After a couple minutes on the floor, the pair jolted up suddenly. Shaking their heads, they turned to where their respective mares still sat in their pods, hooves against the hardened goo, eyes wide with worry. Groaning, Bait heaved himself up first, dragging his way across the tile, finally reaching the spot where Pinkie was still pressed against the translucent stuff after what felt like hours.

He collapsed against the pod. Breathing heavily, he slapped a hoof against it, allowing it to slide away from her form. Behind him, he heard Switch doing the same. Pinkie and Fluttershy immediately rocketed out of their prisons, darting to the stallions’ sides.

“Bait!” Pinkie gasped, while beside her Fluttershy took to helping Switch to his hooves. “Bait, are you okay!?”

“Never...” he gasped, let out his breath as white-hot agony screamed through his shoulder. “...better.”

“Okay...okay, good.” She sighed, watching him as he stood alone, albeit on shaking hooves.

He offered up a weak smile, barely believable as he winced from the constant pain. Warmth poured into him from her, and if there was ever any doubt about how the Element of Laughter felt about him, it melted away in an instant. “See?” He croaked, holding back tears. “I’m fine.”

“Okay, okay...” her breath came in relieved gasps, then she zipped up close and hugged him.

Bait’s eyes widened in surprise, then as he watched Fluttershy repeating the same motion with Switch, he relaxed, hooves sliding around Pinkie’s hips. He smiled contentedly as her warmth pressed into his chitin, eventually bringing him to the point where he felt comfortable turning to the side, thinking he might sneak a kiss against her cheek…

And then Pinkie jammed a hoof into his shoulder. “AARGH!” He screamed as he dropped, which was followed by Switch slamming to the ground beside him, a high-pitched squeal only dogs could hear emitting from his throat as his hooves cradled his groin. Fluttershy strode up to him, shoulder-to-shoulder with Pinkie now, sharing her angry glare.

The mares now towered over the stallions, looking down upon them like a couple of cockroaches skittering around their kitchen floor. “How could you!?” They demanded together.

“After everything in the nursery...” Fluttershy started.

“Everything in the bedroom...” Pinkie continued.

“After making it very clear we wanted to accept you in our hearts in any capacity!”

“After saving your miserable lives!”

“After protecting an entire classroom from a pair of thugs!”

“After giving you what you, yourself, proclaimed to be the best night of sex you’ve ever had!”

Together again, they shouted the final indignant question: “How could you even consider we’d do something so horrible!?”

Bait and Switch moaned as Pinkie picked up: “Attacking babies!? That’s like, Sombra levels of evil!”

“Is that what you think we are!?” Fluttershy gasped, her voice wavering on the verge of tears. “That we’d ever raise a hoof against a bunch of sweet little babies!?”

Both glared, both now peering through angry tears, though Fluttershy’s were more prominent. “Well!?” They shrieked. “What do you have to say for yourselves!?”

Bait and Switch gazed at each other. Despite the intense pain they were both in, they couldn’t help but give piteous looks. They’d screwed up. Big time.

“It’s not...ugh, we...” Bait sat up, holding up his hooves in defense in case Pinkie decided he hadn’t paid enough for his sins. “Look, in our defense, we were both suffering from smoke inhalation and head trauma! It’s not like you did us any favors there!”

“Oh, so this was all our fault!?” Pinkie spat.

“No, no, we...” Switch sat up now, and he heaved a sigh that rolled his massive shoulders up and down. “Look, it was pretty clear by that point you’d already betrayed us, and that alone hurt, is what I think Bait’s tryin’ to say.”

Bait nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, yeah, and we...we...kinda were willing to go along with any story that explained what just happened to us, no matter how stupidly out of character it was.”

“We were setup like a pair of rubes, and fell for it easily,” Switch sighed, his head bowing, his ears folding down.

“And...there’s nobody to blame for that except us,” Bait added, his gaze also sinking.

“At the end of the day, we were painted a stupidly bad picture, and we let our emotions get the best of us so we believed it.”

“And the two of you paid for that.”

Both stallions, keeping their muzzles aimed at the ground, gazed up at the mares. “We are so sorry.” Bait whimpered.

“And if there’s anything we can ever do to make up for what we did, we’ll do it,” Switch added, his lower lip quivering.

Both mares’ angry facades cracked at the sight. Two powerfully-built, well-trained stallions, reduced to shame-filled colts by their wrath. What else could they do?

“Well...” Pinkie sighed. “It was a pretty emotional time.”

“And you two were under a lot of stress.” Fluttershy added, the stallions’ eyes lifting in hope.

“And while that definitely doesn’t excuse everything,” Pinkie added, sending those hopes crashing down again.

“I guess we can kind of...find it in ourselves to...forgive you,” Fluttershy said with a nod.

The stallions’ eyes lit up and, together, they embraced the mares in quick hugs. Pinkie hummed in Bait’s grip for a second, then pressed his chest back.

“Hang on there,” she said. “Maybe by ‘forgiven,’ we should explain.”

“We’re willing to try to forgive you,” Fluttershy said. “It is still something we’re going to work on.”

“Right,” Pinkie nodded, but smiled at Bait with that little twinkle in those massive, baby-blue eyes that just drove him crazy. “We’re willin’ to work with ya, that’s all. You get a chance.”

“Right, right...” Bait said.

“Silly of us to just assume things would go right back,” Switch insisted. “If you girls need time, though, that’s alright with us.”

“T-take all the time you need!” Bait finished with a big, fakey smile.

“Thanks,” the mares said, and the group all paused for a second. For a long time, each stared at their respective partners. Fluttershy and Switch. Pinkie and Bait. Two pairs of equines, not changelings and ponies. Not even mares and stallions. Just two sets of equines who, suddenly, felt like they’d been waiting for one another their entire lives.

“Ahem?” Came a voice beside them.

All eyes turned to where Twilight Sparkle stood, flanked by the three remaining Element Bearers. Apparently, that one pod opening was all they’d needed to free themselves. The purple unicorn’s lips curled into a tight smile. “Did you need a moment?”

“Ummm...this um...” Switch said, even as Fluttershy took cover behind his wing. “This isn’t what it looks like!?”

“’The best night of sex you’ve ever had?’” Rainbow chuckled, shaking her head. “Oh yeah, that’s really vague. Pinkie coulda meant anything by that.”

Bait’s shell flushed that deep dark fuchsia as he stammered. “I...um...”

Pinkie suddenly butt in, pressing him to the side. “We had a condom!” She blurted.

All eyes went to her, jaws dropping. Rarity fanned herself. “Well,” she tittered. “This has been...revealing.”

“Regardless!” Bait gasped, rubbing his temple with a hoof. “Look, a lot’s happened in the past few weeks, but we really don’t have time to deal with it right now! We seriously need your help.”

“Oh yeah?” Applejack tilted her head, eyes narrowing. “Well alraght, but this better be good.”

“Dang, this is just too good!” Applejack gasped, stealing another look from around her rock.

“Freakin’…keep your head down!” Bait insisted, yanking her back behind cover. “Do you want them to see us!?”

Rainbow Dash snorted next to him, taking another peek into the chamber below them. The massive love-pool bubbled away as a set of Praetorians marched in a patrol around its shore, all set in the low, eerie glow of the large orb hanging low over it all. Another pair trotted right past the empty canisters the group was using for cover, forcing them all to duck down, only to poke right back up again as the larger stallions threw another canister into their pile and trotted away.

“I dunno,” Rainbow Dash said. “They don’t look so tough.”

“Oh, they don’t look so tough!?” Bait mocked. “I’ll have you know, Rainbow, that those guys are all Praetorians, and they make your average changeling soldier look like a jolly little romp through a patch of roses! They’re Chrysalis’s ultimate elite of the elite, we practically carve them from Badlands Rock!”

Rainbow Dash slid back down the canister, an eyebrow quirked. “How did you know my name?” She asked.

Bait blinked. “Holy crap, you mean Rainbow is actually your name!?”

“I’m more curious about these canisters,” Twilight said, looking over the pony-sized pod at her hooves. “What are they for?”

“I think I recognize ‘em,” Bait said. “I think they’re love-draining canisters; some wackjob doctor came up with ‘em years ago. It lets you suck the love straight out of a pony, no changeling feeding techniques needed.”

“Oh?” Twilight blinked at him in surprise. “Then why haven’t we seen them before?”

“They worked too well,” he snorted. “Great for a short-term gain, but not so much if you don’t want to end up turning your entire supply into a bunch of raisins.”

“Oh...” she shivered.

“Yeah, contrary to popular belief, we do have standards. Kinda hard to keep up a long-term feeding supply if you turn everypony you find into a loveless husk.”

“Charming,” Rarity said, her muzzle wrinkling. “But then, the question becomes why these ruffians are using them.”

“And why they need so many,” Pinkie put in. “They got the ones down at the lake filled up already, how come they got all these piled up here?”

“That’s what we were trying to figure out,” Switch said.

Suddenly, an alarm sounded. The group all ducked their heads, though Rainbow’s wings splayed out behind her body, as if readying for a fight. However, the Praetorians just dropped what they were doing and marched away, heading towards the exit. The last one to leave peered over the room, then reached to the switch set in the cavern wall near the exit, flicking it. With a loud clunk, the light faded, leaving just the glowing of the pool. A moment later, the changeling’s horn lit up, and the faintly-glowing rock floated down from its perch into his grasp. Nodding, the changeling tucked the rock into a saddlebag and turned, trotting out through the long cavern his brethren had left through.

A few minutes later, the ponies and their new changeling friends stepped out of hiding, looking over the empty canisters. “Everypony split up!” Twilight called. “Pick a pod and start freeing a pony! Also, keep an eye out for anything that can tell us what’s going on here!”

The group all set to their tasks, quickly flitting about the room, attacking pods and releasing ponies in quick succession. Pinkie let out a gasp as she opened her first pod, gagging. “Ugh, don’t these things handle deodorant!?"

“Wasn’t a priority when they were designed, Pinks,” Bait replied, stepping around her to drag the unconscious mare away from the pool’s edge. “Like I said, the guy who came up with ‘em was a total loon. And coming from me, that’s saying a looooAAAAHHH...”

The mare suddenly shifted in his grip, pulling him in to hug and nuzzle against him like he was a giant plushie. “Aww, c’mon!” He shouted as Pinkie giggled.

“Jeez, Baity,” she laughed. “Shouldn’t you at least get her name first?”

“This isn’t...” he sighed, but at the sound of her laugh, he could only chuckle as he pulled himself free.

“Oh boy, that was funny!” Pinkie snorted. “She thought you were a teddy!”

Deadpanning, he merely smirked. “At least I can laugh without snorting like that.”

She paused suddenly, gazing over at him, eyes shimmering. “Right, sorry...I know it’s an annoying habit...”

His ears folded back, eyes misting with concern. “No, no, that’s not what I--”

“So, how did this happen?” Rarity broke in as she trotted up.

“H-how did what happen?” Pinkie asked, her gaze drifting off to look at her friend.

“What we talked about in the dungeon?” She rolled her eyes. “Oh please, darling, if you two weren’t overt enough, Fluttershy and that other changeling would be plenty.” She scoffed, gesturing a hoof towards the pair across from them. As they watched, Fluttershy and Switch carefully eased a stallion out of one of the pods. Their hooves touched as they drew back to catch their breaths. They paused, looked at one another, ears on end, then both looked away as they flushed a deep red/fuscia.

“Ohhh, it’s just like in a Stephanie Mare novel!” Rarity cooed. “Without the outdated notions about a mare’s virginity being some sacred special thing, of course.”

Still blushing, the pair stammered, trying to put their thoughts into words even as they circled around to free the next pony. “Well, it’s kinda...” Pinkie started.

“She…umm...” he added.

“He, well...”

“Ummm...”

“Y’see...”

“Her laugh is absolutely adorable.” Bait said suddenly.

Both mares paused, turning to him. “Wh-what?” Pinkie asked.

Bait bit his lip, then the words came in a sudden rush: “It has this little snort in it that lets you know she’s really and actually laughing and it’s so genuine and every time she uses it I feel like laughing too and there’s no one else that has ever done that for me.”

Both mares blushing, Pinkie just grinned, letting out a quick giggle. “Eeheee...thanks,” she whispered.

“N-no problem.”

“When you guys’re done making goo-goo eyes at each other,” Rainbow Dash called from above. “I think you’ll wanna see this!” All eyes left the pods circling the pool to where Rainbow hovered over their heads. She flapped every once in a while to remain level with the large pylon hanging over the center of the pool.

“What do you see, Rainbow!?” Twilight called up to her.

“Uhhh...it’s kinda hard to describe! Cantcha just teleport up here with me?”

“I’d need a platform to keep from falling!” Twilight called back.

“Oh, that’s no problem,” Switch butt in, and before Twilight could ask what he was talking about, he bent down and barfed a long, sticky pile of green gunk on her hooves. She shivered, lips going tight as he straightened up and smiled at her. “There! Now you’ll stick!”

“Oh, you’re so helpful, Switch!” Fluttershy cooed.

“Yes...thank you...” Twilight said between failed attempts at suppressing gags. “R-Rainbow? I’m coming.”

“Alright!”

In a flash, Twilight teleported right up to the spire, materializing in front of Rainbow. The pegasus blinked, gazing down at Twi’s hooves. “Aww jeez Twi, what’s all--”

“Don’t,” Twilight spat, even as she applied her hooves and, as advertised, stuck fast. “Don’t talk about it. The less you acknowledge it, the better.”

“O-kay,” Rainbow said cautiously, even as Twilight’s eyes wandered over the spire.

“Hmmm...there are a lot of runes here,” she mused, running a hoof over the slight carvings. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say these were Zebrican runes used to enable the channeling of energy.”

“Yeah?” Rainbow shrugged. “Alright, channel what? And where?”

“Well, these are only guesses,” Twilight mused, “But I think we can assume love energy, given we have a big reservoir of it just down there,” she pointed to the pool still bubbling away beneath them. “And as for where, those changelings took a big, glowing rock from here before they left, remember?”

“Alright,” Rainbow grabbed Twilight around the barrel and hovered with her up along the spire’s length. “So, they grabbed a big ol’ rock packed full of love and went…to Chrysalis with it? To help feed her?”

Twilight frowned. “I doubt it’s that simple. Remember how the rock glowed when they took it? It sort of looked like the Crystal Heart…” she ran a hoof along the spire’s markings. “And then there are these runes along here. These don’t look like channeling marks, they look more like--”

Suddenly, a red spark arced from the spire, flitting against her hoof. Yelping, Twilight drew her hoof back, then looked back up along the spire, her ears folding back. “Like curse marks.” She breathed.

“Wait,” Rainbow hovered with her back down towards the pool’s edge. “A curse? Why the hay would they want that along with all the love?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight said thoughtfully. After a moment, Rainbow hovered back to the group, shaking her head even as the changelings gaped at her. “It doesn’t make any sense…”

“It does,” Switch said, his eyes wide, as if he couldn’t believe what was going through his own mind. “It does if you wanna poison a changeling.”

They all gaped at him. “That…would make sense…” Twilight said, her eyebrows rising up to her hairline. “But…who?”

“Chrysalis.” Bait said plainly, his eyes still ridiculously massive, as if it’d just been revealed to him that his life was little more than a sideplot in a cartoon for little girls.

“What!? That there’s crazy!” Applejack scoffed. “How th’hay can y’know that!?”

“Don’t you get it!?” Bait gasped. “That glow when we first came in looked like the Crystal Heart! They made a dummy replica of the Crystal Heart, charged it with love, then cursed it!”

“That’s insane!” Twilight insisted. “Besides, Chrysalis is a powerful Queen! To kill her would take a lot more than a normal spell, you’d need—“

She trailed off rather suddenly. Eyes widening, she gazed down at the pool. Watching her, confused, Bait waved a hoof in front of her face. “Umm…Equiis to book pony, are y’there?” He asked.

She shook her head, jaw dropping. “Y-you’d need…”

Arching an eyebrow, Switch followed her gaze, out over the pool. He squinted, trying to focus on what she was looking at. A dark shape hung in the pool, a little blob that swayed with gentle currents around it. Then, some small eddy caught it just right, and one part of it emerged from the pool.

A black, hole-filled hoof poked just out into the air, then gently sank back down.

“--a sacrifice,” Twilight finally finished. Her eyes widened as she gazed at a few other dark outlines traced in the pool. “Maybe even…more than one...”

The reaction was instant. The mares all let out high-pitched shrieks, Pinkie and Fluttershy diving into the stallions’ hooves as they screamed, Bait and Switch barely even noticing, staring gape-mouthed into the green, glowing stuff.

“I touched it!” Rarity shrieked, holding up a hoof and waving it around as if a plague-infected rat were clinging to it. “I touched it!

“Oh sick, man!” Bait screamed. “Oh, sick!”

“What the hell!?” His partner put in his own, profound words of wisdom. “What the hell!? What the hell!? What the hell!?”

All of this done with the soothing tones of six mares screaming their heads off, all pointing down into the pool’s green depths. Eventually, ever the leader, Twilight had to take charge. “Everypony! Everypony! Yes, this is gross, but freaking out won’t help anyone!”

That actually got most to calm down, except Pinkie, who gave one final screech that almost set Bait off again before they settled. Bait, for his part, had somehow found another bottle of olive oil, and was busy guzzling it with Switch, but the pair calmed with the others. With everyone sharing in rhythmic breaths, Twilight turned to the stallions.

“When is Chrysalis meant to partake in the Crystal Heart’s energy?” She asked, voice calm, if a bit shaky at the edges.

“That’s…tonight, when it’s fully charged,” Bait’s eyes widened, not even occurring to him to ask how she knew about it. “Enough love energy for a thousand years, she’d said. She was gonna establish a connection with it and take it back with us, let her keep it hostage while being able to eat from the Crystal Empire’s love anytime we wanted.”

Twilight blinked in surprise. “Holy sweet Celestia, that’s brilliant!”

“Right!?”

Pinkie cleared her throat.

“Oh, right…but we have to stop her!” Twilight said, looking around in desperation.

“Ummm, sure Twi, you sure about that?” Rainbow spoke up. The changelings glared at her as she rolled her eyes. “We were fighting Chrysalis all this time, why should we stick our necks out to save her?”

An awkward look went around the group, and Bait was about to speak his outrage when Pinkie spoke up: “’Cause we’re the good guys, Dashie!” She exclaimed. “That’s what we do!”

“No matter what, we can’t sit around and do nothing if someone is trying to k-kill them!” Fluttershy stammered.

“Besides,” Twilight gestured to the pods with a light shiver. “That is the alternative over there.”

Bait and Switch gazed at their respective mares in awe as Rainbow snorted. “Aight, fine, that’s all well and good, but how do we do this?” She pointed out. “You really think the Queen is gonna listen to us? We’re a buncha foalkillers, remember?” At this last bit, she glared at the changelings, who at least had the decency to cringe under her violet gaze.

“Well, you do have us!” Switch pointed out, thrusting out his chest proudly.

“Which is more likely to get you killed than anything,” Bait said dryly. “We had to fight for our lives all through the dungeons, and now that we’ve escaped, the Praetorians are gonna have Chrysalis on lockdown. They’re gonna do everything in their power to make sure we can’t get within a mile of her.”

“Oh yeah…” Switch’s wings fluttered. “Almost forgot about the elite cadre of guards trying to kill us…”

“We can fight,” Twilight said, hoof going to her chin. “But we need something to even the odds…” Suddenly, she bolted up with a snap of her hoof. “I got it!”

“How did you just snap like that without fingers?”

“Luna!” Twilight beamed. “She can help us!”

At the mere mention of the night princess’s name, the changelings shivered, rumors of her terrifying strength and ability against her guards, even restrained, bouncing around in their heads courtesy of the luckless colts that had to work around her.

“Yeah, if she just needs to crack some skulls,” Switch swallowed. “I think she’s a good bet.”

“Only problem is getting to her,” Bait pointed out. “The dungeons are gonna be locked down too: they already know Switch and I escaped, and they know we know too much!”

“But we know they know we know too much!” Pinkie said stoically, slamming one hoof in the other for emphasis. “And that’s an advantage we’ve got!”

“Unless they know we know they know we know too much,” Bait said, rising to her prompting. “The only real question is, do we know if they know we know they know we know too much?”

“…I don’t know…” she growled.

“Holy cow,” Rainbow said, shaking her head as her gaze darted between the strange pair. “There’s two of ‘em now. Pinkie’s contagious.”

“Celestia help us all.” Rarity intoned.

“The point is,” Switch said. “Just getting to Luna will require some firepower.”

Once again, Pinkie struck her thoughtful pose. “Darn, I wish I had my Party Mech,” she grumbled. “If there was anything left of that, I might be able to fix something up.”

As the mares all gaped at her, drinking in the fact that their friend could build a mech out of kitchen supplies, Bait and Switch’s eyes widened with realization.

“Actually,” Bait said, eyes looking around for a passage that might lead in the same direction as the kitchen. “We might be able to help there.”

Author's Notes:

Nearing the end now! I actually got a shitload of prewriting done, so hopefully the delay between chapters will be much less now!