The changeling that suplanted Big McIntosh (whose real name was Rob) woke up on the edge of the Everfree Forest, confused and with a few bugs crawnling out of his mouth. He spit them and looked around, trying to remember how he got here.

"What was I doing? Oh yeah, I was taking that country pony back to the nest when uh..." The memories were painful to recall. Changeling soldiers by definition didn´t liked to think too much but the effect of the green mist that hit him made everything even more difficult. "Guess I lost her. Well, is not my problem really...that other changeling, the one who disguised as the chatterbox, that´s the one who should worry. I´m going back to town...getting a little hungry. Since this fella is considered good looking," he said, wondering why when he saw his reflection. "I could steal some smoochies from a few mares, hehe."

Pretty confident with himself, Rob the changeling, returned to Ponyville, humming a little song to himself.

"Oh..."

Said reaction came from seeing the town in a full-on war, with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Mayor Mare, leading everypony they could get to chase the changelings out.

"Don´t fall back, ponies! We will recover our town!" Mayor Mare yelled, holding her broom like it was a flaming sword.

"On the other hoof...those woods are kinda cozy, eeeyup, gonna go back there..."

******

The Mane Six have already faced Chrysallis in a couple of ocassions so they were familiar with the Changelign Queen lookign like a monster. That didn´t stop them from shaking a little, seeing as theyw ere surrounded by changelings who have infiltrated all of Canterlot and now there it was their very angry queen.

The boys in the other hand were a lot more vocal about it...

"We´re doomed! Doomed!" Elusive shouted.

"Boy, that´s a lot of tied knots we got ourselves into..." Applejack said.

"Crap," Rainbow Blitz said.

Butterscotch simply fainted.  

"TELL ME, WHERE IS THAT TWO-FACED CHEATING STILL A BIT HANDSOME KING?!"

As in queu, all the changelings that were loyal to her pointed upwards and Chrysallis rushed to the ceiling, shouting Cocoon´s name again.

"What are you doing, you idiots?" the changeling that used to be Gleaming Shield shouted. "Stop her!"

"Changelings, our queen needs us!" Fluttershy, well, the changeling that have been impersonating her, shouted.

The changelings started fighting one another, just adding more and more layers to the confusion.

"Okay okay, can somepony explain what´s going on?" Rainbow Dash shouted.

"Applejack, you did it!" Dusk Shine shouted and rushed to hug the mare dressed as the Mysterious Mare-do-Well.

"We simply gained more time, Rainbow. I mean, Rainbow Dash. The changelings are recovering very fast from the mist," Twilight Sparkle explained, adressing the masked colt. "We can´t rely on them fighting for too long. We need to hurry to the throne room and woke up Princess Celestia."

"Hold on, Twi. You´re not really explaining anything. Like, how did the changeling queen got here?"

"I bring her ´ere."

They turned around to find Applejack, coming out of the green mist, with a few bruises and a torn hat but otherwise just fine.

"Applejack!"

Dusk Shine realized he wasn´t hugging Applejack and let the masked mare go, who took the chance to take off her mask and reveal to be Zecora.

"Umh..."

"Allow me, Dusky. Awkardddd!" Pinkie Pie said.

"Speaking of awkards..." Rainbow Blitz said, directing their attention to Bubble Berry still shielding the changeling who returned to looking like Fluttershy.

"Yeah, we gotta deal with that but first, I wanna know where you were, AJ? You have been missing for like days! And how did you even find Chrysallis?" Dash demanded to know.

"Quite a story, RD. Yah´ll see, after ah have a talk with Dusk Shine, ah took a detour to the outside of the barrier where ah fought..."

"We don´t have time for this! Everypony, move!" Twilight Sparkle barked and they all left, leaving Applejack with her story unfinished.

"Good to have yah back, cuz," male Applejack said, patting her shoulder.

The ponies rushed upstairs, being lead by a limping Shining Armor. As they moved, Elusive asked "Going back to the original question. Dusk, Mrs. Sparkle, can somepony care to explain what we got ourselves into?"

"A tale of most dread, of our worlds both in edge of death..." Zecora began.

"of how in facing glowing eyes of eerie, we raise to challenge and sucedded..." Zicor continued.

"Please, can we get the prose version of the account?" Rarity solicited.

"Here´s the short version. When our universes met, both changeling royals met and decided to made a deal to swap universes and try to conquer both worlds.  Chrysallis wasn´t counting however in being defeated by your group and that Cocoon would instead of fighting us, kept on the shadows, tricking Discord and his counterpart to do the dirty word..." Twilight said.

"My guess is that your changeling was just as ready to betray Cocoon but he moved first," Dusk Shine added.

"His plan was to replace ponies slowly while keeping Princess Celestia on place, forcing the universes to stay together as he gathered an army," Twilight continued. "When Zeco-uh Zico-uh the male Zecora was replaced by a changeling, Zecora founded a powder that can repell them."

"She did the smart thing, They kept eye on the changelings, analyzing they very move. They soon realized that they infiltrated even the task force made to defeat them," Dusk Shine said, much to the annoyance of Shining Armor, who felt used.

"When the changelings captured, Zecora saved me and told me everything. We decided to split, while they come ´ere to rescue all the captured ponies, ah took the long way and brough back Queen Chrysallis from Tartarus, promising her the chance of getting revenge."

"You took a great risk doing that, darling," Rarity said.

"Ah shucks, was nothing," Applejack said, waiting for somepony to give her the queu to keep talking but nopony did, much to her annoyance. "Ah´m just glad ah got ´ere in time."

"And I´m glad to have you back! Come here, girlfriend!" Rainbow said, giving her a hug.

"Oh man..." Dusk Shine and Rainbow Blitz said un unison.

"But how did ya get captured to begin with?" Male Applejack, who was carrying the still unconscious Butterscotch, asked his counterpart.

"Well, regarding that..." Applejack said and they all stopped on their tracks and turned around to see the fake Fluttershy, still defended by Bubble Berry.

"Yeah, now we move into that, where´s Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash barked, backing down suprised when a totally serious Bubble Berry got in her way.

"Berriswainer, how can you possible defend this...this...this ruffian?" Elusive demanded to know.

"Don´t you realize what she has done?" Rarity added.

"Yeah dude, not cool", was Blitz´s contribution.

"Duh, I told you, guys. I´ve know about her from a few days!" Berry said, like they were arguing over spoiling the ending of a Daring Do book or something like that.

"Then, what gives?" Dash asked.

"I don´t know, is just...guys, girls, she´s just following orders. I mean, the changelings we know have to obey that mean, old king and I guess, the changelings like her have to obey a queen just as mean. I saw her trying to fit in, trying to be our friend these past couple of days. Sure, she was doing it to capture us and turns us into food for her species and has been brainwashing AJ all this time, but still, come on!"

Nopony was buying Berry´s (admittely weak) argument, except for one, Pinkie Pie.

"Bubble Bubble...do you like fakey Fluttershy?"

Even the changeling Fluttershy was surprised by that question.

"I do...kinda. It´s kinda confusing, I like the original Fluttershy but I also think the fake Fluttershy here is likeable, of course, that´s because she´s faking to be Fluttershy but..."

"I think that if the real Fluttershy was here, she would be really happy to see that you can be kind even to a meanie, face changing, Jacko brainwasher changeling; so will Scotchie if he was unconscious...." Pinkie Pie said and nuzzled Bubble Berry.

The rest had to admit that despite being odd and wacky, out of them ,they really understood and supported each other.

"I don´t regret what I did," Fake Fluttershy bluntly said. "I know that Queen Chrysallis isn´t the nicest of bosses but she´s still my queen. You are loyal to your regents and I´m gonna stay loyal to mine."

Obviously, both Applejacks, who have been victims of this changeling, were not too happy to hear that. They already were sent on not forgiving her but now they were also mad at her.

"We really don´t have time for this. Let´s hurry!" Twilight reminded them.

******

Upstairs, Princess Luna was starting to woke up. She felt the warm touch of her sister´s sun and smiled, happy to be greet with a warm breakfast and comfy blankets. It took her an extra second to realize she was lying on cold, hard floor and that her body was aching from recent wounds. When she opened her eyes, she saw her sisters trapped in her flaming form, surrounded by the Elements of Harmony.

"Ah, you´re awake," a creepy, smug voice said behind her. " You´ve proven to be quite a hard case, unlike that sleep heard over there."

With great effort, Luna got up, seeing Prince Artemis still unconscious on the floor while King Cocoon has discarded the disguise of Prince Solaris and was sitting ont he royal throne, smirking.

"They´re making quite a ruckus down there, they even woke up your sister," he said and Luna looked at an angry Celestia, trying to keep a grip on her magic. " Not that it matters now. She knows that even if she wanted to stop her magic, it would be a very bad idea. You see, my changelings haven´t been trading places with ponies just because I think they will be better replacementes. I mean, they are, after they are modelled after me," he said, taking a chance too look at himself in a mirror, much to Luna´s disgusts. "No, I have been placing my changelings to now there are more from my universe than yours! The balance between the two worlds is broken and if Celestia tries to separate them, tehre´s no way to tell who will end in which universe to compensate! She can´t risk sealing me cause she could the lose her little sister, forever!!"

Luna looked at Celestia which horror in her eyes but before any sister could react, Chrysallis bursted thorugh the floor, hissing and with burning eyes.

"YOU!"

"Hi, honey! I meant to pay you a visit at Tartarus but I just couldn´t stop reading these comic books. You know we don´t have Power Ponies in our world? How odd..."

Cocoon was still smirking when Chrysallis jumped over him.

****

Meanwhile, a few floors below, two guards (one female and one male) were standing in front of a sealed door when they noticed the commotion.

"There´s quite a ruckus there..." the female one said.

"You mean fracas," the male corrected her.

"Either way, I sure hope his majesty isn´t hurt...much."

"Think we should go and take a look?"

"Nah, we got specific orders to keep this door guarded at all times."

"Yeah but it´s not like these ponies are going nowhere. We could like skip for a few minutes and check..."

"If we do that, I rather we go to the kitchen. I´m starving."

"Yeah, me too..."

"Ehem."

The guards turned around to find the group lead by Twilight Sparkle and Dusk Shine and none looked very happy.

"...so, lunch break?"

"Lunch break!"

Once the guards dissapeared, the ponies opened the door releasing all the captured ponies. Twilight and Shinign rushed to help Cadence put on her hooves again. "Tahnk you, Twilight," she said. "We couldn´t stop the attack, they were too many. All I managed was to try and dispell the mind control spell on Princess Luna, did it work?"

"It did. Thanks to that we found a way to keep Cocoon distracted and come rescue you. Good work," Twilight said, embracing Cadence and took the chance to look at Dusk Shine hugging his brother-in-law and sister as well.

Rainbow Blitz helped FLuttershy to her hooves when Butterscotch at the sound of her voice (funny he didn´t with the changeling one).

"Fluttershy!"

"Oh Butterscotch! I was so scared!"

"Me too!"

"Thank goodness you´re here..." Fluttershy took a pause to notice her identical twin standing next to them but refusing to look at them. "Oh, is that how my mane looks like from behind?"

"I usually forgot that Fluttershy can be just as vain," Rarity said.

"You obviously have never seen Scotch trying to get mane conditioner," Elusive added.

"All I recall was a big pair of glowing green eyes!" Apple Buck said, after getting a hug by his big brother while Big McIntosh got one from his sister.

"Is everypony else in Ponyville okay?" Cherribomb, the male Cheerilee, asked.

"I´m sure they are, right now we have other problems," Dusk Shine said. "We have to hurry and separate the universes before it´s too late. Problem is that we need to be in an even number of ponies for each universe, according to the calculations we run with Twilight Sparkle last night; Cocoon´s changelings surpass Chrysallis´by six to one."

"What? That lying bastard! He said we´ll get equal numbers!" fake Fluttershy hissed, looking like her real self and scaring the actual Fluttershy and Butterscoctch.

"I bet he promised a lot of things," Twilight Sparkle said and approached her. "Listen uh Fluttershy, do you have a real name?"

"...tch, you can call me Zeb."

"I would have gone for a Diana," Pinkie Pie said.

"I was think more of a Kathleen," Bubble Berry added but everypony ignored them.

"Listen, we have a plan that can stop all this fight. We promise you your queen will be safe and returned to her rightful universe. But once we´re back in our respective worlds, we go back to the old deal, understood?"

Zeb pondered for a few seconds, her loyalty to her queen clashing with her common sense. She sighed, thinking on what she was going to tell Chrsyallis later and how bad she would react.

****

If it was gonna be anything like how she was reacting now, the answer is pretty bad.

"You betrayed me!" Chrysallis shouted, shooting magic at the same time.

"Oh please, you were also thinking on betraying me!" Cocoon retorted, creating a force field.

"Yes, but onyl after we conquered each other´s universe, you idiot!"

"My plan is better! Besides, you couldn´t even defeat Dust Shin and his lackeys!"

"You are one to talk? To scare to fight Twibrat Sparkle and her little friends?"

"Shut up!"

"You shut up!"

"They may be evil overlord fighting for conquest...but they seem more like an old married couple arguing," Princess Luna noted.

"Aye. Seems attraction to your other self is a trait common even among the wicked ones..."

"Artemis! Are you well?"

"I´ll live," Artemis said, needing help to get up. "Your spell was indeed powerful, it must have drained you of almost all your magic. You put yourself in grave danger by using it."

"I was prepared to do anything to save my sibling, as you will for yours, I´m  sure."

"Indeed."

"Awww, always looking up after me, Artie."

Artemis turned around with a beaming smile to see his big brother being carried in by both Rainbow ponies.

As they hugged, Twilight approached Princess Celestia. "Don´t worry, your majesty. We´re gonna put an end to all this."

"Twilight Sparkle, stop! If you separate the universe right now, the consequences will be disastrous!" Princess Luna shouted, sharing her sister´s concerned look.

"Don´t worry, Princess Luna. We have a plan."

"And you also...wait, what did she say?" Cocoon started paying attention to his surroudings and realize that the ponies have surrounded them.

"You´re done, Cocoon! We came to put an end to your plans!"

"Ha, as if! You think you uh five, six uhhh were there always so many of you?"

The ponies started growling and getting ready to fight, even the pink bakers stopped fooling around and got serious for a moment. Just then another wall came down, much to the displeasure of Solaris and Celestia and Gleaming Shield, the fake one, reappeared with her army of changelings.

"Don´t worry, your majesty. We got your back!"

"...haha! See Chrysallis, I have the superior numbers!"

"As if! Since my release, I´ve been contacting my changelings all over the kingdom and they have come to my rescue," Chrysallis gloated.

"You still don´t have enough soldiers, Chrysallis!"

"Oh yeah, counting the ones from the cells?" Rainbow Blitz said and an army of angry changelings came from another blast in the walls.

"I liked that paint," Solaris said in response to the wall being destroyed.

"So, seem we´re even in numbers but that means that if we get into a fight, we´ll like defeat each other..." Cocoon began.

"Yes, but looking at it another way, we finally have an army big enough to conquer both worlds!" Chrysallis finished.

"Okay, this is getting ridiculous," Elusive commented at the sight of the looming changeling armies.

"That would be the case..." Dusk Shine suddenly said.

"...if you two could tell your forces apart." Twilight Sparkle added at an order, the changeligns changed shape, turning into their real forms.

Both royals laughed hard at this.

"You fools! Of course we can tell them apart!" Cocoon said. "We have different colors, different body structures, different armors! This dashing fellow for example, is clearly one of my own," he said, grabbing a changeling in a supossedly friendly hug but he turned back into one of Chrysallis changelings.

"Sorry, not yours."

"Haha, you idiot! You can´t even tell your own soldiers!" Chrysallis said. "Clever move, Zit."

"My name is Zeb."

"Oh whatever. Come join your siblings!" she said, patting a changeling so hard in the back it changed from one of hers to one of Cocoon´s. "Uh?"

What followed was a frantic race with the two leaders trying to tell which soldiers was theirs but to no avail, they kept getting it wrong until they gave up.

"Ahhh! This is impossible!" Chrysallis shouted.

"I don´t know who is changeling and who isn´t!" Cocoon shouted, shaking Fluttershy up and down. Funniest thing when he put her down, it was Zeb after all.

"Well well, guess your little plan didn´t worked out as you expected...." Solaris said and he smiled at Celestia. " Guess now there´s no risk in separating the universe, is there?"

Celestia smirked and with a flash, she released the Elements of Harmony. The sudden magic burst hit the changelings and scaterred them away across both Equestrias. When the dust settled, only a few of them, including Zeb and the Gleaming Shield one, remained.

"Hey, we´re fine! I was kinda hoping to get fused together in some kind of weird pony amalgam!" Pinkie shouted.

"That would have been freaky! And also kinda cool!" Berry said.

"Right? Imagine me and Elusive combined, we´ll be like super fabulous!" Pinkie said, hugging Elusive who was actually considering the idea.

"And imagine if me and Applejack got together! I mean fused together, we´ll have the agility of an earth pony, for two!" Berry said, hugging female Applejack who also laughed at the idea.

"But, how come we didn´t got all scattered across the universes?" Rainbow Dash asked Celestia.

"I only released half of the magic, I still have enough control to keep the universes merged but not for long, I´m afraid."

"Then we best get back to Ponyville..." Twilight said and looked at Dusk Shine. "I think it´s time for some proper goodbyes."

*******

When they arrived to Ponyville, the skies were already glowing like the northern lights, first sign that the connection was weakening. Much to their surprise, they found the entire town devastated but the ponies victorious having captured all the changelings. Sweepie Bell and Scooterloo rushed to hug Apple Bluck.

"He´s here!"

"And is the real deal!"

"So how it was, were you scared?"

"Did they kept you in one of those gooey things? Did you slept the whole time?"

"A-ah´ll answer ya´ll but one question first...who is this fella?" Apple Buck asked, pointing at the small changeling in between the female Crusaders, who waved back at him.

Mayor Mare approached the royal, who bowed to her in sign of respect. "I´m so glad to see you back and well, your majesties," she said.

"You have done an splendid job protecting your town, Mayor," Princess Celestia said, smiling at her.

"Is that..my couch?" Senior Stallion, counterpart to the Mayor said, upon looking at the disaster at Town Hall and his moustacher twitched along with his eyes.

Mayor Mare patted him and said, "Come on, we have work to do," while behind them the fake and captured Big Mac was crying and the fake Gleaming Shield patted him in the head, very uncomfortable with the whole thing.

Meanwhile, Zeb have taken her form back and was sulking, wondering what was going to happen once she returned with the other changelings, when she noticed Fluttershy had approached her.

"What?"

"Uh I just wanted to say...well, that I don´t hate you or anything. I understand you were only doing what you were told and well, thanks for not really hurting my friends...."

"Will you all stop that? I like being a changeling! I like being evil and feeding on love and having fangs and scary..." Zeb got interrupted by a hug. "...you do realize this is like giving me a snack?"

"I am."

"And that you´ll feel dizzy in a few minutes?"

"Is worth it."

"Dusk Shine, you and your friends did a wonderful job. I´m sorry we couldn´t help you at anypoint but you lot rose to the challenge and sucedded. I thank you," Solaris said, taking a bow that Twilight and Dusk responded.

"I´m just happy to have you back...dude," Dusk Shine said and hugged Solaris.

Celestia smiled at this sight but soon realized the skies as well. "I´m afraid we´re running out of time. We better make haste of those goodbyes."

"Right! Fluttershy!" Bubble Berry shouted, taking Fluttershy out of her dizziness. "I really, really like you. So I need you to answers a serious question..."

"Uh...yes?"

"What do you prefer....coconut flavored cakes or cheese flavored cake?" Berry asked in a total serious face, producing both samples from behind his back.

"Uh...both?"

"Mmmh, they do take tasty together..."

"Altought to be complety honest, I don´t like cake that much. I prefer cookies."

"Well, then. We would´ve never worked together," Berry declared, throwing the food away. "That said, I still think you´re fabulous," he added, giving her a hug, that made her blush.

"Right then, Butterscotch, I think you and me together would have make a splendid couple...." Rarity said. "However, I´m not ready to share my lfie with a pony that uses even more exclusive hair product as mine so we must part ways!"

Butterscotch simply managed to nod at this.

"I still think you look dashing on a tuxedo, tough," Rarity added with a wink and he blushed.

Speaking of dashin, Rainbow Dash took air and moved to her own confession. "Let´s get this over with..."

Elusive took out a comb and got ready. "Here she comes! I have been aware of Mrs. Dash attention to me but alas, my heart belonged to Mrs. Sparkle but giving she seems not interested at all, I may as well give the girl a small chance before I break her heart..."

So distracted on his inner mologue, he failed to notice Dash moving to male Applejack. "Hey boy Jack, thanks a lot for our...talk. You relly set my head straight. This whole business with who likes who is too complicated. I think I´m gonna take me some time to figure it out, you get me?"

"Sure do, Mrs. Dash!" Applejack said, taking a second to look at Fluttershy and Zeb, who both blushed. "Guess there´s no need to hurry to the race. Mrs. Rarity," he said, adding a little salute with his hat that Rarity responded.

"You´re pretty cool too, boy Twi," Dash said, giving Dusk Shine a punch to the arm. He smiled in response.

Elusive sighed and shrugged, Pinkie Pie gave Butterscotch a smile and Berry gave Twilight a strong awkard hug.

"So Blitz, anything yah want to say?" Male Applejack said.

Blitz said nothing.

"It´s okay, partner. Ah already came to terms with all this," Female Applejack said, giving a smile to a blushing Dusk Shine.

"Come on, dude!" Bubble Berry said.

Blitz got redder and redder until he finally exploded. "FINE! Pinkie Pie, you are a fabulous gal and if we´re never going to see each other again, I don´t want any regrets!" and with that he gave her a long, strong kiss.

Everypony, even the royals, dropped their jaws at this.

When they finished, Pinkie Pie adjusted her mane and Blitz said "So that´s it...I guess."

"Oh you don´t think you´re gonna get out with just one kiss..." and Pinkie gave him a even deeper kiss.

"Woah, she is even more straight forward than Berry..." Dusk Shine commented. "Speaking of him, are you okay with him not really being interested in you?"

"I can handle it. I think Rainbow is right, maybe we were rushing things instead of giving us some time to think about how we really feel..." Twilight Sparkle said, taking a look around and seeing things like Carrot Top hugging a changeling and saying goodbye to him."...you agree?"

"Yeah, I suposse I do..."

"And don´t worry about your love life. Based on what I saw in your head, there´s an orange pegasus who just wont´quit," she said, with a wink.

"Stop teasing me. Besides, doesn´t that means there´s one for you too in your universe?"

"I don´t know, maybe."

Back in the other corner, Scootaloo put an arm around Scooterloo. "Hey, about what we talked before...I´m with Rainbow Dash here. I think we should give it sometime and try to figure out what we really feel, no matter what it is, kay?"

"Yeah, sounds good..."

Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle couldn´t decide to who she sould say goodbye, if Apple Buck or the changeling. "Which one do I choose?", she asked a blushing Apple Bloom.

"Don´t ask me!" she responded while an equally blushed Sweepie Bell hid his face.

"Well Celestia, guess this is a definitiv goodbye. I have to applaud your strength and diligence for staying in control for so long," Solaris said, trying to sound as regal as he could but Celestia wasn´t buying any of that.

"I like you too, Solly. In another time, in another place...but let´s be glad our friendship was reall all the same."

"Yeah, sounds nice," Solaris said, returning Celestia´s smile. "Artie, say goodbye to Princess Luna! Is time to go!"

Artemis and Luna shared a hug as did Spike and Spines below them.

"I´m gonna miss you so much!" Spike said.

"Me too! It´s like I finally found my twin sould!" Spines said.

"I know! It´s like we´re meant to each other!"

"You...you don´t mean..."

"I...."

There was a silent moment, glitter in the eyes as Spike and Spines hold their breaths and locked eyes...and then they got their scales pulled by magic.

"Cut it out, Romeo."

"You too, Dulcinea."

And with that, the ponies seperated in their respective groups, waving goodbyes to one another.

"This is definitive," Twilight Sparkle said. "I´m glad we met, Dusk Shine."

"Me too, Twilight Sparkle," he said. "We´re very different ponies to who we were when we first met..."

"...but our friendship remains the same."

They both reached their hooves, touching.

"Goodbye, me."

"Goodbye, me."

And with a final flash, they were gone. Twilight and her friends found they were still in Ponyville, only know it seemed like their regular one. They felt like they haven´t moved an inch, wondering if for the male ponies was the same case. They smiled and hugged, heading for Sugarcube Corner for some meal before getting back into fixing the town.

Twilight Sparkle took a moment to look at the sky and smile, knowing that her other half was doing the same.