Change: Avia

Chapters

1 - Prologue
2 - Princess
3 - Equestria
4 - Grandparents
5 - Cutie Mark Crusaders
6 - Sugarcube Corner
7 - A Day's End
8 - Crystal
9 - Chaos
10 - Captains
11 - Books
12 - Into the Forest
13 - Avia
14 - The Summer Sun Celebration
15 - Epilogue

1 - Prologue

The Equestrian Hive, Twenty-Two Years After Immortalis’ Fall

The moon displayed its stunning beauty and might high in the skies of Equestria, its soft but firm rays lighting up a vast landscape of fields and trees for miles around. Beneath the surface, however, Equestria’s changeling hive continued on as normal. Throughout the great underground expanse, many changeling families had turned in for the night and let sleep take them to the realm of dreams, while others defied the call to rest and walked both the halls and the large atrium sitting at the very heart of the Equestrian Hive.

But for one small nymph, no matter how much she too wished to defy her need to sleep, her mother was having none of it.

“It’s late, Avia,” Queen Twilight Sparkle said to her ten-year-old daughter. “Sleep.”

Princess Avia sighed, her yawn betraying how tired she truly was. “Okay, Mama…”

“I’ll tell you more stories another time, I promise.”

That got the nymph to brighten up. “Okay! Night night!”

The older royal changeling smiled. “Goodnight.”

Twilight kissed her child on the head, the nymph laying her head on the pillow and quickly allowing sleep to claim her. The Changeling Queen stood up, examining her daughter for a moment. She shared her mother’s lavender chitin, sparkling eyes and deep blue mane. If she had a pink stripe, she might have been considered a clone.

Though, she did have her father’s pale blue gossamer wings.

“Twilight,” the changeling stallion in question, Façade, called from the doorway. While most of the changeling species had been changed by the Elements of Harmony, taking on varied pastel colourations akin to that of ponies, Façade had retained the original look of a typical drone. “Is she asleep?”

“She is, honey,” Twilight quietly confirmed, turning to face her husband before exiting the room with him.

The couple had been married for years, a path set by their introduction during the crisis that had struck both changelings and ponies many years prior. But from that war had arisen a new age of the changeling race, one where they had all emerged from the shadows and, in the new forms gifted by the Elements, created a strong alliance with Equestria that was still going strong twenty-two years later. A world where the hives walked among ponies as equals, no longer having the desire to stay hidden and steal love energy from the unsuspecting ponies. Now love was collected by a mix of passive collection, and extensive trade agreements with the Crystal Empire.

A world where Friendship truly was Magic.

And that was the world Princess Avia had been born into.

A nymph who, despite both her body’s demands and the words of her mother, re-opened her eyes and held off sleep yet again.

“UGGGH!” she complained, throwing her hooves in the air dramatically before letting them flop down to the sides. “How can I sleep when the Summer Sun Celebration is starting!?”

The Summer Sun Celebration was celebrated by ponies every year. Something Avia had heard so much about but never experienced for herself with how little she left the hive. But this year was different, this year it was going to be held where her aunts and her mother’s fellow Element Bearers lived, Ponyville! Better yet, they were taking Avia!

Her excitement to finally see the town, and the celebration, could not be adequately stated.

She gave a huff and rolled over, scrunching up in her blankets. Then she rolled the other way, and then back again. Then she just splayed herself out in whatever direction her various limbs fancied, before giving another indignant groan.

“I can’t sleep!” she shouted and no one in particular, throwing off her covers and bouncing out of bed. “I need books!”

Avia fluttered her wings, hopping over to one of the many bookshelves filled with texts both fictional and factual. She didn’t want a story, it was always better when her mother was the one reading them. So research it was!

She looked between all the non-fiction texts. There were spell books, science books, history books…

“Ah!” Avia squeaked as she saw one that caught her attention, snatching the book up in her cyan magic.

She then ran over to her little desk, hopped on the stool and opened the book at page one. She then began to intently examine the page, invested in each word and picture presented.

The night had to end eventually, and all the way up in Canterlot the sun was raised into the sky by Princess Celestia herself. All the sleeping changelings in the hive began to wake themselves for the day ahead, seeing to their own morning routines and that of their families. So too did Twilight Sparkle awaken nice and early, for it was to be a busy day ahead.

With she, and other changelings, all heading for the Summer Sun Celebration that was to take place the following night she had a great deal of organisation to do.

Fortunately, that was one area the Queen particularly prided herself on.

The first thing she did was begin the preparations for their escort to her old home alongside her husband. There was the carriage to prepare, the guards who would go alongside them, and all kinds of small affairs to set in order. But, at the same time, there was also a very particular and quite excitable thing that Twilight had to take care of.

After calling forth and meeting with their escort, Twilight left Façade to oversee final preparations while she went to wake their daughter.

The stroll through the hive was brief and jovial, the Queen passing by many drones who all either bowed or simply nodded to her as she passed. She had gotten used to the bowing ones over the years, but the small-town librarian inside her would always prefer the friendly nods the others gave. It was always more of a comfort to the Queen than any awkward posturing would ever be.

But the doorway into her little nymph’s royal chambers soon came into view, and Twilight grabbed the handle with her magic and pushed her way inside.

“Avia, it’s time to-”

She wasn’t in bed, which caused Twilight a brief flash of worry. However, a quick scan of the room did prove the young Changeling princess to be present. And, with Twilight adopting a rather bemused expression, it seemed the nymph had fallen asleep at her desk with her face all but glued to the book beneath her.

It really was unnerving how much she took after her.

But then given how Twilight’s own mother was as a filly, perhaps it was a genetic thing?

Shaking her head, Twilight approached her daughter and gently shook her on the shoulder. The nymph’s eyes slowly blinked open, and she gave a sheepish look up at her smirking mother.

“…Am I grounded?”

“I think we can make an exception for today,” Twilight said with a chuckle, bopping her daughter on the nose. “This one time.”

There was no point in getting the day off to a bad start. The excitement around the Summer Sun Celebration emanated through the air itself, and she would not be caught putting a damper on it.

2 - Princess

“What were you reading, anyway?” Twilight asked in amusement, placing the book back on the shelf while her daughter had been deposited on her back. “It must have been interesting if it kept you glued to the book all night long.”

“Yeah!” the filly chirped happily, doing a quick joyful jump on Twilight’s back just to convey how interesting it was, and then immediately pretending she didn’t almost slip off.

Twilight chuckled, examining the title on the book’s spine. “So… ‘Prophetic Dreaming’, hm?”

“Yep!” Avia confirmed with a quick nod. “I almost got through it all! There are some really interesting things in there! Have you read it, Mama?”

“I have. I believe it was some point after I first experienced Princess Luna entering my dreams, and I do recall it is a subject she herself holds some interest in,” Twilight confirmed. “So tell me, what did it teach you?”

“Oh, all kinds of things!” Avia stated. The filly then jumped form her mother’s back and landed on the ground, hopping around to face Twilight head on. “It started by talking all about the dream realm and stuff. How someone’s experiences shaped by their rampant imaginations, and only lucid dreamers have any control of what they’re seeing!”

“Go on,” Twilight encouraged, laying down as she gave her eager daughter her undivided attention.

“Uh, and it also said how time is all weird and stuff inside the dream realm. Like, you can have a dream that seems longer or shorter than you’re asleep,” Avia continued, tapping her chin as she thought back to her late night read. “And then sometimes people see important stuff. Things they didn’t imagine.”

“Since time is distorted within the realm, sometimes people can have glimpses of both past and future events from inside it,” Twilight concluded for Avia. “It’s extremely rare to happen, though it’s more likely to transpire in someone who is powerful in the magical arts.”

“Have you ever seen one?” Avia enquired, tilting her head inquisitively.

Twilight shook her head. “No, I have not. I know Princess Celestia has though.”

“Really?”

“She has,” Twilight confirmed. “When Lord Tirek returned, she saw a vision of him stealing a pony’s magic. And it all came to pass.”

“Wow…” Avia hummed in awe. “I know that Princess Luna can control the dream realm. But the book didn’t say much about her.”

“Yes, Luna…” Twilight entered thought for a moment. “I’ve talked the subject over with her. It’s true she can enter the dream realm, and both alter the dreams of those within reach, allow them lucid dreaming or even talk to someone in that state. But when it comes to prophecies and visions, she’s a little murky.”

“Why? Shouldn’t she be able to see them?”

“If she was to have one herself, then yes,” Twilight responded. “But while she was alerted to Celestia’s vision when it occurred, she apparently could not enter it. I guess prophetic dreaming works different than normal dreaming.”

Avia frowned, tilting her head. “Different? Maybe… because time is all warped or something?”

Twilight chuckled, dragging Avia forward with a wing and giving her a nuzzle on the head, causing the nymph to giggle in delight. “You are a smart girl, you know that?”

Avia suddenly gasped. “Oh oh! There’s something I’ve been really wanting to ask you!”

Before Twilight could ask her child for clarification, the young changeling shot up and buzzed into the air. She flew to the top of one of the bookshelves, grabbed a specific book and quickly flew back down to her confused mother. Avia then wasted no time in flicking through the book in search of something, before giving an excited squee of victory as she deposited the open book into her mother’s hooves.

Twilight was almost hesitant to see what had gotten Avia so excited, but the duty of a mother is an endless one…

“…A Book Wyrm?” Twilight questioned Avia with a frown, giving her a quizzical expression. “Why am I looking at a picture of a Book Wyrm?”

“It’s a dragon made from books. From books!” Avia squealed excitedly, prancing in place. “It’s like you took Uncle Spike and made him awesome!”

“Are you saying Spike isn’t?” Twilight teased, getting her daughter to freeze in place. “I’m sure he won’t be offended at all.”

“No no no!” Avia protested, waving her hooves in some vain attempt to placate her mother. “Spike is cool! Mega cool! But… books…”

Twilight couldn’t hold in her amusement, and let her laughter rip its way through the bedroom. It is at this point that Avia realised that Twilight had been pulling her leg, and she crossed her forelegs with a huff and indignation.

“Oh, I’m sorry Avia,” Twilight apologised, but couldn’t hide that amused glint in her eyes. “You just remind me too much of a purple filly I used to know.”

“Really?” Avia questioned. “Was she nice?”

Twilight gave her daughter a bemused look, before shaking her head. “A hoof full, or so I hear. But again, why am I looking at a Book Wyrm?”

“We can make one!” Avia exclaimed. “Please!”

“Avia, you know we have to be going soon,” Twilight reminded the nymph. “I don’t think we have time to be playing around with new spells.”

“Pleeeeeease?” Avia asked again, conjuring the puppy dog eyes. “It’s still early, we have time! Pretty please?”

Twilight sighed, but she felt she had no choice but to relent. It would have to be relatively quick, but it would prevent Avia from pouting for the entire journey to Ponyville at least.

“Alright, let’s see…” Twilight muttered as she stood up and began refreshing herself on what the book had to say about Book Wyrms.

She hummed and nodded as she read up on the spell, not having casted it in years, relaying what she was reading to Avia whenever the bouncing filly asked about it. It wasn’t too complex of a spell, more mid-level if anything, and she was always a prodigy when it came to magic if she were allowed to toot her own horn.

Because Twilight Sparkle would never do that. Ever.

Not at all.

But still, she very quickly had her own time studying such things when she was Celestia’s student all come rushing back to her. She’d been a little older than Avia when she’s approached the Princess of the Sun, who’d helped her master the spell. All those lessons and study sessions flooded back, and Twilight couldn’t help but smile to herself as she felt her confidence in the spell soar.

“Alright, I got this,” Twilight announced, Avia giving a ‘yeep’ of excitement. “I need a book to cast it on, might as well use the spell book itself… Avia, get behind me.”

Avia complied, scuttling over to her mother and standing in between her legs. Finding that being used as a makeshift shelter was acceptable, Twilight allowed her curved horn to light up with lavender magic before reaching out with the aura to envelope the book. The tome began to glow, and it became so bright that all the text and images became illegible as it turned into a miniature lavender coloured star.

Then the book shifted form, twisted and contorting this way and that before launching itself from Twilight grasp and into the air.

And then the pages expanded out, twisting into the form of a small but elongated dragon made entirely from the pages of the book. They could see the book’s text running down the dragon’s body like a large tattoo, the front and back covers forming the jaw filled with jagged shards of papers that were the teeth, liable to maybe scratch a changeling’s chitin or give a pony a paper cut. Two small craters in the face formed eye sockets, and they were filled with a mote of light each the same colour of Twilight’s magic.

“YEE! It worked!” Avia announced in victory, slinking forward from her mother’s legs and looking up at the magic creature. “Hiya, Mr Book Whyrm!”

The spell looked down on Avia as the filly looked up gleefully. But beyond that, it showed little recognition to the Princess’ presence.

“Um, can it hear me?”

“It’s just a book animated by my magic, Avia. It’s not alive,” Twilight answered. “No consciousness of its own. It's just a complete extension of my own will-”

Just as she said that, the Book Wyrm went haywire.

Avia gave a shriek as the creature knocked several books off the shelf towards Avia, Twilight dragging her daughter back beneath her in a nanosecond. The Queen raised a shield around herself and Avia as the Book Wyrm started rushing around the room, crashing into bookshelves and making a general mess of the place. It smashed into the shield a few times, though clearly not in attack but rather in a maddened flurry of rampant magic that had no directive.

Twilight released the shield, her horn glowing brighter as she concentrated. Then, in a flash and a pop, the Book Wyrm contorted and shrank back down to the simple spell book that it had once been. The book then fell and landed on the floor with a thud.

And it had landed right at the hooves of Façade, who had frozen up the moment he walked into the room. He looked down at the book, and then up at his sheepish looking wife and daughter.

“Do I even want to know?” he deadpanned.

“Uh, I may have been a bit rustier than I thought,” Twilight said as she stepped forwards and picked up the book, placing it and the other scattered tomes quickly back to their places on the shelves. “I guess I forgot to give the spell a directive, so it just went haywire. Whoops.”

“Right…” Façade muttered, before looking towards Avia. “Are you okay, sweetie?”

“That was… SO AWESOME!” Avia proclaimed, giving her parents a beaming smile. “Can I try next time?”

“Maybe when we come back after the Summer Sun Celebration, Avia,” Twilight answered, looking towards her husband. “I suppose the escort is ready?”

“It is, they’re waiting for us now,” Façade confirmed. “Some of the hive have already left. Carduus just went with his family, so we’ll probably see them on arrival.”

“Good to know,” Twilight said, picking up Avia onto her back and stepping forwards, sharing a nuzzle with her husband. “Shall we go?”

The family of three exited Avia’s room, closing the door behind them. They then made their way through the hive, moving past many more changelings of all kinds of colouration. Blue. Red. Purple. Sometimes it still amazed Twilight, especially when remembering how things used to be when she was Princess of the Badlands Hive.

So very long ago…

“You okay, honey?” Façade asked Twilight, looking up at the Changeling Queen. “You seem distant.”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Twilight responded with a shake of her head. “Just remembering when I was young, nothing more.”

“Well, you do look pretty good for a fifty-year-old,” Façade cheekily jabbed.

Twilight shot him a smirk. “So you say, dear. But you’re not so bad yourself, at forty-two.”

Avia stuck out her tongue. “Bleh. You’re giving each other lovey-dovey looks again. Stop.”

Façade laughed. “We’d better then, since we’re embarrassing our daughter so much. Because hives forbid she see her parents showing affection.”

“I can’t even eat love when it’s from a changeling!” Avia complained. “So what’s the point?”

“Love is more than a snack, Avia,” Twilight gently admonished. “You will understand when you’re a bit older.”

“No, I won’t. You’re just weird!”

Both parents looked towards the other, and then they rolled their eyes in practised unison. Whatever Avia said, they knew she would change her tune when the teenage years came about. Every parent’s biggest anticipation and yet worst nightmare was the day their daughter would bring home a coltfriend.

Or marefriend? Well, only time would tell.

That line of thought then led Twilight to another. Namely: what would Chrysalis have thought of Façade if she were alive? And her grandchild? If she were there, with them…

Twilight shook her head to rid herself of that thought. This was Avia’s first Summer Sun Celebration, and Twilight still held extremely fond memories of her own. This was going to be a fun-filled couple of days with friends and family, and there was no room for such depressing things to come creeping into her mind.

Avia, for her part, was ignorant of her mother’s inner ruminations. She just sat comfortably between Twilight’s wings, her own fluttering in anticipation when they finally emerged from the hive and out into the fields of Equestria.

The royal sky carriage was already waiting for the three, with two guards hitched up to the front while three more of the blue armoured drones saluted the Queen as she approached before taking up their positions around the carriage. One of them opened the door for the trio to get inside, and Twilight nodded a quick ‘thank you’ to the drone.

The family got comfortable inside, Avia electing to sit between Twilight’s hooves while the husband and wife sat side by side for the trip to come. Once they were secured, Twilight sent a quick bit of confirmation over the hive mind.

Then, silently, the carriage began to move. For several metres the guards cantered forwards, dragging their precious cargo behind them, before jumping and taking to the air. The enchanted carriage followed them up as if it was as light as a feather, and the three escorts also let loose their wings and took to the skies.

With them fully under way, Avia hopped up and looked eagerly out of the window, seeing the rolling plains passing them by. To see the vast green fields, the infinite expanse of the blue sky and even the distant City of Canterlot sitting atop its mountain… All of it just added to the filly’s jubilation towards the coming event.

And in due course they would be arriving at the town of Ponyville, meeting friends and family alike, all ready to behold the one thousandth and thirty-second Summer Sun Celebration.

Author's Note

And so the next chapter in the Change series has begun! And now releasing Saturday, while Fallout is Sundays. A little different than the order I said previously, but eh, plans changed a bit.

This story is going to be far shorter than the others, and is more slice of life over the 'tearing out your hearts' adventures the other two were. At least until the fourth one.

Enjoy the book bug filly! :twilightsmile:

3 - Equestria

Everything was so pretty up here!

It was all so green and blue! With white fluffy clouds were scattered around their carriage as the royal entourage flew through the skies. Avia had faint recollections of all the beauty while visiting her pony grandparents in Canterlot that one time, it was all so different to the black and greens of the hive! And there was so much of it all!

Seriously, how did ponies not get lost all the time?

Avia was loving the view, and every building and distant Equestrians all around and far below. Seeing it all made her wings buzz in excitement, she just wanted to jump out and fly amongst it all!

Though opening the door mid-flight might have made her parents mad, so she reined the desire in as much as she could until they reached Ponyville.

And it wouldn’t be long now, or at least that’s what her mother was assuring her every so often. They had been travelling for quite a while, so it couldn’t be too far off now. And since they were on schedule, the Bearers of Harmony were likely to meet their friend and her family on arrival. From there, Avia would finally get to see the town she had heard so much about from her mother.

Better still? They were staying in a library! How cool was that?

“Mama, what’s the library called?” Avia asked, suddenly curious. “Is it the same one from your stories?”

“Golden Oaks? Yes, it is indeed,” Twilight confirmed with a smile. “The same library I lived in when I was a, ahem, ‘regular old unicorn’.”

“Wow… So, it’s like you’re going home again!”

“In a way, I guess,” Twilight responded. “Though it’s been a while since I lived there. Still, I have a lot of fond memories of that old library…”

“Minus the one with the teeth,” Façade quipped.

Twilight groaned. “Ugh, don’t remind me. Discord…”

“Huh?” Avia said questioningly, looking between her parents in confusion.

Right, Twilight hadn’t included that part in her story. “It doesn’t matter. Point is, it’ll be nice to stay there again. It’s been far too long.”

“And it was nice of the librarian to stay with her family for the celebration,” Façade added. “Giving us use of it.”

“Oh, well…” Avia began to respond. “Will we have time to look through the books there?”

Twilight chuckled. “Most likely, though I’d expect you’d want to spend most of our time there exploring and making friends. The town is host to its fair share of fillies and colts, you know.”

“Oh, I know!” she chirped. “But if I find something cool, I can show it to them! See? I got this!”

“I’m sure you have, Avia,” Twilight replied mirthfully. “Just try not to wear yourself out too much. Especially tomorrow, you don’t want to fall asleep before the ceremony, do you?”

Avia shook her head. “Nuh-uh.”

“Hm, I didn’t think so. So go easy, but otherwise try to have a good time. The Summer Sun Celebration hasn’t been held in Ponyville since the day I myself first set eyes on the town, so it’s a very special occasion.”

“I will! I mean, everyone is going to be there! Right?”

Twilight nodded, confirming her daughter’s assertion. “Yes, though I believe your Aunt Cadance and Uncle Shining Armor are going to be arriving tomorrow.”

“Oh, so they won’t be there when we are…?”

“I’m afraid not, Avia. Your grandparents should be there though.”

Avia brightened. “Awesome! I haven’t seen them in ages.”

“And I’m sure they’ve missed you,” Façade commented to his daughter, leaning over to give her a quick noogie, much to Avia’s indignation. “Hives know how much they love to spoil you.”

Avia stuck her tongue out. “That’s because they’re the best!”

“That is a grandparent’s job,” Twilight pointed out with a smirk. “I remember my grandmother, Velvet’s mother I mean. She always did overdo the birthday gifts for me and Shiny, rest her soul…”

“Touché,” Façade conceded. “I hope we packed enough space to bring back whatever they have in store this time

“I always take into account every variable,” Twilight said smugly. “Also, I’m sure the guards wouldn’t mind carrying some saddlebags.”

Façade laughed. “You are such a tyrant.”

Twilight snorted. “Oh pish, then you’re aiding and abetting. So there, we’re both guilty.”

“Oh, I’m well aware.”

“You’re doing the look again!” Avia moaned.

Both parents rolled their eyes, before breaking out into hearty chuckles as Avia pouted rather adorably, giving them a dismissive huff as she crossed her forehooves.

Of course, the filly’s dour mood was never to last. She quickly cheered up again as her mother began to recount some of the stories from her time in Ponyville, told down to each tiny perfected detail. Avia found particularly funny the tale of how Princess Celestia had provided two tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala and her mother had to choose which friends to provide them to, only for Celestia to provide the remaining tickets when approached about the issue.

She found her mother was a very silly ‘pony’ back then.

After that came a recounting of another of Avia’s favourites, where Twilight had tried to figure out Pinkie Pie’s… unusual abilities, of which her attempts were a complete and utter failure. The Changeling Queen had just concluded the story when the carriage began to descend from the sky, and Avia gave an excited gasp as she hopped up against the window and pressed her face against the class.

“We’re here!” came her muffled cry.

Sure enough, outside the window, the town of Ponyville was quickly coming into full view. It was as quaint as ever, if perhaps a bit larger from a few decades of new homes and general growth. Though the town was predictably far busier than usual with the advent of the Summer Sun Celebration, and the town was heavily decorated with all kinds of things that were undoubtedly the courtesy of the Element of Laughter. Banners, flags, and likely more than a few hidden party cannons. Many bore motifs of the sun and moon, and even a few tapestries that seemed more the work of Rarity had been hung around the town hall.

And of course, there was Golden Oaks Library, the great revived tree having also been decorated for the occasion.

And Twilight Sparkle was feeling a most profound sense of déjà vu.

One thing that had not been there thirty-two years ago upon landing, however, were the five mares emerging from the cluster of homes and businesses towards the landing site.

Twilight smiled as a jolt marked their landing back on the ground, the changeling guards pulling the carriage trotting to a halt while the others dropped down either side of them. They clattered to a halt, and the moment the guards opened up the door a small bubbly little filly pounced out into the sunlight. Avia took a moment to stretch her limbs and wings, getting some satisfying pops from her stiff joints, before straightening up and having a look around.

They had landed just outside of town, not too far from the local train station in fact. There were a few ponies, and even some other creatures, a short distance away who all stopped to see the landing of the royal changelings.

But while those people all kept a respectful distance, there was the group they’d seen during their descent who closed the remaining distance between them and the changelings. A group who, as Twilight emerged from the carriage with her husband, only made the Changeling Queen’s smile brighten all the more.

“Twiliiiiight!” an ecstatic pink mare with a cotton candy looking mane squealed, bouncing up to the queen as if she had all the energy in the world and giving her the deepest hug she could muster. “Where have you been you silly changeling?”

If it had been anyone else the guards might have been nervous by the sudden onslaught. But as it was, all drones had come to expect such shenanigans from the Bearer of Laughter that was Pinkie Pie.

“What are you talking about, I was on time!” Twilight light-heartedly protested, returning the hug.

Though the pink mare was then pried away in a light blue aura, Rarity giving her friend a disapproving ‘tisk’.

“Yes, darling. And do give them some space! Really now, she just landed.”

Pinkie giggled. “Actually, she was thirty-two seconds late to the time she said she’d be here! I’d think Twilight would be here on the dot! Unless she’s been replaced by a changeling! Wait, can changelings replace other changelings?”

Twilight shook her head, chuckling. “I guess I’m slipping in my old age.”

“Nonsense, you look positively fabulous,” Rarity assured the Queen, giving her a far gently embrace then their bright pink friend had. “Far more so than I, do you have any idea how much work it is to keep my mane from slipping into grey these days?”

“Ah, hooey, Rarity,” Applejack said with a snort. “Ain’t nothing wrong with a bit of grey. It shows a pony’s experience, is all!”

Now that Avia looked at the group, aside from Rarity they all did seem to have a grey hair to two beginning to crop up. But beyond that, they seemed as they always had for as long as the filly had known her aunts.

Even more so for her mother, who could never perceive her friends in any other way than she always had, grey hairs or no.

The best mares any Changeling Queen could hope to call her best friends.

The Queen greeted the rest of her friends, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, in much the same manner as she had Rarity. And after the quick embrace, the former of the two mares looked over towards the nearby nymph.

“Hi there, Avia,” Fluttershy said sweetly down to the filly, who gave her a beaming smile in return. “And to you, Façade.”

“Mrs Fluttershy,” Façade greeted in turn. “How’s the family?”

Fluttershy gave a small smile. “Well. They’re out at the market right now, gathering some supplies for the animals while we’re at the celebration.”

“All our families are hard at work getting ready for this thing,” Applejack added in. “I’d say the whole town is caught in the excitement.”

“You’re telling me, I’ve had the weather team keeping every single cloud exactly where we want them,” Rainbow Dash remarked. “Nothing like showing those young hotshots exactly how the Captain of the Wonderbolts does it!”

“You were one of them once, you know,” Applejack pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, but I was always awesome too!”

“Uh-huh…”

“Everything is going well then,” Twilight noted with a laugh.

“You know you can always count on us, Twi,” Rainbow Dash confirmed. “Your library is all set too, when you’re ready to head on up.”

“Book Cover made certain it was fit for a Queen,” Rarity said in praise of the said librarian. “And I can certainly appreciate the generous gesture of returning the old thing to you. At least for a couple days.”

“It was really nice of her,” Fluttershy supported.

“I’ll have to give her something in thanks,” Twilight mused. “I know she probably isn’t expecting anything, but that’s just all the more reason.”

“Are grandma and grandpa here?” Avia suddenly asked, hopping forwards a step and asking generally towards the group of mares.

“Why yes, they arrived this morning, dear,” Rarity said softly to the filly. “I’m sure you will run into them soon enough. And I know Sapphire also wants to meet you.”

Avia tilted her head. “Sapphire?”

“Sapphire is Rarity’s daughter, Avia,” Twilight informed her child.

“Oh! Apple Surprise and Awesome Blitz will probably want in on that meeting too!” Pinkie chirped in addition. “And we all know those three are glued to the hip, so it’ll probably happen all at once anyway!”

“Are… they my age?” Avia asked.

“More or less,” Twilight assured. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll all get along just fine.”

“And get into as much delicious chaos as their little club’s predecessors, no doubt,” a new voice mockingly said from behind the changeling, and all eyes turned around and up to the roof of the royal carriage.

Avia’s eyes widened as she saw what could only be described as a monster.

“GAH!” Avia shrieked, immediately hiding beneath the safety of her mother’s legs.

The creature rolled its eyes. “Your spawn is a charming little thing isn’t it, Sparkle Butt?”

“Discord…” Twilight deadpanned. “I wasn’t sure you were going to show.”

“As many a millennial has said: You Only Live Once,” Discord dismissed, and in a flash of light he moved from the top of the carriage to the middle of the group. “Besides, you all really need me if you want to make something like this actually fun.”

“Hey, I think I did a pretty good job!” Pinkie protested.

“In pony terms. But chaos always adds that... pizzazz that you ponies always miss out on with your wretched obsession with ‘harmony’,” he retorted. “And I get to hang with Fluttershy, so it’s a double win for me.”

“T-that’s Discord…?” Avia muttered, slowly poking her head from her safe spot. She’d known he was… odd. But nothing had really prepared her for the reality of it. “He’s really… um…”

“Handsome? Dashing?” Discord suggested, pulling a pose. Though he deflated a bit when Avia shook her head in denial. “Pfft. As I said, charming.”

“Now now, Discord. She’s just a filly,” Fluttershy gently chided. “He’s staying with us for the celebration.”

“But of course, where else would I stay?” Discord interjected. “With the Queen of Books?”

“Not on your life,” Twilight shot back. “I’m never letting you touch that library again!”

“Oh it wasn’t so bad, bonding and life advice was had all around,” Discord dismissed, before casting an eye of towards Avia. Literally, it detached and wandered over, only causing the filly to retreat further. “Speaking of…”

Avia yelped as she was engulphed by a bright flash, and the petrified nymph suddenly found herself directly in front of the Spirit of Chaos. A second flash overtook Discord himself, and a doctor’s coat formed around his body. He then leaned towards the filly, examining her as if she were a patient before summoning an otoscope and peering into her ear.

“Yes yes, much like her mother she definitely has books and nerd stuff affecting the brain,” Discord commented. “Oh, but a bit more of a fire than the plump purple horse I met all those years ago. Likely cause: being raised by changelings over the ponies. Heh, she’ll be a hoofful in her teenage years.”

“Discord!” Twilight shouted, snatching the otoscope and giving him a withering glare. “What are you doing?”

“Just making sure my investment is well taken care of,” Discord dismissed, sending his coat back into the aether.

“Your what?”

“Well, I did give you that push all those years ago. I’d say she owes her existence to me,” Discord said with a cocky grin.

Twilight blushed, her wings bristling as she began to get a little mad. “That’s- That’s not why Façade and I… Shut up!”

Discord gave a hearty chuckle, noting the Queen’s agitated state as well as the glares he was receiving from the guards. “Well, I see we’ve almost returned to the ‘threatening my life’ stage of things. So I’d better be off. Though I will be seeing you around, we’ve got this whole dumb celebration ahead of us after all! Ta ta!”

And then in another flash of bright white light, he was gone again.

Twilight’s eye twitched, while her husband coughed awkwardly into his hoof.

“Well, that’s one way to start things,” he commented.

“I can feel a migraine, and we’ve only been here for five minutes…” Twilight muttered, rubbing her temples. “Ugh, Fluttershy please tell me you’ll keep an eye on him?”

Fluttershy tittered behind a hoof. “You know he’s only playing around. But I will ask him to tone it down a little.”

Twilight sighed. “Alright, thank you.”

“My Queen, perhaps we should endeavour to reach the library, and unpack for the celebration,” one of the changelings in the escort suggested.

“Yes, I do think that would be best,” Twilight agreed, turning towards the guards. “Please, bring everything to the library. I will be along shortly with my friends.”

“Yes, Queen Twilight!” The guards all saluted at once, before loyally and professionally getting to work.

“I suppose we had better move ourselves, then,” Façade stated, before trotting over to his daughter. “Are you alright, sweetie?”

“I don’t like him, he’s mean,” Avia muttered. “And kinda scary.”

“Oh, don’t worry about him,” Fluttershy assured the filly as she walked up next to Façade. “I know he can be… overwhelming sometimes. But he’s just eccentric, he didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Oh… OK.”

“But if he does do anything to scare you, you come and tell us alright?” Façade asked of her. “Us or Fluttershy here, OK?”

Avia nodded. “Alright.”

“Once you get to know him, you’ll see he’s more of an eccentric, and even protective, uncle,” Fluttershy assured, before humming in thought. “At least he is to my foals…”

“Come on ya’ll,” Applejack said to the group, interrupting any further deliberation on the matter. “We still got some catching up to do, and we can walk and talk on our way to the library.”

“I agree, I have plenty of gossip to share,” Rarity concurred.

Twilight smiled again, her mood raising back up. “Alright then. Façade, would you take Avia?”

He nodded. “On it.”

He turned back to Avia, motioning for his daughter to hop up onto his back. She did so without question, wishing to be somewhere safe and comfortable after her… strange encounter with the Spirit of Chaos.

Once the filly was secured on his back, Façade made to trot back to the rest of the group. They then got underway, taking a more scenic route around Ponyville back to the library. This was probably both for Avia’s sake, so she could see some of the town, and to allow the Element Bearers time to properly catch up.

And as they progressed into the town, Avia was happy to put the meeting with the odd draconequus into the back of her mind. He still made the filly uneasy, but if the others vouched for him then she just had to brave up and get to know him!

Who knows? Maybe he would end up one of the many new friends Avia was hoping to make…

4 - Grandparents

Avia had never seen so many ponies in one place! Even in Canterlot, there hadn’t seemed to be that many wandering the streets, but now it was like a massive pastel zombie horde coming to consume them all!

…Maybe Avia had been reading too many books after all.

Still, the size of the crowd was mind-boggling to her. And it wasn’t just ponies, but she could see griffons, changelings… even a zebra or two. One, in particular, seemed to have set up a stand where she was selling all kinds of strange brews, her speech an odd pattern of rhymes.

There were a lot of other stands also set up. One mare was selling a whole bunch of confectionary, and Avia made a mental note to go visit that one later. Another was, for some reason, selling various types of rocks with a huge sign above her reading ‘pets for sale’. Weird.

Even weirder was the ecstatic wave that Pinkie Pie gave the mare in question, but Avia chose not to ask.

There were even more than Avia had time to examine as the group walked through town, some more crowded than others. It seemed, even though the main event wasn’t until the next night, that the Summer Sun Celebration was already underway. And throughout, the six Bearers of Harmony quite often giggled amongst themselves like they were teenagers again, catching up through various tales they had to regale on one another.

“Really, Sapphire is the spitting image of Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said with a titter. “Always getting into trouble, looking for that next big adventure with her little friends. She has taken a shine to my line of work, mind you.”

“I take it the Cutie Mark Crusaders are in town?” Twilight asked, knowing that Apple Bloom was a given since she worked at Sweet Apple Acres with her family, but the others’ occupations took them around Equestria when they weren’t doing their little cutie mark related quests.

“You kidding? You know they’d never miss a Ponyville hosted celebration,” Rainbow Dash stated. “And since all us Wonderbolts are gonna be here, Scoots was always going to. We are a big attraction to these things, you know!”

“Any chance to show off,” Applejack said with a roll of her eyes. “What’s it this time? A big flashy performance, or just bragging how ya’ll ‘single-hoofedly took down the changeling Empress’.”

“Come on, AJ, give us some credit. And I’ve never claimed that…” Rainbow retorted. “Beyond, like, one time!”

“One time too many, Sugarcube,” Applejack said with a smirk, causing Rainbow to just huff in response.

“Well, back to the topic at hoof…” Rarity interrupted the squabbling duo. “Sweetie Belle arrived a few days ago after finishing her concert in Manehatten, typically showering Sapphire with gifts on arrival. She does like to spoil her niece.”

“Sounds like Cadance,” Twilight noted mirthfully, Avia brightening as she stood up on her father’s back with a smile at the mention of her aunt. “Oh hives, we really are going to need a bigger carriage going home…”

And Avia couldn’t wait. And speaking of spoiling…

“Uh oh, trouble at twelve o’clock,” Façade joked as two very specific ponies became visible through the crowd.

Night Light and Twilight Velvet were briefly startled by the familiar voice of their son-in-law, but the two elderly ponies quickly grew wide smiles as their family members parted through the crowd.

Avia’s pony grandparents looked quite good for their age, having looked after themselves throughout their lives. Despite that, though, their waning years were clear. Their manes had lost much of their once vibrant colours, and creases could be seen along their features betraying the fact that they were well into their seventies.

But why would that ever stop them?

“Twilight!” Twilight Velvet cantered happily forwards and quickly embraced her adoptive daughter, one the Queen returned readily. “And you too, Façade! How are you?”

“I’m fine, Mrs Velvet,” Façade responded. “I hope you are well?”

“Oh, you know it’s just Velvet to you,” she chided, before giving him a sly wink. “Or Mum, if you’re so inclined.”

Façade blushed, and both Twilight and Night Light laughed at his indignation, the latter laying it out for him: “You’d best let her have one of them, or you’ll never hear the end of it.”

“I know… Force of habit.”

“Grandma!” Avia chirped, bolting over her father’s head and into Velvet’s waiting hooves. “Grandpa!”

“Avia! Oh, how are you, my dear?” Velvet asked in a maternal manner, giving the filly a smooch on the head before allowing her husband to also have a quick cuddle with their grandchild. “Oh, if I’d known I’d run into you I’d have brought your present!”

Avia gasped. “You did bring one!? What is it!?”

The mare chuckled, bopping the filly on the nose. “Now now, you’ll just have to wait and see.”

During the exchange, Night Light slinked over to Twilight and whispered into her ear: “It’s Canterlot Cantabiles Volume Thirty-One, signed by the original author. It’s a rare edition.”

“Now I’m jealous,” Twilight said with a small laugh, watching on as Avia begged a playful Twilight Velvet for hints and clues. “That’s when it gets good. I’m sure Avia will love it.”

“You think so? I mean, I have an inkling she’s so much like another little bookworm I once knew…” He feigned ignorance, tapping his chin in thought.

A light purple gossamer wing smacked him lightly around the head. “Hush you.”

“Ah, honey… Why would I ever do that?”

“You’re the worst kind of pony.”

“And you love your dear old Dad all the same, eh?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Yes, Dad. I do…”

He couldn’t help but give her a smirk of vindication, eliciting one further roll of the Changeling Queen’s eyes.

“It’s totally a book!” Avia announced, confident in her assertion. “Am I right? Is it a book?”

Velvet hummed in thought. “I don’t know, is it?”

“No fair!” the filly whined. “You can’t answer with a question!”

“Can’t I?”

“Grandmaaaa!”

Velvet giggled. “You will just have to wait and see, dear. I promise that you’ll receive it soon.”

Avia tried to hide her gleeful impatience, nodding in turn. “Okay…”

“So, where are you and your friends heading?” Night Light asked, examining the sizable group of changelings and ponies.

“Twi’s just heading over to the library, Mr Light,” Applejack answered. “Get all done and settled in for the celebration.”

“Oh, it’s like a homecoming!” Velvet commented. “Don’t let us keep you from your fun! We’re just seeing what’s out and about in town.”

“Mum, it’s no trouble,” Twilight assured. “We don’t see each other enough as it is. I’d like to chat a while longer.”

“No no dear, we can catch up once your father and I are done browsing,” she responded. “We will be over to the library in a little while, so don’t let us keep you. I’m sure you’ll have some organising to do.”

“It isn’t exactly my library to organise anymore,” Twilight muttered with a small kick to the dirt.

“I’m sure the nice librarian won’t mind, dear. But really now, you have a library to sort and I have shopping to do!”

“And I have to stop her from spending all our bits,” Night Light muttered from one side, heard by almost all but Velvet herself.

“Alright, if you’re sure,” Twilight conceded. “You can come on over this afternoon, things should be calming down later on. Most of the activity will be tomorrow.”

“I find that hard to imagine with all the current hustle and bustle,” Velvet noted. “But yes, we will be sure to. Do mind how you go, won’t you?”

Twilight snorted. “It’s just a walk from here to the Golden Oaks, what could happen?”

“Shall I answer that or will one of you?” Façade asked to his wife’s fellow Element Bearers, who all stifled their laughter.

“Very funny. But I’m a Queen, not a troublemaker,” Twilight shot back, before turning to give her parents a final embrace. “I love you guys.”

“And we love you, Twily,” Night Light replied.

“And me!” Avia shot up in between the group.

“Yes, and you!”

And with that final interaction, the group parted ways with the elderly unicorn couple. Velvet immediately dragged Night Light to some nearby stand or another, while the main group continued their jaunt to the library.

And after some more idle chatter, the fabled tree came into view.

There was a lot of activity in the large space around the library, more stalls and activities having been prepared for adults and children alike. A small group of the latter were playing on an arcade machine being operated by a brown stallion in a strange multi-coloured hat with a small rotor blade on top. The tree itself had several banners and flags being hung from it, giving the entire area a joyful Summer Sun Celebration feel.

In other words, home sweet home.

The door was open, and Twilight strolled into the library amidst a wave of nostalgia. It looked much as it always had, books lining the outside with a table in the centre containing a pony head bust. One nearby doorway led into the kitchen, another would lead down into the basement where, as far as Twilight was aware, a lot of her old research equipment still laid to that very day. And then, finally, some stairs led up to the upper level where the bathroom and bedrooms would be found.

“Wow…” Avia looked over her mother’s old home with a starry-eyed look. “So! Cool!”

“Well, I’m glad you approve,” Twilight commented as she trotted in, examining the shelves. “Hm… Not the system I’d use, but effective nonetheless.”

“Heh, right there’s the spot where Dash decided books were a good air break,” Applejack said with a chuckle, pointing at a specific set of shelves.

“Hey, it’s more like they chose me,” Rainbow retorted. “It’s not like I meant to crash.”

“Well, accidents do happen, darling,” Rarity added in. “And more than their fair share has occurred within this tree.”

“Just like all those times Twilight went totally crazy!” Pinkie Pie added in a little too happily. “Ah, weren’t those the days?”

“Yes, Pinkie… quite.”

“I still remember inviting you and Applejack for my first slumber party,” Twilight reminisced with an amused shake of her head. “Wasn’t that night eventful…”

Avia gave a sharp gasp. “Slumber party!? Oh, we have got to do that sometime!”

“We’ll add it to the list,” Façade said, patting his daughter on the head.

“I should go check on my animal friends,” Fluttershy then announced, looking towards the others regretfully. “Sometimes the increased noise can stress some of them out, so I want to check that everything is okay at home.”

“Yeah, and I still got cider barrels to fill for the celebration tomorrow,” Applejack concurred.

“Ha, you bet you do!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “Isn’t a party without them!”

“And I’ll be sure you take it easy,” Applejack retorted with a raised eyebrow. “Last thing we need is you intoxicated.”

“Yeah yeah, Miss Killjoy,” Rainbow shot back. “But either way, I do need to check in with the weather teams. Still got some work to do before things are perfect for the princesses.

“I think we all do, the Summer Sun Celebration is a most busy time after all,” Rarity pointed out.

“Yeah, and some of it may need organisation… If you catch my meaning,” Rainbow Dash said while taking to the air and jabbing Twilight with a sly elbow.

Twilight tittered behind a hoof. “I guess a Queen’s job is never done. I’ll see what I can do after we’ve settled in.”

“I’m sure some of our changelings wouldn’t mind helping out,” Façade suggested. “Coordinating the effort over the hive mind would be a start.”

“Good plan,” Twilight responded over the hive mind itself, shooting him a smirk. “All drones, anyone wishing to assist with the preparations respond with confirmation and prepare for instructions.”

“Oh! Are we doing hive stuff now?” a younger voice sounded over the hive mind.

“Avia…” Twilight said verbally, shooting her daughter a small look of irritation. “What have we talked about when it comes to using the royal link?”

“Oh, uh… sorry.”

“I’m gonna assume you were doing the ‘talking in your heads’ thing and just go with it,” Applejack commented from the side. “Well, Sugarcubes, I think we all need to get busy with the preparations.”

Twilight nodded. “I agree. There’s still a lot of work to be done.”

“And super mega parties to plan!” Pinkie added in, before throwing a super serious salute. “Don’t worry, your Queenliness! Everything will be amazing by the time the princesses get here!”

“Come on ya’ll,” Applejack spoke up, opening the front door and motioning for a swift exit. “Let’s leave them to their family business and get on with ours.”

“We shall catch up after all is said and done darling,” Rarity said in farewell to the Changeling Queen.

“Or when she comes around organising, for old times’ sake,” Pinkie Pie remarked as she bounced out of the tree. “See you later, Twilight!”

“Try not to have too much fun without us,” Rainbow Dash said, shooting Avia a playful glare. “Especially you, squirt!”

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” Avia recited, and then swore that she saw Pinkie Pie turn to stare right at her from outside.

“Right. Well then, later changelings!” Rainbow concluded, flying out the door.

“Yes, well… I hope you enjoy staying here again,” Fluttershy said, beginning to move off herself. “Call if you need anything!”

“I will, Fluttershy,” Twilight assured. “Thanks.”

And with that, the Element Bearers had all filed out of the library back to their own tasks for the day. Applejack glanced over to the Changeling Queen from where she was holding the door, tipped her hat in farewell and then slipped out herself.

The door shut, and then the three changelings had the place to themselves.

5 - Cutie Mark Crusaders

“I’m heading out, Mum!” Avia called back into the library, hopping towards the door with a grin on her face, and her belly full of daisy sandwiches.

The moment they had been left alone in the Golden Oaks Library, Avia had wasted no time in sticking her muzzle into every nook and cranny while demanding her mother regale her with every story about the place. For her part, Queen Twilight attempted to make each recollection as short and to the point as she could, seeing as she had plenty of work to do, and eventually managed to distract Avia by suggesting that she look at the library’s selection of literature to see if there were any books the filly wanted to borrow.

And there were one or two. Or maybe three, the pile did grow a little.

But while Avia had busied herself among the polished shelves, Twilight had taken only a few short moments to revel in the nostalgia. She had then started to coordinate with her drones over the hive mind, arranging who would help with the celebration and where. Façade had added in his own input and had also excused himself into the kitchen to make the family a light lunch of daisy sandwiches and lemonade.

Avia had munched on her sandwich while continuing her book hunt, while her parents finished up their directing of the hive and idly talked amongst themselves whilst also enjoying their meal and one another’s company. It was only as they were just finishing their food, and deciding where they should go and inspect first, that they heard Avia’s call.

“Oh? And where do you think you’re going?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Exploring,” Avia replied. “I wanna see the town some more!”

“Well alright, just call over the hive if you need anything. I’m sure we, or a drone, will be nearby,” Twilight told her. “Do try to make some friends while you’re out, would you? You do remember what Rarity said?”

“Uh-huh,” Avia replied, opening the door with her magic. “I… I’ll try!”

Then Avia stepped out of the library, closing the door behind her. She released a deep breath as the sunlight hit her, the young nymph taking a good look at the sights immediately around her. As before, there were still ponies for as far as the eye could see. To her right, she could spot a couple of drones from the hive helping set up a blue griffon’s stand. The griffon was in conversation with a pony sporting pale light greyish spring bud coat and sea green mane and a light blue drone, Ocellus if Avia wasn’t mistaken, about the celebration while introducing themselves.

It was nice to see people of all species getting along.

And there really were all species, as Avia started to realise when she began to trot down the street. It was definitely the ponies, followed by the changelings, who were the most numerous; but now that the filly looked she could spy more and more individuals of other kinds. A rather bubbly looking yak engaging in odd girl talk with a magenta hippogriff. A large shadow briefly blotted out the sun as an orange dragon flew overhead, probably an early arrival ahead of the dragon delegation that would include both Dragon Lord Ember as well as Avia’s uncle, Spike.

Avia had to wonder how many other delegations the Equestrian crown had invited to attend that year.

Really, seeing so many new and exotic species was mind-boggling and exciting in equal measures to the Princess of the Equestrian Hive. But it also made her a little nervous, and left her feeling a little like a fish out of water…

Avia turned a corner, passing by Pharynx bragging about something or other to some other drones while his little brother Thorax looked embarrassed through proximity, and walked into a square of sorts. A pony statue sat in the centre with a building nearby that looked like it was made of ice cream or something. Though Avia figured it was cardboard decorated to look stupidly tasty.

Avia walked up to the statue, sitting down in front of it before giving the statue and the fountain it stood upon a look over. The stone earth pony mare was reared up on her hooves, water flowing up in a spray from her mouth before trickling back down into the fountain again. Flags were hanging between it and a nearby home, one of the many decorative items in the area. Two mares walked by, one grey and one white, each with musical notes as their cutie marks. A third walked past in the opposite direction, this one green with a golden lyre on her flank.

So many people. So much to see. So much to do. Where in the hives was Avia meant to begin?

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS SUN MOVERS, YAY!”

Well, that seemed as good a start as any.

The shouting was coming from the next street over, so Avia raised her wings, hopping into the air. She flew over the statue and a Ponyville home behind it until she was above the street in question, looking towards the commotion to see a trio of fillies gathered together.

They looked like a… curious group. One was an alabaster unicorn with a purple mane done up in a cute little bun. The second was an orange pegasus with a deep blue mane with lighter blue highlighting that almost looked like a lightning bolt streaking through either side. The final filly was a green earth pony with a short brown mane. None of them had their cutie marks.

And the unicorn’s horn was alight, being pointed at the sun for some reason while the pegasus cheered her on.

The earth pony looked less thrilled.

“This ain’t gonna work, guys!” the earth pony cautioned. “That’s the Princess’ job!”

“Hey, you cheered the chant with us!” the pegasus protested.

“It’s the Crusaders thing! I can’t NOT do it!”

“I think I’ve almost got it!” the unicorn squeaked, her tongue sticking the side of her mouth as her eyes scrunched in concentration. “…I think. Did I wobble it?”

“Not even a little,” the earth pony deadpanned.

“Aww.”

“Uh, guys…” the pegasus interrupted their… whatever it was they were doing, though Avia was distracted from that with a small ‘eep’ when she realised the pony was pointing in her direction. “There’s a bug filly spying on us.”

“I’m not a bug filly, I’m a changeling!” Avia shouted down in protest.

“Guys, there’s a changeling spying on us,” the pegasus amended.

That was better.

Avia, seeing as she’d been spotted, glided down from above the rooftops and landed next to the strange trio. The pegasus was glaring at her almost suspiciously, the unicorn had an odd sparkle in her eyes while the earth pony merely offered her a friendly smile.

“Howdy, name’s Apple Surprise,” Apple Surprise introduced herself, taking Avia’s hoof and shaking it overenthusiastically. “Pleasure to meet ya, Miss…?”

“Uh, Avia…” the Princess replied, gingerly pulling her hoof away from the death shake. “Princess Avia, from the Equestrian Hive.”

“I knew it!” the unicorn suddenly squealed, shooting forwards until she was muzzle-to-muzzle with Avia. “I knew you were the Princess! I mean, I haven’t seen a drone with eyes like that! Oh… It’s so amazing to meet you!”

“Uh…”

“Give her some space, Sapphire,” Apple Surprise scolded, biting on the unicorn’s tail and dragging her back, much to her indignation.

“Calm down, girls,” the pegasus said with a roll of her eyes. “Sure, she’s a princess. But she’s not a princess princess, you know?”

Avia’s cheeks puffed up. “Am too!”

“Are not!”

“Am too!”

“You’re just a filly!”

“Well, I’ll be a queen someday!” Avia rebuked. “That’s better than a princess! Isn’t it?”

“All I hear is a bunch of fancy titles and two fillies gabbing,” Apple Surprise deadpanned. “Simmer down, would you? And I mean you, Awesome Blitz!”

Now it was Awesome Blitz’s turn to puff her cheeks up. “She started it!”

Avia gasped. “Did not!”

“Did too!”

“GIRLS!” Apple Surprise shouted, getting their attention. “Ugh, I feel like this has gotten off on the wrong hoof…”

“Yeah, we shouldn’t treat royalty like that!” Sapphire protested.

“Well… my mother always says that just because we’re royalty doesn’t mean we should act different or better than others…” Avia said, before adding: “Unless we’re doing royal business or something, then we’re supposed to be all regal and stuff.”

“Well that’s fair enough,” Apple Surprise stated. “Your mother is Queen Twilight, right? My Ma has talked about her a fair bit.”

Her Ma…? Wait, why did their names suddenly ring some recent bells for Avia…

“Wait…” Avia looked at the young unicorn next to Apple Surprise. “Your mother is Rarity, right?”

She puffed up with pride. “Yup! She’s amazing, isn’t she? She says I can work in the boutique when I’m older!”

Awesome Blitz gagged. “Ugh, too many dresses. The Wonderbolts are the way to go!”

“So, uh… are you Aunt Rainbow’s or…?” Avia gingerly enquired.

“Huh? What about Aunt Rainbow?” she said with an odd look towards Avia.

“Wait, she’s your aunt too?”

“Too? She doesn’t have any changeling relatives…”

“Not all family has to be blood, Blitz,” Apple Surprise pointed out. “My family has plenty of honorary Apples out there.”

“Your family is also huge, Apple,” Blitz retorted. “But I guess I’m not really related to Aunt Rainbow by blood either. My mother’s name is Scootaloo, she’s in the Wonderbolts with Aunt Rainbow.”

“Well, since you’re an Apple I’m betting you’re Aunt Applejack’s kid,” Avia noted towards the earth pony. “Or maybe her sister’s…?”

“Nope, you got it down the first time,” Apple Surprise confirmed. “Cousin Sweet Pip is a couple years younger than us.”

“And how old are you all…?”

“Ten!” they all chirped at once.

Avia’s eyes widened. “Huh!? Me too!”

“Really? Cool!” Apple Surprise responded enthusiastically. “Well, again, it’s a pleasure to meet you!”

“And you! So, uh… what was that about sun movers?”

“Sapphire thinks she can get a sun cutie mark just like the Princess if she moves it,” Awesome Blitz explained.

“I think I was close!” the unicorn in question claimed.

“No, you really weren’t,” Apple Surprise refuted.

Avia tilted her head. “Why…?”

“To get our cutie marks is our biggest goal!” Sapphire proclaimed. “We’re, well... You could say we’re late bloomers. Most other fillies and colts in our class have theirs by now.”

“Even the old Cutie Mark Crusaders had theirs by now,” Blitz noted, dejectedly kicking a pebble.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders…? Yeah, Mum has told me the stories. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, right?”

Apple Surprise nodded. “Eeyup. When we started wanting our marks, Awesome Blitz got the idea to start the New Cutie Mark Crusaders from her Ma. Sapphire thought it was a good idea-”

“If it worked for Aunt Sweetie Belle, then it’ll work for us!” the unicorn interrupted.

“…Ahem, and so I went along with it. Now we do all sorts to find our marks, no luck yet though…”

“Last week we ended up covered in tree sap for our efforts…” Blitz mumbled. “So what’s your special talent, Avia?”

Avia blinked. “My… special talent?”

“Yeah, the thing that makes you special! That’ll get a cutie mark on your rump!”

“Well… changelings don’t get cutie marks,” Avia explained, diverting her gaze awkwardly. “So, I guess I never thought of it.”

“I thought royals did, doesn’t your mother have one?” Sapphire asked.

“Yeah, she does. Though, apparently, that’s because she’s the Element of Magic,” Avia informed them. “I don’t think I can get one.”

“So does that mean you don’t have a special talent…?”

“I… don’t really know. I don’t think so, I mean… I can do this!”

In a flash of cyan flame, the visage of the changeling was replaced with that of a pony. Avia appeared to have transformed herself into a pony version of… herself. Her colouration was the same, only with lavender fur replacing her chitin and her wings having vanished from view, her horn having also straightened out into a standard unicorn horn.

“Ta-da!”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders all gave awed noises at the display.

“Wow, I’ve never seen a changeling do that before,” Sapphire said in glee. “I’m getting so many design ideas, I have to tell my Mum some of them!”

Avia blushed at the praise. “Thanks. But… I still don’t think I can get a cutie mark. I know I can change well, but nothing has ever appeared or anything…”

Awesome Blitz hummed, leaning down and sticking her muzzle uncomfortably close to Avia’s flank. She then took a step back, before walking around Avia while keeping the same look of scrutiny.

“Uh… why are you looking at me like that?”

Blitz didn’t respond, instead coming to a halt in front of Avia and remaining silent for a few moments.

“Crusaders, we have a new mission!” Blitz announced. “We are going to get this changeling a cutie mark!”

Avia took a step back. “What!?”

“You sure this is a good idea?” Apple Surprise questioned.

“It couldn’t hurt to try, could it?” Sapphire stated.

“If we get covered in tree sap again, I’m blaming you.”

“Eh, it’ll all be fine!” Blitz dismissed, walking up to Avia and putting a hoof around her. “Avia, we’ve got this! We’ll get you a cutie mark before the celebration is over.”

“I really don’t think that’s possible, I’ve researched the topic…”

“Pfft, who needs dusty old books anyway?”

“Hey!”

Awesome Blitz chuckled, hopping away from Avia with an eager flap of her wings. “I guess you like books, huh?”

“Well, yeah!” Avia huffed, and in another flash of cyan she returned to her usual changeling self. “And they’re not dusty! I keep them well maintained!”

“Right…”

“If we’re actually doing this, then we should start at the tree house. Our newest member needs a proper induction!” Apple Surprise stated.

Avia didn’t recall signing up for this…

“Oh, this is going to be so awesome!” the orange pegasus gushed, excitement written all over her features. “Say it with me girls!”

Sapphire and Apple Surprise looked between each other, and then…

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CHANGELING CUTIE MARK HUNTERS, YAY!”

6 - Sugarcube Corner

“It could use more chitin,” Avia mused as she trotted up to the recently repainted and refurbished treehouse amidst the orchards of Sweet Apple Acres. “And more blacks and greens.”

“Why are changelings so obsessed with black and green, you’re as colourful as the rest of us!” Apple Surprise protested.

Avia shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess it’s just our tradition or something. But it’s always worked for the hive.”

“The treehouse doesn’t need chitin!” Awesome Blitz denied.

“But it’s an excellent building material!”

“How do you even get that stuff? Aren’t YOU made out of it?”

“Only my outer shell,” Avia replied matter-of-factly. “But we can also engineer it. It’s a process of-”

“Never mind,” the pegasus deadpanned, giving an exaggerated yawn. “I don’t want to sleep just yet.”

Avia puffed up her cheeks in indignation. “Well, you asked!”

“We can talk redesigns after your initiation!” Sapphire stated. “I have so many ideas!”

“You’re not redesigning the treehouse. Again,” Apple Surprise deadpanned.

The unicorn filly huffed. “You just don’t understand fabulous.”

Apple Surprise just rolled her eyes, and then led the others up the ram to the treehouse before opening the door.

On entering, Avia saw a sizable wooden room that, with the addition of some extra desks, looked like it could make a good classroom. There were various posters across the walls and sheets of paper the crusaders had scribbled upon with crayons. Against the far wall stood a podium from which a filly sized pony, or changeling, could hold speeches from. Already ideas for informative lectures were coming to Avia’s mind!

There was also a desk in one corner flanking the podium, and boxes of random junk in another. The boxes were filled with… well, pretty much everything Avia could think of. Kites, a scooter, crash helmets…

Crusading supplies, no doubt.

The rest of the room was largely empty, a few windows lined the exterior letting in sunlight, while a jury-rigged lightbulb hung above flickering slightly as it cast its light into the room.

Avia wasn’t sure it was meant to be flickering at all, though.

Humming at her observation, Avia took a quick leave from her new friends’ sides and scuttered up the wall, walking up from that and onto the ceiling as she examined the bulb. She looked a little too closely, briefly hurting her eyes and causing her to blink away the multicoloured spots appearing in her vision. But despite that little setback, her theory was confirmed.

“I think you need a new bulb soon,” she idly noted, before looking up, or rather down, at the ponies.

…Who were all staring at her with wide eyes.

Avia blinked. “What?”

“How are you doing that?” Awesome Blitz asked. “I mean, I know some pegasi who can stand upside down on clouds but… That’s just weird.”

“Hey! All changelings can do this!”

“Well, they are bugs,” Apple Surprise mused.

“NOT bugs! Changelings!”

“Sorry! Sorry!” Apple Surprise quickly apologised, holding up her hooves in defence.

“Huh… I wonder if we could get cutie marks in roof walking…?” Awesome Blitz mused a little too seriously.

“Unless you want to be converted into changelings, I don’t think that will work,” Avia responded, hopping off the ceiling and using her wings to gently float back to the ground.

“Wait. You can do that!?”

Avia snickered. “Nah, changeling magic can’t do that. Though that might make a good research project…”

“What would that cutie mark even look like, anyway?” Sapphire asked her pegasus friend, returning to her point.

Blitz just shrugged. “I don’t know. At least not any more than what a cutie mark in ‘fabulous’ would be.”

Sapphire sighed wistfully. “I don’t know, I can just picture it in my head…”

“Of course you can…”

“Girls…? The, uh… initiation…?” Apple Surprise brought the other fillies back to the here and now, taking to the stand. “Ya’ll ready?”

Awesome Blitz and Sapphire gave each other excited grins. And then, before she knew what was happening, the two pushed Avia in front of the podium and took flanking positions behind her. And just to add to the daunting atmosphere, the light went out and a magic aura drew curtains over all the windows in the room, casting them all into darkness.

Avia lit her horn, and the faces of the fillies around her were illuminated as the earth pony in front of her began to speak.

“In the beginning, three fillies had a mission…” Apple Surprise began, putting on a dramatic voice. “A mission to find their purpose! Their talent! Their calling! Their… um, purpose!”

“You said that one already,” Awesome Blitz pointed out.

“Don’t interrupt!” Sapphire whispered over.

Avia just rolled her eyes.

“AND!” Apple Surprise continued, throwing the stink eye at Blitz. “And they did it! They and fellow crusaders like Babs Seed and Gabriella found just what made them special! And now, we fillies stand united in following their hoofsteps as we discover our own.”

The curtains were yanked back open by Sapphire’s magic, and the light switched back on.

“And now we welcome another worthy crusader into our club! And together, we shall all make our mark on the world, and discover our cutie marks!”

Avia tilted her head as a sheet of red cloth floated down towards her, the image of a blue shield in which a golden filly stood proudly was sown into the cloth. The unicorn settled the cloth onto the changeling nymph’s back, and then tied it around her neck into a small cape.

“Welcome, Avia, to the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS! YAY!” the three fillies all echoed at once, causing Avia to blush.

“Uh… thanks,” Avia said, feeling slightly overwhelmed by the sudden nature of the entire situation. “So, uh… what now?”

Apple Surprise hopped down from the podium, giving Avia a beaming smile. “Now that you’re a full-fledged honest to Celestia cutie mark crusader, we need to figure out the best way to get your cutie mark!”

“We should make a list of things you think you might be good at and do them one by one until something clicks!” Awesome Blitz explained.

“A checklist?” Avia chirped questioningly, her eyes suddenly sparkling. “I can do that! Do we start now?”

“No, silly!” Sapphire said with a giggle. “We need brain fuel while working on our next adventure!”

“Ice cream!” Blitz announced, punching the air excitedly.

“Come on ya’ll, Sugarcube Corner is waiting!” Apple Surprise stated, quickly vacating the clubhouse as Awesome Blitz eagerly fluttered her wings and followed on.

This just left Avia and Sapphire, the latter of whom seemed to be waiting up for the other. Avia’s excited eagerness faltered a little, and she took on a more thoughtful expression as an odd thought came into the Princess’ head.

“Have I just joined a cult…?” Avia wondered to herself.

“I don’t think so!” Sapphire called back. “We didn’t get cutie marks for that either!”

“Oh, alright then…” Avia replied, but then she frowned at the unicorn’s wording. “Wait, what?”

After leaving the clubhouse, the group headed immediately back the way they came. Sugarcube Corner was the brightly and deliciously decorated building Avia had seen earlier just before meeting her fellow crusaders, and if memory served was also the home and workplace of Pinkie Pie.

That could only mean the best ice cream a filly could ask for!

So the fillies trotted along, the four of them giggling amongst themselves as the ponies regaled stories of their past crusades onto Avia, with the Princess in turn sharing some stories from the hive. The awkwardness the changeling nymph had been feeling at her sudden induction into the club was fading fast as she got to know them better. Sapphire was so much alike to her mother, though didn’t seem to have as much of an aversion to getting dirty in pursuit of her cutie mark. Now that Awesome Blitz’s suspicion towards the changeling had died away, she had shown an eagerness to race the changeling and test ‘those weird wings’ on her back. Apple Surprise did her best to keep the pegasus in check for the time being, at least until they were all full on whatever flavours of ice cream they could imagine.

Avia could just see the love radiating from each of them in droves. The love of three best friends who were destined to remain so forever more. And it was all the better since Avia could not say no to the small pick-me-up she passively collected as they walked and talked.

And speaking of a light snack, their targeted site of sugar and mayhem quickly came into view.

“Race ya!” Blitz proclaimed, hopping into the air and shooting off.

“Hey! No fair!” Sapphire protested, taking off after her.

Apple Surprise just gave Avia a shrug, and they both ran off to try and gain ground and hopefully overtake their friends.

Well, it was a good thing Avia shared the pegasus’ advantage! And one more at that…

Avia smirked, her horn lighting as a portal opened up beneath herself and exited just ahead of the pegasus. She sank down and quickly emerged, blowing a raspberry at the suddenly startled pony before the changeling raised her own wings and took off towards the building.

She had this in the bag! Take that ponies! Changeling win each and every-

She suddenly wasn’t going anywhere…

Thud.

Avia hit the ground, splayed out on her belly as she stared towards the finish line that was mere metres away. She wondered what shock and horror the other three saw on her face as they all passed her by and finished before Avia.

“Where are you going in such a hurry, huh kid?” a familiar voice asked in amusement.

“Carduuuus!” Avia moaned in indignation, rolling onto her back to see the smirking changeling stallion that had his magic latched onto her tail. “No fair!”

“Neither is using your changeling magic to cheat,” he replied knowingly.

“Awesome Blitz was using her wings!” the Princess protested.

“She did do that,” Apple Surprise noted from the doorway, shooting the sheepish pegasus a dirty look.

Carduus chuckled, releasing his hold on Avia. “Then you’re both disqualified. I think the young unicorn over there wins.”

“Yay!” Sapphire cheered.

Avia and Awesome Blitz both pouted at the result.

“So, who’s your friend?” Apple Surprise asked the nymph.

Avia huffed, brushing herself off as she got back to her hooves. “Everyone, this is Carduus. He used to be Mum’s Captain of the Royal Guard.”

“Before he got old,” another, younger, changeling quipped as she bumped him on the shoulder.

“Iuvenes, don’t speak to your father like that,” another changeling, Panacea, lightly scolded her daughter.

Carduus and Panacea were clearly aged, though only appeared to be a little older than Queen Twilight Sparkle’s friends, being in their late fifties. The former also seemed to walk with a limp, and his wife seeming to have a practised readiness to catch him at the first sign of the stallion falling over.

“I see you’ve made some friends,” Iuvenes observed, looking towards the three fillies behind her Princess. “Mind introducing us, huh?”

“Oh, of course!” Avia agreed. “This Apple Surprise, Sapphire and Awesome Blitz. Girls, this is Panacea and Iuvenes. Panacea is a pretty great nurse. She always treats me when I’m ill, and even shares her notes with me!”

“I’m always ready to nurture a curious mind,” Panacea said cheerfully. “Especially when it’s that of a future Queen of the Changelings.”

“So, if we get cuts and bruises while crusading we go to you?” Blitz asked curiously.

Carduus frowned. “Cuts and bruises? Avia, you know what your mother would say.”

“No cuts and bruises!” Avia assured quickly, shooting a look at Blitz. “Right?”

“Fiiine,” she conceded. “For now.”

Apple Surprise facehoofed.

“You are the cutie mark crusaders alright…” Iuvenes commented with a snort.

“You know of us?” Sapphire enquired.

“I know the originals, met them when I was a filly,” Iuvenes claimed. “Me and Puellula met them back when, well… When we had to stay in and around Ponyville for a while.”

“Don’t remind me…” Carduus grumbled. “Still, you found out that just because of my leg you couldn’t outrun me.”

“You didn’t outrun me either, you used your magic to catch me,” his daughter shot back.

Carduus laughed. “Didn’t stop you from trying to get a cutie mark with them.”

“And I’m sure the Princess isn’t doing that herself at all,” Luvenes snarked.

Carduus gave the nymph a knowing look. “Well, your highness, are you?”

“Um…” Avia muttered. “No…?”

If he knew she was lying, which he most certainly did, he didn’t call her out on it.

“So, going to see your Aunt Pinkie?” Panacea asked.

“And ice cream!” Sapphire answered for Avia.

“Well, don’t let us keep you,” Carduus said, ruffling Avia’s mane. “I’ve got to go find your mother anyway.”

“Okie dokie!” Avia responded. “Will I see you later?”

“The town’s only so big,” Carduus responded, beginning to limp away with the help of his wife. “Do try to stay out of trouble, Avia.”

“Uh-huh! Promise!”

He knew better than to ask her to Pinkie Promise.

Once the trio were gone, Awesome Blitz gave Avia a nudge.

“Come on, girls,” she started. “Ice cream waits for no pony and definitely no changeling!”

There was no arguing with that, so the group all quickly made their way inside the establishment.

The interior was as bright and colourful as the outside. The initial room after entering was filled with well-cleaned tables surrounded by comfy-looking cushions. Near the windows sat several booths with a view of the square outside, and opposite the doorway was a counter which had far too many treats on display that the fillies couldn’t even count amidst their rumbling stomachs. Behind the counter led into the kitchen, and from there the residential part of the building.

But really, then and there they just cared about the ice cream.

Only issue was, nopony seemed to be behind the counter.

The four fillies walked up to it, hopping up to see over it and into the kitchen.

“So…” Sapphire began. “Do we wait or…?”

“Hi, Avia!” Pinkie Pie suddenly, and very loudly, greeted as she shot up from behind the counter amidst a hail of confetti. “And Avia’s new friends, too! I knew you all would get along! Twitchy tail, rolling eye and itchy knee told me so!”

“Um…” Avia replied. “Where did you come from?”

“Well, I started off at a rock farm. But if you want to go before that you’d have to ask your parents for ‘the talk’,” Pinkie Pie explained. “But forget about that, I assume you’re here to buy?”

“We’re looking for ice cream, ma’am!” Apple Surprise answered.

Pinkie chuckled “Please, ‘ma’am’ makes me sound old. But if you find yourselves a seat I’ll bring the menus over! Unless there’s something at the counter you want?”

“We’ll take the menus,” the filly replied. “Thanks.”

Pinkie Pie nodded, and then retreated to collect said menus. While this was going on, the four walked over to a window booth and all got comfortable on the seats. Avia sat next to Sapphire, with Awesome Blitz and Apple Surprise opposite them.

“So, ever noticed how Pinkie Pie is a bit… strange?” Awesome Blitz asked Avia.

“Yeah, but my mother says I should just accept it,” Avia said. “And she usually knows best.”

“Her kid, Cupcake, well… He’s a mini version, it’s kinda scary the stuff he gets up to at school,” Apple Surprise added in. “Fun. But scary.”

“Here you go!” Pinkie Pie announced, bouncing up to the table and depositing a menu for each filly. “Just call when you want to order or come to the counter. I’ll be waiting!”

She then bounced off, hopping behind the counter and leaning against it while watching the group expectantly.

“So… what is everypo- uh, everyone having?” Blitz asked. “I’m going for the mega mix, I think.”

“Always one to tackle the biggest challenge,” Apple Surprise noted.

“And the most delicious!” Sapphire added.

Avia opened the menu, looking over the contents. Honestly, there were more flavours there than she had any idea existed. And all of them sounded equally amazing…

The only thing missing was ice cream infused with love energy. That would have been the best…

“I just don’t know what to have…” Avia mused. “There’s so many.”

“Well, there’s no rush,” Apple Surprise responded. “After Pinkie gets the order, Pumpkin and Pound Cake will get them over lickety-split.”

“And then we can get to business!” Awesome Blitz announced. “I’ve got so many ideas! And I know you said no cuts and bruises, but hear me out…”

Avia sighed. This was going to be an exhausting day…

7 - A Day's End

If Soronis and Puellula had believed they’d seen everything the world had to throw at a changeling, they were once again surprised with something new.

The sisters had just been enjoying a pleasant day out in Ponyville, having arrived with much of the hive ready for the Summer Sun Celebration. Both mares had, side by side, walked around the gentle countryside surrounding the town before stopping off at a small café on a street corner. There they’d partaken in some nice and cold glasses of lemonade and a light lunch consisting of daisy sandwiches and some fruit. Puellula had been disappointed to find they lacked a carnivore menu, but Soronis had pointed out that it was to be expected in a small business that seldom if ever, would see griffon patronage. Or that of any other meat-eating species, for that matter.

After they were done, and with nothing that the other changelings particularly needed their help with as they went about assisting the set-up of the celebration, the two had continued their self-led tour of the town. It was much as they remembered it, though there were a few new buildings that had cropped up over the years.

The enjoyable walk had eventually led them to the local park… and that brought them back the here and now, where they were seeing something quite unexpected. They’d escaped a doomed hive, survived being homeless in the Crystal Empire, found a new hive during an intense conflict, survived the flattening of Manehatten and gotten through the trauma of mass mind control…

And yet it was seeing Princess Avia hanging upside down from a tree by her hindleg, which was tangled in a rope, that really left them without words.

“…Don’t tell my mother,” was all the nymph said upon sighting the changeling sisters, spinning slowly in circles as she continued to hang from the branch. “Please?”

From nearby, three panicked pony fillies all ran over, with all sorts of leaves and twigs hanging out of and from their manes, which were also frazzled and messed up. The latter point seemed to distress the unicorn quite thoroughly.

“There you are!” Apple Surprise exclaimed in relief, coming to a stop just below the swaying nymph. “You went off mighty quick there!”

“Yeah! It was awesome!” Awesome Blitz gushed. “You all like WAM, and the ZOOM and then you were gone!”

“…Girls, can I ask what in the hives is happening here?” Soronis asked, not sure if she wanted the answer.

“Please, don’t ask,” Avia whimpered, blushing up a storm. “Can I get some help…?”

“I got it!” Sapphire claimed, her horn lighting up and attempting to untangle the rope. “Maybe a twist here… no, there…”

“Uh, let me lend a hoof,” Puellula spoke up, flying up to where the rope was attached to the tree and adding her own magic into the mix. “Uh, Sis? Can you catch her when she drops?”

“I’m not going to let the Princess of the Hive snap her neck now, am I?”

“Good point.”

After a few moments of prodding and probing the heavily knotted rope, Avia slid free from the tree and hurtled towards the ground. Her wings instantly kicked in, though Soronis placed a low-level levitation spell around Avia to assist her return to the ground.

The moment the nymph hit the dirt, she swayed on her hooves before falling back onto her rump.

“Uh… my head is all fuzzy…”

“Yeah, you were upside down,” Puellula said with a smirk. “Trust me, not a good idea. All that blood has gone to your head.”

“Great…” Avia replied, placing a hoof on her throbbing temple. “Owie…”

“Let me guess; crusading?” the mare then asked knowingly, getting a pained nod in return. “Heh, you do know we can’t get cutie marks, right? Trust me, me and Iuvenes tried back when we were your age.”

‘So she said…’ the Princess thought glumly to herself.

“Aww, and I thought for sure my idea would work…” Awesome Blitz sulked.

“I told you so,” Apple Surprise deadpanned.

Soronis giggled behind a hoof. “Well, at least you fillies are enjoying yourselves. But it will be dark soon.”

Huh, now Avia thought about it the light was beginning to fade, the horizon getting a distinctly orange glow to it. The twilight of which her mother was named after was, as always, pretty. And it also told Avia something else too.

“Oh, I should probably go soon,” she noted, also noticing a slight grumble to her stomach. “And I need food.”

“Yeah, we should probably get moving as well,” Apple Surprise concurred. “My Ma will wonder where I’ve wandered off to.”

“Can’t we hang out a little while longer…?” Awesome Blitz asked sadly.

“I’d like to, but I should probably head back too,” Sapphire responded, all while doing her best to fix her mane. “Ugh, my mother is going to freak when she sees my mane. And I am NOT wandering Ponyville with it in such a disastrous state!”

“It’s just a mane,” Blitz dryly shot back with a shrug.

Sapphire seemed incensed by that remark, though the soon to follow argument was quickly stopped when Apple Surprise interposed herself between her two friends.

“We can still all hang out tomorrow, can’t we?” she suggested, looking specifically over to Avia. “Unless there’s something else…?”

Avia shook her head. “Nope! I’m free tomorrow, and I’d really like to hang with your guys some more! Just… no more of Awesome Blitz’s ideas?”

The pegasus pouted. “Killjoy.”

“Sure thing!” Apple Surprise agreed without missing a beat, quickly grabbing onto Avia and giving her a quick hug. “I’m really glad you joined the CMC, Avia!”

Avia blushed again, patting the filly on the head before breaking from the hug. “Uh, thanks! I’m glad I met you, girls! Meet at Sugarcube Corner around lunchtime?”

“Or whenever we run into one another, sure!” the earth pony confirmed with a happy nod. “But I should head on home, see ya’ll later!”

With that, the fillies all dispersed with a few final words of farewell to one another, leaving the Princess with just the two adult changeling mares.

Her new friends were… odd. But she liked them! And it was giving her new ideas for a paper on what constituted good cutie mark crusading and what was clearly bad cutie mark crusading. Like all of Awesome Blitz’s ideas.

Never again.

“So, are you heading back to the library, kiddo?” Puellula asked with a light tap on Avia’s shoulder to break the nymph from her musings.

“Uh-huh,” Avia confirmed. “Oh, and both Grandma Velvet and Grandpa Night Light have a surprise for me! Isn’t that awesome?”

She chuckled. “Sure is! Now get moving, or who knows? They might forget about it.”

Avia gasped. “No way they would ever forget!”

“You’d better hurry up then, just in case!”

Avia didn’t need telling twice, and with an eagerness in her movements, she lifted her wings and quickly took the air. The Princess flew straight out of the park and into the buildings beyond, leaving the view of the sisters.

“Such a troublemaker…” Soronis noted with a laugh. “Reminds me of you, Pue.”

“Oh pish,” Puellula dismissed, she and her sister continuing their walk. “That was ages ago.”

“Not to me, Puellula,” Soronis replied with a small smile. “Not to me.”

The first stars were beginning to brightly twinkle in the young night’s sky as Avia arrived back at the Golden Oaks Library, dropping back to the ground and finishing the final few steps of the journey on hoof. Lights were on inside, and Avia could just see shadows moving within, indicating that the library currently had occupants.

Avia happily trotted up to the door and swung it open with her magic, letting it close behind her as she slipped in.

“Hi! I’m back!” she called out as she entered the main section of the library, taking stock of who was currently within.

Her mother, her father, and her grandparents all turned to her with welcoming smiles.

“Ah, there you are!” Twilight said, lifting her daughter up in her magic and dragging her into a large motherly cuddle as the filly giggled. “I was about to send out a search party.”

“Before Soronis called you in, anyway,” Façade made sure to add. “I hear you made some friends after all.”

Avia pouted, removing herself from her mother’s grasp and back to the floor. “But I asked her not to tell you what happened…”

Twilight blinked, and then an amused smile graced her muzzle. “She just said you were playing in the park with your new friends. What is it you didn’t want her to tell us…?”

Avia felt like morphing into a tomato. “N-nothing! Really! Nothing happened! It was just, well… Can we drop this now please I really don’t wanna talk about it!”

“Leave the poor dear alone,” Twilight Velvet lightly scolded her adoptive daughter, moving Avia’s attention away from her mother. “I’m sure if it was something serious, your changelings would have told you.”

“Yes mother,” Twilight droned with a roll of her eyes.

“Good,” Velvet replied with a nod. “Now that we’re here… I seem to recall something about a present?”

Avia gasped excitedly. “Oh oh! You did! MINE!”

“Really? I could have sworn it was for Flurry Heart…”

“Grandmaaaaa!” Avia whined, trying to pull off the cutest puppy eyes she could.

“Honey, I think she’s getting impatient,” Night Light said with a chuckle, levitating something wrapped up in wrapping paper from a nearby saddlebag. “Here you go, sweetheart. For a special filly’s first Summer Sun Celebration!”

Twilight snorted. “Yeah, like you needed a reason.”

Avia ignored that comment, practically glowing with joy as Night Light gave the present over to Avia. She took it in her hooves, giving it a big hug before getting to the best part.

Ripping away the paper!

The colourful mess spilled to the floor, shards of paper destined for the dump as Avia beheld the item hidden within.

“Eeh! A book! Called it!”

And a rare one. Canterlot Cantabiles Volume Thirty-One, signed by the original author. Just as Night Light had informed his daughter earlier that day, and as expected Avia was over the moon about it.

“Thank you!” Avia gushed as she immediately went to glomp her grandparents. “Thank you thank you!

“You’re welcome, dear,” Twilight Velvet gladly responded, returning the embrace alongside her husband.

They hugged for a few moments more before Avia was gently lifted in a lavender aura and lifted away from the two elderly unicorns.

“You can start reading it in bed,” Twilight told her, setting her back down. “But not for too long! Remember, you’ve got a long fun-filled day tomorrow that’ll spread all the way into the following morning! And you don’t want to miss the raising of the sun, do you?”

Avia shook her head. “Nuh-uh! I’ll go right now!”

Twilight nodded. “Good. Now head upstairs. I’ll be along to tuck you in soon, and I’ll bring you up some food while you read.”

Avia gave her a quick nod, gave her parents and grandparents a quick hug each, gave the book a quick hug as well, and then scampered off upstairs to her given room.

“I’ll make her some toast or something,” Façade said as Avia vanished upstairs, quickly slipping into the kitchen to do just that.

Twilight Velvet giggled. “Oh, that was just the reaction I was hoping for. I’m so happy she liked it.”

“There was ever a doubt?” Night Light asked jokingly.

“Now we just need to hope Flurry Heart’s is just as great!” Velvet squeed.

Twilight gave her an amused look. “Flurry is thirty, remember?”

“And that means I can’t spoil my grandfoal?” Velvet asked with a pout.

The Changeling Queen rolled her eyes. “I guess not. But I am looking forward to seeing Shiny and Cadance. Spike should be along around the same time as well.”

“That’s going to be a sight, all those dragons…” Night Light mused.

“It’ll be no dragon migration, but yeah,” Twilight agreed. “The rest of the Canterlot nobility should start piling in, and the guard too with them.”

“Which will mean that Broad Sword and Vladimir will be showing their ugly mugs,” Façade joked, emerging from the kitchen as he waited for the toast.

“Just go easy on the cider,” Twilight deadpanned.

Façade rolled his eyes. “One or two won’t hurt. Besides, they’ll be on duty once the Princesses turn up tomorrow night. We’ll save the getting smashed part until after Avia’s in bed.”

“I’m not carrying you home.”

“Eh, I can carry myself. For what I lack in disguise magic I make up in fortitude,” he claimed proudly before there was a ‘ding’ from the kitchen that got his attention. “Anyway, the Princess requires her toast. I’d best get to it.”

“Yes, yes you best have,” Twilight replied with a laugh, Façade vanishing back into the kitchen. She then turned back to her pony parents. “Do you need me to walk you back to the hotel?”

“Oh, we’ll be fine,” Night Light confidently replied. “Actually, I’m half tempted to ask Façade if we can join in on the drinks tomorrow.”

“I’d be up for that!” Velvet agreed cheekily.

Twilight glared at them. “I’m not chasing after my husband, nymph and parents tomorrow!”

“I mean, you could always join in,” her father teased. “Live a little. There’s more to life than dusty old books, after all!”

“I’m the Queen of the Hive!” she protested in turn.

“And I can’t wait to read the tabloids about it!” Velvet chirped.

“You’re the worst. Both of you.”

8 - Crystal

Avia gave a small groan as the rays of the early morning sun assaulted her still waking sense, rubbing a forehoof across her closed eyes and shifting slightly in her bed, settling back down again. A large part of her just wanted to stay curled up in the covers, sleeping soundly and comfortably for as long as she could.

But she could still feel that sun as her brain continued to wake up, and she knew her time was almost up.

Slowly and drowsily, the changeling nymph opened her eyes. Just a crack at first, but enough to make out a few vague objects.

A bedside table met her view. On it sat a simple lamp that was turned off, alongside a plate of crumbs that used to be a couple slices of toast and a closed copy of Canterlot Cantabiles. Everything was just where she had left it the night before, when she’d finished her toast and saved her place in the book before willingly slipping away to Luna’s realm of dreams. Speaking of dreams, Avia couldn’t really recall her own for the night. Something about tree sap…?

There was something else too… Something she was forgetting.

As the filly tiredly glanced over the rest of the room, she realised it wasn’t her room. It was far too… wooden. No, she was staying someplace, but…

Oh right.

“SUMMER SUN CELEBRATION!” Avia proclaimed, her bed covers launched away from her by the power of her gossamer wings.

Oh yeah, now she was fully awake.

Active and eager to get started, Avia hopped down from her bed and made for the door. She did then stop, however, and turn back ever so briefly. She lit her horn and willed the covers back into a neat and tidy state, before picking up the empty plate and taking it with her.

She’d be back for the book later. There was still a lot of reading to do!

She exited the bedroom and entered a short hallway beyond, moving off to the right and heading down the stairs into the main library. When she reached the bottom she instantly turned off and headed towards the kitchen door, swinging it open and happily trotting inside.

When she did, she saw that her parents were already wide awake and grabbing a spot of breakfast before the day’s festivities got fully underway. Both gave their child a welcoming smile as she walked through and placed her dirty plate into the sink, before going to make herself some cereal.

“Good morning, Avia,” her mother greeted. “Sleep well?”

“Uh-huh!” Avia confirmed, pouring milk into the bowl as a finishing touch before joining her family at the table. “The book is really, really good! I wanna read even more!”

“I’m glad you like it, but there’s no time for reading at the moment,” Queen Twilight responded. “Your Uncle Shining and Aunt Cadance will be here soon.”

“Awesome! And we’re going to meet them at the station, right?”

Twilight nodded. “We are. So eat your breakfast, we’ll be heading out soon.”

“It’s a good thing you woke up when you did. I was about ready to throw a bucket of water on you,” Façade teased.

“Dad!” Avia blurted in protest. “That’s mean!”

“And funny.”

Avia pouted, getting back to her cereal as grumpily as she could while her parents just tittered at her action.

She couldn’t keep the grumpy veneer, though. Everything was too darned exciting!

From there she ate her cereal at a steady pace, idly listening in on her parents’ chatter. They weren’t really talking about anything in particular, and there were moments where Avia zoned them out and entered her own thoughts. She was excited to see the rest of her family, but equally she found herself quite eager to hang out with the Cutie Mark Crusaders again. Her new friends were… quirky, but despite the bruises she couldn’t deny her enjoyment from hanging out with the three fillies. She was already coming up with some less spine breaking ideas for them to do! Not to get a cutie mark, Avia did know better than them that she wouldn’t ever get one despite their continued insistence otherwise, but that wouldn’t kill the fun of trying to get their own.

Even if she already knew it wasn’t going to work.

But that’s the nature of research! Failure begets eventual success!

Science!

Avia finished the last of her cereal, mopping up the stray puddle of milk in the bottom of the bowl. She then levitated it towards the sink and placed it atop her old plate, waiting to be washed up later on. With that done, she returned to the table and propped herself up nice and tall, giving her mother a beaming smile.

“So are we going to go see Uncle Shining and Aunt Cadance now?” the nymph asked quickly? “Huh? Are we?”

“Soon, Avia,” Twilight responded in amusement. “We have a little time before the Crystal Express is due to arrive. So calm down, I’m sure talking to us for a while won’t be that bad, hm?”

“I guess so…” Avia replied, slumping back down. “So, uh, what’s first? For the celebration, I mean…”

“Well, the nobility and guard are beginning to turn up,” her mother answered. “All the preparations from yesterday are complete, so I’d say it’s just going to be a fun-filled day.”

“And when will princesses get here?”

“Tonight, before the raising of the sun.”

“It’s a shame they couldn’t be here earlier,” Façade noted.

“They do still have their duties to perform,” Twilight pointed out. “Ponies are sadly flawed in the lack of a hive mind. I imagine Celestia would find it immensely useful to run the country from the kitchen while eating breakfast.”

“Flawed? That’s very opinionated of you,” Façade jabbed.

“Hush. I know my bias and wear it proudly,” she shot back in a joking manner. “But yes, they’ll be here when they’re free to do so. It’s still going to be a packed day despite that, everyone is in a party mood in the lead-up.”

“Do you think it has something to do with the confetti cannons around town…?”

Twilight laughed. “What? Did you think Pinkie Pie would miss the chance to one-up her last Summer Sun Celebration set up?”

“Didn’t Princess Luna attack everyone during that?” Avia asked with a tilt of her head.

“Bygones, Avia,” Twilight replied with a shake of her head.

“Ponies and their reformation obsession…” Façade muttered.

“Even we’re reformed villains in the average pony’s book, our hive did attack Canterlot after all. And if it’s genuine, then why not?” Twilight shot back. “Could you imagine Equestria without Luna?”

“I suppose not. Hasn’t worked out for us so far though.”

“Not for lack of trying,” the Queen noted sadly. “And that’s what counts. But getting the other queens out of hiding has to count for something.”

“Huh?” Avia got lost somewhere in that conversation.

Twilight just gave her a small smile. “Don’t worry about it, it’s just about those stories I told you. Tell you what, let’s start heading towards the station. We can have a morning stroll through town in the meantime.”

“Oh, okie dokie!” Avia agreed, rising from the table.

Her parents followed suit, and from there they swiftly left the library and into the day of the Summer Sun Celebration.

The train station was a bustle of activity, but everycreature had enough respect to part ways for the changeling royals as they began their approach.

Some of the nearby armoured drones probably added some motivation, the added protection from the hive being quite intimidating to the average Equestrian. But it wasn’t too much of a bother, and the trio made it up onto the platform without any real issue.

When they arrived, they found that Twilight Velvet and Night Light were already waiting, sat on a nearby bench discussing some newspaper amongst themselves. They brightened when they saw the others, however, and rushed to greet them just as a steam train finished offloading the latest guests to the celebration and departed for the next station.

From there it was just a matter of waiting it out, with one more train due to come in before the Crystal Express. That one arrived but ten minutes later, pulling into the station with a loud whistle and a chug of smoke, coming to a halt and opening its doors to allow the passengers’ departure. And then, much like its predecessor, it too pulled away and quickly rolled along the tracks until it was out of sight.

Avia was getting a little bored waiting. There wasn’t exactly much on the platform to hold her attention for very long, and the adults were conversing among themselves about things that didn’t interest the nymph very much.

But then, through the veil of dullness that had descended onto her mind, she heard another whistle.

“It’s here!” Avia announced with a massive grin, leaning to get a look at the long gleaming vehicle rapidly on approach to the train station.

The Crystal Express was breathtaking to behold. Its design was extremely unique for a train, the outer shell being composed of large blue decorative crystals that sloped down at the front for a very aerodynamic feel. It also lacked a smokestack unlike the other trains she’d seen thus far, and overall had a far more advanced and modern feel to it.

And shiny train chugged its way into the station, steadily coming to a halt with a whoosh of its hydraulic braking system.

Queen Twilight gave her daughter a light tap on the shoulder, leading her towards the back of the train where the royal carriages sat. As they went, the rest of the cars had their doors opened and shimmering crystal ponies began to disembark with excited chatter and gleeful smiles Avia could relate to.

And just as they reached the back, the door of the royal compartment was thrown open and a red carpet rolled out onto the platform by two emerging guards. With a trumpet and small fanfare, they then proceeded to escort out the high-profile passengers that had been ferried within.

Princess Mi Amore Cadenza was the first to emerge, and then at her side came the radiant Princess Flurry Heart and the smartly dressed Prince Shining Armor.

“Cadance!” Twilight greeted brightly, moving forth to share a quick nuzzle with her sister-in-law. “Shining! Have a good trip?”

“The royal carriage hardly lacks for comfort, we’re fine,” Cadance replied with a small chuckle.

“Aunt Twilight! Flurry Heart happily greeted, moving forwards and hugging her changeling aunt.

Flurry Heart looked much as her mother did when she was her age. She stood a head taller than most ponies, her silver regalia shining in the day’s sun with her immaculately kept mane done up into a neat bun.

“Flurry! How is the best niece in Equestria?”

“Happy to get out of the palace. I swear, you hear one diplomatic overture you hear them all,” Flurry responded with a dramatic roll of her eyes. “And how about the best cousin in Equestria? Hey, Avia!”

“Hi, Flurry!” Avia happily greeted as she bounced up. “Can we do the thing? Can we?”

“Thing? Oh, you must be more specific!”

“Pleeease?”

Flurry Heart giggled. “Fine, are you ready?”

Avia nodded enthusiastically, all the while both Twilight and Cadance gave one another knowing looks. And then, a moment after, the two began their chant.

“Sunshine sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”

And so, the generations of the sunshine dance continued…

“She’s having fun then, Twily?” Shining asked lightly as he trotted up to his sister. “No temper tantrums?”

“She does not have temper tantrums!” Twilight shot back, flicking her adoptive brother with her tail. “She takes after me, I’d think you’d find.”

“You’d set on fire when angry.”

“Hey, it’s not like I knew I was a shapeshifter at the time!” she protested back. “And neither did you! You all thought I was just crazy powerful or something.”

“Well, we were right on that account,” he pointed out. “So, ‘your highness’, did your changelings help get everything in order?”

“The celebration is well underway!” Twilight informed them. “Everyone pitched in, all organised to perfection!”

“We’d expect nothing less from the most efficient Changeling Queen,” Cadance lightly teased.

“She does have a knack, does she not?” Twilight Velvet said with a chuckle.

“You say that like it’s new news,” Façade piped up.

“And like it’s a bad thing,” the Queen in question shot back. “Second largest hive in the world, being efficient is a must.”

“She’s got us there,” Night Light stated, before her and his wife finally moved to greet their newly arrived family properly.

And as the family all continued their greetings and brief catch-ups with one another, a large shadow was approaching the train station. Several people looked up at the cause, some remaining unfazed whole others shrunk back a little as if trying not to be seen, clearly intimidated and even a little frightened by the sight.

And just as Princess Cadance finished saying something to her young niece, bopping her on the nose with a laugh, the shadow reached the stationed. Something large crashed down onto the building’s roof, bringing its head to lord over the gathered family of changeling and ponies as they all looked up at the creature.

“Hey, guys!” Spike greeted in a deep voice, the dragon giving them a large fang-filled smile. “Didn’t I turn up at the right time or what?”

“Spike!” Twilight greeted back in gleeful surprise, flying up to the dragon’s head and giving him a small hug. “I wasn’t expecting you for a few hours yet.”

Spike was far from the baby dragon of old, or even the pony-sized lizard who’d acted as Twilight’s royal assistant in the hive. Now the dragon was easily the size of a house, dwarfing any other creature in the local area. And yet, as Changeling Queen and dragon reunited, it was as if nothing had truly changed.

“Don’t underestimate these bad boys!” Spike bragged, raising his large leathery wings in demonstration. “And Ember had us leave a little early. She’s in an impatient mood.”

“I guess the gang is all here,” Shining Armor quipped. “How are you doing, Spike?”

“I’m good, eager to relax for a while,” he replied. “Say, any gem venders around here?”

“For your horde or for your stomach?” Twilight asked with a smirk.

“Yes.”

The Queen giggled behind a hoof. “I’m sure we’ll find your something, Number One Assistant. It’s a long day ahead.”

“Well, are we going to stand talking or are we going to get to the party?” Flurry Heart questioned.

And as if to validate her point, the red carpet was rolled up and the door to the train closed up. A whistle blew out, and the Crystal Express began to move away from the station. Shining Armor dismissed the escorting compliment of guards, who began to move off and join their changeling counterparts in awaiting the arrival of the Solar and Lunar Guard as well.

“I guess we’d better get a move on,” Twilight agreed, before looking back up at Spike. “You going to follow us, Spike?”

“From rooftop to rooftop,” he replied. “Unless you have a street big enough for me?”

“I could shrink you for an hour to two.”

“Pfft, pass.”

Avia thought that was a shame, she was curious what a small Uncle Spike would look like.

But that thought aside, the family were now free to move from the station and back into Ponyville proper. Now they were together, all royal titles could be forgotten for a little while. For the time being, they were just a family having a nice day out.

Just how they liked it.

9 - Chaos

The oddly mixed family of changelings, ponies and a dragon all entered Ponyville deep in happy chatter, having just returned from the train station.

True to form, everypony, and everyone, else was out and about while enjoying all that the day of the Summer Sun Celebration had to offer. More than a few bowed to the royals as they passed, the ponies naturally more towards Princess Cadance, but otherwise went about their days undisturbed. Their first stop was to be the market, to browse the selections and available wares and converse with the Ponyvillians hosting them.

And from there… Well, for once Twilight didn’t have a precise checklist. ‘Wherever they wanted’ would have to suffice for the time being, maybe a stop off for a light snack somewhere?

“Oh, why look at that!” Twilight Velvet spoke up, wandering off to a stand selling some lamps that held a rather… abstract design. “Oh, we must get one of these for the living room. Maybe the study?”

“I’m not sure it’d really fit in…” Night Light said hesitantly.

“We’ll make it fit in!”

“Uh-huh…”

“Maybe we should add it to the ‘maybe later’ list, hey Mum?” Shining Armor said, backing up his father and leading Velvet away from the stand.

“Traitor,” she shot back.

“I’m just the humble peacekeeper.”

“What about Mama?” Avia asked.

“I should tell you about the time she turned the house’s collection of books into a fort and defended it against the monster,” Shining replied with a smirk. “I was the monster, by the way.”

Twilight gave him a flat look. “I was five.”

“And a little terror,” Night Light jabbed. “But then so was Shining, going on imaginary adventures and coming home with all kinds of bruises and cuts, wanting Velvet to kiss the booboos better.”

Shining Armor blushed, all too aware of the snickering from his wife and daughter. “Well… we were all young once.”

“I still remember our ‘back garden camping’,” Twilight said with nostalgia in her tone. “Everything seemed so simple back then.”

“Back garden camping?” Avia said questioningly.

“Yeah, we’d pitch a tent out back and spend the night outside. We’d start a fire, roast marshmallow, tell stories. All the usual camping stuff, but with a house to retreat into if a rogue storm started up.”

“Which it never did,” Velvet pointed out. “Let it never be said that the Canterlot weather teams don’t do their job.”

“I’ve never been camping,” Avia mused. “Oh, can we? Can we?”

“Heh, we’ll see, kiddo,” Shining responded, ruffling the nymph’s mane.

Avia was about to complain to him about the ruffling and messing up of her mane, but then she spotted three familiar colours out of the corner of her eye. And as she turned, phasing out her family’s continued chatter, she saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders all rushing to greet one another by the Sweet Apple Acres apple and cider stand.

Twilight seemed to catch it too, and she leaned down to talk into her daughter’s ear.

“You can go play if you want,” the Queen suggested.

“Can I?” she asked back. “I mean, since everyone is here now…”

“We can meet back up later, and we’ll be together for the ceremony,” Twilight replied, nudging her daughter forwards. “Go play with your friends, it’s okay.”

Avia gave her mother a beaming smile, and then after a quick hug and a word of farewell to the others, the changeling was scampering off to join her fellow fillies by the apple stand.

“Hey girls!” Avia chirped happily.

“Oh, hey Avia!” Sapphire greeted first. “You’re here early!”

“Well, I saw you all passing by so…”

“Well, the more the merrier!” Apple Surprise agreed.

“And there’s can never be enough of ya’ll, huh?” another voice spoke up, and Avia saw Applejack lean over and look towards the fillies from the stand. “I see you found each other after all.”

“Oh, hey Applejack!” Avia greeted with a wave. “I’m a crusader now!”

“I bet you are,” she replied with a chuckle. “Apple Surprise, you keep the Princess outta trouble, ya hear me?”

“Will do, Ma!” Apple Surprise agreed.

“We never get into trouble,” Awesome Blitz added in.

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “I’m going to assume that’s not an intentional lie and just foals being foals.”

“Hey!”

Applejack shook her head in amusement. “Well, you four enjoy yourselves now. I’ll be here if you need me; this cider won’t sell itself!”

“Will do!” Apple Surprise replied to her mother. “We’ll be back later!”

“Where are we going?” Avia asked as they began to depart from the stand, Applejack watching them go and vanish into the crowd.

“We’re starting at the park,” Awesome Blitz explained. “We’ve got some new ideas to try out.”

“Ever played hoofball?” Apple Surprise enquired.

Avia tilted her head. “Hoofball? I don’t think so… I’ve heard of it, though. You kick a ball into a goal, right?”

“Yeah, that’s about the gist of it. We don’t play, but who knows? Maybe we’ll be really good?”

“Good enough to get a cutie mark!” Awesome Blitz declared, her wings buzzing in excitement.

“This sounds like a quick way to a ruined mane,” Sapphire murmured. “Again.”

“Not if you’re careful, Sapphire.”

Avia wasn’t sure if ‘careful’ was in the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ dictionary, but she didn’t tell the others that.

Still, this was a day to try new things! And maybe she would be good at this ‘hoofball’. She already had ideas on how to calculate the angle to kick the ball at for maximum effect, the force that would be required along with the speed…

Oh yeah, she had this in the bag!

She was so into her inner calculations for a game she’d never even played or seen played, that time completely passed her by and, before she knew it, they were on approach to the park. There weren’t quite so many people around there, but there were still a few enjoying a picnic or the odd foals playing in the grass.

The four of them all found a spot under a tree that’s leaves swayed gently in the morning breeze, sitting down under it as Avia looked around in a small amount of confusion.

“So… where’s the ball?” the nymph asked.

“I have somepony bringing it over,” Awesome Blitz explained with a huge grin, “Just wait a moment.”

Avia frowned, looking around for the mysterious individual that her pegasus friend spoke of. On finding nothing, however, she sat down with the others and elected to wait patiently.

It only took around a minute to see a result.

A result that took the form of a speeding orange blur appearing out of nowhere, before coming to a sudden stop and hovering over the fillies.

“Hey there, Blitz!” the orange pegasus with the purple mane greeted, saddlebags slung over her back.”

“Mum!” Blitz returned happily, fluttering up to Scootaloo and glomping her hard. “Did you bring them?”

“All in the bags,” Scootaloo confirmed, returning the hug for a moment before lowering herself and her daughter to the ground. “So, hoofball huh?”

“Think we’ll get our marks?”

“Maybe,” she responded, patting Awesome Blitz on the head. “Just keep at it. Worked for us.”

“Actually, stopping and helping others worked for us, Scoots,” an earth pony retorted as she trotted up to the group alongside a white unicorn, both having almost identical cutie marks as Scootaloo. “Don’ ya’ll remember?”

“Eh, it was just one of the many things we tried,” Scootaloo replied with a wave of her hoof.

Apple Bloom just gave Scootaloo a deadpan look while Sweetie Belle looked towards Avia, and then towards the younger unicorn next to her.

“Oh, Sapphire! You’ve made a new friend,” Sweetie Belle said to her niece, offering a bright smile. “Princess Avia, right? You’re Twilight’s kid?”

“Uh, yeah. That’s me,” Avia responded, surprised at the sudden appearance of all three of the original Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“She’s a crusader now, Aunt Sweetie!” Sapphire announced cheerfully.

“A crusader, huh? Bet Twi just loves that,” Apple Bloom quipped.

“My mother was fine with it,” Avia assured. “She was happy I made some friends.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense. They haven’t been giving you too much trouble, have they?”

“Well…”

“I’ve been watching out for her!” Apple Surprise claimed, moving over and sitting directly next to Avia. “So don’t you worry none! It’s all fine!”

Avia guessed she wasn’t supposed to mention the ‘hanging upside down in a tree’ part from the day before.

“Pfft, if she’s anything like Twilight then she can hold her own,” Scootaloo pointed out. “Remember everything that happened, you know… before?”

“Oh yes, where you three troublemakers were but the unimportant cameos and the rare mention.”

That voice hadn’t belonged to any of them.

But Avia was certain it belonged to the owner of the serpentine tail falling from the tree and casually dangling in front of her.

All eyes looked up, and each met the taunting gaze of the Spirit of Chaos.

Avia only just suppressed a ‘meep’.

“Wow…” Awesome Blitz muttered. “Is that who I think it is?”

“Yes, it is I! Discord! Bow before me etcetera etcetera,” Discord answered with a yawn, sliding down the tree and up next to the equines below. “It’s too early in the morning to be dramatic, but I saw these little chaos machines trundling by and I just HAD to see what was on the menu today.”

“The Cutie Mark Crusaders aren’t for your enjoyment!” Scootaloo seethed.

“Oh, but they really are,” the draconequus. “The stench of chaos just flows from each and everyone one of you, old and new, in spades. Back when I was all stoned, after dear Sunny lost her hold over me through the elements, it was still quite the struggle to free myself. But then comes the mighty CMC! And out I pop, fed by your mere presence! How is that not something for me to enjoy?”

None of the six pony Crusaders looked overly happy about being a spirit’s magic buffet, but he paid them little mind as he looked down specifically at Avia.

“And now you have this one in rank and file. How predictable, and yet completely delicious.”

“Um…” Avia muttered, frozen in place.

“Oh? Still shaking in your chitin?”

Avia gaped like a fish for a few moments, before shaking her head and forcing an increase in her resolve. She promised herself she’d make a friend out of Discord, and that’s what she’d do! Besides, Fluttershy said he wasn’t so bad. And she’d know, right?

“Maybe we got off to a bad start,” the nymph admitted. “I’m Avia! Nice to meet you!”

“Oh! Finally, some basic respect! You’re already one point ahead of your mother,” Discord quipped, bopping Avia on the nose with a talon, briefly causing the nymph to go cross-eyed before she shook her head to regain her senses. “And I suppose I did go over the top, Fluttershy gave me quite the verbal lashing last night. She’d have my hide if I didn’t say ‘I’m sorry’ so… I guess I’m sorry. We good now?”

Avia nodded. “I guess so.”

“Oh good! Maybe now we can get down to business!” he stated, stretching himself out to unnatural angles alongside several loud cracks of his bones. On seeing the glares he was getting from the original CMC, he just rolled his eyes. “You can go back to cameo land now. Everything is fine here, no need to go rushing for the guard.”

They didn’t seem convinced, but nevertheless relented.

“Enjoy the hoofball,” Scootaloo said to Awesome Blitz, ruffling her mane. “Give us a shout if he gets annoying, and I’ll show him how Wonderbolts deal with pests!”

“I’d like to see you try, orange bird horse,” Discord shot back.

“Pony!”

“Whatever.”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Come on girls, let’s get out of here. We still have things to do.”

“You girls play nice,” Apple Bloom said to the group. “No getting into too much trouble.”

“Especially if he wants you to,” Sweetie Belle added with an accusatory point at the draconequus.

“Alright, you can go now,” Discord said, snapping his talons and making the three mares vanish is a flash of light.

The fillies all sprang up in alarm.

“What’d you do!?” Awesome Blitz said in a small amount of panic.

“Oh, calm down. I only plopped them into the nearest fountain,” he responded, crossing his arms. “They’ve become such killjoys in their adulthood. But you three… Oh yes, you still have that young enthusiasm for all things chaos that I can appreciate.”

“Well, I wouldn’t put it like that…” Apple Surprise denied, scuffing the ground with a hoof.

“So, what do you want…?” Avia asked, a little concerned. “We were just about to try hoofball.”

“Which I’m sure will involve at least three fires by halftime,” the Spirit of Chaos said with a rather sinister chuckle. “Do what you will, I’ll just be enjoying the inevitable carnage. Your presence will certainly do wonders for that, your family line seems to have a knack for chaos.”

“What do you mean? My mother’s an Element of Harmony!”

“Oh yes, but it really is a ying and yang situation. There has to be chaos for harmony to prevail over, or everything just… stops,” he responded. “And dear Twiggles has found herself in some most chaotic situations, before as a pony and then later as a changeling. Not to mention what Chryssie got up to before that got ended, which brings the topic to your own great great aunt Crudelis. Wasn’t she a dear?”

“She sounds mean in the stories.”

“Very. As I said, chaos for harmony to prevail over. Perhaps a bit too chaotic, too much death and not enough style, but chaos nonetheless.”

“Death? I don’t think we really want to know about any of that…” Sapphire muttered.

“Yes, I suppose you wouldn’t. My style of chaos is far superior anyway, a good kick up the flank with a lesson learned and no fatalities along the way. Old school style,” Discord stated, demonstrating just that by clapping and causing the tree they sat under to begin growing tiny chairs in the place of fruit. “I’m getting nostalgic just thinking about it. I’m sure mother dearest has told you all about how things were before Crudy came along, running in with magic rainbows and saving the day with no harm done. All starting at that little castle in the forest.”

“Oh, you mean the Castle of the Two Sisters?” Awesome Blitz guessed.

“Bingo. A castle of fun little traps and more secrets than Twilight has lists. Now isn’t that a feat?”

“Secrets? Like what?”

“Whatever Sun Butt and Moon Butt horded to themselves. They were quite the chaos magnets themselves in their day,” he casually remarked. “Nothing too much now though, it being an abandoned ruin and all. Not worth my time to look at, not when there’s plenty of chaos going on right here.”

Avia would have asked more questions, but they were interrupted by the distant eruption of party and the manic shouts of a very familiar pony.

“Ho ho, looks like the pink one is up to something!” Discord mused with a stroke of his goatee. “Hmm, perhaps it is worth a look. Who knows I might even be able to lend my… ‘assistance’. Ta ta, ponies and/or changelings!”

And then in a flash, he was gone.

“What a creep,” Awesome Blitz deadpanned.

“What kind of secrets do you think he was talking about, though?” Sapphire asked. “In the Castle of the Two Sisters, I mean.”

“I don’t know,” Apple Surprise replied. “But anything in the Everfree Forest makes my spine shiver.”

“I don’t know, Zecora is pretty nice.”

Avia let their talk about the Everfree be drowned out by her own thoughts. Discord was still pretty weird, though he had made her a little curious about the castle. She’d heard about it previously, but on the mention of secrets kept by the princesses…

Curious. Curious indeed.

10 - Captains

Well, Discord had been wrong. There hadn’t been three fires before halftime as the crazed Spirit of Chaos had so joyfully predicted, thankfully. In fact, there had been a distinct lack of fires altogether; not a single ember to burn and turn their competitive and experimental match of hoofball into a life or death scenario.

Something else there was a lack of?

Cutie marks.

What there decidedly wasn’t a lack of?

Mud. Lots and lots of mud.

“NOOO!” Sapphire bellowed, keeling over onto the ground right then and there, having just looked at herself in a mirror she’d procured from… somewhere. “Look at me! I’m covered in mud! So much muuuud!”

“…So?” Awesome Blitz deadpanned, flicking a bit of said mud from her right hoof. “It’s not like this hasn’t happened before.”

“No, but it’s always terrible!”

They’d been going at the game for a good few hours, having split themselves into two even teams. Horns and wings had been banned, meaning they all had to go and do things earth pony style.

One team consisted of Apple Surprise and Avia, the Princess being the one defending the goal against their enemy’s onslaught. Awesome Blitz and Sapphire made up the other team, and of course, Blitz was the one taking to the field while her unicorn friend stayed back at the goal. Avia and Sapphire were both happy to let Apple Surprise and Awesome Blitz have at it, combating one another for possession of the ball and attempting to get it towards the respective opposing goals. The two were the most physically inclined, after all.

Not that they didn’t see any of the action themselves, the ball did make its way to the goals often enough.

And each time Avia missed she really wished there wasn’t that dumb ‘no magic’ rule.

Not that Sapphire fared much better, though seemingly more out of fear of getting hit in the face and having her mane messed up for the millionth time than out of inexperience without magic. This created a rather even playing field, and by halftime Avia’s team had managed to snag an overall score of six while the other team had a score of five.

The one-point lead of her rivals just led the pegasus of the group to go on an all-out offensive after they’d finished swapping sides. Still, Avia began to get the hang of blocking with her hooves and Apple Surprise had been confident that they’d emerge victorious so long as Sapphire was more concerned with her looks than the game.

Then Sapphire had been hit in the face, sending her down into the dirt and thoroughly messing up her appearance.

Then it was on.

With all inhibitions cast aside, Sapphire threw herself into the game with a brand-new enthusiasm and zeal, also known as screaming for bloody revenge against those who would dare ruin her carefully maintained coiffure!

And as their competitive nature got heated, as did the number of hits, falls and general faceplants into the dirt.

The final score at the end of it all? Well, it didn’t matter in the end considering it all came down to a tie.

“You’re all terrible,” Apple Surprise retorted to pegasus and unicorn alike. “All that ruckus and we don’t even have a cutie mark to show for it!”

“Oh come, girls!” Avia protested, using her magic to scrape dried dirt from her chitin as she spoke. “We had fun, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Awesome Blitz quickly relented, before shooting the others a cocky smirk. “But next time it won’t be a draw! I promise you that!”

“Yeah, ‘cos we’ll win,” the earth pony filly challenged in turn.

“Heh, you’re on!”

From there it was just a matter of clearing up after themselves, putting away the posts and the ball that Scootaloo and brought them all earlier. While they were doing so, Apple Surprise and Awesome Blitz kept up their little competition by debating each other’s tactics during the match while Sapphire did her best to salvage what she could of her get up. Avia just opted to listen in, silently helping clear up the mess.

Soon enough everything was packed up into the large bag, ready to be brought back to Scootaloo and Awesome Blitz’s place in town.

“All done,” the pegasus announced, finishing tying the bag up to keep the contents snugly within. “I’d better get this bag to my mum.”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Apple Surprise agreed, before humming in thought. “Say, where’d you think that Discord fella got off to? Seeing as he was hollering on about us being ‘chaotic’ and all.”

“He’s probably still doing whatever Pinkie Pie was up to,” Sapphire noted.

“Or he might be with Fluttershy,” Avia interjected, before looking off at some buildings beyond the park. Or more specifically, she was looking in the general direction she knew the Everfree Forest to be in. “Do you girls remember what he said? About my mother’s early adventures?”

“You mean about the castle?” Apple Surprise questioned. “Yeah, I remember. What about it?”

“Oh, you mean the one with all the secrets and stuff?” Awesome Blitz quickly interrupted, a grin growing on her face. “Sounds like there could be treasure! Like, super Daring Do level stuff!”

The earth pony blinked. “Please tell me this isn’t going where I think it is…?”

Avia blushed. “Well, I don’t know about that. But I’m really curious now. I’ve heard all the stories before, but I really didn’t think about the castle too much. But now that I am, there must be so much history to that place!”

“History? Like what?”

“Well, I don’t know. But my mother told me about a time when she was a Princess that she and her friends started a project to refurbish it, but they ended up scraping the idea later on,” Avia told them. “But while they were there, apparently they found Princess Celestia’s old diary in a secret room.”

“Secret room?” Awesome Blitz echoed eagerly. “Definitely Daring Do! I’m in!”

“In for what?”

“Going to the castle of course!”

“Now hold up a second!” Apple Surprise protested. “The castle. In the Everfree Forest. You serious?”

“I never said that!” Avia shot back. “But, I don’t know… We could look for a book on it in the library?”

Awesome Blitz gagged. “Boooring! Why read when we can discover! We might even get explorer cutie marks!”

Avia was about to retort to the pegasus’ comment, when some hustle and bustle outside of the park caught their attention.

Turning to look, Avia saw a whole host of ponies gathered a short distance away. There were at least a couple dozen, all geared up in their shining armours. Half the group were decked out in armour that was as dark as the night, much of said group being comprised of thestrals over the other species, though there were a couple of unicorns and pegasi to be seen. The other group wore armour that shone like the sun, its ranks comprised entirely of earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi in equal measure.

And at the head of each group were two ponies in each respective armour set. One was a white pegasus with a greyed but recognisably blonde mane, and the other was a marginally younger looking thestral with his right wing replaced with a metallic limb actuator.

“Ponies, the changelings have already been keeping the peace during the course of this celebration!” Captain Broad Sword bellowed out to his collection of guards. “But we can’t let them do all the work! Fan out, patrol the streets and ensure everyone has a fun but safe time. We need to ensure everything remains calm and civil for the princesses’ arrival this evening, understood?”

“Yes, Captain!” all guards, both Solar and Lunar, confirmed.

“You have your shift rotations, you all know what to do,” Captain Vladimir Vespertillio stated next. “Move out, ponies!”

The effect was immediate, and the ponies of the Royal Guard all moved into smaller groups and began to head off in different directions. They would be joining their changeling counterparts in guarding the upcoming celebration, keeping both the peace between individual attendees and guarding against potential nefarious individuals who would dare threaten the safety of any of the royals in attendance.

An unlikely scenario in present times, but one could never be too careful.

“I guess the Royal Guard is here,” Avia commented, seeing only the two captains left behind now that their subordinates had departed to do their duties.

“That’s so cool!” Awesome Blitz gushed. “Are they expecting a big monster attack?”

“Don’t be silly, Blitz,” Apple Surprise deadpanned. “They’re only being all protective because the princesses are coming.”

Avia inwardly mused that it was a wise move, seeing as the last time the Summer Sun Celebration had been held in Ponyville the guard presence had been small and insufficient to oppose Nightmare Moon’s return. She felt a shiver down her spine just at the thought. She really didn’t want anything like that to happen this time around. It would probably ruin her first celebration, and that would really suck…

But before Avia could communicate any of her feelings on the matter, she realised that Awesome Blitz was now gone.

“You guys are so AWESOME!”

Oh, there she was. She’d left the park and was now in the faces of the two bewildered captains with a massive squee of joy.

“Um, girls…” Sapphire began. “Should we, uh… stop her?”

“Probably,” Apple Surprise said in bemusement.

The fillies quickly followed suit, making sure to grab the bag of hoofball equipment before joining the overexcited pegasus filly by the two adult ponies she was assaulting. Both Guard Captains looked up to see the approaching trio, and their eyes sparked in recognition on seeing the changeling nymph among them.

“Well, isn’t it the little Princess of the Changelings,” Vladimir quipped, before shooting a glance at the still grinning orange pegasus. “Friend of yours?”

“Uh, yeah…” Avia muttered. “Mr Vespertillio, that’s Awesome Blitz.”

“I’m Apple Surprise.”

“My name is Sapphire, a pleasure good sirs.”

“A polite young mare,” he noted, causing the unicorn to blush lightly. “So, Awesome Blitz, are you thinking of being a guard when you’re grown up?”

“Uh, Wonderbolt, actually,” the pegasus responded sheepishly.

“Close enough. Still EUP,” Vladimir noted with a shrug.

“I would have thought you’d be with your mother, Princess Avia,” Captain Broad Sword said questioningly at the young changelings. “Where is she, anyway?”

“With my family,” Avia replied. “We were just playing some hoofball.”

“Oh?” Vladimir rubbed his chin with his still flesh and blood left wing. “So, who won?”

“Um, it was a draw.”

“A draw, huh? Well, there’s no shame in that. It’s not a loss.”

“He knows a few things about losing, like every time our guards have a war game,” Broad Sword quipped, shooting his counterpart a smirk.

“Not every time,” Vladimir retorted. “You’re retiring in a couple years anyway. And then we’ll see how your successor handles it!”

“If it’s Valiant, I have high hopes he’ll kick your flank”, the Captain of the Solar Guard responded, not losing his grin. “You don’t think Scarlet and I haven’t been teaching him all your tricks, do you?”

Vladimir rolled his eyes, taking off his helmet and holding it under one of his wings. “Whatever you say, Broad. Not that I’ll take pleasure of knocking your lineage down a peg, but…”

It was around then the pair remembered that they were with a group of four fillies, who were watching the captains with curious eyes tilted heads.

“Well, never mind all of that,” the thestral stated. “We shouldn’t keep you and your friends, Princess. Have a fun celebration, yeah?”

Avia nodded. “We will!”

“Dad,” another voice spoke out, coming from an approaching Solar Guard. A pegasus with a white coat that contrasted with his dark red mane and eyes. “I hope you’re not too busy?”

“Of course not, Commander Snow,” Broad Sword replied professionally, getting Vladimir to roll his eyes. “What do you need, son?”

If Valiant was bothered by his father calling him by rank, he didn’t show it. “Queen Twilight wants to speak with your and Vladimir, now that we’re here. She’s waiting in the market with her family.”

“Ah, well, duty calls,” Vladimir remarked. “A good a time as any to catch up with Façade, I guess.”

“Indeed,” Broad Sword confirmed, before he looked down at Avia with a nod. “Princess.”

With that final word of farewell, the trio of guards departed towards the market.

“Wow…” Awesome Blitz muttered, glancing at Avia. “You know all the coolest ponies.”

Avia shrugged. “Well, I’ve seen them at the hive a few times. But not many.”

“She is a Princess,” Apple Surprise pointed out.

“Speaking of princesses…” Sapphire began. “Weren’t you talking about the castle?”

“Right,” the pegasus replied. “I still think we should go.”

Avia sighed, holding a hoof against her face as she felt a small migraine coming on. “Well… we’ll talk about it. Sugarcube Corner?”

The three pony fillies all looked between one another, before turning back to Avia and nodding in confirmation.

And so, after depositing the bag of hoofball equipment back at Awesome Blitz’s house, they did just that.

11 - Books

“It’s just a bad idea, nothing more and nothing less!” Apple Surprise protested, looking up from her milkshake and staring incredulously over to Awesome Blitz.

The quartet of fillies were back in Sugarcube Corner, though one table over from the one they had sat at the previous day. They had only just arrived, getting a quick order of milkshakes from the twins since Pinkie Pie apparently wasn’t in at the time, before getting down to business.

And the debate was on. Awesome Blitz was still all for the idea, while Apple Surprise was not exactly on board with her ‘trip to the forest’ idea. Sapphire just nervously sipped her milkshake as she watched her two friends go at it, joined by Avia who was waiting for a good moment to get a word in.

“Oh, come on, Apple!” the pegasus whined in response. “It’s totally a good idea!”

“How in Equestria did ya’ll figure that?”

“Because it’ll be completely awesome!” she proclaimed with excitedly flared wings. “Going into ancient ruins, finding secrets and fighting monsters!”

“We’re just fillies!”

“Awesome fillies!”

“Stop saying ‘awesome’ like that would actually make a lick of difference!”

“Never!”

Avia groaned, her head slowly lowering until it came to a rest on the table. They weren’t getting anywhere fast with this…

“Maybe we should all take a breath…” Sapphire suggested, looking between her two friends as they glared at one another. “This is getting out of control…”

Apple Surprise took a breath, but then relaxed back into her seat. “Yeah, your right. Sorry, Blitz.”

“Yeah, me too…” the pegasus in question agreed, also letting herself relax. “Sorry I shouted.”

“Me too…”

Now that everyone had calmed down for the moment, Avia was able to lift her head from the table and look back towards the ponies.

“Now that I can get a word in…” she began. “I’ve heard the Everfree Forest is really dangerous, at least from my mother’s stories.”

“Pfft, it can’t be that bad,” Awesome Blitz denied. “Apple Surprise’s aunt, Apple Bloom, used to go and see Zecora in the forest all the time.”

“Along a set trail,” the earth pony rebuked. “There’s no path to the castle. We’d have to go right through the actual trees and stuff, where the animals all live!”

“There was this changeling, Serpens, who once hid in the forest because it was so dangerous for most ponies to go into,” Avia recalled.

“Yeah, nopony wants to run into a manticore or a hydra,” Apple Surprise stated.

“I saw a trained manticore at a magic show once,” Sapphire randomly added.

The green filly frowned. “Emphasis on the ‘trained’, Sapphire.”

“Oh, come on, Apple Surprise. Don’t be such a worrywart!” Awesome Blitz remarked. “I heard once that wild animals only go for ponies when they’re separated from the group. But we, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, always stick together!”

“I’m not confident that logic would hold up in practice,” Apple Surprise deadpanned. “We could get really hurt doing this.”

“But it’ll be such a cool adventure! We could get our cutie marks for this, for being brave! Just think of all the cool stuff we could find at the castle!” the pegasus filly stressed. “Besides, we have Avia! And she’s a Changeling Queen!”

“A young one…” Avia sheepishly pointed out.

“But you still are one!” she retorted. “So, like, we basically have a changeling goddess on our side. That’s going to count for something! And, if things really go wrong, she can just use that weird joint mind thingy that changelings have to call for an army to come get us.”

“Hive mind,” the Princess clarified, before sighing in relent. “But yeah, I’m pretty sure the entire hive would turn up if I was in trouble. And then I’d be grounded for life…”

“Which is why we won’t get in trouble!” Awesome Blitz claimed, puffing up her chest confidently. “But either way, we have a Plan B!”

Apple Surprise sighed. “Ya’ll are pretty set on going ain’t ya, Sugarcube?”

The pegasus gave a hard nod.

“Nothing I can do to talk sense into you?”

The response was an equally hard shake of her head.

The earth pony filly sighed. “Well, if you’re going to go then I’m coming along. I can’t rightly let you go into that place by yourself.”

Awesome Blitz lunged over the table, grabbing Apple Surprise into a tight hug as the earth pony squeaked from the sudden contact.

“You’re the best, AS!”

“Ugh, the forest is so muddy…” Sapphire moaned sadly, before looking between her two friends. “…But a lady wouldn’t abandon her friends. I will suffer through it if I can help you, but you owe me a spa day!”

“Deal!” Awesome Blitz agreed, before turning to the final member of the group yet undecided. “Avia…?”

The changeling shuffled uncomfortably in her seat. “I don’t know…”

“Please…?”

Avia flinched at the pleading, shuffling even more. The royal changeling in her was screaming that this was the most awful idea in the wide history of awful ideas, that she could get hurt and/or grounded if she agreed to this! But she also had to wonder whether the three would go on without her, and if they were to get hurt because she didn’t come along…

And neither did she wish to disappoint her new friends.

“Alright…” Avia finally, if reluctantly, relented. “And I guess it would be pretty cool to see those secrets we were talking about.”

“Awesome!”

“But we’re doing things my way if we’re doing this!”

Awesome Blitz gave her a smirk. “Taking charge already, huh Princess? What is your way, anyhow?”

“Research!” Avia proclaimed far more enthusiastically, a bright grin appearing into her face.

The pegasus’ own smirk fell away. “Oh…”

“Research on what?” Sapphire enquired.

“There has to be books on the forest and what we could expect to see in the library,” Avia pointed out. “Plants. Animals. A map. Things we’d need to not get horribly lost and eaten.”

“I’d like to not be eaten…” the unicorn muttered.

“Exactly. We can read through it all so that we know what to do, and then we can leave shortly before sunset. That gives us plenty of time to get to the castle, have a quick look around and then head back for the raising of the sun!”

“Alight, I guess that sounds like a plan…” Awesome Blitz relented. “So… are we going now or…?”

Avia shook her head, grabbing onto her half-full milkshake and bringing the straw back into her mouth.

Adventure could always wait for milkshake.

Once the milkshakes were firmly in the stomachs of the fillies, they finally left Sugarcube Corner and headed off for the Golden Oaks Library. The sun was now directly above them and would soon begin its slow descent into the horizon in readiness to bring on the night. The coming darkness was still many hours away, fortunately, since it was the summer solstice. The longest day of the year meant they had plenty of time to research before sundown began, but consequently would also mean they would have less time to explore the ruins once they arrived there.

All the more reason to plan and organise it all, in Avia’s mind.

The four young fillies all made their way through the bustling town, weaving and diving through the colourful crowds in an attempt to reach their destination. They could now see plenty of the Solar and Lunar guardsponies patrolling the town and keeping the peace alongside their changeling counterparts, only adding to the population filling the streets.

As they got closer to the market, at one point they spotted Rarity deep in discussion with none other than Soronis and Puellula. The unicorn and two changelings didn’t spot the four of them as they passed, too engrossed in whatever they seemed to be fondly talking about. They didn’t stop to ask, continuing onwards before anyone decided to ask what they were doing.

And their sneaking around didn’t stop there. As they passed through the large market in the centre of town, another group came into their notice that they had to avoid.

Avia’s mother, Queen Twilight, was there. The Queen seemed to be chatting with the current Mayor of Ponyville alongside Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. They were all stood nearby to Applejack own stall, though Avia failed to spot any other members of her family that might have been nearby.

She had no doubt that they were around though. And they always seemed to know when she was up to something, so getting caught by them would be game over pretty much instantaneously.

Fortunately, they managed to scoot on by without incident. From there it was a straight shot to the Golden Oaks Library, and they ran on over to the old tree without a second thought. They rapidly closed the gap, and on reaching the door they quickly squeezed inside and shut it firmly behind them.

“Hello?” Avia called out experimentally, allowing the others a moment to take a breather “Anybody home?”

Silence answered Avia, much to her relief.

“Alright, we’re here…” Awesome Blitz stated. “Now what?”

“We need a book on the Everfree Forest,” Avia mused. “Look under ‘E’ for starters, shout if you find anything.”

They got to work, all assaulting the mentioned section and beginning to search through all the books for one that might relate to the Everfree Forest. Avia fluttered her wings and propelled herself up to the topmost shelf, going through each title one by one, even removing some of the books to check behind the stack for anything that might have been hidden.

No such luck.

“How about ‘The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide’?” Sapphire asked, extracted a book in her magical aura.

“I can save you some time,” Awesome Blitz deadpanned. “Honesty, Laughter, Generosity, Kindness, Loyalty and-”

“Magic,” Avia finished, all too familiar with that last one. “No, we need something more directed at the forest itself. It doesn’t seem to be here… Look at the other shelves, there must be one somewhere!”

“It probably has a really dumb title.”

“Shush!”

Any protests about being so promptly shushed were ignored, and they fanned out to cover all of the other books in the library. While the others all started to check some at random, Avia elected to being going in sequential order from A to Z.

She had just made it to ‘F’ when there was a sudden commotion from outside. All the fillies turned towards the door and, through the windows, they could see a whole host of ponies moving past as if in a hurry while some kind of melody carried by countless voices echoed into the building.

“Uh… what is that…?” Avia asked, seconds away from asking the same question over the hive mind. “Is something wrong?”

Apple Surprise snorted, going back to her search. “Naw, that’s just a musical number. They happen every once in a while.”

Avia frowned, looking between the fillies to see if the earth pony was pulling her leg. But the reactions from the others all but confirmed what Apple Surprise was saying.

“…You ponies actually do that?” Avia deadpanned. “I thought Mum was kidding when she told me about that.”

“Nope.”

“Oh, well…”

She took one more glance at the door, wondering if her mother was among those joining in the chorus. Then she decided to just not think about it and instead returned to doing book stuff.

She continued on through the F section, finding little of any relevance to the forest. Her search continuing on despite the lack of progress, the Princess managed to make it all the way to the H section before there was a victorious cheer from Apple Surprise.

“Do ya’ll think ‘The Landscapes of the Everfree Forest: A Guide’ will be any good?” she asked smugly.

“I think so!” Avia chirped, hopping on over and taking the book as it was passed to her.

The changeling took it over to a nearby table and placed it down, opening it to the contents section and looking through what the book had to offer.

“History. Notable features. Plant life. Animal population,” she recited. “And a map! Huh, there’s even a reference to what the different areas would have been before the forest was here.”

“There was a time the forest wasn't here?” Awesome Blitz asked.

“Do you ever pay attention in class?” Apple Surprise asked.

“Mostly!”

“The City of Everfree was there before,” Avia answered the pegasus’ enquiry. “You know, the old Equestrian capital before Nightmare Moon?”

“Ohhhh…” the winged pony said in understanding. “That explains the castle.”

“Point being…” Avia continued. “We could probably navigate the forest with this book. And maybe even avoid the nasty things we don’t wanna run into.”

“Well, sounds a good a plan as any,” Apple Surprise said. “Let’s go over some of this stuff before we go, yeah?”

“Right… let’s start with the plant life,” Avia decided, turning to the right page and beginning to read. “Our first specimen, poison joke…”

The four continued to read through the dangers and wonders of the forest in equal measure, from the smallest insect to references of the elusive Tree of Harmony itself, while not giving much detail as to where exactly in the forest it sat.

They soon found themselves laughing and joking about the various things they saw inside, talking amongst themselves and not failing to partake in the occasional jab.

In all, her friends by her side, Avia was quite enjoying the moment.

12 - Into the Forest

The sun was finally beginning to set beneath the distant horizon, casting the trail towards the Everfree Forest in a cosy orange glow. The sunset was always quite the sight, one Avia seldom got to see given the hive’s underground nature. As such, the changeling filly often found her gaze drifting off towards that horizon and looking at their fading star.

She’d usually look away a moment afterwards, lest she get spots in the corners of her eyes. But it was breathtaking nonetheless, as well as being a suitable distraction from ruminating on the decidedly unwise action the Cutie Mark Crusaders were about to embark on.

It was time to enter the Everfree Forest.

For better or worse.

Already, the dark forest was looming in the distance. Now Avia was closer to it than she’d ever been before, and she was beginning to notice just how dark it was inside there. While the rest of the world was bathed in that orange sunny aura, the interior of the forest just seemed dark and foreboding. Almost like the light itself was being swallowed up and digested by the ancient locale.

And as they got closer, the darkness just looked worse and worse to the future Queen of the Hive.

“You girls know it’s not too late to turn back, right?” the Princess asked to the others. “Just go back to the library and forget all about this?”

“She ain’t wrong,” Apple Surprise concurred.

“You kidding? It’s right there!” Awesome Blitz protested. “Sure, it’s a little dark. But that’s what you horn heads are for, right? Besides, Avia has that book. We know what we’re doing!”

Avia glanced down towards the saddlebag she wore, feeling the weight of the tome inside. She more or less knew where to go and what to avoid. They would start off by following the trail halfway up to Zecora’s hut, before turning off into the forest and following the map all the way to the Castle of the Two Sisters. The same route in reverse would be used to get back before the raising of the sun by Princess Celestia, who would be arriving soon alongside her sister, Princess Luna.

Yes, the book was probably going to be a lifesaver. She knew to look out for poison joke and other flora with ‘unfortunate’ effects to the unlucky saps who come across them. She also knew a bit more about the denizens of the forest. Manticores were unlikely to attack unless severely agitated or hungry, and their large profile made them easy to spot or hear before it would ever see them, meaning the best way to deal with it was to simply avoid the creature. Rocs would only attack prey entering a clearing, so all of those would need to be avoided. Other creatures all also had a variety of ways to be either warded off or avoided altogether. But the worst of the forest’s inhabitants, even if they weren’t necessarily the most powerful, were the infamous timberwolves.

Pack hunters, and stealthy ones at that. They would always attack a pony upon sighting one, and given the opportunity to do so, simply for the thrill of the hunt and the potential kill. The book recommended that they should listen out for rustling leaves and glowing eyes. If the group were to detect either, they were meant to hide until the threat passed them by. Failing that, lots of loud noises had a chance of scaring the magical creatures off.

And if one were to see them and failed to be intimidated?

Run. Just run.

“Maybe we won’t have to use it…” Sapphire said hopefully. “I mean, maybe we won’t run into anything at all. We’ll just be in and out, and all we have to do is avoid some of the meaner plants.”

“We would have to be a little unlucky to meet a predator…” Avia noted. “But it can happen.”

“You would also need to be really unlucky to get hit by a rogue lightning bolt,” Awesome Blitz said. “We’ll be fine.”

“Lightning bolts don’t have teeth…” Sapphire muttered in turn, shuddering.

“Since the weather isn’t controlled above Everfree, aren’t we more likely to be hit by lightning there over anywhere else?” Avia then asked curiously.

All eyes turned towards Awesome Blitz, who ruffled her wings sheepishly.

“…We’ll be fine!” she proclaimed determinedly, though failed to sound quite as sure as she’d been previously.

Great. Now lightning was added to Avia’s mental checklist of things that could ruin her first Summer Sun Celebration.

Joy.

The forest was really quite close now, the dark trees standing ominously over the group of four equine children in almost a warning fashion. The path they were on continued into the forest dead ahead, something that was by far the safest route through the wooded area. Perhaps the only actual safe trail, one which animals of the forest seldom breached.

Avia would savour every moment they had on it, before they plunged right into the deep end.

They then came to a complete halt right at the forest’s entrance, staring off down the long pathway ahead. Even though there was enough of a gap above the path to allow sunlight in, it was still notably darker down there than it was outside, even more so the deeper in it got. As far as they could see from the entrance, anyway.

“I’m getting creeped out already,” Sapphire said in a worried tone.

“And this is the safe bit,” Apple Surprise pointed out. “If Aunt Apple Bloom could walk this path as a filly, we all can.”

It was just the bit after that was a little more… untested.

Well, there was no time like the present.

Avia took a step forward and suddenly found herself beneath the first trees of the Everfree Forest. She let that information sink in for a moment, and then found herself unable to suppress a grin that came along with a childish glee that she was doing something that would make her mother very unhappy.

Rebellion!

“Come on, girls!” Avia said to the others, turning to face the rest of the CMC while suddenly feeling a whole lot more cheerful from the odd euphoria that came with rule breaking. “Let’s go!”

Awesome Blitz was next to follow Avia inside, hopping over the border line and standing next to the changeling nymph. Apple Surprise and Sapphire then glanced towards one another, and after an eye roll from the former they both entered at the same time.

All the Cutie Mark Crusaders were now in the forest, and they started off down the trail together.

Down the pathway they trotted, deeper and deeper into the deep recesses of the legendary and equally ancient forest. As they moved forwards the density of the trees and general foliage seemed to get thicker and thicker and the already fading light seemed to become stifled and lame, even along the general safety of the trail. That fact wasn’t helped by the sun’s rapid descent, and soon enough the night arrived and finished darkness’ arrival, only the stars left to provide even a modicum of light, the moon obscured by the vast number of trees around them.

Around this point Avia and Sapphire lit their horns, letting their respective blue glows reveal the surrounding area while preventing them from blindly wandering into the forest too soon. But even with them, the sheer blackness of the forest made the fillies clump together in a huddle and nervously react to every single perceived movement in the corner of their eyes.

The occasional hoot of an owl, and the rustling of rodents in the bushes, did little to calm the four of them.

“Why did we go at night again…?” Apple Surprise asked nervously, giving off a chuckle that did nothing to hide her building terror. “Seems like a mighty big mistake, don’t it…?”

“Because Avia wanted to do research first,” Awesome Blitz replied.

“Which might save our lives!” Avia retorted.

“Please don’t argue in the middle of the scary evil forest,” Sapphire begged. “I don’t want a dragon to hear us.”

“Dragons wouldn’t be a problem,” Avia muttered in turn. “Dragons are people. Dragons you can talk to. I’m more worried about one of other things in here finding us.”

“Well, we’re still on the trail so we’re safe,” Apple Surprise pointed out. “And I’m starting to think we should stay here.”

“We can’t, not if we want to see the castle,” the pegasus of the group rebuffed. “J-just, let’s stay close, okay? I’m getting a little creeped out here.”

“Only just now?” her earth pony friend deadpanned.

“Shut up, Apple Surprise.”

As the two glared accusingly at one another, Avia levitated the book from her saddlebag and flipped over to the map of the forest. There was a sheet of paper tucked inside that contained the changeling princess’ own notes and diagrams made on the route to take, and she looked specifically where they would need to make a turn.

And it was coming far sooner than she would have liked. Or perhaps it would be better, getting it over and done with before anything had the chance to snack on them.

Maybe Avia just had to stop thinking of all the ways they could perish and instead focus on not.

“We’re turning right just up ahead,” Avia informed the others, biting her lip as she did so. “We should come up to a river; after that, we need to cross it - good thing some of us can fly. From there it should be a straight shot to the Castle of the Two Sisters.”

“Alright, fillies, let’s do as Avia says,” Awesome Blitz said, stopping at where Avia had pointed out as being their turn off point and looking off into the black. “One hoof at a time…”

And then the trail was gone, and it was only the sodden and muddy floor of the forest beneath them.

The trees and their thick leaves now completely covered up the sky above, leaving them only the occasional gap to glance up at the stars through. The magic of Avia and Sapphire’s horns was the only thing stopping them from bumping into every tree and falling into every ditch, and at one point barely they illuminated a patch of poison joke in time before the group walked right into it.

A lucky break. Too lucky for their liking.

Still, they were making progress as time ticked on. And aside from the poison joke incident they hadn’t run into a single other threat the book had described to them. Sure, they did hear the occasional howl or growl coming from deep within the Everfree Forest, but none of them appeared to be in their general vicinity. At the rate they were going, they could reach the castle and have a good explore as well as get back to Ponyville with some small amount of time to spare before the celebration’s climax.

That was the idea, anyway.

The river that Princess Avia mentioned was found shortly thereafter. The forest opened up a little to mark its passage, the leaves above parting just enough that the sky became visible again. Though only around as much as they had been back on the trail.

Fortunately, swimming wasn’t necessary. Despite a small degree of strain to do so, Awesome Blitz and Avia took to the air and each carried Apple Surprise and Sapphire across the gap, telekinesis from both the changeling and unicorn helping lighten the load somewhat.

And when they landed they took a moment to catch their breath, looking back at the slow running river passing through the forest. It was during this time that they came to appreciate just how silent everything had become. None of them could be certain when it happened, but somewhere down the line the chatter of distant wildlife and even the rustling of leaves in the wind seemed to have died away completely. Now only a deafening silence echoed around them, filling their ears with a complete nothingness that actually made them wish for the howls and growls to return.

In the moments that followed, Avia was reminded of an old saying…

Be careful what you wish for.

All four fillies gave a squeak of fear as a growl came from somewhere close by, all four of them huddling closer together as they all looked outwards at all that surrounded them. The noise didn’t appear to be coming from the forest ahead of them, but in fact was coming back from the other side of the river.

And when they looked towards the source, they saw two bright glowing green eyes staring at them from the treeline.

And then two more appear. And another two.

All in all, six pairs of eyes stared out at them from the forest like it itself had come alive.

And then, in quick succession as the fillies could only watch in horror, they began to emerge into view. Canines of wood and magic, vines swirling around their bodies as their splintered teeth seemed to shine despite their wooden nature. The pack of timberwolves all cautiously moved to the water’s edge, sniffing the air and glaring at the fillies on the other side.

“Eh-heh, right… Okay…” Awesome Blitz fearfully said. “Those are timberwolves… Real life timberwolves!”

“W-what are they doing...?” Sapphire asked.

“It’s okay, I think…” Avia said hopefully, reluctantly splitting from the other huddled foals and trotting to the edge of the water on their side of the river. “They can’t fly, so they can’t reach us. We’re safe.”

“Well, I’m mighty relieved…” Apple Surprise murmured, though didn’t break away from the other two young ponies. “Can we go now…?”

“We should g-get to t-the castle,” the shivering pegasus latched onto Apple Surprise stuttered. “Maybe then they’d lose interest for when we need to come back this way…”

“Yeah, good idea…” Avia said as she watched the wolves begin to back away from the edge of the river, before turning back to her friends.

Only for all three of them to give a startled scream that caused Avia to shoot back around to the timberwolves.

The magic creatures had charged forwards from where they’d backed up to, and in one mighty leap they all propelled themselves over the river towards the fillies!

“RUN!”

Avia scampered away from the river just as the timberwolves landed on their side, barrelling into the trees as she screamed while the creatures snapped and snarled in an attempt to catch their meal. Through the trees the changeling went, not stopping as tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes and the chitin on her face became scratched by the plants she barged through without a second thought. She could hear the wooden canines behind her, and refused to stop running as the adrenaline kicked in.

“MUM, HELP! PLEASE!”

“Avia? What’s happening?” Twilight responded in a panicked tone over the hive mind, getting no reply as the filly continued to run. “AVIA!?”

Then her hoof snagged on something, Avia releasing a bad adult word as she fell face first into the dirt and rolled into a small ditch in the ground.

“Ow…” she moaned, slowly rising to her hooves as she gave a small sob of both pain and fear.

Taking a quick look around, she realised with ever-increasing horror that her friends were nowhere to be seen. What was more, she could still hear the timberwolves running through the forest behind her in their continued pursuit.

Gritting her teeth, Avia stretched out her wings and prepared to take to the skies and get the hay out of the hellish forest right then and there!

Only for a stab of pain to come from her right wing, and she immediately realised that she’d sprained it during her fall. It hurt so bad! Even attempting to enter flight sent a searing pain through her whole body!

And then the first timberwolf shot out from the trees, Avia screaming as she saw its fangs bearing down on her with intent to finish the nymph’s life in one fell swoop.

Her horn instinctively lit up, and the filly fell down into a fiery portal that exited outside of the ditch and propelled her into the air. From there, Avia landed with a thud as the timberwolf landed atop the portal with half its body submerged.

Then the portal closed, and the creature was cut clean in half.

Any consideration and mortification the nymph might have had towards unintentional killing the magic-based animal was short-lived, however, seeing as the rest of its pack was only incensed by the death of one of their own. The filly was forced to scamper up and flee once more as the other timberwolves all charged over the ditch to reach the changeling, and she pushed her legs as far as they and her desperation would carry her.

She ducked and weaved through all the trees she could, jumping over plants and further ditches that if she got caught in would spell her certain doom. And the timberwolves were not ones to give up and seemed set on continuing their pursuit until the changeling nymph either made a mistake or tripped on something.

Either was a likely option, and in the back of Avia’s mind she knew that the wolves would be able to keep the chase up far longer than she.

But she wasn’t done just yet. Avia hopped around another patch of poison joke as well as a couple bewildered jackalopes that watched it all from the safety of their burrow. She spotted a broken tree trunk up ahead, and as she approached the stump she jumped atop of it before leaping ahead to a low hanging branch on a following tree. She gave a sudden flap of her wings to help propel the lunge, sending another agonising wave and pain through her nerves and eliciting a scream from the filly.

It worked though. She latched onto the lower branch as her pursuers all ran around to circle the tree, the head of the pack shooting forwards and leaping to try and take a bit out of the nymph’s hanging hind legs.

The snap bit into thin air, Avia swinging herself up to the branch and desperately attempting to climb to the next one up, intent on getting as high above the wolves as possible.

Unfortunately, the one who’d taken a bite at her wasn’t yet done. It jumped onto the trunk and latched its claws into the bark, beginning to climb up the tree!

“Oh, come on!”

It took almost no time at all for the timberwolf to reach Avia’s branch, making another snap at the Princess that she barely avoided. Her plan of climbing to safety had been ruined, so running was once again her only option. But the pack now circled the whole tree, and yet if she didn’t jump the climber would get her first!

“Go away!” she screamed as the wolf made to bite at her again, bucking out with her hind hooves and striking the canine in the face.

It fell from the tree, landing straight onto one of the other timberwolves that was circling around it in that foreboding manner.

Just the chance Avia needed.

In completely tunnel vision, her only goal being to stay alive, Avia jumped from the tree and hopped over the two scrambling wolves as the others all darted towards her. Fortunately, the gap she’d created in their perimeter allowed her barely enough time to get underway and keep up the chase.

But they still wouldn’t leave her be, and even the two she’d knocked down had gotten back up. She swore at any minute the adrenaline would fade from her body and she’d go down like a shell full of timberwolf food, which was an image that only prompted her to run ever so slightly faster.

The forest seemed to go on forever, as did the chase. Like this was how things were now, and she’d never see the face of her mother ever again…

And then she saw something she didn’t expect.

The sky.

Avia had emerged out of nowhere into a massive clearing bordering a ravine that cut right through the forest. An old rope bridge sat nearby, and on the other side of it sat a gigantic stone ruin that was surrounded by the Everfree in all direction.

The Castle of the Two Sisters.

Avia didn’t stop to register more than that, all too aware that neither would the timberwolves. Instead, she made a beeline for the bridge as she heard the barking of the timberwolves shooting out of the tree line behind her. Any concern for the safety and stability of the bridge came secondary to her escape, and she barrelled across the rickety wooden platform until she reached the other side.

She didn’t look back as she sprinted towards the stone structure, finding the closest doorway and charging inside.

The hallway she found herself in was crumbling and sparse, all subsequent doorways long without the doors that once enclosed them. But Avia kept running, moving down the hallway as fast as she could while taking twists and turns completely at random. She didn’t know if she’d lost the timberwolves inside the castle, or if they’d even given up, she only knew she had to keep going until she could go no more.

Some old tapestries, suits of archaic armour and other remnants of bygone times were passed in a blur. Door after door. Hall after hall. Avia stopped for nothing.

And then she emerged through a particularly large doorway into a vast room, only to realise that she could run no more.

The room she’d run into was a dead end. The room was tall and elongated, empty window frames lining the large chamber into a deadly drop for someone without the use of their wings. Two dilapidated thrones sat at the end on raised platforms, one blue and one golden. Tattered tapestries of the sun and moon flanked the throne and looked easily newer than anything else in the old throne room but had since been also ruined. Likely from exposure to the elements, not helped by the completely open roof that had long since crumbled inwards.

A dead end.

Avia had nowhere to go back the way she came, but the moment she turned towards the throne room’s entrance she stopped dead alongside her heart.

Five timberwolves all prowled through the door, growling and snarling as they blocked off Avia’s only means of escape. She backed up, glancing in consideration towards the open windows before something else caught her eye.

Another timberwolf emerged through the door, but one quite unlike the others. No, this one was huge. It towered over all others, who seemed to back away respectfully as it arrived.

‘Where did that one come from!?’ Avia screamed inwardly, shivering in fear as the giant timberwolf gave her a glare even more petrifying than that of its underlings.

The wolf growled, stepping forwards in a stalking manner as Avia backed away towards the two thrones. It was toying with her, confident that the nymph had nowhere else to run with the others blocking her only viable method of escape. So, it took one step forward at a time and didn’t stop until Avia had backed up the steps and intersecting herself protectively in between the two thrones.

Then there was a loud thud as something impacted up above, dislodging some pieces of rubble from the decayed walls.

The giant timberwolf only had time to look up in question before a deafening boom heralded the torrent of green flames that shot out and consumed the creature whole.

The timberwolf howled in pain as it burst into flames, writhing and snapping wildly as it practically bounced off the walls in an attempt to get back at whatever had set it alight.

Only for a large beam of lavender magic to strike the flaming wolf and shatter its already charred and brittle body, much to the surprise and shock of the other five wolves.

From the hole in the ceiling, as Avia and the wolves all looked up with wide eyes, an equine figure flew down and into the throne room. It was a Changeling Queen whose eyes glowed white with pure magic and fury, her horn sparking with the same lavender aura that had finished off the large wolf while a visage of pure rage adorned her features. Above the Queen also loomed a large purple and green dragon from which the flames had come, a smaller changeling than the first also standing atop the dragon’s great head in full blue guard armour with a sword held in his magic.

“Get. Away. From. My. DAUGHTER!” Queen Twilight Sparkle’s bellow carried throughout the entire castle, and all knew of her incoming vengeance.

Shaking off their shock, the other five wolves all gave howls of challenge as they charged the Changeling Queen as a pack. For their bravado, the Queen shot forward with magic surging through her body as Façade jumped from Spike’s head and chose a target.

Twilight landed first, and in a slam that was like a comet strike she immediately scattered the entire pack and sent them sprawling across the cold stone floor. Two recovered far quicker than the others, and after rolling to their wooden paws they both made a lunge at the changeling. It was their last mistake, however, as two blades of pure magic formed and bisected both timberwolves as they came into range.

As this happened, Façade landed on one of the downed wolves and took its head with one precise swipe from his blade. The rest of its body went limp and the green magic aura bled away and dissipated in the air.

The final two wolves tried to scramble back up, only for their tails to be snagged in Twilight’s magic as she dragged them towards her. They thrashed and struggled, one managing to stop itself by digging its claws into the ground. For that, Twilight leg go off both and charged her magic into a powerful bolt of combat magic, which she fired at the defiant wolf and shattered it into thousands of wooden shards.

She then turned back to the final wolf in a split second, levitating it upwards as it yelped before she threw it high up into the air.

Spike snatched the timberwolf out of the air, crunching loudly as he devoured the beast and swallowed it whole. The creature never stood a chance against the biting force of the dragon, and its life was extinguished before it ever reached the stomach.

And with that, all fell silent.

“Bleh, wood isn’t what I’d call appetising,” he complained, sticking out his tongue and wiping away remaining wooden debris. “Ew…”

“Avia!?” Façade called out, dropping his sword to the ground and looking around for the filly.

He spotted a small form poke its head out from behind Princess Luna’s old throne, tears streaming down her face as the nymph gave a hic between sobs.

“D-Daddy!” Avia cried out, rushing from the throne and into her father’s relieved hooves.

And there he held her, the Princess bawling her eyes out into her father’s chest as she did his best to comfort the beyond terrified changeling filly. And it was in that embrace that they remained for several moments, watched by Spike and a nearby Twilight who was slowly calming herself down to a tolerable level. The Queen made sure to utilise the old breathing technique Cadance taught her oh so long ago, before letting out a breath and approaching her husband and child.

“Avia…” Twilight said softly, and yet sternly. “What were you thinking, you… you could have been killed!”

“I’m sorry…” Avia whimpered, screwing her eyes shut as she shook dreadfully. “I’m sorry….”

Twilight couldn’t stop a small sob of her own as she gently took Avia from Façade and hugged her as gently as she could. “Please don’t do that, Avia… If I’d lost you, like I’d lost her…”

“Your Highness!” another voice called out, and Avia glanced off to the side between her tears to see Captain Vladimir and Captain Broad Sword enter with a contingent of royal guard. In the middle of all of them, though, was a familiar trio of fillies. “We got them.”

“Girls!” Avia cried out, not removing herself from her mother’s grasp, but watching as they split from their guard escort and bolted towards the changelings. “Y-you’re okay…”

“Y-yeah, those guards saved us!” Awesome Blitz explained.

“Y-yeah, but after we lost sight of you we… we thought…” Sapphire didn’t finish that sentence, instead giving a loud sniff amidst her distress.

“You sure had us worried there,” Apple Surprise said in no small amount of relief. “You look plum tuckered out, if I do say so myself.”

“Where were they?” Spike asked from up above.

“We saw them enter a clearing a little ways south of here,” Broad Sword responded. “They had four of those wolves on their tails.”

“But they weren’t expecting us, they were a quick mop up,” Vladimir added. “Is everything okay here?”

“We cleaned up the mess,” Façade answered, sighing heavily. “Five wolves and a king. By the hives, of all the things for her to do…”

“I’m sorry…” Avia repeated again.

“It’s my fault…” Awesome Blitz claimed, looking downcast and all around guilty. “I convinced the others to come, we just wanted to see the castle.”

“No, it’s mine,” Apple Surprise refuted, scuffing the floor with a hoof. “I’m supposed to keep the CMC in line. I didn’t do that…”

“No, it’s mine!” Sapphire further claimed. “I knew this was a stupid idea, but I came anyway!”

“So did I…” Avia muttered. “The book didn’t come close to preparing us, did it? Oh, I’m a Princess, I should have been the responsible one…”

“I think we all should have been responsible,” Awesome Blitz admitted. “We shouldn’t have come here. Not without an adult, anyway.”

“And I guess I shouldn’t have caved in to the peer pressure,” Avia noted sadly. “I just… You’re my first pony friends my age, I wanted to make a good impression…”

“I guess it’s okay to say no to your friends when they’re doing something dangerous or you’re not comfortable with,” Apple Surprise mused.

“And a friend shouldn’t force another to do it anyway,” Awesome Blitz concluded.

Despite it all, Twilight smiled. “Well then, I guess you all learned some valuable lessons in both responsibility and friendship from this, if nothing else. I’m sure your punishments can be discussed later, but at the very least I expect a friendship report on what you’ve learned from all four of you. Okay?”

All four fillies nodded.

“It’s a good thing that draconequus knew where to find you, or it would have been a short-lived lesson,” Vladimir quipped.

“Discord…?” Avia said questioningly.

“After your call, and none of the hive knew where you were, he appeared and said you might have gone up here,” Twilight explained. “But more on that when we get back to the library. You may have learned your lesson, but we still need to talk about this little incident with your respective parents. I’m afraid you’re not going to get off lightly for putting yourself in such unnecessary danger.”

“But… what about the celebration…?” Sapphire asked sadly.

Twilight sighed. “We’ll talk about it back at the library. For now, come on. We need to get you home safe and sound.”

13 - Avia

The return trek through the forest wasn’t anywhere near as terrifying as the journey in.

Nothing else had even looked their way as they had returned through the forest, probably wisely fearing a confrontation with the armed guards, protective Changeling Queen and dragon that accompanied the four troublesome fillies back towards Ponyville. The whole time the four of them stayed in the middle of their escort, not straying from the herd for even a moment. None of them were remotely keen on tempting fate, still heavily shaken by their close encounter with the timberwolves. They allowed themselves to be guided out, avoiding all things dangerous until the density of the foliage finally started to thin out.

And then the forest came to an end, and they emerged from the dark woods exactly where they had started, the path entrance that led to and from Zecora’s hut.

Avia’s relief about being free of that place could not be overstated. No amount of curiosity or ancient castle ruins was worth the level of terror that she had endured. The terror, and…

That one wolf. The one she’d split in half. She’d hadn’t meant to! She just…

She grimaced, unable to meet her mother’s eyes as they walked. An action that Twilight most certainly noticed.

Still, they kept moving in silence. The soft and bright glow of the town ahead of them, paving the way in the depths of the night. The streets, as they returned onto them, were no less filled than they had been during the day. Everyone was still wide awake, or attempting to be, in anticipation for the up and coming finale to the celebration.

All that was bypassed. They even ignored the changelings who all tried to surround the group in a small panic, asking after the Princess’ wellbeing, including the likes of sisters Soronis and Puellula, the brothers Thorax and Pharynx, and so many other drones that you couldn’t count them all. So too did it draw curious glances from all the other creatures around to observe the changelings sense of unease, but things started to quieten down with a quick word of both assurance and dismissal over the hive mind.

Princess Avia was safe and well, but the Queen needed to speak with her. Alone.

When the library came into view, the pony Cutie Mark Crusaders all experienced an odd mix of supreme relief and ultimate dread at the sight of the parents ready and waiting to receive them.

“Apple Surprise!” Applejack was the first to shout, rushing over to the group alongside both Rarity and Scootaloo, all zeroing in on their respective foal. “Of all the… Are you alright!?”

“Yeah, Ma, I’m fine,” Apple Surprise replied, just letting the ensuing glomp occur as the other Crusaders underwent similar reunions.

“The Everfree Forest? Why would you ever wish to traverse such a dreadful locale?” Rarity asked incredulously, the first to release her own child from the death grip. “Sapphire, I was so… terrified! I… why!?”

Sapphire sniffed, trying to hold back the regretful tears. “I’m sorry. But… I’m sorry.”

“We just wanted to see the castle. We thought it would be awesome to explore,” Awesome Blitz explained, sliding from Scootaloo’s grasp. “It… went wrong.”

“There’s nothing awesome about timberwolves,” Scootaloo said with a sigh. “Trust me, I know. Just… Nrgh, we should talk about this at home. But… darn it, Blitz! Don’t do that!”

“I still want to know what in tarnation you were thinking,” Applejack said with a furrowed brow. “But yeah, we’ll talk about it when we get back to the farm, Apple Surprise.”

“Okay, Ma… I’m sorry.”

Applejack gave a deep sigh. “I know, sugarcube. Just… promise me you won’t do something stupid like that again, you hear?”

“I promise.”

“We promise,” Avia spoke up, getting nods of agreement from the rest of the group. “We really are sorry.”

“As you’ve said,” Twilight stated. “Girls, you should probably go. I also want to speak with Avia in private.”

“Yeah, will do,” Applejack agreed. “We’ll see ya’ll when the princesses do their thing.”

Applejack motioned for Apple Surprise to move, and with the filly giving one final look towards the other members of the CMC they departed.

“See you later, girls,” Awesome Blitz said, the next to go as her mother pulled her away from the group.

“Yes, well… I’m glad things turned out as they did,” Rarity said, watching the others leave before turning to Twilight. “But what about you, darling, Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Rarity. We have a handle on this, you should see to Sapphire.”

The mare huffed. “Yes, just wait until her father hears about this.”

“Ugggggh!” Sapphire groaned in sheer dread, before finally leaving alongside the fashionista and leaving the changelings and assembled guards behind.

“In that case, we should also take out leave,” Broad Sword said once the others had left their view. “I hope that will be the last incident for tonight.”

“The princesses should be arriving very soon now,” Vladimir supplemented. “So, we should probably get to that…”

“It’s fine,” Façade told them. “We can handle the rest from here.”

“The gift and curse that is parenthood,” Broad Sword mused with a knowing chuckle. “Good evening, your majesty.”

Twilight gave them a nod of farewell, and then the two captains took their subordinates and departed as well. This left the three changelings and one dragon to themselves, the latter looming over the old tree with a sympathetic look.

“I… think I’ll wait outside,” Spike decided. “Not just because I can’t fit inside but… Well…”

“Thanks, Spike. Hopefully, this won’t take too long,” Twilight said back up to her old assistant, giving him a small smile. “Don’t worry.”

“Hey, I know how efficient you are with punishments. Remember when I ate that magical crystal when I was a baby drake?”

The Queen chuckled behind a hoof. “You were burping bubbles of pure magic for a week. You were a troublesome baby.”

“And now I’m a troublesome adult,” he said with a smirk, before his expression became more serious. “Go on, I’ll be right here.”

Twilight pursed her lip, glancing from Spike and down to Avia. The little nymph still couldn’t look her mother in the eyes, and the Changeling Queen bowed her head sadly before opening the library door and stepping inside.

Once she was in, followed quickly by her husband and child, she shut the door behind her and made sure that it was locked to any would-be interrupters.

“So, now that the others are gone…” Twilight began, laying down so to be on Avia’s eye level. “Is there something else you want to tell me…?”

“No,” Avia denied, shaking her head. “W-we told you everything…”

“Don’t lie to me, Avia. Please.”

“Something else is clearly bothering you,” Façade noted, sitting down next to her. “Come on, what is it? You know you can tell us anything, right?”

Avia was silent for several moments, screwing her eyes shut as tightly as she could manage as she tried not to be taken back to that horrible moment.

The portal closing, the wolf being… being…

“I killed one of them!” Avia cried, launching herself into her mother’s grasp and bawling her eyes out, for what little tears she had left to shed. “I- I didn’t mean to! I was just trying to get away, so I used a portal and it followed me and then… then…”

Twilight sighed, putting two and two together. “The portal closed, right?”

“I didn’t mean to!”

“Hey… It’s okay, it wasn’t your fault. You were just saving yourself,” Twilight cooed, nuzzling her daughter on the head while Façade looked sadly on. “And it was a timberwolf, a wild animal. And one that wanted to hurt you, nobody will blame you. Accident or not.”

“B-but, I didn’t want to hurt it…”

“I know. And that’s a good thing, you’re a compassionate filly. But sometimes… some terrible times, you cannot avoid such things. Be thankful that it was just a timberwolf, and not something… more.”

Avia sniffed, looking up at her mother with bleary eyes. “You’ve… hurt people before, right?”

Twilight flinched as if struck, her mouth gaping for a moment.

Façade bit his lip, but then chose to be the one to answer. “Your mother… Both of us, really. Have had to do things to protect the hive, you know the stories.”

“Does it… hurt?”

“I hope you never have to find out,” Twilight replied with a sigh. “As I said, terrible times. But they are few. For so many times in the past has conflict and other such issues been solved through friendship and understanding. You don’t always have to hurt someone to protect those you love, and never should it be your first option. People like Crudelis and the Empress… they would not accept redemption, not for lack of trying.”

“Even the Empress was only beaten because of your mother uniting with her friends, bearing their powers of friendship,” Façade noted.

“It’s the ideal that should always come first. You talk, you discover, you befriend. Princess Luna, Discord…” Twilight gave her daughter a sad look. “But it won’t always work, despite all the effort you should have given to make it so. During those times you should never be afraid to stop those who would do evil or harm, so long as you do not let it consume you, and you never lose sight of the Magic of Friendship.”

“I… think I understand…” Avia said slowly. “Have… you ever lost sight?”

Twilight paused a moment, but then sighed. “No. Nearly, once. You remember what I told you of your grandmother’s passing. But that’s why you have friends, like your fellow Crusaders. Don’t let that go. Ever.”

“I won’t. Pinkie promise.”

Twilight’s faced morphed into one of relief. “Good. I’m glad, but… now we need to discuss your punishment.”

“Oh please, Twilight. You can be such a killjoy.”

Just above them, lounging on a hammock that hadn’t been there a few seconds earlier, was the Spirit of Chaos.

“And after such a heartfelt talk as well. Truly, you are a strict mama ursa!”

“Discord,” Twilight deadpanned. “The door was locked for a reason.”

“And I ignored it for a reason,” Discord rebuffed, shifting in his hammock to look down at the trio of changelings. “And I, for one, wanted to ensure that there weren’t any pesky misunderstandings between us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Discord told us about the castle in the first place…” Avia muttered.

“WHAT!?” Twilight and Façade shouted simultaneously.

“Thanks for throwing me under the bus there, kiddo,” Discord said with a huff, his shadow being hit by something at high speeds, beeps and honks distantly echoing from nowhere. “Misunderstanding it is!”

“Misunderstanding!? You just said that you knew they were planning to go there!” Twilight protested, a spark of magic coming from her horn. “Not that you told them to go!”

“I didn’t tell them to go!” Discord argued. “I just mentioned it during one of our little talks. I mean, I suspected they might be curious. But, on this occasion, I hadn’t intended for them to willingly give themselves up as timberwolf snacks. Which is, by the way, is why I tipped you off about it before the feast occurred. See? All well in hoof, hand, claw or whatever appendage you might use.”

“You could have retrieved them yourself!”

“I’m hardly omniscient, it’s not like I knew exactly where they were in that entire forest,” Discord said with a shrug. “Besides, why would I ever miss the chance to see the mama ursa in action? Quite the show, I swore I was watching Chrysalis for a moment there.”

Twilight gritted her teeth, grabbing the nearest and heaviest tome she could find and lobbing it up at the hammock. Discord vanished in a flash, alongside the suspended bed, and reappeared behind the changelings.

“Point taken, I assume?” he said with a smug grin. “But all’s well that ends well, the offspring are safe, and I remain the universe’s punching bag for all the blame. Oh, the woe that is me…”

Twilight sighed. “Fine, you didn’t send them deliberately. But please, be careful what ideas you plant into my daughter’s head.”

“It would be easier if she didn’t take after you to an unbearable degree,” he retorted, crossing his arms in annoyance. “But I suppose I could go into the menu and lower the ideas setting. Oh, and Tia is here and probably but a few moments away from knocking on your door.”

“I thought you weren’t omniscient?”

“I’m not, just really good at timing things. See you around, Sparkle! And remember, keep tidying those libraries for fun.”

And then, right as there was a predictable knock on the door, the draconequus was gone.

“Tidying… What did he mean by that?” Avia asked curiously.

“It doesn’t matter,” she dismissed, before her magic wrapped around the front door and unlocked it.

It opened up, and through the entranceway strode the regal form of the alabaster Princess of the Sun, her rainbow mane billowing majestically in a way that always made Avia’s eyes widen in sheer awe. Through the doorway, behind the alicorn, second could be seen alongside an escort of guards both Solar and Lunar. Vladimir and Broad Sword had also both returned alongside the two royal ponies, but all waited outside as Celestia spied the changeling she thought of as a daughter.

“Twilight!” Celestia greeted, moving forward and sharing a quick nuzzle with the Queen. “So good to see you! Sorry we arrived so late, but business in Canterlot was bustling.”

“Don’t worry, Celestia. I understand,” Twilight responded, returning the nuzzle with vigour. “I was just about to inform Avia that she’s grounded the moment we get back to the hive and won’t be leaving her room for a couple days.”

“Aw…” the nymph said, drooping down again. But hey, at least that was after the celebration.

“Oh?” Celestia asked, looking over to the filly with a frown. “Have I missed something?”

“A bit,” Façade remarked.

“I’ll explain later,” Twilight said, levitating her daughter up and placing her down onto her back. “But I think we have a Summer Sun Celebration to finish. So, no more drama or tears, let’s just enjoy the rest of the night while it lasts.”

Avia used a hoof to wipe any remaining moisture from her eyes, and then nodded eagerly. “I will! Let’s go!”

Princess Celestia gave the family a curious look, but then simply chose to wait for Twilight to explain it at a later date.

“Very well then, Twilight. Let us prepare.”

14 - The Summer Sun Celebration

A stage had been set up outside of Ponyville’s town hall especially for the princesses, and all creatures were now starting to gather before said stage as the time to raise the sun drew near. The outer streets quickly became vacant for the first time since the start of the festivities, while the centre of town was becoming more packed than ever before, to the point of being almost unable to move due to the sheer numbers of participants.

Some winged creatures seemed to have had the foresight to shift a few tufts of cloud to sit on instead, so a smaller group of pegasi, griffons, hippogriffs and changelings all looked down at the stage from a more comfortable aerial view.

And Avia saw it all as she peeked out of the town hall’s front entrance, excitedly peering out into the crowds. She spotted Carduus, Panacea and Iuvenes among those in the cloud seats, and they had been joined on their personal tuft by Soronis and Puellula a short while thereafter. A small distance from them was another tuft of cloud that held Avia’s father, holding the fort while waiting for the rest of the family to hop on up.

Speaking of family, when Avia cast her gaze downwards she could see the rest of hers had favourable positions right at the front of the crowd. Her grandparents stood close by, and right there with them was Avia’s Aunt Cadance and Uncle Shining, and where would they be without Flurry Heart. Not far from them, also at the front of the crowd, she spotted the Element Bearers and their own families. Avia couldn’t help but smile at seeing Apple Surprise, Sapphire and Awesome Blitz with their parents, the night’s previous terror’s replaced with jubilation at the coming event.

Spike, meanwhile, sat atop a nearby building alongside the few other dragons that were large enough to be in such a position. Avia swore she saw his eyes make contact with her own, the only one of the crowd so far to spot the young filly. Spike gave her a wink, and Avia giggled before pulling back through the door and gently shutting it behind her.

The inside of the town hall was much calmer, only a few ponies and changelings inhabiting the space at the time. The princesses were talking with the Mayor of Ponyville and a middle-aged unicorn mare with an inkwell cutie mark, a notepad held in the latter’s magical aura. Queen Twilight looked on from nearby, standing with a small compliment of guards that included Vladimir, Broad Sword and Valiant Snow.

“Well, I think the crowds would riot if we made them wait any longer,” the Mayor said as he checked a pocket watch. “And I do believe it’s around time for the raising of the sun, your highnesses.”

“He isn’t wrong,” the unicorn mare agreed as she peered at her checklist. “All other criteria have been met, we’re ready to go when you are.”

“Thank you, Raven,” Celestia replied with a nod and that iconic motherly smile. “Go and join your own family. We can take it from here.”

“The same goes to the rest of you,” Luna spoke, looking at the guard ponies near Queen Twilight. “Those who are not assigned specific positions around the stage, or are on crowd control, you can all join your families as well.”

“You sure you don’t want us there with you?” Captain Broad Sword asked.

“It is alright, Captain,” Celestia gently rebuked. “We have a steady escort already, and more than enough in and around the crowd between us and the changelings.”

“She’s right, stop worrying,” Vladimir agreed. “Besides, if something goes wrong it’s not like we’re not there to step in.”

“We should find Mum, stand with her,” Valiant suggested to his father. “We might even be able to grab a cloud seat.”

“I hope she remembers that cloud walking spell,” Broad Sword chuckled, before turning back to the princesses. “Very well, if you’re certain.”

“It’s all be arranged to perfection,” Raven claimed proudly.

“I checked it over, she’s not wrong,” Twilight supplemented, causing the unicorn to lightly blush.

“Come on, before there’s no more room on the ground or the skies,” Vladimir said, nudging his counterpart. “Guards, you heard the princesses. Dismissed.”

The ponies around the Queen began to disperse, with the exception of those meant to accompany the alicorns onto the stage. So too did Celestia’s assistance depart alongside the Mayor, and in this moment, Twilight approached the alicorns as Avia watched on.

“I should also take Avia and return to our seats, Façade is keeping the cloud warm,” Twilight said to them. “After you’ve done your bit I’ll put my daughter to bed, and then I’ll tell you about her little misadventure earlier.”

Celestia tittered. “I look forward to it. She is very much like you, you know. Always some scheme or plan to enact.”

“It must be the changeling in us,” Twilight joked. “But not exactly like me. She had friends to do it with.”

“And yet your example made it so,” Luna pointed out. “To be sure, that might make the troublesome nature of the child all the worse.”

Twilight chuckled. “Probably. But I can handle it, why would I not?”

After all, as Twilight mentally noted, every moment with her was a memory Avia had that Twilight was denied with her own mother, even if they had formed around Velvet and Celestia instead.

Still, a part of Twilight felt she still owed Chrysalis in a way. Owed her to raise and cherish Avia in a way the late queen had long dreamt about but been out of reach of for so long.

Twilight lit her horn, and Avia gave a small chirp of surprise as she was lifted in the air and brought into her mother’s prepared hooves. Twilight hugged her close, Avia giggling as she returned the embrace happily.

After the embrace was done, Avia was levitated onto the Queen’s back. The filly who was the Queen’s very world and soul, the future of the Equestrian Hive itself. Before becoming a mother, she’d known of Chrysalis’ protectiveness. Celestia too, the fire within that would rage out to consume any who would try to claim the one she thought of as her own child. Even Velvet, always worrying about Twilight’s safety well into the Queen’s reign. But she’d never truly understood it, not really. The rage and emotion that came with the safety of one’s own child, not until Avia had been born.

And not until earlier that very night, where that had so very nearly ended.

‘I will always be here to protect you, Avia,” Twilight proclaimed within, even as she bid the princesses farewell and moved to depart the town hall. ‘Always.’

“So, everything ready?” Façade asked his wife as the Changeling Queen gently settled down onto the cloud he’d kept ready for them, Avia being lifted from her back and nestled between both parents. “Or are we waiting for another hour of admin?”

“Nope, Celestia and Luna will be coming out any second now,” Twilight informed her husband. “Are our guards all in position?”

“Blending in and keeping an eye out for troublemakers,” Façade confirmed. “Let the ponies be the visible presence, but I think the very idea that the griffon or pony next to you might be a changeling is enough to keep any punks quiet.”

“Not that there’s much room for hecklers to operate, look at the crowd,” Twilight noted, impressed. “The Summer Sun Celebration that brought Luna’s return wasn’t even close to this size. Just a gathering of ponies in the town hall.”

“There’s more than ponies, though,” Avia muttered from between her parents.

Twilight hummed in agreement, glancing down at her daughter. “I suppose the world has become larger.”

“That’s silly, the world doesn’t grow,” Avia responded with a frown.

“She’s got you there,” Façade joked.

“Smarty pants,” Twilight teased her daughter, playfully nuzzling the top of her head and causing the filly to giggle.

Once the nuzzle onslaught ceased, Avia was able to calm herself and take one final look around as the final few moments of waiting passed them by. The nymph saw two armoured pegasi emerge from the crowds and plant themselves on an unoccupied cloud, a unicorn carried between them who they gently settled down onto the condensed pile of water vapour.

Avia gave a small ‘huh’ as she saw that the unicorn didn’t fall through it like it wasn’t there, the first time she’d seen the cloud walking spell in action for herself.

Scarlet Snow then proceeded to gingerly sit down onto the cloud as her husband and son took seats either side of her. Broad Sword was quick to drape a wing around his wife, while Valiant just gave his parents a small smile before offering his full attention to the presently empty stage.

Avia’s eyes too drifted towards the raised platform, and then slightly away from it back towards her groundside friends. Awesome Blitz, standing by Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash, happened to glance upwards over her shoulder right in the direction Avia was sitting in. Her eyes momentarily brightened, and she budged Apple Surprise and Sapphire who all turned to look up towards the cloud. The three fillies all gave jubilant waves up at Avia, who quickly returned them with a giant grin that betrayed the presence of her fangs.

Avia caught her mother’s glance and smirk, but she had no time to blush as a giant spotlight set up on a building opposing the stage suddenly cracked to life and illuminated the town hall.

The Mayor trotted onto the stage, bringing with him a microphone stand that he somewhat awkwardly placed down before him before the pony cleared his throat.

“Fillies and gentlecolts, I would welcome you all to the one thousand and thirty second annual Summer Sun Celebration!” A round of cheers echoed around the crowd, the Mayor holding up a hoof and waiting for silence to return before continuing. “It is such a pleasure to have so many species from so many backgrounds with us tonight. Changelings, dragons and griffons to name a few. Your presence is a symbol of the world’s growing unity and friendship that has occurred over the past three decades; and on behalf of the princesses we thank you all for making all of this a reality.”

Another round of applauds, the Mayor once again waiting for things to quieten.

“But you aren’t here to listen to me ramble on about politics. So, on that note, everycreature prepare to give your best cheer for… Princess Celestia and Princess Luna!”

The cheers did indeed erupt, and the Mayor made himself scarce as the two regal alicorns all of them were waiting for emerged from the interior of the town hall and took their places on the stage before the entirety of the crowd. Luna stood to the right as Celestia took left, both standing a couple metres from one another as they observed the people all gathered before them.

Celestia’s gaze moved upwards to the clouds, lingering on that of a certain Changeling Queen before she looked to the side at her sister. Luna returned to look and nodded to her solar counterpart before her eyes moved back towards the crowd and her gaze hardened.

The Lunar Princess then kicked off, spreading out her wings dramatically as her horn lit up a fantastic blue.

The crowd instantly silenced itself.

Avia’s jaw hung agape as the entire moon seemed to shimmer and turn a distinct blue hue, before it began to slowly sink into the horizon at a pace that seemed completely unnatural to the filly’s developing mind.

And then, as if her jaw couldn’t go any lower, Celestia too kicked off from the ground. The alabaster alicorn’s wings spread wide and her forelegs were raised high into the air as a sudden orange glow permeated the air all around them. Avia had to shield her eyes with a leg as the sun began its swift and yet equally unnatural climb into the sky. The stars were obscured as the darkened sky very quickly shimmered into a bright wonderful blue as the closest star, their sun, came into the perfect position above Celestia’s horn from the crowd’s point-of-view, bathing their entire side of the planet in the glow of a new day.

Everything, and everyone, seemed to glow with the start of the longest day of the year. The crowd erupted once more into cheering and whooping, hooves stamping and claws clapping as the princess came into land back on the stage. Each gave the crowd and beaming smile as Avia too managed to pick up her jaw from the surface of the cloud and starting to cheer the princesses on.

For all that had happened, to see that wondrous sight that only came once a year…

In Avia’s view, totally worth it.

15 - Epilogue

Thirteen years later…

“So, do you remember all of that…?” Avia muttered to herself, reading out loud exactly what she was writing on the paper currently sat on her desk within the confines of her own bedroom. “It seems like forever ago, doesn’t it? Thinking about it just makes me excited for this years. I know you’ve all been busy, but I hope we can all make it this time. Besides, I want to hear all about Blitz’s new flame…”

Avia giggled to herself, the now adult changeling looking off to the side at a framed picture showcasing the second iteration of the Cutie Mark Crusaders all posing for a picture outside of Sugarcube Corner when they were eighteen.

“I hope to see you girls soon, I need a break from learning to be a queen sometime, right? Cutie Mark Crusaders forever, Avia.”

“Writing a letter?” Avia jumped as her mother’s voice came from behind her, and she turned to see the smug look on Twilight face. “Oh, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Liar,” Avia retorted, but then followed that up with a giggle. “I’m just writing to my friends. It’s been a while.”

“It has,” Twilight concurred, moving up next to her daughter as she rolled the letter up and stamped it with the royal seal of the Equestrian Hive. “You might want to get that sent off quickly. We’re going to be busy soon.”

“That expedition to the ‘Undiscovered West’ still happening?” Avia asked, placing the scroll to one side and turning to face her mother. “Honestly, they should have called it the ‘Lost West’ or something, it was mapped out once.”

“Not that those maps exist anymore,” Twilight pointed out. “Think of it, discovering the birthplace of the pony species!”

“I know, it’s exciting!” the Princess squeed. “And about time, too. I think a thousand years and two centuries is enough time for a land to be lost, don’t you?”

“It’s the only unexplored place left in the world. I suppose people were just terrified the Wendigos might still be there.”

“Only one way to find out,” Avia stated. “Need help getting things together?”

“Later. Right now, it’s late.”

“I’m not a filly anymore, Mother.”

“You’re telling me you’re not tired?”

“…Well, now that you mention it.”

Twilight gave her a knowing smile. “You may not be a filly, but you’re still my daughter.”

“Alright! Alright! I’ll get some sleep soon, don’t worry. No all-nighter for me.”

Avia gave a sharp breath as her eyes shot open, the world on its side as her eyes slowly started to scan her surroundings…

Her chitin felt oddly sticky as she pried it from the surface of her desk, slowly looking around her bedroom as she put the pieces together.

“Ugh, really?” she scolded herself. “I couldn’t even make it to the bed right there? Ngh, Mum is going to either be annoyed or she’s going to find it funny.”

Actually, now that she thought about it, probably both.

Avia slowly moved her aching body from the chair and into a standing position. She looked over to the bedside table on the other side of the unslept-in bed, glancing at the clock to see what time it was.

“…Huh?”

The hands were just… spinning. Avia latched onto the device with her magic and brought it close, turning it over to examine the battery slot. Everything seemed to be in order, but the hands kept on moving erratically.

“Stupid machine,” Avia growled to herself, dropping the clock onto the bed. She’d just have one of the more tech-centric changelings in their hive take a look.

Speaking of…

…Why couldn’t she make contact with anyone?

Avia tried to ping her mother. Her father. Any changeling she could but… silence. Only silence replied to her.

“What in the…?” Now Avia was starting to get weirded out. Doubly so since she could still feel the rest of the hive mind. She just couldn’t speak to them.

Avia quickly crossed her bedroom towards the door. She’d just find another changeling and have them tell the Queen what was going on. Her mother would know what was happening or could otherwise find out. They had their study obsessed brains in common, after all.

Opening the door was a mistake, as the moment she did Avia gave a shout of alarm as a blast of pure flame thrust through and knocked the young Changeling Queen from her hooves and to the floor.

And then everything changed.

Avia’s eyes widened, her body beginning to shake with fear as she felt the ground beneath her change to nought but dirt and ash. A wave of heat draped itself over her as a wall of fire stretched in every direction. The open sky sat above her, obscured by smoke and yet more ash blowing through the wind.

Avia had no idea what was happening, so she jumped to her hooves and lit her horn with a bright cyan aura. Magic crackled down it with one of the destruction spells she’d been taught for self-defence. She peered through the fire, trying to fight through the confusion to see who would dare assault a royal changeling.

And there, through the flames, a shadow emerged. The fired seemed to part around the figure and do them no harm, a large equine with an elongated horn bearing down towards the Princess of the Equestrian Hive. Lightning seemed to crackle overhead as the flames gave a burst of heat and energy, causing Avia to grimace and stumble as she turned to face off with the figure.

And then the equine’s large feathered wings shot out either side, a red glow overtaking the horn as Avia’s own sputtered out. The flames all rushed in, forming a bubble around her that prevented her from even thinking about flying away. Her magic seemed to stop working altogether as the fire closed in, and the Princess was powerless to stop them.

Which was why she was finally able to awaken from the nightmare, shooting up from beneath the covers of her bed with a shout of alarm and fear.

But there was no fire. No destruction. And that figure was nowhere to be seen.

“A dream. Just a dumb dream,” she muttered to herself, glancing to her side to see the clock showing that it was still too early for the sun to be up, if only just.

So Princess Avia let the nightmare’s memory depart her mind, despite how eerily real it had appeared at the time, and she let a far more pleasant sleep overtake her.

Author's Note

And so the third, and shortest, entry in the Change series comes to an end. I hope you enjoyed the general departure from the war and drama into a more fluffy and slice of life tale of a juvenile filly experiencing Ponyville for the first time.

Change: The New Kingdom will come after 'A Sparkle in the Darkness', and will follow on from where this epilogue left off. See you Change fans then!