fluttershy would ever be able to become a Princess? And not only a normal one but somepony whose beauty almost rivals that of my aunts. It all began when panic had begun to spread over Canterlot because of this strange fog. Somehow mere fog was able to cut off the connections of the city with the rest of Equestria.

Seriously, I just got over my fear for the sunlight at this time and now the sun was been blocked by fog!

When the nobles started to get more and more uneasy suddenly Princess Celestia herself visited me that day. It was some time since I had seen her.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Now don't fall back into the same trap.)

No, that wasn't it. After the day of chaos her schedule was filled with diplomatic missions to calm down all the cities that had suffered under Discord. Not to mention all the ponies, griffins and donkeys that were unable to perform their duties for weeks after the things the chaos monster had done to them.

Doctors were unable to see their patients, half of the guards were struggling to do their normal duties and many, many other ponies still suffered under the stress. The entire infrastructure could have collapsed. I once took a look at Princess Celestia's schedule and she even had multiple appointments at the same time.

Why do you look so impressed that I noticed this?

Well to be honest... at the time I didn't. I was so busy with my own problems that I didn't even think that others might have had similar experiences. I mostly noticed it since the service in Canterlot Castle and most of the places I visited on my diplomatic missions had become much worse.

I didn't even allow my guards a few days of vacation to recover from what Discord's chaos had done to them. Maybe I was still too angry that not a single one of them was able to help me when the chaos monster was trying to get me killed. What? My needs trumps their's, they're Guards after all, it's their duty, and if they break down, I could just order up some new ones. Or that was my thinking at the time.

"Blueblood, it is nice to see you outside more often. There are quite some problems around Ponyville. If you would be brave enough to charge into the situation, you would be able to earn admiration and love from other ponies. And I will be at your side."

It was like a dream come true. Princess Celestia wanted to have my help to solve this situation. She was talking to me. I was important! I would save the day and the ponies would admire me for my actions.

I still took my guards with me. If I pay them, they can work for that as well. Besides I was not insane enough to charge all by myself at something. Standing behind the guards was the safest position to move forward. This counted especially as the journey would bring me close to the catastrophe magnet Ponyville. How often was that place destroyed and almost destroyed again?

It went well for about thirty minutes when suddenly fog started to surround us. I wasn't worried at all. So far I was always able to find my way through fog with ease. I guess having a cutie mark for exploration means also having a good sense of orientation. I bravely order my men to attack the mist! They looked confused but I clarified my crystal clear order. I'll admit, I did not count on the mist counter-attacking.

My memory after that is not entirely clear. I faintly remember a dream where Miss Rarity apologized to me for ruining the Gala with her unroyal behavior and there was also an Alicorn saying that she was proud on me for continuing her bloodline. Fifty-One previous generations of my bloodline where present, including father and Lady Pure Blood... I mean mother. The two said that they were proud on me. It was the perfect Gala. Everything was like it should be and it didn't end in disaster like the last Gala, or the one before that, or the one... well you get the idea.

But the part with Miss Rarity was simply too strange to be true and soon enough a sun bird landed on the head of the Alicorn and suddenly I was awake again.

I had changed forms again. No thankfully I hadn't become a mare this time. Instead I was a colt again. Of course I was completely adorable. My appearance is always flawless. And my cutie mark looked like it was drawn with crayons. It reminded me on the first maps I had doodled.

I felt very confused on how I got there, this wasn't inside the castle. Was this the fabled 'outside' I had heard so much about?

Then there was Sunny Day with me. I remembered her. I had met her a few times in the castle. Later she had a few interviews with me and wrote stories about some of my more interesting diplomatic missions. I told her several times to stop writing those insane stories about Auntie Celestia.

But at least she didn't take part in the disgusting Molestia article splurge. I remember the time when one pony working for a tabloid approached me uninvited in Canterlot Castle and asked me to give him some photos he could use to support that idea. Something like Celestia and Twilight close together reading a book.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): How did you react to that?)

Well let us just say that we had an argument and after that I had to stay in the hospital for one week. He however was there for two weeks. Of course he tried to sue me for this. But my lawyers ripped him apart and proved that it was self-defense on my part. They said that it helped that he was almost one head bigger then me.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Hey, now this is a surprise. Didn't think you had this in you.)

Then I spent two more weeks at the salon! That brute had ruined my royal face!

But I didn't think at all about things like this when I saw Sunny Day back then. I only remembered all the good times I once had with her: Pleasant talks and nice cups of tea. It was almost like the total opposite of what I experienced on the day of chaos. I felt like I was together with family.

"Are you feeling well, Bluey?"

I tried to remember what my instructors had said to me about situations like this but there was absolutely nothing. Somehow I was terrified. I had no idea what was expected from me.

"I-I-I don't know."

"It is time for a big adventure of love and happiness! Are you ready?"

"Y-Y-Yes!"

It will be known as one of the bravest moments in my entire life.

I think I had a dream about being a bird following a flock of birds, but it had to be just a dream, if I was a bird, no way would I be such an inelegant flier.

Soon we found a group of fillies and colts and Sunny Day approached them. She greeted them with a grace that was worthy of Princess Celestia herself and I just hid in the nearby bushes. Then suddenly I stood directly behind her.

How did this happen? I tried my best to hide behind her.

"AND! There's somepony I want you all to meet too! He's a member of my family and I love him very much, but he has trouble around other ponies. . . . Come out now dear."

I was never introduced like this and I think I blushed so much that I turned almost completely red. The other ponies looked at me with amazement. There are so many of them and none seem to be servants. Now it was my royal duty to introduce myself with all the bravery you would expect from a prince.

"H-hi, I'm Blueblood, PRINCE-PRINCE Blueblood!"

How could I almost forget to mention my title? The instructors would be mad! A young and energetic filly looked at me. Was she going to punish me for ruining my introduction?

"I've never heard of a Prince-Prince Blueblood! Nice to meet you! Wanna play?"

"What? No I can't!-I mean,"

Playing with others? Playing with ponies that are not nobles? I'm not even allowed to talk to them but Sunny Day was not afraid of them, so it couldn't be completely wrong.

She carefully leaned down to me and whispered, "It's okay, you can play with them."

I can? I really want to but I will be punished later.

"But my instructors say I'm not allowed to play with other ponies."

I felt just like running away. But I would be punished for this anyway. I had left the castle and had already talked with other ponies.

"Well today's an exception!"

YES!

I felt so incredible happy and jumped in the air and clapped all four hooves together at the same time.

"WHOOPEE!"

The kind filly tackled me to the ground. But it didn't hurt at all. It felt wonderful. Like the biggest hug I ever got.

Sunny Day suddenly had many multicolored balls next to her and challenged us to catch them. The filly took a look at me and I smiled back.

Both of us raced towards the closest ball. It was a yellow one, resembling the sun itself. But the green filly was faster and just when she was ready to catch it, the ball moved aside by itself. I tried to jump at it but it managed to evade me as well.

"You take the left side."

She followed my idea without hesitation. She trusted me. It felt so good. As she herded the ball to the right I hid in the nearby bushes and managed to surprise the ball this time.

But the filly was too fast and she crashed into me as well. The ball rolled away again.

I think we both broke down laughing. And Sunny Day laughed with us.

I never felt so free before.

It was a wonderful time. I played with them, we talked about everything that came to our minds and it was like one adventure after the other. Apple Smith and Little Mac were so kind.

But soon I felt a strange shockwave and the fog around us started to get thinner.

Suddenly Sunny Day stood next to me. I hadn't even seen her coming.

"Blueblood?"

"Y-y-yes?"

"I want you to know, your Auntie Celestia really does love you and cares about you. She doesn't hate you, and never has, and never will, though the way you act sometimes does make her very upset. But she still wouldn't want a world without you, and she's very sorry she could never spend enough time with you. She had something very important to do for her sister and everyone, she was preparing for it while you were growing up, but that's no excuse, it was her own fault for not wanting to see the warning signs with her sister when she should've in the first place. She just wants you to know that she's very sorry. And she hopes she can still make it up to you."

I didn't understand her back then. It was much too complex for the childish mind I had at this time.

Suddenly it was like something crashed into me. It was something ugly and yet something that belonged to me.

I am the most important pony under the goddesses of the day and the night. I am standing above every other mortal.

I am a pony that is loved...

My name is eternal and will never be forgotten. I am a unicorn born from the most royal bloodline on this world. There is nothing else I need.

What I really want...

I am better then anypony else. They are all my servants.

My head hurt so much. Why was everything suddenly so difficult? Where was I? What had I done?

Princess Celestia, no auntie Celestia stood there and she looked exhausted.

"Auntie? What happened?"

Was this all just a dream and nothing of this was real? Was it just another illusion?

"The one thing you wanted your entire foalhood, nephew: To be a colt rather than a prince, I'm sorry I couldn't give it to you longer."

She... she had done that for me. After I thought that she didn't even care about me, she did accompany me to give me the foalhood I never had.

Auntie had spent all this time with me and with... these non-nobles.

I was in Ponyville! The home of all the horrible mares who ruined the last Grand Galloping Gala. Oh, and Twilight Sparkle also lived here.

I had to get out of here before Miss Rarity would find me. No I don't fear her I just, prefer not to be around her. I instantly sent a message for my carriage to pick me up. I might not be a mage unicorn but I could sent a message if I needed to.

I remembered everything I was told my entire life, everything I had experienced and how these last events simply don't fit into it.

Why did Princess Celestia care so much for ponies that she was not related to and who weren't even nobles? They should be less important then the nobles of Canterlot. After all it is the bloodline that defines us.

Only our families make us important. But why did it feel so good to spend time with commoners and just play with them? Was this what foalhood was supposed to be like? I had my own little adventures in the castle but I never thought about sharing them with other foals.

If... if I was wrong...

If the worth of a pony is not determined by his or her blood or title, then what does make a pony more important than others?

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Every life is important and even the smallest filly can alter the flow of fate. But sometimes the pony himself or herself doesn't see it.)

I saw a big stallion and an elderly mare walking towards a farm. I recognized her as Apple Smith and remembered that we both hoped to play tomorrow again. If they belong to this farm, then they must be part of the Apple family.

Maybe I should talk to them? Maybe they can tell me why everything seems so wrong.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): You have to decide that yourself.)

Suddenly my carriage arrived. The ponies pulling it sure looked nervous. I was finally able to get back to the place I belonged: To the important Canterlot.

Why did I feel suddenly so empty?

I sat down inside the carriage and found one of my private boxes inside. Each one only opened with a special spell, only I knew.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): How did this security box end up here?)

There was only one who could be responsible: Princess Celestia herself.

In this one was the unopened letter from the Element of Honesty, Applejack. Did you think I threw it away? No, I think I was afraid of what she might write...

I opened it and the letter said that if I really loved my aunt that I shouldn't fear her embodiment. It told me to try to get stronger from the experience and that I was not the only one who suffered under Discord. And finally the farmer told me that maybe I needed to change and not the mares I dated only for one evening.

I didn't say a single thing and placed the letter back inside the box.

In Canterlot I calmly walked back inside my room and closed the door behind me. Then I sat on my bed and started to cry.

Author's Note

WRITTEN BY ITSFROMPEOPLE! :iconItsfromPeople:

This is a recursive work concern prince Blueblood. However, given how it ultimate ties in with future and past events and things will make LESS SENSE without it. I felt it only proper that it be posted here as well. And given I already gave this story the stamp of being canon with the fanfic, it felt the right thing to do. This is done totally and fully and totally with ItsFromPeople's permission.

Original image by ladypixelheart also used with permission. http://ladypixelheart.deviantart.com/art/Masquerade-Blueblood-312881148

His original story description is as follows.

This is a tribute to a series of fanfiction by :iconalexwarlorn: about the popular series “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic”.

Many say that Prince Blueblood is stuck-up, cowardly, rude and only thinks about himself. It is hard to argue with that but there might be more to him. So let us take a look how Prince Blueblood experienced the events of Discord’s day of chaos and Nightmare Whisper’s fog and how these events left marks on him.

Please comment.

Many, many thanks to :iconkendell2: for sending this story to alexwarlorn and to everybody involved for declaring this canon. Also a special thanks goes to Matthew for making the edits on this story to expand many scenes and to make it better fit with the Pony POV story.

MLP: FiM Copyright Hasbro.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Shining-Armor-Epilogue-Back-Cover-429513867

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Prince-Blueblood-Reach-For-The-Stars-Part-2-of-2-430538763

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Episode 152: Reach For the Stars Part 2

Pony POV Series
Prince Blueblood
Reach For the Stars Part 2
Written By ItsFromPeople

I remembered the time when I was a small colt and I had asked Cadence to marry me once we were older.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): You asked her WHAT?)

Well, I was still a colt and had just found out about how marriages and family lines were arranged a few centuries ago by nobles. I had learned how certain bloodlines should be brought together and adding an Alicorn into my bloodline would surely make Lady Pure... I mean mother proud. Instead my cousin slapped me.

I fell to the ground as Cadence stood there, looking down on me.

"Are you crazy? You're stuck-up, cowardly, rude and only think about yourself. I wouldn't marry you in a thousand years!"

"How can you dare... Oh, I forgot, you are the expert in love and spread love all over the last royal event, even to Princess Celestia herself."

I slowly rose from the ground starring daggers at the young Alicorn. She staggered away from me before collecting herself again. Her voice sounded sombre.

"No... I am not love. If there is one thing I learned from this disaster it's what I'm NOT. I learned that I can't force bonds on somepony. I need to truly understand my gift before I can share it with others."

It was almost unreal to hear a filly that looked so young talk like this. I simply had to ask her something.

"If you're not love, like everypony says, then what are you?"

Now her voice sounded almost kind, she looked at me like she was looking into my very soul.

"I am Harmony. When the love poison incident was over, I felt the pain of the bounds of everypony who was involved. I felt friendships shaken by one pony ignoring his or her best friends for the artificial love towards a stranger. I felt bounds between lovers nearly been broken by this behavior. And it was all my fault. Ever since then I tried to earn forgiveness and I hope that I will eventually be able to make up for my mistakes."

My eyes went wide as my young brain was trying to understand what she said. Was this the prize of being an Alicorn? She was so closely connected to... something that she could feel their pain.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): You didn't really understand what she was trying to say back then.)

Yes, I didn't fully understand it. But when I think about it now, she was willing to take responsibility for her actions. She was born as an Alicorn and she is still taking every single pony seriously. She didn't place herself above them.

I suddenly felt so... so lonely. I had always told myself I was the only company I truly needed, I was the best to have after all. Right? But after all the time I had spent with the other foals I noticed that I didn't even have a single picture of any pony besides myself in my room.

I began to think that maybe the Element of Honesty was right and I needed to change myself. But how do you change yourself?

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): This might be the most difficult question to answer.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): There was a stallion once without a cutie mark who traveled to every plane of existence trying to find that answer.)

In the following days I hardly left my room. Most of the diplomatic missions I had on my schedule were cancelled anyway after all many cities had to sort out what happened to them in the fog. I had a lot to think about.

But I followed the official declarations and news that spread around this time. I wasn't that surprised that Lady Fluttershy was the member of the group responsible for all of this.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Really? Most were almost unable to believe it.)

Well, I only met her once in person and then she unleashed a horde of animals on the unsuspecting Grand Galloping Gala.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Normally she is much different. She is kind, caring, forgiving and so wonderful.)

I already noticed this.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): When? You met her when she had an emotional breakdown and again when she tried to take over Equestria.)

That is true but even when she had the power to do practically anything to anypony, what did she chose to do? She made their dreams come true and then happy foalhoods later on. I know what it feels like to be the victim of someone abusing his godly powers for his own entertainment. Lady Fluttershy was nothing like Discord. Maybe it was some residue of her magic making me feel this way, but I didn't care.

But I had to force myself to leave the room again.

Mechanically I start to comb my mane and made myself at least somewhat presentable for the small gala we would have this evening. It was a good idea to start with something familiar before the next diplomatic mission would lead me away from Canterlot.

I looked around the room again. There were only my maps to keep me company. Journeys with nopony to share them with.

Suddenly I heard the hooves of somepony before my door. A quick scan later I knew it was the same maid again.

'You will not get away this time.' I rushed towards the door, opened it and the shocked maid turned almost red with embarrassment.

"I... I am sorry... I will just... It is not the right time..."

"You wanted to talk with me and here I am. Now say what you have to say!"

Now she looked like she was about to cry. Only now I began to take a closer look at her.

She was a white unicorn with light blue eyes and a deep purple mane. And she seemed so familiar. Suddenly my eyes went wide.

"I... it's..."

"I know what this is about. Come inside."

Calmly we both went into my room and only now did I notice my image inside the mirror. The two of us did look somewhat similar. I guess this was how Discord got this sick idea. Her very familiar body was still absolutely gorgeous. Her cutie mark was a candle shaped like a heart.

She was still unable to talk. So I made the first move.

"Let me guess, the chaos monster turned you into the fire stallion?"

Now she broke down crying. I know that I just spelled it out without even trying to hide what she had almost done.

Auntie Luna was right back then. Discord had really turned somepony else into the fire th... the fire stallion that had hunted me down.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): This is...)

Why torture one pony if you can torture two at the same time? That sick bastard.

She as much a victim as I was. To my surprise I found myself putting a hoof on her shoulder. It took some time but eventually she stopped crying. Then everything erupted out of her.

"My name is Arcane Spell. I didn't even know the weather had turned strange, I work so much inside. I didn't even find it strange that a huge candle appeared before me and promised to make me a noble and let me experience what it is like to be born under a lucky star. 'Just like Prince Blueblood,' it said. I know it was insane but it was everything I had ever wished for. Which mare doesn't dream at least once in her life to be a princess in a fairy tale?"

I had to chuckle. She wasn't the first mare who dreamed of spending a perfect evening with a prince that made her feel like a princess.

This was how I was always able to get a young mare to accompany me to the Galas. And now I think that I could not even play this role right. I got my wish to have the perfect accessories for the evening but I awoke alone afterwards because I never saw a pony in them, just a decoration.

"The next thing I knew, the only thing I knew, was that I was a prince, I was on fire, I was fire, and that I wanted, needed my princess. My princess of ice. She'd fill me. She'd..." she shuddered, "complete me. My princess was coy and played hard to get. But that didn't matter. I didn't have a name or a past. I was there, I was you and I knew that we were destined to be... one.

"When I woke up next to you and you ran away in panic. I buried everything that happened. Then I spoke with the doctors. And I was made to remember. One pony had even taken a picture and I instantly recognized my body and was able to piece everything together."

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Which lunatic takes the time to take pictures while everything around him falls apart?)

Who knows? Maybe Discord made him do it to have some reminders after the 'fun' was over and the toy was completely broken.

I wondered if she would be better off not remembering anything of what the chaos creature had done to her. But psychologist ponies nearly always turned down memory erasure spells because they are just so Tartarus untrustworthy (reason why secret services stopped using them eons ago), and one said even if you make a pony forget a trauma, the damage remains anyway. And that uncertainly can make things worse.

"I wanted to say that I am sorry but... I was too much of a... coward."

She looked sadly to the polished marble on the floor.

They say seeing from the outside looking in can be an effective wake up call. So many ponies declared themselves brave and I just scoffed thinking of my own 'bravery.' But seeing this mare call herself a coward, I suddenly began to realize, the bravest I had ever been was when I had earned my cutie mark in that decaying treacherous crystal mine.

"And yet you kept trying to do it."

"Yes, but I can understand if you want to get me removed from the castle after I nearly killed you by... by..."

I thought back about how my cold body did even start to freeze Auntie Luna.

"I've had a lot of time to think about these events and I think not only would it have melted me but it would have extinguished your flames as well. Discord's chaos would have killed us both. And no, I see no reason to remove you from the castle. You were as much a victim as I was. The chaos monster could have just as well decided to make me the stalker and you the one running for your life."

Slowly she raised her head but she still seemed so sad.

"Thank you, Your Highness."

She was about to leave. Suddenly the memories of the carefree playing went through my head again.

It was my fault that she was dragged into this.

(Interviewer's notes (Unicorn): Discord would have just found another way to toy with her.)

Maybe, but I was used as bait for this way.

(Interviewer's Notes 'whispering' (Earth Pony): Did he just get taller?)

And if Princess Luna had followed my request, then I would have written Arcane's death sentence. Maybe I should... No, this is the time to try to make up for my mistakes.

"Wait a second. You said you wanted to feel like a princess for once?"

"Well, yes Your Highness, I am sorry if..."

"Now this is actually very easy. You just need to wear a pretty dress and follow a few rules and if you look into the mirror you will not be able to tell you apart from a princess."

Now she looked refreshingly annoyed.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): I never thought that you would have the same sense of humor as Princess Celestia.)

"You can't be serious!"

I opened one of the drawers and let the dress float towards her with telekinesis. This might be the perfect situation to use one of Miss Rarity's dresses. It was a blue- and silver-colored dress with several stars decorating it. I have seen something similar at the Grand Galloping Gala.

"I ensure you that I am very serious. Discord couldn't get this right if he had thousand years to practice. Servants don't look nobles in the face and most nobles are too concentrated on their own act to notice who they are talking to."

"It looks beautiful..."

"It will suit you. Just give it a try."

With a smile she takes the dress with her own telekinesis and vanishes inside my bathroom.

This smile... It has been a while since I have seen such a smile around me.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Did you take the chance to use your see-through-walls spell to spy on her?)

No, actually I spend the time just repeating all the countless rules for royal behavior in my head.

I had learned a long time ago that while these rules are all needed to survive a prolonged time in high society, just lasting for a few hours there or fooling yourself in the mirror only takes a fraction of the rules.

She was already pretty enough for the dress to compliment her, after all, can't have ugly servants ruining the view on Canterlot.

Then the door to the bathroom opened again and for the very first time I am happy that unicorn horns don't do the thing pegasus wings do if the pony is exited.

I think one of the strengths of Miss Rarity's dresses is that they call attention to the face of the pony and use the mane to encircle their countenance.

Why are you three looking like this? I know that Miss Rarity's dresses are huge successes with the Canterlot elite and with several famous ponies. And you need to be able to talk about the more boring topics like fashion in high society as well. Yes it burns me on the inside that the bane of my existence has risen so high in spite of not being noble even outside of her status as a celebrity.

(Interview's Notes (Pegasus): She humiliates you once, tells you that you don't live up to your image, and she's the bane of your existence? You don't have much of a life do you?)

You...may not be wrong.

"I don't know... I feel ridiculous."

"Now just walk before the main mirror."

Carefully she moves before it and three...two...one...

"WAH!"

I think she almost gave herself a heart attack.

"This... this is really me?"

"I hate to say that I told you so, but I told you so!"

Her smile is wonderful. Focus!

"Erm... Now for a few rules for easy survival in high society: Act like you know exactly what the other pony is talking about and that it is a very important matter. You give us the first topic."

"How about... Daring Do books?"

"That works perfectly. These are creative tales with enduring characters and will make the reader come back for more."

"But you can say that about almost every popular book series!"

"And that is the secret of talking about every topic in high society. Now it is my turn: The Elements of Harmony."

"Give me a second... They are the magnificent heroes that saved our beautiful world from certain destruction."

"You are learning fast. How about we talk about the relationship with the griffin nations?"

"After years of difficulty we were finally able to stabilize most relationships and under the wise rule of Princess Celestia and by having open minds we were able to form new friendships."

Now I had to laugh and she began to laugh with me. It felt wonderful.

"We need to be careful or you turn into a politician instead of a princess. Very good. But remember that ponies in high society are NOT stupid. They don't know every topic but will try to talk about it like they know everything to keep up the appearance. Yet sometimes you will meet somepony who really knows a lot of topics like Fancy Pants."

She walked over to the mirror again and repeated her last speeches to it without breaking down in laughter. Who knew that I had a talent for teaching and guiding?

Eventually she was ready for the next round: Discussions.

"And now I will share with you the secret of how you can avoid arguments. At first agree with what the other pony says and use what the pony said to move the conversation into a different direction. This is very handy to avoid this unicorn supremacy nonsense. Let us try to begin with something difficult..."

I change my voice into something warm and fatherly.

"Those earth ponies like them don't belong in Manehatten, they disgrace her beauty with their presence. They're donkeys with cutie marks. And if a cutie mark reflects the soul, then anything without a cutie mark doesn't have one. Their only purpose is to keep the wheels of trivial mundane tasks turning with their strength of body. We unicorns have strength of mind. The muscle should not dictate the mind. Manehatten is a jewel that doesn't need its gears and cogs showing."

I couldn't quite read her expression. Was she surprised that I was not a follower of that moronic ideology that declared Princess Celestia the supreme unicorn ruling over all? It didn't help the tabloids kept blowing it up bigger than it ever had been and saying that earth ponies didn't dare step foot in Canterlot or get arrested for not having a horn, or unicorns not daring to set foot in Ponyville or be lynched for the crime of having one. I knew first hoof, this was all fantasy. Sunny Day seemed to print her most fantastic (and interesting) articles whenever the tabloids tried to make ponies think that 'the return of the three tribes' was upon us.

She was struggling with this one. Maybe it was a bit too difficult for the first example?

"So... you were in any of the major cities like Manehatten lately?"

This sounded promising. Okay, it is time to continue my act.

"Yes, Manehatten shines with magic, it doesn't need ponies without it."

"Did you visit the theatre? I heard that the program is simply lovely this year."

So close.

"N-No... I did not."

"Now you have simply to enjoy what the theatre has to offer. I heard that they have a wonderful variation of Romaro and Juliet this year."

Now I almost had to laugh.

"Perfect! Just perfect! Sorry for breaking character but I think you are more then ready for this. Let me guess, you have siblings?"

"Yes, a younger sister. She will soon start to work in this castle as well."

"That will surely turn out great for her as well. Do you really know how the presentation of Romaro and Juliet is like this year?"

"The House of Coltpulet is played only by earth ponies, the House of Maretague is played only be unicorns and the Ruling House of Airona is play only by pegasi."

"The image of a unicorn supremacy follower walking into this play without having any clue what is going on is priceless."

Then we repeated this lesson before the mirror as well. She is very good in switching between the polite smiles you have to show in high society and the genuinely happy ones you show your friends.

"Good now we just keep repeating and mixing these lessons until you think that you see a princess standing in the mirror."

We talked for hours. I can hardly remember when I last felt this good. Actually I do, it reminds me on the playing with the other foals when I was turned back into a colt. There was a refreshing openness in our conversation.

Like I said, the problem is not that members of high society are stupid, the problem is just that there are so many ponies that even somepony like me, who visits most of the galas and events, only knows half of them.

It is hard to talk about anything if you don't really know the person that you are talking with. You can talk for hours with a friend but sometimes you are unable to say anything to a stranger.

She told me about her family, how she and her sister had to take jobs in Canterlot castle to support their sick father. The medication he needed was very expensive. And she and her parents were very capable mage unicorns. Despite being an earth pony, her little sister dreamed about becoming a mage like the rest of the family while she actually has much more talent to be a designer.

Now that is just silly. How can foals be so obsessed with becoming like their family that they can not see their own...

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Sounds familiar, doesn't it?)

Irony strikes again. It takes some time to get used to thinking like this.

So if the little sister was an earth pony when the rest of the family members were unicorns, did that mean that she was adopted? When I think about it, I remember a very boring explanation Twilight Sparkle once gave me why this did happen from time to time in families. I asked her to write it down for me and whenever I can't sleep, I take a look and after two pages I usually fall asleep.

This pure happiness continued for hours. We talked about when to use these rules and when you had to change your tactics. You don't simply follow these rules under all circumstances. In spite of appearances to the contrary, the upper class weren't robots.

Then suddenly the door swung open and a nervous servant stood inside. I think I need to order somepony to install a better lock on this door.

"Prince Blueblood, the gala is about to start..."

He saw the mare I was talking with instantly.

"Oh, you already found your acquaintance for the evening. I am sorry to have disturbed you. The other guests will be delighted to see you, milady."

Politely he closed the door and left us two alone. The look on her face was worth more then an airship filled with gems.

"How about we take this game to the next level and try to impress the rest of high society as well?"

It took my brain a few seconds to process what she had just suggested. I felt like when I was exploring the caves under Canterlot for the first time. There were so many possibilities of what we two could do on this party.

Could it fail horribly? Of course but considering that most of the more important public events of the last two years ended in disaster this would hardly be that unusual. Just think about it. The Summer Sun Celebration and the Grand Galopping Gala were disasters. Even the last Best Young Flyers' Competition in Cloudsdale and Princess Celestia's latest visits in Ponyville ended horribly.

Sometimes I think if the next big public event in Canterlot will eventually take place, I should be as far away as possible.

Should Arcane and I be found out, I could just claim that it was my own idea to make the gala more interesting.

"I am ready, my dear."

We both took a final look into the mirror and walked towards the party.

It was a small party by Canterlot standards. Only about hundred ponies could be seen. Some were busy dancing, others talked and several were busy searching for something delicious to eat.

Many were talking about the recent events with the fog and how lucky Canterlot was to be protected by the fire of Celestia's pet phoenix. Most were shocked how much power Philomena wielded considering how she looked like when she was about to be reborn.

Appearances can be deceiving indeed.

I learned that Auntie Celestia was still busy to prepare the celebration about Flutteshy's day of innocence. If this group keeps up their pace and continues to save the world, we will run out of space for glass windows in their honor.

Arcane moved flawlessly through the crowd. And all it took was for me to give her a quick introduction into high society. But I can't claim this success all for myself. She learned so fast that she must have been a capable observer before my short lesson.

We had nice calming music, exactly what most ponies needed after the chaotic events and I seem to have lost track of her. Where was she?

Ah, there she is!

And she is talking with Jet Set and Upper Crust about Canterlot fashion. They both praise her own dress as a wonderful example of the superiority of Canterlot's fashion.

This is simply too good. I calmly walk next to the small group.

"Prince Blueblood, it is always an honor. Is this wonderful lady your acquaintance for the evening?"

"Indeed, we decided to enjoy this event together."

"You clearly always chose the most royal company you can find. We heard rumors that one of the Elements of Harmony was corrupted by the same mysterious black magic that was responsible for turning Princess Luna into Nightmare Moon. And this time Princess Celestia allowed it to happen to take all the credit for the idea of healing the emotional damage of ponies by letting them relive their foalhood for a day. But this is so hard to believe. Do you know anything about that?"

I have to give them credit for not instantly jump to the conclusion that Princess Celestia or the Elements of Harmony were evils trying to take control of Equestria. I took one glance to Arcane and it was clear that she thought that it was nonsense that one of the mares who saved her life or Princess Celestia would ever do something like this. In other words, she was totally ready to swallow a third party had to have been behind everything.

"I actually was there in order to try to help but I have to admit that I was not able to be of much assistance. I don't know any more details but the entire event was very different from what the chaos monster did."

They looked at me like I had told them that I was secretly having access to Alicorn powers. After all, since when had I done anything actually selfless or admitted I was no use at something?

"The ponies in the fog were not toys or puppets. I think that Lady Fluttershy actually meant well but was herself just as lost in the fog as everypony else. I am sure that the celebration will explain it to everypony in detail."

It feels strange to stand up for somepony I hardly knew. Did I do it for Lady Fluttershy? Did I do it for Arcane? Did I do it for myself? And they will switch their opinion in three... two... one...

"Of course! We will wait for what the Princess has to say in her own defense on this complex situation and it was really brave of you to come to the aid of the ponies who already had to suffer from living in such a backwater town as Ponyville."

Well that is still one of the nicest things they have ever said about Ponyville. Maybe I will eventually mention how often Princess Celestia visits that place.

Soon we moved over to the dance floor and Jet Set and Upper Crust began to dance with each other. Arcane looked into my eyes and smiled, the stars of the sky were reflected within her eyes. It was truly a sight to behold.

Octavia's band played one of the relaxing classical slow melodies. As we to moved in union I had to think back at the day of innocent playing I just had. Chasing after a ball with all your might and moving according to the tune with somepony else could be strangely similar. Both took coordination, concentration and a quick reaction. She spun towards me as I managed to catch her.

She was an excellent dancer, the complete opposite of Twilight Sparkle in this subject. The bookworm's dancing style was a different sight to behold. Some ponies claimed that it could cause bad weather for one week. Me personally? I was happy that there were a least a few things that I could do better then her. And the pegasi had only to keep rainclouds away from Canterlot for one day after Twilight had danced.

I don't know how long we just danced. Time didn't matter, nothing did. But eventually both of us were exhausted. Jet Set and Upper Crust looked like they could have danced until the next morning but they took a break to accompany us.

Slowly we all approached the buffet for some horse d'oeuvres. The food looked slightly different today, I bet they had finally to replace the cooks. I was told that after Discord's short reign most of them were too traumatized to ever enter a kitchen again. Maybe that would change soon.

As Arcane began to enjoy a few of them somepony else caught my attention. Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis were moving into our direction.

"Ah a wonderful evening, isn't it?"

Jet Set and Upper Crust agreed instantly.

"Yes!"

"Most definitely!"

I just wonder if there was anything Fancy Pants could say that they would not agree with. Could he order them to jump off a cliff?

Then Arcane knew that she had to say something as well.

"It is truly a special evening."

Fancy Pants fixated her. I know that he is likely one of the smartest ponies in high society and is well known for his excellent memory. Did he recognize her?

I needed a quick distraction.

"The day was something special from start to finish but say, did you hear something new from the celebration of Lady Fluttershy?"

"Unfortunately not, I heard about the dramatic events that did take place in many parts of Equestria. Most of those who were touched by the fog claimed that they finally felt better after all the things Discord did to them. Since she managed to heal that many, this event should be celebrated. How it will turn out in the end will likely all depend on how the Element of Kindness is facing this celebration herself."

Then Jet Set decided to repeat what I had said earlier.

"I am sure that we will get an official explanation at the festival."

The chat continued to switch topics and it continued for quite some time.

I guess by now Arcane was more bored of this royal experience then anything else. When I took another look at her, her eyes began to move slowly all over the place.

Was there something wrong?

Finally I took a bite from my horse d'oeuvres and noticed that the new cook must have used way too much saltwater to season the food.

It seemed that she was a lightweight in this case.

I had to get her out of here before she would embarrass herself. But how could I do that without getting any more unintentional attention to her?

Fancy Pants took another look at her and at me and stood up.

"I guess I will retire today a bit sooner and tomorrow we will know more about this matter."

Thank Celestia. This was exactly what I needed.

Jet Set and Upper Crust of course agreed with this and soon I was leading Arcane back to my room. I had completely forgotten to ask her for the location of her own room and by now she only giggled from time to time. I really felt like beating myself over the head for forgetting something obvious like this.

She really had no tolerance for salt water.

Eventually I placed her on my own bed and she smiles at me.

"Why don't we make this day perfect?"

I... this must be the effect of the salt water. That is the only reason she is offering to spend the night with me. I always awake alone.

"It was already perfect. And you haven't meet the real me yet. You don't know how much of a jerk and a coward I can be."

What can I say? Soon she fell asleep and I slept the night on my priceless decorative couch.

Eventually the warm sunlight awoke me.

The bed was empty. It was already made and the dress I had given her yesterday was lying on top of the bed.

She was gone. I was alone again.

But I was not surprised. Of course did she leave after finding out that the dream of being the glamorous princess is just a fairy tale. No pony made out of flesh and blood will ever be able to live up to that ideal.

I used to tell myself that was why the mares never came back. I wasn't their fairytale prince to make their fantasy reality, so they inconsiderately left me.

Now? I wonder if the cowpony's letter might have been right. And Arcane is the first mare I don't blame for leaving.

I wondered if I should talk with Princess Celestia how to fund somepony in a way that isn't possible to be traced back to me. It is no big secret to everypony who spends some time in the Canterlot Castle as part of Auntie's circle that she is sponsoring many, many cultural and philanthropic events and organizations under fake names. Strangely the tabloids always seem to miss that part.

I would like to aid the Spell family a bit, maybe get them better paid jobs. I heard that the payment in the Castle was good but I knew that Arcane could do more. She deserved something better.

As I opened my door, Arcane stood there in her maid uniform and in her telekinetic hold she had a plate with breakfast. She smiled at me.

I think I had a minor heart attack. Her eyes shined even brighter.

"Not so fast, you promised to show me how much of a jerk and a coward you can be."

I didn't overcome a dragon. I wasn't the hero who saved the day. But I didn't care at all as long as I was able to make her smile.

I wasn't sure if I would be able to overcome my own flaws but now when I look at her smile, I know that it is possible. I will not run away this time.

I feel like an Alicorn is smiling alongside us.

I feel free.

Author's Note

WRITTEN BY ITSFROMPEOPLE! :iconItsfromPeople:

OKAY! HERE IS PART 2 of 2
This is a recursive work concern prince Blueblood. However, given how it ultimate ties in with future and past events and things will make LESS SENSE without it. I felt it only proper that it be posted here as well. And given I already gave this story the stamp of being canon with the fanfic, it felt the right thing to do. This is done totally and fully and totally with ItsFromPeople's permission.
Original image by ladypixelheart also used with permission. http://ladypixelheart.deviantart.com/art/Masquerade-Blueblood-312881148
His original story description is as follows.
This is a tribute to a series of fanfiction by :iconalexwarlorn: about the popular series "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic."

Many say that Prince Blueblood is stuck-up, cowardly, rude and only thinks about himself. It is hard to argue with that but there might be more to him. So let us take a look how Prince Blueblood experienced the events of Discord’s day of chaos and Nightmare Whisper’s fog and how these events left marks on him.

Please comment.

Many, many thanks to :iconkendell2: for sending this story to alexwarlorn and to everybody involved for declaring this canon. Also a special thanks goes to Matthew for making the edits on this story to expand many scenes and to make it better fit with the Pony POV story.

MLP: FiM Copyright Hasbro.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Prince-Blueblood-Reach-For-The-Stars-Part-1-430322706

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Reharmonized-Pony-POV-Series-Under-The-Stars-1of2-432278619

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Episode 153: Chrysalis "Birth of a Monster"

Episode 153: Chrysalis "Birth of a Monster"

Pony POV Series
Origins
"Queen Chrysalis"
Birth Of A Monster
By Alex Warlorn
Edited By Louis

"It is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original era of my being:" -Mareshelly's Frakenmare's Monster

"A baby? Let's look closer for the answer: a monster!"

They say my mother turned emotionless and detached during her pregnancy with me. She was still rational. Still aware of her surroundings. But I was told she'd apparently 'lost her heart' as I was near due, but regained her emotionality after I was born. Otherwise, it was a normal pregnancy, lasting twelve and a half months.

Like most everybody, I recall nothing of my in utero development. Though, bizarrely, I have nonsensical flashes of images and ideas from what I believe to have taken place before my conception. Perhaps we'll discuss this later.

Regardless, when the appointed hour came, all the villagers reported feeling emotional detachment from the world at large as my mother went into labor.

And I was exiled from the only home I had ever known. I knew not this new world. I knew not these striped creatures examining me. I knew not what I was. I knew not who I was. I knew not where I was. I loudly announced my arrival in this cold expansive world.

Yet, I still remember the words the doctor spoke, the first words I had heard in my life. Not that I comprehended spoken language at the time. Nor understood the walking stick with the heavy head the doctor picked up with his eyes on my skull. I felt confusing things I would learn were called 'emotions.' Fear and anger, in this case, from the striped thing above me. Wild magic surged, and base instinct controlled my magic, and I felt my body shift and change into something else. And I felt my magic reach out on its own, smothering the feeling that would do me harm.

I only grew more scared and confused of this strange new place I had come to against my will.

And now the doctor was confused what had possessed him to call the newborn zebra foal in front of him a monster. And now my mother was delighted by the sight of me. I looked like an newborn version of her, after all.

She would nurse me like any mother would, but it would be the love she felt towards me that would truly nourish my body.

At the time, of course, I did not think these thoughts quite so... articulately as I am currently conveying them. Psychologically, I was too immature and infantile.
All I knew was hunger. And I knew mother would protect me.

The name they gave me...I haven't thought about it in so long. Kifuko. That was it. My name when I was born was Kifuko.

Cattle are too egocentric to notice, but zebra stripes are all sublimely unique.

I wasn't like the others. My stripes were a perfect likeness of my mother's. An oddity, but I was never mistreated or alienated for it.

As I learned to speak, as I learned to move, as I learned my magic, all I knew was that what I was fed didn't help me. Grass, fruits, honey... anything that was meant to travel down the esophagus, did me no good. I could taste food. I had a tongue and palate; I could distinguish the appetizing from the inedible. But it didn't fill me. I might as well have been eating dust.

This made my parents feel concern and worry for me, and I ate that up too. I realized when my parents felt sorry for me, when they said they cared about me, when they hugged me, I felt stronger, not weaker. I didn't feel like I was wasting away to nothing.

Mother made masks. She taught me their many meanings, and the value and purpose of masks. The masks she made were more honest than the masks most cattle were born wearing.

Father was both protector and hunter. Whether I was filly or colt, I was his foal, so he agreed to take me with him, to help with his tasks outside our settlement.

"Remember Kifuko: stealth, patience, timing, picking the right target, ignoring the wrong ones, hitting your quarry where they are weak, and avoiding them where they are strong. Are all vital to any hunt."

My parents and Maua always told me I had eyes like a cat's.

The animals taught me much, too. Lions. Hyenas. Even the termites, though my stomach turned to ice at the sight of those bugs.

Leaders remains leaders only as long as they stay strong. It was the followers' duty to dispose of weak leaders.

It was never to be personal between hunter and prey.

The termites, blech, I didn't know why, but looking at them they were just 'right' enough that the wrong-wrong-wrong stood out more.

They taught me, in the end, there's room for only one at the top.

And both the animals and my family taught me hunger is a race without end.

A normal one of my kind could easily survive on the love of two cattle. My parents, alone, had love to spare. I have never been normal.

I had no clue why I was always got SO hungry. No matter how much I filled my belly, my body still felt weak and empty until my parents hugged me, nuzzled me.

I finally understood one night when I woke up to find a swarm of insects surrounding me, I screamed at the sight of the disgusting things. My parents swooped in and chased away the scurrying intruders. They asked me if I was okay and made sure I was alright and allowed me to sleep in their bed that night.

I fed well that night. And I understood.

Mother put up a new mask which spoke that insects were not welcome in our family's home. It made me feel safer.

Whenever I found an insect in my room again, I'd pull its legs off, and leave it in a spider's web, if one was around.

"And all of you remember, when you're hunting, your goal is to take down your prey. When you're defending your herd, your duty is to protect those you love. Proving your greatness as a warrior is NOT a vital part of either of these. In fact, to do so is to invite death. Any hunter, no matter how great, will fall to their prey if he insist on a direct confrontation," My father taught, from inside a collection of colts and fillies surrounding him in a semicircle.

"But teacher-Nondo," said one of the colts, "You'd never fall to a quarry!"

"Don't be so sure!" My father stood upon his hind legs and stretched out his chest. We all saw the scars. It looked like cracked ground. "When I was young and stupid I said to Tartarus with stealth and tried to face an animal head on...I was in bed healing for weeks, and for months I was rebuilding muscles and learning to use my body again. Remember this! As a hunter, you're not hunting for sport as some griffins or dragons might. You hunt for survival. A 'fair chance' to your prey is a fair chance for you to die or for your family to starve. Remember that."

I never forgot those scars, or that lesson.

Did they ever hunt for food? What are you... stupid? This was a tribe of ZEBRAS, not griffins. But that didn't mean there weren't plenty of creatures that didn't hunt THEM for food. And those beasts' parts made for great trade for when father and others went to swap-meets for everything from raw materials for leatherworkers to bone-tools and trinkets!

The most insane thing my father was ever asked to capture instead of kill were black mamba. I can't imagine anyling being insane enough to want one as a pet. Apparently, there are creatures who will trade for the venom or the snakes themselves. Don't ask me, only my father ever met with these lunatics.

Black mamba hunts were also the only hunts my father wouldn't take me on. He taught me with props and by example. Maua told me once she had survived an encounter with a snake (not a black mamba) by being as still as a flower until it passed.

Maua? Ah, you would wish to know of her. I saw a zebra filly from class one day just laying on a grassy hill, looking up at the sky. I wondered what exactly she was looking at and looked up and saw nothing. So I laid on the ground next to her to get a better look. I still didn't see what she was looking at. I turned my head thinking maybe she was sleeping, but no, she was looking, but at what? There was nothing above us that I could see.

I couldn't take it anymore and finally asked, "What are you looking at?"

"Dragons."

"WHAT dragons?"

"Can't you see them in the clouds?"

"No. I can't!"

"Don't look so hard."

"That makes no sense!"

"Look softly...can't you see the wings?"

There was nothing but sky. "What? Are they invisible?"

"Don't be weird. There's no such thing as invisible dragons."

AGH! I wonder if she had eaten some bad mushroom. "There is nothing but clouds."

"Exactly. Can't you see them? The way the wind makes them move?"

"What?"

"The clouds are the dragons," she said like she was a sage.

"No. They're just clouds."

"You really can't see them?"

"That's because there's nothing to see."

"Except the clouds, the way the wind makes them move, the way the sun shines off them, the silver lining, the way it billows like flames, the way the tendrils of cloud spread like wings..."

I snorted. "The winds and clouds are made by griffins, weather wyrms, and our own rain dances. What difference does it make that they're shaped like other things? They're just being sent wherever they need to go. They're not paintings."

"And that makes them less special? Even if you make a cloud look the same, it's not the same cloud. And it only stays a dragon if you look it from here, another way, it resembles something else. Isn't that special? The dragon roars as it moves if you look."

I looked more, and for moment, it wasn't a cloud I saw, I saw it roar, it wings flap, I caw its claw stretched out, its teeth... I closed my eyes and shuddered.

"Heh. You saw it didn't you?"

"O-of course not."

"You're a bad liar."

"I'll have to get better then. Thank you for telling me."

"You're welcome." She sat up and extended her hoof, and grinned, "My name is Maua."

"I'm Kifuko." I grinned back and pressed hard against her hoof with my own, and she replied back with equal force and moved our hooves up slightly, as was zebra tradition.

"Nice to meet you, Kifuko."

As it turned out, the zebra filly visit that grassy hill regularly. She asked if I'd be there again, and I said I would. Maua was a mystery to me, and I didn't like mysteries. Father had taught me that a good hunt could be overwhelmed by unknown factors.

One thing Maua told me, you couldn't just silently observe others, you had to interact with them, to get to know them. She was right.

It's strange, really. For some reason, I was never hungry around Maua.

Even stranger, I noticed she was part of the group classes I was in. Had she magically appeared? Was she some spirit or trickster? No. I realized, I had simply never noticed her, she had been just one of the other foals around me before.

One thing we'd never be able to agree on were bugs. Maua thought butterflies were beautiful, I couldn't see what she saw in the zillion-eyed monsters. Butterflies were only good when they fed spiders, which were only good because they ate other bugs.

Then came the day of my first solo kill. Don't look so shocked. My tribe has always prided itself on its survival skills. Plus: more kills means more material for barter.

As I came back with my prize on my back some of the older foals said, "Lucky amateur."

Huh? Lucky amateur? I did exactly what dad said to do, how is that luck? Others had tried to throw in their own style or skipped steps on what they had been taught to do and paid the price for it. How was following the rules lucky?

"Don't worry about it, Kifuko," Maua had said, as did my father. My parents were happy I had made a 'friend.' Friend? I hadn't even thought of that when I had gone to meet Maua again and again. But I reviewed all the criteria from all the zebra around me who called each other friend. I couldn't escape the conclusion that yes, we were friends.

I was not surprised when Maua also came back successful from her own first solo kill. She had sharp senses, and she knew how to listen to them. It would have been more confusing if she had failed. Nozebra called her a lucky amateur, and there was no reason they would have.

Maua could always tell when somezebra was bluffing. She could figure out the way a piece of wild weather would go, or the way plants would grow along a certain path. Maua warned another filly her plants were seeded too close together and would strangle each other. Which is just what happened. The faceless filly said Maua must have sabotaged her plants somehow, after all, what could Maua know of plants, idiot.

The faceless filly's friends told Maua not to make such 'predictions' anymore since she was clearly causing them to happen by saying them in the first place. Morons. "It's what I am, it's what I do, same way fire burns and water flows." Heh, I always knew she was a poet.

That little speech would gain Maua her cutie mark. It was, you guessed it, a beautiful cloud, I think only I, herself, and her parents understood its meaning and her special talent. Other zebras could read words, Maua could read everything else. She'd be apprentice to the same now aging zebra who was there when I was born.

Maua would introduce me to the other friends she made at her 'Cute-Ceañera' as you'd call it, but I could never remember their names, Maua would always remember for me.

My own cutie mark came when I wore one of my mother's masks for a community performance, and I sang. And it was like the zebras before me forgot they were watching a performance, and had become characters in the story themselves, as my song echoed through the air, reaching all of them. Like the mask was no longer a mask, but was my real face, and all the performance became more alive. I had become the dragon in the clouds.

The zebras raved about how good my performance was. I had taken off my mother's mask, and the rest of my costume. I didn't even realize anything had changed until my mother pointed at the new symbol on my flanks in the torch light. I was astounded and shocked in silence, I was always sure I was going to instinctively know when it happened. I didn't whoop or cheer. I merely continued to stare at it in awe as Mother led me home. I didn't think about it until later, but I couldn't remember feeling so strong as I did that night.

What WAS my cutie mark? Feel free to guess. Guess until you're blue in the face. I burned every rendition of it in existence.

The role I played in the performance? Oh, I was a princess.

Some of the foals-becoming-adults who heard of my performance but hadn't been there in zebra said, "Lucky amateur." Seeing them shut their muzzles when I showed them my mark and their sweet silence in its own way held more satisfaction than the cutie mark itself.

Given what my cutie mark was, Maua felt her own strong sense of satisfaction. I didn't blame her.

Then the most deadly weapon I could have ever asked for to arm myself with arrived in our settlement.

My town's name? Good luck even finding it on a map.

Goodness, you DO go off on tangents, don't you?

But back to the important matter. The weapons: The books.

They were given to us as a gift from a country I had never even heard of. 'Equestria.' I was told the winged creatures who brought them were called ponies. They were like zebra, but not like zebra. They didn't have stripes, their manes were limp and floppy, their cutie marks looked like they were STAMPED on, rather than naturally flowing out of the stripes they didn't have. They also seemed to come in three types, one had wings, others had horns, and those who were most like us had neither. And their colors, eep! It was like they were making up for their hides being devoid of patterns by being any and every color of the rainbow. Some were so brightly colored they hurt my eyes to look at.

The majority of the books were in our language, but a few were in what they called 'High' and 'Low Equestrian.'

"Sorry, these were shipped by accident, we'll be getting replacements soon," said a winged one in gold armor.

"No," I asked, "Please, let us keep them, I really want to learn from them too!"

I was closing in fast on that age that cute innocent eyes would no longer be a effective means of influence (oh, don't look at me like that, Maua taught it TO ME), but I was going to milk it for all it was worth while I still had it!

"Uh...alright dear, if it means that much to you."

"Thank you!" I cheered as I had seen others do.

It was a mystery what was in those books. And I dislike mysteries. By luck, a book on learning the language was included, along with how to read both forms of the written language. It took time. A lot of time, but I eventually taught myself Equestrian. Some of my peers said I was neglecting my skills as a hunter and a performer. No matter, I'd have to catch up later. I wouldn't have the mystery of these books mocking me with their secrets!

Learning to read two versions of another language with nozebra to teach it to me took time, lots of it, and it frustrated me I couldn't learn faster, but the mountains don't give back what they take, and I had already started climbing.

I read the other books too, of course. I learned of the nature of the world outside our settlement, of other lands, or other nations, and all they held. The basic sciences, the games of the politicians and how they were won or lost, on the beasts I had never seen before. And the ocean! I had heard of it before, but never in such vivid detail and such beauteous images!

There was also some random horror story collection. Don't ask me how those books got in there. I was disgusted at the monsters they described, creatures who killed for no apparent reason, no purpose or goals than mindless slaughter (never mind many were supposed to be intelligent as part of the 'fear.') Made me wonder what these monsters did when they had no victims around... roll dice? Play Go-Fish? Maua read over my shoulder one time, she turned green and had nightmares that night, talking about the ways the monsters tore apart the characters. ... I hadn't even thought about that part.

No one complained when I threw that book in the garbage.

There was one story I'd never forget. A scorpion who needed to cross a river asked a fox to let it ride on its head. The scorpion promised not to sting him since it would drown them both anyway. The scorpion did so anyway halfway across the river, the fox asked 'Why? We'll drown', and the scorpion responded, 'I couldn't help it, it's my nature.'

Many of the other books in low Equestrian were on gardening, farming, herding, baking, mechanics...There were two books that did catch my interested: The Snarks Of War, and The Artistry Of War. I had never felt so enlightened after reading them. Maua admitted she found it interesting too when I explained what it said.

The books in High Equestrian. Ohhhhh, they were something else entirely. They taught me about magic of all sorts. When I read them, I learned a word I'd come to know quite well.

Alicorn.

I read about Princess Celestia, the ponies who loved her unconditionally, that it was her divine power that raised and lowered the sun each day, and her power that raised and lowered the moon as well. She had ruled Equestria for as far back as any of the history books went, and she was apparently centuries old, if not older. I'll admit, I came to admire her a little. There was something poetic about being in full control of both night and day. Total control, security, and order. Comforting thoughts.

And she had the wings and horn of a 'pegasus' and 'unicorn' and had the strength of an 'Earth Pony.' 'Earth Pony?' The two other kinds of pony have unique names, but the ones without horns or wings are simply called 'Earth Ponies?' Why not call Pegasi 'Sky Ponies' then? I wonder if that had to do with their history centuries ago as slave labor...(by any other name).

In a sickening way, ponies remind me of termites, specialized into different breeds, unlike Zebra who had one 'caste' like mammals normally do.

But still, the idea stayed in my head for days. Beautiful, magnificent, divine Princess Celestia. But...why wasn't she Queen? She literally held the world in her hooves. She could have demanded all the world to be hers, and all the armies in the world would mean nothing since they couldn't force her to raise the sun and properly move the tides. No amount of military bullying by all the nations put together could bend her to their will. No amount of magic or violence could force her. Which actually made sense, after all. You couldn't command the sun. You couldn't dictate terms to the tides. Zebra, for all time, had to build their lives around the sun, not the other way around.

There was even a creation myth that she had banished her own sister to the moon when the other tried to grab full power for herself.

Such power, such prestige, none questioned her, none challenged her, they only acknowledged her as their ruler. So why didn't she call herself Queen? Who could stop her if she chose to? If you're in charge, make sure others know you're in charge. You don't make yourself out to be something that can be pulled down and replaced. Was she scared? I wouldn't be.

I actually took the book in High Equestrian to bed with me several times. The books were for the community after all, and I was part of the community, and nozebra else had bothered to learn High Equestrian anyway, so it only had value to me.

I trotted down the plush red carpet. Servants holding up my royal cloak behind me.

I sat in the giant golden throne, and the beautiful golden crown was place on my head.

"All hail the queen!" Cheered the crowd of ponies and zebra. "All love Queen Kifuko! All Equestria bows before her!"

I spread out my wings and lit up my horn. They all loved me, I felt no hunger. My royal subjects praised and adored me, no foraging, no struggles, no bartering, no submitting to others, I was queen.

I looked over my kingdom, all of Equestria, every pony I controlled, every stallion, mare, and foal. I was a girl who truly had it all.

I awoke in the morning clutching the book like a teddy bear. That wasn't the last time I'd have that dream.

My first royal decree was always the banishment of all bugs from my kingdom.

What happened to Celestia in those dreams? I don't know, and I didn't care.

I shared them with Maua. She didn't appear in my dreams, I lied to her and told her she was my First Minister or something.

"You don't need to lie to me, Kifuko."

"I'm sorry. I thought it would make you happy."

"It's alright."

No matter how good a performance I gave, she could always see through it.

We had to cut our regularly scheduled cloud watching short when it began to rain, and rain a lot! The worst part was the insects that tried to find refuge in our nice warm comfy home as it drenched the world outside. Mom made it clear they were not welcome here!

Turns out three groups of rain-dancers had gotten their wires crossed and performed a rain-dance a day ahead on the same day! At least mom and dad figured out where the hole in the roof was that was letting in pests lately was at last.

It was a short while after the rains that Maua and I were at our normal spot, then Maua got bored and had us check out the woods that were near the edge of our grasslands.

"You're so cute! Hey Ki'! Look look what I found! Isn't she adorable?"

I saw, my eyes widened as I took a step back. "Oh no."

"Ki', I know you don't like bugs, but she isn't that bad." She nuzzled the thing as it gave a soft purr.

I took the thing from her and stomped it flat with my hoof.

"Kifuko! How could you?!"

I was about to explain when I saw behind her, I whispered, "Don't worry, there's plenty more where that came from."

She read the fear in my voice and glanced behind me. "Oh! So many colors! Don't worry so much Kifuko, they're friendly and..." She finally read them, their look, their position, their formation, "And hungry..."

Maua screamed when they swarmed her mane, eating the flowers she had there along with some of her hair. I battered them away, took her by the hoof, and RAN.

I knew what they were. I had read about them. Our parents had told horror stories about them but we had never actually seen one. I had seen pictures in books. And I knew everything within miles was in deep deep trouble.

"Trouble's come along!
We can kiss everything green so long!

They don't look mean,
but they'll eat the farms clean!

Here comes troubles!
Gardens won't even have stubbles!

Look out, they're almost on the scene!
Eating everything is their routine!"

I explained to Maua as we ran what they were, what they did, and that they'd never, ever, stop.

We didn't stop running until we got back to town. Maua could read it in the wind, "They're coming."

And why shouldn't they? We had the biggest stockpiles of food for miles. Maybe they could smell it... the book I had read had barely touched on that subject.

We warned everyzebra of course, who believed us at once. The musicians gathered, hastily tuning their instruments, and it wasn't long after that the rainbow colored swarm approached. All of them smiling, all of them looking at everything with hungry eyes.

The musicians started to play, and the swarm became docile. Sadly this was only a delaying tactic.

What were we supposed to do with them? Just lead them back to the forest? That only works if you have some mountain-sized monster living there that used them as a food source. And attacking them would just break the 'trance' the swarm was under.

Our options were to evacuate, or store as much of our crops and grazing in containers that the parasprites wouldn't simply eat through.

The foals could hardly believe something that looked so adorable could be so dangerous, but the path of devastation behind the swarm was enough to snap these idiots to reality.

The musicians couldn't keep playing forever. And amateur music-making would only provoke the swarm.

It's funny, I can't remember where I heard it before, maybe it was my mother or the other performers, or I read it, but seeing the little monsters sway in the air to the music, like my audience had during my performance, I realized:
'The oldest musical instrument is the equine voice.'

I didn't ask for approval or permission, I simply trotted as close to the swarm as I could as the musicians were on their last legs.

"Ki'?" Maua saw what I was doing.

"Honey, get away!" My parents shouted.

I sang.

The parasprite stopped swaying. They froze hovering perfectly still save their wings. They began to shake. Maybe I was scared. They began to gravitate towards me. I didn't let my voice quiver. No words, they wouldn't have understood them anyway. I closed my eyes and kept singing. I could feel the wind from their wings. Their eyes on me. I kept my voice steady. see what you want to see. Wait. They were bugs. They didn't 'want' anything, their instincts told them what to do. I didn't skip a note. I focused. I had nowhere to retreat to. They were all around me. Maua, mom, dad, I could feel their love for me. I grew stronger. And my song fuddled with the nonexistent brains of these disgusting things!

And the swarm ate itself.

It was an implosion. Parasprites ate each other up before they could spawn more, some bursting they were eating each other up so fast; the invincible plague shrank down and down, and down. The last one, bloated and heavy landed on the ground at my hooves, I stepped on it, you have no idea how satisfying that was. I stopped singing.

The rest of my settlement saw what I had done. They were terrified of me, they called me a monster, they threw rocks at me and banished me from the settlement, and I, a poor lonely pariah with nozebra in the world...

...oh I can't say it with a straight face! Haha!

They loved for me it! They called me a hero! Maua actually put flower pedals in my path as I trotted back into town, everyzebra cheering my name!

"Kipepeo," My mother was told, "You gave birth to a miracle!"

I was something special, and far more important, I had saved us all from starvation. Some of us might have died from hunger if I had done nothing!

More love than I could remember. I had never felt so strong. I felt like I could fight a dragon and win. I had surpassed the dragon. All that love, it was transcendent. I was prancing on air!

But it didn't last.

Zebra have to get back to their lives sooner or later.

And that tidal wave of love I had felt slowly dwindled, like a fire as the wood was burned up. The level I felt was still greater than it had been before, but it had sank much longer than it had been at that initial high.

I wished we'd actually get visitors for once just so they could stir up more of that love as my heroics were told.

Maua, she didn't like what had happened, even if she knew the bugs were just bad news, but she told me, that she understood I had saved her along with the rest of the herd maybe. Then again, it had always felt natural having her nearby.

I ate food, but the hunger pangs didn't go away.

I felt exhausted as I went to bed one night, thinking.

My parents noticed, when they expressed their concern for me I felt the edge go off my need. Maua would visit, but she had to leave eventually. And I felt empty inside. I remembered Maua once telling me how she had eaten too much candy one day before meeting me, how she had sweated and tossed and turned in her bed. I wonder if this was how she felt.

I had this horrible feeling of becoming smaller, becoming less. Was I going to vanish?

My parents let me sleep in their bed with them, and I felt my insides stop shrinking.

I refused to show weakness. But inside I was scared of not being near my parents or Maua. I felt myself beginning to lessen a tiny bit whenever they weren't nearby. I began to sense the feel flowing off of other zebra as well, I felt it flow from them to those they cared about. It was the same stuff that came to me from Maua and my parents. Was it warmth? No it was more than that. It didn't exist physically, but I could sense it all the same! It didn't make sense! It was... it was.. love?

Did I have enough love to last me through a day with the performance group? Or out on a hunt? Did I have enough to last me through the night when I fell asleep?!

I didn't care there was something different about me from others, diversity were part of survival, but, what if they cared? Love was formed with things that were familiar. If I became unfamiliar, would the love cease? And would I cease with it? So many unknowns! Too many unknowns! It made my head spin. How could I make a choice when I wasn't even sure what the question was?! I had never felt control over my life slip away like this! Well, buck that, I wouldn't let it!

Why didn't I just try to make friends with the ponies around me? It didn't occur to me. Okay, I did try. But Maua told me I had been...too aggressive. She said I was 'trying too hard' and, how did she put it? I 'weirded' them out.

My mind reeled for a solution, any solution. Maua taught me many things about zebras. But I came to the horrible realization that my survival was in their hooves. Not mine. My destiny was no longer my own! Everything Maua taught me and every book I read agreed on the same thing. You can't MAKE somezebra fall in love. It was up to them. Whether I lived or died up was up them! No, my life wouldn't continue or fade by the whims of others! I wouldn't let it! I'd command my own fate!

Yet for all I raged... if my parents or Maua were drifted away from me, I'd be gone, my life was shackled to theirs! I'm like a shadow that needs a light to be cast. I kept up a loving demeanor around my parents, for my own survival, but it made me ill somehow too. Maua? She kept asking what was wrong, but she couldn't help. Only I could help me. I thought of that as I curled in bed, praying to our ancestors that I'd wake up in the morning. Wondering if I'd have the nightmare of drying up like a reed and blowing away tonight or crumbling into dust. Who was loved by all? Who was loved always?

Princess Celestia.

She was always loved.
She was always admired.

Ponies never stopped loving her. She was always loved. She was described as 'beloved' in every other sentence. She had to be. She...she was never in any shortage of love. For all the good it did ME! But maybe, just maybe, if I could be more like her somehow, some way. Bah! I was thinking in fantasies! And fantasies were Maua's department. I just presented them to audiences who wanted to be fooled.

That night, I dreamed again I was the Queen of All Equestria, loved by everyzebra, I understood all, everything made sense, the one in full control of my fate was me and not those around me, and I was never ever, empty.

Yes, that is how I should be!

I woke up and thought I was still dreaming. I didn't have the faintest idea of how it happened. Maybe creation itself had granted my wish. I had no idea, and I barely cared.

This was it, my new beginning!

"DEAR?!"

"KIFUKO!"

"KI'!"

"You're-you're-"

"You're beautiful!"

"You've become-"

I am an Alicorn. Who said ponies were the only ones who could be a, blech, heh, queen bee?

My mother looked at me in awe more than anyzebra else. Why shouldn't she? I had always been her spitting image. Now I showed her how she'd look as a teenage goddess. I flattered her just by being.

Now I really wish we had some visitors in town. I wanted everyzebra to see me as I was now. And they did!

All their eyes were on me. It was beautiful. I felt the stallions desire me. I felt foals be in awe of me. I felt the adults feel like they were before something greater than themselves. Some wondered if I was really Kifuko.

Some were scared, some were happy, many were confused, many loved me: but barely anymore than before!

Why?!

I was like Princess Celestia now! I was a goddess now! Why weren't they giving me every drop of love they had? It wasn't fair! It's not fair! Not fair! Who did this to me?! Was this their idea of a joke!? It wasn't funny!!!

The new love I felt, it was like watered-down soup, shallow, barely any substance to it. It was like the food I chewed in my teeth; no matter how much I took in, I remained empty.

I had enough. I'm sick of these games. I want my real body back if I'm just going to be jerked around like this!...

"Love is getting to know another soul," Maua had said, during one of our long talks.

Is Celestia loved after all? Or is she just feared? Is she so unknown that she can't be loved?

I don't know! I hate not knowing! You can't plan for what you don't know!

"Ki'?" She noticed.

I folded my new wings around her. I wish I knew how to fly. Or do magic with my new horn. I had read about it. But I had never had to put into practice before.

I remembered how my feats had inspired love before, maybe I could use this joke to my advantage after all.

I skimmed the now dusty books, and now unicorns moved things with their horns, and how pegasi flew. I didn't let anyone see me. I crashed only a few times. I didn't count how many times my horn lost its grip. But I have always been a fast study.

I chose to give Maua a private show to test myself out.

She loved it, watching me fly in the sky. Why stop there?

I used my horn magic to lift objects up around, then I grabbed Maua and planted her on my back.

"Ki'?"

"Just hold on, on second thought, I'll hold on with you!" I flew with her extra weight and holding Maua with my magic all at the same time! What a rush! I felt invincible! This was going to be perfect!

Then it was like a hole was opened in my underside and everything just drained out. I crashed, Maua's fall being broken by me. It was like everything had flooded out of me. No, everything had been flooding out of me, and now I had run myself dry.

"Ki' are you okay?!"

"No I am not."

"Let's get to the doctor!"

"NO! No doctor!" I snapped.

"Ki' you need help."

"There is no help they can give me!"

"You don't know that."

"YES I DO!"

"Why?!"

"I JUST DO!"

"Then what I am supposed to do?!"

"Please...please stay with me."

"...Alright Ki', I'll stay with you."

She did as I asked. Then it began to get dark. I used her as a crutch as she took me back home. My parents were dismayed at the sight of me, and I had to again fend off any chances for doctors. They couldn't help me. I asked Maua to stay with me. She did. Eventually her parents and mentor called for her, but she stayed with me. My bed was now a little bit too small for me.

I felt zebra wondering about me, some worried about me as part of the herd, but, none others were giving enough of what I needed now. In this shape I was trapped in that wasn't my own. Maybe this was the last part of the joke.

Maua's parents were worried I had some sickness and eventually forced her to leave me be least she be infected as well.

I wondered. Was I like a bonfire? Had I grown so large that the wood given to me now could never sustain me? Was my fate really just to burn out? It couldn't be. I wouldn't let it.

My parents. My lifeline. But it was pouring water down an endless pit. It wasn't enough. I couldn't stay like this. I wouldn't stay like this! I needed more!

As I lay there, I paid more attention to my 'feeling sense.' Becoming more attuned to it, like a shark with blood in the water.

The feeling, the flow coming from my parents into me. It felt like magic, it didn't seem like any of the magic I had read about. And magic, mana, could be manipulated by will and mind, the invisible threads that were everywhere.

When my parents were both near me, I became aware I could pull it, tug at it, maybe even make it come faster! Without a moment's hesitation I did.

It was a torrent, more concentrated and intense than those even at my debut performance or destroying the swarm. I wasn't aware of anything else. Only that I felt so much come into me, love, happiness, endearment, tenderness, the fire of emotion.

And I felt full again. I felt alive again! I giggled and laughed! More! More!

But suddenly it all stopped. Everything I was feeling flowing from them to me suddenly just, stopped.

I got up. No trace of weakness or emptiness remained.

I looked at my parents confused, and saw them looking at me like dolls. Not a feeling in them. Like a fire had gone out.

I was confused, and I felt bit afraid. I had never seen such, emptiness from even animals before.

"Mom? Dad?"

"Yes daughter?" "Yes Kifuko?" They said separately but equally indifferently.

"H-how do you feel?"

"...nothing really." "Not much of anything."

"I-I see."

Why? Why was I crying? I didn't understand.

They still went about things, doing their jobs, eating, sleeping, but with a empty indifference, a heartless demeanor. They dragged themselves about, like they didn't care even about themselves anymore.

="Betrayal" Silent Hill 2=

My parents acting indifferent and unmotivated even to their friends and our other family happening just when I recovered fully didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the herd.

Their eyes were all on me, their voices whispered.

A few days later I realized a new truth: I was hungry again. No. It was tiny, insignificant, like a grain of sand missing from a beach. But it was there, and growing.

I shivered when I thought of my parents, then like a light in the darkness, I remembered.

Maua, in one of her doomed attempts to teach me to appreciate arthropods, showed me the hatching of a nest of the kind I tolerated the most, spiders. I think we were both surprised at what happened next. The mother spider lay there motionless, was she already dead? Her own babies ate her.

Maua, I thank you. Parents provided for their foal. That was nature. Yes. If that's what it took for me to flourish, then I did only what came naturally. And every book, every text, every philosophy of Equestria, and even my own herd, held to that truth.

Do not be ashamed of yourself. Do not fear yourself. Do not hate yourself. What you are is exactly the way you were intended to be, and you should only be proud of that. Do not change who you are just to please others. You are you, and that is the best you can possibly be.

I understand.

"Kifuko. What happened to your parents?" She asks me at our normal spot. This place, it's been a constant in our lives for so long.

"I don't know."

"Why do you always try to lie to me?" This was asked without a trace of hurtful feelings towards me.

"I have to see if I can get one past you sometimes."

"Good luck with that. What happened to your parents?"

"...I ate their feelings."

Her eyes widened. But she didn't seem as shocked as should have been. "H-how could you do that?"

"I'm not sure myself. I can taste and eat food, but I've only ever gotten full when others felt good feelings towards me...After I changed, it wasn't enough anymore. I had no idea what the end result would be until it was over. I didn't fully realize what I was doing until it was all over."

"You can't help them?"

"There's nothing inside them left to help."

"They're-they're dead inside?!"

"I wouldn't go that far. They're still alive right? They can still think right? Your mentor looked them over, right?"

"Yes...Doctor Dawa did. He said he couldn't find anything wrong with them."

"There you see? So how can you call them dead? And what was there isn't gone. It's just a part of me now. I think. I was dying, Maua, I didn't know what was going to happen, I just wanted to live. Can you hate me for that?"

"...No, I can't."

"Thank you, Maua."

"I could never hate you, Ki'."

"Do you promise?"

"I promise. Do you think they'll be back to normal soon?"

"I have no idea."

"Ki', what are you?"

"I don't know."

"And...how long have you been this way? Needing feelings to eat?"

"As long as I can remember. Before I met you. I didn't even realize it at first."

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"I wasn't sure myself. I didn't know what to say. So I didn't see a point in telling anyzebra."

"...were you scared?"

"I don't think so. Maybe?" I said honestly.

"Some zebra are thinking your parents made a deal with a spirit of black magic to heal you. Others think they died of whatever you had and you brought them back as zombies."

"They're scared of me."

"Only a few of them are. I'm not. And neither is Doctor Dawa. And some Zebra think you're just a victim of some trickster spirit that gave you three wishes, and they backfired."

"A lion isn't a victim of being hungry. It's just the way it is, Maua. It's just the way I am."

"Ki', let's talk to Doctor Dawa! Maybe his alchemy can cure you!"

"There's no cure for what I am. No more than a flower can be cured of being a flower." I stroked a flower in her mane for emphasis.

"But there has to be SOMETHING that can be done for you! You can't be happy like this!"

"Whether I'm happy or not isn't the point."

"Of course it's the point! The point of life is to be happy, isn't it?"

"The point of life IS life, remember what my father said?"

"But we're not just animals!"

"Of course we are."

"Ki, stop it right now!" She snapped at me. I actually recoiled back. She was angry. "Don't do this to yourself! Please! You're my best friend! You're not just some animal! I'M not just some animal, either! You're Kifuko! I'm Maua! So please stop saying that!"

"You don't understand."

"Then help me understand!"

"...I'm just going to get hungry again, Maua. There's no way around it, there's no way to stop, and if I want to go on living, then I need to do what I did again, the love from all the herd isn't enough."

"Now your parents can't feel?"

"Now that my parents can't feel."

"You said this all started when you changed, what if I just find a way to fix you?"

"How? Start where?"

"Maybe get help from Princess Celestia of Equestria?"

"Do you know how to get to Equestria? Do you know how long the journey would be?"

"...no."

"Maua, it's okay, I'm not scared. Like the lions and the hyenas, I'll do what I need to do to live."

"Even if it means hurting other zebra?"

"I don't think my parents felt any pain actually, and my only other choice is to, burn out, die slowly, I don't want to die Maua!"

"I don't want you to die either Ki'!"

"Then please understand. I'm doing this to live!"

"I do understand Ki', I just know there has to be a better way!"

"You don't know that. You just want there to be."

"You don't know unless you try."

"Fish can't sing. Rocks can't live. Fire and water can't be friends. Dragons don't give. For them to even try is to already fail."

"Then please...let me help you."

And she did certainly did help me.

She became my partner in crime.

Maua had taught me before, but now she taught me with purpose. The fine art of what triggered what emotions. How to say just the right things to make somezebra trust a stranger, and how to turn a close group of friends on one of their own with just words. Words hold more power than anyzebra gives them credit for.

And I learned how to feed on zebra like never before.

I can't say I wasn't happy, just being with her. Even if it meant living day by day, zebra by zebra. I somehow felt whole with the two of us working together, stallions just our puppets.

Even the foals, now firmly becoming adults like I was, who had called me 'lucky amateur' and the ones who had called Maua 'weirdo' for her cloud-watching became putty in my hooves, they were particularly satisfying.

"Kifuko, I'm worried, is this us, just, getting back at them?"

"It's not revenge, Maua," I put a reassuring wing around her, "We're just doing what I need to do to live. Now they're doing something good with themselves. Isn't that better?"

Maua silently nodded at my logic. It made no sense, but sharing that time with Maua was when I felt the most alive in my life.

I gained a bit of a reputation of being a stallion's mare, and for stringing them along and dumping them leaving them in a empty state afterwards. I began wearing a cape or poncho to hide my wings. It got so hot at times. At least I was able to pass myself off as a hybrid 'virgacorn.'

But the best playacting in the world isn't going to do you any good when the audience is unwilling to suspend their disbelief. Sadly, my reputation of what state I left stallions in afterwards began to proceed me. They didn't know that I fed, but they could see the end results, and inserted it into a neat clean idea they could recognize: I left stallions 'heartbroken.'

Evil? Is a fire evil? Or does it just do what it does?

If a fire was aware, would it change what it needed to do to continue? If an arrow was aware, would that change its purpose? If the ocean was given a voice, do you think you'd have the right to argue with it?

The well was running dry. I began to actually feel ill, I can't explain it, but the looks more of my herd began to give me, the families of the stallions I used to live, it felt like I was being slowly poisoned.

Maua, bless her, she tried to stem the tide, but no zebra can push back drifting continents.

I didn't know how long I'd last. I did my best to restrict my use of magic and flying, to make my reserves last long. But my reputation was now self-procreating, and it became harder and harder for Maua to steer them towards me, and the sickness was getting worse. It wasn't like when I had been starving to death, no, this was worse, it really was was like I was being poisoned from the inside! And it only got worse when I was around the families of the stallions I had used, so I began to avoid zebra except my parents and Maua.

And Maua, of course they'd begin to turn their dark eyes towards her too. The witch's familiar.

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.

I was trapped. I lost track of how many days I stayed alone in my house, my parents no longer really company.

I weakly raised my head when the door opened. Had somezebra come for revenge? I wondered if my parents would protect me, not that they cared, but it was part of what they did. Instead it was,

"Maua?" I said relieved, "Did you find one?"

"How are you feeling?" I frustrated that she ignored my question with a question but answered.

"Awful. It feel like venom spreading through my veins. Maua it's worse every day. It's killing me."

"You can't even defend yourself like this can you?"

"Maybe, I'm not sure." My muscles began to tense.

"I think I've waited too long as it is. I really hoped there was a better way. I didn't want this. You've been my best friend since forever, Kifuko. I'm sorry."

Maua took off her jewelry and flowers. She took my horn in her hooves and placed it against her head.

"The buck!? Maua what are you doing?!"

She wrapped a blanket around us.

"I found one last one Kifuko. Please, take it, take everything, take me, my heart, my mind, my soul, my spirit, take all of it."

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" I actually struggled against her. But I wasn't in any shape to fight back.

"One last gift to you, one last wish for you," she nuzzled me.

"Maua this isn't funny! Stop, you idiot!"

"I always told you I was good at picking up things others don't, even about themselves," she caressed my horn, "You're hungry, I'm right here, do it." She pressed against me, our body heat mixing. "You want it, you need it, you desire it." She whispered in my ear, "I desire it."

My body trembled. It was like not trying to breath. The scent was overpowering. Her scent. I did want it!

'Magi' Madoka Magica -

It was the release of all releases. My spirits pierced the atmosphere and flew to the moon, the world moved, and shrunk down until nothing existed except the two of us.

It was like the sun, moon, and stars dived into me, I never had nor would again feel anything so intense and powerful, it dwarfed even what my parents had given me, I didn't need to pull it in, it came into me becoming one with me, uniting with me, being me, I felt emotions of every type but none hurt, only adding to the potency, for a flash I saw memories, heard thoughts, filling every trace of myself, with her.

But all good things must come to an end, and the last whips of smoke became one with me. As I recovered from the pure ecstasy, I heard from within, or I thought heard, or maybe I was just hallucinating from the rush,

"I'll be with you forever now, Kifuko."

I shook my head.

"Always. In. You."

I looked at Maua, or rather what had been Maua's body.

It looked and saw nothing, it heard but didn't listen, it lived but it didn't think. It breathed but it didn't nothing. It lived, but it was not Maua. It had body heat, but it was not comforting. It wasn't like my parents. Not in the least. This thing. It was empty. A limp and abandoned vessel.

I untangled myself from it, unable to even look at it.

It was over. My parents and Maua were now both gone. How could I have been so wasteful?

You think I was ashamed? Scared? Disgusted? Why should I be? She had offered herself of her own free will. I had accepted.

Don't feel bad for Maua. Her essence will be a part of me forever!

I began to gather my belongings, those I could carry with me. I had spent my entire life in and near this town. I had no reason to linger any longer.

There would be only one logical conclusions the zebra would come to when they found Maua's body, or if she were not to be found at all. I was the only logical suspect. I considered trying pin it on the stallions who I had used to feed myself, but I realized it was a plan with too many holes, and I stood alone now.

If I left, they'd know I was the one, they'd look for me, they'd tell other towns about me, they'd never stop looking for me. I knew what I had to do.

I burned or otherwise destroyed every record of myself.

Then I worked carefully and systematically, careful not to miss any zebra. There could be no zebra who knew of Kifuko.

I worked from house to house, to carry out my task. There could be none to follow me.

Stallion, mare, foal, it made no difference, I would leave none.

Looking into the eyes of another, my song could make them see what they wanted to see. I took what I could get, waste not, want not. Leaving them as my parents had been, as I had turned them into.

I worked quietly through the night, missing none, like a ghost, leaving no trace, silent and unopposed.

I calmly noted how sharper my sense felt, how much easier it was to read everything.

My sharper senses and my telekinesis saved me form the poison blowdart.

I'll admit I might have made a mistake in the order of my task, maybe that one should have been first, and not last, but only Princess Celestia is perfect (for now).

"How?!"

"You think me a fool?
If you do not know, I will not tell yo'!"

All night long, only brief struggles, no alarms sounded, and now he was here?

"Maua, where is my student, you vile freak?
You make a mistake if you think me weak!"

I tapped against myself with my hoof. "She is with me forever."

"So the monster's true colors now show,
There shall be no mercy from my blows."

"SHE chose to give to ME! It was HER IDEA! NOT MINE!!!" I hissed, surprised at my own anger.

"You must think me mad,
If that was the best lie you had."

"Believe what you WANT to believe!" I snarled.

"It is time for the final dance.
I should have killed you when I had the chance!"

"Yes," I admitted, "You should have."

I felt the pitter patter of raindrop on my head. Like a stupid turkey I looked up, and saw the dark clouds blocking out the night sky. A rain-dance? All by himself?! Lightning flashed.

"Here it comes, the rain and thunder!
Trying to fly now would be a blunder."

The old shaman... alchemist... witch doctor... whatever Low Equestrian name you want to give him, threw a bag from his pouch. The green smoke spread quickly. I was ready for more poison. Instead, I felt my magic sense begin to fill with 'static.' The rain didn't seem to do anything to disperse it at all!

"My own special bend
This is the end.
It's no use.
Your magic sense my powder has obtruced."

WHY WAS I STANDING HERE LIKE AN IDIOT LETTING HIM TURN THE BATTLEFIELD TO HIS ADVANTAGE?!

He had caught me off guard, and had hit just the right buttons for me to just politely stand by as he turned the terrain to negate my advantages.

More darts!

I caught them with my telekinesis and threw them right back at him! He blocked them with that old walking stick.

For some reason, just looking at the piece of wood made me feel small and vulnerable.

I tried to grab it with my magic, he pulled back, he's a lot stronger than he looks, then he stopped resisting and my own magic drew him in, and kicked my horn, causing me a splitting headache!

"Don't count on getting much use of that horn,
Now for to correct the mistake of you being born."

= 'Stains Of Time' - Metal Gear Rising -

I chose to remove the advantage of his blowgun by charging, I couldn't fly in this weather, but I could still use my wings to zigzag!

"You are no better than a cannibal,
You look out only for yourself, like an animal," he said, sidestepping my horn charge.

"And LIKE an animal I'll do what I have to to survive!" I turned and used a wing to tear off the blow gun necklace he was wearing.

"You think that justifies you in the least?
A lone wolf who abandons his pack is less than a beast."

He got his staff between my legs and twisted, causing me to tumble over.
Ugh! Had he been studying me my whole life? Or was he that good?

I kicked him back as he swung the staff down on my head, and I got to my hooves.

"Then I'll be a pack of one."

He retreated in the mass of green smoke that seemed to get bigger.

THAT NOISE! I had to dodge those the old fashioned way! He must have picked it up when he retreated! How many darts does he have?! I knocked one away with my wing, risky move.

"Do not waste frowns
and just lay down!
You're an actress, not a warrior
You might as well try to be a quarrier." His voice called. I'm not falling into a trap by going after it.

"And you're a doctor."

"That means I know where to hurt as well as heal
It'll be the last thing you feel," his voice came from a completely different direction.

"Isn't that violating your oath as a doctor?" Keep him talking. Think Kifuko think!

"In times of upheaval,
one must sacrifice towards the lesser evil." Different direction again!

"You forget, my father also taught me how to hunt," I hissed, "and my prey, now, is you!"

I fluttered my wings like mad, sending mud in every direction.

I listened to where the mud hit. And charged, first thing I did trample him, knocking the dart blow out of his mouth and smashing it this time. I managed to break some of his bones. Another bag of powder. This one exploded in my face, the white flash leaving me blind and bells ringing in my ears.

I covered my neck as he swung at it, I guessed where he stood and felt him block my attack, but I managed to push him back with superior strength. I felt his mass hit the ground. Or what I hoped was him.

I listened to my instincts, and charged.

By the time my senses recovered, I saw my horn had ran straight through him.

I breathed in deep, and let it out slowly, the green smoke was finally clearing. Of course. Naturally. Why wouldn't it? Head still hurt. Lots of bruises to boot. "Lucky amateur," I sighed.

By all rights he should have won.

But his green powder couldn't block my ability to feel others' emotions.

In other words, I got lucky.

"I win, I guess that makes me the better zebra."

"You are no zebra!
You're much closer to a hyena!"

He was still alive? I looked at him, still impaled on my horn, looking at me, his body limp.

"On that day your mother birthed you,
I saw the true you!
Your lie I saw through!"

"What are you talking about?!"

"A monster you were born
A thing of fang and horn!"

"You're delirious!"

"There is nowhere in this world you belong,
die trying to prove me wrong."

That was the last time he spoke. I slid him off my horn.

"...you're wrong. I swear you're wrong. I...you are wrong. I...I...I'll make my own place. And you'll eat your words in the mud."

I charged up his storm with a rain-dance of my own, pushing it past any safe limits, my dance wild and violent. Savage and free. Rain and clouds from miles in the sky was pulled in. The storm became a torrential flood.

And it washed away my past.

What did you call me? Monster? Beast? I did what I had to to live! Same as any living creature.

= 'Man's Road' Last Unicorn =

I wandered away from my past. Not really having a direction. Only carrying my wet and muddy provisions, which amounted to some blankets, a pillow, and some minor items.

I had really overdone it on the rainstorm. At least all traces of Kifuko would be gone from the world. I'd have to move on. I would have to start over. It would very hard without Maua. It was supposed to be the two of us. As had become normal, insects gathered around me like a bad dream. I placed my mother's mask near me to keep them away. I wondered how I'd blend in wherever it was I was going. It would be very hard with a horn and wings. Attention was the last thing I needed.

My dreams were black and lifeless, a raining void over a blacker sea, a storm of ghostly wisps and empty places.

I awoke in the morning. I stretched my wings, only to realize they weren't there. I fully awake in a flash. I turned around, and yes, my wings were gone, I felt my head, and, my horn it was gone too!

My legs suddenly fell back asleep. I looked up at the gray sky I brought about.

Dammit. It was still raining. The rain drops wouldn't stop getting in my eyes.

Heh. All that time. After my need grew so big with them gone. And now they were. NOW they were gone. NOW whoever was pulling this prank on me chose to take them away! Now that the game was over they didn't see a need to keep them around!

Heheh. HEHEHEHEH!

"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" I laughed to high heaven. I fell on my back, and kept laugh. I banged my own head against the dirt, still laugh. HEHEHEHEH! HEHEHEH! HEEHEH! After all that! NOW they go bye bye? BYE-BYE! HA HA HA! I giggled. I rolled around in the dirt and grass. I randomly squashed bugs and giggled. I bit a mantis' head off. Guess that means we're married now? What does it matter when I'm no better than them?! BWAAHAHHAHAHAH! I curled up, and giggled some more. Squishing the bugs between my hooves. "THERE! All your worries are gone!" I said to one bug as I crushed it.

Maua. Mama. Papa. BAHAHAHAH!!! Now that there's no zebra to hide from? Now that there's nozebra to show them off to? Now that it's all gone, now my hunger returns to normal? NOW? NOW!? HA HA HA!

Heh.

Author's Note

Birth of a monster.

Are monsters born without hearts? Do they lose them? Are they taken? Or do they just throw them away?

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Reharmonized-Pony-POV-Series-Under-The-Stars-2of2-432495666

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Episode 154:Chrysalis "Raising Of A Monster"

Pony POV Series
Origins
"Queen Chrysalis"
Raising Of A Monster
By Alex Warlorn
Edited By Louis

Ahem.

I did a bit of wandering after that. Seeing the countryside, taking in the sights, being one with nature.

I tried feeding off the love of animals. In doing so, I essentially learned what a lion feels like when it tries to eat leaves.

What did my conscience say about all this? What would I want with something society tried to PROGRAM into me? That's why I smothered my conscience in its sleep. So I spent a little bit whining about how life isn't fair, then hunger set me straight, and off I went.

For once, I was happy Father had never taken me to any other town or city. This meant I wouldn't be recognized.

I shall...confess...on the grounds this is not repeated...I did apply for employment at...an escort business. I realized Maua's old rock collection had more love than these stallions, and I wouldn't let this filth touch my body. My...employer told me what he thought of my behavior. I introduced his throat to my hooves, and helped myself to a generous severance package.

Where was I? Oh yes.

I didn't bother remember the names of the cities or town I came to or from, why would I?

Let see now... I think that's when I happened to camp at the same spot as this young, handsome zebra stallion. He was in love with me at first sight before I actually did anything! It was discording. No, not THAT kind of discording! And no, let us set one record straight right now:

I would not work alongside that lunatic if he offered me the goddess of love herself on a silver platter! A world full of bickering, miserable, insane ponies? How is anyling supposed to get a steady supply of love in THAT mess? I might as well ask the windigos to return. The bastard can rot in Tartarus for all I care, if I was in Celestia's horseshoes I'd turn his statue into gravel. I'm embarrassed to admit that I was CHEERING for the ponies when they dealt with Nightmare Moon, Discord, and Princess Gaia.

The pony code against murder is stupidity defined. Sure, kill on the battlefield! Kill away! But present a pony with a chance to make sure an enemy can never threaten them again? Not in peacetime! Rejected! Instead, let's give 'em a chance to escape someday, so they may lay havoc another day! Idiots! So to sum it up, I'd sooner help kill Discord than ever aid him.

Who was I talking about again? The stallion? Yes yes, if you insist his name was Buibui. Or maybe it was Bovbov.

Either way, he made a good mobile food source. Said he was traveling Zebrafrica to see the world or something, maybe he was looking for a magic sword, or maybe he was a mail carrier... no, he was a mail carrier looking for a magic sword! I think. I spun a completely fictional name and past for myself for him to dig into, and acted endearing.

I think I could have told him I was a door to door hay-saleszebra and the moron would have still loved the sight of me. Idiot didn't know me, and he just loves me then and there? Zebra who fall in love simply from how somezebra looks are no different from stallions who pay for a night with a mare. That kind of love is reserved for small foals and idiots... not that I was complaining!

I asked him what he loved about me, but all his answers came back shallow. He only knew my appearance and the fantasy I had fed him. His responses could have described anyzebra he liked.

I kept him around until I neared civilization again. And for a while after that, and a while after that. Trying to figure out what was it he saw in me that made him love me instantly. But it always fell short. I don't like failing! There are two ways to deal with a mystery, uncover it, or eliminate it.

Finally, I asked him if he'd give me all his love, and he agreed, so I took it. Yum! What? I asked.

I visited what libraries I could find, and there were always a stallion in such places, desperate for companionship, someone to share his love with, and normally wouldn't be missed a fair while. Though my real point in visiting was to read up on fighting, hoof-to-hoof combat of Earth ponies, aerial pegasus dogfights, unicorn combat magic, and of course the zebra-style cane fighting that had almost done me in. Finding books on those was a challenge unto itself! Which makes the lonely desperate stallions all the more useful.

Sometimes a target would last me a good while. Other were about as filling as chewing gum.

After all, I just want to go on living. Like the timberwolves of Equestria. If the deer they fed on were suddenly replaced with ones who were more than their instincts, would that change what the timberwolves' natural prey was?

My day job? Well, on one hoof, love was the only sustenance I truly needed; and you couldn't buy such a commodity at the market! But at the same time... well, you'd be AMAZED how many things they'll stick a price tag onto, and last I checked, stallions didn't consider moneyless vagrants to be 'smoking hot.'

So I had been everything, a waitress, manual labor, I took pride in my skill in lying and manipulating myself into anywhere. My prey often provided most of the money I actually needed.

On a whim, I once visited a fortuneteller, who used pieces of paper with pictures on them to foretell the future. Perhaps I could pick up some tricks I could use for myself!

Things didn't go the way they were supposed to, when during their ritual the zebra drew a card that she looked very surprised at. "What?... This is impossible."

Instead of rolling my eyes I asked, "What is it?"

THe picture was some naked mare on top of a several headed lion, the mare holding what could have been a lantern or chalice.

"This is the eleventh Major Arcana, it's commonly called The Lust, but it's also known as The Hunger."

I stiffened. "What does it symbolize?" I heard myself ask.

"Well, in this case, it symbolizes being consumed by power, the strength that comes through dominating others, and thus is not true power, but the emotional high of abusing power."

I gritted my teeth. "So what is so 'impossible' about it?"

"I didn't put in my deck! It's not part of a standard Tarot deck but one of the alternate decks! The standard Arcana with that number is The Strength! I should not have drawn this card!"

I looked at the other cards on the table, a skeleton equine drawn from before, which overlapped a card underneath she said was called the Temperance.

The mare drew again, shaking, the card this time was of a tower being struck by lightning and equine falling from it.

The mare did a couple more readings, and that card, Hunger, kept showing up. I couldn't figure out what her game was since she did these readings as a 'bonus' and I felt her growing genuinely afraid and disturbed.

"It's like this Arcana is calling to you, or like you are calling to it!"

The Hunger Arcana huh? Sure. Why not?

My plans for the future? I had no real plans then, my goal was living day-by-day. Though I'll admit, even back then, just wandering about, going from town to town, feeding, moving on, and repeating the cycle really didn't appeal to me. There had to be a way out. Freedom from my. . . condition. And I was going to find it.

Oh, and I ran into some accidentally-summoned (not by me stupid! I'd never even read on monster summoning) extra-dimensional parasitic creature that ate magic and decided to make me his entree. I ate him instead. There was something sweet about his rantings on how I was a insect compared to him and HE should have been eating ME, and me proving him dead wrong.

I was on cloud nine.

Some time later I spotted my newest target. In some town that had a bunch of foreigners, like griffins about. He was good looking. Attractive. And he seemed like the kind that fell in love with a mares on the spot. I'll admit, he was rather hot.

I did my dance with him, and he did his own dance right back at me! Now this could be informative. Let it never be said I was unwilling to learn.

We talked about meaningless trivial things. Something about him just drew me to him. Funny... I don't think I ever actually caught his name.

I told him where I was staying, and where to come to me, I asked him not to tell anyzebra else of course, I wanted it to be private, of course he agreed.

I went back to my room to prepare for our 'meeting.'

Inside my room I found several griffins and deer, I wondered if I had gotten the wrong room for less than a second before I began to back up only to find the door closed behind me.

Then they came at me all at once. Oh, funny story, I ALWAYS make sure my room are soundproof, and don't have any windows. Really funny ain't it?

Door was nice and strong too, the kind that wouldn't be broke down quickly, the way I liked it. The zebra who gave me this room really did fill out all my needs.

They didn't bother with introductions. They didn't waste time on banter to give me a few precious seconds to size them up. They came at me, nearly all at once, just enough at once so I had nowhere to dodge, the rest waiting outside the first pile for me if I managed to squeeze out of that. They didn't let up for a moment. They didn't let me get a word in edgewise. Their attacks came from every side, behind front, left right, above below, but angled so if I escaped, they wouldn't hit each other.

I kicked, bucked, jabbed, punched, but for every one I focused on, there were two more getting in a hit when I did. Contrary to what you've seen in plays, they did not politely line up single file for me to knock down one-by-one.

I gave them plenty of black-eyes, bite marks, bruises, and broken bones, but there was plenty of them too. One slammed a collar around my neck. Then a muzzle on my snout. Then came the rope. By the time they were done, I was just a package for delivery. I never stopped struggling. It just made them beat me harder.

By the time I was in the bag, I wasn't in much shape to do anything. I was just able to grab my mother's mask with my teeth. And I had felt increasing dizzy ever since the collar had gone around my neck. It wasn't restricting my breathing, but I was feeling more disoriented the longer it was on, like, like my thoughts...were turning, into soup...so tired...can't think...ugh...the bumpy ride wasn't helping either. I lost consciousness.

I had no idea where I was. It stank. It was noisy, hissing and clicking noises all around me. I was dumped onto a dirt floor.

Monsters surrounded me. Zebra sized insects, with dragonfly wings, stubby horns, black carapaces, fangs and blue eyes. They went on four legs but in place of manes or tail they had what looked like skin flaps or something. They were ugly.

I retched at the sight of them, and huddled closer to mom's mask.

I was indoors. Everything had a black flowing shape to it. The lanterns burned violet. I had no idea what that was about. I was surrounded on all sides by a raised wall, with the audience of monsters looking on above.

"All bow to the Queen of the Changelings!" One of the monsters, wearing armor, called out. They spoke Zebrifican?

The insects all lowered their heads.

Then one slammed my face into the ground.

"WE SAID KNEEL, DESERTER!" Another armored bug hissed in my ear.

I felt a faint shuddering in the ground. I was so disoriented. Something wasn't right. And I mean more so than the bizarre nightmare I now found myself in. What was it?

The faint shaking again. The my head yanked up to face the ugliest horror I had ever seen.

It was fat, bloated, and disgusting.

Its body pulsated every few seconds, like intestines. Most of its body was the most putrid shade of white imaginable. The front half of its body was small by comparison and black like the rest of the monsters and covered in carapace. Blech, its head was big and ugly. It had a pair of wings that were far too tiny for it. It had the same blue compound eyes as the rest of the monsters. It wore a black crown with amethysts. It held a similarly-made scepter.

It was carried on a giant couched slab, with more of the monsters shackled to it on either side. All of them looked utterly exhausted and hopeless. They looked relieved to finally place the giant load down and getting a chance to rest.

"All Hail Queen Cocoon Mab Loth Avalon!"

The...changelings... hadn't that been was what the armored monster called itself? The changelings all chittered and cheered at the bloated thing.

A number of the monsters fluttered to the big monster's side, standing at attention.

The armored one next to me bowed. "My queen, we have captured the rogue we were sent to retrieve."

"Black Beetle." The big monster said... in Low Equestrian!... "How did this little creature escape the eyes and ears of your intelligence network for so long? How did it escape the nest without your notice? Who could have exposed us?"

Black Beetle suddenly looked terrified. "M-my queen, I do not know! It must have been a grievous oversight on the guards' part! They clearly have been slacking in their duties in keeping the gatherers and workers in line! They have allowed creatures like this thing to run about, causing trouble!"

"So it is the guards' fault? That is your best estimate?"

"Yes my queen! Certainly!"

"Black Beetle... give me all your love."

Black Beetle screamed tried to fly away, but was grabbed by two of the armored bugs and was dragged in front of the queen, who touched his horn with hers.

I watched transfixed as violet flames flowed out of the bug and into the queen, his body withering. It lasted several seconds. None of the other monsters said or did anything to stop it. I was still bound and gagged.

The violet flames stopped coming out of Black Beetle...his eyes were empty. Not empty in the catatonic sense, but empty as in like a costume. Hollow. The armored bugs let go of him, and his empty exoskeleton fell to the floor and shattered. There was nothing inside.

Changelings rushed in front of the queen and swept up what was left of Black Beetle into a bucket and dump it into a bigger bucket that was carted away. Like garbage.

The Queen looked back at me.

"Soldier #1983, what is this little creature's brood and serial number?"

The armored monster got closer to me. "STAY BACK!" I tried to snap holding up my mother's mask.

Soldier #1983 punched it in two and tossed it aside.

What was this pain in my chest? Seeing that mask broken?

The monster mare-handled me, pushing and pull me, making the bindings and collar bite into my body. As he did so, I got a look at his helmet, and the reflect there in.

My blood turned to ice. I recoiled in disgust at the thing looking back at me in the helmet's reflection.

Bad dream. Bad dream. Bad dream. Or that's what I would have said if I wasn't in so much pain right now! Bad dream! Please bad dream! I've finally gone crazy and now I'm delusional. It's all a fever dream, everything since the day I became an Alicorn, just a fever dream.

I heard the insects whispering. "She's a monster. She could have exposed us all."

"She's not so... blagh! Her eyes!"

"A deviant? No wonder she ran."

"Selfish freaks."

"Your Majesty! She has no serial number! And no brood mark!"

The monsters all gasped.

"THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE!" The Queen snarled.

"It is true My Queen! There is nothing!"

"They are removed?!"

"No My Queen, there is no sign of them having been there at all!"

"Little creature! What is your number and brood?! I command you to speak!"

They practically tore the muzzle off me. "WHO ARE YOU!?" I demanded. "WHAT ARE YOU? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?! CHANGE ME BACK YOU SICK FREAKS!"

"These games do not amuse me, deviant! Answer!"

"I'm not one of you! Change me back! What did you do?! Let me go!" I knew that was unlikely, given I had already seen a secret society that wanted to stay hidden, but I wasn't exactly thinking straight.

"Do not try to pretend to be delusional, deviant. We know of your feeding and hunting. Your shapeshifting is bound by the collar little creature."

"You're lying! Your turned me into this! I WAS BORN A ZEBRA!"

"Converting cattle into changelings is a costly, time-consuming process: why would we waste it on a cattle's foal? Do not blame me, deviant, you are the architect of your own fate."

That last bit, was enough to give me back my focus. Thanks, Queenie!

"How is it possible you avoided being marked when born, and spend your entire life as such, and even left the hives undetected, deviant?"

"I've never been here before in my life. I've never seen you things before in my life. So buck you."

Amidst the sea of gasps, the armored bug smashed me across the face, knocking me down.

"Watch your tongue, monster, or I'll cut it out!"

"Monster? You look in a mirror lately?" He kicked me in the muzzle. It was so worth it.

I had no intention of sharing my life story with these giant bugs.

This continued for too long, the Queen demanding answers that I didn't have, ranting about things that didn't exist.

"If I'm not numbered... *KICK!* Then I'm not part of your system...*KICK!* So this entire thing is pointless!" *KICK!*

"...you may have somehow dodged being registered when you were born, little creature, but I promise your death will be not be so avoidable."

...Oh no...So this was it huh? Dammit. Guess I didn't get so far after all.

"Take her to the other deviants. I want her broken! I want 'Yes, Master' to be the only words she can say! I want this traitorous little worm to know its place! I want it know its words hold as much worth as flatulence!"

"HOW CAN I HAVE BETRAYED YOU WHEN I HAVEN'T EVEN MET YOU!?" I couldn't stand this insult to logic!

"You have endangered the swarm by acting without my command! Your genetic deviance endangers the gene pool! You show defiance towards your Queen! How could your actions be anything BUT treason? I'm done with this worm. Take it away."

Another of the armored bugs flew one and together the two of them dragged me away, still roped up, and still collared, dragged away on the dirt and then on the rough stone as we entered one of the passages that led into the circular dust bin.

I tried my hardest to memorize every passage and route we took.

We passed other changelings.

"Its eyes! Look at her eyes! She's an abomination!" Buzzed out one changeling.

"She's a deviant from the template! She's a mutant!"

Most however, didn't even look at me, or anything else. If I had to put a word to them, it would be tired. They trudged along.

I saw zebra, ponies, griffins, deer, with glowing violet eyes, looking deluded or like they were having the time of their life even if they were covered in dirt and stank like goats.

"Hey!" I shouted at one zebra, who looked at me dully. "Help me!" She took a trot forward.

"Ignore her," #1983 said. The zebra went back to sweeping.

Finally, they dragged in front of what, by any other name, was a prison cell. They cut my bindings. Big mistake. I kicked one in the face, and made a run for it even if I had no idea where to go.

Sadly, one grabbed me as I began to run, and I fell face first on a raised piece of stone. One of the fangs that now dominate my mouth broke, bleeding.

"Oh. Let me help with that." #1983 said, and then punched me in the face until the other fang broke. "See? That wasn't so bad! Both match now! NOW GET IN!"

The THREW me inside the slammed the cage door behind them.

I wasn't alone.

There were more of the monsters. But all of them slightly different; none were cookie-cutter identical.

One had violet compound eyes instead of blue. One's shell was gray instead of black, and another's was a darker shade of black than the norm. Yet another had red marks along her shell like flames. One had very large wings. Another was wingless but possessed bulkier armor, and yet another still was also without wings, but had a longer, more slender horn.

They all looked at me with sad pity, I snarled at them for that, but not before observing how they were all wearing the same collar I was.

I looked down towards the floor into a puddle of...something. My eyes. They weren't the same as the rest of the monsters. They were green and almost like a cat's. They were still my own.

+++

Yes yes, they introduced themselves to me, and I introduced myself to them. But I told none my name. Can we please skip over that part? It was just an exchanging of identities. Their stories were all same. Born different, threat to the template, but 'waste not, want not.' So they were spared to entertain the swarm, (and by 'entertain' I mean everything from the clownish to the carnal) or perform the sort of menial tasks fit for the lowest of the low.

The matter of real importance? I learned stuff. What was at stake here. What the playing field was like. And especially, the rules of the game. You need to know the rules of the game so you can break them.

Moreover, I learned the 'history' of the swarm. Not dates and names and such; but what precious little the swarm itself remembered from its centuries of isolation and self-ignorance.

And I learned nothing alive has the same eyes as me.

The last queen didn't have the same eyes as me.

'My mother?'

Ha!

That old hag was never my mother! Don't tell me all this time you were thinking that it was going to turn out I was some long-lost princess, do you? Destined to be returned to the rightful throne, and meet with the rebel resistance and restore all that was right once? Don't make me laugh, you romantic simpleton.

I also learned it was tradition to destroy all records of the previous changeling Queen when the new one was crowned. The death of their history and leaving only the now (that was one of the first policies I changed). Not that anyling could even REMEMBER when Queen Cocoon had started ruling. They didn't even know if there any other changelings besides them.

The secret origin of the changelings? They'd like to know that themselves.

'The first Changeling Queen was the Hearts and Hooves Day princess!' 'She was Queen Rosedust!' 'No She was Queen Rostdust's daughter!' 'No no no! She was the pegasus who killed the demigod Cupid! She has to be!' 'Bioweapon created by the centaurs!' 'Ancient mutant space ponies!' 'Ponies mutated by a sonic-rainnuke!' 'Fairy ponies risen from the dead!'

Take your pick.

I wish I could say I was given some holy vision, telling me it was my destiny to rise to the top. Or spirits telling me I was Queen Rosedust herself reborn. But I had nothing. And I wouldn't have cared.

And every discussion ALWAYS kept coming back to my eyes.

They didn't look the same as eyes of prey, but they weren't the eyes of my own kind, so therefore 'not-changeling-eyes' equaled 'prey-eyes.' Not that unreasonable. No wait... it was stupid.

To be a changeling is to have everything be your enemy. Creatures of chaos, hatred, and ruin, spreading despair and misery, destroying our crops before they can be harvested.

And that said nothing about other changelings. There was never enough love to go around, ever. Not as far back as the current generation could remember with Queen Cocoon on top, no matter how diverse the prey, no matter how many forms love took, there was never enough to feed everyling. I thought of the fat queen, I wondered why.

In the darkest and worst times, Changeling tore each other to shreds over the smallest scrap of affection to take the edge off our never-ending hunger. This chaos didn't last long. Those whose feuds escalated into full-out war were more likely to make the prey aware that those horrors called 'changelings' were REAL, and needed to be disposed of!

We have been called abominations, plagues, diseases upon the world. As if what we're doing was any different than any other beast that seeks flesh to fill its belly.

Oh right, prey think everything eats fruits, vegetables, or rocks.

My eyes. 'How different they are,' the others would prattle on.

'Changelings and prey were fundamentally different,' they insisted. 'Like water and alcohol.' Water and alcohol could LOOK the same, FEEL the same, but one burned, one didn't. And it had nothing to do with how it was raised or its choices.

Personally? I knew I was fundamentally different from THEM! And I swore I'd never forget that.

Back to 'my fellow deviants...' They all had numbers and brood markings. I had none. This made me a strange anomaly, even among them. Every changeling's birth, life, and death was documented, along with the love it gathered and had and was given. Like machinery. Disgusting.

The idea of earning love instead of steal love? Want. Take. Consume. After all, lions don't ask gazelles' permission to eat THEM. It's just nature.

For changelings, GIVING love is like vomiting. Which also happens to be how nymphs are fed.

Oh, let me settle that as long as we're on the subject. Contrary to myth, our young aren't born as grubs and mature into pony shapes. They HATCH in equine shapes, and grow from there, so the proper term is nymph.

GIVING love to cattle is a sign of mental illness. It's actually written right in the laws and our psychology textbooks.

I could appreciate that. After all, I couldn't go giving love back to other zebra, it's not like THEY need it to live.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): You're wrong. Anything with a heart needs love to live. There was an experiment, long ago, with infants were fed and otherwise taken care of, but not nurtured or had affection expressed towards them...the experiment ended because they all died. Love IS needed for other creatures with hearts and minds to live.)

Well then, heh, I guess that means ALL creatures are changelings, doesn't it?

Now where was I? Oh, I and my fellow genetic deviants got to know one another, learned about each other, our likes and dislikes.

We also hatched an escape plan involving careful timing, distracting, knowing the exits to the surface (turns most of the hive was underground), and taking advantage of our 'disabilities' of course. Oh, and getting the collars off, but that one went without saying. We already had plans of where to go once we were free. Equestria was the one and only place we had any true desire to go. A kingdom so overflowing with love? We'd be fools to go anywhere else.

But our escape was foiled, thanks to a traitor in our midst. What? Me? Don't be stupid. I wanted OUT of that dung hole! And you think I'd be STUPID ENOUGH to believe any offer or promise the guards or the queen gave me? Me, the deviant whom they made clear they didn't even consider a person? Not worth the respect or handling even prey was given?

"You said you wouldn't say it was me!" Said red-streaks, aka #1992-PT, whom the guard happily outed as our mole.

"And you believed me," #1983 said kicking her back in with the rest of us.

What did we do to her?

I think I'll leave that to YOUR imagination. I certainly got to express mine that day!

I decided that day, if I was going to gain my freedom, I was going to have to do it myself.

Oh. What did we deviants do? Things. Lots of things.

Do I really have to tell this part?

Fine.

"Bring in the clowns."

The collars never, ever, came off. I was thrust into arenas more times than I could ever recall. And I never saw the sky.

Made to do tricks with minimal or no practice, ball walking (with our front hooves), fire juggling (with our mouths), and who could forget the cream pies infested with muncher beetles?

The costumes and makeup were not all that inspired. As a performer myself, I took it as a personal insult!

It was actually WORTH the beatings I took when I dared modify my costume and make up an act all for the sake of delivering a better performance. For the record, the audience loved it.

I kept my singing voice a secret.

I'll admit, mathematically speaking, and considering my survival habits, there was no way I could deny they were the same species as me. But how? There was no way in Tartarus my parents were changelings. And the myths about changelings replacing babies with their own nymphs are just that, myths. It made no sense, but I couldn't deny the evidence staring me in the face, or how so many pieces made sense.

One thing about being considered less than even your own food? Changelings don't care what they say around you.

So many were afraid. I was stunned what a truly cutthroat society this was. One less changeling means more love for the rest, after all. I wondered how many were hiding deviances behind their shapeshifting.

Queen Cocoon, surprisingly, had a vast network of changelings away from the hive, making sure the hive stayed current in global affairs, and information about the swarm was silenced, vanished, blown up, or if the discoverer was particularly clever, converted as the situation called for.

They kept speaking of everything in Low Equestrian, her and her entourage. Regardless of how important or vital it was. I never let on that I understood every word dropped about plans for revising her private chambers, additions to the hive, rescheduling the guards, and more.

I also heard how the changelings' numbers had been steady dropping over the last hundred years, at least. Of course feeding Her Majesty always came first.

I also realized, if I escaped, they'd hunt me till the day I died.

Cocoon never said any of it in Zebrafrican, but apparently there WERE adult changeling scouts and gatherers who had chose to feel empathy for their prey, and abandon their 'loyalty' to the hive and assimilate fully with the creatures they were posing as. Some 'going as far' as 'vomiting love' back at their prey. They were declared 'legally insane' on the spot, full of 'poisonous ideas' and were hunted down and often killed on the spot with a proper cover up of their death or vanishing following for their alias.

Can't have security risks, after all.

They also made nice scapegoats for why there was a perpetual love shortage despite the population dropping. When Cocoon felt whimsical, one traitor would be brought back alive for a show trial, followed by attempts to 'cure' them for the rest of their lives. When Cocoon felt un-whimsical, traitors were just eliminated to safeguard the gene pool.

There were even changelings who found the 'taste' of a particular prisoner so enticing, they tried to escape the hive with them. Preying Mantis' drones would find them, the changeling would plead they had 'fallen in love' with their food and Cocoon introduced them to their fate.

Thanks to the 'language barrier,' of me speaking 'only' in Zebrafrican, I never lacked for information.

I learned of the swarm's alchemists and bioengineers. A century ago, the bioengineers had attempted to breed a 'love tree.' Apparently, it got 'too friendly' and was burned to ashes after taking the most brilliant bio-alchemist of a generation with it.

They had tried a 'hive mind' collective dream with cocooned victims and... it was a disaster. Individually, zebra lacked the knowledge to conceive of a perfectly detailed world. And different zebra considered different things real and fictitious. Ergo, a collective shared dream would create countless contradicts.
Factor in the magic needed to maintain it, and the minimal return, and the whole enterprise equaled out to a fool's errand.

Hercules Beetle, was the master of the swarm's soldiers, and didn't mourn Black Beetle's fate. A new changeling, Preying Mantis, was now master of maintaining order within the hive. The one charged with finding and silencing rogues and traitors.

Digger Wasp was master of the swarm's spies, but his presence at the hive itself, was a lucky rarity. His sister, Jewel Wasp, was master of the gatherers.

All changelings who could perform magic cast the same identical COLOR of magic: violet. This could be problematic when infiltrating as unicorns en masse, but Digger Wasp often boasted of finding ways around this tell that were 'surprisingly obvious.'

There was Shield Bug, our 'head pediatrician,' so to speak, who oversaw the health of the swarm's nymphs. Queen Cocoon didn't care much for her, insisting she found Shield Bug, 'pessimistic.' Shield Bug would ask for more love from the 'royal cache,' saying she was being made to ration love to nymphs that needed at least over a third more of the grand total being given if they were to grow up healthy. Queen Cocoon said it would be a good chance to weed out the weak to increase the swarm's chances for living.

While it was hardly expectant for all the young of a litter or brood to grow up to adulthood... where was the logic in withholding love?

Hercules Beetle would always report the number of guards ready to defend the hive or wipe a settlement off the face of the map if we were discovered and a 'natural disaster' needed to happen.

I often suspected him of lying about his army's size just to make Cocoon feel more powerful. Yet it didn't have the earmarks of a con.

Their army was huge. Why, though? Everything I read about war said the same thing: armies were expensive to train, equip, maintain and FEED. So WHY was our army so LARGE in the middle of a century-long food crisis?

There weren't many countries that could match our swarm's soldiers in numbers. And they were up-to-date in equipment and training, with spies in nearly every country, providing tactical and strategic information.

And every last bit of it, this huge drain on resources, existed on the chance the swarm's existence was discovered, Hercules Beetle's second officer, Goliath Beetle, often bemoaned having an army and not even having a solid enemy to fight.

So to sum up: an army that did nothing. A black hole on resources even as the hive crumbled. Queen Cocoon was also telling the bio-alchemists' chief mad scientist Kabutomushi, to try and develop cloning for their army so they wouldn't have to rely on breeding.

Cocoon could have used prey to carry herself around, but she seemed to prefer using her own kind.

There were jobs cattle could be used for when not being kept in storage, but working upside down in the dark on the cavernous ventilation and cooling systems wasn't one of them. Plus, cattle was too important to risk injury. Worker grunts were more expendable.

There was no internal economy. You did your job; you were fed. If not; you were fed on.

Promotions seemed to be at personal whims rather than any merit system.

Names were a privilege. Unnamed changelings were just numbers in the machine: a poorly-ran one.

The worst part wasn't the performances, the collar, or the cell, or the way I was looked through, it was every time I had to bow down to that fat, bloated, impassive sloth, who cared only about her own belly, while the hive and her swarm crumbled around her. Resentment built within me like geothermic pressure in a volcano.

Then there came the straw that broke the camel's back. I spent a performance listening to changelings speak. Now outside the hive, artists generally aided in the gathering of love, as they attracted admirers. Inside the hive, artists who managed to keep the swarm distracted were left alone. But the changelings around me were all abuzz about a subversive painting called the 'Final Sunset' that had indirectly cast Cocoon in a bad light, and so its creator had to be eliminated.

Cocoon arrived, her slaves carrying her bulk on a great palanquin. #1983 announced her arrival. Then the proverbial straw fell, when among the ever changing titles and prestiges Cocoon gave herself, #1983 proclaimed her to be, "Protector of the hive, the swarm, the changeling people, she who protects and guards our future."

Something inside me snapped then. I dropped my props, wiped off my make-up and tore off my costume, to the shock of everyling, but before the guards could do anything, I sang.

"You claim to look to what is today's beyond,
Fate does not stop because you say it's done,
What fools mistakes the dusk for dawn?"

"You can't see the world crumble around you
So who is the greater fool?"

"You are blind both far and near
You say you're loved but all I see is fear

"Show us all games and fun
Distract a hive that comes undone"

"A sword treated like a shield
Is it to a coward that we kneel?"

"Beasts tear down leaders who are weak
So who is the real freak?"

"Our future is ours if we'll take it
Or one who can only fake it?"

"A spider who hides from her own web
The only kingdom she'll rule is one of the dead.

Awaken and look left and right, do not hide
Don't we see that all of us feel the same inside?"

Takes our wings and fly
And see through this lie!"

"Swarm, kingdom, hive,
We must remember what means to be alive!"

That got their attention.

Well, there goes the bridge. Only way now is forward.

The swarm looked at me in shock and varied other feelings: some fear, some confusion, some awe. They'd respond with their emotions first, then reflect upon it later in a way that would create the illusion that they had used reason to decide their action. I need to strike now that I've played my ace to knock them all off-balance.

"Look around us! Our hive is crumbling! Yet we are not given resources to restore it! No matter how our numbers shrink, our supply of food remains scarce! Our swarm is on a death spiral! Our Queen has a massive army, and has for generations, in case the cattle should ever, may eventually, possibly discover our existence. But what has her army done for us other than eat and bully us?"

That got the guards unhappy, but it also got a lot of the assembled changeling talking. Which I like to pretend got Cocoon scared.

"How many of us, as gatherers, have gone beyond the protection of her army that never leaves our hive? Only to have to kill ourselves rather than risk revealing our existence to the cattle? How many of us have lost brothers and sisters to this fear? Once our numbers could blot out the sky! Why did we not listen to our courage then?! We are predators! We are the hunters! And yet we cower and bury ourselves in the dirt like grubs! Is that who we are? Is that who we want to be?"

The ugly bugs looked at each other, surprised and unsure.

"How has Cocoon protected us? Or have WE been the ones protecting HER? Is THAT the changeling way? And at what cost? Our swarm? Our hive? Our future? If we serve a queen only to all die ourselves, then wouldn't that queen only follow suit? How is that a future?! Why is it, no matter how much we bring our queen, there is never enough? What has driven our brothers and sisters to madness and stolen cattle from the hive and fled? Why does this madness continue? Why have we done nothing to change these things? Why has our queen failed to bring us back from the abyss? If we are a swarm, then why do we never swarm? Why do we neither do anything with our army or scale it back as we starve?! Who can answer me? If even a degenerate slave can notice these questions, then who has been keeping us from asking them? Who has the the ability, the means, but never acts?"

Some of Cocoon's entourage looked like they wanted to handle things delicately.

"I have protected the changeling swarm from extermination! I have kept us hidden and unknown. Not given in to mindless recklessness that would throw us into the jaws of the beast. The ponies and their goddess have strength that would crush us the way a wild beast crushed even the most civilized changeling!"

"The right preparation and information can overcome strength!"

Cocoon narrowed her disgusting eyes. "Is that so? Then maybe we should test that way of thinking." She stamped one of her hooves and a changeling retainer came to her side. And told him in Low Equestrian to get a stick, a sack, and three potatoes (we've got to feed our livestock something). And soon enough, they arrived. The crowd in the meantime was hissing and clicking to itself. Until Hercules Beetle stamped a hoof, "BE SILENT!" And that got them to shut up.

The items were tossed to me without fanfare.

"Since you said information and preparation can overcome strength. Let's see that in action, shall we? There are your weapons of war." She and the guards laughed. "And, to show this great ability of yours, you will be doing battle with Wolf Spider." The queen and the guards roared with laughter.

A few of the audience gasped. My 'fellow degenerates' who had been as stunned silent as the rest, waved me goodbye.

Every muscle in my body tensed and I gritted my teeth.

"As for preparation, I think tomorrow sounds fair, don't all of you?" None disagreed with her. "And as for information, you can be near Wolf-Spider's cage all day and all night to observe and learn from him. I'm certain you'll figure out a way to win!"

She laughed at me again, and did her guards and entourage, and a few of the common monsters as well. "And when it is over, everyling will see reality, rather than the delusion you offer them. And that nothing you say matters, that nothing you think matters. Get this lying worm out of my sight."

Wolf-Spider was a changeling. Barely. He was a degenerate, mostly. He had been the test subject for some of the bioengineers, hoping for an invincible guardian for their queen. It worked... too well.

Wolf-Spider was huge by changeling standard. He was huge by ANYTHING'S standards. In the circus-maximus, Queen Cocoon feed him degenerates or cattle that'd been sucked dry by the normal changelings. He'd rip the emotions out in the crudest, most forceful way possible. Then he'd eat their physical bodies were they'd linger in his vestigial stomach.

He attacked on command... most of the time, and didn't eat his own guards... most of the time. But Shield Bug had actually begged Queen Cocoon to put the giant monster out of his misery after it was clear the experiments left him severely brain-damaged. The brute was now just slightly less intelligent than an average household dog. I overheard Digger Wasp say that Wolf-Spider 'was too dangerous to be allowed to continue.'

I wasn't taken to my normal cell. Instead I was taken to where Wolf-Spider was caged, the guards laughing and joking the whole time.

Alright stupid, get yourself of THIS mess.

The guards were keeping watch just outside this dungeon chamber, out of sight, just making sure I didn't try to escape. I considered breaking Wolf-Spider out of his cage and letting him go on a rampage. But decided against it, since he'd probably make me his first victim. I considered befriending him, but decided with just one day to form a deep emotional bond, Wolf-Spider was likelier to heed his caretakers than myself.

Three potatoes, a stick, and a bag. Okay, how do I win against a mutant behemoth with these?

Okay, Queenie, you want to prove brawn beats brains? Buck you. Time to teach you that battles don't happen in a vacuum.

I nearly forgot to mention the snakes. Snakes had been introduced into the hive to deal with the infestation of rats. The logic being that rats could tunnel into the egg chamber, break the eggs, and feed on the unhatched nymphs. Snakes were not so much a threat to us as rats. Snake fangs can't pierce changeling carapaces, and this particular breed of snakes couldn't swallow eggs as large as we CHANGELINGS lay them, no matter how wide they could unhinge their jaws.

Idiots forgot: zebra hide COULD be pierced by snake fangs, in particular ones in a happy daydream.

Once I became queen, my first extermination campaign was on BOTH rats and snakes in the hive, which I'm happy to say resulted in no survivors!

But I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I?

Maua's mentor had taught Maua well, and she taught me in turn. Even if this scheme worked, it would require perfect timing. If it didn't...maybe this was natural selection's way of telling me this was as far as I go.

Fun fact about changelings I learned from the other 'freaks.' All changelings can...'produce' a green slime used as raw construction material and superglue.

And I wasn't kidding that Wolf-Spider's brain damage left him a little less smart than the average dog.

Next morning I was taken back to the circus maximus. Wolf-Spider, still in his cage, was brought along as well. The audience was much bigger than normal. I had never seen so many four-legged cockroaches squashed together, chattering animatedly, since the parasprites; even the slaves and degenerates had come to watch the show. It was easier to count which of the hive WASN'T here, (namely the guards and cattle-herders.)

Queen Cocoon spoke, "So here we are! Show us how the brilliant worm can dominate the poor dumb dragon."

Against all odds, stage one had worked. I counted down in my head. If I wasn't careful my victory was going to be posthumously.

"Could you have possibly picked a more exaggerated straw-changeling version of what I said? Were you that scared of being proven wrong?"

"I pick this as a perfectly reasonable example of how blind and childish your simplifications are. It suits the limited mind of a degenerate like you."

I couldn't count it down to the millisecond, but I could give a good guess. Just a bit more, and I'm in the safe zone.

"So much of the swarm has come! I'm honored you think so greatly of my idea that you need to bring this many together to prove me wrong with a jury-rigged test."

"This is merely to prevent your suicidal insanity from spreading. The swarm needs to be reminded why we don't throw away our safety for greedy upstarts who think they can not lose."

That should do it.

"So instead we have the self-defeating insanity of a cowardly sloth who is willing to throw us all... and those yet to be born... to the lions, if it means extending her life one second longer? I can appreciate self-preservation. But what about the rest of us? What is the point of a leader, if she doesn't lead us anywhere?"

Cocoon spoke in a flat voice; "Release Wolf-Spider."

They did so.

His caretakers directed him towards me. He took longer to respond than normal but didn't try to eat them.

And the hulking beast quaked towards me on his misshaped legs. Drooling like a waterfall and looking very drowsy, he moved like a puppet whose strings were crossed.

The entire swarm could smell that Wolf-Spider had wetted and soiled himself, which was surprisingly unusual for him. As he drew closer to me, it became obvious to everyling present Wolf-Spider was in terrible pain. I stood my ground. Wolf-Spider gazed at thin air and actually had to be REDIRECTED at me.

Queen Cocoon didn't look happy; this wasn't part of her script.

Wolf-Spider took a swipe at me, I avoided it like I would the blow from a bear-sized plush toy. He fell on his side, shaking the entire circus maximus.

His entire body trembled. His breathing become more difficult as everyling watched, confused, shocked, alarmed, befuddled, and at a lost. I trotted back only as Wolf Spider's caretakers finally rushed towards him and surrounded him.

"You're too late," I said, emotionlessly, "He'll be dead in minutes."

"YOU CONNIVING WORM! WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Queenie roared.

"I killed him," I said, "Before the fight even started. I used what the terrain gave me and what you gave me. To a creature of limited intelligence, three potatoes shish kabob'ed on a stick, covered in green slime bear a passing resemblance to a giant grub. And you can milk venom from snakes if you know how.

I looked up. "Now, I hate to throw your excellent judgment into question, Your Majesty, but out of ALL the snakes you could've POSSIBLY chosen to spread throughout this humble little hive we share, you selected BLACK MAMBAS? A serpent poisonous enough to kill an elephant in one bite... and you bred them as MOUSERS?! Talk about endangering our livestock! It's just one more example of your scintillating incompetence! Preparation and sabotage CAN overcome superior force and power! Conquest doesn't always hinge overwhelming force, but it ALWAYS hinges on brains!"

Fat changeling queen go boom.

"Conquest? Who said anything about conquest?! I could be...! I mean, our swarm could be put in danger!"

"Coward! You're so fixated on the idea that a face-to-face confrontation is impossible that you never bother to dream of some other path to victory! You're something else! You fill us with fear of you, but we're not cowering behind you! No, YOU are cowering behind all of US!"

Wolf-Spider's caretakers had rushed to get the anti-venom. It was pointless, he was a dead changeling twitching. The caretakers looked at me hatefully.

The rest of the audience, however, the rest of the hive, were struggling NOT to accept my words, NOT to embrace my reasoning, but it was a losing battle. They couldn't escape the truth now.

"Enough. I am done with you," said Queen Cocoon, with dark irritation.

"But I am not done with you!" I snapped back.

"Euthanize this disease!" Her Fatjesty snapped.

Author's Note

Raising of a monster.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Queen-Chrysalis-Part-1-Birth-433204560

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Queen-Chrysalis-Part-3-Crowned-434126239

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Please help the trope http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries
And recap pages. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/PonyPOVSeries (Pretty please? With sugar on?)

Check out the recursive fanfiction and fanart of the Pony POV Series! http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/journal/MLP-FiM-PonyPOVSeriesFanworks-audio-adaption-2013-349281264 Many of it approved by me as canon.

Be sure to join our Group for a TON of recursive works, many a part of optional canon!!! http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/

AND! Be sure to check season zero and season one's fanlabor pages! PLEASE! THey need lots of work! As does our recap page on TVTropes! Please! Help people who are new to the series get caught up with updating the recap page!!
http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/Pony_POV_Series_Season_Zero:_Discorded_Ponies
http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/Pony_POV_Series_Season_One:_Reharmonization

Image used with permission of Hyperfreak666 http://hyperfreak666.deviantart.com/art/princess-scarlet-daughter-of-chrysalis-405593517 art itself done by Siansaar http://siansaar.deviantart.com/

MLP:FiM copyright Hasbro

Image copyright to Underpable, used with permission. http://underpable.deviantart.com/art/Chrysalis-342302010

Any trying to find any sort of geopolitical message in this fanfic shall have their emotions drained. This isn't intended to offend anyone or their beliefs, this is just a fanfic. If you took offense, that was not my intent.

Episode 155: Chrysalis "Crowning Of A Monster"

Pony POV Series
Origins
"Queen Chrysalis"
Crowning Of A Monster
By Alex Warlorn
Edited By Louis

"Euthanize this disease!" Her Fatjesty snapped.

Immediately four royal guards flew down into the circus maximus and surrounded me on all sides, Wolf-Spider's caretakers looking reading to enjoy my destiny.

Maybe I wasn't going to be queen after all, maybe all these revolutionary changes I was trying to set off were beyond my reach, maybe this is where my story ends and Queen Cocoon's begins for real.

But the rules of nature say: fight to the end! I tossed the cloth sack at one of the guards which caught on his horn. I jumped at him, spread my wings, grasped his neck with my back legs as I flew over him, and broke it.

The guards were completely stunned by this sight. One of Wolf-Spider's caretakers, who wasn't as stunned, snarled, "You deviant! You're dead! DEAD!"

The thing about changelings? They aren't as strong, fast, or magically diverse or powerful as ponies. But they're a lot more durable! They can use themselves as ballistic missiles and get up to fight seconds later! But nothing is indestructible when struck against itself.

Oh, the caretaker screaming for my death? I grabbed him and used him as an equine shield against the guard charging me on ground level and he got stabbed by the guard's horn. I rolled forward, forcing the two further into each other, and making the two other guards trying to dive-bomb me from the air, miss and instead slam into Wolf-Spider's shell, cracking it.

I used the speared changeling as leverage, holding the guard down with my own weight and forced open chinks in his body's armor in ways nature didn't intend. Bastards had broken off my fangs, and buck them if they dared to think I was helpless!

I had to to get the collar off, and fast, or I wasn't going to win this. I was going to run out of tricks fast in this exposed arena and the shock of me exterminating three changelings in a row wasn't going to last long.

A funny idiosyncrasy about Queen Cocoon: she didn't trust keys. Only a royal guard, like the kind trying to kill me right now, could get this moon-sent thing off! It would recognize noling else. I twisted at the thing around my neck, moving the horn hole from the back of my neck to more near the front, looking for a royal guard horn that didn't have a sack on a changeling covering it.

One of the guards I'd dodged before got the drop on me and smashed me down on the dirty floor, grabbing my head and pulling it back, exposing my less-armored neck. With me pinned, his teammate charged at me, horn lowered.

I slammed my head back into the guard holding my mane in his teeth, -AHG!-, nearly tore my scalp off! But it gave me the wiggle room I needed to twist my neck -just so-, and the guard's horn rammed neatly into the keyhole.

There was a slight, telling 'click'. I thanked the guard by telekinetically introducing his face to the ground, leaving a trench. Then I grabbed the guard on top of me with my magic and tossed him into his friend. Even more gasps from the audience! By now, many in the crowd were overwhelmed to the point of numbness. Ugh! That alone ate at the meager reserves I had! A slave's diet didn't leave me much in terms of energy. Time to fix that!! I stabbed my horn into the guard who had passed out from the pain of his carapace being pulled open.

"All your love is mine!" His body burst into green flames from the inside, and it was drawn into me, leaving his carapace hollow. I tore my collar off.

This DID get some new gasps, a few in terror at what I had just been able to do. I was mildly surprised it had worked myself, but don't look a gift horse in the mouth!

I know that last one had deeply disturbed Queenie. That was when I leapt at the two surviving guards. I pictured a lioness killing a gazelle with myself in the feline role, and green flames engulfed me, and my body changed shape and form once again. I didn't give it much thought as I tore the surprised guards to shreds, "THIS HAS GOT TO BE A NIGHTMARE!" One managed to scream.

I heard, 'Impossible!' being echoed among the hive now.

Queen Cocoon looked at the six dead changelings and bellowed, "You're a monster!"

I roared. "I. AM. A. SCORPION!" I shifted back and fed on the two guards before they could finish bleeding to death.

"STOP THAT MONSTER!" Queen Cocoon ordered. A couple of the rank and file guard flew at me, and stopped as I looked at them the way a lioness does a slab of meat, like THEY were the cattle! The dynamic had changed. "Do not fear her!"

"What kind of leader kills someling cause they'd find an argument against their point of view?" I asked.

"YOU ARE A BEAST THAT MUST BE PUT DOWN FOR THE GOOD OF EVERYLING!"

"Attacking the messenger is the only argument you have left? What good is the 'protection' you've given us if it's merely sentenced us to a slow death?"

"You're a degenerate! Stop speaking as if you're one of us! Now kill it!"

Several bugs moved to do they duty.

Seriously? It's not my fault if Queen Cocoon ordered them to feed me and prove her guards' ineffectualness all at the same time. They backed off when they realized numbers weren't working on me.

I had a full tank. I knew what they were and what they could do. I had wings and a horn to fight with, and I was sucking them dry a HELL of a lot faster than Cocoon could. Unless of course she consumed them slowly just for show...

The meaningful major effect, however, was on the assembled rank and file workers, farmers, deviants, slaves, and grunts.

"How is she even doing that?"

"This is madness and nonsense!"

"Her Majesty said only royalty could claim the love of another changeling!!!"

"Is she made of sponges?!"

"Only a queen should be able to hold that much love!"

"What if...what if she's right?"

"What if she's not a deviant?"

"Are you insane? Look at her eyes!"

"But...her power...what she's saying...what she did..."

I knew the guards' friends and family weren't going to fall in love with me any time soon. But the tiny wheels that actually turned the great machine were beginning to spin a different direction.

See, Cocoon? This is the power of words.

I couldn't control what happened next, but did I need to?

The unprivileged cockroaches wouldn't stop talking. Every society needs an illusion it can function under, and I had cracked theirs in a day.

"How can the guards protect us if they can't fight this monster?"
"Are the guards weak or is she that powerful?"
"Does that mean she's as powerful as The Queen?"
"She's just a mutant fake imitation!"
"But everything she said-"
"-Is dung!"
"Then why can't you explain why it's wrong?"
"Because it's so much dung than giving it a reasonable counterargument is an insult to reason!"
"But isn't what you're saying just going in a circle?"
"She's just a rabble-rouser trying to cause trouble! Pointing out what Cocoon is doing wrong without offering a solution!"
"How dare you say there are ways the Queen is wrong!"
"Why can't the bucking guards stop her?! They're useless, posturing, fat-flanked, bullying, piggish morons who can't even kill one deviant! They're a waste of space!"
"I say we make the deviant master of the guard instead of Hercules Beetle."
"Why are we treated with less respect than the livestock?!"
"To live is to serve, to serve is to live!"
"We need a new queen!"
"I'm sick of Queen Cocoon not letting me lay my own brood and still watching my friends' nymphs starve anyway!"

The nearby guard's action was reasonable, after all, a strike hard enough to crack off a fang had always worked before to keep the changeling rabble in line. Except 'the rabble' were no longer so sure of who was right and who wasn't. And it had had a day to simmer and the impossible had damaged their convictions further, so another rule took over: violence breeds violence.

-Labyrinth Soundtrack-Goblin Battle-

The crowd didn't cow like it was 'supposed' to. Instead the erstwhile mother attacked the guard who had struck her in a savage snarl, followed by others, more guards struck at them which incited more of the rabble. It spread like wildfire, and the more numerous worker ants attacked the soldier ants. I was momentarily forgotten by most.

Praying Mantis and Goliath Beetle dove into the mess to help clean it up.

"Tis' madness!" Hercules Beetle exclaimed.

Shield Bug was shocked. Jewel Wasp looked disappointed, but not surprised.

"CEASE! I COMMAND YOU! DON'T FIGHT EACH OTHER, YOU FOOLS!" Queen Cocoon ordered.

Few listened, blood was boiling.

I had read history. I knew what my most logical fate was. I couldn't flee, they'd NEVER stop hunting for me now. I was dead. She'd never let this humiliation go. Even if I killed her first, her supporters would just hunt me down. I had no paths left that didn't end in my death. But I was going to prove to that that morbidly obese slug that the brain was the strongest muscle, even if we both died along the way! She was just going to kick the bucket first.

Not that you didn't need trusty muscles to act on your thoughts: after all, I was going to be using my good strong hooves to strangle that nag!

Queen Cocoon and I locked eyes. And I felt her mind; so old, so vast, seated in that bloated body, crushing down on me. I had never felt anything like it. Decades -centuries?- of experiences, reaching inside me, like a great dark claw, to crush my own mind into dust. How could such a rigid and archaic being have such a sharp psyche? She knew so much. I wanted it for my own!

"Look around the bend,
Your reign will end.

Only your husk will greet the dusk.

You might be the ocean,
but see my maelstrom's motion.

In my black abyss you'll find no bliss!

Enjoy your throne,
You'll be but bone!"

Queen Cocoon broke contact between us.

"Hercules Beetle! Jewel Wasp! Shield Bug! Keep that creature from my chambers! All my royal guards, come!" The remaining royal guards flew to their queen as she directed her slaves to quickly escape through the back of the royal balcony, the membrane opening and closing as her fatness escaped.

"I SAID I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU!" I snapped and flew to the balcony.

One lone heroic changeling guard, of common stock but boundless courage, flew with fangs and hooves bared. Braver than brave, determined beyond determination to stop me from pursuing his beloved queen. Munch-munch.
NEXT!

(Interviewer's Notes(Unicorn): His name was Flash Bug.)

Who cares?

The much larger and more intimidating commander of all the changelings I had fed off boomed,

"Behind me, ladies! Stay were you be and accept extermination abomination! I, Hercules Beetle, have vowed to protect and serve the Changeling Queen, you shall pay for-"

"Hercules, look out!" Jewel Wasp shouted.

"What?" He looked around distracted.

Jewel Wasp stabbed him in the back, then zapped him with enough raw magic to knock out five changelings.

I moved to feed on him, but Jewel Wasp came between us.

She looked at me.

"Well, what are you waiting for? This riot won't last forever!"

If this was a trap...there were a million simpler ways to go about it.

"Good luck," Shield Bug said.

I flattened myself like a cockroach and slipped through one of the cracks in the wall. The Royal Guards were all watching the membrane that separated the royal hallway from the queen's balcony. They weren't watching every thin random hole in the walls.

From the membrane that separated the queen's chamber, the hallway branched off into the council chamber, the cells of her personal slaves, and other places that served the needs of the queen.

Cocoon was going to regret connecting the circus maximus directly to her own chamber.

"We need to protect Her Majesty while the rest of the guard slap common sense back into those brain-dead stooges that freak rilled up!" The one obviously in charged commanded in Low Equestrian.

These were trained soldiers, and I had advanced, in their eyes from 'deviant' that committed the crime of raising her head, to 'freak' that needed to be put down. They had seen what I did to their friends. And they were the only thing between me and Queen Cocoon. I was so going to make them fear me.

Now then, Spider-Mare, Spider-Mare, climbs on ceilings and walls Spider-Mare, makes green slime any size, catches guards just like flies, look out, here comes the Spider-Mare.

Zero down, five of them.

"Keep your eyes on the door! The freak or her sock-puppets might be able to get through!"

"Don't you have any faith in Hercules Beetle?"

"Cut the chatter!" snapped the commander.

"Don't worry. The freak's gotta be makin' love-horse-apples with all the love it sucked up!"

"Hey you're right. The piggy'll give herself away from all the surplus love she's radiating."

They blabbed right below me. Cocoon does so love her tall arched hallways.

The echoing corridors worked perfectly to my advantage when I shouted in a perfect imitation of Queen Cocoon's voice, "YOU FOOLS! SHE'S TO YOUR RIGHT!"

The mindless drones responded as they were programmed to. Like a bungie-jumper I slipped down, grabbed the one none of the others were looking at. "YOUR OTHER LEFT, MORONS!" Okay, last time I'll be able to use that one.

I feed on him, and glued his empty carapace to the ceiling. What? Waste not, want no. One down, four to go.

"DAMMIT!"

"Freak is playing with us!"

"But we didn't sense anything! That's impossible! She'd pop if she was holding that all in!"

"But the door wasn't even opened! Did she portal through?!"

"Stop talking crazy! Aphid did you see her?"

I shook my head at the question.

"We should split up. Flush her out," said of the guards.

"Don't be an idiot!" Said the commander, "Stick together! And keep the royal door blocked off! If it opened, rush for it!"

I considered opening the membrane myself and hiding and having them rush through, but that would leave me having to deal with them and Queen Cocoon at the same time.

We formed a circle, keeping an eye out for the 'freak' heh. I silently touched my horn to the changeling royal guard next to me. I work as quickly as I dared. 'An organized mind is a powerful mind, but it's the rocks and idiots who are the most resistant to assaults on the mind.' And these guards weren't exactly moronic, just conditioned to obey like good doggies.

I slipped the suggestion into his brain, making sure to leave an exception for me in there, then I said, "Does anyone see it?"

The guard next to me look to one of his teammates, scream, and attacks her out of nowhere. "YOU! What did you do with Grasshopper!" He gored her, looked at one of the others, screamed again and attacked.

"Yellow Jacket snap out of it!" snarled the commander.

"DIE YOU FREAK! DIE!" Yellow Jacket screamed, terror now running his brain as he looked and only saw me telling him how I had already eaten Grasshopper and was going to eat him next.

"Yellow, it's me! Blue Beetle!" Shouted the other changeling in alarm and panic.

Conditioned to kill or be killed, the three of us mobbed him and put an end to him. Damn.

The Commander smacked Blue Beetle on the head. "Idiot! Why in Cocoon's name did you do that!?"

"He was trying to kill us!"

"We had him tackled! You could have just knocked him out!"

"I have to agree," I said, I was hoping the commander was going to just knock him out too, now all that love went to waste.

The Commander looked regretfully at Grasshopper's wasted remains too.

And I let paranoia set-in. "So what made him go crazy like that?"

"I can't believe Yellow Jacket would just do that to Grasshopper," Blue Beetle said. "Where are you, you monster?! You just waiting for us to fight each other?! YOU COWARD!!!" Blue Beetle shouted at the hallway. I think he might have finally looked up and saw what was left of Aphid.

That's when I sunk my fangs into the Commander's throat.

Oh, my fangs? They'd healed after I'd eaten a few Changelings. I hadn't had much time to keep track of when. Mass revolt, fighting for my life, and all that.

Did you think I was going to leave the brainiest and possibly best fighter for last? I had one last stealth kill and I wasn't going to waste it. My horn was touching his, I drained the commander and dropped his hollow shell, now brittle and weak instead of strong and hard.

I shifted to my 'true' form, no use in hiding it now. I readied myself.

Blue Beetle instead looked at me, and fell to his knees. "I SURRENDER! I GIVE UP! JUST GO! I RENOUNCE COCOON! YOU ARE QUEEN! JUST SPARE ME AND I SHALL SERVE YOU!"

"You had me up until that last part," I said and stabbed him and sucked him dry like the rest. "As if I'd trust the allegiance of someling that changes their loyalty to save their own carapace at a time like this."

For whatever it would buy me, I shifted into the form of the Commander, and trotted to the royal membrane that separated Cocoon's Royal Chamber from the rest of the hive. There was no telling how little time I had left now, the rest of the swarm's army could be on me any minute.

The membrane opened and I passed through. No lock. Then again, the mere idea of challenging the queen was 'unthinkable,' wasn't it?

It had impressive size, and that was all. I lie, partially.

Giant tapestries from every corner and age of the world hung from the walls.

One that caught my eyes was of two crowned ponies facing each other. I couldn't tell what kind of wings the mare had. Between them was a heart with a skull at its center. Above them was a pair of chalices.

Below them was a rendition of a dragon over a broken castle.

Next was the mare from before, all alone and shedding tears, at her center was a heart-shaped hole.

Next showed her surrounded by other winged ponies, hearts going towards them, the winged ponies also with heart-shaped holes in them.

The final picture in the tapestry was a horned serpent with a horse's head and a goat's beard: laughing.

The air reeked of Queen Cocoon's scent. The entire hive was always warm; it was harder to keep it from overheating, but the heat here reminded me of the savanna's noonday sun. I enjoyed the reminder of what I'd never see again.

The ceiling was covered in glowing fungus and several chandeliers' worth of the violet flame torches.

Knickknacks and and trinkets of every possible country and era cluttered the place. The cocoons hanging from the ceiling were the kind used to store prey or mutate them, (or unlucky changelings.) They were all empty.

And at the center of it all was Queen Cocoon herself. She sat in a black and violet throne build just for her size and shape. Scattered around her were the emptied husks of prey, and of her own slaves I had seen alive some minutes ago.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): The slaves and prisoners, what were their numbers and names?)

It's not important, noling cares.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): That's why I do care.)

"My Queen," I said in Low Equestrian, "Forgive me, the hive is degenerating into madness, I fear for your..."

Her scepter came flying at me like a spiked mace. I grabbed it with my magic, stopping it from impacting with me.

"My Queen! WHY?!"

"You can drop the act, worm. You didn't prostrate yourself and call me 'True Mother Of All The Swarm.' No -civilized- changeling alive would forget that, even if bleeding to death."

Rather than trying to salvage my performance, I just transformed into my true form. "Alright, then." I tossed the scepter aside, far away. "Let's skip to where I kill you." I began to walk towards her.

"That's it?" She asked, underwhelmed, "No negotiation? No demands? You're not very bright, are you? At this moment, the tantrum you tricked my subjects into is being put down by my entire army. You have no way out of here that isn't going to filled with soldiers."

"Oh please, Cocoon. You expect me to believe you'd ever let me live, after contradicting you in front of your subjects? You'd never honor any concession made under a death threat, once the threat was gone." I didn't stop trotting towards her.

"You're a dead changeling walking, worm."

"I know. But you're marching in front of me, sloth. You said you saw through me because I didn't greet you right, so you didn't know I had gotten through? So that means you killed your slaves and stock based totally on the fear I would."

"Enjoy whatever random delusion you invent for my actions, worm, you're about to die."

"Oh, I know! How's this delusion? The almighty and godly Queen Of the Changelings, killed by some no-face, no-name out-of-town deviant in her throne room. Just imagine the paranoia and horn pointing as they try to figure out who must have put me up to it, after all, no way a stupid deviant could have thought up all I said by myself, right? A loser, a nobody? Too bad I won't be there to watch the show, but neither will you."

I was muzzle-to-muzzle with the bug-headed sloth.

It was just a flash of a moment, but I had sharp perception thanks to someone dear. I fell back as a jointed black spear slammed into the ground, impaling my tail, instead of spine. I bit off my own tail to avoid being bisected by a second jointed black spear.

"You were supposed to die just now. It would have been quick," said Cocoon, like she was speaking to a child who had hurt themselves. My heart hammered in my chest.

At last I took note that the 'spears' were made of carapace, they reminded me of insect legs the way they moved, it made me ill just looking at them. They were connected to Queen Cocoon's underside. One of the legs waved in a 'naughty-naughty' gesture. Four more of the legs slipped out from underneath her body mass. Those had been there this whole time?!

"What the Tartarus are you?" I asked, bug-eyed.

She rose up on those legs like an elongated spider, looking down on me. "Wolf-Spider was full of mistakes, and we learn so much from our mistakes!" She let out a war cry, and was engulf in a pillar of violet flames, her form within twisting and changing into something alien.

The pillar of fire dispersed, and she was nothing equine. I was beneath a dragon sized insectoid horror. Its head a set of compound eyes and mandibles, its body was covered end-to-end in blackish armor, and the sharp ends of its legs actually pierced the stone floor. Its different limbs were each shaped differently like a set of artist's tools. A pair of ship sail-sized wings folded on its back, and a wavy horn as long I was sat on its head surrounded by a growth of spikes resembling a crown. It vaguely resembled an ant queen.

I knew fear.

The one thing I respect that fat slug for is this: she'd played her part so perfectly, I'd forgotten that a weak lion didn't remain king for long.

"What tis this pest that's infested my house?
The fires of chaos it has set I'll now dowse.

It is time by far,
that I crush you like the worm that you are!"

-Metal Gear Rising: Collective Consciousness-
It was like trying to survive inside a meat grinder. The monster's limbs sliced, speared, and clawed at me, it took all my experience flying to avoid being torn to shreds. I flew through the changing maze of living blades, trying to get out of Cocoon's line of sight. I found myself stuck in the air by a violet glow.

"Stay still, butterfly, while I pin you." A limb speared towards me.

"NO!" My own telekinesis caught her off-guard and I flew out of the way just in time, feeling the breeze from the speed of the strike, where my heart had just been.

"Naughty butterfly, looks like I'll have to just spray." Cocoon withdrew its limbs and breathed in deep, so it still had lungs, then again insects can't really breath through their sides at that size and... ACID!

The monster spewed a fan shaped spray of acid in a downward motion, that it hit her collection of antiques didn't seem to matter to her. How did I survive not being melted? With nowhere else to hide, I did the tactically insane thing and dove straight at and under her. I didn't find any soft underbelly here; I clung to her underside.

One of Cocoon's limbs struck at me; I managed to avoid it and I took satisfaction hearing her cry out as she hit herself. Just as I was feeling good about myself, she decided to crush me flat by introducing her stomach to the floor. I flew out behind her a shockwave right behind me; everything underneath her was reduced to fine powder. She didn't have much experience fighting in this form, I hoped.

Cocoon began to scuttle about, the ground rumbling under her set of legs, I flew around, keeping to her backside, she changed direction once but so did I. She began to work her wings. She wasn't trying to fly, the wind she fanning was forcing me to the ground.

The beast managed to turn to face me as I fought against the gale of her wingbeats. I scurried up the side of the walls of the chamber. Cocoon laughed and breathed in again. I destroyed the hooks holding one of the tapestries in place and flew it over the monster's head just as she began spraying again, covering her oversized eyes with the tapestry.

"What do you think this is going to buy you!?" I hated to admit it but I was making this up as I went along.

Cocoon just reached up to swipe the giant cloth away, but at least I'd bought myself time. I struck and bit at her head, without result. I struck at her eyes through the cloth, compound eyes however, meant I didn't exactly blind her.

"GHA! GET OFF!" Not having a better idea, I grabbed onto her limb as she swept the wall-rug off.

"You think I don't see you?!" Another limb came crashing down on me. I let go and avoided the strike, but her two limbs struck against each other at high speed, shuttering from the impact. Did they...did they crack?

Cocoon breathed in again, "You're a mistake, worm, and as the Nyeusi Mbwa Mwitu says, mistakes should be erased!" Cocoon had forgotten a basic rule dragons knew: never ever use your breath weapon in close range except as an ambush, for reasons I demonstrated as I rammed into her jaws with the best sprint charge I could muster. UGH! That gave me a headache, but it gave her worse acid backwash.

"AAAAAAGH! WORM!! TIME TO BE EATEN BY A SPIDER!"

"Spiders are arachnids," I said without thinking.

"AND WORMS ARE LEGLESS!" Cocoon snarled as the black forest of death planted itself on me from above. I spun and dove as erratically as I could so she couldn't second-guess my movements, but the razor edges of her limbs cut through my carapace from near-impacts all the same, blood leaking out in thin green lines.

Think, think, think or you die, die, die! All she needed was one good solid blow to kill me, and all I needed was one mistake and I was dead. If I tried to drag this out, I'd soon have an army of changelings to fight on top of her!

Cocoon's horn glowed again and readied her for to try and telekinetically freezing me in place again. Instead the violet flames on the torches floated OFF the torches, moving like will-o'-the-wisps towards me, and multiplying.

Oh no, if she restricts my movements with those things...so I came all this way from killing bugs that wouldn't just leave me alone, being turned into one, and was now going to be killed by one. I had read one or two horror stories about little foals who tortured small animals and then were eaten by impossibly giant versions of those creatures.

I was not dying in a story as stupid and trite as that!

I magically grabbed her collection of baubles now half-melted from her acid breath and FLUNG THEM right at the huge targets she called eyes! She hissed and cursed. The multiplying flames formed a wall between her and me as she tried to shake her eyes clear of the acidic mess.

I snarled in anger and dove right at the wall of flames, I felt something in me scream to turn away from the fires but I pushed it down, and bursted out, scorching myself. Just in time I guessed the ambush coming and dodged the deadly sharp leg. I flew to Cocoon's side, flying up the leg, and grabbed hold of the base. "YOU THINK I CAN'T STRIKE YOU FROM THERE, STUPID?!" She twisted another limb around to bisect me; I did a loop-de-loop so the blade edge struck the base of the other leg instead. I took hold of it with my forelegs, and my magic, screamed in exertion, and tore the bloody thing out!

I had been pulling legs off bugs since before I quit the pacifier! I wish I still had my collection to add hers to it!

Oh, right, lots of little purple flames coming towards me. Good thing pain makes such a great distraction!

Adrenaline pumping and dumping as much love into my telekinesis as I could, I let out a war cry and swung my makeshift weapon across the monster's side, cutting through the armor like an iceberg through an ocean liner! Then I made another, and another, and another. The other limbs on Cocoon's right side twisted about on me, so I cut through all of them! Over-clocking my body and magic, I flew up. Even if I had time, I couldn't do a rain dance underground.

"GO AWAY!" Cocoon hissed, enraged.

I cut telekinesis away from the limb for a moment, hoping Cocoon didn't get the idea to grab it herself in those split seconds. I switched my 'kinesis to more of her baubles and THREW THEM at the floating fireballs, reducing their numbers and scattering them.

I swung at Cocoon's head; she parried with her horn, I struck again from the other side only to be parried again. "Moon-sent bugs! LEAVE ME ALONE!" I snarled at the insect queen, and did an overhead spin. Using the extra inertia and my magic, the limb speared straight through her head and down her insides.

Cocoon stopped moving, and so did the remaining violet flames. The half-legless beast collapsed on the ground shaking the entire hive.

I floated, more like controlled-crashed, to the floor, panting. I felt dizzy and spent.
How much love did I burn through with that last one?

"Nothing to do now but wait for the rest of them to show." I considered giving a fancy speech when they came and saw their queen dead, but meh, they could go buck themselves. I was done fighting, I got what I'd set out to do, it was over. There was no cure for what I was, for what I needed, for how I lived, there was nothing down the road anyway.

Cocoon's body burst into violet flames and died down to show her base form. Her front part just hung limply forward from her main body. She reminded me of a puppet without strings.

"Good riddance to bad rubbish," I verbally indulged myself.

The violet flames as one flew into the white main body, like ghosts passing through it. A light began to glow from within the white mass. Tiny bits of light flickered into being in midair and the ground, only to pull inward. It was like the ghost of a galaxy had come into being in the same space as the main body, swirling inward with a block hole as its center.

'Shooting stars' came next, zipping inward towards the light inside. The light inside grew larger and brighter; I saw the silhouette of a changeling nymph in the fetal position within. It grew up before my eyes like a time-lapsed film. I felt changeling magic being drawn from every direction around me.

The white mass was now a blinding lantern I covered my eyes from.

Then that white slug Cocoon called the majority of her body mass split open, creating one last flash of light as it was torn apart from the inside. Clear fluid spilled everywhere as the hide collapsed like a lanced blistered.

My eyes readjusted and I couldn't believe what I saw before me.

"You're...you're ME?!" I stared at the near perfect mirror image of my own body. Except looking neater, slick with birth fluids with a un-chopped tail. Her eyes, weren't like mine; they were the blue compound eyes of everything in this place.

"Minus your deformity, of course," it said in Cocoon's voice, "I can't believe, that a worm like you got so lucky as to KILL MY BODY!" She snarled. "You've done more damage than you have a right to! I never imagined YOU'D force me to possess my own unborn cloned spawn early...or accelerate her growth."

"So your fat ass is just your way of cheating death. I wondered why noling had a butt like yours."

"Your insults are meaningless. My frustration for you had goes past rage and reached nirvana. You've cut this body's lifespan down to barely a day, hours..."

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): That poor clone, her body was stolen by her own mother before she even had a chance to live.)

Poor me, having to listen to it whine!

"But that doesn't matter, because I'm going to just be taking yours instead."

I braced myself. "Fat chance, fat-flank." But I couldn't stop myself from asking, "But why do you look like ME?!"

She spread her wings dramatically, "Don't you mean, why do YOU look like ME, worm? Isn't it obvious? You're my clone. Kept safe and out of harm's way in case disaster struck the hive and I needed to abandon the one I keep with me and needed a spare."

"..." I rolled my eyes. "Did you expect me to buy those horseapples?"

"No, but it was worth a shot. In all honesty, I have no idea where you came from, worm, maybe your deserter parents left with some cattle to hide you, but I know where you're going: the grave!"

"Not bloody likely!" I hissed, spreading my wings and lowering my horn.

"You look so tired, it's alright, you can sleep forever," she said in the most fake motherly voice in history.

"I told you already. You first."

She flew forward in a blur, kicking me in the stomach, cracking my carapace and causing me to spin backwards landing in the messy pile of her acid-burned junk.

"I don't want to damage that body too bad, but I'm sure I'll be able to grow back the legs and wings after I tear them off! You will beg for my non-existent mercy, you little worm!"

"Worm, worm, worm! Wow! You're too dumb and lazy to even think up a different pejorative for me, eh, sloth?!"

She kicked me again in the face and I tried to get up, knocking me on my side.

"You asked what the Tartarus I am? Far older than you can ever hope to be!" She telekinetically grabbed my mane and slammed my face into the floor.

I used my own magic to grab a random chalice and thew it at her face, she caught and threw it back into mine, I tasted copper in my mouth. I tried to get up as she dumped an iron and marble table on my back, trapping my wings.

"It's actually adorable... you thinking your power could ever equal mine! I have the experience of countless loops of life! What fantasy possessed you to think you could EVER be my equal, deviant!" She kicked me in the cracked carapace, drawing blood.

I gasped for breath through the pain.

She leaned in close. "Go ahead, give me your best childish insult. Make wiping your very being from existence all the more satisfying for Your Queen!"

"You're right."

"About what?"

"You are something else, Cocoon...You're the first creature I've ever had to kill twice."

"Accept your role in nature or don't. It won't change a thing."

"THIS is not MY ROLE!" I telekinetically threw the table in her beautiful face, and use the distraction to burn through a good bit of the love I had left to heal myself, being all I could be! I was going to need it.

I hissed at her. "What does an pampered nag like you know about the rules of nature? There are no entitlements, only what you take with your own four hooves."

"I know more than you think I do, worm. You're a minnow in a pond that thinks it knows the ocean!"

A needle-like beam of magic was fired right between my eyes from her horn. I magically knocked it off course, shattering a vase instead.

Cocoon's eyes widened, I charged in that moment, fangs bared.

She kept me from getting at her throat as I used my wings to keep up the force of the impact, skidding across the floor, and straight into the stone wall, and made a new exit!

-Shadow of the Colossus: The Opened Way-

The stone walls shattered to reveal the hive wasn't a series of chambers in solid ground connected by tunnels after all. Glowing fungus and violet torches illuminated towers shaped like stacks of pancakes or squat ovals, looking like they had been cut right out of the rock and patched with green slime when needed.

There were countless covered tunnels, connecting one mess of chambers to the next. I saw what could be best described as skylights at the top of them. The hive itself was one big chamber.

They didn't build quite like insects should... all this space just for what? What was the point? It made no economic or military function. It could even encourage cave-ins and make the hive easier to be discovered. It was nothing short of total insanity. What could it be good for except flying underground? . . . Then again, if you had wings and never had a chance to see the sky. . . Did even bugs get sad if they couldn't fly?

Wish I had time to take in the sight, but I had regicide to carry out.

I hadn't stopped holding onto Cocoon, our horns locked and began giving off green and violet sparks as our magics tried to override each other. The conflicting aura making spell casting a headache for both of us. I poured MORE momentum into my push, right into the next windowless chamber behind her.

I smashed through the top floor, and several more stories, knocking Cocoon through all of them! We smashed through what was at last the bottom floor, turned out we crashed right into one of the hive's nurseries.

A changeling caregiver gasped at the sight of us, and grabbed the nymph she had been feeding and ran for cover, yelling at the other nymphs to do the same. The nymphs present scattered from us in fear. I didn't know if any were crushed by the falling ceiling.

A changeling egg a little before it would hatched tittered from where it was placed, and fell hitting the floor. It cracked in half, exiling the nymph inside. She cried at being forced from her warm simple universe into this cold and confusing world, she had my pity.

Sympathy is a weakness. Cocoon reminded me of that as she took advantage of my distraction and stabbing me with her horn. Blood spilling from my wound, I flew away up through the hole I made, severing the direct physical link between us.

Cocoon didn't waste time pursuing me, feeding off nymphs must have not been cost-effective right now. "NOW who's the coward, worm?" She taunted as she flew out of the underground building.

Momentarily dizzy from blood loss, I began to fall, but then Cocoon's magic gripped my wings just before I reached terminal velocity! Something wasn't right!

"You were bluffing!" I realized. "You need my body alive!"

"Anything short of brain death I can fix up after I'm done cleaning out the garbage in my new house."

I covered my body with a faint aura of my own telekinesis to disrupt hers.
We jousted each other in the air like ponies of the nearly-mythical Crystal Empire, each of us trying to stab the other with a horn. Like mad hummingbirds, we zipped past each other. But she knew this city like the front of her hooves. I didn't. I kept getting disoriented as she ambushed from seemingly random directions.

Changelings were finally spreading out like ants from their hills, seeing us fight. This was not good. I looked upwards at that ceiling.

"Catch me if you can!" I shouted, flying up, Cocoon hot on my tail. "Come on! Can't let your new body escape! I MIGHT HIT MY HEAD!" I laughed with total abandon.

"NO!" Cocoon screamed in alarm and a hint of fear.

I flew faster, faster, right at that brown and dirty ceiling, wondering what lay beyond it.

Cocoon caught up with me in the last few seconds and grabbed me, but I dragged her along for the ride! She gripped her arms around me as we were about to hit and violet flame flashed around us, and broke through one check point, a decoy base, and a cavern made to look as boring and un-extraordinary as possible, installed with some items implying losers and bums used it as a gathering place. Air vents made of mundane earth.

Then we broke the surface.

Both our eyes were on fire. The sun was out, there was absolute no sign of civilization or roads all the way to the horizon, or that's if I could see. My eyes watered, I did a headbutt to Cocoon, forcing her to let me go. Both of were as good as blind as Celestia's sun glared down on us without a trace of sympathy.

We both managed to land. If I was low on time before, now I was out of time. I didn't know if they'd recognize Cocoon, but she had to have some way of keeping the swarm loyal to her after she changed bodies, she was too scared of dying to leave something like THAT to chance! And they WOULD recognize me! The trouble maker and the freak of the day! Some might put two and two together considering the hole in the throne room.

Even as my eyes adjusted, I couldn't help but feel giddy to feel sunlight on my body and see the blue sky. When was the last time I'd seen the sun? When was the last time Cocoon had let herself see the sun?

I ducked down before Cocoon could sniper me. She made it clear with her first move that short of killing me, she was willing to do anything to me.

Can't wait for my eyes to adjust, time to let my other senses do the work, smell, sound, tell me what's around me. Wings buzzing!

-'Endless Possibilities Instrumental' Sonic Unleashed -

I rolled out of the way of Cocoon's four hooves as they slammed into where I had been a little before. I quickly became air-born, Cocoon was NOT letting me get away and followed. I folded my wings and dropped like a stone, landing an elbow on Cocoon's back, and my surprise weight knocking us both down again, thankfully Cocoon broke my fall, and my front knee broke some things of hers.

Cocoon was engulfed in violet flames, and a dragon her size knocked me off with her much stronger wings, before I could right myself, her tail sent me flying without her even turning around, and I landed, rolling in the dirt.

I flew at her horn lowered right at her back between her wings, she burst into flames again, and used her transformation to turn around. She transformed her body to face-AGH!

Looks like dragon claws trump changeling armor. If dragons weren't so egocentric they'd be ruling the world by now. At least my sight is improving.

I transformed into a leopard and instead of committing suicide by fighting a dragon head-on I ran into the tall grass, out of sight.

Cocoon responded by burning down the grass around her in a flash, turning the field to a circle of ashes in seconds.

I panicked at the fire and flew like mad Cocoon saw me easily as I gave up stealth for retreat and breathed fire leaving path of ashes and charcoal, burning away my fur and more and leaving me helpless and in unspeakable agony.

Cocoon took a couple steps forwards in triumph, shifting back to her changeling form. A zebra seemingly burst out of the ashes in front of her like a ghost. In reality, her stripes did a wonderful job of blending into the white and black ashen field, the zebra planted on their front hooves and kicked Cocoon in her beautiful face with the zebra's back hooves.

I lied. All Cocoon attacked was a mundane leopard. The zebra is me. Knowing what dangerous species are lurking around the continent has its advantages.

I grabbed her head with my back legs, still balancing on my front legs and forward flipped her into the ashen ground, creating a dust cloud.

"If you believe it was me you had caught,
Then you are not as sharp as you thought."

She used her horn from our position of both being on our backs to stab me in the stomach, I was able to twist my front hooves down and quickly sprint away, opening the wound but keeping her from consuming me.

"It take a second to suck my soul though that lance,
I shall not give you the chance!"

"You're a wretched monster who doesn't deserve to live!"

I shifted back to my changeling form.

I charged, she did the same.

At the last moment she changed into her dragon shape again to eat me. But I saw it coming, I'd have done the same, and in a flash became a unicorn and brought up a barrier spell that her face smashed into. Without giving her time I think I shifted into a zebra and kicked her in her knees, and stomach using them as spring boards as I struck my way up her like a gymnast. I shifted to a pegasus and backflipped as her claws clutched together to try and crush me, I flew one second upwards and folded my wings and dove down, shifted to an Earth pony and landed a rear hoof square in her draconic jaw, lifting her off the ground from the impact. Like an obelisk she fell.

I transformed back to a changeling landing squarely on my hooves. In a flame flash Cocoon went from a back facing prone dragon to a forward facing upright changeling.

"I can live with that!" I said.

"No you won't!"

We swung horns, but this time I increased the speed of mine with my telekinesis, and laying an extra layer around it, I didn't even try to aim for her, I aim for the base of that twisted twig sticking out of her head!

Cocoon's scream was deafening.

Violet magic leaked out of the stump, more like a dagger than a sword now. Which mean it was easier to get past my 'sword' rushed close like a mad mare stabbing what remained of her horn, her magic leaking all over the place with no regard for herself.

Did she not think to regenerate or couldn't she?

What was left of her horn hit home stabbing me again where her horn had struck before!

"I'll eat your essence and slip into your hooves!" She grappled my hooves with hers, her head below where my horn and fangs could reach.

I felt her reaching inside me, pull at me, began to eat at me. Making me less and making her more.

Something came between us inside. Neither of us saw this coming. But I felt it. I didn't believe it but I couldn't deny it. It was like a firewall rising up, greatly hindering Cocoon as she tried to consume me.

"What are you doing?!"

Then I realized. "I don't think I'm doing anything."

Maua. Always there for me.

"What do you mean?!"

"Like I'm going to tell you!"

It's funny, for one moment, my instinct to live overrode all.

I refuse to die here, I refuse to die here, I REFUSE TO DIE HERE!

And I felt something inside me roar.

Cocoon's eyes widened in horror. "WHAT ARE YOU YOU, MONSTER?!"

As we touched, as she continued to try to consume my self, I saw in her mind's eye a whirlpool with jaws at its center.

"I'm hungry!" I snapped, "Give me all your love!"

She screamed as I began sucking her dry instead!

She tried to get away, but wrapped my hooves around her instead!

Her life flashed before her eyes.

I didn't catch most of the beginning, I had no idea if she was the first changeling queen or not. But I did sense the fear. Acting on the collective fear of not having a home. The fear of all her experience and knowledge being lost with her when death claimed her from her swarm. Willing to make any sacrifice as long as she remained to protect and guide the swarm than trust it to an inexperienced newcomer.

I saw her take many lovers to starve off the loneliness of her isolated position, to make bearable the centuries of her protecting the swarm from itself and from outsiders.

I saw her out live them all, I saw her outlive her own children, never letting any of them near the throne. Making sure the useful were bred and the useless were not, and that those who could steal the queen from the swarm and replace her with one without her knowledge and wisdom never bred.

I saw her moving the majority of the swarm underground, where it could be properly protected and controlled, where discovery was less likely. No sacrifice was too great to insured that the changeling remained unknown. No insane changeling who tried to bring about an impossible co-existence between predator and prey was allowed to live long. Ideas or actions that might disrupt the system were crushed, nothing could threaten the safety of the swarm, not even itself.

Genetic deviants, those showing more and more traits of ponies, they had to go. Prey mimicked predators to survive, not the other way around after all.

Those who questioned her had to go. She was the swarm, what was good for her was good for all the swarm. Keep safe, alway safe, keep hidden, and always there, that pure absolute fear of death. And willing to sacrifice anyling and everyling to starve it off, it was for the good of the swarm after all.

She was resisting, or I should have taken it all in a flash, but I ate the love that was animating her body inch by inch, as I slowly killed her. I never imagined how wonderful it would looked watching her squirm, trying to wiggle away like a fish on a hook. The dread and fear on her ugly face as it dawned on her that this was her end.

Tiny cracks appearing in her legs and spreading as I consumed the love within her. I felt a near euphoric thrill at the sickened and panicked look on her grotesque face as she felt her body literally fall apart around her!

I twisted the knife. "You talk about how genetically inferior I am, but when your life is in danger you want this deformed body for yourself. You're a disgrace!"

"You'd bring us all to ruin!"

"Life is chances, something you've forgotten!"

Then Cocoon tried her hoof at bad comedy. "PLEASE! MERCY! THE SWARM NEEDS ME! THEY CAN'T SURVIVE WITHOUT ME! PLEASE! I SURRENDER! I GIVE UP! YOU WIN! YOU'RE THE BETTER CHANGELING! YOU ARE SUPERIOR! SPARE ME! THE SWARM HAS NO HOPE WITHOUT ME! THE SWARM HAS NO FUTURE WITHOUT ME! PLEASE DON'T DO THIS!!!"

"The swarm has no future WITH you anyway, and no PAST for that matter. All you believe in, all you care about, all you've lived for, all you've ever protected is the present."

"The past is dead and the future isn't here yet!"

"Correct on both counts. But the future will be here sooner than later. And being dead can make somelings more dangerous than ever, I'm about to make you quite dangerous. You will NOT be burned from the records, Cocoon, none shall ever forget your failure. And you'll serve as an object lesson against stagnation for all time."

Her back legs and lower body had become lifeless and hollow. The rest of her struggling all the more so for it. You have no idea how sweet it felt. Bugs should thank me for getting rid of her. I loved washing away her idiocy and arrogance from Zebrafrica.

I'll admit I managed to pick up a good deal of practical information as I watched her memories flash by her in final moments. It wasn't her whole lifetime of experience, because that had rotted away long ago. I strangely thought of Celestia, and realized this black bug was like a poor imitation of the immortal goddess. I laughed at the comparison. Then I laughed more as Cocoon cursed, screamed, snarled, cried, sobbed, pleaded, and begged more for mery as her body died.

In my distraction, her forelegs finally got free, and in a flash she was pressing them against my throat!

"I AM HER ROYAL HIGHNESS COCOON MAB LOTH AVALON, QUEEN OF THE CHANGELINGS! I WILL NOT DIE!"

She pushed all the strength she had left into her hooves, pressing closed my windpipe, I struggled to break the grapple now, but now she held on, I need air to live, I distantly thought that at least she wanted to go out fighting as natural selection wants us to. And hollow forelegs broke off and fell away like the empty shells they were now.

No, changelings are not suits of armor with love animating them, it's just Cocoon's method of consuming love from changelings consumes EVERYTHING ELSE related to love, like life.

And in that one moment, Cocoon realized she was already dead. I absorbed the last of her love, and the last of her ceased to be, and I gave her one way ticket to her reincarnation. Maybe she'll be born as a worker drone or a zebra this time. Or maybe even a head of lettuce.

Out of nowhere, a green shockwave of my magic burst from the two of us, devouring what remained of her violet magic, and spread and kept spreading through the ground and across the land and out of sight.

Hollow and empty, the body of the queen of the changeling fell at my hooves.

"Thank you Maua," I whispered.

I pushed Cocoon's lifeless carapace down the hole.

Sitting back, I relaxed, enjoyed at the sky and sunlight, felt the wind and savanna, looked at the beasts and grass, taking it all in, feel at home and alive just a tiny bit more. I was waiting to die.

They came flying and crawling out of the hole Cocoon and I had made. I didn't run. I had done what I had set out to do. I had nothing left. No where to go, nowhere to return to, no place to escape.

The mass of changelings of every cast and age formed a semicircle around me as more came up from below. They looked at the surface and the sky like a zebra would react to being on the surface of the moon. The air so fresh, the light so bright, the space that went on forever some cowered before it, others simply stared in awe, some actually began praying.

Those closest to me looked at me in uncertainty and awkwardness. What were they waiting for?

"Uh, excuse me," said a run of the mill, complete unremarkable changeling drone. "I mean no disrespect but what is your name?"

They wanted to know my name before they killed me? Fine. Last joke on them. I rose up proud, and told them my name: its translation into Equestrian that is.

"Hail . . . Queen Chrysalis! Long live the Queen!"

The rest of the swarm followed suit. "HAIL! THE CHANGELING QUEEN! HAIL QUEEN CHRYSALIS AVALON! MOTHER TO US ALL! COMMAND AND WE SHALL OBEY!"

What the buck just happened?

+++

Ahem. So yes. I was now the undisputed monarch of the entire changeling species. Roughly 99% of the swarm either embraced me as their new Queen on the spot, didn't care, or their oaths were worded as loyalty to the 'Changeling Queen' not Cocoon or myself explicitly.

Word of the swarm being under new management was sent out among gatherers and spies in the field (like Digger Wasp).

I could have and should have probably just changed what the rules of succession said, crowned a random noble, and left. Would have been much less trouble for me.

As it was, being Queen granted me protection from having killed the previous Queen in single combat with at least half the swarm in condolence of the deed thanks to my little speech and obviously possessing royal linage with Young Cocoon having the same bug face as mine. Now that I had a way to stay alive I didn't want to find out what would happen if I didn't have 'royal protection.'

Sure I was ready to die when I had no way out, but when a door opens, you walk through it and continue on, don't you?

It also meant I'd have a endless steady supply of love as long as I kept the big machine running efficiently. Blech. And it was in need of a major overhaul.

I knew my first batch of decrees weren't going to be that popular with the privileged few, but I'd rather have the majority on my side. And to be frank I liked tearing Cocoon's system apart. Hated everything about it. And her for that matter. I hope she's enjoying her time in Tartarus.

First, all changelings now have names. Many changelings acted like I had declared everyling nobility. That one little decree shook changeling society so far to the foundation it's a wonder they didn't feel it in Neighpon!

Next, in the middle of the infrastructure decay and love shortage, I declared full breeding rights to every female changeling in the swarm. I could spend five hours explaining how they stabilized the population, but that's not the point here. How many nymphs did the new mothers name in my honor? Erm, can we move on?

I also recruited a few willing converts of zebra mares whose line of work had been similar to changelings anyway.

The deviants were next granted education, names, breeding rights, and were expected to pull their weight as part of the swarm. I think my 'fellow mutants' saw me as their savior for that one. I promoted the ones with competency to positions where I needed trust.

Guard Number #1983? Guard Number #1983, or 'Scorpion' as he's called now. . . I visit him sometimes, tell him what a wonderful job he's doing, looking forward to "when I have you for, I mean at dinner," and trot off smiling. Seeing him squirm and anguish in paranoia until he dies of old age is sweeter than anything else I could do to him.

On a minor note all the flames in the hive are now green, as are the flames of changeling when they transform.

Accidentally grasping control of the swarm had been a near-lethal task, forging it into a true effective swarm to be feared was much harder! Queen Cocoon's incompetence lingered long after her corpse had blow away in the wind.

I am called Queen though I have no true castle. I am called a leader though I rule no nation. I am called mother though I had birthed no brood.

I remember declaring to the swarm early on, to the workers, soldiers, nobles, and the masters of the swarm's different branches, "We embrace the rules of nature."

I am Queen of the Changelings. My word is law.

(Interviewer's Notes(Unicorn): My Queen, what would you do if you found out you were born what you are and the way you are as a project of another?)

Murder them. Murder whoever put the project in motion.

(Interviewer's Notes(Unicorn): I have a gift for you, My Queen.)

Frakenpony? Thank you, but I've read it.

Even my supporters called me crazy for my next move. I granted the livestock a tiny bit more awareness and allowed interactivity with each other instead of just being kept in pods between feeding and work. This actually INCREASED the amount of love they produced (which shut up the dissenters), and would ultimately enable our number of livestock to slowly replenish itself on its own. And they were now were aware enough not to be bitten by random snakes. And able to handle far more complex instructions and some actually resisting being brought out of their happily little stupor.

And yes, I did decrease the size of the army and put them to different functions throughout the hive instead of just eating resources, their time would come. Cocoon had been a fool. While our army had exceeded most nations, our actual civilian population was barely a tenth of the size of even small nations. She apparently either didn't care that would leave the hive woefully, almost suicidal underhoofed if it did go to war or she wanted a war of mutually ensured destruction.

But still, this underground hive was a death trap. This hidden city would be discovered eventually. And now that so many of the swarm had tasted the sunlight and sky, they wanted it more than ever. They couldn't stand living underground now, and this spread like wildfire.

As Queen of the Changelings, it's my duty to find food for my subjects. And there was one land with more love than any other. I actually visited there myself a few times. After all, I was no Cocoon! What's more, I was our best shapeshifter and infiltrator. I visited Equestria as a little earth pony colt with 'parents' I had brainwashed, a wealthy unicorn heiress, a faceless pegasus maid in service of a certain princess, even a zebra fortuneteller.

As for the annoying possibility of Changelings falling for cattle, I simply perpetuated and magnified the idea that cattle would kill Changelings on sight. That they'd never see us as anything but monsters. That was so much easier than sending out a death squad, which in and of itself was likely to draw more attention in the process of silencing them. It was easier to instill a fear in their brains so even if it did happen, they'd be too terrified of death to dare speak up.

Meanwhile our other gatherers and infiltrators began their work, starting all the way at the bottom and working their way up the ranks and ladders of Equestria's military, media, and other vital branches, along with a few non-vital ones just to be thorough. It would take years to put every piece in place, maybe decades, but I was not an impatient queen. A prize like Equestria was worth the extra time and effort.

Ironically, our web of spies and infiltrators was actually downsized compared to Cocoon. As with her body mass, the fat slug had believed more was more. So while the spy network was deep rooted and quite useful, it was also painfully fragile due to being so spread thin and more heads meaning more possibility for equine error. It was only a matter of time before Cocoon's incompetence destroyed the very masquerade she sought to maintain, if not the hive itself. So it needed an overhaul. Instead of countless faceless spies everywhere I could fit them, I settled for fewer, competent spies aiming to reach key positions. Quality over quantity. We focused our numbers onto the prize rather than spreading them out.

We did a few 'practice runs' as we grew to call them. Not worth mentioning. Neither were the pin-head sized kingdoms that vanished and historians then debated over what happened to them after we added them to our livestock.

I remember the speech I made to my swarm.

"Since dawn of memory we have cowered in the shadows of history.
Feeding on you cattle and retreating like criminals into the dark.
Our nests hidden like some unholy shame.
Our own history forgotten.
Our true faces forever hidden.
We tire of this nomad existence.
WE DESERVE A NATION OF OUR OWN!"

But before all of that, came what I'll never forget: my coronation.

-"Goddess of Lies"- Lunar 2: Eternal Blue-

There hadn't been a coronation in the swarm for ages. And considering Her Late Majesty, Queen Cocoon's habit of generationally destroying records, we had to play it by ear. But if there is one I know, it's theater. And I gave my swarm a presentation it would never forget!

Virtually the entire colony was present, including new converts, some even brought some of their pet-zebra in with them.

There were so many torches and glowing fungus that the chamber was as bright as sunlight, which was the point.

Incense made from the ill-fated love tree's remains burned (bio-alchemists never throw away anything.)

I had the throne custom-built for my proportions, the previous throne being unfit for a queen whose rear end wasn't the size of an elephant. Black and greens, of course.

I also custom-made the carpet I trotted up to that throne on, a plush green carpet with gold trim with a pattern of bats, spiders, and snakes (they eat insects).

The entire swarm and their pets prostrated to me as I passed.

My coronation dress was made by livestock from Neighpon, which strongly resembled a black and green kimono, the bead tassels and bead necklace were my own customizations to it.

The song playing was my own composition, but right now was only the instrumental version.

It wasn't quite perfect, but I can't say I hadn't dreamed of this since I was small. All gathered around thinking I looked lovely in a gown. I didn't think this would be my fate at all.

I came to the end of the carpet, turned and beheld my subjects of bugs and insects gathered around me, as they always had since I was small.

I knelt down, my horn touching the floor. Two nymphs buzzed over to me holding my new crown.

I had little interest in the crown, so we just used parts of Cocoon's old scepter and replaced the jewels, and no, it was just a scepter, I made quadruple sure of that.

The crown went on my head. I rose up, and was now officially the absolute ruler of a swarm of shapeshifting love-eating bug equines.

Digger Wasp, Hercules Beetle and Goliath Beetle, Kabutomushi, Shield Bug, Jewel Wasp, Praying Mantis, and the rest of the swarm's movers and shakers knelt before me and swore their loyalty and obedience, their lives and love were mine to command.

I spoke to them for the first time as their queen.
"We were dead and buried, but now changelings are alive."

"Changelings are alive
The legends have to survive
We can never come undone
And we will be forever young

Changelings...have arrived!

I am a Changeling, I was a slave
We sleep through the daylight in our grave
In the darkness, in the shadows, here we are!

Here I am.

I want you to be forever mine
Together until the end of time
Like a performance, never ending, let us change your world."

A white changeling with black stripes, a new addition, kissed a nearby fancy dressed zebra with a gold tooth, and sucked him dry!

"Changelings are alive!

And we will be forever young!

Today is the day, live thousand years
Don't be scared, don't drown in tears
Captured spirit, in our passion, sell your soul!
Let it go!

From Elysium to Tartarus, enjoy the ride
You're here to surrender with your mind
Precious victims, our desires, live eternally

The entire swarm by now sang with me.

Changelings are alive
The legends have to survive
We can never come undone
And we will be forever young

We're alive! Changelings are alive!"

I made a small laugh. There was much to do.

~It Begins

Author's Note

Crowning of a monster.

This is how Chrysalis became Queen of the Changelings.

Chrysalis, "Everything I have, I HAVE WORKED FOR!"

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Queen-Chrysalis-Part-2-Raising-433873740

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Birth-of-King-Sombra-437814309

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries

Check out the recursive fanfiction and fanart of the Pony POV Series! http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/journal/MLP-FiM-PonyPOVSeriesFanworks-audio-adaption-2013-349281264 Many of it approved by me as canon.

Be sure to join our Group for a TON of recursive works, many a part of optional canon!!! http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/

AND! Be sure to check season zero and season one's fanlabor pages! PLEASE! THey need lots of work! As does our recap page on TVTropes! Please! Help people who are new to the series get caught up with updating the recap page!!
http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/Pony_POV_Series_Season_Zero:_Discorded_Ponies
http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/Pony_POV_Series_Season_One:_Reharmonization

Image used with permission of Hyperfreak666 http://hyperfreak666.deviantart.com/art/princess-scarlet-daughter-of-chrysalis-405593517 art itself done by Siansaar http://siansaar.deviantart.com/

MLP:FiM copyright Hasbro

Song at the end is a parody of the music video "Vampire Are Alive"

Episode 156: "Birth of King Sombra"

Pony POV Series
Birth of King Sombra
By Alex Warlorn

Once upon a time there was a tribe of ponies, forgotten by time, much as the seaponies, and flutterponies and their breezie cousins would be buried by the sands of time. They were at the time the youngest of the tribes, but they would not be the last pony tribe to come into existence.

They had come into existence at the great disaster that had ended the Age Of Wonders where Ponies had used computer, cell phones, ipads, missiles, artillery, jet-planes, automobiles, and had landed on the moon. The shock wave of the denoted and misused seven pieces of the Rainbow of Light, had killed many, cursed even more, but something happened . . . one of these castles that housed the seven pieces, was built farther north . . .

The heart of Ponyland, the crystal beating core of Ponyland magic, had been moved more than once, kept safe and hidden. Finally it was moved underground to the frozen north.

In the far future, in a dark timeline, the heart would be returned to the earth during the empire's second coming, were a tribe of ponies mutated into dogs-beasts by the lingering spirit of a greedy gem loving wizard would find the jewel, and become enlightened beings from its magic.

In the here and now, the heart of ponyland, in that flash when the castles detonated, its magic awoke and changed, exactly one castle of the seven was spared destruction in the truest sense of the word, and like all ponies who would have died in the northern castle's blast radius, it was completely remade. The rules of magic themselves having shifted slightly from the explosion. But the force of magic released, left most ponies to believe it had been destroyed like the rest. And who was going to brave an Arctic wasteland to check up on them?

The end of the Second Age was a new beginning for these ponies dwelling in the far north.

The shard of the Rainbow of Light that had been in the castle was blasted from the release of magic far, far away indeed. The reborn ponies, primarily former earth ponies, found the heart of crystal, drawn to it like it was now a piece of them, and they were pieces of it. And called it the crystal heart. They set it in the center of their home, as the heart of that place, where its magic could radiate out.

And like a silent teacher that spoke to their hearts rather than their minds, the new living crystalline ponies felt bonded to their crystal heart and each other, and knew as long as their hearts never gave into despair, their new home would always be safe. They were a new tribe, regardless of what they had been before, they were the crystal ponies.

Their leader, which would become a hereditary position, which would become a benign monarchy, realized that keeping themselves utterly happy constantly with no variance or tone would turn their happiness empty and shallow, and this would weaken the heart. And so, the crystal fair was established. A yearly event for the new tribe to embrace the joy of being alive and engage in the most lively or nonsensical of events all for the sake of simple happiness, and this would empower the crystal heart, that they realized now was indeed as much a part of them, as they were now a part of it. The fair became a source of blood to keep the heart beating and their home alive.

The centuries past, technology was lost as it was everywhere else, but the crystal ponies were spared the prejudice and hate of the three tribes, and the strength of their hearts allowed them to create means to provide for themselves. And their home was kept safe by hope that would destroy all evil that dared approach that place.

When the Windigos came, the crystal ponies were utterly invisible to them, like they did not even exist. The crystal tribe did not know hate, that the windigos were drawn to, the crystal heart had purified of them that, but they did know fear. And it had been their companion in the back of their minds. Some wondered if they were the last ponies left alive in the world. Others of their first generation wondered if they'd turn to immobile lifeless crystal if the heart powered down or they wandered from the city state.

Some would claim they had hosted a visit from the first Starswirl the Bearded, or one of his many namesakes, but whether this was history or myth was lost to time. Some feared they would be envied for their tiny paradise, and the other tribes would come and destroy and enslave them, this never happened, but the fear stayed with them.

Then Discord came. They did not surrender to despair. The crystal ponies continued to live their lives in absolute defiance of the mad god. They believed in the Crystal Heart's power to keep them safe.

Discord hated and cursed this city state, the light twin to Tambelon's shadow and machinery. He deathly forbid any mention of it. Death was never the intended end result of his games, simply an unintended side effect that happened a lot. He promised EFFORT in the painful death of any who spread word of this crystal city of hope and light that resisted all attempts for him to enter or effect. Even an attempt to indirectly destroy it such as dropping a meteorite on top, or a flaming flood, or an earthquake, all failed to harm the crystal tribe within. This further enraged the tyrant. The fact their simple statement of 'the Crystal Heart will protect us' was one he could not disprove made his blood boil.

It simply stood, a light against Discord's darkness, so Discord made sure no pony could reach this piece of salvation, and would make short of all who tried to leave to help others. And Discord's sheer hate of it grew and grew. The ponies inside, innocent and pure, never once touched by his evil, beautiful and sacred.

One place throughout of all of Equestria that he could not touch. Discord was the first to admit it was petty to hate one marble when you had the rest, but no one had ever accused the chaotic tyrant of not being petty. And the idea one thing in the entire world was outside his reach was like a foal who's friend had a toy they couldn't have.

If he could not destroy what he could not possess, Discord would see it corrupted if it was the last thing he did.

So he did the one thing he swore he'd never do. He asked family for help. Not immediate family. Freedom loved the look on his face at the sight of the one city on the planet to defy him, Darwinism saw them thrive in a harsh world without becoming stagnate and thought it good, Imagination saw a beautiful glimmer of hope in a dark world, and Fear saw a place listening to its fears and staying where it was safe. Even if his immediate family would speak to him, they saw no reason to have anything against that place. So he turned to other family even less immediate. . . more like . . . cousins.

"My Queen, the fears we crystal ponies hold in our hearts, they are a cancer, a whispering plague, the more we cling to them, the stronger they became, the larger they grow, if we let them, the light inside us that lets us empower the crystal heart will flicker out."

"Obsidian Zephyr my loyal subject, fear is a part of life, it what helps life be wary of danger, and protects us from carelessness. Fear has a place in pony's heart as long as it doesn't become our master."

"Yes my Queen, but please, think of the Crystal Kingdom. The strength of our home is connected to the strength of our hearts. We must protect our hearts from all possible inner demons that could shatter our inner strength, and shatter our protection with it. Especially from Discord who haunts the outside world, and could appear anywhere in Equestria at any time and smash any order or happiness he finds. The Crystal Heart is the only thing protecting us. We must safeguard against fears. For the sake of our people."

" . . . What do you plan?"

"A way to cleanse ourselves of all somber emotions."

And so the entire city had a rune grafted into it, that redirected the fears and nightmares and terrors of the crystal ponies away from them, and downward below. All assuming the sober emotions harmlessly dissolved into ether.

They didn't. They knotted, gathered, slowly coming together, like bits of dirt in a filter. The somber emotions, born of every crystal pony alive over the course of their lifetimes, and bathed with the magic of the life giving crystal heart.

Discord would not get to see the end results of his cousin's labors. He would be long defeated and imprisoned by then.

It would take centuries of nurturing and growth before this beast would become what its instigator desired it to be. As Obsidian Zephyr carefully observed and guided its growth, directing the form it would take, the truths it would realize, and the desires it would have. Chanting in an ancient, alien tongue as a stallion chanted lullabies to his foals.

"Orr'e hupadgh n'ghft wgah'n f lloig, ilyaa yar f' throd syha'h."

Until at last. A heart as black as night began to beat.

"The crystal ponies feared enslavement, they will be your slaves, they feared an end to their beautiful city, you will twist their home into a nightmarish mockery, they feared evil, you will embody evil, they feared helplessness, you will be more powerful than anything they have seen, they feared unicorns would oppress them as they did their earth pony cousins, so that is what you shall be, they feared the unknown, you, their tyrant, will be unreadable and unknowable. Somber emotions have given you life, form and purpose. And it is from their inner shadow you were born from so I name ye, Sombra."

" . . . No . . . King Sombra . . ."

"King Sombra then."

The crystal ponies had no idea where the tyrant came from, he came unannounced, without warning and without mercy. The darkness that had built over the years had erupted into a devil the likes of which they did not know could exist. Made all the more terrifying by the shape it took. The wrongness that a being so evil could appear in the shape of a pony.

Stallions, mares, foals, it didn't matter, all fell like flies as they were force fed their inner worst terrors, many even unaware of their true worst fear before staring it in the face. Warriors, royalty, adults, foals, all becoming whimpering wrecks against this being that was more fiend than pony. He became what they had made him, he became their worst fears.

When asked by his family why he had done this, Discord's cousin passed it off as a tribute to his Uncle Fear. Havoc was flattered and as Fear, was intrigued at the living manifestation of the suppressed fear of an entire city state...and as Tartarus, began keeping a list of the tyrant's crimes and checking it twice, preparing a special place within him for a dark demon's twisted soul. If it had one or would grow one. Weren't the crystal ponies only being enslaved by their own fears?

There was no real point in anything the tyrant that would become known as the Terror of the North commanded of his slaves, he only did as they feared he'd do: they feared they would not know happiness again, so he beat any memories of before his reign out of them. They feared the loss of comforts, so they were denied the finer things in life. They feared the loss of their dignity, so they were paraded before their king like circus animals. They feared being treated like beasts, and were put to labor that served no purpose or goal beyond realizing their fear. They feared no help would ever come, and so no help did. Their fear grew, and grew, and became the deepest despair.

But as his form became more powerful, he became more aware. Instead of merely acting on his instincts, he began to plot and plan. He began to think. The sum of that place's fears would begin to fear one thing himself: that as he had toppled the royalty, so too would he be toppled. Whether it was truly fears of his own or a relic of the fears of the royalty that had lead to his genesis, he feared that possibility more than any other. King Sombra put the cunning mind he had began to form to good use and sealed the now powerless Crystal Heart behind layers and layers of traps and barriers within his dark fortress, the first and chief of which was the terror his slaves held for him. The fear that fed and nurtured him. Perhaps deep down inside, the same fear of becoming lifeless crystal if their power source ran dry beat within the Terror of the North's black heart, and he feared that should his slaves' fear that gave him life ever dissipate, his life would end.

Or maybe all this was what the crystal ponies thought to try and justify or understand this devil that had been born from fear itself and his fear merely mirrored their own fear of death and his cunning a mirror of the untapped potential they were too afraid of him to let rise to the surface. Maybe neither is true and not even the Shadow of the Empire may know himself.

One small crystal pegasus filly, perhaps the last descendant of her original tribe touched by the crystal's magic, would not cower before the shadow given a form of its own. Her body housed the spirit of harmony and music itself. How or why another life was granted, none can truly answer. Perhaps she was sent to counterbalance Discord's cousin's intervention. Perhaps Bright Glow's life was more complex than believed. Perhaps Discord's birth causing a paradoxical tangle in time resulted in a distortion and she fell through the cracks. Whatever the reason, she was there. And her courage, would be the lance that would pierce the fear that no friends would ever come to aid the Crystal Empire, and brought the light of the sun and moon themselves down upon the darkness.

When her end came, she knew no fear, and in her heart of hearts she swore, even if overturned every rule of creation, she'd return here someday, and bring light back to her tribe and banish the darkness from a place it did not belong.

King Sombra knew fear as divine judgement finally descended upon the frozen north, the Royal Pony Sisters swearing upon their sister, the Concept of Justice, the reign of cruelty the Terror of the North had wrought would at last be punished. But he became like the primal beast he was at heart and fought back with the might of centuries of fear given shape and breath. But in the end, it was not enough.

And a small group of crystal ponies were able to escape the nightmarish city as the Sun and the Moon did battle with the Shadow of the Empire, and over the eons their line would lose their crystal forms, but their blood from the north would mix with that of Canterlot's nobility.

In the end the tyrant would throw his city far into the future before he reduced to the mass of living darkness he had always been and sentenced to his frozen prison in a combined cascade of solar and lunar light, the Alicorn sisters unable to bring hope and happiness back to his slaves in the meantime, and when his city returned, the despair and fear of the crystal ponies would give him the strength to escape.

Both would meet again, and have their reckoning, some day.

Author's Note

If you're reading this, then you now know that yes, I have finally watched the first two episodes to season 3 (since I've finished the wedding arc). And they did not suck. I decided to write this as 'fanfiction fuel' as they say. I wrote this IMMEDIATELY after watching the two episodes. So this is how Sombra's origins and the crystal empire's own origin, are part of the Pony POV Verse.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Queen-Chrysalis-Part-3-Crowned-434126239

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Forgotten-Pink-Ponies-438559249

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries

Check out the recursive fanfiction and fanart of the Pony POV Series! http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/journal/MLP-FiM-PonyPOVSeriesFanworks-audio-adaption-2013-349281264 Many of it approved by me as canon.

Be sure to join our Group for a TON of recursive works, many a part of optional canon!!! http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/

AND! Be sure to check season zero and season one's fanlabor pages! PLEASE! THey need lots of work! As does our recap page on TVTropes! Please! Help people who are new to the series get caught up with updating the recap page!!
http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/Pony_POV_Series_Season_Zero:_Discorded_Ponies
http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/Pony_POV_Series_Season_One:_Reharmonization

MLP:FiM copyright Hasbro

Episode 157: "Forgotten Pink Ponies"

Pony POV Series
~~Forgotten Pink Ponies~~
Discarded Props
By Alex Warlorn

That . . . wasn't fun . . .

That wasn't fun at all . . .

Rainbow Crash lied, there weren't any balloon animals . . .

That hurt . . .

Where was I?

Where was the rest of me?

Uuuuuugh. It's super cold. Maybe there are some sunny . . . skies? . . . Why is the sky so black? What's this not day? It's like the inside of the cave . . . where . . . where I was born . . . and all my sisters were born . . . where I came from . . . from . . . from . . . first Pinkie Pie . . .. that's called a . . . a mommy right? I think, I don't think anypony ever told me...

Uuuuugh. I don't feel so good . . . like I was blown up too much and popped and then sucked into a vacuum. Then . . . a really BIIIIG nothing . . . I mean, bigger than a really large cake . . .

I sit up, the ground isn't nice at all, it's all like black ice cream, really cold, what does it taste like? BLECH! It taste like tar and rocks! Blech! Blech!

I shake my head. Hey! There are the rest of me . . . my . . . my sisters? Well, some of them were copied from me, and they were copied from the ones who were copied from them . . . does that make me a grandma? This is so confusing!

This is worse than when Buttershy invited me to the tea party and I was supposed to go the barn raising with Applesnack. And . . . first me, mom? She told me we just needed more of us.

So we made more and more, more of us was good, so even more of us was better right? More of us was more fun, right?

Then . . . nopony wanted to play with us, nopony wanted to have fun, they just wanted to shout at us and do mean things to us and hurt us and stuff . . . but it was for fun right? Right. Fun is the most important thing in the world. Right? Fun is why . . . why we were born right?

Mommy wanted us to have fun . . . so . . . why was she sad?

It was all just a game right? That test wasn't fun at all. And the others were making so much noise! How was I supposed to keep staring at the . . . borning paint . . . I wonder if I passed . . . I wonder how many of us passed . . .

Is mom here? Let me count . . . we're one short. That's no fun.

The rest of me, the rest of my family are waking up too . . .

"FUN!"

"FUN! FUN!"

"FUUNNNN! . . . fun? . . . This . . . this place doesn't look fun!"

I hug one of the twins, (she was copied from me, and her, uh, sister was copied from . . . mom. Does that makes them cousins and not twins? THIS IS SO CONFU-FU-FUSING!).

"THIS ISN'T FUN AT ALL!"

~~"Senorita! New arrivals!"~~

~~"From the heart world! This is great! They look good enough to paint a picture of! And familiar!"~~

~~"Bloody harmony! Did they finally do another bloody reboot?"~~

~~"No I think this is something else . . ."~~

~~"THEY WON'T GET AWAY LIKE DISCORD'S SPAWN DID!"~~

Huh? I just realize we're standing in a little crater, or maybe a dried up pond.

There were ponies all around us only . . . they were all see through and stuff, like colored shadows or something.

We all gather around each other, something about these ponies, screams not fun, like the opposite of fun, like, nuf? Was that a word? I don't know! Somepony tell me!

Ooooh, this pony had wings like a big butterfly, and she's really big too, I think she's purple her cutie mark is a big star around a little star, or is that a little star in a big star? There are so many things I don't know! None of this is fun! NOTHING! What am I supposed to do if there's no fun!? MOMMMY!!!!

She smiles at me, well, maybe that's a smirk? ~~"Well . . . you're not OUR Pinkie Pie . . . but you'll do . . for now . . . and best of all, there's plenty for us to enjoy!"~~

The all laughed. The laughter wasn't fun for some reason.

~~"We haven't had this many new arrivals since . .. well, since we all got here Starsong!"~~ Said a shadow with an artist pallet cutie mark.

~~"I think that deserves a special welcoming, Toola-Roola!"~~

~~"sí."~~ Said the mare with a mexicolt accident, I wonder what mexicolt food tastes like . . . uh, maybe it's fun? Think fun thoughts!

"Uh . . . excuse me . . . but . . . I'm Pinkie Pie, and . . . well, we're all Pinkie Pie I think and . . . where are we? And . . . where's the fun?"

~~"Fun? FUN!? Hear that nopony?! They want to know where the fun is!"~~ She laughed in my face. It wasn't a fun laugh. Please stop it! Please! Why did my mane suddenly go all flat?

~~"There is no fun here!"~~ Said, uh, ~~Toola-Roola~~ like it was a big surprise. It wasn't a fun surprise. ~~"Just us shadows of meanwhiles and neverweres."~~

I hear the rest of us gasp . . . why do so many of us have our manes flat too? The rest are shivering.

~~"Welcome to Oblivion!"~~ They all shouted together.

"Uh . . ." Why were my knees knocking? "Well, me and . .. my other mes . . . we're all supposed to have fun . . . and . .. if you don't have any fun then . . . can we go please? It was really fun in Ponyville, and we' like to go back there now. Please? With sugar on?"

Why do they keep laughing? Please, you're making my sisters crying . . . I think, you're making me cry?

~~"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid, if you're here, it means you don't have a place anywhere, even Tartarus and Elysium won't take you. I'm sorry,"~~ said this pony with a puzzle piece and magnifying glass cutie mark, I wonder what bugs look like, no, I just wanna go home.

~~"There's Puzzlemint, pretending she still has a heart!"~~ Teased ~~Toola-Roola.~~

~~"You want a Ponyville?! Here ya go!"~~ Said a pegasus shadow who grabbed one of my sisters and took off with her, we all followed, and she dumped her just a little bit off and . . . there were a bunch of gray buildings, with gray floors, gray streets, gardens without plants in them, fountains without any water to splash around in, shops that were empty of anything. It was like the fun thought the town wasn't fun anymore, and left.

"This . . . this isn't Ponyville! Ponyville is fun! Ponyville is . . .is . .. HAPPY! And your laughing! It's not fun it's . . . not-fun! It's . . . it's not nice!"

~~"They're so naive and innocent!"~~

~~"Just like we were!"~~

~~"It's almost adorable!"~~

My sister . . . I think she skinned her knee, she's crying. I run over and dry her tears.

"T-This is a trick, right? A...not nice prank or something?" one of my sisters asked, shuddering as we looked around.

~~"Oh, talk about ungrateful,"~~ said a unicorn shadow with a doggy necklace. ~~"We gave you what you wanted, is it our fault it wasn't what you thought it'd be? Hehe, that feels a tiny bit nostalgic."~~

"We wanted Ponyville! This isn't Ponyville!"

~~"I'm sorry, this is the only Ponyville here,"~~ said ~~Puzzlemint~~.

"W-well, how do we get out of here?!" Another of my sisters asked, I didn't like this 'not-fun' feeling growing bigger and bigger insider me.

~~"HA! You hear that nopony?! They want the way out of here!" Starsong~~ called.

The shadows of ponies laughed, and laughed, but it sounded hollow, empty, lifeless. We weren't like that? . . . were we? I wasn't, right?

One of my sisters ran away from the VERY NOT FUN shadow ponies right for a big hole in the freezy blacky ground, she'd hide down there, ~~Puzzlemint~~ pulled her back just before she dived in. And ~~Puzzlemint~~, and the other shadow, they began to sing. But the song, the was nothing fun about it, could be nothing fun about, and never would be anything fun about it.

~~"~~Watch yourself,
Don't fall into the gulf!~~"~~

A monster several times bigger than any Quarray eel burst from the ground, lamprey like jaws snapping with tendrils flying everywhere before zipping back in at the same lightning speed it emerged with.

~~"So yer all the new nopony's in town," Starsong~~ sang.

"What's that sound? Is something moving around?" The twins sang hugging each other hearing THINGS move about in the dark.

~~Starsong~~ flew and pushed them hard on their rears, that looked like it hurt. ~~"Sit down for a spell, you don't look so well!"~~

~~"WELL Fiesta Flare, feels great!~~
~~You've just been screwed by fate!~~
~~You might as well just hang around,"~~ ~~Fiesta Flare~~ sang, then I . . . I made a really loud noise that wasn't a laugh . . . she had a rope around her neck, that one of the pegasus was holding her up from, she just made faces at me.

All the shadows sang.

~~"It's too late,~~
~~Now yer just Nature Fury bait!~~

~~"Now just relax,~~
~~You're all just empty sacks!"~~

They danced around us like a spider's web.

~~"It's after the movie!~~
~~This is the end of your show!"~~

~~"Welcome to being nopony!~~
~~But don't feel lonely!~~

~~"Don't be sad for nothing's sake!~~
~~All you feel is fake!"~~

"I'm for gettin' out of here!" One of the triplets ran off screen, only to end up right back where she started. She looked in not-fun, no, no TERROR! She screamed.

Terror! Afraid! I WAS AFRAID! I WAS AFRAID! I WAS SCARED! Leave us alone! Somepony help us please!

~~"No need to shout my dear! No-o!"~~ Sung the shadow of a LITTLE FILLY pegasus while my sister being scared for her life and miserable was just a game . . . it was fun but . . . it . . . it was fun but . . . not . . . not . . . . not . . . good . . . fun. I'm sad.

I turn my head and see a sea! Maybe across the sea is home? I run for it. ~~Puzzlemint~~ stops me.

~~"Don't you go,~~
~~to the ocean down below!~~
~~There ain't no price~~
~~for good advice."~~

The shadows sang.

~~"There's nothing to do!~~
~~We're Her private zoo!"~~

The unicorn with the doggie necklace stood in front of a witch's caldron made of ice and floated a bunch of ice shaped into potion bottles an inch from us, then shattered them before we could touch them.

~~"There is no voodoo~~
~~or magic brew~~
~~That can reclaim you!"~~

~~"It's after the movie!~~
~~And this is the end of your show!"~~

"What do we have here?! New toys?! Oh pink gummy!" A mishmash of animal parts swooped in tried to bite Eleven in half, she didn't like this all, and her tail was now just a stub. The shadow dove down. The the animal-parts-monster just left.

Another of the triplet sang, "This is weird!"

~~"It's much worse than you fear!" Puzzlemint~~ sang back.

I shut my eyes. "I'll just close my eyes and make the ghosties disappear-AAAGH!" THEY WERE ALL AROUND ME!

We all jumped together into one big pink pile looking out from all directions! All our manes were straight! All my sisters and I were shivering! This wasn't fair! What did we do?!
We sang out together.

"This is strange!"

~~"You and creation are now estranged!" Fiesta Flare~~ sang at us, no longer with the rope around her neck, made another face at us.

The others hopped towards us, in sync, like a team of jumping spiders. They made the ground shudder.

~~"Won't the others be in heat,~~
~~That yer heart still beats?!"~~

I was at the top of the Pinkie Fort, I looked straight up, hoping for something, anything friendly to look down at me. I reached for a sun that wasn't there. Crying isn't fun. So why couldn't I stop?

"Where is the sun?
All I can see is the night.
Please turn on a light.
Somepony please tell me that fate has been kind."

~~"There is no way oooout,~~
~~you are out of your miiiiinds!"~~

They burst out laughing. And looked at me, like we were slices of cake.

~~"It's after the movie!~~
~~This is the end of your show!"~~

We backed up further and further into each other, scared out of our minds.

~~"It's after the movie!~~
~~This is the end of your show!"~~

They kept singing, but not words, just a not that sounded like...almost like a wind building up to blow us away...

~~"Stop it! They're not like us! They don't belong here!"~~ They smashed ~~Puzzlemint~~ into the ground so hard she left an impression. Why wasn't it funny? Because . .. because she was hurt . . . Applesnack . . . did we . . . did we hurt her? Did we hurt Buttershy? . . . Is that why we're here? Is that . . . is that why we came here? . . . So we're bad ponies who don't belong anywhere? . . . So . . that's why we're here?

I give up. We were what wasn't fun. We belonged here with everything else that wasn't fun.

Another mean laugh but . . . it's from everywhere...Or is it nowhere, like where we are? I d~~on't really~~ care. So ~~much anymore~~. What was the ~~point in anything?~~ What I do doesn't matter. ~~What I say doesn't matter. What I think doesn't matter. My sisters don't matter. I don't~~ matter. We were supposed to be fun and . . . we couldn't even do what we were ~~born for. We~~ belong-

"Excuse me, but you're in my way."

The shadows looked one direction at once, gasped, and fled as fast as shadows did before a light source. ~~Puzzlemint~~ looked up from the hole she was in, gasped, and covered her head, not moving an inch, her eyes closed.

Huh? Wha? Uh? Who? What? I feel . . . What was that? I was feeling . . . empty, I was feeling, like there wasn't a me anymore . . . Who is . . .

"I want to talk with you. Care to listen?"

We . . . my family mattered to somepony.

She's funny. She's all pink. She has wings like a pegasus, and a horn like a unicorn. She's a pegahorn! Ha-ha! That's so silly! I feel . . . fun? No . . it's happy. She wanted to . . . to talk with us?

"Well?" She asked again.

"Oh! Yes yes! Talk away!"

The pinkie Pegahorn asked calmly and casually, "Hello little ponies, . . . would you like a job? I need some messengers."

"Uh . . . do we get to leave this place?"

"Yes."

"Can we go back to Ponyville?"

"A Ponyville, I promise it'll be a much more interesting one than this. And more colors."

"Can all my sisters come?"

"Yes. I have need of all of you. You and I have much in common."

We all looked at each other, and all the black nothings all around.

"Uh, can ~~Puzzlemint.~~ come? She just-"

"I'm sorry. No. She doesn't have what it takes to leave. You all do."

~~"Please, don't think about me, just go. It's how things are,"~~ she said still not looking up.

" . . . thank you ~~Puzzlemint.~~, we won't forget you."

~~"You're not the first to say so.~~"

"We won't! Okay! Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes! Uh, you guys all agree to right?"

"YES!" All my sisters shouted together.

"That's perfect!" She clapped her hooves. "Now let's get you out of here. You're hired!"

I didn't know who if what happened next was gonna be fun or not . . . and maybe that's what made it feel alive? Right! That's it! We're alive! We're here! We're seeing! We're hearing! We're feeling! I'm alive!!!

~See You Again, Pinkie Promise, cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!

Author's Note

So yep. I watched the episode I dreaded to watch more than any other of season 3. And this is my response.

The song is based on 'It's A B-Movie' from Brave Little Toaster.

I also suggest you read this fanfic. http://www.fimfiction.net/story/64605/her-own-pony It's beautiful!

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Birth-of-King-Sombra-437814309

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Silver-Spoon-Character-Rerailment-438964921

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries

Check out the recursive fanfiction and fanart of the Pony POV Series! http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/journal/MLP-FiM-PonyPOVSeriesFanworks-audio-adaption-2013-349281264 Many of it approved by me as canon.

Be sure to join our Group for a TON of recursive works, many a part of optional canon!!! http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/

AND! Be sure to check season zero and season one's fanlabor pages! PLEASE! THey need lots of work! As does our recap page on TVTropes! Please! Help people who are new to the series get caught up with updating the recap page!!
http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/Pony_POV_Series_Season_Zero:_Discorded_Ponies
http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/Pony_POV_Series_Season_One:_Reharmonization

MLP:FiM copyright Hasbro

Should I give this chapter a mature content warning for Toola-Roola's 'prank?'

Episode 159: Invitations Sent And Lots and lots of Ponies

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember
Part 1
Invitations Sent
By Alex Warlorn

Please understand, a lot of our interview notes, and on the sight recordings were destroyed or lost in the conflict that was to come. And we kinda didn't have time to get these really orderly with all that's going on.

So we're sorry if we write briefly in more than a few places. MANY ponies and other creatures were involved here. And we don't have the time left to give full credit and detail to all of them. But I hope what we've managed to recover and bring together here, will help you appreciate these grand events you have demanded to see.

Also, with recent revelations, and changes, we can finally show a complete exchange between us, and Shining that we dearly wanted to share before.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Wait... you mean that wasn't the real ending?! WAAHHHHH!)

Oh Celestia, don't cry, don't cry... Just think of it as an alternative ending! Like how Colonial Mareines is an alternative ending to Xenomorphs... And is somehow worse than Xenomorphs 3 and Xenomorphs Revivification...

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): I'm... I'm not allowed to read those books... mommy told me a long time ago they'd give me scary nightmares.)

Your mommy sounds like a very smart mare. Well then, we can't be having nightmares now, can we? Here. Let me gets these tears off your face. Somepony as nice as you shouldn't have to tears on her muzzle.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Oh... uh, thank you. you're a good hugger. Can you give Smarty Pants one too?)

Huh? Oh sure! There she goes.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Thank you!)

Even when he wasn't aware of what we were, his heart still was.

--Half-Light Noon

+++

"Pitcher Plant."

"Yes my Queen?" She responded to the queen who had named her after her premature hatching the day Chrysalis had become queen.

"Until I call for you and our workforce and nymphs, I leave our home, Hive Jormungand, in your care."

The changeling in constant Zebra form curtsied, "Yes my Queen. May your day be perfect."

++++

"You may kiss the bride."

The lovely couple kissed, and everypony cheered, and everydonkey too!

Cranky Doodle could be stubborn, but even he could admit when he was wrong, Filthy Rich had been right: it was good to finally marry Matilda after a donkey's lifetime of looking for her. Which for a donkey was a very long time! (It led some to wonder if Granny Smith had any hinnys stashed away in her family tree.)

Pinkie Pie had offered a blond toupee in exchange for Cranky's black one (never mind how she EVEN KNEW he wore a toupee!), but Matilda still liked his black one and that settled that.

Matilda was also the only person who Cranky had told the real story of Cranky's day of Discord. Not the lie he told everypony else. He had been traveling between towns, that was true. But Discord had taken notice of him. Cranky wasn't one for deep story telling and kept his descriptions brief and to the point.

Cranky slipped and slide along the road as it turned to soap and the landscape turned to checkerboard, and Princesses were apparently squabbling as sisters tended to do. And a tree he swore stepped into his way so he'd bang into it!

Having been blessed to be born a donkey instead of a pony, Cranky didn't have a cutie mark for Discord to imitate, the king of anti-understanding had appeared in his true form.

Introductions had been swift and to the point.

"So you're the one causing this stupid mess?"

"It's not stupid, IT'S SENSELESS!" Discord grinned absurdly wide his pointy teeth glistening. "This is stupid," he said, snapping his fingers and creating a candle, which he promptly lit at both ends.

"You think this is fun?" Cranky asked his face straight as an arrow.

"Confusion and disorder are always fun!"

"I'm not smiling."

Discord snapped his fingers.

"There! Now you're smiling!" Discord had grinned.

"I'm not smiling stupid, you're just making my face smile."

"What's the difference?"

"It's not real you idiot!"

"You mean like THIS?" Discord grabbed his toupee.

"Hey!" Cranky grasped for it, but Discord kept pulling it out of his reach like a dog trainer.

Discord looked at it, "Now why would a donkey, so stiff and stern, be so ashamed of being bald? Oh why why why?...Could there be somepony, excuse me, someJENNY that you want to look nice for if in a one in a million chance you happen to find her?"

"Leave her out of this YOU LOSER!"

"...do you have any idea what I could do to you?"

"Exactly what you're going to do if I pretend to be nice OR tell you how pathetic you are anyway!"

"Whose really the pathetic one little donkey? The all-powerful idea of chaos itself, who can do whatever he wants? Or the old, very bald donkey whose spent his entire long life going from town to town trying to find a jenny he met once in his life?"

"The 'all-powerful one' who STILL needs to bully others like a foal to feel big!"

"Like you felt big that one tiny night in your entire lonely life?"

"I've made more than a few friends over the years, there's been nothing lonely about it."

"But you've still constantly looked for that one jenny who made you feel special that one time. Tell me, how can you even forgive her? For making it sound like you'd spend your lives together, and then she vanishes without a trace."

"This should be fun for you, because I'm betting it doesn't make sense to you, but donkeys are, ponies are, Equestria is about love, it's what makes us special. And love doesn't hold grudges!"

"I know!" Discord rolled his eyes, "Ponies, they're all full of compassion and forgiveness. They trip over themselves ready to forgive, almost anything. It's their inherent weakness-spot."

"As a non-pony, let me tell you: it's a strength."

"For some reason, you make me think of the one I 'borrowed' my wonderful winning voice from."

(In Another Universe Far Far Away)

An all powerful being disguised as a pony in a star fleet uniform sat in a infinite and complex quantum nexus currently disguised as a gas station in a desert. He held up a sign that read,

'That ******* Discord. I'm going to ******* ****** his ***** up his ****** then ******* his *******!!!!'

A blond member of the same race of all powerful beings popped next to him.

"Greeting fellow member of omnipotent single letter species, what is that on your shoulder?"

The sign now read, 'It's called a conscience, thought I'd give it a try.'

'It looks like a draconequus.'

'Bought it off of E-Bray.'

"How's that working out?"

'Well, mortals seem to like me more.'

(Back In Equestria)

"Oh whatever!" Discord tossed the toupee back to the donkey, "Know why I'm giving that back to you?"

"For the reason you're about to tell me."

Discord growled, "Because! There's nothing I can do to you, to make your sad little life MORE miserable! You've done my job for me! Your sad, lonely, empty, shallow, with nothing but memories and trinkets to keep you company, pathetically throwing away your ONE life looking for a jenny you met once!...Or...I could tell you where she is...assuming she's alive of course...all you need to do is say 'Discord is funky, and super tubular,' and mean every word."

"Matilda..." Cranky whispered. "BUCK! YOU!" He told the beast.

"Remember . . ." Discord said cheerfully, "When you die all alone, unloved and unmourned, it's because you couldn't give someequus a compliment! Bye-bye!" Discord laughed and vanished.

Cranky spat air, and continued down the road after the wave of rainbow light repaired the world.

Last night Matilda wouldn't stop whispering, "My Doodle, you were so strong and brave facing up to that big-lipped chimera."

Cranky had said, "He was no different than a foal carrying around a pie like it makes them a king.."

But that was now all in the past, and both of the donkeys had their long lives ahead of them now.

Pinkie Pie cried gushers at the wedding, "It's so beautiful!"

Tootsie Flute nodded, having served as flower filly.

As fate would have it, many of Ponyville's big-name residents were out of town, and that was fine by the donkeys. Cranky believed in making his own fate. Their friends in Canterlot had told them a major royal wedding in was in the works, which drew all the attention away from two no-face, no-name donkeys tying the knot. And Cranky couldn't be happier about it. This was his and Matilda's special day, he didn't want a bunch of look-seers and fair weather friends crowding it. It made the perfect time.

And Filthy Rich's very generous donations to the festivities had not gone to waste, the wedding had all the beauty and prestige of a miniature Grand Galloping Gala. Cranky didn't care for it, but he knew Matilda loved it, and that was the point.

Filthy Rich himself however, was not in attendance, his maid, Shiny Star, had attended in his place. She only said Filthy Rich had very personal, and very important family issues in Canterlot, but he wished the newly wed couple well.

+++++

Cheerilee looked at the clock on the wall, she had managed to complete the grading of that week's pop quiz before they got here. That was good, she wanted to give these foals her full attention.

She knew she should have given this task to a royal guard, but these three fillies had proven very fast, and very good at avoiding authority figures from police to their own parents. Sometimes you needed to fight fire with fire.

"LETUSGOYOULITTLEBLANKS!" "YOUREGONNABESORRY!" "WHENIGETMYHOOVESONYOU!"

"Cutie Mark Crusader Truancy Officers Take Two! YEAH!"

Cheerilee groaned. "Girls...you didn't need to tie them up."

"They wouldn't stop squirming," Scootaloo defended.

"They tried to bite me!" Sweetie Belle said in her sweater and dream-catcher.

"DID NOT!"

"We still get that extra credit right?" Applebloom asked. The CMC didn't care much about extra-credit, but they did care if it gave them brownie points with their teacher to get more time to perform more experiments to find out what their special talents were.

Cheerilee sighed, she didn't like encouraging this type of behavior. Sadly she hadn't bothered to include 'not to hog-tie' on the list of ways the fillies couldn't get Checkered Flag, Grace Lightning, and Hot Wheels here to speak with their teacher.

"I'll...let you girls know. Can you please give us some alone time?"

"Are you going to be okay Miss Cheerilee?" Applebloom asked. That Cheerilee had been one of Princess Gaia's willing supporters, the same Princess Gaia who had trapped Applebloom in tease of getting her cutie mark, had done very very little to defuse the foals positive view of their teacher.

"I'll be fine girls, I promise, now scoot along." Cheerilee realized what she had just said when Scootaloo gave her a look and the founding members of the CMC left.

"Untie us already!" Checkered Flag snapped.

"In a minute," Cheerilee said as she sat down in front of the foals.

"You girls have been absent from school for a long time. I allow home schooling, but your parents are all worried, your grades have been dropping. And the attitude you've been showing other foals at the roller rink has not been encouraging. I've talked it over with your parents, and they've conceded that you need more socialization in a noncompetitive environment."

"School's a competition, same as any other, there's winners and then there's losers," Hot Wheel said.

"If I may ask, why did you even tease Dinky to begin with? Do you even know? Did you even once think about it? Did you ever have a reason to begin with? Why her? Why not her? Did it make you feel better? Or were that bored and uninspired that it was all you could think of?"

"HEY! We're not stupid!" Hot Wheels snapped, "And it was just a joke."

"SHE didn't think it was just a joke."

"That's her fault!"

"It's always somepony else's fault isn't it? You three barely even think of yourselves as yourselves anymore. It's always the three of you. I've seen friends who act like they're one pony before, and it's normally healthy. The three that brought you in are a good example. But you three have turned it into an excuse to do whatever, and then just say 'it was part of the group' 'not my fault.' You don't even try to think about it."

"That's not true! We're plenty ourselves!"

"Is it Grace? Or have you noticed I've been talking to all three of you, and none of you have objected to that? Like you three are the heads of Cerberus. Like you three are carbon copies instead of three parts of a whole." The roller fillies eyes widened and they looked at each other, looking a tiny bit scared.

"I ask again, why did you tease Dinky?"

The three roller fillies look at each other again, confused, scared, showing the foals they were underneath all that bravado, desperation hoping one of the other two had the answer.

I give them a full minute before saying. "In other words, you were just doing what you thought everypony else was doing," I said flatly.

They settled down. And humbled and smaller, I knew this wasn't the end solution, but it was a start in the right direction.

Dinky...that filly had gone through so much. They all had, but she had more than her share even before The Day The World Unzipped.

Many foals were naturally the same race of pony as their parents, and were confused and unsure of a unicorn having a pegasus for a mother. It didn't help that Derpy Hooves was generally considered Ponyville's resident featherbrain who more than once got Rainbow Dash's direction wrong for winter wrap up, some weather peagsi actually took sick days when she was scheduled just to avoid her (Rainbow Dash being Weather Team Captain didn't have that option).

This all came back down on Dinky, who was teased for being as 'stupid' as her mother. I don't blame Derpy's elder daughter Sparkler for fleeing Ponyville to start a new life in Canterlot for as long as she did.

I don't blame the doctors and civil workers for checking in on Derpy and Dinky after the day of chaos, given everything that was said about Derpy around town. I actually heard Dr. Whooves actually made things worse by trying to bully some of them into leaving Derpy alone. I don't know about them, but if I was trying to make sure that a parents was truly caring for their child, and somepony tried to intimidate me into dropping it, I'd only be more determined and then be a little bias against the idea this single parent had nothing to hide.

I'm just happy that Derpy was able to prove she was a worth while mother after all. And I am happy Dinky chose to try harder to prove them wrong instead of believing what was said. But in my humble opinion, Derpy should stick to being a mailmare like she's good at. A weather pony she is not.

In spite of her campaign against Applebloom and her friends being the stuff of legends, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had shown minimal interest in bullying foals besides the CMC.

Tiara had always been full of herself, but after getting her cutie mark she singled out Applebloom and Twist as her playthings until Twist earned her cutie mark and had become invisible to the filly while Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were now on her list for defending Applebloom.

Alula, always wanting to make friends with the elitist filly but not having a clue how to go about it, had tried to imitate Diamond Tiara's style of teasing 'blank flanks' and had brought more unhappiness down on Dinky. When Diamond Tiara pushed Dinky out of the way once to read the school newspaper that was free, Derpy had assumed Diamond Tiara, whose reputation proceeded her, was the main source of her foal's misery at school. Ironically by then, Checkered and her two friends had vanished from my class room.

All in all, I don't blame Derpy for making Dinky home school as long as she did.

Thankfully I didn't have parents pulling their foals out of class after Princess Gaia's brief reign. Though a few made gratuitous threats about 'having an eye on you', and 'don't think we're not watching.' Which I found more agitating than intimidating. While I didn't make a secret that I still loved my Princess, I made it crystal clear to the parents I was not going to try and 'convert' any of their children, and that as a teacher, I had to be above religion and politics. My special talent was helping each flower bloom, not stay a bud, and I would never forget that again. It more than one talk with Derpy to help her understand that I wasn't going to try and 'steal away' Dinky from her.

At least I had Zecora for my own support. I hadn't given the zebra much thought before, besides being that 'strange witch' who lived in Everfree, and she did a wonderful performance with her alchemy on Nightmare Night. Now however she was one of the few ponies I could talk openly with about that both of truly understood what Fluttershy had been trying to do, and that she had learned and grew from the experience, even if her methods had been misguided, everything had turned out for the better in the end.

And there was my sister, Berry Punch, I was happy she had never tried to take Ruby out of class. Ruby's actually sorry she didn't get to play with her mother when she was a filly.

I think Berry was grateful for a day where she wasn't dependent on hard cider and come to me for help. And I've been trying as hard as I can to do so, like any sister would., and learning what Ruby wanted when given a world where she could have had anything, gave Berry strength she needed to finally start swearing off hard cider. She's gone weeks now without touching anything. And we all love her for it. She's free.

Bridges were finally healing. Though I did get an odd note from the CMC about missing a day or two of school for 'royal business.'

++++

Blueblood looked in the mirror, for the first time other than to enjoy his own beauty. He wanted to look his best: for the first time, he was having a date with a mare more than once. Until Arcane Spell, it had been a long line of rejections starting with his early foalhood.

"Are you crazy? You're stuck-up, cowardly, rude and only think about yourself. I wouldn't marry you in a thousand years!"

Blueblood could still remember the royal horseshoe print on his royal face, when a naive and ignorant royal colt had asked his cousin to marry him. Like any hurt child, he had lashed back at her, reminding her of the disaster of the royal love poison incident. She had calmly accepted it, talking so much like an grown-up when she did that it was scary.

Rude, stuck-up? His mother and later his instructors had made it clear exactly how he was supposed to act around others if he didn't want a ruler to the flanks.

"Stand up straight! Not that fork! You're royalty you get others to open doors! You don't swallow commoner food, you spit it out! You get others to shield yourself! You don't need to think, just look pretty!"

Cowardly? The ramparts of Canterlot Castle hadn't been walls of his home, they were the borders of his prison. Why do you think he accepted being an ambassador? Thought only of himself? What did she know about what he thought?

'And in these decades that followed, I became exactly what you said I was cousin,' Prince Blueblood though.

In his heart of hearts, Blueblood couldn't deny the truth, he envied his cousin. She had the freedom that was denied him, parents there for her, by a random whim of fate she was born what he wasn't, Celestia paid her more attention than him because of what he wasn't born as. They were both nobility, but he was worth LESS than her because he didn't have the horn AND wings.

"Why do you get to be a pegasus-unicorn and not me?!" Little Blueblood had demanded. If he had wings, he could have flown away from this castle.

"That's ALICORN. I embody all three tribes," little Cadence said repeating what Auntie Celestia had told her.

He even envied her for foalsitting uncontrollable, hyperactive, destructive, violent brats, at least she was allowed to leave the castle, away from instructors, away from guards, away from having your every move watched and measured, being made into what others wanted you to be.

And for the first time in a long time, Blueblood was ashamed of that envy. Auntie Luna's envy and hate had transformed her into an unholy force of eternal night...It was like even the forces of darkness didn't care for Blueblood.

Blueblood was never one to care much for animals, but he couldn't help but feel a momentary form of kinship with the caged birds he occasionally saw in the possession of his fellow nobles. There was a joke going around Canterlot that Blueblood was kept around just so Princess Celestia had somepony's presence to punish the rest of the elite with.

Once upon a time, Cadence had actually sent letters to her cousin when he was finally away from the castle as a diplomat (the whole reason he had taken the job, and Auntie felt he was good at saying one thing while meaning another). Blueblood had simply returned them unopened. If she wanted nothing to do with him, then he'd have nothing to do with her. Now he wished he had read them. Then, he had finally gotten the royal news, and for the first time ever, he wrote his cousin.

+++

I shall admit, leaving Blueblood solely in the care of his mother was not my, most thought out decision. Having lost her husband, Blueblood was all she had left, her only foal and her only heir. She protected him like a glass doll, while at the same time grinding him to become what she perceived as the perfect royal stallion.

I still know not where Hemlock Blood (the name she was born with) or rather 'Lady Pure Blood' learned the Royal Canterlot voice.

Blue Knight, or 'Blue Zenith' as he changed it after marrying his wife, was not a coward. Something he had didn't have time to impart unto his son. While Blue Zenith did say "Yes dear!" as his wife wished, this had nothing to do with his courage, he did all she asked because he loved her, nothing else to it.

I think Blueblood actually smiled at her funeral when she finally died of a heart attack when abroad. No pony called him heartless for it. Yes I was sad at her funeral, I mourn all my ponies. In particular the ones I wasn't able to save from themselves.

Cadence had power she had to learn how to use right, and not to think of herself as 'superior' to the mortals around her. You're surprised to hear me say that? Let me ask you, is the ocean 'superior' to a pony? Is a mountain? The two are so different that even measuring them against each other for what they are is illogical. And as Queen Tiamat told me, Concepts in many ways needed life to give us meaning. The life giving sun exists because life needs warmth, without them, it'd just be a ball of burning gas floating in space. That is something Discord never understood: a universe without the mortals he saw as nothing but toys would have nocreature to 'appreciate' his chaos.

I learned, after the fact, while I was with little Cadence one time with her parents, that Blueblood had somehow found his way down to the crystal mines, the same ones reopened by different greedy diamond dogs and later ponies throughout history. I believe the sections he'd found were ones no pony had seen since the Pre-Chaos era. And by the time the servants thought it important enough, or rather had become brave enough to tell me, the foal had found his own way out, and had unwittingly gained his cutie mark in the process. Turns out my little prince was very good at making maps.

After both his parents were lost I should have made more time with him, of all of my nephews, he clearly needed me.

But at the time of course, I had been making sure Cadence didn't become a second Nightmare Moon, while at the same time preparing for my insane sister's return and...having to start over in those preparation due to my own mistakes with the loss of a beloved student...There is good reason I wanted Cadence and Twilight to not see the world revolve around them. Power and that worldview are a disastrous combination.

I know why Mother and Father insisted we be born without the ability to feel regret. It would kill us if we had to endure them for as long as we live them. So no, I feel no regret for what I did through neglect through Blueblood, I made my choice, nothing else to it.

The worst part is the rumors between myself and Blueblood, not all tabloids are written by Sunny Day. Most write that I'm just waiting for the right excuse to have Blueblood imprisoned, exiled, or...eliminated.

Yes, I did choose to tell him how attacking Princess Gaia's fog would be sure to inspire respect among his peers. Using his personal battered and misused guards of course. For his guards, it was the paid vacation they had never gotten, for Blueblood, it was the foalhood he never had.

I wondered if anything I said to him struck home in that heart he had sealed off from everyone in a wall of mirrors. When my information network revealed him dating his MAID, Arcane Spell, I worried for a little while he was trying to claim Rarity Belle vicariously, her coloring and species being the same as the Element of Generosity.

I do not believe either of them noticed the pink and milk white sunbird, sunfish, and servant-filly who chaperoned their first few outings and made no secret of being there with them. My nephew knows maps and high-society but I've fooled much smarter ponies than him.

But I'd learn I was not the queen of manipulation or subterfuge, that title belonged to another. There were those who lived and breathed deception.

I, and the many adults turned foals for one day, Applejack, and Princess Gaia, and three others, all laid down the foundation and most fill the glass, and there were certainly improvements....But it was one unicorn maid, no blood relation to the Paradise Ponies or those of the First Ponyville, with a Earth pony little sister and an ailing father, was finally the tipping point my nephew needed, and become a better pony. And I love them both for it.

I was able to carry a bit of happiness when I made my centennial visit to where I died. A foolish young goddess who made a deal with Discord's Mother for the means to end the hatred between ponies, and got the windigos for her childish naiveté. As punishment by My Parents: live a life of an Earth Pony, experience the hatred they felt at the unicorns and pegasi, die after seeing everypony else around you freeze to death, and your last breath cursing whatever brought about this fate, and learning the moment after your death, it was yourself.

How can I be happy at that? Because, for all the prejudice that might linger, all the classism, all of it that exists today put together is still not even a shadow of a ghost of the unbridled fundamental hate that dwelled within just one pony in the days of the Three Tribes. Even the most stuck-up, elitist noble in Canterlot, would still gasp away in horror at even the softest 'solutions' that the tribes had for each other before Equestria. My ponies have grown, my ponies are learning, they can grow up.

That's why I use Earth Pony Star-Catcher's form for my Sunny Day persona: she's grown up and learned too. You can't force ponies to make the right choices.

Starswirl The Bearded? He has as nearly as many stories circling him as myself. Rumors ranged from him being Discord's mortal form to creator of the Windigos to being a female Earth pony in a costume with a quick mouth. I think it is all to cover up that Starswirl did indeed think 'pure blooded' unicorns were superior in magic to 'tainted blood' one, but in his day and age? He was considered a radical! And his fellows would have been scandalized if they knew he had taken a 'part-dirt-pony' apprentice. My little ponies, they try to fit growing out of their prejudice they fell into as black and white. It wasn't. The circumstances that gave birth to ponies like Pansy, Smart Cookie, and Clover The Clever were one step at a time, much like their downward spiral into tribal lines to begin with.

And they keep getting stronger, always becoming just a tiny bit wiser, their children only learn a fraction of the lessons their parents did, make new mistakes, and learn from them as well, and I'll always love them for that.

I took a walk in the gardens when I returned.

++++++

Blueblood was not used to ponies banging on his door, opening it, he found Arcane Spell looking at him red-eyed and crying.

"Arcane? What's wrong?" Was all he could think to ask.

She grasped for words like she was trying to eat soup with a fork.

"They've... I told mom and dad, but I... Blueblood, Princess Celestia found Neatly Spell."

"...what happened?"

"... She won't say."

"How is she?"

"S-she refuses to say!"

"Why would Auntie do that?"

"She says she has her reasons, and...oh, Blueblood. I was so looking forward to introducing her to you. Neatly would have loved you!'"

"But Arcane, this doesn't make any sense! Why in Equestria wouldn't Auntie be able to provide a simple, straightforward answer?! Is Neatly alive and unharmed? Or injured? Ill? Even if some horrible calamity had happened, even if, heaven forbid, the poor girl were DEAD... what is to be gained by keeping such a thing secret?!"

"...The Princess says Neatly is alive. That's all she WILL say, though." We both found out eventually. And I understood a need for this to be quiet. Too bad it didn't stay that way.

++++

The most logical suspect was deemed to be a pegasus who had been Neatly Spell's overseer in the castle. This pegasus had vanished the same day as the filly had. But how he could have possibly rendered Neatly Spell to this state of being, was a mystery unto itself. One which the authorities would eagerly question the pegasus about, once he was in their custody.

The status of the poor filly was spread by castle staff and guards like a virus, whispered from one to another, becoming somehow more fantastic and grim with each telling. One pony suggested her status was due to being another of Clockwork's victims, and the paranoia erupted like a wildfire. It didn't matter Clockwork had been found and forced to see that turning fillies into sapient dolls wasn't what her father, Watch D. Wotch meant by 'saving' foals. Or that her father himself had died performing the magic that saved his terminally ill child, and that she had magically assumed her father's identity.

No. It didn't matter one bit. And the rumors just grew more fantastic from there, it was almost like somepony was fanning the flames, taking advantage. And the source of the rumors, poor Neatly Spell, was all but forgotten in the paranoia, save for her family her friends, and their families.

It didn't help matters that several ponies had been found petrified outside the city walls. It didn't change opinions that it was most likely a rogue cockatrice attack (which the ponies revealed as the truth once they were returned to their flesh and blood). That was drown out by the rumors.

Long Haul, Equestria's long-standing Chief of Intelligent and Security, with intelligence gathered from reliable sources, declared that there was indeed an unknown threat at play. This gave the ponies something to focus on. Long Haul approached the Princess amidst other high-ranking guards and submitted security measures to be taken, new troop positions, and new flight patterns for pegasi guards...Celestia accepted them all, knowing they would keep her ponies happy. And hopefully keep them safe.

+-----+

"And now ladies and gentlecolts! Twilight Sparkle will perform wonders not before seen by pony eyes!" Spike called out on stage built in Hoofington square.

Then she brought up our comrades. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack, the same three friends I first tripped up in my first Ponyville show.

Twilight took out a horn seal, she first used it on Rarity to prove that it wasn't a fake then placed it on her own horn, but she STILL could get enough magic out to do telekinesis and the like as she showed off with some of Fluttershy's animals. That's impossible. How?

The rest of the crowd (including my sisters and brothers) loved it.

"Now behold!" Twilight hit Applejack and Rarity in a flash and . . . they were fillies?! Since when did Twilight learn THAT magic? Who am I kidding? What magic doesn't Twilight know?

The crowd was enthralled.

Then she returned the two to normal and . . made Applejack an old mare?! Then returned her to normal again just as easily!

Their hoof claps were deafening.

Then she looked at Rainbow Dash and blasted her, and when the flash cleared . . . Rainbow Dash had been doubled . . . I don't know if the world is ready for this. But it's incredible! The two Rainbow Dash flew and circled one another. The crowd was loving it.

I couldn't tell how she was doing this magic at all! Yes, I had been reading the book Twilight gave me.

Then she made Pinkie Pie play a dozen instruments. Followed by her climax of changing Applejack into a stallion! I went numb.

"The great and powerful Twilight! The great and powerful Twilight!" They were cheering. I . . . politely clapped, putting on the best smile I could.

Behind stage, I asked, "Twilight! That magic! How did you do all that?!"

"Oh it wasn't magic." Twilight smiled.

Explanation. Just smoke and lights. And her friends and their families in make-up and wigs to make them look like the our comrades. And 'Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.'

"So . . . So you did all that, with stage magic?"

Twilight simply smiled and nodded. "It was all so easy. So simple. It was a breeze for a change instead of hard work."

I felt my heart sink. "But . . . Twilight, stage magic is my special talent."

"And it still is," Twilight patted me on the back. "It's still your little thing you can do."

"Little thing?"

"Sure, a little thing for a little pony. You know that Element of Magic inside you is the only reason I was able to save you. You need to accept that without it, you're not anything, you whine that it's a curse, but it's the only thing that makes you worth while. Without it, you're a fraud and a weakling whose special talent is being all flare and no substance. Otherwise you'll just be setting yourself up for disappoint after disappointment. And I care too much about you for that." She hugged me. I didn't feel better.

I backed out of the hug, "Uh, I have be going Twilight."

"Bye-bye!" She waved happily.

I had to get out of there, I couldn't breath. I sat down on a empty bench, feeling my heart pounding and my body heavy.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie shouldn't have to take that."

A unicorn stallion was next to me, handsome like a statue, gray fur, black mane, red eyes (I don't judge by appearance) and an odd red jewel pendant topped with an Alicorn as a cutie mark.

"Who are you?"

He did a bow.

"Your biggest fan. I've heard so much about you, Great and Powerful Trixie. I've felt you, sensed you, seen you, heard you, known of you," he held out one of the posters for one of my shows to me with a quill for an autograph. I signed it after examining it closely. I'd wanted to sign autographs for a long time, but Discord had left me a little weary of signing things without checking first. "And your family, we have a history, we've worked together before, but it's been many years, then you came along . . . you had such HATE in your heart Trixie. You wished to bring DESPAIR to all who had laughed at you, mocked you, belittled you, dismissed you as being just another unicorn, sentenced to die in obscurity. Why did you give up your STRENGTH?"

" . . . It wasn't a strength, it was a weakness, all my hate ever did was blind me. All my grudge did was drag me down."

"It's what gave you the strength to keep moving forward after you life was destroyed."

"And it's what kept me from going to my family for help when I needed them most."

"You shouldn't need them. But they aren't the point. The point is what Twilight Sparkle said to you. As an Element of Magic you are superfluous, and as a magician on your own, you are a triviality. But that doesn't have to be your fate. You can change it."

"I am."

"Are you? Or are you just spinning your wheels? But I can help you. Like I've helped other members of your line in the distant past. You and I are bound by fate. By destiny. Together, we can crush those who looked down on you! And you can achieve the greatness you've always wanted."

"Trixie makes her own destiny!"

"And make it with me. Think it. Cow everypony who ever laughed at you. Those who sneered at you, enslaved. Torture all who slighted you. Silence all who berated you. You don't need to take their judgment. Together, you and I. I, the one forged from the remnants of despair, the piece of the black rainbow, and empowered by The Great Dark One. Given life by anger, given mind by hate. And you, the one of your blood who does not fear to sacrifice all in the name of power."

He reached out his hoof.

"So what do you think? Do you want to be great and powerful again?"

. . . Was that what I wanted? Did I want to push into the dirt all who brushed me aside and treated me like I was nothing? To make their lives ten times the misery mine was? A hundred fold? A thousand fold? To become Great and Powerful again? To become feared again?

I slapped his hoof away. "Go clop yourself."

"What?"

"It wasn't the magic of HATE that beat Discord, Nightmare Moon and Whisper. It was friendship! And I've FELT the difference! All my hate and bitterness ever did was WEAKEN me!"

"You didn't embrace it ENOUGH!"

"If I embraced it anymore I'd have been a Nightmare! The fantasies I had of what I'd do to Twilight were petty and vicious! All that would be is me back sliding into the mare I used to be! A WEAK pale imitation of a pony like you."

"You can't do this! I need you! YOU NEED ME! You're a weakling and will always BE a weakling without me!"

"You're offering an EASY way out! You think I'm scared of EARNING power? Trixie is many things, but afraid of hard work isn't one, or I'd have curled up and died a long time ago! Now excuse me!"

I got up from the bench. He pointed a hoof at me.

"I swear this truth, this reality, this FACT: One day, when your heart embraces hate so pure it blocks out the sun, you heart will call out to ME and I shall lead you to me."

I narrowed my eyes at him. I trotted forwards, staring him down.

"Sorry, but that's not happening, EVER." I pushed him back onto his haunches. Then hit him with my fireworks spell at point blank range. He shattered like glass.

And I saw a filly, I knew all too well standing behind where the stallion had been like he had been obscuring her.

The world changed. I was on stage, and I saw my friends and family all clapping and cheering for me, throwing flowers onto my stage.

"Congratulations!" Mother said.

"One and only Trixie!" Twilight shouted.

"Right on!" RD called.

I looked around at my friends...at my family. This was where I belonged...I didn't want to throw them away...I was afraid of losing them. I was happy to have them. Happy to be with them.

Princess Loving-Bright-Shinny-Star Sparkling-Dawn-Flower The Eighty-Eighth galloped up on stage and hugged me, I hugged her back. "I'm so proud you Trixie! You beat the bad stallion! You really did! You really did!"

I slowly return the hug and nuzzle her. "Yes, I really did. And I did it because of my friends. Do we have time to play princesses again before I wake up?"

"I think so! Wait, you want to play after all this time?"

"Maybe I'm overdue, for a little playtime."

After saving Hoofingtonia from the Smooze and being given my own personal dragon and giving Princess Loving-Bright-Shinny-Star Sparkling-Dawn-Flower The Eighty-Eighth one last hug I woke up. And found I had fallen asleep on the bedroom desk going through my junk mail.

Trixie, I, made it a point to never let my family see my mail. There were some things that still creeped in that Trixie wasn't proud of.

I got some weird letters from Pinkie Pie, who kept mentioning buses for some reason. She kept signing them 'Pinkie Diane' instead of 'Pinkie Pie.' Trixie cannot believe it, but she is actually sorry she has not gotten any mail from the ego with wings.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Maybe you can find a full of themselves Earth pony and you three can combine into the Alicorn of Big Egos!)

...While being an Alicorn is tempting, Trixie would rather keep her individuality, thank you, and where are the rest of you?

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): We're kinda spread out, with different opinions, can we please keep this focused on you?)

Never did Trixie once dream she'd have to be asked that! But yes, I was sad that I hadn't gotten any mail from Rainbow Dash. Trixie hates to admit it, but somewhere deep down, I think we're more alike than I and Twilight are.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Rainbow Dash wanted to be the best to test her limits and challenge herself. You wanted to be the best so everypony would look up to you and love you.)

Pst. Twilight gave me all her notes on what had happened in Ponyville before. I know about Mare-Do-Well. Rainbow Dash has as much need for others to acknowledge she exists as I do.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): You admit that?)

Where have you been? I'm done hiding from myself....But Rainbow Dash, she found something more important, she found her friends. Once upon a time I would have considered her an idiot for that. Now I'm forced to admit she's a wiser pony than me. ...She realized her dreams...didn't hold any value unless she had somepony to share them with.

And she's now more famous than Trixie has ever been, she's better than me as an performer...she is the best. No Trixie isn't crying. If they were, they'd be tears of joy, for a friend. Trixie might have an ego, but she's no longer focused solely on herself.

And I have very dear friends indeed! Ponyville wasn't just another town where my act had gone south, it had hit the south pole!

Snips and Snails' parents weren't rich enough to be worth suing. So instead the pony whose home had been destroyed by my worst fear made flesh, demanded bits I didn't have.

You see while the most of Ponyville didn't connect with the bully I was before, it's easier for a pony who lost their house to recognize the one responsible.

I won't give her name, Rarity told me they're normally a good pony and a wonderful mother, and having your house destroyed is enough to fill anypony with seething hateful rage: I speak from experience.

While their insurance had already paid for the damages (how anypony insured a town right next to the Everfree Forest was lost on me), their demands for restitution from me were crystal clear. If I had enough bits to afford a house, would I have been living in a gypsy cart?

Having just recovered from my ordeal involving, that thing inside my mind, I was surprised when Rarity, the mare who I had gleefully humiliated, came to my defense. So yes, Trixie DOES now consider her a friend!

"Darling, how much do you honestly expect to sue out of a traveling showmare who has also lost her home, all her belongings, and her job?" I had to give Rarity credit, she could have been a good showmare herself if she wanted. She knew how to use the proper language to a pony in their particular emotional state. She was angry and hurt, so she spoke of anger and being hurt.

But the U-Ursa did crush her house and she did have a foal to raise, and needed something to give her a conclusion. I gave my apology after Princess Gaia's festival, in private, in a low voice, apologizing was something I was still getting used to doing at the time. It only cost me the exact amount of my royal commission to perform during the Gaia Festival. I didn't move back in with my family just because I wanted to make up for years of ignoring them.

But . . . I don't regret it in the least, I still got a show, the ponies of Ponyville now love my magic, my friends were there to enjoy it, and talk about me HAPPILY, who wants money when reputation can't be bought?

Did I ever say I was sorry for my show in Ponyville to Rainbow and the others? Hadn't I just been putting on a show? Why are we all going over this mess again? I'm about to put on a show that tops all this!

They had accepted my challenge of their own choice, and tripping up ponies on their own signature tricks had always pleased the crowd from my earliest shows and had become a staple of mine.

Had I taken pleasure in seeings others squirm? Seeing others humiliated and laughed at? It gave me a sense of power, just like lying did. And power carries a sweet seduction all its own. Like any narcotic, it took time to let go. It's an addiction and breaking it wasn't easy.

And I'm HAPPY I had friends to teach me not to give myself the chance TO humiliate ponies who just wanted a good magic show.

...I still don't want to be submissive and humble, apologizing for everything and anything I've done. You will NOT find that Trixie here!

I don't want to be another face in the herd. I wasn't sorry for putting on a magic show that involved wrong-hoofing challengers...I apologized that I rubbed their muzzles in it, like they were clowns there to entertain me. I apologized for being a sadistic bully, not for being a showmare. And they accepted my apology! And not with cold and icy glares like I was used to! They truly honest did! It was like a delusion at the time, but a good one!

I still have the book Twilight gave me. It's proving interesting reading, Starswirl The Bearded For The Laymare. A part of me now wonders if there is a point in picking up studying magic again, now that I can just replicate any spell I observe. A quick road to power, like I always wanted, for the respect and admiration I had wanted so badly.

...

But how was I supposed to put on a good show everypony wanted to see, if all I could do was everypony's else's tricks? I surprised even myself with that realization.

I had everything together for my grand performance in Canterlot, including my new costume. My dream had finally come true. A command performance in Canterlot by one of the Princesses themselves? The elite would be talking about it for ages to come, I'd be getting contracts left and right after this. Everything from theater shows to overpriced birthday parties for nobles' spoiled brats. Well, maybe I'll have enough to pick and choose a little. And everypony will see Trixie's grand performance! And they will know Trixie! The One And Only Trixie!

And I wasn't sure I wanted to go.

Instead of waiting forever for Twilight to convince her friends to spend an episode of their lives in Hoofington for no apparent reason, I could have simply gone to them instead. I'm an adult, I could have moved to Ponyville if I wanted, it wasn't like I had a standing address at the time.

But mother, father, Mixie, Pixie, Nyxie, 'Hexy', Puck, Robin. I didn't want to just leave them again.

This was everything I had wanted as a showpony. What I had expected to happen naturally years before, what I had kept telling myself had to have been just repeatedly lost in the mail or something, was the only reason I wasn't given a Canterlot command performance sooner.

Was the fact I was a good magician the reason why I was asked to perform after Gaia's Festival? Or just because I was friends with Twilight Sparkle? Never really having had friends before, I have nothing to compare it with: and for the first time in my life that feels like a negative.

I wasn't scared of messing up, I wasn't scared of the nightmare that grinning zoo mash-up had forced me through becoming real, I wasn't scared of being dismissed and known through out Canterlot of being not worth a first glance.

I was scared of dumping my family for a second time.

I made a point of not letting my family see my mail, least they read something that might upset them...I didn't want to lose their love after I finally appreciated it. I was afraid of losing it, I admit it. I was afraid losing genuinely love now that I knew I had it.

The longer I delayed, the less time I'd have to set-up, and the more things that could go wrong. But...could I just leave them again? Ditch them again? What right did I have to do that? I had a lifetime to catch up on with them, did even the chance of a lifetime have the right to take priority over that? I wanted to be a new Trixie. If I left my family hanging again just to make it big, had I really changed at all?

"I'd wait for you tell me what's wrong dear, but I know you'll just keep it bottled up until you implode."

"Mother?!"

"Last time I checked dear. So please, can you tell your mother for once what's hurting you?"

"What makes you think anything is hurting me?"

"You and your sisters got your bombastery from your father. Whenever it starts to wane, I know something is bothering you."

"Maybe I've just changed."

"Yes you have dear. But that isn't something that has. Your ability to read ponies you got from me, I'm not easy to fool. Now please open up to your mother."

"I don't want to."

She sighed. "And I can't force you to. But I have no intention of letting you begin to hurt yourself again. So My Little Trickster, please tell mommy whut's hurtin' you so bad."

I cringed as she used that voice. No pony in existence I knew san Fluttershy knew the stare. But mom had her own verbal version that could work on us! I would not surrender! "T-that isn't going to work mother!"

"Is that so?" She gently hugged me, and gave me a loving nuzzle.

"T-That's not fair!" I squealed.

"Everything's fair in war and love, now speak to me your worries," she whispered.

My resistance to her will dissolved like powder in water.

"I'm invited to do big show in Canterlot. A royal wedding."

"And?"

"I don't want to just leave all of you for it."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to act like you don't mean anything to me...Like I acted for so long. I don't want to let you go."

"And I think that's enough dear." She let go of the hug, and the 'spell' was broken.

I said nothing. For all things in creation, me at a loss for words was something that just felt wrong.

"Did you know dear, when I first got my cutie mark, I thought it meant I was like a 'wicked queen' like in the story books? That I was good for nothing except hurting others?"

"Yes mother, you have. You told Mixie that story after she got her cutie mark, and thought it meant she was a wicked witch."

"And I told her my how cutie mark actually meant that I was good at USING POWER, knowing how to use not too much, and not too little to accomplish things. Trixie, your damaged reputation isn't going to change if you stay cooped up at home."

"How could you know that?!"

"You're hardly sublime where you go Trixie, I've been keeping informed of your shows since the day you left home. If you don't believe me, I've got a scrapbook of newspaper clippings."

I couldn't bring myself to ask how much she knew.

"And I was disappointed young lady, that you didn't come to us for help after your first show in Ponyville apparently flopped and you lost everything. I mean, I heard you even took a job at a rock farm for a while. And you didn't tell us hello when you came back to Hoofington."

My bowed my head. "I'm sorry mother."

"You're forgiven, you've been through enough already, and my baby had grown up so much since then. Going too strongly is one thing, but going too timid is just as bad Trixie. Where is that confident trickster I raised and loved?"

"She got too confident, fell, and broke into pieces, and when they put her back together again, it got left out."

Mother looked at me deadpan like I had lied about my hoof still being in the cookie jar. "You're getting far too out of practice Trixie. You used to be an excellent liar."

"If I rise, I might fall and break again, but much more importantly I don't want to leave all of you again!!"

"Do you still want to be seen by other ponies? For ponies to love your magic and stories?"

"...yes mother. But I...I...I-!" It was like drinking tar, "-I can't enjoy it, if I had to shuffle you all off again."

"Trixie."

"Yes mother?"

"Listen very carefully to what your mother has to say. You've made me proud my little trickster, that you're thinking about me, thinking about us, instead of just yourself. But I'm afraid you're a little...stunted when it comes to these things." For some reason, I thought of Twilight and her friendship reports. "You are not abandoning your family my little trickster to take up a royal command performance. You're making us proud that our Trixie has made it this far! I know you like to be your own pony dear, and I'll never stop you from being that, but you make us all happy too when you reach the stars . . .

"See the world outside, why miss anything?
Time to show the world you exist.
You can gain so much, but lose nothing.
So why should you resist
Showing the whole wide world your brand new face?
Show them you're not the same.
We all love you, Trixie, don't think you're a disgrace
There's no need to hide in shame

Listen to your mother, my words are not lies
Go see the world out there.
Hiding yourself away would be most unwise
Being ignored you can't bare
You're your happiest when seen by every eye around.
There is nothing more important
To me than seeing that my foals' happiness abounds
If I've failed then I'm impotent.

Listen to your mother, don't sit and hide
Being special is hard to do
But impossible if all alone you abide
Don't you doubt I care about you
So you want to show the world your new self, Trixie dear?

So long as you are happy that way
You have my blessings, so you have no reason to fear.
If you're happy...happy I will stay.

If you're happy...happy I will stay..."

I had already gathered my things (including the dress given to me by Rarity Belle). All I need now was to tell my family that I loved them and, not good-bye, but that I'd seen them later.

What I said to my sisters, brothers, and parents is private thank you very much. And uh, maybe we'd be here for the next several hours if I had to recount the entire exchange between us. The Lulamoon clan does love to talk and is very large. Hexy had time to make herself a sandwich as Puck and Robin gave their good-byes.

Maybe I could convince an elite to finally give Mixie the funding she needed to bridge the gap between unicorn and zebra magic. Give a word in edgewise for Pixie to get a performance, or get one of Nyxie's works published, and 'Hexy'...I stunned my self. I shocked myself as if hit by lightning. Here I was, Trixie, thinking about my sisters?! About what I could do for them?...How much had I changed?

I didn't even flinch when they all admitted they couldn't attend the royal wedding on such short notice. And I'm happy for that. Theirs is a world without having to fight mad gods, without having to save the world, without magic trinkets empowered by the heart, they had endured enough as is. I was happy I was able to keep their world separate from the world I entered with Twilight Sparkle, at least just for now. I knew I was holding back the inevitable. But I needed to see, after the Gaia Festival with my sisters saving my flanks when I was caught with my saddle down, that I could still put on a show as the One And Only Trixie. Maybe then, I could finally let them into this new world I had stumbled into.

Time to show Twilight Sparkle isn't the only mage unicorn in Equestria! Abracadabra! Alakazoo! One epic teleport later, and the One and Only Trixie is in Ponyville central!

All eyes on me, shock and awe! I look up in pride. I don't think ponies are used to seeing a unicorn and luggage teleport right into the center of town!

And all her things being twenty-five hooves above her! Catch!Catch!Catch!Catch!Catch!Catch! Rainbow coordinated teapots! Save!Save!Save!Save!Save!Save!Save! Thank Celestia for telekinesis.

All props present and accounted for? Check. Blech. I almost sound like Twilight Sparkle. Funny considering what Princess Gaia's fog revealed what I wanted in my heart of hearts.

Well, saved my props from being all destroyed again. And I saved myself from becoming a blue pancake. I think I may have impressed some ponies by being able to catch that much stuff. Uh, you don't need to write this particular scene down...

Now then...I really should have brought a cart. Maybe I can borrow one or learn a materialization spell.

Library...no sign of Spike or Twilight, wished I knew how to speak owl. Maybe I should cheek out the Carousel Boutique or Sugar Cube Corner next. I hope they aren't all gathered to face another evil force again... .Maybe Trixie will end up having to save them all in a solo adventure. Then again I doubt even fate has that warped a sense of humor.

Hmmm? A note?

To Who It May Concern

Golden Oaks Library will be closes for 1-3 Hours starting at 12:30 PM. All personnel are presently on a picnic with our friends in the second highest hill in the park.

If you have a book to return, please return it through the book slot.

If you are are a friend, feel free to join us.

If you are a villain seeking to do evil, kindly turn yourself in.

If you are...

Ugh! Twilight! can you even make a note without a checklist?!

If you are the Cutie Mark Crusaders, don't touch the matches, I hid them all.

Twilight Sparkle, Librarian of the Golden Oaks Library.

A picnic?

Well that takes the fun out of things. Ick. Now I almost sound like Pinkie Pie. Maybe it's true and friend do rub off on you...wonder if that means I've rubbed off on them any. I don't feel as upset at that idea as I should. I should be upset at the idea of being 'diffused'. Maybe I've stopped being a one note pony after all. Well I'm sure Twilight won't mind me keeping my props here just for a little bit. Time to add my beat to the melody.

++++

We all saw her make her big entrance in Ponyville square. And almost get smashed by her stuff. Guess we won't be Cutie Mark Crusader Paramedics today.

Okay...maybe that was mean.

But she was a big jerk to Rainbow, Rarity, and Applejack when she first showed up!

"It's her," I said, she didn't notice us. "How about we give her a piece of ours minds?"

I was surprised when the others just looked at each other and then me.

"If Spike was here I know he'd agree with me." Spike had run off a while ago after burping up a scroll.

Can't Princess Celestia teach him a less gross way to do that? I mean you'd think he'd realize Rarity might like him better that way. Not that I mind, Sweetie is the 'refined one.' It's just kinda a mood killer whenever it happened.

"Actually, Spike told me," Silver Spoon said, "That while he's not Miss Trixie's biggest fan, telling her how big a jerk she was has really gotten old."

"How would you know?"

"We talk a lot. And I don't know about her mean show, but to me she's the pony who helped break Miss Fluttershy's dream world." She shuddered, remember the tease of being with Diamond again I think. "And everypony LIKED her magic show at Miss Fluttershy's festival."

"Rarity talks about her now like she's a friend. It would mean to say bad things to a friend of my sister's."

"So does Applejack, and . . . " Applebloom crossed her legs uncomfortable,"Considerin' how we hurt her back already when we were Gabby Gum, that's somethin' we AIN'T proud of, and wouldn't it be like diggin' up old bones, like Miss Twili did with talkin' 'bout the Want-It-Need-It Spell just 'cause she didn't want to feel guilty . . . wouldn't it be like we're holdin' a grudge when our sisters ain't?"

"And if she helped save Fluttershy, and our big sisters forgave her already, and we want to bring up stuff from a year ago . . . ins't that what a bully would do? And Silver Spoon's our friend now." She put a hoof on her shoulder.

Silver nodded with a...oddly serious look. "She's right...I know more than anypony that a jerk can change their ways..."

"Okay, okay, I get it, treating her like she hasn't changed would be . . . hippocritical."

"That's hypocritical." Sweetie Belle said.

"Dictionary."

"Thank you," Sweetie Belle said smiling.

Applebloom said, "Hey, do you think we could be Cutie Mark Crusader Magicians? Dang, she's gone, Ah don't think she ever noticed us."

Author's Note

"It's here, it's here, it'shereit'shereit'shere!!!"

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Silver-Spoon-Character-Rerailment-438964921

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Not-The-Same-Wedding-Part-2-439587816

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries

Everybody loves a wedding episode. Especially one with one point five amnesic gods getting married and a point five one in attendance, a dark god looming in the background, a shadow given life rising to challenge, and the fate of a kingdom in the balance. Oh, and no doubt the mother of all angry explosions when Twilight finds out that her brother didn't tell her he was getting married. The fate of Equestria will not be decided by armies. Not all earned happy endings are bitter sweet.

This story is meant for entertain. It is not intended as a personal attack on anyone's beliefs or any individual nor was it written as such. If that's what it comes across as to you, then I'm sorry.

It was also not intended as any sort of political message. There was no intention what so ever of this being like any real world politics or spies or armies. It's just a fanfic. And they are as about as far from the point of this story as you can get. Please remember that. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MST3KMantra . Entertainment is all this is meant to be.

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

There are no technicians here, only performers. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TechnicianVersusPerformer

You are free to post your opinion. But please do not SPAM that the fic is 'wrong' (or whatever other negative thoughts you wish to use) to everyone ELSE who post here who does not share your worldview on the subject, please, it will NOT BE TOLERATED. The same goes for spamming your positive opinion on everypony who is negative. Keep it CIVIL on BOTH sides (spamming is not the same as discussing, nor is flaming or attacking). I don't care who you are (You have been warned, and this is the only warning you'll get)! I wash my hands clean. Your fate is your own.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Song is a parody of Listen To Your Mother From Tangled

Episode 160: Lots of foreshadowing and character driven stuff

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember
Part 2
By Alex Warlorn

Okay, let's back up some here. Like you were told before, we really got our notes scattered or destroyed in the invasion. So let's rewind a little bit. I know you all want us to get straight to the action, we do too, but we need to give credit where credit is due to some good ponies.

And remind everypony that these ponies haven't had to lose or fight their friends to the bitter end, and have remained strong through tests and trials.

So you might have to piece together a few things yourselves, sorry. Think of it as a tiny mystery maybe? Then again, given how freaky we can be with details, I guess maybe not.

But we did have to go back and rewrite a lot of stuff 'after the fact', get interviews from random ponies, and had to skip over some stuff, and had to stitch it all together. We know a lot of you ponies didn't care for when we just went over stuff you already knew for Rainbow Dash picking her pet.

But trust us little ponies, when we tell you, that you ain't seen nothin' yet!

So let's rewind a bit, and get reacquainted with our little ponies.

+++

"Fluttercruel, are you still sore that now that Photo Finish is back in town, she turned you down after that model try out?"

Fluttercruel's response was unprintable and caused nearby flowers to wither.

There weren't many swears Fluttercruel knew given, she got them all from pure and kind Fluttershy's memories. Fluttershy put a clamp down on their mouth, leaving Cruel to take Celestia's name in vain only in Fluttershy's mind. Fluttershy remembered Cruel's cute-ceañera and strongly imagined a bar of soap in her mouth with the desired results.

(INTERVIEWEE'S BUCKING NOTES (Draconequus/Pegasus Hybrid): Can we PLEASE skip past this?!)

++++

"And there we go, isn't it lovely?" Fluttershy said as Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Silver Spoon, and Spike, knitted the last of the yarn together.

Outside of our big sisters, the three of us together aren't known for having repeat foalsitters. Now that our club had grown to include Silver Spoon and Spike well...

Given what happened last time Fluttershy foalsat for us, and that there were five of us (and one of us a dragon), I figured we'd add her to the list of one-time foal-sitters.

Huh? Cause we drove her crazy? Don't be stupid. I mean the cockatrice! Burr!

I can't say we all weren't upset that she teased us with what we wanted most...okay, more like we were all unhappy that it wasn't real. Mom, dad, me, Rainbow Dash, all together, it was wonderful.

Silver Spoon wasn't doing that much a better job than me, and she looked even more embarrassed.

Did her parents really trust Fluttershy with Silver Spoon after Fluttershy enchanting half the kingdom?

Well, unlike some rude ponies, they believe Princess Celestia when she said Fluttershy was possessed like Princess Luna was. Or did Princess Luna say that? I'm a little confused. At least everypony stopped arguing about it after she helped with the Hurricane...Which I couldn't help Rainbow Dash with, but wanted to. Maybe I don't hate Fluttershy anymore for being so fixated on the ground when she can fly, when I want to be in the sky and I'm stuck here, but that doesn't mean not being able to fly is suddenly fun.

Do I forgive her for what happened? Well, Rainbow Dash forgives her, so no matter which adults are right, the least I can do is forgive her too. Spike doesn't even seem to mind what happened. And Silver Spoon says she forgave her at the Gaia Festival...it was part of how Silver Spoon became friends with us after all.

Spike didn't want to knit at first, group activity or not (I agreed with him), until somepony had to go and tell him it might make him more helpful towards her big sister! I didn't want to play all by myself, and Rainbow Dash was busy working that day, so here I am.

Do our big sisters trust her with us? Do you even have to ask? Truth was, with this being during the day, we got a chance to try out some things we couldn't before.

When everypony in town got rude, and it all led back to Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash told us how she was very sorry, and that she needed help. So yeah, we helped Spike and Angel take care of Fluttershy's animals.

NO! We didn't misfeed any animals, and we didn't try to breed the chickens with the hawks to make chicken-hawks. And we were careful around the porcupines, bears, and skunks. Not everything we do fails. Recently,our stuff kinda really goes too well.

+++

No darling, I didn't tell little Sweetie Belle about New Fluttershy behavior towards us, and neither did Applejack nor Rainbow Dash. There was no reason to. We had already forgive her. There was no reason to infect them any new grudges (fillies shouldn't have grudges). I trusted her with my little sister.

+++

Rainbow Dash had said Fluttershy had 'creepy knowledge of sewing,' but she didn't say Fluttershy could create -anything- out of yarn! Yarn carrots, yarn flowers. "Heh, can you make a yarn skateboard?" I asked.

"Oh sure Scootaloo, you can't really ride it, but I'm sure it'll keep you warm at night!"

"I was joking!"

I'm no judge, but even I could see the obvious. Applebloom had done a good job. So had Spike. Sweetie Belle...well...she stitched our capes remember? So she wasn't that bad. How she got it done with that stupid sweater and dream-catcher Rarity was still making her wear, I dunno. It made me itch just looking at it...

Me? Well, I hate sewing and knitting, like a lot. But I was kinda stuck having to learn the basics when...when I didn't have anypony else.

Oh. Silver Spoon. She was. She...she might have been blushing and looking ashamed and embarrassed at the end. It was so surreal to see her . Her project looked like a rat's nest. It's kinda a joke how once I'd have paid bits to see her humiliated for all the times she helped Diamond Tiara make our lives miserable. Now all I felt was bad that she felt bad.

"That's, nice Silver Spoon," Fluttershy said before we could.

"It's a mess," Silver Spoon said, she looked on the verge of tears. And now I felt really bad. So did Sweetie and Applebloom from their expressions.

"Did you skip doing the knit gauge?" Fluttershy asked calmly.

"I...I thought I didn't need it. I...I wanted to do it all on my own."

SILVER SPOON!? Not following directions?! Cue Cutie Mark Crusaders Shell Shocked Friends...

"There there Silver Spoon," Fluttershy whispered.

"I guess all I'm good for is following directions."

"That's not true young filly!" Fluttershy took Silver Spoon face and looked her in the eyes.

Applebloom looked over. "Silver, followin' orders ain't the same thin' as bein' given instructions. Yer learnin' tah do somethin', yah need tah accept help. If Ah didn't learn how tah buck a tree right, Ah'd probably have broken my leg just tryin'."

"Trust me," said Spike, "I burned a lot of parchment learning how to send letters. In fact, the first place I learned to send letters to were the fire department."

"And," Sweetie Belle blushed, "Well, I, whenever I try to help my big sister sew and stuff-" she blushed deeper.

"Ah think we get it Sweetie."

Silver Spoon made a small giggle. And we didn't mind. "Thank you."

We all gave Silver Spoon a hug. She smiled.

Fluttershy nuzzled Silver Spoon, "Now Silver Spoon, let me tell you a little poem my grandmother taught me for sewing, 'In the front door, around the back, peek out the window out jumps Jack!'"

"Fluttershy, uh, you're really good at knitting."

"Thank you Scootaloo."

"But I thought your special talent was taking care of animals?"

"Oh it is Scootaloo. But just because it's my special talent, doesn't mean I don't have other hobbies. You have things you like, but aren't why you live your life, don't you?"

I remembered that I had gotten super good at copying other ponies' writing, but it wasn't what I wanted to do with myself forever.

Being...alone, not being too good or too bad is what worked best for me. Kept the adults from asking questions. But now that I have Rainbow Dash to keep it secret, I can stand out more without risking Miss Cheerilee asking to see my parents. So yeah, so many...not being as good as Applebloom and Spike, or things going bad like for Silver Spoon, maybe being in the middle...doesn't feel as nice as it used to.

"Fluttershy, can I please go outside, so for a little bit? I think I need a little...er, something." Way to go Scoots. "I mean check on the animals?"

The others all blinked at me. Fluttershy however smiled and nodded, "Alright Scootaloo, just please don't wander off! Angel will be keeping an eye on you."

I looked down to see the rabbit looking up at me with a pair of binoculars. I sighed. "Alright. Thank you."

I used to spend all my time outside the Crusaders alone after I came to Ponyville. I can't say I liked it, but I guess I got a little used to it. I just got comfortable with it.

Outside I got with Big Brother Bunny ruining the mood. I mean seriously, how is ANYPONY supposed to get some good time by themselves if they're not by themselves? I'd lock'em in a box somewhere but I don't want to have an angry Fluttershy. Angry Fluttershy was scary.

All these animals of Fluttershy's, they were taught their tricks sure, but I've never seen a seal learn how to swim or spider learn how to spin a web. So why can't I fly yet?

"Do you think they look nice?"

"GAAHHHH! Don't do that Sweetie Belle!"

+++

Some friends need a hug, other friends need some time alone. And that time isn't now because I'm going to talk to her anyway. Signed Sweetie Belle.

+++

"Heh, sorry, I thought you heard me." Little liar.

"What are doing outside Sweetie?"

"Well, Applebloom and Spike, and Fluttershy are all helping Silver Spoon, so I thought I'd help you."

I gave her a sideways glance, "Erm, thanks."

A little blue butterfly fluttered in front of Sweetie, then in front of me, and fluttered around us more than once, "Hey-hey! What's you're game?" I asked the weird acting butterfly.

"Hey Scootaloo, maybe your special talent is coming up with games to play?"

"What with...somepony painting away?" Okay. That was weird. Where did that come from?

"Uh, maybe?" She looked as confused as I did. Why was I thinking of that new Ponyville park that Pinkie Pie was helping open? Ugh! I've got a headache.

The butterfly landed on my nose, I tried to swat it away, and scored a direct hit on my own muzzle, the butterfly landed on my head. "H-hey! Get off!" The butterfly flew off me and landed on Sweetie Belle's back. Then again, I guess I should be happy I didn't hit it and make Fluttershy angry by hurting one of her animals.

It wouldn't have looked so weird if the wings were bigger, or maybe Sweetie Belle was small, like a little fairy in the breeze. BLECH! Where did THAT ONE come from?!

Sweetie Belle giggled as the Butterfly landed on her nose and unlike me she liked the view. Something that girlie looked better on her anyway.

"You know, Rarity talks a lot."

"No kidding."

"No I mean, she talks a lot with Fluttershy, and...me and Rarity have been talking a lot more."

With how Rarity had been making sure Sweetie was never ever alone even for a minute, I wasn't surprised. "And?"

"And she said, that Fluttershy said, how butterflies only live for a few days, oh sorry!" She apologized to the butterfly! "But they live their lives to the fullest."

"Okay."

The butterfly bowed at Sweetie then did a few loop de loops as it fluttered away as we kept our eyes on it. "Rarity says butterflies symbolize grace and skill in the air. Hey!" Sweetie looked at me and pointed with her hoof, "Just like you, but with your scooter."

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah right, like me and those things will have anything in common."

(Interviewee's Notes (Awesome Orange Pegasus): Hey-HEY! No need to show that part! There's gotta me more interesting stuff than that!)

++++
Hello! Grand opera Sunflowers! I mean, it's a wonderful morning! Mayor Mare even promised I wasn't going to have to sign everything Ditzy Doo AND Derpy Hooves from now on because that filing error made it look like I was married to myself.

Ivory scroll sparkles. I mean, Mayor Mare is a really nice pony. I don't understand why everypony says politicians are all bad ponies. I haven't met many of them.

The Doctor? He's doing great! Orange Top had to help him through his taxes! Yeah! Apparently he's never stayed in one spot for so long as with Ponyville that Mayor Mare says he's now officially taxable this year! He said figuring out how to transport a miniatured planet inside the TARDIS is easier than tax forms!

He says his normal quick talking doesn't seem to quite work as well on ERS ponies like other other borrower-rats, I mean bureaucrats! He actually begged Princess Celestia for help, but she said that if he wanted to live somewhere, instead of just staying somewhere, he had to play by the same rules as everypony else!

He was given the forms by this nice pony name Catch-Twenty-Two.

Sparkler's doing great! My bigger muffin says she wants to introduce us to a friend she made in Canterlot: Moon Dancer. Mom's doing great too! Normally when I visit she's always so nervous, but now she's acting a lot more peaceful! And Derpy finally did good! Derp finally make sun smile!

Did Rainbow Dash say I cheated on a test when we were foals?...Maybe. What is maybe? Er, maybe, 'maybe' is: yes? It was just before mama tried to teach me how to fly over that river I earned my cutie mark in. But there's no way she would have believed ... believed Rainbow said about me cheating. Rainbow was just upset. She really wanted to go to that Wonderbolts show I think and she really tried. She's not a bad pony at all! Everypony says she's lazy, but that's because she gets everything done super fast so she has time to rest! She's done nothing but be there for everypony!

Is my little muffin a bookworm? Don't be silly! She likes to learn new things and is really smart, but she doesn't spend her whole day with her nuzzle in a book. She spends most of her time playing with Ruby Pinch, Orange Top, and now Pipsqueak and Moonlight! One time my Dinky's imagination got so active she swears their pretend pirate ship became a real one!

Everything is new for her. Everything is wonderful for her. All foals have that spark of wanting to explore everything I think, well, my little muffin does at least. And I'll always be here to protect her, and make sure she grows into a wonderful mare. Just like Sparkler. Both my little muffins make me so proud.

++++++

There had been a posted note in Bon Bon The First's diary I found while transcribing the parts that related to Bon Bon's family for her to read. It was a note on Cheerilee the unicorn's final wish, her final thoughts as she was remade into the Cheerilee of this reality. Her final wish, was for Princess Rarity to be safe and happy.

She loved Princess Rarity like she would her own child. I knew that already from the journal. But it hammered it home. And it made me feel, a little sad almost. Sure Rarity and Cheerilee knew each other, but they didn't have the deep friendship that their previous selves had. Especially with me and Zecora having that deep friendship throughout all our existances.

It's funny, I agreed with the Princesses that fixating on the past would only bring trouble. But I still volunteered to help in any way I could in excavating the history and wonders of the civilization Starlight and her friends enjoyed.

I was organizing to dig up relics and artifacts with a Dr. Audience (how is that a name for an archaeologist pony?) for a whole weekend (it was all I needed to get it done, and some coffee).

I was creeped out when I saw she had hired Diamond Dogs, but she explained you couldn't find better diggers and most Diamond Dogs weren't like the ones we knew (yes, a friendship lesson was involved, but now's not the time). But what confused and agitated her work team, was how more 'modern' items were found UNDERNEATH the pre-classical era strata. A lot assumed it as a practical joke or a fraud until a carbon dating spell proved them wrong.

I convinced Pinkie Pie to focus on the new park she was funding with her life savings, no way I was letter her near fragile pieces of history. I was stunned when Zecora caught wind and requested to go.

"Zebra and pony hearts are identical, tis true,
But Twilight Sparkle, I am not the same as you.

While you create barriers between who you once were,
I believe we are one and the same underneath my fur."

It was astounding how calmly accepting Zecora was of the truth. While souls didn't work like she thought they did, she really did see no difference between herself, Kimono, or Miss Hackney. This also meant she saw no difference between me, Minty and Clover.

Zecora leaving Everfree, leaving Ponyville, I think she had become such a fixture of the town, just everypony knowing she wasn't in that hut of her in Everfree was a little jarring.

But the biggest thing? Was when I was organizing. She'd calmly correct me on the spelling, proper naming and brand of pieces we dug up. What was she? That she just let those memories be a part of her? UGH! I'm over thinking things! There's nothing strange or dark about Zecora, she's just spent her whole life focused on self discipline, and her beliefs don't contradict what she learned, so of course she'd be able to handle it.

"To memories I can't lose myself,
Because I am already these selves."

And it was as simple as that to her. I'm just happy the dig site Celestia and Luna had sublimely directed them to wasn't old Ponyville, I don't think I could have taken it.

I'm being a foal. Ponies change. Kingdoms change. The world changes. Friends change. We change from who were yesterday every day of our lives. Friends...friends can drift apart, but they remain friends.

Don't worry Starlight, we won't let it all be a waste. I'll never let tragedies repeat. We'll make a wonderful tomorrow as it becomes today. Waxing poetic, I really did spend all weekend with Zecora.

"Zecora, thank you, you're a wonderful friend."

"Twilight Sparkle, same to you.
May it remain as the sky is blue."

++++++

We've finally begun again? Oh, how's my mane? Miss Rarity Belle welcomes you once again my good ponies! Oh I know this isn't live, I just like to have some warm greetings for your readers.

No, I haven't heard from Filthy Rich today. It's not like we're close friends...I'm having flash backs the last time you asked that kind of question. You promise it's nothing negative? Alright. And no, Filthy hasn't really used that alias since he visited myself and Sweetie. It's strange going by Filthy now seems to have washed away the filth. He's acting the gentlestallion I remember before. I'm surprised more ponies don't ask how a stallion like him could have a filly like...like Diamond. I do hope the dear is all right.

Um...I'm going to check anyway! Be right back.

. . .

Miss Shinny Star says Mr. Rich is on a personal trip. You promise it'll work out?...

I know I'm not a part of their family. This isn't because of any 'investment' I made with Tiara I'm hoping for a return on, I want to help. I chose to help Tiara, and let it never be said I left any task I set myself to half done. Yes, yes, I suppose that's sometimes me and Applejack have that in common. I know I'm not her mother, but I thought it was finally opening the doors to that spiked dungeon she keeps her empathy in. I won't abandon somepony half-way through a journey.

I know she never thanked me once, that wasn't the point. The time and effort I gave her, I gave them to her because I felt it would help her.

You don't give something, because you expect something in return.

If Princess Gaia reminded me of one thing, is that you can't FORCE gifts on others, they'll never work.

I saw Diamond Tiara, and I saw a selfish filly who needed a lesson, and I was right. But being taught her cruelty would be paid back to her eventually wasn't the only one she needed. The number of bonds she'd formed were always tiny. If I could help her form one more bond. Then maybe that'll help her make more.

It wasn't about what I wanted, it was about what she needed.

If I can be better than the Greedy Rarity inside me. If Silver Spoon can evolve past being Diamond's minion and become Sweetie Belle's friend. Than I can teach Diamond Tiara she doesn't need to BE just her cruelty, and show her, it won't be what'll make her the most happy.

I know we'll find her.

Things can never care for you back like friends can.

I never thought I'd share something personal with Rainbow Dash. What Princess Celestia told her and myself?

That unlike other ponies in Equestria, myself and Rainbow Dash, we made in our hearts the choice to cut down another pony. Rainbow Dash actually is stronger than me. She wanted to end Nightmare Whisper's pain. I on the other hoof on top of that, I was trying to kill Cheerilee when she was Princess Gaia's thrall. That she was keeping us from Sweetie Belle is no excuse. Sweetie would have never wanted the death of her teacher to be because of her. I would have done a terrible thing, not just to Cheerilee and her family, but to Sweetie Belle as well. I doubt I'd have ever forgiven myself, let alone expect to be forgiven.

The scary part is how, after a lifetime, I suddenly twice in a day came to the same conclusion. It makes me feel ugly. Princess Celestia said how Rainbow Dash and I might be needed at one point, to do what needs to be done to save the lives of our friends and family.

But at the cost of our friends and family? I swear, to swear to Princess Celestia, to Princess Luna, on the Element of Generosity, on my beauty, when I come to that black fork in the road, I will find a better way. I think some creatures might call me a fool for this, I don't care. I will not become a killer in deed. I'll give life, I won't TAKE it.

When I give, I give to help, not to even out some 'cosmic balance' between have and have not.

My largesse large has never been, nor ever will be, because I feel it's 'in the rules.'

I don't give discounts on dresses because I feel obligated to, or because I feel guilty for being more fortunate than others. I wish to share my gifts with others. Yes I feel proud about my beauty, don't think me shallow and vain: I've worked hard for my beauty. My eyelashes, my mane, my coat, my grace, I've put effort into all of it. Just like my dresses. Just like my shop. Just like I am with my sister, and my friends.

+++++++

Oh hello! Do I have you to thank for taking us and Pinkie Pie home from the field after we fell asleep? I know Fluttercruel didn't take our body home, and you were with us, so thank you. You know, I think that's the first time I've ever seen you really interact with anypony besides talking...well, erm, that is, uh, and Fluttercruel, punching you in the face...and breaking your nose.

While I felt your question was rude, I did tell Fluttercruel that she didn't need to resort to violence. Yes, I know we've had to fight before...my friends had to fight me. That's why I let Fluttercruel learn to fight, I know someday...we might need it. Twilight has said 'better have something and not need it, than need it and not have it,' and I know she's right...

I just have to trust her to know when is time to fight and when is the time not to.

Yes I have been flying a lot more! Not just from the fear Discord gave me of losing my wings, but also, thanks to 'Hurricane Fluttershy' (as the papers called it), I feel so much more confident now. For the first time in my life, ponies were praising me for my flying! I was so happy. I'd even stopped having a flight camp flashbacks.

Do I ever physically punish Fluttercruel? No. And it's not just because we share the same body, no parents should inflict something on their child that they can't endure themselves if it's for their own good. No, hehehe, I just believe that I have much more effective ways of punishing Fluttercruel when she gets out of hoof.

And I don't want to see any harm come to her. Yes she's trouble sometimes, but she didn't ask to be born the way she was. If anything, I'm now ashamed I thought of simply asking Twilight to somehow exterminate her like she some sort of disease. Just because our lives are bound together doesn't make her some kind of growth. I don't even consider exterminating insects a good idea (destroying a predator or a prey species can be a disaster), it's just shocking to think about how I thought about doing it to another pony.

Oh don't worry dear, mommy isn't going to beat herself over it, mommy's just happy to have you with her.

Yes, I looked inside Gilda's heart, the same as everypony touched by my fog as Princess Gaia. I saw the choices she made that made her friends with Rainbow Dash, and the choices that turned her into a bully.

Gilda doesn't know Rainbow Dash was the one I had direct my puppets to corner her. I think in the shock of everything that happened, Rainbow Dash never figured out I was having her corner the real Gilda as a surprise gift. I planned to introduce her to a Gilda that wasn't being cruel and thuggish to all Dashie's OTHER friends.

Twilight Sparkle's letter to Princess Celestia called Gilda a 'false friend.' A part of Rainbow Dash's heart didn't want to believe that. Still wanted to be friends with her. I saw Gilda back in Cloudsdale when we were foals, I'd seen her as Rainbow's friend (though I didn't really know her at the time)...I had that advantage that only me and Rainbow had. I'd seen how long they'd been friends.

I haven't forgotten what Princess Luna told us as part of our punishment, no, not that we'll never know for sure how 'real' either of us are. I meant when she told us, that if I had just been open and honest with everypony, that ponies would have accepted Princess Gaia willingly, and their love for me would have made the red sphere I had stuffed all of Equestria's inner-monsters int slowly shrink down to almost-nothing, and everypony would have been happy. Including Gilda.

But that chance was gone forever now. Yes, Gilda scared me to tears when we bumped into each other in Ponyville, and I came face to face with her temper. No I haven't forgotten she stole an apple and scared poor Granny Smith. I know because I looked inside her memories remember? I'm just happy nopony has been upset over THAT. Inside my fog, I saw ALL that made each pony themselves, which was how I was able to take their most painful memories and most ugly traits and take them inside myself.

But that also means I saw what led Gilda to take the easiest way out (for her). No, I'm not going to tell you, that's personal, and only she has the right to share it.

If Gilda becomes a better person, that's got to be her choice, I can't force it on her, or she'll just resist it, and dive deeper into the darkness rather than be made to accept the light.

Like I said, I don't think Rainbow Dash realized the 'game' was real. I hope. I made a big enough mess of thing without adding another one.

But that letter from Rainbow Dash, it did the one thing that has never been done before in Gilda's life. It made her question if being bullying, rude, treating her anger like it was her best friend, seeing it okay to 'want, take, have', if all those things, maybe, if only maybe, hadn't really gotten her what she wanted after all. And had cost her somepony who had actually made her happy.

And maybe Rainbow's loyalty, and that questioning, could help Gilda look in a mirror, and recognize what she had, wasn't the freedom she thought it was.

++++

Mom said how me and Gilda would make great friends.

Mom. Even after Princess Luna told her that Sunny Town was the lost cause of lost causes she still insisted on help those freakin' murdering zombies! Even I can't tell if she was this pure before I was born, or after Nightmare Whisper. Of course the Old Man had to make me because he couldn't break her, so maybe she was.

The Old Man? What do I think of him? Pst. What SHOULD I think of him? His magic made me, and he only ever said one thing to me, and that was it, ever. He never looked my way again. The Old Man...maybe he didn't even know I was there. And maybe it's better he didn't. Oh whatever. For all I know, he just saw me as just another one of his toys. One thing is for sure, I have no intention of helping him break out of his prison, if he wants out so bad he can do it himself! Heck, if mom hadn't been there when we put those flowers on his statue, I'd probably have mooned him instead. And yeah, I would protect my mother from him if he came calling again. She saved my life after all, and she's helped me more than once. Our relationship isn't perfect, and us living together causes problems, but I don't want to be without her. And she doesn't want to be without me, and that means a lot to me.

Fluttershy's friends? Sure, they're great and everything, but I don't want to have the exact same relationships as her. I've spent a lot of time trying to escape being just 'Cruel Fluttershy' after all. No I am not changing my name for crying out loud! Just drop it!

Yes I want to make and have friends. Friends are one of the proofs we exist, I wonder why Silver Blue never caught up on that when getting ponies everywhere to try and feed her ego. At least I've got one friend who's more my friend than mom's.

Funny how my relationship with Angel began with him beaning me in the nose, but I think we have a deeper understanding than mom does with 'em. As crabby as he can get, he's still the pragmatic type I like! And I love Iron Will's badflank attitude, but you remember how that went.

I respect Purple out hoof wrestling us. Pink reminds me of the Old Man sometimes with how weird she can act, only, warmer. Rainbow knows how to have fun, and I took Pink's suggestion to get to know her a bit better. Silver Blue well, I can appreciate where she's coming from and she plays to win. Orange, well, I can't say I don't agree with her that ponies could bear to be a little more honest with themselves. Marshmallow, Rarity?

I can't believe how brutal she can be underneath the frufru stuff, actually makes me like her more. I think she actually goes out of her way to not treat me like I'm a replacement Fluttershy, or I'm an excuse to dress up Fluttershy's body. She talks about bringing out MY inner beauty, and I have to say that she succeeds. Stupid Photo Finish. Then again, mom might go crazy from having to live a double life like that.

Yeah. Us living together does keep bringing up problems.

I haven't truly known Fluttershy's friends as long as she has, so I can't say my link with them runs as deep as hers.

Then again...my OWN Element of Harmony wouldn't have WORKED with the others unless I felt a connection to them, and they hadn't felt a connection to me. Maybe we were united in our hope to save mom.

But truth is, is that I'm HAPPY that they consider me a part of the herd. That means I'm a part of them a little, and that means that I'll never completely vanish, no matter what. They're part of the proof that I'm alive.

It's kinda funny isn't it though? Mom faints at the idea of being close to a stallion. Me? I honestly wouldn't mind having an other half that wasn't my mother. I think I'd love it. But after Iron Will moving on before I had a chance to ask 'em, I wonder if I'll ever run into somepony who'd like us both, warts and all.

Well, I'm done being a quitter, so tomorrow is another day!

+++++++

What happened on the day when Discord trapped me? I am SO done with that! Pinkie Pie and the others got me through that mess, and I am finished with it. End of story.

The nightmares have stopped, including that creepy world where I was Discord's whimpering minion, no way could I ever be that Rainbow Dash! And more importantly the ones where Scootaloo helps Discord in revenge for me trying to put her in an orphanage are gone. That might have been the responsible adult thing to do, but it didn't feel like the loyal thing to do. You can call it the correct thing, but I can tell you, it wouldn't be the RIGHT thing to do to Scoots. She trusts me too much for me to ever do that to her.

I never thought I'd ever willing tie myself to a filly, but I never thought I'd 'weigh myself down' with a pet either, and it was one of the best choices I ever made. Maybe I did more or less adopt Scootaloo on impulse, but I've always gone by my gut instincts.

It meant giving up my privacy, my cloud castle not being mine alone anymore, okay there's Tank, but having a filly is a different story. For one they talked.

It meant making sure Scootaloo picked up after herself, having to feed her, watching over her, knowing where she was, Making sure she was happy. and of course, teaching her how to fly. Her little wings weren't making it easy for her, but she wouldn't give up.

I'd had responsibilities before, I didn't stay weather captain by not doing what I was trusted to do or being lazy (okay, sometimes I slack a little, but ONLY when I know I'll have time to finish). But now I had more responsibilities waiting for me back home. But it also meant I had Scootaloo always waiting for me.

Would I make a different choice now? Not on your bucking life.

I wasn't kidding when I told Princess Celestia that confessing to Cloudsdale now would be just airing dirty laundry. Equestria has enough messes and I don't need to add mine to the heap. And AJ, I don't think she'd ever pressure me to. She understands. If some villain ever tells them what happened? I'll own up to it.

I have more important things to do than beat myself over something that's over and done with! I have a family.

I didn't tell Fluttershy we had all pretty much figured out her board game as Princess Gaia wasn't really a board game, and me directing her pawns to catch and change Gilda wasn't just pretend.

I went to Cloudsdale, but Gilda was already gone. I had a choice of trying to find Gilda with no clue where she was, or helping the friend who I did know where she was.

The pegasi there said little Gilda was competitive and playful, and was waiting for 'big sister Rainbow Dash' to come and race with her. No regrets, we had Equestria to save. I'm past that fork in the road.

Spitfire told me when the fog lifted, Gilda had clenched her beak, cursed like she'd been robbed, and took off.

My letter to Gilda got delivered, Derpy was able to confirm that at least (as much as I don't get along with her, she's never lost one of my letters, I'll give her that). But where Gilda was now, was a mystery. And Fluttershy told me that unless Gilda was ready on her own, that I couldn't help her. I'd opened the door she said, Gilda had to do the rest.

I keep hearing a bunch of ponies saying Fluttershy got off easy. Buck that. She punished herself enough during her whole 'conquer Equestria' scheme, and it took her forever to let go of it. The pony who was hardest on Fluttershy for that whole mess was Fluttershy, so shut the buck up already!!!!

I know Applejack doesn't like it, but I'm happy the majority of ponies either buy that random tabloid myth that Fluttershy was possessed, or are grateful to Fluttershy for having a day without their problems eating them alive. Or at least will admit there's no point wanting payback on a depowered and defeated bad guy. Ponies didn't want to find a 'send his statue to the planet's core' spell to punish him, they wanted to make sure he'd stay gone.

It's funny how I'm loyalty, but me, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity all want to protect and look after Fluttershy in our own way, and what happened, only made that more clear!

Talking more about others than myself? Guess that is kinda surprising for the Dash isn't it? Heh. Who cares? This is my interview right? That means I get to decide what we talk about.

What? . . .

What did you say? . . .

Me and Rarity?

Look I forgave her for letting those pretty wings go to her head, and Twilight told me how it was RARITY'S IDEA for all of them to go and cheer me on in the first place! If anypony gets what it's like to let your ego get the better of you, it's me.

Not that? You mean, when we spoke with Princess Celestia after delivering Pinkie Pie's cake? Well, I was happy I was able to answer Scootaloo's question she wanted to ask Celestia. And Rarity said she was going to visit Cheerilee as a friend. And I had a talk with a pegasus from Clouddale who lost what can't be replaced.

So am I going to do what next time we run into trouble?!

Would I do it first because I'm faster and Rarity then wouldn't have to deal with the guilt?!

You did NOT just ask that! You think I'd use what The Princess told me as an free-ticket to make our adventures more 'epic' or something?!

No I'm NOT saying The Princess was wrong! Me and Rarity? Maybe we ARE different from everypony else now. But that doesn't mean we're now freaks or psychos!

= Deadman Wonderland OST 1 [DW28A] =

Listen here missy! I am not a bucking monster! I didn't try to do what I did because I wanted to, and not because I was ordered to. And not because I felt a need to! You think it didn't kill me inside a little knowing what I was about to do?! I made the best bucking choice I could with what I knew! I know it would have been bucking awful if I had hit her! But it didn't bucking happen!!! So clop-off! I'm not gonna destroy myself over 'what could haves', EVERY AGAIN! That was the only way I knew how to save Fluttershy, the SPLIT-SECOND we had another way, I was the FIRST to jump on the bandwagon! She's never falling on my watch ever again. And THAT is a promise! So don't go trying to pin me some kinda loser psycho! And this doesn't mean I'm gonna start killin' baddies because I don't want to bother with 'em or because 'that's the only way.' I chose to do it, BECAUSE it was Fluttershy! If you don't get that. THEN TOO BAD! The Dash isn't that good at explaining this kinda junk, and I don't feel like it!

...

Seriously what was with your friend? Asking a question like that? What the buck was her problem?

...Yeah I guess I have been going overboard on the swearing, I'm sorry. That's something else I need to watch with Scootaloo around. I guess that is one thing I agree with Rarity on, is that there are some things you just don't say around a foal. When did I get that considerate? I guess havin' a filly underhoof changes ya. Besides, just cause the Dash is cool doesn't mean I want foals repeating things they shouldn't. Huh? Letting Scoots see a scary movie? Hehe...maybe, depends on which one.

Me and Spitfire? Well, remember she's got a busy life, a busy schedule, and she's got teammates to hang out with too, just like I do. So when we get to hang out is few and far between. And I think I'm fine with that. She's got her thing, and I've got mine. I know now that she's got my back if I ever need her, and I've got hers. Plus, it means we just have that much more to talk about when we do get to talk.

I think she's just happy I haven't tried asking her every five minutes to pulling strings for me to become a Wonderbolt. If I want in, I have to EARN it, the same way as everypony else on the team. Plus, if I got it by having it given to me I couldn't be proud of it...Hehe, yeah, or brag about it.

That doesn't mean we never hang out. I should have realized she'd get pulled away every few seconds at a major event like the Gala. We got to hang out just fine after the Young Fliers Competition, which was the prize, so I guess I just assumed that's how things would go at the Gala too.

I'll admit, having Spitfire go around as naked as anypony outside of her flight suit was a little weird, but it actually made it a lot easier for her since most ponies didn't recognize her without her Wonderbolt get up. I never really thought about how the average pony doesn't really recognize the individual 'Bolts but them as a team. And this was the team me, the show off, wanted to be in, which is why I know them all by name.

And I still do. It's my mountain and I'm going to climb it...that phrase doesn't work so well with a pegasus does it? You still get what I'm sayin' right? Good.

I'll confess, having Scootaloo around does make it a little bit harder for me to hang out with Spitfire now that we're more or less real friends. But that's part of the gig I took on when I took Scootaloo on, and I'm not about to whine about it.

Maybe I can take Scootaloo with me sometime, how many fillies get to meet a Wonderbolt?

Me? Shallow? Oh not this again.

You say my best traits only shine when it's helpin' others out? You know, you're right.

And I think I'm fine with that. I'm loyalty after all. I've helped Spitfire. I helped Scootaloo. I've helped Tank. I've helped Trixie find a friend. I think...I think I'm okay my good traits are shown when I helped others, means they'll talk about me, that they know about me. They know I'll always be there for them.

"Hey, Rainbow Dash, where do foals come from?"

And now I'm wishin' I'd paid more attention in those Mount-Ed classes.

++++++

Pinkie Pie checking in! Or rather Pinkie Diane as I prefer to be called by the narrative thank you very much!

Now where were we? Oh yeah, me and Fluttershy had that wonderful evening together! Thanks for taking us home!

Just let me take a quick peak at this WAY TOO LONG season that happened while we were all away and...HEY! Who censored this entire season? 'Something' World? Come on! You can't leave me in the dark about something like this!

Huh? What's this written here 'There are some things you're better off knowing. Pinkie Pie'? Wait, is that directed at me or is this from an alternate version of me? But we've done alternate universes before! Why hide it? Ugh!

Sigh. Yes I said sigh. It just feels, a little uncomfortable, not knowing what'll come next. And what the heck happened that made everypony wait so long! I'm really, really, sorry about that everypony. I mean really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, sorry! Things weren't meant to drag on like this, I'm so sorry. Our Shadows-Who-Make have lives too and all!

Okay! Apology out of the way! Next thing! Life waits for no pony!

Am I angry? Being made to wait so long? What good would being angry about it do? I have plenty of things to do, I'm not gonna waste my time being a grumpy pants! Just because the Shadows-Who-Watch can't see us all the time doesn't mean we don't have lives off camera!

Oh don't be silly! I'm not trying to hide from being unhappy again! I am SO THROUGH with that episode! I fused with Pinkamena and everything! Believe it ponies! That doesn't mean I'm going to suddenly be angry and upset all the time! That would be just as silly!

And not the fun kind of silly easier!

Speaking of which, I hope we reach the end of this fanfic soon, I think the authors are kinda having nervous breakdowns with how it's taken. Poor Shadows, I wish I could go throw them a 'I hope you feel better' party! I mean, every arc takes a lot longer than it was supposed to. And I read this arc is only around because all the readers wanted it. Well, here's hoping it's fun at least!

Well, you can count on Pinkie Pie to add some laughs no matter how grim things get! But seriously, a grim and violent My Little Pony fic? Don't we have a zillion of those already?

There's no way this story could turn into something like THAT, right?

Tone it down? Oh, okay, you just had to ask.

So how am I doing? I'm doing positively pink! The day is minty fresh! And the sun is sparkling!

I'm still sending and getting letters from my parents on the rock farm! And I still care about Dashie, Fluttershy, and all my friends. Seeing them all smile makes me smile. My middle sister still hasn't gotten back to me though, even though she stopped by Ponyville a couple times. Ashamed of me? No way! Me and my sisters might not see each other a lot but we still love each other!

I really hope we get some good musical numbers, seriously, it's NOT My Little Pony without singing!

But I know you want to keep these things a little short and sweet so I'll save it for later!

Dashie is telling me that looking after Scootaloo she doesn't have the same time for pranks anymore....And I know what she means. Baby sitting Pound and Pumpkin doesn't exactly give me a ton of extra time either. And I don't want to give up this job to anypony else.

Mr. and Mrs. Cake totally trust me. They've even let me manage Sugar Cube Corner all on my own again! It's wonderful. It makes me smile and laugh all on it's own! I think this responsibility stuff isn't nearly so bad once you get used to it! I proved I could be trusted with Pound and Pumpkin, and I proved I could take care of the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness this time! I just hope the shadows who watch don't mind how much we've strayed from the heart world there.

I won't lie and say it didn't cripple the royalties I've got from my party canon to move Fluttershy's incomplete mini-Ponyville of Everfree and complete it! Not to mention all those BOOORRRRIIINNNG talks about permit, zoning rights, construction and foal safety laws...I'm happy Twilight helped me with that. With all the stuff she loves doing, it's a wonder she doesn't go crazy!!!

The Princesses agreeing with me on it helped a lot to.

I'll admit, I was angry and sad when I realized Fluttershy little remade town was just gonna rot away with nopony else seeing it ever. And I'm not ashamed I was angry and sad! And some GOOD came of it! See?

I corrected a lot of little details that confused the construction ponies, but they went along with it. It's not a full blown theme park...paying employees, making and selling souvenirs, I didn't want that kind of trouble. The ponies in giant pony costumes would have been fun, but I wanted to keep it simpler, and something that could last a little longer. Besides, I have giant costumes and I can just use myself. That doesn't mean I didn't have a big celebration for it's opening however!

YOU WON'T BELIEVE who I got to be among my first guests! Sapphire Shores! I couldn't believe I had found another pony who was from the original world, even if she doesn't remember it. Oh, and she's a famous singer too I guess.

I got her to sing a song with me opening the park! Even if it didn't entirely make sense on the surface to everypony, I think we both felt it was right...

"My Little Pony, My Little Pony
Take me with you to Ponyville.
My Little Pony, My Little Pony
We'll have fun, I know we will..."

I also got Lickety Split and Speedy Delivery/Post Haste be among the park's first guests too.

A lot of ponies are drawn to this place, they feel nostalgic and warm here even if they don't know why. Something about this place just makes them feel happy, letting them forget their troubles for just a little bit.

I think Zecora enjoys it a bit more since...well, as far as she's concerned, it IS her home too. She sometimes wants me to call her Kimono. I don't mind, it's kinda nice to have somepony who remembers at least some bits of the world that never was and embraces it like I do.

You have no idea how wonderful it is to hear their laughter.

And Pound and Pumpkin loved it too. Heheheh. What? Heh! Did you think this park was just for ponies I knew from before I was born? Don't be silly. There's plenty they can learn from my past. I'm nowhere near old enough to only think about how things used to be! I've got plenty of future left in me!

Yes, I did feel the giant flashing 'Not Ironic' sign was necessary for some reason. Here, have some some rainbow berry cake! It's our newest hot seller at Sugar Cube Corner! Pound and Pumpkin sure love it.

And hearing them laugh, is better than you can imagine.

++++

Howdy, been a while, beautiful day ain't it? Perfect day for a picnic for friends Ah'd say. So what questions ya got fer me today?

Of course this here accent is all natural!...Uh. Oops.

Of course Ah knew Ah had an accent, everypony has an accent. Lyin' ta mahself is about the last thing Ah'm doin'.

Though Ah'll admit it did hit me after Moonlight tried to use that cute face of hers to get me to give 'er free apples. Not that Ah ain't got nothin' against charity, but family comes first. Runnin' a farm costs bits. Yes, Moonlight and Pipsqueak are the darn' cuten'nest couple Ah've ever done see. And Ah don't need ta ask where she lives.

Can we move along ta somethin' else here? Ah don't think this was the topic ya were lookin' for.

Ah already know sayin' the wrong thing at the wrong time can do nothin' but hurt some pony even if it's the truth. It's what Ah told Nightmare Mirror ain't it?

It's part of why Ah didn't tell Fluttershy what pa's hat meant to be when it got...ruined when we were savin' 'er from herself. Yeah, Rarity did do a great job of makin' a replacement didn't she? It ain't pa's, but it's special tah me in a different way. Gifts from a friend are special too.

That don't mean Ah don't think ponies couldn't bear to be a little bit more straight forward with each other, why this here song and dance we gotta do? And Ah don't mean one of Pinkie Pie's numbers.

When...when Ah inherited the farm, and when Applebloom asked questions about...about our parents: Ah didn't mince words with 'er, Ah told'er that they were gone and weren't comin' back, and not the 'run away and join the circus' type of gone neither.

Ah love'er, but Ah'm honesty, not kindness. Ya just gotta face the truth sometimes.

No way was Ah feedin' her some happy lie about them joinin' the Wonderbolts or somethin'.

Ah'm no Nightmare Mirror, but Ah ain't abandonin' Mah Element just cause it showed its ugly side, never again. Sayin' cause she used the truth for bad means the truth is bad' is the same kinda logic that made her a N ightmare in the first place.

Look Ah gotta a lot ta do before Ah meet up with the rest of the herd, so can we please keep this whole thing short? A farm pony's work is never done.

No no no, Ah'm not tryin' ta get this all done by mahself. Big Mac, Applebloom, Granny Smith, they're a part of this family too. Ah'll amdit, for a bit it felt like Ah was learnin' the same old lesson over and over again. One thing that Rodeo in Canterlot taught me good, is that just cause Ah'm the best Earth Pony athlete 'rought these parts, doesn't mean Ah'm the best in all of Equestria. And yeah, Ah know now it was a mistake tah try and be the best at everythin' instead of tryin' tah be best in a couple of things.

No Ah ain't ashamed no more of getting so many second places...Ah actually found out Ah had gotten more medals than any of the other ponies there...Ah was simply bein' too much of a cry baby about not gettin' any first place gold ta pay attention. Still doesn't mean Mayor Mare was happy about us not having the extra funds to fix Town Hall. The Princess' generosity can only stretch so far after all. And Derpy ain't on Ponyville's insurance plan.

Ya gotta understand somethin'. Farmin'? It's a full time job! Up BEFORE the sun, and right into the evenin'! Doesn't leave much time fer hobbies. But don't go thinkin' that means Ah'm gotta ditch mah friends over it.

And...Okay, Ah also got something a little bit more personal ta do first.

"Sucking out the poison? Stupid. You'll just get the poison in your mouth and infect the bite."

"Slapping somepony on the back while they're choking will only make it worse."

"DO NOT TILT YOUR HEAD BACK, OR ANYPONY'S HEAD BACK IF YOURS OR THEIRS NOSE IS BLEEDING! All you'll do is choke on your own blood. And don't tourniquet a limb unless applying pressure ISN'T working! You've seen way too much theater!"

"Remember Applejack, if a pony gets stabbed or impaled with something, do not be in a rush to pull it out on the spot, it's likely holding the bleeding back. I saw a patient DIE because idiots removed the arrow-head instead of keeping it in! With their unwashed hooves."

"Ah know that, Ah've...seen mah fair share of farming accidents."

"I understand."

"And remember Applejack, I'm just teaching you the basics here. Unless told otherwise by an emergency worker, if professionals are already doing their job, stay out of the way. You're not a doctor Applejack, bucking somepony in the chest WON'T restart their heart, it's meant to reset an unhealthy rhythm and meant to be done exactly once, and only if you know what you're doing! The one exception is if their heart stopped beating by being hit by lightning -and again, only once!- and you should FOLLOW IT with CPR, not do the CPR first if that's the case, and you have only half a minute before striking them in the chest won't change the outcome."

"Remember Applejack, CPR is not meant to save lives, it's meant to prolong them until you can get them better help. And if I find out you ever hesitated to give mouth to mouth on another pony because they're a mare, I'll SMACK you. We have equipment for doing it at hospitals' anyway. And for the ratio for compression to breath is thirty to two. Don't bend your arms! And DON'T stop if you break their ribs: they won't need them if they die. And don't stop after a minute Applejack, until a medical pony tells you they're dead, don't stop. And Applejack, statistically, they still have a one in four chance of dying. Don't blame yourself if they don't survive. And if you do save them, their chances for a full recovery you're better off not knowing."

"Then what's the point?"

"The point Applejack, is giving them that chance for living they WOULDN'T have without your help."

"Redheart? Thank you. Ah, Ah think Ah really need ta know this sort of thing. For mah friends, and for on the farm. It feels like Ah should have known this sort of thing already."

"I'm just happy I could teach you Applejack. When I say remember, I mean remember. None of this will do any good if you forget it in a panic."

"Ah understand. Trust me, Ah ain't a pony who freaks out easy!"

"I don't doubt it." She gave me a kind nuzzle. "So is Applebloom coming in for her flu shots on her own this year, or are you going to hog-tie her, or have me visit you again?"

"Ah think...Ah think she's done plenty of growin' up this year."

"Your family certainly has its adventures."

"True darlin', but Ah think ya do plenty of good, in yer own way more than us. We just keep Equestria from going to horseapples when we ain't livin' our lives. You save lives every day."

"Thank you Applejack, that means a lot."

+++++++

Yes! You guys are finally talking to again to Ponyville's top dragon! Kenbroath Gillspotten Heathspike VII at your service! What? You didn't think THAT part of me was gonna go changing was it? A dragon has his pride after all!

So yeah, now the CMC have a dragon who can't earn a cutie mark, and a filly who already has her cutie mark. Sounds like the group is turning a little inclusive, but hey, the more the merrier.

Given the ideas these fillies come up with and survive to earn their cutie marks, I wonder how they can't be part dragons! Well that would make Rarity part dragon so maybe that's not so, okay okay, staying on topic! No need to push. I promise, one day me and Rarity will be together.

Ya know. I already know what I'm going to do with my life. Silver Spoon at least has the excuse she needs to reconsider what her cutie mark means. I went on that crazy trip through time and space because Sweetie Belle invited me and because they thought I could contribute.

Oh don't look at this dragon, I like being useful. But seriously? They've invited me, and I've accepted at this point...just cause. I think that's part of friendship: there's nothing to question, once it is, it just is, or that's one way to look at it right? Their friendship belongs to me now, and I'm not about to give it up. Don't worry I'm not one of those psycho nutzoid covetous types... most of the time.

I really hate to say it, but I think I ENJOY the crazy dare devil stunts they come up with. It gives me adventures I'm a part of instead of a tag along to. Silver Spoon deserves a medal for not giving up on the spot after that first one considering it was probably the craziest one yet, not sure how we'll ever top time travel.

I know how Applebloom feels about being treated like a toddler by the adults no matter how much you give or how hard you try.

I can appreciate Scootaloo wanting to fly. Why the heck don't I have wings when every dragon I've ever seen has'em? Hopefully I'll get'em as I get bigger, I mean older.

If Silver Spoon doesn't like her name implying she has no talent other than being an heiress, then I'd be happy to take some of her stuff off her hoofs. Erm. Forget I said that.

Zecora told me just cause I don't have a risk of turning into Spikezilla again, doesn't mean my hoarding instincts have magically gone away.

"While you are not becoming a beast that can crush Ponyville like a grape.
Does not mean that the instincts of a dragon are something you can escape.

While your heart and mind provide sheathing,
You cannot stop wanting to hoard anymore than breathing.

A leopard can not change its spots like in the myth,
This is something you must learn to live with."

Yeah. Don't ask me how Zecora knew so much about dragons when the entire Ponyville library and Twilight were a dead end. Sometimes I wonder what the bigger mystery is behind that zebra!

She said my best bet was to redirect my energies elsewhere, so I guess that's what I've been doing with Sweetie Belle and the others.

Sweetie Belle? I've done my best just to make sure Twilight doesn't think I'm using her to get to Rarity or treat her like Rarity-lite.

OH! And before you ask!

Contrary to what you might have heard, me and Twilight did NOT end up in a tree after we challenged Big Mac together for Smarty Pants. That's how I ended up all the other times I tried before. We got Smarty Pants back!

It wasn't easy.

There were bruises and black-eyes all around when we were done, and Smarty Pants was going to need a little stitching from me.

"Ya know, ya couldda just asked if ya wanted her back so bad."

"WHAT?!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Why did you FIGHT ME every time?!" I exasperated.

"Ah thought it was part of some fancy smancy dragon code of conduct, Ah was just bein' polite... and I really really like Smarty Pants too."

When we got home. I got ready for Twilight to tell me how stupid I had been. She closed in on me and whispered,

"Spike, thank you for getting her back." And she hugged and kissed me! No not in that way!

It didn't seem to impress Rarity like I thought it would. But I made Twilight happy. And Big Mac doesn't seem to be holding a grudge. Or Applejack (though she did tell me I was acting dumb). Thankfully I think that was BEFORE I joined Applebloom's club, or that would have made things even more complicated.

Like it or not however, I have to watch the library when Twilight is out socializing with our friends. Owlowcious gets the night shift after all. Which means he's sleeping.

I promised Twilight that I'd keep the CMC from trashing the library. And not tell them where she hid the matches. Or the coffee and sugary stuff. Silver Spoon promised too, being Sweetie Belle's chaperon. Yeah, Twilight is trusting a promise made by a bully who picked on the CMC, while Rarity is trusting that same bully with Sweetie Belle's safety. The world sure has turned upside down without Discord's help hasn't it?

Applebloom and the rest were talking about checking out the new park Pinkie Pie was opening. Figuring they might be able to pick up some new jobs or hobbies they hadn't thought of yet. And Pinkie Pie had always been open on the CMC helping before (even when they ended up turning themselves into taffy with Sugar Cube Corner's new taffy machine that one time). That hadn't changed just cause she's sane now.

I had almost figured out all of their special talents, but Twilight kept insisting that it wouldn't work unless they realized it on their own (which is stupid if you ask me, but nodragon is).

I'd find out later Applebloom -insists- Pinkie Pie's new public park looks like the Ponyville of the Past we visited going through time that one time (LOOOONG story, and it wasn't the only spot we visited, we even had to escape this dark motionless universe ruled over by this 'D____' something or other).

But I'd have to find all that out later, cause out of my stomach, came a letter to Twilight.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,
Princess Celestia cordially invites you to the wedding of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor Sparkle.

Shining Armor Sparkle? Whose that? A cousin of Twilight's I haven't heard about? And Princess Mi Amore Cadenza? Huh? What? Who?

Must be one of old Blueblood's relatives.

I checked out the when and where. There was also a mark of priority! In other words, 'Show this to Twilight Sparkle right now Spike, or I'll turn you into a hand bag!'

DANG! GOTTA CALL THIS SHORT! See ya around!

I babble out the quickest goodbye and apologize I could to the girls before putting up Twilight's 'in case an emergency comes up' note on the door (she's Twilight, of COURSE she has one).

AND OUT THE DOOR I GO!

I'm sure Owlowcious will be able to put any fires: not from the fillies, from me running so fast!

Author's Note

"It's here, it's here, it'shereit'shereit'shere!!!"

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Not-The-Same-Wedding-Part-1-439373596

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Not-The-Same-Wedding-Part-3-439776375

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries

Everybody loves a wedding episode. Especially one with one point five amnesic gods getting married and a point five one in attendance, a dark god looming in the background, a shadow given life rising to challenge, and the fate of a kingdom in the balance. Oh, and no doubt the mother of all angry explosions when Twilight finds out that her brother didn't tell her he was getting married.

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Episode 161: "And That's How We Got Three Flower Fillies"

Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember Part 3

I've told that your readers already know the fundamentals, so I'll trying to keep things without too many details. Mom always said the major problem with my writing is that I keep trying to squeeze too many details into one sentence.

Applejack had her eye on Fluttercruel when she caught a small bug, she tensed for a moment, then 'Cruel simply let the insect go. That was a tiny relief. I think for a moment she was worried 'Cruel was going to pull the legs off.

Focus? All right.

So the picnic was going great! No misunderstandings, no villains, it was just so perfect!

Then my number one assistant came huffing and puffing. And he puffed out a scroll detailing the duties granted to six of us for the Royal Wedding in Canterlot. We were all delighted at being given such royal honors that didn't involve saving the world.

But I was stuck wondering what wedding Teacher Celestia was even talking about!

Then Spike gave me the letter he had meant to give me to begin with.

And it left me only more confused.

"Captain Shining Armor Sparkle? Who's that?" Inconveniently, none of my friends present had an answer. Had I forgotten one of my cousins? "Princess Mi Amore Cadenza? Huh?" And the shaking heads kept on coming.

Flash, bang, surprise: and Trixie was back in our lives again.

Trixie stood dramatically in the middle of our picnic.

I remember when Trixie couldn't teleport out of a paper bag and she just spell-copied me to learn how.

I wonder if this is how other unicorns felt when I just effortlessly copied their spells just by eye-balling them. I never attributed it to being the Element of Magic until Trixie began doing the same thing.

That said, Trixie's teleportation had a certain...flare to it that seemed different than mine. Like Trixie had made it her own in a way. Hehe, figures Trixie would try to make herself stand out.

Spike groaned, the rest of my friends were befuddled by Trixie's big entrance.

"Hail and well met my compatriots! Tis I. The One and Only Trixie, have returned!" Trixie really just has to steal the moment doesn't she?

Pinkie Pie blinked at Trixie's arrival and pulled out a book titled 'How to Tell if Your Friend is Becoming a Self-Insert' I don't remember that book.

Trixie being Trixie distracted me from the confusing letter.

"Hi Trixie," I spoke first, happily. I think Trixie was disappointed we didn't burst into applauds at her sudden return. I didn't bother to ask her how she found us, she likely spelled-copied the magic I use to keep track of her every move. That isn't stalking! I checked! "What brings you back to Ponyville?"

"Actually Twilight Sparkle, I was on my way to Canterlot for the biggest performance of Trixie's career! And she thought she'd grace you with her presence."

"So you did come to visit! How wonderful!" I clapped my hooves.

Pinkie Pie was scribbling check marks in the back of that book of hers.

The others were content to let me do the speaking, except of course,

"My my darling, in Canterlot you say! What a coincidence, we were just this instant been given invites there ourselves! Oh, we all know where this is going!" Rarity guessed smiling before we all did, "Would your show be for a royal wedding?"

"Trixie should have known you'd be asked to attend, given the groom."

"Oh!" I perked, "So do you know who 'Shining Armor Sparkle' is? I can guess he's part of my family but I don't think we've ever met."

Trixie looked at me slack-jawed. "Twilight Sparkle. I mean no harm but I suggest you get your head looked at! You told me last time you visited! He's your big brother!"

Pinkie Pie looked pale. I didn't need to guess why. Then she began putting down more check marks in that book of hers!

Brother? Since when do I have a brother? My fantasy in Gaia's fog of Trixie being my sister was based on how I didn't have any siblings! "Trixie, are you sure you teleported right? You might have transporter psychosis."

"UGH! Twilight, you did this last time! BBBFF. Does that ring any bells? 'Big Brother Best Friend Forever' you said!"

Images and a voice began to flick in my mind. A white unicorn stallion with a blue mane. Wait!

"GIRLS! It's always been six Elements of Harmony right?! We weren't seven Elements facing Nightmare Moon were we?!"

The girls shook their heads. Not that it would matter if it was that. But if Pinkie Pie didn't remember, then maybe it was all right.

"Wait, Shining Armor is my brother, that's, I, that is, I remember but-" I held my head. And a flood of memories burst through my mind.

I could say only one to recalling my BBBFF, "THAT BIG JERK!!"

THE NERVE OF HIM!! 'Hi Twilight! I'm getting married! Don't worry! You'll find out via invite! Not gonna bother telling you! That jerk!' And who is this Princess Mi Amore Cadenza he's marrying anyway?! Some random royal mare from freakin' Blueblood's family?! Ick! The idea of being related to that spoiled coward makes my skin crawl!

I'll give him more than just a piece of my mind! I ranted and raved using a sandwich like a puppet.

"Twilight, I can appreciate you being upset, but aren't you, uh, going a little bit, overboard, maybe?" Fluttershy asked.

I groaned. "I'm sorry." And I told them, from the heart, how Shining Armor had been the only pony I had ever formed a real bond with besides my parents before coming to Ponyville, he wasn't just my big brother, we were legs on a chair.

It humbled me when I realized how much it was like Dash and Gilda, thinking that one friend was the only friend I could ever actually need, and any more were just chaff.

The family psychologist even suggested my relationship with Shining was a little too healthy, but that was just silly, right?

"Uh, Twilight," Fluttershy said, "I don't want to sound awful," so Fluttercruel came out, "But, don't you think it's creepy Trixie says you suddenly remembered him when talking to her, and now that you talk to her again you remember this brother none of us have even met?!"

"Come on! It's not like I've met all of your families!" I looked at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

At least none of them accused Trixie of trying to use mind control on me.

"Twilight, I know you aren't the kind to make this stuff up, but isn't it kinda suspicious that you've been with us for TWO YEARS, and your brother didn't come visit Ponyville, and we didn't so much MEET HIM all the times we visited Canterlot?!" Rainbow Dash asked.

"He's been on a two year trip around the world!"

"And Ah know ya ain't lyin', but Rarity and me slept over at yer place, and Ah know meh and Rarity were busy bickerin' but Ah'm sure ya didn't have so much as a picture of 'em! But did ya?"

"I didn't have a chance to pack much before being sent off to Ponyville!"

"Not to mention darling that you say you think so highly of him, and yet you didn't so much as once mention him all the times we've talked. And where exactly was he when you took your Magic School entrance examine? If you two were as close as you say, wouldn't he have been there? You didn't mention him at all!" Rarity poked where she wasn't welcomed.

"A lot has happened, and he was attending the Royal Guard Academy and couldn't find time!"

Pinkie Pie was grinning and said in a perfectly friendly tone. "Don't worry Twilight, I'm perfectly prepared to meet your big brother."

Pinkie Pie was now carrying a suitcase shaped perfectly like a bazooka with the words pasted on the side: 'In Case Of Marey-Sue.'

"Pinkie Pie! Not you too! Spike remembers him no problem! Right Spike?"

"Ah," Spike blushed, "I didn't really remember Shining until you brought him up."

Applejack sighed, "Girls, Ah swear, Trixie ain't lyin' when she said Twili' had a brother, but neither was Twili' when she said she ain't had one!"

"Look! If this was some of kind of wish fulfillment magic, I wouldn't have dreamed up a brother who just decided to get married without even telling me! Why would I dream up a big brother that would brush me off?! That makes no sense!"

Pinkie blinked and looked at her book, thankfully erasing a check mark.

"We're just worried Twilight," Fluttershy said, "It does seem a little... convenient."

Trixie looked at the others, she couldn't believe I hadn't mentioned Shining to them once. But all those stories about the end of Pinkie Pie's world in Bonbon The First's journal, they were about ponies being forgotten not being suddenly remembered. It had to be just a bunch of crazy happenstance, right?

"Girls, it's MY fault I never brought up Shining with you and forgot about him."

"But what if somepony mind controlled Trixie, who mind controlled you, but the mind control wore off on you, but now Trixie reactivated the mind control?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"But then what about Princess Celestia's invite Pinkie Pie? And Spike -wasn't- with me when I spoke to Trixie last."

"Then somepony might have mind controlled The Princess, and you or somepony else mind controlled Spike, but they didn't count on it wearing off, so Trixie just caused it to go active again!"

"Okay, wait a second," Rainbow interjected. "I know that Luna went all Nightmare Moon, but Celestia being mind controlled? She sent the letters to Twilight that snapped her out of Discord's spell, and since she locked him up the first time, why wouldn't he have tried to control her?"

Everyone gave it thought. "That's...a good point. And Discord's magic is a lot stronger than anyone else's we've seen," Rarity added. "It created Fluttercruel's soul after all."

Applejack looked thoughtful for a second and went over to Pinkie and talked with her about something private. Pinkie seemed to nod in agreement. I wonder what they were saying... Did AJ just Pinkie Promise?

"Pinkie, when we split from the Heart World, mah memory started changin' and even some events in the past changed, like Trixie bein' there for the Flim Flam Brothers thin'. Ain't it possible that somethin' like that happened with Twilight's big bro?" Ah asked. All this cosmic mumbo jumbo made mah head hurt.

Pinkie rubbed her chin and gave it thought. "Well it's possible. It'd pretty much mean either Shining Armor wasn't born in the past until after we broke away from the heart world, or some part of Twilight wanted him to be with so bad that she called him from the heart world, and the world is trying to figure out what to do with him. Trixie might have unconsciously done it just to make Twilight happy."

"Yer kiddin', their magic is THAT powerful?"

"Or just their wishes are. Twilight's ancestor's magic was based on wishes."

Ah didn't even TRY ta figure out how Pinkie Pie mighta known that. Pinkie is still Pinkie.

"So maybe Shinin' is real now? And Twili' head ain't messed with?" Ya know. Ah never dreamed Ah'd EVER be takin' 'bout this kinda stuff. So much for bein' a simple country farmer.

"Could be! . . . and if you tell Twilight any of this, I can honestly say she won't be happy," she rumbled at me.

Gulp! Ah nevah though Pinkie would have me shakin' in mah hooves. "Cross mah heart, hope ta fly, stick a cupcake in mah eye. Ah'd never tell Twili' anythin' that'd only hurt her."

"Alright, Ah can't explain it very well, but there are...other reasons why this might be happenin'. It's complicated, but kinda one of those things Pinkie seems tah get that we don't."

"Wait, Twilight said she didn't have friends before meeting us," Fluttercruel pointed out. "It sounds like she DID have one."

"I..." I did say that...but...BBBFF.

"Now wait a minute, show of hooves," said Trixie, giving a serious look. "Who here actually has an older sibling?"

Applejack raised a hoof along with Trixie, Pinkie Pie didn't look sure if she was supposed to raise her hoofs or not.

"Alright, is the friendship you feel with an elder sibling that similar to friendship with friends? Or are they more like 'cousins?' Trixie had PLENTY of siblings, but you all are still MY first friends, you know. Even now that we're close, I don't feel the same to my siblings as I do for you six."

"Ah gotta second Trixie on this one," Applejack supported. "Big Mac's always been there for meh, but our love's a different sort than Ah feel for yah all. There's family, then there's friends. They're VERY similar, and friends can become like family, but the two ain't the same thing."

"But Twilight, what about me?" asked Spike.

Everypony then looked at me.

"...Spike, you've been with me since you were hatched. I guess I never had to 'make' you a friend...you were just always there with me...I guess...we're kinda family too..." I said. I gave him a small hug.

"'Guess kinda?'" Spike asked.

"Okay, really kinda. Just cause you're not Captain of the Royal Guard doesn't make you any less my family."

"CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD?!" Everypony echoed.

"Uh, hehe, I didn't mention that already?" I smiled nervously.

Pinkie Pie looked at her freaky suit case, "Gonna need two of these."

+++++++++

So yeah! We're all headed for Canterlot again! I'm not exactly one for weddings, but doing a Sonic Rainboom?! Can you say 'best wedding ever?! And Princess Celestia herself asked me to help!'

Well darling, I shall admit it's strange about Twilight never mention a brother she so clearly thinks of so dearly, but doing dresses for royalty? I can't go missing a chance like that darling! An artist never turns down exposure! And it'll be such an honor!

Though Twilight is still unhappy her brother had failed to inform her personally. To be honest, I can't blame her, given my...familial issues, I know how that kind of thing can feel.

Maybe dear Shining Armor has magically forgotten about Twilight the same way that Twilight forgot about him, and that's why he neglected to invite her. It makes much more sense than some of the theories we ended up bouncing around. But a 'forget-me-yes' curse? Those are just horror stories darling, I hope. Yes Lyra Heartstrings did have me do a rush order dress for her. She only said it was for something very important.

Rainbow Dash sighed. "Rarity, I swear it's like you've been giving me headaches since a past life."

"Oh darling we both know you like to look your best."

"That doesn't mean I like to look like a girlie!"

"No, it's Applejack who doesn't like to look girlie, you are worried other will judge you as weak if you were to let your feminine side show more. The truly confident don't follow trends, they make them."

"I know that already."

"And you know that the only pony who decides who Rainbow Dash is, Rainbow Dash, correct?"

"Like, duh."

"Then stop being so scared Rainbow."

"Rarity, I TOLD YOU what happened when 'Gabby Gum' released those photos of me! I had ponies in Cloudsdale laughing at me."

"We all had ponies laughing at us Rainbow. My diary got published in the paper! There are things a mare keeps private! But we've all healed and moved on."

"I just don't like it when ponies treat me like a joke after I've worked so hard to become as good as I am."

"You think I look this lovely every morning Rainbow? You saw me in the middle of Luna's night on the ride to Appleloosa. Before I began pour time and effort into it, I was the most plain mare you could image. But I trusted you to see that side of me. Like you trust us to see this side of you. Pegasi are still looking up to you after Gabby Gums aren't they? They still look up to all of us. So please Rainbow, believe me, I know better than anypony that the opinions of the right or wrong pony can mean everything to your dreams. But don't become fixated on everypony's opinion. Besides darling, if you weren't, unlike Applejack, concerned about being dashing for important celebrations, then why my dear, did you ask me to refit and check-up on your dress even before we get to Canterlot?" Rarity asked, standing besides Rainbow as RD stood still for Rarity as the white unicorn did minor adjustments to Rainbow Dash's gala dress.

"Oh." Rainbow blushed, "Heheh, yeah, good point. Well, there's that, and Rarity, I wanted to talk to you. We both met with The Princess, and she, told us both we were . . . would have done things we couldn't undo, and to be . . . ready so the others won't have to if we're ever in a spot where we gotta or our friends will be goners instead. But Rarity, I haven't really, that is, you aren't the grim and gritty type so-"

"Neither are you Rainbow."

"Not what I mean. I mean, well, that is-"

"You're tough, used to fighting, used to getting dirty, used to using violence, and I'm dainty, prefer not to fight, avoid getting dirty, and abhor violence?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Rainbow, just because I don't want to be rough and tumble, doesn't make me fragile, I've fought alongside the rest of you before-"

"That's not what I mean, that . . . that . . ."

"Rainbow. I promise. I'm not losing any sleep over it."

"Yeah right."

"Fine. I am scared of what would have happened if I had to do the deed. But Rainbow? I think it's a healthy fear. I think that fear is what is going to inspire me to find a better way like we always have before. The moment that fear goes away is the moment we become the monsters we're meant to stop. I promise I'm not going to freeze in the middle of a fight. A lady has a right to stop and think her thoughts, but I promise I won't let my worried make me unable to help you or anyone. . . . What about you Rainbow?"

"ME?! . . . I'm through with it. I'm through with going nuts over what-if's. I'm done worrying about what'll happen when I come to a fork in the road I can't guess at. If I can't guess at it, why go crazy about it?"

The lady unicorn nuzzled the rough and tumble pegasus. "It's wonderful to hear you say that Rainbow Dash. You've grown up, very very much."

"Hey, don't get softie on me."

Rarity whispered. "Sometimes it's good to get soft Rainbow, helps remind us we don't need to be hard all the time."

"Heh, yeah... I... I guess." Rainbow nuzzled her back.

+++

You want me to talk about when I had that horrible feeling? I never hurt so much! I was scared I was going to... to... that... I felt like I was... dying.

Oh! You want to talk about after? Well, I woke up all dizzy in my bedroom with Rarity, Miss Twilight, and Nurse Redheart around me. I was told later the other doctors had already left.

"I'm sorry girls, close family only," Nurse Redheart whispered closing the door to my room and trotting close to me. I kept fading in and out.

Miss Twilight said a bunch of things about magic I didn't understand... I never seem to get magic.

Song is a type of magic too? I never thought of it that way, maybe I- the adults?

Twilight kept magic scanning me, I think, (it made my head feel weird) and Nurse Redheart looked me over EVERYWHERE.

Rarity noticed I was awake before Redheart and Twilight could tell and she HUGGED me! Super-hugged me! And kept hugging me! A lot! I tried to move, but I realized I was tied to the bed!

"Oh Sweetie Belle! It's wonderful to see you, I worried that, oh that doesn't matter now! You're ... you're right here, and thank Heaven for that."

I think she was crying...

"Uh, Rarity," Twilight nudged her. I faded back out then. When I woke up again, it was later that night and Nurse Redheart had said she'd be back in the morning. Rarity sung me to sleep with our family song...When I woke up in the morning, Nurse Redheart and Twilight were back.

Nurse Redheart asked me a lotta questions, who I was, who Rarity was, how old I was, where I was, what species I was.

I asked, "Was I brain-dead and you brainwashed a filly to think she was me, then put her mind in me to patch up my mind?"

"NO!" The all said together. Then Rarity demanded what story I had gotten that from and who told it.

"Rainbow Dash," Rarity growled for a moment before going back to making sure I was okay. No, Rainbow didn't scare me THAT bad. When Rainbow tells scary stories its fun. I've only had nightmares . . . a few times. I felt like I was already going back to sleep. So tired.

Nurse Redheart said that was normal given how sick I was.

Miss Twilight said something about feedback, empathy, linking, I know the words, most of 'em (My nickname is 'Dictionary' for a reason), but I still didn't get what they were saying.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): I know how that is.)

Dear sweet Celestia what happened to you?!

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): I ah, nothing Nurse Redheart.)

I'll be the judge of that! Lion and eagle claw marks? Did a griffin do this to you?

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): No.)

How did this happen?

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): . . . I can't say.)

Tell me young filly!

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): I can't! It's against the rules!)

What rules?

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): The rules!)

Come here, this looks like it was patched up by a first year medical student. Stay still, this'll hurt a little. On goes the disinfectant. That's a brave girl. There. Be sure to change your bandages once a day. Now please, tell me what happened.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): . . . I was trying to help a filly see that what she was doing wasn't going to help who she thought it would, that bein' mean wouldn't make 'er the most happy. The adult with her didn't want me speaking to her.)

WHO?!

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): I'm not allowed to say. I'm just here to ask questions. Giving answers means I'm messing things up, and messing things up means everything we've done will go away. Not just me. Please, don't ask.)

--

(Noon's Notes Supplemental: Dawn! Why didn't you just tell her a simple white lie? Like when we told everypony we were journalists for crying out loud!)

(Dawn's Notes Supplemental: I . . . I didn't want to lie to her.)

(Noon Notes Supplemental: Ugh!)

--

I have to report this happening, this sort of things should not happen to foals!

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): The bad guy is long gone from around these parts, there's no point in calling the Equestrian guards.)

. . . All right. I can't force you. But please if you need help, please come talk to me.

. . .

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Geeze, you and Cheerilee have a lot in common.)

I'm not surprised. She helps ponies grow, I help ponies heal. We both need to give compassion on a daily basis. She gets to see them grow up, I have to wish them farewell.

"Farewell Sweetie Belle."

"Bye-bye Nurse Redheart!" I waved her bye-bye. She had come back the next morning as soon as the hospital could spare her she said.

"Are you sure there is nothing more that you can do?" Rarity whispered, but I heard anyway. I've been picking up tips from Silver Spoon. Don't tell Rarity or Silver's mom she taught me that...

"There appear to be no adverse side effects, and no signs of physical trauma that a little rest won't cure. Just keep an eye on her for a few days and bring her back if anything happens. As for any magical residue..."

"I can't find any foreign anchor in her body or spell that would have chained her to another pony, she seems to be perfectly fine now. I gave her a full and complete Fail-Safe Spell, twice, so if there was any spell on her, it's gone now."

"What about curses?" Big sister asked.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Rarity." Twilight stopped and held her head like she had a headache, she signed. "...Look, you can have her visit Zecora if you want. But I can assure you there are no adverse spells on her now."

"SWEETIE BELLE!" The others were all waiting for me outside our house the next morning, Silver Spoon and Spike included. Groups hug!

"Great to see ya Sweetie!" Scootaloo cheered.

"Yer okay right?" Applebloom asked.

"Don't worry, if Twilight says you're okay, then you're okay," Spike said confidently.

Silver didn't say anything. She held the hug a little bit tighter than the others though. Then she spoke. "Thank goodness."

Yes, we went to Zecora's in Everfree, with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy as escort on either side of me, and Rarity made me wear this big sweater, it itched. Zecora did a lot of stuff I didn't understand at all, and I'm pretty sure Rarity didn't either.

"It is safe to say your sister suffers no curse."

"Thank you Zecora, let me repay you,"

"While I have done something kind,
There is no need for you to lighten your purse.
It is enough to give you peace of mind.
After all, Rarity my dear
We are friends.
If wanting my help you do fear
Then let those fears end."

That wasn't enough for Rarity and she bought a buffaloo dream-catcher and made me wear that too! Then she asked Silver Spoon to keep an eye on me whenever Miss Cheerilee or Rarity couldn't. And she wanted me to LIST where we'd be crusading ahead of time each day (thank Celestia we have Spike!) and when I'd be back home! . . .

No, Rarity's wouldn't do all that if she didn't really really love me. But I was beginning to feel a little closed in.

"I know how you feel," Silver Spoon told me, I guess you really did need to know feelings good if you wanted to hurt them. "My mom did the same thing with me. It's part of why Diamond Tiara meant, means so much to me. It was great to be with another filly."

"And you've got all of us now."

"Yes, I've got you girls," she whispered warmly and she moved a little closer to me, then stopped for some reason and backed off. She looked... ashamed? Why? You know it's funny. I'd never imagine Silver Spoon not to complain or whine about being made to do something by an adult like Rarity asked her, right out of the blue! But . . . she never complained about looking after me once.

Applebloom meanwhile offered to make Twist a CMC! Yeah, that's pretty much the look we gave her! But Twist turned her down, telling her.

"Applebloom, I already have my cuthie mark and know whath ith's means. It . . . wouldn't feel right. Besides," she nuzzled her, "We don't need a reason to be hang out do we?"

++++

Riding Rainbow Dash up and down every day is more fun than you can guess! . . . Then Dash had to tell me that she couldn't do it every day, 'she needed her rest and had practice and weather duty to look after too after all.' She told me. I wasn't happy about it, but I kept my mouth shut. It was for Rainbow Dash.

Tank carried me up and down from the house for two days. But on the end of the second day she told me that Tank wouldn't be giving me anymore rides.

"Please don't look at me that way, Tank. I trust you bro'. Totally. I know you'd always come through for me no matter what. But this isn't about me trusting you Tank." Dash looked at me. "You're a package deal squirt. I don't get to pick and choose. Canceling our practice because Ponyville needs me more isn't the same as me having Tank carry you to and from home."

Home. I looked around at the cloud house I'd been staying with Dash. That's right. This is home.

"Thunderlane was asking me for time off again, I asked him on what clouds . . . he told me it was for Rumble. Little guy had caught the feather flu and Thunderlane wanted to make sure it didn't spiral out of control like it did him. I gave it to him, Rainbow Dash learns from her mistakes.

"There are things I have to cancel with Pinkie, and there are there are things she has to cancel with me. Ugh! Kiddo, what I'm saying is, making sure you get to and from school is as much my responsibility as being weather captain. I can trust Tank in a LOT of things, but I shouldn't have to let him look after you, when I'm supposed to be looking after him. I'll ask Fluttershy to carry you if I can't be there, but I can't just brush it off just to do . . . just to do what I want."

='Let It Out' Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood=

So yeah, I got my exclusive tickets back on the Rainbow Dash express! YES!!! And it let me know. She won't abandon me. She won't look at me and not see me. She won't talk about me like I'm not even there. She won't forget about me. She'll always be waiting for me.

Hehe, I don't know why I ever doubted it. She's Element of Loyalty for a reason.

Mom and dad? I love them, I want them back, but . . . the loneliness, it's not so bad, because I now know Rainbow Dash is right next to me. Princess Gaia's fog showing me what I wanted more than anything . . . it showed me mom and dad, and Dash as my sister, and me flying. It's was funny, it wasn't just me I was happy for that . . .that I could fly in that made up world, it was my parents and Dash being proud of me. I think Fluttershy's dream land showed me, that I still loved mom and dad. A tiny, really tinny, no seriously, a little small part of me? I was scared that I hated them . . . for . . . for leaving me . . . for abandoning me . . . for leaving me all alone . . . not even telling me they were doing it . . . just . . . leave me . . . like I wasn't worth keeping. I-I . . . I'm NOT happy about it! Not at all! But ... but I still want them back. BUT I DON'T WANT TO LOSE DASH EITHER! . . .

It really does scare me, just a little. The closer I get to Dash, the more I'm worried I'm getting further away from mom and dad somehow. But . . . Dash, wants to keep me. And I want to keep her too.

Maybe . . . maybe Fluttershy's dream world helped me . . . maybe . . . it let me know . . . that I really do, reeeeally like all of them. Maybe, maybe mom and dad will be willing to adopt Dash in return for looking after me?

Dash's parents? She's never really talked about 'em...would that be fair to them? To want her to be adopted by my family and leave hers? I . . . I guess not.

Okay, maybe I should think more about now than worry what's comin' later. Applebloom got all worried about the future and ended up getting the Cutie Pox. I'm gonna have fun with Dash now and not be afraid of what's next. I still want my parents back, I think...but if that's all I think about, that's being unfair to me AND Dash.

This is a Daring Do book? You bet! I figured, hey, if Dash loves it, then it can't be that bad. I never really read all that many books before besides comics . . . and Daring Do really IS exciting and fun . . . even if it could use a few alien robots or something.

That doesn't mean I haven't stopped reading comic books! I'm really enjoying the comics Twilight gave me! I even convinced Sweetie and 'Bloom we could try being Cutie Mark Crusader Comic Book Script Writers. That meant reading a lots and lots of comic of course!

I really love those super crossovers, I don't get why other foals don't like, they're so cool! . . . that doesn't mean there aren't things I don't like.

I couldn't believe what I just read. "Captian Equestria immune to the penance stare and arresting Ghost Flyer? That's stupid."

Spike tilted his head from the comic the was reading. "Captain Equestria immune to the penance stare? Sounds legit."

"No. Ghost Flyer would have no REASON to fight Captain Equestria! And he'd certainly have no reason to work with Loki as an Anti-Avenger! He'd FIGHT Loki! He's supposed to be a superhero!"

I don't mind so much when heroes fight each other, I mean, it's really cool and you know they always team up in the end! But a hero teaming up with BAD GUYS and fighting a other heroes? How does that make sense?

You guys sure are asking a lot of questions all over the place. Okay you guys haven't really asked me much of anything before, but whoa, it's like I'm not gonna be around to be asked soon.

While Scootaloo and Spike were debating the finer points of alternate character interpretation (I just learned that combination of words!) Applebloom was busy drawing up comic panels for us after we got the script for our first issue (we'd get two issues done, and foals loved 'em. Then we give up when we couldn't agree on which way to take the story and just what kind of setting we were going for. Pinkie said that was smart of us to not let our disagreement spiral out of control and hurt our friendship. She's Pinkie Pie).

Applebloom said later she wanted to try and expand the club house now that we had five of us.

Sliver Spoon and I were reading manegas of 'Sailor Luna' and 'Card Capturer Cherry Blossom.'

Hearing Spike talk about the places he'd been and seen Canterlot and Ponyville I had to ask Silver Spoon (in a whisper of course).

"Silver Spoon . . . I was wondering . . . I think you're pretty smart, and not cause you wear glasses, but how could you not know Spike? Everypony knows everypony in Ponyville, including Twilight and Spike!"

" . . . I told you before I know how you feel Sweetie. Mom . . . she never let me get out much except with Diamond Tiara. . . . She . . . she didn't want me to get hurt. When I was little, the properly lines of our home was my world, visiting Diamond Tiara's place was like visiting a new planet!"

"How . . . how could your mom be that mean?"

"She . . . She wasn't . . . she didn't want her treasure getting hurt. Dad had to convince her to let me go to school with Diamond Tiara, said it was important for me to be with a herd."

"So...it's kind of like how Rarity's acting with me now? She doesn't want to see you get hurt?"

Silver nodded slowly. "Yes...she was so worried after the Chaos Monster got beaten and...I got hurt. I don't think I've ever seen her that worried before. I hadn't really gotten hurt all that much before that let alone...that bad."

"I understand. Rarity got really scared when I got sick earlier."

I guess we can stop there ...

What? You want to know how we got to be flower fillies? . .. Nopony's ever asked that before. They were kinda busy with what else happened...

. . . Thank you.

Ahem. Okay, how we got to be Cutie Mark Crusaders Flower Fillies. Well . . .

+++

So there Ah was in Canterlot! Didn't know if Ah'd be there with Cherry Coke at the weddin' proper, Ah'd hate to miss Shinin' Armor's weddin' but there were reassignments all over the place and just cause Ah didn't like orders didn't mean Ah could ignore 'em. Ah heard one buddy whisper they were even pullin' rookies out of the Academy to increase the Guards' numbers. Land's sake it was like we were at war or somethin'! Especially given all the reassignments tah the border areas. An' we didn't even know what this 'threat made to Canterlot' was! A lot of the stallions were sayin' somepony was just blowin' smoke, but orders are orders.

So seein' that Ah couldn't count on bein' there seein' Shinin's weddin' mahself fer certain, Ah figured Ah'd help out how Ah could. It ain't no secret we Apples are big on family, and the ponies in mah squad are family too ya darn tootin'!

There was a loophole that ponies part of the weddin' ceremony would be technically on assignment since it was a ROYAL WEDDIN', but SA had already picked out the stallions for that job, Banjo, Caramel, Cherry Coke, and then there's- well the point is that Ah couldn't count on being there and SA couldn't exactly defend Canterlot while he was busy tying the knot, so that left us to do that job instead.

But if Ah couldn't be involved then and there, Ah'd help out how Ah could!

So Shinin' and Princess Cadence were goin' over the weddin' plans, who was assigned what, who was goin' to be doin' what. Shinin' was having to give more and more to his fiancee to look over with protectin' Canterlot takin' priority. She didn't mind hearing every single detail about his work though, a considerate mare she is.

Oh right right, no need to rush ladies!

So like Ah was sayin', the couples-ta-be were goin' over detail, The Princess was so frazzled over all this 'unknown vague undefined threat' business happenin' durin' their weddin' that she was even given her hoof maidens Minuette and Twinkle Shine the 'rough around the edges' treatment a little. Poor mare. And poor maidens. What? They're friends too! And Minuette's Audience's fillyfriend after all. Okay okay! Ah'll get on with it!

So they were decidin' on how to ta be the Royal Flower Filly, when the pie pan went splat!

The two look at each other with realizing and said together, "We don't know any foals."

Well, guess what? Ah did! And guess who JUST happened to be close by ta say so!?

Ah already knew cousin AJ was gonna be doin' the caterin', which made me a little more sad Ah might not be there in person, but that's what the Apple Family Reunion is for (Ah just hope I don't miss that!). SORRY! Ah am ramblin' a little. So if AJ was already gonna be there, Ah knew the cutest filly in the whole wide world that was gonna be just perfect fer the role!

+++

Hey, ain't that-- Derpy! Watch out fer that-!! Giant muffin sign. Express mail fer me? Don't know many ponies who would use this sort of thing. From cousin Ellis Bitter Apple? Haven't seen him in three years! Now what's this here about?

+++

Huh? We're back on the day that we saw Trixie teleport into Ponyville? But big sister Rarity says it's important to do everything in it's proper order. You should have done that earlier. Your notes got all messed up? Oh, sorry, alright!

So we visited the new public park, and it really did look like that Ponyville we visited in our time machine. Scootaloo felt like she had to play some hopscotch. While I had this really strong picture of a seven layer cake all different flavors, and somepony asking me why my cake didn't fall over while hers did. It reminded me when of when I ran into that big silhouette I mean silhouette wolf.

Silver Spoon and Applebloom said they didn't have any feelings or never-happened-memories, but did agree it was freaky how the pretend town looked like the one we saw. And we couldn't find it in any history books (we put the books back when we were done, we promise! Spike and Twilight like organizing them anyway! It'll be a nice surprise when they get back!).

We didn't get to stay in that Ponyville during our adventure for very long at all, so we didn't see everything there.

But while visiting one of the houses in Pinkie Pie's park? Me and Scootaloo? Each of us visited a house, and it, felt like, it felt like it was our house . . . It wasn't a bad feeling.

But it was about time for us to split up and check in with our families. I can't say it wasn't nice being in the park.

But before the day was even out Applebloom was running around declaring an 'emergency meeting.'

++++

Of course Ah told Applebloom, what kinda sister would Ah be if Ah kept somethin' like THIS from 'er? If Ellis thinks she's good fer this . . . Ah'd still use mah own best judgement. And Ah say Applebloom's a good Apple, she knows how to do her part of somethin' bigger than her. Ah remember what happened the last time Applebloom was in Canterlot, but that fountain ain't haunted no more, and Applebloom may have caused me some headaches, but this'll be part of Apple family business, and she knows ta take that seriously!

Plus that Sea Pony finally got tah rest in peace, so good came outta it.

Ah know those three cause trouble if together, but it'll be just Applebloom, not all three of 'em.

++++

YA BET YER FLANK AH SAID YEP! Ah'll be helpin' Applejack with somethin' that'll make the Zap Apple harvest look small (maybe)! Ah couldn't wait ta tell the others! If being Royal Flower Fillies doesn't get us our cutie marks than Ah don't know what will! We're gonna have our cutie marks before this is over or mah name ain't Applebloom!

That and AJ says three of our cousins we ain't seen in a good while will be there! And if there's one thin' an Apple ain't gonna miss it's meetin' up with family!

+++++

"ROYAL FLOWER FILLY?!" Me and everypony (and dragon) gasped when Applebloom broke the news. I bet big sister Rarity will make the best dresses for us! I wonder if she'd let me help.

"YEP!" Applebloom exploded jumping up and clapping her back hooves together. "An' just think! If we all go together, one of us is bound ta get 'er cutie mark! Cutie Mark Crusader Royal Flower Fillies, Yeah!"

Spike suddenly looked a little nervous, "Uh, Applebloom, I'm not sure that such a bright idea."

I tilted my head remembering all the stuff Rarity had said about weddings, "And isn't there supposed to be only one flower filly for a wedding?"

"Yeah, you don't have a magic mirror that can turn us into one pony . . . do you?" Scootaloo asked.

"Oh! And, no, Ah'm still lookin' fer one...that is reversible..."

"Actually," Silver Spoon said in a calm, detached, matter-of-fact voice, "More than one flower filly for Equestrian royal weddings in Equestria aren't unheard of, not everypony does it, but it isn't uncommon.

"Really?" I asked turning my head.

"Yes, really. When you're made to attend a lot of boring adult parties and are supposed to just be seen and not heard, all you can really do is listen. And I've had to attend some high society weddings of my parents friends."

"More than one flower filly, is that true?" Spike asked.

"You were hatched in Canterlot and you didn't know?" Silver Spoon asked back.

"No offense, but girlie stuff isn't my sort of thing."

"That's not what that pink apron with frills says." Silver Spoon grinned.

"That's different!"

"How?"

"Because pink and purple look good together!"

"...Point taken."

"WAIT!" I shouted waving my forelegs redirecting attention before this could turn into an argument. "Are you saying it's okay, that it's tradition for royal weddings to have more than one flower filly? And it's happening all the way in Canterlot?"

"Uh, yes?"

"GOTTA GO!" Spike isn't the only one who can move his little legs fast when he wants to.

"Wait! Sweetie!" Tried to follow but I forgot about her.

I was home really fast and told Rarity everything! Then she told me to slow down and say it all again.

"Sweetie Belle, no."

"But Rarity-"

"Don't 'but Rarity' me. We still don't know what happened to you, and until we do, we can't risk you traveling. What if you had another episode and we weren't near any help? Or do you think that your well being only matters to you?"

Not this time big sister! I bristled under the itchy sweeter and dream catcher. "I bet that's not what Nurse Redheart would say!"

"Well you're not Nurse Redheart."

"Then why don't we go see her and find out? You want to make sure I'm doing okay right?" The 'big sad eyes' is one thing, but I felt a bit guilty about that last part. Sorry big sister.

Rarity sighed, "If it'll settle this, then fine, but please, no complaining when she give her answer."

Yay! And ow! How does Applebloom do that all the time? It makes my eyes hurt!

"I believe Sweetie Belle should go."

"WHAT?!" Rarity said her pupils really small.

"I said, in my professional opinion, taking this trip will be good for her. The reality is that it'll be healthy to get her out of the house and do some traveling. Keeping her cooped up at this point will be counter productive. Leaving a bandage on too long can be just as unhealthy as taking it off too soon. There have been no sign of repeat episodes, and Sweetie has shown no adverse effects since then. While thinking of her health is a good thing, I think it's best she get out more, for her own sake. THAT is my professional opinion." Nurse Redheart said it so official and important that Rarity didn't even think of getting a second opinion from a doctor instead of a nurse, tee-hee! Adults can be so fun sometimes!

And truth is, while going to Canterlot and being a flower filly a royal wedding with the others was gonna be really great and a chance for our cutie marks, I really really wanted to show Rarity I wasn't made of glass now!

I was sick of always wearing the sweeter, I was sick of always having he necklace on! I didn't mind Silver Spoon always being there but she didn't need to be! She shouldn't have to be.

And . . . Rarity, she shouldn't have to worry about me all the time. Whenever I leave home, whenever I get home, she's worried about me. It was maybe worse than when she got upset with me when, when helping her just made things harder for her. It's like she has weights pulling her down. I want her not to have to worry about me. I want her to be happy.

I was scared what happened that horrible time too, but I didn't wanna spend the rest of my life like a goldfish! This'll show Rarity she doesn't have to worry about me whenever she can't see me! I can be free, and so can big sister.

Rarity sighed. "Sweetie Belle, do you really want this?"

"YES!" I nodded.

"Will it make you happy?"

"Uh-Huh!" I nodded twice. Even if it was an ordinary wedding, it would still be fun to do with Applebloom. Just because I'm not scared of dirt doesn't mean I don't like pretty things.

"Alright then...Sweetie...you know I just want you to be safe...I've almost lost you several times...Discord almost took you...F-the thing Fluttershy was turned into almost took you...promise me you'll be careful, okay?" she asked me. She looked so serious...

"Okay," I answered back. "I'll be okay!"

"So you really think going out is what's best for her?" Rarity asked Nurse Redheart.

"I don't give fake advice. I swear your little sister needs to live some . . . And get that sweater off her! I think it's causing a rash!"

"Oh. Right...Plus it's starting to go out of fashion, and it clashes her mane anyway! What was I thinking? Yes yes, not fit for a flower filly at all."

AND OFF WENT THE ITCHY THING! Only love for big sis' kept me from burning it. . . . I know, I know, it showed that she loves me, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that.

And I saw the gears turning in Rarity's head...as Redheart put a little lotion on the rash the sweater had gave me.

++

I shall admit, while reluctant at first, but if what Nurse Redheart said was true, and if Sweetie's health would be helped rather than hindered, then I simply can't let a chance like this slip by. An Alicorn wedding doesn't exactly happen every lifetime!

Sweetie taking a noteworthy role in it would get her a place of notice! Maybe not a big one, but she'd be seeded a little. Another member of my family allowed to take part in the wedding of a Princess? You don't pass up something like that!

. . . Now I wish mother and father were actually here to see it. Well, can't change that. Just sent another letter to tell them, and wait forever for their reply. Maybe send them a picture when all is said and done.

I doubt I could have her wear the dream catcher during the ceremony, it doesn't exactly match well with any current Canterlot style. Maybe she should only need to wear it while she sleeps.

Also, if Nurse Redheart is right, then maybe this exposure would be good for her in another way. I have a fair idea of what Sweetie Belle's talent is even if she's blind to it (poor dear). Spending time in front of a high class 'audience' of a sort would do her good given what her career was likely to be.

. . . Now I just need to help my little sister be added onto a position already fill for a goddess' wedding!

I practically flew to Twilight's and explained my situation.

"But you're best mare Twilight, certainly you can pull some strings."

"I'm not being exactly happy about not being told about this wedding till the last minute Rarity. I can suggest it to Shining, but unless he and that princess agree, there's not much I can do, it's their wedding after all."

"I suppose I can't ask more of you than that Twilight, thank you."

Meanwhile, I was going to put every social and high society maneuver I knew into play.

++

These three fillies, if Diamond Tiara was told she had to share a position with somepony, she'd be so upset. Unless it was me, I think. I didn't like all the things she said to me before she disappeared, but Princess Gaia's fog showed me, deep down, I still wanted my best friend back.

And that...nightmare I had. It showed me how determined I could be to have her back.

Sometimes I think I'm the only foal who ever saw the filly underneath the games we teased the CMC with, instead of like she was some movie prop! Diamond, please come home. I'll make Tartarus freeze over to get you back if I have to.
+++

Did I want to do the Flower Filly thing with Sweetie and Applebloom? That wasn't exactly the point. I'm a Cutie Mark Crusader, what one of us tries, we all try. I know what Miss Cheerilee tells us in school, 'If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you?'

But I know Sweetie and Applebloom didn't like all of my ideas, but we all went for them anyway, to see if they were our calling. So it wouldn't be very loyal for me to not join in. Besides, Rainbow Dash wore dresses, so they couldn't be that bad.

There hadn't been any real question if squirt was coming along or not. Now that ponies knew she was staying with me, I couldn't exactly just leave her at the clubhouse. If I said she was staying at her parents again, that could lead to some lousy questions.

And Dash told me she was gonna do a Sonic Rainboom! How could I not wanna go?! I couldn't wait to see it! I got to see one during Fluttershy's festival, but it was gonna so COOL, it NEVER gets old! And who knows? Maybe a Sonic Rainboom at the right place could earn us our Cutie Marks! It worked for the six of them didn't it?!

And this time we'd get to see it from front row seats!

So yeah! When Sweetie Belle came crashing back into us and declared Rarity was gonna get her to be a flower filly too, Applebloom was happy, and so was I!

Was I worried about somepony 'spotting me'? Naw. Not even pegasi from Cloudsdale were gonna notice me, it's not like my . . . my parents were Wonderbolts or something. What's with the 'not ironic' sign?

So yeah! If I could be part of something Rainbow Dash was gonna be, then I was gonna show 'er I could do it right! I couldn't be part of the Hearth's Warming Eve Pageant Dash was in, but this was gonna be even bigger! I'd make Dash proud!

. . . Now we just need the tinny tiny detail of me actually being a part of it.

++

They blindsided us. My little sister and her friends, in a two pronged attack from different angles. We'd given them an opening and the clever little rascals took it. I think their biggest weapon is how we keep underestimating them.

Scootaloo buttered up Rainbow Dash as only she could, telling her just how much it would mean to her if she could take part with my sister and Applebloom. And how awesome it would be for Scootaloo to take part in something with her hero.

Applebloom meanwhile, without Applejack I believe knowing yet Sweetie Belle had already asked to participate, asked for Scootaloo to join the ceremony. And by the time Applejack or Rainbow Dash realized we would be dealing with all three of the core CMC at once, the trap had been sprung and Pinkie Promises had already been made.

I was really going to be testing my social black-belt. Even so, it was still only an innocent hearted request from my little sister and Rainbow Dash's shadow.

Two were younger sisters of Elements Bearers and the apprentice of one was bound to be acceptable as long as I made it sound official enough. Trixie wasn't the only pony who could use words like they were swords (and if needed, we had her on hoof for back up).

I made it crystal clear to the fillies that we could plead their case, but it was up the bride and groom to accept their request or not. The fillies merely stood closer to Applebloom and my sister said.

"I STILL wanna go."

"And I'm going with Dash no matter what," Scootaloo added.

These fillies, sometimes I think they'd march through Tartarus for each other.

Since I'm told your readers know the outcome already, let's fast forward a little, just for a short while.

"Oh, PLEASE, couldn't we have them ALL be flower girls at once?" I asked in my most pleading, tragic voice, "They're the best of friends, and they're JUST children! If you have only ONE of them, it'd break the other two's heart!"

The girls took their cue and made their most adorable sad faces that made me wonder why they hadn't earned an acting cutie mark yet.

"Well, I don't see why we can't bend tradition, just this once! Besides, they ARE cutie little girls!" Shining Armor grinned.

"The more fillies, the more love," Princess Cadence said kindly.

"YEAH!" The fillies brightened up at once and high hooved each other. "Cutie Mark Crusader Flower Fillies!"

And I had a few extra dresses to make. But I didn't care, I was ready for the challenge. Now let's rewind back to back to where we were. There. Ugh, I sound like Pinkie Pie.

+++

I felt weird. For the first time in my life, I wanted to be at an high-class adults social ceremony, and I wasn't on the guest list!

Spike, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, I never imagined I'd ever want to go somewhere only because they were...okay, never imagined I'd ever want to go somewhere only because they were there and not as part of a plot to make them miserable.

I wasn't a filly used to not getting what she wanted. Even changing for the better didn't change that. I'm still a spoiled rich foal. I'm just not a spoiled rotten rich foal anymore.

I'm sure there's a lesson in here somewhere about accepting things you can't change, about that one of the most mature things in the world is not rocking the boat, and not trying to force things your way.

Forget it.

If Diamond Tiara had one thing right, it was not to bend over backwards when life doesn't give you what you want. Time to make lemonade, sell it, then use the bits to buy the oranges you wanted!

(Interviewer's Notes(Earth Pony): I'm pretty sure that isn't how that saying is supposed to go.)

I've gotten some great friends and learned life isn't about the pecking order, and that my family really does love me. But that doesn't mean I've had to give up being me! After all, isn't the point of having a cutie mark being yourself?

So I used everything that Sweetie Belle, Spike, my mother, and yes, Diamond Tiara had taught me, and got my father and mother to see it as my heart's desire to go to Canterlot and see the wedding of 'Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.'

I pulled every string I could, to get father to pull the strings he had for the friends he still had in the royal guard and in Canterlot.

Maybe I was making things more complicated than they needed to be for everypony, but I wanted to be there with my friends.

It turned out to be a lot harder than dad thought it would be. He said Canterlot was becoming a bottled city as the wedding got close. He was able to get himself invited, and barely one guest: meaning me, with mom having to stay in Ponyville. I can't say I wasn't sorry.

It also meant for business for Miss Rarity, with dad ordering me a new dress for the occasion.

Of course I told my friends the good news.

"THAT'S GREAT SILVER SPOON!" Sweetie Belle hugged her, maybe she broke the hug a little sooner than I wanted.

Scootaloo nodded. "Yeah! Now we're gonna have FOUR Flower Fillies!"

Wait. WHAT?! "HUH?!"

Applebloom raised a hoof dramatically.

"Yeah, don't you want to join us? Cutie Mark Crusaders! All for one! And one for all!"

I blushed.

"What, you aren't, uh, shy are you?" Spike asked.

"NO!" I snapped, of course that would convince them I somehow was! I sighed. "Look, I think we're bending tradition as it is."

"But you're the one who said it was a tradition to have more than one flower filly," Sweetie Belle said.

I was beginning to feel cornered.

"Don't you want to be part of things too?" Applebloom asked, sounding a little sad.

That look no longer gave me pleasure. "It's-it's not about you guys!" I said so desperate not to hurt feelings. Yes yes! I know the irony! "I just don't want to."

"Why not?" Scootaloo asked.

"Wouldn't it be fun for all of us to do it together?" Sweetie Belle smiled.

"All together," Applebloom smiled too.

I had a weird flash back to a play titled Invasion of the Pony Snatcher (after how it made me act, I was banned from the theater for a month).

The looks they were all giving me was making feel a little weak in the knees.

Spike looked like he didn't know what to say. I found myself wondering what Twist would say if she was here. It was strange how once Twist got her cutie mark, Diamond and I just ignored her, but why did I always get the gut feeling that Diamond would find something NEW to tease Applebloom about if she DID get her cutie mark? In my nightmare she flat out hated them and said she would...would... Being friends with her now in a way felt even stranger than being friends with the blanks.

I shut my eyes and burst out, "I'm happy you're all getting a chance to when you want to! But I don't want to!"

"I thought . . . I thought you liked attention Silver, I thought you liked belonging, being part of a herd," Sweetie Belle asked me. I could hear the worry in her voice.

"Mom always made me be a 'proper lady', I don't want to put myself in the role."

Applebloom pointed out. "If yer not doin' somethin' cause yer mom made ya do it, isn't the same as yer mom makin' ya not do it?"

I felt Applebloom slip through my maze without even trying and getting closer to me. They were all around me.

"Don't be scared Silver Spoon."

"Join in, you'll like it."

"Yeah, join us. You're never gonna get a chance like this again!"

I couldn't take it anymore. "I don't want to risk losing ME!"

Silence. I opened my eyes. They looked at me in shock.

"It's . . . it's just too much . . . too fast . . . I love you guys, I really do. I don't want give up everything we have for anything. I'd do anything to stay friends with you guys. But . . . it's too much. I'm just so use to it being just me and Diamond, just the two of us, having so many friends. It's a little scary."

"When you're scared of something you should dive right in!" Scootaloo boasted. Spike and Sweetie both pushed her away.

"I just wanted to come, so we could hang out, and see you girls do your role from the pew. That's all! I don't want it. Please?"

"Girls," Applebloom said, "Enough. If we make 'er do this. We're no different from Diam-, from bullies."

Just like in my dream. Being bullies just isn't in them.

"C'est la vie," Spike said, everypony looked at him. "I mean, different ponies want different things."

"Yes." I nodded. Spike may have been a baby dragon but I was happy to have him here to be the voice of reason sometimes.

"Uh, sorry." Scootaloo said.

"Really sorry." Sweetie nodded.

"That wasn't right, and sorry we scared ya." Applebloom gave me a small hug.

"T- . . . than-ks, for understanding," I said.

"What about you Spike? You wanna join in us?" Sweetie Belle asked innocently.

"No way," Spike waved his claws, "I'm already the ring dragon and working on the bachelor party!"

"You?" I blinked. "The bachelor party?"

"Sure. How hard can it be?"

"Spike . . . " I dared to ask. "Do you know what a bachelor party IS?"

" . . . Uh, no."

I led Spike outside, I took in a deep breath, and explained the fact of life to the baby dragon.

++++

Later when Spike spoke to Twilight about 'bachelor parties.'

Twilight Sparkle bellowed, "WHOOOO TOLD?!"

If this was a movie, this would be where the camera would be from Twilight Sparkle's point of view, moving up and down with each stomp of her forehooves, the world shaking as each hoof made contact with the ground.

The view would close in on Silver Spoon who was still outside, her expression that of a deer caught in the headlights. Too scared to move a muscle. The CMC fillies would rush on screen, and handle the petrified Silver Spoon like a equinnequin, put her in their red wagon pulled by Scootaloo's scooter, and zoomed off screen before Twilight could remember in her rage filled mind that she could have used telekinesis to grip all the fillies as she carried out her plan to polymorph Silver Spoon into a new book-shelf for the library.

With the camera again third person she'd then in her obviously superior mental stage of tranquil fury teleported right on top of the moving scooter, making the fillies yell out in surprise.

"HA! My rage gives me super intelligen-" She did not get to finish that sentence was she was then hit from behind with a low tree branch, and dragged back to the library for recover by Spike, the baby dragon sighing to himself.

"Oh Spike, I had this horrible dream where you lost your innocence."

"One," Spike said flatly, "it wasn't a dream. Two, seriously, what I got told wasn't that bad. Three, forget hard cider, you need to switch to de-cafe!"

Author's Note

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember
Part 2
By Alex Warlorn

Everybody loves a wedding episode. Especially one with one point five amnesic gods getting married and a point five one in attendance, a dark god looming in the background, a shadow given life rising to challenge, and the fate of a kingdom in the balance. Oh, and no doubt the mother of all angry explosions when Twilight finds out that her brother didn't tell her he was getting married.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Not-The-Same-Wedding-Part-2-439587816

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Pt-4-No-Loose-Screws-440207022

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Episode 162: "No Loose Screws"

Pony POV Series
Wedding Arc Part 4
A Filthy Rich Screwball With Tender Loving Care

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): I'm done with this horse apples.)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Unicorn): What did you say?)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): You heard me! And I say I'm done! We could be doing so much more to help! And yet all we do is ask questions! That makes us as responsible for what happens as those we let case harm!)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Unicorn): You keep forgetting, we're a foreign presence in this reality, we're an alien existence above that of mere mortals. Our very presence is always on the verge of triggering reality's immune response. If we spell out everything or hold their hooves for them, all we've done will be erased anyway! We should have left a long time ago, but complications and delays keep coming up! Spike should already have Peewee by now! And we should have already left back for our own home!)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Earth Pony): What about Shining?)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Unicorn): He's a part of THIS universe now. That was the ENTIRE POINT of everything he endured! It was the point of him being born! We were a SIDE EFFECT! But unlike Shining, we're still a part of our mother's place of origin. The longer we stay here, the more we run the risk of corrupting this place in ways ponies' choices/Rota Fortuna never intended. We risk going from a helper to a virus.)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Earth Pony): Can't we just stay here? Maybe do what Shining did?)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Unicorn): Impossible! . . . This universe doesn't, in fact it's the OPPOSITE of 'need' an Arcana it already has a pony for. AND OUR MOTHER'S HOME needs us!)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): Mom gave up everything for this world!)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Unicorn): She never gave up on the loved ones and friends she left behind! She trusted us to look after them! To help them. Mom knew things could spiral out of control after Shining came to be. It's why we've remained here. But we were NEVER MEANT to stay here forever, we CAN'T stay here forever. It's not fair to these ponies, and it's not fair to those mom left behind where we came from! It's the same reason we can't take Peewee with us, there was ALREADY a Peewee where we came from, we can't go stealing people of other places to patch up 'holes' for those gone in our world! That's cheating! And it shows no respect for this world! And more importantly the ponies who live here.)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Earth Pony): I'm sorry.)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): Don't be! She just thinks the rules are more important than people!)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Unicorn): That is a lie! If we go breaking rules, then we won't be able to ANYPONY, and what help we HAVE done will be undone. We could even make things worse! WHY DO I HAVE to KEEP EXPLAINING THIS?)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): You don't even try to find a better way.)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Unicorn) Do you have any idea how many loop holes I had to find with for us to be able to give them help to save Fluttershy?! How much we've twisted the rules already? We twist them anymore, they'll break!)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Earth Pony): Ple-ea-ease! No fighting! We never fought before! We never argued before! We never disagreed before. It's not fair. Oh I'm sorry Peewee, I didn't mean to shout so loud, I'm sorry.)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Unicorn): Look, please, if we could do more, I'd be the first to do more. But many could say we've overstepped our bounds already.)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): Whatever, I'm out of here. I'll be back when I feel like it. I need some cool down time!)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Earth Pony): Don't go!)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Unicorn): We are supposed to be as one. I suppose we are not anymore. I wish hugs fixed everything dear.)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Earth Pony): Me too . . . )

(Interviewer's Notes: (Unicorn): . . . You can go play with the foals if you want.)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Earth Pony): Are, are you sure I-)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Unicorn): Please. I know you've wanted to.)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Earth Pony): Thank you!)

-

(Interviewer's Notes: (Earth Pony): AARRRRR! I BE A PRIATE!)

Ah! Ya be welcome to join me crew! The Moon Pearl be happy to have you!

"Moonlight! Orange Top! Ruby Punch! Dinky! We be gettin' a new crew member!"

(Interviewer's Notes: (Earth Pony): HI! Wanna play?)

"Oh my. We did not expect to see you here." Said Moonlight in surprise.

"Hello!" Smiled Dinky.

"Nice to meet you," Said Orange Top.

"Is this part of one of those 'interviews' aunt Cheerilee talked about?" Ruby asked.

(Interviewer's Notes: (Earth Pony): Naw! Not this time! I'm just here to have fun! So let's find some buried treasure!)

-

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): So there I was! The crazy pegasus was zapping red lightning at me every which way! But I couldn't give up! Not for my friends sake, which happened to include her.)

Lady, I think you've had enough.

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): NAWWWWWWWW!!! I'm not drunk! I can't get drunk! I have super powers! Now give me another!)

Uh, about your tab-

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): You don't need to worry about that!)

Actually I'm pretty sure I do.

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): HEY! No fair, that always works when that little filly does it. I'm gonna tell her mother on herself! Hey! What are you looking at? What's your name?)

"Not any of your business but it's Lightning Dust."

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): Huh? Oh yeah. The jerk who let her total disregard for others get her kicked out of Wonderbolt Academy.)

"What?!"

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): Oh right, hasn't happened yet, forget everything I just said, you will forget everything, you will forget everything.)

"Stop waving your arms around like you're at a camp fire!"

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): Hey you can't do that to me! I'm the narrator!)

"You're drunk off your tail."

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): I'm not drunk! I can still outfly a one-shot jerk like you!)

"Bring it!"

-Next Morning-

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): There is a very good reason why I don't want to be recognized in Cloudsdale for a while and why that bar I was at now has a really big dent in the cloud ceiling. His insurance will cover it. And I'm sure that Lightning Dust was too drunk to remember a thing I told her.)

-

(Interviewer's Notes: (Unicorn): Since there was already a defeat in the heart world against Queen Chrysalis. And the Elements of Harmony have vastly increased in ability and power due to their additional battles and ordeals, these events should be a triviality. And do not require our in-depth observation. We should focus instead on the far more real and direct threat of Discord and Diamond Tiara.)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): Are you sure about that? I'd say we can still do lots!)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Unicorn): You already did lots! YOU tried to run without paying your bar bill! Do you have ANY IDEA how damaging that could have been if they called the Guards on you?! She clearly wants to enjoy her time more than talking to adults about things that are only going to make her upset. And you are being a BIGGER impulsive child than her! She is free to enjoy herself, and YOU have done enough damage.)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): Ugh...alright, point taken. I might have gone a bit overboard...)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Earth Pony): All right. Guess that means I can play with Pip and Moonlight more!)

(Interviewer's Notes: (Unicorn): Yes, neither of you need to worry about a thing. Queen Chrysalis' invasion will go as it is meant to.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Hey, we're still broken from the Heart World, so Chryssy's gonna get her flank kicked a LOT HARDER here than she was there! It's gonna be a riot!!!)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus)Supplemental: I was so bucking right and so bucking WRONG!)

+++

My name is Filthy Rich. My father said my first name was so I wouldn't forget our family's humble origins. I am well aware of the phrase, thank you. I heard it plenty of times when I was small. When your family is successful, you either get friends who want something from you, or those who detest you for daring to have more than you. Yes, I was real friends with Applejack's parents, they were stolen from this world well before their time. Silver Axe was very much, is very much a true true friend. There are not words to describe how grateful I was that he didn't forsake me when I was lost in my racism. And now Rarity is now a true friend.

Yes, for more than a year I went by the name Onyx Tiara, following my wife's mental breakdown and . . . when she proved she was a danger to herself and our family.

And I turned a blind eye to what my daughter was turning into. When my Tarnished Rich became Diamond Tiara.

I also dived into old paranoid fantasies when the Alicorns couldn't bring my wife back to me. And I passed those same paranoid fantasies onto my foal. Our foal.

Diamond Tiara was also such a good listener, she treated all Golden told her as holy text, she absorbed everything her new 'tutor' told her.

I had another paranoid pony to poison my own daughter. I poisoned her heart. After all the time I spent trying so hard to teach her about the value of hard work and respecting others . . . Diamond Tiara, I'm so so sorry. I'll save you too, we'll find you too, I promise.

I informed her 'tutor' that he wouldn't needed upon my daughter's return and gave him his severance package. No, I didn't chew him out. I know enough about conspiracy theorists to know how they react to having their views challlenged when it's not time.

I've washed out the dye for my coat . . . I've kept the silver collar with the onyx stone, I'm told my princess might like it. But 'Onyx Tiara' him? He was gone for good. And good riddance. My name is Filthy Rich.

I still wasn't happy with what my maid Shiny Star had kept from me. But I've forgiven her, and I fully understand why she did what she did.

. . . Oh yes. That part.

I am not proud of that at all. Looking for a mare who was an image of my wife, so I could express my love to her through another mare. I never said it was an intelligent idea. Shiny Star did what she did, because she felt it would at least keep away other mares.

Shiny Star was also the one who had galloped panting into my office early the next morning after Miss Rarity's poor sister had her epileptic fit.

One of my Princesses had been found. There are no words. There are just no words.

Golden had broken into a hotel or something and left her lawyer's contact information and her credit card number to pay for the damages and her using one of their showers.

My wife loses her ability to read and write, but she can still remember her credit card number? Golden . ..

And . . . she had apparently shown up in Canterlot after assaulting and stealing the dress off a Canterlot noble-mare and causing scene in the ballroom. At Princess Celestia's own command she was being held under guard in one of the castle's guest rooms rather than one of the dungeon cells (the dungeon had gone unused for so long they needed to oil the joints on the cell doors just to open them anyway).

I had had ponies looking EVERYWHERE for both of them, I was desperate to find them. I had hired the entire weather team, when I was still racist. I had private detectives scouring Equestria.

On top of the fact Golden is an escaped mental patient, meaning the asylum was likely the first place contacted when she was discovered, I couldn't bear the idea of not speaking to her before she was taken back to the asylum. I wanted to apologize, even if she couldn't understand...

As it turned out, Dr. Freudian Excuse (bless him) had sent word to me she had been found himself. I was however already on the first train to Canterlot by the time it arrived.

Plus, without Diamond, who else could logically be expected to able to talk Golden down without being folded into a pony party balloon? She never went back without seeing one of us.

But ever loyal Shiny Star arrived just as I was boarding with one last letter addressed to me she knew. I had to read before going.

. . . I was stunned silent the entire ride. I think I may have forgotten to thank Shiny Star.

I had gotten a letter from the elite of the elite, 'Fancy Pants' of Canterlot himself. My other princess . . . my baby girl . . . she'd been spotted in Canterlot.

I went through the police reports when I arrived, no, my daughter hadn't been among the clockwork-foals transformed by that mad filly.

But first I and everypony else on board had to go through a ridiculous security procedure that felt more at home in some old Stablist country.

Apparently they were beginning to close the trains down except for VIPs until the 'unknown threat' had passed. I swear, given how ridiculously vague it was, it felt like somepony had read a tabloid and mistaken it for a news report.

On the plus side, it meant more time for to find Diamond (she had to still be in Canterlot), and for me to make amends with Golden (as now she couldn't leave until the threat was over).

I met with Fancy Pants, and his wife Fleur-de-Lis. Their maid Straight Lace reminded me of Shiny Star. They are both very, very good ponies. Fancy Pants explained he had told the Royal Guard too of course, but felt I'd want to be told as soon as possible myself.

"I went through the missing foal reports, outside of Canterlot, starting with Ponyville since it's the closest settlement, I found the report on her," he explained.

A lot of Fancy Pants' questions he asked, they were so casual, but I felt almost like he was measuring me, testing me, like he was seeing how I responded to even off-hoof comments. He wasn't one of the most important ponies in Canterlot by not having an intellect. Finally after hours of this, he finally told me how 'Diamonds' had described her life.

. . . . . .

"I knew she was lying about herself and you, but I didn't know how much however, I apologize," he said.

"No, it's alright." I honestly didn't know what to say.

She, really believed that Golden's mental illness was hereditary? She had heard the doctors that time? . . . Silver Axe said he often had the same problem with Silver Spoon hearing things foals shouldn't. I should have been more careful. I should have noticed something was wrong...

"If you see her, no, when you see her by the way, you can tell her please that she can consider the dress a gift."

"I-I will."

Diamond Tiara, I'll find you. Our family will be back together again.

++++

My name is Screwball. I have no other name. It's the name I deserve. It's the only name I've earned for myself. I threw every other name I had away.

I look at my beanie in my hooves, the only clothing I had. The dress I stole was given back to the mare I clobbered for it. Without any resistance from me. Sitting on the bed, I put the beanie on my head where it belonged.

Once upon a time as a filly I didn't mind looking the fool, now everypony should look at me and see me for the absurd creature I am.

The door unlocked from the outside and slowly swung inward, pegasus guards on either side with wings magically honed to be as sharp as swords with a thought and a unicorn guard standing between them with his horn pointed towards the door. Three guards for one pony, they knew how dangerous I am...

My eyes widened when I saw who was looking at me, their eyes widened in shock as well.

"You!" We shouted together.

TLC let a high pitched war cry and began jabbing at me with all her hooves at high speed, "Yata-yata-yata-yata-yata-yata-yata-yata-yata-yata-yata-yata-yata-yata-yata-yata!"

"Your Hidden Ursa Major Hoof Style won't work on me this time!" I snapped as I spun like a ferris wheel delivering endless blows with each of my hooves!

Our hooves collided in mid-air, causing the entire castle to shake.

(Wait.)

A lightning storm formed from our clash! Untethered objects rose by the force of our chi!

(Wait!)

I dew my flaming sword! She unsheathed her ninja claws!

(WAIT!)

"To the end then?!" I asked.

"YES! Let this be our final BATTLE!"

Our weapons clashed a mighty burst of light!

(Interviewer's Notes: Can we now have the fight that didn't happen in your imagination?)

Sorry! TLC's favorite play is from Neighpon is titled 'Hoof Of the Northstar.'

(You really fought each other?)

You have to understand, I think seeing me outside a straightjacket triggered a conditioned response in her, and... I hadn't been a good pony to her during all my escapes. It was just us saying hello!

(Interviewer's Notes: The Guards didn't stop you?)

I think they were too in awe at two attractive black belt mares going all out to think straight. Either that or TLC being my caretaker had something to do with that.

"We'll just, uh, close the door now bye!" One said quickly.

We did a few backflip kicks and hoof jabs, before tiring ourselves out on the tornado bucks.

"Hello Golden Tiara," she panted.

"My name is Screwball," I panted back.

She looked at me worried and afraid for me, "What?"

"It's the name I've EARNED. Golden Tiara would have never hurt own filly! Let alone try to KILL her!"

"Golden... you -remember- now?"

"Screwball! I am Screwball!"

She instinctively went back into a defensive stance.

"... Sorry." I croaked out.

"When did it happen?"

"At the party I snuck into... the pain was horrible, and EVERYTHING came back. The world finally made sense...for real this time."

"Golden-Screwball, your eyes, your cutie mark, they're all back to normal?"

"... Doesn't change what I did... nothing ever will."

I slipped on my social mask and smiled, it had been far too long since I played the game. "Sooo what brings you here to Canterlot?"

She blinked bewildered at my sudden change. "... YOU. The doctors couldn't come to you themselves. And I'm the one you're least likely to be able to turn inside out."

I dropped the mask. "Yes... the asylum... it's where I BELONG, the only place a monster CAN belong?"

"Golden-"

I growled."

"Stop it," she said, "If you really remember, if you UNDERSTAND what happened, you can finally start healing to be back WITH your family."

"I can't be trusted near them!"

"I . . . I'm sorry . . ." She sighed, "Look, I'm just here to make sure you get back safely . . . but, you should at least try to open up."

However...

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE CAN'T LEAVE?"

"We're sorry, the capital is on lock-down until the end of the wedding except by royal invite and VIPs, we JUST got the order ourselves."

Looks like I wasn't going anywhere for a while. We sat on a bench. Nurse TLC was still holding my leash.

"TLC?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry for . . . being a poor caregiver when you were given the mind of a baby on the day The World Made Sense Again, I mean, the day of chaos."

Nurse TLC looked at me awkwardly. "The whole reason you were at the hospital is because you weren't responsible for your actions." She said in that forced tone I recognized as a pony doing the right thing even if they didn't actually want to. "It would be stupid for me to blame you."

"How is . . . Dr. Hoofwave?"

"Him? He's on recovery still, but he's supposed to start working again next month. I think it'll be great to have him."

"Okay . . . and how is ... Dr. Head-Scratcher?"

Her mask cracked.

"You have any idea how long it took the chiropractors to help Dr. Head-Scratcher after you turned him into a pretzel?"

"I'm sorry."

"And the orderly you shoved into the electric fence to use as a step ladder, and Roid Rage-"

"I'm sorry! I'm a bad pony!" I cried.

Nurse TLC stopped as if waking up from a dream. Her body froze. She looked down at herself like she was her own stranger, and settled back down. "I'm sorry, I'm very sorry. I had no right to say any of that. I apologize. I'm the one being a bad pony. I need to be the one to know better in my job. Please forgive me?"

". . . I don't think you're the one who has to apologize. Does Barking Mad miss me?"

"Her name isn't . . . yes, we think she does. Oh! Good news! Miss Fluttershy has actually been able to SPEAK with her! We think with Miss Fluttershy as interpreter, we can have her on the road to recover before the year is out!" She said genuinely happy. "Nurse Redheart is overjoyed at the news!"

"That's . . . that's good . . . can we go back to my room now?"

"Yes. Yes you can."

+++

... I don't think there was a right decision for which to go to first, and I don't know if I avoided making the wrong decision.

I went to Golden first, because I thought my wife wouldn't want to wait for news about our foal. The guards acted a little more rigid than when I had last visited Canterlot requesting in person for the Alicorns to cure my wife.

They had always been still as statues, but there more tension in the way they moved, and if possible, they seemed to smile less. Where before ponies had been allowed to come and go as they pleased, now I had to prove that I was there on business. Apparently my wife was down as a 'secured guest.'

Golden's lawyer was already explaining to the mare who she had robbed that Golden didn't understand her own actions, and couldn't be held legally accountable. Finding Golden wouldn't be thrown in the dungeon any time soon, she was still determined for compensation for her medical bills, the damage to her dress, and her emotional trauma at being ambushed and stripped naked by a mad pony in the middle of the night, since it had technically happened on royal grounds, she demanded it be paid out of the royal coffers. Golden, at least you were safe.

But it hadn't done much for the city's confidence that a mad mare had snuck into the city, single-hoofedly avoided capture, attacked a noble pony, stolen her clothes, and gotten into the castle. This had made security more rigid, and ponies more scared. I didn't like this combination at all. Especially on top of this unknown threat.

I was told her room didn't have any windows, but her door was guarded constantly by three royal guards. I wondered if that was enough for a black belt mad mare whose pain tolerance would make masochists cringe.

I considered wearing a dress suit, getting flowers, a gift, something, but nothing I could think of, could remotely come close to telling her that I still loved her, and I was so so so sorry!

And the stores I went to were out of roller-skates her size.

I had never visited her at the hospital. So I can't say I recognized the mare I met outside her room. She introduced herself as Nurse Tender Loving Care and from the asylum.

And she told me.

+++

I was curled up in the bed. I knew better than to not eat, they'd just make you eat if you didn't. I'd have had no choice but to get out of bed if they told me to. They'd just make me if I didn't. But was there was nothing to do now, but wait for the trains to run again, and for me to go back to where I belonged?

I didn't belong among sane ponies. I was an animal that needed to be locked in its cage. Did I cry? No. Everything inside me has collapsed into a black hole, there were no tears inside to shed.

In books and plays, the story trick of having the hero or nice pony turn out to be a villain with amnesia would make my blood boil. It was a cheap trick by authors to make the reader feel sorry for somepony who had done awful thing and was somehow innocent of them simply because they didn't remember them.

It didn't seem so trite now that it was happening to me.

There was a knock on the door. Knocking? Why would anypony bother to knock for me?

The door slowly opened, I didn't turn around to see who it was. I'd just eat the food and go back into bed. Utensils? It wasn't like they were going to trust me with forks and knives. And TLC knew I knew how to be dangerous with a spoon.

"Princess?"

My eyes widened, then I shut them tight and curled into the smallest ball I could wrapping he blankets around me. No, no no no no! Not him! Don't let him see me like this!

"Don't look at me!"

" . . . Golden, please, I just wanted to see you."

"Don't come any closer!"

Of course. I had let her go mad. I had abandoned her in that mad house. What right did I have left to be with her? What right did I have to look upon her beauty?

I had avoided her to the point my daughter had to sneak out to visit her...maybe if I hadn't, none of this would be happening.

" . . . Golden . . I'm sorry."

HE was sorry? For what? I had done it all, to myself, to his foal, to our family, to him. What did he have to be sorry for?

I dared peak out of the blankets. It was my prince. He looked so sad. So small. Ashamed. Why? I destroyed our world!

"Filthy . . . why are you . . . don't be . . . please don't be sad!"

"I'm sorry!!!" He gasped out, misty eyed. "I LET ALL OF THIS HAPPEN!"

What? This isn't making any sense! "Filthy what are you talking about?!"

"I ignored the warning signs, I didn't get you help when I should have, it was my responsibility, and I failed you, Golden Tiara!"

"NO!" I gasped out, getting out of bed. "I FAILED YOU! I DID THIS ALL TO MYSELF!"

"And I let you!"

"It was my life and I ruined it and yours and our daughter's!"

"It was OUR LIFE! And I turned a blind eye to you needing help."

"And I never thought to ASK for help! I WAS THE ONE WHO---WHO... WHO... " I shook. "I was the one who tried to . . . to . . . murder Diamond. You SAVED HER."

He embraced me and nuzzled me. It had been . . . It had been far too long. My entire body went slack in his hooves.

"Please, I beg you, don't do this to yourself, Golden Tiara."

"I betrayed that name. I'm Screwball. It was my own choices made me go insane in the first place."

A golden crown instead of a screw and a base ball, beautiful amethyst eyes instead of purple whirlpools. She was wearing that beanie she had as a filly. I almost felt ashamed at being happy to see these beautiful traits of hers again, like her appearance was all that mattered. But they were the tell tale signs my princess had finally returned.

"Honey, uh, do you like my collar? I thought you might like it," he asked so awkwardly, so nervously, awaiting my approval. MY approval? What right did, how could he ask something that mundane about--

And I realized this mundane was what I wanted. "It's . . . nice, dear."

"Thank you honey." He nuzzled me, my entire body shivered, it wasn't from cold or disgust. I dared to steal a nuzzle from him back.

He didn't resist or recoil, he was happy. My prince, like in a fairy tale, my prince, my prince wanted me back!

I cried. Maybe I wasn't empty after all.

A scary but wonderful while later, Filthy and I separated. And he showed me a small box I hadn't noticed earlier.

"Honey, I have something for you . . . Nurse TLC said she brought it just in case she couldn't . . . restrain you. She thought it might calm you down enough to come along."

He opened it.

"My dress," I whispered.

I took it out of the box, hugged it and embraced it. Still with the diamonds sewn in. I felt alive. I felt like a pony. I felt like a person. My birthday present . . . from Diamond.

Diamond.

Had it all been in my mind? I had to ask the one pony I knew I could always trust.

"Dear. Tiara, she's missing isn't it?"

He couldn't lie to me. "Yes she is...And I think that's my fault...I ignored the warning signs with her, like I did with you," Then he realized. "That's . . That's why you escaped isn't it?"

"I thought if I saved her from whatever had happened, I'd prove I was a good mother, and the doctors would have to let me stay with her again."

Maybe it was stupid and reckless, but I couldn't keep anything from her, not now.

"Honey, I have something to tell you. Diamond Tiara was stopped somewhere here in Canterlot. I promise. We'll find her."

There was only one thing I could ask of him. "Please find her dear, and protect her, from me."

+++

I had no idea what to expect when I decided to take time out of my admittedly busy schedule to meet with her.

How did I even find out she was in Canterlot? It was quite shocking let me tell you!

To find out Diamond Tiara had been seen here in Canterlot was completely overwhelming. I'd let Silver Spoon's father decide if the little filly should know or not. I had meddled enough with one family's filly, and Silver... Whenever Diamond is mentioned, she gets a look that reminds me of Rainbow Dash. That look of undying loyalty that cannot be faked. If Silver knew Diamond was here, I didn't doubt that she'd do anything to find her.

Between designing, measuring, and sewing several dresses within a couple of days, it's a tribute to my talents that I had the time to spare.

I didn't tell the others out of a sense of secrecy or conspiracy, we had enough drama, and I didn't want to add to it.

In spite of previous advice, I wasn't about to -ignore- Filthy Rich after our deep discussion. I already knew -he- was in Canterlot.

I didn't exactly scour the city for him, but I did ask Fancy Pants if the most important pony in Canterlot knew the whereabouts of Ponyville's biggest business pony . . . A gamble, but it paid off, and I found out the truth. Fancy is good at reading ponies and I think saw my concern was genuine.

When I explained, he told me about Diamond Tiara being his guest.

I had actually used my jewel finding spell to try and find Tiara's crown in Canterlot, but I kept finding only dead ends.

Diamond Tiara. You came here? Why? How had you managed to get here? There WAS however a powerful relief in knowing that at the time, she was alive and well. After months of simply not knowing, there was proof she was still alive and somewhere nearby... But the Royal Guard apparently were too busy to spare much stallion power on one lost filly with the royal wedding on the horizon.

I shared Filthy Rich's agitation.

But why in blue blazes would she have come to Canterlot?

Filthy Rich as it turned out had been given a room next to his wife at The Princess' offer.

Filthy Rich I think was surprised to find me Canterlot as well. And that was where I found out the rest of the truth.

His wife had been found, in Canterlot as well, it was almost too impossible to be truth, I was very happy for him.

Then he shared his wife's mental state... It was a miracle. There was no other way to describe it. If they could now just find Diamond they could have their lives back and maybe Diamond could learn to let go of her pride and cruelty.

No I had never given up on her. A wise mare once said, 'under the skin, evil was often just pain.' I think it might have been Fluttershy. Sometimes I think she's more selfless than me, which is why I shall ALWAYS look out for what's best for her.

I made my request, and after some heartfelt explanation, Filthy Rich consented.

She was a lovely mare, but in need of a good combing and deluxe trip to the spa. She didn't seem crazy as had been built up for so long. But the heavy weight of depression was easy to see, and that felt -wrong- for Equestria and for any pony in need.

I didn't know how to begin my encounter with her, so I greeted her as a proper lady, curtsying and introducing myself.

Confused she asked my business with her. I'll admit I was taken a bit off guard, what was my business? But I had know I had to see her.

"I was the sewing tutor to your daughter and the mare she spent the most time with before running away. I'm here to be just another mare to talk to if you'll let me."

And she did. We talked about the stresses of high society, I told her about my generosity in accepting requests for appearances left Twilight's birthday dress all but undone. About how the stereotype that well off ponies in Canterlot all had to be elitist snobs.

I left out the whole 'helped save the world' thing, this was her time to communicate with another pony like another pony for who knew how long, to get used to being sane again, not me listing off my accomplishments.

I was amazed when I learned of the extreme sports she had done. She told me about her quality time with Diamond Tiara. And from the abuse Sweetie Belle told about the bully, it was like two completely different ponies were being described to me. But again, I had begun to see this Diamond Tiara bit by bit, until she stabbed me and ran away. I still remember the shame and terror in her eyes, the scissors shaking in her mouth. She hadn't wanted to do it. And for a spoiled filly like Diamond Tiara to do something she didn't want to, it told of something very wrong indeed.

There was no way in Tartarus I could tell Miss Golden Tiara about her filly's act of violence. Maybe I was just repeating mistakes, but I knew she would just blame herself somehow.

Sadly, she refused to accept her name of Golden Tiara, and insisted on being referred to as 'Screwball.' Poor mare. But at least I was able to speak with her for over an hour about family, high culture, and I was sure to share with her current events she had missed out on because of her sickness. If there was ever a pony I met who needed a friend right now, it was her. And the greatest act of generosity one can commit, is to give their time to help another.

She was no actress, she couldn't hide her smile. But duty called, I merely told her, that what her daughter wanted more than anything, was to have her mother back.

Author's Note

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember
Part 4
By Alex Warlorn

Everybody loves a wedding episode. Especially one with one point five amnesic gods getting married and a point five one in attendance, a dark god looming in the background, a shadow given life rising to challenge, and the fate of a kingdom in the balance. Oh, and no doubt the mother of all angry explosions when Twilight finds out that her brother didn't tell her he was getting married.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Not-The-Same-Wedding-Part-3-439776375

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Pt-5-A-Bug-Pony-s-Life-440400676

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Should this chapter have a mature content warning?

Episode 163: "A Bug-Pony's Life"

My name is Moth, I'm a changeling, I have never been a pony, nor were my parents...does it shock you that much? That we have parents? We aren't just all mutated ponies or grown like a fungus with no heart of my own?...Maybe I don't.

If we changeling are so big on being hidden, why do we not just feed on each other's love? We tried, it was like a snake eating its own tail. We can't simply feed on our Queen's love and her on ours. We NEED other creatures who can love to live. It's the law of nature, no animals can survive on their own...even herbivores need grass and even flowers need the sun.

We HATE it. That we NEED 'inferior creatures' to live...so what makes me a freak? So why do I see my food as people?...Funny story that. Wait, not very funny at all.

It wasn't just one grand moment that changed my life. When someling's truth is challenged, they become even MORE defiant in protecting it. You fight back with everything you have.

If someling told you friendship was worthless, you wouldn't suddenly give up that just because of one time would you?

So what makes you think I gave up on what I had been taught my whole life because of one day? Just because something is wrong, doesn't make it any less difficult to break the belief.

Before I was born, all changelings were granted the honor names on top of our serial numbers. My parents named me Moth.

I'm not a brainwashed pony hero, or a changeling princess in disguise, I was a changeling among a swarm of changelings.

I was taught to manipulate and control the reactions of zebra, ponies, griffins, all creatures that felt emotions. I was a gatherer after all, I wasn't a worker or a soldier. It was my duty to go beyond the hive and gather love to return to the rest of the hive. So my storage capacity had to be bigger than an average changeling.

I enjoyed the circus maximus on the rare occasion I returned to the hive instead of simply relaying the mass amount of love I had gathered to another changeling to return to the hive.

I replaced many ponies, adults, children, stallions, mares, each presented their own unique challenges, but I never bothered to remembered their meaningless names once my mission was done, do you remember the individual names of apples in a cider? For the record, my base form IS female. Sometimes I invented new identities and worked with that in societies and communities where paper work or background checks weren't mandatory.

The ponies I replaced?...Sometimes they were converted if useful to the swarm's collective knowledge and skill, just taken to be more home-stead cattle (though we don't need to do that as much now), or left in an empty dazed state and we quietly let them slip back into their lives, or...we disposed of them.

Choosing between individuals of another species or providing for my own community, my own species, my own race, my friends and family, my own people, you think I ever felt a shred of hesitation or guilt? It wouldn't have been a life changing realization if I'd already felt what I was doing was wrong, would it?

Do you feel hesitation or guilt for the flowers you eat?

My nymphhood wasn't special, I was taught to obey my superior without question, and the queen was superior to all. That was the efficiency of the great machine.

That's a difference between ponies and Changelings. Ponies come to the conclusion that Celestia is an almighty force of nature. Changelings are taught that the Queen is one. The fact that the only way a queen had died in our memory was at the hooves of another Queen only reinforced it.

That changelings need love to live, and what we did was no different from a spider eating a fly.

Those who vomited love back at prey were insane. And I didn't question any of it, you don't question superior.

Prey was food that talked, their games of 'right' and 'wrong' didn't apply to us.

Once, workers were considered the least, next came the cattle, next came the gatherers, then came the soldiers, then came the Masters, and above them the Queen herself. Now all the castes are equal.

I didn't think prey fools, do you think apples are fools?

A gatherer I was born, and a gatherer I will die as, that's what the swarm needs me for, and for that, I won't abandon my responsibility to my hive-mates for my own personal whims of wanting a new profession. A screw can not become a cog.

Those were all my truths, and my reality!

Then came the day, when I became even more zealot of them.

It was just another day. Before I became a full fledged gatherer and left the hive. The Queen feels us being able to interact grants us stronger loyalty to the hive. I speak with a nymph disguised as a zebra filly. She talked about her love for the hive, her honor in serving it, of being a part of her, the honor of her responsibility in providing for it. She was wonderful to be with. We shared a undying loyalty to Queen and Swarm.

Then a herder came, and I found out the reality, I had been talking to a cattle this whole time! Then the next reality I found out. She didn't have the tell tale green tinted eyes our magic can't hide, because she had been born here. The hive was the only home and life she had ever known. She considered herself part of the swarm, and counted herself among our numbers, seeing her providing love as just another duty for the swarm.

HOW DARE SHE?! HOW DARE A CATTLE THINK OF ITSELF AS EQUAL TO US?! HOW DARE SHE THINK OF HERSELF AS PART OF THE SWARM! She degraded the honor of the swarm with such thoughts that we could be lowered to her level! I HATED HER!

You think I had a moment of doubt to that? Of questioning? I only grew more hostile to cattle. There WERE NO ifs, ands, buts, thoughs, or howevers!

My responsibility was to the swarm and nothing else, not these walking love batteries!

I was proud when I was let loose upon the world, when I slipped into the horse-shoes of ponies and zebra, I slipped into the cracks of other ponies' lives and told them what they wanted to hear, then sucked them dry and discarded them like the rind of an orange!

I was good at what I did, I wasn't the best, that was master Jewel Wasp, and her apprentices, but I proved I didn't need to be taught by the best to become talented! I was recognized for my skills and I was taught the languages and cultures of was different prey that I'd be sent out against.

On one of my first visits to the Land Of Love, as we changeling nicknamed it as love was so available, I had never felt so alive. I became too drunk on how easy it was to draw love out of these creatures. I was disguised as a pegasus at the time. While my classes had covered the alien and bizarre land of the Everfree Forest where weather, plants, and animals were wild, unpredictable and savage, it had failed to mention that just cause Ponyville was the only settlement right next to it, didn't mean rogue weather didn't wander out from it elsewhere. I ran right into a wild storm. I crashed and was knocked out of my disguise and forced into my true shape.

I had recently passed on my collected love to a courier, healing my damage would take reserves I didn't have, but I did have enough to make sure I was never found.

Our bodies naturally crumble into dust anyway unless we're sucked dry by a Queen, but if we feared we'd be discovered, we had other options. We must be as ghosts. The hive's secrecy must be protected until the Land Of Love is our new home.. I prepared to trigger my, well, for lack of a better term let's call it 'apoptosis.'

"Hello, are you alright? Well, from the crash I can guess you're NOT alright."

I would die with dishonor, I had been seen. I looked at the pony who had spotted me on the ground. A unicorn.

What had to be the most perfect luck in the history of the swarm, the stupid creature was blind!

I'll admit, as a changeling, I suffered from a slight handicap, sometimes I forget myself and do a completely different voice if I didn't pay attention. The fact I had been chosen for the Land of Love IN SPITE Of my handicap is something I take pride in. I focused and gave the most sincere sounding and pitiable voice I could imagine giving.

"Please, help, I'm hurt."

The blind creature a short time later lifted me on his back and took me to his home in the middle of nowhere.

He lived alone and had no neighbors. I don't know what god was showering me with such luck but I hoped their whims didn't change too quickly!

I worried he might realized something was up with me: Then again, this creature was blind and lived by himself, he HAD TO BE stupid!

Then things got weird.

I couldn't just drain him dry and go, being hit by lightning and crashing into the ground hadn't left me in perfect shape. And what he was feeding for me was compassion, not the same thing as love. The default amount of love he had wasn't the gigantic amount I needed to heal myself enough that I could move without splitting my exoskeleton in two.

So I was stuck there for weeks, forced to heal the old fashioned way. He gave me water, bandaged me, and of course, fed me, or what ponies ate to live. It barely took anything to fill my tiny stomach, and my body wasn't built to process what was in there anything, we were built to feed off of love, if we could live off of grass and flowers we wouldn't have to risk living the way we do. No, our stomachs weren't completely nonfunctional, they could digest food, we just got nothing from it except the taste.

His cutie mark was a butterfly, I'm surprised his brain knew what one looked like. He was also a poet I guess. He introduced himself as 'After Image.'

The weird thing was, I felt myself getting stronger, but I wasn't feeding, but I felt love storing up inside me! I didn't understand it at all.

I stuck to my cover story. He politely accepted everything I said. He said things like, "Oh is that right?" or "I understand." He barely questioned anything! I couldn't believe my luck.

There's only one punishment for breaching the masquerade. The ultimate failure deserves the ultimate punishment. His discovery of what I was would only mean me reporting my failure followed by an execution for having failed the swarm. Yes I'd turn myself in. Why shouldn't I?

I never knew what she was. I knew she wasn't a pony. All I knew was that was somecreature who was horribly hurt and in need. If she had a reason for keeping her identity and species secret, I was going to respect that. I hope she found what she was looking for. I surprised myself, I did love her company.
-

When I was strong enough to leave, I thanked him without thinking about. Then again, that was what ponies did with each other.

But the mystery remained, how had I fed? I hadn't drawn anything out of him at all. So why? Why? It made no sense. Creatures don't get fed just by being NEXT TO food.

And when I left, he was still every bit as strong as when I'd met him! He hadn't lost an ounce of energy! Even if I HAD been feeding off him, how could he have so much love in him that it didn't leave a dent? A female mosquito doesn't feed off its pray without drawing blood!

In some ways, it felt like I was BETTER fed than I was normally. Almost like I'd gotten a continuous stream instead of one big rush. Like it'd be flowing nonstop instead of in bursts like it normally did during quick feedings.

I hadn't even TRIED feeding (as said, I needed him), he hadn't seemed to weaken one little bit, but I'd still got fed well. What the Tartarus was going on here?!

And I couldn't just ask back at the hive. Asking about it would mean exposing myself to the others. Saying that I'd let myself get hurt and raised back to health by FOOD! It was one thing to report a failure, it was another to report what amounted to humiliation! We Changelings had our pride!

It just kept eating away at me. It made no sense!

And it would come back to those second-generation-plus cattle who had never had mind control magic used on them in their lives who would prattle on they were happy to have such a vital and indispensable function as part of the swarm! Little rats! Would we keep them around if we didn't need to?

....

Okay. Maybe I was a little defensive. My entire live and function in the hive was to be a gatherer, if the population of the livestock got big enough some day to provide for the entire swarm, I wouldn't just be out of a job, I'd be out of why I was born! Imagine trying to realize your Cutie Mark was something the world didn't have any used! So of course I cheered for changelings who petitioned the queen that the livestock were a clear and present danger would ultimately turn on us once their numbers were big enough.

I was actually angry the live stock never showed any interest in rebelling against anything, they considered themselves part of the swarm if they were changelings or not.

The herders never even TRIED to discourage them from thinking of themselves as part of the hive rather than the live stock they were!

Can we...can we stop please?...Just for a little bit? Looking back at myself, how I was, how I used to think, it's...it's hard...I don't like doing it. It reminds me how I would have looked at Lyra and Bon Bon, and not even have seen people. It scares me to think about how I used to think.

Like I said, me realizing non-changelings were people, and 'nature taking its course' wasn't an excuse as I had been taught all my life, wasn't a laughing matter.

I fought it, kicking and screaming, leaving hoof marks in the dirt. Please, please I don't want to talk about it in detail. Please.

I dared to ask the natural rival of a gatherer, a herder, about the nature of harvesting love from such complacent and willing cattle. I didn't give any details of course of why I was asking, and the chances I could ask where slim as I spent most of my life away from the hive.

They told me, there were times working with the cattle, they would forget to feed themselves, but they wouldn't grow weaker, in fact, they would actually feel stronger. Those who relayed this strange happenstance to the higher ups were ignored.

It couldn't be.

I asked questions of the higher ups myself and was ignored, again, not revealing the nature of my questions, until I was told to stop asking questions.

...

I obeyed of course. Obey your superiors. They is the changeling way. So why was I so scared?

And it struck me. Why. Why had the changelings who had fled with a single stolen first generation cattle brought to the hive only needed that one cattle to live?...As a gatherer, it had been part of my duty to spot rogues and runaways (I don't know what if anything was done after that). So why...why had they only needed that one host to live? Our hive was literally in the middle of nowhere, there wouldn't be any food for miles.

Nothing made sense anymore.

Was our way of feeding...wrong?

I brought this up with my superiors, and I was told never to speak of it again. I obeyed.

I remember once, a cave in, a herder had dug to save a cattle who had been caught, he had risked his life, it wasn't part of his duty, he wasn't a worker, but he did it anyway. I thought nothing of it at the time, it wasn't part of my duty to the swarm.

Now I tracked him down, and I did ask him.

"It's not a matter of being superior, it's matter of us living, we need them, and they need us."

Ants and aphids, of course, ants and aphids. You know I actually felt relief. Ants and aphids. Ants and aphids. It was nature at work again. Ants and aphids. We were the ants, and they were the aphids. They provided for us, and we took care of them, no wars, no crime, no rape or murder, we kept them happy and they provided for us. Ants and aphids. Simple as that.

And I was more afraid of my duty as a gatherer were truly destine to turn to dust. But the same time I felt guilt and confusion, for the cattle, but for why the swarm was ignoring a better way to feed ourselves, even at the cost of the gatherer caste, did they think we weren't loyal enough to the hive that we wouldn't sacrifice our purpose and function for the good of the entire swarm?

The worst part was, was when it happened again. It was like fate took delight in torturing me. When I crashed, no, it was the ceiling that crashed into me. Flying in my true form was something I could only do inside the hive's cavern. Even us, who could change into any species of animal, we wanted to be our true selves....Like ponies and their cutie marks.

But it came with risks, and there was an accident, at least it wasn't life threatening this time.

I thought it was a doctor of my own kind who healed me in the hive, who was currently in the form of a zebra for some reason, that's what I told myself. Turns out his 'superior' was out at the time, but having been at his superior's side all this time, providing love for her, he was able to repair the damage done to me with acquired expertise. Taught by changelings of course, so not that strange.

But...how was that any different from when the blind unicorn healed me?

Now I was terrified.

I WAS HAPPY when I was sent to the griffin kingdom instead of the land of love again.

And that was when everything for me changed forever.

However, it turned out what I THOUGHT would be an escape was more...complicated.

It was just a routine gathering mission. It was a little village in the middle of nowhere. Which Griffin Nation? I forget, I didn't know it by its 'pony name' at the time. But point was, the village didn't have anyone anypony important would miss...which was exactly why the next part was so shocking.

First I noticed ponies that were visiting the village. Observing them, I overheard enough to figure out they were simply tourists traveling through the country. No one expecting them, middle of nowhere. They were perfect...But then something happened.

One of them just happened to trip and hit their head on a rock. A Griffin rushed to help them.

They were an Earth Pony, so they were okay, but they were bleeding...and that's where the shock came from.

The Griffin finished up tending to them and wiped the blood off, giving a somewhat hungry look at his talons. Even I could smell the blood.

It was no secret that Griffins were ponies' natural predators. But the wars ended long ago. However, instincts were still instincts. I'd always assumed that Griffins just didn't want to have the world angry at them...however, a couple ponies from nowhere going nowhere in a village in the middle of nowhere? I thought somegriffin's instincts would get the better of them eventually (why I'd become a Griffin). That if there was no logical way it could come back to bite them, they'd follow their instincts.

But here was a Griffin, with pony blood on his claws. Predatory instinct HAD to be kicking in. But he didn't lose it, he didn't hurt them. he didn't even go get a snack or anything, he just went about his day.

I normally would've overlooked it...but with my brain already in doubt, I observed. I was HOPING one of the ponies would get taken by the Griffins so I could take their place with the other. It never happened. They came and went on.

The Griffins had let their food walk into a perfect location to pounce, smelt its blood...and just let it leave in peace...

The SHOCKING part was that none of the griffins took note or disdain at this griffin that had let their natural food go when it made less sense NOT to claim their prize! The ponies might as well have been hanging signs saying 'Free Food!' around their necks. And the griffins just let them go. And the griffins all treated it as normal.

If they had been afraid of revenge by Princess Celestia if it could be traced back to them, that still wouldn't make sense. Griffins were not cowards, anyling who tells you different has never met one. I don't care if they lost their war with the ponies. Even the wrath of the sun goddess wouldn't be enough to cow them.

So why, why had that griffin HELPED that injured pony? My thoughts continued like that for a while. Going in circles. Seeing but not understanding.

So I dared infiltrate deeper into these griffins. I didn't have orders to ingrain this deep, but if I didn't find an answer, I'd go insane, and then I'd be no use to the swarm, an unforgivable failure.

What confused me further, was that the griffins called their own ancestors "dweebs" for keeping ponies as slaves and livestock. And I broke the most basic rule of a gatherer, I didn't just smile and nod. I played Tirac's advocate. I was the only changeling here, noling would ever know.

I cited how the griffins was only doing what came natural, that the ponies under them had had peace and protection, that there was no shame in treating prey like prey, and it was just the natural structure of nature.

I completely destroyed the usefulness of my persona as a love harvesting tool. And I was lucky to get out of there without being knocked into my true form. Griffins do not shy away from a fight nor expressing themselves physically. And as far as they knew, I was another Griffin who knew and should have expected that.

My persona was called a bigot and much less kinder things. What I was able to shift through the insults, and death threats, was talk about respecting other sapient creatures and that there was no such thing as the 'master species', and treating others like you wanted to be treated, and that it was disrespectful towards yourself to lower yourself to the level of an animal that couldn't control or chose when to obey or ignore their instincts.

If I had been in confusion before, then now I was drowning in an ocean of it. How could griffins, creatures who should have been in the same boat as us, ones who many changeling masters had cited an alliance was only logical (we'd take the emotions, they'd take the flesh), be so against having ponies fulfill their natural place in nature?

I had always told myself, it was because the rest of the world would become their enemies if they tried to do what was their natural calling due to the world ruled by prey, an upside down absurdity of how the world was supposed to be. But these griffins, retaliation by prey hadn't even been a major part of their verbal beat down! And as far as they knew, I WAS a Griffin, they had no reason to lie!

I actually cried myself to sleep that night. Why. Why didn't the world make sense anymore?

We were still better than griffins. We weren't killers. We merely feed on emotions from our prey, we didn't kill them. What did it matter?! THEY WERE JUST CATTLE!!!!

But if that were true, then why was I the one questioning why the Griffins hadn't made a meal of those ponies? Why did THEY accept killing was wrong and condemn the idea of it while I was the one looking for a reason why they SHOULD kill them?

Because it was the natural thing for griffins to do! It was their NATURE TO EAT THE FLESH OF PONIES!...Yet why were none of them sick or miserable? We were always taught that creatures who resisted or fought against their instincts were always struggling against it constantly, living in perpetual agony and misery struggling against their own flesh and blood! It's why everyling thinks those vampire pony novels are STUPID after all! It's why everyling hates it! A vampire pony falling in love with a pony who is his natural food source? It would like an addict dating witch weed! It's MORE stupid for changelings, vomiting love BACK at prey? It's insane!

Oh? We changelings kill each other? Of course we do. It's how our Queen became Queen in the first place, she has taught us not to fear weak leaders and those who can't carry their own weight need to be cut loose. We're creatures with free will after all, I just meant we don't kill our prey to survive like griffins would.

Then why do we treat ponies like animals when they can think and speak? BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT THEY ARE TO US! It's what's natural! It's what nature intended! It's the natural world! It's what Mother Nature meant for us to be, what we were intended to be! It's what evolution HAS MADE US! Why should we do something as ARROGANT and SELF-DESTRUCTIVE as try to go against what we NATURALLY DEVELOPED TO BE?! Lions can't eat grass to survive, and deer can't live off sunlight like grass can. We can't eat meat or plants to survive either, love is what we NATURALLY live off of! WHY SHOULD WE TRY TO CHANGE WHAT WE ARE JUST BECAUSE the world wouldn't approve?!

But then, you know what I found out? The symbol of peace between the ponies and Griffins is a HIPPOGRIFF. As in a HYBRID of the two species.

At first, I naturally thought it was a mythical creature. A hybrid of predator and prey couldn't ACTUALLY exist, right? There was no way!

But with my thoughts in such disarray, I couldn't help myself...I assumed a new Griffin form (my old one now an outcast) and asked around. It turned out that one of the countries ambassadors was one! Yes, I know that makes perfect sense! I knew there were some pony/zebra crossbreeds who did much the same elsewhere, and even some Deer hybrids, but there was one BIG difference: two prey species mating? THAT makes sense. A prey species and its natural predator? HOW?! How is that PHYSICALLY possible?! See my anti-vampire-novel argument for why that seemed utterly insane!

And yet apparently, it happened frequently enough that Griffins didn't doubt they could exist! I tried to write it off as a political move, but there was one small detail that made no sense: the Griffins didn't consider the existence of one a big deal! If this was some one of a kind thing, why WOULDN'T it wouldn't be 'yeah, they're real, by the way, our ambassador is one,' it'd be 'I know they're real BECAUSE our ambassador is one!'

Had nature itself gone crazy?

I was able to make my quota, but that was it, as a gatherer, I was supposed to deliver what I could to the hive and take what was left over second, but I had been so distracted that I barely absorbed enough extra for me to keep going!

'For the good of the swarm', that was our vow of any changeling alive.

Maybe us gatherers weren't what was best for the swarm, if our livestock could function without us feeding on them directly without them being all used up, then why did we need to risk exposing ourselves? Maybe we should be just phased out after all.

...And everything I had seen and heard just continued to make me more confused and insure. I was barely able to function. But I had to keep going, it was for the good of the swarm after all.

Griffins. Why? Why have you become this? Why did your entire species drive to this? They've stopped harvesting meat from cows that were sapient in favor of the ones that COULDN'T think or reason. But ponies what were their NATURAL prey. How could they do this to their bodies?

And more importantly, why did they seem so...happy about it? WHY? I'd been taught all my life that defying nature would HURT you and they didn't FEEL hurt. They didn't look hurt. Being around ponies didn't even seem TEMPTING to them, even when the ponies were bleeding. WHY?!

My thoughts wandered back to that Hippogriff and I wondered if their parents loved each other or if they were just some sort of accident. I checked into it and found they were LEGALLY MARRIED. An entire family that stood for the OPPOSITE of what I believed in.

One crack made new ones and made old ones larger. It was like my world was falling apart.

...they abandoned the hive...they abandoned the swarm...they betrayed us...there...is no...excuse...for that. They were being selfish.

What's selfish, about wanting freedom and a better life for someling you love?

AGH! Where did that thought come from!?

I'd been infected somehow!

Then another aspect of the pony/griffin relationship hit home. Ponies were their PREY...that meant by their NATURE ponies shouldn't have even BEEN in a Griffin Nation. They should've been instinctively TERRIFIED of willingly coming within five feet of a Griffin, let alone come to an entire nation FULL of Griffins...or for that matter, mate with one!

We'd 'domesticated' our cattle, they were no longer afraid of us because we'd RAISED them that way...Griffins hadn't kept ponies as cattle. A pony who'd never encountered a griffin should've had an INSTINCTIVE fear of one...so why didn't they?

The cracks just kept spreading. I kept seeing OTHER things that threw wrenches in my works.

Dragons should want everything they see, so why did they NOT wreck pony mines and take them over? That was their NATURE...and yet it was right there in the treaty between dragons and the rest of the world. EVERYTHING else should just run for the hills when they so much as HEAR one...and yet they're allowed to visit other nations, their migration path passing near CITIES.

Not only that, but my research revealed there had been cases of dragon/pony hybrids in the past, one of which was part of Nightmare Moon's army during her war with Celestia and well documented by history!

Zebra? Same as ponies, they DIDN'T follow the natural prey response to Griffins and Dragons...but DID to lions and other predators that WEREN'T sapient!

I asked my next questions carefully, I didn't want to have to create a third persona for one gathering (which was I was at the tail end of, with griffins at the edge of beginning to ask questions of their own).

I introduced myself as a 'griffin naturalist' and made a point to be as respectable and polite as possible. I asked about how griffins should return their natural instincts since that was 'what nature intended' and it was a more healthy and honest way of living than denying your real self.

I was surprised when I got polite and respectable answers back.

"If we just did whatever our instincts told us to do, we'd be fighting each other to the death and eating the loser's chicks, fighting each other over who's the toughest rather than who has the best idea, and eating creatures that can help us a lot more than just be a one time snack."

"So what?" Animals of the same species killing each other is part of nature. Our Queen did to become Queen that way after all, and Cocoon's death helped the hive. So why was I using equines not harming each other as justification for us using them as cattle?

"So WHAT? Every life is precious, every life is special, every life is unique, and if we spent so much time killing each other just to be on top, or that it was our DNA that got passed on, how many useful ideas would be lost? How many works have we built that would never have existed because we were too busy fighting ourselves? Or others? Working with others gets a lot more done than working against each other. And we learned a long time, strength isn't everything. Sometimes a WEAKER griff has better ideas than a stronger one. And ponies? Griffins might be STRONGER, but we still lost the war, didn't we?"

"Hey...if that's the case, maybe there should be a way to make those who'd be helpful griffins themselves, instead of being something that nature says we're supposed to be eating?"

We had converted prey into changelings on occasion, those who showed traits that were helpful to the swarm, those who'd rather be one of us than one of them.

"If they're so cool, that they'd make a great griffin, then doesn't that kinda defeat the point of them being something uncool to begin with?"

It was like a knife in the gut. Oh, Queen Chrysalis. No. No. No. No. No!

"B-But if they were a griffin, couldn't they do more to help the group? There wouldn't be prejudice."

"True, but think about it this way: Griffins are tougher and stronger than a most ponies (we ARE their predator after all), but the pegasus has got us beat at agility and speed most of the time. We can't do magic like unicorns or make plants grow like Earth Ponies. That's NOT saying it sucks being a Griffin, FAR from it, but it's kinda like in one of those Power Pony shows from Neighpon. Ever notice a team's never all ONE species? Normally they've AT LEAST got one of each pony tribe, sometimes a Griffin and a Zebra, but NEVER all one type of creature. And it's not just because they're strong-armed to include 'token minorities!' It's because they balance each other out. A unicorn can use magic, but isn't physically strong, a team of unicorns would be powerless if something showed up their magic COULDN'T work on, wouldn't they? But if they were all Earth Ponies, then what if they fought something that could ONLY be effected by magic? Then they'd be droppings out of luck, wouldn't they?"

We changelings, we could become anything we wanted, with a good enough memory, enough love stored, and if we had what we needed to copy in the first place...but we needed creatures who could make love to live. We've always hated that. Love being is what we had to live on to live. We couldn't live like they could. I thought of someling changing all changelings permanently into whatever species they were disguised as at the time. I was horrified at the idea.

Contrary to the horror stories you might have heard, those we've 'uplifted' into our own kind aren't stripped of their free will. DAMMIT! WHAT DOES ANY OF THIS HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?

AGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!

So...if their personalities aren't remade...then how can we say how different cattle are from us...if they were able to assimilate so well into their new species?

Queen Chrysalis, I'm sick!

I fled! I escaped. There were no other word for it. I retreated in terror from a griffin using nothing but WORDS!

Equines, zebra, griffins, they didn't need their emotions to live, we did need their emotions to live. They didn't die without their love, we did. Zebra would die if a griffin ate their flesh. What right did that griffin have to give us lectures?

I had never been so happy for a gathering to end for me to go home. But I didn't go home soon enough. Not that it mattered as I'd find out.

Fate was not done tormenting me.

News paper. Griffin buck. Head injury. Not himself afterwards. Can't feel or can't express feelings anymore. Loved ones, his sister says it's like he died. Like the TinPony who lost his heart.

I'm lying. I overheard it from the sister, the griffin I had approached earlier, talking about her brother, his name is Leopold. I had been watching her, hoping for some sign of hypocrisy to everything she said, griffins couldn't, ignoring or rejecting your instincts should have made you weaker!

The love I sensed for her brother, it was filled with the same molasses of sadness I'd tasted in the air when somecattle's loved one died, there was no difference.

"He recognized me but, he didn't act like he cared."

I.... I... PLEASE! I DON'T WANT TO QUOTE WHAT THEY SAID! NO! Please! It's...it's too much. No more, please.

...His emotions were as good as gone...like they were eaten out of him...and now his own sister says it's like he's turned into a stranger, like the old him doesn't exist anymore...

Why did I ever have to this horrific land?! I was a part of the hive's sacred machine: except my gears had been stripped.

As a rule, we gatherers don't make friends or enemies, we only have targets we lure in, stimulate, harvest, discard, then melt into the shadows like ghosts. This was so we wouldn't be missed if we vanished, this went double when picking individual creatures we were replacing.

I broke the rules, I betrayed the hive, I said goodbye the griffin I had chatted with, and told her I was sorry about Leopold.

I felt nothing but guilt for my crime.

I had never been so happy to be back in the hive. You have no idea. It was my sanctuary, my rescuer, my home, the big machine where I could fit in like a good cog, and feel safe and alive.

The circus maximus. The entertainment of changelings great and small. Even after Her Majesty has changed the system to weed out Queen Cocoon's mistakes, she knew better than to deny changelings their favorite entertainment.

Her Majesty took satisfaction in the performances she produced for the hive were superior to anything the previous queen had provided. Her Majesty said it was a matter of professional pride. At to times she'd even sing herself still.

Deviants where now free to serve the hive as part of their family's caste rather than being used as fodder for the circus maximus. But there were still plenty of used-up cattle to entertain everyling.

She wasn't the star attraction. She wasn't given any sort of meaningful role. She was just another one of the cattle that had nothing left to take shuffled in the arena perform for the hive.

Her eyes permanently tainted green and wide, the telltale sign how completely she had been emotionally gutted to feed the swarm.

She expressed none of the pride or joy she felt for being part of the hive's beautiful machine, she didn't express anything at all, because there was nothing inside to express.

I had seen countless used-up cattle, like eaten corn on the cobs, this was no different at all. No different at all. No difference what -so-ever.

The zebra filly, she danced with the rest of the puppets, perfectly, obediently, she didn't care if she danced or not. She acted a foal, then bent her body in ways only a zebra can. The hollowed out puppet recognized me, it was emotions we drained, not minds, but she didn't care. She didn't so much as twitch at the sight of me.

And that was when I realized, I never bothered to learn her name, more than that, I felt ashamed I had never learned her name. I was ashamed that I was ashamed. I was ashamed that I was ashamed that I was ashamed...Gahhh. I. I. I. My breathing nearly became impossible.

I ran out of the circus maximus and I screamed, and I didn't stop screaming until it became coughing.

My fellow gatherers asked me what was wrong. I told them one lie or another. I can't even remember. It was something about remembering a nightmare maybe, after all, how would YOUR friends and family respond if you said you had reacted that way towards apple cores?

We don't question orders, that doesn't mean we can't beg for favor or indulgences. I got lucky. I was assigned back to the land of love.

I was a gatherer, it took time to set up and seduce prey, to set yourself up or study a pony to replace, I had feed on the maximum amount of love I could without bursting my insides before I left the hive, even if it now made me sick, and it wasn't from any stomach ache.

I abandoned my post in Appleloosa (I didn't pick where I was sent), and I just fled. Like a creature possessed. I had no idea where I was even going. Just away. Far away. Away from the madness, the confusion, the contradictions, the insanity, the wrongness, the rights-that-were-wrong.

My instincts, my accursed instincts, they led me where it was natural for a changeling to go. By pure instinct, I unconsciously trekked towards the strongest source of love in the land. The love Equestria had was divine, even countless miles away, I was drawn...like a moth to a flame.

I had traveled at night in my true form, making my reserves last longer.

I burned through my reserves, I hadn't fed once since coming back to the land of love. Next my body would began to feed on itself to starve off the end. Part of me wanted it to happen. I can assure you, realizing you're the bad guy? I don't think many things can hurt worse ...but like everything in the world, I feared death.

That was when Lyra and Bon Bon found me. Out on the out skirts of Ponyville, Canterlot where my accursed instincts told me to go, in view, but too far away.

Changeling mind magic is like our shape shifting. All of us can do it, we need to love to do it in the first place, some of us are better or worse at it than others (soldiers suck at it), and the gap in power between us and Her Majesty is like between a mortal pony and Princess Celestia.

I was a gatherer, I had lots and lots of practice influencing minds.

When Lyra and Bon Bon found me, I panicked, and shape shifted to the first pony I thought of, who was closing in. Thankfully I think I was too far away from them to see them transform, I think. I was so disoriented from hunger at that point I have little clue what I was doing.

I think I changed into Bon Bon then, but I was so starved and dirty I could be Princess Celstia and they wouldn't be able to tell.

I doubt they'd have accepted me as a pony in need if they saw me changed from a bug-monster a flash of green flames right in front of them.

I meant to say 'Candy' when they asked me my name, from what I saw on Bon Bon's flanks, but I was so addled that I said my real name instead. I am a total idiot.

I implanted the mental suggestion not to take me to a hospital where I might be exposed, but to care for me themselves, like a parasite.

While they gave me a bath, I sublimely worked on Bon Bon, getting her to let me in (given the situation, it wasn't hard). Implanting the fake reality that I was her twin sister. It was just a little talent of mine among my fellow changelings. A little something special, call it my special talent.

Contrary to what you'd think, removing memories for me is harder than implanting them. I know for most it's the opposite, I'm a weirdo. But it had its uses in an emergency.

So like a tumor I implanted myself in her memories.

"Oh there you are Moth! Lyra, this is my twin sister Moth."

"Why haven't you mentioned her before?"

I worked my magic. "That's not important."

"That's not important," Lyra repeated.

Bon Bon and I, 'caught up,' her mind and imagination filled in the gaps, unconsciously assigning me roles that I memorized. Her memories of me becoming more realistic as we talked, it was like a game of story-go-round. Except one tiny contradiction by me or her could shatter everything.

"How could I forget my own twin?"

So we created my 'back story' together. The lie we believe the most are the ones we tell ourselves.

"I'm sorry, Bon Bon, I was traveling and I got lost."

"I can't believe our parents never kept us together. Like having two of us was a problem," Bon Bon commented looking through her photo album, creating a plausible lie out of thin air for herself.

Before you ask, I've been in Ponyville for years before the Summer Sun Celebration. Tootsie Flute, Lyra and Bon Bon's adopted filly, was trivial to work on, and she 'remembered' 'Auntie Moth' in no time, and now has for most of her adopted life.

Lyra and Bon Bon provided me with the love I needed to slowly go stronger, their 'tender loving care' being exactly what I needed.

Why didn't I just ask for help? I am a monster. Who would give a monster help?

Why didn't I ever leave? I had nowhere to go, and nowhere to return to.

I should have left. I had been an idiot to choose Equestria to be where I'd run away to. Queen Chrysalis' promised taking of Equestria. I always figured we'd just silently and slowly take over and replace the entire army's and government's deciding members, and keep Equestria the way it was, draining the population sublimely and providing us all the love we could need. That's the lie I told myself.

My other lie was that Her Majesty would never actually pull it off in my lifetime, I mean, we had been preparing, planning, and readying Equestria for invasion for years. I thought it would last for decades, up until the ponies would welcome their changeling overlords with open arms or barely even notice Her Majesty declaring herself the new master of the land of love. Queen Chrysalis was a Queen, she had all the time in the world to make her vision a reality.

And even thought I created my place in it out of a lie, Ponyville was so accepting that it was addictive for me. It reminded me so much of the hive. Everypony was a part of Ponyville, there were no 'lesser parts.' The community was like a living creature that I was a part of.

Bon Bon offered me a place to stay without so much as one nudge from my mind magic. Lyra and Tootsie had likewise not needed so much as a spark of suggestion from me to accept me living with them. That shocked me more than anything. No I don't think they're fools for it!...Not anymore. I love them for it.

I was terrified when I first met the spa twins, their identical cutie marks making me think they HAD TO be changelings. They weren't. I mentally suggested Bon Bon forget about the incident and she did. It was a rude reminder of reality. But I just hid deeper in the lie. I knew I was doomed, that I'd be found out eventually by the swarm no matter what I did, none escaped the swarm, so I'd enjoy this fake life as long as I could.

Myself, Bon Bon, and the twins now actually enjoy each other's company. Go figure.

I still looked up at the sky in fear, having the image of pegasi who didn't belong appear, smashing into the house, leaving Lyra, Bon Bon and Tootsie empty, and me dragged to my fate for betraying the hive. They had to be hunting for me by now. A rogue changeling was a security liability that couldn't be allowed to exist.

There was the incident, when I acted like the rest of Ponyville and went supermodel Fluttershy crazy, me and Berry Punch. We both went into the Carousel Boutique looking for the fad-idol.

I had no idea who Rarity was, while Bon Bon did. I wasn't lying about being in Ponyville for years, but I made a point of being much like Fluttershy herself, reclusive outside of her my 'family.' Berry Punch also had no idea, but before last year, she had always been relying on salt. And before you ask, yes yes she's gotten therapy is now doing something with her life besides using her special talent to provide herself with more booze to down. Moving on! Seriously, it's like that's the only trait ponies want to give her!

Bon Bon had to explain to Rarity that yes, Bon Bon DID know who she was.

My worst incident was when Lyra and Bon Bon had introduced me to Dr. Whoof (Lyra's biggest source of human lore).

"Hello I'm the-"

It was like a race memory. Every cell in my body screamed to get as far away from this creature as fast as I could, that I was before death itself, that I was before a creature that only brought death and destruction to what I was. That I was in the presence of doom itself.

I had screamed my lungs out at the sight of him, ran away yelling, "I don't wanna die!" hit my head on a pole, and fell unconscious. I'm a gatherer, I'm better at holding my form than a soldier or worker.

I swore when I woke up that I was fine. I had to be. But I made a point to stay as far away from Dr. Whoof as much as possible. I know I had acted hysterical and irrational. But my instincts still screamed at me to avoid me or all I had now would be destroyed.

I was still a monster. I was still a slave to my instincts. I was still nothing more than an animal. I was still just a sub-sentient thing.

You can guess my side of things for the rest. When I vomited back love to Lyra and Bon Bon, I was horribly ill, and single hoofedly proved that I was indeed insane. The leopard can't change its spots. I'll always be a monster.

Does Bon Bon know how to change her voice or is that just me bungling my one mutant (deviant) tell as a changeling? You know? I don't think I'm going to tell you.

I don't just live as Bon Bon's sister, when circumstances force me to, I shape shift into other ponies, absorb love meant for someling else, and assume my cover identity again, I've even appeared as Lyra's twin when Bon Bon was in Appleloosa with some very hectic memory juggling I hope I never have to do again. I am very good at what I do. I think it worked so well, only because Lyra had much more important 'silly dreams' to think about, and trusts me so much. And I betrayed that trust. I am a monster. I may not drain ponies dry anymore, but I still take love that I don't desire.

The Iron Will incident left me starving until Ponyville came to its senses.

I almost DIED because of the Want It Need It spell, if it had lasted longer...I'd have crumbled into dust. That night, I was down to almost nothing, I was actually risking my life not dropping to my default form like my body keep trying to.

"Maybe we can go see Zecora. She might be able to help." Bon Bon suggested.

"NO!" I neighed in full panic mode, "NO! I mean, not Everfree Forest, not the creepy witch-doctor." She might be able to tell what I am. It was a paranoid thought, Changelings had to bluff and be clever with doctor examines before, but...A zebra. It had been so long since I'd seen one . . not since...the circus maximus.

"She's not some wicked witch." Bon Bon assured her 'sister.'

"Who started that witch rumor?" Lyra quipped.

"I didn't!" Bon Bon swore.

"What do you think she keeps in there?"

"Oh I bet stuff like dragons blood, eye of newt, zombie-powder, toad-stools, timber wolf fangs, leeches-" Lyra quipped.

"Ick. Leeches? Dirty blood suckers."

"They didn't choose to be that way." I dared say.

"Doesn't mean I'm gonna let them suck the life of me! Besides, they're leeches, they don't have feelings. They exist just to feed off others."

"Right. They don't. It's stupid to think they could." I resigned myself to my fate.

Bon Bon and Lyra stayed by my side all night. By dawn, I knew I wasn't going to die. They saved my life.

I dared take part in the Running Of the Leaves. One than one pony asked Bon Bon or me, "How'd you switch numbers?"

I'll admit. I had fun. I felt alive. I felt happy. I could forget it was all just a lie and that Bon Bon and I really were a family.

And Discord...when Discord appeared, he forced me into my true form with a snap his fingers. He had laughed at me for trying to pretend to be a normal pony, for wanting to try and forget what I was, for daring to think I could ever be part of their family. Then he turned me into a pony/leech mix horror and took away my power to transform. He said I could suck blood from now on. Whether I wanted to or not. I hid in the bathroom. I didn't want to hurt Lyra or Bon Bon or Tootsie. Instead all I did was make sure I wasn't there to protect Bon Bon when Discord turned Lyra's voice into an out of tune harp and driven to eat Bon Bon who was now a walking talking pony sized candy. I don't know what was done to Tootsie.

All I could do was apologize to Lyra and Bon Bon, over and over, and over, and over, and over. Even if I couldn't tell them WHAT I was sorry for. I told them I wasn't just a leech using them. Even if most of me didn't believe it. What right did a monster have to be part of a family who loves her?

I'm repeating a lot? Alright. Yes, I was curious about the Flutterponies, but Queen Rosedust doesn't sound exactly like how Queen Cocoon was. Or maybe it was another Queen. Even we don't know our origins though.

But I have a new Queen now.

Princess Gaia's fog came. And for a little short time, I was innocent and free, I WANTED those parts of me gone! I WANTED those events of my life before Ponyville gone! You want to call it a day of ignorance? IGNORANCE IS BLISS!!! I would have been PERFECTLY HAPPY if the world had STAYED that way forever! I was free! Free!

But then the day did end, and all those parts of me I was free came back into me. How dare they call Princess Gaia evil for what She gave? Yes She saw my memories, I don't know if She held onto them. But She treated me no differently if she did. She shouldn't be forced to say what She did for us, for me, for everyling was wrong.

She gave me a chance to be free of my pains and regrets. I will always be in Her debt. And...Lyra, Bon Bon, Tootsie, we were all four sisters four a day. We really were part of a family. And that feeling of family didn't change once Princess Gaia's gift ended. Princess Gaia really had freed me.

What confused me most. It was after Princess Gaia freed me, it wasn't now just the love from Bon Bon or even Lyra I was tasting. It was the love of EVERYPONY IN THE TOWN! I was accepted as one of them, and they shared each other's love freely. And they didn't weaken even in the slightest. It was the same as that blind unicorn. Him? Like I said he didn't live in Ponyville. And I had no desire to ever lay eyes on him again. A monster hadn't deserve his compassion.

That took a long time didn't it? I'm sorry for taking up so much of your time. I'm very very very sorry.

I feel so tied now. Going over everything like that. I'm so sorry.

The wedding? I suppose I can tell you a little part now.

For the record, I help Bon Bon with her out-of-home candy making business. As you can imagine she has a bit of competition with the Cakes, so she also provides cough-drops, apparently she got some good recipes from a Pony Lyra met in Canterlot, I think her name is Lemon Hearts. I don't just sit around the house all day doing nothing. I don't like being a parasite.

With Ponyville most preferred foalsitters in Canterlot, we ended up leaving Tootsie Flute with...I'd rather not say. No it wasn't anyone weird. Well, not weird by Ponyville standards.

Lyra while reading her mail told us the exciting news.

"TWINKLE SHINE AND MINUETTE!!! THEY WANT ME TO BE A BRIDE'S MAID FOR PRINCESS CADENCE'S WEDDING!!! THIS TOTALLY ROCKS!!!"

I think the neighbors heard her too.

Lyra was also allowed to bring two friends with her. Guess who?

We were on the train to Canterlot before you knew it.

+

When I became friends with Twinkle Shine and Lemon Heart, and went to that birthday party of a mare I didn't know in Canterlot (but apparently Derpy's little girl did! Not that Dinky! Amethyst Star!), and ended up meeting Minuette. They had no idea they were gonna be taking a two year world tour the next day, but they were able to send me a forwarding address before they went.

WE'RE PONIES! Making friends easy is WHAT WE DO! Well, we ponies in Ponyville do! And I don't care what they say about ponies in Canterlot being egotistical snobs, cause I seem to strangely always MISS that mysterious tribe of unicorns who think they're better than everypony else when I visit Canterlot. And I like to think Canterlot ponies, deep down, love making friends too!

They said they wanted to thank me for keeping them company via the letters. Personally I think that was just an excuse for them being nice! I mean they had each other, and everypony else onboard a giant airship, it's not like they were being LONELY! And they had Moon Dancer and Lemon Heart back in Canterlot.

I think they remembered how much I said I liked Canterlot and all the culture AND THE MUSIC! And how much I told them being the hoofmaidens to the goddess of MUSIC rocked!!

And being the bridesmaid to the GODDESS OF MUSIC'S WEDDING?! It was a dream come true!!!! I was gonna remember this as long as I lived! My only regret is that two tickets meant Tootsie had to stay home with a foalsitter. Oh well, I'll be sure to tell her all about it! And take lots of pictures. I hope the Princess is willing to listen to some of my songs!

This is great!

Uh, er, heh heh, sorry if I started sounding like Vinyl Scratch there. That mare has no appreciation for the finer types of music, I don't know how Octavia stands her. Or how those two could have become such friends when their personalities are so opposite.

I know I'm one to talk with me and Bon Bon, but, those two are light night and day...Then again, I guess Minuette and Twinkle Shine are a bit night and day in some ways too.

But still, Canterlot, here we come. All I know, is that I'm going to love it.

+

The One and only Rainbow Dash here! So ya've all read about our train ride to Canterlot, but you didn't know we had four fillies in the train car behind us nicknamed 'the winds of destruction' by some of Ponyville...Okay not really, but the CMC Plus One really were in the car behind us.

"Help me!" One of those train-worker-pony-guys crawled into our car just as a lasso was slung around his waist.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders Chiropractors, Yeah!"

"Nooo!" He cried as he was dragged back in.

"...Where did they get the lasso?" Trixie asked in surprise. AJ blushed a bit.

"Site tight girls Ah've got it this time," AJ said as Pinkie Pie provided her an Columbia army helmet and AJ dove head first into the other car, and then rolled right back out like a ball now hog tied.

"Stir crazy foals make dragons themselves tremble," Rarity said flatly.

"Do not!" Said Spike, trembling.

"In you go!" Twilight said magically lifting up Spike and throwing him into the train car. "Prisoner exchange girls!"

The train-worker-pony-guy then crawled out battered and beaten saying, "Exchange...accepted." Then promptly fainted. Nah, I don't think they meant to hurt the guy, just energetic foals can go a little...overboard.

Spike must have proven to be a better playmate since the train car didn't blow up or anything. I love the squirt, but when she gets together with the others it's a perfect storm.

+

"It sounds like the perfect storm in there, must be one fun party," Lyra said about the car in front of them.

"Lyra, please," Bon Bon asked. "And Moth, don't just sit there looking out the window. This is a chance in a life time, Canterlot, it's not like we visit there every day. Please promise your sister you'll enjoy yourself."

"I...I'll try."

+

We're ponies, we needed tah eat, and there was a dinin' car. A really fancy dinin' car. And Ah...wasn't sure how tah eat proper again! Why do yah even need extra forks?!

Lyra, Bon Bon, and her sister were sittin' behind meh. And chattin'. Dang it, why do even they seem tah know better than me what they're doin'?

"Sparkler really acted like that?" Bon Bon asked.

"Yeah, even called herself Amethyst Star, which was the name I met her by. I didn't even know she was Ditzy's daughter at first."

"That's rather...extreme..." said Bon Bon.

"Yeah, but where you're from is a big thing in Canterlot, and so is image," Lyra explained. "There's lots of things most Canterlot ponies keep secret because it's the only way to get ahead. I think some need brought down a peg, but ponies like Octavia? If ponies knew the real them first, they might not have ever given her a chance to show what they could do."

Alright, Ah know she didn't mean that for meh she'd whispered it...but Ah heard it. And Ah thought back tah Fancypants and Rarity.

Fancypants weren't lyin' tah Rarity. But the point is, those noble ponies were right mean tah her for bein' from Ponyville... They'd not have listened tah her otherwise. Ah'm all for bein' true tah yerself (and from what Ah know of Octavia, she IS)...And it made me wonder...how many of these ponies around meh had good reason for wearin' their masks. And if Ah had any right tah see what was under 'em with these eyes of mine...Sure, Ah've been careful round Ponyville, but Ah still have let mahself pick up little white lies Ah know are none of mah business...

+

Foals aren't the only ponies who go stir crazy, so does the Dash. I promise I didn't smash anything, I just did some zipping through the cars. Yes I could fly there, but why pass traveling in style?

And there was this one mousy tan pegasus with red glasses a black mane. She was wearing a purple poncho, but I spotted her cutie mark, a open book with a magnifying glass. She was sitting all by herself. Normally I just let sitting ponies lay, but she had a stack of Daring Do book with her! Awesome!

Zipped down next to her, she squealed like Fluttershy.

"Hey! Name's Rainbow Dash, you like Daring Do?" I smiled.

"Y-yes I do, very much," Ok, she seemed...not annoyed, but kinda like she put up a shell all of a sudden.

"Ditto!" I grinned. I know sometimes you need to leave somepony alone, but Fluttershy's taught me when that's a bad thing...and so has Twilight...and well, quite a few of my friends. "So do you have a favorite?"

She blushed, "I, uh, I actually really like all of them. I...I...well, sometimes imagine..."

"That yer her?"

She jumped. "Y-Yeah."

"...Hehe, so do I. No shame in that."

"I...I just don't want others to laugh at me. I'm...not that physical."

"Neither is a friend of mine but she comes through when it counts. So whatcha gonna do in Canterlot?"

"Oh .. . there are just some, rare first edition books in the royal archive I want to see. There's just something magical about holding a book you know was around when the author was. They're not Daring Do books, but they're wonderful all the same!"

"I'll take yer word for it. Now you sound like another friend of mine, she's used her smarts to save the day lots!"

"Really? That's amazing."

"Hey there's more than one road to awesome. Anypony can be it."

She sighed, like she was thinking of her favorite dream. "I wish I could be that. Wouldn't be amazing if Daring Do was real?"

"Yeah, but then all the baddies would be real."

"But there'd be a hero to face them. To explore, to discover, to find, to brave danger in the name of knowing! I...I wish my life was like that."

"Hey, trust me, danger isn't-"

"Something you should wish for I know. But I practice witty retorts in my head. And...I wouldn't mind the danger. Because of what you'd find after it..."

Girl's got guts. Uh-oh. "Look, great chatting with ya, what's yer name?"

"A.K. Yearling."

"Nice to meet ya Yearling, but I have a filly I need to check up on, see ya around."

She zipped off. Intense mare. Wait. Rainbow Dash?! Didn't she save Equestria?! I...I...I think I'm gonna faint.

"Do you mean all that, wanting to be a hero?" Huh? Now there was a mare with a puzzle cutie mark next to me.

"Y-yes, I do." I heard myself say honestly.

"Well, hold onto your courage, if you come through this still wanting adventure, maybe you can help some ponies." Now there was a mare next to me with a birthday present cutie mark on my other side with a photo album. "And maybe you can become who you wish to be."

Now they're both gone? Maybe I... maybe I need a nap...

+

Hello I'm Doctor, just the, oh you know that already? Sorry. Yes yes we spoken before, force of habit. Where were I and Derpy during this whole mess?

First it turns out dear Captain Shining Armor's force field is a lot stronger than anyone truly gives it credit for.

Second, Sparkler dear was VERY UPSET with me, since she wanted to help Moon Dancer in Canterlot and choose to spend several days with her afterwards as a way of making amends.

Third, we did show up...just...we didn't actually get to help with the living wave of bug ponies. Can't say that's happened to me before. Swarmed by giant bugs, several times, but not bug ponies.

Forth, while I working on the 'back taxes' that 'Princess Cadence' spontaneously gained an interest in just long enough to inform the Equestrian tax-office of my lack of paper work, I found a small note slipped among the mountain of poor mutilated tree.

Dr Doctor, there are NO Cyberponies, vampires, and certainly no Weeping Alicorns hidden underneath neighpon in the underseas cavern of Dracozilla, and you should most certainly NOT bring those closest to you there.
-Sighed, Most definitely not a Cyberpony, vampire, or Weeping Alicorn.
DELETE! Blah! and '...'

P.S. I do not like pears.

Fifth, the wedding was SUPPOSED TO BE a fixed point in time that I shouldn't have been able to meddle with to begin with.

And sixth: Dracozilla is a very temperamental dragon who doesn't like his sleep being interrupted.

Author's Note

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember
Part 5
By Alex Warlorn

Everybody loves a wedding episode. Especially one with one point five amnesic gods getting married and a point five one in attendance, a dark god looming in the background, a shadow given life rising to challenge, and the fate of a kingdom in the balance. Oh, and no doubt the mother of all angry explosions when Twilight finds out that her brother didn't tell her he was getting married.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Pt-4-No-Loose-Screws-440207022

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Wedding-Pt-6-Something-s-Not-Right-Here-440649766

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Should this chapter have a mature content warning?

Episode 164: "Something Not Right Here"

Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember Part 6

Well, you know about our arrival at my brother's wedding. The giant force field around Canterlot. Passing through said force field.

"Did we pass through reality again?" I faintly heard Sweetie Belle ask.

Marching right through the security, demanding to know what the deal was of my BBBFF leaving this much out of his life. Finding out he was creating a shield-spell around the entire city and dealing with new levels of security for 'vague and poorly defined threat' to Canterlot hadn't done wonders to speak with anyone.

"Twiley, so you know it's me?" He asked.

"Of course I know it's you!" I said, not wanting to tell him about mine and Spike's shameful lapse in memory.

And he hugged me like no tomorrow! He nuzzled me. "Oh Twiley! Twiley you have no idea! It's so wonderful to see you again!"

It had been two years. What right did I have to complain? If anything, I was the one being not being affectionate enough to my big brother best friend forever.

But I still had one big personal insult, how could he go and get married with a mare that I had never even heard about?! Was she some princess of one of the countries he visited while away?!

I asked him what the deal was.

And he revealed the 'real identity' of his fiancee. My attitude took a 180 on the spot! Of course I was happy! The best foal sitter in the world was now gonna be my sister! How much better could it get?

But Shining had a question for me.

"Twiley, don't you know Cadence's full title?"

"I . . . I should have but . . . I didn't recognize her as the Cadence I know until you just pointed it out."

"So when that thing stabbed Cadence . . ." Shining Armor whispered.

"What?"

"Nothing! Shouldn't matter anymore."

I was about to ask more when,

"I hope I'm not interrupting you two."

"Cadance!"

"Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!" We said together and did our favorite dance.

What? Why wouldn't she know it? You guys are acting weird now.

It was wonderful to see her, she had grown up from a great foal-sitter into a great princess.

"Twilight, what are you doing in Canterlot?"

"Don't worry, Princess Celestia invited me!"

"Oh! She did?" Cadence replied surprised. "I knew your friends were coming but-, well, I'm sure everything will be just fine."

Shining interrupted us. "I've gotta get back to my station, but Cadance will be checking in with all of you to see how things are going. I think I speak for both of us when I say we couldn't be more excited to have you here. Right, dear?"

"I'll make sure everything goes how it should, trust me dear."

So I had to part ways with my brother after waiting to see him for two years. But I got to spend time with my favorite foal sitter I hadn't seen in years instead.

I didn't want to be rude if my memory was just playing tricks on me again, but a little while later I asked, "Cadence, why is your magic green now?"

+++

I shall admit, coming up with a lie that would fool Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia wasn't easy (in fact, deceiving Celesita pushed my acting skills to their limit. And I still managed to make it work). A medical gobby-gook explanation would be love in the water. But given my magical signature was identical to Cadence's, I went with the simpler answer that it happened after I had had a spiritual 'awakening' during the two year world tour after being wounded by a big bad wolf. It worked like a charm.

+++

The time before the wedding was super stressful for me, and the chronic headaches weren't helping, having to keep up a force field around a city was leaving me a lot more disoriented even more than I thought it would. It was lonely with a lot of Misfit reassigned out of the blue either from Canterlot or not being present at the wedding proper. I hardly had time to even talk with them.

Wait. Did I give those orders or Cadence or . . . oh well, doesn't matter.

I had to deal with a lot of recruits who had been pushed into uniform to make up for the sudden lack of guards in Canterlot and the majority now protecting the borders at key locations.

Who had approved this? These ponies weren't ready for combat, it was . . . oh well, doesn't matter.

(Interviewee's Notes Addendum: For the record she probably made sure Celestia and the brass one thought thing and the troops another, making sure the right hoof didn't know what the left was doing...she was sadly good at things like that.)

I still can't believe what Cadence did with Twinkle Shine and Minuette why did she . . . oh well, doesn't matter.

That was when Twiley's friend Pinkie Pie showed up at the barracks. She was holding a clipboard with a pencil in hoof, don't ask him how she was doing that, it made no sense.

She made some super-fast introductions that made my headache worse. She was also carrying a brief-case shaped like a bazooka for some reason. The wedding was really getting to me, I wouldn't blame Cadence if it got to her too.

+++

So he DOES exist! Okay, can check that one off! But better check for the telltale signs. Got my clipboard, okay, let's see if Twilight's 'brother' is everything Twilight says he is. He wouldn't be the first Marey Sue or Self-Insert I've had to deal with. Seriously, those things twist the story and TWIST it, I am never letting this world suffer the same.

+++

Her questions were, well, as weird as her reputation says they'd be. What was my 'back story?' 'Where did I come from?' How did I become Captain of the Royal Guard? How well was I at tennis, video games, role playing games, polo, hoofball, shooting, singing, checkers, magic, hoof-to-hoof combat, strategy, strength, speed? I felt like I was being given a background check!

++++

When I found out he stank at singing and couldn't hit the broadside of a stable (unless it was several miles from the one he was aiming at), I was actually relieved. But I wasn't totally relaxed yet. Marey Sues AREN'T about who is more beautiful than Princess Celestia, can defeat Mecha-Dracozilla in hoof-to-hoof combat or beat Dr. Whooves at checkers! It's about them turning the world into always being about them!

And marrying a princess in his first appearance, and being Twilight's big brother, and being the one to protect the city from some threat that didn't seem to be even written all that well, things weren't looking so hot for him.

The thing of course was that we really hadn't heard much about Princess Cadence either. But I think an unheard of Princess in the whole wide world feels a lot less confusing than a unheard of big brother who was your bestest best friend in the whole wide world.

I asked his buddies, and they were hard to find, good or bad sign? They said he could get paranoid about protecting those close, that he had a complex about being the keystone to somepony in Twilight's family dying (who I found out actually existed from obituaries. What? You think I'd actually ask Twilight about her family dying), and his mouth sometimes moved faster than his brain. And had ironically been a Oubliettes and Ogres geek before becoming a Royal Guard.

There was one thing, ponies said he EXAGGERATED some of his adventure involving Cadence. That isn't a Marey Sue. A Marey Sue didn't exaggerated their stories, they exaggerated REALITY! They never lie because what they say becomes reality! Shining Armor wouldn't be a Marey Sue if ponies KNEW he was making things cooler than they were.

A lot ponies were hostile or evasive about me asking questions. A pony under the influence Marey Sue would just give bad answers and/or then launch into a big speech about how the character couldn't possibly be a Marey Sue because they fit all the details but one. That the ponies didn't go in a rant about why Shining Armor wasn't a Marey Sue is a good sign.

That and keeping up this big forcefield was actually making him a little out of it and giving him a head ache.

I'm just happy that was a false alarm! Or, if Shining Armor was thrown in by the Shadow-Who-Makes and is an OC, he doesn't seem a destructive one right now.

You guys sure have been silent, hey, where'd ya go? Oh well, I gotta go anyway, I don't wanna be late to that 'Get to Know The bride' outing Cadence offered all of us.

+++

Those were sure a lot of weird questions she asked. Reminds me of a lot of questions Cadence asked when we got home, details on Canterlot's defenses that I could only tell a Princess to, how much power my shield could project at once and how long it took me to recast it if I released it . . . oh well, doesn't matter.

+++

I'll admit, it was impressive how much power it required to force Shining Armor to ignore things he knew weren't right and suppress his protective instinct. It was as if protecting ponies was written into his very being...oh right, it is. Thank Rosedust he gave me more than enough love back to make up for it.

+++

As best mare, I was so pressed that I didn't even have time to see my parents before the wedding proper.

So I was surprised when Cadence decided the first thing she'd do is get to catch up with me and get to know my friends better.

"But the wedding is just around the corner!"

"Don't worry Twilight Sparkle, they'll be time for that. There's always time for love between friends."

So here we were, sitting outside of one of Canterlot's beautiful cafes, we chatted about this and that, Cadence asking my friends what they loved, what made them happy, we even traded embarrassing stories, like at the grand galloping Gala.

Speak of the draconequus.

I'll admit, the idea that Shining marrying Cadence meant that Blueblood would legally be my cousin-in-law didn't really occur to me, it was about the FARTHEST thing from my mind.

I mean, connecting cowardly and rude Blueblood with Cadence was mathematically impossible for me.

When Rarity said 'date Princess Celestia's nephew' it never occurred to me she meant Blueblood until AFTER the Gala. Celestia is a thousand years old, she has more than one nephew.

I forget not everypony knows Blueblood's shallow and selfish side. I know some ponies might consider Rarity the same way: a slave to creature comforts, but Rarity never treated a date like a servant or disliked food because it was too low-class.

++++

I must say Princess Cadence is simply darling, she knows how to speak to a lady and knows how to act like one.

I hope Sweetie and the others don't prove too much trouble for Spike. I'll admit, I'll miss his help. But somedragon needs to look after my little sister if I can't. This is Canterlot after all, it's a big city, and Sweetie and her friends could get in over their heads.

I respect Silver Spoon's father, but I think he either needs times for himself and his daughter, or he can't, Spike simply has more experience handling those fillies now.

This day has been nothing short of wonderful. Though I do realize that we'll have to cut this social excursion short if I'm to have the time to complete the dresses. I am not making that mistake again!

We didn't cut it short soon enough, because a dark blue storm cloud had floated over us to rain on our parade.

Prince Blueblood. Blech. I had really hoped I'd never have to lay eyes on that gelding again.

The last time I had to tolerate him was at the launching of an airship when I was socializing in Canterlot. Yes he was civilized, but to be frank, I didn't expect him to act any differently. I doubt he got his reputation by showing his real self in public.

He sat down at the table besides us, looked around, and only then seemed to even notice us! Typical Blueblood!

"Oh! Hello Miss Rarity, it's, been a very long time hasn't it?"

Not nearly long enough.

"Hello Prince Blueblood," I said as civilized as manner dictated. My friends turned their eyes, AJ recognizing the prince who insulted her family's cooking, Twilight knowing who Blueblood was with a look of mostly disgust, and my other friends now knew the face of the stallion who had ruined my night at the Gala.

Princess Cadence simply smiled at him.

"My my my Blueblood, you're looking as handsome as ever, have another date with a new mare?"

"Actually cousin, yes." BLECH! Another poor mare subjected to this cad's ego and abuse? "Though it's not fair to say 'new mare', this isn't our first date."

I can barely stand the cad's voice and, wait, did he say a mare went with him more than once? Either this mare was desperate beyond desperate for wealth or station (no pony is that desperate), or Blueblood had either used mind control or had her over the barrel Though that didn't make sense given mares were to be used and dismissed by this gelding.

"Is that so?" The princess said calmly, "Please, tell me about this lovely highborn mare."

"Well, erm, she's not actually nobility."

"Oh you can tell me Blueblood."

"She's, she's actually a maid at the castle."

I shuddered, I didn't know if he was now that desperate that was charming those 'below his station' or if he was now ORDERING ponies to go on dates with him.

"That IS surprising. I wouldn't expect that from you Blueblood, when did you meet?"

"It was . . . well, I suppose we met on the Day of Chaos, but we met formally later, while she was dealing with herself being hurt."

He took advantage of a mare who had been hurt by Discord's sick games? Had he no shame?!

Applejack was looking intensely at Blueblood, of course she would, after all, Blueblood's insult was what inspired Applejack to make the cake that Pinkie Pie unwittingly triggered the first wave of the grand hall's destruction with. I was tempted to ask her to let him have the truth vision and watch his lies crumble.

Princess Cadence glanced at me, we had been talking about the Gala, so of course she knew. It made better conversation than what we all endured on Discord's day.

"So what does she look like, I'm certain she must have a face worth having."

"Oh, she's a unicorn, snow white coat, pure blue eyes, lovely amethyst mane, she is indeed very beautiful Caddy."

It was clear on Cadence's face she was insulted by the nickname. Then it all clicked. That description. THAT CAD! Of course! I was the one that got away! The one he couldn't make miserable for revenge of telling him what for! So he had to find a mare who matched my appearance to pretend that he wasn't as awful a stallion as everypony knew he was!

I didn't want to blow my temper in front of Princess Cadence, but I wanted to think how I could get this stallion to leave the poor mare alone!

"Rather like this fine mare here you'd say?" Cadence gestured.

"Uh, uh," Blueblood sweated. Wonderful. Why was I having flashbacks to Diamond Tiara now of all times? "Yes, I'd say so yes."

"The same mare you mistreated, used, abused, ignored the feelings of, insulted the friends of, and used as a equine shield from a giant cake?"

Blueblood lowered his head and said lowly, "Yes."

"Pst! Pathetic. You lost so you had to pretend you won somehow. You treat mares like toys. You're stuck-up, cowardly, rude and only think about yourself. You haven't matured since you were five years old. You're deadweight to Princess Celestia, to Canterlot, and to Equestria. You'd die in a day if you had to fend for yourself. You have all the real charm of a grub. You're handsome like a store dummy, empty headed and shallow, but at least the store dummy serves some purpose by being good-looking, you? You serve no purpose except for ruining mares evenings and perhaps ruin their trust in other stallions. If you weren't Celestia's nephew you'd have been exiled from Equestria by now. If you weren't nobility, you'd have starved to death. You've earned nothing of what you have. You've done nothing for your life. From your mother giving you life FOR you, you've been nothing but a parasite on Princess Celestia and everything around you. In a more just world you'd be stripped of everything you own, every title you have, beaten to a pulp, and tossed out of Canterlot into the mud where you belong!"

Blueblood was silent for a moment staring at Cadence. It was wonderful.

"I-I-," He stuttered out, his giant ego given the lancing it deserved. He ran inside the cafe looking his head down. Hopefully his date would think he stood her up and ditch the gelding.

I clapped. So did Rainbow Dash, you expect her not to clap for Cadence standing up for me? Applejack...she didn't quite seem happy, she seemed more disappointed in Blueblood than anything. Fluttercruel clapped having switched out for Fluttershy while Cadence wasn't looking. Pinkie Pie held up a '9.5' card. Trixie threw Cadence a few daisies that she didn't eat. And why not? I had just told/reminded all of them what a waste of space Blueblood was.

Why did I keep thinking of Diamond Tiara? Diamond Tiara was a foal who didn't know better. Blueblood was an adult who made his own choices.

+++

Yes I cried when I found a table in the corner of the inside cafe. I wanted so badly to just go to my room and hide under my covers curl into a ball and cry like a foal there. But I didn't want Arcane Spell to be disappointed by me not being here for her.

+++

"Sorry you had to see that display." Cadence apologized.

"It's alright darling, the oaf clearly hasn't learned his lesson." Rarity said smiling while AJ nodded sadly to herself. "I wish I could face that gelding in a tournament just so I could have an excuse to strike in that precious face of his then between his rear legs, and stab him all the right pressure points with my needles so he'd wet and soil himself paralyzing him before claiming my win."

"Rarity! That would be cruel!" Fluttershy said at once back in control from Fluttercruel.

"Just a little fantasy Fluttershy, sometimes it's good to vent these things a little. I'd never let myself stoop down so low, and I know none of you would let me." She hugged Fluttershy who hugged back.

"Maybe, maybe he needed a good talking to?" AJ whispered, to herself. "Ah tried before, maybe he needed a bit of cruel truth and not just the nice truth?"

"Well, he did need to learn that what he was doing wasn't fun for everypony else," Pinkie Pie whispered too.

"Cruel to be kind girls, cruel to be kind." Fluttercruel whispered and everypony all nodded.

Rainbow Dash and Trixie said nothing.

"Cadence," I whispered. I'll admit, maybe Blueblood deserved that. Well, most of it if he really was making somepony a 'replacement Rarity.' But, since when did Cadence become so vicious? The look on her face, it was like she was enjoying it! And maybe it was my experience with Trixie, but something about Cadence saying all that to Blueblood, something about it just felt wrong. All I knew was, that Cadence telling Blueblood off like that didn't feel as great as it did for all my friends. And this didn't feel like the Cadence I remember. The Cadence I knew would be disappointed. Yes, she might tell Blueblood off...but she wouldn't be vicious, she'd try to help him see why he was wrong.

++++

Twilight really said that? That she knew Chrysalis might not be me because of what she said to Blueblood? . . . Yes I did say those things when I was a thoughtless filly. I saw the world in black and white, like any child. It was the same that foalish foolishness led me to putting love poison in a royal party punchbowl! I thought love (white) was always better than no love(black).

I'll admit, I did say some of those words to Blueblood when I had been babysitting Twilight . . . but please, I never loved saying a word of it! And the Cadence Twilight remembers, could never say anything so sadistic and cruel.

Please. Let me out of here. Twilight! Shining Armor! I have to warn them! There's no telling what that monster is going to do to all of them!!!

++++

As much as I truly wanted to tell the mare Blueblood was dating that he was just using her. But we had used up our social window and had to depart, and designed to find and speak with her after the wedding. I had neglected my responsibilities for something vitally important for a friend once before, and I doubted Princess Cadence and her bride maids and Sweetie and her friends shared Twilight Sparkle's taste for hyper-simplistic dresses.

I doubted Blueblood was going to drown her in the mean time. And Blueblood didn't have the brains for manipulation so him twisting her wasn't a worry. And above everything I wasn't going to waste time on that cad. This was the bigger responsibility right now. Like wanting to look for Diamond Tiara, I literally didn't have time to spare. This was doing the dresses of a lifetime. For an immortal goddess. And I knew a hundred things could go wrong (and often would). I knew better than to give myself absolutely no window.

I didn't like it, but I would have to trust Filthy Rich with finding his child for now. And this was supposed to be a happy occasion. I wasn't going to let a royal pain ruin it.

As we were about to split up however, our herd passed by a stage being used by a small band of musicians. It wasn't the band for the Gala. They were busy rehearsing in the Canterlot Gardens. Pinkie waved at one of them for some reason.

Princess Cadence took one look at the stage and said, "I'll just be a moment Twilight," and gave her a short nuzzle. "It's been far too long since I sang."

Cadence calmly and royally requested to be allowed to borrow the stage for a moment. The music ponies weren't about to argue with their patron goddess.

She spread her wings gracefully with the practice and skill of a professional actress. And she sang. Everypony looked at her, every pony listened to her. We all heard her voice.

"Through the storms of chaos I have fought,
But please tell what wonders I've wrought.

My life hidden by a lie,
I promise I will not die.

Reduced to a shadow who could only see,
In myself I will still believe.

As the cycle returns,
There is much I've learned.

Some may say it is far too late,
But I won't be a slave to fate.

And one day, I swear that I will be complete,
Even if the world shatters from the feat.

My hardest I will try,
And I will reach the sky.

Forever you and me,
Together we shall be."

+++

This song. It felt like Cadence, but not like Cadence. I had heard Cadence sing before. They were always beautiful. So was this. It was enchanting.

It was entrancing. I know it's not very scientific, and not being able to put my hoof on it made me want to dismiss it, but a part of me just couldn't!

She carries herself higher. She spoke more distantly. Her tone was harder, colder. Darker, pulling me in. I shook my head.

Had the Cadence I'd known really changed that much? Was everything that was still my favorite foalsitter just on the surface?

I'm being paranoid. So why won't this feeling of wrongness leave me alone? Cadence's music carried her magic scent on it, and this was hers.

Her songs before had been beautiful like the couple I had seen her help kiss and make up, now it was beautiful like a spider's web.

++++

Well, Ah'm told ya know all about Princess Cadence and how like any bride she wanted everything just perfect.

But Ah did sneak a visit with Princess Luna. Ah knew Ah was bein' kinda selfish to ask about all this here now but dangit, it was drivin' me crazy, and Ah had ta know.

Ah told 'em to tell 'er it was about 'the truth', and she'd understand. She let me see her right away. We're friends and everything, but even Ah know a Princess' work is never done.

"Princess Luna, Ah was wonderin'. Can ya see inta the future?"

She looked at me funny. "What EVER gave ye that idea?"

Ah startled a bit. "Well, yer letter-, where ya said what would happen if Ah had kept lookin' in the Truth."

Luna sighed, "Ye presume too much. We don't not have precognition. It was not any sort of vision we described to you due to any power we alone possessed."

"Oh! Ah'm sorry. Ah gotta ask. Should mah truth vision of let me see that?"

"Everything we wrote was truth. Please forgive us, but seeing truth does no good if ye misinterpret it: ye are right now still a flesh and blood pony. And even if it was not so, a piece of paper can not lie or tell the truth. Thou eyes do not yet have the sharpness to pierce written falsehoods."

"Ah thought mah truth sight stopped growin'."

"Hardly Abigail Jacqueline. It grows, and continues to grow as long as you exist. You have simply chosen to not have it 'open' at every moment of your life, and you control how 'open' that sense is. The good news is by accepting an opposite truth of your life in your second trip through truth, thou heart and mind is now strong enough to accept any truths ye see. But accepting truth, is not the same as accepting feelings, actions, thoughts, and everything else that makes up life."

"Trust me Luna, Ah know there are things that ya keep private."

"Thank ye Abigail. There are things we have done even before our sins as Nightmare Moon that we know would only serve to cause harm rather than good if torn open for all to see. As ye do, and every pony ye know does. We art proud of you for having the self control to control power rather than letting power control you."

"That's some might heavy burdens to carry forever and ever Princess . . . do ya ever get tired of bein' the night and wishin' ya could be Luna?"

And she just stood there stunned for a bit, giggled, then burst out laughin'.

"Dear Abigail we bless ye. I AM Concept of the Night! That is like asking if you get tired of being an honest and dependable pony who loves their family and could just be Applejack."

"In other words, everythin' that makes meh, 'meh.' If ya stopped bein' the night, ya'd stop being yerself too."

"Exactly. Names and titles are precious because they are gifts from our loved ones. But they are not ye. Every night in existence is us, Abigail Jacqueline. And Abigail, thank you, we like bein' reminded that ponies now are willing to be friends with, and think about the night's burdens."

"Hey, what are friends fer?" We shared a quick nuzzle.

"Cousin Ellis! Long time no see!"

"Yeah, hasn't it? Ah tell yah, a world tour is somethin', but it can sure make yah miss the family! Even if some of 'em are a tad crazy!"

"Tell meh about it. Hope the Apples round the world are doin' fine."

Ellis gave a nod. "Just fine. In fact, the ones in Roedinia are doin' great, what with the stuff the Deer can come up with."

"Really? Hear of anythin' Ah could use?"

"Yah bet. Ah'll tell yah next break Ah get. Oh! Hey there Applebloom! Yer gettin' big!"

"Big enough for yah tah help meh and mah friends try tah be Cutie Mark Crusaders Demolition Experts?!"

"Well..."

"Don't even think about it. Either of yah."

+++

I wish Rarity would let me help. I know I messed up helping her before but, I WANT to get better at helping her. Don't worry, I don't think Rarity hates me or anything, I was shown crystal clear (or is that muddy clear?) that she loves me more than anything at the sisterhood social.

I just want to help her.

Silver Spoon was splitting he day between seeing Caterlot's sights with us on Spike's private tour, and spending time in Canterlot with her father. There were places only Spike could get into, and there were places only Silver Spoon's dad could get into.

We wanted to come along, but apparently most of the places Silver went with her dad were 'private members and family only' or something. But I don't think any of us minded, I don't. I don't know about Spike or Scootaloo, but I know Applebloom, and I know I'd trade a month in Canterlot to spend a day with my parents.

Spike showed us a bunch of stuff that we didn't even KNOW was in Canterlot. We did run into this funny fountain that had a warning sign saying we weren't allowed to swim in it. No no no, I mean, it had our names on it saying we weren't allowed to swim in it.

"Ah see they made the signs bigger," Applebloom said.

The crown jewels really were pretty, I wonder why Princess Celestia doesn't wear them as much. There was a little posted note to Spike saying 'Not for eating.'

I think all of us were left speechless at what we saw. Spike said if Silver Spoon had to be with us for two spots on his tour, it had to be these.

"Get a look girls, Princess Celestia's golden apple tree."

"Are those really gold?" Silver Spoon's eyes widened.

"Just don't tell anypony."

"Can it make me fly?" Scootaloo touched the big tree.

"I don't think it works that way, sorry."

Applebloom gazed with reverence at the apple tree, "Does it really make you live forever?"

"That or turn you into a gold statue, nopony's been brave enough to find out as far as I know."

"What do you think I'd look like as a gold statue?" I asked. Okay, we weren't speechless. What? I'm just curious. Dolls and statues are nothing alike.

+++

I DIDN'T share with Sweetie there were models who signed contracts to spend time AS gold statues in some of Canterlot's more 'special' galleries.

I actually intended this tour to be for my adult pony friends back when we visiting for the Gala. I never imagined I'd be giving the core CMC and Silver Spoon the tour!

I forget sometimes these girls are still fillies, everything is still wondrous and new for them. Or maybe, I forget I'm still a baby dragon. Ya know, Rarity is always saying how the Crusaders are in a rush to grow up. I'm going to be around for centuries, maybe I shouldn't rush trying to grow up too. It's just . . . Rarity isn't going to be around forever, and I want to win her heart while I still can.

I actually did try to arrange and put together Shining Armor's bachelor party. I mean, come on, I'm the only guy in this group, who else was gonna do it? But all of Shining Armor's friends were on duty, and couldn't time off. You think it would be easy since the bride and groom were their bosses, but Shining Armor kept giving the exact same speech like a robot about how duty came first, and protecting Equestria came first, and that a bachelor wasn't really his thing. Blech, guess the army really does suck all the fun out of you.

I asked Cadence, but,

"I'm sorry Spike, I'm helpless, it's Shining's decision, it's not like I can force his choices. Or make his decisions for him. I'm not his wife yet." Heh, we both had a laugh at that one.

Yes I was upset, my one job in the entire wedding, well, that and ring bearer, and I couldn't even do it because the groom didn't want it. I like Applebloom and the others, I really do. But I can't but feel, brushed off. It's a familiar feeling and I don't like.

At least the last stop on my tour gave me an excuse to drown my indignation.

+++

Pony Joe's. I'd never tasted such great donuts in my life! Dash must have loved it when she came here! Maybe I can bring some back with me to our room at the castle! Oh that? Heh heh. Well. Me and Dash might have trashed the room a little, but it was so awesome, I've never lived it that good in my life! My parents and I never exactly stayed fancy hotels or given rooms by royalty!

Us Crusaders were supposed to have our room together all together, but Silver Spoon was sleeping in her dad's room, and Spike was sleeping with Twilight.

So we figured we'd bunk with our sisters instead.

But then Rarity blab about her and Sweetie 'needing their space' and Applebloom didn't want Sweetie Belle to be lonely and neither did Sweetie Belle, and I could sleep on Dash's bed any time I wanted now anyway and so the core three of us in our own royal bedroom!

The maid with a heart-flame candle cutie mark who cleaned it for us (somepony cleaning our messes for us! It was a dream come true!), must have not gotten much sleep cause she took a quick nap in the hallway at the sight of it before getting started and saying something about hazard pay. She was really nice and was surprised when we wanted to chat with her. She said her name was Arcane Spell and she had a little sister our age. We asked about her sister but she got a sad look on her face and said she didn't wanna talk about it.

We decided to try our hooves at Cutie Mark Crusader Royal Maids, but we had to cut it short for the rehearsal. Arcane Spell said she didn't mind finishing by herself. No we DIDN'T make the room MORE messy while helping clean, we ALL have plenty of experience cleaning our rooms! I wish everypony would stop thinking everything we Crusade turns into a disaster! We made our card super big for Miss Cheerilee but it didn't cause any trouble! We can help too! I'm skipping too far ahead? Okay.

-

Donuts. DONUTS! DONUTS! DONUTS! So many kinds! So many varieties! It was like the Gaia Festival all over again! And mom was in another town and couldn't tell me to watch my filly figure! I loved it! And with Spike's royal tab, I could stuff my face to my heart's content.

I may have gone a little too hyper when I ran around on the ceiling a few times. And when dad met up with us, he gave me a few words about making myself into a pig just to spite mom caring about my diet.

No I didn't suddenly hate him again for that. When I started to get a little woozy from too much sugar, I had to admit he was right. I'm an Earth Pony, so 'too much' tends to be very very much instead.

And it made me wonder. Did I chaff against being a lady because it wasn't me, or because it was what mom wanted and so I went for the opposite? I thought about how Scootaloo and Applebloom lived, and working before sunrise to sunset, playing wild sports . . . that wasn't me.

Sweetie Belle: she wasn't afraid to play in the mud, but she likes beautiful things, she believed in always having the right dresses and other necessitates on hoof . . . dad's right, me acting like a pig? That isn't me. I am a little lady, but I'm a little filly too! And I don't need to have just one friend for all my friends to be special.

Me? Ah was just thinkin' how Ah could tell Applejack how Pony Joe seemed like a reasonable sort, and he could maybe sell some of our apple treats in Canterlot!

And his apple-fritters, well, Ah think for the sake of family Ah better not say. We gotta a reputation to keep. Ah wonder what Zap-Apple Fritters would be like.

Ah was just all around happy all mah friends were havin' fun.

-

Silver Spoon sure liked her donuts. I keep forgetting her mom didn't let her eat sweets a lot. I think even Spike felt she went a little overboard. None of us really said much when her dad said Silver Spoon had been kinda a pig.

I never imagined Silver Spoon acting like that, then again, we only began to learn about the real Silver Spoon after Fluttershy's festival.

I gave her a hug.

"Be careful Silver Spoon, any more and you might need to resize your dresses," Scootaloo teased.

I tensed.

"I guess you're right," Silver Spoon said with a small laugh and a smile. I felt relieved.

Have I had any other odd feelings since the night I was hurt and sang with Rarity? Not really, yes, no, maybe? I just feel this far away calm, like those ice ages they talk about in school, no heart to it, just this chilly creeping sense of waiting.

+++

Do I wish I was helping Rarity right now? I guess me and Sweetie Belle have that much in common.

Me and Silver? I try to imagine what it would be like if Twilight ever said to me the things Diamond Tiara said to Silver Spoon . . . I don't like where it goes.

Normally I don't come with everypony, and no I'm not happy about that, but it did mean I wasn't in Ponyville to look after things. (I don't look after ALL of the girls' animals at once, but I normally do after one or two).

This wasn't their first full herd trip, remember Appleloosa? But I wasn't in Ponyville in this time.

Never said I didn't know I was needed remember? Okay so I forget that, a lot.

Big Mac is taking care of Applejack's dog. Angel and Owlowcious are pretty much taking care of themselves, I think. The Cakes are taking care of Gummy.

Rainbow Dash had to ask around the weather team until Raindrop agreed to keep an eye on Tank.

As for Rarity and her cat . . . Since Rarity didn't want to risk taking unruly Opal to Canterlot this time and Fluttershy being in Canterlot with her . . . it took a lot of begging and pleading for the twins to look after the furry Tartarus-spawn of their best customer.

The bell above the door rang.

"Spike? Is that you? I've been looking all over Canterlot for you."

That was a voice I hadn't heard in a long long time.

+++

Spike looked like Applebloom whenever she said she saw Ruby.

+++

"Moon Dancer?" I whispered turning to look at the mare.

She was just as I remembered, milky white coat, red mane and tail, and her moon and stars cutie mark. When I first met her, I thought she was the most beautiful unicorn in the world. Now I couldn't stop myself from thinking she was the second most beautiful. Just because Twilight didn't socialize didn't mean I didn't too. I had gone to parties at Canterlot Castle and Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns, I didn't hesitate to take part in the fun at Twilight's 'Welcome To Ponyville' party remember? So yeah, I knew a lot of unicorns in Canterlot, I wasn't best friends with any of them, my first priority had always been Twilight, but that didn't mean I was socially stunted like her.

Okay, I liked Moondancer, I admit it. She was pretty, she was nice, she was smart, and all those other things a guy looks for in a mare. I didn't buy her a birthday present just cause . . . repairing that teddy-bear before we left had been harder than you think. I barely had time to say good-bye to her. She took it really, really really well. I didn't think she loved me, I just figured we'd get, ya know, closer over time. But then came Ponyville, and then came the new most beautiful mare in Equestria who was classier than classy, loved the finer things in life without treating them like the only things in life, and I basically fell head over heels at first sight and barely thought of Moondancer again.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Barely?)

Okay, I can't remember when I last thought of her. I didn't feel proud of that, even if she didn't like me that way, she was still a friend. She was still always somepony who'd been there for her friends. I hadn't even thought of visiting her the times I had come back to Canterlot. She likely didn't notice the difference, but seeing her here, I was kinda ashamed a little. I couldn't see her blue eyes, she was wearing sun glasses.

"Hello Spike, it's been forever, I was hoping I could find you."

"Find me?"

"Yes you Spike. I haven't seen you since you left for Ponyville, I'm so sorry I didn't think to see you any of your times in Canterlot, that was inconsiderate of me."

"Spike." Sweetie Belle said flatly. "Who is this?"

"Oh! Heheh! Sweetie Belle, Moondancer. Moondancer, Sweetie Belle. No need to talk about this to Rarity, at all."

Ugh! Did I just say that?! Stupid stupid!

"Whose Rarity?" Moondancer asked.

"A very nice mare I met in Ponyville she's super nice, and very pretty," I said before I could stop myself.

Silver Spoon looked at me like she could read the entire story in a second and looked annoyed.

"Oh is that so?" Moondancer whispered smiling.

I looked at the other other CMC, "Moondancer was a classmate of Twilight's! I went to the parties of hers that Twilight got invited to in her place."

"And it was very adorable to have such a cute, sweetie, pretty, and polite dragon at them all." Moon Dancer said smiling. "It felt a little boring not having you there with me."

"Friend of a friend huh?" Sweetie Belle said not smiling.

"We're just friends!" I swore.

"If you say so," Scootaloo said.

Silver's dad politely turned a deaf ear to the whole conversation. Thank Celestia.

"Great to hear ya have friends in Canterlot Spike," Applebloom tried to say politely, glancing at Sweetie Belle.

"I'm sure Rarity is happy too." Sweetie Belle said.

"Now now filly, don't be like that," Moon Dancer smiled, "I just wanted to catch up on a good friend, that's all. And it's been what, two years now Spike?"

Uh, can we please skip all this? Me blushing? Erm, I plead the fifth and point out I'm a cold blooded dragon who can't physically do that. So yeah, me and Moondancer talked, caught up on the old days, me boasting about all the stuff I've witnessed, and saved Ponyville from strangling itself over Twilight's doll by mailing the letter to Celestia, doing my best to keep Twilight grounded, cooking, cleaning, and doing all the other things Twilight would be utterly helpless trying to do on her own.

I think the others were surprised when I DIDN'T exaggerate.

Celestia it was embarrassing. And I kept feeling Sweetie Belle's eyes on me.

+++

If Spike had a mare that he wanted as his special-somepony before my big sister. What was to keep him from just wanting another mare as his special somepony when he meets somepony prettier than my big sister? That sounded a lot like how Rarity described Prince Blueblood.

+++

I was feeling more than a little trapped between Moondancer acting more comfy than she used to around me and Sweetie not liking it.

I wish I could say she was irresistible, or I could say I was just being polite towards her, or that the CMC knew I was just being nice. I wasn't. Rarity didn't vanish from my head thank you very much. But I wanted to prove to myself I guess, that if given the chance, I could be a gentledragon to a mare who treated me nice and not try to swoon them off their feet. Besides, even if Moondancer hadn't like me in that way, we were still friends enough that I wanted a chance to show I could be nice. Or maybe I wanted to just make up for forgetting she even existed after laying eyes on Rarity's perfection. And I wanted, I needed to know, that what I felt for Moondancer wasn't the same as for Rarity. And I hadn't just flirted onto a new pretty face.

I wanted to be Rarity's knight in shining scales. And Moondancer, she was still my friend.

So when she invited me over to her place, just me, for an evening, I couldn't think of a polite way to say no.

I promised to be back soon and asked Mr. Silver to get the girls back to their big sisters.

Moondancer being a collage mare meant she wasn't glanced at as much by Canterlot ponies who found ponies going around naked as weird. Me going around naked didn't bother 'em much, I'm not a pony and most dragon nobility didn't wear clothes anyway...and technically I am dragon nobility.

I've been to Moondancer's place once or twice before, with other friends of hers, but never alone like this. It still has plenty of stuff animals and the rolled up dance mat. I saw my present with them. Unlike some ponies I could name, Moondancer was never unhappy about there being those better than her at something. She never groaned about those better than her, and never rubbed in the faces of those she could do better than. That's the kind of pony she was.

I saw a bunch of letter on her desk, noticed they were all addressed to an 'Amethyst Star' in Ponyville. Where had I heard that name before?

Moondancer locked the door behind us to give us some privacy. I was relieved for it. I was sure one of the CMC was shadowing me or something. The less rumors they could churn out of this the better.

"Make yourself comfy Spike. I meant it when I said you're a good friend."

"Uh, thanks."

Moondancer took off her sunglasses.

"Moondancer, your changed your eye color?" Well, this might not have been the first time she tried this sort of thing.

"Do you like them? They were changed for the wedding. Princess Cadence considered me for a bridesmaid, but she decided that I'd be more useful as a greeter in case a friend of a friend showed up who has a habit of wrecking things like an on coming storm."

"Oooh, one of THOSE friends."

"Exactly."

"Wait! Did you say- Princess Cadence wanted YOU as a bridesmaid?"

"Incredible isn't it? I was completely caught off guard. I know Minuette and Twinkle Shine, and would know if anything was wrong with them, so she thought it was best if I took part too, but then she had much better ideas."

"So you'll be taking part in the wedding too?"

"I'm more of a back-up plan than anything, like I said, in case some unwanted guests show up. So what do you think of how my eyes look? It's really a new fad here in Canterlot, everypony will be into it very soon. It's a real run away fad Spike."

"Well, you know fads, here today, gone tomorrow. Everypony was over my friend Fluttershy when she was modeling, but fluttered onta the next thing as soon as-"

"So what do you think of them?" She moved on close, gently letting me look into her eyes.

"They're . . . they're really really pretty." Well. I hadn't had my first crush on her for nothing.

"You need to really see how great it is. A little change can help you really get away from your troubles. It's a really great way to get a new perspective and escape the trap of routine."

" . . . I . . . dunno . . . I dunno alot . . . ya sure are pretty." I dunno what it was, but I felt really comfy. So comfy. Yeah. But at the same time...I couldn't help feeling something was off. How she was talking just seemed...weird...wrong...I couldn't tell what it was.

"Please Spike, don't you want to try it out out? It really does make me feel clear headed. I promise nothing bad'll happen if you do this."

"Moondancer." Rarity, "wha' 'er ya' 'oin'."

"Shhhhhh," she nuzzled me. "Just relax. This will not hurt a bit. You'll like it." I dimly heard the door behind us unlock and open. "Welcome Your Majesty."

++++

"Don't follow them," Silver Spoon said before I could convince the others to do exactly that. "Trust me. The less you get involved in this the better." She said the next part lower so her dad wouldn't hear, "Spike's not an adult, he isn't going to ignore things just to be polite. If we try to throw ourselves into the mix, it'll just make things more complicated, and not in a good way."

+++

Mom and dad always insisted I attend their big adult parties, so I guess I knew more about being a mare than a filly. I saw and heard of one pony who tried to mend the friendship between two of his friends, in the end he only made the situation worse and lose his own friendship with them. I wasn't about to let the new friends I'd made repeat that same mistake. I've been taught how to play the game, I could tell Spike didn't want to go with her. Well, either Spike would realize he didn't know the difference between love and a crush (not sure I did), he'd 'fix' things with Moondancer, or Rarity might stumble on the mess and make things more 'interesting.'

I'll confess, I couldn't stop the sense of excitement at this juicy little bit of gossip . . . I wish Diamond Tiara had let me help her on the school paper, I could have provided her with enough high society gossip that she wouldn't have even needed Gabby Gums. And maybe actually popped some egos that needed popping.

Point was, I knew the CMC being involved was only going to make things more nasty.

+++

I didn't like it when Scootaloo and Applebloom argued, and I didn't like it when Rarity and me argued. And I didn't want to argue with Silver Spoon. But I still wanted to go check on Spike.

Just because I don't like Rarity's rules doesn't mean I never learned any of them. I knew how to say one thing and mean another. We CMC did everything together. But the others weren't going to help, so I was going to follow Spike on my own.

I was surprised when Mr. Silver put a hoof in front of me and looked me in the eye saying, "Let them go. This is private for them." I was surprised by the no-non-sense look on his face, it was the same look he gave Silver Spoon telling her not to be a pig. My hooves didn't want to move. It reminded me of the identical look all the royal guards had (were they all cloned with a magic mirror or something?).

Mr. Silver gave us a much shorter tour of Canterlot, but my mind wasn't on it. Spike wasn't back at the castle yet. Not following him just didn't feel right. I wonder if this is how Applebloom felt when she wanted her cutie mark super-bad that day she visited Zecora's. And I could feel it more than before, that weird feeling that felt like a 'cold wind far away.'

The night before the wedding (being part of a royal wedding, we got a couple days off from school), I couldn't sleep. Rarity had been saying Twilight had been acting a little paranoid. And Spike if anything had acted too normal when he got back. Was he bottling up what happened?

Luckily our room had a balcony (our big sisters hadn't known that I think, or they might think we might try to be Cutie Mark Crusader Cat Burglars or Assassins or 'Run-Awayers' (which was silly, we'd done those already).

Going outside, and looking around, I didn't see any pegasi nearby or other open windows, and the others were fast asleep. My family has a song we're only supposed to sing around family for some reason, it's been past down since forever.

It made me feel a bit stronger inside every time I heard it. I closed my eyes and sang.

"Sweet Music
Sweet music
Ooh sweet music
That's what I hear when you appear

Sweet music
Ooh sweet music
Life is a tune when you are near

When you are gone
The song just isn't there
But then I see your face again
And music fills the air, fills the air

Sweet music
Ooh sweet music
I love the sound when you're around

Sweet music
Ooh sweet music
Beautiful harmonies abound
I know our song will never die, never die, yeah
We make sweet music you and I, you and I
We make sweet music, you and I"

"That was a very lovely song Sweetie Belle."

I startled. I opened my eyes and saw Princess Cadence sitting on top of the banister before fluttering down next to them.

"Princess Cadence! Please! Don't tell anypony about that song! It's a family secret!"

"I promise I won't tell, princess' honor!"

"Thank you. But I thought I was alone."

"Don't worry, your song was so full of love I could sense it half-way across Canterlot in my sleep. It was very very beautiful. It was so full of love. I've never heard anything like it before in my life. It's incredible. I think anypony who hears it would feel so much love, they'd be able to eat it all up and there'd still be enough for seconds!"

I giggled at the funny metaphor. "Thank you! Mom and Rarity say how it carries the love of every member of our family who sang it before. Or something like that. Sounds kinda funny to me."

"Oh not at all. Love comes in many shapes and forms. So many different textures and flavors. Like music itself. You know, so many songs in the world are love songs, I think they're everypony's favorite. You know Sweetie Belle, you sing very lovely indeed. There is so much love in your voice, you really should share it with everypony. That is my honest opinion as a singer by the way."

Something felt funny about that last part but still, "Thank you very much. You really think so?"

"I KNOW so! I know music and I know love, and your voice has both . . . Sweetie Belle . . ." She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "How'd you like to have a special part in the ceremonies?"

"I'm already a flower filly."

"Yes but this is something super special, just for you. Something only that lovely voice of yours can do, and give so many others strength just by hearing it. I know it would be PERFECT for you to sing after the wedding ceremony."

"ME?!" I blushed bright red. "Sing?! In front of . . . in front of . . ."

She leaned closer, and whisper in my ears, looking me in the eyes. "I know it's scary to be in front of a large crowd. Thinking of what they could be thinking of you. But I speak truth when I tell you, they don't matter. Your performance is yours. It's something beautiful to be shared, if those you share it with don't appreciate it, then that's their problem. Your voice is lovely, and should be shared. There is nothing to be afraid up, nothing to be worried about, nothing to think about it. If you like, I could help you. Would you like that?"

"That, that would be nice." She was so pretty. I wanted to be pretty like her.

"Would you like to make your sister proud of you? She mentioned how you always want to show her what you can do, now's your chance."

My heart skipped a beat. "Y-Yes! I want that!"

"I know. This is my special day after all. And as one of my flower fillies, you're a part of my special day. And a good little piece does what she's told. She doesn't need to worry, she doesn't need to have second thoughts. To be a good little part, just do what I tell you. That'll make your sister very proud when you do what you're told. She won't get upset you, she won't get mad at you. She'll love you for doing such a nice job. You want that do you?"

"Yeah."

"How much do you want it?"

"M-more than anything."

"Then just be a good little part of the plan. Don't worry. Don't question. Only obey. It's what makes you happy to obey, because you're doing what I want, which is what your sister wants. My little song bird."

I feel all my troubles wash away. I can't even remember what I was so worried about before. I smiled at her pretty smile. "I'm your little song bird."

"And what does the little song bird do?"

"She obeys."

"And what makes my little song bird happy?"

"To obey. Because I'm a good little part of the plan. I won't mess up at all. I promise."

Her Majesty ruffled my mane. I'm a good little song bird.

"Now just keep repeating those thoughts until you wake up in the morning. They're all you need to think about until then. And no need to mention any of this to anypony."

"I don't need to mention any of this to anypony."

"Yes, because you're my obedient little song bird."

"Because I'm your obedient little song bird."

"Just trust in what I want my little song bird, it's my special day, so what I want is what's best. Don't worry, don't be afraid, just be happy little song bird, and know that Her Majesty knows what's best."

"You know what's best Your Majesty, I won't worry, I won't be scared. I'm happy to be your little song bird." And I was so much!

Her Majesty graces me with more of her precious time, telling me what a good little song bird was to do, I listen like a good little song bird should. She kisses me on the forehead, gives me a hung with her wings, and I go straight to bed, because that was what I was told to do. And a good little song bird doesn't question, she only obeys. It feels good to obey. Because I'm Her Majesty's little song bird. If you can't trust Her Majesty, who can you trust? And I know she'll do what's best!

Author's Note

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember
Part 6
By Alex Warlorn

Everybody loves a wedding episode. Especially one with one point five amnesic gods getting married and a point five one in attendance, a dark god looming in the background, a shadow given life rising to challenge, and the fate of a kingdom in the balance. Oh, and no doubt the mother of all angry explosions when Twilight finds out that her brother didn't tell her he was getting married.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Pt-5-A-Bug-Pony-s-Life-440400676

Next Chapter:

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Should this chapter have a mature content warning?

Episode 165: "Everything Is Just Perfect"

Pony POV
Not the Wedding You Remember! Part 7
"Everything is just perfect."

The ponies being stupid? Oh please, stop trying to take away from my victory. I've had this plan in motion for decades, many of my changelings were born here, and their parents came through quite legally. They know better than to reveal themselves least ponies lynch them for being emotion eating monsters. We've been working slowly, nothing here has been rushed.

The best part is that the ponies who are paranoid enough to suspect something have their eyes focused somewhere else entirely. Either at the rookie guards or some other supernatural threat (unknowning the one they need to watch out for is right here), not at my infiltrators who either worked their way up or replaced an established pony higher in the ranks! Throw in a few little pieces of fake evidence to spark concerns along the borders, so the ponies think the mysterious danger is on the outside rather than the inside, and they're looking in the opposite direction.

After all, it would be insane to keep all the experienced guards tucked away inside the capital within the barrier it'd take an entire army effort to break through and send newbies to get slaughtered at the border when the mysterious enemy strikes. Equestria doesn't believe in the 'wave tactics' the Hooviets believed in. They sent most of the experienced guards to the boarders or other locations around Equestria because they believed an outside invasion was coming and Canterlot was well protected from outside threat. Why would they expect the threat would come from inside when all evidence pointed otherwise? Not to mention my little pawn who is neither a Changeling nor brainwashed making sure an invasion was possible, unaware all I needed from him was to turn a blind eye to the details I permitted him to know.

Not to mention my own position and those of my pawns made it quite easy to tamper with communications to ensure Canterlot was safe and sound inside the barrier. They believed inside Canterlot was the safest location in Equestria between the boarder fortifications and the barrier.

Oh, I know sooner or later somepony would smell a rat...but then again, whoever said taking Canterlot was my only goal? Or my only potential endgame for that matter?

+++

Ah don't have mah eyes open ta the truth twenty-four-seven. Ah respect there are things that should just be keep private. Stuff like Lyra said, secrets ponies keep that ah got no right tah peak at. But Ah gotta agree with Nightmare Mirror on one thing, it is like a sickness how much ponies lie to themselves and each other. Sometimes Ah feel Ah keep mah 'true eyes' closed fer mahself more than everypony else. It's a wonder anypony knows what reality even is with how much we nudge things.

What did ya think Ah'd say? Me an' Nightmare Mirror? Only difference between us is my Applebloom got away from Sunnytown. Her Applebloom wasn't that lucky. Ah coulda been Nightmare Mirror same as her.

Ah use mah 'true eyes' and a mirror sometimes ta see the truth about myself. Luna says Ah'm still a flesh and blood pony and Ah could lose track of mahself, but a little peak wouldn't hurt none right?

Ah learned the heart world version of me got 'er hat as a prize bobbin' for apples, it wasn't a gift from her pa'. Hmm. For a tick' Ah wondered if she had it better cause she didn't have to lose somethin' dear, but naw, Ah loved pa's hat while Ah had it. Ah already accepted other meh's don't share mah life with meh.

Well, the outin' we had with Princess Cadence we were all kinda pressed for time. Right right, ya'all already know this part. Meh doin' the caterin'. But did ya know Apple Fritter and Peachy Sweet was there to help me (somepony had called in help)? Look, Ah know my rep', but Ah'm done with that, this Applejack is gonna get help when she needs it! Besides, Ah'm an Apple! We don't pass up a chance tah be with family!

Yes Ah did that ice-sculpture. Just because Ah'm not inta all that froufrou stuff doesn't mean Ah can't appreciate beauty none. An' just cause Ah'm a farmer doesn't mean it's the only thing Ah can do.

So the Princess showed up, taste tested the goods, and told a white lie about what she thought about my cookin'. Believe it or not, Ah don't mind why she lied, she was just bein' nice, but this was her weddin' day, the food SHOULD be up to what she wants. Poor girl is getting everythin' worked up by her lonesome that she's willin' to let stuff get by half done . . . Applebuck season all over again for somepony else.

Seriously Twili, just cause somepony is high-strung and on the hostile side the day before their weddin' doesn't make 'em evil incarnate!

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Exactly. Happy to hear you being so rational and reason Applejack.)

Why thank you kindly.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Maybe you should talk with Her Majesty about what kinds of foods she does like?)

I was just gonna.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): What if she doesn't like apples?)

Impossible! JUST KIDDIN'! HA HA! Ah know some ponies like apples, and some ponies like oranges, different strokes for different folks. Don't forget the Orange Family are mah kin too!

The Princess was all over the place. It was hard to pin 'er down. Ah finally found 'er with Twili's brother (who Ah still felt had popped out of nowhere from how she hadn't said a word about 'em and suddenly was gushin' about 'em).

Ah focused on Twili' brother, Ah mean really focused on 'em. Wantin' ta see the truth of this pony. Ah admit it, Ah haven't looked at a pony in the true way since this trip got started, not wantin' tah uncover one of those secrets Lyra mentioned that shouldn't be dug up...but this was beyond weird and Ah wanted tah get tah the bottom of it. Ah covered mah mouth at what Ah saw.

Bridle and shackles? Dang what was this stallion into? Ah didn't want to know more thank you kindly! Ah closed off mah 'truth sight' faster than you can say 'howdy!' Too much information. Lyra was right, there are some secrets yer better off not knowing.

Ah shook mah head and asked the princess to speak with 'er in private about the eats. The princess was surprised but nice about it, and Shinin' didn't complain.

" . . . almost everything is nearly tasteless to me. It has been for a long time," the poor thing confessed once we were alone.

"Oh Ah'm so sorry!!!"

"It's okay, most don't know. It seems to be a unique trait of mine. Nothing really clicks anymore. I prefer to keep it private. So I just like whatever is put in front of me."

"Don't worry, yer secret is safe with me."

"Thank you Applejack, I'm surprised to hear that from the Element of Honesty though."

"Hey, Ah know all about keepin' stuff private ain't the same as hoofin' out lies. That there are secrets it ain't mah place tah butt in."

"Commendable." She leaned in a little, "Has anyone told you have very beautiful green eyes? They're unique among your friends."

I blushed a bit. "Ah shucks, Ah'm not into that sorta thing, but thanks for the compliment."

"Well it's true," she said strangely matter of fact, "I know appearances, and yours is quite appealing. With a little extra work you'd be a knock out."

Ah remembered Orangejack. "Erm, thank ya kindly, just cause Ah don't like to get all frou frou doesn't mean Ah can't pretty up for mah friends."

"Do you consider me a friend?"

"In Ponyville, strangers are just friends ya haven't met yet as Pinkie would say, and Ah like ta think we carry Ponyville wherever we go."

"How very, sentimental."

"Is there anythin' ya can taste? Ah can cook more than just apples."

She smiled. Reminded me a bit of Opal. "As a matter of fact there is, however it's a little exotic."

"Well, this here is the most important day of yer life, Ah'll try mah hardest to whip it up."

"My, how generous," she said smilin' a bit wider.

"Shucks, that's Rarity's department, not mine, but thank ya kindly."

"Still, I imagine you would make a lovely-"

"Your Majesty!" A pegasus royal guard came tumblin' inta the window somethin' fierce. Pony must have been in a big hurry. "Twilight Sparkle is-- I didn't realize you had guests."

The guard looked at meh like a deer in the headlights (no offense tah any deer) and started looking REAL nervous.

"Yes, I do. And I WASN'T expecting anymore," the Princess said in a way Ah could tell she meant.

"And what about Twili?" Ah asked, narrowin' mah eyes.

"Well...you see she was...uh...well she.." he seemed tongue tied suddenly.

Now, normally Ah wouldn't have worried none about this guy. But...somepony had threatened the whole city enough for the guard tah lock it down tighter than a barn with a cattle rustler on the loose. And Cadence WAS a Princess. Somepony bargin' inta her room uninvited and actin' nervous and twitchy the moment he saw meh? Suddenly not able tah answer a question he claimed he came tah answer? Ah couldn't be too careful, now could Ah? Ah AM the Bearer of Honesty, it's mah duty tah protect Equestria!

Plus, if the poor guy was just LOOKING suspicious and being tongue-tied, then Ah might save him some trouble. This weren't buttin' in where Ah didn't belong, this was tellin' a truth Ah knew Ah should tell.

So Ah just turned up the truth vision and...Holy horseapples!

"What are Tartarus are yah?!"

The guard jumped. "Whatever do you mean?"

"What?" asked the Princess behind meh, soundin' right surprised.

Ah can tell yah this much, he weren't no pony! Ah focused inta his eyes, burnin' deep in as Ah could. He started shaking and sweatin' until finally, he burst inta green flames and dropped that mask he was wearin'! He was a big black bug! That's about all Ah can think tah call him!

"What?!" Ah heard the Princess yell.

"Are yah the ones threatenin' Canterlot?"

"Y-Y-Yes!" he stuttered as Ah burned through any lie he might have told. And Ah saw a few of the things Ah was burnin' through in 'em...dang, this guy has a warped world view!

"Princess, think Ah found us a spy!"

The thing tried tah lunge at meh suddenly when Ah took mah eyes off him, but before Ah could buck his head in, a beam of green magic blew 'em across the room and left him out cold on the ground.

"Thank yah kindly Princess."

"Oh, you're welcome, Applejack."

Ah took a look outside, then turned tah the Princess. Did Ah shut down the truth vision? Of course Ah did! Why would Ah turn it on the Princess?

"Princess, Ah think we need tah tell Princess Celestia right quick!"

"Of course, Applejack...but how did you do that? I've never seen anything quite like it," the Princess asked meh. She seemed rattled, but given what happened, Ah can't blame her.

"Well...long story, but Ah can pierce through lies and deceit, stuff like that. If Ah try, no one can lie tah meh, with words or looks."

"I see. What a special gift you have, my little pony. Do your friends know you have it?"

"Well, yeah, of course they do."

"And they believe it?"

"Of course, we're friends, why wouldn't they?"

"And you don't have it on all the time?"

"Nah, Ah...Ah think that'd be violatin' ponies' privacy. Especially here in Canterlot, lots of ponies who need tah hide somethin'."

"I see, how noble of you. Sorry for the questions, as you can guess I need to confirm the information you're giving me."

Ah nodded. That made sense. "Ah understand."

"Still, it was a blessing you were here, who knows what might have happened if you hadn't stopped to visit me," she said, giving a sigh of relief.

"Just doin' mah job, but we'd best go report this!"

"You are correct, but first, Applejack, may I ask you something?"

"Yeah, of course, anythin', but best make it quick!"

"Do you trust me?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Will you listen to me?"

"Yer a Princess, kinda mah duty to."

Then she looked meh right in the eyes. Ah...Ah started tah feel a little weird. Like Ah was in a big warm bath. So relaxin', so easy ta just let go of everythin'.

"And can I count on you to do what I require of you?"

"Of course yah can! Ah'm the most dependable...dependable pony yah could ask for!" Ah said. Huh, who went and stuffed mah head full of cotton? Ah'm just sinkin' inta the nice warm bath.

"Perrrrfect."

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus) (Addendum): Applejack, it seems our notes of what came next got damaged...)

...With all due respect, Ah DON'T want tah talk about it, okay? Please...it was hard enough when it happened...

I held Bumblebee to the wall with my magic. Good help is SO hard to find. My newest property stood obediently nearby. "You do realize how close you came to ruining EVERYTHING, don't you, Bumblebee?"

"Y-Yes Your Majesty!"

"And that if I didn't still need you, you wouldn't be breathing right now, correct?"

I watched him start trembling. It'd be easy of course, just say 'give me your love' and poof, no more Bumblebee...but that would be more trouble than it's worth. Covering up a missing guard is much harder than explaining an injured one.

"Y-yes."

I held his muzzle shut with my magic and snap, his leg was broken at the joint. I waited for his silent screaming to stop. "You crashed on your way here and that's where the injuries came from, understood?"

"Y-Yes, Your Majesty."

"Good. And as for Twilight Sparkle, don't worry," I stroked my little pony. "She'll take care of her."

I released Bumblebee. "Now get out of my sight."

He scrambled off like the nervous coward he's had always been. But he was fast good flyer, he had his uses.

I chuckled, gently pushing little Applejack's muzzle to face me. "You know the irony dear? If you hadn't worried so much about other ponies' privacy, you could have stopped all of this. You know that, right?"

She kneeled. "...Yes, Yer Madjesty."

+++

Early the next morning, Spike and Sweetie Belle snuck out of their rooms, doing their absolute best to not wake up their roommates. They went down to the royal kitchen finding Applejack already making breakfast for them.

"Hi ya'all, good morning," the green eyed mare said with a smile, wearing her cooking apron.

"Good morning," Spike and Sweetie echoed as they sat down at a table already set for them and two others.

The green eyed dragon and green-eyed filly happily stared into space, Spike not budging or saying a word letting Applejack cook in peace. The filly however, seemed extra happy this morning.

"Yah seem happy, Sweetie."

"I am! Her Majesty and I talked some more! she introduced me to some of her guards! I even know some of their names!"

"That's nice. Yah and her madjesty seem tah be gettin' along, huh?"

"Yeah! I can't wait until after the wedding! I'm sure Rarity will be so happy to hear me sing!"

"Yeah, Ah bet she will," Applejack replied, the orange mare looking sick for a moment.

A unicorn walked into the kitchen next. She had a red mane and cream colored coat. She took off a pair of sunglasses that hid green tinted eyes that were not her natural color.

"Hi ya'all, good morning," said Applejack to the last breakfast guest.

"G-good morning," Moondancer croaked out. Her coat was covered in sweat. As she moved towards the table, her motions were jerky, like a puppet's. The smiles never left any of their faces.

"Good morning Moondancer," Sweetie Belle said in the exact same tone she had greeted Applejack with. "I am happy you and Spike are still good friends."

"Y-yes, good . . . good friends," She said, the smile not leaving her face, like it was glued that way. "We are good friends, yes Spike?"

"Yes we are good friends," Spike replied his inflection and tone never changing.

Moondancer sat down, her body nearly going limp, like she had been carrying heavy chains. "I'm . . . I'm h-happy to k-know that Spike. I truly do value you as a close friend. I never wanted that to change."

"Your mane is a mess," Sweetie Belle said, her tone changing ever so slightly, "Oh. Sorry. That was not a nice thing to say."

"I-it's alright. I haven't been, sleeping well . . . o-or waking well for that matter."

"Alright girls, and boy, eat up." AJ cheered, balancing perfectly the four plates and with expertise placed pancakes in front of Sweetie, scrambled eggs with semi-precious stones mixed in for Spike, oats cereal for herself (she could eat more than just apples), and French-toast that Spike had told AJ Moondancer enjoyed.

"We gotta a lot to do today," AJ said still smiling, eating earth pony style.

"We sure do," Sweetie Belle replied smiling.

"Gotta make sure everything goes right, right Moondancer?" Spike nodded.

"R-right," The mare said, looking ill.

"For Her Majesty!" Sweetie Belle cheered raising her hooves, her mind filled with thoughts of singing for everyling. With making Her Majesty proud.

AJ nodded approvingly, "For Her Madjesty!"

"For Her Majesty!" Spike joined in.

"F-For Her . . . Ma-jest . . ." The white unicorn's eyes rolled up in her head and she fell out of her chair, hitting the floor with a thud.

"Moondancer!" Spike hopped out of his chair checking on her.

Applejack put what Nurse Redheart had taught her to good use, looking the mare in the eye and checking her vitals.

"M-minuette, T-Twinle Shhhhine, I-I-, I'm, s-sorr-"

"Shhhhh. It's alright darlin', ya just rest now ya hear?" AJ whispered. She put the unicorn on her back and looked at the others. "Ah'll get'er ta bed, Ah think it's best if she just rest fer a bit longer. Ya two clean up the kitchen all sparkin' and nice ya hear?"

"Absolutely." The two echoed again standing at attention perfectly with the smiles still on their faces.

AJ's smiles almost became a smirk as her eyes softened a bit. "Alright, ya go back to yer friends when done here. We can finish chattin' later."

Spike and Sweetie obeyed without so much as a thought of complaint.

As the two washed dishes for Applejack, Sweetie Belle chatted about how great today was going to be and how she was gonna practice her singing for her big performance, becoming more lively as she went on, Spike merely nodded and went through the motions, becoming more subdued.

Sweetie Belle skipping ahead as Spike moved like a good tin soldier. Sweetie Belle knew Moondancer would be alright, she knew Her Majesty would take good care of her. She had more important things to think about. She could barely keep herself from laughing out loud at the big surprise Her Majesty had made for everypony! She couldn't wait to see the looks on Applebloom and Scootaloo's faces when she did her performance for Her Majesty as her little song bird. And Her Majesty said she was making big plans for the little filly! She couldn't wait!

"This day is going to be perfect," She sang in a perfect deceptive cadence. She loved being around Her Majesty, it was like her parents had come home.

Finding out where Moondancer lived from Spike, AJ gently put the mare to bed and silently kissed her on the forehead. The mare was sweating, but her heart and breathing were both steady. AJ thought of getting a doctors, but that would attract unwanted attention for Her Majesty's property, and there would plenty of time to rest after today. After today. AJ felt sick to her stomach as she nearly banged into a wall. AJ trotted back to her room, she had a lot to prepare for Her Majesty's special day. Her friends all did. She felt dizzy and sick again but shook her head and carried on.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Yes, we have much to do for Her Majesty.)

+++

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Look, sis, this is NOT going right. Chrysalis knows things she SHOULDN'T know.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): It's only natural some minor details would change, but have faith in them, victory will come to the worthy.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): But what if she wins? Or Discord is helping her?)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Unlikely. Chrysalis and Discord are like him and Grogar: their motives are so opposite there is no way they could tolerate one another, let alone team up. Everything's going how it is supposed to.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Like how I'm supposed to give Peewee to Spike?)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): I'm sorry little sister, I really am. But if we took Peewee home with us, he'd be seen as an alien presence in OUR reality, and awaken OUR reality's Blank Wolf! You've seen the constant danger it put Shining into! Do you want that on Peewee just because you don't want to lose his company? You'd have to release him when we go home whether we give him to Spike or not. Do you think it makes me HAPPY to see you upset?)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Maybe I'll just stay here then.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): We've been tolerated so far because we're a transient presence. If we try to become a permanent one, we'll be violating this reality, and there will be actually consequences. Is being with Peewee worth hurting others over it? I'm sorry!)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Well my other sister understands right? Right? Where did she go? Siiiiiss?)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): . . . . I-I'm so sorry.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn) (addendum): And everything I told my littlest sister was completely true.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Our big sister is too caught up with 'the rules' to realize something stinks right under her nose. We need to do something.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): You agree with me right? That I should get to keep Peewee? I need, I mean he needs me.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Will you stop talking about him for five minutes?! Everypony could be in danger!)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): That's what bigger sister keeps say too.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Ugh! Look! Sorry! But our big sister is hogging Twilight and her friends to herself and won't let us near them! And things are spiraling WAY off course!)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): What about everypony else? She didn't say anything about them.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): . . . You're a genius little sister! If there's something we learned from Minty Pie, it's that the 'main characters' aren't the only ones who can be heroes.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): What about Mr. Filthy and Golden? And Mr. Silver Axe and the other Crusaders?)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Nah, they're just civilians, they can't do anything. Blueblood might work, he's at least got power...)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): But Silver Tongue is an ex-guard and Golden Tiara is really REALLY tough and-)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Currently recovering from having Discord tape her brain back together. Blueblood is a Prince, he's at least got pull, and he's a better guy now!)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): But they're upper class, they have pull too, and Blueblood isn't involved in the military or anything...)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Ugh. You want to get them involved so bad? Fine, I'm going to actually DO something about this mess.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Big sister come-she left...Why are we fighting so much? We used to think like one pony.)

++++

"Ah wonder if Twili' is comin' down with the green eyed monster."

"Hey Applebloom, Ah heard about how Sweetie was actin' yesterday, ya just make sure doesn't start workin' for the green-eyed monster."

"Just don't start actin' like a green-eyed monster cause of Cadence's singin' Fluttershy."

"Rarity, Sweetie hangin' out with Spike a bit more, ya should keep a closer eye on her to make sure she doesn't become a green-eyed monster."

"Hey RD, ya should keep yer guard up, big fancy weddin's like this always bring out some green-eyed monster."

"It's really great ya've gotten over yer green-eye monster thing with yer sister and Pip Princess."

"Trixie, ya know green-eyed monsters better than anypony, ya should keep yer eyes peeled in case there are some at this here weddin'."

"Rarity the dress ya made for the princess is so dang beautiful, Ah figurin' Ah'm becomin' a green eyed monster it's so pretty."

"Ya know Twili', with how Spike acts around Rarity sometimes', Ah worry 'bout him becomin' a green eyed monster."

"Twili', would ya say any of yer classmates acted like green-eyed monsters cause of how special ya were to The Princess?"

"Pinkie Pie ya got so many lovely candies for this here party Ah wouldn't be surprised if a whole buncha bugs invaded Canterlot for 'em."

"Ya know Rarity, Pinkie Pie hostin' a Canterlot party is gonna be like mixing apples and oranges, ya should be ready in case things get really rowdy really fast and we haveta do a Grand Gallopin' Gala retreat or knock some sense inta some over-salted ponies."

"Princess Celestia, maybe ya should have Princess Cadence get a full check-up, can't have her gettin' sick before the weddin'. The doc' said she's perfectly healthy? Okay. Good to know Her Majesty is fine. Her fancy-smancy magic all check out too? Perfect match 'cept' fer the color from that thing ya can't talk about? Whao kay."

"Ah'm . . . Ah'm just fine Apple Fritter. Ah look a little sick? Ah'm, just tryin' to make sure everythin' works out fine for mah friends at the weddin'. Ya know what ya say, love is a war, and Canterlot's about to be a battlefield."

"Ya be careful Twili' makin' things go right, ya know the worst kinda bugs are the ones ya can't see, or hidin' in plain sight."

+++

+++

Applejack is still not listening to me...neither is Spike. They can see how I feel, can't they? They just keep saying 'everything will go as it should,' but how do THEY know?!

Cadence...Why is she acting this way? Why isn't she acting like...like her? Princess, you said she wouldn't change.

-

She threw out her bridesmaids?! I know my friends are her bridesmaids now but...from what I heard she broke them!

How could...how could Cadence do that?! How could my sweet, wonderful foalsitter do something so cruel? This...this just feels so WRONG!

-

I...I don't believe it...She...she did something to Shining...Cadence...you can't...you're...you're not the Cadence I knew anymore...Not if you could do that...I wanted you to be my big sister but now...I don't know...

+++

+++

It was such a pity Princess Cadence's parents couldn't attend. Princess Cadence explained to me when I asked if I could make a suit and dress for her parents as a gift. The poor dear explained that they had been under the weather since before we arrived in Canterlot. Truly a tragedy that parents should miss their child's most wonderful of days. I know I have not the best track record with my parents, but even I would never want them to miss the day I became a 'Mrs.'

Oh, hello again dears, Miss Rarity Belle at your service once again. What shall we reminisce upon today? Oh . . . the wedding rehearsal . . . I can safely say that was a black moment for all of us. Nopony in that room had anything to be proud of.

Evil . . . evil doesn't just take advantage of good ponies' inactions. We become focused on the monster sneaking in through the backdoor, we don't see the monster wearing a smile walking in through the front door.

I believed Princess Cadence had to be simply mistaken when she off-handedly mentioned she was worried Twilight seemed to be shadowing her while trying to keep out of sight. Stalking? Twilight Sparkle would never engage in such uncouth behavior.

But that was just the beginning.

You've heard much, but you haven't heard quite everything.

+++

My name is Twilight Sparkle and I . . . I can't believe it. I don't want to believe it. I couldn't believe it. This all felt like a horrible nightmare. But there was no laughing chimera, my friends weren't twisted into parodies of themselves. But my world was still turned upside down!

I had marched in the brave hero, bravely disrupting the wedding rehearsal, I nobly pushed my friends out of my way when they asked if I was okay, I was the one who was going to save my brother from that witch who used to be my foal sitter. I valiantly bullied the bride to tears. I faced her down, I drove her out. I had declared in front of everypony the wicked witch she was! I felt so proud of myself.

Then I noticed the angry look I had never seen on my brother's face. Our friendship had been like a fairytale, we had never had a truly awful fight. I suddenly felt a little small.

I saw the horrified looks on my friends' faces, and I felt even smaller. I saw how Celestia was looking at me, and I shrank to the subatomic.

I listened as my big brother dismantled every single one of my arguments, all of my 'proof' of Cadence no longer being the pony either of us knew he tore to shreds.

"You think Cadence wanted to let go of her Hoofmaidens?! She thought they were her friends and they just wanted to use her! As soon as they found out we were engaged her entire entourage began asking her for privilege positions thinking she'd get more power once she was married! She's had to do everything herself!"

+++

I'll admit. I know what that's like. Sonic Rainboom. Lots of 'friends'. Gonna be the first filly Wonderbolt. Can't do the Rainboom again. Those friends disappear.

+++

Poor Cadence's time as a sheltered princess couldn't have been easy, as a lady I am fully versed in the games ponies play as part of high society, now that she is going to become a mare, she finds out the reality of her world. I can imagine the pain she must have been hiding. No wonder she wanted to make friends with us.

+++

"Cadence was scared about meeting you again! She was worried that after saving the world twice you'd be a different pony! I promised her, there was no way my little sister would changed from the wonderful filly she knew, you made me a liar!"

Not again. Please not again! I-I didn't mean it! I was just trying, just trying to protect my brother!

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Protect him? Or keep him? Maybe you just saw what you wanted to see.)

I looked at my friends, none of them came to my defense. If anything, they looked scared of me.

No!

"Don't any of you remember 'lesson zero'?!" I begged looking from face to face, "Wasn't the whole point of that for you to always listen to me-us to listen to each other, even if you don't recognize why it should be a big deal?!"

Rarity trotted up, she wasn't smiling. "Twilight darling, your comparison is superficial!"

Pinkie Pie spoke sadly, she couldn't look me in the eye, "That time you were kinda actin' crazy . . . now yer kinda actin' like a big meanie pants."

"I'm sorry Twilight," Fluttershy whispered so low I could barely hear it, "Maybe we should have listened to you," then she looked me in the eyes and I really really wish she hadn't! "Maybe then you wouldn't have hurt a innocent mare on her wedding day!"

"Shining has a point Twilight. You really have been so fixated on Cadence you haven't really cared about the wedding at all." I heard Spike confess before the Flutters broke their gaze. "And back then, you were worried about disappointing Celestia, you had a reason for acting weird. Here you just jumped to conclusions, you're the one not listening to anypony."

"AND TWILIGHT!" Shining snapped, "Cadence went through A LOT on her world tour! A lot she can't even tell you about no matter how badly she wants to! So SORRY if she isn't exactly the same!"

"And aren't you the one ignoring the lesson Twilight?" I knew it wasn't Fluttershy speaking, "You said when stopping Nightmare Whisper that friends change whether we like it or not! Cadence has changed since you saw her YEARS AGO, therefore she's not Cadence?!"

Rainbow Dash uncharacteristically didn't say anything. But the look in her eyes. I had seen it before, when Gilda walked away rather than apologize for mistreating Rainbow's other friends, Rainbow, she felt betrayed.

++++

I don't want to say it. But the other friend of mine Twilight is reminding me of right now is Gilda. She didn't want anypony inching in on 'her territory' either.

++++

"Twilight, you . . . you were willing to give Trixie a chance when her show caused trouble she never intended. You tried to understand Trixie even when it didn't make sense and SHE gave you every reason to think she was a lost cause. This is . . . inconsistent for you." Trixie's voice, if anything, sounded hurt.

"Applejack!" I asked desperately. AJ looked she had eaten one of her own 'baked bads.' "You can see the truth of things can't you? Look at the truth!"

AJ had a disgusted look on her face, my heart cracked. "Ah do! But Ah don't wanna say it and ya don't wannt hear it! There's a difference between actin' crazy, and ACTIN' LIKE A JACKASS! Then we thought ya were makin' a mountain out of a mole hill, and we made the mistaken of brushin' you off when we saw you were actin' weird instead of takin' ya seriously. Ya ain't crazy or frazzled or at yer wits end here! Instead you're acting like a self-righteous nag who doesn't care she made a mare cry on her freakin' weddin' day in front of her fiance, yer brother! Until yer worried yer brother might not like it! Ya want to hear the truth Twili?! Ya won't like it! Ya wanna hear the real reason yer bein' a nag to Cadence?!

"Ya COMPLETELY FORGET THAT YOUR BROTHER -EXISTS- FER TWO YEARS and, and ya only remember him after he invites ya to his weddin'. Then ya go on about you how missed him when ya never so much as had a picture of 'em or mentioned him! This ain't about yer brother or Cadence! This is about ya! Instead of sayin' sorry or tryin' to make up by makin' sure his weddin' is the best it can be, instead: he's a non-pony to ya fer two years, THEN ya can't bear to let 'em go? Ya call that family?! That's selfish! He's not yer buckin' property! Ya think yer the only mare he needs!" She looked the way Cadence had fled. "You green-eyed monster." AJ looked positively sick.

I'll admit it...that one wasn't entirely Twiley's fault. Even if she didn't handle the situation right in a lot of ways...it's not her fault she didn't remember me until then. And yes, I DO wish I could go back and say 'that one's not my sister's fault' even if I couldn't explain why it wasn't. I was so angry I didn't even think of it. Hindsight is always 20/20.

Shining told me I didn't need to worry about being his best mare anymore, and I didn't need to worry about showing up to the wedding either. Then he went after the mare I hurt.

AJ looked back at the others. "Come on everypony, we better go check on the Princess."

Rarity passed by me. "I have to leave Twilight, I'm afraid if I stay I'll say something unlady-like I can't take back..."

Then the others trotted by me.

Then CELESTIA walked by me, I tried to speak with her,

"You have a lot to think about," she said, she looked so, disappointed.

+++++

I had to leave before I said something unkind that I wouldn't be able to take back later. Twilight was still my friend, but I was worried if I stayed I might say things that would damage our friendship. -Rarity Belle

I wasn't abandoning her, I was letting purple's big brain process how much she had clopped up instead of just 'sorry/forgiven, tra la la', in under thirty seconds. That isn't how we learn from mistakes, that isn't how the lessons SINK IN!!! Lessons don't sink in unless there are consequences.

Was I worried about leaving her alone? She wasn't drunk. Trixie didn't look to be going anywhere. And to be honest? 'Lesson Zero' didn't turn Twilight into a Nightmare, and if that didn't, then she wasn't facing a scenario where she'd figure 'everypony should be friends whether they like it or not.' I screwed up and I have the scars to prove I faced the consequences of my own actions.

And seriously, that thinking sounds like what somepony would use to justify we should be kept frozen when the Elements aren't needed if we keep worrying that we'll go Nightmare every time we get depressed. -Flutercruel

I don't like seeing anypony in pain. Not a friend I met a day ago, not a friend who saved me. I didn't want to hurt her back, and I wasn't trying to hurt her back. That doesn't solve anything. But I was angry. I don't like anypony hurting anypony else. I could tell Twilight was sad for what she did. So sad. But Cadence had run away after being told she was evil by a filly that she really truly loved, she might do something foolish. Imagine if being hurt like that made her think she hadn't given out enough love and became a Nightmare?! I didn't want to see that happen to another pony. And I had seen, I had felt the spirits of black magic before. I didn't feel them swarming towards Twilight, and I think I'd be able to tell if they were swarming near Cadence, I'd check on her and be right back! - Fluttershy

. . . . . . . . . I'm a bad friend. I was going to come right back. I Pinkie swear. But I needed a little bit to breath first. . . just, seeing Twilight act like that brought up bad memories. It was like Twilight wasn't acting like Twilight. Maybe I was a little scared. Yes, I was a little scared I'd been wrong and Shining WAS a Mare-ty Stu warping my friend's head, but that doesn't make it right... -Pinkie Diane

If I have to choose between a student of mine whose just made a destructive selfish choice, or my niece who is hurt because of that selfish choice . . . Twilight needs time to reflect on the full weight of what she's done. These hard lessons are sadly needed with power like hers, when she realizes I won't be there to clean up every impulsive mistake she makes. Of course I still love her, I always will. But I love my niece too. -Princess Celestia

I'm loyal to Twilight, but I also told Discord I'd always be loyal to The Princess, and like it or not, Twilight isn't a princess. Loyalty isn't about how long you've known somepony, if it was, I'd have ditched over half my new friends for the Shadowbolt's offer. I've spent a long time learning life doesn't always have nice third options. No one said being loyal was painless. It sure isn't for me. What stinks the worst is how I suck at words. I wanted to say something to Twilight so badly. Somethin', anythin'! After what happened with Gilda I didn't want to be the one to walk away this time. And a part of me was just saying 'this time there IS a third option,' that there was something I could say to be loyal to both. I just sat there, looking at her, not having a clue of what to say. I was back with Scootaloo the night she first slept at my home. And all the others were still better at sensitive words than me. Maybe I should ask Rarity for lessons how to say all the nice and mushy stuff now that I have Scootaloo to look after.

The even more weird part was how Trixie was there too, the loudmouth at as much a loss for words as me.

We both listened to Twilight sing her broken reprisal about her BBBFF. I...I know how she feels. It's like how I felt when I found out my friends had done what they did because I'd endangered ponies LIVES. But...I just couldn't figure out how to put THAT into words. How could I say 'I know how you feel' to somepony who'd just made their big brother so furious he'd banned her from his wedding? That would just sound wrong.

That was when AJ came back and put a hoof on my shoulder, "Come on Sugarcube, ya ain't doin' any good here."

And I let AJ drag me out of there, keeping my eyes on Twilight the whole time.

-Rainbow Dash

I think I felt a little bit betrayed. This was the pony I envied in every sense of the word. Who I wish to be. I'll admit at least she acted sorry for what she did. She was actually sad about what she did. At least she didn't need to be infested by an evil spirit to realize how badly she had made things. She just needed a reality check.

I just knew I hated seeing her like this. A joke since once I would have given anything to be present at this moment.

I was actually going to speak with her. I wanted to tell her I knew exactly where she was. Maybe I could return the favor? Wouldn't be the first time.

I opened my mouth.

"Can you please leave us some privacy Trixie, now," I heard Princess Cadence whisper in my ear behind me. She really did have a talent for sneaking up on ponies. "I wish to reconcile things with Twilight."

I wasn't feeling up to saying no to a princess. Her whisper held more force than any shout Trixie had ever heard. I wanted to stay. No no no I really did. But when Cadence began to just above 'gently' push me, Trixie suddenly felt out of her Element. I stayed put anyway.

"Trixie, please go." It was Twilight who spoke that time. Her tone was lifeless and her purple eyes shimmered with tears.

I was the last to leave. - Trixie Midsummernight of the Lulamoon Herd

The worst part is. The meh that said all that, and how she said it was a lie: but a lot of what Ah told Twili' was the truth. -Applejack V

I admit, after how beautifully I played the part of her foalsitter, I was surprised when Twilight tried to wreck my moment. But you know the fun part? Hehe. There were so many ways I could play that beautiful moment. Some of which might have been a tad more efficient, I admit. But none quite so brilliant. I am an actress.

Part of my mind control? Oh please. Why waste magic, when my dear's love for Cadence, and a few well placed lies are more than enough for my knight in shining armor to defend me from my 'wicked step-sister to-be?' And for her friends and mentor to all turn on her? Ha ha!

How do I feel about it now when all is said and done? Awful. It doesn't matter what was really going on...that I was telling a truth I didn't realize I was telling. If I hadn't been? You wouldn't even be considering calling me a hero for it. Whether it was truth or a lie, I still handled things poorly. I was like a self-righteous bully. And if I hadn't, then maybe things wouldn't have gone as far as they did...maybe fewer ponies would have been hurt. - Twilight Sparkle.

She looked down on me smiling with kindness I didn't deserve.

"I'm sorry!"

She gently stroked my mane. "I know . . . " She cooed. Her smile never wavered. This was my foal sitter I remembered as she knelt down and covered me with one wing and gave me a slight nuzzle. "We all make mistakes. Things don't work out the way we want. Even when we think we planned for everything so carefully. I'll admit, I did look a bit incriminating, I've been so stressed recently. My wedding is coming up and it's making me nervous, I know you can understand that. But the important thing is that we don't repeat those mistakes, and make up for them. How about we do it right this time? A second chance doesn't always come. We should always take full advantage of one if we get one. You really are sorry Twilight?"

"Yes!" I said pressing myself close to her, closing my eyes.

"Want my help in making up for it?"

"Y-your help?" I whispered. My heart nearly skipped a beat. I had hurt her and she was offering HER HELP? After everything? I had been just a paranoid mess.

"Yes dear. Would you like it?" She gave me another muzzle and returned it.

"Yes!"

"Want to help me make sure things go right this time?"

"Now and for forever." I pressed myself against her neck. She gently laid her horn against mine, and I felt her familiar magic mingle with mine.

"Then just listen to Her Majesty," my light in the dark whispered.

"Yes," I said, and everything became crystal clear, all the pain went away, everything made sense, everything was so simply, I had been so blind. Nothing else mattered. Only Her Majesty mattered.

+++

The assembled ponies clapped and hugged upon Twilight and Princess Cadence's emergence, announcing the restoration of their friendship and bonds. Twilight Sparkle was now peachy keen.

"Are you sure you're well Twilight?" Princess Celestia asked, every vibration in her voice holding the deepest concern, "Nothing I said was intended to hurt you."

"It's perfectly fine Teacher," Twilight Sparkle smiled. "Everything worked out how it should in the end."

She nuzzled Cadence who affectionately nuzzled back.

"You'll have me back as your best mare BBBFF?" Twilight numbly asked her brother.

"If Cadence wants you back, then so do I," Shining Armor said as the two hugged.

"It's so sweet! Happy ending to the second season! About time too!" Pinkie Pie said, none present questioned what she meant.

"Trixie," Twilight said smiling at her friend.

"Yes Twilight Sparkle?"

"Thank you for showing me your illusion magic. It's been a wonderful addition to my spell list," said the purple eyed mare.

Trixie was a little confused but said, "Well, I borrowed teleportation from you, so I suppose we're even."

"I'm just relieved we can put this behind us," said Rarity looking very happy. "This is supposed to be a beautiful day. We shouldn't be tarnishing it. And happy to see we're all still together." She put a hoof over her heart, "We're a gift to each other, we shouldn't take it for granted."

Rainbow Dash said, surprisingly meek, "Hey, Twilight? I'm, I'm sorry I couldn't help you there. No, seriously, I'm sorry. I can cover your flanks in a fight, but when you're hurt I can't do a thing. I'm sorry. Please, I'm just sorry. Forgive me?"

"It's alright Rainbow Dash," Twilight said her smile never varying as she stared at her friend, "Everything worked out for the best in spite of me trying to mess everything up. Again. We're still all together and that's what happened."

"Twilight," Fluttershy spoke getting a bit close eyeing her, "You're not trying to force down any guilt or worry are you? It's alright. We all make mistakes. I'm sorry for how I acted. I'm the one who should apologize."

Cadence wrapped a wing around Twilight Sparkle, Cadence spoke. "It's perfectly fine Fluttershy. Twilight is alright. Things were almost completely ruined. We're all a little flushed."

Cadence released the wing hold as AJ, and Spike hugged Twilight, all three wearing the same smile. "Welcome ta the club girlfriend! Of the mares admitting they were stubborn club," AJ said the last part a little fast.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Yes, welcome to our club.)

"Yes." Twilight grinned nodding up and down, feeling more happy than she could remember, "It is very good to help Her Majesty."

Author's Note

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember
Part 7
By Alex Warlorn

Everybody loves a wedding episode. Especially one with one point five amnesic gods getting married and a point five one in attendance, a dark god looming in the background, a shadow given life rising to challenge, and the fate of a kingdom in the balance. Oh, and no doubt the mother of all angry explosions when Twilight finds out that her brother didn't tell her he was getting married.

Seen this a million times before right? Except . . . not. While there have been many experiences to the ponies now their timeline has broken away from the Heart World, something is VERY WRONG here.

Things are spiraling out of control faster and faster!

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Wedding-Pt-6-Something-s-Not-Right-Here-440649766

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Wedding-Pt-8-Hope-In-Unexpected-Places-441142010

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Should this chapter have a mature content warning?

2014 03 17th: At the request of one of my readers, I've added in some more of Twilight breaking down before she confronts Cadence.

Episode 166: "Hope In Unexpected Places"

Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember
Part 8

"You're fired."

Sometimes, Trixie wonders if fate simply likes to toy with Trixie for its own amusement. Trixie can speak in third-pony if she wants to!

But Trixie wonders if she can be happy if she wants to.

"Wha?..." Trixie's mouth became a hanger bay for parasprites. Her eyes were glued onto the pink princess and purple pony before her. Trixie wondered if this was what being made into glue felt like.

"It's nothing personal Trixie," Twilight Sparkle said, her smiling never wavering as she spoke softly and warmly like she was addressing a filly.

"It's just Twilight has informed me of your history, and after a calm discussion between us, we've decided it would be best if you were to leave Canterlot at once. You will be provided special permission to leave. A special escort hoof-picked by myself will be waiting at the train-station to take care of you. We shall be forwarding your severance pay to your family in Hoofington with my condolences."

"B-but why!" Trixie couldn't keep her voice from cracking. Please no. "You invited me here!"

"Yes. But a showpony of your...caliber will be just embarrassing at a royal wedding. I'm sorry, I apologize, that was cruel. I don't mean to hurt you. Your are special and good in your own way like any pony." Stop it.

"The truth is Trixie," Twilight's didn't stop smiling at me. "That's what will be officially told, for your sake. It would be rather risky to have the back-up Element of Magic here in Canterlot during these dangerous times. Her Majesty didn't count on me being here after all. She was so nervous about meeting me that she forgot to send the invites to me and my friends, others had to do it for her. And Trixie, this is really for your own good."

"How...How is THIS for Trixie's own good?!" I cried out. Please don't do this to me!

"Oh Trixie," Twilight said putting a hoof on my shoulder. "Remember who you are. I know you thought this might be able to get your hoof in the door, but do you think ponies would ever let their foal be entertained by a fraud and liar? Might corrupt them. You were infected by Discord's evil longer than anypony." She leaned in and whispered the next part, "And of course you had an unidentified evil spirit lurking in you." She leaned back, "And your actions directly led to the demolition of Ponyville. You've spread lies across half of Equestria." I never though Twilight's touch would make me shiver. "Your mother slaughtered an innocent familiar as a filly. A pony with your dark and troubled past might not look good for Cadence, and it might stir up trouble among the noble for her hiring a criminal and put you in danger."

"Criminal!? I've never spent a day in a dungeon!"

"Now now Trixie, after all the trouble and misery you've caused, did you really think you could just escape everything you've done? That you could be considered anything else? I'm just taking care of you. Like I always do."

I pulled away from Twilight's touch like it was a branding iron.

"Twilight! Please! I...I...This was my big break! It was my chance to finally show Canterlot that I am a great showpony! That the One And Only Trixie is worth their time!"

She nuzzled me. Like I was a foal having a tantrum.

"It's alright Trixie. You'll always be Great and Powerful to me.

It doesn't matter that Element of Magic in you is a test-run fake imitation."

"Twilight, stop, please," Trixie whispered, gritting teeth.

"Shuuuuush. It's alright Trixie," Twilight whispered nuzzling me again, gently stroking my mane, "It's doesn't matter all you're good for is momentarily entertaining ponies with worthless cheap cantrips. It doesn't matter that you're the most useless unicorn in Equestria. It doesn't matter you've been nothing and will always be nothing. It doesn't matter you're incompetent at anything but lying to idiots and humiliating innocent ponies. None of those things matter. Because we're friends. And we all care about you. This is just all too dangerous for a little pony like you."

I don't remember when I started crying. Trixie didn't try to hide it. Trixie didn't deny it. If Trixie was going to be treated like a foal, maybe she should just cry like one.

Who invented the stupid rule that said adults weren't allowed to cry?

I wanted this to be another nightmare, another horrible dream with some evil spirit of magic necklace wanting me to sell them my soul! Wake up Trixie! Why can't I wake up!?

Trixie couldn't take it anymore. She ran from the royal office.

I gently placed my hoof on my property's little dark mane, her staring smile not so much as twitching.

"Excellent." I grinned after the showmare was gone.

I noticed my Twilight Sparkle doll's eyes were looking a little wet. Heh.

+++

Please, help me. I have to escape. I have to get out of here. There's no telling what that witch is going to do to Shining! To my friends! To my family!

She's going to conquer Canterlot and then Equestria? YOU HAVE TO--- w-what do you mean nopony is coming? Nopony is going to save me? Nopony is ever going to know I was ever down here? I have no chance of getting out of here? There is no escape?

SHE DID WHAT TO TWILIGHT?! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! I'LL ESCAPE NO MATTER-AGH! . . .

. . .

I won't give up! I'm the only chance they have left! I have to get out! You won't stop-AAAAAAAAAGGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!

Twilight, Shining, mom, dad, Aunties, Minuette, Twinkle...I'm sorry...I tried.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Tried. And failed.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn) Supplementary: Cadence. I beg you. Forgive me.)

+++++

I couldn't get over how wonderful I felt today! I was Her Majesty's little songbird after all! I didn't need to think about a single thing! I just did whatever she told me! It was just a great feeling! I hope Scootaloo and Applebloom and Rarity and our parents would get to experience it like I am!

Today was going to be perfect. Like the day she's dreamed of since she was small. But it was a surprise. So I needed to keep it all my little secret! I was gonna help Her Majesty make her day perfect! Just like Rarity always wanted to do with all those noble ponies! I bet she was gonna be so proud of me! But if she wasn't, that was okay too...it...it was okay, because her Majesty said so. And if Her Majesty said so, it was!

How had I ever gotten along without Her Majesty?

Why is Her Majesty so good? Because she's Her Majesty, what a silly question, you're silly!

It's a lot like what I felt with Princess Gaia...I feel like I'm with a family I didn't even know I had. Like I've known her before I met her! Oh well, doesn't matter. Only Her Majesty matters.

"Sweetie Belle are ya okay? Ya've been actin' a little...funny."

"How Applebloom?" I asked as we finished having donuts delivered to our room by Arcane Spell to us straight from Pony Joe, we were personal guests at the castle after all!

"Well...ya just seem like yer having a great dream while yer awake."

"Did you meet somepony?" Silver Spoon asked (she had snuck to our room after we invited her).

"Yes." I nodded. I gasped and covered my mouth. "But it's a SEEECRET. I pinkie promised."

"Ah." Applebloom knew that was that. "So when can we meet yer new friend?" She asked excited.

"Are they a blank flank?" Scootaloo asked.

"That's a secret too! Don't worry, you already have, I'm sure she'll have time for you later." I said, I couldn't risk saying much more without giving Her Majesty away. But it was so fun to have a secret!

Her Majesty is the best...so why does she remind me of when I was Gabby Gums? Oh well, doesn't matter.

"You got to spend time with Princess Cadence by yourself?" Silver Spoon asked. "When?"

"Last night." I stared in shock. "But-but-"

"You said 'she' would have lots of time after the wedding, it wasn't hard to guess."

"Please please don't tell Her Majesty I told! She'd so upset with me!"

"Don't worry Sweetie Belle, our lips are sealed, right?" Applebloom looked around, and my other two friends nodded.

"Thanks!" I gave them a hug, they hugged back. "You girls are the best!" Wait, wasn't Her Majesty the best? Oh well, doesn't matter.

But I kept feeling this 'dark chill.' When I'd look in the mirror, or look outside the balcony, or turn my head in a hallway, ever since coming to Canterlot, I felt like there was somepony there, or like there was no-pony-there-who-was-there. That made my head hurt.

Like I said before, it hadn't started until we came to Canterlot...maybe I should sleep with my dream-catcher after all. Blech! Now Rarity was making me worry!

After she saw how well I did helping Her Majesty's wedding, I know she'd know she could trust me.

I just wish I knew why I dreamed last night about cradling a crying Silver Spoon while wearing a crown telling her she'd always be my best friend and mom was hang-gliding and dad owned Barnyard Bargains.

I wish Her Majesty would let me think more. Because Silver Spoon while holding a free teddy bear that came with the room was whispered:

"Tiara...everything's forgiven, just come home."

"Hey! Haven't I seen you somewhere before?" Your pie with the pink asked!

"Um...I'm not sure...My name is Garnet."

"Yeah that's right! It was at a rock farmers market! We were both fillies!"

"...You REMEMBER that?!"

"Yeah, I've got a REALLY good, I mean REALLY good memory for ponies!"

"It would appear so...oh! Wait! You were with the more traditionalist farmers, right?"

"Yeah! That's me! See! You've got a good memory too!"

"Well, it's not that difficult to remember a pink filly at a rock farmer's market."

"Yeah, I get that a lot. My name is Pinkamenia Diane Pie! But you can call be Pinkie Pie! Or Pinkie Diane, I go by both. Glad to meet you!"

"Wait...Pinkie Pie? As in the Element of Laughter?"

"Yep! Finally somepony knows!"

"I'm in the squad of your best friend's big brother, it'd be difficult for me NOT to know about that. The Captain and the Princess nearly fainted hearing about it."

"Yeah, my mom says that's about how she and dad reacted to. So, Garnet, how's rock farming in...Yorkshire, right?"

"Um, Esto Gaza, actually, it's in Yorkshire, and you really do have a good memory. As for rock farming, it's going pretty well. Some new developments seem to be helping."

"Are they super secret ones or can you talk about them? My parents are kinda old school, but they're still willing to work in new things. It could help them out."

"Oh, I can talk about them, they're not secret. And sure helping ponies is my job."

+++

Well, nice to meet you. I'm Lyra Heartstrings, but please just call me Lyra. You interviewed me on the train remember? Nice to see you here in Canterlot!

I'm your average unicorn. My bestest best special pony friend in the whole wide world is Bon Bon, I promise you'll never meet another pony like her, oh there's her twin Moth, but they don't act alike like twins do in plays.

My special talent is music, in particular harps and other string-instruments.

Yes I'm a human enthusiast, I'm sure they're real, or at least were real. I know ponies like Twilight Sparkle brushed it off as superstition, but a bunch of old text refer to them like they were real living beings, and all myths have some grain of truth right? So I guess I was surprised when Twilight and Applejack of all ponies showed at Lickety Split's story telling get-togethers.

I actually spent a while looking for the rainbow bridge that's supposed to connect our two worlds but came up zilch, there's also supposed to be a magic mirror, but a kick to the flanks from Bon Bon stopped me from always asking 'is your mirror a portal to another universe?' of everypony I've met.

Oh, and there's the cute little foal in Ponyville: Tootsie Flute, BonBon and I take care of her together. She's a fair weather friend to a lot of foals, but we're trying to encourage her to build more lasting friendships. She didn't have much luck on Hearts and Hooves Day, but she was surprised her new favorite Superhero was four ponies in one! And we've trusted Sparkler to look after her more than once. "That means they can do four times as much good!"

Yes I'm a Ponyvillian, but Rarity's not the only unicorn who feels they fit in more in Canterlot than in Ponyville. And it's not just about all the unicorns here, Ponyville's tastes in music...aren't really into the kind of stuff I play.

So is it any surprise of how much time I spend in Canterlot? I already told you how I've got some good friends here, and I'm about to be part of the greatest celebration in Canterlot history!

I put Moth in charge of the camera for Tootsie to have some pictures. I guess I've always been the mover and shaker of our little family.

I didn't give Moth the camera just so she'd be encouraged to do more than tag along for the ride.

Moth once told us she had a nightmare where everypony was ignoring her, and us saying she was dead even thought she was right in front of us. She could anywhere, but none of it matter since she was as good as a ghost.

I actually had a nightmare like that once too, everypony I talked to forgot I existed after they finished talking to me, and every proof that I existed turned blank, then I lost my cutie mark and forgot who I was.

These photos, they're part of the proof we were here, that we exist, nopony deserves to just be 'incidental unicorn #2.' So yeah, I know where Moth is coming from. And looking just like her sister, I think Moth needs to assert her identity more.

We arrived where I was supposed to be picked up for a hello with Princess Cadence herself to become one of her bridesmaids. Except...there was just Twinkle Shine and Minuette . . .

They had been crying.

I looked into those blue eyes of theirs, yes I said blue, what did you expect pokadots? I had never seen them look so crushed.

I reminded me of that letter they sent me about losing somepony they both cared about deeply. An acrobat who had been a fellow hoof maiden.

Bonbon and Moth were aghast at the sight of them, I was left doing the talking.

They looked ready to start crying again right there.

Of course I asked them what was wrong! They're my friends!

"L-Lyra." Gasped Twinkle Shine. "I'm sorry, I couldn't get a new letter to you."

"Twinkle, you're not making sense."

"Lyra," Minutte said, her voice was way too even, "It looks like you won't get to serve as a bridesmaid for Princess Cadence after all."

I felt my heart cracked but managed to smile, "Well, if you found somepony else, I guess that's the way the string breaks."

"No," Minutte said like she was holding everything back with a giant dam, "The Princess, she fired us."

"WHAT?!" Nearby ponies looked at me for a few seconds then went about their business. "What do you MEAN she fired you?! For what?!"

"She said we didn't deserve to be her bridesmaids or hoof-maidens, that we weren't any good to her. She said the only reason we wanted to be her hoofmaidens to begin with was to meet Canterlot Royalty....She...she said that she was sick of being surrounded by brown-nosers. That we were..."

"That we've spent the last two years proving that we're no good," Twinkle Shine whispered, neither of them looking me in the eye. "That if we were her bridesmaids, that we've proven useless."

I stood up on my hind legs and put my forehooves on my hips not caring who stared.

"Twinkle Shine! Minuette! What happened to the makers and the doers I know so well?"

"She got a full course meal of the world outside of Equestria," Minuette mumbled.

"She couldn't protect one friend," Twinkle Shine finished. "She realized she was a nopony pretending to be somepony."

Okay. Enough was too much!

I took them both by the forehoof. They startled as I dragged them along. "Okay! Stop! Just stop! I didn't wait all this time to see you girls again to see you hurting like this! Everything you say Cadence told you sounds like a stupid excuse! Bon Bon, Moth, come on! We're going straight to the top about this! We're going to go and get this sorted out right now!"

+++

"And stay out!" The Captain of the Royal Guard snapped at us we were thrown out on our flanks. Technically Minuette and Twinkle Shine landed on their flanks, the twins landed on their bellies, while I landed softly in the pile of mares upside down with my horn stuck in the ground.

"Hey! What gives!" I snapped, carefully pulling my horn out of the ground. "I demand to speak with your superior!"

Bon Bon is normally the pony who gives others a piece of her mind. Or Twinkle Shine...or not me. So it was weird role reversal.

He ignored me and spoke to my friends. "You have proven you are of no use to Her Majesty and therefore you are terminated. Your severance pay is in the mail. If you have any further complaints, feel free to waste the courts' time." The captain of the guard said with a face that was the opposite of welcoming.

Me standing up for them I think ignited some of Twinkle Shine's normal self, cause she said, "What about Moondancer?!"

"What about her?"

"TALK TO HER SHINING! She KNOWS we didn't sign up to be Cadence's hoofmaidens just to meet royalty and not just so we'd get any 'favors' from her!"

"You are no longer privileged to address me by name. You will not do that again. Understood? She is now on Cadence's staff. And if any of you are caught interacting with any of the staff connected to the wedding before the day after its conclusion, you are going to the dungeon for trespassing, disturbing the peace, harassment, and breaching Canterlot security! Have a nice day." The doubles doors slammed shut in our faces.

We stood there in silence, still in the pony pile with the guards just standing on either side of the doors like statues.

Something didn't feel right...this wasn't the stallion Minny and Twinkle had talked about in their letters...at all.

"Oh, I'm Bon Bon by the way, that's with a space in the middle, and this my sister Moth." We exchanged greetings and get-to-know-yous all around still cluttered in the pile on the front steps for all on the busy city street to see.

"Nice to meet you Bon Bon, and your sister? I never would have guessed. Lyra's written a lot about you. Have we met somewhere before?" Twinkle Shine asked.

"Maybe. I get around a lot. Did Lyra ever write about when I visited Applebloosa?"

Then some pegasus guard walked out of the castle with a broken leg. He mumbled something about going to the infirmary.

"What happened?" Asked one of the royal guards. They might have been royal guards but this is still Equestria.

"Just had an accident while delivering a message to Her Majesty."

"No offense but with the way you fly I'm not surprised. Stop being so reckless dude."

"Sorry," he apologized.

"Hey dude, you did nothing wrong, except for the whole crash thing. Take care ya hear?"

"...Sure. Thanks."

"No prob Bumblebee."

Moth's eyes widened and fear and turned quickly to look at us. "Everypony! I have a real bad feeling! If a wedding this important has this much security that MUST MEAN it's going to attract trouble somehow! You know, like the Summer Sun Celebration attracting Nightmare Moon! Let's get back to Ponyville!!! Minuette, Twinkle Shine, I'm sure you can bunk with us for in the mean time! I'm sure we'll be able to work everything out once the wedding is over and the new security is gone! I hear Appleloosa is nice this time of year! Maybe we can all take a trip there! Or maybe the Griffin Kingdom, I hear they're actually really nice to ponies!"

"Whoa whoa whoa Moth, calm down. Don't start panicking now," I said to the poor mare.

"Girls! I really do think we should get out of Canterlot and just wait for things to cool off!" Moth sounded like she was begging now. "I'm sure Tootsie will love a trip herself! Come on! I'll go buy the tickets right now!"

"Moth! Wait!" Bon Bon shouted as she took like a shot. That injured guard? Oh he already left. No we hadn't said her name yet before he left, what does that matter?

We caught up to Moth but, "What do you mean in lock-down?!" Moth looked like she was going to start crying now.

"Just what I said, that train you were on was the last one. Unless you have exclusive permission from a Princess, you aren't going anywhere until after the wedding," said the unicorn inside the ticket-booth.

"No." Moth slid down on the floor.

"Sis', what's wrong?"

"N-nothing, absolutely, n-nothing. I-I'm sure everything will turn out alright. It's, it's not like it's the end of Equestria or anything."

"Is this about that hurt guard?" Bon Bon asked, "He said he got hurt flying. Canterlot wasn't really built with pegasi in mind, it's no wonder he got hurt if he was flying like crazy. He wasn't attacked by some monster inside the city."

"Don't worry," Twinkle Shine said, "All this 'threat to Canterlot' nonsense is just rumors being taken way too seriously. Nothing is going to happen."

"Trust me," Minuette spoke up. "I know how out of control a little fear and some vague unknown threat can make ponies act crazy."

Moth didn't look that convinced. I shook my head. We had more important things to think about than some induced mass hysteria. I nuzzled her and so did Bon Bon, she calmed down some.

"Don't worry Moth, whatever happens, your herd's here," Bon Bon said warmly.

"Thank you," she whispered.

And no, we weren't going to take this brush off lying down! I just needed to figure out what we were actually going to do about it.

The three of us ended up staying at a hotel. This was gonna be pricey. I had been expecting free royal accommodations. That wasn't happening now.

Moth at least was taking pictures like Canterlot was going to be gone in the morning. Moth got up in the middle of the night (a three bedroom room was cheaper). I was still brain storming and couldn't sleep. I could barely hear something in the still of the Canterlot night (this wasn't Manehatten, the city that never slept). But Moth stood at the window looking like she was looking at one of the Princesses, maybe she caught a glimpse of Princess Luna outside? When the song I could barely hear faded, Moth wandered back to bed. I didn't ask her what was going on.

But hearing that tiny faint song, it hit me like a ton of bricks what I could do. And I explained my brilliant plan to my coconspirators in the morning (we paid for breakfast, Minuette and Twinkle Shine were the ones out of a job...did I think about becoming Cadence's hoofmaiden too? A little, it was super tempting. But it didn't seem Bon Bon's style, and Cadence had gone on a freaky two year world trip. I didn't want to be separated from my friends for that long. Or from our foal. Buuuut . . . maybe Cadence wouldn't have one of those again now that she's gonna be a married mare?

Oh my cunning plan? Well. It so happened that Canterlot musicians tend to be a close knit bunch. So I knew who had been hired to do the music. A certain classical band led by an ex-rock farmer, and one DJ P0N-3.

"The guards said we'd be facing dungeon time if we tried to speak with anypony involved in the wedding!" Moth warned, she sounded terrified. I admit I was scared too, but it wasn't like they were going to banish us. Or imprison us in the place they banished us to.

"Don't worry!" I declared, "This is where my cunning plan comes in!"

"I'm not dressing as a stallion again Lyra," Bon Bon deadpanned.

"No no no!" I waved my hooves. "This is a GOOD plan!"

And I happened to know a song Octavia had personally composed, not all that imaginative titled 'I am Octavia.' If there was any song that would lure her out of the castle and away from the prying eyes of guards, it was this baby. And I know where she gets in practice before a big show, and they don't come bigger than this!

Twinkle Shine offered to 'change' my colors for a bit with her light magic. Colors are just reflected light after all. After being accidentally turned into a pegasus, an earth pony, and a seapony (sadly never human, I think), this wasn't the weirdest thing to ever happen to me.

Moth had given me a lot of funny looks after my adventures with accidental pony-type change.

To hide my cutie mark and blend in a little more, Twinkle Shine loaned us some of her dresses.

Did it work? Well, we're not having this chat inside the castle dungeon are we?

"Lyra? Is that you?"

"Shhhush! Not so loud!"

"What is this? What's going on?"

"Don't trust her 'Tavi!" Shouted Vinyl Scratch popped out of the bushes with a magically powered boom-speaker aimed at my head. "She's a pod-pony! She lured you out of the castle infect you with their spores!"

Octy rolled her eyes. "Vinyl, I told you not to read that trashy horror novel before going to bed."

I was trying not to have a heart attack.

"Hey! It's no more crazy than when you thought I was a vampire!"

"Well you don't like garlic, you slept during the day and worked at night and-"

"And for the last time I swear to Princess Celestia, I am not a vampire, that was punch, NOT blood, or blood-punch, or bloody-punch or blood-wine or-"

On the plus side ponies were giving us lots of room now.

"And she could still be a-" The white unicorn started again.

"Vinyl, not now . . ." She then whispered, "Lyra. What's so important you have to lure me out and speak with me in disguise."

I cut to the chase. She looked at me very confused and responded, "That has to be the most insane restraining order I've ever heard. And I've seen plenty given to Vinyl."

"Hey! Those restraints are only on how loud I can play music! Which is a violation of free expression by the way!"

She ignored her friend. "But that's not the ridiculous part. Moondancer isn't even on the wedding staff."

"What?!" I whispered, "But that makes no sense! Are you sure?"

"Lyra, one of Cadence's new bridesmaids is my sister. And she loves to talk with others. Moondancer is not a bridesmaid."

"Could she be another part?"

"If she is, then it would be top secret, since I haven't seen her near or around the wedding preparation at all!"

"I haven't either. We're talking about that red-head white unicorn right?" Our DJ added her two bits.

Alright. If Moondancer wasn't part of the wedding. That meant they couldn't arrest our flanks for whatever. I thanked the musicians and made them Pinkie Swear not to tell anypony about our chat. Octavia took that strangely serious for some reason.

Unfortunately, as I departed, I nearly ran smack dab into a white coated Earth Pony with rather fancy hat on. I got a little nervous she'd noticed something.

"Uh...sorry about that..." I noticed her cutie mark was a spiderweb. Huh? What color were her eyes? I didn't really notice, she was wearing sunglasses. "Uh...how long have you been standing there?"

"Oh, only a few seconds. I want so to see the wedding, but the castle seems to be impossible to get into without a reservation."

"Tell me about it. We've been trying to get in all day. It's annoying."

"Agreed, especially when you know a member of the wedding party. Oh well, I hope things go better for you than they did for me, Miss..."

"Lyra Heartstrings..."

"Ah, good to meet you, Miss Heartstrings, my name is Cobweb. I wish you luck."

"Thanks."

"Oh! And Miss Heartstrings?"

I sighed, turning around as I got ready to leave. "Yeah?"

"I suggest keeping an eye out for yourself, things might not be as they seem. Keep an eye out for green-eyed monsters. Don't want to ruin what's planned for the wedding."

I admit, that creeped me out, but I didn't have time to think about it!

When I got back to the hotel Twinkle Shine and Minuette were even MORE CONFUSED!

"But if she's not part of wedding, then why would...nothing makes sense anymore." Minuette lamented laying her head on the table. I didn't blame her.

"Come on!" Twinkle Shine said, "I want answers. If Cadence fired us out of the blue, and then tells us to stay away from Moondancer for a fake reason, then I want to know why."

"Technically it was the captain of the guard who said all that. Maybe he has something to do with it?" Moth suggested.

"That makes as much sense as Cadence: zero. Shining is the most decent and honorable stallion you can find. Something bigger is going on, and I wanna know what! Let's pay a visit to Moondancer, whose with me?"

We all were.

There were no guards around the apartments the students of Celestia's school called home. You think with all the drama there would be some. Guess we wouldn't be needing the giant birthday cake after all.

When we got inside, two of us knew Moondancer's room number by heart.

We knocked on the door and called, but there was no answer.

Bon Bon tested the door.

It wasn't locked.

Moth inched around like she was expecting to be ambushed any second. I admit things were looking weird, but not 'evil conspiracy weird'... for the next few seconds.

Moondancer was curled up in bed. She looked horribly sick.

"She has the plague! We gotta get-" Minuette stopped Bon Bon from leaving.

"Then the door would have been locked or she'd be in quarantine."

"Uh, good point."

I let Twinkle Shine and Minuette get closer, being better friends with Moondancer than me.

She was talking in her sleep. "H-Her M-Masjesty...S-Spike I-I'm s-sorry. N-no MORE. P-please n-no more. I-I'll be g-good. I-I'll DO AS I'm told. I'll be a GOOD PONY. No! PLEASE d-don't h-hurt them!"

Girl was delirious. She opened her eyes.

"Since when are Moondancer's eyes green?" I heard myself say. Green eyes? Where had I heard that before?

"It's not her?" Bon Bon asked.

Her...Her Majesty? Not Master? ...but that means...

Rosedust, she's here?! She's leading this herself?! The Queen is in Canterlot?! I never thought she'd risk herself like this! It's worse than I thought! And if it's her...if it's Her Majesty...We're...we're doomed...

But...Bon Bon, Lyra, Tootsie...They're my swarm now...they're my hive...A Changeling must protect their hive...

"No, she's under a geass," Moth said.

"Y-You're all HERE. N-No you're NOT! It's a lie! D-Don't take their shapes you MONSTERS!"

Moth looked ready to cry! "She doesn't mean it." Bon Bon whispered.

"I'll O-OBEY! I-I'll obey Her M-Majesty. Who shall I betray f-for HER next? I have a family if you wish."

Moth actually had some tears in her eyes at that.

Minuette looked like she was remembering a horrible nightmare, then a pang of guilt on her face. "It's horrid."

"We need to get a doctor!" Twinkle Shine said.

"NO!" Moth said.

We all looked at her. "We...if she's here because the geass is breaking down...what if The Princess or The Captain are under it too? We need to free her first."

"Can you do it?" I asked the sane mage unicorn in the room.

"If she's suffering like this, that means the spell either is indeed breaking down, or hasn't finished taking full control over her yet. But if the door isn't locked. That means they're not worried about her escaping or being found....Which means we could be in deep deep trouble." It was Mineutte who spoke, and her eyes went wide. She quickly shut the door and locked it and latched the window closed and pulled closed the curtains. "Okay. We need to either leave her, or fix her fast! No way whoever did this would leave a loose end just laying around!"

We all stared at her.

"Come on everypony think!" She pleaded.

"G-Go get away! C-Come closer! Her Majesty wants it all! J-just r-relax! Don't hurt them! I'LL OBEY!"

"Moondancer," Twinkle Shine said, showing her gently side, she hugged the sweaty dirty brainwashed mare. "Please. We're all right here. I'm right here." Moondancer continued to writhe in her hug.

Minuette resisted for a moment, then joined in the hug too. "I promise I'm going to help."

"I'll save you, I promise," Twinkle Shine whispered.

Moondancer's squirming began to get worse but they weren't breaking off. This didn't look like a good idea.

Looks can be deceiving.

Their three horns touched hers. A spark went off.

Moondancer gasped open, and the greenness in her eyes vaporized, like filth being washed away in the rain. She fell back on the bed totally limps. The girls finally let go.

Moondancer began crying, moving her hooves like she needed to reassure herself they were hers. "Celestia, I...I remember everything." She looked at Minuette and Twinkle Shine. "T-Thank you. Thank you so much."

"Moondancer, who did his to you?" Minuette asked.

"Her Majesty..." She hugged herself shivering. "She who rules from the shadows! She has waited and planned for this day, like how a spider spins their web."

"Moondancer, who is she?" Bon Bon begged.

"Not Cadence!" She managed to gasp out.

We all looked at each other. Everything was slowly making horrible horrible sense!

"What time is it?!" We told her. "Oh no! They'll have started!"

"Who?!" Minuette implied.

"Let me introduce them to my horn!" Normal Twinkle Shine outright said it.

"Those who harvest love as we would hay. Those who see ponies as much people as we would wheat stocks."

There was a banging on the door. "Open in the name of Her Majesty!"

Moondancer sprang up in bed. "HIDE! Twinkle Shine! C-can you make my eyes green?"

"Y-yes I think-"

"Doit!"

And the green eyes were back. -Green-eyed monster! Cobweb! Was she like Moondancer?- She opened the door.

"You're late. Her Majesty wishes her personal slaves to be present for the claiming of her new husband. Come."

"I have been ordered by Her Majesty to aid her in a way that I am not permitted to share with grunts. For now I am ordered to remain here."

I FEEL whoever was out there narrowing their eyes at her.

"Lift a leg off the ground." Moondancer did so.

"Heh. Lift a leg off the ground." Balancing on two.

"Lift a leg off the ground." One.

"Lift a leg off the ground." She fell to the floor.

Laughter and they closed the door behind them.

Moondancer looked disgusted at herself.

"SLAVE?!" Bon Bon gasped.

"That's actually rather generous, instead of simply saying 'livestock,'" Moondancer sighed. "If we run right now, I think I might be able to bluff us out of the city, maybe."

"MOONDANCER!" Twinkle Shine snapped. "What about Princess Cadence?! The real Cadence?"

"She...she might not even still be alive."

That was the most horrible thing we heard all day. Twinkle Shines eyes misted up a little. "You said 'might'! So she might be! So I'm saying she's still okay! I took an oath to be there for her, I might not be a guard but she's still my Princess!"

Mineutte nodded the same.

"They're going to invade Canterlot! Today!"

"Then we need to warn Princess Celestia and everypony!" Minuette said.

"You don't understand, Her Majesty said a lot in front of me. The invasion, if it hadn't already started, is just about to."

Two panic filled screams filled the air from the hallway.

I dared open the door before Twinkle Shine could.

Two big bugs fled in terror down the hallway paying absolutely nothing mind but retreat.

"RAWR!!!" A lemon mouthlessly snarled as it chased them.

Let me rephrase that: a lemon larger than a stallion with rubber hose like arms and legs came rampaging down the hall.

The two bugs smashed a window open and flew out.

"HOW'S THAT FOR AN ANGRY MOTHER LEMON?!" A familiar yellow unicorn with blue eyes and mane shouted. Her cutie mark was two blue and one green liquid-like hearts. She blinked and turned her head noticing us. "Hey girls, wasn't gonna goin' ta the weddin' cause Cadence fired you, what up?" Lemon Hearts asked.

Author's Note

This is the song you should play at the end of this chapter.
= Innocence - Sword Arts Online =

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember
Part 8
By Alex Warlorn

Everybody loves a wedding episode. Especially one with one point five amnesic gods getting married and a point five one in attendance, a dark god looming in the background, a shadow given life rising to challenge, and the fate of a kingdom in the balance. Oh, and no doubt the mother of all angry explosions when Twilight finds out that her brother didn't tell her he was getting married.

Seen this a million times before right? Except . . . not. While there have been many experiences to the ponies now their timeline has broken away from the Heart World, something is VERY WRONG here.

Things are spiraling out of control faster and faster!

Previous: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Wedding-Pt-7-Everything-is-just-perfect-440910566

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Wedding-Pt-9-White-Knight-441430356

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Should this chapter have a mature content warning?

Episode 167: "White Knight?"

Why am I not at my cousin's wedding? Erm. Well...

I didn't get an invitation.

No. I couldn't find that less suspicious.

I have a long history of being 'swept under the rug' for events that seemed to hold emotional importance to my auntie or cousin.

It's felt like any time something didn't involve Canterlot nobles playing their games, and was 'actually important', I just happened to be on a voyage or serving as a diplomat. You're wondering how come I haven't started any wars with my, erm, winning personality?

You'd be surprised how doing the dance with nobles and being a diplomat have in common. Everything is about saying one thing and meaning another, acting like somepony's best friend even if you hate each other guts, and acting generous when you're always putting your own interests first.

Yes, we've gone over that, I treated Miss Rarity as a servant because she wasn't nobility, but I know how to behave around ponies who would start a war over getting their grandfather's name wrong. Trust me, wars have been started for equally stupid things.

Yes I was present at the Elements window unveiling, in the back row, placed conveniently near the exit.

Sometimes I felt like a prop being put aside whenever the scenery didn't call for me. I simply told myself those events were unworthy of my attendance. I imagine many now thought the same thing but for opposite reasons.

So no. Not getting a wedding invite from the cousin who slapped me and called me filth when we were foals is not that surprising.

A pity. I sure Arcane Spell would have liked to attend. Yes yes, I am fully aware of the irony, the first pony in so long I care about besides myself and treat like a friend instead of a servant is a servant, thank you very much! Her father is actually doing better by the way.

Well, if I wasn't wanted, far be it from me to break tradition. Yes. Maybe I do have something in my eye. Do you know what it's like to realize that you just might have messed up very badly, and when you try to make it for it, just a little, to those you wish would notice, you might as well have done absolutely nothing different at all?

Then, when you try to address what you did wrong, they see through glasses telling them it's just more proof that you're a bad pony.

Yes I was hurt by what Cadence had said to me, and the Element cheering for her when she did. Maybe some things were never meant to change.

Wasn't one of the many joke at my expense that a judge had declared nopony cared about what I thought or said until the end of time?

Maybe this was just the role I was meant to play. I didn't have any other reason to exist other than to be the 'royal annoyance' for Auntie to sic on nobles that agitated her or to wake up innocent wide-eyed mares from their delusions. Maybe I couldn't escape my destiny as a prop anymore than I could become an Alicorn.

"Blueblood, what's wrong?" I looked up from the coffee table to see Arcane Spell wearing the dress I had given her, only care on her face.

Well, maybe to one pony what I did mattered.

+

I'd, I'd rather not go into details on what happened next please. I tried to hide what happened. Unfortunately, I don't have Auntie's poker face. She noticed I was uncharacteristically un-chatty, and besides she wanted to know why I had been crying. Truth be told I was feeling too tired to come up with a polite enough lie. She wanted to talk to Cadence about it personally.

"Please Arcane, just don't. It won't change anything."

I didn't want her dragged into mistakes from before I ever met her as a friend. If she stood up for me, they wouldn't suddenly feel ashamed, they'd decide I must have simply manipulated and lied to her to trick her into standing up somepony as awful as me.

But she did ask me one thing.

"Blueblood, tell me the whole truth. Did you treat me to a night as a lady because I looked like Lady Rarity?"

"...I didn't even realize how your colors were similar that entire evening or the next day, or the day after that. I was thinking of how Miss Rarity's dresses work for you, but I still didn't connect your similar...pallets."

She nuzzled me. "I believe you."

I blinked. "What?"

"Blueblood, I asked you to show me what a jerk you are. You have. And that jerk is more interested in buying big boats than inventing elaborate back-hoofed revenge schemes." She gently stroked my mane.

Nopony reacted to a prince having a date in their cafe.

You know it's rather demeaning when you realize that ponies turn their heads at your cousin's presence but barely give you a glance. I've never had to go outside in disguise for a moment's peace in my life. No pony, seemed to care.

Well, there was one now. She wasn't the world's most beautiful mare, she wasn't the most talented, the most gracious, the most brilliant, the kindest, and couldn't hold her salt, but she was somepony who cared. And that meant something for me now.

She was somepony who was willing to listen. She was somepony willing to be there for me. She was somepony who didn't mind that I wasn't their perfect fairytale prince. She was willing to do work that nobles would die before doing for the sake of her family. It didn't matter if it had to do with her special talent or not. She absorbed the rules like a sponge and learned how to play the nobles' game, but didn't let her real self be suffocated underneath. She had a real self underneath. And I hadn't ruined our first true meeting by treating her like dirt.

After I spent more time with her, I begin to feel a lightness in my chest, a brightness in my brain, a feeling that things would be okay as long as she was nearby. I thought I was suffering a heart attack. I'm still not sure what it was.

Moron?! There's no need to be rude! What? It means I'm happy? I've been happy before! I've visited the the opera, I've cruised my new airships, I've attended countless parties. And...I had finally made a real friend.

Was I going to ask her to marry me? Maybe. Wouldn't be the first decisions I hadn't put much thought into.

I'll admit (rare enough for me), a part of me is scared. Am I so attracted to her because she can be just my yes-mare? Am I happy with friends? Do I want friends? Or do all I want is sycophants?

Yes I've been given praise and more praise by many a noble-pony, I am royalty after all, it's not like I don't deserve every single word of it in honor of my bloodline. There was just one tiny problem:

The one problem is knowing the rules of the game? You realize everything is platitudes. No I never tried connecting with the hired help before, no real friends, no siblings, two aunties who are always busy, just 'good friends' who materialize or melt away as the pecking order changes.

Why have I been with any other mare? Mostly because they were the most beautiful mare present so they'd made me look good by addition. Yes, that does mean I considered Miss Rarity to be the most beautiful mare at the Grand Galloping Gala.

Would I trade Arcane for a hundred nobles who can't stop telling me what a great stallion I am? No. Never.

I actually tried to get her appointed 'court mage' but I don't pull as much weight up the food-chain as I'd like to think, and Arcane Spell said she didn't want a job she hadn't finished fully qualifying for. Yes I obliged by her wishes. Yes I've given her a raise and bonuses, until she can get a job that has to actually do with her special talent. It just feels like, a waste for a mare whose talent wasn't even clean. That and her family needs the money...especially in light of recent events.

Oh? Why were we meeting at a cafe instead of a restaurant more expensive than a dentist bill? I wanted to, but she said she wanted something simpler to get away from the 'upper class games' we had been doing.

... Do I like her as a friend? Do I want her as a friend? Of course I do!...And she didn't just happily agree to something she didn't want to do. I guess you're right, she is no yes-mare, and yes-ponies are not what I truly want.

...

I decided to take her someplace special. Someplace important. Yes, I'll get on with it! I chose to take her on a tour of where I got my cutie mark! She didn't seem to care we were missing cousin Cadence's wedding. She was very surprised when I showed her some of the secret passages hidden through the castle. Still wish I could figure how to open the one in the entry hall Auntie thinks I don't know is there.

No need to push! I swear I'm getting there! Watch it! These stairs are more tricky than they look!

Yes. Most ponies have no idea these are even below the castle. These crystal mines have existed since before recorded history, they've been mined by countless ponies over the centuries, and have claimed countless ponies. As a foal I never appreciated the danger I was in down here. Don't worry! I know these caverns like the back of my hoof! Even if I didn't have my night visions spell I could still do these caverns blind folded.

Navigating this place is what earned me my cutie mark, there are some things you don't forget. Yes. Arcane trusted me completely. I was giving her a tour nopony had ever seen before.

If there is more to this crystal maze than what I know, then those are spots you can't reach unless you have a thousand years to wait for mother nature to shake things up.

Did I have a ring in a box to pop the question so it would be somewhere special instead of the 'ordinary' setting of Canterlot's beautiful buildings? Not telling.

Though I will say I sparkled inside when I saw her eyes sparkling at the sparkling jewels. Yes I knew a light spell, getting your horn to glow was easier than falling off a log. I've yet to meet a unicorn who could do magic without their horn glowing. Miss Rarity can? Oy.

Arcana calmly created some floating candle flames for herself. Blag! Maybe I should have told her what that did to night vision. Ow! My eyes.

Maybe it was the history of how many ponies had been lost down here that made this place extra special for her, there's a certain attraction to danger, the thrill of risk.

I knew every short cut. Every passage way. Maybe I was being idiotic, if something happened to us down here, heh, by the time they found our bones archeologists would be thinking we were some buried royal couple.

This day was going to be perfect
The kind of day of which I've dreamed since I was small

"Somepony singing?! Down here?!" Arcane Spell exclaimed before I could. "Who could it be?" She asked her guide, namely, me.

"I...I don't know." I said honestly.

There was something very familiar about it. Made me wish I had a better ear for music.

Did you have to ask if we followed it? We're still ponies.

With all the echoes you'd expect from this place, following it proved a lot easier than it should have. It was like the vibrations had a life of their own. Like they were leading us.

Everypony was to gather 'round
Saying I looked lovely in my gown
What they don't know is that she has fooled them all!

If it turned out to some ancient evil using a siren song to lure victims to release it from its eternal prison, at least we were likely to be eaten together or we'll have a nice tale share over tea of when we were turned into an evil overlord's brainwashed minions.

Yes I was scared. But I put on my best (not very good) brave face for Arcane. And I think both our curiosities would drive us mad if we didn't follow this song to its source.

"I know I've heard this voice before," she said.

We came to a dead end. But Arcane didn't hesitate to put her ear against a wall.

"She's on the other side," she said. Even I wasn't tone deaf enough to not tell the singer was a mare.

Time to put that see the see-through spell I use to watch under-class mares undress to good use.

"COUSIN!?" Impossible! She looked like Tartarus. This had to be some illusion or trick. But this was behind a solid crystal wall! What was the point of having an illusion behind that?! You didn't hide bait!

I'm sheltered, spoiled, cowardly, inconsiderate, and classist, I never said I was stupid.

"Who?!"

"Cadence!"

We could hear her, but she couldn't hear us.

"But she's at her wedding! It HAS to be a trick!"

"...Which would make it a very poor trick indeed."

She sighed agitated. "Fine. But if we're turned into dragons by the ghost of Tirek, I'm never speak to you again."

Arcane charged up her horn and fired! And left a small crack in the the crystal wall. I looked at her.

"I never said I was Twilight Sparkle." She blushed.

Arcane's horn glowed again and she began -drilling- through the crystal.

"That'll take years!" I exasperated.

"Don't count on it!" She hissed.

The spiral cone of magic around her horn eroded and broke. But the crack Arcana had made had become a hole, but it hadn't poked through to the other side yet. Arcana panted, and created another one. This one broke faster than the first one. She was right, she wasn't Twilight Sparkle, she didn't have the Alicorn-like reserves of mana that auntie's student did.

"Dear, stop."

"No."

"So you believe me?"

"When I start something I finish it Blueblood," She formed a third drill-spell one around her horn and tried again, grunting. I gently hold her, touching my horn to the base of hers. If she'd support me, I'd support her.

In that instant the crystal wall shattered into a million pieces. We both blinked in surprise. The Alicorn inside was looking just as astonished.

"P-Princess Cadence?" Arcane Spell stuttered.

I gingerly approached the mare, she did indeed look like she had just spent an all expenses paid vacation in the Black Pit of Coltcutta.

I inched closer, she leaned back, like a deer caught in the headlights.

I gently held her chin in one hoof. "Cousin? Is it really you?"

She slapped me.

"It's really you," I said.

"Wait! Why aren't you at your wedding?!" Arcane Spell asked.

She looked past me. "W-Who are you?"

"Arcane Spell, this is Cadence. Cadence, this is Arcane Spell. We're dating. Cadence what is going on?" I demanded ignoring my beautiful throbbing face.

"I'm not at my wedding because the Cadence getting married is an impostor!"

"How do we know you're not the impostor, or some back-up impostor?" Arcane Spell asked.

"Then it's the most stupid convoluted scheme in the history of stupid convoluted schemes and I've invented plenty!" I snapped.

Wait. So this meant. The Cadence who had told me how worthless I was yesterday was a fake? Small miracles.

"We don't have time for this, we have to stop her, Shining, Twilight, Auntie, they're all in danger!"

In less than a minute we were running, not like Tirek himself was after us, but like we had to catch up to him!

Cadenced explained more along the way. And she sang. It was a duet. The terrifying part was: I could almost hear the voice of the other Cadence, the same voice, but a completely different tone and inflection, the other voice was vicious.

I said I knew every short cut and passage way in these caverns, I hadn't been lying.

Cadence had no clue which way to go, her captor had apparently phased her through the floor into her cell. Given just enough air and water to keep her alive. This might be why I had to carry her more than once. Of course, why keep her alive after all? I considered what Arcane Spell said about a back up impostor, but that simply felt too insane to be true. Us coming here had been completely spur of the moment. I stopped myself before I began thinking of time travel and ESP and other such nonsense.

When we emerged back in the castle, Cadence didn't even waste a moment to enjoy Auntie's precious sunlight cousin hadn't seen in she didn't know how long except to cover her eyes to adjust to the bright light.

We made a beeline for the wedding hall.

Then we ran into two royal guards who were not looking all that friendly.

"Halt! No ponies that are not- You're Majesty!? What are you doing here?! Shouldn't you already be at the wedding?! Everything is set!"

"I am on my way now! Stand aside!" Cadence barked.

"Yes, Your Majesty," the two guards fell to their knees and covered their eyes.

We didn't stop to ask questions we just ran. This made me wish any three of us had bothered to learn how to teleport. Or did Arcane or Cadence know how? The wedding hall having an anti-teleport field around it wouldn't-YES YES I'M RUNNING I'M RUNNING!!!!

+++

Princess Celestia spoke happily as the ceremony concluded, "Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, it is my great pleasure to pronounce you mare and-"

"STOP!!!"

Rarity narrowed her eyes and growled at the intruder to the happy moment. 'Does that gelding have to try to ruin everypony's happiness?!'

"I...I object!" Blueblood shouted.

Princess Celestia did not look happy. "Nephew...what is the meaning of this?"

The fillies were wondering if the stallion was Princess Cadence's secret boyfriend. Silver Tongue felt ready to get rid of the brat if the guards wouldn't.

The Elements were feeling ready to politely tell Blueblood to turn around and leave and not show his face ever again in Canterlot. Pinkie Pie's right ear rung and her left ear twitched and her temples tingled. She had never felt that combo before.

Shining's four groomstallions were distracted from the groom's lack of reaction, along with the unresponsiveness of a few others in the room.

Starlight Sparkle wondered if this was what her horoscope meant by her son's wedding being 'full of bugs.' Moonshine Sparkle had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Ignore him Auntie," the bride said irritably, "He just can't stand I'm marrying a guard."

"It's not the groom that's the problem, it's you, 'cousin.'"

"What? Why do you have to ruin my special day?!"

"Because it's not your special day! It's mine!" Another Cadence stepped in supported by a white unicorn. This Cadence was dirty, uncombed, and uncrowned.

'Uh-oh,' Sweetie Belle thought, laying her ears flat. 'Chryssy, I think we're in trouble.'

Author's Note

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember
Part 9
By Alex Warlorn

Everybody loves a wedding episode. Especially one with one point five amnesic gods getting married and a point five one in attendance, a dark god looming in the background, a shadow given life rising to challenge, and the fate of a kingdom in the balance. Oh, and no doubt the mother of all angry explosions when Twilight finds out that her brother didn't tell her he was getting married.

Seen this a million times before right? Except . . . not. While there have been many experiences to the ponies now their timeline has broken away from the Heart World, something is VERY WRONG here.

Things are spiraling out of control faster and faster!

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Wedding-Pt-8-Hope-In-Unexpected-Places-441142010

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Wedding-Pt-10-Then-Tartarus-Broke-Loose-441701157

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Episode 168: "Then All Tartarus Broke Loose"

"Twins?" Pinkie Pie gasped.

Celestia's eyes widened at what she sensed, something only she could sense. 'They...they feel the same...but...that's impossible...'

The bride stood with her mouth hanging open. Her right eye twitched.

"This time. Bucked up. From low.
Because of a random nothing? NOO!"

A ball of green magic condensed into raw force fired from the bride's horn, aimed at either the dirty Cadence or Blueblood, none could tell, but the white unicorn mare summoned a shield spell that shattered on impact sending the mare out of the wedding hall so hard she bounced and skidded on the royal carpet.

Blueblood went to the downed mare's side, she was breathing, but not much else, he hoped he imagined the cracks in her horn.

Everypony's eyes were now on the bride who couldn't brush off what she had used as a harmless stun spell.

The dirty Cadence put herself between the bride and the couple then shouted. "She's a changeling. She takes the form of somepony you love and gains power by feeding off your love for them."

The bride's breath came in haggard gasps, her entire body shook with fury of a wild bull, her eyes were like an enraged beast's. A pillar of green fire exploded from her, the image of the bride Princess Cadenza slid away, the wedding dress burning off her.

When the flame cleared the mare could have been a black Alicorn, if you were blindingly drunk on salt. She had green dragon eyes and fangs. Her dragonfly-like wings, legs, blue mane, and horn all had holes like they were moth eaten, or decaying. Nopony could tell if the green on her back and wrapping on her stomach were regalia or a part of her body. A black crown with blue jewels similarly could either be a part of her or an ordainment.

'Rosedust, they're alive,' Princess Celestia thought.

Nearly all present gasped in horror at the sight.

"Not a changeling you brat! The Queen Of All Changelings! I. AM. CHRYSALIS! And you still being here changes nothing Cadence! My duty is to find my subjects food, and Equestria has more love than any other! And it all belongs to us."

"Not going to happen! Shining Armor's protection spell will keep your changelings from ever even reaching us!" Princess Cadence snapped.

Queen Chrysalis chuckled. "Oh little princess, what made you think my army was outside Canterlot?"

Cadence's eyes widened. "No," she whispered.

"This wedding was their signal to begin! I thank everypony here for cooperating with 'your' local royal guards! And the only reason I'm saying any of this, is because I already know there is nothing you can do about it."

"WANNA BET?!" Rainbow Dash snarled readying to cold start a Sonic-Rainbow to the changeling
s face, but got dragged down by a familiar tail bite by, "AJ! Not now! You heard the big bug!"

"Yeah Ah heard Her Madjesty, it's hopeless," Applejack said matter of fact.

"The Tartarus?! AJ!" RD didn't believe what she just heard. "Come on! We can't just stand here! Pure Evil Ten O'clock!"

"There's no such thing as 'pure evil' Dashie, Princess Luna, Fluttershy, Trixie, were all still good inside, even super-mega-nasty-awful Discord had a fun side," Pinkie Pie pointed out.

"Fun does not equal good!"

"K'. But the point is Dashie, she said love is food for her, but love grows when ya share it right? So she just can see sharing is better for her bug-ponies than this whole invasion non-sense. If she lives off love, she must have a heart right? After all, the Paradise Ponies convinced total nasties to be nice a lot. We should do the same before the nasty fighting even starts! That's the pony way!"

"BLAGH! I can't stand another word of your tripe!
You are hunting Snipe!
I am not part of your naive 'bad and good!'
The hungry beast is all that's under the hood!"
Chrysalis hissed forgetting herself.

"That's not true! See?!" Pinkie Pie pulled a small cloud from nowhere despite not being a Pegasus with the view inside only visible to the Elements and Chrysalis. Pinkie Pie's jaw dropped, when she saw in the cloud a grave etched with a little wing and halo so badly desecrated she could not read the name, and dancing around it was an image the of the changeling queen in a devil costume,
"I am savage wild and free!"
Not bound by moral am me!"

The cloud fell away like a felt drawing. Pinkie Pie cried out in horror. "You-you're like a monster from the Everfree! You're WORSE than a monster from Everfree!"

Chrysalis rolled her eyes, "Finally a cattle gets it."

Rarity for her part was transfixed by the hope they could subdue this invader without violence (and through her, her army) and the combined disgust at this monster stealing an innocent mare's wedding day from her, playing them all like pawns, and destroying the wedding dress Rarity had made, that dress had been a gift, and now would never be worn by its rightful owner.

Fluttershy was snapped out of her own spine freezing fear at this pony-seeming horror by the wild panic of her song birds, they were terrified of the fake bride now that she had shed her mask. The poor things freaked out, wanting in fly in every direction. None but Fluttershy gave the poor creatures a moment's thought. Her animals were her family, she had a responsibility towards them. She desperately soothed and calmed them down least they catch the ire of this thing shaped like a pony but was not a pony. Fluttercruel felt an unearthly sensation of wrongness and familiarity from the monster.

The CMC hugged each other, it was almost the advent of Nightmare Moon all over again, but this wasn't the boogymare from Nightmare Night, this had been the princess who had been so nice to them! And hadn't even been the princess at all. They didn't notice Sweetie Belle was just smiling. Silver Tongue put his forelegs around his daughter, his eyes narrowed at the unknown danger, his heart beating like a drum.

"Hey, Shining. Time to be the brave knight and rescue the princess from the wicked witch," Banjo whispered.

"It's fine. Everything is going fine now."

"Shining, I know you almost married the queen of ugly but don't conk-out now!" Caramel prodded.

"Cadence will forgive you, just help her already dummy!" Cherry Coke implored.

"If you don't wanna I can give it a crack," Note Worthy baited.

"All of you stay exactly where you are. That is an order," Shining Armor said in a monotone not even looking at them.

"What?!" Banjo gasped.

"Are you questioning my orders soldier?"

"No offense Shining but if Cadence never needed protecting, now would be-" Shining Armor bucked Banjo's leg so hard it broke. He collapsed in blinding pain.

"Shin' have you gone nuts?!" Note Worthy gasped getting close to his friend.

"I said stay still, that's an order," SA's voice couldn't have been more emotionless.

Princess Celestia took one look at Shining Armor and ordered. "Spike get a warning out to all royal guards and my sister! The guard has been infiltrated!"

"I can't do that, sorry," Spike said.

"Spike! Now is not the time to be timid!" Rarity heard herself shout.

"I'm sorry. Her Majesty doesn't want me to."

"Spike what do you mean I don't want you to!" Princess Celestia gasped.

"My minion isn't talking about you your highness," Chrysalis said warmly.

Rarity gracefully forgot herself, elegantly charged at the baby dragon in her lovely dress, and beautifully struck the dragon in the face. "Impostor! Where is Spike?"

The queen of hunger rolled her eyes. "Pst. Your ponies are beyond stupid. You cling to the answer that's the most comfortable. That is the real Spike."

"You're lying!"

The Queen spoke in a copy of Cadence's voice, "Oh Rarity, don't you understand? If I was lying you'd never suspect I was. I am an actress."

"Rarity, I'm sorry. It's what Her Majesty wants," Spike whimpered. Rarity looked at Spike and herself in horror.

"How could we be such fools?!" Rarity lamented.

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. "It's your nature. BUT STOP selling yourselves, and me so short!" She spoke in Cadence's voice again. "I've fooled many, many ponies besides you lot, I once tricked a loving couple into thinking I was their son. So don't be so arrogant as to think you are wiser or more perceptive than all of them. I spent forever making sure the left and right hooves were too busy to think and weren't able to compare notes! I spent decades planning for this moment! If you were stupid, I'd have invaded years ago instead of slowly getting my troops in position to begin this invasion! If you were stupid I'd not even have NEEDED to launch an invasion! That's where me and that pompous, over inflated manchild of a chaos spirit differ! I didn't assume you couldn't beat me! I knew you could and that's why now I'm standing tall! I am an actress, the best!"

Cadence made a beeline straight for Shining Armor. Chrysalis stomped into her path.

"Don't even try little princess. Or do you want a one way trip back to a hole in the ground with no exit?"

Cadence gritted her teeth as she felt one of her legs shake. "Your Shining Armor belongs to me now. And he won't be doing much as your husband OR Captain of the Royal Guard now. Isn't that right?"

"Yes, My Love." Shining Armor gasped out dimly.

By now the assembled ponies were mortified.

Celestia had had enough.

"You made a mistake by revealing yourself early impostor! SURRENDER! Shining Armor is not Equestria's only protector! Stand down or I'll protect my subjects from you myself!"

I wished I was Luna, because then I could have shot this fallen Flutterpony through the back to protect my ponies without a shred of guilt. But I wasn't gifted with her ruthlessness. And I rationalized that if she did have an army, we needed her to call them off least they try to avenge their fallen leader.
-

"There's no way you were once the Element of Laughter, that was a terrible joke," Chrysalis said, "Tell your ponies to submit and my changelings will be gentle."

"This is my response." A beam of golden light shot straight at the changeling queen, the temperature in the room skyrocketed in seconds, causing the ponies watching to begin sweating.

A green beam of the queen's own horn perfectly aligned with the princess' magic, the two clashing.

(Notes (Earth Pony): Teacher! Give it everything! Don't hold back!)

Queen Chrysalis' eyes widened in surprise, then alarm as she found her hooves skidding across the floor leaving trenches.

"YOUR MAJESTY!" A handful of ponies and one dragon cried out in concern and fear.

+

Why is she so strong?! She isn't SUPPOSED to be this strong!

(Notes (Pegasus): Picked the wrong Celestia to mess with!)

You aren't even supposed to be here!!

+

Princess Celestia's beam forced back the Changeling Queen into a wall and overwhelmed her, the changeling queen's body exploded in a mass of green fire.

"They always explode," Pinkie Pie said.

The charred and empty remains of the changeling queen slid down down, burned and lifeless, a broken shell that had once contained life.

Several ponies and one dragon in the room seemed to be in a state of shock.

"I am sorry," Princess Celestia sighed and lowered her head.

"You will be." Celestia's eyes shot open, the corpse got to its feet, and green flames flashed revealing an angry and alive Chrysalis with a forehead bleeding green.

Chrysalis let out a changeling war cry and unleashed another green beam, this one at much closer range and with much greater intensity. Princess Celestia, caught off guard, counterattacked, and the two beams locked again, but this time the green beam was shaped almost like a spear, or needle, and struck Princess Celestia's horn dead center. Princess Celestia cried out the attack traveled through her horn, and overwhelmed the magic centers of her brain. Her eyes rolled up in her head as she fell to her side, her legs involuntary twitching.

+

If...if I had given anymore, I would have burned to ashes everypony in that room before I put down Chrysalis.

+

"I told you, I'm an actress!" Chrysalis hissed, putting a hoof to her head and snarling at the blood she saw on it.
"What was supposed to happen, was not that.
YOU LITTLE RATS!"

Every Equestrian in the room felt her hearts fill with consternation. Fluttershy and Rarity's eyes filled with tears. So did Twilight's, but you wouldn't know it from her happy expression.

"I always knew Princess Celestia was weak!" Shouted a noble, nopony saw which one, or they'd have clobbered him before the changelings could.

Chrysalis groaned. Not about to have her victory lessened. "No you morons, she could have killed me. The amount of Shining Armor's love for Cadence I've taken has made me more powerful than I thought possible. I didn't think love this pure and intense existed. Then again, I had never fed on the love for a goddess before."

"I always knew Princess Celestia was incompetent!"

"Oh shut the buck up!" Chrysalis groaned and face hoofed. "Slipping through and infiltrating her information network undetected and avoiding her magical security precautions were the greatest challenges of my life. Let alone fooling her! Stop trying to belittle my accomplishments you nobility morons!"

"Everypony! Protect Celestia!" Rainbow Dash snarled before the guards could, rising up and the others got the memo to protect the beloved mother of their herd.

Only to be stopped by a line of spell blasts that strafed their path.

Twilight waved her hoof in a 'naughty-naughty' gesture. "Now now Friends, don't ruin Her Majesty's big day, remember what Spike said before you hurt him Rarity?"

Rarity blanched. "We're dead."

"Of course not!" Twilight cheered, despite the tears beginning to trickle down her cheeks. "All they want to do is eat our love! And the love between six good friends like us is sure to scrumptious!"

"TWILIGHT! Not you too!" Pinkie Pie, a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach.

RD made a snap decision. "Sorry Twilight! But I'll bet my Sonic Rainbow is faster than your magic or ta toss yourself in my way!"

"RD ya still talk too much!" AJ snapped sounding angry, then said softly, "And ya can't do that."

RD turned to her, "AJ we don't have time to debate Celestia...could be."

=Dark Underground Rap Instrumental=

AJ's eyes shined with the Truth.

"AJ...stop, please, I can't, I don't want to." Rainbow eyes twitched as she looked upon truths she never wanted to learn. Tears began to form in her eyes.

"Her Madjesty can't have ya causing trouble now can she? Too bad she was worried that pesky Element of Loyalty might make ya resistant ta lettin' her make ya all nice and cooperative-like. Ah'm sorry. How deep inta the truth can ya go before yer brain breaks in itty-bitty pieces Ah wonder," AJ said in a callous almost cruel voice gently holding RD's muzzle, RD unable to bring herself to even closer her eyes.

Rainbow Dash's entire body was shaking, seeing every thoughtless, callous, and cruel wrong she had brought upon Derpy over the years since foalhood.

"HI-YA!" Rarity did a leaping kick to Applejack, knowing she was tough enough to take it, knocking AJ away from Rainbow and breaking the connection by force. "Pardon Applejack, but Rainbow darling looked like she could use a break from reflection." She knelt down to the Pegasus, "Darling are you alright?"

"No. I'm not," Rainbow Dash hissed in pain.

+

Ah'll say this about mah time under that witch's spell. Makin' meh do THAT tah Rainbow? Makin' me do the ONE thing that refusin' tah do separated meh from Nightmare Mirror? That's second on mah lists of things Ah'll never forgive that no good rotten rattlesnake for!

(Notes (Pegasus): Second?)

First is the look on Applebloom's face when she saw meh like that!

(Notes (Pegasus): Oh.)

+

Cadence hated the feeling of helplessness welling up inside her. She couldn't have escaped for NOTHING could she? She couldn't made things WORSE could she?! Her eyes wandered to two empty seats, looking rather out of place in the room full of standing ponies, put there as a reminder for two beloved friends she had lost before that she could do nothing about.

Chrysalis touched the bleeding area on her head with a snarl, then looked at the group. "Thank you so much for leaving my Twilight Sparkle behind in this room. Alone. If you'd bothered to stay, then I'd never have had the chance you gave me."

Pinkie Pie's eyes teared up.

Applebloom's eyes went wide with shock.

"But don't worry, you're not the only ones who made this possible," said Chrysalis, walking over to Applejack. "If your friend here had just been a little more observant, this never would have happened. Isn't that right, my little pony?"

Pinkie sunk to her knees. "Please...no."

Applejack didn't look sick, but she still seemed...unnatural, like her eyes were sad while the rest of her face said nothing. "Yes...yer madjesty. Ah coulda ruined this whole thing if Ah hadn't been worryin' about ponies' privacy. This is all because of meh."

Chrysalis grinned at the looks on the faces. "What? No 'oh, she's lying'? Oh, right, she's Miss Honesty. Oh, you don't know how hard that stubborn little mind of hers was to make lie at all. Tell them again."

"It's mah fault this happened."

Chrysalis chuckled. "That's a good little pony. And who am I?"

"You are Her Madjesty."

"And what does that make me?"

"Mah Master."

"And what are you?"

"...yer property."

+

I'll admit...I know exactly how Applejack must feel now about that...The baddie revealing your big mistake to the entire world, or at least to Cloudsdale. I've been there...She was there for me when I let my mistakes begin to eat me alive, just like Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were when I went nuts. I'll be there for you AJ. That's a pegasus promise.

+

"Sis...no...p-please." said Applebloom, trembling, tears streaming down her face.

Applejack looked at her sister. She opened her mouth to say something, but instead literally gagged on the words she was trying to say. After a few moments, she stopped...and a single tear ran down her otherwise unreadable face.

"You and your brother have done a good job Twilight Sparkle." Chrysalis, AGAIN switched to Cadence's voice just for the fun of it. "You are a pair of remarkable siblings."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," The two echoed together.

"I LOVE ponies who do a good job, but I like it more when they give me love instead." Queen Chrysalis whispered leaning close to the smiling purple unicorn. "Your brother's love tastes so good, yours is very delectable too. Let's have another little taste."

=Pure Odio Live-A-Live=

"GET AWAY FROM MY BABIES!" Starlight Sparkle hissed as she teleported right in Chrysalis' face, catching everyone in the room by surprise. She kicked and bucked at the changeling queen who dodged all of her blows not even blocking them, then Starlight grabbed a solid stone pillar with her magic and threw it high speed at the queen who deflected it with blow of her own magic. In that instant Starlight Sparkle teleported again and blasted the queen with a concentrated blast of starlight magic at point blank right in the queen's face. The flash cleared to show a tiny oozing crack on the carapace of Chrysalis face.

Chrysalis felt pain, then fury. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT YOU LITTLE WORM! NOW YOU SQUIRM!" All four of Starlight's legs were caught in Chrysalis' telekinesis, then TWISTED in ways Princess Gaia never intended. She cried out in pain as Chrysalis released her now with four broken legs, then abruptly caught her magically gripping one leg, causing more pain. "Leave the ad-libbing to the professionals."

She then threw Twilight's mother at high speed toward a wall, Moonlight Sparkle barely managed to catch her with his own magic to prevent her from being permanently damaged.

"Tertiary characters who exist just to embellish a character's background should just stay in the backdrop, where they belong and let the main characters play the important roles. And parents should run away to breed another day," the queen said. "I carry within me the indestructible desire to survive. What makes any of you think you can break it?!"

Neither Shining nor Twilight had even flinched.

"My foals, forgive me, for failing you," The mother said through the pain as her husband cradled her.

"Your books stink by the way, I burn every copy I find," Chrysalis verbally threw at the broken unicorn. "My one good deed for the arts."

+

Mom...Have I ever told you how much I hate being made to watch ponies I care about get hurt?

(Notes (Earth Pony): Yes, Shiney. We were there in the old timeline.)

Then you can imagine how I feel looking back on that...I think Twilight feels the same way...

+

"Seems your love and faith in your student weren't so unbreakable after all." Chrysalis leaned and whispered to Celestia.

+

I didn't waste breath on the fallen Flutterpony. I had little to spare.

+

(Notes (Pegasus): Grandma...I'VE HAD ENOUGH!)

(Notes (Unicorn): I'm sorry.)

(Notes (Earth Pony): The bad big witch hurt grandma!)

(Notes (Unicorn): I'm sorry.)

(Notes (Pegasus): Dawn! You talk with Queen Tiamat and tell her Teacher is calling in a BIG favor! I'll go to the Wonderbolts, every guard who isn't a changeling, and get Trixie's mother in Hoofington and lead her to where she can find a good teleport mage! Then you see if you can find where The Doctor's gotten to this time! He should be here in Canterlot already! And don't you dare tell us this is all still 'normal' Dusk!)

(Notes (Unicorn): I'm sorry.)

(Note: (Pegasus): This isn't how things are supposed to go! This is an emergency!)

(Note: (Unicorn): Sisters. I'm sorry. I...let my guard down. Because Her Majesty is not as powerful as Nightmare Whisper with the Elder Horn, I believed Her Majesty couldn't effect me when I interviewed her. I let her get too close, I didn't think she could be a threat. I under estimated Her Majesty.)

That does seem to be my fate. But thankfully there are some fates I can change.

(Note: (Pegasus): WHAT?! NO WAY! THERE IS NO WAY!)

(Notes (Earth Pony): You big bully!!!)

=AUTO RECORD SET=

(Note: (Pegasus): Dusk, what did you do with the notes? They're writing on their own?)

(Notes (Unicorn): I'm sorry. I've failed you. This is all MY FAULT. We outside of time, divine light be sealed, down our perch we climb, naked in the mortal's field. Scattered by the wind. In mortality we're pinned.)

Excellent.

"Yes my queen."

It is fate it seems that I am always to be underestimated! May all recognize now, that the I, and my changelings, are NOT to be trivialized.

+

"Hey, you okay?"

BLECH! What a headache! This makes that punch Fluttercruel gave me seem like a love pat. Wait. Huh?

I opened my eyes, focusing on a blue pegasus stallion in a Wonderbolt's uniform. "Uuuuuuugh."

"Can you speak?"

"S-Soarin'," I gasped out.

"That's my name. Spitfire says you teleported right into our hotel room. I'd say you went to a lot of trouble for an autograph, but you look like you just went through Tartarus."

I must have influenced Dusk's spell slightly through our link and landed me somewhere safely close-by. Or I think I did.

What the buck. This is impossible. Oh no. Please no!...I felt sick, naked, and terrified all at once! Horseapples.

I curled up in a ball and began to shake. No. No. I can't be. This isn't right! This is WRONG!!!!

"Miss? Miss!" Dawn. Dusk.

+

Ow!

I'm hurt?

This is...is like when Mr. Discord hurt me when I tried to help Tiara.

Peewee? Thanks Super-Mommy! You're okay! Hugs! I'm so happy you're here. Where is here?

Huh? Where are my notes?...I feel funny. No, not silly Peewee, I feel, not right.

OW! I can't, I can't walk through walls? I better get back to when the wedding happens! We gotta help...huh? Why...w-why can't I walk through time? It's still here! So why can I move through it Peewee?!

This reminds me of that play where the narrator gets pulled into the story by the characters...I'm not going to be fed me to a giant am I Peewee? You're right, our friends wouldn't do something like that.

I'm still in Canterlot, all the fancy dressed adults are looking funny at me.

Everypony's looking at me! But Peewee I'm supposed to be 'as good as invisible.'

Bigger sister...big sister...I don't think I've ever felt this alone before...I'm scared Peewee....

"Excuse me little miss, are you alright?"

+

My name is Half-Light Dusk. I write this as I stand atop the roof of the wedding ceremony. I am branded by Her Majesty's taint. Her other slaves and her people know not to attack me even though I am no longer outside of time. I was born old. Because of the link my sisters and I share, my power was sealed when theirs was, and I was pushed into normal time when they were. I could have done so to them alone, but thankfully Her Majesty ordered I do so at once on the spot without time for me to prepare. My only hope is that my two sisters are able to thwart me. And save Cadence and the rest of our families.

+

Caramel inched towards his princess, hoping the changeling queen would be too busy listening to herself talk to notice. Sadly, he hadn't counted on the brainwashed ponies and dragon in the room doing anything other than stand there like zombies.

"You were ordered to stay put Caramel, bad soldier." Caramel was bashed in the face by a force field.

"Trying to protect someone with no chance of winning?" Chrysalis said in a disinterested tone, "Insects like you should scurry back under their rocks."

"We have to get The Princess out of here."

"The rules say when facing something you can't beat: retreat!" Cherry Coke stated.

"They didn't say abandon Princess Celestia when she's right there!" Note Worthy snapped back.

"I'd do the heroic thing and say 'I want you to leave me', but I'd be lying," Banjo hissed through the pain.

"Spike, send the signal to Digger Wasp, and an order to Hercules Beetle to divert troops to the wedding hall immediately."

"Yes Your Majesty," Spike droned, pulling out scroll and swiftly scribbling a message on a second note.

"Spike no!" Rarity called.

"Sorry, it's what Her Majesty wants," Spike replied.

"What about what I want? What about what you want?"

"I'm sorry Rarity."

"And I'm sad Spike. Do you want me sad?"

"No but it's what Her Majesty wants."

+

I kept talking, like most of my friends, I can talk my muzzle off when need be. Nopony's eyes were on my target, Shining's were on his men, Chrysalis' were on Cadence, Twilight's eyes were on our fronts, Spike was on me, and Applejack's was on our backs.

Only Pinkie Pie knows I can use my telekinesis without making my horn visibly glow, it's a little trick I've learned as a side product of the illusion magic I've studied for presenting my dresses as I did with Hoity Toity.

With precision and quietness that Trixie and Twilight can't compare to, I lifted our Princess' crown off the floor, maneuvering it around the field of vision of the wicked queen and our enslaved friends.

Princess Celestia's crown wasn't mere gold, or I didn't think it was, it had taken a full head on magical blast and was only scorched rather than sundered, I hoped that proved it was made of sterner stuff. I silently apologized to our Princess for using her crown this way.

I had struck Spike once already this hour, twice more pained me, but what had to be done had to be done, and with that thick dragon hide of his, this would just knock him off kilter instead of cracking skull like it would a pony.

I focused all of my magic, the crown still wasn't glowing, and the assembled ponies had thankfully been wise enough not to say a word as they saw what I was doing. Just a little more, in position. Alright, focus as much as you can, they'll be prepared for a strike on the queen, that's what they'll try to block. Focus, center, breath, think of Equestria, and like a falcon, STRIKE-
"RARITY STOP!"

WHAT?!

The crown, still going fast, Sweetie Belle, NO! PLEASE! NOT AGAIN! I GRAB THE CROWN WITH FULL FORCE and stop it just in time before it can touch a hair on Sweetie's Belle head.

"Sweetie! Out of the way! Spike's not himself!" I begged. I had forgotten completely how Sweetie and her friends could sprint like lightning if they were so inclined, covering the span of the hall in a moment...I hadn't even seen her until it was almost too late. Almost. Again. Almost I had hurt her again. Sweetie Belle, I'm sorry.

She was smiling at me, her eyes wide and staring. "Sister, please don't hurt Spike, he's just helping Chryssy."

I gasped. I looked to my baby sister as she stood using herself as a shield, always smiling. "No...Not...Sweetie, not you too."

+

Mah heart broke in two. "Sweetie."

All Ah could think about is 'why is this happenin'?" Spike...Applejack...Sweetie...She...she took them all. Mah sister...two of mah best friends...Ah'd never felt so alone...

+

Scootaloo did the only thing she could think of and hugged Applebloom. Silver Spoon's lip quivered. Silver Tongue felt ashamed he couldn't stop the white filly in time.

"That's very good of you Sweetie Belle!" Twilight praised. "You're a good filly!"

"Thank you!" She chirped back.

"Y-you, y-you, YOU MONSTER!" Rarity screamed.

"Don't throw a fit pony, I'm the one having a bad day," Chrysalis said matter of fact, "I didn't tell my little song bird to do anything. She did that one on her own, didn't you?"

"Yes Chryssy! I wanted to help!"

"And yes you did." Chrysalis ruffled Sweetie's mane affectionately, "But don't risk yourself like that again, you're far too important, my little song bird, to be sacrificed in that matter."

"Okay!"

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER!" Rarity snarled.

Meanwhile, Spike went about his given task of dragon mailing off the two message.

"Sister, don't resist. We can have so much fun together!" Sweetie Belle said like Rarity was refusing to do something because it wasn't 'couth' again. "You don't wanna end up like that other unicorn do you?" Sweetie grinned. "She went KA-CRACK!" Sweetie made a short happy jump.

Rarity took a step back, her head swimming. The world turning completely unreal. "N-no."

The green eyed filly turned and waved at her friends. "Hey! Scoots, 'Bloom, Silver, this is great! You should join me and Spike! We can be Cutie Mark Crusader Royal Pets! Or Cutie Mark Crusader Royal Minions! Or Cutie Mark Crusader Royal Dark Apprentices! It's totally awesome!" Then she said in a zombie-like, "Join us. Joooooiiiinn uuuuuussss!" She burst out laughing. "Heheh! But seriously, let Chryssy fix you up, you'll love it."

Fluttershy felt sick to her stomach.

"Ain't she just adorable?" AJ said smiling. "Come on Rarity," she said sagely, "You and Sweetie did promise to try new things together."

"It'll make a lovely friendship report for Teacher," Twilight encouraged.

"Not this again," Pinkie Diane lament with a hint of despair.

Chrysalis thoroughly enjoyed the love the filly offered her on a silver platter, she chuckled, as sweet as Sweetie Belle was Chrysalis had a schedule to keep, time to start rounding up the cattle for processing...hm? Hadn't there been two unicorn guards at the back of the doorway? Must have run off like the panicky animals they were, let them, there was nowhere for them to run.

The idiot who had tried to ruin everything, showing his dedication to be removed from the gene pool, hadn't done the intelligent thing and taken his broke mare friend of the week and fled like anything with the slightest trace of self preservation. What was the best punishment? Breaking his back, slamming him into a few walls, and draining his talking love-doll into an empty husk in front of him, would make for a decent start. Maybe hoof him over to Kabuto after that. Seriously, she was doing these cattle a favor culling the stupid and suicidal from their numbers.

As for her lesser half, she didn't have the courage to face herself, Twilight, and Shining all together. Crushing Celestia and making an example of that middle aged mare had cowed rest of the cattle.

+

Well. Am I scared? This prince is ready to wet his royal self. I want to scream and hide underneath a table. But Cadence wasn't running, so I wouldn't run either. I should have grabbed Arcana and galloped for he nearest doctor. Instead I stayed near my cousin. Hmmmm. If I made a big enough mule of myself, maybe I could get the talking bad dream so mad that while she's busy delivering mind numbingly pain upon my royal nerve endings, cousin could reach Auntie. Maybe she could help her? They were both Alicorns.

+

A bluish gray unicorn stallion with a black mane, Long Haul as his friends knew him, stood at his post in Canterlot Castle's communications room. He kept his eyes on the time. '600...599...598...'

A burst of dragon fire descended next to him and materialized into a scroll. He narrowed his eyes and took it.

"What is it sir?" asked one of the workers under him.

"Just an order from Her Majesty. We're to do a shift change now," he said, folding it a putting it away.

"Already? But our shift doesn't end for another ten minutes."

"There's been a change of plans, you're all getting to leave duty early," he said in a friendly, casual tone. "Her Majesty is a good ruler after all, she wants to be fair to her followers."

"Right about that!" replied a green eyed unicorn, one of the ones in charge of sending letters.

As everypony began gathering their things, he slowly trotted over to the door and locked it silently.

He trotted over to the lights and took a careful, calculating look over the group, making a close check of everyone's locations.

Green bolts of energy lit up the room and when the lights back on, the majority of the troops in the room lay unconscious on the ground, except for a number of green eyed unicorns, some of which had attacked their fellows.

"What's going on in there?" asked a guard's voice from the other side of the door.

He trotted over. "Oh, just a short circuit in some of the radios and a minor explosion, no pony is hurt, please keep an eye for the maintenance crew, we've already called for them," he replied.

"...Alright, will do."

Long Haul trotted over to the green eyed unicorns. "Keep sending the all clear messages," he stated, his tone now cold and calculating.

"Yes, boss."

The 'unicorn' nodded. "And send out the order, it's time to begin, so says Her Majesty."

"Yes sir."

Long Haul moved over and picked up one of the unconscious guards. "This is bothersome, why couldn't you cattle just make this easy?"

+

An unassuming pegasus guard patrolled the halls silently. As he did so, several ponies, some guards, some not, slowly filed in behind him.

"Sir, her Majesty has signaled we begin early," reported one of them.

The pegasus nodded. "Do as she says, it's time to-"

A letter materialized directly in front of him. He took it and carefully read it.

"What is it, sir?"

"We're needed in the Wedding Hall, now," he ordered, "For Her Majesty!"

The other 'pegasi' joined him, swarming towards the Wedding Hall.

+

Digger Wasp and Hercules Beetle should have read their orders by now.

This day has turned out perfect after all, this will be the day I've dreamed of since I was small. In spite of idiots and trouble makers everything important has gone as it should.

Wait. I sense something...No!

You are joking! This is absurd! It's completely illogical! This is ridiculous! It's not even possible! This didn't happen before! She wasn't here before! How could the other one even be here?! Wait! You are kidding me! Those two guards!

+

When we saw something take our Princess head-on...we quickly voted that we needed the scarier princess, and plenty of back-up.

+

Now I have to worry about quaternary non-characters? What a headache! The anti-teleportation wards were still in place, but I felt the immense power of the night itself coming down on me with a small army of tiny pieces of her essence flying behind her. That was the bad news. The worse news was Hercules Beetle and my changelings would arrived second. And even if they did arrive in time, I couldn't be sure she wouldn't just plow straight through them.

I wasn't looking forward to a fight with the more ruthless of the Royal Sisters after the unwanted surprise with Celestia. The reports from the Griffin Wars on thousand years ago showed that. What was worse was I had a feeling a focused laser made from moonlight wouldn't have as much collateral damage to worry about as a beam of solar plasma. Being in a room full of innocent civilians was not going to help me against her! This wasn't according to plan. Why had everything changed like this, it made no sense!

And the amount of power I felt coming towards me at the force of a comet wasn't giving me time for reflection!

"Your Majesty? Are you alright?" My purple pony asked. I looked at her seeing worry and concern in her eyes. Blech! I refuse to lose here! I refuse to die here! I refuse to be swept aside!

And it all came to me in one moment.

"Shining, drop the barrier," I ordered.

"Yes Your Majesty." The shield around Canterlot dissolved.

"Quake before the power of the Night!" The Canterlot Royal Voice boomed, causing the windows to shudder, not slowing down to negotiate, not slowing down to demand a surrender. From the energy I felt, she was instead charging up to try and blow my head off with one shot. I had to admire her, she wasn't as naive as her sister.

I placed my horn against Shining Armor's, I tap into his magic, assume direct control. A twisted green roaring fire engulfs us. Shining Armor is clearly in pain. Too bad. I don't have time to waste on making this pleasant! I force myself harder and harder into him, he feels pain and pleasure at my magic's touch. His heart is ashamed but he can't resist. He tilts his head back and cries out, our horn still touching, and the barrier reappears and expands around us in the blink of an eye. It passes through my changelings without harm, or the cattle in the wedding hall... however.

+

Princess Luna didn't stop as the barrier exploded in front of her, but it had changed, she had time to gasp in shock as the barrier hit her hard. She and her Night Guard, and nearly every free royal guard in Canterlot, were all sent flying out of the city, over the landscape, and over the horizon at blinding speed, Luna only able to redirect the power from the beam she'd been moments from firing at the queen to try and pull the innocent ponies close to herself.

+

The brainwashed slaves looked with joy and satisfaction, the heroes and guests looked in terror and despair. Chrysalis panted, Shining Armor's body shivered involuntarily. The Queen looked around, chest heaving and head aching from the magic overload, and a few moment later, the only sound anypony could hear in the wedding hall was the sound of Queen Chrysalis, laughing.

+++

"And that is how it should have ended the first time," Chrysalis said like to a lover as she looked at the crowd of broken faces.

"Princess Luna," Fluttershy whispered, "All those ponies."

"This...this isn't right." Pinkie Pie more to herself than anyone.

"Horseapples," RD hissed.

"Pleas be alright." Rarity whispered remembering how the ponies who had been thrown out all had wings. She hoped she wasn't just saying that to herself. Still, they had princess Luna with them didn't they?

"You should have all just played nice with Her Majesty!" Sweetie Belle called out the window.

The two other flower fillies and Silver were shivering. The guest likewise were petrified at the sight of their leaders as such. Cadence meanwhile was disgusted at herself for standing here like a mare in distress, but her legs removed to move. All the horrors she bought, why was she paralyzed by this. What was this sick feeling of right yet wrong from this monster?

Several pegasus royal guard then forced their way through the windows. Hope filled everypony's hearts, that quickly turned to despair as they were engulfed in green flames that turned into stubbier, smaller, bug-like ponies like the queen herself, but with compound eyes.

"Use the doors," Chrysalis grumbled.

Ignoring the slaves, Princesses, Elements and the groomstallions, the bugs began from the front to organizes the guests by gender and species.

Celestia looked at the monsters terrorizing her ponies as she struggled to think clearly through her repairing brain. 'Breezies. Flutterponies. I didn't want your legacy to be this.'

The lead pegasus guard landed next to the changeling queen and said, "I am here Your Majesty."

Chrysalis said indignantly. "Congratulations Hercules Beetle, once again you fail to protect your queen, I had to do your job and your sluggishness forced me to rework our entire plans. You are nothing if not consistent."

Green flames surrounding the pegasus guard, revealing a larger, more well armored Changeling with black and gold armor adorning his frame. He genuflected, "Forgive me my Queen, I came as quickly as-"

She struck him with one hoof.

"And your quickest was too slow. If it wasn't for my quick thinking, I'd be dead. Inform Goliath Beetle he is my new general, you'll be serving as his first officer."

"My Queen! Please pick someling else! I'll gladly serve as a foot soldier if you wish it. But my brother is too reckless to-"

"He has never failed his queen. And thanks to you reckless just might be what's needed. Are you questioning me Hercules?"

"NEVER!"

"Then do as I say."

"As you command my queen!" The changeling said without a trace of sarcasm or irony.

"Ya did yer best. That's all anypony can ask of ya, there's no shame in that."

The armored changeling looked back at the brainwashed Applejack in surprise.

"I didn't ask you to speak," Chrysalis said.

"Ya didn't ask me not to."

The queen rubbed her non-existent eyebrows, and refused a Changeling trying to tend to her head wound.

"My little song bird?"

"Yes Chryssy?"

"Give all of Canterlot your grand debut."

"YES YOUR MAJESTY!"

Sweetie Belle obediently, eagerly, practically willing hopped out onto the balcony, and with help from Chrysalis' magic, plopped her rump on the extra large guard rails like a stage. Sweetie gave Rarity a triumphant look that made Rarity's heart skip a beat. The filly then began to sing.

="Evil Luna's Song" - Silver Star Story Complete=

Rarity recognized the song, even if Sweetie was only singing to the the melody and not the lyrics. That song?! Their FAMILY'S SONG? Kept private for generations?!

"What is the point of this you witch?!"

Chrysalis shrugged casually. "I don't really understand it myself. But my little song bird's voice, and her song, carries within it a year's worth of love for a changeling. My subjects shouldn't be able to even metabolize that much love. And yet, her voice and this song, gives us all strength." Chrysalis grinned. "Maybe she just has the right spirit."

Green magic began to flow out of the filly's mouth like sparkling mist almost, and the sparkles gravitated to every changeling in the room and continued to float outside.

"There's something fascinating about her, isn't there Cadence?" The princess of music startled at how personal the monster now sounded. "Something almost familiar, a filly with such an obvious gift, and yet she turns a blind eye to it. Why could such a thing be Cadence?"

All the Elements wondered how to pop the witch's bubble by telling her the CMC were just thick-headed without hurting the little fillies' feelings.

But Cadence found herself thinking, feeling that the witch was right, there was something strangely familiar about the musical filly, or maybe she was just letting the witch's head games get to her. She tried drawing some strength from the filly's song as well as covertly as possible, but as it wasn't directed at her nor could she actively draw it in without giving away one of the few trump cards she still had up her sleeves, she could only regain enough strength to stand on her own, not nearly enough to fight. Not nearly enough to do anything.

+

This queen of lies. Ah hate 'er guts. Ponies ain't supposed ta hate like this, but Ah can't stand it. I'm disgusted at 'er. No Ah don't want 'er dead, do Ah look like a savage? Ah want her ta see the truth, for all these lies she's used to use us and she's made me say to bite 'er in the flank, for her to stare straight into the cruelest of truths and weep like a baby!

Ah want done with this here queen of Lies? I want to swim to the surface of this muck she has meh buried in and stop her? There's a choice Ah can make that'll fix 'er, and fix all mah friends and anypony else she has under her spell. Ah can save em, after all, the truth sets ya free. And show all her underlings how screwed up their worldview is. All Ah gotta do is accept the power. Ah can feel it, at the edge of mahself, Ah wanna dive into it, become one with it. And shine for everypony ta see me! Tearin' away all them falsehoods they've built around themselves. Would Ah become a monster to fight the worse monster?

And it would be an evil they know opposed to an evil they don't.

There's Trixie safe back in Hoofington, and big brother Mac in Ponyville, they could use the Elements to fix me after Ah'm done trouncing this here witch. Ah could even get a lot of good done in the mean time. Ah could get them Canterlot ponies ta see the truth that they ain't no better than anypony else, and get Princess Celestia's subjects ta see she just wants to be accepted by 'em as a friend and not just our Princess. I could get Mitta to see the truth she oughta just forgive herself and move on. Ah could get Princess Luna ta see the truth of how out-dated some of her ideas of what's alright and what isn't are. Ah could even get Big Mac ta see the truth he doesn't have ta be in his shell all the time. Ah can get RD ta tell the truth of Discord's day to Cloudsdale! Just like Ah got'er to finally see what a jerk she's been to Derpy, and Ah'll get all these cowards to see the truth! They'll hate me but Ah won't bucking care cause the truth's the truth and shouldn't be--NO!

...

Thinkin' Ah can direct the beast if Ah let her out? Ah know that's a lie. Becomin' a Nightmare is like a fire: light it and it'll burn what yah want it to, but it ain't stoppin' there. It's the nature of the beast.

The truth is, that is what Ah wanted. Ah never liked how most of the rules for Aunt and Uncle Orange's 'proper pony' spiel was say one thing and mean another. Ah told Twili' how Ah was gonna accept 'Cadence's' little white lie and have that be that, and it went and caused all this. Ah hate it. Ah'm a practical pony, Ah know ya can't go sayin' everythin' ta everypony, even if Ah don't like it... Ah can't do it. Ah ain't lettin' Nightmare Mirror loose on the world. Ah ain't makin' it so mah friends have ta worry about another monster. Ah just hurt Rainbow Dash worse than Discord ever could, because everythin' Ah showed her was the truth. That was close enough tah Nightmare Mirror for mah tastes. Ah won't hurt mah friends and family and a bunch of innocent ponies the same way. Not now. Not ever. Ah'm sorry girls, Ah just can't do it. Ah'll just have keep tryin' tah swim tah the surface of this muck she's drownin' meh in and hope yer hooves will be waitin' tah pull meh out when Ah get there. Stay in limbo where ya belong Nightmare Mirror, Ah ain't never becomin' ya, so just forget about it.

+

"I LIKED IT BETTER WHEN WE JUST DID INTROSPECTIVE ONE-SHOTS!" I cried out seeing the nasty and cruel bug ponies bullying everypony. Nopony paid me mind. An invading army? Betrayal? Impostors? When did we become a war drama?! This wasn't right! I didn't feel like the world was piling up contradictions, but everything still felt broken to me. We were supposed to be having the happy ending now! Everything dramatic was supposed to have been solved and we could finally just live our lives! Nothing felt like it needed fixing, but everything still felt broken.

HEH-HEH-HEH. I can fix-fix-fix that. I can make the world right again. I can have this back to a nice merchandise driven little girls' half-hour toy commercial where everything is happy-happy-happy and bright-bright-bright and there's no such thing as hatred. I just need to accept lent power. Hmm. That Nerutrot reference doesn't work well in first person. How silly-silly-silly of me! I should make the whole WORLD silly-silly-silly again! Minty will be herself again! Rainbow Dash will be herself again! Princess Rarity will be herself again! And all the brainwashing the Alicorns and the Draconequi did to all my friends can go away!

...

Stop Pinkie Pie. Just stop. You've already had your 'almost fall into darkness' plot point. Don't go recycling scripts at a time like this. You've got to stay calm. Stay smart. Stay focused. Well, stay on task, keep your mind on your friends, and don't go crazy. And going all 'super nice in a bad way' isn't going to help anypony the way they need help right now either. We haven't done any bad guy fights bad guy plot points and I don't want to be the first one! And if Zecora was here, she'd say,

Don't focus on who your friends were in the past.
Help them as they are in the present while they last.

Right imaginary Zecora. I really need to stop mentioning that plot point every one of my narratives or I'm going to end up flanderizing myself. Alright Pinkie Pie! Think! We're not in a grim dark fic after all! No way the authors brought us all this way just to have a nasty twist ending! Even the Second Age Ponies had their happy ending! There's gotta be an opening now or soon! Find it and use it! After all, the darkest hour is just a part of the story! And we'll get to the dawn even if we have to fight our hardest for it! We'll get our happy ending no matter how long it takes!

+

A tiny star flew into the wedding hall, then exploded in a blinding white flash of light magic.

"PRINCESS RUN!" Twinkle Shine's voice cried out.

Author's Note

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember
Part 10
Then All Of Tartarus Broke Loose
By Alex Warlorn

Everybody loves a wedding episode. Especially one with one point five amnesic gods getting married and a point five one in attendance, a dark god looming in the background, a shadow given life rising to challenge, and the fate of a kingdom in the balance. Oh, and no doubt the mother of all angry explosions when Twilight finds out that her brother didn't tell her he was getting married.

Seen this a million times before right? Except . . . not. While there have been many experiences to the ponies now their timeline has broken away from the Heart World, something is VERY WRONG here.

Things are spiraling out of control faster and faster!

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Wedding-Pt-9-White-Knight-441430356

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Wedding-Pt-11-Explanations-And-Escapes-442045476

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Episode 169: "Escapes And Explanations"

Episode 169: "Escapes And Explanations"

It made no sense when the Hooviets arrived on top of our hive grounds.

This was absurd, our swarm's hive was no zebra's land: legally labeled as 'bad lands' with nothing farmers, business zebra, tourists, or armies could want (admittedly the one of the few things that fat slug was able to do right). It was like Everfree in Equestria, it was quite literally the last place in the world you would want to do anything even as a dumping ground. Our puppet governments and front companies made sure that it STAYED that way.

First we tried to do the most intelligent things we could do: do nothing and let them just do their thing and simply leave. Often trying to cover something up just made something more obvious.

Then they started digging, then they started started exploring the cave. At least they were ignoring the 'giant termite funnels' for now.

Then they brought in heavy equipment, some of my subjects began to complain about the noise.

"What in the world could have brought those filth here?" I asked to no one.

"They must have come for the leylines," Pitcher Plant said like she was reading a script.

"What are you babbling about dear?"

Pitcher Planet showed me a map of the planet's leylines she just happened to have with her.

The leylines map was not the same from last time I check, I know leylines changed slowly over time, like stars, but they had changed completely!

We needed information.

So we plucked one away when it was their sleeping period (or close as the 24 hour operation seemed to get to sleep).

The results were disappointing.

Even for a no face grunt his mind couldn't have been more empty. He had no idea why he had been sent there. He had no idea what he was doing there. He knew he was working for 'Father Deer' and 'The Greater Good' and somecattle named Captain-Commander Blue Crow or something, but nothing SOLID, he didn't even know what the equipment was for and what it was even doing or was supposed to be doing. If this was just a faceless guard I could understand, but this was a technician he didn't even know or understand the equipment he had been working on, like he had been an actor in a play.

"I'm sorry Your Majesty! I do not know!" He apologized profusely in his native tongue. Blech. We couldn't exactly keep him, I know the Hooviets cared nothing for their expendable fodder, but him vanishing might still get somecattle's attention (even if we were in the middle of nowhere and wild animals abounded). Memory erasure spells can never be trusted, but a mental suggestion that this was all a bad dream to somecattle with all the strength of will as a wet noodle who WANTED this all to be a bad dream and dumping him back in bed worked well enough.

And the Hooviets were snooping and digging deeper, it was time for them all to mysterious vanish and spread rumors about 'ghosts' and 'alien abductions' again. Yes yes, we didn't want to risk exposing ourselves, but they were getting too close.

Lines of communication cut. Defenses sabotaged. Changelings in position. Of course I remembered the old saying 'if you want something done right, do it yourself' and was going to take part.

The most garish music imaginable suddenly blared from everywhere (I promised to find the composer and turn him into a husk for the sake of good taste). A giant gold cube in the sky blinked into existence. None of the staff or guards at the site we were supposed to be making cease to exist even looked around or stopped what they were doing at the noise. Was this a trap? I threw it off as paranoia, even if someone had a clue I existed, there were far more simpler and intelligent ways to draw me out.

Then a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder, and in a spray of colored sparkles a mix of unicorn and deer teleported in, wearing a garish uniform weighed down by too many medals. If I had ever been made to perform in a play with such a costume I'd have demanded it burned. Twice.

"MOTHER DEER! Outdated goddess! Did you blindly think that I would not notice one of my men's thoughts no longer being pure in their devoted to the Greater Good?! Your arrogance shall...Huh? Who are you? I don't remember making up-meeting you before." He was shouting in Roedian (I've expanded my language base since becoming Queen).

The Tartarus? He was looking straight at me! This illusion spell was supposed to keep me and the rest of the swarm hidden until we moved! I was going to have a lovely talk with our tactical mage later.

I noticed many of my changelings looking at him like he was a god.

I tilted my head and asked reactively in Zebrafirican at the confusing sight, "Who, what, are you supposed to be? A clown?"

He stared at me like I had spoken in a language he didn't understand, then began to tremble to and sputter like he was about to explode. "Y-you, y-you don't KNOW WHO I AM?! What joke is this?! Everyone should automatically know who I am laying eyes upon me! This insult can not go unpunished!"

I rolled my eyes. "I heard the Hooviet Empire was full of criminally incompetent idiots who had their position because they knew how to say yes to everything they were told, but I never imagined that they suffered from in-breeding as well."

"HOW DARE YOU?! MY PARENTS WERE BOTH GREAT DEER!"

I asked dully and pointed. "Then how in Tartarus do you have a unicorn horn and...blech, is that supposed to be a cutie mark?"

"ENOUGH! I am Grand Marshal Admiral-General Solomon Azure Raven Makarov! Second to only father deer himself! For your impudence creature, you will pay!"

"You're second only to an imaginary leader? Whose your second in command, the tooth-breezie?"

"DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

I considered getting a love-sandwich during his battle cry but I wanted this stupidity over with.

He moved as fast as lightning, I don't think he even really galloped, his hooves simply 'skidded' across the ground towards me, horns lowered. I blocked with my forelegs in time and tried to hold him back with my magic, he just kept coming! His horn fit through through two of the holes already in my legs and inched closer to my eye as I skidded across the landscape as an absurd speed, the pressure would force his horn through my head or make my legs' carapace break first. I lifted up my back legs, spread out my wings, and spun, flinging him off me. He landed flawlessly on four hooves.

"You are as powerful as I though Queen Chrysalis Avalon, or is that Kifuko?"

He's not leaving here alive. "How did you learn that name?"

"Ha! My spy network is infinitely superior to yours!"

"You're lying. You were dumbfounded by us. You had no clue who or what I was when you saw me."

"I was clearly luring you into a false sense of security!"

"I'm an actress, I know that trick, and you weren't doing it."

"Well watch this trick, for it is the last one you will ever see!"

He drew two swords I knew he didn't have before, large golden jewel encrusted hilts of bright white broadsword.

He magically spun them both like drills, then spun them MORE on another axis like they were fan blades, then spun himself like he was a top. How was he not getting motion sick?

"One Azure Raven Two Sword Triple Spin Final Finale Finisher!"

He spun like a dust devil towards me, I tried to dodge but against the laws of physics his course adjusted into intercept me! And I tripped on a stick and fell on the ground. What? I was going to be cut to ribbons by a powered up idiot. Wait...the trees aren't nearby!

I did the only thing I could think of, and threw the stick I had tripped on towards his spinning hooves, he lost control of his swords that STILL managed to both fly straight towards me in a huge arc. I rolled to one side as they stuck in the ground, a sword still cutting a line through the edge of one of my wings. Agh! Could I still fly with that?

Makarov got up, he did not look happy. "You stupid grub! Can't you even die properly?!"

"You're the not first one I refused to die for when they thought I should."

"Yes..." He hissed, getting crazy a look in his eyes. "Yes. Yes! How many have died for you!? How many have died because of you? How many shall die of you?" He seemed to be getting larger. His eyes bore into me. I couldn't move as he stalked closer. What's going on?! I don't get scared easy! "You killed your parents, you killed your only friend, you killed your entire home town, you killed an innocent guest to our universe, you killed the stallion who loved you, you kill your queen, you killed your queen's protectors, you killed an innocent changeling who had already been experimented on so cruelly. Being selfish and killing is all you're good at. You're stupid, your incompetent, you're dumb, you're ugly, you're cowardly, you're weak, you're foolish, you're immature, you're petty, you're childish, you're small minded, you're petty, you're worthless, you're useless, you're just a stain upon MY world that needs to be cleaned up! Everything you've done-"

I head butted him.

"-I've done to survive! I have no regrets! And your voice is so annoying!" I snarled.

Makarov looked at me dumbfounded and shocked, I kicked him between the rear legs, he gasped in surprise and stumbled backwards.

"Yes, I've manipulated and killed! All at breakfast! By the rules of nature, I'll do what I need to to live! What does a brat like you know?!"

"You know I think I'll take your Pitcher Plant and make her my apprentice."

"...I'd say I'd kill you, but I'd already decided to. You're just making noise now."

"Well! Let's see if the noise they make holds your interest! Ancient Zebra Voodoo Zombie Resurrection Vengeance Reaver Black Shadow Death Doom Despair Night Midnight Void Spirit Dance!" Makarov began dancing around nonsensically like somepony who hadn't seen zebra dance magic except from plays.

I realized we were surrounded by grave stones. That was impossible. There were no above ground graveyards near the hive, and I knew we hadn't teleported! The names on the gravestones, were the names of...my family.

Zebra, changeling, and parasprite corpses began to rise out of the ground, along with a big fat bloated changeling corpse that had to drag itself around. There were...many of them.

"You killed us! You killed us! Vengeance! Die! Die! Die!"

"THIS IS ABSURD!" I screamed. "Most of their bodies were never anywhere near here! Or didn't leave bodies!"

"I obviously had all the bodies dug up and reburied before you arrived."

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"Does it matter? Tell me! Do you regret NOW you stupid grub?"

I regretted I was facing a zombie horde. I considered my tactical options. I could try to simply phase through the zombie horde and attack Makarov directly. But that would leave me exposed to the horde behind me, and he seemed the type to have another surprise up his flank. And the zombies were getting closer. So I made the best choice I could think of.

I screamed like a nymph and flew for my life. "HELP ME YOU IDIOTS!" I screamed for my changelings. My flying with my damaged wing wasn't as good as I had hoped.

Whatever had been keeping them from coming to their queen's aid now seemed to be broken as Hercules Beetle flew past me in a blur smashing the head in of the lead zebra corpse, our troops flying right behind in a blur.

The zombies didn't even seem to notice them as they kept mindlessly following after me. You could say they were so focused on vengeance for me nothing else mattered, but if you asked me, Makarov had simply made their programming so simple that they didn't know how to defend themselves.

The zombie horde didn't last long against Hercules Beetle and his troops. Again the Hooviet instillation didn't even seem to react to what was going on plain sight of it. Except for cheering like brain dead idiots for the big brain dead idiot.

"Forgive us former Queen," a drone said as they broke apart the big fat zombie. The rest of the horde didn't last long.

"?!..." Makarov stomped his hoof. "Your cries for help are not supposed to have anyone actually COME to help you!!!"

"Clop you," I said.

"That is it!" He pulled out a nondescript remote with a ball ended antenna and a single big red button he pressed with impertinence. A stock sound beeping filled the air.

All my changelings stopped what they were doing and stood at attention and spoke as one. "We live but to obey the greater good of the Hooviet Empire."

My eye twitched. "The Tartarus?"

"I've had this remote with me this whole time! With it I can control the changeling horde!"

"Then why didn't it affect me bozo?"

"Because you are clearly too stupid for it to work on!"

"How can you even HAVE a remote to control MY changelings?"

"Isn't it obvious? I created changelings species! You all exist to serve me!"

"You didn't have a clue what we were when you saw me or that we'd be here! And I promise that I'm older than you!"

"I was clearly lying."

"It contradicts everything we know about ourselves!"

"Clearly I invented that past for you."

"THAT'S THE BIGGEST BUCKING LOAD OF BUCKING HORSEAPPLES I HAVE HEARD IN MY BUCKING LIFE!!!"

"Whatever. Time for your final moment as it was meant to be, destroy her."

I saw my changelings come at me as one like they were a bunch of robots. Why couldn't they be this obedient with me? I retreated again, and I didn't have a third army to come to my rescue.

They followed me like a second tail, not even trying to second guess my movements or cut me off. Makarov just stood there looking smug. I fled from my own army as they closed in, I managed to make a huge circle and get closer to Makarov. I grabbed the remote with my magic and pressed the button again and crushed the remote.

"HEY! You're not supposed to do that!"

My changelings stopped what they were doing and blinked confused before falling on her knees begging for my forgiveness.

"Formation!" I snapped and they obeyed.

My hive and I swarmed together, buzzing about him randomly every which way.

"ROYAL RING!" I hissed as we swarmed, transformed, then landed in a circle around the idiot.

Makarov found himself surrounded by a horde of myself. "Now try to guess if you can," we said together as I had had Hercules Beetle drill into them.

"HA! You think this could possibly fool me?!" His eyes got this glowing color look to them. He struck one of the changelings in the circle, who fell down from the powerful force of the blow, enough to crack their carapace.

"B-but!" Said myself on the opposite side of the ring. "but, there's no way you should have been able to tell us apart!"

"Pst! Not to one who has awakened and enlightened their sense of magic it is not! You are all just ignorant and blind to true magic!" He said self-righteously.

Then the changeling he struck flashed green and revealed a normal changeling drone.

Makarov's jaw dropped. His eyes twitched. "B-b-b-but, t-t-that's n-n-not, i-i-i-it, it CAN'T!" He death glared at myself, who had been the one speaking.

The other changelings on myself's right and right burst into flames revealing normal changelings until only myself remained, who looked left, and right, then took a step back, gulping.

Makarov screamed incoherently. Makarov's mane turned gold, his eyes turned blue, and his coat becomes lens glare purple, all surrounded by a faming aura of power. He practically flew at me, fore hoof raised, "MAKAROV.... PUNCH!"

He struck myself square in the fact, smashing me into the ground so hard it created a small earthquake.

Makarov looked rather pleased with himself and breathed in and out as his colors returned to normal.

Then the broken queen he had struck burst into flames and became a drone (who'd I infused with my power, having figured there had to be a reason I seemed to be the only one aware of all this insanity).

Makarov momentarily lost the ability to speak.

I changed back into my true queenly form and got up, and fired a beam at full power straight at his exposed back. The impact somehow created a giant cloud of dust. A giant robotic suit of armor that looked like it could change into a something else flew out of the dust clouds right at me with two blazing thrusters on its back.

"AAAAAAGGGGHHH!" Makarov screamed from inside the cockpit, eyes pin pricks.

I shape shifted to a zebra, and did a forward flip over the super weapon (I had gotten used to the unexpected from him at this point, though my wounds were beginning to pile up and made it difficult) and changed into an Earth Pony as I landed giving one thruster a hard kick that sent it flying off and exploded for seemingly no reason a moment later. I was thrown off and landed hard as the mecha suit began spinning out of control and crash landed creating another explosive cloud.

Makarov leapt out of the explosion much farther than a deer should have been able to leap and landed without any seeming damage to himself. I wish I could say the same, my exoskeleton was cracked in several places and I think my ribs were bruised.

"I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU AND YOUR STUPID TAROT OF HUNGER LETTING YOU DEFY ME! YOU'RE STUPID! YOUR SPECIES IS STUPID! U R STUPID! STUPED! Super-ultra-mega-power-ninja-samurai-captain-angel-demon-" he began making swift random poses as a power ball built up between his horns. "-heaven-hell-vampire-werewolf-light-dark-creation-destruction-erasure-big-bang-final-finish-ending-the-last-sunset-sunrise-bug-smasher-giga-cowboy-robo-" I buzzed towards him as he continued posing and punched him hard in the face. He lost balance and fell over, the twisting purple-red-whatever ball of power among his horns hit the ground, and exploded. It knocked me back, a lot back, along with my changelings.

I managed to stop myself from crashing into anything, I worry about my changelings later. the column of power went as high as the sky and deeper than Tartarus. The wind died down and the pillar of magic slowly shivered up and flickered out. Makarov dragged himself along, now he actually looked hurt. His uniform was a mess, but not vaporized like it should have been, and he should have been for that matter. You think he'd have at least blown his own head off with that one.

"PERISH DOG!"

Horseapples!

I barely put up a barrier as a horncannon bigger than his own head appeared out of nowhere and fired. And it still went through my barrier, only stopped enough to pierce my hide and send me flying a good ways away before I managed to recover instead of going straight through me. I had to dodge it a few more times before I barely managed to shoot it out of his grip. I think that the round that hit me fractured a rib on top of the fact I now had a gunshot wound. Wait, I have an exoskeleton, why do I even have ribs?

He yelled another overly long name, producing Rosedust knows how many swords. I just barely managed to dodge a trust that would've pierced my heart if I hadn't moved (the fact it cut through my hide like butter and left a wound assured me I needed to move, and quickly).

By the time I managed to send out a shockwave and blast them out of his hooves, I'm not sure how much uncompromised exoskeleton I had left!

He charged up a horn beam and fired it with another overly long name I couldn't hear over the drum of it powering up and I countered with one of my own. His overpowered mine and I had half my mane blown off before I could dodge!

His blows could crack Changeling armor, his weapons could pierce it. He'd overpowered me physically. I realized that taking him head on would be the biggest problem. I'd have to outsmart him and out think him to have a hope of winning this.

He spoke instead of screamed, "I, had enough of you, this is your-"

"Oh shut up!"

= "Endless Possibilities Instrumental" - Sonic Unleashed =

I buzzed towards him, randomly zig-zagging as I went, going below the grass as I did so like a lion would.

"Ultra-Raid-Omi-Bug-spray-canon-" He whipped out a backpack with a flame thrower like nozzle. I changed into a pegasus and dove into the sky burning through magic to heal my wing and landed on the back of the device, spilling it contents all over him, making him red eyed and his body began to involuntarily spasm as it seeped into his skin.

"Changeling poison is deer poison?!" He exclaimed as he took out another giant sword holding it in his HOOVES somehow, "The Pegasus-Slayer of King Ididntmakeup-" I landed and turned into a unicorn and stabbed him with the sword using my telekinesis. He touched a button on a belt he hadn't been wearing before. "Anti-unicorn magic shield-" A shape change into an earth pony later I kicked him in the gut sending him flying backwards. He touched a dime store looking amulet he was now wearing, "The stone of protection from all ponies, usable only on this night every hundred years, you can not-" I introduced him to zebra style kick-boxing and knocked that amulet off which dissolved into thin air like all his toys were. I didn't know what the buck he was. I didn't care. He wasn't going to win. "HA! Now you will see the ancient sacred deer technique of anti-equine jutsu, that no equine, pony or otherwise, can possibly-" Jaguar claws sliced into his pretty face, "AAGH!" I changed into zebra again, saddled his neck, applied pressure in the just the right way, and one of his antlers broke clean off at the base and kicked him in the face and he landed on the ground.

"Help us."

"Kill him."

"Please! I want to die! Kill us!"

I heard a chorus of voices that seemed to be coming from INSIDE his head.

Oh well, might as well oblige them.

I shifted to my royal form, and stabbed him in the chest with my horn and sucked the flank-hole dry. Wait. What?

He had no love to suck! No! It was like I was trying to bleed blood from a stone. But that insane! A deer as narcissistic as him had to have a gigantic amount of self-love! It would taste like sucking raw lemons and be unfilling, but it would still be there! This was not possible! Everything sapient creature had some trace of love in them!

Wait! What?! A robot?! That's even more possible! This had not been a robot a nano-second before!!! I swear it! The robot exploded in my face and knocked me to the ground, giving me third degree burns! I got back up and I was stabbed in the side by a red coated deer that I KNEW hadn't been there a nano-second before either.

I saw Makarov several dozen yards away, looking not harmed in the least and with both antlers. "I'm through with you, Tarot of Hunger!" he yelled. And I admit it, he'd suddenly sounded intimidating. "Activate the anti-transformation emitters! Good thing I have been working on these for years!"

"But that makes no-" I heard myself exclaim for all the good it did as tesla coils I knew hadn't been there before in a large circle activated creating a red magic dome.

"But sir, wasn't this supposed to be your death dome emit-" The red coated deer asked.

"It's my anti-transformation emitters! I am my death dome emitter!"

"Yes sir."

Makarov looked at me with hatred, absolutely pure hatred, but I didn't feel any from him, like he was just going through the motions of what he thought hate was. Or maybe I was too distracted from having an explosion in my face, being stabbed, and the shock of feeling my magic suddenly not working. Or the fact that his teeth were now sharp and his eyes slitted like a dragon's.

I groaned from the shock of having my energy short out. "What the Tartarus are you?!" I asked, a horrible fact finally occurring to me. I'd assumed I'd been dealing with a mortal. And I was wrong.

"CONCEPT OF HUNGER! THAT FLAWED STATUS MAY HAVE PROTECTED YOU FROM ME SOME, BUT NOW THE LAST THING YOU'LL SEE IS MY TRUE POWER!"

This wasn't like his previous boasts. His voice had changed into something not of this world and a bright, unholy light was coming from his throat. It sounded less like a child boasting and more like a video game stating a concrete fact.

Makarov then pointed at me with one hoof, which seemed to pulsate with countless things under his skin, and screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice now sounding like a legion, "YOU, SISTER, AND ALL YOUR KIND WERE GASSED TO DEATH!"

-

I'd rather not describe what happened next thank you. Just know that even I consider it too cruel a fate to bestow, maybe, and believe me, that's saying something. Suffice to say, there were no corpses. It was like myself and my changelings had simply become ghosts. There wasn't any proof of any gas had been used besides every creature we drew near mention it even if it made no sense for them TO speak about it.

If Makarov could still sense us, he didn't show it. Since we were technically 'dead' according to Makarov's fiction, at least we weren't going to starve to death.

Our livestock was even more confused, knowing we had 'been gassed to death' but had no idea why they were still alive since they'd have logically been gassed too if that was what happened. I didn't bother to see what the Hooviets did with them.

I slowly managed to piece together what Makarov was, or at least how he functioned, and what he was not. Of course I tried to kill him, several times, but being a intangible made that annoyingly hard.

My changelings, loyal to the end, continued to gather information, it actually proved easier with them and myself now being basically living ghosts. Unfortunately, since that maniac had twisted existence nine thousand different ways, a great deal of it turned out to be worthless after Shining did us the favor of erasing him from existence. I won't lie, as the Blank Wolf tore that psycho's existence to pieces and sent him to Oblivion, I cheered for Shining.

When time and space repaired themselves, I was the only one in my swarm who even remembered our time as living ghosts, let alone that fool had ever existed, or his Empire.

And there were those empty shades...can we please not talk about them please? I can still feel their hooves in my nightmares.

But we weren't really dead. Because those events hadn't really happened, but Makarov twisted fate to insist we were. So it created a paradox in reality. Fate hates paradoxes.

But it came with a surprise gift, none of my changelings could do it, and it took a while for me to realize why I could and they couldn't (and also why Makarov's powers hadn't affected me).

In this faux state between life and death, I began to learn, no, I began to remember my larger self.

Being disconnected from the world, I began to see things my changelings couldn't, I began to move in directions my changelings couldn't. They thought I was going mad, I thought I was going mad (considering our situation, it was a reasonable assumption). But I wasn't breaking, I was growing.

I saw possibilities, and I began to be able to travel up and down events, I was still a 'ghost' unable to change anything, but I could see and hear anything if I knew where to look for it. And I traveled up and down the lines of possibilities too.

I saw myself, I saw a path where Makarov, where the Hooviets themselves had never even existed, where deer had taken on the path of the viking warriors instead of 'greater good' imperialists. And I saw myself fail, utterly, twice, in my quest to take Equestria, and to exact my revenge on the ones who had stolen my victory and ruined my beautiful plans, worthless bridesmaids.

Mind numbingly oblivious ponies, going from terrified of a changeling about to clobber them to casually trotting along their day in moments as my changelings were scattered and splattered on Canterlot's walls! Seriously, how did we lose to these idiots?

Wretched talking Pinkie Pie costume.

In the alternate worlds, I saw myself making Twilight Sparkle the new changeling queen as I died and she made all Ponyville her hive. I saw myself turned into an earth pony for Celestia's sense of 'justice' in a world where my changelings were mindless beasts. A world where I was the FIRST changeling, the Princess of Hearts and Hooves Day. A world where I had been one of Commander Hurricane's officers who had objected to the new peace she embraced, and was turned into a monster by that filth Discord and turned to stone with him. And a LOT of worlds where I ended up heavily injured, and nursed back to health and learned to 'love' from their kindness...There was also this odd world where Cadence and I had a truce of sorts (us both being legally married to Shining) and I had moved in with Shining Armor and her as we both put up with his idiosyncrasies. Oh, and many worlds where I had a daughter, Pupa, born brain damaged and deformed, loved me more than life itself. THEN that world I was de-powered (but still a changeling queen) and put under house arrest in Twilight Sparkle's library and made, blech, FRIENDS with a retarded puffy pink pony who made Pinkie Pie look smart. Sure she had enough love to taste from the void, but me? Makes friends with such a brain-dead thing? Pathetic!

I saw a world where Maua somehow took my 'condition' upon herself while I became a normal Zebra. She killed Cocoon to took over the hive out of kindness for the Changelings she saw suffering and gradually went insane and she launched her own attack on Canterlot in a twisted attempt to fulfill my foalhood dream for me and I tried to save her from herself with the help of PONIES. Do I wish I lived there? Pst. Sorry to disappoint you but 'Kifuko' can KEEP her Zebrahood if she wants it so badly. What's the point of anything if you don't win it for yourself?

...Y-Yes. That...that's the only reason...Maua.

And I finally remembered my life from before I was born. Who I had been, what I had lost. but why didn't I feel anything? I vowed to repay Pandora for this existence in full.

And, a world where a much more mundane and unexceptional version of myself was given memories of my actions within the heart world, and broke down crying saying 'I'm a monster who didn't deserve to live!'

Disgusting. Weak-willed crybaby!

If all it took was some memories for a version of myself to abandon my ambitions, then I could not allow myself to risk becoming weak! A wild beast doesn't need a conscience.

Surprised? Expect me to fall on my knees and regret everything I've done? I'm the same ling who sang a song with the lyrics 'no I do not love the groom, in my heart there is no room.'

One of the best pieces of advice that anyling can be given for life is 'no regrets' and I embrace it full-hearted. Concepts cannot feel regret, predators cannot feel remorse, and I devour love, but I don't let myself be controlled by it. I'm a savage! Wild and free!

'Monster who didn't deserve to live?' My whining self said? I haven't begun! Blood would boil and souls freeze before I'm done!

Ahem.

Yes. After much self-contemplation following these revelation, I came to the realization I had set my ambition FAR TOO LOW before. And thankfully, I now had the knowledge to make my new ambitions a reality.

+

A tiny star flew into the wedding hall, then exploded in a blinding white flash of light magic.

"PRINCESS RUN!" Twinkle Shine's voice cried out.

Total chaos only began to describe the bedlam that followed.

Even not counting the guests being bullied by Chrysalis' soldiers, there were over two dozen ponies present who found themselves smacked by the light spell, and some guests tried to make a break for it, for changelings to try and catch them, heroes and villains alike caught off guard by the random surprise.

Confusion and disorder filled the wedding hall like a flood, no pony had a clue or a chance to coordinate with anypony else. To call it complete insanity would be an understatement.

Ponies and changelings alike crashed into each other, many reduced to following the sounds of their companion's shouting and hoping they weren't following a changeling. Hercules tried to bring order to 'his' troops, but someone crashed into him, he didn't know who, but to be fair, they didn't know who they crashed into either.

"ESCAPE MY LITTLE PONIES! ELEMENTS-" Celesia's Royal Canterlot Voice shouted, undoing what regeneration the magic parts of her brain had done, and fell truly unconscious.

This gave the chaos the tinniest sense of direction. Ponies struggled to obey the command of their Princess, clogging the exit with their bodies, the pegasi guests blindly took the windows already opened for them by the changeling guards who shifted back to their pegasi guard form and flew after them.

This chaos wouldn't last, as the guards themselves struggled to subdue or restrain the ponies (not harm them of course, they were valuable livestock). All changelings knew mental magic to some degree to make victims and livestock behave, but it was close range, and soldiers were the least adept.

The groomstallions, loyal to the end, tried to grab their captain and run for it, but found him 'safely' in the wings of the queen. Sweetie Belle grinning triumphantly between the queen's legs like she was in a pillow fort. She held the less responsive Spike like he was a teddy bear.

"The Princess just gave an order, follow it through!" Cherry Coke (birth name Cherry Fizzy) ordered the others, Caramel and Note Worthy carrying Banjo, Caramel hoping he'd see his girlfriend in Ponyville again.

Prince Blueblood was wondering WHY he hadn't abandoned his cousin and just fled with Arcane Spell on his back. Instead he was helping and pulling his fellow nobles and not-noble ponies through the doorway before the changelings could finish cowing them all, helping more get away and uncorking the double doors. Arcane Spell lay on her side out of the way of the stampede, having a hornache in her whole body from her barrier being on the business end of the queen's magic, slipping in and out of consciousness.

Moonshine Sparkle didn't want to move his wife through this melee with all four of her legs in pieces, but he didn't want them to have their love eaten out of them or whatever these monsters would to them if they stayed here. Did he abandon his children without a second thought? Never. But he knew better than most just how powerful his foals really were. If this monster had enslaved them...He still felt like filth leaving them, and hoped they'd forgive him. He wondered if this made him cowardly fleeing with his wife while his children were under mind control right in front of him after his bride had been crippled by the wicked witch. 'If we stay, we'll end up enscrolled like our Shiny and Twiley, if I try to fight, I'll end up broken like Starlight, kids, please forgive me.'

Chrysalis wanted to order Shining Armor to put up force fields to prevent the cattle from escaping their pen, but one glance showed casting that spell on the spot all on his own had not left him in the best of shape, and she couldn't afford to have her prime battery permanently damaged. She considered trying to deal with things herself, but found her vision too blurry from the light spell practically exploding in her face to focus and she herself was still recovering from her battles and forcing the spell. She didn't want to risk accidentally damaging her property while they still had a job to do.

Lyra let out a blast of high frequency sound magic at the changelings who tried to simply fly over the crowd, it was nowhere as strong or as effective as magic from Cadence, but it bought them time. 'Seven of us, couldn't one of us have been a pegasus?'

"Applejack, help get the cattle herd under control."

"Ya bet yer Madjesty! Ah'll do mah best! Yee-haaa!" AJ, still wearing her dress but putting on her hat, grabbed a piece of decorative cloth and used it as a make-shift rope, and began to lasso and hog-tie guests so the guards could use their rudimentary mind magic to convince the guests that running away would only get them more hurt, but was thankfully somewhat hindered by her eyesight being blurred from the light blast.

Two blurs in the space of a blink of an eye came next to Cadence, showing to be,

"Minny! Twinkle!"

"Don't ask me ever to do that again!" Minuette said looking none too good and her horn dim.

"Cadence! You have to get out of here!"

"NOT WITHOUT SHINING! LET ME GO!"

"Minuette!"

"What?"

The mass of changeling guards leapt to tackle them from all sides.

"DO IT AGAIN!"

Burning through mana she didn't even know she had, Minuette distorted time for three mares just long to squeeze through the doors, and blacked out from the exertion and pretty sure she had micro-fractures in her horn. She regretted ever researching this spell.

"Twinkle Shine! Let me go! That's an order!" Cadence looked ready to break Twinkle Shine in two.

"Princess Celestia out-ranks you! I don't think Canterlot needs a THIRD princess being put out of commission in five minutes!" Twinkle Shine snapped back at her princess.

"I don't care! Shining! Twilight!"

"Aren't going to be saved if you get taken out too!" Twinkle Shine couldn't believe they were debating when they should be running. Minuette picked a fine time for a nap just for doing a near impossible spell twice in a row. "These ponies need Princess Cadenza right now!"

"HEY! Put me down!"

"You don't sign my paychecks yet princess!" Lyra said, her and Twinkle's 'noise wall' of light and sound wasn't going to keep the changelings away for long as Lyra helped carry the princess.

"GET BACK HERE!" General Hercules Beetle declared plowing his way through (unwitting creating a nice wake path behind him). "What in the name of Rosedust?!" In all his life, he never thought he'd end up sumo-wrestling a giant walking lemon.

"Keep'em there!" Lemon Hearts ordered.

The Angry Mommy Lemon grunted obediently as Bon-Bon and Moth carried the princess away to relative safety.

"By the way Princess, it was the REAL you who approved me being your bridesmaid right?"

"You're Lyra Heartstrings?"

"Reporting for duty as soon as soon we're away from the big ugly bugs!"

Moth flinched at the words.

Moondancer wished she could do more, but if these changelings guards or the queen saw her here and now, her use as a bluff was over. She was stuck much further down the hall playing 'look out' and 'decoy' telling 'guards' who came to 'help' that Her Majesty didn't want them bothering her and she could handle this one on her own.

The Flutters threw off a Changeling who made a grab for them thanks to Fluttercruel's self-defense training, using him to knock down another group of them to open a path so she could try tried to simply grab Twilight and run, forcing her into a melee!

"Oh you want to try to kidnap me?! This is perfect! I've always wanted to do a 'from the inside out petrification' spell with my eyes closed before!"

'Okay, on second thought, maybe fighting the most powerful unicorn alive one-on-one isn't very bright!' In particular with that the butterfly was back in Ponyville. The Flutters back off and made a dive for Applejack.

'A moment later I was reminded that while Rainbow ranked # 2, White # 3, and Pink was all over the scale, Orange was pat down the physically strongest of us. My offensive style didn't leave much space for defense. 'Kicks McGee' introduced itself to our stomach and we went flying out of the wedding hall doors.
+

At the same time, I magically drew every jewel nearby towards me, I was ashamed and ill at damaging my dresses (and probably those of several of Canterlot's nobles), but Sweetie Belle was being held by that witch that had destroyed the wedding dress I had made! She was damaged from fighting Celestia and the other mare, and weakened from the spell that repelled Luna and her army, maybe she was vulnerable!

"Now now big sister, be good," My Sweetie Belle said. No I hadn't stopped caring about her!

I kept one eye on her as I fired every beautiful projectile right at the openings in the Queen's carapace. Sweetie Belle looked at me smugly, and her eyes glowed greener. The witch's wounds from before all healed she caught my jewels in her own magic, she seemed to admire that I'd been aiming directly for the open wound.

Sweetie's eyes glowed brighter as she wobbled, and the Queen's magic sent my beautiful jewels back at me. A pink blur grabbed me out of the way and began going in the WRONG direction!

"Pinkie Pie! Let me go! I have to save Sweetie Belle!"

"I hate being the pragmatic one!" My friend cried out as we continued to go the wrong way. I stopped her rear legs with my magic but she just began bouncing on her other front legs. This couldn't be happening! She was right in front of me!

+

AJ may have been stronger than me, but there was no way in Equestria that she was faster than this blue pegasus!

+

Total chaos. Well. That's what everypony says we Cutie Mark Crusaders cause anyway, so let's get to it and show Dash I can-WAIT WHAT! Silver Tongue! Let us go!

Silver Spoon wailed, "Sweetie Belle!"

Applebloom shouted, "Applejack!"

"Spike!" I cried out for our friends. Sweetie Belle. Spike. Applebloom's big sister. We all struggled against the adult's grip as he ran away with us! Run away? RUN AWAY?! NEVER AGAIN! NEVER AGAIN! NEVER AGAIN!

There was no telling what that witch was gonna do to her! I could help this time! I had to help this time!

"Applejack! Come with us! Ya can fight 'er!"

Applejack looked at Applebloom, sadly, "Ah'm sorry, Ah can't."

I slipped out of Silver Tongue's grip and made a mad dash for Sweetie Belle.

"If you wanted to join your friend, all you had to do was ask." The Queen said, her eyes and horn beginning glow, she held me in place with her magic and forced me to look in her eyes. H-her e-eyes, so, beuti- Rainbow Dash did a perfect square turn from Applejack and grabbed me out of the Queen's grip and flew out the door. "Rainbow Dash!" I yelled after shaking my head as I felt that witch's talons get ripped out of my brain. It'd felt like she was trying to force my brain open.

"What did I teach you about picking your battles?" Rainbow Dash said as she held me close. She sounded really upset.

+

As much as I HATED to admit it...I didn't know how to save Applejack YET. Even if I DID grab her and knock her out, I had no idea what to do to save her right then...But I DID know what I could do to save Scootaloo right then. Who am I kidding? There wasn't any planning, I'd saved the squirt before I knew what I was doing.

Yeah. I choose to save Scootaloo instead of trying to grab AJ. No. I wasn't scared of getting another taste of truth, I'd endure that if it meant saving a friend. But my body reacted on its own. I saved Scootaloo before I even knew I was doing it. It wasn't the logical choice to make. A brainwashed filly compared to Applejack was a reasonable trade right? It was the best move for Equestria...But it wasn't for me. My body had just moved.

+

A lot of ponies got away. Shame that filly got away, it would have made Sweetie so happy to have her. Eh, not like I had time to give the orange filly the quick and dirty enchantment like I did my now broken little pawn.

Tee-hee! But what did it matter? Hehehe. The city was mine! Canterlot was mine! And Equestria would be soon to follow! There was nothing any of them could do! The city was enclosed in a giant shield I controlled! there was no escape!

I rolled on the carpet like it was soft grass. I could do whatever I wanted! I was queen! HEHEHEHEHHEH!!!

LALALALA! A winner is me! They lose. I win. End of story. HA!

I barely remembered to have Celestia cocooned right there in the wedding hall until I could set myself up in the throne room and have her there with me as the cocoon did its job. I'd need a changeling to raise and lower the sun and moon after all.

Finally Equestria's former ruler came around. I told her what I had planned for her, and Equestria, nothing detailed of course, just what destiny she could look forward to, and her ponies that now would belong to me.

"Your scheme is full of holes. You think Canterlot is the only city in Equestria? You think all of the royal guards are in Canterlot? You treat this like a foal's game! Surrender, no harm will come to your people, it has been centuries, medical magic has advanced greatly, we could cure your people of their sickness."

"You actually thought I'd take that offer?"

"No. Ponies like you never do. But for the sake of those who think you'll give them a bright future, I had to ask." The cocoon was doing a good job of keeping her motions and magic numbed, it annoyed me how she somehow managed to speak through the cocoon, maybe I'd lock her in a closet somewhere if she got annoying.

"Do you think I just impersonated Cadence? And planned to play 'queen of the mountain'? YOUR royal guards are busy. You have no idea how many years I've been planning, in detail, how to undermine your kingdom for this day! I've been having Spike sending messages to your guards to make we aren't disturbed. You know Long Haul? He's a Changeling, named Digger Wasp, I think it'll be more fun if I let you twist that healing brain of yours trying to figure out if there ever was a real Long Haul or not. Hehe. He's presently captured your communications room and sending an all clear signal twenty four seven?"

"Your plan is still insane. You think none in Ponyville will notice your swarm buzzing around it, or what occurred with my sister?"

"Funny you should say that."

+

"And remember not to panic, Her Majesty is just shooting an action movie in Canterlot at the same time as the wedding," said the 'royal guard' to the Ponyville ponies, "So please, do not panic, and do not wastes your guards' time with false alarms."

This was a GREAT RELIEF to the Ponyville ponies, they had been certain it was 'Doom To Ponyville part 4' after they had seen Luna and the guard flying overhead.

+

"They WANT IT to be the answer!" Chrysalis declared as she spread her wings dramatically. "They WANT there to be nothing wrong! They WANT THERE to be nothing to worry around for ONCE! They WANT IT to be okay! They WANT IT to be just a grand performance by Princess Luna! You think I just threw an army together and came here?! I have prepared for EVERYTHING damn you! Your back-up and contingency plans are in the dust now!"

'And my little glance at the Heart World had certainly helped,' the queen thought.

"And you don't fear Equestria's allies? You are arrogant."

Chrysalis shifted into Celestia. "Don't you mean -my- allies? -HA!-" She said in Celestia's voice.

"You're insane to think you can maintain such a farce indefinitely."

"Who said ANYTHING about it being indefinite? I just need it to last long enough for me to-Oh you sly mare, you almost got me saying something important."

"I try."

"NOT AS HARD AS I HAVE!!!" Chrysalis hissed. "Your armies and operatives will be wondering like headless snakes long enough!"

-

"Do you think it weird that Princess Celestia last week before the wedding in Canterlot told us to reinforce Equestria's boarders and to hold communication silence until contacted? When pretty much every one of our neighbors is an ally?" Asked one guard pony to another.

"Meh. The Princess is weird."

Unknown to them, the rest of Equestria's reserve army was at other parts of the boarder wondering much the same.

Meanwhile in Neighpon, Columbia, and other nations. Senior members of the Equestria secret service were undercover spying on an individual as instruction by their Princess, except these subjects were OTHER spies from the Equestria secret service. As per their top secret mission given by Celestia in person.

-

"Of course, some are smarter than others, others have been bred to be more dangerous than others."

"I don't bred my ponies like they were dogs."

"All the same, some were too dangerous to keep around."

"If you've-"

-

Baseplate and his men sighed as they hung upside down in the big green pods like meat in a giant freezer. Along with several other 'special ops' guards. They had been sent with need to know instructions from the Princess herself, then ambushed from all sides, including within.

"Sir, it really is a pleasure serving under you," said one of the bug ponies who turned out to be an infiltrator in his unit. "Maybe Her Majesty can be made to see you'd serve the swarm a lot better as a warrior rather than just cattle. With all this love to spare after we conquer Equestria, I KNOW Her Majesty will be more lax about how many cattle we can upgrade into people! I'll love to continue to serve under you sir. Our unit has many traits Her Majesty admires."

"Shut up Lady Bug, I never want to speak to you again, traitor."

The female changeling shrunk back. "D-Don't worry! I'm sure you'll come around! Our Majesty's special policy: waste not, want not."

-

"I hate to waste good stock like you Princess, the amount of love you'd give the swarm would rival my little song bird." Sweetie stood with pride. "But my Equestria will still need to have the sun and moon raised. You'll be happy to comply once you've gone through some modifications. Do you think I was keeping you around just so we could chat?"

"Wow Princess! You get to be all mutated and stuff! Just like a super hero!"

"Yes Sweetie Belle how...nice." Celestia sighed.

"Can I be upgraded too Your Majesty? Please please please? I'll be a good changeling!"

"Later my dear. I don't know if you'll be as good a song bird as you are now if you were to be uplifted since changelings can't feed off their own love. We'll iron out the details afterwards."

"Okay! I'll do my best!" Sweetie Belle saluted.

"Go have some cake."

"Whoopie!"

"You're filth for violating the mind of a foal."

"Oh please. I haven't hurt her at all. The brain is a machine that can be programmed like any other. From atomic particles to DNA, to flesh, to a cluster of nerves to chemical encoding and some electrical sparks. There's nothing sacred or magical about it. Free will is an illusion. It's all just programming. Programming I can hack.

"The brain is nothing but a mass of chemical and electrical reactions. All you need to do is understand it well enough. Know when to just manipulate it, other times to smash it and rebuild from the ground up, other times to hot wire it, and other times, other times...when it just needs the slightest adjustment to do what you want. Sometimes, all you need to do is rearrange their priorities. Personality, memories, beliefs, emotions, all can stay exactly the same."

+

I wanted to tell her 'you dare speak like that to somepony who SAW life evolve?' That there was so much more to my little ponies than that. That the brain was only a computer being controlled by the REAL thing. By their soul that comes from My Mother. That THAT was the seat of free will and everything that made them them, not the mass of flesh in their skull. I wanted to laugh in her face at her being so intelligent and yet so naive to the TRUE nature of things...but in that moment I realized there was a weakness the Queen had left for my little ponies to exploit. One weakness that no matter how intelligent she seemed, she just proved she hadn't yet grasped she even had. Even if I was sure she wouldn't listen, I had no intention of giving up one of the only trump cards we had left on purpose or on accident. I wasn't about to tell my enemy how to fortify herself further.

+

"I've spent most of my life building Equestria. Teaching my ponies and raising them above the level of the beasts! You will not destroy it, nor how it exists in the hearts of my ponies."

Chrysalis glared and spoke in High Equestrian. "Just because I need you doesn't mean you're unexpendable. I'd rather not rule a land half-frozen and half-scorched. But accidents do happen, that I can tell my changelings, and my changelings will enjoy the sky even if it's a perpetual twilight safe between the extremes."

Celestia's eyes widened.

"You've spent you entire life building this domain Celestia? I've spent my whole life preparing for this day. I will neither hunger nor bow to anyone ever again. And I promise Princess Celestia," A crimson x-shaped glare reflected off one of Chrysalis' eyes, "That I will break what you've built, and these animals you think are people, Piece! By! Piece! Until they're reduced to the wandering herd animals you found them as."

+

I was horrified as I realized truly what kind of monster I was facing.

+

"OR MAYBE!" Chrysalis grinned insanely. "Killing you is what you WANT! Maybe I SHOULD do it! Just to show I'm not all bad!" She grinned wider, still speaking in High Equestrian. "You'd get to see your family again freed of your prison of flesh! Maybe you could even do some fate horseapples and create some chosen one to try and ruin my changelings' future."

'Mother. Father. She knows! But how? What is she?!'

Chrysalis was almost frothing at the mouth. "And just think! All it would cost you is leaving your sister all alone, broken ,or blinded by revenge, and crush your subjects' hearts into dust! YES! YES! MAYBE I SHOULD DO IT!!!" The Changeling Queen halted, her body stilled in a predatory stance, blinked, wiped her face, breathed in deep, and seemed to calm herself. "Well, we'll see how things go."

"You've certainly given this more thought than most like you."

"There are none like me. I'm alone."

Celestia gave her a sad, but furious look. "There are always ponies like you."

"I'm no pony. And I'm getting sick of hearing you trying to get a rise out of me. You think I couldn't tell? It seems to be my fate to be surrounded by arrogant swine who think me a lucky amateur, no matter what I accomplish!" Chrysalis nearly went into a fit as she said the last line, and kicked Celestia through the cocoon, not breaking it but, the Princess feeling the impact. "Morons!"

"My queen?"

Chrysalis took a deep breath. "I wondered when you'd get here Kabuto."

"May I examine the unicorn filly?"

"Ask that again and I'll cut out your tongue."

"Yes My Queen."

A very energetic looking Changeling drone flew into the room and fluttered around Applejack and Twilight as the two brainwashed ponies stood silent, examining them with a magnifying glass attached to an armature that seemed grafted to his skull. "Fascinating, so these are two of the Bearers? Which ones?"

"Honesty and Magic," his Queen replied.

"I see, quite interesting. Mind if I take a closer look at them?" he asked, a gleam in his eye akin to Twilight Sparkle's when she was about to perform an experiment, but his smile was more akin to the Smartypants Incident.

"No, Kabuto. I still have use for them, even if this one has little use at the moment," the queen said, putting a hoof on Applejack's chin.

"What a shame, I had this delightful little experiment planned involving electrical shocks for Honesty here. And she's an Earth Pony, about the only type of experiments the worthless things are good for. It wouldn't be lethal..."

"What kind of experiment?" asked Twilight, looking disturbingly interested.

"Well, Magic, it's seeing how powerful Honesty's natural tendencies to tell the truth will last against electrical conditioning."

"You're right it's good she's an Earth Pony, otherwise you'd kill her long before that happened," the purple bearer replied, though her eyes seemed sad in a sharp contrast to the rest of her face. "May I suggest dissecting my horn to analyze how it differs from a normal unicorn's?"

"Hmm, interesting idea, Magic."

"Her name's Twilight, mine's Applejack," recited Applejack.

"Noling cares, Honesty."

"Our parents did."

"Well I don't."

"At least yah are honest about it..."

"Knowing you, you'd find a way to kill her somehow. Your lab is being set up, be a good little scientist and do your job and just maybe you can have one of the Bearers once I'm done with them."

"Oh! Could it be Kindness? I think you'll find the experiments I planned most entertaining. They involve Irukandi Jellyfish."

"Oh, that will be interesting! Pegasi stings are really rare!" Twilight said.

"I know! And most of my test subjects are husks by the time they get to me, so I'll be able to record the emotional responses this time! I do wonder how much pain it'll take for her to begin hating the creature!"

"You might need some scanning spells to gauge that correctly."

"Hmm...I'll need a sedated unicorn for that..."

"I could do it, unless you want to dissect my horn first."

Chrysalis tapped her chin. She gave a chuckle at the look on Celestia's face hearing her prized pupil reduced to this. "Sounds quite tempting, but we'll have see."

"As you wish my Queen, I'll let you know when I'm about to begin particularly fun experiments!" he said, looking around the captured ponies like a kid in a candy store.

Chrysalis sighed. "You'll have time for games later Kabuto. Unless you had some meaning to have come here for besides to try and get your hooves on new toys, I suggest you get back to work. Now."

"N-no, of course not! I mean, I merely wish to congratulate you on our smashing victory!"

"Thank you. Now go."

Kabuto scurried out.

Chrysalis looked at her slaves. "If he does anything to you without my permission, pull his wings off."

"Yes Your Majesty," her property echoed.

+

Captain Pipsqueak, -really Rear-Admiral but captain sounded cooler, was sailing the high grass sea with his crew on their mighty ship the Moonbeam (that's what they agreed to call it this week).

Endlessly searching for unknown lands and unknown ponies, with his trusty crew, his first mate Moonlight and...whatever they needed to be at the time: Miss Dinky Hooves, Miss Ruby Pinch, Miss Orange Top...he sure hung out with a lot of girls.

He was also going to hang out with more now, since Tootsie Flute, the foal looked after by both Bon Bon and Lyra Heartstrings, was now going to become the fifth member of his crew...did he count as part of the crew? Would that make her the sixth shipmate?

His new crewmate kneeled on her rear hooves with her front hooves forward on the ship with herself blind folded.

"I, Tootsie Flute, in the presence of the great goddess of the night," she took off the blindfold, "But Pipsqueak it's daytime?"

"Do not question the oath neophyte!" Moonlight boomed.

"R-right." She put the blindfold back on,"Herby Pinkie Promise most solemnly and sincerely that I shall serve my captain, my ship, my crew, my princess, and her kingdom, most faithfully and loyally. To Her Nightesty's will and her protection, if it's within my power, I shall work towards most readily. And hinder those who work against them.

"All these points I solemnly Pinkie Promise to observe without exception, under no less penalty than my mane shaved bald, my cutie marks scrubbed away, my tail dipped in glue, and fed to Card-Sharks in the deepest great ocean, so help me Her Nighesty."

She took off the blind fold and stood up. "So you guys wanna try the voice changing candies I borrowed from Bon Bon's cupboard? The CMC wanted them to be cutie mark crusader voice artists, but Scootaloo was saying that if they had to cheat then it couldn't be their special talent. They're really good!"

"Uh...did you mix those into those cookies you brought?" Ruby Pinch asked suddenly nervous."

"Naw, Lyra copied down a recipe that was supposed to open a gate to the world of humans from a shop that was only in town for a day, but she copied down one for chocolate chip cookies by mistake."

-

Meanwhile at Sugarcube Corner!

"Honey, is Pinkie Pie back from Canterlot yet?" Carrot Cake asked his wife.

"No dear I don't believe so."

"I was afraid of that," he signed as his foals played pattycake with some bald monkey versions of themselves on the other side of a trans-dimensional portal that had popped out of the oven.

-

"Wow these are good!" Said Dinky chewing on one.

"Well we suppose we could try-" Moonlight cried out in pain, and fell to the floor of the wooden toy ship.

"Moonlight! What's wrong? Where does it hurt?" Pipsqueak asked his best friend.

"I..." She looked scared and worried, "I was just...that's..." She looked at all the foals around her. "You don't need to worry about it. It's not anything you need to fret over. I promise, I'm alright, everything will turn out okay." She slowly got up. "Can I please try some of those cookie now?"

+

Hello! We Happy Cat Tribe! We wuv you! We believe wuv is for everyone everywhere! Nice to meet you! Would you like some cake? It's so delicious and moist! Of course we're not fibbing! Who'd lie about cake isn't nice person at all and needs lots and lots and LOTS of wuv!

We hear funny whistling noise. Wow! New friends fall right out of the sky! Looks like part of the sky fell out of the sky to be our friend, all the pretty stars. She's brought lots and lots of friends too and kept them close to her! Some look like cute-bat! Some are dressed up like the soft yellow rocks we have in the castle basement! Others are wearing purple, purple is bestest color!...Besides pink! the color of our potential goddess!

The big one's horn glowed and so did the other ponies! Oh! And suddenly there was lots and lots of snow for her and her friends to land in! How nice! We almost never get snow here!

Oh my. New friends are hurt! They have BIIIIIIG boo-boo! We help them! We get Happy Cat Tribe Doctor! We give first aid and love! Bandages and love! And of course...iodine. They makes everyone want to get better much faster after we put some on.

Piece of Sky have really good vocal cords, ears won't stop ringing.

One of the Birdie Ponies looks sad, we give him hugs, maybe he not know we like him? He has brilliant gamboge for coat, and pretty blue eyes and for tail, hair, and eyes. He looked at the piece of the sky as we continue to patch them up. They see they need to go in a hurry. Too bad. Maybe they come back with more friends to love!

"Princess Luna...do you know what it's like to try to protect someone, to be a hero, but never being able to?" Ask Orange Birdie Pony With Blue Mane.

Wait, Princess Luna? Didn't the potential goddess say something about her? Something really important?

"Trust us our little pony, ye art better off NOT being a hero, it's a terrible burden indeed."

+

Do we feel guilty that we tried to kill the Queen? No. Keep in mind, before our greatest folly, the Griffin Kingdoms were at war with us for a long time before we finally claimed peace. We do not blame our sister for hating the taking of a life, she IS the Sun, the life giver. It's in her very nature to value life and not want to take it. It's her nature to give second chances.

We, on the other hoof, AM the night, the moon, cold, ice. We love life, don't get us wrong, we learned our lesson that life is a special thing long ago. But we also are not as merciful as our sister because of OUR nature. Whereas Celestia learned from our Paradise Estate family that many villains can be reformed, we learned that some must be destroyed. That true monsters DO exist and must be stopped. Chrysalis had attacked our sister, brainwashed several good ponies, and was currently launching an invasion of our capital. And if we engaged Chrysalis in an honorable face to face fight, our ponies could have been hurt or killed.

Our sister Justitia once said there are many forms of her. Saving a soul or sending it to Havoc to prevent more lives from being lost are both forms of justice.

We tried to decapitate the snake. Our sister's mercy reigns us in many times, but we're able to act decisively when she isn't. We balanced each other. We assumed because my sister had already fallen, her way had failed and we could only try to do things our way. If we'd succeeded, Chrysalis would have been the only one in that room that our attack killed. Our sister is not a precision attacker, we are. Fitting, isn't it? The sister who's powers could decimate a city in seconds has her powers tempered by compassion and mercy, while the sibling who's equally strong powers are more focused and precision has the use of those powers enabled by pragmatism and a willingness to kill one to save a thousand.

No, we don't feel guilt for trying to slay the queen. We feel guilt that we was not five seconds sooner so our little ponies wouldn't have had to suffer.

Author's Note

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember
Part 11
Explanations And Escapes
By Alex Warlorn

Everybody loves a wedding episode. Especially one with one point five amnesic gods getting married and a point five one in attendance, a dark god looming in the background, a shadow given life rising to challenge, and the fate of a kingdom in the balance. Oh, and no doubt the mother of all angry explosions when Twilight finds out that her brother didn't tell her he was getting married.

Seen this a million times before right? Except . . . not. While there have been many experiences to the ponies now their timeline has broken away from the Heart World, something is VERY WRONG here.

Things are spiraling out of control faster and faster!

THIS CHAPTER WAS NEVER INTENDED AS A PERSONAL ATTACK ON ANYONE OR ANYTHING.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Wedding-Pt-10-Then-Tartarus-Broke-Loose-441701157

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Behind-Enemy-Lines-442459596

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Do any parts here seem like they'd fit better in a chapter with more room?

Episode 170: "Behind Enemy Lines"

Pony POV Series
Wedding Arc
Behind Enemy Lines
By Editors and Alexwarlorn

(Interviewer's Notes (Dusk): The following events happened concurrent to the events you already know. These notes were taken by my sisters while I was...sadly assisting the Queen in her plans. This happened shortly after the wedding rehearsal as told by Rarity.)

I was simply sowing dresses, as per usual. Huh? No my friends have long realized that constant demands are not a good idea. It's normally me nowadays that decides to make changes up until the last moment.

"Uh, excuse me," said a voice behind me. Manecunian accent if I'm not mistaken.

I turned to see a Pegasus stallion. Judging by his armor, he was a member of Princess Cadence's portion of the Guard. Purple is an interesting choice for the color, looks quite regal with the white fur. Seemed to be off duty, since no helmet covered his sky blue mane.

"Hello there. I hope this isn't about what happened earlier at the rehearsal, we've settled the matter."

"Huh? What? Uh, no. I don't believe so. Unless I have amnesia and I haven't hit my head in over six months."

He paused as if expecting a laugh...I gave a small, polite giggle instead of the more fitting face hoof.

"You're one of the Bearers, correct? Generosity?"

I blinked. "Yes...I'm honestly surprised you noticed, all things considered. It's normally something most don't realize."

"Really? Huh, well you see, my fiancée Garnet said you six were here, she met your friend Pinkie Pie earlier and I'm on Captain Sparkle's squad so it's kinda hard NOT to hear about his baby sister saving the world three times."

Fiancée. Of course. Why can't a nice stallion ever come to me single and looking for a fillyfriend? Oh well.

"Ah, I see. Well, if you're looking for an autograph, you might want to look for Rainbow Dash darling. Normally I'd love to, but I'm a bit busy at the moment."

"No, Miss, if I can have some of your time, I was...more looking to talk to you about a project of mine..." he explained, seeming a little nervious about talking about it.

"...Is this about a stage play or video game based off our lives?"

"No...though admittedly I'd like to have one of those in the guard lunge."

"Rainbow would agree with you, she's been wanting one since we beat Nightmare Moon. A book then?"

"Warmer...uh, let me show you, Miss."

A few moments later, the stallion, named Running Gag, was showing me what appeared to be Neighponese Manega sketches...of me kicking a cyborg monster in the head. Though credit where it's do, even in body armor and kicking flank he made me look fabulous.

Yes, I was busy, but I was interested. And I can always make time for helping others. Plus he was a Guard. We might be the ones to stop things like Discord, but that doesn't mean I don't respect what the Guard does for Equestria enough to give him some of my time.

"So you're making a manega about us? That's quite flattering."

"Well Miss, you ARE the closest thing Equestria has to superheroes, so it was either you or the Princesses and they've already got a lot of Manega based off them."

"I see..."

I was thankful he'd not chosen to do us in the style of Sailor Luna.

"So...uh, what do you think?" he asked, looking just a tad nervous. Hard to blame him, he was showing something he'd made of us to me. I can appreciate your nerves getting to you

"Well, the armor could use a little work to better suit us, but otherwise looks fabulous. Your art is actually quite good."

"Thanks, Miss. I'm sorry if I didn't get your style right, all I could guess was Applejack was a brawler from stories her cousin Ellis in my squad told me, Rainbow was fast, and Twilight has very powerful magic."

"Actually you got me fairly well, though I would have kicked him in the knee first, then the head, that way I could take him off guard with the finishing blow. My style is is about making more calculated moves."

He raised a surprised eyebrow. Most people are surprised at how well a fashionista like me knows how to fight.

"Oh, and Fluttershy is a pacifist, try researching styles that involve making the opponent hurt themselves rather than you hurting them or perhaps give her an alter ego who's more willing to engage in fighting, would fit her much more."

All in all, it was fun to learn SOMEPONY saw us as heroes. While I'm not about to use it as a gravy train, having every noble forget we've saved the world three times can be irritating.

"Thank you for your time, Miss Rarity," he said, packing up his manega.

"Oh it was no problem, darling. It's the least I could do for one of our stallions in armor after all you do for us."

He seemed to enjoy hearing that. I'm glad nopony who does good for its own sake deserves to be pushed aside.

And groanworthy jokes aside, Gag was a nice stallion. His fiancée is a lucky mare.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Our notes didn't just touch on Twilight and her friends without us there to control what it wrote down. They found their way to another set of good-guys in this whole mess. The following happened while Chrysalis was being revealed at the Wedding with Garnet Chambers.)

I was simply doing my job. I'm a medic, even if I know how to fight as well as the next Guard. Thankfully, it'd been a slow day. Only Bumblebee coming in with some bruising and a broken leg...it was odd, he said he crashed but I noticed ash on him. I questioned him and he said he'd crashed into a unicorn whose spell misfired. I wish I could say I hadn't heard of weirder injuries. Considering Gag gets attacked by a cat on a regular basis, you can imagine how weird it can get.

Gag...I took my engagement ring out of my pocket (Earth Pony rings were quite large to fit on our hooves, but it still fit) and looked at it.

I missed Gag. I hadn't seen a lot of him for the past few weeks. Having the excuse to tell him about the Bearers was a blessing. For one reason or another our schedules always seemed to butt heads. Same with Ellis and Thunderchild, it was like fate (or our CO) was trying to keep us all apart. Audience was out of Canterlot on some sort of assignment. Seemed a lot of Black Thistle ponies had been, actually. Captain had said they were needed if things got violent with one of our neighbors, but I doubted it'd come to that. We hadn't spent two years spreading love and tolerance for nothing.

Not to mention the main country we could be worrying about was Columbia, and they were a close ally (so were the Buffalo). I can understand setting up a watch, but something just seemed off about it...

Thankfully, tonight we'd set it up. We were planning to meet at this restaurant near the castle. It was so odd: our schedules seemed to suddenly clear up tonight. Like fate hadn't bothered to keep us apart any longer...

Then I noticed the shield fall outside the window. "Captain?" I asked outloud, what was going on? Captain would let himself fall unconscious before he'd lower the shield when Canterlot was under threat. Trust me, I've treated that stubborn unicorn for overexerting himself. Several times.

Then the shield expanded outwards, and felt it pass over me...and then I saw Princess Luna and guards be hurled into the distance. So many of them.

I staggered back in horror from the window, shaking my head in disbelief. "What the hay?!"

"Hey, Stag, I heard something in here!"

I heard somepony call. I hid in a pantry. Yes, I know it could've been friends, but with what I just saw, I wasn't taking chances. As far as I knew I'd just seen several hundred ponies DIE right in front of me...but for some reason, it missed me altogether. So forgive me if I needed to take a moment to analyize the situation.

I peaked out from a crack in the door to see two guards walk in. But they didn't carry themselves like guards, they looked like they were the Termaneator looking for his prey.

"Nothing here, Stinkbug."

"You know I hate that nickname."

"Then take a bath sometimes."

I thought I'd seen them around the area somewhere. I did remember a guard that hated taking a bath any more than absolutely necessary. Stinkbug seemed like a good name. I could smell him from where I was.

"Can we PLEASE just get out of these stupid disguises? The Guard just got thrown out of Canterlot, who are we HIDING from?"

"Yeah, the invasion started, the guard is gone, the cattle are stuck in this dome, go for it. Her Majesty will never know."

In a flash of green fire...what the hay?! Only my medic and military training let me keep my head on straight in the whole mess.

I saw two black bug ponies standing in the infirmary, blue eyes in their ugly mugs.

"What do you think happened?" asked Stinkbug.

"Don't know, but Her Majesty must have changed the plans. Not that I'm complaining, less hustle. Hercules Beetle might not be happy. Big guy was really looking forwards to protecting Her."

So this was some kind of invasion...Then it hit me...what if...Gag...Ellis...Thunderchild...

I HAD to get out of here...I had to make sure they were okay. I had to make sure the captain was okay...I had to do my job as a guard and a medic.

I'm not the team's strongest fighter. I could probably take one of them, but two against one were not odds I felt like I could take by myself. I needed some sort of weapon. Even in combat situations medics generally aren't too heavily armed and I didn't know how tough their body armor was, and from my position it seemed to cover most of their vitals. Even if I wasn't a pony who had 'thou shall not kill' written into her DNA, I knew a knife probably wouldn't be enough. On top of that, stabbing with a knife equaled spilled blood, and as far as I knew, I was in occupied territory. They resembled some form of predatory species judging from the fangs, so it was highly possible spilling blood would alert others that one of their own was wounded (Griffins had been known to track wounded enemies with less of a wound), and I was alone. A knife didn't seem like a good weapon to use...Then it hit me.

I looked around found some needles and tranquilizers used to sedate patients. Small enough point to fit through the opennings in their armor, would only make a tiny hole with very little if any blood. Even if it didn't put them to sleep quickly it'd probably slow their movements. I looked at the two closely, figuring out their probable size and weight. I have a medical Cutie Mark, figuring out how much medicine to give somecreature quickly comes with my special talent. It's REQUIRED to give someone anesthetic or tranquilizers without killing them.

I filled the needles with how much I FELT it should take to put these lugs to sleep for a few hours. Thankfully they were turned away from me.

I snuck out of the closet (Gag knows how to be sneaky even if he doesn't look it, and he taught me a thing or two). I looked over them, finding where the plates met. Using my medical talent, I aligned a proper location. And yes, I knew this might not work, but I had to TRY. I still had the knife as a back up.

I quickly jabbed one in between the plates on Stag's back and injected him, quickly taking the second needle in my mouth. "Youch!"

I ducked as they spun around and injected Stinkbug in the neck (ugh, and almost threw up, the guy lives up to his name) with the other needle. I quickly pulled my knife with my mouth to use defensively.

"What? A guard's still here?!" Stag asked, lunging at me.

Unfortunately, in real life, tranquilizers aren't instant, but they still acted fast enough that after I ducked under Stag's lunge and dodged a few strikes or parried them with my knife, they began to slow down enough to even the odds for me. I dodged a lunge from Stag's horn and used his own momentum to drive him head first into a wall (standard counter for a unicorn charge). Stinkbug jumped at me, fangs bared, but his reaction time was dulled enough for me to mule kick him in the chest and launch him into the ceiling (thank the Princesses for Earth Pony strength).

He crumpled to the ground, and I caught my breath before I restrained them, including gags to stop them making too much noise. I took a moment to examine them. Natural armor, it seemed... with lots of little holes? The armour was pretty solid, though. It appeared to be some sort of magically reinforced and scaled up insect exoskeleton at first glance. Judging by the jointing and their size, they likely had a true endoskeleton as well for support.

On closer inspection the armor seemed to be made up of fine fibers like silk. I tapped it, and it seemed that where I struck, the fibers bonded for a moment, becoming a thicker plate. It hardened on impact? That meant a larger blade might bounce off trying to stab, but a fine needle would either not have enough force behind it, or slip between gaps....

I snuck over to the door and peeked out into the hallway, seeing more of these monsters wandering around, some chasing ponies. However, while some had dropped their disguises like these two, some where still disguised as Guards and tricking ponies (I realized that because the guards would be attacking the invaders to give the civilians a chance to flee if that many were still around, putting themselves on the line for them).

I hoped that'd be enough to hide me as I stuffed Stag and Stinkbug in a closet, grabbed a few needles filled with tranquilizers in a medical bag (not the most practical of weapons, but it was the most effective weapon in my reach at the moment) and headed out, doing my best to act natural and not to draw attention. It seemed to be working.

Protocol said in an emergency situation, regroup if at all possible. The only place I COULD think to regroup with the others was head to outside. Even Thunderchild wouldn't head back to the barracks or armory and most of the bugs seemed to be heading for the Wedding Hall, if the Captain was in trouble, there wasn't much I could do alone (and yes, I HATED having to admit that!). It made strategic sense to get out of the heavily enemy occupied territory.

Plus looking out the window, it seemed these creatures were maintaining their disguises outside the castle, so if nothing else, it was safer there than where I was now.

Gag...please be okay...I don't want us to end up like Ranger and Sunset...

Come on come on. It was almost time to meet with the others for the first time in a long time. Especially Garnet. Can't wait to get to the wedding chambers with her. Come on that one at least a little funny! ...Seriously though, I can't wait for our wedding day, can't come soon enough.

Why is it bad luck decided to pick on ALL of us for a change instead of just the captain like it normally does? Seriously, we'd had our schedules butting heads so much they might as we ll be written by a goat! I'm lucky Garnet managed to see me and tell me Rarity was in town. That was a rarity of a chance wasn't it?

But now we'd finally get the chance to meet up again all together and congratulate the captain on his big day. Audience should be back in the next few days too, then we can have our own post wedding party.

During the wedding itself, I was just on patrol around the castle, waiting for my shift to end, when something seemed to cause a bit of a panic. I'm not sure what happened, but it looked like it was coming from the wedding hall. I noticed at least a few guards starting to reorganize themselves, some looking that way and acting nervous. I noticed some Earth Pony seem to sneak in the front door while they were distracted, but before I could say anything, the Captain's shield went down, then went out again, passing over me. I saw a couple of the guards get sent flying right in front of me!

Garnet...Oh Celestia please be okay. Guys...

Come on, Gag, keep it together. You're a guard. You've got to keep your head on straight....oh please let Garnet and the others be okay.

I noticed a couple of the guards who HADN'T been thrown off looking around panicked. The bigger Pegasus smacked the smaller one in the back of the head and motioned for him to calmly walk over to a closet. Okay, I might not be the BEST guard, but even I know that's NOT what you do in a situation like this.

I quietly snuck up and listened silently with my sword ready. I needed to see if I could figure out what was going on. I didn't have time to panic.

I heard what sounded like some Zebrafrican language. One I hadn't heard before...probably from an area we hadn't visited or an older language that got replaced by the common tongue.

It's hard to describe what it's like when my special talent kicks in and starts teaching me a new language. The best I can describe it is that when I listen to someone speak a language I've never heard before, my brain starts piecing together how to speak it for myself. It's kinda like putting a new game into a console and powering it up, but the screen is all fuzzy and needs focused. It starts out as just babble, then a few words make sense, then a few more, then I can see the whole picture. That's as best way I can describe. Yeah, it sounds kinda freaky, but it's just how I've always seen the world.

For a few moments the conversation was just nonsense I couldn't understand...then...

"Why...talking...Changeling?"

"Because...is going on...Her Majesty....This wasn't part...the plan. We can't...the Cattle understand what we're saying..."

"What should we do...it?"

"We should begin rounding up the cattle before they realize what was going on."

"But what about the Guard?"

"From the looks of it, there isn't a Guard, there are only Changelings."

"Aren't we Guards?"

"You know what I meant dummy!"

Okay...didn't expect that...but only 'Changelings'?...Remember: take advantage of stealth whenever you can. There isn't much better stealth than 'enemy thinks you're one of them.'

I knocked on the door and opened it. "What's going on?" I asked, intheir language. After all, what better way to make them think you're one of them than speaking their own language? Regular timberwolf in sheep's clothing. Or rather sheep in timberwolf's clothing.

"Gag? You're one of us?" asked the little one, I recognized him as House Fly, another Guard. The big one was Golden Scarab, once more, another guard. Dang it! This is like Invasion of the Pony Snatchers, isn't it?!

"Yeah, but noling will tell me what's going on."

Most people don't consider it that, but slang and figures of speech are part of language. When I first talked to a Columbian Griffin I understood cloaca means flank, droppings means horseapples, and buck still means buck unless you're talking to a Deer. Besides, it isn't THAT hard to guess a species called Changelings would use ling, considering replacing pony with your native species seems to be the default. Kinda punny how the world is, isn't it?

"It seems the invasion hit a snag, but we're moving on as scheduled."

"So I just focus on rounding up the cattle, right? Where should I take them?"

Yeah, that ALSO means I knew cattle means 'everything that's not one of us.' Flattering. What do they call actual nonsapient Griffin cattle? Cattle of the cattle?

"Digger Wasp, or Long Haul as you might know him if noling told you, said that we're to get them to safe areas where they can't run until we can set up processing areas, but if you find any ones without a lot of love to eat take them to Kabuto for research... If you have to."

Unfortunately, my talent does not inform me of who the hay they were talking about, but I knew who Long Haul was. He was the chief of security. Dang it! He's one of these guys?! Or got replaced by them or...ugh, which alien invasion story am I in right now?

I also noticed they said 'Kabuto' with disgust. Geez, a guy even the alien invaders seem disgusted with? Not a good sign.

"Alright, I'll get on it faster than a grasshopper eats grass."

Huh, not even a giggle...

Leaving the room with the two, whatever the hay they were, I saw some civilians, Musk Deer, walking around the castle looking scared out of their wits (which is a perfectly realistic way to act, given the circumstances). "I'll get these guys, you two try to just do your jobs, okay?"

Golden Scarab nodded and went off with House Fly to do Celestia knows what.

I walked up to the does. "Are you alright?" I asked, trying to look the part of a sensible, concerned guard instead of screaming 'run for your lives' at the top of my lungs.

"Yes, thank goodness there's a guard...What's going on? The castle's crawling with monsters!"

I nodded. "It appears there's been some kind of attack, please follow me," I said, leading the way till I knew we weren't being watched. "Do you know Roedinian?" I whispered.

"Yes..."

"Good, now listen closely. You need to run and hide somewhere with your friends. Do NOT trust the Guard...except me. At least some of them are the monsters. I don't know what's going on, but they're trying to round up the normal creatures...Don't act like you're panicked, try to be calm, alright? Don't let them know you're onto them."

Once they were heading for safety, it was my turn to get like a tree and leaf.

Okay, think...clearly if something is up with the Captain, which obviously it is, the Wedding Hall is probably too dangerous to head for...Now, if the others are still in Canterlot, the only place I can think they'd go is the restaurant to meet up. No one knew we were supposed to meet up but us. Once we were there maybe we could figure out what to do...I hope.

I'm coming, Garnet. Please be okay.

You know, Ah remember when me and AJ were just foals. She'd always keep the grown ups makin' so many apple fritters at the get togethers Ah think everypony lost count! Even for an Apple the girl's got an appetite! So does Heath, actually. And those two rowdy ladies sure are competitive. Those two havin' an eatin' contest is almost a tradition now...Now she's saved the world three times. Dang, things have changed in the two years Ah've been gone...

Hehe...Ah've got a million stories about the family. Ah can't wait for the next Apple Family Reunion tah learn more. Why do Ah learn so many? Because family is what we Apples are all about, and Ah got a good memory. Mah granny says Ah get it from her. That's how Ah kinda became an unofficial storykeeper for the family.

That and mah family is pretty crazy sometimes, hehe. It'd be a shame not tah keep a memory of 'em.

Tah be honest, while Ah was lookin' forwards tah seein' the rest of the squad later, what Ah was really lookin' forwards tah was gettin' some off time tah catch up with mah kin. No offense tah the others (they're mah second family almost), but Ah've had the past two years with 'em, Ah hadn't had many opportunities tah see mah family again. And wouldn't you know it? Four of 'em were right here in Canterlot. Gonna have to stop by and see ah family's farm sometime too as soon as Ah get the chance.

Ah got tah talk with AJ, Applebloom, Apple Fritter, and Peachy Sweet a couple times but all involved were kinda busy. It was odd, last time Ah saw AJ, she said something about 'keep an eye out for green eyed monsters.' Ah don't know, just felt like an odd thing for mah cousin tah say given the circumstances.

Gotta say, Applebloom's got some nice friends. Who'd have thought she'd be friends with old Silver Axe's daughter? Yeah, Ah know 'em a bit. The Riches are family friends of the Apples and he's a family friend of the Riches, Ah met him a couple times when Filthy Rich stopped by some of our reunions.

Anyway, Ah'd actually just got off mah patrol in the middle of the Weddin'. Yeah yeah, Ah know. Mah shifts were pretty odd. Won't let me off for the weddin' but will let mah shift end in the middle of it? Come on!

Oh well. Ah decided Ah'd head back tah the castle tah meet the Captain and AJ as they came outta the weddin' hall. Hope this doesn't turn out like our cousin Sour Apple's weddin'. See her ex-coltfriend got real jealous of her marryin' another guy. So he showed up right when the priest asked if there were any objections. Well long story short Sour Apple threw an apple pie, he threw one back, and the Apples are a rowdy bunch sometimes so one thing lead to another and tons of pies went flying. And Heath and food fight ended up equalin' 'flaming pie'...again. Heath never did attend a weddin' where somethin' didn't get set on fire somehow. In the end Ah arrested Sour's ex and she still got hitched, just covered head tah hoof in apple pie.

As Ah came up tah the castle, Ah noticed some of the guards lookin' like they were doin' a guard change or somethin'. It was kinda odd tah see that many at once. Not 'somethin' ain't right' odd, but still not somethin' you see everyday.

However, the Captain's shield suddenly goin' down out of nowhere? That was 'somethin' ain't right' odd. And then came the scary part.

The Captain's shield spread out. It passed right over me, but Ah saw Princess Luna get sent flyin'! Along with...a lot of the guard...

The Apples might be mah family, but the guard is another family! And now Ah was buckin' worried Ah'd just lost about half of them.

About the only good thin' about it was seein' Luna look like she was tryin' tah rescue them but even then...Ah won't lie, that scared me.

And then it hit me. Somethin' must be goin' on at the castle...Applejack, Apple Fritter, Peachy Sweet, and Applebloom. They were in the castle!

Ah galloped up tah the gates, which weren't as heavily guarded as Ah thought they'd be.

"OOF!"

And Ah ran head first inta...

"Gag?!"

"Ellis?!"

"Gag, what the ha-"

He put a hoof over mah mouth and shushed me.

"Come with me," he said, leadin' me out of the castle. Ah woulda objected (Ah did outrank him), but when Gag ain't jokin', you know somethin' is up and he seemed tah actually know what was goin' on.

Once we were out of sight, he looked tah me. "Long story short, we're being invaded, and right now we're losing."

"Inv-"

He shushed me again. Ah got the message. We were being stealthy. "Invaded? By who?" Ah whispered.

"Some kind of monsters called Changelings. I copied their language. I don't know what the hay they are, but right now they're winning. From the looks of it, they took over the castle and are posing as the guards."

Yeah, it sounded crazy. But we'd fought a Nightmare Moon cult and a fear demon, mah cousin and her friends had kicked the flank of three mad gods, and our leader was a weirdness magnet. Ah was reminded of why Ah'd come runnin' tah the castle. "Gag, mah cousins are in there!"

"And so might be Garnet...I hope she is."

"....Gag..." Ah muttered, tryin' tah think of what tah say. What could Ah say? The guy's fiancée tah be could be dead right now...And so could mah teammate.

"...We need some kinda plan," On one hoof, Ah was the Corporal here, but on the other, Gag knew more about the situation than Ah did and had a better track record of quick thinkin' under pressure than me. We're a squad, knowin' when one of us is best for the situation is part of our trainin'.

"...Okay, here's my plan. You go to the restaurant and wait if Thunderchild or Garnet show up or keep watch leave or head for the castle, assuming they're still in the city, and I'll go try to get your cousins and Garnet and regroup with you there."

"What?! But they're mah cousins! And Ah outrank you!"

"I know that, but please, just listen to where I'm coming from, Ellis. Who has a decent amount of stealth skills?"

"...You."

"Who's capable of speaking their language and can pass for one of them?"

"...You..."

"Look...I know how you feel, but I have a better shot of getting them out of there than you and no offense, but your entire family stinks at lying."

Ah hated tah admit it, but he was right. Applejack's the stubborn as a mule pony...Ah'm only a little stubborn, and mainly when the words 'too much explosives' are involved...And Ah ain't Element of Honesty, but Gag was a much better liar than me. And somepony had tah wait fer Thunderchild and Garnet if they went tah restaurant (which made sense, it was the only place in town right now that only the four of us knew we were supposed tah meet at, and even if they didn't, it had a good view of the castle and the main road so Ah could keep an eye out for them).

"Come on, Ellis, trust me. Remember in Zebrafrica with the Fear Demon?"

He'd been serious then...he'd pulled through for us then big time. He'd shown us we could count on 'me when the chips were down.

"...Alright, Gag...Ah trust you."

He nodded and gave a kind smile. "Don't worry, I'll be back faster than you can say 'he's back'."

Ugh. Ah face hoofed. Then we went our separate ways, me hoping he'd come back with mah family and our friends.

Cousins...please be alright until Gag can rescue you...Garnet, Thunderchild, Captain...What happened to you?

I had a lot of reasons to keep my eyes on the sundial. First off, me and the others would be meeting up as soon as our shifts were over for the first time in weeks. I mean I was having a good time checking out the view (Wonderbolts were evidently having some role in the wedding, and I could see them practicing from here...wingspan and all), but I missed seeing the others. It was bad enough I was missing my best friend's wedding, but it was like the brass was trying to keep us apart. Not to mention I hadn't been able play my lightning guitar in weeks with my schedule so screwed up. And no, it isn't just noise! I've spent a long time practicing that thing. I can see it now 'Retired Guard Now Rock Legend Thunderchild', just kidding! I'm not that obsessed with it, just get tired of creatures thinking its just noise. Garnet said it's something to do with Griffins and Pegasi' ears being made to take louder noises due to the speeds we can fly at but personally, I think it sounds cool.

But that wasn't the only reason. She was here.

Fluttershy was in Canterlot. Yeah, I know how the Captain and Cadence feel about me and her...but I really think I'm in love. I 'window shop,' a lot, but she's the only girl I've ever really thought about being serious with. This could be my only chance to actually meet her for awhile and I was going to take it...It was weird, I was never nervous about talking to girls, but right now? I had butterflies in my stomach thinking about finally meeting her face to face...I wonder what she thinks of guitar solos...

Unfortunately for me, was at the castle...and I was most decidedly not. I'd tried to get duty at the wedding itself so I could at least get to see Shining and the Princess tie the knot...no such luck. Ellis was the only one who'd gotten off during the wedding itself, but even he got out in the middle of it. Seemed like we were having luck as rotten as Gag's jokes when it came to assignments lately. Come to think about it, it seemed the brass was making a lot of choices I don't really agree with recently. I don't know if it is the Princesses or the higher ups in the military, but they seem to have their wires crossed or something. I brought it up to the Captain and he said he'd take care of it though. I trust him, I just hope they'll listen to common sense.

In fact, I'd ended up being put halfway across the city. Well, as close to isolated as Canterlot ever got.

"Carpenter Bee?" I asked, looking back at the only other Harmony Guard here.

"Yes, Sergeant?"

"Any sign of this threat we're supposed to be on the look out for?"

He shook his head. "No Sarge, everything is going exactly as it should."

I sighed. No, I didn't wish it'd been otherwise, I might be a bit impulsive, but I'm not stupid (even if everypony seems to forget I have a degree!).

Of course he had his brother Killer Bee here with him. Lucky fellow. I didn't know any of the other ponies here at all really, except Carpenter and this unicorn named Weaver. A Lance Corporal if I remember right...

Speaking of which, she seemed nervous for some reason. That wasn't like her, she was a tomcolt most of the time. "You alright, Lance-Corporal?"

She nodded slowly. "I...I think. Just...I can't help being a bit on edge with this whole 'unknown threat' thing..."

It was easy to forget sometimes that not everypony had gone against fear demons and Nightmare Moon Cultists when your boss attracts weird stuff like Gag does bad jokes.

Even with Discord and Nightmare Moon, most of these guards had never seen a real conflict. Let me rephrase that. Most of them had never seen an actual war. There was peacekeeping, there was taking down criminals. There were the Article 1954 events like that Tartarus demon and its cult the guard helped the Princesses beat while we were on the world tour. But they'd never seen an actual war as in 'two countries trying to kill each other.' And to be honest? I think it's better that way. I might be willing and able to kick flank, but I don't ever want to have to pull the trigger on another pony. I know Audience is trained to as a last resort, but even he feels the same way.

Hope the guy isn't too bored right now without us. It just felt wrong one of us being that far away.

"I gotcha," I told her. I was the superior here. If I had to be hard on them, I was hard on them. If I had to be reasonable, I'd be reasonable. And right now, being reasonable was what she needed.

She nodded slowly. "Y-Yes Staff..."

"Don't worry, Princess Cadence spent two years trying to keep things peaceful and Equestria has plenty of allies.

Suddenly, I noticed the shield going down around Canterlot. "What the buck?"

Okay, I knew the Captain. I'd been with him the longest out of any of us (Audience knew him longer, but Shining had been in the academy a decade before Audience enlisted, so there was a big gap between them I didn't have with Shining). And I knew one thing: there was a better chance of him passing out or dying than him lowering that shield of his if there was something inside it he thought needed protected. Something wasn't right.

Horseapples!

The shield flew back up, throwing Princess Luna and guards away in its wake.

I did the only thing I could think of and jumped in front of Weaver (the pony closest to me) and used myself as a shield, hoping to take some of the impact for her.

I didn't need to, the shield just passed over most of us, but some of the guards got sent flying clear out of the city.

I flew out and tried to at least help, but they were already out of range before I could go after them! Clop it!

"What the hay just happened?!" I demanded as I flew back into the room.

Seriously, what the hay?!...Take a deep breath, Thunderchild, you're in charge right now, keep your head. Now you need to be serious. Luna looked like she was pulling the guards towards her, so maybe she'll keep them safe...I hope...

Carpenter's radio came alive. Dang things were still way too big for my liking, but still dang they were useful...wait, I had a radio, why was he getting called?

"Yes, we're all still here...Thunderchild too...All right, I'll handle it..."

He looked up at me. "Sergeant, we're to hold our positions and continue as we were doing, there's been an attack."

"Hold our positions?!"

"Her Majesty's orders, sarge."

I grumbled. If there'd been an attack, holding our position made sense if they weren't sure about the specifics...but everypony....were the others okay? And yes, I was worried about Fluttershy. She was in the castle!...So were Garnet, Gag, Shining, and Cadence...

"Fine...let me know if anything changes, understood?" I ordered. Yes, Thunderchild is being serious. Of everypony in the room right now, I was the highest ranked during an emergency situation! I HAVE to be serious for their sake.

But the truth? I was scared out of my wits. I was worried to death about my friends, my fellow guards, and about my hopefully future fillyfriend. I didn't want to follow these orders. But I knew they made the most sense in this situation.

Carpenter nodded and I looked out in the direction the ponies had been thrown. I hoped they were okay...Princess Luna, please save them.

Had the others been thrown out? I hadn't been so maybe they weren't either...And...why had it been Shining's shield that did it? That was what scared me. Shining would rather die than hurt the guard...what was going on-

"Sergeant! Hit the deck!" yelled Weaver.

I hit the floor just in time to avoid a beam shot right at my back.

"What the hay?!"

Carpenter snarled. "Mavi! She's not one of us!" he yelled, glaring at Weaver.

What. The. Hay?!

=Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne OST Tokyo Conception=

"Carpenter Bee?! What are you doing?!"

He growled. "I'm sorry. We could've done this the quick, painless way, Thunderchild Sarge. Her Majesty wanted you subdued, 'Gifted Pegasus'. She said you had a habit of being a wrench in well laid plans Sarge."

Ugh...why did it feel like my heart was trying to remember something my brain didn't know?

Weaver jumped to my side, looking scared half to death...and maybe a little guilty.

Me? I felt like he'd just stabbed me in the back. Oh, right, he'd tried to! My own bucking friend just tried to take me out!

"You're in Misfit! I trusted you!"

"...I was never a part of the Misfit Platoon, I was a spy Sarge. Her Majesty wanted to learn about Princess Cadence and Captain Shining Armor. That was my job Sarge. This was never personal. I'm sorry, Thunderchild."

"You bucking stabbed me in the back! That's pretty personal!"

"It's my bucking duty!"

I got ready to pull my sword.

Suddenly, the guards looked around and saw we were alone before they burst into green fire and...Oh crud...

Now I was surrounded by a bunch of big black bug ponies!

"What are you?!"

Weaver looked like she'd seen a ghost, I stayed close to her trying to reassure her. She was my only back up right now.

"We're Changelings...and you're cattle," Killer Bee replied.

Aliens. Magic monsters? I don't know. I didn't care. All I knew was my friends were in trouble, monsters were attacking the city, and I'd just gotten stabbed in the back by a TEAMMATE. To say I was in a bad mood is an understatement!

Carpenter looked at me when I got ready to charge him, sad almost. "Hey Thunderchild? There is another option...Wanna be upgraded? I'm actually take a risk with Her Majesty just give you the offer."

"What?!"

"Want to be like us? Become a Changeling? Please?"

"And betray Equestria? No bucking way!"

"We're about to BE Equestria! We're still serving our Kingdom!"

"If it's an Equestria that means you have to stab a friend in the back to make happen, I want none of it!"

"...Fine. So be it," he said, charging up a green energy beam, I took a combat stance and pulled my sword. "Don't say I wasn't nice Sarge!"

=Cody Rhodes WWE Theme Smoke & Mirrors (V2) Lyrics=

He fired at me, and I dodged it. The carpet they were standing on glowed orange and Weaver pulled it out under them with her telekinesis and then blinded two of them with it.

I took advantage and gave them a buck to the head as hard as I could. Lethal force was always a last resort, if I didn't have to kill them, I wouldn't.

Thankfully that knocked them out, but Killer Bee jumped at me from behind. Weaver grabbed him from behind with her telekinesis, holding him by the tail. At least that's one pony in the room I can trust.

While she held him back, I spun around, using pegasus magic to generate a small cloud into my hoof and threw it down, causing it to detonate and send lightning flying, giving them a good shock, kicking them when I landed while they were still stunned. I think me being able to make a lightning grenade that quickly surprised them, most pegasi take a lot longer.

I don't think they were planning to actually fight me, or maybe the whole 'calling you a gifted Pegasus is being polite' horseapples was actually helping me right now.

Carpenter dodged though and came at me with a sword of his own, I blocked and noticed that he was using the dull side of the sword. He was trying to take me alive. "Thunderchild, I have a confession to make Sarge."

"That you're a dirty rotten traitor?!" I asked, blocking a slash and throwing one of my own. He caught my wrist and flipped me over him. I managed to catch myself and land on my hooves and tried to leg sweep him, but he flew up and evaded it, making me dodge a flying buck.

We locked blades and both tried a disarming manuever at the same time, sending both our swords out of our grasps and straight out the window. We started with hoof to hoof combat.

"No Sarge. I was in my homeland's military before I ever joined the guard."

He wasn't lying, we exchanged blows and he was pretty good. He shot a series of energy beams at me, managing to singe my feathers a little but I could tell they were nonlethal from the slight numbness they left, I threw another lightning bomb at him, but he managed to blast it out of the air with another beam (no, it didn't explode it's a cloud...why did I think it would?). I tried to catch a punch and twist him into a hammerlock, but he twisted out of it before I could get the leverage and elbowed me in the face. I ducked the kick he threw and headbutted him in the chest, driving him back. We charged and again, finally locking each other's forelegs and pushed against each other.

"You're good Sarge, but I've still got some tricks up my sleeves."

Then he burst into green flames and turned into me. It took me off guard and let him headbutt me, then drive me into the wall, holding his horn to my neck.

"...I have a confession too, Carpenter Bee."

"What?"

"I wasn't just bragging about being a Gifted Pegasus!" I yelled, spreading my wings and doing something most Pegasi couldn't, generate a lot of lightning without a cloud, making him back up a little bit...then doing something so dangerous most Pegasi wouldn't even attempt it. Channel it through myself and grabbing his horn with my hooves.

Carpenter lit up like a Hearth's Warming Tree and screamed in pain as I shocked him. And no, I didn't use enough to kill him...I don't think ponies ought to treat me different for being a Gifted Pegasus, I'm not like that, but I know how the Captain, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, (don't forget, I was a guard with Shining when Twilight was in school and the guy's my best friend, and I read those articles about Rainbow) and a lot of Gifted Ponies felt. I might not be on those three's level, but I'm still a Gifted Pegasus for a reason. Ponies were AFRAID of what I could do if I wanted to. I know I could fry ponies if I wanted to. Ponies expected ponies with a lot of power to be dangerous. ...so why would I do what they expected me to unless I really had to and had no other choice?

"And stop calling me Sarge!"

Carpenter shot backwards when I let go and slammed into the wall, falling to the ground, twitching from the volts I'd pumped into him. Green flames washed over him and he turned back to what I guessed was his true form.

"I'm sorry . . . the sun, I just wanted to . . feel the sun, in my own-" Then out like a light.

"Bro!" yelled Killer Bee, having been overpowering Weaver when he saw his brother go down. Weaver, luckily, was still a guard, and proceeded to kick him in the gut so hard she knocked the wind out of him while he was distracted. Then headbutt him with her helmet on, knocking him out cold.

"You alright Staff?" she asked, panting, and looking a bit roughed up.

"Yeah...other than having a friend just stab me in the back..." I replied, checking pulses and applying cuffs and magic suppressors to our captives. I also did a search but they were mostly naked, it seemed their armor was natural. I tagged them as well.

"I'm sorry, Staff..."

"...It's alright. I'm just glad we managed to take out a hit squad sent after me," I muttered.

"...What do we do, Staff Sergeant?" she asked, looking so scared. Like the boogiemare was at the door. Given what had just happened to us, I couldn't blame her.

I gave it thought, between us I was the superior, I needed to think things out...I looked out the window at the castle. I picked up Carpenter's radio and checked the frequency. "Clop it!"

"What's wrong, sarge?"

"This frequency...His orders came from the communications room."

"What? But that means..."

"The communications room is compromised, possibly under enemy control. We should maintain radio silence for now, at least for now. The rest of my squad has be around here somewhere if they didn't get thrown out, we should regroup with them...But these guys tried to come after me..."

"...Why not pretend to be Carpenter Bee if anypony questions it, Staff?" she asked, nodding .

I blinked. "What?"

"He was sent to take subdue you, why not pretend to be him and say 'Her Majesty ordered me to'? After all, he did say he was an experienced soldier in their homeland."

"That's a good idea, Lance-Corporal...speaking of which, let's make sure these guys can't blow my cover."

A few moments later we'd locked the unconscious and restrained Changelings where nopony would find them. Well, for a good long while.

Technically, I could execute them as spies by international law, but this was Equestria. We didn't believe in executing helpless enemies. Or really execution in general. There was also the matter of their being certain magic spells and charms that make executing somecreature a bad idea. So not only is it what we Equestrians view as ethical, it has some practicality. By our standards, they counted as EPW (Enemy Prisoners of War).

"Staff, my brothers might still be here, they might be able to help."

Considering my first inclination was to see if the others were still okay. I couldn't deny her that. And depending on how many guards were still around, we needed all the help we could get.

"Think you can manage to find them without being seen?"

"Yes Staff. These things didn't recognize I wasn't one of them until I shouted for you, I think they don't know for sure who's a guard and who's one of them and assumed because I didn't get thrown out I was one. I think I can play the part."

I gave a slow nod. Hopefully that'd help me too... "Alright."

"Where should we meet up sarge?"

I thought about it...where would the others go if they were still here? That only we know?

"...Know that restaurant near the castle?"

She nodded.

"Get your brothers and meet me there. Hopefully my friends will be there too..."

It was the only place that made any sense. There wasn't anywhere else only the four of us would know the others knew to meet. Besides, it wasn't an obvious place anyway and me and her brothers could meet up there.

Weaver nodded. "Alright. Good luck Staff...please be careful," she said, saluting.

"Same to you, Lance Corporal."

So we parted ways and it seemed like she was right about these things...I just hope the others are there to meet up with. And I hope Fluttershy and the Captain are alright. Cadence too...

...Gosh darn it, Shining! Can't you just get married without some freaky thing happening?!

"Garnet?!" I heard. My heart jumped in my chest.

"Gag?" I asked, turning to see him as I did my best to sneak out of the castle. He had Ellis' cousins with him, who looked scared out of their wits. Considering it was an monster invasion, I couldn't blame them.

"Is that really you?"

"The one and only...well, there's my brother and sister, but they're not here...and also my mom...and my dad...and half my family...but I'm the only on here, so yeah, it's Gag," he said with that 'come on, laugh, I'm funny' look of his.

Okay, only Gag could consider that a joke.

We both looked around quietly and found we were alone other than the Apples. Then kissed and nuzzled. "I was worried I'd never see you again..." I muttered. Yes, the big strong Royal Guard was worried sick. So did Gag. We both thought the other was dead!

"So did I..."

"Now come on, we've got another reunion to get to," Gag remarked after a moment. "I found Ellis, come on."

Ah won't lie, there ain't words tah describe how it felt seein' mah cousins safe and sound: Apple Fritter, Peachy Sweet. Gag had tah fool his way past a lot of Changelings tah get 'em back tah me, Ah owe him big time...

We hugged, we cried. We did all the stuff scared sick family does when it sees itself again. Though we also had tah hide a bit so the bugs didn't spot us.

"...Gag...where's AJ and Applebloom?"

Gag frowned. "I'm...I'm sorry, Ellis, I couldn't find them. The Wedding Hall is the Queen of these things' throne room right now, I couldn't get near it...I'm sorry..."

"...Nah...you did the best you could...at least two of mah kin are alright...And so is Garnet."

Yeah, Ah was upset, but not at Gag...he got two of mah cousins outta there, Ah ain't lookin' a gift horse in the mouth...

He and Garnet got close tah each other. They really do make a cute couple.

"Alright, everypony, let's figure out what we need tah do," Ah replied. Ah was the senior NCO here, Ah had tah take charge.

"I think the best idea might be to find-" Garnet started.

"Me?"

We turned as Thunderchild, bein' Thunderchild, made a big entrance by standin' at the door (tah avoid being spotted, we'd hid inside the restaurant instead of outside it).

Ah wish we'd just hugged him, but while the three of us had reason tah trust each other, we didn't quite know bout him.

"...Sarge, not tah sound ungrateful tah see you, but..." Ah started, decidin' the Apple Family Honesty should kick things off.

"I gotcha," he said, spreading his wings and causing them tah crackle with lightnin', which he sent off and managed tah guide past all of us tah hit a dartboard behind us dead center.

We all smiled. "That's Thunderchild alright," Garnet said with a sigh of relief.

We group hugged. We'd been worried sick about each other! Forget protocol for a minute! We're a band of brothers reunited!...And one sister...Dang! Now Ah sound like Gag!

Only way it coulda been better is if the Captain and Audience were here...but then again, given the circumstances, maybe Audience was the lucky one tah be out of dodge. Ah know he'd be more willin' tah kill, but that doesn't mean we wanted him in a position where he'd have to.

...Then came the big downer question.

"...What about the Captain?" Ah asked.

"...I don't know...but considering his shield is up, sent the Princess flying along with a bunch of guards, but these bugs are running around, it probably isn't good," Running said sadly.

"...So...we're stuck alone in a bug infested Canterlot?" Garnet asked, sounding a bit worried. Which meant inside she was probably real worried.

"...Looks like it...And doubt that there's going tah be any reinforcements, given how thick the Captain's shield is," Ah pointed out.

"And radios aren't a good idea either, the communications room is compromised," Thunderchild explained. He then got serious. "...Well, I know one thing. We need to get back inside the castle and figure out what's going on...and maybe see if we can do something about it."

Thunderchild is a lot of things...but a coward ain't one of 'em. And neither is an idiot. That and he was the senior NCO, so unless he did something real crazy, he was in charge with the Captain not here..

"...Agreed..." Ah replied. We all nodded. "And Ah wanna find out of mah other cousins are alright..."

Garnet nodded. "...We're guards. No reason to stop now."

Running nodded. "Have a better chance of a zebra changing it stripes..."

Thunderchild gave a nod of his own, and smile. "And we're actually not alone."

Soon enough, Weaver, Bombardier, and Diver showed up. Thunderchild said we could trust them cause Weaver saved his flank from Carpenter Bee and his lackeys...but Ah won't lie, Ah kept an eye on them.

"... Staff," said Diver. "Those Guards that got thrown...do you think they and Luna are okay?"

None of us really knew the answer tah that. "Ah saw the Princess pullin' 'em close tah her as they got thrown...we can hope she saved 'em."

Thunderchild nodded. "I saw it too."

Garnet looked thoughtful. "Luna's an Alicorn...we can only hope she did it."

We all nodded, and prayed.

"...So, what do we have as far as weapons?" Weaver asked after our moment of quiet prayer, seriously.

Gag and Thunderchild had a sword, a crossbow, and two guard batons between them, but Thunderchild had lost his sword in the fight with Carpenter (it'd gotten sent out the window), Gag still had his and gave it to Thunderchild (sarge was the better fighter). Weaver, Diver, and Bombardier all had theirs as well. We also had some stun granades, stinkbombs, and a few flash bangs. Ah'd been unarmed cause Ah'd just left duty and Garnet only had a knife she said wouldn't work very well on the bugs.

"I also grabbed these," Garnet said, takin' a bunch of needles out of her saddlebags. "They'll put them to sleep for awhile, plus the points can fit through the chinks in their armor."

"No offense, Garnet, it's better than nothing, but it doesn't sound like a very sharp idea for you and Ellis to go after an army with just some needles...get it? Sharp needles?"

We groaned. But Gag was right.

"We also need to get some more weapons," Garnet said. "We don't know the entire situation yet, we need options. And I took a look at the two I knocked out: they have some tough natural body armor that's very resistant to damage, maybe some nonlethal weapons will be more effective on them than lethal ones, since most of them don't rely on penetrating armor. And while it won't break the exoskeleton, they don't seem to handle blunt force nearly as well as blades."

"And the armories will be crawling with these things," Corporal Bombardier, an Earth Pony, pointed out.

"Well, we can make some good improvised weapons out of the stuff in this place," Ah pointed out, gettin' tah work with the stuff around us. Ah remembered what Garnet said about blunt force. And also, had an idea of how to make some improvised explosives. Not enough stuff tah make a cider still mass driver though, wonder if Shining ever told that story tah anypony.

"That's good, but we still might need some more," Thunderchild said and tapped his chin...then got a confident smirk. "I think I know a place we can pick up some gear they'll never see coming..."

Author's Note

So what are SA's friends up to?

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Wedding-Pt-11-Explanations-And-Escapes-442045476

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Dances-With-Ponies-443077616

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page (please be kind): http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

2014March24th
Ellis and Gag's scenes edited. More to come.
2014March25th
Gag's scene with Rarity edited by the Editors. More to come.

UPDATE! 2014March25th EVENING
THE REST OF THE SCENES HAVE BEEN EDITED TO MAKE THEM MORE IN CHARACTER DONE BY The Editors.

2014March26th
Minor edit regarding weapons near the end and who has what.
2014March26th
Garnet's section has been edited AGAIN. The Editors have gone on the record saying this is the last time they'll edit Garnet's section.

2014March26th FOR THE THIRD TIME
Edited Gag, Ellis, and Thunderchild's parts. The Editors have again gone on the recording say this is the last time they'll change these sections.

2014March26th FOR THE FORTH TIME
Edited final scene for the chapter. The Editors, the true authors of this chapter, have implied that the same goes for this one as the above.

2014March30th
Edited Garnet's scene with the armor AGAIN, this time with suggestions from a buddy of LZ's.

Episode 171: "Dances With Ponies"

(Friend's Notes: I'm sorry to say. We lost a lot of our notes, interviews, and record during the battle. As such we've had to construction a lot of things. And there shall be many gaps. We hope you understand. But the interviews that remains are truly worth exploring in our opinion.)

The group continued to run. "Rarity, are they still behind us?!" Pinkie asked the mare on her back.

"Some, yes," replied the annoyed unicorn, still being carried. She took advantaged of it to lift some rocks or vases off the wall and throw them, but there wasn't anything small enough to take them off guard with.

Rainbow wanted to turn around and do one of her tricks to throw the Changelings off, but she had a little orange, and very unhappy, filly to worry about.

It was a stampede, that was the was only right way to put it. The ponies fled like wild horses from the wedding hall as the changeling guards pursued.

Moon Dancer had fled in a completely different direction the moment she saw the herd coming. While she doubted the bugs bothered to tell their victims apart, she wasn't about to risk it, and for right now she was still useful as a bluff and had to milk it for all it was worth. She couldn't risk being seen fleeing by the bugs.

As civilian ponies broke off from the main group hoping to lose the bug-ponies, Cadence. getting further and further away from her true love, said, "Mr. Sparkle! You and Starlight go another way!"

"That's insane!" The unicorn snapped.

"The monsters are after me, and the Elements, they're ignoring the guests who are just running away! You're in more danger with us!"

"I'm not abandoning you!"

"You can do more good with Starlight than with us! Please! WHEN we get Twilight and Shining out of this I do NOT want to have to tell them their parents got hurt because of me!"

"Sorry!"

And the two were gone. Canterlot Castle was big.

"Let them go! Stay on the leaders!" said the changeling guard leading the pack, Hercules Beetle still turning the Angry Mother Lemon into lemonade.

"Where's Horse Solo when we need'em?!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

As they dashed passed a corridor, a white furred Earth Pony stepped out of the corridor and charged straight at the Changelings, surprising them.

"What the Tartarus is she doing?!" asked Rainbow.

"Don't stop, just run," a voice said.

Lyra blinked. "Cobweb?!"

Rainbow blinked, finding the SAME white Earth Pony running next to them. "But...how did...when did..."

"Wait for it..."

The Changelings kept trying to blast the incoming Earth Pony with energy beams...only for her to finally reach them and vanish into thin air.

"What the-"

Their compound-eyes widened as they found themselves surrounded on all sides by thunder clouds that had manifested around them out of nowhere. Lightning shot out, forming a spiderweb of electricity, leaving half a group of unconscious Changelings behind it. A few more stayed behind to check on their guardmates.

Rainbow blinked, hearing the lightning and seeing the flash. "Lightning?! You're an-"

The 'Earth Pony's' hat lifted up to reveal a hidden unicorn horn. "Undercover you could say. I'm looking for some friends of mine who are in danger. And to answer your question, I'm pretty good at traps. The illusion was pretty much a tripwire and diversion for the lightning strike."

Rainbow looked at the mare's Cutie Mark, a cobweb. 'Her special talent must be traps...that WAS a pretty classic pegasi trap.'

"How do we know this isn't a trap for US?!" Rainbow asked.

"Simple, if it was why was the trap BEHIND you when I was IN FRONT of you?"

"...I can't argue with that..."

"Then I recommend we find somewhere to regroup!"

"Any more surprises we can count on?!" Prince Blueblood of all ponies exclaimed, Arcane Spell on his back.

"Sorry! I barely had time for the one! And you have to admit, HALF The number of pursuers is still better than all of them!"

"Cherry Coke, you and your stallions are to escort the prince and miss Spell to safety while the rest of us draw the enemy's attention and wait for further orders!" Cadence ordered.

"SAFETY?! Where! You can't-"

"I can't order Shining's parents but I can order you!"

"We're not Harmony Guards."

"No, but my aunts are presently captured and rendered MIA during an enemy attack. Me and my cousin are currently the only royalty present. And you're currently the only nonbrainwashed nonchangeling Guards I know are still here! You're the only ones I can trust with the wounded!"

"She's gotta point, me and the lady hurt like this are kinda slowin'-"

"Shut up Banjo! If that's the case then why didn't you send us with the Sparkles?!"

"Because the Queen doesn't have a GRUDGE on them. She got her revenge on Starlight, but SOMEPONY needs to keep an eye on my cousin who threw a giant wrench in her works!"

"We're gonna run out of hallways sooner than later!" Pinkie Diane exclaimed. "And I don't have the time or a good enough animator to set up an endless hallway chase scene gag right now!"

"Anypony know any extra illusion magic?!"

"None that I can use like this darling!"

"I can give you a few extra seconds!" Twinkle Shine charged up her horn.

"Idiot! You can't use the same trick twice!" Bon Bon exclaimed, she and Moth still carrying the Alicorn princess.

"Who said the same trick!" Twinkle Shine flared the spell at the changelings . . . the resulting flash . . . sucked all the light from the space of the hallway for a few seconds. Twinkle Shine's horn darkened considerably, but she still ran with her friends, and considering she was carrying the exhausted Minuette at the same time, that was something.

Cobweb took her cue and created an illusion of Cherry Coke, his stallions, Blueblood and his girlfriend, six ponies all together, she wasn't looking where she was going.

"Cherry Coke, -NOW-, that's an order!"

"As usual. Nopony cares what I think on a matter." Blueblood whisper.

"You expect anything less?" Rarity hissed at him.

"No. I'm used to other ponies deciding my fate," Blueblood said. There wasn't time for anymore melodrama as the changeling guards got their bearings and saw the two identical herds break off from the stampede that was VERY MUCH literally running out of running room.

"What do we do?! Her Majesty won't be pleased if we let the interloper escape her wrath!" one of the Changelings exclaimed as the pursuing group briefly stopped at the crossroads.

The commanding Changeling growled (now the third, their leader unconscious from the lightning trap). "Half of you split up and chase them, the rest with me!"

"Your Highness," Silver Tongue, "Let me take the fillies and-AGH!" He stumbled, Applebloom had BITTEN HIM!

"Ya try and make us run off an' hide and Ah BUCKIN' SWEAR Ah'll chew yer moonsent leg off!"

Rarity nearly fainted at the language (the chaise longue tripping up the changelings more).

Fluttercruel noticed and finally put her vocabulary to good use to keep summoning the longue back in their pursuers' path.

Silver Tongue didn't have time for stupid fillies eager to die, but he saw the look in Applebloom's eyes. This filly had stared death in the face.

"I've had to abandon Sweetie! I'm not abandoning you all too!" yelled Scootaloo seriously. She reached over as Rainbow flew and grabbed a nearby vase, throwing it back and managing to lodge it on one of their pursuer's heads. "That's for taking Sweetie Belle you monsters!"

"...Dad, please apologize to mom for this!" yelled Silver Spoon, ripping off her dress and throwing it, causing it to hit a Changeling in the face and blind him, causing him to trip. "That's for Spike..."

Applebloom and Scootaloo did the same with their dress clothes, and more or less anything they could manage to grab while they fled.

For Rarity this was the icing on the cake to see her beautiful dresses she had put pieces of her soul into destroyed after Sweetie had been enscrolled by the witch. And she hadn't even suspected. What happened to her eye for detail?

The Ponyvillians were surprised, were these the same fillies who had hide under a table paralyzed in terror when Nightmare Moon had returned?

The changelings were taken offguard as well, not having expected 'calves' to actually attack them, slowing them down a surprising amount.

The group came to the end of a hallway, which as most hallways in the castle were, lined with doors.

"I THOUGHT WE WERE HEADED FOR THE EXIT!" Lyra exclaimed, that was where they were supposed to meet with Moon Dancer.

"Looks like we'll have to fight..." said Rainbow with Scootaloo in her forelegs, uncharacteristically reluctant.

"Wait! I have an idea!" Pinkie said, checking a door and finding it unlocked. "Good! Everypony in here!"

"What?! That's just a-"

"Don't question it, Princess! Trust me!" Pinkie begged. "If you try to make sense of it this won't work!"

"Trust her, Pinkie can do some crazy stuff if we let her!" Rainbow stated.

Lyra, Bon Bon, and Moth nodded to the confused Minuette, Twinkle Shine, and Lemon Hearts. Silver Tongue nodded to Cadence, the glasses wearing stallion forgetting he wasn't in uniform. Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Silver Spoon just nodded.

"Alright."

Pinkie pulled the entire group into the room and slammed the door behind them.

The Changelings rushed the door and opened it...when Pinkie opened a door on the opposite side of the hall way. "Hey! We're over here!"

The bewildered Changelings looked in the room, finding nopony and quickly rushed after the Pink Party Pony...and emerged chasing her out of another door altogether, much to their confusion as they chased her into another room.

The next time they emerged without her and blinked, looking around for a moment before she ran out of one door, blew a razzberry at them, and hid in another room.

They stopped at the door the pony just entered and carefully opened it to find an empty room.

Pinkie opened a door next to them. "In here! You're good at this! That's closer than most get! I'll give you a hint! I'm definitely not in this room!"

The now annoyed and enraged pursers rushed in after her...just in time for Pinkie to emerge from a door on the opposite end of the hallway and barricade the door with a chair, a dresser, and finally an anchor that appeared to come from nowhere.

"Hey! How did she-"

"Sir, there's no windows in this room!"

As the Changelings tried to beat down the door, Pinkie rushed to a door on the end of the hallway closest to the crossroads and opened it, allowing the rest of the group to come falling out like a pack of sardines.

"But...we were in...there's no...we weren't even on this side of the..." a bewildered Cadence stammered, looking at the situation. "Where did she get an anchor?!"

"Hurry! I didn't have time to pull out heavier stuff from off camera and that won't hold them forever!"

"Flying feather!"

"Scootaloo!" Rainbow chastised.

"She needed something heavier..." the filly defended as Pinkie quickly added the summoned longue to the barricade and picked the fainted Rarity back up.

The group wisely fled before the Changelings could finish breaking down the door.

"The stories are all true! Ponyville IS FULL of crazy ponies!" Lemon Hearts exclaimed.

"Hey!" Rarity, Rainbow, and other said glaring at Lemon Hearts.

"It's okay girls, it's true," Pinkie Diane said calmly. "Though I haven't been crazy since season two episode six!"

+++

One Year Ago
The Day The World Was Unzipped

By Her Majesty! What is going on! The cattle have gone mad! The city has gone mad! The sky has gone mad! The other infiltrators have gone mad! WHAT IS GOING ON!?

Neither cattle nor changeling agents are responding coherently! Even cattle don't go insane for no reason, and changelings at the same time? There was no logic! There is no reason to any of this!

"Why should there be reason to anything?"

Sitting on top of my desk face to face, like he had teleported in was a royal changeling, only with the most gaudy horns, colors, and eyes that would make even the worst deviant look normal. He reminded me of a clown.

"W-who are you?!" Who was this royal changeling?! Where did he come from? Was there more of our kind after all? I dared to hope.

"Well Digger Wasp, I am from the near future! The heir of what remains of the changeling people! I have come to deliver onto you the truth!"

"What truth?!"

He grinned at me, it was the grin I had given to many cattle over the years in my youth when I shamefully took pleasure in manipulating these dumb animals, like that sick creature Kabuto Beetle.

"Why tell you? When I can show you?" My chair came to life and grappled me in place, and actually stretched my eyelids so I couldn't look away. A movie projector came out of nowhere along with a movie screen. The royal changeling took out a film reel and set it up to play.

A cattle newscaster began droning as the grainy black and white film began to play.

"Today is a glorious day for all of Ponykind everywhere! The last of the changeling menace has been exterminated."

What?

The film showed grinned cattle guards, magically shrinking innocent changeling brood mothers and nymphs to the size of insects, and stomping them to death. Giant bombs of poison being dropped down on brave changeling guards not giving them even a chance to face their enemies. I saw changelings being dragged along with their wings and horn broken off the signs around their necks reading 'No insults to Alicorns!' Yet more were showcased in cages, garbage thrown at them between the bars by laughing cattle foals. Some changeling nymphs were stripped of their magic, forced into one meager, single shape, then brainwashed to hate their own people. And . . . no . . .

"NO! NO! NO!" Was the head of her Majesty, stuffed and mounted like a griffin hunting trophy, over the fireplace of Celestia, chatting casually and happily with the other two Alicorns.

The royal changeling wiped away my tears.

"Oh there there don't cry, save it for this next part!!!"

"And none of this would have been possible, if not for the failure of the changeling spy, Digger Wasp."

That can't be.

"Oh but it is," said the film's news caster. "Digger Wasp failed in his duty."

"I can't! I can't have failed the swarm!"

The film showed my sister Jewel Wasp being dragged along towards a public execution, or a lobotomization. She looked right at me. "YES YOU DID Digs! You failed! FAILED! FAILED!" The image changed to a mass grave of my people, all of them looking at me.

No . . . . no . . . no . . . I . . .

"You failed." Said the royal changeling happily, "No more changelings! And just think! You don't even know what you'll do! Maybe it'll be what you DON'T do! Maybe me showing you this is what caused it! Just think! Think! THINK! You just know it WILL HAPPEN! And you can't know WHAT caused it! Be happy! Cause you're the last who dies! You'll get to see it all! Byyyyyyyyyyye!"

I lay paralyzed, terrified to say, do, or think anything that might trigger the death of my people, I was that way for . . . I don't know . . . until the rainbow came and returned reason to my mind. I immediately took a month's vacation back to Zebrafrica . . . I . . . needed time with my own kind undisguised, and yes . . . maybe I did make sure Jewel Wasp wouldn't be here. Selfish. I know. But . . . that image . . . burned in my brain . . .

I began planning everything down to the second. Making sure I was aware of what I did every second.

"Sir?"

Day Of The Invasion

"Sir are you alright?"

"I-I'm fine Honey Bee!" I told her.

"Well, do you have your speech memorized?"

"Of course I do."

"Let's get this movie started, yo!" Said Bullet Bee, still in the form of a royal guard, none of us were dumb enough to drop our disguises at a time like this.

I'll die before I let what That Thing showed me be my people's fate.

He counted down the moment to start his speech to the very second before beginning.

"Ponies of Canterlot, it pains us to inform you that Princess Luna and many of the royal guard had been replaced by evil shape shifters, known as changelings, Princess Celestia was severely injured in the ensuing battle, and a fake Cadence is running around with her brainwashed slaves. We are still in search of the true Princess Luna."

"I knew that starry mane of hers was suspicious!" One pony whispered, latching onto the lie that was much more comfortable than truth.

"But the invaders have been pushed away by the selfless efforts of Captain Shining Armor, though the effort weakened him greatly. Do not worry and trust your royal guards. And report this impostor Princess Cadence if you see her, do not worry, we suspect the creatures might be engaged in a sort of power struggles, which shall make repelling the remainder from our home easier. We shall drive away these monsters! Believe in your princesses, believe in Equestria!"

+++

"You think that lie is actually going to last?" Celestia said flatly.

"It doesn't need to last for long."

"Long enough for what? I doubt it's anything that clever from the likes of you."

Chrysalis shocked the Alicorn through the cocoon. "I told you, to STOP trying to bait me like some amateur! You'll know it, once it's done."

Was worth a shot, Celestia thought.

Chrysalis gave a chuckle. "But I will say one thing: if you're hoping and praying the Guard will piece together things? I know they will. I know in a direct confrontation my changelings can't win (of course they don't know that, nor will they believe you if you tell them). I know this is a facade that will only last so long and the guard can and at present eventually will retake Canterlot from my Changelings...but who said I was planning to hold Canterlot like this forever? I'll hold it long enough for my needs, taking the city used to be my only goal, with nothing beyond that...now I've moved my own goalposts."

Celestia's blood ran cold as she realized she wasn't facing an invading army...but one psychopath playing her own people to get what she wanted. And try as she might, she couldn't piece together what.

"And that's all you get, run it over and over again in your head while I enjoy sitting on the throne and ruling the city I've wanted since I was a foal."

+++++

The Dash believes in acting instead of sitting around talking. But we had all a million questions for each other, but with there being so many of us, we couldn't risk sitting down for a chat in the middle of the castle crawling with monsters that had come out of bucking nowhere.. We barely took the time to introduce ourselves, mostly. It was super hectic!

There were seventeen of us, eighteen counting Fluttercruel. That was a lot of ponies. And if we didn't keep an eye on the Cutie Mark Crusaders, we could lock them in a trunk and they'd still find a way out and get themselves killed trying to help their enslaved friends. Besides, I had to keep an eye on my little filly.

There was that friend of Cadence's maidens, Moon Dancer, that made nineteen. Twinkle Shine said that the bugs will think she was one of their brainwashed slaves as long as she acted the part and the color-change on her eyes didn't fail (Twinkle seemed pretty confident in herself).

Lyra explained. "We were supposed to meet up with her at the front of the castle if she had to run! But we didn't count on . . . all this! She can't just wait there forever!"

Pinkie nodded. "Okay. Front of the castle. Pale blue earth pony with blond mane and happy moon and stars cutie mark right?"

"No!" Lyra, Bon Bon, Moth, Lemon Hearts, Twinkle Shine, and Minuette all said at the pink pony.

"Oh . . . right . . . eheh, was thinking of ANOTHER Moondancer I used to know! Really long story! Sorry!"

"White unicorn. Red mane. Crescent moon cutie mark!" Twinkle Shine snapped.

"Right right! Dashie! With me! Be back in a jiffy!" She grabbed her rainbow maned friend, me. Politely depositing Rarity FINALLY on the carpet, having calmed down.

"Pinkie! What?!"

"If I use my cheat codes anymore I'm likely to make irony bite us in the flank! So I need Rainbow Boom speed! Just let me give you some directions so you won't get lost!"

"Pinkie, I think you might just weight me down-"

"Please? Time isn't stopping for us!"

"Not until I recharge..." Minuette moaned, holding her head with aa hoof.

"Fine! Back in ten seconds flat!" The two zoomed off. Rainbow Dash was wrong. It was eleven seconds. They came back with Moon Dancer in tow. "Dang fake guards are everywhere."

And we still had a million questions to ask each other. We had not been next to any windows, so what Moon Dancer told us she had heard outside shocked us all.

"THEY SAID WHAT?!" Lyra shouted, getting a SHUSH! from everypony.

"That's crazy, it makes no sense!" Cobweb said.

"It makes perfect sense." Cadence whispered, "Sprinkle enough truth into a lie, and ponies will believe it has to all be truth."

"'Cause ponies are used ta thinkin' somethin' said's gotta be all hogwash or all truth."

We all looked at Applebloom. "Ah talked 'bout it with big sister."

"Oh." Was the unified response. Scoots and Silver Spoon hugged their friend who was sad mentioning her brainwashed big sister. AJ . . .

Silver Tongue spoke up, "At least this means they can't risk causing a major fight in public, otherwise they'll blow their cover and have all of Canterlot's ponies to deal with instead of some national heroes, wedding guests, and one princess."

"Not if they start brainwashing ponies en mass." Moon Dancer whispered, trembling in her knees. "Then their slaves won't care about the truth or not."

"Well then. We simply can't give'em time to do that!" Rainbow Dash said cracking her 'knuckles' (rather strange since she didn't have any). "Hey Cadence! Yer Harmony right? I bet ya can get the Elements ta work! Or fill in the gaps!"

"I . . . I don't know. I've never tried anything like that before." Cadence admitted.

"Darling, I think you're forgetting that we need ponies who are tried and true friends for the Elements to work, even if we had somepony to fill in for Honesty and Magic, AND the regalia for them," Rarity pointed out.

"If you've got a better idea, let me know! Celestia said get the Elements! And it's better we have'em than the bugs! Maybe us using the Elements will kick start it for Twilight and AJ and snap'em out of it!"

"What about Sweetie Belle and Spike?!" Applebloom asked.

"I'm sure once the witch is ka-put they'll snap out of it! That's how it always works!"

"Maybe we should ask why the monsters think Moon Dancer is one of their victims," Silver Tongue asked.

"Because I used to be."

"WHAT!"

"We can figure things out when we're -NOT- in the bucking open!" Fluttercruel hissed.

"Language!" Rarity snapped. No one challenged her.

Cobweb said, "If you were NOT going to hide somewhere, where would you hide?"

Cadence answered, "My room, because it's too obvious."

Cobweb nodded, "And that's exactly why we WILL hide there."

"What?"

"Simple, it's SO obvious a hiding place they won't see it coming."

Rainbow tilted her head, "So it's a good hiding spot because they'll assume we're too smart to use it?"

Cobweb stood proud. "Exactly."

Moth crossed her forehooves. "NO! We need a hiding place that they won't look because they think we're stupid!"

Lyra put a hoof to her chin. "They DID think that we're cattle."

Cobweb sighed and put a hoof to her chin, "Good point. Then Cadence, what's the most secret place you know of in the castle?"

Cadence thought, "Easy. Not IN the castle. The good news is that the announcement was only about me. Which means the rest of you won't draw attention for a little bit until they finish pointing out whose who through the ranks, and by then we can probably piece together another disguise. Anypony have anything to hide my wings?"

Rarity sighed. There went another of her beautiful dresses. At least it was to a good cause. Moonsend it. And Cadence still looked fabulous, for a mare who looked like she had spend a month slaving for Diamond Dogs.

Cadence's wings hidden, her horn glowed and her colors inverted, having managed to recharge a bit from the strong bonds around her. "The rest of you act like zombies, and say a prayer."

"Pray? To who?" Silver Spoon asked.

Cadence's on stage performance and that of the others got them out of the castle, with Moon Dancer actually adding credence to the illusion since she was known by now as one of Chrysalis' property. Ironically, they exited through the front door so as not to draw attention (since if they were going through a side door they would have clearly been trying NOT to be seen and draw attention). While when entering their destination, they broke up and enters from side doors to keep from drawing attention when those in the know began asking where they were.

"A church?" Twinkle Shine asked her princess. There wasn't any clergy present.

"It'll do for now. I lost track of how long I was in that cave listening to Chrysalis' taunts."

"Likes the sound of her own voice?" Lemon Hearts asked.

"I think it's more she liked seeing me MORE miserable. What this place stands for is so low on her perceptions of value that it doesn't even exist in her mind." Cadence shuddered at the idea of Auntie now having to endure that witch's sadistic voice.

"Cave?" Half the ponies present asked.

"I . . . think we all have some note comparing to do." Rarity said first.

"YOU do that!" Rainbow Dash said, "We're going to go get the elements and end this mess hard and fast! Princess! You're an Alicorn, so you can open that fancy lock of Celestia's that she keeps the Elements in right? She wouldn't have told us to go get'em if we didn't have a way in!"

"That is . . . surprising logical for you Rainbow Dash," Rarity said.

"I've never tried it before but-" Cadence didn't get a chance to really answer, as Rainbow Dash took her, and moving at the speed of lighting, blasted away again. Leaving Scootaloo feeling indignant. They were back in a few minutes. She had a couple bruises from where some changeling guards had been lying in wait for her. Thankfully a partially recharged Cadence being there hadn't been part of their logistics. They didn't have the Elements with them, and Dash wasn't happy.

"WE WASTED WAY TOO MUCH TIME TALKING! The Elements are gone! The bugs stole 'em! The door was wide open!" Rainbow Dash cursed.

A look of horror formed on Moon Dancer's face. "No . . . they weren't . . . I'd bet my horn . . . they were . . . they were taken from there before the fight even started."

"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!"

Moon Dancer shuddered, "But I know Her Majesty . . . she . . . all that time . . . with her in my head . . . she never plays a game unless she's already rigged it so she can't lose."

"Come on! Who could have- . . . oh no." Rainbow Dash thought in horror.

Before the wedding

"Now on my dear. You can copy all spells you lay eyes on. You've seen Celestia open this door yes? . . . Just insert your horn, and give the Elements to me, your owner." Chrysalis hissed in Twilight's ear.

"N-no!"

"Oh my. Are you trying to disappoint me Twilight? Are you trying to hurt me again? Do you want to fail at this? Bad pony. Very very bad pony."

"I-I-" A single tear came, then a bloody lot more. Twilight Sparkle's entire body shook. Chrysalis' horn glowed more. Then the fog cleared from Twilight's mind and she grinned. "Of course your Majesty! Anything to be of help!" She inserted her horn, repeated the Alicorn level spell, drained her magic completely, and fell to the floor in a heap, leaving the Elements naked for the taking.

Chrysalis grunted in annoyance as she fed some love back into the purple unicorn to get her back on her feet (she wasn't carrying her). "Thank you my dear."

"Y-you're w-welcome your Majesty. It's my pleasure to serves you." Twilight nuzzled the impostor Cadence.

"TRIXIE! SHE MUST HAVE DONE IT!" Fluttercruel said, "Chrysalis must have grabbed her and turned her into one of her zombies and had her do it while we were all distracted!"

"That makes sense," Rarity agreed.

"Great, we have TWO Elements of Magic to worry about," Rainbow Dash grumbled.

"TWO Elements of Magic?!" Was the rest of the herd's response.

"Maybe we should exchange notes now," Cadence said deadpan.

"If I may begin," Cobweb said, getting their attention. "You keep speaking about how you need a complete set to use the Elements, right?"

"Yeah..."

"So doesn't that likely mean, at the very least, the Queen can't use them either because she only has two out of six?"

"Why would she WANT to use them herself? To turn herself into a statue?" Pinkie Diane asked.

"I have to agree with Pinkie Pie, it's fairly clear she took them simply so we couldn't use them against her. Discord did the same thing," Rarity said. "So please dear, stick the speaking of the Elements to those of us with experience please."

"True," said Cobweb. "But she's already used love for evil once, hasn't she? Isn't that how you said she DID all this in the first place? So wouldn't it be naive to assume she couldn't again?"

Rarity quoted, "'Just because you can do fire magic doesn't mean you can control lava' love and the Elements might be similar but they are not the same. We can't go insane on what ifs and paranoid manias right now Miss. That's what she wants I guess from that speech they gave. We have to focus on helping our friends and finding out where she hid the Elements. Otherwise, we might begin to have the paranoid fantasy YOU are a deep cover spy."

Rainbow Dash said, "Hey that's my line!"

"Your line was supposed to be 'Look Scootaloo I saved Sweetie Belle!'" Scootaloo said. Making the pegasus gasp.

"NOTE EXCHANGE! NOW!" Cadence said . . . then blushed whens he realized she had used the Royal Canterlot Voice.

"...Fine, you want to focus on helping your friends?" asked Cobweb. "Then perhaps we can finally get some notes the mare who already escaped the trap they're currently in?" she asked, pointing to Moon Dancer. "You've already unlocked your shackles, correct? Please be kind enough to share the key?"

Everypony blinked, looking back to Lyra's group. Specifically the mare who had already said she used to be one of their victims.

'Appears out of nowhere, helps us out of the blue, suddenly tries to take change and direct the discussion and keeps trying to be right about EVERYTHING . . .' Pinkie Pie thought.

Pinkie had that bazooka shaped suit case next to her again marked 'Open Only In Case Of Mare-y Sue' and a small hoof held device with an antenna and needle gauge labeled 'Mare-y Sue Detector' with a price tag still on it that made strange noises as she pointed it at Cobweb. Whatever it was indicating, it didn't give Pinkie Pie a definitive reading and she grumbled about getting her money back. She stood eyeball to eyeball with Cobweb. "I've got my eye on you."

Cobweb blinked. "Uh...Okay..."

"Hey, Pinkie why didn't you just blast big ugly with that?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking at the weapon. "You insisted on dragging it all the way here! Or...however you got it here..."

"It only works on Marey Sues!"

For some reason Cadence shuddered at that.

"Wait a second, you think-"

"Chrysalis seems a lot like one to me..." Rainbow interrupted Cobweb.

"Celestia actually won the beam struggle and had to lose because of tricks, she can't be! Villain Sues ALWAYS beat the Princesses no problem! And Cadence managed to get out of the mines thanks to Blueblood and we escaped! A Villain Sue would NEVER let that happen! If she were a Sue we'd have all attacked her one by one and got our flanks kicked and/or been broken emotionally in about three words! It's basic Sueology!"

"So...no bazooka?"

"No bazooka."

"Darn!"

"Now wait a second, you considered doing what to me with a what?!" Cobweb asked, blinking.

"You can never be too careful, especially when there are so many writers interested in a universe."

"That doesn't make any-"

"Girls!" Rarity exclaimed. "Shut up so we can find out how to get Sweetie Belle, Twilight, Applejack, and Spikey-Wikey back or I'll use these curtains to put ALL THREE OF YOU in makeshift but still fabulous corsets!"

The three mares shut up and turned attention to Moon Dancer.

"But churches don't have curtains," Lyra said.

"Shut up."

Moondancer recounted what had happened to her. 'Cadence' speaking with her. Wanting her brainwashed so Moondancer could playact as a 'character witness' for questions about Minuette, Twinkle Shine, and indeed, Lyra's strange behavior once they were brainwashed into Chrysalis' willing slaves.

"What!" The two hoof maidens and de facto hoof maiden gasped out loud.

"She was going . . . she was going to . . ." Minuette looked terrified.

Twinkle Shine looked sick, "Lyra I . . . we would have never-"

Lyra looked to be in a state of shock.

"But Her Majesty changed her mind . . . she said you three had 'proven yourselves worthless' and she could find better bridesmaids."

"HUH!? But I've never even met that fake Cadence! That doesn't make any sense!" Lyra snapped.

"And who has the right to call Lyra worthless!" Bon Bon hissed. Moth nodded as well.

"She never bothered to say any answer around me, and I just...couldn't ask." Moon Dancer apologized. Instead, Moon Dancer was to be used as bait in case Doctor Hooves showed up (which most of the listeners even more confused) since the Doctor knew Amethyst Star who was a friend of Moon Dancer's (which delighted the personal trivia laden Pinkie Pie who embraced Moon Dancer as a 'friend-of-a-friend-friend!').

"Yes yes!" Rarity said, "Now, please already how was the curse broken!? How do I save Sweetie Belle?!"

"I . . . I don't know-"

"WHAT?!" Rarity nearly shrieked.

"I felt like I was constantly drowning, like I was made of ice in a summer sea, I was slowly melting away into nothing. Her Majesty had . . . a-all but abandoned me. I was barely of use to her anymore. Then Minuette and Twinkle Shine hugged me and touched my horn with theirs. . . . And I was free. I could breath. I was free."

"So...a hug freed you?" asked Cadence, blinking.

"Sounds too easy..." Rainbow admitted. "I WANT it to be easy, but it sounds a bit...too easy..."

"I'm not complaining about easy..." Pinkie replied. "We're in a fantasy story."

Moth looked conflicted.

"...It was their love that freed Moondancer," I said. "And..." Should I? Should I say it? I know the truth...but to tell it, I'd need to tell how I know it...what I am...

But it might be the only chance of us making it out of here alive...maybe if we free the others Chrysalis will lose enough cogs that she decides Canterlot is more trouble than it's worth...or at least we might be able to free Shining and lower this shield to run...

A changeling must protect her swarm...and they're my swarm...

"...It's the only thing that can break Chrysalis' spell, defeating her, if it was possible at all, won't break her spell. True love, regardless of what kind, as long as it's purest and truest, is the only thing that can..."

All eyes were on me...There was no turning back now. "Sis...how do you know that?"

I sighed. "Bon Bon...I'm sorry...There aren't words to describe how sorry I am...just know I..." I didn't even have to fight my gag reflex anymore. I'd conditioned myself to it, like you condition to anything. I still felt sick 'throwing up' love to a non-changeling, but...I'm used to it. It's how we feed our young after all. "I love you..."

"What are you sorry about? I love you too..."

"...I'm sorry because...I'm not your sister...you never had a sister...and in a couple seconds, I don't think you'll love me at all anymore..." I said sadly.

I finally shed my disguise. It'd been so long since I'd shed it. I can't remember the last time I WILLINGLY shed it. Huh? I noticed my flames weren't green anymore...they were white. No...colorless...

I don't know if anypony noticed the tears running down my face right before I changed.

"M-Moth?" Bon Bon asked, I heard the heartbreak in her tone as much as tasted it.

"What?! She's one of those things!" Rainbow Dash yelled, flying straight at me. I expected this, I don't blame her.

I closed my eyes, expecting to be hit...

"Stop! Stand down, now!"

I blinked, opening my eyes to see a pink wing between me and the rightfully enraged Pegasus.

"Princess?! What are you doing?!"

Cadence lowered her wing, allowing me to see her give Rainbow a look that made even the hot headed pegasus be still.

"I want to hear her out."

"With all due respect, Princess," Rarity said. "She's the ENEMY!"

"No, Rarity, she's a Changeling, but that doesn't AUTOMATICALLY mean she's the enemy, it means she's a member of the enemy's SPECIES."

"You...you're standing up for me?" I asked, blinking. "Why? Queen Chrysalis has...they have...this makes no sense!"

"I'm standing up for you because it's my JOB as a dignitary and a Princess to NOT judge somepony based on their race, appearance, or species," Cadence explained. "And...me and Minny know from experience that members of an enemy species CAN realize the error of their ways."

Minuette nodded.

"But know this, you'd better not abuse my mercy and trust," Cadence said with a tone that made me gulp and nod.

Cadence looked to the others. "I know a buck named Reznov who when he was young was a devoted Hooviet soldier until he realized the Hooviet's 'greater good' was a load of horseapples. He spent from that moment to the Empire's collapse as a double agent undermining their evil, and is now an ambassador helping Roedinia develop peaceful relations with the world. And he's not the ONLY former Hooviet I knew who saw the error of their ways...And during the Griffin Wars there WERE Griffins who realized 'it's wrong to use sapient beings as a food source' and defected to our side."

I gave a gasp at that.

"And there are Diamond Dogs in the GUARD despite how many are mercenaries. There's one in my guard. The delusion that EVERY member of an enemy group or species that has a large number of members who are enemies is evil, that's the mentality racists and genocidal maniacs use. Moth helped the others save us from Chrysalis and claims she has intel we desperately need. We're hearing her out and that is FINAL."

I didn't say it then, but I had another reason...I could sense it. This Changeling had BONDS to Bon Bon and Lyra. REAL bonds, not fabricated ones like Chrysalis had to Shining and the others. She wasn't faking it. I'd never once felt there WASN'T a real sisterly bond between her and Bon Bon...I had good reason to believe she cared about them.

"But how do we know she's not just going to brainwash us?" asked Rainbow, giving me suspicious look. I don't blame her.

"I can't...Queen Chrysalis' brainwashing is exceptional even by Changeling Queen standards and even she needs to be 'let in' by her target to use it properly, my mind magic is more or less just like the anticoagulant in a Mosquito's bite, it just makes it so I can drain more love..."

"And why should I believe you?"

"Yes we...we don't have Applejack hear to be our lie detector."

"Wait, I have an idea," said Pinkie, coming over to me. "Pinkie Promise me you won't brainwash us, tell the enemy about our plans, or otherwise backstab us. And that you'll tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

"Uh...what exactly will that do?" asked Minuette.

"I have a running gag where I can sense if somepony is about to break a Pinkie Promise so I can pop out of nowhere and scream FOREVER because breaking a promise is the best way to lose somepony's trust and then lose them as a friend FOREVER! So if she Pinkie Promises about it, then I'll know if she's about to break it." 'In the original timeline where we got Applejack back from Dodge Junction, she managed to 'exact words' cheat out of it, yeah, I can use that, but they don't need to know that.'

Minuette just stared in confusion. But everybody in Ponyville knew how serious a Pinkie Promise was...

"She's right...we have no idea how she does it..." Fluttershy admitted. "But she does..."

"Alright," I said, taking a deep breath. "I Pinkie Promise that I won't brainwash you, betray you, or backstab you in any way, including ways I might think are in your best interests but actually aren't. And I Pinkie Promise that everything I'm about to tell you is the one hundred percent honest truth. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my ey-ow!" I did the motions and poked myself in the eye a little. I'm not used to my eyes being in their compound state and sticking out this far, since I'd been a pony all this time.

"There," Pinkie said, jumping back to her position.

I didn't look at Bon Bon and Lyra the entire time...how could I?

Cadence nodded. "Alright...I guess...Moth, you were saying?"

I took a deep breath. "...Changeling mind control is MEANT to be used for feeding. Drones can only use it to make the target passive and...more willing to give love...or implant fake memories to insert ourselves into a position...but those memories normally only last long term if the target WANTS them to be true."

I heard Bon Bon try to speak but be unable to. I don't look at her. I can't...

"A Queen's mind control is considerably stronger. Queen Chrysalis' is even stronger still. She's a Deviant."

"What do you mean?" Cadence asked me.

"A mutant. You notice her eyes? Most Changelings have compound eyes, like mine, even queens. Chrysalis' aren't normal. She's more powerful than a normal Queen is in all respects. Noling knows why. The fact even her brainwashing has our magic's universal weaknesses actually surprises me...Changeling mind magic has one major flaw: if anyone knows the target is brainwashed and shows them genuine love, be it ANY kind of love, the spell breaks. That's because our brainwashing ISN'T biologically a weapon, it's a feeding tool. This is like a gag reflex. When more love is fed into the spell, it reflexively breaks to protect the Changeling from overflow. That's how Moondancer was freed...And it's how your friends can be as well."

Rarity nodded. "So...to free our friends, we need to show them love?"

"Yes, but close range in needed when it comes to Chrysalis' spell. Just telling them 'I love you' won't be enough. You have to show it."

"In that case, the best course of action would probably be to get Applebloom to Applejack and Rarity to Sweetie Belle," said Cobweb. "Sisterly love and all."

"You have sisters?" Rarity asked.

"Yes, I have a rather large family..."

I cringed hearing that. With a name like 'Cobweb' was she another runaway like me?

"Also...If you want to avoid getting brainwashed yourself, keep your mental defenses up. If somepony asks 'will you do anything for me', say no unless you're POSITIVE beyond ANY shadow of a doubt they're who they say they are," I warned. "Changeling mind magic, especially the stronger kind, requires us to be 'let in'. So DON'T let them in. Chrysalis must have fooled your friends into doing it. The exception is . . . what was done to Moondancer. The awkward way she was acting when Lyra and the rest of us arrived was because Her Majesty had brute forced it, the spell was forcefully keeping the doors open. If . . . if the spell had been left on her, her mind would have eroded until she had the awareness of a vegetable. There's a balance between 'usefulness' and 'freewill' when Her Majesty forces it like that."

They all gulped and nodded. Scootaloo shuddered for some reason.

"Please, don't talk about it." Moondancer whimpered. Lemonheart hugged her silently from behind, the look on her face screaming, 'What kind of horseapples have I gotten myself into?'

"So Pinkie, we can trust her?" Rainbow asked, seriously.

Pinkie nodded. "Yep. She kept her Pinkie Promise. She's telling the truth."

"Alright! Finally we're getting somewhere!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, then turned to me. "One thing though...Why are you helping us?"

"..."You know how in that manega Penumbra Magical Filly Madoka the Incubators consider one of their kind who develops emotions mentally ill? By Changeling standards, I'm that. I developed compassion for 'cattle' and saw what monsters we really are...Chrysalis' hive isn't my home anymore...Lyra and Bon Bon are...were my hive...and even if they hate me now...I want to keep them safe..."

Pinkie nodded, confirming I hadn't broken my promise...and there was silence for a moment.

"...So, what now?" Rarity asked.

"We have a lot to take in, we've spent the last few hours running nonstop for our lives," Cadence said thoughtfully. "We need to rest or we'll be too tired to do anything...and we clearly have a lot between us to talk about. Ten minute rest and catching each other up on what's happened, then we go find a way to free Twilight and the others and kick Queen Chrysalis' flank."

"But-"

"No buts. That's an ORDER from your PRINCESS. We're resting and filling one another in on what's happening for the next ten minutes."

"Alright. Fine your highness, you got it." Rainbow Dash trotted up to Moth, "But first, I gotta ask. So when you and your friends all crashed the wedding back there, you already knew all this, that when we were right there next to our friends that all we needed to do was show how much we cared about 'em, and bang, they're themselves again? While you guys had the witch blinded by that flash spell?"

"Yes. I did."

Rainbow Dash unfolded one of her wings that could cut through dragon scales so fast in Moth's face it threw her into a pew from the force. She landed on her plot, her wings crumbled behind her.

"YOU BUCKING IDIOT! WHY DIDN'T YOU BUCKING SAY ANYTHING?! They were all right there! We could have cleaned up this stupid mess by now!" Rainbow Dash roared, the others were shocked.

"I . . . I'm s-sorry, I-I was worried, I thought the guards would kill me if I said anything!"

"You mean the guards that were every which way confused and trying to get the crowd back under control!?"

"I thought you wouldn't hear me!"

"In that time when you guys had everypony's attention?! I am not an idiot!" Rainbow stamped her hoof. "You were a bucking coward!" Rainbow Dash propped her up and punched her in the face.

"Save some for me!" Applebloom hissed as the filly pounced and used her tiny earth pony strength to buck the changeling in the knee, making her gasp in pain. Changeling hide didn't protect as well against blunt impacts, even from fillies. "AH COULD'VE SAVED SPIKE RIGHT THERE!"

Then Silver Spoon stopped pretending she was a little lady and bucked the other knee, making her father look at his child in alarm. "Sweetie Belle wouldn't be with that witch if you had SAID SOMETHING!"

Moth became aware that Scootaloo was making near animal noises at her having lost the power to form words for the moment, and was bending one of Moth's sensitive wings the wrong way. The Changeling whimpered at the pain.

Fluttercruel stopped Fluttershy from intervening. 'A lesson must be learned mother,' She thought coldly.

Cobweb merely stood there, she did nothing to help, but she did absolutely nothing to stop it either. She merely looked, almost with a look of satisfaction on her face.

Rarity got between mob and the changeling, making them stop least they hurt their friend. Rarity 'dusted off' the fillies, magically pulling them away from the changeling. "Now now dears," Rarity said, gently pushing them back. "Please, don't hurt her like that, HURT HER LIKE THIS!" Out of nowhere Rarity dropped kicked Moth in the head, then elbow her in the back, smashing Moth into the floor, leaving the Changeling dazed. "Get up you coward! I know I didn't cripple you!" When she didn't get up fast enough Rarity's forced her up ruthlessly, Rarity snarled in her face, her eyes the picture of blood-red fury, "WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO PUT THEM ALL IN DANGER JUST TO SAVE YOUR OWN HIDE? WHAT?! S-Sweetie Belle! There's no telling what that witch will do to her! Twilight! Applejack! Spike! And maybe Trixie?! If I had known I could have hugged her, or told her how much I loved her with a verse! And DON'T YOU DARE SAY your queen would have seen it coming and cut me off!"

"I...I've been told all my life that Queens are invincible...It's all I know...what else am I supposed to think?"

"Princess Celestia BEAT HER in that spell duel, she was SURPRISED! You SAW that. She is NOT some perfect beast! She'd been weakened when you arrived! YOUR cowardice is why Sweetie Belle is in the hooves of that monster! Why her mind has that witch's tendrils inside it, like a cancer! Who KNOWS what kind of damage that'll cause her! Who knows what that witch will use her for! And she had to 'let her in'?! SHE'LL THINK IT WAS ALL HE FAULT whenever she feeds those monsters with our family's song! YOU COWARD!!!"

"...You're right..." the Changeling muttered, looking down. "...I am a coward...I've been running ever since I saw the truth...running from my own kind...looking up at the sky in fear...always running...I could have ended this years ago just by going to Celestia and telling her exactly what was happening but I was afraid she'd kill me...I'm a coward...I've always been a coward...do whatever you want to me...I deserve it..."

Rarity looked her in the eyes. The Changeling didn't fight, didn't struggle.

Rarity dropped her. "You were a fool to think Celestia would kill you for revealing an unknown enemy to her sight."

Bon Bon and Fluttershy came to the changeling's side in an instant.

"Dashie," Pinkie Pie looked at her friend her eyes large and sad.

"Sorry Pinkie Pie. Not now."

Pinkie then joined in helping the changeling in whatever way she could. Minuette, being the closest thing present to a medic, joined in as well, hippocratic oath or not.

"Silver Spoon," her father said evenly.

"Yes father," Silver Spoon said with a face as kind as steel. It wasn't like the sadistic glee she had worn when she had supported Diamond Tiara in her bullying, this was darker.

"You are not to hurt another defenseless pony like that."

"She's not a-"

"This isn't a discussion young lady. You are not to hurt another defenseless ANYTHING like that, are we clear?"

"...Yes father." Silver Spoon said without emotion.

"Rarity! How can you do that?! She was brave enough to tell us now!" Fluttershy said.

"YES! That's the point! If she had been braver jus a tiny bit sooner she might have saved Canterlot already! And don't you dare compare her to yourself Fluttershy. I will not let you!"

Rarity looked back to Moth for a second. "You're ALSO a fool if you think that we would have killed you for FINALLY stopping running and being brave for the first time in your life. This isn't no deed going unrewarded, Moth, be proud you stopped running, that was a good deed. Just remember, actions have consequences. Your reward is a CHANCE to make up for what you've done. But we're not just going to say 'I forgive you' and forget this."

"...I don't deserve forgiveness..."

"...You have so much to learn about ponies. We don't put a price on forgiveness. We just give it in OUR time."

"...So do you forgive me?"

"No...not here and now...but the only one here who I'll never forgive is that psychopathic witch of a queen. Ask me again when Sweetie Belle is safe..."

Fluttercruel took control and put a hoof on Rarity's shoulder and gave a 'let us handle this from here' look.

Fluttershy retook control and looked to Moth as she set about making sure her wing was okay. "...I forgive you, Moth...But..."

Fluttercruel took control. "We're not forgetting this, not yet. Don't think Rarity and the others are wrong to feel how they do right now...You WERE a coward. A dirty rotten stinking coward, and their loved ones were the ones who paid for it..."

Moth looked down in guilt.

"...But you did finally stand up and do the right thing...that's a lot better than some cowards ever have," Fluttershy continued.

"It's everyone's RIGHT to forgive when they bucking want to, so if we forgive you now, that's OUR right, if they don't? That's THEIR right. If you want them to forgive you, then keep being brave, got it? Help us get the buck out of this mess and save the day. Be a coward again and you'll never stop BEING a coward. You weren't punished for being brave, you were punished for WHEN you chose to be brave. So keep being brave and maybe we'll all be friends when this is over with, got it?"

Moth stared at the Flutters in complete shock, unsure of WHAT to say to that.

"Got it?!"

The Changeling nodded slowly.

Fluttershy gave a warm smile. "Good. Now lean forwards a little so I can see your wing completely."

There was no one there to tell Applebloom she had been wrong somehow. Sweetie Belle and Applejack were now zombie-slaves so was Spike, who the CMC had come to see as a voice of reason, and her cousins were all who knew where in Canterlot now? She felt that same sickening feeling of being alone she had in Sunnytown, but there was almost a cruel comfort of familiarity to it now.

Rainbow Dash saw the look of hate on Scootaloo's face. 'No. I'm not letting that happen.'

"Scootaloo, I'm, you shouldn't, what I did just now was . . . man this isn't-. Look, I'm royally clo-... really REALLY mad too! But, fillies like you shouldn't have that kind of feeling in them, they only get bigger as they get older, believe me."

"Shut up! Why didn't you save Sweetie Belle?! You're the fastest pegasus in the world! You can do anything! WHY THE BUCK DIDN'T YOU SAVE HER!" Tears were in Scootaloo's eyes.

Rainbow Dash nearly stumbled back from the look Scootaloo gave her.

"W-what?"

"I was trying to save her but you pulled me away! You left her there and made ME leave her too!" the filly screamed. "...You made me leave her...again..."

Rainbow blinked. The filly's anger had turned to loathing...self-loathing.

"...You should've rescued her instead..."

Rainbow Dash gave a sigh. "Scoots...look...this isn't my thing, I'm not the deep one...but...I saved you because...you were the one I COULD save right then..."

"Being loyal means you sacrifice for your friends instead you making them sacrifice for you! You taught me that!"

"I don't think that's what I-"

"I was giving you a perfect distraction! You should have let the witch zap me and save Sweetie Belle! The witch is making her feed the monsters by singing right?! You should have saved her!!! I was doing something for her! You're the only pony who'd miss me! You were being selfish! How's that loyalty?!"

"Scootaloo, I would have saved Applejack if I hadn't had to bucking save you!" Rainbow yelled back...and instantly regretted it when she saw the filly's eyes in reaction. "...Sorry...It's just...This isn't easy on me...it's reminding me way too much of Discord's sick games...I didn't mean to yell at you, it's just..."

" . . . then maybe you should have."

"...If I did, I don't think I'd have been ABLE to forgive myself," Rainbow Dash muttered. "Look...I'm NOT the mare who's USED to this so forgive me if I'm blunt, but how do you think Sweetie would feel once Rarity snapped her out of it if I HAD saved her by throwing you under the carriage? If I TRADED her best friend for HER?"

"And ya don't think Ah would have cared if ya got hurt?!" Applebloom stepped into the discussion.

"This isn't about you Applebloom!" Scootaloo said and looked back at Rainbow Dash ignoring the other crusader. "I would have been alright, she was trying to zap me, not turn me into a zombie."

"You're wrong, Scootaloo, this IS about her," Rainbow Dash replied. "You're worried about Sweetie, why aren't you worried about your OTHER friend too? Especially since HER sister is in the same position as Sweetie is. So tell me, what's the difference?"

"Then why aren't you helping Rarity?!"

"Because she's got two friends besides me and they're better at this stuff than me. But who does Applebloom have?"

Silver's head lifted at that as well.

"Don't you dare turn this all around on me! I was gonna do what I had to, ta help Sweetie, but you just didn't want me to!"

"How would you feel if Applebloom had done what you PLANNED to do to let me save Applejack? How would you be treating me for not saving HER right now?"

Applebloom startled. Silver Spoon hugged her.

Scootaloo was struck speechless. "She . . . it . . .It would have been her choice! I . . . I . . . . I would have respected it!"

Rainbow narrowed her eyes, not looking amused.

"And what if I HAD saved her, Scootaloo? Would you be angry for me saving your friend?"

"Of course not!!!" The filly snarled.

"You mean if I had abandoned you after I promised to take care of you?! For your parents? You wouldn't be upset that I had?!"

"There's-there's-there's-there's no way I would! Sweetie's in danger! You were right there! Why couldn't you save us both-oh-oh-oh-ooooth!" The filly said fitting. "You're the fastest pegasus in the world!!!"

"You think I didn't WANT to?" Rainbow Dash asked. "But here's the thing, Scootaloo: I didn't mean THAT friend. I meant if Applebloom had tried what you did. What if I'd grabbed her to keep the queen of mean from hurting her? Would you be furious with me for saving Applebloom?"

Scootaloo looked as if she had been struck dumb by the question. It sent a chill through Applebloom herself. " . . . Applejack would never forgive me if did that ta mahself to save 'er."

"WHAT DOES IT MATTER if she forgave you or not?! She'd be safe right?!" Scootaloo snapped right at Applebloom.

"Because Ah'd be betraying the trust she has in me ta look after mahself!"

"ENOUGH!" The ponies startled. It was Lemon Hearts, the ponies realized they had forgotten she was even there. Lemon Hearts hugged the orange filly. "E-enough moonsent!" Lemon Hearts fought back tears. "You're just fillies! You shouldn't be talking about these things! You shouldn't have to go through these things! What the buck are you even DOING HERE-?!"

Applebloom heard herself sniffle. "We're here cause, real monsters don't care if yer a filly."

"Real monsters Applebloom, don't wait for the clowns to exit stage right." Applebloom was surprised when Pinkie Pie of all ponies put a hoof on her shoulder.

"Look, I agree with...with..." Rainbow started, then blinked. "Who are you exactly?"

"Lemon Hearts...Moondancer and I are both friends with Amethyst Star from Ponyville, heard of her?"

"Sparkler, her name in Ponyville is Sparkler," Moondancer spoke up.

"Oh yeah, Derpy's...Derpy's kid..." Rainbow said, the truth Applejack forced her to see flashing in her mind. She pushed it back...for now. "Kids shouldn't have to go through this kinda stuff anyway...I guess between Nightmare Moon, Discord, Nightmare Whisper, and this, you keep getting drawn into stuff like this...and probably if we tried to put you somewhere you'd probably end up in Chrysalis' throne room SOMEHOW, even if we locked you in a box in the basement..."

"Oh great, MORE weirdness magnets..." muttered Minuette patching up Moth.

"But...that doesn't mean it isn't my responsibility to handle this...Scoots...now we know love can free Sweetie Belle, right? But we didn't know that when you did what you did, right?"

"...Right...because of her-"

"No, Scoots. We already gave her a punishment, she's sorry for it. We don't have to forgive her, but now is NOT the time for grudges on ponies we already gave theirs for it and who want to change for the better, save the grudges for that witch," Rainbow replied quickly...then blinked at the fact it'd come out of her own mouth.

"But my point is, if we'd known it then we could've saved them BOTH and I'd probably have rainboomed Chrysalis through the window to give you and Applebloom a CHANCE to do it if we'd known it then, but we didn't. The fact is, ALL I saw was the filly I'm the guardian of about to get brainwashed by the big baddie! I had to choose between disabling Applejack and getting her out of there, not knowing WHAT I'd do after that or protecting you. I had to choose between somepony I didn't know how to save at the time or saving the filly I'm responsible for. I won't lie and say I balanced the books, it was a lot of instinct, but...thinking about it, it was the smartest thing I could have done then...and now that I saved you, maybe you'll have a CHANCE to save Sweetie."

Scootaloo blinked. "W-What?"

"Remember the Day of Discord? What would have happened if you'd run headlong into Ponyville to save your friends and got zapped too? Would you have been ABLE to help them later on?"

Lemon Hearts gently released her hug on Scootaloo.

"Rainbow darling, don't give the filly ideas that are going to put her in danger!" Rarity said sternly.

"Rarity, since when have they ever needed ideas TO get in danger?"

"That doesn't mean you should encourage them!" Rarity said back.

Silver Tongue put a protective hug around his daughter, the message clear.

"Look, I wasn't saying 'run up and punch that maniac in the face', I meant 'hug Sweetie and Spike and snap 'em out of it!'" Rainbow replied.

"Look..." Applebloom said seriously. "Yah always say what we COULD do if we ever got serious," she said. "Well we're serious now! If we can make a time machine that goes sideways through time on accident, then just think of what we could do on purpose!"

"...Time machine?" Minuette asked.

Silver Spoon nodded. "Yes...it involved an abandoned railroad track, a minecart, and a flux capacitor..." she muttered sheepishly. "...By the way, Miss Pinkie Pie, a pony called Minty said 'hi.'"

Pinkie blinked, then gave a small smile. "Thanks..."

"...I say we let them help," Minuette stated.

Rarity said, "Well you're not in charge-"

"But I am, and I say we let them help," Princess Cadence said with a tone of royal authority she detested having to use. Silver Tongue wasn't the only one to recognize the look in Applebloom's eyes, this filly had seen things fillies weren't meant to see long before today. "You say they'll try to help whether we let them or not? I've dealt with enough foals to know you're right. Then . . . then let them help where we can make sure they don't do anything foolish," the Princess of Harmony said choosing the lesser of two evil.

The ponies couldn't bring themselves to argue with her.

"If we try to shoo the clowns away when monsters come, you can bet, the monsters will simply follow them, instead of risking themselves against those who can defend themselves," Minuette whispered.

Rarity whispered to herself kneeling in front of the alter, not looking at anypony, "We don't GET to 'shoo out the clowns' when Tartarus hits. We don't get to say to the silly ones that they get to exit stage left when it's time for drama or darkness. We try our hardest to protect our foals from the world. But we always ultimately fail." Rarity shivered.

Applebloom said nuzzling the mare in the side, "Don't worry Miss Rarity, we'll save Sweetie Belle, and Spike, and Miss Twilight and . . . and we'll save mah big sister too!" Applebloom whimpered, everything finally catching up her, and she began to cry. Rarity held the small filly, she cried too.

The ponies finally took the time to share each other's stories to get a better picture of what had happened and what was going on.

Author's Note

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember
Part 13
Dances With Ponies
By Alex Warlorn

Chrysalis' scheme, in spite of several hiccups and last minute changes, seems to have worked out hasn't it? Except, Chrysalis forgot, there ARE NO unimportant ponies.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Behind-Enemy-Lines-442459596

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Bug-Candy-443892308

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (always needs more love).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Do any parts here seem like they'd fit better in a chapter with more room?

20140329: edited in some bits with Pinkie Pie and Rarity to address some concerns by readers. They managed to fit, thankfully, since this chapter is RIGHT at the 64K mark,

Episode 172: "Bug Candy"

"Minuette, Twinkle Shine, Miss Heartstrings, I'm, I'm so sorry, what that witch planned to do to you, and Moondancer, what that witch DID do to you," Princess Cadence said.

"You . . . you had nothing to do what with what Her Majesty, what she . . . what she did to me."

"I'm still sorry this happened to you, Moondancer, it shouldn't have happened. It wouldn't have happened if Chrysalis hadn't captured me in the first place," the Princess said, lowering her head. "And I'm sorry I let that happen. If I'd seen her coming and defeated her before she'd absorbed Shining's love, none of this would have happened."

"You couldn't prepare for an enemy you didn't know anything about Cadence," Minuette said, "Nopony knew anything about these monsters. You'd just as soon be blamed for not seeing an invisible pony."

"Her Majesty . . . made sure nopony knew anything about her, she made absolutely sure. You weren't . . . you weren't supposed to expose her there, in front of so many ponies. She wasn't even planning to fight . . . to fight Princess Celestia head on. She was planning to swarm her with Changelings and stab her in the back. You forced her to change everything. She's already had to adjust it several times."

"If this is her winging it, I'd have hated to see things 'go according to plan,'" Lyra said looking out a stained glass window.

"Nothing ever goes according to plan," Minuette said.

"Her Majesty doesn't think so. You said she exposed herself trying to kill Blueblood for ruining her plan. She's a...she relishes control. She feels she's scraped her way to the top so she deserves to have everything go her way for all she's endured and worked for."

"And that's why we're going to win," Cadence said firmly. "She's not the only one who can endure."

"And we'll be right besides you Princess," Twinkle Shine cheered.

"No, you won't. You were going to be turned into her slaves, I won't risk-"

"Princess. With all due respect," Twinkle Shine said, "You agreed to have three fillies help to keep them out of WORSE danger, what makes you think you could stop us from helping?"

"Them I can't royally order."

"Actually you could, it just wouldn't work anymore than with us."

Cadence felt a headache, "I wonder if Auntie has days like this."

"Cadence," Twinkle Shine said, "If this is about Sunset-"

"No it isn't. This is nothing like Sunset."

Lyra knew from her friends' letters that they weren't talking about Princess Celestia's old apprentice.

"Princess, you know we're not just your hoofmaidens, we're your FRIENDS, and we'll stick by you through anything."

"I just don't want you to be hurt. This is a war, and you're not soldiers."

"Don't worry," Minuette said, giving the Princess a look reminding her that she wasn't the only one who remembered a world war that no longer existed and the horrors that could result. "You'd be surprised Cadence, we'll watch each other's backs, and yours. Ever since...Sunset...We've been PREPARING for this day. The day we'd have to stop it from happening again. We're READY for this. And that psychopathic witch doesn't know it. If she did, she'd not have made the mistake of firing us."

" . . . Lyra Heartstrings."

"Yes, Your Highness?"

Cadence put a hoof on her shoulder, "It is an honor, that I accept you as one of my hoofmaidens de facto, and bridesmaids."

"Princess . . . I can't really be a replacement for-"

"Don't even go there. THAT is an order I expect you to obey!" Cadence said in a no-nonsense tone that made the unicorn nod her head meekly. "I accept you as a new friend."

"Welcome to the team Lyra." Minuette and Twinkle Shine hugged her. Then Moondancer as well. The Alicorn of Bonds felt stronger just being near them.

"I think I was already a part."

"And girls?"

"Yes?" They asked.

Cadence hugged them with her hooves and wings, "It's WONDERFUL that you're all safe!!! And I AM sorry for everything that witch told you, said to you, using my face!"

They hugged in return. "We're just happy, that wasn't really you, and we're sorry, we didn't realize you'd NEVER say those things!" They nuzzled her together, and she nuzzled back.

"If you forgive me, then I forgive you. There is nothing more to say!"

++++

After being patched up by Minuette, Moth had simply sat there in one of the pews, she had shifted back to her mirror image of Bon Bon, no pony had told her not to, and it simply felt more natural. Bon Bon simply sat next to her, not even looking at her, Moth couldn't bear to look at her either.

Lyra was speaking with the maidens and the princess, but stole glances at her, she didn't look angry, she looked hurt, betrayed, Moth whimpered and hugged herself. The others were now ignoring her.

"Moth," Bon Bon asked, "How much of what I remember is true?"

"Everything from when you first laid eyes on me in Ponyville to now."

" . . . So everything before that was a lie you invented?"

"Not exactly."

"Who did you take the place of in my mind?"

"NO CREATURE! Bon Bon, I didn't take the place of anypony! You never had a sister for me to take the place of! Those memories you have? . . . We made them together. You filled in the gaps yourself. I placed myself into your memories, what you thought of me, what we did together, everything else was you. Even Chrysalis couldn't rewrite someone's entire memories without some contribution."

"And that makes it okay?"

"No it doesn't...not at all. I understand if you feel violated...you have a right to be..."

"And Lyra? Tootsie?"

" . . . It was the same with them, you made it easier to sync up their memories of me with yours, when you invented me visiting or seeing you before, their memories had to be adjusted to, an empty day at the house doing nothing became a visit from 'Auntie Moth.'"

"How many others ponies in Ponyville did you do this to?"

" . . . Not a one. I Pinkie Promise. It was only you and your family. I managed to steer the memories of us together enough so it wouldn't be things you'd find too big contradictions."

"How could you make my memories lie to me?"

"Our memories lie to us all the time, we rewrite them ourselves to fit with what we felt and thought at the time."

"THAT ISN'T WHAT I MEANT!"

Moth startled and whimpered, shrinking away from the identical mare. "How could you do this to me? To Lyra? Our foal? How could you do something like that Moth?!"

"Because I was terrified! I was terrified I'd starve to death! That you'd put me in a zoo! That Her Majesty's lies that ponies would kill Changelings on sight were true! I was terrified Her Majesty would have spies in Ponyville who'd root me out!"

" . . . why, why didn't you ever tell me? Didn't you trust us? Trust me? After all the years we've been family."

"After what I did?! After what I've done?"

"And you thought it was better to just keep it going?"

"I didn't want to lose you! For the first time in a long time I was happy! I was just accepted. If I fell short, you'd be there to pick up the slack, because you knew I'd do the same for you. I belonged again, and . . . you loved me, I never once had to encourage it, you didn't just talk about things we never did, we talked about things we were doing. About what you wanted...about things we'd actually done together. . . and Rosedust help me, I loved all of you."

"Moth." Bon Bon said strictly, "Stand on all fours. And don't move until I give you permission to."

The changeling obeyed.

Bon Bon struck her. "That was for Lyra." Moth didn't move. Bon Bon hit her again. "That was for Tootsie!" Once more.

"And that was for you?"

"No. That was for yourself!"

Moth looked in surprise.

"You can move now. So, making candy, doing voices, the running of the leafs, our freaking out when Nightmare Moon arrived, Discord, Princess Gaia, that was all you? It was real? It happened?"

"Yes. And it's . . . actually funny you should mention 'Candy.'"

"Why?"

"The name I wanted to tell you when we first met was 'Candy', not my real name. But I was so delirious when I spoke I gave you my real name." Sitting on her rear with her rear knees up and her forehooves on her back knees looking down sadly.

"I'm happy I got to know you by your real name. Or was it all an act?"

"None of it."

"And I should believe that because?" Her voice wasn't accusing, if anything, it was leading.

"Because I have nothing left to lose.

"Changelings can't feed on their own love, it's like a snake eating its own tail, our magic doesn't recharge on its own and our magic is our life force, all I have is a bucket riddled with holes I have to keep filling. Every drop giving to others is one more drop towards it being empty, dying. But it hurts worse when I don't share it. I told myself I'd move on after I was strong enough. But being called by my real name, using your appearance but not your identity. . . . I was warned about it as a nymph. 'Beware, some changelings can get lost in a role.' "

"Nymph?"

"A child, a foal, is that strange I used to be little?"

"No Moth, not at all. I remember being with you when small."

"I inserted myself into those memories. All you remember are lies."

"Was everything we did together in Ponyville since you came a false memory too?"

"No."

"So who were you pretending to be exactly when we did the running of the leaves together?"

" . . . your sister."

"And you've been exactly that for YEARS Moth! You haven't stole any love form me! I've given it to you same as I give it to Lyra!"

"And all based on a lie."

" . . . if it's all a lie, then if we've never meant anything to you . . . why are you crying?"

" . . . I'm a predator, no, I'm a PARASITE, not even that, I'm a parasitoid, we don't don't attached to a host and leave it at that, we harvest them dry, and find a new victim. There is nothing natural about us, we aren't predators hunting prey, we're a plague."

" . . . If that's true, then why are Lyra, Tootsie and I still alright?"

" . . . I never forced it out, I never took more than you gave me. All the love I vomited back to you, you kept returning several fold."

"You said you were scared of the Queen's spies finding you, why were you scared of that?"

"Because I'm legally insane. When I see you Bon Bon, I see a person, not a walking emotion battery, and as far as the hive is concerned, that's no different than if you knew a pony who thought stacks of HAY were people! And that eating hay was cruel and not thinking about what the HAY wanted. Like griffin and their meat-cattle, I'm crazy for feeling bad for feeding off of innocent ponies, that it's wrong to leave emotionless husks in our wake. If you met a pony who preached it was wrong to suck an orange completely dry. THAT is what we're taught as nymphs, and it's proof of insanity, to put the needs and wants of cattle, above the needs and wants of the hive, of people."

" . . . in other words, because you have a heart?"

"No. Bon Bon that isn't it. We know kindness, cruelty, happiness, sadness, we just don't think non-changelings' feelings on the subject MATTER, after all, we're hungry, what does it matter what our food thinks? The most we cared was as much as you care about someling torturing a simple animals."

"But you do." Bon Bon then -HUGGED HER?!- And Bon Bon kissed her in each spot where she had struck her.

"Don't you get it si-, Bon-Bon? Everything before you met me in Ponyville was a lie. . ."

Bon Bon didn't stop hugging her. She then began to nuzzle her. Moth couldn't stop herself from absorbing the love Bon Bon gave her anymore than a pony could control their esophagus. The taste was as familiar as Bon Bon herself, her determination, her yin to Lyra's yang, her joy for Tootsie, the way she made Moth feel whole.

Moth admitted, "But if there can be such a thing as a 'good lie' . . . it's . . . whatever."

"YOU SAID EVERYTHING BEFORE PONYVILLE WAS A LIE! SO EVERYTHING AFTER THAT WAS A TRUE RIGHT? Running of the Leaves? The Sisterhood Social? Nightmare Night? Hearth's Warming Eve? THOSE MEMORIES ARE REAL! WE FORGED THEM TOGETHER!"

"I'm nothing but a walking lie! Just stop it!"

"NO, YOU'RE NOT! YOU'RE MY SISTER!"

" . . . How can you say that? After everything?"

"Am I mad at you? YES! I'm mad at you for using your magic on Lyra and Tootsie! I'm mad at you for not saying ANYTHING all these years even when it could have helped us, helped ALL OF US, am I disappointed in you? Yes. Am I angry? Yes. Do I think you were being a complete idiot? Yes. Do I think you deserved that beat-up? . . . Yes. Am I disgusted at what you did to my family? You have no idea. . . But all these years, you've been nothing but family too. I don't hate you. I can't hate you! I'd never hate you! You're my sister who messed up, and who has the goodness in her to do her best to make it right! And I'm here to help you do that!"

" . . . H-how-?"

"We're ponies. We're not supposed to believe in grudges, everypony here will forgive you eventually, I'm SURE of it. Just like I forgive you, sister. We're supposed to believe in our herd, and you're a part of it."

Moth recoiled, then sighed. "...So that's what it is. It's this face, isn't it?" She shed her disguise. "See? I'm not a pony. This is my true form. You don't need to feel guilty about hating me."

BonBon didn't release her hold, even as the clear flames burned her a little bit and she was hugging hard exoskeleton instead of fur. "I don't hate you, so I have nothing to be guilty about."

Moth's compound eyes blinked. "...You...you really mean that?"

"You're the love vampire, are you still getting love from me?"

"...Yes..."

"Do you have to take it?"

"...N-No...I don't..."

"So I'm giving it to you?"

"...Yes..."

Bon Bon looked up, right into the Changeling's compound eyes. "The face doesn't matter. Wear any face you want. They're all just masks my sister is wearing...and if this is what you look like under the mask?"

Bon Bon looked to Pinkie Diane. "Pinkie Pie, you've got a camera, right?"

"...Why would I?"

"Because you're Pinkie Pie."

Pinkie gave a smile and produced a camera. "You're right."

"Bon Bon, what are you doing?" Moth asked.

"Don't you DARE put on a disguise. And don't move."

Bon Bon positioned Moth next to her in a pose. Moth recognized it. "This is..."

"Shush. Hold still! Let Pinkie snap the picture!"

Bon Bon motioned to Pinkie Diane as she took her own pose. Pinkie snapped the picture, which slid out from the front of the camera. A few moments later, she showed it to Bon Bon and Moth.

Moth gasped.

"Hold still sis! Let mom snap the picture!"

"Alright! I'm holding still!"

"But...that memory was fake! I put it in your head myself!"

"I know," Bon Bon said. "So I replaced it with a real one. Besides, I'd always been meaning to replace one of the few pictures we 'took together' but managed to 'lose', now's as good a time as any."

Bon Bon looked to Pinkie. "Keep that picture safe, alright? I don't have my saddle bags and...well...you're Pinkie. It's going on the wall WHEN we get home."

Pinkie nodded and slid it into subspace. "I'll keep it safe, cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!"

Moth was stunned. "You...you really don't care I'm a monster?"

"Chrysalis is a monster. You're not."

"...I've sucked ponies dry a long time ago, Bon Bon..."

"And now? If you had a chance to set things right?"

"...I'd take it...I'd do anything I could to make them whole again. To give them back what I took...except another life. Mine, yes...but not another."

"Then you were a monster. Not anymore. Now you're my family, my herd."

Tears began down Moth's face. Love...it just kept flowing into her...she didn't know how her body was HOLDING this much love. "...And...and you and Lyra...Tootsie...you're my swarm..."

The Changeling's magic glowed for a moment...then shattered to reveal magic exactly the same color as Lyra's.

"...Your...your magic just changed..."

"...A Changeling's magic match's the one to who they've pledged their loyalty...Lyra's the only one in our family with a magic color for it to match..." she said, giving a small smile.

Bon Bon hugged her. The Changeling finally hugged her back. "I love you Bon Bon..."

"I love you too Moth..."

For the first time in my life...I didn't feel sick giving love. Not one bit.

"Moth."

"Fluttershy?"

"I never saw you as a monster. Not once."

"Y-you knew?"

" . . . Yes."

All eyes were on Fluttershy now.

"As . . . as Nightmare Whisper, I saw into the hearts of every pony in Ponyville, Cloudsdale, and . . . lots of other places. Yes, I knew. I don't remember the entire life of every single pony everywhere, and I promised myself to keep what I learned secret that I shouldn't have learned in the first place. But I couldn't forget that, and I knew from the beginning, that you, and changelings like you, don't mean any harm."

"What? What do you mean, you don't mean any . . . there are . . . there are other changelings like me in Equestria? Who?"

"That isn't my place to say."

Rainbow Dash face hoofed, "Fluttershy! Respecting ponies' privacy is one thing, but 'secret invasion of evil love-sucking bug ponies'?! Don't you think that's something you should have shared?!"

"I said I didn't keep a memory of everything I felt in every pony's heart. And the changelings I felt . . . the ones my magic touched . . . they really didn't mean any harm. They had no intention of taking over Equestria or doing this. Some where afraid, like Moth wwas, which is why I kept it secret. They were afraid of 'Her Majesty' but I didn't really see anything saying who it was, so I assumed they meant Princess Celestia or somepony else."

"So you just happened to MISS all the changelings who work for queen ugly?! That's stupid! That's super-stupid sent on a rocket from exploding planet-stupid!"

"Rainbow Sweetie is in that witch's clutches and I won't blame Fluttershy for something she didn't know," Rarity defended.

"Moth spoke, "Or . . . the ones she did touch, were never told anything, they might have not even known there was going to be an invasion period. Chrysalis wouldn't have told them anything she didn't want them to share with 'the harvest.' I didn't even know if Chrysalis' invasion would happen in my lifetime period. She got this far by doing everything so slowly that nopony would notice. The Queen wanted nopony to find out about her plans until she'd already won. Plans like this function on a strict 'need to know basis', many changelings don't even know who their co-conspirators are or what the POINT of their orders are. Like a cog in a machine has no clue what the machine actually does."

"Well that didn't happen, and isn't going to happen," Princess Cadence said. "Thanks to you, we can rip the cogs right out of her machine by freeing the others."

"And girls," said Pinkie. "I was hooked up to that orb too, and I can't remember everything I felt either," she explained. "It was like hearing a lot of ponies talking at the same time. I kinda remember Moth was guilty about something, but not what she was guilty about. I was as surprised by the Changelings as everypony else."
`
Cadence gave it thought. "Auntie said that Alicorns have an infinite memory but mortals don't. It makes sense something a being like Nightmare Whisper could remember, a mortal would have to delete a lot of it or even not process it period to continue functioning period. Even an Alicorn would have difficulty professing that much information all at once. It's not surprising neither of you can remember everything you saw. It's lucky you can remember anything you girls saw."

The Princess remembered after ~~Makarov~~ had been deleted, how it'd taken months for her mind to process all the new memories from the timeline where he'd never existed. She shuddered to imagine what it would be like trying to process new memories of everypony.

"That might explain why I didn't remember what Moth did before leaving the hive but remember she was a Changeling," Fluttershy noted. 'Maybe Princess Celestia made it so some of the memories are in my butterfly too...because it'd be too dangerous for my mind to hold them all.'

Fluttershy whispered stroking Moth's backside, "And what I remember about you changelings, your hunger. And how much it hurts. A hunger that never ends. A hunger that never truly leaves you. Is never done with you. A hunger that always returns no matter how much you gorge yourself. Able to think and feel, but always in the cage of the hunger."

Moth looked at the meek yellow pegasus and slowly trotted towards her, and knelt in front of her. "If you know what we are, if you know what we feel, then . . . You're a goddess now right?! Then tell me . . . " The changeling began to cry. "What kind of black hearted god would make us this way?"

"...I don't know," Fluttershy said softly. "I... Do I look like an Alicorn? Nightmare Whisper is gone, that's why like Cadence said I can't remember everything in perfect detail I saw, it'd be dangerous for me to while I'm a mortal...but I know one thing..." she said, looking Moth in the eyes. "Nature has many parts, many types of things. You're able to live in harmony with ponies, right?"

"...Yes..."

"And you don't hurt them, do you?"

"...Not by feeding..."

"And the hunger, it isn't nearly as bad with them, is it?"

"No...it's...it's almost gone because I'm being filled constantly...around them is one of the only times I feel satisfied...And...actually...right now I actually do feel full."

Fluttershy put a hoof on her shoulder. "Then maybe you're not the one deviating from what whatever spirit made you made you to be...maybe you and...the other Changelings I felt are the only ones who are doing what they actually made you to be. Perhaps Changelings are supposed to be symbiotic, not parasitic? And that's why you feel so hungry when you're feeding how the Hive taught you to feed, but full when you eat how you have been? Maybe you're honey bees who think they're mosquitoes?"

"I . . . I never thought about that way before . . . I . . . " Moth looked very unsure of what to say. "It's just, all my life . . . but then in Ponyville . . . it was like, but I was told . . . thank you Princess Gaia."

"Please, just Fluttershy."

"Welcome to my world," Princess Cadence said. "Just be glad they haven't started swearing by your body parts yet."

Fluttershy blushed. "They might start doing that?!"

"They swear by my mane all the time...And Auntie's beard, even if she only had one for ten years three centuries ago...it's a long, humiliating story..."

++++

Adrenaline was spent, the ponies were no longer running for their lives or at each other's throats, many finally had a chance to reflect.

Author's Note

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember
Part 14
Bug Candy
By Alex Warlorn

Chrysalis' scheme, in spite of several hiccups and last minute changes, seems to have worked out hasn't it? Except, Chrysalis forgot, there ARE NO unimportant ponies.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Dances-With-Ponies-443077616

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-15-Whole-Moon-444137785

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (always needs more love).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Do any parts here seem like they'd fit better in a chapter with more room?

Episode 173: "Whole Moon"

Scoots. I won't make promises I can't keep, so you can bet I promise I'll save AJ, Sweetie, Spike, and Twilight! And if I don't! You can be sure that I trust you, or one of us here will! Twilight saved Applejack and the rest of us from Discord's spell, so now it's our turn to save her!

AJ, you can see the truth, so I know the choice I made wasn't something I didn't consciously do, I saved Scoots, nothing else to it. Mom, dad, is that what you felt like with me? There never was a choice, you protected me, nothing else to it. It's funny, Rarity isn't razing me for not saving Sweetie or Spike while Scoots was . . . that's cause she feels that she should have been the one to save either of them when Twilight can't help Spike. I'm no rocket scientist but even I can see that! Or maybe Rarity just generously knows I can't be in two places at once.

Rarity and Applebloom are doing wonders for each other right, Celestia knows they need it. I think we all would have gone insane if we'd been doing this alone.

Princess Celestia, you said we were the two Elements who'd have to make the hard choice, and well Princess, it didn't work out the way I thought it would. AJ, I screwed up after Discord broke me with his sick game, never again, Scoots doesn't want to run away again, and neither do I.

Spike, your friends are coming for you, hang in there. I have faith in them.

Dang it. We're a regular sized herd in here there are so many of us. Plus the creepy bug pony who turns out to be completely and honestly NICE. There's the fillies and Mr. Silver, Cadence and her maidens, and Lyra's family. Not to mention a bunch of Canterlot unicorn mares we've never met before. As Pinkie Pie would say 'we're supposed to be the main characters here.'

Pinkie Pie's doing okay, then again, she does great in large groups. And for the Flutters, they're keeping the bug pony, I mean Moth in the right direction. I don't exactly trust Cobweb since we're dealing with evil shape shifting love-vampires. But apart from her coming out of freakin' nowhere . . . she's still suspicious. But no, I'm not going to assume she's a bad guy, that's not what I mean. The bu-Moth is apparently a good guy, if Cobweb IS another Changeling, she might be one of the good ones too. But that doesn't mean I'm going to assume she CAN'T be one of the bad ones. I'll just keep an eye on her. How would Twilight put? Oh yeah, 'trust but verify!'

I've got to say . . . the difference between the real Cadence and the fake? . . . When she defended Moth, I finally saw what Twilight DIDN'T see in the fake. She doesn't pass judgment like that, she doesn't rub it in, she doesn't ENJOY rubbing a pony's nose in it, she gives the benefit of the doubt instead of assuming a pony can't change. She wouldn't assume the worst about somepony. This is the real Cadence.

What zombie-AJ showed me with her truth-eyes? . . . Look I never meant to be MEAN to Derpy! . . . I'm just sick of always being on the receiving end of her screw-ups and having to clean up her messes. I . . . never meant to hurt her. . . I know that doesn't change the fact I never apologized for spreading that rumor about her cheating on a test she aced and I flunked. I . . . guess what I meant is I didn't know I hurt her that bad. Okay I knew but I didn't THINK about it. Just add it to the pile of stupid things I did as a filly. And through everything I've said to her, she's never once tried to slack when her turn for weather duty comes up, even with those wacky eyes of hers . . . Scootaloo is taking extra effort to learn to fly . . . Derpy is a part of my weather team whenever her yearly requirement is due . . . I should take the extra effort to teach her. Maybe I will, after we beat that nag's buggy butt and get back to having the wedding!

--Rainbow Dash

About time we got to having some first person narratives! That's what this story is called after all! I really really wished we had just got some character driven story about forgiveness and jumping to conclusions, like Clover had when HER sister got married! Twilight why couldn't you just relive one of your past selves' adventures?!

Why do they have to add epicness to everything? I know lots of readers love it. But . . . aren't those times when we grow and learn as ponies entertaining too? Not everything has to be about fighting or beating the bad guys. It seems this story has gone so far off track of what it was meant to be, what we were meant to be. Well, we'll just have to make the most of it!

Gonna have ta throw Moth a 'coming out of the cocoon' party when we get back to Ponyville. And another 'saved the world again' party, or is this just a 'saved Equestria again' party? I don't think Queen Meanie said anything about taking over the world. Oh well, they're both fun!

Dashie's looking a little down, hmmm, let me check. Well that's good news! Dashie's as focused and determined as ever, and is even going to stop being so mean to Derpy! Well, she wasn't super nasty or anything like that. And Derpy didn't really seem to notice that much, I think. I hope the real Cadence likes the party I set up for her.

Rarity isn't throwing me stinky looks anymore for . . . for saving her from getting hurt from trying to rescue Sweetie. I don't know if she'd have saved Sweetie or not with what we know now, but hey, we've had enough 'could have should haves' for one myth arc!

I don't like what the others did to Moth . . . she didn't MEAN anything bad. Yeah she was acting like a silly filly, I mean, Celestia HURTING somepony for being different? What bad fanfic has she been reading?! We all make mistakes after all.

Let's do this! Some rapid fire funny faces, and TA-DA, she smiled! I know Bon-Bon and Fluttershy did most of the work, but every little bit helps!

That witch is so unoriginal! I mean, brainwashing ponies and turning us against each other? Doesn't she know Discord did that already? And Nightmare Whisper did brainwashing too! Seriously, we get brainwashed so often I'm beginning to think the author has a fetish or something! Though the evil invading army and devouring love and making all ponies into cattle IS a new spin on things. So points for that.

I make a point of introducing myself to Moon Dancer and Lemon Hearts and Twinkle Shine and Minuette and Cobweb and the real Princess Cadence . . . new friends! Better start memorizing birthdays and favorite colors!

Come on Moon Dancer smile! The witch isn't here anymore! And you have friends and all new friends all around you! Nopony is gonna hurt you that way again! Pinkie Promise! We're gonna beat her! Super GENTLE hug! Ultra POWERFUL lullaby! There there Moondancer, this is one ghostie we'll giggle away all together. Just smile. Alright, you can use me for a pillow for a little while.

--Pinkamena Diane Pie

Mother, father . . . why couldn't you have been in Ponyville? Then I could have dropped off Sweetie, oh right: she and her friends pulled that little scheme to get her to come along. Yes, I know I couldn't have seen this coming, but the reality remains I choose to let her come along, and she had this done to her because I agreed to have her come along. That is reality. I should have had her at least wear the dream catcher, maybe it would have warded off whatever attracted that monster to my baby sister.

Mother, father, I'm sorry I failed to protect Sweetie Belle, forgive me. Sweetie Belle, I'm sorry for failing you, I hope you'll be able to forgive me later. I'm your big sister, I'm the one trusted to always look after you, and now that witch has you. After what you endured what Discord did to you, you don't deserve this too.

I'd say I'd make that witch pay, but I just want you back safe and sound, and that witch unable to hurt anypony's little sister ever again . . . I don't care if she takes up basket weaving or is turned into a statue, I don't want her to hurt anypony ever again. She doesn't matter, what matters is Sweetie is safe again.

Thank you for the hug Applebloom, I think I need this too. It's a good reminder. Applejack, your real self has always mattered so much to you, I won't let that witch take it from you. Spike, I won't promise I'll save you, because it doesn't matter who does, only that you're safe again. Twilight, I imagine the others feel the same way, but you saved my soul from Discord, so now we'll do my best to help save yours if I can. There are so many of us here. Together we'll do it. Then I can start asking Princess Cadence what she thinks of her wedding dress. I now wonder if that witch even LIKED that dress I made for her.

Ugh. Did I have to imagine Sweetie assuring the queen I'd make her a new one after I was turned into her slave? . . . Well that is not happening. What that witch needs most right now is a harsh reminder she doesn't get to hurt whomever she pleases, and a good spanking! Perhaps a thousand years in stone or on the surface of the sun courtesy of the Elements will give her a wake up call.

Good work on Moon Dancer, Pinkie Pie. Good job on Moth, Fluttershy. No, I haven't forgiven her yet for her choices being why we're in this mess. I know that's not quite generous. I'm a flesh and blood pony. Sweetie Belle, I'll work towards it. And I also won't fixate on what she's done, not when she's now trying to help us as a true friend should.

And sadly we had proof that our enemy are just misguided creatures and not unholy monsters that I don't need to feel guilt about snuffing the life out of. This isn't some guiltless conflict where I can get blood on my hooves without conscience.

Oh my. If Cadence never actually fired her old bridesmaids, does that mean WE aren't really bridesmaids? I'll have to completely redesign their dresses after what happened to them! And Miss Lemon Heart and Moon Dancer, I'll simply HAVE TO do one for her to help her after what she's been through, I know it doesn't fix things, but it'll help her remember there are ponies who care.

As for Cobweb . . . after hearing so many bug themed names I'd be blind not to see the connection, but I won't jump to conclusions, her magic wasn't green, but still, maybe best not to turn my back on her.

Silver Tongue, I'm sorry your filly has been dragged into this. Scootaloo, don't worry, Sweetie will be saved. I know it.

--Rarity Belle

Everything is a whirlwind. I hope my birds are okay. I had them fly out the window and perch with Philomena, I know she'll keep them safe. Chrysalis, she's as bad as Discord . . . on second thought she's worse than Discord. Discord at least was the spirit of disharmony, he couldn't help being what he was. I know we had to stop him or Ponies would suffer under him like they did before, but I wish there was just some way for him to get to see . . . After all, if Nightmare Moon and Trixie could be saved, why not Discord?

Does that mean I think Chrysalis can be saved too? . . . Yes I do. Absolutely. Moth proved Changelings don't need to be monsters. But that doesn't mean I'm about to let her and her subjects hurt innocent ponies because she can't see the difference between a pony and a hayburger. If...if we have to send her to the sun or turn her into a statue, then we will. I know I'm not Nightmare Whisper anymore, I don't WANT to be ever again, but part of me wishes I could just sing a song and turn her into a happy little filly and let her spend a day playing with the Crusaders to teach her ponies are people. Maybe the Elements could do that if we tell them to...

I AM angry at Chrysalis, I accepted Flutterrage back into me. But this anger feels different than it did when I was 'New Fluttershy'...this anger feels like when Flutterrage got out when Twilight pointed out Discord would win if I didn't catch Rainbow. It feels like the RIGHT kind of anger. The anger that helps motivate instead of hurt.

I HATED leaving Spike, Applejack, Twilight, Sweetie Belle, and Shining Armor, all there with the queen. I hated we had to split up from Prince Blueblood and his friend, from Shining Armor's friends, and Twilight's parents. I know we had to, but I don't like it. I hope it was the right choice.

Moth. I'm proud of you for growing up now, the past is the past. Only take the good things with you from it. If one good thing came out of this, it's that Moth had to show herself to Bon Bon...and Bon Bon still loved her like a sister. Maybe when all is said and done ALL the Changelings can see the light. I was NOT telling a kind lie when I said Moth might be what a Changeling should be. I might not be a Goddess right now, but I know biology and nature. If an animal tries to feed in a way it isn't built to feed, they don't do as well as one who IS. A symbiotic animal feeding like a parasitic one isn't going to do as well as one feeding like a symbiot. And even if that isn't the case...SAPIENT beings can choose to CHANGE their nature from how they were made. The Griffins did it. Fluttercruel did it. Spike is. Why can't they?

Poor poor POOR Moondancer . . . here Pinkie Pie, let me help you with her, there's a good pony, just relaxing, just read, sleep for real, have peaceful and happy dreams right now. I think the only reason she didn't scream when she laid eyes on Moth changing is because she was too scared to. Don't worry little pony, I'll help you too.

--Fluttershy

Look can we just skip me? Seriously? I can't take this crud. A part of me was expected to just relax and let mom take care of things throughout this trip. Instead it's time to strap on the horseshoes again and beat up the baddies. Well, less talking and more smacking. But right now mom's touch is needed more than mine. I already gave Moth the 'cruel to be kind' treatment, I'm not needed right now. I like Lemon Hearts and Twinkle Shine's attitudes though. Maybe we can be friends.

--Fluttercruel

Silver Spoon, what kind of world have you been forced into? Your mother would have a panic attack if she knew the danger you were in. I know you like to think you know the world of adults inside and out, but there are realities you're thankfully still too young to realize or know, and I don't want you to see them until you've seen the good in the world to balance it out.

Why do you fillies have to think you can take on the world? You and over half the ponies here should just find a safe place to hide while I take the risks along with the others here whose duty it is to risk their lives for everypony else.

Princess Cadence. You've grown into a beautiful mare. I feel so old now. You'd never guess how old I really was just by looking at me. I sometimes wonder if I have your birth to thank for that. Or by how young my little filly is, so incredibly young.

Too bad, unlike the fantasies, putting on a few years doesn't excuse you from doing something when there aren't others around to help. Silver Platter, if anything happens, PLEASE look after our foal, make sure she grows in a proper mare: intelligent, beautiful, rational, who had a happy foalhood.

I'm happy you've made more friends Silver Spoon, I've never regretted you making friends with Diamond Tiara, in spite of everything, you made each other happy. And yes, I am very angry that the two you've managed to connect with the most since then have now been taken from you again. I won't let history repeat itself. Not today. You will have your friends back.

Sadly, this isn't a squad, this is a guerrilla group. Most of the protocol rules are out the window already. I might be retired, but that isn't an excuse right now, I am yours to command Princess. The oath I took is still as true now as ever.

I hereby do solemnly and sincerely and truly declare and affirm to the Citizens of Equestria that I will faithfully discharge the duties of a Guardspony. I choose to place myself in harm's way so that those who cannot defend themselves are defended. Though service is a heavy cost, For Equestria, I pay it gladly.

--Silver Tongue

Applejack . . .

Ah . . . Ah told 'em. Ah told em we were gonna help. Even without Spike and Sweetie. We were gonna do it. We always mess things up. That's what ya are always sayin'. Well, we're gonna mess up that witch's schemes three ways from Sunday! This time we're countin' on us messin' up fancy plans!

Just ya watch! We ain't helpless! We aren't babies! We're . . .we're gonna do it. Ah . . . Ah already have mah monsters ta keep me up at night. Ah ain't gonna get more of 'em. Ah ain't runnin', Scootaloo, Silver Spoon, we'll get 'em back! All of 'em!

C-Cutie Mark Crusaders Rescuers. . . . yay.

Scoots, don't be angry. Silver, be brave.

Thank ya kindly for the hug Miss Rarity, Ah . . . it feels nice. Thank ya. Ah . . . Ah guess we can fill in fer each other, just fer a little while.

Ah'm not that freaked out there are good bug ponies, Mitta was a good zombie pony, this is nothin', Moth bein' one is crazy enough.

Why do big sisters . . . always know how ta hug just . . . right . . .

--Applebloom

I have nothing to say. Yes I'm angry. I wish Diamond Tiara was here. Spike. Sweetie Belle. Both stolen right in front of my eyes. And now I find out all it would have taken is a little love to save them? I wish dad would let me kick that stupid bug money MORE. And keep kicking her. Until she knows how painful it is to lose her closest friends too. What does she know about that? All she knows how to be is to be afraid. Disgusting.

Diamond Tiara. Spike. Sweetie. Does the world just like to give me wonderful things and then take them away for a laugh? WELL NOT THIS TIME! I'M GETTING THEM BACK! YOU HEAR ME YOU STUPID WORLD! I'm getting them back! And there's nothing you can do about it! Nay-nay!

I hope that big bug pony suffers and suffers BADLY for this. I hope all of her little minions who went along with her scheme get what's coming to them. It's nothing less than what they've earned for themselves. Maybe Miss Rarity and her friends will seal them ALL in the sun forever!

No, I haven't forgotten about Scootaloo and Applebloom, but Spike and Sweetie are who I connected the most with. I don't care about the rest of these adults. I memorize their name and faces, as a proper little lady should, but that's it. Whatever scheme Applebloom cooks up (I don't trust the adult to do more than talk for fifty or so hours) I'll be behind her all the way.

I'm sorry father. I'm not scared of you. I love you. I promise. (A real promise, not an adult 'promise'). But I couldn't do anything when Diamond Tiara vanished. I won't let Spike and Sweetie vanish too. I told Diamond in that freaky nightmare I had I'd go to the ends of the earth to save her and now I'm swearing to do the same for Spike and Sweetie!

--Silver Spoon

It's kinda surreal to be honest...I'm gonna help Dash save the world. This should've been my dream, except it's more like a bad dream. I for the first time I can remember, I was angry at Dash. I'm losing those dear to me again. Seeing Sweetie Belle run away from us, being carried away from her and Spike . . .

I . . . I kinda said everything I was gonna say to Dash already. It's all I could really think about. I guess everypony was thinking the same thing.

Gotta help how we gotta. Gonna get back our friends no matter what. Kick bug pony butt. Applebloom sayin' how we're gonna do the crusading of our life! I don't care about my cutie mark right now, I want my friends back, and we're gonna take'em back. And Dash . . . I forgive you. I won't lose you too. Thank you . . . for not leaving me alone.

--Scootaloo

Twinkle Shine. Minuette. I'm happy you're alright. Shining Armor, my love, I should never have let Chrysalis intimidate me. But she did, being alone trapped in that cave with no way out, her sick taunts my only company for so long. Her constant bullying was Tartarus, it didn't matter it was all words, she is no ~~Makarov~~, she knows how to use words as weapons. Only me and a sociopath with no bonds for me to draw strength from to escape. It was a nightmare I couldn't wake up from . . . I never expected my hero to be -Blueblood- of all ponies.

She's taken you from me, Twilight from me, my parents, I hope whatever she did to them that it's not like she's done to Moondancer, poor mare. I hope she gets a front row seat for her trial when we have the queen in chains before Auntie in judgment.

Mother, father, I don't know what Chrysalis has done to you, you should have been at the wedding. I want to go home and check on you, but Chrysalis I think knows me well enough for me to know it'll just be a trap. I have to save Equestria, and I have to save Canterlot for that to happen, and for that to happen I have to save Auntie, and for THAT, I need to save Shining Armor and Twilight.

Thunderchild, Gag, Garnet, Ellis, Audience...I hope you're okay...I know from the timeline that never was just how much you five can survive. Please let you and all those other ponies be okay.

Lyra, I wish I could have made your acquaintance in better circumstances. That goes double for all of you, Twilight's friends. She said so much about you. I'm sorry your first impressions had to be that mockery of me.

Applebloom, Scootaloo, I do know I'd have picked you and your friend as my flower fillies anyway. More than one flower filly? Why not. Since when have I been fixated on traditionalism? You two are so strong willed and loyal to your friends, and for that I respect you.

Silver Spoon, that look in her eyes, I don't blame her for it in the least. Still, it just feels wrong to see a filly hate.

Moth? I said what I was going to say about her. End of discussion. She's another friend now. Nothing more. Nothing less. Moving on.

Strange but happy Pinkie Pie. Relentless and unbreakable Rainbow Dash. Graceful and sophisticated Rarity. Kind and gentle Fluttershy, with another side of her that is harsh yet considerate. Yes, I can sense it. I'm an Alicorn, I'm Bonds, I can sense there being a Bond WITHIN one body. But I'll let her explain when she wants to.

As for Lemon Hearts, her Angry Mother Lemon might have given us the time we needed to get away. I'm sorry another random mare like her and Cobweb have to be dragged into this. Then again, Cobweb almost seemed to JUMP into this, like she was WAITING to help us. . .

Auntie Celestia, stay strong. You're the smartest, strongest mare I know. If anyone can put up with being that maniac's captive it's you.

Auntie Luna...I hope you're okay. I know how tough Alicorns are. But I can't wait for your to recover and lead the cavalry back here...but I can hope to have the front door wide open for you when you return.

Shining Armor. I'll save you. You shouldn't even be in this mess. And we will have our wedding day. And it'll be as beautiful as it should be! And we will have our happy ending at last! I promise Shining. Chrysalis made me feel alone, but I don't anymore, that walking lie can't use the same tricks on me again. Send me down into the caves a hundred times Chrysalis, I swear I'll gallop my way out a hundred times more! You said it yourself, our love is the strongest you've seen. And I swear on BOTH my Aunties' names that it'll be stronger than you can handle.

Shining Armor, I know you're in there, don't give into despair, I'll be there for you.

--Cadence

Moth is one of those monsters. Everything I remember about her before Ponyville is a lie. She did the same thing to Bon Bon and Tootsie. She knew how to save the Elements and fix everything, but chickened out.

I don't feel sorry for her now that the fillies, Rainbow Dash, and Bon Bon have all had their licks in. I want to slap her in the face until her carapace comes loose. She's earned it.

But . . . BUT . . . sigh. If Bon Bon forgives her, if Bon Bon accepts her as part of our family, if Bon Bon still calls her sister: then that's what Bon Bon wants. If I hurt Moth, then I'm hurting Bon Bon.

For Bon Bon's sake, I won't hold a grudge, and I'll defend her like any part of the herd, but like her? Forgiving her? That's going to have to come later. It's kinda freaky to see her magic color turn to match mine and her say that means she's sworn loyalty to me and Bon Bon. But that doesn't change how I feel. I . . . I wish it did. That color, what she said, she, she does love us.

I never thought I'd be on an adventure with the Elements of Harmony, that's for sure. Looking at the fillies, I'm now HAPPY Tootsie isn't here to see this, and . . . I'm happy she didn't have to learn this about Moth. Okay, learn it THIS way...some day she'll have to know, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. From the look on Silver Tongue's face, I know he wishes he had kept his daughter safe at home.

So now I'm officially one of Princess Cadence's bridesmaids, well, once we defeat the evil queen and save Princess Celestia, her student, her captain of the guard, the other Elements, and all of Equestria.

Well, Minuette and Twinkle Shine, you were right, working for Princess Cadence IS an interesting time. Moon Dancer, I'm happy we were there to help you, I'm sorry we didn't come sooner . . . didn't come . . . oh right.

The bug queen was going to brainwash me Twinkle Shine and Minuette! But then suddenly decided without even meeting me that we were 'useless' and wanted to brainwash some of the Elements and an innocent filly instead. If we had come sooner we'd be in her zombie collection instead of Applejack and the others . . . No I'm not going to say that's a 'good thing' we ponies don't believe in 'more important ponies.'

Rarity...I feel bad for her. Her little sister is being used like a living battery. Why WOULDN'T I feel bad for the poor girl? If it were Tootsie...All I know is if I were in her horseshoes, I'd be biting at the bit to get my hooves around that witch's throat. I want to say something to her but I don't know what I COULD say.

Cobweb? She helped me before the chaos at the wedding started, but I don't like how she just told me, but didn't seem to tell anyone else. She might have helped us a little. But she could have helped a lot more if she knew something was up. She said she's undercover, but why? Is she a Changeling trying to trick us? Somepony like Moth? Some secret government agent like in the X-Folders? I wonder how long she's going to keep up this farce until she tell us who she really is.

Lemon Hearts, she shouldn't be involved in this AT ALL! She's friends with Minuette, Twinkle Shine, and Moon Dancer, she knew Twilight Sparkle in magic school, she was part of the 'try to get the anti-social OCD bibliophile to interact with ponies' cabal. Got to admit, her Angry Mommy Lemon is something else. Now I know why Twinkle Shine said most of the Guards are afraid of her. But she is involved. And if we aren't going to stop some fillies from helping, then asking a student of Celestia's school for gifted unicorns not to help is kinda dumb.

As for me, well, I'm Cadence's maiden now, where she leads, I'll follow.

--Lyra Heart Strings

What I've said about Moth, I've already said. Lyra? I can tell she's not happy for what Moth did to me and to Tootsie. I don't blame her. I just hope I can turn her around.

I certainly wasn't planning on being involved in something like this!!! I'm not an Element! I'm not a chosen one! My bloodline is directly descendant from Paradise Estate? Well, maybe. Twilight DID give me that journal saying as much... But I just do candies! I'm not anything special! I'm nopony! Lyra is the weird one with the human fixation! At least Twilight Sparkle's friends were all hired by Mayor Mare to get everything ready for the Summer Sun Celebration!

Nightmare Moon, Princess Gaia, D-d-Discord! My family did what we always do, endure. It's always somepony else who does the adventuring, faces the evil overlords. What am I even doing here? We should have just found a place to hide along with Blueblood and Twilight Sparkle's family. We're all idiots for sticking around. We're not guards, we're not heroes!

Why did my family have to be dragged into this? I think I understand why you didn't want us involved Moth. Why you wanted us to get out of dodge when we had the chance. You saw the coming storm, you knew what monster were lurking in Canterlot. But if we weren't here, who knows how things would have turned out. And if you weren't here, the heroes wouldn't have the keys to their friends' chains.

Hey! I'm no coward! You'd run into your house and lock the door if a filly with a ancient plague was in the street!

Lyra's volunteered for Princess Cadence, and I'll be there for her, and Moth.

I just hope our role here is just about over and we can look forward to telling Tootsie all about this adventure once it's over. There is one good thing that's come of this. I've now gotten to know my sister for real.

--Bon-Bon

I've said all there is to say about my actions, what I am, and what I'll do. This is my swarm, my family. 'Live for the swarm', and I'll protect them to the end as a changeling should.

Princess Cadence, Princess Fluttershy, your royal subject is yours to command.

--Moth

What the buck am I even doing in this bucking mess? I thought from the way those two guards were talking that they were trying to leech more of my lemon treats off me so they could fake being sick to their superior again like a lot of ponies have done before. I snapped and sic my Angry Mother Lemon on them. That's how I found out what they were and why I chased them clear out of the castle (I normally only chase them out of the kitchen. The higher ups don't mind because it teaches the rookies a lesson not to slack off). THAT is what happens when you throw the lemons back, AND THAT is what happens you try to burn life's house down with them.

Then I find out we're in the middle of a massive invasion for the first time I can remember Equestria EVER HAVING ONE! The city is full of brainwashed ponies, bugs pretending to be ponies, oh and Bon Bon's twin sister is one but she's nice! The captain of the guard is brainwashed! Two of the Elements are! Luna's guard got booted out of Canterlot. A lot of Canterlot's guards and security are all bug ponies in disguise! The real princess apparently was underground and was rescued by FREAKIN' Prince 'I'm better than you' Blueblood!

All because I threw a giant angry lemon at some freakin' Guards! I want to go home, and go to bed and forget this is even happening! But that isn't happening. Not today. Not until this is bucking over! Moonsend it.

This isn't the first time. I took the entrance examine to Celestia's school for gifted unicorns because I was expected to. I didn't expect to pass, and that was fine by me. I wasn't interested in being locked up in some fancy smancy school. All eyes were on my sister, everypony knew she'd pass. Except I did pass, and she didn't. To the shock of everypony.

I was at the most prestigious bordering school at the time, but I heard my sister got to know Princess Cadence, yes, this Princess Cadence in the room with me, when she attended a normal school as part of her being 'the people's princess', no I'm not saying anything, there's enough drama around here.

I really did consider just being a lazy mare, getting lousy grades and being thrown out and get back to my life. But it felt like cheating. My grades were never the best, but they were never awful either. Of course I had classmates and even some teachers who were SURE me being at Celestia's School HAD TO BE a filing error. I wasn't a true mage unicorn, my magic was focused on lemons. A fruit. And not even a particularly sweet or well liked one.

So yeah, no pony was asking 'what the buck am I doing here' more than me. But apparently, the way I USED my magic and my special talent was clever enough and so outside the box that the teachers thought I made a good oddity. I think nopony was too impressed by my 'turn other fruit into lemons' spell.

I actually enchanted my lemons to COME BACK to me if they ever got stolen once . . . this is one of the reasons I'm a firm believer in the Sass Squash, he ended up chasing my lemons when they came back to me. And he'd steal them back. Finally he offered a giant squash in exchange for a lemon pie, and we left each other alone.

Now there's the rumor going around the Gifted Schools were all breeding grounds to try and find an Element of Magic for Princess Celestia to purify Nightmare Moon with.

Can you imagine? Me? Element of Magic? Bigger jokes have happened. Poor Angry Mother Lemon, I'll have to create a new one, I lost the one I had to that big changeling guard. Yes, I care about them! That's the FIRST thing they teach in Familiar and Creation Classes: if you make a living thing, you CARE for it. It's not JUST an attack dog...it's a living thing that gave its life for me.

I got extra lessons when the teachers finally took notice of my talent at making Familiars. It's not a type of magic to be taken lightly.

Moon Dancer, Twinkle Shine, Minuette, we might have gotten 'passed over' for not being 'worthy' of being Princess Celestia's precious 'Element of Magic' but sure as Tartarus, there is no way, guard or no, mage unicorn or no, am I EVER going to be considered 'no good' in a time like this.
--Lemon Hearts

Not again. By Celestia. Not again. We weren't able to do a thing about pegasus Sunset. We didn't know it had happened until we were TOLD about it! I still remember how that made me feel!

The horrible things Princess Cadence said to us . . . in the end I'm just happy that wasn't really her. Considering that witch had the wool over everypony's eyes, including Princess Celestia, there's plenty of blame to go around. Pointing hooves now isn't going to change a thing. Moth's blot is just one of the bigger ones. We didn't realize our Princess would never say those things to us. The Princess we served for two years. That witch mixed in just enough of how Cadence would really act just to rub it in. None of us saw it. We were too hurt TO see it.

Minuette, thanks for giving it your all back there. We needed all we could get. Princess, sorry we didn't get there sooner.

Nice to meet the Elements of Harmony at last. Well, four of them, we already knew Twilight Sparkle, and Ellis of course had to talk about his relatives including Applejack whenever he got the chance.

Moon Dancer is going to take a while to pull herself together, but she'll manage, I believe in her. She was chosen to be one of Princess Celestia's gifted unicorns, and Princess Celestia doesn't make mistakes. Heck, if there wasn't that lie the Changelings passed around, I'd suggest we run over to the school and recruit our fellow students.

I gotta say, meeting Lyra's family is a lot more complicated than I thought it was gonna be. Hopefully Tootsie won't have a best friend whose secretly a fairy princess who wants to keep her all to herself in a magic land inside her toy box that we'll have to go in after her.

Lemon Hearts, thanks girl. I know this can't be easy for you. I know how much it had to hurt for that big Changeling to kill your Familiar. Lemon Hearts took the 'treat your Familiars as living things' lessons to heart and threats all her Familiars like her kids. Good thing too, considering how skilled she is at it. Princess . . . you can bet that when we win this, I am adding in some sparkles to this wedding!

Why is that pink pony looking at me funny? Oh right, Pinkie Pie, Element of Laughter right? I still don't know how she managed to pull that trick back at the hall of doors, but can't say I'm not glad she did. I'll admit, I didn't know what I was expecting with the Elements, but how they are still manages to take me a little by surprise. I don't want to think how Fluttershy would react if she and Thunderchild actually met! Well, that other personality she seems to have might be too much for him! ...I just hope that he's okay. I know he was in Canterlot, but if anyone could catch themselves after being thrown out like that it's him and Gag. They're tough...

As for the fastest pegasus alive, what I don't get is why she isn't a Wonderbolt already and is still a weather team captain. I wonder if Miss Belle likes sparkles in her dress. I'm gonna ask for more in mine if she gets around to making our dresses after we win this.

Pink pony still looking at me.

"It's wonderful to see you again Sparkle Works, I'm happy some part of you made it into this world after all. Sunny Daze is in Ponyville if you ever want to meet her."

"Uh? Sparkle Works? Sunny Daze? Sorry. I think you have the wrong pony. My name is Twinkle Shine."

"Oh. Right. Sorry. You are somepony else. Sorry. You just really really remind me of a friend I used to know, she once painted my home town in sparkles for her birthday present to herself."

"Sounds like one crazy pony."

"Yes. But we were all a little crazy, and she was fun to have around."

"Sounds like somepony who'd be the life of the party."

"Yes, she was. And I'm sure you're a great pony too. So can you tell me a little about yourself?"

Weird pink pony. But . . . that peaceful smile on her face, she doesn't seem nuts, more like, just happy to see me. Well. No point in not being nice. "Alright."

--Twinkle Shine

So here we are again. I'm just happy I fed my previous-self to the Reaper when I had the chance. Otherwise, I know I would have opened the watch by now. It's funny, I don't feel less for it, if anything, I feel free.

Everything he was is gone. Never was. Which is fine by me. It just means he's not around to bring misery to another universe after bringing so much to the last universe he was in. Everything he had belongs to me now.

I've been half-expecting the Doctor to turn any second now to clean up and fix up all of this with a cup of hot tea and some forks. None of His incarnations however were as good at thinking outside the box as the Doctor is. I think I'm probably the best at it out of any of them. And yes, I'm quite proud of that.

I hate that look in Silver Spoon's eyes. Hopefully once this war is over it won't have a chance to grow into something more. Sadly, war is what this is, and that feeling she's having right now is what the gears for a war turn on.

A war in Equestria, Equestria in a war, it's the most absolutely most wrong thing in the history of wrong. Equestria is a nation of peace, Celestia's kept us at peace by the thousands of years of experience she wields, not by the strength of any army. We didn't make enemies, we made friends.

He was the born warrior, I never was. Like I told him back when he tempted me, I'm a dentist. I'm a healer. I'm not a warrior. We're going to end this war before it has a chance to spread. No more wars, no more ~~Makarovs~~.

But I AM a planner. I did take THAT from him. I'm a thinker. My sense of timing is first rate. And with Twilight Sparkle under that witch's spell, we NEED a planner. Bad. That I can do.

Twinkle Shine, don't worry, I'm not letting what happened to pegasus Sunset happen to either of us. I'll look after you, if you look after me.

I don't know if the look in Applebloom's eyes is worse somehow, she's already seen things a foal isn't meant to. I suppose a lot of ponies who know how to spot it would say the same thing. It shouldn't be weakened by repetition, but ponies, like humans, can adapt to anything.

Moon Dancer . . . I hate what that witch for what she did to you. What she did to Miss Rarity's sister. To Spike. To Twilight Sparkle. To Miss Applejack. What she ALMOST DID to ME, to Twinkle Shine, to Lyra. I KNOW what kind of heart and mind you need to DO this sort of thing to a pony, to do what she made you and them do to your friends and feel not one ounce of remorse . . . and that makes me all the more disgusted with her. Princess, this isn't an enemy you can negotiate or reason with, you have to put her down.

And pray that the rest of the changelings wake up to reality like Moth finally has. Maybe she can lead her kind of the darkness. After all, all it takes is the right pony at the right time, that's how history works.

Audience...I'm glad you weren't here. At least that means I know you're okay...and that there's no chance you'll need to put that Black Thistle training to the test. I don't hate you for it, I love you, I just know you don't want to kill and I don't want you in that position.

Lemon Hearts, sorry you got pulled into this, I'll do my best to make sure you live to tell your grandkids about it. And Silver Tongue, no heroic self sacrifices please. As for 'Cobweb' . . . I know alias', I wonder what she's hiding behind it. Well, if I had to hazard a guess . . .
--Minuette

None of them suspected a thing. Well, Pinkie Pie suspects something. But everything is going according to plan. Moth made a wonderful distraction to keep them from asking ME questions. When all is said and done I must thank her for her unknowingly help. Should I make my move now? No. Timing is key. A trap door spider lies in wait until her prey is in sight. And my prey is still a long way off...

--Cobweb

. . . Oh sorry. It's my turn? I'm sorry. Ever since Minuette and Twinkle Shine saved me from Her Majesty's magic . . . it gets hard to focus sometimes. I'm getting better, but . . . but after seeing Lyra's friend turn into one of them I think I might have trouble focusing again. I'm lucky the flames were clear and not green, or else I might have had it even worse.

I hate having this green shade to my eyes, disguise or not, but at the same time, there was a part of me that almost likes it. The simplicity of being told what to do, not having to think about it. I'm disgusted at myself for it.

Poor Spike. He's one of Chrysalis' slaves now because of me. He's going through what I went through because of me. She took me, USED me. She was going to use me as a duckblind to my friends after she did the same to them, then as bait if Sparkler's family friend came. And I couldn't stop her! It was for my FRIENDS! I didn't love Spike that way but he was my FRIEND! So are Minuette and Sparkler! Magic is friendship! She was using magic on me! I'm a mage unicorn! It was for the sake of my friends! I should have been able to do more! I should have been able to resist! I should have been able to BEAT HER BACK!!!

But I wasn't strong enough, or good enough! I couldn't be Princess Celestia's Element of Magic to save her sister like she hoped I could be! Now I know why! I couldn't protect my friends!!! I couldn't protect anypony! Not them! Not myself! N-n-n-no-not g-goo-good e-en-enough . . .

"Moon Dancer? Moon Dancer!"

The group all gathered around the unicorn as she descended into seizures or a panic attack.

"What's going on?!" Lyra asked. All eyes turned to the closest thing they had to an expert on the situation.

"...This isn't Changeling magic, there's definitely some residue from the Queen's control, but not enough to cause this," Moth explained carefully, looking it over. "But there might have been some psychological trauma..."

"You THINK?!" Lemon Hearts hissed at her.

Lyra helped Moon Dancer up. "Moon Dancer, please calm down. What's wrong?"

"I...I failed my friends...I failed my Princess...I failed everypony...I was too weak...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry..."

She repeated the mantra, tears started down her face.

I considered pointing out to her that it's simply not possible for a pony to break free on their own. That she was probably resisting as much as she COULD resist given the kind of magic...but with how traumatized she was...I had a feeling being spoken to by a Changeling was the last thing she needed right now.

"Moon Dancer...you've helped us a lot right now...We wouldn't have MADE it to the wedding period without you," Lyra tried to say, but all it seemed to do was make her relax a little...but the tears didn't stop.

"But before that? If I'd been ABLE to do something, then we wouldn't be IN this mess! It's...Spike...she used me to get him! It's my fault...I wasn't strong enough...I was weak...And you've all paid for it..."

It hit close to home...

"I know how you feel sometimes..." I finally said, causing her to perk up a little bit.

"W-What? Lemon Hearts...what..."

"My special talent is LEMONS, how often do you think I've been told I was weak?" I ask.

"I never thought...thought you were weak..."

"That's because you first met me when I made my first Angry Mother Lemon. Teachers, students...they always felt I was weak...and I'll admit...after awhile, I started to feel that way...I started to feel I was a joke or weak."

"But...you're not...you're..."

"But back then, I thought I was. I didn't do much to dissuade them. I didn't try to because I felt they were right...And I was the only one of your friends who was HERE the ENTIRE time, but didn't notice there was something WRONG with you!"

She gasped in surprise at that.

"Yeah, that's right. I didn't notice. I was so busy being caught up with my lemons that I didn't notice you'd been brainwashed by some witch! Tartarus! I didn't notice what happened to Minny and Twinkleshine! If it hadn't been by complete accident I would still be in my kitchen right now! I'm the most oblivious pony ever! If ANYONE here should feel like they've failed their friends it's me!"

"Stop it!" she finally screamed. "You didn't fail me! There's nothing you could have done, Lemon! You were just dedicated to your job! You just love your Familiars like they're your children! That's all!"

"And there's nothing you could have done. No more than any of us could have done when that MONSTER these four helped lock back up turned us all into madponies! You think I WANTED to chase my Angry Lemons through the halls with a giant orange squeezer, not caring who got in my way, shouting how much I hated my own lemons? "

"She's right..." Rarity said. "We COULDN'T break free of that monster's control on our own. We NEEDED help to free ourselves."

Moon Dancer looked down. "But...I just feel like...I feel so helpless..."

"We all felt that way back then, Moon Dancer," Rarity explained. "When his spell was broken I felt so...violated, so helpless. And yes, I did feel like I had failed. Like it was my fault. That's what ponies like Discord and Chrysalis WANT us to feel like, Moon Dancer. They want us to feel like we're the ones to blame for what they did to us. It's the punchline to their sick jokes."

I nodded. "That's how I felt too...Moon Dancer, do you want to prove that you're not weak? Then don't let her win. Prove her wrong and don't let her make you blame yourself for this like she wants you to. Be strong enough NOT to blame yourself like she WANTS you to. Be strong enough to help us in SPITE of what she did to you."

"...I know my word doesn't mean much..." Moth said. "But I know one thing about Queen Chrysalis, and that's that she hates not getting her way...That's probably the best revenge you could hope to get on her."

Moon Dancer looked thoughtfully. "O-Okay... I think I understand...You're right, if I let her control how I think now...if I let Her Majesty control me even AFTER I'm free, then I am weak. If I let her Majesty...her majesty...her maj-THAT BUCKING WITCH stop me from helping my friends then I'm weak!"

I don't know how to describe that look on her face. It was like watching a strong stallion break out of chains when she called the witch what she really was. Moon Dancer panted heavily, but looked free. Finally free.

She then hugged me, Minuette, and Twinkle Shine tightly.

"Thank you..."

I smiled to her. "What are friends for?"

I felt free. I FINALLY felt free! That witch! I can call her a witch! Haha! That feels SO GOOD! She's a dirty rotten wicked witch! Not 'Her Majesty!' She's a witch!

...Sorry... I'm just so bucking sick of calling that monster 'Her Majesty!' So bucking sick of it!

That said...I guess I wasn't QUITE free yet...

I turned and looked to Moth. "Moth...turn into your true form. Now...Please."

She blinked. "What?"

"Please...If I'm going to help with this, I need to know I can see a Changeling in their real form. If I can't bare the sight of a GOOD one, how am I supposed to help fight them?"

She slowly nodded. "Alright."

She burst into flames the same color as Lyra's magic and...come on, Moon Dancer, fight through it!

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and tried to calm myself down. I opened them and looked at her. My breathing picked up a bit but I managed to keep myself together and not panic like I did before.

"...T-Thanks...I needed that."

Moth nodded slowly. "You're welcome...I have a lot to make up for, I needed to start somewhere."

Lemon Hearts hugged me, then Minuette hugged me, then Twinkle hugged me, Lyra hugged me. My friends. Then Princess Cadence hugged me! PRINCESS CADENCE! I felt like I was going to faint for a moment!

"Well done, Moon Dancer. Facing your fears is never an easy thing to do," she said, and gave me a smile.

Then Miss Rarity hugged me. "I know how hard that truly was," She said.

Then Fluttershy hugged me. Then her tone and posture changed. "Good job little pony." She smirked.

Then Pinkie Pie hugged me. She was crying. "I-I, I'm SO PROUD of you Moon Dancer!" She said like we were lifetime friends and . . . it felt right.

Then the FILLES all hugged me.

"Congratulations Moon Dancer," Lemon Hearts said.

"I haven't won anything, all I did was take the first step."

"Trust me," Said Other-Fluttershy, "that's a big one!"

Rainbow Dash didn't hug me, but gave me a pat on the back. "We've had to see a LOT of ponies patch themselves up after what Discord did, so trust us when we say THAT."

I smiled. I'm free. I'm truly free.

Author's Note

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember
Part 15
Whole Moon
By Alex Warlorn

Chrysalis' scheme, in spite of several hiccups and last minute changes, seems to have worked out hasn't it? Except, Chrysalis forgot, there ARE NO unimportant ponies.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-14-Bug-Candy-443892308

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/PonyPOV-Series-Wedding-Arc-16-Operation-Save-Magic-444613790

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (always needs more love).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Episode 175: "Family Bonding" Starring Evil Discord

Pony POV Series
Discord And ~~"Diamond Tiara"~~ ********* *******
Family Bonding
or
Discord's Riffing

'Come now my dear, sit on the sofa with daddy.'

"What sofa?"

'The sofa that's right here because I say it is! See? Also, lots and lots of popcorn and soda! Want any?'

"No."

'Well I do! Munch-munch-munch! Buuuuuuuuuurp!'

"Onomatopoeias? How droll."

'Oh just sit down dear, we're going to watch a little movie, some absurd comedy.'

"Sounds like you."

'Thank you. Now sit down.'

"Yes father."

'Good girl! Now, just lie back and relax, and now get to watch this show thanks to good old Fate-Net! Here we go!'

Connecting... connecting... connecting... connection failed.
If you want to access Fate-Net, you shouldn't have torn off my wing you bastard.

"Father, I didn't know those profanities you're gushing even existed."

'I've had a long time to build up a collection and knowledge of nearly every universe.'

"Well, movie didn't work out, see ya-"

'Oh you sit down little missy! Your father isn't out of tricks yet! Fate-Net isn't the only service provider out there!'

" . . . is that music . . . from Ponies Of The Caribbean?"

~~ARRR! Welcome to the Secret Underground Booty Bay secret-underground-network me hearties! If ye wish to share in our booty of external-legal entertainment, just provide the hand of a cursed monkey, a cursed gold coin, a undead skull that curses-~~

'See? This isn't so bad. I can make two of those myself!'

"Says you you wretched foul ugly mishmash of-"

'Put a sock in it Murry!'

~~And do the secret pirate dance and the sacred 'We are Pirates' song 443556 times.~~

"Not so bad huh?"

'Dear, daddy has something you need to-'

"Not doing it."

'Sigh. And my secret army of Ninja Pirate Zombie Robots were destroyed by Celly, Lulu, and their little army one thousand five hundred years ago when a rogue mage reactivated them in an offscreen fight that will remain fuel for the Shadows Who Watch!'

"Why did you even have an army of Ninja Pirate Zombie Robots?"

'Why do I need a reason? But I'm not beaten yet! Time to . . . uuuugh, call in the favors on the family who doesn't want me dead."

"I thought we were doing that already."

"I have more than one cousin. Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep! Riiiiing! And . . . Hello Ponythulu! Yes, it's nice to hear from you too! How are things? No, I'm not interested in tea parties, please stop asking! What do you mean you have a family now?! I was only imprisoned for a thousand years! . . . Idhay-yaa? I thought you guys all reproduced asexually! Oh you do that too. Right right, Nythy is the only member of your generation of the family with more than one parent right. Soooo, could you lend me your Fate-Net account? . . . No I'm not gong to post porn on your page, again. I promise! Cross the empty hole in my chest, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye! . . . Thank you cousin! I know I can count on you!...Huh? That's your password? Oh, nothing's wrong, just I expected it would be in a mindbending alien tongue and not Klingon, that seemed more Strife's style.'

Welcome Back To Fate-Net Premium Member Ponythulu. You are a good person, and ponies say nice things about you.

"Smiling flowers browser skin?"

'Cousin always did have odd tastes. Now let's get this show started already!'

"So what are you going to do with his account instead?"

'Oh, maybe later watch a few timelines that I know he hates so they keep popping in his Recommendeds, but for now sweetie, let's finally enjoy the show! Don't you hate those spoof stories that spend more time on the framing device than the spoof itself?'

"Yes."

'Well! Time for Discord and Daughter Riffs Character Derailment Episode! Ha ha!'

"Another look into the heart world? Didn't we learn all there is to learn?"

'There's a bit more to see.'

One Episode (erm, of events that make up the mane six's lives!) Later -

"Well, that was certainly interesting. Wouldn't you agree, father?"

' . . . '

"It's not like you to be so silent."

'Bah! I know the heart world retroactively changes things to smooth things over as time goes on, but really, Pinkie Pie disliking my chocolate milk!? She loved it! She certainly wasn't complaining when it was happening! She even took a moment to enjoy some more before they blasted me!'

"I thought you'd be more concerned about your apparent fall to one of Celestia's schemes and the fact your own plan ended up backfiring."

'Oh that. Meh. The heart world version of me clearly wasn't as dedicated to his work as me.'

"Actually, I'd say you were equally sadistic and cruel."

'He didn't emotionally crush Trixie for a warm up.'

"He could've gone a different direction with it, played up her bitterness and jealousy to Twilight instead of her loneliness and been why she went after the Alicorn Amulet, planning to have her and Twilight fight to the death to be his number two."

'...Good idea, I wish I'd thought of that a year ago.'

"While your plans themselves are dynamic and unpredictable father, you tend to not think much beyond the goal of each one."

'Of course not! Where's the fun in that? And smile darn ya, smile darn ya smile!'

"Why? The smile will be gone eventually."

'Why do my best works always turn out this way?'

"You have a unique talent for destroying what you find most precious. Like the seaponies."

'Ah yes, something else heart world me can't claim to have under his belt.'

"From the looks of things, there was nothing preventing him from having it under his belt, since you've confessed yourself that was due to your own thoughtlessness than any desire to see them gone, he just did something different, as chaos will, opposed to the Flutterponies."

'Honestly? I have absolutely no clue why I did that one. I'm chaos! Being random and unpredictable to entertain myself is what I do. I didn't really plan that one, I didn't have a motive or a goal, it was just something random I did. Sometimes that's a wheel chair bound filly suddenly being able to walk again, and other times cheap 'never need sharpening' knives falling from the sky, or ukuleles, or junk mail, or diet soda. It was just a game. I didn't mean to wipe them out, so I had kept the last copy of that doll around for safe keeping. I could have sworn I had more Flutterponies to play with when I started.'

"Just as Lightning Dust's thoughtlessness and disregard for others cost her what she held dearest."

'Ah yes her, how did I play with her again? There have been so many. I can't keep track of all of them. How does that cliched overly referenced speech go? For them the day I visited their country was one of the most important days in history, but for me? It was Tuesday!...That would've so much funnier if I could've worn a costume.'

"Maybe you built up her ego and then crushed her pride?"

'OH PLEASE! Shame on you! As if I'd ever do anything so amateur! That's ALWAYS the first step in arrogant and selfish ponies turning over a new leaf! Selfish and arrogant ponies are MUCH MORE as they make each other miserable! I likely just made scared of her own shadow and not wanting to risk getting out of bed. It's those 'purity pure goody-four-hooves' I can't stand, so much fun to turn them into proper little monsters. You should have seen this one universe I found while channel surfing before they banned my account! This one Discord took things even FURTHER than I went! He transformed Twilight and her little discorded friends into the SPIRITS of deception, greed, anger, etcetera, totally: mind, body, soul. My own personal pantheon! And so much better looking as non-equine monsters! I can see why he took the one that used to be Twilight Sparkle as his queen! Something else I wish I thought of.'

"Ahem."

'You're not a spirit of nature's fury my dear.'

"Do you honestly believe your siblings would allow you to make an entire Pantheon under your control?"

'He got away with it.'

"Yes, but how do you know the Pantheon is the same in his universe? And we don't know how that story ends."

'Ugh...I'm arguing with a Nihilist...'

"Which you made me."

'Nice punchline. But of course my chaos is pointless, that is the point: except of course for the FUN it gives ME! And you make it sound like I just snapped my fingers, for shame. I raised you like a precious flower, my little filly.'

"I am still surprised you're not more upset that all it took was one friend to make your heart world self reign in his chaos."

'Whyever would that upset me?'

"Probably the same reason you went berserk when I saw your memory of my ancestor."

'You are not to speak of that young lady! And when the buck did you learn about her?'

"You and I are very close father, you expected me not to learn it?"

'Sigh. I suppose it doesn't matter now.'

"Precisely. And what was the 'point' of this again?"

'Just some daddy and daughter bonding time my dear and to expand your education a little bit.'

"I see."

'And what have you learned my dear?'

"Our choices, personality, and identities are meaningless, if the shadows desire it, a saint can become a monster, and a monster can become a saint, it doesn't matter if it's not a choice we'd make, that it goes against our true nature, and it ignores or discards traits we've already shown. There is no point to any of it."

'And that my dear, is why it's no fun in making sense, because all sense is a farce. All those rules and laws that ponies cling dearly to? True harmony and true understanding don't exist. Pretty lies they tell themselves while shouting how being honest is good at the same time.'

"Hypocrites."

'Precisely. I'm happy to see you've come so far my dear. In my humble opinion, your old father and mother should thank me for improving your behavior! You've certainly matured into a proper young lady! And Cheerilee too! You've certainly bloomed I'd say!'

"I don't care."

'I'd still say you're new and improved.'

"Yes."

'And who do you have to thank for that?'

"You father."

'Thank you my dear! And how would you say you've improved?'

" ... ... both none and greatly."

"Oh I love you, please go on."

"You explained it yourself father, any goodness in the likes of us is window dresses, a little monster is all I could have ever been, it's all I exist to be, I exist to be hated, I exist only to lose, you've made me a bigger monster. You've taken me from a mere bully to an engine of destruction."

'And don't forget! With 'status quo is god' out the window, the bad guys can win! As I'm going to! After all, everyone can tell this is a grimiest of the grim, darkest of the dark, grim dark story that's rotten to the core with a pretty surface. Of course I'm going to win!'

"Isn't that arrogant?"

'My dear, it's not arrogance, it's a statement of FACT! It's a declaration of REALITY. Ponies are just too busy burying their heads in the sand to notice.'

"You are correct in one way father-"

'Heh, I'm correct in every way.'

"-ponies' struggles are meaningless. They scream at themselves 'live in the moment,' so they don't have to think ahead, others shout at themselves 'all we need to do is get rid of all those pesky sapient laws of the universe and we'll be able to achieve true greatness' to blame their own failures on, and others-"

'That's enough dear. As I said, I'm quite happy to see you my little girl have internalized everything I've taught you. But there is one thing you were right about before I adopted you.'

"Which is?"

'It's all a game. It's meant to entertain. Who cares what the toys think? They're not you, you don't even blink.'

"Humph. You are something else father."

'Thank you! Now my dear. I'd love for us to sing a delightfully menacing song about how all sense is utterly meaningless, but we have some serious business to attend to. Or rather, you do.'

"Yes father, I understand."

'Onward! Trumpet horn!'

"Ow!"

'Sorry sweetie, your ears should stop ringing in a minute. Now let's see if Chrysalis has an ace up her thorax, or is just going to sit there and whine like all of Pandora's creations.'

Author's Note

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Discord and 'Diamond Tiara?'
Family Bonding
By Alex Warlorn

What happens when a world drifts so far away from the Heart World, that it you barely recognize yourself?

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/PonyPOV-Series-Wedding-Arc-16-Operation-Save-Magic-444613790

Next Chapter:

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (always needs more love).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

"NOW whose not a part of this story arc? About time we got a look in on me, I mean, who's the entire reason the shadow-who-writes wrote this fanfiction exists in the first place? Not the anorexia chick! Just know, I'm going to enjoy the next chapter of this story very much I think. But who can tell? That's the fun part of chaos right?"

Episode 176: "Magic Duel" (Epic Stuff Happens!)

I gasped, I felt my mind clear, I felt the witch's filth wash off me. I felt the chain breaking, I pushed her claws out of my brain. I shuddered in disgust at myself. What had I done as that witch's puppet? Trixie, everypony, she made me hurt my friends. She used me. Shining. Spike. Applejack. Sweetie Belle. So many of my friends were now that witch's slaves. And Trixie...the witch hadn't told me what she had done with her. It was like Discord all over again...

No. Never again. Not ever again. I wouldn't let it be ever again! I wouldn't let it!

"Cadence, I'm so sorry, I apologize, I was so afraid you'd have changed that when I saw you next that I didn't even think about you had been replaced. I'm so so sorry I-" I looked up at her, and my eyes widened.

Chrysalis smirked at me sickeningly. "Yes my little slave? You were saying?"

I forced her back in disgust, wishing I could take a shower right now. I growled at her, charging my horn. "What's going on here?! Where's Cadence?!"

"Cadence was never here my stupid little pawn. She's likely freeing your worthless brothers, worthless teacher, worthless friend's worthless little sister. But you know what? It doesn't matter! I'm loving thinking about the hope they're feeling, but as long as I'm alive, it doesn't matter if the rune is completed or not. With that last bit of love you gave me, you finally pushed me over the top. Now I can activate the rune myself in its current state after a little ritual or two. I don't need you anymore."

"THAT ISN'T GOING TO HAPPEN!"

"Oh? Is that RAGE I see on your face? Thinking of how I fooled you as easily as Discord?"

"You are like Discord, Chrysalis! Ego-filled bully! And you're not going anywhere!"

"Oh? Are you going to actually stop me? As long as I'm alive, your friends and family and everypony you've ever known are as good as dead."

"... then we'll have to do something about that."

+++

I felt my old foalsitting charge shudder. I don't blame her, who could after what she's gone through. She calms herself down pretty quickly. And I see her steel herself.

"Cadence, I'm so sorry, I apologize, I was so afraid you'd have changed that when I saw you next that I didn't even think about you had been replaced. I'm so so sorry I-" She looked up at me, and her eyes widened.

I asked her. "My little pony? What's wrong?"

She forced me back, looking at me in total disgust. What? She growled at me, charging her horn! "What's going on here?! Where's Cadence?!"

=Kill la Kill - Blumenkranz=

"Twilight? I'm right here! It's me! Cadence! I met your brother the same day that you made your first book fort! I promise that it's me! Sunshine Sunshine, Lady Bugs Awake, Clap Your Hooves, and do a little shake. The witch wouldn't know that would she? I just broke you free of Chrysalis' magic! Calm down! You're being paranoid. Twilight, Twilight please don't look at me that way! You're scaring me. We need to hurry, your friends are waiting for us!"

"THAT ISN'T GOING TO HAPPEN!"

"What's not going to happen?! Twilight you're not making any sense!"

"You are like Discord, Chrysalis! Ego-filled bully! And you're not going anywhere!"

"Chrysalis!? Twilight! It's me! Cadence! Wake up!"

"... then we'll have to do something about that." Oh Celestia, I've seen that look in her eyes before.

+++

At the same time her throne room, Chrysalis laughed and said, "HERE is a trick you never thought of using this way you unimaginative patchwork zoo!"

"What are you talking about Chryssy?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Oh just a little 'parting gift' I left in Twilight Sparkle's mind. She was too tempting a target not to take some well made precautions. The guards have finally reported in that they found the rebels causing trouble in the castle section. Which means Cadence might remove my guidance from Twilight's mind."

"How would she do that?"

"She got lucky once, she might get lucky again and I kept my hubby right here with me. Who else would sweet little Cadence try to save? Her oldest, most dearest friend of course! I was keeping her around as a back-up plan, but now that the rune is almost complete, and I have you my sweet dear, she's more a liability than an asset. But it doesn't matter. I didn't have the time to bother with the others nor was it worth the mana (much simpler to keep them where I can see them, as I couldn't do with Twilight), but I left a dormant spell to trigger when my guidance as removed, no actually, my guidance was specifically counter-acting it this whole time. Nothing TOO complex, just a trace of my essence and simple illusion spell inside her brain to fool her recognition centers. She will see Cadence as myself and vice versa, and those who are under my guidance as burdened by choice and again vice versa." Chrysalis clapped her hooves and Applejack like a house hold servant brought her a crystal ball on a creepy pedestal.

Chrysalis' horn glowed, and the crystal ball produced a view of the gallery Twilight Sparkle and Cadence were in. "Now you'll see, WHY I am queen of all changelings!" She hissed. "Time to reenact my first birthday, maybe I'll get a little sister out of it!" She said mirthlessly.

"Huh?" Sweetie said.

"Nothing dear. I'll explain to you later."

"Oh okay!"

"Duel to the death at the dawn of the new era little ponies!" Chrysalis cried out through the crystal ball.

Twilight said to Cadence, "You hear that Chrysalis? My friends are cheering for me! That's something you'll never understand!"

The real Chrysalis chuckled to herself. "Well Applejack?" Her horn glowed. "Cheer her on."

"Yeah Twilight!" AJ did so, like a puppet on strings. "Kick 'er flank!"

"This is gonna be so cool!" The enchanted Sweetie Belle said.

"Don't so close to the crystal ball dear, it's bad for your eyes."

"Oh, sorry."

"Applejack, you do know that if you'd not been so stingy with your powers, you could have broken my little spell on her with a look in the eyes, don't you?"

"...Yes Yer Majesty..."

"Good little puppet. Now what do you think of my new pay-per-view event Celestia?"

"...I believe in them both and all their friends. They'll find a way to beat your game, Chrysalis," the Princess of the Day said.

Chrysalis' eyes gleamed. "You mistake me for that mad devil Discord. Let's see how determined you are when one of those you love most kills or cripples the other before your eyes. Do you have a clear view Princess? Yes? GOOD! You WILL watch this!"

+++

Twilight fired right between Cadence's eyes, she managed to dodge it, the spell left a small smoking hole in the wall behind her.

"Twilight stop!" Cadence begged.

"Your aim seems to be off little slave." Chrysalis mocked.

"Shut up!"

=Nightcore "Wake Me Up"=

Twilight shot off fireballs at Cadence like a machine gun, the Alicorn brought up a barrier made of sound-waves, it lasted a few seconds before it shattered and Cadence took to the air trying to spun and dodge the endless small ball of flames, Cadence trying her best to avoid flying predictably, one came close to setting her head on fire.

Thankfully the shots were a little slow, took a while to charge, and it seemed she had to be stationary to charge them. Once that one missed, she had to charge up another to fire that Cadence thankfully managed to dodge too.

That was when she created a forcefield around Cadence . . . something she had replicated from Shining Armor. Cadence felt sick at her husband's magic being used against her by her dearest friend.

She got ready to repel the forcefield if it tried to crush her or punch through it if Twilight was going to use it to make Cadence an easier target, but instead . . . her horn glowed, and it began to rain inside?

"You're not melting! I guess what they say about witches isn't true! But I'm betting you still need air!"

The force field was filling up, the air squeezing out while the water wasn't.

Cadence knew Shining Armor's shield magic better than almost anyone, and reaching inside herself, managed let out a shout of sound magic that was just the right the sympathetic harmonic that cracked the small scale spell just enough for Cadence to punch through. She hit the floor wet, along with gallons of water. 'Too bad I don't think I could do that with Shining's city sized spell.'

"YOU! How dare you use a cheap imitation of Cadence's magic!"

"TWILIGHT! THINK! How does that make sense? Could Chrysalis really-"

The water hadn't simply vanished, and the storm cloud was still there, Cadence took to the air just in time as a lightning spell came down, avoiding being in contact with the wet floor. Then the temperature dropped as another imitation of weather magic felt the air chill and the water freezing, Cadence managed to shake free of the icy prison.

Chrysalis' voice echoed, but Cadence could tell by the tone she wasn't in the room.

"What's the matter, Cadence? Afraid to hurt your friend even if you need to stop her from letting my plan complete? How weak!"

That didn't stop Cadence from growling. "You're behind this you psychopathic witch?!"

"That's it Twilight! Finish her now!"

"Yes! Come on and try to put down the wicked witch if you ever could!" was what Twilight heard instead.

"Ding-Dong! The witch is dead!" Twilight's horn flashed.

Cadence looked up, to see a little one-room cottage house from the gardens fall on top of her.

"It's finished!" Twilight snapped.

Cadence stepped out of the house, as it fell apart behind her, the poor gardener hopefully had good insurance. 'Good thing those floor boards were rotten, I wasn't sure my sonic spell could effect the wood like that.'

Cadence used a cheap prank spell to glue her hooves to the floor. "I know you can't hear my real words Twilight, but maybe I can still cure whatever other geass Chrysalis has on-"

Twilight used a flash spell and simply teleported in the confusion.

Right behind Cadence.

"I will never, ever, ever give up!" Twilight shouted. "Have a taste of the power of real music and harmony you stuck-up bully!" A massive sonic attack hit Cadence from behind, knocking her forward and over.

AAAGH! Cadence had felt that! That wasn't fair! Auntie Celestia always said how trying to harm herself with solar magic was like try to freeze an ice-cube to death! Why should sound be able to hurt her?!

"Twilight, please listen to me! This isn't who you really are! The Twilight I know is one of the sweetest, most good-natured beings in all existence! You'd never be this hateful and irrational, you're not a killer!"

"I'm tired of your sick insults, and sick games! You're a mad pony and I'm going to put you down! If I have to become a monster then so be it!"

"DON'T SAY THAT! YOU'RE LIKE MY SISTER, AND I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART!"

The Changeling Queen gave a sadistic laugh at the sight.

"Do everything you can to stop her Twilight or she'll kill everyone!"

"I'll protect my friends, no, EVERYPONY from you Chrysalis!"

"Amicitia Zorya Spes! I, Mi Amore Cadenza, will protect all of creation, no, ALL LIVING THINGS FROM YOU!" Cadence startled, feeling something, memories from before she was born coming back to her.

"Yes! Yes! That's the look!" Chrysalis watching the show clapped her hooves. "Remember Cadence! Remember, myself."

"No!" Cadence whispered in horror.

Twilight created a GIANT fireball, pouring much more mana into it than was safely recommended, and fired it at the pink Alicorn, she plowed through with a wind spell, maybe she could touch horn to horn with Twilight in the moment of surprise.

The sun had been just a distraction, she realized it a moment too late as the spears impaled-

Cadence gasped and folded her wings, frantically stopping her momentum as metal rods plowed the space she had almost entered from every direction.

"MOONSENT! Disappear already! I'm sick of monsters like you ruining the lives of my friends! . . ."

"Awesome! Yee-haw! Yippie! Yay. Cool!"

"Yes, right girls, I promise, I'll take her down! There's nothing we can't do together!"

"Chrissy, why isn't she fighting back? It's boring if there isn't a fight!" said Sweetie's voice.

"Cadence, she's got the witch running scared now!"

"Now now, Sweetie Belle, just wait. Sooner or latter the cornered animal will act like a cornered animal, then the real fun will begin!"

"Yes, she's got her on the ropes Sweetie! She just has to finish it!"

"Yes everypony, I hear you, you're right, the guilty must be punished!" Twilight snapped, her coat turning white and her mane becoming flames from her rage. Twilight snorted air pawed the floor like a wild horse. Cadence found all of her hooves caught in Twilight's telekinesis.

"You can't run! And you can't hide!" Twilight swore. "Hii-ya!"

A bucket of water was dumped on Twilight Sparkle, extinguishing the flames, leaving her confused and breaking her concentration.

"Did I interrupt? I'm quite sorry."

=Luigi's Theme - Mario Strikers Charged=

The two ponies turned their attention to the unicorn who had just entered the archway to the gallery.

"Who are you?" Twilight asked.

"Cobweb?! Where were you?"

"What is this?" Chrysalis asked in an annoyed but bored tone. "Another scenery actor that doesn't know to leave things to the main character? Buzz off."

Cobweb gave a chuckle at the queen's statement, seeming almost amused. "Buzz off? Coming from the pony sized insect? How original."

"You're not WORTH original."

Cobweb then turned her attention to Cadence. "Just a bit busy and picking my spots wisely, your majesty is all. After all, a spider takes time to spin her web, and she needs to make sure not to accidentally catch an ally in it if they're in control, but merely look not to be. Wouldn't want to ruin your web while crafting mine, now would I?"

Cadence blinked, then thought about the situation. '...I've been on the defensive the entire fight, even before I broke the spell, because I was picking the spells that would touch Twilight's heart, not the best spells for the job. If she'd interfered then, she'd have thrown that strategy off completely...is that what she meant?'

"I should have known you wouldn't fight fair!" Twilight hissed at Cadence.

"I didn't know!"

"Only somepony like you would brag about it!"

Cobweb sighed, looking at Twilight sadly. "It saddens me to see you reduced to this state, Twilight Sparkle."

A magically thrown block of stone stuck Cobweb in the face sending her flying down the hallway. "I am done listening to changelings and their mind games. That's what I should have done from the start. Just not listen. That's going to be my next friendship report to Princess Celestia, 'Just don't listen to bad ponies.' " She then put a force field around the entry way.

"How does it feel that your cheap cheat didn't work? What am I saying? It doesn't matter, because you're never going to hurt anypony again!"

Cobweb got back to her hooves and rubbed her bloody nose. "Twilight Sparkle...So that's how this has to be..."

Suddenly, several fireworks style explosions went off around Twilight, jarring her concentration...for more reasons than one.

"Wait...that spell..."

While Twilight's concentration was shattered by both the spell and her sudden thoughts, a magical energy beam shattered her now weakened shield and Cobweb teleported back to the entrance way.

Cadence blinked. "Teleportation? Fireworks spells? How is that related to traps?"

"How did you get that past my shield?"

"Sorry, I don't explain my tricks to the opponent, Twilight Sparkle," Cobweb said.

The unicorn took a few trots into the gallery, and their image burn away like flash paper, the colors changing and washing away along with the spider-web cutie mark.

"Who . . . Who are you?" Cadence asked.

Chrysalis was speechless with rage for a moment at the sight before her.

"Trixie!"

"Dang it. There goes my dramatic entrance."

"Morons! They couldn't dispose of one replacement Element by surprise?! This makes my anger rise!"

'I guess I'm lucky I never went to the train station. At least I wasn't overvaluing myself assuming the bad guys wanted me gone.'

++++

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Trixie? Where are you going?)

Leaving! If Twilight thinks Trixie is not worthy of performing before Canterlot...that Trixie is just a worthless unicorn...Then Trixie is just going to leave!

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): WHAT?! Wait...she said that...Horseapples...)

Trixie needs to go, she's got royal permission to leave and she wants to before it expires!

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Wait! Trixie, remember Loneliness?)

Yes, the monster with Trixie mother's face that...Twilight saved me from.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): And what was Loneliness TRYING to convince you of?)

That Trixie was worthless, that she should just remain in hiding her entire life because she doesn't matter...exactly what Twilight JUST said...

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): But what did Twilight do THEN?)

She...she almost died trying to convince Trixie that the thing with mother's face was wrong...Even when she was on death's door she did...Even when that thing impaled her through the back and by all logic and reason she could've just abandoned Trixie to save herself...

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Then-)

Wait! Do not interrupt Trixie's train of thought!...That would mean that either Twilight was lying then or lying now...And risking your life on a lie is a foolishness someone like Twilight would never do. She's too smart to do that. Which means she's lying now. Something isn't right.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Wow...I honestly thought this would take a lot longer.)

Trixie's JOB is making things to appear as something other than what they seem, reading others and judging what they will do next so she can blindside them from a completely different direction. Something more is clearly going on here, and Twilight...Twilight being willing to DIE for a lie makes no sense. Trixie wasn't even that foolish...Thank you for reminding Trixie...reminding me of something I let myself forget. I needed that.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): So you're not leaving?)

The One and Only Trixie owes Twilight too much to not investigate. Besides, whoever's behind this underestimates Trixie, and Trixie HATES being underestimated. She will show them who's worthless!

But if they want Trixie gone...Trixie will need to let them think they succeeded.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus Addendum)): Uh, Trixie, why did you insist I put the above later in the report?)

Simple, misdirection was the entire purpose of the Cobweb persona. If it was obvious it was me, Trixie wouldn't have done her job properly! And there's no tension if they know Trixie didn't leave, and if you're trying to tell the story right, drama is a must!

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): ...Hehe, you're still Trixie...)

And proud of it!

++++

Celestia gave a chuckle, Chrysalis growled at her.

"Technically Yer Majesty, ya never checked up if they got rid of Trixie or not," AJ said to her master off screen.

"Do I need to make sure EVERYTHING is done right myself around here?!?! Am I the only one with a brain in her head?! Those idiots don't have the brains to report their target never showed?! They are dead!"

"I'm happy to see Chrysalis didn't get rid of you like she planned Trixie. I'm sad to see she's now turned you into one of her slaves."

"Twilight look into my eyes! Do I look brainwashed to you?"

"Stop saying how much you love Chrysalis! It's making me sick!"

Trixie sighed. 'Guess we're doing this the hard way. I'm fighting Twilight Sparkle. I hope they embed sapphires in my grave stone...'

"WHO ARE YOU?!"

"I'm a friend of Twilight's! I swear! Remember who our friends talked about before?! It's me! I was disguised because the Changelings wanted me dead!"

Cadence didn't know if this was some insane triple layered performance of Chrysalis', but after Blueblood had been willing to trust her after finding her in the caves, she'd now have to trust this was Trixie. However, "THIS IS A DESTINE FIGHT BETWEEN THE TWO OF US! You'll get hurt! RUN! JUST RUN!! She'll kill you!"

"BUCK THAT! This isn't a show!"

"Don't make me fight you! PLEASE!" Twilight begged, "You know you're no match for me Trixie! Don't hurt yourself protecting a monster! Please! I know the real you in is in there somewhere! Fight her control! Don't let her use you as a weapon! Let's destroy her together!"

" . . . I'm going to help save you Twilight, just like you saved me."

"I'm sorry Trixie," Twilight sighed.

"So am I, Twilight..."

"This is going to be so exciting!" Sweetie Belle grinned.

Chrysalis hissed. "So be it! Twice the pain for you, twice the fun for me!"

= Terra's theme birth by sleep Kingdom hearts =

"I'm sorry Trixie, but I don't have time to play nice with you." Trixie found herself lifted by Twilight's magic, turned upside down, and slammed head first into the floor.

At the last moment Trixie teleported above Twilight and the momentum continued, slammed Trixie into Twilight's back.

"OW! YOUR HORN!"

"Sorry Twilight."

"So am I." Twilight's horn glowed.

The room was filled by an Ursa Major roaring in Trixie's face. Trixie felt her courage shatter into pieces.

Trixie stared wide eyed at the Ursa. Phobia level terror began to shut down her higher functions. 'No...I can't...I need to...that's it, remember what Pinkie did...'

"When I was a little filly and the sun was going down...
The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frown..." she started singing to herself.

However, just when the fear started to wain, Twilight created several illusions of foals laughing right at her.

Trixie backed up in fear, her shattered courage ground into dust. "T-Twilight..."

"Trixie...I don't want to do this but-"

"But you gotta stand up tall
Learn to face your fears
You'll see that they can't hurt you
Just laugh to make them disappear." sang another voice. This one, no matter what the image she was faced with, made Trixie's fear begin to wain away.

Cadence stood up and stared at the illusions. "Hahaha!" she finished, shattering the illusions with the resulting enchanted music.

Trixie shook her head and teleported to Cadence's side. "Thanks..."

"I owed you one...you know, that didn't do a good job of making me think you can handle this."

"I know...but I have VERY good reason to fear those things...How did you know that song?"

"Concept of Music. And we're ponies."

"Oh..."

Twilight snarled. "How dare you use Pinkie's song!"

Trixie responded by creating a mirror in front of Cadence as a beam from Twilight fired, sending it right back at Twilight and forcing her to dodge. Not wanting to use the same trick twice, she teleported herself and Cadence back and let the stronger beam that followed destroy the mirror harmlessly.

"Look, I know it will sound crazy, but I'm an Element of Magic too, you HEARD that witch call me it, AND OUR FRIENDS! Twilight just hit me where it hurt."

"Fine...but I watch your back, you watch mine. Neither of us can do this alone."

"...If we weren't fighting my best friend, I'd be overjoyed to work with you."

"...If we wasn't fighting my foalhood friend, I'm sure I'd be proud to fight with you."

"Skunks, snakes, and bats," whispered Cadence to Trixie.

"What?"

"Twilight is afraid of them. The snakes since she was a foal, the bats and skunks since a den of them scared sand sprayed her at Winter Wrap Up," she continued as she used her own sonic shield to protect them this time. "Can you use that?"

Trixie gave a confident smirk. "You bet..."

Trixie's horn glowed and an illusionary bat appeared on Twilight's horn, staring her in the face. "Ahh! Bats!" She screamed and staggered back in fright, shaking her head to 'get it off', giving the two a chance to close some distance.

She also began firing her spell bolts in random directions, making Trixie and Cadence duck.

"Can't one of those beams hit that crystal ball?" Trixie cursed as their poor luck.

Chrysalis groaned. "You want to bring song into this? Sweetie Belle, follow my lead."

"I'm .. . I'm sure I can." She said unsure.

Chrysalis patted her on the head. "The secret of fears? Share them with your enemies, take what you're afraid of, and make them fear it worse!"

Sweetie Belle nodded.

Then through the Chrysalis ball, Chrysalis SANG.

"Now wake up.
Everypony tries their hardest, and yet the world has not changed.
It is useless to resist.

There are hopes and dreams you shall never reach. Mountains you shall never climb.

Hold onto your darkness through day and dusk.

You are part of the endless cycle forever.

"There is loss wherever you go-oh, you have to face it again and again. And agaaaain, and agaaaaaain, yeah yeah yeah!

Trixie felt her heart turn to ice at the song.

Then Sweetie Belle sang, and her blood turned to water.

Hello, can you hear me? I called out your name.
Can see you me? Can't you speak with me?

I am a little doll that has lost my eyes,
Has the sun risen.

I am a little doll that has lost my ears,
Does music box play?

Once upon a time, I was a filly just like you,
Then I was made pretty and cold forever more.

The dance that never ends. This song sings,
In this this plastic heart of mine."

The song even gave Cadence pause as she shivered.

The illusions dissolved and Twilight stood strong and confidence. "Thanks guys for the optimistic and cheerful song girls! I CAN win this! And I Will! Too many are depending on me not to!"

"Welcome!" Said Sweetie. Off screen, Applejack was on her side shivering and hugging herself.

Cadence gave a little song to Trixie to calm her down.

Trixie then looked at the ball and had an idea. "Cadence, can you make enough noise to destroy it? I don't want you TO I want to know if you CAN," she whispered.

Cadence blinked it and facehoofed. "Ugh...Of course I could, but why not destroy it?"

"Same principle as a stage trick: keep their eyes were you want them. So long as Chrysalis is watching us, we know what her eyes are on, where she is, we're the center of her attention. She can't sneak up behind us or plot elsewhere because she's right there in front of us. But if she tries to interfere again, shatter it to pieces with a moments hesitation. Or at least crack it to let her know you CAN."

Cadence nodded before Twilight opened fire again, this time Trixie making another mirror. Twilight expected a teleport and was prepared to fire another beam, but instead, the beam came out of another mirror that appeared behind her, forcing her to dodge.

"Two on one isn't fair," Chrysalis said, "So let's try two dozen on two!"

"Yes my queen!" announced a changeling named Lacewing, flying off quickly to Digger Wasp to send out the message.

Trixie whispered as low as she could to Cadence. "Don't worry about reinforcements for now, just focus on Twilight. If we don't, we might not be ALIVE to deal with them."

In for a bit, in for five. Cadence gave a nod.

Twilight rose into the air, and magically held the stone pedestals the fake statues had been on. She lifted them higher , using some as a protective shield while throwing some at Cadence and Trixie to crush them.

Trixie whispered, "Uh, we do have a plan for saving her yes?"

Cadence opened her mouth.

"Besides trying to live until she runs out of mana?" Trixie amended.

Cadence closed her mouth and thought. Meanwhile Trixie knocked the blocks off course with a spell copy of Twilight's shield magic copied from her brother.

"Not yet, she's not listening to anything I say."

"...Did you notice how she's been responding every time we talk to her?"

"Yes, she thinks I'm Chrysalis and you're brainwashed and the witch is me."

"She sees us as the enemy and hears us as the enemy. HOW can we prove we're not the enemy without her sight or hearing?"

"I'm bonds, I'll think of something, you keep thinking too."

Trixie gave it some deep thought. 'If her poison is twisting our words to make it seem like we're villains...'

"Twilight, why do you hate her majesty so much?"

"I could make a checklist of the reasons!"

"Really? Oh say it's not so."

"She's a revolting psychopathic witch who kidnapped my brother! She's turned everypony against me! She's-"

Trixie had to deflect another cube from Cadence. "I don't think that helped!" Cadence replied.

"Even if she hasn't stopped trying to kill us, that'll at least distract her a little bit. Twilight never could resist a lecture and it'll divide her attention...and if we're lucky hit the queen of mean where it hurts on occasion."

A giant soap box appeared around the two, Trixie grabbed Cadence and teleported out as ALL the stone blocks crushed it to bits and the debris was then thrown at them, forcing Trixie to fireball it to ashes that obscured the vision of all parties.

Chrysalis sighed. "I knew I should have gotten cable."

Cadence and Trixie coughed. Cadence used a sonic scream to blow back the smoke a little bit so Trixie could put up a quick forcefield to give them breathing room for a moment to speak as Twilight coughed somewhere obscured by the smoke.

The good news that with Twilight's senses all twisted into her own world, they didn't have to worry about her overhearing their plans.

"Can you try to turn her rage in another direction so she's not MORE fixated on killing me?" Cadence whispered, though she could tell that Twilight was somewhat distracted by it.

"...I've got an idea, but keep thinking."

Cadence nodded.

"Twilight! I'm not the only one who's joined her majesty! They're listening! They'd love to speak to you if you'd let them!"

"No! I'm not listening to more of my friends worshiping that monster!" Twilight screamed. "...I'm sorry...I've failed you all..."

Trixie frowned. "I hate to guilt trip her, but it's the one thing that'll distract somepony more than rage..."

"You really do care about her, huh?"

Trixie nodded. "She's helped me so much, it truly pains me to do this to her. Especially since I'd still be under Discord's taint if she hadn't...wait a minute...I think I have an idea."

Trixie had to teleport them both (and for safe measure teleported several pieces of debris to hide their location a bit better) to dodge an explosive beam. "...When Discord got his claws in me, she came to save me but there was...some...thing blocking her...she had to bypass it by going into my mind, and talking to the real me buried under it all. If only we could do that for Twilight and get past that devil's taint."

"I'm no devil, I'm much much worse," Chrysalis said.

Cadence put up a muting spell that kept their voices from carrying outside the bubble.

"I am an Element of Magic, so I copied the spell naturally, and I MIGHT be able to use it to get you inside her mind, past the spell blocking her senses, and let you reach her heart to free her...but..."

"But what?"

"We BOTH have to be touching horns with her when I do it and if we mess up, it could backfire horribly."

"...I don't think we have much of a choice."

"Alright. Problem is getting her to hold still long enough to do it."

"...If you can keep her busy long enough for me to get close, I think I might have a way to get us there. Think you can do something big to distract her?"

"...Distraction is what I'm good at, I'm a showmare...I think I might have a couple ideas. Be out of sight when the smoke clears."

Then the smoke was blown out of the archways by a simple wind spell. Exposing the two mares.

"Silly me, I should have used that solution from the start," Twilight said.

"Or we can just wing it, winging it is good!" Trixie said.

First things first. Get rid of the crazy big rocks.

'Come on Trixie! This isn't the Ursa Minor where your ego was the only reason you fought. This is for Twilight! If there was ever a time to not hold anything back, it's now!...You've got a debt to repay, and Twilight's counting on you! You can do this! Second guessing your own bread and butter? Being afraid of being outdone? Fearing you can't win? That's not you and you know it so stop it! Screwing up other ponies tricks is what you do! It's a game of catch the fireball with rocks!'

"ICE!" Trixie fired the copied spell at Twilight, she blocked with the stones, "FIRE! ICE! FIRE!" Trixie fired the spells in rapid succession.

Cadence's eyes widened in realization.

The stone blocks shattered from the temperature extremes and Trixie shielded the two mares.

Rarity's super precise multi-control of her telekinesis wasn't a spell unto itself, Twilight couldn't copy it, Twilight couldn't control countless tiny bits of rock at once, they fell from her grip.

"Trixie is done second guessing herself when she has a debt to repay and a friend to save!" Trixie announced.

"Now, watch in awe..." the showmare whispered to herself, psyching herself up. She knew she needed as much self conference as she could "...as The One and Only Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes..."

"Sorry Trixie! I'm done playing nice!"

Twilight teleported behind Trixie and shoot her with the most intense and concentrated spun spell possible, it was never a safe spell to use on a pony at close range. Trixie teleported from where the spell would have hit and reappeared behind Twilight and fired as well. Twilight teleported out of the way and appeared at Trixie's side and fired but Trixie again teleported appeared face to face with Twilight and fire the spell which Twilight dodged again with a teleportation this time appear on top of an archway and sniping Trixie who teleported on top of an archway at an angle below her and fired, but Twilight teleported again this time appearing in mid-air to zap Trixie parallel to her at close range, who chose to FALL OFF her archway before teleporting above Twilight her momentum not stopping as she fired the stun spell at Twilight right above her. Twilight telported just high enough to magically slow her fall and Trixie did the same on the opposite end of the gallery and both fired, the stun spells hitting each other and reflecting back at their shooters who freaked at the sight and teleported again, going in a circle like the hands of a clock in short teleportation bursts, firing the one-hit-KO spell only to teleport out of the way and fire from a slightly different angle that went out the windows and archways, no ponies would miss that.

It was all Cadence could do to keep up the rapid fire teleportations and avoid being hit by the stray shots. It was so frantic her magic would just as soon hit Trixie as Twilight if she tried to help! She was the Alicorn and SHE was the one who couldn't jump in without making things worse? Now she knew why Trixie had waited until she knew she needed her help to appear.

"STAY DOWN!" Twilight snapped, "I HAVE TOO MANY DEPENDING ON ME TO LOSE!"

Twilight's horn glowed as a whirl wind formed spinning right at Cadence.

Spell-Copy!

Trixie's horn glowed, and a second whirlwind formed spinning in the opposite direction, the two stuck and canceled out one another.

Twilight unleashed an ice spell strong enough to freeze everything in the room.

Spell-Copy!

Trixie fired the exactly same spell at the wall of ice, creating a glacial wall.

A snake made of fire punched through the ice.

Spell-Copy!

Another fire snake attacked the first, burning themselves out.

Twilight followed up with a lightning strike.

Spell-Copy!

The mana charged lighting struck one each other, rather than its intended target.

The castle quacked the clashes of spells and counter spells.

"I WON'T GIVE UP!" The two unicorns said at the same time.

Twilight took the tiny bits of rumble and turned them into metal and wood spears that dove at Cadence.

Spell-Copy!

Spears struck again and this time held as fractures appeared along each.

Twilight summoned a roaring Ursa Major's face in front of Trixie. Laughing voices around her.

The showmare recoiled in fear...then let another image come to the forefront. A unicorn mare, impaled by a monster, still desperately trying to save her life.

Trixie regained her lost ground. "Trixie is afraid of those things, will probably always be...but right now, she...I'M MORE AFRAID OF LOSING THE FIRST FRIEND I EVER MADE!"

Trixie stared down the image that still frightened her to her core...because she knew the only way to save Twilight was behind them.

"You'll run out of mana before I do, Trixie! You can't beat me!"

"I don't have to!" Trixie unleashed her fireworks spell, the biggest version she had done in her life, she changed the twice transmutated rock into ribbons, that flew past the spear that Twilight had lost her grip on in shock, and wrapped around Twilight, particularly tight around her horn in a sharp tug, causing Twilight to give a grunt of pain.

Cadence fired a sound wave spell at Twilight that made her ears ring, and blue unicorn and Alicorn tackled Twilight at the same time, the ribbons lessened around Twilight's horn, her horn flared as both of them touched Twilight's horn.

I guess now that it's over I can explain: Twilight was more focused on 'Queen Chrysalis' than on a random minion that tried to interfere. I took a guess that she'd only make the spell strong enough to hold out an average pony instead of somepony like myself so she could use the majority of her strength to deal with the bigger threat locked in there with her and used a spell type most ponies who aren't in my line of work don't use often. Yes, it was guesswork, but half my job is guessing what my target's reaction is going to be before they do it. And it's one of my strengths over Twilight: I'm willing to bet on a guess.

Where am I? Who am I? I am Cadence. I was, I used the memory spell once Trixie got me through the gate. It should have shown Twilight all the memories that show how I'd truly act and how we'd acted together. Maybe it would break through Chrysalis' illusion. Like going under the ice and handing somepony a pick to cut their way out of it.

Ugh...I guess this confusion is why Trixie mentioned the spell was a gamble...

Where am I? This is the park I played with Twilight, where we invented our hoof-shake. I recognize it. Why am I here? Wait. That tree got its lower branches cut years ago. This is the past? No. This is a memory.

Twilight? Where is Twilight?

There she is. She's with, ME?! No!

I galloped towards them.

"And that's why there was no need for anypony to punish you for the want-it-need-it spell, and they should have all apologized to you instead."

"Thanks Candy, that makes me feel MUCH better," she nuzzled that thing!

"I knew it would," the thing with my face whispered stroking her mane.

"Twilight! Get away from that thing!" I shouted.

"W-what? How can there be two of you?"

"It isn't me! It's a living lie Chrysalis implanted in your mind!"

"Don't listen to that witch, Twilight," said the fake me, glaring daggers at me. "She fooled everypony, even you! Don't let her do it again!"

"No, Twilight! I'm Cadence! I've foalsat you since before you were Auntie's student! You know me!" I replied, begging and pleading for her to believe me.

Twilight's mind looked back and forth between the manifestation of that witch's magic and me, looking scared and confused. "I...I don't know..."

"Twilight, I'm Cadence, you can trust me," the fake said. "Sunshine sunshine, ladybugs awake-"

"Clap your hooves and do a little shake!" I finished, doing the motions as well.

Twilight held her head. "I...I don't know! I...Where did Cadence take me and Shiny when we were kids!"

"Canterlot Museum!" shouted the fake.

"Camping with your uncle!" I shouted.

"...You're...you're both correct," Twilight groaned, her mindscape shuddered. "What did you teach me?"

"Lots of spells! Including the Memory Spell!" it yelled.

"Humility! And I was your friend! I taught you to care about others! Or I tried to!"

"Correct again..."

The magic must be using her memories...this isn't good.

"What's my favorite book!"

"Any one with lots to learn from it!" we both answered.

"...Right again..."

"Twilight, you were right," said the copy. "You knew Chrysalis was evil, the others were wrong about you! They fell for her tricks but you didn't! You were right and they were wrong! Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttercruel walked out on you they fell for it so hard! Make sure you don't fall for her lies now! You're the smartest pony I know! That's proof of that. You're too smart to be fooled!"

"Chrysalis...Chrysalis played on what ponies WANTED to see...I wasn't there so I don't know for certain, only what they've told me, but even if they were wrong about Chrysalis...they love you, and she played that against them to hurt them so they'd hurt you...She uses bonds against ponies to hurt them. Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy told me themselves how much it hurt them, Pinkie STILL wishes she'd stayed to be your comforter. Rainbow blames herself for not being there to protect you from her...they're every bit as hurt by that moment as you were. They weren't stupid fools who fell for a simple act...they were loving, goodhearted ponies who had that love used against them...If anyone is the fool, it's me for letting myself be captured and causing this whole mess to begin with."

I know, I could have said anything...but I didn't want Twilight to think her friends were wrong for being shocked and hurt.

Twilight once more looked confused and conflicted...then blinked. "Wait a minute..." she turned to the copy. "The real Cadence wasn't THERE so how would you know that?! And how do you know about Fluttercruel?!"

"They told me Twilight! Why wouldn't they tell me?"

"But if they told you, why are you so keen on telling me I'm right?"

"Why wouldn't I? We're best friends! Of course I'd feel bad for you!"

"But that's not what the REAL Cadence would do! The REAL Cadence...as much as I WISH she'd tell me I was right and they were all wrong, that I'm the smart one and my friends were too stubborn or narrow-minded to see the truth right in front of them, that I was some white knight saving the day...The real Cadence would tell me exactly what SHE told me! She wouldn't tell me what I WANT to hear or what I EXPECT her to hear, she'd tell me what I NEED to hear!"

The copy began to distort slightly. "That's...that's silly talk Twilight. Of course I would tell you nice things, I'm your foalsitter, the greatest foalsitter in the history of foalsitters."

"No...you're not. The Cadence I know would tell me exactly what she told me. That my friends loved me and that's why they acted how they did, that they're every bit as hurt as I am...and she's humble, she'd blame herself before she'd blame an innocent pony...but a witch who's magic runs on trapping her victims in blissful slavery? Her magic would tell me what I WANTED to hear."

I walked up to Twilight and put a wing around her. She smiled up at me. "Now, if you'd be so kind, we'll be leaving now."

Me and Twilight nuzzled for the first time in two years...and memories of our friendship surged by in Twilight's mindscape. Reminders of that bond we share.

The fake roared out in rage and fury as it began to burn away like a photograph, each memory taking away a piece of the shell that covered the magic, reducing it to nothing more than a wisp of green magic in the shape of the Changeling Queen, before one last memory, the one we were making right now, obliterated every last piece of it. The world of memories turned white.

"Little pony, I've watched you grow.
I have been your friend, that you know
Remember when we read books
Together in the sunshine?
Our bond that witch does twist and take
So little pony please awake!

Remember when we set in grass
Watching ladybugs scamper past?
We studied them so closely
Sitting there just you and me.
But now that bond she tries to take
So little pony please awake!

Remember the verse with both said?
Use it now her shackles to shed
Let our foalhood memory
Be that which will set you free!
Sunshine, shine, ladybugs awake
Clap your hooves and do a little shake!"

+++

I, the one and only Trixie, felt tears in my eyes at the beautiful song sang by Princess Cadence she nuzzled Twilight, the spell from Chrysalis so obviously broken. The beautiful image held for several seconds.

Then Twilight gasped. "Applejack! Green-eyed monster! She was trying to warn me! Applejack, I'm sorry!"

"It's alright Twili'," said the enslaved pony through the crystal ball.

"She struggled against my spell? Naughty-naughty Applejack, and naughty ponies should be punished."

Sweetie Belle nodded smiling, "Yes they should be!"

"Twilight, word of warning: don't say stuff like that when the villain is watching!" I advised sternly. That is Twilight's biggest weakness, how much she loves to hear herself talk. I might be a braggart, but keeping a card up my sleeve is my job!

Twilight's eyes shrank to pinpricks. "I'm sorry Applejack..."

"We'll deal with you sooner than later," Cadence said to Chrysalis, "We're having a private moment here, and you're not invited. Go cry over having lost Twilight being freed from your sick magic."

The queen said in a bored and droll tone, "Oh no. I am so afraid. Gasp of fear. Scream of anger. Curses foil again. I'll get you next time."

"You can drop the show! You can't pretend we didn't just ruin your plans!"

"Pst! You ruined a plan-"

We've ruined THREE of your plans you wicked witch.

"No, sorry, all you did was ruin a version of it. Sit there being big about yourself. You haven't changed a thing. The end result is going to be exactly the same. You all still lose. I still win. All you've done is waste your time. And disappoint Sweetie Belle, I promised her a big fight, and you went and ruined it with an anti-climax where noling died. Excuse me, I have new foremare to appoint." The crystal ball went dark.

"Don't worry about her, she's bluffing, there's no way she has anypony on staff who can figure out my notes," Twilight said. "Without me, we now have time before the rune is complete."

"First off," I said. "Cadence, the crystal ball has outlived its usefulness."

Cadence nodded and shattered it to bits with a sonic blast.

"Twilight, any other listening devices in this chamber you know of?" Cadence asked.

"Don't worry, already took care of that myself," I said, giving a smirk and putting a rightfully proud hoof to my chest. "While I did throw a lot of lies at Queen Meanie, what I didn't lie about was securing this chamber so we wouldn't be interrupted. I used every scanning spell I knew of. A showmare never steps on a stage they're unfamiliar with."

Twilight double checked. No, I'm not insulted. Twilight has OCD, it's in her NATURE to double check. She smiled proudly to me. And yes, it felt good. I'd just matched the great Twilight Sparkle move for move (not to mention saved my best friend), who can blame me for letting my ego get a few strokes? "You've come a long way, Trixie."

"Thank you, Twilight, but I wouldn't have without your help...Now, what IS the rune?" I asked.

"Basically, it's part of a system set up around Equestria, once complete, it'll tear out the emotions of every feeling non-changeling in Equestria feed them to whoever is standing at the rune's center."

My blood ran cold, "You're joking!"

"No, I'm not! Like I said, it's good that without me, it'll take them a lot longer to finish it."

"Well," I said, "Let's go wreck it."

Twilight blushed. "Uh, I sort of made it 'Twilight Sparkle proof' when I was redesigning it, so if I was freed, I wouldn't be able to help deconstruct it."

"But you didn't include me or anypony else?"

"Thankfully no. But like I said, it's not the priority right now! If the others can get Spike, Chrysalis will lose the air of authority her proxies are using to get them done across Equestria. And it might get the rest of Equestria to realize something is up if we can get him to message the guards . . . Chrysalis had reassigned to the farthest edges of Equestria so it would take them forever to get back . . ."

I sighed. From everything the big fat spider had been gloating, she had had this scheme in the making for a long long time, and plenty of time to think of ways to cover her basis. It would be ILLOGICAL if she had overlooked something as obvious as Equestria's army and HADN'T figured out a way to get rid of it until her scheme was done. Things now made so much more sense knowing her plan wasn't to hold Canterlot forever but to do something with a finite timescale.

"But the point we need to get our friends back, and snap everypony out of this lie Chrysalis had fed them!" Twilight said.

"Is that such a good idea? Right now, the Canterlot ponies are simply staying safe and out of the way. Why turn them all into TARGETS?" Cadence asked. "That would be basically putting them on the chopping block just to help US instead of THEM."

"Alright," I said. "The Princess has a valid point, but let me counter with this: the Changelings are EXPECTING us ponies to be nice little cattle who do everything they think we're going to. What better way to throw a monumental wrench in their plans than by breaking their masquerade so Equestria fights back? This is an INSURRECTION, not an armed invasion. They undermined rather than overpowered. They didn't come expecting a fight because they believed they'd taken the fight out of us before hoof. (You know under other circumstance I'd like their style!) So if Canterlot does fight back, they're dealing with the OPPOSITE situation they planned for."

"Maybe we should discuss this with everypony back at home base instead of having explain it over and over once we get back to-" The Princess began but then.

"Geronimo! Cadence! We're here to help! Twilight! Time to wake for real!" A herd of seven ponies led by Rainbow Dash stormed into the gallery.

"DASH?! Pinkie! What happened to distractions?" Trixie asked.

"Half our back up went gun-ho, and we had to save them, and because Twilight gave the bugs a cheat-sheet we needed to be saved by the rest of the back up, and, WAIT! TRIXIE?! Now we have to fight her too?! Don't worry I got this!"

"DASH! WAIT!"

-One Sonic Rain-Concussion Later-

Minuette calmly applied bandages to Trixie's head as the showmare and the rest of the ponies explained what had happened.

"You know Trixie, of all the stunts you've pulled, this has to be the most convoluted, pointless, and downright selfish." Rainbow Dash said to the pony she had just mini-sonic rainboomed.

Trixie took a deep breath. "Will you just let me EXPLAIN why I did it before jumping to conclusions?" she asked. "...As much as I WISHED that I'd never believed a word Twilight said...I did...and sulked off...but the thing about being a showmare is you learn to READ ponies like books. And as I started thinking about what happened, and I realized how out of character Twilight acted. Particularly that she told me I was worthless when she's the one who TOLD ME that I had worth in the first place and that she'd told 'Princess Cadence' things that she promised NEVER to tell anyone...I know Twilight, and that's NOT her. I also remembered Applejack had been acting a bit weird as well."

"Alright alright, you managed to figure out Twilight wasn't herself and it snapped you out of your funk, why the disguise act?"

"Because I figured that there are only two reasons Twilight would try to get rid of me in the rather extreme fashion she did: that she was afraid I was going to BE hurt in some serious way if she didn't force me to leave, or that somepony was forcing her TO hurt me because they wanted me gone. I donned the disguise because I was afraid the latter was true and somepony was out to get me, so I became Cobweb so I could hide in plain sight...and then when the invasion happened, that feeling was confirmed."

"...Trixie's right," Twilight said, looking down. "Chrysalis had goons waiting at the train station to KILL Trixie. Had Chrysalis known Trixie was here any sooner than she did, she'd have had her disposed of in an instant."

"And as for the authorities? 'Princess Cadence' had been WITH HER when she did what she did. I thought back to what Twilight had exploded about. At the rehearsal, it made no sense, but now? With my friend acting VERY out of character, turning me inside out with her words with Cadence SUPPORTING her? It made me wonder. Naturally, however, I knew not to repeat Twilight's mistake, so I watched from the shadows."

Rainbow sighed. "Alright, I guess that explains the disguise, but why didn't you tell us?! We're your FRIENDS! Trixie, we all thought you were turned into one of Chrysalis' brainwashed zombies! We thought we had to look over our shoulders or that we'd be fighting you next!"

Trixie gave a sincerely guilty look. "I truly wanted to tell you all, Rainbow... but... you said it yourself: you thought I could have been brainwashed. Our enemy had already brainwashed three friends of mine. The best weapon I had was that I was in the shadows and the enemy thought I had been on that train (I assume the Changelings didn't report me not being dead for that reason). I'm sorry, but I felt there was too much riding on me staying hidden to risk that witch getting her claws in any of you. And...well, there were some ponies in our group I didn't quite trust, you didn't either...I needed to keep my identity secret until the opening presented itself that I could act in a big way, as it ultimately did. I'm sorry, but if while we split up Chrysalis had gotten to ANY of you? My cover would have been blown and by what Twilight has said, I'd be a dead mare right now."

"...She's right, Rainbow Dash. If Chrysalis had gotten her claws in ANY of you, then you couldn't have HELPED telling her about Trixie...just like I told them your weaknesses."

"Well...You..." Rainbow gave a sigh. "Fine...I guess when you put it that way, it was important to keep yourself hiding..."

Trixie's eyes teared up. "I'm sorry, Rainbow...I didn't WANT to keep this a secret, but I'm USED to being in the shadows, it's where I'm the most comfortable. If I were Twilight maybe I could have created some 'anti Changeling brainwashing spell' to make you immune to Chrysalis' control so that worry wasn't on my mind, but I'm not! I'm Trixie, I'm a showmare who's bread and butter is exploiting what my enemy THINKS they know to play them into my hoof...I'm sorry I'm not Twilight Sparkle, I did the best I could, and the best I could was hiding behind a mask, waiting for the moment I could tear it off and do the most damage I possibly could to Chrysalis' entire bucking operation...But I'm not Twilight, I can't do what Twilight would do."

"...If you were Twilight Sparkle, you'd be curled up outside in a fetal position stroking your tail at the fact your best friend had turned on you," Twilight interjected. "Trixie...we don't think like each other. If it'd been me, Chrysalis' game would have DESTROYED me. I wouldn't have made it back in the castle on my own, I know that much...You're not Twilight Sparkle, but in this case it's a good thing you're not."

Cadence stepped forwards. "...I think I get it now..."

Trixie blinked. "What?"

"I was confused how two Elements of Magic could co-exist, now I see it. No...now I feel it...You're both different. How you use it. That's how you co-existed."

Trixie thought about it for a moment...then laughed.

"What's so funny?" Twilight asked.

"...Me and Queen Chrysalis made the same mistake. We both assumed I was the 'spare Element of Magic'...neither of us assumed I was just a different flavor of it."

"And you never once thought to go to Princess Celestia with everything you put together, and present it in a calm and rational manner instead of waving it around like a crazy pony?" Minuette asked Trixie pulling the bandage a little extra hard.

Twilight's ears flattened a little a that.

"Allow me to point something out about that theory," Trixie said. "Lyra, where did you first see me?"

"...Outside the castle."

"What did I tell you I'd been trying to do?"

"...Get into the castle but the guard wasn't letting you in."

"Which is exactly why I didn't do exactly what Minuette suggested: I tried and they wouldn't let me in. And if I'd FOUGHT my way in, I WOULD have looked like a crazy pony. If I'd revealed myself, then I would have exposed myself. The only reason I got in PERIOD was the chaos the Queen of Mean brought with her when she was exposed."

"In her defense, Shining is Chrysalis' prime victim and probably a few of those guards present at the gates were Changelings," Cadence pointed out.

"How the buck DID you get in? Her Highness said she only got in with Blueblood because she BLUFFED her way in and the guards happened to be changelings in disguise. I don't think they'd have suddenly abandoned their posts. And were you just sitting on your flank waiting for SOMETHING to happen like the castle exploding or Tirek dropping out of the sky?" Lyra asked.

"I kept looking for a way to sneak in, then Blueblood was so nice as to expose the Changeling Queen who ended up drawing away a large amount of her hoard to the wedding chamber, distracting them, and then she threw most of the guard out of Canterlot. At that point, I saw an opening and took it."

"So because you knew you couldn't trust some ponies, you decided not to trust any ponies," Twinkle Shine said. "Minuette and I were DYING inside because we thought Cadence hated us."

"And you think it DIDN'T feeling that way?!" Trixie finally snapped. "Being THAT close to my friends, knowing ALL I would have had to say is 'I'm right here' and they'd hug me and everything would be nice and hunky dory? But then I remembered: oh, any of them could be turned into brainwashed slaves if they're caught separated from the group, which is VERY likely considering 90% of all plans I can think of requires us to split up! Or that 'oh, yeah, we're fighting SHAPESHIFTERS and they already don't trust 'Cobweb', what if they beat me up when I drop this guise thinking I'm a Changeling?! Do you think I haven't spent the past few hours tearing myself apart inside fighting the urge to tell them when every logical part of my brain kept saying 'no, you have to keep hidden, stay in the shadows until it's time to strike!' And I have GOOD REASON I have trouble trusting ponies when shapeshifters and brainwashing are involved!"

"Oh really? Why?"

Trixie suddenly got quiet, panting slightly but looking down. "...It's private...but...just know it involved a monster pretending to be my own mother, brainwashing by a different monster, and Twilight can vouch for me that it happened."

Twilight nodded. "It did...But I promised I'm not sharing details of it. Me sharing them with Cadence was one of the tells Trixie mentioned that gave away myself."

"...Look...I'm sorry for exploding. But...this hasn't been easy on me. I'm not PROUD I've spent that day deceiving my friends and worrying them...I didn't do this because I was selfish. I didn't do this because I wanted to hurt anyone. I did it because it was all I could think to do and I was RELIEVED I could finally take off the mask...instead all I get is beaten up and given the riot act for doing what I HONESTLY thought was the best thing to do...I'm sorry, I PINKIE PROMISE I'm sorry for all the pain this caused you. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye...but PLEASE try to understand I stand by that I did what I had to do given the situation and I'd never hurt you JUST to hurt you...I'm not that mare anymore...I promise I'm not..."

Trixie had actually started crying.

"Please, I don't want to lose my friends because I was trying to help them."

"Trixie," Rainbow Dash sighed, "I'm the Element of Loyalty, Applejack said the bug queen didn't try to brainwash me because she was worried my Element would protected me. You could have told me. I could have covered for you. I could have helped you. You could have trusted me. But you didn't. How do you think that makes me feel?"

Trixie kept crying. "...Like I felt with Twilight at the wedding reception and after...it makes you feel rotten...But Rainbow...I didn't know..." Trixie's voice broke. "I wasn't THERE when Applejack said that and it never came up...I'm sorry...But I didn't know...I'm sorry..."

"Oh stop that right now." Pinkie Pie said hoping over to her, "Since when does Trixie cry like this? Since when does Trixie apologize for stuff over and over? That's not Trixie at all! She doesn't break down because she's given a lecture. She comes back with some snide remark and keep on trucking." Pinkie Pie gave a powerful gasp and pointed over-dramatically. "You're a changeling aren't you?!"

"WHAT?" Trixie's gasped.

"Pinkie Pie!" Twilight said, "Stop it!"

"Pinkie Pie there is no way-" Princess Cadence began.

"Yes, Trixie acting like a cry baby, she says she made the best choice she had but she says she's SORRY for making the best choice she had? You must not be a very good changeling."

"I AM NOT A CHANGELING! I AM TRIXIE!"

Pinkie Pie grinned, "Then act like it! Dry those tears! I'm happy to see you back here with us! And we're ALL happy that we've got Twilight back here with us too! Right girls?"

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and managed to actually smile. "Yeah...And at least when you 'did what you felt was best' you actually succeeded in saving the one you were trying to save...I know how bad it stinks to be put in a situation like that, I've been in it enough times today to last a life time," she then looked to Twilight. "And considering I just got so caught up in calling one friend out, I forgot to care about that friend being safe and another one being FINALLY safe, I'm not exactly one to talk about focusing so much on the scenery you forget the trees..."

Rainbow flew over and hugged Twilight and then Trixie. "...Glad ta have you both back. Just trust us more next time, okay?"

Pinkie nodded, "Good, now can we get back to where we're all happy that we have Twilight back with us PLEASE?!"

"Trixie, for what it's worth, I wanted to help, and we'd have been here sooner, but there were booby traps that kept going off when Moth got near them."

"Oh... whoops," Trixie whispered. Right. Set to go off near changeling. Kinda forgot they had a changeling on their team. Oopsie. Wait. "Uh, did you say you set off the booby traps?"

"Uh, yeah so?"

"They weren't meant for you..."

From the hallway leading to the gallery a rumbling was heard. Along with angry insectoid hisses coming closer.

"I think we need to continue this conversation somewhere else!" Trixie declared.

"Twilight! Slave your teleportation spell to Trixie's! Trixie teleport us out of here no! Back to base!" Cadence ordered.

"Ten ponies at once?!" Most unicorns were troubled teleporting only themselves. After the epic battle with Twilight, Trixie wasn't exactly feeling up to an epic teleportation right now.

Twilight looked to Trixie with a reassuring smile. "We're both Elements of Magic. If anyone can pull it off it's us."

Minuette did quick calculations in her head. "Twinkleshine, Lyra, Princess! We might not be able to teleport, but we can still pool our mana and add to THEIR spell. Touch horns everypony!"

More 'Canterlot Guards' were flying down right on top of us like a dome through the open ceiling.

"Pooling my mana with ponies I barely know, I feel a little dirty," Twinkle Shine said.

"Enough talk! Let's just close the curtain on this act already!" Trixie said, the mana growing and all ten ponies vanishing in the spell.

One grand emergency teleportation later -

"A church? I'll admit this isn't quite where I thought you'd be. Uh, why is my fur blue?"

"Trixie is purple!"

"Hey! Me and Dashie switched colors too!"

"...Rarity is to never know of this..."

"Wow! Cadence looks really pretty in white! Maybe Hasbro was right and Celestia and Cadence really would work better with each others' color schemes!"

"Actually I think this is Twinkleshine's."

"...Eh, I look pretty good pink..."

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Part 17
Magic Duel

"Twilight Sparkle is well on her way to the right and proper mind set she should have to reach her true potential, that's it Twilight! Get angry! Really angry! Hate those changeling! Feel it burn inside you! Become the fire itself!"

"We're going to see about that!"

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Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (always needs more love).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Episode 177: Omake "Too Much Focus On The Villains"

Episode 177: Omake "Too Much Focus On The Villains"

Too Much Focus On The Villains
Or 'Sweetie Belle's Moments'

(Halflight Dusk Supplement Notes: Note that at least some of this takes place before events of Twilight Sparkle's freedom from Chrysalis' control.)

Sweetie Belle danced, she was in the hall of the Grand Galloping Gala, disguised changeling guards protected every window and doorway, and Shining's forcefield, there would be no interruptions here. If anypony asked, they'd be told the child's sister was one of the invader's victims and was being given a boon to raise her spirits.

Sweetie Belle danced with Spike, he responded as much as a baby dragon sized teddy bear.

She had Spike take her forehoof, his clawed closed around her hoof, and tighter, and tighter, and-"OW! Spike! STOP! STOP!" Spike went limp, swaying on his two feet, just staring.

Sweetie Belle rubbed her poor foreleg.

"Applejack please stop playing," Sweetie Belle said, AJ fell on her haunches letting the bow fall from the fiddle, happy for the break. 'No no no, I should be happy to serve and be sad when I can't.' The words Sweetie Belle had instructed her to mentally recite (and did in Sweetie Belle's voice) whenever she thought such things echoed in her head regardless of whether Applejack wanted to think them or not.

"Chryssy, what went wrong?"

"You must have given him poor instructions."

Sweetie Belle looked at Chrysalis, "But all I did was tell him to hold my hoof."

"Did you now?" Chrysalis said in an authoritative but not hostile tone, like a teacher giving their student instruction. "What was it exactly?"

"I just told him to take a good grip of my hoof."

Chrysalis sighed. "He interpreted that as 'hold as hard as he possibly could.' Don't feel ashamed, it's a common neophyte mistake."

"But you said to keep what I told him simple," Sweetie Belle said a little upset at her failure.

"Yes. But you also have to be CLEAR in that simplicity. You must lead him Sweetie Belle, direct his actions, control his responses, you are the one in control. You're the puppeteer, he's the puppet, he will only do what you pull his strings to do."

She looked down. "Okay Chryssy. I'm sorry I'm not a good student."

"No no no," Chrysalis waved her hoof, "These things take time to learn, how you've picked this up so far is extraordinary, like it was what you were always meant for."

Sweetie pulled up on her dressed, looked down and frowned. "No changeling princess cutie mark."

"Maybe it'll show up at the right time. Or maybe destiny is simply being stubborn and won't admit your greatness."

"Greatness?"

"Greatness is what we have to earn my dear, is what we have to work for. If you wish to gain a cutie mark, you must claim it for yourself. You must DECIDE what you shall do with yourself, it won't appear from random dabbling. And you've shown true dedication in what I've taught you. You are wonderful, you are beautiful, you are elegant, and let no lesser tell you different."

"Lesser?"

"Those who aren't strong enough to overcome fate, and allow themselves to be ruled by it naturally hate and envy those who ARE able to defy fate."

"Are there lots of ponies that can't?"

"Most of them. And the one thing that magic eating monster had right was that those who have power and know how to rule it have the right to take it from those who don't."

"Magic eating monster?"

"Long story short: there was an egotistical feathered demon, I ate it, the end. Now dance again, and remember to keep your directions concise."

"Okay Chryssy!" Sweetie Belle bowed and took Spike's hand and began to dance again, this time Spike's motions being more natural looking and ordered Applejack to begin to play again.

"Wonderful Sweetie Belle! Who knows, maybe you'll devour me someday." Chrysalis said in sincere praise.

"Chryssy! I'd-I'd never do that to you!"

"It's just the way of nature dear. Please focus."

"Okay Chryssy." Sweetie Belle nodded.

"My Queen, I'd have a word with you."

She didn't even look at him, she said irritably, "I didn't give you permission to see me, Kabuto."

"I anticipated you'd wish to see me my queen. I can't help but notice you've taken a interest in the young cattle."

"Yes and?"

"When will you be taking her body?"

"Come again?" Chrysalis looked perplexed at the mad scientist.

"Well, after she's uplifted into a changeling of course, all this time I thought Pitcher Plant was your choice, I don't know why you'd want to inhabit a convert's body, but as my Queen wishes, but-"

Chrysalis telekinesis slammed his head in a wall in beat with the music. "If you ever imply that again I'll break your legs and repeal from you my 'royal protection', and lock you in a room of changelings. As if I'd EVER SINK to that fat worm's level. Sweetie Belle is NOT a 'host body.' She is not a experiment, she isn't a science project, she isn't something for you to play god with and discard, she--" Chrysalis calmed herself down. "After our plans are completed, SHE will be giving YOU orders."

"My Queen! A game is a game, but don't you think you're taking this a little too serious-" Head slam in beat with the music again.

"I don't care for destiny, but in this case, that Sweetie Belle and I have crossed paths where we didn't truly before, now that I'm aware of myself, we were drawn to each other as much as I and Cadence. And perhaps she and Cadence as well. Similar things draw similar things."

"Isn't that 'opposites attract' my queen?"

"That is for MAGNETS Kabuto. And if you even THINK of asking to experiments on Sweetie . . . I'll demonstrate for her how to suck all the love out of a changeling, with you."

"My Queen, are you feeling well? This is not like you."

"I do as I please. She's far too precious to be a lab rat in your aimless, pointless, meaningless, experiments."

Kabuto got back up, focusing his magic and making his damaged head regenerate at an accelerated rate, in a way that looked quite unnatural, even as far as shapeshifting bug ponies go. He looked at his queen and the scene with an analytic eye, then smirked. "You're changing her, aren't you? I don't mean physically. I mean molding her like a piece of clay?"

"So what if I am? I am bringing out her true potential."

"I was beginning to worry it was the other way around. Nothing personal, my queen, just you did order me to cut your heart out if you ever made room in it. I wish you the best of luck, You Highness."

Chrysalis considered giving him another slam against the wall, but didn't wish to give him brain damage he might not be able to recover from while she still needed his intelligence.

"Thank you. You may go now, Kabuto."

Sweetie Belle danced. Her puppet obeyed.

=Some hours later=

"Wow, so you accidentally ate the love of your parents, then when she saw you were starving, somepony really special to you gave you their love, then when you tried to run away her teacher tried to hurt you, and then the entire town got buried in a storm?" Sweetie Belle stared in amazement across the royal dinning hall table the pair were using. "That's so sad!"

"Yes . . . I was the only one to make it out. You're the first living creature I've ever told that to, do you promise never to tell anyling else?" The guards were outside. She had ordered Applejack and Shining Armor to cover their ears as the entire room was sealed in a sound-proof force field.

"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye I promise! I'll never ever tell anycreature!"

"Good girl." Chrysalis telekinetically stroked her mane.

"I bet they're all okay!"

"WHAT?!"

"Sure! That's how it always works! I bet that they all fell into a cave underneath all the mud, and made friend with a bunch of friendly furry underground creatures, then they learned to have feelings again! I bet if you go back there, you'll find them waiting for you and ready to welcome you back with open forelegs!"

Chrysalis stood there silently for a while, and the queen wasn't entirely sure why. " . . . Yes Sweetie Belle, I'm certain you're right. Maybe you can come with me? After this business in Equestria is done? And you're one of us? If I'm going to see my family again after so long, I'd like it so if you were to be with me."

"Of course Chryssy! That's what friends are for!"

Chrysalis looked at her, a twang of surprise inside her. "I never told you that we were friends."

"Of course not! You don't need to! Friends don't need to say they're friends! Friends are friends!"

Chrysalis looked confused at the meal before her. "That's strange, this is the first time this has ever been filling for me. You remind me of my friend and me, Sweetie."

"Really?"

"Yes, you remind me of her, or maybe, you remind me of who she wanted me to be."

"Did you ever become who she wanted you to be?"

" . . . No, I couldn't. A lion can't become a gazelle just because it wishes to." Chrysalis said with the third cousin twice removed of what could be mistaken for something not unlike wistfulness in her voice. "Besides, the pony she wanted me to be just wasn't in me." 'I smothered it in its sleep long ago.' "Besides, even if I could, the past is in the past. There's no point in chasing ghosts of a past that's dead and gone."

" . . . Yeah, I guess that would be pretty silly." Sweetie reluctantly admitted. "Hey Chrissy! Let's have a duet!"

"What?" Chrysalis said again in so many minutes.

"After you get married to Shining Armor for real, let's have a duet! You say my voice is magic! But your voice is really pretty too! I bet everypony would love it!"

" . . . that . . . would be . . . After I wed Shining Armor? I suppose."

"Pinkie Pie swear?"

Chrysalis sighed, "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. I thought you were reluctant to sing unless I told you dear."

"I was! But not anymore! I don't feel doubt! I don't feel worry! I don't feel like second guessing myself! I feel free! I like feeling this way! Thank you Chryssy!"

"You're . . . you're welcome Sweetie Belle."

"And you're gonna make everypony feel this way too right?"

"Not . . . not the same as you. You're special. You and I share something no one else can have. You're my one of a kind little princess."

"Oh!" Sweetie looked surprised. Then happily nodded. "Okay! I'm sure whatever it is, it'll be good for them if you're doing it Chryssy!"

" . . . I think it's time we both retire for the evening Sweetie Belle."

"What about dessert?"

" . . . Fine . . . Applejack?"

Applejack didn't hear due to covering her ears on Chrysalis' orders.

"GAH!"

Chrysalis replied by smashing a tea pot into the Earth Pony's head with her telekinesis. "I called for you, property!"

"Should've listened to Chryssy AJ!"

"Ah know..." Applejack touched a hoof to a cut on her head.

"Go get me and Sweetie desert."

"...Yes Your Majesty."

"Sunshine, sunshine, lady bugs awake! Clap your hooves, and do a little shake!"

The pink princess and little filly did their special hoof shake.

It was a bright happy and sunny day. They had the park all to themselves. With all the time in the world to play and enjoy each other's company. It was just perfect.

And there wasn't a bug to be seen.

The pink princess gave Sweetie Belle rides in the sky, doing spirals and cartwheels, the filly screaming in excitement at the wild ride.

Then there was the giant cake they ate together. The pink princess couldn't remember when food had ever tasted this good.

The pink princess couldn't have asked for a filly she'd want to foal-sit more.

Ponies came and cheered Sweetie Belle as the most lovely princess-in-training ever, and listened to her sing. The pink Princess watched her perform smiling. What was this odd feeling?

"Of all the dreams we expected to find here, this was not one of them," said a dark blue Alicorn with a moon cutie mark.

The blue princess did not belong here. And that make it all unreal.

Chrysalis lowered her horn, "You! You've never been able to enter my dreams before! How can you now?!"

Luna didn't move. "We have not."

"This, this, this isn't my dream."

"No, it is not, tis Sweetie Belle's, ye are sharing it with her."

"I should be surprised by that, but I'm not."

"Ye seem rather unsurprised to see we are whole."

"You're an Alicorn, I knew it would take more than that, if you wanted to infect my mind with doubt, you should've kept the moon lowered."

"The tides and other forces rely on the moon to provide harmony, I will not damage the entire world simply to gives the likes of you a false sense of security."

"'Likes of me?' How droll."

"Yes the likes of ye. Tis ironic, if our sister and our's positions had been reversed a thousand years ago, we do not know if we had sealed her, or simply put down a threat to Equestria like we would any other. But sister's path has led to a Equestria having another of its protectors back. Ye nor thou changelings have killed anypony on Equestria's soil, Fallen-Flutterpony. Surrender for thou crimes, and thou people will be shown mercy."

"What makes you think I care anything for them?"

"Because the likes of ye always like being a ruler, and without them, ye are ruler of nothing. Ye need them."

Chrysalis gave a laugh. "You don't get it, do you? They were nothing when I found them, in a few years that flat slug would've driven them silently into extinction. They only have value because I gave it to them. It is them who are nothing without me. And you can make me do nothing."

"Are ye sure? Maybe we can cause ye have a brain hemorrhage this moment, and ye are powerless to stop it."

"If you could do anything to me here you already would have."

"Ye are correct, we would have. We are not our sister. But ye can do nothing to us either, this is our domain. The realm of dreams is us."

"Hoping I'll reveal something of vital importance while my mind is vulnerable? Or distract me in my sleep as an assassin comes to kill me in my sleep?"

"No."

"Then why are you even here? You wouldn't waste time trying to 'reason' with the enemy, you're not the bungling fool your sister is."

Luna's eyes glowed white. "Beware Fallen Queen! We shall enact restitution for such slander, sooner or later!... We were here to ensure Sweetie Belle's health and protection."

"What do you know of her?"

"Only that she is one of our ponies, and that is reason enough. And she is special to ye."

"She's very useful."

"And she is the first living thing we'd wager ye have felt anything for in a long long time."

"In my heart there is no room!"

"Perhaps she is making room. You contradict yourself oh Fallen Queen."

"Hardly! I take what I want! I have what I want! If I can take it that means I have a RIGHT to have it! That is a rule of nature! She . . . she . . . she is . . . So what?! Do you think just because I have her means I'll fall to pieces crying for her sake?"

Luna looked sadly on the Queen. "No. Because we know love cannot always redeem. For some, it's just the one they let live so they can live with themselves. Others say 'this one pony is special and the others are nothing.' For some, that person is their 'one beautiful night' or their 'one sunny day.' The worst make that one pony into a monster for their sake instead of becoming a good one for them...and those are also the most sad...

"We'd kill ye where ye stand if we could, we'd break thou evil and filthy hold over Sweetie Belle this instant if we could, and even we find it sad ye can't admit ye want her as a friend."

"This is the place for myself and only what I desire! Be gone!"

Luna could not remain in the shared dreamscape, but she still managed to get the last word in, something that anger Chrysalis to no end. "What ye art seeking, shall not grant what ye truly desire."

Chrysalis snorted.

Sweetie's concert ended and she hopped over to the pink princess.

"That was wonderful Chryssy! Let's visit the park tomorrow! Uh, what were you talking about with Princess Luna?"

"Sure dear. And nothing important, just how special you are."

Sweetie looked around. "Chryssy, where's Rarity and my parents?" This was a dream after all.

"I'm afraid they couldn't make it, darling," Chryssy replied with a smirk and stroked the filly's head. "But don't worry about them, my little pony. You still have me. And I still have you." Sweetie Belle's smile had a bright glow.

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Omake
Too Much Focus On The Villains or "Sweetie Belle's Moments"
By Alex Warlorn

Sweetie, "Wow! I get my own chapter! This is cool! But why isn't it in my POV? That's not fair! I know, I know, you wanted to get back to the exiting parts, I promise we'll be showing that tomorrow, Pinkie Pie Swear! Please be patient? Please? Just look into my cute puppy dog eyes! Of course I'm not trying to brainwash you! . . . I haven't gotten that far in my lessons yet. What do you mean 'Optional' Canon?! What color dress do you think I should swear when I'm crowned princess of the changelings? I'm thinking jewels and ribbons. Or should I ask Rarity for advice? I think she'd look great with green eyes,' until I can get her a carapace."

Rarity, "SHE SAID WHAT?! My poor little sister! The witch has taken away not only her beautiful, sweet, and pure innate sense of right and wrong but also what little sense of fashion she had!!! I must save her!"

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Episode 178: "Cutie Mark Crusaders Dragons Savers! Yay!"

Episode 178: "Cutie Mark Crusaders Dragons Savers! Yay!"

Cutie Mark Crusader Dragon Savers Yay!

-One grand teleportation color unscrambling later-

"Twilight," Trixie said, "I'd like to say, that I'm sorry that I wasn't able to save you on my own. All the growth I've done, and I still wasn't able to save you when you needed me most. Just feels like Trixie is again here, just to be a spare."

"You are NOT going down that path again Trixie!" Twilight said.

"I-I know, it's just how I FEEL, my brain knows different, but my heart won't listen."

"Since when do hearts EVER listen to what the head is thinking?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Seconded," Twinkle Shine said.

"Agreed," Cadence said.

"Can't argue with that," Lyra said.

"Believe me, I'm living besides that truth every moment of my life," Bon Bon said looking at the green unicorn.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing Lyra."

"Trust me, I know how hearts work," Moth said.

"They have a point," Rainbow Dash added.

"I know they do," Minuette chose to add too.

"And besides, Trixie, you're willing to take risks, you're willing to NOT worry about the specifics and take a gamble. I need my checklists and books, you don't."

"That has its own set of problems."

"And so does my scheduling. Both of us have strengths and weaknesses. They're both double edged swords, but they're DIFFERENT double edged swords. And that's why you were able to stalemate me while I was under Chrysalis' spell! You're not my spare, you're my CO-BEARER! And I'm proud of you."

Trixie blinked, then smiled. "Thank you...I needed to hear that."

Cadence looked to Trixie. "And Trixie, if you WEREN'T here, I'd be dead now."

"And I-I'd have been the one to kill her, and... I would have never forgiven myself for it," Twilight whimpered, hugging her friend. "You didn't just save her, you saved us BOTH!"

Trixie blinked again. Then returned her friend's hug.

This was followed by Cadence, Rainbow and Pinkie Pie hugging her as well.

"And considering you went from not being able scratch something Twilight easily took care of to 'fight her to a standstill when she's fighting seriously,'" Rainbow added with a smirk. "I'd say you've got a a lot to be proud of, Trix'."

"And Trixie, Cadence, I'm sorry for how I acted...I apologize."

"Twilight you had no way of knowing..."

"That isn't the point! If you had really been Chrysalis, I had five or seven ways I could have safely disabled you to stand trial for your crimes... instead I was going to do much worse. That anger and hate, it eclipsed everything else in my heart... that's how MONSTERS are made of heroes! I even imagined most of my friends and Spike cheering me to do it! And it almost cost me you. NEVER AGAIN! Nopony is dying here! Not us! Not Canterlot's ponies, not our friends, not the changelings, not even Chrysalis! I am not a savage!"

Rainbow Dash asked strangely sober, "...Twilight...You know we might have to make hard choices, right?"

"Maybe, but there's a difference between a hard choice and self-righteous murder...like I tried to do, and I don't like where that leads. If we ever HAVE to do that, I'd rather it be something we didn't WANT to do rather than something we took pride in."

"I agree with ya one hundred and twenty percent."

Minuette nodded. "That's the difference between a soldier doing their duty and a self-righteous killer: the soldier doesn't treat it like a good thing, they treat it like what they had to do."

"You sounded a bit...knowledgeable about that, Minny."

"My coltfriend is a guard and I've known a real monster before, so I've seen both sides of the scale," she replied. 'Or rather, been on both sides of the scales.' "Point is, I've seen the difference first hoof...Twilight's right."

"That and we know now that Changelings aren't evil," Bon Bon pointed out quickly, almost protectively.

Twilight blinked. "Wait, what?"

"...Go ahead Moth."

"Alright, just don't be shocked at what you see."

Moth assumed her true form.

"AAH! Changeling!"

"Twilight wait!" Cadence shouted.

-One Changeling Popsicle Later-

"I SAID I was sorry!" Twilight apologized for the nth time to Bon Bon's family as they finished getting Moth out of the giant ice-cube and glared daggers at Twilight. "And you could have just told me first."

"I thought the fact Bon Bon told you would have been a clue I was a friend," Moth shivered. "Thanks for at least using something easy to break me out of though."

"Moth's the one who told us how to break Chrysalis' spell on you, Twilight," Trixie explained. "She's been a major source of intel thus far."

"...Thank you Moth..."

"...I just wish I'd said it earlier...but you're welcome. I'm just glad it actually worked..." Moth said, somewhat guilty.

"What? You didn't think showing love WOULD?" Cadence asked her eyes wide.

"No! Not THAT...I meant me helping period...Ever since I've left the hive I've felt like a failure...and then I tried to help again earlier with Bon Bon and Lyra and we just made things worse...I'm glad I was able to ACTUALLY help, that's what I meant."

"Can somepony please fill me in on the details?"

-One explanation and one kick to the shins later-

"I deserved that," Moth said simply as Bon Bon gave a new death glare at Twilight.

"There. Now welcome to the team Moth. I'm happy to have you."

"Moth, when I said you should stop beating yourself up, I DIDN'T MEAN for you to let others do it for you!" Bon Bon chastised her.

"Sorry."

Loyal Rainbow defended, "You know, one light Egghead kick to the shins, after what happened to her brother isn't really-" Bon Bon death glare. "-Shutting up."

Twilight hadn't actually hadn't tried to kick that hard.

"If you're here to help save BBBFF and all my friends, then that's all I need to know Moth and that makes you a friend too." Twilight looked at the other, "So where is everypony else?"

"They're off saving Spike," Cadence said.

"What about Sweetie, Applejack, and MY BROTHER?"

"...You two were kinda the only ones who weren't right next to the queen, so we took our chances," Minuette said.

"Twilight," said Cadence. "...I wanted to save Shining too, but it took a lot of pony power to just save you, and we'll need everypony if we want a chance against the Queen."

"And as you guessed, the plan was to divide the enemy's attention so they couldn't react to one being saved," Trixie explained.

"I...I guess that's a good point...wait, if you split into two groups what happened to Digger Wasp?"

"Who?"

"Long Haul, the Changeling's communications officer...I lost contact with him right when you girls showed up. I thought you attacked him."

"That wasn't part of our plan," Trixie replied. She then smirked. "Which logically means somepony else must have done it. Perhaps we're not alone here."

"Best not dwell on that," said Cadence. "We need to plan now while the others are saving Spike."

Twilight nodded. "...Trixie, you're the sneaky one..."

"And you're the THOUGHTFUL one...Let's do this together, shall we?"

Twilight gave a nod. "Alright...well first things first, Moth? What are Changeling's weaknesses? I'm tired of being stuck out of the loop."

Moth looked surprised, and whimpered a little. "You're my family, but...they're still my people. I'm scared what'll happen if...I don't want to see any of them hurt."

"And us?" Lyra asked.

"Not you either Lyra."

"Moth you've been helping us all this time," Bon Bon said gently.

"Yes but...this makes me sick inside, like I'm not just defying my queen, now I'm stabbing in the back my family I left in the hive. If you win, how do I know they won't end up as animals in a zoo? Lab rats? Or worse?"

"Moth," Bon Bon put a hoof on her shoulder, "Do you think any of us would do something like that?"

"No. But can you speak for everypony in Equestria?"

"Moth," Cadence said, "We're fighting to save our home and stop an evil queen. Not to hurt changelings. I swear, I'll give up my crown before I let your people be harmed for being what they are. Just as YOU chose to fight against your people to protect innocents, I'll do the same. I swear it. Believe me, I want to see a peaceful end to this war as well."

"Pinkie Swear?"

"What? How'd that go again? Uh, okay. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

Moth took a deep breath. "A changeling is not as strong, fast, or magical as an earth pony, pegasus, or unicorn, we can't restore our mana on our own. We can't last as long in a drawn out fight normally, end of discussion. We have to feed to restore it, our magic, life, and love are one, they draw from the same pool inside us...we run out of any, we die, and crumble to dust. This only happens if we run out of love. We can be magically or physically forced out of a form, but we don't need to consciously maintain it, even dying doesn't necessarily mean we shift to our true form. We can ONLY copy what we see or have seen very recently, Chrysalis is an exception to the rule. Mixing and matching is extremely hard and limited to ones like me but we can't create new species out of thin air...The vast majority of us can only assume shapes that have four limbs, a single head, and a tail and wings, or without those. And most of us can only do equines. We can't feed on each others' love. And above everything, WE CAN NOT tell if another is a changeling in disguise or not, AT ALL. Also, our exoskeletons are highly resistant to bladed weaponry but blunt force can hurt us through the armor. Alchemy Master Kabuto's explanation was most predators use claws and teeth, so our biological army evolved to counter it."

"That should be useful, thank you Moth," Twilight said, "Too bad we don't already have Spike rescued or we could send the others this information. So who did you send to rescue Spike?"

-And Then-

"FILLIES?! You sent FILLIES into danger?! Are you all crazy?!"

"We all said the same thing Twilight." Rainbow Dash sighed, "But it was that, or lock them in a trunk, which they'd break out of five minutes later and sneak off on their own, or send 'em on a fool's errand to get lots of string, and they'd end up in the queen's throne room either way. And they made a pretty good argument."

"What?!"

"That if they're so good at causing trouble, maybe they should cause trouble for the bad guys instead, and we're always saying what they could do if they got serious and now they are. And this way at least we have an eye on them."

"I hate how much sense that makes."

"Don't worry Twilight, we were a lot more worried about saving you than getting Spike back, they'll be back in no time!"

"Rainbow! Don't jinx it!" Pinkie Pie said.

"Hey, sure stuff can go wrong, but we ain't gonna lose to these jerks like this! We've got eyes in the sky in case something goes mega wrong and you can come to their rescue!"

"Eyes in the sky?" Twilight asked.

Cadence said, "Turns out I have a flock of fans I didn't really notice before Twilight."

"Now," said Trixie simply. "They know your weaknesses, let's find a way to use that against them."

Rainbow blinked. "How?"

Trixie chuckled and gave her signature smirk. "Using pony's strengths against them is my forte, Rainbow. The more you know the enemy knows, the more you have to turn against them."

"And I can make counter-counter measures," Twilight said, giving a smile of her own.

Pinkie popped out of nowhere and hugged the two. "It's good to have you both back."

Twilight smiled. "It's good to BE back, Pinkie."

"Likewise."

+++

Meanwhile, Changelings had begun searching the royal pony sister's rooms. The ones searching Celestia's chamber found themselves being chased by a rather angry Phoenix until the firebird took off for Rosedust knew where.

Three came staggering out of Luna's chamber, quaking like leafs. One of their swarmmates blinked. "What's wrong?"

"Don't go in there..."

"Uh...why?"

"That Princess of the Night is just screwed up!"

+++

"Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day!" Sweetie Belle sang, though there was little need for it. Chrysalis' changelings had reported those who had listened to the filly's song of 'Sweet Music' felt like they wouldn't need to feed for a year.

Next to the filly were some books Chryssy had given her as gifts from the forbidden part of the library. 'Black Magic: Why It's Your Friend' with a happy stick figure fiend on the front cover. 'Hexes, Curses, Geases, and Ensorcelments, For Absolute Beginnings' and the last one, 'The Proper Manipulation And Brainwashing Of Others' With Chrysalis' face on the cover, that one wasn't from the library.

Chrysalis gave Twilight's notes to Half-Light Dusk.

"Finish the rune now! Work them to death if you have to! We'll activate the Canterlot rune alone if we have to, then we can activate it again when the others are finished! Jury-rig it if that's what it takes! I've come too far to lose everything!"

"As you command Your Majesty," Half-Light Dawn sighed sadly and teleported away.

+++

(Interviewer's Notes (Noon) Addendum: The following sections began at the same time Cadence and company launched their rescue on Twilight.)

"Sir! We got a report from Madam Twilight that she's been assaulted by renegade cattle! Madam Twilight's projections show that the queen's other property are in danger of being stolen as well given not all of them are present at her attempted theft!"

"Full alert! Noling gets near the dragon!"

+++

I wanted to rescue my little sister first, she's my responsibility. But Spiky-Wickey was the only other one besides Twilight we surmised was not near the queen. And we were going to need every pony (or dragon) we could.

Some might have suggested we just hide under the pews and wait for Luna to return with her army. That was called cowardice. We were still the Elements of Harmony, dealing with power-mad goddesses who were taking over Equestria was what we do!

Besides, the more work we did now, the less would fall on Luna when she arrived.

Figuring out where adorable little Spike was tricky. It wasn't like we had a beacon on him. It would have been easier if we had gotten Twilight first...then again, maybe not, we had to strike while we had an element of surprise and were believed to be down and out, which we wouldn't get back once we saved one of our friends.

At least from Moon Dancer and the display at the wedding we knew what poor Spike was being used for. The awkward way Moon Dancer spoke about her friendship with Spike told me much too. I don't blame Spike, he is a BABY dragon after all. He hasn't hit his adolescent years organically, he's still figuring out what love is, I wouldn't put it past the poor boy to not fully understand the different types of love that exist and put them under one definition. (Maybe I was lucky, if he'd understood it during the 'Spikezilla' episode, his greed spurt might have turned love into lust...)

Not to mention the fact I'd had my own crushes, such as Prince Blueblood and a few other high society types, and I'm an adult.

"Spike was my friend, he always thought we could be more, but I just didn't like him like that...Chrysalis used that."

And I was going to be quite happy helping bring that witch to justice for exploiting poor Spike's confused feelings, and for violating my little sister's mind! Again! She could keep Discord company in the statue garden. Or perhaps have a good long time to think about it sealed in one of the celestial bodies.

Finding Spike? Sorry I got side tracked, it keeps making me so angry! Discord was an insane primal force of chaos, what's her excuse?

Spike! Yes! Half of us went to save Twilight! The other half went to save Spike! With half of each group acting as a emergency 'help' if the first group ran into trouble. Thankfully, Minuette and that Cobweb had been planning already or we might not have had a plan period. Not the perfect plan but Cadence was being completely frantic! Ranting about the end of the world. I know darlings, but after hearing about it for the fourth time, I feel slightly resigned to my fate of having to be a hero as well as a fashion designer.

We could just wait to spot one of Spike's dragon mails and try to follow it back to its source. But we couldn't watch the entire sky and simply WAIT for a letter to HAPPEN to fly by.

We knew Spike had to be somewhere with a window for his dragon mail to work. But as our romp through the castle had proven, the castle was a very large place, and that was assuming he was even still in the castle.

He likely wasn't with Twilight, as that'd be putting all their eggs in one basket. Then again, Spike WAS her Number One assistant, she might have convinced Chrysalis to keep him by her side. That just meant we'd have twice the pony power for this. And he wouldn't be somewhere out in the open on a silver platter wearing a little bow.

If we sent Spike letters to lead us to him...it would lead the changelings right to us as THEY traced OUR letters back to us.

We had exactly one ace left up our sleeve. One we had been careful to keep until now. Once this was blown, we wouldn't be able to recover it. But I didn't realize just how big a card this was we could play until I asked,

"Can any of us even SEND a letter to Spike?" I had asked.

"I can." We all looked to Moon Dancer. "He...he showed me how...he taught me...I don't think even Twilight or the Princesses know...he said it was. . . so I could always be in contact with him...I never used it. I...I didn't want to get his hopes up."

"And the changelings still think you're their slave," I said.

"HOPEFULLY," Minuette said.

"Then let's find out!" I said, "Send Spike a letter, and lead us straight to him!"

Naturally we didn't send the letter from the church, that would be stupid.

I still wasn't happy about bringing foals along, but those fillies...we could have told them death was waiting for them, and they'd have still come along, at least this way we could protect them. And...they were Spike's friends, we shouldn't put all our eggs in one basket, if I couldn't save Spike, maybe they could.

Sweetie Belle. Applejack. Spike. Hold on. I'm coming.

+++

"Sir! We've received word that cattle matching the description of some of those who aided Cadenza in her escape are on their way to the observatory tower!"

"Have they been engaged?"

"No sir! We're to deal with them inside to prevent causing alarm among the city's cattle! They'll be here in minutes!"

"Prepare to destroy them!"

"But sir, our orders are no cattle are to be killed."

"Screw orders! These are not civies, these are rebels!"

A yellow fruit rolled innocently into the room among the changeling troopers.

"What is that object?"

"It appears to be a lemon."

The lemon exploded in a gas of yellow smoke stinging in their compound eyes worse than industrial strength pepper spray and left them coughing and gagging, trying to shield their noses.

+++

Fluttershy sent her song birds to be protected by Philomena, Cadence had a flock of little spies she could call upon. I was happy she was on our side.

+++

"ANGRY PAPA LEMON! CHARGE!" Lemon Hearts commanded as the giant lemon with arms and legs steamrolling the changeling welcoming committee who were all writhing on the floor.

"You were supposed to be our ace in the hole you fool!" Silver Tongue snapped.

"And we ran into a HUGE hole that you needed me to fill for you!" The yellow unicorn retorted.

"Are you so naive you think the rest of the tower is going to be empty or the same trick is going to keep working?"

Fluttercruel said, "Point, but don't argue among the nasties! Maybe we should just skip this stupid gauntlet and FLY up!"

"None of the windows are big enough for us to squeeze through! Except for a pegasus filly who can't fly!"

"Relocate the dragon if you can't get rid of the rogue cattle!" The changeling officer managed to scream at the top of his lungs before going into another coughing fit.

"Screw this! I'll fly the fillies up, they unzap Spike, and which we should have done before Lemon-Rambo here started the party!"

"You'll be a sitting duck! We can't bet all our hopes on that," Moon Dancer replied.

"ENOUGH!" Silver Tongue bellowed in a 'drill sergeant tone' no one present had heard. One of the wheezing Changelings had gotten close and made a jump for him, but the retired guard caught the blow, twisted his leg, and knocked him out cold with a strike to the temple, and pushed up on his glasses. "We weren't entirely unprepared for this but enough arguing and lets get back on target. Our objective is to rescue Spike!"

"Yes sir," squeaked everypony meekly.

"Good! Now Lemon Hearts, more gas bombs for cover, anyone with melee experience get in position to intercept attackers, now! We need breathing room to think!"

The gifted unicorn nodded and threw some more to give them cover as Rarity and Fluttercruel prepared themselves for a fight.

"Dad," said Silver Spoon. She pointed to an air ventilation system, too small for an adult, but for a group of fillies and, on the way back, a baby dragon.

"Okay, that could work...But who will watch your backs?" he was still her father.

Applebloom looked thoughtful. "Any pony got matches? Ah think Ah can do somethin' with that."

Silver Tongue blinked, but produced some matches. "Pays to be prepared, they teach you that in the guard. But I'd prefer you having someone to watch your back."

Lemon Hearts threw another lemon smoke bomb to keep the cover up and handed the fillies some lemon bombs and whistled, causing some lemons -turned into filly sized but still somewhat cartoonish familiars- to climb out of her bag and flank the Crusaders. "There's some back up. Use the lemon bombs if you get in a spot, they seem a bit more effective on Changelings than I thought," she said, noting the Changelings didn't seem to tolerate the smell of the lemon scented smoke very well.

"Lemons are a natural insect repellent and many types of insects can't stand the smell of it," Fluttershy explained.

"...That would explain why Moth stood upwind of me."

Rarity looked at the little lemon familiars. "Why do you have these on you?"

"I wanted Angry Momma and Papa Lemon to have kids, okay?"

Silver Tongue too steadied himself. "Spoon...you're sure you'll be okay?"

"Dad, if the things the Crusaders do daily haven't kill me, this won't. We'll be okay."

"Alright...be careful...And if you girls run into too much danger, get out of there, got it?" he asked in complete seriousness.

The filly nodded and hugged her father quickly. The CMC and the lemons then snuck into the ventilation shaft and began their assent.

"What do the rest of us do?" asked Fluttercruel.

"Three pronged attack," Silver Tongue whispered, getting as close as possible to the others so the Changelings wouldn't hear. "We fight our way up, the Crusaders sneak up. Whichever group reaches Spike first frees him or we extract Spike when we get there. Our flier heads up the outside with either Rarity or our third unicorn to try to rescue Spike that way and also try to stop the changeling if they try to take Spike back to Chrysalis. Make the Changelings think this is the main assault."

"Why them and not the Crusaders?"

"Because the unicorns can fire back and this lets us attack three ways instead of two."

"Good point."

"How do we get Spike if the windows don't fit us?"

"You have telekinesis! Use it!"

Fluttercruel nodded and intercepting a Changeling charging the group who quickly put sun glasses quickly over his burning eyes.

"Ha! Your only weapon can't work on me now!" he exclaimed, throwing a punch. The Demi-draconequus promptly blocked his punch and elbowed him in the face to stun him. He then gave a very sharp yelp as she kicked backwards as hard as she could with both hind legs to a very sensitive area.

"Wrong Flutter," she said, giving a smirk before letting the Changeling crumple to the floor in agony and curl into a ball.

"Okay, so good news bad news," Fluttercruel said, regrouping with the others. "Bad news, apparently they know about the Stare."

Rarity grumbled. "Twilight..."

"Good news is, they're still vulnerable to getting nailed in the stallionhood...and it's still hilarious."

Fluttercruel got stares out of that.

"What? It's important information. Oh, and apparently they don't know me and mom are sharing a body or at least they think mom's a one trick pony."

"Wait, what?" asked Moon Dancer.

"Long story, not time to tell it now."

"Try to minimize their airspace," Silver Tongue ordered. "We don't need it and they won't be able to swarm us as easily!"

Lemon Hearts nodded and ordered her Angry Papa Lemon to ram some decorative pillars over at an angle to limit the amount of available airspace the Changelings had while Rarity used rapid fire pieces of whatever she could to keep cover fire up and force the Changelings to remain low.

"Which one of you two is going up with our group and which one is going on Fluttershy's back?"

"Well, I could have just bluffed my way through," Moon Dancer stated. "But I guess I'll go."

"Darling, I beg to-"

"You're powerful, but you need ammo for your projectiles, I just need mana."

Rarity grumbled and used a nearby rug to create a makeshift shroud for Moon Dancer to hid her identity. "There, now at least we can maintain your secret identity."

Fluttercruel got the mare on her back and took off once outside, heading up the tower while the Angry Papa Lemon used its long arms to help keep the Changelings grounded alongside Rarity.

While Outside,

"Ugh, hang on," Fluttercruel said, dodging 'Royal Guards' trying to stop them and fire from inside the tower windows.

Moon Dancer gathered power in her horn and blasted several Changelings with her magic. "Twilight isn't the only mage unicorn in the world."

"Here's hoping the kids can make it through alright."

Some use silver spoons to dig out of a prison, now I'm breaking INTO one.

I can't believe we're doing this. I can handle the weird monsters and the fact we're being accompanied by freaky filly-sized lemons, but...we're helping save Equestria. Here we are, three little fillies helping save the whole world.

The Angry Baby Lemons made climbing up the ventilation system a lot easier, and the Changelings didn't seem to have considered the rebels would let foals take part in an attack. Not that I blame them. But we weren't drafted, we volunteered for this. It was just WEIRD to be in the middle of things helping save the world. Last time world threatening things had happened we were either turned into monsters or running for our lives in some way. Now we were infiltrating an enemy lair to rescue our friend.

Once we got to the top, Applebloom prepared her little surprise, but that was mainly for us to get out rather than in, or a last resort.

We came out INSIDE the room at the top, which had two guards at the door. I was assuming with all the Changelings between the others and Spike, they thought two would be all needed to supervise him personally. Not that there was any reason for them to actually expect three little fillies to break into the room via the ventilation system. Spike...he was like a little robot... Any life that was in him before was gone. He just went through the motions with the piles of letters with a blank expression, over and over. It was scary.

I admit it, I had butterflies in my stomach. We had to come up with some kind of plan to disable two Changelings without alerting anypony outside. But...it was weird. I actually had faith in us. Hehe. Hard to believe that a year ago I was the one calling those three worthless right along with...with Diamond...And thinking I was worthless. Now the fate of Equestria LITERALLY rested on our shoulders.

Yes, daddy had said 'turn back if we ran into too much danger.' Two bad guy grunts wasn't 'too much danger' compared to 'accidentally travel sideways in time' or, as Applebloom told, escaping a town of flesh eating zombies.

So...we planned quickly.

"Why do I have to do the puppy dog eyes?" asked Scootaloo. "That's Applebloom's thing."

"Yeah, but Applebloom has a lot more stopping power than you or me," I explained. "And, well...we kind of need that."

"...Fine..."

"Okay, ready girls?"

"Ready!"

"Ready Angry Baby Lemons?"

They gave a thumbs up...They're still freaky.

"Serious Cutie Mark Crusaders Rescue Team! Yay!" we whispered. And we were. Everypony always said if we got serious we could do anything, and now was the chance to prove it. I know it was a dream, but I remembered the stage float trap. How they were able to make a perfect trap down to the letter when it mattered. Well now it mattered.

Scootaloo snuck her way under a table and peaked out, so as to seem like she'd been there the whole time. "Um...excuse me, Mr. Guards?" she asked, looking up.

They took a defensive stance, but then looked down at her. After all, why would they take a little filly seriously as a threat? "Yeah, we're guards...what are you doing here?"

Good thing they were still trying to play 'good guards'.

"I was on a tour awhile ago and the guard leading us got blown away by a weird energy wave thingie. I fell asleep hiding up here. I'm lost..." she said, giving her best puppy dog eyes.

I don't know if the Changelings were zapped by the puppy dog eyes or were just getting tipsy eating the cuteness but it kept their attention long enough for one of the Angry Baby Lemons to sneak me up to a shelf overhanging the door with the biggest thing I could get my hoofs on. A book. The entire, unabridged royal cake recipe book, eighth edition. Or at least that's what the cover said. Ugh...good thing I have Earth Pony strength! I think it's heavier than I am!...Then again, all this exercise I've had with the others has made me lose weight. Mom did approve of that.

Once Applebloom got in position, another Angry Baby Lemon climbed down the wall and used its hose-like arm things to grab one of the Changeling's champron and yank it off his head.

"Hey!"

I dropped the book smack dab on his head from as high as I could get.

With an 'oof!' he staggered and fell to the ground, out cold and his disguise disappearing.

The other one turned and snapped up at me. "What the Tartar-"

He was cut off when Applebloom gave him her best applebucking kick...well, right in the apples. Yeah yeah, it's low, but we're FOALS! We only have two places we can kick to actually hurt an adult! And kneecaps weren't gonna do it!

As the Changeling was too busy being in debilitating pain to scream, Scootaloo quickly pulled his helmet off as I grabbed the SECOND heaviest thing I could find (a copy of Princess Celestia's autobiography) and dropped that on his head to knock him out. Considering Applebloom is an Earth Pony who spent a large chunk of her time doing rough physical labor, he's probably thanking me right now.

We held our breath and waited. All we heard was the two Changelings breathing, the battle going on below, and the clockwork like fire-breath of Spike and letters. We gave a sigh of relief that we'd managed to do it quietly enough to avoid alerting anypony else...Daddy, I hope you're okay.

Scootaloo rubbed her eyes. "Ow...Applebloom, how do you make the puppy eyes look so easy? It makes my eyes hurt."

"It's a gift... Sweetie's better."

We made sure the Changelings wouldn't be going anywhere if they regained consciousness before we left. Remember how in plays sometimes the parents come home to find the babysitter tied to a chair and gagged by the foals? Foals can really do that if we're clopped off enough.

Spike seemed too focused on doing whatever that blasted witch had told him to and kept picking up letters and sending them.

We did the smart thing and grabbed him, covering his mouth and dragging him under a nearby table just in case so we could say our peace and hopefully free him. He didn't struggle much, he really was more like a robot following his programming than the baby dragon we all knew.

Pardon my language, but I hope that bucking witch ends up in the sun for doing this.

"Okay, so we just need tah hug 'em, right?" asked Applebloom.

"No...we need to show him how we really feel about him when we do it," I remembered. "It can be a hug, but we still need to do it with 'true love' or that's what Miss Moth said."

Moth...if you were lying...

Applebloom hugged him. He shuddered, but...it didn't work.

Scootaloo tried. The same thing happened.

I tried. This time I actually felt his heart race and him shudder HARD, but the spell didn't break.

"It didn't work!" Applebloom said, panicked.

"No...it's working, but not well enough," I said, able to see it in his eyes, the green glow flickered and the magic had DISTORTED for a moment, like glass about to shatter.

"We need to try harder!"

"Ugh...sappy stuff..." Scootaloo muttered.

"We gotta do it. And remember, how you really feel this time!"

Applebloom took a deep breath. "Spike...look...yer one of us...yer one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders now and we don't know what we'd do without yah anymore!" She turned on the puppy dog eyes full blast. But this time they weren't fake to get what she wanted, they were real.

"...You and Sweetie Belle...since Diamond left, you've been so close to me, Spike...I don't want to lose two of my friends so soon after I made them," I continued. I actually let myself start crying like I'd WANTED to this entire time. "Please, come back to us Spike! We miss you! We need you!" Yes, I think I had puppy dog eyes too. It's hard to tell when you do it naturally.

Scootaloo groaned, not being one for emotional sentiment. "Look...Spike...Just..." As usual, she had trouble finding the right worlds. "I just want to...Please....Oh buck it! You're my bud, Spike! I MISS YOU! You can be a stick in the mud sometimes but now that you're a part of the club we couldn't be the Cutie Mark Crusaders without you! I miss you! Rarity misses you! Moon Dancer misses you!...Moonsent! Just come back already! Please!"

Spike grabbed his head, groaning in pain like he was under strain. "No...Not you..." he grunted, sounding almost like a primal beast. It sounded like Spike was there, but he wasn't at the same time.

"Spike! It's us!"

"No...I don't want you..."

And with that we all three hugged Spike. He struggled and pushed us off, but dang it! If Applebloom and Scootaloo are determined enough to go through as much as they had trying to earn their Cutie Marks, how determined do you think we three were to save our friends?!

We jumped back on and hugged him as tightly as we possibly could, not caring about his struggling! The harder he tried to force us off, the harder we hung on!

"Spike you stubborn dragon! You're coming back even if we have to drag you out of the witch's fog kicking and screaming!" Scootaloo said. "Now snap out of it you big lug and come back to your friends!"

"Ah don't care what happy juice that sick nag is pumpin' inta yer brain! It ain't got nothin' on friends and family!" Applebloom continued. "And we're gonna remind yah of that if it kills us!"

"Spike...you've been my friend after I lost Diamond. I didn't WANT new friends until the Crusaders showed me I NEEDED them! You NEED us whether you WANT us or not!" I finally said. "Now stop being such a stubborn brat and wake up! You're our friend and we love you!"

I'd never been good with Earth Pony Magic. Scratch that, I probably hadn't used it once in my entire life, but suddenly I felt something...spark in me. In my hooves where I was touching Spike and a tiny bit of mana sparked at them. So did Applebloom's. I noticed Scootaloo's wings jolt with lightning for a moment. I looked Spike in the eyes. They glowed green for a moment, then the magic seemed to burn away like his fire was melting it. After it was gone...the green before and now was like the difference was like silver before and after it's been polished.

"Oh!"

Twilight blinked, looking to Pinkie Pie. "What is it?"

"My Pinkie sense, that's the third time it's went off like that!" said the pink pony. "It's weird, I've never had THIS one before we got to Canterlot!"

"...When did you have it the other two times?"

"Let's see...Once when we were running from the Changelings after you ambushed us, and even earlier right as the Queen Meanie was heading down the isle!"

Everypony blinked for a moment. "Pinkie...while you were ditching the Changelings, Cadence was freeing me."

Lyra gave it thought. "Hey, didn't we free Moon Dancer right as the wedding started?"

Everypony just stared for a moment.

"Wait...so it's a 'somepony's been freed from mind control' sense?" Twilight asked. "But that would mean..." Twilight's eyes lit up. "Spike's free! They did it!"

I give a gasp as I finally 'wake up' all the way... no, not quite... that would mean I'd been asleep... I saw it all...Twilight... Princess... Rarity... everypony...

"I'm sorry..." I said, not even TRYING not to cry. "I...I'm so sorry..."

Why? I...I'd almost been DISAPPOINTED Discord had ignored me...why? Why couldn't that witch have just overlooked me too? Why...why did she have to make me do this?!

"It's alright, Spike," Silver...Silver said. They didn't stop hugging me.

"It's okay, Spike, we know yah didn't want tah follow that witch's orders."

"But...but I did...I mean I didn't but I felt like I did...I felt like there was NOTHING WRONG working for her, hurting Twilight, like brushing my teeth...that...that's the worst part..."

"...Spike, it's just like my daddy says Discord made him...People like them...it's how they work..."

Rarity...Applejack...all of you...is this how you felt when Discord made you hurt Twilight? Did you feel...I don't know, violated? Like...like...ugh...I don't want to complete that thought...

I looked at the fillies hugging me...They saved me, I'm grateful but...

I...I don't know how I feel right now... How I felt when they were trying to break the spell.

Ugh...I held my stomach and groaned. I know how THAT feels...like my stomach is in knots.

"Are you alright?" Scootaloo asked.

"Y-Yeah...just...ugh... I've never sent this many letters in one day...and I feel like I've had my heart ripped out...but I'm...Maybe... maybe I'm not fine..." Forget when Celestia sent back all of Twilight's friendship letters, this is worse!

I look at them...I...I don't know...

"What's wrong?" Silver asks, confused as they step back and look at me.

"I... I... When you were freeing me... A... A part of me felt... dirty... like... Ugh... Look, I... I don't like you girls THAT way but my brain or that witch's magic or something...it kept telling me I felt like I do about Rarity or mixing up how I felt or...UGH! I don't know!"

Was I going crazy? Considering what I'd been through I don't know it wouldn't surprise me. They blushed. Of course they would.

Silver blinked, then shook her head with a sigh. "Spike... Look... Uh... this is hard to describe but... foals don't always have best reign of their emotions...sometimes we mix one up for the other and...well..." she actually blushed bright pink. "I haven't even told those weird interviewers but...Ugh...there was a time that I thought I might... feel...you know... that way about Diamond Tiara...but I didn't. And I REALIZED that when...I had a little crush on a colt at one point. It's a different thing... Mom had to explain to me that there's DIFFERENT kinds of love...And foals tend to mix one up for the other."

I frowned. That...that made sense but... "But...I'm not that childish am I? I..."

"You're a very mature...chick? Is that what a baby dragon is called?"

"Uh...I think it's wyrmling..." ...I hadn't really though of that before...

"But...you're still a chick, wyrmling, whatever. Even by PONY years you're not THAT much older than we are."

"Actually," said Applebloom. "Ah was born before Applejack got her Cutie Mark, and you were hatched the day she got it! Spike, Ah'm OLDER than yah are!"

I blinked. I tried to argue with it...but she was right. Dash's Sonic Rainboom was WHY I was hatched and why all six of them got their Cutie Marks. I just couldn't argue with that. I suddenly felt, I dunno, one upped somehow?

I blushed...somehow. I'm coldblooded, how is that physically possible?!

"But...I don't..."

"I know, you don't act it," Silver told me. "...Neither did I, Spike. I thought I wasn't some little foal but...I am. My mom MADE me act like a little grown-up instead of the filly I actually am. And...it bucking STUNK!"

I took a step back. "Silver...did you just CUSS?"

"Yes!... Please don't tell daddy..."

"Uh...I won't..."

"Good. But I'm serious, now that I know what I was missing, having that much of my foalhood wasted trying to be a grown-up bucking STINKS! I WISH me...me and Diamond hadn't been trying to grow-up so hard we forgot to be fillies! Maybe if we had I wouldn't had NEEDED to be a bully to feel good! I'm tempted to go back into time again and slap myself in the face for doing it!"

"Didn't Doctor Whooves say that'd cause a time paradox?" asked Applebloom.

"I don't care!"

I blinked. "I...I never thought of it that way."

"Spike, when's the last time you actually acted like a kid JUST to act like a kid?"

"Uh...well...there was...no...I did...no, I was playing with you girls...uh..."

"Spike, you're a dragon, you're lucky to have a longer foalhood...chickhood...wyrmlinghood...whatever you have than we will. Don't waste it. You're only a kid once. I KNOW how it feels. How being grown up is some big cool thing...but being a kid isn't something you should waste. Believe me, I've been on both sides of it and I WISH I had that part of my foalhood back. Being a kid has its downsides... but you ARE a kid, maybe it'd be HEALTHY if you actually acted like it from time to time!"

I thought about it. "But...what about Rarity?"

"...The age difference isn't that big, Spike, maybe some day. But for now, why waste your foalhood when you don't need to?"

"But...Twilight..."

"Ah help AJ on the farm all the time, Spike," Applebloom said with a smile. "Bein' a foal don't mean yah can't put in a hard day's work."

"Being a foal doesn't mean we can't be serious when we need to," Scootaloo said. "Look at what the three of us just did when we got serious."

She pointed out the table cloth and I peaked out to see the Changelings that had been guarding me bound and gagged to chairs, trying to keep their noses turned away from a couple walking lemons that were on their shoulders watching them like hawks...I'm not questioning that.

"...I remember, Point taken...maybe you're right..."

Maybe...maybe I am a kid...Maybe I put too much stress on myself sometimes trying to act grown up...I do have fun hanging out with those four, I really do...maybe...

"And Spike...Ah ain't the best one tah talk about actin' grown up," Applebloom said. "But Ah know a thing or two about the different types of love...before Ah met the girls, Ah just had mah family. Family love is the Apple Family's thing, and Ah WILL use it tah break AJ out of that witch's spell. But it ain't the same thin' that Ah feel for mah friends. They're different kinds of love. And none of 'em loves are worth more or less than the rest. There ain't no shame in havin' any of 'em...but Ah know it's hard tah tell 'em apart sometimes. We love yah as a friend, yah love us the same way."

"...T-Thanks, Applebloom..."

Moon Dancer...Rarity...I...I have a lot to think about...

I frowned thinking about it.

"What's wrong now?"

"Rarity...Moon Dancer...No offense, I'm GRATEFUL...but..."

"Spike, they're here too. We were just the ones who could get to yah easiest," Applebloom said.

"Yeah, the passage was too small for 'em to get through, and there's a bunch of Changelings between there and here. We ALL came to rescue you...well, except Cadence, Rainbow, and Pinkie, they're saving Twilight," Scootaloo pointed out.

I blinked. Twilight. "Oh...I...Thanks..."

They hugged me again.

"You're welcome, but we probably should start getting out of here."

I blinked, remembering where we were. "Oh...right..." Then I gasped. "Moon Dancer! Wait! YOU SAID! She's! She's really, but-wait! Are you working for-"

They all shouted in my face. "She's free Spike! Her friends freed her just before the wedding started!"

I fell on my scaly rear, I didn't care. "Moon Dancer, she's. . . she's free?"

"She's free Spike, she's really free," Applebloom said smiling at me, "She's been helping us. She's been helping us get you free Spike. She's your friend. You're HER friend!"

Moon Dancer...Friends. Rarity? Do you see me as a friend too?...She was happy to see me like when I visited. But Moon Dancer never kissed me. Moon Dancer never told what a wonderful dragon I was so hard it snapped me out of my greed growth. Moon Dancer more often than not turned down my offers to help her, not like Rarity... Maybe there was a difference after all.

"Girls, thanks." I hugged them and the hugged me, again.

We got out from under the table and I looked at the two restrained Changelings. "How did you do that anyway? I was busy being a zombie."

"Ya said ya remembered!"

"I do. I just wasn't paying attention."

"Scootaloo distracted them with puppy dog eyes and I knocked one out with a big book," Silver started.

"Then Ah kicked the other one in that spot stallions hate gettin' hit in so Silver could take 'em out with another book."

"The filly who's family regularly kicks all the apples out of trees for a living kicked 'em there? Youch!" I winced in sympathy pains.

"Yeah, I felt it just watching and I'm a girl," Scootaloo said.

"Is it just me or is there something really weird about the fact you three could do that but only one of you has a Cutie Mark?"

"...Ah don't know, but should we be complainin' about it?"

"...Good point, why am I complaining when you saved my life?"

"Don't know, now come on, we need to get out of here," Scootaloo said.

I nodded. Okay. What could I do? Ah! "Hang on a sec, I've got an idea!"

"We've got a few ideas too, let's hurry though."

So while they did what they were doing, I did two things. First, I found any letters with important information for us in them, and then burned the rest with normal dragon fire. Then I wrote replacement letters.

"What are these?" Silver asked, looking at them.

"Conflicting orders, and all to the wrong places. Taste of their medicine! Should give us a bit of an opening while the Changelings try to figure out what's going on."

"Ah. Well, we've got a couple distractions of our own set up."

I looked over to see two things. The first was a basket of lemons set to fall on whoever opened the door. The second was Applebloom putting the finishing touches on a...campfire in the middle of the room arranged with matches.

"...What are the lemons for?"

"They're lemon gas bombs. Changelings REALLY hate them."

"Ah...And the camp fire...oh! I get it!"

"Uh, anypony think how we're gonna tell our friends we got Spike?" Scootaloo asked. Figures.

Time for Sir Spike to save the day again. "You said Rarity was here too right?"

"Yeah," Applebloom.

I scribbled a message to my dearest and sent it, it instantly flew down the air duck.

"Hey! I thought you needed a bond to send letters!" Silver Spoon. said.

"Need it to receive letters." I corrected.

"Oh."

"Okay! Let's follow it down, and get out of here!" Scootaloo declared.

"Hey!" said a voice. I looked over and saw Fluttercruel and...and Moon Dancer looking through the window. "Kids! You did it! come on! We need to get out of here!"

"Moon Dancer...you're..." It was like looking at another mare with mind free.

"It's the real me, Spike! Hurry! We can talk later!"

I looked to Fluttercruel, who looked more than a bit roughed up.

"Uh..."

"Do NOT ASK what happened on my way up here! Just get on my bucking back. Yes 'Shy language!"

"Alright! Just let meh light this and we're good tah go!" said Applebloom, striking a match and throwing it into the center of the spell circle while I sent off all my fake letters in all directions. "Alright, now!"

Moon Dancer grabbed us and the lemons with her magic and pulled us out and onto Fluttercruel's back as we finally made enough noise to get the Changelings to burst into the room...resulting in the lemons going off in an explosion of yellow gas and them acting like they'd just gotten a face full of skunk spray. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't kinda funny. Hey, they'd just put me through Tartarus, can you blame me for enjoying them getting some karma?

As we went out the tower, Applebloom's surprise started going off too. They didn't have Sweetie Belle to help this time, but Applebloom had managed to pull it off somehow. Kinda.

"Forward troops! The dragon must be protected or reclaimed! For Her-" A tsunami from nowhere flooded down the stairs knocking changelings back down.

A pony shaped beast made of water roared like a tidal wave at the head of the stairs.

"Huh...we were tryin' tah summon a fire elemental that time," said Applebloom.

"The Knight is crowned!" Rarity exclaimed from where she was hiding after having a nervous break down after being hit by mud balls the changelings had thrown at her the moment they recognized her.

"What?" Lemon Hearts asked.

"The girls have Spike!" Rarity hissed, hoping the little fillies hadn't been caught and brainwashed Spikey had sent the message.

"Retreat!" ordered Silver Tongue, Lemon Hearts throwing a large number of Lemon Bombs, practically filling the room with the (to the Changelings) the unbearable yellow smoke to cover their retreat.

"After...after the-" the Changeling commander started before a gurgling roar came from upstairs. "What was," he coughed, "that?"

We quickly realized two things. One, the Changelings would try to kill me before they'd let me escape (thankfully they were quickly distracted by the Water Elemental now loose in the tower). And two, Fluttercruel wasn't flying down gracefully and was more trying to achieve a controlled crash.

"Too much weight! I'm not bucking Rainbow Dash here!"

Moon Dancer did a good job of stopping us from screaming, thankfully. I saw one 'Guard' make a dive for us.

I remembered something from when I was a little...okay, littler, and promptly blasted him with my magic fire. When it cleared, he was no longer wearing armor, leaving him confused and vulnerable to getting blasted back into the tower by Moon Dancer.

Hehe, thanks Shining.

"Where did you send it?" Silver asked.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Rich, but I'm afraid this street is closed to the public right now," said a 'Guard' to the Riches' group. "You need to-OW! OW! OW!...OW!"

Filthy Rich blinked, looking at the unconscious Changeling buried under a set of armor that had materialized over his head out of nowhere.

"...Well, that was convenient, let's move on."

"I don't know, probably nowhere important."

"Hold on! We're going to crash!" Fluttercruel shouted.

Moon Dancer's horn glowed and a mound of feathers formed underneath us, softening the impact.

"Alright, hurry before anyone sees us!" The red-head unicorn beauty warned.

The rest of the group came running out of the tower and regrouped with us. The Changelings seemed busy trying to banish the Water Elemental before it got out or in disarray from my letters.

I saw Rarity come out of the tower, she was...not clean...she dove back into the tower and came back out seconds later wet but washed.

Rarity gave me a quick hug the moment she spotted me so tight I could hardly breathe. She was...crying...she looked so worried...

"Spikey-wickey! You're safe! You're free! You are free aren't you? Oh I'm sorry what happened to you dear!"

"Y-Yeah, Rarity, I'm free..." I hugged her back...even if I don't understand love...she was worried about me, THAT'S what mattered.

"That's wonderful dear! I promise I won't let that witch hurt you again. Let's have lots and lots of jewels for you when we get home!"

"Thanks Rarity...So, what's the escape plan?" I squeaked out when she let me go.

"Sewers," Silver Tongue reported quietly.

"S-Sewers?" asked Rarity. And she fainted. Hehe, I missed that.

They picked her up and Lemon Hearts used one of her lemons like a ninja smoke bomb while we got into a sewer.

"After them! Hold you're bucking breath you larva!" The changelings swarmed into the open sewer like giant cockroaches.

Judging by everypony else's faces, I should be glad dragon's have a special sense of smell...

"I told you, I'm good at scenery illusions if you give time to set them up," Rarity whispered as watched the changelings disappear into the sewer system, us still on the street level, never having really gone in. Yeah, I fib.

"The changelings are so used to using misdirection, I doubt they'd think 'stupid cattle' would use it on them," Moon Dancer whispered.

Okay. Number one assistant time. Checklist!

-First, mug some Changeling guards for armor, Silver's dad fits them best. Looks natural on him.
-Have Moon Dancer continue to walk like a zombie, I think this is the last time she'll be able to use this trick.
-Have the rest of us dress up in shrouds.
-Smarter than the average changelings stop us.
-They take off the hoods and find Scoots and Silver Spoon.
-They open the basket and close it quickly when they find only lemons.
-Unroll a rug and find only a rug.
-Then they rip open the cute little baby wrappings, and have 'baby' Applebloom begin to cry and have 'mommy' berate the guard for waking her up.
-And I get to be a hump on 'old lady' Rarity's back all the way back to hero headquarters.
-And of course...

"So Silver Spoon...who was the colt?"

"Not telling!"

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Part 18
Cutie Mark Crusader Dragons Savers Yay!

"Let's save Spike! Then we can save Sweetie! And big sister Applejack! And everypony!"

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Wedding-Arc-Omake-Too-Much-Focus-On-The-Villains-446527061

Next Chapter:

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (always needs more love).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Episode 179: "Family And Friends"

"Applejack, Chryssy isn't so bad."

"She's evil."

"Good and bad are a matter of perspective. Rarity told me."

"She also taught ya not ta be mean ta ponies."

"Chryssy not being mean, she's just doing what's natural to her."

"Being mean and cruel."

"She's just doing what she has to, to live. Timber wolves aren't mean and cruel if they eat a pony."

"Ever seen a cat play with a live mouse, Sweetie? Ever seen what a shrike does ta its prey?"

"Animals can't say no to their instincts."

"Equines have a choice. And just cause it's their instincts don't make it any smarter tah cuddle up tah a feral Timber Wolf."

"Silly pony, we're all animals, none of us can say no to our true nature, and we'll just be miserable if we try. Isn't that what cutie marks mean, after all?"

"A cutie mark is a mirror, it doesn't rule ya! It awakens when ya find what YOU want to do with yerself!"

"Oh Applejack, you're missing what Chryssy is doing FOR all of us."

"Doing FOR?! SHE'S A MONSTER!"

"You're just not looking at it right. Those cows and sheep on your farm...they can speak, they can think, but you take care of them, make them safe, even if you have to be harsh with them sometimes. Don't yo see? The changelings are farmers, we're their animals. They need us to live, and they'll keep us from getting in trouble, we'll be protected from the windigos forever. You work so hard for them, wouldn't it be selfish and mean if they threw all your help back in your face? If they wanted to hurt you for it? If the trees bit back for your taking their apples? You should be a good tree, a good animal. And accept all the hard work the farmers are doing for you."

"Be...a good tree...a good animal . . for the farmers."

Sweetie stroked AJ's mane. "Now just keep thinking those thoughts Appplejack, over and over, until you believe them, Chryssy's orders!"

"Her...Majesty's orders."

Sweetie stroked the adult mare's side, ignoring the obvious distress in her posture. "There there Applejack, it's gotta be really hard being honest all the time, just relax, and let go."

"L-let g-go." Applejack shuttered.

"That's a good pony."

The entranced filly hopped up to Chrysalis and snuggled against her moth-eaten leg. "How'd I do?"

"Wonderful, Sweetie Belle, I couldn't have done better myself," praised the queen, putting a hoof to Applejack's chin. "I'm pretty sure if it'd been any pony else, you'd have broken her completely by now."

"She's always been a stubborn pony."

"Which will make it that much a bigger accomplishment when you finally shatter her resistance completely, my dear."

"YOUR MAJESTY!" A drenched changeling with teary eyes and a coughing fit flew into the great hall, nearly crashing as he landed. "Terrible news!"

"Inform me, Locust," The queen said in a voice of ice.

After conveying the 'terrible news' Locust expected to be made the object of his queen's fury. His Queen merely stood there.

Sweetie noticed one of the queen's back hoofs shaking.

"...It would seem fate is beyond determined to make sure I never reach the sun," Chrysalis whispered, sounding so dangerously calm. "But no matter...I will not give up, I will not give in, I will not bend, I will not break, I will not fold and kiss fate's hooves. I shall bring about the future I've chosen, not the future FATE has chosen!"

Sweetie Belle clapped enthusiastically at her words. Celestia felt a chill down her spine. Applejack merely stood with a sickly smile and her mane matted with sweat.

"...Locust...be a dear, my little changeling, and find out how the rune's engraving is coming along. Twilight Sparkle had us over half-done. I want to hear how her replacement is fairing. If she's having trouble, drag Kabuto from his preparations to help her."

"Y-yes, my queen!"

"And Shining, dear?"

"Huh?" The poor stallion spoke dimly.

"Spike's letters... let's put that shield of yours to another fine use and stop him from sending any more, dear."

"Uh-huh." The white unicorn responded, his eyes so saturated with Chrysalis' magic they nearly glowed. His horn shone, the calibration of the shield changed.

+++

"Ah dang it!" I cursed after up barfing up my own mail. Dozens upon dozens of letters, to Ponyville and everywhere else, warning anyone and everyone what was really going on. I really regretted shoving it all in my mouth at once.

"Stupid anti-teleportation wards. As if my stomach wasn't already in knots..."

"It's alright, Spike," said the Princess, "It was a good idea, it just didn't work out."

"I should have thought of it sooner."

"Believe me Spike, it takes a while to get your senses in order after you're freed. Nopony blames you," Moon Dancer said.

Princess Cadence, I mean the REAL Princess Cadence, the one who foalsat Twilight, says the priest and servants who are supposed to be here were staffed at the wedding... meaning they know the truth. Meaning Queen Ugly isn't going to be letting them speak to anypony for a good while or they're hiding somewhere praying their Goddesses would save them. Cadence seemed determined to make SURE those prayers were answered.

I was so proud to see Princess Cadence like this, and I'm grateful to Blueblood for saving her, she meant a lot to me too ya know, this was the friendly mare Twilight and me knew, not that 'nice on the outside/nasty on the inside' witch.

Geeze. Discord liked his 'toys' broken, this lady likes them set up 'just right.' I don't know which is worse. Twilight said they were just different flavors of nasty.

"Discord turns everything you were upside-down but still let you keep your free will to a degree, Chrysalis turns your free will upside-down and forces you to use everything you still are against those you love...And both leave you feeling violated because they forced themselves into you."

Now I get how the girls' all felt, it wasn't like my greed attack, this was worse. Give me the chance, I'll burn that witch's ugly seaweed mane off!

Ah screw 'er! Twilight and me are back together with our friends and we're ourselves again! Time to be freakin' happy!

Twilight hugged me as hard as she could the moment I was through the door. I hugged her back.

"Thank EVERY Princess, Goddess, and God you're safe, Spike!" she said, tears running down her face, and mine too.

The Crusaders got a round of applause for saving me, even if the specifics hadn't been explained yet. They deserved it.

There were LOTS of ponies here! Lyra, Bon-Bon and Moth from Ponyville... Twinkle Shine, Minuette, and Lemon Hearts from school... What the heck were they doing here? Please tell me they're not new Elements. They're not? Good. They're here to help? Oooookay, well, if you say so. They're how Moon Dancer got saved? Oh!

"Twinkle Shine, Minuette, Lyra, Bon-Bon, Moth, I just want to say, thank you all for saving Moon Dancer." I did my most formal Canterlot bow. The mares all blushed.

"Okay, Moth, remember, explain it just like we rehearsed it," Bon-Bon told her twin.

Huh? Explain what?

AH! CHANGELING!

Bon-Bon's under mind control! She just shielded the changeling from my fire breath!

Okay. One explanation later: I learn that Bon-Bon isn't under mind control, Moth just used her evil changeling magic to make Bon Bon remember things that never happened to make her like her like a sister. (Why are we trusting her again?)

Then it gets explained Moth's helped snapped me and Twilight out of it. Thanks to information she didn't feel was worth mentioning at the wedding.

I, of course, didn't like that answer. Regrettably, Bon-Bon got flambéed again when she shielded Moth from me.

"UGH! Not again!" Minuette exclaimed, getting out her medical supplies again.

I'm a dragon, we have a proud tradition of immolating our problems.

Besides, Moth owes everypony in Canterlot an apology (and everypony in Equestria if our luck runs out).

"Just give it a rest!" Bon-Bon growled. "My sister is SORRY for what she did!"

I wonder how Bon-Bon would have reacted if she'd found out the truth before all this . . Like if Fluttershy had 'gotten rid of' Fluttercruel before choosing to be her mommy.

"...So you're fine that she brainwashed you?"

"No, I'm NOT fine with that. But even if the memories she gave me from BEFORE she met me were fake, AFTER that is why she's my sister, Spike..."

Okay. After Fluttercruel, I can kinda respect that sentiment.

It's creepy, ya know, I had a dream where I DID go visit the Great Dragon Migration, it's only once a century after all, to try and see how OTHER dragons acted, and met a gang of dragon bullies. I'm happy Twilight woke me up early that morning and I didn't have to see the 'whole' dream. So yeah, when you put it that way, I guess I kinda know how Moth feels. None of the other dragons I've met personally were that nice. They'd think I'm weird like Moth says changelings do her. But I'm still proud of the dragon I am.

"Hey, where's Cobweb?" Moon Dancer asked.

"You're just noticing that now?" Pinkie Pie lampshaded.

"We are a large herd," Moon Dancer defended.

"Did she turn out to be a spy after all?" Fluttercruel asked.

"Dear, don't be rude." Fluttershy then said.

"I WAS going to ask, but we needed to introduce dear Spike to Moth," Rarity said.

"So, where is she?" Silver Tongue asked.

Lemon Hearts let out her pets, looking like she expected an ambush any second. The foals gathered near each other looking antsy.

"Who the heck is Cobweb?" I asked.

Twilight sighed, "Well if you must know-"

Blue smoke and fireworks in the center, revealing, "Behold! I! The One And Only Trixie has returned!"

Apple Bloom shouted, "Trixie was with Twilight and overpowered ya all an' brainwashed ya all an' now we're in a trap!"

"WHAT?!" Twilight blinked and waved her hooves, "WAIT-WAIT!"

A few minutes later -

"I think we're setting a new world record for misunderstandings," Rainbow Dash said as she helped put out the last of my little fires.

"At this rate we'll finish off ourselves before the changelings get a chance," Minuette sighed putting a bandaid on the bruised Angry Baby Lemon. "I've spent more medical supplies on misunderstandings than on battle wounds!"

"If Applejack was here, she'd say this what ya get for keepin' secrets from yer friends," Apple Bloom said getting her bow back into place.

"Well, not ALL secrets are bad," Fluttershy whispered blushing, applying the ice pack for poor sweet beautiful Rarity's head.

"Next time we have something shocking to share with everypony, I'm writing pamphlets," Twilight said.

"I think fighting the changelings has left us all a little paranoid," Twinkle Shine admitted. "Nice left hook by the way Miss Belle."

"Thank you," Rarity said in a dignified fashion.

"You girls sure know how to clobber an adult mare three time your size," Lyra said as Moth and Bon-Bon applied iodine to the bites.

"It's all in our teamwork," Scootaloo said. "We DID take two Changelings out to save Spike."

Pinkie Pie finished hammering out the last of the dents out of Silver Ax's armor and hoofed it back to him.

"Trixie does..." Said the show mare who had started all this and had incredibly made through without a scratch. "I apologize for starting all this."

"Are you SURE you're not under mind control?" I asked upon Trixie admitting something was her own fault.

"For the last time, I'm sure," she groaned.

"To repeat." Minuette said in a restrained voice, "Trixie was disguised as Cobweb because the Changelings wanted her dead and she felt keeping the disguise was the only way to really help us. She helped Cadence save Twilight."

Pinkie said, "YEAH!! So Happy reunion time already!"

Rarity blinked. "...Trixie Midsummernight...Cobweb...Why didn't I catch that? I've seen that Shakespony play a dozen times."

"Well, I didn't know a Trixie before . . ." Lemon Hearts said, "So welcome to the team, again, Cobweb."

"So you're Trixie," Moon Dancer said. "Chrysalis talked about using you to open the door to the Elements Chamber...I guess she changed her mind once Twilight arrived in Canterlot."

Trixie shuddered. "Yes...though her new plan was 'do away with me.'"

"I'm happy none of that happened to you."

"As is Trixie. She's simply happy the guards must have assumed she'd left on the train..."

Earlier.

"Monarch?"

"Yes, Cricket?"

The two disguised Changeling brothers sat in wait to jump the Queen's target with daggers and eliminate her...but she hadn't showed.

"I...don't think she's coming," said Cricket, with a relieved tone almost.

"Maybe we missed her and she already left..." Monarch muttered. "Should we...you know, tell the Queen?"

"...I've actually been thinking about that, Monarch...do you ever wonder if we're the bad guys?"

"...Why would I?" the question wasn't angry or worried, it was...almost guilty.

"...Look around us here...this city. It's...it's not something an animal would build, it's just as intricate and well designed as our hive...And these cat...ponies...they're just living their lives, they just want to live peacefully...and we're about to attack them unprovoked...Today when I went out to do my job, the ponies my disguise was saying with told me 'be careful, with this 'mysterious threat business' you can't be too careful'...And I felt it, they meant that, to me, a complete stranger...I just can't help thinking...maybe we're the bad guys here..."

Monarch sighed. "...I was hoping I was only imagining things...Yeah, I've thought that too..."

"And now we're sitting here, waiting to murder a mare in cold blood we don't even know, for something she hasn't even had a chance to do yet...I...I didn't sign on to this mission to kill anyling...They never told us we'd have to kill somecreature..." They both knew they were admitting to being insane...but their hearts wouldn't let them do anything else.

"...Neither did I..."

"...So...what do we do? If we tell the Queen she didn't show, she'll have her tracked down and killed..."

The two siblings spent a moment thinking silently, conflicted emotions in their hearts. Both knowing doing something would make them outcasts to both sides...but knowing doing nothing would mean they'd always be 'the bad guys.'

Finally, without a word, the brothers took their daggers and cut up a stay cat they found, turning in the bloodied knifes to their superior, saying they'd thrown Trixie's body off the mountain as ordered...

Meanwhile

"It was worth it, Monarch..." said Cricket, the two Changelings now sitting in a shelter in Canterlot with new disguises donned upon hearing the queen's rage at Trixie's return, and a few wedding guests they'd smuggled out of the castle in the chaos following their queen being exposed at the wedding. It hadn't surprised them, they'd fully expected their queen's wrath one day.

Monarch nodded. "...Yeah...it was...maybe we made more of a difference than we thought we would...I just hope the good guys win..."

"I wish we could have met under better circumstances Miss Midsummernight", said Silver's pop. "What I have heard of you are not...flattering, but, you've helped us so far, and that is enough for me."

"...It is a pleasure," Trixie managed to say politely, before turning to the bride-to-be. "Princess Cadence?"

"Yes?"

"Trixie hasn't thought to ask before and, well, there isn't a truly a proper time TO ask this so, did you commission Trixie to perform at your wedding?"

Cadence looked at her sadly. "I'm sorry, Trixie."

"T-Trixie, sees," her ears wilted.

"However, I would be honored to have you perform as part of my wedding reception."

"Trixie doesn't want charity."

"If you came here to perform, then I wish you to perform. And besides that, you saved my life, and you saved Twilight. If anyone owes anyone here, it's me owing you. This is a royal commission, for after we save Shining and Equestria."

Trixie looked like she was struck by lightning then did her biggest most fancy theatrical bow, "The One and Only Trixie gracefully accepts your commission Your Highness."

"I'm just happy you're alright, Trxie," Fluttershy hugged her. "Just don't leave us worrying like that again, understand? I really am happy to know you're safe, and you're here to help."

"I'm aware of the need for digression darling, so I'll say thank you dear," Rarity said to Trixie.

"Trixie is happy to have you with me."

The fillies looked at each other, and approached Trixie.

"Mah sister doesn't like lyin' at all...but Ah'm not mah sister, so...that was a pretty good trick you pulled. Thanks fer helpin'."

Scootaloo looked unsure at Rainbow Dash who nodded. "Miss Trixie, I-, thanks for your help."

"Good performance," Silver Spoon said to our extra Element of Magic. Okay okay, Co-Element of Magic.

Me? I swallowed my pride, beat down my other feelings, and strode up to Trixie.

"Hey, Trixie. Thank you, for helping save Twilight like that, Cadence says you're the whole reason she could save Twilight."

She sure didn't expect that. And my friends didn't either. Geeze, they act like I hate Trixie's guts. Okay, I used to.

"You, you're welcome Spike. Twilight saved Trixie... Trixie is happy she was able to help her friends too."

"And I'm happy you did," I said, "Look...you're a true true friend. You came back and helped when you could have ditched us and saved your own hide, you risked your neck for Twilight, you risk your neck for us. So...seriously, thanks..." I put out my claw. "Friends?"

She looked confused at my gesture then reached out her hoof, "Friends." We shook.

--

And so I, The One and Only Trixie, had had her Magic Duel with Twilight Sparkle dreamed of by the Great And Powerful Trixie for half-reasons even she barely rationalized. That I had proven my way of magic could stand against hers, was the farthest from my mind, that I had saved my friend, was the closest. Defeating Twilight wouldn't have gotten me my life back, but having friends had.

--

"Spike," Rarity said, kneeling down next to me, "I'm sorry that I wasn't able to give more in freeing you. The fillies had to do it instead. I apologize Spike," she said sadly.

"Hey! What's wrong with us?" Scootaloo said. Fluttercruel looked to be thinking the same.

"Nothing dear, I'm grateful, I'm proud of you. But I'm the ADULT, it should have been my responsibility. You shouldn't have been in danger in the first place. I simply couldn't give enough," said the beautiful Element of Generosity.

Okay...time for 'mature Spike'. "Rarity...you were fighting up the tower, right? The Crusaders couldn't have saved me without you, and I AM grateful for that." I hugged her. "Thank you."

"And, I-I gave the Changelings your weaknesses remember... Thankfully I didn't think Fluttershy would let Fluttercruel cut loose," Twilight added.

"It's fine Twilight. You weren't yourself," Rarity said, then looked to me and returned the hug. "...You're welcome Spike...sometimes, it's hard to accept that an adult had to let foals help too."

Rarity looked to Twilight. Now only one was missing...but everypony who'd been there was present again...It was time to talk. "...Twilight... What happened when you tried to expose Chrysalis, I believe we all owe you an apolo-"

"NO! You don't!"

Everyone looked at Twilight with wide eyes. "Twilight..." Rainbow said, pinning her ears back. "We should've listened to you."

"No you shouldn't have! I was right Chrysalis was evil, but I was dead wrong in my reasoning WHY she was," Twilight looked down. "That thing she put in my brain kept citing 'Lesson Zero' as why I was right, but you know what? I was the one who didn't learn from 'Lesson Zero!'"

She looked down. "...If I'd been calm and collected instead of angry, then we could've figured her out. Chrysalis kept rubbing it in that Applejack's truth vision could have revealed her, but I never ONCE thought to just ASK Applejack to take a peek. If I'd thought of that instead of being so paranoid and clingy, we could've still time to stop her early. Or if I'd pointed out to Celestia how 'Cadence' acted towards Blueblood, the Princess might have known something was very wrong. I saw, but I didn't THINK...You were right to act how you did."

"...We were right to be mad," Rarity said. "We weren't right to leave you all alone. Celestia...I can understand. She NEEDED to be there for her family, but us? We're supposed to be there for each other when we're acting nothing of the sort. We've each made mistakes and you stood by us."

"And you've stood by my mistakes when I wasn't being rude and blind about it. You could have end brainwashed too."

Rarity frowned. "Three words, darling: me, your birthday. I was the definition of rude and blinded by the stars in my eyes. We've all been rude and blind, but you never left our sides. And maybe if we had been there for you like you had for us, the witch wouldn't have had the chance to get her claws in-"

"ENOUGH WHAT IFS!" Rainbow Dash interrupted. "I went nuts over them REMEMBER?! Look, I'm sorry I left you alone. We ALL are. Just accept our apology and we'll accept yours, and let's MOVE ON and stop these changelings!"

The pegasus trotted up to Twilight and hugged her, and folded her wings around her.

"R-Rainbow?"

"Hey! I'm not good at touchy feely stuff so hurry up and reply before I think better of it."

Twilight returned the hug.

Rarity, Flutters, Trixie, and Pinkie joined in.

"I forgive you...And...I'm sorry I acted like a paranoid, green eyed monster... and for not listening to any of YOU... I was acting so self-righteous that I wouldn't have listened to me."

"We forgive you too." They all muzzled.

"And Spike, I don't want YOU feeling guilty. My brother is the strongest pony I know, and if he can't break free of Chrysalis' magic, then no pony on earth can. So I don't want you blaming yourself, understand?"

Spike meekly nodded, "Alright." He added himself to the group hug.

Cadence smiled, feeling her magic surge just being CLOSE to their bond. To her...Champions? That was the word that came to mind, looking at the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. It was a good word.

We filled each other in more on what had happened...It was weird being the big heroes for once instead of just the little foals causing trouble.

Dash gave me a hug. "See? I told you if you'd get the chance to save your friends."

I smiled. "Yeah...I did...thanks, Dash..."

"I had faith in you, Scoots."

That felt good.

"Does that mean I'll get to help...help save Sweetie Belle too?"

"I...know you'll be there for her if you needs you. After all, you've learned from the best right?"

"Right!"

I looked back at my flank. No Cutie Mark. But for once? I wasn't disappointed. I'd gotten something MORE important out of it: my friend back. Sometimes...I guess that's how it's gotta be.

Dash gave me a nuzzle, "And Scoots, I'm proud of you, your best came through, you helped your friend when he needed you most. And I'm happy you're safe too."

"Ah Dash, since when you do mushy stuff?"

She gave a chuckle. "Sometimes there's room for mushy stuff, squirt."

I thought of how we saved Spike, "Heh, yeah I guess." I nuzzled her back. If Sweetie Belle was here she'd love this stuff, and I knew we'd get her back...And it hit me. I didn't care...I don't mean about Sweetie, but...

"Uh Dash, if I don't care who saves Sweetie as long as she is, does that make me a lazy friend?"

Dash seemed surprised, then laughed. "No squirt! If you HAD to be the one to save Sweetie, you'd be selfish. You're true blue loyal."

"I...I don't really understand..."

"Okay, look at it this way," she said, trying to think. "If you feel like ya GOTTA be the one to save her, you might mess with somepony who'll help her the most. Then NOPONY might save her. That's selfish. When you're TRULY loyal, then what matters is the pony you care about, not whether or not you saved 'em. And you're true blue loyal."

I think my heart just took flight. "Ya mean it Dash?"

She rubbed my mane. "You know it!"

I hugged her all the more, I only wish my wings could hug her like hers hug me. "Thank you, Dash! Thank you!"

I looked at 'er, I saw the light shining through one of the windows, it made her look like she had a halo, she smiled at me.

"Yer welcome Scootaloo."

"Thanks...think someday, I'll be a hero like you?"

She smiled at me. "You're a hero now, Scoots. I think Spike would vouch for that."

And then my heart breached the atmosphere and became a star!...Dash is right, sometimes there is room for mushy stuff!

Heh heh...then there was Twilight and Cadence's reactions to how we saved Spike.

"Wait...you summoned an Elemental? Again?" Twilight asked, blinking.

Cadence blinked. "Again?"

"Hey! We did it on purpose this time as a distraction!...kinda..." Apple Bloom replied.

"This time?" the Princess asked, staring wide eyed.

"It's why they're normally banned from having matches!"

"Wait...how...why..."

"We tried to summon the Fire Elemental this time, but it ended up being a Water Elemental," I explained.

Twilight's brain froze trying to process that. "How...why...fire...water..."

"We don't know how it happened either."

Cadence sighed. "That is the second craziest thing I've ever heard of a foal doing..."

"Second?!" Minuette asked in shock.

"The stunt I did with the love poison is first."

"You did that too?" I asked, blinking as I stared up at Cadence.

Twilight's eye twitched. "...Thank the Gods they're on our side."

Pinkie tapped Twilight's head like she was a broken game console. "Which ones?"

"ALL OF THEM!"

"Alright, Phase One was a complete success," Silver Tongue reported. "The question is what do we do next?"

Twilight had Spike produce a checklist. "First item," she looked to Trixie.

"Turn what the Changelings know of our weaknesses against them. Rainbow?" The azure unicorn looked to Rainbow.

Moth spat a bit of Changeling slime on Rainbow's wings, which she shredded before it could harden with a blade of pegasi magic around her wings. "Can't keep it up long, but it lasts long enough."

Cadence had picked it up from being around guard pegasi so much.

"Good. Pinkie?"

"Fluttercruel and I did a MST of every one of her 'dreams' that enrages me," the party pony reported.

"I won't even ask this time. Rarity?"

"In full 'Sisterhooves Social' mode," the unicorn replied, dead serious.

"Perfect. Flutters?"

"I'll let Fluttercruel handle all fighting."

"And I'll let Mom use the stare if I think she can get away with it."

"Twilight?"

"I've gotten all my lectures to Queen Chrysalis out of my head," Twilight said, looking at a sizable pile of soapboxes.

"Spike?"

"Make countermeasures for each of the weaknesses Twilight told the Changelings, check," Spike reported, marking it off the list.

"...You two are kinda scary when you're plotting together," said Rainbow Dash.

"We're two sides of a coin," Trixie said and she and Twilight smiled.

"Alright, so now we have a few objectives," said Twilight, looking out the window. "Rescue our remaining friends, wreck the booby traps that are set for Princess Luna, and defeat the Queen."

"Defeating the Queen won't be easy without a full set," said Trixie. "So that should be last."

"The traps are...well, Twilight-proof, so I can't disable them."

"But we've got more than just you," Trixie said. "We need Apple Bloom to save Applejack, so saving her will require her. Rarity or the Crusaders can save Sweetie Belle, and Twilight or Cadence can save Shining Armor. But we'd probably be best to deal with the booby traps first so if something happens to us, Luna can still save the day as a backup."

"...Alright, let's get to planning..."

++++

"I cannot help you," said Fancy Pants simply.

"What? Why?" Filthy Rich asked.

"Let me ask you. Do you really think this is what Princess Celestia would want?"

"To save the kingdom? Yes!"

"I mean put innocent pony civilians in danger."

Fancy Pants hadn't instantly believed them. What sane pony would? But after hours of discussion and sleeping it off, in the morning he had finally conceded that the behavior of the guards and Princess Cadence had only grown stranger and stranger.

"You don't think everypony in danger now?" TLC asked.

"Right now, it seems the invaders are more interested in just controlling Equestria, rather than any sort of looting, pillaging, ethnic cleansing, or deflowering innocent mares. If they ARE emotion-eating shape-shifting aliens-"

"I never said they were aliens."

"Oh sorry, from a parallel universe-"

"I never said they were from a parallel universe, either."

"Who view ponies the same way that griffins view pigs, then isn't it safe to say then that they'd have nothing against looting, pillaging, ethnic cleansing, or deflowering innocent mares? Which they'd have not that much trouble in doing given their numbers and having gotten rid of Equestria's trained and armed normal defenders AND negated the immediate threat of all but the youngest of the Alicorns.

"Therefore, is it not safe to assume the only reason they have NOT done so, is because they do not want start a brawl with Equestria's normal population, and want the infrastructure intact.

"Tell me, Mr. Rich. If you bought, say, several stacks of hay, having paid a great deal of wealth and time on them, and those stacks of hay then suddenly got up on their own legs, and began causing chaos to your business and those around you, how long would you spend trying to contain or subdue the hay? And how soon would you decide to cut your losses and BURN the hay instead?"

"What a strange question." Filthy Rich noted. "What makes you ask it?"

"Your plan effectively calls for untrained civilians ponies to attack trained soldiers who won't even see them as people, only as a resource, who won't hesitate to use lethal force if it becomes obvious that this is not an uprising they'll be able to peacefully quell. I'm sorry, Mr. Rich. But you're asking for ponies to throw away their lives for nothing, when Princess Luna is likely already on her way back with reinforcement and likely the entire might of Equestria's Guard. It's much wiser to simply wait and let the professionals handle this."

"This is the way you feel too?" Filth Rich asked Fancy Pants' wife, Fleur-de-Lis.

"...I don't think we should do nothing. But Princess Celestia would NEVER WANT her ponies to put themselves in danger for her sake. We would shame her by doing so. Yet I don't think we should just sit on our hooves waiting for help, especially if their spiderweb is as far-spread and deeply entrenched as you claim. But inciting random riots just to give the invaders an excuse to let their vicious side out? I'm sorry. I cannot support such a thing."

Their maid Straight Lace meanwhile said nothing, she looked terrified. Like she was expecting royal guards to come crashing through their door any second and begin stealing everything of value, saying it was for The Princess then turning into giant cockroaches and eating their brains.

"So what do you suggest we do?" Filthy asked, feeling frustrated.

Golden Tiara merely sat next to Half-Light Dawn. Given what happened the last time she was a near a little filly, Golden did not feel comfortable with the filly being so close. Peewee was content to nest on Dawn's mane.

Fleur-de-Lis turned around. "The city is under lockdown, martial law has been declared and normal government functions have been suspended, both for the 'remainder of the emergency.' This state can't last forever, and they have to realize that. Meaning they have an endgame in mind. Probably involving the rune they're engraving into the city, otherwise, they wouldn't be so frantic to finish it. And there is no way to know if Princess Luna will arrive in time. They won't drop their farce until it's completely unsustainable, or fulfilled its purpose. We need to use that to our advantage."

TCL asked, "You can't be asking us to play by THEIR rules. That never ends well."

"And just knocking over the board means all bets are off, and the simple reality is that even with all the civilians in Canterlot we wouldn't WIN a straight-up violent confrontation. Unless you feel like sacrificing all of Canterlot just so they don't win."

"No. Resigning yourself to such a pyrrhic victory's just another way of giving up," Filthy Rich admitted.

"Exactly. So let's think, Mr. Rich: what can we do to hinder the invaders masquerading as our protectors, without giving them an excuse to treat us like expendable animals? And in such a way that, from their viewpoint, at least, sustaining their lie will still be more important than 'putting us in our place?' And won't set off their alarm bells? But still leave them at a disadvantage? And ultimately result in our victory, (or at least our survival?)"

Half Life Dawn raised her head. "We...We could free my sister."

They all looked to her. "What would that do?"

"...If we free my sister and find my other sister we can...return to how we were. And we could cause problems, and help the Element Bearers and Caddy stop the Queen."

"...She has a point...I don't know all the details, but Half Light Dawn and her sisters...aren't quite normal ponies. Filthy Rich explained. "They're good, though, for all their abnormality. They've helped a great deal back in Ponyville,"

"Be that as it may, that alone is not enough. What else could we do?"

"...Maybe there's another way to get the citizens to help out."

"Hmmm?"

"While even with Gifted Unicorns an out-and-out armed revolution is too much... say we made the citizens feel...unease? Spread a LITTLE civil unrest? Enough that the invaders have to deal with it, spreading their forces thin and keeping them occupied? Especially among the construction crew for this rune? Make them RESIST but not REBEL? So it's still less costly to them to stay in character than drop their facade?"

Dawn shuddered.

"What's wrong?" Filthy Rich asked.

"...That rune...I feel it connecting with the leylines...with the mana streams..." the filly muttered, sounding like whatever she sensed terrified her.

"How do you know that?"

"It's...something me and my sisters got from momma...whatever this rune is doing, it's something big...really big...and really...wrong..."

"And you're sure of that?"

"As sure as you'd be sure your skinned knee is yours."

"...Fancy Pants, with all due respect, I trust this filly with all my heart, her family helped saved me once," Filthy informed. "If she says that rune is big trouble, she's not lying."

Fancy Pants looked at Dawn closely, examining her. "...Well, she doesn't seem to be faking how scared she is, and I see no reason not to assume the rune is major trouble, the question is, what do we do about it? That doesn't endanger half of Canterlot's population."

TLC gave it thought as well. "Ah!"

"Yes?"

"Outright resistance might cause us trouble," said TLC. "But what about resistance disguised as simple equine error? Things that will be overlooked as being multiple ponies just taking orders wrong or being 'clumsy'? It's nothing a 'Guard' would be ABLE to punish an innocent civilian for. These creatures seem so fond of using psychology against others, they'll likely never expect it to be used against them. They'll never expect the 'cattle' to be THAT smart."

"...That is a plan I could potentially get behind. But the question is, how do we make sure it's too late by the time they figure it out?" Fancy Pants said.

"...My sisters..."

Everypony looked to Dawn.

"If we free my sister, the three of us can...return to where we're supposed to be," the filly explained. "And from there, we can help Caddy, the Bearers, and cause lots and lots of trouble for the Changelings."

"...Given my experiences with them, Fancy, that's a safe bet."

Fancy Pant rubbing his chin. "My dear...can you free your sister if we get you there?"

"Yes...I think I can."

"...Mr. Rich. I can handle the populace, I've got years of experience," said the stallion. "Can you get this filly to her sister?"

"Yes, if I know where she is."

"...I can show you," Dawn replied.

"Alright..." Fancy Pants looked the group over, pausing to see how Golden Tiara protectively kept Dawn close to her.

When the group first arrived, Golden Tiara had asked Fancy Pants and his household every possible question about the state her daughter had been in when they had hosted her. How did she look, what did she say, what she felt, did she look healthy, her weight, the length of her hair, no detail was too small for knowing about the status of her foal. It hadn't been obsession, it was fear and worry, all in the name of the well-being of the filly she had given birth to.

"Mrs. Tiara?"

"Screwball...please call me Screwball."

"Golden Tiara,...your daughter loves you very very much."

++++

(Auto Record: Half-Light Noon): This spell is a recording of my thoughts and actions I've set up so you Alicorns and you shadows-who-watch can see how things are going. I never dreamed it would come to this. We were all so confident, mostly me, that nothing could go wrong. We should have figured out after what nearly happened to my brother Shining Armor that time wasn't a branching ocean for us anymore, it was an ocean in a storm. We should have taken more precautions after Princess Gaia was able to turn us into obedient happy little foals just like everypony else.-

"You can sense where she is?" Spitfire asked as we flew from tower to tower like thieves.

"Yes! We came from the same soul, so we should be able to sense each other as we get closer."

"But doesn't that mean she'll sense YOU?" Fleetfoot asked.

Oh right. Moonsent. "...Split up. You come with me; the rest of you come from another angle, hit her and hit her hard. She's tough, but if it came down to it, I think she'd prefer to die than let that monster use her like this."

"Why?"

"She's 'happy conclusions.' She's being twisted against that purpose. Bound to a witch's whim to make her write an unhappy conclusion. Trust me, for her that's gotta be as bad as Discord thinks getting turned to stone is for that jerk. We just need to get close enough to free her from the witch's spell."

--

"So we split in two and come at her from both sides?" TLC asked.

"I know 'er best, trust me, I may be little, but it'll work!" said their little profit.

TLC REALLY wished they had some royal guards with them, or maybe one of those Harmony Bearers. She had never felt so in over her head. But she already promised to stay by her patient. And Golden Tiara wasn't going to stop any time soon. She'd kept breaking out of the hospital, no matter how many times they had upgraded the security, and had broken into Canterlot and the Castle no problem.

In short: Mrs. Tiara what amounted to an experienced professional escape artist.

The best news was, Dawn was really the only one the 'Guards' were looking for among us. With a dress, a wig, some contacts and a little makeup from Straight Lace, she was pretty hard to tell from any other foal in Canterlot.

--

We were stopped once by some guards. I thought I was going to die right there, but when they saw Dawn was clearly not a baby dragon in disguise, they let us through. Dawn's pet firebird looked even more on edge than I did. Dawn looked happy that they were looking for one.

I've had a job surrounded by ponies who'd break my legs as soon as say hello and not understand the difference. Now it felt like all of Canterlot was turning into one big madhouse.

And then there was Mrs. Tiara. All her actions and behavior all screamed she had made a complete and total recovery. But how? Ponies didn't randomly became sane again. Sanity wasn't a light switch!

I actually insisted -- or I wasn't moving an inch -- that we 'test' Mrs. Tiara to make sure she wasn't a changeling. Blood sample. Mane cut. Trick questions about her life and the hospital. Anything I could think of. I still wasn't 100% sure, even after she scored 100% on everything. Maybe I won't be until the fighting's done. Let's hope Golden.

Like I said, our best advantage was us being beneath the guards' notice. After all, we're nopony. Why give us any mind?

--

"The rune is 75% complete, Your Majesty," reported Locust.

"And Princess Luna?"

"She and her Night Guard have been making steady progress towards us. She's picked up a number of random Guards that have crossed her path, but she's avoided all contact with bases along her route. Strangely, she still seems to have picked up supplies along the way somehow."

"Blast it," Chrysalis cursed, "I was hoping she'd stop to resupply or restock on troops at one of the bases."

Arranging that many potential ambushes hadn't been easy. At least the 'top secret' information that Princess Luna has been replaced by an impostor and/or possessed again was spreading among the guards outside Canterlot... Still, all those lovely ambushes, now they were for nothing.

"I hate waste." the changeling queen seethed.

'Who would have thought being so singleminded would actually HELP Luna?' Celestia thought.

"W-well, Your Majesty, it was still a reasonable precaution!"

"I suppose. Still, she must not be at full power. Or maybe she doesn't want to waste the mana or she simply doesn't realize she's racing against the clock or she would have teleported herself and her army right back to outside Canterlot's shield already. Still, better safe than sorry. The rune in Ponyville is already completed. But none of them can be activated beforehoof besides the Central one. Have the workforce redirect their energies into setting up an anti-teleportation wards in these locations around Canterlot's mountain...it won't stop Princess Luna from coming those ways the old-fashioned way, but at least we'll see her coming. I don't want to lose you, dear Shining, but the more effort Princess Luna or her troops put into breaking through the shield is less effort they'll have to fight us, and more time for the rune's completion. I expect you to keep that shield up until the rune is complete or until your final breath, unless plans change. Understand, dear?"

"Uh-huh," the stallion mechanically nodded.

"You are truly a monster, Chrysalis," Celestia said flatly.

"Monsters are just animals that ponies are scared of and refuse to understand," Sweetie Belle said to the princess, the smile never leaving her face.

"Does it fill you with pleasure to corrupt a child, Chrysalis?"

"'Corrupt?'" Chrysalis stroked Sweetie's mane not even LOOKING at the princess. "Psh. We're all thrown into this world with no instructions, no guide, never asked if we wanted to even be in this world. We're all 'corrupted' from what we started out to what our parents and teacher decide we should be. It's the nature of the beast."

"There's a special place in Pony Hell for ponies like you."

"Thanks. I'm glad I'm special."

"Are ya sure Ah can't make ya some treats, Sweetie?" Applejack offered.

Chrysalis again didn't even look at the pony, "Sorry, property, I can't be letting you out of my sight until I'm certain you've been completely broken in. I've simply shut off my dear Shining's self-determination. You are Sweetie Belle's work. The sooner your inner self crumbles into dust, the sooner I'll be happy with her, and the sooner she'll be happy."

"So, feeling completely submissive to mine and Chryssy's will yet, Applejack?" Sweetie Belle asked brightly.

"NO!"

"Oh," Sweetie said disappointed, "Okay, I guess I can wait."

"It's okay Sweetie, these things take time."

"Discord did it a lot faster and a lot more effective than ya Yer Majesty," AJ said matter of fact. "He made me practically brainwash mahself! Ah didn't even think of mahself as brainwashed. Ah was lying like a mattress and seeing truth as somethin' that ya should cherry pick for what YA want and didn't see a thing wrong with it! Ah can feel every rope, every shackle, every piano wire ya got around mah brain and heart right now! Discord made me fight mahself! Ah'm fightin' ya every inch of the way! The best ya can do at the pace he can is zombies! He created a WHOLE NEW PERSONALITY AND PERSON outta his own mumbo-jumbo and Fluttershy's worst feelin's with a freakin' touch! Compared ta him, yer an amateur!"

Chrysalis kicked Applejack in the jaw so hard, the palomino mare went flyin and skidded around the floor. Applejack got up to her hooves, feeling teeth loose.

"Never say that again, property. And get a medic in here," Chrysalis said irritably, "she's bleeding on my carpet."

Celestia took notice of the Queen's reaction, but said nothing. 'Stay strong, Applejack. You forced yourself to look into the Truth for longer than anyone I have ever known, force yourself to hold together with that same determination...'

"And that's why you shouldn't say not-nice things Applejack," said Sweetie Belle waving a hoof.

"The rune is to be completed before Princess Luna sets hoof in Canterlot again, make sure my foremare understands that."

"Yes, my queen!"

A pink filly with no reflection, no shadow, no magical aura, or any other trace of her presence sat outside one of the great hall's windows, watching the show, and frowned. 'Best help along Mr. Fancy Pant's scheme, or Papa and me are both sunk before Luna even gets here.' The filly bearing the star-of-eight on her flank vanished, leaving no trace she had left or that she had ever been there.

+++

"Rune at 81% completion. And sadly, unlike you, Twilight Sparkle, I know how to write my instructions in laypony's terms," Half-Light Dusk sighed. She stood on top of a domed building, surrounded by floating parchments, quills, and illusionary diagrams. Lacking time to commission a new crystal ball for herself, the changelings had been flying back and forth to get updates from her, one carrier always flying to the queen, and one flying back from her.

It was slower going with Digger Wasp MIA or they'd be at 91% by now. Chrysalis wanted to know the instant the rune was ready for activation whether the others were ready or not.

There was nothing sneaky about her bodyguards. The changelings, disguised as royal guards o, stood on each corner of the roof the dome stood on, with another guard on each corner of each ledge of each floor all the way to ground level, and some in the basement just in case some ponies decided to dig their way in.

Ponies, along with changeling infiltrators who had failed their enlistment tests, were being equally worked like dogs. The guards made no distinction when they were so fearful of their Queen's anger if the rune was not finished sooner.

None could detect the pinkish faded shadow that slithered like a serpent along the walls and streets, and coiled along one of the ropes connecting the repurposed plow to the tiring Earth pony mare, which then broke with the slightly touch of chaos and the rope realizing it would wear out and unravel eventually, so might as well get it over with.

"What do you think you're doing?!" The nearby Guard snapped.

"I'm not doing anything!" The mare protested.

"You damaged this section! Now the moonsent thing needs to be paved and started over! You know how much time that takes?"

"A lot more if you're going to just complain about it!"

-

"I've gotta ask, you ponies have always been asking questions about others, what they want, what their hopes and dreams are, but what about YOU! What do you want?" Spitfire asked Noon as they continued to inch along, putting their lightning fast speed to good use avoiding guards.

-

"You've helped me so much filly," said Filthy Rich as they got near the construction sight of the last fifth of the rune, "I need to know, is there anything YOU want?"

"We aren't meant to think about that."

-

"It's not part of our job description to have desires. We just have a job to do." Noon said, think of where her slacking off had led. She should have been there with Dusk when the older mare had been interviewing Chrysalis.

"If anypony deserves to have wants, it's you!"

"Life isn't about what you deserve!"

-

"Don't say that!" Said Golden Tiara, "You're a little filly! You deserve to be happy!"

"There...are lots of little fillies who deserve to be happy but aren't." She had been playing when she should have been helping, now Dusk was in big trouble.

"Then I want YOU to have what you want all the more! Please! You work so hard for everypony, isn't there something you want?"

"I...I dunno, wait, I know, I think. I got it! I want ponies to be happy! I want them to see, to learn, to grow, to be curious, to ask questions, to see and know!"

-

"Maybe not! But you won't get anywhere until YOU KNOW where you're going, so come on, what do you want out of life?" Spitfire asked.

"I want ponies to not give up just because things get tough, I want them to see their dreams to the end, and I want the roads they take to the point in the right direction."

"That's what you want for others, what do you want for yourself?"

-

"Those are nice things, dear," Golden said, "But those are nice things for other ponies, isn't there something you want for you? I do."

Dawn was struck dumb by Golden's words. Peewee waved his wing in front of her to no effect. Golden was worried for the filly until she slowly answered, like the very concept of what she was saying was forming and coming together as she spoke it, "I . . I want friends! I want friends who are friends I made on my own, not just friends who were friends with Mama or our family, friends I earned and grew to know. I want friends."

-

Noon was silent for a time, until she finally spoke, sounding not intense of wild, but, wistful, "I guess...I want to go home."

"Home?"

"This world is nice and all, it's our responsibility to see it stays nice for now. But...we're just visitors. I want to go home, and see, hear, and smell things for myself, not just from what Mom gave to me, I want to experience all those things, not just remember them. And meet Mom's family, not just this world's version of them....I want to go home."

"HEH!" Spitfire said, "A better answer."

--

"That's a good answer, sweetie," Golden said. "Fillies need something to reach for, to want to be. A filly that doesn't think of herself is nice...not to mention rare, but please, remember that sometimes wanting something good for yourself is part of growing up too."

-

"So do you have a plan for how we get out after?" Spitfire said, "You said after you got your sister de-zombified, you'd all becomes 'guardian angels' again?"

"We're not angels."

"Sorry, 'demigods', 'aspects', 'spirits.' Didn't realize that was an insult."

"It isn't. Angels are either mortal who either earned their wings by their works or took a burden on themselves after death, or spirits created to serve as messengers between concepts of reality and mortals. It's a compliment I don't think I deserve right now."

"Touchy little nitpicker, ain't ya? Well, anyway, I'm guessing that's your ticket out from all the changelings around. But what about us?"

Noon couldn't answer. She folded her wings and lowered her head, looking away. "I...I haven't been able to think of anything. Dusk is the thinker, not me. Look, if you want to back out now, I won't blame you. Leave if you want to, no one will blame you."

"You already gave me the 'if you choose to do this there's no turning back speech' and I said I wouldn't, so let's keep moving! This is about Canterlot and Equestria, not us!" They flew close to the tall domed building.

-

"So...where do we go after you and your sister are united again?" TLC asked.

"I...I dunno," Dawn said sadly realizing she hadn't once thought about what would happen to her friends. They couldn't take them with them. Peewee wasn't supposed to be alive, so he wasn't tethered to things. They all were. "I'm really really really sorry...I'm Happy Beginnings, I'm...not good at thinking things through after that..."

The adults looked at each other, then at the filly, and at last at the tower.

Filthy Rich spoke, "Alright, dear, then let's focus on getting your sister back," they got close to the tall domed building. "And don't ask us to turn back. I owe you too much to do that."

+++

(Half Light Dawn's notes: Is time in flux again? Is fate in flux? I know this story is supposed to have a happy ending. But is it going to be happy because we'll all be MADE to be happy slaves for the queen? No! That would never happen! Wait! I can feel it! Somepony else is here too!)

(Half Light Noon's notes: We weren't supposed to be part of the story. We weren't supposed to have roles. Our job was just to help nudge ponies along like mom did. To be the 'good Alicorn' on their shoulders. Now I've gotta to save my own sister from one of the villains. And this one ain't out to make the world happy and safe like Nightmare Whisper. Dang it. And I barely know half of what's going on. I'm just following my gut instinct and what little I do know. So this is what it's like for everypony else. Pretty sure we've gotten spoiled. Wait a tick', I know this feelin'!)

+++

"So all we gotta do is get all back together."

"And undo Dusk's seal."

"We can help ponies by asking the right question."

"And that'll REALLY throw some wrenches in that pretty intricate scheme of Chrysalis'!"

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Part 19
Family And Friends
EDITED BY LOUIS BADALAMENT

Half-Light Noon, "Are do these ponies make informed decisions when they don't know anything for sure? I'm feeling freaked out here being trapped in three dimensions!"

Scootaloo, "YEAH! WE SAVED SPIKE! We're heroes!"

Rarity, "Yes . . . yes you are."

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Wedding-Arc-Part-18-CMC-Dragon-Savers-446912120

Next Chapter:

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (always needs more love).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

YES!!! LOUIS BADALAMENT IS BACK ON THE TEAM!!! Thank you God! Praise be to God! You have no idea how happy I am to have him back!

Episode 180: "Friends Joining Up"

(Interviewer's Notes (Dawn): The following events took place with Captain Cherry Coke right after he and his group separated from Princess Cadence's group!)

We ran. Of COURSE we ran. Sure, we had a much smaller group behind us thanks to that unicorn's illusions, but we had two wounded and we didn't know WHAT these things could do. Oh right! Cherry Coke reporting!

"Dang it! Dead end!" Note Worthy exclaimed. Blueblood had been leading the way fairly well, but there was only so much hallway in the palace and naturally some ideal paths had been out of the question.

"We need to fight, Cherry," Caramel replied.

Blueblood gingerly set down his girl and got ready to fight. Was I worried about him? A bit. But this WAS the guy who put a jerkflank of a reporter in the hospital for crossing the line talking about his aunt. And we needed every set of hooves we could get.

The bugs came right at us...and then a little cloud landed in front of them, sparking with lightning.

"Hit the deck!" I called, us all doing just that as it went off, shocking the bugs bad.

It didn't knock them out, but getting blindsided from behind by a pegasus' guard baton I hadn't noticed was there a second ago took out some of them. Another got what looked like a tranquilizer to the neck that put him to sleep in a couple minutes as he tried to defend himself. Another ended up bucked into the wall next to me and knocked out cold with some kind of improvised club.

"What the..."

"Captain Coke? That you?" asked a familiar voice.

"Sergeant Thunderchild?!" I asked, blinking as a pegasus flew down in front of me.

"Ellis? Garnet? Gag?" Caramel asked.

"Good to see you, sir," called another voice. Three more guards walked out of the shadows, taking the rear and keeping an eye out for the others. One was a unicorn mare, the other two were stallions, one an Earth Pony the other a Pegasus.

They were also guarding two ponies, I think Ellis' cousins...Apple Fritter and Peachy Sweet if I remember right.

"Bombardier? Weaver? Diver?" I asked, blinking. "Thank Celestia, I thought we were on our own!"

"Wait..." said Banjo, getting up on his three good legs. "How do we know you're you and not the bugs?"

"Gag, do you mind telling a joke?" Garnet asked.

I'm not repeating the joke. Believe me, you don't WANT to hear it...I don't even know why he thought the image of Queen Tiamat in the shower would be funny...

"Okay, only Gag could tell a joke like THAT," Banjo said after the groaning was over. "You're him."

"We're just going to trust you're you because you were being chased by a bunch of these things," Thunderchild remarked. Logical assumption.

"...Are those Griffin War era crossbows?" Note Worthy asked, looking at the weapons some of the group were carrying. the Earth Ponies had what looked like makeshifted blowguns.

Crossbows generally weren't the best weapons for Pegasi and Earth Ponies. We had ways of using them, and pegasi had their wings to pull the trigger, but they were really best for unicorns. The blowgun was a better choice for Earth Ponies if there wasn't an alternative (and given our situation, we'd take what we could get), and since the guard dealt with controlling Equestria's resident monster population, knowing how to use one was taught in basic.

I was feeling like we were at the start of a roleplay campaign when you're just grabbing whatever weapons you can find in chests...You heard nothing.

"Replicas, technically. Thunderchild's idea, said he saw it in a play," Bombardier replied. "We realized these things would be guarding the armories and needed, so we went to the museum and broke some out of storage."

"And it helps that most of the Guard being...missing in action means that it was more or less unguarded and empty. The creatures don't seem to care about our history too much," Weaver said, dipping her head slightly as she put the crossbow down. I always thought it was interesting her magic was almost the same color as Celestia's. "I'm sorry all this happened..."

"Hey, you couldn't have done anything," Garnet replied, putting a hoof on her shoulder.

"Doesn't mean I can't wish I could have..."

I noticed the other two seemed to feel the same, but now wasn't exactly a good time to talk.

"Alright," I said, taking charge as was expected of the senior line officer present. "Let's find somewhere to hunker down and think things out before more bugs come a calling. Move out!"

"What?!" yelled Apple Fritter and Peachy Sweet after we finally had some breathing room between us and the bugs and we filled Misfit and company in on what happened in the wedding hall. We were currently hunkering down in the catacombs with our prisoners restrained nearby, still out cold. We'd chosen the catacombs because according to Lance-Corporal Gag, the Changelings had already searched there and seemed to have little interest in it in general.

Ellis remained controlled, but I noticed for the first time since I'd known him he seemed dead serious, one of his hooves shaking. Ellis was a nice guy, he loved to tell stories. It was frightening to see him this serious. But given our situation, it was probably in our favor.

"She messed with mah family, an Apple ain't takin' that sittin' down..." he muttered, venom in his tone. Garnet put a hoof on his back before heading to tending to our wounds, particularly Arcane's, which were the most serious.

"We won't, I promise Ellis," Thunderchild said. "But this isn't revenge, got it?"

I nodded. "The important thing is stopping the Queen."

Ellis nodded. "Ah know, Sarge, Captain, don't worry, Ah just got a little extra motivation than normal."

I trusted him. Ellis had been through more action on that world tour than most Guards normally saw.

They were also all pretty upset that Shining was under Chrysalis' control. From what Shining had said, Misfit Actual was tight knit and close.

"We'll save the Captain...no way we're losing him," Thunderchild said, the others nodded, but all of them looked pretty worried.

I remembered hearing from Shining about Ranger and Sunset's deaths, they'd already lost somepony. And being in the catacombs, that couldn't have helped. I didn't blame them for being determined to save him. Heck, I was his friend, I was too. And I'm related to the Apples, so that got me riled up a bit.

"Alright, so what intel do you seven have?" I asked, this having been our first chance to exchange information since we met up.

Garnet looked over from her work. "Their natural armor reacts to impact, which makes it resistant to bladed weapons, but blunt weapons like guard batons are still effective," she explained, then showed the darts they'd been using. From the looks of it, they'd had to juryrig them. "Arrows could maybe pierce it, but these needles are thin enough not to set it off if shot in the right stop, and they're vulnerable to tranquilizers. They're also predatory from the looks of it, and a needle spills less blood than an arrow or sword."

Got it, the predators might smell the blood if we spilled a lot of it and get the whole swarm on us, which we decidedly didn't need in the situation we were in. I didn't even think to ask about poison. Garnet was a medic and her talent was healing, using what she knew to take a life? Turning her cutie mark in the opposite direction it's supposed to go? I couldn't ask her to do that. And from a logical stand point, asking somepony to use their Cutie Mark in a way they considered morally wrong was known cause severe psychological and mental stress, and she was probably under enough of that as it.

Besides, we're ponies, killing a living thing was something we didn't want to do if we could help it.

"Sir, that's not the only reason," Thunderchild explained. "Like you said and Lance-Corporal Gag told us, they're using brainwashed civilians, and it's hard to tell who's a bug and who's a hostage they brainzapped. Using tranqs means we don't have to worry as much about accidentally killing a hostage."

"Considering how the Queen used Twilight and her brainwashed friends at the wedding, that's probably a good idea," I stated, giving a growl. Lethal force was always a last resort, so if nonlethal worked, I wasn't going to argue.

We had actual crossbow bolts and some explosives weapons too, just in case we needed them. I figured if we had to fight the Queen, we'd need as heavy artillery as we could get our hooves on. But that said I wasn't about to order my troops to fight something that had taken a hit from Princess Celestia and lived without an Alicorn behind us.

In addition to conventional weapons, Misfit also had a lot of improvised weapons they'd made at the restaurant they'd met up at.

We still hadn't been able to figure out why Shining's shield had left us behind but thrown everyone else out. We could only guess it missed us since the Queen clearly hadn't intended to do it.

"We need to think of a plan," I said, the only line officer present and thus in charge. Okay, technically Prince Blueblood was the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Commodore-in-Chief, but that's an appointment, not a rank, and he didn't know cavalry tactics. Staff Sergeant Thunderchild was in charge of Misfit in Shining's absence, but I still outranked him. Still, considering he had more field experience than me, I wasn't about to discount what he had to say. "The remaining Bearers and Princess Cadence escaped, so there's that, but we need to try and do something. They can't do this alone."

"I might have a target, sir," Gag said, ducking into the room.

"What is it, Lance-Corporal?"

"One of the Changelings I talked to said Long Haul is one of them," the pegasus said, causing my group to gasp. He hadn't had time to point it out on the way over while we were trying not to get spotted. It made sense, but it just made us feel...betrayed. One of us had been a Changeling? "Or was replaced by one, didn't say. His real name is Digger Wasp. Guess with a name like that he just had to be a mole."

Ugh...Life and death situations do not make Gag's jokes any better. I couldn't tell whether he was trying to lighten our mood or his.

"I bet ya he's one of the head honchos," Diver said, with the child-like excitement the guy had. He was a good guard, but sometimes seemed a bit like a big kid. "After all, why wouldn't they put one of their big guys in such a high position?"

"I think we heard Queen Chrysalis tell Spike to send a letter to him too," Caramel pointed out. "So you're probably right."

"He's normally in the communications room, right?" asked Ellis, still in his serious mode. "Takin' him down might not be such a bad idea." Gag nodded in agreement.

"The Corporal has a point, sir," Thunderchild pointed out. "Even if he's not there, if we took the communications room, we could maybe send an SOS with the equipment."

"Not to mention they're probably using the equipment for their army," said Weaver. "So taking the communications room would probably throw a big fat wrench in their works."

"And we could potentially capture a high ranking member of the enemy," I pointed out, after giving it thought. "Might be able to get some information out of him, even if we can't, we'll take off one of the hydra's heads and cauterize it. It sounds about as good of an idea as anything else. If nothing else it'd help the Princess and the Bearers evade the Changelings."

"Can we get there from here?" asked Garnet.

"Yeah, but the place is crawling with bugs," Banjo stated.

Prince Blueblood cleared his throat. "I could perhaps help with that," he stated. "I know this palace like the back of my hoof, including all the...short cuts. I'm certain I can lead us there as covertly as possible."

"Normally, I'd ignore you, but given you're the only reason we're able to strike back period, we'll have to take your word for it," I replied.

Judging by Gag's expression, the irony that Prince Blueblood had been the big hero wasn't lost on him.

Today has been the craziest day of my life. I found out Prince Blueblood has a fillyfriend and saved us all!...Oh, and there are bug ponies trying to take over the world. But given the Captain's luck, that's pretty normal.

Still, if Garnet could fall for me, I guess love can be crazy like that. Congrats Blueblood.

"And the Changelings don't seem to know who's a Changeling and who's not," Weaver explained. "So if we play our cards right, we might be able to get there without anyone noticing us."

"...Alright, it's not a great plan, but it's the only one we got. Let's get started."

(Interviewer's Notes (Dusk): The following events happen immediately prior to the liberation of Twilight Sparkle by Trixie and Cadence, with Corporal Ellis Bitter Apple and were auto-recorded by our notes.)

Forgive me if Ah'm not in the mood for stories right now.

Ah ain't gonna lie. Ah'm royally clopped off. That witch got her claws in my family and I don't know where mah little cousin is. The Queen brainwashed Shining. She hurt both my families, and you know how serious the Apples take family...

And I don't buckin' like lyin' and sayin' we're Changelings to sneak past all these bugs. Apples just don't like lyin' period... AJ... at least Ah'm having to CHOOSE to lie... please be alright, cousin... Ah hope little Applebloom is alright wherever she is too. And Ah hope the Captain isn't sufferin' too bad.

But Ah'm a guard. Lettin' my anger blind me is something I'm trained not to do. Ah'm just gonna use it to motivate me. Ah'm not gonna endanger the mission just to save her, but I ain't gonna pass up an opportunity to save them if I see it.

Ah'm glad we met up with Weaver and her brothers and Cherry Coke's group. Made me feel less alone. Cherry's actually related tah the Apples, so that's a small comfort.

And yeah, those three are siblings, weird ain't it? But who am Ah tah judge? Their family just probably has a ton of mixed blood. Don't know them too well, but dang they're dedicated to provin' themselves, gotta respect that. Still, Bombardier is a bit of an odd ball. He's into some girly stuff and seems more interested in stallions than mares, but to each their own.

Can't believe Blueblood's the one we owe for us bein' able to counterattack period, or he's got a steady fillyfriend. A lot can change in a few years I guess.

Now he's the one guidin' us to the communications room. Long Haul...Ah can't believe he was a Changelin'. Ah knew the guy, it feels like I got stabbed in the back. Same with Carpenter Bee. He was a part of the Harmony Guard, one of us. It felt rotten to know he betrayed us.

Weaver snarled when I brought it up.

"Taking an oath to somepony you didn't know was rotten at the time and breaking it later for that reason? I can understand that, I can respect that. But taking an oath you KNEW you're going to break just so you can stab innocent ponies in the back? It makes me sick."

In fact, those three seemed to take the bugs' infiltration so personally. Ah think we all did, but...eh, what you gonna do?

We left Noteworthy, Caramel, and mah cousins were back watchin' the captives. Mah cousins? We needed as many hooves as we could spare to take the communications room, but needed some back to watch our captives and wounded, so Captain Coke deputized them. They were Apples, farm work builds strength. They might not have combat training but they could at least help watch some tied up and drugged up bugs.

On the way, Blueblood found the room his fillyfriend's little sis was in. Ugh...Ah've fought a fear demon and a Nightmare Moon cult, and whatever some psycho did to the poor girl is just plain sick. Sadly, Garnet said in her condition we couldn't move her with what we had...but at least she was stable for now and Garnet was able to stock up on more tranquillizer.

Finally we got to the communications room. We'd had a good bit of time to plan and figured out most of the specifics. Quick ambush took out the guards outside without making a sound, then Gag used the stealth skills he'd picked up tah sneak up to the door and check it over, checking the door knob quietly, and running a hoof along the frame, especially above and below it. Then he knocked and said something in the bugs' language. He gave a nod and trotted back, giving us the signal the door was locked up and Digger was present.

"Bitter Apple, Bombardier, knock on the door," Captain Coke ordered. Ugh, I forgot not everypony knew Ah don't like just bein' called Bitter Apple, but he's a superior, and it's about time I paid these bugs back a bit for what they did tah my family and the Captain... Uh, Shining, not Coke. Cherry Coke's a captain, but Shining's THE captain.

Me and Bombardier approached the door to prep for a dynamic entry. Weaver kept her crossbow trained on the door, bein' our only unicorn. The others were either covering the rear or looking out against the wall to keep watch.

Dynamic entry was a tactic where you breach a door and then rush in hot while the enemy was taken off guard, hopefully subduing them before they can recover. Explosives weren't the only way (SAS had a lot of ways, includin' a special hammer for it), but it was the only option we had given the circumstances. The door was too sturdy to kick down and we lacked any other equipment. The point was to get in, then hit the target as fast and hard as we could before they could even react.

Me and Bombardier had had to juryrig the explosives, but I know mah bombs and Bombardier is his platoon's explosives expert. It was a tad risky to the hostages if there were any, but it was the only way we could get in and we'd done our best to make the bomb just strong enough for what we needed. Ah'd have preferred what's called a 'frame charge,' a special bomb that directed the explosion forwards, or had the Captain use his shields for that, but I had to make do with what we had and more or less improvise one. We all had multiple crossbows (another reason we'd raided the museum, we needed more than one ready because we wouldn't have time to reload while trying to take out an entire room in the time we had) or blowguns ready to fire one after another.

We'd checked the area for hostiles before hoof and I'd done the best Ah could tah minimize the sound. Thankfully, it seemed most of the Changelings were focused on finding the Princess and the Bearers or stopping them entering the castle than a squad inside it.

We got in position, Thunderchild had a special lightning grenade ready to go. Cherry counted down silently with hoof signals. When he reached zero, Ah set off the bomb and down went the door, Long Haul screamin' (guess he got caught in the blast, didn't have time to worry).

"Go go go!" yelled Cherry. We rushed in weapons ready. The unicorn workers (the ones who didn't get launched) were all brain zapped, so we shot them with tranqs real quick, but Digger Wasp dodged when we tried tah hit him despite seemin' beat up from the blast. We took down a few of the guards too as Thunderchild threw his lightning bomb, the lightning blast disrupting the radios so they couldn't report the attack and shocking some others enough so we could take them out.

Any bugs that were nearby we knocked out with guard batons or the improvised clubs we'd made.

"What are you doing?" Digger asked. He'd always been a calculating guy and sounded it too. Tough too, considering he was still dodging the shots we sent at him. "This is treachery."

"From where we're standing, you're the traitor, Digger Wasp," Weaver spat like his name was poison.

He just glared back like he had ice in his veins. "So you know? Pity, you will never leave here to tell anycreature."

Realizing that the long range tactics weren't working on Digger, the Sarge made the big bug fall back with a little lightning, then got into a sword fight with them. Running had to rush in and help him when it turned out Digger was too much for Thunderchild to handle on his own (Weaver throwing him a sword as he ran in). The rest of us were busy with the little bugs, and they were giving us more trouble after the surprise had warn off, but the radios were still on the fritz thanks tah Sarge's bomb.

After taking a punch to the jaw and being forced back, Digger Wasp dusted himself off. "It seems I underestimated you...Fine, now I can serve my queen under my true face."

He exploded into green fire and turned into a big o' Changeling! Yep, definitely a head honcho with that fancy purple armor of his. He flew up and mule kicked them both off him.

Dang it! Now his men all changed to their real selves and are flyin' AND shootin' lasers at us! That ain't fair! It's hard enough tah hit a grounded target with these weapons! Of all the times for us not tah have Audience!... Wonder where he's at, hope he's alright.

Meanwhile in Neighpon

"Doctor, I thought we were going to Canterlot," Audience asked, loading a crossbow with his telekinesis.

"We were supposed to, but the TARDIS has a habit of sending me places I don't want," the Doctor reported, working on some kind of machine.

"Doctor, I blot the Dalaks didn't blue you were here," Derpy asked with a frown as they hid in a large cave from death rays.

"They don't, these must be from this universe, like those Cyberponies I and my future self had to deal with. Good news is they're older models, so they have a weakness to stairs and I erased all knowledge of this world from their ship's computers. Audience, aim for the eyestalk, that's the weak point. We have to stop their machine here from-"

A massive roar ripped through the cavern they were presently in as Audience shot an arrow through one of the strange machine-like creature's eyestalks. before a stream of blue fire obliterated their ship.

"-accidentally waking up Dracozilla, well at least he took care of the Dalaks..."

Audience sighed worriedly. "I hope Minny is alright..."

Well, Earth Ponies have strong legs you know.

"Garnet! Give me a boost!"

She nodded and let me jump off her back and nail two of the bugs with a good buck to the chest, knockin' them for a loop. Diver flew up and let me jump off his back to tackle another to the ground. A good headbutt took them out while Weaver shot another out of the air with a beam of her own. She seemed to get a lucky hit and nail the guy in a sensitive spot for these bugs, took him out of commission quick.

"You help Gag and the Sarge! We'll handle the mooks!" Bombardier called, his family and Cherry takin' the lower Changelings on.

"WHO YOU CALLING MOOKS?! We have the same training as you!" A changeling snarled.

"And that doesn't make you any more of a Guard!"

Blueblood decked a changeling with a sucker punch, forgot that guy put a jerkflank reporter in the hospital when he was younger. He was still getting a bit roughed up though.

The two of them were havin' trouble. Digger Wasp wasn't the chief of security on OUR side for no reason, and Ah doubt he wasn't a big wig bug for it neither.

Garnet charged in and tried tah head but them, but got side stepped and made to run into Running.

"Sorry!"

"It's alright!"

Ah tried tah shoot him a couple times, but Digger just kept dodgin' or usin' his armor tah shield himself. Guy knew how to cover his weakpoints. He managed to disarm Gag and the Sargeant, but Ah got lucky and disarmed him when Ah charged in with mah guard baton. Ah had tah dodge when he fired back at me with his horn and flew up.

"Garnet! Again!"

She got back up and launched me at Digger for another kick but-GAH!

Ugh...He flew down when Ah tried tah buck him and nailed me between the uprights with one of his own...

"Dirty move..." Ah groaned, after landing and gettin' shakily to mah hooves. Ugh...That wasn't fun.

"I am outnumbered, what reason would I have to play fair?" he asked, giving Thunderchild a headbutt and trying to blast him.

Gag reminded everypony he had stealth skills and managed to surprise Digger with a buck to the back and knock him to the ground.

"Considering that's our overall situation, I think we don't have much reason to do it either."

That's when Ah noticed Digger grunt in pain when he hit the ground. Ah saw he had a piece of shrapnel from the door lodged it his chest, stopping him from bleedin' out. Ah guess either it hit too hard for the armor to completely stop or these things are more vulnerable in their pony forms. It didn't look fatal, but he was already hurt...wait...that gave me an idea.

While Digger turned and tried to blast Runnin', Ah motioned to Thunderchild and Garnet at the piece of metal in him.

Thunderchild nodded and charged up lightnin' into his wings.

Right as Runnin' got knocked back by Digger's beam, Garnet charged in and used that durability our tribe is known fer tah tank a punch to the face and grab onto a front leg. Ah rushed in and grabbed the other one, holding him right as Thunderchild sent a bolt of lightnin' into the metal shard.

"GAH!" Digger screamed as the bolt gave him a good shock. Of course, Thunderchild wasn't aimin' tah kill 'em (even if we weren't ponies, we still wanted to take him alive for intel), but the shock sure left Digger Wasp worse for ware.

He still had enough strength tah knock me and Garnet off him, but fell to the ground right after that, his body shaking from the volts.

He panted and looked around at all of us, Weaver, her brothers, and Cherry joinin' us after knocking out his men with Blueblood.

"Surrender, you can't win," Cherry stated, Weaver holding him at bowpoint. "Just come quietly."

The cattle...I couldn't beat them...

How? How can this be happening?

I timed everything. Everything. Absolutely perfectly. I've scheduled this down to the second. I even had that sick creature Kabuto help me make sure I had double and triple checked every possible factor to the point to an outside observer it would look like an impossible convoluted mess if they hadn't see it put together. I've spent every moment since that chaos demon showed me that future.

How...how could I...

"And none of this would have been possible, if not for the failure of the changeling spy, Digger Wasp."

"Digger Wasp failed in his duty."

"YES YOU DID Digs! You failed! FAILED! FAILED!"

"You failed. No more changelings! And just think! You don't even know what you'll do! Maybe it'll be what you DON'T do! Maybe me showing you this is what caused it! Just think! Think! THINK! You just know it WILL HAPPEN! And you can't know WHAT caused it! Be happy! Cause you're the last who dies! You'll get to see it all!"

No...It's...it's happening...this is how I failed...I...I changed nothing...

Jewel...Your Majesty...I tried my best...I did everything I could...It wasn't enough...

...Maybe I should just trigger body to eat itself... Then I'll never have to see...Jewel...My queen...

NO! If I'm going to be dragged around like a trophy until the end of my people . . . I'M GOING TO GO DOWN FIGHTING!

I feel every ounce of spare energy I have available rush up in me. I'd barely have enough love in me to keep me alive, but I don't care! There's one last service to Her Majesty I can still do! THIS IS FOR YOU, JEWEL!

Digger snarled in rage...his eyes. They...they reminded me of the captain when he heard what Discord had put his sister through. "You have not won yet...LONG LIVE HER MAJESTY!"

The guy almost took Weaver's head off with a beam and spun around with strength none of us knew he had, makin' us duck under his beam. Ah hadn't even seen his horn light up!

"Is that a magic surge?!" Garnet yelled.

Dang it! There goes all the communications equipment!

When he came back around, Ah spring up and give him mah best buck right in the horn before he can react, knocking him to the ground with one Tartarus of a hornache and lettin' us wrestle him to keep him down. He didn't seem able tah put off a fight at all now. Like all his strength was just gone. Ah know a magic surge takes a lot out of a pony, but that didn't make you weak as a filly.

Garnet tied a rope around the base of his horn as tight as she could in lue of a magic seal. "That should give him too bad a hornache to focus his magic."

He winced, looking up at us. He tried to charge up his horn, but Garnet was right. He waas helpless as a foal. "...Finish me..." he said, trying to stand up but more or less spent. "A lion who loses to a gazelle...is no lion...a soldier who fails his queen is a failure...a Changeling with no more to give the hive is a waste of love," he winced, looking up at up at us. "Just...please...Jewel...My Queen...I don't want to see..."

"...Fine..." Garnet said, putting the blowgun to her lips as Digger shut his eyes...and got a tranq dart in the neck, right about his armor. "That will put you out for five to six hours."

Digger looked at us like we were crazy. "But...but the strong kill the weak! That's nature! This isn't how it works! You're supposed to kill me!"

Ah actually chuckled. "You hurt mah cousin, Ah'm glad we just kicked your flank. But Ah ain't gonna kill you. If you think that, you got a lot tah learn about ponies."

"You...you won't wipe out the Changelings?"

"What do you think we are? Hooviets?" Running Gag asked. "Genocide isn't in our vocabulary."

"And..my...my sister?" he asked, lookin' like he was usin' all the strength he had to keep his eyes open.

"Is she a soldier?"

"No...c-civilian..." he stuttered, struggling to get a sentence out now.

"Then she's safe, we don't hurt civies," Cherry stated with authority.

Digger looked at us like we'd just proved the world was flat before he finally lost consciousness and Garnet got to tendin' his wounds as best she could where we were. International law, wounded prisoners of war get treated just like your own wounded. And we didn't want him bleeding out and dying before we could try and get some intel out of him.

Gag went outside to detour any back up that might come and we got tah work checkin' out the room and binding up the captives. We also scavenged some weapons.

"Dang it, he wrecked all the equipment," Ah said, lookin' at the room. We'd had to knock out the unicorns too, and they'd be sleepin' for a few hours even if we could break that devil's spell on them. The triplets had made sure to check if there was anypony we knew here but fortunately not.

"But that also means the Changelings can't use it," Diver reminded me.

"Yeah...but Ah guess we and the others are still on our lonesome."

Ah kept lookin' and... "...Wait!" Ah yelled, pulling a short range radio out of the rubble. "Captain! This looks like it could still work!"

Cherry galloped over. "Can it get out an SOS?"

"Nah, it's short range, mainly tah contact ponies here in Canterlot, but we could use it to communicate with each other if we set it up back at the base."

Cherry nodded. "At least things are looking a bit up..."

After handin' the radio off, Ah helped a bruised up Blueblood up while others started prepin' the prisoners for transport. "You alright?"

He wheezed a little bit, looking pretty roughed up. Though tah his credit, he managed tah leave a few unconscious Changelings in his wake. "Yeah...I believe I just bit off a little more than I could chew."

"...Your filly needs you more than we do, Prince Blueblood."

"...I know...I just wanted to help for once, you know? Finally do something with my life after spending it as a pampered waste of space."

Wow...never through Blueblood of all ponies would act that way.

"Considerin' Cadence is still at large because of you, Ah think you've done plenty."

He smiled. Ah never that seein' Blueblood grin would be NICE.

We grabbed all the intel we could get and headed back to the catacombs with Digger Wasp and our prisoners in toe. Once we were there, Garnet tended to the Prince's bruised ribs and the rest of our scrapes. Considering it was five on one, Digger sure gave us trouble. Though all Ah needed was some ice for mah pride. Garnet actually got a black eye out of it, but some lovin' from her fiance made that feel better.

"Hey! Look at this!" said Gag, going over the letters we'd snatched from the communications room. "'Kabuto requests some more 'cattle' to be brought to his lab now that his primary duties are complete, he wishes to start his experiments as soon as possible.'"

"Experiments?"

"From what I've heard about this guy, he even bugs the bugs."

After a groan, Gag got serious.

"I'm not joking though, this Kabuto guy sounds like a sick buck from what I've heard, whatever experiments he's doing can't be good."

Cherry gave a thoughtful nod. "...Guess we know where our next target is, where is this guy?"

"There's directions, can't send him 'cattle' without the directions."

"...Alright, I'll stay here with Banjo and Noteworthy to set up a mission control, think the rest of you can handle trying to intercept any civilians on their way to this mad scientist?"

"Yes sir."

"Hey! Look down there!"

As we made our way to where we'd launch our attack on Kabuto, Gag caught sight of a few of the Bearers and I think the Hoofmaidens in a spot of trouble with the bugs. Huh...Rainbow Dash does have a nice windspan...Focus Thunderchild.

"Should we help them?" Garnet asked.

"Captain?" I asked on the radio. "This working?"

"Yeah, what is it Sargeant?"

"We have a visual on the Bearers and I think Princess Cadence's hoofmaidens. They're surrounded by bugs and in need of assistance. Permission to provide coverfire?"

"...Granted, but stay in the shadows as much as you can, are we clear?"

"...Crystal. Open fire!"

When they managed to start running, we fired and took out some of the bugs chasing them with tranqs before getting out of sight and letting them look for whoever fired at them. Thanks to Gag's stealth skills, they didn't suspect we were hiding right there in plain sight. We couldn't catch up with the Bearer, but we'd at least given them cover.

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by The Editors
Friends Joining Up

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Wedding-Arc-Part-19-Family-And-Friends-447435859

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-Pov-Series-Wedding-Arc-Out-of-the-Background-450772907

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (always needs more love).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

There is no hidden geopolitical message in this fic, nor is there any personal message to anyone, it's just a fanfiction.

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

EDITS 2014 April 24th Edited in accordance with LZ's wishes.

Episode 181: "Out Of The Back Grounds" (Reunited Sisters)

Half-Light Dusk sighed as she sensed her sisters coming. She sent them away for their protection. Couldn't they think to do some good as mortal ponies? She was certainly causing enough doom as one right now. 'They should have saved the Elements, Shining, Spike, and Sweetie, and saved me for last.'

(Auto Record Half-Light Dusk)

Maybe I've been doing all the planning too much, I should have let them take the lead once in a while, let them test their own reigns. Let them make mistakes and learn to think on their own. Now they barely know how to figure out what to do besides come back and save me and then work on everything else. Are we really that crippled without each other? At first it shouldn't have mattered, but we've become more individuals without even realizing it. Mother I'm sorry, we've let the timeline you entrusted us with to go to hooey. Shining did his part, more than what you asked of him, we failed you.

Sighing again I said,

"Attention guards, an earth pony filly and a pegasus mare are approaching my position on the tower's roof from the outside with the intention of stealing Her Majesty's guidance from me. Both are innately powerful but have never engaged in actual battle before. Approach with caution and subdue."

"Yes madam," they said as the trained soldiers they were, My Queen was no fool, she had recognized how effective Equestria's training regiment was, so she had imitated it, or simply sent her own changelings into the guard from the ground up. She hadn't simply thrown this scheme together in a day, or a handful of months, this plan had been in the making for years and years, if not a decade or more. Every possible effort taken to make sure they remained invisible all that time, as they had for thousands of years. They had plenty of practice covering their tracks: covering them? More like making it like those tracks never existed.

Hmmm? The guards who flew off got ambushed and disabled. My sisters are not alone. Hopefully they're smarter than I expected.

"Two guards go for reinforcements at once. Rest assigned to me: come here at once."

They swarmed up to form a protective ring around me. Or were going to, but my sisters and their surprise allies struck first.

It wasn't any of the Elements, I don't know if I should feel worried or relieved. The Wonderbolts? I guess I shouldn't be surprised Noon, mother did style you after Rainbow Dash, and they are not the worst choice. Filthy Rich? Golden Tiara? And Tender Loving Care? Oh Dawn how could you! You foolish filly! How could you drag them into this? They're going to get hurt! The less ponies involved in this is more ponies who get to live their lives instead of having to put them on the line! Oh I'm sorry for being angry Dawn, I forget, we might all be the same age, but you carry mother's innocence and foalhood. Sometimes I wonder if we're fools for wanting to be individuals, we, the Aeon Tarot. While the Hunger Tarot does as is her nature, to hunger for more, to never be satisfied, for the emptiness inside her to never be filled. Or are we both just using excuses?

Oh! Right right! Let's see. I don't want to do this. I don't like doing this. But when you're under mind control it doesn't really matter.

Spitfire and Soarin' coming from an angle below me, and Noon coming directly above me, points for being fairly clever sister. Hmmm. And Filthy Rich and Golden Tiara come from one side of the roof, and ah, TLC and Dawn coming from the other side. I wouldn't detect them, but I would detect you, and I'd just assume you were all together.

Physically rushing me all at once from multiple directions? Not an illogical plan in of itself. Relatively decent. After all, multiple directions means I should be only able to focus in one direction, and by the time I've dealt with just one of you, the others will have been able to get in close, and fight me in melee. After all, I'm just an elderly mare with poor senses and poor reaction-time but very very very strong magic. So one or two might get hit by me, but between all of you, one of you MUST get through right? And after that, it won't matter if the changeling guards swarm you or not, because I'll be free of My Queen's mind control.

Dawn, Noon, I thought you knew me better than that.

"Heroic-morons," I sigh.

I burn away this elderly shape, my senses, my wrinkled skin and creaking bones restored to their prime in a moment. If Noon had done it, I imagine she'd have some dramatic call for it, but I'm not her.

"Twilight Sparkle? With a white mane?!" Spitfire gasped.

I hate serving My Queen's evil, being forced to write the 'happy' conclusion she desires, but I enjoy the chance to at least show a little of my real power rather than leaving it to rot and gather dust. Practice makes perfect, and lack of practice leaves things to rust. I wish I was a lot more rusty, then this plan of theirs would have worked.

Dawn stomps the dome ceiling, cracking it slightly trying to knock me off balance, it doesn't work. I telekinetically grab the pegasi, and four earth ponies, it was barely a work out. I am all the magical experience of Twilight Sparkle had as a unicorn, and of Twilight The First, and of the evil Nightmare Eclipse. And they didn't have a Rarity with all six Elements of Chaos or an Element of Magic.

They hung like ornaments strung in the air. Ponies below who happened to look up might have seen it. But sadly not many besides Pegasi are going to bother checking out the sky.

Dawn may have the earth pony strength of a full awakened Alicorn, but kicking air isn't going to help.

The guards converge. They can't exactly spit changeling slime in public. If there's one thing the changelings take very seriously, it's their facade, they'd sooner throw one of their own kind under a carriage than break character.

They grab my sisters and their rag-tag teammates.

"Sisters, I'm so disappointed in you, physically rushing me from several directions at once? Did you really think I couldn't handle that? All of mother's unicorn magic went to me. You really thought my telekinesis couldn't handle this many at once? I may look like I have the body of an elderly mare but I'm not a senile old pony who doesn't know how to use her own magic. Couldn't you think of anything smarter than a blind full frontal charge? Against somepony who can dish out punishment as hard and fast as I can, coming at me wide in the open even as fast as you were, you were practically throwing yourselves on my horn. I mean, COME ON, I KNOW you girls have a sense of strategy, did you think because I'm enslaved that I'd act stupidly? We know how Changelings work better than that. I want so badly to act stupidly but I'm not allowed. I guess this is what happens when we bicker and not work together like mother intended us to. I'm sorry this happened, I thought I could steer Her Majesty away from her choices, preventing the invasion all together, I thought because she wasn't truly a Nightmare or Alicorn, or a Draconequus, that I wasn't in danger. I underestimated her. I didn't realize that she was stronger than the one we knew of. And we're all paying the price for it. I apologize - wait! Where is-"

I suddenly had 'the hydra wasn't the doozy' flashbacks.

Peewee pierced the dome ceiling below me like a flaming comet, breaking through the crack Dawn had made.

He flares bright white at point blank range, stinging my eyes and blinding me for a few precious seconds. I fall off the soap box I had unwittingly summoned like a domino. I feel a pair hooves ram into my back with the force of a freight train, completely breaking my concentration, and freeing my rescuers.

Fleetfoot. The fastest of the Wonderbolts even when compared to Spitfire.

Sisters, thankfully I've underestimated you. My rescuers had known Peewee was coming, and had closed their eyes, the guards hadn't, and weren't expecting my telekinesis to suddenly stop holding my rescuers. My savers knock half the guards out of the sky, and the other half responds to the Equestrian training Chrysalis had insisted they receive and fly down to save their comrades rather than staying and fighting the enemy and protecting their objective.

TLC and Screwball attack me bare-hoof from both sides while I'm still disoriented, keeping me from focusing, and NOT 'playing nice'. They showed the same level of brutality they had shown in Screwball breaking free of the mental ward and TLC in keeping her in there. Dawn and Noon must have told them how tough I am. Good. That's it girls. Fight as hard as you can.

Filthy Rich rams me again with more power than a locomotive. With the same force that had saved his daughter.

They're hitting hard and fast. They have to. The changeling guards will overwhelm them if my rescuers have to fight me and the guards' numbers at the same time.

They know they don't have time for banter or apologizes, I hope.

I wildly charge up my horn and send a powered up electric field in every direction, shocking the earth ponies and knocking them on their backs. My sight returns to see Soarin' and Spitfire flying down on top of me, Soarin' taking in the lightning. I sent out a blast of Arctic wind to frostbite their wings, but it doesn't stop gravity that is on their side and I roll out of the way as they crash.

"A couple of stunt ponies can't match raw offense or defense against an Alicorn level unicorn-mage," I say.

"I am NOT just a stunt pony!" Spitfire swears as she seemingly sets her wings on fire, melting the frost and actually burning my side as her wing strikes me at the speed of a wing blade, Soarin' then returns the lighting I had sent out on my opposite side and I was shocked and burned at the same time.

Peewee dives in to try and get in my face again, one quick spell and he's in a fireproof stone box.

Fleetfoot moves in to add her number to the pegasi beat-up, but I'm regaining my senses now, and I zap their flight suits into metal. They gasp out as the skin tight uniforms became immobile and trapping them in place and posed like bizarre performance art. I can't resist the pride I feel knowing only a unicorn at my level could perform such a concise and quick and multiple transmutation.

Now Noon comes at me, she should have come in during the beginning of the brawl. Didn't she learn from the first time, wait! My telekinesis does't connect, what, an illusion? How could she do that?!

Three at once, can't take chances, blast them all, all illusions, had to be sure. Since when can she do that?! Two from opposite sides, blast them both, of course it's the real Noon that hits me, okay, she was no way she could have been invisible, I call foul, they're saving me but have some respect for the rules!

"Since when can Pegasi create illusions?!" I heard myself exasperate.

"Rainbows are just light!"

"You shouldn't told me that moron!" I hit her with a simple paralysis spell, then she punched me in the face, her body moving in jerking motions like a doll.

"And lightning is just electricity, like nerve impulses!"

Part of the roof contorted and actually broke upwards hitting me in the stomach hard, making me falling back gasping in pain.

Dawn kicked the shells that were once the 'bolts flight suits that split open and the freed pegasi dog piled me.

"And rock and metal are just earth," Dawn said happily.

Why did we all have to be Twilight Sparkle?!

I see some of my guards finally making their way back to the rooftop. I make a blinding flash at my much closer rescuers. By the time their eyes recover my guards are retreating and I am not to be seen. Can they figure this one out?

"She teleported?!" TLC gasped.

"No she didn't!" Noon swore.

Through our link -which I had momentary forgotten- she zoomed right towards me at high speed tearing some of her feathers off. Her head hit me in the stomach, and breaking through the illusion of the guard I had put around myself and tore one of my gossamer wings off and kicked me back towards the dome ceiling, the guards now flying back TOWARDS it, but Noon was faster. Her body was originally created to fight Ender Dash after all.

I created some floating crystals around my other rescuers. Dawn shouted "Duck!" which the adults did, so as the lasers connected between the crystals, the adults avoiding being skewered by the beams. Dawn hit the discarded metal suits and got just the right sympathetic vibration to make the crystals shatter, crystals were were earth too after all. The gems exploded outward and I was hit, making me feel a large amount of pain.

I hit the dome roof, and my sisters love tackled me.

Sis, I know we argued a lot, about stupid things, and not so stupid things, more so than I ever do with Dawn. But you're my family. You were the one who wanted to respect Shining as a person before he knew what a person was. You were the one who knew that we cheated with Peewee, and taking him back to our world would only be more cheating. That his...that his role as Spike's own little ward was about the only way that the Blank Wolf might not see him as a wrongness in the world...and even then it was gonna be a gamble. Or maybe giving him to Spike was just a pipe-dream, after all, Spike wasn't at the dragon migration, that means he wasn't there to save Peewee, and we aren't supposed to be here.

But there was no way Peewee was gonna be accepted by the Blank Wolf in our world, he's not like Shining, he's a normal entity.

Not to mention we cheated Mortis, guy's a nice Alicorn and one of the most patient beings in creation but of all the Alicorns I think he's the one who dislikes being cheated the most. The thestrals will keep askin' for Peewee forever, and being a Phoenix, forever can be literal. Might be why we're not on speaking terms with this world's him OR Rota Fortuna.

There are reasons even concepts aren't meant to cheat death without his permission.

You knew sis', we wouldn't listen. You knew the heartbreak would be worse the longer we waited for Dawn, but we didn't listen, I didn't want to listen, I wanted everything to turn out alright if we were just stubborn and forceful enough.

That isn't how things're supposed to roll with us.

I admit it, I screwed up. There, I said it. No disclaimer, no excuses, no still's, but's, however's, or though's.

I'm the one who always asks the questions ponies don't want to ask themselves but have to if they want to move on. But, you, dangit...you knew...just because somepony wants something really bad, just because they'll be sad if they don't get it, doesn't mean they'll get it, or that they should. You always look at the end results of things, that's who you are.

I made ponies make hard decisions, but you were always making the nasty choices...so the two of us wouldn't have to...You never did it because you thought you were better than us or smarter than us, you did it out of love.

And I love you for it too.

I don't like that you want to take Peewee away. I like him, and he likes me. BUT I DON'T WANT YOU TO GO AWAY! I WANT YOU HERE! I WANT ME HERE WITH YOU! I want Noony here too! I want us all together! We've always stuck together! Just like Aloe and Lotus, remember? When we interviewed them? And helped them remember their bond like Applejack did? I...I feel the same way. Don't ever go away big sister, and I promise not to go away either. I'm gonna make friends, and I wanna introduce all of them to you, because you're my big sister and I love you.

And Chrysalis' geass shattered. Suppressed Emotions surge back to the surface. Everything came back. My mind is clear. Hehe...good job little sisters. You outsmarted me. You've grown so much. I love you both and I'm so proud of you. Oh no!

"Everypony get away! The dome ceiling is covered in bomb runes!" Dusk screamed. She touched her horn to her sisters.

(Dusk Notes: I helped Chrysalis rig them so they'd explode if I was freed!)

(Noon Notes: Covered?! But that many will take out half the building, the explosion would ruin the rune, maybe, but it would also mangle any ponies inside or around the building! And the dust and-)

(Dawn Notes: But there's no time for everypony to get away! They're about to blow!)

(Noon Notes: You know we wouldn't really be breaking the rules at this point, just cleaning up our own mess.)

(Dusk Notes: There's no way Rota Fortuna would ever accept that answer for us fighting Chrysalis.)

(Noon Notes: Okay. She wouldn't. But Spitfire and the others wouldn't be here if not for us! And neither would this mess of explosive runes! And Chrysalis is kinda cheating anyway! And we did kinda sorta help Shining do in her child, ya know. But there's no way she'll object to us fixing this.)

(Dusk Notes: You are correct. Everypony know their role to play? Yes? Good!)

Seven ponies emergency teleported away, much to the dismay of Straight Lace when Soarin' rematerialized right on top of an ivory antique table in her employer's living room.

"W-who are...aliens bugs...from another universe ... uuuugh," She fainted.

Dawn brought down every ounce of earth pony magic she had and shattered the dome turned giant bomb into pieces, but many of the runes were still active!

Within seconds Noon spun a whirlwind, the force sending the now separated and smaller piece of the dome upwards into the sky, exploding above the sky line and hitting the barrier.

"UGH!" Shining Armor grunted.

" . . ." Chrysalis sighed and face hooved, "If that explosion is what I know it's going to be...shields holding dear?"

"Yes my love, the shield is holding perfectly," Shining Armor reported.

"Thank Rosedust for small mercies. Get me Kabuto! Tell that creature his playtime is on hold, he's back on making sure my central rune is finished, even if he has to engrave it himself!"

We who are not supposed to be within time, divine light shine, spread our wings and fly back into the sky, once again chained no more by mortal guise.

"Hey! Where'd they go?" A disguised changeling guard asked confused.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): I am no longer in your service Chrysalis.)

Sigh. What do you expect me to say? Curses, my property slips from me one by one? Blah blah blah, angry rant, blah blah blah, 'this can not be', blah blah blah, 'but my plan was perfect?' Or maybe, 'OH NO! the big angry spirit is here to destroy me for daring to try and control her maybe?' Pst. Which do you want? The 'No! Please have mercy! Just spare me!' pleading? Personally I've always much preferred, 'You couldn't have freed yourself alone! I held you!' The moment I saw my first other self before me besides that blue-blooded idiot, I knew fate would contort and twist back upon itself before ever allowing me to claim my hard earned victory. But tell fate this, Half-Light Dusk. If the game will cheat before letting me win, I simply have to change the rules.

I WILL stand on equal footing with her. I will no longer be her or anyling else's slave. Not her, not Cocoon's, not my flesh, and most certainly not that mad creature that thinks himself king of everything. He's next on my list. So tell me I am doomed, tell me I have no chance of winning, that I never had any chance of winning, I've heard it many times before, and I have proven them all wrong! I always grant those who look down on me their just reward. Send me to Hell and I SWEAR by every changeling that has ever lived, I will devour it from the inside out like a cancer! Tell me an infinite number of others have made the same boast and failed and were but toys for Havoc in the end, I will be the one to make that boast reality! Lock the gates of Heaven and I will break through them! Dumped me in Oblivion and I will claw my own way out!

I've come too far, I have struggled for too long, to see all I have made with literal sweat, blood, and tears, to crumble to dust now. I refuse to lose!

"Chryssy, is it true they got Spike too?" Sweetie asked.

"I'm sorry dearie."

"Too bad. I really liked dancing with 'em."

I ruffle her mane, "Don't worry my sweet bell, all will dance for you very very soon. I shall admit, Trixie truly showed me, she is indeed the equal of Twilight Sparkle as the Element of Magic. Change the orders, Trixie is to be taken alive, and eliminate Twilight Sparkle...unless I'm there to do it myself."

"Do you HAVE TO Chryssy? Can't you just make her good again?"

Chrysalis looked at the filly surprised. "Sorry Sweetie, but I'm afraid they won't stop causing trouble unless they're made to stop. I'm not doing this to make you unhappy. I'm doing it because I need to."

"Alright Chryssy." Sweetie said, remember what Rarity said about adults doing things they didn't want to.

+++

(Dusk Notes: Alright...we're back where we belong.)

(Noon Notes: Good, now we can bring Chrysalis' plan crashing down around her ears.)

(Dusk Notes: Noon, you know we can't fight Chrysalis.)

(Noon Notes: But it's our JOB to help the heroes do it and earn their happy ending...we just need to play by the rules.)

(Dusk Notes: Did you just-)

(Noon Notes: Hey, Happy Journeys include a lot of learning.)

(Dawn Notes: And Happy Beginnings mean you have to learn a lot to understand the setting and enjoy the story.)

(Dusk Notes: ...And Happy Conclusions mean being willing to look back on an adventure and see where you've succeeded and where you failed. Alright. Let's get back to work.)

(Noon Notes: Okay, lets check the notes and see what we missed...Okay, Twilight and Spike are free. By Trixie and Cadence and the Cutie Mark Crusaders respectively.)

(Dawn Notes: Trixie's okay?! Thank Super Mommy!)

(Dusk Notes: We've always said those kids could do wonders if they put their minds to it.)

(Noon Notes: Misfit Actual didn't get launched, got back together, and took out Digger Wasp, and are heading to take out Kabuto.)

(Dusk Notes: I wondered who did that. That's good news, it means Chrysalis has a threat she doesn't know.)

(Noon Notes: And Moth revealed her true nature but was accepted as a sister by Bon Bon and is part of Twilight's group.)

(Dusk Notes: ...Of all the things you just told me, I think that's the most surprising.)

(Noon Notes: Hey, if there's one thing Equestria is, it's forgiving. Now come on, we've got work to do.)

+++

Oh! There's that weird Pinkie Sense again!...But we haven't got to Applejack yet...

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Pinkie...as your friend, I want to say thank you for everything...and sorry I haven't been there to guide you through this.)

Oh! It's you! Cool! And no worries! I don't hold a grudge! I'd give you a big hug if it weren't for the fact you're a disembodied voice!

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Hehe...I missed that, Pinkie...)

+++

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Twilight...I'm sorry that I wasn't there to give you strength when you needed it most. To guide you down the path that could have saved you so much heartache.)

+++

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Princess Cadence...I'm sorry for not helping you in your time of need...After all you've done for Twilight, I wish I could have repaid you a little...)

+++

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Fluttercruel, Rarity...I'm sorry I haven't been there to guide you...I hope I can make up for that now.)

+++

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Applejack, I'm saying this to your heart of hearts. The part of your soul that refuses to yield. I'm so sorry. I should have been there to tell you you didn't need to be scared of your own gifts.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): WE should have been there, sis. Now enough apologizing, remember what mom learned? If you want to REALLY make things up to ponies, do, don't just SAY. Fix things in the here and now, don't worry about the past!)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): ...Hehe...indeed...Applejack, you looked into the truth and did not blink. You never gave up fighting to save Fluttershy's soul. You faced down the embodiment of your own potential evil and won. You looked at your reflection in Orangejack and were able to accept and embrace her. Your heart has weathered many trials. You are one of the most determined, strong willed ponies I have ever known, and I have known many. Please, I know the pain you are in, I was in the same. But weather the storm but a little longer, Applejack. Pensilis has always praised your will to survive, now is the time to prove his praise was well given. Do not let the Queen break your spirit. If not for yourself, then for your family.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Don't give up, Applejack. You've got a strong heart, just hold out a little longer.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): In other words, if there was EVER a time to be stubborn as a mule, NOW'S THE TIME!)

+++

(Dusk Notes: Shining...we failed you. And it's all my fault for allowing me to fall into that witch's snare. But may your heart of hearts listen to me when I say this: Cadence and Twilight are counting on there to be a you to save when they get there. Do not disappoint them...I wish we could be the ones to free you, but Fate will not allow it. Good luck, Shining.)

+++

(Noon's Notes You know, with the Blank Wolf...as it is, we could probably get away with a lot more.)

(Dusk: We could, but just because the lawgiver is indisposed, doesn't mean the laws weren't made for a reason.)

(Noon: I know. I just feel terrible that we can't free Shiny ourselves...)

(Dusk: I know...it upsets me too. But if we cheat, beyond balancing out what cheating Chrysalis was able to do with me, reality is what pays the price for it. We're an outside force. Native concepts are a PART of reality, we're just visitors.)

(Dawn: So what happens we do help lots and lots hooves-on?)

(Noon:...You don't wanna know. Remember what happened in the Lost Third Age, when the Wish Spell tried to 'quick-fix' everything?)

+++

"Wow! These magic newspapers are so cool! Miss Cheerilee told me but I didn't believe it. They'll really show anything we print at the school paper?" Alula, the Foal Free Press' new editor asked.

"Yes," Umbra Breeze said, "After ponies have had a taste of you doing it for free, then you simply charge a fee once it's become a part of their daily lives."

"But will ponies want to read the Foal Free Press again?"

"My dear, they were willing to read it even when they supposedly hated the articles printed in it. You have nothing to worry about. I've already made contacts in Cloudsdale and Canterlot to have the paper released there again, before this whole royal wedding nonsense complicated everything."

"Really? Cool! But...how do they work?"

"It's ... very very very advanced magic little pony, I doubt even Twilight Sparkle could fully understand it without going crazy. It's my own invention."

"What? But-"

"Trust me my dear, nothing is truly impossible."

"You know, I think Diamond mentioned you in my dreams."

"Did she now?"

"Yeah...she said I could trust you to help with the paper, but I shouldn't trust you to help out if things got tough."

"I am merely a sponsor my dear, it wouldn't be proper for me to interfere in things directly, at least right now. But I have faith in your ability. And I'm certain Diamond Tiara would too, she wouldn't appear in your dreams if she didn't would she?"

"I...I guess not? She also told me in my dreams I should make friends with tootsie Flute while her guardians are busy in Canterlot."

"That's a good pegasus. I promise my dear, the Foal Free Press will have a greater effect on Equestria itself than you could imagine."

+++

"Open up in the name of Her Majesty!" The guards banged on the door to Fancy Pants' resident.

Straight Lace opened the door, "Hello officers is there a problem?"

"Renegade Wonderbolts were reportedly seen inside this house by concerned citizens! We have the building surrounded! We demand their immediate surrender."

Dang it, should have expected this would happen. Captain of the Wonderbolts is hard to miss. I could hope that Fancy Pants talks his way out of this...or...

I look to everypony else. "I'm going to turn myself in," I whisper. "Before anyone says anything, trust me when I say I'm causing them MORE trouble this way. I was a guard, I know how much trouble this is going to cause them...just tell anyone that believed Fancy I did it."

"Spitfire, why?" asked Fancy Pants.

"Because we're a rebellion, and I'm sacrificing myself to make life hell on the enemy."

"...You'll be a martyr."

"Exactly...Soarin', Fleetfoot, come on. I can bail you out of this if these things think like Noon said they did."

We leave Filthy Rich and company in hiding, with strict orders to STAY AWAY from windows. We come to the door as the 'guards' look about ready to arrest Straight Lace.

"Don't bother him, I MADE them house us. He's innocent," I told them.

They prepared their weapons and looked ready for a fight. "Freeze!"

I put my hoofs up. "I surrender."

They blinked. "What?"

"Surrender. You know, give up without a fight?"

They looked shocked. "But...YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"

"I just did," I said, holding my hooves and wings to be cuffed. "Soarin' and Fleetfoot where just following orders, they're not responsible for any of this."

They nodded, still seeming dazed. Hehe. Figures, if they follow their queen as single-mindedly as Noon said, then of course they'd assume the same of us. They might imitate ponies, but I get the feeling they never cared enough to really try to understand 'em.

Hey, Noon? You there now?

(Noon Notes: Yeah. But I've got my own rules I need to abide by, so I can't help a LOT. But I can give you advice.)

Alright. So refreshing my memory, these things can't control me like they did your sister if I don't 'invite them in'? Just...I don't know, make me a zombie but that ain't too useful for them?

(Noon Notes: That's about right. Unless Queenie takes a direct interest in you, but hopefully she doesn't have the time to work on you and wants to conserve her power for when she actually needs it instead of 'wasting it' on you now that she's running out of officers.)

So not reminding anypony I even know who Rainbow Dash is sound like a good idea?

(Noon Notes: Very.)

Gotcha.

"I have the right to remain silent and if I do not have an attorney one will be provided to me," I recited from memory. "I've got an attorney by the way, she's actually here in Canterlot."

They grumbled, probably knowing I'd just put more paper work and delays in their path. And gave myself a good excuse to keep my lips sealed.

"What am I being charged for exactly?"

"Assault of a public servant and destruction of public property."

I kept my mouth shut. Anyone in the crowd who was in on Fancy's plan would know what that really meant, which was my intention. I take a peak around. Good, they're curious about what happened. Hehe.

Not only that, I CAN'T be a bug because they all got 'booted out' except 'Queen Cadence'. Right? Looks like the bugs need some new excuses.

(Noon Notes: And their PR guy is presently being held as a prisoner of war by some rebels somewhere. But they can STILL SAY you're under mind control. Though you publicly surrendering when the captain of the Wonderbolts would be useful to keep around is probably going to be hard to explain that way.)

Hehe. Good. I never thought I'd be thankful for good old paper work. I give Soarin' a kiss goodbye and Fleetfoot a hug. Be careful guys.

+++

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by Alex Warlorn
Out Of the Background

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Friends-Joining-Up-449725721

Next Chapter:

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (always needs more love).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Episode 182: "Best Laid Plans"

+++

Breakfast at the church consisted of pop-tarts and cereal (frosted oats and marshmallows), all from Pinkie Pie's 'breakfast party' supplies. Though she complained that her 'on pony' supplies to host breakfast for nineteen ponies was spreading herself thin. Where she was even hiding all of this on her person were questions Twilight explained to the uninitiated were better left unexplored.

"Something that Twilight Sparkle doesn't want to investigate?" asked Twinkle Shine.

"No, something she tried and ended up facing a Bog Hydra in the process."

Twinkle Shine merely blinked in confusion, trying to comprehend it.

"Hey guys!" Pinkie Pie waving a stack of papers titled 'A Canterlot Wedding Part 1 And Part 2', "I finally found a copy of the script!" The pink pony began to speed read through the pages, "Dang we've really gone off the rails." She sighed. "Well this is useless." She tossed it over her shoulder never to be seen again.

"Hey, Twilight," Spike asked, "You've seen Shining's magic in action before right? There's no way your brother can have more mana than you. So why don't you just use his shield spell yourself, and squash these disgusting bugs against a magic shield or send them flying back to the badlands where they came from?" He looked at the nearest 'disgusting bug', "Uh, except Moth of course!"

Twilight sighed. "First. I wasn't the Element of Magic the last time I saw him using his magic. Second, I can copy his spell, but he's still had more practice with it than me."

"You saw him use it when Chrysalis forced him to send Luna and our army over the horizon!"

"Shining's shield magic is incredibly strong, Spike," Twilight explained. "Not only is it his special talent, he's a very powerful unicorn. When he was little, dad said some ponies wanted to have his horn sealed or cut off out of fear, just like with me."

Rainbow shuddered, Cadence snarled slightly. "Ugh, know how you both feel. I still remember when someone said they should clip my wings after I did my first Rainboom."

Trixie blinked, then gave a shudder of her own. "For once, Trixie is glad she didn't display immense magic power until she got older..."

"Don't worry, there's NO way in Equestria the Princesses would let somepony do that to a filly," Rainbow Dash replied.

"I can confirm that," Cadence added.

"But the point is, while I've got more mana than Shining, Shining's STILL a very strong unicorn and a lot more skilled than I am."

Trixie rubbed her chin. "What if me and you tried to combine our magic to do it?"

"That'd be a lot stronger, but you saw how Shining acted when that...that WITCH made him do that!" Twilight snarled.

Cadence put a wing on her back. "Calm down Twilight, we'll get him back..."

"...I know but...poor Shining...he LIVES to protect ponies...I can't imagine how he feels in his heart right now..." the purple pony muttered.

"Twilight, that reminds me," said Rarity. "You should probably put every anti-brainwashing spell you know on all of us. Even if their magic works best when 'invited in', I'd rather not run the risk of one of us being brainwashed."

"...Why do you think I would I know anti-brainwashing spells?"

"Because you're Twilight, and this is the third time we've had to deal with brainwashing villains," the mare said, lightly looking to the Flutters. "You'd naturally have studied some in preparation for another one."

"You're right, I have studied them, though there's no real way to test if they'd work on Changeling mind magic, we'd need a...Changeling..."

Everypony looked to Moth.

"Changeling magic requires either eye contact or touching them with our horn. Even brute force brainwashing or Chrysalis. Any kind of spell that would prevent that should work," the changeling defector explained.

Twilight nodded. "Alright, then I might have some that will work, and Spike."

"Yes?"

"Third, if I did use BBBFF's spell with Trixie's help, there is nothing to keep changelings from being crushed into paste if they're between the spell shield and a wall!"

"We're out to save Equestria!"

"And I promised that I won't become a killer! It's NOT the pony way! And we don't know how many other changelings there are like Moth! Hiding and scared for their lives! I'd be 'getting rid of' the innocent along with the guilty! And my mind was swimming in mind control magic at the time, I have no idea if I instinctively copied it right or not, I'd need to test it. Which even if it worked, I won't do it."

"All because you might exterminate some GOOD bugs that might not even exist?"

"YES!" Twilight Sparkle said back.

"Um..." Fluttershy said. "You both missed me explaining...but I told Moth, she's not the only Changeling just trying to live a peaceful life as a symbiont...W-When I was Nightmare Whisper...I took them into my fog, but I didn't say anything because they weren't causing any harm. Believe me, if I'd found out Chrysalis was going to do this, I'd have told."

Spike sighed. "Alright, so there might be some good changelings...Other than Moth."

"I have some good news," Cadence said, "Chrysalis still hasn't noticed my song birds. She's been working ponies through the night to try and finish the rune ANYWAY-"

"WHAT?!" Twilight said, fully appreciating what that rune could do.

"-but it's been one act of sabotage after another. No sign of anypony coming to or from, like ghosts. Or every drop of bad luck in the universe condensed right into Canterlot. Like they're bailing a leaking boat. But it's never the same sabotage twice, and they're taking precautions against each type happening again, which is slowing them down more, for now."

"Sounds like we have some hidden friends," Bon-Bon said.

--

"You're welcome," said a pink filly emotionlessly.

--

"I wonder if Doctor has anything to do with this," Minuette whispered to herself.

"And don't forget that Digger Wasp disappeared," pointed out Trixie. "And none of us did that either. So we're clearly not the only ones that fighting back. And Chrysalis is looking for us, so she must not have realized who did it either."

"It'd be nice if we could get some reinforcements from any of the ponies that are helping us," said Twilight. "But I suppose so long as Chrysalis is convinced we're alone, whoever's responsible is in the shadows."

"I would be lying if I said that I'm not happy the Changelings are getting a gigantic taste of their own medicine," Trixie remarked.

Cadence continued, "The craziest one was...what was described as a 'a house committing suicide.' "

Everypony's brain broke.

"I'm serious, a house, with no visible magic, seemed to 'leap' through the air, sailed over a house in front of it, and crashed into the construction site."

"I remember something like that happening when the parasprites ate Ponyville," Pinkie Diane said, "Guess the house figured it was better than being eaten. Shouldn't houses know it's never a good idea to give up on life?"

Brains broke more.

"Why would a house kill itself? Why are I even asking that question?" Lemon Hearts asked, as one of her Angry Baby Lemons heard the tale of the 'house suicide' and promptly took out a bottle of hard cider that Lemon Hearts quickly confiscated.

"Logical explanation would be someone with very powerful telekinesis or a bunch of ponies using telekinesis at once," Twilight TRIED to offer a rational solution.

"...Am I the only one who finds it ironic we're talking about whether or not a house is capable of suicide in the same room as filly-sized walking lemons," Silver Spoon pointed out. "...And a giant walking lemon?"

The Angry Papa Lemon shrugged, having gotten back via a summoning spell that Lemon Hearts had used to summon his predecessor.

"Now now Silver Spoon," Pinkie Pie said putting on a graduate's hat, "Dramatic irony works best when it's NOT lampshaded and is left for outside observers to figure out on their own. Go sit in the corner for five minutes and think about what you've done."

"Dad!" Silver Spoon looked to her father.

Silver Tongue shrugged, "Sorry dear, she's right."

Silver Spoon sulked off to the corner.

As Rarity and Rainbow Dash both went over a morning practice kata, the two mares looked at each other.

"You know martial arts?!" They echoed.

"Darling, you've seen me fight!"

"Yeah, but I didn't know you've been TAUGHT to fight! You've seen ME fight too!"

"Yes darling, but I...erm...never thought a...'free spirit', such as yourself would have the...patience, attention-span, or erm, self-discipline for such things."

"And I thought you were too frou frou for sticking to classes teaching you how to kick flank!"

"Is THAT what Wing Chun means to you?"

"I practice Taekwondo, and why is a unicorn learning WING Chun?"

"It's just a name darling, and it's a beautiful style of precision and grace! Taekwondo is for ponies who indulge in brute force."

Rainbow gave an insulted look. "There's no such thing as 'brute force' martial arts. Just because I prefer a hard style doesn't mean it doesn't take skill. And you sure seem pretty brute force when you fight, I've seen you."

"I don't hold back when forced to get my hooves dirty. Fighting is a horrid business and you should end it as quickly as possible."

"Applebloom, what are you doing?" Scootaloo asked.

"Well, since Rainbow is practin', Ah figured Ah should too."

"What?!" Silver Spoon gasped.

"You know karate?!" Spike heard himself say.

Cadence, Fluttershy and Twinkle Shine stared wide eye at the cute filly practicing jump kicks.

"Rainbow Dash taught me, she started teachin' me before we formed the Crusaders."

"Daaaaaaash!" Scootaloo whined, "How could you teach Applebloom karate and not me?"

"It was just for a little while!" Dash waved her front hooves in verbal self-defense.

"Rainbow!" Twilight admonished, "How can you teach a foal karate? Don't you know a little training is WORSE than no training?!"

"Are you even a licensed instructor?" Cadence asked.

"Give me a break. She just wanted to see if it was her special talent. And if you gotta know, I do have a license. Just haven't really had a chance to use it."

"WHO IN EQUESTRIA would give YOU a karate instructor license?!" Rarity exclaimed.

"Why would you even have one?" Fluttershy asked innocently.

"It does kinda have nothing to do with getting into the Wonderbolts," Twilight Sparkle admitted.

"There was a course at the same school I got my weather management license, I saw it and knew martial arts already, so I thought 'eh, why not?'"

Twilight said, "Dash that only raises further questions! And seriously, you taught martial arts to a Cutie Mark Crusader?"

"They weren't any Cutie Mark Crusaders yet! They hadn't formed the club!"

"And seriously, didn't they teach you when you GOT that license to be responsible about it? You can't just teach foals 'a little' that makes them think they're suddenly experts!"

"Do Ah get a say in this?"

"No!" Rainbow and Twilight turned their heads and said together.

"Look, I just taught her a few basic moves, and I thought she'd be responsible with it because she's an Apple. You don't see Applejack and Big Mac pushing their weight around, do you?"

"Um...in Applebloom's defense," Silver Spoon interjected. "She never tried to beat me and Diamond up with it. I didn't even know she KNEW karate at all!"

"She doesn't," Twilight said, "an afternoon lesson doesn't mean she knows anything."

"Hey!"

Rainbow Dash sighed. "Look! If it get us back to saving our friends faster: Applebloom don't bend your hoof like that, your rear legs are too close together, don't stand like you're a wall in front of your opponent, don't move like you're fighting in a hallway, and don't lean back so far when you kick! It's not like applebucking! You need to keep your balance in the right place."

Rainbow Dash helped Applebloom realign her stance. Scootaloo, being Scootaloo, followed her instructions as well.

"There, now at the very least you're not going to hurt yourself," Rainbow said. "And here's THE most important thing," she said, clearing her throat. "Even if I don't always act that way, karate isn't just 'the ancient art of flank whoop,' take it SERIOUSLY, okay?" she advised. "And if I see you use it to throw your weight around like you're in a comic book or going all gung ho into a fight you're NOT ready for during this whole mess, I'm turning you BOTH over my knee and warming your behind till ya can't sit for a month, we clear?!"

The two foals gulped. "Crystal..."

"...But if you HAVE to use it to fight the Changelings, and I mean HAVE to, aim for the back of the knee, the throat, or the stallionhood or marehood as hard as you possibly can. But don't unless you absolutely HAVE to fight."

"Rainbow Dash! That's such dirty fighting!"

"You're a martial artist too, Rarity, you know that in an REAL fight for your life, nearly all styles teach you to throw away 'honor' and just try to disable them however you can."

"Even I know that," said Fluttercruel. "My self defense books more or less say that."

"...Point taken..." Rarity grumbled. Admitting the 'undisciplined' martial artist had been aware of something she'd forgotten was a bit of a blow to her pride.

"Wait, marehood? That works on girls?" Applebloom asked.

"That it only hurts stallions is a myth...trust me, when you've crashed as much as I have there isn't a place you DON'T know what it feels like to get hit in. Just remember they're not in exactly the same place."

"Now that we have that settled," Rainbow Dash sighed, "Okay guys, since nopony else is asking this question and the Princess and me almost ended up bug food for it-"

"Stop saying such prejudice things around my sister!"

"I second that, it's VERY rude," Trixie said, oddly serious.

"Not now PLEASE you two!"

Moth looked to Trixie. "Why did you stick up for me?"

"This 'Half Dirt Unicorn' knows how painful racist jargon can be," Trixie said, giving a small, sympathetic smile.

"As I was saying, since nopony else is asking. Twilight, Spike, oh, and you too Moon Dancer, where did Queen Nasty hide the Elements?" Rainbow continued.

"No idea, none of the letters talked about it."

"She never told us, Rainbow, I just opened the vault for her, I never saw where she put them."

"She never mentioned it around me."

"OH COME ON!" Rainbow Dash said, "Between the three of you, you have no idea?!"

(Noon: Sis?)

(Dusk: Let it never be said Chrysalis didn't learn a thing from Discord's failure.)

"Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll stay hidden," said the pink filly who wasn't there outside the church window.

"Hey, Princess," RD zoomed in a little too close, "You're Harmony right? On top of music and everything else, so you can sense where the Elements of HARMONY are right?"

"...It doesn't work that way Rainbow Dash, I'm sorry."

"Well it SHOULD work that way! Zap the bad guy with the Elements! It's what we do!"

"I'm very certain we can save the day without 'em if we need to Dashie," Pinkie Pie said.

"Am I the only one who forgot that we used the Elements WITHOUT the jewelry to save mom?" Fluttercruel added.

"Why do you keep calling yourself your own mother?" Moon Dancer asked, confused.

"I'm not Fluttershy, my name is Fluttercruel, nice to meet you. I'll explain later if we survive this mess."

"I still don't know how we did that," Twilight explained. "But before we can even consider trying to figure out how, we need Applejack back."

"Fine! So do we actually HAVE a plan? I fell asleep from all the technically details you blabbed through last night!" Rainbow Dash said.

"That's your own fault then," Minuette said.

"Now wait just a cotton picking minute!" Rainbow protested, "if you're going to explain a plan, ya should explain in a way the pony you're explaining it to can get! Not spend forever on a zillion minor details that have nothing to do with the actual plan!"

"Applejack's advocate Rainbow?" Rarity asked.

"Well, until save'er, somepony needs to be."

That quieted the group quickly.

Applebloom nuzzled the blue pegasus.

"...I'm sorry, Rainbow," said Minuette. "Just me and Twilight are Gifted Unicorns and Trixie is at least book smart enough to follow what we're saying. I guess we forgot not everypony can."

"Are you saying I'm dumb? I do have a weather management position!"

"No, not at all. You're STREET smart, and I honestly envy that about you. My point was you never NEEDED to learn the technical details."

Cadence blinked. "Wait, Rainbow, if you can do the Sonic Rainboom, why didn't you go to the School For Gifted Pegasi?"

"...My grades weren't good enough."

"Oh..." Cadence noticed the mare's 'just drop it' expression and wisely did so. "Still, weather management is a good career, you remind me a bit of a friend of mine..."

Cadence looked out a window towards the distance. "Thunderchild, Gag, Ellis, Garnet, Audience...I hope you're all alright..."

Minuette gave a look of her own, praying her coltfriend was alright wherever he was.

With that, the group settled a bit to continue their morning rituals and planning.

"Spike?" I asked, looking at the little dragon.

"Yeah, Moon Dancer?"

I took a deep breath. "Spike...I know there's nothing I could have done...But..."

He smiled to me. "No prob. I know that psychopathic witch got her claws into you...she got me too."

"...By using me. Look, it's like you told Twilight earlier...I just want to apologize for being the one she used..."

"I'd be a hypocrite not to forgive you, Moon Dancer..."

We hugged, just as friends being friends...it felt good. "So...how are you doing? I mean, after..."

He shuddered. "I think I'll have nightmares, but I'll be okay. The others helped me out. You? You...when that monster's brainwashing started to breakdown..."

"Same...after I was freed, it took awhile for me to break out of it. I...I couldn't even call her anything by 'her Majesty' for awhile until I finally escaped it..."

I shuddered, remembering the remnant of that witch's magic in my head. "But I'm better now. I can look at Changelings without panicking anymore."

"That's good..." he said, then looked down thoughtfully. "Moon Dancer...I know that witch has a habit of letting some of us through...How much of what happened was...I know it's not your fault but..."

I sighed. I should've expected this...To be honest, I've dreaded this for a long time. He was a friend, I didn't want to hurt his feelings.

"...A few cryptic messages I tried to get through, that was all...Spike...I...I don't like you that way...I'm sorry...just..."

"I know...I'm kinda happy to be honest...I didn't want to be in the middle of a love triangle or something..."

"Spike..."

"Look, I know I got my kinds of love mixed up. But I...I don't think how I feel about Rarity is different..."

I looked at him. He seemed so sincere...I guess whether he really loves her or not, me telling him otherwise...it just didn't feel right. It was Rarity's place if she felt the need...and besides, I was just glad to have my friend back.

"Moon Dancer...how do you really feel about me?"

I blinked in shock. "How I feel?" I asked, taken a tad off guard. "...You're my friend, Spike. I didn't want to hurt you, I never did. I never could without that witch in my head..."

Spike hugged me. "That's all I needed to hear."

Rainbow Dash looked around, Lyra getting pointers from Twinkle Shine about the finer points about working under Cadence, herself and Rarity practicing their self defense, Lemon Hearts doing whatever crazy ritual she did to increase her number of pet fruit monsters. Applebloom and Scootaloo going over what little she just taught them, Rainbow herself hoped they didn't get themselves killed.

Moon Dancer and Spike just talking and Rainbow didn't care about what right now, Silver Spoon still in the corner, Fluttershy talking with Cadence's song birds. Silver Tongue pressing Moth for more and more details about changeling tactics and fighting styles that she didn't know anymore than Mrs. Cake would know about the finer points of the royal guard, until Bon-Bon told him to back off, having apparently declared herself her sister's guardian angel. Pinkie Diane doing whatever Pinkie does, and going through her 'inventory' of any number of strange things from nowhere. Twinkle and Trixie trading 'spell lists' or whatever. And finally Cadence and Minuette were talking in circles it sounded like.

Rainbow Dash flew into the air in the middle of the church.

"Okay! Enough! We keep getting side tracks by everything! No apologizes! No excuses! Cadence just said the baddies aren't sitting on their flanks! They aren't just ordering take-out waiting for us to show up and beat'em up like in a video game! We all saw what that witch's magic did to Moon Dancer! Applejack, Sweetie Belle and Twilight's brother are all going through the same crude! We NEED TO save'em before their brains turn to mush! Before any of you eggheads say anything, I know we gotta think before actin', I GET THAT ALREADY! I've been asking all morning what we're doing, and I get just the run around! So will somepony tell me what the bucking plan is already?!"

"Rainbow language-"

"Rarity!!!"

"...sorry-"

"So Twilight! You're our planner, what's the plan? What do we smash, how do we smash, and who smashes what?! And how does it get us our friends back?"

"Well, despite Rainbow being slightly incorrect about the number of planners we have," Trixie said. "She has a point, we need to get moving."

Rainbow Dash flew into Twilight's face with a 'no-nonsense' look that was actually a little frightening on the rainbow maned pegasus, "Well? I'm waiting, in fact I've been doing that all morning."

"Alright, for organization sake I've divided us into three main groups," said Twilight, Trixie projecting a convenient slideshow onto the wall with her illusions. "Group A and group C will deal with the traps set in different districts of Canterlot. Group B will remain in reserve near group A in case something goes wrong. Sadly with the runes being 'Twilight proof' I'm mostly useless. Not to mention the other security precautions I put in if I even tried to help. Any spell I cast, or is a copy of a spell of mine, or anypony or anything I've enchanted, the runes will react violently and cause the caster or the enchanted to suffer terrible mana feedback, it wouldn't be pleasant. So we're going to have to forgo the anti-brainwashing spells, or the runes WILL react violently to your presence before you have a chance to wreck them."

Rarity Belle- Team A
Trixie Mid-Summernight- Team A
Princess Cadence- Team A
Rainbow Dash- Team A

Twilight Sparkle- Team B
Pinkie Pinkie- Team B
Spike- Team B
Flutters- Team B
Silver Spoon- Team B
Applebloom- Team B
Scootaloo- Team B

Minuette Colgate- Team C
Silver Tongue- Team C
Twinkle Shine- Team C
Lyra Heartstrings- Team C
Moth- Team C
Lemon Hearts- Team C
Bon-Bon- Team C
Moon Dancer- Team C

"Am I the only one who finds Team A's layout ironic?" Rarity asked, giving Trixie and Rainbow a smile.

The two chuckled. "Trixie promises, this time she shall treat her co-stars with more respect," Trixie replied with a smile of her own, Rainbow nodded.

"The two groups near the castle each have the proper members to free Chrysalis' remaining slaves, and each group has one of our planners and one of our heavy hitters. This way if group one runs into trouble or gets captured, we'll be able to free the others or if either group gets an opportunity, they can spring and free them."

Twilight produced a map of Canterlot via her magic. "Our mission is to cripple the booby-traps that are set up for Princess Luna," she explained, putting markers on each of the locations around Canterlot. "Team C will split up into four groups of two, each one heading to one of these locations around Canterlot.

"Cadence's song birds will be with each of the groups."

"We'll have to coordinate a simultaneous attack on each of the traps AT ONCE via the song birds," said Trixie. "And we cannot stress this enough, the attacks need to happen at EXACTLY the same time so that the other locations or the Queen are not alerted to what's going on."

"Each trap has a magic rune drawing power from the leylines, just like the main rune," said Twilight, drawing a detailed picture of each rune. "This is meant to power the booby trap. The runes were designed by Celestia as part of a contingency plan for Nightmare Moon and will cripple Luna if we don't destroy them. The positions were chosen because these are the only spots were the leylines are close enough to the surface to draw enough power to affect a fully fledged Alicorn."

"Silver Tongue and I will target this rune here," Minuette explained. "I need to freeze time for us both to get Silver Tongue into position to destroy the minor rune with a well place buck. Then, and this goes for every unicorn, we need to book it because the mana rebounding back into the leylines will neutralize both the spell circle needed for the booby trap and any magic spells currently in effect by sucking the ambient mana into it. If you're trying to cast a spell when that happens, it's going to give you the absolute worst hornache imaginable."

"That won't hurt my lemons, will it?" Lemon Hearts asked in fright.

"No, you used instantaneous magic to give them life, so that's now their natural state. I'm talking about permanent magic spells."

"Uh, shouldn't that be reversed?" Bon-Bon asked.

"No, it's complicated, and shush, we don't need any more soapboxes!" Minuette whispered.

"Do NOT cast the spell from INSIDE the spell circle, it will short out your magic," Twilight explained to the unicorns present.

"Right, got it."

"Twinkle Shine, Lyra," said Trixie. "You two cast a combination flare spell and sonic blast to stun and disorientate the Changelings, not two different spells, then dash in and shatter the rune with two bucks at EXACTLY the same time in the same place before they can recover. Once more, you MUST remain outside the spell circle when you cast them or your magic will fizzle out."

"Lemon Hearts and Moth," Minuette said. "Moth is to pose as a Changeling Guard and help Lemon Hearts, hidden by an illusion Trixie will cast on you and posing as a brainwashed pony being brought to work on the rune, sneak into the booby trap located here, in the Canterlot Market. Once inside, Lemon Hearts will throw premade lemon gas bombs EVERYWHERE to blind and disorientate the Changelings, then the Angry Papa Lemon will smash through this skylight here and destroy the rune."

Moth whimpered slightly and rubbed her nose, which felt sore just thinking about it. "Ugh...this is REALLY going to stink..."

"Sorry Moth, but you're the only Changeling we've got and this is one you NEED to sneak into."

"Last for team C," said Twilight. "Moon Dancer and Bon Bon will go after this trap here. Moon Dancer is to stand on this roof top here and act as a sniper while Bon Bon sneaks through this row of bushes here to destroy this rune here."

Trixie stepped forwards. "Now, Group A's job will be help me disable the ring of booby traps surrounding the castle. Sadly the ring is powered by four separate runes. Spike's gotten a guard schedule which hopefully hasn't changed yet, if it has, bluff your way through and claim it's an order from Chrysalis, don't worry, Chrysalis won't be handling things hooves on. This trick will only work once so make it count. Once you're in, some of Lemon Hearts familiars will attack each spot as a distraction, part of Team B will be nearby to help pull out once we've done our job."

"Remember Trixie, DO NOT use any spells you've copied from me, they won't work on the runes at best and cause feedback at worst. I've wired these custom defensive spells directly into the leylines and made them so it would be impossible for me to tamper with them."

"Trixie understands. "

"So you're sure these are the only traps?" asked Cadence.

Twilight nodded. "Yes. These are the only locations with leylines close enough to the surface for the runes to have enough power to affect Luna. It's physically impossible for there to be runes anywhere else because there won't be enough power for them to function. Alright, there's our plan...but I also have one final 'only do if we're ABSOLUTELY about to lose beyond a shadow of a doubt' plan," said Twilight.

"...What is it?"

"We...unleash the most powerful weapon we can think of." Twilight cringed and put one more game piece on the table in the middle of the hedge maze. A draconequus statue.

"No. Bucking. Way," Rainbow hissed.

Cadence stepped up. "In my vision, if Chrysalis wins, she becomes...someTHING. Something so powerful no one can stop her, not my Aunties, me, Mother Deer, Queen Tiamat, or even Discord. I saw them...all crucified like sick prizes on a hunter's wall. And she rips ALL the emotions out of every living thing in Equestria, leaving nothing but empty shells that used to be creatures," she explained, causing everycreature's blood to run cold. "So yes, what we're suggesting is if we're THAT close to losing, we free Discord as an ABSOLUTE last resort because if Chrysalis wins, HE loses too...and better the devil you know than the one you don't. Better a tyrant we've beaten once than one that we don't know if we could."

"...How would we even free Discord anyway?"

"Depetrification spell," said Twilight. "Maximum strength."

Twilight didn't want to say the VERY VERY absolute last resort was to shatter his statue and one of them sacrifice themselves to be his new body.

"With any luck, while they are fighting, we could find and hit them BOTH with the Elements...Or somepony could beat Discord afterwards," Twilight said.

"...Let's hope to every god there is we NEVER have to go with that plan," Trixie spoke.

"I think we all agree with you on that darling," Rarity said.

"Good, that's everything," Twilight then said in a confident proud voice, "Now that I've explained my plan in exact and concise detail, it'll go perfectly!"

"Uh, oh," Pinkie Pie whispered.

-Several Hours Later-

"See?" Twilight said proudly, "I told you it would go perfectly!"

"Huh?!" Pinkie Pie looking around in surprise. Everypony had made it back safely, and all the trap runes had been destroyed without a hitch.

"I still say we should have rescued our friends first," Rainbow Dash said. "Save them, we beat her, period, I'd say. This feels like we just wasted our time and risked for lives for absolutely nothing. We save AJ, we take out the Queen, it doesn't matter if those traps are there or not since we've saved the day already, so Luna has nothing to worry about."

"But the runes wouldn't JUST deactivate because Chrysalis has been defeated, she intentionally set it that way as a 'parting gift' if something happened to her," Twilight replied. "What if in our euphoria that we won we FORGOT to destroy them and Luna got seriously hurt on her way back?"

Rainbow sighed. "Good point."

"And," Cadence said. "Without the Elements, the best option we might have is me and one of my aunts defeating Chrysalis, so if we can't rescue Auntie Celestia, Auntie Luna's our only option."

"What I can't believe is that we ALL made it all the way back here without any of us giving away our hiding spot," Fluttershy said.

Everypony glared at her. Pinkie Pie braced herself...Nothing happened. Everypony breathed a sigh of relief.

"Fluttershy, don't jinx us like that!" Rainbow admonished.

"Yes, Trixie knows more than anypony how quickly things can go horribly wrong," Trixie continued.

"Sorry..." Fluttershy whimpered.

"Okay, so just to double check," said Pinkie. "We destroyed all the runes?"

Twilight nodded. "Yep."

"I checked it!" announced Spike, holding up a check list of destroyed runes.

"Nopony or dragon got captured?"

Cadence did a head count. "Nope, everypony's here."

"Everypony's okay?"

"Other than me wishing I didn't have a nose right now, I think we're all okay," said Moth, holding hoof tight over her sore nose to shield it from the lingering stink of lemon stuck to her and Lemon Hearts from the many, many, many lemon bombs Lemon Hearts had set off all at once.

"And the boobytraps are really crippled?" Pinkie asked.

"Yes, the spells required for them to work all got pulled into the leylines which rebounded too deep from the mana surging back in for the runes to work for awhile even if they were recreated in time," Twilight explained. "And only me, Trixie, or Celestia could put the spells back in place in any sane amount of time anyway."

Pinkie blinked. She waited and nothing happened. No jinx from tempting fate or sudden alert the others had been captured. She gave a sigh of relief. "Thank Celestia our they-who-makes likes to subvert conventions...sometimes..."

"What was that?"

"Nothing! Nopony here been replaced by a changeling or under mind control?" Pinkie Pie asked.

Twilight AND Trixie's horns glowed individually and they did a scanning spell. "Nope, no signs of brainwashing and no one here is a Changeling."

"What about me?!" Moth asked.

"Sorry Moth!"

"Wait, how do we know another Changeling didn't replace her?" asked Pinkie.

"I asked her a series of questions only my sister would know when she came back," Bon Bon explained.

"Yay! We were competent!"

Pinkie hugged the now lemon scented Changeling who needed some cheering up. "By the way, thanks for going through that for us Moth."

"...Thanks Pinkie," Moth replied, giving a small smile. "Truthfully I'd do it again to make up for what I did...but I'd really, really, really prefer not to."

"What does that smell like to you anyway?" Rainbow asked. "Cause to me you just smell like a hallway that's been washed with lemon scented soap."

"Like a forest full of skunks," Moth replied flatly and somewhat nauseously.

"Yikes! Don't blame you."

She looked to Lemon Hearts. "Not that it's surprising considering how many lemon bombs went off at once. Seriously, where in Rosedust's name did you even get that many lemons?!"

Lemon Hearts chuckled. "My little secret."

Rainbow patted Moth on the back. "But seriously, I'm with Pinkie, way to take one for the team."

Rarity nodded. "Agreed, darling. That was quite brave of you."

"Uh, all I did was let a bunch of stinkbombs go off around me."

"To me, that's incredibly brave," the dirt-loathing fashionista stated sincerely. "And even then, going into an enemy occupied area to help us was brave in and of itself."

The Changeling blushed. "T-Thanks...I guess you're right...Hehe...for once I was brave..."

"...Wait, if you have an exoskeleton, how are you blushing?" Twilight asked.

Moth blinked. "...I...have no idea."

Cadence chuckled as Bon Bon gave her sister a hug. "Twinkleshine, while we plan our next move, mind trying to get Moth cleaned up? I think she deserves it."

Twinkleshine smirked. "Gladly. I've got to ask though, is every changeling alive allergic to this stuff? I mean, lemons? I mean, we could just spray ourselves with lemon juice and tada, we're completely invincible against them? Throw a lemon at them and they surrender in seconds? No offense but it sounds a bit like Lemon Hearts' fantasy life come true."

"We're not allergic, it just bucking STINKS," Moth replies, giving a gag. "And no, that'd just let us smell you a mile away. Her lemon bombs give us trouble because they're weapons. Otherwise we'd not have any more trouble around them than you would going through a landfill...well, that and in this case she let off so many at once I lost count."

Twilight got on a soapbox. "Considering the yellow smoke the lemon bombs create is made entirely from lemons via magic, the scent molecules are a hundred times more concentrated than just lemon juice or normal lemons. Same reason smells get stronger and harder to stand the closer you are to them, the molecules are more concentrated. It's little wonder Changelings have a lot of trouble with the lemon bombs."

"Sis', I've seen you eat LEMON candies before."

"And you like ketchup on you hayfries but hate tomatoes, your point?"

"It's not entirely unheard of. Durians smell so terrible they're banned from many hotels, but many who can't stand the smell love the taste. In fact-"

"Twilight, we're having trouble finding room for the soapboxes you made getting your 'you're a monster, Chrysalis' speeches out of your system, stop making more!" Rainbow Dash said.

"Sorry... Now then, everypony, now that we've cleared the way for Princess Luna once we save my brother, let's go over how we're going to break into the castle and save him along with everypony else! This way, if things come to a head, Princess Luna and her army will be able to stand on equal hoofing with the changelings."

"We may not need to," Moon Dancer said.

"Yes, my song birds just picked it up too," Cadence said.

"What is it?" Twilight asked.

Cadence spoke keeping her voice under control, "After a BRIDGE collapsed on top of part of the rune, forcing them to rebuild THAT part as well, Chrysalis, or rather, 'me', wants to make a public visit to one of the theaters for a music performances to calm down everypony and assure them that everything is under control. And because 'I' don't want to leave, blech, 'my husband' out of sight after what happened to him, along with Element of Harmony Applejack after the trauma she's suffered losing her friends to a changeling witch, and her temporarily ward 'Lady Sweetie Belle', they'll all be visiting the theater with her."

Cadence found herself ringed by three foals, a dragon, and two unicorns.

"How long?!" Twilight asked.

"The show should last-"

"How long before they arrive at the theater?!" asked Silver Spoon.

"Which theater darling!?" Rarity moved in close.

"The Medley Concert Hall. I attended the opening of that theater. Sorry Twilight! Just a couple of hours!"

"And ya didn't think to say anythin' till now?!" Applebloom moving in close on Moon Dancer.

"We were making sure everypony was fine first!"

"That is kinda important too," Pinkie Pie said.

Twilight grinned. "Alright everypony! This is our chance! Chrysalis doesn't want to let her slaves out of her sight, but that's her mistake! She's put nearly all her eggs in one basket! We need to hit her hard and fast! If we can hold her hostage until Princess Luna arrives, the changelings won't dare try anything, that's what you said right Moth?"

"Yes. The Queen is everything, noling would dare risk her life."

"Exactly! This is our chance! We can't afford to waste it! We can end this fast!"

"Sweetie Belle, Big Sister's got you."

"Here to help Rarity," Spike said.

"Applejack, Sweetie, Ah'll save ya."

"Let's just save'er." Said Scootaloo.

"Agreed!" Silver Spoon hissed.

Twilight declared, "We're going need our heaviest hitters on the front line!"

"You know there's going to be MUCH security for her. There's no way there won't be," Silver Tongue said.

"Maybe! But remember!!! This will all be in public! There's no way Chrysalis could risk dropping her farce now!"

"Twilight, settle," Trixie said. "We're dealing with somepony who managed to singlehoofedly cripple most of Canterlot's defense, tried to emotionally destroy and murder me on the off chance I might be a threat, prepared for the event we'd free you by having a trap set, and put Spike behind several hundred guards," she explained. "Chrysalis wouldn't do this unless there's more than meets the eye. She's practically gift wrapped her victims for us, that is NOT like her."

"But-"

"You're the one who had her in your head, is she that stupid to assume we'd pass up this opportunity?"

Twilight sighed. "No...but we can't!"

"We might never get another chance..." Silver muttered, worry in her eyes.

"And we won't, but we need to take advantage of this in more ways than one, so if this is as much of a trap as it seems like, we don't run blindly into it and perhaps turn it against her," Trixie replied. Truthfully, Twilight's almost hysterical expressions had unnerved her (particularly when the foal seemed to be taking it better) and she'd hoped to snap Twilight back to reality. "If we put all our eggs in one basket, we're making the same mistake it appears on the surface Chrysalis has made."

"You're right...alright, so perhaps most of us go but we leave behind a team with a set of ponies who can free Shining, Sweetie, and Applejack as well?"

"That's a good start, there's also the anti-brainwashing spells we can actually use now," Trixie said, looking at the map.

"I have a trick that Twilight said I should be able to do," said Cadence. "That could let me fight there and help free Shining but still be safe."

"Good, that's a plus. Still, kind of a gamble to go into something that is probably a trap..." the showmare said, rubbing her chin. She then gave a smug smirk. "But if we're going to gamble, I think we can double our earnings..."

"What do you mean?"

Trixie floated up a chess piece and put it in the castle on the map. A chess piece representing a white, majestic Alicorn. "Guess who's presently not got a Changeling Queen between us and her?"

Twilight gasped. "Of course...Chrysalis would obviously think we'd go after the most tempting target, not double back to free Princess Celestia."

"Bingo. Sure, we'll try to save our friends, but if we're splitting up anyway, why not go after the big guns too while we're at it? This way, if we fall for a trap, Chrysalis is still returning home to round two with Princess Celestia, who knows her tricks this time."

Twilight hugged her, "Trixie, you're a genius!"

"Pinkie, did you-"

"It's okay Dashie, I heard it too."

"We're BOTH geniuses, Twilight, just in different ways," Trixie said, her pride showing. "However, you, unfortunately, will need to be on that team."

Twilight's excitement sunk. "Why?"

"Because even assuming Cadence has some sort of trick, she's the only one we've got who can match power with Queen Chrysalis. Perhaps with the rest of us she could win, but that's not the point. You said that Chrysalis was trying to brainwash Princess Celestia, correct?"

"Yes, turn her into a slave to move the sun and moon so the Changelings could survive after their takeover..."

"Now, I'm not saying that HAS happened." Trixie looked around and saw sour expressions all around at her merely suggesting the idea that COULD happen. Particularly the terrified expressions on the foal's faces. "Princess Celestia IS Princess Celestia, after all, an Alicorn, she tore down Discord's kingdom. I can't imagine how strong her will is. But let's assume...for...for a brief, unbelievably terrifying moment she is under the Queen's control, even partially. If we need Princess Cadence to have a chance of fighting the Queen, who here could break such a spell on Princess Celestia besides her?"

Twilight looked around the group...then sighed. "...You're right...me and Spike are the only ones with that bond to her and I'm the only one with the power to SURVIVE that long if it's the case, as unlikely as that may be..."

Trixie hugged her. "I'm sorry, Twilight...I know how much Shining has to mean to you..."

The others nodded, thinking of their missing loved ones as well.

Twilight started to cry. "Then why did I forget him? I...I said goodbye to him the day of the Summer Sun Celebration and didn't send him a letter or anything since...Now when he needs me most..."

Cadence nodded and put a wing on Twilight's back. "Twilight...it wasn't your fault you forgot Shining..."

"What?"

"...It's a...long story...but during the tour, Shining had a run in with a... an ancient creature...it wounded him, and caused everycreature's memories of his but mine and Minuette's to vanish for a while...made others have trouble remembering him..."

Cadence moved her necklace and some fur to reveal a trio of jagged scars hidden beneath regalia and fur. The present ponies all winced. "It wounded me as well, but being an Alicorn protected me..."

Twilight gasped, remembering. "Mi Amore Cadenza! I'd forgotten you were called that until Shining told me!"

"I imagine that's the case...but Twilight, you're not a bad pony or a bad sister. You just needed a reminder of your brother."

Twilight nuzzled her, "Thank you, Candy."

"You're welcome, Twiley."

Twilight nodded and looked back at the window. "...But that doesn't mean I can't miss him now...or...or..."

Cadence looked at her sympathetically. "Twilight...if there's something you need to get off your heart, please...do it now..." she said, in the comforting tone Twilight knew her for. "Before we leave and it can cause trouble..."

"But...but..."

"Twilight...holding in your emotions isn't healthy, especially right now. Let it out...No one will think less of you..." She whispered. "I admit I'm scared too. I'm scared of losing Shining. I'll admit that...if you need to admit something."

Twilight let her emotions finally bubble up, the ones she hadn't wanted to admit were there...

"...My Big Brother, Best Friend Forever
I never had to be afraid when we were together
For me he would protect and fight
(Best friend forever)
But now a monster holds him tight
(Why has our bond been so severed?)
Is getting him back just a dream?
I'm more afraid than I realized, it seems..."

Twilight eyes teared up.

"My Big Brother, Best Friend Forever
I never had to be afraid when we were together

But now I'm scared gone he will stay
I miss him more each day
My big brother best friend
Forever...
I fear I lost him forever..."

Twilight choked back a sob, as did several others. "I...I admit it...I'm scared...I...I'm scared I'll never get him back...I...I'm sorry, I should have faith in us but..."

"...Ah know how yah feel Twilight," said Applebloom, the little filly coming over and hugging the unicorn. "Ah...Ah feel the same way about...how would it go? Big Sister Best Friend Forever?"

"...I think..."

"...Ah'm scared too...But...we need tah try, for them right? Yah said Shining was always there for yah...Ah think he'd be scared too if it was you who was still brainwashed..."

"...And I know Applejack would feel the same for you...underneath the brainwashing she's probably worried for you right now..."

"...But neither of them would give up, ever, would they?"

"...No, they wouldn't...you're right."

"As an elder sister presently in the situation you describe," Rarity said, her face sympathetic, maybe a little teary eyed at Twilight's song. "I can promise you, that's exactly how they'd feel...They'd never give up on you, and neither should you."

...Rarity...Applebloom...thanks..."

"What are friends for, darling?"

"Yeah, what she said," Applebloom said, smiling.

Applebloom and Twilight smiled, looking back out the window.

"He/She's my/mah Big Brother/Sister Best Friend Forever And I/Ah will not stop until we're back...together..."

"...Thank you, Applebloom...I needed that..."

Trixie teleported over to Twilight. "Twilight...I promise, you'll get your brother back...I won't rest until you do. And I know you would do nothing less if it were my sisters in that position."

"I won't either. If my sister was in trouble, I'd want nothing less from from my friends," Bon Bon remarked.

"Me and Twinkle Shine are Shining's friends too, Twilight," said Minuette, giving a smile.

Twilight looked around, everycreature nodding as her eyes fell on them.

Spike put a claw on her leg. "We'll get Shining back, don't worry Twilight," the little dragon said, giving her a hug.

"Thank you..." she said, giving a smile.

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by Alex Warlorn
Best Laid Plans

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-Pov-Series-Wedding-Arc-Out-of-the-Background-450772907

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Big-Theater-Fight-452670303

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (always needs more love).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Before he left the group, Kendell2 gave me a number of songs and notes for this arc. The song in this chapter is one of them and has been slightly altered to fit the scene.

Episode 183: "Big Theater Fight"

Princess Cadence left the carriage (a royal guard at each wheel) with her guests. Royal guards formed two lines alongside the red carpet leading to the Medley House theater.

Princess Cadence moved proud and aloof, her horn held up high. Shining Armor and Applejack trotted behind her, faces forward, eyes darting left and right. Poor Sweetie Belle dragged her hooves at the rear.

"Move it!" Princess Cadence hissed, "I mean, sorry dear, but please hurry up."

"Y-yes Princess," The filly whimpered pathetically. "As you wish."

The fake Princess Cadence and her entourage trotted into the theater where a large number of Canterlot ponies were already seated and calmly sat down underneath a multi-faceted ball chandelier.

A warble tweeted.

At the signal ponies, hiding under a background image illusion of the ceiling got the drop on the royal party.

The real Cadence landed right on top of Shining Armor, opening her wings to slow her fall and embraced him, leaning her horn against him. "I love you dear."

Rarity gracefully landed with her telekinesis and magically grabbed Sweetie Belle, touched horns with her, and said, "Loving big sister is here to save you Sweetie."

Sweetie Belle spoke haltingly, "It...it was like I was just a doll again. I could think, but all I could think was what she TOLD ME to think!"

"Shush. It's okay Sweetie Belle, you're no doll, you've never been. You're my little sister."

Applebloom popped out from under a seat and hugged Applejack's neck for all it was worth! "Ah'm here big sister! Ah love ya!"

Pinkie Pie popped from the ceiling illusion using a bungie-rope and fired a set of party cannons at the royal guards knocking them off their hooves.

The fake Cadence was hit by a blue smoke bomb and then struck by fireworks at point blank range as Trixie broke her fall with the imposter's spine. "Ta-da!"

However, she made sure to not take her eyes off the impostor. This was Queen Chrysalis they were dealing with after all.

The real Cadence was confused, she knew love, and something didn't feel right with Shining still. 'Oh no, did the precautions spell backfire?!' She thought. Did Twilight's spells meant to shield them from love based changeling magic stop her love from touching Shining's heart?

"Shining! Can you hear me? Are you free?"

"Of course I can Princess Cadence," Shining Armor said.

Pinkie blinked, looking herself over...and feeling nothing. "My Pinkie Sense didn't...oh no!"

Every window and door in the Medley House closed tight and was locked.

"Thank you for your love, Applebloom," Applejack said without a trace of her accent. Applebloom's eyes went wide as Applejack slammed her into the ground, making her forehead bleed.

Rarity realized that Sweetie Belle felt a lot heavier than she should have, more like a grown pony, oh no. Sweetie Belle bit into Rarity's foreleg, making her cry out.

Trixie's eyes didn't leave the fake Cadence. She heard Pinkie Pie shout above her. "TRIXIE! ALL AROUND YOU!"

Trixie looked up just in time to be mobbed in every direction by the theater goers, pinning her down.

Cadence realized the truth as she tried to fly up only for 'Shining Armor' bear hug her.

The entire theater, the drapes closed, and windows and doors sealed, was engulfed in a sweep of green flames, as every guard, theater goer, and member of the 'royal guests' revealed their true form.

Rarity threw away the impostor Sweetie just before the adult changeling could stab her in the chest with her horn.

"Come on lover girl, stay still, that love was tasty," said the fake Shining Armor.

"Sisterly love really does have its own flavor," said the fake Applejack before slamming her hoof down on Applebloom's head that she just managed to miss thanks to the filly rolling.

Silver Spoon rushed from the shadows and grabbed Applebloom to pull her back further from the monsters. The fake Applejack began to tear the seats away in pursuit.

Trixie found herself struck by changeling slime in every possible direction, on every spot on her body.

Pinkie Pie did a switch-out out with a 'pinata' version of herself as it was coated instantly by several layers of changeling slime. "Pardon the meme, but IT'S A TRAP!" she exclaimed.

"We have to get out of here NOW!" Trixie's horn flared, and sputtered. 'Oh no!' "An anti-teleport warding!" Then a glob shot into her open mouth.

"How could you be so stupid as to not expect a trap?" Queen Chrysalis asked.

'We did! We just didn't count on audience participation!' Trixie thought. On the plus side, this meant there have to be a lot less guards at the castle now, right?

Trixie ran through possibilities to escape her predicament, but the only things she could think of where neutralized by them needing to explode point blank to actually free her or required her to not be covered head to toe in slime.

Suddenly, a stream of green flames washed over her, teleporting the undried webbing ABOVE a group of Changelings and dropping it on them.

Trixie dodged another barrage of Changeling slime and bucked one that made a dive for her in the face and knocking him back into another.

Trixie gagged and vomited the changeling slime she had swallowed.

'...Wait...green fire?' Blinking as she realized what that meant.

A changeling took advantage of her moment of confusion and splattered her in the face with slime again, she heard a little dragon battle cry and a thick dragon skull impact the hard changeling carapace, dragon bones were harder.

Green fire cleaned off the slime again and this time Trixie wasn't caught off guard and this time slammed Spike into the floor with her to avoid the second barrage of changeling slime.

"Everypony, cover each other!" She shouted. "What are you doing Spike?"

"Saving you," Spike said, as Trixie created a storm cloud forming a ring of lightning around the pair.

"Thank you. But shouldn't you be saving Rarity?"

"You needed my help more than that her!" Spike said.

"...Thank you."

"No 'I don't need your help?'"

"Trixie is grateful you care enough about her to help."

"Hey, what are friends for?"

"Knockin' 'em down is easy, gettin' 'em ta stay down is the problem!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she fired shot after shot from spare party cannons in every direction around her, one hit a changeling in the center, knocked them through a seat. It got it, shook his head, and, while giving a grunt of pain from the blunt impact, made another rush at the pink pony.

"Spike help!" Rarity screamed as her head emerged from a mass of changelings.

"Rarity!" Spike leaped for her, he suddenly found himself gripped by Trixie's magic, and himself then used as a club on Rarity, who was knocked out cold, Spike barely felt a thing, and 'Rarity' was knocked into its true form.

The real Rarity kicked off the changeling who had grabbed her onto the floor between the seats, and unleashed a torrent of gems she combined into a shield as another changeling came down on of her and shield bashed it into a wall.

"Come back you little rat!" The ex-fake AJ changeling said as it chased Applebloom under a seat, another changeling doing the same and bonking heads.

Silver Spoon popped up from another and blew a raspberry. "What's a matter? Can't catch a couple foals?" she called in a practiced mocking voice.

The Changelings snarled and leapt at her, but she dived under the seats, earning them another head on collision. They then ripped the seat out only for Applebloom to kick one in the back of the foreleg making them fall forward and knock into their teammate. Silver Spoon leapt off Applebloom's back and did a cannon ball onto the two Changelings, knocking the wind out of them.

Then Silver got slime on her glasses and was head butted by the ex-fake Sweetie Belle who was tackled by Applebloom was who tackle by another changeling Silver Spoon blindly grabbed on the neck of with her back legs and pulled painfully on their wings with her mouth.

Cadence unleashed the Royal Canterlot Voice in the face of changeling bear-hugging her, leaving his ears fins ringing vulnerable to an Earth Pony-like headbutt, and made a go for Chrysalis who seemed content to just watch the fight. Cadence unleashed a spell bolt that hit the queen in the side, knocking her over, and Cadence tackled her, Chrysallis twisting about, preventing her from lancing the witch with her horn. The two tumbled across the floor.

A changeling produced a mud ball from somewhere and threw at Rarity's side getting past her floating jewels. The changeling startled as Rarity let out a battle cry instead of a shriek and found himself struck by several of her jewels at railgun-like speed, breaking his carapace, and very much experiencing pain. 'Think of washing later! Think of washing later!' Rarity thought.

"Pages of Harmony is the best story ever!" A changeling with a megaphone shouted at Pinkie Pie.

Instead of a scream of rage, Pinkie Pie giggled. "Wouldn't say the best, but it is pretty funny. I mean the idea of Twilight hurting us on purpose! Haha! While we're talking about fan works, here's some fanart of Discord and your queen I found!"

"What the-AHHH! My eyes!"

As the traumatized changeling tried to purge his mind of the unspeakable image he'd been presented with, a spring loaded boxing glove to the face took care of that.

"Hey, you guys started it."

"YOU CHEAT!"

"You're ones to talk!" Rainbow Dash knocking out a changeling from behind having arrived when Pinkie wasn't looking.

"Pinkie Pie! I'm here to rescue you!" Rainbow Dash said flying in close to the pink pony, and got a mini-sonic-rainboomed in the gut resulting in the changeling doubling over in pain.

"NO! I'M here to help her!" The real Rainbow Dash said after she zoomed in smiling at the mare.

"Yay Dashie! Duck!" Rainbow Dash did, hitting a another changeling who was struck by the party cannons, only to get up a minute later thanks to changeling shells being made for abuse. "Hmm...party cannons aren't very effective on Changelings...Maybe they'd be more effective if I filled them with more clop art."

That was when some changelings changed into Rainbow Dash and pushed Trixie's 'lightning ring' out of place, forcing her to dispel the ring or get zapped by her own spell.

"Oh no you don't!" Rainbow moved like lightning, using a wing-to-wing combat pegasus spell that actually let her cut through the slime they shot at her wings and knocked away the imitations. "You are NOT using my face, jerks!"

"Since when are cattle so smart?!" one Changeling asked in shock before Applebloom dropped the sand bags hanging above the stage on his head where the blurry eyed Silver Spoon lead him.

"Cause we ain't cattle! No offense tah Daisy Joe!"

Rainbow moved like a mad pinball around the auditorium, knocking away changelings that tried to strike at her teammate's blind spots.

As Cadence pinned the changeling queen, Chrysalis' eyes for a moment looked alarmed, then she smirked. "You want to dance with me, you poor imitation of a princess?" Chrysalis asked.

Chrysalis head butted her, and proved to be stronger than she looked, sending Cadence into the air with her throw. "Then let's dance." Chrysalis flew and tried to lance Cadence in the stomach with her horn, but the Princess of Harmony spun out of the way and kicked the queen who merely kicked back harder. "A princess can't match a queen!"

Spike was on Trixie's back, breathing 'burn things' type fire at Changelings who came at her from behind, as Trixie zapped changelings every which way with her lightning spells and barrier spells to block more changeling slime.

"This is pointless! We have to get out of here!" Trixie said as Spike used the 'teleport type' fire to send a wad of goo spat their way right back into it's spitter's wings. Then they hit the ground, a spell from Trixie left him in a pillar of ice.

Then the changeling shape changed and the pillar shatter which Trixie brought up a shield to protect herself from and back pedaled.

"Maybe using an ice spell on an enemy who can burst into flames wasn't such a good idea," Trixie said.

Instead of her wings being aimed at, Rainbow found her legs instead glued together by another shot of slime, she grunted and continued to use herself as a missle

A clever changeling filled one of the dropped sand bag with goo, and threw it at Applebloom and Silver Spoon, it missed, but the release of slime covered them completely in its contents.

The green ball of goop containing the two fillies floated towards the clever changeling. "Gotcha ya little imps! I'm gonna suck yer feelin's dry till you can't pick your own-"

The filly ball then slammed into the changeling's face, several times, and floated over to Rarity, who cut the hardened surface open, letting out the foals who gasped for breath.

"Thanks Miss Rarity."

"Darlings, please be careful!" Rarity said.

"Dashie, where's the rest of the back up?" Pinkie Pie whispered wrapping up a changeling trooper in ribbons and using him as a shield against the changeling slime barrage (she made sure to leave him a sugar cake as an 'thank you' gift afterward).

"They're covering Cadence!" RD hissed lowly.

Cadence threw a punch that Chrysalis grabbed and used the opening to double spin kick Cadence. The Queen grunted in annoyance as she noticed she had dislocated her own shoulder with that maneuver. "More out of shape than I thought," she said popping the disgustingly slimy joint back into place.

Cadence fired a spell beam that Chrysalis returned, the spells canceling each other out rather than forcing against each other.

An unnoticed pink filly filched the art of Discord and Chrysalis at her father's request, he wanted it framed.

'Can't I just stab one of them in the back? Problem solved.'

'Not until Chryssy is exterminated. You interact with a harmony pony directly in any way, everypony who can WILL sense you, including Queen 'Born Of Both Harmony And Chaos'. The simple fact is, these ponies have a very long track record of winning direct confrontations. And don't forget, little Silver Spoon is there. You remember how your last meeting with her went, don't you? Oh, and if Pinkie has any more art she wants to show off like that, be sure to grab it.'

'Yes dad.'

"We're just being worn down!" Rarity said, as Applebloom served as her spotter, most of her jewels now covered in slime, and her mane and tail splattered, "Princess! Trixie's right! This is pointless! Rainbow Dash! Give us a Sonic Rainboom through a wall!"

"I might bring the whole place down on us!" Rainbow said fighting along side Pinkie Pie.

Chrysalis hissed, tapping Cadence's shoulder and sending shockwaves of pain through her body. "None of you are going anywhere! Even if you break out, we have guards surrounding the place!"

"Don't listen to her," whispered Trixie, Silver Spoon having been on her back, helping the pony who's bread and butter was goading her enemies into making a mistake do just that. "They know if we get out, they'll have to act as GUARDS not as CHANGELINGS, which means no shapeshifting, no slime, and no magic from them." she whispered to the others. "And if we hold out long enough, Twilight might come crashing through the roof with Princess Celestia."

"Alright, but we need to make sure we can last that long." Rarity said.

"...Pinkie, surprise us." Trixie said.

Pinkie looked thoughtful. "I've got an idea but I'd need ten minutes when I think we've only got three."

"Cut it down to five and I'll buy you the extra two," Rainbow said.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Borrow five minutes yourself and repay it with the victory party later.)

'Good idea!' "Alright, engaging hard work montage mode!"

One montage and a large number of lightning bolts later, the group was protected by an indoor mini fortress armed with party cannons and pie launchers.

"...That'll buy some time." Rarity admitted.

"Man the cannons!" A clever changeling spat slime at the party cannon's mouth at the exact moment it was fired, the backwash blowing it up, and knocking Pinkie Pie back, with spinning eyes, twitching and wanting to take a little nap. "Gee, that was kinda crafty."

"Pinkie Pie!" RD said dismayed as she quickly launched the pie throwers herself.

Applebloom took some streamers and tied them together like rope and used them to fire the remaining party cannons all at once with the half blind Silver's help.

"You can't aim like that darling!"

"Don't have'ta! Called depression fire! At least this way we can catch our breath!" 'Bloom said.

"It's 'suppression fire' dear!"

Spike shouted, "Wait! Cadence is still fighting Chrysalis!" Cadence had crashed into the floor following the 'gift of pain' technique, and couldn't get airborne with Chrysalis zapping down at her from above.

Trixie looked out through a sniper hole and timed creating a mirror right in front of Cadence, reflecting a beam straight back at Chrysalis. Trixie got ready to project a shield if that got too much of Chrysalis' attention.

Cadence grabbed the mirror in her telekinesis and proceeded to use it as a shield.

"Squads A through D, don't bother the canned love! Focus on Cadence!" Chrysalis ordered, the changelings obeyed as they stopped trying to 'storm the castle' and began to swarm towards Cadence.

Trixie said, "At least we can provide her cover and-"

"Squads E through J form turtle and RAM through their defenses!"

"Uh-oh," Applebloom whispered, Silver huddling beside her and Spike.

Half the changelings in the room descended on Cadence like vultures as she took to the air. The other half did a turtle formation (the ones on the outside using themselves as shields), and RAMMED into the unconscious Pinkie Pie's fort. Shaking some of the quickly assembled battlement to pieces. A piece struck Silver Spoon in the shoulder, the filly cried out and Applebloom helped her stand.

"Oh no you don't!" Trixie fired a fireball at the changelings squad, several in fact, they held formation for a while, until their 'shields' began cooking in their own shells, holding onto their teammates in sheer duty.

"And this is what I think of you tricking me with a fake Sweetie Belle!" Rarity hissed, sending needles at the speed of crossbow bolts changelings, aiming at the tiny spots where their carapace came together, expanded by the heat, making them whimper in pain, reactively falling off as their joints were stabbed.

"What monsters put their nymphs into a battle? Oh right, you." said the ex-fake Sweetie Belle.

"Trixie, you set the place on fire," Rainbow said.

"Uh-oh! Give me a minute, cover me!" Trixie said, carefully creating a rain clouds to but out the burning fires but unable to do much else. "At least this gives us a chance to rest some. Somepony wake Pinkie, if this place breaks we'll have to move." Trixie began to feel dizzy from mana drain.

Cadence used the Royal Canterlot Voice at full strength, but it was making her feel disoriented, it hadn't done that before. She was feeling faded. She had to finish this now with the queen. Chrysalis was again just flying outside the swarm, letting her changelings do the fighting for her.

'If they feed off of love, and a song projecting true feelings of that strengths them...What about a magical song charged by heart BREAK?'

Cadence opened her mouth and sang.

"This day was going to be perfect
The kind of day of which I've dreamed about since I was small
My love's heart your queen has stole
My love and I were to be whole
She left no happiness for me at all..."

The changelings looked disoriented and had stopped their advanced. They looked ill, every changeling in the room did.

"This day is going to be perfect,
The kind of day of which I've dreamed about since I was small
All of Equestria we will control
Every stallion, mare, and foal
You who had nothing will have it all!"

Chrysalis had SUNG BACK. Singing of triumph of will, of victory, of one who fought with nothing against everything and had won, of the wolf after a successful hunt to end all hunts.

Cadence sang, BACK again,

"This'll be the day,
This is when I'll say,
This'll be the hour,
This is not about power,
This'll be the time,
When-"

And Chrysalis sang back MORE.

"This has been the day we've waited for!
When we have revolution!
We'll be ready for evolution!"

Cadence bucked off the wall behind her with Earth Pony strength and plowed through the moment of the swarm's confusion at the conflicting songs, and right at the distracted Chrysalis, she rammed the queen into a wall at full speed, breaking her carapace in several places and crushing her wings. The changelings looked in awe. The ponies just gazed at the sight with baited breath. Did they win?

"Congratulations," Chrysalis said, sounding rather disinterested, and not showing any pain at all. "You managed to beat her. I thought I could coach her through it, but picking a low class mook to infuse with my essence was a mistake, her reaction time couldn't keep up with me, and her body couldn't handle the stress of my moves or my magic. And her shell strength was absurdly below average for a changeling. Shape shifting couldn't change that. Like a pegasus with tiny wings. You know what? I'm done. This has dragged on for too long."

Chrysalis was engulfed in green flames, and became a normal changeling drone, who instantly began crying out in pain at her broken shell. "I surrender! Help me! The pain! Too much! Burning inside!"

"You'll live, don't bellyache so much Dustmite, you played your part wonderfully. You aren't going to die from that, so don't ruin such a good performance with an after show whining," Said...the glued back together crystal ball in the center of the theater's chandelier, had it been talking instead of 'Chrysalis'/Dustmite? "a good actress plays any role they're given with dignity."

"I-I-I I'm sorry Your Majesty, I-I did my best," Dustmite gasped out.

Cadence, despite her shock, gently pulled back from the broken Changeling, but didn't let them fall.

"WE'VE BEEN FIGHTING A FAKE CHRYSALIS?!" Rainbow heard herself exclaim.

Trixie gasped. Her blood ran cold and she fell to her knees at the realization of what that meant. 'B-But...but if the real Chrysalis isn't here then...Sweet Celestia, what have I done?!'

Cadence shouted to her friends, "Get out of here, fast as you can, as hard as you can, that is a royal command!"

"Oh no!" Spike whispered.

"Well, that's a waste of space," Pinkie Pie said waking up at once like jack-in-the-box. "And...I really miss having Pinkamena around right now."

"S-So mah sister, she's still with-" Applebloom shuttered.

"And so's Sweetie..." muttered Silver, pinning her ears.

Rarity felt sick to her stomach. "Then this has all been pointless?"

A little light was snuffed out in the ponies.

"Don't be foolish, it let me see your fighting styles and counter-measures to impart on my changelings without having to risk myself, too bad Dustmite couldn't test you more, Cadence. But I'm not letting you get out of there in one piece."

Pinkie Pie put her own face into a pillow and screamed.

Cadence felt dizzy again, empty, weak. She had spent too much. She flapped down, still magically holding Dustmite. She nuzzled the crippled changeling, she'd never fly again with those wings.

Cadence sighed. The Changeling wasn't the monster who'd stolen her love, she was just another poor pawn in Chrysalis' game. She let the helpless changeling down.

She looked at her hurt friends, then at the changelings, then she said to the swarm who were holding their breath at their surprise that they had been fighting alongside a body-double. "All of you pay attention." She nuzzled the changeling, her body sparkled and dissolved...the sparkles covered Dustmite's body, healing her impossible to naturally heal injuries. Dustmite looked at herself in shock and awe.

A clever changeling stuttered, "S-she sacrificed herself just for Dustmite-"

"THAT WAS AN AVATAR YOU TWIT!" Chrysalis roared! "The real Cadence was never here! I suppose the two of us DO think alike after all!"

++++

"Is it alright Cadence?" Minuette asked as Cadence's real body came out of her trance. Silver Tongue as guard while Minuette magically monitored the princess.

"No, everything is the opposite of alright," Cadence said.

"If it wasn't you Your Highness, I'd have never let my daughter be there," Silver Tongue hissed angrily.

"I'm sorry."

++++

"You heard the princess!" Rainbow Dash said, "Everypony get ready to run for it! I'll smash us a path through the front doors if I have to!"

"Don't just stand there staring like idiots, you idiots! Cocoon and break them then get back here! I have surprise guests, my dear Sweetie, Shining, and Applejack are busy entertaining! So get on with it!!!"

"Remember what I said about bringing the house down Rarity?" Rainbow said lowly, "Looks like I'm going to have to do it. Trixie, shield our friends! Spike, shield Applebloom and Silver Spoon. Rarity, hold the place up while you can! Pinkie, grab as many as you can and split after I make a hole!"

"Daddy." Silver Spoon whimpered.

Applebloom looked right at the baby dragon next to her, she whispered, "Spike! Ah need a favor!"

To Be Continued . . .

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by Alex Warlorn
Big Theater Fight

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Best-Laid-Plans-451867154

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Weddng-Arc-The-Stare-vs-The-Truth-453079242

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (always needs more love).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Episode 184: "The Stare Vs The Truth"

How'd everything gone wrong? I have to go over it again. I'm Twilight Sparkle, I came to the castle to rescue Her Momjesty. Trixie scared me with the idea that Chrysalis might have cracked Princess Celestia, after all, I never imagined Shining Armor could be, or I or my friends could have been. Trixie you dummy, you know I can be a worry wart, did you have to say it?

There's nine of us. Five as our front line: myself, the Flutters and three of our gifted unicorns, and four of us as support: Lyra's family and Scootaloo. The idea was our friends would keep the Queen, our enslaved friends, and my brother, away while we rescued the Princess. We weren't prepped for a big fight against a few strong enemies, but a bunch of regular nasties. And that means we're in deep deep trouble.

Getting in was almost too easy, there were fewer guards than we ever expected, I dreaded this meant we'd meet a brainwashed goddess who we all loved more than our lives waiting for us in the wedding hall, or moved somewhere else and leaving a room now covered in explosive runes. Maybe a changeling disguised as The Princess that we were supposed to take back with us to base?

I won't say 'I should have known.' Or 'how could I be so stupid.' Or blame Trixie for making a logical assumption that Chrysalis wouldn't expect us to play smart. The problem was that we'd fallen for a con. After facing Discord, the king of lies himself, I thought I 'd wised up to tricks with us assuming we would be given a chance to win. Maybe that was the problem. Chrysalis isn't Discord, nopony is, but I assumed, since she saw ponies like talking stacks of hay, that she wouldn't think we'd be clever enough to save the Princess while the others struck where she expected us to fight, but in front of so many ponies, unable to play all her cards and staying in character.

Discord truly made us brainwash ourselves. Chrysalis tricked us into out-smarting ourselves.

Now we're in the wedding hall that served as Chrysalis' throne room. I should've sent a warning to Spike, or a message for help, buck it, I should have written warning letters in advance so I could quickly send them. Instead I was too shaken to even think of just writing: 'fake Chrysalis, fake friends'. They'd suffer because I didn't think right.

Lemon Hearts, Moon Dancer, and Twinkleshine looked on Celestia in horror, so did I. She didn't seem broken or controlled, but seeing her so helpless…

The Queen gave her mocking giggle. That it was like a school filly's made it more wrong. We'd learned the hard way from Discord that having a childish streak doesn't make a villain less dangerous. Foals can be the worst monsters, and a foal with power is dangerous, that's why me and Shining both got a a lot of training to control our power responsibility. A child with the brains of an adult on top of that power? Celestia save us.

Looking at the Queen, she reminded me of what a dragon said on Draco Island during our world tour. I...may have let slip how greedy some of the dragons were. Thank Tiamat dragons are goodnatured about that, but one of them, one of the ancient ones, told me something:

'If you think we're 'greedy', little pony, you should see what 'greedy' is by OUR standards. Greed is our virtue, we always strive for more. We believe we're entitled to what we want because we EARNED it as we kicked and clawed our way to wyrmhood living in the parts of the world ponies never dare to tread. But we can be satisfied thought we desire more. We can be happy with what we have even if we desire more. A truly greedy dragon is never rests. He's an abyss that devours everything. He won't rest until all belongs to him, and still want more. It is at that point, we consider a dragon 'greedy.' Because when greed consumes you to that extent, your hoard loses its value.'

Tiamat explained that this meant where a dragon stops caring for their loved ones', which should be their prized possessions. When their heart becomes an abyss that 'their most important treasures become as rocks,' that's when dragons consider their 'virtue' to have gone too far.

With Chrysalis looked at everything, how she treated Applejack and Shining... she's what dragons consider greedy.

"Twilight! Chrysalis' real reason for the rune is-"

"Mute."

A force field silenced Momjesty's words.

Admittedly, we did give a sigh of relief. Her speaking meant The Princess was still herself, even if we couldn't hear her.

"Oh poor Twilight, did you honestly expect me to leave Celestia unguarded? With you free? Did you think I didn't see the heartbreak in your pretty little face when she fell for my crocodile tears? When who you loved like a mother looked at you with such hard eyes? Oh it was deliciously tragic."

"That and you knew that we saw her almost beat you before," I said defiantly. Thank Celestia I'd gotten all the 'you're a monster Chrysalis' speeches out of my system. I looked to my bound Princess. "And I don't hold that against her either."

"True. You had reason to go for both, so why wouldn't I have my bases covered? Didn't think you'd be stupid enough to walk into both traps."

"Both?" Moon Dancer whispered.

"Oh yes, Moon Dancer, and I was wondering how you all kept making it past my security. Bluffing your way past armed guards with fake authority and ad-libbing? You'd have been a wonderful changeling Moon Dancer. I should have put you in a cocoon instead of leaving you to rot."

"Mad she turned the tables on you, you psychotic witch?!" Twinkleshine asked, glaring daggers at her. I can't blame her. Moon Dancer wasn't as close to me as my friends, but she was still somepony I'd known...somepony I knew cared about me.

Chrysalis didn't seem to note Twinkleshine. "I humiliated, demeaned, used you, saw you as less than a person, you lived only by my graces. Yet instead of cowering before me, the look in your eyes saying you want to feed me my own horn, you are truly a mare after my own heart."

"You don't have one!"

"Don't you DARE compare yourself to her you monster!" Lemon Heart yelled. I barely held them BOTH back from charging to the entity that had...that had crushed my mother...I hope she's okay.

"She does too have a heart! Don't say mean things to others! You should be proud to be compared to her!" Sweetie snapped. "If everypony just did what Chryssy said then everything would be better!"

Lemon Hearts narrowed her eyes at Chrysalis. "You make me sick."

It made me sick too. Sweetie Belle, what has she done to you? Sweetie's smile, didn't seem so mindless.

And then we all saw it, Chrysalis' repaired and functional crystal ball, current in 'receive only' mode. Showing our friends, surrounded behind closed doors by an ARMY of changelings.

"Oh no," I whimpered. This can't be happening...

My brother just stood there like an automaton.

Sweetie Belle shook her head like she was looking at an animal that needed to be put down. "PLEASE! Come back to the right side, and you can explain to Luna, to Rarity, to the other Crusaders, that it's no good fighting and ponies should just listen to what Chryssy has to say!"

"I'd rather die."

Sweetie Belle looked at me in horror.

"Ya shouldn't have come're Twili," AJ said, "Her Majesty is gonna rip ya ta shreds, ya shoulda just stayed away, let Princess Luna smash 'er way through Shinin' shield, pray it didn't kill 'em, have Luna and Her Majesty's armies kill each other, and have Luna take down Her Majesty. Instead, yer gonna be put back in Her Majesty's collection, like the property ya are, and yer gonna go back to workin' for 'er and lovin' 'er. On the bright side, at least none of us are gonna mind...we'll be good trees . .. and good animals...fer the farmers. Lied before Twili', she's might just kill ya."

"But-but you promised Kabuto he could experiment on me later!" I said grasping at straws.

"I can give him Trixie if he whines about it. You on the other hoof, well, if you haven't guessed by now I'm not about to say."

I was tempted to say 'take me instead', knowing what Kabuto would do to her...but I knew that'd only encourage Chrysalis.

"Twili', fer what it's worth, Ah'm sorry, but Sweetie and Her Majesty are right, ya shoulda just behaved. Ah'll try ta make it quick so she can't draw it out."

"BAD property!" Chrysalis hissed, "BAD! If I wish to draw it out, then that is what my property wants too!"

"That's...what Ah want too."

I was...mixed to still see the pain Applejack experienced when made to say that. On one hoof, it meant there was still an AJ to save...on the other, it meant my friend was suffering...like I was. Every lie, every deceit. It must have been like boiling water poured down her windpipe when she was already suffocating.

AJ...please let that stubborn heart of yours hang on a little longer.

"You're almost nice and house broken Applejack! Admit it! You felt HAPPY when you played the fiddle for me and Chryssy! Don't deny! The truth!"

"Ah...Ah did."

+

The worst part was, AJ realized in her heart of hearts, she meant it. -Several hours before.-

"I'll admit, a private concert for Princess Cadenza at a time like this took me by surprise," Octavia said, "But it wasn't half surprising as having you Miss Applejack sit on the band. You really are good with the fiddle."

"Thank ya kindly."

"See Sweetie? I told you it was too risky to go outside right now, but all you had to do was ask politely and I'd figure out a way," Her Majesty said.

Sweetie nodded.

"And Octavia," Her Majesty said, "I was particularly impressed by your performance." Her horn glowed slightly.

"T-thank you, Your Majesty!" Ocatvia felt her heart race and her face blush, "I-it was an honor, I loved performing for you!"

"I know you did," Her Majesty said sultrily. "How'd you like to be my personal musician?"

"P-personal-" Octavia's face was bright red. "O-of course I would Your Majesty, your wish is my command."

"Excellent, we'll work out the contract after the emergency has passed. You may go."

Octavia couldn't hide the disappointment in her voice. "As you wish Your Majesty, let's go ponies."

"And remember to stay out of sight here at the castle for now, the queen and her brainwashed slaves are still about."

"A-as you wish Your Majesty." Her friends all looking at each other, Octavia left, her eyes never leaving Her Majesty.

"You used mind magic on her?" Sweetie Belle asked conspiratorially like it was an afternoon prank.

"Oh no, nothing so forceful. I'd never do so to a fellow performer and possibly tarnish her music, I just did some creative chemistry with her hormone levels."

"What are hoar-moans?"

"...I'll explain when you're older princess."

"Okay Chryssy!"

The queen chuckled. "Take that you spoiled brat, I got the song bird you never could."

+

"That's a good pony for your princess," Sweetie Belle said.

"That's not good for Celestia!" Twilight shouted.

"She was talking about herself," Chrysalis said gently putting a hoof on the filly's head. The most shocking thing was the pride in her voice, not of herself for twisting the little filly, but for the small filly.

"Why are you torturing the poor mare like this?!" asked Twinkleshine, looking sickened.

"Because she gets off on it," Dancer said with venom in her words.

"Oh immensely," the Queen said, giving a smirk as if she was talking about proper love making instead of psychological torture. Then she looked at drolly, "But don't think for an instant I'm doing this SIMPLY because I enjoy bringing order to chaotic little minds. You disappoint me Moon Dancer."

"Then why?"

"Because it'll make Sweetie Belle happy to see you all embrace the changeling way."

My heart fell out of my chest. Rarity...even if you being here would help so much, I...I don't think I could bare for you to see Sweetie like this.

"You know, your friend is impressive," said Chrysalis, petting Applejack's head. "Such a strong heart, most other ponies would have been indoctrinated a long time ago. I can respect a fellow survivor, and I'm enjoying Sweetie tackling the challenge. When you're this good, you appreciate challenge: makes it all more satisfying when they inevitably breaks. Maybe after I'll one up myself trying to break Loyalty next."

"I'll kill you," Fluttercruel said slipping in control for a moment.

"Much more powerful and fearsome beasts than you have made that promise when I was an insignificant nothing, they're dust, I'm not. But some of you are about to be. Enough speeches. Run if you want, you won't get far."

A part of Twilight was too afraid to run. Would there still be an Applejack left to save if she wasn't freed now? How much longer could Applejack's will hold out before the Queen's torture broke it?

"Don't worry Applejack, after Chryssy is done, you'll be with your friends, and that's a good thing isn't it? And if it's a good thing, you should WANT Chryssy to win," Sweetie Belle said.

"Y-yeah, it is," AJ said like it was a great revelation.

"Sweetie if you can hear me, stop it!" Fluttershy cried out.

"Why should I? Fighting Chryssy hurts Applejack, ponies hurting themselves is bad, so Applejack being a good property and NOT hurting herself, is a good thing." Twilight felt her horror rise as it hit her like rampaging dragon it wasn't Chrysalis who was breaking Applejack the most. "But you heard Chryssy, time to knock some sense to you!"

Twilight looked between the brainwashed victims. "Flutters?" she whispered, making sure to not be heard by their enemy.

"Yes?" Fluttershy whispered back.

"We need to get Applejack out of here, freed or not. Chrysalis and Sweetie are trying to break her spirit, not just control her...she's held out for days, but I'm not sure how much more torture her sanity can take even if her will can. If we don't save her soon...there might not be an AJ to save. You focus on that, I'll focus on Shining...I can save him and I'm the only one here that can hold him off."

The two nodded and kept their eyes on the enemy.

"Lemon Hearts, keep Chrysalis distracted, break-out Celestia, Twinkle Shine: grab Sweetie Belle if you-!" Twilight in a flash brought up a shield that broke from the blast Chrysalis threw at them intended to knock them all out in one blast.

"Now who said you were allowed time-outs?" Chrysalis said simply. "I said the time for talking was done!"

A forcefield appeared around Chrysalis that moved as she moved, Sweetie Belle proudly riding on the queen. A new, pillar shaped forcefield appeared around Princess Celestia.

"Reckless, when I free Shining, he'll crush you inside that shield," Twilight said.

"Which you aren't counting on if you TOLD ME!" Chrysalis fired another spell bolt. Apparently her magic could be fired out of it just fine.

"Afraid to face me without using Shining?" Twilight said quickly.

"Yes, I should throw away an advantage for ego's sake, MORON!" Twilight gagged as her throat was caught in Chrysalis' telekinesis.

"HI-YA!" Twinkle Shine used her flash spell, breaking the queen's hold, but not Shining's shield.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Twilight! Chrysalis wants you DEAD, be careful!)

Dancer moved to figure out a way through Shining's field, only to be struck by a flying kick by Applejack, who was then was tackled by Fluttercruel.

"CHARGE!" Lemon Heart said, the Angry Baby Lemons and Angry Papa Lemons summoned in the meantime and now mobbing the queen.

"You're truly a gifted unicorn because you are no general!" Chrysalis took the air out of the lemon's reach.

AJ kept her eyes closed as Fluttercruel shifted to Fluttershy to use the stare, but kicked the mare so far she went straight into air. She stopped herself with her wings. AJ rolled in front of the lemon army and looked into the lemons.

The simplistic minds of the lemons stopped dead in their tracks, as Applejack TRULY looked into them. They fell back over catatonic, Angry Papa Lemon made the room quake.

Lemon Hearts stopped in dismay.

Recovering, Twilight realized what just happened. "BUT THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! THEY DON'T HAVE EYES!"

"Uh, they actually DO have a sense of sight but-"

"TRUTH PIERCES ALL SUGAR CUBE!" AJ rammed Lemon Hearts in the gut, then looked her in the eyes. Lemon Hearts gasped, and felt herself crying.

"They... everything they've done to Canterlot...they just want to feed their families." The yellow unicorn whimpered, cowed by the truth, Applejack knocked her aside. "One down."

"Don't you know little ponies, truth is the most deadly of weapons?" Chrysalis said.

Applejack found her legs caught in Moon Dancer's telekinesis outside of her field of vision. Fluttercruel came down on top of her and grabbed her into a sleeper hold.

"Give up, Cruel, it's the truth ya can't out brawl me!"

"I don't need to!"

Moon Dancer was broadsided by one of Chrysalis' spell beams, burning her side and freeing Applejack who punched Fluttercruel in the face and getting her off her back.

"Ah say, ya do."

"Stick with what works!" Twinkle Shine said panicked, and fired another flare at Chrysalis, who wasn't effected.

"Shining is a dear, I've turned off his freedom of will but like a good machine he's adjusts the shield so your light show won't work twice."

Chrysalis was then blasted by Twinkle Shine's 'darkness' spell, blinding her another way.

"How about good old fashioned lasers then?" Twinkle Shine fired a barrage right where the Queen was.

"My my, that's a lot of force. Of course, Twilight Sparkle! I've given my dear Shining orders to keep his shields up even if it kills him! So every time your friends try to smash through these shields, the shorter time my Shining has until he's, used up."

Twilight gasped in horror, and shook he head, "That just means I have to save him now!" Twilight couldn't teleport with the wards up, but she could gallop just as well. "Shining! I just need to touch our horns and I break Chrysalis' spell on you!"

Shining responded with the independent thought of an outboard motor and Twilight's face smashed into ANOTHER SHIELD right between her and her brother. "No!"

"Ha! Did you REALLY think you ever had a chance of saving him, Twilight Sparkle? I'm such a tease!" giggled the Queen.

Shining Armor groaned as Twinkle Shine continued her laser fire at Chrysalis, who wasn't even trying to return fire.

"TWINKLE SHINE STOP!"

"Sorry Twilight!" Twinkle Shine said not even losing pace.

"I said stop!" Twilight wailed, grabbing Twinkle's head and redirecting her lasers downward, where they reflected off the polished floor.

The Flutters took the air, out of AJ's earth pony reached, and began diving bombing her, knocking off her hat, and knocking her to the floor before she could get a bead on them. But the Flutters felt their wing struck by one of Twinkle Shine's stray shots, they hit the floor.

"Thanks Twili'."

"Sparkle you idiot!"

"How can you be so heartless!"

"I traveled for TWO YEARS with your brother, he WOULDN'T WANT YOU to risk everypony for him stupid! That'll hurt him more than anything!"

"Across the ancient wind,
The battle cries of forgotten warriors fly,

Dancing in despair,
With only their scars and honor to wear,

Enemies left and right they march down fate's hall,
And one by one they fall."

The four heroes still fighting whimpered and held her ears as Sweetie Belle sang, her song like icy fingers worming into their hearts.

Chrysalis aimed a deadly shot right at Twilight's head.

A high pitched musical note pierced the ears of everypony present, bells rung in their heads, glass ware cracking and the queen felt her fangs ache.

Even Shining was effected enough that for a moment the two smaller barriers flickered. Sadly song couldn't tell friends form foe but the ponies were no longer sinking into despair.

"You're way too young to be singing depressing song like that filly," Lyra said, galloping into the room.

"Lyra! Get back!"

"What's the point of back-up if we don't back you up?"

"We? Thank you for telling me we had more bats in the belfry," Chrysalis hissed.

"Lyra!" Minuette snapped.

"Sorry!"

"HEY! QUEEN UGLY!"

Chrysalis turned her head, and her face made contact with Fluttercruel's hoof, during the flickering of the field around her, at the at the highest speed the pegasus could muster on the queen, ignoring the pain her wing. And made contract. CRACK! Blood got on the demi-draconequus' hoof from the knocked out tooth.

Everypony got ready to barrage the Queen, until they saw Fluttercruel's hoof begin to turn to stone. "W-wh-what?! What is this?!"

Princess Celestia's eyes widened in horror and realization as the pieces all fell into place.

Chrysalis pulled out the tooth, and in a flash of green flames a new one grew in its place no problem. She magically flung the tooth right into Fluttercruel's shoulder, petrification began to spread from it.

"You can keep your bastard father company in the garden!" Chrysalis said and the barriers were restored.

"FATHER?!" Twinkle Shine gasped.

"H-how-" Fluttercruel gasped as the stone spread, in pain yet lethargic. Fluttershy tried to emerge but the blood was blocking her.

Twilight felt shame at everything she had told the queen about her friends as she rushed to her friend's side, creating a barrier around her, magically wiping away the blood and taking out the fang (more bleeding or not, you TOOK OUT a stinger after be stung by a bee or it would keep pumping poison!) and applying the strongest anti-petrification spells she knew. The fang crumbled into dust as soon as it was out.

Chrysalis smirked...then got an annoyed look and looked towards the orb. She seemed to concentrate for a few moments before her horn glowed and she seemed to break a spell and levitated the orb to her and began talking into it.

A magical yellow glowing hand picked up Applejack. "Now you stay-" Applejack glared at Lyra. Lyra gasped and faltered, "Humans were...humans are...no, no no no, but..." Her magic grip dissolved.

"LYYYYYRAA!" Bon Bon emerged from a window like freakin' Daring Do, kicking AJ in the head.

"KEEP YOUR EYES CLOSED!" Dancer yelled at Bon Bon before firing several spell blasts at Chrysalis, abandoning her post, and created a couple blades of solid moonlight along her forelegs began to slash at Chrysalis' barrier in a wild fury, forcing the queen back soon. The queen simply got airborn, but Moon Dancer timed it right in a jump so she ended on TOP of Chrysalis' bubble, slash and blasting away at it.

"ABOUT TIME! I was beginning to think I was mistaken about you Moon Dancer!"

"What do you care?!"

"An animal should fight its hardest to survive! No sacrifice is too much, and things like restraint and scruples are weaknesses!"

"Sorry Bon Bon, Ah may be a farmer who doesn't like lyin', an' yer a candy maker with a talent fer voices, but Ah'm been in more fights than ya. And fightin' blind ain't so good unless ya got lotsa practice and ya dancin' partner can't see neither," she said kneeing the other earth pony in the gut, and back, before: blob of darkness.

"How's that?" Twinkle Shine said blasting AJ, who DODGED in the momentary cloud of darkness.

"Ah told ya, truth pierce all. Ya can't blind me! Yer illusions are worthless!"

Twilight regretted, since they hadn't been supposed to rescue AJ and the others, she hadn't given them the full details of everything her friends could do.

'Of course, because Applejack never used her power like this before.'

Twilight's blood ran cold as she realized how little of Applejack's truth vision she and the others truly knew.

"SHUT UP ALREADY!" Bon Bon GOT UP and rammed AJ in the back knocking her off balance, and letting one of Twinkle Shine's blasts hit her knocking her back.

"Dang girl, yer determined."

"Not a house of cards yourself," Twinkle Shine said.

Suddenly, Chrysalis snarled in rage. "THAT WAS AN AVATAR YOU TWIT!" she yelled into the crystal ball she'd been in talking with an uninterested tone to before, muting whenever she needed to address what was going on in front of her. "The real Cadence was never here! I suppose the two of us DO think alike after all!"

'At least that still worked,' thought Twilight.

"You should just get Lyra out of her Bon Bon, keep her safe, she's not going to help here, and neither are you, you should just hurry and run," Sweetie Belle said. "You've got to know when you can help and when you can't."

"I-I-" Bon Bon startled, unsure, before being head slammed into the floor by Chrysalis' telekinesis.

"You're not entirely useless," the Queen hissed, right as she telekinetically dislocated one of the pony's forelegs with a smirk that made Twilight's heart skip a beat. "I can at least blow off some steam with you to make up for the disappointment your Princess just caused me."

Bon Bon with sheer Earth Pony strength pushed against Chrysalis' telekinesis, shocking the changeling queen, getting up on her three good legs, she glared at the queen...then was looking into the eyes of Applejack.

"And that's three down. Anypony else wanna come outta the woodworks and get blown away by reality too?" AJ sighed.

Shining Armor cried out in pain, more like an animal than a person, being purely instinctive, as the barrier around Chrysalis finally broke and Moon Dancer moved in for the kill...or would have...except Sweetie without hesitation used herself as a shield. She smiled calmly at the unicorn who found herself unable to cut through the filly to harm Chrysalis...and blasted dead-center at point blank range. She hit the floor, twitching. Chrysalis rubbed Sweetie's mane.

"That's four," AJ said.

Twilight who had just finished healing Fluttercruel, immediately had to begin work on Moondancer. OH IF ONLY SHE HAD CHOSEN MINUETTE for this part of the mission instead! But she felt the medical unicorn being near Cadence when using her Avatar was the safest bet! And if Cadence was ambushed while her mind was somewhere else, a pony who could stop time could help for a quick retreat!

And now, Twilight had to heal her friends instead of fighting off Chrysalis.

"Now that you can actually be hit, let's see what-" The barrier around Chrysalis reappeared and absorbed Twinkle Shine's shots. "OH COME ON!"

"Ta-da!" Sweetie Belle bowed.

"Lure the enemy in when they think they're invading and they never smell the trap!" Chrysalis hissed. "Isn't that how I got you here?"

"Now you're just making crud up!" Twinkle Shine snapped.

"She may or not be, Ah can't tell." AJ said, a part of her sounding distant.

Twinkle Shine was magically spun upside down, her eyes-lids pulled open. Chrysalis said, "Now lookie, lookie-"

"I buckin' get it! I'm buckin' alone! I don't have a stallion while my closest friends did! I talk about love when I've never gotten to find my very special somepony, I'm like an Earth Pony trying to teach a pegasus to fly, I BUCKING GET IT ALREADY!" Twinkle Shine snarled even as wept looking into the truth.

"At least yah can actually face the truth, too bad Ah can't jus-"

AJ was blasted by a unicorn spell...by a second Moon Dancer?

"I smell a back stabber," Sweetie Belle said.

If Pinkie Diane was made out of rubber, AJ was made out of rock, particularly after all she had endured and got back up.

"Twinkle Shine!"

"I-I'll live-"

"KEEP THE QUEEN BUSY!" Fluttershy shouted in her imitation of the Royal Canterlot Voice.

The two unicorns nodded and proceeded to hit the queen's protective shield with a gifted unicorn all out barrage, Twinkle Shine using her light-based illusions to keep the queen double guessing herself.

Applejack and Fluttercruel clashed hooves.

"Ah told ya, yer good Cruel, but ya can't beat me! Ah can out endurance ya, Ah can out muscle ya, Ah got more experience, Ah'm built ta take more damage," AJ said, acting like she didn't even feel the bruises Fluttercruel was giving her, "and Ah can see where ta hit ya the most!"

She jabbed Fluttercruel in a nerve cluster that instantly caused her wing to lock up in position. Then jabbed her in a cluster that locked up her rear leg.

"And 'Cruel, ya may be born from Fluttershy's cruelty, but the truth is the cruelest thing in the world!" Applejack and Fluttercruel's eyes, met, Fluttercruel couldn't look away, she Stared at Applejack, she gritted her teeth. Fluttercruel thought of when her Stare had overpowered her mother's Stare in her twisted Nightmare state...the kindest of lies didn't compare to Truth.

"No...no matter how much I hate him...he'll always be a part of me...I can't escape a part of myself...I can't escape him." Fluttercruel whimpered as she fell to pieces inside, AJ knocked her back as she fell to the floor.

"And that's five," AJ said.

Fluttercruel's cutie mark and coat changed, she got up, one wing and leg still not moving, but Fluttershy getting up and assuming a defensive pose all the same. "It's okay dear, I'll finish things. Then I'll help you cope like a mother should."

"Oh, sorry, four and a half, Ah'm sorry Fluttershy, Ah didn't mean to forget about ya. Funny how yer the pony always hidin' in the background when Ah'm the pony nopony thinks much about. Being the delicate little flower must mean more to ponies than being an apple that provides for 'em."

"I provide for my animals, and I provide for any creature in need comes to my cottage, and...I don't have the courage to risk for myself...but risk for my friends and family? I've have plenty of that! And I'll face the truth of everything I am for them!"

"Don't just stand there staring like idiots, you idiots! Cocoon and break them then get back here! I have surprise guests, my dear Sweetie, Shining, and Applejack are busy entertaining! So get on with it!!!" Chrysalis yelled into her orb, then looked up and gave a smirk. "Applejack, be a dear and crush your friend. Seeing you do it has been so entertaining so far."

"And Her Majesty Commands, Her Property Obeys. Ah don't wanna hurt ya Fluttershy, but Ah need ta put ya under. Her Majesty's magic will fix ya up after ya see da truth, Ah promise."

Fluttershy was pierced by truth.

But Kindness Stared back at Honesty.

It was like lightning flashed as the Stare met the Truth. Both intensified their glares.

Twilight had no delusions about this being a stare down. The Element of Magic could feel it in her heart: it was as if Honesty and Kindness incarnate were clashing with one another. She went on the defensive and made sure to shield Fluttershy from Chrysalis if needed.

She swore for a moment she saw auras of orange and pink surrounding her friends. The orange had taken the shape of a Nightmare Moon like Alicorn, green mixed in like chains that seemed to be FORCING it into that state while the pink seemed to take the shape of a beautiful, butterfly winged Alicorn, organic and natural.

Both began to sweat as their eyes burned into the other.

Chrysalis stopped her assault and watched the two. A part of her sensed the two forces of Harmony colliding with one another.

"Kindness tempers Honesty, Applejack! You can't beat me!"

The pink Alicorn seemed to send a gust of energy at the orange one.

"And Honesty tells Kindness when it's bein' TOO Kind! Yer the one who can't beat meh!"

The orange Nightmare retaliated by opening her wings and sending her own back, the two colliding.

"But mercy tells Honesty when it's being too cruel."

The Alicorn flapped harder and pushed the Nightmare back.

"But cruelty tells mercy when it shouldn't be given!"

The Nightmare pushed back.

"Kindness tells cruelty when it's not needed."

The Alicorn took the edge.

"Honesty tells yah when yah NEED tah be cruel!"

The Nightmare regained the advantage before a stalemate was once again reached. It didn't last long as the green chains sprang like cobras around Fluttershy's butterfly aura, constricting around her, slowly crushing her.

-

Should I give into the Nightmare? Is the Nightmare the only way to win? To save Applejack? Is the Kindest Lie the only thing that can stand up against a self proclaimed queen of wicked lies?

...But that would be the easy way out, wouldn't it? Applejack's endured all this pain for days, it wouldn't be fair for me to take the easy way out of this now. Ugh...I...I have to try...

-

Nightmare Mirror...is letting ya loose on Equestria the only way Ah can stop this? Stop from bein' Her Majesty's loyal and true servant to bring the glorious age of the changelin'-AGH! No! AH WON'T! AH CAN'T! Her Majesty! Mirror! See Truth! Obey Her! Celestia help meh! Ah'm tryin' as hard as Ah can but Ah need help! Ah admit it! Ah need help! Somepony help meh please!

-

"That's it Fluttershy, just give in to Her Majesty's kindness!" Sweetie Belle like Fluttershy was being reharmonized.

"Maybe just in case she doesn't," Chrysalis whispered charging up her horn, she aimed behind Twilight's head. "Only bet on sure things."

A green wisp of smoke slip into the hall through one of the windows.

"That isn't kindness! It's cruelty DISGUISED as kindness!" Fluttershy shouted, the chains crushing her shattering as she regained her footing and leveled things out again. "And that's the worst cruelty!"

"Cruel to be kind little cattle, cruel to be kind," Chrysalis said.

The green smoke condensed then grew in a flash, turning into a yellow filly with a red mane and knocking Twilight off her hooves. This changed where her head was, and startled the queen, sending her shot off course and through a smoking wall.

+

-A minute before-

Ah looked right at the baby dragon next to ta me, "Spike! Ah need a favor!" Ah whispered.

"What?"

Ah grabbed Spike and pulled'em down, the adults figured we were duckin' fer cover.

"Ya can send more than just letters right?"

"Well, sort of, I haven't exactly practiced it a lot. I've sent armor and Changeling slime today, so I guess."

"And ya can send stuff to Twili' right?"

"Yes, what do you need sent?"

As a Crusader, we had three kinds of stunts: fun, dangerous, and 'if our families found out, we're not gonna be able tah sit right for a year'...Mah idea was of the last sort...but Ah had to try.

"ME!"

"What? That's crazy! I can't send a pony! Too much mass!"

"Ah'm a filly! Ah should be light enough!"

"Applebloom! This could kill you, turn you to ashes, or teleport you there without your skin!"

"Ya said could, that means it won't certainly, right?"

"You won't 'certainly' die if you jump off a cliff but-"

"Do it!"

"No way!"

"Applejack is there! They ain't got nopony whose bestest friends with Applejack like me and sis'! She's mah Big Sister Best Friend Forever like Ah told Twili'!"

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): 'Bloom! Applejack wouldn't want to you to risk yourself like this! And they have Fluttershy and Twilight! Together they can free AJ!)

But are they gonna be able ta?! They didn't go there expecting ta fight the witch queen!

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): We aren't fortune tellers Applebloom, we can't predict the future.)

But ya do know lots of stuff! Lots and lots of stuff! Ya always seem ta know stuff when it's important ta know stuff! It's super important Ah know if they're gonna save Applejack! So are they gonna?!

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): What? How did she...she isn't supposed to be aware of things like that! She's supposed to only perceive what we let her!)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Applejack might...and probably could see through our glamour in its current state, and Applebloom looked into the Truth with lost innocence too. And now what she seeks is the Truth of how to save the one she loves the most.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Wow...Grandma and Grandpa would be proud.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): I'm sure they are.)

Stop mumblin' and listen tah meh!

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): If we look at how things are going, there is no guarantee that is how things will turn out, events have completely spiraled out of-)

Ah don't care! Tell me!

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):...Without intervention into their situation, Princess Cadence and your other companions here, will end up having to fight your friends who went to save Teacher Celestia next time you see them, now enslaved by Chrysalis, including Scootaloo...and Twilight...Twilight will almost definite die.)

"SPIKE! YOU HAVE TO! Or our friends are gonna end up like mah big sister!"

"You don't know that!"

"Know what?" Rarity asked.

"Nothing Rarity!" Spike said.

"Spike, Twili's in the throne room fightin' her brother, da Queen, and Applejack! She ain't got the firepower tah win that fight! But if Ah can free Applejack...What's gonna even the odds with the Queen of Lies more than mah Honest sister?!'"

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): I'm sorry Spike, but if somepony doesn't change things and now: then Moon Dancer, Scootaloo will be in Chrysalis' clutches. And Twilight...Chrysalis will kill her.)

Spike looked worse than awful. "Applebloom, NEVER expect me to do anything this EVER AGAIN. Everypony is going to HATE ME if I kill you this way, it'll be MY FAULT. I'm banishing myself from Equestria if you don't come back. I swear on Princess Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Queen Tiamat I will."

Ah gave'em mah hair bow. "Ah'll be back fer that, Ah promise. And this here is that kinda story where a slim chances means there's no way Ah'll fail if Ah give it Mah all."

"Everypony ready!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

(Interviewer's Notes (Noon): Kid! RELYING on that sorta thing causes 'em to always backfire!)

Ah don't care, Ah have a sister ta save along with her friends and mine. We were the ones supposed to save Applejack and fight da queen...Ah'm just followin' the plan. We can't fight through to them from the other side of Canterlot and help 'em now...Ah'm gonna do it.

(Interviewer's Notes (Noon): You're just like your sister. A silly pony.)

And stubborn as a mule. That's a family trait...if Ah don't survive this, tell Silver, Sweetie, AJ, Mac, Cheerilee, and Scoots Ah love 'em.

"Do it!" Applebloom snapped. "For our friends! For our families!"

Spike sighed, "For friends and family."

Applebloom was engulfed in green flames, and felt her body being torn to tiny pieces and being turned into raw mana then green smoke and being carried along a magical wind. Who was she again? Right she was Apple...some...thing...

+

"Uhhhh, never doin' that again," Applebloom said. "Why does everythin' taste like green?"

"What the buck?!" Somepony shouted.

Everypony's eyes were drawn to the new arrival.

"Wow! Hiii Applebloom! You're just in time! I'm gonna be Princess of the changelings! You and Scootaloo can be my official royal playmates! We're SURE to get cutie marks for this!"

="Intertwined"-Wonderful 101=

"Applejack!" Applebloom had never moved so fast in her life, not even when fleeing Sunnytown, her legs hadn't carried her so fast. Sweetie whimpered at her friend ignoring her.

"STOP HER NOW!" Chrysalis bellowed.

With nothing but heart, reflexes, luck, and pumping adrenalin, Applebloom plowed through a instant mine field of forcefields, notes of darkness, and angry green lasers.

"No you don't!" Twilight yelled, firing the most intense beam that she could, colliding head on with one of Chrysalis', detonating it the moment it left the barrier, forming a blinding cloud of smoke in front of the Queen. "Run Applebloom! You can do it!" she yelled, putting every ounce of faith she had into the filly.

The filly put every ounce of Earth Pony strength and durability into dodging shields still being put in her way.

Shining tried to put a shield around Applejack, but Twinkleshine detonated a darkness charge right in his face before he could, breaking what concentration his mind could manage.

Fluttershy's head came up. "Applejack, this is very kind of your sister, isn't it? Risking her life to save you? I don't think a kinder act exists."

Their eyes met again...but this time, an outline of a pink butterfly flashed over Fluttershy's chest and the pink Alicorn overpowered the orange Nightmare.

The Most Selfless Act of Kindness vanquished the Cruelest of Truths.

"A-Applebloom...Ah..." Tears flowed down Applejack's cheeks as she was left frozen in place until it was too late to evade the filly making a beeline for her with the key to her chains.

Applebloom made the leap, and hugged her, "AH LOVE YA BIG SISTER!"

An apple tree stood burning in green flames, trying its hardest not to burn to ash, and to resist the hurricane winds that battered it, trying to break it in two...until apple red flames sprung up around it, choking off the green and extinguishing them. The winds died in an instant, letting the wounded but unbroken tree begin to regrow.

Pinkie Pie gasped as a familiar Pinkie Sense sprang to life, then smiled from ear to ear. "They did it!"

Rainbow Dash grabbed her, "Less cheering! More running!" A slew of fireballs hit the wall behind where Pinkie had been standing.

Spike smiled as he carried by the group, trying to avoid a stink eye from Silver Spoon. "...Way to go, Applebloom..."

-

Ah've been tryin' tah drag mahself tah the surface for days...Ah...Ah won't lie, Ah was startin' tah think Ah'd never get out. That Ah'd drown before Ah ever would. That all Ah could hope fer is mah mind would break before mah will so the witch wouldn't be able tah use meh. Then Ah felt like Ah Ah wanted to lose.

"AH LOVE YA BIG SISTER!"

...And then Applebloom dove right in head first and grabbed meh, breakin' the chains keepin' meh tethered tah the bottom and haulin' meh back tah the surface.

Ah gasped fer breath like Ah really had been drownin'.

Ah...Ah'm free...AH'M FREE! Thank Celestia! Ah'm free! Haha!

Ah return mah sister's hug in an instant. Yes, Ah'm cryin' mah eyes out but Ah don't care! Ah'm free! And Ah got mah sister back! Ah...Ah don't know what tah say tah her...Ah...

"Ah...Applebloom...Ah..."

So Ah speak the truth.

"Applebloom...Ah missed yah."

"Ah missed yah too."

Twilight couldn't smile wide enough at the sight of her first pony friend free and herself again. That Applejack's three day ordeal was finally over. The only reason she didn't hug her right now was the space between them.

Twinkleshine chuckled, still doing her best to recover from what Applejack had made her face. "In your face you ugly witch!" she yelled.

Fluttershy smiled widely. "Welcome back, Applejack." she said, then began consoling her daughter.

Celestia couldn't help but smile. 'Silly Applejack...your descendants are every bit as tough as you were...When this is over perhaps I'll add a statue of 'Determination' to the garden.

A foal in the rafters smiled. 'Way to go Applebloom...'

Sweetie Belle's eyes filled with tears. "We've lost her."

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): She did it! Applebloom did it!)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): It seems even in this world, Applebloom is good at saving hearts.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Hey, our Applebloom wouldn't have become a Saint if her heart didn't have the potential for it.)

And Chrysalis was left speechless in psychopathic fury at the sight of the filly who'd managed to derail her plans when victory was in her hooves.

We hug for a moment. Just a moment...Oh Celestia, Ah missed this so much, Ah'd been so worried about her under all that tar...But now...Ah got a job tah do.

"Hey, yer MADjusty!" Ah yelled, turnin' tah face the queen meanie. Oh boy is she mad. In fact, Ah think fer once, she's speechless. "Ah got a truth fer yah: Ah. Didn't. Break!"

"But Applejack, you-"

"Yah know, Sweetie, yer right, Ah AM like a tree! Strong, reliable, and Ah bend but Ah don't break!"

"But trees are supposed to-"

"Let meh tell YOU about apple trees, Sweetie Belle. That orchard? Ah don't tend it just fer food. Ah tend it cause each an' every one of them trees? They're mah FAMILY! Ah LOVE them trees! If them trees sprouted legs and wanted tah take care of themselves? AH'D LET THEM! But Ah'd be right there if they needed meh! If all they were tah meh was food, Ah wouldn't NAME 'EM!"

Ah know it ain't her fault...but Ah needed tah say that fer meh tah get it off mah chest.

"You...you...you..." Chrysalis mumbled, glaring daggers at Applebloom. "YOU LITTLE BRAT! HOW CAN YOU DO THAT?! YOU CHEATED ME! HOW DARE THIS BE!"

"Ask anypony, we Crusaders mess things up all the time," 'Bloom said still standing besides meh.

Ah pull her close to meh. Yes, Ah'm scared. Not fer meh, Ah'd taken that sick buck's worst and survived, Ah'm scared fer mah family.

"I'm going to kill you! That's what's true!" Chrysalis roared, soundin' like a wild animal. She placed Sweetie next to her and surrounded herself in a green fireball and barreled right fer us. Too fast to outrun her without a head of steam we don't have.

"Applebloom, run! Ah'll hold her back!"

"No way sis! AH AIN'T LOSIN' YAH AGAIN!"

"APPLEJACK! APPLEBLOOM!" Twili' yells and tries to blast the Queen along with her unicorn friends, but their beams are blocked by her brother's barrier. Fluttershy tried to fly in tah help, but her wing is still hurt from before.

...Ah do all Ah can do. Ah prepare tah give the witch a spoon full of the same medicine she's been makin' meh feed all mah friends. But Ah ain't sure it'll stop her in her tracks...somepony like her has the truth locked up tight...

Ah feel somethin'. Applebloom...she ain't runnin'...she ain't abandonin' meh. She's stickin' by meh and pullin' close tah meh...

And Ah'm stickin' by her.

If this is how it ends...

...at least Ah'm gonna die with mah family...

...Ah feel something inside meh...no...inside US. Inside meh and Applebloom...

a fire...a strength...Ah feel like her...Granny Smith...Big Mac..Braeburn...Ellis...Mom and Dad...Ah feel like Ah can feel them all.

Ah feel that power rush into mah eyes...no...intah mah heart. Into the truth that blackhearted witch has kept buried all this time!

="Innocence" Sword Art Online=

Moth struggled to try and get her sister and Lyra to safety...then stood fixated on the growing surge of love that took the shape of a red energy apple surrounding the Earth Pony sisters. It felt like an entire family's worth of love surging into one spot and growing stronger.

Twilight stared in awe of the sight before her. 'It feels like...the Apple's reunion for the Summer Sun Celebration.'

Celestia's eyes went wide. 'Mother...Father...Venus...they're channeling you?'

Twinkle Shine could only stare in shock at the sight before her while in the middle of trying to get her friends to safety.

A little pegasus foal climbing across the ceiling to try and drop down on Sweetie blinked, watching the scene with wide eyes.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): This is...)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): It's like the entire Apple Family is here!)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): In a way...they are.)

The two siblings turned their gaze on the Changeling Queen, eyes igniting the same orange as Applejack's Element. The outline of an orange apple manifested around Applejack's eye.

"YAH CAN'T ESCAPE YERSELF!" they yelled.

The Queen stopped in her tracks as if she'd just accidentally run herself through on a spear.

"Chryssy!"

Five black locks in the Changeling Queen's heart shattered. Not into pieces. Into dust.

Honesty and her sister's eyes lit up orange, the same color as that stone she wears. A circle of love looking like an apple appears around them both...Wait this seems familiar...oh no...

For a moment I saw a white Alicorn mare and a black Alicorn stallion looking at me with disappointment. What is this-...

"YAH CAN'T ESCAPE YOURSELF!"

GAH! My heart?! My heart is stone! So what in me shattered?

Their words just keep echoing over and over again in my head!

Wait...no!

What's this I see? No! It cannot be! That's ~~not~~ me anymore! That past is ~~buried in the mud~~! It's no more! Stop showing me the past I abhor!

You can't hide from yourself. You never can. The you you tried to bury? The past you tried to hide? The past you think is dead and buried? It will ALWAYS be a part of you. No matter what you try to do, it will NEVER be gone. Ever.

NO!

You can't escape who you were. You will always be that pony. That ZEBRA. You can't run from the past. It will always be there. You can't escape yourself.

Chrysalis crashed to the floor, screaming in agony and clutching her chest. Shining Armor, still programmed for her protection, rushed to her side and kept the barrier up except to allow Sweetie in.

All eyes just stared in shock at the Queen who up until that moment had yet to suffer a true defeat lay in agony on the floor.

Applejack blinked for a moment...then rushed to her downed friends and looked in their eyes, giving them the OTHER side of truth she hadn't before. The KIND side of the Truth.

Lyra blinked. "Humans...may not ALL be saints but...some are."

Lemon Hearts gasped. "They...they might be feeding their families...but Moth showed they didn't have to do this."

Fluttershy let Fluttercruel come forwards. "I...I can't escape my father but...I still don't have to be like him...that makes me STRONGER."

Bon Bon simply hugged her sister and Lyra tight.

The Lemons soon followed and hugged Lemon Hearts.

"A-Applejack...how did you..."

"No time! There are still a buncha Changelings in the area and they're gonna come runnin' as fast as they can with the screamin' their Queen'ss doin'!" Applejack picked up her sister as the Lemons got their beloved mother on their backs. Then AJ remembered to pick up her beloved replacement hat Rarity had made her as well.

Twilight looked at Chrysalis, surrounded by her brother's barrier with both Shining and Sweetie surrounding her. She knew it'd take a lot of force to break through it, and they likely didn't have the time. They were still wounded and if Chrysalis got back up while they were fighting off her army, there was no assurance they could put her back down. She quickly grabbed Moon Dancer in her telekinesis and ran, the others following suit. The purple unicorn gave a whimper as she left her brother again.

"Sis...what did we just do?" Applebloom asked as they ran.

"...Ah don't know...Ah don't think we could do it again if we tried....But...if Ah had tah guess, Ah think we just used all the love our family can muster tah gave her MADjesty a taste of truth."

"Chryssy? Are you okay?" Sweetie Belle asked worriedly.

It felt like she'd been impaled through the heart. "No, I'm not. My past is ~~dead~~...why...why can't I say that?! Why can't I think that?!"

Celestia smirked in her cocoon. 'Congratulations, Applejack, I'm so proud of you.'

"Now Applejack's gone too," Sweetie said mournfully.

"Yes, pity...I'll miss her fiddle."

Sweetie Belle looked ready to cry more.

"But I'm sure we'll get her back dear!" Chrysalis lied quickly, relieving the filly some. Chrysalis was shocked at herself that she genuinely didn't want to see the filly upset.

Chrysalis stood up with a grunt, the sharp pain still there.

Sweetie hugged herself. "Now it's just me and Captain Shining."

"Don't worry dear, things are almost done. Then none of it will matter...Y-yes Maua, this is inexcusable, that I would allow fate to make a fool of me."

"You're...you're not going to let them take me are you Chryssy?" The entranced filly asked worried.

Chrysalis hugged her like a teddy bear, making the pain go away. "No dear, I will let no one take you from me," she swore.

"Applejack was great to have around."

"Yes...but we'll have to make due."

Chrysalis looked at Princess Celestia.

"Mute off."

"All your actions suddenly make much more and much less sense. I saw what your blood did to Fluttercruel. I know who you are 'Chrysalis.' And I know why you truly chose to assume Cadence's form. And please, stop this, call off this insanity, and I'll try my hardest to see you and your people are treated fairly. Just stop. You can end all this with a word! Equestria has more than enough love to spare, and what you're truly after doesn't need to be gained this way either! All you're doing is making enemies for your tribe and closing your own doors! My sister and I thought you were extinct! Please! Let us help you! I don't want to see your people vanish into the night again. Rosedust thought you were all gone! Please! She wouldn't want this!"

"Hideous!" Chrysalis made a face in revulsion, "You're disgusting. You don't plead with the enemy! I preferred your condescended baiting and back-hoofed insults!"

"We're not enemies, we're family."

"YOU WILL NEVER CALL US THAT AGAIN!...At least you're doing something natural and showing concern to something to similar DNA as yours."

"Wrong. I'm doing this because I know for a fact that the person before me is not the person you have to be. I KNOW you can be better than this! And I know somewhere in your heart of hearts, that what you truly want, isn't what you're seeking. And I know your people can be better than this, I've seen them at their best! This is pointless! What Applejack showed you only proves it...You're lost, you-"

"Mute. Don't pretend you suddenly know me Celestia. Don't presume you know what I am. And I think I've now had just about enough of your baiting, distractions, insults, mockeries, dribble, and noise. You're far too risky a prize to display as a trophy. I'm putting you in cold storage until I need you."

A ring of green flames surrounded Princess Celestia's cocoon prison, and she was dragged UP through the castle ceiling and out of sight. The Princess' eyes didn't change from a look of worry and pity the entire time.

'What you seek won't save your soul, Chrysalis.'

The queen's anger returned as she tried once more to proclaim her past ~~dead and buried~~ to no avail. 'What did that pony do to me?!'

"Chryssy, where does it hurt?" Sweetie Belle asked nuzzling her. She hadn't ordered her to shown concern for her well being.

"Not anywhere."

"You shouldn't lie Chryssy."

"When...what Applejack showed, she said I can't escape my past."

Sweetie Belle hugged her, she hadn't ordered her to do that either, "The truth is the past is in the past, and you have me, you're not alone."

Chrysalis felt the pain her chest subside some. Chrysalis held the filly like she was an anchor in a storm. "She's right Maua, I'm not alone."

Changelings swarmed into the room. "My queen! You were screaming! Are you alright?!" they asked, worried for their monarch.

"Our other Element was stolen and none of you idiots came to help me IN THE MEAN TIME, but fine, just singed," she lied.

"Should we pursue your attackers?" they asked.

Chrysalis gave a look down the hallway so filled with hatred it made every changeling in the room feel sick to their stomachs. "No...I have another idea...I still need Applejack alive...but Twilight Sparkle, you're expendable," she said, her voice becoming unhinged as the most sadistic smile imaginable formed on her face. She began to laugh. And it made every Changeling in the room's blood run cold.

"Uh, Applebloom," said Twilight. "Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but how did you even GET here?"

Applebloom looked sheepish. "Well...Ah kinda...maybe...made Spike dragon mail meh?"

"What?!"

"It was either that or let you all get brainwashed and you die!"

Twilight cringed. She remembered. Had Applebloom not arrived, she'd be dead right now.

"Thanks for saving my life, Applebloom."

"Yer welcome!"

"...Applebloom, Ah ain't gonna say Ah'm mad at yah. Yah risked yer life tah save mine, and Ah'm grateful! Ah love yah!" Applejack said, giving a grateful smile.

"Thanks sis."

"But if Ah ever catcha yah doin' that trick again, yer gettin' such a spankin' yah won't be able tah see a Cutie Mark if yah earn one yer flank will be so red and ain't leavin' yer room till yer twenty! Got it?!"

Applebloom gulped. "Crystal."

Applejack reached back and nuzzled her sister. "But Ah love yah...thanks fer savin' meh."

Applebloom returned it without hesitation. "Yer welcome."

Twilight's nature got the better of her. "Um...Applebloom, what was travel by dragon mail like?"

"Hmm...kinda like when we got caught in that taffy machine...only on fire. And smelled like Spike's breath...and everything was green."

"So everything looked green?"

"No, everything was green! In fact mah mouth still kinda tastes like green!"

"...What does green taste like?"

"...Kinda salty."

Applejack looked at Twinkle Shine and the others. "Uh...look...Ah...Ah'm sorry...Ah...Ah'd never have done that if-"

"We saved Moon Dancer from that monster, we know you didn't mean it...and I think sometimes, ponies need to have the truth shoved in their faces," Twinkle Shine said. "Water under the bridge."

"Twinkle Shine, was it?"

"Yes."

"Can yah look at meh for a second?"

Twinkle Shine looked, seeing into her eyes.

You aren't alone. You have your friends. And you're one of the best they could ask for.

Twinkle Shine had tears in her eyes again, this time of joy. "T-Thanks."

"Ah don't like showin' just the cruel truth tah hurt, if Ah can, Ah like tah show the kind truth tah heal."

"Hey! Wait for me!"

The group blinked, turning around to see an orange filly speeding after them. Twilight let Scootaloo jump on her back and they took off again.

"Scootaloo you were supposed to wait at the, never mind." Twilight sighed.

"Scoot', where were you?" asked Applebloom, blinking.

Scootaloo panted. "I...I wanted to rescue Sweetie but...she was inside Shining's forcefield, so I couldn't..."

"Did the queen see you?" asked Lemon Hearts.

Scootaloo shook her head. "No...But I couldn't get to Sweetie either...not get to her and get out anyway."

Twilight frowned at the dejected look on the foal's face, being reminded of her own pain at leaving her brother. She gave her a nuzzle. "It's okay, Scootaloo, you'll get another chance..."

"Yeah..." Scootaloo said, then managed to cheer up. "Great job kicking Queen Meanie's flank Applebloom!"

Applebloom smirked. "Yeah! It's like Rainbow told yah! we just needed tah wait for the right moment!"

Scootaloo smiled. "Yeah!...I know I'll get the chance to save Sweetie...I just need to pick my spots like Rainbow said."

"Wait, Rainbow told yah tah pick yer spots?" Applejack asked, blinking in confusion.

"Yeah."

"What the hay did Ah miss while Ah was brainwashed?"

"Uh, girls," said Moth, worriedly. "My sister's got a hurt leg," she explained, carrying her on her back.

Applejack narrowed her eyes for a moment, looking Moth in the eyes as she talked.

Twilight realized what was going on. "Applejack! Moth's a-"

"Changelin', Ah can see that, but don't worry," Applejack replied. "Ah can tell she ain't lyin' that she worried about her sister, and Ah know Bon Bon ain't one."

Moth almost tripped. "So you're not going to attack me in a blind panic?"

"No."

Moth and Bon Bon both sighed in relief. "Thank Rosedust, I was getting tired of that."

Applejack blinked. "How many times has it happened?"

"Three times."

"Geeze, got some bad luck, huh?"

"But she is right," said Twilight. "We need to get Bon Bon back on her hooves."

The group ducked into a closet really quick, Lemon Hearts having to send the Angry Lemons back to the church. Fluttershy checked Bon Bon's leg quickly. "It's not broken, it's just dislocated...I can pop it back in place, but it's going to really hurt."

Applejack looked around quickly. "Dang, nothin' she can bite. She'll be screaming her head off."

Without hesitation, Moth shed her disguise and held out her leg for Moth to bite. "I have an exoskeleton, it won't hurt."

Bon Bon nodded and put her mouth around her sister's foreleg.

"Applejack, while we're healing things, my leg is still a little numb from your nerve thing earlier, do you think you can fix it?"

Applejack nodded and hit another nerve cluster to reverse it, doing the same for her wing.

"Thanks," Fluttercruel said, rolling her wing. "Much better."

Applejack nodded, but frowned. 'Sorry Ah ended up usin' your teachin' for the wrong reasons, Red Heart.'

"One...two...three!" Fluttercruel said, popping Bon Bon's foreleg back into place with a loud pop.

Moth cringed as her sister bit into her leg. "Ow."

"Ugh...sorry sis."

Once her sister was done biting, Moth looked at her slightly dented exoskeleton. "It's alright...forgot for a moment you were an Earth Pony."

The sisters hugged.

Taking their cue and finally having a chance to breath, Twilight and Fluttercruel finally pulled Applejack into a group hug. "We missed you so much!" the lavender unicorn said, letting tears flow.

"Oh yes, and we were so worried! I'm sorry I had to use the Stare on you! Are you mad?"

Applejack chuckled and hugging her friends back. "Ah missed yah too, and no, Fluttershy, Ah ain't mad. Ah was more worried yah be mad at meh for hurtin' Fluttercruel."

"Applejack," Fluttercruel said, taking over. "I was born a psychopath, I think mom would forgive you even if you weren't brainwashed."

Fluttershy nodded. "Don't be too hard on yourself, Applejack."

Applejack gave a small smile. "Thanks Fluttershy."

'Ah'll apologize to 'em all when we get back together.'

Twinkle Shine looked cautiously at the Flutters, but said nothing.

"I have no idea what you girls are even talking about," Lemon Heart said.

Fluttercruel sighed. "Guess I can't hide it considering I almost bucking turned to stone back there...Look, I don't want you guys to go berserk on me like you did to Moth."

"We didn't go berserk...we just panicked."

"Long story short, I'm Fluttershy's daughter and we share a body," Fluttercruel fully took over, changing to her coloration and Cutie Mark. "I was born this way, alright? Celestia herself even said so. I don't want to explain this to just a few of you."

"When did my life get this crazy?" Lemon Heart lamented.

"For me? When I was born," Fluttercruel stated. "If you think these past few days have been crazy, try having to defeat your own mother turned into a Nightmare who tried to take over the world while fighting out of limbo, then earning a Cutie Mark when you thought you were just a mental clone of her...I was a few months old when that happened."

"Personally Lemon Hearts? I feel the pain," Lyra said at her sane life having turned upside down.

Twilight wondered if she should confirm to Lyra that humans were real when this was all over. The mare probably deserved it.

"Why am I always brushed under the rug in this adventure when I'm not being beaten up by my own teammates?" Moth asked. Scootaloo gave a grunt of camaraderie.

Bon Bon gave her a sympathetic pat on the back.

"Moth...for what it's worth?" Fluttercruel asked, turning to her. "Now that I'm actually able to talk to you in person, I RESPECT that you had the guts to be more than what you thought you were born to be and be good when you thought what you were was bad...trust me, that's not easy."

Moth nodded. "Uh...T-Thanks," she said, blushing a little despite her exoskeleton.

"Why does Fluttershy's creepy split personality have to hog the spotlight wherever she goes?" Scootaloo said under her breath, "She's worse than Trixie."

"Okay, so how are we gonna get outta here?" asked Applejack.

"Even if the changelin' didn't probably already know Ah was free from meh and Applebloom blastin' Chrysalis, even brainwashed lyin' weren't easy for meh." The orange pony shuddered at the memories.

Moth gave it some thought. "Well, I can shapeshift, but that's only useful if the rest of you could be disguised as ponies being lead around by me. And...well...Applejack isn't feeling up to lying right now."

Twilight nodded. "I guess we'll just have to sneak out while the Changelings are still in disarray."

"Do you think I can still bluff the changelings guards?" Moon Dancer offered. Everypony shook their heads. "Didn't think so."

"Uh, one other thing?" asked Applebloom. "Shouldn't we send a letter to Spike so the others know we ain't dead? Spike was kinda scared meh dragon mailin' mahself might kill meh and we thought that Chrysalis was gonna kill yah and brainwash everypony."

Facehoofs abounded.

"...Yes, probably a good idea."

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by Alex Warlorn
The Stare vs The Truth

Pinkie Pie, "How's THAT for a turn around?"

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Big-Theater-Fight-452670303

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Notes-Get-Scrambled-453997847

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (need to be kept up to date . . . please?).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Real Title For this episode:
"One Brave Little Apple"

Episode 185: "Notes Get Scrambled"

Vanished filly.
Ponies angry at a baby dragon.
Changelings descending like flood.
Indoors Sonic-Rainboom.
Half the building collapsing.
Rainbow appreciating why Celestia didn't use her full power in a room of innocents.
All escape by the skin of their teeth.
Changeling guards split between rescuing their comrades from the rubble and pursuing the enemy.
Chrysalis' crystal ball buried as well.
Public warning giving out about the 'brainwashed ponies' on the loose.
Lots of interview notes lost in the havoc.

"Thank you for helping us, darling," said Rarity.

"Rarity baby, when I found out ya were in danger from Fancy, how couldn't I help out when I saw ya? Now you'd better hurry on, I don't know how long they'll listen tah Jewel Tide's complaints that our chariot out of the city was delayed by this whole mess," Sapphire Shores said, leading them out the back door of the hotel.

"I can't believe Sapphire Shores has a twin," Spike said.

"Ah don't honey, she's my body double."

"Oh."

Pinkie chuckled. "...Well, that was an odd offscreen adventure."

"Yeah, tell me about it..." Rainbow muttered. "I never thought I'd have to run away from Wonderbolts."

Rarity said, "And I never thought I'd have to run from my own business partners."

"Trixie never thought she'd have to be saved by Sapphire Shores," Trixie stated, then smiled. "Not that I'm complaining I got to meet Sapphire Shores...can I have your autograph?"

"Normally, I'd love ta, but maybe later when ya ain't savin' Equestria."

"Darn."

Suddenly, Spike burped out and scroll and opened it. "Hey! Listen! They freed AJ and got away!"

Subdued cheers went around for a moment.

Sapphire smirked. "Good tah hear. I'll let Fancy know you all are making head way. If ya need anything, don't hesitate ta ask, okay?"

"We won't, and do stop by my boutique after we've saved Equestria, I owe you at least a free dress for this, Sapphire."

Twilight looked at the letter that came back, a wave of relief washing over her. "Okay, they got away from the ambush...and were saved by Sapphire Shores and Fancy Pants is leading an anti-Changeling resistance trying to undermine Chrysalis..."

Everypony blinked. "...Well okay then..." muttered Applejack, not sure what to say to that.

Lyra groaned. "Why couldn't we have been in the group that got to meet Sapphire Shores?" Bon Bon gave her a good whack.

Lemon Hearts was beating her head against the wall at how weird the day had been. Moon Dancer gave her a nuzzle, followed by Twinkle Shine, and finally Lyra.

"I think mom would have fainted if we were there," Fluttercruel said.

"...I would have..."

Twilight thought about it. She looked at Applebloom and Applejack. The family reunited. "...Applejack...did the Changelings ever catch my parents?"

"No, Ah think some of the weddin' guests managed tah get away since the Changelings had better things tah do."

"...But they also kept the castle more or less locked down, considering we keep having to fight our way through Changelings to get back in," Twilight stated thoughtfully. "Twinkle Shine...can you please lead everypony back to the hideout?"

"Twilight, yah ain't goin' after Shinin' alone," Applejack stated.

"I know...I didn't mean him. The Changelings are in disarray, their queen is wounded, and most of the Changeling army is on the other side of Canterlot looking for the others right now, and the rest are probably going to be rushing to the Queen's side...This could be my only chance to look for my parents."

Applejack gasped. "Twili..."

"Look, the more ponies we have, the harder it'd be to hide...and most of you have been through a lot in this fight, and so have the others...but I didn't take a major blow in the fight, and if it's just me, I can do a sweep of the castle in hiding and get out without being detected. They're lookin for a herd, not one pony who can disguise herself."

To prove her point, Twilight used an illusion copied from Trixie to disguise herself as a female day guard.

Applejack sighed. "...That's true."

"Please, Applejack...all of my mom's legs were broken. I need to get her help and Minuette is the closest thing to a doctor we can get right now."

"Your dad was with her I thought," Lemon Hearts pointed out pragmatically.

"Dad is great, but he's not a doctor. If anything him being with her in that state is making it harder on him because he can't help mom."

"...Twilight...Ah get what you're sayin'," Applejack said, sympathetically. "But Ah don't like the idea of yah goin' it alone with no pony tah watch yer back in a castle infested with Changelings."

"Then how about another changeling?" Moth said.

"No. You're going to be needed with the others to bluff their way through now that Moon Dancer's been exposed," Twilight said.

"...I could go with her..." Scootaloo said.

"What?!" Everypony asked.

"I'm small, I could sit on her back under some illusion or something and keep watch for her. And if she got in trouble, I'm REALLY fast, I could run and get help."

"...A filly WOULD be really easy to hide with an invisibility spell," Twilight stated. "Especially if they're just going to sit still on my back and look around..."

"...Twilight, ya can't be serious! Now's not the time for humorin' fillies! We gotta get outta here before them bugs all get back here!"

"Hey! We saved Spike all by ourselves!...Almost," Scootaloo argued.

"What?"

"They...actually did...And knocked out two Changelings...and summoned a Water Elemental to cover everypony's escape..."

"Again?"

"We did it on purpose this time! And last time was a Fire Elemental!"

"What were ya youngin's even doin' there? Ya shouldn't be here ta begin with! Ya should have just stay where our friends put ya and stayed safe."

"Applejack," said Twilight. "The others NEEDED them to save Spike. I was still brainwashed and Rarity and Moon Dancer weren't as close to him as the Crusaders are, at least not in the kind of way Spike THINKS they're close to him. They were the best option of saving him from what I was told."

"And sis..." Applebloom said, looking up to her sister. "If Ah'd just played it safe, then...then yah'd still be brainwashed, Twilight would be dead, and everypony would be brainwashed...Ah know we're foals, but we can help. We HAVE helped."

"Don't go assumin' things ya don't know Applebloom! Ya helped, thank ya, it worked, it's wonderful, but yer foals! Ya shouldn't BE puttin' yerself in danger ta begin with! Rarity and Moon Dancer should have figured out a plans that DIDN'T involve little girls without even their cutie marks yet being involved in fighting MONSTERS who don't even see ponies as PEOPLE!"

Moth cleared her throat. "Um..."

"Er...sorry, Moth forgot yah were a Changelin' for a sec... But get a clue Applebloom! Ya think yer invincible cause yer little, but ya ain't! Yer MORE likely ta die in danger than us! Ya got a life ahead of ya! Don't go thrownin' it away cause ya don't know what could happen! And Ah'm likely gonna regret askin' this, but how the heck ya follow everypony this way by yerself Scootaloo? And if you were on some crazy scheme of yers, Ah can't see Applebloom not bein' with ya ta begin with....Yer not under mind control are ya?"

"What? No!" Scooctaloo said.

"AJ..." Twilight said carefully, "I selected Scootaloo as part of the team for what was supposed to be rescuing Princess Celestia, and Applebloom was supposed to be on the team to save YOU while the others fought Chrysalis, I was only here because we were afraid Celestia might be geassed."

"What?" AJ asked.

"Well, Applebloom, Spike, Scootaloo, and Silver Spoon, they've been very helpful so far, all of them, and they're all safe."

"You brought the fillies here on purpose?"

"...Yes."

"ARE YA ALL JUST PLAIN STUPID?!?! Ya think them buggers are gonna play nice just cause they're attackin' foals?! And Silver Tongue? He's still with you? Ah can't believe a Pa would ever his filly inta danger like this! You LET'ER do this?! What the buck is wrong with all of ya? You're buckin' ADULTS, it's yer JOB to keep foals OUT OF DANGER NOT PUT'EM IN IT!"

Twilight, Lyra, Moth, Bon-Bon, Twinkle Shine, Lemon Hearts, and the Flutters were all cowed by Applejack's words.

Applebloom looked determined. "We know how dangerous this is! Ah've been in danger, yah saw it, remember!"

"Applebloom that was-"

"How was that different? Because Ah didn't know what Ah was gettin' inta? Yer right, Ah didn't. But they WERE tryin' tah kill meh! Ah know that...Ah know how dangerous this is...but Sweetie is still in trouble, she's mah friend. And Ah'm an Apple to the core!"

"Applebloom! These creeps are gonna do things ta ya that ya don't even know THE WORDS FOR YET! It's NOT the same as Sunnytown!"

"...Yer right...it's not...Yah know why? Because all these bugs can do is brainwash meh! Sunnytown? They'd have killed meh and made meh a zombie FOREVER!"

"No! What they can do is turn ya into a empty husk that can't feel a thing, FOREVER! Like a Vampire Fruit Bat!"

Applebloom shuddered at the last words her sister spoke, but didn't seem to change her opinion.

"Or ya'll just slowly twist and squirm inside ya own head until ya die inside! Ya fillies shouldn't be in that kinda danger! And ya know what? These things WILL do things that Ah CAN'T say in front of foals to ya! Things ya don't know exist yet! Ah heard'em CHATTIN' about it when Ah was brainwashed! Ah won't put ya or any foal alive in that spot!!!"

"Ah've seen somethin' a foal shouldn't have tah see...Yah want tah know what the worst part of all that was, sis? Seein' Ruby wander around...just wantin' tah play with meh...then findin' her bones in a fireplace where her own so-called FRIENDS burned her alive!...And Ah'm sorry sis, but if they're gonna do all that stuff tah foals? Ah ain't sittin' by and lettin' it happen tah Sweetie. Tan mah hide, lock meh in a box, tie meh up, whatever! But Ah was a thousand years too late tah save Ruby, Ah ain't gonna be too late tah save Sweetie!"

Lyra and Bon Bon nearly fainted at this description. The others looked sick. What the Tartarus was the filly talking about?!

"...When this is over, I'm getting the biggest bottle of salt water I can find and getting very drunk..." Lemon Hearts muttered.

"...Me two." Lyra chimed in.

"Me three." Bon Bon added.

"Ditto." Moon Dancer answered.

"...Twilight, can I borrow the library's copy of your mom's book if we get survive this?" Moth asked. "In fact, make that the entire book series."

Twinlight Sparkle groaned, "You just blew a very large public secret.
Congratulations Applebloom."

"Oh..." Applebloom shrank lightly at Twilight's gaze.

"Wait, you mean those weren't just bucked up nightmares?!" asked Twinkle Shine.

Twilight face hoofed. "And I just blew it wider..."

Applejack looked into the foal's eyes. The legendary Apple Family stubborn streak stared back at her.

"...Yah gonna use yer truth vision on meh, sis?"

"...Ah already am...there ain't a truth Ah can show yah that's gonna change yer mind, is there?"

"Nope."

"Except we were talkin' about Scootaloo goin' with Twili', not ya."

"Yah think she's any less determined than meh? She learned loyalty from Rainbow Dash."

"I can cover for one foal with my magic, not two," Twilight said.

"Can I speak for myself please?" Scootaloo said irritated. "I hate to tell you Appleboom, but I've known Sweetie Belle longer than you. Rarity wouldn't let Sweetie Belle near you before she became real friends with Applejack."

"That's a myth actually darlin," AJ said.

"And Applebloom, thanks for standing up for me, but that was all about you! Dash wouldn't have let me go if she didn't trust me already! All that talk was for yourself."

"Was not!"

"You barely mentioned me, it was all you you you!...! You're trying to prove that she doesn't need to look after you after what happened in Sunnytown!"

"I...that's not it!" Applebloom stuttered.

"So...Sunnytown?" Twinkle Shine asked. The canterlot ponies and Lyra's family inched near.

"Don't ask," Twilight whispered.

"At the end of the day, yer still just foals, and ya don't even realize it," AJ sighed, looking ready to cry.

"Applejack, me, Applebloom, Sweetie, Silver, Spike? We all already know what it's like to be in danger...and...I promise, I'm not forgetting I'm a filly, I promise. I...I just wanna help...and isn't it better if Twilight has a second pair of eyes with her?"

AJ sighed again. "Ah'm not standin' up fer RD ta yer parents if somethin' happens ta ya."

"I'll tell them myself." 'If I ever see them...'

"Thick-headed brats," Lemon Heart said.

"Come on Twili!" Said Applebloom, "Ah know yer the best unicorn there is! If yer magic can hide Scootaloo! Ah bet it can hide me too! There's no way Ah'm lettin' Scootaloo go alone."

"...Applebloom...Ah don't like this...But if this is a situation where Ah gotta let foals put themselves in danger..." Applejack looked at herself in the eyes in the reflection on a dirty old window. "...Ah get it...fate don't call on yah when yah think yer ready for her or when yer big sister thinks yer ready fer her...she didn't call meh and the others tah stop Nightmare Moon, Discord, or Nightmare Whisper when we thought we were ready tah save the world, and she didn't call yah tah survive Sunnytown when yah thought yah were ready tah face zombies...she calls yah when yer needed...and Ah guess maybe today she called for yah...but Ah ain't makin' Twilight put yah in MORE danger by tryin' tah put a spell on two foals instead of one," the farmer said. "...If yah wanna help, then be MAH second pair of eyes on the way outta here or Ah'll have Twili' put a sleepin' spell on ya."

Twilight for once held her tongue and didn't mention that she didn't know any that were absolutely safe. Applebloom looked at the adults around her...none of them budging an inch. Applebloom growled.

"And if Twilight won't, I know some," Moon Dancer said.

"And I have angry lemons who can just carry you back."

"If ya think this means Ah'm done helpin' every time it's dangerous, it ain't happenin'."

"Ah know Applebloom, Ah know...Ah just can't wait fer this tah be over so yah can go back tah bein' foals..."

"...Fer what it's worth, sis?...Neither can Ah..."

Applejack hugged her baby sister. "And Ah'm sorry yah had tah see Ruby's...Ruby's remains...that ain't somethin' yah shoulda had tah see..."

Applebloom didn't argue with that.

"Alright, read-"

"Wait one minute, Twili," said Applejack. "Look, Ah get it, yer parents are in trouble, and if yah don't save 'em, Chrysalis might find 'em and use 'em against us or somethin'...goodness knows if Ah had a second chance tah save mah parents, Ah know Ah'd take it in a heartbeat. But if yah find yerself in ANY trouble at all, you WILL send Spike a letter so we can come save yah and yah DON'T go bein' meh and be so stubborn about it yah don't know when tah quit," the farmer said with absolute seriousness. "If Ah find out yah didn't listen tah meh or get yerself brainwashed again, then Ah'm gonna have every unicorn or Alicorn we got combine their magic if that's what it takes tah turn yah inta a filly so Ah can give yah the spankin' of a lifetime, then ground yah, got it?!"

"...If I don't, I'll help them turn me into the foal, it's high level magic...and Cadence was my foalsitter, so she'd probably beat you to the spanking..." Twilight responded, writing a prewritten letter to Spike with a tracking spell on it.

Applejack looked Twilight in the eye. "...Alright. Now put an anti-brainwashin' spell on BOTH OF YAH if yah know it."

Twilight did so without hesitation.

"...My eyes feel like red and I feel like there's a bike helmet in my head..." Scootaloo remarked, rubbing her eyes.

"Yes, I know, that's supposed to happen."

Applejack nodded. "Now go look fer yer parents and come back ASAP, got it?"

We separated. Eight ponies under a copy of Trixie's illusion magic magic going one way, and the two of us going another. I didn't like doing this. But it might be the best chance we had. The fewer ponies with me...the fewer I had to worry about getting hurt.

Princess, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I was there to save you with my friends. You were there looking us in the eyes. Just because we ran into more resistance than we thought we would, I just ran away. I left you there. Anything that happens to you is my responsibility. I'm just so sorry. I'll make for it, I promise.

+++

My sister put her shape shifting to the best use she could. We didn't make it back to the church scott free. I'm surprised we haven't been seen exiting or leave the place yet, I mean, the queen has to know what all of us look like now. I'm happy for the illusion spell...Moth gave herself the illusion of an officer's rank so she could bluff our way through things. A bunch of changelings stopped us on the way, telling us to get back to the castle, but we said we had orders to search for the rebels that had injured the Queen. They asked what unit we were in, we made something up on the spot. But wouldn't you know?

"Hey! Lollipop was ordered back to the castle too!"

Then it was Twinkle Shine who bluffed us the rest of the way through. She spieled about military, political, and royal protocol so much that it made my head spin, and it made the guards' heads spin too and let us pass I think just so their brains didn't melt.

I thought Twilight's plan was crazy. I love my parents' too. But the castle was huge, how do you think we spent so much time running in it before? Did she know some kind of tracking or scying spell to find them? But wouldn't she have used that before if she could do that already? But 'talking daughters inside their mothers', zombies, and what I had seen in AJ's eyes...it had left my head spinning. I couldn't bring myself to say anything about it.

Applejack's eyes had shown me, the one who was putting herself in the most danger by being here, the one who brought the least to the table, wasn't one of the fillies: it was me. I had no experience fighting. I had no unique spells I brought to the herd. I wasn't brilliant or cunning, I wasn't the strongest, fastest, stealthy, or have an insight into the enemy, I couldn't provide for us, I couldn't be an instant messenger, and I couldn't free any of those enslaved by the queen.

The only reason I'm here, was because I'm always alongside Lyra, and Moth and I always stay together. I was just an average mare.

Then came the worst part. That how little of a 'me' I had. I only defined myself with how I was connected to Lyra, Tootsie, and Moth. If you cut them away, I wasn't anything.

...

Oh! What did Applejack's truth show me the second time?...That Moth would have broken down if I hadn't been here. And I was a part of the lives of my family too. And I was the one good at making magic candies, not them, and that being good at fighting or being useful in a fight...aren't the only point of living, the world was full of soldiers who were useless for anything but fighting and couldn't live a life after leaving the army...Maybe I'd ask Pinkie Pie if she had any supplies for making candies when we got back...and if that didn't help, so how I was special didn't apply to fighting, who cared? Life wasn't about who could kick whose flank, that was what BULLIES thought life was all about.

Moth told me how she pulled off her facade with my parents. My parents lived far away and hadn't visit often, so she'd never tried brainwashing them. She'd...just made it 'slip my mind' to mention her when I talked with them or wrote them letters. She'd already taken all her mind magic off
me...so I can introduce them.

But how do you tell your parents 'I adopted a Changeling as my sister?' For starters she's helping us save the world and the others would vouch for her being a good pony. So everything will work out, I have hope it will!

Oh, and when we came to a locked door and didn't have keys, Applebloom had the idea that since Miss Cheerilee had been able to plow through a wall while under the Love Potion, that we probably could do it too. So me and Applejack ended up being living battering rams to get us through...But that wasn't as important as finding my purpose here.

+++

By the time the rescued Applejack and co made it back to the church...their friends had beaten them there...and Minuette complaining she had run out of bandages (having to borrow some from Pinkie Diane's 'party accidents' supply).

"Ya know the thing about changelings who pretend to be royal guards?" Rainbow Dash had said, bandages on one of her flanks, "They aren't able to pretend to be royal guards by being pushovers."

"Can't you just speed up the flow of time and heal these faster dear?" Rarity had asked, small cuts crisscrossing her body that she could only hope didn't scar.

"If I could do that, that time would count as part of your life-span, so no, I would't even if I could," Minuette said. "I'd rather not learn how to age ponies into dust."

"Look on the bright side!" Pinkie Diane said, "We fought an entire army of trained-soldiers that took us by surprise and we're still around to talk about it! We're totally bad-flank! Ouch!"

"Did you guys have to keep using me as a shield," Spike said.

"Fireballs to you are a warm bath Spike, and your skin and bones are far stronger than ours," Trixie said, "I shielded YOU from the ice-blast remember? I still have the frost bite on my flank to prove it!"

"...Point."

"And thanks for spotting that ninja."

"No problem."

(Afterwards's Notes (Half-Light Dawn): This is where things get really confusing, we lost a lot of notes here, during the big big battle, so please be patient. Ah! We still have this bit here from earlier.)

"Where is Applebloom you dumb lizard?!" Silver Spoon shouted shaking Spike back and forth like he was a piggy bank that would drop Applebloom coins if she shook him hard enough.

(Afterwards's Notes (Half-Light Dawn): And a bit later.)

"Silver Spoon I'm sorry."

"You should have just told her no!"

"My sentiments exactly," Somepony else said (we lost track of who).

"She said it was the only way to save Applejack!"

"She's not psychic!" Silver Spoon snarled.

(Afterwards's Notes (Half-Light Dawn): It was then that Rainbow Dash had to either bring the house down or they'd be taken down. And when the two group came back together.)

"Don't do that again!" Silver Spoon cried hugging Applebloom when she laid eyes on the filly.

"Ah'll try."

"Don't try! Promise!"

"Alright, Ah'll promise."

"Pinkie Promise!"

"Cross mah heart, hope tah fly, stick a cupcake in mah eye!"

"Applebloom?" Spike said, "Here's your bow back."

"Thanks!"

Group hugs ensued.

(Afterwards's Notes (Half-Light Dawn): But there was also: )

"Scootaloo! How could she? We work best AS A TEAM!" Silver Spoon lamented, "If she doesn't come back in one piece, I'll kill'er!"

"Ditto for Twilight!" Rainbow Dash said, "Since when does Egghead Twilight do things this stupid? I never thought I had to explain 'pick your battles' to her! GAAAHHH! I don't know if Scootaloo being with her makes it more stupid or if she'll keep Twilight grounded! If she gets turned into a zombie again, I'm snapping her out of it with a Sonic Rainboom to the head this time!"

"Family makes can you do very very foolish things," Rarity said. Fluttershy nodded as did Silver Tongue, who seemed beyond relieved to have his daughter back safe and sound.

"Princess Cadence."

"Yes Silver Axe?"

"If you were not the only present Princess . . . I'd have told you to put your orders to have my daughter take part in that operation where Celestia doesn't shine."

" . . . I understand completely Silver Axe." Cadence sighed. 'Twilight, what is wrong with you? Have you forgotten everything you told me you've learned? I . . . I hope that you find Starlight Sparkle and Moonlight and get back here with them. Then all three of us can talk with you. Please come back safe little Twilight.'

"So how long until we start planning 'Rescue Twilight The Sequel?'" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Now let's not go assumin' the worst," AJ said.

"The worst is if she's brainwashed again, or Scootaloo is, they'll know where we've been hiding," Minuette said.

(Afterwards's Notes (Half-Light Dawn): And sadly there was some of this.)

"Couldn't your pets have TOLD US that Chrysalis was in two places at once?!" Rarity snapped at Cadence.

"I can't look through all their eyes at once! And we had such a short window that we focused all our attention on the theater!"

-And-

Minuette, hugged Moon Dancer, Lemon Hearts, and Twinkle Shine.

"I'm just happy you girls made it all back." Mineutte whispers.

"Believe me," said Lemon Hearts. "I'm glad we made it back too after that chaos."

"Girls," Moon Dancer said simply. "Can you all do me a favor?"

They nodded.

"If I ever look like I'm getting too reckless, losing my self control, tell me, splash water on me, kick me in the flanks, but get me to stop and THINK."

"What brought this on?" Mineutte asked.

"I . . . during the battle with Chrysalis, I began to lose my head, I was relentless, but I was also reckless, and . . . I don't like the feelings I was having. The things I wanted, weren't things I SHOULD want. That ... that isn't the pony I want to be. I might be a mage, I might be willing to do my part, but I don't want to lose who I am in the process. So please, if I begin to lose my head. Please be there to bring me back down."

"I promise," Twinkle Shine said. "We LIKE the pony you are Moon Dancer."

"I swear," Minuette added. "Normally I'd say 'don't be afraid to change' but that's a change you're right not to want to make."

"Don't have to ask me twice," said Lemon Hearts.

"Don't have to ask me once." They all looked at Lyra. "I'm part of this little circle too aren't I? Newest Hoofmaiden and all."

The unicorns nodded and hugged her too, and they all then hugged Moon Dancer.

"And me too."

"Spike?"

"I'm your friend too right?"

Moon Dancer made a small laugh. "Right!" She gave him a short nuzzle.

-And Then-

"And THAT is what Ah think of puttin' fillies in danger!" AJ's tone put the Royal Canterlot Voice to shame.

"Are we gonna have to deal with this every time?" RD said clearing out her ear at the outburst.

Rarity said, "It would be a bad day for Equestria if we didn't."

-And of course-

"The daughter of the Draconequus!" Silver Spoon shouted in a panic hitting Fluttercruel over the head with a pew. Then Bon Bon threw a life-sized statue of Celestia at 'Cruel's face.

Bit later -

"Uh, heh heh, love and tolerance?" Bon Bon sheepishly offered a hoof as Minuette finished putting a bandage on Fluttercruel's nose who glared at the earth pony.

"Alright," said Lemon Hearts. "If anypony else is secretly not a pony-"

Minuette opened her mouth.

"-please kindly keep your mouth shut!"

And promptly shut it.

And after all of that -

"You know darlings, I've come to the conclusion that tensions have been strung high among us in spite of our string of victories in light of our near crushing defeat and I want my baby sister back already!" Rarity suddenly burst out crying.

A few seconds later -

"Thank you, darlings, I needed that," Rarity said about the gigantic group hug she had just been given.

"I think we all did." Pinkie Pie said.

And during that -

"Shining...I'm sorry, I should have been able to save you this time...I'm so sorry."

(Afterwards's Notes (Half-Light Dawn): Yeah...there was a lot shouting between friends...it wasn't nice. I really don't want to go over those notes again. Oh wait wait! I found it! Here we go! This is one you should see! I'm happy this one survived the explosions and the fire, just kidding, what actually happened was crazier!)

"AJ!!" RD shouted and she scooped up the pony and gave her an epic hug.

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't think to give you lots of hugs after we saved you! I'm so sorry! Sorry! Please don't hate me!" Fluttershy gushed as she flew up and hugged her friend too.

"HEY! Save some for me!" Pinkie Pie bounced up and hugged the palomino pony too.

"Darlings please there's plenty to go around," Rarity said telekinetically dragging her orange friend into hugging range herself.

"Please permit Trixie to have a turn," The show pony teleported right into the middle of the group hug and added her share.

"Hey!"

"Sorry Spike," Trixie said, teleporting Spike onto her back and into hugging range of he earth pony too.

-Enough Hugs and Nuzzles To Distort Space Later-

Applejack said, "Everypony, Ah'm gonna say the this when Twili' and Scootaloo gets back, and when we free Princess Celestia, when Princess Luna gets back, when we get Sweetie back, and when we get Twili's brother back, and Ah'm gonna say it now! Ah'm sorry. Ah bucked up and bad. That witch zapped meh long before she zapped Sweetie, or Twili'. Ah had a way tah end the whole mess before it even began. Ah hate it, but that witch had a point, if Ah hadn't been so caught up in the truth Ah can see upsetting the applecart every which way, Ah could have stopped everythin' with a look! Ah didn't because Ah knew this was the place where everypony says somethin' and means another. If Ah had used mah gift to see truth from the start, none of this would be happenin'."

"...a lot of readers were kinda banking on you ending the changelings' evil plan hard and fast with being able to see through illusions." Rarity backhoofed Pinkie Pie, not even looking at her as Applejack pinned her ears. "OW! I'll be quiet."

Rarity said, "Dears, allow me for speak for all of us. I'd prefer to do this with Twilight and little Scootaloo here, but this will have to do. Applejack, you couldn't have known in any way or expected this psychotic she-demon existed, so you shouldn't feel guilty, but ONCE we save Equestria, remember one thing: Canterlot high society is the LAST place you should turn that little gift of yours off."

"But-"

"But nothing! You have a gift, dear, and I respect 'great power comes with great responsibility,' but that gift of yours could be the difference between being scammed by a merchant and getting the right price for your family's apples here! You weren't foolish to respect other's privacy, you were foolish to relinquish a VALUABLE GIFT!"

"So Ah screwed up by tryin' tah control mahself? Thanks for tellin' meh what Ah already knew."

"NO, look me in the eyes with that truth vision of yours as I'm talking to you."

"But-"

"NOW!" Applejack reluctantly did so. "Your mistake wasn't trying to control yourself, Applejack. It was SHUTTING IT OFF instead of trying to control it. That isn't controlling yourself, it's WEAKENING yourself. Controlling yourself would have been being able to detect MEANINGFUL lies but shutting off hearing little white ones and forcing ponies to tell the absolute truth. Like how Rainbow Dash has developed that mini version of her devastating Sonic Rainboom she's been using against the Changelings, allowing her to use that legendary power safely. Think of it like this: you're an earth pony, your race has great strength, correct?"

"Yeah."

"Do you just shut it off because you're afraid of hurting somepony? Or do you hold back?"

"...Hold back, first thin' we learn as foals..."

"Then why is that truth vision of yours any different?"

"...Ah guess Ah'm just not used to showy magic like unicorns, somethin' ya can see, earth pony magic isn't so flashy...Ah didn't get the comparison...Alright, Rarity, but there's ONE place Ah AM turnin' my truth vision off."

"And where is that?"

"The movies! It makes 'em a whole lot less fun when Ah can see all the wires!"

The church was filled with laughter.

-

"Rainbow..." Applejack said, looking to her friend. "About...about before...when Queen Chrysalis first revealed herself and Ah..."

"AJ...thank you."

"...Pardon?"

"I'm not going to lie, I DON'T like the idea my own best friend did that to me...but thanks for making me face up to how much of a jerk I can be to Derpy some times."

"...Yer welcome...But Ah gotta give yah a kind truth tah balance it out..."

Rainbow. You've come a long way from Flight School. You were a jerk to Derpy back then, you were a troublemaker. Now you're the most loyal friend a pony could ever ask for. You're still rough around the edges, but you never put yourself before others.

"Ah might pride mahself as the most dependable of ponies...but sometimes, Rainbow...Ah think that's you. Discord and Mare-Do-Well were big exceptions, not a rule. When the chips are down, our friend kicks the braggart right inta the back seat and will do anythin' tah save us...the pony yah were in Flight School just makes meh that much more proud the pony yah are now is mah friend."

Rainbow tried not to cry, but hugged her friend. "Thanks AJ... but I don't think that really makes the problem go away..."

"Ya gotta do that on yer own RD..."

"Guess I have a lot of talking to do with Derpy next time I see her."

AJ channeled her brother, "Eeyup."

Moth flinched in preparation to meet Bucky MacGillicuddy and Kicks McGee after explaining her failure to act to Applejack...instead she got a hug.

"W-What?"

"...Moth...Ah know how yah feel right now...like Ah said, Ah was a coward who was too afraid of herself tah save the day and Ah can see how much yah've been beatin' yerself up over it already...The TRUTH is yah need a hug more than a beatin' right now."

Moth returned the hug. "Thanks..."

"Yer welcome..."

Yeah, Ah was a bit miffed Moth had decided tah hold back what coulda freed meh...but like Ah said, she'd spent a lotta time beatin' herself up already or havin' the others beat her up, she didn't need another whoopin'. And Ah weren't lyin' when Ah said Ah knew exactly how she felt. Ah felt like the rodeo all over again times ten, only this time Ah knew Ah weren't bein' stubborn...

On top of that...that buckin' witch made meh spend the past three days hurtin' ponies. It felt good tah be the pillar for somepony tah lean on again.

Besides, if Ah wanna buck a Changelin' tah get some payback fer what their Queen put meh through, Ah'm gonna have plenty of chances without takin' it out on the one on our side.

"...Moth?"

Moth turned and looked to her sister, who had what seemed to be a plate of freshly made candies balanced on her back. "...Where did you get the stuff for that?"

"Pinkie Pie."

"Oh..."

"Well, mostly Pinkie Pie, she had plenty of sugar. And it turns out the church has a kitchen in the basement for dinners and stuff, though no ingredients...Can you try one?"

Moth carefully sniffed one and gagged. "Lemons?"

"Normal lemons. Pinkie didn't have any ingredients I could use for flavor."

"...How did the Angry Lemons like that?"

"Lemon Hearts has apparently explained it to them...somehow...I don't speak lemon."

Moth chuckled a little and took the little candy. Most Changelings may have hated the smell of lemons, but the taste was one she rather liked, as she'd said.

Holding her breath, she put it in her mouth...and felt a rather large rush of love into her. "What the-how did you put love into a candy?!"

"...I asked Rarity why that song Sweetie sings seems to be powering the Changelings up...she said it's an old family song that means a lot to them. That's all she would say, and I think she only said that much because of what Sweetie's using it for... so...I decided to try and put my family's love of baking into my candies...I know from that journal Twilight gave me that it's just as old..."

"I don't know if it's that strong...but I think it worked, it definitely gave me a boost and I can hold it easy...What gave you the idea to do that?"

"Well...you see when AJ looked in my eyes...I realized I was trying to fight like everyone else...trying to be their mirror...so far that's all I've really been, a mirror...If it weren't for you and Lyra I might as well not be here..." Bon Bon gave a chuckle. "Ironic, isn't it? Of the two of us it's me that thinks I'm just a mirror...So I decided to try and do something helpful...something I know how to do to help... "

"...Bon Bon...you don't need to help to be somepony..."

"I know...but I want to..."

Moth hugged her sister. "...So help... but you're still you, Bon Bon...you're my sister... and... and I think I'm the one who'd be nothing without you..."

The two hugged tight, Moth feeling the love between them.

"...Everyone used a lot of mana recently," said Bon Bon. "...I think I might know some magic candies that can help them recharge, want to help?"

Moth smiled. "...Sure..."

"...Mind if I help too?"

The two turned to Lyra, standing there. "...I had to accept that humans were saints and sinners...if I can accept that, then that Changelings are too isn't a stretch..."

"...I'd be happy if you did too..."

"Applejack, as a Princess, I ORDER you to lay down and get some rest while we finish patching ourselves up and do some planning."

"But-"

"No buts. Twilight and Spike were puppets, you were Chrysalis' toy. She's spent the past three days torturing you."

"But Ah didn't break!"

"Yes, but that's exactly why you need some rest. I could not be more proud that you managed to withstand Chrysalis' torture, but what do you do after working yourself ragged on the farm?"

"...Lay down and take a good nap cause mah body needs it..."

"And a mind is no different. Trust me, Applejack. I don't physically NEED to sleep...but mentally? I'd go insane without it...I promise, if we need you for anything, we'll wake you."

"...Alright, Princess...yer tellin' the truth..."

And so hardworking Applejack got what she often tried not to admit she needed: a good rest. A tired little yellow filly laid down beside her and Fluttershy carefully pulled a blanket over her.

"Sleep well, Applejack. You've earned it."

Applejack looked up at the fire damaged apple tree. "...Poor girl...looks like yah need some TLC, don't yah?"

"Mind if we help?"

She turned to see another pony looking a great deal like her, only without a hat, a tail bow, and five apples instead of three in her Cutie Mark, a red pony with a green and yellow mane and an apple on a picnic blanket for her Cutie Mark, and a white, pink maned pony with three hearts as her Cutie Mark.

Applejack smirked. "The more the merrier!"

And three Applejacks and one Sweet Heart got to work tending to the damaged tree.

"Now Your Highness," Rarity said, "I know you didn't wish for us to risk tipping our hooves, but we can't afford to just sit around and wait, we have to know what Twilight darlin' and little Scootaloo are doing! I don't know how much direction you can give your song birds, but, pardon my force Your Highness, we have to get one inside the castle no matter what. If we have to mount a rescue or need to abandon the church, we need to know sooner than later! And if that includes saving Twili' dear from her own foolishness, again, then the sooner, the better."

+++

"Uh, Twilight," I asked, Twilight's illusion magic made me look like an owl, "I don't mean to be pushy or anything, but, how are we going to find your parents? I mean, this castle is really big, if the bugs haven't found them, how are we going to? Do you have a 'find parents' spell." I gasped out loud.

"What is it?!" At my gasp Twilight's horn charged up and she looked around. She was as nervous as I was.

"Nothing, nothing, but..." I whispered, I felt myself shaking a little, "Do you have a 'find parents' spell? Can you really do something like that? Do you have to know them before, or do you just need to know whose parents you're search for?"

"Why the interest?" Twilight asked not even looking at me (she already had Applebloom hug me and say she loved me as a friend to make sure I wasn't under mind control).

"Huh? Oh! I'm just... curious, I figured it might be a cool cutie mark, I mean, a pegasus wizard! And if I could get one, then Applebloom could get one too! I could be the next Element of Magic!"

Twilight chuckled. "Well...I haven't heard of an earth pony or pegasus sorcerer, but, if you're that interested Scooaloo, I'm sure I could show you some books."

"So do you know a 'parents finding spell?'"

"...Yes I do, but I need something to pull it off."

"What?" I asked. My heart was pounding. I heard hers too.

"Just a little trinket of mine, something that holds a connection between them and me," she opened a door to a bedroom, "I think I left it in here for safe keeping."

"Why in here?"

"This...used to be my room." She magically opened up a chest and began pulling out random junk.

"Hey! Spike said your room was a library tower!" Struck Twilight in the horn, giving her an instant hornache and jump and turn and ran, but was floated up by her magic, I flapped my wings like crazy until they burned...and was magically pushed into the big trunk Twilight had been clearing out, and it slammed shut with me inside it, I heard it lock and something heavy being put on top of it.

"TWILIGHT! But-this doesn't make sense! What did-"

"I'm not geassed Scootaloo. And don't make so much noise, you have to stay hidden. I'm sorry, but Applejack is right, you fillies have been put in more danger than we've had any right to put you in. Just stay put, I'll come back with Shining and get you out. I promise."

"You-" I felt tears down my face. "YOU DIRTY LIAR! You don't know a 'find parents spell' at all do you?! LIAR! LIAR! LIAAAR!"

"...N-Not E-Element of Honesty. I...I do want to look for my parents, I wasn't lying, and I will if I get the chance, but there's something I need to do more...I'm s-sorry...I'm so sorry, Scootaloo."

"BACKSTABBER!"

She gave a gasp and a few sobs. Good! I hope that hurt!

"...I-I'm sorry. This might be my only chance to save Shining. I...I had to make sure they thought I would be safe...I'm sorry Scootaloo, A pony should live up to her mistakes."

I kick and snarled in my prison, I heard her trotting away and closing the door behind her.

+++

There are not words to describe how much what Scootaloo called me hurt. I'd spent most of yesterday being forced to act against my Element, against my heart...stabbing my friends in the back...that wound was still wide open. Even telling a half truth to AJ in hopes her mind was still not completely clear from being freed hurt. But for what I was about to do, I couldn't have Scootaloo with me...I couldn't have anypony with me. I needed her with me at first so the others wouldn't worry as much, to give me more time... I wouldn't have to worry about collateral damage if none of my friends were nearby.

...The others had Trixie. If only I was at risk, everything would be okay. Queen Chrysalis has no interest in brainwashing me anymore. I was the only one at risk here...

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Twilight...you know that's not right.)

I don't care. I've got to try.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): STOP THIS RIGHT NOW YOUNG MARE!)

I can't.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Please stop and get Scootaloo out of the trunk! It's mean putting a pegasus in there!)

I'm sorry...

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Okay, I'm leaving it up to some creepy Chrysalis post-hypo-suggestion-magic-residue that your brain suddenly shrunk three sizes!)

I JUST WANT MY B.B.B.F.F. BACK!

I...He was right there...but I wasn't strong enough to save him when he and Chrysalis were at full power...now Chrysalis is weakened and he's probably tired from what Chrysalis made him do in the fight...I've got to at least try...

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Twilight, you know this is insane!)

...Maybe I've gone insane then...It wouldn't be the first time...

The entire castle is still under anti-teleport wards. I'll just have to smash through a window and teleport out immediately before we pick up speed. Unlike the others I barely depleted any mana during that fight. And I have power to spare. I don't need to fight Chrysalis. I just need to free Shining. With him free, Chrysalis would have to be insane not to surrender, or her changelings would have to be crazy not to demand she surrender.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Actually, you ever heard the term 'zealot?' You're just going to stroll in there and ask for your brother back? You don't know the first thing about stealth!)

Moth said that all Changelings are physically incapable of generating new mana, and Chrysalis was fighting full on during that battle on top of Applejack and Applebloom wounding her, and badly. All her power comes from what she stole from Shining, and she turned off his emotions. If I'm fast, she won't have TIME to recover.

I'm not...I'm just not putting my friends in harms way AGAIN. I feel horrible at having just brought Scootaloo with me to give myself more time.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): I am telling you to stop this! Stop this right now! Go back, get Scootaloo out of the trunk and get back to your friends! I order you! You can't do this!)

Shining has always been here for me...now the one time that he needs me, I couldn't save him when he was right in front of me! I'm not passing up this chance! By the time the others get here or I get to them, Chrysalis might have recovered and I'll have lost my one opportunity!

I need to at least try...

Unlike you I care about Shining.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): We do care about Shiny! He doesn't want this!)

There is nopony else, I am the only pony here!...And that's exactly how it should be...

(Noon Notes: Dang it she's not listening to us!)

(Dusk Notes: We're the good alicorn. The voice of reason...sometimes a pony can get so worked up or so upset...they forget to listen to reason.)

(Dawn Notes: Like that one reality's Twilight who experimented on her friends no matter how hard her conscience tried to make her stop?)

(Dusk Notes: Exactly...)

(Noon Notes: Dang it, why is it always Twilight Sparkle?!)

(Dusk Notes: ...Because this Twilight was never forced to harm her friends before.)

(Noon Notes: What?)

(Dusk Notes: ...She was only Tragedy for a few minutes at the most...not long enough to hurt anyone. This time? She was forced to hurt her friends and almost murder her babysitter...And while everyone was worried about how Applejack would take the trauma...)

(Noon Notes: ...No one thought to talk to her about having hurt her friends so badly under Chrysalis' control.)

(Dusk Notes: And then she ended up watching her friends be struck down one by one by Chrysalis and Applejack, only surviving thanks to Applebloom's desperate gambit. Applejack has experienced being made to hurt her friends and lie by brainwashing before thanks to Discord and her mental stability and will power has always been high. For better or worse, Twilight...wasn't so...experienced.)

(Noon Notes: Dang it Twilight! Why do you always bottle SOMETHING up?!...Because you're Twilight...and you don't like admitting you're wrong...)

To Be Continued...

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by Alex Warlorn
Notes Get Scrambled

Pinkie Pie, "WOW! The notes sure got swapped around here, I guess we're in for a big big fight somewhere in the future. I hope it ends with everypony friends . . . this is still My Little Pony, right? Don't worry everypony! I'm sure everything will work out! Or I think so."

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Weddng-Arc-The-Stare-vs-The-Truth-453079242

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Twilight-vs-Shining-454519748

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (need to be kept up to date . . . please?).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Eoisode 186: "Twilight Sparkle Vs Shining Armor"

"The Medley Concert Hall!!" Octavia Pie (or Octavia Melody as she had often used to better fit in with ponies in Canterlot) cries out in horror. "She was so young! How could this happen?!"

Her friend Beauty Brass was likewise horrified at what had happened, she and her bandmates had played there more than once!

"This is the fault of that evil Queen! Pinkie Pie would never...wouldn't on this scale do such horrible things to music! They must be stopped!...For their own good."

Frederick Horseshoepin and Parish Nandermane looked at each other, hoping the other had an answer to this senseless destruction of art. It seemed it was a good thing that Princess Cadence had chosen a private concert after all. There was no telling what might have happened otherwise.

Octavia was just sorry she hadn't been able to corner Pinkie Pie so Princess Cadence could de-brainwash her. Yes, she was brainwashed, there was no way Equestria's heroes could do something like this of their own free will.

Vinyl Scratch might have cared about classical music as much as Octavia cared about Dub-Trot, but she was left speechless at the might of the ruined building, it looked like it had been blown open from the inside.

Vinyl wanted to go 'I told ya so!' To Octavia, but somehow it didn't feel right looking at the downed building her best friend had performed in.

There was also of course the poor royal guards who had been caught in the rubble: the musician ponies had volunteered to help without being asked.

Vinyl felt a little bit ashamed (not an emotions she was used to), when it was Beauty Brass who put a hoof on Octavia's shoulder and told her, "It's alright, you can cry."

"She's out there, under that thing's magic, she's the last pony in the world who should have to suffer that. After Discord, what right does this have to happen again?"

"Maybe it isn't her, maybe it's a pod pony that looks like her?" Vinyl found herself say...then felt like a heel at the 'open mouth, insert hoof' look she got in return.

+++

Twilight, hurry, keep an eye and horn out for any changelings, there were some with Chrysalis, I can just use Twinkle Shine's darkness spell...Shining is weak...a unicorn has natural shut-off to keep them from killing themselves from overusing their magic, Chrysalis had to be bluffing! She had to be! If only I'd thought of that in the actual fight! Stupid Twilight!

= Prologue Castlevania Symphony of the Night =

I dodged a rusted suit of armor that fell on its own, unthreaded carpet nearly tripped me up, a piece of ceiling almost fell on me, it was like decay itself was trying to stop me from trying to rescue BBBFF, but I wouldn't let anything stop me.

Remember, don't fight Chrysalis, don't risk it, not when she has an entire army that could come to her rescue, if there's, a lot of changelings, just use Trixie's illusion magic to make yourself look like one and sneak near Shining. He won't have the shield up if he doesn't know I'm there, there's no way she'd have him keep it up constantly or the one around her constantly when she wants him alive to keep the shield around Canterlot up!

I better free Her Momjesty too while I'm at it. Even at her weakest state she could still incinerate her way through a changeling army, and likely cause Chrysalis more alarm, maybe she could even subdue Chrysalis and force her to surrender thanks to Applejack wounding her! All I need is Shining's force fields to hold them off long enough for me to break her out!

Alright! Day guard illusion still on, check, in we go and...deserted? What? Where's Shining? Where's The Princess? Where's Chrysalis? This has to be a trap but...my scan spell didn't pick up anything. Failsafe spell! Oh right that undid my illusion too, back you go. Can I teleport now? No, my failsafe spell would have to cover the whole castle for that. Ugh! Why didn't me and Trixie think to combine our magic and try that earlier?!

But there's nothing here! Where did they all go? They couldn't have just disappeared!

Green blood? So she is injured! Why isn't it turning the carpet to stone? Maybe it only works on living things (better not touch it)? But why can her blood do that? It doesn't make sense. But this means the queen IS damaged from what Applebloom and Applejack did to her! Should have known the Element of Honesty super charged would damage the queen of lies. Good...that means she's not only damaged mentally, but physically as well.

But where can she be? Wait...did the blood trail out of the room? Why hadn't I noticed it before? Because it wasn't important before! Out I go! I haven't run into any changelings yet, but my illusion spell should hold, and if any ask, I know enough of the guard handbook for them to start answering my questions! And I still know plenty of their names from being under Chrysalis' control. Not to mention how much of their current playbook I wrote during that time....girls, I'm so sorry about that.

Wherever Chrysalis is, Sweetie, Shining, and Her Momjesty all have to be with her. There's no way she'd let them out of her sight, she's way too paranoid not to! Burn marks on the walls! Princess? Did you break out when they moved you? Did Chrysalis...hurt you?...You'd be here if you'd won! Unless...does Chrysalis have the same way to cheat death that Discord does? NO TWILIGHT! Stop! Do not jump to conclusions! Don't be paranoid now.

Blood, burn marks from horn magic (I can tell, if you want the five page explanation, I'll happily write it out for you later!).

I galloped with all the speed I had, this place was empty, was Chrysalis abandoning the castle? Had we damaged her plans so severely she has to retreat? Was that why she was moving everything? I have to save everypony, the changelings emerged from the shadows, who knows if we'll ever find them again if the changelings melt back into them with our friends! I won't lose those I love to a manipulative monster again!

Wait, I can sense it! I'm not crazy! I can definitely sense it! BBBFF! His magic! My brother does the impossible! Just like me! After everything that's happened, after AJ hit Chrysalis with the truth, why shouldn't he be able to break free, even if just a little! Those ponies didn't know what they were talking about! Of course Shining would want me to help save him!

I feel like I'm going in circles, it shouldn't take this long.

A long hallway? Where is this? The castle has way too many long hallways. But this seems familiar. The lamps are all out. No, a bright light up ahead. No, I'm not being ambushed the moment things got dark! It's not dark enough for an ambush, even if they're shape-shifters. And my disguise is still up, Chrysalis saw me run away with the others. She wouldn't ambush every random grunt she saw hoping it would be a pony she saw run away. She's not Discord.

BBBFF is up ahead, okay, remember, stay in character, don't be noticed.

Ugh. It's so bright. What is...a cheering crowd?

"Imagoes, and nymphs, give a round of applause for our guest of honor," Chrysalis' voice said as my eyes adjusted. I felt my mind become clear, like waking up from a dream. Everything I'd done up from telling AJ to let me search for my parents to right now, like there was a fog. And I really really wish I could just safely say it had been one of Chrysalis' convoluted mind control tricks...It was almost like Smartypants all over again...It wasn't some outside enemy. It was all me and my arrogance.

"N-no, this is a nightmare," I hissed, I saw the illusion spell covering me dissolving...I turned my head...to see my own spell rune transplanted to above the door, I'm just too good, normally it should have burned itself out by now. We were in one of the highest chambers in the castle, a great view but pretty no pony could see you from street or window level.

Chrysalis gave a laugh. My mind flashed back to the maze disappearing and Discord laughing at us.

"This is all very real, so makes no appeals. I'll admit you certainly know how to throw a wrench into things, it infuriates my very being. I was making my guards surround the castle, it was being a hassle. I thought you'd have the ponies in rebellion storming the castle by now, seeing how many are refusing to bow. My guards were to let only two of you through, either Cadence or you. They were to return to grass before letting any others pass. But-" Chrysalis burst out laughing, "-I never thought you'd be the world's dumbest mouse, and turn around and come back inside my house!"

I looked around, the room was rectangular, with Celestia's throne (with Chrysalis sitting in it) opposite the large double doors behind me, and a large tall stained glass and normal windows, everything was brightly lit. No changeling in the room was even bothering to disguise themselves, a small crowd of changelings ringed the room, it reminded of the crowd of a hoofball game.

My actions felt crystal clear now. I had been so eager, so desperate, so sick of all of this, I wanted it to just be finished...so scared of losing my friends, of seeing them hurt I thought I could do everything myself...She's right...she hadn't made me out think myself this time...I'd out thought myself all on my own...

Thank Celestia I hadn't thrown away the letter. I sent it immediately-Gah!

The feedback of the spell backfiring knocked me on my flank with a massive horn ache with the letter falling to the floor. Ugh...so that's what Spike feels like when an anti-teleportation ward sent one of his letters back...

The Queen laughed. "Did you really think that'd work? Let's chat while you catch your breath, after all it wouldn't be very entertaining to take advantage of you while you're weak."

I looked up at her and those around her as my vision cleared from the backlash.

My big brother stood, still a prisoner in his own body, and Sweetie Belle, sitting and smiling next to the queen comfortably, she was now wearing the dress Rarity had made her, looked liked several jewels had been added to it.

Princess. Oh Princess! I've had my head so far up my flanks I didn't even stop to think! You're not here!

"Where is Princess Celestia?!"

"Haha! Finally noticed? In safe keeping, and alive. After I mutate her into a changeling, after proper programming of course, or realizing she has no choice, she'll be the changeling who raises and lowers the sun for the swarm."

"That is never happening!"

"And how precisely do you plan to stop it?"

"She will! You think you could stop her? You think you can enslave the sun? The likes of you can't beat an Alicorn in a fair fight!"

"'The likes of me' you say? I only wish you'd be here so I could see your face when we reach the punchline of your dribble. But none of that is going to concern you very soon."

"But ... how did you pull all this together so fast? You said you were surprised, so why the buck would you all just be waiting here for me to come through THOSE doors?"

Chrysalis laughed. "Remember the blood trail? The scorch marks?" she asked, raising a foreleg to show a bleeding cut in her armor. "Of course if you'd come from another entrance, we were prepared for that."

My blood ran cold. It was bait. And I'd fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.

"But what if I had simply left with my friends?"

"Did you or did you not hear us say 'army with orders to only let you or Cadence through'?" the Queen asked, drolly. "You'd have 'slipped through' while they were delayed."

"Wait . . . so everypony here was just going to sit on their flanks waiting for us to escape, and then gamble on us coming back? You were just going to wait here this whole time?"

"Not really, yes Maua that would have been awkward if she came while we were busy with something else. You just happened to catch an early show. More fun for us." Chrysalis chuckled. "You think you're so important, Twilight. You know what Professor Kabuto is doing right now? Using your notes to complete the rune. You may be smarter than him, but that doesn't mean everything you said would go over his head. He's just as good as you and that unicorn."

I gasped. I'd forgotten about that psychotic bug. "He...he can't be that smart."

"Oh but he is. I admit, I'm the smartest Changeling over all, but he's the smartest when it comes to science, alchemy, and technology. You might have him beat in magical knowledge, but overall, he's probably as smart as you are."

"And...and if we'd gone after him?"

"Not telling. Just note, it wouldn't be easy. As for what we were doing. Welcome to the Circus Maximus. A little entertainment we have back home, before we used criminals and burned out cattle. But now we also have Changelings perform that are exceptional with their talents. I had this already set up, We'll just change the guest of honor. We were just about to have dear Sweetie Belle sing for us when you walked in. Shame, she was looking so forwards to it. You were always going to be led here Twilight Sparkle, you just happened to helped the schedule along."

"I'm sorry Twilight, and I know Chryssy is too."

"I'm sorry Sweetie Belle, but I'm not sorry for that. A leader can't afford to be sorry. Lions can't afford to be sorry to gazelles."

"But you just say you're sorry for not being sorry."

" . . . it seems I did. I think you're the first one I've been sorry to since . . . well, since somezebra else."

"I don't understand," I said wanting to get away from the bizarre scene before my eyes, "Why did you want to sacrifice so many just to kill me or Cadence?" I sighed, "I didn't realize you wanted to crush the heart and brain that desperately."

Chrysalis' eye twitched and spoke. "You stupid nag, get your head out of a bag. This isn't about killing you, that's just the end result."

Sweetie Belle looked at me like I was a mad animal that had to be put down. "I'm sorry Twilight. Just be friends with Chryssy, PLEASE?" She begged.

"This is punishment," Chrysalis said, "Because of you and those like you, my beautiful tapestry has been mangled. I tell a lie, I'm just clopped at you for taking Sweetie Belle's favorite playmates. And since I can't torture Applejack instead (or better yet that rotten sister of her's who ruined everything), I'll punish the little brain-dead stooge who ruined everything the last time."

"What do you mean 'last time?'"

"Why make this story more complicated than it already is? You are nothing but a fly in my web, but we're not going to feed on you, I'm going to see you squirm. And you'll entertain all these changelings while you're at it."

"All of you against me?" I prepared myself.

"No."

"Finally going to fight somepony yourself without being forced?"

"Pst. The greatest battles are those not fought. That's tactical common sense, glory-hounds and thrill-seekers have no business being commanders…"

"Chryssy, can you please not punish Applebloom? She doesn't understand the trouble she caused."

Chrysalis sighed, "Fine, for you Sweetie Belle. Besides, I have something much more fun in mind," Chrysalis' horn glowed. "Shining Armor."

My blood ran cold.

"Yes, Your Majesty?" He asked in a monotone.

Chrysalis' horn glowed more. "Be all that you can be. Think and act to the best of your abilities, I reconnect your thoughts and actions to each other, feel my magic caress each of your brain cells, feels good doesn't it?"

"Yes dear."

"You have such a strong back dear, such endurance, such drive, you've found me pleasurable company as much as I have you yes?"

"Yes dear."

"YOU HAD BETTER BE LYING CHRYSALIS!"

"Or what?" Chrysalis said dully. "You'll lose your head at come at me blindly, or crush me into paste mid-sentence with your mind? Or maybe slowly melt me as I scream out in agony? Trap me in an endless mental world of suffering? Zap me to clay and mold me into a public stall? Turn me into a cake and eat me as poetic justice? Pump me full of hatred and watch it poison me? Whatever it is you desire do so already, but do not waste my time!!!"

I actually withered at the monster's voice. Her eyes twitching. For a moment I had this horrible feeling radiating from her.

"I won't let her do any of those horrible things to you Chryssy," Sweetie Belle said bravely. The changelings around me thundered they'd avenge their Queen or die trying....These weren't bullies following the biggest bully who run as soon as the biggest bully fell...they were something else entirely. I had an image of Chrysalis sealed in the moon, and the changelings dragging it down to Earth to reclaim her.

"Now now, my little Changelings, you know how I feel about avenging a ruler who was stupid or weak enough to be defeated. But don't worry, my little ones, you know I'm not either of those things."

"You don't want to fight Shining do you Twilight?" Sweetie said patting him on the neck. "Please. Just be friends with Chryssy and you and him can be together again, and the ponies can help feed the changelings and changelings will help ponies always get along with each other, we'll all be friends! PLEASE! I... a big magic fight is fun but... you're Spike's big-sister-mommy, I don't want him to be sad."
f
I slowly shook my head at the sheer wrongness of all this. This shouldn't be happening. Cadence and Shining should be on their honeymoon by now, we should all be celebrating. Not all of this!

Sweetie Belle slipped off the throne and worked the kinks out of her muscles doing a few morning stretches, standing on her hind legs and gave a small yawn, standing behind one of the large clear windows.

+++

Chrysalis laid back in Celestia's throne.

"Sweetie Belle."

"Yes, Your Evilness?"

Chrysalis tossed a brightly shinning dagger at the filly's hooves.

"Stab this knife through your throat as deep it will go. Your choice which side."

Twilight gasped in horror as Sweetie Belle's hooves clumsily picked up the weapon.

"NO!" Twilight called out, too late, can't stop it. Reach with magic?

And the tip of the blade stopped a millimeter from her wind pipe. The weapon shook in her hooves, almost touching skin. Twilight hadn't done anything.

"Pst. And there we go," Queen Chrysalis said annoyed, "Why is it always so hard to get those under mind control to kill themselves? I mean, the ability for self-murder exists at the base of all your brains. She said she'd do as I say to my face, she should have murdered herself by now like a good little Sweetie-Bot. And yet she's using every last tiny bit of her will to resist my order."

Twilight tried to use her telekinesis just to grab Sweetie or the knife!

"Oh. The telekinesis part of your magic is being a little 'jammed' by a special little resistance spell 'sister-in-law.'" Chrysalis grinned at Twilight. "I'm feeding the magic for her enchantment straight from my dearest, aren't I my love."

"Yes Your Majesty."

'Huh, credit where it's due, this is actually quite the entertaining game Chryssy has thrown together. Wish I'd thought of it first. Now if I do it, I'll be plagerizing. Touché, queenie, color me impressed...Oh well! Might as well enjoy the show! Where's my popcorn?'

"If I still had a heart I think I'd be very angry at that creature right now," the shadowless filly said.

'Why is that my little baby?'

"Because it'll make Miss Rarity sad."

-

"Now my dearest, your little sister made herself a total nag at our rehearsal, she made me feel so awful. She's attacked royal guards. She's caused ponies to riot. She's tried to break us apart. She's destroyed public works with a smile. Does that sound like a good sister to you? Sounds to me like she's gone evil. And a unicorn as powerful as her? She needs to put down...for the good of Equestria."

"For the good of Equestria."

"So what shall it be Twilight Sparkle? Let your own brother kill you? And have him live with that guilt forever? Or maybe you want to play defensive? Oh I promise you, he'll fall over dead before he stops feeding my control magic over Sweetie Belle. And he'll fight at his all, I'll make he does, but who knows how long he'll last? I've drained so much of his life already. Of course it'll rob me of my greatest source of nourishment should you decide to fight back at your hardest and somehow win against a trained soldier. And who knows how long Sweetie Belle is going to last before she gives in, she is just a child, hardly any strength of will at all. I'm surprised she's holding out as it is. Rarity will hate you forever. It seems at least one pony is about to die." Chrysalis swept her forelegs dramatically, "Have your heart scream out in dismay! Or keep it bottled inside you until you implode! Makes us even stronger! My knight in shining armor, position."

"Yes Your Majesty."

The changelings buzzed and cheered at the spectacle.

Shining Armor leaped through the air dramatically and landed with a tremor opposite his sister, with Chrysalis sitting between them on her raised throne, like they were gladiators.

"Feel free to make a sudden lunge for me, Twilight Sparkle, but I promise that little Sweetie-Bot will slaughter herself in that one moment it takes to spark a synapse. What a beautiful pair of monsters you make, I won't ask you to enjoy yourselves, because I'm going to already! And one last thing, you're in a bubble of the teleportation ward of my 'arena's' floor, you can teleport in it, but not in or out, go ahead and try and use that to cheat this performance, I can't wait to see you set off my surprises if you do." Hate dripped form the queen's words. "Now Shining."

=Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Sorrow's Distortion =

"Big mistake Chrysalis!" Using a lot of my mana, I simply teleported Shining right in front of me, and gave him a huge hug, "I love you BBBF-Agh!" A close fitting forcefield?!

"Shield armor Twiley. She told you you'd find surprises."

"I didn't know you knew that sp-AGH!" Big brother hit me. Big brother hit me. Big brother hit me. Big brother- is going to stomp my head in! I roll out of the way.

It just felt...so wrong...My brother...we'd never had a single fight, now he was trying to kill me.

"There's a lot you don't know about me, Twiley!"

I teleport to the other end of the arena. Shining turned around and fired several plain old fashioned standard magic missile lances at me, they were all way off and the changelings in the audience had to duck.

"I knew you're fighting somewhere in there Shining!"

"Actually Twiley, my aim just sucks."

"Even with mind control he can't shoot straight," Chrysalis sighed.

Well at least he still has the worst aim in Guard history - literally, I checked.

Shining used a flash spell: I'm used to those but I wasn't prepared for the huge thunderclap that came with it, I was blind and deaf.

My vision barely returned in time to see a huge shielded train coming straight at me, I repeated my trick before and teleported to the other end of the arena. Except when I did, I saw Shining's magic below me too late a force field appeared around me. A spell mine?!

Shining didn't crash into the changelings like I thought, but stopped himself in plenty of time. Had...had he been counting on me teleporting? I had to get out or I was...I was what?

Time seemed to slow down as my brother turned his head towards me and his horn started to glow.

My thoughts drifted back to the night...the night Uncle Cool Sun died, or rather...the police reports I'd read years later when I was older...the Diamond Dog...

All that time we were in Canterlot, we didn't once try to break through his shield...we had friends to save, and we couldn't just abandon Canterlot, and I think I might have been worried what Chrysalis would do to Shining. Suddenly, I HAD TO GET OUT!

Magic Surge: I shaped my imitation of my brother's shield into a drill (if Lyra could shape her telekinesis, then so could do something similar!), and drilled my way out of the shield shattering it.

Big forcefield block falling, backpedal! Forcefield crunchers both sides, teleport!

EEEP! Big brother flaming horn! Didn't know he knew that spell either! That's the second time he guessed where I was going to appear!

Last time it was boring when she didn't fight back, but I'm loving this!
-

Chrysalis laughed and clapped. The changelings cheered. "Better hurry up Twilight, that wonderful dress your friend Rarity made her darling little sister is about to get dyed red. Hehe...you know, I must compliment her work, maybe when she's in my employ, I'll have her make me one. Though maybe with a few more gemstones."

This was crazy. All I need to do was break the forcefield Shining had around himself! Give him a quick hug or touch his horn with mine and tell him I love him! And I had to do it quickly while Sweetie Belle's resistance held out!

I fired a replica of Twinkle Shine's darkness spell and and teleported away, this time not all the way across in case I set off another trap, teleporting was proving to be much more dangerous than it should have!

"Dodge THIS little sister!" Shining Armor leaped over me, leaving a trail of small beads of purple light, they expanded into pony sized force fields a moment later. I avoided them. Almost. The end of my tail was caught! Before I could think to phase or teleport it out or ready for my brother to attack a stationary target the spheres all imploded. I didn't have time to be shocked as the lower half of my tail was crushed out of existence.

I cast 'Turn to shrubbery!' in a panic, Shining brought up a shield that bounced back my spell right at me, I ducked and it hit a changeling behind me.

"Honey!" Cried out the changeling next to it, whimpering at the potted plant.

"TIME OUT!" I screamed.

"You have to be joking!" Chrysalis snarled.

I fell back from a force field that almost formed with me around it, and teleported right BACK to that spot moments after the field imploded avoiding the one that formed where I fell AND the one that appeared and collapsed on the opposite end of the arena a moment before. "Let me restore her! Then I'll give you the fight you want I Pinkie Promise!"

The changelings looked at the crazy unicorn wanting to help them in shock.

"Shining hold. You have have thirty seconds. No interruptions after."

"I knew you were still a good pony Twilight!" Sweetie said with the knife quivering at her throat.

I nodded and galloped to the florafied changeling and cast my failsafe spell, restoring the changeling. She looked around dizzy and looked at me fear and confusion.

"I'm sorry," I said and turned back around to face my brother. I noticed how the Changelings were looking at me. Why were they so confused? Did they really understand that little about ponies?

"Failsafe spell!" I cast at Shining, there was no pony magic my failsafe spell couldn't dissolve! There was no way! It was the simple and obvious solution! Moth didn't know about pony magic!

I teleported right in front of my brother for a big hug, he kicked me in the stomach, I fell back hurting.

"Hint about changeling magic, SINCE our life, love, and magic are all one and the same, it means that unless you have a death spell in your arsenal, our mind magic CAN NOT be forcibly dispersed unless you'd like to risk brain damage! But maybe a lobotomized brother is better than no brother at all yes? YOUR TRUMP CARD IS USELESS!"

Shining recreated his forcefield armor. Flaming horn down at me, I brought up my own horn, copying the spell and our horns clashed.

"I love you big brother!"

I realized the barrier was still around his horn! I was touching his force field!

I realized how he was able to use a fire spell: it was still a forcefield, just composed of something else.

He began to out muscle me as I felt my legs bend, I teleported to his side instead of directly behind me where a collapsing forcefield it turned out to have been waiting.

"Gravity ball!" A condensed ball of gravity magic was speeding right towards me.

Since when does big brother call his spells? Is he trying to warn me from inside or something? Don't say your thoughts out loud! I caused Applejack more grief by telling the Queen she'd tried to warn us already!

Worked for you Trixie!

Spell-Copy!

Our gravity spells hit each other...we did not create a black hole and destroy the planet. The two spells canceled each other out. Counter-spelling was way underrated.

"Gravity-"

Here we go again!

"-Burst Ball!"

What?! I couldn't copy what was the same spell used differently!

The ball of gravity magic popped into several smaller pieces that bypassed mine and came right at me, I panicked, if I teleported in this gravity mess I could materialize inside out!

Shining created several barriers of different types that slow, dispersed, and absorbed the force of my gravity spell.

I on the other hoof, if not my experience with deadly rock slides and Nightmare Whisper's mane vines, my body would have already been a twisted mess as I created several copies of Shining's force field magic to buy me a few seconds as I emerged from the living mine field alive.

I created a copied forcefield around Shining Armor, he sighed and dismissed it with a twinkle of his horn. Oh right. His spell.

"You can't beat me with cheap copies of other ponies' spells Twiley!"

And it hit me, but what hit first was a hard and fast stun spell that turned the world on its side.

I was afraid if I fought too hard, I could permanently hurt Shining, now...now I realized that...if I kept holding back, Shining was going to kill me.

Chrysalis laughed. "How did that wonderful little song you were singing when I found you the first time go?" the witch asked...then started singing.

"He was your Big Brother Best Friend Forever
Now is the last time you'll ever be together
Because by the end of this fight
One is heading into the light
Give up your hopes, they're just pipe dreams
Because one of you is doomed it seems!

He was your Big Brother Best Friend Forever
Now he's all mine, and now death your bond shall sever!"

First time? But I sang that song in Ponyville! Hearing my own song sung by that witch...it made my blood run cold.

And then I came to another horrifying realization when I nearly got crushed by three massive shield cubes that cracked the floor on impact, shield cubes that would normally take an entire team of unicorns to pull off normally. All those times I'd seen him use those shield spells in the past? He'd been holding back!

I could use the Want It Need It Spell on Shining, as the caster I was immune, the changelings would fight over him perfect distraction ...but... if how their love worked was true... it would kill them. It might kill Chrysalis, but her minions too. Only a monster would 'experiment' with something like that.

"Fire! Lightning! Ice!" I shouted using three in rapid succession.

Shining brought up his shield, adjusting it accordingly, and was caught off guard when the ice spell struck first, then got melted by the fire spell, then the water conducted electricity hit hard! Simple psychology but effective.

I got to my hooves. Catching my breath. I had...I had HURT my brother, I had gotten through his shield but not through to him.

"Oh no! Forsooth Twilight! Verily please save me!" Sweetie Belle monotoned, "The evil witch is evilly making me evilly kill myself! Please stop her!"

"I will Sweetie, I-"

Flaming horn strike again, I power up my own horn. Two horned locked, sparks flew from the conflicting magic fields. Useless? Yeah right! I use the fail safe spell again, not caring how much magic it takes, the field around Shining drops, but he falls back on his rear hooves and sweeps my legs, causing me to fall again. Right, he's a great melee fighter because his aim stinks. Thank Celestia that Chrysalis didn't think to give him a sword!

I send out a wave of white hot magic in every direction, vaporizing the carpet and burning the stone floor in a perfect circle, Shining just knocked away, hopefully his shield breaks his fall. Ouch! I did not just hear something break!

My brother grunted, "Twilight, kill me." His eyes...it wasn't Chrysalis' spell...it was him...and...and the pain in those eyes... "Please..."

"NO!"

I'm sorry BBBFF, I...I can't...I can't kill my own brother...

"What?" Chrysalis said blinking in confusion at BBBFF, "But that's impossible. Nopony can-" She breathed in. "Incredible. Such love for family that it can gasp out under my geass, ALL THE MORE FOR ME TO MUNCH ON! Your greatest strength, ponies, is my cuisine!" Chrysalis said in grand sweeps of her forelegs.

"You're bucking sick!"

This isn't fair. The world isn't far. Twilight Sparkle, you should make it fair. Yes. I should. I should force it to be fair. I should be able to crush these bugs and the big bug into paste, save my brother and Sweetie Belle, and save all of Equestria and my friends while drinking a cup of tea. I'm the best. I'm unbeatable! My mistakes don't matter because I'm powerful enough to undo any mistake I make, so they aren't really mistakes, so I don't really make mistakes, so I'm never wrong!

Awesome! Yee-haw! Yippie! Yay. Cool!

Just a bit more, and I'll...I'll...

"DISTORTION SHOT!"

Be twisted into taffy! Can't teleport! See how far I can slide! The audience at this point is just keeping their heads low.

"Like it? Just came up with it. Since it's a solid line of magic instead of a projectile I figured I could get around my bad aiming, like how my gravity spell has such a strong area of effect I can afford to miss and WHAO-" I pull the soapbox out from under him and hit him over the head with it.

WHAT THE BUCK IS WRONG WITH ME? I wouldn't be IN this mess if I hadn't been so determined not to let my friends risk themselves for Princess Celestia and Shining, just like I'd be willing to risk my life to save family of Applejack's or Rarity's! I'm doing for Sweetie Belle right now! I wasn't being protective of them, I was being selfish!

I take my own soapbox and hit him over the head with THAT now!

He created a series of tiny force fields he then expanded one way like spears! I shape material spears from the broken soap pieces and throw them full speed at Shining's body, all of them hitting the same spot over and over, I recreate the spears from the broken pieces as soon as they shatter! I can't use telekinesis on Sweetie but I can on things in the 'arena' it seems! At least things summoned by magic! I don't have time to write a fifty page report examining how that works right now!!!!!!

Maybe I can use my telekinesis on Shining after all! Has this all been psychology? "DISTORTION SHOT!" Not that again!

I give myself gossamer myself wings and fly! It burns through more mana than I thought I had but now I'm in 3-dimensions for him to try and crush me with his force fields. Did he just create a field cube of the entire space above the 'arena?' Crushing! Oh no you don't! Horn drill again!

I keep diving! I'll drill right through that body shield! I might end up stabbing him but I'll be in contact with him!

"DISTORTION SHOT!" I spiral out of the way. Is it a barrel roll or a corkscrew roll? Who bucking cares?! Several shields at once! I'll drill through them all if I have to!

"You can't 'port or dodge at this range Twiley!" BBBFF shouted. "Bye."

+++

How long have I been in here? The walls are closing in me. I have to get out. OUT OUT OUT! Twilight! Sweetie Belle! Applebloom! Spike an' Silver! Rainbow Dash! Let me out...please? Let me out...I can't see the sky...

...Maybe the loyal thing to do is just to stay put? Twilight is really smart, and she said it was...it was best for me to stay here...

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Didn't she also decide to do the one thing that everypony everywhere you've ever met has always told you NOT TO DO?)

...Don't think life is a one-mare show. Don't brush your friends aside when they want to help you. And don't rush head long into things...You're right! Ugh, Twilight, you're supposed to be the smart one! The little foal should not know better than you!

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): We all have our moments of weakness, Scootaloo.)

I have to get out of here! I will get out of here! I can't open the way out, so I'll make my own. Ugh. Too bad I'm not an Earth Pony. No, I'm a pegasus, and proud of it!

Ugh. I wonder if this is how butterflies feel when they're trying to escape their cocoons. Well, they have to make their own way out, and so am I!

Let. Me. Out! What's all this junk in here?! Thanks Twilight for being in a rush! There's gotta be something! I guess a hacksaw would be too much to ask for. What about a hammer? A drill?

Maybe a ninja smoke bomb that'll let me vanish and reappear outside the trunk?

...

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Sorry, Scootaloo, you're not Pinkie Pie.)

Gimmie something to work with here!!! Maybe a lone bug will come along and open the trunk for me and I'll take'em by surprise and stuff them in the trunk? That always works when the bad guys do it.

...A rock. Who puts a rock in a trunk?! A hammer would make sense and it sure would help me a lot more! Grr! Rock meet wood! Wood meet rock! Smashie smashie! I swear if this rock breaks I'll keep smashing my thick skull against the wood until one of them breaks! Just see if I don't!

There we go! Thank you very much! Ick! Gotta squeeze out, fold my wings...I wiggle out...ow! Splinters!....What was all that junk in there anyway?

...Skateboard and gear?! Jackpot! Nice stuff too. More pricey than anything I've ever owned. Okay, I take it back, you're not junk! Maybe I'll keep you once we save the world.

(Dusk's Notes: Noon…)

(Noon's Notes: Hey, I checked with Rota.)

(Dawn's Notes: Didn't she say don't visit or else?)

(Noon's Notes: Okay, I checked with Judicium who checked the laws of fate and so long as she finds and decides to use it on her own, it counts as divine intervention which is completely legit.)

(Dusk's Notes: And there's a logical reason it could have been there?)

(Noon's Notes: Yep, last ponies to stay in the room were foals who probably are more worried about the giant bug ponies than whether or not they forgot a skateboard, so no pony can prove there shouldn't be a skateboard there.)

(Dusk's Notes: And the rock?)

(Noon's Notes: Oddly enough, I honestly have no idea how that got there.)

...I guess I should go do the smart thing and go back to the church and tell the others what Twilight did right? Though all this cool gear should make getting back faster. After all, who suspects a filly?

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Nononono! I mean, Twilight was running straight into trouble, she clearly didn't want YOU in danger, wouldn't the best way to get her out of danger would be for her to have to deal with you again?)

Or she'll just put me in a trunk again.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): What are the chances of her finding a trunk again?)

Or she'll make a lecture and then trap me in a soap box.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Soap boxes are easier to break out of than trunks.)

I don't like being confined!

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): But it'll take a really long time to get to everypony...and for everypony to get back...maybe what Twilight needs...is somepony to remind her? That she shouldn't do this alone? And she'll stop?)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Also what if...)

You okay? You look sad.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Also, if her idea of the queen being distracted is right...and she can save Shining...doesn't that mean...that...you could save Sweetie Belle too, maybe?)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Celestia and Grandmother forgive me.)
-

You're right! If what Twilight is doing is stupid, I need to find her and tell it's stupid and maybe she'll listen when she sees she's not perfect and her 'shoo out the fillies' trick didn't work! And if it's smart, then I can save Sweetie too! WATCH OUT! Up! Over and gone!

+++

Okay. I've got no idea what's going on. A bunch of changelings not in disguise, and queen ugly not in disguise. You know, it's funny, after spending so much time seeing Moth and her 'sister' together, these Changelings look that much uglier...Guess when you're ugly inside it can make the outside even uglier...

Funny too how I'm not hiding under a table this time. I guess there aren't always tables to hide behind. I'm coming in closer! I knew I heard a bunch of noise!

Twilight is fighting her brother! And SWEETIE BELLE!

...

Girls. Dash. You keep saying pick my battles. You keep saying don't do anything crazy. Don't risk yourself when it won't make a difference.

But Dash, you taught me too, grab the moment whenever it's there, because it won't come back. And sometimes crazy works, because you don't have any other choices. I could just run, save myself, and tell everypony what I saw.

No.

She was my part of the mission right?

Pick my battles? I pick this one. My wings burn.

++++

Orange streak. Speeds by. Too fast, for the naked eye. It can really move, and it's got an attitude. The changelings look out as she storms through. For once I won't doubt what she can do. She's not the fastest thing alive, but she's determined to be a close second right now.

To Be Continued

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by Alex Warlorn
Twilight Sparkle vs Shining Armor

Sweetie Belle, "It's time for a death battle! Don't worry! It's just a figure of speech! I know Twilight will come to her senses and want to be Chrssy's friend."

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Notes-Get-Scrambled-453997847

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-Pov-Series-Wedding-Arc-Orange-Butterfly-455581313

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (need to be kept up to date . . . please?).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

Episode 187: "Orange Butterfly"

Scootaloo zoomed like a comet out of the darkened hallway taking all by surprise. In an eye blink she crossed the room, rod up the floor steps towards Sweetie Belle and tackled her, lifting up off her skateboard, which carried onward ahead of them, and shattered the window behind Sweetie. Scootaloo didn't stop, and both fillies fell out the window.

There was a moment of stillness as everypony's brains tried to catch up to what just happened.

"SWEET BELLE!" Chrysalis cried out, with one sweep of her horn, beneath Shining was surrounded by a ring of green flames, he fell through the floor out of sight before it became solid again. "WITH ME!" She snarled at her closest changeling, then screamed at the rest, "KILL TWILIGHT NOW!"

The queen and her drones dived undisguised out the window after the two fillies falling to the streets below.

+++

=Sword Art Online Extended OST - Got To Win=

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS BEST FRIEND RESCUERS!" I screamed at the top of my lungs hugging Sweetie for all I was worth. Ow! Who put so many gems in her dress?! Even Rarity doesn't use this many! Sweetie gasped, I saw a green light in her eye flicker and go out, she fainted. The knife she'd been holding was lost (thank Celestia). My helmet came loose and didn't fall as fast as we were. The ground was coming up to meet us.

I looked up and saw queenie and her thugs zooming down to grab us with her magic. No way. Nuh-uh. I don't care. Okay I do care! But-

(Pegasus' Notes: Scootaloo that's enough! Everypony will have seen Chrysalis! You have the mind protection spells on you! Chrysalis won't hurt you if she thinks you're of worth something to Sweetie! Just stay calm and let her catch you! Just be with Sweetie and make her pretend she's still enslaved! You can-)

NO!

(Pegasus' Notes: You brain dead-)

I SAID NO!

Dash...everything you taught me...everything you helped me believe in.
Applebloom, it...just feels natural to have you there, all of us, I don't care about cutie marks anymore. Our journey's been as fun as any Cutie Mark could be.
Silver Spoon, you're a good filly after all.
Spike, you're cool, and not just for being a dragon.
Sweetie Belle, I promise I'm gonna save you.

Open wings. Please. Open wings. Open wider. Please. Open wider. Please. Just open wider. Stretch wings. Please. Spread feathers. Please. Wind carry me. Please. Wings. Work please. Life, don't be over. Please. Wings, carry me please. Open wider, catch the wind, please, Scoots you can do it, please, Don't flap your wings. I believe. Mom, Dad, please let me see you again. Please. I believe. I don't care about sappy or cool, awesome or mushy! I don't care about girlie or toughie! Please! Wings! Help me! Save me! I don't wanna die. I don't want Sweetie Belle to die! I...

Calm down. That's what you were taught. Your body doesn't think. It feels. Just let go. And,

Don't flap your wings. Let the winds carry you.

"Fly."

='Intertwined' Wonderful 101 =

I felt my wings bloom. It's like a dam burst inside me. I can feel a power rushing through me that I've never felt...no, that's always been there. And I zoom back up the way we came, the bug queen's eyes look at me in shock. I fly right past her, I dance around the bugs as I fly back up into the air past them.

(Noon's Notes: She...she's flying...she's truly flying!)

(Dusk's Notes: But...but our Scootaloo learned to fly as a teen.)

(Dawn's Notes: Yay! Way to go Scoots!)

(Dusk's Notes: Heh, perhaps Dawn's right, why question miracles?)

(Noon's Notes: Yeah! Go Scoots! Alicornspeed!)

I fly past my helmet as it continues falling...bits of glass that broke off when the bigger than us bugs smashed through are falling too...I sweep through them, not getting cut at all, and not letting a single one touch Sweetie Belle.

Somehow, someway, I hear the voices of ponies awing at me.

Holding Sweetie like a dance partner, I twirl through the air, more graceful than I can remember ever being. I feel the sun on my back, and spread my wings. I feel wonderful. I feel alive. I am Scootaloo. I am a pegasus. I am a little pony. I am a cutie mark crusader.

And in the true blue sky, I am as graceful with my wings as any butterfly, not as fragile as one, I am dancing in the air.

I am...no. We are free.

"GET HER BACK!" The Queen hisses. The bugs buzz up after me, their queen with them. I fold my wings and dive down then unfurl one and spin in a completely other direction, diving between buildings.

"I, Queen Chrysalis Avalon, swear on the name of Queen Rosedust Avalon, Our Mother, Queen of Flutter Valley! Your flank is mine, punk!" I hear the queen's echoing voice bellow.

Can't say I'm not happy to hear Queen Ugly lose her cool on my account.

"GIVE HER BACK-AGH!" I hear fireworks go off, followed by battle cries and thunder, but kinda trying to outfly a buncha bugs and an Equestria threatening monster on my first flight while carrying a freakin' an unconscious unicorn here!

I dive between the more narrow streets of Canterlot, I see the bug troopers following me, five of 'em, oh boy. Where's Chrysalis? Stay alert! I remember everything I've been taught, everything I've been shown, everything I saw Rainbow Dash do. If I don't fly good on my first go, I'll never fly again!

Time to show these bugs why pegasi are the best fliers! HERE WE GO!

Heading straight for a building.

Heading straight for it, don't stop and turn on a bit! One bug isn't so lucky, he crashes into the window, and gets beaten up by his own buddies still in costume inside.

One down, four to go.

Bugs're so mad they forgot to put on their costumes! So I don't have to worry about concerned ponies stopping the little fillies running from the Guard!

Ick! Slime! No! No! No! That is not happening!

Pegasus magic, lords of the sky as earth ponies are lords of the ground, air obey my heart and mind, and be a blade to cut through this filth!

I DID IT! I AM AWESOME! Haha!

Just like I saw Dash practice! Where did I even come up with those fancy words?

FIGURE IT OUT LATER! One bug got blinded by his own slime and fell behind!

Three bugs now!

Okay, fly towards another building, they zoom after me and...in I go through an open window, sorry, didn't see a thing Miss, thanks for the birthday cake, I think the blue looks better on you, and out I go!

The bugs expected me to turn again and dove around the entry window to try and corner me, now they're the ones confused. One tries to fly through but doesn't get as good results as me being bigger, causing a lot more destruction, and of course, being a bug monster, he outright smashes the way through. His two buddies take the long way around but lose sight of us.

One to go.

"Come back here with Her Majesty's apprentice you stupid brat!" He snarls.

I don't have the breath for witty remarks.

In fact, I don't know how much longer I'll be breathing.

I do every wild turn I can think of, going back the way we came to surprise him (think of getting back to the herd later), zip and zoom this way and that! Zig-zag! Still on me! Maybe heading back to the castle wasn't so smart after all, I'm little filly making this up as I go, give me a break!

Dang does this guy ever give up!?

"I've gotcha now! Give back Lady Sweet Belle and I won't suck you dry!"

"Fudge you!" I dive down, Sweetie Belle is what they really want, not me, and flying and carrying her is a nasty gas guzzler.

I gotta land! My wings feel like they're on fire! But this guy might just grab Sweetie and fly off and this'll all have been pointless!

Okay, Dash, I promise this'll be the last stupid thing I do...today, Pinkie Swear!

I turn around and fly right towards him!

I do a fast flyby, I think getting one of those magic surge thingies and speed up so fast the world seemed to blur...and he gasps as green blood leaks out a thin line on him where I passed. He actually stumbled in the air in surprise. I don't think he even saw me I moved so fast.

"Impossible! Nothing can cut through a true changeling's carapace!" I turn around and fly straight towards him.

"Nothing uncutable! Now watch as I cut the air!"

"What? That doesn't even make-"

"Cutie Mark Crusader Head-Butt TO THE MOON!" He lowered his horn at me, and I turned sharply out of the dive, letting the air trail I'm leaving behind me blind him. Before he could recover, I did a loop and brought my back hooves right down on his skull from above.

"Sorry, meant to say the Fantastic Filly Flash!"

Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! I just did one of Rainbow's tricks!

If he had normal eyes instead of compound eyes, I'm pretty sure they'd have rolled up in the back of his head as he dropped like a stone.

+++

"Honey I'm scared," whispered Upper Crust to her husband Jet Set.

"I am too sweetheart, I am too." He answered back as they sat at the outside part of the cafe (being the only customers right now), figuring with everything that was happening they should have just stayed home. But they didn't want to give the monsters a victory by changing how they were going to spend their day.

He'd been scared about his wife for awhile now, since a mad pony had mugged her. That...moment had really woken him up. Certainly he cared for Upper Crust, but...seeing her hurt like that had been the moment he realized how much.

Then an unconscious changeling fell from the sky and laid there twitching.

Jet Set quickly put his wife behind him protectively, staring for a few moments. When the beast didn't move, he carefully investigated. Making sure to take a chair for self defense.

The stallion gave him a nudge, "Uh...do you surrender?" He looked closer, "Dear I think it's hurt!" Indeed, the bug monster was bleeding badly.

Upper Crust took off her sweeter/scarf, then looked at her scarf, then the monster, and her scarf again and put her scarf back on. She then pulled the cloth cover off the table they were sitting at and used it to bandages the unconscious bug monster.

They picked him up and gently carried him inside.

++

I gently place Sweetie Belle down, we're on a roof top, in sight of the castle, it's really not smart for us to be here, but if I don't catch my breath right now I'm gonna crash head first into the cobble stone streets below instead! And I don't want to get cornered on the ground by guards on every side.

Ugh. I think I have a stitch in my side. And I feel my body tingling all over. And my wings really do feel like they're on fire. Were they that big before? Ugh. I don't wanna think about it. The one I cut the Changeling with felt like I'd hit against a wall.

Still...I feel this...warmth in me...like something in me woke up that's been sleeping since I small...-er.

Sweetie?...She's breathing, okay, that's good, she doesn't look hurt at all, I swear if that witch did anything else to her I'll...I'll...sigh.

How can she look so peaceful after everything she's just been through? Well, at least I saw the witch's magic go away, so at least I know she's fine now and not under evil bug monster mind control magic.

Well Scoots, ya got to be a hero, you just blew the monster's cover, adults are gonna be mad at you, or just really happy you saved the day, maybe both...might get a spanking...or five...

Wait. I just...I really did just...I JUST FLEW! MOM! DAD! DASH! APPLEBLOOM! I JUST FLEW!!! I CAN FLY! YAHOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! YIPPEEEE!!! My little pony, my little pony, I used to wonder what friendship could be, until you all shared its magic with me! Big adventure! Tons of fun! A beautiful heart! Faithful and strong! Sharing kindness, an easy feat! And magic makes it all complete! YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!!!!

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Congrats Scoots! You did good!)

I can't stop! I feel so-! YES YES!!!! What does Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon have to say now?! Oh right! Silver Spoon's my friend now! She'll say congrats! Well would Diamond Tiara have to say now besides enraged silence? HEHEHEH!

"What she'd have to say is, 'enjoy it while you can.' Which won't be for very long."
-

Too bad about that skateboard stuff BUT WHO CARES?!?! HEHEHEH! If only everypony could see me now. Dash, let's go flying together!

I feel a little dizzy, but still, I, hehehehe, I can fly, I can fly, I can fly, point me at the second star to the right and I'll fly on till morning...

Better wake up Sweetie Belle.

"Sweetie Belle," I give her a good shake, she doesn't wake up, blech, I hope I don't have to kiss her or something gross like that. I'm almost tempted to give her head a good knocking, (I'm a good knocker, just ask the chest). "Sweetie, wake up time!"

Her eyes flutter open, heh, even now she has to play up the cute angel for all she's worth. She cutely yawns, she cutely looks around, she cutely slapped me in the face, SAY WHAT?!

"YOU DUMMY! You ruined everything for Chryssy! Everything was going great!"

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Oh no.)

OH YOU ARE KIDDING ME! YOU ARE JOKING! "Where is Sweetie Belle you fake?!"

"I AM SWEETIE BELLE, SCOOTALOO! We got together with Applebloom at Diamond Tiara's cute-ceanera because we were all blank flanks, and you told them 'she's not stuck being stuck-up like you'," Oh yeah, I had told Silver Spoon that at Diamond's cute-ceanera. "When we traveled sideways in time we found out Rainbow Dash's ancestor was a fashion designer. And we heard about a pony show being canceled after season-"

"Sweetie! If that really is you, ARE YOU NUTS?! Are you still under the bug queen's magic?! I love you Sweetie as my best friend!" I hug her and nuzzle her, she pushes me back. Why? Why isn't it working? It worked with Spike!!!

"Don't call Chryssy 'bug queen'! They're changelings, and that's a mean thing to call them, you wouldn't want to be called a 'horse' would you?"

"She was making you try to kill yourself! They call us CATTLE! I'd bet even cows would be angry!"

"Maybe they wouldn't call you that if you didn't call them bugs! And I was pretending dummy! Everything Chryssy told Twilight was a big fat fib! Beginning to end! I was the one resisting Twilight's magic from taking the knife with the magic Chryssy taught me! She was just making her horn glow! It was a trick knife! Chryssy would never do that to me! And Twilight was gonna see how mean it is not to do what Chryssy says! She'd tell Chryssy she was done fighting with her big brother, and she'd be friends with Chryssy again!"

"Sweetie you're under a geass! You have to fight the geass!"

"NO I'm NOT!" Sweetie stamped her hoof, little green sparks crackled. "Chryssy is a great pony and everypony else is just being too stuck up and full of themselves to admit ponies need her!"

"Sweetie Belle listen to yourself! You're being nuts! Ponies have gotten along fine without her! In fact without her we were better!"

"And Silver Spoon? And Diamond Tiara? Featherweight? And all those ponies who bullied Rarity because she was from Ponyville, and Prince Blueblood? And Trixie? The Flim Flam brothers? Â Checkered Flag and her gang? Ponies need help to make Equestria the happy place ponies pretend it is! Changelings just want to feed themselves! They aren't evil like you all think they are! That way everything... Sorry, that really was mean of me to say. I'm sorry." Sweetie Belle calmed herself down. Geeze! She's scaring me! Okay, I fainted after flying so much and now I'm having a nightmare, wake up Scootaloo, wake up! I hope the flying was real though!

(Interviewer's Notes (Dusk): I'm sorry, Scootaloo…this isn't a dream.)

"Sweetie Belle...please...the queen is a monster."

"No she isn't! The ponies of the first age killed bad creatures, and they were all called heroes. After everypony lives in the new world that Chryssy is going to make, they'll see it's for the best. It's gonna be my job to give ponies their love back afterwards! I'm gonna be princess."

"WHAT?!"

"Chryssy is gonna make me Princess of the Changelings," Sweetie Belle hissed, "She's gonna uplift me into a changeling! I'm gonna be a changeling princess! Chryssy says if everything goes right the changeling will need a new ruler!" Sweetie stopped and took in some deep breaths. "Now let's go back to Chryssy Scootaloo, I'm sure if you say you're sorry and mean it, she won't punish you too bad. I'm gonna see that she uplifts you, Applebloom, and Silver Spoon too. Cutie Mark Crusader changelings! Yah! You'll be so cool, Scootaling."

I trot back feeling sick to my stomach...then angry. "And what?! Lure Dash into a trap? Be used in a fake 'me or her' trick and torture her with another fake 'no win' choice?! Zap her in the back without a trace of regret if she chooses me?! Look at her face as she feels horrified that I BETRAYED HER? And me LIKING IT as I suck the love of her?! NO!" I stamped my hoof, "NEVER! THAT WOULD MAKE ME THE MOST WORTHLESS PIECE OF SLIME IN EQUESTRIA! I'D RATHER DIE!" I shocked myself as I realized I meant that.

Sweetie Belle blinked at me in stunned surprise. She was, crying?

"Please Scootaloo, you don't mean that, you really don't, you're just upset and-"

"No Sweetie Belle," I heard myself say, "I do mean it!"

"You think just being turned into a changeling is going to make you evil? Like how being made into an Earth pony would make you stupid? Is that it? Equestria's supposed to be better than that!"

"NO! We have a changeling on our team Sweetie Belle, she's not evil at all! And she's not tried to conquer or enslave anypony! She's NICE! I'd rather die than be made into one of that evil queen's minions!"

"..." Sweetie Belle sniffled. "How can you call Chryssy such mean things?"

"Because she IS a 'mean thing!' She freaking tortured Applejack! She's just as bad as Discord!"

"No she isn't! I was the one teaching Applejack to be a good pony! She's gonna make Equestria better! You all FORCED HER to have to use the rune when she never wanted to! She just wanted to give the changelings their own goddess! But you made it so she had to do it the hard way! Nopony wants to see the other side of her! She didn't ask to be the born the way she is! Nopony ever bothered to teach her how to live before she lost everypony!

"She's the one who defeated the evil queen, she gave all the changelings the right to have names, to have a family, to have children, to have parents, to have brothers and sisters, to chose their own destiny instead of it being decided before they were even born, to not let nymphs starve to death like they were stock, to let their zebra friends who live in the hive to love each other too, to give the changelings the hope of living under the sun instead of slowly dying underground!

"Everypony keeps thinking she's a monster, so she can't do anything without anypony thinking she's doing it to be a monster...nopony wants to give 'er a chance, so she just has to show them . . . I guess I'm going to have to show you too Scootaloo. I'm really really really sorry. But I hope you thank you me later."

Where...where, ick, that...ick...that sickly green magic aura coming from? It feels sick and wrong just being near it. Is this black magic? It's coming from...no, "Sweetie, what is this?"

"I told you," she said standing up straight on her hind legs with her forehooves at her side and head down a little, she's using telekinesis, "Chryssy taught me magic, MY magic, so I could protect myself from bad ponies who don't want to be friends and selfish changelings who wanted to steal her friends. Don't worry Scootaloo, when I'm done, you'll see everything like I've seen it. You'll see everything I've done with Chryssy, then you'll see she's a good pony underneath all the bad stuff she's been forced to do. I promise it won't hurt. Un, please don't move?" Her horn glowed green, but it...it wasn't like the spell that was on her before...I dunno how to describe it, it, was hers.

Her head shoot up and she looked dead straight at me.

Princess Sweet Bell
-The Witchling-

I felt every muscle in my body tighten. Okay. Looks like I'm gonna know how everypony felt before fighting their friends. I gritted my teeth, sorry wings, looks like we're not done today. I could run, but Sweetie would just go back to the queen and get geassed again, and get twisted EVEN MORE! NO! She's away from the queen! I'm not giving up! I've come too far! I lower my head and scrap the rooftop. "Alright Sweetie, if that's what you want. Then bring it. You wanna brain zap me? You'll have to knock me down first!"

'Again Chryssy surprises me. Why does she have to waste such wonderful talent on, blech, order! If she'd just join Team Chaos she'd be such a perfect addition to our family. I bet I could destroy her Alicorn half and make her a proper Draconequus (or the spiritual unbalance would destroy her soul but fun either way, for me) but no, she has to be an order obsessed stick in the mud. Oh well, I can always propose to Pinkie after we win. I bet she'd love to be a draconequus!'

"I almost wish I still had feelings so I could enjoy this."

'It works more for us if the dodo that can fly wins.'

"All the same, I think if I could feel, I think I'd feel like rooting for Sweetie Belle. I feel a kinship somehow."

-

"I just want us to stay friends." Sweetie's lip quivered and her eyes narrowed. "If you're gonna be a bully about it, then I'm gonna have to knock some sense into you. I'm sorry Scootaloo!"

"...I guess the same goes for me, Sweetie."

I saved ya from the queen, and I'll save you from you too. That's what a loyal friend does.

The air sharpened from pegasus magic and crackled with unicorn magic.

This was it.

"SWEETIE BELLE! STOP!"

The white filly turned her head, her eyes widened, "R-Rarity?"

To Be Continued...

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by Alex Warlorn
Scooting On Air

Scootaloo, "Alright, here we go."

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Twilight-vs-Shining-454519748

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Sisters-455936073

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (need to be kept up to date . . . please?).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Art by Chickenwhite http://chickenwhite.deviantart.com/art/Learn-to-Fly-309568327

Scootaloo The Hero.

Episode 188: "Sisters"

Yes dears? I'm busy at the moment, saving my baby sister from the corruptions of a wicked witch. You need to know how I got here? I suppose it is rather sudden from the fillies' point of view.

No no no, I am not the queen in disguise or any of the sort! Can you please explain that to Scootaloo?

This entire ordeal truly has rendered us all paranoid. I am quite done with all these reversals. I can't wait for this to be over and life to resume.

You can't do anymore favors? Let my actions show Scootaloo I'm me? Very well.

Your question of how I got here? More like how 'we' got there, and then how I got here.

After Applejack's wonderful return to us, and the absence of Twilight and Scootaloo, and the well needed healing of my very dear farmer friend...we needed patching up and resting...all of us. We aren't immortal warriors darling.

Bon Bon's candies are a gift from Celestia herself. Restoring our magic is a boon we badly need. With Twilight…I feel like we're going to run ourselves ragged.

Blasted Element of Generosity, I know if I get the right conditions or if I get in the right state of mind, it can heal at least me. But generosity is GIVING, I HAVE to be able to heal others as well, somehow.

We have Trixie, so even without Twilight here, we have a complete set of Elements, but after everything, Applejack seems rather worn, she needs rest. And if even a goddess like Princess Cadence needs rest, then I seriously doubt we have a quick fix solution about to drop in our laps.

Pinkie Pie was talking how after we saved Equestria (again), that we really needed to have a 'get to know you' party for everypony here, getting to know the real Princess Cadence, Lyra and her family getting to know the real Trixie too while they were at it, Twilight finally getting to know her classmates...and of course Fluttercruel's existence being a more common fact.

We've never tried to cover it up or deny Fluttercruel's existence, we just never volunteer the information unless asked. Applejack didn't like what she called 'lies of omission'(I'm impressed she knows that word, Applejack has to take time off from farming and improve her education). Applejack argued that it was better to tell Ponyville and Equestria about Fluttercruel in a way that wasn't accidental, or it would be accidental, and the results wouldn't be pretty.

But we wanted to give ponies a little time to heal from Discord, and for Fluttercruel to mature. I hope their reactions to her here are just stress. At least they seemed to take her well after the initial shock.

This wasn't like with Discord or poor Nightmare Whisper where the only battle was with one of them. Half of us had gone up against an army when we thought we'd be facing a few strong opponents, most of them our friends, and the other half had been put together for stealth. And Applejack, on top of her own three day long ordeal, had had to fight against her friends before Applebloom freed her. We were wearing ourselves thin. There was no denying it dears.

But the reality is that the changelings weren't going to politely stop while we rested. With Fancy Pants' help, ponies were giving the changelings plenty of mischief, just enough to slow the villains down that it without making them think it less trouble to blow their cover. And Spitfire...when we heard...well, Rainbow Dash of course demanded we pull a jail break, especially with how we had to run from some of the Wonderbolts themselves.

Thankfully cooler heads prevailed, and we convinced her that Spitfire was giving them the MOST trouble where she was.

We also pieced together the facts and confirmed that indeed, somepony else was taking an active role in fighting the Changelings and toppled the Changeling's communication expert, Digger Wasp, and Fancy Pants told us without a shadow of a doubt that it wasn't his group. The problem with that was we had no idea who, let alone how to contact them. Still, at least we weren't fighting alone, and Chrysalis was likely in the dark about their identity as much as us.

If only Twilight had come back with Scootaloo. Maybe Twilight knew some healing magic, she was a living spell library. Minuette knew some for busted teeth and the like. Applejack apparently knew some medicine from Nurse Red Heart back in Ponyville, but she still needed her rest before we inevitably had to move again.

And I asked the Princess to risk the anonymity of her song birds to discover Twilight's situation.

And we found out. And our break was cut very short.

My first instinct was to storm the castle in a full frontal assault with our combined force, and crush any changeling that got in our way, and tear through the castle we had spent forever running through before.

Then Fluttershy suggested meekly we just FLY up like we did with Spike to avoiding having to fight wave after wave of changelings like the tower Spike had been stored in.

I reminded Fluttershy how she and Moon Dancer STILL had to fight their way through changelings in the air, but then SHE reminded me that it was much less and the guards were forced to remain in one form the entire fight and couldn't use any changeling exclusive abilities, and if they didn't risk that with a random tower, then they wouldn't risk it with Canterlot Castle itself.

So we split up into as small a groups as we could, and with our magic restored, and with Bon Bon having extra candy, we didn't sneak out of the church, we just teleported. Mineutte said the changelings had to be zeroing in on where we were coming and retreating to by now.

Trixie did say however that after eating many of Bon Bon's candies in a row to restore her magic (after casting several consecutive group teleports across, half of Canterlot) made her head 'feel funny' and it was decided not to abuse Bon Bon's gift.

Spike was supposed to stay behind, but Trixie said he made a good second pair of eyes for her, and a good shield. I had Blueblood flashbacks and gave her a good kick for that. While still hopping she explained she meant for fire spells that didn't hurt the lava swimming Spike.

Sometimes it's easy to forget that little Spikey Wikey has armor for skin and is an infant form of the most deadly beasts on the planet.

Spike meanwhile said Trixie made a good steed.

Sadly we couldn't teleport directly to the castle with the anti-teleportation wards up, nor could Trixie cover the entire castle with a copy of Twilight's failsafe spell, and Spike had sworn not to try the 'dragon mail ponies' trick again, and said that if he tried it on an adult there was a good chance only a filly sized section of our bodies would come out the other end at best. However, he did say he could dragon mail items we might need, which was a utility.

Cadence also pre-enchanted several boxes for Bon Bon so that she could send us more of her candy via Spike if we sent for it or if she came up with something useful for us.

So where did we teleport instead?

Well, first Trixie performed the memory spell (I shall never get used to that combination of words), and I gave her the knowledge and imagery she needed.

I heard Twinkle Shine and the other Gifted Unicorns saying how they now understood what the senior mages had been saying about the Element of Magic being a plagiarizing cheat and being a 'complete game breaker that was more than a little dangerous.'

Before I'd have had nightmares of Trixie having this kind of power, but thankfully, if not for her taking several levels in maturity, Twilight had implied this power would have never awakened in Trixie to begin with.

A game breaker? Good. We needed all the game breakers we could get, this was not a friendly game of chess.

Cadence didn't seem to enjoy hearing them talk like that about Twilight though, apparently due to several incidents that had happened to Twilight in her youth. I heard the words 'requests to have her horn cut off'...I knew about the infamous 'Molestia Articles' (which even before knowing Twilight personally I found distasteful), but never knew Twilight had suffered that kind of abuse from 'elders.'

Cadence's avatar sadly had some drawbacks; it could never be as powerful as the real her, and she had to leave her real body defenseless to control it, and her avatar would eventually burn itself out, unable to replenish her mana. Even Bon Bon's candy didn't seem to do much (though thankfully the ones she'd made for Moth seemed to work for Cadence, being she was Bonds and all).

"My Auntie Luna's avatars, I've heard the Night Guards say are much more complex, some whispered they can function as individuals rather than extensions of Auntie Luna."

We teleported to the one place I knew would be relatively safe.

"Hello Miss Rarity, shall I inform Fancy Pants you'll be staying for tea?" asked Straight Lace like ponies teleporting into her employer's living room was normal...given they were presently the central hub for the rebellion, it wouldn't surprise me.

Of course we didn't intend to go out the front door, a small army of ponies who hadn't gone INTO the building emerging would get anypony's attention, and our appearance was now common knowledge. Our plan was to leave via the roof and windows not facing the streets, and fly to the castle from there. Thankfully, being Fancy Pants was the most important pony in Canterlot, we had a very large roof and plenty of windows to choose from.

Oh yes, we had more of Bon Bon's candy (mare had two other ponies helping her make more and the capability of teleporting them to us through Spike) ready for Trixie to cast the gossamer wing spell. Exercise makes perfect after all. I Pinkie Promise we won't make her take a lot at once again.

By the time this ordeal had reached its end, Trixie had grown more sick of the taste of lemons than the changelings. Couldn't Bon Bon have made the magic candies in any other flavor?

I'd learn that Soarin' and Fleetfoot had been there but had left peacefully and unmolested to draw attention away from the house (Rainbow was sincerely disappointed).

Also, no, I didn't learn of Fancy Pants' house guests at the time, we were in a blind rush. We didn't stop to ask permission for any of this. I would write Fancy Pants a long letter of apology, and well as apologize in person, a donation to his favorite charity, a new dress for his wife, a free spa treatment for Straight Lace, and promising to foal-sit their first foal for free for a year. I truly felt sorry for doing this, but not only a friend, but my little sister needed saving, I didn't ask to double as her single mother, but until mother and father remember she exists, that is what I'll be to the best of my ability!

On the roofs and in view of the castle (hiding of course behind one of my landscape illusions), we were ready to start feeding Trixie more of Bon Bon's candy to start casting the gossamer wing spell.

No, I wasn't worried about suddenly being a fool from having wings again: yes I let the praise go to my head when I last had wings, but that was myself, not the spell, and if I could use this spell to save my friend and family, so much the better. Nor was I afraid of Trixie's ego getting the better of her, Trixie was the last pony who would let Twilight down when she needed her, she'd already proven that.

Yes, I'm being brief, forgive me, but Twilight, Sweetie Belle. In a way Twilight and I were alike in one way at the moment so I'd learn, we both wanted this absurdity over and done with, and to be reunited with our siblings we loved so so much. And I'd break the wings off any changeling that got in my way.

Our carefully laid assault however, was canceled. First Pinkie Pie's 'somepony has been freed from the witch's control' twitch combo went off, followed by a big one that rattled her bones.

"What was that?" asked Trixie before she could cast the wing spells.

"I think...the status quo just went bye bye."

...and then the battle was then brought to us.

Scoots...

Sweetie Belle... she's falling.

You think I just stood there?! I flew as fast I could to where I could safely catch her and Sweetie without breaking their necks! If I did a Sonic Rainboom right in the middle of Canterlot, between ponies and buildings...it wouldn't be like the rainboom I was supposed to perform for the wedding! And my mini ones weren't gonna do it!

It was too far away! My magic couldn't reach that far!

"Trixie cast the wing spell now!" I screamed.

It was a fantasy, the spell took too long to cast, I wouldn't make it in time. Even if I had the wings, I was no Rainbow Dash. Dear Fluttershy took to the air too.

I had to be fast enough! But if I did a Sonic Rainboom with these many ponies in the blast range...moonsent. Stop whining RD! Focus on Scootaloo! All that glass...I see a skateboard falling ahead of them...Scoots, did you...on purpose...you, STUPID FILLY! Great! Queen Ugly and her goons are flying down to grab 'em too! I can't believe I'm thinking this! But if I don't make it, I hope they do! Ah screw it, since when do I think I won't make it?

Fluttershy is behind Rainbow Dash, Trixie is casting the spell, if Dash misses, maybe Fluttershy can help and...if all else fails, if I'm fast enough, maybe I can use my own body to break their fall. Sweetie Belle. We'll get you back, I promise. The wicked queen is flying down after her...No. Stay away. Rainbow Dash WILL save her, I won't let you have her in your clutches anymore!

Scoots! Scoots! Does she have her eyes closed or something?! Don't be scared kiddo! I'm gonna make it! There's no bucking way I won't! I'll buck that witch's brains out if I have to if she tries to grab you and Sweetie! Your hero is here kiddo.

We'll save you...don't be scared...there's nothing to be scared of...Rainbow and Fluttershy will save you and Scootaloo in a minute...then we'll beat back the witch. And we'll save Twilight too, and her brother, and Princess Celestia. Sweetie Belle...and all that jewelry you're wearing doesn't suit you at all, at least not with that dress. Who mangled her dress like that?! Who cares! For Celestia's sake please save her!

Focus like a laser! Be at just the right angle for rescuing them both and letting the enemy eat my dust! The Queen might be wicked strong but there's no buckin' way she's faster than me! I'll leave her in my dust! You're gonna live my little filly! Because I refuse to let the other thing happen!

Still too far away! Stupid spell! Hurry! Just a tiny bit more! Yes! I can-

Did time just stop?...Scootaloo...her wings...she...she's...you're...you're . .. I think my brain is freezing up! She really is! My little filly! Scootaloo, YOU REALLY ARE FLYING! WAY TO GO SCOOTS!

Oh, my, Celestia. I...I was...a part of me thought it was impossible...Scootaloo, you're flying...and you're beautiful...you are truly beautiful...you're like an angel...don't let go of Sweetie Belle...save her...you're flying...BACK TOWARDS THE CHANGELINGS?! What are you- flying through them, causing total confusion. Go little filly! Get Sweetie to safety!

"GET HER BACK!" Queenie throws a hissy fit, yeah, that ain't happening lady. The bugs fly up after Scootaloo, she pulls off a nice little maneuver for having just learned how to fly, and dove in between Canterlot's buildings. Wow she's fast. That's my filly! Take her home Scoots and leave the baddie to us!...I believe in you. I know you can do it. Mommy Dashie is so proud of you! Don't write that one down!

"I, Queen Chrysalis Avalon, swear on the name of Queen Rosedust Avalon, Our Mother, Queen of Flutter Valley! Your flank is mine, punk!"

Well, that is not happening.

Yeah, forget about that. Ya know, we hadn't really given it much thought, but now that it was over, I'll admit it could have been one of Queenie's big confusing traps, with Scoots and Sweetie falling out the window like that, and Queenie and her thugs flying down after them undisguised. We didn't even think about it though. Queenie made her big tantrum at the top of her lungs, I think everypony heard it, and the streets of Canterlot were not exactly totally deserted, and I think lots of ponies heard it from inside their houses too! There was no way this was some cheap trick.

Trixie had cast the wing spell on herself once it was on Rarity and the others and caught up as soon as possible. "Oh this is good…" she whispered and seemed almost giddy. "Make a big show of this, the bigger a scene we cause, the better this works out for us. After all, now there's no mistaking us for the 'brainwashed victims' fighting 'royal guards.' Now's our chance to clear our names," she whispered, making sure not to let the still distracted Changelings overhear.

Oh what happened next darlings? Oh nothing much dears, just an epic battle against the queen and her personal guard around Canterlot castle. Also the shocking surprise addition of Miss Golden Tiara to the battle out of nowhere, no I didn't think she was a changeling in disguise, that would be too convoluted. Particularly given she clearly wasn't pulling punches on the Changelings.

Twilight dear also leapt out of the window, cast the wing spell on herself mid-fall, and joined us, followed by a flood of changelings behind her like blood from a wound. Trixie threw her a pouch of Bon Bon's candy for a desperately needed recharge. We all shared a happy reunion group hug before turning our attention to the angry changeling queen before us. No, we didn't inform Twilight we thought of her behavior right then and there...we'd have plenty of time for that later.

But I didn't care about any of that. What I cared about was my little sister. While Rainbow Dash had complete faith in Scootaloo (and was naturally excited to see her charge flying), that wasn't the point. I wished to help my little sister, and since it didn't look like the Elements were activating without the regalia again during this fight, I felt my talents were better spent looking after the filly who had escaped while being chased after by nearly a half-dozen angry changelings carrying Sweetie Belle on her first flight.

I found myself thankful for the gaudy jewelry that Sweetie Belle had been wearing, otherwise, with how Scootaloo had been flying about the city like a deranged bumble bee, I doubt I could have hoped to find them. Yes yes yes, my friends were perfectly understanding of me wanting to protect two fillies escaping a squad of changelings while the rest of them fought the insect horde.

I know you wish to hear more of the battle, but I do not, fighting is an ugly dirty business and the less endearment given to it the better. I prefer thought and effort be given to the ponies fighting them and what makes them ponies thank you very much.

So with gossamer wings, and suddenly Soarin' and Fleetfoot joining the battle, I flew off, using my gem detection spell to zero in on the jewels I had seen Sweetie Belle wearing. I will admit it, I was shocked to see Scootaloo had beaten the Changelings that had been pursuing her (and unbelievably proud, as I was certain Rainbow Dash would be)...And that was when I heard...what my baby sister said to Scootaloo for rescuing her...and saw what that evil evil EVIL mare had turned my precious, rambunctious, impish, impulsive, oblivious, childish, sweet, kind, determined, beautiful, foolish, wonderful dearest Sweetie Belle into.

"Scootaloo, you've done fabulously darling, and I most certainly am proud of you, as I'm certain Rainbow will be but please, step back and let her big sister finish what you started."

"But Rarity-, that is you? Isn't it?"

Of course, fighting race of shape-shifters.

Let's see...oh. Right.

"If I wasn't, why would I have the wing spell?"

"To trick me?"

I sighed and summoned my chaise longue.

"Oh yeah, you're Rarity."

I turned my attention back to Sweetie. Yes, I know, but if I didn't clear it up Scootaloo might have interfered thinking I was a Changeling come to get her friend back for the Queen.

"I already broke the spell! She's...something else happened." Scootaloo looked terrified...and so was I. And unbelievably furious at that witch.

"Sweetie Belle, what are you doing?!"

Sweetie Belle shrank back some. "D-Don't be angry Rarity...I made a new best friend, and she's gonna make me a princess, but Scootaloo didn't want me to be with her and kidnapped me. She doesn't wanna understand her. Please understand big sister?" She pleaded.

Sweet Celestia.

"Sweetie...I…"

How do I say this to a filly with Stockhorse Syndrome?!

"Sweetie...I'm not mad at you for making a friend...but I think your...friend isn't who you think she is, darling…I think you're seeing her mask and not the monster beneath it."

"No no no!" She shook her head defiantly, "I know who she is! She's Queen Chryssy of the changelings! And it's the monster that's the mask that everypony else is forcing her to wear! She's a really nice pony if everypony will just get to know her!"

Twilight, when this is over, I don't care what it takes, we're ALL getting immunized to brainwashing...I'm never going through this Tartarus again.

But this isn't brainwashing, it's...well, like a child…

And to explain things to a child, you need to know what the child thinks they know...

"And who does...Chryssy say is making her wear this mask and why does she say she needs to wear it?"

"Everypony! The changelings want her to be a tough mean ruler because they want a mean tough ruler, the ponies want her to be a monster because they don't want to be wrong when they look at her and see a monster so she can never show her real face! But she says me, her, and Princess Cadence are all connected in a extra super special way! When she's fixed up everything for the changelings, she wants me to take over for her and be their new ruler, she says it's my destiny, she gonna teach me how to be a princess, I'm gonna get my cutie mark! It's gonna be so cool! Can you make me one of your extra special dresses for me Rarity? It would be so cool! Please?"

Okay, Rarity. Time to play a parent.

"So you're saying because the ponies see her as a monster, she's justified for what she's done?"

"Yeah!"

"So if Luna ran around devouring foals if they didn't give her candy, you'd think she was justified? Even if she gobbled you up?"

Sweetie Belle's eyes widened in fear. "...If...if everypony is gonna be mean to you no matter what you do, why should you make life easier for them?! Chryssy told me...she told me...she told how bad her life used to be...She's doin' all of this so the changelings can be...can be all happy and everything, so ponies...so ponies won't...won't fight and...AND STUFF!!!"

Okay, Rarity, you made her scared...oh Celestia, I made her scared...Celestia, Luna, and Cadence, forgive me but I have to do this…

Now, which thing to address first...the one she'll understand.

"So you're saying because ponies were mean to Chryssy and she had a bad life, she's justified for lashing out at those who did her wrong?"

"Yeah!"

"Okay then, Scootaloo, go punch Silver Spoon in the face as hard as you can."

"What?!" they both yelled.

"Well she was mean to you no matter what you did and made your lives a living Tartarus, so Sweetie clearly thinks she deserves a beating."

"B-b-but Silver Spoon is our friend now! We'll all be friends once everypony listens to Chryssy! Why Rarity?" Sweetie Belle looked ready to cry, "Why? Don't you WANT me to be a princess? Don't you want me to be happy? Don't you want me to make new friends? You don't want me to make friends with her just because she's scary?"

"Sweetie Belle, do you know that 'other side' of Fluttershy that you've seen and even talked to of which I have no problem letting you around?"

"Yeah…She's kind of cool like that."

"...So you don't deny that side of her is there and very real?"

"No."

Fluttercruel, forgive me for telling this secret without you.

"...That's not a split personality Sweetie...it isn't another side to her...that's her daughter, Fluttercruel, they share a body...her father is Discord, Sweetie."

Their jaws hit the floor.

"That's nuts!" Sweetie exclaimed.

"Wait, so Fluttershy and Discord...EEWW!" Scootaloo exclaimed, gagging at what I hoped was the mental image of those two kissing. These fillies know too much about fighting, I pray to Celestia they don't learn about that until later.

"No, Scootaloo...Fluttercruel's spirit was born from Discord's brainwashing, Fluttershy has no love for Discord or vice versa."

I looked back to Sweetie Belle. "But she's also a dear friend of mine. If being scary was the only reason I'm trying to get between you and Chryssy, wouldn't I keep you miles from Fluttershy and her demi-draconequus daughter?"

"CHRYSSY WAS NICE TO ME! She was good with me! She didn't hurt me! She treated me nice! She wasn't bad at all! You're the ones all being bad!"

"What's so nice about her brainwashing you young lady?!"

"She...she's just...she's just lonely...she didn't know how to make friends any other way...no pony WANTS to be her friend, she's just lonely. Like Beauty And The Beast!"

"The Beast let Beauty go, Sweetie Belle, he realized he had no right to own her."

Sweetie Belle looked cornered.

Okay, she's running out of excuses...I hope.

"That...that's different!"

"So you're saying brainwashing to make friends when you don't know how is justified?"

"Um...yeah?"

"So you're saying-"

"Discord didn't make friends! He just hurt ponies! She's not like Discord at all!"

"-So you're saying Zecora should've just brainwashed Ponyville to accept her when she was in a foreign land where she didn't know the customs, the ponies, or how to properly dress to not look like a terrifying witch? And where she was seen as a frightening unknown?"

And no, I do not want to know if Zecora actually could have!

"Maybe...maybe...MAYBE SHE SHOULD HAVE! Then you wouldn't have all gotten hit by poison joke, Applejack wouldn't have gotten trapped in the Everfree Forest when she was all tiny! And you wouldn't have wrecked Zecora's hut! It would have been better!"

Okay, Rarity, let's think here…

"...So you're saying you'd have rather turned me into a puppet who HAD to be a good sister to you than me PROVING I was a good sister by...ugh...covering myself from head to toe in farm mud and taking part in a physical competition because I love you with all my heart?"

I'll admit it, there were tears in my eyes as I said that. It breaks my heart to be arguing with my own sister again! It breaks my heart to see her twisted this way! It breaks it to need to hurt her to save her!

Sweetie Belle looked down, "...it would have been simpler..."

"But would it have meant anything? Could you have looked at the puppet and felt the same way you did when you discovered me under that mud?"

"...The world...everypony...it's too confusing...Applejack says how it's bad ponies say one thing and mean another...you say how ponies shouldn't say anything if it isn't nice...Pinkie Pie says we should always laugh...Fluttershy says it's not nice to laugh at others...Twilight says think about everything...Rainbow Dash says do something right away or you might not have the chance later. I'm supposed to listen to adults. But adults all say different things. Mom and dad are supposed to love me, they say so, but they're never there...CHRYSSY'S PROMISED TO BE ALWAYS BE THERE FOR ME! TO ALWAYS LOOK AFTER ME! TO ALWAYS PROTECT ME! SHE'S PROMISED TO NEVER LEAVE ME! She's promised to make the bad things all go away! Like all the ponies who thought they were better than you just because you were from Ponyville! She's promised never to forget my birthday, or make me wear a dress I don't want to, or yell at me, or hurt me!" Sweetie Belle said, crying. For one moment, I saw the vision of a mark across her cheek.

So...this was the heart of it.

"So you're saying Chryssy's word is iron clad?"

"Yes!"

"...Then why does she take such pride in being a liar?"

She gave a gasp. I'm striking while the iron is hot this time.

"And...Sweetie Belle...I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I'm sorry our parents are never there for us...I'll admit it...I'm bitter too. I wish they'd be there for us like they should be. But...while I can't be your mother...I can be your big sister...I can PROMISE to be that...But the fact is, making Chryssy a replacement for mom and dad isn't going to make the pain go away. Being brainwashed won't make it go away...it just buries it."

"You don't know that!"

Time to open fire with everything I have...

"...Who's the smartest PONY you know?"

"Twilight."

"Then why does Twilight, the smartest pony you know, the one who figured out a spell to defeat Discord's brainwashing spell, a feat no one else had managed, loath what Chrysalis did to her instead of embrace it like you have?"

"I...She's lying! She doesn't want to admit Chryssy was right!"

"Really? Then why does Applejack, the one with truth vision, who is physically incapable of self deception, and who even barring that she's so bad a liar even brainwashing can't help, feel the exact same way? Or Spike, one of your closest friends, Twilight's assistant, and someone wise beyond his years? "

"They...they-"

"And Sweetie? I'm now personal friends with a Changeling." Moth. I forgive you.

"You are?!"

"Yes, but she SHARES love instead of taking it. She loves ponies. She's SISTERS with one. And she's opposing Chrysalis. And she's less hungry than the rest of the Changelings. She's CONTENT..."

"But...but Chryssy was nice to me…"

"...Does the fact Twilight is nice to you all the time make the Smartypants Incident any more right?"

"We all forgave Twilight for that!"

"For it to be forgiven, it had to be a wrong to begin with. Sweetie Belle, Diamond Tiara was the bestest friend to Silver Spoon she could possibly be wasn't she? She loved her dearly and truly as any friend possibly could! She cared about her when nopony else thought she could care about anything but herself. But they're the world to each other! She loves her-"

"Stop it."

-...and yet Diamond was the one who taught Silver to be a bully."

"T-That was only one-"

"Gilda was nice to Rainbow Dash, but a brute to everypony else. She and Rainbow were BEST friends...and yet Gilda spent her time in Ponyville scaring and bullying others. Flim and Flam seemed to care about each other as brothers, but they baited the Apples out of their home and mocked them for it...But all those bad creatures had one creature they truly, genuinely cared about and were nice to. But that doesn't make them good."

"Yes. Nothing good..."

"But that didn't mean Rainbow Dash and Silver were wrong to care about them...or wrong to deep down in their heart of hearts still care about...both of them wanting their friend back to this day… And Silver Spoon, don't think I don't know what goes on in my own house, she doesn't want Diamond Tiara the bully, she wants Diamond Tiara her friend. Can you can truly say you're Chryssy's friend, if you just smile and nod as she bullies others to get what SHE wants? Silver wouldn't, not anymore, not because she doesn't care anymore, but because she still does! More than ever!"

""SHUT UP!"/"SHUT UP! Stop talking about Chryssy like that!" Sweetie yelled and fired a spell blindly at me...

She missed by an inch...don't flinch, Rarity, it's just a small hole in your mane, Trixie knows spells that can fix it...Minuette can fix the blood on your face.

Sweetie...however...looked at the graze on my cheek in horror. She let out a tiny gasp and covered her mouth. She whimpered. She took a trot back.

...Sweet Celestia, why did the first time my sweet little sister used magic before me have to be like this?

Sweetie's eyes filled to the brim with fresh tears and spilled over. She fell on her hooves, kneeling and her horn touching the roof.

"Rarity! I'm sorry! I so so so so so so so so sorry! Little sister is sorry! She's so sorry! She didn't mean to hurt you! She's sorry! Please don't hate me! Please don't hate me! Please don't hate me! I'm sorrry!! Please forgive me!!!! I'M SORRY!!!"

I lift her face up a little, a tiny flood on the roof under her face. "I could never hate you Sweetie Belle, not now, not ever. ...The fact is Sweetie...sometimes bad ponies have someone they care about, but that alone doesn't make them a good pony...Gilda and Diamond were really Rainbow and Silver's friends...but they wanted their friends to become worse creatures for them instead of becoming better creatures for Dash and Silver instead…If Chrysalis truly cared for you, she'd become better for you, not corrupt you for her...that might be love...but it's selfish love. And love should be selfless...it should be a two way street...it should be...like apple pie..."

Please let this work…

"..."

"Sweetie...do you want to go home with a...mother so you can do whatever she lets you without changing herself…or come home with a sister who is willing to do what you wants to trade reigns back and forth? Who was willing to change and be a better big sister when you were just being like any little sister? Who...who just wants her baby sister back!...I want...I want to be like apple pie again…that's all I want...do you want that too?"

Scootaloo stepped forwards. "...And come back to friends who let you pick what kind of crazy stunt we do when it's her turn? Who...who just want their friend back?"

I never thought I'd see Scootaloo not care that somepony was seeing her cry…or that the phrase 'pick what kind of crazy stunt we do' would make me smile.

Sweetie Belle looked at me, still crying, and looked at Scootaloo and looked back at the castle, and slowly turned back towards us again. She opened her mouth and spoke.

+++

Chrysalis grabbed her chest, and let out a scream that was so full of agony and loss that it made Swarm and Equestrian alike pause and shield their ears from it. Fluttershy felt her own heart crack a little from hearing it. The queen fell to her knees at the steps of the castle.

'This...this pain...what...what is...Maua what is this pain? I don't understand. Why does it hurt so much! Tell me! It's horrible!' The Queen let ragged gasps, her legs shaking. Her face was wet, was she bleeding? 'No I'm, crying? Why the Tartarus am I crying?! Why! Maua! Help me! I'm not damaged! Why is my chest hurting?! I'm not acting, so why am I crying?! Maua! Maua!'

"Your Majesty!" Locust was the first at his Queen's side. "What's wrong?"

"...G-get me back inside the castle. Make sure these ponies do not follow unless I want them to. Barricade the halls with your carapaces if you have to."

"...It will be as you say Your Majesty." The heroes dove and fired magic to take their opportunity, a wall of changelings blocked the attack. Hercules Beetle leapt in front of a combined beam from Twilight and Trixie, green flames crackling briefly around his crossed forelegs to block. While he was forced back by the power, he didn't seem to flinch, his carapace gaining an odd sheen to it. Once the smoke cleared, he kept himself as a living shield for his queen. She moved like she was drunk, she dragged her hooves and wings and stumbled inside.

+++

"I...I chose you...big sister."

I hugged her without hesitating. Scootaloo joined us a moment later.

"...Sweetie...I...I'm so happy to have you back…"

I didn't say 'from that witch'. I didn't want to tempt fate by risking a relapse too early.

We just hugged. It was for one sweet, beautiful moment like the world had shrunken to just me, my sister, and her best friend.

"...I...I'm glad to be back…" Sweetie said, looking up at me… Her eyes are so uncertain. "Rarity...did...am I a bad filly?"

"Sweetie...I…I'm not the one you hurt…"

"...You mean Applejack…"

"Yes...but there will be time for that later, Sweetie...now we should just be happy to be together again."

"...We're apple pie?"

I laughed.

"Yes, Sweetie...we're apple pie."

"...Other than making me hungry, why do you keep mentioning apple pie?" Scootaloo asked, reminding us that...well, she hadn't been there for that little misadventure.

"It's a long story, but it has to do with Sisterhooves Social…"

"Oh yeah! Don't worry, I'm not mad about that...anymore…"

Sweetie blinked. "Why-I mean...uh…that's great...but why exactly?"

"Because me and Rainbow Dash are gonna rock it next time!" the little dear exclaimed, fluttering her wings and flying up in her excitement, reminding me of the big achievement she'd just done that'd been lost in all the chaos. She did a spin. Little darling deserves to be proud, she's done quite a lot today.

Sweetie gasped. "Scootaloo...you...you…"

I followed my sister's eyes and...and...and…

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn) Addendum: Let the record state the three of us were too busy picking up our jaws off the astral floor to say anything at the time.)

Scootaloo blinked. "Yeah Sweetie?"

"You got your Cutie Mark!"

It appears the little darling did a lot more today than I thought... where's my chaise longue?

+++

W-wha-w-wha-w-what-wha-w-w-w-w-wha-wha--w-what-what-wha-wha-what-WHAT?

My-my, please DON'T let this be a dream! Again! Seriously, I have this dream all the time!...Minus the whole bug ponies and world saving!...Okay, sometimes the world saving!

"Sweetie! Pinch me!"

"What?!"

"Pinch me so I know I'm not dreaming!"

"…Okay."

"OW! I mean yippie!"

I began flying in circles. I looked to a store front, and read the sign. That means you're not dreaming right? Yes! You have to tell me! I'm not in a-

(Family's Notes (Pegasus): No, you're not in a slimy cocoon experiencing an elaborate illusion world.)

RIGHT! GOTCHA! Just making sure! Saw that in a horror play ...Fluttershy didn'-

(Family's Notes (Pegasus): No, the stress of everything that happened did't cause Fluttershy to become Nightmare Whisper again and trap everypony in their ideal world. Nor has any of the Elements or the Crusaders gone Nightmare.)

Good...that includ-

(Family's Notes (Pegasus): That includes you!)

Gotcha…just, you know the manega Penumbra Magical Filly Madoka?…For some reason I had a nightmare about the play they made of it where it turned out everything was happening inside the Nightmare's-

(Family's Notes (Pegasus): It's real! Get on on with it! You're missing out on being excited!)

Oh! Right!

Mycutiemarkmycutiemarkmycutiemarkmycutemark! Sweetie! Rainbow Dash! Applebloom! I DID IT!!!

MOM! DAD! MY CUTIE MARK! Silver Spoon my cutie mark! Diamond Tiara! My cutie mark! HA HA! Spike my cutie mark! Miss Cheerilee, my cutie mark! I did it! I really did it! Flying and cutie mark in one day, I'm gonna explode twice from the awesome! Look at me Dash!

"Scootaloo dear, I believe you're forgetting something," Rarity said, getting off her couch.

"What?"

"Aren't you going to look at it dear?"

...Oh...yeah...right...was so excited I forgot to actually look…

"Of course!"

(Family's Notes (Pegasus): The one time they forget to look is when they actually got it.)

I look...and...the picture I have on my butt for the rest of my life that reflects my inner most soul is..."A big blue butterfly?" I heard myself say. Is this a joke? "But . . I'm not like Fluttershy...I . . " All this time, I kept thinking I'd get a purple thunderbolt, or a flaming wheel, or a flaming wing, or a truck engine, or a skate board. "I'm not all frou frou or..."

"There's nothing wrong with being fro fro-"

"Sweetie dear, let big sister handle this," Rarity said putting a hoof over Sweetie's mouth. She looked right at me.

"Dear, listen," Rarity said, gently taking hold of my muzzle with her hoof to make me face her, "Your parents should be here to explain this to you, but they aren't. What did you just do to earn that mark?"

"...Uh...ruin the Queen trying to hurt Twilight by making her fight her brother, save my friend, and outfly the entire Changeling Army in a crazy chase through Canterlot?"

"Yes, but what did you do during all that?"

"...I flew…"

"Yes. Now...pardon the unlady-like vocabulary, but on a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being 'fru fru' and 10 being, ahem 'badflank' where do you think what you just did fell?"

"...12…"

"...That isn't on the scale…"

"...It was twenty percent more badflank than the scale can measure…"

"...Valid point. Now can you see mine?"

"...I guess I'm not fru fru...but my mark…"

"Now, have you ever heard of Muhammad AliCorn?"

"Uh...kinda...in comic books."

"Alright, well he was a famous boxer, one of the absolute best of all time ever. In fact out of 61 matches he fought in, he only lost five times."

"Wow…"

"But his Cutie Mark was butterfly and a bee, you know how he explained it?"

"...How?"

"'I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.' The butterfly came from how graceful he moved around his opponent. Like he was dancing around them almost. And he was one of the most 'badflank' ponies ever."

"Rarity, why did you know that?" Sweetie asked.

"We both have our parental issues Sweetie, mine involve lots of sports."

I looked back at my Cutie Mark...and remembered something.

"...Rarity...butterflies symbolize...grace and skill in the air, right?"

"Why yes darling! They do!"

"...So...I have a butterfly because of how graceful I was outflying the Changelings? How graceful I am?"

"Is that what you think?"

"...Y-Yeah, I think."

"That's what I would think...just...you don't explain what somepony's mark means...that's about as effective as trying to tell them what their talent is before they discover it themselves."

My mind wandered back to every last time somepony encouraged me to do more with my stunts, to focus on how fast and agile I was…

I facehoofed. "...Yeah...I can see why…"

Rarity gave a weird look to Sweetie...wait...oh come on, did everypony know our Special Talents but us?!...DON'T ANSWER THAT!

"C-Cutie Mark Crusaders, o-one down, t-two to go?" Sweetie Belle said, not sounding like her normal loud self.

"...Sweetie, Silver's a Crusader, but she has her Cutie Mark," Rarity suggested, after giving me a good pat on the back.

"But you know what yours means, she doesn't…"

Oh no! I didn't save Sweetie Belle, then have to help her sister save her, just to watch her get depressed!

"Yeah...but I don't know everything I can do with my talent, right?"

"...N-No...But what about-"

"Sweetie," Rarity said, giving a smile. "Take it from the voice of experience. You never stop discovering new ways to use your talent...in fact, I used a new one for mine."

Rarity touched a hoof to one of the jewels on Sweetie's dress. "Tracking someone wearing jewels."

"See?" I asked, giving Sweetie a hug. "We're still the Cutie Mark Crusaders! I'm just crusading for something different, just like Silver is."

"Y-yeah." Sweetie smiled, "Cutie Mark Crusaders! Now and forever!"

"Cutie Mark Crusaders! Now and forever!"

My only hope darling is that this doesn't mean they'll continue to act like little imps after they've earned their cutie marks. I don't think Equestria could survive that.

"Wonderful, darlings. Now we should probably regroup with the others."

Sweetie looked back to the fight at the castle. She seemed sad...but not 'I hope the evil bug queen wins' sad but more...like when we saw Silver and Spike have that argument over Twilight and the Smartypants incident.

"...Rarity?"

"Yes Sweetie?"

"Do you think there's a way to end this without...with Chrysalis OR us getting hurt?"

"Sweetie…"

"I don't want her to win anymore! I know...I know you're right, but...It's like you said with Silver and Rainbow Dash...Just because they're a bad pony doesn't make it wrong to care about them and hope they become a GOOD pony…I...I hope she ends up like Luna and Fluttershy instead of like Discord..."

Rarity frowned. "...You're...you're not wrong to want that, Sweetie...but...you do realize she can only become a good pony if she wants to, right? Deep down, Luna was still a sad little Alicorn who wanted attention and Fluttershy was...still Fluttershy deep down inside Nightmare Whisper who just wanted to make ponies stop hurting...Discord is in the statue garden because he cared too much for himself to change for anything else in the world. Gilda lost Rainbow Dash because she couldn't change…Trixe gained the rest of us as her friends only when she chose to change."

"...And Silver is our friend now because she wanted to change...I understand…"

We both hugged Sweetie tight.

"So after we save Equestria, you get a Cute-ceañera Scootaloo! Your parents are gonna be so happy!"

Uh-oh.

"Actually Sweetie, we have a wedding, THEN Scootaloo's Cute-ceañera, I hope you'll let me make you a dress for it Scootaloo dear, after what you've done, you've earned it!"

"Oh, right. Well I know it'll be super nice. Your parents are sure to come for it Scootaloo!"

Think fast! "Actually, I think that we should all have our Cute-ceañeras together! We've worked so hard to get our cutie marks, it wouldn't, ya know, feel right otherwise."

"Are you sure about that dear?" Rarity asked. "A Cute-ceañera only happens once, it's supposed to be that filly's special day."

"Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara had theirs together."

"Actually, that was only Diamond Tiara's," Sweetie Belle said.

Rats. Until she was our friend I don't think I'd ever seen those two apart. "Oh, yeah, but we're the Cutie Mark Crusaders! We started looking for our Cutie Marks together. It's what brought us together. Even if we're not going to stop being the Crusaders just because we got our marks, it's still why we're friends...Would you like to celebrate a Summer Sun Celebration without the others, Rarity? Or go to the big 'you saved Equestria' party you know is coming when this is over without one of the others? Would you just want some of you there celebrating the kinda thing that brought you together?"

"...No...in fact I'm sure Pinkie is going to ensure Trixie attends this time even if we have to go to Hoofington for it."

"...I don't want to have my Cute-ceañera alone for the same reason."

And no, that wasn't a lie...yes, it was an excuse, but definitely not a lie…really it wasn't.

"Well," Rarity looked all thoughtful and junk, she patted me on the head, "If that's what makes you happy, and that's how you want to celebrate it...then you'll have to ask Applebloom and Sweetie Belle if that's how they want to celebrate it too."

Oh. Yeah.

I looked at her hopefully.

Please Sweetie, please Sweetie. "Uh. Can you ask me again after I get my cutie mark please?" Sweetie asked.

"Oh! Sure." I happily nodded. Whew! Dodged the pie. Okay, hopefully by the time Applebloom and Sweetie get their cutie marks Dash'll have found my parents, or Dash will be my legal guardian! Dash...as my mom? I...didn't think about it, but it really does just feel natural, being with her…if I wasn't so scared, I'd ask Princess Cadence to make it official maybe, she owes us one.

Now that that's done, back to being excited about my cutie mark and being able to fly! It rocks! I rock! Except rocks don't fly but I do!

I heard somepony cry out. Followed by a crazy laugh. Dang it universe! Why can't I just enjoy my moment?!

Rarity takes looks over the side, and stops me and Sweetie from doing the same. Hey!

Rarity looks at us, and said, "Scootaloo, you're the grown-up one now, I expect you keep an eye on Sweetie until I get back, won't be more than a minute, if it is, come after me, if you don't see me, don't stick around, get back to base, if I don't have the wing spell, attack me on sight."

"After everything we've been through?" I asked, what idea did she have to hide something from us, what was left that we hadn't seen yet?

"What you've both JUST been through: namely things that would leave most adults low on mana," She gave me some candy. "This is candy Bon Bon made that will replenish your magic, recover for now, and cover me. And don't let Sweetie Belle look."

"Hey!"

"No time to argue!"

I thought about what she said and realized how heavy my wings felt. How heavy I felt when I tried to fly up a little. It was like I was...I don't know, running on empty.

"Fine."

"Don't interfere unless I get into trouble, you're back up, now excuse me."

+++

What I found was, in an alley of course, was two ponies, both in royal armor. One was beaten to a pulp, on the ground whimpering, unarmed, terrified, and crippled, and clearly wasn't going anywhere. And the other, was beaten up some, but nothing remotely serious, and looked utterly insane from his expression. He was also holding a metal wing blade over his head ready to cut the other guard in two.

"A disgrace am I? I don't deserve my rank? Not fit to command? Hehe...Well I'm not finished yet...I'll show them...I'll show them all!"

Looked around. No SIGH of any changelings, of course that didn't mean a thing. Still, no sign of anything pony shaped, if the statues were anything to go by, the changelings STILL had to assume a form that was still a pony's from what Moth had said. So I didn't need to worry about being ambushed by trash cans at least.

If this was a trap...I couldn't risk that it wasn't. I fluttered down on my gossamer wings, I hadn't come in second place at Best Young Fliers for nothing (I might be the only unicorn to get that far if that 'only those naturally capable of flight' law managed to get past). I was completely silent as I came down, staying out of his vision and making sure my shadow did as well.

I made a perfect two-point landing behind him, and politely tapped him on the shoulder as he prattled on. I'm certain in other circumstances he would have kung-fu thrown me into a wall or cut me in half. Instead I blinded him with a reflected flash of rainbow light from my wings (I had gotten plenty of practice). It helped that he seemed rather mentally unstable at the time. Okay, very, very mentally unstable.

I used my telekinesis and my own hooves and my wings to give myself a little extra speed and lift to disconnected the wing blade, and dislocated his wing, knee him in the stomach, upper cutting him, slammed him into a wall, leaving an impression, dislocated his other wing and slammed him face first into the street, then propped him up and tied him with some nearby curtains (I hope the owner doesn't mind too badly, I leave a few bits as an apology and I remember to make and send them some replacement curtains later after memorizing the address). He'll be fine, pegasi have thick skulls.

I then check on his victim. I notice he has a broken leg. Looks nearly RE-broken. Poor thing. I patch him up as best I can. He looks at me like I'm his Flutterpony Godmother...which, given my wings, doesn't really surprise me.

"I apologize for that savage display on my part, I am Miss Rarity Belle, and you are?"

"...Bumbles...How...how did you know he was the changeling and I was the guard?"

"Because...you're the one with the broken leg, scared for your life, unarmed, trapped, and no longer a threat to anypony...he was the one about to kill you with a sword and was clearly enjoying it. That is not what a pony is."

I may be willing to kill if I must. Celestia trusted me and Rainbow to...but we'd never kill somepony who couldn't defend themselves. We'd never execute a defenseless enemy. That's not our place. That's the difference between what Celestia trusted us to do and murder. The difference between a soldier and a killer.

"You're . . . you're one of the Elements of Harmony...you're...you're not like how they describe you at all."

"And how do they describe me?"

"...not complimentary."

I sighed. "No matter how many times you save Equestria...What are you doing here?"

"I...I...was, suffering on whether or not what I'm fighting for is right or not...I'm sorry...I'm a coward."

"Don't worry too badly. I have friends who are cowards."

"But...if there really are ponies like you...then I think I might have my answers."

"Darling, most ponies are good in their hearts...we have our saints and sinners like every creature. But I like to think we're all good deep down...if there are ponies who would have done less than I did, I think they're an exception, not a rule."

"...I think I know where to go. Don't worry about it, I can make it back without being noticed."

"Dear I'm the Element of Generosity, I can't let a random pony I've just helped to just wander off at a time like this."

"Please...I've got my duty...and you've got yours, to protect Equestria from those who'd destroy it...And Miss Rarity?"

"Yes?" I said, a part of me still slightly on edge in case something was about to happen.

"The Queen's Guard has narrowed down to what district of Canterlot you're all coming and going from. But they don't want to do a house by house search, yet. So they have the area ringed, waiting for you to go in or out. Whatever you do, remember, they're waiting for any excuse to pounce on you...I was supposed to be a part of it, but...well..." he pointed to the battle going on. "...I realized I was actually working for monsters."

"Don't be sad, she fooled everypony."

"Yes...she did."

"Thank you...Princess Luna be back soon, I'm sure of it, just stay safe until then. They don't seem to know who's one of them and who's not, use that to your advantage. And again dear, thank you, I'll be sure to ask Twilight Sparkle's brother to give you a promotion!"

"...than you miss Rarity."

"I suspect it best you leave before he wakes up."

"Agreed...again, thank you Miss Rarity."

"Welcome dear, it was my pleasure." I Flutter back up to my sister and her friend, we now have some serious information to impart upon our friends and the sooner the better!

+++

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Do you have your answer now, Bumblebee?)

Yes...I just hope it wasn't too little too late.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Until you've taken your first step in Tartarus, it's never too late to be forgiven.)

…I'm sorry, for everything, but I don't know if anyone could forgive a monster like me.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): We do.)

...Thanks...maybe...maybe there's still time for me to set things right...at least a little bit.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): A little bit can change everything, Bumblebee. The right stallion in the right place can make all the difference in the world.)

...I guess I just have to...try...Rosedust...please watch over me...I hope this time I can make you proud.

+++

Big sister took me and Scootaloo in her hooves and we flew back to the castle, she's a really strong pony, I didn't get a chance to see her with the magic wings before, she really is pretty.

Everypony's still fighting, but I didn't see Chryssy anywhere. The changelings were fighting with their backs to the castle and moving back a bit at a time.

I saw Spit Bug glue Pinkie Pie to the ground only for Rainbow Dash to blindside her. Ouch!

Jumping Spider was fighting one on one with...a mare who really reminded me of Diamond Tiara. They were both really good.

I saw Twilight and Trixie rapid fire zapping down Horse Fly and his brothers before they could even get close. That looked like it really hurt. Spike was covering their rear but looked really tired.

I saw Horse Fly's little sister, Fruit Fly and her unit, getting clobbered by all a bunch of walking lemons being directed by a yellow unicorn.

I didn't see Locust or Bumble Bee anywhere, I hope they were okay.

I saw Princess Cadence fighting alongside Moon Dancer, a cream unicorn with a pink mane, and another blue unicorn. They were really beating up poor Golden Scarab and his friends, couldn't they see Scarab was no match for them? I saw Mr. Silver Spoon wearing guard armor covering his Princess.

Applejack and Fluttershy were fighting back to back, they were punching and bucking, but any bug that made eye contact with them (like poor House Fly), fell to the ground twitching or crying and Pill Bug actually kept running in and carried them back to the castle.

I don't see my own friends anywhere, but I did see a lot of changeling guards get pulled out of sight, then rolled out covered in their own slime or tied up.

The way the changelings are fighting, it's like they're not even trying to protect themselves.

"Her Majesty is safe! Retreat!" Hercules Beetle shouted, and the changelings all began in mass to go back inside the castle. I was happy to hear Chryssy was okay. Sorry. But . . . I still don't want to see her hurt, wicked pony or not. I don't care if you think I'm stupid. I don't want to help her hurt ponies . . . I want to save her.

"WHO TOLD YOU WE WERE DONE?!" Twinkle Shine shouted.

"Get back here and fight cowards!" Moon Dance shouted too.

"Please don't fight!" I shouted, but I don't think anypony heard me.

"That's enough," Princess Cadence said and both mares stopped and looked down. "We've won the day, this is a battle, not punishment." Moon Dancer put her head down, the other blue unicorn hugged her.

"Darlings I believe we already have who we came for," Rarity said fluttering down, "Sorry I'm late, had a slight detour, but I've managed to find a pair of foals who...who got lost," Rarity looked she almost cried a bit. I don't like that I might be why she's crying.

"I think it might be a good idea to press our advantage and finish this," Trixie said.

"That's how I got into this mess," Twilight said.

"They're fortified," said Silver's daddy. "A frontal assault may not be such a good idea."

"Weren't we going to do that anyway?" Trixie asked.

"No we were going to SKIP fighting through the castle remember?" Cadence said. "We thought a frontal assault wasn't a smart idea before they were fortified."

"Darlings I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it seems the changelings have a watch around where they believe our home base might be...if we're going back for Lyra and her family we're going to need to teleport."

Trixie whimpered for some reason.

"Don't worry about me!" The mare who looked a lot like Diamond Tiara waved her hoof. Cadence just stared at her.

"Dear we can't just leave you!" Big sister said.

"Don't worry! I'll be fine! I Pinkie Swear! Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

"Well that settles that," Pinkie said.

AJ took one look at Rarity, "It's her, and it's Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo too!"

Rainbow gave Scoots a huge hug.

"You have no idea how wonderful it is to finally have you back on the team Applejack," big sister said.

I had been about to remind them about the fashion show to prove it was me darlings.

+++

Now that the dust was settling a little I began to notice our extra help, some goddess I am.

"G-Golden Tiara?" I asked, looking at the mare I'd last seen trapped in the depths of insanity and who had attacked me when her husband asked for my help in trying to use my harmony magic to cure her.

"Golden TIARA?!" Foals gasped out loud.

She looked at me apologetically. "Hello...Princess Cadence. Please call me Screwball...I don't deserve the name Golden Tiara...look...about...about before. I'm sorry...I..."

"Don't be sorry! If anypony should be sorry it should be me for failing you."

"You know her?!" Twilight looked between us confused. In fact, nearly everypony there was confused looking back and forth between us.

"She was...a mare suffering in the mind, I was asked by her husband to use my magic to cure her, I failed."

"First off, you didn't fail me anymore than anypony else that tried failed me, understood? No one cured me...I just...got better. Even I don't understand how. And second...we'll have time for this later...right now we both have duties to do."

I hated to say it...but she was right, we didn't have time at the moment for this...But I wanted to make things right later.

"Trixie wonders if she's going to get Twilight's colors again."

"Naw, this time we'll likely switch hairstyles, maybe you'll get mine," Pinkie said.

"Trixie will try extra hard with this spell then."

"GUYS! You should TOTALLY come with us!" Rainbow Dash said to...wow, I didn't notice them before, they were moving around so fast I thought they were Rainbow Dash or something! The fog of battle. The Wonderbolts... Spitfire...I wish she was here.

"Sounds like plan," said the mare, "You can even break Spitfire out of jail right, Soarin'."

"I, I WANT TO...but Spitfire WOULDN'T want that...she'd want us to get back to the hotel and the other 'Bolts, now that their show is just about over from that last one."

"She's right...she wouldn't," I replied, knowing her.

"B-but- come on! The more the merrier right?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Dash we don't have time to argue!" Twilight said.

"Look at this way, if things work out, you'll have a whole squad of 'Bolts to fly with soon enough!"

"Huh?! Oh right! Okay! Yes that's cool!"

The two pegasi then zoomed off, then everything flashed white. Spitfire, I hope you're alright.

+++

Oh me? Equestria's former lunatic warrior? Well. Imagine first me waving at the heroes as they all teleport away. Then imagine the changelings all ganging up at me at once and spitting me with slime and carrying me off. Now imagine me dislocating like I never have before after it hardened to break it out. Then imagine me grabbing a changeling guard from behind and dragging him out of sight. Good. Now imagine a 'changeling' with pretty purple eyes and eyelashes walking past the other changeling guards.

And the changeling grumbling, "Blech, mutants-ow!"

And the other elbowing him and saying, "Don't let the Queen hear you talk like that, you know she's a Deviant too!"

Imagine them finding a changeling guard knocked out and in pretty heart underwear a long long time later. While I managed to make it back in time at Fancy Pants' for cookies and tea. Go ponies.

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by Alex Warlorn
Sisters

Rarity, "And this is where I show you that words are stronger than violence."

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-Pov-Series-Wedding-Arc-Orange-Butterfly-455581313

Next Chapter:

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (need to be kept up to date . . . please?).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro
All me to provide thanks to the following artists for their contributions.

Art provided by:

Sparkle Bubba. http://sparkle-bubba.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-and-Sweetie-Belle-293870682

Apricolor. http://apricolor.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-Sweetie-Belle-398245321

Mrbrunoh1. mrbrunoh1.deviantart.com/art/Rarity-and-Sweetie-Belle-370544143

Jamescorck. http://jamescorck.deviantart.com/art/Fanart-MLP-Rarity-s-Relief-335592550

Do you think they added or subtracted from the story?

Episode 190: "The Best and the Worst part 1"

(Interviewer's Notes (Dusk): The following events happened shortly before I was freed.)

"I can't be reading this right," I said, looking over the papers we'd jacked from the Changelings between 'rescue helpless victims' runs while...well, looking for more helpless victims to rescue. I'd been the only one who could read them, so I'd kept a few I hadn't had time to translate yet to look over (we weren't exactly in a position for me to sit back and translate them all in one setting, considering we had helpless victims to save). Yeah, not the most practical plan, but we weren't in an ideal situation either. The amount of preparation the bugs put into their invasion made my head spin, if it would have ended their invasion in an hour a day, they had taken care of it first. And if I was reading it right, something was seriously rotten in Canterlot.

"What is it, Gag?" Garnet asked.

"Listen to this: 'We've transferred the General to Kabuto. His help has been greatly appreciated, but our Queen has not designated him as worth uplifting as his cunning was less than she had hoped for, nor is he worth the mana to brainwash now that he's served his purpose, nor is he now being willingly cooperative as a subordinate. So Her Majesty, in her infinite wisdom, has decided the best use for him is as one of the Alchemy Master's experiments.' Also, that wasn't sarcastic, the Changelings literally think their queen has infinite wisdom apparently."

"General?" asked Weaver, blinking.

"Uplifting means 'converted into a Changeling,'" I explained giving a growl. I can't believe this! "And if he's not brainwashed already, that means 'this general' is a bucking traitor!"

"Gag that's not funny!" Thunderchild, well, thundered.

"I wasn't joking!"

Everypony gasped, and I didn't blame them. If Garnet had a thermometer, my blood would be boiling! It was hard enough to know the Guard had been infiltrated, let alone that one of us was an actual traitor!

Sarge kept his cool though, at least on the surface. "...That would explain how they got away with a lot of this if one of the brass was on their side, and how a lot of those stupid orders got through...Still, I can't believe a pony would do something like this..."

"Me neither, and I'm the one that translated it!"

"Could you have translated it wrong?" Weaver asked.

"That's never happened before if I did. Any language I acquire I know like second nature."

Thunderchild looked thoughtful. "...I'll tell Captain Coke...but right now, we've got civilians we need to keep an eye out for rescuing. Keep your eyes peeled for any more hints about this guy though."

Captain Coke's response was if we found the guy and it was true to detain him and we'd turn him into investigation later, but right now he was the last thing we had to worry about.

(Interviewer's Notes Dusk): These events happened not long after my freedom, enabling my sisters and I to assist Misfit Actual.)

Captain, you have my sympathies. Even with Captain Coke in contact, I'm still calling most of the shots in the field. I can't radio him every time I need to make a choice, especially when it's in the heat of combat. Having the squad counting on me is more pressure than I thought it would be. Especially with what's on the line.

Shining...I know you think my feelings for Fluttershy aren't real but...if they weren't, why am I so worried about her right now? I know I've never met her, but I really would like to be her white knight...like you were for Cadence...that's something I envy you for Captain, you're always the white knight. You always protect everypony. You're the most selfless pony I know...I hope I'm doing you proud in your place. The real you, not the pony that witch twisted you into. Hope somepony gives her a good flank kicking.

We already captured Digger Wasp and managed to throw a few more wrenches in the Queen's plans whenever we got a chance. Not to mention save a lot of ponies from getting taken to this crazy Changeling scientist (either sent them back to Captain Coke or to other places Gag was able to confirm were safe) or being found by the Changelings and captured. But even we needed rest (Captain Coke even ordered us to) and took turns standing watch so the others could get some sleep. Now Gag is off getting some more intel. Ellis is worried sick about his cousins, I don't blame him. Like I said...I feel the same about Fluttershy. I don't care how creepy that sounds! The more I hear about her, the more I love her. It's weird...I know she's not probably going to be into thunder guitar or the intense stuff, I know she's shy...but that didn't change how I feel.

Garnet's worried about Gag, but he's probably the safest out of all of us because he can speak Changeling and has stealth skills. Still, can't blame her. He is her fiance and so far Misfit Platoon hasn't exactly had good luck making it to our wedding day.

We're all worried about the Captain. That goes without saying. He's our leader, and our friend. He's always been there for us, and I'm sure if it were us captured he'd do anything to save us. I hope he comes out of all this alright and married to the Princess like he should have been already. And I hope the Changeling Queen ends up keeping Discord company in the statue garden or in the royal dungeon for all the ponies she's hurt. But individually, we all have more than one pony we're worried about. And we hope all of them turn out alright.

Weaver and her brothers? I'm not sure, they aren't from our platoon, they're actually Day Guard, so I don't know 'em too well.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): And Weaver doesn't have a wingspan to appreciate?)

Yeah, though I'm sure her horn length is nice if I were into that...Since we're working together in this stupid mess, guess I might as well change that while we're waiting for Gag to come back with intel.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): You want to get into horn lengths?)

What? No! I mean getting to know her as a team mate! A team needs to know each other after all. That's something Shining always made sure to do.

"Weaver, Diver, Bombardier, can I have a word with you?" I ask, sitting down with them.

Weaver blinks. "Of course, Sarge." Her brothers nodded.

"Good, just thought since we're working together we should get to know each other a bit more. We are working together for the first time, so me getting to know you would be helpful."

"I see...alright, sounds good, Staff Sergeant."

"Good, so where are you three from?"

"Believe it or not, we're Zebrafrican," Diver explained with a smile. "We immigrated to Equestria a long time ago though. We were just thirteen when we came here, so we don't really have the accent for it anymore."

While most ponies thought of Zebra, there were places with a pony population in Zebrafrica, though most were immigrants or descendants of them, but some populations were old. It wasn't that surprising.

"Huh, didn't expect that...Why come to Equestria?"

"We...didn't like it in Zebrafrica," Weaver explained. From her face, I assume it's a touchy subject. "We didn't quite fit in..."

I thought about what I did know about them. Weaver was a certified tomcolt, Diver was kind of childish and upbeat, and Bombardier seemed more like a mare than a stallion sometimes. We don't really care about that kind of thing in Equestria, maybe the part of Zebrafrica they were from was different? I know some places are pretty dang traditional over there. It was a big place, tons of countries.

"Gotcha...so why the guard?"

"...The ponies and Zebra where we lived aren't the nicest creatures," said Bombardier. "We're kinda white sheep and...wanted to do good for a change...help ponies. Maybe balance out their bad with some good."

Weaver was presently fooling around with some string in her magic, weaving it into what looked like a foal looking up to a guard. "I'd always idolized our family's soldiers...I was supposed to grow up to be one...then..."

She remade it into the foal crying as that guard seemed ready to...ugh, have his way with a mare or something. "I realized they were monsters who just saw everycreature else as objects to be used…and the worst part was they tried to paint their victims as subpony to justify it."

Bombardier sighed. "We're triplets, we saw that at about the same time...We finally ran for it and ended up in an orphanage and eventually came over here with a relief group."

Diver nodded. "So we wanted to become guards here in Equestria and make up for the kinds of creatures our family was," he said, giving an energetic salute. "You know, good soldiers to balance out evil ones."

"I see...so you're refugees?" I asked. I'd been on peacekeeping missions with Shining and Ellis, while Zebrafrica is a nice place now, it was pretty hectic a long time ago. Especially after the Hooviet empire collapsed. Sadly, I could name some groups that had existed that fit the bill, gratefully nearly all of which are history. It wasn't entirely surprising some refugees had ended up in peaceful, loving Equestria to escape and become guards after getting citizenship. In fact, I think I'd heard about groups of orphans that had been brought here by relief efforts.

Bombardier nodded. "Yeah, more or less. We're not native Equestrian, but we moved here so young we think of ourselves like it."

Diver pinned his ears.

"Something wrong?"

"...I hope our foster parents will make it through this okay."

"Where do they live?" I asked, understanding why they were concerned. I knew enough about stuff like this to know if we didn't stop Chrysalis here, my folks were going to be in trouble too. Heck, the Captain's mom...ugh... I've broken bones before, I can't imagine breaking all four legs...

"San Deneighgo," Bombardier replied, giving a thoughtful smile. "They took us in when we didn't have anything. I don't think we'll ever repay them for that."

I can't even imagine what it had to feel like for a group of orphan refugees. I'm grateful for my parents putting up with my guitar playing.

Weaver looked down, seeming unsure of something. "Sarge...permission to ask a question?"

"Granted."

"Do you think there's a point in us trying to be good ponies? Or are we destined to be monsters?"

"Where did this come from, Lance Corporal?"

"...The Day of Chaos..."

I shuddered. That's all she needed to say there. I remembered what Discord did to me from across the ocean. Not fun.

I put a hoof on her shoulder. If the Captain was here I know he'd do it. "Hey, one of our Princesses was Nightmare Moon, if that can happen, anything can. And the Griffins used to be our predators, we're friends now. Trust me, I've seen Griffin nations, they're pretty fun for the most parts...just be careful about musical numbers. And you already saved my flank, I think that's one good deed already."

"Sarge..."

"You may speak."

"If these monsters saw what they did was wrong, do you think they should be forgiven?"

I blinked. I thought about it...Did I? "...I'm not going to lie...right now? I hate them, I want to see them pay for what they did to my friends...but if they really wanted to change?...We're ponies, forgiveness is a part of what we are. If they weren't lying, I think I'd give them another chance...on a close watch. Heck, I know some reformed Hooviets."

She gave a smile. "...If you could forgive them...I guess I have no room thinking we've got to be monsters like our families...Thanks Sarge."

...On the Day of Chaos?...We were in Manehatten at the time when that monster showed up.

"You can't fight the monster inside you, my dears. It's what you were born to be. It's what you are."

...Next thing we know, we acted just like what we were trying not to be...no, I think, looking back, more like our perception of them...So many ponies became monsters that day, no one paid the reports about us any mind...but until the Staff Sergeant told us that, we'd not been able to get rid of that doubt it left in us...

Thank you Sarge.

"Alright," Gag reported as he came back in. "I've got good news and more good news! The good news is the Princess and the Bearers the Queen hadn't brainwashed are still at large."

"And the more good news?" Garnet asked, after giving him a nuzzle.

"Twilight Sparkle, Spike I think his name is, and...that one weird old unicorn that interviewed us back on the tour sometimes are free now."

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): I'm right here.)

"The others broke Queen Ugly's spell on them."

I gave a sigh of relief. "Thank all the Deities things are finally looking up."

Ellis looked hopeful. "And AJ?"

Gag rubbed his head nervously. "Sorry, Ellis, she's still under the queen bee's control. So's the Captain..."

Ellis kicked the wall next to him so hard it cracked. "Darn it..."

I could tell the poor guy was frustrated, I can't blame him (I wanted to do the same thing hearing Shining hadn't been saved). I was grateful he had a good head on his shoulders in all this. I don't know what I'd do if I were in his place. It's hard enough for us with Shining under that witch's control.

"Princess Cadence and the others seem to have caused 'her majesty' a lot of trouble though, so hopefully they'll save them both soon," said Garnet, putting a hoof on Ellis' shoulder.

"Any idea where the Princess is?" I asked. It was protocol to try and meet up with Princess Cadence ASAP, even if we were doing a decent job on our own.

Oh who am I kidding. She's our friend and I just want to make sure she's okay.

Gag shook his head. "Sorry, Sarge, the bugs have no idea where her group is."

I suppose that was a good thing, but it'd be great if we could meet up with the Princess...and Fluttershy.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Are you worried Cadence won't realize it's the real you?)

Princess of Bonds, if anypony could tell we're us, it's her.

"Do have a little bit more intel though. Kabuto is currently taking over the construction of the rune," explained Gag. "He's still in his lab though, seems he has most of his equipment to do the calculations there or something..."

"'Or something?'"

"I'm not a mage."

"...So what is this rune supposed to do anyway?" I asked.

"The drones don't know, but it's more or less Chrysalis' big plan B or C."

"What was plan A?"

"I don't think we want to know."

"Staff Sergeant, considering how much of a hive these things act like," Weaver replied. "I think the fact their leader is hiding details from them is probably a bad thing."

"You're probably right, Lance-Corporal."

"From what the bugs are saying, Kabuto's the third foreman of this thing, first and forth if you want to get technical," Gag explained. "I wonder if she actually has fifth?…Anyway, the Bearers took two, if we take down a third one, the Queen's plan might fall apart like a house of cards."

I gave a nod of agreement. "...Good point...I'll contact Captain Coke and see if we should go catch the mad scientist."

"So you're not going to say anything?" the leader of this group of rebels asked me.

I kept my lips sealed...I may have lost...I may have realized the situation wasn't quite what we believed...but I'm not betraying my queen.

"...Can you at least tell us who you are in full?"

Hmm...I suppose I have no more secrets to keep in that respect.

"...Master Digger Wasp. Communications Expert and Infiltration Master of the Changelings...you beat me at my own game and I'm ling enough to admit it."

"Is Spy Master a rank?"

"Yes."

"So Kabuto being Alchemist Master means he's of the same rank as you?"

"Among the Alchemists."

"Anything else you can tell us about this guy?"

"He's insane."

"Kinda figured that out already."

I wasn't about to say I have orders to kill Kabuto once the invasion was complete. Don't give me that look. Half the swarm wants to kill him. And he other half is scared of him. I'd make a point of honor for it to be painless. More than he deserves....Kabuto had a habit of not limiting his experiments to zebra.

Somelings had tried to kill him, now they were part of his collection.

I looked him over closely. I don't know where they'd found magic seals for my horn, I know they didn't have them when they captured me. Not that I had the energy left for anything. "...May I ask who I'm speaking to?"

"Captain Coke of the Equestrian Royal Guard."

"...And the one's who beat me?"

"Classified. And I'm asking the questions here."

"Let me save you the trouble, I'm not answering them. I may have lost, but I'm loyal to my queen. Name and rank are all a good soldier reveals."

He looked me in the eyes for a few moments, having already given me the 'please save innocents' speech...while I can't say it didn't affect me, I swore my allegiances already and I'm not changing.

"...Fine..."

"...That's it? Fine? No torture? No death threats?"

"Ponies don't believe in that stuff."

Once again, they prove that accursed monster wrong.

"I see…any prisoners won't be harvested at this point. Her Majesty gave orders that harvesting was to wait until after the invasion was complete. At worst they'll be given a minor mental suggestion to not be violent."

"I see."

"Captain, may I ask you one more thing? How do you hope this battle ends?"

"...With a peace treaty and as few ponies and Changelings hurt as possible."

I scanned his face for any deceit, but saw nothing. "...For what it's worth...now...so do I."

Jewel...I hope you'll come out of this fine. That is my deepest wish.

I wonder if those ponies will be able to handle Kabuto...he's far more dangerous than he looks.

In the hive, you don't become a Master without earning it.

And when you're as despised as Kabuto, you don't live very long if you're easy to defeat.

My name is Nightlight, more properly known as Moonlight Sparkle, and right now I'm experiencing every father's worst nightmare.

I admit, me and Starlight had been on Shining to get together for a awhile now, but only because we knew he and Princess Cadence were meant for each other. And they did, and we couldn't have been happier. This should have been the happiest day of their lives and ours...but then...I...I just don't know how this could have happened.

That monster...she took both our foal's minds...I wish I could have done something, I feel so helpless. Twilight...Shining Armor...please forgive your father for failing you. I couldn't do a thing...

And Starlight...She's in so much pain. And I don't know how to make it stop. I feel like such a failure...All I can do is try to hide from the Changelings and keep her safe...

And that became a bit harder when the monsters began looking for us. I don't know why they started, but I kept having to pick my broken wife up and fleeing.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): They might be looking for collateral...right now it'd be useful to them.)

It was only a matter of time before they found us. And we had to run. I'm not a weak unicorn, but Starlight is still stronger than me, and I'm nothing compared to our children. Running from the swarm was my only option. I wish I could teleport but that's not my strong suit.

When I ran into a group of 'guards' I thought I'd have to fight. I'd gotten into fights before and I know how to defend myself. And that's when I don't have a crippled wife to protect!

"...Mr. Sparkle?"

I blinked. "Thunderchild?" I asked, recognizing my son's squadmate...or perhaps a Changeling disguised as him.

He heard the Changelings and shushed me, hiding me and my wife in a closet with him and most of the squad (it was a tight fit, poor Starlight), making hoof signs the entire time I didn't understand.

The group's pegasus stallion stayed outside, calling something in another language I didn't understand. I heard hooves galloping away and fading off.

A few moments later, the pegasus snuck back inside. "Sent them on a wildgoose chase and gave them the slip with a little stealth, sarge. They didn't even see me leave."

I panted, feelings of relief and concern washing over me.

"Good job, Lance-Corporal," Thunderchild said, turning back to me and Starlight. "Alright, I think you're safe now."

I nodded, poor Starlight seeming in too much pain to speak much. I think Thunderchild noticed I was looking at him cautiously.

"...Guess we need to prove we're not bugs, huh?" he asked.

I gave a nod.

He then whispered something in my ear that...quite honestly for Shining's sake I will not repeat. Let's just say there are things only parents and close friends know about you.

I also noticed Ellis, another of the ponies I knew were in his squad. "Cider still mass driver," he said with a shudder and an embarrassed look.

I shuddered too. And here people thought that his magic would be dangerous. "You're Ellis...

"Thank the Princesses..." I muttered, suddenly feeling heavy as relief surged through me, feeling like I'd run into a group of angels instead of a guard squad. I know that's melodramatic, but I've spent the last two days running for my life, trying to protect my seriously injured wife from an army of monsters that had kidnapped my children! Seeing a group of actual guards coming to our rescue is an Alicornsend!

I felt like those ponies who were trapped in their burning house when a guard breaks down the door and gets them to safety.

Thunderchild then saw Starlight. "Garnet!"

An Earth Pony mare galloped over. "Lower her to the ground gently, I need to check her injuries," she explained, and carefully helped me lower my love to the ground and began checking her over. I sunk to my flanks, feeling exhausted.

"Your name is...Starlight Sparkle, right?"

My dear nodded. Of course she knew our names, she was in Shining's squad.

"I know you're in a lot of pain, Mrs. Sparkle, but I need to check and see where the breaks are," she explained. "Tell me where it hurts and how bad if you can."

"How's she look? Can you treat her here?"

The mare nodded after checking Starlight over, speaking with her the entire time as she examined her legs closely. "Yeah, they're bad injuries, but I've got what I need to handle them, just keep the Changelings from finding us and I can at least ease the pain and stop them from getting worse."

"You're sure?"

"Yes, it's not good, but I can at least make the pain bearable and splint her legs.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Sparkle, I'll take good care of you," the mare said, turning back to us, and beginning to work on her legs.

"You can't give her painkillers?" I asked.

"I can, just not until I'm sure I've figured out where all her injuries are and how severe, they'll make her pretty loopy and I still need her to help me identify her injuries. Not finding one now might be worse in the long run."

Garnet then looked to Starlight. "Mrs. Sparkle, please talk with me, it'll take your mind off the pain."

"...Are you...in my son's squad?" Starlight asked, cringing as the mare began working on her.

"Yeah," she explained, calmly. "I'm Garnet Chambers, we met on the tour and I'm his squad's medic. Your son's an amazing pony, Mrs. Sparkle. I'm proud to be under his command."

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): You can trust her, Nightlight. Garnet's a very good medic.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Yeah, trust us, she could save Starlight if she'd lost a leg with less than she has now...trust us.)

"Captain Coke?" asked Thunderchild on a radio as Garnet kept speaking with my Starlight to keep her calm. "We've found Captain Shining Armor's parents. They're safe but Mrs. Sparkle is in bad shape, just like you said. She's receiving medical attention from Lance-Corporal Chambers right now...Alright, sir, we'll get her to you and resume our mission."

"Captain Coke? Cherry Coke's with you?" I asked.

Thunderchild nodded. "Yeah, we met up with him earlier, he's mission control right now."

I gave a small sigh of relief. Thank the Princesses Cherry and his friends got to safety...

Finally things were looking up after this nightmare...

"Mrs. Sparkle, can you please give a lecture on something I-"

"Wrong family member."

"Was worth a shot."

Garnet broke a piece of wood off a cabinet after confirming all her injuries and finally giving poor Starlight some painkillers. "Bite down on this, I need to get your bones set and I can't delay with how long you've been hurt, Mrs. Sparkle. Mr. Sparkle, can you please help comfort her? This is going to hurt but I need to do this."

I nodded and hugged my injured wife as she bit down on the wood...and felt my heart break several times as Garnet realigned her broken legs and splinted them. At least having the bones set and some painkillers in her system seemed to alleviate a lot of her suffering.

"There...I think she'll be okay now."

"Can she be moved?" Thunderchild asked, Gag keeping a watch.

Garnet nodded. "If we're careful, Sarge. That should keep her condition from worsening until she can get to a hospital and make it a lot less painful."

Thunderchild nodded. "Alright...Let's get you to safety, okay?"

"My babies..." Starlight said, looking to Thunderchild, tearing up. "...Please...help them...I tried...I...I really did."

Garnet tried to her to not move, given her condition, and I had to assist her.

Thunderchild took another look outside and came over. "Okay...look, I was going to wait till we were out of the woods, but I think you need to hear this now," he explained, putting a hoof on Starlight's shoulder. "Twilight's free."

"What?!" both of us asked, our hearts going into orbit. Our baby girl was safe?!

Thunderchild nodded. "Yeah, Princess Cadence freed her earlier. We don't know the details, but she's with her friends fighting the good fight, same as us."

Twilight...you're safe...thank the Princesses...

Starlight nuzzled me, tears running down both our faces. "Thank you...is...is Shining?"

They all frowned at that. "Sorry, Mrs. Sparkle...he's still under the Queen's control..." Thunderchild said sadly, but then gave a reassuring look. "But listen, I know Shining, and if your daughter and the Princess is half as determined to save him as he is to protect them, then no way is he going to stay that way."

"And that's assuming we don't save him first," Gag reassured, giving a smirk.

It made me feel better...my regret is that I knew we were the civilians here...even our children were better fighters than I was...

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Nightlight, you already did your part. You were a good daddy for them growing up. They wouldn't be the big super-heroes-good-guys they are now without you and Starlight.)

...Thank you… you're a good filly.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Welcome.)

"Alright, now let's get you two to safety, shall we?"

(Interviewer's Notes (Noon): And this while Applejack was being freed...)

"Okay, this is where the mad scientist is at," Gag explained as we came up on Kabuto's lair, after getting confirmation from Captain Coke to go after him and taking the Sparkles to safety.

He sticks right next to me...or maybe I'm sticking right next to him. When its a situation like this, I guess it can be hard to tell. All I know is I was just happy we were still together. That so far we'd made it through this whole mess without dying.

I felt my engagement ring in my pocket...I suppose it's strange thinking back on it. I met this stallion when he'd gotten a concussion slipping in water and we seemed to fall in love at first sight. And we did.

What drew me to him? I know his jokes stink like dragon's breath (and yes, I actually know what that smells like, I've met dragons. Gag's jokes really are that bad). I know the Scan Cats hate his guts so him visiting me in the infirmary is off unless they're in their cages. But...he's got a good heart. Ever since I met him he's been nothing but a sweetheart to me. When things get rough, he'd never think of leaving me. When trouble rears its head, he's always there for me, and I was there for him when Ranger and Sunset died...

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Something's scaring you, isn't it?)

I'm a Guard, I can't think about being scared.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Correction, you can't allow your fear to get in the way, and that is a respectable trait, but you still need to confront it like everypony else. If you suppress it, you're just making it worse.)

...I'm scared we'll never get to our wedding day either. Cadence and the Captain...they should already be married, we should be at their wedding reception right now, but this horror show happened. Minuette and Audience haven't even gotten to propose and Minuette's lost in this disaster while Audience...I don't even know where he is. Are we all just doomed to never have our wedding?...All Ranger and Sunset and Cadence and Shining wanted (and I think Minuette and Audience)...all me and Gag want is to have our special day together. To say 'I do' and tie the knot...why can't we just have that? Is our little group just cursed to have something stand between us and who we love? Yes, I'm a soldier trying to save the country I love...but...I just can't help being afraid I'll never be with the stallion I love. That engaged is all anycreature in this platoon will be able to get to before disaster strikes and yanks our chain. It's like we're cursed.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): I know it can feel like you're never going to get to the happy ending, that all you're getting dealt with is reversal after reversal. Believe me, we know exactly how that feels. But if you just give up, you won't reach the alter ever. Do you think you'd be MORE happy if you just gave up on ever being with Gag? And found somepony or something else to be happy with?)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): It's not wise to do something if all it does is bashing your head into a wall. However... Do you think Gag WANTS YOU to give up on being with him?)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Besides, isn't the curse being broken how all these stories turn out?)

...No, I wouldn't be happy without him...and he wouldn't want me to give up being with him. I love him and these bugs are going to need a lot more to break us up...or destroy my resolve for us to get our wedding. Thank you...

I nuzzled him as we moved, but still kept my eyes open. "I love you."

He nuzzles me back. "I love you too."

Bombardier smiled, looking at us as we moved. "You two really love each other, huh?"

I nodded. "Engaged."

"I'm happy for you. You make a cute couple."

We blushed a little. "Thank you. You got a special somepony?"

"Me? No. I...haven't met someone who fits my tastes..." he replied, looking sheepish.

"Never find Mrs. Right?"

"...That's one way to think about it...But Diver and Weaver both have have their special somepony. Or somecreature as the case may be."

"Really? Were they..."

Bombardier shook his head. "No. Their squads weren't here in Canterlot at the time. Weaver's coltfriend is a Griffin named Goldar and Diver's marefriend is a Musk Deer name Faline."

"Don't you mean doefriend and...dang it what's a male griffin called?" Gag asked. Poor guy, that might have been funny if he'd known…wait…

"...I have no idea, and I'm the medic..."

"Alright, love birds," said Thunderchild, smirking back. "We're almost there, get ready."

We approached the area where this 'Master Kabuto' had set up his lab, keeping a correct formation, but making sure we looked inconspicuous. It was down near our gratefully rarely used dungeon, a large storage room I think. I don't know, I haven't seen it much. Probably so he had somewhere to put the ponies that were supposed to be brought to him. I'll admit, from the sound of the letter, I already didn't like this guy.

It wasn't just that this guy sounded like a monster. It was that he was a mad doctor. The idea of a guy performing medical experiments on ponies...to be frank, it makes me angry. I'm a healer, the idea of hurting somepony with what I know sickens me.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): No one blames you for that, Garnet.)

But he was also a 'Master,' which was apparently a Changeling big wig, so taking him down was now a priority after saving his captives.

"What should we be ready for?" I asked.

"Probably a lot of guards, don't think that a scientist is going to be too tough on his own. Let's get in, rescue any captives, and capture him, in that order."

Gag lead the way up to the door where there were two Changelings standing guard.

We weren't using dynamic entry yet because, unlike Digger Wasp who we didn't know how many hostages he had, we knew Kabuto was likely to have a large number of them. Captain Coke had prioritized extracting the hostages undercover pretending the Queen had asked for the captives to be taken to her for brainwashing to be put to work on the rune. If that went well, then we'd launch a sneak attack to capture Kabuto once they were safe. If that failed, we planned to sneak attack if possible or retreat.

"State your business."

"We're here to talk to the doctor, Her Majesty's orders," Gag explained.

When they asked for more details, he said something in their language that made them cooperate. The fact he's capable of speaking copied languages fluently was an Alicornsend. That and he knew a lot of their operations from the stolen letters.

They opened the door, and Weaver and her brothers attacked them from behind, covering their mouths so I could tranquilize them. They kept them in a sleeper hold until they were out cold as quietly as possible as we kept guards inside from noticing. That was when we noticed how few guards there were. Just two at each entrance (there were only two). It's been a long time since I was here, but I was pretty sure the floor had been remodeled to suit his tastes. That and he'd emptied the room more or less to make room for the lab equipment. I wondered why he needed a room this big for whatever experiments he was doing.

And then there was Kabuto.

The first thing I noticed about Kabuto was he seemed like the 'drones' we'd seen, the rank and file soldiers, not what I assume was the larger 'warrior' cast like Digger Wasp. Well, minus the magnifying glass armature grafted to his head, which was enough to already tell me he was insane. I know pony biology, and I know the surgery to put that in would be dangerous and insane due to how close that is to your brain. One slip and you lobotomize yourself. Then again, that might explain why he was one of the Changeling's big wigs, carrying out that surgery on yourself either requires as much luck as Gag needs to tell a good joke or a huge amount of skill.

"Kinda low staffed, huh doctor?" Gag asked as we entered and prepared try and evac his captives covertly. We wanted to make sure we weren't going to trigger some kind of trap set for the Bearers. This was the guy currently in charge of the rune after all. He had to be smart.

Thankfully, the room being cleared didn't give an ambush much room to hide behind. Still, couldn't help feeling the floor looked like it'd been remodeled.

"Oh you know me, I don't like a lot of company," he said, working on a blackboard on calculations that admittedly I couldn't understand in a million years.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): I don't believe it...he's actually reading Twilight's notes and understanding them perfectly.)

"And most lings don't like my company. I think they wouldn't mind if someling took me out."

Okay, is it wrong I'm creeped out how little that seemed to bother him?

"I was at wits end with little Magic barking orders," he said...oddly sincerely.

"Huh?" Gag asked.

"That ego of her's was absolutely unbearable," the Changeling replied. "I only regret that I didn't get to vivisect her."

Vivisect her...Sweet Celestia what kind of psychopath have we walked in on?

"I was expecting her to come back...but I also wasn't expecting you. I don't remember sending for or being informed of more Changelings coming," he said, giving a smirk that reminded me of the pictures I'd seen of Discord. That look of a kid in a candy store. "But I'm glad to have some excitement, I was beginning to get bored stiff."

We didn't freeze up or gasp in surprise. We instantly jumped to Plan B and shot his guards with our darts. Those we didn't hit rushed us and got taken down by Ellis and my brute strength and Thunderchild's lightning with some help from Gag or just plan CQC from the rest of us. It helped that Weaver had noticed certain areas on them were more vulnerable than others.

We then held our crossbows, dart guns, and other weapons on Kabuto. Psychopathic mad scientist or not, he wasn't a soldier, so we were hoping he'd surrender without a fight. On top of that, he was probably one of the only ones who actually knew what the rune did, so if there was a fifth foreman of it, taking him alive to find out what it did and how to stop it was in our best interests.

"You're under arrest," the sergeant said.

"What a waste of selective breeding, dumb insect,, you had the same training as them!" he said kicking one of his own guards in the side before holding his hooves up in surrender. "Then again, your fighting styles do seem outside the norm. I imagine you've seen active combat correct? Except for those three...quite interesting...Well I suppose I'd best properly introduce myself. I am the Alchemist Master Professor Kabutomushi, or Kabuto if you prefer."

"I can see why, you don't look very mushy," Gag remarked. Hehe, okay, that's actually one of his good ones.

"And that is exactly why: it's Kabutomushi, as in-"

"Kabutomushi, Kabuto Beetle in Neighponese," Gag interrupted. He was on a roll today.

"...Pegasus..." Kabuto looked closely at our armor. "Pegasus #2, I'm going to enjoy vivisecting you. Starting with the vocal cords I believe."

"And how are you going to-"

Horseapples!

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): What the Tartarus?! He can do that?!)

I pulled Gag out of the way of a blade that would have gone through his throat. "Sweet Celestia are you alright?!" I asked. Yes I was worried, my fiance just almost got impaled!

"Y-Yeah, fine."

A spider-like leg had burst out of Kabuto's back with a blade at the tip, reaching over his shoulder. "Hmm...good reflexes. Impressive for a simple Earth Pony."

"At least you didn't call us cattle," Gag managed to joke. Celestia Gag! Stop taunting the mutant Changeling! Or mutate changeling! Whichever he is!

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): There's a difference?)

Mutant is natural, mutate is artificial!

"Changelings, ponies, they're all just the dumb masses who exist to lift up the truly intelligent. Whether dumb people or dumb animals, what difference does it make?"

That...that look in his eyes as he said it. It reminded me of some of my medical teachers when they talked about dissecting a frog and what we could learn from it.

"You're sick."

"I prefer 'enlightened,' Earth Pony...#2."

That's when I noticed something. Thunderchild had shot him with a dart right in the throat the moment he'd attacked. The psychopath just now seemed to notice...he looked at the Sergeant, and he pulled the dart out with his telekinesis and tossed it aside. He sure didn't look sleepy. "...and that what puts me a step above the rest."

"B-but how?" I asked in disbelief.

He gave an amused chuckle. Like a teacher to a student who'd asked a silly question. "Good question, Earth Pony. I know enough about my own biology to transform my own insides, maybe I altered my own body chemistry, maybe I just rerouted off that part of my blood flow, maybe I hyper stimulated my immune system around that area, maybe I have an anti-poison alchemy circle engraved on my person somewhere. I think I shall keep you guessing. Most changelings are too ignorant of their own autonomy to ever pull it off. I doubt even Her Majesty can."

Weaver gasped, watching the spider-like leg recede while Thunderchild wisely drew his sword when Kabuto being shot several times with tranqil darts did little more than annoy him instead of give him enough of an overdose to overpower his immunity. "But...but none of the other Changelings I've seen can do that."

"Yes, they can't. Well, they would if Her Majesty would let me install the proper enhancements," he said with a shrug. "Sadly I broke a lot of test subjects before it was up to my standards. Even installing them in me was quite painful. Kind of like tearing out bones and putting them back in, which I think I'll do to at least one of you."

"...You...you...killed them?" I asked in horror as it hit me what he just said.

"Such a strong word. I prefer sacrifice them for the advancement of science," he stated as if it were something a foal would know.

I tasted vomit in my mouth at the thought of just what kind of 'enhancements' would be needed to implant artificial legs in your own body and result in several deaths of your own species.

"Why in Celestia's name are you such a mental case? I get the rest of your racist buddies, but how can you treat your own people like lab rats?" Gag asked, looking about as horrified as me.

"Simple, a silly thing like morals is something society programs into us." Kabuto gave a sick chuckle as he pulled out the tranqil darts. "The truly intelligent have no need to let such things get in the way."

The psycho looked at me and noticed the mark on my armor that showed I was a medic. "Oh, you're a medic, Earth Pony #2?"

"She has a name you sick freak!" Gag finally yelled.

"Why name the lab rats and risk getting attached to them? Now where was I?" he asked.

Thunderchild tried to cut into his leg with his sword while he was talking but took a hard hit to the chest that knocked him back and forced us to catch him. He'd moved fast. Faster than Thunderchild had expected. It scared me thinking about why he hadn't used that blade of his again.

"Oh yes. Isn't it just the most amazing feeling, Earth Pony #2?" he asked, giving a grin that made my blood run cold. "That feeling of holding someling's life in your hooves and knowing that one little snip or tug and you control whether they live or die? Everytime they're close to death, knowing you're the one who decides if they come back from the brink or their life is snuffed out like a candle? Hehe...the power you feel in that moment, isn't it grand? It's enough to make you feel like a god, isn't it?"

My blood boiled. "No you sick bucker! I'm nothing like you! I'm a healer!"

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Garnet! Calm down! Don't let him make you lose your head. He's baiting you!)

T-Thanks...it's just hearing this psycho make a mockery about what it means to be a doctor and a medic...it just makes me angry.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): It just proves you're nothing like him, Garnet.)

He sighed in annoyance. "Pity. Guess you're still just a stupid Earth Pony..."

We circled him, getting ready to cover each other if he struck, doing something I hoped we wouldn't have to do and switch from tranqils to actual bolts (or in us Earth Ponies' cases, darts that actually had penetrating heads and drawing swords). Even if they would have trouble piecing his shell, a shot to a joint on an unarmored target should still wound him. We'd already planned this out. We'd aim for his joints first...then the horn or wings if that didn't work...and finally more vital areas if need be. He was still a high ranking enemy and capturing him alive could be beneficial. That and now he was probably going to be tried for war crimes.

"It's all of us and one of you, Kabuto," Thunderchild said. "Even with that weird power of yours you can't take us all! This is your last chance to give up."

The Changeling just laughed.

"...What's so funny?" I asked. I didn't like this.

"I'm the third foreman Her Majesty has appointed to the rune, did you really think I'd be defenseless, Earth Pony #2? Or if I was that I'd be so lightly guarded?" he asked, and-

"Gah!"

He suddenly sped up and gave me a hard punch to the chest, knocking me on my back. He then moved at lightning speed again when Gag tried to attack him from behind and returned to his original position while I was busy coughing my head off. At least he didn't bruise my ribs thanks to my armor...

"I'm also the Alchemist Master of the entire Hive. Metabolic enhancements. Unfortunately also makes me a bit of a love guzzler when I use it, if not for a little sweetie song bell!" he said with a chuckle. Then had to leap up to dodge arrows and swords aimed at his legs, latching onto the ceiling with four spider legs emerging from his back to stick to it. "But love is normally at a premium, so it sadly wasn't practical for mass production."

Gag helped me up. "Are you okay, Garnet?"

"Yeah...just a little winded..." I muttered.

"Have you figured it out cattle?" Kabuto asked, evading more arrows. "You didn't trap me: I am the trap," he stated, having slipped on a glove with an alchemy circle engraved in it. “I'm the spider, and you're in my web now!”

“Hit the deck!” Thunderchild yelled, flying back down from going after Kabuto as our enemy slammed his hooves together, flaring up that natural fire Changelings had.

I don't know alchemy, but whatever he did made us have to dodge a massive cascade of fire and hit the deck.

"Here's a question, little ponies. What happens when you give a highly advanced ability to transmute one chemical into another to somepony with a PHD and encyclopedic knowledge of Chemistry and the ability to generate fire?"

Several times.

“He becomes very very dangerous! Hehe. Shame only one of you is a unicorn, guess the circle I engraved to weaken both Magics' powers would go to waste.”

Kabuto then leapt down to dodge more arrows and slammed his hooves into the ground, where I noticed a pre-engraved alchemy circle light up. That we were standing on!

We all leapt out of the way as the ground exploded. I don't mean burst upwards, I mean blew up!

"I didn't become the Hive's Alchemist Master by not being good at it. I was so hoping to put Magic in her place for underestimating me."

I grunted, getting hit by a flying piece of stone. We opened fire again, this time actually managing to nick him a few times, but it didn't seem to slow him down, either by his indifference to pain or Changeling hide resisting it.

I was horrified to look around and realize that he'd pre-engraved that anti-magic circle for whoever was going to attack him. How many more did he have waiting for us?

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Let it not be said the Changelings grant the title of 'Master' to someling who hasn't earned it. Even I didn't know half these circles were possible...which means Twilight doesn't either. And he's using spell circles to facilitate his alchemy? I wonder if this type of alchemy is even supposed to be invented in this world. I wonder if it's something Chrysalis showed him from other timelines.)

(Interviewer's Notes Pegasus: Where's reality's clean-up mutt when you need it?!)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Or he's just inventive and insane.)

I yelled as we had to dodge another fire burst of his, "Keep an eye out for more circles!"

We did, there were more than we expected, but thankfully some explosives and Earth Pony strength was able to smash several of the circles to make them useless, but we STILL ended up having to take cover when he triggered more. We all got our share of bruises from flying rock and I got a first degree burn on my back from being too close when one of his fire blasts hit. Thunderchild had to defend us from a huge lightning burst from one of the circles by redirecting it and in the chaos were weren't even sure what some of what we were dodging was! It was like being in a bucking minefield!

Finally, Ellis managed to throw a grenade just right as he set off another fire blast, setting it off.

Kabuto saw it in time and leapt back, but was still launched back by the explosion.

Before he could recover, Weaver charged in and blew his glove to bits with her beam, giving him a burn on the hoof.

We made sure he wasn't on a circle and tried to knock him out with our guard batons before he could recover (we knew enough about alchemy from the guard manuals to know giving a skilled alchemist iron from blood to use was NOT a good idea and blunt force was still more effective)...he dodged again, reminding us he was still super fast, and arrived at his desk (which seemed to be protected from the blasts by another circle).

"Not bad, little ponies. But that was only the first round, here comes the real show."

He picked up a needle filled with some violet liquid in his telekinesis. we naturally tried to shoot it out of his grasp but none of us were Audience and Kabuto seemed ready for it and protected it (and himself) with his extending legs before injecting it into his neck.

"Okay, the mad scientist just injected himself with something…that's never good..." Ellis stated the obvious. We all kept our crossbows and other weapons trained on him.

Kabuto leaned himself against a table as whatever he'd injected himself with took effect. Thunderchild took the chance to fire and shot an arrow into his shoulder. He screamed in pain, though the arrow went much shallower than it should have. He just pulled it out and regenerated. I noticed a circle under his wing casing glow as he did.

"Heightened regeneration...alchemy requires something for everything, in this case part of my lifespan, thus why I'm the only one who has it, and would normally weaken me severely, but I'm working on a way to reset my life span."

Thunderchild tried to fire again (I think trying to pin him to the table behind him) and I stopped him quickly, realizing something that made my blood run cold. "Garnet, what are yo-"

"If he's done all this stuff to himself, including injecting himself with an unknown chemical, spilling a ton of his blood is probably a bad idea. Especially since he's an alchemist."

Thunderchild took a moment then looked horrified. I was too.

"Smart girl."

Thunderchild and I had to dodge a thrown dagger Kabuto had transmuted his spilled blood from the first arrow into, seemingly via a rune he'd engraved on the bottom of one of his hooves.

"But I suppose you're curious about what I just injected myself with. Our previous queen before Chrysalis was very paranoid and had me do some experiments on her trying to make sure no one could kill her. There was one I was very proud of, but sadly, it also was incredibly unstable and the amount of additional modifications required for it to be...mildly safe were highly impractical...I think the old sloth only let me do it to her because she still had a few back up bodies at the time (ended up going through a lot of them perfecting it)...so I've been working on creating a more stable version. Right now its in the testing stages and while I've already made the modifications to myself to accommodate it, I've made a temporary trial version of it via bio-alchemy."

Weaver and her brothers suddenly looked scared half to death. "Celestia, you have to be joking."

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Sweet Celestia please tell me he didn't do what I think he did.)

"And thankfully, Her Majesty's little pet has given me enough love stocked up to maintain it for awhile...Now, behold my metaphorphsis."

Suddenly, Kabuto was surrounded by a massive pillar of green fire and...began to change into something else. Twisting and contorting inside the flames. We naturally opened fire, but the arrows either burned up or bounced off whatever was forming inside.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Garnet, watch yourself!)

The pillar of fire dispersed to reveal-

"What in Celestia's name is that thing?!" I asked in shock.

He had become a giant. His creepy magnifying glass fused into his shell had fallen off. His lower half resembled a praying mantis with each leg ending in what looked like mammoth sized scalpels that pierced the floor. His upper half resembled a trilobite with eight segmented arms ending in the same type of blade. His head, set in the middle on a thick neck extending from his chest looked like that of a centipede with nasty looking mandibles. I noticed wing covering on his back but the wings were currently retracted. The armor plates looked frighteningly thick.

"Now, it's time for the first field test to really begin. Thank you so much for your cooperation." His voice had become deep and threatening.

I looked at the room and realized despite him being massive, it was big enough for him to move around in...he'd planned to do this when someone attacked him. He'd been prepared for somepony to come for him, just like he'd said. That's why he'd set up shop in this particular room.

I suddenly realized we'd come into a dragon's den armed with anti-infantry weapons.

"At least now he's big and-" Gag started.

Kabuto leapt into the air and slammed down with such force it sent a shockwave that almost knocked us off our hooves. He then swung his bladed arms so fast Thunderchild just barely dodged a slash that otherwise would have severed his wing.

"Oh horseapples! He's still fast!"

"You know, in this form I feel like I could crush the Queen in my jaws," he boasted.

Kabuto roared and slashed with all eight blades at once. Even dodging as fast as we could, all we managed to do was avoid getting maimed. I took a grazing slash across the chest that cut through my armor like it was butter and left a thin cut beneath it. Sweet Celestia...

"Pegasus #2, did you really think something intended to fight the Elements of Harmony and their allies wouldn't be prepared to deal with Loyalty's speed? Silly pony."

He then spat a TORRENT of Changeling slime at Thunderchild, which he only evaded by flash drying it with his lightning cutting his way through with a wingblade...then having to dodge more blades.

"Very impressive lightning abilities, remind me not to damage your wings, I want to dissect them later."

Ellis threw a grenade at his face which exploded point blank...and I just barely tackled him out of the way of one of Kabuto's legs that cut off a section of my tail.

"And Magic #1's spells, mustn't forget those. As you proved, alchemy circles can be destroyed after all."

Gag snuck up behind him and tried to strike an exposed joint with one of our swords...

"Gag look out!"

Gag heard me just in time to avoid being impaled by another of Kabuto's legs that bounced off his own armor undamaged.

"And Magic #2's trickery as well. Mustn't forget that. Oh, and fun fact! Cocoon lost because Chrysalis tricked her into striking herself in her evolved state, you'll find I have no such weakness."

"That's impossible!" I shouted. "Everything can be broken when struck against itself with enough force...oh wait...that means your attacks are WEAKER than your Queen's were!"

"Very observant. But that doesn't really matter when her evolved state was meant to kill a dragon and I only need to kill a bunch of tiny little ponies, does it?"

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): That and she was a Queen and he's a drone.)

But he's right. We're not dragons. We're ponies. A stroke that will just scratch a dragon would impale or slice a pony clear in half. Speaking of which, I barely have time to breathe as he almost does just that to me with another one of those arms of his. We could barely hurt him but one slash could kill us.

He has more of those things than we have squadmates and they're as fast lightning! And we don't have any heavy weapons to pierce that armor of his! Weaver tries the strongest beam spell she can and it barely scorches him! We need a unicorn with some destructive magic or heavy weapons, not crossbows and blowguns! We'd come expecting to fight infantry (can you blame us?), not a living tank!

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Which is exactly what Kabuto must have wanted: for his enemy to come to a gun fight armed with daggers. I'm sorry Garnet, I had no idea he was this strong. I haven't exactly had a chance to study the Changeling higher ups in my recent condition. I'm truly sincerely sorry.)

"You wouldn't have been able to make yourself like this if Twilight hadn't fed you bugs all that information on them!" Gag jabbed, trying to help Thunderchild send a big lightning bolt at Kabuto.

He drove his legs into the ground and let the lightning pass through his exoskeleton and into the ground harmlessly.

(Interviewer's Note (Pegasus): Trixie's lightning.)

"So? I exploited a reliable source of information, Pegasus #2. How does make that any less of a ling? You only made this far by exploiting the fact we were unaware you existed. You're simple mortal ponies, regardless of training or special abilities. And that means without your other advantages, you'd have done no better than the Changelings you've been fighting. You're no different than us, no matter how hard that is to admit."

Several vents opened on his back and sucked air into them before he sprayed a cloud of gas that hung high in the air. Gag and Thunderchild dove down to avoid it.

"It's nonlethal, of course, don't want to kill someling Her Majesty needs if I can help it, but you can't fight me if you can't breathe, now can you?"

Now restricted in movement, Gag and Thunderchild had more trouble evading his blades and ended up with cuts for their trouble.

If we don't do something quick, we'll be cut to ribbons...Gag...please don't die...

I look at the chemicals nearby and grab some. I mix up the most flammable ones I can find into a beaker (some degree of chemical knowledge comes with the medical cutie mark) and put a flaming rag (thankfully he'd lit a few fires earlier trying to kill us) in the top before throwing it right at Kabuto's skull as hard as I can.

Bits of exoskeleton come down over his eyes, protecting them as my makeshift firebomb impacts him and lights his head on fire. "Oh, woe is me, I'm on fire...did you really expect that to hurt?"

No, but it gave us a chance to regroup and try to think of a way out of this while he put the fires on his head out.

"Alright...we're in trouble," Ellis whispered as we took what cover we could...which wasn't much. We were all bleeding a bit and bruised up, and my burned back was seriously starting to hurt. "We don't have the fire power for this big lug. We need a cannon or something."

"Can you whip up a bomb?" asked the sergeant.

"Not with what I've got on me. I came planning to breach a door, not destroy a tank. There isn't enough chemicals around here to make a bomb big enough to get through that armor."

Thunderchild nodded. "We need to retreat-"

Kabuto promptly hit both entrances to his lab with his slime.

"You're not leaving here alive, little lab rats!" Kabuto said, presumably assuming I was trying to give us a chance to retreat while he was putting his head out. Which is kinda what I was doing.

"Why does fate hate us even when the Captain's not here?" Gag asked.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): She doesn't hate you...she hates us...for purely justified reasons. But she doesn't hate you.)

"This jerk is smart." Thunderchild lamented.

"Considering he's their brainiac after the Princess' personal student, it's not surprising," Diver admitted.

Thunderchild took the opportunity to get his radio out. "Captain Coke, we need evac."

"What happened, Sergeant?"

"Kabuto was the trap! The guy's a tank and we're pinned down! We need back up to get evac!"

"Understood, we're on our way."

"...They ain't gonna get here in time, are they?" Ellis asked grimly, noting the situation we were in. The moment Kabuto got his head out, we were going to be fighting a storm of blades again.

Captain Cherry Coke was in the catacombs, a good distance away. On top of that, he'd need to get through the slime barrier in time.

"Probably not, but it's a good Plan B...Garnet, you're the medic, can you think of anything to get rid of whatever he injected himself with?" Thunderchild asked, trying to keep his cool.

Alright. Think Garnet. Think. You know medicine. How would something like this HAVE to work?

"...All I can guess is if it's a temporary mutation, like he said, it probably works off his metabolism to eventually run out, and he said some of these things were metabolic boosters, if I had time I might be able to make or find something that can speed up his metabolism and make it run out, and he'll probably be drained when it runs out, but the problem is we're busy dodging a living storm of blades and I need an extra set of hooves."

Weaver looked thoughtful. "...I could be your set of hooves, I'm probably the least useful fighter here given his circle to weaken unicorn magic."

"Hey, she's my fiance," Gag suggested. "I should be her backup."

"You're also a better fighter than me, Lance-Corporal."

"...Point."

"...Alright...can the rest of you hold him off while I try to mix something up?" I asked.

Thunderchild nodded. "We'll do our best. It's the only plan we've got other than hope we live until backup arrives. Let's try to do both."

Gag hugged me. "Please...be careful Garnet."

"You too, Running."

I kissed him. I hope it wasn't goodbye.

To Be Continued

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by The Editors
Misfit Vs Kabuto Part 1

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-WeddingArc-Read-Smiles-Guaranteed-457156940

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-WeddingArc-Misfit-Vs-Kabuto-Pt-2-459005797

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (need to be kept up to date . . . please?).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

I meant to include some more with this chapter, but it wouldn't go any further. You guys wanted more of Misfit Actual, and now you have it.

EDIT: Extra Line added regarding Kabuto being more useful as a prisoner than a corpse.

MUSIC LIST:
Found it:

Fight with Transformed Kabuto:

[=Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Collective Consciousness =]

This chapter was called "Misfit Vs Kabuto part 1" on deviantart.

Episode 191: "The Best and the Worst part 2"

Episode 191: "The Best and the Worst part 2"

The others headed back into the battle as Kabuto finished putting his burning head out and resumed trying to kill us. I tried not to think about how dangerous this was...How close to danger Gag was in...My fears we'd never see our wedding day.

I managed to grab the vials of chemicals off his desk (which still seemed protected to a degree by his circle), along with everything I felt I'd need, and retreat while Thunderchild used a lightning grenade to force him to lower his visor...but not doing much else considering Thunderchild just blew up a pegasus spell designed to destroy airship engines in the monster's face.

"Okay, here's the one he injected himself with...dang it! I'll need Changeling blood..."

I looked around to see if he had any samples. Come on! You're a scientist, you have to have some! The unconscious Changeling guards were all out of my reach (and thankfully not in pieces given the battle we were currently involved in) and I couldn't risk exposing myself to Kabuto.

"Here!" Weaver said, giving me a needle filled with green blood.

"Where did you-"

"Telekinesis," she explained, pointing to her horn.

I didn't have time to argue and began mixing the blood with small amounts of Kabuto's drug until I noticed a change in it (namely the blood changing to a darker green and displaying a magic aura). Next came figuring out which one was the metabolic booster and mixing it properly...ugh, can I skip the science talk and just do this?!

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Please do.)

After some trial and error and Weaver being my lab partner, I got something that neutralized the mutation and how much it'd take to do it given Kabuto's size (we'd not have enough for too many shots, I had to be as exact as possible)...but then I realized another problem as Gag and the others tried to shoot Kabuto again.

"How are we going to inject him?" I asked, noting how few true gaps in his armor there were as the crossbow bolts and darts just bounced off, and how fast his reflexes were as he blocked one of Thunderchild's lightning bolts with a limb and smacked him across the room with the broadside of it. Thank Celestia he got back up.

This guy had intentionally made it near impossible for anti-cavalry weapons to work on him.

"There isn't enough of this for multiple shots...we might only get one..." I muttered. "If only we had Audience here."

Ellis and Bombardier threw an entire bag of grenades under Kabuto and they blew...and still didn't seem to do more than singe his hide. Breaking through it wasn't an option unless we had a some real nasties like anti-armour weapons. This guy was designed to be a cavalry killer.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Not surprising, considering the size of a group he was expecting to fight.)

I felt...hopeless...there weren't any weak spots I could see to safely inject it. Even his eyes had that armored visor he could lower and his reflexes were too much. And we barely had enough for his size, I had enough for each of us to fire a shot, and we couldn't afford to waste any.

Please...Celestia let there be something we can do.

And then it got worse.

Kabuto used his gas again and managed to choke the others long enough to blast them with his slime. They were stuck to a wall nearby and couldn't budge, at least not in time.

I gasped in horror as Kabuto approached them. I grabbed a crossbow and fired bolts, trying to hit anywhere that mattered...but it didn't work, they just bounced off.

"Now now, Earth Pony #2, I'll be there as soon as I finish with a little surgery on your friends," he said, preparing his blades. "I don't need Pegasus #2's wings."

My heart stopped. Celestia, what was this horrible-like a ghost in my mind!

Please no...Gag...there's got to be something I can do!

I fired at his eyes, forcing the visor down, but he seemed to realize how desperate I was and ignored me.

"...Garnet...what would happen to a somepony that used that stuff he used without the modifications he said he needed?"

"Not now! Gag is-"

"Garnet, it's important! If you want to save him, tell me!"

"They'd probably be able to use it since the modifications just make it safe...but they'd probably die...He's lucky he survived."

"...I see…please tell Dive and Bomb I love them…Goldar too if you see him."

I blinked, taking my eyes off the others to see her-

"What?! Weaver no!"

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Weaver! That's insane! Don't do it!)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Weaver, this could kill kill you!)

It's the only thing I can do. My team is in danger. My siblings are in danger...somewhere Goldar's in danger too. And more importantly, Equestria's in danger.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth): Please no . . . Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, please no. Please?)

I hereby do solemnly and sincerely and truly declare and affirm to the Citizens of Equestria that I will faithfully discharge the duties of a Guardspony. I choose to place myself in harm's way so that those who cannot defend themselves are defended. Though service is a heavy cost, For Equestria, I pay it gladly.

Those spies and infiltrators may have been lying through their teeth when they said that oath, but I meant every word. And now it's time to pay the cost.

If that's dining with Queen Rosedust after this, then so be it.

She injected herself with Kabuto's mutagen...that's when I noticed a bleeding dot on her elbow...like blood had been taken...It can't be...

She shuddered like she was ill but shook it off and charged right at Kabuto.

"Kabuto! Get away from them!" she yelled, blasting away with her horn to keep his attention...then...Celestia, it's true...

"FOR EQUESTRIA!" she yelled, erupting in a pillar of orange fire and beginning to twist and change.

"What?! How did you-" Kabuto asked in shock as the pillar dissipated to reveal...

Weaver's lower body now resembled a spider's with eight legs that seemed to end in spear tips. Her upper body was like a Preying Mantis, with four arms, the top two having blades instead of hooves and the bottom two scorpion pincers. Her head was not unlike that of a wasp with glowing orange eyes. Her wings resembled that of a moth's, but remained folded behind her back.

Weaver...you and your siblings are...

Weaver collided with Kabuto, grabbing him with her lower arms and swinging him around into a wall. She motioned with her head towards the others...

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): She's been fighting by your side all this time, is now, when she's risking her LIFE to give you a chance to defeat Kabuto really a good time to doubt her?!)

I run to my friends and use my Earth Pony strength to smash them free from the hardened slime (they were making some headway on their own, but without Weaver...).

"Garnet!" Gag yelled, hugging me the moment he was free. I kissed him and nuzzled him. I'd been so afraid.

"Sweet Celestia," Ellis muttered, watching the two gigantic bug monsters battling it out. "I hope they don't bring the whole place down on top of us!"

Kabuto stabbed her several times with his blades, getting between the plates while Weaver used her weight to throw him across the room. She tried to stab him several times with her upper arms, but he managed to position his plates to block, though still ended up with some wounds. "What is that?!"

"Weaver," I muttered almost in disbelief.

"What?!"

"She-she injected herself with the same thing Kabuto did."

"But...that means..." Thunderchild muttered, giving a glare to the Changeling's siblings.

"There's no time!" I replied. "She doesn't have Kabuto's enhancements, she won't be able to survive holding that form for much longer!" I warned. Diver and Bombardier gasped in fear and almost ran to their sister's aid in a heartbeat if I didn't hold up a hoof. "We need to inject Kabuto with these to speed up his metabolism and burn out his transformation," I tell them, showing them the needles with the antidote. "And we can't miss a shot or it won't work."

"...Fine..." Thunderchild looked to Weaver's siblings. "Drop the facade, we'll talk about it later."

They sighed and erupted in orange flames and...wow...

I noticed two things. One, unlike every other Changeling, they kept their barding despite the transformation. And two...

"Bombardier...you're..."

She glared. "Save my sister and stop the psychopath first! Question my sex later!"

"Right..."

We charged the two gigantic fighting insects right as Kabuto began to get the upper...claw.

"You fool! I have experience with this form you don't have time to have!" Kabuto hissed, stabbing Weaver between her armored plates several times.

She looked back and saw us. She wrapped her lower arms around all of Kabuto's that were still stabbing her used her top ones to stab between his plates and pry them apart, exposing soft tissue.

We each fired a dart into the exposed area (all the rounds we had) with careful aim while she kept it exposed. The changeling siblings flew up to get a better shot, both now able to fly to do so.

Kabuto roared out as they stabbed into his skin and injected him.

"W-What did you..."

"Wait for it..."

Kabuto began to slump and flicker with flames like a dying candle. His body seemed to become unstable.

"This can't be happening! You're not supposed to know how to do this!" he roared in disbelief.

"Kabuto..." growled Weaver who looked weakening herself, bleeding quite heavily. She picked the sick buck up with her lower arms and slammed him into the ground with enough force to make a crater. "Don't buck with Equestria!"

Kabuto gasped out as his body cascaded with fire and he reverted to normal...then...

"Gah! What's...what's happening to me?!" he asked, flickering with flames and beginning to rapidly transform between various other ponies, griffins, and other species.

"Geez! What was in those needles?!" Bombardier asked.

"Just something to cancel his transformation," I defended. "If you had my guess...this is some kind of reaction between what I injected him with and all the alterations he did to himself...From the sound of it he's got more experiments in his body than Gag has bad jokes."

Finally, the transformations stopped...and Kabuto was left an Earth Pony with a violet coat and black mane. His cutie mark was an alchemy circle with a snake around the edge. He tried to transform again… there weren't even flames, or I think he tried to transform, given what he said next.

"What?! I'm...I'm trapped?!" he asked in disbelief. "I'm a pathetic, useless, dimwitted Earth pony?!" he screamed, trying to rub his fur to see if there was a carapace underneath. "This can't be happening!"

Ellis chuckled. "Thank you karma."

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Hehe...Rota has quite the sense of humor.)

"What did you do to me you little Earth Pony witch?!" he bellowed, charging me in a blind rage.

Gag stepped up next to me and we double bucked him into the wall, knocking him out cold. "Nothing, you sick buck...you brought this on yourself."

I was done listening to this sick freak.

Diver and Bomb looked sick and hugged themselves, they looked at themselves and little orange flames flicker across their bodies, their body language speaking self-assurance.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Imagine seeing an earth pony lose their life-link, and you'll get how they feel.)

I'd rather not.

(Dusk's Notes: It's strange, even with all the highly dangerous alterations he did to himself and suffering a cellular meltdown from them all going haywire at once, Kabuto shouldn't have simply turned into an Earth Pony.)

(Dawn's Notes: Uh, the mean bug, the stuff undid him transforming right? Maybe made him what he was before he was a changeling?)

(Noon's Notes: Kabuto was a convert?!)

(Dusk's Notes: It's not impossible, or he simply had a Earth Pony ancestor, or (Mother forbid) transferred his soul into a Changeling with those traits as Cocoon had done several times, and that was the only part of his mangled DNA not falling apart from the meltdown and that was how his body saved itself. I imagine only Kabuto knows.)

Gag hugged and kissed me, which I gladly returned, happy it was over...well...almost.

Weaver's transformed state vanished in orange fire and she reverted to what I guessed was her true form...and instantly threw up. Her siblings ran to her side.

She was shaking heavily. And bleeding from wounds left on her from the fight.

"I-I don't feel good..." she muttered, her siblings taking her aside as she curled into a ball. "I...I feel cold..." Cracks began to appear on her carapace.

Her siblings looked horrified.

I don't think any of us knew what to think...they were the enemy's species but Weaver had just saved us and they'd been helping us all this time...and she was hurt. In all likelihood on death's door. Because she'd done something I'd told her could kill her for our sakes.

And I was a medic. No matter their species, helping them was my duty.

I galloped over to them. "What's happening to her?"

Weaver looked at the spreading cracks sadly. "This is what happens when a Changeling dies," she said. I felt my heart sink. "I think even our magic knows how stealthy we need to be...when we die, we leave nothing behind."

"N-No...please don't die sis...please..." Diver begged her, he and Bombardier crying. That childish streak he had suddenly seemed a lot less endearing...He looked like a little brother watching his big sister die... I'm guessing the story they told us wasn't just a performance. "Please."

"...I knew when I injected myself this might happen, brother," Weaver weakly put a hoof to her brother's chin and gave him a shaky nuzzle. "Garnet warned me...but I did it anyway...I'm sorry...but I couldn't let Kabuto kill everypony...if someone had to die, I took the oath to pay the price gladly if that's what was needed. Just...promise me you'll tell Goldar I loved him, okay?"

Bombardier didn't know know what to say...So she just hugged her siblings and cried. How can I blame her? Her sister was dying.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Are you going to let that happen?)

No...not if I can help it. And no way is Goldar coming home to find his fillyfriend dead on my watch.

I looked to the others. "Guys...can you go free the prisoners and get them out of here while I try to save her?"

They nodded. "Should probably take them out another way," Thunderchild replied.

The triplets might have been Changelings, but we were ponies.

Gag stayed behind to watch though...considering what Changelings can do and that we have a psychopathic (though quickly heavily restrained) prisoner laying unconscious behind us, I couldn't blame him. We'd restrained Kabuto thoroughly as possible. He might have been turned into an Earth Pony, but he was still an extremely dangerous alchemist. Thankfully, alchemy wasn't entirely unknown, so we knew how to restrain him (primarily restraining his hooves and removing any capability for him to make alchemy circles). We'd also restrained his guards according to the normal protocol.

Weaver's siblings looked startled when I began bandaging up Weaver's wounds to try and stop the bleeding.

"Why are you helping her?" asked Bombardier, looking at me in disbelief. "We're...we're Changelings, you're a pony."

"I'm also a medic," I said, giving the most comforting smile I could manage. "And I don't care what you are...okay...I kind of do...but not when it comes to saving lives. In case you forgot I treated Digger Wasp's wounds before we moved him, and he was the enemy...I don't want to see anycreature die if I can help it...and besides...you've helped us a lot through this whole mess, the least I can do is try to save her life."

It wasn't easy stitching some of her wounds due to the exoskeleton and checking her for internal bleeding, especially since she'd bleed to death if I wasn't quick...but treating her, I realized something...biologically...despite the green blood and black armor...Changelings weren't that different than ponies.

"When you transform...your blood changes color, doesn't it?" I asked. They nodded.

That must be how they'd hidden so well. Their biology was pretty equine. Their transformations must have allowed them to hide the parts that weren't.

Patching up a stab wound on her hips, they even had the same vestigial hip shape as ponies.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): What?)

Ponies have a vestigial shape to our hip joint that, while we no longer make use of it, implies at some point in the past we may have walked on two legs comfortably more frequently. It's still somewhat useful for when we need to rear up on our hind legs, but most ponies don't do it long enough to build up the proper muscles to walk entirely bipedal, and it'd take time and effort to do it.

A shapeshifting species having that would make sense, but I wonder if our species have a common ancestor.

Is this how Kabuto was turned into an Earth Pony?

While Garnet was busy saving Weaver we had a few things to do.

...I'm not going to lie, I have no idea how to feel. They were Changelings, but Weaver had saved my flank twice now. There was no reason why she'd do that if she was the enemy. I wanted to know the full story before I chose what to do about the triplets.

We'd known about 'the General' as the Changelings called him from Gag's translated intel, and me and Captain Coke had already decided given the situation, he'd be detained and Captain Coke would remain in charge, but that I would play dumb when I found him...and the guy had managed to nearly break down the rear bars of his cell. He didn't seem to notice his hooves were bleeding.

Turned out he was a General named Lone Ranger. I didn't know him very well, just he was a higher up. But his name felt very familiar. We considered the possibility he'd be convinced to help the Changelings on false pretenses, and we wanted to see if I could figure out the exact reasons why he did this before detaining him...well, detaining him better than he already was.

I kind of wish I hadn't.

"Good, you captured that lunatic?"

"Yes sir," I said simply, trying not to give away what I knew about him.

"Good, kill him."

I barely kept my composure. The...the look on his face. It was just unhinged. Like something had broke in there a long time ago. And there was just how...simple he put it.

"Sir, he's been rendered harmless. We've removed any ability for him to perform alchemy and he's too weakened from the battle to pose a threat. And we need to interrogate him for information."

"Doesn't matter," he replied. "The Changelings are a threat that must be eliminated. That's an order."

"...You want me to order all the prisoners of war executed sir?"

"Exactly. It's time we buckled down and started stamping out threats like them before they can bite us. The farmer should have cut the cockatrice's head off before it could petrify him."

"...No offense sir, but we haven't needed to kill a single Changeling this entire campaign."

He looked at me like I was the crazy one. "Well, I say you should have. We need to get rid of all of them. It's to protect Equestria!"

"...Just the prisoners of war or the civilians they have back at the hive?"

"Yes, I said all of them. Every last one."

"...Sir...I believe what you're ordering violates several international laws and are serious war crimes. Particularly since the captives are safely contained and harmless."

It was pretty hard to keep my cool at this point. Here was a stallion telling me to perform genocide. A pony telling me to. A pony traitor telling me to do that.

"So? You're a guard, Sergeant, your duty is to protect Equestria. To Tartarus with the international laws. We need to take care of our own. Instead of having to rely on school fillies armed with the true meaning of Hearth's Warming Eve to protect us."

"...Is that why you lead them here, sir? To make that point?"

He looked like allowing a hostile species to invade the capital was a completely logical move. "Yes! Exactly! To show the Princess that we need to buckle down! And to lure these dangerous bugs to their destruction! The Guard was supposed to wipe them out! How have you not possibly done that already?! I guess I underestimated them, but we can still-"

I thought of the triplets. If they were on our side, these bugs weren't all evil.

"No."

"What was that?"

"I said no. I'm not giving that order, sir. These aren't monsters, they're just another species, just like us. I believe there's a peaceful solution to all this."

He looked at me like I'd just suggested having tea with Tirek himself. His eyes just looked crazy. Like talking about setting up the Guard to perform genocide via an invasion of our capital was a rational, correct course of action.

"I'm your superior, Sergeant. You will obey orders."

"You've allowed a hostile force to invade our city. Both myself and my superior officer have decided you are unfit to lead because you have betrayed Equestria. I now add clear insanity to that list," I said, struggling to remain professional. Even if he wasn't talking genocide, his face and posture showed he wasn't in a sane mind.

He looked more like an animal than a pony. This was something chillingly familiar about his features, like a friendly face twisted in a funhouse mirror. Or like everypony on the day of chaos. "Insane am I?! I'm insane for trying to protect this country?! For trying to get the guard up to defending ourselves instead of relying on a bunch of civies and hugs?! They'll forget the Guard is there for a reason!"

"No! You're insane for betraying this country!" I finally yelled back, unable to take this traitor anymore. "You think we should be the ones to defend this country?! I agree with you! We're the guard! We defend this country every day! It's our job! You want us to buckle down and be able to handle more threats? Fine! Give us weapons, give us new tactics! We'll use them if we need to! You're not crazy for wanting those things! I agree with you they're a good idea! You're crazy for talking about genocide and proving a point with an attack on your own capital!"

I paused as I said that word...it felt...just wrong.

"...Genocide...that's a word that should never come out of a pony's mouth..."

"It's not genocide! Don't be absurd! It's no different from defending pony civilians from monsters! I'm doing what's needed to protect Equestria Sergeant! How dare you-"

"No, you're being a crazy, traitorous zealot!" I yelled back. "And if you were doing what was needed to protect Equestria, you'd have told the Princesses about the Changelings the moment you discovered them."

"And what then? She'd 'make friends with them?'"

"...Yes, that's exactly what should have happened. Peace. Not a war in our capital city. I've spent the last few years spreading peace to species other than ours. I'd prefer that a million times over what's happening now...These creatures, they're the enemy, but they're not monsters anymore than the Griffins were. They need to be defeated, yes, but killed off? No way. I want no part in that. I'll take making friends over genocide any day."

I don't think he even heard me. "Or send Twilight Sparkle and her playmates to deal with it! I was trying to wake this country up and show them the guard is this country's protectors! That this is just an insane delusion!"

I felt sick. "So that's what this is? Jealousy of six good Samaritans?"

"This isn't jealousy! Doesn't it bother you that six civilians are considered the go to-"

"Yes, it bothers me that they've had to save the world three times. But not because they're 'taking our work' or 'the guard should do it.' And certainly not because ponies praise them instead of us. It bothers me that they're civilians and shouldn't be in harm's way in the first place. But...they've still saved this country three times, and right now are out there, risking their lives to protect Equestria. Just like us. And I respect them for it. They're treated like heroes because they are heroes! Just like each and every member of the Guard. Whether it's them or the guard, Equestria was saved and that's what matters. Whether Chrysalis ends up rotting in a dungeon for war crimes or in the statue garden with Discord, I don't care. I don't care if those six get the stained glass window or we do. So long as this fighting ends and Equestria is safe, I'll be a happy pegasus. It's not about who saves Equestria...it's about Equestria being saved."

"You can't talk to me like that! I'll have you court-marshaled!"

I glared at him. "I can because while you've been betraying Equestria just to 'wake up the populous', I've been actually helping make sure there's peace so it's safe. You're not a guard, Lone Ranger...you're a traitor and a disgrace to your rank you no longer deserve. A real guard wouldn't care how Equestria stayed safe or who made it safe, just that it was. You've gotten so caught up in the 'thanks to' you don't care about 'the day is saved.' You're not a General, you're just an old gloryhog that can't stand the thought of six heroes being treated like it. The guard's job is to be competent protectors of Equestria, not to get the limelight. Some parts of the guard aren't even seen by the public but are still protecting Equestria because it's RIGHT, not because they get a pat on the back for it. Think the Night Guard decide to look like bat ponies to get praised by the ponies sleeping while they're on duty? No, they do it because now Equestria has a nocturnal guard that can protect the ponies while they sleep. When this mess is over you'll be speaking with the Inspector General and Princess Celestia. "

He snarled in rage, but I just turned my back on him. "Ellis, sedate Lone Ranger and prepare him for transport," I ordered...then heard the bars smash. We both turned to see the general slam his full body weight against the barred window, knocking them out (and probably breaking some bones) and escape before we could open the cell door.

I prepared to go after him...then stopped and looked at the citizens currently crammed into the cells.

"We going after him Sarge?"

"...No...he's not worth it. We've got citizens to get to safety. Lone Ranger's got no one and nothing left to fight his stupid war with. We don't know how long we have before they notice Kabuto isn't checking in. Protecting civilians is the priority."

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Thunderchild, I know Shining would be proud of you. Putting Equestria before fame? That's what a real guard would do.)

Thanks. The Guard isn't about who gets cheered. It's about saving lives. It's about protecting ponies. If he can't see that anymore, he's lost his place in the guard. Here's hoping he can find it again. He can't have always been that way or he'd have never become a general to begin with. I'd rather save the world and no one know it than set up a disaster just to be praised for stopping it.

I was reminded of the old legends of fairy ponies with insect wings from story books back in rock farmer days when I met Pinkie Pie. Looking at Weaver's condition...I felt like I was watching Pony Pan when Sprinklebelle is fading away. That's what it felt like, that she was just fading physically as the cracks spread.

"I stopped the bleeding," I finally said. The cracks slowed, but didn't stop. She was still dying. "I should have stopped it before she lost too much...Am I missing something about Changelings here?"

"...She's running out of love," said Diver. "Changelings can't restore our own mana and...its not just for magic, it's our life...using that must have drained all of hers."

So...love was what fueled their magic...but their magic was what fueled their life...In other words, they didn't feed on love just to give themselves power, they did it because they wanted to live.

"...Is there anyway to give her more? Me and Gag are in love..."

"Not without me stealing it," Weaver said, cringing as the cracks continued to spread. "And I'm not doing that...that's not me anymore...It hasn't been me since I was thirteen years old...Unless you already have love for us, I'd have to turn into Gag and brainwash you, and I'm not doing that...not that I'd be able to, if I don't have enough love to live, I don't have enough to use my magic..."

"Stop talking so much, please save your strength." I shuddered at her words. I was thankful they weren't like some of those racist horror stories you hear about Griffins not being able to control their instincts when they're starving...but I admit, I might have gone along with it to save her life. I'm a medic, saving lives is my duty and my job. "What about you two? You love your sister, don't you?"

"We do, but a Changeling can't feed off another Changeling's love...it's not how it works, it'd be like a snake eating its tail. The only way we can feed each other is from our own stockpile, and that's how the Gatherers worked. We're Warriors, we don't know how to do that...all females normally know how to do it for babies though," said Diver, looking worriedly at his sister as she continued to crack.

I looked at the group and realized it. "...Like Bombardier?"

Bombadier blushed...then looked determined. "...I guess that could work...Only because it's my sister...And we never speak of this again." She moved her horn towards her sister's.

"Bombardier...I don't think you'll be able to recharge, you've had the hardest time of all of us when it came to feeding, save your love," Weaver pleaded. "I won't be much help even if I live, you need it more..."

"I don't care...I'm not letting you die, sis."

"No, Bombardier...I'm not leaving my own sister so weak she might die in my place!" She used what energy she had to push her sister's mouth and horn away from her. "I knew I was probably going to die when I did this!"

"And I'm not letting my sister die! Open wide sis!"

"No!"

I then got an idea that was either just crazy enough to save a life...or just plain stupid.

"...Bombardier...this brainwashing of yours...can you turn it off as easily as you put it on?"

"...Easier...Our mind-magic requires the victim to let us in before it kicks in, we can just break the spell at will."

"And you don't need to take it all, right?"

"No, that's the kind of gluttony Chrysalis would do. The three of us would never do that, but this doesn't seem like the tim-"

"...Is brainwashing the only way?"

"...Right now...yes..." Bombardier said, as if admitting that fact was like going against a personal code. "If there was any other way, I'd be the first to say it."

"...Save enough of your magic so you can brainwash me and feed off some of my love for Gag, that way you can survive saving your sister. Or feed off some of my love first and give it to her."

"What?!" asked everycreature.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): This is going to be such a bucking headache.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Garnet, are you sure about this?)

"I'm a medic, I'm saving a patient, that's my job, just do it..."

I won't let somecreature die if I can save their life, especially not one dying because she was trying to save my squad. If the only way Weaver will let herself live is if I do this, then I'm going to.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): You never have been willing to let somepony die, even if they're the enemy's species.)

What was that?

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Nothing!)

Gag approached protectively.

"Garnet, if she steals enough of your love to save me, it will weaken you," Weaver said despite me holding her.

"Weaver, you took an oath to lay down your life if you had to, I took an oath to do whatever I have to to save a patient if it's in my power. You two could die, that's worse than me being a little weak."

"...Garnet, I don't like this," Gag stated, looking scared.

I kissed him to try and calm him. "I know...But Weaver saved our skins...and I trust them that they're guards like they say...please trust me."

I looked at Weaver as she kept cracking. Kept dying. "And there's no time to argue."

"...If you drain her dry, I'm going to make you wish you died," I heard him growl, looking to Bombardier.

"If I did, I'd take a form I KNOW you could stallionhandle and let you," Bombardier replied with the most sincere tone imaginable.

I held Weaver steady as she pathetically struggled. "Do it. Brainwash me then save her. And Gag, go explain it to the others so we don't have a misunderstanding...please trust me, okay?"

"...Okay...Only because you're you, Garnet...If I come back and you're a zombie..."

"I know...but that won't happen...I gave my heart to you forever, I'm just lending it to her for a little bit."

Gag hugged me and kissed me before backing out of the room and keeping an eagle eye on them the whole time. He sent Thunderchild back to keep an eye on them. He'd also reported to Cherry we'd beaten Kabuto and handed over most of the civilians and captives to him, but I wasn't sure if he'd told Captain Coke about the triplets yet, he didn't say...and he seemed clopped off, but not at the triplets.

And yes, I had to quickly explain things to him again and convince him to let me do this. He was the one calling the shots when Captain Coke wasn't here.

"So how's this work?"

"Again, are you sure you want to do this?" she asked, looking worriedly at her dying sister. I think they were surprised she had lasted this long.

"You've done this to ponies WITHOUT asking their permission just to stay alive, so suddenly when a pony is offering it to you, it's wrong?"

"I didn't say it was ever right and it's been a decade since I've done this. I haven't stolen love since I was thirteen...Normally the pony isn't AWARE they're being brainwashed, that's the way it works best. But here...lower your defenses, don't think too hard, just let whatever happens, happen, don't question it, I'm just...not used to being GIVEN love this way."

"How long will this take?" Thunderchild asked, dead seriously.

"...Probably about five minutes tops if I'm safe about it."

"You have five minutes, one second more and I fry your flank, understood?" Thunderchild asked protectively, letting his wings crackle a bit.

"I'll put the bulls eye on it myself."

"Just do it," I finally said.

"Garnet, don'-" Weaver started.

"Weaver, do you want Goldar to come home to find out you died?" I finally asked, causing her to gasp. "...If you don't let me do this for you, let me do this for him."

"Goldar…"

She stopped struggling of her own free will.

I looked to her sister. "Do it, Bombardier."

No, I didn't worry about her taking advantage of me...her sister had almost given her life to save my fiance and defeat Kabuto, the least I could do is give a little bit of my love to keep a patient alive.

"Fine." A flash of flames, and Running Gag was standing before me.

"Sorry I had to come back so soon Garnet, but some of those prisoners were real gorillas, like ya know, at a zoo?"

I rolled my eyes at the bad joke, and then I looked...I looked...I looked into his eyes...his eyes...I couldn't look away, I didn't WANT to look away, I WANTED to keep looking, I felt some part of me go under, I WANTED it to go under. I wanted all of me to follow it! I felt his wings around me, it was perfect, it was wonderful. Canterlot, my squadmates, what did any of them even matter? He was here, he was all I needed, I was all he needed. Yes, I was needed by him, that's all I needed to be...all I could be, all I wanted to be, just his, just loving him, what else could I want? Just love him...Just love him...I was a good little pony, just loving him was all I needed to be.. just love, don't need to think, just need to feel, and I am good, for him.

I...then I felt like ballast tanks suddenly blew and I was being propelled to the surface at lightning speed, I felt like my mind was getting the bends, feelings and perspectives became wider scope, thoughts and ideas popped into my head again, I felt reality come crashing down on top of me as I was rushed up to meet it.

I gasped out loud, shuddering. I felt kind of lightheaded and weak...like I'd just given somepony a blood transfusion.

I looked around, there was Bombardier looking sad, disgusted at herself, not able to look me in the eye. Thunderchild literally had his eyes on a watch.

"Four minutes thirty seconds..." he said out loud, seeming relieved as he came over to check on me. "You okay, Garnet?"

I nodded. "Yeah...Just a little dizzy."

Bombardier went straight to feeding her sister the love I'd given her. Changelings sharing love was...interesting to say the least...kind of like a mother bird throwing up food for its young...in fact it kinda looked exactly like that...only with mana instead of food.

But considering the cracks stopped and began to reverse though, I assume it worked, but Weaver still seemed to be in rough shape, and Bombardier seemed a bit weakened, even after taking some of my love before hoof. Her sister was probably right that it would've drained her dry without it.

Weaver looked at me in shock. "Garnet...I..."

"You saved my fiance and my squad-mates, saving your life was just doing my job," I replied, giving her a smile.

Thunderchild then asked me a ton of questions to make sure I was still myself and took a close look at my eyes. In general, he followed the Guard handbook's protocol when a teammate has been brainwashed and liberated. Yes, we have one of those.

And so did you.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): It never hurts to double check, Garnet.)

That's correct.

"Is it always like that?" I whispered to Bombardier after Thunderchild had given me a clean bill of health.

"I haven't exactly been on the receiving end. And I've done my absolute best to not use it since I discovered it's easier to just...let ponies love me instead of making them."

The worst part was, how even with my wits back, a part of me had liked it and wanted more of it. If it'd been to the real Gag, I could understand, but to a fake? I shuddered, feeling sick at the thought. "So what was that...exactly?"

"More or less, I made it so your love for Gag was the only thing your brain could process, sorry, that's not exactly right, but I've never had to explain it to a non-changeling before. There are...many varieties, what I gave you was the quick-fix feeding method. It wouldn't have worked as well if I didn't already look like Gag. It works best when they think I'm their loved one instead of that just being what I'm brainwashing them to think."

"So I guessed...so you can feed passively?"

"Long term, and undetectable, yes, which is how we're still alive at this point, but, it gets complicated, and I think we've had enough confusion for one day."

I nodded slowly. "Yeah..." I stumbled a bit, feeling a bit weak still. Thunderchild helped steady me. I recognized it as a minor mana drain. I'd be recovered shortly.

"...Garnet...your love for Gag was really strong...that wasn't the brainwashing. That part is you."

I blushed a little, taking out my engagement ring. I couldn't help smiling. "Thanks, Bombardier."

"You saved my sister's life, Garnet, it's the least I could do...You're...I don't-"

"We got the prisoners to Captain Coke, but more Changelings are coming," Ellis said, poking his head in. "Is she safe to move?"

I nodded. "She seems stable..."

"...And are you alright, Garnet?"

"Yeah...just a little weak...And I really want to see the real Gag right now."

Me and Diver helped get Weaver to her hooves and the triplets put their disguises back on as we retreated to a safe location. And of course I hugged Gag the moment I could, kissed him, nuzzled him, and told him I loved him...Bombardier was right, that love was mine.

And now came the hard part...Finding out what was really going on.

"Alright...Garnet saved Weaver's life, and we're grateful she risked it to save our flanks," Thunderchild said, looking at the Changeling triplets once we were safe. "But we need to know the truth. No excuses."

Weaver sighed, still looking a bit ragged. Seeing as she just almost died and had several stab wounds, that was understandable. Gag didn't leave my side for a second once, even if the triplets had sworn to Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and 'Queen Rosedust' (apparently some Changeling deity) I was safe. And that if I wasn't his love would have already broken the spell.

Gag also did a few Shinobi tricks he said he picked up that were supposed to dispel brainwashing, just to be on the safe side. I'm not sure if it'd have worked or if he was doing them correctly, but it comforted him and that's what mattered.

I'd also had to patch us all up a good bit, including getting Gag to give me a hoof patching up my burned back (which might scar). Kabuto hadn't gone down without a fight.

"Well, for one, our full names are Weaver Beetle, Diver Beetle, and Bombardier Beetle," Weaver explained.

"Why do Changelings all have bug names?" Gag asked.

"Why do most ponies have names relating to their special talent?"

"...Point."

"...The story we told Thunderchild earlier wasn't a lie...it was just not the complete truth," Weaver explained, the triplets assuming their true forms, Weaver now wearing some spare guard armor we'd found to replace the set that was destroyed by her transformation. "...We did want to be Changeling Guards when we were young...we believed the whole 'ponies are cattle' horseapples as hard as everyling else...But one day...I met one of the 'freshstock' brought in and saw that fear in their eyes before they were brainwashed...I was just a kid at the time, barely in my teens...there's no time to go into everything right now, but...one thing lead to another and it ended with three little thirteen year old Changelings fleeing the Hive, knowing ponies were people, not cattle...we found our way to a little orphanage and passed ourselves off as refugees from one of the now defunct groups causing conflicts that Equestria and Columbia ultimately ended...hehe, looking back, even then I respected the Equestrian royal guard for being able to bring peace…”

She gave a smile. "We were hungry, but didn't know how to go about getting food. We were willing to use our mind magic if we had to, but we didn't want to after realizing ponies were no less people than us. But...despite what stories tell you, the orphanages we know are really loving places...the ponies there loved the orphans like their own children...and that was more satisfying and more filling than any love we ever stole...It kept us full. And it felt good to be loved like that."

"That's how we found out sharing love with ponies wasn't...wasn't insane like the Hive told us it was..." Diver explained.

"Wait," I interrupted. "Changelings treat sharing love with ponies as a mental illness?"

"...Yes...In the time before Chrysalis it was punishable by death," Bombardier replied. "...They treated it like you would a pony loving an apple tree."

"Uh, mah cousin's family actually does that for real," Ellis replied. "They name them."

"...Considering our situation, we're in no position to call that crazy," Weaver answered with a blink. "But yes...by our species' standards, we're clinically insane for loving 'livestock.'"

"When a relief group allowed refugee orphans to move to Equestria and be adopted by foster families, we took it," explained Bombardier. "We came to Equestria entirely legally, and obtained citizenship the legit way, minus lying about our species."

I remembered what she'd said. "So...Goldar and Faline?"

"I love Goldar with all my heart," the female changeling replied with complete sincerity...then looked worried sick. "I hope he's alright."

"I hope my little doe is too," her brother continued. The look in their eyes was one I don't think can be faked. Believe me, I'd had the same look in my eyes most of this mess.

"...So that's how you two feed?" Thunderchild asked. "They love you and you love them?"

Weaver nodded. "...We do use a little mind magic to make the love flow better if we've used up a lot of love and need it...but that type is like a mosquito's saliva, it just makes what's there flow better instead of taking something that isn't ours…we'd never do that to them and Goldar is even aware I do this particular spell, but he thinks it's a unicorn erm, 'bed-room spell' instead of a Changeling one. My brother has me pass it off as the same thing to his fawnfriend. It's part of why my default pony form is a unicorn...other than the fact I like being one."

"We're trying to do everything legally," Diver explained. "We wanted to be guards after all...and prove we didn't have to break the law to co-exist with Equestria."

That actually wasn't as far fetched as it sounded. Considering magic was something the majority of sapient species in the world were capable of in some way shape or form, it wouldn't surprise me if there were certain spells designed to get a spark going between couples. So long as there was informed consent and it could be confirmed to have no long term harmful effects (and both parties were of age), they'd be legal. In fact, I'd heard of unicorns having their partners use mind magic on them as a trust exercise. It takes a lot of trust in somepony to have faith they'll take the spell off.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Not the same thing, but it takes a lot of trust to have that faith in a teammate too.)

Yeah...it does.

She then blushed a little...somehow, considering she had an exoskeleton. "Um...he's...already kinda asked me to do it if we...well...get busy."

And that is also not surprising, and actually explained a bit. Stallions who had trouble...performing were known to do such things if they knew a unicorn. From when Bombardier did it to me, I can see how something similar might make for a fun night, even if it wasn't the same thing.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Speaking of which, what about-ow!)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Sorry about my sister, Garnet, sometimes she can ask perverted questions. It's gotten her nose broken before.)

It's no problem. And no, we haven't. We won't until we're married. Not that we've had a chance, given we've spent so much time on an airship on active duty and then Fake Cadence kept us separated after we got back. So even if we didn't want to wait till after our wedding, we haven't had the opportunity.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): What are you talking about?)

Nothing...nothing, little filly.

"...So that's why those two act so emotional sometimes?" Thunderchild asked, apparently knowing those two a bit better than me.

"...That's a side effect...but I swear by Celestia I don't put any memories in my little doe's head that aren't already there," Diver said defensively. "I love her."

Weaver nodded in agreement with her brother.

"...If Weaver hadn't nearly killed herself saving our flanks from Kabuto, I wouldn't believe a word you say...but...I'm going to trust you because there's been two times you could've let the Changelings beat me but saved me instead," our Gifted Pegasus replied.

Gag looked to Bombardier. "So...the reason you seem like you like stallions..."

"Is because I do," Bombardier stated bluntly. "It's hard to meet the stallion of your dreams when...well...they think you're a stallion and if they swung that way wouldn't like finding out you're a mare...I couldn't lead a stallion on like that."

"Then why do you...um..."

Bombardier sighed. "...Look...Changelings don't really care if we assume a form that isn't the same sex as ourselves," she explained. "Chrysalis herself has assumed male forms. Don't think of our transformations as changing ourselves, we're confident of the essence of who we are inside regardless of how we shape ourselves. That's what it's like to a Changeling. Think of it like how Dragons consider being what we'd call greedy a virtue, it's kinda the same thing. And my favorite alternate form besides my real one happens to be male. And . . . I kinda didn't know this form might cause problems when I showed up with it at the orphanage when I was thirteen."

"Right...we'll take your word for it..."

The Guard handbook actually did defend her right to do that, even if Changelings weren't a known species at the time. There are Diamond Dogs in all three branches (including a few in Misfit platoon) and while extremely uncommon, dragons had joined at points in history, and their morals and beliefs differ sharply from that of ponies as a species trait. There were naturally provisions protecting species like that, so if it was a relatively harmless racial trait, it was protected by law.

"Wait a second," said Ellis. "If yah don't have yer special somepony, where do you get yer food?"

"...Well...now my squad's love for me as a teammate. My siblings feed the same way...and yes, we do love them back," the Changeling explained. "But before those formed, mainly our parents love to us. But...I was also a foalsitter."

-One Misunderstanding Later-

"...Ow..." Bombardier muttered, rubbing her black eye...I'm not even going to ask how compound eyes can get blackened.

"Sorry for jumpin' the gun, just I have a baby cousin I'm worried about..." Ellis muttered, rubbing his head.

"It's alright...I'd be more surprised if that didn't get me a punch in the face. But like I said, I never used brainwashing, I just visited our parents to top myself off until the foals started loving me as their foalsitter. It helps that genuine love given willingly is a lot more filling than stolen love. Believe me, the three of us did not want to brainwash anypony. We wanted to do everything as legit and legal as we could...we wanted to prove our species was wrong and we didn't need to be that way. If we 'cheated' and made somepony love us, then we'd go against what we were doing our best to be."

"I see...And becoming Guards?"

"Exactly like I said before. We wanted to balance the Hive's evil with some good," Weaver replied. "We were never infiltrators or spies. We didn't even know infiltrating the guard was part of Chrysalis' plans. We became guards because it was what we wanted to be."

I looked at her horn, remembering the fires. Something occurred to me. "...Why is your magic color like Princess Celestia's?"

"A changeling's magic matches that of their 'Queen,'" Diver explained, showing his. "Our magic matches Celestia's because we've sworn our loyalty to her and broke loyalties to Chrysalis when we left the Hive. It's the biggest give away to our magic, the one thing we can't change. Digger Wasp knew a way to do it, but he was unique. He was the Spy Master like Kabuto was the Alchemist Master, and they're normally a lot different from the norm."

"...Okay, I think its time for the big question," Thunderchild asked. "Did you know this invasion was coming?"

The trio looked guilt-ridden. "...We knew Chrysalis wanted to do an invasion...but not the when, how, or where, or even the scale… We thought she'd just put a shadow-web in place like she has in other kingdoms to let the changelings have a safety net if discovered," Weaver explained. "...Changelings are raised from birth to believe if ponies ever saw us in our true forms, all they'd see was a monster and kill us on sight...We've been afraid of that our entire lives...until today...

"Not only that...we intended to make ourselves an object lesson for the other Changelings. We wanted to prove Changelings and ponies could co-exist by living life here following your laws and doing everything right. "

"Basically," Bombardier continued. "Imagine knowing someday, a storm is coming, and wanting to tell the ponies in its path...but knowing if you did they might burn you as a witch."

"And even if we had," Diver picked up. "Chrysalis would have made it so all we did was make ponies paranoid...and had us assassinated without a second thought...so our plan was to wait until we saw the starts of an invasion, if it happened in our life time, then try to warn Celestia before it happened, at a point when Chrysalis couldn't just retreat into the shadows and wait for another chance to strike in a century or two, then...at least we might stop the invasion even if she killed us. It'd be too far along to pull back, so she'd be caught with her hoof in the cookie jar...but we didn't see the writing on the wall...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry."

"We were just three stupid little nymphs who thought they could pick up on a masquerade before it was too late," Bombardier explained, punching the wall in anger. "That was the problem with us leaving at thirteen, we didn't know what Chrysalis' plan was, just that she had one. We were nymphs, we didn't know a thing."

All three looked down in shame. "We failed as guards...if we survive this...we're going to res-"

"Don't even think about it," I finally said, sternly. "...Weaver, you almost sacrificed your life for Equestria, and thought that was exactly what you were doing....I think that's the definition of a Royal Guard."

The others took a moment to think, then gave a nod after a moment. "And you've done your best to help us through this even with your own people knocking at our door," Ellis replied, though he seemed a bit more uncertain.

"We might not like everything you've done, but...I think you've done a pretty good job as guards," Thunderchild admitted, trying to act professional. "So until the invasion is dealt with, in my mind you are, but once it is...it'll be the Princesses' call...but I owe you my life twice over, so for what it's worth, I think you've done your best. You're more of a Guard than some ponies I've met today. And if you're telling the truth, the only thing you've really done that might be wrong is withholding information you planned to give and lying about your species. So given the current circumstances, your contributions seem a lot more important than punishing you...that and lying about your species isn't technically against the law, since it's normally obvious what species you are."

"Look...I don't like the idea that Garnet needed to let you brainwash her," Gag stated. "Or that you did. But...you wouldn't have needed that if you hadn't almost killed yourself to protect us."

"...Weaver, I think what you did deserves a medal, not a resignation," I said, putting a hoof on her shoulder. "We'd be dead right now if you hadn't done something you knew would most likely kill you...But you never needed to be afraid ponies would hurt you...that was a lie."

"...Thanks," the Changeling said, giving us a smile. Her siblings nodded. "...Maybe we'll stay and keep doing what we love, Princesses willing...And maybe with our true faces instead of masks...But for now, lets just worry about surviving this mess."

Thunderchild explained things to Captain Coke. The choice was more or less the same: there would need to be an investigation, but we needed every hoof we could get and they'd proven trustworthy, and laying down your life for your squad-mates was an admirable action.

I think we were a bit more accepting of them because...well, Changelings were probably the only sapient species on the planet that we'd never met before, which included several former Hooviets. Reznov had probably broken more laws before his turn than those three.

I was just glad we all made it out of there alive.

"Hey, look what I found," Ellis said, looking through the objects we'd gotten from Kabuto's lab, not exactly having time to look through everything. From what he bragged about, I didn't WANT TO look through his things, as a medic, I'd likely appreciate how wrong it was EVEN MORE.

I blinked, looking at a now familiar mutated bug, thankfully in a glass cage. "Huh? That weird mutated bug? I thought we gave that to the science folks..."

"We did, apparently Kabuto wanted to study it," Gag replied, reading a paper on it. "...And apparently, the Changelings find it really, really freaky."

I blinked, looking at the triplets, who all three seemed to be a little freaked out by the giant, semi-sapient bug. "...Yeah...I wonder why."

"Imagine it was a tiny, semi-sapient more animalistic equine," Diver replied, though gave the bug a look like he'd poke it with a stick if he had one. Big kid.

I imagined the suggested image and suddered. "Point...I suppose this would be creepy for an insectoid species."

"Wow, here's something else creepy," said Gag, looking at another letter. "'Please bring me that little foal in the infirmary. I wish to have a look at her unique condition.'"

"Little foal?...Neatly Spell?!" I asked in horror.

We all shuddered at the thought.

"Did he-" I can't bring myself to ask.

"Nope, thank Celestia, looks like he never got her."

"...We don't tell Arcane about this," Thunderchild said simply.

We all nodded.

"...And can someone please put the weird giant bug away?" asked Bombardier, looking at the bug with a shudder. The bug simply huffed, crossed its front legs, and turned its head.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): The following events happened shortly after Applejack was freed.)

Gag went to go get us some more intel on the Changelings' positions. Garnet was busy asking Weaver about Changeling biology or something and Thunderchild was getting everything from them they hadn't been able to tell us without revealing themselves. To their credit, they didn't complain and just spoke. Captain Coke was on the radio listening in and asking questions of his own, though apparently they'd had to sedate Kabuto a couple times. Getting turned into an Earth Pony apparently made him pretty hysterical. Sorry, that's a understatement, he tried to kill himself, we had him on constant watch.

We were also supposed to find some food supplies if we could. Us guards had taken to eating grass and saving the food for the civilians, but we still needed to keep them fed.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Wait. You're eating grass?)

Yeah, survival training. If you don't have a lot of provisions, eat the vegetation if it's safe. It's keeping us fed, but I think the gardener is gonna be pretty angry at us.

Guess I know now why Weaver and her siblings were the first to volunteer to do it to preserve provisions.

I admit, I'm not quite okay with Weaver and her siblings being Changelings...it isn't that I'm speciesist or anything, it's that...I just don't have time to process things just yet...but I do think they've been good Guards and I'm grateful she saved our flanks...I'm proud to fight with them, but I just don't know exactly how to work this through it...

That witch is a changeling, and most of the changelings I've seen are all working for her, and they're doing it with a smile, or see hurting ponies as stacking hay from everything Gag's said.

But this is Equestria. Giving chances is what we're known for. And if nothing else we owe them one.

I think I was having mah mind on AJ and Applebloom most of the time too...I was worried about them, AJ was that witch's slave and Applebloom was out there somewhere in this whole mess... what kind of Apple would I be if I weren't worried for them?

Am I gonna have ta fight AJ? Mah own blood? First staying with your mom's family instead of Ponyville in Manehatten and then saving the world? AJ, why did you always have to be the adventuring sort?

"Hey Ellis," said Gag, coming back into the room with a big smirk. "I've got some good news."

"What?" I asked him, still a little distracted.

"The Bearers saved another of the witch's slaves..."

I gasped and looked to him. "Y-You mean..."

"AJ's safe, Ellis. She's free."

"AJ's free?...AJ'S FREE!" I shouted...before getting shushed a little...since, you know, stealth. But Applejack's free! Mah cousin's free!

"Where is she?! Did ya see her?! Is she with you? Is she coming? How'd she look?"

"I don't know. And no, no, no, and I have no idea. The troops were just told to have a look out for her, to avoid eye contact, and to wear reflective glasses when talking to her."

"Oh." Well, cousin, I'm happy to hear you're finally out of it. I'm so happy. Apple Fritter and Peachy Sweet are gonna love to hear it too. Applebloom, I can only pray that you're safe too.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Glad to see you back in higher spirits, Ellis.)

So I am! I haven't felt this happy since that one Apple Family Reunion...Hey! Did I ever tell you about that? You see, me, AJ, and two of our cousins...

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by The Editors
Misfit Vs Kabuto Part 2

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-WeddingArc-Misfit-Vs-Kabuto-Pt-1-458683683

Next Chapter:

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (need to be kept up to date . . . please?).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them!

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

There is no geopolitical message in this chapter. It is just a story. There is no personal message to ANYONE either, this is just a story, not a journal entry or a take that. Repeat, there is NO geopolitical message here, I'm a fanfiction writer, not bloody a columnist. Please, no paranoia.

20140506: Major Edit:Fixed terminologies and some formatting.

MUSIC LIST:

Weaver vs Kabuto:

(=Sonic & The Black Knight "With Me" Music=)

Episode 192: Second Chance?

='The Seven Apprentices' The 7th Saga=

Twilight overlooked a Canterlot map. "After the castle battle, not many ponies still believe the changelings' lie. Now they're focusing on suppressing a rebellion, bad news is they're done playing nice."

"Good news is the Wonderbolts are on our side now," Rainbow Dash pointed out, a tad bit giddy about that.

"And 'in the know' now includes teachers or students at the school for Gifted Unicorns," Lemon Hearts explained. "Fancy Pants is trying to round them up ASAP. So everypony isn't defenseless waiting for an endgame."

"The booby traps are still ruined. The rune being finished is the real danger. Sweetie Belle, how long did Chrysalis' spy network say it would take for Princess Luna and Guard to return?" Twilight asked.

Sweetie answered.

"And with the strings of sabotages, and no longer having a willing pony labor force, they'll have to start turning ponies into zombies, which will be a spark, or something they'll have to do even more carefully. And they've lost their third forepony for the construction project-"

"Kabuto," Sweetie Belle added. "They have names."

"Yes...Kabuto is MIA according to Cadence's song birds...which the changelings are now attacking if spotted. But by my calculations, without a forepony, Princess Luna should arrive with reinforcements before the rune is complete. And Canterlot has been completely silent since we took back Spike and our mysterious allies, so it's likely by now the Guard and Equestria in general is becoming suspicious."

"So now, we just sit tight, and when Princess Luna arrives we all kick flank!" Rainbow Dash grinned. "Maybe we can have a little welcoming party ready for her with changeling pinatas."

"Hey!"

"Sorry Moth."

"I said hey too," muttered Sweetie Belle. Rarity pat her little sister on back.

"I don't know if we can say we've won," Cadence said. "Chrysalis has been planning this for years, it doesn't feel like her to realize everything is coming crashing down around her and just let herself lose everything...I'm honestly scared what a cornered animal will do."

The Alicorn of Harmony pinned her ears as Twilight Sparkle spoke, "And...if we wait for Princess Luna, then...Chrysalis might use Shining as a shield until she works him to death when Princess Luna's army gets here. We have to rescuing Shining BEFORE! If Chrysalis loses her shield before Princess Luna arrives, maybe Chrysalis will be forced into a situation where she'll have to surrender without anycreature getting hurt."

Sweetie Belle shook her head. "No. Chryssy she won't give up the fight till the end, and she'll make sure everyling doesn't either." Moth whimpered in horror at Sweetie's words. "Like you guys." The filly added under her breath.

"...All the same, we need to save Shining, or he'll be used to drag this on a lot longer. If the queen doesn't have a shield, then Luna can defeat her."

"...Maybe we should give her a way out?" Sweetie asked. "Hear me out!" she said before anyone could tackle her assuming she was slipping into 'Princess Sweet Belle'. "...Chryssy...I think there might be good in her...maybe just a little bit...Maybe that's enough that if offered a peaceful way out of it where she doesn't lose everything, she could change...Maybe we should offer her a what do you call it, Cadence? When two countries decide not to fight anymore?"

"Sweetie I SAW inside her heart," Pinkie Pie said, "I saw her good side's grave."

"...Maybe a little bit of it came back to life?"

"You're suggesting a peace treaty?" Cadence asked.

"Yeah! One of those!"

"...Sweetie...Discord is the king of manipulators, but Chrysalis is the queen. If we did that, we'd need to make sure she couldn't turn it around on us or trick us...or that we won't be invaded again in the future."

"...We've got Twilight, Trixie, you and a bunch of other smart ponies."

Twilight said, "Sweetie, if we send Chrysalis a letter via dragon mail, she might be able to back track it to where we are. She might not be willing or able at this point to sweep door to door for us, but she's not going to waste knowing exactly where we are. Especially if she thinks she could crush the rebellion's spirit by taking us down or can take us with her. And she isn't going to 'play nice' now, she wants me dead remember?"

"If her plan is as in ruins as it seems," Applejack added. "She might not want any of us alive anymore if she just needed us alive for some plan of hers we already ruined..."

Rarity gave a frown. "And Sweetie dear, you just SAID she'd go down fighting and pull her subjects down with her."

"...I just...I just want to know we tried alright? She's not like Nightmare Moon or Fluttershy so that only the Elements can free her...she's not like Discord who's too crazy to listen...maybe she's the one baddie that can be saved without a fight?"

The ponies and dragon all looked at each other. Some couldn't stand Sweetie's sad face, others remembered how horrible fighting truly was, others didn't want to see ponies get hurt when they didn't need to, and some truly wanted a non-violent solution for once, hadn't the heroes of the age of myth managed to save some of their enemies with mere words?

Cadence addressed the herd. "This isn't a simple solution. The kingdom of Equestria may be a diarchy, but my aunties and I always try to give ponies a chance to decide for themselves...lets take a vote. You can either step forwards and tell your reasoning or simply write it down and hand it to me and let your choice go unknown."

-15 Minutes Later-

"And my vote is...against," Cadence finally said. "Because...I'm sorry, but...I've seen the world Chrysalis will create if she wins and I don't think we should risk it...but it was up to a vote. Let's tally them up."

Sweetie Belle, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rarity, Bon Bon, Lemon Hearts, Applebloom and Twilight and more surprisingly Minuette and Trixie had voted yes. Twinkle Shine, Moon Dancer, Rainbow Dash, Fluttercruel, and Applejack had voted no. Moth, Spike, Lyra, Scootaloo, and Silver Spoon had all chosen to leave their votes unknown, but two had voted for and the other three against. Silver Axe went undecided, saying as a guard he'd go with the will of the people.

"Cadence...I know you're a diplomat but..." Twilight said.

"Let Sweetie Belle write, we do a quick draft and let you, Trixie, me, and the other Gifted Unicorns look for loopholes. She's the only one who Chrysalis might actually listen to."

"I kinda already started it," Sweetie Belle admitted holding up a letter written with her new horn magic.

"Oh."

-20 minutes later-

"Alright," Twilight said taking the letter, "I'll use the memory spell with Rarity, and hopefully luck will be with us twice, and I'll be able to visualize the Wonderbolt stadium. Then Spike sends the letter, and we teleport back, that'll distract the changelings when they go there and waste more time and troops."

"I know this is kinda last moment," Rainbow Dash said, "But if we're worried about being found due to them tracking Spike's mail like we did, won't they just find us when they send a reply? For that matter, WHY THE BUCK HASN'T CHRYSALIS SENT A LETTER TO SPIKE TO TRACK DOWN WHERE HE IS IF SHE STILL HAS A LINK TO HIM?!"

"I've thought of that. The letter requests her response be made publicly from the castle. If she makes no response after a half hour, we consider it rejecting the treaty by default. Spike has already sent a letter to Fancy explaining it so the rebels don't attack her if she tries to surrender...unless she rejects it. Fluttercruel added that as a stipulation."

"Hey, if she doesn't take the peaceful way out, it's the pragmatic way to end it quick."

"If she rejects it, the cease fire is over, but I'm not sure if the rebels will act on it or not."

Rainbow face hoofed. "You over-thought my question, Twilight, I meant how are we even sending her a letter if she can't send us one either?"

"Oh...He's just sending it to Celestia, who is obviously being guarded or near Chrysalis. Cadence's birds can use that to see where Celestia might be for our attack later."

"No she isn't." Sweetie Belle said, "Chryssy said she put Princess Celestia away for 'safe keeping', and I think she didn't like what the Princess kept saying to her."

"What things?"

"Oh, that she wasn't being nice, that she wasn't a good pony, that she should stop hurting ponies...and something weird about knowing what she really was after what happened with Fluttercruel...I didn't understand that but Chryssy seemed to."

"Terrific," Trixie groaned.

Rainbow Dash groaned, "And girls, what I meant was, what's KEPT HER from sending Spike a letter before this? If Spike's still able to send a letter to her?"

"Hopefully she doesn't know or can't perform the spell and doesn't have anypony left who can do it for her."

"And there was no need for Celestia to keep around scrolls with the 'just burn to send them to me' enchantment Cadence put on those boxes for Bon Bon," Spike explained. "Since she always sent her letters to me herself."

Cadence said, "Actually the box is just a reception spot, if we didn't have the box on us, the candies would just appear in front of the pony and fall to the ground."

"Point is, Chrysalis doesn't have one of those," Twilight explained. "She probably doesn't know she can send them."

"Okay...but that still leaves the problem we have no way to give Queen Meanie our little peace treaty," Pinkie Pie said.

"Hmm...hey, girls...and one other guy," Spike said, giving a sigh. "21 creatures in a room and I'm still surrounded by girls."

"Hey."

"Sorry Silver Tongue."

"I could turn into a stallion if you wanted," Moth offered. She then got weird looks. "It's not a problem for me...It's a Changeling thing."

"Anyway...simple solution, have one of our teleporters find a Changeling, throw them the scroll saying its for Chrysalis, then teleport out of there and let them take it to the Queen."

"Assuming they don't think it's full of explosive runes," Twinkle Shine said.

"Can we stop bucking overthinking stuff and do something already?!" Fluttercruel suddenly yelled. "I almost got turned to stone and I was moving more than we are!"

"If Auntie is free Chrysalis might be more open to giving up," Cadence suggested.

Twilight looked at Spike.

Two Teleportations And One Dragon Mail Bounce Later -

"Chrysalis still has BBBFF keeping a force field around Princess Celestia, same kind that's stopping Spike from getting letters to the outside world. Spike can't make a connection to send the letter. We can't locate her."

Spike coughed and grumbled, "Was worth a shot."

"Guess we're stuck doing this the hard way," Lemon Hearts said.

-Thirty Minutes Later-

"Could that possibly have been a bigger waste of our time?" Trixie lamented.

"...It wasn't a waste..." Fluttershy said. "...Regardless of what Chrysalis' response is, we tried to make peace...that's more than they tried."

"That entire vote and discussion just felt like one big great headache for Trixie...or I had too many of those lemon candies, I'm not sure."

"...Then why did you vote for us to us to give peace a shot?" Fluttercruel asked.

"...Because I was given a second chance, it felt hypocritical of me to not at least try to offer it...but that doesn't mean it wasn't a major headache."

You know, it's odd...if Discord had't targeted, Trixie would never have gotten a second chance, let alone be here helping save the world.

Trixie knows she'd have just continued to stew in her bitterness and hatred until it devoured her. Trixie won't say she's glad Discord violated her mentally. But she is glad that she met Twilight and had redeemed herself. That is why I voted to give Chrysalis a chance to be redeemed. If nopony offers a hoof to pull you out of the darkness, you might slip and fall too far from the light to ever escape.

"Guys, Fancy just sent a letter," said Spike, walking over to the two. "Chrysalis is about to give her reply."

"Good...we'll know in a few minutes we'll-"

"Long ago I embraced the beast inside
It is too late now to turn back the tide," came the queen's words, in the Royal Canterlot Voice, singing.

"-know."

"Fate, I dare you give me all that you've got.
I will not turn back no matter what
In my heart as black as the midnight hour
There can be no light sparked by love's power.

A beast I am now, a beast I shall be
Until oblivion overtakes me.
That is what I am at my very core
My heart will always ignore every lure.
No matter what, my nature will remain...
I will always be a beast none can tame.

Call me a monster or make me a slave
None can change their lot that nature gave.
If I am such a monstrous beast
My birth was when the monster was released
And whatever is done cannot change that
You can't change your nature, that is a fact

A beast I am now, a beast I shall be
Until oblivion overtakes me.
That is what I am at my very core
My heart will always ignore every lure.
No matter what, my nature will remain.
I will always be a beast nothing tames.

Let come what will, the monster will remain
And always be a beast nothing can tame.

There are miracles that cannot be,
And there are stars we cannot see.

There are wishes that cannot be granted,
And there are flowers that won't bloom when planted.

Dreams we cannot reach,
And darkness so deep that hopes won't breach...

The bell's sweet ring has come too late,
to change fate."

Sweetie Belle listened, and her heart broke. "She...she...she didn't..." The filly sank down and started crying. "Why?"

Rarity hugged her little sister, followed by the other Crusaders, her anger at the queen for hurting Sweetie, already couldn't get stronger.

Trixie grumbled. "Well...that settles that."

Fluttershy sighed. "I...I guess...but...that song."

"It was creepy."

"No...okay, yes it was...But I couldn't tell what she meant by it...well, I mean...the tone...I couldn't tell if she was boasting or...is sad."

"It's still creepy."

"...Happy or sad, we need to end this." Twilight Sparkle sighed, "She's said she's not going to stop. So we need to stop her, or there isn't going to be a future for Equestria. And hopefully, we can stop her in a way that stops the rest of her people from taking down as much of Equestria with them as they can."

"Chryssy, I'm sorry I couldn't save you," Sweetie whispered.

= Ultimate Metal Crusaders =

Twilight took a deep breath and looked at her team. "Alright! This is what we're going to do! We burned a lot of time on that! But we'll make do! Half of us are going to sleep, yes, sleep, and the other half will stand guard in case the changelings decide to knock over the board, then THAT half will rest. After that we'll have about an hour or two to get into the castle, find Shining, free him, and have him lower the barrier! We can't get in via teleportation, but now the swarm is scattered across Canterlot and we're not alone.

"Chrysalis is going to be preparing for a last stand against Princess Luna, and if she thinks this is indeed her last stand, her changelings are gonna fight thinking it's the end for them. That means we can't afford time to waste on them. I hate to suggest this, but we're going to have break down into waves again. But in reverse. Those of us good at taking on numbers or delaying the enemy will keep the swarm busy.

"I'll message our allies and tell them what we'll be doing so we can combine our efforts. With the Wonderbolts and the Gifted Unicorns, we'll at least not be a little herd against an entire army. We get Shining back, this coup's time is cut in half or more! We can't expect to just brute force our way through, so we'll have to try going in from both via the castle windows above AND below, we'll go through the sewers, or blast our way down and doing through the crystal mines! We'll also need a group to harass the security of the front gates so they can't be pulled away! I'll figure more details once we're all rested! So half of everypony get some sleep! Once we're all rested, we get Shining Armor back: THIS TIME AS A HERD!"

Almost everypony cheered.

There was a silver lining to the black cloud, the truth of things hadn't escaped beyond Canterlot, she still had changelings in key positions in Equestria's bases, and all the other runes were ready.

But the booby traps she had set for battle with Luna had been destroyed: she hadn't minded at the time, the rune was going to be done before Luna arrived, but now even with the central rune over 90% done, they had disasters to deal with. They should simply begin entrancing ponies and finish what remained of the rune...the problem was...with the trouble the ponies were causing, they were going to have to subdue Canterlot's population before they could finish. And Luna would have arrived by them. Assuming Fate didn't decide to throw more problems in her way.

This was not good. "Maua, I'm sick of this. This time everything was just perfect, the plan was going fine...then fate had to twist things to go her way. What do you think Maua? Threaten to have Shining use his force-field the way they originally ruined my people with on the defenseless normal ponies of Canterlot unless Luna backs off?...Maybe I should do it anyway, and have the changelings finish the rune. Or for spite. What do you think of that Maua?...Then they'd begin to destroy the other runes as reprisal with the farce gone? Knowing fate, it wouldn't even kill anypony and just give Luna the excuse to destroy Canterlot and me along with it. Considering Canterlot has been silent for several days, the guard will eventually begin to realize something is wrong and retake their bases, if I kill all my hostages, we'll be facing the entirety of the Equestrian military soon anyway. Is it a big joke Maua? We came so close, I took a race who was convinced they couldn't win a fight with a three-legged blind hundred year old Earth Pony with asthma, and with me they managed to undermine and pull the rug out from under the invincible Equestria. Its soldiers trained to kill nullified, most experienced guards sent to the edges of nowhere and ordered to be silent, their bases under the command of my changelings. HA! Who needs brute force when you can outsmart your enemy? And we still out number the soldiers Luna has with her.

"Too bad numbers don't mean a thing, when it's a goddess you're fighting. You know Maua? I think I could still win. I really do. After the damage she took and has been flying without rest. The ponies win against worse odds all the time, why can't we? Who I kidding?"

I lifted a wine a glass and filled it to the brim, and downed it in one gulp, and repeated the process several times, then threw the expensive piece of melted sand across the room, shattering it. It echoed across the empty room when I should have been meeting with my generals for this first and last battle against Princess Luna and her army against mine, my cunning against her brute force. But only I truly understood how pointless it was.

I had Digger Wasp in charge of Canterlot security and a high ranking, well respected general in the Guard hanging from my puppet strings. I had Shining Armor under my control. I was a Princess. And that's not even counting my infiltrators! Against Celestia's cunning had been my ultimate challenge. But all I needed was to keep this kingdom in the dark for a few days! Then the rune would be complete and it wouldn't matter when the facade fell apart! And yet a spoiled prince who my Guards should have been captured by now was the one that I apparently should have been worrying about! How could that have happened, Maua? How could one little pony throw everything off course?!...Of course, he was just a pawn of fate. We all were.

If I had more inner strength, I'd have been able to keep her from using my body to fling ALL the Guards, not just those I'm close to.

(Dusk's Notes: You already did the impossible, I've never heard of anything under so much changeling mind magic resisting like you did.)

I understood the truth, since the moment that feather brat kidnapped Sweetie, when she ruined my game with Twilight and my one surviving property. I didn't want to see it, but that pain in chest, it told me, and what I couldn't accept.

"I could still win...if fate was actually playing fair Maua. But we know fate, don't we Maua? She wants revenge. It was my destiny to die when I was born, then it was my destiny to die the night...the night we left home...then it was my destiny to die a faceless, nameless, expendable slave that would rot away and be forgotten, then to lay a broken wreck at Cocoon's hooves, then it was my destiny to be used a host body for Cocoon...THEN it was my destiny to be thrown across the landscape, recover, only to have defeat snatched from the jaws of victory, and left to slowly starve to death in my own castle with a hoofful of my subjects, the rest left to the 'mercy' of ponies who didn't see them as thinking creatures. When I took back my destiny that time, I knew fate would finally stop pretending to play fair Maua. I knew it would someday, I just hoped I'd have reached our goal before her hooves could drag me back down.

"Maua, if I rally my troops, if we make every preparation, if I strengthened myself to my peak, if I exploit every weakness in their tactics we've learned...fate won't let us win. 'The ponies must always win.' It's fate's first and final declaration Maua. Maybe Tiamat and a hundred dragons would show up. Maybe that bastard Discord would escape and wipe us out before turning his attention to the ponies only to be petrified again. Even if I absorbed the hive's love and fought him head on, the bearers would somehow find the Elements and petrify us both. Maybe I'd choke on a cherry. Maybe a dozen ponies would spontaneously become Alicorns...making my uphill battle a ritual execution. Yes Maua, this is how fate punishes those who dare defy her plans. I'm simply not allowed to win. Fate'll never allow it, even if she has to rip a hole in the universe and have an alien battle ship fall on me she won't allow it...She won't let anyling defy her script Maua. We're doomed. I'm...sorry I dragged you into this, I'm so sorry. You and Sweet Belle would have gotten along so well." I dragged myself from the throne and looked at the sky, tinted by my property's force field, of course Shining made no reaction to anything I was doing, I had sealed off his self-determination again. It didn't matter. I'll lose him just before the end, fate wouldn't allow anything else.

I swore I heard Cocoon laughing at me from Tartarus: 'See? I told you we should have just hidden and never seen the light of day.' I still hate that fat slug so much. If there were a way to kill a soul, it'd almost be worth it to go to Tartarus just to have the chance. Heh...Well, at least I'll have one victory...regardless of how today ends, that's two satisfactions I will have: I proved myself that worthless slug's better in ever conceivable way, and my Changelings left their mark on history. Nopony will forget today. I'd rather be remembered as defeated monster than forgotten as the Queen of race that died cowering away in the depths of the planet.

I look at the letter little Sweetie Belle sent me after she was kidnapped. They must have brainwashed her. Sweetie liked me, she'd never turn on me willingly, right? Sweetie I'm sorry.

"So Maua, what do you think the clouds look like today? I think that one looks like my cutie mark, just like that first cloud we saw together, remember? Yes the weather was nice that day."

"YOUR MAJESTY!" Goliath Beetle banged down the doors, "I must insist! Our orders! What are our orders?! The situation changes by the minute, the Night Alicorn is nearer by the minute! We fear that Canterlot's complete silence will make the ponies and the guard outside the city suspicious! How are we to prepare?!"

"...Your brother continued to fail to protect his queen Goliath, but he never once panicked, or was unable to make his own decisions. He refused to quit. He'd rather die standing before he panicked and ran with his tail between his legs, that is something you should learn from him."

"Y-Yes Your Majesty!"

"...Fate sentenced us that regardless of any choice we make, she will throw whatever impossibility she must at us to insure the ponies remain the world's masters." I look my general in those disgusting changeling eyes of his, made more so by his cowardice, "One last gamble. One last move. I will turn fate's will AGAINST HER! And none shall control my destiny ever again! Yes Maua it's risky, but if this is fate's game, I'll end it on MY terms! Goliath Beetle, rally the troops, tell them that the time to defeat destiny has come!"

"And...and we'll finally have a place where we can be in our true forms, and feel the sun on our faces?"

"Yes...I have brought you all this far my changelings...prepare yourselves, this will be our final battle." 'And the final performance of Queen Chrysalis.'

"Twilight, the changeling guards are building themselves up along Canterlot's walls," Rainbow Dash reported.

"They're preparing to fight Princess Luna. Good news for us, that means less at the castle."

"Assuming Chrysalis and Shining are still in the castle," Trixie said.

Sweetie Belle shook her head, "Chryssy's been working on her plan to own that castle longer than we've been alive. She won't leave it as long as she's breathing. And she won't let Shining Armor of her sight."

"She did before," Trixie said.

"That's because she was trying to get me back."

"Sadly we still have no idea where Princess Celestia is, she could be in the crystal mine for all we know."

"Nu-uh, Chryssy's magic sent her up."

"Great, one of the towers, and we'll never be able to search all of them in the time we have," Twilight Sparkle sighed. "Which is why she did it, we could get into the mines easier than those."

"Chryssy was upset that The Princess wasn't changing her mind or turning into a changeling."

"That's a relief at least." Twilight momentarily whispered, "Teacher, I'm sorry. So we have the strike time synchronized? Good. This isn't a movie and we aren't going to get any reshoots. So everypony, be ready, even if this doesn't manage to finish this, it'll bring it much closer to the end."

"Can't we just clobber the witch, THEN save your brother?" Fluttercruel asked.

"We can't just blindly rush Chrysalis' might," Moth stated, gravely.

"Yeah yeah, she beat The Princess, but she tricked her."

"NO! Listen!" Moth said, then gave a sigh. "You know how Chrysalis became Queen? She killed and ate our previous Queen, Cocoon."

Twilight frowned. "She assassinated her?"

"No. She fought her. I wasn't born until after, but I've heard the stories. Cocoon wasn't a competent ruler, but she wouldn't have stayed queen if she was weak. Kabuto bragged about the modifications Cocoon had him do to her to make her able to become a living weapon that Kabuto said 'could kill a dragon'. Chrysalis still killed her. The Changeling Queen HAS to be powerful or she wouldn't stay Queen. You saw what she was like in the fight at the castle when we rescued Sweetie Belle. She didn't just stay back as her guards protected her. She fought and could any of us beat her head on?"

Twilight thought about it. "No. Screwball, Soarin', Fleetfoot, and me all tried and none of us could. Tartarus...I zapped her twice in the chest and once in the head and she still survived. The only reason she didn't impale me on her horn was Trixie shot her with lightning from above."

"Hate tah say it, but that witch is built like a battleship," Applejack hyperboled.

"Well, at least we know spiritual attacks hurt her," Twilight replied. "And we've still got mine and Trixie's strongest spells, Cadence, and Dash's Sonic Rainboom if we could give her a chance to use it."

(Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus) Really wish we hadn't lost the notes for that big fight.)

"She's not the only one we need to worry about," said Moth. "Hercules Beetle isn't on Chrysalis' level, but he's not as high ranked as he is without being dangerous. We put a lot of value on strength and skill, so it's only natural that higher rank means more strength. Hercules has a reputation ever since he failed Cocoon as having become a 'living wall' between invaders and our queen."

"Can you give any details?" Twilight asked.

"I was a gatherer, not a soldier, it wasn't something I needed or wanted to know. Digger Wasp and Kabuto were apparently bad news too, so we're lucky they seem gone for now."

"Does Chrysalis have any weakness?"

"She's a changeling, an exceptionally powerful Changeling, but still a Changeling. The other gathers told me she's a love guzzler."

"What?"

"Love guzzler: means anyling with a high love intake, but normally a higher power level. Chrysalis burns through love quite quickly. That's another reason freeing Shining is important. Once cut off from her battery, Chrysalis' supercharge should go away if we force her to burn through her reserves."

"How strong is Chrysalis without it?"

"...She didn't have one when she killed Cocoon, but she's not nearly as strong as The Princesses. Could you beat a dragon?"

"Twilight beat an Ursa Minor," said Trixie. "And now Trixie is on par with her, so I imagine between the two of us we could manage that, if just barely."

"Then you might be a match for her. You've just got to wear her down. She has to share other Changeling weaknesses when she's not supercharged, so blunt force over sharp attacks would be best."

"Ah noticed while Ah was tryin' tah fight her control," Applejack said. "She never seemed tah like being called an amateur, made her real mad real fast. And Ah think Ah figured out a couple other truths she ain't gonna like hearing."

+

Twilight had said this was going to be the showdown, and if there was anything anypony wanted to get off their chest or share, they should do it now.

Silver Spoon asked, "Sweetie Belle...are you sure you want to help this way?" She put a hoof on the white filly's shoulder. "After...after what the queen did to you. It's alright if you don't want to. You can help Miss Bon Bon and Miss Minuette if you want instead."

"...First off, I tried to help Bon Bon cook a little already and I ended up almost catching the floor on fire."

"...Don't you mean the ceiling? You were using an oven."

"I wish I meant the ceiling...and apparently mom's style of cooking doesn't work well with magic candy."

"Sweetie Belle, what I'm saying is...what happened to you was awful...you shouldn't...you shouldn't have to be near those, creatures, again. You can help and stay OUT of danger too."

"I don't want to see ponies OR changelings get hurt...we're gonna be keeping changelings out of the big fight, so that means less fighting, and that means less creatures hurt."

"Girls," Spike said, to the assembled CMC, the herd having broken down into its subgroups. "I know you're...excited about being a part of things but...I'm a dragon, I'm a lot tougher than I look. But you girls...look, you've been saying to me and Silver Spoon how we need to accept that we're still young. But what about you? Is taking part in this really something foals should do? This isn't a game. I've taken risks with your girls before, believe me I have the bruises to prove it (and I'm a dragon, so that's saying something), but you're going INTO danger. That's a different story. I know I'm not one to talk, but you girls think you're invincible but you're not. Think how your sisters will feel if something happens, these changelings aren't going to play NICE."

"...Chryssy doesn't want me dead. I know she doesn't. That'll give us some protection..."

"That doesn't mean they can't suck you dry! They don't need to brainwash you for that!"

"But Chryssy doesn't want me sucked dry. If I'm sucked dry I'd mean nothing to her."

Spike shook his head violently, "It's not JUST YOU Sweetie! It's about ALL of you! Applebloom! Scootaloo! Silver Spoon! Just because they want to give YOU to the queen undamaged doesn't mean a thing to the rest of us! Believe me! A dragon doesn't care if he crushes a mountain as long as the jewel he's after is in one piece!"

"...Then I'll protect them if they want to come."

"How?"

"...The magic Chryssy taught me."

"And when your mana's gone? Using freaky black magic? And Sweetie, what IF the changelings catch you? We aren't any value to them! You think they'll play nice just because we're YOUR friends? I'm sorry, it doesn't work that way."

"Enough!" Scootaloo yelled. "It's Sweetie's choice if she wants to do this, it's our choice if we want to risk ourselves. And Applejack and Twilight already had this talk with me and Applebloom. We both decided we're going to do this then. We know they're not going to play nice...but just because we're foals doesn't mean we have to play nice either."

"...Sunnytown wasn't a cake walk, Spike. Those ponies didn't play nice. At all. They'd killed Ruby by burnin' her tah death...and they were gonna kill meh and make meh one of 'em...but yah know what? Ah'd gladly go back there if somepony Ah cared about were in trouble...and right now, all of Canterlot is...including mah cousins. Ah don't know where Ellis is and Ah pray he's alive from gettin' flung by Shining's spell. But that leaves two cousins Ah don't know where they are. Apple Fritter and Peachy Sweet were in the kitchen with AJ, but they couldn't find 'em after the Changelings took over. So only thin' Ah can guess is they're in the castle somewhere. And the only way Ah know if they're safe is if we stop the Changelings...And besides, if we don't stop the Changelings? Ah don't want 'em tah be in danger if Luna and Chrysalis go at it either."

"What about you Silver Spoon?" Spike asked.

Silver Tongue said suddenly looming over the smaller silver pony. "If I thought I could keep her here, out of harm's way, if I didn't think you little imps wouldn't just break her out to go headlong into danger, I'd order her to stay here. In spite of the armor, I am no longer a guard, I retired, I'm a father. That doesn't mean I'm going to act like this isn't my problem, I didn't join the Guard for the perks, I joined it because I wanted to protect ponies. That's who I am. But what it does mean is this: my first loyalty isn't to the princesses, but the little princess right in front of me. Silver Spoon, for teaching you to make friends again, to reach out and touch the world again, your friends will always have my gratitude. Just don't even expect my forgiveness for them making you one who'd put yourself in danger like this."

"...Daddy...I don't think they taught me that..." Silver looked back at her Cutie Mark.

"I was a Guard, I went through years of discipline and training. I had it drilled into me what the consequences were of my actions, for myself and others, both my friends and my enemies."

"...I earned my mark helping you at that charity, do you remember?...I liked doing that...but Diamond never cared to listen to me talk about it...so I buried it and let myself be the nice little spoiled filly...But today...after helping save Spike...I realized I like not caring about me for a change...I liked clapping for Granny Smith in class...I like that feeling of making somepony else happy without thinking 'what's in it for me'...It feels like a part of me...And I don't want to bury it again."

"If anything happens to you, all of you is going to end up buried, Silver Spoon. That's the reality foals can't, and must not be forced to see. But here we are. I am your father, if I let you go, and anything happens to you, I'm responsible for it, I'm responsible for you, do you think your mother will ever forgive me?"

"No. But do you think if I didn't go with the others and something happened to them, I'd ever forgive myself?...I still feel like I could have stopped Diamond from running away somehow daddy if I'd just been there for her...and that was a friend that the last time I saw her she'd hurt me...Sweetie and the others are friends I don't know what I'd do without."

"I'm the adult. It's my responsibility to protect those weaker than me. Not yours."

"...Maybe some day I want it to be mine...I don't know what I want to be when I grow up yet, but...right now, I know that to me, helping ponies just feels right, that's what this whole stupid mess has taught me...Daddy...you became a guard because you wanted to protect ponies, not the other way around...would you ever forgive yourself if you stayed behind while Mr. and Mrs. Rich went into something dangerous and something happened to them?"

"I was a guard, I made that choice to become one..." Silver Tongue sighed. He struck Silver Spoon. Then it took her a moment to realize he hadn't, he had stopped a tiny bit before touching her, she had fallen backwards in surprise. "You're still just a filly, you say you finally know that, but you don't understand it. I'm sorry Silver Spoon, I failed you again."

"...Daddy...I want to be a foal...I really do...but I can't be a foal while an invasion is happening...And if the Changelings aren't stopped, I might never get the chance...we might never get the chance...I don't want to fight Changelings head on. I never intended to...We're good at planning. Back when we rescued Spike, we didn't take those Changeling guards head on, we outsmarted them. Alone, we aren't very tough. But together...we're smart. We might seem like a bunch of crazy foals...and well...we kind of are...but when we're serious, I think we can be a big help...When this is over, we'll go back to being foals. But right now...we need to help stop the Changelings...if we don't, we might not have a future to risk...And momma might not be safe either."

"..." Silver Tongue sighed and walked away to be near Cadence to go over his part in the strike.

"He really really cares about you," Sweete Belle said.

"...I know...that's probably why the monster who turns ponies against what means the most to them had him try to kill me...Daddy loves me...I know that now…I just want this to be over so I can go back to showing him how much I love him back."

"Don't worry, ya will." Said Applebloom putting a hoof on Silver Spoon's shoulder. "We're gonna make it through."

"'Cause kids are invincible?" Spike asked drolly.

"No! Because we're the Cutie Mark Crusaders, we look out for each other, and we ARE little imps!" Applebloom grinned in a way that was almost a little scary, "And we're gonna show them changelings how impish we can really be!"

'Those fillies all have such good hearts.Pity, they had SO MUCH potential! Oh well. Easy come, easy go. I have my REAL PRIZE right here.'

"Yes dad."

"You're an Apple, that's for sure...but you're right, we watch each other's back," Spike said, giving a small smile. "So if you see any fire coming? Get behind me."

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Applebloom said.

"Hey, aren't Pegasi immune to lightning or something?" Scootaloo asked.

"You don't know?" Silver Spoon asked.

"My parents...kinda forgot to talk about it."

"Not immune, they're resistant, especially when their magic is awake," Spike said. "Which yours is now. But you're still a filly, so it'd take a lot less to kill you than a grown up."

"But I can still take a lightning bolt better than you guys, right?"

"...Yeah."

"...Then if one of us absolutely has to take a lightning bolt, I'll try and make it me, okay?"

"So uh...where does the lightning bolts come from?" Applebloom asked.

"I uh...just wanted to say how I could help too," Scootaloo was forced to admit.

"Yah can still fly, so there's that. And Ah'm real strong."

"And Chryssy awakened my magic," Sweetie said, using her telekinesis.

"Yeah, yeah we covered that already," Scootaloo said. "Let's stop spinning our wheels and get goin'!"

Four hooves and one claw together, "Cutie Mark Crusaders Heroes! Yay!"

+

"There you are, Twilight!" The purple Element of Magic looked up from her notes to find herself surrounded by ponies, but not her fellow Elements. She was face to face with four of her former classmates, the gifted unicorns forming a circle around her..."Moondancer is having a little get-together in the west castle courtyard. You wanna come?" Twinkle Shine spoke.

Twilight looked confused at each of her fellow unicorn mare and magic student. "W-what? What are you talking about?"

Twinkle Shine rolled her eyes with an annoyed sigh. "You don't remember at all do you?"

"Remember what?"

"Lyra even says she remembers seeing you running past her and Amethyst Star like it was the end of the world."

"End of the..."

"When you last laid eyes on me, Minuette, and Lemon Hearts as fellow students instead of teammates? Two years ago?"

"W-what did we talk about? Wait, Lemon Hearts and Minuette were with you?"

Minuette cleared her throat. "Yes. I believe we were," the pony with a talent for time said, repositioning herself, Twinkleshine, and Lemon Hearts so Twinkle Shine was in the center, Lemon Hearts to her left, and Minuette herself to her right. "Does this, wait." she moved Lemon Hearts over a couple of inches and took a small step to the left. "There. Does this look familiar now?"

Twilight looked at them, like she was trying to remember a dream. "I..."

Twinkle Shine sighed, "I guess you really were more interested in books than friends."

Twilight startled. "Wait! I remember now! That...that was...That was after I read about the origin of Nightmare Moon and was running back to my room for more information...and that was when I sent my letter to Princess Celestia, and she told me to stop reading dusty old books, and told me to go to Ponyville to oversee the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville, she included that I was to make some friends, but I wasn't really...interested...in...that..."

Twinkle Shine looked a bit sad. "I know you might not have been able to attend anyway but..."

"I was kinda in the middle of trying to save the world," Twilight meekly defended.

"And the time before that? And the time before that?" Lemon Hearts asked.

"Twilight...If you'd come to any of those last ones...you could have met Sunset The Pegasus," Twinkle Shine muttered sadly. "I wanted you to meet her because she was trying to get used to Canterlot and meet ponies there that wouldn't look down on her because she wasn't a unicorn, but you almost never left the school and she wasn't a student."

"Who's Suntset?"

"Cadence's third hoof maiden," said Minuette with the same sad tone as Twinkle Shine. "And our friend."

"...Could I meet her-"

"She's gone, Twilight."

"Gone? What do you..." Twilight 's eyes widened in horror at the look in Twinkle Shine and Minuette's eyes...it wasn't sadness, it was loss. "You mean she's..."

The two hoof maidens nodded.

"Now I'll never have the chance."

"All ANY OF US ever wanted Twilight was for you to come out of your shell," Moon Dancer said. "Spike did, why couldn't you?"

"I always saw myself as too busy, friends just seemed like nonsense. A distraction. Something that just ate up time that I could be with my books instead."

"And now?" Twinkle Shine asked seriously. "Looking back on it?"

"...I might have still not tried to socialize, I just...never tried to connect with ponies outside my family, even before I became Celestia's student."

The hoofmaidens all looked at each other.

"Pay up," Moon Dancer said.

The other unicorns gave the unicorn a few bits.

"W-what?" Twilight asked confused, in so many minutes.

Minuette confessed, "We kinda had a tiny tinny bet going on whether or not you didn't socialize because you thought you were better than us."

"And only one of you thought I wasn't?!"

Twinkle Shine waved her hooves. "I'm sorry! Our opinions have changed a lot since then, but we never called the bet off! We all kinda forgot about it, given all the weirdness your brother kept attracting. I'm surprised Moon Dancer didn't."

"When you were away with Cadence, and Amethyst Star moved away, I remembered you girls a lot, that bet was part of it."

Twinkle Shine nuzzled her, "Thanks, it's nice to know you think about us." She looked back at the purple unicorn, "Twilight, the point is, is that we ALL would have happily accepted you as a friend. Not because you were Celestia's student, but because we wanted to get to know you."

"That day...it wasn't just the day I left Ponyville, was it? It was...the day you girls left on Cadence's world tour."

"Three of us did." Twinkle Shine said, "Lemon Hearts and Moon Dancer stayed in Canterlot."

"You wanted me to be your friend right up until you left for two years."

"And kinda started the moment we got back...well, we tried, but we couldn't really leave Canterlot with a wedding to plan...even before this happened..."

"Twilight," Moon Dancer said, "We know you already have your own herd. And the six of you are connected in...in a way we can't be...the night you saved the world from a thousand year old legend, you can't replicate a bond like that. I don't know the specifics, but if Fluttercruel and Trixie are Bearers too like they said, you have to have the same kind of bond with them."

"Fighting Nightmare Whisper I guess..."

"But that just proves the point...it's not an easy bond to replicate...I can't say I wouldn't have just panicked and run away when I saw Nightmare Moon. But Twilight...what I'm trying to say is..."

"Would you like to get to know each of us too?" Twinkle Shine asked. "Not as classmates, or anything, just as ponies. And yes, I know we're saving the world together right now, but that's not what I mean...I mean when the queen gets hers and everything is said and done...can we please just be friends?"

"...if I've learned anything these last two years, ponies don't just choose to become friends, becoming friends happens, we can try, we can put effort into it, but whether ponies become friends or not, doesn't just instantly happen. Even if it was only a day, I still needed time to bond with the others...so yes, I'd love to put the effort into getting to know each of you too!...there's no rule that says I have to be friends with just other Elements. And I would have done my hardest to become friends with Trixie with or without a second Element of Magic, in a way it might have made things EASIER, Moon Dancer." She hugged Moon Dancer. "And that goes for each of you. Twinkle Shine. Lemon Hearts. Minuette. I'd like to be a part of your herd too."

"FINALLY!" Lemon Hearts exasperated.

"About time," Minuette said.

Minuette put just hoof over her chest and did a slow breath out. "I guess in the end, I should be just happy that you DID finally come out of your shell. Congratulations Twilight!...Just wait till you hear all the juicy gossip we have on Cadence and Shining."

Twilight grinned. "Tell me more."

+

"...Um...girls?" Trixie asked, looking a bit awkward as she approached the others.

"Yes, Trixie?" asked Rarity, looking over to the mare. "...What's wrong?"

"Well...nothing particularly...it's just that...well..." Trixie said, looking down. "...I..." she then mubbled something.

"What was that?"

"Um...well...Trixie missed you girls..."

"What?"

"TRIXIE MISSED YOU GIRLS!" she finally forced herself to spit out...in a copy of the Royal Canterlot Voice. Trixie blinked, looking at everypony in the room staring. Fluttershy had dived for cover behind Rainbow Dash. "Carry on with your individual moments...Trixie is having hers."

"Awwww!" Pinkie Diane hugged Trixie, "I missed you too! I miss all my friends when they're away, and-oops! Now that you're just-"

"No Pinkie, it's fine." Trixie sighed, actually ENJOYING the hug, "Trixie is done needing everything to be about her."

"No no no no," Pinkie Diane continued, "All my friends are special in THEIR way, and I think we've covered that only a bijillion times by now."

"And more importantly, I'm happy to hear that you missed my company, Trixie isn't, isn't used to that. Trixie truly missed your company as well. "

"Shuck Trix', you're always welcome." AJ patted her on the shoulder, "If ya wanted ta visit Ponyville ya coulda just dropped by or us ta visit Hoofington, ya just coulda said so."

"Trixie is...not used to having friends to invite, and isn't used to the idea of returning to places she has been before besides her...where she was born."

"Dear I'm...well, may I ask inspired this?" Rarity asked feeling awkward.

Trixie sighed. "Trixie...the first time I saw you since I left outside of a meeting with Twilight... half of you almost...and I almost died myself...I was afraid I'd never see you I don't want to take our friendship for granted ever again."

"Feels nice having friends after being by your lonesome for so long doesn't it?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes it does," Trixie said, daring to nuzzle Rainbow Dash. The pegasus didn't pull away.

"And I'm guessing sharing your feelings instead of keeping up the Great and Powerful facade in front of the crowds and off stage feels strange," Rainbow Dash added.

"Trixie isn't sure of her real feelings sometimes. The cheer of the crowds, they were proof Trixie existed, and well...we've been over this before too haven't we?"

"Believe me, sometimes you gotta learn a lesson more than once," Rainbow Dash said.

"Trixie, fer the record, we gotcha, heck, all of mah friends put their lives on hold just so they could keep me company when Ah was deliverin' a tree to Appleloosa. We weren't together fer any reason other than just bein' there together!"

"I think it's wonderful," Fluttershy said finally coming out, "You're finally willing to admit your feelings Trixie! It just shows you really care about us! You've grown up Trixie, it's something to be proud of!"

"Glad to hear you want to hang out more," Fluttercruel added. "Me, mom, and Pink were planning to invite you to see one of those big epic fantasy movies when one comes. I wanted to invite you to a horror movie with me and Rainbow, but Pink said you probably wouldn't like it."

"She knows me well," Trixie said.

"I know all my friends well!" Pinkie Diane said, again, Trixie made no protest.

"I'm not afraid."

"Afraid of what dear?" Rarity asked.

"I'm not afraid that I'm dying."

"Well, we are about to go into battle and-"

"Not what I meant. When, when I began to change after Twilight helped me, I began to feel scared: that I was ceasing to exist, that I'd die, and there would just be a different pony there to take my place who happened to have my memories."

Pinkie sighed, "Trixie, I can't say how, but I do know that feeling."

"What you just said right now...Trixie didn't mind being called part of 'all your friends.' But Trixie isn't afraid she's dying either. Maybe I died already and didn't notice."

"No way sugarcube," Applejack said, "Trust me, who ya are, and who ya were, is STILL who ya are! Ya did a lotta selfish things, and ya learned ta be a better pony, but Ah swear on mah ma and pa's graves, it's all part of the same road!"

"Dear, ponies have been debating for centuries, if whether you replaced a dress' emeralds with rubies, then replace the ruffles with ribbons, then dye it a new color, then redo the stitch work, then replace each thread over years of repair, if it is still that same dress or not. If you can look back on what you did, and recognize that pony as yourself, then you know you haven't died, you've just grown older and wiser, same as everypony."

"And if you say 'What were you thinking?!' to your past self, that just means you're a lot smarter now," Pinkie added cheerfully.

"Then Trixie...I really don't have to be afraid of dying and not being afraid."

"Group hug!"

Trixie did not protest the hug.

"Fluttercruel?"

"Yes Trixie?"

"If we win the day, Gypsy The Great And Good is coming out in a couple weeks...Trixie would love to see that with as many of you who'd want to go."

"That story wouldn't happen to be based on an ancestor of yours would it?"

"Trixie honestly has no idea...But given her family's rhyming names, it would not surprise her. My teacher suggested my stage name -after- meeting my family....Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash...in case Trixie ever forgot to say it: I'm sorry for rubbing your faces in it when we first met."

"Are you still going on about that?" Rarity asked.

"Darlin', Ah think we're all past that now," AJ said.

"Ah, if ya did that ta me, I wouldn't have minded, it was just a show right?" Pinkie Pie said.

"If you'd done it to me I'd...probably have ran away crying...but I'd have forgiven you!" Fluttershy added. "...I definitely would have."

"...You're a saint Fluttershy," Trixie said.

"Apology accepted," Rainbow Dash said, "And seriously Trix', ya wanna hang out or have us visit, nothin's stoppin' either, just drop us a line."

"I understand. Thank you. And girls, Trixie is happy to know you consider her a friend, not simply Twilight's friend."

"Hey!" Trixie felt a weight on her back. She turned around to see:

"Spike? How did you-" She saw that orange filly above her smirking.

"What are friends for? Not liking being just a 'friend of a friend?' Now I'm creeped out at not hating to admit that I can relate."

"And I can relate to that." Trixie nuzzled the dragon.

"Dears, I..." Lemon Hearts looked at her familiars. "I don't know if you'll all survive this fight."

She sat down and pet one of the Baby Angry Lemons. "I've never liked ponies who would just use their familiars as disposable things...that just seemed to go against the idea of making a living thing...I am grateful for every risk you've taken for me...I'm grateful to my original Angry Mother Lemon for sacrificing herself...But now we're heading for the end of this fight...the big fight...I'm scared...So...it's up to you, Angry Lemons...I'm not going to order you to fight with me this time. It's up to you."

The Lemons looked up at her in confusion.

"I know...its odd being told you have a choice. Familiars aren't used to being allowed to decide whether or not they want to do something their master desires...but I'm your creator...your mother...I'd be a bad one to force you into this fight...So, what do you want to do?"

The faceless fruits looked at each each, and at Angry Papa Lemon, before finally turning around and all gathered around Lemon Hearts and hugging her.

"Thank you," Lemon Hearts whispered, "I couldn't ask for greater loyalty. I love you too. And I've been preparing an extra special surprise ever since we got holed up here, I was actually already working on it a little before but didn't have a big reason to finish...I think you'll like her."

+

"Lyra?"

"Yes princess," Lyra knelt before her.

"Please get up get, and just call me Cadence...Lyra, I'll happily have you as one of my bride's maids when I have my wedding. And I'm eternally grateful for the help your family has given and for helping save us at the wedding hall. And I promise you that as long as I have a say, Moth will be protected and able to remain with you and Bon Bon as long as she and you desire."

"But?"

Bon Bon and Moth looked her way.

"I am not saying ordinary ponies can't do extraordinary things, you've ALREADY done so, you've helped in two rescues, three counting my own, even if not all of them went as planned. But Lyra, you're a musician, not a warrior, I know the Elements are the same, but they've had experience your family hasn't had. Lemon Hearts, Moon, Minny, and Twinkle are all Gifted Unicorns. And while you do have some powerful spells and are no less unique, you don't have their power or training. Moth has admitted she was a gatherer, not a warrior, and Bon Bon is a cook, not a soldier."

"Please, if you're going to say it, don't go in circles, Princess...please."

"Lyra I don't want you to risk yourself. Isn't it true you have a foal waiting for you back in Ponyville? What if you didn't come back, or only came back without being able to love her anymore?"

"We're already sending foals out among love-eating-" She looked at Moth, "I mean, against invaders who have had the same training as royal guards, two of those foals don't even have their cutie marks, and one who didn't have theirs when this started. And you're going to say a unicorn whose proven her magic can pack a punch is better off not getting more involved?"

"The fillies are a special case."

"She has a point Lyra, those fillies do have a talent to make disasters, now they can make them for the changelings," Bon Bon sadly admitted.

"Whose side are you on?"

"Yours."

"You think I can't look after myself?"

"Lyra, what's happened in the fights you've been in?"

"Applejack's on our side now."

"And the fight before that? When we tried to help Rainbow and Pinkie?"

"I just got swarmed, that's all. Bon Bon I can protect you! And Moth: all your talk about how our love is giving you a steady stream while they've lost theirs! I won't make the same mistakes!"

"...I'll admit Lyra, I can do more without having to worry about running out...but I won't have any advantage at the beginning of the battle, Lyra...they'd not only still be fully charged, they're warriors, I'm not...It'd only be after they burned out it'd give me an advantage because then they'd tire and I wouldn't...but then...if you're there, which you'd have to be...but...Princess, permission to speak freely?"

"Given, Moth."

"...I do think we could help...but maybe not as direct warriors...I don't think we're useless here...I just think we shouldn't be on the front lines."

"No," Lyra whispered, "I'm...Bon Bon, remember that nightmare I told you about? That I was a Canterlot pony, I came to Ponyville, only to get cursed by Nightmare Moon, unable to leave Ponyville, everypony forgot I existed, nopony recognized me, then forgot about me once I was out of sight, any trace of me just vanishing, then I got worse from Discord,...then I died, my cutie mark having vanished, all alone, forgetting myself in the end too...all because the help I gave would vanish if I was remembered...I get we're all forgotten some day but, our actions are left, but...OUR FRIENDS are supposed to always remember us! I..." Lyra looked scared, her eyes misting, "I don't want to be...I HELPED SAVE YOU PRINCESS! Doesn't that mean I'm good enough?"

"You took them by surprise, then we ran, we didn't fight them Lyra," Bon Bon said.

"I had a nightmare a lot like that once," Moth admitted.

"Lyra...if you're going in there with the express purpose of leaving a mark, that's even more reason NOT TO. Somepony looking to do something important is going to be reckless. A great thing shouldn't be for it's own sake."

"Princess...I promise...my sound magic isn't as strong as yours...I know...but please, I can still fight at a distance, all these ponies around here want to take risks, can't you let me? Please?"

Cadence looked at the unicorn in front of her closely. "Lyra...Why do you feel you need to do this? If it is to be remembered, you already will be...I'm immortal, and my memory will never fade. I swear as long as I live, I will never forget you. If it's to protect your family, why do you feel you need to fight for that?"

"Because...In my nightmare...I was willing to give up the chance to be remembered so all the good I did would remain...I don't just want to be remembered because of that nightmare...I want to do good because that nightmare shows me how good I could really be...how selfless I could be...I don't just want to sit on the sidelines this time...I want to help make a difference and keep doing it...whether I'll be remembered for it or not."

Bon Bon said, "Lyra, I swear, I won't forget you, even if I live to be a thousand, and if the world itself is rewritten, I won't forget you. Not ever."

Cadence put on her Princess Cadenza face, "And you think you'll be BETTER GOOD on the front lines among more experienced fighters and spell users, putting yourself in that danger, adding to those numbers, than helping Bon Bon and protecting her while she works?"

"...Moth could be a bigger help as the Changelings start getting worn down...but to do it, she'd need me there...And...I can fight long range...Bon Bon needs to stay near a kitchen to make her candy, and I'm a better fighter than she is...if one of us needs to power up Moth, it needs to be me...And we need all the help that we can get."

Cadence seemed to have a look of realization. "You know one of you needs to help keep Moth strong and you'd rather it be you than Bon Bon. That's part of it, isn't it?"

"Yes...the other part is I don't have a support role here...being a fighter is the only way I can think to help. I can't make magic candy, I'm not a healer. I can't power anyone but Moth up with my music if it works that way...fighting is all I know I can do."

"Lyra...so you still accept me as part of our family?" Moth asked.

Lyra turned to her. "Yes...I admit, it shook me at first...But you've not acted any different than the pony I've known all this time...even if it turns out you're not Bon Bon's biological sister...I don't think you're any less a sister to me or her...you're still the Moth I've known. I don't care what you are, Moth...you're family."

Moth's eyes filled with tears. "T-Thank you, Lyra...I love you too..." she said, then chuckled a little. "I...I don't feel sick showing that anymore...I haven't in a while now...it feels good."

Lyra hugged her. "I'm glad."

Cadence looked at Lyra closely. "How good of a musician are you?"

"Very...or so I'm told. I'm good enough to play some of Octavia's works. And I'm well-known."

Cadence gave a thoughtful, serious look. A part of her calling out, guiding her. "If I taught you a song and its corresponding spell that would let you be in a support and noncombat, but still important role, one I myself would fill if it weren't for being needed on the front lines, would you take it?"

"...Yes...if it will let me help."

Cadence nodded and followed the instinct that seemed written into her very being. She touched her horn to one of Lyra's shoulders, then the other, then horn. Lyra felt something between a rush of energy and sudden inspiration.

"Then Lyra Heartstrings, I, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza Equestria...soon to be Sparkle, the 14th, Concept of Music, knight you as my Champion of Music," Cadence said, then created a beautiful white and pink harp out of her magic. "Now...I will teach you one of my songs. This song is meant to increase the Harmony between the ponies on our side, but not the enemy. With this song, I ask you to galvanize our side of this battle from a safe distance. Do you accept this duty?"

Lyra was dumbstruck for a moment, then nodded and bowed. "Yes, Princess...you play the harp?"

"In a way of speaking, I am the harp...now listen closely and do what I do."

Lyra summoned her own magically generated harp. She followed the notes of the Princess of Harmony and Music. At first it was difficult, then she fell into tune and followed perfectly. The second time through she was playing closely behind Cadence...the third was a duet between the Goddess of Music and her chosen Champion. The notes resonating and enhancing the harmony between everypony in the room.

Bon Bon and Moth stared in awe. "Lyra...that was beautiful." the Earth Pony replied.

Lyra smiled, looking to her family and hugging them. "Thanks. I promise I'll be careful out there...Moth, make sure to hang back until you see the Changelings begin to wear themselves down, alright?"

Moth nodded. "I will."

Bon Bon looked serious. "Both of you, Pinkie Promise me you'll watch yourselves, not rush into danger out there, alright?"

"Cross our hearts, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in our eyes."

Bon Bon nodded. "Then I'll do what I'm best at...but Lyra...if you do something rash and impulsive, I'll never forgive you."

"Believe me...I won't."

Cadence smiled, then floated her own harp to Lyra as the hug broke up. "Take it."

Lyra stared at the instrument. "Me?"

"You're my Champion...even if I don't understand fully what that means...I think it's right you have a physical representation of my blessing...it will boost your magic music further...prove that I was right to choose you, Lyra."

Lyra gave a bow as she took the harp. "...I will, Princess."

Moth and Bon Bon bowed, both resolving to do all they could.

'Shining, please, just wait a tiny bit longer, Twilight and I will be there very soon. We'll get you back, and we'll save Equestria together. This nightmare will finally be over...and we'll finally have our Canterlot Wedding. You and I, Shining. And all our friends and family!

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by Alex Warlorn
Sad Little Lost Chance

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-WeddingArc-Misfit-Vs-Kabuto-Pt-2-459005797

Next Chapter:

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (need to be kept up to date . . . please?).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions.

And if anyone wants to write a what-if story where the story diverges from this point with Chrysalis giving a different answer (And Sweetie Belle being the Fluttershy to Chrysalis' Discord of "Keep Calm and Flutter On"), go right ahead. It's ironic, this is one of the few chapters that of late I feel GUILTY about from an emotional point of view.

Episode 193: Into the Witch's Den

"Twilight darling, before we set off, there is something I'd like to show you girls," Rarity said proudly as she pulled the drap from over a bundle she had brought up from the church's basement.

"Oh, oh my," Fluttershy whispered.

"Cool," Rainbow said.

"Well ain't this somethin'," AJ commented.

"This'll be fun!" Pinkie Pie cheered.

"Rarity when...when did you have a chance to do this?" Twilight whispered.

"While you were resting darling. I know I was supposed to be standing watch with the others and I was, there is nothing to say I can't multi-task dear." Twilight remembered Rarity's unparalleled ability to control multiple objects via telekinesis at once and didn't doubt her friend. "I sadly didn't have time to make one for everypony, but I did have time to finish one for most of us. Pinkie Pie, I'm sorry I only completed part of yours."

"It's okay Rarity, I'm gonna fight best without it. It'll only slow me down," Pinkie Pie said putting on the piece of barding resembling the saddle for a merry go round horse.

"Rarity, custom armor?" Twilight asked. Indeed, each of the suits of guard armor was engraved with their cutie mark, and now matched their color scheme as well. Each one had been totally remade as to barely resemble royal guard armor, and was missing the helmets. The one with Dash's symbol had zig-zag plating but still streamlined to prevent drag, while Fluttershy's overlapped and was shaped like like butterfly wings. Applejack's back and leg armor was etched to resembled cowpony leather while Rarity's was patterned like jewels, and Twilight's crisscrossed plating created a star map.

"I found the suits of guard armor in the basement, seems they were stored here and just forgotten about."

"Sounds about right," said Silver Axe. "Old design. There's always a surplus of armor, since new recruits come all the time. It's likely when this design was retired, the spares were stored down here just because it was open after putting some in the museum and other display places."

"Rarity? Why?" Twilight asked.

"Well first, this is our first time really going into full out battle knowing we are, so a little extra protection won't hurt. But...that's not the reason. We're not a bunch of faceless goons...we're heroes whether we see ourselves as such or not. And Equestria respects its heroes...is inspired by them. Our mini army needs to know who is fighting with them and all the inspiration and confidence they can get."

"These aren't as efficient as they could be," Silver Spoon said pragmatically. "That original armor design was chosen for a reason."

"No," Twilight said running a hoof over the armor and giving a thoughtful smile, "This is very, very very efficient. Rarity's right. We've fought all this time without armor, we've risked our lives without it. This is to inspire ponies, we have to astonish them, which I think these will do just fine."

Trixie nodded, giving a smirk. "Trixie likes it. After all, Superstallion doesn't wear that outfit because a nigh invulnerable flying brick needs protection."

"Rainbow, doesn't the 'S' represent hope on his home planet?" asked Scootaloo.

"That's right kiddo. Glad you know your comic books!" RD said.

Trixie then summoned her magician's outfit with a flash of her horn. "Think Trixie wearing this over some normal armor would suffice for a heroic outfit?"

"...A cape might not be a good idea in combat," Silver Axe pointed out.

"It is when your combat style is being a trickster," Trixie explained, proving her point by doing several spins and using the cape to hide her movements and the glow of her horn with a practiced grace. "I once was challenged by a pony who's special talent was watching the movements of your muscles and predicting your movements. I used the cape to stop him from seeing mine to outwit him. Besides, capes are heroic, aren't they?"

Rarity rubbed her chin. "Gold and blue is always a heroic color scheme, I think that would go fabulously."

-A minute of suiting up later-

"Dash! You look awesome!!"

"No need to state the obvious Scoots. I don't always wear clothes, but when I do, I dress in style."

"Yeah, heh, yeah ya do!" Scootaloo replied.

"Alright everypony!" Princess Cadence spread her wings. "We move out now! We rescue Shining Armor before Princess Luna arrives! Everypony remember their goals? Good. Let's end this, for everypony."

"Elements of Harmony, let's do this thing!" Rainbow Dash cheered.

Howdy-ho everypony! Guess who! It was time for the big big party! Everypony was invited! And so were the changelings whether they liked it or not, but they crashed Cadence's wedding, so it was fair game! Things sure got chaotic, I mean really really chaotic, we had all had our parts to play and knew what our goal was, but I don't any of us had a complete picture of what was going on, and that included the changelings. We just knew the Princess was due in a couple of hours, and we had that long to break into the castle and save the prince, okay he isn't a prince yet, but it sounds cooler that way! Hehe, I wonder what Twilight thinks about her brother being a prince!

Rarity was right, fighting is a really dirty business, and just cause we weren't fighting our friends this time didn't suddenly make it anymore pretty. So I'm gonna skip all the dirty stuff, 'cause really, you now know how stupid and silly fighting was if you saw when the cowponies and the buffalo fought. But yeah, we all had our jobs to do!

Let's see, where that's list Twilight made? Oh yeah I ate it cause it was top secret! Don't look at me that way, Twilight told me to, she said she trusted my stomach more than a incineration spell. Heh. What do I even need that for? I may not be as good at making such good outlines and log-jesters that I lose sight of the point as Twilight, but when it comes my friends and details about them, my mind is like a picture book! Except without the book. It's funny, how I don't read that many books, but I read and remember stuff about ponies really well!

How would Trixie put it? Hmmm. Ahem. 'Twilight knows the stage and the set, but Pinkie Pie knows the actors and the characters!' That sounds about right.

So yeah, we broke into a lot of little groups! Each of us had our own role to play in this big show! I wasn't there personally for a lot of it, my group's job actually was meant to involve the least fighting, which was fine by me.

+++

Having met up with our allies, and assumed our positions, it was time for the curtain to rise on the biggest production Trixie has taken part of! I wanted us to start fast and loud with fireworks, our job was to get as much of the changelings' attention as possible wasn't it? And if there was one thing The One and Only Trixie was good at, it was getting somepony's attention.

Instead a little unseen birdie dropped a few magically charged lemon seeds, that then exploded into lemon trees that wrapped up some of the changeling guards, followed by the summoning spell of what if Trixie's life had not yet taken the strange turns that it had, I'd think I'd have gone delusional.

"Angry Great Mother Lemon! Charge!" Well. We certainly got the changelings' attention with a towering walking lemon attacking the front gates.

"Mother was right! I shouldn't have burned down Miss Bugs Life's house with flaming lemons!" One changeling lamented before he was pounded.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Hehe!)

What's so funny?

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Oh! Just something a friend said once!)

Then myself and Twilight Sparkle began our assault, along with several Canterlot unicorns and Miss Tiara, along with Princess Cadence galloping with us.

+++

-Star Blazers Instrumental-

When the unicorns had gotten the changelings' peepers on the ground, and with Rarity's scenery illusion giving us some extra surprise, I was, yeah me, was leading Soarin' and Fleetfoot, yeah, WONDERBOLTS, I was leading WONDERBOLTS, oh yeah (since I had the most fighting experience apparently), oh right, I did the motion with my wings as we flew in formation and ordered "Start attack!" And we flew down in a straight down towards the top of the castle towers. That sure gave the changelings some sudden panic.

A changeling fired slime right at my face, I did a 90 degree turn, then another 90 degree turn so I was flying down again, then two more 90 degree turns, leaving half a square shaped rainbow trail behind me in less than a second!

"You guys are like airships in a dog-fight, all armor and punch and just plain clumsy!" I told'em as I overcame that freaky changeling carapace with sheer force of speed and impact. I think even Fleetfoot was freaked at how fast I REALLY was, and just how quick I could turn myself, then again, the 'Bolts had been unconscious when I saved 'em. Fluttershy wasn't the fastest pegasus alive, but once she got it into her head that her friends were on the line, just watch her go! And with Fluttercruel's fighting skills, they were a big help (I think the Bolts got freaked at seeing her kick flank)!

They freaked out even more as they saw Princess Cadence flying with us.

+++

With Moth acting as my body guard as far behind the battle line as I dared be: I played Princess Cadence's lyric-less song. I was her champion after all. The spell song was draining my mana, even if it was my special talent, but I was powering up and harmonizing our side, and helping Princess Cadence do her job. I was saving Bon Bon's magic candy, since using it too much might be not be a good idea. And the changelings were going crazy trying to figure out whether it was the Cadence in air or the Cadence on the ground was the fake and which one was 'playing the music'.

+++

The answer of course, as most pony folk might have guessed, is that both Cadences' the changelings done saw weren't the real McCoy! The real princess was down here with us earth pony folk. With an couple of nice illusion spells from Trixie, Rarity (with some nice gossamer wings), and good old Moon Dancer, were sure doin' a bang up job of convincin' the changelings that one of 'em had to be real! Or one was real and the other had to be another of them fancy-smancy Avatars! Ah might not be a huge fan of deceit, but Ah admit in times like this it has its place.

When Ah asked 'er 'bout why she choose this way in, she told me.

"Queen Chrysalis won't in a thousand years, suspect me of traveling through those awful crystal mines ever again."

And Ah could tell her highness was shakin' like an apple leaf at going through this here place. Ah gotta admit though, if we weren't in a hurry, Ah'd think the place was beautiful. I think it mighta been that a part of meh felt this place was familiar, why was Ah thinkin' of ponies with jewels fer eyes? Twinkle Shine was there as our light source, our resident pink rock farmer was there to MAKE new passages if we had ta. Me and Silver Tongue were along to help PINKIE PIE makin' the way through in record time!

But Twili' and the others weren't just pullin' some fancy song and dance number, they were gonna be in here too if they could help it!

+++

I shall confess dears, I never dreamed I'd be acting as a decoy to Princess Cadence herself, but a request from royalty a fine lady like myself simply could not turn down. Twilight said she choose Moon Dancer on the ground because besides Trixie and Twilight, she was the strongest unicorn we had. As for myself, I was informed that I was the most graceful and lady like pony in the air...Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash did not protest this. That and I was our only unicorn with any experience flying. I think the fear they were facing an Alicorn was the most effective of weapons we currently have.

+++

I'm not a factory, but I'm going to be one anyway. Ponies downing my candy without tasting it, and wanting more. Mineutte 'patching up' our friends, and me 'recharging them.'

I don't have a right to complain, I chose this role, it's the place I can help the most at...Just as Lyra now has the role that'll let her help the most...she and Moth together...please...let's all go home to Tootsie Flute together!

Moth, I love you, I truly do, but you and your tribe are such silly ponies...the four of us are a family, and none of us are related by blood. Look at the Elements, they couldn't be more different, but they're a herd.

What happened to your people Moth? What happened to them that they couldn't even comprehend asking for help? They're not stupid, and they're not foolish, so what scarred their hearts so badly that it's carried down the line for so long?

Whatever it was Moth, you're proof it can be healed. I'm sorry we have to fight your swarm Moth, but...we're all ponies, let's all be friends when this is over. The three tribes hated each other's guts, if they could become Equestria, this fighting can stop too. Let's prove that they're wrong about us.

++++

Lemon Hearts threw her by now famous lemons that exploded into the yellow clouds, engulfing the changelings, giving her creation cover.

The changelings emerged with nose plugs and goggles.

"Uh-oh!"

"I destroyed your last creation, fruit mage! I shall strike down this beast as well!" Hercules Beetle said, landing on the battle field from a window with a massive ground pound that knocked some of the nearby ponies and changelings off their feet.

"All you did was destroy her vessel! Everything returns from where it came, and her spiritual essence came from me! She's ready for round two! Are you?!" Lemon Hearts said patting the Great Angry Mother Lemon on the side.

Hercules smirked. "That's it, fight for your survival. That's what I want to see from you ponies," he said, reading himself.

Trixie fired off some more fireworks to sow some more confusion among the ranks and asked, "Trixie is confused, if you could reincarnate your lemons...why were you sad at her destruction before?"

"Because... experiencing the end, never gets pleasant."

"...And a good mother is always there for her child...that's something Trixie learned from her own recently."

+++

"Here they come!" Scootaloo shouted.

"Hurry, we must protect Her Majesty."

"Yes, we must protect Her Majesty."

"Of course, we must protect Her Majesty."

"Indeed, we must protect Her Majesty."

"We must protect Her Majesty."

"Absolutely, we must protect Her Majesty."

"Meanwhile, we'll finish the rune."

"We'll totally finish the rune."

"The rune must be finished."

"Finishing the rune must be done!"

"Finishing the rune is the most important thing ever!"

"Finishing the rune is why I was born!!" Cheered a Canterlot blank flank filly.

The herd of glowing green eyed ponies all agreed as they marched, splitting into two groups. Not all of Chrysalis' changelings had formed the defensive ring awaiting Princess Luna's inevitable confrontation or to fortify the castle...the rest had decided to 'recruit' reinforcements. And they weren't stopping any time soon.

That smile, the same identical blissful identical smile they all had, Sweetie Belle realized those smiles felt familiar.

Traps ready! Applebloom signaled to Spike.

But even at the fillies' impressive industrial and improvised speed, the changelings were ready to steamroll any obstacle course the CMC the put together with their sheer number of happy zombified ponies.

Sweetie Belle, thanks to Chrysalis, now had a link to Spike, and had him send a simple message to their teammates.

Disable the changelings, leave the ponies to me.
P.S. Please be gentle.

She knew that the Changelings could be weakened by using their brainwashing without her song to keep them charged. She remembered what the changelings had been saying, that hearing her song, was like they wouldn't need to feed for a year, so it was a risk if that was even a good assumption, but the CMC had been legendary for taking risks.

There were dozens of zombified ponies, all of them docile and happy, all in a peaceful daydream, but there were eight changelings, assuming any of the herd weren't sleeper agents. Each one at a corner of the two halves of the herd.

'Okay, so one is gonna be used to finish the rune, and the other half is gonna be used as shields for the changelings. We gotta do this now!'

Scootaloo had figured out the more direct route they'd take, Applebloom had gotten their surprises ready, Sweetie Belle was to take care of the herds once the changelings were given a time-out, Spike was their link to the others, and Silver Spoon with the rest of the CMC were to be bait when they needed it!

Eight changelings with a whole bunch of innocent ponies at the same time...Sweetie Belle could appreciate that this wasn't a game. Sweetie Belle's only regret, was that Rarity refused to let her near Chryssy, scared Chryssy might brainwash her again. If anything, Sweetie wondered if she would have been able to heart-wash Chryssy.

Thankfully, being near the edges of the herd meant the Changelings were closer to the houses on the edges of the street, which made things a bit easier.

+++

Filly eye in the sky time. I really wish I could be enjoying finally having wings that work but first we gotta help save Equestria.

First we threw some water balloons filled with lemonade to try and lure them into the buildings (which were mostly shut down businesses, but we were good at getting in places we weren't wanted), but besides trying to hit us with slime they stuck closer to the ponies and began watching the windows like hawks.

Okay, got them distracted from the ground, and the stink made'em more distracted. Applebloom pulled a rope, causing what had looked like just normal street trash covered in litter to spring up. I guess having to set baskets in just the right spot to catch apples you buck out of trees helps when timing things, because two of the bugs ended up getting planks tied with cement blocks hard between the legs.

Spike winced in sympathy as they curled up on the ground...just in time for Applebloom to pull the rope again and mercifully knock them out. Too bad it broke the blocks too. Sweetie looked sorry.

Two down six to go. The rest picked up their friends and put them on the backs of the ponies.

The Canterlot ponies didn't even stop, and the changelings began zapping any street trash that was in their way.

Too bad for them the next trap was a bowling ball (we were going to use paint cans but Moth said Changeling hide was too tough for that) swinging in from a balcony that caught one of them off guard and clocked him in the back of the head and knocked him out.

The one behind him used that green magic of theirs to plow through the bowling ball. And then he got clotheslined by a pipe on strings, knocking him on his back. That wasn't enough to keep him down, but we figured we'd get lucky if either of them to knock them out. When he got back up...

"Oh Rosedust, you have got to be kidding m-"

The piano wasn't actually what knocked him out, it was the anvil hidden inside it. Don't ask where the anvil came from, Pinkie Pie had provided it. I noticed a musician pony in the herd actually crying when they saw the piano get smashed. Great. Now I feel guilty!

That guy didn't get up, but the one we hit bowling ball did. DANGIT! How hard were those shells?! I remember the one that chased me got knocked out after a bucking in the head with four hooves after flying through a building. But we hadn't had time to set up a building to fall on them.

But he sure looked like he had a splitting headache (maybe a concussion?) and put his buddy on the back one of the ponies.

That's three down, five to go.

Now they were watching the ground, and the skyline, they weren't going to be caught off guard by either again, that was for sure, and I had to stay out of sight if I didn't want to be a feather slime sandwich!

"Excuse me Glow-Worm, Night-Crawler, I think Chryssy wanted you to find me?" Sweetie Belle was standing out from one of the alleyways. "Like very importantly?" She then began trotting backwards.

"Lady Sweet Belle!"

"Her Majesty demands your presence before the rune is complete!"

Two of them broke off to follow her against the wishes of the others.

"Get back here morons!"

I think the changelings knew it was a trap, they were zapping or gooing anything they thought could hide a trap and keeping an eye for falling pianos as Sweetie ran from them.

Not exactly how it was intended to go, but it'll do. I flew up ahead and landed waiting for them.

"Is everything ready?" Sweetie asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, just one more thing," I said hoofing Sweetie a cueball. "Put it on top of that pile of junk."

"Okay!" Sweetie said, putting it on the pile where she was told. "Oops!"

"Lady Sweet Bell, there you ar-" the Changeling was cut off as the rather crowded alley suddenly became a disaster zone, ending with the pair of Changelings buried under lots and lots of thrown out pieces of modern art while we hid under a trashcan.

"Yes! It worked!" I cheered.

"What?! You meant for that to happen?!"

"Not exactly that, but something like that."

"Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Pinkie said 'don't tell her or invoking the joke won't work'."

"I thought you wanted me to talk to them!"

"I never said that. Sorry." I may not have told her, but I didn't LIE to her. And seriously, I didn't think she thought she was supposed to talk to them! (I think.) "If I could have told you, I promise I would have..."

Yeah yeah, what Twilight did to me, we're past that already please? It was the only way it could work or otherwise I'd never have done it.

Sweetie actually stopped to nuzzle and apologize for me to the two changelings.

Five down, three to go.

Okay, now they were down to a trio, if it so much as moved they were giving it the zap and goo treatment, one poor house cat got both barrels. Good thing Fluttershy wasn't there.

We couldn't surprise 'em from above or below anymore, and we couldn't use Sweetie as bait again. And we were at the junction where the streets split off. Once it was down to just one of them we could rush'em. Good thing they didn't think much about the ponies to...Uh-oh.

Now they're using the herd as a shield by getting in the middle of it? Hey! That isn't fair! They aren't supposed to come up with stuff that's clever! They're the bad guys!

Okay, come on, we need something clever right back...

A letter popped up over Sweetie's head.

'Ah got an idea. Meet meh up ahead.' She wrote her accent?

"...Where did you get this much tree sap?" asked Silver Spoon, lookin' at the several buckets full of it.

"...When yer a Cutie Mark Crusader, yah tend tah get quite familiar with it..." Ah said.

Thank Celestia there were still trees around...

"What's the plan again?"

"Puttin' some of our old Crusadin' tah good use."

"...Which ones involved tree sap?"

"...Too many...Way too many..."

"What are Sweetie and the others doing?"

"Cutie Mark Crusader Janitors."

They just finished 'mopping' the path ahead of the herd. The Changelings just thought it was a wet path instead of wet and soapy and got tripped up somethin' fierce. Yeah, the herd got tripped up too, but the Changelin' got busy trying to keep 'em from fallin' over themselves.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders Tennis Players go!"

"Tennis players?"

Sweetie and Scoots popped out with some tennis rackets we had Pinkie send us through Spike (well, from Cadence from Pinkie) and started swingin'...with rocks. The Changelings were forced tah take hits for the herd (though most of them were hittin' the guards anyway).

"...They just need tah imagine the Changelings are their match opponents…"

"So that's why you were suspended from the tennis court."

That got them right mad and two of them lost their wits and charged after Sweetie and Scoots, slipping and their slime spittin' sailin' off course.

"Spike! Now!" Ah called once they were away from the herd.

Green dragon fire went over our heads and above the two of 'em, then dumped a lot of soda on 'em.

Then we took out our helmets, and ducked and covered for the next part...

the pop rocks.

Rainbow Dash bucked a Changeling in the chest, leaving him open to 'Cadence' giving him a surprisingly solid right hook to the jaw.

Suddenly, their attention was drawn to a small mushroom cloud of soda fizz going high into the air.

"...The girls?" Rainbow asked.

"...Once more, I'm so glad they're on our side..." 'Cadence' said before back-hoofing a Changeling behind her.

"...Father..."

'I know, quite impressive display of chaos. Oh such wasted potential in those three...'

"...I'm presently embedded in a wall..."

'...Oh...You should probably get out of that.'

"I think the soda glued me to it."

'...Ah...Just convince it that it's-"

"-already fizzled out, and nopony ever drank it and nopony ever will, and even then it would have just caused cavities and then they'd have had another soda."

'I was going to say 'empty calories,' but good work.'

...

Ah'm sure Princess Celestia won't mind all them broken windows from the big boom and the big smokin'-Mah tail! Mah tail! Ow ow ow ow! Ahh, fire's out, thanks Sweetie.

"How...why..." Silver muttered. "It...How can there be fire?!"

"Is it really all that stranger than a water elemental being summoned with a campfire?" Spike asked.

"The fire smells like cherry flavor," Sweetie Belle said.

Oh the changelin's? They're out cold, and smokin' like Granny Smith on poker night!

"There's one more to go!" Scootaloo said, and zoomed like a shot right at the last changeling. He brought up a pony with a music note cutie mark as a shield, Scootaloo just went AROUND her, and got slimed in the face. The changeling then tried to brain zap Scootaloo right on the spot. When it didn't work the changeling just got angrier and used MORE magic on her. Then Ah remembered what Twilight said before we set up for our part.

"Remember, there is no such thing as unlimited, endless, perfect immunity, with a spell that isn't your new natural state. A changeling MIGHT be able to brute force past this spell, or have a way AROUND it, so don't stick around grinning as they're trying to brainwash you! Better safe than sorry."

But that gave us time thankfully just to jump on top of the ponies who weren't givin' nothin' no mind and clobbered 'em!

"Alright!" I said buzzing my wings as my friends came at the big black bug from every angle at once while he was focused on trying to get past Twilight's mind-protect spell. Even if he got me, I knew my friends would help out! And...I trusted Twilight's magic would protect me.

By the time we had him tied up however ...

"The herd!" Applebloom shouted, the zombie ponies, with the changelings gone, had suddenly shifted gears and were running ragged towards the castle or the last part of the rune that needed making.

"Dang it! That's what the tree sap was supposed tah be fer!"

Both sets tripped a little wire ahead…in an alley in the fork in the the road connected between both streets...a bunch of green gunk came out. Covering he two herds.

They slipped, and fell, and struggle to get up, but only ended up getting more stuck.

I had to asked. "Sweetie, where did you get that much changeling slime?"

"Actually, part of it was molasses, the rest was changeling slime. I got the molasses from Pinkie Pie," Sweetie Belle explained.

"About about the slime?"

"Well..."

+++

"I don't think...I...I can produce anymore..." Moth panted, looking green around the gills.

"I just need another barrel! Here, let me sing to you again.
Sweet Music, oh sweet music."

"You know I'm starting to get sick of that song."

+++

"Moth helped."

"When did you have a chance to do that?"

"Spike helped."

"Oh."

"Do we have any soap left? We're gonna need to get them free after...well, I get them free."

"Ah think we still got some."

"Good, that's why I mixed it with molasses."

I trotted in front of the ponies, I had been there when Chryssy had enchanted some of them, I remember feeling so happy for them that they now had Chryssy to make all their choices for them. Ponies needed protection from themselves after all.

Now I felt sad. Remembering how hurt the others had been inside...I had to remember I was an exception, not the rule.

I remember what Chryssy taught me, and I reached within, and pulled forth my dark magic, my horn and eyes glowed. Chryssy told me I was special, that she, Princess Cadence and me had a special bond, promising to tell me what when the rune was done. Chryssy said that bond was why I could do the extra-special magic she taught me I practiced on ... on Applejack.

I looked each one in the eyes, and undid the changeling's magic on them with my own, giving them their mind's back in spite of me not being a loved one of any of them. Most thanked me, some remembered me as Chryssy's 'pet', but all of them were happy to be free, other shuddered from the loss of the serene 'peaceful purity' of it...like the serene peaceful purity I felt when Discord made me a dancing doll with Diamond Tiara...

"...There are not words to describe the humiliation I'm experiencing right now," the Changeling we'd tied up muttered. "Beaten by calfs!"

I walked up to him after freeing the ponies while the other were washing them off.

"...Tick?"

"...You remembered my name?"

"I remember all the names I was told," I said. Just because Chryssy...Chryssy taught me some things to be mean doesn't mean I can't use them for good...right?

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): No, Sweetie, quite the opposite.)

He looked shocked for a moment. "...But...Her Majesty's spell..."

"It was broken awhile ago."

"...But..."

"...I still want to be Chryssy's friend, I don't want to see Changelings or ponies get hurt any more," I explained. "...I just want everypony to be friends...and so does Cadence...that's all we want."

He looked at me with wide eyes. "...You're lying...all ponies would want to do with the Changelings is wipe us out..."

"...I hate to say this but...the Changelings don't know ponies nearly as well as you think you do..."

"Really? And the little filly would know that how?"

"This little filly would have been your Princess if you'd won."

"We haven't lost yet!"

"Does that change the fact Chryssy was going to crown me Princess?"

"You were going to be uplifted into one of us!"

"But would that have made my mind different? From what Chryssy said, it doesn't have to and she didn't plan to so long as I was willing. So the filly you're talking to right now is just as smart as the one who would have been your Princess."

"Well-"

"Are you questioning Chryssy's decisions, Tick?" I didn't sound mean, I didn't sound like I disapproved. I just asked.

Tick opened his mouth...then shut it. Chryssy had said it, so he couldn't argue with it...not without prodding at least...I hoped.

"...You think ponies are just stupid cattle, right?"

"Yeah, that's what you are. Too pig-headed to realize what we're trying to do."

"Then how did a bunch of 'calves' just outsmart you?"

"You caught us off guard."

"Yes, on purpose. Just as we planned to do. We set up every one of those traps, we prepared every pitfall that took down eight Changelings."

"Well...you're a special cattle! That's why! Same reason Her Majesty wanted you uplifted!"

"So you think we won because I was smart?"

"Yes, obviously."

"I didn't come up with the traps on my own. It was a group effort."

"You're all special then."

"Really? So five 'cattle' were all special? What about how the others managed to outsmart you so many times during all this? Yes, Chryssy outsmarted them...but they outsmarted the Changelings too. If they were lucky, Digger Wasp and Kabuto wouldn't have vanished. The Changelings wouldn't be on the defensive right now. There's over twenty of us, Tick, not counting the army we built up...this whole thing is a group effort. Can that many ponies all be 'special cases?'"

"...It doesn't change that we're predators, you're prey, the griffins may have forgotten what they are but we haven't. It's our nature to ravage and harvest you, we're fighting for our survival, lions are not meant to lay down with the lamb."

"Really? Spike! Come over here please!"

"Yeah Sweetie Belle?"

"Spike, this is Tick, Tick, this is Spike."

And there was the most awkward greeting in the history of greetings.

"Spike...Chryssy went over some mistakes that some old deer Empire made. Why does Queen Tiamat not mind you being here with Twilight and us if she doesn't like her subjects being claimed by another kingdom? Or did you know?"

Spike actually smiled big a proud. I remembered when he mentioned Twilight had made him proud of his family. "Because I'm part of a long line of dragons that help keep Equestria safe! I'm the seventh! Queen Tiamat is proud of my family."

"So the Mother of All Dragons, the one who would have absolute, unarguable right to say what is and is not right for a dragon approves of you being here?"

"Yeah. Twilight looked it up, the Spikes are very revered dragons."

I looked to Tick. "So the Dragon's mother goddess doesn't mind one of her children being a guardian instead of a greedy monster. If I remember what Chryssy said, Tiamat's made treaties with us so Dragons need to act against their instinct to grab everything they want to have peace with Equestria...and yet the dragons seem perfectly fine with it if the Dragon Migration was any sign. Who would have more say on that matter than the one who created the dragons in the first place?"

"...That's dragons! Not changelings! If we lose to you! Then nature WANTS US to lose! Is it WRONG to be true to yourself?!"

"...No...it isn't...So I'm going to be true to myself."

I walked up and hugged him. "I want to be your friend and live in peace. I don't want to see ponies and Changelings fight any more...Tick, what's true to ponies is being forgiving. We would never destroy the Changelings...but that isn't nature. It's what we've decided to be. And we're happy that way. It's what ponies really are...and it has absolutely nothing to do with instinct...I choose to care about you because I want to."

He blinked. I remembered what Moth said...about being shown love when Bon Bon knew what she really was made her full. Made her feel content. I wanted to make Tick feel the same way.

"...I...I need time to think about this...I promised I'd obey and serve and protect Queen Chrysalis wherever she led us when I was given the choice to become a changeling guard, instead of being TOLD TO become one like my ancestors were..."

"So I'll give you a choice too...Tick...I promised pretty much the same thing...and I want to SAVE Chryssy." I ignored the others rolling their eyes. "...But some times saving someone means saving them from themselves."

"...like I said ...I'm...I'm going to really need time to think about this ..."

'Blast, how can that girl use everything Chryssy taught her in such a perverse manner!'

"Sweetie Belle..." The shadowless filly sighed. "It's meaningless."

"Alright." I patted him on the head. "I can't expect anything less..." I looked at the other, "Come on girls! We've still got work to do!"

"Cutie Mark Crusaders! Yay!"

+++

"Your Majesty...the emergency labor force and reinforcements...they were intercepted...none got through...we can only assume they've been stripped of our geass. It will take hours to round up more. Hours we don't have Your Majesty before the Night Alicorn's army is in striking distance of Canterlot, the last base before her route to Ponyville just spotted her," said one of my guards, I didn't care which one. "...Our messenger was injured getting this information back to you."

My messengers had been flying mad to and from our front line outside my new front door...and the other hot spots between the Canterlot-pony-cattle who were causing trouble, and the bug-pony-cattle who followed me.

"...And?"

"My Queen. We should retreat from Canterlot. We've had to withdraw from some positions outside the barrier due to paranoid ponies, but our changelings still hold several Equestrian bases under our control, and our still have several of Equestrian guards as prisoners, or indisposed or abroad. AND we still have the Sun Princess as our prisoner! We may not be able to have the swift and clean victory we hoped for...but the war ISN'T lost! But I'm afraid this battle will be. We should withdraw, call for our reinforcements, we've rooted ourselves deep! We didn't remain hidden for decades and more by being easy to detect, otherwise the first injured changeling spy would have revealed us to the world! We are still undetectable by their spells, and can be as ghosts, monsters in every shadow...We will make them so terrified and paranoid that they'll rip themselves to shreds, and once they do, they'll BEG US to bring some sanity and reason back to their lives. But not if you are lost my Queen! And not if they regain their greatest weapons!"

"...I see." I sighed. "Very well. It seems I'm out of options Maua. No I didn't want to take this gamble either, I know you're worried, that's what makes you a good friend and always has. But I won't give up, I've worked too hard and for too long."

"Sadness and Sorrow" - Naruto -

"But is it really worth it Kifuko?" Maua asked sitting at the base of the large old tree, wearing one of my theater costumes too big for her. "Do you really need to touch the sky so blue?"

"...It has to be." I said sitting in the branches, wearing my princess costume, it was too big for me, but mom insisted I'd grow into it.

I looking over the grassy plains, the animals, going about their lives as nations rose and fell and couldn't care less. "It's the only way I can be me. I am a beast, with a mind that can think. Beasts are to be cunning, not rational, but here I am. My soul is a sham."

Maua giggled. "Since when do you get all poetic? You have never cared whether or not you were sympathetic."

"I never claimed to be sympathetic, if I did, that was an impostor, have I ever said I was not a monster? I am as much a beast as the sun rises in the east."

"So much poetry for so long, now I know something is wrong. I suspect Sweetie Belle, placed something in you where before nothing did dwell."

"Maua, you were my light, but you are not always right. She was not my omega and alpha, it was purely nostalgia."

"Dead my body may be, but you still forever fail your talent to lie to me."

"That is what makes you greater than that orange pony, you don't need some magic necklace to see that my very existence is phony. If I were to parse, I'd say you knew my soul was a farce."

She climbed up the tree and leaned next to me. "All I wanted to be, was your friend, to the end."

"...then what did you gain? You were supposed to be there for me through all the pain!"

"...Kifuko, you brought that pain upon yourself. And you know it cannot be healed by power and wealth."

"You think I don't know that? Even as a brat? Everything I've done, even before the hive, all was to survive!"

"...I'm sorry Kifuko, I couldn't save you."

"You have nothing to atone, everything I've done I've done on my own. And just wait, I will prove stronger than fate."

"I've done all I could...Kifuko...I wish with all my heart that you understand."

"Your Majesty? Are you all right? My Queen should I get a doctor?"

"I said you're right. We are losing control of this fight. There's no need to scream and shout. Of options, we have run out."

+++

I saw'em first. We have earth ponies coming up from below, unicorns knocking on their front gate, and us Pegasi (led by yours truly) making our own way through the roof. But then the changelings apparently decided to sneak out the back door now that the ponies they were bullying are fighting back. And like any unwanted house-guests, they were pocketing the silverware.

"THEY'RE MAKIN' A BREAK WITH THE ELEMENTS!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, I wanted the whole world to know it if I could! "Soarin', can you handle things here?"

"Easy peasy!"

"Alright! Flutters! Princess! With me!"

On the opposite side of Canterlot Castle's main gates, a pair of changelings were flying fast with a familiar little blue box. If the queen wanted to make sure we couldn't zap her to the moon, then well, the was all the more reason for us. Even if I wasn't looking forward to seeing her ugly face every night up there, at least I'd get to make faces AT her!...Or moon her. Whichever I feel like at the time.

The changelings saw us, panicked, and flew faster, but didn't drop the box. They flew as fast as those bugs wings of theirs could carry them, but we pegasi were faster, and 'Cadence' showed she was good with those wings of hers. I think I like them more now that I'm not being pushed aside for them.

Then the changelings dove in between a couple of buildings, and we continued right after them, that was when more changelings flew out of the windows on both sides. Okay, I should have expected a trap, sue me. And they were wearing sunglasses, I guess they were ready for AJ or Fluttershy this time.

Maybe I couldn't cut loose as much between buildings that might have ponies in them, but I could still shows these changelings I was a lot stronger than that ambush in the music house would make them think!

Fluttercruel just did the pragmatic thing and shattered a Changeling's sunglasses with good buck to the face before letting her mom Stare 'em.

I flew up to dodge a dive from some Changelings and kicked one in the back to knock them to the ground. I then hammer hoof another in the back right back on top of him. I dive down and do a diving axe kick to knock them out before they can get back to their hooves. Yeah yeah, hit 'em while their down, that's part of Taekwondo, they're moves meant to finish 'em before they can get back up. And with these guys, I need it.

One tries to come up behind me and I do back kick to the stomach. As she (I think) doubles over, I nail her roundhouse kick to finish her off.

I look over at 'Cadence' real quick. She brings one of the Changelings to their knees with a kick to the back off of it, then leaves him gasping on the ground with some bruised ribs with another roundhouse kick. I notice that her roundhouse uses the shin instead of the hoof like mine. Sometimes its easy to forget that the same move can differ between styles.

Fluttercruel is using every dirty move she can think of. Eye pokes, groin hits, anything she can find lying around...and even getting a Rodent Of Unusual Size she and her mom found in a trash can to help her. No, I don't think she's underhoofed for it. Sometimes that's exactly what you need to do. If this was a sparring match, I wouldn't cheat. In a real fight, honor goes out the window. Especially when you're self taught.

Gah! Dang it, forgot to watch my back. One of the Changelings snuck up behind me and hit me in the back, then gave me a kick to the gut. I block a follow up with a 'palm' block (minotaurs use their palm, ponies just use the bottom of our hooves) and thrust my hoof into his throat. As he gasps for breath and covers his throat with his hooves, I have to head-butt him three times to knock him out.

Ow...Yep, my head is bleeding. Yeah, make a note, their heads are too tough for head-butting to be practical even if they can be hurt by blunt force. And I thought our heads were as hard as they came.

The rest of the changelings backed off and begin spitting the wads of slime at us, but 'Cadence' assumed a yoga pose and CAUGHT the wads of slime with her telekinesis and threw them back the way they came. I've gotta admit, even compared to how powerful Twilight is, I've never seen a unicorn alive with as much control and precision and sheer multi-tasking as Rarity has.

With the changelings splattered by their own gunk I moved like a demented pinball. I once pulled off a 90 degree turn carrying four ponies while going at freakin' Sonic Rainboom speeds, smashing each one into a wall or the street to leave an impression when they spent a moment getting the slime off their faces was all I needed to clear the skies of changelings in ten seconds flat!

Okay! Got the box. Best check out that it really has the jewelry inside! Ooof! Rarity! I mean Princess! Okay, she's right, best make sure Chrysalis didn't hide a trap inside her trap, it's the sorta thing she'd do. Oops, opening the box at a distance in case it's something nasty, luck thing 'Princess' has a mirror on her just in case it's a cockatrice inside.

Little note inside, okay, now 'Cruel read it, with a mirror just in case the words are cursed, I get ready to fly us out in case it reads '5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Boom!' like in that in action play.

'Your Majesty, IOU a booby trap - Trapdoor Spider'

Okay, nothing nasty, it's the Elements, yeah, that's the Element of Loyalty alright, not some fake costume props, I know it sounds corny, but I'm going with my heart that it is! It's hard to feel wrong about something that's pretty much a part of you!

ALRIGHT! Now we know! Now let's go go go! Back to our friends! Yeah girls we're back! And we come bearing gifts! Can't give 'Princess' and AJ and Pinkie theirs just now, but will ASAP! The Elements of Magic, Loyalty, and Kindness are all back in business! And boy does that give some of our ponies a moral boost.

That was when Twilight got a scroll from Spike, the smile on her face and what she said next told me it was from our real princess.

"Well done Rainbow Dash! Now make us a door!" Twilight shouts.

"With pleasure!" I saluted, and mini-Rainboomed a hole right through the roof!

"Bolts! Cover us! We're going in!"

"Princess on the ground, please do the same! And Princess in the air, come with us!"

"Yes Twiley!" They said together.

+++

-Boss B 2 - Star Fox 64 -

"I can not allow you to go any further," said Hercules Beetle. He spread his wings and was body slammed by Grand Angry Mother Lemon who he tossed several stories into the air, then a bruised and bloody lipped Screwball leapt on top of him, pulling on his wings. He cried out in pain and rolled on the ground, Screwball might have felt some bones break, she wasn't sure, she got right back up, but Hercules Beetle was already in the air flying right towards the airborne ponies. He was blasted by a just formed lightning clouds but was undaunted.

"Trixie, please hold the fort here."

"Sure, after all, you're the one the Queen wants to kill, makes total sense you be the one to go in and rescue your brother."

"We need the changeling army occupied, and you're better at keeping ponies occupied than me."

"Just don't do anything too heroic."

"No promises." Twilight teleported onto the roof. She caught Hercules in her telekinesis but all she did was slow him down. Then came Fluttershy's Stare. The changeling was still coming forward even as his whole body shook.

"What does it take to stop this guy?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I'm very sorry," said the airborne Cadence, "But we do not have time to deal with you." Her horn glowed and telekinetically twisted one of his wings, making him fly wildly off course, go through a tower wall and out the opposite side before finally righting himself, having crossed his forelegs to shield against the impact.

"Come on!" Princess Cadence said as she came up from below at the changeling general, while the still ground bound Cadence fired off a series of magic shots.

++++

Don't break Lyra, I have to keep up the harmony hymn. That's it Moth, just keep him busy. Bon Bon won't be happy if something happens to you on my watch. Okay, Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash are all inside. We can do this. We're going to win! That's it Moon Dancer! Keep him off balance! Screwball?! I mean Golden Tiara, how'd she climb up that tower so fast?!

Ouch! Looked like that one hurt. Ick. Attacking somepony's wings? I know all fair in over and war but, I still think there might something as 'over the line', now he's on the ground. He doesn't look like he'll flying with those wings for while.

Alright. Joker has no idea the Cadence he's fighting isn't the Cadence he saw with the others and the other changelings got distracted from seeing their buddy go through a tower. Dangit...I think I'm getting tired...in goes the candy...okay...let's keep it up!

+++

"Hello."

"Mr. Rich?!" Bon Bon asked.

"What are you doing here?"

"My wife said she'd be very upset if I told her not to help stop the monsters enslaving Canterlot, sadly, I'm not a martial artist or wizard or Guard. I wish I had time to tell Silver Axe that he's as great a guard as ever and a better father than I managed to be, but sadly we don't have time for reunions right now with all this chaos. So...want some help making magic candy?"

"You...know how?"

"My father believed in me knowing what hard work was."

"Ah. Well...welcome to my field kitchen. I could use the help! I'm also acting as Minuette's helper!"

"Not anymore, I'll be helping now, name's Tender Loving Care, you can call me TLC, I'm Golden Tiara's nurse, but I think I'm needed more here than with her right now...AGH! Mr. Fancy Pants! Your horn! Let me get some wrapping!" Said the black-belt mare.

Minuette rushed to him, "Here, hold it like this, I'll apply the healing-fixative."

"You're a good doctor."

"I'm no doctor, sorry."

"You sure know a lot about medicine though."

"You could say I had a master's degree in another life."

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by Alex Warlorn
Into The Witch's Den

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Second-Chance-460960202

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Queen-s-Last-Performance-463011237

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (SERIOUSLY need to be kept up to date, every little bit helps!).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions. http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/

Pinkie Pie, "If there are any sections where you can't tell who the narrator is, be sure to tell me, and I'm sure the author can fix it right up."

Episode 194: The Last Performance Of Queen Chrysalis

Queen Chrysalis' Last Performance

Now pay attention kids! This is where we save Equestria! Scoots is gonna want to hear every awesome detail! We (meaning me, Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy,) meet up like we planned in the Elements Chamber where we first met Discord, no point in guarding an empty place with nothing left to guard.

But our friends didn't expect us to be bearing gifts! One for an honest apple! And a laugh for the pie with the pink! Real Princess Cadence was here too along with Twinkle Shine and Silver Spoon's pop. Nine ponies inside the castle.

"Let's go meet with Queen Chrysalis," Twilight said.

"Know where the party's at?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"With her ego, there's only one place in the entire castle she'd be at a time like this."

Princess Celestia's throne room.

A few minutes later and staring down the hall leading the way and...

...Well, she's definitely down this way since there are plenty of enough changelings in our way that, more like a flood really.

I've had more bucking bruises this week than I've had from accidents...this year.

Ya know, I like a good brawl, but I think I'm getting sick of this.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

Screw collateral damage! Rainboom coming through!

They fired slime at us, Twilight's shield stopped them all, and Rarity sent it all return to sender!

The dang changelings did what they did best and changed into copies of us and swarmed us all at once, AJ mowed through them, pounding them in all the sweet spots they didn't even know were there! "That trick's wasted on meh darlin'!"

Pinkie Pie grabbed Twilight and spun her tail like a crank! Twilight fired off magic blasts rapid fire style and knocked 'em over, all she had to do was sweep left to right, she didn't need to aim!

Fluttershy, she moved like liquid among 'em! It wasn't Fluttercruel, it was all Fluttershy. I know Photo Finish blabbed about how graceful she was, but I think this is the first time I've seen her kick flank with it! She had dodging down to a fighting style! And I don't mean just covering her head at the last second and they tripped over her! She moved like a wind all her own, impossible for them to grab or hit and just hitting each other as she moved. Hehe, who said a pacifist can't kick flank?

Silver's pop and Twinkle Shine covered The Princess' flanks, Twinkle Shine's distance attacking and Silver's pop taking 'em out up close and personal! But The Princess was determined to show that she wasn't just going to sit her shouting 'Help me!'

"This day will finally become perfect!
The kind of day I've dreamed of since I was small!
With my friends I'll celebrate,
The real dawn is about to break!
We'll all be there when my wedding bells ring, one and all!"

Why couldn't she be more like that in her video games? Can't wait for Legend of Cadence: Canterlot Warrior.

A changeling in fancy armor that didn't look quite his size came out the doors that we knew Queen Ugly and Twilight's brother were waiting for us! He freaked at the sight of us.

"Don't let them pass! I'm not letting my brother show me up!"

"We weren't asking for permission!" Twinkle Shine snapped.

Pinkie Pie fires off more party cannons at once than I knew she owned!

Silver's dad shows same training doesn't equal same experience buster!

Twinkle Shine switches between light flares and darkness spheres like a rotoscope! You can't fight what you can't see!

Rarity's shed her disguise, it's done its job, she loses her gossamer wings as they get slimed and she just breaks 'em off, but she doesn't stop! She uses those pretty jewels of hers like a solar system of whoop-flank while she uses her hooves to give the smack down on any changelings that got close. "AND THIS IS FOR SWEETIE BELLE AND ALL THE BEAUTIFUL DRESSES I MADE FOR THE WEDDING!!!"

Fluttershy took the air and AJ took the floor, these changelings weren't wearing protection to the truth and the stare like the ones outside had been. I admit, it was kinda nice to see some of them break down crying...not because I wanted to see them hurt, but...I think some of them were tears of remorse. Hey, even I preferred Nightmare Moon turnin' into nice little Luna over shovin' her back into the moon for another thousand years!

Twilight threw more spells at 'em than I knew she had! Summoning little crystals and shooting her blasts into them that sent the beam like a zillion directions at once! Then comes the classic combo! Ice! Fire! Lightning! Thanks Twilight, I could use that last one!

And me? If I did this trick to a pony I'd mess'em up bad for good, but these jerks in their shells could take it! So, I used a little mix of pegasus magic, and my own natural speed and, "Rainboom Punch!" Hit'em like it was ten of me at once! Told ya you had no idea how fast I really was! It's been over a year since the Young Flier's Competition, and no pony trains harder than me, you think I hadn't leveled up some?!

And Princess Cadence, she does not! Once! Stop! Singing!

"There's no escape now, it is too late
Now we're here to save the day
You can believe me when I say"

"I'll save him from who's abused him
I swear I'd never lose him,
I'll care for, love, and cherish him each day!"

"For I oh so love the groom
All my thoughts he does consume
Oh, Shining Armor, I'll be there very soon!"

Her song magic blows the ears off of 'em! Makes us feel pumped too!

Keep coming at us! I don't care if you were trained by buckin' Tirek himself! We're a herd! We're friends! We're a family! We're the freakin' Elements Of Harmony!

OW! Okay, okay! Maybe we ARE taking a buncha bruises! And our manes all have slime in 'em now (Rarity isn't going to be happy)! UGH! Where'd that guy come from?!... He had one mean right hook. Minuette said she was a dentist right? From the sound of things outside, I'll have to wait in line.

AGH! Let go of my tail you jerks! Only AJ is allowed to do that! Sorry not interested in slime target practice today, here, you try it instead!

And Twilight is still missing part of her tail, hopefully using the Elements this time will fix that up, can't have her going to a wedding missing part of her tail after all! Ugh, I sound like Rarity!

Yeow! We're gonna need some serious sprucing up before the wedding, ain't gonna do for the guests of honor to all look like they fought in a coup.

But I like said. You jerks can just get out of our way! Heroes' coming through!

We're clearing the way for Princess Cadence, she has the love of her life to save!

"Oh, our wedding we will make
We just have to defeat the fake!
Shining Armor will be fine! Just fine!"

"FOR HER MAJESTY!" Shouts the guy in fancy smancy armor as he uses his own buddies as shields and tackles Cadence, but ends up getting Silver's dad instead who used himself as a shield!

Then a fresh squad of changelings come from behind us gunning for Cadence and her escort. Oh no! You're NOT doing to this to us baby!

"Princess! I'll deal with them! You go on ahead!"

"Twinkle there is no way you can beat them!"

"I don't need to beat them! Just slow them down! You're going to end this coup in the next ten minutes aren't you?!"

"But Twinkle-"

"Look! When is Princess Luna due?"

"Any time now," Our purple egghead said.

"Then you NEED to rescue Shining BEFORE the queen works him to death to keep that shield up against an Alicorn and hopefully stop her before all of Canterlot gets turned into a warzone! NOW GO!"

"I'd rather lose my wings than leave a herd mate!" I said, "But if I don't..." I choked. "I'd be betraying everything we're fighting for. You're a very loyal pony Twinkle Shine."

"Welcome!"

"I'm staying too then!"

"SCREW THAT PRINCESS! SHINING NEEDS YOU IN CASE TWILIGHT CAN'T! JUST GO!!!!"

"You're not going any-" The changeling in fancy armor said before Silver's pop grabbed one of his wings making him kick the old guard.

"You're a very dear friend Twinkle Shine. I expect you at the wedding."

"I SAID GO!"

We did.

"Two, will hold them off for twice as long," I heard Silver's dad say. We didn't stop.

Sunset, I promised I wouldn't stand idly by while something horrible happened to the ponies I cared right in front of my eyes ever again. You and Ranger watch, and I will fulfill that promise.

Princess, I am not happy with you putting my daughter in danger, but the truth no father wants to face is when the world's in danger, everypony is. I still remember when I told Celestia you'd come into the world...now I'm depending on you to keep Equestria and my daughter safe. And Tartarus if I'm not going to help every bit I can. Alicornspeed, Cadence.

We'd thinned out the ranks ahead of us, what was left we just steamrolled through.

There was a creepy tentacle-thingie with an eye at its center on the door that began shooting needles at Cadence. Rarity caught 'em no sweat.

"One of Kabuto's works," Twilight said. "He was pretty proud of it."

"No details," Rarity hissed.

Its barbed tentacles waved itching for a go at us.

"Let us through this instant," Fluttershy said sternly with the Stare, looking into its big eye.

It whimpered, withdrew its tentacles, pulled itself off the door, stood aside and bowed at us. Maybe one of the Princesses could make it a pet later.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Luna'll probably think it's cute.)

++++

The seven of us set hoof in Auntie's throne room. I shouldn't have been surprised when the doors slammed behind us, I was surprised when a swarm of changelings didn't descend upon us.

Chrysalis lay on Auntie Celestia's throne like it was a lounge chair. Shining! He was right next to her! And with his own forcefield still around him.

Chrysalis was chugging a thousand year old wine bottle from the royal wine celler. She tossed the empty bottle aside where it joined several others. I was surprised she didn't throw it at us.

"So the ponies have overcome my final defense, and now are here to murder me," she slurred, then her eyes focused on us. "You there Twilight Sparkle? I guess fate wouldn't allow me to change that. Cadence? I told my changelings to keep you away. So, everything turned out the way it did before after all."

I noticed Pinkie Pie's eyes widen in alarm.

"Hello Rarity," Chrysalis said like we were at a tea-party. "I suppose it was too much to hope fate would let me see her again. It's good the rune is ruined then. How is Sweetie Belle doing?"

"Safe from you," Rarity said.

"As if I'd harm my princess."

"She's not 'your' anything! And how dare you insinuate what you did to her as 'harmless!'"

"I taught her new people skills, gave her a new perspective on the world, encouraged her special talent in a constructive way, I certainly got her further along with magic than you ever did."

I was surprised at Rarity for not attacking her on the spot. But she did growl.

= Discorded Ponies Intro Full =

"Where are your manners husband? Say hello to your sister and friends."

"Hello," Shining's voice said sounding so, empty.

"He's not your husband!"

"Does it really matter?...Fate's already handed you your victory. Regardless of what choices you made, you were always destined to win, and I was always destined to lose. I should have splattered Princess Luna and her army after I had Shining send her flying over the horizon. But I knew it didn't matter, I knew fate would demand that she return anyway, I knew fate would never tolerate me achieving such a victory, Princess Luna had to arise again, she had to return. Not only that but her entire army. Never can Queen Chrysalis be granted a true victory, never can the Alicorn Sisters suffer a true defeat."

"Uh, what about what you did to Princess Celestia?" Pinkie Pie pointed out.

"Only her detractors care for such things."

"So are you gonna give up, or just sit there whining 'godmodder Princess Luna'?" Rainbow Dash told her. "We're not letting you changelings treat ponies like your personal cider barrels!"

"Don't trust her darlin's, that there silver tongue of hers is the only weapon she's got left! She's lost Canterlot and she knows it!"

"I may be a queen of lies Applejack, but even I can speak truth: allow me to share the ultimate truth of the changeling race. Everything with a heart that never experiences love from another will ultimately wither away and die. You behave like different ponies around different friends to maximize the amount of love you receive. When you receive no more love from that pony you move on! You change masks as much as we do! You are all changelings!"

Applejack's voice died in her throat.

Pinkie Pie looked at herself in a mirror.

Rarity stared jaw open.

Fluttershy hugged herself.

Rainbow Dash looked froze like a statue.

Twilight's brain looked ready to shut down.

I...I heard what she said. I thought of what she said. And I remembered, jerks who had acted like perfect gentlestallions to mares they fancied. Couples who broke up when they admitted their relationship had become loveless. And those who had completely reinvented themselves solely so they would be the mare their stallion wanted.

"Understand now? You ponies are the same as us!" She roared with righteous indignation.

"But doesn't that mean then," Fluttershy whispered, "That if we're the same as you, that you are the same as us ponies?"

Chrysalis gasped.

And I saw the gears in my favorite filly to foalsit's head begin to turn.

"Your changelings who became part of the royal guard...they must have passed any number of medical examinations, they must have been injured any number of ways, I bet...I bet if this has been going on as long as you say, that some must have...lost their lives doing their duty...and all of them were given a trace of Princess Celestia's magic...there..." Twilight gasped. "That means! It can't-, but it's the only answer that makes sense! YOU'RE NOT ANOTHER SPECIES! YOU'RE ANOTHER TRIBE! That insect shape, it's just another form! You're not lions! You're cannibals! You haven't come to a new land, you've come home!"

Oh Auntie.

"Twilight dear, what are you SAYING?!" Rarity asked, I knew, Twilight knew, I saw the looks on her friends' faces, all of them putting it together.

"Changelings are ponies!" Twilight's voice echoed.

And I looked at this witch, this monster, she wasn't an unholy beast from beyond, she just another pony who had given into cruelty and selfishness.

"What the buck are you doing?! You hypocrites! Don't you dare look at me with those sad eyes! Because our species are related suddenly NOW you feel pity?! You're as disgusting as your Princess!"

"That's a compliment," Rarity said, "Princess Celestia gives us something to reach for, something to strive for more than just ourselves or our herd. And that is a gift worth more than a kingdom."

"You're just the ghost of the hate of the three tribes under a different name!" Rainbow Dash said, "Ponies woke up to the fact that ponies are just ponies a long time ago! There is no 'master herd!'"

"That twist is new…I like it," Pinkie Pie said. I wish I knew what she meant, it felt comforting.

Fluttercruel said. "I would have pitied you even without that...nopony knows what it's like to think what you are defines you more than me."

"Your entire system is based on a lie!" Applejack declared.

"So is every system!" Chrysalis snapped back.

"YES! Because some things are worth believing in whether they're true or not! Honor! Justice! And that good can and should always triumph over evil! It doesn't matter if they're true or not, they're things that are worth believing in!" Said the former Kindest Of Lies. Everypony looked at the yellow mare who blushed.

Twilight said, "You're right Chrysalis, it IS sad that our blood makes it so it's easier for us to relate to creatures who are more like us than those who aren't, but we have hearts and minds that can rise above it! We've already met a changeling who we see as part of our herd! We already know from her she's not the only changeling in the world who wants to be better than her nature! She's ALREADY family to us! And you want to know what else? I've had a dragon as my family for a long time and I'm never going to stop loving him! That's just how we ponies are!"

Twilight and her friends had Chrysalis' total attention, and I inched towards Shining, his mind was so crippled by the witch that he didn't respond or alert his queen at all. She'd regret putting him back under. I can't break Shining's shield, but maybe I don't have to, if I can touch this shield with my horn, his magic, so close, I'm the Alicorn of Harmony and Music, if anypony could pull this off, I could.

"So seriously, how about you just give up now and we just live together? Happy ending!" Pinkie Pie said. "No big flashy battle, just the bad guy finally just listening when they're offered a second chance right before the big fight?"

"Live together? LIVE TOGETHER?! ROSEDUST YOU'RE SO NAIVE YOU MAKE ME WANT TO PUKE! What is it going to take to get through those thick bright colored heads of yours? I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M STUCK TRYING TO REASON WITH MY FOOD SOURCE! Every living thing that's ever moved under its own power was for the express purpose of eating another living thing or avoiding being eaten. YOU SICKENINGLY HIGH AND MIGHTY HORSES! You haven't grown one bit from when you were wandering from grassland to grassland and having the stallions kill each other for a harem of mares! YOU THINK YOU'RE SUPERIOR BECAUSE YOU FEED ON SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T COMPLAIN!"

I think the girls realized what I was doing and wanted to keep the queen ranting and raving. Twinkle Shine, Silver Tongue, please keep them busy as long as you can too.

Rarity and Rainbow Dash looked at each other, and the mares shook their heads.

Rarity said, "You're wrong Chrysalis, just because we have a killer instinct somewhere inside us, doesn't mean we have to listen to it, or that we won't find a better way."

"You're still nothing but herd animals who brainwash other creatures to think like you! End of story!"

"Yeah we're a herd," Rainbow Dash spoke, "Even at our worst, as long as we have one other pony with us, we're gonna be stronger. I know two blue ponies who didn't have ANYPONY but themselves and CARED about nopony but themselves, and they were failures! They only became as great as they wanted everypony to think they were AFTER they finally had somepony else to care about!"

"Oh please. You're a herd because it's in your nature just like it's in nature for the strong to stand on the weak. That's how it works. The strong stand tall. The weak kneel. Such is the rules of nature."

Appjeack snapped, "That's a lie bullies like yah tell themselves so they don't have tah feel guilty! The truly strong help the weak stand!"

"Predators feed! That is reality! Are you all going to tell me with a straight face, that none of you has -ever- toyed with a bug? Seen an insect squirm in a jar or see a spider feed on a insect you gave it? Oh that's right, you ponies are so blindly 'pretty and pure' that you can't STAND let alone conceive of the idea that mundane animals HAVE TO eat each other to live. Oh no, your vegetable and fruit diets MUST make them all vegetarians too!"

"NOT ANYMORE!" Fluttershy shouted. "I'm not turning a blind eye to nature's true self ever again!"

"Celestia keeps you all pampered like pets in a fish bowl! 'Hatred has no place in Equestria', 'though quarrels exist their numbers are few.' GAH! You love to think that hate is just something you can remove, something you can just toss aside, something you can just -decide- not to feel.

"As someone whose life depends on knowing how emotions work, here is a truth for you. No one, but NO ONE CHOOSES what they feel! You can no more choose who you hate anymore than you can chose who you love! Believe me, I know! You can't just slap on a euphemism of 'really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, dislike' and expect it to suddenly be something else."

Fluttershy sighed, "You're right, it doesn't. I was afraid of being angry, terrified. My parents told me again and again how anger and hate were wrong, so I bottled them up and hide them away, where they grew and festered until they became an illness, something that acted like it was a separate part of me, and those I cared about suffered for my mistakes. Pretending feelings and part of you don't exist only makes things worse. The changeling's tribe hiding itself away only made things worse. If you had stayed out in the open, just let ponies get used to you, accept you for being the way you are, then you could have had all the love you ever needed to live and be happy," she said like she was offering a pony lost in the middle of the night a place to stay.

"You wouldn't say that if you knew the changeling history. I have inherited knowledge from all queens who came before me. We tried to co-exist with ponies in the distance past, but were persecuted."

AJ shrugged, "She's lyin' through her teeth, she just made up that story."

"Sorry, that lie was so elegant that I couldn't let it go to waste. I have no idea how we ended up hidden from the world."

Twilight said, using everything she had in her mental arsenal to keep the queen angry and focused on them. "...Your rune could have been used to make ALL the Changelings never have to worry about food EVER again but you decided to channel it into YOURSELF in your quest for power instead of using it to ensure your hive will never go hungry again...This has NEVER been about your subjects! IT'S BEEN ALL ABOUT YOU!"

"AND WHY SHOULDN'T IT BE?! Sweet Belle was the only one of you who showed worth! Ponies cling to Celestia's breasts mindlessly suckling on her teats! While the changeling hid in the dirt scared to show themselves like they were vermin! WHY SHOULD I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THEM-?!"

"Is power all you care about?" Rainbow Dash exasperated.

"I'm doing this only for power? YOU BUCKING BET I LOVE POWER TO TARTARUS! The more control you have, the less you need to fear going hungry the next day. The less you're a slave! It's natural!"

"AJ you okay?" Rainbow asked, AJ looked like she had a headache.

"Ah can't tell how much of that was horseapples and how much was true...cause Ah don't think she knows. It's all muddy water."

"At least I've actually done something with my power! Instead of just sitting on my flank getting fat like that slug!" the witch screamed, spitting that name like it was poison. "Have I abused my power? Tartarus yes! But at least I bucking did something with it!"

"Just stop Queen Chrysalis, for the sake of your tribe, Sweetie Belle's only wish for this entire conflict is that you SURRENDER and not to see you or any of your changelings hurt!" Rarity said speaking for her little sister.

"…I'm sorry that I can't grant her wish." Was that regret in her voice? "I've endured too much, come too far, lost too much, to give up now. Just as any of you wouldn't give up until the bitter end. Pity we didn't bond sooner.

"A second changeling army is already on its way. We have spread throughout Equestria like a cancer. You army is spread and scattered, mine is spread and interconnected. We've been slowly infesting Equestria for longer than you can guess. My changelings will fight to the bitter end for revenge. Every changeling alive is my 'taking you down with me' plan. Once I'm gone, you are all in for a very long, and bloody war."

AJ's expression was unreadable. I think she still couldn't tell if the queen was bluffing or telling the truth. Either that or she just wanted this to be over with.

Then Twilight said those fateful words, "Not if we're the only way for your changelings to have you back. I remember the arena, they care more about you than you want to admit. You're their everything. You're what gives them something to reach for, something more to look up to than just a mirror, to become greater than themselves! You're their Celestia. You boast about them getting revenge over you? Don't you think then they'd make the choice to SAVE YOU?...If the Elements seal you away as they did Luna, or imprison you like they did Discord, then they'll end this entire war just to save you. You can't understand how much they love you! It's obvious to everypony BUT you!"

Twilight frowned. "...You want power so much you can't see you already had what you're trying to steal: a kingdom of your own...and that's why that last resort of yours isn't going to work…"

"YOU THINK A KINGDOM IS WHAT I EVER WANTED? YOU'RE ALL BLIND! All I wanted was survival! By any means necessary!"

"And you throw a hissy fit for us doing what we gotta do to save our friends? You bellyacher," Rainbow Dash said.

"Pst. Moron. If fate is why we're all here, why should I be mad at you? The world's always wanted me gone, why should I play nice?"

"What the hay happened that left you with that belief?" Twilight heard herself say.

"Forgive me if having someling trying to kill me seconds after I was born left an impression on me," Chrysalis said flatly.

"What?" Twilight balked.

"Doesn't matter."

"Yer dang tootin' it doesn't matter! Just cause rotten things happen to ya doesn't give ya the right ta do rotten things ta others!"

"You don't get it! It doesn't matter to me if you're a pony, a dragon, or an concept! Anypony with more power than me, is a creature who can make me a slave again. I will be no creature's slave, EVER AGAIN!"

"I told ya, freaks like you are-"

"Freak?…Freak?…FREAK?!?! YES I'M A FREAK! I'M AN ABOMINATION! I'm an unnatural THING the rules of nature say has no right to exist! I HATE THIS BODY! I HATE MY 'SOUL!'

"That bitch Pandora, what right did she have to play Frakenpony upon my unwilling scraps?! It was her half-assed magic that cursed me with this defective soul! She thought she could create a soul without Fauna Luster. What right do concepts have to do a half-ass job?! Incompetent flank-holes, all of them!"

What the buck was she talking about? The confused looks on the other said the same thing.

"I can imagine my hooves around her neck. I guess there won't BE imagination afterwards...Maybe the universe will be better off without imagination...no way for...for freaks the likes of me to be born." She laughed again.

Chrysalis roared and spread her wings, and stood up on her hinds legs, I remember thinking how it would make a fine pose for a statue. "I won't fear you ponies because you have the Elements! Let's go! One last dance! You think I can't do my own fighting? I've fought all my life and will until my end!"

I was right next to my love, as he stood there, so empty, his puppeteer still not noticing me. I then did what no sane pony would do when trying to reach Shining inside his own barrier. I touched my horn to his shield, and supercharged it!

And I felt it, my magic mixing with his, increasing the strength of the magic shield between us. It wasn't like the perversion that the Queen had used before. It was true love...our magic touching and mixing together in beautiful love.

"I'd rather have you safe, than sacrifice you to make a fight easier," I said to him with total and sincere truth.

To break the witch's geass perform but one close act of true love.

-Ever Ever After - Enchanted-

"Come back to me, Shining...I need you…You promised me back when we fought the wolf you'd never leave me again! Are you going to let this witch make you break that promise?! I'm not letting mine be broken: I said I'll take the hurt! If we can be together while we can, then that's enough for me! And that includes the worst hurt this devil can dish out! Come back Shining!"

I felt my touch like a single spark race along his shield spell, and down through his horn, and straight to his heart. And I felt the witch's taint shatter like the sun being born inside a black marble.

"I love you."

The witch turned her head, and saw us together. Shining Armor gasped for breath, his entire body fell like he was having trouble remembering how to move on his own. He panted as he fell, but I held him up.

"C-Cadence."

"Yes dear?"

"T-thank you...I...I knew you'd come."

"How could I not?"

He gave me a weak nuzzle.

"Big brother!" The light inside Twilight could have lit a hundred nights. "Shiny! BBBFF! Y-you're-" Twilight was at a loss for words, she had liquid happiness in her eyes. I swear the only reason she wasn't nuzzling into her brother's side this moment was the situation at hoof.

"Wonderful t-to be together again," my fiancee wheezed, looking his baby sister in the eyes with his beautiful blue eyes.

Twilight's smile was as wide as it could be. I could feel the love between them. And between me and Shining. For a moment there was no Chrysalis or Changelings. Just a sister, and brother, and a sister-in-law-to-be finally having a flitting moment of joy after a days long nightmare. The dawn felt so good.

"NO! This is why you weren't supposed to be here! This is exactly what I feared!" Chrysalis yelled at me, recoiling from us like any moment we could end her...she looked for a brief moment like a terrified animal.

"SHINY!" Twilight shouted, "HOLD CHRYSALIS DOWN!"

Chrysalis moved, but not quick enough, and charged up by own my magic, Shining's force field trapped the witch's hooves and wings. She struggled against her bonds, but they weren't going anymore, and she wouldn't be feeding off of this love! The witch cringed and shut her eyes.

For a moment, the look in Shining's eye almost scared me...but he shook his head and just kept his sights focused like an arrow on Chrysalis.

I know how I can get if pushed too far...like with the Diamond Dog and ~~Nameless~~...I won't lie, after what that witch made me do? After every awful, horrible thing she'd done? A part of me wanted to end her. But I didn't want Twiley or Cadence to see me like that. Not after they did all this to free me. I managed to keep my anger under control.

(Friend's Notes (Dawn): We're proud of you Shiny.)

So am I.

(Friend's Notes (Dusk): Welcome back!)

Good to BE back!

(Friend's Notes (Noon): Here ya go Shine! Sis' isn't the only pony who gets to hug you!)

"Now stay still and let the rainbow medicine in!" Pinkie Pie said.

"BLAST HER TWILEY!"

Reach For the Stars Instrumental - Sonic Colors -

"You got it BBBFF! FORMATION!"

I watched in awe as each of the regalia the ponies wore glowed like a brightly colored star, each one a unique color, then connected together like lines in a spell circle, turning bright white like the eyes of the ponies themselves, and the power of the Elements was unleashed. I felt like something deep inside me...felt at home. Like this was a part of me. I'd felt it when Auntie Luna, Discord, and Nightmare Whisper had been defeated, but being this close to it….It felt so wonderful. So beautiful...This was me.

Something deep inside my soul. When I watched Twiley and her friends power up the Elements...it felt so familiar. Like a part of me remembered this...All I knew was it was beautiful.

I saw the rainbow arch upwards, and come crashing down on the immobilized changeling to end this nightmare. This wasn't the type of love and friendship she had any hope of absorbing. The room filled with a white light.

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by Alex Warlorn
Queen Chrysalis' Last Performance

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Into-the-Witch-s-Den-462356810

Next Chapter:

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (SERIOUSLY need to be kept up to date, every little bit helps!).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions. http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/

Pinkie Pie, "If there are any sections where you can't tell who the narrator is, be sure to tell me, and I'll be sure the author fixes it right up."

Episode 195: "Mighty Hercules" Part 0

Hercules Beetle looked out over the city from Canterlot Castle. The crown jewel of Equestria. He remembered so long ago...When Queen Cocoon ruled and seeing the sun was alien to most of the hive. He sighed. He didn't enjoy or hate that they occupied the city. But he couldn't deny how impressive the city looked from up here.

"Why? Why are we being made to just WAIT for them? If we'd win, why aren't we going out and fighting the Night Queen? If we're going to lose, why aren't we getting out of here?!" his brother, Goliath asked, coming up in armor that looked too large for him.

"You're in command now, brother, remember?" Hercules said, his eyes not leaving the cityscape.

"Yes...I guess I am."

The Changeling General saw a scuffle between rebels and Changelings out in the distance. A couple Wonderbolts and a few powerful unicorns defending civilians. And succeeding. But the brothers and their army had strict orders to remain at their position no matter what. Their men were on their own.

"...Goliath...What do you see looking at that?"

"Insanity. We planned for everything. Yet this is now happens. Trained soldiers are falling to civvies and stunt ponies, and we're just standing here, letting it happen, it's insane, insane I tell you."

"...A slave dethroned Queen Cocoon. And most of her 'army' came from the civilians watching her own execution, just like Twilight Sparkle's did right now...Ironic isn't it? How history repeats…"

"How can you wax poetic at a time like this?! The year of the changeling was finally going to be reality! But now it's all going to horseapples!"

"...For us, it's horseapples...for the ponies, its survival. It's defending their homeland and herd. I'm not going to say 'I hope we lose,' not at all...I plan to sink with the ship before I give up. But I respect them for fighting back. I'd think less of them if they didn't."

"How can . . . how can . . . Agggh!" his brother held his head. "We have the Sun! Why don't we just hold her hostage against the Moon?! Something! Buy us time to complete the rune! But we're just sitting here doing nothing while our brothers suffer! . . . brother."

"...You haven't called me that in a long time."

"I was supposed to be in charge of a mop up operation! This was supposed to be my reward! I won't turn into you and be a LOSER! I can't lose my first battle! And you sit there like you're on witch weed! . . . "

"...I'm a stone wall. I try to keep threats away, not go after them. And if they come after Her Majesty or to try and wipe us out?" Hercules asked, letting green flames go around his hoof, giving it the strange shine and becoming pitch black. "...I'll stand in their way like the wall I am."

"I can't believe you trusted Master Kabuto to do things to your body. You know what happened to most of his test subjects! You're lucky the psycho didn't kill you!"

"I know. I'm the only one that survived that operation. I think it was about the only experiment he considered too dangerous to perform on himself...but that's just how much I wanted this...What will you be willing to do for Her Majesty? To keep her safe, General? To keep her and our people safe?"

" . . . She's . . she's ordered us to . . . to die if that's what it takes . . . I just don't want it to come to that. . . . Brother . . . we can . . .we can still win this can't we?"

"The ponies looked like they were crushed when Her Majesty launched her attack, now we're the ones worried about dying...If that's possible,I do think we can win this...But I wouldn't worry about dying. If Cadence healed Dustmite, I don't think they'd kill us...At least not if they can help it...but don't assume that means they're weak. I think they've proved they're not...but I wouldn't worry about them killing you if it's their choice...the question is, are you willing to die for Her? I swear to Rosedust I won't tell a soul. I have no interest in sabotaging my brother."

" . . . a warrior who thinks about defeat is only inviting it to happen. . . I invite defeat with each of these thoughts . . ."

"Yes, but he who is reckless can be killed."

"if I fall, I want it to be in a victory, rather than live in a defeat."

Hercules gave a sad look. "...Then that's the fate you've chosen. Simple as that. The one I choose is this: I'll fight until I can't fight any more. Until my wall breaks. If that's not good enough to win the day...then the ponies were just stronger than my wall. That is Queen Chrysalis' belief, isn't it? 'Survival of the fittest.' What nature dictates."

"I am a spider, I will not be weaker than a fly."

Hercules chuckled a little bit. A sad chuckle. "...Remember when we thought Deviants were less than 'cattle,' Goliath? Now our Queen is one," he stated. "...The day that happened. The day a Queen who'd had Kabuto turn her into something that could kill a dragon fell to a little Deviant slave was the day I stopped looking at it so black and white. Deviants were stronger than we gave them credit for...more Changeling than we thought they were. I'm not saying the ponies aren't our prey. I'm saying you're not strong just because you're a lion, or that a gazelle can't break your jaw with a well placed kick. And maybe the ponies are like the Deviants and there's more to them that we thought...or maybe they've become strong. I'm not saying this to guilt you, or call you stupid. I'm saying this because saying a leader can't afford to see things in black and white. Or else the entire group might pay for it."

"We either lose, and everything we've gambled is lost, or we win, and a kingdom with the sun over our heads is ours. Those are the only outcomes."

"...What if we lose and Queen Cocoon was wrong? And instead of taking away everything, the ponies simply want peace? If Queen Chrysalis falls, Pitcher Plant isn't here. And assuming she's not somehow defeated by another Queen, you are in charge. What if you are in that position, brother? Where you're in charge and your options are 'accept a peace that will save the hive' or 'fight until we're all dead,' what would you choose?"

"And what if every house here suddenly demanded to be able to chose who it housed? What if your wings suddenly wanted to fly off and join a cult? What if your tongue wanted to go off and start a singing career? What if the trees suddenly wanted to be in charge of the cattle instead of the other way around? You can't offer such illogical scenes and expect me to simply choose. What does it matter if food wants peace? Death is better than that kind of humiliation!"

Hercules gave a sad sigh. "You miss my point brother."

"And you miss mine!"

"...Brother...For what it's worth...I can handle if I died...but I don't know what I'd do if you did. If our people did…That's why I'm asking all these questions...I'm not scared of losing. I'm not scared of giving my life...but truthfully?...I don't know what I'd do if you did...I just want you to act smart and be smart leader in this fight...that's all...And brother . . . 'death before dishonor' . . is not very 'rules of nature.' Especially when you're a leader and those you are meant to protect may be doing the dying with you."

" . . . I just wish this battle would start already, if it's going to come, then come already!" Goliath shouted, "You hear me cattle?! COME AND GET ME! You're not taking down General Goliath Beetle without a fight!!!"

Hercules listened to his brother's scream echo. The ponies didn't seem to be looking to attack the castle and just continued their preparations. He listened to the echos...thought about them. "...I think in a way, that's the only thing we agree on...I want to see where this path I chose for me will finally take me...and so do you...we just want this day to be over with...regardless of the outcome…We just have different ways of looking at it..."

" . . . You always had your head up in the clouds instead of here on the ground. Even before we ever saw the sky brother . . . please . . . don't throw your life away for the invisible."

"...And you've always ran forwards with your head down, not caring if you hit a wall...the Nymph Master used to joke that's how you hatched...ran your horn through the eggshell trying to run before you learned to crawl...but I'll try to do what you're asking me...but please do the same for me and don't throw anything away on a reckless impulse…deal?"

"If it'll protect you . . . deal brother."

"...Deal...Brother..."

"Thank you. And stop praising the enemy every three seconds!"

"If you stop underestimating them every three seconds."

"Trust me! If there's ANYTHING I haven't been doing, is underestimating those who might very well turn our salvation into extinction!!!"

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Hercules...are you sure this is a fight you want?)

I'm loyal to my Queen. I failed Queen Cocoon. I pledged to do my best to never let another one die on my watch. And I pledged I'd never abandon my people or stop protecting them.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Even when you know the ponies don't deserve this?)

...I'm fighting for my people. They're fighting for their people. I'm fighting to protect my Queen. They're fighting to protect their Queens. We're both fighting for our chance to survive.

Me? The rebels? We're both heroes fighting for our people. If one of us is dark and the other is light, then so be it.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Geeze, how poetic.)

Who wins the day will be the one who wants to protect their people more, and who decides who was the hero and who was the villain. Let come what may.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): ...Why did you take this oath, Hercules?)

Why? The answer may surprise you...I made an oath to Queen Cocoon I'd protect the Queen and the hive with my life.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Cocoon? She nearly destroyed the Changelings herself!)

...Yes...she did...in the end, she'd become a monster. She'd become our destroyer...Queen Chrysalis saved us. Those things are true...but they're not the entire story...after all, me and that sick creature Kabuto are the only ones who remember the first half.

When I was young, the oldest of our old told me how they were told when they were young by their oldest of their old that in their youth Queen Cocoon was much different than how she died, from the one their ancestors rememebred. She was a protector. A mother who doted on her children...who was afraid to let them go outside least something hurt them. Afraid to let them play with other kids least they catch a cold. She was a queen who feared for her subjects...but unfortunately, fear can be a mind destroyer.

Fear festered and grew into paranoia. Paranoia grew into extremism. Extremism grew into insanity.

But the monster wasn't the Queen Cocoon I made my oath to. I made my oath to the mother. To the protector. And even if she changed, the spirit of the oath remains. And I did my best to keep the oath...that's why I have a given name...why I'm no longer 'Number XXXG-01SR'...but in the end I failed...

I took a similar oath when Queen Chrysalis saved us from extinction...I know she's not perfection incarnate. I know her personal slaves suffered. But she still told us we could be great: when we thought of ourselves as less than nothing. She still grew us from near extinction to a strong country thriving. Like Queen Cocoon, I believe in what she represents.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): It sickens me to say it, but Chrysalis was an improvement.)

...You know one thing? Even around Pitcher Plant I don't remember seeing Her Majesty so honestly happy as she was around that little filly...when her letter arrived, a part of me hoped this would have been over then and there. That she'd by the peace maker in all this...

But it wasn't…

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Did you say anything?)

...No...I don't have the right to question the Queen after...I swore to serve and protect my Queen and my hive...I failed once, I won't fail again. If fighting ponies I know are good is what that takes...it's what I have to do.

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by Alex Warlorn
The Mighty Hercules Part Zero

Author's Note: This isn't filler. NEXT PART UP TOMORROW! SAME PONY TIME! SAME PONY CHANNEL! You can hold me to that!

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Kabuto-Optional-Canon-465685101

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-WeddingArc-The-Mighty-Hercules-Pt1-466694783

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (SERIOUSLY need to be kept up to date, every little bit helps!).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions. http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/

Episode 196: "The Mighty Hercules" Part 1

With Kabuto kaput, we were planning to keep rescuing civilians...but then there was a major commotion outside and Captain Coke decided to take the opportunity for us to come back and recover from our fights while we figure out what's going on. This gifted pegasus wasn't complaining. I'd spent a ton of mana dealing with lightning being thrown both ways in that fight.

The triplets were doing okay, Weaver could still fight. Garnet said her stab wounds weren't that severe, at least as far as stab wounds go. It'd been the mana drain from the transformation that'd nearly killed her. Garnet said that the drain probably would have killed a unicorn at the rate it must have drained her.

I think some of the Changelings were a bit surprised that we were actually treating them like prisoners of war instead of just killing them. They were expecting to be treated worse than animals. Instead we were treating them as ponies. I don't think they knew what to think.

I thought back to Lone Ranger. The way he wanted to just wipe out another species like they weren't even alive...I won't lie, how he saw the world scared me. It was easy to imagine the Hooviets thinking that way. It's in the history books, even in Roedinia. It was just hard to believe anycreature still thought that way. And Lone Ranger wasn't a member of some foreign empire. He was an Equestrian pony and a Guard. It just felt...wrong...I'm not a specist or overtly nationalist, but it just felt so wrong to see that kind of mentality in a countrystallion! The guard are supposed to be peace keepers and guardians, not cold blooded killers!

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Every species has their monsters and their saints, Thunderchild. Your three new friends are proof of that.)

Yeah, true I think we know that better than a lot of ponies. Even if we hadn't been on that crazy world tour, the Guard's not exactly all ponies either. You name it, it's probably been a Guard.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Humans?)

Let me rephrase that: name a species that's actually exists and it's probably been a guard.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Timber Wolves?)

Actually, there's a stallion that trained one as a police dog once. I don't know how he did it either but he named it Fluffy.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Wonder if he's related to Fluttershy.)

Hehe...yeah...maybe...It actually worked pretty well. Thing's completely tame. And you'd be surprised how fast a robber will give up when there's a Timber Wolf growling at his door. While screaming like a little filly. Only problem was its breath stank. I think they're stationed in Hoofington now.

But back to the point...It made me think about somethings.

"Sarge?" asked Bombardier, looking at me. "Is something wrong?"

The triplets had been keeping their disguises off when they were alone with us guards. It wasn't hard to tell them apart from the enemy, considering they were the only Changelings wearing Equestrian barding. They said it was some sort of personal thing that meant a lot to them. Must be a Changeling thing.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): They can finally serve with their real face, can you blame them for wanting to do so?)

I guess not.

(Interviewer's notes (Pegasus): Hey, what's your opinion of the girls' wingspan?)

Nice, for dragonfly wings anyways. Weaver's are longer though...You know, it's weird. They don't look any different, but I can't help thinking they look a lot less dangerous than the ones we've been fighting. They've still got the fangs and compound eyes, but they just...feel different. Other than the fact they weren't trying to kill us.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Maybe the fact they were smiling?)

Yeah...maybe that was it. That made this next part harder.

"...Bombardier...remember when you called those changelings mooks before?"

"Yes sarge...I know it's weird to call my own species that, but...I'm just so clopped off about these infiltrators...It feels like they're spitting in the face of what we've tried to do all this time. We do our best to live peacefully in Equestria, then they use the same stuff to undermine us."

"I can respect that, and I agree they don't deserve to be called guards...but I don't want to hear you call them that again, do you understand Corporal?"

She blinked. "Okay Sarge..."

"Lone Ranger is what happens when you stop seeing your enemy as people...these aren't just mooks, they're soldiers. You three are proof they have families and Digger Wasp begged us to keep his sister safe. We might have to beat them, they might be the enemy but that doesn't mean we should start deequinizing them...that's why that nutjob thought he should kill off all the Changelings without a second thought. That's what the Hooviets' used to justify trying to crush anything without antlers. What the Changelings are using to justify what they're doing. Soldiers can't afford to see the world that way, that's how you end up following orders you shouldn't."

She looked a little guilty. "...Yes Sarge."

"...And assuming your opponent are just mooks for you to mow down? That's a good way to get yourself, or somecreature else, killed. You need to stay on your hooves every step of the way. Never underestimate the Changelings. Is that clear?"

She gulped. "C-Crystal, Sarge…"

I knew if he were here, Shining's be telling Bombardier from experience how big a mistake letting yourself getting reckless can be. Endangering your squadmates was serious business. Shining...I'm wasn't there, but I'd seen what that night had done to him.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): That was pretty mature for the team Casanova.)

You don't get to be a Staff Sergeant by not being able to be serious or able to set somepony straight. That's part of my job.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): You just prefer not to be most of the time?)

Yeah. And I can't wait for this mess to be over so I can go back to playing my guitar and admiring wingspans.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): That reminds me...What do you think of mine?)

Hmm...About an 8. Look a lot like Rainbow Dash's. Only saw hers at a distance though.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): That would make sense…)

"Hey! Bombardier! I need your help!" Ellis called...oh boy…

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): What?)

Ellis is putting that engineering Cutie Mark to good use (like he had been this entire time for the makeshift weapons we had, including helping Garnet make the darts for our tranqs) and needs the other explosive expert. If it weren't for the fact we're in the middle of an alien invasion, I'd be worried...Actually, I'm still worried.

+++

+++

"Alright," Captain Coke explained the next morning. Considering what we'd been through with Kabuto, we needed the rest. Especially Garnet.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Because she's your fiancee?)

No, because she wore herself out figuring how to beat Kabutomushy before he killed us all and patching us up, and had first degree burns on her back.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Oh.)

And is also my beautiful fiancee.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): How is she recovering, Gag?)

She's doing okay, she says her back might scar...but I'm sure she'll be fine if she says so. I mean she's the medic...

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): You worried about her?)

Yeah...Just this whole mess with the Captain and the Princess...I...

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Reminds you of Sunset and Ranger?)

Yeah...I just don't want to lose her...or her to lose me. It seems Misfit Actual's luck with weddings is just as rotten as the Captain's luck sometimes.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): The Wedding in Zamunda went well.)

I got attacked by cats.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Doesn't that always happen?)

Yeah, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. And I didn't like the looks the Honey Badgers were giving me...Besides, that wasn't one of us, we were guests.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Gag, I'm sure Garnet is having the same worries, but do you think she'd ever let them get between you?)

No way. Never.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Are you going to let a war get between you two?)

Did my grandpa let the telegraph system stop him from calling the House of Lord Senators jerks?

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Uh...)

No, he didn't! And they definitely tried...multiple times. Thanks.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): No prob, it's our job.)

+++

+++

"Alright, we had Diver head out and do recon with his shapeshifting, and we now know what happened yesterday," I announced after Misfit and the triplets had recovered. I normally gave the job to Gag, but Diver had been through less than Gag and could do recon too, so I made the choice to let him do it instead. Plus, we had a teammate capable of shapeshifting, why not exploit it?

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Captain Coke, what'd you think of the triplets'...secret?)

I was suspicious. Kinda felt like playing O&O and a heroic demon showing up having been hiding as one of you. But I don't think Weaver or Kabuto would be in the condition they are if those three were spies. Particularly since Kabuto has tried to kill himself...repeatedly. Thankfully he finally ran out of body parts for us to restrain.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): That bad?)

Yeah. Though given what Misfit told me he did, I was honestly tempted to just let the psychopath finish himself off...but that isn't the pony thing to do. The scariest part was some of the prisoners actually wanted me to.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Because it was too cruel to leave him alive?)

No. Well, yes, that happened, even though I'm pretty sure they believed he'd brought it on himself (apparently no one put it past him that he'd experiment on himself). But the ones that scared me were the ones that I couldn't help agreeing with.

"Let the bucker die!" yelled one of the Changelings, who we'd had to further restrain after a very determined attempt on Kabuto's life (on top of the other restraints the triplets had made sure to put on them even before revealing themselves). After that, we'd had to separate him from all the other prisoners as best we could (we'd been trying to isolate them like we were supposed to, but didn't really have much room to put them or many eyes to be on them). I was surprised that she was actually crying.

"He took my brother! He...he...Please just bucking kill him!"

"...Look...the guy wants to die, killing him would be doing him a favor." You can't imagine how hard it was to tell her her sibling's murderer wasn't dying. She just looked so...broken.

Prisoner of war or not, it wasn't fun to see somecreature grieve.

"He's a threat! He needs to be gone!"

"How? He's an earth pony now, his power is gone."

"He's still as smart as ever, and now he has EARTH PONY magic, magic of life to twist and warp life MORE."

I have to admit, that was a good point which we were doing our best to avoid him having a chance to use. "You think we don't know how to restrain our own kind? I promise, we won't let him hurt anypony ever again."

"Threats to the hive need to be disposed of."

"By that logic, we should be killing you to protect our 'hive,' but I'm not."

"You should kill us all on sight. It's called rules of nature."

I sighed slightly. "Rules of nature? The griffins used that too. Guess who we're friends with now."

"You just don't get it. We're your predators, you're our prey. You can't expect a timber wolf to be friends with a rabbit."

I didn't have time to spend chatting with prisoners, so I had to leave. Still...It was just...surreal to feel sorry for one of the invaders that had attacked our country.

I wish we had Mother Deer here, she was a lot better about convincing bad guys to reform. Rumor has it she was good at convincing former Hooviets to reform after escaping her prison.

Back in the present, Diver stepped forward. "From what I found out, the Changeling occupation has been exposed."

That got well deserved cheers.

"That's great!" Gag exclaimed. "So this bug war is over?...Uh...no offense…"

"None taken. Apparently, the Bearers rescued one of Chrysalis' slaves, I'm sorry, it wasn't your captain, and caused her to accidentally reveal herself to Canterlot," Diver explained. "But things aren't over yet."

I nodded as Diver turned things back over to me. "The Changelings are still occupying Canterlot Castle, and while their ability to complete the rune is more or less shot without a foreman, Chrysalis, as the triplets and our prisoners have informed us, isn't one to give up without a fight. A rebellion, mostly Wonderbolts and Gifted Unicorns, is mounting an offensive near the castle, and Princess Cadence's group have apparently linked up with them. Their goal is to stop Chrysalis before Luna arrives to avoid a fight between them in the middle of Canterlot."

"So we're gonna go find the Princess and join them in ending this whole mess?" Corporal Bitter Apple asked.

"That's the end goal, but not our primary one...Corporal, what exactly is that thing?" I asked, pointing to a long, cylinder shaped thing that looked jury-rigged out of pipes and quite a few other things.

He pat it with a look of pride that made me uneasy. "Just a little something me and Bombardier cooked up just incase another Kabuto decides to rear his ugly mug."

"...Is it safe?"

"Think so."

I naturally stepped away from it like it was a bomb...which knowing Ellis, it might have been.

"Oh come on, you don't trust me?"

"You and Captain Sparkle accidentally made a cider still into a mass driver," I pointed out flatly.

He sighed. "You blow up a barn one time…"

"It was two barns."

"And didn't you say you and Heath blew up a barn? A couple times?" Gag asked.

Ellis looked sheepish. "...Point taken. But we've tested this thing and it isn't even loaded."

(Interviewer's Note (Pegasus): That isn't a guarantee. Believe me.)

"I promise, it won't explode," Bombardier reassured. "At least not without warning."

"...Don't load it yet," I ordered. "Got anything else?"

"Some exploding arrows for the crossbows," Ellis explained, holding the arrows. "They're not as strong, but they should be good for armor piercing if they bring anything big. At least better than what we got. I would've made a grenade launcher but ran out of the pipe I managed to swipe from a supply closet."

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): They'll work, trust us.)

"Sir," said Thunderchild. "Why don't we just go up into the castle and blow the doors down from the inside when the rebels' attack starts?" he asked strategically. "That way the rebels can get in no problem and end this thing?"

"Because the rest of the Changelings have barricaded up the castle," I replied, turning things back over to Diver.

"They've blocked most of the entrances to the castle pretty securely," the childish Changeling explained. "Including the ones we've been coming in and out of. There's still the civilian entrance to the catacombs, which is unguarded right now and how I got out, but it doesn't lead into the castle."

"Darn it."

"Do we know where the Princess is?" Garnet asked, standing close to Gag.

"The Changelings have narrowed down an area, but we don't know," Diver replied. "But we should be able to meet up with her group when the battle is about to start or find somepony who can get us to her."

"And that's our end directive right now," I stated. "Join the Princess and the rebels in their assault on the castle and hopefully end this. But our first priority is to get our prisoners and the civilians to safety, the place above us is about to become a war zone. Since the Changelings have refocused to fighting the rebellion rather than rounding up civilians, the civilians should be able to get to safety if we get them through the right passages, it will be our POW's that may be an issue. We'll need to deliver our prisoners to a location we know the rebels are keeping the Changelings they've captured during the brief scuffles with the Changelings not hauled up in Canterlot Castle and during the fight in front of it after Chrysalis was revealed (thanks again for the intel Diver). So we don't get mistaken for Changelings at the time, Noteworthy and I will hoof them over personally because the rebels are aware we're ourselves. We will then rendezvous with the attack force and ask Cadence to sense the bonds between Misfit Actual to prove it's us. Then we'll help take back Canterlot Castle from the Changelings. The rebels are currently the only army we've got, so work with them the best you can. Everycreature got the plan?"

"Yes sir!"

"Any questions?"

"Captain," said Garnet. "May I suggest we get Mrs. Sparkle, Banjo, and Arcane Spell to the rebels directly rather than send them with the other civilians? I've done everything I'm can for them on my own, and even if they can't give them better treatment, they'll be in a safer place than down here. None of them can walk unaided, so sending them with a large group could risk them being dropped and trampled if the group has to run or gets into a fight. More hooves and bodies moving around means it'd be harder to find them if they fell and they're more likely to get hurt."

"Good idea, but we need every hoof we can get to keep our prisoners secure in transit, and from what Diver's said the rebels' medics are in a completely different place than where they're keeping the prisoners of war. Besides, if anyone other than me and Noteworthy went, we'd would probably attract too much attention right now. And we're needed to hoof over our captives."

"Captain," Ellis replied. "My cousins were trustworthy enough to guard our captives, I know it isn't standard operation, but with the Changelings busy with the rebels like you said, they should probably be a good enough escort to get them to the rebels safely if we ask."

"Cherry," said Noteworthy. "We were on leave in Appleloosa during the whole buffalo conflict thing.They may not have ever seen a real war (thank Princess Celestia), and I'd never put them on the front line, but those two can fight if it's absolutely necessary. Out of all the civilians, I think they'd be the best escorts we could find with what we've got to work with."

"And I could probably lead them on a safe route to get there," Prince Blueblood spoke up. "If there's one thing that can be said of me, it's that I know this city's layout like the front of my hoof."

I thought it out. This was highly unorthodox, but this wasn't exactly the best situation for orthodox. We'd need every hoof we had to get to transfer the prisoners, two of which were high profile. It wasn't just that we needed to transfer the prisoners for their safety, it's that the rebels having Digger and Kabuto, along with Changeling troops, could give them the leverage needed to end this peacefully, or at the very least give them bargaining chips to trade for Princess Celestia if she couldn't be freed normally. We needed to hand them over as quickly as possible.

But if we left our injured down here, the battle might start on the surface before we could get back, leaving them stranded down here until it's over and possibly putting their lives in danger. In addition, Lance-Corporal Chambers had a point. Not only had she done everything she could on her own, sending them with a large group when none of them were capable of moving on their own (rather than a small group with multiple unicorns that could keep an eye on them and catch them should they fall) was risking their safety if they got into a fight.

The problem wasn't that one was more important than the other, it was that both were important and we had too few sets of eyes to split between both.

If we sent them with the civilians and the civilians split off, they'd end up with a civilian escort anyway. Apple Fritter and Peachy Sweet, while not soldiers, were decent fighters and trustworthy, as was Blueblood. And Blueblood knew Canterlot better than anypony, so if they were chased, he'd know places they could hide that the Changelings likely didn't even know existed. And if they were forced to fight, they could at least defend themselves. I'd already deputized them to help keep watch on our prisoners, so technically they had that much authority. Given the options we had, it was the one that seemed the most sound.

"Alright, that's probably a good idea. Let's get to work and get ready."

"Look, we need you two to go and take the Sparkles, Banjo, and Blueblood's fillyfriend to the rebels," I explained to my cousins. "Normally we wouldn't, but you're the only ones we have that can do it."

"Ah thought Ah left all this fighting behind in Appleloosa," Peachy Sweet said holding her ponytail (her mane, not her actual tail).

"That makes two of us," Apple Fritter added gripping her pigtails with her hooves. "Cuz', Ah know you're the Guard and all that...but, how in tarnation are we supposed ta carry three grown ponies through Canterlot in the middle of a big no holds bash-up with no clue where we're going? You said after cousin Applejack was rescued that ya had no clue where she was! And if ya did, ya all would have hooked up with 'em already! Ah figured we were just gonna sit tight here till the fightin' was done after ya gave us that lecture -that Peachy Sweet slept through half of by the way-"

"No I didn't!"

"-that how this wasn't like the battle in Appleloosa and it was better for the two of us to just keep our heads down with them city folk unicorns and the prince and his poor mare friend."

"For starters, you'd only be carrying one, Mr. Sparkle says he'll carry his wife and knows where to go and Blueblood will carry Arcane. And I don't know where AJ is, but we know where rebel forces are. And that's why we want to send you, and Prince Blueblood and his fillyfriend, with Mr. Sparkle. This place is right under the castle and a big battle is about to start up there...you'll be safer with the rebels than here."

Apple Fritter crossed her front hooves, "Me and Peachy Sweet face down a herd of rampaging buffalo who wanted to level Appleloosa to the ground and us with it if we were in their way, armed with nothin' but pies and our smarts cause that's all we had. And ya still told us we didn't know what REAL fightin' was, and NOW ya trust us ta get Princey and the rest of the city folk to wherever in Canterlot yer gonna vaguely point us at?"

I admit, I didn't like recommending my cousins for this, but they were the best ponies we had for the job given the situation we're in right now. A guard's job was to protect everypony...Getting the injured to safety was more important than what I wanted.

"Captain Coke and Garnet said that the Changelings are being kept real busy by the rebels. They've got no time to focus on the civilians right now when every unicorn and their mother is busy firing at them from the buildings, and that's the ones out in the open, nearly all of them are hunkered down in the castle. Which in general makes our prisoner transport a lot easier...I'm gonna be on the front lines, not you two. You'll be a lot safer than I'l be or you'd be here. You've got two ponies who know the city like the back of their hooves leading you and, like him or hate him, Blueblood's talent is navigation...Please, we can't take them with us or the civilians, and we're afraid what might happen to them if the fighting upstairs gets too intense. These are two armies, an Alicorn, and a psycho queen as strong as one about to duke it out over our heads."

Peachy Sweet asked politely raising her hoof, "Cousin, Ah gotta ask, if the bugs are really holdin' up in the castle...how the buck are ya, or anypony fer that matter, gonna get anywhere without bein' seen?"

"...The sewers. Blueblood has marked a course for us. The guy's a living compass."

Apple Fritter said, "Takin' real hurt ponies though the place the crude goes after ponies do their business, REAL smart cousin."

"I said we're going through the sewers. We guards. Until we see the Princess, we need to keep hidden or the rebels might start shooting at us thinking we're Changelings. You're civilians, the rebels are protecting civilians. Not to mention Nightlight and Blueblood are pretty high on their 'we need to find them' list if the Princess and Twilight are as worried about them as I think they are."

"And so we're gonna stroll out the front door of the tomb and hope the bugs who are watchin' every which way ain't gonna spot us? With ponies ya just said on big on their 'find' list?"

"We're trained guards, do you think we'd be that dense? The triplets can guard you until you're to the buildings outside the castle walls before meeting back up with us to help transport the prisoners, because unlike the rest of us, they can disguise themselves as civies. If I had the option, I'd dye my fur and do it myself...besides, I stink at lying, they can at least use their true forms to convince any Changelings that stop them. Just act like you're clueless."

I didn't have much of a choice in the matter. The triplets were the only ones who could really hide the fact they were guards and pose as Changelings if needed. If one of us went pretending to be Changelings, not only might that attract more attention, the rebels might mistake us for Changelings before we could find a way to contact Cadence. We needed somepony who could get them a good distance and meet back up with us (which was going to take some good timing to pull off given how quickly we'd need to do it)...I had to trust them.

"And Blueblood?"

"I kid you not, he's agreed to take off his fancy suit and mess up his mane and tail to disguise himself and keep his filly friend safe...at least until he's out of sight of the castle. Yeah, I hardly believe it myself, but that girl means the world to him. Same with Arcane Spell, only dirtying up her looks more."

Yes, I admit it is rash...but Arcane is still badly hurt...and the guards are right, this situation is extremely dangerous for her...besides, it will only be for a few moments, then I will need to resume my normal appearance for the rebels to believe it's me once we've lleft the area around the castle and escaped into the town.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Why do you think this will work?)

Simple. It's something that none in their right mind who knows me would ever think I'd do in a thousand years. The Changeling Queen already proved the Changelings still think I'm a pampered waste of space. I believe it's time to use that misconception to my advantage.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): That's...actually pretty smart.)

I was a spoiled brat, not a complete idiot.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): And Arcane?)

I always choose a beautiful mare to accompany me. Clearly the high and mighty snob would never allow himself to be seen in this state with a filthy, ugly mare on his back.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): You've come a really long way!)

Thank you, small filly.

"As for Nightlight, he and Starlight are disguising themselves as beggars with some curtains we were able to snag from town nearby and pass Starlight off as drunk thanks to her being high as a kite from the pain meds."

I'm the first one to admit this wasn't a perfect plan, but we didn't have a ton to work with. We had a small group. The prisoner transport we needed to do would require every last one of us to get it right and might be key to giving the rebels the leverage to end this. We had to make sure to keep eyes on them all the time, and we'd need every set we had (thus why the triplets couldn't go all the way and had to come back to help us). Unfortunately, time wasn't on our side. Just the battle with that Nightmare Moon cult in Columbia had been a big fire fight, this was two armies! If we wanted to get the injured to safety before that goes down, this was our best bet.

Apple Fritter snorted, "Lavender Fritter and Jonagold are gonna think Ah was a coward stayin' put this whole time! They're gonna say after Appleloosa me and Peachy Sweet lost our guts! Did ya ever think 'bout that cousin?" She gritted her teeth. "We're Apples! We're family! And all ya've done since we got here was treat us like fancy glass dolls!"

"I let you help guard the Changelings we captured. Including two big wigs. I'd say that takes a lot of guts."

"What am Ah gonna tell mah grandkids down the line? When Canterlot was invaded Ah spent mah time hidin'?"

"...You know I'm the guard here. I could order you to stay out of the battle. Since you've been deputized, I could technically order you to do all this...but I don't want to order my own kin…Look...I...I'm not saying you're not tough. But Applejack has that Element of Honesty of hers and saved the world multiple times. I'm a soldier who's been through battles with Nightmare Moon cults and fear monsters."

"I thought it was only one fear monster."

"Not the point. The point is...I took an oath, I knew I might be risking my life for Equestria someday. I don't buy too much into the whole destiny thing, but Applejack's Element of Honesty for a reason."

The thing was, not only did I not want to have to push my weight around my kin, I knew the Apple Family had a stubborn streak the mile long and if I DID, they might just come right back into the battle even if it got them arrested when the smoke cleared. The only way they'd stay away from the fighting is if I convinced them to the old fashion way. I trust them, but you need to convince them the right way.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Even if you hoofcuffed them?)

They'd find a way. Reminds me of this time we tried to keep Applebloom from getting involved in a barn raising when she was too young at one of our reunions (some of the family considers it a blast, I honestly prefer making the boards myself but helping the family is always fun). We tried grounding her in her room when she didn't get the hint, next thing we know she's on a support beam.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Heh, that's Applebloom alright.)

I'm honestly scared to find out how things have been going with her in this whole mess.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): She's...safe. That's all I can say.)

Can't say I was any better at that age. And from the stories my granny told me, it seems AJ's granny was a bit of a wild filly in her youth. Something about trying to break a record for a high dive or something. I guess we Apples have always been one rowdy bunch and always will be.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Yeah, I'm sure a thousand years could pass and you still would be.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): If you're so worried about them doing that, then why suggest them for this job?)

Cause Apples are hard workers too. Once I convince them, they'll do everything they'll work as hard as they possibly can. They were the right ponies for the job and would do it with all their hearts.

Fritter asked coldly, "Can Ah ask just one question cuz? How many of them 'rebels' out there are ya gonna tell me are all guards who took an oath?!"

"...None...but most of those rebels aren't my kin. Me and Applejack? We can't help being involved in this...please...can't two Apples being in the thick of it be enough? If you want to help, which I know you do, please just get the injured to safety. You'll be a ton more help doing that than fighting."

"...Yer sisters ain't gonna think yer yella' Fritter," Peachy Sweet said.

"So says the mare who doesn't see her sister who was born with feathers. She still work for that fancy flying Wonderzolts team?"

"...Wonderbolts." Peachy lowly corrected.

"Fritter! Don't say that to your cousin!" I said. "What's wrong with one of our cousins being a Wonderbolt? Or a Pegasus for that matter?"

Fritter looked at me like I'd gone crazy. "Who the buck said it did? Ah meant a cousin who doesn't ever see her sister ain't got a spot tellin' me what my sisters will think of me."

"She isn't actually a Wonderbolt cousin," Peachy Sweet said, "She's one of their coordinators."

I was surprised. "What? But she always told me...she, said she was on the team..."

"She technically is, she just doesn't fly with them."

"Oh...that makes sense...but look, Fritter...We're Apples, we aren't supposed to fight. We're tight knit. Is now really the time to be arguing? Since when have we ever turned on each other in a crisis? Did you two start arguing and fighting during that whole Appleloosa thing?"

I admit, I was nowhere near Appleloosa at the time (we'd just missed AJ and her friends), so I could only assume Apple Family loyalty was strong.

"No. We were too busy tryin' to save the town and Bloomberg's family," Peachy Sweet said.

I never did get why they named their trees, but I'd be calling the kettle black to bring it up now.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Long story short, they're family to Applejack, not stock.)

Never said they weren't more than stock. I respect how my kin sees things, even if I don't get it. Just my part of the family is the...I guess, the 'undertakers' of the family when it comes to trees. We take the broken trees and bruised apples and make them into new stuff and cider.

"...Please, just get the injured to safety and stay out of this…"

Apple Fritter sighed through her teeth, "Fine cuz'. Just don't expect me to run away if we get caught up in fightin'."

"I DO expect you to run away! Because you're gonna be busy lookin' after some VIP ponies and three wounded, remember?"

"And if we have to fight our way through Changelings to get them to safety?"

"...You're a lot better at fighting than Nightlight. Blueblood can kick flank if he needs to...but don't go looking for a fight, got it? You're escorts, not soldiers or superheroes. You're not supposed to fight unless it's a last resort. If I find out you did...and for what it's worth? I wouldn't trust you to do this if I didn't think you two were tough. If I didn't think you were tough enough to handle this, the triplets would be guarding you the entire time instead of coming back to help us after getting you out of sight of the castle."

Fritter opened her mouth at that, and nothing came out...she looked at me like she didn't know what to say. Peachy Sweet hugged her. "And I'll fight too cousin, if we have to and only if we do."

I did the only thing I could think of. I took my helmet off and hugged my kin as their cousin. "So we can trust you to handle the injured?"

"...Yeah, cuz...you can…"

"Thanks...Good luck, cousins."

"Good luck to you too, cuz."

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Forgive us if we step out of the interviews for the moment...we felt it was only right to be silent passengers for the next part. They had one last thing to do before they left the Royal Catacombs as the last preparations to move were being made.)

Due to its age and minimal space available on a mountain, the catacombs lay underground, but access was public. Especially the part reserved for Equestria's heroes such as this. They were normally well guarded, but with the changeling occupation, the place was abandoned, making it so quiet they could hear a pin drop.

Shining Armor's command squad stood before a tomb. In front of it stood a statue of two pegasi, one a stallion, one a mare, both soaring high in an embrace. A plaque set in front of the tomb along with a bronze relief with the Equestrian flag in it. Several flowers sat at the base the relief that Misfit hadn't put there, looking to be a couple days old.

The trained soldiers looked upon the tomb with somber eyes.

"...Ranger...Sunset…" Thunderchild said slowly. "...There's not much we didn't say when you came here...but now, we're going into a battle for the fate of Equestria...I won't say I wish you were marching with us...I wish we'd been at your wedding months ago. But...we didn't feel it was right to spend all this time down here and not come here...I'm not good with this touchy-feely stuff...But...just know we won't let this monster win...Rest in peace, guys. We're going to keep this place safe...we'll keep everypony safe. Both your families too. Just rest in peace while we keep going. You already paid the price you swore you would gladly, let us handle things here."

The rest of the group nodded slowly in agreement. Thunderchild gave a salute, the others following suit.

The Staff Sergeant turned to the others. "...Come on everypony...we've got a world to save."

"Hey is that Blueblood?" One changeling guard asked another.

"Naw, too messy to be Blueblood, he'd turn himself in before he let his precious mane get a hair out of place. Besides, when's the last time you saw Blueblood naked?"

"Yeah, plus look at that girl with him, she's a MESS. It'd be a cold day in Tartarus before he'd let himself be caught dead with a mare like that."

His fellow nodded. "I wish it was him though: I ever tell you about the time his chair broke cause he sat on it wrong? Plothole blamed the manufacturer, and then ordered me to 'be a chair' for the rest of the evening? The whole reason I was looking forward to the invasion was so I could return the favor!"

"That's nothing compared to when I was assigned to him. His escort couldn't make it to the opera, so he had me dress up as a mare to be his date."

"What's so bad about that?"

"Now I know why noling dates him more than once, and the dress he made me wear made my flank look fat!"

"I'm sorry you have to carry me like this dear."

"Starlight, don't speak, just rest."

"If I was better I could use my supervision to vaporize the invaders and using my super-strength turn the castle upside down and shake out the villains like pepper."

"And I think the pain killers might be doing too good a job."

"You even think of flip-flopping sides Ah'll break yer legs," Apple Fritter said to Weaver. The changeling was currently disguised as the most nondescript Earth Pony she could think of.

"Cuz', don't be rude!"

"We'd NEVER do that," Weaver said.

"See? Then ya got nothin' ta worry about," Fritter replied to Weaver.

"I'm just glad you believed me."

"Helps my cuz trusts you with me."

"You have no idea how much it means to me that he does…"

Gah...I don't think I'll be flying much with this wing...oh well, this changeling general always preferred fighting with my hooves on the ground. I might need to pull out my trump card after all...I hope I can avoid using it until the Moon Queen arrives.

At least they'll have to follow me over here away from my changelings.

...I wasn't lying to my brother Goliath. He thought I was praising the enemy. And I was. But what Goliath doesn't understand is you should always respect your opponent. The moment you disrespect them is the moment you become overconfident. And that means they have an advantage against you before the fight even begins.

I'll admit...I'm glad the ponies fought back. I never understood the Changelings who thought it was better the ponies rolled over to our will. We're a race who believes nature is the ultimate measure. The ultimate law. And yet when our opponents fight back we're surprised? Does a gazelle simply stand still and let a lion kill it? No, it fights for every breath. If the Gazelle couldn't beat the lion sometimes, the Gazelle would go extinct.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Honestly, your words reminds me of me when I was fighting to lose.)

I won't lie, I find that belief hypocritical. Do I believe in our 'survival of the fittest' belief?...I believe that we all fight for what we believe in. My soldiers fight for what they believe in. I fight because I swore loyalty to my Queens. I fight because my promise is iron clad as my body.

I'll protect my people. That's why I'm here on the front lines. But if the Queen orders us to give in peacefully? I'll gladly stop. I wasn't lying when I told Goliath the day Queen Chrysalis came to power was the day my belief in innate superiority died. But so long as I'm ordered to fight, I will fight. I will give my all.

That's the reason I objected to my brother becoming my superior: he refuses to see himself as a leader and not a warrior. Death before dishonor is a lot less honorable when you might get other people, who are relying on you for guidance and protection, killed along with you.

I get back to my hooves and a white unicorn stallion with a blue mane fires on me. I shield up my forelegs and block his beams. He managed to get a beam through my defense and strike me in chest, singing my armor. He's smart.

I plant my back hooves and lower my head before charging forwards full speed. I have to evade several of his shots. He gets smart and begins aiming at my legs, almost tripping me a few times. He doesn't stop. Good! Fight!

I'm forced to tank the last few hits to get close and shoulder tackle him, knocking him across the ground. He manages to roll out of the way as I try to stomp down on him and he gets back to his hooves. I take a moment to check his stance.

"...You've got some skill, don't you?" I ask. "Your stance isn't that of a novice...What's your name?"

"I am Fancypants. And when you have a lot of money in your pocket, it's a wise choice to have some defense training," he replied and fired a beam at my head, forcing me to duck.

I came back up with both front hooves, bashing him in the chest and knocking him up on his hind legs. I bring my hooves back down, aiming at his horn. He gives a cry of pain as he's drive snout first into the ground. Kabuto's experiments have nothing to do with my size.

He tries to lunge up at my throat with his horn, but I raise my forehoof to block, letting his thrust bounce painfully off my armor.

I do a spin and buck him once more in the horn as hard as I can. I hear a crack and he falls to the ground, groaning in pain, horn cracked.

"You might have some training, but there's a difference between having training and having used it," I state, pulling back a leg and aiming a fist at his head to knock him out, quickly and painlessly. "For what it's worth, you did well for your first real fight, but this is over."

Suddenly I feel something wrap around me. I look back to see the lemon mage's monster's limbs around my midsection before the beast throws me straight through a wall. I use my armored forelegs to take the brunt of the impact, but I still felt it.

I tore my way out of the rubble in time to see the second Element of Magic teleport in front of my former opponent. Good, they took the fight even further away from the main gate.

"Get Fancypants to the medics, Trixie will handle things from here."

I look up to see the fruit mage on top of her creature, the beast mouthlessly roaring down at me like a dragon. Hehe...that's one thing I respect about this one: she doesn't hide behind her creations like a coward. She fights by their side.

I take a few steps forwards. "...What's your name fruit mage?"

"Lemon Hearts," she replied, keeping her eyes wisely on me.

"I see…" I reply, looking over to the Element of Magic. "And you're Trixie, right?"

"The One and Only," she replied, with an air of confidence.

I watch as the Earth Pony mare steps forwards. How much damage have I done to her while she keeps on going? "You?"

"...Screwball," she replied. The poor creature looked guilty. I don't have time to wonder why.

I nod. "...Then...Lemon Hearts, Trixie, Screwball. I am General Hercules Beetle. Fight me with everything you've got. You're Equestria's heroes, they expect nothing less from you!"

I plant my hooves and lower my head. "Let's see what you've got!" I yelled, charging forwards as the creature many times my size roared in fury.

"Need a medic over here!" I turned to see several ponies be brought in by the ponies who were doing the fighting. Hearing Lyra still singing out there meant at least I knew she wasn't among them. I'm quite happy Tootsie Flute isn't here.

"Hello...Minuette I believe they called you," the Prince said to Minuette, some poor mare on his back. Wait...Prince Blueblood?!

"Blueblood?! Where did you come from?!" Minuette asked in shock. "Who are the top three Wonderbolts? What's your mother's name? Where does the bread plate with butter knife go on a formal setting?!"

"I don't think I can tell you our hiding place...particularly since it's no longer our hiding place, Spitfire, Soarin', Misty Fly, before or after she changed her name? Do YOU even know her name? And top left of the dinner plate."

"Third is Fleetfoot!"

"I SWEAR IT'S ME!"

"Which means you're Blueblood, Wonderbolts trivia buff you aren't!"

TLC snapped, "Enough with 'guess the changelings!'" The nurse pony began noting the injuries of the ponies brought in, and began trying her best to clean their wounds and patch them up.

I miss Ponyville. I miss it when the worst injury I ever had to see is Tootsie getting a scraped knee.

"Excuse me, have we met? You look a little familiar," Minuette asked the blue male unicorn and the poor mare on his back with four splints. Thank Princess Celestia she at least seemed to out of it to be suffering.

"Well, I think you might know our faces," the stallion said proudly.

"You're new teachers at the Gifted Unicorn School right?"

The stallion face faulted. The mare actually managed to face-hoof with a splinted leg on reaction alone, like when I hit Lyra when she won't shut up about humans.

"Maybe this will jog your memory," the blue unicorn said, clearing his throat after carefully lowering the poor mare to be treated and positioning himself across from Minuette like they were talking. "'Sorry, Minuette, Twilight's too busy studying to come to the party. Yes, I know it's spring break, but she wants to be ahead when classes start up again'."

"You were Twilight Sparkles' family photographer right?"

"Now you're just messing with us."

"Sorry, couldn't resist Mr. Sparkle. I'm sure Twilight will be relieved you got here. She's been worried about all of you."

"And we've been worried about her...thanks for saving her from that witch."

Minuette blinked. "Wait, how do you know about that?"

"For one, we saw the magic beams aimed at Changelings outside. We know our daughter's magic color."

"Valid point."

"And some nice ponies that helped us get away told us."

Minuette cocked her head. "Nice ponies?" she asked. then looked to the two Earth Pony mares in the group, one carrying another stallion with a broken leg.

"You?"

The yellow one with the green mane shook her head. "No, Ah wish. Ah think ya know the ones who did though. They talked about you enough."

Minuette looked perplexed. "What?"

The pony facehoofed. "Do ya city folk have to take a billion hints? Our cousin and his friends."

Minuette looked more confused. "...Applejack? You're Apples right? The ones that were helping her in the kitchen? She thought you'd disappeared."

Minuette looked like she was trying to believe something that couldn't be true...or wanted to anyway.

"Wrong cousin! And don't say Applebloom neither! Ya spent the whole world tour with the guy!"

Minuette gasped in shock. "ELLIS?!"

"Bingo."

I blinked, trying to remember from their letters to Lyra. Ellis...who was…

"Oh! Minny, wasn't that somepony on the world tour?"

"Y-Yes...but...but he's a guard!" Minuette stuttered. "How is he even still here?! Not that I'm complaining but I thought all the guards got thrown out!"

"We don't know," said Applejack's cousin. "Just that it did. Banjo here's group are guards too, aren't they?"

I blinked. "...They are?" I inched away from them.

"I'm not a changeling!" called the stallion with a broken leg in the group. "We don't know why we didn't get kicked out either but you saw us at the Wedding! Remember? When you guys came to save our flanks?"

"That would actually explain a good bit," TLC remarked. "Whoever tended to their wounds was a professional."

Minuette suddenly grabbed AJ's cousin by the shoulders. "Where are they?! Are they okay?! What have they been doing?!"

"Wow! Hold yer horses! They're gonna join the fight!" the mare replied. "And as for okay, they've got some scrapes and bruises, but they're alright. They've been kicking Changeling flank this whole time."

I thought for a moment, then gasped. "Did they take out two Changeling big wigs?"

She nodded. "Yeah, we were the ones that helped guard 'em."

I looked to Minuette, who looked like she was about to faint. "Minny, are you alright?"

I didn't know what to think. I'd spent this entire time not knowing if they were alive or dead. If they were okay. Praying that they'd be okay...and then it turns out they were here this entire time, fighting by our side and we didn't know it.

I know, Captive is my coltfriend, but the rest of Misfit Actual are my friends too. It's kind of hard for the Princess' constant companions and her guard detail to not interact a lot. And...I'm one of the few ponies on this planet to actually remember what they did in that time that never was...remembers them and Shining being taken by that thing. I couldn't help being afraid the same thing had happened again.

I was happy...I was just shell shocked! It was so much to take in! And considering who I replaced, that's saying a lot!

Not to mention realizing they'd been doing their best to help us.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Did you expect them to do anything less?)

No, I didn't. Shining Armor lives to protect ponies, why should I have expected his squad not to? It honestly explained a lot. I just…

"Minuette, are you crying?" Bon Bon asked.

"Oh! Sorry...it's just…I...I don't know what to think...I…"

I look...Apple Fritter I think now that I can actually think. She was on the wedding staff, we'd run into her before Chrysalis fired us.

"Was...was there a unicorn stallion with them? A sniper? Kinda stoic and calculating?"

She blinked. "Nah. There was an...um...unicorn. But she's a girl."

Girl?

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): If a few guards didn't get thrown out, I guess a few others might not have been booted out and Misfit has spent this entire time helping as many ponies as they could.)

Good point...At least that means Audience is away from all this...I hope he's okay.

"Erased all Daleks from the time space continuum in this universe, check. I'd rather NOT have to explain that to Celestia," the Doctor remarked, giving a sigh of relief. "Audience, how did things go with the Empress?"

"She's on her way to calm Dracozilla down," the unicorn replied. "Good thing he's mellowed out over the years."

"Good good, glad this is one of those realities where he's settled down or we could be in trouble. That means we only need to keep him busy for a little bit."

"Uh...Doctor, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around this, but if the Daleks got erased, why is Dracozilla still angry?"

"That's a good question."

Misfit Actual's sniper gave a sigh, wondering how he'd gotten tangled up in this mess.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): He's probably not in too much trouble.)

A part of me wanted to run out to help the others...to be there...but I had a different role in all this. I was a doctor, something our group needed more than soldiers. We all had our roles in things.

I just hope they'll get through this okay.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Just believe in all of them, Minuette.)

I think I will.

I fire a series of magic bolts at the Changeling general, but he just blocks them with those weird forelegs of his. How is that even possible? This Changeling is certainly something else. I didn't see him fight when I was Chrysalis' slave. I wonder if a blade made of solid moonlight would cut him. Darn it! I'm still masquerading as Princess Cadence...

Still, I'm thankful my Cadence disguise is still functioning, it gives Lyra cover, but I don't know how much longer I can evade. It helps we seem to have ended up a distance from the main fighting...I hope that doesn't come back to bite us.

Hercules leapt into the air despite his damaged wings and slammed both of his hooves into Lemon Heart's big lemon with enough force to create a shockwave and cause some juice to fly from the impact. I think he's getting airborne by pure physical strength.

I had to catch Lemon Hearts as she fell off and her familiar was stunned by a second blow. Thankfully, Trixie was there to blast him out of the air when he leapt at us, but he got right back up and charged at HER.

He tried the same move he used on poor Fancypants, but luckily Trixie teleported backwards and fired back at him with a beam I'm pretty sure was bigger than she was. He just blocked it again but skidded a little despite not falling over. What are this guy's forelegs made of?!

I put Lemon Hearts down and she threw a few lemons at Hercules. He was expecting them to explode into smoke and held his breath...instead the floor under his hooves became slick and caused him to fall.

"What the Tartarus was that?" I asked.

"Lemon juice is an ingredient in a lot of cleaners, so I know a few spells to make lemon based soap," she stated, then ran to check on her familiar.

Sometimes I expect Lemon Hearts to show up to class dressed in clothes made of lemons…

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Or create a race of lemon ponies…)

That would not surprise me.

Trixie didn't hesitate and was blasting away at Hercules. He flinched but didn't seem to take as much damage as he should have.

The big Changeling drove his hooves into the ground to get back up and leapt out of Lemon Heart's trap. He blocked a beam from me and gave Trixie a kick in the chest, knocking her flat on her back. Thankfully she teleported out of the way before he could continue the attack., resulting in him turning to me and Lemon and opening fire with a surprisingly basic magic beam. I blocked it with a shield but when the smoke cleared, he'd already charged and slammed shoulder first into my barrier with enough force to drive me back and put a few cracks in it!

Screwball leapt on his back and pound away at him with her front legs, but he leapt up, trying to crush her under his weight. Thank Princess Celestia that time she dodged!

She threw a punch at Hercules and he caught it with one hoof and matched her!

Her eyes widened before he punched forwards with his free front hoof, this time her catching it! The two struggled against each other and I swear Screwball was losing!

He reared his head back and headbutted her, knocking her to the ground...just in time for Trixie to strike him with lightning. Repeatedly. He cringed from the strikes, but he just shrugged it off like it was a little burn!

"I thought Changelings weren't as strong as Earth Ponies!" I found myself exclaiming.

"I'm not an average Changeling," Hercules replied before bull rushing Trixie.

Lemon Hearts throws more of her surprisingly well utilized creations at me again. I leap into the air as they create another slick. Crossing my forelegs, I block a series of powerful beams from Trixie, before tackling her to the ground. I quickly try to assault her horn before she can teleport.

Gah!

I'm sent staggering when she electrifies her horn and gives me a large shock instead.

"...Clever girl…" I mutter. She's also keeping an eye open for ambushes. Smart, but a waste. Any Changeling I could pull away to help me is a changeling that won't be there to guard the castle. And every Equestrian hero focused on me is one they don't have to worry about.

Every hit I take is one my Guards don't have to. Every second they spend fighting me is a second the wall has a better chance of holding.

When the Moon Queen arrived, she'd run into the full force of my wall before she can join the assault too.

"You think you're the only creature to ever aim for Trixie's horn?" she asked with a confident smirk as she got to her hooves.

Their Princess shoots me from behind with a beam, staggering me forwards. I surprised Trixie by using it to propel me forwards and punch the Element of Magic hard in the muzzle that bloodied her nose. I follow up with a blow to the stomach.

Unfortunately, before I can press my advantage on the stunned unicorn, Screwball slams full speed into my side, knocking me off my hooves. She's smart and jumps on me, trying to punch me repeatedly. I counter by hardening my forelegs. To my surprise she doesn't react to punching my ultimate shield full force.

I spit a ball of slime in her face and buck her off. I use what telekinesis I have to grab her leg and pull her back for a second buck (my body is stronger than my magic). I have no choice but to take a beam to the back from the second Element of Magic and charge her. Unfortunately, she teleports again, but this time I rear up and pound the ground, knocking her off her hooves with the shockwave when she reappears. Before she can react, I charge her, tackle her full force. She manages to teleport before hitting the ground, allowing Lemon Hearts to strike me with several of her lemon bombs.

Screwball takes advantage of me being disorientated to deliver a flying kick that I'm forced to block with my forelegs. I throw her off with my strength and look at her.

"You just won't stay down, will you?"

"I could say the same about you," she replied, taking a fighting stance.

"...What are you fighting for?"

"...Atonement. And protecting someponies dear to me."

"Me too. But only one of us will succeed! So come at me!"

These ponies. Sometimes I wish my fellow Changelings were right about them. It'd make everything so much easier...but life isn't easy.

We charge each other and collide, forcing our strength against each other. She falls back and flips me over her with a professional toss, but I turn it around, slamming full force into the ground and creating another shockwave to knock her off the ground.

I charge forwards and leap, planting a hoof in her chest and driving her into the ground hard enough to crack it.

I rear back up and try to bring my body weight down on her but Lemon Hearts surprises me by shooting me with a beam from her horn to interrupt my attack.

While it doesn't hurt me, I hear a sizzling sound and look down to see my metal armor corroding and rusting at the touch of a yellow, foul smelling liquid.

I don't let that detail distract me and charge her full on. She attempts to use more of her bombs, but while my magic is subpar for a warrior, it is enough to blast them out of the air before I reach her and attempt a quick blow to her horn. While she's quick enough to block my strike with her forelegs and protect her horn, she's still a unicorn and the blow knocks her to the ground.

I stomp on her stomach, causing her to gasp for breath. While she's winded, I attempt to slam my weight down on her.

Princess Cadence, however, flew full speed into me and knocked me off her ally. That's strange...I expected more strength out of an Alicorn.

This gave Lemon Hearts the chance to fire a beam right at my face.

"GAH!"

My eyes burned and I was temporarily blinded by what I think was lemon juice into my eyes.

Somepony took advantage and shot me from multiple angles as I try to clear my eyes and I believe Screwball slammed into my side.

To Be Continued . . .

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by Alex Warlorn
The Mighty Hercules Part One

Author's Note: This isn't filler. NEXT PART UP TOMORROW! SAME PONY TIME-ZONE! SAME PONY CHANNEL! You can hold me to that!

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-WeddingArc-The-Mighty-Hercules-Pt0-466446554

Next Chapter: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-WeddingArc-The-Mighty-Hercules-Pt2-466956315

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (SERIOUSLY need to be kept up to date, every little bit helps!).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions. http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/

Episode 197: "The Mighty Hercules" Part 2

Fleur Dis Lee had waited for her chance, and finally took it.

The tabloids had loved to comment on her resemblance to Princess Celestia, passing her off as either an illegitimate child, or a failed cloning experiment. This overlooked the fact her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother had all bore a strong resemblance to the princess. The few that actually took that into account sometimes wondered if the model had divine blood.

Fancy Pants of course had married her for her, not as some oddity or pretty that would make an interesting trophy wife. Or to a degree it could be said he married her for the her he knew she could be.

Fleur Dis Lee had as a youth been bored with high culture. As a late bloomer filly who hadn't even earned her cutie mark, she had taken to thievery to appease her boredom. She had never hurt anypony, and had stolen only from the wealthy, (and had usually tossed out the treasure in a garbage bin nearby). She had never gotten caught. She hadn't fought guards, but she had learned how to avoid and bamboozle them (given Equestria's low crime rate, she sometimes wondered if she got out just in time).

Meeting Fancy Pants had given her something more interesting to do with her life, something more meaningful than cheap thrills. He had an outlook on the world it seemed no pony else in Canterlot high society seemed to have. He wasn't a trend follower, he was a trend maker. Not because he was smart (which he was), but because he refused to follow trends and instead brought attention to the subtleties everypony else tended to miss. He had an amazing eye for detail. She remembered how they'd met.

She'd tried to snatch a pocket watch from him...he'd not only realized she had but told her in detail how she had done so, all from little details. She still remembered what he'd told her: "Dear, petty theft doesn't suit you. You're far too smart to waste your life on such things."

He didn't call the Guard...he helped her find excitement in other places. In other ways. In the little things most of the upper crust were too busy sticking their nose up at to notice. She was grateful.

Most ponies didn't even know what her cutie mark stood for, they didn't realize it symbolized her parents with lances, spears, and other blade weapons.

Which was exactly why Fancy Pants had asked her to guard the entrance to the tent their field medic had set up. She thought it was better for them to fight as a team, her protecting him at close range, while he handled distance fight. He insisted that they needed a pony to guard the medics, and that he'd be fine on his own. Her Fancy Pants was not always right. Didn't he realize they had always worked best together?

They had another one coming towards the tent: an orange unicorn mare, blue eyes, brown mane in a 'pony tale', cookie snapped in half cutie mark.

Fleur looked up the proper profile page in her brain: Gingersnaps, teacher at Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. And she was carrying, HER FANCY! His horn! The way he was sweating the pain he was enduring was immense.

"I don't think gophers had anything to do with this conspiracy Ink Well," The teacher muttered to herself, but was interrupted by Fleur.

"What happened?!"

"The big changeling got him."

"Fancy can you hear me?"

"S-sorry dear, I miscalculated."

The model's eyes fell on Fancy's horn. On the crack. On the agonizing wound sustained by the pony to whom she owed her current life to in every sense of the word. She felt something in her snap.

"Get him inside!"

" . . . Aren't you going to ask me a password or something?" Gingersnaps asked confused. The Gifted Unicorn teacher also couldn't help shuddering a little at the look in Fleur's eyes.

"Just get him in there!" She opened the flap.

Gingersnaps sighed. "If some of you injured turn out to be bug monsters in disguise, don't blame me." Gingersnaps took Fancy inside.

Once he was inside, Fleur Dis Lee strapped a rapier and longsword to her body and pulled her old thieving stealth out of the closet and headed for the direction her Fancy had come. It wasn't hard to find the big changeling, just follow the impact craters. The look in her eyes was one that looked almost alien and frightenin on a pony.

And she had found him fighting Mrs. Golden Tiara, the magician, one of the gifted unicorns, and Princess Cadence herself. Fleur moved with cat-like grace and stealth. Then the gifted unicorn shot him in the eyes with something that smelled like lemon juice.

Then the magician shot with a simple spell bolt the big changeling from behind as the Princess shot shards of moonlight from above, capped off by Mrs. Golden Tiara broadside tackling him.

And Fleur Dis Lee saw her opening and took it.

She let out a wild battle cry and stampeded towards the monster like a wild horse. Not seeing the other ponies anymore, only the beast who had harmed her husband.

"Who the-AGH!"

A rapier thrust and longsword slash at the same time. The slash was blocked on instinct but the thrust stabbed into thin point of his joints.

"I'm Fleur Dis Lee! This is for my husband Fancy Pants!"

"I'm Hercules Bee-AGH!" She grabbed one foreleg with her magic and pull it out of the way and stabbed his torso, it didn't go as deep as she had wanted.

"I don't care what your name is! I'm going to break your horn like you did Fancy's!"

Lemon and Golden had to back off or risk getting beheaded by a sword slash. Cadence and Trixie weren't snipers and couldn't get a shot in without risking hitting Fleur.

"Agh! You sought me out just-Ugh!- to pay me back?" The Changeling General moved his head, turning a head shot into a glancing blow. The creature who fed on love could feel the anger and hate in the mare.

"Yes!"

"That's stupid." Hercules kicked her in the stomach, pivoting on one hind leg and kicking with the other,balancing with his wings. Fleur lost her focus and dropped her blades as she was knocked back. The distraction gave the Changeling General a moment to wipe out his eyes and regain his full sight. The princess and unicorns used the chance to shoot the changeling, but he used his leg strength to dodge and rushed the white mare.

"Love for another isn't stupid you thug!" She levitated her swords aiming them at his back.

"Not what I meant. 'Tit for tat' has NO PLACE in battle! Revenge is-" Hercules spread the coverings for his wings at just the right time to knock the twin blades back-stab off course. "Let me give you a few lessons in reality."

The blades realigned themselves but struck pavement as he leapt over her and handed on four hooves behind her and said, "When you're the cavalry make sure your element of surprise COUNTS."

Fleur pivoted, she didn't swing her swords, they flew straight at Hercules like spears. Hercules move down and underneath her and threw her into the air.

"I only wish you had two horns so I could break them both and say how both matched!"

She was caught in the air by Cadence, she merely used the princess as a springboard to leap head on against the general. The Changeling General gave a legitimate glare.

"Blind rage NOR tranquil fury are friends, all they do is make you fixated and resistant to teamwork. Especially when you're so drunk on them you're acting like you don't bucking have teammates!"

The changeling spun out of the way as the swords stabbed at the ground where he was at and righted himself. Fleur used her own telekinesis to slow herself down.

The two blades spun in a fury trying to get get past the changeling armor's defenses, forcing him back.

"Don't surrender or give up! I want you to squirm you bully!"

Thanks to the battle, there was plenty of debris to work with as Hercules used his good wing to buzz up a dust cloud, making her cough, then instead of politely waiting for the dust cloud to vanish, he knocked her blades out of the way first as her grip on them weakened for a moment and rammed into the mare again.

"Determination and someling to protect does NOT make up for experience or fix poor choices! Now please, just stop this!"

Hercules ducked under a blind punch from the mare, causing a shot from Trixie to miss him.

"Fancy's pain is mine, and that pain gives me strength!"

"Your husband made himself an enemy combatant, I defended my changelings."

Hercules spun around, forcing Golden Tiara to stop a charge or risk tackling the mare that didn't even notice she was there.

"You could've surrendered!"

"So could've he. But that'd be betraying our swarms."

"Well get ready for the consequences of your actions!"

She drew her swords back to her grasp and slashed at him twice, but was blocked, now with ease.

Hercules gave a genuinely disgusted growl. "You want to know what disgusts me about you?" he asked, ducking and letting her slashes go over his head before bringing both forelegs up and knocking her on her back. "You took me off guard, you had the skill to hurt me. You had the skill to make a difference in this fight for your team, and you're wasting it on petty revenge!"

"What? You think I should be fighting for your side?!" she asked, Hercules actually having to punch her out of the way of an incoming beam from 'Cadence' when she recklessly leapt at him.

"No, quite the opposite," the General said, not making a move to further harm her. "I think you should go cool off until you're calm enough to be fighting on a side!"

"I'm on Fancy's side." She dove her rapier neatly through the hole in Hercules' legs as he brought it up to block. The changeling bent his foreleg as the tip of the rapier dove for his eyes, bending it off course, and breaking it. Fleur discarded the hilt used her telekinesis to skip the blade without the meddlesome hilt right at the changeling as the longsword at his side.

Hercules growled, moving his head to the right to evade the blade and spinning his foreleg to throw the longsword off course. He growled deeper when the launched blade nearly impaled Cadence as she dived at the General from behind.

Hercules slammed his hardened foreleg down on the longsword blade, snapping the weapon in half. Fleur didn't miss a beat as she simply used the blades on their own, the General got a serious look about him.

"You almost killed your own Queen."

"Why should you care?!"

"Because you're a rebel soldier. Because you joined a militia under her banner," she tried to slash him but he blocked both. While he remained composed, disgust was obvious. "You're so drunk on revenge you're not thinking! Just stop before you hurt someling!"

"So this is the part where you try to make me give up because I won't give up."

"...You know, I'm not a pony," Hercules blocked several more slashes. "But we have one thing in common. We both think hate is poison for good reason." He proceeded to perry her blows and retaliate by pushing her full force away from him. "Eating hate is poison to my kind. But right now you're living proof that it's poison to the brain! So cool off and leave before someling gets hurt!"

"This isn't hate! It's righteous fury!" She animated the broken hilts along with the blades, all four at once.

"...I didn't enjoy hurting your husband. I respect him for trying to protect your land. I took no pleasure in it. In fact, I wish we didn't even have to fight. I swear to Queen Rosedust that's the tr-" She hit him near point blank with a simple spell bolt, then began a four on one whirlwind attack.

Unfortunately for her, trying to be a one pony army in a group on one fight meant the Changeling General merely had to twist his body to result in Fleur's spell hitting Lemon Hearts and knocking her on her flank and then her own blades forced Screwball to stay back.

"Fleur, would you kindly stop getting in the way?!" Lemon Hearts yelled.

"Don't worry!!! Thank you for staying out of mine. There's no way I'm letting this ruffian win!"

Hercules growled. He reared back to dodge a slash and brought his hooves down on her swords, pinning them to the ground.

"...Listen to them and leave. Now. Put down your weapons, and walk away," he stated in a calm even tone. "You're not being a soldier or a hero, you're being a danger to yourself and your own side. Go sober up before someling pays the price for your recklessness."

Fleur shook her head in disgust, "I'm not going to listen to you, you're the enemy. I am not a foal, I am not a coward, I am not a weakling, I am not an idiot, and I am not BOWING DOWN to your absurd oversized high and mighty EGO."

"Me belittling you or hurting someling you love doesn't mean you're fated to crush me or justify anything you've done here. It does not give you a 'I can kick anyling's butt who gets in my way' card. The one thing BOTH our kind's agree on is love is powerful, but hate is weak. So get that through your thick skull that you're not being the hero here."

" . . . " Fleur-Dis-Lee just stare at him for one moment, jaw hanging open. And something in her clicked. Her voice was as cold as ice. "Did, you, just, call me, an empty headed broodmare?" She didn't wait for an answer.

Hercules felt his limbs glued to the ground with her magic as the swords fell to the ground. Her horn glowing bright, she reached down picked up the hilted half of the broad sword in her mouth. Mumbling through it, "I'll 'eave after I 'reak 'our 'orn."

"'Ou 'alk so much 'bout 'onor when 'our side couldn't have less of it. If 'ou 'eally had 'onor, 'ou'd have defected by now," she said matter of fact.

"...I had enough honor to try not to hurt somepony who clearly didn't belong here," the General said, and suddenly gave a roar, ripping the GROUND up to free himself and towering over her. "I had enough honor to try and talk down someone so drunken on petty revenge as to not care about her own Queen!"

The General slammed the ground in front of him, his strength actually surpassing Fleur's hold on him and breaking the rubble off his hooves, sending the unicorn flying a few feet into the air. He leapt up and slammed a hoof into the model's ribs, slamming her into the ground with enough force to crack a few of them.

"Not everyling is a super soldier, it'll be a sad day when that's true. You're a skilled fighter, not a freaking one mare army! And trying to BE something you're NOT is only going to put yourself in danger, put those whose JOB it is to do the fighting in danger, and bring sadness to your family. So for Rosedust's sake, stop you idiot! Now be an adult and STAY DOWN . . .Please don't make me make you stay down!"

"You're wrong. I trust in Princess Cadence, because I know she cares about us, she's grown up as one of us, I know it's going to take more than that to hurt her, she's our love for each other, and that makes her unbreakable!" She forced her body to stand, even as she felt knives in her chest from breathing.

"...I respect your belief in your queen. It's the one thing you've said this entire fight I actually respect. But you're assuming you're a samurai and not a shinobi. And it's hurting MORE than just you. Stop this before I have to really hurt you to make you stop endangering yourself and your team."

"If we lose, one less slave for you, if we win, I'll have plenty of time to heal. And seriously, I love listening to my Fancy speak, he's a master of words, it's a thing of beauty . . . but seriously, a fight isn't the place for beautiful words. Fighting doesn't deserve them."

Hercules felt four blades stab him in the gut. "And you REALLY get too wrapped up in your speeches."

The General growled, pulling the blades out with his mouth and summoning flames to cauterize the wound despite it clearly hurting him.

"Fine...Forgive me for trying to do this the pony way."

Fleur assumed an calm elegant pose. Then said without anger, "If it was the pony way, you wouldn't be working for a monster. Remember th-"

Hercules suddenly punched the mare in the jaw with his hardened forelegs. With her dazed, he lifted her over head with his hooves and body slammed her into the ground hard enough to crack it. "You want to call the Queen a monster?" he asked, keeping his composure as he stomped down on her ribs, this time making sure he broke them.

"How about violator?" She coughed out. "Sadist? Melgo-m-maniac?"

"...You're right...She isn't a saint...she isn't some messiah…I object to a lot of things she does...but you want to know why I work for her?" Hercules asked, making sure to kick her swords out of her range. "Because she saved the Changelings. Because without her, we'd be extinct. You think I bucking LIKE hurting people?! I DON'T, I'm a GUARDIAN! Doing this?! Hurting you?! Hurting innocent ponies?! It makes me sick! I wish to Queen Rosedust the Queen would've just taken that peace treaty so this whole stupid war would be overwith! But I swore an oath I can't break to someling who I owe my people's existence to!...And another to one who loved us like we were her beloved children..."

"If . . . . you . . . believed that . . . you'd have . . . protected her . . . from . . . herself . . . " Fleur was no longer conscious.

Hercules gave a small gasp...then for a brief moment let guilt surface. "...That makes two Queens I've failed that way I guess…"

He slowly lifted her up and held her between himself and the heroes.

"...Last lesson: not everyling in the world who wants to contribute to something will be able to, and in FACT become a LIABILITY if they refuse to see they're over their head and out of their element."

"How could you use her as a shield like that?!" Screwball asked.

"Trixie has only used a particular dear friend of hers as a club and shield."

"There is no such thing as 'dirty fighting' in a fight for your survival."

"How could you beat up somepony like that just to prove how tough you are!" One of the ponies snapped at Hercules.

"Don't be an idiot. Fighting someling with their head so clouded by rage they endanger their own side doesn't prove any strength. Just like endangering your own comrades for petty revenge doesn't prove you're a hero."

"...He's right," said Trixie. "...Well, about the 'no such thing as 'dirty fighting' part at least. I play dirty...a lot."

Hercules looked at the unconscious mare...then floated her over to the group and calmly sat her down. "Lemon Hearts, have one of your familiars get her out of here so we can continue. She never should have been here to begin with."

The ponies stared in shock. "What-"

"That's not a REQUEST! I broke her bucking ribs! Get her out of here before she gets worse! Or worse yet wakes up and tries to pursue that foolish vendetta of hers!"

Lemon Hearts didn't question it and summoned her Angry Baby Lemons to escort the battered mare to medical attention.

Fleur-Dis-Lee when she awoke next to her husband, she thought about her actions. They lacked the sublimity and guile that had made her a legend.

She looked up at Fancy. Not an ounce of anger or hatred in his eyes. No thirst for revenge...only worry and concern for her. How had he felt when she'd run off to 'avenge' him?

Her mind wandered back to when she had been a young filly, and had talked with her great grandmother, the one who had married into the line of knights who stretched back to before history began. If her mother and grandmother looked like Celestia, Fleur would have sworn Great-Granny was her, minus wings and if Celestia could have old age.

She remembered the story she had told Fleur when Great-Granny had been very old, and had made Fleur promise only to share with her foals and husband.
"Once upon a time dear . . . I was a thief . . . I could do the work of two ponies and I was a master of disguise and getting into places that were forbidden. In the greatest theft of my career, I sought to break into the great vault of Canterlot Castle. I wasn't after treasure, there were weapons there, recovered from hundreds of years ago, with the last war with Tambelon the stories said, put there as The Princess carefully dismantled and destroyed each one. She wanted them where she could keep an eye on them.

"The Mare-Barrener, The-Senses-Eater, The Shadow-Erasure, and others more terrible, I imagined selling them to the highest bidder, they'd be worth more the entire treasure vault! . . . So I disguised myself as The Princess herself, determined to have the weapons removed from the vault, and sell them to the villains who lived beyond Equestria's borders.

"My disguise was perfect . . . everypony was fooled . . . except one . . . Princess Celestia herself . . . her punishment . . . was that I spend a year as her body double, letting her have some rest. She never touched my mind. But she said if I tried anything, if I tried to abuse the position she had just trusted with to a thief of deadly weapons . . . my punishment would be MORE severe. She told me that at loving as she was, she could be quite brutal if one proved deserving of it. I don't know how much of an eye she had on me.

"But by the time my sentence was up . . . something had happened the Princess had not anticipated . . . and I hadn't either . . . I had fallen in love . . . I must admit, I never once dreamed I'd fall for any stallion. Celestia swore by All Her Mothers that this was no magic coercion, it had happened by itself. She was as surprised as I was.

"I didn't want to go back to the way I was . . . because there was a chance that the love I felt for him might cease to exist. He was an open minded stallion, I know he'd have accepted us, excuse me, myself, but I feared that my love for him might vanish, and I didn't want to lose this feeling of love I had never felt anypony before. I begged and pleaded the princess not to change me back to the way I was. When she did so anyway, and I continued to plead to be made again how she had made me before, she granted my request, but my appearance now different enough from hers that I could live my own life. She said that if I ever changed my mind, she'd be waiting. But by the time he'd gone ahead to Elysium, I had all of you."

"Did you really love great-grandpa that much?" Little Fleur had asked.

"My little grandchild, love will make you do anything."

Fancy Pants gave a sigh. "Fleur...why did you do this?"

"I...I wanted to avenge you…"

"...Revenge doesn't suit you, Fleur…" The stallion gave her a light nuzzle. "...And it doesn't suit any of us. Not like this…Revenge that refuses to be sated does nothing but consume all it touches."

I took no joy in defeating a mare drunk on anger and revenge. Someone like that doesn't belong on the battlefield.

But back to the matter at hoof. Before they can fully recover from my actions, I look up at the Wonderbolts fighting above the main battle and transform into one of them, I'm not sure which one. Given my situation I don't really care.

While it doesn't fully restore my flight ability, the change of wing shape allows me to leap further with a glide. Surprised by my transformation and longer reach, Lemon Hearts receives a tackle and is sent flying.

I need to use my transformations wisely. If I don't conserve the love I stockpiled from little Sweetie Belle, I won't be able to use my trump card when the Moon Queen arrives.

Screwball asked, "So . . . since you clearly care so much about Fleur not getting hurt, that must mean you now realize all this fighting is wrong, and are now going to get your changelings to turn against your evil queen and help everyp-" I punched her in the face, she flew back five feet.

"No."

I give a jump to evade a beam from Trixie and glide towards her with my new wings, barely able to dodge several beams. It helps I'm a slightly smaller target like this. Knowing she'll teleport before I reach her, I transform back to my normal form midair and use my increased momentum to slam into the ground and cause a shockwave.

Instead of targeting her, I leap and tackle Screwball, taking her off guard and biting down on her shoulder with my fangs and throwing her away.

Trixie attempts to fire at me from a higher building, but I block it with my forelegs before pounding the ground and kicking a thrown up piece of shattered stone full force at ledge she's standing on. She gives a yell, barely teleporting away as the ledge crumbled. The sound of yell tells me she couldn't time her arrival quite well and was roughed up in the fall.

Before I can press the advantage, several lemon bombs explode around me. My wounded wing is still able to flap some to blow it away, but not before Lemon Hearts collides with me riding a familiar (similar to her first one in size, but I believe a little larger).

I slam my weight into it and push back against it. The unicorn wisely chooses to fire that acidic spell at me while I wrestle her creation. I note Trixie preparing an attack from the side. I may need to be smart about this. I need something to catch her off balance.

"Do you think you can beat me, Lemon Hearts?" I plant my back hooves and push back as hard as I want her to think I can. "You're simply a grain of sand Celestia searched through looking for her diamond! Nothing more! Failed Element Of Magic Candidate!"

She snarls and lunges at me in rage with her horn. I reply by spitting slime point blank in her face. As she and her familiar are taken off guard by my attack, I bite down on the tendril-like limb of her creature and spin my body weight around, lifting both off the ground and hurling them into Trixie, knocking them away.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): I thought you didn't believe in underestimating the opponent.)

I don't. But that doesn't mean I can't use a psychological jab to get an advantage when I need it. This is a fight. They've tripped me. They've blinded me. They've outwitted me. Are you saying they're wrong for playing dirty like I am?

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): ...No...)

Good. Because neither of us are.

I examine the situation quickly and note that Screwball is still recovering from my previous attack.

Without warning I spin around and catch the Princess off guard with an admittedly weak magic beam, then full tackle her to the ground. With no wasted motion, I leap up and attempt to slam my body weight down on h-

I won't lie. But given my family tree that's almost a given. Finding the Princess on a battlefield when we needed her to confirm we were us? Not easy. The triplets jumped right into the fighting disguised as Unicorns with Captain Coke, but the rest of us had to worry about being mistaken for changelings. Thankfully, skirting around the edge of a battlefield looking meant we noticed the mini war going on away from it. Makes me wish we ran into cousin AJ, maybe that magic 'Honest' necklace of hers could tell.

We were going to try and sneak up and hopefully take the Changeling big wig by surprise, but instead we saw the Princess in big trouble.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): How did you know it was a big wig?)

The triplets gave us a description of the Changeling big wigs and...well a Changeling a good half a head taller than the rest, wearing golden armor, and looking like he could give Big Mac a run for his money in hoof wrestling wasn't exactly easy to miss.

Captain Coke gave the order and me, Caramel, and him put Earth Pony strength to good use and galloped. One big shoulder tackle from three Earth Pony stallions sent the big lug flying through the wall of a nearby building.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Why not try to just tranquilize him?)

We were gonna, but Garnet said the big lug was too big for the doses we'd prepared for the fight, (the guy was as big as Cousin Big Mac) and since we knew he was the Queen's right hoof stallion, we wanted to make sure to take him alive if we could (the more high level hostages we had the more leverage we had to maybe end this peacefully. Especially if one of them is the second in command).

The blue unicorn in the group shot the wall of a store for priceless mings right over him and buried him in a lot of rubble, that should keep him down.

And...well, at that point I think we had everycreature's attention.

Normally, making sure Hercules stayed down would be the priority, but we needed to prove that we were on their side so they didn't shoot us in the back while we were trying due to a misunderstanding. Doesn't mean we didn't keep weapons trained on it.

Thunderchild offered a hoof to the Princess to help her up, being he was the closest after we tackled Hercules.

"Sorry we're late, Princess," he said, giving a smile.

She blinked, looking up at us. "Uh…"

And the blue unicorn teleported in, looking at us like we might try to blast her at any minute. Scratch that, the opposite was what was going on I think. "Why'd you help us Changelings?! If you're trying to trick us-"

"Hey! Hold on!" Sarge said, holding his hooves up. No, none of us blamed the mare for thinking that, considering the situation. "We're not Changelings! Just ask the Princess! She can prove it!"

The Princess looked like Applejack that one time the Orange Family hosted a family reunion and she didn't know which spoon to use. Poor girl was sweating like nothing else. That didn't seem right…

"H-How would I prove that?"

"Uh, Princess," Gag started. "You're Princess of Bonds, remember? And I'd say we couldn't be more bonded unless we had superglue."

Thunderchild actually looked a bit hurt, I think we all were. "Princess, come on! It's me, Staff Sergeant Thunderchild!"

We all took a defensive stance, prepared if this was a Changeling and not just the Princess scared out of her wits.

The Princess gasped. "Thunderchild...so...Uh…"

The blue unicorn gave a sigh. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid she cannot prove that...but you asking her to proves you're not changelings."

"Uh...how?" Gag asked.

"Because if you were changelings trying to trick us, why would you ask her to do something that'd obviously reveal you?"

"...Point."

The 'Princess' stood up...and shed an illusion spell to turn into...I think one of the Hoodmaidens' friends if I remember right...Moon Dancer?

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): How do you know her?)

Hoofmaidens are her close pals and have a group picture with her. Plus she goes to the School for Gifted Unicorns and we'd all been on duty there a few times.

"I'm sorry, I'm a body double…" she lamented. "The real Princess is…"

"In another castle?" Gag answered, getting the reaction you'd expect.

"Yeah...she left us in charge while she's busy elsewhere."

"Considering you're fighting a Changeling General," Captain Coke said. "I'll trust you."

"First things first," said Garnet. "Anypony I should be patching up before we get back to fighting?"

"Screwball's hurt Trixie believes."

Wait...is that Filthy Rich's wife?

"...Hello, Ellis," she said, as Garnet started patching up her shoulder wound real quick.

"Oh, hey Mrs Rich, long time no see…."

"...It's Screwball now, Ellis, but yes...I've been ill."

"Sorry to hear that, hope you're doing better now."

The blue unicorn blinked. "You two know one another?"

"Family friends, Filthy buys wood products from Ellis' family, I don't think there's an Apple Family farm in Equestria he doesn't deal with."

"Cherry! Take a look at this!" Caramel yelled, he and Noteworthy having been keeping an eye on Hercules.

Captain Coke looked over as rubble started moving. "He's getting back up?!" he asked, echoing what we all were thinking as we trained our weapons on it if we didn't already.

"He's proved incredibly persistent in not staying down," Trixie replied. "We've hit him with enough to knock out at least ten Changelings."

"Okay, catch up later!" the Captain ordered. He looked to the blue unicorn. "Who's in charge?"

"That would be me," she said with a small bow. "Twilight Sparkle left me in charge. I am Trixie, her co-bearer of Magic."

"What?!" we all asked.

"It's true," Moon Dancer said with a nod. "She's a second Element of Magic and right now our default leader." The others all nodded.

"Are you from Roedinia?" Gag asked Trixie. I dunno why, but something about her being a SECOND Element of Magic made me tense.

"WHY would you ask me that?!"

Gag blinked. "Not sure. Gut feeling..."

"Well Trixie isn't! She's from Hoofington! And it's a very long story Trixie doesn't have time to explain right now!"

Captain nodded. "Alright, my name is Captain Cherry Coke, I'm acting CO. We don't have much time to get acquainted, so I'll be quick. You and me are in charge, our groups work together, and we kick this Changeling flank, got it?"

Trixie raised an eyebrow. "Trixie isn't used to costars, but this is a very tough Changeling."

There's several reasons I didn't push my weight around, not that I couldn't. The biggest was I had no idea what anypony but Lemon Hearts could actually do, even if she gave me a quick run down, so me trying to call the shots with the other group would hurt us more than help us. Same reason I largely left Thunderchild to his own devices most of the time with his squad, he simply knew them better. Two, now was not the time to argue over details. We had to get on the same page and quick considering a wall collapsing on this guy wasn't enough to put him down. And third, the Princess and Celestia's personal apprentice had faith in her and she was apparently doing a decent job of things so far, so I had reason to think her input was going to be helpful.

Me and her calling shots was simply the best choice given the situation. I'd do about the same thing if I'd working with another squad who I didn't know much about. Which technically was what was happening, given the rebellion was essentially a militia at this point and all the back up we were getting.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Forgive us not interviewing for the most part during this portion, converging narratives make it difficult to pick a perspective to tell the story from and this got wicked chaotic with ten ponies and some giant lemons fighting the second most dangerous Changeling in existance.)

Cherry Coke nodded. "Alright. So I take it if you're an Element of Magic, your special talent is Magic?"

"Yes, though Trixie is more of a trickster than Twilight Sparkle."

"So your name is Trixie because you do tricks?" Gag joked.

"...Trixie...supposes…" the mare forced.

"Quick run down of abilities so we have some idea who we can call to if we need something and what the other might be doing if we see them getting ready? Skip Lemon Hearts, we know her."

"Moon Dancer is a general mage, focus on moonlight magic, Screwball is a blackbelt and probably the most physically durable Earth Pony I know. What about your team? Concise as possible."

"Cherry Coke, General all around."

"Caramel...I, uh, me too." Caramel stuttered, with his fillyfriend Sassaflash safely back in Ponyville, he hadn't had much reason to speak to most anypony. Sassaflash apparently LIKED how he didn't like being center stage.

"Noteworthy, best ears in Canterlot," Noteworthy stated.

"Ellis, explosives expert and mechanic."

"Garnet Medic and chemistry."

"Running Gag, stealth and languages."

"Thunderchild, lightning and CQC."

"Alright…" Trixie took a quick look at the melee weapons. "We're lacking in melee, so help in that regard would be much appreciated."

"Got it."

Hercules Beetle gave a grunt of effort as he threw the rubble off of himself with sheer brute force and looked at his new opponents. Instead he focused on Moon Dancer. "Hello Moon Dancer."

The red maned unicorn said nothing.

"You look much better then when I last saw you touched by Her Majesty's magic."

"No thanks to you."

"I won't ask why you struggled against Her Majesty's will to where you damaged yourself, it's natural you did. But there comes a point in nature where adaption is better than resistance."

"Happiness in slavery?" She ask disgusted.

"Scarcely matters now. If you were the decoy Princess, that means the one that escaped into the castle must be the real one. It seems it's up to Goliath and his changelings to keep Princess Cadence away . . . Forgive me, but I have to finish this fight as quickly as I can! I don't have time for you. I must protect my queen!"

"Too bad."

"...Don't assume numbers will give you the advantage."

"We didn't," Cherry Coke replied, taking a guard fighting stance.

"Good...I didn't know there were any guards left in Canterlot," the Changeling General replied, giving a smirk. "I heard your names, but don't bother telling me your ranks."

Cherry Coke raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because right now? They don't matter," Hercules replied. "All that matters is you're your sides heroes and I'm my side's. When the smoke clears, history will decide who's the hero and who's the villain," he said, and then, to their surprise, gave a salute without an ounce of mocking. "So come on! Defend your country! Be the heroes you took an oath to be and I'll be the hero I took my oath to be!"

Hercules planted his hooves and gave a Changeling battle cry, charging like a rampaging rhino.

"Work together! Cover each other!" yelled Cherry Coke.

"What he said!" Trixie replied.

Thunderchild charged forwards and slashed repeatedly at the General, who blocked with his hardened forelegs, even when he was double teamed by Cherry Coke. He bashed back with the hardened forelegs and staggered both guards before slamming his armored hooves into their chests with enough force to knock them back.

Ellis slid in and attempted a bash from a makeshift club, being parried several times before managing to get leverage to force the General back. Before he could press his advantage, Hercules pushed back with all his might and leapt up, bucking the Corporal in the chest.

However, Trixie opened fire the moment Ellis was driven back out of her line of fire, freezing one of the General's legs to the ground.

He blocked several light beams from Moon Dancer with his free leg before Gag leapt in from behind and wrapped a forehoof, trying to choke the huge Changeling into submission with a sleeper hold.

Hercules flared up flames, forcing the Pegasus to leap off or be burned. Hercules promptly smashed his leg free from ice, but the opening left him vulnerable to Ellis and Screwball charging in. He raised his forelegs to intercept their strike, but the two powerful Earth Ponies managed to drive even his great strength back with some effort.

The two Earth Ponies side stepped, allowing a combined beam from Trixie and Moon Dancer to slam into the off balance General's chest and knock him backwards.

Thunderchild flew up and did a diving slash with his sword as the General recovered and blocked it with crossed hooves.

Gag attempted a sneaking stab to the knee from behind, but Hercules threw Thunderchild's slice back to allow him to block. He blocked several slashes coming from both sides before the two guards leapt out of the way as Lemon Hearts came charging in on her Angry Papa Lemon and slammed into him, driving him backwards.

As he planted his hooves and got his weight into position to wrestle the giant lemon monster, Garnet charged underneath its legs and delivered an Earth Pony strength powered headbutt to the chest, knocking him off balance enough for the Angry Papa Lemon to throw the Changeling into the wall.

"So that's what the Angry Mother Lemon looks like…" Gag muttered.

"Actually this is the Papa Lemon," Lemon Hearts replied.

"...Do you have a whole family of these things?!"

"...Yes."

"Oh...well, then congrats…Where's the Mother?"

The Great Angry Mother Lemon roared, swatting Changelings out of the air with its long arms and trying to knock down the Castle gate with its strength.

The triplets, disguised as unicorns, looked up from assisting the rebels. Weaver was simply a brown colored version of her normal form (what the form looked like without Celestia's essence), Diver being a dark blue unicorn stallion, while Bombardier was a pink furred, yellow maned unicorn mare. "Where did that thing come from?" Weaver asked.

"One of Lemon Hearts' Familiars," replied Gingersnap, using her magic to assault the incoming Changelings with a wave of dough, allowing Weaver to shoot several. She actually seemed a tad proud. "Hard to believe her special talent is lemons, huh?" she asked. Having baked goods as a special talent wasn't exactly the most obvious choice for a teacher at the School for Gifted Unicorns. In that way, she respected Lemon Hearts.

Weaver nodded slowly, before jumping over her and blocking a strike from a Changeling and shooting him in a soft spot.

"Thanks."

"This is a battle, we need to have each other's backs, right?"

Bombardier blocked several punches from a changeling before getting punched back. Suddenly, several rose vines wrapped around the Changeling and hurled it into several others.

"Dawn?" asked a light vermillion colored unicorn mare with a fancy, very light blue mane, a diamond necklace around her neck. "Didn't expect to see you here."

Bombardier blinked. "Floribunda? Didn't expect to see you here either."

The mare scoffed, giving a glare as she used the animated vines to fend off the Changelings attacking them. "These creatures decided to try and make us all cattle, and that includes my little girl Honey Sweet. I am not about to take that lying down. Besides, I am a Gifted Unicorn graduate, letting my power waste away would be unbecoming."

"Yeah...Though I'm sure they're not all evil…" the disguised Changeling responded. "Maybe we can make peace in the end."

"That's a...optimistic perspective…"

"Yeah…" Bombardier took advantage of Floribunda's defenses and blasted the incoming Changelings as they tried to dodge the vine swipes. "How is Honey Sweet anyway?"

"Oh, she's doing well. She wonders why you stopped being her foalsitter."

Diver had to block a Changeling diving at the older mare from behind, punching him back and giving Floribunda a chance to send the soldier flying with a swirling vortex of rose petals.

"Yeah, I got a more...stable job. Haven't had much free time to foalsit…"

"Enough chatting!" yelled an old, light blue unicorn with a black mane, her cutie mark an ink well. She blasted back several changelings with an energy beam she seemed to have some difficulty controlling the power of. Thankfully, she seemed to have enough control to keep it aimed at their opponents. "Keep in a circle! Don't let 'em get inside!"

"That's probably sound advice," said Weaver, taking a punch from a Changeling before Diver blindsided the Changeling with a kick to the groin.

"I helped fight the Shadow Queen's Invasion! Of course I know what I'm doing!"

Ginger Snap gave a small sigh and a growl, but reluctantly took the advice. While few liked to admit it, the only reason Ink Well was even here was she had taken part in that battle years ago and still had a good bit of punch. Just enough to avoid being a liability, though the others still had to protect her since an old mare couldn't take as many hits as a younger one. But her experience was still something they needed. Ginger Snap just wished the old mare would retire already for her own good, even if she mocked her from time to time.

"A ten on one fight didn't give much room for her to move, so I sent her to help the Rebels and make sure none of the troops can help Hercules."

Moondancer created two sabers out of moonlight and leapt into the fray, slashing at Hercules repeatedly. The General recovered and rapidly blocked her blows, bashing her with his armored forelegs and driving her back with relative ease. However, Noteworthy and Caramel quickly leapt over her back and gave Hercules a well placed twin headbutt to the chest, then ducked down to allow the gifted unicorn to slash the general across the chest, breaking off some of the previously corroded armor.

"Good! Keep fighting with this fire! This is what I wanted to see out of you ponies!" the General exclaimed before slamming his hooves into the ground and throwing his attackers backwards with the shockwave. He jumped after them, slamming a hoof into each of their chests and slamming them into the ground.

Before he could push his advantage, Cherry Coke charged in with a sword in his mouth and forced him back with horizontal slashes to avoid harming his teammates. The General blocked with his forelegs, even as Screwball charged in and threw several blows. He forced back their blows and sent Screwball hard to the ground with a full body uppercut. He blocked Cherry's sword on another slash, using the opening to punch him several times in the ribs before driving him back with a headbutt.

Before he could pursue his advantage on the Captain, a bolt of lightning fired. While he managed to block it with his forelegs, he grunted in pain as the shock licked the unchanged hide touching his hardened exoskeleton.

As he staggered back, Trixie followed suit with a sequence of fire spells, taking him off guard and knocking him back.

Garnet rushed to Captain Coke's side when the pony didn't instantly get back to his hooves. "You alright captain?"

"Yeah, just a little bruised up."

Hercules prepared himself for another attack, but instead found Gag manifesting directly in front of him and shoot him in the shoulder with a crossbow. The General staggered back with a roar of pain.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Since when can you do that?!)

Trixie might not be able make ponies invisible, but an illusion spell combined with stealth skills during the middle of a chaotic fight can be quite useful.

Hercules grabbed the crossbow bolt in his teeth and ripped it out. While going far shallower than it should have due to armor, he was bleeding a bit.

The General leapt into the air to dodge a follow up slash from Gag, then slammed into the ground, creating a shockwave that knocked the group off their hooves.

Trixie teleported mid fall to catch herself and fired at him with a barrage of beams the General defended against with his forelegs.

"Are you going to stay in the back letting everypony else fight for you, Element of Magic? Maybe you are second rate to Twilight Sparkle," he goaded, trying to lure her in close.

Trixie gave a furious growl and lowered her horn, charging the General. He planted his hooves and prepared for the angry mare to make a mistake as she charged her magic...then teleported directly underneath him, a spell charging with a smirk on her face.

Hercules' eyes widened as she fired a powerful energy beam directly at his chest, blasting him into the air with a considerable amount of force.

Trixie might dislike being called that, but she also knows when somepony is trying to goad her. How could she not? If you're going to intentionally goad ponies to insult you to get them on stage, you need to know when they're trying to get under your skin.

Still, I respect the effort. Most consider it too 'underhoofed' to try, but that's the thing about a fight: there's nothing wrong with playing fair and honorable, but playing dirty has its place too.

Also, she'd taken note of one of our new teammates preparing a little surprise.

Ellis finished preping a crossbow for Running Gag. "Fire in the hole!" he called.

Gag took aim and fired as Hercules fell back to earth. The Changeling General blocked with his hardened forelegs...only a small explosion went off on impact, sending him flying a small distance off course and landing hard on the ground, corroded armor scattering in the explosion.

The group panted, watching the now wounded general with weapons and horns at the ready, the explosion having cracked his exoskeleton in several places.

"Did that do it?" Captain Coke asked.

"Allow Trixie to return your own advice to you, I believe this is where you surrender."

"She's right," Coke said. "Give up, there's no point in continuing."

The changeling general pushed himself to his forehooves. "If this fight keeps going as is, I'm going to lose . . . Unfortunately, I can't allow that to happen. Not yet."

"You have nothing left, give up," Lemon Hearts said.

"Incorrect. And the Night Queen will be here within the hour, I can't afford to fight you and her at the same time. I still have one last trump card left."

With no fanfare he exploded into a pillar of green flames.

"Not again," Gag lamented, firing a crossbow bolt at Hercules which was burned up by the pillar.

"Again?!" asked Trixie, opening fire with her beam, but the pillar deflected it. 'Of course the self proclaimed stone wall wouldn't leave himself vulnerable while transforming.'

"This happened to us yesterday!"

All of the damage to Hercules' carapace was gone. He hadn't turned giant like Kabuto, but he was now even taller than before, enough that even Big Mac would have to look up at him. His carapace now had a silver gray color to it, reflecting the light. His mock unicorn horn had become something greatly resembling his namesake, looking like pincers pointing forward. His joints moved like black-gray quicksilver, Gag fired another shot, but it bounced off, not even leaving a scratch. The ponies couldn't tell if his eyes had turned to something crystalline, or if it was a protective covering, their ominous white glow wasn't helping.

Looking up, a organic faceplate closed over his mouth.

He panted lightly in a cold sweat, the transformation appearing to have been painful.

"Congratulations. I'd hoped to save this for the Night Queen. Pushed this far . . . Kabutomushi styled his form to fight against the your queen's chosen. Me? I had that sick creature make me into a living wall. I went into his lab, and left that place an equine juggernaut. Our queen is the Changelings' ultimate lance. I'm our ultimate armor . . . now let's-"

Trixie blasted the Changeling General full in the face...and he didn't even flinch. "-finish this."

"Uh oh…" Trixie muttered.

Hercules charged forwards like rhino, not even trying (or not needing) to block the attacks thrown his way. Screwball met his charge and did a flying kick to his chest. The superpowered general didn't budge an inch and grabbed her leg with his own before spinning her around and throwing her aside. Thankfully Running Gag covered her and caught her mid air.

Thunderchild and Moon Dancer both jumped in (with a normal sword and swords of moonlight respectively) and attempted several slashes, but their attacks were blocked by Hercules' armor and he retaliated with a double clothesline, knocking both to the ground. He reared back to bring his weight down on them.

Trixie and Lemon Hearts both opened fire on him from a distance, the force of the beams holding him up long enough for the two to get out of the way but otherwise not phasing him. He looked at the two and his beetle horn began to draw mana into the space between the two parts.

"Horseapples!" yelled Trixie, deciding to put up a barrier rather than teleport and leave Lemon Hearts and her lemon to tank a hit.

The energy between Hercules horns flickered before rushing in and unleashing a massive beam of green energy that forced the entire group to take cover. Trixie's shield held for a few moments before she and Lemon Hearts were forced to jump out of the way as it was shattered in a large explosion that still sent them flying.

Running Gag took a shooting position on a nearby building and began firing Ellis' explosive arrows at the General while no one was close, but even the sizeable explosions next to no damage. His wing casings opened and he spread wings, which now had a quick silver sheen to them. He took off and smashed head first into Gag's perch, forcing him to leap up as stone shattered. Before the pegasus could find cover, Hercules spun around and hammerfisted him, launching him to the ground where Garnet broke his fall with her comparably far more durable body.

Suddenly, the general was hit by a massive lightning bolt from above, causing a cascade of sparks before the bolt continued down to find ground as was its nature.

The surprisingly unharmed Changeling wasted little time and slammed into Thunderchild before he could react, punching him hard in the gut. Hercules slammed the blunt side of his horn into his back, knocking him to the ground below.

Ellis took a grenade and pulled the pin, letting the timer click for a few moments before throwing it at the powerful Changeling. This resulted in the explosion going off right in front of Hercules. The Changeling General flew through the smoke unharmed and tackled Ellis full force, throwing the Earth Pony a good distance through force alone.

Before he could press his advantage, Lemon Hearts charged forwards on the Angry Papa Lemon and had the familiar slam into him. General Hercules planted his hooves and forced his horn underneath it, using sheer power to fling both mount and rider high into the air.

The Familiar used itself to break its master's fall, some juice oozing out from the impact with the ground.

Moon Dancer tried to fire the most focused beams of moonlight as she could manage into his joints, but even they were armored. He turned towards the unicorn, collected energy in his horn, ignoring several crossbow bolts shattering on his armor. The unicorn barely managed to put up a barrier against the powerful beam. It cracked as she struggled to hold up, but it finally broke and sent the unicorn flying from the blast with a scream. The mare hit the ground hard and didn't get back up.

Garnet rushed to her and checked her. She was still alive, but out cold. Garnet's first priority was to get her the buck out of the line of fighting! WAS there a safe spot in this chaos? And after that, she had to do some quick treatment for head trauma!

Noteworthy, Caramel, Cherry Coke tackled Hercules to drive him back before he could charge Garnet, trying to find a chink in his armor with combat knives but there were none. The General shoved them back and charged, slamming his front hooves into their chests and slamming them into the ground with a Changeling battle cry.

Trixie teleported in front of him and used a wind blow the General backwards and let her allies get out of the way.

Hercules planted his hooves and marched forwards. Trixie growled and turned her wind spell to an ice one and froze the General in a pillar of solid ice.

"Did that stop him?" Thunderchild asked, getting back to his hooves after recovering from being knocked out of the air.

Hercules' horn began powering up, melting the ice around him before firing out and forcing his opponents to hit the dirt to avoid the beam that blew a hole in the building behind them.

The General used his horn to smash the ice imprisoning him and leapt out, taking Trixie off guard and nailing her in the face with a right hook followed by several punches to check before aiming blow at her horn.

Thunderchild intercepted and blocked with his sword, grunting against the force of the powerful Changeling's blows. "You alright?" he asked Trixie.

"Trixie spent years making her face a target, she knows how to take a punch," the unicorn replied.

Gag joined in in blocking Hercules punches with swords and a lot of effort, then was forced to join Thunderchild in holding back Hercules' massive horn when he attempted a strike from it. The two grunted against the mutated Changeling's brute force before Thunderchild noted the water from the melted ice. "Gag! Trixie! Fall back!" he yelled.

Trixie put a hoof on Gag's shoulder and teleported them both back as Thunderchild flared his wings and jumped back, pumping a massive amount of lightning into the water Hercules was standing in, causing sparks to fly in all directions across the Changeling's form.

Trixie blinked as she and Gag reappeared. "I thought Pegasi needed clouds to generate that much lightning!"

"Not Thunderchild," Gag replied with a smirk. "Gifted Pegasus."

"Interesting…"

Thunderchild panted as the smoke from his assault cleared...and Hercules lept through the smoke and tackled him harshly to the ground, delivering several hard punches to the face and bloodying the pegasus' nose.

"You're an impressive soldier, but I've got to get through this to go help my queen," stated the General, raising both hooves up and trying to bring them down on Thunderchild's head to knock him out.

A returned Garnet suddenly jumped on his back to stop him, staggering him over Thunderchild and allowing the Sergeant to get out of the way. The Earth Pony wrapped her hooves around the general's thick neck and attempted a sleeper hold, but the Changeling's armor was too thick to let her constrict his windpipe.

"Trying to choke me out? Smart move," Hercules replied in a generally impressed tone as he reached back and grabbed her by the mane and threw her over him and hard into the ground with enough force to crack the concrete.

Gag tackled Hercules before he could press his advantage on his downed fiancee, adrenaline pumping and giving him the extra strength needed to force the Changeling back. He threw several punches with enough strength to force him back (though not hurt him).

Hercules gave a genuinely intrigued smirk beneath his mouth plate. "Protecting your love? Good! That's what I like to see!"

Gag blinked. "How did-"

Hercules punched the Corporal mid sentence, knocking him next to the rising Garnet who caught him. "My species eat love, remember? I can smell it." he replied with no signs of mocking in his tone.

The General pounced on the couple, but Cherry Coke leapt over them and headbutted the General, barely budging him. The Captain attempted to stab Hercules in the eye, hoping it'd actually hurt him, but the Changeling held up his leg, letting the sword go through the hole in it. He twisted his leg and locked the blade. Before Coke could free himself Hercules punched the Cherry repeatedly in the face to stun him before taking the opportunity to snap the sword. Before Cherry could recover, the Changeling General wrapped his legs around the now open front leg and used every ounce of strength he had to wrench it in the wrong direction at the knee joint.

Cherry Coke screamed in agony as his leg made a sickening snap.

Trixie teleported in a second too late and shot a fireworks spell in Hercules' face, blinding him for a moment. "Trixie believes the correct phrase is man down!"

Lemon Hearts slammed the Angry Papa Lemon into Hercules to hold him back while Garnet rushed to check on Captain Coke and hurried him off to the side to check on him.

Hercules grinned under his faceplate. "I like your determination, but I can't let this go on much longer!" He planted his hooves and clamped his pincer like horn down on the Angry Papa Lemon's arm and tore it off the lemon, resulting in a scream of agony and it staggering backwards, 'bleeding' lemon juice.

His horn drawing in mana, the General aimmed his beam at the familiar with intent to blow it to bits.

To his surprise, Lemon Hearts de-summoned her familiar in an instant, looking a bit relieved when the beam flew harmlessly into the air.

"I thought you said your familiars' essence just returned to you if destroyed. Why the worry?"

"Experiencing dying doesn't get easier."

Before the surprised General could react, Gag flew in and picked Lemon Hearts off the ground as Thunderchild and Trixie rained lightning down on the now lemon juice soaked ground, turning the Changeling General into a light show. Lemon Hearts' horn lit up and the lemon juice suddenly burst into flames.

"What the Tartarus?!" Trixie asked in surprise as the Changeling General was engulfed in flames.

"Lemons are mildly flammable, I made them combustible," the mage replied.

Hercules, however, flew out of the fire...also on fire.

"Great! Now he's unstoppable AND on fire!" Gag yelled, having to dodge the flaming general. Thankfully, however, being on fire and covered in smoke made seeing difficult even if the flames didn't hurt him and he latched onto a building, trying to put himself out.

Thunderchild took advantage of the situation to fly down to check on Garnet and Captain Coke.

"How's the Captain?" he asked.

"Not good, Hercules broke his leg, sarge," replied Garnet grimly. "I treated it as best I could, but he's not doing any fighting for awhile."

Coke looked up at Thunderchild. "...You two, go deal with that guy."

"Sir, you're hurt, we can't just-"

"I can't fight with a broken leg and it doesn't matter if you heal me if he beats us all, right?" asked Cherry Coke, dead seriously. "So go fight him and come back for me later! I'll be fine! That is an order!"

"...Fine, sir…"

The two moved Cherry Coke off to the side before rushing back into the battle, (at least he could keep an eye on Moon Dancer until she regained consciousness, hopefully it was just shock, thank goodness for pony thick skulls). Gag found himself thrown to the ground along with Lemon Hearts and Trixie was currently throwing as many spells as she could try at the gracefully no longer on fire General Hercules.

Hercules broke free of magically generated restraints and punched her in the stomach before slaming her into the ground. She teleported away before he could finish her, but had clearly taken her fair share of bruises.

"Alright, nothing else is working, time for the big gun! Everypony hit the deck!" yelled Ellis, finally taking the device him and Bombardier had created off his back where it'd been stored the entire time and taking aim, making sure there was no one standing behind him. He fired and some sort of projectile launched out like a rocket, slamming full force into the Changeling General's chest, causing a massive explosion.

Everycreature stared in shock, jaws dropping. "What the Tartarus was that?!" yelled Trixie in shock.

"Home made bazooka."

"...You built a bazooka?"

"Yep!"

"Regular Maregyver, aren't you?"

Hercules suddenly rushed out of the smoke and tackled Garnet, sending the medic flying a good distance. What was left of his golden armor that hadn't been destroyed in the original battle or by his transformation had been destroyed in the explosion, but the only noticeable damage was a large scorch mark on his chest. He turned and fired his horn beam at Trixie, shattering the shield she put up and forcing her to teleport away with a bit of magical backlash. Gag and Thunderchild tried to attack him, but received a buck from the General, knocking them into Ellis, Caramel, and Noteworthy, then jumped and came down on Lemon Hearts, tackling her to the ground.

He prepared to slam his weight down on her to finish her off before the rest of the group could get back up…and suddenly found a tendril-like limb wrapped around his midsection.

The Great Angry Mother Lemon roared in fury and smashed its mother's attacker into the ground repeatedly before throwing him through the side of a teddy-bear store.

The massive creature picked up its mother and gave a worried whimper.

"You...you came to help me?" the startled Gifted Unicorn asked. The massive familiar nodded. "But...I didn't order you to...I didn't need to, did I?"

The familiar shook its head.

"...Thank you…"

"Sarge!" yelled Weaver, leaping down from the Lemon with her siblings, now in their guard forms.

Thunderchild blinked. "What the-"

"The big lemon saw a giant explosion and started over here," Bombardier replied. "We figured it was you and followed."

The Sergeant nodded with a chuckle. "Thanks, we need some backup."

"I'll say, you guys look like you've taken a beating," Diver replied.

"We have…"

Trixie teleported over. "I'm not going to ask who you are, Trixie is simply happy to have backup."

"Uh, this is Trixie, long s-"

Hercules fired his beam out of the rubble, grazing the Great Mother Lemon and forcing her back, erupting out of the rubble uninjured.

"...Okay, I swear to Celestia we didn't know he could do that," said Weaver, looking at the General. "That's Hercules?!"

Thunderchild nodded. "Yeah...Guys, drop your disguises, we need you to use everything you've got."

"...You sure Sarge?" Diver asked, looking at their allies as Hercules took flight and headed back to the battlefield.

"Yeah, this isn't a situation for explaining, but it's not one for infighting either."

"Yes Sarge…"

The three Changelings shed their disguises in a burst of orange flame.

"Changelings?!" Lemon Hearts asked.

"Don't attack! They're on our side!"

"Oh, I knew that, it was just surprising."

"Wait what?"

"Their magic is orange, not green. Changelings' magic matches their leader."

"...Okay, how do you know that?"

Trixie chuckled. "We've got a heroic Changeling too, she's just not here."

Before more could be said, Hercules slammed back on the battlefield and shook off what was left of the rubble, looking at the three Changelings.

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by Alex Warlorn
The Mighty Hercules Part Two

This isn't filler.
Next chapter, the final part of the battle with Hercules. Up tomorrow before midnight (more or less) (PST).

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-WeddingArc-The-Mighty-Hercules-Pt1-466694783

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-WeddingArc-The-Mighty-Hercules-Pt3-467207448

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (SERIOUSLY need to be kept up to date, every little bit helps!).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions. http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/

Pinkie Pie, "If any of the parts are confusing on whose speaking, tell me, and I'll make sure the author fixes it!"

2014 07 14: Added an exchange between Hercules and Moon Dancer, when I realized he would have recognized her from her time as Chrysalis' slave.

Episode 198: "The Mighty Hercules" Part 3 Of 3

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV series
Wedding Arc:
Mighty Hercules Part 3 of 3

The ponies all held their breath as Hercules Beetle eyed their changeling friends.

"Your magic color...it's the same as the Sun Queen's."

The triplets looked at each other, they hadn't been put much stock in being able to bluff Hercules, but it was already out the window.

Weaver tried anyway, "That's just because of the technique Master Digger Wasp showed us and-"

"You're lying."

"How'd you figure it out?" Weaver asked flatly.

"You just told me." Everypony groaned. "And more importantly your body language isn't to protect me. So Kabuto and Digger Wasp vanishing wasn't them going AWOL was it? It was you?"

Weaver actually felt a little small, Kabuto was a boogie-stallion, Digger Wasp was almost always away from the hive, but this was the Queen's Right Forehoof before her. She took a trot forward.

"We helped. We helped the ponies protect their home, OUR HOME, we didn't do any of it alone, we were part of a team, part of a new swarm, THIS SWARM! We took them prisoner TOGETHER! All of what the Queens say is a lie Master Hercules Beetle! Ponies and changelings CAN live together! We don't need to be parasites or predators! We've been living in FAMILIES, shared love makes us stronger, not weaker, this war doesn't need to be happening! Just surrender right now and we can all have our home in the sun right now!"

Misfit Actual stood back to give the triplets a possible chance to end this peacefully.

Hercules stood calmly, and regarded the triplets calmly. "Just one question first. Were you born here in Equestria? Were your parents? Were your parents parents? We never recovered a number of infiltrators who went AWOL over the last few decades. The unconfirmed reports said some were even having hybrid foals, half or quarter changeling. Digger Wasp even told me a family in Cloudsdale he suspected of one of its members being a defector or the child of one left their house without even packing hours before he sent loyal guards to investigate. You wouldn't happen to be part of that family would you?"

"No," Weaver said, "We left the Hive when we were nymphs, when we realized zebra WEREN'T better off as our slaves. And we came here to Equestria to warn everypony of Chrysalis' insane scheme, but we stupidly thought to try and wait for when our being silenced would have blown the cover off things."

"Thank you. That's all I wanted to know." Hercules launched himself at Weaver, his body glowed and he put his entire he body weight into a single punch that sent her flying through a building, not into, through. The shockwave from the burst of magic rippled through the air. Weaver lay on the ground on the other side of the hole, her legs twitching.

Ellis had to bite into Bombardier's tail before she could throw herself on changeling General's waiting horns. Garnet at Weaver's side in moments, that made three teammates she had to do battlefield medicine on. The others trained their weapons on him.

"Weaver!" Diver stood shocked and in horror. "WHY!? Do you think we're lying?!"

"No. I don't. Not in the least. But it isn't the point. You betrayed the Hive, the Swarm, your Queen, your fellow Changelings, every changeling old enough to speak promises to be loyal to the Queen and the swarm. Tell me, did you even TRY to speak with your FAMILY about what you thought? Did you even TRY to speak with other changelings about your point of view? We no longer execute changelings for having different points of view after all."

"We were presenting PROOF!!" Diver said, "We'd BE the proof that changelings and ponies could live together!"

"Live together you say? So tell me, how many changelings were GOING TO DIE when you betrayed the swarm?"

"NONE!"

"You already said you were going to try and expose it at the moment it was too late to turn back! The swarm would have to settle for a desperate battle instead. How many would have been SLAUGHTERED?"

"NONE! PONIES AREN'T LIKE THAT ALL!"

"...How many ponies here know what Black Thistle is? Ah I see. Makes sense the civilian ponies would be ignorant they even exist. You know traitor? So tell me, do you REALLY THINK with their hive on the line, that the ponies WOULDN'T USE all the weapons at their disposal to survive? You think those ponies WOULDN'T kill? Against changelings with everything to lose?"

Trixie, Lemon Hearts, and Screwball gave the guards looks of suspicion, disapproval, and confusion respectively.

"I'll admit now it was stupid! But you can't twist it like this! It was- it was-"

"For the greater good?"

"YES!"

"You took Kabtuo's victims with you yes? Did you speak with General Lone Ranger? That look on most of your faces says everything. He believed what he did was for the greater good."

Again the civilian ponies felt like they were missing half the conversation.

"Oh come on!" Thunderchild said, still hoping they could potentially get the general to stand down. "That's weak! Lone Ranger did what he did for his ego and petty jealousy!"

"The traitors didn't meet him did he? You know what drove him? Love for the guard, and love for Equestria. He didn't have a whiff of greed or cowardice on him. He didn't truly 'hate' us changelings, ANY ENEMY would have worked. He wanted all Guards to be Black Thistle. For him, we were just an object lesson for Equestria's people. Like a parent who loves their nymph and gives them a harsh lesson they need to learn. He felt the Equestria he loved would be destroyed if he didn't force it to 'grow up.' THAT is where love led him, THAT is what drove him to betray his own people and work alongside an enemy, all in the name of the greater good."

The civilians ponies were horrified and bewildered at the implication that a pony had willingly sided with the invaders.

Diver fell to his knees, his head low, shaking. To Lemon Hearts, he looked like like a victim of Applejack's truth vision.

Trixie had an idea and gave Thunderchild a look that said 'keep him talking'. The Sergeant gave a small nod.

Thunderchild put a hoof on Diver's shoulder. "...You know, maybe I did misunderstand Lone Ranger, but there's one BIG difference between Black Thistle and him, and I personally have seen BOTH of them," said the Gifted Pegasus, looking at the bug titan. "There's a Black Thistle member in my squad, you know what he's never done? Kill somecreature in cold blood. In fact he's yet to actually kill anyone. Because he's trained to ONLY do it as a last resort and he's yet to see a situation where he had to. I can't say NO Changelings would have died, I can't see alternate futures, but I can assure you we'd exhaust every option before we did. And we've seen more action than most guards, so I'm speaking from experience. Lone Ranger? Killing to him was the ONLY way he saw to deal with you Changelings. You seem to be a reasonable guy, so I'm hoping you understand this: these three know ponies well enough to bank on one thing: that once we know a peaceful way is possible, we'll do anything to make it happen. They were trying to offer us the most peaceful solution they could. And another thing? We've done all the damage to your plans we've done without killing one Changeling. Even that sicko Kabuto. Even to our 'killers' killing is a LAST RESORT they never want to have to use. We're ponies, we don't LIKE to kill nor do we need to most of the time… And they know that."

"You are naive." And those words, were like a shockwave, and held more force than an any speech could have.

"Are you that fixated on war?" Bombardier asked.

"No. You're not naive for believing a bloodless solution, I want one as badly as you, but that somehow Black Thistle's presence here would have had a minimal effect on fate. Once the first changeling died, my guards would have then fought with true lethal force in return, which would have encouraged similar counter-responses, in an ever expanding sphere of killing. I don't need superpowers to see that."

"...And who's fault would that be?" Trixie said bluntly, causing blinks. The unicorn's eyes kept scanning the situation covertly as she spoke, as did Thunderchild's. "Certainly not the three Changelings who did their best to provide an object lesson that the Changelings are not irredeemable and perfectly capable of living in peace with ponies. I'm not Princess Celestia's apprentice, I don't know her like Twilight Sparkle, but I do know she is the single most forgiving being on the face of this planet. If these three had presented her with proof this could end peacefully and without bloodshed? She'd offer you each and every offer of peace she had BEFORE letting things come to blows, let alone order any of you killed."

Thunderchild gave a smirk and a nod. He tried to remember everything he'd seen Cadence do diplomatically on the tour or otherwise. "Lady's right, Hercules. Thanks to the triplets, you would have gotten every chance at a peaceful way out of this before a shot was fired, let alone a lethal one. And if ponies would try their hardest to kill only as an absolute last resort, you'd have to push pretty hard for us to actually start killing. So if what you're saying ended up happening, is it the three Changelings who tried to make themselves a living symbol of peace's fault? Or the Changelings who can be told 'come play in the sun, we don't need to fight' and keep on fighting until one of them gets killed?"

Hercules' face was unreadable. "That doesn't change the fact that Changelings still might have been killed because of their actions."

"...Yeah, some MAYBE. But if Lone Ranger had succeeded? ALL of you would have been killed," Ellis pointed out.

"And didn't you yourself tell Fleur you didn't enjoy any of this?" Trixie asked.

"I don't, that doesn't mean that I can't be realistic."

"How's this for realism? You could stop this at any time," the azure mare replied. "So why don't you? Just call off your men and begin peace talks and this can end without another punch thrown. We get an end to this war, you Changelings get the 'sun on your face' as you've desired. Win win."

"...I swore my loyalty to the Queen and the Hive twice over, until the Queen orders it or I'm the highest ranking Changeling standing, I'm following her orders."

Ellis sighed. "You remind me of my family sometimes…"

Trixie nodded. "Yes, Applejack has done similar things if Trixie remembers...You're just so obsessed with following that oath of yours to the letter you refuse to see you could just follow the spirit of it. You swore to protect your people and your queen, not do everything your queen says."

That one seemed to rattle Hercules more than anything else that could have been said.

"None of that changes the fact those three are as big of traitors as Lone Ranger is."

"You've got a point there," Thunderchild interjected, eyes falling on the scorch mark left by Ellis' attack. "You're right, there is a bit of a double standard when it comes to traitors, but you know what? I know some former Hooviets that betrayed the Empire back when it was still around. I don't think less of them. I don't think less of the triplets. But I still think Lone Ranger is a nut job. You know why? Because the triplets and those former Hooviets saved innocent people, Lone Ranger hurt them. And planned to hurt your innocent civilians that had nothing to do with this mess, who we wouldn't have touched if we had anything to say about it. That's why the triplets are in the right and Lone Ranger was in the wrong: the triplets NEVER intended to hurt a soul, and their actions protected people while his did nothing but hurt them."

"You should have been a politician."

Lemon Heart shouted, "LOOK! Neither side is gonna give! So let's toss the talking, and get back to fighting!"

"We were trying to keep him talking while we figured out a plan," Trixie whispered under her breath. The unicorn's eye fell on the scorched armor on the Changeling General's chest and felt a thought form in her mind.

"Oh…" Lemon whispered.

Thunderchild looked at the General. "...You know, I think we do need to stop talking, but start fighting? Maybe not," he said, not making a move for the weapon or to blast the general with electricity. "I'm not asking you to surrender...just sit down with Captain Coke in that little building over there, and lets hash out a peace treaty. You're the second highest ranked Changeling around, he's technically the highest ranked Guard in Canterlot at present. You have the authority. Which would you rather do? End this peacefully and spend the rest of the day rebuilding and living in peace or fight a war these three just proved never needed to happen?"

Hercules growled. "...I will NEVER betray my queen. Get ready to fight, Thunderchild, because the only way I'll back down is if you beat me."

The General charged up his energy beam.

"Don't move!" yelled Trixie as the beam fired.

In its way formed two mirrors, letting the beam go in one and come back out the other. Hercules' eyes widened and the beam slammed into Hercules' chest in the exact same spot Ellis had blasted with his bazooka. While the General wasn't hurt, he was sent flying by the blast, slamming into the pavement a couple blocks away.

"Trixie has a plan. Trixie admits it's not the best plan, but it is a plan," Trixie reported in a light whisper just in case.

"Listening," Thunderchild said, keeping his eyes on the surprised General. "I think I might have some idea what you're thinking."

"His carapace was scorched," the azure unicorn stated. "If it can be scorched, that mean even if fireballs can't break it, it's not immune to them. You've got lightning and explosives, both make lots of heat. Trixie has ice spells."

"I remember my physics classes. Maybe the best plan we got of short of holding him off until Princess Luna shows," the Sergeant replied. "Ellis, Bombardier?"

"Yes, Sarge?"

"Whip up the strongest but compact bomb you can," Thunderchild ordered. "It won't be easy, but we'll need to plant it on the spot we've marked and we can punch through."

"Maybe not that impossible," Screwball reported. "If he can't feel attacks through his armor, maybe he won't feel a bomb planted on him he doesn't see… I know from experience."

Ellis gave it thought. "I'll need more gunpowder."

Trixie teleported away and returned with several bags of it. "Here you go...long story, it involves Pinkie's 'in case of gunpowder emergencies' stash and fireworks."

"Okay, just buy us some time."

"Okay! Finally," the second Element of Magic said. "Set the bomb so it goes off when a powerful beam hits it. Big bang."

"Can do," Ellis handed his bazooka and the ammo to Caramel. "Make sure the shell's pointy end is pointing this way and there's no pony near him, and pull that lever right there. There's no recoil so don't worry, but for Celestia's sake be careful no pony's behind you, the back blast can kill a pony."

Caramel nodded. "Got it."

Hercules got out of the crater he'd ended up in and spread his wings.

"Garnet, where do we aim?" Thunderchild ordered.

"Where we've already singed it in an area that needs to be thinner due to what's behind and around it if he's still got an endoskeleton," Garnet reported. "I'd bet that's the weakest part of his shell and we'd already began to hammer away at it."

"Alright...let's wrap this up. This doesn't work, we'll have to endure until Princess Luna shows."

He looked to Diver. "You alright, Diver?"

"Y-yeah...t-thanks Sarge."

"What are squadmates for?"

As Ellis and Bombardier fell back, Hercules landed back on the battlefield. "No more speeches."

"We're done too."

The Changeling General charged the group like a rampaging Rhino, but this time Trixie teleported herself and Thunderchild to evade the charge.

The two reappeared at the side and sent several repeated bolts of lightning and ice beams into his chest in quick succession before having to dodge a beam shot their way by the titan. Trixie worked through the strain of teleporting a passenger.

Running Gag ducked a punch from Hercules and gave several slashes to the same spot with his sword on Hercules' chest where Ellis' bazooka shell hit before until Hercules managed several punches and knocked him a good distance away. Caramel didn't miss a beat and took the chance to fire and strike his chest with a bazooka shell.

The Angry Great Mother Lemon quickly pounced on Lemon Hearts' command and swung one of its arms, slamming into Hercules' chest before Lemon Hearts shot a stream of cold lemon juice onto him while it was hot from the explosion, until the familiar was forced back by the Changeling's horn beam leaving a large slice of its 'head' missing.

Trixie teleported in and did a rapid sequence of fire blasts and ice blasts, all aimed at Hercules' chest. She also struck him with several bolts of lightning from behind.

Hercules merely plowed through the assault and gave her a haymaker to the jaw, knocking her on her back. His mouth plate opened and he bit down on her tail, swinging her around and throwing her at a wall, but thankfully the second Element of Magic teleported to evade.

Garnet and Screwball took advantage and hammered away at Hercules' chest with their innate strength before the juggernaut Changeling counterattacked by picking them both up by the neck and slamming them into the ground before throwing them away. Noteworthy and Lemon Hearts threw a smoke bomb and lemon smoke bomb respectively, surrounding the Changeling with a thick black and yellow smoke.

Noteworthy took advantage of his hearing ability and charged in, finding Hercules and hammering away at his chest with a sword before the General managed to find him and punch him several times, throwing him clear out of the smoke.

Diver charged in, holding his breath against the, to him, putrid lemon scent and surrounding his horn in orange flames, slashing Hercules' chest repeatedly. The General gave a snarl and smacked the 'traitor' in the sides of the head with his legs, dazing him. He punched him repeatedly, but before he could finish him, Thunderchild flew in and kicked him in the face, protecting his teammate.

The Pegasus grabbed Diver and flew back as the smoke cleared, giving Caramel a clear shot with the bazooka, causing a massive explosion when it connected to Hercules' chest.

Caramel then had to take cover from a horn beam through the smoke that blew up where he'd been standing moments before, the blast still knocking him head over hooves before he landed.

Trixie delivered an ice blast to Hercules chest while it was still smoking from the bazooka shell, then teleported back while he smashed the ice off.

Trixie shouted to the soldiers. "Anypony war hammer savvy?"

Garnet raised a hoof. "Rock Farmer!"

Trixie transformed some rubble into a sledge hammer and levitated it to Garnet.

Gag charged along with his fiancee and blocked Hercules blows to guard her, giving her a chance to slam the hammer into the mutated Changeling's chest with as much force that Earth Pony strength could manage. While it didn't hurt, the force of the impact forced him back.

Garnet then used the hammer to knock an attempt by Hercules' to smash Gag with his horn off course, allowing Gag to get in some shots with his sword to their target.

Hercules caught another strike from the hammer in his horns and snapped the weapon in two, then bashed both away with his horn.

Thunderchild flew over Hercules and burned a white hot lightning bolt into the General's chest right before Trixie teleported in front of the Changeling and blasted away with a massive ice beam point blank into his chest.

The General forced his way through the assault and punched her in the horn, giving her a massive horn ache, seeing spots.

Before he could strike again and break her horn, Thunderchild leapt in and parried his blows before slashing him across the chest several times. The Changeling's invincible shell threw the Sergeant's weapon back and gave him a series of brutal punches while ignoring his strikes, knocking him back with one last one that would blacken Thunderchild's eye.

Trixie caught Thunderchild and teleported back despite the pain in her horn, letting Caramel blast the Changeling with another bazooka shell to the chest. This time, Hercules leapt out of the smoke and slammed down in front of Caramel, knocking him into the air with the shockwave and leaping up before driving the Earth Pony into the ground.

Running Gag fired an explosive crossbow bolt into Hercules' chest before the Changeling second in command of the landed. Hercules flew at Gag full force and tackled him...or would have if Garnet hadn't intercepted him and put every ounce of her strength into holding him back, skidding several feet with a large amount of effort. Her muscles burned in the process, but it allowed Gag to jump over her and give a jumping headbutt to the General driving him back and allowing both to deliver several slashes with their knife and sword respectively before Hercules counter attacked and gave Garnet a couple hard punches, knocking her away with an uppercut. He ducked a slash from Gag and bucked the pegasus hard in the side where his wing was folded, sending him flying with a scream of pain.

Garnet rushed to his side. "Gag are you okay?!" she asked in panic, looking at his wing. The thought his wing might be severely hurt filled her with dread.

"W-won't be flying, but can still fight," Gag replied, despite cringing in clear pain.

Garnet checked his wing. "...It's broken, but you'll live," she said with mild relief it wasn't worse.

"Still got four legs to fight."

"...If I say no you'll do it anyway?"

"Everypony in danger, can't sit. Not Couch Gag: that's my bro."

"...Let me patch you up and don't you dare try flying or I'll KO you."

Several grenades rolled between Hercules' forelegs and exploded, doing little more than get his attention. He looked up in time to see Ellis jump in with the improvised club he'd been wielding and smash it hard against his chest with every ounce of Earth Pony strength he could manage, breaking the improvised club. Screwball charged in a moment later with several quick spin kicks to the chest, budging the powerful Changeling by a few inches before he tackled her to the ground. He picked her up and threw her as hard as he could into Ellis, knocking both through a nearby window, Ellis forcing his bardening to absorb most of the shards to protect both of them.

Bombardier and Diver flew in, burning beams into the Changeling's chest. Not flinching, he punched Bombardier hard in the jaw, knocking her backwards and into a wall.

Diver however duck under in a flash of orange flame, turning into a female musk deer in guard barding and performing a series of flip kicks into the bigger changeling's chest.

Hercules barely took a step back, but reared back, slamming a hoof full force into the ground and sending Diver flying back with the shockwave.

Lemon Hearts showered Hercules' chest with cold lemon juice once more, before having the Great Mother Lemon strike him with its arm in the same spot, forcing him back through blunt impact alone. It attempted again, but roared out in pain as its hand was severed by his horn.

Trixie produced some thunder clouds for Thunderchild to work with using her magic and both began to charge up. Thunderchild grabbed the clouds, manipulating the lightning and adding his own until it began to glow violet in color (the hottest it could be) and fired while a vortex of cold energy formed around Trixie's horn.

Hercules took aim at the charging pair and prepared to fire his (faster charging) horn beam, but Gag (his wing now splinted and bandaged to his side) and Garnet charged in, throwing off his concentration. Gag was forced to block a strike from the changeling general's horn with his sword, Garnet bracing him against the strength of the massive Changeling and his own pain with her own strength.

An idea made it through the pain into Gag's brain. "This the fight you were hoping for?" he asked in Changeling.

Hearing his species' language coming out of a pegasus took the massive Changeling off guard for a moment, long enough for the couple to force back his horn and spin around, double bucking him in the chest with all their might, knocking him backwards from force.

Thunderchild and Trixie finally finished charging and the pegasus gave the cloud a buck once Hercules was forced backwards and his squadmates got out of the way, the resulting bolt roaring like thunder as it struck the massive Changeling's chest. Trixie unleashed a stream of pure, sheer cold, freezing the ground it passed over and slamming into his chest, covering him in ice. His superheated armor cooling as it melted the ice produced a massive amount of steam even as he broke free.

It also left Thunderchild with blackened wing feathers and Trixie a massive case of brain freeze.

Noteworthy, Ellis, and Screwball rushed through the steam and delivered with bucks using every bit of power their tired bodies could manage, sending him sailing a good ways by sheer Earth Pony strength and crashing to the ground.

Hercules rose back to his hooves as soon as he hit and swore for a moment he heard a small crack.

An exhausted Thunderchild rushed in and punched him several times in the chest, ending with using both in an attempt to push him back before getting knocked away by a ram from the mammoth Changeling.

Hercules looked over his rivals, who were all battered and bruised while they'd yet to scratch him. Diver and Bombardier, back in their true forms, spat Changeling slime, gluing Hercules' hooves down for a moment, Trixie teleporting closer and charging her magic. He charged up his horn beam and prepared to fire to give himself time to free himself.

Trixie smirked and as the beam fired, vanishing when it hit 'her'...revealing 'Trixie' to be another magic mirror hidden by an illusion, the real Trixie having never moved.

"That didn't work the last time, why do you think it will this time?"

Trixie gave a confident smirk as she formed the second mirror to deflect it. "Because this time Trixie has co-stars. Everypony! Now! Fire all weapons!"

Caramel took aim with the last round of the bazooka.

The Changeling duo crossed their horns and began building up energy in their crossed horns.

Running Gag took aim with an explosive crossbow bolt, with Garnet helping to make up for his broken wing.

Lemon Hearts produced a large lemon that Thunderchild lit the stem of with a little bit of lightning. The Pegasus flew up and prepared to kick what was left of the supercharged lightning in the cloud.

Moon Dancer's eyes meanwhile forced themselves open. The mare lifted her head between Coke and Weaver, and charged up her horn from where she was laying, right at the damaged spot of the changeling's armor, a line of moonlight guiding her shot.

Hercules looked down at his chest to notice a compact, makeshift explosive device had been slipped onto it over top a thin crack in his exoskeleton, his thick armor leaving him unable to feel it. "When did-"

Thunderchild rushed in and punched him several times in the chest, ending with using both in an attempt to push him back before getting knocked away by a ram from the mammoth Changeling.

'That was when he planted it,' the Changeling thought as his own beam was returned, in sync with the barrage.

"Touche."

The attacks impacted at the same time and exploded in a gigantic fireball, visible from the main battlefield.

Hercules screamed in agony and was sent sailing through the air, crashing hard to the ground, a sizable hole blown in his chest armor, exposing soft, bleeding tissue.

The group panted heavily, their sore bodies slumping down as they saw the superpowered general's armor finally pierced.

The stunned Changeling panted, in a great deal of pain. He laid on his back, feeling the chest wound and looking at the blood. "Incredible...you...you broke armor that couldn't be broken," he said, not simply in disbelief, but out of genuinely being impressed.

"Yeah…" Ellis panted. "It took enough firepower to sink an airship, but we did."

"Trixie…never wishes to see another ice spell as long as she lives."

"But...even that much force shouldn't have pierced my shield...how did you…" the perplexed Hercules asked.

The General thought back to the battle and ran through it in his head, the endless blasts of hot and cold together. "...I see...you were weakening my armor the entire way...Hehe...that was smart…No less than I'd expect from you."

Hercules slowly got back to his hooves. The Equestrians all braced themselves. He took a trot forward, cracks spread from the bleeding hole like a spider's web. Hercules looked down. He sighed.

"So that's how it is."

He kept trotting towards them. The Equestrians just stared in uncertainty. Unsure if the Changeling was dying or something else.

Sparks of green flames flickered across his entire body. He continued to trot towards them, more like dragging his hooves.

The green sparks ignited and covered him like a brush fire.

Hercules didn't even react.

The flames faded, and the silver gray armor faded back to black, his joints no longer quicksilver, and his wings again transparent, his horns shrank down to a single stubby piece again. His entire body shrinking down to the size it had been before in an aura of green flames that faded like embers.

Tired eyes focused on the ponies. He moved like his own carapace was now too heavy for him.

"...for Queen and Hive...for Queen and Hive...for Queen...and Hive..." He weakly spoke.

He left skid marks in the ground as he moved towards them slowly.

His horn sparked, but there was nothing. The Equestrians were afraid to try to subdue him, least they accidentally crush what life remained.

"We are not done...as long as I can stand, I'll...I'll...As long as I have something left...to give...I'll sacrifice everything for Queen and Hive..." He body wavered from left to right as he continued towards the heroes.

"Stop it!" Lemon Heart said, "You have nothing left! Just lay down and stop!"

" ...Predators almost always lose, that is nature...but…they never give a win to their prey...you want this to end...you have to end it yourself."

Hercules took a slow, tired swing at Bombardier, who dodged it easily, the hoof struck the ground, causing it to shake, bits of pavements going everywhere. A new crack formed along his leg, bleeding. It wasn't like the empty hollowing that Weaver had suffered when her loved had been exhausted, this was simply injury.

Dragging his body, he threw his hoof more than punched at Diver, who duck the sluggish attack with enough time to drink tea, but piece of debris that was hit instead split in two. Blood began to flow from Hercules' cracked hooves.

"This is ridiculous! You're in no shape to fight anything! Stop!" This time it was Garnet, already having gotten her medical supplies.

"I told you...you have to end this...that is the responsibility, of the one who claims victory..." The changeling beast said between breaths. "So who is it going to be?"

The Grand Angry Mother Lemon picked him up with its remaining hand, he bit it. It had all the damage as a bee sting, but enough to make it drop him, he landed with a thud, the wind knocked out of him, he forced his body to stand.

Trixie and Thunderchild looked at each other, nodded, and both zapped Hercules with all the combined electrical charge of a shaggy carpet. The changeling general fell, he couldn't have gotten back up if he wanted to.

"The gazelles win, and I failed again. Goliath, my Guards, Your Majesty, it is up to you now," he said simply, conscious, but not moving. "...At least this time I was defeated defending you…"

He didn't struggle as he was restrained (just in case) and Garnet tended to his wounds. Gag stood near by protectively.

Screwball turned her head, something about the brutal way the general look reminded her escapes from the ayslum.

"Trixie thinks she's never been this sore in her entire life," Trixie muttered, her body bruised and battered, the entire group in the same condition. "And that includes the recovering from having spent several weeks in a catatonic state."

"Ditto," Thunderchild replied, too worn to question the last part. "...But this whole mess isn't finished yet," he said, looking to the battle, noting it was still going on, though he believed the rebels were slowly gaining ground.

"I wish it was," Caramel lamented. "I miss Sassaflash."

"I miss writing songs with Banjo," Note Worthy said.

Lemon Hearts sighed. "I miss it when the worst thing I had to worry about was slacking rookies trying to get lemons from me to fake being sick…"

Screwball thought to herself, 'What I miss, I lost a lot sooner than this war. UGH! . . . I think I also lost count of how many broken bones I have now . . . But for all the foals in this city, I have to keep going.'

Bombardier and Diver had gone to check on their sister, who was slowly regaining consciousness.

Trixie nodded. "Trixie think we need to head to the medical tent if we plan to help any more today. We all need some of Bon Bon's help."

Moon Dancer nodded, helping slowly get Cherry Coke over. "And Minuette's."

"Minuette?!" asked Ellis, looking over. "...Good, she'll be a sight for sore eyes…"

Thunderchild looked to the defeated General. "...For what it's worth...I think you'd make a better guard than an invader...I mean that."

"...Thanks...Maybe if this ends peacefully...next time we'll be on the same team…I mean that."

"Yeah…I hope so..."

"...Ironic, isn't it?"

"What?"

"...We beat the Tartarus out of each other...we beat each other literally across Canterlot...But now that it's over, we're already hoping we can be comrades in the future…"

Trixie was the one to chuckle. "...Hercules...that's not ironic...that's just how ponies work...Even if Trixie took a long time to learn…"

Thunderchild nodded. "...That's the pony way…"

"...I'm not a pony…"

"Neither is Griffen," said Gag, then realized only Misfit Actual knew who that was. "Uh...that's a Griffin in our platoon…"

"My fawnfriend is a Musk Deer," pointed out Diver, helping his sister back to her hooves.

"Actually I can appreciate that," Hercules said.

"Point is, we don't care about species," said Thunderchild. "We just want to be friends with the world. That's what that whole world tour was about."

The general chuckled slowly. "...That's one thing we Changelings never understood...how you won your war with the Griffins...now I know...you befriended them…you ponies, you really will try to make friends with anything..."

"Hey, to our credit the only sapient species on the planet a pony hasn't befriended is a Draconequus," Gag pointed out. "And we're not even sure if that's a species."

"We win?" Weaver asked groggy.

"We beat Hercules," Diver said.

"Still got Canterlot to save," Bombardir said.

Garnet finished patching up the beaten Changeling and nodded.

"...Please get me out of here before my men arrive…"

"Why? You're embarrassed?"

"No...because I'm not a sore loser and thought it was helpful advice."

"Trixie agrees with that point."

(Interviewer's Notes (Noon): Too bad we can't tell them.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Dusk): Indeed...In our world, they truly were allies.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Dawn): ...It's weird...this isn't like some of those nasty worlds where people are enemies because one of them turned evil...Hercules wasn't any different from ours.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Dusk): That's how it is sometimes...sometimes an enemy soldier is just that...an enemy soldier...and who's the enemy can change world to world simply by circumstance...Come now...Misfit's solo journey has ended...it is time to see this to its conclusion.)

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by Alex Warlorn
The Mighty Hercules Part Three Of Three

This isn't filler. The Battle with Hercules ends.
And next time . . .

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-WeddingArc-The-Mighty-Hercules-Pt2-466956315

Next Chapter:

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (SERIOUSLY need to be kept up to date, every little bit helps!).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions. http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/

Pinkie Pie, "If any of the parts are confusing on whose speaking, tell me, and I'll make sure the author fixes it!"

Music Suggestions
All Out Assault On Hercules Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - It Has To Be This Way -
Hercules after transforming back Dark Souls OST - Gwyn, Lord of Cinder

Episode 199: Short: Pony POV Kabuto

Episode 199: Short: Pony POV Kabuto

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Changeling

I am Master Kabutomushi. I am a changeling. I was a changeling. I am the Alchemist Master of the changeling swarm. I am an expert in alchemy and bioengineering, that surpasses that of any other kingdom in the world. It has been my experiments and discoveries that have led to many advancements. So much knowledge. It's not my fault the world rejects my findings, is it? If no one appreciates my discoveries but myself, then so be it. If I'm the only one who snatches the fruit of knowledge when it's right in front of our muzzles, is that my fault? No, I did not create the Love Tree, that failed experiment belonged to my father . . . I saw it express its feelings to him. I was a nymph at the time, but I still remember the incident clear as crystal. Especially my father's screaming as it ravished him. Wish I thought to save some of his blood that got on me.

I remember wondering, would I scream too? How self aware was it? Did it comprehend its own actions? Would it ignore me? I thought of everything I wouldn't have a chance to learn because of this thing.

The guards arrived in time to reduce the Love Tree to ashes before it managed to share its feelings with myself as well.

They called my father the greatest bio-engineer of a generation, I would go further to say that he was the greatest of all time. I never managed to replicate his creation. My failures include the Weeping Willow, and the Mexicolt Fighting Tree.

Of course, since this was before the time of Queen Chrysalis, as a nymph I was simply a serial number, nymph number D4166, I wasn't granted a name by Queen Cocoon until I had risen through the ranks and proven as useful the swarm as my father. Father had put himself at great risk challenging tradition by insisting on raising me himself rather than having Nymph Master Leaf-Bug (this was before Shield Bug's time of course) and her care-givers see to my development and see I was raised into a replacement alchemist for my father. No, father wanted me to surpass him, that had always been his hope, he said how 'replacing' other changelings as they died of old age could never be enough for our species to evolve.

My mother? Heh. I'm sure who she was exists in some record or another, but it wasn't that important to me at the time, and father never spoke of her, having one parent was scandalous enough, but two? He'd have been signing his death warrant.

Sometimes I wonder if the Love Tree escaping its confines was truly an accident.

Her Majesty said that it was a century before she became queen that the Love Tree experiment ended in disaster?

I am also the oldest changeling alive. I discovered some traits within a family of Earth Ponies converts, whose genes it turned out contained traits related to exceptionally long life spans. My compatriot Masters are also older than they look, but even Her Majesty is not as old as I am.

It's not eternal life, it is simply a delay of the inevitable, but Queen Cocoon was always looking for more layers of protection against the grim reaper. And she quite disagreed with my father, you see. She felt that risking evolution was risking 'degrading'. So when she eventually realized I wasn't aging and demanded I reveal it or be eaten (I didn't consider keeping the secret of prolonged life to myself was worth death) she decided why risk that...and why risk a useful Changeling giving birth to a deviant? So she ordered the other Masters to have me do my procedure on them. Hercules actually submitted willingly. That coltscout wants nothing more than to stand as an eternal wall to protect and serve forever and a day I believe. I'd call him a fool, but he's one of the few who let me work with his genetic code willingly.

It isn't even biological immortality (not for lack of trying), it just gives the grim reaper another ream of paper work to fill out. And it is far from perfect, let alone a guaranteed thing. I mean, genetic engineering tends to have so many side effects. I'd rather not say what, thank you. As far as I know, only one Earth Pony alive is as old as me, she even lives in the village a train ride from here, wish I could have met her before the rune was done, so much we could have learn from each other. Maybe we can chat after we have our emotions ripped out then put back in by our White Princess.

Of course Cocoon and father both believed that evolution required reproduction...I believe it only requires alchemy, science, a little magic, a lot of test subjects, and a willingness to tell nature buck you.

Come now, remember? How long Her Majesty Chrysalis has been slowly putting this invasion in place? Like a cancer? Slowly enough that a goddess wouldn't notice? And weren't I, Hercules and the others around ALREADY when she killed Cocoon? I wish I had gotten a chance to examine Cocoon's corpse in detail, so much I could have learned. Oh, I knew Cocoon's body very well. I am exceedingly proud of that quilt I made out of her DNA. But I like to examine my failures, you see. Sift through the rubble to find out where the structure collapsed. Like Wolf-Spider.

I have always been despised among my own kind, only because I constantly provide ways to increase our chances for survival am I tolerated. But that I sought knowledge that had nothing to do directly with increasing survival chances for the hive, some wondered if I was secretly a deviant. Am I? I don't think a DNA test could tell you anymore.

Her Majesty has positively refused to allow me to modify her at all. She called me an 'unnatural creature' and found me 'disgusting' when we first met, saying that by artificially extending my life I had violated nature's law. Being a drone-class, I was supposed to have died of old age long ago. You think Her Majesty would appreciate how we are the same, we are both doing what is needed to survive.

There is so much I have yet to learn! What's wrong with wanting to live? What's wrong with seeking knowledge? What's wrong with seeking perfection?

Doesn't she know that science exists for the express purpose of making the rules of nature our beotch?

Hehe. You know one advantage of being the reason Cocoon lived so long? I remember what she was like in her youth. Before she let herself go. She was quite the looker. Me and Hercules are the only ones with that knowledge. And that is the most precious kind of knowledge, isn't it? Knowledge only you have.

I've had more than one changeling try to kill me, the "unnatural deviant freak-show" over the years, in a way I'm grateful, a chance to experiment on my own species was so exciting, So much to learn, so much to understand! Not to mention that I got a chance to test drive the alterations I made to my own body!

Do I care how many I've killed? No, because I got information in exchange. That's the nature of alchemy: you must change or exchange one thing for or into another. Their lives and the pain they experienced were traded for the knowledge I desire. Simple as that.

I know my reputation of 'playing Frankenpony' but I assure you that all of my experiments have actually factual purposes. Do I enjoy it? Of course I enjoy it. I wasn't lying to Earth Pony #2 when I said I love the rush of holding someling's string of life in my hooves. It's so exciting and invigorating. And yes, I have a habit of not using anesthetic if I feel the experiment works better without pain being inhibited. But the end result is to learn something. A true scientist knows where to draw the line between business and pleasure.

. . .

I was a changeling.

Now I'm trapped in one shape. One form. One body. I can't even change one molecule of this form! It's suffocating!

It feels like my own skin is a prison! My decades of bioengineering on my body lost forever!

Not able to change my shape, LIKE A STATUE! Like the victim of a cockatrice!

I tried to pull my own skin off to escape, but the peons wouldn't let me! I'm trapped forever! AND I'M BLIND: I CAN'T SENSE LOVE ANYMORE! OR ANY EMOTIONS!

EVERYLING AROUND ME ARE LIKE PONYEQUINS!!! They're like puppets! Zombies! Husks! I don't feel anything from them! I'M LIVING IN A WORLD OF ZOMBIES!!!

Everything is like a picture show! None of it feels real anymore! None of it feels alive!

If I could sense a drop of hate at this instant, I'd suck it dry until I died of poisoning! It would be infinitely better than this void!

I'm like a lifeless object in a world of lifeless objects! They smile, they frown, they cry, but THERE ISN'T ANYTHING BEHIND IT! I sense nothing! They're all hollow!

The ponies I've converted to Changelings for my experiments? How do they feel to be cut off from their links to the sky, land, etcetera? I suppose it is similar. Studying that was the entire point. How it feels for them to suddenly be something else. Naturally they weren't willing. If they were willing, I might as well go study a willing convert we already had, correct? But they were just lab rats! Stepping stones leading to the tree of knowledge! I was brilliant! I'd spent over a century reaching for the forbidden fruit only to have my tower shattered below my hooves in an instant! It's not fair!...Wait...the conversions...

My body, a straight jacket that can never be taken off . . . the conversion cocoons . . . they should be able to fix this . . . yes? Yes. I must remain calm. . . . If the rune is completed . . . as I am now . . . I will be reduced to a husk . . . then I'll spend the rest of my days loving and adoring that little pet filly of Her Majesty's! And I thought I chaffed under Pitcher Plant, Her Majesty's pet imitation zebra.

. . . But if I reveal anything . . .

This is a disaster! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness! This is madness!

Yes . . . the conversion cocoons . . . they MUST BE able to restore me . . . there is no logical way they couldn't!

But if the rune is complete . . . I will never get that chance . . . her Majesty didn't want a drawn out war . . . but if I try to help in the rune being never completed . . . I won't SURVIVE the time I'd need to spend inside a cocoon.

I'm trapped. I'm trapped.

All these years. All these life times. All brought low because of a hoofful of traitors. All my hard work, planning and preparation reduced to nothing. I do not appreciate the joke.

Your Majesty . . . is this what you meant? By fate having declared that there was no way to win? That fate had decided who the victor would be, and that our choices would only determine HOW it would come about? Is this what you meant all this time . . . about trying to overcome fate's design?

But you did not run from it, you rushed towards it, you sought not to hide from it, you sought to do battle with it, you sought the very heart of fate, so you could stab it. You would seek out the moment fate planned for you, and you would break it.

If fate had determined long in advance that how my battle with the traitors would go . . . then what of before?

All of us, all of us Masters . . . was Cocoon herself destined to always lose to you, Your Majesty? Was I, were we then always destined to serve you?

Is that why we have been so effective a group? Hercules your determination and will to survive. Digger-Wasp your cunning. Pitcher Plant your memories? Your emotions?. Jewel Wasp your hunger. I . . . I your intellect and refusal to allow morals to inhibit my ambitions. But then what is Shield Bug? Is she a part of yourself you have hidden away? Buried?

What is then . . . what is then the filly? What is she then? What part of you is she? What aspect of you does she embody? What secret does she hold?

Was she then . . . always destined to be chosen by you, always destined to be taught dark magic by you, to be taught the first steps to becoming a mighty witch, to be prepared to become a princess of the changelings. I do not understand, you, You Majesty, know that to name your successors is to be succeeded. What did you see in her? What inspired you to take this foal under your wing after all your effort with Pitcher Plant? . . . But the pace at which the filly learned your magic . . .

. . . Perhaps, then, in the end, it was always your destiny to lead us Your Majesty, and Cocoon's destiny to merely prepare the way for you, and it was our destiny merely to insure you came this far . . .

Yes . . . I finally understand . . . you shall give us what the equine and draconic labrats always had but we lacked . . . you shall give us a goddess of our own.

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by Alex Warlorn
Kabuto POV Optional Canon

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Queen-s-Last-Performance-463011237

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-WeddingArc-The-Mighty-Hercules-Pt0-466446554

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (SERIOUSLY need to be kept up to date, every little bit helps!).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions. http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/

Episode 200 (Yay): "The chrysalis is broken"

The white light slowly faded, and the ponies' eyes readjusted.

The chamber itself couldn't have been more silent.

Princess Celestia's chamber was filled with smoke (fog?). Nopony was coughing. The Elements had never done this before. They heard the chaos of the battle outside, but it seemed subdued, like the idea of war had been suppressed to a dull roar.

"All ponies present and accounted for?" Twilight Sparkle called to her herd.

"Still in one piece," said Pinkie Diane.

"That never stops being a rush," Rainbow Dash said.

"Still kickin' darlin'," said AJ.

"Still two of us in here and nopony stoned," Flutters said.

"My my Twilight dear, the Elements do as good a job at tail repair as ever," Rarity said.

Twilight looked to see her tail, cut off during her duel with her brother, now whole. Twilight politely chose not to inform Rarity that she had considered that a badge of love.

"But Rarity, I thought your Element only healed you."

"Yes dear, but I thought that you needed it more than myself...I admit this is the first time I was able to direct Generosity's power as such. Speaking of which it seems we've all had some healing done."

"We're all fixed-up? Yeah, tooth back where it belongs!" Rainbow Dash grinned, now with a full set of teeth.

"Ah think ya lost a couple wrinkles too Rarity."

"I had wrinkle?!"

"Ah think they were all from stress."

"...I'll remember that for the future, thank you very much." She gave Applejack a polite nuzzle. "But I wasn't thinking of myself...I suppose that's the point."

"Here Twiley!" Shining announced, breaking out of his 'I just saw my baby sister save the world' stupor.

Crying tears of joy she hugged her big brother, as they both tried to hug the life of out each other, finally able to let their emotions out. Twilight Sparkle called out at the top of her lungs, "I MISSED YOU SOOO MUCH BBBFF!"

"I MISSED YOU TOO!"

"SO DID I MY LOVE!" Cadence hugged the stallion too, nuzzling him and feeling his neck and mane. "Welcome home my knight in shining armor!" Cadence said without a trace of irony or sarcasm.

"It's wonderful to feel the real Cadence again." Shining Armor smiled.

Now with the tension passed, Cadence began to weep her own tears of happiness.

"There there dear, save those tears for the alter!" Rarity said patting the goddess on the back.

Shining nodded, nuzzling her. "Yeah, we've still got a real, hopefully non-crazy wedding to attend."

(Friend's Notes (Noon): Remember what you said about saying things like that?)

Dang it! …And just let me say: I'm glad to have three weird voices in my head back too, I missed you.

(Friend's Notes (Dusk): We missed you too, Shining.)

Group mental hug?

(Friend's Notes (Dusk): Group mental hug!)

"...Why did you say that last part like you weren't getting your hopes up?" Rainbow asked.

"My life is weird," Shining admitted. "Hopefully it'll take awhile until I attract something more weird. We already made sure our honeymoon isn't on an ancient buffalo burial ground."

Cadence kissed him. "Don't worry about the future, let's just enjoy the present!"

"Yeah, good idea."

The fog began to clear.

"Oh right, her," Rarity said coldly.

"Okay, who bets lawn jockey, and who bets lunar feature?" Rainbow Dash called out quick.

Deep breathing was heard from within the fog, and heavy hoofsteps caught everypony's attention.

"You're kidding right?" Fluttercruel got a word in edgewise, "Doesn't she know when to quit?"

"Hey Rarity, you want the honor of punching out whatever's left of 'er?" RD asked casually.

"Given the circumstances I'd accept darling, but Sweetie Belle might not understand," Rarity said gracefully.

"If you don't mind, I'd like dibs," Shining said.

"Because she's made your family's lives Tartarus?" RD asked.

"No...well, yes...but also, Captain of the Guard, capturing her is kinda my job."

"Oh, right."

"Maybe the Elements turned her into an Earth Pony?" Fluttershy guessed.

"What's wrong with being an Earth Pony?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Nothing!"

The black carapace of the changeling queen dragged itself out of the vanishing fog. Her breathing was ragged, her movements sluggish, she looked up at the ponies, huge cracks appeared along her neck as she did so that began to spread along all of her body. For a moment nopony said anything.

Then the chrysalis broke apart. The ponies were transfixed in a horrid fascination as they could only watch.

Black armor cracked and fell like ice shavings, then broke off in larger chunks like a collapsing castle, a beast tearing itself free of its prison.

It stomped its hooves, shattering the carapace, then slipped out of its legs like they were horseshoes. It spread out its wings, breaking away the carapace on its back, and its old dragonfly wings fell to the floor discarded and shattered. It twisted its body about, shaking free the pieces of its outer shell. Finally, only the carapace of its face remained, which its green telekinesis magic pulled away free with a dramatic flourish, it turned it around to look at its own face, and with relish, crushed it into dust. Green eyes regarded the ponies and then, she burst out laughing.

That laugh was so wrong coming from that face knowing who was behind it.

Nopony's mind was able to fully grasp what they saw, it made no sense, it was like Discord himself had zipped open his head and shown them the contents.

She trotted to a window and regarded herself. "At last, I am free of that disgusting body!" She did a small twirl. She laughed in joy. She did a little dance. "I've dreamed of this day since I was small." She stood on her rear legs and spread her feathered wings, still laughing. "For the first time in so long, I'm me!" She landed with the thundering force of earth pony strength, smiling.

Her cutie mark resembled a flowing ink drawing, like a zebra's cutie mark. It was either a dragon swallowing a circle, or the dragon wing was actually the spiral of a maelstrom with jaws at the center.

She breathed in deep, enjoying the taste of air, and slowly exhaled.

"Against all odds," she hugged herself with her wings, "I BEAT YOU fate! How does it feel to have your own rules turned on you you big bully?! WE DID IT MAUA!" She flapped her wings and kicked her legs about happily. "I'm not that big ugly witch Pandora's Frakenpony experiment anymore! I'm natural! I'm free! I'm free!" She shed a tear of joy.

She looked at Cadence and saw the absolute look of confusion on her face that was then mirrored on her own.

She inoffensively trotted toward Princess Cadence, who backed away from the living breathing WRONG before her, Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle stepped forward protectively.

A single gentle feather on the tip of her wing stretched out and gently brushed Cadence's face.

"You really don't remember anything from before you were last born do you?" She asked, tilting her head like a foal. "Dying by somber hooves? Little winged crystal princess? I bet auntie Celestia and Luna would care to know." There was no sinisterness in her voice. Then an annoyed look appeared on her face. "Excuse me," she said angrily. "We have rats."

Without fully turning around, she shot out her other wing, flinging one of her feathers faster than a crossbow bolt, it pierced the window leaving a tiny hole.

"Sorry about that, but this is my depute performance, and I'm not about to share the stage with scum!"

'Mother of Me, things have just turned very bad!'

"Father. What happened? I don't get it."

'Get the buck out of there!'

"What?"

'I said move your keister! NOW!'

In the space between blinks, the quill tip of a feather pierced the chest of the shadowless pink filly, she gasped out, and rolled off the spot she was watching the throne room from, and hit the ground with a thud. Stone began to spread from the point of infection.

'Cousin! Restore her and get her back to home base!'

"Why should I?" Asked Umbra Breeze, suddenly sitting in front of the filly, entertained to be watching her struggle, "I think this is quite a beautiful tragedy I see before me. A real shoot the shaggy diamond dog story. Transcendentally anti-climatic too. Not to mention the heartbreak of a mother never knowing her child's fate."

"If I had a heart, I think I'd hate you," she gasped out emotionlessly.

Umbra Breeze shrugged. "Don't particularly care."

'Get that quill out and heal my daughter. Right now. Or you can kiss my butt, and your investment goodbye!'

"Maybe all I need is Alula's help, I can do the rest without you now cousin."

'Ha ha. If you could have done it on your own you would have. I'm the only way you have around your promise. Now hurry up before my filly's a paper weight or deal's off!'

Umbra Breeze growled, and pulled out the quill (tasting absolutely petrifying to him) and spat it out. The stone stopped spreading and slowly began to recede. He picked up the filly and put her on his back before both vanished in a swirl of darkness.

'It was a mistake to send you out in your pupa stage. We won't make that mistake again my baby girl. Next time, you'll bring disaster to everything.'

"Sweetie Belle?!" Silver Spoon gasped.

Sweetie had stumbled from stabbing pain in her chest that had come and gone in a flash. "I'm...I'm okay. I think."

"B-but, how in the hay can there be two of them?!" Applejack managed to gasp out.

The wrongness before them was Princess Cadence in every detail, except for the dragon swirl jaws instead of a crystal heart for a cutie mark. Her eyes were still green, but now were equine. The wrong Cadence slipped on the black and sapphire crown and regalia of the changelings.

"AJ I don't know how the Elements missed but she's just playing dress-up again!" Rainbow Dash stated the obvious.

"T-That ain't what my eyes are tellin' me. This ain't no shape shiftin' or illusion! That's the real her now!"

"BUT THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" Rarity gasped.

The wrong Cadence shrugged. "'Possible' and 'impossible' are words that exist only to convince yourself that you understand the world Rarity."

"WHY WOULD THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY GIVE YOU CADENCE'S FACE?!" Rarity snapped at the witch.

"Because it's my face too."

"It's can't be," Fluttershy whispered. "You're were a Nightmare, the Elements completed your Alicorn-you."

"Close, but you miss the target…But how wouldn't you? You're missing the key to all of this: at the end of a very important battle in the spirit world, before your reality existed, the Concept of Music and Harmony Cadenza: lost her Light of Existence, and she was given a poor farce of one as a replacement. And the light meanwhile formed a new shadow around itself. I could stay here for fifty hour explaining the details (I don't have anything better to do), but basically without a light of existence you have no existence. This nonsense to you all?"

"Not all of us," muttered Shining, remembering the fight with the Blank Wolf and what he'd seen.

"But when Cadenza's individual pieces were reborn...the 'only live once' rule was broken. Maybe because a quantum double of our spirit who had been remade so much she had become her own soul already had a mark here…but whatever the cause, the two halves were born into this world. Ironically, the light's first birth wasn't as an Alicorn, but that's a somber story for another time. Everypony driven insane by confusion yet? Sorry. I hate sounding like Discord. I promise I'm almost done." What shocked the ponies was how...sincere she sounded. She looked at the other pink Alicorn in the room. "To sum it up Cadence: You're a piece of me. My twin sister born at the dawn of time."

Cadence whimpered and felt herself grow faint.

Then Pinkie Pie spoke like a ball of lightning shattering the night, "Right: Cadence's heart was born without the rest of her, and the rest was you. In other words, you're Cadence without her heart!"

Shining Armor and Twilight hugged the music Alicorn. "I know how you feel," Shining whispered sympathetically, remembering the shocking reveal of his own existence.

"I should've known you'd be able to put it simply, lone survivor," the wrongness Cadence said in almost in kinship.

"Well, our storyline has gotten super-ultra-mega-confusing, so we outta go for the concise answers."

"How's this for concise? What's before you is what I wanted all along."

"Horseapples! I call horseapples! There's NO WAY you had all this planned!" Rainbow Dash snapped. "You have to be making this up! All the pain and misery we've gone through! All the cracked bones and bruises?! We screwed up your schemes a million times."

"Six or nine times, tops, your previous incarnation had much better manners Rainbow Dash. I had to remake my plan several times." The thing with Cadence's face clapped her hooves in a shockingly genuine manner. "Credit where it's due, you're true survivors. I like my efforts to be appreciated, and I have nothing else to do now, so I'll tell you: I had no idea this would work. This was my final last resort. Tell me Applejack, didn't you wonder why I never killed you?"

Applejack's jaw dropped.

"Or why I didn't simply kill you Cadence?"

Cadence's heart skipped a beat.

"Cadence, I originally planned to crush your spirit so utterly that I could then assimilate you back into me without the risk of your personality overtaking me. We'd have been one again. But that stupid blue-brained stallion ruined it! Now we can never be together!" The ponies were shocked at the hurt in her voice. "Now that I'm complete without you, there's no chance of that happening."

"Now, if the invasion had failed, I planned to replace you completely, and suggesting to Auntie Luna and Celestia to hoof off responsibilities to 'Cadence' piece by piece over the centuries. Our cousin ruined that too."

"The real purpose of the rune, as Twilight surmised, wasn't to harvest all the love of Equestria and give it to everyling equally, it was to transfer it to me in a safe and absorbable manner, which would trigger my Alicornification. But you put an end to that. A joke since I realized there was somepony more worthy already.

"Sweetie Belle...at first, I sought her only because of her song's love, then I sensed what she was, I thought she could be a replacement for Cadence, but...I...she must have had SOME KIND of spell over me, for I found myself unable to part with her company or see her harmed. Then I realized if anything happened to me, she could become an Alicorn in my place. She'd succeed where I'd failed. She'd be GREATER than I could ever be. Just as I was greater than Cocoon. It was her idea that after the rune was activated she could personally give BACK love to the husks as a changeling princess, to make them able to feel love again with her new magic…what a brilliant little mind: ponies would return her love in turn, she'd a savior! She'd become more powerful than I could ever hope to be." Was...was that, pride in her voice?

"The rules of nature DICTATED that I serve her as her stepping stone to glory! But then you kidnapped and brainwashed her!" The wrongness Cadence startled, and the queen's tone for a moment was actually pleading, begging. "Rarity, please don't tell Sweetie Belle this? She...she doesn't need to know any of this, she...she can't know."

Rarity responded civil. "I shall never speak a word of it to her, meanwhile, you'll face justice for the evil you've done!"

"One pony's justice is another pony's evil, don't be naive."

Shining narrowed his eyes. "Well according to Equestrian law, you're a war criminal...a kidnapper...an attempted murderer...I think it's easier to list the laws you haven't broken. So yeah, by Equestrian law you're pretty dang evil."

"Well by Changeling law I am the law!" What disturbed the ponies wasn't the statement itself, but how...shallow the pride in that statement seemed. "Moving on, I tried to absorb the power of the Elements from the regalia directly, but that...didn't work. They seemed powerless and empty without you.

"Another plan was consuming the essence of the six of you after your spirits were broken and using the Elements on myself with the expressed intent to make me ascend, but I'd need more than a few days to do that apparently. And I worried all six of you inside me could erase my personality.

"I also planned wear the physical Elements, under a mundane disguise, and use them as a medium to assimilate the the rainbow of light when you summoned it on your own, but after chatting with you I learned you didn't know how to repeat that trick.

"The idea of being simply struck by the power that reduced Nightmare Moon to a filly and turned ugly Discord into an ugly statue wasn't appealing… and that was very painful. I think you vaporized about half my soul.

"I actually preferred my plan for when one or more of you went Nightmare five hoofsteps from me then chose to kill me or worse and absorb you to being blasted by that light show!"

'See dear? That's why I told you not to try it.'

They all felt sick. "How can you expect to eat a Nightmare?!"

"You expect me to tell you all my bloody tricks? If one of you went Nightmare right after I tell you, that would then be a suicidal move on my part wouldn't it? That plan meant if it failed I'd have the satisfaction of knowing the fire I lit would consume Canterlot instead."

Rainbow couldn't believe this. "You were rearing up for one big final fight, then we like 'forget that' and just wasted you with the Elements! You freaked!"

"I was gambling with death! If I just sat there and said 'blast me' you wouldn't have. You keep forgetting, I am an actress! That was my final performance as the character 'Queen Chrysalis.' " She then shouted at the ceiling, happily and eagerly. "Did you see, Mama-Kipepeo? It was the performance, of a lifetime!"

"Oh come on! Your stooge Trap Spider bungled putting in a trap in the Elements box! Me spotting the box? And the ambush? Come on! You'd have been relying on blind luck!" Rainbow Dash roared.

"Changeling strategy: make it look like you're relying on blind luck when you've really rigged the Tartarus out of the game. Don't you think it's odd I had my changeling fly without cover in the open air with the box in plain view when they could have just as easily hidden the Elements in a barrel or baked them in bread and smuggled them out while the box was a decoy?

"I couldn't rely on telling my changelings to hold back if Applejack's truth vision got a hold of them, so I had to tell the bottom barrel grunts they were being assigned because I had gotten that desperate and we didn't have the numbers to spare, which wasn't TECHNICALLY a lie.

"As for the IOU, that was a bit of legal fiction, I told Trap Spider to write it, just in case Applejack's truth vision could work on words. If I made a trap that you were guaranteed to all function through, you'd suspect something, if I made a trap that was deadly, there was a chance one of you could be rendered useless. And Sweetie would be sad. So I took a third option."

Chrysalis continued, "And with ALL OF THAT: I still had no idea if I'd get my wanted result. At least I'd have been a pretty statue, oh am I kidding? It'd be ugly. I don't need to pretend anymore that body was somehow beautiful!"

"Sweetie Belle didn't think you were ugly," Rarity said almost tenderly.

"...And that's what makes her a saint. If you had brought Sweetie Belle with you…I'd have made sure she was the one to consume me. The difference between a filly and a mare is blood, and I'd at least see her grow up. A new goddess either way."

"You'd have turned my little sister into a killer?"

"Even I'm not that persuasive. Absorb my spirit. My gift to her. She could have ended this war. Which would you prefer? Her becoming a deity for the changelings with absolute authority over the hive and the ability to stop this war instantly or retain her 'innocence'?"

Rarity found herself unable to speak for a few moments. Thinking of all the ponies fighting out there against other ponies, and her little sister able to tell them to just stop fighting. The witch ending herself to make Sweetie a tribe's new spiritual leader? Rarity had been the one prepared to kill. Now the fashionista felt her brain's gears going in conflicting directions.

"You said so yourself, you have what you wanted. Please, just tell your changelings to STOP."

"I'd rather not spend the rest of my new eternal life in a dungeon, thank you."

Then came the sudden look of happiness on the wrong Cadence's face.

"Heheh, this plan was so far down the list and it was so much more likely I was going to be 'purified' into dust that I didn't think of what I'd do next! Heheh!"

"Peacefully surrender for those who think there's a jewel of equinity in that ocean of black tar where your soul should be?" Rarity asked.

The wrong Cadence blinked at her. The look on her face seemed like her mind didn't know how to express the emotion Rarity's statement invoked. "Why should I surrender my freedom after finally earning it?"

Twilight couldn't take seeing all these things being spoken by the face of her foalsitter, AGAIN. "How can you say you earned this?! We destroyed all your plans! You're LUCKY!"

"Really? So I'm lucky? Would you call me that if I was a 'hero?'"

"Well...I-"

"No, you'd call me 'determined' or 'like Daring Doo' or 'resourceful' or half a dozen other things, but not LUCKY. When a 'hero' has to claw their way out of the pit a 'villain' threw them down, they're praised. They persevered in the face of all odds. The harder they're thrown down the louder they're cheered for. But the 'villain'? No, she's 'lucky', she's 'getting by the skin of her teeth' or 'she's stupid.' Nopony cares about how she keeps going despite the snags she hits! They only care about the snags!

"If I were the 'hero' you'd say that I'm determined and resourceful! That I hung it all on the line to succeed! Not that I was lucky and reckless! The 'villain' is expected to start with the flawless plan that works from start to finish, villains act, heroes react and ADAPT. Well why can't 'heroes' act and the 'villain' react and ADAPT! I adapted! It wasn't luck! It was SKILL! It was DETERMINATION! It was never giving up no matter what! The same qualities you PRAISE when a HERO does them! Well guess what, little ponies? WHO'S THE ALICORN RIGHT NOW?!"

The new Alicorn's voice echoed off the walls.

"...You know darling?" Rarity said icily. "Since I can remember, I've wanted to be recognized as part of Equestria's elite. My accent, poise, grace, etiquette, are all self taught! My parents are the most tacky ponies in the history of Equestria! My beauty? Rock solid EFFORT on the part of a unexceptional looking middle class mare! Without the effort I put into my beauty each day, I'm the most plain looking filly of us six! My connections? Clients? Reputation? Favors? Contracts? Commissions? Earned piece by piece the hard way! Uphill against the wind! I took my opportunities where I could!

"But I learned that without my friends that being in the elite was empty! And the love of sharing beauty always remained with me! Now that you've become an Alicorn Chrysalis, you've admitted yourself you never thought what you'd do AFTERWARDS! And from where I stand, you don't have a single real friend to share this with! Even the Changelings only love the mask you wear, don't they? They don't know the devil that's been hiding right under their noses. No wonder you wanted to twist poor Sweetie Belle into something like you! Your loneliness must be unbearable Chrysalis!"

Rarity braced herself, and was actually confused when her face wasn't smashed into the floor as Chrysalis' retort.

"I was a chrysalis! I am Queen Cadenza! Don't presume our different burdens make you better than me. I didn't work so hard to be free of that ugly wretched changeling body to be lectured by you."

Ya know? All those times calling her 'Queen Ugly?' Suddenly I feel really really hollow. Remind me to talk to Scootaloo about avoiding name calling, even if it's the bad guys.

"How can you call your own people ugly?" Rarity asked, pushing aside that she had thought the same thing.

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes, and spoke calmly, almost like a teacher. "Changelings are weaker than Earth Ponies, slower than Pegasi, less magical than unicorns, need other sapient creatures' emotions to live and their only talent is hiding behind other ponies' faces. That they hadn't died out is nonsense and madness." She looked ill at her own words. "And they're disgusting ugly BUGS! And yet, even as vile as they are, they helped me be free. They were never 'my people.' I have no people! I've always been alone!"

"That's a lie!" AJ declared, "It's such a big lie the truth is screaming ta get out! Ya didn't realize ya were happy until ya threw it all away!"

Pinkie Pie grabbed AJ, and the farmer was confused as she was suddenly on the opposite side of the changeling queen's field of vision. Pinkie Pie was confused when the place AJ previously stood was not a smoking hole. Instead, the queen turned to look at Applejack with a...strangely somber expression.

"Throwing it away would mean that I got nothing in return. I traded my people for my freedom. Simple as that."

"Can't you come up with an answer that ISN'T selfish?" Rarity hissed.

"I am selfish, why change? Everypony responds emotionally, then we reason out a justification that makes it sound like we used logic to come to that choice because it makes it feel better about ourselves to say we are a intelligent, rational, reasonable, morally-upright pony who makes good decisions. I just accept the reality that it's all a facade."

AJ blinked in confusion as she listened.

Twilight narrowed her eyes. "That's why you were like a Nightmare without being one, isn't it? A Nightmare is born when one part of somepony devours their whole, but you were already a Nightmare at heart! Your selfishness was all there ever was in yous!"

"That's not true!"

Shining had to put up a shield to block a powerful beam to protect his sister, none came. Pinkie Pie more than any of them was looking at this confused.

"So what's next! You reward all your changelings for their loyalty by stabbing them in the back?!" Rainbow Dash accused.

"Shame on you! Shame! To dare think a grand performer would ever stoop to such a cliche!... I haven't thought about it. Sweetie Belle wanted after I made her the princess of changelings that she'd make their base forms more beautiful...maybe I'll honor her request. Yes, she'll love it! After all, I am a goddess, I have the power!"

"Enough!" Cadence said, "You think because you have power that makes you a true goddess?!"

"What else would you describe it as?"

Something inside Cadence burned. "That's a five year old's definition of a god! An old stallion with magic powers? An invisible pony in the sky? That's how foals think of gods! A god doesn't make laws. doesn't oversee, isn't a king, isn't a machine! A god is a pillar that the house of creation stands on! They ARE a law of reality! As inseparable from them as you are from your own consciousness! Their mind is their concept, their concept is their mind! And you're born with a responsibility! Your definition is from somepony who never tried to understand!"

"...Some part of you finally awoke, didn't it?" Cadenza whispered in awe, approval?

Cadence blinked in alarm, looked back over her memory of the last minute, and trotted back, it wasn't this mirror image of herself she was scared of right now. She looked at Twilight and Shining Armor, both looked at her in concern and worry. "I...I don't know where THAT came from!"

Cadenza sighed. "And that is why I'm better than you."

-An instant later-

Queen Cadenza panted, as the combined distortion shot and laser from the Sparkle Siblings hit her barrier and sending her skidding back several yards.

"Now who's the violent ones?"

"You are not better than Cadence, you bucking sociopath!"

"A potty mouth? From you Twilight? I know Cadence raised you better than that young pony."

"Twiley, she's right, my little sister shouldn't cuss," Shining stated. "You are not better than Cadence, you bucking sociopath!"

"I accept what I am! I don't hide from what I am! I know what I am! She talks about responsibility but she's scared of becoming an adult! Hypocrite! You know why I made you a puppet instead of my devoted minion? Because your voice is so annoying!"

"Why thank you. I try my best."

"Ugh, what do you see in him?!"

"He can be a smartflank, but he's my smartflank," Cadence retorted. "And I'm glad I have him back," she said, smiling to Shining.

Cadenza shrugged. "You can have him. Have Canterlot. Have Equestria. I'll be going now, I hear the Southern Islands are nice this time of year. Maybe I'll take up acting again. Enjoy fighting the ugly-bugs, be all bad-flank and everything on 'em. I'll send Sweetie Belle a postcard. I'm sure the swarm will accept her as princess." Queen Cadenza found herself in a force field bubble.

"You're not going anywhere," Shining Armor said. "You've still got an extremely long list of atrocities to face up to."

"I wasn't asking permission," Shining Armor's shield shattered as Cadenza touched her horn to it, the unicorn gasped at the pain of the feedback from his horn. "If Cadence can power up your shield magic, what made you think I can't undo it?!"

"But you said Luna couldn't break the one around Canterlot that quick!" Pinkie called. "I call cheating!"

"Yes, but I also said already I'd be forcing Shining to use every ounce of his mana to maintain it to the point he would fall over dead and he's still weak from my feeding, and Cadence just did a good job of showing me a way around it. Thank you, 'sister.' And in case you didn't notice, I AM NOT LUNA!"

Rainbow Dash shouted. "PINKIE PIE! While she's monologuing! FIRE YOUR ANTI-MARY-SUE BAZOOKA!"

"Sorry Dashie, she doesn't count as a Mary-Sue."

Rainbow Dash's jaw fell from her face. "WHAT?! Why?! Because we're not blabbing about how great she is? That's stupid!"

"Uh, no, Mary Sues aren't just everypony praising them forever or not."

"Then why?!"

"Because something about this seems off...I don't feel like this went the way she wanted after all…"

The Queen turned only to find Applejack now stood in her path.

"Ya were right before Cadzena, every system does have a little fiction at its base...but an experience of mine made meh realize not all lies are bad. Sayin' all of somethin' is bad? That's the lie that'll lead tah well, bein' like you. There are lotsa lies that need tossin' out and quick. But that doesn't mean every lie needs to be destroyed right here right now. So long as the truth comes out some day when it'll help instead of just hurt. Because a cruel truth can be as bad as a cruel lie."

"HA! You think I can't smell your emotions from here Applejack? You HATE saying those words! You despise them from the bottom of your soul! You HATE living in a world where you have to play nice and not wipe away every falsehood! You WANT a world where ponies have to GET USED TO not being able to lie, instead of the other way around."

"...Ah'd be lyin' if Ah said there wasn't a part of me that felt that in a big way." Applejack heard her friends gasp. "But Ah chose to be better than just what Ah want!"

"You think your eyes of truth are going to crush me now? I am a part of truth now!"

"Ah don't need to! Ya don't need to look into Truth, when Truth can look into you! Ah may not know the first thing about Alicorn magic, but Ah've seen the Elements work enough ta know what Ah see! Ya say the Elements fixed ya so ya weren't half-baked? Tell me darlin', what so harmonious about a Alicorn who can't feel a thing for the ponies who love'er more than they love breathin'?!"

-Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin: Meeting of Destiny-

Everypony gasped. So did the new Alicorn.

Her hoof moved to her chest, a tightness was there that wasn't before her transformation. One that she had attributed to her new body...but now had begun to take hold. "...What..."

"How does yer victory feel now when ya really think about it and can't lie to yerself?" AJ didn't let her eyes leaves Cadenza's.

Cadenza staggered back, looking around. Her eyes fell on Cadence...and the bad feeling got worse when she saw the look in her eyes. The same with Shining Armor. With everypony in the room. Hate was something she could have dealt with, she was used to being hated. This was...something else.

"Ya can't enjoy it, can ya? Yah got a little voice in the back of yer head nagging yah again and she ain't gonna ever let up. Yer words have been shallow ever since you became like this, but in the opposite way it used to be. It ain't your compassion that's shallow now, it's yer lack of it. The words yah've been sayin'? Your mind believes 'em but your heart doesn't."

"What...what did you do to me?!"

"Ah didn't do anythin', turnin' inta an Alicorn was yer idea."

She staggered to a window and looked out on the chaos below...at the subjects she said she didn't care for...and couldn't help feeling the tightness worsen the more she tried to convince herself how ugly they were. How much pain she'd put them through. And she couldn't help feeling...bad. When she thought of how all this wasn't for them, but for herself.

"Why do I feel bad?! This can't be right, am I mad? I won the day, so I should be happy I say!"

The Queen held her head like it was splitting in two.

"It's called a conscience, Cadenza. Looks like it comes free with every Alicornification."

"That's impossible! I killed my conscience! It was useless nonsense!"

"Looks like it's risen from the dead. Ah just unplugged the hole! Bad luck tryin' ta seal it back up!"

My Pinkie Sense is going wonky! This just keep getting crazier and crazier, hopefully this means we can avoid a stupid big fight after all. I wanna go back to silly misunderstandings that could get lots of ponies hurt but end up only get us covered in frosting and we all laugh about later! I'm sick of all this stupid fighting!

Oh! Erm, uh, I'll admit, for a little bit, I couldn't stop myself from thinking how, she reminded me of a scared and cornered animal. I wondered, what this what Fluttercruel felt when she realized she had a heart?

And I suppose in some ways…she's like me. Where I was so obsessed with the kind side of nature I couldn't bear the cruel side of it...she was so obsessed with the cruel side, she'd made herself overlook the kind side.

I felt like shouting 'Way to go AJ!' to my favorite rival for getting another hit in where we couldn't. I'll confess, I couldn't stop the feeling of satisfaction I felt when I saw miss high and mighty 'everypony is a jerk deep down' suddenly be on the receiving end of her 'hittin' em where it hurts' warfare.

Sweetie Belle, is this the Chryssy you hoped existed? Or is this the Chryssy she only showed to you, that she didn't let out for anypony else? Except for whoever Maua is, or maybe was. Maybe she was Chrysalis' little sister? Is that what Chrysalis saw in you Sweetie? A blind mare could tell from how she keeps mentioning her, she was somepony beloved by this sick mare.

I never thought I'd say it, but I wish you were here. I think out of all of us, you're the one who could take advantage of this.

After seein' what she just did to Shinin's shield, Ah'd rather not have my friends mix it up with another Alicorn. This one not crazy or fightin' to lose. But what Ah saw in 'er, and told 'er Ah saw, it was the honest truth alright, it had been buildin' up since Ah laid eyes on the new 'er, and now that Ah'd pointed it out ta her, she couldn't ignore it.

I wanted to see her stopped...If she wanted to turn around, at least for me, I'd give her a second chance, but it'd take a long time for me to forgive her...

She'd broken my mother's legs, violated my mind, and put my friends through a living Tartarus. She'd attacked my home town...

And that was what made Chrysalis was more terrifying in that moment than she'd ever been or would be...because, for one moment, I'd swear to Celestia...it was like I was looking at my foalsitter, realizing she had become a monster.

I fought an imagination monster, and I didn't know what to think about this witch, I still don't. All I knew was this horror, this nightmare, this witch, she just claimed that she was part of Cadence, my Cadence, and if how Pinkie Pie summed it up was right, then I knew my Cadence would never do anything like this. My duty was to protect those I loved, and she had done nothing but hurt them with a smile on her face. I'm sorry, I think even now, all I could think of was her victims. Then came the bad joke that put all of Gag's to shame. I knew this monster's first victim who she destroyed the heart of, was right in front me.

But I honestly had more ponies to feel pity and worry about. Ponies she hurt. Like Cadence and my mom...please...I know you guys can't directly interfere, but can you at least...

(Friend's notes (Noon): She's gotten medical attention, Shinings, the Changelings never touched her.)

Thank Celestia...

(Noon's Notes: Wow...That...wasn't what I expected.)

(Dusk's Notes: That's the biggest irony of them all. Those that seek Godhood without knowing what it truly means. Those like Chrysalis...they only see the vague outline, not the complete whole. They see power, and that's it...And Chrysalis is now seeing the price of divinity. Discord is the only God with no compassion for life at all, and even he had an innate capacity for it he buried over the eons...Even the End of All Things includes an End of All Suffering...How did you all get way down there? Oh...I don't think I've ever seen so many soap boxes.)

She's had my face before, but now it's more than that. Just looking at her, being near her, hearing everything she said, I felt something rising up inside me, something forgotten, something hidden, something that was me, and yet I feared it wasn't the me who had made friends with Twilight and had fallen in love with Shining. There were a million and one mysteries I was at the center of. WHY COULDN'T THEY ALL JUST GO AWAY?! I just want to live my life! I want to marry Shining Armor! I want to see our children fly in the skies over Canterlot! I want to be the 'Alicorn of the people' that Auntie has wanted me to be too! Please...no more monsters and villains. Can you tell me at least if this will be the last one?

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): I'm sorry Cadence, you are a light in the darkness, and things that hide in the dark, hate the light more than anything. Because, you give ponies hope, and that's sometime tyrants who feed on somber fears can never be allow to exist. Because you're the proof they can be beaten!)

These emotions...they're familiar...like pain but I'm not hurt! Maua! Why have I been thinking more and more about you?! Why? Please! Tell me! I can't stand this anymore!

...Why...Why aren't you answering?!

No...I refuse. I will not allow this. I won't let her. No I say! No! No! No!

"I will not submit myself to Pandora or fate's will! I'll overcome all reversals she throws at me!"

"Who says this is a reversal?" Applejack asks. "Ya got what ya wanted. Ya said ya didn't plan anythin' past this. So how can fate be throwin' a reversal at ya when yah got what ya truly wanted? Maybe ya got a bonus instead."

"Chrysalis...Cadenza...whatever you're calling yourself," Fluttershy spoke. "Please...you've got a heart now...you got what you wanted...please...if you care about the Changelings at all, end this fight now so nobody more gets hurt…I'm Kindness, I can tell your heart WANTS to be kind for them...They don't have a love supply anymore, the longer they fight, the more love they burn...the fighting isn't going to stop any time soon...please, if they matter to you...tell them to stop...I promise…as Princess Gaia, I'll tell all my followers to be kind to them, I SWEAR IT...just please stop this before its too late."

All of them, speaking to me, not even looking ready to fight now, all their faces, so unsure, so desperate for...for...for what? Me to pay for what I've done? No, that would make sense...what do they want? Could they...could they really want...

I look out the balcony at the fighting...at my changelings. At Hercules fighting with every ounce of strength he has with his hidden ace. Burning their life up. And for what? For me?...All for me...It all slips right into place! That's it! That actually makes sense!

-Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin: Thirst For Blood-

"FATE WON'T TURN ME INTO SOMETHING I'M NOT! YOU THINK I'M STUPID? YOU THINK I DON'T SENSE LUNA MINUTES FROM ARRIVAL? THE ONLY REASON YOU'VE BEEN SO CHATTY, AND NOT TRIED TO FIGHT WITH TYPICAL PONY ARROGANCE, IS BECAUSE YOU WANT TO KEEP ME TALKING LONG ENOUGH FOR HER TO ARRIVE AND CRUSH ME AND THE CHANGELINGS FOR YOU! YOU THINK I HAVE NO MEANS OF DEFENDING MYSELF OR THEM NOW? YOU THINK ME THE WEAKLING LUNA AFTER HER PURGING!? I WON'T FALL FOR YOUR PERFORMANCE! MAUA! TOGETHER WE'LL HARVEST YOU, AND THE RUIN FROM THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE HUNGER AND THE MOON TAROTS WILL LEAVE PONIES BEGGING MY CHANGELINGS TO RESTORE ORDER! THEIR DREAMS WILL BE REALIZED!"

Isn't that right Maua?! Maua?! Where are you?! Say something!

"...Then for their sake, I hope it's not too late to stop you," The yellow witch whispered.

No I don't look in the orange witch's eyes! No more of her half truths! That's what they are! Honesty can't lie so she tells twisted truths!

I didn't do anything wrong! That's right, I'm still giving the Changelings their kingdom, what does it matter if I got a little something out of it, right?! Isn't that right, Maua?! Answer me! Please!

"I'm sorry Sweetie Belle."

So am I. All for the swarm!

"BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE HUNGER TAROT!"

++++

The ponies prepared for the unwanted fight to keep the witch down until Luna arrived to even the odds. Green lightning crackled from Cadenza in every direction at once, along the floor, through the air, strangling and invading the six friends. They fell in a heap writhing, screaming in pain as they felt their emotions being torn out of them.

"You first," the witch hissed, her eyes narrowed on Twilight Sparkle, the purple pony's screams rising louder than the others as the witch's magic dug deeper into her soul. "This is the Hunger Tarot. This is where you all lose."

Cadence gasped, watching the torment in horror. "No...stop it!" she begged, but didn't know what to do as panic clutched her her heart. Her mind just drew blanks as the fear became unbearable. This thing couldn't be her!

"...They were right when they said I hadn't thought what's next…this seems like a good start you backstabbers! Hahaha! How's that sound Maua?! What do you think?!...Answer me please!"

Tears began running down her face. Chrysalis...was she really this strong? Had...had that nightmarish vision come true?

Chrysalis smirked as pulled their emotions into her, all of them, not just love.

"Don't worry, you'll wake up, feeling love and devotion to Queen Sweet B-"

And then was sent flying through Celestia's throne by a Distortion Shot right in the head.

Cadence gasped as the spell was broken and the six friends' emotions settled back into their hearts. She turned and looked to see Shining Armor glaring in Chrysalis' direction with a dead serious look.

"Get. Away. From. My. Sister."

A gravity buster bombarded the stunned queen full force followed by a massive shield sphere plummeting down on her, smashing the new Alicorn into a crater that used to be Celestia's throne.

"Twiley!"

In that instant, Shining's stone cold determination was over and the caring brother rushed to his sister's side.

Cadence was stunned. After all the witch had done to him. After seeing Celestia beaten and the purpose of the Elements twisted. The heroes left writhing on the floor. Shining...had stepped forward to protect his little sister when his Goddess had not...and she suddenly felt very foolish.

'...Shining...how could I be such a coward? How could I let a silly vision stand between me and protecting my friends?'

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Fear can be a mind destroyer or the greatest teacher and motivator somepony could ask for...the key is to rule it and don't let it rule you.)

Cadence saw Shining's face. The fear in it. 'That's how...you are scared...but you used it as a drive...as if I needed another reminder of why I love you.'

"I admit..."

The group gasped, looking over to the crater where the Princess of the Day's throne used to sit. The Queen rose out of the crater, the damage she'd sustained rapidly mending.

"That hurt quite a bit!" With a twist of her telekinesis, she popped her neck back into place. Cadence couldn't tell if it'd been broken by the direct hit to the head from the Distortion Shot or not.

Fear gripped Cadence's heart once again as she looked into the eyes of her 'twin sister'. Something had well and truly snapped in those eyes. '...No! I'm not letting that awful future come to pass! But...how can I stop it? What can I do...if I kill her...if I can...the Changelings will seek revenge...but if I don't stop her...'

Her nightmarish vision returned full force...Then she watched Shining prepare to defend them all…uncertainly vanish and fear was put in its place.

'No...I'll fight...but what can I do to stop a war?...Wait...Moth said...THAT'S IT!'

"Shining…watch Twilight and her friends...when they recover, get them down to the battle below, they'll be needed there," she whispered as Chrysalis continued to regenerate and prepare her counterattack if Shining did.

"What?"

"Trust me, remember the village? Both times? The Wolf. Please trust me, this might be the true way I can help."

Shining was hesitant, but nodded. "You've trusted me, I trust you, don't be crazy."

Cadence smirked. "Crazy's always worked for you, didn't it?"

Cadence flew full force at Cadenza, dodging counter beams as quickly as she could and tackled the Queen out onto the balcony overlooking the battle and through the stone railing. The two Alicorns parted and stared each other down as they fell. Both managed to right themselves as they fell using their wings and landing all fours. This got the attention of everypony.

++++

I shall admit, getting my big chair rebuilt in record time was an amusing story unto itself, I should thank Shining Armor for the distraction, when you're old as I am, you need the little things to keep you going.

++++

"I'm gonna Rainboom that witch so fast that she won't have time to think!" Rainbow Dash swore as she got up. Shining Armor was besides himself at the speed the Elements recovered.

"Easy there partner, no solo gigs," Applejack said, no longer needing to grab Rainbow's tail to get her to listen to reason.

"All the same dear, we can't simply let her face that witch alone," Rarity said.

"I'd say the more the merrier, but this is no party," Pinkie Pie said pulling out a weapons' rack.

"We can't let her cause anymore damage," Fluttershy sighed, sounding heart broken as she looked over the items on the rack.

"No one agrees with you more than me girls," Twilight said, "BBBFF how could you let Cadence go alone?!"

"She asked me to trust her, and to look after you."

"Since when do you listen to her orders when they go against what you think is best?" Pinkie Pie said pulling out a script she flip through. "You've never let her pulling rank work before!"

"I couldn't leave you all alone! And besides, Cadence is actually pretty bad flank when she's serious!"

"Granted." Twilight Sparkle said, "But girls, I think we need to ask a very important question: why didn't Chrysalis try to feed on BBBFF and Cadence?"

+++

"Queen Chrysalis!" Cadence shouted using the Royal Canterlot voice.

'She must be more worried about her friends attacking her than my changelings attacking me.' Queen Cadenza thought. 'Right Maua?...Maua, where are you?!'

"I challenge you for the throne of Queen of All Changelings!"

This caused everypony to stop fighting, and stare at the green eyed Alicorn, her jaws hanging open.

The green eyed Alicorn blinked like a camera shutter at her reflection, then burst out laughing.

"So it's come to THAT NOW?! This is rich! You think the changelings would have any stability if that's all there was to it?! Moron! It's not just one-on-one combat, stupid! Even if you could! At least half The Swarm has to approve of you killing me! And you have to be clearly related somehow to the current Queen!" Queen Cadenza laughed harder.

Cadence didn't flinch. "Well, Chrysalis-"

"I'm not Chrysalis anymore! I'm CADENZA NOW!"

Cadence smirked. "Well then, CADENZA, as in Mi Amore Cadenza, my FULL NAME. Look at yourself and look at me. Everypony and everyling look!"

Cadenza's eyes widened for a moment as all eyes fell on them. She had flashbacks to the original battle between herself and Cocoon so long ago. 'Did...did I fall for the same trap?'

The ponies were disturbed by the wrongness they saw before them. The Changelings were stunned to realize the being before them was in fact their Queen. The sight of their Queen's green eyes and royal jewelry jolted the thought of it being a simple transformation from their mind.

"It's like you said, we're twin sisters Cadenza!" Cadence yelled, causing shock to ripple through the group on both sides. "I may not be your blood, but you and I are two halves of the same whole! I'm the light, you're the shadow! We can't BE more related than that!"

Cadenza opened her mouth to speak. She thought about shape-shifting back to that...ugly...disgusting body. But she'd die before that. "Fine! I admit it! We're two halves of a whole, you and me are related, but what does THAT matter? You still need to get half the Changelings on your side!"

Cadence cleared her throat, preparing to be the diplomat. "Alright, then, let me ask this, are you going to stop this war?"

"No!"

Cadence narrowed her eyes. "Even though your people have lost their batteries and my aunt is on the verge of arriving in Canterlot AS WE SPEAK? Meaning every minute they fight is another minute of their candle they burn away?"

"They'll die for the Swarm!"

Cadence looked to the changelings. "Yes, you'll die for the swarm, I respect that, but what if you didn't have to?" she asked. "Moth, please reveal yourself, now. NO ONE attack her."

The second Bon Bon that'd been aiding her sister in cooking galloped forwards and shed her disguise to reveal her true form, earning gasps on each side. "This is Moth, she's a Changeling who's been living IN PEACE with Equestria for several years, SHARING love with ponies and is well fed, content, and very sane."

"Haha! Do you think that one criminal Changeling changes-"

"She's not the only one!" yelled another voice.

Three guards that had been fighting on the pony's side stepped forwards and shed disguises in a burst of orange flames revealing Changelings in royal guard armor. "We're just like her."

Weaver forced her bandaged body fully to her hooves as she prepared to state what she and her siblings had spent years preparing. "We've spent every moment since we were fifteen living peacefully among ponies. We haven't stolen love in years. Check the records. You won't find one 'mystery sickness,' pony suddenly becoming an emotionless husk, or missing pony report where we've been stationed. We're living proof Changelings don't need to steal love!"

The three bowed to Cadence as Moth almost fainted from shock.

Cadence looked up at the window she and Cadenza had just plummeted out of. "PRINCESS GAIA!" called the Alicorn of Harmony in the Royal Canterlot Voice, using Fluttershy's more official sounding name.

The shy Pegasus poked her head out of a window. "Um...yes..."

"What?"

"SHE HEARD YOU!" called Rainbow Dash as several ponies in the crowd bowed to Fluttershy, making her blush.

A pegasus guard in the crowd, however, looked upon the little cream colored dot like she was an angel and did the blushing himself.

Twilight promptly cast the Royal Canterlot Voice spell on the pegasus.

"Would you say there's a sizable population of Changelings presently in Equestria living in peace and harmony like these four? Who don't seek to harm or have harmed any Equestrians which is the very reason you did not see them as a threat when you touched their hearts?"

"UM...AH! MY VOICE IS SO BIG!...UM...YES, THERE ARE A GOOD NUMBER OF THEM! EEP!"

"And how many of them had any form of psychosis that caused them to be good to ponies? Any mental damage that, as per your spell, would have been sucked into you as Nightmare Whisper?"

"NONE!"

"Applejack, Element of Honesty whose eyes can pierce all lies. And who as the Changelings saw, is such a poor liar even their brainwashing could not make her do such. Was there any deceit in Gaia's words?"

"No! She was tellin' the truth! Ah swear tah Celestia she is!"

That sent ripples through the Changeling Swarm.

"Thank you."

"Ponies would never accept that!" Cadenza argued, becoming more unhinged as the moments passed. "They'd despise those Changelings if they knew they were there!"

"I knew you'd argue that lie, sister," Cadence stated, turning to the group. "Who here has been aware that Moth was a Changeling?"

A sizable number of hooves were raised.

"Of those, who thought less of her for that fact?"

All but one of the hooves went down. Lyra looked around, and slowly lowered hers.

"And we knew the triplets were Changelings!" shouted a voice Cadence knew. "They're good guards! We're proud to have served with them!"

"Thank you, Thunderchild," said Cadence. She then blinked. "Thunderchild?!"

The Pegasus gave a salute.

"Wait, what?!" asked Shining Armor, poking his head out the window, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Thunderchild? Guys! You're okay!"

"Captain?" asked Garnet, shouting as loud as she could, "You're free!" Misfit erupted in cheers at the reappearance of their squad leader and friend despite their bandaged state.

"We were afraid we'd end up fighting you sir!" called Gag, wing still taped up.

"Believe me, I was scared of that too!...Okay, I was scared you were dead, but also if you weren't that would happen...Good to see you!"

"Thankfully we just ended up helping fight a bunch of big bugs!" Gag said. One of the triplets elbowed him. "Ow! Oops...forgot that's racist. Sorry."

Shining blinked. "Wait...Digger Wasp and Kabuto...That was you guys!"

Cadence cleared her throat as Misfit gave a proud smirk. "I'm glad you're safe too, but now's not the time for a group hug," Cadence said sadly. But gave a smile to her friends before turning back to the crowd. "And who here has a friend or loved one who is another species than they are? Who's species was once a threat to Equestria? That includes Deer."

Nearly everypony raised their hooves.

"Who here thinks any less of them for that species? Answer your Princess truthfully!"

While one or two hooves remained up, most went down.

"As you can see, species matters very little in Equestria."

More mutters.

"Now...here is my argument and my bid for Changeling Queen. Applejack, I order you to look me in the eyes the entire time."

"Uh...kinda a long way away ye-AH!"

Applejack was suddenly teleported with Twilight, but needed to be materialized a few feet off the ground for her own safety, the brief fall being less dangerous than materializing within the two armies or within sucking range of Cadenza. A family member was there to catch her.

"Howdy cousin!"

"Ellis! Good tah see yer okay!"

"Same here!"

"Applejack, sorry to interrupt your reunion, but can you please look in my eyes?"

"Oh! Right!" Applejack did so.

"Am I now incapable of lying?"

"Yes yer majesty!"

"If I defeat Chrysalis, I'll do all within my power to see any Changeling under my rule is treated with mercy. I will not promise we won't have to face the consequences for our actions, but I will promise I will do everything within my power to ensure we are well fed and live in harmony with Equestria. No more needing to hide your faces. No more hiding from the sun. No more war. No more violence. Only peace and harmony. The moment I become Queen, I will end this conflict and begin working towards a state of peace, love, and harmony between us and Equestria and the world. Furthermore, think, little Changelings. Stolen love? It's finite, we are aware of this. Shared love? Moth has been sustained by the same family's love for years without any decrease in the amount she's getting. In fact, she gets MORE than she'd get if she stole it."

The triplets nodded, confirming the same was true of them too.

Cadence did not break eye contact with Applejack. "That is what we may ALL have. War replaced by peace. Stealing replaced by GIVING. Famine and hunger replaced by fullness and contentedness. We will not be treated as lesser than ponies, we will be treated as equals who can freely share in, as your very queen put it, the abundance of love that is present throughout Equestria."

"So, Changelings. What do you think? Why take what can be GIVEN? Why conquer what can be shared? Why hurt when you can live in peace? Why be monsters when you can be equals? Yes, there will be consequences for our actions here, but there will also be MERCY, and I will fight my own Aunts if it means protecting you! I ask you, why go through all this trouble to get something ponies FREELY OFFER US?!

"And one last thing. Changelings does your law say that the previous Changeling Queen must DIE for the crown to be passed?"

"…It's…It's never been brought up. No queen has ever chosen to spare her defeated rival…" Said Locust.

"...Then my last promise in this bid is that I will do my best not to kill Queen Chrysalis but defeat her. And if, at some point down the line I feel she can maintain a peaceful relationship with Equestria, I will return her crown to her-"

"Now that last part is impossible," Locust said.

"In fact, if she will surrender this very moment and agree to a peace treaty, this fight doesn't even need to happen."

"NEVER! I won't be a slave! I worked too hard for this day to give it up!" Cadenza roared in rage, forcing Cadence to dodge a furious charge. "You think I'm stupid? I won't be a prisoner! I won't be a slave! I will be free! You bully! I've spent my entire life fighting according to survival of the fittest, the rules of nature, you are a pampered flower! I won't be a slave! No matter how many thorns the rose has its bloom is still eaten! Goodbye Princess Cadence."

The green eyed Alicorn bored a spell beam right at the other pink Alicorn, who countered with a beam of her own, neither overcoming the other. The queen kicked a rock at Cadence's face, breaking Cadence's concentrations, and causing the beam to dissolve, but in the last moment the Alicorn produced a base shield spell that delayed the beam for the moment the Alicorn needed to avoid the attack.

"I have more experience fighting, I am willing to do what it takes to win, I am not held back by scruples, you couldn't have chosen a worse option little Princess! Right Maua?! Answer me!"

+++

Rarity tapped Shining Armor on the shoulder, "Dear I think it's best if you drop that shield."

She pointed with her horn and Shining Armor looked...to see the familiar outline of Princess Luna and the night guard, all of them carrying bundles, all flying towards the city.

"I hope that isn't Chrysalis' second army in disguise. Assuming she wasn't bluffing!" Fluttercruel said.

Twilight and Applejack on the ground were completely focused on the fight. And didn't see the Alicorn and her army outside, as was pretty much everypony else.

"Desperate times for desperate measures dears!" Rarity magically picked up a jewels and threw it at the farmer, which hit just hard enough for,

"OW!"

"Fluttershy! Tell her!" Rarity said.

"APPLEJACK! PRINCESS LUNA IS HERE! IS IT HER?"

AJ turned alarmed and looked...again along with everypony else. "It's her alright! All of them are who they look like!"

Twilight Sparkle brightened. "It's okay Cadence! You delayed her long enough! Now we can-"

"NO! I can beat her! I have to! It's the only way to keep this from turning into a bloodbath! I promised Moth I'd look out for her people! And this is how I'm going to!"

Cadenza picked up fragments of rubble she threw at the other Alicorn like bullets. But Cadence proved to be faster than she looked and dodged the attacks.

"But-but Candy-"

"That was a dumb move! After I break and assimilate you, I'll be on equal footing with Luna! You just threw away your survival and that of your kingdom!"

A pair of edged green crystals appeared around Cadence that came together trying to behead her like a guillotine.

"Not if I can help-"

"TWILIGHT! I swear! If you attack her, I'll attack you too!"

"...Cadence..." The unicorn whimpered.

"Believe in me! So the Changelings can too! How am I supposed to earn their trust if I take the easy way out?!"

This caused a number of Changelings to gasp in surprise.

"..." Twilight summoned a pair of scrolls, and wrote down a message on each, and they vanished into green flame.

Princess Luna received a twice sent dragon mail a few seconds later.

Another appeared to Shining Armor, with the simple instructions to drop the shield. He did so.

Many of the changelings felt despair. All their preparations having been destroyed, they stood naked before the night.

Many others prayed that Cadence would keep her word.

+++

"What...what did we miss?" Wheezed Silver Tongue, one of his legs limp, one eye closed, and his body covered in cuts and bruises. He was helping Twinkleshine walk forward, her eyes were closed, and her horn looked burned out.

The two dragged themselves into the throne room. Twinkleshine nearly tripped. She gritted her teeth.

Rarity gasped. "Oh my, thank Celestia you made it!"

"Huh? Rarity? That you? There are less explosions than I expected to hear," Twinkleshine replied, turning her head this way and that.

"No sign of Chrysalis. None of you look enslaved but I can tell some of you are missing. Where's The Princess?" Silver asked.

"Cadence isn't here?" Twinkleshine asked worried.

Rainbow Dash said, "Twilight and AJ are just down there helping Cadence make the changelings see Chrysalis bamboozled them, oh and Chrysalis made herself into a double of Cadence for reals now. Princess Luna is here...but Cadence is challenging Chrysalis, to end this coup here and now with a coup of her own."

"Darling my word..." Rarity whispered looking at Twinkleshine's closed eyes and nuzzling her.

"Don't worry about me, we won. I just...just got a little carried away with my magic. I'll be fine, promise."

"Uh, dear...you're talking to a pillar."

"...Oh...don't worry. I should be fine."

"There's some good news, Twinkleshine," said Shining Armor, looking to the Hoof Maiden. "Thunderchild and the others are safe. They're the ones who took out Digger and Kabuto."

Twinkleshine gasped. "They are?! Where?!"

"Right down there."

"Down where!? I can't see! Literally! WAIT! SHINING?! That you?!"

"Yes it's him Twinkleshine," Silver Tongue said. "Hello Captain Shining Armor, retiree Silver Tongue at your service."

"Nice to meet you."

"Is he-"

"He doesn't look under mind control anymore Twinkleshine."

"Oh thank Celestia! Happy to know you're okay Shining." She nuzzled Rainbow Dash.

"Wrong pony!"

"Sorry!"

Rarity politely redirected her to the right pony, he politely accepted the hoof maiden's nuzzle.

"Oh! Minny! Moon Dancer! Lemon Hearts! Are they alright?!"

"They're fine. From the looks of it they, Trixie, and Misfit took out Hercules together…" Shining said, taking a look at the grouping and amount of battle wounds, as well as the restrained and defeated Changeling General (logically being well guarded), unable to keep a bit of pride out of his tone at the mention of his squad and his friends. "Lemon Heart's giant Lemon seems pretty blasted up though."

"Awesome!" Twinkleshine cheered, then said lowly, "Wish I could see them."

"I could describe them in Sparkle family detail if that helps."

"Maybe. The gang is almost back together...I just wish we could be together again already though," the Hoof Maiden said with a small frown.

Shining Armor said, "Don't worry, we can have our group hug once the fighting's done."

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Written by Alex Warlorn
The chrysalis is broken

The true final battle against the wicked changeling queen begins.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-WeddingArc-The-Mighty-Hercules-Pt3-467207448

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Princess-Luna-Returns-469847040

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (SERIOUSLY need to be kept up to date, every little bit helps!).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions. http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/

Pinkie Pie, "If any of the parts are confusing on whose speaking, tell me, and I'll make sure the author fixes it! Pinkie Promise!"

Shining Armor, "KICK HER FLANKS IN CADENCE!"

Pinkie Pie, "HEY! Who let you in here?"

Shining Armor, "The door was open."

Pinkie Pie, "Dangit, I outta start charging those three rent!"

EDIT 20140722: I edited the ponies' reaction to Chrysalis' speech on double standards and protagonist centered morality, and I also edited Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkles' short POVs when Chrysalis is close to snapping.

Episode 201: "Princess Luna Returns"

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Not the Wedding You Remember

"Girls, the forcefield is down, AND THAT'S PRINCESS LUNA!" Spike declared, he had never felt so pumped to see 'Nightmare Moon!'"

"I have my glasses on Spike!" Silver Spoon teased playfully.

"They musta saved Twili' big brother!" Applebloom said.

"This fight's as good as done!" Scootaloo grinned.

"Chryssy you can stop now," Sweetie whispered.

'My Queen,' Locust thought as the Night Queen and her minions arrived overhead, to the cheers of Canterlot ponies, and to the dismay and fear of many changeling ponies.

The Night Queen stood ominous and terrible flanked by therhe royal guards.

'All our careful planning rendered asunder, the mountain crumbling underneath us just as we're about to reach the sun!' Locust thought. 'The future we were trusted to forge for those waiting back at the Hive...is it lost?' He turned his eyes back to the dueling Alicorns. The worst part was that the Ponies and Princess Luna were just standing there, watching the challenge along with the Changelings. The Changelings were expected by their laws to not try and interfere in the duel, but why weren't the ponies taking advantage of it? That and the Harmony Princess' words made this all the more conflicted and confusing.

"Your Nightjesty, are you sure we should allow this?" one of the Night Guards asked his princess.

"Yes. We are currently at a cease fire," said Luna. "We might not understand everything about the modern age, but if there tis one thing that we know, tis that ponies are never the ones to fire the first shot. Are we wrong, Night Owl?"

"No, Princess."

"Then have faith in our niece to finish this without another shot fired."

"Agreed, my Princess."

"Face reality girlie, this incarnation of you is no fighter! Too bad you never realized the best diplomat is overwhelming power!"

Cadence let out a sonic spell that caused the queen to put her hooves over her ears. Cadence knocked her head-over-hooves, barreling over until the queen crashed into the front wall of the castle.

"You'd be surprised how much I've had to fight." Cadence breathed in for another sonic attack, but suddenly felt the queen's telekinesis around her throat slowly closing. She gasped for air, and a swift green bolt struck inside her open mouth. Cadence's eyes bulged in pain.

The queen slowly got up.

Cadence pushed back with her own telekinesis against the queen's. Only coughing and weezing escaping her mouth.

"Oh my, oh my-" Her twin patronized, slowly closing in on the Alicorn with a smirk on her face that'd give Twilight during the Smarty Pants incident a run for her money, "Did I just destroy your pretty vocal cords? Too bad, no more song magic. Now I'm this voice's only owner. An Alicorn of music who can't sing is a terrible thing..." the Queen seemed to hesitate for a moment, the look on her face almost looking like she meant what she said before she shook her head to clear the thought with an animalistic roar. "The equine thing is to euthanize you!"

"Listen up: what can you hear?
Will my voice just disappear?

The queen turned from her prey, attention lost as she turned to the source of the melody.

"To vanish into the void, so empty and so dark?
There is one thing in this world,
I can be certain of at last
That this music we hold within
Will keep on burning still"

Rarity sang.

"That song!" Cadenza hissed, "Is impossible! Only sung in the mind of a dying mare!"

"I was kept silent and trapped inside
But our song never surrendered
As long as it lives on with those I love, this song of ours will never die."

Cadence, Luna, and Cadenza, for a moment, swore they heard a duet rather Rarity by herself.

"So I long we have run
But I feel it, even now,
A tune as natural as the beating of my heart"

"RRAGGGH!" The Hunger fired a deadly beam right at the unicorn's heart. A shield from Shining Armor stopped it.

There was no objection to Rarity's actions from the changeling army: from their point of view, all the white unicorn was doing was cheering for her 'queen.' Some changelings cheered towards their own queen in turn but went unnoticed in her fury.

And Cadenza saw, she saw, what she knew wasn't there. A deep magenta earth pony with a blue mane and microphone cutie mark, singing alongside the unicorn.

"Brightglow is Patch's friend! A friend of hers is a friend of mine! I won't leave her hanging!" Only the three Alicorns heard the words of the mare not there.

I say Carpe Diem
As we are reaching for our goals
We can create new tomorrows where our world is finally whole

"That song," Twilight whispered to herself. She had read it. Bon Bon's journal. The queen was right, that song was impossible.

"This rhythm I have found
Will be here long after my soul."

"How can that part of your soul be speaking through you?!" Chrysalis asked, looking like a rabid animal in her rage.

Rarity didn't know what the queen meant and didn't care.

"Those precious days of youth
Still live on deep in my heart"

Then Cadence sang with her.

"Time goes on, this song will last
I'm not holding onto the past
Because you'll keep it alive, I am not afraid
No more doubt, no more regret
You will never let them forget
This sweet music in our hearts will echo throughout the land."

The Hunger turned around in confusion and alarm, "I crushed your throat and burned your vocal cords! I know you can't regenerate! It's absurd! A delusion! This can't be right, can it Maua?! Can't you hear me?!"

Locust blinked. 'It isn't like the queen to let herself be distracted like this…'

"Rarity! What was that?!" Rainbow Dash whispered.

"I think..." Rarity said not sure herself, "I think it was a song from the soul." A voice echoed in Rarity's mind she didn't understand but felt completely right, 'Good luck Brightglow.'

"Thank you, Melody," Cadence heard herself say, she didn't understand it, but it felt right.

Then she felt pressure on her throat worse than before.

"You think I can't do the same thing AGAIN stupid?! Then time I'll crush your neck bones to dust!"

A mundane non-magical big rock hit Cadenza in the back of the head hard, breaking her own focus.

Cadence hadn't lifted the rock and brought it down with her magic: she had thrown it at high speed. Her twin's magical senses couldn't detect a rock that was just THROWN magically.

"And you think using the same move twice in a row was smart?!"

The light around Cadence suddenly gathered, and condensed into a javelin that hit the Queen dead center.

It faintly reminded Twilight of when her brother had shaped his force fields into funny animals for her birthday.

Blind Twinkleshine from her spot smirked as she felt the light move from Cadence's magic.

The Queen grunted, and the light javelin broke apart into nothing, her wound regenerating. "You think I suddenly can't fight back?! Happy to surprise you!"

Cadenza stabbed with a created green crystal trident, that was block by a blue crystal shield.

"What?!"

"If we're really the same, then if you can do it, then so can I!"

A crystal sword replaced the shield that dove at The Hunger's horn that the trident caught.

"Ability doesn't equal skill!"

"And I'm scared I may not be the Cadence doing this!" Cadence remembered not to mention her twin had just gained half these abilities with her ascension too. "...Why haven't you tried to use that Hunger magic on me like you did with Twilight and her friends? I bet you're scared of using that power on me or Shining, you're worried we'll 'infect' you somehow!"

Cadence closed the gap between them with a flap of her wings, forcing her sword closer to the queen's horn.

Cadenza kicked Cadence in the face breaking her focus.

"I took a vow to sacrifice myself for Her Majesty if need be," Locust whispered, watching the even fight. "Your Majesty! I GIVE YOU ALL MY LOVE!"

He flew right at his Queen, she turned and smiled, "Good little changeling," her horn crackled green, "Come help mommy."

Locust gagged as he was lassoed and throwing back the way he came hitting the street hard.

"Sorry! But yer not makin' yerself a snack for her!" AJ declared, using the rope her cousin had sublimely hoofed her a minute ago.

"You can't stop all of us! Changeling Army! Give our love to Her Majesty!"

The changeling army charged.

"Nice to see in spite of your speech they remember where their loyalties lie," The Queen smirked.

"How is THAT not interfering?!" Cadence heard herself exclaim.

"Queen Cocoon did the exact same thing to her UNWILLING servants when she was trying to kill me. It's a loop hole."

"Didn't ya all hear a thing Cadence said?!" AJ shouted at the changeling guard.

"Until the fight is over, our duty is to Her Majesty! We can't interfere directly but we still support Her Majesty regardless of who she is!" Locust shouted.

"Dang it! And Ah thought Ah was stubborn!" Applejack snarled as Locust struggled.

"It is our way," said somepony behind her.

She looked over her shoulder to see Hercules, still tied up and held by the rebels, a smoking wound still on his chest. "What?"

"We're a swarm...we put the Hive before ourselves," the defeated General said. "...And we still believe in our Hive as strongly as Moth and those three believe in their Hive of Equestria…Her Majesty is still the Hive even to those who want Cadence's victory until/unless Cadence becomes the Hive. That determination is our one strength that doesn't come from love."

"...Ah'd be lyin' if Ah said Ah couldn't respect the spirit of that...Dang it!" she yelled as Locust finally wiggled free and flew at his queen, and Applejack was tackled by several changelings from behind at once.

"And time doesn't stop when you speak," Hercules said evenly with an unreadable expression. "May the strongest prevail."

Bombardier Beetle shouted now racing forward too, "Princess Cadence! I give you my life, love, and-"

"DON'T YOU START TOO!" Cadence snapped.

"But Your Highness-"

"I ORDER YOU NOT TO!"

"…as you command." Those changelings like Bombardier Beetle and his siblings stepped back, not helping nor hindering the rest.

"Equestrian Guard! Subdue the Changeling Army!" Luna commanded.

"Yay! They all get to help too after all!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"Yes, Your Nightesty!" The various pegasi, and carried earth ponies and unicorns, infused with Alicorns magic dove down to intercept the changeling horde.

A changeling guard ducked a kick thrown by a pegasus guard, allowing another Changeling to headbutt the pegasus. The new Changeling flapped into the air as the pegasus would have swept the new changeling's legs, allowing the first Changeling to kick the pegasus in the center knocking the pegasus flat.

'Oh no,' Silver Tongue thought seeing what was going on, "Don't use standard techniques!" He screamed. He remembered how -surprised- the changelings had been by his outdated older Guard fighting style after he and Twinkleshine had remained behind to fight Goliath.

"We have the same training as you! You think you can stop us ALL from reaching Her Majesty like common criminals? ARE YOU THAT ARROGANT?!" Locust asked.

'This isn't good,' Silver Tongue thought. 'The Changelings don't just have personal counters, they have group counters...there's no such thing as a truly standardized fighting style but there is such a thing as standardized techniques for subduing enemies. With their numbers on top of their counter knowledge, they might get to Chrysalis before we can stop them all.'

Average Joe, Royal Guard No. 1984414 replied to Locust, formerly Changeling No. 1983422, "Yeah, we were. But in case we were wrong, Princess Luna brought along some surprise allies."

"Dragons!?"

"Oh no, we want a Canterlot standing when the fight's over. She brought what she decided were the best available allies for this."

The guards revealed what they had been carrying in the various nap sacks and cloth bags.

And from within came the call that signal the end of the changeling army's hope of feeding their queen with their own lives.

"Mew."

"Oh you have got to be bucking kidding me!" exclaimed the bewildered Changeling Queen. "They weren't even here last time! Were they Maua?! Stop ignoring me!"

"This surprises the heck outta me too," said Pinkie Pie nose deep in a comic book.

The changelings found themselves confused and for some reason instinctively freaked out by their new widdle furry opponents.

Running Gag's heart froze in terror. "Ahh! They're back!"

Twinkleshine's heart leapt with joy. "Yay! They're back!"

Shining Armor chuckled, "Our back-up is an army of cats...this is definitely my life."

"Do they have the giant spinning brightly colored floating rings?"

"No Twinkleshine, they don't have the giant spinning brightly colored floating rings."

"Oh well."

"So fuzzy, wuzzy, and cutesy... I HAVE TO PROTECT THEM!" Fluttershy declared as she zoomed with speed she didn't know she had. Cruelty was trying not to mentally gag.

"They are so darling!…To battle!" Rarity gave a war cry.

"Where my friends go, I'll rainbow dash to their side!"

"Captain what about you?" Silver Tongue asked.

"Chrysalis can negate my shield magic now, I'd be wasting mana trying to block them for long...don't worry, I don't plan to just sit here like a cheerleader! You just keep an eye on Twinkleshine!"

Ellis looked to Applejack. "Ready tah show 'em what Apples can do cousin?"

AJ smirked and shook her cousin's hoof. "Darn tootin'! Time to show nopony messes with the Apples!"

Thunderchild stared at Fluttershy with a blush. "Well...this is definitely not how I thought I'd meet her...But okay then." he turned to Trixie. "Ready to give 'em the shock of their lives?"

"The One and Only Trixie is always ready!"

"We've got your back," Garnet said, standing next to Minuette, medical bags on standby. She then looked to Gag. "Now after all that, is my fiance going to break down over a few kittens on our side?" she asked, kissing him.

The stallion perked up. "No way!" he kissed her back.

"Alright! Game plan! Just keep the changelings from feeding themselves to queen meanie!" Pinkie Pie popped up among the guards in the way only she could.

"Mew mewmew mew mewmew mew! Mew mew mew-mewmew!" 'The goddess has come to fight at our side! We are invincible!' Shouted a cat wearing a green army helmet to his fellows who wore roamare, germane spike helmets, cooking pots, and any other chaotic mix-match of gear.

"They're FULL of love!" Locust said. "Just feed on them and feed it to Her Majesty! DO NOT FEAR THEM!"

The changelings resumed their attack, jaws opened wide to feed on these walking free meals the ponies had so politely and conveniently delivered to them like the dumb cattle they were.

The first changeling to get close was shocked by a taser one of the cats was carrying.

"Mew mew mewmewmew mew-mew, mewmew mew mmewmew!" 'Princess Thalia has judged you naughty! Prepare for a time-out!'

The next changeling had a tennis ball jammed into his mouth thanks to one of the cat tribe wielding a tennis racket it then jabbed him with in his oh soft eyes, while the pony guard the cat rode on top of gave the changeling the old one two!

One black unicorn guard using the flat end of two swords to knock back the changelings had a cat strapped to his back defending his blind spot with a surprising large shield and rapier.

"Shoo clowns shoo!" One changeling said before firing a glob of slime at a guard and cat who just blew it back into the changeling's face with a battery powered fan.

"Mew." 'No.'

Rainbow Dash's eyes went wide. "Sweet Celestia, it's like an army of Pinkies!"

"Oh come on! They didn't defend themselves before!" The queen exasperated.

"They didn't KNOW they had to defend themselves before," Pinkie Pie shouted back, though feeling like she was speaking for somepony else, who was herself, but more herself, her eyes spun.

The guard who announced Princess Luna's surprise allies tried again, almost with the same result, but instead of going for the leg sweep, he mule kicked up and caught the changeling in the jaw and knocked the bug pony into the changeling's partner while one of the cats hugged a third's eyes to prevent the guard from being blindsided. "Surprise, one on one in an actual fight, your opponent can learn too."

Twitch. "Surprise attack from the right!" Pinkie Diane punched the changeling in the face. Twitch. "Ambush from above!" Pinkie Diane rolled out of the way and used her new position to kick the changeling back the way she came. Twitch. "Bull rush in front!" She side stepped the changeling freight train and using their own momentum spun them back into their buddies like bowling pins.

"Don't count on your queen canceling out this shield spell!" Twilight Sparkle said as she created a magic barrier between the changeling army and the duel for any that got through the guards, their feline allies, and her friends.

"Get back!" Fluttershy commanded of the changelings who didn't have sunglasses who cowered away.

"All 'Bolts form up on me! Don't let them fly over our lines!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

"Copy rainbow leader!" "Copy rainbow leader!"

"Ready, Thunderchild?" asked Trixie.

Thunderchild nodded, flying up. Trixie formed a multitude of thunderclouds around Thunderchild, channeling the lightning into his wings where he added his own before firing it down, forcing the Changelings further back from a massive wall of lightning, helping the heroes gain ground.

"Outta my way ya stupid savage!" A changeling trooper shouted, charging right at the injured but relentless Golden Tiara. She caught his hoof. She held it so hard he felt pain as she began to crack his carapace.

"Savage?! You want to see savage?! You don't know what savage is!" She broke his foreleg and kicked him away leaving a dent in his stomach.

The other changelings actually stopped for a moment looking at her as she got down on all fours, snorting and scraping the street.

"What would your mothers all think of you? Throwing away your lives just to make your leader stronger for a fight? Is that all their love to you means-?! You ungrateful brats!" She snarled.

"She's just crazy! We're the professionals!" Said a changeling trying to just fly over her, but she jumped with her earth pony strength, dragged him down, and dislocated his forelegs.

"I've crippled more professionals than I can count!" She twisted one of his rear legs, cracking the carapace loose.

"You stupid brat, you think your mother will be happy when she learns you killed yourself just so a bad queen could keep her throne?! DO YOU!?" She twisted his carapaces in ways it was never meant to be. "ANSWER ME!"

The changeling could only cry out in pain.

"Come at me!!" She told the changelings. They bit into her body, she only head butted them, not caring of she felt her forehead bleed. They kicked her, it was like a tickle for her.

-Metal Gear Rising: Stranger I Remain-

"I was traveling to nowhere,
in the unforgiving-cy.
Drifting further and further

I couldn't sleep,
And all the voices wouldn't recede.

Now-I-can-see!
These violent winds are a part of me!

Can I find what-I'm looking for?
Who will free me of regrets?
I am a mad pony who's found an even madder war.

Death Stalker stopped his own duty driven drive towards the gullet of his queen at the, yes, truly savage sight, and dragged one of his injured teammates AWAY from the battle.

Panting, she fell to her rear knees, and covered in cuts and bruises now, and with more broken bones.

She grabbed one of the changelings who were crawling away from her, and held him tight like a teddy bear, and laid down, sighing.

"For all of my life,
A stranger to myself I'll remain.
A savage I'll remain!"

"NO!"

Golden Tiara turned her head, at Rarity.

"You don't need to be! You don't HAVE to be! Tiara is still alive! She is still waiting for you! You don't HAVE TO BE a savage!"

Golden Tiara looked at herself, and what she had been doing, she let the changeling soldier go, who just wanted to get away from her. Golden Tiara was now a wall unto herself, guards and changelings alike now giving her a wide berth.

"Miss Rarity I'm sorry, I shouldn't have taken part in this fight. Whether it's a competition, a hobby or a job, it's my nature to be second to none. I taught Diamond Tiara the same thing." She looked at the changelings she had beaten to a pulp. "I'm sorry," she said to the changelings who had invaded her home.

Rarity patted her on the back. "It'll get better dear. Did you enjoy any of that?"

"Not one bit."

"Why didn't you?"

"...I don't know if I'll ever see my precious Diamond again. And these changelings, they don't care if their mothers see them again. How can they do that to their own mothers?"

"Uh, we care, we just have high obligations," meekly offered one twisted changeling.

"Having a personal discussion dear, you can have your turn later."

"Don't brush me off. I don't want to die, but if it's part of my duty, I won't run away. Wouldn't you die for your queen?"

"...Yes, I would. But are you that scared of the world Cadence offered?"

"Until she's Queen, our duty is to protect our Queen any way we can, if that means sacrificing ourselves, then that's that. And why would we LOWER ourselves and become equal to cattle? I'm not a dumb animal."

The other battered Changelings didn't respond.

"I think you missed the point. Now I was helping a friend of mine with her very real problems."

"Friend?" Golden asked.

"We both want Diamond to be found safe and sound. We're both ladies of dignity who can defend themselves. And I know what it's like to have to accept a beast inside you. If we aren't friends then I'd like us to be. As long as you recognize the beast inside you, that means you can command it, not it command you."

Golden Tiara leaned against her, "Thank you Rarity."

"What are friends for?"

Observing the entire battle from a hotel room window, a dirty brown beige pegasus mare with glasses was transfixed. She didn't know she was one of the few civilians brave enough to actually be this close.

She shook her dark gray mane. She wished she was Daring Do, the fearless hero who always knew what to do.

Instead she was A.K. Yearling, and she did what she was best at, and wrote in her book, writing down everything she saw in the battle, the desperation of both sides and the Alicorns, knowing this was her role, for now.

'Don't worry little pony, you'll get your chance someday soon,' said a pony with a maze cutie mark Yearling couldn't see gently placing a hoof on her shoulder.

A Changeling found a lasso around his midsection and gasped as he was pulled back into a hard right hook by Ellis. "Still good with yer rope, huh cousin?" Ellis asked, leapfrogging over Applejack and punching out a Changeling that tried to attack his cousin from behind.

"Darn right!" Applejack replied, looking over her cousin's shoulder and leaving a Changeling that tried to blindside Ellis curled up on the street crying after she looked into his eyes.

"Applejack, since when can yah do that 'look'em in the eyes, make 'em give up' thing?" the Apple Family guard asked, shooting a Changeling in the neck with a tranquilizer dart, allowing Applejack to kick him out.

"It's a long story," the orange pony replied. "Ah'll tell ya later."

They looked up, seeing a Changeling make a dive for them. "Fast ball special?"

Applejack smirked and jumped up, landing on her cousin's forehooves hooves who threw her straight at said Changeling, surprising him and punching him out.

Thunderchild bucked a Changeling trying to sneak up on Fluttershy...then went wide eyed when she looked to him.

"T-Thank you."

"Um...you're welcome..." he muttered, before having to use a tranquilizer on another Changeling making a dive for him, his combat senses still strong as ever.

Fluttershy blinked. "Tranquilizers?"

"Yeah...we didn't want to kill anypony if we could help it," Thunderchild replied before ducking a punch from behind. Fluttershy caught the Changeling with the Stare, allowing Thunder' to mule kick them.

"I think that's great," Fluttershy said with a smile, making Thunderchild's blush intensify.

"Look out!" Fluttercruel said, leaping over Thunderchild and jabbing a Changeling in the eyes before doubling him over with a punch to the gut.

Thunderchild blinked. "Wow...strong mare...I love it," he muttered, before shocking a Changeling into submission.

Gag snuck up behind a Changeling that was trying to get the drop on Rarity and smacked him in the back of the head, knocking him out.

Rarity turned and KO'd a Changeling behind him with a jewel to the temple. "Hello Mr. Running Gag, how is the Manega coming along?"

"Just Running Gag please Miss Rarity, and still ironing out the details," the Pegasus replied returning the favor by tranqing one behind her with a dart, allowing for an easy knock out.

"I've met Garnet in all this fighting, she's a wonderful mare, you're quite the lucky stallion."

"Tell me about it. She's my mare!"

Running Gag threw what looked like an egg in a Changeling's eyes, which was filled with sand, blinding him when it burst and letting Rarity do a spin kick to knock him out.

"That was an interesting trick."

"Shinobi tactic," Gag explained. "Picked it up from a real one in Neighpon. I'm just a guard that read some manuals though."

"You don't say...I'm good with environment illusions...are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Gag smirked as he got her drift.

Gag looked at some charging Changelings and charged, the Changelings suddenly found themselves plunged into a beautiful skyscape of multi-colored stars. When the environmental illusion lifted, Gag had used his stealth skills to rush through them and inject them with tranqs while they were taken off guard, then knock them out with a guard baton.

"We put their lights out, huh?"

Rarity facehoofed.

"Howdy Garnet, nice to see you again," Pinkie said, smiling as Garnet treated a wound on her leg.

"Yeah, I'm glad to see you in one piece," Garnet admitted.

"I'm just glad we got our big team up!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Oh! Behind you!"

Garnet quickly ducked under a punch from a Changeling, allowing Pinkie to punch him in the face with a spring-loaded boxing glove. "Thanks."

"Welcome."

The two found themselves surrounded by a circle of Changelings. "Oh boy."

Pinkie nodded, getting back to back with Garnet and pulling out a bat from nowhere and knocked back some Changeling slime with it as Garnet shot one in the neck with a tranq. "...Hey, you're a rock farmer too, right?"

Garnet nodded. "Yeah?"

"And the street we're fighting on is made of rock, right?"

Garnet blinked, then smirked. "Right!"

The two quickly scanned the ground for the right location and with a double Earth Pony strength ground pound splintered the ground upwards, launching the Changelings into the air and smacking them into each other.

"Mew mew mew!" 'Protect the Goddess!' one of the cats yelled, shooting the launched Changelings with ribbon cannons, tying them together.

"...The cats seem to really like you," Garnet noticed.

"Yeah, for once I'm the one who's confused!"

"So...you left the Hive too?" Moth asked the more triplets. A part of her was happy the changelings were rushing to offer themselves up to Chrysalis. Otherwise they'd be rushing in a mad dash to send her straight to Queen Rosedust for betraying the Hive. She was no warrior.

Weaver Beetle nodded. "Yeah...it's good to remember we're not alone," she said, giving a smile.

Moth gave a smile back. "Good thing to meet more like me, thank Rosedust."

Two member of the cat Tribe suddenly leapt in, looking closely at Moth and company. The Changeling instinctively resumed her disguise.

"Hey! That's my sister!" Bon Bon stated, putting herself between the cats and her sister.

One pointed to Bon Bon curiously. "Mew?" 'What's your name?'"

"Um...I'm Bon Bon…"

They nodded. "Mew mew! Mew!" 'They are 'the one who looks like Bon Bon and her friends!'"

"Mew!" 'Correct! Carry on!'

Moth and the triplets were very confused to receive a hug, then be presented with a delicious looking cake before the cats left.

The Changelings blinked in confusion. "I have no idea what's going on," Moth muttered.

"...Let's just enjoy the cake…It smells like it's almost as full of love as your candies."

"Hey!"

"I said almost."

"That's enough fighting for you," Minuette said looking the battered and bleeding Screwball over.

"I-I can keep going. This pain is nothing."

"Just because you handle the pain doesn't mean your body can handle anymore abuse. And that I'm saying that to a healthy Earth Pony says a lot about the amount of abuse you've already taken."

"Listen to your doctor dear," Rarity said. "Diamond is still out there somewhere, you need to be in one piece for that."

'BBBFF where are you?' Twilight thought as changelings banged themselves against the shield she had put up between the dueling pink Alicorns and the changelings.

If she tried to totally encase the twins in a bubble for their fight, the crossfire would just result in a destroyed shield and the changelings with one less wall between them and their queen. Not to mention restrain Cadence's flying options, and she was hoping the natural born Alicorn would have more experience with pegasus flight than the new one. So she instead was creating a large curved barrier over most of THEIR battle instead.

She wasn't her brother. She could copy his spell, but she didn't copy his skill with it. She may have been the Element of Magic, but she didn't have her brother's talent with shield magic. She wished he was here.

"DO NOT FEAR HER!" A changeling officer shouted.

"Hello Death Stalker."

"I'm sorry Mistress Twilight but my duty is with my Queen and you're in her way!"

"My duty lies with my Princesses and my friends, so...the feeling's mutual. If this ends peacefully, please no hard feelings."

"Same." He fired a stun spell at her head she blocked with a momentary shield. "I know how strong you are, but I can't afford to fear you!" Death Stalker flew towards Twilight in a wild zig-zag patterns, meant to keep her from grabbing him with telekinesis, and to keep him from being an easy target.

Twilight was forced to dodge several beams and webs from the Changeling. She had to conserve mana and waited. Once he got close, she used a copy of her brother's flaming horn spell to force Death Stalker to recoil from the fire before she blasted him with a stun spell and pinned him down, horn to his neck. "Stay down."

"I told you before Mistress Twilight, as much as I admire your brilliance and positive demeanor, those who oppose Her Majesty's will must be moved aside."

"Death Stalker, you're at my mercy. You're in no position to make threats."

"Who's making threats? I'm stating facts."

"I can't let you and the others sacrifice yourselves to feed Chrysalis. We don't want to see anypony die...I'm not letting you give your life like that."

"And we've all already vowed our life is our Queen's, and so is your love."

"What kind of Queen HAPPILY lets her subjects feed themselves to her?! What Queen's crown is more important to her than her subjects' lives?! I'm not insulting, I honestly don't understand how you can call somepony who values her position over your lives 'Queen.' And I'm sorry, Death Stalker, our love isn't hers YET and it's never going to be...we're willing to share, you don't need to steal it, why can't you see that-Whoa!" Twilight yelp as the soap box was pulled out from under her and was promptly hit over the head with it from the changeling trooper that had come at her from behind.

"Always watch your back Mistress Twilight."

"Ugh!" Twilight's head was spinning from the surprise attack.

"Bye." The two changelings leapt at her from in front of her and from behind her, but so that even if she ducked one would grab her instead of hitting each other. Twilight ROLLED out of the way instead, but found a third changeling in wait diving in at her. But Death Stalker knew how powerful she was, she could blast them all to dust…'Death Stalker...are you looking for the honorable way out?' Or maybe she was seeing things that weren't there she thought as a fourth change leapt who had been waiting for when she avoided the third one not giving her time to think!

Suddenly, the fourth Changeling impact a wall nearby. Her hopes rose as she realized her friends were still busy dealing with the Changelings (Trixie having had to take over the shield until Twilight regained control over it). "Shining?"

=Sword Art Online- "Innocence"=

"Your knight in shining armor is here Twilight Sparkle!" Said a brave confident voice to me. "YEOWZA!" He shouted realizing he had just fallen for the same trap I had. I grinned as I turned and blasted the third changeling just as he came down on my reinforcement who managed to dodge the second one.

"Nice to meet you, Twilight Sparkle!" It wasn't BBBFF. It was a pegasus guard, orange, with a blue mane. Now that was very unusual.

"Strike hard! Strike fast! Strike now!" Death Stalker ordered his changelings as they recovered.

"No way," he was no Rainbow Dash, but he sure was a streak! He sent a changeling back the way she came, then knocked the other two off balance.

"For the Hive!" Death Stalker shouted as he turned into Rainbow Dash, I bought up a shield that knocked her back, then he shifted into Rarity and threw a dozen pieces of rubble at me that my new friend knocked off course. Then he shifted into Applejack and came at me to hit me with brute force.

My new friend kept the Changelings trying to blindside me busy. He seemed to be a bit of a rookie, but it was enough to keep them off me so I could focus on Death Stalker. And I blast 'Applejack' with another stun spell in the gut.

"Ah don't get you, how can ya attack the images of yer friends so readily?"

"I can't believe you don't know that answer: I know it's what inside that counts. I know you're just an impostor..." I felt a ping of pain remembering meeting the false Cadence, and ignored it as best I could.

'Applejack' managed to force herself up and tried to hit me with a punch. "Yer a unicorn! Up close is mah advantage."

He was right, I didn't know much about close range fighting, but I managed to hook his leg and apply the same principles as hoof wrestling to force the weakened imitation Earth-Pony to the ground. Okay, let's see, where can I hit to keep him down? I can't keep him pinned long and I'm still a unicorn and changelings might not be as strong as Earth Ponies, but a Changeling Guard still has a physical edge on me!...Rainbow and the Flutters say in a real fight, you have to fight dirty. So I did.

"...Ah...Ah thought..."

"That only hurting stallion is a myth, just need to hit in a slightly different spot. You should have known that."

"Never believed in fightin'...that way."

"You take the face of my friends and you can say that?"

"Don't ya dare...judge me...by yer beliefs...Twili'."

I did the merciful thing at this point and knocked him out with a stun spell to the head. I might be a unicorn but I can still buck hard.

Death Stalker using Applejack's form rolled 'her' eyes unconscious.

I looked at my ally and saw he was in a pinch, trying to keep three Changelings busy at once. I blasted two of the Changelings with a freezing spell, leaving them in blocks of ice that landed nearby. The guard took the chance and ducked a blow from the last one and put them in a sleeper hold, forcing both to the ground and choking the changeling out, though getting quite a few bruises in the process from their struggling.

"Thanks," he panted, letting the unconscious Changeling go. "We get everybody?"

"Not exactly, there's plenty more where they came from, and they aren't giving up till the end."

I looked around the area. None of the changelings had gotten past my shield, and the ones trying to go around it were coming face to face with Rainbow Dash and the other pegasi.

I helped him up, he held his ribs where the Changeling had elbowed him repeatedly trying to get free from his sleeper hold. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just a bit sore. Nobody came into this expecting not to get hurt."

I blinked. "You're not from around here, are you?"

He looked a little panicked. "Uh...why do you say that?"

"Your accent...Columbia?"

"Uh...yeah...Columbia...that's where I'm from… I just wanted to lend a hand."

"So, what's your name handsome?"

"You think I'm handsome?"

"Just being polite."

"Oh. Well it's-LOOK OUT!"

I wasn't kidding, they weren't giving up. But neither were we.

"Hurry up Garnet! I need to get back in there!"

"Twinkleshine, you're blind!"

"So? You're healing me!"

"Yes. But you've already worked yourself half to death."

"That's what the magic restoring candy we got is for!"

Garnet facehoofed with a sigh, looking to Silver Tongue, the two having been flown down by the pegasi to have their wounds treated so the medics could stay close to the fighting. "She's always this stubborn," the medic muttered. She looked to Twinkleshine. "Who did you even fight to get beat up like this anyway?"

"An army of Changelings and one of their generals. We won."

"Considering how much trouble the other general gave us, I'm impressed two of you was all it took," Garnet applied some medicine to the unicorn's eyes with a little Earth Pony magic. The medic still had her bruises from Hercules. "Alright, can you see me?"

Twinkleshine blinked, her eye sight slowly returning. She gave a smile. "Yes…and I'll admitted, the first thing I see being a friend is wonderful."

Garnet chuckled, sharing a hug. "It's good to see you again too."

Twinkleshine ate some of that weird magic candy. "Need some?"

Garnet nodded trusting her friend, taking some before turning to Silver's wounds. After the long, brutal fight with Hercules, the magic candies had been a major help. "Stay there, Twinkleshine. I need to fix Silver's leg up and you're still hurt."

Twinkleshine sighed. "Fine."

She then looked around the battlefield, the friends she'd made on the world tour and the friends she'd made at school and the friends she'd made saving Canterlot all working together. Except her. It made her want to fight that much harder.

Her eyes fell on Minuette patching up that Earth Pony, what was her name? Golden Tiara? Screwball? Rarity had to leave her side to help Thunderchild and the Flutters fend off some of the Changelings.

Twinkleshine gasped. Time seemed to stop. Seeing the downed Golden Tiara and one of their medics vulnerable and distracted, a group of Changelings dove at the timely unicorn. Twinkle's eyes darted, seeing the rest of the groups all preoccupied with their own battles or too far to make it in time.

Minuette hadn't seen them yet. She wouldn't see them until it was too late.

Twinkleshine briefly saw a sunset colored pegasus standing in the unicorn's place.

Her mind flashed back to the sight of a pair of pegasi struck with lightning and falling to their doom.

"NOT! AGAIN!"

[=Intertwined- Wonderful 101=]

The unicorn's horn ignited brightly.

Garnet gasped, turning quickly. 'A magic surge?'

Twinkleshine charged, her body glowing and turned into light.

Minuette gasped, hearing something behind her. She turned to see a Changeling's horn inches from her.

The Changeling it was attached to had a unicorn shaped mass of light punching him in the stomach full force. The light condensed into Twinkleshine.

"Twinkleshine...how did you-"

"We're not joining Sunset today. None of us are," said the light mage.

The Changeling fell to the ground, coughing and hacking. Before the others could react, a sudden flash of light left them blinded.

One of the changelings tried to get to their Queen via flight folded their wings and dived bomb right at the pink maned unicorn: Minuette saw it, Twinkleshine didn't, Minny didn't have time to shout a warning. She didn't have time to push Twinkle out of the way.

Her horn glowed. 'Time, slow thyself,' was the spell, but it was a single rune in her mind.

Minny becoming a blur, Twinkleshine was now out of the way, and the changeling crashed into the street, which didn't bother him as much as it should have. Instead he paid attention to the full power stun spell to the face from the blue maiden at point blank range. Minny in the same blink of an eye was at her patient's side again. Golden Tiara smiled at the girls.

"This is stupid! We're trained soldiers! How can we fall to a couple of maids?!" Another snapped.

"Somepony I cared about very much died when I couldn't do a thing about it! I promised I'd never be that helpless around my friends again!"

Minuette smiled. "And...somepony I know taught me how important companions are. I'm never letting mine be lost if I can help it."

"Hey." Moon Dancer asked holding a double ended hammer staff made out of solid moonlight as she added herself to the Hoof Maiden's fray. She was wearing a bandage around her head. "You forget? Feeling's mutual for me too."

"Ditto! Forget that 'Gifted Unicorns' stuff, we're friends!" Lemon Hearts declared landing among them riding on her giant Angry Lemon familiar.

"Anypony mind if I join in for magical support?" Lyra asked holding the harp Cadence had given her magically, no longer needed to help with the farce with decoy Cadences but wanting to continue to help.

"You were always welcome Lyra!" Twinkleshine cheered.

"You're mother . . ." Golden Tiara said as she shakily got to her hooves, her body finally catching up to her, adrenaline spend. "Must be very proud of each of you fillies."

"Let's give these changelings a song they'll never forget!" Lyra grinned. The five friends stood ready!

+++

The Night Princess plucked the purple unicorn from the street with her telekinesis and placed her back on the balcony, where keeping TWILIGHT'S barrier intact was much easier and herself in less danger. Twilight's new friend chose to hang in the air and keep the Changelings from interfering as best he could.

We could sense our sister was not extremely nearby. And yes, we asked Twilight for the swift and concise account of what she knew of our loving sister's fate.

"TWILIGHT SPARKLE! HAVE SPIKE SEND SISTER CELESTIA A LETTER! WE SHALL FIND HER FROM THAT!" We promptly Commanded at her conclusion.

"YES PRINCESS!" Twilight said so at once since stealth was no longer an issue at this point and remembering that Shining had dropped his Chrysalis ordered shields.

"Stay with thy friends! We ourselves shall fetch her!"

"Wait! But we need you here! Your army does!"

"We'll be more use finding and helping our sister! She's better at not killing than we are. We'll trust this to thou little pony."

"M-me?"

"Heroes inspire. Inspire them."

"Y-Yes Princess!" Twilight sent the letter to Spike. "One question while we're waiting though."

"Yes?"

"Why the cats? I know they've repelled a lot of invasions back during the Griffin Wars, but..."

"They said their goddess may have shown them the 'comic book of doom' and warned them the 'bug ponies' were 'bad guys', except 'the one who looks like Bon Bon and her friends'."

Twilight blinked. "What?"

"We art serious, the prophecy literally said 'except the one who looks like Bon Bon and her friends. Tell the Night Alicorn not to attack them, the running gag is getting old'... we wondered which of our siblings or potential siblings would make such an oddly specific prophecy."

"Princess, some of the cats are bowing to Pinkie Pie."

"That explains much." She saw the green smoke, "And I have a sister to rescue."

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Written by Alex Warlorn
Princess Luna Returns

Princess Luna is back, and the big battle you wanted is here.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-WeddingArc-The-chrysalis-is-broken-469300507

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Cadence-vs-Cadenza-470304458

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (SERIOUSLY need to be kept up to date, every little bit helps!).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions. http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/

Pinkie Pie, "Wow . . . this is one big battle . . . even I'm confused by all this! Well! GO CADENCE GO! YOU CAN WIN! GO GET'ER! WE'RE ALL CHEERING FOR YOU! YAHOO!"

Shining Armor, "Where my 'Go Cadence' shirt and that . . . what did Twinkleshine say Lyra called it? Oh yeah, 'a foam hand'. Oh and my Cadence baseball cap too!"

Pinkie Pie, "You have those?"

Shining Armor, "Well not really, but I gotta cheer for my fiancee somehow! GO CADENCE!"

20140722: Added some details with Golden at the end of the gifted unicorn's scene, since it didn't make sense for her to go poof like that.

20140723: Added some extra bits with the cat tribe and Bon Bon in Moth's scene with the cat tribe. Do you think it adds or subtracts?

Episode 204: "A Loose End's Last Stand"

Princess Celestia told us we had one last loose end to tie up. When I heard what, I knew my Sonic Rainboom could wait a little while longer.

Chrysalis' chief-minions told Cadence that just in case it was discovered that it was a shape shifting brainwashing tribe of bug ponies threatening Canterlot, Chrysalis had wanted a back-up plan, a patsy who'd get the dirty work done if her minions couldn't. And apparently...it was a dirty rotten traitor who knew about the Changelings and bucking helped them! Well. Yeah. So we had one last little 'clean up' adventure before the wedding.

Twilight asked Princess Celestia why the royal guards weren't just called in to deal with the jerk. But she told us that "it was important" that the Elements of Harmony were the ones to bring him in and the guy had already taken a major beating from the Changelings, Rarity, and his own psychoness. Pst, I'd take 'em apart no matter shape he was in. Shining's squad had apparently met him and agreed with the Princess after a talk with her, but told us to be careful.

Naturally, the guard was on standby if things went south and just a call away, but they'd already scanned the place and there weren't any weapons detected. They were apparently worried about the nut offing himself before we could catch him (took a lot less to kill himself than to kill somepony else). Apparently they saw us as being sent in as hostage negotiators, which were basically the Princesses' orders (though we were supposed to take him down if we had to.)

"You talked a dragon into leaving Equestria," said AJ's cousin. "I think you have a better chance of talking sense into him than anypony available. Besides, you can kick flank, so if things get rough taking him down shouldn't be much problem."

Not sure if that was the Princess' main reason, but the guard apparently saw some logic in it.

Also, some STARS were our back up if things went too far south. So we basically we had the big guns if we needed it.

Twilight had wanted Trixie with us, two Elements of Magic are better than one, we could definitely use that trickster brain of hers, and after all, was she one of us or not? But Trixie had been preparing for her magic show to end all magic shows . . . She'd have been with us anyway, this was Official Elements Business after all (that sounded so cool), but she had missed out on the Elements free 'Generosity Healing' when we zapped the witch. Plus she was still recovering from fighting a centuries old changeling general with superpowers and then taking part in the battle with the entire changeling swarm and the cats and the Guard, and taking over Twilight's job of keeping that shield up to keep the changelings away from the witch while still fighting changelings. So yeah, she had to sit this one out. Too bad. I Pinkie Pie Swore I'd tell her all the details. You girls can give her a copy of this right?

There isn't much to it. The guard had all his exits covered. The guy didn't make that big a secret of where he was. He had holed himself up in his old office looking to go out in a blaze of glory or something.

Thunderchild recommended we keep our barding Rarity made us on, just in case. We listened (hey, it looked awesome). He seemed especially worried about 'Shy...and I swear she blushed and so did he. That was weird.

Speaking of 'Shy, I think she chafed in the barding. Out of us all, she's most the healer, not a hurter.

What made ALL of us chaf was that we had to carry concealed weapons JUST in case. While we had nonlethal stuff...the dagger hidden in my armor made a chill go down my spine. I think of all of us Fluttershy hated it the most. Though Fluttercruel thought it was cool.

Rarity freaked at seeing 'em, saying he was the Guard she had stopped from killing another Royal Guard. "I assumed he was the changeling...it seems I was wrong."

So yeah, the General (I think his name might have actually been 'The General' from how it kept getting thrown around, given pony names, it wouldn't surprise me), when he saw us he spent, well, a lot longer than ten seconds flat talking about how we were 'delusional' or some junk because...well, it kinda began going over my head really. When he began talking about prison budgets...I kinda lost interest. He seemed like a throwback to the Pegasi in the Three Tribes era I studied for Hearth's Warming and that bored me to tears.

"Darling, everypony is entitled to their opinion but-" Rarity tried to play diplomat.

"It's not an 'opinion!' It's cold hard reality!" he growled. "Don't you get it? Today is what happens when you're not cruel right back to the cruel world! More pain! More suffering!"

Okay. I think this guy just broke the Arrogant Meter. And considering we know Trixie and me, that's saying a lot.

I really wanted to wrap this up but Twilight insisted on hearing him out, I kinda just tuned it out. I think he might have called the Changelings a lot of nasty stuff (some of which I admit they didn't exactly prove wrong), but I was thinking more on Scootaloo flying and having earned her cutie mark. Where could we go to celebrate?

Twilight on the otherhoof seemed to be taking him serious.

Don't worry, I was still paying attention if he tried to pull something. I can take in details if I want, it's just his limited edition Wonderbolts poster was way more interesting than his white noise. The guy was loud, but not what I'd call energetic.

"By having the Changelings start a war our Guard would inevitably win, it would wake this country up to how important the Guard is, how important being able to defend ourselves is. And having a dangerous foe that NEEDED wiped out would prove that we need to eliminate our enemies instead of letting them go to hurt us again later, pulling punches only gets your own friends killed, and that we have to embrace strengthening our army until dragons tremble, instead of relying on ridiculous fairytale heroes and miracles."

It's one thing to make a statement (I like making statements), but it was freaking scary to hear a guy talk about starting a war to do just that. No wonder Shining's squad mates acted like the dude was a nutjob, they're right.

Twilight said, keeping her voice level and calm. "I'm not saying it's a bad idea for Equestria to defend itself, it isn't, at all, but I don't think Equestria is under that much of a thre-"

"War is always an inevitability! Why take the risk? Then maybe once we've finally built up enough, we can take precautionary action on some other threats so this can't happen again! And we can build up to fight the dragons if those brute on a whim decide to enslave Equestria!"

"We made friends with the dragons," Twilight explained calmly. "That's not needed."

"Made friends?" the guy scoffed with a crazy grin. "Don't you get it? This world isn't about love! Equestria doesn't need babysitters with magic charms to spank monsters when they're bad! They need surgeons to cut out the cancers that fester in us and make sure they never come back! We need to turn villains into memories! And that can't happen if everypony thinks the Guards are weaklings! They needed this war to prove themselves! And prove to everycreature they need to stop pulling their punches and start cutting out the tumors! They should be thanking me!"

I thought of those Guards Chrysalis forced Twilight's brother to boot out of Canterlot with his forcefield. "Yeah, I bet they're so grateful they're setting up the ticker tape parade right now."

"What did Discord do to ya to make ya so twisted?" AJ asked.

"It's funny you should mention Discord. On the day of chaos he took one look at me, scratched his chin, and said 'No, you're good,' and vanished. I planned to shoot that psycho in the head with the biggest gun I could find when this was over."

Our jaws dropped. I think Twilight seemed more scared by what he said than anypony.

What he wanted to do...all he'd have done is make himself Discord's new vessal...how could I NOT be afraid of that?

"Okay, gotcha, you're not evil, you're just crazy," I said.

"You're the ones who are crazy! You're all delusional madmares who embrace nonsense and madness! Reality should have crushed you into paste long ago!"

"Uh, I hate to break this to you," Pinkie Pie said all sad, "But you're in the wrong story."

"WHAT?"

Pinkie Pie shook her head looking sad. "This isn't a super gritty war story. It's not a story where all the other species are the bad guys or the only way to stop 'em is to end them. It never was. Even the Griffins aren't bad guys like they...er...used to be. This is a fairy tale. This just isn't the right story for you. There are plenty of OTHER stories out there that you'd love, and that you'd do a lot of good in and help lots of ponies. That's the sad thing...there are a lot of stories where you coulda been the hero...I'm sorry you ended up in this one."

"Of all you crutches, I hate you the most you pink lunatic! You should be in a mental asylum or beaten until you get a clue! Take something bucking seriously for once in your life! "

"HEY! Don't you talk about Pinkie Pie like that!" I was past caring about this jerk's reasons, I just wanted this over so we could get back to the wedding we came to Canterot to begin with!

Pinkie didn't look my way. "You're right. I USED to be a lunatic," Pinkie...Pinkie said, frowning. "But I got better. That's the kind of world we live in, one where the crazy ponies can get better, like Golden Tiara did...like Luna did...And I know you can too...But first you need to accept you're sick. Unless you do that, you can't ever get better..."

"Don't you dare compare yourself to me! You're a filly in a mare's body, treating everything as a game. You're everything I hate! Heroes need to be serious! They need to be ruthless! They need to be cruel to bring piece to a crazy world!"

"Ya only see that about her," said Applejack. "Because we're the 'bad guys' in yer story...ya can't stand the idea there could be any good in us period. Look...Ah honestly know how that feels, to see somethin' in the world yah can't stand to see...but the fact is, if ya look closer there's good and bad in everythin'."

"You're a fool to think that! There is real evil in this world, cancers that need cut out! You just don't have the courage to be the doctor! That's why you need ponies like me to prove you wrong!"

"Look," Twilight took a deep breath. "You're not the only one the world's been unfair to? You think you're the only one who doesn't like the way the world turned out? The only pony who thinks they're the only sane one in a ship of fools?...You aren't. I know that feeling, but it's never right..."

"Ponies need to remember that its the Royal GUARDS job to GUARD Equestria! They don't see any of the hard work we do! And neither do you! They just see YOU fighting the overpowered monsters that have kept showing up these last two years! They think we're superfluous! It's our responsibility to protect Equestria, and yet we have to keep relying on stupid civies to get it done! You don't have any idea how that feels!"

"You think that doesn't hurt us too?" Rarity barked back. "You think I'm BLIND?! You think I don't notice how much it kills Mayor Mare inside that she couldn't do anything to help her town when three separate mad gods came crashing down on top of it?! Or do you think your friends are the only ones who are angry and hurt that they couldn't help when it was their responsibility to look after others?! We've spent these past days struggling to save our friends and experienced that feeling of helplessness again and again, so I know how you feel!"

"And in case ya didn't notice, my cousin and Twilight's brother are guards! And we're buckin' proud of 'em!" Applejack defended. "And Rarity, not tah steal yer thunder, but the Guard still does a great job of dealin' with crime and things that don't need the Elements."

I nodded. "That's the point of super heroes. They don't replace the guards and police, they take care of the baddies they can't so they can focus on the ones they can."

"In fact," Pinkie said, pulling out another script. "They recently helped Princess Celestia and Luna defeat an ancient evil thingie that escaped from Tartarus and the cult that summoned it. Did a really good job. Princess Celestia knows and you can't get more important than that!"

"See? And our whole family knows my cousin and his crew took out a Fear Monster while on that world tour of theirs. Ponies DO know you guys are important. It's just that they can't handle everythin'. Ah know Ah can't. We don't steal work from 'em, we handle the things they can't so they don't have to."

"Dear, I was trying to establish a kinship with him over us both have situations where we feel we should have been able to help but was simply beyond our power to."

"Ah figured he might care that ponies do know the Guard help plenty."

"And I'm not blaming you Applejack, but one of the first steps to reaching out to somepony I believe is establishing they aren't alone in their feelings. Otherwise they won't open up. Then you help them through the cause of their problems. It works with Sweetie Belle."

I gotta admit, when I'm not the one arguing with either of 'em, watching AJ and Rarity clash can almost be fun, hey, we're all friends, we hug and make up!

"HEY! Don't ignore me!" General Bag-Of-Nuts said.

"Oh, sorry, we're not ignoring you dear, we're just trying to get you to see that we understand your feelings I wasn't able to protect Spike from being brainwashed, nor my baby sister! And I wasn't able to rescue either of them even though they were right in front of me during the wedding. I wasn't able to take part in Spike's rescue at all even though I do care dearly for his friendship. I might have been able to free my sister from the witch's lies, but I wouldn't have been able to do that unless somepony else had rescued her."

Eh? I noticed Rarity's front hoof shaking, I don't know if she was upset at herself or just sorry she turned down her chance to deck the nag.

It was weird...when she mentioned losing Spike and Sweetie...General Crazy...looked sad...hurt...like he was going to cry for a moment...but it didn't seem to be for her.

"It hurt doesn't it? Not always being able to help? Sometimes being forced to let others protect those who should be your responsibility to protect? Makes you feel that ponies will just forget about you, move on, and treat you like an outdated accessory. That all your hard efforts to help are going to be just ignored, and not even looked at. But Mayor Mare is willing to work herself to the bone if it helps her ponies even if she isn't an Alicorn or a warrior. And I . . . I was happy that Spike was saved, and I'm proud that I was able to help where and when I was able to, and I wasn't any less happy that they were rescued. And to be perfectly honest? I'm upset there were ponies in my own home town who didn't even know my name or the help I'd given Equestria after we stopped Nightmare Moon! Ponies know you help Equestria a lot more than you think they do. So yes, I do know your point of view. So why don't you just please come with us so you can get help instead of letting this devolve into violence?"

"Please?" Fluttershy begged. Girls I don't think diplomacy is gonna work on this guy. I think Nightmare Fluttershy did a good job of proving that insane people don't like listening to reason! Why doesn't Fluttershy just use the Stare on 'em! Oh, The Stare doesn't work on crazies? Ugh. Should've seen that one coming!

"Violence is what's needed! Don't you get it! If I'd had my way! Boom! Headshot! Queen Chrysalis is laying dead on the ground! Your bucking sister and that dragon would never have even BEEN taken from you!"

The guy suddenly became pretty dang scary...not because he was mad, but...because for a split second it sounded like he actually sympathized with how Rarity felt…

"...Yes...that's true…" Rarity said slowly, I think maybe a part of her agreed with him. THAT scared me. "But the Changelings would have retaliated, in mass. And a lot of ponies would have died that didn't need to...Equestria would have ended this in a long war and not a three day one ending in true peace. A quick solution isn't worth that bloodshed. Can't you see that?"

"This is my last chance to show everypony the Guard are needed, to see to it the world would be dragged kicking and screaming to a better day! You shouldn't be here! It was supposed to be the Guards here! Not civies in armor!"

"I'm an envoy of Princess Celestia herself, she's given me expressed permission and authority to arrest you if NEED BE, and we're wearing this armor on expressed orders by the guard itself, not as any sort of mockery. We are following those orders and nothing more. Now please, just listen to reason an-"

"Your 'reason' is that of a naive foal! If I'm on the cancer, let the professionals do it!"

"Why should it matter who saves the day?" Twilight asked. "Your job is to see that civilians are protected, not make sure the ONLY the guard protects them. Remember?"

"Funny you should say that, I had to teach Scootaloo that her not caring who saved her friends, but cared more that her friends were saved, made her a good pony," I added in.

That was when the stallion got really mad. Seriously, I think he was going to pop a blood vessel.

He flipped his desk and the carpet under it out of the way and pulled out a...I dunno...it was made out of this stuff I had never seen before, it was long and big, nearly the size of him, and lots of tubes and he pointing it right at us. What was that thing?

"Dang it..." Pinkie muttered. "Shoulda known the pony talking about how big and important war is would have a big weapon…"

The Guard told us later they didn't know he had it either, or how the buck the psycho even got it inside! They guessed piece by piece like a model set. Who wouldn't notice something this big? It had a sword going through a dragon's head painted on the side.

As for how he got it past scanning spells, the hidden safe he put it in was apparently designed to conceal it. Guess a guard would know how to hide stuff FROM the guard.

"Your dreams are over! Viva reality!" And he pulled the trigger with his wing...or tried to...I noticed Rarity's horn was glowing ever so slightly. Rarity can use her telekinesis without her aura showing? "What? Come come on!" He pulled on the trigger so hard I think he was gonna break a wing bone. "I don't believe this horseapples!"

"You should be happy! We're in a closed space and I have forcefield magic! You'd only blown yourself up!" Twilight said.

"That looks dangerous, you really should put it down," Fluttershy said as herself.

He threw down the thingie and began to STOMP on the trigger, but it wouldn't budge! I don't think he even NOTICED Rarity's magic.

"But... but how?" The stallion's lip quivered.

I think at that point the others realized he wouldn't listen to reason. Twilight didn't go all high and mighty. Her tone reminded me more of Cheerilee. "Pinkie Pie's right. This isn't a story about armies, generals, wars, and kingdoms. This is a fairy tale." Two years ago, I'd never think I'd hear those words come out of Twilight's mouth. The look on her face for a tic said she hadn't thought so easier. "This is a story about friends and the magic that comes into being between them! This is a story about ponies who every time their hearts break, as long as there are those who love them, they can come back stronger than before! This is the story that says no pony is alone or meaningless! A tale about a group of friends who in spite of their flaws," she looked at each of us with a smile, "who cover and support one another, somehow always manage to save the day!"

Pinkie Pie hugged her. "You've begun to believe!"

"Don't push it Pinkie Pie." Twilight smiled and hugged her back.

"Oki doki loki!" She smiled and nodded.

Pinkie then looked at the general looking like how Fluttershy says yours truly looked when I stood up to Fluttershy's bullies. "I'm friends with Garnet Chambers and she's a Guard pony and I've heard her story! Even when our stories do focus on Guard ponies, the stories weren't about how tough or big they were or nopony noticing them. Her stories were about them being a band of friends and seeing the big wide world and making PEACE in it!

"Not about who has the bigger non-party cannon! And even when . . . when somepony did go away for real...it wasn't in some big battle. It was an accident. And they weren't forgotten! They were remembered by everypony!"

Applejack nodded. "My cousin might like his explosives, but do yah think he cares how big a cannon he's gonna have to shoot or get shot with? Or heck, even wants a world where he needs to care about that? If he had his way all he'd ever blow up is condemned buildings with no pony in 'em!...or at least buildin's nopony cared or got hurt when he blew 'em up. They managed to kick the flanks of three Changelin' big wigs without killin' anypony! And in case ya missed it, the Night Guard didn't need to kill either! We saved Equestria and no pony had to die! Ponies don't need to die for peace to happen!"

Twilight nodded. "THAT is the story I've been living! That is the story I've been fighting for! And THAT is the story I believe in!"

"What can you know about how the real world works?! You're not soldiers! You're just a bunch of untrained civies! What right do sheltered ponies like you have to say what kind of story this is?"

AJ gave a glare. Applejack's nearly lost her farm a few times, so I think she'd have had some words for the jerk…

"...The world is a cruel place...we need to be cruel back…"

I...don't know what those freaky eyes of hers told her, but AJ blinked all confused.

Then our favorite egghead spoke. "You want your story about big wars? Ponies all becoming warriors? A story where we need to worry about wars around the next corner? You're going to have to find it somewhere else! Because it's NOT going to be here! I'm not going to let it! And neither are my friends, or their friends, or their friend's friends! That includes our friends who are Guards!"

"Traitors and idiots! Your cousin's squad..." the general snarled, glaring at Applejack. "That traitor Thunderchild called me a failure as a guard!"

"And he's right! Ya ain't a guard, yer a buckin' terrorist! Ya wanna know what my cousin and the rest of the guard thinks the guard's real role in Equestria is?" asked Applejack. "Protect the innocent, be there when they need 'em, and keep the peace. The fairy tale knights in shinin' armor yah say have no place in this world of ours? That's what every last good guard Ah know tries their hardest to be!"

And Twilight added, "So I suggest you back down peacefully, because even if you take us down, you are STILL not going to win! Because love is everywhere in Equestria! And that is our real strength!"

"And we are going to show you why!" I declared for all of us!

That was when he drew a hidden wing blade and zoomed at Twilight fast enough to make Fleetfoot jealous. "DIE YOU WORTHLESS FREAK!! TIME TO CUT YOU OUT LIKE THE CANCER YOU ARE!"

He was fast. Really fast. I think we'd all let our guard down a little from how crazy he was acting and when his new toy didn't work out. Even Twilight freaked out at the sight of the sight of him coming at her with intent to kill that didn't belong on a pony's face. I didn't know if she was just gonna teleport or blow up half the room in self defense.

I was so focused on him I didn't even notice Rarity, she moved so fast too, so gracefully, with or without wings she was a lot faster than she looked. For first time in my life, ordinary Rarity got ahead of me.

I didn't see when she pulled her hidden dagger out.

Her eyes.

Wait! Rarity, no! Don't!

Rarity slits his throat open in a flash, then knocked him backwards from Twilight. As his blood sprayed, he saw her look was of somepony who already knew the decision to kill. Tell me this is a bad dream!

ALL OF US look at Rarity in horror as she threw the weapon away. She'd blocked any of the blood from getting on us. The general looked at her in shock.

"This is what you want, right? Us to be killers like you are? Thinking killing is the best solution for an enemy?" She asked coldly. "This is your definition of a hero?"

I think the General was now the one scared. Tartarus so was I! Rariy! What the Pony-Hell?!

Rarity's telekinesis grabbed the general's neck and applied pressure to keep the bleeding long enough for medical attention to be given. "Luckily, I'm not you, and I never will be."

"You want to play by hardcore rules? Go right ahead Sir. But no pony said we had to," Fluttershy said as she, Rarity, and AJ all got to work on the spot to save his life. Fluttershy calmly slipped her armor off so she could work freely. Rarity using one of her cloths to stem the bleeding and began to sew it shut, that would hold until the medical unicorns (who were on their way as soon as Twilight could call them) could use healing magic on his throat. Pinkie Pie gave him a pillow to sit on.

It's creepy to think about how once upon a time, the only thing that could be done for an injury like my smashed wing would be to...get rid of it. Now a few days in the hospital and it was good as new. He'd be making loud speeches again in no time. Where are my earmuffs?

He now owed us his life after he he called us crutches. Works for me.

"I apologize sir," Rarity bowed her head to him. "But I know you'll make a complete recovery."

"Crazy... you're all crazy..." He'd say through a slit throat as Fluttershy bandaged his neck right after Rarity cut it open in defense of Twilight. "I'm your enemy, kill me!"

"NO!" Rarity snapped back. "That is the not the hero I am, and it's not the hero I want to be!" She looked at us, looking relieved. "And I have friends who will make sure I won't." She gave me a meaningful smile. Got yer back and you've got mine Rares, got it.

"That's a relief," Pinkie Pie said smiling bright as the sun and looking ready to gush tears of happiness. She looked like she'd been scared something bad was about to start but didn't. Well so am I.

"Equestria's strength has NEVER been weapons or killer instinct, and it'll be a dark day if it is. Its strength in our hearts, our friendship, our love, no matter how blindly naive that sounds to YOU, that is how THIS world works. In this world? Those things are magic! OW!" Heh, Twilight's tower of soap boxes finally hit the ceiling.

"You know darling," Rarity said as she tied up the general as she and the others healed him up at the same time. I think we were all too deep in shock over what she just did. "Blades are not my special talent, but I know enough about fencing, detail, and precision to avoid cutting a major artery, or your vocal cords. It still feels and would be fatal of course, but there's still a decent window of time to save that pony, and it's relatively simple to keep them stable until professional help arrives."

His eyes widened.

So did all of ours.

"But now you know how it feels to be somepony who doesn't need to die but feels like they're going to."

"You, you never intended to kill him." Fluttercruel finally got her voice out.

"Of course I didn't darling . . . now let's see if I can clean the blood off his armor before the paramedics get here."

We all gave her a quick hug. Showing that none of us were scared of her now. Rarity shed a few tears of joy. Yeah, we trusted her, that was friends did. We have enough burdens.

"Uh Rarity."

"Yes Fluttershy?"

"I think you better clean the blood off yourself too."

"Of course I am darling, I just felt it proper to take care of him first. I'm sorry if I got any on-"

"I, sort of meant, that you should clean it off so Sweetie Belle doesn't see it."

"Ah . . . yes . . . good point."

Oh right, I guess I might wanna leave a few detail out when I recap this one to Scootaloo.

+++

What did my Captive Audience think of the General when his teammates told him? He was the kind of pony my Master self would have used and backstabbed without a second thought. Hehe...Audience was disgusted by the pony. I remember, it killed me inside when I learned what Audience had been trained to do, that any pony could approve of, teacher, and take in, the training to make the decision he does. I was surprised when I learned the General wasn't Black Thistle.

Audience might be willing to kill if needed...but he doesn't think it should ever be the first solution. Or the second. Or the third. Or anything but the last resort. And even then it had to be in combat. Truth be told, he'd sooner cut off his own horn than murder somepony in coldblood. The General had tried to murder a battered Changeling who couldn't defend himself and an innocent mare who hadn't done anything but try to talk sense into him.

Nopony even thought of pressing charges against what Rarity did.

"...There's a difference between what Rarity did and what the General wanted to do," Audience explained. "He went into battle planning to kill...wanting to kill. I never do, and I don't think any good soldier ever should...the choice Rarity made, and the choice I'm trained to be able to make...that's meant to be in the middle of battle when there's no other choice. It's never a premeditated act. It never should be...And I hope I never have to make it for real. That's the difference "

"...Would you have if you'd been in Canterlot?"

"The others proved killing wasn't necessary, so no, I know I wouldn't have. In fact since they were using tranq rounds, I might have been a big help in nonlethal situation: I can aim through gaps they can't. If there was any chance of a peaceful solution, Minny, I'd take it in a heartbeat. Being willing to kill isn't a luxury, it's a responsibility...one I will never take lightly. Ever. And you know what? Thinking about how our world is...I don't think a time will ever come where I need to make the choice. I like it best that way."

And I believed him. After all. In our world, he had never had to kill.

And I had to ask Audience if he could figure out why what none of us had guessed. "...How did we not know he was…"

"Considering how sometimes ponies react to who my dad is, I think maybe they just keep their lives separate. That way each could stand on their own...not sure we'll ever know now..."

+++

We turned him over to the guards after that darling. After the doctors examined him, he was committed instead of facing trial. I think he was given Golden Tiara's old room.

Why did I do it darling?...It was a moment. I just reacted.

Maybe I was so sick and tired of this, we had beaten the real enemy, the changelings had all stood down and were now the loyal subjects of Queen Cadence and had surrendered without a fight, from the ones in Canterlot to all across Equestria and released their prisoners and gave up, it was what their Queen commanded them to do after all. Their consequences wouldn't be gory executions or a genocide, it would be true justice being delivered and hopefully teaching them a lesson.

This "Guard" wanted the violence to just continue all because it didn't go the way he wanted, and things didn't work out the way he thought they should work out.

Maybe I wanted to give him an object lesson, he was so caught up in the 'blood or glory' mentality that I think he forgot how ugly violence was.

I may not know much about comicbooks, but the crusaders read enough that I picked-up a thing or two. There was a comic were Superstallion seems to go berserk on a team of murderous heroes, seemingly slaughtering them all...it was all an act to teach them a lesson of what he'd be like if he became the person they wanted him to be. Maybe that was what I wanted to do.

The changelings hadn't killed anypony, and no changeling ponies had been killed. Most ponies barely had an idea of how weapons works or that Equestria even had weapons, pies were considered basic weapons for a reasons. Equestria didn't believe in lethal weapons and the Guard reflect that. It wasn't our nature. Or it shouldn't have been our nature. Myself and Rainbow Dash may be willing to kill, but it still isn't in our nature to actually do it.

Shining's squad never took one life, and took out three Changeling higher ups. They only used lethal force on the two enemies they encountered that proved too tough for anything else to work, and still found a way not to kill anypony. Not because lethal weapons weren't available from the first moment of their counterstrike, they could easily have used the crossbow bolts available to them. They chose to use nonlethal weapons in every case they could possibly had done so because they were ponies and didn't want to kill. And they never needed take a life.

When the Night Guard had arrived, they'd come with non-lethal tactics and an army of Pinkie Pies, not a big airship fleet firing broadside cannons at the swarm. And they didn't need it.

Most of the Guard praised their actions and ours. Soldiers didn't have to be killers...they could be ponies. No, they should always be ponies...er...or whatever species they are.

And the General forgot how horrid and ugly violence is! All he saw was 'pacifists equal helpless.'

Maybe it was the sheer wrongness of seeing that killing look in the eyes of a pony, or that I remembered what Princess Celestia had told myself and Rainbow Dash, and I reacted accordingly. Rainbow and I had both been marked by the decision to kill during our quest to save Fluttershy from herself. And it was part of our responsibility to make sure our friends didn't suffer the same.

If it wasn't for Princess Celestia's words, I'd suggest to Rainbow Dash that she and myself submit ourselves for therapy just for that. At least I knew that that killing look didn't have a true home in our eyes like it did his...I know the doctors can cure him.

Because deep down, somewhere in there, he was still doing what he did because he loved Equestria.

""M-My Princess! Please! All of this! I've done it for you! For Equestria! For her ponies! For the guard! Please! These creatures! They were supposed to be crushed by the might of the Guard! Your Guard! THEY ALL CHEATED! It wasn't supposed to be this way! I was trying to SAVE Equestria from a dark age! I was trying to save you! This wasn't supposed to happen!"

The Princess looked sadly at him. There wasn't a drop of anger in her eyes. If anything, she sounded hurt. "I'm so sorry my little pony...I'm so sorry, if your plan had worked, you'd have brought about your own dark age. An Equestria drenched in blood is one I couldn't be proud of..."

He broke down crying after that.

+++

The pegasus guard looked at Digger Wasp who was now sitting next him, both of them shackled and under guard as they were moved. "Remember, I could have stopped you, I found out about you, and you WOULD have lost if-"

Digger Wasp gave an annoyed sigh. "'Found out?' We led you right to us."

"W-what?"

"We purposely PICKED YOU. Her Majesty knew she might need a normal pony who wasn't geassed. On top of that, a member of the brass was a good thing to have as a chess-piece. We combed over the profile of every high ranking Guard before settling on you. Her Majesty WAS an actress playing the part of a Princess after all, and she knew how to string together a narrative for you to follow. Then again, you wanted to believe it. You were dancing to her strings before you even met her. You were angry, scared, seeing yourself as the only sane pony in Canterlot? You were perfect. Did you really think it was because you were so smart and you were the only high ranking guard in Canterlot to ever notice us?"

"Then...everything I did for you-"

"Could have been done by anypony in the brass. You were just a signature on paperwork when we wanted it, something I could easily have done. Don't you get it? Your little scheme needed us to work much more than ours needed you to work. You had our infilitrators, me, and Chrysalis herself 'working with you.' Without us, your little attempted uprising wouldn't have gotten off the ground period. You're not in charge of the entire military, you needed what we provided and we got your signature whenever we needed it, the intel you had. Your attempts to trap us merely served us because we fed you false information. We knew you'd turn on us from the beginning. Without you, we'd have found somepony else. You think you were the lion, but all you were was a puppet on strings the Queen could have replaced."

"...no..."

"Reality bites."

+++

I fully admit, I didn't like that smug traitor. Changelings dislike having our deeds lessened. We view each of our accomplishments as something we scraped and clawed our way to achieve. Or at least, ones like us do it seems.

Taking credit for something that you didn't do isn't well liked by the Changelings. Even among our own traitors, we still give them credit where credit is due.

Former-Queen Chrysalis didn't hate traitors. She hated traitors who did it poorly after all. Lone Ranger was brilliant at betraying Equestria, and being a Guard, and being a general, but at out manipulating Her Former-Majesty or The Sun Queen, he was a few hundred years too inexperienced. He didn't even have the authority to do most of what we helped him do if he'd never met us.

Besides, his genocide would have included Jewel-Wasp, nothing else needs to be said.

+++

Afterwards, Ah had a talk with the General...or what his real name was...General Lone Ranger. We didn't bother with formalities. But he did have one question.

"So I'm a terrorist for thinking we needed to not be stagnate?" He didn't even look up at me.

"No! Heck no! Ya were a terrorist fer taking things to an extreme. Keepin' the guard able to protect us? Ah got no problem with that. Less danger ponies need to be in the better. My problem is with the buckin' ponies IN more danger than yer plan woulda protected 'em from. The truth of the world is anythin' can be evil if taken tah an extreme. And ya sure did! And Ah dreamed of a world where Ah did the exact same thing. And that's why Ah gotta asked. Why did ya do it?"

Ah'd done my research on the guy. The scary part was realizen he'd been hidin' this sickness of his for awhile. The guards working with him thought he was a workaholic, but never thought he'd snapped like this. He'd looked just like anypony else. Mah guess? Havin' that world he made up come crashin' down around his ears ripped his mask right off him.

Guess that makes sense. If he'd been a screamin' lunatic the whole time, then he'd never have been able to pull of anythin'.

"I told you why."

"No, ya told us what ya wanted...not why ya wanted it."

"There was no other reason."

"That a fact now?"

Ah looked close into his eyes as Ah made 'em look into mine.

My colt's out there in the big bad world...I hope he'll be okay.

I hope Princess Cadence keeps that I'm his dad hush. If he rides my coat-tails then he can't stand on his own four hooves...I won't be having my son babied for me being in the brass.

Ugh...so much paper work. That's one thing those military radio dramas like to gloss over. Reorganizing the guard after Princess Luna's return is a killer. I feel like somepony is trying to make my life harder.

The rank and file ponies have no idea how much effort this job takes. Every day it seems like I have another responsibility on my plate.

Sometimes I wish life was like in the radio dramas. At least there life is straightforward. It's so much simpler. Kind of like it was back in the time of the three tribes. Minus the racism. Back then all that mattered was being a warrior...being a warrior meant you were safe. There wasn't mounds of paperwork, troop reassignments, mistakes, and complaints to sift through.

How many disasters can that little town near the Everfree have in a year? Is it infested by black cats or something?

And then there's that incident with that cult in Columbia.

The world seems to be a more dangerous place every day…

My boy said one of Cadence's hoofmaidens nearly got lynched or something because of a misunderstanding...I hope he'll be okay out there…

Does anypony care about the danger we put ourselves in everyday? Or am I the only one that sees the danger anymore?

Back in the time of the three tribes, they just shot all the monsters and bad guys...hehe, what dark times those were...simpler, but darker...

Ugh...I'm getting too old to deal with this stuff...I feel like the world's on my shoulders and I'm the only thing that keeps it from tumbling...

I feel like I need to drink more coffee than I used to just to keep moving...I don't think I've been sleeping very well lately...I don't have time to worry about that.

I've been putting in so many requests for so many things, I can't remember which were approved or rejected. What reforms happened and didn't.

Princess Celestia says she appreciates me trying to help think everything is under control. She appreciates me working hard...

I feel like if I stop working, the world will end. Like...like if I fail my duty, even for a second, everything will fall to pieces.

I can't stop.

I have to keep trudging on.

(General's Notes: I... I didn't think that. I just, I just couldn't think of anypony to stand in for me!)

(Farmer's Notes: Maybe that's the reason ya told yourself, this is what yer heart and mind were really thinkin'. Take it from a mare who almost worked herself to death.)

I watched the chimera-demon drive the world mad. Drive the country I loved mad. Turn the people I've sworn to protect into mad ponies. So much suffering. So much pain.

I tried so hard to protect this country...I've given it everything I could possibly give...Did I not try hard enough?

Was all I did just not good enough? What else could I have done differently?...Done differently with what I had?

Nightmare Moon...she'd been defeated, sure...the Bearers...could they do it again? I have to believe that they can.

That's when I looked out the window and saw them all leaving the hedge maze...all but the Princess' student, twisted mockeries of what they were. He'd beaten them...

...Equestria's heroes had failed! They couldn't defend us when we needed it the most! They'd lost! We were doomed for relying on a bunch of civilians!

Our Princesses can't be everywhere at once, we Guards should be able to protect Equestria's ponies, not have standing orders to retreat in the face of mad gods, not rely on a random group of civilians staying friends with each other.

The pegasi of old...they wouldn't stand for this. They knew what they were doing...that's what the world needs...Yes! That's what it needs! Instead of relying on fairytales and magic.

If we'd been like we were back then, this would never have happened! That's what Equestria needs now! Warriors! Warriors that would have shot that devil dead as he emerged from his tomb!

In the real world, there's no such thing as superheroes. If we want to save the world, we need to be able to do it ourselves.

...That's what more I can do! Yes...that's it...For Equestria...

The devil finally appeared before me, and looks me in the eyes. He scratched his chin looking me over. "No, you're good." And then he vanished.

The mask...I wear a mask every day...I hide the realization I've come to. No pony will know until the time comes to wake this world up…

No one will know until it's too late.

My son...he and his fiance...they shouldn't be dead...If we'd been stronger, that never would have happened. These stupid mana distortions would have been stopped with their creators before they could start if we were!

That's it. No more doubts...it's time to tell that stupid bug I'm all in.

Ah staggered back and gasped. "...So that's why..."

Lone Ranger was shakin' a bit, he was looking at his own hooves like he didn't recognize 'em. Or maybe he was seein' the blood he had planned to have on 'em. And maybe he got a glimps that some of the blood he was gonna spill was as an innocent as a little filly's.

He didn't even bother to ask what Ah did. After all, Ah was an Element of Harmony, who knew what mumbo jumbo Ah could do. And he was already not in the best of states to care.

Ah'll admit, Ah feel mighty ashamed of makin' him remember that, the truth hurts. Makes me feel way too much like Nightmare Mirror after what Her Madjesty made me do to RD. But Ah already made my bed and Ah'm gonna sleep in it. And he had to see why he had REALLY done what he did, and what he planned to do. Sorry. Ah'm a silly pony who couldn't think of a better way. Ah'm so sorry.

"Ah'm sorry...But Yer wrong about one thing, Mister...we're already strong, ya just couldn't see it."

Ah took some papers out of my saddlebags and hoofed them to 'im.

"What's this?"

"Fancy-smacy statistics on Equestria's crime rates compared to the rest of the world, list of world/Equestria threatenin' things the Guard has stopped, and a list of every conflict Equestria's stopped peacefully...includin' this one," Ah explained, keeping my eyes on him. Truth be told, Ah ain't good with stats and statistics, managin' one farm is one thing, but this makes my head hurt just looin' at 'em. But Ah knew this was the language this guy spoke. Ah had Twilight and Shinin' get them for me and told me what to say and how to say it. Dash thought Ah was weird for goin' to this much trouble for the jerk, till Ah told 'er why Ah was doin' it.

"Equestria has one of the lowest crime rates on the planet and has ended more conflicts peacefully than any other land. And because of that...accordin' to Twilight's brother, a lot of equines are alive who'd be dead if otherwise. As for the threats the Guard and the Princesses have saved Equestria from? Most of 'em. We weren't lyin' when we said we just take care of the threats the Guard can't. That's exactly what we do.

"...The mega storm yer son died stoppin' is listed too, along with the honors he was given...he died a hero, General, do ya want to taint that by doin' stuff like what ya did in his memory?"

Ah admit, Ah didn't know Ranger dyin' was part of what sent 'em over the edge when Ah got that stuff. That was just a nice little twist of fate...no, a nice twist woulda been him and his sweetheart risin' from the dead. Ah knew 'bout Ranger because he was one of Ellis' friends and Ellis had been torn up when he died...and when an Apple is hurt, we tend to turn to the family to lean on.

He didn't lash out, he didn't turn on a dime and admit he was wrong neither, he just sat there, everythin' Ah said slowly sinkin' in.

Ah turn away from the hoofcuffed general and left him thinkin' in his room. Ah know Ah shook 'em up real good. Ah left him with a lot tah think about. Hopefully enough to show 'em he needs a lotta help. Here's hopin' he comes back to himself, Ah know it's what his son wouldda wanted. And Ah know it's what Princess Celestia would want.

"Miss Apple."

"Yes?"

"I think I get now why The Princess had you come for me."

"Yeah, Ah think Ah get it now too."

Now let's talk about some of the happy times after the fightin' now please?

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Written by Alex Warlorn
Loose End's Last Stand

Okay, time to prepare for the wedding, but sadly, there is one final loose end to take care of first. :-( Winning is the easy part . . . winning without any blood on the other hoof . . .

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Actress-Review-470668129

Next Chapter:

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (SERIOUSLY need to be kept up to date, every little bit helps!).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions. http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/ For heaven sake they rock!

100% Serious Author's Notes: There is no geopolitical, or personal message or statement in this story. It is just a fanfiction. Repeat, there is NO bloody geopolitical or personal message in this fanfiction! It's just a story, meant to entertain! It's just a story about colorful magical talking ponies!

Pinkie Pie, "Hey Everypony, the author wants to ask by the way, do you think this chapter deserves the mature rating? Or not?"

Shining Armor, "This chapter was harsh."

Pinkie Pie, "Don't you have a REAL wedding you're supposed to be getting ready for?!"

Episode 205: "Friends Making Up"

"Howdy!"

Lone Ranger looked up, he had a new visitor. "And what are you going to do? Throw me a party for being arrested?"

Pinkie Pie's face became strangely serious. "No." Then she smiled surprisingly gently for her. "I know what it's like to be in a story that you don't fit in."

She gave him a cake, and kissed him on the cheek. "... but I found my place, and so can you."

+++

I was so happy that my birds were okay! Oh! That's not to say I wasn't really happy everypony else was okay too! But my little birdies, the last time I saw them was during the wedding, I mean the wedding with Chrysalis. I was so worried about them! It's not that I thought Philomena wouldn't protect them, she managed to protect all of Canterlot from me when I was Nightmare Whisper. I was worried something could happen to them on their way to her!

You have to understand, my birds, Angel, all my animals, they're like my family. It's not that I don't love my real family, I mean, that's not to say I don't love my animal family either, I truly love them both. And...my animals need me. Applejack...even though she suffered a lot, she was able to take care of herself and protect her heart from Chrysalis. My little birds...they can't protect themselves. They can take care of feeding, but how could a flock of little birds manage to protect themselves from big, dangerous Changelings?

Sorry. I was just so jumbled by everything...at least I didn't spend all the battles just cowering and covering my head, I was able to help my friends! And...I admit, it felt good to let Fluttercruel help as herself, she made me so proud.

I'm so grateful Philomena protected them, she did a wonderful job! My birds told me how she didn't let any changelings get inside Princess Celestia's room with her! They also told me Philomena was surprised I'd trust her like that, but why shouldn't I? She apologized for the stunt she did, and Princess Celestia forgave her, why shouldn't I?

But they told me something else too.

I bury myself so deep in guilt sometimes, I get so obsessed with punishing myself, that I forgot how I'm not the only pony, or creature who can feel horribly guilty about something. Even if that something isn't their fault to begin with. Even having some many of those feelings inside me as Nightmare Whisper only made me aware it exists.

"Philomena!" I called out to the bird on her perch where she was resting right now in the royal garden. This time I just let the animals be.

The fire-bird turned her head to look at me.

"I just want to say thank you for protecting my chorus, they're precious to me like all my animals, they told me how you helped them, and I don't want to think about if something did happen to them." I nuzzled the phoenix, "Thank you."

She smiled the best she could with her beak.

"And Philomena, don't blame yourself."

Her eyes widened...It's odd, back in Ponyville, and everywhere except Canterlot, most ponies expect me to know what had been wrong with them when I was Nightmare Whisper, now it feels strange to speak with somecreature like this whose heart I never touched.

"My chorus told me that too. The only one who's been with Princess Celestia longer than you is Princess Luna. And she had to be separated from her for a thousand years. You protected all of Canterlot by yourself against my fog. But you couldn't protect your master against one witch. You weren't even there. So you couldn't do anything to help her. And Canterlot right is now full of ponies who in their hearts just wish they could have done more. Just like you. I don't need to be Princess Gaia to know that...I just need to be willing to see it.

"But Philomena...nopony else might have noticed, nopony else might have cried, but, if anything had happened to my birds, I would have cared, I would have cried. We saved Equestria, but I still would have lost something precious to me. I know you couldn't protect Princess Celestia, I couldn't, the Royal Guard couldn't, Twilight Sparkle and Princess Luna couldn't. We all did what we could do! I'm the Element of Kindness, but in the end, I couldn't get Chrysalis to stop what she was doing, we had to MAKE HER stop, and I'm sorry for that, and wish I could have done more, if I could have ended the fighting earlier than it did, even if it seems foalish to everypony else.

"I know I'm the only one in Canterlot who cares about them, but Philomena, THANK YOU! You were the one who DID protect them, you did that instead of throwing them away to fight Chrysalis when you couldn't win! And they told me how you were a wonderful protector for me! You didn't let those changelings come near them! Don't EVER tell yourself you're weak, or what you do doesn't matter. Philomena, to me, you'll always be a hero."

I hugged her. My chorus then flew in and was eager to give their hero a big hug as well. Phoenixes are so warm, like hugging a blanket. I wish we could have held it longer, but we a wedding to rehearse for. And...well, I ...eep, have to prepare to see somestallion, I mean somepony!... Oooh, I feel faint.

+++

The elderly Mr. Green Hooves, better known as Hayseed to his friends looked at the heart warming sight of the yellow trouble maker and The Princess' fire-starter hugging each other and giving thanks for watching over her animals during the coup.

Some ponies mistook him for a blank flank, but in truth he simply covered his mark with his blanket, a simple blade of wheat, his talent for taking care of his precious plants the way the yellow trouble maker took care of animals.

Nopony paid him mind, even during the coup the changelings had ignored him and allowed him to simply continue to tend to his precious royal gardens. Only problem he'd had was some guard eating the hedges. He could fade into the background and be as unnoticeable as his plants. He was probably the most unnoticeable pony in Canterlot.

"It's a lovely sight ain't it miss?" He asked the pink earth pony with the blond mane in the black robe next to him.

"!... You can see me?"

"How could I not see such a lovely beauty such as yourself?"

"Oh. It's just I have no business with you, and most ponies don't notice me unless I do."

"That's how it is with me too youngin'."

She blushed, "I'm older than I look...a good bit older..."

"So am I. So ain't it a pretty sight?"

"Yes it is, she has wonderful bright eyes..."

"You okay there beauty? There was a lotta trouble 'bout here the last few days. Dangerous time."

"I know. I was worried that once it was all finished, I'd have a very big extra workload. But thanks to her," she gestured at the yellow trouble maker, "and her friends, I ended up not having any extra work at all. My manager says I'm only allowed to thank one of them, but I realized it was a group effort between all of them. Not just from them, but from a lot of ponies. Thanking just one wouldn't be fair."

"Ya could'all just do'em a favor later if yer paths cross, that's how Ah roll at least."

"It's a nice thought, but my manager insists that I'm not allowed to play favorites."

"Is that so? Doesn't sound like a fair boss ta me."

"He's actually the most fair pony you could meet. That's why I can't play favorites."

"If you say so beauty. But if ya really do feel like ya owe 'em, you'll find a way."

"...You're right. I'm sure I'll will! Thank you!" She gave Hayseed a hug.

"No problem beauty, hey-, those black wings magic? You're an Earth pony if ever there was one."

"They're a gift from my boss, one of my job perks. You've been tending Princess Celesia's gardens for a long time haven't you?"

"Longer than most ponies can remember."

"And I'm sure you'll be keeping them beautiful for a long time to come...see you later."

"See ya later beautiful. And tell yer hubby for me he's one lucky stallion."

"What? How did you-"

"Beautiful I ain't blind, even I know a wedding ring when I see one."

"Oh right. I will. See you again some day."

+++

It's common knowledge there's no pony in Ponyville braver than me, and until AJ proves otherwise that's he way it's gonna stay! When there's danger, I'll be there for my friends. Parasprites, Mare-Do-Well, okay I'm not perfect, I've been down that road already thanks.

The point is The Dash doesn't scare easy . . . man I've been hanging out with Trixie a little too much, or did I do this sort of thing before?

Yeah yeah yeah I'm getting to the point! The point is that I got forced to see how much I've hurt Derpy! Not just for the accusing of cheating thing, but how I've treated her not just as dead weight, but like she was a retarded filly. I never once thought she wasn't a good mom, but the electric shocks from the thunder clouds incident, the smashed Town's Hall, getting the directions for the birds wrong for Winter Wrap-Up twice in a row? She isn't a good weather pony, she's the opposite of one, and as Captain of Ponyville's Weather Team, I had to always clean up her messes.

I'm going in circles? I'm . . . I'm sorry . . . Tell Derpy that, not you? I know that already!

I know there are lots of things she's perfectly good at! Mail delivery, baking muffins, holding her breath, blowing bubbles . . . I just.

'Fundamental attribute error?' What's that? . . . Okay, I got it, I got fixated on when I had to deal with her.

No I'm not dragging my hooves! Am I pony who drags her hooves? No Siree Bob!

Yes I want it over with! Yes I just want us to . . .

"Hay Rainbow Dash!" YIKES! Don't do that!

"Oh! Uh, hi Derpy!" No I'm not chicken! I'm not channeling Fluttershy!

"Sorry I wasn't here to help Rainbow Dash. I'm sure The Doctor and my fillies would have been lots of help." She said that coltish voice of hers.

"Uh, right, I think it's better that you were . . . helping somewhere else."

"Yeah, Dracozilla was being really cranky and tried to eat Neighpon."

"Uh, Derpy," I clapped my mouth shut before I asked if she had been sticking her head into the lightning clouds again. "That sounds really cool."

"Almost as cool as the time I stop a bunch of evil alien robots by sitting on their evil machine."

Clapped muzzle again, this time my response nearly burst through the dam. "That's . . . really interesting. Look! Derpy! Forgot about all that! There's something I've really wanted to tell you since this entire mess exploded, and the longer I wait the more it's gonna drive me nuts!"

"Okay!" She just smiled.

That's Derpy . . . she takes everything without complaint, no matter how rough her seas get, she just endures.

"Derpy, about the time you messed up with Winter Wrap-Up twice and damaged Town Hall . . ."

"I swear I didn't know they gave me a thunder cloud instead of a raincloud!"

Persona 4 "Face Myself" (after battle, peaceful version) -

"And I believe you! It's just . . . the way I thought of you because of those things . . . they weren't right . . . I . . . I KNOW this is selfish, but I was thinking less of you as a PONY because you weren't cut out for weather duty. And . . . " I looked down folded my wings. Humble And Ashamed Dash, doubt they'll be making a action figure out of this one. "I'm sorry. Maybe if I hadn't acted that way, maybe Foal Services wouldn't have been so eager to try and take Dinky from you, I'm just so sorry."

Derpy looked at me with those odd eyes of hers, what was her expression? Shock? Surprise? She just stared at me for a bit, then patted me on the head, if I was demeaning, I'd earned it. "There there Rainbow Dash, I forgive you."

"Derpy, that's not all . . . " I swallowed. "Do you . . . Do you remember back in gradeschool? . . . That test?"

Derpy stiffened, her face became even more unreadable, was she calm, angry? Her eyes were narrowed at me. "Yes, I remember."

"I . . . what I did to you was wrong, it was petty and small, and no different from what Dumbbell and his buddies did to Fluttershy. I couldn't stand the idea that I tried so hard to get a passing grade on that test, I really tried that time, and still failed, and you passed with flying colors. I told myself you had to have cheated or just been given a pity grade, and that's what I told everypony else, I . . . I wasn't being a good pony." I lowered my head lower. "In fact, I was being awful. I defended Fluttershy from bullies, I stayed with her when everpony else treated her like a waste of space, I believed in her, I didn't care if it made me one of the uncool kids . . . but, when . . . when you disappeared after that . . . "

"The accident with mom's flying lesson," Derpy said.

"Right, when they couldn't find you . . . I . . . I was the bully that time. I thought you had wandered off and couldn't find your way home and ponies would bring you back a-okay out of pity or dumb luck . . . I didn't once think it might have been my fault, or that you'd be hurt . . . that wasn't the right thing at all, I made the exact same mistake with Fluttershy . . . please, I know it's selfish to bring this up now, but . . . please Derpy, I needed to tell you, I'm sorry."

Derpy's ears moved like she was listening to somepony, hey are you guys talking with her too?! . . . Right of privacy, okay.

+++

I remember that day. I was so happy when the test was turned in. My parents were so happy, more happy than I remember them being. I was so happy that I didn't notice Rainbow Dash crying.

Then . . . then the rumors started . . . saying I cheated, saying I didn't earn it. Saying it really was given to me just because our teacher felt sorry for me . . .

Ponies saying that a friend of a friend told them so . . . the teachers worried . . . my parents wondering . . . and my perfect beautiful little thing, the little thing I could say I did right . . . it all went to dust.

I was sad . . . I didn't like it . . . I . . . I was hurt . . . I was . . . I was . . . I was . . . I was angry . . . the happiness of my parents taken, the pride from my teachers taken . . . the idea that I wasn't useless taken . . . stolen. I didn't like it at all.

. . . I really really really dislike . . . no . . . I . . . I hated it. I just wanted my one happy day . . . and I couldn't have that . . .

I looked down at Rainbow Dash . . . I notice she's crying.

+++

"Rainbow Dash?"

"Yes, I did something bad and I'm the one whose crying, I told you I was being selfish."

"Are you sorry?"

"Yes."

"Are you really really really sorry?"

"YES! I wish I'd never done it, and if I had it over again I'd wouldn't do it! Not because it's making me miserable, but because it hurt you!"

Derpy looked to be thinking over something, like she had an idea she wasn't sure if it was a good one or not.

" . . . Well, maybe thing would be too different if you didn't but . . . Rainbow Dash, I . . . " Derpy breathed in deep, this is a lot calmer and deeper than I think I've ever seen her. "Dash . . . I . . . Can you tell my parents, I mean, my first parents, that I really did earn that A+?"

"If . . . if it'll earn your forgiveness, I Pinkie Pie swear! Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!"

"Silly Dash." She folded her wings around me, and nuzzled me, "I already forgive you."

+++

You have no idea how happy I was when I saw Her Momjesty, I mean Princess Celestia was alright, it was a wonderful gift, it was the safety and comfort that comes seeing the sunrise each morning. I still shudder thinking about how I just watched her be struck down with a smile on my face.

I apologized to her so many times, repeating how I apologized to my friends to my reckless and self-righteous behavior, I had been right, but how I carried myself and my message destroyed any chance of any reasonable pony paying it mind. That I'd mess up.

No. I never once blamed Her Momjesty, and it had nothing to do with her being Princess Celestia who could do no wrong. So happy to disappoint you! She had already shown me the depths of her most destructive mistakes. So if you were hoping to drag Princess Celestia's name through the mud with this, you'll have to look somewhere else.

Chrysalis had been right about one, she was an actress, and she had put on a show that had fooled a goddess. That was another thing fate would never be able to take away from her. I wonder if her...new self would get her acting talent as well.

But I was hurt for slightly different reasons, deep down, I've always thought of Her Momjesty as family, whether we're related by blood or not (like me and Spike). But when it looked like I had been the one to hurt Cadence, and I had been sorry, and 'Cadence' had run off in tears...she had chosen to check on her niece, instead of stay with me.

"Twilight, if Cadence had brought you to tears, and you had run off...I would have checked on you instead. I love you both. And don't worry about me. I'm fine. You have a real wedding to put together and a city to begin repair work on. It's time to show the world Equestria is strong and we will not crumple in the face of what's happened."

But you also have no idea how many hugs and kisses I gave Her Momjesty when I saw her with Princess Luna. It was almost as many as when I saw my parents again.

"Twilight, I'm so sorry, a father is supposed to protect his foals, and I couldn't protect either of you, I'm so sorry. The adventure happened in our hometown, and I still couldn't help while everypony else and their filly did, I'm sorry I failed you. I couldn't save you, or your brother from that witch. I'm so sorry my little foal."

"Dad! You DIDN'T fail me! You did exactly what I would have wanted you to do! You kept mom safe! I couldn't ask more from you than that! She needed you, and you were there for her! You kept her safe in a city full of invaders! That's no easy task! Thank you!"

And I meant every word of that. And yes, before you ask I did thank Shiny's squad for rescuing them. And every deity in creation.

When Cadence and Shining's love had swept over Canterlot, that much pure selfless love, it had healed the hearts of the many ponies who had been violated by changeling magic, or been stricken by fear and pain by the changelings' invasion.

The good news was that with the changelings now bound by their iron clad traditions to serve Cadence, ponies at least didn't have to logically worry about another changeling invasion, and since Chrysalis was technically neither dead nor had Cadence intended to kill her, they had no one to seek revenge on.

In a more cynical time, I'd have pointed out that if a few changelings could go rogue under a wicked queen to do good, that the opposite was possible too...but...it didn't FEEL like that would happen...Cadence had given the changeling what they wanted, a home under the sun, and all the love they could handle. They were home.

There was certainly a lot of surprises and awkwardness when the other half of the changeling kingdom arrived, but Cadence was a diplomat, compared to everything else, that was easy peasy.

Then there was the fact a previously unknown kingdom had suddenly revealed themselves with an invasion, but Cadence said she could handle all of that. Another of Cadence's first mandates as queen was their zebra slaves who had been born in the changeling Hive, had their control geass' removed and were made legally full members of the Swarm, it was the only culture they knew, throwing them back to the countries their ancestors had been kidnapped from would have been crazy (but were now free to leave the hive). They were now free to convert if the chose to rather than if their 'superior' decided or not. Many did, many others were perfectly happy to remain zebra.

There was some concern by them that their purpose was over, but Cadence replied that now that it was known love was infinite, their purpose was even greater. I think she meant it.

But healed scars didn't mean everycreature instantly forgave the Changelings for what they'd done. The Changelings who'd taken part in the invasion would still face consequences for their actions and the Changelings' treasury (primary used for spending while in disguise) was opened up to help pay for damages caused by the invasion. Yes, they did offer us money...some of my friends did take it. I just donated mine to the archeological digs, especially the ones that Celestia said would help ease things in between the Changelings and the world.

As part of their punishment, the changelings also had to do most of the rebuilding of Canterlot themselves. This wasn't just to make them pay for their crimes...it forced them to face the reality of what they'd done up close and personal. Of the lives they'd damaged and the pain they'd caused. And I think that's better punishment than torture or extermination could ever hope to do. It wasn't their entire punishment, it was a part of it, but I think for many of them, it hit home and made them see the light.

But being Changeling Queen also meant Cadence had the chance to give them mercy, especially since they'd surrendered peacefully. The Changelings who'd stayed at the Hive, mainly the civilians, were not punished for the actions of Chrysalis and the military, and those who had taken part would be treated more mercifully than they otherwise would have. We're forgiving, not naive. We give mercy, not leave evil deeds without justice done.

The Changelings who'd sided with Cadence in her challenge and those that had been living in peace with Equestria? The defectors were shown lenience and the peaceful ones were permitted to remain as such. The cat tribe also gave them cake.

The Wedding would go on. It was our way of showing the world Equestria was still strong. That we wouldn't crumble because we'd faced an invasion and been hurt. We'd stand strong and be united. The Hoof Maidens would SHARE being Bridesmaids with us now. Chrysalis might have given us the job as a distraction and to get Cadence's real bridesmaids out of the way, but Cadence felt we had earned it, and... there was no way she was just going to just forget about her friends.

I was still best mare, so Princess Cadence now officially had eight bridesmaids! Normally Applejack wouldn't have been caught dead in a dress, and Rainbow Dash I think doesn't like ponies to know she likes looking pretty (Rarity speaks), but the marriage of a princess (and now a Queen) and a goddess doesn't happen every day, they amazingly stayed on. So Cadence's side of the altar was going to be pretty crowded. Though Minuette, Twinkle Shine, and now Lyra, were given the front row.

My friends had helped save the day, we all had, but this was Cadence's special day, best to be shared with her closest friends. And Twinkle Shine told Lyra if she wanted to be a hoofmaiden, she was gonna have to learn with deal with things like this. I swear the three of them looked as happy as us. This was a special day for a very dear friend of theirs as well. And Lyra, well, wedding of the goddess of your special talent who you were the Champion of (Cadence didn't revoke that and let her keep the harp).

Bon Bon and Lyra also sent letters to Tootsie that they were alright. A lot of us had messages to send after days of our families not knowing. Lyra, Moth, and Bon Bon were going to be on the first train back to Ponyville, to be with their adopted child. But that was going to take too long so Cadence just had the Speedster Pegasi pick her up and bring back to Canterlot instead. That filly was too excited. She actually put the Cutie Mark Crusaders to shame.

Thankfully, nopony brought up the words 'flower filly' around her, things were complicated enough as it is. Tootsie was too distracted by being in Canterlot to even think about that though. And she was given the royal tour! I think that started Bon Bon and Lyra as much as anypony!

Lyra of course bragged about being the Champion of Music and helping save the world...hehe, I think Tootsie acted like she'd just found out Superstallion and Batmare were her parents... And that they had fought alongside 'The Mare-Do-Wells' just made it even sweeter for her. It never hit me how for foals like Tootsie, there was just now more of Mare-Do-Well to love.

As for meeting Moth for real...I don't think Tootsie was old enough to quite realize what it meant.

"So you're a good bug pony Auntie Moth?"

"...Yes...that's right..."

"Cool! So Bon Bon's a bug pony too?!"

"Uh, no, Moth's adopted," Bon Bon explained.

"Oh. Does that mean I'm a bug pony?"

"No," the sisters said together.

"What about Lyra?"

"No!"

Heh, none related by blood, but they were as close any family.

I was surprised when she hug tackled Sparkler (don't ask me how Derpy's family even got here) when she saw her, apparently that mare was her favorite foalsitter.

She also talked about having made a new friend down in Ponyville while she'd waited for her family, but that wasn't my life, so I didn't listen in too much. I did however overhear what she said when she saw the wedding itself...

"Whao. This is way bigger than the wedding I was the flower filly for," Tootsie said.

Oh, Ponyville's newest couple were doing great. I think they're taking their honeymoon to some of the most beautiful places Cranky had visited.

+++

The donkeys stared at the blue box that had appeared out of nowhere. Doctor Whooves' head stuck out with Fluttershy's.

"Hmmm, this isn't Sunnytown before it was cursed." The Doctor observed.

"You again!" Cranky snapped.

"Oh! Hi! Bye!" Doctor Whooves retreated pulling Fluttershy back inside his time machine as it vanished leaving the married couple to their honeymoon.

+++

Cherry Coke, Banjo, Caramel, and Note Worthy had turned up, along with Prince Blueblood (who would attend the ceremony on Cadence's side of the pews) and his friend Arcane Spell, having fought alongside Shining Armor's squad this whole time too. However, Banjo was going to have sit out the wedding, had another day of rest and healing to do at least.

Banjo didn't ask for a apology from Shining, and didn't want one, he knew Shining wouldn't do that if he was himself, and that was that. And that sums up a lot with how I felt about Shining being made to fight me to the death, I had already seen my friends turned into heartless mockeries of themselves, I was only happy that nothing terrible had happened that couldn't be undone and my family was back together.

My BBBFF was made of iron, even after everything that happened, he just picked himself back up and got on with his happiness, and being joined to Cadence's soul to defeat the evil witch who had hurt them I think did a lot of good.

I think he had a long talk with his squad too and that was another benefit. This life is much easier to get through when we have friends to aid us.

Blueblood, to the shock of all, chose to take a seat clear in the back (with the 'commoners') to watch after Arcane because there wasn't room for two wheelchairs in the front row. In fact Vinyl Scratch apparently accused him of being a Changeling or a pod pony or something...I don't know, I wasn't there...

Princess Celestia was very very happy at the news though. And Cadence...Cadence was sad Blueblood wouldn't be clapping for her from the front row...but I think she was happy that he had finally figured out where to place his priorities. Nopony argued with him, but not for the reasons they would have before.

Rarity for her part...well...

"Great, when he's single, he's an intolerable jerk, but when he's finally a proper gentlestallion, he's taken!"

Apparently Shining had offered his squad to be among his Grooms Stallions, but they'd turned him down, saying they'd just done their duty as soldiers and didn't need a reward. So attendants to the royal couples were still unbalanced in numbers. But he also gave them front row seats and...well, some miscommunications happened, and Rarity insisted on things being balanced somehow and...ugh. This was going to be a challenge.

But before we began the real wedding preparations, I spoke with Cadence, alone.

All hurts on the soul due to Chrysalis' magic had been healed by the power of love. All marks on the mind that had been due to the invasion had been undone.

But for Princess Celestia's student, for the Element of Magic, for the leader of the Elements of Harmony, for me, there was one mark that hadn't gone away that easily. One damaged bond that needed a personal touch to heal, now that the fighting was done, and the danger was over, and we could all breath and think again without looking over our shoulders.

"Twilight, are we ready to go over the wedding preparations?" She was so happy to see me, and to rest in her own bed again, have a bath, have breakfast, and not have to fear. Even if she was now technically royalty in two countries (which no one was sure how to handle that, considering the last time something like this had happened was after the Windigos were destroyed). The little…filly that used to be Chrysalis slept peacefully in a crib nearby, sucking on her hoof. There was a massive pile of finished paperwork and scrolls on the table next to her bed. The fact there were song birds flying all over the place that seemed exhausted indicated she'd needed a bit of help.

"Yes, but there's one major preparations that needs to be done first," I said, my voice quivering. "The wedding's best mare...when she first met the queen disguised as the bride, the best mare was overjoyed, 'the bride' remembered her and welcomed her with their old hoof-shake...

"The Best Mare was certain everything had turned out alright. But then the 'bride' acted cruel and callous, when the best mare knew Cadence would never act that way.

"But never once did the best mare think this Cadence was a fake until it was too late. Feelings do not follow logic, feelings do not bow to reason. The best mare began to connect the horrible feeling of the witch with the face of her favorite foalsitter... and... and she's ashamed that she feels that way! Even after meeting the real bride, the best mare still felt that horrible feeling, even after the witch had been defeated...I know it wasn't you now but..."

"Twilight, I understand."

"We all worked so hard to climb out of the pit! I don't want fall into this hole again! Please, I don't want this black cloud hanging over me on your day!"

"Twilight," Cadence asked so carefully, like she was performing surgery, "Are you asking me to use my magic to touch your heart and heal you?"

"YES!"

Cadence blinked. "I'm used to ponies saying they'd prefer to make the journey themselves. Telling me that life has no easy answers, that couples should work toward fixing their relationships themselves, and-"

"Cadence. It's you. I don't mind when it's from you. Because I don't want these feelings of doubt and loathing at you for things you didn't even do! The one that loathing was meant for is gone, so it has no purpose at all anymore. I was overjoyed when I learned that Shining Armor was marrying you. All the anger I had just went away. Give that joy back to me. Please Cadence, give it back to me," I sobbed.

"Twilight, my magic isn't meant to be a quick fix solution, I've tried that before...It didn't work. Yes, I healed a lot of ponies today, but it's up to the ponies to take the rest of the journey themselves and forgive the Changelings for what happened. I just healed the wounds so they wouldn't scar."

"I've seen you use your magic to heal the bonds between so many couples, friends, and family. Please. Use your magic to restore what I WANT to feel between us! What I'm supposed to feel without the witch's poison!"

Cadence nuzzled me, it felt so warm, "Twilight, is this really truly what you want?"

"Yes."

"Then..." Cadence flared her wings. "As Alicorn of Harmony, I'll answer your prayers." She touched her horn to my heart, "And repair the bond between us."

I looked into her eyes, and felt only absolute trust. No, I also felt love, endearment, friendship and I remembered the times she spanked me, the times she wouldn't let me have my own way, all the times we played and smiled, I felt Cadence. "Cadence, thank you. Thank you so much."

And you know how the preparations went.

Delicious apple treats. Beautiful bird chorus. A upbeat and lively party. A beautiful dress.

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Written by Alex Warlorn
Friends Making Up

Pinkie Pie, "Let get to the good feelings already."

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-SeriesWeddingArc-Loose-End-s-Last-Stand-471031782

Next Chapter:

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (SERIOUSLY need to be kept up to date, every little bit helps!).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions. http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/ For heaven sake they rock!

Episode 206: "Reharmonization"

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Dangit, Sorry I misplaced this one! Here ya go! Excuse me, got somewhere to be! Set notes to auto-record!)

After the battle, Thunderchild had one enemy left, his nerves.

Misfit had been given leave due to all they'd done, so there was nothing stopping him.

Except himself.

'Dang it! Why is it the one mare that I'm ACTUALLY in love with is the one my nerves are getting to me?!' he asked himself as a certain cream colored Pegasus stared from a good distance.

Why were the Hoofmaidens were absent when somepony actually needed a little push to ask somepony out? Thunderchild cursed his luck.

"Got cold hooves?"

Thunderchild blinked, turning to the source of the voice. "Gag? Garnet?"

Garnet gave a small smile. "If you don't try now, you don't know if you'll get another chance."

"You actually...believe..."

Gag chuckled. "Sarge, we met when I got a concussion slipping on water, if anypony believes in love at first sight it's us."

Garnet nodded. "And you don't have a two year world tour to get to know her first...you never know if you don't try."

"...Thanks guys..."

"Welcome Sarge."

Thunderchild took a deep breath and steeled himself. He approached the pegasus. "Uh...h-hey."

"Oh!" said Fluttershy with a small jump. "H-Hi...You're one of Shining's squad right?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm Thunderchild."

"Oh. My name is Fluttershy, it's nice to meet you."

"T-Thanks...But...uh...I've...I've really wanted to meet you for a long time."

Fluttershy blushed. "Um...r-really?"

"Y-yeah..." he said. 'Dang it! come on Thunderchild! Pull it together!' "I...Um...I think you're really cute...and..."

Fluttercruel saw where this was going. And sense she'd revealed herself more... "Look, before you go where we think you are," she said, taking over, her appearance manifesting.

'Fluttercruel!'

'Mom, I'm not letting somepony ask you out just for a pretty face...if either of us is getting that, it'll be me.'

Haven't you heard of pushing things too fast young lady?!

"There's two ponies in this body. I'm Fluttercruel, I'm Discord's daughter born when he brainwashed my mom and if you REALLY want to go there, you'll need to accept us both."

Fluttercruel, my little filly, what we discussed about tact? Please?

Thunderchild blinked and paused in surprise. He gave it thought...then smiled. "To be honest...I'm fine with that, glad to meet you Fluttercruel."

W-what?

Fluttercruel actually froze. "W-Wow...that is not the reaction I was expecting..."

"Everypony thinks I can't really love somepony because I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for a big wingspan...but just because I've done a lot of window shopping doesn't mean I can't love somepony for real," Thunderchild said, not trying to be a smug casanova and just say what he felt. "Being a bit of a Casanova doesn't mean I'm shallow...Besides, weirder stuff has happened to the Captain than you, Fluttercruel. I'm serious, he was almost made chosen one of a reclusive group of ponies in Maasailand once. If anything, I think you're kinda awesome."

Fluttercruel blushed. "Uh...thanks...You're alright."

"Thanks...S-So..." Thunderchild blushed as Fluttershy returned to the forefront. "So...Fluttershy, I...the more I know about you, the more I think this is right...you're a great pony and...w-would you...maybe like to go on a date while I'm here? J-just to see if this would work?"

Fluttershy blushed brightly and was stunned silent for a moment. "Mom...I don't have a problem with him."

"A-Alright...Mr. Thunderchild, we can try it."

"Yes!" Thunderchild exclaimed, feeling like he was on cloud nine. "S-So...when is it?"

Fluttershy blushed herself, and felt a bit faint. "W-Well...t-there is the w-wedding p-party a-after..."

"Sounds good to me..."

Flutteshy spoke, "Uh, by the way, did you hear of... Princess Gaia?"

"I'm a member of your faithful's mailing list!"

"Oh."

"I liked you BEFORE it was a religion."

"Oh!"

+

"Shining."

I turned to see three ponies standing in front of me. Two adults, a pegasus mare and an old unicorn, and one little Earth Pony filly. "...N-Noon? D-Dusk? D-Dawn? Is that-" I'd seen when I was half erased by the wolf and Dusk under Chrysalis' control and recognized Dusk's voice but...

"In the flesh Shine," Noon said, smirking.

"We...wanted to see you in Equus," said Dusk. "We felt your special day deserved a special treat."

"And we're sorry we couldn't help you more," Dawn continued, looking up at me with those little puppydog eyes. And her baby Phoenix was ALSO giving me puppydog eyes.

"It's...no problem...I got it, you said you can't interfere too much or something like the Wolf will come after you...wait, do I need to mentally narrate stuff right now?"

"We set our notes to auto-record while we manifested physically," Dusk explained simply.

I gave a smile. "Thanks...Uh...do I want to know why all three of you remind me of Twiley?"

"No. You don't. And not in a 'it's a dark secret' way," Noon explained. "It's one of those 'your mind might break trying to comprehend' way. And considering what didn't break it before that should tell you something."

"Gotcha...I'm just going to assume it's some weird 'this is how my mind chooses to process you' things and leave it at that."

Dusk nodded. "That's a wise idea." I was glad to not know if I was right or wrong.

"So...you staying for the wedding?"

"We're not leaving yet."

"That's good, but I meant," I pointed to their bodies. "Are you staying like this?"

"Well...We didn't plan to...but..." Dusk started.

"Would it cause any problems?"

"Not really...this story has already had its climax," the old unicorn explained. "Sorry, we're...just not used to this kind of thing."

"I understand, but you said it yourself, you were a part of this story, so why not stay for the good part?"

"Shine's has a point," Noon replied, giving her sister a friendly elbow. "Come on, you're Happy Conclusions, why not enjoy one for a change?"

Dusk smiled. "...Alright...I suppose it won't hurt just this once."

"Glad, I'll add you to the guest list...so...uh, Happy Conclusions? Are you three like...goddesses or something?"

"You could call us spirits," Noon answered.

"Ah, I see. Well, no matter what you are, the more the merrier," I gave them a smile.

Dawn cheered, "Yay! Party! Can I eat cake?" Her Phoenix flew around her, chirping happily, making her even more adorable than what looked like an Earth Pony foal version of my little sister already did.

Dusk nodded, "Just try not to get too much sugar, okay? We don't want you literally running on the ceiling again."

Whao boy. "And for what its worth? I never doubted you would have saved me if you could."

All three smile and Dawn gives me one of her big hugs. Phoenix lands on my head and nuzzles me.

"You're right, Shiny, we'll never leave you hanging."

+

Applejack may have jumped the gun a little with my coronation. I was told Chrysalis' ward and regent back at the hive, Pitcher Plant, had to be informed about her queen's end and the transfer in the reigns of power.

And my coronation as part of changeling tradition had to be done with the surviving changeling 'Masters' (of branches of changeling society) still at the Hive present during the ceremony. I was also told I was to name Kabutomushi's successor. Hercules Beetle had demanded to be given the most severe punishment I could think of for his crimes because he felt he deserved it for failing his queen again.

I decided the proper punishment for him was to keep his job. I believe in third chances.

And...surprisingly. It turned out the Changeling general had a secret. I promised him I'd help him bring it to light in a way that protects the innocent...but let's just say he'd kept one particular slave particularly well cared for, and her son.

Kabuto?...That was the biggest challenge I faced in all this to be honest. The question of what to do to somecreature with a pitch black heart...

At Kabutos's trial, the only one to plead in his defense was his lab assistant from the Hive, a unconverted zebra, and yes, she testified in his defense after she had her geass removed. There's no accounting for taste.

I no intention of eating Kabuto's love to death.

The changeling swarm wanted him dead. And Chrysalis had ordered as much.

But what the Queen's said was law. I was going to turn the system upside down, which made me much like previous Queens. And I decreed there would no more executions under my rule.

However, I couldn't turn a blind eye to all the suffering Kabuto had called. I can feel bonds. Bonds are me.

Looking on that crowd...I heard every broken bond he'd caused...it was like hearing their blood calling out to be avenged.

And unlike some, Kabuto's heart was...dead to me...I could feel him but not like you feel warmth. He had no bond to ANYTHING but himself. He felt COLD. He wasn't a misunderstood pony, he was a true monster. And unfortunately, his transformation and insanity was not of the type that left him completely harmless. He regarded his lab assistant the way an artist would their life master-work painting or sculpture.

And while to him his fate was awful, that didn't mean ponies and Changelings took that as a fitting punishment.

Neither myself nor my subjects would allow him to escape justice.

So I took a page from Auntie Celestia's playbook. Punishment for the evil doesn't have to be death.

+

Well, uh, you know that punishment that Princess Celestia told me after I was Nightmare Whisper, that was reserved for murderers and killers of the defenseless and would have happened to me if my 'turn all Equestria into foals' plan had killed every unborn foal in Equestria?...Banished to the sun until I had been banished as many years as I had denied those ponies their years of life?

Given how long Kabuto lived...and how...how many he hurt...I don't know if my great-great-grandfoals' foals will see his release date.

His lab assistant requested she be petrified and put to sleep and wait for his release date...I think they took her to a monastery in Neighpon that takes care of ponies who chose to do that.

+

To top it all off I was informed of I was now the silent owner of the Hive's front companies, those had to be made into legitimate businesses or dissolved as warranted. Not to mention the equine -slaves- the hive had in Chrysalis' name, whose parents were born in the Hive and had never seen the sun.

I was tempted to simply let Pitcher Plant keep the power, but all the equines being kept as slaves in the Hive left no question that I was keeping the throne, Chrysalis had dismantled the swarm's cast system, I'd dismantle its slave system.

The good news was unlike many slavers, the changeling had allowed their goods to learn to read and write (waste not, want not).

Thankfully Chrysalis hadn't had 'puppet governments' so much as networks of plants and agents in various countries kept in place to cover up any accidental exposure of changeling gathers, I quietly and quickly dissolved those. Amazingly most were happy to live in the open and could now focus on their 'cover' jobs.

As for the drained victims who'd been 'spent' and left feelingless shells...I had the girls try something and found the Elements of Harmony could reverse it, or at least make recovering possible. They'd visit the hive later after the wedding to do it on a large scale. And... there was what Chrysalis had said, if Sweetie Belle ever became an Alicorn, she could restore them all completely with a flick of her magic. Auntie said it would be very dangerous to force her along that road, or out right tell her that's what she 'should' become.

"That way of thinking, once turned a faithful student of mine into a monster." Auntie would say no more.

And...while I'm not 'officially' queen, the Changelings still treat me with authority and so does my aunt...which means I've had a busy time making sure everything is settled before my wedding. I won't bore you with specifics, but it involved averting multiple international incidents, making several dozen peace treaties, altering and making several dozen laws, and assuring a lot of ponies their loved ones who have been kidnapped will be returned. I don't think I've ever called in more political favors or stretched my diplomatic muscle more in my life. Not bad for my first actions as a Queen.

Lyra and Bon-Bon's adopted foal, Tootsie Flute, was actually asking if she could become a 'bug pony.' Her guardians told her "No!" Moth suggested Tootsie could once she was a consenting adult, which shocked the pair.

It was...a gray area. the idea of ponies being transformed into other tribes had been taboo for centuries when before there had been racist fairy tales of unicorns who were turned into earth ponies as 'punishment' at the story's end and earth ponies turned into another tribe as a 'reward.' In modern times, the idea of being changed into another tribe was considered disrespectful to your native tribe. It was another piece of changeling culture and law that was going to be hard to reconcile with Equestria.

But I wasn't going to focus on that, I had the most important day of my life to think about. And my honeymoon after that.

Supermarine would arrive not long before the wedding. I couldn't wait to see my old foal-sitter, and neither could Spitfire wait to see her mother again. Spitfire was fine. The Changelings had practically forgotten her in all the chaos. We hugged. All my friends were here from my past at school to the present and I was happy as could be.

Though Auntie also took me aside...and told me the truth of about my new subjects.

I'd say I could scarcely believe it, but after the reveal of what Chrysalis was, everything else seemed tame.

+

I didn't tell her that one of my sisters had chosen to incarnated as one of Rosedust's daughters. But the rest she had to know.

+

The daughter of Queen Rosedust. The Hearts and Hooves Day Princess. Cursed by a prince who couldn't take no for an answer. The pain of loss of her artificial lover to a dragon twisting her body and her subjects'. Hearts and Hooves Day, the day of freely expressed love, meant to be a day of gift exchanges between her and her afflicted subjects and the other tribes.

Discord came, leaving nothing but madness and misery in his way, the princess' tribe fleeing as her mother's tribe was exterminated like insects.

"I thought they were extinct too," Auntie explained. This children race of the Flutterpony tribe. "In spite of everything, I'm still happy to see they survived after all."

"You say it's a curse that made them this way, does that mean they can be...cured?"

"It's not a curse to be what you're born as. But if they learn to see themselves as ponies again instead of a different species, perhaps they'll discard that armored shape...and let ponies into their hearts again."

Auntie Luna...she was Applejack's predecessor as Honesty for a reason. She asked my permission to tell the Changelings the same truth...and that they'd been at war with their patron's old friends...I allowed it...I'm merciful, I'm not a fool. I know the Changelings need to see the consequences of their actions. I had an exchange of letters with Mother Deer on the subject, considering she'd faced the same problem with the Hooviets.

"The Deer took years to fully embrace the truth I had to teach them, Cadence...but patience and mercy are only a part of what's needed. A mother must be stern as often as compassionate. A child will not learn if there are not consequences for the wrong they've done. I allowed the countries the Hooviets had hurt to demand restitution from Roedina. I did not white wash my children...if I had, they'd never learn."

So...as I said, the Changelings would face the consequences of their actions...but also receive mercy.

"What's this?" asked one of my new subjects as I put a very sizable pile of papers in front of him.

"Every police and eye-witness report from the ponies' side of things," I explained. "Every Changeling who took part in the invasion is to read it cover to cover. I said there would be consequences, my little changeling, and while mercy is given, I owe my Equestrian subjects closure as much as I owe my new subjects mercy."

But...I did do one thing I told Chrysalis I would do. The Changelings, so long as they allowed ponies to remember the Chrysalis they knew, could remember the Chrysalis they did. All her sins and all her virtues remembered.

As for Moth, Weaver, Carpenter, Bombardier, and those like them...as a Princess of Equestria, I commended them for their loyalty and the good they did. As Queen of the Changelings, I'm going to pardon them for betraying the Hive. Simple as that. None dared question the Queen.

Weaver and Diver's bonds with Goldar and Faline also endured despite the truth of matters. Love conquers all after all.

+

The Princess of the Night shall converse with thee. Did we seek stricter punishments on the Changelings? No. There were consequences, there should always be, we are pragmatic, but no longer coldhearted.

Instead, the Changelings, as our personal divine punishment as the Night, would be receiving copies of what nightmares they've caused in others that Cadence's burst of love did not prevent. They would see how their actions looked from the other side of things.

We inflicted nothing upon them we hath not inflicted upon ourself.

As an Equestrian Princess...our punishment was simple:

"You believed ponies would see you as monsters? They wouldn't have...now many do because of what you've done. Your punishment is not to be white washed or excused. For your actions to be seen as they are. Your punishment is from this moment on to bare the burden of your crimes and have to change our subjects' opinions of yourselves on your own...Believe us, once upon a time, a foolish Alicorn betrayed her sister and became a monster...now she bears that burden, and so shall you."

Our intent was nothing short of crushing the changeling racist mentality so low it would never raise its head again.

As for Miss Moth and other such Changelings, we made it clear we approved of their actions...and that Queen Rosedust would as well. We do not believe the innocent should be punished with the guilty.

As for Queen Chrysalis...there is no Queen Chrysalis to punish. Simple as that. The being in her body may have her soul but Chrysalis is for all intents and purposes dead.

As for the miracle of her rebirth? Being 'reset' so to speak is a normal punishment for Alicorns, so that is nothing new (the mercy I believe is that she remained in the mortal universe)...her missing Cutie Mark I believe has another explanation.

Concepts are pillars of creation, they can't simply die and go poof. Their power is their soul, only being devoured can part the two of them. But souls are two parts: a light and a shadow. And the light can exist without the shadow.

Chrysalis' Shadow consumed so much of her being, its destruction left only an innocent light to inherent her Godhood.

Chrysalis received as close to death as Concepts are permitted.

+

"Mrs. Sparkle," I asked Twilight's mother in my most refined lady-like voice. Yes yes, I know, this isn't my family, neither was the Tiaras, but...well, you'll see.

The injured mare looked up at me as her husband doted on her, as any good husband should. Thankfully she wasn't crippled for life, considering...

"Hello...Miss Rarity, I believe. I didn't expect to see you here."

"I just want to say...it was very brave of you to stand up to Chrysalis like that, even after Princess Celestia couldn't defeat her. Even if...it didn't work, I respect you for it," I explained, sincerely.

She looked downtrodden at that. "Thank you...but I couldn't do anything. I failed them."

"...No more than I failed my sister," I replied, giving her a serious look. "Or Applejack failed hers or The Princess failed all of us. We tried, Mrs. Sparkle. We wanted to protect our loved ones and tried as hard as we could. If we'd truly failed them, we'd have not tried at all."

"...I...I hadn't thought about it that way."

"And you managed to make her bleed. Not much, but it's much better than most ponies COULD have done period. That just shows how much your foals mean to you that it boosted your magic enough to wound the Changeling Queen at the height of her power."

She gave a small smile. "I...suppose that's right...Miss Rarity...No offense, but why are you doing this? You don't even know me..." she asked, looking grateful, but perplexed.

I lightly put a hoof on her shoulder, being careful of her broken legs. "Because you're my dear friend's family, that's close enough to family for me darling," I gave her a smile.

She returned it. "...Thank you, Rarity..."

"Anytime, Mrs. Sparkle."

"Please, call me Starlight."

I gave a chuckle. "Certainly, Starlight."

As I left to go attend to my duties (I DID have to replace the wonderful dress that DEVIL destroyed after all), I turned back to her. "Oh, and Starlight?"

"Yes?"

"Your books do NOT stink, they're personal favorites of mine. I feel your skill at crafting loveable stallions is something more authors could use."

She looked stunned for a moment, then gave a smile that reminded me of when Celestia told Twilight she could live in Ponyville.

"...Thank you, I try my hardest, I have very good inspiration," She looked at her husband who blushed.
"...I'm working on another sequel, you know."

"I will most certainly be looking forwards to it!"

"I'll send you an autographed copy."

"I'll be honored, Starlight Sparkle."

"See dear? That's what I've been trying to tell you for the last several hours after I stopped beating myself up," her husband said.

+

The ironic part? After what happened...I was seriously considering canceling my next book when she came in. Hehe, I suppose fate works wonders sometimes.

+

Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor at the same time felt a chill go up their spines.

+

I heard hoof-steps behind me again. I sighed. "Again?" Can't this groom get some quite alone time before his wedding? I should really lock that door. Oh right, Twiley would just teleport in and catch me at an embarrassing moment.

"Oh...uh...pardon?" a female voice asked. It was strangely familiar. Like something I'd heard in a dream...literally.

I turned to see a unicorn chambermaid. She didn't look much different than many of the others except her Cutie Mark was a maze. "Sorry, just this isn't the first or second time somepony's dropped by tonight."

"You're popular, huh?"

"Guess so. So what do you need?" I didn't know the chambermaids were doing their rounds again yet.

She frowned, looking down at her hooves. "I'm sorry."

I blinked. "For what?"

She looked like a kid whose parent was always cleaning up after them. "It seems you're always having to fix my mistakes, Shining. I'm so sorry."

"Huh? Do I know you?" I looked her over, but I couldn't put my hoof on why she felt so familiar.

"Yes, in a way..." She looked up at me with a hopeful look. "What are you going to do with Chrysalis?"

I blinked, feeling a bit of whiplash. I wondered if I should tell her, but I...it just felt like she should know for some reason. "...Cadence says she should be treated as the blank slate she is and maybe we can raise her right this time."

She gave a wide smile. "Good...maybe third time's the charm...Thank you, Shining."

Okay, now I'm confused. And considering my life, that's saying something. "For what?"

"For everything... As a zebra alicorn, you know she needs to be raised as a zebra, right?"

"Er, I haven't really thought about that, it was jarring enough she got turned into a Alicorn filly."

"Right, and as an Alicorn, she also needs to be raised to respect and understand her power, she didn't have that the first time."

"So...a catch twenty-two?"

"Well, she needs an Alicorn so she can be a proper goddess, and she needs a zebra to teach her how to be a zebra. There aren't many Alicorn tutors, and which zebra tribe? There's more than one you know. Her's is gone."

"There's all those freed zebra slaves."

"Who either only know the Hive or have a grudge against the changelings."

"Ugh. Right."

"So you need..."

"Need a zebra who's a cultural connoisseur and willing to become her teacher."

"Ask your sister, she might know somezebra. And you need to figure out how to introduce the zebra tribes to the news they now have their own goddess."

"No thanks for reminding me."

She then got a perky look that I know I've seen somewhere before. "By the way, about your writer's block on your novel?"

I blinked, not sure what to think at the moment. "Yes?"

She smiled wide and clapped her hooves. "It's gone now, so is your mom's. Consider it a wedding and apology gift."

I cocked my head in confusion. "Uh...thanks but...wait a second, how did-"

She put a hoof to my lips and shushed me. "...Please...don't let her become a monster again...I want at least one of them to be a dream instead of a nightmare...Good luck, Shining."

I blinked and suddenly she was gone. What?! Where did...Was she even here?

Wait a second...Ah! I can give the aliens bio engines like the deer use for all their technology and have their motivation be they can only find replacement supplies for them!...Wait...my writer's block and...Who the hay was that?...Do I want to know?

It's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding (dang that didn't turn out well...she wasn't in her wedding dress, so maybe my natural weirdness will cut me some slack), but Lyra found me a little while later, she told me, that Cadence had found a name now written on the filly Chrysalis' blanket that hadn't been there before...Kifuko.

+

Pinkie Pie grinned at the assembled Cat Tribe looking looking up at her.

"Now my loyal minions! With you at my command, we shall spread laughter to all four corners of Equestria! BWAHAHA!...Hmmm? Thank you for the card! 'Your time has not yet come, your instructions say to wait till you're older and much wiser, try to avoid running into an unhappy ending till then - love, Princess Possible-Later-You-But-Where's-The-Surprise-In-That Thalia.' Oh. Okay. So...wanna help me set up the 'We Saved Equestria AGAIN' party?"

"MEW!" 'You Absolutely Positively Completely Bet We Do!'

+

Hello, Minuette here, thank you for interviewing me again. What did I do after the invasion...well, my coltfriend finally managed to arrive.

"Minuette! Are you alright?!" Audience asked, galloping up to me. My normally composed, logical stallion was completely frantic with worry. Well, I did have blood on me from my patients.

I was going to zap him unconscious before he could reach me (he was on the other side of the world when I last heard of him), but I was so tired of paranoia, these changelings would target their new Queen's friend right? I hugged him and as soon as he was near.

"I'm fine, what about you? Are you okay?"

Audience nodded, nuzzling me cautiously, like I was made of glass. "Y-Yeah...sorry...I...I just was so worried about you."

"I was worried too, Audience...I thought I'd never see you again..." I replied, stepping back.

"So did I...t-that's why...while I was on my way back (long story)..." Audience blushed. That didn't happen often. "I...I got you something...I was going to spend most of my savings, but then my traveling partner had a better idea...and I had to fight a weird lizard...thing and save a village but it was worth it..."

He got down on his knees and floated out a...a...a...

"Minuette...I was worried I'd never see you again...I...I was terrified we'd never get the chance to do this...I've never been more afraid of anything in my life...and I didn't want to risk it again." He opened the little black ring case to reveal a unicorn style gold ring with a large diamond in it. A very large diamond. A part of me seemed to feel it was literally otherworldly. "Minuette...w-will you...will you marry me?"

I blinked in shock. "A-Audience..." I muttered, wide eyed...but...I'd been just as worried...worried we'd be like Sunset and Ranger and never be able to tie the knot...it was a big commitment...oh buck it! I didn't risk my existence to be able to get closer to the ones I love to back up when somepony wants to get this close to me!

"Yes, I will," I said, tears in my eyes as I hugged him tight and gave him a big kiss. He slid the ring onto my horn and we kissed again.

Oh...and...other than me now being engaged, something else did happen...

"Hello, Doctor, remember me?" I asked.

"Yes, I believe I have...you were the Hoofmaiden that got sick when I met up with your group in Zebrafrica, right?"

I chuckled. "Good, we're meeting in order, it would be so confusing otherwise."

He blinked. "How do you..."

I showed my Cutie Mark, identical to his. "Doctor...you are not alone."

He gasped. "You're...you're a Time Lord?" I don't think he knew what to think. When I deleted HIM, I know the Doctor must have felt the only other Time Lord he knew of disappear.

"...Not just any Time Lord."

His eyes went wide. "You used to be..."

"No...I replaced him...Just know...unlike him...I want to be your friend, Doctor...no pony should be alone."

If I'm immortal like I know I might be...that's a blessing in a way. It means Cadence will never have to be truly alone...so why should the Doctor?

"I...I see...what's your name again?"

"Minuette."

"Ah...so...no new name yet?"

"Haven't really thought about it yet...I know Time Lords expect it...but I haven't really decided to yet."

"I understand...just know one thing, Minuette...when you take a name, you make a promise. And once you do, don't ever break it."

"I understand. Thanks, Doctor."

"Quite welcome...so, uh...engagement ring, huh? Who's the lucky stallion? You know my wedding is going to have been weird apparently."

+

"Goliath."

The Changeling General, defeated by a hoofmaiden and a retired Guard, couldn't bare to look at his brother.

"You were right, okay?" said the younger brother sadly. "I...I was reckless, impulsive, I wanted to prove you wrong, and I failed because of it...I know why you hated me being General...because you were always better than me."

Goliath thought back to how Hercules had lead as the War Master of the Changeling Hive. While he'd always waxed poetics, he was never one to put his men through anything he himself wouldn't do...he'd always cared about them...that was why they were loyal to him. That's why Goliath had been so ticked at him smiling as their own men were attacked by the rebel ponies and they could do nothing to help them. It disgusted him. And Goliath's legendary temper had cost him, again.

"...Brother, look at me."

Goliath heard anger in his brother's voice. He turned pitifully towards his older brother. It wasn't the anger on his face that surprised him. It was the large patched up wound on Hercules' chest. Goliath had seen his older brother, wounded before, you didn't get to be the military leader of the entire swarm without earning it, but never this badly.

"I'm not better than you, but you're right, this is exactly why I was upset you were made leader," Hercules said with the authority that came naturally as the elder brother and the General of the entire military. "Now do you see what I was trying to get through your head before the fight?"

"...Yes...if the cat-ponies hadn't been merciful, then my men would have died...all because of me...I'm sorry brother."

"Your apology is admirable, but don't be so arrogant in your humility. Your decisions were not the only one affecting the battlefield. Your mistake was acting like a warrior instead of a leader your men needed."

"...I know."

"Good."

"Brother...I never heard you speak like that before. You were always...I don't know, so quiet and serious. You never abused your cattle, but I didn't think."

"Yes...but I told you because I still think a leader can't afford to think less of his opponents for their species or their race...I admit, I'm ashamed of myself that I couldn't protect Her Majesty...You're right that I've been a failure...but I can't say I'm upset no Changelings or ponies are mourning their dead tonight."

Goliath looked down in shame. "...No thanks to me."

Hercules gave a sigh of his own. Remembering something said during his battles. "...Or me...I can be a stubborn mule sometimes..."

"...Though...I'm glad you're still alive, brother..."

"...Same here, brother."

For the first time in years, the two brothers hugged, each just happy the other was still breathing.

+

"Death Stalker?"

I looked at the Changeling who'd been my subordinate while I was Chrysalis' brainwashed minion, now he was in Cadence's service. He was still beat up from our fight with an ice pack on a certain area.

He looked up at me. "Mistress Twilight Sparkle."

"About...the fight..."

He raised a hoof. "Don't apologize...we both knew we were just doing our duty...it was never personal."

I nodded slowly. "I understand...but...how are you doing?"

"Getting used to things...Queen Cadence had us all do a lot of thinking." He actually looked down at his hooves. "I...have a lot to think about."

"Well...then can I give you another thing to think about?"

"What?"

"Other than us hunting my friends and me being brainwashed, I actually DID enjoy your company...so if you want an Equestrian friend, I want to be the first."

He was speechless I think. I don't think Changelings are USED to being shown genuine kindness in their true forms.

"I-I'll think about that."

"Alright. Cadence knows my address if you need it."

Now where did that orange pegasus guard go? I never caught his name.
+

"Moondancer?!"

Moondancer turned to look as a familiar purple unicorn rushed up, panting. "Amethyst Star?! Are you okay?"

The unicorn instead hugged her. "Are you? Lemon Hearts told me what happened."

"I'm fine...I had a rough go of it for awhile..."

"So I heard..." Sparkler lowered her head, pinning her ears. "I'm sorry...I...If me and my family hadn't...UGH!" she held her head. "No, if we'd been here they'd have buckin' been in the middle of all this! Ugh...I feel like my mind is being pulled in two separate directions!"

Moondancer hugged her friend. "I can understand that...I'm glad you weren't here, I didn't want another friend in danger."

"...But I could have freed you..."

"True, but the others saved me, that's all that mattered. I'm just glad to see you here, safe and sound."

"And the Doctor probably would have messed up the bad guy's plan like he always does, as much as I don't like that nutball..."

"What?"

"Long story...it involves Dracozilla..." Sparkler snarked. It didn't help thanks to her rides in the TARDIS she remembered a timeline where Moondancer had been fine, but Lyra, Minuette, and Twinkle Shine had been made mind-controlled minions instead and had to be saved from the Crystal Mines and freed from the geass after the Changelings were evicted, but didn't know why. What had altered it? "That's not here or there. Other than...you know, being brainwashed, how have things been going?"

"Good, I'm friends with Twilight now! Finally broke her shell!"

"That's... almost as shocking as the invasion thing... Okay, more shocking."

"And me and Spike are 'just friends' now for REAL...that's a longer story..."

"Got nothing but time...literally, hanging out with you and the others is all I honestly planned to do here."

"Maybe I can squeeze your family a few seats at the back row of the wedding of the century. Care to attend?"

"If you're there, that's fine by me."

+

"Hi Inkie!"

"Hello, Pinkie..."

I didn't jump as most ponies did when my little sister popped out of nowhere right besides me in my room at the castle.

"Aww! You ruined the reveal, Inkie!"

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus Prerecording): Pinkie! Just because we set the notes to autopilot doesn't mean you can just borrow them!)

"Aww..."

I've have stopped questioning my sister's oddness. "Pinkie, please don't call me Inkie, I changed my name when I got my Cutie Mark. It's Octavia Melody now." My parents were planning to name me Marble after I got my cutie mark, they were surprised when it was one for music.

"Alright, Octy."

"Better than 'Tavi' I suppose."

I decided to stop the formalities and give my sister a hug. What? You thought I was ashamed of my roots? That I loved my oddball sister less? No. Quite the opposite. Changing my name had to do with my cutie mark, not my family.

Like most of us, Pinkie decided to break the mold instead of being a rock farmer as our parents wanted. We both got along best with Granny Pie (though me mainly for her love of songs). Pinkie and I got along the best out of us Pie siblings. Me and our third sister didn't get along because...maybe she broke the mold a tad too far. Then again she was always kind of used to her plans always working out, maybe, she was a paradox sometimes...Oh we still love each other, all three of us...just Pinkie and I are closer.

A fourth sister? No I don't-Ugh, why does that make my head hurt?

Point is that I was as proud of Pinkie as anypony when she saved the world...now for the fourth time. And yes, I would very much like to get them together and write one of my songs about them. Surely the Elements of Harmony would have a rhythm of their own.

"Hey, Tavi! You didn't tell me you knew Pinkie Pie! How'd a city girl like you know a country filly like her?" Vinyl asked. Of course we'd been together.

"Pinkie Pie is my younger sister."

Vinyl blinked. "Uh."

She looked back and forth between the two of us, trying to see the resemblance. "Yah sure?"

We sighed. "Pinkie, do you mind?"

"Nope! Not anymore!" Pinkie, in that cartoony way she had, caused her mane and tail go straight. I simply undid mine and let it go straight as it did when I was younger. We stood next to each other and looked to Vinyl with bland looks on our faces like we had before Pinkie taught the family to smile again.

"Oh! Now I see it!...Then why is she-"

"Pinkie's coloring comes from our grandmother, Vinyl. I have not been replaced by a Changeling. I had to save YOU from the Changelings, remember?"

"Oh yeah...Sorry, just with how that witch messed with your head..."

Pinkie gasped. "Octy!...Chrysalis got you too?"

I sighed. I'd been hoping Pinkie wouldn't need to know. "Yes...again a psychopath wanted to make me their songbird," I muttered, looking down. "And this time they succeeded."

Pinkie, being herself, gave me the biggest hug she could. And no, I didn't hesitate to hug her back. Pinkie, for what time she was on the farm, had always tried to be the heart of that rather barren place. I was used to her trying to cheer me up.

"Octy, you don't need to feel bad about that."

"Discord liked my music, now Chrysalis liked my music, if Tirek appeared before us, I wonder if he'd like it too and send his stratadons to kidnap me so he could put me in a cage as his little songbird. Is my music something only snoba and monsters enjoy?"

"Octy now you're the one being silly!"

"As I recall you didn't care much for my music the last two times you heard me play, both at the Gala and the Garden Party. In fact you interrupted my Gala performance."

She whimpered. "I'm sorry...I thought I said I was sorry...and then sent an apology letter for that after my split personalities merged back together and realized how nasty that was."

No, that had not confused or shocked me as much as it would the average pony...I'd suspected it to be honest.

Vinyl on the other hoof, "Split personalities?...'Tavi you ever considered selling your life story? I bet it'd make a killing as a soap opera!"

I ignored her. "You did, Pinkie...and admittedly, the Pony Poka was a fun break from the tedium of the Gala, till you got too comfy with my cello...but you still didn't seem to care much for my music otherwise."

"Octy...I'm not going to lie...at the Gala, I...wasn't quite sane at the time...I'm better now but..."

"I know, Pinkie...and the Garden Party?"

Pinkie looked down. "T-That was me...I...I was so busy being with my friends I forgot to hang out with my sister...I do love your music, just..."

"Just what Pinkamena?"

"Hey! Hey! You said you're sisters right? Don't go putting each other down! The good guys won and everypony lived, right? So what's with the sour feelings? I found out some of the ponies who listen to my remixes are bug ponies but that doesn't make my music lousy!...In fact, one of them was kinda cool, gave 'em the nickname Wubsy...But come on Tavi, since when do you think bad about your music? You're making something out of nothing. If your music is radical that even super-jerks like it, then you gotta do something right. Princess Celestia must love your music too, or she wouldn't keep hiring you for Canterlot's big social meets right?"

"...My my, Vinyl, I didn't think you were capable of being the voice of reason..." I remarked in genuine surprise. Vinyl and reason tended to be...well...

"I just don't like seeing you down, okay? Princess Cadence rehired both of us on the spot! I haven't seen you this down since we got stranded on that desert island for half a day!"

"Well, everything was trying to eat me."

"Not the point."

"Because you're just that sweet," Pinkie said.

I chuckled at Pinkie's remark. "You're right."

"And Octy, Discord said Laughter was his favorite Element and according to some... strange ponies is in love with me."

I shuddered at the thought. If that monster's black hearts are capable of love, then I'd hate to see it be my sister.

"Father, why did you have me collect all those pictures of Pinkie?"

'I want to make one of those cute little stalker shrines you see on TV.'

"She hates you and love is pointless."

'I never said I love her...I have a creepy, morally reprehensible fascination with a mare several hundred billion years younger than me. And I have a crush on her and think she'd make a wonderful wife and perfect mother!'

"But this isn't about me Octy', it's about you. My point is, just because Discord loves Laughter, doesn't mean Laughter is bad. His mean bully kind of laughter is, but was me making you laugh right now a bad thing?"

"No...I needed that laugh."

"So maybe laughter is just so much fun even a big dumb meanie like Discord likes it...and maybe your music is so good big dumb meanies like him and nasty witches like Chrysalis like it?"

"That's what I said!" Vinyl said.

"I know, I was just giving another example to boost yours."

Did Pinkie just use logic? I smiled at the sight of it being Vinyl for once who was flustered. Heh.

"Ha! I got a laugh out of you!"

"Yes Pinkie Pie, you did. And thank you. I didn't let what Discord did to me bring me down, and I won't let this bring me down either...But...there is one more...small thing."

"What is it, Octy?"

"What that witch did to me...it wasn't brainwashing...the doctors said she tampered with my brain chemistry...she made me almost...really like her..." I shuddered. "I felt better after it wore off...but...I still feel...violated... she messed with my feelings...And...at least Discord understood the special quality of my music...he could hear it the way I did...with Chrysalis...ugh! I feel like some jock just strung me along for a month as his trophy fillyfriend!"

I whimpered, feeling tears go down my face. "I know it was as fake as fools gold, I know she manipulated my body to make me feel that way...but I can't help how it made me feel..."

"Oh no you don't!" Pinkie Pie said frowning, "We are NOT starting down that road again! You listen to your little sister! Queen Meanie is gone, poof, bye-bye! Ding dong the witch is dead! She's never gonna hurt you again!" She hugged me from the front.

"And you listen to your best friend too!" Vinyl hugged me from behind. "I care about you! It sure looks like your family cares about you! And I moonsent know that all your bandmates care about you! And you can bet the hay that those feelings are real!"

I felt so warm with them. I smiled and returned their hugs...as best I could anyway considering I was in a hug sandwich.

And it was sadly interrupted by a knock at the door...or so I thought. Pinkie and I just stared wide eyed at the mare at the door. And Pinkie's jaw went to the floor. I mean that literally.

"Blinkie?"

"My sisters." Our third sister trotted up to us and, for the first time in I-don't-remember-how-long, took her glasses off...and the contacts underneath, to let us see the orange eyes of our sister. "Thank Princess Celestia you are unharmed! With ze invasion und you being in Canterlot, I was...so worried."

No putting her own name in every sentence, no servants literally carrying her around...Just our sister looking at us with blood-shot eyes.

Family can be easy to forget in peaceful times. But I suppose when they're in harms way, you'll always remember them.

"Okay! I have gotta write this down!" Vinyl began scratching with a note pad.

"Vinyl."

"It's okay! I just change the names and nopony needs to know!"

"If you could actually write a book."

"I can write."

"Yes, you write some very lively melodies, but I mean novel."

"Oh! Right! I'll just sell the rights!"

"You do, and I'll sue your cutie mark off!" My OTHER sister said.

"I was just joking!" Vinyl exasperated, "Come on 'Tavi, do you really think I'm that selfish?"

"No. But you are that impulsive."

"...Point taken...But seriously, I did not see this coming."

Pinkie nodded. "Yeah, we get that a lot."

"Yes...though I suppose ze lengths I go to hide my roots are partly responsible...It's just..."

"It's fine," I said, hugging our sister, not caring what anypony thought. At all. "I know how harsh high society can be and you need to stand out...what matters, Photo, is that you worried about us and came to see if we were okay."

Pinkie hugged her as well, as Pinkie would.

And the brash, egotistical photographer dissolved, and our sister hugged us.

"I...I suppose when your family is in danger...Being with them. It is all that matters...I love you, sisters."

"I love you too, Photo."

"Me three!"

Vinyl looked at us again. "...Okay, so my classical music loving best friend is sisters with the a country girl party pony who saved the world...four times, and sisters with one of the toughest photographers in the business...and all three of you have different accents...this is surreal."

We blinked, looking at each other. Then laughed. I hadn't heard my sister laugh in so long.

"You should have heard our parents' accents!" Pinkie Pie laughed.

Photo gave a groan. "Yes, she is right...though come to think about it, Granny Pie, she had a different accent too."

"Our family is weird...which explains a lot when you think about it," Pinkie remarked.

I looked around at my family. It made me feel warm and smile just looking at them.

"So, feelin' better?" Vinyl asked smirking.

"I...yes I do. Thank you...I...I..." I looked at my cello. "I...I know only one way to actually express how I feel."

I picked up my cello and attuned my ear to the rhythm around me...the sound of movement, of our hearts beating. Of our breathing. And I began to play. A song that was us.

Pinkie didn't hide that she enjoyed my music this time...and Photo smiled. Vinyl...danced...and then Pinkie danced with her. I was with the ponies I cared about. That was the most important thing. This wasn't the fake emotions that the witch had pumped into me...this was real...I loved them both.

Of course Pinkie would sing.

"Three little ponies, splitting up at the start,
But here we are, still together at heart.

We go on and beyond.
But we still have our bond.

Hear you hear us now?
We can say it soft or loud!

Can you see us now?
Watch us dance and take our bow!

We cross the divide,
and here we are back at each other's side!"

I smiled to them as the song was over and I shared a hug first with my sisters, then with Vinyl.

"This moment," Photo Finish said, giving a smile and for once letting her mane down to how it was when we were fillies, and...admittedly with some reluctance, taking off her dress. She's still herself. "It must be captured! Anything else, it would be improper! It is time to make...the magics!...Now if only I had my camera."

"Here you go!" Pinkie produced Photo's camera and tripod out of nowhere and hoofed it to her. Vinyl blinked in confusion.

"How..."

"She's Pinkie Pie, it is what she does," me and Photo answered at the exact same time. The three of us just laughed. This was fun.

Photo did her thing and set up her camera , running a cable to her hoof. Photo arranged us in a way that just felt...natural. That captured the beauty of the moment as only she could. She might be used to having things her way...but sometimes, it isn't bad to let her do it.

My ear for the harmonies of existence, Pinkie's Pinkie Sense, and Photo's eye for things. I think all three of us Pie sisters had a unique way we saw the world that nopony else could.

Photo joined us and took her own pose, pulling the cable and taking the picture.

"I shall develop ze photos und send you each a copy," Photo explained. "...It has been so long since I have done ze personal photos...it feels good," she said, giving us a smile. It felt so good to just spend time with our family.

"I haven't seen you since you made Fluttershy a star...and then you didn't even visit. Don't be a stranger, sis!" Pinkie said, giving our sister a big hug.

"...I won't be, Pinkie...I missed you too."

Vinyl chuckled. "So, everything nice now?" she asked.

I nodded, "Now Frederick just needs to find a replacement for that priceless antique piano those brave little fillies destroyed."

Pinkie Pie had this strange guilty smile on her face.

"Money talks, and so do I. And the right ponies listen to both," Photo said.

"Good! Cause the reception is in...whao!" Vinyl's eyes widened.

Pinkie Pie grabbed Vinyl and looked at the time too. "LOVE YOU!" She kissed me on the cheek. "LOVE YOU!" Kissed our sister. "Now we're friends!" She hugged Vinyl, knocking her glasses off. And out she went out like a shot! Looked like she had preparation to make too.

"So 'Tavi, if you're looking for some nice guys, I know some stallions I could introduce-"

"Not right now Vinyl."

"But you gotta admit one thing?"

"What?"

"I was right about the invaders!"

"They weren't aliens."

"Oh. Right."

"And Vinyl?" I asked after she'd found 'her' glasses.

"Yeah?"

"Those glasses, they are mine," Photo stated crossly, holding Vinyl's out.

"Oh."

After exchanging their glasses back, Vinyl said, "Thanks, I don't mind my pretty reds or my shades, but seriously green eyes weren't my color."

"She got brainwashed from the changelings."

My sister looked to me. "Your friend, how did you save her from Changelings?"

"Oh...It's a funny story..."

"Come on Tavi', get with the beat! Ponykind, will no longer have to think!" Vinyl grinned.

"Yes Vinyl, I am aware of how difficult that can be for you, but it's not a burden for all of us."

"Don't knock being brainwashed till ya try it! That's what ya said about forcing me to listen to classical right?"

"Can I give you a hug first?"

"Sure!"

"Turns out I didn't need the vase I had behind my back after all."

+

"Twiley?" I slowly stepped into my little sister's room.

"BBBFF, don't you have a wedding to get suited up for?"

"Yes but first, I just want to say I'm sorry."

"If this is about that fight to the death-"

"No! It isn't! Something awful could have happened but it didn't. That witch used me like a weapon, she made me want to kill you. And . . . I HATE that, that's why I asked you to kill me. But trust me when I say it just means I now know how some friends felt when something similar happened to them. Twiley, I'm sorry for what happened at the rehearsal, it wasn't the witch's magic, that was my own stupidity."

Twiley's became stern. "It wasn't stupidity. You did exactly what a husband should do, you defended your wife and presented rational reasons to her defense. I was the one too emotionally charge to back up my accusations without more solid proof, and that cost all of us."

"But she was guilty, and she wasn't Cadence!"

"But neither of us knew that. You wouldn't have been a good husband if you didn't exhaust every possibility that Cadence was innocent, and you wouldn't be a good BBBFF if you didn't reign me in when I was going out of control. Shining, it's the prosecution's job to prove rationally that the accused is guilty, and I failed in that. It just goes to show, when the prosecution doesn't do their job right, become more interested in the guilty verdict than the truth, they paint themselves as the villain, and it causes exactly what happened: the guilty going free - dang this soap box."

"Twiley, I still HURT YOU, and I can't stand that."

"And from all appearances -I- hurt Cadence! You were RIGHT to be angry! What if it had been all circumstance and wedding stress? Would you STILL be apologizing to me?"

"But it wasn't!"

"Shining, my recklessness that led to that fight to the death was what led to Scootaloo saving Sweetie Belle. But that didn't make me lying and trapping a filly in a monster filled castle RIGHT! What if I had been captured or killed? Scootaloo would have been trapped there, I had no way to know she'd escape. The good that came of my wrong did not turn my wrong 'good'! And YOU being a loving husband-to-be, when I was NOT ACTING LIKE YOUR LOVING SISTER AT ALL, is not wrong because Chrysalis abused that goodness. I forgive you Shining. If you acted any different, you wouldn't have been the stallion Cadence loved. Like I know you'd have done if Cadence had hurt me instead. Now hurry up and get ready so you can spend the rest of your lives loving each other!"

Twilight practically began pushing me out.

"Okay okay! And Twiley...love you little sister."

"Love you too big brother. See you at the wedding!"

+

Princess Celestia? I already talked about her Momjesty. Yes I did talk with her just before the ceremony...I'd...I'd rather not repeat that conversation word for word.

Feeling bad when you do something wrong? Admitting you did something wrong and wanting to make it better. It's part of what makes us ponies and it's part of what keeps us from being monsters.

But...it's like guilt and regret are becoming like monsters all their own, this feeling of never being good enough, of not trying hard enough, of failure, that it's all...pointless has been looming larger and larger. Like regret had become some invisible pony hiding in our shadows telling us we might as well not try or submit to the intelligence and will of somepony smarter and wiser than us and just accept our tiny worthless place in things.

But I didn't realize it until I spoke with Princess Celestia. And I realized that while she couldn't feel regret, she was coming frightening close, it was, unnatural looking, like the sun giving off freezing cold and the moon sucking up light instead of reflecting it.

Please, don't make me repeat what she said, it was horrible enough hear her say it about herself.

She told me...unlike Nightmare Moon, Discord, and Nightmare Whisper, Queen Chrysalis had been right in front of her. This wasn't something she wasn't there for, or something she knew there were other ponies who could do the job better than her, or one of her elaborate plans. Chrysalis had completely blind sided her. My teacher had fought her, had truly fought her. And still lost. Ponies had their true faith in her, and when her chance finally came to repay that faith...Chrysalis made a mockery of it.

Fine! She said, "I could have used MORE POWER, Twilight, I could have, but if I did, I would had destroyed that building and everypony in it...But I could also have hit her 'corpse' with a sealing spell to make sure there was no spell in place to take us with her or gambit to revive her if she died...which would have neutralized her spell before it could have beaten me. I haven't lost hope, this is different...it's faith in myself I feel slipping. I have hope you and your friends can protect Equestria, that Cadence can...but I'm beginning to lose faith that I can...

"You saved my sister and Fluttershy where I couldn't, you defeated Discord because I no longer had the only thing that let me be able to, What kind of goddess am I?"

Those words, sounded so horribly, horribly WRONG coming from my teacher! The sun shouldn't darken. And the teacher I loved so dearly, should never, ever, ever lose heart! This shadow of guilt had no right to her!

And I wouldn't let her be crushed. but how do I do it? A thought occurred to me.

"...Dear Princess Celestia..."

She perked up, looking at me.

"Today, my friends and I tried to save Equestria and defeat an evil witch that threatened it all...and we failed. The Elements of Harmony couldn't beat her. We couldn't beat her...But because we never gave up, we managed to get Princess Cadence to where she and Shining could defeat Chrysalis and save Equestria...and the Changelings. I wasn't the one to save my brother, while what I tried turned out the best for others, I didn't succeed at my goal. It was somepony else who saved him. But I was there with my friends to help and made her being there and her rescuing him POSSIBLE to begin with! This time...we weren't the heroes of the day. While Cadence battled her nemesis...we were holding the line, stopping the Changelings from influencing the battle...that's what we could do...We couldn't stop Chrysalis, we could only help the ones that could...but we weren't pointless. We did what we could. And in the end, that was enough. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle..."

I looked up at her. "Princess...Who taught me most of the spells I know?"

"...I wouldn't say most..."

"But who taught me the basics for having such power? Who trained me to safely control my power and not fear it? Who taught me my power was a gift to cherish and not a monster inside nor a scepter to lord over others with? Who taught me how to learn magic and the right way to use magic?"

"...M-Me..."

"And who taught Cadence the responsibility her power comes with? Who taught her to control it? Who made sure she didn't grow up to be a high and mighty pony who is little better than Blueblood used to be? Who taught her the diplomatic skills she needed to defeat Chrysalis by swaying half the Changeling army to her side? And handle the fall out from that?"

"...M-Me..."

"...And who sent me to Ponyville so I could make friends? Who sent Cadence on the World Tour where she and Shining fell in love so they could defeat Chrysalis?...Who wounded Chrysalis, leaving her in need of healing and unable to chase after us when we escaped the throne room?"

Celestia gasped, looking at me in surprise.

"...Today wasn't won by any one pony. It was won by me and my friends refusing to quit...it was won by Trixie realizing we needed her and coming back for us after the Queen tried to crush her...by Blueblood and Arcane Spell rescuing the real Cadence ...by Lyra and her family saving Moon Dancer and uniting her friends and giving my friends the chance to escape...by Mr. and Mrs. Tiara and the Wonderbolts for freeing the second foreman of the rune's creation...by Misfit and Weaver's family refusing to give up when trapped deep behind enemy lines and taking out Digger Wasp and Kabuto, and later helping my other friends defeat Hercules...by one little flightless pegasi filly's insurmountable courage and loyalty... by a big sister's love and insight... a little sister's love and Spike's resolve... by the cleverness and teamwork of younglings... by the Gifted Unicorns, Fancypants, and so many citizens of Canterlot for standing strong."

"Yes, I couldn't be more proud...I'm going to need to commission a larger stained glass window..."

"But it was also won by you wounding the Queen and leaving her weakened enough for all of us to escape...So why can't you be proud of the role you played in it?"

"...While I do indeed have many plans Twilight, I do not truly meddle with the personal lives of my ponies, they're your lives to live...Every plan I have in motion is to protect my ponies...but this wasn't some foolish disaster you brought upon yourself that had gone out of control, it was a danger on the level it was my responsibility to protect you all from."

"But by the time she revealed herself, Chrysalis had become a threat that was our responsibility to protect Equestria from," I explained. "And we failed too. In the end...the only one that could defeat Chrysalis in a way that would end the violence...end the terror: was Cadence. You are an Alicorn, so...like Cadence, you do count as a Changeling Queen...but Cadence was related to Chrysalis in what seems to be the same way me and Twilight the First are related. Or the same way Pinkie and Rarity's souls are related. You were Cadence's aunt, yes, but the relationship wasn't biological, it was spiritual...the fact is, the only one who could challenge Chrysalis for the throne, was Cadence. And that's no pony's fault. It wasn't that we weren't strong enough. It was that Cadence was the best suited to defeat her."

I looked her in the eyes. "And Princess...Chrysalis said it herself, that Equestria has more love than anyplace she has ever encountered... you're the one we have to thank for that! You haven't ruled Equestria for centuries because you're the most powerful pony in it, or because you raised the Sun...You're ruler because you loved the ponies of this land enough to defy the, at least, fifth most powerful being in creation for them...the being who killed your mother and your aunt in front of you. You didn't do it for revenge or for power...you did it for us ponies...You're ruler because you've always done what was best for Equestria, even at great personal cost."

I floated her scorched crown she'd sat down up and sat it on her head. "You're not just a ruler, you're a leader, you're a teacher. You taught me as your student...you taught Cadence as your niece...and you taught Equestria love Discord tried his hardest to snuff out and failed. You taught us love after a thousand years of disharmony and strife...as in conflict and suffering, not the Draconequus...The point is, you taught Equestria to love again after a thousand years of Discord trying to crush the very idea of it. You defeated Nightmare Moon because you loved us enough to put what you wanted behind our safety, and that's one thing Chrysalis never did once in her entire life."

I got a look of realization. "...And that is your true victory over them both. You managed to revive something Discord sought to crush. You've never turned on your little ponies, not once in your entire existence. We're always what you put before yourself. And that proves you're a better pony and a better ruler than Chrysalis ever was."

I looked her straight in the eyes. "...The face I'm looking at right now...it's not a mask like the Chrysalis the Changelings saw...it's not a facade like Discord always wears. It's you. When you told me about the lives you've had before? The mistakes you've made? The pony in front of me, didn't change in the least. Even Nightmare Genesis...she wasn't born from selfish envy or jealousy...she was born from wanting to save what could not be saved."

I hugged her. "You didn't hide from your mistakes. You told me them despite the fact I trust you more than anypony else. You accepted them and move past them...and because of that, today, Equestria is a wonderful place to live."

I looked up into her eyes. "You're never alone, Princess. That's the best thing about living in Equestria...we're never alone. Today proved that more than anything else...when Chrysalis thought she'd crushed every hero there was...more rose up. When we thought we were one little faction challenging an invasion, we found more allies than we could ever have thought possible...but not all of them were fighters...one pony can't do everything. Everypony can do something. And together we can do anything. That is the lesson you taught us Princess...and it's the lesson that defeated Chrysalis."

"You're wrong Twilight Sparkle..." She hugged me, "It was the lesson that saved Equestria. My faithful and wonderful student," She nuzzled me, "Thank you, for reminding me. My memories can never fade, but I can turn a blind eye to them if I bury myself in my own fears it seems. Thank you my little pony. For teaching me back, some of the lessons I've given you, and some new ones."

"It's why you let me stay in Ponyville isn't it? To learn?"

"Of course not, it was to be with your friends."

"Heh heh, thanks for the reminder."

"Now come along my little pony, we have a real wedding to attend."

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Written by Alex Warlorn
Reharmonization

Pinkie Pie, "Ooooooh!!! Call back to Season one in the title! Oh right right! Tone down the meta-references Pinkie Pie! Show them ponies on the other side of the camera that you can be calm, rational, and sane just like you promised you'd be from now on! Wow! We squeezed in so many scenes this chapter! SO MANY PONIES! SO MANY HAVE HUGS AND SMILES! I think the chapter would EXPLODE if we put anymore in! Well! Onto the wedding them! OH! OH! And that scene at the end? In case readers didn't know, and so we don't get sued, it was a tribute to the bestest best heart-warming and character driven wedding aftermath fan comic out there! Our Dear Celestia!" http://www.deviantart.com/art/Our-Dear-Celestia-339628733 "I'm so excited! Aren't you excited? Okay! Now we've just got the wedding and reception to do! WEDDING HOOOO!!! Oh! Oh! But first be sure to read this chapter and leave your comments here! This feels so much fun! It's back to ponies healing each other with love and friendship! And that's why we're little ponies! I feel like going to listen to 7 Songs and a Story again! Tee-hee! Did we miss anypony? I Hope we didn't miss anypony!"

Rainbow Dash, "Okay, just who the heck gave Pinkie Pie coffee?"

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Friends-Making-Up-471691085

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-The-REAL-Wedding-472712495

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (SERIOUSLY need to be kept up to date, every little bit helps!).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions. http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/ For heaven sake they rock! Kendell2 and Oracle Mask and Richforce and Ardashir and Jawmax and Persona22 and Dragon of Twilight and ItsFromPeople and all the rest!!!

Episode 207: "The REAL Wedding!"

And so the day was finally perfect, the day I had dreamed of since I was small.

= 'Ever Ever After' Enchanted =

I found my parents, alive, healthy again, themselves, and sane. They didn't fear me. Like my friends Twinkle Shine and Minuette, they were only happy the wicked witch who feed on their love and left them ill wasn't me. I'm happy they were able to stay out of the conflict and Queen Chrysalis hadn't sucked them dry. There were enough ponies fighting, and I was just happy that they were safe. I didn't waste time hating Chrysalis for it, I was more interested in being happy. And mom and dad took me and Shining considering adopting Kifuko well, so I don't think they were interested in feeling hate either.

They look at me lovingly as I pass down the aisle, my mother softly singing to herself, my father felt amazed at the mare his little filly had become. It didn't matter what I was, it never did, I'd always be their foal. And I love them for it.

Shining Armor's parents feel the same way, I know it. Moonlight Sparkle, heh, or whatever name he's changed it to right now, couldn't look more proud. His son was a hero, his son was marrying a goddess, but that wasn't the point, he found true love.

Starlight Sparkle . . . four broken legs, and she's here anyway in her wheel chair in the front row. I wonder if I'll become that determined when Shining and I have foals of our own. She told me earlier her horoscope had changed. "Now it says after your honeymoon you'll inherit a large collection of jeweled ponies." I'd have to make room in my closet.

Members of the cat tribes are here, they did helped save the world...safely in the back row where Pinkie Pie had told them to play the 'quiet game' until Shining and I kissed.

It was still odd seeing Blueblood sitting there among the cat tribe in the back, but was weirder was seeing him smiling among them. Arcane Spell seemed to get stronger and heal faster just by being near them. And it was because my selfish cousin had truly cared for somepony else that I was able to stand here. They'll always have my gratitude.

Moth was here in the pews along with Bon Bon and her adopted child Tootsie. She's here in her true form. But I remember what Auntie said, if that form was really just an expression of the armor changelings had around their hearts, then maybe once the changeling tribe was fully accepted as part of the herd again, maybe their hearts would shed that armor, and show us the naked trusting pony underneath...But for now, Moth wasn't just one of my new subjects, she was my friend and I was glad to have her here.

All changeling who had sided with Chrysalis sans Hercules Beetle were forbidden to attend my wedding, Hercules had been an exception so the Swarm could have a witness (Moth now a legal Equestrian). He attended purely as a guard.

Some of my new subjects had asked Shining if he wanted to become a Changeling (no clue if there's a King caste, but there is a procedure Changelings undergo to mate with the Queen, just nopony remembers the last time the Queen had a husband). Thankfully the reveal Changelings were ponies meant he didn't have to convert...but it was still awkward to say the least. Saving that one for our photo album.

Weaver and her siblings were on guard duty, in their true forms as well, but proudly wearing their guard armor. I'd offered them the day off in recognition of their loyalty to Equestria, but they'd chosen to be guards for my wedding and they wanted to finally be guards for a Changeling Queen they could be proud to serve.

Their foster families? If they didn't know before, they know now, and they don't love them any less. I don't know what happened when the triplets met their blood parents after so long, or when their two families meet, but I think after any war, all any family wants to be is together.

Reminds me how I had gotten a strange letter from Cloudsdale. 'Thank you, maybe our family can come back together someday now. Thank you.' No name signed, no address, only the mail mare was able to tell me what city it came from and that apparently the ponies were just now moving back.

Misfit Actual looked pretty good in dress uniforms. Except Garnet, she was in a dress in the pews playfully eyeing Running Gag. Since Audience had arrived so late, we hadn't had time to rework things for another new groomstallion with preparations already so hectic, so Garnet opted to sit out and let Audience have her spot.

To my surprise, Banjo was here after all, apparently Mrs. Sparkle attending with four broken legs to his one had inspired him. She blushed when he said he'd inspired her. And she recommended some of her books. Poor soul.

Cherry Coke I think was just happy he had gotten through the entire ordeal without losing a single pony.

Caramel was looking good and proud, I think he puffed out his chest a little, grinning ear to ear.

His marefriend, Sassaflash, had gotten a seat far back, after she had arrived in Canterlot along with others to see if her coltfriend was okay.

I'd seen Note Worthy and Lyra talking lively when they saw each other. Apparently Note Worthy had composed a few songs for her before his family pressured him into joining the guard.

"I've got tell you, the whole time I was scared that I was gonna get hit, then die cradled in the arms of one of my friends! Then the others would talk about avenging my death, then never talk about me again," he'd told her.

"Maybe you should get out of the guard and just start composing again. Believe me...ponies never forget their friends..." Lyra said, looking towards a certain pair of empty seat for two departed friends of mine.

Bon Bon I think was happy she got to witness this, all her family was safe, and she could just go back to making voice changing candies in Ponyville while Lyra obsesses over humans. Tootsie looked ready to jump out of her seat and wanting to have a watch right on the daises. Bon Bon kept her in place, promising her free run once the ceremony was over.

Lyra didn't need to be my 'champion' anymore, and she didn't need the harp I gave her, but it just felt right to let her keep both. In her nightmares she feared being forgotten, I'll remember her for eternity.

Lyra stood proud at the end of the aisle, my bridesmaid. So did Twinkle Shine and Minuette in their own dresses. They'd been with me all this time, they knew were than willing to help me and Shining come together, they may have been hired to be my hoof maidens, but now they were my friends. I think Twinkle might have added a little extra 'shine' to my dress, and Minny might have 'extended' the golden moment that was coming just a little. Heh.

There was noble and brilliant Fancy Pants (who wasn't about to let a cracked horn slow him down, I doubt an army of changeling would have slowed him down, oh wait, it didn't) and insightful and savvy Fleur Dis Lee (who hadn't let some broken ribs stop her).

Apple Fritter and Peachy Sweet in honor of their help had been given invites, but turned them down, somepony had to make sure the catering was perfect with Applejack doubling as a bridesmaid.

Some Maasailanders were also in attendance (apparently the Changelings hadn't invited them originally due to the world as a whole still kind of believing they were deadly). They were suffering some culture shock but understood they were in another country. That said, they got along great with my new subjects, considering them beautiful.

With everything back in harmony, and the coup over, Shining and I were both able to invite foalhood friends of ours who didn't get sent invites by Chrysalis.

Leon, Crono, and Pit, Shining's old foalhood playmates, and of course, Gaffer, 8-Bit (who brought along his family), and Poindexster, excuse me, Gizmo who got a free pegasus ride straight from Ponyville. All of them on Shining's side of the pews.

And me?

There was the unicorn Lemon Gems from my school days, and her husband Buck Withers (she had said she could reform the bully with properly applied nagging just like her mother had done with her father, and she had proven herself right). Yes, she is related to Lemon Hearts! She once told me she was surprised that it was her sister with her lemon magic that got accepted in Auntie Celestia's school and not her with her jewel magic. She doesn't hold a grudge, she's got her prize. Though she was surprised that her sister had taken an active part in stopping the Queen and saving Equestria from the Changelings. And just happy she was alright.

There was also the pegasus Diamond Rose, another of my old classmates I hadn't seen in at least two years. I honestly didn't know what was going on with her, it had been so long. Ironically I know she and Lemon Gems have stayed in touch. No, she isn't related to Filthy Rich's family as far as I know, I think.

There was the other gifted unicorns of course. Lemon Hearts and Moon Dancer. Lemon Hearts had her Angry Lemons with her, they were her family too after all. The Great Mother Lemon watched through one of the windows.

Moon Dancer, what made her happy most of all I think, is that she could finally drop her guard, the monsters were tamed, and her nightmare was over. If she had fallen asleep right there, I'd have wished her nothing but sweet dreams.

There was Filthy Rich and Golden Tiara. She looked so beautiful, she was wearing a wonderful dress laced with countless diamonds. It hide her lower body was covered in bone casts. Next to Golden was her nurse Tender Loving Care.

The paper work wouldn't go through until midnight, but after everything, I had asked Auntie to pull some strings to push through her examination, and after speaking with her and her husband, she was to be declared legally sane.

The Riches they weren't interested in returning to Ponyville until they found their daughter. Silver Tongue (apparently he was best friends with Golden Tiara's husband, small world) and his daughter Silver Spoon sat next to the Riches… Silver Tongue said he was happy to have armor off again. He had a family to think about.

His wife Silver Platter sat next to them. If the barrier hadn't come down, I swear to Auntie she had broken the barrier down herself and the walls of Canterlot to reach her husband and foal.

Silver Spoon again turned down becoming a flower filly, he said she just wanted to experience this event with her family instead. Her smiled is beautiful, she doesn't struggle in her mother's hug.

I don't know what what Silver Platter and Golden Tiara have to say to each other other after all these years, hopefully good things.

On Shining's side there was the Doctor, and his 'companion' from Ponyville and her daughters, Dinky and Sparkler, apparently 'Sparkler' knew Moon Dancer. It was such a small small world.

Dusk, the elderly unicorn that had been Chrysalis' slave, and her sisters also sat on Shining's side. Shining said he knew them well, but I swear they had to be relatives. They looked so much like Twilight. I noticed little Dawn had an adorable little phoenix chick she never let go of.

My own old foalsitter, and Spitfire's mother, Supermarine, having arrived just in time to attend after getting her real invitation (at last), along with her daughter. Her two best friends, Soarin' and Fleetfoot aside her.

The three littlest heroes of Equestria skip in front of me, scattering flower petals ahead of me. Yes, I know Spike is actually younger than Applebloom, tee-hee, it's just more adorable to think of them that way!

It's wonderful to see the three of them (and little Silver in the pews) just being fillies. I think they enjoyed it too.

Our scaly ring-bearer is waiting at the altar.

No more villains or monsters, may this be mine and Shining Armor's happy ending...but even if it isn't, this is still our happy beginning, and we'll brave the journey together as long as we can.

Applejack just smiled. This time she was herself and not a slave, she looked at her little sister doing her part with pride. There was relief in Applejack, I think this wedding happening the right way gave her some freedom too.

Pinkie Pie looked to be struggling not try burst out crying and hug her friends right there. I know the feeling.

And there was Trixie. Twilight tells me she found her sleeping on her stage, having gone over her performance until she fell asleep on her hooves. Twilight told her (and so did I), that with the hard work she'd put into her show, and helping me save Twilight, and saving Twilight from killing me, she deserved to take a moment of honor at the ceremony itself. I promised her I had faith in her magic show. So after being an oyster since the battle ended, she was here with the rest of us.

I see the pride in Rarity's eyes, I think she managed to make my wedding dress even more beautiful than the one the witch had worn and destroyed. She had repaired, restored, or recreated all of her dresses that had been lost in the chaos to retake Canterlot, not to mention created several more for new guests, she was right to be proud.

Heh, Fluttershy's birds are truly beautiful as they sing, I'm happy everypony can hear their song.

And there waiting at the altar was my Shining Armor, my fairy tale prince. The look in his eyes, I didn't need more proof he loved me, but constant reminders, being married in the first place, were part of the nice things about being in love. The look in his eyes made me warm inside and the wonderful feeling even greater. The only concern I had was making sure he saw the same look in my eyes.

This was my special day, no, it's mine and Shining Armor's.

And you've all heard this part. Twilight wondering how a pony like me could fall for somepony like Shining. Shining telling Twilight how I loved the idea of having her as my sister too. Auntie holding ceremony, me making it clear I didn't care for my full title (which is now considerably longer since I was technically a Princess of Equestria, Goddess of Maasailand, and Queen of the Changelings at the same time). Auntie Celestia telling everypony we had proven our love beyond a shadow of all doubt. Rings upon our horns. And the most beautiful kiss I can ever remember!

Out onto the balcony we go. Now everypony can see our love! No I don't care if it's theatric! It's how I feel! Our love made it past everything creation threw at us, and here we stand, here we stand on our happy day!

Everypony cheering for us below, all of Canterlot, maybe all of Equestria.

I didn't care if it was a victory for a battle, it was what came after, this wonderful wonderful moment with my Shining Armor. All of Canterlot seeing us together.

Auntie talking with Twilight and her friends of what Twilight had learned.

A second perfectly wonderful kiss!

And Auntie reminding Rainbow Dash it was finally time for her big moment. Now that I was seeing her do it with a huge smile on her face and enjoying every second of it, the Sonic Rainboom is even more beautiful than I believed it would be.

"Best… wedding... ever!"

I can't remember when I had been so happy!

Now there might be a few differences from what you've read before. Auntie Luna was there for the whole thing. Ironically, I think her bat ponies understood and were understood by the changeling guards the most.

Who did we ask to be Kifuko's wet nurse? I'll leave that for your imagination. Heh.

And Auntie for her gift, gives us a wonderful sunset, but it felt more like a sunrise to me.

I swear on my heart, my bond with Shining Armor is a bond no force in all the world can break. And I'll stay true to him, and I know he'll stay true to me. My beloved.

I didn't know it then, but there was one last clash that evening. It wasn't for the fate of the world...But it was very important for one family.

+++

"Rarity?! What did you say?" My little sister gasped out.

"You heard me. This is the last trip you can expect for a good while. Once we're back in Ponyville, you won't be leaving the house without me except for school. You'll see the doctor daily, then Twilight, then a priest. Twilight will be renewing protection spells on you daily. And whenever I'm not with you, either Cheerilee or Silver Spoon or Spike will be. And you'll be sleeping in my bedroom, Big Mac can move your bed."

My precious baby sister looked at me wide-eyed, "B-but why?!"

I knew she'd react like this, it was why I'd taken her inside the empty ballroom that wasn't in use yet.

"Remember how you were in a position to be corrupted to the sick designs of that witch? You and your friends' little conspiracy to get all three of you as flower fillies! I chose to risk you coming in spite of your condition, and you were eager to show it was safe. And you were brainwashed, used as a battery and shield, almost attacked Scootaloo, and nearly died. I'd say, as your guardian, that this disproves your argument. It wasn't safe and I can't trust it to be for a long time."

"But I'm alright! And Scootaloo saved me!"

"And that's why I'm not meeting with her parents to tell them they've raised a foal who thought the best way to save you was to grab you then jump out a window when she couldn't fly! And I'm happy you brought that up." I could see in her eyes she knew what I was about to say. I didn't like that look on her face, but it's for her own good. I sigh. I'm sorry Sweetie, this hurts me as much as you. "Your friends' recklessness has been one disaster after another, how many times have you been hurt doing your absurd stunts randomly trying anything whether it makes you happy or not, hoping it'll be your special talent? Sweetie Belle, I must say I am truly disappointed in you. No matter how dangerous or thoughtless their schemes are, you just go along with them. WHY Sweetie?! WHY!? Don't you know I worry about you?! That I care about you?! Your days of Cutie Mark Crusading are over."

"Rarity! No!"

I tell myself to stay strong for her sake.

"Yes."

"You can't do that!"

"I can. And I have. I have nothing against you being their friend, but you've proven yourself to be a yes-filly to Applebloom and Scootaloo, I can't let you take part in their misadventures anymore."

I sigh. And I wait for it. The hateful yelling. The angry swears of disownment. Sweetie Belle looking at me with the fury of a thousand suns. Telling me I was now the wicked witch. Maybe even using what that witch taught her to try making me change my mind (thank goodness for Twilight's protection magic). Sweetie Belle I know you'll forgive and thank me...some day.

I was surprised when my precious baby sister breathes in deep, then lets it slowly.

"I get us to do as many crazy schemes as they do, Cutie Mark Crusaders Tiger Tamers was my idea, and...it was my idea to make our capes out of your gold silk without permission." ?! Did Sweetie Belle just admit she'd done something wrong by not getting my consent first?! "I was the one who didn't read the book on the love poison all the way through. Those were my fault. But look at all the good we did today! We didn't have anything to do with the changelings invading Canterlot. We stopped an army of hypnotized ponies. The reason Chryssy wanted me is because she heard me singing. Do you want me to give up singing too?"

That hurt. "...No, I don't. The point is that if I hadn't allowed you to come to Canterlot in the first place, you wouldn't have been brainwashed."

"Applejack, Twilight, and Spike all got brainwashed too! Are you going to have them stay home? Stop Spike from being a Crusader too?!"

"Applejack and Twilight Sparkle are adults who make their own choices. And Spike is Twilight's responsibility."

"Applejack's been brainwashed more times I've been, and Chryssy's magic was worse for her and-"

"If you're going to say you're made of sterner stuff than Applejack-"

"-and Applejack is still allowed to make food for the wedding and be a bride's maid! And everypony knows how stubborn she can be and do things when she should be resting! She's an adult! But that hasn't stopped you all from doing your best to make sure she doesn't overwork herself after Applebuck season!" Applejack's self-abusive behavior that time had become the stuff of legends. "She's being allowed to help how SHE wants to help in spite of what happened to her and how she was hurt!"

"She's an adult and-"

"And you trust that she's not working too hard after she once tried to work the whole farm by herself?"

"Please Sweetie Belle, just be a filly, you and your friends, please stop trying to so hard to be adults!"

"And I can't be a filly if you lock me away like a glass doll!" Sweetie Belle, how could you say that? "I don't WANT to be remembered as the filly who helped...who helped...who helped ponies do bad things to other ponies. I don't want to be remembered as 'Princess Sweetie Belle the Witchling' anymore than Trixie wants to be remembered for the Ursa!"

"And you won't! How could anypony think such a thing?"

"Maybe the way some ponies thought Fluttershy was a bad pony even though she was brainwashed," Sweetie said quoting the fiction that had been spread to let Fluttershy resume her life. "Until she helped with the water hurricane. Not letting me spend time with my friends anymore? Not letting me go anywhere except school? Never letting me be alone? You're punishing me."

"I'm not punishing you! I'm protecting you! I don't want to LOSE YOU!" My eyes mist over at the terrible thought, and of what that witch planned to do to her. "You're my responsibility. I let you go, and the first thing that happens is you're snatched up by a witch!" Can't you understand that I love you?

"Discord hurt Ponyville worse than anywhere! And Princess Gaia zapped everypony in Equestria except for Canterlot!"

"At least I'll always know where you are!"

"...Rarity...Applejack and Twilight got snatched too. Are you going to let the mean spirits that got Fluttershy turn you into a Nightmare and put the whole world in a doll collection so we never get hurt?!"

I gasped, imagining that horrible scenario. Going that far to an extreme. All my friends as a nice little collection in my closet, unable to do anything but be perfectly 'safe'...just nice little dolls...like...like Discord made...

"Chryssy could have gotten ANYPONY, me being one isn't my fault..." I saw her eyes tear up. "Or yours."

And it was like my heart had been struck by lightning. For a little bit, the whole world stopped.

And...and I heard myself say "If you keep a dress in a closet, it won't get dirty, but how is anypony ever going to see it? Or enjoy it? Is that love? Or selfish?"

...

My little filly.

What have I done?

She hugged me. I hug her too.

We nuzzle each other.

"Sweetie Belle..."

"Yes Rarity?"

"This isn't something a guardian is supposed to do, so I don't want you repeating this to anypony understand? You do, and I'll deny it three times. You bring this up in an argument, and I will spank you and ground you. But...you can forget everything I just said, You're free to see and be with your friends!"

"...I...thank you big sister."

"...you're, you're welcome Sweetie. I'm your big sister, it's my job to see that you're happy...not just safe. I suppose balancing that is the hardest part. Thank you for reminding me that being a sister is about give and take, and listening to you too. . . . And what's this about tiger taming?"

" . . . Uh . . . we used Opal?"

My gaze did not break.

"Until we 'found' a real one! Uh, oops?"

"We will discuss that later. No ifs, ands, or buts about that punishment. You're going to have to learn to listen to your sister too. Now let's dry these tears. We have a reception to attend."

+++

Come along little ponies. Let's enjoy my wedding reception together. It hasn't been canceled. And I promise they'll be plenty of happy surprises to find and meet! -- Personal Invite Of Princess Cadence

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Written by Alex Warlorn
The REAL Wedding

Pinkie Pie, "WhaoooooOOoooo . . . that was a lot of coffee . . . I feel a bit weird now . . . Maybe that's why Mrs. Cake tells me I shouldn't really drink that much. But the wedding sure was happy! I think everypony got her two cents there!"

Sweetie Belle, "Hey, do you think they should have put me and Rarity . . . taking with each other at the start? Since this was Princess Cadence's big day?"

Pinkie Pie, "Sweetie? How did you? That's it. I'm locking that door. But seriously everypony! Hope you enjoyed the wedding! Next chapter is the last chapter of the wedding arc, the reception! But sure to . . ." *looks at script author gave her* "'Be sure to comment, and update the trope page if you're into that sort of thing.'" *throws away script* "But seriously everypony! I hope you've been having fun here! I know I am! Now Sweetie Belle, scoot, scoot!"

Sweetie Belle, "But I'm not Scoota-" *pushes her back into the story*

Pinkie Pie, "Alright everypony! It's been fun! See you real soon I hope! And thanks for staying with us!"

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Reharmonization-472032675

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Love-Is-In-Bloom-473075435

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (SERIOUSLY need to be kept up to date, every little bit helps!).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions. http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/ For heaven sake they rock! Kendell2 and Oracle Mask and Richforce and Ardashir and Jawmax and Persona22 and Dragon of Twilight and ItsFromPeople and all the rest!!!

Episode 208: "Love Is In Bloom"

I'd say everypony had a happy time at our reception. I'm the concept of music, and I know better than anypony that ponies like to sing. But dancing is just another form of expression too! And everypony danced that night, even those who had no clue what they were doing...Twilight is wonderful but she stinks at dancing. Very badly.

= 'Forbidden Friendship' How To Train Your Dragon =

Moon Dancer and Sparkler danced, friends reunited, I think both were just happy the other was safe. Moon Dancer and little Spike danced as well, this time recognizing each other as true friends. Sparkler also took a turn letting little Tootsie dance with her. It reminded me of myself and Twilight when she was little. Tootsie also get her chance to dance with 'Mare Do Well' all four of her.

Sweetie Belle and Spike danced once more, this time by their own choice.

Soarin' danced with Rainbow Dash. Rarity danced with Fancy Pants. No, their other halves didn't mind, dancing is like love, it isn't just about the pony you want to spend your life with, it's those who are close to you and even just somepony you like. Shining even let Thunderchild, Ellis, Audience, and Ace (now invited to the wedding along with Shining's other friends) dance with me and I let Diamond Rose dance with Shining, followed by Twinkle Shine, Lemon Hearts, and Lyra. Hey! Leave some for me!

Miss Half-Light Dawn danced with her pet firebird Peewee, I hope she keeps him away from the ice-cream.

The Doctor danced with his companion, and later with Minuette. Minuette would tell me later she and the Doctor were friends now. She hoped to continue to be for a long time. So did I.

Lemon Gems danced with Lemon Hearts. The Angry Lemons politely danced in a circle around their 'mother' and 'aunt.' The Angry Great Mother Lemon also danced with a dragon 'ambassador' Queen Tiamat sent to discuss things with me about my new subjects (though on the mountain nearby were there weren't ponies to be caught under foot.

"Sis'?" Lemon Gems said.

"Yeah?"

"You're a great sorceress pony!" They hugged.

"Dear, it's been far too long since we've danced," I heard Golden Tiara say as the couple twirled. Filthy Rich looked like he was on top of the world. He held Golden like he'd never let her go. I didn't doubt that's exactly what he intended. I could feel their bond. How much it'd healed. It was a wonderful feeling.

Silver Tongue danced with his wife. Silver Platter didn't care how much he'd done to save Equestria. She didn't care about the new Solar Horseshoe medal he'd been awarded (technically, he was eligible for a Lunar Horseshoe, but he'd said he was retired for a reason and wanted to be seen as a civilian). She'd be proud later, what was important to her was having her family in her forelegs safe and sound.

Little Silver Spoon...hehe, I think from her expression she hadn't expected her mother to be so worried. But she ended up dancing with Spike and enjoying it.

Silver Platter also gave Golden Tiara a loving hug, "Goldie, let me say it again! I'm . . . I'm so happy that you're you again."

Golden Tiara politely returned the hug. "It's . . . nice to see you again Silvery."

"Thank you so much for helping Silver Axe protect our princess!"

Can you give me a welcome back present?"

"Name it."

"Take your daughter somewhere without your parasol for an afternoon, nopony else, no servants, just you and her, outside, in the countryside."

"W-what? But, the bugs, the grass-"

"She needs to be with you, her mother. Not just a proper lady."

"I'll . . . I'll try . . ."

"That's all I can ask Silvery."

As for the cat tribe they danced with Moth in her true form...then they danced with Princess Celestia. "There is such a thing as taking life too seriously," she said smile as she danced with a totem pole of them, not caring who look at her for once in Auntie's life. THEN she made SURE that Auntie Luna was cornered and had no chance to escape but to dance with the furballs of silly fun as well.

"Touche sister." Auntie Luna resigned with a smile and danced with them as well.

The night guard had offered them all free rides back to the cat kingdom after the reception. We'd remember them, we had enough 'We Wuv U' cards to go around.

The craziest thing I saw was Thunderchild dancing with Fluttershy. Maybe he'd find out she wasn't so perfect as the flawless fantasy of her he'd built up for the last two years and come back back down to earth. Or he'd come to appreciate the real her. If he wanted Fluttershy to love him, he had better get to know the real her first.

There was also this orange pegasus with a blue mane that kept trying to build up the courage to speak with Twilight. I was going to encourage him, but Auntie Luna told me, "All in due time."

Speaking of Auntie Luna, I saw her smiling, telling Twilight, "History repeats itself, doesn't it, Clover?" Twilight's reaction implied I was missing part of the puzzle on that one. But just this night, I wasn't going to fixate in mysteries.

Caramel, Cherry Coke, and Note Worthy meanwhile got drunk now that they were off duty and could do so (and possibly to celebrate the medals their bravery had earned them). Diamond Rose seemed able to keep all three of them entertained, though Caramel stayed true to, Sassaflash (who couldn't stop saying how her coltfriend was now a war hero).

"You'll always be my clown."

"And you'll always be my queen."

Note Worthy traded a few songs literally and figuratively with Lyra, then with Bon Bon.

Diamond Rose talked about liking a stallion in uniform.

Banjo couldn't dance with a broken leg, and it wouldn't be smart for him to try either (and Garnet made sure he didn't), so he just helped with the music instead . . . Miss Octavia Melody's band politely accepted his contribution (under her strict instructions).

Starlight Sparkle...wouldn't be dancing any time soon, but her husband stayed with her the whole time. She just wanted to be there to see her son happy. She was stronger than Chrysalis gave her credit for.

Weaver and Diver danced with their loves who'd arrived back since Equestria's victory (I gave/approved a request for a break to do so while they had the chance) in their true forms. Bombardier remained on her guard duty, but I maybe now that her true self was known she could find a love of her own.

Of course Running Gag and Garnet danced together and loved every moment of each other's company.

But to my surprise, Minuette danced with Audience. The dancing wasn't the surprise, the surprise was the engagement ring on her horn. Hehe...one ending is a new beginning. My special day may be now, but I'll have two more to attend soon. And I can't wait.

It wasn't as shocking as I thought it would be, almost like 'about time' . . . Heh, you can stop smirking now!

Ellis danced with his cousins, all of them, and enjoyed every second of it. Apple Fritter and Peachy Sweet switched out with their family to get some dancing in themselves, it was their victory dance.

A few other Apples were also present who were guards and they joined in, as was one of the Wonderbolts' trainers. Surprisingly enough, the Oranges (I believe they'd come for the reception anyway, it was a high class event) joined in (AJ hugged them the moment she saw them). It was a regular mini hoedown.

I also noticed a brownish gold pegasus mare with glasses poking around, taking notes. Our reception was open to the public,The poor girl did end up getting accused of being a spy by some of my new subjects. Turned out Rainbow knew her and she just wanted inspiration for writing a book of some sort. Rainbow encouraged her to have some fun and come out of her shell and enjoy the party though.

I swear...I think I saw...saw Ranger and Sunset dancing out of the corner of my eye a few times, wedding rings on their wings. Maybe it was just what I wanted to see.

"Thank you, Starlight," Ranger told the blond Angel of Death, wing in wing with his wife.

"Thank Mortis and the Father," Starlight replied with a smile. "You earned Heaven, and Heaven is where your soul is the most happy...right now it's dancing at your friend's wedding, watching over them."

I don't care...I knew they were with us in spirit anyway, what did it matter if I wasn't seeing them for real?

There were so many ponies here, I couldn't hope to keep track of them all. Just know that if you've had them mentioned here during this tale of my wedding, unless said otherwise, they were here, and they all got a chance to be happy and took it for one evening.

Jet Set and Upper Crust? Huh? Why are they acting...civil and nice with one of my new subjects (who looks terrified of Scootaloo for some reason)? And are they smiling? I guess even they can have fun when they try.

Then I saw two more ponies that made me wonder if I was seeing things.

"Cousin?" I asked, Shining with me.

"Blueblood?" Twilight asked right besides me, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"I thought you'd want to avoid the reception to look after Arcane Spell?" I asked.

"I did," Blueblood said, "But Arcane Spell demanded we stay. She insists she's feeling better."

"There is never going to be another wedding like this, and I'm not letting a little something like my brain's magic center nearly being blown to ash stop me from attending, heh, ow." Arcane Spell shuddered from her wheelchair.

"You alright dear?"

"Just another headache dear. The doctors said I'd have them for a while. I think I know how Neatly Spell feels. Do I have to be in this wheelchair? I can walk!"

"Not if you don't need to walk."

I'll admit, it was surreal to see my pampered cousin...actually doting on somepony else and show concern for their well being. I mean he had saved my life, but in the heat of everything, I hadn't had time to process it. Now...he just wanted the mare he loved to be happy, and she was a maid. If I wasn't the queen of all Changelings and thus no Changeling in their right mind would desire to trick me, I'd have been suspicious.

"Well it is a honor to have you here cousin," I said honestly.

Twilight gave a thoughtful look for a few moments, then said, "My brother married your cousin, so we're cousins now, aren't we?"

"Yes…I believe so...you must be ashamed to have a stuck-up prince for a cousin…"

My new sister hugged my cousin. "After today? I'm proud to call you my cousin."

"Wait...that means, I'M BLUEBLOOD'S COUSIN NOW TOO!" Shining Armor cried out. We all laughed. Even Blueblood laughed at himself Who cares why? Sometimes it's just good to laugh.

Arcane also dared to ask the Bearers to use the Elements to attempt to heal her little sister. Trixie apparently acted as Element of Magic in that case to let Twilight better enjoy the festivities...and I believe to show her friends she how much she truly cared for them, and that she'd finally accepted the Element beating in her heart. After all, the Elements only work when that bond is one hundred percent true.

The Elements worked, but little Neatly would take a long time to recover enough to give us any idea what happened to her (she didn't seem to know much as it was). I'd . . . please, just please, I don't want to say what was done to her, not here, please just be happy, just for right now, just right now please, that the Elements helped her.

Why hadn't the Elements been used on her before? Personally I don't think it was random chance she was discovered so close to the wedding and after I was replaced. And the firestorm of fear among the average pony she was used to stir up and then was neatly swept under the rug wasn't chance either (along with Twilight and friends original invites). Then again, maybe I'm the one being paranoid. I doubt the changelings could have staged everything, and my changelings admitted they had no clue what had happened to her. One changeling had tried to feed on her in her state and had turned violently ill. We'd learn the truth when we could, right now we'd take a breath when we could, and remind everypony that Equestria had endured, and would always endure.

All that mattered was the day had been won, the Changelings were on our side, and an innocent little child was returned to her family.

And there was Trixie Midsummer-Night's magic show. I'm actually happy Chrysalis invited her. One thing was obvious: Twilight's talent was in research and learning, Trixie was most certainly in being an entertainer and a trickster. Regardless of what I've learned of what she was like when Twilight first met her, she was no talentless hack. She merely reassured me of what I already knew: she was worthy of the Element of Magic beating in her heart.

= Live Again (Trixie's Ballad) =

Her illusions were beautiful. Her fireworks were works of art. She conjured a flower garden out of nothing. She sent out construct animals among the crowd. And she was a good storyteller. She used her spells in ways I didn't even know they could be used (and I don't think Twilight knew either) She did mention her own name a few too many times, but nopony is perfect. Twilight had explicitly told Trixie to avoid 'audience participation' saying 'old habits are hard to break.'

She fit so well among the smoke, sparkles, and lights, grabbing everypony's attention and not letting it go.

My favorite part was where she created a swirl of stars above her and each one twinkled as it gave off a different note, until an entire song played for the audience ever more complex in medley until I was holding my breath to see if Trixie would pull through till the final beat and the stars shoot off in all directions spectacularly to roaring applause.

She was worthy of every bit of the commission Chrysalis had promised her (that I had decided to honor, same with Applejack's catering commission), and I think Trixie was happy about the publicity this gave her too...and deep down, I think what made her the most happy, was that I'd remember her. I'd remember for eternity long after she was gone that she had been the magician that had performed at my wedding and I'd loved it.

I had a special surprise for her too. After her act was done, I publicly gave her the Solar Horseshoe she'd earned through this. It wasn't anything the other Bearers hadn't earned already. (everypony who'd helped had earned a reward had gotten one, including a number of guard promotions)...but I knew it'd mean the most to her if I did it for all to see instead of a more subdued ceremony. And I was right, she looked so happy to be recognized as one of Equestria's saviors by a Princess.

She'd saved my life, giving her a moment in the sun and publicly recognizing her as a heroine was the least I could do.

She talked with me and other ponies of influence present about how she knew both a flute musician and an actress in Hoofington who were undiscovered stars, and a mage in need of funding for an entire new kind of magic that mixed with Zebra-magic, and an author in need of a publisher. And I watched her milk her fifteen minutes of attention for all they were worth.

All in all, she look truly happy.

She wasn't the only happy pony there by a long shot. And she wasn't the only spotlight stealer (I didn't mind giving away the spotlight, I had the stallion I wanted and my special day had finally happened). The next shocking moment came from Applejack.

"Ah'm not afraid," she said.

She had walked on stage after Trixie had completed her show and received her award to much applause.

Still wearing her bridesmaids dress, Applejack took a fiddle, and to the surprise of her friends and family, she began to play. There were no words to her song. She didn't need any. She held everypony spellbound with her beautiful music spun. Miss Octavia herself stood in appreciation for the wonderful melody. Applejack played her music like she was in a world of her own creation, somewhere she didn't have to worry about what others thought of her or what she thought of herself. There she did't worry what she was supposed to be or what she was expected to be.

I could feel the emotion she put into the music. This wasn't forced, this was herself, it was real.

Her cousins all danced to her beat, joined in by others. Her performance had the nobles wondering where this musician had been hiding, and Octavia's band began peppering her with questions on what band she played with until Applejack insisted it was just a hobby and she was still a farmer at heart.

"Trixie's moment never lasts long does it?" The showmare said smirking.

"Trust me, I know ya feel," Fluttercruel said. Then Fluttershy said, "It was so pretty!"

Rainbow Dash just happily clapped. "Way to go Applejack! That was great!"

"That was great Applejack! Encore!" Pinkie Pie (who to my surprise was sitting next to our wedding photographer) cheered too.

Applebloom was in awe. Apple Fritter and Peachy Sweet made sure this wasn't a prank by a changeling. Ellis just gave his cousin a big pat on the back. Note Worthy and Banjo gave her a hoof's up. Even Miss Vinyl Scratch was tapping her hooves by the end.

Twilight of course broke down into detailed little nuances of about why she liked the song, sitting on a soap box as she went on.

Sweetie Belle looked at her a little confused. "Applejack...I thought..."

"...Ah ain't gonna lie, Sweetie...Ah don't like how Ah discovered Ah liked doin' this," Applejack said. My love magic may have prevented the pain from scarring, but, I can't remove memories. "But Ah'm glad that don't mean Ah should just throw it away."

"...I can sympathize with that..."

Applejack hugged her. "Ah know, Sugarcube."

Rarity said, "Dear I had no idea you knew how to play! It was absolutely wonderful!…" Then she said more subdued. "Please Applejack, stop letting gifts like this go to waste." I could guess she didn't mean just her violin playing.

"Rarity...ya coulda been a karate master right? Ya coulda had yer own dojo and everythin' Ah bet...but ya chose to make dresses instead. It's what makes ya happy. And farmin' AIN'T just my responsibility, it's also what makes me happy. Ah weren't lyin' when Ah said those trees were my family."

"Applejack, I understand, I understand more than you know. My father kept wondering why I didn't want to be the athlete he wanted me to be, he kept saying I had such a natural talent for it that I should have already had a cutie mark for it...But yes, making my dresses for ponies to bring out their beauty is what makes me happy. But Applejack, that doesn't mean I've stopped learning to be a martial ARTIST, nothing says that a pony has to have their cutie mark be their ONLY talent or the ONLY thing that makes them happy. I still practice and do my morning kata. I know you don't care much for things that don't have a 'practical' value. But something that makes others happy, can never be without value. I think Pinkie's entire existence is proof of that."

"Alright darlin'," Applejack nuzzled her, "Ah gotcha."

"Thank you darling." She hugged her.

This got its own round of applaud and a group hug.

+++

"…Prince Blueblood? Miss Spell?"

I turned to look at the orange farm pony whose baked goods I'd dubbed 'common carnival fare.' How ironic that now she's doing the catering for my Alicorn cousin's wedding.

"Hello, Miss Abigail."

She blushed a little. "Uh...Applejack is fine, if yah don't mind..How yah doin' Miss Spell?"

"Have the mother of all horn aches, but I'm doing better."

Applejack nodded. She then looked at us both. It was...odd. Like she was looking through us. She gave a sad sigh. "...That's how easy it'd have been..."

I blinked. "Pardon?"

"When that no good sidewinder hurt ya...and Ah cheered for her…Ah'm sorry."

Sweet Arcane growled. "For the record, I AM Blueblood's fillyfriend. And no, he's not with me because I look like your friend."

"Ah know. And Ah was too busy judgin' him to prove it in a few seconds with my, talent for seein' the the Truth .... But me cheerin' her weren't her brainwashin', she hadn't got me yet...that was 'Honesty' lettin' her bias blind her. Ah think Ah learned another friendship lesson today: assumin' the worst about somepony in yer anger...can blind ya to the fact yer disappointed in somepony ya shoulda been proud of. Ah had faith ya could change, that's why Ah sent ya that letter, and Ah let anger break my faith in a moment."

I admit, there was a time when I would've felt entitled to that apology...Now it took me completely off guard. As did how guilty she seemed.

"I...Thank you, but in your defense, the witch didn't paint me in a good light."

"But that's just it, Ah coulda cleared it up in a minute if Ah'd thought ya were the one tellin' the truth... Ah could have told all my friends that but Ah didn't... Ah'm sorry."

"...Apology accepted..."

Yes, I know, it was strange simply accepting it and being done with it. But...I'm growing up I suppose. Doing the mature thing felt good.

"An' Prince Blueblood? Ah . . . it's okay if ya don't like the taste of my cookin', it was just ..."

"I was being a jerk and aloof, I know."

"Are you two done apologizing yet? Can we get back to enjoying the reception now?" My Arcane Spell asked.

"Anything for you dear."

+++

It was time for the last song of the evening before the bride and groom left on their honeymoon. Twilight knew Cadence and her brother would be happy together, and that made her happy. She felt it was time to spell out once and for all that she was happy for them.

Twilight nodded. Pinkie Diane squeed. Vinyl Scratch revved up the music.

The mike was spun in the air.

And was caught in an aura of pale green magic by a white little filly.

And the voice of an angel rang out.

"Love is in bloom
A beautiful bride, a handsome groom,
Two hearts becoming one
A bond that cannot be undone because"

Her voice turned heads. Sparkler was surprised. Three demi-gods gasped. Rarity's jaw dropped.

Sweetie Belle remembered the dream world given to her by Princess Gaia, and remembered how happy she had been in that dream, what her heart knew, even if her head wouldn't put the pieces together. It was the kind of joy you didn't consciously know where it came from...but deep down couldn't avoid admitting you knew.

"Love is in bloom
A beautiful bride, a handsome groom
I said love is in bloom
You're starting a life and making room
For us (For us, For us...)"

'But that song's from Melody and Starsong, in completely different timelines,' Noon thought.

Dusk thought, 'You forget the Alicorn Sweetie was originally an incarnation of. And Twilight was going to sing it first. That song exists in some way in every world because she wishes it. It's her song. Now Music sings it to herself.'

Rarity felt tears in her eyes as she heard her sister sang.

Cadence and Shining held each other and swayed to the beat. Hearing the sheer celebration and optimism in the filly's voice.

But they weren't the only couple Sweetie Belle's eyes fell on as she sang. Her own eyes widened in awe, but she didn't break beat as two very important (and exhausted) ponies practically stumbled into the royal garden past a couple of guards put on guard by the rush the two were in. Cadence smiled to the guards, letting them relax and just enjoy the music.

The two ponies' eyes went wide in amazement as they heard the little filly's voice. She was singing in front of a true audience. Then looked on with pride.

Tears of joy in her eyes, Sweetie Belle continued to sing. Her heart overflowing. It wasn't just her mind singing, it was her heart. It was her soul. It was every part of her very being.

"Your special day
We celebrate now, the pony way
Your friends are all right here
Won't let these moments disappear because"

She sang to Cadence. Rarity spotted the last two arrivals and rushed to their side. Scootaloo danced like an angel herself as her body fell in perfect sync to the beat, taking the air to let it do so to the best of her ability. Rarity and the two new audience members looked at the little filly as she continued to sing, making the entire crowd come alive as she sang. This wasn't the mind magic Chrysalis had imparted to her. This was her.

She let go. She let go of doubts, fears, worries, concerns, and she let her heart guide her. This light didn't just come from within, not in the least, it came from the bridges between her and all those she loved, and the love between a stallion and mare ready to spend their lives together. It came from everywhere.

Sweetie Belle in that moment forgot her singing for the witch, she sang for herself, no, she also sang for others! This song came from her, and for all who'd listen and understand how beautiful and precious love really was!

Even the Changelings present couldn't help but feel themselves be moved by the music. It wasn't just the love in it, it was...something else. Like a part of it made things make more sense...like it was speaking to their very souls.

Hercules gave a small gasp of realization and smiled to himself, thinking of somezebra back at the hive.

The couples present leaned together let the love just touch their hearts and bring them closer together.

Octavia smiled, listening to that trait of the melody. It was similar to her own. Not exactly the same. But it was similar. Taking everything that was around her and turning it into a wonderful work of art.

In the castle, a little zebra alicorn blinked awake, putting her hooves on the side of her crib and looking out, listening to the pretty music. Just hearing it made her feel happy! She clapped her hooves and giggled with pure, innocent glee!

The filly felt one with her music, she felt one with the melody, she was the song. This wasn't any trick of some witch, or what ponies wanted her to be, this was her. She felt herself sparkle.

"Love is in bloom
A beautiful bride, a handsome groom
I said love is in bloom
You're starting a life and making room
For us, (For us... For us... Aah...)"

The crowd cheered. So did her friends. So did her family. The filly panted, and dropped the microphone, and looked around at the happy ponies.

"Father! Mother! Welcome home!" Rarity declared to the dirty, dead tired, tacky, and absolutely loving ponies.

"Rarity, your mother and I just want to say-" her father began, looking down at his hooves.

"Wait! First: are you going to apologize?" Rarity asked quickly.

They nodded.

"Apologynowaccepted!" Rarity said, eyes tearing up, "Now let's just hug each other!" She did so before they could protest.

"Rarity?!" Her mother gasped.

"There's been enough guilt thrown around today! Enough fighting in the last few days to last Equestria an eternity. I've just had to save the world again and I don't want to have any more strife in my life today. Let's just be happy! And I'm happy that you're here!"

"MAMA! PAPA!" Sweetie Belle leapt through five feet of air and jumped perfectly in the hug. "I'M SO HAPPY! YOU CAME BACK!!!"

"Of course we came back sweetheart, did you think we wouldn't?" Their mother asked.

"No! Never!" Sweetie Belle said. "I'm just so happy!"

"I'm just happy we made it back in time...And...dear, your voice was beautiful," their mother said, smiling proudly, a few tears in her eyes. "I'm so proud of you."

"Mama, papa, big sister, I felt it," Sweetie Belle whispered, embracing their warmth.

"Felt what dear?" Rarity asked.

"I felt me." Sweetie Belle slipped down. She slipped off her dress much to Rarity's protest...until she saw the little pink heart in front of a light violet side ways swirl that reminded Rarity vaguely of a G clef.

Pinkie Diane just looked at Sweetie Belle, then at Scootaloo. 'Those aren't quite the cutie marks they're supposed to have in the heart world...' Pinkie Pie sighed, and making a pile of season three and four and five scripts. "Won't be needing these," she said, motioning to the Cat Tribe to set fire to them. "Feel free to burn the Comic Book of Doom too." The little felines gleefully did so.

Applejack smiled. "Way tah go..." she said softly, glad the little filly had discovered herself...and glad that she hadn't let the witch's role in it taint it. She was happy. Applejack could relate.

Silver Spoon and Spike look at each other and high hoofed/clawed.

"So we're really gonna go through with this?" Silver Spoon asked.

"You're asking that now?" Spike asked back.

"You're supposed to be the cautious one."

"I'd say we're past the point of no return. What do you think Rarity and Sweetie talked about? I was worried for a bit."

"Whatever it was, they were smiling afterwards, so I'd say this plan is a go! You checked everything?"

"You forgot who I'm number one assistant to! We're only missing the last puzzle piece! And here she comes!"

"Hey guys, Applebloom said you wanted to talk to me about something?"

"Yes," Silver Spoon nodded. "We do."

"It took a lot of convincing but I got Twilight to agree!"

"Agree to what?"

"THERE you are kiddo! I was looking all over for ya! Come on it's almost show time!" Vinyl Scratch then helpfully 'just happened' to find them.

"Show time?! Show for what?" Sweetie Belle asked looking confused.

"Everypony decided, that since we had the real Princess Cadence get married, we should have the filly with Equestria's most beautiful voice sing from her real heart after this wedding too." And they did, after Spike told them. Most of them.

Sweetie Belle let out Equestria's most beautiful squeak.

"Come on kiddo, everypony's gonna wonder what's the hold up." And they would. Those that knew.

"Don't worry, it's almost nopony," Silver Spoon patted her on the back, "Nopony is gonna judge you, they just wants to hear you sing."

"M-me? W-why me?"

"Do you have to ask?!" Spike declared. "Everypony in Canterlot heard you sing before, they all loved it! And if you could do that when you were enchanted by a wicked witch, then they want to hear what the real Sweetie Belle sounds like!"

Silver Spoon hugged her. "They want you Sweetie Belle, just you. Nothing more, nothing less." Silver and Spike had been sure to practice all their lines. But they meant every word.

"Rarity wants to hear you sing too," Spike said.

"R-Rarity?"

"So are Applebloom and Scootaloo, it's all you Sweetie Belle, we don't want your best or worst, we just want to hear the real you."

Sweetie Belle blushed.

"Come on girl!" Vinyl Scratch magically picked her up and carried her to the stage.

"Think we're jerks for not telling her about this before?" Silver Spoon asked.

Spike waved a claw. "Naw. Trust me on this. You ponies get a clue best when you just let it happen."

"Or she'll panic, and trip over her own hooves, and be shamed into never singing again," Silver Spoon said evenly and astutely.

"Don't worry! Once she stops thinking about it she'll do great!"

"Told ya it would work," Spike said.

"Or backfire," Silver Spoon smirked.

"But it worked!" Spike grinned. "Living with Twilight's taught me, sometimes you've gotta feel rather than think."

"You think she'd teach you the opposite."

"She did, I learned the other part on my own."

"Dearie!" Sweetie's mother cried. "Just wait till I tell all my friends my baby is having her cute-ceañera!"

Sweetie Belle opened her mouth to cheer, but remember something. She looked at Scootaloo. The pegasus turned on the puppy dog eyes for all they were worth. Now Sweetie Belle knew what it felt like all those time she used them on Rarity.

Sweetie looked to family and said, "Actually mom, I think I'd like to hold it off until we can celebrate all three of us having our cutie marks!"

"If. . . that's what you want baby," her mother said and her husband made no objection.

Scootaloo breathed out a sigh of relief.

Pinkie Pie squeed. "Cat Tribe, I think I'll need your help for that party. Mind coming back when Applebloom earns her Cutie Mark?"

The little cats saluted their future goddess with a nod. "Mew mew!" 'Gladly!'

Applebloom then Scootaloo zoomed over their friend.

"SWEETIE! YOU DID IT!" Scootaloo said the delayed reaction kicking in, the joy of seeing of her friends find her destiny.

"Maybe we just need another battle for Equestria and I can get mine! KIDDING!" Applebloom grinned. "Cutie Mark Crusaders! Two Down! One to go!" Applebloom said with no sarcasm or irony, only cheer that another one of her friends had found her gift.

"And we're gonna be there for the rest." Scootaloo put a wing on her shoulder.

"Believe it!" Sweetie Belle smiled.

"Ah ain't gotta believe it! Ah know!" The blank flank hugged her tried and true friends who hugged back. Spike and Silver Spoon rushed in and joined in the group hug.

Applejack for her part was happy for her little sister, having chosen friends who would stay by her, cutie mark or no.

"I think my awesome meter broke," Dash said to herself.

Fluttershy smiled in silent joy seeing Sweetie's dream she'd seen in her heart finally become reality.

"Way to go, Sweetie Belle!" Silver Spoon exclaimed proudly.

"See how does it?" Spike asked.

"It feels like me! Like all of me!" Sweetie Belle said.

"And I'm so proud of you too Sweetie Belle! You've made your big sister very happy!" Rarity said, hugging and nuzzling her too. "Big sister knew you would do it. Big sister always believed in you. Big sister knew you'd figure it out. Big sister is proud to be your big sister Sweetie Belle!" Rarity could feel so many eyes on them, the filly who had sung for the changelings, now sung for Cadence, had earned her cutie mark on the spot, and had been reunited with her parents.

"No, 'no athlete' dear?" The mother asked her husband.

"Naw . . . with two great foals like them, I can be proud we did something right, right?"

"Oh honey!" She nuzzled her, their eyes on their youngest child.

Rarity gently took hold of Sweetie chin and raised her up to look in her sister's eyes. "Sweetie, you've always been a light in my life, now you can share that light with everypony."

Cadence felt the bonds between these ponies, it was beautiful.

"Twiley?"

"Yes BBBFF?"

"Proud of you too."

"And so am, sister-in-law," Cadence wing hugged her.

"BBBFF?"

"Yes Twiley?"

"Congratulations." Twilight smiled, and sang lowly, "Loove's, in, blooom.."

Cadence smiled looking at the group of little friends and Sweetie Belle in particular. Scootaloo took off in the air, taking Sweetie Belle with her as she carried her friend along. Both laughing. 'Live and be happy little filly, live and be happy.'

+++

(Pegasus' Notes Supplemental: Hey. Yeah, this happened earlier, but me and my sisters chatted, and we thought it was best if you saw this here. Since it's a bit of a good bye.)

"So...her name is Kifuko now?" Sweetie asked, looking at the little foal Cadence had taken in now that things had calmed down. Cadence felt the tiny Alicorn Zebra experiencing a real wedding reception, surrounded by love and good will, would do her wonders as a foundation for her new self.

Cadence nodded. "Yes, it...it's hard to describe, but it's Zebrafrican for small container, or chrysalis, so it seems fitting."

"And...you're taking her with you?"

"Yes...She's my responsibility."

"...Can I visit her some time?"

"Yes, Sweetie, of course you can."

Sweetie looked into the eyes of the little foal. The foal clapped and giggled, glad to see the pony who'd played with her before.

"Hi Kifuko. I'm glad you remembered me," Sweetie told her, nuzzling the little foal. "...I hope we can be friends for real this time...We already are I think."

The little foal hugged her nose cutely.

Sweetie Belle giggled. "Yeah...we are..."

Sweetie reached into her saddle bags with her new telekinesis and produced a crusader cape. "Rarity actually got some of the fabric for it special from Fancy Pants to make ones for Silver Spoon and Spike when she realized...can't tell yah what, but it was kinda an apology gift...Rarity's really fast...But I asked the girls if they didn't mind and...they said it was okay with them...so Rarity made this for you."

She put the cape on the little foal. "Welcome to the Crusaders, Kifuko...even if you're too small to play with us yet."

The little foal blinked, feeling a part of her...wanting to do something.

She put her muzzle into her blanket and rummaged around, finding a tiny feather that'd gotten dislodged during her natural movements.

She gave it to Sweetie Belle, her tiny, still growing brain not sure why.

Sweetie Smiled. "Thank you, Kifuko."

"…There are times you should just roll with the happy moment," Cadence said, giving a smile. "Sweetie Belle?"

"Yes Princess?"

The Alicorn gave her a soft nuzzle. "It was a pleasure to meet you. I know you'll make your own way in life."

+++

I looked at my new medal the Princess gave me after my greatest magic show ever. I know the others already earned their own. I don't care. This wasn't something everypony got...it was a national medal of honor.

It may not have set me apart from my friends, but to me, that didn't matter one bit...okay, it mattered a tiny bit. But it was concrete proof of who I was, of the hero I was...that I wasn't boasting. That I earned this. I know I don't need a medal to be a hero, but I wanted the statues. I wanted the fame...I wouldn't let it drive out my love for my friends, but loving the fame too? That's who I am. I'm the One and Only Trixie. If Rainbow Dash can brag her head off and still be loyal to her friends, then why can't I aim for magic schools named after me and still be a real friend?

I love my friends...I had missed them while in Hoofington. I'm going to pay more visits and spend more time with them from now on. I want to be with them.

But to each their own. Ironically I didn't save the world to be famous, I did it because it was the right thing to do...

Twilight is safe and sound, my friends are safe, my family doesn't have to worry about the Changelings anymore...I admit it, during all that...I remembered that demon in my head.

I imagined the Changelings replacing me, a monster in my skin coming to them and eating them from the inside out...like that parasite did to me.

And I refused to let any of the happen. And I helped stop it.

And I'm going to come back to Hoofington with my head held high and an award to commemorate it...and when I see my family again-

"Hug tackle!" Unless my family gets to Canterlot first!

"Ah!"

I chuckled, group hugging my siblings, my parents here as well.

"Ha! Trixie got you this time!"

Pixie asked, "Trixie! How did..."

"Sister, after everything I've learned and everything I've been through, did you honestly think I wouldn't expect my family to be waiting at the gates to get to me with after I was trapped in here during a disaster? However, I expected you to be here for the wedding."

Lexy chuckled, hugging me tight. "We were here for you, not for the wedding…and we didn't have invites."

"I'm sorry." I apologized and meant it.

"Who cares? Wonderful to see you're okay big sister!" Nyxie cheered.

"Nice medal." Mixie said smiling. "Save the Princesses?"

"Just one actually, and let's forget about that for now."

Then Puck and Robin ear nuzzled me.

I back up and hug my mother and father. Yes, they were proud. Yes there was a big 'you saved Equestria' hero's welcome waiting for me, yes I was gong to tell a story like no other to my family, …but for now, the One and Only Trixie is just Trixie with her family.

+++

(Interviewer's Notes Supplimental (Unicorn): This happened during the 'reconstruction' phase after the wedding proper, but I felt it's best context was here.)

My name is Morgan. My mother was fixed on me being unique, she go her wish. Morgan the Monster or Morgan the Destroyer is what someponies called me. It's what happens when all the magic you could ever do was magic that destroyed or killed things, As a foal I was struggling with basic telekinesis that my classmates had master and meanwhile I could already turn a flower to ash.

Right now I'm getting to know one of the ponies also called monsters.

"So...you're one of the Changelings that has been giving my daughter trouble for the past few days?" I asked. Of course I was a bit upset, dear. My Daughter had been put through Tartarus for the past few days...however...

"...Yeah…Hate me, come on. Give me a lecture on the monster I am..." he muttered. "...You're right to."

"And why am I right to?"

He looked me in the eyes. "Because we are. We're VAMPIRES! We eat love! What else COULD we be?"

"...What's your name?"

"...Leaf Cutter Ant..."

"...Well, Leaf Cutter. I think you could have been a lot of things. And chose to make THAT perception a reality."

He looked at me in surprise. "What?"

"Leaf Cutter, do you know what my talent is? Destructive magic. Me and countless others spent a good part of my foalhood thinking all I could BE was a destroyer...but look at me now. I'm a loving mother with a big family. And I'm clearly not just a destroyer or I'd have already detonated a small explosive ball of mana inside your head."

His eyes went wide.

"But that would make me the monster everypony feared I was, wouldn't it, dear?"

"But...but...we're di-"

"Hush, listen," I gave him that tone of voice that my children seemed to fear from me. "You messed up, you did a lot of harm. But you weren't a monster because of what you are, but what you've done...and I believe in second chances. We've all done things we're not proud of, Leaf Cutter. I believe the important thing is facing up to it and accepting we were wrong. My special talent is something I can't change anymore than you can change what YOU are...so, talk to me, I'll listen. I've found the best medicine for things like this is a caring ear."

Mothers listen, mothers are patient, mothers are forgiving. And I think Morgan the mother can do a lot more good with that part of the job than she can seeking revenge for her sweetheart being put in danger that's over now.

+++

"So where are you all going after this?" asked Bon Bon.

"Cadence is giving us a paid vacation during her honeymoon," Minuette said. "Since it'll be private. Misfit was given leave as thanks to helping save Equestria, and Audience is getting leave for apparently being involved in saving Neighpon...I can't say more about the situation than that."

"I was there and I don't understand enough of the situation to explain it," Sparkler snarked.

"Audience wants to introduce me to his parents properly as their daughter-in-law to be...which involves visiting a dig site in the Appleloosan Desert. I'm kinda looking forwards to it."

"I'm going to spend my vacation with the Cat Tribe," Twinkleshine answered. "...What? They're fun!"

"I'm going to stay here in Canterlot I think…" said Lemon Hearts.

"I think after all this I'm going to take the 'on leave schooling option' and take a vacation," Moon Dancer said. "This whole thing has been rough on me…"

"And we're headed back to Ponyville, Cadence said I was free to head home," Lyra pointed out sadly. Sparkler nodded.

"...So I guess this will be our last night together for awhile," Lemon Hearts pointed out sadly.

"Looks like it…"

Moon Dancer pulled them into a hug. "Hey! Don't go being sad. We'll see each other again soon. We helped save Equestria, that isn't going to just disappear. I'll be there for you girls you want, and you'll be there for me too right?"

"I'm not losing you girls," Twinkle Shine said.

"I'll always be able to make time for you," Minuette said.

"The five of us make a song now." Lyra declared, "And I'm not going to forget, and I know you won't either."

Sparkler nodded after a moment of thought. "Yeah…" Sparkler replied, giving a smile. "Friends forever?"

The rest of the group nodded and hugged back. "Friends forever."

+++

I gave a sigh after me and my friends had parted ways to enjoy the rest of the events. It wasn't about that, it was about something else. I looked at my little familiars. Yes, I know Great Mother Lemon is gigantic, but she's still my baby. "...You know dears...it's odd, but I think I'm going to miss this….all this adventure...I think I'll honestly miss it...is that weird? I walked blind into all this craziness, not having a clue what was going on. Then I was stuck helping rescue dragons and fighting super-changelings. Lemon Gems is even praising me for everything I did! Me! The girl who made lemon candies and dancing lemons. I just wanted this whole mess over with when it started . . . now I'm actually kinda of sorry to see it end."

The Lemons merely cocked their heads in confusion.

"I guess that's how it goes huh? You think you hate something then it's over and realize you miss it. Now I wouldn't mind one more little adventure. Heh, careful what you wish for right? But . . . maybe it wouldn't be so bad, if I made some friends along the way."

That was when something weird happened. I heard this strange grinding noise and a blue shed appeared behind me. A old grey haired pony in a blue suit and top hat trotted out. The weird part is he had the same Cutie Mark as Minny and the Doctor…

+++

= 'Thank You My Love' Rhapsody A Musical Adventure =

And the rest you know, more or less. Time to leave on our honeymoon. Final loving words between a sister-in-law and my husband. Remember at the last moment to toss the bouquet and...Rarity politely and generously letting Lyra and Twinkle Shine (Minny didn't need it anymore) grab for it instead. It ended up flying towards the bridesmaids and the flower fillies...I think I'll let you all guess who the flowers ended up choosing.

TLC and Golden Tiara gave each other a hug and nuzzling, thanking for her hard work keeping Screwball from permanently injuring anypony, and she could consider herself a friend of their family.

Spike gave Moon Dancer a polite kiss on the hoof good-bye.

Trixie smiled, looking at her hard earned medal. I think she knew that her friends each had one of their own...but it was what it meant to her, not to them. And it didn't stop her from hugging her friends...or the late arrivals who weren't there for me, but for her. All the way from Hoofington. I didn't meet who she was like before, but the pony she is now? She's a friend me, and Twilight, are proud to have.

Scootaloo flew up above everything to greet Rainbow Dash as she returned from doing a second Rainboom, the two hugging and nuzzling. I can feel their bond. I don't know the details, but I know one thing. Their bond is strong. I'm sure they'll make it through anything the world puts in their way.

Miss Derpy Hooves and Rainbow Dash hug as well, I feel like this bond has undergone apoptosis, and this led to a newer stronger bond being born in turn.

Sweetie Belle waved goodbye to Kifuko and then hugged her loving family tightly. Their bond...it's a little strained, I won't lie. But it's healing now. And that is a beautiful thing. And her cutie mark was pretty and well earned. Patience is rewarded.

Pinkie Pie laughing and having fun with Octavia and...Photo Finish? Hehe...the bond between them...I guess you can't always judge a book by its cover.

The Flutters I think having an internal talk, but both smiling wide. They were happy. I don't care what anyone thinks of Fluttercruel's existence, they truly are mother and daughter. Thunderchild was still with them, surprisingly lacking in hitting on her and seemed to be behaving himself.

Applejack, Applebloom, and their cousins all sharing stories and enjoying the moment. The bond that wounded the Queen was still as strong as ever. Strong willed Applejack...enjoy your happy ending, after all you've endured, you deserve it.

The entire Guard saluting one of their own as he departed on the happiest day of his life. That's the way the Equestrian guard is. They're a family. Believe me, I know that from personal experience.

The Half-Lights stood smiling at us with their baby phoenix. I don't know them much, but I can feel the bond between them...yet another healing one. It's different than many I've felt, but still a strong one. And I can feel their bond to Shining. They truly are his friends.

Moth watches with Bon Bon, Lyra, and Tootsie.Their the bond hasn't been broken. She still cares for her. If anything, it's stronger than before.

Blueblood and Arcane Spell were here to see us off as well. They were so happy together. Miracles happen.

Mom, dad, and the Sparkles, happily see us off into our new lives.

"Now this was a great wedding," Twilight said smiling as we drove away.

"This was nothing! You shouldda seen what I did for the bachelor party!" Spike boasted hopping on top of his unofficial mother.

Twilight's eye twitched as we drove out the gate. "Spiiiiiiike!"

"Uh oh," Silver Spoon squeaked and dashed behind her parents. Hehe. Yet another strong bond that's growing stronger now.

"I swear I didn't see any, whateveritis you didn't want me seeing!" Spike said as he pulled on Twilight's tail being dragged along as she chased after the filly.

"Hard to believe how things have changed since last time we left Canterlot, huh?" Shining, my love asked me.

"Yeah...that was how our story began," I replied. "And I wouldn't change a thing."

Kifuko giggled reaching up and getting a nuzzle from us both.

And we heard laughter all the way down the mountain as the fireworks blossomed in the sky.

This story has reached its end. The future was bright. I don't care what challenges await. For this moment? For this day? It was a happy ending and that was all that mattered.

I leaned over and kissed my love. I have my love, he had me. What else mattered?

Love was in bloom.

~Fin

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Written by Alex Warlorn
The REAL Wedding

Pinkie Pie, "Here it is everypony, the reception for Princess Cadence's real wedding! Plenty of happy surprises here! Hope you all enjoyed the ride! See ya next time!"

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Reharmonization-472032675

Next Chapter:

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (SERIOUSLY need to be kept up to date, every little bit helps!).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions. http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/ For heaven sake they rock! Kendell2 and Oracle Mask and Richforce and Ardashir and Jawmax and Persona22 and Dragon of Twilight and ItsFromPeople and all the rest!!!

Late Night At a Bar (Bonus chapter by Godzillawolf )

It was late that night in Canterlot, one of the city's bars still open. This had become fairly common place with Princess Luna's return and with her the Night Ponies, who being nocturnal required 24 hour businesses.

Seated at one table was a Changeling, clad in his kind's black chitin. While his kind fed on love, the tastes of some equine food was still pleasurable, not to mention being capable of eating normally necessary for disguise.

Shortly there after, an unicorn royal guard came and set down at the bar as well. After ordering a simple salt water, he looked over to the Changeling. "Hey there..."

The Changeling gave a polite nod in return. "Hello..."

"...So, I know the Bat Ponies like being out this late because they're nocturnal, what brings you out this late?"

The changeling knocked on his hard exoskeleton. "Ponies are still getting used to this. So sometimes it's nice to go out without too many stares...What about you?"

The Guard gave a chuckle. "Relaxing a bit...been a stressful time recently, what with the multiple attacks on Equestria...uh...no offense."

The Changeling didn't seem all that offended. "None taken. We did something wrong. The only ones who have a right not to be guilty over it are the ones who sided with you all. I wasn't one of them, so sorry."

"It's fine, we ponies forgive easy..." the guard replied, the two sitting there for a few more moments. "...So...if you wanted some peace in the day, couldn't you turn into something prettier now that you're good guys?" he asked, showing sincere respect and politeness.

The Changeling chuckled. "Some of us came up with the same idea and asked Queen Cadence about it," he replied, looking to him. "She said 'You're already beautiful, and you don't need to change your appearance to prove you're good for real. Your own actions prove whether you're good now or not.' I believe her honestly."

The guard nodded after giving it some thought. "Princess Cadence was always one to see the beauty in things. She'd be one to know."

"Besides, her husband pointed out it'd be kinda shallow for ponies to think we're good just cause we look good, you know?" asked the Changeling.

"True to that...toast?" he asked, holding his drink in his telekinesis. "To Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor being right?"

"Well to me they're Queen Cadence and King Shining Armor, but sure. Toast," the Changeling replied, the two clanking glasses and drinking.

"Name's Robber Fly by the way."

"Daywatch, nice to meet you."

Author's Note

Written by Kendell2 as a personal request from me.

Takes place after 'Not The Wedding You Remember.'

Just a changeling and a royal guard chatting.

If you don't like it, that's fine. I'm not demanding you like, this is not intended a personal affront to you. For those of you who do like it, I'm happy that I was able to enrich your day.

Characters Copyright of Habro .

Please remember the trope page. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/PonyPOVSeries

Episode 149: Under The Stars 1 of 2

Author's Note

Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy do some star gazing.

"Discord is beaten. The world is restored to it's proper balance and sanity and Celestia rule the day once again. But it's the scars ponies bear that you can't see that take the longest to heal. What was going on in those three weeks between episodes two and three of the second season? How did they recovery and heal from this ordeal that we didn't see?"

If this was Kingdom Hearts, this is where we'd get a montage of the previous installments to the techno-beat theme song!

Reharmonized
Princess Gaia
Butterflies
Mind Games
Seven Dreams/Nightmares
Dark World
Shining Armor

The ponies of the reharmonized verse are BACK!!!!

Sorry that it took so long to get the last season all written up. :-) Thank you for sticking with us guys! I had butterflies in my stomach again for posting this, but meh, I decided to listen to the Princess Luna version of Let It Go, and I decided, go for it already.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Prince-Blueblood-Reach-For-The-Stars-Part-2-of-2-430538763

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Reharmonized-Pony-POV-Series-Under-The-Stars-2of2-432495666

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Image by Atomic Chincilla. http://atomic-chinchilla.deviantart.com/art/We-ll-Make-it-Through-304909770

"MLP: FIM" Copyright Hasbro

Edited like mad by Kendell2 and Louis.

Episode 149: Under The Stars 1 of 2

Pony POV Series
Fluttershy
"Under The Stars"
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic fanfiction
Edited by Kendell2 and Louis
Part 1 of 2

Twilight insists stargazing is wonderful. But I prefer watching fireflies to stargazing. Oh! And Stargazing is wonderful for her. Not that I was faking my joy when we saw that beautiful star shower. But seeing it with my friends was what made it special for me. Its the stars near the ground that enchantment me the most.

I really like the music the crickets are making. It's so peaceful. Pleasant. Not at all loud or confusing. The same way Princess Luna's moon looked beautiful tonight. I might not be...best of friends with Princess Luna, but I've always enjoyed her night...maybe I should try to tell her that. Just because I drove a wedge between us doesn't mean we can't remove it.

Fluttercruel was saying nothing. And I know why and I'm proud of her, she's being polite. We had to fight her to go to the butterfly migration together (and er, they had to fight me to drag me to the dragon migration) and she wouldn't stop complaining about how boring the butterflies were. How could she think it was boring seeing such beautiful creatures creating a living cloud of colors in the sky? But I knew Fluttercruel preferred...erm, 'exciting' things.

How do I feel about her eating meat? I...I don't think she's less of a pony for it. And, erm, I know that timberwolves eat meat, and they're not bad for it and...

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): You're not the first mother whose child has developed traits that make them uncomfortable.)

I know. But eating meat doesn't sit right with me, even if it does with her. The problem is that sharing the same body...it really does make me...uncomfortable.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): As her mother, or as her cohabitant?)

Um...I really think it's both. But! But it isn't making me want to conquer Equestria or anything! Promise!

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): PLEASE tell me we're not going down this road again. I thought we were done with this.)

We are! I mean I am! I accepted what I did. And the tornado helped everypony accept me as Fluttershy. But what about other ponies who see her eating meat?

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Stand up for her, like a mother should, as so will your friends. Opinions of strangers shouldn't control your life.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): So how are ya gonna handle her eatin' meat when ya don't like eatin' meat?)

...The truth is that it's something I've got to live with. A parent is supposed to sacrifice for their child, not the other way around. And I know ponies are technically able to eat meat biologically, so she's not hurting herself or me. I'm just worried what other ponies will think of her and...and...I keep imagining her 'upgrading' to other creatures who...I guess 'think' more, and...

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Fluttershy, eating meat doesn't work that way. It's not a downward spiral. Fluttercruel has free will. She's not going to start eating other ponies.

(Griffons haven't eaten sapient creatures for a thousand years. They made a choice to be better than that. The majority of Griffon kingdoms are friends with Equestria. Ask any Hippogriff, who eat meat and are accepted by the way. Equestrian diplomats and some Guard Ponies learn to eat fish if needed for diplomatic reasons. And Fluttershy, you know what separates ponies from animals is that we can chose to be better than our instincts, they're always there, but we aren't slaves to them.)

That...That sounds like something Twilight would say. Thank you.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Thank you for the compliment, Fluttershy.)

You're welcome. It's embarrassing really. My parents taught me to be tolerant of others and not to upset the applecart.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Your parents?)

Oh yes. I visit them every Mother's Day and Father's Day. They taught me not to rock the boat, and you shouldn't interrupt, and you should always be considerate of others.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): How do you feel about them now that you've taken back Flutterrage?)

I still love them. Those lessons are a part of me. If I got those lessons wrong, it's my fault.

Mom and Dad...had a lot of words for me after, after I made my biggest mistake. But...sniff, they...they say they don't hate me, couldn't hate me. I saw into their hearts when I was Nightmare Whisper: dad wishes I stood up for myself more, and mom wishes I had stayed in Cloudsdale. But...but I saw in their heart of hearts they do love me. I'm still their filly. And that's what counts, right?

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Do they know about their...granddaughter yet?)

Um...not yet, I'm still trying to figure out how to tell them. But I'm sure when I do, they'll accept her. Fluttercruel couldn't choose how she was born or who her father is.

Oh look! See how that bat swooped down and ate one of the fireflies? They aren't ponies, so we shouldn't judge them like ponies. They don't and can't understand the world like we do. I try my hardest not to say so around Angel. Animals don't feel sorry for killing, either other animals for eating or defending their territory, or each other over a mate. They are not like ponies. Angel acting like he does...I need to accept he's an exception, not the rule.

"Heh, that was something else. That bat plucked that firefly out of the air like that."

"Yes dear, it was. Did you know bats use echolocation to hunt in the dark, oh my! Of course you do dear, you have all of my memories. So of course you know."

"Yes, Mom. Yes, I do," she said flatly, "I like watching them go in for the kill, so much skill and timing involved, but animals just aren't really my thing...There are times I wish I got a chance to learn all this myself instead of being born with it."

"You wished you had your own foalhood instead of mine?"

"Heh, maybe. But having a foal in your head wouldn't have been very neat and tidy. The closest I had to a foalhood was...Mom? I have changed right? I have grown right?"

"Now now, don't go backsliding into something you worked so hard to get past."

"But what if the old man's old magic, didn't just make me out of thin air? Night Princess said we don't get to know the truth. What if he took some bad feelings in you, and gave them a mind of their own? What if I'm just the cruelty that might have existed in Fluttershy? Am I still something then if I'm no longer cruel? Wouldn't that mean it's better if...if...if we did what Pinkie and Pinkamena did?"

"No! Absolutely not young filly! You're not a PIECE of me, you're yourself!"

I felt Fluttercruel mentally cringe.

"...Fluttercruel," I said kind but firm, "Look at our flank, young lady."

I felt Fluttercruel make us look back at our flank. I let her see my Cutie Mark before changing places with her, allowing her Cutie Mark to manifest. "Do you see anything similar? At all?"

"...No..."

"Would your Cutie Mark be a pair of hooves holding each other and mine a trio of butterflies if you were just a piece of me or me of you? From what I've heard, Pinkie and Pinkamena had the same Cutie Mark. No matter which of us, if either, is the 'original' Fluttershy, we're not just PARTS of Fluttershy. If we were, we'd have the same Cutie Mark. You can be kind, I can...I can be cruel, we're not pieces!"

"...Hehe, I see you're making good use of your anger."

"It's about time I did." 'Better than New Fluttershy, I should have known I'd need time to adjust.'

"Don't worry about it, Fluttershy. It was bound to happen one way or another, at least this way you had a chance to grow. And it's actually more justified than how it would have happened, not that the writing for that episode was bad or anything, there was a bit of fridge logic but that's par the course with us, so you really should just be proud of yourself."

"Pinkie Pie!" I felt proud at not hiding in the bushes at her sudden appearance.

"Ta-da!"

"But-but-but-what are you doing here?! How'd you get here?! And, but, how did you know what I was thinking?"

"Oh that's one's easy, I read the story text."

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Hey! No filching our notes!)

"I was only borrowing them," Pinkie Pie said giving them back.

Fluttercruel sighed. 'We should be used to this by now...'

Sane 'Pinkie Diane' was still Pinkie.

"As for how I got here," Pinkie Pie said, "I trotted mostly. As for what I'm doing? Luna helped me figure out something very important to me recently, she was really nice about it too. I got to stay up all night with Twilight and Zecora. And got a recipe from a new friend. The point is that, Luna always wanted ponies to enjoy her night more, so I thought I'd try it out a little. And you were doing the same, so I thought why shouldn't I? And...it's something I really haven't done before."

"So you just happened to see us out here?"

"More or less. Life is made of 'coincidences'. Keeps it interesting...And I wanted to see it all. Just in case."

"Just in case of what?"

"Just in case, this is the night the world ends."

"What?!" I squeaked.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you, Fluttershy! It's just...everything has to end some day. Even if the Shadow finishes up and our world keeps going, Entropy has to do Her job someday, right? And every night I wonder, is this the night the world stops?"

"Pinkie Pie...what's...what's the point of thinking something like that?"

"Because...it's a wonderful world, isn't it, Fluttershy?"

"Yes...yes it is."

"So we should enjoy it while we can, because you never know when it'll suddenly all be over and your life will be canceled."

"I...I suppose you're right, but you shouldn't fixate on that."

"Oh, I'm not."

I looked at her tell tale mane and, "Pinkie Pie? Is that a new mane style?"

"Oh just a little something that happened. Very good friends of mine helped me work out some things." Pinkie Pie settled down next to me. "Fluttershy, it's wonderful to have a mother isn't it?"

I blinked. "Yes, of course. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, that camp out I told you about? I learned a few things that made me appreciate how my mom could've been not with me. How we just take our parents for granted. I found out if not for a very dear friend of mine making a very hard choice, I might not have even had my mom with me. I owe her so much."

"Really? Who is it? Have we met? What is she like?"

"She's...not around anymore."

"Oh. I'm so sorry to hear that. I'm just so so sorry."

"It was...a long time ago. She loved to sing, but at first she had way too much stage fright to sing, heh, until I heard her, by chance, and convinced her she should share her voice with everypony."

"What was her name?"

"Starsong Melody. She was a pegasus. You could say she was my inspiration to be Ponyville's song meister."

I felt my brain burn, Pinkie Pie's memories, the memories of before, of before she was even born...I remembered. I couldn't remember every detail of every life of every pony my fog touched. But I could remember the general idea of them. Most of them I just...put away, it wasn't right for me to probe into the private lives of others. It was a hard decision what to do about what I had learned about my friends.

'Was Starsong her mother?' Fluttercruel asked.

'What? No! Mrs. Pie...Pinkie's Mom is alive and well! Starsong was...somepony else I think,' I told my child.

I felt dizzy, talking to each other without words was very confusing sometimes, and it got worse if we tried to do something else at the same time. Talking with Pinkie at the same time was even more confusing, one voice in my head and another outside.

"You okay, Fluttershy?"

"Oh just speaking with Fluttercruel. And...I'm sorry about Starsong. I wish I could have met her."

"So do I," she said with that sad smile I'd have never thought I'd see from Pinkie Pie almost a year ago. She opened her mouth to say something, stopped herself, then hit herself on the head. "Oh right, I forgot. You learned about them, about, about the shadows-who-watch when...when you..."

"When I was a Nightmare. And I've actually tried not to think about them. I know it's just the way things are."

"I know. But I've learned the more you try NOT to think about something, the more you end up thinking about it. So it's best to just think it through sometimes."

"How do you not end up overdoing 'thinking it through?'"

"Hmmmmm." Pinkie Pie tapped her chin. "Rely on your friends to tell ya when your stuck on a merry-go-round for starters."

"That's, very wise of you Pinkie Pie."

"Thanks! Not the sort of thing you'd expect from Old Pinkie Pie is it? Fluttershy, I never bothered to ask the others, but do you guys, well, like how I've changed?"

I make a warm laugh. "Don't worry Pinkie Pie, I love New Pinkie, I think she's great. It's wonderful how you've become a butterfly."

"No problemo, Fluttershy!" She hugged me. "We sure have grown and learned a lot since we beat Discord, huh?"

"I guess we have."

+++++

Ya know, it's funny. Not ha-ha funny, though.

If had a fun crossover with our Heart World selves now, we'd be like strangers. We have shadows who were with us at the beginning. But are there any NEW shadows who care to join in in a story this long? Are we still enough like who we used to be that the shadow who watch us are still going to care?

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Please, no more.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Yeah. You just grew in a different directions, nothing else to it. But you started out from the same seeds. But no two apple trees are alike ya know. And when you started out, that's where the shadows come in. Those who are willing to make the trip will follow you all the way.)

Okay okay! No need to get pushy. I was just thinking.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Seriously, don't worry so much about everything. You guys all have great lives, great families, great friends. You two have no right to be angsting all over the place!)

That's so sweet of you. Thanks!

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Hey hey hey! Watch it with the kissing.)

+++++

Pinkie laid down next to me and looked up at the stars, which drew my attention away from the fireflies. Orion the Hunter still looking for the Ursas not knowing they were on the earth below now. I feel kinda sorry for him. "We're never getting back to the old status quo, are we? Trixie the selfish jerky-pants who only cares about herself. Just six Elements of Harmony. Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara being bullies to Applebloom and her friends, Spike only hanging out with Twilight and Rarity. Me not noticing things I don't want to. You...not having Fluttercruel around to play with."

"No we're not, and I don't want to. Anymore than I want to go back the old status quo we had before Twilight showed up. Me only going out of the cottage to go shopping or my weekly spa date with Rarity. Rainbow Dash and Applejack only being together when there was some contest in town."

"And me having friends, but not any best friends," Pinkie Pie added. "Though it would be simpler."

"Simpler isn't always better," I said. "It's like knitting, a simple pattern for a simple scarf is easier, but if you're doing it to look nice, it wouldn't be as satisfying."

"Hey, Pink," Fluttercruel spoke.

"Oh! Sorry for not saying hello to you too 'Ruelly, that was really really rude of me! But you're a pony who seems happy by herself a lot, I mean, besides being with Fluttershy so I thought you'd prefer just to be by yourself. Oh that's really no excuse. So Hi 'Ruelly! Lovely night we're having isn't it?"

"It didn't bother me, until you brought it up."

"Oh...sorry." Pinkie Pie lowered her head, her mane style didn't change.

"Pinkie Pie, can I tell you something bad I tried to do to you before I got my cutie mark? Please? Just sayin' somethin' isn't always the best things to do if it's over and done with but...it's really eating me inside and...but I don't want to UGH! I sound like mom!"

Pinkie looked uncomfortable, and looked like she was thinking it over. I choose to stay silent letting 'Cruel come forward.

"Alright 'Ruelly, if it's making you feel that bad: the Pink Pie confessional is open."

"First. I still hate that nickname. A lot."

"Okay."

"Second...When I hit you after I asked you if you had drank lots of Discord's chocolate milk? And asked you to swallow a blasting cap?"

"I remember, it had a bangy taste to it. Yes?"

"I was trying to make you explode."

Oh Dear.

"...I see. So you really wanted to just see what would happen?"

"No. I wanted you to cease to exist. I tried to murder you in cold blood. I wanted to dance over your ashes and Marshmallow, Purple, Orange, Rainbow's. I wanted Fluttershy alone and broken so she'd be a spayed steed I could ride instead existing with her. At least I HOPE that's why, otherwise I was just being a sadist doing it for fun. I wanted to watch small animals squirm as I tortured them. It was about me, me, me. I was...I was a total bucking psychopath!...I'm sorry. I really shouldn't have told you. I'm just being selfish now."

I felt Fluttercruel's tears in our eyes.

Mine joined hers. It was a reminder of what she had been like. Of what she could have become. She had been just a lonely filly, I knew how cruel foals could be from flight camp. Innocence and kindness weren't the same thing.

"...It's...okay, maybe it's not alright. I can't say I'm happy to hear about all that. Nope. Not in the least. But you're a better filly now. And you're big enough to admit it. If you can't take this burden by yourself: I'll take a little bit too, that's what friends do. Otherwise we'd be all pancakes from all the stuff we carry. Maybe it was a little selfish, but you're still a little filly deep down, and maybe a little selfish isn't that bad for a filly still growing. There are things from before that we should just and need help letting go of. Like those ponies in Sunnytown!"

"Yes, like those poor ponies in Sunnytown," I agreed.

"Those poor murderers, you mean," Fluttercruel said.

"Now, now, Fluttercruel, they were all just scared and ignorant, they didn't enjoy doing what they did to Ruby. They thought they were facing a return of the cutie pox."

"Mother, I love you. I don't like hurting your feelings anymore. But you're an idiot."

"Don't call your mother an idiot, young lady!"

"Yeah, that's not nice!"

"...Mother, you saw what you just did there, right? Your heart's bleeding all over the floor for a bunch of foal-killers...but name-calling...now THAT warrants a scolding! Remember history mom? When the Cutie Pox broke out doctors isolated ponies they thought were infected, and waited for symptoms to show. They didn't BURN THEM ALIVE. If Ruby had really had the Cutie Pox, that would have spread it to the lot of 'em! And did you forgot their 'she was going to ruin the party' speech-?! Wake up, Ma. They got what they deserved. And until they realize that their suffering is never going to end."

I spoke in the most firm tone I could. "Yes, I want my daughter to respect her elders, and to see the monsters she could have easily have been like can change for the better like she did. What they did was unspeakable, and they deserved to be punished. But they don't deserve to suffer forever if they can change, they're still ponies."

"Not anymore."

"Like you're 'not a pony' dear?"

"I repeat: Once they realize that they deserved to be punished THEN their suffering will have ended. THEN they'll have changed. They hold the key out of their own iron maidens. Since that hasn't happened yet, that means they're still have the hearts of ignorant foal-slaughtering murderers, and thus, are ignorant, foal-slaughtering murderers, not poor little dears."

"You had the heart of a sadistic murderer, so that means you were a sadistic murderer?"

"How can you lump me with them?!"

"Because I saved you! Like you saved me! And we can save them!"

"You think you can do that by cuddling them?!"

"I made mistakes as Nightmare Whisper, I helped them ignore their mistake instead of facing them. 'Kindest of Lies.' But they're still willing to trust me as their Princess Gaia, and maybe it's about time they saw cutie marks aren't all bad."

Pinkie Pie spoke, "Yeah! You grew from somepony who was nothing but cruel, but now you see what they and you did was bad! If you can grow-up, so can they! I think a thousand years of being unhappy zombies-"

"-of repeating their sin over and over-"

"-of throwing away their chance to grow all this time-"

"-Auntie Pink, you KNOW the way I said it is more right."

"Okay. Maybe you're right. But that's not how redemption works. I think. Fluttercruel, if they're finally ready to wake up from their nightmare, why shouldn't we all help them? A pony in need is a pony indeed!" Pinkie Pie supported.

"...Mom...no offense, but you'd let the Old Man out if you thought he wanted to redeem himself."

"Well, you gotta admit, a NICE Discord would be a much BETTER Discord than an imprisoned one!" Pinkie piped up. "He'd be one of the good guys!"

"We could have him LIVE with us!" I said, brightly. Pinkie Pie's fantasy of a GOOD Discord setting my imagination on overload, "Mama and Papa, together under the same roof, working as one to raise our daughter right!"

Fluttercruel felt ready to try to vomit in our mouth. "And when we're all living together, would Mama and Papa be doing the sort of 'Mama and Papa things,' late at night in bed? The sort of things that CREATES daughters in the first place?"

"Well. You're just going to have stay in your room during that time dear," I said in mock matter of fact, it was just a happy dream after all. Would I help Discord if I thought he ACTUALLY wanted to change? Of course I would.

"Well," said Pinkie Pie, with a giggle. "I'd imagine he'd at least be...flexible!"

"Then YOU should take him, Pinkie Pie!" snapped Fluttercruel. "After all, you don't have the heart to hold a grudge for longer than five seconds."

"That's not true," Pinkie said, quietly. "I felt angry for a long time at someone when I lost Starsong. Should I tell you a little story about the pony your dad turned me into? He was so friendly at first, like my new best friend, then he..." she shuddered, but her mane didn't go straight, "But what's the point of holding a grudge when they're really sorry they did it?"

"It keeps you from being naive."

"Uh uh! A naive pony forgets the bad thing they did ever happened; a forgiving pony just stops hating them for doing it, and gives them some trust so they can start earning back what they lost."

"...Does Mitta deserve to suffer, Fluttercruel?" I finally asked.

I felt Fluttercruel jump internally. She was then quiet. I didn't want to say it, I didn't want to open an old wound...but sometimes you DO need to make a cut to heal the real problem.

"You know how she feels, don't you?"

I heard my daughter sigh roughly. "You're not going to let this go until I completely give into your way of thinking, are you, Mom? I can't just call a child killer a child killer, can I? We can't just agree to disagree on this, can we?"

My filly gave one of her prize-winning eye rolls. "Fine, mother, you're right. Your wisdom is completely unquestionable."

I pretend not to pick up on her sarcasm, "Isn't seeing a pony find their way out of their darkness wonderful?" I wasn't talking about my daughter.

"Yes," said Fluttercruel tiredly. "Yes, it is. Especially if it'll get you to drop the subject. Though I will admit, I don't want Mitta to suffer anymore."

Fluttershy beamed. "That's my girl."

"The OTHER Sunnytowners, though-!"

Enough. "Like Three Leaf? Who just keeps walking out of the town in a daze until the curse drags her back under and drops her back in the middle of town? Or Grayhoof who won't stop staring at where Ruby's body in the fireplace was until we had them finally BURY it? Or Roneo and Starlet who keep crying in each other's hooves? Or Gladstone who wouldn't stop looking at the grave we had them finally place Ruby's body in? Applejack BROKE their lie Fluttercruel, and they broke with it, now we have to help them piece themselves back together. They've been punished for a thousand years and all it did was hurt them back! It's time to try something ELSE!"

"They're cowardly monsters with their heads up their flanks."

"Mitta was a coward who abandoned her best friend in her time when she needed her most. Maybe they would have killed her too. Maybe it's only her own guilt keeping her cursed. Sound like the mare you're sharing a body with? Would you have thought you'd have become a better pony? Is it just because you never got the chance to do your worst to Pinkie? They acted out of fear and ignorance, you wanted to hurt others for the sake of hurting others. If you can grow and change. Why should it be impossible for them?"

Pinkie Pie cheered. "Yeah! We're ponies! 'Don't give up on each other!' That's what Celestia teaching us remember? AND! I got Mitta to SMILE last time we visited! She was laughing! It was wonderful to hear! And Threeleaf's realized what she did is wrong now. I'm sure the others are too."

"They're monsters who can now become ponies dear . . . and you won't have to be one of a kind, anymore sweetie."

"...thanks mom."

After that, we just set there for a little bit, watching the stars...but even Pinkie needs sleep.

"Thank you Pinkie Pie, it's wonderful to have you here."

"Welcome! It's really great for us to hang out, I haven't seen you around Ponyville...kinda like the old days when you'd only spend time with Rarity."

"Oh yes. Rarity absolutely loves having Fluttercruel as a model. It's much better than working with equinquins she said. She said Fluttercruel has a real unique air to her. And...it's helped me get over being looked over, just a little. I really just don't like being displayed like candy."

I hesitated, Pinkie Pie didn't say anything. Seeing her...quiet was something that had taken getting used to.

'Gonna tell her about that time you starred for fifteen seconds in a clop-film?'

"That never happened!"

'Oh right, sorry, was thinking of one of my dreams.'

"You DREAM of me being in a WHAT-film?! Me?! Your MOTHER?!"

'You had one line, and didn't actually do anything. Though the producers did use your flank for the cover art.'

I blushed red.

"What did you say never happened? The Interviewers won't let me grab their notes."

"Uh! Nothing! 'Cruel just misremembering a dream."

"Oh, okay! So really, it almost feels like Fluttercruel is getting you all to herself, apart from your visits with Rarity."

"Well, I am a mother now. Didn't the Cakes have less time for you, Pinkie Pie, after the twins were born?"

"Oh! I guess, I guess they did. I didn't notice because of all the time I spent looking after the twins."

Pinkie Pie smiled. It was amazing how much she was proud of being trusted by her foster parents with her foster siblings. "Still, Mr. and Mrs. Cake are saying how it's important for Pound and Pumpkin to watch and listen to ponies even if they don't understand everything going on yet because they'll pick up bits and pieces."

"...Mom, I'm not a baby. I go to Ponyville with me in control the whole trip, and buy pet chow for you from the pet supply store, and coffee from Coffee Swirl."

"Coffee Swirl? Oh right!" Pinkie Pie then went off on a tangent on Coffee Swirl, I think he'd prefer if I didn't share it. He can be such grumpy sometimes. Coffee Swirl: a nice pegasus who didn't want to hurt Nightmare Whisper or excuse Princess Gaia.

"But the point is that Fluttercruel, you're our friend too, and we should see each other some more. Once upon a time, in another place there was a unicorn who loved books, and she had a pegasus friend who made cloud cover for her each day to read under, but one day the pegasus thought the cloud was just the unicorn blocking out her friends for when she wasn't inside and so took her in a flying trip to show her all she was missing." She put a hoof on our shoulder, "You're our friends. Don't forget the rest of us are here too. We're part of a set remember? It's no fun missing the last toy, even if you have to kitbash one because Hasbro won't make one. And 'Ruely, you wanna see the world for yourself now? How about we start with us? We all got to know the real you at your cute-ceañera, but how about you get to know us? I know you know everything Fluttershy knows, but ponies know different ponies differently, you understand?"

"...I know Coffee Swirl..."

"One new friend is nice, Fluttercruel, but what about the rest of us?" Pinkie asked. "It's like Twilight said when we were at the campout 'friends new and old, one is silver, the other gold'."

Fluttercruel looked hesitant. "But...how? Coffee Swirl made it easy...Sorta...after he came to mom's rescue...long story..."

I shuddered at the memory of that.

"Well, think about you and Dashie! You probably have a lot in common!"

"...She's right you know..." I finally said. "You and Rainbow Dash are both tough...you're both strong...you both...well..."

"Had a guilt complex. Yeah, I got that..."

"And?"

"...And we both...probably like wrestling and stuff like that...And scary movies..."

"Yeah, Dashie loves a scary movie! I think there's a few opening this weekend at the theatre!"

"...Think you could sit through one or two, mom?"

"As long as you keep control of the body, I think I can keep from fainting...maybe. Plus, I kind of know enough about what wounds are really like to tell a lot of it is fake. Remember when Rainbow dragged me to the opening of the first A Nightmare Moon on Elm Street film a little while before Twilight got here?"

Fluttercruel gave a chuckle. "Yeah, that's one of your memories I don't mind having. You freaked her out with all that freaky medical knowledge."

"See?!" Pinkie chimed in, looking at us both. "All three of you can enjoy a good movie!"

I did kind of wish we had a way to watch movies at home...but those are kind of expensive right now. The only film projector I know of is that old one we have for the Weather Patrol.

Applejack and Rarity had a sacred pact with each other to make sure none of the Cutie Mark Crusaders ever got to see a horror movie. Rainbow...she had a habit of telling scary stories...but I think she honestly doesn't think there's anything wrong with them. She loved it when they told ghost stories at flight camp...while I hid behind her or the cloud log we were using.

"And maybe Applejack wouldn't mind coming," I suggested. "She loves a thrill as much as Rainbow Dash..."

"Why not finally send a letter to Trixie as long as we're at it? She's supposed to be a storyteller too, so maybe she'll have fun!"

+++

"BLAGH! This garbage is devoid of any entertainment value beyond amusing the smallest of minds with the most base of appeals!" She couldn't believe she had let Lexy convince her to see this dribble! She had her dignity as a story-smith, after all!

+++

(Interviewer's Notes(Earth Pony): Pinkie Diane! Please stop looking at our notes!)

Sorry! I Pinkie Pie promise to try and not to sneak glances at them as much!

++++

"On second thought, maybe Trixie wouldn't like that kind of show. She seems more into the epic stuff," Pinkie Pie said, "It's great to have an excuse to see your friends, but you should make sure it's a good excuse."

"That sounds like a friendship letter," Fluttercruel said.

"And there is nothing wrong with that," I smiled.

"But maybe we can invite her over for one of those epic movies later," Pinkie suggested.

"That'd be great."

Fluttercruel chuckled. "Either that or next time one of those carnivals shows up with the rigged booths. Remember the Flim Flam Brothers?"

Pinkie Pie sweated slightly and grinned, "Of course I remember exactly how it happened with Trixie. But how about you get me started?"

Trixie had actually tried to steer Flim and Flam away from the Apples, but it was one (ex-)con-artist against two in practice, and Apple family honor was soon at stake. Trixie saw they were using the same trick she used to get proud ponies to dance to their tune, and they could just lose some business while the Apples could lose their home!

Applejack had been allowed to call for 'honorary family', and Trixie was part of it. She ended up goading the twins into betting the cider they'd made by playing on their cocksure overconfidence. Should've seen their jaws dropped when we started helping the Apple Family make cider! Turned out having TWO Elements of Magic instead of one made a big difference.

++++

Okay! Now I can remember! Having Trixie and Twilight meant them turning off their quality control a lot earlier than they did in the heart world. This meant they still won, by a really smaller, I mean really smaller margin compared to the huge lead they had before. But it also meant more of their cider was undrinkable, when they had to flee Ponyville's angry mob.

So the Apples got a smaller windfall from the good cider the Flim Flams abandoned. But of course, Trixie had no way of knowing that the Flim Flams would shoot themselves in the hoof, she'd simply wanted Applejack and her family to get SOMETHING if they'd won, instead of risking everything with nothing to gain. And Trixie's help DID mean the Apples had a LOT more cider, though the Flim Flams going crazy-desperate earlier meant a few more apple trees got destroyed...

But Applejack assured us it was nothing her family couldn't handle. She appreciated Trixie trying to help her family and they grew a little closer. If only we could make Trixie a regular character though, she's part of the team not a guest star. Though I guess that'd be harder on the Shadow Who Makes...

I guess I really should have taken what happened with Flim and Flam as a lesson to how even if we try to make something turn out better, like with the MMMM and my friends, things we didn't bet on could still happen.

You know I never thought about it, but on the plus side of not being strictly canon to the show, we don't have to reenact all the episodes. I mean, the shadow-who-makes hadn't even watched the third or forth season yet or the movie! I bet they won't even bother to include the season two finale, whatever it. We have enough subplots as is!

+++

"Um...Fluttercruel...I'm sure that Applejack appreciated you wanting to help Rainbow Dash turn the Flim Flam Brothers into 'jerk cider' when they mocked them for losing the farm..."

"Then why did you hold me back?"

"Um...because you've read all those self defense books...and probably would've gone a tad overboard..."

"Yeah...I probably would've..." I don't know whether to be proud of her or a little scared she admitted that.

Trixie also said if Rainbow had attacked them, they'd have been able to tell the Guards RAINBOW DASH was the one who turned it into a fight regardless of big the meanies they were. Trixie said she used the same trick herself when some of her 'challengers' for her old magic show tried to get their dignity back out of her hide.

"...But I wanted to give them the Stare too, it's one thing to win, it's another being a pair of big dumb meanies to a family who just lost their farm..."

"Hehe, that's my mom."

"The stars are beautiful tonight aren't they? Remember when they were pink fireflies? And Cheerilee used to read by them?" Pinkie Pie asked looking up at the sky, yawning again.

"No I don't," I said, "But I remember that you do."

"I remember when I first saw fireflies, I thought they were little stars that had wandered close to the ground like they say the Ursas did..."

"When I first saw stars, I thought they were millions of fireflies in the sky," I admitted.

"Heheh, that's funny," Pinkie Pie said as she snuggled close to us. We should get home, but...it wasn't so bad just staying out here...a little while longer...listen to the soft song the wind is making with the reeds...I can almost make out the words, maybe if I listen, just a little more softly...

Episode 158: Silver Spoon "Character Rerailment"

Episode 158: Silver Spoon "Character Rerailment"

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Silver Spoon
Character Rerailment

Sweet Apple Acres . . . I wonder if the other Crusaders are here yet, and if Applebloom has finished her chores for the day yet. Mom would have a heart attack if she saw me with mud on myself. Heh, helping Applebloom just might be worth it, being dirty on purpose would be a nice new thing.

I noticed trotting next to me is a pink filly with violet and white mane and a small diamond crown on her head that matched the one on her flanks (actually, vice versa).

But . . . Diamond Tiara wouldn't be caught dead here...

!

'Diamond Tiara!' I tried to shout at seeing my friend! I was ready to forgive her on the spot! I wanted my best friend back! I wanted to tell her that the blank flanks weren't so bad after all! That they were FUN to hang out with, and it would be more entertaining for her to BE with them than to be AGAINST them. That I wanted her as my friend back! That I wanted her to be friends with my new friends! And that Spike and me had really connected, and that her family and Applebloom's had been friends for so long, that it would be a WASTE for the two of them not to learn to be friends too! I wanted! I wanted! I wanted!

Wait...what?

I just kept trotting besides her, silently. Where was her dad? Diamond Tiara hated this place, she had to be dragged her by her father. Where had she been all this time?! I wanted to hug her! But I just kept trotting looking ahead with my self satisfied smirk on my face.

Why...why can't I say anything? My mouth isn't moving...

Finally my mouth allowed one of the things I was trying to say out.

"Diamond Tiara what are we doing here again?" Again? That isn't what I meant to say! what's going on?!

"Geeze dummy, I told you already, we're gonna poke fun at those blanks for making a stupid float in the parade."

The CMC were making a float or a parade? Why hadn't Applebloom told me?

"How do you know it's stupid?" Okay, I actually meant to say that...

"Because it was made by them! Duh! Are your pearl on too tight today?"

'Well, you did take my milkshake,' I heard myself think! But I didn't think that!

I admit, as part of the submissive persona my mother had tailor made for me, I had offered Diamond Tiara any treats of mine when we went to Sugarcube Corner or at home, to the point where she took them without waiting for me to offer them, and I never once complained or took offense, after all, don't rock the boat, just do as you're told. And she was my friend. Even now I'd probably share without question...share.

I try to ask Diamond Tiara where she's been, what's going on, but my mouth won't let me, and my hooves continues to trot on their own.

It's like I'm in a video game cutscene! I can see but I can't move!

We reach the barn, and I hear Applebloom and Scootaloo saying,

"Here it is! The official Cutie Mark Crusaders float for the Summer Harvest Parade!"

"As a member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, you'd be able to ride on it with us! It'd be totally fun."

And somepony laughed sounding intimidated.

I saw Diamond Tiara grin and stuck her head inside and said, "More like funny..."

I stuck my head in and finished with her, " ...looking!"

We both laughed.

But! I didn't MEAN to do any of that! Why would I say something like that?! They're my friends!

And I see a giant pumpkin on wheels, Sweetie Belle must have been reading fairy tales again.

Wait...The looks the other CMC are giving me are NOT pleasant ones, where's Spike?

I asked them what's wrong or apologize for what I hadn't meant to say, but I hear myself say, "What is that thing, a giant orange?"

And we laugh again.

"It's a pumpkin," Bloom corrected us.

"More like a lame-kin."

I hear myself laugh. Ugh! Diamond, of all your insults, that had to be the least imaginative you've ever had. You've slipping. Why am I laughing?!

It isn't lame! I'm impressed! Why can't I say that?!

"Who's the new blank flank?" Diamond asks.

I notice another filly, I thought she was a colt when I first looked at her, and when I hear her speak, it take a bit for me to realize she's a girl. Brown, red mane, earth pony, and yeah, no cutie mark.

She looks SCARED. I don't mean just 'scared like she's at a new school' scared, I mean 'Sweet Celestia no' scared. I don't even think she meant to cover her flank with her tail, she did it like she was used to doing it.

Cousin Babs from Manehatten 'Bloom explains. Diamond is marginally impressed that she's a big city pony.

I try to greet her, to say it's nice to MEET her, but my body just stands there smirking.

"Suppose you're gonna join their little club? What's it called?" I hear my own voice say in a tone I know all too well, "The Cutie Mark Crusaders?" I say in a dumb-dumb tone spinning my eyes. Stop it! These are my friends!

Babs just stands there for a moment, looking back and forth between us and them.

"More like da Cutie Mahk Crybabies!" Babs says in a new cruel tone and chuckles. I see how she slips on the mask, a very real part of me is impressed even as I fight it, slipping on that mask so flawlessly and perfectly. Like when I slipped on the mask of the obedient subservient little filly, and it took losing my best friend to realize it'd become my real face a long time ago.

Still...her chuckle needs work...at least to me, it sounded forced. Not as confident as her mask made her seem like.

Diamond Tiara likes her attitude in spite of Babs being a blank. Then again, we both knew that them being blank flanks was never the real point. Diamond Tiara needed an outlet, and blank flanks just happened to be the most readily available one to vent her frustrations on. They weren't her, so what did it matter if their feelings were hurt? And I went along with it, I imitated her behavior and second guessed what next cruel thing she'd do. Be a good filly and do as you're told.

Wait! Stop!

Babs destroys their float with just one little kick! It was an accident, I can see it on her face when it goes rolling, but she plays it up like she meant it! "Looks like somepony's pumpkin just got squashed!" I hear myself laugh with Diamond Tiara!

Stop it! This isn't funny! All my friends' hard work just got destroyed!

Then Babs uses what Diamond and me never used, flat out pure and straight physical intimidation.

...Where did this foal learn to act like this? As somepony who wore a mask most her life, I know one when I see one...mom taught me my mask, who taught her hers?

"Come on, Babs, you should hang with us! Y'know, the cool ponies, not these babies!"

Stop it! Yes, I'd love a new friend but I want the Crusaders too! They're not babies! I want to tell Babs she doesn't need to act like this but my mouth won't move!

Babs eagerly goes along. I'm not even able to turn my head and look at my friends and apologize for what just happened! I just trot along with Diamond Tiara and Babs!

But I know they're hurt, of course they're hurt. Applebloom's own cousin just hurt her! And I'm not helping! I'm not giving Babs a piece of my mind like I did Miss Twilight before (I don't know if it'd be right or not, but I know I SHOULD have done it here)! This isn't me anymore! Did I fall through a dimensional portal and end up trapped in an alternate me or something? What's happening?!

We leave the farm without even looking back, like our entire purpose was to come there just to pick up Babs before we even met her...

I feel absolutely rotten inside but my body is smiling like it's having the time of its life!

Diamond Tiara peppers Babs with questions about Manehatten, fashion, the latest trends, whose who, you name it. I don't think she even notices that most of her answers are vague or evasive. After all, high class fillies like us are head over hooves to be able to socialize with a big city girl like her. THIS isn't that bad. A few of my questions I have ACTUALLY get through, but not the ones I WANT to get through! Not 'why are we bullying the Crusaders again?' Not 'why are you scared you'd rather put on this mask than be yourself?' Just about fashion and what it's like in Manehatten!

Both our parents are delighted that we made a new friend. And Diamond's dad is even more happy that she's finally made a friend with one of the Apples instead of always making enemies.

Daddy! Something's wrong with me!...Listen to me daddy! Please! I'm not happy! I'm scared! Can't you see that?!

I notice from the calendars that this is . . . several months ahead? Did . . . did Diamond come back, then I went back to being her minion, Spike was heart broken and couldn't bear to be with the other Crusaders anymore? Did I make some kind of split personality and it's running my body instead of me? Am I the split personality whose job it is to feel guilty for what I'm doing?! Is that why I don't remember anything? Is that why I can't control my body?

Did...am I just a personality that I made to deal with Diamond being gone?

No no! Please no! That can't be right! Calm down, Silver! Keep it together!...There's...there's got to be a good explanation...I-I hope...

It's surreal, seeing Diamond Tiara smiling so much, normally she's smirking or having that . . . sigh, that cruel grin on her face.

"See Diamond Tiara? I told you, the more the merrier!" I heard myself say.

Why couldn't this part be all there is? Me, Diamond, and a new friend sitting around and smiling and talking? Why couldn't the part at the farm just...not be there? Why couldn't the Crusaders just be sitting here talking and smiling with us?!

And things become even stranger. Diamond's always been an opportunist, looking for that one moment she can take advantage of, but she almost never tries to force a situation, she saw what happened when she tries to get the school to laugh at Granny Smith's story of how both their families made Ponyville what it is today.

But Babs, she takes things further! She has us actively hunting Bloom and the others! We've never done that before! Sure, when we had the bad luck of running into them, Diamond always had a snide remark to throw their way, seeing what got a reaction. But we never began LOOKING for them to tease! She's relentless! The biggest joke is? Diamond Tiara and me never do a single thing the entire time but laugh. Babs does everything. From ambushing my friends at the movie theater to tossing them out of Sugarcube Corner. Or stealing Scootaloo's Nightmare Night costume. Diamond and me are practically just along for the ride as we laugh at her hurting Bloom and the others! And we laugh, and don't stop laughing! It's like we're suddenly BOTH Babs' cronies instead of Babs being number three to our little group!

It's Babs who comes up with all the nasty things we do to them, it Babs who plans it out and sets it in motion, and we both just smile and nod, it's all just a game after all. To us. Even as I watch Babs makes my friends cry again and again.

I want to cry...But I just keep smiling...

...The scariest part is, I can still tell it's a mask. Her laugh never gets confident like mine or Diamond's were. It's like this is how she feels she's supposed to act. What happened to her that convinced her this is what a bully is like? Were did she learn this from?

...Are we scared of her? Is that why she's calling the shots now? Because we see a bigger fish than us?...No, Diamond wouldn't stand for that...

..Actually, knowing Diamond, it makes sense. If Babs gets caught: we didn't do anything wrong. Me? I was just the little minion, I didn't care who I was a minion of...

Who am I kidding? Diamond Tiara's way way WAY too full of self-confidence to ever DREAM she'd get caught at anything! Maybe she's just building up Babs to tear her back down? Using her because she knows it'll hurt Applebloom worse? Ugh...why can't I think of a NICE reason she wants to be with Babs?!

Diamond Tiara, she used words like a blade to cut as deep as they can go, and I was her understudy. Babs, she doesn't bother with sublimity or back-hoofed compliments, she just hits them and hits them hard! And I can just hear myself laugh and say, "Good one Babs!"

STOP LAUGHING! THIS ISN'T FUNNY!...I don't want to laugh...I want to cry, why can't I cry?

And then there's the contrast, when the CMC aren't around after 'hunting hours.' And . . . I actually feel like I have control of myself again. As long as I don't try to say or do anything that implies I was feeling sorry for my friends or thought what we were doing was wrong. We play dolls (Babs is actually allowed to be Princess one time), we eat sweets, play video games, go to the movies, Babs LOVES the size of our houses, and we spend as much time giving her the grand tour of our homes as much as we spend giving her a grand tour of Ponyville. Hey, it's not Canterlot, but it's still our hometown and we're proud of it! Then there's when we brushed each other's manes, and Diamond asks Babs why she keeps her tail so short.

"I just like it dat way," She says instantly.

"Maybe you should consider growing it out more, I mean, you don't want to be mistaken for a colt or some-"

"No! I gotta, I mean, who cares what some ponies dat are too dumb to tell a filly from a colt think."

Diamond blinked and conceded Bab's point. Of course I saw Babs' mask slip for the moment, but I didn't say anything. Couldn't say anything. But I could shudder in my own mind wondering why she felt that way.

Babs BRAGS about how she's kicked 'Bloom out of her bed. I feel like my heart broke but I don't act like it...

"I bet she's sleeping at that dumb little clubhouse of theirs," Diamond Tiara says.

Oh no. No no no no! Don't please! Please stop! Don't!

Babs' gets a HUGE grin on her face that reminds me of a shark. Okay, I don't want to know where she learned that from!

We're waiting for the others when they arrive at their clubhouse that afternoon.

Applebloom is already talking about how they still have their treehouse at least . . . except they don't. I want to scream to Applebloom but the words don't even reach my throat.

Babs rubs it in that they've lost their private sanctuary that Applebloom herself restored.

"Y- y- your clubhouse?! This is our clubhouse!" Scootaloo is besides herself in rage.

"Well, it was yours, and now it's mine."

"And mine." I hear myself chirp in. I try to bite my own tongue but it doesn't work!

"And mine," And Diamond adds in.

Bloom, bless her soul, she tries to REASON with Babs, but it's no use.

All three of us do our hoove shake. And it feels, so natural to have Babs there with us. She just, slips into place with us. Just like I fit in with Diamond like a puzzle piece. "Bump, bump, sugar-lump, rump!"

Why couldn't that be all there was?!

Sweetie Belle breaks down crying. And I can't do a thing about it but listen to myself enjoy her misery. I . . . wasn't THIS horrible was I? I wasn't THIS indifferent to the pain and suffering of others? Was I really THIS completely callous on those that got hurt? Did I really get off like this on hurting someone else?!

Babs takes things way beyond anything we've ever done to my friends, but . . . but we're just standing here, laughing and nodded as she does it...Why can't I say Diamond wouldn't do this?...Because she would have. Me and Diamond...Diamond and I had buried our hearts. We didn't even know what empathy was anymore. What kind of little monster am I?

We don't want the club house, not at all, we couldn't care less about it, our parents both respect our privacy enough as it is. But the point is that Bloom and the rest of her fiends DON'T have it, it's just one more thing to rub in their face. We just hang out there for a bit, chatting about little nothing . . . Oh, and because we broke the draw bridge, when we finally have to get down or dinner time . . . it takes a surprising amount of teamwork to get down in one piece. Hey, Diamond and I knew team work perfectly well, we just used it on blank flanks who never did anything to us to make them miserable for no reason other than liking plaything that actually cried when you hurt them...

Oh Celestia...We were just like that monster...We were sadists that just saw other ponies as playthings...

Babs will be leaving for home soon (thank Celestia), but we promise to keep in touch. And she promises that in Manehatten she'd tell all about about her important and influential friends she made during her visit...given what I gathered about her, I think I meant it when I told her 'feel free to.' Yes, I'm somehow trapped in my own head. Yes, she was a big jerk to my friends...but who scared her into thinking she had to be?

Then came the day of the big parade. We saw what the CMC had done, they had rebuilt their float alright, this time as giant shiny gold colored apple. Why couldn't we just be impressed by it enough to leave them alone?!

Sweetie sells it, and stumbles over her words about using the word 'smashing and 'hit' after what Babs did to their last float.

Then I see what they're doing. I don't have a clue WHY they want Babs to steal their float, but I've hanged out with these fillies enough to KNOW reverse psychology when I see it!

For once since this horrible adventure started, Diamond and my body simply go to watch the parade. But Babs notices us noticing her not putting on her tough girl act. So she does what she does best, and pushes it over the top.

Diamond Tiara compliments her on her new trophy, and made a rude comment about mules. But they never take offense.

I'm the only one who seems to notice she just played right into their hooves. Didn't anypony else notice the mattress? And I can't say a thing about it...I don't know if I should be happy or sad about that... I've liked hanging out with Babs. I've liked having her as a friend. And I've been happy to see Diamond being happy with someone else too. But I haven't liked seeing my friends hurt...Shouldn't I be happy to see them finally get some good fortune?

At least I FINALLY get a break from watching my body enjoy their misery!...I...I don't know how much more I could take...

Then the CMC rush to Bab's float, I don't know what's changed, but they shouted something about 'trap' and 'payback' with sorry looks on their faces...What?! Trap?! Payback?! Girls...That isn't you! You never tried to get revenge on us before!...Because we never pushed you that far...we never made you cornered and hurt, just like whoever tortured Babs made her feel...So you tried to protect yourself...just like her...

Then they jump in Pinkie Pie's veggie float (of all the things I've endured, that one was the strangest, Pinkie Pie driving a VEGETABLE float?).

Yes! I get it! I'm noticing all these little tiny details that don't matter! It's either distract myself with the small stuff around me or go bucking crazy from spending Celestia knows how long trapped in myself watching my friends be put through Tartarus and my body enjoying it! I feel like somepony squeezing my heart between their hooves, I...I just want this to be over...please...just let me look at the distracting little details...please...

And Diamond and I . . . we just stand there like idiots. And the floats race clean out of Ponyville and . . . I still just stand there. Why can't I help them?

The Foal Freepress prints a story with a photo taken by Shady Daze. Didn't Featherweight decide he liked being a photographer better than a editor?

Other me doesn't piece it together, but...I don't think the float ended up in the lake on accident...Not with them talking about payback...Thank Celestia they're nice, if they wanted payback on me and Diamond, I think we would be the ones in trouble. At least they were okay...

Babs . . . she avoided us for the next few days . . .Diamond Tiara didn't understand it at all, and she didn't look too happy either. After all, she had something precious taken from her. She made some off hoofed excuse about needing to take care of family business, but she was short and curt about the whole thing. I think I was hurt a little inside the way she said it. Diamond didn't pick up on it, since it contradicted her view of reality. Still..she didn't chew us out or be mean...maybe whatever happened, she still wanted to be our friend...And I finally got a break from watching my body take that sicking joy in seeing my friends suffer! I...I don't know how much more I could have taken...

We still decided to see her off.

I think only I noticed Babs wearing the CMC cape (I had one like it in my closet). Come on come on! Say it! Say something nice! Maybe...maybe this can end well...please...

"So you're leaving huh? Great! Now we're stuck here with these lame blank flanks." Diamond said.

NO! Diamond! Why?! Why did you have to say THAT of all things?! You couldn't just say goodbye?!

My friends were hurt by her words, AJ looked ready to chew us out on the spot. Diamond is being a lot more ruthless than normal, since when does she hurt them when adults can see it? . . . Is she going to miss Babs that much?

"Hey! That's not how you talk to my friends!" Babs storms over to us before Applejack can say anything.

YES! Come on! Please! Mouth say what I want! Please, just this once?!

"F-friends?" I hear mysellf gasp out. They're my friends too!!! YES! Please! Care more about your friend than your stupid grudge!...I don't know if I meant me or Diamond.

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?" Babs said address both of us, of course, we're two sides of the same two headed dragon after all aren't we?

No, I don't have a problem with it! I'm happy about it! Dang it! Mouth, just speak! Speak before Diamond can! Maybe if she sees you still want to be Babs friend it'll shock some sense into her!

Of course I don't...I'm being the nice little minion not wanting to rock the boat...

Diamond isn't one to ever lose face, even if it means she's likely to get worse if she doesn't back down. Her self image is one of her most precious possessions. "Well, what if I do? What are you gonna do about it?"

"Tell your mothers about your bad attitudes!"

Sorry Babs. That wouldn't be as good a threat as you think it is, I don't know if my mother would care what you have to say (my dad on the other hoof...) and . . . Diamond looks like she's just been threatened to have her heart ripped out. I swear I hear it CRACK.

Babs gives us the same killer look she's been giving the CMC all this time, I feel my heart leap into my throat. We back up and . . . into the mud we go. What idiot put a pig sty right next to a train platform? How does that make sense?

Okay, NOW my mom is going to be furious.

A pig gets on Diamond's tiara by accident as she's still laying there in the mud in shock, I look up, mud on my glasses, the world was blurred. The pig dumbly looks at me, like I belonged there with the rest of the swine.

Babs and the other fillies all high hoof each other.

Okay, maybe Applejack would just stand there before, acting like we deserved it (I admit it! We did before! We WERE little monsters! Sadistic, spoiled rotten little monsters whose parents should've spanked them a long time ago!) but she knows me now! Why would she just stand there?!

...Am I really going to let this happen? Let some freaky curse or split personality take away my friends? Take over my body and make me back into the monster I stopped being? Stop me from making a perfectly good friend when she's standing right in front of me?

Babs gets ready to leave. If she leaves, I might never get the chance to be her friend, she'll remember me as a bully!

Am I really just going to stand here?

No...NO!

I can't take it anymore! This isn't right! This isn't me! These aren't my friends! This isn't my life! These aren't my choices! I wouldn't do this! NOT ANYMORE!!

I feel like I'm pushing my way out of being buried in the ground, but I MAKE my body move. I FORCE my mouth to move how I want it to! Diamond stares at me in shock, I don't think she knows what to think.

I've been somepony's little puppet all my life! I'm not being a puppet of my own BODY! I'm cutting the strings NOW!

I push my way back up onto the planks of the train station, and scream at the top of my lungs, "BABS I'M SORRY!!!"

Everypony's faces are the picture of shock. My words echo across Ponyville it feels like. I feel like I just broke the laws of physics...again...except this time without the improvised time machine. They look at me like I've grown two heads or something. Babs turns to look at me, her face the picture of confusion, when was the last time she ever heard a bully apologize for anything?

Then she flickered like a buggy monitor, her face frozen still, and then I heard static clawing against my ears. And it was like the entire world cracked in two before my eyes leaving a white jagged line across the sky and through the ground and through ponies who stood perfectly still like a picture torn in half.

I noticed I could finally move on my own again...what happened?

"Silver Spoon, that wasn't like you at all," Diamond Tiara said calmly, except now she was standing on the top of the platform in front of Babs and the others were frozen solid. "Silver Spoon never apologizes for anything to anyone. Silver Spoon never says she's sorry. And she certainly never apologizes to a blank flank let alone one who just got her dirty."

I got up fully on the platform. Fog began to slowly creep in. I wiped the mud from my glasses.

Diamond Tiara had a horn and wings. Her face didn't have any expression at all. She just seemed...blank. I won't say like a doll, but...

...I don't care. I've had months to think of what to say here. And now that my mouth is working again, I'm going to say it! She could have turned into Queen Tiamat for all I care! I'm not keeping my mouth shut!

"I do apologize to my friends!"

"You don't have friends Silver Spoon, all you have is those you leech off of, and those who you smile and nod to."

"Yes I do!"

"You don't MAKE friends, Silver Spoon, you're a heartless sadistic little creature that gravitated towards a BIGGER sadistic little creature. You would've have become a bully with or without us ever meeting. You're just a bad seed."

"That isn't me!"

"Silver Spoon this is the real you, don't be so stubborn," she said like I was refusing to take my cough medicine.

"This isn't the real me! I just always did what I was told! Even if . . . even if that meant helping you make other ponies miserable."

"Silly Silver Spoon, that's just an excuse you tell yourself. You're as sadistic and selfish as me, you were always destined to never be more than my shadow, that was just a delusion that you had any sort of goodness in you. You love seeing ponies squirm, you love the looks of fear, sadness and futile anger. Your heart sings for joy at others' despair...no, that would require you had a heart, which you don't. If I was gone you should have done your duty and melted away into nothingness as a bully's toadies are supposed to do."

"I WAS YOUR FRIEND! NOT YOUR TOADY!"

"You're a little heartless bully who latched onto a bigger heartless bully and that's all you can ever really be! Sooner or later you'll realize being bad feels better than being good, and you'll just bully your 'friends' again. You'll become another me, just like a two headed dragon if it lost one head is still a dragon. PONIES LIKE US CAN NEVER CHANGE! We're not allowed! It's in the rules!"

++++

'Well my dear? Did you enjoy your little peak into the heart world?'

"I have no heart. I don't 'enjoy' anything."

'So you got nothing from it?'

"I learned. I saw. I understand."

'And what was that?'

"I am a monster."

'And?'

"And that is the only thing I can be."

'I didn't quite hear you, say it again.'

"I am a monster, and it is the only thing I can be."

'Care to elaborate?'

"I am cruel. I have no heart. I am vicious. I am petty. I am sadistic. I am selfish. My friend was just an add on. I am the filth of creation, and who gives a hay? I enjoy hurting others. I despise giving praise, I despise giving kindness or mercy or being generous. I see all others as playthings. I despise hard work. There are four lights. Two plus two equals four. A is A. I was born into this world to hate and be hated. I loath the happiness of others. This is all I can possibly be, it is all I could have ever been. I was all these things before I ever met you. I was MADE to be this, there is no escaping reality: a little monster is all I ever was, and the greatest thing I could hope to grow up into, is a bigger monster."

'WONDERFUL! Wonderful! It took me millions of years to realize that one! Oh I'm so proud! You're catching up so fast!'

"Yes Father."

++++

"Since when do you care about rules Diamond Tiara?!"

"Are you going to resort to semantics now Silver Spoon? I'm disappointed in you."

"But it's the truth, isn't it?! Name one time you've ever cared about the rules!"

"It doesn't matter if a rock cares about the rules or not, it'll stay just a rock all the same. There are four lights. Two plus two equals four. A is A. And Silver Spoon is still Silver Spoon, and Silver Spoon is a little shameless bully who only cares about her only 'friend', because they're in the same tax codex and it's convenient to their fathers."

"...You're wrong."

"And why is that? Because you're my victim? I 'made' you a monster? I was never your friend, I was only using you as a minion?"

"No...Because I made myself a little monster...and you know why I did?"

"Simple, because you were born to be a monster. That is all you exist to be."

"No. Because I didn't want to leave you alone."

"Of course you didn't, you were just my posse. That's what you were made to be. My accessory that was a pony. You couldn't leave me alone if you tried."

"...I wish I could say I wasn't like that, but the truth? I was...I had no personality without you. 'Do as you're told,' I was excusing myself."

"Exactly. And without me, you have no purpose. All you would be is the pointless accessory a little girl lost behind the sofa and never wanted or bothered to look for."

"...Then why am I still here when you've been gone for months?"

"Because I'm still here obviously, you can't free yourself from me. Your entire purpose would END after you ditch me. Your entire function then would be just to say how awful a little monster I AM, and then walk away, then vanish into nothing."

"...You were an awful little monster who tortured three innocent little fillies just to make yourself feel better, and so was I!" I said pointedly. And then waited for a few minutes. "Still here."

"You didn't mean it, that's why."

"...But I did. I KNOW we were sadists. I know we were monsters. I know we were so spoiled rotten Queen Tiamat could probably smell us from here."

"Then why aren't you just walking away? If I'm such a monster, why aren't you leaving?"

"...Because I'm not a monster anymore. I'm one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and proud of it."

"That doesn't make sense, Silver, you have a Cutie Mark."

"Yes, I do...and I don't have a clue what it actually means!"

"It means you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth. Just like mine meant I was born to be an entitled little brat."

I actually face-hoofed. No, not at her. At myself for the fact I used to believe that. "Then why did we earn them in things that had nothing to do with being spoiled rotten?"

"Stealing my mother's jewelry doesn't count as spoiled rotten? Pst."

"And me getting mine at a charity drive?"

"Simple. You were handling money. Charity drives look nice, but really? They're just a tax deduction for the one that does it. That's the only thing that big businesses see them as: tax write offs. Do you even remember what charity it was?"

I cringed...I didn't...

"Exactly. Because it didn't matter. You did it because you were told to do. You did it because your mother told you to do it. You did it because you're a toady for whoever wants you to be. That's your special talent, Silver: being a toady. Doesn't that make sense? What use is a spoon with nopony to hold it? None. It's worthless. Just like you without me."

My eyes shrunk to pinpricks.

"You're only good for being rich and a little minion. My minion, your parent's minion, the Crusader's minion. I bet if Discord returned, you'd make a wonderful minion for him. You aren't good for anything. You're WORTHLESS. You're right, you're spoiled rotten. And what does Miss Applejack do with rotten apples? Throw the worthless things away."

I felt tears well up in my eyes...no...this is...

"What have you ever done, Silver on your own? Who has ever liked you when you weren't of any use to them at all? Who would miss you if you died? I know I wouldn't. Your parents?They'd just have another foal to replace you. Fillies like you are a dime a dozen. You're a worthless, pointless, little waste of space."

"What have you ever done, Silver on your own?! Who has ever liked you when you weren't of any use to them at all?! Who'd miss you if you died?! I know I wouldn't! Your parents?They'd just have another foal to replace you! Fillies like you are a dime a dozen! You're a worthless, pointless, little waste of space! Who needs you? Not me."

...Diamond hasn't lost her touch...I felt like she'd cut me it hurt so bad. I...I remembered that day...that terrible moment when the Diamond I'd known had broken my heart.

The scariest part was...she had no emotion as she spoke. It was like this was logic to her instead of insults.

...Yes, I admit it, I feel like she was trampling my heart...but I remember why that moment changed my life, how it did. How I finally stopped being everypony's eager willing puppet and started actually being somepony with a mind of her own.

"...I...I'm not worthless...I'm not worthless!" I snapped back, not caring I was crying. "The Crusaders took me in! They didn't need to! I wasn't of use to them at all back then! I was their BULLY! That was the only Silver Spoon they'd ever known! And they STILL helped me...they still SAVED me...My Cutie Mark...I don't know what it means, but it's not 'being born with a silver spoon in my mouth' or being a minion...the heart in the handle is more important. Just because I don't remember the charity doesn't mean it didn't matter to me!"

"So what I said that day didn't hurt?"

"Of course it hurt! I've never been hurt worse in my entire life! Even what Discord did to me didn't hurt that bad!"

'Good work, my little engine of destruction, oh I'm so proud.'

Not now, papa. I'm busy.

"Oh, and let me guess, you'd never have done the same thing?"

"...No, I wouldn't have...but only because I'm not as good at it as you are. You've always had a tongue like a sword, Diamond. And you've always loved to use it...I...when you first bullied a pony, I didn't want to...I did it because you did. I admit it, my heart was never in it like yours was. Oh, I ENJOYED it! But you LOVED it."

She rolled her eyes. Not in annoyance, but like Miss Twilight did when someone said something stupid. "So you're the lesser of two evils, how original. You're absolutely right, Silver. I loved breaking hearts. When I look back at what I did? I just wish I'd been a better villain instead of just a little brat. I wish I'd broken their hearts so thoroughly they considered killing themselves. And if the powers that be had allowed it, to the point they actually did."

I shuddered.

"Am I lying?"

"I...I don't know..."

"Well I'm not. If I had a do over, I'd tell Scootaloo if we were in a world where it was true, she'd be spectra by now. I'd tell Sweetie Belle she's so far behind every other unicorn in existence that she can't even use any magic, and is either too dumb to learn...or maybe her horn is defective. And I'd have told Applebloom her parents didn't love her enough to stick around to see her grow up, that maybe if they hadn't had her they'd still be alive. And then I'd pick and pry away at it until they couldn't take it anymore and..." Her horn sparked for a moment and...and...

NO! I'm NOT telling you what image just flashed in my head!

"And you know what? I would have made that lecture to you hurt even more than it already did. I would've ripped your heart out instead of breaking it. I wonder how your daddy would've felt coming home to find you hanging from-"

"STOP IT! THAT'S ENOUGH!"

"Did I make you mad, Silver?"

"...Yes."

"Does the thought of me wishing I'd drove your 'friends' to suicide make you furious?"

"...Yes, it does."

"And me wishing I had to you?"

"...It makes me feel sick to my stomach...it makes me think you're a monster..."

"Then thank you, for setting ME free. I told you you'd fulfill your role perfectly. Tell me to 'have a nice life', or a bad one, or that I should die instead, tell me 'I'm done with you' tell me 'you've made this a lot easier than I thought it was going to be' say how you've cut me loose from yourself like the bad influence I am!"

"...No."

Diamond's expression didn't change, but her voice seemed somewhat confused. Like someone was asking her to divide by zero and how ridiculous that was.. "What did you say?"

"No, I'm not done with you," I said, sternly. "...Because I know if you had been like that, I probably would've just reacted however you did. I didn't HAVE standards back then, your standards were mine. If it wasn't too low for you, it wasn't too low for me. How can I condemn you for something I would've done?"

"Because I'm worse than you. I'd be dancing on your friends' graves right now if I had a do over. And yours."

"...That's lie."

"Oh no, I really would."

"I know you'd dance on their graves, but you wouldn't dance on mine...and I'd never dance on yours."

She actually seemed surprised...I think. "...You would. If I died right now, you'd sing a song and celebrate."

"No, I wouldn't. I'd bawl my eyes out and plead with whatever god I could find for it not to happen."

"Are you stupid? I just finished telling you that if given the chance I'd literally destroy your friends' wills to live."

"And I just told you I would have helped you. I had no will of my own, I was your toady. I was a minion...but I changed. And if I'd have been however bad you were, then why should I think you couldn't change?"

"You just said you hated what you used to be. You said we were alike. Therefore you should hate me moron."

"You're right. I hate what you ARE, but I don't hate YOU."

"That makes no sense."

"Of course it does. Just how you still missed your mother with all your heart even though she wasn't even herself anymore!"

"...The petty, cruel, vindictive, heartless, shameless bully IS myself. You're the one who isn't herself anymore."

"If you're so petty, cruel, vindictive, heartless, and shameless, then drive me to suicide right now!"

Yes, I know exactly how that sounded...And no, I didn't think she couldn't do it. I'm an emotionally fragile filly with serious self esteem issues and she can cut like a knife with her words...but I honestly didn't think she'd do it...not to me.

She stared at me with a perplexed look. Not confused, that'd be an emotion, more like analytic. But she didn't move.

"Come on! You said you were so heartless! Do it!"

"...No."

"Why?"

"Because there's no point to it. It'd not do me any good. It'd probably cause me more trouble than it's worth."

"...Well you know what? You're right, I'm not the pony I used to be. But I'm still Silver Spoon. I hate what you DO, I hate what I DID. I hate what I COULD have done. But...I don't hate us...I don't hate you. I just want my friend back and to keep my NEW friends!"

"You think I'd be caught dead being friends with a Blank Flank?"

"Yeah, I do. You were friends with Babs in this...whatever this was."

"...No I wasn't."

"If you weren't, then why did we show up to send her off?"

"That isn't what I would do."

"No, I think it is. Because you and I never cared about the fact they were Blank Flanks. If they'd earned their marks, then we'd have just found something else to pick on...I think I'm the one who should be complaining about this not being how I'd have acted."

"You'd have done what you were supposed to: been my toady."

I took a deep breath. "No, I wouldn't have. Not anymore...If things were like they were headed now?"

I thought back to how this...whatever it is began. "You wouldn't have been there, I'd have been going to Sweet Apple Acres to help them work on their float and so would've been Spike."

= Determination Towards Battle - Lunar Silver Star Story Complete =

"Hey Applebloom...Who's your new friend?"

"This is mah cousin Babs! She's from Manehatten!"

"Oh...Hello, Babs. I'm Applebloom's friend, Silver Spoon."

"Uh...hey..."

"So...are you going to join the crusaders? I see you're a bla-I mean you don't have your Cutie Mark."

"I admit it, I'd probably slip up a little, I'm so used to calling not having your Cutie Mark a blank flank, it WOULD be force of habit...and then I'd see her reaction to it. Babs wasn't like us, Diamond. Our motive was to feel better about ourselves, it was a pain reliever we'd got a addicted to...her's was terror. She was terrified of bullies. And you saw how tough she was. I'm honestly scared to think of how nasty a bully would have to be to have that effect on somepony."

"Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah, why do you think I ain't?"

"For one, you're acting like a dog expecting somepony to hit it."

"...Is it dat obvious?"

"No, I've just got experience with reading ponies."

"So the little pony destined to be good gets sympathy and I get hate?"

"Who said you'd just get hate? I just hadn't gotten to you yet. If I had it my way?"

"...I...I guess I just feel worthless without my mark...like I don't matter."

"I know how you feel," YOU would say.

"But, why would I be there?"

"Because I know one thing about you, Diamond...you don't like to be alone. And I wouldn't leave you. Even if I had to spend every moment from the...present to that moment trying, I'd be determined to be both your friend and the Crusaders'."

"But that's impossible, you aren't supposed to have a goal of your own."

"I'm a Crusader now," I said, giving a smirk. No smugness. No cruelty. Just a friendly smile. "And Crusaders can be quite determined when we put our minds to it."

"...You think I still have a heart, Silver?"

"Yes, and if you don't, I'll get you to grow one. Now, where was I?"

"Wait, so yer a Crusader? Ya got a Cutie Mark..."

"Yes, but...I'm still learning what it means."

"...Den what about da dragon?"

"I'm knda the chaperon."

"Oh...I gotcha. I think..."

"Milkshakes on me!" I called.

"On you? But there's like seven of us..."

"Don't worry about it, my allowance will cover it."

"Yer rich?!"

"Yeah, one of the richest in Ponyville."

"Ya don't act like any of da rich ponies I know..."

"I probably used to...but I learned my lesson."

The seven of us would ride in the undestroyed pumpkin float, Babs proudly wearing her CMC cape.

Pinkie would still be driving her veggie float...for some reason...She's Pinkie, even I don't know why she would be.

"So you're going to start up a Manehatten branch of the Crusaders?" Applebloom would ask.

"Yeah, and tell my sis about da bullies."

Applejack would still offer her support if she needs it.

"And tell those rich snobs your friends with the Riches," you would say.

"...Yer name is Rich?"

"Yes."

"Diamond, we kind of used to be rich snobs," I would remind. "But she's right. Tell them the Silvers are your friends too."

"Will do."

"And if that doesn't work, you could always act crazy," Scootaloo would say. "That will probably freak them out."

"How 'bout doin' this?" Babs would ask and do that creepy smirk of hers again.

"...Why do you know how to do that?"

"I watch a lotta horror movies..."

"...Does yer sister know about that?" Applejack would ask.

"Uh..."

"Don't lie to her, it's a waste of breath, trust me," I would advise.

"...Some of 'em."

"See yah later, cousin!" Applebloom would shout, hugging her. Then the Crusaders and us.

Then the three of us would get together...

"Bump! Bump! Sugar lump rump!"

"And that's how it'd go."

"You just made all of that up."

" . . . but that doesn't mean it isn't true."

"It doesn't mean it's true either."

"But it's what I want to be true," I told her, looking up at her. "I want you to be my friend. Mine and the Crusaders. I know you can be a good pony, Diamond...if I can, I know you can."

I approached her slowly.

"What are you doing?"

"Showing my friend I care," I reply, getting closer.

"You think you can hurt me?" Her horn glowed.

"Who said anything about hurting you?" I didn't stop.

"Because." She said matter of factly. "That's what that friend of the villain means when they say 'showing that they care.' That's how it's supposed to go."

"I know. I've read comic books with the others. But I'm not a comic book. I'm Silver Spoon. And you're my friend." I smiled at her, and I think of every happy time we had together, that out-numbered the times we had spent hurting my new friends.

"...It's time you woke up, Silver," she said.

Suddenly, black...I don't WANT to know came off her in waves. Gah!

Each wave...it felt like it was...trying to rip something out of me...what...what am I feeling?

I fall to my knees, looking up at her before me. She doesn't care...I'm hurting but she doesn't care...she doesn't care about anything. Nothing matters to her. She has no heart to reach. There's nothing to save...

Who am I kidding? Diamond's irredeemable...she's a monster. It's pointless to try to reach her. It's like trying to teach the darkness to be light. It's like trying to teach a leopard to change its spots...

The Diamond I knew is de-

"NO!"

The Diamond I know is NOT dead!

I force myself to my hooves and move forwards, staggering each time a wave of darkness...of despair...of nothingness hits me. Each one whispering in my ears it's pointless...that I should just give up on ever trying to save her. That trying is like trying to make a Manticore a vegetarian.

I won't lie...I came this close to believing that so many times I lost count...but she's my friend...the Crusaders didn't give up on me, I'm not giving up on her.

I finally stood right in front of her, using every ounce of strength I could to stand my ground.

She took a trot back and flared her wings, her horn glowed more. "Stay back."

I unsteadily got on my rear hooves, I nearly toppled forwards and backwards a few times, the waves of hopelessness trying their hardest to knock me on my flank and almost succeeding more times than I could count. I reached out my forelegs to her for a hug.

"This isn't supposed to happen, you're supposed to break or disown me."

"Sorry, Diamond, but I'm not following that script."

I don't stop. And I imagine the other Crusaders, me, and her, hugging each other, and smiling, being happy to have friends. My hooves actually touch her. I feel like I'm reaching into freezing water, but I don't recoil. I don't care if I have to thaw an entire lake, I'm going to save my friend!

"Get away!" She screamed like I was threatening to rip her heart out. She stared at me shaking and back-peddling for a moment as I didn't stop my attempted hug. It was strange. It...It looked like that little bit of fear she had for a fleeting moment was wrong to be there...or right and the rest of her was wrong. Suddenly, a ragged black cloak was wrapped around herself, and she flew away, fleeing into the mist like I was a fire and she was made of wood. And that was when the entire world turned white.

I stared up at where she'd gone. I wasn't disheartened...I think in a way, that just made me more determined.

"I meant it Diamond..." I said out loud. "Someday, I'm going to save you...I'm a Cutie Mark Crusader now, and I swear, part of my crusade will be saving you."

I found myself in my cape. When had I put it on?

"Hey! Silver!" called a voice.

I turned to see my five friends standing behind me.

"We're going to go be Cutie Mark Crusaders mecha pilots, wanna come?" Sweetie asked.

"Didn't we do that already?" I asked.

"This time we're using TRANSFORMING mecha!" Scootaloo says.

I rolled my eyes, but gave a smile. "Sure. But this time I get to control the head, okay?"

"Aww! Ah wanted the head!"

"You got it last time!"

I followed my friends on another silly adventure. I didn't know or care what we would get into this time. All that mattered was I was with my friends. And someday I'd get my other friend back.

I'm not that Silver Spoon anymore. And I never will be again. But I'm still me. And I'm still Diamond's friend. Whether she's here or not. Whether she thinks I am or not.

Where was that knocking coming from? I hope the giant robot didn't lose its arm again.

Our maid Clean Dishes/Clean Bandages called, "Silver Spoon! Time to wake up!"

Huh?

I was in my bed. I breathed, I blinked, I moved, "T-thank you!" I called. I could speak on my own. I could move on my own! I checked the calendar . . . it was the day after I had gone to bed. I looked around, silver finery and stuffed animals everywhere. It was my room. I looked at myself in my large bedroom mirror. It was me. It was Silver Spoon. I ran to my closet and opened the door, happy to see the CMC cape still hanging there. I breathed the world's biggest sigh of relief.

"Thank you," I whispered to Luna, Celestia, Cadence, and any other Alicorn listening. I stroked the cape a few times, and then looked at a photo on my dresser of me and Diamond Tiara last Nightmare Night (last one we had together at least) and our giant bags of candy.

We'd actually not even realized which costumes the Crusaders were wearing until after it was over...We didn't care. We'd...we'd just been FOALS. Time to head out. I smiled,

I used to think hurting others was really neat.
I didn't need new friends, the game was such a treat.

But then I saw the price of this release, it didn't makes me best, it make me least.

I am no bad seed,
I am a friend in deed!

I Let my heart grow stale,
But some things aren't for sale!

Being a bully, I didn't care it wasn't right.
Why be a blessing, when it's so much fun to be a blight?

But why was I helped by those I was a bane?
Why show me kindness when I gave was pain?

I never cared how ponies hearts were frail.
But my own enemies gave me shelter from the gale.

Through it all they never failed,
Even when ditching me was easier they saved me from the hail.

And now it's here I'm sure you'll agree,
It's not just about being under the bigger tree,

Cause now I finally see,
That happiness shared by many friends is the key to being free!

I am no bad seed!
I am a friend indeed!

~Fin

Pony POV Series
Silver Spoon
There Are No Bad Seeds

Author's Note

Silver Spoon meets a new friend. That is all.

Character Rerailment- when a character's standard personality is reestablished.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Forgotten-Pink-Ponies-438559249

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Not-The-Same-Wedding-Part-1-439373596

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries It needs LOVE!!! Repeat, LOVE!

Check out the recursive fanfiction and fanart of the Pony POV Series! http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/journal/MLP-FiM-PonyPOVSeriesFanworks-audio-adaption-2013-349281264 Many of it approved by me as canon.

Be sure to join our Group for a TON of recursive works, many a part of optional canon!!! http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/

AND! Be sure to check season zero and season one's fanlabor pages! PLEASE! THey need lots of work! As does our recap page on TVTropes! Please! Help people who are new to the series get caught up with updating the recap page!!
http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/Pony_POV_Series_Season_Zero:_Discorded_Ponies
http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/Pony_POV_Series_Season_One:_Reharmonization

MLP:FiM copyright Hasbro

Episode 174: "Operation Save Magic" (good things happen)

Queen Chrysalis sat on her own throne she had her changeling bring into the wedding hall. She had spent a few hours sitting in lewd poises on Celestia's throne, had some photos taken, then taped them facing inward on Princess Celestia's cocoon prison. Chrysalis' pointy teeth gleamed as Princess Celestia's face burned at the photos. The Princess of the Day noted, however, that the egotistical Queen didn't seem to look at any of the photos herself.

Her new personal scribe recorded everything for her. She had loaned her new personal messenger to Digger Wasp for the time being, and her new magical slave was overseeing her major project.

Sweetie Belle sat on the arm rest of the queen's throne, smiling, still wearing her dress. Shining Armor standing on the other side of the throne, his face completely blank and empty.

Sweetie smiled wider as the queen stroked her mane, as Applejack stood before her, playing the violin for them in a private concert.

Chrysalis chose to indulge herself with her second favorite hobby.

"I am mightier than the Sun,
More cunning than the Chaos.
More beautiful than Harmony,
I put her face to shame"

"Oh, look at me. What do you see?
There's no one greater than me
I'm the Queen. The best you've seen
So worship me"

Sweetie sang as AJ played.
"Your Highness...
Chryssy we worship you as number one"

"OH YES! I'm evil personified
So get down on your knees"

"And if you're ever graced by my beauty
You'll thanks your lucky star
Aren't I great?
I'm amazing myself all the time" Chrysalis laughed.

"Equestria will quench our thirst!"

"QUENCH YER THIRST!" AJ sang.

"If you dare to get in my way"

"WE'LL MAKE YOU PAY!" Sweetie cheered.

"You won't live another day"

Sweetie and AJ sang together.

"Queeny, just show yer beauty
Yer the baddest queen under the sun
Keep on shining. We'll keep on whining
She's our queen. She's the baddest to be seen
Dear Chryssy yer da wicked beauty
We bow down to you eternally"

AJ finished her song with the fiddle with a flourishing bow.

Sweetie Belle clapped. "That was great Applejack! I didn't know you could play the violin!"

AJ gave a tired smile to Sweetie Belle still standing on her hind legs, carrying the bow and fiddle in her forelegs, "Ah learned it when Ah was with Aunt and Uncle Orange as a filly. They said how ma was good at playin' it, and Ah should give it a try, Ah was a little disappointed when Ah didn't get a cutie mark for it. Guess Ah was a bit like Applebloom like that..." Her lip quivered just slightly at the mention of her baby sister.

"But yer really good!"

"Yeah, but it's not what makes me happy."

"So..." Chrysalis smirked, "You hid learning it, because it wasn't 'uncouth farmer' enough? Because it reminded you of that place that made you miserable, even though it was something you were proud learning, something of your mother's that could never be taken away from you? My my, how utterly DECEITFUL for the Element of Honesty!"

AJ opened her mouth, but suddenly choked on her words.

"Aren't you happy you're brainwashed so you got a chance to play without feeling embarrassed or ashamed?" Sweetie asked.

Applejack's body sweated as she looked ready to vomit, "Y-yeah. Sweetie, i-it's real nice."

"Are there any other great tricks you can do? I know! All those rope tricks you do with Applebloom!"

Sounding tired, AJ said, "S-Sweetie, are ya really sure-"

"Do as she says Slave."

"Y-yes, Yer Madjesty."

"No, no, no," Chrysalis put her horn to AJ's head, "That won't do at all. You should be happy to entertain my little song bird. You should consider it an HONOR!" She hissed. "That is a TRUTH for you! OBEY it!" She snarled.

AJ's mouth twisted into a pleasant smiled hesitantly like she was trying not to. She said cheerfully. "Of course Yer Majesty! Of course! Ah'm Happy to obey!" She said, her body looking even more ill than before.

"Like you should be!" Sweetie Belle said smiling and nodding.

"Now say it to her," Chrysalis pointed.

"Yes Yer Highness," AJ bowed to Sweetie Belle.

AJ proceeded to give Chrysalis and Sweetie Belle their own private rodeo, Shining Armor not budging an inch or saying a word, Princess Celestia was an audience whether she wished to be or not. Sweetie Belle munched on popcorn.

+

Twilight Sparkle shot off orders gatling gun fast as she trotted around. Her mane was done up in a bun and she was wearing glass as she look over a check one by one side and a mind numbingly complex magical diagram and algorithm on the other. The ponies and disguised changelings obeyed her with equal fear of disappointing the one who spoke for the one they worshiped (who was not the same pony).

Kabuto, disguised as a unicorn, was very annoyed at the lunch-meat telling him what to do, and having basically taken over the entire operation. What made him much more angry was that she had rewritten the spell and giant rune to be more efficient in a matter of hours, which had taken him and his fellow bio-alchemists years to put together, while this lowly piece of food was making them look like fools. And to top it all off, she was getting it done MUCH FASTER than any of the logistics had predicted!!! She had even had Spike dragon mail similar instructions and changes to undercover changelings at the other key points to get the runes engraved into the ground faster with actually increasing their effectiveness once activated. A plan that was scheduled to take weeks, would be accomplished in one or two days.

And the way she spoke about EVERYTHING like she KNEW everything, with that smug arrogant attitude that put even Queen Chrysalis' moon sized ego to shame. Forget the vivisection, Kabuto wanted to break her horn off and shove it down her throat just to SHUT HER UP!

"So while using the leylines as a connecting line for the runes was a brilliant move, you need to make the mana flow able to adjust itself for the micro variances in the position of the leylines for maximum efficiently. Using this much magic at once could go very wrong for everypony involved if the calculations are off, thankfully, with me, that isn't likely to happen. Now as you can see, by rotating the workforce, you're actually increasing productivity, and while Earth Ponies are the most physically strong naturally, this doesn't make them automatically the best workers for a task, since there are unicorns and pegasi who are more fit, and Earth ponies who are less fit. And SERIOUSLY, just look at a map of Canterlot and Equestria, the lines that ALREADY exist in the roads and blinds can cut down on construct time overwhelmingly! And further more-"

Or Kabuto would rip off his own ears, whichever came first.

"Sir." Said a 'pegasus guard', "The spell rune is completed in the north west district, should we move onto the northern district?"

Kabuto opened his mouth-

"Oh you don't need permission for moving onto the next section, that's just for higher ups can feel important. I've already laid out the work schedule down to the last brick. With a waver window in case of trouble makers. Thank you for reporting the update though. That's very good work of you and your work team House Fly!"

"Oh I . . ." The changeling grunt was not used to being THANKED by someling who knew what he was. "You're welcome Miss."

Kabuto growled.

"I'll need to inspect each section personally though, I hope you understand."

"Of course, Miss." The changeling BOWED, to HER.

"Don't bow to a slave you idiot!"

Twilight Sparkle looked at him dully. "I am merely carrying her Majesty's will to the best of my ability, if there is something wrong with my work, please explain it to me."

Kabuto gritted her teeth. "No. I find nothing wrong with your work. I think when I vivisect you, I'll leave out the anesthetic."

"Now that's not very wise. Even if you use a powerful paralyze spell, the body has natural reactions to such high levels of pain, and would compromise your findings."

Kabuto wanted to scream. House Fly politely backed off and got back to work. He didn't even considering asking to know what exactly it was they were building.

+

"I still don't understand what this rune is even for, and WHY it must be etched into the grounds around Ponyville, and WHY it must be done so fast!" Mayor Mare said to the unicorn envoy from Canterlot.

"It's quite simple," he said, "Her Majesty has ordered these runes must be completed as soon as possible."

"I heard that the first time! But why?"

"Her Majesty ordered it, you need more reason than that? That's not very faithful to Her Majesty is it?"

Mayor Mare shuddered a bit under the unicorn's gaze. "T-that isn't it at all! Ponyville and its citizens are my responsibility! If this project has to be done as fast as you're ordering, and involves us, then we have a right to know WHY."

"...It is for the future of Equestria. The less that is known about it, the less that Her Majesty's enemies can learn about it. Are you a spy Miss Mayor? Is that why you want to know things that you aren't being told, and so clearly therefore don't need to know?"

"What?! Don't be absurd! I am not a spy! And what enemies? Equestria has no enemies. We haven't been at wars...I can't remember the last time we HAD a war besides Nightmare Moon's civil war!"

"Do you want ponies to panic? Do you want to trot around in paranoia? And you're naive to assume Equestria can have everything, and those who have nothing wouldn't hate us for it. Plus, all the dangerous beasts of Everfree who can simply wander from it and hurt your ponies. Do you care nothing for them besides their votes?"

"Of course not! I care about them the way I care about my own family! They're all part of my herd as far I care!"

"So do you care about your herd?"

"How can you even ask that that?"

"THEN SHUT THE BUCK UP AND GET BACK TO MAKE SURE THIS LAND RUNE IS ENGRAVED YOU COUNTRY BUMPKIN!!!"

Big Mac just hoped his family got compensated for all this public works time he was putting in.

+

"And the rune engraving at the other six location across Equestria are proceeding ahead of schedule, nice," Twilight said happily getting the dragon mail from Spike. Of course some of the runes had been partially built ahead of time under the guise of 'public work projects' thanks to 'Princess Cadence,' but with her innovations they'd be finished in no time. Still, Twilight wondered why Her Majesty had given her strict orders not to reveal the purpose of the rune to anyling.

+

"Alula, you want to join the school newspaper?" Cheerilee asked surprised. Alula's school activity participation have always been of a more athletic nature.

"Yes, Miss Cheerilee! I do!" The pegasus filly smiled. "I know Diamond Tiara made a lot of ponies unhappy, but they must have still liked it if they kept buying it even when it made them unhappy! And I know you made her not editor anymore, but she must have had some good for the paper before then if you kept her on until then."

"Well, that's sort of right dear, but...no offense to the poor dear, but I'm not sure her actions as editor of the Foal Free Press should be emulated."

"Don't worry Miss Cheerilee, I'm just going to make the paper popular again! I'm not going to blackmail anypony! Honest!"

"Well, our current editor is saying they aren't very inspired by the job, so I guess-"

"Thank you miss Cheerilee!" Alula smiled, "I just know I'll be useful after the wedding at Canterlot is finished, then ponies will be interested in reading local again. I promise, I'll have lots of interesting stuff for them to read then."

+

"Wait, what?" I asked, blinking.

"I know it sounds crazy...but it's the truth..." the little filly responded. I recognized her voice.

"They just announced that the Luna and the guards that were thrown out where the invaders..." TLC reported, coming back in.

"...The conspiracy theorist in me would say they're the invaders trying to trick us," I said without thinking. For the first time in weeks, I felt like one of my theories might be right...

"You're right..." the foal said, hugging that little phoenix of hers close, like if she let go of him for a second, he'd vanish.

"...Why couldn't I have been right about the door knobs? At least they're harmless."

"You're believing the filly?" TLC asked me. I wasn't looking at her face.

Golden hadn't spoke a word just yet, she seemed more concerned with how frightened the filly was.

"She...helped me once before. She's smarter than she looks...speaking of which, filly, where are the other two who are with you? The grown up pegasus and the elderly unicorn?"

"My sisters...I don't know where my big sister is but...but bigger sister...Chrysalis...she...she took her..."

"There there," said Golden, gingerly, trying to calm her down. "Everything will be okay..."

I looked outside the window at the city. Naturally, many ponies were staying indoors, since there was a present and direct threat. Those that weren't seem to be building some strange...thing.

"So...if what you said is right, we're trapped in this city currently ruled by these creatures, and everyone else that could stop them is indisposed to the best of your knowledge?"

The filly nodded.

I gave a sad, pitiful chuckle. "All the years of worrying about some joint Alicorn, Pegasi, and Unicorn conspiracy against Earth Ponies and then after I've finally let go of it, I end up in the middle of an actual conspiracy against all of Equestria..."

"...So, what are we going to do?" asked TLC.

"I thought you didn't believe her."

"I didn't say that."

"So you believe a race of monsters have taken over Canterlot?"

"...I know enough psychology to recognize when somepony is trying to take advantage of it," TLC admitted. "...Telling us that the Princess Luna and Guards who just got thrown out were the invaders? That's too simple...it feels too CLEAN. Like it's telling us what we WANT to hear rather what makes the most sense given what we saw.

"Not one of them looked different than a normal pony, I don't know how shapeshifters work, but most disguise spells I know of fade when the user is knocked out minus high level ones. It feels unlikely not one of those ponies would 'drop their disguise' when they were hit. What she's saying...it just makes more sense."

"That's quite well thought out of you."

"My livelihood is trying to figure out the source of patients delusions and what's a part of it and what isn't. Thinking things out well is my job. There's enough in favor of what she's saying that it's probably she's not insane."

Golden looked up at me. "Filthy...you said Silver Ax was there?"

I sighed. "Yes...along with his daughter and Miss Rarity..."

"...What are we going to do? We can't just sit here doing nothing while they're in danger."

"...Golden...I...I just got you back...I..."

"...Filthy, we've lost our little Princess...I don't want Silver Platter to lose hers too..."

I gasped, staring at the look on her face. It was so serious. So protective. It was...it was Golden, pure and simple her. That intensity I remembered her having.

"I don't want her to go through what I...what I put you through thanks to those things if there's one thing I can do about it."

"...You're right...I can't put Silver Platter through that...losing her mate and her daughter...or worse, these things worming their way into their heads and using them to get to her...Or two coming back as her loved ones...Besides...there's no way for us to get out of the city..."

"...Mr. Rich...if you make this choice, you'll be stepping out of the background," the filly explained, looking oddly serious. "You'll have to be the hero...If you do, you can't stop until you've saved the day or...or lost completely. There is no 'back out' once you make that choice. You'll have to keep it through until the end. Is that really the fate you want to choose?"

I thought about it. Diamond...my little Princess...I couldn't save you...I stopped Golden from making a horrible mistake, but ultimately I couldn't protect you...I can only hope to get you back one day.

"...Golden's right...I couldn't save our daughter...I failed...If I can save Silver and his daughter...bring them home safe to Silver Platter...Then I won't have failed twice...Besides, I've spent my life searching for a conspiracy to fight back against, why run when I actually have one?"

She looked at Golden. "And you, Mrs. Rich?"

"I'm not 'Mrs. Rich' until...until she's forgiven me. I am Screwball. But I feel the same as Filthy...I failed my little princess, I failed as her mother...now I can save Silver Platter's daughter...I can save your sister...Tell me, filly, do you believe in second chances?"

"Yes...Believe me, I do..."

"Well I think this is mine...And I'm taking it if Filthy is."

"Miss TLC..." I said. "...What the filly said is true...if we DO do this...then...there won't be any turning back. If you want to turn back and pretend you never heard this, you can..."

"...Mr. Rich, with all due respect, I wouldn't be a very good nurse if I didn't stick with my patient until the bitter end," TLC replied. "And I'm a civil servant of Equestria...what kind would I be if I betrayed it in its hour of need."

"Besides...where else is there to turn to? If these things win, it sounds like another end of the world..."

"...Alright then, I suppose we're decided," I took a deep breath and peaked out again. "...Filly, do you know what this strange construction is?"

She shook her head. "N-No...Bigger sister locked me out...I can't find out..."

"...Well, as a businessstallion, I know one thing...you don't put THIS much effort into something unless its bucking important," I stated. "Whatever we do, it should revolve around making it very difficult on them to complete it..."

"And, if I may," TLC added. "They clearly don't want a panic. They're trying to keep the city under control..."

"Alright...I think I might have the beginnings of a plan. But...we need help, we can't do this alone..."

"Who can we turn to?" TLC asked. "Who would believe us?"

"...Somepony observant, very observant...who would see reason if we told him it," I replied thinking. "...I think I know...come on...Let's go..."

Golden looked to the filly. "...What's your name, little one?"

She gasped, looking surprised. "S-Sorry...just I'm not used to ponies being ABLE to ask that...My name...it's...it's Half-Light Dawn..."

"Well, Dawn, let's go get your 'bigger sister' back, shall we?"

+

"So let me get this straight, after we just saw Princess Luna and her guards get thrown out of Canterlot, and are told that they were mind controlling monsters in disguise, you just happen to teleport into our room at the same time, and guess what, you're that freaky voice that was in my head when...when I had that trip to Ponyville." Spitfire asked, not looking very pleased.

"What trip?"

"Private, Soarin'. And I didn't think you were strange at the time, but now I do think you're strange. And you insist you're NOT a freaky mind control monster after you were already inside my head when I didn't notice it, and when the ones we're told ARE the monsters get thrown out, THAT'S when I realize you being there in my head WAS weird? And you JUST HAPPEN to look a lot like a certain purple pony? And swear you're not a shape shifter who got her species wrong? And you're saying that was the real princess, and that the ones telling us ABOUT THE BUGS, are in fact the bugs in the first place?"

"YES! Now can you please untie me?!" I struggled. Dang it. This is still crazy! I'm not supposed to talk to my own auto-recording! "Haven't you heard of the benefit of the doubt?"

"Soarin' has. And that's why I haven't already given you to the guards. Which I am just about to."

"Okay, first off, I arrived BEFORE they got thrown out. I know that cause Luna wasn't even THERE when I got teleported here, and I was here when you heard. Do the numbers, if I got thrown out at the same time as the others, then wouldn't I have been here at the same time they were launched? Not like five or ten minutes BEFORE that?"

They had somepony crunch the numbers (of course the Wonderbolts have a speed and trajectory guy, they're stunt fliers) and they gave a nod, confirming the ponies got launched considerably later than me.

"Congrats. That only leaves what? A dozen other pieces of damning proof against you? We really should just give you to the guards and let them sort it out."

"The only guards left are changelings!"

"How convenient for you. How do we know you didn't just abandon the rest of your fellow monsters to save your own hide when the going turned rough? And THAT'S why you showed up earlier? And your appearance and cutie mark are way too similar to be just dumb luck. And that doesn't change that you and your buddies are mind-invading sickos! Creatures who get their thrills by worming their way into another pony's head? You sicken me. You should go to the guards either way!"

"Look, I CAN'T explain what I really am!"

"And why not?"

"Because you know how in some stories there are truths of the universe that simply aren't SUPPOSED to be known by mortals? Well what me and my siblings are is one of those things. I'm not speaking down to you, it's a 'you literally cannot comprehend it' thing."

"Then you better start dumbing it down."

"...Fine...I'm a demi-goddess, so are my siblings. Our mother is an Alicorn who's...related to Twilight. That's why we look like her. That's as detailed as I can get about why that's the case, if you don't believe me, cut me if you don't believe me, it'll heal in a couple minutes. I was in your head because...to put it in a way I'm ABLE to describe it, me, my big sister, and my little sister are the 'Good Alicorn' on everypony's shoulder. We don't get THRILLS by worming into ponies head, it's our JOB to be that little voice of reason in the back of your mind that helps guide you. Intuition, a conscience, whatever you call it, our job is to help it along, give ponies a little nudge. And before you say 'prove it', think back to when we were in your head, did we ever ONCE tell you something that hurt you? Did any of the choices we suggested you make, and I say suggested because mortals can and HAVE not listened to us, end badly for you or RAINBOW DASH?"

Soarin' looked like he had a headache.

Spitfire slapped me for that last one. "Leave her out of this, she is a FRIEND of mine and that is the most crazy thing I've ever heard."

"So it's too crazy to be a lie I'd have ready for this right?"

"If we cut you, maybe regeneration is just how the shape shifting monster WORK. We don't know either way. And you could have simply gambled on making up a story so wild we'd think you were crazy and harmless, or that we WOULD believe you because it's so crazy. I met a pony once who got by some guards by hitting them with so much nonsense reasons that they let him pass because they were worried just SOME of what he was saying just MIGHT be true."

"But that wouldn't explain why I was in your head that night, would it?" I asked. "Answer THAT question: did ANYTHING I told you that night lead you in the wrong direction like a shapeshifting monster would have? And before you say 'I was earning your trust', if that was the case, then why would I choose to arrive here in the single most UNTRUSTWORTHY fashion possible?"

"Simple: if my theory is right, you did this in the middle of an emergency retreat and hadn't planned for this to happen if your buddies just got kicked out of Canterlot."

Come on, think! You're good at this...

"Alright, then let's assume you're right, what did they say happened to the REAL Princess Luna?"

"...She's missing."

"And what do your scouts say is happening in Canterlot RIGHT NOW?"

"How do you know we sent scouts?"

"There was a period of time between Luna and company being launched and you receiving a message confirming what happened, you guys do search and rescue and even if you didn't, you're still good ponies who WOULD be worried about what just happened and sent somepony to investigate."

"...How did you-"

"Rainbow Dash. If MY story is correct, I'm her friend, let's assume for a moment I am."

"...Fine, Echo, our fastest, said they're building something. The guards said it was something to protect Equestria."

"No marehunt?"

"...No..."

"If the real Princess Luna was missing, then why isn't there a massive marehunt for her? Why would they be focusing on building a barrier rather than finding one of their missing leaders? Even assuming a large part of the Guard just turned out to be Changelings, they'd have several hundred reserves, including YOU and the other Bolts to call in."

"Or maybe it could be they're honoring what Princess Luna would WANT and to focus on protecting Equestria!"

"Uh...Spitfire, she's got a point. Canterlot didn't even ASK for us to come fill in the void or search for Princess Luna, something that they'd probably have done by now."

"With all that's happened, I'm not surprised everypony is getting their wires crossed."

"Enough that they have a protection project going on you say, but don't think to ask you to help too?"

"We could be just the welcome committee in case the bugs break through the barrier."

"And haven't even told you?"

"They trust us to do our job when we need to. CADENCE is right now in charge, and found out her aunt was replaced by an impostor and PRINCESS CELESTIA is now buckin' hurt! You think that wouldn't leave her with a few strings hanging?"

"But Cadence isn't the ONLY one in charge, is she? What about 'Long Haul'? The chief of Canterlot security who's JOB it would be to call and tell you to do just that or ADVISE Cadence to do it and who's clearly perfectly fine since he's the one who gave the message you received about Luna when you asked? Why would he have you on call, but NOT call you in to help? Does it make sense that the entirety of Canterlot's military control wouldn't think to call you, or any other reserves, in despite it being perfectly logical?"

"Could be they just don't know we're here if you insist."

"EHH! Wrong! You TOLD them you where here, remember? With the letter that got you the report you've spent all this time telling me? They know you're here."

Okay, finally got her a bit stumped it looks like.

"And Spitfire, Cadence would probably be reaching out to ANY friend she has for moral support right now, right?"

"Of course she would, she's...Cadence."

"Your mother babysat her when she was a foal, Cadence looks up to her like Twilight does to her, and before you ask, Shining told me. And you know Cadence too, right?"

"Mom took me to some of the times she foalsat her, we played a bit. We've talked, we're still in touch...so yeah, I know her."

"And other than the one you got inquiring into what just happened, have you gotten one letter from her?"

"...No..."

"When's the last time you or your mother got a letter from her that WASN'T business?"

"A couple of weeks ago, before she came back and set up this wedding. Since then it's just been about stuff like setting up the Wonderbolts to show up at the Wedding...Come to think about it, mom didn't even know there WAS a wedding when I sent her a letter just before the shield went up."

"Not one word about your mother or about you as a FRIEND?"

"...No..."

"So let me get this straight: Cadence is in one of the most emotionally trying times of her entire life, and didn't think once to send a letter to a pony she's known since she was a foal for moral support, or send a letter to get aid from the group lead by one of her foalhood friends? And didn't invite the pony who was HER favorite foalsitter, who she RELISHED the opportunity to see again on her world tour, to her own wedding or even TELL HER there was a wedding? And has been treating both of you like she doesn't even personally know you. You know Cadence, does THAT sound like her one bit?"

"...C-Cadence is just, under so much pressure...sh-she's just being intense because-because of everything that's happened . . ."

"Not inviting you to the Wedding? That I could MAYBE see, but not inviting her FAVORITE foalsitter and one of the few genuine 'I know they're not my friend just because I'm a Princess' friends she ever had? Does THAT sound like Cadence? At all? And before you say 'mom's busy', who has every bit the ability to arrange her leave to attend the wedding? Cadence. Who didn't even TELL her about the wedding? 'Cadence'. Who is the PERSONIFICATION of Bonds? Cadence. Who forgot one of the ponies she had the closest BOND to her entire life in the build up to her big day and treats two ponies she had close bonds to like she doesn't even know them? 'Cadence.' You know Cadence. Is it like her to forget somepony she has that close of a bond to?"

"...never."

"But let's assume I'm right for a second, why would the Changeling impersonating Cadence act like that? Because she doesn't have Cadence's memories, she doesn't KNOW Cadence knows you that well, she might not even know who your mother even IS. And why would invaders invite MORE outside forces into their work force to potentially discover them? They wouldn't. They'd keep them in the dark. And they wouldn't look for Princess Luna because they just got rid of her themselves along with every guard in Canterlot. The fake Cadence is COUNTING on people thinking the wedding has her nerves on the fritz to cover her tracks."

"...And the bunch of lines scratched into the street?"

"...I don't know...and that worries me, it really does. Everything I knew about the Changelings said nothing about why they're doing that, but I know one thing: their queen is a psychopath who will hurt anypony to get what she wants without a moment's hesitation...She's as bad as Discord, Spitfire, you can trust me on that. If there's one thing in this entire world you CAN trust me on, it's how bucking serious I have to be to say that."

"...Okay. Hold on. Nopony can be as bad as Discord."

"Maybe not as bad POWER wise, but she's just as big of a sadistic psycho as he is...-"

"That's what I meant! That guy was causing misery for misery's sake! Because it was 'fun' for that sicko! With no reason or plan!"

"You didn't see what she did to...to Mrs. Sparkle JUST for her making a SCRATCH on her...she just...twisted her legs and broke them. Not because she was a threat, she WASN'T, she PROVED she wasn't. She did it because she COULD. She's spent the last few weeks torturing Cadence ON TOP of keeping her prisoner...and from the look on her face, she enjoys...enjoys just how much her brainwashed victims are suffering right now..."

Soarin' said, "That's a relief, so she's just another hedonist sadist with no real goals?"

"No. That's why I said she's as bad as he is. Because even though she's not as powerful, she's actually got a plan other than 'get whatever I want', she's just more than happy to eat her cake and have it to."

"And what is it?" Spitfire asked, seriously. I think she was listening now.

"...To make every pony in Equestria cattle for her changelings. I don't mean cows and bulls, I mean 'non sapient griffin cattle.' I mean 'vampires make ponykind into a bunch of living blood bags' cattle. And that's if what she's feeding the Changelings isn't a lie to get what she wants, if it is, I'm honestly afraid to know what her real plan is."

"So in other words, a sadistic hedonist with an army and a plan?"

"Yes...and right now Applejack, Twilight, Spike, and a few other ponies are unwilling parts of that army."

"Wait wait, AJ and Twilight? Rainbow's friends?"

"Long story short, she brainwashed them...she made them help her do this. I've seen enough stuff like this to know when somepony is hurting inside, and they were...and so is my sister..."

"...Is Rainbow okay?"

"...Given the report you guys got, I'm assuming the remaining bearers and the REAL Cadence got away, given the lie about them, but that means Changelings are on their tail right now...But she's not brainwashed...in fact, given what I know about the Element of Loyalty, I'm pretty sure she's the safest from it right now..."

"...I hope so...you said sister, weren't there three of you?"

"Yeah...I...I don't know where my little sister is...she got thrown out with me...I've never spent this long away from them before..."

"...You're crying..."

"Huh? What?" I asked, touching a hoof to my face and looking at the tear. "S-Sorry..."

"...Nothing to be sorry about...helps prove your case though." FINALLY the ropes came off.

"It's funny, I really did want to be independent from those two from day one. Now that I'm finally free, all I want is them back. Am I crazy?"

"Nah...one time before I was captain, I got in a fight with one of the other bolts and yelled 'sometimes I wish you'd just leave me alone'...the captain then told me to never say it because if he botched a stunt, that my wish could come true. And if it happened, then I'd never forgive myself...And last time I met with Rainbow I wanted to be a hero and save the day, now I'm stuck having to save Equestria from a psychopathic witch. So I know that 'be careful what you wish for' feeling right about now."

"...I know Fate...and sometimes, she doesn't set paths like that for us to punish us for wishing for something we shouldn't have...sometimes she does it because she knows we're the kind of ponies who could live up to our wishes...speaking of paths, this is your last chance to turn back. Take that first step...and there's no turning back until either we've stopped Chrysalis or been stopped ourselves...Are you willing to do that?"

"I was a Guard once, kid. And even if I'm not officially one anymore, when you take that Oath, it's not something you should just throw away or take lightly...Those pretenders LIED when they took theirs, no way am I taking that sitting down...Soarin'...up to you, you want to fly into Tartarus for Equestria?"

"You're captain, Spitfire. Where you lead, I follow: same with the rest of us. We're a flock. We stick together, that's OUR oath...and is this a good time to mention we already told the guards about a strange pegasus teleporting into our bedroom?" Soarin' pointed out.

I facehoofed. I couldn't help it.

Spitfire sighed. "If they get here before we're ready, tell 'em she escaped before they got here or something to keep them busy. Suit up Wonderbolts! Looks like we're about to make some noise. Purple feathers, can you fly and fight?"

"I could keep up with Rainbow Dash in an air-fight with a thousand years of experience at her back."

"I see you have Rainbow Dash's ego too."

"Does that mean I get a Wonderbolt suit?"

"No way. No how. Dream on."

"Figured."

"What's your name by the way?"

"Half-Light, Half-light Noon."

"Well, you've just been conscripted. Come on!"

+

"You want to sponsor the school news paper?" Cheerilee asked.

"Just a favor for a cousin of mine, who'd prefer to remain anonymous. He was very impressed with the scale and reach a simple afternoon newspaper was able to achieve, and feels if given another chance, it can do eve greater things. I don't normally do him favors, but he pointed out that given it was a mare from Ponyville who adverted a world twice ruled by Discord. How could I say no to offering my services after being reminded of that?"

The stallion was midnight blue, had a green mane, and yellow eyes. She could barely make out his cutie mark against his coat, it was a black pyramid. He was also wearing a snazzy collar and tie.

"That's very generous of you, we've been looking for a way to restore the paper's reputation after...ahem, things got of hoof."

"From what I heard, ponies continued to buy the newspaper anyway, if they truly disliked it, if they were truly disgusted by it, they would have stopped buying it, no sales, no school paper at the news stand."

"...Well! All the same, I hope ponies know such mistakes won't ever be repeated."

"I assure you Miss Cheerilee, the newspaper's mistakes in the past will NOT be repeated. If you'd let me give it a help hoof."

"Well, I'm certain your help would be appreciated Mr? . . ."

"Please...call me...hmm, Umbra Breeze."

+

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Following the havoc and chaos during and after the Canterlot Wedding, many notes were lost and damaged. So forgive us please if many parts here seem brief. And time is running out.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth): Okay.)

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Here we go.)

+

"This doesn't make any sense, why aren't they processing ponies en mass into entranced cattle by now? It's standard procedure, first deal with the population, THEN work on the infrastructure and any other big plans. But the only ponies they seem interested in brainwashing are the guests from the wedding, and any other pony who realizes the truth. And they're relying on Sweetie Belle's singing to keep them all fed and at full power instead of feeding on anypony. This isn't our, their standard tactics at all." Moth said, completely baffled.. "And I have absolutely no idea what the giant rune is all about. Her Majesty never mentioned any of this in her old invasion plans! Chrysalis has been planning this for DECADES. She wouldn't have parts of her plan that don't make any sense...I don't know what she's planning, but she's planning something."

"She barely mentioned it at all around me," Moon Dancer said, "All she really mentioned about it was that if everything went well, then they wouldn't even have to make it and that it was 'plan C.' She just told the Changelings 'it will help us,' and that was that."

"Good for us then," Silver Tongue, Fluttercruel, and Rainbow Dash all managed to say together, they looked at each other and Pinkie Diane giggled.

It was as Cadence had guessed, Chrysalis and her changelings were completely ignoring any place of worship, the churches were complete non-entities to them. Not worth even looking at.

"Not so good, Chrysalis didn't want this plan because it would 'take weeks, even with the pre-built portions I've already arranged,' she said."

"Still sounds good!" Pinkie Diane said.

"But the rate they're going is a dozen times faster than it was supposed to. They're going to finish it in two days or less not weeks."

"That's bad," Pinkie Diane added.

Rarity sighed. "Twilight Sparkle's brilliant talent at organization and efficiency strikes again."

"But," said Minuette, thinking. "That ALSO means Chrysalis had to redirect the effort she would have used elsewhere to perform this plan because her prime plan failed."

"Meaning?"

"It means that she has fewer resources guarding our friends than she likely would have had if plan A had worked because the bulk of them seem to be directed to making the rune. Now's the perfect time for us to make our move while they're focused on creating that. Especially if Twilight's alterations are requiring them to make changes from the established plan."

"I have to agree with that," Rarity said. "Twilight's a good big picture pony, but she often overlooks the little details, and she's NOT a military strategist."

"And," Moth added. "Queen Chrysalis likely WOULDN'T be caught dead mentioning one of the key weaknesses of Changeling mind control around her brainwashed slaves. It's NOT information she'd feel they'd NEED to know if she sees us as already beaten. It's likely Twilight doesn't even know there IS a way to break our mind control period."

"No offense girls," Twinkle Shine said, "But I went to school with Twilight Sparkle! And I know for a fact that anypony short an Alicorn going up against her is suicide. She's a bucking powerhouse!"

"Who said we need to fight her one-on-one?" Fluttercruel said. "Or that we have to do her first? I mean, if we can fix up Applejack, then we have a full set of Elements again, maybe the five of us using ours can snap Twilight out of it."

"Chrysalis' not letting the others out of her sight," Moon Dancer said, "Twilight Sparkle's the only one whose acting without 'supervision.' Shining Armor, Applejack, and Sweetie Belle never leave her side. And Spike is behind a small army of changelings. Twilight's the easiest one to reach."

"Twilight's not an Alicorn, she's not invincible, and she's not infallible," Princess Cadence said.

"And as Rarity mentioned, she has weaknesses in her thought processes," Cobweb pointed out. "So she can be tricked."

"Ah'm hungry," Applebloom said.

"How can you think of food at a time like this?" Scootaloo asked.

"The changelings got fully charged up from....from the song and Moth's gettin' fed by Bon Bon. While we're runnin' on empty."

"Pinkie Pie, I don't suppose you have fully stocked ice boxes stored around Canterlot in case of emergencies," Rarity asked.

"Sorry. Only in Ponyville, the train-station, and the Castle. But...I do keep party supplies with me wherever I go. Cake and soda?"

"Better than nothing I suppose," Rarity resigned herself as it turned out Applebloom wasn't the only one hungry.

Cobweb went aside with Minuette and began planning.

Cadence meanwhile was looking at the church's alter. Forget whatever lies Chrysalis used or invented, the mere fact Celestia had been struck down catapulted the witch straight into Nightmare Moon level of fear for ponies. It was so wrong. So so so wrong. Her auntie was the sun, she was the light of the world, she was how living things could exist at all. How was the sun to be raised or lowered while she was prisoner? Or would the day simply last until they had won or the queen was dealt with? At least, it would give her comfort that Auntie was still alive if the moon did rise, maybe Auntie Luna could do as her sister had and move the sun in her place. At least it would prove that Auntie was alright. Or would Auntie LET the day burn the land to give the queen the idea the night princess was gone? No. Auntie Luna wouldn't be that ruthless to make their ponies suffer just to maintain an element of surprise.

Not really thinking about it, Cadence placed her horn against the horn of the statue behind the alter, made generic and abstract enough that it could be interpreted as any of the princesses. "I just wish I knew what was going to happen."

"Sweetie Belle."

"Yes?"

"...Come here...and stand by me."

"But you said only you-"

"You've...changed my mind. I want you with me."

The rune activated the moment it was completed. And in doing so activated the six other runes construct across Equestria, powered up and connected via the leylines, Engraved into the floor, now becoming one giant rune across the entire country.

The rune shined blindingly with the color of the queen's magic, ponies, griffins, anything that wasn't a changeling gasped out as they felt their emotions being violently torn out of them, all being collected and carried along the rules lines to Canterlot, and to the castle, and to the wedding hall, and to the heart of the rune with all the emotions of the most loved filled kingdom in the world. The Changelings stared in shock, not able to comprehend what they were seeing.

Canterlot, Appleoosa, Ponyville, Cloudsdale, Manehattern, it didn't matter, none were spared.

The only emotion to be heard was the Queen's laughter, that seemed to slowly change and lose its echo as the energy converged on her. And a small filly cried out in shock as power flowed into her as well.

+

"All hail Princess Sweet Belle!" The changelings and tamed ponies all bowed down to their ruler. It was the order of the world, cattle oversaw the land, the changelings oversaw the cattle, their princess oversaw the changelings.

Her first command upon taking the throne had been to uplift her closest friends and her sister. Her second command was for all cattle to be treated equinely, and with mercy, and honor: after all, the hive could never survive without them, and the royals had said they had sacrificed themselves so the swarm could feel the sun, that entitled respect.

The Changelings looked different, like somepony had remade them in another image to have a facade of beauty. But it looked more like plastic surgery than true physical change, like somepony had just painted over their 'ugly' traits rather than remove them entirely. Like a filly does with her dolls.

None questioned the rule of their princess, had not their princess proven herself and led them against chaos, against Tambelon and Sombra's Crystal Empire? Hadn't Princess Sweet Belle done all these things to protect her swarm's happiness? Princess Sweet Bell had earned the love of all by her actions.

Multiple Alicorns, a draconequus, a deer, a dark colored unicorn with a pyramid cutie mark, and two dragons, adorned the walls as living trophies, crucified body and spirit. They looked like withered fruit, and hung limply as their essence bled out of them into ordinate chalices below.

The young changeling queen (she insisted on 'princess', she didn't WANT to feared as a 'queen') they bowed to had a white carapace, dragon-like green eyes, and pink and violet mane/membrane and wings. She wore a black crown and regalia with blue sapphires. She in turn, turned around bowed to the larger winged and horned equine shape behind her. Cattle oversaw the land, the changelings oversaw the cattle, their princess oversaw the changelings, and the princess' adopted mother, She, SHE, she oversaw the world.

"NO!" Everypony looked at her. "I can not let that future happen!" Cadence gasped, panting in a cold sweat. In a flash she was next to Pinkie Diane, grabbing her, looking almost maniac as she looked her in the eye. "Pinkie Pie! You can do anything right?"

"Uh," Pinkie Diane said not used to being on the receiving end of this, "No, not really, but I can-"

"Where is Twilight Sparkle?! She's speeding up the rune being made! Where is she right now?! I have to know or the world is going to literally end!"

"I-I don't-" Pinkie Diane's body shook and twitched. "Oh, yes, I do."

-

The doors burst open.

"Hey girls! Great to see you all here! I've been thinking, well not really thanks to Her Majesty, but we really should give this 'submit ourselves to the protection of the changeling swarm' a try first before judging it!"

"Uh, Miss Twilight, there's noling in here," the changeling CO next to her, Death Stalker, politely pointed out.

"Huh? You sure?" Twilight looked around confused at Cadence's empty bedroom, and did an in-depth scan spell. "Oh. Sorry. Okay! Next one! This gives me a chance to rewrite my speech again!"

Death Stalker sighed. Why did he have to become a guard even after Her Majesty abolished the cast system?

-

"Hey girls! Oh hey Pony Joe!"

"Hey Twilight Sparkle! The usual?"

"Sure!"

-

"Please tell me you're going to make us explore the entire mine system for them."

"Naw. I just conjured a few dozen proximity runes tuned to non-changeling equine life-force to go off to blow them to bits if they are down here and try to walk or teleport out of here."

"Uh, Twilight, Her Majesty wants them alive," said Death Stalker.

"Oh! Right!"

-

"HIIIII GIRLS! And...not here either." Twilight said in her old bedroom. "Spike these books really need some dusting and . .. oh right, he's busy, oh well, onto the catacombs!"

"I had my stallions search the catacombs already actually while we were busy here."

"Why thank you Death Stalker! That was very efficient of you!"

"Resource management is why I was promoted."

-

The room was part art gallery, part observation deck, and part atrium. Celestia's symbol was engraved in the floor, with Luna's having been added with some retiling. Cadence's was on the wall. There was no roof, and there was only one door in or out to the main castle. The impressively tall walls of the perfectly circular room were made of arches resembling the romare coliseum. The place was nearly all pure white marble.

Celestia had commissioned it originally intended it to be a spot she could eat breakfast and raise and lower the sun at the same time, while giving her a perfect view of all of Canterlot. But with Luna's return she had it converted into an art gallery.

It gave Twilight Sparkle a perfect view of the rune, the engraving of the rune into the streets and building of Canterlot going faster than any of the changelings had dared dreamed. If everything went according to schedule, and Twilight's trigonometry and aerodynamics were correct, Princess Luna would arrive back in time for a front row seat of its activation. Twilight was determined to see it through, Her Majesty had her doubts, (not that Princess Luna would return, Her Majesty had no doubts what-so-ever of the Alicorn having survived being blasted off) but of Twilight being able to complete it in time and wanted other welcome measures in place for the Moon Alicorn's return.

Twilight would give a 110% to prove she could do it, but she knew that was mathematically impossible.

Twilight was surrounded by notes and diagrams of the rune and it's siblings in six other locations around Equestria, all be made on schedule, she was going over them again and again, thinking of anything that could shave time off the timetable. The various statues were her only company. Next to her was a small inconspicuous crystal ball. Then her eyes brightened as she turned around. Twilight teleported the paper work away to a predetermined location.

"Hey girls!" She said to Cadence (wearing a long brown cloak she discarded), Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Diane, had come inside, all of them a green color to their eyes that now faded as it tripped the 'disperse illusion rune' she had laid at the entrance, "Great to see you all here! I've been thinking, well not really thanks to Her Majesty, but we really should give this 'submit ourselves to the protection of the changeling swarm' a try first before judging it!"

"That can't happen Twilight! I've SEEN the world Chrysalis intends to create!" Cadence shouted, confusing some but-

Rainbow Dash snapped her addition, "I know that's not really you saying that Twilight! You saved us from Discord, now we'll save you from Chrysalis!"

"HEY!" Pinkie Diane suggested. "What if we give it a try AFTER we all give you a BIIIIIIIIIIG loving best-friends hug?"

"Well I don't see-Hey! Where are the rest of you? Come on girls! I don't ever brag, but I'm still the most dangerous unicorn in a hundred mile radius. You should have had all of you here to take me on all at once if you were going to rescue me!...Hmm, I know you don't have them sneaking up behind me, or you would have tripped my security runes .. . Oh oh oh! I know what this is! You've split up into teams, and you've gone after Spike, my brother, Applejack, Sweetie Belle and her all at once! Good in theory, keeps them from doubling security around the rest, especially sense I can't seem to contact Digger Wasp right now (wow, are you trying to take him out too? You've been busy, but spreading yourself too thin!), but you should know you were going to need all the force you could get to keep me in place! Still I see you brought your best with you and didn't drag the CMC into this!..."

"Okay boys, you can come out!" She clapped her hooves like she was hosting a game of hide and seek.

=Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep - "Tears of the Light"=

The statues leading to the atrium and the ones within all flashed with green flames and transformed into changeling guards.

"Thanks for showing, I was getting a buckin' cramp," said one of the changelings who had been a statue.

"No," Cadence whispered.

"This isn't good." Pinkie Diane mumbled.

"You're joking!" Rainbow Dash said looking around.

"Not in the least, in fact, I was planning for ALL OF YOU to show up to help me, so I have three times as many as I thought I was gonna need!"

"Twilight this is dumb! There's no way ya could have known we were coming for you!" Rainbow hissed.

Twilight Sparkle said cheerfully, "Oh it was easy. When I couldn't figure out where you were, I realized all I had to do was stay in one place long enough and I knew you'd come to rescue me! Because you're all such great friends! Thanks! So I chose to direct the rest of the construction of the Canterlot section of Her Majesty's rune from here! If I stayed in one place long enough, I knew you'd find me! Just like it says in the Pony-Scout guide book!"

"You were never a pony-scout!" Cadence said.

"Yes but I read the books."

"Of course."

Twilight continued to say happily now standing on soap box, "Now I hope you girls appreciate all the changelings I pulled from security to set this ambush, and I took the time to brief them all on your strengths, weaknesses, and fighting styles. Now feel free to rush me all at once, I know you must be eager to fight changelings after you all had to run away before, or interrupt me as I explain everything to you, don't worry, Her Majesty told me I need to learn to be more dynamic in my planning so I'm perfectly fine with either, so we can all get started and, HEY! WAIT! You're not supposed to run away! Your best friend is under mind control right in front of you! You're not supposed to be repeating what you did before! Get back here!"

"SONIC-RAINBOOM!" The entire castle shook as Rainbow Dash did an IN-DOORS Sonic Rainboom, leaving EVERYCREATURE'S ears ringing, as she plowed through the changelings who had blocked the exit with their bodies, leaving them with bad bruises or out cold.

"Huggie-Twili-" Pinkie Diane appeared behind Twilight and tried to embrace her, only to get a massive electric shock, "-WAGA-WAGA-WAGA-WAGA!"

"Wow! Being YOU Pinkie, I had to randomly guess what you were going to do! Fighting me up close and melee was just a wild guess on my part! But all the same I enchanted my fur to electrocute the first pony it touched, don't worry, I've guesstimated how much voltage you can take."

Pinkie Diane fell backwards, her mane again in her bubblegum balloon style fizz, she fell back, her tongue out of her mouth and her eyes spinning, her body twitched, all in all looking like she had had one too many sodas again.

The changelings mobbed Pinkie Diane, who took a collection cable and clipped it on her tail, powering a impressively sized bug zapper.

"Can't! Resist! Too! Beautiful!" The changelings banged their heads into the oversized bug zapper, which didn't have enough juice to actually give them more than a slight tingle. Still holding the giant bug light, Pinkie Diane ran for it too, half the changeling guards following.

"GIRLS! You can't do this!" Twilight stamped her hoof. "You're supposed to stay here and take me on! You...you can't just leave . . ."

"I won't leave you Twilight, not now, not EVER! I promise!" Cadence said stepping forward.

"Make sure the others don't get away, I can handle Cadence on my own!"

"Miss Twilight are you-" Death Stalker again.

"Yes I am! Go!"

"...as you wish." The changeling bowed and flew, leading his changelings after the two ponies.

Cadence hid her relief behind years of practice. 'Even if I've recharged a good bit being around the others' bonds, I'd rather not have to go against a huge Changeling horde PLUS Twilight...'

"It's been really fascinating being around them Cadence, the workers are actually fully sapient, yet they have such an iron clad bond to their swarm and their hive. It's so powerful if you just open yourself up to it," Twilight said casually, her eyes wide and almost staring, it almost like she was smirking at her.

'At least Twilight still can't stop herself from explaining things,' Cadence thought.

+

'Okay, we've got the jerks interested in us, and got them away from Twilight, the rest I guess is up to you Cadence, now we need to ditch these goons.'

"Pinkie!" RD said, "What happened to your zap lamp? Kinda really useful right now!"

"Sorry! That only worked cause it was unexpected, silly, and cause I got zapped, it won't work if you try to invoke it!"

'So much for the easy way.' In spite of Rainbow's thought, with only Pinkie and RD giving the bugs the merry chase, the two were able to give them the run around much much easier than a herd of nineteen ponies!

'Where did that nag Cobweb go?!' The pony had set a few more booby traps in their wake set to go off after they themselves had passed through them, but they'd expected a lot fewer Changelings to be guarding Twilight and the changelings learned fast, took the to the air, and were far more spread out, and MUCH MORE cautious than before they had been blindly following the giant herd in the escape from the wedding. Still, with Pinkie's tricks and RD's speed, they were keeping them busy like rats in a maze.

"Kowabunga!" Shouted Lyra. Her sound magic making the changeling horde collected to fight an Alicorn and five Elements of Harmony stunned. Her other half and her other half's sister emerged from their hiding places they had staged their own ambush.

"GUYS! You're supposed to be back-up!" RD shouted facehoofing and now having to TURN AROUND and help.

"We are back-up!" Bon-Bon said.

"I meant back-up for rescuing Twilight!"

"We thought you needed help!" Moth added.

"We were doing fine! GET OUT OF HERE!"

"Don't worry about it! We can take these losers!" Lyra said using her telekinesis to magically shape a hand that slapped a changeling into a wall like a bug.

While Lyra was feeling good about herself a changeling kicked her in the horn and breaking her concentration.

"LOSERS?! We're fully trained guards you dunce! Did you think your tax bits all went to polishing Celesta's silverware?!" The changeling snarled.

"You think a couple of civies can take us on?!" One grabbed Moth's foreleg as she did a punch and threw her into the ground hard.

"SIS?!" Bon-Bon snarled in righteous fury, ready to tear these monsters apart, "YOU'LL PAY FOR-"

Another one of them twisted the raging Bon Bon's foreleg, and then kicked her in the back then slammed her back into their armored rear-leg knee. "Or did you think because we were changelings that we were gonna fold like cards to you?!"

The same changeling then put a leg in Bon Bon's stomach, making her cry out. "And here's a hint from the pros, the only thing anger does on the battle field is lower your IQ points and your life expectancy. You're just lucky Her Majesty doesn't want anyling of you cattle to go to waste."

The changelings swarmed on top of the sisters, forming slime that hardened to keep their hooves hogged tied together.

"Leave them alone!" yelled Lyra, snarling in rage and telekinetically throwing back several Changelings with a magic surge. She batted away some of the Changelings covering her friends...before more swarmed in from her rage focused tunnel vision, forcing her to the ground. One made sure to strike her in the horn and break her concentration.

"What did I just say about anger?"

"Having to rescue the rescuers should be funny, but doesn't seem like it!" Pinkie Diane said she dodged a dozen globs of the slime at once giving herself totally over to her Pinkie Sense.

"Tell me about it!" A blob of slime struck one of RD's wings, sending her to the ground, the changelings swarming on top of her now.

"Step one to dealing with Rainbow Dash according to Miss Twilight, disable wing," said Death Stalker.

Rainbow Dash assumed a karate pose, "If you think that's all I've got then you've got something else coming-" Then the slime go splattered on her mouth, shutting it, just barely avoiding her nostrils.

"Ahem." One of the changelings then shouted in a loud clear voice, "Cupcakes is a really great story! Only surpassed by Pages of Harmony!"

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK!!!" She brought out a huge mallet and smashed a changeling into the floor, and, taking an over sized swing, she swatted another one into a wall, ignoring her comrades and forgetting to simply break off the slime and instead focused totally on hammering the bug-ponies.

To the untrained eye, it would seem the changeling had made an critical error.

But that wasn't the point. The point was for her to waste her energy on wild over the top excessive offense, Twilight had calculated by Pinkie Pie's average sugar intake, how many changeling guards it would take for her to run out of steam if she didn't use her odd tricks to turn the tide and instead relied on brute force.

As Pinkie Pie panted slime was spat onto her rear legs, gluing her in place. "HEY! No fair!"

"Everything's fair in a fight! This isn't a wresting match!" Death Stalker said as every inch of Pinkie Pie's body was covered in slime. The ponies all forced down low on the floor to finish wrapping up for transport.

The two walls of the hallway (the fight had stopped just short of Celestia's private cake room) then became very shinny with a sparkle. A moment later several laser bolts bounced off the new reflective surface, hitting several changelings who were caught off guard, but not the ponies were now low to the ground.

"Lasers are just light," Twinkle Shine said.

"Time Slow Thyself," Starswirl the Bearded has never figured out how to stop time, but Mineutte had come close. Was she a student of Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns or not? The blue unicorn smashed the goo holding the ponies trapped.

A blur passed over the heroes and the ponies confusingly found themselves free. Twinkle Shine continued to lay cover fire, the changelings, distracted, didn't notice their prisoners were now free until it was too late.

"This time everypony stick to the plan!" Minuette shouted in a no-argument-attitude, panting a little bit. She had a little stop watch floating in her telekinesis. 'Good thing the Changelings had got them altogether or there's no way I could have gotten them all in time.' While she could all-but stop time, a high level spell still had high magic costs if kept up too long.

"Listen to the nerd!" Rainbow Dash added, having knocked the changelings for a loop and really not interested in round two. The changelings already picking themselves up. Dang those shells were hard, though it seemed she'd bruised them up a bit under the shells. They were supposed to be the distraction, now RD has the crazy feeling THEY were the ones being preoccupied!

She noticed some of the Changelings seemed to jump like they'd been stung and looked around somewhat drowsily. 'No time to find out what the hey that was about.'

As they fled again, Moth looked down. "Even when I try to be brave, I mess things up."

Rainbow groaned. "Look! It's not JUST being brave for bucking being brave! You still need to learn WHEN to be brave and when to keep your muzzle out of it! That goes for ALL three of you!"

+

"Come on Candy, use real magic," Twilight smiling and staring, "Mute spell? I can do plenty without an incantation. Distracting me with a few pretty picture of our times together? Tickling me with telekinesis? Echoing spell? Can't you at least pretend to take me seriously? Prank spells? Sorry, you're a rank amateur compared to Pinkie Pie's tricks."

"They did exactly what they were meant to do."

"What's that? I--- I can figure out exactly what kind of move you're laying the ground work for...I'll figure out it in a second!"

"There's no grand scheme Twilight, if you found your parents and spoke with them, then I wouldn't need to be here. I only hope they're safe, like I know you hope they are. These are just to remind us of one thing Twilight, all the times we've had together...and Twilight...you're a wonderful pony, I loved foalsitting for you, I loved being with you, I loved playing with you, I loved seeing you happy same as Shining does.

"I loved those camping trips with your uncle, I loved all the book forts, they're still adorable. You're my friend Twilight...you're almost like my sister. And I can FEEL it, that bond is STILL there. And it's a LOT stronger than that witch's magic!"

Twilight held her head. "N-No...N-nothing is stronger than Her Majesty!" it felt like chains were trying to hold something down that kept rising back up.

"You know that's a lie, Twilight. Friendship and love are stronger than DISCORD, how can one Changeling witch be stronger than that? She's trying to replace all of us in your heart, but she can't do it, can she? You still love Princess Celestia as your teacher, you still love your parents, you still love your brother, you still love me! That witch is tricking your heart into giving her love that isn't hers! Now that your heart sees where that love really belongs it's trying to correct the flow!"

Twilight's eyes started to fill with tears, defying the expression on her face. "No! I love her majesty!" she yelled, firing a beam right at Cadence...but it missed.

"Twilight, you're the foal that taught ME friendship. I'd never formed a bond with any of my OTHER charges before I met you! And I know your brother was the only one other than me you formed a bond like that with. That's why I'm here...we're each others' oldest and dearest friends, the first ones we ever made."

Twilight stood there shaking, Cadence gently approached her and hugged her with her wings and putting her neck against hers. "Wake up now Twilight."

Twilight Sparkle gasped as the mind spell control curse was exorcised.

"I...I'm free."

Author's Note

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Not The Wedding You Remember
Part 16
Operation Save Magic
By Alex Warlorn

Chrysalis' scheme, in spite of several hiccups and last minute changes, seems to have worked out hasn't it? Except, Chrysalis forgot, there ARE NO unimportant ponies.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-15-Whole-Moon-444137785

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Family-Bonding-444832806

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (always needs more love).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

You are free to post your opinion. But please keep it civil.

Art by Rose Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/art/Cover-Art-Commission-Alex-WarLorn-439153439

THE EVIL QUEEN IS A PARODY SONG FROM THE GAME Rhapsody A Musical Adventure! Copyright Atlas USA

Episode 189: "This Chapter Is Guaranteed To Give You Smiles"

Once the chaos and confusion of the battle and mass teleportation had died down, and there were no enemies to fight or fillies running for their lives... natural pony reactions kicked in.

"SWEETIE BELLE!" Applebloom, Silver Spoon, and Spike gave the little unicorn a group hug tackle the moment she was in their sight. Scootaloo found herself pulled into the hug seconds later. Rainbow Dash and Rarity joined in, Applejack choosing to let them have their moment...and being pulled into it by Rarity's telekinesis. She didn't complain.

"Scootaloo, we're happy to see you're okay too!" Applebloom whispered to her friend who they hadn't been sure if she was okay or not. Silver Spoon's expression wordlessly said the same thing.

"Thanks!"

Lyra and Bon Bon looked to each other. "Can't wait till we can hug Tootsie again…"

Bon Bon nodded, giving Lyra a hug, Moth joined in.

"She's better than okay!" Sweetie said, showing some excitement for her friend. "She can fly and-"

"Yeah! Watch!" Scootaloo exclaimed, then whispered to Sweetie, "I want to see how long it takes for them to figure out the other part." The unicorn replied with a giggle.

The orange filly flapped her wings and flew around the church's rafters with the grace that was her special talent, much to Applebloom and Silver's shock, who had not seen her thrilling rescue as clearly as Rainbow, Sweetie, and Rarity.

"Scootaloo, you're-AMAZING!" Spike gasped out at his friend's performance.

Even those who hadn't known Scootaloo for long knew how good the filly's first flight had to feel.

The other Ponyville natives were both astounded and happy for the little filly, words unable to connect in their brains, a sense of unrealness filling them.

It was overwhelming. After having fought for ground inch by inch, now having turned a disaster into a splurge of out and out personal triumphs was disorienting.

Rainbow Dash had something in her eyes, she couldn't have been happier: "Okay, so let's count: we got AJ back, rescued Twilight, I got to fight alongside with two of the Wonderbolts, we blew Queen Meanie's lies apart and made her lose her cool big time, we saved Sweetie Belle, and to top it all off, Scoots is flying!"

"And thanks to Chrysalis being exposed, a lot of their work force is gone," Twilight added.

"Yeah! The only way this moment could be more awesome is if we'd taken out Princess Fake already!"

"S-S-Scootaloo…" Silver Spoon muttered when she finally noticed, eyes as wide as dinnerplates. "You got your Cutie Mark!"

"NO WAY!" Spike gasped, nearly everypony who wasn't Rarity or Sweetie Belle's jaws dropped and they stared in blind shock for a moment.

"WOW! Ya did it! How Scoots? Come on! Tell us!" Applebloom asked, galloping to look at her Mark.

"The world's coming to an end," Pinkie Pie whispered.

Rainbow Dash asked, "...Rarity, can I borrow your fainting couch?"

"Sorry, darling, it doesn't quite work that way."

"Alright, I'll just faint like normal ponies."

"...Why do ponies other than me bleat like goats when they faint?"

"Why can we throw up despite it being biologically impossible?" asked Pinkie Pie with a smirk.

"Twili..."

Twilight sighed and wilted under her friends' hurt and angry looks. "...I know...I messed up…"

"Yeah, yah did."

"And endangered myself and others."

"Eeyup."

"And risked my friendship with Scootaloo's mentor."

"Oh big time."

"And should consider myself lucky she's still speaking to me."

"You're not lucky for that, Twili, you're lucky Rainbow is as loyal a friend as she is."

"Yes. And I'm grateful for that."

"And that it weren't Applebloom."

"I know...I'd rather not have a talk with Bucky MacGillicuddy and Kicks McGee…"

"Nor would Ah like for yah to have one. But Ah think we agreed what would happen if yah pulled a stunt like that."

Twilight's eyes shrank to pinpricks. "...Yes…we did..."

"Girls," Twilight stiffened as Moon Dancer touched her shoulder. "We need to 'help' Twilight with something."

A minute later AJ directed a purple filly to her knee.

"Assume the position."

"I get a turn next," Rainbow Dash said in a frighteningly calm voice.

"Sorry Applejack, Rainbow Dash," Cadence gently pushed the earth pony and pegasus aside and looked Twilight in the eyes, "But I have more experience at this than you."

The filly's legs shook.

A few minutes later the temporarily de-aged Twilight sat in a corner of the church...or rather tried to.

"Owie!"

"Sorry Twilight, but I got a good spanking for the Royal Party Love Poison incident too," Cadence said with a stern look. "And this was your idea."

"I know…I just forgot how good you are at it." Twilight rubbed her backside.

"Like you told Chrysalis' magic, I'm not a good foalsitter just because I'm nice."

"...And that Rainbow wouldn't take too kindly to me locking Scootaloo in a trunk…"

"Hey, just be glad I was right about what would happen if we locked them in a trunk," Rainbow said, her expression still showing a bit of maternal anger.

"I thought you were kidding!" Little Twilight said.

"We're just glad it wasn't us this time," said Applebloom.

"Darling, if you can make spells that make the fountain of youth a reality, I'm curious why ponies aren't living forever," Rarity said.

Fluttershy said nothing, seeing an age-reversal spell bringing back unpleasant memories.

"...Can I be ungrounded enough to give a lecture? Pwe-leze?"

"Be quite dear, the adults are talking, I was asking the Princess."

Twilight huffed, but zipped her lips...then yelped as she tried to sit down on her sore flank.

"Age reversal spells take a lot of magic to do normally," Cadence explained, eating some of Bon Bon's candy to recharge hers. "For things like this it's not too bad, but it's supposed to be nigh impossible to make a Instantaneous age-reversal spell for anypony but maybe Discord. Even if you did make a long lasting non-Instantaneous one, you wouldn't affect life span, because that'd require affecting life force, I don't know if even Starswirl the Bearded could do that."

Twilight covered her mouth to avoid going into lecture mode while grounded. Somehow, a soapbox still ended up under Cadence.

"...Twilight…"

"I didn't do it on porpoise!"

Rarity, the queen of details, saw the look on Fluttershy's face, it was professional indignation, Rarity knew it was the same expression she gave when ponies said a dress of hers was impossible to pull off.

"Fluttershy?"

She whispered back, "Rarity, would you like to live forever? Or maybe just get a few years of your lifespan back? Just enough that nopony would notice?"

"F-Fluttershy, y-you-" Rarity stuttered.

"Nature is life. I wonder if this is how Twilight feels most of the time, I mean, Cadence says it's impossible for anypony but that meanie, and wouldn't give that pony more life but...when I look at it...it's so simple to me, I think a foal could do it."

"Fluttershy...you're not…"

"No...Nightmare Whisper is never coming back...sorry," Rarity felt Fluttershy wasn't saying that apology to her, "...but...I might not mind being a true Princess someday…if I have to be... So Rarity, would you want a few years back? Or maybe a foalhood without being pressured to be an athlete in your father's place?"

'But,' Rarity thought, 'All of Fluttershy's, Nightmare Whisper, Princess Gaia's power is gone, isn't it?' For some reason, Rarity found herself thinking of the end result of what had happened to the first Nightmare she and her friends had used the Elements on. Of a pony no bigger than any of them. 'But that's impossible...'

"Uh...ask me again when I hit middle age for the first one, and let me arrange some vacation time first for the second one please."

"Alright. I was only offering...I just don't like the idea of Cadence saying it's impossible when I can. I-! I wouldn't force it! I swear! I promise Rarity, I would-"

"Darling, it's alright...I believe you."

"Thank you Rarity." Fluttershy nuzzled her.

RD bumped in between them, "Hey! Whatcha two talkin' about?"

"Nothing!" The two mares said together.

"Okay, just telling ya we're gonna give Twilight some quiet time now."

'Mom...If we had our butterfly here...'

'...I don't know, honey...A part of me feels like...it's not time for me to come out of the cocoon yet...'

'But if it helps save everypony-'

'I know dear, I know...And believe me, I'd love to be able to tell the Changelings with absolute authority their nature isn't to be monsters...to teach them mercy...Show Chrysalis that Cruel Nature isn't all nature has...but I don't think it's the right time...if it was, we'd have a way to get our butterfly now and we don't…'

'I guess your right...still, would kinda love to see the look on that witch's face...'

'...Whatever you say dear...'

"So Twili, wanna join the Cutie Mark Crusaders?" Applebloom asked, grinning.

"But I already have my cutie mark, and I already know perfectly wha' it means."

"Hold that pose Twilight! I wanna take snap shots of this while I can!" Pinkie Diane said.

"Be sure to get me some copies won't you Pinkie?" Trixie asked with a chuckle.

"Only if I get filly pictures of Twixie!" Twilight said.

"I'll have mother mail you some," Trixie said blandly.

I noticed the foals staring at mom.

"Yes dears?"

Sweetie asked. "Uh…Fluttershy…is Other-Fluttershy really-"

I took control. "If you have something to say to me, say it to me. It's Fluttercruel, not Other-Fluttershy."

Sweetie jumped. "Oh, sorry…Are you really...you know…"

I sighed. "One, yes I'm a spirit born from Discord and 'Shy's soul. Two, I'm not a buc-, erm not evil, anymore. Three, he ignored me and I hope he stays a statue. Four, you missed us explaining this already."

"I hit her with a pew," Silver blushed.

"Wow Silver I didn't know you so strong!" Silver Belle praised.

"Was sort of a panic powered magic-surge thing."

"Earth ponies get those?"

Since they now knew, I switched completely. It'd been worth the head trauma to show my real face.

They all startled, then the curious foals looked me over.

I didn't care if they were foals going over something new, I'm enjoyed the attention.

Scootaloo blinked. "Wait...you have a different Cutie Mark?"

I chuckled. "Earned it."

"What's it for?"

"Kicking flank."

"Really?!" Applebloom asked.

"Nah, helping ponies. Big joke, huh? Made to be cruel, and my Cutie Mark is for helping."

Sweetie's eyes widened. "So...just because something was made bad, it doesn't have to stay bad?"

"I'm proof of that."

"Thank you."

"Those scars look painful," Silver whispered. "Did, Discord give those?"

"No, fought outta Tartarus."

"Seriously, how'd ya get 'em?" Scootaloo asked.

"Am serious, Tartarus or Oblivion. There was a court sentencing me to vanish. Mom needed me, so I hit the judge with his own hammer, and my spirit crawled back to mom with them still clawing me."

I got impressed looks from the fillies.

"Wow! You're like Ghost Flyer!" Scootaloo declared.

Note to self, read more comic books.

"Sweetie Belle...this is Moth..."

"H-hello Sweetie Belle...p-please don't be-"

"Nice to meet you Moth. It's amazing you lived in Ponyville for so long and nopony ever guessed you were somepony different. It's amazing."

"I...I've had lots of practice. S-so you're not scared?"

"Should I be? You're a pony, like me aren't you?"

Moth's eyes misted up, and she hugged the filly who hugged back.

Rarity watched and did not complain.

"...Alright, Twilight, you're ungrounded...but Ah think we still need to talk," AJ said.

"Can I get back to being a grown up first?"

"It will wear off in…" Cadence started.

"Oof!"

"Right now."

Twilight rubbed her head, having hit it on AJ's chin when she suddenly grew back to adult size. "Sorry…"

"...Weren't yer fault…" Applejack helped her up as the circle of friends gathered around. "Twili, this ain't like you...Yer supposed to think things out more than this. You're the smart one…What happened?"

No, I wasn't mad they'd turned me into a foal and Cadence gave me a good spanking (and Applejack, and Rainbow Dash), I helped them do it like I said...I told Applejack that I'd do what she asked and I didn't. I'd betrayed my friend's trust. So I got what I deserved.

OW! Okay...age spell reversal did not equal an unspanked flank…

"I…I was just...I was so worried about you!" I finally said, letting tears flow. "I...I'd lost you once already, I'd almost lost everypony to her trap to Chrysalis' trap...I'd...I didn't want to lose you again!"

Applejack looked me in the...in the eyes… "Twilight...that is what yah felt...but it ain't why yah acted like that...or else yah'd have charged at Discord gun ho by yerself instead of freeing us...somethin' else is hurtin' yah, what is it?"

"I...I…I don't know…"

(Interviewer's Notes (Dusk): Twilight, you're talking to somepony who can bring it to the surface, but Applejack doesn't want to do that to a friend... she knows if you resist, it will hurt you more.)

Ah didn't like usin' mah eyes as weapons against the Changelings...but...mah truth is mah sword...sometimes Ah gotta turn it around and use the blade, not just keep it sheathed...And even with the enemy, Ah made sure tah give them the whole picture...the good and the bad…But Ah ain't doin' that to Twili...not unless she's ready…And when this whole mess is done, Ah don't plan on doin' it tah anypony else that ain't ready either.

But…

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Do you want to risk making a mistake that will endanger your friends more by not getting to the bottom of the problem?)

…No.

I give a sigh. "Applejack...please show me the truth…"

"...Okay...Sugarcube...this is gonna hurt…"

And it did...but not as much as I know she could have made it...I know how Applejack feels, spending my life with all this power I have...what it's like to know how strong you are and how much responsibility it takes...I'd already seen during that fight what Applejack would be like as an enemy…

I revisit the pain I felt hurting my friends under Chrysalis' control...how much I...I enjoyed it while under her power ..how much I...I wanted to see them crushed despite my heart screaming as hard as it could at my deaf mind for me to stop....how much I wanted to crush Cadence…the love I felt for Her Majesty.

Then the pain of seeing my friends get taken down one by one by Chrysalis and Applejack while my other friends were lured into a trap on the other side of the city...the fear…

Me and Applejack were both crying when it ended. "I...I...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry…"

Applejack hugged me. "...Ah'm sorry too...Ah forgot we were two peas in a pod...honesty forced tah lie tah her friends...and friendship made tah betray 'em…"

...When Ah looked in Twilight's eyes...Ah remembered mah time as 'Liarjack' as Pinkie called Discorded meh...and then mah time as Chrysalis' punchin' bag...and how similar they were…no, they were both awful, both invaded meh, both made meh lie tah mah friends. But with Discord, Ah WANTED ta lie through mah teeth...the same way her MADjesty made Twiley WANT ta be her little minion...Sweetie smilin' and cheerin' us on...Ah hadn't seen Twiley gettin' up tah no good or hurtin' ponies while under the first sidewinder's infection for the little time he had her...this time she'd been made tah enjoy it...

"...But Ah had experience healin' this kinda hurt...yah didn't...Ah thought cause Ah knew how tah heal it so did yah…Ah know how tah heal after some psycho makes meh lie tah mah friends...makes meh hurt 'em...Ah think tah meh, Discord was worse cause he made meh want tah...but he only gotcha for a little bit...Ah ain't sayin' that it's too bad he didn't make yah hurt ponies yah cared about...but Ah'm sayin' it means yah don't know how tah handle it when somepony like him does it...It's a pain yah never felt before, and trust meh when Ah say, that's the kinda pain that hurts the worse..."

Twili looked at me with teary eyes. "That's . . that's what all of you went through...all of you...I'm so sorry..."

RD stepped up and joined our group hug. "Mare-Do-Well was what I got for bottling it up… I didn't suffer the exact same...I guess maybe none of us did...but...he never made me WANT to betray any of you either...so...dangit...I get where you're coming from...I don't know what it's like to want to turn my back on my Element like you guys...

"He made it so I thought I didn't have a choice and...we've all been here before, this isn't about me. It's about you Twilight. And...I get it a little...you weren't hurt the same way, but now you have and…"

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth. "...you, are, hurting bad cause...I don't know where I'm going with this anymore. Point is: different damage from different crashes takes different ways to fix up…and keeping the broken bone hidden from the doctor just makes it worse in the long run, and trying to 'just let it heal on it's own' means it might heal wrong, which can be worse than the break...in that way, I think we are alike here...That make sense?"

Twiley, looked up at RD like she just got a lesson she'd been bangin' her head against the wall fer. "Y-yes it does. And I am sorry. I guess I can be as stubborn about needing help as the rest of us. I apologize. Thank you. Celestia is always trying so hard to be the perfect leader in front of everypony...I just try to do the same."

"Ya ain't Celestia sweet heart," AJ said, "Don't forget ta drop yer guard, even at time like this, especially times like this. Or there ain't gonna be a ya inside left when the fightin's done."

"I...I understand...and yes, I was hurt, and now I know how Discord hurt you...and I'm happy I was able to save you."

"So am Ah, and yeah, when the stubborn farm pony-"

"-and the arrogant hot-head-"

"-are tellin' ya not ta keep it all inside, then ya KNOW ya really shouldn't."

"You are so right."

We all laughed. It felt good ta laugh at yerself. That's somethin' the likes of her MADjesty and Discord don't get. And Trixie gettin' it is part of what help her grow up.

"Applejack, Rainbow, thank you."

"No prob."

Rarity said, "We should have stepped in darling."

Fluttercruel said, "Rainbow needs to learn this sort of thing too. She can't count on you girls to be there to help a friend in a heart to heart every time."

"...Should I tell Twilight that my trauma...it...Sweetie Belle…"

"...Wait for it...Okay, group hug time. Now Purple needs all of us."

Me and the other Crusaders all looked at Spike. Takin' mah mind off of Scootaloo's cutie mark, which, other than gettin' Sweetie back, had been more or less all that'd been on mah mind (like before that havin' mah big sis back was all that'd been on it).

"What?"

"...Spike...the grown ups are right…" said Sweetie Belle. "...Discord never got to you either…and we're your friends too. If you need help, please ask."

Spike sighed. "Girls, I didn't WANT to do anything the witch wanted, I'm more sad at what she did to Moon Dancer, you Sweetie, and Twilight, and Shining Armor, oh and Applejack too. I didn't think about anything, I just did it, nothing mattered, if it was to give somepony a kiss or breath fire on them, it was all the same...when you and I danced Sweetie, I might as well have been doing your laundry."

"You DANCED?" We gasped.

"Oh, right, you remember that," Sweetie blushed, "I was, caught up in Chryssy saying I'd be her princess and...well, you were the best dance partner I had there my size."

"Oh."

Sweetie sat down and pressing her forehooves into her head hard, "I was so caught up in everything, I didn't care Chryssy had turned you into.... into a doll." She gritted her teeth. "I'm sorry."

"Hey, she messed your head up too...just not the same way. Nothing to be ashamed up."

"A-alright..." She hugged him. Then she pulled back. "HEY! We were supposed to be talking about your hurt!"

"And you helped me by letting me help you!"

Silver Spoon looked at her Cutie Mark…Ah think at the heart in the handle, Ah ain't sure. "...Sometimes...I think helping others does a lot of that…"

"Hey, Spike, I thought you said you didn't need any help," Scootaloo said, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh...well...I...Dang it…Yeah….I guess I am a little hurt I couldn't help anypony...that all I could do was sit there and watch...that I couldn't do anything...Remembering seeing my friends hurt while I could do was stand there does hurt a little..."

Ah frowned...that sounded pretty familiar. "...Ah...kind know how yah feel...at first...when Discord got meh...and made meh...one of them...Ah didn't want tah hurt anypony but...Ah knew if Ah touched anypony...Ah would...Discord didn't make meh want tah kill anypony or hurt 'em...but Ah couldn't try tah help Twist get her limbs under control or help Snips and Snails get away...and the ponies that weren't out of their heads already? They ran when Ah tried tah talk to 'em...or attacked meh...Archer shot meh in the head, and that was before Discord had her shootin' everythin'!"

"Oh my gosh! That happened?!" Sweetie asked, covering her mouth with her hooves.

"Yeah, but it just grew right back...though until mah brain grew back Ah forgot what the word apples meant...ugh...Ah was kinda already dead so Ah couldn't die again...But what Ah'm gettin' at is...while it ain't the same, Spike...Ah know how it feels tah have somethin' done tah yah that makes it so yah can't help yer friends...how helpless that feels...Even after Ah was back tah flesh and blood, Ah still remembered havin' tah watch all of that...and not be able tah do a thing about it…like how yah feel now about bein' just a robot while Chrysalis did all that mean stuff tah our friends…"

"'Bloom," Scootaloo gasped, "You...you were still you in there? I...I...I'm so sorry! I...I'm so so sorry! I . . I just ran away from you two! The two of us might have helped Sweetie Belle I...'Bloom I'm so sorry."

"Scootaloo, we've been over this...Ah already forgave yah...And besides...if anypony understands how yah feel...it's meh…"

Ah let it out...Ah'd already told 'em about Sunny Town a long time ago...but this was somethin' Ah kept bottled up.

"...When Archer shot meh in the head...Ah...Ah realized Ah couldn't die...that Ah'd be like that forever...Ah...Ah came so close tah runnin' inta Everfree and bein' in the one place Ah knew everypony was in the same boat as meh...For a second...Ah just wanted tah run away…"

Scootaloo hugged me. "I'd have been your friend anyway Applebloom, I promise, nothing would change that."

"Ah know Scoots, thanks."

Spike and Sweetie looked at each other. "So weren't we first going over how I was hurt inside, then it was about how you got hurt inside, and now..."

"Just go with it," I said, with Diamond I'd always been a follower not a leader, but even I knew how to nudge things when need be, "We're friends. You said helping others helps you Spike? So let them help each other too...And Spike...is there any other hurt? I promise, we won't breath a word to anypony."

"...Just a couple of things. One, Moon Dancer reminded me how I used to feel about her before I fell for Rarity, that made a little scared that I'd move on to somepony else if I ever left Ponyville...and...the way I was used as a soul-less message-machine...was how, in my more angry moments when I get left behind for the big adventure...was how I thought the others saw me...the way the queen treated me...kinda put that in perspective...I don't like being ignored...but I was being a jerk for thinking that was how Twilight and the others could EVER see me..."

"...I think…" I started. Okay, how do I put this. "...Sometimes...even if I didn't think it out loud...I think a part of me felt mom treated me like I was something she could mold...like foil paper, how you twist it into shapes and it held…and that my daddy...I think a part of me felt like I was a thing to my parents...something they could mold and display as they saw fit..."

"You guys have foil paper?" asked Sweetie. "Isn't that new fancy stuff?"

"Kinda...but...well...we're rich...I didn't think that way...I felt that way...and then...when Discord got his claws on me…he made me living silver paper...but fragile...so that the smallest thing made me bleed...I think...in a way, he made me what I really thought my mom saw me as...a little foil statue that couldn't resist being affected by whatever touched it...and...as for daddy…he…"

I felt my hooves instinctively touch my neck. I'd forgiven daddy...but that didn't make thinking about it scare me less. "Discord...he made him try to...to c-cut my head off...and make a trophy out of it...something he could display...a thing he could display...exactly like I think deep down I felt like he saw me...maybe...maybe feeling like that is part of why I went along with Diamond...because I was hurting deep down and helping her made the pain go away...but...I think Discord played with me a lot like Chrysalis used you...they made us what part of us thought was real come true…"

'FINALLY she gets the joke!'

"Can't we spy on Chrysalis instead?"

'All in good time dear.'

Spike laid back on his tail and looked at me smirking, "Who'da thought we'd end up having stuff in common. Silver, thank you, it doesn't change what happened to me but...it's nice to be understood isn't it?"

"Yes it is." I nuzzled him, he sure is warm for being cold blooded. Who cares? I like him like that.

(Noon's Notes: Sis...I…)

(Dusk's Notes:...I have Twilight Tragedy's memories...all of them...Chrysalis hurt me...but…)

(Dawn's Notes: I don't care if you think you can handle it!)

(Dusk's Notes: Dawn…)

(Dawn's Notes: We're sisters! If we'd been helping each other like we shoulda from the start, yah never woulda gotten hurt at all! So stop bein' stubborn like momma and let us help you!)

(Dusk's Notes:...Thank you, Dawn...I...I guess there is a difference between memories gained from another and going through the same thing yourself...I...What Chrysalis did...it made me go against what I'm the spirit of...I'm Happy Conclusions...and I had to help try and create a bad ending for this world...Every step I took was like trying to walk against the wind in a Catagory 5 hurricane...but being made to keep walking ...Yes...sisters...it did hurt.)

(Noon's Notes:...I think the only thing I can say to that is...I'm sorry sis...I love you and wish I could've done something sooner...ugh...sorry, I'm being sappy.)

(Dawn's Notes: I love you too, bigger sister...I'm sorry you got hurt...would a hug make it feel better?)

(Noon's Notes:...Come here sis...I think our little sis has a point: we've been so busy trying to help everypony else, we forgot our own group hug.)

(Dusk's Notes:Thank you, sisters...I'm glad to be where I belong again...doing what I'm meant to do...with my sisters as I should be.)

(Noon's Notes: Should be, or choose to be?)

(Dusk's Notes: Does it actually matter if you find happiness and help others at the same time?)

(Noon's Notes: Heh, I guess not for them...okay, group hug. Sisters, if we fight again...let's make up as sisters should.)

(Dawn's Notes: Not never fight again?)

(Noon's Notes: Don't make promises you aren't sure you'll keep. But here is one I'll keep, I'll love all of ya to the bitter end.)

(Dawn's Notes: Me too!)

(Dusk's Notes: And me three.)

After all of us helping each other through our problems...the others realized something I'd kinda hoped they'd forgotten.

"Hey, Silver," said Applebloom. "Was that really Diamond's ma back there?"

I froze a little bit. I was as surprised as everypony else to learn Mrs. Tiara was here. I was more surprised to see her back to normal. Yes, the little filly was aware her best friend's mother had gone insane. I'd heard mommy and daddy talk about it when they thought I wasn't listening. Of course, I didn't know if they knew I knew that.

"Yes…"

"Ah didn't know she still had a ma…" said Applebloom, looking a little sad.

"Yeah...well...she's been very very sick for some time now. I guess she must have gotten better," I replied, trying to keep things need to know. I didn't want to spill a secret that was Diamond's. It wasn't my place. It wasn't my right...and when I finally got her back, I knew she'd hate me if I'd told them. So I didn't. Nope. Mental Pinkie Swear.

-

"Father, we're going to spy on Chrysalis. Now."

'Ugh...yeah, this is getting a little too blech! Lovey dovy for my tastes. Watching her have a mental breakdown is probably more entertaining.'

+++

Ah knew she'd kept lookin' my way the entire time. Those foals are smart, but bein' guilty yah hurt somepony can make it hard for adults tah not show it.

Ah admit it, it wasn't quite easy tah not feel a little bitter lookin' at her when she first came back. She and Chrysalis had spent three days torturin' meh. but Ah don't hate her.

"Sweetie you don't need to do this right away," Rarity whisper in my ear. "Whatever lies the queen told you while you were enchanted have nothing to do with what her magic made you do."

I really really REALLY wanted to not do this, but...what...what big sister said...when Chryssy magic was on me, everything was so simply, everything just made so much more sense than it had in a long time. Now everything was confusing and muddled again…But...hurting my friends...my sister...m-maybe it being muddled was that way for a reason but... I wanted to not do this, but I knew I had to. It gave me butterflies in my stomach. Rarity got Spike to keep the other Crusaders busy while I did what I didn't want to. It made my head hurt.

"I...I think it's what a princess should do," I whispered, not really sure why I said it myself. I felt cold, exposed, without Chryssy's green glow in my head telling all my choices were the right ones.

"Applejack." I think her eyes were on me the whole time, as we came closer. I think Applebloom snuck around Spike and sat on a pew near Applejack. "I..." She looked at me, her expression didn't change. I was scared. I put my forehoof over one knee. "I...I want to say I'm sorry. I...I didn't mean to hurt you...I really, really thought I was just helping you see the right way."

"...Do yah still think that's what you were doing?" she asked. The scariest part was...she didn't sound mad.

I lowered my head. "...I dunno..."

"Sweetie...let meh tell yah something...when Discord got his claws in meh, Ah thought Ah was doin' the right thing too...Ah thought little white lies made ponies lives better and the truth could only hurt...And because Ah believed that, he got his claws in the others too. Ah was the first one he got...which means if Ah hadn't been doin' that, your sis never woulda gotten Discorded either."

"Darling, we know he would have just cheated and done it another way," big sister said.

"Rarity, Ah know that, and Ah know whether Sweetie thought that or not, Chrysalis woulda MADE her, that ain't the point," Applejack said, then looked back at me. "How would yah feel if yah asked meh if Ah still thought Ah was right tah lie tah mah friends, and Ah said 'Ah dunno'?"

"I...I...I don't know! With Chryssy's magic there I felt like I knew everything I needed to know! That I had a perfect way to make everything right! I had all the answers! Now...know I don't know what to think! I just...I just don't want to see anypony, or anyling hurt, I know now that..." I swallowed. "That I hurt you." I whimpered. "I'm sorry."

"...Sweetie Belle...yah know Ah don't hate yah. But...if Ah apologized for hurtin' yer sister, but couldn't say 'Ah know now lyin' then was wrong'...Would yah accept mah apology?"

"Applejack please, she's trying as hard as she can," big sister pleaded as she hugged me.

I felt like I was back with the itchy sweater and dream catcher again...I know that isn't what it was, but it still felt like it.

"...Applejack…p-please look me in the eyes and don't let me lie, okay?"

Applejack nodded and did.

"Applejack! I am NOT letting you use that power on a foal!" Rarity covered my eyes.

"Geeze Rarity! Ah weren't gonna do that. Ah got more self control than that. Ah was just gonna do what she ask and let her speak what her heart was really wantin' tah say."

"V-very well." I felt big sister shudder as she slowly moved her hooves away and kissed my cheek and I looked into Applejack's eyes.

"So what ya wish ta say darlin'?" AJ asked.

"...I...All I want is for the fighting to stop...I know...I know Chryssy and her Changelings...if Moth doesn't need to hurt ponies to live...neither do they…"

I...I admit...a part of my heart was still trying not to face that...that's why I had her do this...Otherwise I was just being like Twilight when she was apologizing just to make herself feel better...Yes, I know how weird that sounds, but I literally can't lie right now.

"...I...I want to see Chryssy turn good…"

"If she has tah turn good-"

"I know!...I know…"

I started crying.

"Chryssy's hurting ponies...And trying to break you...that wasn't the 'right way'...it was the selfish way...it was...trying to make you a worse pony for me and Chryssy...I'm sorry Applejack...I'm so sorry…"

She pulled me into a hug. "Ah know yah are...but if yah really want tah save that wi-...Chrysalis' soul, yah ain't gonna be doin' it if yah don't admit it needs savin', got it?"

"I...I understand," I said. "She's...she's doing mean things to ponies and...she doesn't need to..." I didn't want to bring up how the idea for the rune was because Chryssy told me she wanted to give the changeling a proper goddess. "...Applejack...do you think I can save her?"

"...Yah want the truth or meh to say nothin' at all?"

"...T-Truth."

"...Ah think her heart is pitch black...Ah can't lie, Sweetie...Ah hate her."

I wilted at that.

Big sister said, "If you can convince her to get the other changelings to stop fighting, it would be lovely Sweetie Belle, I'm sick of all this too but...I can't think of letting her near you again. What's she'd DO TO YOU again."

I looked right in Applejack's eyes. "I'm not giving up. Rarity said how she didn't think there was any good in Nightmare Moon, but she doesn't think Princess Luna is bad."

Applejack actually smiled. "And Ah agree. Ah said Ah think her heart is pitch black. But Ah believe in miracles. Ah'd never have thought before that night Nightmare Moon was a scared little Alicorn missin' her sister under all her fancy talk and scary face. And if yah can save 'Chryssy'? Ah won't tell ya can't. And...even if Ah'll always hate Chrysalis, Ah won't hate Chryssy. Just...please darlin', don't just see what ya want ta see. Or it'll get everypony hurt."

"I...I promise." Chryssy, had taught me about ponies seeing what they wanted to see, it was part of how the changeling got as far as they have. But...if Applejack could believe in a miracle...why couldn't I?

Rarity hugged me again. "Sweetie Belle, please, just don't be foolish. That's all big sister asks. Don't put yourself in danger for this. Please. I don't want to lose you again. And I know that none of your friends do either."

Applebloom reminded me she was there and gave me a hug too. "Ah sure know Ah don't."

"Alright, I promise everypony," I said.

"And that's honest truth." Applejack smiled.

+++

Me and Rarity...after Twilight had her...punishment...I sat down and explained to her...everything. The fake knife, that it was my magic muddling things up to her, that I was trying to distract her the whole time.

She didn't look hurt, or angry, but she didn't look neutral like Applejack, she looked, tired.

"Thank you for telling me Sweetie Belle. It was very brave and very honest of you."

I waited for her to say more. But nothing came.

"Twilight dear?" Rarity asked.

"I'm just...sick of all of this. I'm just happy we have everypony back together...except BBBFF."

"I'm sorry," I said.

"You were under Chrysalis' magic like I was Sweetie, even if it left it's mark on you when it was gone. I was happily thinking of horrible ways I could do on my friends to force them to betray their Elements without using mind magic to help a mad changeling's experiments!"

"Kabuto, none of the changelings actually like him. Even Chryssy doesn't like him, she...just saw him as useful. And he's kind of made himself hard to get rid of."

"The point is Sweetie Belle, when her magic was on me, I was thinking things that make me sick to my stomach. Horrible things I'd have never forgiven myself for, and I'm just grateful I didn't do any damage that can't be undone. I have no right to be upset with you, I'm just happy that Scootaloo and Rarity were able to free you."

"But...after I...Even without her magic on me I tried to...I don't know how much of that was her magic and how much was me...I know that's how it was with Discord, but...this time...this time I mean it."

"But what you tried to do, it was still her."

"But then I had a choice and I hurt Rarity!"

Rarity knelt down and whispered, "...Sweetie Belle, you were hurt, angry, scared, confused...just like I was hurt, angry, scared, and confused that day. And you had new power that you haven't had time to learn responsibility for. I'm an adult, I don't have that excuse. If I could forgive myself for that day, then you can yourself for today."

Rarity spoke louder and hugged me tight, it didn't feel like the itch sweater this time. "The point is Sweetie Belle, if you want to be sorry, then that's good, it means Chrysalis didn't succeeded in wiping away the good filly I love with all my heart."

"Thanks Rarity." I nuzzled her. I looked back at Twilight. "Miss Twilight, I just want to say again I'm sorry for helping Chryssy hurt you and your brother."

Twilight spoke, "I just don't feel right for me to accept your apology Sweetie for something I can't see as your fault. It was my own fault I was in that situation. You were enchanted like the rest of us, and developed Stockhorse Syndrome."

"Stoic-horse what?"

Twilight seemed uncomfortable. Kinda like that time I asked Rarity where foals came from...only with less blushing.

"Stockhorse Syndrome...it's when somepony who's foalnapped begins to…be friends with their captor."

"That's a bad thing?"

"...It...it can be Sweetie Belle...From the sound of things yours was originally unhealthy, since you supported Chrysalis' actions...Now...I think it's healthier, since you want to redeem her...I wouldn't quite say it's a good or bad thing right now...it's how you'll deal with that feeling."

"Is...is there a syndrome thingie where the foalknapper starts being friends?"

"...Yes...it's called Limema Syndrome...but...please don't get your hopes up that's what happened. The point is Sweetie Belle, that a little filly like you? You have a long life ahead of you. You shouldn't be hurt by guilt like this. If you do, it'll be just another way Chrysalis hurt you."

Chryssy had never hurt me, not even once, even as she did bad things to Applejack, but...that didn't make it right. I'm sorry, but I want to believe that the Chryssy I sang with and played with is real.

"I...I understand...but...I still feel I need to apologize…so…"

"I forgive you, Sweetie. And I mean that, I don't hold a grudge against you," Twilight smiled. "Look, I hurt my friends too just now, they don't hold a grudge, and that WAS me, not some monster brainwashing me, just me losing control of myself. If I can be forgiven for that, I'd be a hypocrite to hold a grudge on you. Okay?"

"Okay." We nuzzled, then Rarity nuzzled with us. And I felt safe. "...Twilight...one more thing?"

"Yes, Sweetie?"

"...I can use magic now...Would you please, could you, teach me?"

She gave a happy smile. "Of course, Sweetie. I'd be happy to be your tutor."

"Yippie!" I gave a small jump.

"Oh my," Rarity looked ready for the couch again, "My little sister the student of the student of Princess Celestia," Rarity smiled, "I think our parents are going to be proud of you Sweetie Belle."

That made me smile more.

+++

"Princess Cadence," Rarity bowed formally, "My little sister and the Cutie Mark Crusaders have something they wish to discuss with you regarding the wedding."

"Oh?" The princess looked at us, smiling, she looked a little nervous. Maybe cause she looked like how Chryssy did when we first met. I wonder how I'd feel if somepony went around looking like me causing trouble. "What is it my little ponies?"

I had asked Scoots and Applebloom already, and we all agreed to this. And yes, we asked Silver again and she said the same thing.

I asked, "I . . . Princess Cadence, can we . . . can we still be your flower fillies?"

She stared at us. Uh-oh.

"I-I know it was really Chryssy who okayed us, but we'd still all like to be your flower fillies, if that's alright with you." I asked channeling Fluttershy.

"We're not scared or anything." Scootaloo said showing off her cutie mark with gusto.

"We really still wanna do it." Applebloom declared.

"So please?" Rarity asked.

THe princess just looked at us, then burst out laughing.

"Hey! It's not funny!" Scootaloo said.

"S-sorry my little fillies. There was never any doubt that I still wanted you as my flower fillies. I decided ALREADY that I would have picked you for my flower fillies ANYWAY! All of you! I knew that already when I got to know you and Applebloom. And," She looked right at me. "I know absolutely certain having now met you Sweetie Belle. You have wonderful friends, and a wonderful sister, and are brave and strong fillies who I owe a great deal already. I'd be delighted to have you as my flower filly still."

"But...I haven't…" I started, looking down. "You don't owe me anything...I've just…"

She put a hoof on my chin and slowly put my eyes to look at hers.

"My little pony. We all have our crosses to bear in this crazy situation. Every last one of us. If anything, I owe you for you being in this mess to begin with. That's my burden. And besides...a filly who knows the changelings on a more personal level might be of help ending this peacefully."

"You want that?"

She nodded. "I want this to end with everypony, and everychangeling, alive and no longer enemies. That's the ending I want...I admit, I don't see Chrysalis as you do...but I also want to see her stopped, and if that's peacefully, with everypony okay, I'd be a very happy Alicorn."

I gave her a smile. "Thank you...I'm glad somepony else thinks that way…"

"I'm glad to know there's hope for peace."

I nodded, looking back into her eyes.

"You have nice eyes," I said. Her eyes are like Chryssy's, but with something else there too. Like something finished.

"...Thank you little pony."

Rarity wiped a tear away, but she was smiling. "Thank you, princess."

"My pleasure, and just call me Cadence!"

"Cutie Mark Crusader Flower Fillies Take Two! YAY!" We all cheered, including Scootaloo. It was funny, she had her cutie mark, she could fly, she was with Rainbow Dash, she had everything she'd ever wanted, but here she was, still having fun with us, still wanting to Crusade with us. She was a real true friend, and I'm happy to have her and Applebloom as my friends!

We hugged, then Rarity hugged all of us.

"See?" Silver Spoon said sitting next to Spike as they watched the happy exchange behind a pew. "Told ya."

"Okay, you win, Scootaloo still wanted to be a flower filly. But Cadence accepted them all back."

"There was never any doubt about that, after what we've been through, I think all the adults want to be a part of the real wedding after the monsters are stamped out!"

"Uh, I know I'm the dragon here, but 'stamped out' seems a bit brutal a term for a filly."

"Dad's a guard, mom's a elite socialite, and I grew up in high society, comes with the territory."

"Just be careful little filly," Pinkie Pie declared, making both dragon and filly nearly have a heart attack, "Moth and Fluttershy already showed us most of the beetle-ponies are nice! Our world isn't a happy mask hiding a big disgusting dark ugly side! It's a happy world with some baddies who want to MAKE IT be as mean and desolate as they are."

"Pinkie Pie!" Spike said.

"Oh sorry, just felt that needed to be said."

"I was kinda talking about Chrysalis, not the changelings in general."

"Just remember," Pinkie Pie said, "We'll all kick flank when the baddies don't wanna listen, doesn't mean we outta enjoy it, remember what we all talked about before? Those feelings can turn bad really easy, we should be happy our friends are back together and safe, beating the baddie is just how that happened, the HAPPY PART is all of us smiling together, not beating up the bad guy, that's the part we have to do, not the part that that should be fun! Not like this part!" Pinkie Pie hugged them both, then began blowing into their tummies.

The dragon and filly burst out laughing.

"Auntie! Auntie!!"

"Bahamut! Bahamut!"

"Ookie-dookie lookie!" Pinkie Pie stopped. And pulled out box with a familiar logo and name on it. "Anypony wanna play a board game?"

"At a time like this?" Silver Spoon asked.

"Like duh, OF COURSE at a time like this! When you know tough times are coming, like saving Equestria, you need the fun times a super-extra-special lot!"

"She's got a point," Spike admitted.

Silver Spoon smiled, she was a filly after all, "Okay." Then grinned. "But I get the green piece!"

"I wanted the green piece," Spike mumbled.

Pinkie Pie cheered, "It's okay Spike, you can be the purple one!"

"Cool."

+++

"Hey Scoots," I heard Dash behind me. She didn't sound happy. "You and I need to talk a little." Uh-Oh.

Before anypony could say anything, Dash picked me up in her mouth by the scruff of my neck and flew me straight up to the church rafters. I think we scared away some of the dust bunnies.

She laid me down, but she kept flying.

"Rainbow!" Fluttershy called up to her.

"Sorry Fluttershy, this is private," she called back down. I honestly didn't feel scared like that time Other-Fluttershy or Whatever-Her-Name-Is put me on that tiny cloud after I told her off for 'wasting the gift' of being a pegasus, after all, I could stop my own fall now. What scared me was the look on Rainbow Dash's face.

"Scoots, I know I'm not your parents, but you're my responsibility. If you get hurt, it's because of me not doing my part in keeping you safe. So if you take risks, it's because I wasn't there to watch you or I didn't drill it into you hard enough not to do something stupid."

"But Dash, I was only doing what you taught me. I picked my battles, I only did what I was told to do as my part in the mission, save Sweetie Belle if I got a chance."

"And saving her meant grabbing her and jumping out a window when you couldn't fly?"

"With the lessons you gave me, I'm sure I could glided down!" I said. "Well, kinda sure, I don't know I couldn't have glided with Sweetie Belle."

"And risking her life is your idea of loyalty?"

"You do reckless stuff too!"

"Yeah, and I was in the hospital once for it, and I got humiliated for a bunch of other reckless stuff when I began endangering the ponies I was supposed to be helping! I know I'm reckless, but that doesn't mean I want the foal I'm raising to be as reckless. Scoots. Turn around."

"Dash."

"Do it."

I complied.

Then came the sharp 'WHACK' across my rear.

"YEOW!"

"That was for Sweetie Belle."

"YEOW!"

"And that was for yourself. There. Now turn back around."

I obeyed.

"Look...I know sometimes you need to be reckless and throw caution to the wind...but I'd be a bad guardian if I let you just think it's okay to be reckless all the time... I know there isn't always time to think, but that doesn't mean you should never think your plans all the way through. I just want you to remember that for later.

"Now that we got that out of the way, now that I'm done being the stern guardian it's my responsibility to be...You DID save Sweetie Belle, you ALSO saved Twilight, you also helped us out of having to break INTO the castle, you might have saved Twilight's brother too, you also totally blew Chrysalis' cover, you finally flew kiddo, managed to outsmart a buncha trained guards on your FIRST FLIGHT while carrying Sweetie -without getting so much as a scratch on her-, and you earned your cutie mark. You did awesome! I think this was a time when being reckless paid off, just don't do it all the time," She hugged me. I don't think I'd ever seen her that happy before. "And your cutie mark-"

"Uh, I'm sorry it's doesn't look as cool as yours Dash-"

"Oh no you don't." Stern Adult Dash was back. "My cutie mark shows what makes ME awesome, your cutie mark shows what makes YOU awesome! And I'm so proud that you've realized what it is that makes you awesome! And I'm proud to have such an awesome filly under my wings. I'm so proud of you my little filly!"

She nuzzled me, she landed, and hugged me with her wings too, and gave me another nuzzle. Happy Proud Guardian Dash was back. I hugged her back. "I'm proud I'm a role model for such a brave and selfless filly, I'm proud that I was able to teach you anything, I proud you didn't give up when it might have been easier. I'm proud you didn't just listen to what Twilight said and had enough heart to make your own decision when it counted the most. That's a filly I'm proud to have spent a year raising...what I'm saying is...I know we'll find your parents because they have to be looking for you too, because there's no way ponies who had any heart would just leave behind a foal as precious and dear as you! But if...you don't mind if...if I be your family, right?"

"Dash..." I was crying, and it wasn't from the spanking, "We're already family...And I couldn't ask for a better one!"

She started crying to. "Thank you Scoots, thank you."

+++

I laid on the pew, resting my wings after Dash gave them a good preening and rubbing, saying they were going to be sore tomorrow if I wasn't careful. Dash said what I needed right now was rest. I spotted Sweetie Belle sleeping in Rarity's forelegs, her big sister I guess not minding she was being used as a big pillow.

"Scootaloo," I heard Twilight Sparkle behind me.

"Yeah, huh?" I didn't look at her.

"I know you're upset with me."

"Yeah, huh."

"And you have a right to be."

"Yeah, huh."

"I used you and I admit it."

"Yeah, huh."

"This isn't easy for an adult to say to a foal, what I did was wrong."

"Yeah, huh."

"And ranks up there with the Smartypants Incident as one of the dumbest, most morally reprehensible things I've ever done."

"Yeah, huh."

"I'm very sorry for what I did."

"Yeah, huh."

"I know that doesn't change what I did, or make it up."

"Yeah, huh."

"On the bright side it helped you earn your wings and cutie mark."

"Yeah, huh. Let's thank Chrysalis too while we're at it."

"...I deserved that."

"Yeah, huh. You did."

"But Scootaloo, to win this, we're going to need everypony's help, and like it or not, that includes the CMC, and that includes you."

"Yeah, huh."

"But if we're to work together as a team, then we need trust, and that means I have to be able to trust you, and you have to know that you can trust me."

"Yeah, huh."

"And after what happened, I don't blame you if you don't trust me anymore. I'd be more surprised if you did."

"Yeah, huh."

"But we NEED that trust right now, and it's more important than grudges between us."

"Yeah, huh."

"I know we're not close. And this is hard for a foal to hear. But we're ALL part of a team here. Our mission is to help save Equestria, I know you're upset, but you have to trust me for the sake of everypony else."

"Yeah, huh. So what if your next plan involve me being put in a chest?...Twilight...do you know what it was like to be locked up like that? In a tiny little space…"

Her eyes went wide. "...You're a pegasus...and...most pegasi...they're naturally claustrophobic..."

"Yeah, huh. Clustro-what?"

"Afraid of being confined...the only pegasus I ever met that wasn't was a friend of my brother's named Ace...Ugh! How could I have forgot that?! I'm sorry…"

"...You forgot a lot of things."

"...Scootaloo I truly am sorry. I know it can be much harder for foals to forgive sometimes....And hard for adults to forgive at all. But... it is what ponies do, it what's we're meant to do."

"Yeah, huh. You don't get it at all. Dash is loyalty. And she taught me being loyal to your friends is what's most important! Which means Dash is loyal to you most! And if Dash is loyal to you, than that's enough for me! But then you made what she taught me wrong! You made Rainbow Dash a liar! You expect me to just forgive that?!" I snorted air, flared my wings and scrapped my hoof.

"...No...I don't. I'm thankful beyond reason that Rainbow doesn't hate me for it... But, I was wrong to use you like that, and if I was in another situation like that, I won't do it again...It was my fault that I ended up losing control of myself and going temporarily insane…that's a lie, sorry, I'm as responsible for my actions as when I cast that horrible Want-It-Need-It spell on you…I was a stubborn mule…"

"...Twilight, you really hurt me...why did you even let me come with you if you were going to do that?!"

"...Because...because I needed the others to think somepony had my back so they'd stay away long enough...and I thought you'd be the easiest to hide while I saved Shining...I didn't plan on you getting out...that's the whole problem. I didn't think...And I acted impulsively...no...I acted stupidly. I was an idiot...a big idiot...I'm sorry…"

"...How can I trust you, Twilight? And don't Pinkie Promise...in something like this it's a cheat."

"...If I had the Element of Magic I'd give it to you to look after. If Starswirl the Bearded's grave was a secret I'd share it with you. There are rituals pegasi, unicorns, and Earth Ponies keep private that Alicorns are privy to all three, if I thought it would show that I trust you, I'd share mine with you...I don't know many secrets that are mine and mine alone...I'd ask Fluttershy to trust you with Fluttercruel's existance, but you already know...so I'll share something else...The greatest secret of the world." Twilight took a deeeep breath.

Please Celestia let me be making the right decision. I can't describe it, but it felt...like she had a right to know...I don't know how else to put it... or maybe I wanted to excuse myself for playing this card. I put a sound-proof spell around us. I asked Cadence to show it to me after realizing it wasn't smart to talk about your plans in ear shot of the enemy. Yes, I know I know, the girl who summons soapboxes with her lectures realized letting somepony hear her talk might not be such a good idea...

-'Face Myself (After Battle)' Persona 4 -

"Once upon a time, actually, now it never was, there was a Ponyville where there were no colts, but nopony noticed, because everypony was happy. When they learned about unicorns and pegasi, they were treated like new neighbor and welcomed, not loathed or hated. But one day, this Ponyville was changed into a new one, because the rules for making everypony happy contradicted each other, and were going to make the world fall apart.

"The spell that created this Ponyville's world was flawed, and those flaws finally caught up with it. The world was going to collapse and remaking the world was the only way to save everything. But the ponies, to fit in the new world, had to be changed too. Not just their present, but their entire past changed too, not just memories, but the actual past.

"Most ponies changed a lot in their personalities, even their cutie marks and species changed, they gained and lost family members. Only one pony, who was changed the least when the world was changed, remembered everything, she was a pink pony who loved to give parties for everypony...

"But she...she had a best friend...a best friend who in a world of perfect ponies was a klutz, when she got fixated on things being perfect it only made things go wrong, sometimes she felt like she couldn't do anything right for her friends...she was going to vanish when the world was changed .. . but she was fought for and a new life was won for her...

"But…when the world was changed, the klutz forgot the pony she was best friends with, the one who had fought for her...even...even when she found out about how the world used to be...the klutz still couldn't remember the times she had with her best friend, even though she knew it would make her friend happy if she could. Princess Luna told them, that if they let everypony know about how the world used to be, it would only hurt them, if they found out how they all used to be...it would hurt who they were now...

"Then the pink pony, and the pony the klutz had become, found out that when the klutz was in the perfect world, she wished for the pink pony to exist, she was born from a wish. An imaginary friend given the spark of life. This made the pink pony sad, because she thought it meant she wasn't a real pony and wanted to fade away.

"But the pony who used to be the klutz wouldn't let her, and told her that she was still a very real friend to her and was a real pony And...and for one tiny bit...the pony who used to be the klutz...she...she felt like she was her again...just for a tiny bit...but she was scared it meant letting go of the pony she was now... But a very wise zebra told her that was wrong...and the wise zebra, Princess Luna, and the klutz, were able to save the pink pony."

I realized I was crying. "And everything I've said, is absolutely true. But the pony who used to be the klutz didn't want to share she felt like the klutz for a little bit with anypony, because she liked the world being orderly and with rules...she didn't want the world to suddenly be more confusing...and she knows, most ponies will just think she's crazy, but...she willing to trust a little filly, to keep things secret, because she knows she's a filly who can be trusted, and hopes that filly is willing to trust her."

I hoped that the innocence of a foal would help me here. That she'll be willing to take things at face value like foals generally do...I hope that little piece of innocence had been untouched by all this.

" . . . Was . . . was I a part of that other Ponyville?"

" . . . Yes . . ."

"Then if what you're saying.... if everything you're saying is true then...then show me!"

"What?"

"That remembering spell or whatever you call it! Use it with me! Show me that you didn't just make that all up!"

"Scootaloo, no! This could hurt adult ponies! I'm hesitant enough to just tell you about this! Not-"

"I have a cutie mark now! I know who I am! If you have that fancy memory spell Dash talked about...show me...and I'll trust you."

"...is this really what you want, for me earn your trust back?"

"Yes." Scootaloo's face was like steel, it didn't belong on a foal's face at all.

"If this messes you up, Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash will never forgive me."

"Then just say I did this to myself, because it was my choice."

"And it'll kill me inside."

"You're the one who started this." I have to get that black feeling that's showing on her face out of her, before it grows into something worse.

"If...if that is what you wish...If you want to be an adult that way...alright..."

I place my horn against her. I show her what I learned of the journal, and of Pinkie Pie, I DID NOT reveal everypony and everything about that world, nor the previous Rainbow Dash, nor of the world before it, I only showed her herself, and the pony she once had a bond with.

It was over in moments.

The little filly gasped, as her mind processed the truth that never was.

"...Twilight...thank you...for not...for not telling me about this...when I was trying to fly..."

"...You're welcome..."

"And...I know Cheerilee..." She let a tiny laugh. "I don't think I could love her anymore than I already do as my teacher. I think, I love her more than I did then....I already look up to her, just not the same as Rainbow Dash..."

"Scootaloo, can I trust YOU not to go around telling everypony this?"

"..." Scootaloo sighed. "Yes...it's just...so much has happened to me today...it's way too much at once...and Twilight...thanks, this sounds mushy but, it lets me know, even if the world changes, my heart won't. I know Cheerliee's hasn't."

"I can respect that...Considering how I normally react to finding out crazy stuff...or rather did. I think I've become desensitized to it lately...And I can understand what you mean there to. Me and Pinkie are the same way...and so are me and…"

Zecora knew...should I tell her about Zecora and my relationship in all our lives? Zecora took it in such stride…

"Me and Zecora...we've been teacher and student in every life...in every world...it is comforting to know that our hearts haven't changed…"

"...Can I talk to Pinkie and Zecora about this though? You said they knew so just checking…"

"...If you want to. I think it'd be good for Pinkie to have somepony else to talk about the world that never was. And Zecora...I think she'd love it. As far she as she's concerned, those lives were just steps on a journey. I don't think she'd mind having another fellow traveller."

"Alright, thank you, I will...hehe you know, now that alternate world makes more sense."

My eyes went as wide as dinner plates. "What?!"

"Long story...we kinda made a makeshift time machine...and went sideways in time...and ended up in a universe a lot like what you showed me...and I think we met the klutz you mentioned, she told us to tell Pinkie hi…was her name Minty?"

"I...how...when…"

"Yeah, that was pretty much Doctor Whoove's reaction…"

"I...I'm going to stop thinking about how physically impossible that is before my brain crashes...again...because it is...in a lot of ways…"

"Yeah, he said that too. He said we broke some laws of physics that ponies don't even know."

"At least that explains why you're taking this so well and why I felt you could handle it…"

"Yeah...it wasn't the weirdest place we ended up in…but anyway, I'll trust you, I promise, so what happens now?"

"Now we save Equestria...again."

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
Written by Alex Warlorn
Read This Chapter To Get A Smile (Guaranteed)

Pinkie Pie, "Read this chapter! I Pinkie Promise you'll smile at least once before the end! Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!"

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Sisters-455936073

Next Chapter:

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (need to be kept up to date . . . please?).

The Pony POV Series is a non-profit hobby.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Art by Atomic Chinchilla. http://atomic-chinchilla.deviantart.com/art/We-ll-Make-it-Through-304909770

Episode 202: "Cadence vs Cadenza"

"Thanks for the amps, Vinyl," said Lyra, unsure of how the DJ pony had managed to make amps project the music of a magical harp forged from harmony and music itself. Sadly, she had a promise to keep to Bon Bon to not get directly involved in the fighting even if she gave musical support to her friends.

"No prob, I've been wanting to fight off an alien invasion for a long time!" said Vinyl, she politely left out Octavia had saved HER after Vinyl was brainwashed.

Octavia sighed, shaking off the strange feelings left over by from being effected by Chrysalis' power. "You're quite the conspiracy theorist."

"Hey, we're not aliens!" A changeling in support of Cadence protested while her fellows nodded.

The area around the two pink Alicorns was covered in smoking craters, shattered glass and rubble.

"I'd never imagine deadly Auntie Luna making such a brainless mistake," Chrysalis/Cadenza said flatly but a deranged smirk, "She brings me the most intense little love batteries she could hope to give me, to use against my changelings? Then she flies away to find Auntie Celly? She must WANT ME to win!"

Cadence blocked a trident strike from Cadenza with her crystal sword.

"Except your changelings aren't exactly managing to do much feeding."

Cadence pushed the trident back and retaliated with a slash of her own, getting caught between the points of the trident before she could hit the Queen's horn.

"So what? In case you didn't notice, they all have their backs to us now! I can feed on the cats, THEN accept my swarm's sacrifice, and you'll be nothing but dessert!"

Cadenza tried to fire a beam from her horn during their blade lock, but Cadence countered with a beam of her own, the resulting feedback forcing them to leap away from each other.

"One problem, I won't let you. No pony has died, and none are! I'm sick of tragedies and horrors! Nopony is dying today Chrysalis! Not even you! You don't get to weasel out that easily!"

Cadence charged and the two locked blades again.

"So trying to 'save my soul' didn't count as me 'weaseling out?'" Cadenza asked, but growled as a very annoying part of her head told her to agree her twin.

The two pushed against each other before Cadence intentionally released her blade, resulting in both weapons flying out of range and shattering before Cadenza could stop her weapon. Cadence bucked her in the face.

"If recycling garbage into somepony that adds to the world instead of taking is 'weaseling out' then sure!"

Another beam clash made them leap back from each other once more.

Chrysalis was taken back for one moment as Sweetie's face flashed in her head but growled, shaking her head. "Whatever, cat-love-bars need munching!"

Cadence flew right in front of the changeling queen.

"I said no."

"I said 'yes'."

"TOO BAD!"

Cadence fired a pair of beams at Cadenza, who dodged. However, the first beam caused a blue crystal to grow out of the ground and reflect the second one, striking Cadenza in the back. As the Changeling Queen roared in pain, Cadence tackled her, both punching and stabbing at each other with their hooves and horns as they crashed to the ground.

Cadenza blasted Cadence off her but the Princess caught herself in the air and fired a beam at her double. The Queen countered with a beam of her own, the two beams exploding after a few moments of struggle.

Cadence telekinetically grabbed the Queen's entire body threw her as far as she could from the battle and flew fast after her.

-flow - Hero (Kibou no Uta)-

The queen left a minefield of crystal spikes in her path as she righted herself in mid-air, but a sonic blast reduced them to dust.

"How can you be my shadow and be a monster!? You don't make sense!"

Cadence super charged her horn trying to skewer the queen.

"My soul's the parts you ditched and expected to politely die! You were born in high society with Auntie, I was born in a savannah with noling to teach controlling my power! All my ruthlessness and violence comes from you!"

"Don't you dare put us in the same context! Everything you are is because of only you!"

Chrysalis fired another beam, but Cadence instead of trying for another beam-clash, she dodged it and fired a magic blast at an alternate angle that Chrysalis also dodged and fired. The two flew wildly around each other like round lightning, not caring who or what their stray shots hit.

"That's a relief, I couldn't remember if I was lying about that or not. Who was I kidding! If I'd left I'd still be trapped to you! Killing you is my only way to freedom! I thought sparing you was a necessary evil with our link through fate, but I was an idiot! My only mistake was letting you live!"

The Alicorns fought higher and higher above the city, switching between jousting with their horns and trying to skewer the other with crystal weapons moving as fast as possible to keep from being gripped in the other's telekinesis.

"I'm sorry the old us accidentally let a monster like you be born!"

"All I know for certain is that I want to live! And I want that life to belong to me and me alone! Not my family! Not Cocoon! Not fate! Not the changelings! Natural selection is the only thing in this world that fair!"

Chrysalis fired a beam into a crystal that split into several parts and bent all towards Cadence, Cadence created a crystal shell that redirected all the beams back into one right back at her double, who took a direct hit!

"You think I don't know what it's like to be surrounded by expectations without a buck about what I want?! Aunt, nobles, family, the common-ponies, shaping me and demanding I be what they want me to be!?"

"And I fought back and while you just smiled and nodded!"

Crystal chains formed around Cadence's neck that the queen pulled taunt, but Cadence simply broke them with a harmonic vibration.

"Say whatever you want! I'm a sword of justice sent to smite evil!" Cadence created a crystal sword the length of her body, Cadenza created one of her own and the weapons clashed at high speed and shattered, Cadenza sent a shot reflecting off the shards and hitting Cadence in her side, another sound blast pulverized the shards, and left the ponies below with ringing their ears.

"I can't stand going in circle!" Cadenza hissed a she made another straight charge at Cadence. At the last moment however, the queen was wreathed in green flame, and the pink pegasus ducked under Cadence's horn, and burst into flames again, belong a snake that wrapped around the Princess. Being crushed under the snake's strength, Cadence fell into the ground, the snake shapeshifting into a bison on top of her, crushing the music Alicorn into the street, before the witch shifted into a zebra mare who grabbed Cadence's neck with her rear legs and the zebra with her muscle strength slammed the princess into the street, and again, and again, and again!

She shifted again into her three-in-one Alicorn true form and elbow slammed into her back, creating cracks in the street. Cadence didn't get back up.

Cadenza snarled in her ear, "Did you think my shape shifting powers would WEAKEN? Alicorns embody all of the tribes… including changelings, as you were all so nice enough to point out! Nothing to say now? Good. About time. I can't believe how much time ponies waste talking during fights! If talking could solve anything there wouldn't be fighting! I could bring your broken body back to your friends so they get so eager for revenge they forget strategy, but it's smarter just to kill-"

= "B13a" Bleach =

Cadenza was grabbed in the face by a pink dragon. She was pushed through several walls.

"Impossible," the witch hissed, wide eyes staring at the Alicorn sized dragon.

"You shouldn't have boasted about a power to somepony with the same magic as you."

The dragon threw the queen into the room mirror of the restaurant she had pushed them into (after going through a few other buildings).

Jet Set and Upper Crust peaked out from the closet they'd pulled their...patient into when the battle crashed into the room, landing exactly where they would have been if they hadn't acted. The Changeling could only stare in shock. The couple had been at the closed business for hours, after they came back to their house and found monsters at their front door and brainwashed servants and friends marching out.

"Y-You saved me...twice...why?"

"...Even I don't know…" Jet Set admitted. "...I suppose it just didn't feel proper to leave somepony to die...even Canterlot high society isn't that cruel a place."

"We're ponies, you're a life, what other reason do we need?" Upper Crust clarified.

The Changeling could only stare in shock as if that one statement had caused an earthquake.

"Now come on, we need to get out the back entrance, quickly."

As the civilians escaped unnoticed out the back, Cadence inhaled deeply and breathed fire at her nemesis, burning her and melting the mirror, the witch Alicorn screamed as she brought up a shield to block the rest of the attack.

"That look in yours eyes," Cadenza whispered, she didn't sound scared so much as praising, approving. "You finally did it. You've decided to kill me."

Cadenza shape changed, and the pink panther leapt onto the ceiling with pure leg muscle and pushed itself off the ceiling before the ceiling was scorched by flames and she transformed into a griffin as she hit the floor and leapt at the dragon's soft underbelly. The dragon in a flash of blue flames changed into a deer buck that caught the griffin on his horns.

"AGH! How can you assume that bastard's species?"

"I have deer who are my FRIENDS!"

The griffin changed into a cat tribe who clawed at the deer buck's eyes, small enough to get past the horns. The deer became the dragon again and tried to eat the love cat, but the cat shifted into a minotaur that gripped both her jaws and threw the dragon over their shoulder, breaking a table and chairs and cracking the floor.

"You think you can beat me in a shape shifter's duel? I killed Queen Cocoon with only my guile and skill! Maua, why don't you have anything to say about that?!"

The minotaur slammed the dragon's jaws closed to stop her from breathing fire, black smoke bellowed through the dragon's nose, the minotaur grinned and reared up a fist to punch her throat...and was struck by lightning that formed from a little black cloud above her.

"Weather wyrm."

=L'Oscurità dell'Ignoto=

The witch forgot herself and shifted into a dragon as well, tacking the other pink dragon, the two twisted and rolled over each other, claws and fangs were everywhere, stabbing into scaled armor and slithering out of each other's other grips. The floor underneath them gave way and they fell into the basement revealing the wine cellar, lined with wooden barrels. Cadence now had Chrysalis pinned, but she turned into a diamond dog that ripped through the cobble stone and into the ground below. Cadence shifted dragon species and breathed in to bellow flames down the dog hole.

Just as she did an alicorn sized quarray eel burst of the ground behind her and slammed its jaws around her neck. Her body shifted into that of an Earth dragon, the new shape, density, and extra armor stopping the fatal blow.

"How does a pampered flower like you know so many species?!"

"Unlike you I bothered to get to know them!" Cadence swung a club-like tail around trying to smash her in the back.

"I've come too far! I refuse to lose!" Her twin swore.

A giant spider to bite her right in the soft dragon eyes! A cave troll to crush the giant spider to death.

"I'm fighting for more than myself!"

Earth Pony kick resulting in a massive painful crack along the cave troll's stone body.

"What have you endured? What have you sacrificed for YOUR dreams?"

Cadence this time became the griffin and swooped down on the earth pony who became an Alicorn, crystal spikes popped out of the ground, making her fly up, but still stabbing her.

"What have you ever endured for somepony who's not YOU?!"

Alicorn form, sound spell shattering the crystals, then a lioness who landed on the wicked Alicorn's back the lioness clawed and bit into, the witch became a white tiger who engaged into a new claws and fangs brawl.

"When's the last time you even TRIED to help yourself?!"

The tiger found her mouth around a armadillo that then became a porcupine, she pulled back her mouth bleeding. Cadence assumed Alicorn form.

"Maybe if you weren't so self-centered it'd occur to you I like to be selfless!"

"LIKE A SLAVE!!!" Ram, head-butt. Cadence fell backwards.

Cadence changed into a hydra, she had the oddest feeling of being in four places at once.

All four heads shouted. "These ponies spend a year, SPEND A YEAR HEALING FROM DISCORD'S VIOLATIONS! And you think it's your Auntie's given right to rip those wounds open all over again!? WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!" The hydra's heads all tried to take a bite out of the ram. The witch became a creature Cadence didn't know could exist, a zebra ALICORN? This was no Virgasus. But Moth said changelings couldn't become made up creatures! The combined zebra and pegasus agility dodged the hydra heads easily, and dove under the hydra, she stopped at the ground, cause the entire basement to shake. "I won't let the world belong to monsters like you and Discord!"

Cadence tried again only to have a horn stab her in the foot, Cadence cried out and fell backwards, making the floor shake even more.

"I am an animal! I kill to survive, nothing more, nothing less! Don't compare ME with that worthless lunatic! I'm perfectly SANE, and I'm not part of your mindless system of 'right and wrong!' I AM A BEAST! EVEN MAUA KNOWS THAT!"

The winged and horned zebra leapt and became a manticore, raising its fully functional scorpion tall right into the hydra's head. The lion monster landed hard on the hydra, again making the room shake.

The hydra shifted into a pink Changeling and spat slime into the manticore's eyes, momentarily blinding it.

The pink changeling then switched to an Earth Dragon and slammed the manticore hard into the ground, once more earning a room shake, but it wasn't stopping this time.

The floor began to sink beneath them, and suddenly gave way, and most of the floor did as well. Cadence shifted to a Virgasus to avoid falling and debris. The mere sight of it filled Cadenza with rage, without thinking she became a dragon and breathed fire at the offending shape, Cadence dodged. The wooden barrels of semi-legal super-hard draco-cider did not dodge the open flames.

Both changed to Alicorn and brought up a shield just in time to save themselves from the resulting explosion, but both were knocked further down into the underground.

The explosion was funneled mostly downward, and the two shielded Alicorns were like cannonballs, smash through Canterlot's stone rain drainage system underneath the basement, breaking away what was underneath...and further down the disoriented pair went.

As they regained their senses, both ponies were in awe at where they were. Both ponies looked above to see daylight...it seemed the explosion had created a new skylight.

"...of all places...we end here..." Cadenza/Chryalis said, both Alicorns landing and keeping their shields up for the moment. "As much as I hate that old nag fate, she has a wonderful sense of irony."

Cadence shivered. "The crystal mines."

"Where I should have killed you twice! I don't like mistakes, time to correct this one!" the witch screamed in sudden psychotic rage.

The witch flew right at Cadence, but twisted her straight course into a curve, avoiding the 'surprise attack' of crystal spikes Cadence summoned that would have impaled the witch in the heart and brain.

The two shields collided and canceled each other out, Cadenza's horn stabbing Cadence in the side, making her cry out. The witch flew with Cadence like a piece of meat on a stick slamming into a crystal wall. Their reflections scattered everywhere.

"Die die die! Kill or be killed!" The Hunger Tarot electrified her horn, making Cadence feel even more pain.

Cadence fought THROUGH the pain, and grabbed a giant jewel with her own horn magic and slammed it face first into the queen, sending her flying backwards, Cadence snarled as she flew forward. "You first!"

Cadence became a timber wolf, Cadenza became a dragon and breathed fire, Cadence became a gremlin and stuck a claw right in the dragon's eye, the witch became a Virgasus who spin kicked the gremlin, both shifted back to their true forms as Cadence stopped herself along the crystal ground, leaving skid marks, her twin coming right at her. Their horns glowed and became harder and sharper than any sword and struck each other, the force knocking each other back, they struck again for the same result. Cadenza struck the other Alicorn in the face with her forehooves, drawing blood, Cadence did the same striking her enemy in the chest.

The two enemies snarled and hissed at each other in their Alicorn forms.

"I'll kill you!" They echoed in the cavern.

A crystal blade slid along Cadenza's side, one slid along Cadence's wing muscles.

"I hate you! Just disappear!" Snarled one Alicorn at the other.

++++

I've had enough. This nag is going to vanish! She's ruined what I waited years for! She dares call herself royalty when she can't do a ruler's duty and put her power to good use! She doesn't deserve to call herself a goddess!

"Will you just die already!" I snarl. I summoned a crystal guillotine blade that sadly missed her neck!

"Not until you go first!" She snaps back as she fired a series of shots reflecting off the crystals around us and leaving me dodging one only to be hit by another.

I'll crush her like the vermin she is! I'll show the cattle under her sway she calls subjects what a real ruler is!

I dive through the attacks, taking the beating, it doesn't matter as long as I get her! I slammed into her, she blocks with her legs, and is sent into a wall. And stay down!

Awesome! Yee-haw! Yippie! Yay. Cool!

She gets back up. Oh well! That just means I get to knock her down again!

The little bug growls at me, I growl right back.

A large crystal is knocked loose from the ceiling, and lands between us.

And.... oh Auntie Celestia…

I can't tell the difference between us!

"No..." I whisper as I fall back on my haunches. Oh Shining...what was I...what did I...

Hating the enemy is fine. Despise them. Crush them. Make them suffer again and again. Compassion for the wicked is a crime against the inno- "NO!!! That is NOT justice!"

"Hmm. Has she finally gone crazy Maua? Maybe she is...are you upset with her Maua? Is that why you won't talk back to me?" Chrysalis, no, Cadenza said flying on top of the large gem that shown me my reflection. "Don't worry Maua, this is the ending. It's gone on for far too long already."

... Spite. Hatred. Revenge. Wrath. Zealotry. Bloodlust...what right does an Alicorn of music and harmony have to feel such things? Harmony shouldn't have any extremism.

Even when I fought ~~Makarov~~ and that fear monster I didn't sink so low as to ENJOY it! Justice isn't punishing evil, it's protecting the innocent. Everypony I'm sorry, I betrayed the pony you love, the pony you know, the pony I need to be, the pony I want to be. I'm sorry.

Shurrey Hills - Tales of the Abyss Music -

Yes. I am harmony. I am music. Every song is a piece of me. Every melody is me. Every smile between friends is me. And those things, should never be instruments of hatred, they're supposed to be part of bonds between those who love each other! Friends! Families! Parents!

...

I've been a fool. The 'Concept' part of me: That mysterious me inside me is me. The me that's right here will never vanish. That me, that's part of harmony and music, that was already a part of me. The me who was me before I was born: I never needed to fear her. I am her.

I stand on my rear hooves, and do a few meditative gestures before bringing my front hooves together silently and close my eyes.

These crystals...they're raw, wild, lifeless. There's no harmony to them, only structure, no life to them, only patterns. They're pale, weak, they can't hold a candle to what real beauty that can be done with crystal, when it's empowered by love and harmony.

Standing before the king of fears. But I won't break. The sun and the moon are on their way. I have nothing to be afraid of. I've done my part. My body, my soul are like diamond. No matter how he corrupts and twists this beautiful place. No matter how hard he tries to break it to his will and infect it with his fear and hatred. His poison will soon be cured.

"Any last words, rebellious slave?!"

I look into the eyes of fear and don't tremble.

"Love and harmony will return soon. Then the real beauty of these crystals will return."

"...Bow. And I'll make it quick."

"I am crystal. Do what you will, I will never break.."

"Now die a second time!" The whistling of the summoned scythe came down around my neck.

I transform. The blade harmlessly bounces off me. I open my eyes.

My lost half looks at me at me in alarm and confusion.

"What...what are you?" She says, loud, desperate, and afraid.

I look at myself, an equine body made of living crystal.

"I am harmony, I am music, and you won't devour my home nor my friends!"

"No matter what barrier appears in my way! I will break it! Shatter!" She lets out a sonic attack that pierces my eardrums, but I don't break. I slam her into the large crystal behind her that does shatter, and I summon crystal binding to hold her in place, she shatters them as quickly as I can make them, but she isn't going anywhere.

"You think I'll ever give up!" She screamed.

"No, and I'm not going to either. We're equal. We both have an end we can't bare to see come to past. We'll keep the balance between us forever, I'll keep the world safe from you for eternity if I have to. We'll be two immortals locked in combat until the end of time in the depths of the earth where there's no emotions for you to absorb so you can't become a worse horror, if that's how it must be! My resolve is strong enough for that Cadenza, is yours?"

"No offense sweetie, but that has to be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard."

"Shining?!" I turned towards my love who was using his force fields as stepping stones as he descended into the pit, looking a bit battered.

"Hey honey, you look beautiful like that."

I blushed a little, realizing I was still made of crystal.

"Dumb distraction!" Cadenza charged at me with my eyes on Shining, but rammed into a pillar of Shining's force field magic as he jumped into it, too swift for her to simply negate this time.

"That's cheating!" Cadenza yelled. "This is between us!"

"I just put it there, you were the one who ran into it, I was just using it as a stepping stone to get down" Shining smirked. Smartflank as always. But he's still my smartflank.

"Don't be such a smartalec! You could have seen through my performance if you wanted! A Cadence who knew what she wanted and took it? Admit it, you loved it. I gave you the Cadence you wanted!"

Shining laughed. "Oh, Cadence knows what she wants. It just happens to be happiness for everypony else."

"Guess it's true what they say, stallions just want mares who will do they say, like servants! Believe me! I'd bucking know! Just ask my first boss! If you can find him in Tartarus!"

"You don't get it, do you?" my knight in shining armor said, glaring daggers at her. "No...I guess you wouldn't. You said it yourself. There's no room in your heart for anypony but yourself. Just because my sis gave you a heart doesn't mean you understand having one. How could you ever get what it's like to be selfless? "

"At least I have a self!"

"Ya know?" Shining said simply. "I don't love Cadence because I want a servant. I love her because she loves me. Because she cares enough to tell me to get some sleep when I'm dedicated to staying up and doing my work, when she makes me do things I don't want to do, not to force me or dominate me, but because it's what's best for me. But she cares enough to listen to my side of things. She's willing to put herself aside for me too. We've BOTH risked our lives to save the other! I don't want a sycophant or a dominatrix. I want a mare who cares and who will compromise with me and expect me to do the same. And you can't comprehend that, because the only thing you can care about is yourself and at your core, Chrysalis, you're still just an evil greedy beotch."

"I won't let them speak to me like this! Right Maua?! You're making Maua ignore me!" she yelled, looking to me with a psychopathic snarl. "That's the only thing that makes sense! She didn't stop talking until you and the Earth Pony witch cursed me like this sister! Say good-bye to both of you! Be together in oblivion! Death Song Requiem!" A howling green electric wind with the faces of countless horrors came at us as Cadenza suffered the magic surge of magic surges.

"Every time I stop and stumble
in doubt and darkness
I close my eyes and think back to you." I began to sing.

"We made a vow, a promise,
To carry onward,
We'll see it through." Shining picked up.

"Now our hearts alive, and racing
Towards our future,
We didn't hesitate.

There's no doubt that
Could dare hold us back.

We're gonna fly on forward into that blue sky, bound-less and bright.

We still pray and hope
That one day we'll be together." We sung.

Soundwaves matching our magic colors collided with Cadenza's death song and the horrors began to crack.

"What?!"

"We'll fight onward
And see them again, our friends.

We won't stop until the end,
We won't give in.

To-mor-row's look-ing bright...
To-mor-row's...look-ing briiiiiiiiiighhhht…"

Our song obliterated the Death Song, sparkling bits of mana raining down around us.

Cadenza took a step back in shock.

"That doesn't even make sense! This is absurd! A delusion!"

"Cadence," Shining said, "If those changelings can give THEIR love to their one and only and it's not cheating...then, I can give you my love, and it's not cheating either. Accept my love... our love TOGETHER, and finish this."

Cadenza's eyes went wide in terror. "No! We won't let you! Not again!"

"Yes dear."

"Maua!!" She flew right at us screaming. Shining touched his horn to mine, and I felt his love for me. And it was more pure and beautiful than any stolen love.

=01 - Precure Rainbow Burst!=

I remembered the throne room when I'd freed Shining. "This is what you were afraid of from the beginning, Cadenza, isn't it? You didn't keep Shining behind a personal shield and hide him if he'd be out of your sight just because he was your shield against our aunt," I said as the queen tried to force her way through the shockwaves of our growing magic. "You did it because our love scares you!"

Wow, so this is what it's like to channel magic through a bond with somepony like Twiley does. Cadence and I were one.

(Friend's Notes (Noon): Yep.)

So is there a certain way I'm supposed to do this?

(Friend's Notes (Dawn): Twilight gives the friendship lesson she learned, then says something cool!)

Okay, I think we've done the first part… so how about...

I don't know which Manega Shining stole his next line from, but I loved it! "These hearts of ours are burning red! Their loud roar tells us-"

"-to grasp happiness!" I remembered.

Cadenza tried to fire on us...but every beam dissolved as it reached the growing power surrounding us.

She recoiled, looking like a frightened animal with her leg caught in a trap. And like a trapped animal, she kept attacking with the same result.

I won't say I felt how dearly Shining loved me, I already knew that. And he knew already how much I loved him. And together we were unbreakable!

"Twin-"

"-love-"

"-flare!"

I took aim with my horn, and unleased our love upon the witch, in a form that she couldn't hope to comprehend or claim as her own, and this time, her hidden aces were all used up. As it burns through the air towards her, it takes the shape of a charging beautiful Alicorn mare in rose red armor. Her night was over, and our dawn was just beginning. This was our happy beginning.

We won.

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Written by Alex Warlorn
Princess Cadence vs Queen Cadenza

WHAT ELSE NEEDS TO BE SAID?!

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Princess-Luna-Returns-469847040

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Actress-Review-470668129

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (SERIOUSLY need to be kept up to date, every little bit helps!).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions. http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/

Pinkie Pie, "Princess Cadence vs Queen Cadenza! Final round! FIGHT!"

Episode 203: "Actress' Review"

Octavia had to ask, "How did the changelings brainwash you anyway?"

Vinyl said, "The aliens are devious and cunning!"

"Lots of us were born in Equestria you know."

"Don't interrupt! Even I was caught off guard by their insidious trap!"

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Flashback!)

"HA! I've seen a million alien-invasion plays! As long as I wear sunglasses, I'm safe! Let'em come with their hypno-rays!"

"Vinyl, I have something in my eye, could you please have a look?" She asked politely.

"Sure, Tavi!" Vinyl took off her sunglasses to look into Ocatvia's glowing green eyes.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): In the present!)

"Even I couldn't have predicted their unearthly ways!"

+++

'Hello my little fallen flutterpony...my little niece, I'm sorry it had to come to this.'

AUNTIE CELESTIA! How?!

'The old mare you enslaved and her sisters offered me to speak with you in these final moments.'

You knew all this was going to happen didn't you!? How? What plan did you have?!

'None. You undermined them all. You were right, I didn't have any plans left, I didn't to the end. I was at your mercy. But I still had hope in my subjects.'

Why?! Why didn't you just give in?! You said it yourself that you had nothing! Nothing!

'A thousand years.'

What?

'That's my personal best for hanging onto hope when I should have none. And I've done it twice. I watched my mother die, more brutally than anything you're physically CAPABLE of, I watched my aunt die, I watched my last chance to save the world be crushed in Discord's claws, I watched the ponies I'd grown up with grow old and die. And I didn't give up hope. I watched my sister descend into madness and had to banish her to the moon by own hooves, and watch her there every night for a thousand years. I didn't give up hope. That is how strong my hope is, Cadenza.'

W-Why is that important?!

'Because you could never have THAT victory, Cadenza. You couldn't transform me into your thrall as long as I held onto hope. Your people were the survivors of a curse, proving stronger than it was. As long I didn't embrace your visions, or give up hope, you could never change an Alicorn. And you could never break me. No matter what happens, from this moment on, you'll know that's one victory that could never be yours.'

You think I care?

'Oh yes you do, foolish little filly. I could see it in your eyes: somepony like you can never stand the thought of something stronger than they are. You have to be on top.'

Why are you telling me this?

'I admit, part of it is to show you how much you didn't know...But also because I still hope you might see the light before Tartarus claims you. Because I still hope that your herd will see the light. I hope somepony believing so strongly in that will make a difference.'

What differences does hope make? It's a ghost! Mist! Fiction! A delusion!

'...My little pony, you became an Alicorn, but you still didn't understand. I'm sorry I didn't find you earlier. In every ending, there's hope for a new beginning.

'You're so vehement about not being a slave, and clawing to the top on only your own will and ability. Only somepony who's been a slave would speak like you. If you hadn't had hope, would you have done anything but accept being a slave? You talk so much about your own guile and detested your victory over me being downplayed, Cocoon was more powerful than you in your duel. Without hope, wouldn't you have just given up against her? Hope is PART of living, niece! Those who lose it are the walking dead, but they can be brought back to life again. That's also nature's law.'

Their attack takes a shape, but I can't make out details. She looks familiar...I can't hold it back...no...I tried my hardest...why did I still fail Maua!?

Their love! It's burning me away! Stop it! The pain!
Everything inside is been swept away! Empty! So empty!
THEY'LL KILL ME!

'If you believe that then you really don't understand my little ponies.'

Only...only one shred of love left...Maua...is that you?

++++

The witch screamed as she was punched straight through the roof of the crystal mines by Cadence's attack, through the aqueduct and basement levels, and straight through Canterlot's cobblestone roads.

++++

"Sister! We sense Cadence's power! Let us go and smite yonder witch!"

"...There's no need Lulu.... Chrysalis' evil is no longer a threat to anypony."

++++

At the same time, love washed over Canterlot...through every pony and creature alive...and nearly all scars and demons of ponies from this conflict, the inner hurts burdened by those touched by the evil queen's magic...were washed away. The wicked queen, would not leave the legacy of a second Day of Chaos. Cadence didn't care who thought it was cheating or 'against the rules', she was determined to see these ponies would not be dealt a cruel reversal for all their hard work to regain their lives again. They were all free.

++++

'Darn it! And here I was hoping to have plenty of mental scarring to exploit. Stupid Harmony, always ruining fun things.'

A pink filly that cast no shadow sat shivering wrapped in a warm blanket, the raw harmony that petrified her body slowly being cleansed. In front of her was a cup of hot coco and a 'Get Awful Soon' card. "Throwing a tantrum is pointless, father."

'It makes me feel better!'

++++

Cadenza was not blown over the horizon, instead she crashed back into Canterlot after she was blown back to the surface and skidded several dozen yards, blazing a trail in the street like a comet.

Her body lay limp, unable to move, not even able to feel so much as a spark of unicorn or changeling magic, not a vibration of an earth pony's connection to the earth, not a flutter of pegasus magic, her body was empty. She was spent.

And she felt it...her body...the fire within was dead...and the embers were dying...all that would be left was ash.

"So in the end, I lose just like Cocoon. I worked so long, so hard, I sacrificed so much, I waited so patiently, I planned so carefully, I dreamed of today since I was small, everything was just perfect, I finally had what I wanted and...AND THEN IT'S JUST GONE?! AND I'M LEFT WITH THIS NAG OF A HEART TELLING ME I WAS WRONG?!

Heh...heheeheh...HA AHAHAhAhAHHAHHAHA!

WHAT A TOTALLY WONDERFUL SWINDLE!

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH-AHAHAHAHHAHAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!

HAHAHAHAH!"

She laughed even if she felt it causing her body to give way faster.

Umbra Breeze stood on a nearby roof-top, smirking. "My...what a lovely pointless tragedy your life turned out to be, wasn't it, Cadenza? I love it."

The dethroned Queen rolled her eyes...she saw six ponies...and a blue one...a dragon...and... some fillies...there was...she was somepony important to her. Everypony had seen the pillar of love, but these heroes had all come running faster than everypony else, pressed on by a hero's little sister or a baby dragon.

Cadenza fought back, even to the bitter end, she'd hold onto her consciousness and memories. 'Sweetie Belle, it's Sweetie Belle.'

Her other half and her stallion emerged from the giant hole in the destroyed house (lucky it turned out they had very good insurance that explicitly included 'power struggles between goddesses' on their policy), using his force fields like a flight of stairs.

"Don't bother staying back, I couldn't drain you anymore even if I thought it'd do any good," Cadenza said.

Cadenza looked at the assembled ponies around her. From the lack of rubbing her face in her defeat or attempted Coup de Graces, they must have noticed she was wasting away. Pandora's half-flanked job at the foundation of her existence finally giving out.

'So even after having my freedom, I'll leave no corpse like the changelings I've led for so long.'

And that rotten conscience she'd been saddled with was making her sad she would never get the chance to say goodbye to them. 'Pitcher Plant. I'm sorry you and Sweet Belle will never get to meet now. So much you could have learned from each other. And I'm sorry, that it seems you won't be queen with me dead after all. Pitcher Plant, I guess I won't be having you join with Maua's essence after all. I was looking forward to see if you'd usurp me first. Why do I feel so...guilty about it now? So much for that plan, and the plan after that, and the plan after that, and the plan after that....In fact, all my plans are as much ash as I'm about to be.'

She turned her head at the pink earth pony, feeling her body slowly going numb.

"I-it...after...after everything...I was free. And all of it, a lifetime of dreams, such careful and detailed planning...and now it's all gone?

"Y-YOU'RE the Element of Laughter! Then tell...TELL ME PLEASE! You got the joke right? How could you miss it?!...T-then...why aren't you laughing?"

"There's nothing funny about this happening, especially to bad ponies: 'cause it means they couldn't become good ponies."

"Dummy, if I lived, I'd have sworn revenge on all that you love. Remember that when you sweep my ashes into a dust bin. Don't use me as fertilizer, I'll just poison the flowers."

"I swore revenge too," said Trixie, "But I was saved."

"You flatter yourself. If Discord hadn't violated you, Twilight would have never been able to rebuild you into the kind of pony others wanted. Thank the freak who caused nothing but misery to your kind for your salvation. Well? Any other final quips to flaunt? Any more moral grandstanding? Come come hurry up, I have many ponies, zebra and changelings waiting to collect debts from me where the weather is always nice and hot, and one fat slug waiting for me to wrap my hooves around her throat, and I'm not delaying that for the likes of you. What's the matter with you? Hypocrites to my end, you spent the last few days insulting and mocking me every chance you got, this is your last chance to say it to my face with me physically incapable of fighting back, and you're wasting it looking at me? Come on, you have at least enough time to sing 'Ding-Dong The Witch Is Dead' before I'm ash."

"...Who was Maua?" Rarity asked simply.

"...Now you choose to ask that?!"

"Because you don't have much else to do but answer."

"...A filly I knew. The most wonderful zebra in the world."

The dying ex-Queen chuckled at her expression in return.

"I never got it...why...why can't changeling magic feed off pity like we can compassion? It's...it's both feeling sorry for somepony...what's the difference?"

"That you don't know the difference is part of why you lost Chrysalis, Cadenza," Cadence said.

"Pst. You're the Cadenza now. I'm going back to what I began as. Rubbish. Hurry up, your new subjects are waiting for you, the old changeling Queen isn't given a funeral, her corpse is thrown into the nearest waste disposal unit. Hurry up and take my crown like I did from Cocoon. I'd throw it at you but the rest of my body is dead. Or just make a new one if it's it 'too evil' for you."

"You came close but still cannot grasp the truth, can you?" asked Cadence...or rather, a part of her. "Every being to ever walk this universe has meaning, Cadenza...Every life is a new story never before told...That includes you. That's why none of them are mocking you right now: because to them, even a life like yours has worth."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better I'm going to be in Tartarus in a couple minutes?...Don't act all high and mighty. I know you got what you wanted... You've killed me Cadence... The victor's the hero, the loser's the villain, that's how it works. Aren't you happy?"

"...You want to hear the real bad joke, sister? One so bad even Gag would find it terrible?"

"What?"

"Even after everything you've done...I didn't want to kill you with that attack. Only beat you."

The ex-Queen stared for a moment...then started laughing, furthering the decay of her body, then broke into hacking coughs. "...That actually is...pretty funny...I guess it's Fate's last laugh on me...she can't even let me die how I wanted."

"Darlin', Ah hate to burst yer bubble," Applejack said. "But Ah broke our world's bond to the Heart World good while ago, and the break headed backwards and forwards...what happened here? It never had to happen here at all...this wasn't Fate, it was all you...Ya knew that, didn't ya? Or else yah'd never have changed yer plans."

Most there had no clue what Applejack and Cadenza were talking about and had a gut feeling they didn't WANT to know.

"You think Fate went away just because the link to the heart world was broken? You naive pony. Fate's designs are everywhere. Whether you chose to believe it or not."

"Here's the thing. Awhile ago, Ah got a good look at the big picture. And Ah saw some glimpses of how things are in the Heart World. Ah didn't see it all...but Trixie wasn't there to try to help my family with Flim and Flam. She was here, which means she's changed her fate big time."

"I can vouch for that," Pinkie Pie said looking through a stapled book from nowhere.

"What the buck are you talking all about?" Trixie eyes widened. Rarity slapped her for such language in front of foals.

Applejack looked to Trixie. "Trust me, Trixie, all ya need to know is yah made the right choice. And ya should be proud."

"Trixie will...take your word for it," Trixie said, giving a small smile at the praise.

"Then why didn't me changing my choices resolve anything?" the dying ex-queen asked. "Why did I lose when I changed so many of my choices!"

Pinkie Pie stepped forwards, and whispered in Chrysalis' ear. "Something those stories about endless loops don't like to think about? The first event you change doesn't JUST affect that part. It can affect EVERYTHING. If we got a do-over and beat Discord easily, then you'd KNOW we beat him easily and take us more seriously, and a dear friend of ours might not even EXIST. All because we changed one little point. Trust me, that's why I'm careful when I get to read ahead."

"That's exactly what I DID. I took you more seriously, so why did everything turn out this way again? Simple: Fate won't let me win. What other answer is there?"

"Simple: if you change one thing, you can't guess what ELSE might change, because it's like ripples in a pond. It's like if when you hit continue in a video game, the first choice you made different changed the ENTIRE outcome of the rest of the game," Pinkie replied hushly.

Only Applejack heard. "That's the cold truth: our choices don't effect just us."

Cadenza roared with laughter and would have banged her hoof on the ground if she could still move her body. "You all would've made perfect changeling Queens, you can't stand NOT getting the last word!"

"Ya miss the point, girlie," Applejack said.

"See? HA!"

Applejack ignored the interruption. "We're not tryin' to get the last word in, we're tyin' to light up that black heart of yers before ya face yer judgment!"

"Can't let a dying mare have any satisfaction can you?...Ugh! There goes my rear legs. At least I know what my Tartarus will be, this lecture over and over for eternity."

Applejack sighed. "...Princess, Ah've tried...she's set on where she's headed...she don't want Pony-Heaven."

"Finally you get it. I want to reap what I've sown, I'm proud of every accomplishment I've made no matter what this stupid THING you put in me says. If that earns me Tartarus, I'll autograph my list of sins when they're read to me and I'll ask they're hanged in the hall of fame. I'm not going to take back anything, because each and every one of those actions is mine, they're the only thing Fate can't take away from me!"

"Chryssy..." Sweetie Belle said getting close to the the Queen.

"Sweetie Belle Ah don't-"

"Applejack, be quiet," said Sweetie Belle.

AJ was silenced at the filly's curtness. The fillies and tried to block Sweetie Belle's way, she brushed them aside. Rarity's eyes widened aghast.

Silver Spoon stayed the closest to her, but knew the stubborn filly wouldn't let her be just pulled away.

Sweetie Belle inched towards the former queen, her horn glowing, "If love is what you need, I'll give it to you."

Cadenza's eyes blazed. "STAY AWAY!"

Sweetie Belle startled and trotted back. AJ shook her head getting cobwebs out.

"B-but Chryssy...I, I can save-" tears formed in the filly's eyes.

"You shouldn't see this! I lose! I won't live to be a prisoner or a trophy! I'm already nothing! You will do no such thing! That's an order!"

It was no spell or magic that made Sweetie Belle whimper, "If...if..." She sniffled, "If that's what you really wish."

Rarity said, "Sweetie, if you can save her, she needs to stand trial for-"

"If that's what she wishes! I... I chose to ... to let ... " She just cried. Silver Spoon put a hoof on her shoulder but said nothing.

"Silly Sweetie Belle, please don't cry, I don't want that as the last thing I see. You don't need to listen to a thing I say anymore, a winner doesn't need to listen to the loser. There go my wings. Weren't they pretty, Sweetie?"

"I've lost too. I'm losing you," the filly said.

"...The winner doesn't need to forget the loser was a pony," Cadence interrupted, "Chrysalis...Cadenza, you know you'll be remembered by Equestria as only a monster?"

"I'd expect nothing less."

"I've seen enough history 'written by the winner's' already. So...as an act of mercy, the good you've done for the changelings will be remembered with the bad...the Changelings can remember your mask...And Sweetie, if she so chooses...may remember you as she sees fit so long as they respect other's right to see you as they will."

"Queen Cadenza, ponies will always bring their points of view on others, remember that," said the dying former Queen, almost in pity. "I know you don't have any mercy left for me."

"I don't," said Cadence, looking to Sweetie Belle, then towards the battlefield. "That wasn't for you."

Cadence then took a step back, busying herself with checking on her husband to be.

"Chryssy... we are friends, right?"

"...Please don't look sad Sweetie...that's only pain I can still feel...I can't say, because it's been so long since I had a friend. I ate my last one." 'Why are my eyes so blurry?' "Remember the secret story I told you? I'm a monster whose the opposite of everything you hold dear, I'm a murderer, now please stop feeling sorry for me, please! Don't waste yourself on me. Your soul and mine, and Cadence's...I don't expect you or want you to understand this, Sweetie...but your soul came into being from a whim of fate like mine...I think I saw in you a kindred spirit...or maybe family. I guess if me and Cadence are sisters, we are cousins...that magic I taught you is yours, use it however you want my song bird. You surpassed me from the beginning. I'm done. At least I can boast to Cocoon I took longer to die than her, I should be ash by now."

Pinkie gasped in realization. 'Wait...if the Second Age was rewritten into my world and Cadence was Brightglow in the Second Age...then...does that mean Sweetie Belle was...'

Sweetie frowned. "...I...I don't want you to die, Chryssy...or...if you do...I...I want you to be somewhere I can be with you some day...And my sister...I want to be with her and my friends in the next life too...That includes you."

"You won't let go of what's yours, I approve. But I think not..." Cadenza looked at the sky. "You think I can't sense you, you black wind gelding? Wasn't there a poem you wrote? A innocent soul dragged into Tartarus to suffer because that was the worst punishment they could give to a wicked soul who loved her?! Tartarus doesn't even work that way, moron! About time that foreleg went." She looked back at Sweetie. "No my song bird...that's the last thing I want, because where I'm going, is the last place I ever wish to see you. You're far too beautiful a little pony for such an ugly place. "

Cadenza moved her eyes to Rarity. "...I'm not going to apologize, ever, no matter how much this stupid conscience you forced on me begs me to...but I'll give you this Rarity, you kept Sweetie safe...please keep it that way."

"I will never do anything else," Rarity said icily.

"Her feelings for you devoured mine, you win...You're the better mare."

Twilight Sparkle was busy hugging and nuzzling her foalsitter and brother, and the siblings paid the witch little mind, and Spike did the same, they were his family too after all. She was more interested in those she loved than those she hated. And seeing the image of their foalsitter/fiancee turn to ash wasn't a selling point either.

Rainbow Dash merely stood vigil as the witch wasted away. She wasn't used to this. Princess Luna and Fluttershy were back to themselves after the fighting was done, Discord became an ugly statue. Rainbow Dash had been thinking that they'd throw the witch over the horizon with her brain-dead stooges with a message to never come back. Or maybe Cadence would have her work as a maid for the rest of her life, keep things nice and ironic, maybe force her to live as just another pony. Seeing her just, slowly dying like this, no longer a danger, and still not sorry for a thing, and KNOWING she was dying, and then turning away a chance for Sweetie to save her?

'I don't get it! I don't get it at all!' Rainbow Dash thought. While she was the one Princess Celestia told to kill if needed, it was just surreal and wrong to see an enemy slowly dying. A death in the middle of a fight, RD had been prepping for, but not this. She wasn't sorry to see her go, but this felt so upside down. Where was the dramatic 'Nooooo!' as she went poof and the sunshine came out? Rainbow Dash sighed, and spread a wing over Scootaloo's eyes, she'd seen enough.

Scootaloo, much to her own shock, realized she could understand Sweetie Belle right now. 'What if the witch had found me after I ran away from Ponyville when Discord hurt everypony? Or when I first came to Ponyville?...What if she wanted to be my mother?...Dash, do you think I would have become a little monster if that was what made a new mother happy? ...Just... somewhere to belong. Dash, thanks for being there. And, Applebloom, Spike, Sweetie, Silver, Cheerilee, thank you all of you too.'

Rarity tried to shield Sweetie Belle's eyes as the sight got worse, Sweetie pushed her back, but not without feeling sorry for pushing her sister, but even Chryssy deserved somepony to be with her at ...at... at where this was about...about to go...

Applebloom for her part, let Silver Spoon hide her face in her forelegs, the filly having endured it for Sweetie as long as she could. Applebloom had seen death up close more than some of the adults here. She didn't want Silver to have to see it too. 'Ah guess, Ah'm like Silver Spoon's pa that way after all, maybe.'

Silver Spoon, fought against the horrible imaginary picture of it being Diamond Tiara there, fading away and refusing any pity from anypony. Even if Silver felt no pity at all for the monster that'd tortured everypony, she felt sympathy for poor Sweetie. 'No, Diamond Tiara would accept help, no way she wouldn't, she'd be crying for help from the start...she wouldn't just go away. Diamond Tiara, I don't want to see this happen to you.'

Twilight Sparkle likewise turned Spike's head from looking at the witch's final moment.

"I'm sorry," Fluttershy whispered looking into the eyes of the defeated queen, locking Fluttercruel in her room if that was what it took to keep her in. There was no point in harsh words now.

"I'm not. I merely did what it's my nature."

"And that's why I am. I'll be sorry for you."

"What?"

"Because this is what's in my nature to do. The pain will be over soon, I promise."

The edges of Cadenza's vision began to dim to nothing.

"Chryssy...you...you made me do really bad things. But, a lot of what we did...the happy parts, I'd do that part over for you."

The witch whispered, "...I don't deserve a friend like you Sweetie Belle, and you most certainly don't deserve a friend that's the likes of me. I...I've earned this."

Then Sweetie Belle, against the wishes of those around her, nuzzled the wicked witch.

Cadenza grasped, jerking her head up, what was left of her body breaking apart like burnt wood. When was the last time anypony, had seen her true face, and shown her true tenderness? And...by Rosedust...she felt her love. In that same moment, Chrysalis, Cadenza, Kifuko, felt the ashes reach her heart.

"Kifuko...Kifuko, just a sup... Kifuko wake up!"

The little zebra's eyes fluttered open. She was in her bedroom, her mother's mask hanging on the way to keep the bugs away. A Zebra mare she didn't recognize stood in the background.

"W-where?" She coughed, her throat raw.

"There there sweetie," a beautiful mare with the same stripes as her hugged her. "Everything is going to be okay now my little beauty."

"You caught a horrible fever worse than any flu after the celebration of you saving everyzebra from the parasprites out of the blue. Then after you fell in a heap, you kept crying out in your sleep."

Kifuko turned to the source of the voice, she saw a Zebra filly with a flower in her hair.

"M-m-Maua!" The zebra filly began to cry and didn't understand why.

"It's alright Kifuko," she nuzzled her best friend, "Whatever you thought was real was just a nightmare's chafe, it's all over, you're safe."

"I-I'm..." Kifuko finally looked into the eyes of the mare who was hugging her, a zebra stallion behind her waiting his turn smiling warmly. "M-m-m.... MA-MA!" She returned her mother's hug with zeal! Crying rivers. "MAMA! MAMA! MAMA!"

"I almost became your griever. You're lucky Teacher Dawa knew how to mix a cure for your fever," Maua said, relief in her voice.

"You helped more than just a bit. You were the one who got the ingredients for it," Papa-Nondo said.

"Well, it just involved a long journey to the edge of the world and its seasons, and beating a troll at a guessing game and tricking a giant spider into wrapping itself up and convincing some flowers that I didn't want the root for selfish reasons. It was nothing I defend." Maua hugged her, "For my best friend."

"T-Thanks...I could kiss-" Kifuko's eyes finally fell on the unknown mare. She wore jewelry and carried a small treasure box, her Cutie Mark was a maze of some sort. Her eyes and the jewelry were violet in color. Kifuko couldn't help feeling she was familiar. "W-Who is this?"

Maua explained. "I was blessed, that I met her on my quest. Mawazo is her name. She gave me tips on the troll's guessing game. She wanted to meet you, Kifuko."

Mawazo trotted forwards and smiled to the mare. "Hello, Kifuko...I've not seen you in a very long time...I wanted to see you at least once."

"We've met before?"

"Not met exactly...I saw you when you were very, very young, you probably don't remember...but I knew you were special when I saw you."

"Thanks," the young zebra blushed. "Is that why you helped Maua?"

"Part of it...part of it is...I lost my son not too long ago...I didn't want to see her suffer the same thing. All she's ever wished is your happiness, if I could help grant that, I wanted to."

"I'm sorry about your son..." Kifuko found herself saying. "But thank you..."

"You should thank Maua...she was the one who never gave up on you. Even to the very end. She believed there was a way to cure you even when everyzebra said it was better to just let you fade away."

"Maua...thank you."

"I waited so long Kifuko, so very long, but we're back together, where we belong!"

Kifuko cried as she hugged her best friend. Maua tearfully returned the hug. "Maua! Please promise me you'll never go away! I promise I'll never go away!"

"I promise I'll never flee, if you can promise something for me."

"ANYTHING!"

"...please before this ends, make friends with my friends."

"...y-yes! Yes! I promise! I was so alone! So alone! I promise I will!"

"And I'll be in your heart the whole time, at your side I'll stay, I'll lead you every step of the way."

"You were always best zebra!"

Mawazo gave a smile and said, "You know, in fairytales ...when you love somezebra enough... sometimes a miracle will happen."

Kifuko didn't care what Mawazo meant, it just felt right, her horrible nightmare was over, and she was with Maua, Papa-Nondo and Mama-Kipepeo. All together again. The two best friends hugged closer, and closer. Then she was free.

-FullMetal Alchemist-Ray Of Light Theme-

Sweetie Belle didn't understand as she saw Chryssy's eyes glaze over as her horn and final leg began turning to ash, deaf to the world. Sweetie cried. She knew what Chryssy really was, a wicked witch, but she wished and wished that the Chryssy she had seen inside was somehow real. But she knew that could only happen if she could start over. She wasn't like Silver Spoon who still had a chance to change...

"Goodbye Chryssy," she whispered, tears falling, shining bright in the sunlight.

A tarot card, numbered XI and marked with a picture of a naked mare holding a chalice or lantern on top of a lion with several heads sat deep in the darkness in the depths as Death waited to claim it.

Light green fires ignited in the darkness. No. They ignited the darkness itself, burning it away.

Fluttershy felt something...something she vaguely recognized. "Listening to the animal inside doesn't have to be a bad thing...sometimes it could be good..."

The shadows took on a dragon-eye shape and roared as it continued to be burned away.

"...sometimes if we direct it instead of suppress it..."

The Hunger Tarot caught fire from within as a tiny, almost unnoticeable light was finally uncovered in the darkness and took shape, looking up at the darkness as it burned. The innocent light didn't comprehend the sight before it...but it felt comfort.

"..we become that much stronger..."

A new card began to burn through the Hunger Tarot. While the image remained the same, it became golden and a new name began to emerge...

"...If we control it and don't let it control us..."

'The Passion Tarot.' The fires accelerated, burning the darkness away as it struggled to escape its fate.

"If we take the reigns instead of letting it drag us..."

The darkness let out one last feral roar as it was incinerated into nothingness...leaving only an innocent little white light sitting in a beautiful savannah. Safe and sound.

"...we can become complete."

"Fluttershy..." said Rainbow. "What was..."

"...It was what needed to be said...that's all I can say..."

"Fluttershy." Rainbow was tired of word games.

"No no no I'm serious, that's all I know."

"Oh."

What remained of Cadenza imploded in on itself in a flash of blinding light green flames. For a brief moment, Fluttershy and Cadence felt the presence of something. Something both immense and great but close and comforting at the same time.

The dust settled, and everypony present could barely believe what they were seeing.

"Oh you are KIDDING ME!" Rainbow Dash exasperated.

"Now I'm totally confused," Scootaloo said.

"Well...this is unexpected," Fluttershy said.

Rarity fainted right onto her chaise longue.

"But...how...that doesn't even make sense." Spike just stared.

"Spike, I total agree." Twilight stared too.

"Well, that's an interesting surprise..." Pinkie Pie said.

Umbra Breeze gasped from his perch glared. "Impossible..."

Silver Spoon just stared with her jaw open.

Shining blinked in confusion. "Well...this is...honestly kind of refreshing considering how the last two times ended."

"Trixie has the strangest feeling that she is missing some of the script."

"Applejack, what is...is that...how is..."

"That there is as real as it gets 'Bloom, that's all Ah can say."

"I think this actually makes more sense..." Fluttershy said, a part of her finding this...right, like an instinct. "She was an Alicorn already...she was touched by the Elements, by Applejack, by Sweetie Belle, by Cadence and Shining's love...maybe it's just a miracle."

Cadence whispered as she leaned over the small form.

"But...why this?"

Sweetie Belle whispered lowly to only herself, "Because this was when she was happy."

A infant Alicorn zebra lay on the ground, wrapped up in her own wings, sleeping, slowly breathing, "Mama...mama..."

"...You got what you really wanted after all, I guess. You're free." Cadence whispered.

"Uh...not to spoil the moment," Rainbow Dash said. "Just being sure, how do we know this isn't another trick?"

"Like Ah told Applebloom...this is her now...this is real."

The sleeping foal's hooves found a piece of her now oversized regalia and suckled on it.

Shining nodded slowly. 'Girls? Can you tell me if this is for real?''

(Friend's Notes (Noon): Short answer, we aren't worried. And that's ALL we can say.)

Shining smiled and trotted over next to Cadence. "...So for once we get another Luna instead of the bad guy getting locked away forever or dying?...I like it."

Pinkie blinked. "...He has a point, why are we complaining? I mean didn't we want everypony to live?...And now the Zebras can be happy they finally have a designated goddess?"

"Because it feels out of left cloudbanks," Rainbow said.

Fluttercruel nodded, finally breaking out of her mental room. "I agree, but I'm not about to complain."

Sweetie Belle leaned to the sleeping Alicorn. "Chryssy?" She nuzzled the sleeping toddler. Sweetie looked under the baby's wing. "...Chryssy." And Sweetie Belle cried again.

Cadence leaned in close and looked for herself. Her eyes went wide.

"There's no cutie mark..." Cadence said, "...I guess you really do get a fresh start."

A part of Fluttershy felt nostalgic and she didn't know why.

Twilight's mind wandered back to the story she'd learned. When Luna had been aged down as punishment...when they'd been reborn in the mortal world. Something was different between that and what had happened...And then it clicked in Twilight's mind.

"...If her Cutie Mark is gone..." said Twilight. "That means...so is Chrysalis, or at least her Ego must be gone."

"So she won't be an swelled-headed evil jerk this time?" asked Rainbow.

"No!...I mean yes, but wrong kind of Ego. Self-image, I mean the dominant part of her mind must have either been forgotten or...been destroyed."

Sweetie perked up. "You...you said, dominant? So...the wicked witch is gone but...the Chryssy I knew might still be in there? The part of her she only showed me?"

"...It's...possible. A clean slate means she starts over but...certain aspects of her might remain. But for her Cutie Mark to be gone...yes, that means, if nothing else, it's safe to assume Queen Chrysalis has been entirely buried or destroyed...if any part of her IS left, it's her Shadow...and the Shadow isn't just our negative traits, it's the us we refuse to admit we had. The us we try to hide..."

"So to put it in none egghead terms," Fluttercruel said. "Queen Chrysalis the Wicked Witch is gone for good and what little, tiny speck of equinity she had kept buried in her subconscious be all that's left?"

"Basically."

"...You're not going to start doing this to everypony, are you?" Silver Spoon asked, seeming a bit disturbed.

"...No," said Applejack, shuddering at a certain memory from another world. "But Ah think Ah prefer this tah the alternative."

"Twilight, can I borrow some soap? I want to clean her off," Cadence said.

"…I guess."

"But there's no soap in those boxes!" Shining said.

"Yes but I'm sure Pinkie Pie just happens to have some in case I need to clean out Spike's mouth."

"You know me too well Twilight!" Pinkie Pie said.

"Got any diapers?"

"Yep! In case of diaper emergences!"

"Okay. Time out. Stop." RD made the 'T' with her hooves. "Reality check, we've got two armies busting each other up back there right? Time for their new queen to tell 'em to call it quits!"

Everypony looked at everypony else.

Spike said, "Oooooh-"

+++

"Blech!" Spike said trying to get the taste of soap out of his mouth.

The changelings were now all busy bowing to their new queen, while the cat tribe held up various victory posters drawn in crayon.

Cadence had chosen to wear the thinner Changeling crown in the middle of her Equestrian one for the moment until she figured out how being the Queen of the Changelings and a Princess of Equestria would even work.

"Wait, so if Cadence is the new Queen, what does that make Shining?" Pinkie asked.

"I don't wanna think about it," Shining shuddered. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact my fiance is now queen of a lost tribe of insect ponies, and the mare who's spent the last three days trying to destroy us all is our adopted daughter...probably, maybe, I don't know how this'll work...even by my standards this is pretty weird."

"Patty cake, patty cake, baker's mare," sang Sweetie playing with the baby Alicorn.

Twilight watched the sight. "I...just hope Chrysalis' evil is really gone for good...that it's not lurking in her somewhere." 'Like Discord's did.' she added mentally.

Applejack shook her head, watching. "...No...there ain't no evil left in that foal's heart...she's innocent."

Twilight blinked. "How can you tell?"

"The Princesses said an innocent soul can look right into the Truth and not see anything. Even if the taint were buried, they'd see somethin'."

Twilight followed Applejack's eyes and realized the baby Alicorn had looked away from Sweetie and right into Applejack's eyes. She didn't cry, she didn't whimper. She just stared inquisitively like a innocent little baby. "...Oh...I guess that means the Queen Chrysalis we knew really has been destroyed forever."

"Looks like it...ironic, ain't it? The Truths Ah showed her that hurt her so much was that the past wasn't dead like she thought and that her conscience had come back from the dead after she killed it...now she's the part of her life that's gone, leavin' only the innocent kid she started as and that conscience we helped be reborn."

"...I guess it is ironic... I didn't know you were such a philosopher AJ."

"Ah'm not. Now…if ya'll excuse me, Twilight, me and Applebloom have three cousins we've been worried sick about the last three days to catch up with and a weddin' and a coronation dinner to get cookin' on," the farmer said with a smile.

Twilight blinked, watching Sweetie begin something with the newly reborn Alicorn. She was even more surprised when the child slowly joined in.

"Sunshine, shineshine! Ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!"

Of course the clumsy little infant didn't have much coordination and couldn't talk yet (and may not have truly remembered the hoofshake), but still...

Twilight remembered her own words: the evil had been destroyed, the good would endure.

She couldn't help giving a small smile.

Twilight looked over to see Cadence already beginning what she'd sat out to do and live up to her campaign speech.
"Citizens of Equestria, my little changelings, I hereby declare the war over," the Princess of Harmony/New Changeling Queen announced. "Peace negotiations will begin as soon as possible to ensure an end to conflicts between us, the Changeling tribe, and the Kingdom of Equestria, and prevent conflicts with the rest of the world."

Cadence then turned to the Changelings and concentrated, causing a new sheen to appear on her wings, like those of her changelings subjects. It didn't look wrong in anyway, to neither changeling or pony, in a way that felt like how the wind blowing didn't feel wrong to you. It looked natural like it belonged there.

"My Little Changelings, I represent all tribes of ponies, and I now proudly show I represent us Changelings as well. You don't wish to hide your faces from the world? Then I will not hide the part of me that is from us either."

+++

Shining Armor sighed, happy that in spite of the nightmare he and his friends had gone through, at least it was over, and their happy story could begin AT LAST.

He heard an odd grinding sound. Then a familiar pony popping in into his view.

"Shining, I'm here to help, sorry I'm late!" It was, of course, The Doctor, Shining noticed a gray pegasus, a purple unicorn mare and a small gray unicorn filly sneaking a peek behind the corner.

Shining smiled, "Actually, you missed it."

"Blast it! What happened?"

"We won, everypony lived."

"...Everypony?"

"Yep, even the villain...sorta. She got a second chance and is now a baby...and Cadence was kinda talking about somepony needing to raise her right this time with a gleam in her eye...Oh, and now I'm apparently the king of a lost tribe of insect ponies...decidedly now the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me."

" ...Well...that's a pleasant surprise! Normally works out well in my experience! Even with that one Argolin...Did I miss the wedding?"

"No. You're early!"

"Well, that's a relief. Girls! Get on your Sunday best! We made it!"

Shining Armor then blinked, watching a confused and familiar unicorn stagger in. "Audience? How did you-"

"I have no idea sir."

"Oh..."

+++

The baby Alicorn stood still as a beautiful, surprisingly mundane butterfly landed on her nose and looked in her eyes. She giggled, it was so pretty.

Author's Note

Pony POV Series Wedding Arc
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Written by Alex Warlorn
Actress' Review

Chrysalis has been defeated. Sweetie Belle still wants to save her.

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Wedding-Arc-Cadence-vs-Cadenza-470304458

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-SeriesWeddingArc-Loose-End-s-Last-Stand-471031782

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (SERIOUSLY need to be kept up to date, every little bit helps!).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Rose-Laxzi. http://rose-laxzi.deviantart.com/

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions. http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/

Pinkie Pie, "The bad guy's beaten, so we can throw the party now right? . . . Yep, she's beaten. Just making sure."

Shining Armor, "Finally."

Alt title: Ashes to Ashes. Had some other jokes but was worried people might read this bit first and get spoiled by the ending.

20140725:
Added Twilight hiding Spike's view of Chrysalis dying.
AND added in a sweet little something between Sweetie and the new addition.