"You're my mother." Gel smiled up at the mare that he had feared for most of his life. The fear and anger was gone, he had worked through those emotions and there was only hope for her.

"You're my mother too." Twisty held out a hoof, inviting the pony formerly known as Chrysalis forward and, accepted, they shared a hug.

"That's nice, but I don't remember who I was… did I do something wrong? Is this punishment?" The reborn changeling looked to her foals, eyes trembling in worry.

Gel took a deep breath. "I am not going to lie, but I am not going to go into detail. Let me tell you the story of a changeling."

"I need a name first. Who am I?" The changeling looked around the other ponies, wondering just what brought them here. She could feel the attachment between a purple pony, an orange one, and her colt. She could also feel bonds between her filly and two big ponies.

Muffins stepped forward. "You aren't really my mother, but you did help make me… me." She smiled wide and flicked her green-tinted mane. "I think Hope Shines would be a good name."

Hope blinked and then smiled wide, dashing from her two foals to Muffins. "Thank you!" The gray alicorn was wrapped in the tightest of hugs. "Can I have my story now?"

Gel walked over to Twilight and lay down beside her. Without a word Twisty joined him, then Hope and Muffins too.

"Well, a long time ago, there was a really pretty changeling, can you guess who that was?" Gel leaned against Twilight.

Hope blinked up at the stallion, her mind adding words to the details she was seeing. She looked at Twisty. "Was it her?"

"No, it was you!" Gel booped the 'reborn' queen on the nose. She lifted both forehooves up and giggled, trying to cover her snout from anymore such attacks. "But she felt sad, and alone. The queen grew to resent what the world had imposed on her and her hive of drones. They felt alone and scared, so she asked them to do bad things-"

"Did I do bad things?" Hope's lower lip quivered as she looked to the oddly glossy changeling.

"It's okay now, but back then, she did." Gel pulled Hope in for a hug. "So the pretty changeling made one of her drones really, really special. She made him so that all his magic could be worked into keeping him liquid." Gel held up a hoof and let the tip of it ooze and drip off, landing back on his body and flowing back.

"That's you!" Hope clopped her hooves excitedly.

"You got it! That clever, sad changeling was my mother." Gel had to struggle to keep the tears from his eyes, it was a losing battle. "But she made him want to do bad things too and it was only thanks to a very special mare and her friends that he didn't." Gel reached a hoof to the side, pulling Twilight closer.

"Hi, Hope." Twilight's voice was a little uncertain, but this… this mare, it wasn't Chrysalis, not in any way except physically.

"She is pretty!" Hope lifted a hoof up to Twilight and the alicorn met it with a soft clop. The changeling queen giggled.

"The pretty mare helped the stallion go back to the sad changeling and convince her that she could change, that there was a life ahead for her. But she had to let go of all the sadness, all the loneliness. It had eaten her hollow inside." Gel rubbed Twilight's shoulder, gaining strength from her even as he gave it back.

Hope Shines looked behind her at the pod. "She went in there?" Gel nodded. "And I came out? I am that mare?"

"No." Gel reached to Hope's intensely green mane. "No, that poor sad mare stayed in there, she still dreams and smiles." Gel lost his fight, tears flowed down his cheeks. "Now H-Hope… I… I…"

Gel felt a pair of large legs wrap around his neck, hugging him. "It's alright. That mare is gone." Hope pulled him tighter and squeezed the goo-changeling.

Twilight spread a wing over her fiancee, offering Gel what comfort she could. On the other side of Hope, Twisty nuzzled in against her mother, a tight knot inside her coming undone and pouring out emotions into the changeling queen.

"Are many ponies going to recognize me as… her?" Hope realized her foals were overwhelmed and looked to the other ponies around the room.

"They will." Cadance stepped forward, Shining following suit. "She did some very bad things but…" The alicorn had a lot of hurt in her that was there at Chrysalis' hoof.

"I hurt you." Hope stood up and, leaving her foals to each other, she marched forward to Cadance and dipped her head low. "I am sorry, I don't even know what I did but I hope it's not unforgivable?"

Cadance blinked, she had never expected an apology, not in her wildest dreams. "Hope, stand up straight please." She waited for the changeling to lift her head and she gazed deep into those eyes, the eyes of the mare who almost stole her husband, stole her life, stole her empire. "Hope, you aren't that mare." She couldn't bring herself to hug the changeling, but she could tolerate her, which was better than she had feared she would react.

Watching her wife, Shining smiled. She remembered little of her time spent in the clutches of the changeling, it all had been like a bad dream.

"Yer bag's glowin', sugar-cube." Applejack poked Twilight in the side, speaking softly to get her friend's attention.

"Huh? Oh." Twilight fished out the book that was pulsing with light.

"What's that?" Gel gestured at the book with the sun pattern on the front, yellow and orange-red aura around it.

The whole room became suddenly interested in the book, and although Celestia knew what it was, she still wanted to know what Sunset Shimmer would be reporting.

Flipping open the journal, Twilight read aloud. "Princess, please come, something really strange is happening, people aren't acting quite right and I think it has something to do with what happened with, uh, you-know-who. I don't know who I can trust… Well that seems odd."

"A friend of yours?" Gel couldn't help but ruefully smile, being engaged to the Princess of Friendship was nothing if not surprising on a daily basis.

"Yes, a good friend." Twilight smiled, remembering how much Sunset had changed and grown from the resentful mare she had first met. "And she sounds like she needs help. I hope nothing bad is happening…" Twilight looked around, seeing more than one hoof pressed to a forehead. "What?"

Vinyl was relaxing by the stream, her flank pressed against a tree. Bopping her head up and down to the beat in her cans, she didn't even notice her visitors until there was a poke in her shoulder.

"I said, hi Vinyl!" Apple Bloom shouted the words, the moment the unicorn had lifted her headphones back the volume of the music made it hard to hear regular conversation.

The blue-maned unicorn turned off her headphones and pushed them back to her neck. "Hay there, you three ready to give back your seeds?" She saw the reaction right away and knew that if she started to get up the three would take off in different directions. Again. "Okay, okay," Vinyl couldn't fight against the determined looks that came over all three of them, "I'll give it a rest until your families are back, but I will be talking to them." The three Crusaders relaxed. Sweetie looked up at her with a pensive expression, about to talk, but Vinyl cut in before she could get a word out. "This about your wings, I take it?"

Giving up trying to half-hide, Scootaloo launched up and did a quick circle in the air. "It's awesome!"

The green tint to them was all Vinyl needed to get a hint as to what happened. "Mother helped give you a little growth spurt. If you are wondering, I doubt they would shrink back if the seed was removed, they are you."

None of the three had ever really spoken to the DJ before but she seemed relaxed and, to their delight, she didn't speak to them like they were fillies, at least apart from wanting to take the seeds back.

"There's more than that." Apple Bloom couldn't hold back her need to tell the truth, her sister's nature rubbing off well on the filly. "I can… well…" She reached a hoof out to the tree and to Vinyl's shock it seemed to grow and then rain apples down on them! "That. Trees like me."

Vinyl didn't even need to ask, she turned her head to Sweetie Belle. "I… I can sing better." The little unicorn sat down under the shade of the apparently happy tree, closed her eyes and started to sing. Reeling at the soft, wonderful, wordless melody, Vinyl laid back down and smiled widely, her ears focused forward to catch every note.

It took a bit for the effect to wear off the adult unicorn, Sweetie had put on a few shows with her friends and they seemed a little more resistant to it, although they both still wore happy grins. Vinyl wasn't angry, or upset, in all honesty, she realized, she couldn't be either right now. "Wow…" A hoof raised to her head to feel that it was still there and hadn't been replaced with a pillow full of happiness. "Almost like a siren."

Sweetie had the good nature to look embarrassed and nodded a bit. "It gets weaker the more you are exposed, but it still works, right girls?"

"Right!" Scootaloo and Apple Bloom chorused, grinning happily.

The first thing that came to mind, for Vinyl, was how awesome it would be to take Sweetie on tour. Their shows would be sold out wherever they went. "We need to see your sister when she is back." Vinyl leaned against the tree again, plucking a fallen apple up with her magic and eating it.

Twilight Sparkle and Gel Pattern stood beside each other. In front of them, facing them, Prince Blueblood was grinning like a fiend. "My turn, Prince Gel."

Gel groaned. "Don't use that title, please?" He was about to push the matter further when movement came from behind and a mare trotted into the room wearing an amazing dress.

Cut to show off her strong body and the wonderful fashion both, the dress was clearly something Rarity had conjured up and it fit Applejack perfectly.

Applejack's legs got commands to stop, to turn and run, but the mare was so stubborn even her limbs didn't listen to her. She soon found herself flanked by royalty. Princess Twilight Sparkle, or as she preferred, Twi. Prince Gel Pattern, or just simply Gel to anypony who knew him.

"Now we are all here." Prince Blueblood looked down into the crowd that consisted of Twilight's parents, Twisty, Hope, and the rest of Twilight's friends. "We are gathered here for a simple ceremony. Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria and Friendship and Gel Pattern, Prince of Equestria are to be wed, but not today. Today is a smaller ceremony." Blueblood liked smiling, he realized. It wasn't something he had been able to do overmuch when he was under cover. "Twilight, will you take Applejack to be your special somepony?"

Twilight looked at her friend, seeing all the fear and hope painted on the honest mare's face. "Of course I do."

"Gel, will you take Applejack to be your special somepony?" Prince Blueblood had turned his attention to the changeling.

It was a shame the unicorn prince was putting on such a good show, since the target of his words was completely distracted. Gel leaned down to Applejack. "You gotta promise me you will agree too." His words were only loud enough for the orange mare to hear, but she nodded to him. "Good, I do."

"Applejack, Lady of Ponyville, will you take Twilight and Gel as your special someponies?" Blueblood knew such a thing didn't really require a ceremony like this, but when two of the ponies were royal a ceremony was a given.

Applejack looked between Twilight and Gel. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Ah will."

"Prince Gel, Princess Twilight, Lady Applejack. I pronounce you special someponies." Blueblood felt bubbling happiness, not only did he get to return the favor to his new friends, but he got to rib Gel one more time about his title. It had been lonely being a prince.

Author's Note

Damn it, I knew you would do it, Hope! Why did you have to make me cry?

Sweetie and Apple got the least obvious tricks, but I don't think Scoots minds one little, feathered, bit.

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