Sun-day~ morning. Raising my glorious star on the day sharing the same namesake will always be a perfect start to the day. Or at least it would be, normally, but unfortunately we are still reeling from the vicious attacks by the drakes. What is supposed to be my one day of rest is instead going to be filled to the brim with things to do. It’s not all bad though…I still have breakfast to look forward to. Seems like the dining hall has just been getting busier and busier ever since Lulu returned.

I’ll have to clean myself magically this morning since I decided to sleep in for an extra 15 minutes. Now to make myself nice and shiny for the masses with this regalia. I know this same regalia has allowed me to live a very privileged life for the last several centuries, but times like this even this crown feels heavier than I can bear. Hopefully seeing my sister, her herd, Cadence, and my student will cheer me up.

…

It would appear I’m the first to arrive. I should have the kitchen staff prepare a couple of servings of some meat. Fish in the morning doesn’t sound particularly appetizing, but then again it rarely ever does for me. I’ll just have them prepare a serving for whatever we serve visiting griffons with in the morning. Walking past the table where I would normally sit I pass through the smaller door leading to the kitchen area.

“Ah, Your Majesty, how can I help you this morning? Did you have a special request?”

“Not for me, but could you prepare a dish with meat in it? Whatever we normally prepare for visiting griffons should be fine.”

“Of course, Princess. It’ll be out a bit later than the others since it’s a bit last minute, but it’s no trouble.”

After giving her my thanks I go take my place as I wait for the others to arrive. Thankfully I don’t have to wait too long.

“Spike, I told you they don’t have gems in the kitchen. I’ll get you some after breakfast, but you’ll have to settle for pancakes at the moment.” So much of my worry has been placed on Twilight I’d nearly forgotten about poor Spike. I can only imagine what he’s going through right now, hopefully the citizens and staff don’t treat him harshly just because he’s a dragon. “Oh, good morning, Princess! Where’s everypony at? Is it just us this morning?”

“I don’t think so. I’m not sure where the others are though, Luna and her Knight are likely just running late. With Cadence I can never guess why she’s late. It’s always something unexpected. Do you and Spike have any plans today?”

“No… I’m likely just going to be in the library for most of today. Spike is trying to decide if he wants to go back to Ponyville or not. I don’t want to keep him cooped up in the castle just because I’m too afraid to leave, but I also don’t want him walking around Canterlot on his own. He has so many friends in Ponyville as well. Somepony needs to keep the library running, and I know he’s responsible enough to handle that. At this point it’s mostly up to Spike. If he decides he wants to go back I was hoping you could teleport him? Or have someone ride with him on the train down there, at least.”

“Of course, my faithful student, but Spike,” The young drake turns towards me with a curious expression. “Don’t make this decision too hastily. You should really think about it and make sure whatever choice you make is the one you truly want.”

“I-I will, Princess!”

“I am so sorry for running late, but I promise it’s for a good reason!” Cadence calls out with a big smile on her face as she runs in with her knight behind her, just rolling her eyes with a content smile.

“Did you find just the most adorable couple to spy on and nudge in the right direction?” I can’t help but tease her, her good mood is infectious.

“No! Shining Armor proposed to me! Ahhhh I can’t believe it, Auntie! He said that all of these disasters happening in a row made him realize how quickly someponys life can end and be upheaved, and it made him realize what’s truly important to him. So important he never wants to lose it. Oh! I just can’t believe he said something so romantic!~” For the first time in a while I find myself genuinely surprised and at a loss for words.

“Ohmygosh ohmygosh… My BBBFF and my favorite foalsitter are going to get married?! You’re going to be my sister?!” The two of them rub cheeks as they celebrate with equal levels of enthusiasm. Good news really does emerge from the strangest of places.

“Have the two of you decided on a date yet? I’d be thrilled to host the reception and ceremony here at the castle.”

Cadence pulls away from her celebration with Twilight to answer me. “Since winter is settling in soon we decided to have it on the first day of spring! And I would love it if we could have it here! Thank you, Auntie!”

“I suppose that is fairly good timing to have a wedding. Convenient that your honeymoon will be during that particular time of year. Quite efficient!”

“Auntie! Not in front of Twilight!” Spike just looks oblivious, and I thought Twilight would be equally as confused. So, imagine my surprise when I see her flushed red and hiding in her forelegs. It appears I made a slight miscalculation, how embarrassing.

“Wow you’re all so lively for having just woken up. Did we miss something important?” Luna and Nightmare have perfect timing with their arrival. Aside from one elf we finally have everypony in attendance.

Luna and Nightmare both hug Cadences Knight before sitting down next to each other. They quickly retell their good news to the two alicorns and after a brief celebration Force asks the question that I was also curious about.

“Where’s our stallion at? He didn’t pass out again did he?”

“That’s a great question, Force. Ignis how long do you intend to hide?” Luna calls out with a playful tone while looking straight up with just her eyes.

I know he’s not invisible, so why is she looking up? My unasked question is immediately answered as I see two hands emerge from my sister's starry mane, and out of that mane climbs the most adorable thing I’ve seen in centuries. It’s Ignis but he’s a foal. Or, whatever foals are referred to by his race.

“I was planning to hide until breakfast was over and just hoped you all would forget I exist.” The elf stares out at all of us with his big golden eyes and his face slowly shifts to terror. Luna and Nightmare just have smirks, but the rest of us, aside from Spike, all seem to share the same sentiment as me.

“Luna.” I call out to my sister.

“I know! Originally he wasn’t going to stay like this, but I told him Force deserved to also see him like this so he agreed to stay in this form until after breakfast.”

The pegasus of their herd makes a classic “squee” sound as she flies over and picks up the elf. It’s only when she picks him up and flies around with him dangling from her forelegs that I get a good look at his face. It doesn’t reflect what I would expect to see during such a playful and happy moment. He looks tired.

“Well, I have to say, while I do hope to see that form more in the future, I think we should let him return to normal for now. We’ve all had our fun and the food will be out soon enough.” I carefully threw the suggestion out there. If it’s not coming from him there should be no reason to refuse.

Luna looks confused, but Nightmare is staring at me with a neutral expression. Force, Cadence, and Twilight all release a chorus of disappointed “aww’s”, but the elf is finally released. Once he’s standing on the ground next to the table he reverts to his normal size and appearance. After cracking his neck he sits back down. “Sorry, but don’t blame me. It’s all Captain Killjoy’s fault over there.”

Ever since Nightmare scolded some of us before the Gala I’ve had a different perspective for the bladesinger. I never really truly appreciated the simple fact that I am where I belong. Surrounded by ponies I take for granted everyday. He is not.

Once I realized that…well, I think it’s fair to say I was expecting too much from him while judging him too harshly. Now that he’s returned to his normal size I was expecting him to cheer up a bit, but it would seem that form had nothing to do with his current state. It’s expected, I suppose, even I’m a bit bitter these days. My little ponies have suffered far too much recently. There hasn’t even been enough time between events for us to really gather our bearings.

Now it’s war. I have half a mind to say “to Tartarus with the global treaty” and step in myself. Being confined to the capital and only being allowed self-defense is suffocating. If this were the old me I wouldn’t have needed help killing that Elder. My axe and flames combined with Lulu’s Scythe and encompassing darkness was enough to deter any form of conflict for centuries. Now there’s scarcely a creature alive that remembers those times.

It’s not hard to imagine Ignis will fulfill a similar role in this era. He’s already more powerful than the current me. My intuition about him was spot on from the very beginning, he’s a monster. Thankfully he’s on our side, rather, Luna’s side. Ah, I’m jealous of my little sister. How the tables have turned. It’s not the elf himself that I’m jealous of, but the fact that she has found what all alicorns have sought for millenia. An eternal lover with a matching lifespan.

It’s a shame Harmony doesn’t approve of him. In fact she greatly dislikes the creature. Far more than she’s ever disliked anypony, as far as I know, anyways. I wonder if it’s related to why she’s been acting so odd the last few days? Probably not.

I should get out of my own head and focus on the ponies around me.

“I can’t believe the two of you are seriously having your wedding in like 6 months. That’s a horrendous time to do something like that, in the castle of all places.” It seems like Ignis is having an argument with Cadence.

“What’s wrong with that?! Weddings are a perfectly normal thing to do in Spring. I think hosting it here makes it feel more grandiose and special, so this is where I’m doing it!”

“IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR?! Do you seriously think we will be at peace in a mere six months?! We’d be lucky if this was over in a year! You’re painting a giant target on Canterlot that says “Hey! Hey dragons! All of the alicorns and government figures are all in this one place getting drunk and celebrating! We’d love it if you came and scorched us all alive!” I mean seriously, you’re either incredibly selfish or incredibly naive. You agreed to this?!”

Ignis ends his rant with a question directed at me with wide eyes that just look genuinely confused. “I did. I understand your concern, but it’s important that we carry on with life like everything is normal. Hosting the wedding in the middle of the war would send a loud message that we aren’t even affected by the ongoing conflict. Also I think we’ll likely be at peace by then. In fact, I’d wager this war won’t even last three months, let alone six.”

Cadence turns her nose up and makes a “Hmph!” noise as I support her decision. “You know this world far better than me and have been alive long enough that I trust your Wisdom. So, if you say it’s fine then it’s probably fine. Sorry Cadence. I just…don’t want this city to be attacked again.”

“It’s fine, I guess. Considering recent events I suppose it’s normal to have that fear.”

“At this rate you’ll either have every alicorn in existence pissed at you or sleeping with you. I swear you just like arguing sometimes.” Nightmare’s attempt at ribbing just gets a snort from the elf.

“Not my fault I’m surrounded by em half the time.” Ignis glances at Nightmare and Luna and opens his mouth for a second before closing it hesitantly. After another second or so he decides to say what’s on his mind. “If that’s the case we should probably schedule ours soon too, right?”

“Your what? Next sleeping session? Bit crude for breakfast talk, but I suppose it’s efficient.” Cadence teasingly asks the question I was also wondering.

“No! God, you’re all perverts I swear. I’m talking about our wedding, of course. I haven’t really brought it up cause I just assumed one of you would work out the details.” All of the orange juice in my mouth quickly scatters into the air, as I owlishly blink at the new sets of eyes staring at me.

“WHAT?!” Oh that was louder than I intended.

Nightmare apparently decides to ignore me as she responds to Ignis. “Don’t make that our actual proposal Ignis! That’s the furthest thing from romantic or special it could possibly be! Plus Luna will kill me!”

“It’s true. I’ll do it.”

Apparently seeing the draconic eyed former villain properly flustered and blushing is what it takes for the elf to finally crack a smile. That smile turns into a quiet laugh as the food starts to emerge from the kitchen. The herd decide to explain what he’s talking about while we eat, making for quite the memorable meal.

1st Person POV - Ignis

“Any chance I can pull you away from Cadence today, Force?” I decide to ask while the others are finishing up their meals.

“If it’s for a spar, no. If it’s for something else then probably.” Force responds as Cadence nods along with her mouth full.

“No, no sparring. Just feel like we haven’t seen each other very much lately and since I’m gunna spend most of today volunteering and helping with cleanup around the city I figured I’d invite you as well.”

“Oh. Yeah sure, I’ll come along. I figured you were heading to bed after this, you look exhausted.”

“There’s too much to be done, and I’d prefer not to…. nevermind.”

“Not to what?” She’s too curious.

It’s not that I don’t wanna tell her, it's more that I don’t want to say it when literally everyone is still around. So instead I just talk directly into her mind.

“I’d prefer not to sleep. When I was unconscious after healing everyone in Canterlot…it was not a restful sleep. The nightmares are back in full force, and theoretically I thought I didn’t dream anymore. But, perhaps this is a side effect from cooking my own mind to cleanse it of Chrysalis’ corruption?”

“Chrysalis? Did you have another run in with her?” I give her a slow nod. “Oh we have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Yeah…I guess we do.” I’d really prefer to not talk about it, but who knows, maybe it’ll help.

I stand up and Force follows my lead. Once we stand up Luna turns towards us. “Are you two off to my bed chambers? I have some early morning meetings with Tia so I’ll be late to bed.”

“Nah we’re going out into town. We’re gunna help with the cleaning up and reconstruction efforts. I didn’t do anything to help after Discord and I hate just sitting around when I know I could be helping out. So, I’ll also be pretty late going to bed. I’ll see both of you later.”

After giving both of the lunar alicorns a quick peck Force and I walk out of the dining hall, and while we exit the castle I catch her up on everything that happened leading up the dragon attack.

1st Person POV - Knight of Love, Unstoppable Force

“That’s horrible! Wait, doesn’t that mean I also have changeling magic in my mind?! If that creep is the reason I even suggested you go there then that means he also implanted something into my mind. And….it means this was my fault.” I was wondering why the big guy looks so haunted, but after hearing about everything…yeesh.

“Nah, not your fault. If he managed to get me then there’s no way you could’ve known what was happening. At this point I’m just taking things one day at a time. Today is assisting with cleanup followed by training. After that I’ll be doing some exercises with the Night Guard again. Monday will be most of the same, and then Tuesday is the pre-trial. Honestly I hope things don’t go too wrong with this whole court martial thing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well if they try to make my punishment something stupid like, a year of confinement. If they want to lock me up and keep me from fighting these dragons and changelings then it’s not gunna go well for any of us.”

“Yeah we’d be losing a pretty valuable asset if they tried to do something like that.”

“That’s not what I mean. If they try something like that, I’m just going to refuse and walk out. If Armor tries to make demands or escalate the situation I’ll just simply tell him to find someone who can arrest and subdue me. If he can do that then I’ll obey the sentence. Whatever happens after that will be up to the alicorns and the public.”

I’m left speechless from his explanation. “You don’t seriously mean you’ll become a wanted fugitive just so you can continue to fight, right?”

“If that’s what happens then yeah that’s what I’ll do. I’m pretty sure Luna knows that’s what I’ll do as well. She asked if I was open to the idea of stepping away from my responsibilities for a while. I adamantly refused and she didn’t push it any further. It’s not really a big deal though. I’ll just go live in the Everfree with Nightmare and we can start working on her battle mage academy earlier than initially planned. You and Luna can visit whenever you want, or move in as well to be honest. I doubt either of us would mind, but I can’t imagine either of you would so quickly abandon Canterlot to come live in the woods.”

“That’s pretty heavy, dude. Like, that sounds like the worst outcome possible.”

“Nah the worst outcome is me overthrowing the Princesses and becoming the God-Emperor of Equestria. You really don’t want that one to play out.” For the first time all day he finally has a hint of a playful tone, and I can tell he’s joking.

It’d be just my luck to finally find a herd and then the stallion goes and becomes a wanted criminal or even worse a treasonous knight overthrowing the government. “Switching topics, I know you’ll be using your telekinesis to help clear out debris and lift heavy things for ponies. But, what exactly am I supposed to do? I don’t have a horn…”

“I don’t know, just keep me company, I guess. It really has been a while since we’ve hung out like this, ya know? The curse of having opposite sleeping schedules. I’m sure you'll figure out something to do.”

Bit of a selfish request from him. I don’t hate it. He’s far kinder than most ponies realize, so it’s nice to hear him say something he wants. I can tell some ponies like Nightmare wish he wasn’t so argumentative, like how quick he was to argue with Cadence this morning. Some also think he’s quite cold and harsh just because he’s only sociable with ponies he’s close too.

For me though, I can see the veiled kindness behind all of it. Every event he’s gone through or argument he’s had has been for the purpose of somepony else. Taunting the dragon at the Summit? For Luna. Flying off on his own into the badlands? To minimize loss of life as quickly as possible. His argument with Cadence this morning? He was simply worried about the dangers being posed on the ponies of this city. Even his spats with what was once thought to be the only Goddess on the planet, was purely to try and save the lives of those that couldn’t be protected.

But, no good deed goes unpunished.

…

Ignis is holding up several hundred pounds of rubble and slowly moving it out of the way of the current site so ponies can work when he asks me about something out of the blue. “Hey Force. I want your opinion on something.” He pauses and I glance up at him. When we make eye contact he continues. “What do you think about just the two of us flying into the dragon lands and counter attacking?”

“Why just the two of us? That seems unnecessarily dangerous.”

“Cause I don’t trust any of my guards to not die in the battle. You, on the other hand, were able to beat me in a spar. I know I was far less powerful then, but it’s still not a feat anyone without a horn and wings would have accomplished. I might still have to keep and eye on you and help out every once and while but it’s easier to do that for one pony than an entire platoon of them.”

“Shouldn’t we atleast bring Nightmare, Luna, or Princess Celestia along? They’re all plenty stronger than us.”

“You maybe. I’m pretty sure I could give any of them a run for their money right now in a one on one. But, no. Apparently some global treaty prevents alicorns from taking the initiative in a conflict between countries. They can only act in self defense and only against whoever is personally attacking them. Then again, if we just killed every overgrown lizard within 100 miles then who would be around to report us? Luna didn’t buy that reasoning though. So, alicorns are off the table. Luckily though, I’m not. Until they amend it, but they can’t have another Summit for like 8 months so it’s fine. So, you in?”

“I’m not sure if it’s the best idea…if I say no will you just go alone?”

“I don’t know. Theoretically it’s fine, I can just teleport away, but they might have some crazy variable I’m unaware of. They do apparently have magic now, so anything is possible. Oh, but I can’t teleport you. I only know how to teleport myself, and it’s through Divinity, not magic.”

I mean it makes sense. I just can’t shake this feeling that something bad will happen if we attack them right now.

“How about no counterattack, YET, and for now you and I can be the quick response task force. If the dragons hit anywhere in the country, the two of us will immediately respond without hesitation.” That makes him frown. I’m able to instantly see that he doesn’t like the idea. “Just until we encounter them a few more times, so we can get a better idea of their new capabilities. It’s too reckless to just charge into their territory, mostly blind.”

“Being reactive means more ponies will die. Even if we respond within a minute, that's still a minute they can run wild. They’re capable of widespread destruction, so a minute is still a lot of time. Plus in reality it’ll probably take us longer than a minute to get there. We’re talking about hundreds, maybe even thousands of lives here, Force. If we just go in there, hit ‘em hard and hit ‘em fast, they might get discouraged from even continuing to attack us.”

“I think it’d be better if you went alone. As much as I want to join you I think I’d just hold you back too much. If you could teleport both of us somehow then it’d be different, but as things stand if you’re alone then you can just teleport away. I’d still be up for my idea as well though, regardless of if you go alone or not. We are going to be attacked again, so let’s respond together.”

“Hang on, I might have something. I need to double check the conditions of Greater Teleport” He gets a distant look in his eyes for a fraction of a second before speaking up again.

“Okay, I can teleport both of us but there is a small condition. You have to be my personal mount.”

I can feel my face instantly heat up as an intense feeling of embarrassment rises up. Quickly darting around I try to make sure nopony else heard him. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Well, back home we have horses and ponies. They’re similar to you all except they’re not sapient. We generally used horses as a means of transportation. As in, we sat on their back and rode them around. So, when I say you have to be my personal mount…I mean I have to be riding you in order for me to teleport you. I can reduce my size and weight so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. It does add another two or three steps required for us to teleport though, and in the middle of intense combat it might be hard for me to shrink, hop on your back, and teleport us out. So yeah, nevermind, I think you’re right. I’ll just go alone.”

Right as I’m about to reply a nearby brick wall makes a series of clicks before rapidly collapsing. There’s three or four ponies that it’s going to land on, but Ignis quickly holds up the wall and gently sets it down in a clear spot. “Good save.”

“Thanks. Anyways, this is all hypothetical. It’ll depend on what they decide to do with me after the trial.” That’s when I hear someone clear their throat and turn around to find the Captain standing there with another guard right beside him. “Oh hey, speak of the devil. What’s up Captain.”

“I heard from your Vice Captain that you wanted to make some changes on how the shift changes are performed?” Wow he’s being surprisingly cordial right now. Is it because we’re in public? I thought he hated Ignis’ guts.

“Yeah. Our guards shouldn’t be going back to the castle just to pass down information. Shift changes should be happening in the area of the patrols themselves. If a unit is patrolling the market district then the turnover should be in the market district. The complete failure of an evacuation cost a lot of lives and the culprit is the fact that not a single guard was in the streets. They were all at the castle doing turnover. This seems like a simple change that should be pretty impactful.”

“I agree. It’s a rather simple change that wouldn’t be hard to implement. I wonder though, perhaps the real reason for the lack of order and cohesion among the Night Guard was because their Captain was nowhere to be found for the first hour of the attack?”

Ignis clenches his fists and his eyes darken as he tries to stare a hole into the ground. I’m suddenly very uneasy, but Shining Armor apparently isn’t as he decides to continue digging into the elf.

“They might’ve been at the castle but if their leadership had been around wouldn’t they be capable of quickly organizing the evacuation effort? Although I suppose Vice Captain Elytra was here, and they still failed. Perhaps she should be investigated as well for being unable to organize an evacuation.”

Is he trying to bait Ignis into confessing before the trial even begins by threatening his Vice Captain?! The air becomes heavy and I’m overwhelmed with an intense urge to back away. Instead I glare at the unicorn. “That is uncalled for, Armor! If it was shift change that means you were awake too. So, where were you at, huh?! Were you also unable to organize the guards because instead you were too busy worrying about your marefriend? You don’t have to answer me, since I know the answer, I was there afterall.”

The unicorn's face goes from surprised to confused to angry in a matter of seconds as he returns my glare with a nasty stare of his own. “This doesn’t concern you, Knight.”

Suddenly Ignis takes one big step forward, towards the Captain. I watch Shinings eyes trail up the bladesingers body before going wide when he looks at his face. All I can see is his back, so I can’t tell what face he’s making, but for Shining to have that reaction it must not be a good one.

“What are you doing? Trying to intimidate the judge before the trial? That’s a crime as well you know.”

“I’m going to push out the correspondence confirming the new policy for shift change turnover. I’ll see you in court on Tuesday, so it would be best if you spent your time preparing for that investigation instead of splitting your effort and opening a second investigation. Captain.”

“Unless we have somepony to place the blame on I’m afraid we’ll have to look into every pony of interest. Why don’t you just save us all of the time and effort and confess. I’ve even taken the liberty to bring along one of the internal affairs officers so we can take you straight into custody. Your choice, Ignis.”

He’s holding Elytra hostage the same way Ignis held Twilight hostage. What a flankhole!

“Shining Armor. You have a wedding to attend in a few months, right?”

“What? How do you know- ah I guess my fiance's knight isn’t very tight lipped. Yes, I will be getting married come springtime.”

“That’s nice. I’m really happy for you.” I don’t like how ominous his tone of voice is right now. “Hopefully nothing happens between now and then that would impact your ability to get married. You know what? Fine, I’ll play along. Take me away, Lieutenant.”

Wait what? Before I can even process what’s happening there’s a rope tied around his wrists, completely binding his arms together, behind his back. They’re walking away and Shining has a smug grin on his face that infuriates me. But what can I do? I exist outside the guards chain of command, I have no authority over him…

But I am best friends with his future wife…yeah screw this guy, I’m talking to Cadence.

1st Person POV - Ignis

Wow, honestly this cell isn’t so bad. The bed is way more comfortable than I thought it’d be, even though my legs are dangling off the edge from the thigh down. I’m glad I had a moment of lucidity there because I was about 20 seconds away from making that unicorn put his teeth against a curb.

Honestly I’m glad so many people pointed out how differently I’ve been acting lately. If I wasn’t aware of it I don’t think I’d have been able to come to my senses at that moment. I have to figure out what’s wrong with me before I do something I’ll regret. There’s two main possibilities that I can think of.

First, this could be because I cooked my mind with Divinity. That would be the best option because I think I could fix that with Greater Restoration.

The other possibility is that this is because of Discords Chaos domain. I assumed this domain would give absolute control over the Weave since the Weave is apparently Chaos magic, but that’s not the case. Since that isn’t the case I have no clue what’s going on with this domain. It could explain why Discord had such a twisted personality. If that is what’s wrong with me then it’s pretty bad because I don’t know how to fix it.

I guess we can start with the easy one first.

“Greater Restoration.”

Arcana Check (Mizzium DC: 20)

2 + 16 + 2 = 20.

Holy shit my Divine Rank saved me there. I forgot I get a bonus equal to half my Divine Rank on every dice roll.

The spell casts and it feels like ice cold wind is blowing in my face as a wave of coolness washes over my body. I mean something definitely happened, but I don’t feel any different? Then again I didn’t feel any different to begin with, so that’s a bad frame of reference.

I don’t know what to do now. I think that worked? I guess I can just image train until someone comes down here to get me. I didn’t confess to anything so I don’t know why Shining was looking so smug, he might just be that stupid. All I said is that I’d play along, there’s no court where that holds up as a confession. Which is funny because I am guilty and had planned to plead guilty, but now I wanna fight it just to spite this stupid fucker.

I’ll go over my fight with Chrysalis and use her as my reference for image training. I’ll just do that until I get bored or until someone comes down here to get me. If they take too long I’ll just call Luna or Moonie to come get me and if they’re asleep I’ll just break the fucking door.

“I didn’t think we’d have another chance to speak so soon. I never imagined the ponies would turn on you this fast.” My blood runs cold when I realize my cell is right next to the changeling and Chrysalis has possessed the drone again. “You know you’re always welcome in my hive, bladesinger. If these ponies cast you aside you can be sure I’ll properly appreciate you.”

“Chrysalis, if you utter another sound that drone will not be live for another single second.”

To my utter shock she actually stops talking and fucks off. Has she lied to herself so much that she’s convinced herself she actually cares about the good of the hive?

Either way, I’ll just appreciate the silence and make use of the downtime I have in here.

Author's Note

I had to rewrite the confrontation with Shining legit like four times. It got bad enough to the point that I just started writing next chapter this morning and decided I'd come back to that scene after the break. Which is why there was no chapter yesterday. The good news is that next chapter is already like 2.5k words deep so that should be ready pretty early tomorrow.

There was a version of the Shining Armor confrontation that went way more aggressively but I realized it was too much of an escalation too fast. Especially considering that entire confrontation took place in downtown Canterlot early in the morning in front of everyone.

Anyways, hope you guys enjoy it. Also we are not getting a Shining POV. This was officially the last two POVs I wanted to go through. I mainly wanted to demonstrate how differently Ignis is viewed between the characters. Even though they all view him favorably they all such different takes on who he is as a person. With Elytra and Force being the two that have the most similar POV.

(Nightmare: Acknowledges he's strong, but doesn't think he's as strong as everyone else does. She's pretty much constantly worrying about him. But, as shown, she also worried about the other mares too and seems content to be the one always taking care of things.

Luna: Thematically she's on the other end of the spectrum from Moonie. She overestimates his strength and always assumes he isn't as effected as he really is.

Elytra: Literally worships the ground he walks on. Thinks he's a Saint and very rarely questions him or his motives.

Force: Not nearly to the same extent as Elytra, but she has rose tinted glasses for sure. She assumes he has his reasons for doing things and mostly trusts his decisions.

Celestia: She just straight up pities him. She is probably the only one that is still conscious of the fact that he's barely an adult and went from a relatively peaceful life to two months of back to back to back to back tragedy. After getting scolded by Nightmare she pretty much just feels bad for him most of the time.)

:D Thanks for reading! <3