“That's all of them,” Starlight reports as she trots over to me near the Mirror Pool. “Everypony except you, me, and . . .” She trails off sadly as she looks up at the small limp body she is floating nearby. Seconds after she does so, she floats it gently down in front of me.

I behold it. It is none other than the dead version of my original body. The first detail that sticks out to me is the fact that the colors of this body are greatly faded. That doesn't stand out as much since I naturally have a white body, but that whiteness doesn't seem as bright anymore. It leans more on darker gray now. The more obvious differences are in my faded green eyes and muted two shades purple mane and tail. Also, while my mane and tail normally end in curly tips, they now seem flat and matted.

The most curious detail of all, though, is the fact that there is no cutie mark on my old body anymore. Seeing that forces me to ask myself if this is normal for dead ponies or unique to this particular case.

As far as I know, it could be either. I have never beheld a pony corpse before. Not once. It feels especially ironic, in a chilling way, that the very first pony corpse I behold is my own.

I frown as I tear up when I remember that this body wasn't just my own anymore. Button Mash shared its existence towards the end, and he . . . and he . . .

Gah! I can't even think it!

“Starlight, I . . . I want to be alone for a little while,” I request with a shaky voice.

Starlight's reply came with some hesitation, but eventually she says, “I completely understand. I'll just, uh . . . I'll check on the others for now. I'll make sure that they get settled.”

Although I am not looking at Starlight right now and instead staring at my own corpse, I still notice Starlight turn her head and gaze off to the side with a look of concern in her eyes through the reflection of the nearby Mirror Pool.

“After all, we have a bunch of new and dangerous changelings to deal with. They seem spooked for now but, when they calm down, there's no telling what they might do next. I want to be there to settle this the very moment they recover because, whatever happens after that, it may be of critical importance. If just one of them could stir up this much trouble before, I don't want to think about what a whole army of his clones may do if our new relationship starts off on the wrong hoof.”

Starlight looks back at me sympathetically. Through the Pool’s reflection, I notice the corner of her lips quiver a bit.

“Given your enhanced understanding of them now, I'd be lying if I told you I don't need your help,” Starlight tells me. “That said, I'll still give you a few minutes to collect yourself and . . . um . . . mourn,” she finishes sadly.

“Thank you, Starlight,” I tell her in a tiny, almost squeaky voice.

Starlight draws close to me and sympathetically touches me on my back. Then, after a moment's hesitation, she pulls me into a gentle hug. When she does, I can feel her shiver in pain. That causes me to realize that she didn't just hug me for my own sake. She needs comfort too. So, of course, I naturally return her affection by leaning into her hug.

“Never forget, Sweetie Belle, you are surrounded by those who love you,” Starlight tells me in a cracked and wavy voice. “They'll need comfort too to help them recover as well. We're all in this together.”

“I know, Starlight. I know,” I assure her. “I just need a moment to myself. That's all.”

“Okay,” she accepts sadly before kissing me on my forehead. “I'll be back to collect you and you're . . . well, 'you' in a few minutes.

“In the meantime, please remember that you are loved very, very much.”

“I know,” I assure her again. “Thanks, Starlight.”

“You're welcome,” she tells me one last time before popping away into a shower of magical sparkles.

Poor Starlight. She's been through all of this today and now she has to help manage an army of extremely dangerous refugees. Whatever happens next in the next few hours, maybe even the next few minutes, may very well shape the future of our world in profound ways. If even one of those clones goes bad, we could all be in severe trouble.

But each of those clones has also been through a unique experience because they shared the existence with whatever pony, or some other creature, with whom that clone switched bodies. Whatever I've done here in this cave apparently restored them all to their natural bodies for some reason, but they will still carry that experience with them moving forward. They may have all started from the same baseline, but their experiences may shape them all into unique individuals thereafter.

I smile to myself when I think about that because I trust that most ponies have an inherently good quality to them. We are all highly individualistic but we do share that much in common. Even the worst of us have simply, “lost our way” for a little while. That's why those like the Cutie Mark Crusaders are so necessary. Like Diamond Tiara, sometimes all it takes is a gentle and kindly nudge in the right direction to help remind them of the light of their cutie mark.

By the same token, all of my race is meant to promote harmony in some unique way, and I trust my people to guide these changeling clones in a generally positive direction.

That's super good because all of these clones are starting off with a very negative baseline. Hopefully our influence helps to encourage them not to be hostile anymore, subtly or overtly.

“Sweetie Belle,” says a quiet voice somewhere nearby. This startles me for a second because I thought I was alone, but then the voice itself sinks in and I realize I recognize that multi-tone. The one difference about it is it sounds slightly echo-y now as if being spoken into a tin can.

Following the sound of the voice, I look beside me into the Mirror Pool and gaze down into it. Appropriately enough, this highly reflective magical water very well reveals my reflection with a dramatic twist; it is Raven instead who appears to be gazing down from his end as well which is up at me.

“Raven . . . it's good to see and hear you again,” I say with a slight smile as my eyes light up with relief and delight.

His shoulders sag as he says, “And perhaps for the last time.”

I grow greatly alarmed by that declaration as I immediately demand to know, “What do you mean?!”

“It is well apparent to me that a change in the status quo is in order,” Raven answers me. He shakes his head as he says, “Things cannot be the same anymore. Not as they were before.”

“Again, what do you mean?” I demand to know.

“Your original body is now dead, Sweetie,” Raven reminds me. “But I don't think that really matters anymore. The body you currently inhabit has become your own. It matches every detail that you lost. Your race, your breed, your gender, your age. I even think it is imprinted with your magic and therefore also your personality. There's only one soul that fits it anymore.” He shakes his head again. “And it's not me. Not anymore.”

“What?!” I exclaim in shock. “But Raven . . . this is your original body! It belongs to you.”

“Not anymore,” he argues. “Not ever since you made it your own. When you first transformed, you transformed its true form. I told you that. That change is irreversible, Sweetie Belle. That's why I was so angry with you before. It is because I realized I could never go back to it. It doesn't 'fit' anymore.”

“But you're a changeling!” I remind him. “You can assume any form you want!”

“True, but none of that changes the baseline,” he corrects. “Every changeling has only one true form, Sweetie Belle, and in this case,” he gestures to me, “it isn't me.”

“Well, okay.” I shrug. “So what? It may be a little different but it's still yours.”

“I beg to differ,” Raven counters. “You just don't understand us, Sweetie Belle, nor me.”

“You were the one who told me that you're always a blank slate,” I remind. “That you have no inherit name or ego anymore, so why is this different?”

“Because that body now has an ego and identity,” he elaborates. “From now on until that body dies, it shall forever be known as Sweetie Belle. No matter what other form it takes, it doesn't really change that inherit fact because your magic and spirit are now part of its base identity.” He shakes his head as he says with denial, “If I did take that body back, the only thing that would happen is I would gradually become you. My base personality would be altered to become more and more you over time which means I'd also become less and less myself. I am still a blank slate, Sweetie Belle, but that inherit fact would change if I took that body back now.”

He looks off to his side in the direction of my old body as he says, “It would be just like what started to happen to Button Mash. His fears were well justified because he was right.” He looks back at me. “Every body has a base magical energy signature to it. Your original body had your own which is only natural because you were brought into this world with it. Button wasn't, so while he shared your existence in your body, it gradually transformed him into you inside and out.”

He tilts his head down and to the side as he continues to look at me out of the upper left corner of his eyes. “He may have kept his cutie mark because that magical signature follows the soul, not the body, but it still didn't protect him from gradually inheriting your traits as well. Likely he would have ultimately transformed into an amalgamation of the two had the process continued unabated. Kind of like a hybrid.”

“And that's something you can't accept for yourself?” I ask gently. “Raven . . . it's okay to change. That is a changelings natural and most inherent quality.”

He looks in the direction of his original self he was cloned from, which is still in this room, as he tells me, “Well, as it has become very clear to you recently, I hold myself to much higher standards than the average changeling. We may be able to mimic any form, but we're always still blank on the inside. Only a white canvas can be painted with any image, but in our case, it's temporary.”

I look back at the corpse of his original self as well, except it's too high from my perspective to see much of it.

“Did you know that would happen?” I ask in a spooked tone. “That he would kill himself if he got captured?”

I look back at Raven and I notice him looking back at me at the exact same time like a true reflection.

“Yes,” he tells me grimly, “but I chose to withhold that information because I knew you were a bleeding heart that might hesitate to execute our mission if you had that guilt to hold you back, so I denied you that information for the good of the mission.” He shakes his head. “I couldn't afford to allow you to become more of a liability than you already were.”

Raven shifts his head back as a look of surprise claims his face while he says, “Of course . . . even I, like my original self, deeply underestimated you.”

He grins as he says with amusement, “You know, it's funny. I'm sure he said to himself that that wouldn't happen to him. That he wouldn't fall for the same tricks as every other 'super villain' had before.” He shrugs as he says, “Naturally he didn't consider himself as the villain but he did know that his goals conflicted with you ponies so he accepted that we're on opposite sides, especially since he naturally couldn't trust anyone.

“Regardless, I'm sure he was determined to succeed where the other antagonists failed.” Raven chuckles for a moment before he goes on to say, “But lo and behold . . . he lies as another vanquished opponent on the altar of yet another pony's unstoppable glory.” He pauses as he chuckles again before he goes on to say, “I swear . . . we antagonists truly will never learn.”

“That's not your only option, you know,” I express with great sincerity. “We can be friends too,” I offer. “In fact, I now see you as much closer than a friend. I kind of think of you like a twin brother or something similar.”

Raven smirks as he says, “After everything I've gone through, I suppose that even I can't deny that sentiment anymore either.” He looks elsewhere as he says, “And I think you're right about the other clones, too. Each of them has inherited something that I don't think they were truly willing to receive, but they have it now anyway regardless.” He looks back at me. “They probably inherited some aspect of whomever they were switched with, and they can't help it. After living that close with someone for that long, it probably is a natural consequence.”

He frowns as he goes on to say, “That means they are no longer truly blank slates anymore. They'll consider themselves tainted.”

I widen my eyes in alarm as I ask with horror, “Don't tell me that they are all going to kill themselves too for that reason?”

Raven adopts a discerning and calculated look for a few seconds before answering, “Some of them might, but it depends on the qualities they inherited from the individual pony, or whatever creature, with whom they shared their existence. That's the X factor here and the one element of this equation I can't weigh until I gather more data from each specimen. They'll all feel this instinct to be distrustful and that might even extend to feeling potentially suicidal, but don't forget . . . their memories of our original self was broken to begin with. Each one might have kept different pieces of our original self.”

He shakes his head before he continues his lecture. “So there is no guarantee about what they kept. That alone makes them different but, on top of that, they shared their existence with some other unique individual.”

He clomps his forehooves together to illustrate his point. He even morphs his forehooves together as if fusing the two halves as he says, “That, in turn, means the blend of these two sides could create any unpredictable combination.”

He grins again as he shakes his head. During that time he lowers his hooves and sperates them again. “Truly I don't envy Starlight for the burden she's about to receive. At least she's doing this willingly despite all of these problems. That's more than the clones can attest to.”

I frown at my changeling doppelganger as I sadly express, “But Raven . . . I need you now. You're a part of my life. Please don't ghost me.”

He sighs sadly as he says, “Well and truly, Sweetie Belle, that's all that I really am right now. I don't really have a body anymore and I refuse to repossess the one you tainted, so that leaves me out to dry.

“So fare thee well, Sweetie Belle. Enjoy the rest of your new life as you can.”

I scrunch my face with denial as I say with determination, “NO! I am Sweetie Belle and that means I am a miracle of life. I won't accept this reality that you're proposing and neither should you!”

Following my instincts and my heart as I normally do, I plunge my hoof into the water. When I do so, I end up grabbing something solid.

“What the . . .?!” Raven exclaims with shock shortly before I pull him out of the Mirror Pool.

“Welcome back to life, Raven!” I express cheerfully since I feel so elated to finally behold him in person. “Now you got your very own body again. We no longer have to share one.”

“What . . . you . . . how?” Raven asks, flabbergasted.

I shrug as I say, “I don't know. I just went with my gut and literally took the plunge.”

Raven just stares at me in shock for several seconds.

I bow to him as I tell him, “You're welcome.”

Raven narrows one eye at me as he says, “One of these days, maybe I'll finally grow smart enough to figure you out.”

I smile brightly as I happily express evenly, “On that day, maybe I'll figure myself out as well.”

Now Raven narrows both of his eyes at me.

“That's the thing about Cutie Mark Crusaders,” I tell him honestly. “We're always on an adventure and we're always exploring our potential. We're always changing, too. I've accepted that a long time ago.”

“Riiiiiiight,” Raven says slowly.

Suddenly, Starlight teleports right beside me and expresses ecstatically, “Sweetie Belle, I have really good news!”

“Really?” I ask Starlight with rising excitement. “Well don't keep me waiting then, Starlight! Out with it!”

Noticing my company, Starlight's intense excitement momentarily vanishes and is replaced with curiosity and a bit of concern. To Raven, she asks, “Um . . . who are you? I'm pretty sure I've teleported everyone else in here.”

“Oh, him?” I ask with a bright smile. “Starlight Glimmer, meet Agent Raven. He was the changeling that was inside of me until now.”

“Huh?” Starlight asks me as she looks at and tilts her head at me in confusion.

“I just reached into the Mirror Pool and pulled him out while we were having a conversation,” I say matter-of-factly.

“As one does,” Raven says with a roll of his eyes which is hard to tell with his blank, bug-like eyes.

Starlight narrows her eyes at Raven with a heavily discerning look while rubbing the bottom of her chin. After a few seconds of this, she asks him, “So you were the one who knocked me and Ocellus out, stabbed Twilight, and nearly turned me to stone?”

“Yes,” Raven replies simply and gives Starlight a stare back that subtly seems to dare her to challenge him over those facts.

“Ummmmmmmmm . . .” Starlight narrows her eyes even further for a moment, to the point of downright squinting, before she suddenly widens her eyes back to normal, brightens, and instantly seems to accept, “Well okay, then. Good to know.” She then extends a hoof as she greets, “Let's start over again. Maybe this time we can start on the right hoof. My name is Starlight Glimmer.”

“I know,” he replies as he accepts her hoof then says very dryly, “Charmed, I'm sure.”

“Um,” I look from Raven to Starlight then lean forward as I apply a hoof beside my mouth and whisper to Starlight, “As you can see, he's not a very social bug. At least, not in his true form.”

“Uh . . . okay. We can work on that later,” Starlight resolves. “If you want to,” she amends to Raven.

I lightly punch Starlight on the shoulder as I remind her, “So what's the great news? You still haven't told me.”

“Huh?” Starlight asks in confusion as she looks at me then suddenly brightens again. “Oh yeah. That.

“Good news, everypony. Button Mash has finally awakened from his coma!”

I instantly brighten to the extreme as I excitedly ask, “Really?!”

Starlight nods as she says, “My guess is that happened when your original body died. At that moment he returned to his original body. His color and his cutie mark returned to him. Not only that, but he's no longer sick! The doctors, while very surprised, still expect to discharge him quite soon after giving him a thorough examination to make sure he's alright.”

“STARLIGHT, THAT'S WONDERFUL!!!” I exclaim with ecstatic glee. Finally some really good news! This means Button is still alive and back in his old body again! Yay!

“Yes, it is,” Starlight agrees with a soft smile to me before changing the subject. “So, Sweetie Belle, are you ready to come home yet?” Then she looks at Raven. “Both of you?”

“I am!” I agree excitedly. “I can't wait to rush into Button's hooves and give him a big hug. After what I suffered through recently, I could use the comfort.” I give a silly grin as I add, “Besides, the handsome prince is always supposed to get the girl at the end of his harrowing adventure. It's time we gallop off into the sunset together like every romantic couple should.”

Starlight's smile deepens as she says, “I hear that.” Then she focuses on Raven again as she asks him, “And you? Are you coming too?”

Raven sighs as he says, “I suppose . . . for now.” He straightens himself. “To help make up for our earlier encounter, I'll do what I can to help you with the rest of the clones. Something tells me you could use the hoof.”

“Yeah! No kidding!” Starlight exasperates. “I could definitely use the help if you're planning on helping me establish peace.”

Raven applies a hoof to his chest and bows to Starlight as he says, “At your service, Milady.”

Starlight grins at Raven as she says, “I already like you better than your original self.”

Reminded of that, Raven looks at the body of his original self for a moment before looking back at Starlight with a shrug as he tells her, “It's complicated.”

“Yes. I'm sure,” Starlight agrees with a slight narrowing of her eyes before looking back at me brightly as she offers, “Well then. Shall we?”

“We shall!” I accept brightly.

And, with that, Starlight Glimmer teleports us back to Ponyville.

Back to where I belong. Back to my friends and family.

Finally and truly . . . I am home!

The same, but different.

The End.

Author's Note

So that is Sweetie Belle's story, at least for this book. I hope you enjoyed it.

I wonder how predictable this "mystery" story was for you all. Overall, I am guessing it is a mixed bag. Some things may have been predictable and others a surprise. More often than not, probably a mix of the two.

So this story ends with Sweetie continuing her life as a changeling whose true form is that of her original form. Button also returns to his body but keeps his memories of the experience while he was switched. Both characters grow from the experience that might not be totally welcome but are, nonetheless, true for them.

And such an experience may affect them ever onward in but subtle and strong ways. Social dynamics may change. For example, Sweetie's relationship with the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders but she's also further affirmed what is important about herself during this journey and that most especially includes the friendships she's made. With determination, that'll never change.

So our adorable little heroine has grown up some. Her story is done, at least for now.

What stories might this inspire from you? I'd be interested to know, for in the end . . . this may be simply one chapter among many others to come.

Speaking of which, I started working on a new story just yesterday on 4/21/2022. If that makes any serious progress, you might be able to read that one too someday. For now, what I can say about it is it's a prequel to 1k Years Later with the setting of the moment Cozy, Chrysalis, and Tirek get freed from stone.