I couldn’t help but worry as a guard passed me on the way to school. That was the third one I’d seen so far today. What was happening that needed them? Upon arrival, there was yet another armored stallion standing sentry in front of the school. I decided to ask him.

“Hey Mr. Guard? Why are there so many of you around Maregate?” The guard turned and looked down at me.

“Ponies have been acting strange, changes in personality sweeping the town, and changelings are the suspected culprit. We’re here to keep an eye on everyone and ensure nobody has been replaced.” My worry increased. Were they onto me?

“A-alright. Thank you, Mr. Guard,” I stammer, slowly making my way into the school and taking my seat. Everyone else seems just as worried as myself, and likely for about the same reason. Ms. Marigold stood at the front of the room, shuffling some papers.

“Mesmer?” Brightstar gave me a poke and I turned to face her, “what do we do? You’re the one in charge.” I put my hoof to my chin, thinking only briefly

“Well we just take control of the guards, obviously!”

“But isn’t that exactly what brought them here in the first place?” Ms. Marigold rebutted, “Ponies suddenly started acting differently, if the guards started to change then there would be reinforcements. I don’t want to question you, but I also don’t want you to get hurt.” The rest of the classroom began murmuring. She did have a point. I can’t just let go of all my loyal followers, though.

“We should probably start the lesson in case someone walks in,” another pony interrupts, and we all nodded in agreement. Ms. Marigold got her papers together and the mood of the room lightened greatly.

“Now then, last week we talked about polygons, does anyone remember what they are?” Ms. Marigold’s smile was clearly genuine, as if she had forgotten everything we had just talked about, as did everyone else. I didn’t.

———————————————————————————————————————

Math class was rather uncomfortable today, and I thought recess would be a good break from it. I could just sit somewhere and think, mabe devise a plan, but mostly just rest. Unfortunately I couldn’t really get any comfort due to the proximity of the playground and the entrance, the guard practically on duty for the playground as well. The day was practically normal for the rest of the ponies, blissfully unaware of the stress their queen was under. I got up and made my way to Brightstar.

“Hey Bright? Can… we talk somewhere?” I asked quietly, Brightstar nodded in return and we made our way against the wall of the school, a bit out of line of sight of the guard.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, her expression now just as worried as mine. I could see her programming beginning to take control again, her eyes gaining a slight purple tint.

“I’m scared, Bright. What happens if…” I quieted down a bit to make sure I couldn’t be heard, “what if they find out? What’s gonna happen? Are they gonna take me to jail? Are they gonna kill m-” Brightstar cut me off, stuffing her hoof in my mouth..

“Two things: one, quiet. Two, shut up. Everything will be fine. We’ll find a way, we just need to not attract suspicion.” She removed her hoof from my mouth and peeked around the corner to see if the guard was looking our way. They weren’t. “And if anything happens, I will guard you with my life.” I sighed and smiled.

“Thanks, Bright. How about we go play something?” I walked over to a bin of toys and took out a tennis ball, “think we could get some others together and play wall ball?” She smiled and nodded, then ran over to the rest of the colts and fillies.

“Hey! Anyone wanna play wall ball?!”

———————————————————————————————————————

The rest of the day was mostly uneventful, and I was headed back home before I knew it. I felt a lot better after the talk with Brightstar, but the looks of all the guards around town continued to make me feel uneasy. My arrival home was great for removing that weight, where I was greeted by Pathfinder.

“Hey Mesmer, how was school?”

“It was good,” I replied, “but also worrying, what with all the guards around.” I looked at the ground for a few seconds before shifting my eyes back up to him. “So what have you been doing?”

“Oh, I’ve just been reading the news. Apparently Discord went on a big pranking spree in ponyville, enough to cause some real problems. As they say, ‘with great power comes great responsibility,’ and Discord still needs some help in that department.” that line, ‘with great power comes great responsibility,’ it hit somewhere within me. Hmmm...

“Well, I think I’m going to go upstairs now, to think.” I began trotting over to the stairs.

“Be sure to do your homework as well,” Pathfinder said as I made my ascent, to a nod from me that he might not have even seen.

I flopped onto my bed, going over that line,

“With great power comes great responsibility,” I muttered, my mind at work thinking about what it meant to me. I swear i’d heard it before, or something like it, but I couldn’t put my hoof on it… I spent about an hour pondering it before deciding I should probably do my homework first, just some simple stuff on shapes. All the sides are different lengths, they don’t look like what we were taught… this may be hard…

It took longer than I’d expected to finish, but I think I got everything right. Either way, I could smell Pathfinder cooking, which probably meant it was about dinner time. I got up and trotted downstairs to meet him in the kitchen, where he sat down with some pasta for himself.

“I was just about to call you down. Did you do your homework?” he asked as he started to eat?

“Yeah, it was kind of hard though, it didn’t match what I’d already seen, but I think I got everything right. It’s just about sides.”

“Well that’s good, I’ll help you check everything after dinner if you want.” he offered, and I gave an approving nod and a smile. “Alright. Also,” he leaned closely and whispered, “I’d recommend that you keep your disguise on for now, in case someone peeks in,”

“Yeah, good idea,” I said as he pulled away. I wonder if I’ll be able to properly sleep in this disguise, I thought, but I felt confident, I was Queen Mesmera, after all, and someday I’d rule over my own hive!

Dinner continued mostly uneventfully after that, a bit quiet given that not much was actually done today by either of us. Soon, Pathfinder had finished eating, and brought his bowl to the counter.

“Alright, I’m done, so now it’s time for you to eat,” he puffed out his chest a bit for me, showing readiness. I opened my fanged maw and watched the pink love energy transfer from his chest to my mouth, sating my hunger. I was still tired though. I finished after a few seconds and Pathfinder wobbled for a moment before sitting down at the table again.

“Hey Pathfinder? I’m feeling a bit tired. Is it okay if I go to bed early?” he chuckled.

“Well that’s a first. Alright I suppose, and I was going to ask you to go to bed earlier anyways, granted not this early, since I know someone has been staying up way past their bedtime.” Dang it, how’d he find out?

“Alright, goodnight Pathfinder,” I said, trotting up the stairs.

“Goodnight,’ he replied just as I exited his view. I went back to my room and flopped onto my bed, eyes already heavy. I shut the door and turned off the lights, and fell asleep in seconds.

———————————————————————————————————————

I woke up to a blinding light in my face. I raised my hoof as my eyes adjusted themselves to the environment. I was in a dark gray room, sitting in a high chair in front of a similarly gray plastic desk opposite a white unicorn clad in armor. I panicked and attempted to fly away only to find my wings tied to my sides. The guard slammed its hoof on the desk.

“So you’re the changeling that got into Maregate? I thought you’d be bigger.” he chuckled a bit, “so, where’d you come from? Who’s your queen?” Okay, I couldn’t panic, I need to assert my dominance.

“I’m my own queen! I’m Queen Mesmera, and you’re not gonna get away with this!” this clearly didn’t work, seeing as the guard laughed.

“You’re the queen? Oh that’s rich, but also impressive that you managed to do all this. But there’s no way you did it alone. How many other changelings did you bring with you?”

“None,” I said, trying to sound as big as possible, “I’m the true ruler of Equestria and I could do this all on my own.”

“You know, I’ll admit, that was a dumb question,” the pegasus smirked at me, “you’re so small, there’s no way you’d have a hive yet. And acting like this, you never will have one.” He leaned onto the wooden desk, “maybe if you’d been a bit more subtle, didn’t try to control the town, we wouldn’t be here. Thanks for that though, now we can snuff out your hive before it even develops.” he signalled for two guards to come and grab me, who quickly raced to complete their orders, though my struggling did cause them some difficulty.

“You’ll never rule the world like this. You had great power, and with great power comes great responsibility. It’s lucky for us that you didn’t have the latter. He exited the room into a bright hallway, and as I struggled against my captors, I sunk my fangs into one, escaping from his grasp, I turned to face the other and saw a hoof coming for my face.

———————————————————————————————————————

I woke up in a cold sweat, panting. I was back in my room. It was just a nightmare. I got up from my bed slowly, and as I exited my room I realized the significance of that quote. I knew what I had to do, as much as I hated it. I began to make my way down the stairs.

“Morning, Pathfinder.” I said nervously.

“Hey, Mesmera,” he noticed my tone, “is something wrong? Did you have a nightmare?

“Hey Pathfinder? I uh, made a decision,” I said.

“What’s that?”

“I need to… I need to let everyone go.” he was silent for a few moments.

“Sorry, repeat? I thought you had said that-”

“I need to let everyone go. You were right before that I needed to be more responsible with this, so I need to let everyone go.” I looked down sadly. He looked about the same.

“I’ll see what I can do to help with that. Just make sure to wipe their memory of the weird stuff.” I nod and flash my wings for him.

“You can relax, too. Clearly I need you to have at least some autonomy.” his eyes flashed purple for a few seconds, and he stumbled. When he regained his bearings and his eyes returned to normal, his expression changed.

“Mesmera, I hope you know that you’re going to be punished dearly for all of this.”

“I know…” hopefully it isn’t that bad.

Author's Note

We're back, and hopefully, we'll be a bit more consistent in the schedule. Just by the way, the inconsistencies in the dream scene were intentional.