Romance and the Fate of Equestria

Hey, remember way back at the halfway point of Part Two, when I expressed regret that I only had one chapter over 5,000 words? Well, as of now, five other chapters have made that mark. And reaching a certain length is never something I do deliberately; I'm not mentally capable of padding something out to increase its length. It's just how the writing's been flowing.

Look, I know that the numbers and stats associated with the story aren't all that important, and it's probably unhealthy to obsess over them, but… well, when you're like me, and you've spent your entire life writing things that are too short… stretching an essay as far as my mind is capable of stretching it and still ending up with one-tenth the assigned word count… knowing that all the relevant books these days are over 500 pages apiece, and writing an entire trilogy that comes out to less than 200 pages total… yeah, having been through that, been endlessly frustrated with the fact that the limit of my mental endurance is equal to the standard person's "bare minimum"… I'm pretty psyched about the sheer amount of substance I've pumped into this baby right here.

Chapter One Hundred and Nine

The ponies fled through the forest in terror. All the while, the trees themselves seemed to be slowly reaching out for them, grasping at them. They couldn't be sure if it was Chrysalis' magic or just their imaginations, but it was certain that Chrysalis and Cocoon were pursuing them through the trees; the deafening buzz of their massive insect wings filled the air.

For a moment, Chrysalis caught a glimpse of them through the trees, and shot a huge sickly-green beam of energy at them, the beam cutting through the trees and the earth.

Twilight spotted a huge tree and pulled the others alongside her, ducking behind the tree and hoping that Chrysalis continued to pursue them in a straight line. For a moment, it seemed like she would, but she braked in midair and backed up.

"I know you're here," she said darkly. "I smell you. I taste you… I'm not like you weak earthly beings who rely too much on your eyes. Your air is all around."

Holding her breath, Twilight pulled out her spellbook and started flipping through it, searching for the invisibility spell again. As she did so, she yet again put a hoof on her saddlebag, checking on its contents.

Cocoon caught up to Chrysalis, his normally blank expression looking disturbed. "Hive ours… of destruction…" he muttered. "See to thing, devastating such was that, Chrysalis Queen, ohhhh."

"Yes," Chrysalis agreed with a sneer. She called out to the ponies, "I never expected you to make a move quite so bold! I thought you ponies preferred to merely send the other side packing… I didn't know that you actually kill. Hehehehehehe… this is going to be more interesting than I thought. Oh, make no mistake, I am angry. You've accomplished your mission of crippling my campaign. Why, at any given time, there must be twenty-five thousand changelings in that hive. All dead by your hooves. The beast of my army shall not recover from that wound so easily…"

Twilight dropped the book in shock.

"Twenty-five thousand?" Rainbow breathed.

"Um…" Twilight muttered.

"We killed twenty-five thousand changelings?" Rainbow demanded.

"I… I don't…" Twilight stammered.

"You said there were three thousand!" Rainbow said incredulously.

"What do you think I am, some kind of genius who can take one look at a hive and immediately tell you exactly how many changelings are in there?" Twilight moaned desperately.

"That's exactly what I think you are!" Rainbow exclaimed. "Was I not supposed to think that?"

"Stop it, both of you!" Rarity hissed.

"I mean, I'd understand if you were off by like, plus or minus five hundred or so," said Rainbow. "But to underestimate it by a factor of—"

"Enough!" said Rarity. "She can sense us well enough already. Let's not make it easier for her."

Chrysalis had nearly found the tree where they were hiding. They dared to creep out from behind it and scurry into another hiding place. Seconds later, Chrysalis buzzed over to the place they had just left.

"Hmm," she remarked. "You know, I think you'll end up regretting that you protected the nursery. Do you know what I'm going to do to the eggs whose lives you spared? I'm going to personally raise them into an army of pure killing machines. They will feel nothing, and they will know nothing—nothing but 'obey Queen Chrysalis' and 'kill ponies'." She laughed. "I've actually been meaning to try something like that for generations now. Thank you for giving me the added incentive."

Twilight teleported them a few hundred yards further south, to the cover of a tree whose roots were covered in mosses and shrubs.

"Sister," Cocoon said sharply, "something felt did I."

"I felt it too," said Chrysalis, raising her head. "They're slowly sneaking away from us… we'll split up, brother. Cut them off and trap them between us."

They went off in two different directions, Cocoon disappearing into the forest and Chrysalis on a path that seemed to be taking her almost straight toward the huddling ponies.

"Twilight," Rarity whispered. "I think I have a plan. Can you make me taller?"

"Make you taller?" Twilight said blankly.

"Yes," Rarity said seriously. "If you can give me a physique similar to Cocoon's, I do believe I'll be able to get us out of this. Is that something you can do?"

"I think so," Twilight said doubtfully.

"Wonderful," said Rarity. "I just need that one step, and then leave the rest to me."

"Okay… all right," Twilight said, nervous but reassured by Rarity's surety. "I'll be altering your skeleton, so this may hurt just a little, and you'll lose some muscle strength."

"Very well, I'm ready," said Rarity, standing up straight and bracing herself.

Twilight closed her eyes tight in concentration, and her horn started sparking.

"Looks like this may take her a minute," Applejack said grimly. "Y'all protect her, I'll keep an eye out." She peered around the tree, at Chrysalis, slowly approaching and scanning the forest, the wind in her face.

The forest was now definitely after them, the tiny reeds and grasses around the roots of their tree slowly and weakly grasping at them; they shook it off easily, and Twilight cast her spell. Rarity cried out in pain as her legs and neck extended.

When her petite body was stretched out to awkward and gangly proportions, she smiled, though her legs were slightly shaky. "Perfect," she said. Her own horn glowed blue, and in seconds, she transformed into an exact replica of Cocoon.

"Lovely," the fake Cocoon said in Rarity's voice, examining her body. She flinched at the sight of the unsightly holes in her legs. "You know… plan-wise. Back in a moment…"

Rarity marched out from behind the tree and faced the queen directly. "Chrysalis Queen," she called out, in a pitch-perfect imitation of Cocoon's voice.

"Ah, there you are," Chrysalis said, nodding.

"Back doubled have they," said Rarity. "Encampment ours to back going are they."

"Are they?" Chrysalis said with interest. "Hmm, they just get more and more devious by the minute. And here I thought I was the villain. How deliciously ironic this has been…"

"Off them head and again split up, we shall?" Rarity inquired.

"I couldn't agree more, brother," Chrysalis said cheerfully. She approached and placed a hoof on the back of Rarity's neck. "You have done well."

Chrysalis kissed Rarity deeply, breathing heavily with pleasure. Rarity cried out in alarm, but made an attempt to kiss her back. A warm wind rushed through the foliage, and romantic music seemed to play as the wind blew through leaves and branches. Chrysalis started groping Rarity, and one of her hooves seemed to be moving to caress the huge insect wings on her back. Rarity pulled back fearfully. "Chrysalis Queen… prisoners yours catch must we…" she said, flustered.

Chrysalis smiled. "Prisoners ours, dear Cocoon," she cooed. "You are my king and my brother, and I shall treat you with the respect you are due. I shall meet you back at camp—we'll trap them between us once again."

She kissed Rarity again, slipping her tongue into the disguised pony's mouth briefly, and flew off, back toward the encampment. Rarity galloped in another direction, then once Chrysalis was out of sight, tiptoed back to the other ponies' hiding place and changed back to the tall and thin version of herself. "All right, that's done," she said.

"Rarity, that was amazing!" Twilight said in awe. Her horn snapped, and Rarity went back to her normal height and shape. "What sort of magic was that?"

"It's called 'glamour'," Rarity said modestly, "though as you may have noticed, it can also be used to make me look decidedly… un-glamorous. An illusion spell of moderate complexity, entirely insubstantial." Her horn lit up, and she sifted through several different color schemes, modifying the color of her mane, eyes, and coat without changing her shape at all. "I can add horns or wings like so"—she sprouted iridescent dragonfly wings, and her single white horn disappeared and was replaced by a pair of shiny black bull horns—"but touching them would reveal the glamour for what it is." She raised her hoof and waved it around, passing right through one of the illusory horns and knocking against the invisible one in the center of her forehead. With a shimmer, she changed back to normal.

"Well, nicely done," Twilight said warmly. "Your plan was a smashing success. Let's start heading for home before she realizes she's been tricked and all that hard work goes to waste. Keep an eye out for the real Cocoon, too."

They started trekking through the forest once again, not on any path, but trying to go as straight south as they could manage.

"I don't know if this war is gonna go down anyway," Rainbow said conversationally, "or how it'll be viewed by history if it does, but I do know who will be regarded as the biggest hero of the war: the one who took one for the team by making out with Chrysalis. Eurgh! Rarity, you truly are the bravest of us all."

All of the ponies laughed, and Rarity grinned. "Yes, thank you, thank you."

"So, how was it?" Applejack teased.

"Oh, she's a dreadful kisser," said Rarity, shuddering. "I suddenly have an immense amount of respect for Cocoon. I don't know how he deals with it."

"So, tell me, your mimicking of his speech patterns," said Twilight. "You just did that on the fly?"

"I did," Rarity said proudly. "I've paid very close attention to his words, the little tweaks he makes to his backwards sentences to make himself more understandable. The voice and the glamour I knew I could do; that was the hard part. That's the part I'm relieved she fell for. I must have pulled it off."

"Well, you did him a whole lot better than he did Rainbow," Twilight said in amusement. "He couldn't even get a complete sentence out. There's sure no risk of him hiding among us… so good work, Rarity. And the voice? How did you do that?"

"Oh, that wasn't magic," said Rarity. "That was raw voice acting talent! I can also do Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow raised her head and stared in suspicion at Rarity. "Oh, really?"

Rarity cleared her throat, inhaled deeply, and spoke in a flawless imitation of Rainbow: "In ten seconds flat this will be twenty percent cooler and I'll take forty winks… bitches."

"BA-HAHAHAHA!" Rainbow guffawed. "That was awesome! I know what our entertainment is gonna be for the whole journey back to Equestria! Do some more!"

"Wow Rarity, that is truly amazing," Twilight chuckled. "I had no idea you did voices."

"I do indeed," said Rarity. "Perhaps you've heard of the Bluestreak?"

"The music critic on The DJ P0n-3 Hour who curses like a sailor?" Twilight said blankly. "Of course I know her, I've been listening to her on the radio for years. I can't stand her."

"You don't like her?" said Rarity. "Eh, fair enough, I suppose. Would it stun you to find out that I'm the Bluestreak? I always have been."

"No!" Twilight gasped.

Rarity spoke in a smoky, raspy voice: "What's the matter with these punks? I mean really? Barf! Did they make the sheet music by slapping ink blots on the page randomly? I've seen classier compositions on the walls of public bathroom stalls. Blecch!"

Twilight's jaw dropped.

"Yes, it's a little fringe talent of mine," said Rarity in her normal voice. "A hobby I do on the side, nothing more. When I'm not doing fashion, I do voices. In fact, I'm doing one right now. You didn't think I really had a Canterlot accent, did you? When we met, I'd never even been to Canterlot. I just put on this voice to sound classy."

"Oh, wow, that never occurred to me," Twilight admitted. "So what does your natural voice sound like?"

"Oh, I don't really remember," Rarity said dismissively. "I've been cultivating this accent so long that it actually takes me far less effort to talk like this than in my real accent. But I assume I sound more or less like my mother. I don't know if you've ever heard her speak, but if I hadn't spent years perfect a more refined tone…" She thought for a moment, then proceeded in a nasal regional accent: "I'd probably sound somethin' like this, don'tcha know."

Twilight laughed. "That's it exactly! That's your mother. Oh, that's good."

"Yah," Rarity agreed. She coughed, and proceeded in her refined accent. "Which begs the question, Twilight, why don't you have a Canterlot accent?"

"I do, actually," Twilight said. "I have a middle-class Canterlot accent, which is virtually indistinguishable from a neutral Equestria accent."

"Ah," said Rarity, nodding in comprehension.

"Yeah, it's really only the upper class that are all 'Oh, jolly good, I certainly am a gift to the world of ballroom dancing' and the lower class who are 'Oi, sweep your chimney for ya, guv?'"

"Ha!" Rarity laughed. "I see you have a talent for accents yourself."

"Eh, not really," Twilight admitted. "Just those two."

"Heh… pretty funny," Rainbow said absently. After a few seconds of mulling things over, she commented, "Twenty-five thousand changelings."

Twilight inhaled sharply. "…Yeah," she agreed regretfully.

"Isn't that, like… more than half of the global population?" Rainbow asked. "Didn't Discord say there were forty thousand in the whole world?"

"Yes," said Twilight mechanically.

"I just… can't wrap my head around us being responsible for so many deaths," Rainbow muttered.

"I know, Rainbow Dash," said Twilight. "That's why we're engaging in meaningless small talk. So we don't have to think about it."

"But I am thinking about it," Rainbow said sadly. "I'm gonna be thinking about it for the rest of my life."

"We all are," Twilight said solemnly.

Fluttershy nuzzled Rainbow as they walked, and Rainbow leaned against her, the two seeming to mutually hold each other up.

The sun dipped down and was replaced by the moon, at a speed which alerted them to the fact that Princess Luna had just activated her daily magic.

"This trip… sucked," Pinkie commented. "Sure, I wasn't expecting much fun, but… all that terror and loss, and it might have all been for nothing, and we didn't even learn anything about friendship. I'm calling 'epic fail' on this one."

"Now, hang on," Applejack said bitterly. "We learned that even though some friends are just lyin' in wait for the chance to stab you in the back, maybe they'll bail you out later if it's convenient for 'em."

"We learned that sometimes you have to do things you're not proud of to protect your way of life," Fluttershy added. "Not a moral I ever wanted to catch myself learning…" She sighed.

"Nope, not at all," Pinkie agreed.

"…I'm sorry," said Fluttershy. "I didn't mean to be so bitter and judgmental back when you first suggested it, it's just… I'm a pacifist, or at least I try to be. It didn't sit right with me."

"I know, Fluttershy," said Twilight. "I'm the one who's sorry. We all hate what we've just done. I'm sorry I made us do it."

"It's okay, Twilight," Fluttershy whispered. "I understand."

"How about you, Twilight?" Applejack asked. "Think you can shoehorn in a friendship or love lesson from what just happened?"

Twilight, at this point, was lingering behind and falling to the back of the group. "No, girls, I'm not seeing one," she said apologetically. Under her breath, she added, "Not yet anyway."

She turned her head and opened the flap on one of her saddlebags to check on the well-being of the five changeling eggs she had stolen from the hive.