"As per your request, Your Highness, I have brought you the new prototype." Gilded Lilly bowed deeply, her large case beside her softly glowing, bound in strong restrictive magics. She floated a sheaf of papers over to Celestia.

Glancing through them, the alicorn smiled. "The changeling pod research helped things along nicely, I see." As Celestia perused the notes, she came to a part that made her frown. "Hard to remove, in what way?"

"You understand that with the intent being we can release ponies with this equipped, I didn't want such information to be written down where anypony could read it." Gilded passed over a single sheet of paper.

"Alicorn level spell? You are a clever mare. Are you sure nothing else could stop it?" Celestia went back to the notes.

"Well, there are always chances if something like Tirek returned, but I don't think he would be quite so… powerful, with one of these on him." A tingle of her old ways came back to Gilded, the thought of such a powerful being as Tirek, rendered helpless and docile with one of her creations… She made a mental note to secure some alone time when she was done.

"Well, let's see it then. Celestia started weaving the best magic and protections she could, which was certainly quite powerful indeed.

"It will of course move for the nearest target, myself." Gilded sighed, not wanting to do this bit, but it was part of her agreement. The complicated little unlock weave of magic fitted to the chest and the lead gave a groan as it started to open. The top opened up and a single parasprite was inside, blinking at the light.

Gilded opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue. It was like she had a magnet in her mouth, the parasprite rushed at her and pushed inside her mouth. Coughing around the fuzzball, Gilded's eyes shrunk down to pin-pricks as the thing wrapped around her tongue. She felt it grip down, tighter and tighter, body shrinking until it felt just like a living rubber cover for her muscle. The tingling began in her head and she felt the ideas and bad thoughts of her past flow from her. The unicorn smiled.

"Just like that?" Celestia stepped closer, keeping her protection up, she looked into the unicorn mare's mouth, inspecting the slightly larger tongue she now seemed to possess. "How is it working? Try using something violent."

"I… I can't." Gilded, having been given permission to try to attack Celestia, felt the idea flow from her. She shook her head. "Nope, just don't… don't want to."

Wings wrapped around her and Gilded felt safe suddenly, Celestia wrapped her forelegs around the now restricted mare. "And how does it make you feel? Do you hate it?"

Gilded tilted her head and nuzzled against the alicorn. "I don't think I could, if I tried. If I had to have it, all the time, I wouldn't mind it, but I know I made it make the subject like it… it's confusing." Safe and secure, the confusing thoughts seemed to turn to water in Gilded's mind. She could feel magic start, in Celestia. "What are…"

The spell was almost blindingly bright, Gilded closed her eyes against it and nuzzled in against the alicorn a little tighter. Then something wriggled in her mouth, she had a moment of surprise before the clever box was levitated up, catching the retreating parasprite. She blinked a few times, her full mind coming back.

Celestia held the mare close, not wanting her to panic or feel bad. "And now? How do you feel now?" She stroked down Gilded's mane with one hoof, as her wings kept the unicorn close.

"It's indescribable. It restricts so much but… having experienced it, I can feel that those parts… in a normal pony… wouldn't even be there." But in Gilded's heart she knew she was the full sum of her parts, as was any pony. "This will cause ponies to act different, but the alternative is banishing and locking up, so-"

"So the choice will ultimately be theirs. They can accept this, or not." The mare cuddled against Celestia nodded a few times. She wouldn't let Gilded go until she was sure the mare had survived intact.

"I think it has made me more… well, cuddly…" Gilded certainly wouldn't have considered this situation nice before, but she sure did now. "Can we just… just stay like this… for a while?"

The answer was plainly given, Celestia squeezed the mare a little more.

"You should tell her." Mane had heard all the excitement out in the town, but chose to let it slide for now. There were plenty of ponies in Ponyville to deal with problems.

"Why me? You slept with her!" Starlight flopped onto the couch and onto her back. "Not to mention hypnotized her… why don't you just do that again?"

"Because I promised? Also, what does that have to do with it, we both told her we were seeking out other interests, surely she will understand!" Mane stalked around in circles in the living room. It was fortunate that the two each dealt with problems slightly different.

A knock came at the door and both mares looked at each other. Starlight Glimmer reached out with her magic, opening it up to reveal Trixie. "Are you two ready yet?" Starlight and Mane looked to each other. "What, you are or you aren't?"

"We were-" Mane began, but was cut off by Starlight.

"Discussing!" Starlight gave the earth pony a hard stare.

"Yes, we were, discussing… who was going to tell Twilight." Mane gave her friend a smile, thankful for the save.

"Tell Her Highness? Oh, the Eloquent and Oratorical Trixie can do it!" Trixie was practically bouncing on her hooves.

Starlight and Mane turned and looked at each other, their faces growing into bigger and bigger smiles. Mane looked back at Trixie. "Well, I really wanted to…"

"I told you, Mane, I want to!" Starlight had to clamp down on her mouth to keep from giggling. She spared Trixie a look from the corner of her eye.

"No, Trixie is responsible for this, she is going to tell her." Trixie spun around on her hooves and started marching away. The sound of a clop behind her caught her attention and she spun to look and caught both her friends looking amazingly happy, sharing a bro-hoof moment. "Did Trixie just get played?" Both the other mares nodded to the performer. "Good, Trixie will only work with clever show-ponies."

The castle had changed, something Trixie was still getting used to, but she trotted in the open doors. There were ponies everywhere. Peeking in one large room she saw a group of ponies painting a picture together, while another revealed a group of older mares all spinning wool together. "Trixie can't believe Twilight has gotten so much…" She took two deep breaths and let each out slowly. "But she can see the Princess has grown beyond her. Maybe if Trixie gets more friends…" The thought trailed off as a small procession of ponies came out of a dark stairway.

"Trixie." Gel waved a hoof, a hoof that seemed to squirm unnaturally. "Anything I can help you with?" As the changeling spoke, his body kept making slight bulges and pokes outwards. As he stepped to the side, Muffins left the stairwell next.

"The Jealous and Wistful Trixie would ask if she can take some ponies with her when she leaves. They have proven most capable in helping with her performance." Trixie still felt a little down about how much Twilight seemed to have gotten from life.

"Starlight Glimmer and Mane May?" Gel raised an eyebrow as his neck bulged, a changeling's features clearly visible pressed into his flesh from within, for a moment. "Please excuse my… problem. We had a rogue changeling being very naughty."

"What? But…" Trixie was out of her league now, so she did the only thing she could think of, she fell into her show-personality. "The Confused and Pondering Trixie would like to know how you knew her companions?" Gel pointed one bulging hoof over Trixie's shoulder. A glance revealed her accomplices. "Oh…"

"Twi is a little busy at the moment, why don't you head in and get ready for dinner? Mademoiselle is cooking again." Gel grinned wide, he had taken pains to be able to taste the vampony's cooking, and found wearing a horn-blocking ring quite worth it.

Trixie turned and looked back to her friends, gesturing to them to come up with her. "The Delighted and Humbled Trixie, and her friends, would be happy to have dinner." Both mares nodded to her. "Settled then, please tell Twilight 'Trixie needs to speak with her'."

"Sure, I am going to get my guest somewhere a little more comfortable… for me." Gel gave the blue unicorn a wink and trotted off.

Please Do held the filly tight, but it was hard not to feel safer with a legend of Equestria with her. "Are you sure they will catch him?" She looked at Rainbow Dash with a little worry.

"Please," Dash didn't realize exactly why the changeling looked at her strange, "between Gel and Muffins, he has no hope of getting away. Then you have our trump card, a freakin' alicorn princess with enough magic to level a forest!"

Said that way, Please felt herself relaxing a little. "You need to get a message to my sister, I need to tell her what happened." Please looked around and froze as she saw the least expected pony ever looking back at her. "Caballeron!"

"Doctor Caballeron. And you are welcome." Caballeron stepped forward, a little shocked when Please took an equal number of steps backwards, bumping into Rainbow Dash.

"I know, I was freaked out about him too. He was here looking for Daring Do, I guess. Just missed her." Rainbow Dash, nonetheless, extended her tight wing over Please. "Relax, he was the pony who tipped us off."

The filly in Please's grip stuck her head up and looked at Caballeron. "You came back!" Please was shocked as Cuddle squirmed from her grip and bounded over to the surprised stallion. "Thank you!" Caballeron had no idea how to react to this exact scenario, he had a filly hugging his leg and thanking him.

Crouching down, Caballeron lifted Cuddle up. "You are welcome, but you have to promise me one thing?" He got a serious nod from the filly. "Go back to your mom, she looks worried about you."

"She isn't my mom, Please is a nice mare!" Cuddle did jump down though, running over to Rainbow Dash, the little changeling lifted a hoof up. "Hi, I'm Cuddle! Thank you for coming to rescue us!"

"Please? Please Do?" Caballeron looked at the changeling mare. "I must admit, I never suspected you of being a changeling, it explains a lot about how well you do you work."

"I'm not a changeling!" Please stomped her hoof, her breath coming fast. "I just… he did this to me…" Tears started, Please couldn't hold them back. "He trapped me… did this to me…" A feathered wing wrapped her shoulders from one side, and from the other a second large body pressed close. She knew it was Caballeron, but suddenly she didn't care so much about him.

"That drone turned you into a changeling?" Rainbow Dash wished she had the wings of her wife, they were always so encompassing and soft, perfect for this kind of thing. "Sounds like you need to come with me. Hey, pipsqueak, you want to visit a castle?"

Cuddle was trapped, she looked with worry to Please, but castles usually meant one thing—princesses. "Can Please come too?"

"Yup, we are all going to go. Even Caballeron." Rainbow Dash spared a look to the stallion who had been a thorn in her side a few times. She saw that maybe he wasn't quite so terrible. "Spread your wings and balance."

The filly barely got herself set when the gust of air hit her small wings, lifting her up and depositing her on Please's back. "Wee! Again!" Cuddle bounced in place excitedly. The presence of not only safety, but the safety of Cuddle, shattered the wall Please had built around her fear, her panic. It all tumbled out of her.

Author's Note

Gilded Lilly has been doing what she loves to do and she has been doing it for a good cause. Is this new special type of parasprite just the thing to help Equestria with its burgeoning villain problem?

Caballeron, still just a pony under all that avarice he shows when working. What's that? No longer a one-dimensional character? I am sorry.

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