Marceline

I held my clone at gunpoint, afraid to act. My clone held an exact copy of Lunar in her right hand. Funny. I was left-handed. Another thing I noticed is that she wore no armor. A single, well-placed shot could end her. There had to be more to it, though. That would be too easy, and Discord loved making things difficult. As a test, I swung my gun upwards as quickly as I could. Just I suspected, Eni Lecram was faster than me by just a smidge, 0.3 seconds at most. Less than half a second. Sounds like no time at all, but in a firefight against somepony equal in skill, a second can feel like an hour. If I tried to shoot, that small window of time would get me killed.

"Spence! Don't try to fight! He'll always be a little faster than you!" I called, not taking my eyes of my target.

"Enceps! Thgif ot yrt t'nod! Uoy naht retsaf elttil a eb syawla ll'eh!" reported my clone.

"Thanks for the tip." said Spencer, stabbing at his clone.

"Pit eht rof sknaht." said his clone.

"This is hilarious!" laughed Discord. "Marceline is holding herself at gunpoint and Spencer got into a swordfight. With himself!"

"Forgive me if I don't see what's so funny about this situation." I said, my clone reversing everything I said.

"No, I didn't expect for you to. You're so much like your mother." he said smugly.

"I'm not like Mom!" I said angrily.

"What's wrong with Fluttershy? She was such a kind, caring, tender mare. That is, until you two were born."

"Shut up! Kind, caring and tender my flank!"

"I suppose you would only know Commandoshy. You know, the soldier? The killer. The evil. And you're just like her."

"No, I'm not! I'll never be like her in any way!"

"Wanna know how many changeling's she's killed? Too many to count. Hundreds upon thousands of lives lost because of your mom. You know what they used to call her? 'The Yellow Plague'. On any given day, she would spill enough changeling blood to fill a large lake."

"I'm not going to turn out like that! I'd rather die than end up a killer like her!" I shouted, pressing my gun against my neck. My clone did the same, then lowered it as I lowered mine. I pressed the barrel against my temple and, sure enough, the clone followed.

"Hm. It seems you've figured it out." said Discord. "Time is running out, so I suppose I can stay here and watch the fireworks."

"Spencer!" I called to my brother. As soon as he turned to face me, I shot him in the knee.

BOOM!
BOOM!

As my shot rang through the air, so did a second. While my bullet bounced harmlessly off of Spencer's armor, the armorless clone fell to the ground, clutching his leg in pain. A pale-gold blood leaked from the wound where his sister had shot him. The clone Marceline held her still-smoking gun at her fallen comrade, unable to deter her aim.

"Genius!" exclaimed Spencer in excitement. He dropped to the ground in the same position as his clone, then jabbed Celestial at my ribs. His sword barely dented my armor, but Recneps' sword impaled Eni Lecram in the stomach, dropping her to the ground. The fakes dropped their weapons and crawled backwards in fear. Spencer scrambled to his hooves, grabbed both of them and threw me the gun.

"The more the merrier, eh?" he said, flipping and tilting his two swords.

"Poo. That didn't take very long for you two to figure out." said Discord.

"Are they alive?" I asked. "What are these guys?"

"They come from my realm. My world is sort of like your's, with a backwards copy of everypony in Equestria. So, yes, they are living." said Discord. "Why?"

"Give us the masks." I said. "Please."

"No. Why would I give them to you?"

"Please. My parents and their friend are going to die in a few hours. Please, just give us the Veils." I begged, dropping to my knees.

"Kill the clones." said Discord.

"What?"

"Kill the clones and I'll give you the masks."

"Why?" asked Spencer. "Why do we have to kill them?"

"Not you, Spencer. Marceline. Kill the copies, get the masks."

"I don't want to." I said, getting to my hooves. I can't believe I was on my knees, begging for a way out. "I'm not killing anypony."

"No matter what happens, you're going to kill somepony. You can kill Eni and Recneps, or you can kill your family. You're choice."

"There has to be another option." I said.

"Of course there's another option." said Discord.

"What is it?"

"Eni, Recneps, kill Spencer." he said, falling onto his back. Beneath him was a hammock that appeared out of nothing. The copies jumped to their hooves and lunged onto Spencer.

"NO!" I shouted. In that moment, I finally understood. I understand why I was so mad at Mom, why she did what she did, and, most of all, what I had to do. I fired each Lunar once, blasting Eni and Recneps' heads open. They fell to the ground, gushing golden blood. Spencer pushed them off of his chest and scrambled backwards, confused and frightened.

"Marceline." said Spencer quietly. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." I said, equally quiet. "I'm peachy."

"Is that so?" said Discord. "You're not upset? I just made you a killer, like Fluttershy, and you're fine with that?"

"Yes, I am fine with that." I said. "Better than fine. My mom is strong and brave and just amazing. I was mad at her because I didn't understand. I didn't know what it felt like to be in her position. In my eyes, she killed because she could, and because it was fun, but now I know that's not true."

"Then why did she kill so many changelings?" asked Discord.

"She had to. To protect her friends, to protect Equestria, to protect my dad. I totally get it now. When somepony you love is in trouble, you stop at nothing to save them. You do what you must to protect those important to you. I used to think that Mom was cowardly or selfish to kill just to save herself, but now I realise that just the opposite is true. She was being truly selfless, because she wasn't saving herself. She was saving everyone. She gave up her own purity and morality for the greater good, and that's not an easy thing to do. So yeah, I'm just like my Mom, and not only that, but I'm proud! I'm my mother's daughter and that is wonderful!"

"Yawn!" said Discord. "You finally figured out the obvious."

"You did good, sis." said Spencer. "Thanks for the save, by the way."

"No problem." I said. "Now, Discord, we played your game and we won, so I think we deserve a reward. Say, the Veils of Switching Souls?"

"Ugh. I suppose you did do everything I had planned. Very well. Here are the masks." he said, pulling the Veils out of his hammock. He tossed them to me with a sly grin. "You did well, all things considered. This is your first adventure, no?"

"Yeah." said Spencer. "I think we did pretty good."

"Yes, yes, first adventure indeed. So I suppose that means you haven't met Alex yet."

"Rarity's daughter? The dragon girl?" I asked.

"No, she's a unicorn." said Spencer.

"She is both." said Discord. "And she is neither. In any case, you haven't met her yet, right? Nor Alexandria?"

"Aren't they the same pony?"

"Say, what's today?" he asked.

"February 25th. Why?"

"What year?" he asked.

"Are you dumb? 2036."

"Ah. Not quite there yet." he mumbled to himself. "A little early. Ah well. Not like I could test them while they were in chains."

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, you have about 49 seconds."

"Until what?"

"Until seven days has passed. That newspaper is a day old. 38 seconds."

"Spencer!" I called, dropping the masks. He pointed Celestial downwards and stabbed each of them. They emitted a faint gold haze and began to hiss and whisper.

"15 seconds. You have to shoot them now." said Discord. I pointed both Lunars and fired.

BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!

Each shot connected with the Veils and blew them apart. The haze dissipated and the whispers stopped. Discord got from his hammock, looking very pleased with himself. He looked from me, to Spencer, then back to me, then started to laugh.

"BWAHAHA! I can't believe you fell for it!" he guffawed.

"What? What did we fall for?" I asked.

"You thought that breaking the masks would fix your parents! Everypony knows that when a Veil is broken, that pony dies!"

---

Spencer

"What?!" shouted Marceline, aiming at Discord. "You made us kill our parents?!"

"Of course not! I was just kidding! Although, they probably are about to die. I'm sure that some confusing things happened in the six days, some things that would start a fight between Fluttershy and Sarah."

"He's right. We should go diffuse that." I said, reaching for her hand.

"One moment." she said. She walked up to Discord and slapped him across the face with Lunar, leaving an jet-black bruise.

"Ah! That hurt!" he said, rubbing his face. "What was that? Instantaneous frostbite?"

"Don't mess with my family ever again!" she shouted. She grabbed my hands and helped open the Rift.

"We have to learn how to do this on our own." I said, spreading open nothingness and stepping into the silver energy. When I tripped through the other side, all I could hear was yelling.

"What were you doing up there, Red?" shouted Mom (who was now in her own body.)

"I was going to the bathroom. Chill out." said Sarah (also in the right body.)

"You've been going to the bathroom like 6 times a day!"

"Which is a perfectly reasonable amount of times to pee. What did you think I was doing?"

"I don't know! Whatever creepy redheads like you do when you have access to the high school crush's junk!"

"Honey, please calm down." said Dad. "She really was just using the bathroom. When we returned to normal, she was still using it. What was she going to do? She couldn't even pee standing up!"

"Hey! It's hard to aim, alright!" said Sarah.

"Yeah, that being said, I'm going to have to ask you to clean my bathroom. Ya know, since your aim is shoddy." said Grandma.

"I didn't miss! I only tried once and I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to pull it off twice!"

"Wow, you're a ditz." said Mom.

"Shut up, Flutterbitch, Sarah's not dumb. At least she's smart enough to know what she wants and has the guts to be open about it."

"Wait, what?" asked Sarah.

"You're gay, aren't you?"

"What? No! What makes you say that?"

"That hair."

"What? What's wrong with my ponytail?"

"No offense, but it does make you look sort of… Lezzy." said Dad.

"Not to mention the haircut you got last month. You looked like Pink!"

"I was trying a new look! And Pink is not a lesbian!" said Sarah.

"Um… I don't know if you noticed, but we've been standing here for a few minutes now." I said. They looked to us embarrassedly then started to applaud, except for Grandma of course.

"You guys did it!" said Dad. "Magnificent! Played it a little close to the chest, but otherwise did a bang-up job."

"What happened to your wing, Marceline?" asked Mom.

"Just like before, I was being stupid." answered Marceline. She walked over to Mom and hugged her tightly. "I'm sorry. I was too quick to judge you. I was being a terrible daughter and I deserve to be punished. As soon as I give Dad the guns, I'll wait in my room for you to get a good enough punishment."

"Huh?" asked Mom in confusion.

"Guns?" asked Dad. "As in, more than one?"

"Yeah. Two swords, too. We stole them from Discord. They're exact copies of Celestial and Lunar. Here, look." I said, handing him the sword. He inspected them, and decided that they were indeed identical.

"Holy cow! Another Celestial?" he said. "Well, since you might need a weapon, you guys can keep the extras."

"Really?" asked Marcy.

"Yeah, as soon as you're off of punishment, which likely won't be until you're thirty! You made your Mom very upset, you broke the law and deliberately disobeyed me, so I'm going to take your cellphone, your laptop, no visiting Storm, no shopping, no more allowance, you better not get below an A on your next report card, you're washing the dishes, taking out the trash, and cleaning Grandma's house for the next 3 months and-"

"You're not doing any of that, Marce." said Mom. "No punishment."

"But-"

"Butts are for sitting! I said last week that there would be no punishment, and I stick to my word. Kids, go home." said Mom, winking at Marceline.

"Fluttershy! You can't be serious! They need some sort of punishment!" said Dad.

"Maybe you should be the one punished. How about that, Christian?"

"What? You aren't my mom, Fluttershy, you can't ground me. And why am I suddenly Christian? I hate when you call me that."

"Well, Christian Michael Brookes, I don't think you understand. I'm in charge here." said Mom. Uh-oh. She busted out the full name. "I don't appreciate your backsass. I'm in my body now, so I don't have to worry about hurting myself. You want to talk back? Why don't you talk back to my fist?"

"Fluttershy… I… what?" sputtered Dad.

"Fluttershy? I don't like how little respect you're showing me, Christian Brookes."

"I'm sorry, ma'am." he said, backing away in fear. "I didn't mean any disrespect."

"I'm sure you didn't, but you need punishment nonetheless. Kids, go home. Now."

"Yes, ma'am!" said Marceline, rushing through the Rift. I followed close behind her, chuckling as my Dad cried out in panic.

"No! Kids, don't leave!" said Dad. "She's gonna… I don't even know yet, but whenever she pulls out the middle name, she's getting ready to open a can of whoop-ass!"

"Oh, Michael!" called Mom, very sing-songy, as we tripped through the other side. We landed in our bedroom, quite pleased with ourselves.

"That was hilarious!" laughed Marceline.

"Sure was! Why did Mom waive our punishment?" I asked.

"I told her what happened, and how sorry I was. She forgave me and told me that it would be fine."

"What do we do now?"

"We have to tell Storm about this!" she said.

"She'll never believe it!"

"That's why it'll make such a good story! Dude, we just beat Discord! I pistol-whipped the God of Chaos! We are legendary!"

"Let's see how long that lasts." I said, flying out the window. Marceline followed close behind me, and we headed for Sugar Cube Corner, where our best friend Storm lived. For a chaos-and-danger-filled week, that was pretty awesome.

"Spencer. You were pretty cool out there." said Marceline, landing in front of the sweetshop.

"So were you. Let's never have to go on an adventure like that again." I said.

"I know. That was horrible. But what are the odds that it'll happen again?" Our eyes met and we broke into laughter. The odds of this happening? Very slim. Which means that it would happen almost immediately after this. The luck of the Brookes family.