“I can’t believe you saved it!” Pinkie beamed, jumping around the kitchen in celebration.

Bait blushed, not even able to look up while the mares worked with Switch to haul the massive machine’s splintered remains out of the pantry. “I…didn’t want to. I wanted to destroy it after…you know, but…”

“But it reminded you of me too much?” She asked, leaning forward with a massive smile on her face.

Instead of answering, Bait bent down and buried his face in his hooves, which was as good as an answer.

Pinkie giggled, giving his flank a powerful swat before pulling him into a massive hug. “All is forgiven.”

“Wait, really!?”

“Well...I might whip it out every now and again to use against you in fights,” she giggled, nuzzling his cheek.

He blushed, and gaped at her. “Wh-when would that be?”

“I...” she paused, then her pink cheeks flushed as she realized what she’d just implied. Future arguments meant they would still be together to have those arguments. Couple’s arguments. “I...”

“If you two are quite finished,” Rarity said, patting the side of the robot’s hull. “I do believe we could use a keen eye to look this thing over.”

Nodding, and still blushing, Pinkie dashed to the machine, sliding into the cockpit. Switch, also still blushing, slouched as Bait approached him with a massive, smug grin on his face.

“She has you so, so wrapped around her little hoofie.” He giggled.

“Knock it offff…” Bait muttered.

“I mean, most stallions at least wait a month or two before letting them hit this part, you though?” Switch shook his head. “Whole-hoofed into licking her little pink hoovesies.”

“I said knock it...” Bait started, but when he turned to spit it right into Switch’s face, he paused, and finally, let out a smug grin of his own. “Say, where’d you get that formula?”

Switch balked, then finally remembered the basket in his hoof, filled to the brim with bottles. “F-Fluttershy wanted me to carry them...” he stammered, looking away as he realized he probably should have hid the bottles before coming over to give Bait shit about his budding relationship. “I-in case we have...the chance to...go back to the nursery...”

For a few minutes, Bait just sat there, wearing Switch’s formerly-smug smile, then he finally leaned over and whispered in his partner’s ear: “Wha-pisssshhhhhh.”

“Welp, most of the controls are fried!” Pinkie shouted from inside the bot, distracting the changelings.

“Can you salvage it, Pinkie!?” Bait shouted, standing up to approach.

Pinkie pulled herself out of the bot, sighing as she wiped a smoky, pink tendril of hair covered in sweat and grease from her forehead. “I could, but any control I’d have over the legs would be tenuous from my seat. Most of the drivetrain’s shot: I can rebuild it, but the controls are gonna hafta be crazy complicated to keep up with it.”

“Why not just rebuild it like y’had it?” Applejack asked.

“I could...if I had a full machine shop and another couple days to prepare, or a solid week with what we have here. If we need to save bug-queen tonight,” she sighed and shook her head. “I’m gonna get a real workout in this thing.”

“What if someone else pilots the legs?” Bait asked.

Pinkie perked, looked back at him, and then, her smile started to widen at the same time that his did. “That could work.” She giggled.

Bait tried to remain focused. He really did. He was a professional soldier, for goodness sake. A few distractions couldn’t possibly be enough to keep him from working at full, optimized capacity.

Problem was, he was dealing with a little more than a few distractions.

“Three degrees starboard, Baity!” Pinkie shouted from above, her blue eyes flickering in the little slat serving as a viewport.

“Aye aye!” He shouted from beneath her. As in, right beneath her. In fact, his flanks were maybe inches from her waist. Apparently, the only way for two ponies to pilot the robot with its current setup was to go doggie-style. Not that he should’ve minded, he’d apparently been even closer with the pink party mare on at least one occasion, but trying to keep your mind on battle strategy when your possible-sorta-probably-marefriend was hovering literal inches away from your waist was proving impossible.

Welp, at least he didn’t have much to see. The darkness of the leg drives was darn near impenetrable, even with his changeling night vision.

“Baity!” Pinkie shouted, switching up her tone once more. “Couldja get us going a little to the left now?”

He chuckled. He’d already tried telling her to stick to official callsigns and directions, but apparently that wasn’t a battle he was going to win. “Sure, Pinkie,” he shrugged, working his flanks with deep gratitude for every squat he ever did.

“A little to the left now, please.”

He quirked a bit of the ridge over his eye, but positioned the robot a little more left.

“That’s it, a little more...ohhhh yeaaaahhhhh...”

Bolting up, he looked over his shoulder to find Pinkie’s gaze was nowhere near the slat, but rather, had focused on his little, black, flank, now tensed to the side by the way his body had contorted.

“Pinkie!” He shouted. “The assault!”

“Oh, right!” She gasped, snapping her gaze back to the slat and wiping a little drool from her chin. “Ten degrees starboard, Baity!”

“Aye, aye!” He shouted back, blushing and biting his lip as the image of that dreamy, deeply-horny look on her face as she ogled his contorting frame filled his head and crowded out most everything else. At least he didn’t have to worry about the fluorescent green blush being too obvious.

Suddenly, the temperature inside the robot dropped. As if fun was a physical gas in the atmosphere, the tiny space somehow felt more serious than it had just a second before. “Coming up on a Praying Mantorian patrol, Baity.”

He chuckled, not wanting to correct her. “Remember the taps Pinkie, one on each shoulder for a degree, a squeeze for a little more.”

There was a squeeze. He gasped. The robot jerked under his hooves. The green blush now covered his neck. “My shoulders, Pinkie, squeeze my shoulders.”

“Oh, right,” she giggled, though it was a little less enthusiastic than it might have been. He let out a quivering breath. Even here, with this exotic and beautiful mare, in a situation he never could have dreamed of finding himself in mere months ago, the air had that familiar taste of coming battle. He let out a breath. Way too much was riding on this being successful for him to properly relax, but hey, Pinkie had been in plenty of situations like this before! There was nothing to worry about!

Right?

“Hey, man.”

The Praetorian bolted upright. Up until that moment, he’d been happy to guard the little patch of ground immediately in front of him with his life, eyes fixed forward as he slipped into the trance-like state most sentries found themselves in when forced to guard a location for hours on end. Now, however, he’d found himself rudely snapped back to reality not by an enemy attack, but by his fellow sentry.

He cleared his throat and resumed his usual relaxed position, which still kept his head high and his back ramrod-straight. “We are not supposed to talk on duty and you know it.”

“Yeah, I know, but this is important, I promise.”

“Is it about a possible threat to the High-General and his plans?”

“I mean, not really...”

“Then it can wait for us to be on break.”

A few long moments of blessed silence passed, but as the Praetorian was about to slip back into full-sentry mode, he was interrupted again: “I promise, it’ll only take a second.”

He let a long breath out through his nostrils. “Goddammit...fine, what is it?”

“It’s just...are we the bad guys here?”

The Praetorian frowned. “The hell do you mean by that?”

“I mean...we have a secret underground lair, like villains in a bad secret spy movie.”

“Dude, all changelings live in a secret underground lair.”

“No, we live in a hive with underground chambers. Most of it’s above ground: pretty conspicuously so, in fact. Hell, it’s like, the only thing you can see for miles in the Badlands.”

The chitin above the Praetorian’s eyes furrowed. “Alright, fine, lots of goody-goody movements have had to start in secrecy, though.”

“That’s another thing: everyone uses terms like ‘goody-goody’ or ‘goody-two-shoes’, like we’re mocking the very concept of goodness itself. That’s pretty evil to me.”

“We’re just making fun of the rainbows and bullcrap that ponies use when they’re fighting us!” The Praetorian snorted.

“And again: rainbows? Love? Friendship? Those seem like pretty good concepts to me, as if the other guys are definitely on the side of good.”

“They’re concepts to weaken themselves. Which is why we’ll overcome them and the traitorous queen.” The Praetorian growled. “Now, you just about done with this traitor-talk?”

“Just one more thing...” the Praetorian straightened up even further, as suddenly his fellow sentry’s voice had dropped a couple octaves. “If we’re not evil, then how come the goons on our side are so easily fooled by a group of precocious young mares and their sexy stallion tagalongs?”

The Praetorian started to react, began to spin towards his fellow sentry, but paused. The other changeling had, rather suddenly, gained two feet and a significant amount of muscle over him. Despite seeing this with his own eyes, he couldn’t help but squeak out the name of the changeling he’d been expecting: “A-Antennae?”

“Oh, Antennae is still unconscious and tied-up where I left him.” The big changeling grinned. “I’m Switch, and I’ll be your ass-kicker for today.”

And with little more flourish, the larger changeling’s hoof slammed into the Praetorian’s face.

Switch stood there, surprised at how easy the Praetorian had gone down.

“Huh...maybe I should be the bait sometimes, that was pretty easy.”

“It certainly would make for a nice change of pace!” His partner shouted from inside the giant wooden machine now ambling around the corner.

Switch just grinned and ducked out of the way. “Bait, my friend, if you and your lovely assistant would be so kind...” he offered, motioning with his hooves towards the cell door.

“Assistant!?” Pinkie’s voice fumed from the machine. “Who do you think is on top in here!?”

A moment of silence followed.

“Ya couldn’t have worded that differently, Pinkie?” Bait sighed.

“Nope,” she giggled as she turned the Party Cannon Mk. II’s massive blaster on the door and blew it wide open.

Immediately, a cacophony of voices roared from inside: “Hey, what was that!?”

“Let us out, you ugly damn bugs!”

“I like all my love where it’s at!”

“I peed a little.”

“Hello, boys!” Dash enthused, swooping around the corner with the rest of the mares to gallop down the middle of the cells. The imprisoned stallions and resistance members all gaped at her as if she were a rainbow-colored horse with wings or something. Without further ado, she plucked the keys off a ring along the far wall and began unlocking cell doors, to the cheers of the prisoners inside. Within minutes, she had almost every cell unlocked and was ushering cheering stallions to the waiting door, grinning as a cascade of champagne erupted from the bartender in the crowd. Every pony let out cheerful whoops and hollers.

All but one.

The final cell remained in the deepest, darkest corner of the block. The mare inside sat in one corner, facing away from them. Her horn gave a slight spark as Dash approached, struggling against the goop coating it. Dash bit her lip and looked down at the key ring, the cheer from just a moment ago forgotten as she stared into Petalgrown’s cell. Only to be surprised by a yellow hoof stopping her.

Fluttershy shook her head. “Wait.” She whispered.

At the sound of her voice, Petalgrown’s ear perked. “Oh great, the little wallflower who just had to go back for a bunch of bugs.”

Rainbow looked confused for only an instant, then her gaze narrowed. “No way...Petalgrown, you started the...”

Fluttershy stopped her again, holding a hoof to her chest. Rainbow stopped and listened, teeth gritting but giving her friend the opening she needed to talk. “I know we don’t have much time, but I need to say something,” she whispered, a rare bit of steel entering her voice.

Rainbow Dash blinked, but eventually nodded, keeping a glare on Petalgrown the entire way out the door.

The bound unicorn smirked. She still hadn’t turned around. “Let me guess, you’re here to chastise me, tell me how awful I was for wanting a few of those monsters dead.”

Even though she knew Petalgrown wouldn’t see it, Fluttershy shook her head. “I-I’m not here for that. I’m not good at chastising anyone, e-even my own pets. Just ask A-Angel. I-I let him walk all over me.”

Petals said nothing, but in her little corner of the cell, her frown deepened.

“I-I just wanted you to know that...I forgive you. For what you did.” Fluttershy paused, taking a deep breath. “I’m not gonna let you out, because I-I still think you need to answer for it, but I personally forgive you.”

Silence reigned in the cell, and for a moment Fluttershy figured she’d been tuned out and started to turn away, back to her friends. Then, Petal’s voice returned: “Is that all?”

Fluttershy turned back to her. “N-no, I also want you to know that hate drives others away. Not just ch-changelings. E-even if you find Sprinkleshine a-again, do you think you’re the same mare she knew b-before?”

At that, Petalgrown finally turned around, her eyes wide and bloodshot, her full and unkempt mane now fully displayed, her cheeks still bearing dirt and grime from the escape tunnel. “Are you out of your mind!?” She shrieked. “Of course I am! I’m not a damn bug! That’s the whole reason I’m here! I’m still the same mare!”

Fluttershy quirked an eyebrow. “Really? B-because I don’t know if the mare Sprinkleshine knew would set fire to a bunch of children.”

Petalgrown’s nostrils flared. Her teeth gritted. But despite it all, a tear rolled through the grime on one cheek and she turned away. Fluttershy sighed, stood, and trotted back out the door, gently closing it behind her, shutting off the first quiet sniffles that filled the cells.

The ponies and changelings outside all stared at her in shock. “Fluttershy...” Twilight said. “That was...um…

“Freakin’ awesome!” Dash enthused, dipping out of the crowd to pump a hoof in the air. “Like a scene from a movie! You were so cool!”

Fluttershy’s cheeks flushed as she covered a smile with her mane. “I-I just said some things that needed to be said, that’s all.”

“You’re...strong.”

All eyes turned to Switch as he stepped up from the back of the group, closing the distance between himself and Flutters. She just blinked up at him, jaw falling open. “Wh-what?”

“I...always knew you were kind and wonderful, but...I underestimated how strong you were.” He continued, still walking, casually brushing stallions aside as if they weren’t there to stand right in front of her. “I’m uh...sorry, I won’t let that happen again.”

Her entire face and neck turning red, Fluttershy smiled into her wings. “Th-thank you.” She squeaked as the twelve-foot tall wooden robot behind her began playing “Kiss from a Rose” on a kazoo.

Twilight cleared her throat. “I’m sorry to interrupt...”

“...no you’re not purple-lonely...” Pinkie chimed quietly from her robot.

“...but we really do need your guys’ help, if only to find where Princess Luna is being held.”

At that, the stallions all paused and turned to her, brows knit in confusion. “What? She’s right over there.” Stu said, pointing over Twilight’s shoulder.

Twilight blinked again, then turned around, gazing up at the massive, wrought-iron portcullis set in the wall right next to the door to the stallions’ cell block.

In her defense, it had been a somewhat trying day.

“Wha...but we had to fight across the entire dungeon to make it here!” She gasped. “We were kept as far from Luna as possible to minimize the threat we posed! We had to fight no less than a half-dozen minotaurs left from the days of Sombra! We had to sneak by half the patrols in the Praetorians’ ranks just to reach Pinkie’s robot! We took eight wrong turns that cost us hours! We were down here so long I’m pretty sure my eyes have gone numb to crystal shimmer! And they stored you guys in her cell’s broom closet!?”

One of the stallions, the barkeep, shrugged and held up a strawberry daiquiri. “You clearly overestimate the threat we pose and underestimate yours.”

“And just what’s that supposed to mean!?” One of the stallions huffed from the gates of the portcullis. “We’re perfectly capable of holding our own!”

The barkeep sighed. “Stu, why’re you over by the portcullis?”

The stallion said nothing, instead continuing to stand with his flanks facing the group.

“Stu, is your head stuck?”

“...maybe.”

With a grimace and a huff, Twilight took the drink and sipped at it evenly, glaring all the while a the door.

“Ummm...” Applejack started, watching her friend gulp the booze down.

“Don’t worry, it’s a virgin,” the barkeep whispered to her, earning a smile and a nod.

Twilight sighed, tossed the drink over her shoulder, and started towards the portcullis. After magically extracting Stu, she set about opening the massive gate, sending it up in the little stone slats that held it in place. That done, she marched forward, deeper into the crystalline labyrinth.

“Tia? Are you there?”

No response. Just as it had been for the past few hours. Whatever added security Chrysalis had thrown on top of Luna’s already-existing bonds, it cut her off from even the dream plane. She sighed, opening her eyes again.

Curses upon curses! How had this happened!? She’d been so close, so close to finally earning the changeling’s trust, then some botched attempt at...something had ruined it all! Of all the timing, all the rotten luck! Another few minutes and she could have been close enough to Chrysalis to hold her hostage! She could have held her to her body with sheer strength and kept every other changeling at bay! She could have pressed Chrysalis to her body, hooves holding her tight, lips exploring the chitin…

She blinked, shook her head. Ugh, whatever magic was being used on her here was definitely muddling her thought process. No time to think about that now, she had her ponies to save, a sister to contact, tears to ignore! She just had to...had to…

…

What?

Just as she started pondering that question, a rip appeared in her pod. A loud thud sounded, and a gigantic wooden claw pierced her containment’s wall. She gasped, darting back amidst the ooze, eyes wide at the mechanical monstrocity that had so rudely intruded on her reverie. Luna held up a hoof, surprise turning to righteous indignation. “Villains!” She cried. “Thee returneth to paunch me in mine own catch but a wink? Cowards! Yellow-bellies! Square me on coequal terms! Thou low-level scum! Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hogs! Thou pile of poisonous bunch-backed toads! Thou...”

“Oh thank goodness,” a familiar high-pitched voice gasped, followed by an equally-familiar splotch of pink. “Girls! We found her!”

The pink was followed by an equally-familiar set of colors, just barely visible through the ooze and the translucent walls remaining in her prison. Just as Luna realized what this was, the claw jerked back, and she dribbled out of her pod feeling like a large turd being flushed down the toilet. Grimacing at the thought, and trying not to think about where her “princessly business” might actually have been going, she came up sputtering, lungs gasping down air as her sight adjusted to the light.

The pink splotch finally hardened into a pink mare, grinning down at her with a set of blue, sparkling eyes she never thought she’d be so glad to see. “Yep, it’s her!” Pinkie shouted. “And just in the nick of time, too! I’m sure she was almost out of lines from that top ten Shakespearean insults list!”

“Princess!” Twilight gasped, dashing into the night ruler’s grasp. “Thank goodness you’re okay!”

Luna took a few moments between gasps of sweet, sweet breath to smile and pat her on the shoulder. “Aye, and you, young Sparkle.” She chuckled. “We heard you’d begun some form of resistance movement on the outside, most excellent.”

“Aheh, yeah, well,” Twilight blushed. “I had my friends and some good stallions to help with that.”

“Aye, but still, courage should be commended wherever possible.” Luna hugged Twilight again, looking up with a smile to the gathering of mares and stallions before her. “That goes for all of you. Everypony here should be sung about for generations, thanks to their courage, determination, loyalty, and...”

Her eyes widened. The crowd didn’t just consist of her little ponies. Rather, it had something of a bug problem as well. Two rather large bug problems, to be exact.

“...AND FRIG!” Luna screamed, diving over the crowd towards them.

“And frig? Huh, Bait, you think Equestrians get honors for that?” The big one asked the little one.

“If they do, then the rumors were right. The Equestrians definitely have it better than--” was all he managed to get out before the night-blue blur sailed right past him, clocking the larger changeling in the jaw with a flying kick. The smaller gaped, then brightened. “I wasn’t hit first that ti--” he started before he too was laid out with a roundhouse punch.

“Villains! Curs! Scuzzle-bottomed fiends! Thy--”

“Luna, wait!” Twilight stepped between her and the changelings, now laying on the ground, probably trying to figure out if they were still alive. “They’re friends, they helped us get out!”

“Friends!?” Luna snarled, looking over Twilight’s shoulder. She huffed in a breath through clenched teeth, then let it out. “Friends, you say?”

“Er...yes, that’s right.” Twilight said. “I-in fact, to some of us, they might be...a little more.”

Luna’s brow rose in surprise, though not as much as it did when the Elements of Laughter and Kindness broke away from the crowd to tend to the changeling’s wounds, tenderly helping them up to a sitting position Fluttershy even added a gentle kiss to the larger one’s forehead for good measure. “Oh! Well then...okay.”

“Please, I know it’s hard to understand, we just started processing it ourselves, but—what?”

“I said okay,” Luna shrugged, gazing out over the rest of the crowd. “I know plenty of ponies think me an old-fashioned mare, but I have been quick to adapt to the customs of the new age. Love is love, is it not?”

“I mean...sure, but...you know what? Nevermind, we don’t have time to dissect this.” Twilight’s eyes drifted to the Princess, then up to her horn.

Luna sighed, a hoof gliding up along her horn and meeting with the sticky green stuff encasing it, cutting her from her magic. “Curses, just when we thought it was going to be easy.”

“I could try to get it off...” Twilight said, stepping up with her horn already igniting.

“No need to bother, Chrysalis herself applied that.” Luna said, raising a hoof. “We doubt very much anyone but her or my sister could remove it.”

Twilight sighed, stepping back down. “That...complicates things.”

Luna tilted her head. “Perhaps it will make an escape more complex, but surely no more than any conflict you’ve tangled with before, right?”

“Actually...” Twilight bit her lip. “First, we need to stop a bad guy...and I mean it, a really bad guy! He’s kidnapped ponies and forced them into these awful pods! A-and he’s killed! Changelings and ponies! It doesn’t matter to him he’s...oh, he’s so evil!” She gasped, hooves rising to the side of her head in a melodramatic expression of just how totes-for-realz-evil this villain was.

“Mmh...” Luna shrugged, cracking her neck casually and working a foreleg in its joint. “Facing a villain is not anything we would be unfamiliar with, young Sparkle. We know we were late to the Royal Wedding, but it was in this very place where we faced down a rather nasty villain a few millenia ago, lest that hath escaped thine memory?”

“Yes, well...the thing is...” Twilight now bit her lip so hard it was a testament to her brand of chapstick that it hadn’t cracked and sprouted blood down her chin. “To do this, we have to help Chrysalis.”

Luna paused in the middle of preening a wing, muzzle poked into a gap between strands of restraining goop. “What was that?”

Twilight hesitated for half a second, then realized it would be best to get this over with as quickly as possible, like ripping off a bandage. “We’re fighting against a coup attempt within the changeling’s own ranks. I-I know fighting for the sake of someone like Chrysalis is a big ask, but if we don’t, a much greater evil will seize control and--”

“Where?”

Twilight blinked. The night princess had, in a flash, ducked her head low, glaring back at her with eyes that burned with righteous fury, determination, and...protective instinct? “Wh-what?”

“Point me in a direction,” Luna snorted. “And try to keep up.”

Surprised and more than a little intimidated, Twilight raised a shaking hoof to point back out the cavern. “Th-there’s enemy patrols all over the place between here and there…” she muttered.

“Nothing we hath not tangled with before.” Luna stretched her wings as far as their binds would allow, facing down the crystalline cavern Twilight had appeared from. “Worry not, young Sparkle, though we may be cut off from our magic, we are no slouch when it comes to physical combat. You still have my strength!”

“And my sword!” A stallion called from the crowd.

“And my wings!” Dash shouted, swooping up to the top of the cavern in a flash.

“AND MY GIANT FRICKIN’ ROBOT!” Pinkie shouted, knocking everypony off-balance as the Party Cannon Mk.II leapt into action beside the others.

Luna dodged to the side, cleared her throat, and nodded. “Yes…all these and more...” she intoned, facing down the cavern. “Come then, my little ponies. ‘Tis just about time for us to get moving.”

As they started moving in one long column headed out of the dungeons, Luna tried to think of her sister. Tried to imagine she was returning to her fellow Alicorn, that she was fighting to gain back what was taken from her. Yet still, no matter how hard she fought it, she could not help one little phrase that kept popping up to drive her hooves forward:

I’m coming, Chryssie...

Author's Notes:

Wow, two updates in the same month, huh?

Yep, I guess there are a few things to be said for this quarantine...hopefully we'll be able to breeze through the end.