----------Melody’s Tale – Broken Love, Part 2----------

“Oh, she is HURT.”

“Quick, get the medical corps in here!”

“But the evacuation-“

“THEN YOU HAD BETTER FLY FAST.”

The voices floated to Melody through the black haze surrounding her consciousness. Falling into the darkness in the white plane was still fresh in her mind, and what’s more, there was a suspicious lack of the child death come to claim their souls. That, more than the voices talking in hushed, panicked tones, kept her from fully slipping away.

There was pain, too. Oh there was pain. Even Verse felt it, his soul writhing inside of her breast. Which was on fire. And splintered with glass.

“We’re losing her.” One voice whispered urgently, and Melody could feel a surge of magic flow through her. It highlighted the agonies twisting her psyche into disarray, making her inhale a gasping breath. The world flooded back to her, borne on a wind of a million knives. The agony was white-hot, urgent, and prevalent. From her feet to her skull, Melody felt broken; shattered, even. She was shivering uncontrollably, and everything felt cold.

There was a face above her, the same face that had borne her onto the white plane mere minutes ago. Her uncle, Shining Armor. She lifted an arm towards him, or at least tried, but the lancing pain stole her breath and sent her into a wracking fit of coughing. White-hot agony filled her mind, chasing away even his face. There were small tendrils of relief flowing into her chest, but not enough to chase away all that pained her.

“Twilight.” She managed to croak between gasping fits and tears.

“Will live. She may lose her leg and nose, but she’ll live.” Shining’s voice was strong and robust, filling her with the sort of surety that came from a warm comforter on a chill night, or the arms of an old friend. She clung to the sound, willing him to continue speaking just so she could listen to him for a few more moments. Another wave of relief passed over the pains in her body, making her sag into the carpet, but soon clench her muscles once more as the pain returned. But with it came her uncle’s voice, strong and sure and pure.

“You’ve done it, Melody. The dissonance is resolved, and their souls are laid to rest. I don’t know how, but the memories have returned.”

“Oh no.” Another voice cut in, tremulous and thin. Melody recognized this one well, and the pain in her tone echoed in Melody’s own breast. “Verse. Is he…”

“Dead.” Melody groaned, once again trying to lift her hand to her chest. A different sort of pain filled her then, this one born in the very soul itself. Her breast ached, begging to be free. Her fingers twitched, but she couldn’t lift her arm.

Not that she couldn’t summon her magic. Gritting her teeth, Melody forced her power to life, gripping her elbow and wrist. Despite the agony of whatever broken, papery bones ailed her, Melody lifted her own glowing hand to her breast, calling on her changeling magic to withdraw Verse’s soul. It filled the air above her, strong and full of energy. His voice was thin, as if coming from a great distance away.

”Applejack, I’m so sorry.” Verse whispered, floating towards her. ”We were casting dangerous magic, even Twilight would have struggled with it. We made a mistake… As you can probably tell.” He drifted back towards Melody, who lay on the ground broken in so many ways. Tears streamed down her face, a mirror to Applejack’s, who lifted her hands towards the essence. She took Verse’s soul into her hands, not like Melody could, but the way only a dear friend could. Applejack was as good as family, and had seen them through tough times and an even tougher war.

She wasn’t the only one present, either. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie slowly wrapped their arms around the wavering soul, mourning the loss. Only Shining Armor remained over Melody, his magic filling her breast. Rainbow Dash was gone, likely to fetch the medical corps. And, as if on cue, she flew in through one of the blasted holes in the wall with a wing of avian medics behind her.

What followed was a myriad of medical banter and jargon even Melody couldn’t follow with her extensive experience healing. The only things she understood were ‘magical disruption’ and ‘soul severance.’ The last thing she heard before the milk passed her lips was Shining Armor’s voice, still full of confidence.

“When they teleported, her soul left her body. Death tried to claim the husk, halfway through her coming back into it.” There was a pause as her head went fuzzy and her eyes closed. “She’s literally half-dead.”

----------

Consciousness found Twilight feeling fuzzy, but whole. She moved her legs, both of them, with ease. At her stirring, a presence at her bedside woke, laying a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t move, love… You’ll pull your stitches out.”

“Mmn… Lily?” Twilight lifted a hand, plucking at the air above her bed. “’S that you?”

“It’s me, Twilight.” Lily took her hand in both of hers, drawing it to her lips. Twilight had never felt something so blessed; so amazing as the touch of her wife. Tears fell down her cheeks onto her pillow, even as she clutched at Lily’s fingers desperately.

“What happened?”

“It’s a long story, love… What do you last remember?” Lily slowly stretched out beside Twilight, her slight weight indenting the bed ever so slightly. She must have lost (or shifted) a few pounds. Twilight weakly wrapped her arms around the changeling, inhaling the scent of her hair. The question, though, wracked her mind. She thought back, to the last moments she had in her mind, and all that had happened.

“I remember… Hurricane and Gale. They had landed on the lawns, and were worried about something.” She frowned, trying to remember past that, but nothing was coming to mind. “There was something after that, a-a meeting, or something…”

“You’ve missed the past week.” Lily said solemnly, her fingers twined with Twilight’s across her stomach. “After the meeting, you awoke and… Do you remember the talk of the degradation? How the Elements of Harmony were unbalanced, with Chrysalis and the element of Generosity gone?”

“…Vaguely, yes.” Twilight did remember some talk of memories lost. It was dangerously close to the fuzzy barrier between the meeting and just now, when she had awoken.

“You’d… forgotten about me.”

Silence reigned for a solid minute, both women quiet and still in light of that little revelation. Twilight had lost so much of her memory that hearing those words come from her wife’s mouth immediately made her cringe inwardly, and nod in knowing. It made sense. With Rarity’s element joining its mate, the other five would slowly degrade into disarray. What’s more, there was something else missing within Twilight. An absence in her breast, not unlike-

“Ephemira is gone, isn’t she?”

“She is.” Lily nodded. “So are the others. The Elements of Harmony are no more.” That too stunned Twilight into a solid silence. Her body felt heavy and tired, like she was so much older than she actually was. Thinking back, Twilight honestly couldn’t remember... How old was she now? Forty? Fifty? Specifically, she couldn’t recall anything. What year it was, how long the war had lasted, how many months or years it had been since Lily’s return after being crowned as the new queen, or if she had lost any time via the memory degradation.

And yet, through it all was a niggling doubt that chased Twilight’s thoughts around her head like a cat after a mouse. When she arrived at the names, a cold sweat broke out on her skin.

“Melody and Verse?”

There was a moment of stillness before Lily began to quake against Twilight, tears squeezing out of her clenched eyes. Her sorrow was mirrored in Twilight, who knew the answer even as the two women shared the first choked, wracking sob.

Melody and Verse were dead.

----------

“Fluttershy.”

“You should still be in bed.” Fluttershy sighed, not as if admonishing Twilight, but like a mother who knew their impetuous child wouldn’t be able to sleep all through a mild cold. Twilight leaned against her IV stand heavily, limping into the impromptu morgue. There were seven bodies collected here, unfortunate injuries sustained during Twilight’s madness-fueled rampage. She herself had a new disfiguring burn scar on her face, but at least had managed to keep her leg. She was followed by a melancholy Lily, the two women joining their third friend for a moment of quiet and tenderness.

“I want to see them.” Twilight’s jaw was set in determination, and even Fluttershy’s kindness couldn’t spare her this much. Maybe it was the lack of an element inside of her, or maybe it was seeing Twilight’s determination, but Fluttershy acquiesced with only token arguments against Twilight’s own physical health. Of the seven bodies collected in the old office, two were laid aside from all of the others. Twilight and Lily grimly stood over one while Fluttershy pulled the sheet back.

Verse’s body was burned and cut beyond recognition. Almost, anyways. Tufts of his teal hair and the general structure of his face had survived whatever horrid ordeal had ripped their son away from them. Twilight looked at the gruesome scene for a few moments longer before leaning forward and laying a gentle kiss on his cracked forehead. Lily mirrored her, their hands finding one another’s as the tears began. Fluttershy replaced the sheet and went to the other.

Melody looked so much more peaceful than her brother. There was a faint smile on her lips and a calmness to her settled features that reminded Twilight of an age-old soul resting at long last. Melody’s injuries had been much more torturous than her brother’s, but the pain didn’t show on her face. Her bones had been changed in their consistency, from hard calcium to papery carbon-like layers, she had suffered so many fractures and breaks that her nervous system had overwhelmed her brain and it had shut down. Fluttershy explained the process coolly and evenly, sparing no details, and while Twilight felt a sickness rise in her stomach at the description, she knew she would thank Fluttershy for her brevity down the road. Instead of losing whatever food was in her system, Twilight pulled the sheet all the way off of Melody’s body, looking over her clubbed feet grown in haste. She didn’t even have any ankles, just a solid fusing of her tibia and fibula into the major tarsal bones. Fluttershy explained that the same teleportation that had claimed Verse’s life had sheared Melody’s feet off, and the guards reported that she had regrown these on the spot in order to limp into the castle.

“Thank you, Fluttershy.” Twilight choked, finally losing her strength. She collapsed into Lily’s arms, who shifted into the hulking Liam to hoist her with ease. “Thank you.”

“I’m assuming you will want to bury them?”

“On the grounds.” Twilight panted. “They deserve everything. A-a monument, or something…”

“A statue.” Lily choked. “They deserve that much.”

“They really did it, didn’t they?” Fluttershy was crying as well, but bore her tears in silence. “They saved us all. Saved the world, really…”

“They did so much.” Rainbow Dash was there, in the shadows, but stepped forward solemnly. “I remember it all now; the way they saved Eyriewatch, twice, helping Connor’s unit in Hearth, even the way they handed Canterlot over to Chrysalis, in the end saving us all from that evil bitch…” A tremor passed her features. “Not all of them… Those soliders, I-“

“You can’t blame yourself, Dash.” Pinkie Pie and Applejack joined them as well, both looking solemn and melancholy. It was Pinkie Pie who spoke, bringing them all together in a warm hug. “We’ve all struggled and lost in this war. Between the elements and the changelings and… just… everything,” she sniffled, a bright smile lighting her face. “… but we’re still here, aren’t we? We owe everything to them.”

Six pairs of eyes cast down to the twin bodies covered in sheets. Their tears fell fast and free, but quietly.

After a full minute of silence, Twilight spoke.

“Rest in peace, Children of Love.”

----------

”Well isn’t this different.”

“Now you know how I feel.”

“Oh, shut up, you spent what, a day like this?”

“Will both of you shut up?” Shining grumbled, his hands still glowing as he gripped the two souls firmly. “I’m no changeling; doing this is hard enough as-is.”

”Sorry, uncle.” Melody fell silent, though she and Verse shared an empathetic waver between their two souls.

Melody had to admit, not having a body kind of sucked. Her consciousness was still absorbing phenomena, not unlike a brain would map memories to specific neurons, but it was something more significant than that. Just travelling as she was, guided and anchored by Shining Armor’s magic, made her have an all-new appreciation for the Elements that had spent however long separated from their bodies. She missed feeling the strain of her muscles, of her lungs filling and emptying with breath. She couldn’t feel the lay of the land beneath her boots, or the rush of wind through her hair and across her skin.

She certainly couldn’t feel pleasure anymore. That more than anything else left an ache in what Melody could only guess was her breast. It pulsed through her essence, making her entire consciousness throb with the sensation of loss. While the others had had over a full millennium to adjust to being ephemeral, incorporeal souls, she had been this way for only a week.

One thing she did not miss was the cold, though. Even though she and Verse had known the blessings of the Roc for the majority of their time away from their coastal home, there were still a few cold nights at the ancient home of the harpies that remained in her memory, and even those seemed like balmy summer nights when compared to the frozen reaches of Hearth. Shining Armor had to wear both pairs of their old clothing and a full thermal overlay to avoid freezing as he trekked his way further and further North.

He was scaling a mountain by now, the barrier that separated the ancient homeland of Equestria (before it had been ravaged by the wendigo and forced them this far South,) and claimed to be closer to the place he and Cadance had hidden away all these years.

Melody had only heard of her uncle and his gorgeous wife, the princess of love, in stories from Twilight and Lily. This past week of grueling hiking and occasional magic-aided flight (which was more akin to gliding, really) had given her and Verse the chance to actually connect with their long-lost family member. Shining had stories to tell about his life in the guard, and what drove him and Cadance to flee from Equestria as the war broke out.

His explanation had been that there was little love and less compassion in war, and Cadance fell ill almost the moment hostilities had boiled to a head. They had managed to fly over the vicious chimera that made their home in the frozen tundra of Hearth, to find a refuge in the barrier between worlds. Shining had delved into what supplies Canterlot had at the time and made them a passable domicile, in which he and Cadance had lived the last twenty years of their lives.

Along with a child of their own. Melody was elated to discover she and Verse had a cousin in Shining’s daughter, Willow.

But desperate measures had called Shining to invoke magic he had been privy to as commander of the guard in order to save his wife. It seemed the lack of love in and around Equestria had driven Cadance to a serious illness, and the dissonance with the Elements of Harmony had been particularly crippling to her, since she was so close to them all. Even Shining had suffered some mild memory loss. The way Melody understood it, there was a mild effect for just about everyone in the world, be it a miniscule, inconsequential memory to a few reports of hysteria and violence at discovering an unbeknownst stranger sleeping beside a victim.

Shining had come seeking the Children of Love, having sensed their magical energy the moment they arrived in Canterlot. He was already on his way there to beseech his sister for help, so the journey was doubly easy. Bending time around him, Shining had shaved precious weeks off of his life in order to speed to Canterlot as quickly as he had, and even trade blows with the changeling lieutenant Noth before saving Melody and Verse’s souls from her dying body.

Changeling magic was still the magic of love, and Shining Armor had been able to mimic their ability to manipulate and grasp souls. He couldn’t hold or absorb them as any changeling could, but he carried them deep into Hearth, making for a dark gash in the side of the mountains that separated the new world from the old.

The long journey from Canterlot had worn on Shining, who was already exhausted from his break-neck trek south. He was already grumbling to himself about laying down for a nice, refreshing coma. About forty hours or so. As they approached the dark gash, Melody could feel a sense of warmth radiating out of it. The sensation was all she had, but there was still snow and ice in abundance. Shining picked up his pace, obviously sensing his destination close by. As they approached the cave, a heavily-shrouded figure appeared from the dark gash, looking at Shining intently.

“Papa?”

“Hey, Willow.” Shining panted, ascending the last few steps into the cave mouth. “I’d hug you, but I’m holding something really important… how is momma?”

“She got better a few days ago, but she’s still hurting, papa.” The shrouded figure proved to be a younger child, possibly ten or eleven, wrapped in thick layers of fabric and still shivering from the cold. “What are those?” She may have been cold, but Willow could still see Melody and Verse’s souls held within her father’s hands, their ephemeral essence unfazed by the freezing air.

“These are… well, do you remember your mother telling you about changelings?” The figure nodded firmly, even as Shining stepped into the crack between two rocks. The dark cave immediately swallowed them, and even though the warmth radiating out of the fissure felt wondrous to Melody’s soul, it was still cold. Willow lifted her hand, lighting the fissure with a golden-colored light. She and Shining followed a set of rough-hewn steps further into the mountain, even as Shining continued his explanation. “Well, this is the ‘love’ that a changeling feeds off of. It’s a little technical, but these souls can exude love. That is, the energy for the magic that momma and I use.”

“And me too?”

“And you, too, Willow.” Shining chuckled. “It’s just that these essences – these souls – are the purest and basest form of what a changeling feeds off of. So by working with our magic, I can do a few of the things that some changelings do. Like carry these, for instance.”

Willow was silent as they walked, but Melody could tell the child was thinking intently on everything her father was saying. She drifted closer to him, sometimes reaching out to wrap the hem of his coat in her gloved fist, or just touching him. Still they travelled ever-down, following the winding staircase until the air seemed to grow warmer and less cold. The walls of the cavern glistened with moisture, condensed as it rose from whatever warmth lay beneath the mountain.

”Is this your home, uncle?” Verse asked quietly.

“Home sweet home.” Shining affirmed, just as they arrived at the base of the stairwell. Before them, a massive antechamber opened up, the stone floor giving way to dirt and grass, of all things. Willow began stripping her warm clothing off, giggling with excitement before dashing off into the massive chamber. She was a skinny girl no older than twelve, the child-like sense of wonder and glee having never left her features. She cartwheeled through the grass, her long mane of luscious pink-and-blue hair looking not unlike a streamer tied to the end of a spindly stick as it was twirled through the air. Melody felt Shining’s strength begin to wane, his weakness showing in light of hearth and home.

Indeed, they had a home down here. There must have been powerful enchantments placed on this area. The whole chamber was lit bright as day without any apparent light source, and Melody could even see shadows dancing between long blades of grass. When she looked at the wall where the sun would be, instead she saw nothing. But still, grass and a few wayward trees grew healthily underneath the mountain. Their home was a modest one-story building that couldn’t have been more than four or five rooms in the middle of the chamber itself, surrounded by a quaint pond, a chicken coop, and a modest garden.

”You’ve lived here for twenty years?” Melody asked, soaking in the energy of the place. It had the same scent of warmth she sensed coming from the fissure, only more prevalent. It seemed to soak into the atmosphere, warming her more thoroughly than whatever enchantment kept them from freezing so far beneath the earth. As Shining strode towards the house, it only seemed to grow warmer.

“Just about.” Shining sighed, skirting the pond. Willow had disappeared inside, though they could hear the lilting tone of her voice carry out to them, underlined by a quieter voice, soft and tender.

And weak.

Melody and Verse realized it almost simultaneously. She could feel the shift in her brother’s essence, and Shining seemed to sense it as well. He paused outside of the door, his strong voice suddenly much more tremulous.

“She doesn’t have long, does she?”

”We may need to put her to rest.” Verse’s voice was even more quiet, sounding for all intents and purposes like an ephemeral whisper, sent on the wind from another dimension. ”Her soul is tired and needs to recuperate.”

“It will be for a long while, uncle… A few centuries, at least.”

“She told me of this day.” Shining sighed, hanging his head at the threshold of his home. “That she would need to sleep again… the war put too much strain on her. If it hadn’t ended when it did, she might not have-“

“Shining?” A woman’s voice carried through the home, stopping Shining in his tracks. She stiffened for a few moments, his hands wavering in the air. Even his magic flickered. Solemnly, Melody and Verse detached themselves from him, floating in mid-air beside the tired man. As he felt them leave, his hands dropped, his head mirroring them. Almost woodenly, he began to shuffle out of his clothes, leaving them heaped by the door.

”We can give you a few days if you’d like.”

“No. The sooner the better. We agreed it would be like this.”

”We can’t ask this of you. She’s your wife, Shining. Our own aunt-“

“Your work is not yet done in this world.” Shining began peeling the clothes given to them by the Roc off of his frame. He seemed thin and muscular, not wasted away, but certainly tired, and old. His deep blue hair was shot through with white streaks, product of his abuse of both time magic and the effect of the war. But still, he was strong and capable. “Just… will it hurt her?”

”Not at all. In fact, she can’t be harmed. At least, not her soul…”

“And you’re going to take good care of the other part, right?”

”As best we can.” Verse hovered forward, resting against Shining’s forehead gingerly. ”It’s the least we can do.”

“Thank you. Both of you.” Shining sighed, scooping Melody up in his magic, bringing her to his forehead as well. He closed his eyes and rested with their souls against his brow for a few moments. “I hardly knew of you, but I knew that Twilight would raise you well. She’s always been good at what she does, no matter what… And Lily was capable, if nothing else. I might not have been there to watch you grow, but I can say that I’m proud of you. Not just for saving the world, or ending the war, or any of it…” He sniffled, pulling away with tears in his eyes and a warm smile on his face.

“I’m proud of you as your uncle.”

That struck Melody in a way she never thought possible. If souls could cry, she shed a few tears into Shining’s palm just then.

As it stood, they had a duty to perform. Shining gently carried them into the next room, where Cadance lay underneath a warm quilt. Willow stood at the bedside, gently wiping Cadance’s shoulders and neck with a damp cloth. As soon as Shining entered, Cadance struggled to sit up.

Here was another woman Melody had never known. Her aunt-in-law, married to Shining Armor so long ago it felt like a different world. That was dozens of years before the war, when their parents had given birth to them. When things weren’t so abysmally hectic. And yet, wasted and tired as her body was, Cadance was still a thing of beauty. She had the same body as Celestia and Luna, that ageless avian form, underlined with human muscle and magi grace. Even if there were bags under her eyes, Melody could tell that Cadance was a woman to behold, even on a bad day.

“Shining. Thank the stars, you’re alright. Twilight, is she-?”

“They’re all okay, thanks to these two.” Shining hefted their souls with a smile. It was a genuine one, and filled Melody’s mind with warmth. “That’s another story for another time, though. They’re here to help now.”

“Are they gonna make momma better?” Willow asked, setting the rag aside. Shining beamed at his daughter, and probably would have ruffled her hair if he had a free hand, but instead settled on bending over to kiss the top of her head.

“Momma’s gonna go to sleep for a long, long time, Willow.”

“Oh. So that’s what’s gonna happen.” Willow’s voice fell, but not in the way Melody had expected. Even Shining seemed a little taken aback.

“I told her about the sleep.” Cadance chuckled. “She’s old enough now to know who I am and what that means for us.”

“That’s good, then. So you know that momma is really old, right?”

“Like, older than gramma Celestia old.” Willow giggled, as only a child could. Even Melody felt her spirits lift in the face of such child-like glee.

“I am not that old, Willow. Such a rude child.” Cadance faked her scorn, pulling Willow up onto the bed to tickle her ruthlessly. The child laughed and screamed, and Shining stepped back to watch with that sad smile on his face. Eventually, Willow calmed down, leaving Cadance to stroke her hair lovingly. When the Princess of Love spoke next, it was to the ephemeral souls before her.

“Can I speak with you privately? For just a few minutes?”

”We’ll not fade away. Shining can leave us here.” Melody pulled away from their escort, who let them go willingly. Their progress was slow, but the two of them drifted closer to Cadance. Willow looked up at them with wonder in her eyes, tentatively reaching her small hand out. It passed straight through Melody’s soul, feeling like nothing, but the sensation of awe and bewilderment was not lost on her. Melody would have twined her fingers through the child’s, if she were able. Instead, she floated towards Willow’s face, letting the young woman lay her brow against the essence.

Eventually, she slid off of the bed, going to finally hug her father. Shining lifted the young girl with ease, carrying her into the next room. Their conversation died away as Cadance smiled warmly at the two of them. When they were sure Shining could no longer hear them, she spoke.

“I’m going to die, aren’t I?”

”Not at all.” Verse quelled her fear immediately. ”Someone only dies when Death takes their soul from this world to the next, as he did with the Elements of Harmony. Your soul will live on forever, or so we can assume. But it requires rest, as all souls eventually do, and as we humble mortals eventually find in Death. For that, we put your soul to sleep. It’s our duty to not only wake slumbering souls up, but to give them this rest as well.”

“And my body will house my soul?”

”That’s what we wanted to talk to you about.” Melody interjected, slowly floating forwards. ”With your permission, we would… Well, for lack of a better term, take your body. We have, unfortunately, lost ours. But our work in this world isn’t yet done, and we need a body to live in, else Death will come for us.”

“I see.” Cadance sighed, though she lifted both her hands to gingerly cup their souls. She held them like that, her magic playing through their essence as only the Princess of Love could. Hers was the magic of the changelings, after all, but more than that was the magic their had been birthed from. There were other facets to this power, ones that Melody hadn’t yet explored. At her touch, Melody remembered Faith and Connor, and even her parents and her brother and the other Elements. There were so many people in this world to love and be loved by, and Cadance’s touch reminded them of that. Old and weary as her soul and magic were, it was still powerful.

So powerful, in fact, that it drew them into the white plane before any of them even knew what was happening. Verse and Melody floated before Cadance in that place they knew so well. Three souls, and only one body. Cadance smiled at them knowingly, her form as it was meant to be. Even in this world, with no sexual motivation whatsoever, Melody could appreciate how truly beautiful the princess was. Hers was an everlasting beauty, never to be dimmed with age.

“Thank you, both of you, for doing this.” Cadance whispered, inhaling a deep breath before letting it out in a sigh. “I’ll agree, on one condition.”

“Name it.” Meldoy floated forwards. Already, she could feel Cadance’s soul slipping off to sleep. Tiredly, Cadance welcomed the two of them into her breast. As she spoke her terms, both Melody and Verse had to agree…

It was a good reason.

----------

Shining Armor and Willow slumbered on in peace, the two of them laying back-to-back, with Cadance between them. Only Cadance wasn’t Cadance any more. Even now, Melody could feel her soul shuffling into the weak body of the princess, filling it in, growing accustomed to it. Cadance’s body responded in kind, growing stronger now that it had not just one, but two healthy souls within it.

With a tricky bit of magic and some careful maneuvering, Melody and Verse extracted themselves from between the sleeping ex-commander and his daughter. Willow curled her arms around her pillow and groaned, but remained asleep. Shining just looked so… tired.

And yet, all through the house and the chamber outside, a presence settled, as warm and comforting as any there could be. It was a sleeping soul, one of love and peace. Cadance’s soul, keeping her body on lease to the children of her namesake, the Children of Love.

Even in the mirror, Melody could see the changes taking place. Her soul was more familiar to this body than Verse’s, and began to fill it out as such. Her breasts reduced slightly, and her rear deflated. Her face grew softer, and her limbs a little shorter. Even the bubblegum-pink hair began to shift slowly to teal, starting at the roots and growing out.

In just a few minutes’ time, Melody appeared as she ever was, even if it was Cadance’s body.

”Must be the root of the changeling magic in her.” Verse hypothesized from within her breast.

“Must be.” Melody sighed, feeling whole once more. She would forever carry Verse within her, or at least until they could find him a body of his own.

”I kind of like this, to be honest.” Verse quelled her worries with a thought. ”Could get used to it, I think. We’ll just have to see.”

“Indeed we shall.” Melody sighed, fetching one pair of the clothes gifted to her by the Roc. Shining may have needed both to survive, but the clothes were her god-given right. As she slipped into them, she knew the cold wind and ice of Hearth wouldn’t faze her. She folded the other pair and left a note, a gift, for Willow to use. And, as dictated by the magic of the gods who bestowed it on her, the clothes would work for her as they had for Verse in his lifetime.

Feeling the strain in her muscles once again, Melody left Shining Armor’s home, ascending the rough stone stairway up into the barrier mountains, and the whipping wind and ice-cold snow. The chill didn’t touch her arms, didn’t make her shiver, or even feel uncomfortable. Instead, Melody stood in the driving snow, inhaling a deep breath.

Before her sat the world, with its myriad gods and quarrels. She had come from her home in the southern jungle to the very furthest reaches of the northern world, and lived to tell the story. Perhaps not her body, but her soul had.

With a grin, she shifted her wings out.

“Let’s get to work.”