Ms. Glimmer and the Do-Nothing Prince

After the haunting howl, I waited a few minutes, horn lit with Shield glowing in a blue-green arc before me. Blueblood's bodyguards joined Firefall. Spooked, the whites of the prison guards’ eyes showed. This wasn't SOP. Ponies formed up ahead, crouched at the ready in the hall, facing the sound through the entry office.

I was the crown princess of Equestria. Made sense. Why wouldn't they protect me if threatened?

Blueblood lost interest first. He sat opposite Thorax. They looked at one another, Thorax imitating his actions. When it devolved to insulting gestures and the sticking out of tongues, I cleared my throat to forestall laughing.

Blueblood grinned as did Thorax. The prince said, "It's like looking in a mirror; uncanny."

"Yeah," I said. "Uncanny because not a mirror image!"

Cloud Dancer frowned, shaking her head, clearly more concerned by whatever howled.

"So, you trust this changeling?" the prince asked.

"Sensora," Thorax corrected.

"Yes," I answered. Two Bluebloods with blue eyes and limp blond manes looked at me. I'd had great experiences with both. "Implicitly. With my life."

Both whinnied and jerked back. Thorax hadn't copied the original this time.

I yawned and trotted around and into the cell, eyeing the broken doorframe. The hinges bent like taffy. Blue and purple heat-sheened bolts had shattered like ceramic instead of steel. Magic.

I lay beside the sitting sensora. "With Equestria's existence, too. This Chrysalis boogiemare sounds ominous; Thorax and Ocelli offer a peaceful alternative to fighting. I'm interested."

Thorax snugged in beside me. He studied me muzzle to muzzle. "I'll do it—"

"Ha!" Facet scoffed.

Thorax glared back, shaking his head.

Ocelli said, "Me, too."

Moon Dancer mumbled to herself, but I overheard. "Too much trust going around here."

I thought, Trust?

Friendship?

Me?

I sighed, tired. I would trust my biased and love-besotted instincts because—I yawned widely with a hoof over my mouth—I hurt, ached, and couldn't fight the exhaustion. I stretched, rubbed my body against Thorax's, and cuddled happily into his warmth—trusting I'd be woken when the situation worsened. His fur crackled in the autumn air. Warmth flowed from the contact.

Not alien. Pony. Very much pony.

I glanced briefly at the fawn, inhaled so I understood what I could ignore. With us separated by bars and out of reach, I lay my head on my legs.

I'd kissed Blueblood earlier. I'd curled up next to Thorax now. What was this?

Both had been there for me. Both had opened up in dramatic ways to me. Me? I was... a liminal?

Confused, yet certain in my actions. Eyes closed, it came to me: One freely gave me what I wanted; the other gave me what I didn't know I needed.

Equal but different. I huffed. No desire to choose.

I whispered, "You're empathic."

"Sensora," he corrected me. "It's how our magic works."

There'd been a strong sense of feedback back at the townhouse during our mutual exploration. Us "tuning-in" to the other. My intuition strengthened that I understood how this pony worked, as did his pony kind—I could tell what lay beyond words. My trust strengthened commensurately.

Were my trust misplaced, I'd learn something about myself. But, then again, that seemed to be my method of operation: win—or get hurt, pick myself up, make different mistakes.

As my consciousness faded fast, the sensora murmured into my ear, "Rest well, my queen. I will protect you."

I'd been a bodyguard. I'd been homeless and lived in various encampments across northeastern Equestria where trust required attentiveness. I'd wandered alone in the dark, along roads paved through forests, once in a lightning storm. I'd learned to sleep instantly given any opportunity.

I'd learned the opposite, naturally—waking instantly.

Not sure whether Thorax moved or the sound of galloping did it, but I lifted my head and peered over Thorax's back. Beyond the bars, everypony took positions—except for a purple and silver pegasus office pony who'd dared to stand watching down the corridor, through the office and through the doors.

She tilted her head in disbelief, then her ears went back as the beat of hooves slowed. She said, "It's Princess Mi Amoré!"

Blueblood groused, wobbling his head in disgust, "Princess Cadance. Of course it is."

I'd deduced Moon Dancer had spent time with her father when I'd been with Sunburst, Cadance bowing out, having chickened out, possibly been told by Moon Dancer to go fly a kite regarding the prince's choice of me, and using my hospitalization as an excuse to continue not trying to be appropriately friendly. Blueblood's reaction proved any combination of the above.

She cantered around the corner, slowing rapidly and sitting when she encountered the greeting party. She huffed and puffed, looking around. Not seeing who she wanted, she looked further into the cell block.

Her wings flared when she saw me. She flew over everypony toward me. Hooves clanking the bars, nose poked between them, her jaw dropped open in surprise. She flapped her wings like an upset hen.

"Are you crazy!?" she asked. Her voice cracked. "Scratch that. I know the answer." When Thorax turned so they were muzzle to muzzle, she gulped and sat back. "I heard what happened in the hospital this morning. It's true."

I took a deep breath and rested my head on Thorax's back. I nodded and purposely batted my eyelashes.

She studied us for a moment, then the cell, noting the door had been pulled off, before spotting my neighbor. She whinnied, her hooves clicking against the floor as she pushed herself back, her nose wrinkling as she figured out where the reek came from. She gulped, shook herself out, and looked to Blueblood. He smiled at me, but met her eyes and nodded, then focused on me again. Her face reddened.

"It's true," she repeated. She stood. "Regardless! Aunt Celestia is furious. She's coming. You need to get out of that cell right now."

"No."

"No? What? Are you— Right... Stupid question! You need to get out of there, Starlight."

"Or what?"

That stopped her. She sat again, adjusted her teacup crown which threatened to slide off, then thought a few moments... "Don't know. Haven't seen her so mad. Seems like she has a history with the changelings—"

"Sensora," I corrected even as Thorax's mouth opened.

She studied my headrest. She looked at Blueblood, then at Thorax a few times. Her face grew beet red. She licked her lips, closing in on the bars despite getting closer to a changeling. She whispered, "You rode both of them."

Oooo. Heavy lift for her. I grinned. My good memories being with both magnified my feelings. My heart opened up because I realized both supported me in an iffy situation most stallions would buck at—for example Citron who had a moody expression. J-word. He would remain loyal, no matter what. That didn't mean happy, however, and I resolved to fix that. Later.

The pink princess' eyes widened, then grew saucer-sized. It was as if she listened to something I couldn't hear. She glanced an instant at her flank, at her gold laurel-framed blue-green crystal heart cutie mark. My cutie mark magic made me think that if hers could suddenly glow, it would have. When a blue-green nebula roiled around her horn and condensed into a heart, I knew what came next.

The Amoré apparition floated toward Me and Thorax. Along the way, it split and a smaller version curved magnetically toward the real prince. It tingled as they melted into the three of us, but no sudden enhancement of my feelings. I felt quite good laying right here with Blueblood's muscly self only pony lengths beyond. Cadance gasped as the feedback made her feathers rise. She stepped back, wings slowly flaring. Tears pooled in her violet eyes.

She nodded. She nodded more as she walked away, using a wing to clear the wide area in front of the holding cells. In all this, I hadn't noticed the scintillae, like tiny golden stars appearing and disappearing.

Magic. Tracers.

I lifted my head and waved my horn. Across its length, I sensed a spell akin to Teleport, but different in that it wasn't intended to move mass. The scintillae spread out throughout the space, but were both silent—not popping like magic sparkles–and wan. Had I not had a dark cell across from me, I might have missed them.

Nice trick!

Celestia tested her destination, to ensure her Teleport wouldn't fail. I reached for my messenger bag for my notebook to rapidly record the deviations from Teleport equations I sensed. I found Blueblood's present instead, with Mustang's jackknife and his useless gold bits. "Shoot!"

The area now cleared, a huge sphere of absolute darkness grew rapidly, jags of electric-blue lightning spidering around its exterior. It reached the ceiling and sunk into the floor in that fractional second. The explosion of displaced air boomed and tussled my mane—my bedhead, judging by the oily mess I pushed out of my face.

Oily. I kinda smelled and looked awful. Neither Blueblood cared... That was a transcendent feeling of being accepted! Grinning, I waited for Celestia to appear.