Times Are Changing

Magical Mysterious Curse

Princess Celestia didn't know what to say as she watched Twilight and her friends. The mane six and spike finally stopped their screaming and panicking and stood there giving each other worried looks. Except for Twilight, who stood there with new shaky legs while her head hung low, refusing to look at anypony.

With no better options, the sun princess walks towards Twilight. What could she say? 'It'll be alright, Twilight; we can fix this.' 'I'm sure theirs a logical reason why this happened.' hopefully, her student won't act rashly. "Twilight," Celestia said while craning her head, getting to Twilight's level. "Are you oka-?" That's all she could get out before a hoof connected with her face, causing her to back away. The punch was surprisingly strong, which would have put an earth pony to shame. Blood trickled from the corner of the Princess's mouth; she gave her faithful student a pained look.

"DO I LOOK OKAY?!" Twilight bellowed at her former mentor while stepping forward. "I'm a monster! After everything I've done for you, this is my reward!?" She screamed again as her voice became hoarse, and tears ran down her cheeks. She kept advancing while the sun princess kept backing up. A manic smile formed on her lips while her new wings started twitching. "Or is this Another test!? Like with the crystal empire!? DID I PASS!? HAHAHA!" She laughed hysterically as the tip of her horn kept discharging green sparks.

"Twilight, please listen." Celestia pleaded with her frantic student.

"Look where it got me!" The former unicorn laughed again as she approached the Princess. "I bet this was all part of your plan? Right?" Celestia didn't say anything but didn't make eye contact, possibly a sign of guilt. "Not telling me about
Nightmare Moon; sent my friends and me to talk to an adult dragon and sent us off to the crystal empire. You thought I wouldn't notice?" She gave the Alicorn a cruel smile. "All of this was leading somewhere, but where? Me becoming court mage, archmagus, or head of arcane science?"

Celestia had enough of this and stood her ground, causing Twilight to stop. "I just wanted you to make friends!" The Alicorn lied through her teeth, and the Horrorcorn wouldn't have any of this.

"No! You needed me to make friends! The elements wouldn't work if I didn't, and Nightmare Moon would have won!" Saying that hurt Twilight far more than Princess Celestia. Her friends nothing more than a means to an end for Princess Celestia, but that didn't mean their bonds weren't any less true. "I should have told you this after my brother's wedding; I QUIT!"

Celestia's jaw hung low; maybe she had misheard? "W-what do you mean, my faithful student?"

The Horrorcorn snarled at that horrid phrase; she was nothing more than a pawn. "Don't call me that! And what I mean, you fat lazy bitch, is that; I am no longer your student, and I relinquish my title as the bearer of magic. Find somepony else to be your pawn." Twilight spat at the Princess; green mucus sticky landed on the Princess's cheek. The outburst caused the other element bears to gasp in shock.

"No, not again, first Sunset, now Twilight!" She had to stop this somehow! "I can help you! We can fix this, somehow!" Celestia blurted out as Twilight began to walk away. Twilight lets out more pained laughter and glares at the Princess from the corner of her eye.

"You've done enough; I don't want your help, Princess. I'll find a way to fix this," She gestured towards her new horrific form. "on my own."

"But Equestria needs you, all of you together!" They all needed to be together. Twilight kept walking away, doing her best to ignore her former mentor. The Horrorcorn tripped up a couple of times, still not used to her hole-riddled hindlegs. "Nopony could replace you!"

Twilight thought about it and remembered her old classmate back in school for gifted unicorns. "Moon Dancer could replace me." She said, not caring anymore; she just wanted to go to her bed and hide under the covers. She hobbled past her friends, not saying anything. Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to say something, but one anger-filled glare from Twilight shut her up quickly. The former unicorn made her way into the tree home, not bothering to close the door.

Spike followed after Twilight, knowing that she needed him, even if she didn't want to say it. The other element bears looked at Princess Celestia, their expressions varying. Rainbow Dash was scowling; Rarity looked conflicted, Applejack had a disappointed look, and Fluttershy was heartbroken. But out of all of them, Pinkie pie was the worse; Her mane was utterly straight, and her usual pink color was gone, leaving only gray. They slowly made their way into the library, but not before Rainbow Dash flew up to the Princess and said. " You have a lot to think about." The pegasus flew back and shut the door behind her.

Once again, Princess Celestia was left standing there by herself. Another failure, and she had no one but herself to blame. " What have I done?"

Present Day, Baltimare Hospital

"And now Twilight hates me, and I don't know what to do." Princess Celestia sobbed again while embracing her sister. Luna did her best to comfort her sister, but between having a cast on her hind leg and a bandaged wing. Besides that, listening to the retelling and she wasn't surprised. Her sister schemed, and it blew up in her face badly this time. Twilight was in no state to defend Equestria or want to, rendering the elements nearly useless. Changes had to be made as quickly as possible.

Princess Luna pulled back from the embrace and looked at her teary-eyed sister. "It will be alright, Tia; we'll get through this. But we have to make changes. Without the elements, Equestria is defenseless." It felt strange saying that, but it was true, they were only two mares, and they couldn't be everywhere at once and had a country to run. "We need an army, not just the Royal Guard, but an actual military." She has brought this up multiple times ever since she returned but was shot down every time. When the Crystal Empire reappeared, she wanted to help Twilight Sparkle, but her sister said no.

Celestia gasped. " Times have changed, Lulu! Equestria isn't the bleak and dangerous place it used to be. What will the other nations think if they see us create an army? Harmony and understanding are how we solve our problems now." The white Alicorn had some excellent points, but times are changing again, and nothing will stop that.

"What if it's not enough, sister?" Luna shot back, not happy with her sister's response. "When I fought that creature, he could not be reasoned with. He was unwavering, and I only had two choices: get out of the way or fight him. And chose to fight for the foals, and I lost." Luna looked down, looking a bit crestfallen, and looked up at her sister with a determined look. "but if I was stronger! What if my night guards were better trained! What if we had a garrison. What if we had an actual army!"

Letting out a tired sigh, Luna leaned back in her bed. Celestia looked two her sister with worry. "Tia, we've gotten soft." Luna poked herself on the stomach, and it jiggled a bit. The Alicorn won't lie, she had put on a few pounds once she got back, and it was apparent that her sister's flanks had gotten bigger. "Equestria has gotten soft; times are changing; you can't deny that."

The Sun princess pitched the bridge of her nose with a hoof. "but sister, what about Twilight? And let's not forget how much this will cost us, the nobles wi-"

Luna sprung up into a sitting position on her bed and glared at Celestia, who shut her mouth mid-sentence. "BUCK.THE.NOBLES." Since her return, the nobles have given her nothing but grief and headaches. If she had her way, only a hand few would keep their titles while the rest were sent to the gallows. The night princess took quick and calming breaths; she could deal with them later. "As for young Sparkle, let her family and friends handle this for now. I fear any more meddling will make the situation even worse."

She looked at her sister again and saw that Celestia still didn't like the idea. " I'm not asking for our ponies to be ready for war but to defend Equestria. We need to protect our borders and have certain settlements have their militia. " Appleloosa came to mind; how that small town had no form of protection was beyond her. "I believe retraining the day guard and nightguard would be ideal." She would rather have fresh recruits, but they would make due for now.

Celestia let out a defeated sigh, but her sister also made excellent points. "I suppose I can talk to Spitfire and see if she could retrain the Wonderbolts. And I can put more funding into Arcane Science." Even if she didn't want to, she tried to dissolve the group after their recent blunder with that unicorn named Oleander but had second thoughts.

The night princess held her hoof for her sister and smiled. "For our little ponies."

The sun princess giggled, snorted at that, and took her sister's hoof with her own. " For our little ponies."

"Well said." The two heard a familiar voice that brought on dread and happiness. Their heads quickly snapped to the position where the voice came from. Standing there at the doorway was Starswirl, the bearded! But he wasn't wearing his usual attire; he wore a hospital gown without his hat. The old unicorn smiled at the two and looked them over. " And look how tall you've gotten."

Both the Princess's jaws dropped as they stared at their mentor. It couldn't be possible; he and the rest of the pillars disappeared one day. Celestia lit up her horn and cast a spell that would disrupt any changeling disguise. After it was cast and the unicorn remained the same, she enveloped the unicorn in her aura and brought him over. Starswirl was brought into a bone-crushing hug, causing the stallion to squeak. "M-my ribs!" But the Princess didn't care; she was thrilled to have her mentor back! She kept saying, 'Don't you dare leave us again.'

"How is this possible? You disappeared over a thousand years ago, and we feared the worse." Luna asked the stallion, who was starting to turn blue now. Noticing this, Luna tapped Celestia on the shoulder so that she could loosen her grip, which she did after giving her sister and mentor an apologetic smile.

It took the stallion a few seconds to catch his breath before answering the two of them. "I'll have to give you a full explanation later, but in short, we were trapped in limbo with the Pony of Shadows. I believe the spell failed-" Starswirl's horn lit up, causing the recent newspaper to blink into existence. And the creature everypony has been talking about is on the front page. "because of Raven, or one of the foals with him caused it."

Luna grimaced at the sight of this creature; his picture was a reminder of her failure. But what he just said brought up a question. "How do you know this creature's name? Did you come in contact with him? If you did, why didn't you stop him?" The Princess was a little overbearing, but she still felt sore about losing to him.

Starswirl raised his hoof to stop her onslaught of questions. "He told me his full name, Raven Maxwell. He saved my life and my companion's lives." Luna couldn't believe she was hearing; the brute that put her in the hospital was the same one that saved her mentor's life?! The Alicorn was about to blow a fuse, but the stallion held his hoof up again, not wanting this conversation to devolve into a shouting match. " Even if I wanted to, I couldn't at the time, I had little to no magic, and the rest of my companions were injured." Starswirl looked over Luna's injuries. "I would have little chance with him. I've had first hoof experience of how he fights." He shivered at the gruesome memory.

Celestia found this somewhat confusing; this Raven went out of his way to save her mentor, but he fought her sister. She needed to find a bestiary, possibly find out what Humans are like. "Do you know what he's planning to do with the foals?"

Starswirl shook his head when he recalled his conversation with the Human. " No, but Raven told me he had a goal he wanted to achieve but didn't have a way of doing it yet."That didn't tell Celestia much, but her mentor brought up something interesting. " He also told me that I can call upon him anytime, as he feels partially responsible for the seal breaking. Speaking of which." The stallion wiggled himself out of Celestia's grip and stood on all fours again. " The Pony of Shadows is on the loose, and we must find him." The unicorn's expression was grim.

Regardless of how both Princesses felt, the Human would be on the back burner for now. They just hoped he wasn't doing awful things to the foals.

Mushrump River

"Stop splashing!" Moon charm squeaked out angrily at the Twister twins, who were giggling as they threw more water. The Black Crows were currently bathing in the nearby River. After allying with the Honeycomb hive, Raven thought it would be best for himself and his charges to wash. Again, he was wrong; the only one who took this seriously was Oleander. The foals just wanted to play, leaving Raven to do all the cleaning.

Everypony had their cloaks off, and their cutie marks were in full View. Night Twister had a blueprint for a cutie mark, while Dew twister had a screwdriver as her mark. Xeuz's cutie mark was vague; it looked like a wind current. No one knew what it meant, not even the colt himself.

Raven had his armor off but kept his undergarment on for obvious reasons. Currently, he was washing both Cozy and Xeuz's backs with a sponge the changelings gave him. Both winged foals were squirming as he washed them. " Watch it with the claw, buster!" The pegasus chided the Human. The winged zebra tried his best not to laugh because he was pretty ticklish.

" If you spent more time cleaning, I wouldn't have to do this. Now hold still." He made sure to keep his hands away from the wings, as that was a big no-no area for winged creatures. Surprisingly, Cozy was the one to tell him about this. Raven thanked the goddess that these two were the last ones he had to clean. The Human spent a few more minutes cleaning them before sending the two off. " And don't go in the deep areas!"

Now, he had to clean himself, but not in front of the foals. Thankfully, Oleander was here to watch the kids while he found somewhere more private. He gave the unicorn one look, and she nodded. Sure she got on the man's nerve, but she was reliable.

He walked upstream, somewhere with deeper water and away from prying eyes. He got ready to take off his undergarments until he heard the familiar buzzing of wings. He looked up to see Ambrosia flying down towards him. The Human cursed his rotten luck as the Changeling Queen landed near him, giving him a sly grin. " Hey there, handsome~, since we're alone, how about having some fun?" She walked closer, swaying her hips as she did.

Ever since he woke up, Raven had no time to himself, not once. And now, some raunchy bug was getting in the way. "If I told you I was gay, would you leave me alone?" He said with a fake smile, with a visible vein on his forehead.

Ambrosia gave the Human a smug grin and raised an eyebrow. " We Queens come fully equipped." Raven was about to question her until he heard a wet pop. He looked down and saw something that no man should see. It was even twitching! "It's big, huh?" The Queen said proudly.

Raven kept up his fake smile, but the vein on his forehead began to throb. The goddess had abandoned him at this moment, leaving the Human to fend for himself. Not knowing what to do in this awkward situation, he fell back to his old habits; Violence! "POWER ASSAULT!" Raven charged forward and tackled the annoying bug pony.

He just wanted five minutes to himself.

LuCiel

Author's Note

Alright, the New chapter is out. Next one will spend more time focusing on twilight.
Also a pic for people who wondered what lu and Ciel looked like.