The New Problem

Moonlight Gleam sat in a room, her eyes closed and her breathing slowed considerably. To the outside world, it would seem like she's sleeping. However, she was in a deep meditative trance. She entered this state when she was pressed for time, but needed to properly gather her thoughts. However something felt wrong to her. Her intuition was screaming in her brain, telling her that something was heading her way and it was dangerous. She kept her meditation up though, making it appear as if she were defenseless. She had no idea what was going to happen, but two black insectoid ponies walked into the room, their blue eyes gazing at their seemingly helpless target.

Neither of them shared a word between them, they didn't have to. The hive mind shared each drone's thoughts. The two of them jumped to try to attack their chosen target only for them to hit the ground instead as she moved quickly out of the way. The two of them looked up at her and hissed. "I don't understand why we have to go after this particular pony, it doesn't seem like she'd have much love to drain," one of them stated.

The unicorn opened her eyes and her ears twitched. Dull orange flames wrapped around her and she turned around to glare at her attackers. "You were expecting a helpless mare, weren't you?" she asked with a voice full of anger.

One of the changelings transformed into Floral Blossom, but Moonlight took notice of the color of the magic. Her friend had a silverish aura to her magic, but this was a sickly green color. She wasn't going to be fooled by this, the flames wrapped around her more fiercely as she grew angry. The two changelings looked at each other and the one that had transformed into her friend turned into a nirik to try to get through the flames.

The flames burning around investigator suddenly shifted luminescent blue as the temperature in the room rose drastically. Neither of the changelings were able to handle it in their current forms as Moonlight glared at them both. She then started to walk towards the changeling that had made the critical mistake of changing forms into someone she cared about in front of her. "Come on, you bug. You chose a form that would be fire resistant because they use fire, but you failed to account for the fact that I can make my flames burn hotter. Not to mention, the palace is going to notice the magical energy that I'm expending. It's only a matter of time before they descend upon this room," she threatened.

The two changelings looked at each other and then at her. The sound of hooves galloping towards the room sounded in the distance. They turned to run, only to see a barrier of flame appear before their path. They looked back to see the barrier of flame was still surrounding the unicorn. They hissed as they realized that they were going to be captured. Moonlight started to struggle to maintain the two barriers. The heat that the flames were putting off was intense and it was burning through her magic reserves at an exceptional rate. The hooves got closer to them, she only needed to last a few more moments.

The flames started to change back from luminescent blue to dull orange, her reserves were running dry. The changelings noticed this and one of them shapeshifted into her. This changeling "chased" the other one out of the room, forcing the unicorn to drop her shield. She was low on magic, another spell like that would be impossible for her, but she could cast a few basic spells if need be. The guards and a white unicorn with a blue mane ran into the room.

"I was able to chase one of the changelings out, but this one is too burnt out to leave. Look at it, it can barely stand," the changeling that had taken her shape said as she joined up with the others.

The guards immediately looked to Moonlight, their weapons at the ready to defend the Crystal Empire. She was going to have to come up with something and fast. She knew her particular choice of spell type and smirked, "Cast a fire spell," she demanded.

The changeling looked shocked, "What do you mean, everyone knows I don't use fire spells. That's some changeling trick!" it tried to deny.

Moonlight frowned as she had expected that to work, but she wasn't a fool by any stretch of the imagination. Doppelgangers were rumored in her world, and shapeshifters most certainly did exist. However developing a spell to find them was difficult as their magic wasn't different. She remembered that the magic of the changelings was a different color than normal in their normal form. She hedged her bets that it would remain the same while shapeshifted.

She smiled and ignited her horn, the blue glow emanating from it, "You said that I was burnt out to the point where I could barely stand. When the two of you escaped, I dropped the barrier," she stated.

Everyone in the room looked at the other Moonlight Gleam who immediately became nervous as she saw the orb of flame appear on the real Moonlight's horn. "The game is up," the unicorn taunted.

The changeling became desperate and tried to rush the pony whose form it had taken to try to confuse the guards. The investigator moved to the side and placed her horn on the ground, infusing it with what little magic she had left. Flames erupted underneath the changeling, lifting it into the air a few inches from surprise and forcing it to land on its side. The guards quickly entered the room to apprehend it as the unicorn collapsed, having expended her reserves of magic.

The last thing she remembered before everything went dark was feeling like she was being lifted off the ground by somepony.

She awoke after what seemed like days, she could feel that her magic reserves hadn't replenished themselves. Her head pounded as if someone was taking a sledgehammer to the inside of it. She started to sit up, but a light magenta wing touched her, "Mother told me that you're very weak after what you had done. If you didn't use up so much magic, we wouldn't have known what was going on. Don't worry, your friends are safe. Father told me that is a bit strange considering what the changelings used to do," a voice said to her.

"Your highness," the unicorn replied. It was all she could say with her concentration being the pain in her head.

The alicorn near her placed her horn on the investigator's head. A light yellow glow, close to the color of Moonlight's mane emanated from the horn. The pain started to subside, allowing her to concentrate again as the white unicorn from before and Princess Cadance walked into the room. "Flurry Heart, how is our guest?" asked the other alicorn.

"She's doing just fine, Mother!" said an excited Flurry Heart.

"Well, now that my head doesn't feel like I just tried to tear a building down with it, I'm fine. According to your daughter, those creatures are changelings, that would explain the security around here. And... why I couldn't detect them," she said trailing off to mutter on the last few words.

"How did you know that they were changelings in the first place though," the white unicorn interrogated.

"I didn't, I sensed danger and one of them shapeshifted into my friend in order to get me to hesitate. I have never done anything like that with my magic before, but you know what they say. The flame that burns twice as hot burns half as long. Before I knew it, I had run low on my magic. That stunt with the changeling to shock them into being lifted off the ground drained the last of it. It would appear that they use a distinct version of magic that wouldn't be too hard to distinguish from the magic that unicorns or alicorns use. If I were to be able to study it, I could potentially modify my detect magic spell to be able to detect changelings," she stated truthfully, her face turning towards the unicorn.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

Moonlight stood up out of bed and walked over to Princess Cadance, "You and I share a common ancestor. We are both descendants of Princess Amore," she stated.

The two alicorns in the room were shocked by this. They thought they were the only ones with lineage to Amore in the Crystal Empire. The pink alicorn looked down at the unicorn before her, "Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yes. Where I come from we have extensive records of family lines. My name is Moonlight Gleam. I'm her descendant, fifty-one generations down. If you really want to get an idea of that, that would be forty-nine greats and then granddaughter," the dark blue unicorn said as she stretched.

"So we're family?" Flurry Heart chimed in, excited.

"In a loose sense. Our genealogy diverges from her great-grandson. Your family descended from her great-great granddaughter, I descend from her great-great grandson. We're so distant that we're basically not family anymore," the investigator pointed out.

Cadance walked forward and wrapped a wing around Moonlight Gleam, "Nonsense, all members of Amore's family are my family," she said with a smile.

The investigator frowned, slightly annoyed by this gesture. Not to mention the reminder of her situation. "You'll have to forgive me, but I do not wish to be part of your family. The Cadance of my world wouldn't have lifted a finger to help my family!" she said, starting to raise her voice as she backed away.

The family watched as the dark blue unicorn backed away, she looked like she was getting angrier by the minute. "Some famous movie star while my parents broke their backs to try to provide food for us. She never looked at us! She never cared, we were too distant of family for her to notice! Both physically and genetically! I don't want your help! I don't need your help!" she screamed.

Flurry Heart tried to move towards Moonlight, but the white unicorn shook his head, "Flurry, let your mother handle it," he stated.

Cadance moved towards the angered unicorn, well aware of the power she had displayed earlier. "Maybe she wasn't there for you or your parents. But you're here now and... I'm afraid to tell you this, but you and the pony you're looking for aren't the first two to arrive to Equestria from your world," she stated.

This caught the pale yellow maned pony's attention, she looked up at the alicorn that was approaching her attentively. "Go on," she said.

"Another pony, an Earth Pony came about ten years ago. He tried to return to his world through the mirror, but over the last ten years it didn't send him to his world. Even when you both arrived here and he tried, it sent him to the world Twilight went to. I'm afraid that the mirror was a one way trip," the Princess of the Crystal Empire reported.

The only thing that sounded in that room was laughter. Moonlight Gleam was laughing. She had clung onto hope that she would see her world again, see her family again. She had imagined that it would be as simple as just going back through the mirror again. Now she'd be stuck for the rest of her life as a pony. Her laughter started to become more unhinged as the revelation started to sink in. The three ponies in the room with her looked a bit uneasy, but Cadance knew that there was a fifty-fifty chance of what would come next. Either the unicorn would become exceptionally angry or she would break down crying. She hedged her bets on the latter.

The laughter gave way to sobbing as the revelation that everything had been taken from her set in. Her tears hit the ground and she unleashed a wailing scream. The pink alicorn swooped in and hugged the unicorn as tightly as she could, burying her face into her chest. "There there, let it all out," she said.

Moonlight just continued to cry, soaking Cadance's fur with her tears and staining her own. She had lost, Sunrise had won. He had finally taken everything from her and she felt like she had nothing left. This was going to be her world now, her life. What was the point of her continuing to try to fight him anymore she began to wonder.

The pink alicorn started to sing gently to try to calm the unicorn down, but instead it started to make her drowsy. The sobbing slowed down and eventually the crying stopped. Moonlight recognized that song, it was the same one her mother had sung to her when she was a child.

"Moonlight, I know that the Cadance of your world wasn't there for you. But I will be here for you, if you ever need me, know that you can count on your Aunt Cadance. Your Uncle Shining Armor and Cousin Flurry Heart will do the best we can do to help you," the alicorn holding her stated.

"We're... distant though..." protested the investigator.

"Aunt Celestia had no relation to me, but she still took me in. I'm just following her example," was the gentle reply to her protest.

Moonlight smiled, she felt warm and safe. She had no idea how she would continue from here now that she had learned that she couldn't go back to her world, but she wanted to at least stay here in the Crystal Empire for a while. Learn a bit about the culture and about the food. But first thing she did was wrap her hooves around the alicorn that was holding her. The pink alicorn smiled and wrapped her wings around the unicorn. The two hugged gently for a moment before Moonlight let go, "Thank you, Aunt Cadance."

"You're welcome, niece," said Cadance as she placed Moonlight back into bed to recover from her ordeal.