I sigh and look to the range before me.

“Robot number 22, he failed the turret peer review.”

*BANG*

“Robot number 24, he died before he hit the floor.”

*BANG*

“Robot number 25, he never made it out alive.”

*BANG*

“And Robot number 29, died on the assembly line.”

*click* *click*

“Damn, only three shots.”

“Hey dad!” Starlight called out. “What’s that?”

I blink and look at my hand.

It was a cumbersome device, a mix of a very literal handcannon and a magic crystal apparatus to conjure the ammunition of the weapon, the trigger was bolted onto the gauntlet portion of the crude instrument, where you had to squeeze your whole fist to fire. A rounded plate on the outside allowed it to double as a buckler, which added to its function.

“Just a prototype for a range weapon for the Centurions, and my Knights, unfortunately the gems here can’t hold a charge worth a damn, if I want to get more out of them, I need to make them generate energy quicker, or make the weapon more efficient, but considering this is model 20, it’s looking to be the former.”

“Why not make the weapon’s barrel smaller?”

“I can’t lessen the blasts of the gem, so a smaller barrel would cause it to explode, besides I want the Arcane Busters to be as strong as they can without weight being an issue… sure this’ll recharge, but this is still only three shots at a time.”

“So how many shots do you want?”

“Six at least, that way its reserves build up for the next round before the first one is depleted.”

“...eh?”

“*sigh* the gem is two parts, to make it efficient the charge is stored at the front, this ‘round’ is ready to be used while the back of it charges a new one, once the first one is depleted a simple force of will pushes the new round to the front, but only when it’s a full charge, so right now there’s a delay.”

“Oh… so how quick is the reload?”

“Instant, so long as you keep focus, and I get the six shot charges, you’ll be able to shoot constantly without waiting.”

“...can I work on it?”

“Knock yourself out.” I say, tossing it to her.

*CLANG*

*thud*

“...pff-BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! YOU DAFT TWAT I DIDN’T MEAN IT LITERALLY!!”

“Bam-ba-laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam!!” I finish, earning a laugh from my current dinner guests.

“I must say Orgran, you continue to surprise me, I never expected you to know such strange songs.” Celestia mused.

“Verily, you must tell us where you keep getting such musical genius.” Luna inquires.

Internet. “I get them from an old plane of reality I used to scry into, like how everyone else gets it.”

“Yeah, but you never tell us what place you kept picking up with your talks about this legendary Leeroy Jenkins or the epic pranks involving the rolling Ricks.” Onera commented.

“Well elf-boy, you’re not going to know since we have no inter-reality scrying glasses anymore.”

“Please don’t call me that, you know I’m as unhappy about my heritage as you are.”

“Hm? What do you mean?” the Sun Princess asked.

“It’s… taken a lot to distance myself from what my people have made our race to be…”

“Elves, Onera excluded, are proud, and arrogant, believing themselves better than everything else, even the spirit king of the Elves, Elnir is… was sick of what they had done to the good name of Elvenkind.”

“Sounds horrible…”

“It is…”

*knock* *knock*

“Hm? Who could that be?” I get up and head to the door.

*open*

I look to see it was Queen Chrysalis.

“Oh hey-”

“Marry me.”

*record scratch*

“...wh-eh-I-huh-buh-fi-what-you…”

“Come, my betrothed! We shall birth a mighty kingdom…”

*creeeeeaaaak*

*thud*

“...betrothed…?”

I wake up from my little ‘nap’ to find a fuzzy sight before me and distant voices.

“...sentenced...dungeon...words?...” several blobs were cornering a single one.

Putting two and two together I jump in-between the crowd and the singled out entity. “STOP!”

The sudden shock stopped them long enough for me to focus my sight and sound to comprehend what was going on.

“But Orgran! Chrysalis killed you!” Twilight cried out.

“And didn’t I say I wanted us to no longer hate the changelings and forgive them?” I responded.

“But-”

“Twilight, Love is their food and they were starving!! And besides, there’s one thing everyone forgets!”

“Oh! Is it that point about the law of the wild?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yes, but also no, it’s the fact that we’ve severely alienated them for the wrong reasons!”

“...huh?” everyone says, confused.

“I… *facepalm* look! Changelings feed on love, right?” they nod. “So by that logic they take the form of a loved one since they can’t find love in their natural forms?” they nod again. “Did you ever consider what’d happen if someone actually bothered to love a changeling? Because it’s clear even familial love or even friendship is a sufficient food source.”

They all seemed to stop and consider it like it wasn’t something obvious, and it seems both me and Chrysalis had the same thoughts as we groaned at the expressions of epiphany that were painted across their faces, even Starlight and Carnus who have had SIMILAR LESSONS mind you!!

“In all fairness, it should’ve been obvious.” a voice called from the other room.

“Thank you! See guys? Pine the Dire Timberwolf saw it before any of you!! And he’s only just heard about them! You’ve known them for over a year! Regardless of his natural intelligence, even he shouldn’t have gotten to the conclusion faster than THREE ALICORNS!!” I chose to ignore the bark of pride Pine gave from the other room as I focused on the looks of shame the royals had at their shortsightedness.

“I… no… you’re right Orgran.” Celestia spoke for herself and her compatriots, moving and bowing to the queen. “We should not grant forgiveness, for there is nothing you need to be forgiven of, instead, I take the time to apologize on behalf of Equestria. We seek to spread love and friendship but decided to shun the one race that would have benefitted from such the most.

“We did not see you as ponies, with past experiences we believed you akin to vampires, but from Orgran’s words, which seemed to be wise more times than we expect.” I give a thumbs at that. “I can see… once again, that I have never taken time to really think about my actions… or the consequences.”

The pained look the royal sisters shared said a thousand words.

“But we can’t really do anything about it now.” Twilight began. “Because of the invasion I doubt anypony is going to love a changeling.”

“Well not for a while but thankfully I’m not a pony.” I retorted.

“True I guess-wait… WHAT?!”

“That’s right, I’m accepting Chrysalis’ proposal.”

“You are?” Chrysalis says, shocked at my statement.

“YOU ARE?!” the others say, equally shocked.

“Hold it!!” I hear Hella call out before pushing past the group up to me. “I didn’t agree to-”

“She’s a shapeshifter and her physiology based around that would make her a hermaphrodite and as such would be bisexual.” I say, pre-emptively countering all her arguments.

This resulted in her immediately pulling the Queen into a hug. “Welcome to the family~!”

“Um… thanks…?”

…
…
…

“So! Who’s up for a beer?”

Author's Note

please forgive if this seems a bit rushed... it's more like I've been doing this instead of sleeping.