Madame Butterfly

The Great and Powerful Trixie

Too well, The Great and Powerful Trixie knew the bloodied and battered face gazing blindly up at her. It was one she'd seen every day of her life. She couldn't let the owner of that face die. The owner of that face was just too pretty for Trixie to let her die. So without a second thought she scrambled down into the dirty, dangerous mess the other pony's crash had left.

For the face was her own.

Of course, this situation wasn't entirely unknown to a pony as great and powerful as the Great and Powerful Trixie. There were myriad reasons other ponies would want to look like her, ranging from straightforward escapism from their plebeian lives, to a desire to impress her. Which could be fun, especially if the pony in question was pretty enough, and up for a good time – before the mask of perfection inevitably slipped and ruined Trixie's favourite fantasy.

Other ponies had darker reasons to imponysonate her, of course: Charlatans freeloading on The Great and Powerful Trixie's great and powerful reputation, no-talent noponies thieving the accolades that were Trixie's by right – not even Twilight Sparkle had sunk so low.

Such motivations made little sense in the middle of nowhere, though, since there was nopony here to impress but Trixie herself, and for a sincere and flatteringly accurate imitation such as this Trixie would've gleefully rewarded the other pony with her favours.

If the other Trixie weren't dying in ditch, of course.

But such an impressive, albeit destructive, entrance as to plunge from a clear blue sky- Trixie paused, glanced up: Yes, the sky was entirely free of airships, chariots drawn by careless pegasi, or even clouds. Such an impressive entrance as to plunge from a clear blue sky suggested this pony might be as great and powerful as Trixie herself – ergo propter hoc, she probably was Trixie herself. From the future, or perhaps from one of the many other worlds, as theorised in the book of Seligpony DeWitt's. She would've checked, but that book, if it'd even survived, was now in the hooves of Twilight Sparkle – and who knew what she might be doing to it!

Still, it would be best to check the obvious things first. Trixie – being Great and Powerful – was expert at all kinds of magic, but she knew her forte was the spells of illusion that'd amazed and delighted her when she was the smallest of foals. Those magics she'd learned at her mother's knee, or riding on her back, or being levitated along beside her, or dangling precociously from her horn.

Those were the spells it was her special talent to share with the (ungrateful, unworthy, frequently unwashed) masses. And because of those jealous unicorns who might try to disrupt her life's work, the Great and Powerful Trixie had become very great at some very powerful illusion-counterspells (and illusion-counter-counterspells, naturally, it being very important to keep one's horn ahead of even the most studious of troublemaking unicorns like Twilight Sparkle).

She cast such a spell now, and watched the wave of energy wash over the other Trixie.

Nothing happened: Astounding beauty and horrific injuries both remained.

Trixie whimpered. If some monster of the Outlands beat her to death, this was what she'd look like just before she died. Not that some jealous ponies couldn't have done this back in Equestria – that earthpony brute with the lasso, Twilight Sparkle's friend Applejack, had been looking at Trixie as if she'd wanted Trixie's corpse as manure for her pear trees. Bucking earthpony, unreliable, untrustworthy...

Trixie wrenched her mind back to the horrors of the present. She just didn't know what she could do for the other Trixie. Half her skin was blackened and ruined, her horn was broken and jagged. In places Trixie could see through the holes smashed clear through her hooves, and everywhere, everywhere, was the blood. More, mixed with foulness Trixie hadn't imagined lay within a pony, pumped out of the second Trixie with every beat of her dying heart.

The Great and Powerful Trixie cradled the Broken and Ruined Trixie in her forelegs, her hooves tenderly stroking the beautiful mane of this beautiful mare, who'd come so far to be with the one mare who could possibly be worthy of her love, only to lie dying in Trixie's arms.

“Shh,” Trixie whispered, “I'm here. It's going to be okay. It's all going to be okay,” she lied. For all her great power, there was nothing Trixie could do. She buried her face in the dying mare's bloodsoaked coat, and wept bitter tears.

Awhile later, the other Trixie stood up and embraced her.

CHANGELINGCHANGELINGCHANGELINGCHANGELINGCHANGELING

Sinisteed

Sinisteed's head hurt, because he'd just beaten the City of Canterlot's shield down with it – such was the fate of a siegebrood changeling of the swarm. Not that it was his to question the Queen, but couldn't they just have dropped rocks on it or something?

There, he sensed from one of his clutchmates, thoseponies. He glanced down in time to see the purple one dig a hole in one of Canterlot's streets with a siegebrood changeling's head, and winced in sympathy.

Nevertheless, needs must, and so too the Queen's orders. Still, he was happy to hear his broodmates buzzing in to land behind him, as he dropped down in front of these 'Elements of Harmony'.

Then, all of a sudden, he wasn't. Love poured out of the six of them, a banquet freely laid before a starving changeling, a balm for his wounds, and all he had to do was morph into the Rainbow pony's form to receive it: From the yellow one, the pink one, the orange one, from the Rainbow pegasus herself (so cute when she was confused). The unicorns, both white and purple coated, loved the Rainbow the least, and he wondered if it was merely some snobbishness over her lack of a horn, immediately followed by the thought: I can changeling that.

Before he could transform into an Alicorn-interpretation of the Rainbow, he felt his broodmates – and some changelings not even that close, being merely swarmmates – match his transformation, and the love the Elements felt for him frayed into channels directed at a dozen different changelings.

So he took his anger at those no-talent-hack-copyponies and punched the Rainbow in the face with it. That snapped her out of her confusion, and then the fight started.

A clutch of changelings imponysonating the purple unicorn leapt past him. “They're changelings, remember,” they chorused in the Rainbow's face. What purpose did that serve, since the purple unicorn wasn't in love with herself, nor was the Rainbow in love with her? As far as he'd been able to sense, anyway...

Changelings morphed all around them, into form the Elements of Harmony – which could only end well.

“Don't let them distract you. We have to get to the Elements of Harmony. They're our only hope!” So commanded the purple unicorn. Thanks for outlining the plan, sweetheart, and thanks for identifying yourself as the leader – also known as the priority target.

Both changelings and trueponies charged.

There was dust and debris everywhere – the siegebrood was great at reducing things to dust – and somewhere inside the clouds of it were the six 'Elements of Harmony'', being chased by scores of changelings from dozens of clutches, all of whom were expertly imponysonating one or another of those selfsame Elements. The usual SNABU.

Three changelings in the form of the yellow pegasus approached the actual yellow pegasus with murder in their eyes... then shrugged and walked right past her as she hoofboxed the air! Idiots! That was the real one! Or at least, he'd thought it was...

She fled right into the face of four copies of the Rainbow, who clearly shared his belief as they prepared to do violence to the innocent yellow truepegasus – then one of them rose up on her hindhooves and revealed herself to be the real Rainbow by kicking the stuffing out of her three imponysonators.

He winced – one of them had been his clutchmate – and turned back to his own target of the moment, the orange earthpony. She was, uh, that one, he thought, picking her out of the melee and leaping. In the guise of the purple unicorn, he clouted her over the head, and as she collapsed he felt horn grate against his hoof, before she melted back into the form of a changeling.

Oops. Wrongpony.

Then a baker's dozen of the orange earthpony surrounded him. Double-oops. And they looked PO'd, clearly thinking him to be the true iteration of the purple unicorn. Situational badness upgraded to BUBAR.

He backed up... right into one of them, also retreating into the circle. Huh? And he felt strong with her love. Oh. Truepony. His transformation stripped in a blaze of green neon, he turned, snarled, and leapt on her.

“Okay, this is just getting weird.” You said it, sister, he thought, and in that moment felt truly connected to the truepony. Then fourteen other copies of her ponypiled on top of them, and he had cause to be glad of the nicely padded flanks beneath him.

Hard purple light blasted his fellow changelings off of them, and not a moment too soon. The purple unicorn dangled him over in front of her, and it was all too easy to imagine the crunch his exoskeleton would make – the last thing he'd ever hear – as her telekinesis crushed him like a bug. “Real me, real me!” He shouted, and hoped the purple unicorn wasn't as smart as she looked.

She studied him, and his (stolen) hat. Then, Queen be praised, she dropped him – onto his hooves, even!

His smile was almost sincere.

A changeling who's exquisite form in imponysonation he recognised as belonging to Mirror (who he secretly rather admired, and who had found his admiration rather tasty on more than one occasion) was morphing into each of the Elements in turn, to the apparent delight of the pink pony. Still, she couldn't be getting much benefit from it no matter how much the pink poofy-haired pony loved it – transformation was exhausting.

“Do me, do me,” the pink pony bounced, and Mirror complied – with an eye-roll typical of her. He couldn't see anything wrong with the result, but the pink pony was apparently a connoisseur. “Meh, I've seen better,” she said, seized the purple unicorn from beside him, and used her to blast Mirror with a pulse of magic.

Then she pumped the unicorn's tail up and down, releasing bolt after bolt of pink-purple lightning to strike down changeling after changeling.

How was that even possible? Clearly, it wasn't, and the pink pony was cheating.

Then the real version of the orange earthpony tapped him on the shoulder, clouted him over the head, and took back her Stetson. "Shouldn'ta taken mah hat, sugahcube," she said. "Ah like mah hat," and that was the end of Sinisteed's fight.

From the cool, restful flagstones he watched - reverted to changeling form - as the Elements of Harmony proceeded to demolish the remainder of his fellow changelings of the siegebrood, and galloped for the building the brood had been ordered to keep them out of.

Frankly, it would've been more in the style of the siegebrood to have secured the building by reducing it to a smoking pile of rubble. Let the Elements dig through that to find their jewellery, hah! Except the Queen had forbidden it, for some unfathomable Queenly reason.

The building, when they reached it, turned out to be full of strikebrood changelings.

After that, the Elements came quietly, though insufficiently early to spare his aching head.

CHANGELINGCHANGELINGCHANGELINGCHANGELINGCHANGELING

Chrysalis

“I thought you were going to die – and you've only just gotten here, too,” the platinum-haired unicorn sniffed. Paused, as her eyes teared. “I hate you,” she sobbed.

Chrysalis was confused. She knew the other pony didn't hate her. In fact, she was very pleasantly whelmed by just how much the other pony didn't hate her. It seemed to her she'd never tasted anything as delicious as the other pony's love for her – although that could be because its nourishment had saved her from certain death. Of her confusion, she gave neither sign nor sound. The memory of being the demure Princess Mi Amore Cadenza was still fresh.

In Canterlot it was considered rude to talk with your mouth full.

“Trixie thought you were going to leave,” the unicorn said, her tears trickling down Chrysalis's coat, “just like everypony leaves if Trixie waits long enough. Trixie thought you were going to leave and never come back to Trixie, just like she did, even though she promised-” the unicorn sniffled, snorting back her tears. “Trixie is... sorry. You didn't leave. Trixie always knew Trixie was the onlypony Trixie could trust, and Trixie was right. The Great and Powerful Trixie is always right. I know I'm right that I can trust you, because you're Trixie, just like me,” Trixie - apparently, this unicorn was 'Trixie' - pulled back a little, and gazed lovingly into Chrysalis's eyes. “You're me, from the future, aren't you? The way you healed yourself... and time-travel! You're so powerful, future-Trixie. Do you have wings yet? Or are you already an Alicorn? Your healing... was that your immortality!?"

Intriguing. Chrysalis could see she – or rather, the pony her instincts were imitating – had a brilliant azure coat, her platinum mane tinged with the palest of winter sky blue... exactly like the weepy pony before her.

Under other circumstances she would've believed herself to be imponysonating a lost parent or sib of Trixie's, but in this case Trixie's love had the very specific flavour of umami she associated with love for oneself. A rare delicacy indeed for a changeling, since ponies became suspicious to see themselves outside of mirrors. Self-adoration was in any-case rare in Equestria, despite its pony inhabitants abundance of love for one another. Chrysalis had only twice tasted such a pure flavour of umami once in Canterlot, once from a particularly obnoxious royal stallion named Blueblood, and once from a very self-absorbed pony with some role or other in 'her' wedding to Shining Armor – was there something about the blue-coated ones? - and this Trixie was serving a veritable banquet straight to her.

Yum.

“I'm not your future self, Trixie,” said Chrysalis, “and I didn't save myself. It was your power which healed me.”

“It was!?” Trixie paused. “Ahem, I mean, of course it was. Think nothing of it. Such a thing is but a trifle for me, the Greatest and Most Powerful Trixie of EveryTrixie!”

“Um,” Trixie continued, cloak settling once more across her back as she lowered herself. “Were you driven from your dimension by an alliance of that nefarious mare Twilight Sparkle and her boastful, bullying hick-town Ponyville friends?” Chrysalis took Trixie's hoof, and let the mare pull her out of the dirt where Trixie's forehoof had (inadvertently) kicked her. “Because don't worry! Between your dimension-hopping spell and my great power, we can return to your dimension, and two Trixies will surely prevail where one alone...” Trixie trailed off, and Chrysalis thought the word she'd choked on had probably been failed. “Anyway... well. It might be better to collect my books first, though. Who knows what that madmare Twilight Sparkle might be doing to them in my absence? That debauched librarian could be lending them out to anypony...”

Unlike Shining Armor, The 'Great and Powerful' Trixie was apparently not the strong and silent type.

“Trixie?” Chrysalis prompted, waving her hoof before the other pony's eyes. They were slightly glazed, and her breathing had gone heavy and somewhat shallow. And Chrysalis was no longer the bright center of all her love and attention, which was quite unacceptable. “Trixie? Trixie!” She shouted, poking at the unicorn with her hoof.

“Bwuh?” Trixie said, and fell on her haunches, before her eyes focused on Chrysalis once more. The changeling revelled, briefly, in the slightly sticky taste of Trixie's love for her, as Trixie's eyes slid down her flank. “Do... do you think we should use your spell to find a third Trixie, first? So we've got somepony to, you know," she blushed, very clearly against her blue coat, "watch our flanks?”

Chrysalis wasn't sure it was flank-watching Trixie had in mind. Trixie was drawing little patterns in the dust with her forehoof. Apparently, her designs absolutely fascinated her, though her gaze kept flickering up and around Chrysalis.

This happened sometimes, Chrysalis reflected, usually at the moment when the mare she'd been imponysonating trotted in on her and their colt in medias res. The look in Trixie's eyes was the one those colts sometimes got, if she hadn't eaten enough of them yet.

She knew what it meant, of course. Oftentimes, if the colt made what lay behind that look explicit, their marefriends had tried to kill them rather than Chrysalis – giving her a chance to escape.

In principle she didn't have anything against such things, but there also wasn't much point in it for her: Half of two fed her no more than all of one. Besides, it was physically messy, and that kind of love was difficult to clean out from her porous hooves. Further, in this particular unique case, she had to put Trixie off the idea of using Chrysalis's dimension-hopping spell, because Chrysalis didn't have a dimension-hopping spell.

“I know what you're imagining,” Chrysalis said, picking up her forehooves and resting them across Trixie's shoulders. Their faces were quite close together, and Trixie was blushing up an inferno. The pony loved her very much. For her part, that was very welcome, because Chrysalis still hurt in a number of ways, and she was very, very hungry. “But I'm afraid I do not play well or share nicely with others.”

“Oh.” Trixie said. “No, nor does Trixie.” Paused. Her head tilted slightly, and it might've been an accident that the shift moved her muzzle forward slightly “I mean, this Trixie,” she corrected.

“My little pony,” Chrysalis said fiercely, and pressed her lips forward.

Trixie could feel Trixie's naked hunger for Trixie, and it felt good. It was the feeling Trixie got from giving every member of a howling crowd a splash of what she had, leaving everypony gasping for more. But Trixie didn't want to leave Trixie begging, Trixie was worthy of everything Trixie had.

Trixie poured herself body and soul into Chrysalis, who ate every drop.

CHANGELINGCHANGELINGCHANGELINGCHANGELINGCHANGELING

Author's Note: The changeling 'Mirror' was named in the so-far excellent 'Smoke and Mirrors' by 'Tea Party Cannon'. I hope they won't mind my calling them a fellow-traveller on this particular path.