Dandelion sat near the wall of the castle, still catching her breath from her experience with Aqua earlier. She didn’t know how the Estrail had managed to see through her disguise, but it was something she didn’t want to deal with again. It was not fun, especially considering how Aqua had taken it, not even a normal pony would act like that. Then again, considering how she was somewhat shark-like (she got a good glimpse at Aqua’s teeth) it probably had to do with that.

Dandelion heard her stomach rumble, having not been able to feed since yesterday with Blue Moon and Stardust. Even then, she barely got anything because of how awkward the two were acting, and the fact that she had been caught mid act. It was the big thing Dandelion hated about being a Changeling, she could eat food if she wanted to, but it was nowhere near as filling as love to her.

She looked to her right as the door opened and Sonnet walked into the castle exhausted. “Did you find them?” Dandelion asked “I heard from Heart Anchor that Stardust was missing,”

“I didn’t find them,” Sonnet said, Dandelions ears folded back in worry “But I don’t think there in any immediate danger, at least I hope not,”

“Oh,” Dandelion said sad “Also, Applejack’s okay. Turns out she is really tired, probably due to that spell she had on her. She should be out tomorrow at best,”

“Good,” Sonnet sighed in relief. “Thank you for doing that. I’m guessing you already know who I am, and I’m going to guess your Dandelion,”

Dandelion looked in shock, she had never said her name, not even in her letter. Guess someone else must have told her… probably Blue Moon for all she knew. The two seemed so different, Blue Moon was always so excited, no matter how big or small something was, and was also pretty gullible and stubborn. Sonnet seemed so relaxed, even when she saw Dandelion as a Changeling she didn’t hesitate, or even gave a look of disgust.

The two looked as Solitaire walk on into the room with a briefcase held in her magic. “Good afternoon Sonnet,” She said cheerfully “Bet you had a pretty interesting day,”

Sonnet let out another sigh, “Hello Solitaire,” She said monotone, clearly showing that she didn’t want to deal with her cousin right now.

“What have you been doing all morning?” Dandelion asked the gambler “And what’s with the briefcase?”

“Oh it’s just a couple bits I’m going to be needing for tonight,” Solitaire replied, not caring that Dandelion was there “Oh boy, Graf is going to go crazy when he sees all this. No pony can refuse all of this,”

Sonnet looked at the briefcase, knowing that it was more than a few bits. “I’m sorry to ask but how many to you is a few bits?”

“Ten thousand,”

“TEN THOUSAND!” Sonnet and Dandelion both looked at the gambler in surprise, wondering where she got all those bits.

“Just a small amount considering what I usually gamble for,” Solitaire said, before finally realizing Dandelion was there. “I didn’t know we had a new member among us, or is this the Dandelion that mister Anchor mentioned last night?”

Dandelion nodded in response, giving a small wave to Solitaire. She realized this must have been the Solitaire that Heart Anchor had mentioned earlier. Again, she was somehow related to Sonnet? Sure, they may be cousins, but it was still a surprise at how different the two looked. Sonnet looked like she may have popped straight out of an old detective story, while Solitaire looked as if she was some spoiled noble.

Solitaire made her way to the door, only stopping to talk to Sonnet “I’ll be out the rest of the day,” She said before handing Twilight’s copy of A Midsummer Nights Dream to Sonnet “Heart Anchor told me to give you this, we’re going to be performing it whenever Chrysalis is going to strike. If we have time of course,” Sonnet to the book in her hand and examined it. “Also, if you see a big earth pony with a shark tail inside the castle, feel free to say hi for me,”

Sonnet was about to ask Solitaire what she meant before the pony closed the door. She turned Dandelion, whose stomach once again rumbled with hunger. Dandelion laughed nervously as she sat down once again. Sonnet took a seat on the somewhat battered couch, which she decided to not question about, and looked at the play. She found it interesting how it was written, reminding her of old Equestrian writing, but the name William Shakespeare told her that whoever did this wasn’t a pony. She took some notes and changed a few things to make it more Equestrian as well as took notes on the characters. She would have to find ponies to play the parts, and she assumed the best place to start would be to find who would play the lead roles.

“Hey Dandelion,” She asked in curiosity “You know anyone who would be able to play lovers, or are in love at all?”

Dandelion though about the question for a second before responding. “Well your brother and Stardust had kind of started dating. It’s only been a day, but I think they could play it if things go well,”

“Thanks,” Sonnet said, So my brother has finally fallen victim to love huh?

She wrote down Stardust and Blue Moon’s names next to Lysander and Hermia, seeing how they were the two who seemed to be star crossed lovers. She never really enjoyed love stories, but if she was picked to direct it (without her approval sadly) then she would have to get over that. She looked at some of the other characters before thinking to herself who would fit what parts. She looked to the character named Robin Goodfellow, and simply wrote down Phoenix, knowing that she wouldn’t hesitate to play the part of a mischief maker. At the moment, those were the only roles she could honestly think up. With that, she decided to open it up and read some of it.

They heard a knock on the door not long after and Dandelion opened it. When she did, she was greeted by Stardust and Phoenix Flower, who Sonnet didn’t recognize in her new body. Dandelion simply just rushed into Stardust and gave the princess a big hug.

“Oh thank goodness you're okay,” Dandelion said crying “I was worried that something happened to you,”

“Sorry Dandelion,” She apologized, “Me and Phoenix here had a bit of an interesting set of events in the woods not long earlier,”

Sonnets eyes widened in shock as she heard Stardust say the name Phoenix to the pony next to her. “Phoenix,” She said surprised, “What the… how are you alive? Is that Rainbow’s body?”

“Hey Sonnet,” Phoenix said in response as he walked inside. “I would honestly like to explain what happened but… it’s a little complicate, but this is an entirely different body, don’t worry,”

Sonnet’s shock turned to anger as she heard that last part. “Then would you mind telling me where Rainbow Dash's body is?”

“In the middle of the woods,” She said, not caring about the anger building in Sonnets body, her eye twitching furiously. “Don’t worry, we ran into Rainbow on the way here, I told her what I told you and she rushed off to get it. You should have seen the look on her face when I told her that,” She looked to see Sonnets ears start twitching uncontrollably as well, not getting the signs that were being spelled out for her. “Kind of like that,” She said, before realizing, “Oh no,”

Phoenix quickly flew off down the hallway, hoping to get as far away from Sonnet as possible. She knew one thing, once Sonnet’s ears started twitching, there was no way to avoid what was coming. She saw happened to ponies who get on Sonnets bad side, and it was never pretty.

“Excuse me you two,” Sonnet said looking down psychotically, scaring the two. “I have a little business I need to take care of,”

She slowly made her way down the hallway, Stardust and Dandelion looking on in terror. What had the two of them just witnessed? Dandelion had thought that the rising author would be a bit more… normal compared to everyone else that has showed their face as part of the group so far. Guess that was proven wrong, and in a very easy way.

“Well then,” She said, recovering from the initial shock “That was definitely something… interesting,”

“Yeah,”

“I see,” Aqua said, having just heard the plan from Heart Anchor “It certainly an interesting plan, but what exactly do you intend to do once you have Chrysalis out of her diguess? And what about Diminshia?”

Heat Anchor looked at the Estrail surprised. “You know about her?”

“Well duh,” Aqua responded, acting like Heart Anchor was saying something stupid. “She’s an Estrail to. All three of them are Estrails, Phoenix Flower and Stardust just haven’t found out that thing yet,”

The two were interrupted by the sound of screaming coming from the hallway and watched as Phoenix burst into the room. She ran up to Heart Anchor, heart pounding as she looked down the hallway. Aqua immediately knew who it was from the essence surrounding her body, but Heart Anchor had no idea who she was.

“Heart Anchor you got to help,” Phoenix said scared looking at the hallway once last time.

“Who are you?” Heart Anchor said baffled.

“It’s Phoenix Flower,” She told the pony. “Seriously though you got to help, Sonnet has gone into her crazy psycho mode and I don’t know what to do,”

The surprise factor wore off as he heard the name Sonnet, his face now showing signs of worry. She had done it, she had managed to tick Sonnet off so much that she went psychotic. This wasn’t the first time it had happened, in fact it constantly happened whenever Sonnet’s real first name was spoken. Heart Anchor remembered the pain he was in after making that mistake, and remembered how much worse it was to other ponies who had been past villains of the duo. You wanted to live, do NOT anger Sonnet, which was a considerably hard thing to do.

“Oh Phoenix,” The three ponies in the room turned to see Sonnet walk into the room, still speaking like a complete maniac. Aqua looked in a terrified manor at the writer, who was giving off a terrifying aura. “Don’t run away, I only want to play around a little. Come on Phoenix, play with me, before you die a sad sad death,”

“I already died once,” Phoenix said hiding behind the cutie map, “I would rather stay alive this time,”

Aqua a bag down that she had hanged up on her chair and frantically searched for something in it. Luckily for her, Sonnet was moving very slow, a slight side effect of being in this mode. She pulled out an old looking piece of paper and the two normal ponies in the room looked at her in wonder.

“Pray to Solstice this works,” She said closing her eyes.

Her mane started flowing as she did, and she lifted a hoof up a little bit before mumbling something no one could understand. Suddenly, the others looked in wonder as Aqua turn completely blue and was glowing incredibly bright, causing them all to look away. Aqua opened her eyes to and started draining energy out of Sonnet. Heart Anchor managed to look up to see a strange glow from Sonnet go to Aqua, who seemed to store it in the piece of paper she held.

After a couple of seconds, the glow stopped and Sonnet collapsed to the floor exhausted. Dandelion and Stardust then came in to see everyone okay, and Sonnet sleep happily with a smile on her face. Aqua took a few deep breaths as Phoenix came up into view to the others.

“How did you do that,” Phoenix said amazed.

“I used magic of course,” Aqua said, not realizing that having the look of an earth pony didn’t back up what she had just said.

Ignoring the looks of shock on everyone's face she turned to Stardust and got up off her seat. Stardust watched as the colossal pony came up to her, easily towering over the princess. Despite this, she for some reason wasn't scared of this pony. Why? What was it that didn't scare her, it would surely scare anypony else.

“Princess Stardust,” Aqua said sitting down in order to talk more directly to Stardust. “You’ve seen it haven’t you. You saw what your body is truly made out of,”

“How did you know?” Stardust asked looking at the pony who was now laying down, their heads looking straight into each other's eyes.

“I can see that our blood line runs through you stronger than it had before,” Aqua explain. “I am Aqua Marine, an Estrail sent here by King Solstice to teach you magic and protect you from harm. I’m just like you, I was not born through normal means, or created in a normal way. Just like Phoenix Flower, I was once something different, a shark swimming in the ocean. One day, I woke up in this body you see me in now and learned about who I really am. You however, are even more special,”

“And how's that?”

“You were born from our fair sun in the sky just like my king,”Aqua replied. “You are just as much the sister of Celestia and Luna as you are the daughter of King Solstice. You two share the same origin of birth,”

“What?” Stardust looked at her confused

“Maybe I should explain a few things,” She took a deep breath before going back and taking a seat at the table. “Might as well get comfy, this might take a little bit to explain,”

Author's Note

Yet another day when I've uploaded this on the same day as Fallout Equestria: False Guilt. Expect this to slow down a little bit in terms of updating for the coming weeks for a number of reasons to numerous to explain. Still, I will try to upload as frequently as possible so hope for the best at that. Like, comment, follow, and check out my other stories. With all that aside, I'll see you guys later.