That brought Celestia's head back. "You dare call me a liar!"

"I simply wanted to run away, as I always had." I gestured my frustration waving a hoof. "But you—you—wanted somepony to help you save Equestria because you were unable to act upon your own accord because you were cursed—"

Thus, purposely, I let the 603 day secret out, amongst enemies and friends who weren't in the know. Traitor, right? She'd denounced me, right? Nothing to lose, so why the flap not? Equestria needed a dose of reality.

"Starlight!"

"I refused to help you in no uncertain terms, when you cornered me in the Starswirl Wing of the library. I spat in your face. I fought you on Ponyville Way an hour later for everypony to see, throwing your crown at your head, telling you that, 'No meant no.' In retrospect, you held back when you fought me. You knew I'd certainly help ponies; it's my weakness. I've always wanted to, but in comparison to you, no matter what I chose, what ever course of action I would think to take to achieve that end you... could... overrule me. I said so and again you refused to let me go. So you promised me power: you said you'd make me your heir, and I scoffed. But. You. Did it." I sat and pounded a hoof against my chest. "Here I am, the Crown Princess of Equestria. And they call me a crazy pony!? Yet. Here I sit. Look around! In a prison cell. Protecting my ponies in your chains. Still flapping powerless in face of what I know is right. You, Princess Celestia Regina Sunny Daze, are a flapping liar!" I bellowed.

"You are deluded."

I struck my chest. "No." I waved a hoof, emphatically. "Merely powerless. Ask everypony here. Powerless. I'm like a changeling, powerless because they need love, denied any, and lied to, tricked into stealing it. Exactly as I've been forced to steal power. Ask Fizzlepop Berrytwist. I stole the power to protect Canterlot and Ponyville, and I put it into the right hooves—and apparently I saved both!" I screamed.

"I am not going to free these changelings or any changelings. I am the Princess of Equestria, and I have a duty to keep ponies safe."

"But are you? Keeping them safe? Really?"

"Yes."

"In a real sense, you hired me for a job. You felt that without my help as your troubleshooter, your sister, Luna— Everypony, Luna is another alicorn as strong as Celestia. Her sister Luna would return and bring eternal darkness to the world. Only 593 days to go—that clock ticks loudly, princess. Its pendulum stops for nopony. Do you still want me for that job? Or were you lying about that, too?"

We glared into each other's eyes. She scoffed, blowing air through her nose. "In a few weeks, you'll forget all about this—"

"You want to risk that? I am really good at disappearing without a trace, especially if I feel useless. I have plenty of practice running away."

"You and I are the same in this, Starlight. Do you forget I trained you?"

I looked down. Sadly, the cursed alicorn was right in that, honed by her proxy Proper Step. My experiences since I ran away from Grin Having until now had cemented into my being that I protected ponies. I was her sharp tool, exactly as I had been Carne Asada's. I was, because I understood it was the right thing to do and I was capable of doing it.

Okay. It was also fun.

With Thorax's help, since that night on the Strand when he had taught me to open my heart, I knew what ponies felt, sensora or any other pony kind. I'd completed regaining what I had lost when I lost my parents. Thorax had taught me to recognize that one last essential part: empathy. It grew out of love fostered by friendship.

I owed it to him to demonstrate what I learned.

But how?

I looked to Thorax. I looked to Blueblood. Intuition told me I'd forgotten something, so I looked from one to the other, wracking my brain, thinking of all I'd experienced with both of them.

My mouth slowly opened.

Yep. It came back: Thorax had given me what I wanted. The prince had given me what I had not known I needed.

I had never gotten around to taking that potion with the mare on the label that every mare trusted. In the interim, I'd nearly died. I knew enough about healing that I understood a body might let go of anything non-essential in an effort to survive. In any case, there was no guarantee I'd had anything to lose in the first place.

I smiled evilly. I was evil, remember? I could do this!

"I am the Crown Princess of Equestria, your heir."

"Starlight—"

"Am I? You elevated me before everypony in Equestria at my coronation, saying you gave up the right to revoke the grant. You could kill me, of course—"

"Starlight!"

"I'll take that as a yes."

"Yes. You are our first crown princess in 500 years."

"Thank you. Everypony knows that if a pegasus marries a unicorn, the mother will foal either a unicorn or a pegasus." I looked from Blueblood to Thorax and back, then to Celestia. "That means that there's one chance in four that the next prince or princess of Equestria will be a sensora."

Everypony gasped. Of course they did.

"You're... pregnant?"

I decided not to lie, so I just beamed back until my cheeks started to ache. I was supposed to glow, right? Couldn't remember where I'd read that...

"I will not free the changelings."

Before my eyes could cross with my rising anger, Thorax asked, "Starlight?"

I looked at him, smiling all over again. It had become reflex. I suspected that even so, even smiling and feeling for him, he could sense my underlying emotions. Sensora were empathic ponies in at least one respect. He could call my bluff.

Instead, he said, "Make me your prince. I will make you my queen."

Cadance gasped in sudden insight.

I gasped, understanding.

Celestia had fought the peerage when she wanted to extend asylum to an abused diamanté. Yet, despite Celestia being their princess... Despite all their power having devolved from her absolute royal right... Despite the governmental crisis they could evoke by their defiance... they called the "diamond dog" a "carnivore," proving that word choice did matter. They'd denied her.

Princess Celestia proved she could be wise.

She appointed Omega as the Equestrian Ambassador to the Diamanté, making her an Equestrian citizen by default, allowing the princess to use the state apparatus to protect the "carnivore" and force that fact down the peerage's throat—legally.

I said, "I'll marry him."

"Him?" she asked. "What?"

"Thorax."

"The changeling?"

I growled. "Thorax is a sensora. And he looks like Blueblood. Isn't that cool? Don't change," I told him, sotto voce.

"I can't," he said, sounding confused, then sounding sad, he added, "Facet scrambled my sensora with her magic. I can't transform."

"Your leg!"

"Caught me with a blast during transition. It's frozen. But—but—you'll marry me?"

Celestia sneered. "You're going to parade him around like he's the prince? Even were I to free him—"

"He no longer has allegiance to Chrysalis."

"Absolutely," he agreed. "She's a traitor to all sensora."

A weak voice piped up. Facet! "And I'm going to tell her she's a traitor to her face."

I looked at Facet.

The pony had levered herself up into a sitting position. She nodded at me.

I reiterated, "You are under my protection." I nodded and faced Celestia. "Even if she wants to leave Equestria."

"What will that serve?"

"Queen Chrysalis will be under notice that she is about to lose all her subjects?" I chuckled, almost slipping into gleeful laughter. "I'd love to see that!"

Celestia whispered. "You have too much trust—"

"Isn't that what ponies are all about?" I asked.

"Marrying Thorax gets you what exactly?"

The prince raised his voice. "I'll marry her, too, which solves the problem of 'the prince' being officially married."

"Herding is not exactly legal," Celestia pointed out.

He asked, "And who, Aunt Celestia, makes the laws, exactly?" The peerage often legislated, but even then Celestia had to consent. That didn't mean they didn't have the power to fight back.

I answered the princess. "By marrying a commoner, I elevate him to prince consort. That not only makes him royal, it makes him a citizen of Equestria through marriage, a citizen whom you are holding illegally under arrest."

She sat down, hard. The armor over her flank clanged. Her golden aura roiled around her helmet as she twisted it off, releasing her long flowing mane, before dashing it against the floor to bounce against a wall. It bounced and clanked like a big empty can of beans. She glanced at the fawn, whom I would have sworn for a moment grinned.

"Did I train a lawyer? I don't remember telling Proper Step to do that. Did I do that? My stars!" She shook her head in disgust. "Okay. You will marry them, the both of them—and bear your foal. I demand it. "

"You will release them?"

She huffed and tapped her hoof. "I am not liking this."

"Of course you're not. Do you know why?"

"Changelings? They're changelings?" she asked, angrily. "Inherently untrustworthy, definitely a little bit evil?"

"I switched your cutie mark with Shining Armor’s."

At that very moment, were I Celestia, I'd probably have started banging my head against the floor in frustration for giving away all the state secrets. She had dignity. Or maybe it was because she'd thrown the helmet and banging her head wasn't really practicable at the moment?

Instead she froze. "Is there a secret you can keep? What's wrong with you?"

"Could it be that Shining Armor's cutie mark, stars orbiting over a shield, might be making you inordinately protective? Affecting how you think? The switch has taken away your ability to raise the sun—"

The mare shrieked and knelt. Maybe she would started hitting her head.

"—so why not?" I tapped the the auroras and doubled four-point star on my flank. "It's what my cutie mark is telling me. Princess of Marks? Remember?"

An alicorn had huge lung capacity: Only that could explain how her sigh could go on for that long. She nodded.

I opened my mouth, to be cut off with a hoof wave.

"I will not concede I'm wrong—"

"Ugh!"

"—but... I will compromise. Have your foal."

"Okay." Biology permitting. The odds were in my favor on this one🗡️.

Celestia continued. "Marry my nephew, the Prince of Equestria; you've obviously affected him, Ms. Glimmer, besotted or beguiled by him I don't know, but to his benefit. Marry the change—the sensora, too. I'll see it made legal, but you get only one of them to play with at a time, especially in public. From this moment forward, he's Prince Blueblood Ambassador to the Changelings—" Celestia paused and gave me the look as I inhaled to correct her. "—until I mandate a name change and reveal it when I think it is earned. These three are your responsibility, your headache, and your guilt if they harm Equestria. If any changeling harms Equestria. You need to prevent changelings from hurting ponies. Got it? Send the, the, the—" she waved a hoof at Facet.

"Facet."

"I release her to her own recognizance, the rest into your charge. If Facet wishes to risk her life in a way that benefits her new nation, she can, under the condition that she tells the vampire to her ugly face what she promised. I will proclaim her a hero amongst ponies if she does that one thing."

"I promise," said Facet.

Judging by the meekness in her voice, I judged that she was seeing her world in a whole new light. Her promise could devolve into bluster.

I cast Teleport and appeared right before Celestia. As much as I still hated her deep down, I hugged her. Some changes for the better required rewarding. My heart told me reconciliation was the right thing to do.

Celestia added. "Princesses wear their crown in public. Part of this deal is I expect to see you wearing it from now on."

I groaned, rethinking my impulse to embrace the giant pony.

Well, I would have many things to accomplish in the next 593 days. I had to prepare for the curse Celestia had brought upon us all by using the Elements of Harmony to defeat her sister. Luna's part. The Mare in the Moon's half. I'd rendered Celestia's part impotent by switching her cursed cutie mark, and her half-curse into him. I'd have to fight Luna. If what I'd accomplished with Facet, Ocelli, and Thorax I could accomplish with the rest of the changelings, what could I accomplish with all the shape-shifting sensora joining with earth ponies, night wings, pegasi, and unicorns?

Saving the world?

Maybe?

Luna would, at least, find it rather more difficult to bring eternal darkness upon the world.

🗡️Depending upon the will of the pony deity of storytelling.

Author's Note

Comments please! Like the story if you enjoyed it, too. Upvote(👍), please!

Ok, Scifipony... Why wasn't this story marked COMPLETE on July 27th?

If you think about it, there is at least one more mystery that requires solving. I also like hinting (as if I didn't copiously foreshadow sequels in these final chapters) what may come next. I will do both in the epilogue. See you all next week.