Ms. Glimmer and the Do-Nothing Prince

The dark sensora whinnied and backed as if a wolf had given her a hungry smile, instead of me simply looking. Her shackles clanked and chains rattled as they went taut.

Knife in the heart, right?

Probably remembered that. Yeah, to some I was a monster—and not at all embarrassed to use it to my advantage.

"I get that Queen Chrysalis is a boogiemare of epic proportions." I looked back to Celestia. "How about I show you what a monster like me can do?"

"You want me to trust you on this?" Celestia's scoffed, unimpressed by my bluster.

I sat up. I took out the jackknife in my magic, flicking it open. It clicked. I judged Celestia's wide-eyed gaze, then glanced at Facet. The dark mare gulped and the alicorn's nose twitched. One recalled being stabbed in the heart then healed, the other had heard a surprising story retold. I lifted a leg and scraped my inner hoof. It sounded like grinding against pumice stone. No loose flakes or dried mud interrupted the blade. I was reiterating that this Starlight was calculating, crass, uncouth, unrefined, unpredictable, and capable of sudden violence to protect her ponies.

I snicked the weapon closed, dropping the ivory threat into the messenger bag.

I stood, keeping a back hoof against Thorax. I felt tired but electrified. My heart beat rapidly. Any worthwhile achievement in my life had come at great risk.

I answered Celestia's question about my bluster. "I'm going to trust you, so I'd appreciate reciprocity." I kept my eyes locked with those violet ones darkened by the brow of a helmet. "I don't forgive easily, and certainly never forget my trust being abused."

I stepped away from Thorax and approached Facet. That meant I approached the fawn, whose gaze had returned to me. The deer remained inscrutable, but I bowed my head slightly.

The fawn's nostrils pulsed, and her eyes twinkled slightly. Her scent soured noticeably. Maybe I did have a good sense of smell. I hoped I entertained her.

I looked at Facet.

"So," I told her, "You've had, what, six days to observe what happened to Thorax, or was it eight days? When did you realize I'd changed him?" I took credit for his change, though I suspected that incident with me in the tub had a great deal to do with what we had both experienced that night, his failed attempt to encapsulate me, and my learning the trick...

...of opening my heart...

Oh! Colts.

Of feeling love by simply wanting to!

I understood it now. I had become a pony; I was no longer a monster.

Facet looked beyond me, glaring down at Thorax. The focus of her pale white pupils in green irised eyes were obvious in their metallic green goggles. She'd found a safer place to look than at me. I half-expected defiance, but she said, "He refused to change from his disguise. He's a drone, for Chrysalis' sake! After all he made go wrong, I could tell he'd soon be culled."

Celestia asserted smugly, "Their language demonstrates their toxicity."

I glared at the princess, briefly. Air steamed from her nose, loudly, demonstratively.

Thorax said, "I botched replacing Blueblood a few times, and we were about to abandon the mission. We risked blowing our secrecy when you caused yet another abort."

"In Blueblood Park?"

"Yes. The prince wasn't acting predictably."

I put in, "Were it not for me—"

"We'd have left Canterlot."

I was getting an inkling that events could have been radically different, but for my failure to run from my crimes and the constabulary thanks to Celestia's intervention, which culminated in my removing her cutie mark and the curse Harmony had placed upon her. I had planned to disappear somewhere in the middle of nowhere where my past wouldn't follow me, to spend four or five years learning my cutie mark magic better, and figuring out how to apply it to making ponies lives better by freeing them from the scourge of the blasted magic parasite. I'd removed Running Mead's cutie mark and since swapped Celestia's and Shining Armor's. I had months before shifted Sunset's cutie mark, which had relieved her anxiety and growing depression. Removing cutie marks permanently remained my distant goal. Becoming Crown Princess was the exact opposite of my desire.

Water under the bridge, flowing to the sea. I had ponies to protect!

I addressed Facet. "So, how do you explain what happened to him, to Ocelli?"

She blinked at me, then straightened. Despite the haystack of copper wires in her horn, or the clanking chains, she tensed. Ah. Defiance. Naturally.

"How do you explain it?" I asked.

Thorax said, "I don't have to steal love anymore. The hunger, it's gone."

Ocelli chipped in, "Thorax generates love, and I feel it. Do you think Chrysalis might not be telling us everything—"

"Cull! Both of you!" She hissed, revealing a slightly forked tongue.

As sweetly as I could, and I'd learned a lot—wheedling and convincing Carne Asada's lieutenants to do what Carne Asada didn't know she needed—I added, "Ocelli is right. Chrysalis is hiding something from you—and it is gnawing at you, destroying your confidence. Even a 'grub' could figure that much out."

"Ha. And, ha!" The sensora manipulated the heavy chains and sat, then crossed her forelegs despite the weight of the iron shackles and the links going taut. "Ha!"

"You are envious."

She rolled her eyes.

"And guilty about it, because everything you see goes against everything you thought you knew about reality, doesn't it? If you believed your queen, you wouldn't be shackled in an Equestrian high security cell, would you? You would have sent Thorax and everypony home. Thorax would be culled and you'd be waiting for your next mission?"

The sensora looked away, clearly discomforted.

"Or being punished for failure? That's right, isn't it? Punished. Your life is horribly unfair, isn't it?

"Then this happened to Thorax. Even in the same chains as you, it's different. Better. Impossible. He's not hungry, and you are suffering!"

"I am suffering, listening to your nattering."

I looked to Ocelli. The sensora smiled. Behind, a bluish green nebula threatened to turn into a heart around Cadance's horn. She nodded. I looked to Thorax and saw his encouraging smile. I was on the right track and opened my heart. She had been badly abused by everypony in her life, but inside she was a pony, a mare with feelings, somepony who deserved comfort, freedom from fear, and the dignity of being accepted unconditionally. I imagined love, feeling it; that was my heart growing in my chest and a burning stinging in my eyes. I could love who she would have been and offer her the possibility of redemption.

The warmth of my feelings for her radiated forward. I couldn't help the sappy smile.

I stepped up to Facet. "Do you feel it? Thorax said it filled him up. Is that it? Does it 'fill it you up?' Does it satiate your hunger? Did anything Chrysalis say make you think I'd graciously 'fill you up?' That you didn't need to steal?"

Her legs uncrossed. She backed to the limits of her chains.

Facet shivered and her voice reflected that. "The queen has her plans. I-I am a replaceable worker. What right do I have to question her royal plan?"

"Maybe because you live and breathe? Are you a machine, a locomotive controlled by levers? A marionette horse made to trot by flicking your strings? You can reason. You can see when you've been lied to, manipulated against your best interests?"

"I'm sensora–"

"You're a flapping pony!" I screamed into her face, with a bit of spit.

"I—I—" Her hooves skittered on the floor as she ineffectually tried to slide away. She wiped her nose on her shoulder.

In a low reassuring voice, drawing out the feeling from my heart again, I added, "And you deserve to live like everypony, as much as I do.

"Love is something you can give and receive. You feel it. Full. Reassuring. Warm. Don't you?"

The dark sensora blinked. Rapidly. Some sort of internal nictitating membrane. She held herself stiff, maybe to keep from nodding.

"Thorax?"

"I'm feeling it. I'm giving."

Ocelli said, "Me, too!" She sat and puffed out her chest, as if somehow she could project what she felt.

I said, "You're a pony. You don't have to steal. We'll freely give—"

A green crystal heart wandered lazily through the air and Facet spotted it. She bobbed her head, trying to avoid the apparition until it dived into her chest. Gasping, she clenched all her muscles as if she could somehow expel the magic.

Citron beside me imitated Ocelli, sticking out his chest, getting an expression on his face like someone looking at a foal or a puppy dog, as if facet's dark insect pony visage were adorable.

Fizzlepop Berrytwist's hooves shifted with a click-click. When I looked to her, she looked at me. It reminded me of that moment she had looked at me before kneeling and calling me liege. At that moment, I recognized even her tightly controlled heart had opened up.

She faced Facet.

Indeed, I heard other ponies behind us, the guard and everypony else, copying us.

Not Celestia. Not the diamanté. Strangely, not Moon Dancer, either.

When I glanced to my right, even the looming fawn looked intently at the dark sensora. She pulled back her neck and even she puffed out her chest, pushing her heart forward.

There was a chance for us with the Golden Stag! My heart opened more and tears streamed down my cheeks.

I asked, "Are we filling you up? Do you have to steal?"

"It's too much!"

"Then give some of it back..."

The sensora gulped loudly. A sheen grew on her glossy black insect-like armor exterior. Perspiration. She sweat as she resisted.

"Give some back."

"I will be culled."

"If you go back—"

"Chrysalis will cull me."

"I will protect you, if you ask me to."

"I must go back. I. Must!"

"What do you have to lose, in that case? She will cull you one way or another. Don't you want to at least experience what Thorax and Ocelli learned? So you can report to Chrysalis?"

"I'm a prisoner."

"Ask for my protection."

"Promise me."

"Give the love back. If you still want to go back to your queen, I will support you even if it costs me my life." I meant it, too. I would have to deal with the sensora and their evil queen, before dealing with Luna. That much was manifestly apparent.

Pink light flared.

I covered my eyes with a fetlock. The magic in sun-bright light pushed against me, warming me, easing my pains and lending me strength I sorely needed. Love. Radiated love, transformed via sensora magic. A ringing chime sounded, ramping up and up, splitting into a harmonic hum until—

Short bits of copper wire rained to the floor, metal hail, clicking and tinkling, bouncing away. One chain fell, the shackle making a clunk. The other three fell with a bang, then—

The flare faded.

Midair, about chest height, a glassy pink moth's chrysalis floated midair. In the interior light, inside the sparkling crystal, a large foal-like pony-creature moved, head-down flank-up, rearranging itself.

It was Facet, now reborn. I saw trust. I saw love.

I turned to Celestia. Her expression remained defiant, but she looked beyond me, pink reflecting in her eyes. She looked at what I had wrought.

I asked, "Nice trick, huh?"

"Changeling biology," she said, off-hoof. She was riveted, nonetheless.

I sighed. I sidled over and tapped the chrysalis. The fragile thing shattered with a ting! Like a foal being birthed, it fell wetly amongst the chains, wires, and the melted rune-inscribed magic damper, though thankfully not on any of them. Pink honey-scented fluid puddled around her. With blue goggle eyes, damp turquoise and yellow velvet-furred sides, and purple lace wings that slipped languidly out from amethyst-jeweled wing cases, she resembled a dark sensora as much as a caterpillar resembled a moth. None of her legs, nor her horn, had leprous-looking bubble cheese holes. She looked like a pony, a very special and beautiful pony. P

Celestia asked, "You would let the changeling go free?"

"I made a promise," I stated. I looked at the alicorn until she raised her eyes and met mine. I did not flinch.

"Traitor," she spat.

I rolled my eyes. "Liar," I shot back.