Vengeance

Just after sunrise that day, the former Changeling royalty reached the capital city of Equestria.

Thysanura, Ruby, and Emerald popped into existence in front of Canterlot Castle and shook green glitter from their coats – "I'm not sorry about that," the former queen said smugly, contrary to apologies. "The glitter I added backfired on us. It is fun, though."

Suddenly noticing exactly where they were, Emerald facehoofed. "Mother! You didn't!" she cried out. "Do you know where we are? Why did you have to choose here, of all places, to just appear?"

Unaware of this mysterious and dangerous issue, Thysanura shook her head. "We're at Canterlot Castle, just like you asked," she said in complete bewilderment. "Isn't that what both of you wanted?" She turned to her sister for help.

Laughing would probably not have been appropriate in their situation. "Sister, you don't understand," Ruby responded, trying and utterly failing to squash her amused smirk. "We are at Canterlot Castle, the residence of the Royal Alicorn Sisters, right out in the open, where everypony can see us. Does that not trouble you one bit?"

"HEY!"

The shouts and hoofbeats of several heavily armed guards began to approach them quickly, much to Emerald's and Ruby's alarm and horror. Eyes wide, they whipped back to Thysanura.

"Oh," the old queen said, a little belatedly. "I get it now. So . . . RUN!"

And run they did. Emerald and Ruby shot forward like their wings were on fire. Thysanura was remarkably fast, too, especially for her old age. But while the others flew, zipping around trees and walls and the like, she was bound to the ground because of her tattered wings, forced to teleport around.

"Now permanent coat glitter is the least of our worries," Emerald muttered.

Speed was on their side, but time was not. Even so, they managed to get pretty far before they were enveloped in a shimmering orange forcefield. Of course! Thysanura silently cursed herself for mindlessly running away. The unicorn guards had magic.

But then again, so did the Changelings.

"Blast! And I mean it quite literally!" Ruby called loudly to her sister and niece. She started to fire her magic at the shield, focusing the bright green beam on one area of the barrier.

"Mother, this is what happens when you refuse to heed our simple directions! Did you even hear us say them?" Emerald grumbled to Thysanura. She combined her magic with her aunt's, blazing a powerful ray of pure energy at the same spot. A short moment later, Thysanura joined them.

"Well, of course I did," the eldest Changeling huffed back, struggling to keep her magic under control. "Maybe . . . I was a little . . . distracted . . . at the time. But I heard you . . . perhaps." She grunted as three other unicorns added their layers of magic to the shield. Purple and red and blue sparkled over the orange that was already there, reinforcing it.

"You could have tried to listen better," Emerald retorted, though not very angrily, and left the rest of the argument for later. This was a chance to practice her magic, and who would say no to that? But it was also a dire situation where someone could get hurt.

One guard had already run from the scene to call for backup. It wouldn't be long before Thysanura, Emerald, and Ruby were outnumbered and forced to surrender or to fight until they fell.

They didn't see it coming.

The four unicorns who were keeping up the shields nodded to each other in a silent message and pressed down on their barriers. The quadruple-layered, bubble-shaped forcefield started to shrink down, faster than lightning, with the velocity and mass of magically high numbers. They'll be squashed like the hideous bugs they are, one particularly rude and careless guard thought to himself.

Noticing that something was amiss, Ruby looked up, and her pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks. "LOOK OUT!" she screeched in alarm, but it was too late.

The shield smashed down on the three Changelings, four waves of intensely focused unicorn magic crashing into them. The royals' magic blinked out, and their minds flickered in and out of consciousness. Emerald heard one question before she succumbed to the rising darkness in her vision and passed out completely:

"Captain, should we execute them immediately or leave them for the Princesses to deal with?"

She didn't know which option would be the preferable one.

Ruby woke up to the sound of hoofsteps falling on a stone floor. The noise was close to her, perhaps a few feet away, though it could have been much farther. Her head hurt like crazy, probably due to the amount of magic that had been forced upon her, Emerald, and Thysanura.

She opened her eyes and struggled to sit up as a twinge of pain stung her tired muscles. The three of them were in a small, bland room filled with plain, steel-gray stone: stone floor, stone walls, and stone sleeping ledges on the walls. The one thing here that wasn't stone was the iron bars bolted across the entrance. With a locked door, of course.

A dungeon cell.

Thysanura was sitting on one of the carved rock ledges, looking glum and completely defeated. Emerald was the one who was pacing, each hoof coming down hard on the floor as she walked briskly back and forth in the cramped space.

It took Ruby a moment to notice that each of them had been fitted with an etched silver neck brace – enchanted collars that prevented them from using their magic for as long as they were wearing them. The shackles were working double duty: thick metal chains connected them to bolts on the wall.

Seeing that her aunt was now awake, Emerald raised a hoof as Ruby opened her mouth to speak. "Don't bother. There's no way out," she said bluntly. "We very obviously can't use our magic, and these bars are enchanted. We're not strong enough to break them or the chains."

"That's not what I was going to say," Ruby sniffed, slightly offended at this challenge to her intelligence. She lifted a hoof and started to reach up . . . into her mane? . . . until a new voice spoke and stopped her. It sounded rich, regal, and every bit like a princess.

"Captain Winter Wing, where did you say you found these Changelings?"

"Celestia," Thysanura hissed quietly. The others turned to her, startled by her sudden word. Emerald started to ask a question, but a shake of her mother's head silenced her.

Two ponies walked into view in the narrow hallway outside their cell: a white, rainbow-maned alicorn and a blue-coated, full-armored pegasus with an indigo-and-blue mane. "These three were found on the north side of the castle, Princess," the pegasus mare said, hefting a long silver spear she held with her hoof as they stopped in front of the Changelings' dungeon room. "They must have teleported there, because my guards spotted them appearing in a burst of green light."

And glitter, Emerald thought silently, brushing at her coat, where a few of the offending sparkles remained.

Princess Celestia and the pegasus who was apparently Captain Winter Wing turned to the half-complete family of Changeling royals. Without a word, Emerald, Ruby, and Thysanura got up to stand in a straight row, facing the ponies with cold, blank stares.

After a glance at her companion, it was Celestia who spoke first. "What are your names and ranks, Changelings?" she asked. It was a very straightforward question, and the pony princess's voice was not filled with malice or anger, but simple determination. Ruby tasted a hint of empathy, too, though not much to her surprise. My nieces must have told them about us already.

"We owe you no answer, Princess," Thysanura growled with an ice-cold hatred that no one had ever felt before. Her kin stared at her in surprise before Ruby nudged her sister in the side, earning an angry hiss that made her draw back, confused.

While the sisters frowned back and forth at each other, Emerald glanced at Celestia and was startled to see a spark of recognition . . . and sadness . . . in the famed Sun Alicorn's eyes. Say something before she gets the wrong impression of you! "Um . . . I am Princess Emerald, that is my aunt Princess Ruby, and that one over there is my mother . . ."

". . . Queen Thysanura," Princess Celestia finished with a small nod. "I know."

To her slight frustration, Emerald's curiosity got the best of her once again. "How do you know my mother?" she blurted out before she could stop herself. "Were you friends? Old acquaintances?"

Celestia's lips curved up in a tiny smile at the younger princesses's eager interest, but as soon as it had appeared, it vanished like sunshine on a rainy day. "You could say that, yes," she sighed, with a notable tinge of sadness. "Thysa . . . Queen Thysanura . . . well, I'd best tell you later, Princess Emerald."

It wasn't really the answer Emerald wanted, but she nodded. "Of course. I understand," she said, trying not to sound incredibly disappointed. She wanted to know how there was a connection between her mother and the alicorn princess.

"You don't understand everything, Emerald." Thysanura stepped up to the metal bars, her muzzle inches away from Celestia's as she glared angrily. "How are you doing with your new student, Celestia?" she spat. "I bet she's so much better than me. I hope you're happy without me, Princess! Because I am never going back!"

Emerald and Ruby froze, stunned. Why was Thysanura acting so strange and cold all of a sudden?

Celestia's ears folded back. "I-I'm sorry, Thysa!" she cried. Tears were gathering in the corners of her purple eyes. "I-I didn't know! Thysa, I –"

"Don't call me that!" Thysanura shouted. She thrust her head close to the alicorn's, so close that Celestia swore she could see the flames dancing in the Changeling queen's eyes. "I am not your pet pupil anymore. I am not a weak filly. Don't you get it, Celestia?! I am not your Thysa!"

The Diarch of the Sun forced herself to look her former student in the eyes. "Whatever else you might say," she whispered in a tearful, trembling voice, "you will always be my little princess."

The fire faded, and Thysanura turned away with tears welling up in her eyes. "Then why did you let me go, Celestia?" she murmured softly. "Why did you let them take me away? You promised me. You told me, I will always be here if you need me, Thysa. And then you broke that promise. Why?"

Her words hung in the air like a lingering echo. Celestia flinched, as if Thysanura had struck her across the face. Unable to meet the queen's gaze, she dropped her head, tears splattering on the stone floor.

Captain Winter Wing looked at her ruler, then Thysanura, and then her gaze flitted back to Celestia. "Princess?" she said politely, clearing her throat quietly.

Celestia's head shot up. She quickly wiped away her tears. "Ah, yes. Thank you, Captain. Why are you here?" she asked, addressing the "visiting" Changelings. Her brow furrowed. "To officially declare war like Princess Chrysalislis and Princess Peridot have warned us?"

"What? No!" Ruby exclaimed. Her wings buzzed, like she was agitated, and she glanced at her sister, slumped in the back of their cell. When Thysanura said nothing, the scarlet-maned princess continued. "You did not hear this yet, but the war is off. We're done with it. We came hear to tell you that. Nothing more."

"Where are Chrysalis, Jade, Peridot?" Emerald asked. "I want to see them."

The Day Alicorn seemed unaware of Emerald's question. Instead, she stared at Ruby with wide, disbelieving eyes. "Why should I believe you?" she said flatly, regaining most of her composure.

"You don't have to," Ruby answered simply. "But you should. You have no reason to believe us, and yet we have no reason to trust you, either." She turned away from Celestia with an offhoofed shrug, but Emerald could detect the hints and flashes of anger in her aunt's eyes.

"I want to see my sisters," Emerald repeated firmly. "Why aren't they with you right now? Don't they know that we are here, Celestia?"

Hesitation flared in Celestia's gaze. "They are . . . occupied at the moment," she said. "But don't worry, my sister Luna is watching over them. No one in the castle will hurt them."

"You mean like how my daughters were poisoned?" Thysanura stalked up to Celestia, her face still wet with angry teardrops. Her eyes narrowed in the furious glare of a worried mother. "By your own nephew, no less, right under your nose, in your High and Mighty Castle! That despicable, miserable stallion you call a Duke!"

"You . . . you know about that?" Celestia asked, startled. "Nopony told your Hive about it! I –"

"You are a blind, careless, self-conceited pony!" the former queen shouted at her. "Did you ever stop to think about the lives of those you fought against to defend your precious Equestria? Do you even know or care about the dark path your sister is about to take? No?! Then let us go, because YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT OUR FATE AT ALL!"

Princess Celestia was completely silent, her ears laid flat against her flowing mane. She had no good comeback, nothing to defend herself against those accusations . . . because all of those were true.

Watching the pathetic princess only made Thysanura's anger grow. "When you banished all those enemies of Equestria," she hissed in a suddenly soft, icy voice, "you did not give one thought about what would happen to them and the ones that they loved. You never wondered why they did all those things. You only thought about the welfare of your subjects. If I am right, and you never saw things the way they did, then you don't deserve to rule at all, because a true princess must know compassion.

"YOU COULD HAVE STOPPED ALL THOSE DEATHS, CELESTIA!" Queen Thysanura screeched. "It's your fault that Equestria has any enemies at all!

"But I won't be like you." Her words fell from her like flower petals in the rain. "I will give you a second chance, and tell you what we came here for. A warning of battle."

Her eyes flashed green. "Because I am not the one you should fear."