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When They Found Us

by Zephyrus Scary

Chapter 2: When I Found Peace

Previous Chapter

When They Found Us

Zephyrus Scary

Epilogue:

Optional Extended Ending:

Part Two:

When I Found Peace

What? You want to know what happened to Us afterwards? … Well, it’s not very exciting.

-or interesting.

-or important.

-or ANYTHING that makes a good story.

-but if you’re insistent, i’ll tell you what happened.

Don’t say it like that!

If We’re telling the story, We’re ALL helping!

-but i started this story! It’ll be confusing if We switch narrators now!

You’ve had enough time in the spotlight! Give someone else a chance!

All i’m just saying is that they’re not used to thinking of Us as both a collective and individuals, so-.

-so this is the perfect opportunity!

Sometimes i can’t believe i share my Mind with you! You have no sense for storytell-.

I’ll teach you ‘sense’!

THUMP

Hisssssss

Wait!

Bzzz

Grrr… bark! bark bark!

You-!

CRASH

Krrrrik-k-kii!

Oh, dear…

CRACK-smack… FLUMP-thu-thump-SMASH

What under Celestia’s Sun is-?! You two STOOOOOOOOOOP!

Ah… … … Miss Sparkle-…

… When did you get back?

We thought you-MPH!

… … … …

Now, thanks to you two, this classroom is a disaster area! … Urgh… I suppose I have no choice but to finish today’s lesson tomorrow. Class dismissed…

shuffleshuffleshuffleshuffle…

Okay, We’ll just-.

HOLD IT! You two-! uh… Whichever two of you were wrestling just now are going to clean this!

Wha-!? -but i was going to… finish Our… story…

… Can’t the other seven tell it just as well?

Six of Us can…

Oh! Right; I almost forgot. So what’s the problem, exactly?

It’s about… consistency! You know how Changelings’ Minds work, and i narrated at least 98% of the story so far! I just needed a little help with… the you-know-what parts…

Then I guess you’ll just have to trust the others can do the rest justice, won’t you?

… Fine. All that’s left is an epilogue, anyway, and i wasn’t planning on saying anything about what happened afterward, so i haven’t thought about what to say…

‘Afterward’? Weren’t you-? Oooh!… You mean-

- - - -

Alright, is everyone here? We wouldn’t want anyone to miss out—this is the real ending!

- - - -

With Princess Celestia’s declaration, We grabbed Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie, and Applejack and carried them up to the top of the cliff; from there We all began making Our way back to Ponyville. You might ask why Princess Celestia didn’t teleport Us, but She later admitted She hadn’t thought of it Herself because She was, as She put it, “distracted” (along with everypony else, notably Twilight), but We would say something more like… “distressed,” and We didn’t need to be connected to Her or anypony’s mind to know why. None of Us were keen to bring up the topic She was surely stewing Herself in, though, not even the Bearers… except, of course, for one you know quite well.

“Princess…” Twilight finally broke the silence that might have very well been a powerful spell that only she could break. All of Us, some flying—buzzing—over the procession, instantly turned to her and frantically shook Our heads, begging her not to ask the question We could similarly hear so plainly in her mind, even though that was just as literally impossible. “What happened… in Canterlot?” Everyone froze, and those Us who had been flying all but dropped to the ground as We all lowered Our heads and eyes; of course the topic was unavoidable—it had to be addressed sometime, if the bodies of those innocent Changelings were to be handled properly honorably.

The Princess sighed as She walked forward a few steps before turning around and looking between the eight of Us; i somewhat idly thought She looked as if She was about to give some announcement. Instead, She came back to Us, hugged one of Us to Her chest, which the rest of Us took as an invitation to hug Her, then She choked out, “I’m… sorry. I have-… I forgot something… so important that I am ashamed to admit I could ever overlook it, no matter what that Changeling Queen, or anything, did to Canterlot.” Again, We all but truly felt the question burning in Twilight’s mind, and again We were we’re sure We knew the answer before Princess Celestia answered it without being asked. “Love Magic—spells powered by love—is the exact opposite of Blood Magic. Blood works with absolutes and binaries of the physical world and ignores the emotional, while Love Magic vacillates to account for morality and the emotions of not just the caster, but its targets all while ignoring the physical reality of the situation. Naturally, Blood would fill the ‘hole’ we perceived in the spell powered by Love that Shining Armor used.”

Behind Us, We could barely hear a whispered, “Love… Magic?” from who else but Twilight? -and from inside her little cocoon of Changelings, Princess Celestia heard her.

“Yes… the last time I saw a pony wield Love in her magic was four hundred years ago, and I’ve only seen such a thing four times, including Shining Armor and Cadance’s spell, in my entire, considerably long life.” As she spoke, We finally released Her and settled back, curious about the use of the Changeling’s Inheritance among ponies.

… We don’t expect you to understand how Changelings deal with death, because-… Changelings’ Minds, in a way, will always be “imprinted” with pieces of every Changeling’s personality and opinions and thoughts who ever lived as part of that Mind—We knew and know that somewhere, those Changelings “live on” in not simply just memories, but in Minds in a much more real way than ponies ever can live on. It was because of this We were not fully concerned with grieving besides appearance’s sake… Say what you will, but then We were Changelings only just unveiled without meeting hostilities—something that was still very new to Us—and with a peace agreement yet to be made official. We were not yet acclimated to being Ourself in front of ponies and accepted as Ourself… We were not yet adapted to living without needing to protect Ourself with lies and deceit. We knew and know how you ponies view death, though, and We were frightened that if the Princess or the Bearers saw something they thought was too horrid to look past-… It was not too late for Princess Celestia to take back Her declaration of peace—no one would know; you all know now She didn’t, of course, but at that moment this remained in Our Mind until… well, We’ll get to that.

When We moved away from Her, though, She looked at each eight of Us, taking a moment to not so much stare at each one, but to study Us- to see who We were… because She cared and cares about Us. “Love Magic-… I must admit to you, all of you, but especially Twilight, that I have suppressed information about the use of Love in spellcasting even more than Blood Magic.” She heaved a great sigh and slumped, but in a way that suggested She was grateful to finally be letting out such a secret. “I have… feared it from the very first instance I saw it and Cadance and Shining Armor… and the Changeling Queen should show you why—its power surpasses even the most powerful class of magic most unicorns know: Blood Magic, which I have always kept regulated with utmost care. My only comfort was that it appeared ponies could not wield this magic under usual circumstances, but now?…” She smirked before looking back at Us, “Now, I have declared peace with a species not only capable and knowledgeable in this magic, but who use it on a daily basis.”

Yes, there was fear, unmistakable, in Her eyes; I know it must be hard to believe, but that’s only because you don’t know what Love Magic is truly capable of—Celestia understood and understands, but She was at the same time willing to look past Her fear. At that moment, i think that it was Her recognizing the fact that We did not choose to wield such a thing, that instead We had simply been born with that innate ability, and that We could no more be blamed for it than a pegasus can be blamed for being able to fly and manipulate the weather. A lot of the time i see how you ponies take it for granted, but for Changelings-… How Celestia’s understanding and strive to understand know no bounds, and Her… need to make “corrections” wherever She finds some fault in Herself—while blaming Herself—is something that feels (as meaningless as this will probably sound to your pony ears) beyond “usual love.” -something not exactly what you ponies might call “unconditional,” but instead… boundless and tireless.

“Princess Celestia-” one of Us began, but couldn’t go on, so another picked up on Our thoughts “-We can-” “-change-” “-stop-” “-what We-.”

“No.” The Princess interrupted Our staggered suggestions. “Don’t make any apologies or compromises. If I am-.” This time interrupting Herself, She shakes her head, then looked at each of Us before going on. “Since I am doing this, I’m doing it right: I’m making peace with who you are, not who I want you to be.” At this point She closed Her eyes and murmured to Herself something at a volume i’m sure ponies can’t hear, but Changelings can, “I have to make it right…” She opened Her eyes before saying at a normal volume again, so all can hear, “I’m just going to have to get over my fears, is all.” Of course, being who She is, Princess Celestia put on a show that would fool all but a Changeling… -and Princess Luna, i suppose.

One short argument in Our Mind later, We decided that this had to be headed off; We wanted—not needed; it was purely for Her sake—Princess Celestia to understand how We, as Changelings, viewed and view Her actions. “Princess, you don’t have to-…” We had to search the Mind for some way to describe Her desire, and settled on, “-repent for what you did in Canterlot to those Changelings.” We let the word hang a bit on Our voice, but it was soon interrupted by none other than me. “Ah! That reminds Us!” i cried out, and everypony along with all of the rest of Us turned to stare incredulously at me. “-or… maybe it just reminds me?… Anyway,” i pushed on, “i wanted to ask… what has been done?… -to them?… -those Changelings?” Now that the topic was broached, We- (…! fine) i found it easy to ask about.

Celestia (at least…) didn’t look too much into my general lack of… apparent sorrow, and answered quite quickly. “I suppose it will be better to prepare you for-. Well, the… bodies,” She and everypony else winced at the word, “have been moved to a secure facility… for study.” Princes Celestia grimaced again, but a bracing look from all eight of Us, along with some nods, kept Her from falling back into self-depreciation. “There, all twenty-three are-... have been-.”

“Wait… a minute,” i said in hardly more than a whisper, unsure, but Princess Celestia stopped all the same, as if She had been listening hard for some excuse to stop talking. “Did you just say ‘twenty-three’? As in ‘almost two not-baker’s dozen’?” Despite the subject, Rainbow Dash couldn’t stop herself from snickering behind her hoof in the background (when Rarity glared at her, though, she had enough decency to look ashamed), and Celestia glanced at her before nodding to me. “-and you said ‘all twenty-three’? As in ‘all of the ones you found in Canterlot’?”

Another nod, but before i could go on again, Twilight interjected, “Pinkie! What are you getting at? Just-…” She shivered, and i recalled with some shame how uncomfortable such a topic was and is for ponies. “Just, whatever it is, get to it already. Please…?”

I frowned at myself—at what i did—but instead of obeying her request, i stepped forward and hugged her for a moment; she latched onto me gratefully and whispered a thanks before i pulled away slowly, letting her decide if she was ready to let go. Only after that did i speak. “What i was getting at is that twenty-three is not all of them. -not all of the Changelings in Canterlot… as far as We know, anyway.” Suddenly, confusion breaks out all around Us, demanding something of which We had some idea. “We mean… let’s see, if We don’t count the Changelings We’re certain were working with Chrysalis… the last time We were in Canterlot was the wedding, so… at that time there was more than one-hundred Changelings in Canterlot not allied with Chrysalis.” “Although… i guess some might’ve left after the failed invasion, and then… most, if not all, probably fled out of the city after the… capture of those twenty-three.” “Most likely.”

Again, We wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t believe Us if We tried to describe how baffled the Princess looked, doing nothing but blinking in little bursts until, “You mean… there’s more than eighty Changelings still in Canterlot?”

We shook Our heads. “Not likely.” “Not anymore.” “Probably zero, now.” “All of them’d’ve moved out by now, i’d bet.” “Maybe some of them to Ponyville, even?”

Twilight Sparkle shook herself out of her own stupor at that last statement. “Wouldn’t you know?” We all only gave her a blank look, wondering what she’s talking about. “-know?- -know what?-” “-didn’t i just say i would bet on it?-” “-i think she’s talking about Ponyville-” Twilight confirmed that last thought. “Wouldn’t you know if any Changelings moved to Ponyville?” she elaborated with a somewhat “deadened” tone hinting at exasperation—or something like it—with having to elaborate.

It’s Our turn to look confused. “Uh… no?” “Why would We?” More confusion all around, so one of Us eventually ventured a guess at what might be blocking them from understanding. “It’s not like they’re part of Our Mind, or any of the seven Minds in Ponyville.” “-ah, right- -they still don’t understand how Minds work-” “-yet-”

Still, this didn’t seem to help much, for then they looked between themselves before Twilight turned back to Us with a hoof scratching her temple and a look in her eyes that suggested she thought We missed something obvious. “Seven…? -but there are-…” She raised an eyebrow looking on expectantly “-‘there are’ what?-” “is she saying what i think!?-” “that she knows of other Minds?- -i wonder-” “-but that doesn’t make sense-” “…-eight of you.”

One of Us began laughing while the rest of Us put a hoof over Our faces, some holding in chuckles with varying success. “Yes, there are eight of Us, and We make up one Mind. There are six other Minds in Ponyville.” “Technically seven-” “-but most don’t count her-” “-and i think she wouldn’t want to be counted…” “-if she could understand.”

Princess Celestia lowered her head very slowly then, drawing the attention of everypony else, then lifted one hoof in imitation of the position seven of Us had just been in. “There are more Changelings in Canterlot… There are more Changelings in Ponyville… I’m guessing there are more Changelings in Equestria than the currently highest estimate from my best parasitologists that there is one Changeling for thirty to thirty-five ponies. Ri-?”

The Princess didn’t get to actually ask her question, as this time all eight of Us burst into laughter, i having to actually throw myself onto another to keep from falling. “Sor-Sorry, Princess!” one of Us managed after a while. “It-It’s more like one to fifteen. -nearly one to ten in the less densely populated places.” Astonishment replaced their confusion; in the absence of any response, We kept talking. “As for Canterlot, as We said, there are probably no more there, actually, getting it to sit at an even zero percent—truly unheard of…”

We trailed off at how this sobered up the mood almost instantly, with Princess Celestia again moving in that slow way that seems befitting of a wise immortal. “This… is one strange day. I started it out with a Changeling hunt, and now I feel like I must… correct the fact that the Changeling population of Canterlot has fled… because of what I-.”

“Princess! Stop!” We all shouted at once, then decided to do one thing We’ve never done before: take Our united approach one step further—shock Her into submission by all speaking at once. -perfectly at once, in a way ponies, without a Mind, can only almost do. “You’re perfect. What you’ve done isn’t, but that’s not who you are. As Changelings, We know this; We see, everyday, ponies doing things they never would have done under other circumstances. We, Ourself, don’t like to lie, but We have to to survive. You, Princess Celestia, don’t like killing, but you had to.”

Roughly, She jerked Her head away from Us and looked to the ground, then everyone gasped as Her hair turned to something i don’t think anypony has seen for uncountable years: it slowly lost its magical sheen, its colors disappeared and blended into yellow, and finally when this transformation was complete, it fell limp. She then seemed for a moment to be shrinking in on Herself until everyone realized with a second gasp that She was shrinking until She became barely a head taller than a mortal pony. When She finally spoke, Her voice was horrible, with anger and sorrow fighting for recognition. “I. Didn’t. Have. To. Do… That!”

That voice… even We can’t imitate it, and We hope that no one—no pony or Changeling or anything—has to hear such a emotionally torn- wrecked thing again. It took Us a long moment to gather Our courage to speak again, during which time even Twilight did nothing more than stare worriedly at Princess Celestia. “Yes, you did. There was no other choice from where you were—what you understood… and thought you understood. There was no way you could see that even though they had a Mind, they were still individuals; to you they were mindless beyond base instinct, and you had no reason to look further into this. With nothing about their minds worthy of study, the only thing left was their bodies, and for that… you spared them the suffering of being cut open while they were still alive, even though We know you knew that would have given you more information than if they were dead. You were merciful.”

Vivisection or murder? It’s an extremely fine line, easily frayed and broken, that separates the two, making one worse than the other—i- none of Us would be surprised if you were divided on the matter; both are horrible, but each case is surrounded by circumstance. In this instance, We do believe Princess Celestia chose the lesser of two evils, and that She did not think that what She was doing was evil. As We told Her then, “We don’t think you would ever do evil knowingly, Princess Celestia. Why you did this is simple: Equestria and all the ponies who live here. You did it for them- to protect from what you perceived as a threat.” Princess Celestia was not and is not evil… and She’s not infallible, either. This is amongst her largest mistakes, but it couldn’t have gone any other way given what She knew and thought and felt… If She had kept them alive, they would have suffered, but survived, and almost certainly been released after this development, but Princess Celestia did not think of such a thing as possible even in the most remote ways—instead, from Her perspective, they would have only suffered endlessly… at least until everything useful had been ripped from their bodies, and the only left to do would have been to get rid of them. We don’t know how better We can put this, and We feel that perhaps We haven’t convinced all of you, so the only thing We can ask now is for you to trust Us and Princess Celestia, and believe She does nothing out of malice, but mere ignorance that She, even as She is immortal, cannot avoid always.

“How-?” Princess Celestia continued to face partially away from Us and to the ground, what face We might have seen was hidden by Her mane. “How can you say such things? How can you excuse what I’ve done?” Slowly, then, She began to breathe deeper and deeper, and more and more rapidly; sensing that She was not yet finished speaking, We only watched Her and waited, even though Our trepidation grew with Her frantic breathing. Finally, it happened almost like an explosion: She jerked Her head back around to face Us, revealing a face so stained with tears She wouldn’t have looked much different if it had been raining. “How can you forgive me!?”

“Because you asked for it.” Simple and true, but Princess Celestia turned disbelieving, almost scoffing, but We were undeterred and stepped forward until one of Us was close enough to touch Her. “Not with your voice, but with… this.” With that, We put a hoof to Her chest and smiled at the shocked recognition on Her face. “As Changelings, We know these things. We feel them as surely as you feel the wind: invisible, but present, real, and powerful… (sometimes). We can feel, as if was Ourself, how much you’re hurting because of this, Princess. Punishing yourself—hurting like this—isn’t the way to repent for anything; it cannot help you or Us or anyone.”

The Princess let out a long, struggling sigh before She reached up with one forehoof, then the other, to wipe Her face (Her hooves come easily out of her shoes since they don’t fit with Her having shrunk). “Thank you… I really needed to hear that… from you, and only you.” With a weak smile She began to grow back to Her normal proportions, and Her hair changed back to the mane you all know. She pulled Us back into another hug that i don’t think anyone would have minded lasting forever, but soon enough a… sound, loud but muffled, as if of something huge but far off, made Us all startle, and the Princess pulled away. “Perhaps this could wait until we are out of here, hm?” With nods all around, We began trotting again, if a bit faster than before, and with the mood of all considerably lifted as well.

Except for two notable exceptions: Rarity, who kept glancing at one of Us and making disgusted faces and tiny uncomfortable sounds, and Fluttershy, who had taken to staring intently into Our eyes in turn while wearing a deep, concerned frown. Eventually, We all stopped, exasperated and confused: their acceptance had been something We hadn’t dared ever hoped for, so something like this was not a surprise, yet there was no hatred or even animosity coming off of either ponies. The others took a short moment to realize We had stopped, and looked back at Us to find Us all leveling our eyes on Rarity… Well, they didn’t know how to tell where a Changeling is looking yet, so actually Rarity made a little embarrassed noise when she realized why We must have stopped, which attracted the attention of the others. “Rarity, is something wrong?”

Rarity pulled further into herself when the stares from everypony turned slightly accusatory—some “less slightly” than others—and made a number of hesitant vocalizations before managing a sensical sentence. “No, there’s nothing ‘wrong’ per se… It’s just-… just… why-are-you-covered-in-blood?!” She points a quivering hoof towards one of Us, and We all looked over, bewildered for about half a second until half of Us (including the one covered in blood) grinned sheepishly and the others burst into hysterical laughter.

“Ah? Oh! Uhm, i hadn’t even noticed… that was still there. It was actually from… ah…” We looked pleadingly toward Princess Celestia, hoping for some sign about what to say, with significant glances towards Fluttershy.

“-from the manti- from the fight with the manticore.” The Princess finished for Us, Her face now that old serene mask again; everypony else jumped into various states of shock. “-‘fight’?- -that wasn’t much of a fight so much as-” “-please!-” “-don’t- -just leave it alone-”

“A manticore did that?” Fluttershy asks with more concern than shock. “Oh! That was why you weren’t moving?! The manticore’s venom…” Everyone was looking at her now, but she didn’t seem to notice. “-but, if that’s the case, it… looked like, well, you had been… partially eaten.” She squeaked out the last two words, but afterwards her voice regains its soft strength. “-but then why did it leave its, uhm, meal—manticores rarely do that—and where did it go? That ravine seemed a little narrow for a manticore to fly in, and there was only-.”

“Fluttershy-…” We interrupted, quiet but enough to get her attention, yet We had no idea what to say, never mind how to begin, so We did nothing but look between myselves and bite Our lips.

“I forced them to kill it.” Still, the Princess put on a face, even if this one was more grim, it never showed Her true feelings. As could only be expected, Fluttershy started to tear up, and We all looked away with shame.

“Princess…” Some of Us try to intervene, but Princess Celestia shook Her head.

“No, I am responsible for this as well. I chased… that one into the canyon, where the manticore apparently lived, and it was aggravated by our sudden appearance. I hid while it faced off with… Pinkie, who used, if I remember your story correctly, your tactics, Fluttershy, in dealing with the manticore that attacked you as you went to retrieve the Elements on Nightmare Moon’s return.”

Fluttershy then looked over at the bloodied one with a faint smile of pride, but soon enough turned back to the Princess with a confused frown, “Then why did it have to be k-?” She choked on the word. “Why, Princess?”

“The manticore-… It-… You were right. -about me,” Princess Celestia said to Us. “I do not hurt or kill needlessly. I did not wish to harm the manticore, but it was hugging what I only thought of at the time as ‘a Changeling’ to its chest, and time was of the essence in capturing the rest of you: I was not about to wait for the manticore to release the Changeling to attack again. So I… did the first thing I thought of and provoked it, hoping it would once again think of the Changeling it was hugging as its enemy, and it did, so I flew away and… left it to do what manticores do. When the other seven converged on it, they would have had no choice but to kill it if they wanted to save the eighth from being eaten—which I am glad they did.” Princess Celestia then looked straight at Fluttershy, begging with Her eyes. “So… that is my fault.”

Fluttershy stared into the Princess’s eyes for a moment, then turn to the ground thoughtfully, before finally turning to the bloodied one of Us and speaking in Our general direction. “No, it wasn’t, Princess. With everything that happened… I can’t see any outcome where the manticore lives, either… I think-. It’s horrible, but true… As soon as you ran into it, the manticore didn’t stand a chance, no matter what you decided to do.” Fluttershy then nuzzled Princess Celestia’s leg. “It… hurts, but I understand.”

“Fluttershy-…” Princess Celestia leaned down on Her considerable neck to nuzzle the back of Fluttershy’s head. “-thank you.”

“-but…” Fluttershy went on, pulling away and turning to Us now, and We had the impression We were about to hear what had been disturbing Fluttershy before this issue with the manticore. “There’s something else I don’t understand… yet, and it’s been bothering me since-…” We wave Our forehooves to invite her to go on, trying to look “receptive” to their questions. “It’s just… how could you all not be bothered by the deaths of those Changelings in Canterlot?”

Applejack perked up, looking as if she had also been bothered but only now that the question had been asked did she understand herself exactly what it was. “Tha’s right!” She looked almost angry, but there was nothing in her emotions to suggest she felt the same way her expression went. “There’s still twenty-three dead now, even if the most of ‘em got away! How can ya’all dismiss so easy that them’s innocent lives’re been lost!”

We’ve already explained to you how Changelings think when confronted with death, which is more or less as We then explained then. “It is…” “—death is—” “different for Changelings. That is, We experience- think of it differently.” “It’s the fact that Changelings must be part of a Mind, and each Mind is a conglomeration of the Changelings that are part of it.” “So, even after a Changeling dies, it leaves a significant part of itself behind in all the Minds of which it was ever a part.” “It’s not that We are unconcerned or dismissive…” “-but that Changelings don’t really die like ponies do, as Changelings leave significant parts of theirselves behind that are more than just memories.” We intended to leave it at that, but one of Us-… i decided to give them full disclosure—it was only fair exchange for what Princess Celestia had offered, i thought. “That… and death in the hive is experienced… much more often than with ponies. Because of the queen’s plan to build an army that would swamp Equestria with pure numbers, she’d stretched the limits of the hive’s ability to gather love and feed everyone, so now only one out of four nymphs are expected to survive outside their nymphhood…”

I’d wanted to say more, but a rough shove and message through the Mind from another one of Us made me realize that I’d turned Fluttershy into a shivering mess and the rest were looking very uncomfortable. “Th-… That’s- That’s… hor-…-rible!”

I flinched and bit my lip. “Fluttershy-! I’m sorry! I just…” None of Us could think of what to say to reverse what i had inadvertently done.

“-It’s just another fact of Changeling life… and all the fault of that queen-.” Princess Celestia had subtly narrowed Her eyes when she mentioned the queen, but She didn’t understand, which We decided We had to correct at that very instant.

“Not entirely, Princess… The quality of life in the hive, even before that, was not very comfortable… there were still periods where We had to endure hunger as We waited for the gatherers to return, and such times were not rare by any definition. the queen’s plan merely aggravated the problem, but at the same time it was a plan to eventually eliminate the very same problem.” Princess Celestia was taken by surprise at that, before humming thoughtfully as Fluttershy rushed forward and took one of Us between her forehooves—We just let her cry herself out onto Our wither while the other came forward to hug Us in sympathy. Everyone else had pulled away by the time Fluttershy’s sobs turned to heaving, and then were shuffling awkwardly, but as quietly as possible, when she her heaves slowed down enough that she felt like she could finally let go and stand without falling over from grief.

Rarity, standing back a bit during this whole exchange and slightly perturbed that the topic had drifted, waited an appropriate amount of time after Fluttershy and We pull apart (which is to say, as you who know Rarity might not believe, “instantly”) before bring up what had started the whole discussion in the first place. “Yes, yes, and now that-… -out of the way-… I’m sorry, but can we do something about that?” she asked with another polite point at the bloodied one of Us. To be completely fair, though, We know it’s pretty much impossible for most ponies to tell Us apart. (-for some reas-ow!)

“Does anypony know if there’s any water around here?” We asked, split between looking at the most hopeful ponies: Twilight and Princess Celestia.

“Just make sure it ain’t that crazy copyin’ puddle, whatever it wus called.” Applejack half play-warned with a smirking grin prompting Us to share a good laugh with her as We go back to making Our way out, some of Us choosing to fly again; Twilight and the Princess had both shrugged when prompted about sources of water again.

“About that Mirror Pool, though…” Twilight started, and i saw the gleam of knowledge-hunting in her eye. “Now that we know, well, that there are eight of you… what really happened with that? There were more than eight Pinkies bouncing around, and I sent all but one into the Pool…” Then she stopped, and her eyes dulled and shrank with fear. “I didn’t hit any Changelings, did I?!”

“No! No…” We quickly relieve her worry, allowing her to sigh with a smile as a wave of chuckles run though Us, instantly alerting to everypony that, indeed, We knew something they didn’t. “Well… to start, everything (except the copy-returning spell, of course) that you read in that book on the Mirror Pool—or, to be more accurate, Mirror Pools—was a lie. The Pools are remnants of a piece of ancient Changeling magic, and they will only work for Changelings-” “-and Mirror Pool copies, apparently, though We didn’t know that…”

Two simultaneous sounds of disappoint greet this news. Rainbow Dash groaned and shook her head, and the second came from Princess Celestia before She said, “What a pity: only Changelings…” Everypony stopped to stare at their ruler for showing any wish to use such a thing as the Mirror Pools, but an instant later the sound of many ruffling feathered wings behind them drew their (plus the Princess’s) attention to no less than five Changeling-copies of Princess Celestia (including regalia), all grinning in a way better fitting Pinkie Pie, which caused Twilight, in a tiny moment of panic, to look between the huddle of Changelings, some still settling their wings (having transformed in midair), to the real-Princess beside her, who looked on wide-eye in surprise, but smiling with amusement, too.

“Myself… dear myself,” one of Us started in a perfect copy of Her voice, “if you ever want time off-” “-or to play a little prank-” “-all myself has to do is ask one of Her other selves to step forward!” “Yes… We’re sure the love your ponies have for their Princess is plentiful and quite delicious.” One of the Princess-copies began to lick “her” lips, but stopped- in fact, We all grew stiff when Princess Celestia suddenly lost both the surprise and amusement and in their place was… something serious. “S-Sorry!” “We didn’t mean-!”

“Don’t worry…” She cut over our sputtered apologies with not a hint of rage. “I am not angry about that… implication—and I would not be completely opposed to it, once ponies have adjusted to having Changelings around—but something else you said bothers me: ‘their Princess’.” This only earned raised eyebrows from all of Us. “Do you not… think of me as your Princess?”

“Well-…” “Ah-…” “No…?” We mumbled, shuffling Our hooves uncomfortably; We could feel something from Princess Celestia that set Us on edge; whether it did that because We simply had never encountered such a feeling before, or it was something innate in that feeling, We cannot say, for We have not felt it ever again. “We mean…” “The thing is-” “-We’re not your ponies, so-.” “We’d like to be! It’s just… not… uhm…” The last speaker trailed off, and it was easy to see why: Princess Celestia was starting to cry again.

“I don’t care!” She leapt forward, pulling as many of Her copies—along with a couple untransformed Changelings—between Her forehooves as She could; We do nothing but freeze in Her embrace. “You want me to be your Princess- You want to be Equestrians, don’t you?” Those of Us still capable of movement nod. “-and I would be honored to have such wonderful Changelings as yourselves among my subjects, so We agree. That… is that, and all that matters.” She finished somewhat weakly with a little chuckle as She pulled back and rubbed Her wet eyes.

She turned away, about to continue Our trek, but then the five Celestia-copies put on wicked grins simultaneously and jumped onto the Princess back, who let out a very unPrincess-like squawk of surprise. The six tumbled around in the dirt, a mass of white flapping wings and legs tipped with golden shoes, but when they all got up, they were all more brown and green than white. All six sputtered indignantly and flapped their wings to get the worst of the dirt out of them, then looked up, first with surprise, then playful anger, with a grin and pulled down eyebrows, and they all said, almost simultaneously, “So, you want to play this game?” Rainbow Dash fell out of the air with laughter, while Twilight looked on with hesitant amusement and jumped when the six turned to her. (Rarity stared at the dirtied Princesses, scandalized, Applejack was trying to rein in her own laughter, and Fluttershy didn’t know how she should feel) “Come on, Twilight Sparkle, help me, or can’t you pick out the real me?” At the declaration of the challenge, Rainbow Dash managed to get herself to sit up to watch Twilight with a Pinkie-smile.

Twilight swallowed back something i’m sure was the test-stress, probably telling herself that it was just a game (or something like that), but still she took her role seriously, and thought for not even a minute before giving her answer. “Maybe you can try to do something that they can’t do? -it’s too early to even begin thinking about lowering the Sun, but there must be something else…” Whatever Twilight told herself, she still beamed when the Celestias nodded and smiled approvingly before turning to study each other, eyes roving up and down, searching for something.

Eventually, the twelve eyes settled on the hooves of various other Celestias. They stared at those hooves for a moment, then as one they lifted their right forehooves and gripped the shoes in their teeth and, most of them, tried to pull the shoes off—only two managed it. (You might be wondering why Celestia didn’t try to perform some magic, thus revealing Our green auras? That would have been too easy; it was, remember, just a game.) Narrowing their eyes, the two Celestias faced off, then opened their mouths, and only one shoe fell to the ground; the other remained “stuck” to the Changeling’s teeth, but one burst of green fire later and it was gone. “So… when Changelings create clothing in a disguise, the clothing acts like it’s ‘part’ of that Changeling, and can’t be separated?” Princess Celestia asked half-rhetorically as the rest of Her copies disappeared in more green fires.

We all nodded. “Exactly.” “More or less.” “To put it so simply.”

“Fascinating,” Twilight said with only partial deadpan-ishness, “but we’ve fallen off topic… -again. You were just talking about the Mirror Pools being Changeling magic when we got sidetracked…?” That sparkle in her eye rekindled at the idea of learning about Changeling magic which, as she had stated before, ponies knew pretty much nothing about—at least then they didn’t.

“Jeez, lighten up, Twi.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, but spoke lowly and turned away so that only a couple of Us could hear and see her. We regathered Our thoughts as We all began walking yet again.

“Right. Let’s see…” “Already said that, but-…” “Mirror Pools, as We hinted at, are relics of another time, when Changelings weren’t united under one queen, and there were a bunch of smaller hives all over—a lot of hives were so small that they didn’t have enough-…” “-drones. We are drones, so it’s okay to call Us that” “-as long as you remember that doesn’t make Us mindless!” “…-to always be out collecting enough love and staying home protecting the queen and nymphs, so most had their own Pool-” “(which only works when a Changeling is disguised)” “-to create temporary copies of foalnapped ponies that could take their place for a little while.” “-but now that that’s not really needed any more since the hives united, the knowledge of how to create a Mirror Pool has pretty much been lost.” “Though the queen might know. -maybe.”

Pausing here, We waited for the implication to sink in, listening to them occasionally whisper to themselves some quote of what We’d just said; Rainbow Dash was the first one to get it. “Hey! What you just said about what the Mirror Pools were used for-…” She tapped her chin as she stared, trying, as she later admitted, to come up with some other explanation; We grinned wider and wider as We waited for her to reveal Our real motive aloud. “-are you saying that the reason you used it was… for the same reason?”

Twilight looked up at Rainbow Dash, confused for less than a second before reaching the same conclusion. “They had ‘the same rea-’? Ah! … Aaaah! You don’t mean that none of those Pinkies were you, do you?!” In answer, We giggled and nodded, making Twilight groan and stop for a second to put a hoof to her forehead. “All that work… the test, the strain of casting that spell so many times, and the stress and worry of hitting ‘the real Pinkie’… and it was all for nothing?!”

Most of Us turned ashamed at the implicit accusations, but i stood Our ground. “Well, none of Us were actually there, but even if We were, We couldn’t have revealed Ourself then… -not without-” “-repercussions.” We nodded solemnly, and Twilight bit her lip at the reminder of what had almost happened just hours ago and how she had participated in it. “Anyway, yes, We were all away from Ponyville; We had to speak with Chrysalis.” “Oh, and to be fair, Twilight, your test did, at least, manage to pick out the copy We originally made—which had a personality that was closest to the one We created for Pinkie.” “-also, try to keep in mind that We had no idea a Mirror Pool copy could create more copies, so…”

Twilight smiled a little at Our praise and apologies, but Princess Celestia suddenly frowned. “Chrysalis… you’ve mentioned that name before a couple of times now, but who is this?”

We pulled Our heads back in surprise at the question. “Didn’t she… ever give her name?” one of Us asked myselves. “I thought she did-” “-but i guess We only imagined it-” “-or assumed it?” Then We turned back to the ponies. “We thought you knew-…” “-but now, We think you already suspect…” We trailed off, fidgeting, a little afraid of how they might take this news. “Chrysalis-is-the-Changeling-queen,” one of Us eventually burst out in the manner of ripping off a bandage, then another added, “the-one-who-attacked-Canterlot… in full disclosure… so you understand.” “-since We haven’t really explained that there’s only one queen, even though We kind of implied it.” In the silence that followed, one of Us whispered, “I thought it was obvious anyway, since only queens have names.” “-but they don’t know that.” “Oh. Right.”

Princess Celestia, indeed having already suspected this, nodded slightly, and emotions couldn’t decide what to do; Twilight, however, jumped forward, looking manic. “You… went to see that monster!? The one who attacked Canterlot!? Then you know where she is! Where?! Where is she?!” Twilight grabbed one of Us with her forehooves and shook Us, frantic, but the Princess quickly intervened, pulling her back with Her magic; She looked disappointed towards Twilight’s actions just then, but We held out a hoof, asking for Her to let Us handle this, which She allowed with a small bow of Her head.

“Yes, of course We know where she is.” “-and-!” We interrupted when Twilight opened her mouth to ask another shouted question. “-that’s Our mother you’re calling a monster, Twilight.” She flinched, but the anger didn’t yet leave her face. “We know how she hurt you and Cadance and your brother… and you, Princess-…” She made a small dismissive motion with Her wings, and a hint of a smile bolstered Us. “-that is partially why some of Us left Chrysalis: We didn’t fully agree with some of her decisions… but she is still Our mother. She laid Us as eggs, and watched over Us before and after We hatched,-” (Rarity grimaced at the mention Us coming from eggs, but recomposed herself gracefully in a matter of seconds) “-she took care of Us when We were still too young to take care of myselves, and she taught Us everything We needed to know to survive.” At this, Twilight’s eyes started to shift uneasily, knowing that she’ll find it tough to find strong ground to attack someone who was and is so much like any pony mother, even if she did lead an army against Canterlot. “We wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for Chrysalis, and you would have never met Pinkie without her.” At the mention of a potential world without Pinkie, Twilight slumped, but We could tell she still had a little fight left, and We had more to say. “-and, even though she knows it’s unlikely, she always keeps a place in her hive and her heart open if any of Us should ever decide to return. We owe her everything.”

“-but… what if we ever need to use the Elements against her!?” We only shook Our heads, knowing that Twilight only wished she could use the Elements of Harmony on Chrysalis—turning her to stone or sending her to the moon would have surely, in her mind, been fitting punishment for what Chrysalis did, or much more so than what had happened, anyway… but We’re more tactful than that to say such a thing!

“Then you would need to find another way.” “We’re still going to keep her secrets and protect her whenever We can, even if We’re no longer part of her hive or her Mind.” “-and-…” We shivered, but stood firm. “-even if it means Princess Celestia retracting everything She’s said about making peace with Changelings.”

Everypony turned to Princess Celestia then, but She was quick to shake Her head with that old smile. “I cannot order anypony to help with such things, unless they have subjected themselves to my control, which you, my Bearers, did not do—you were chosen by the Elements outside of your will, so I cannot fault you if you ever wish to not use them for any reason, and certainly not a reason like this. As well… if you were capable of meeting with the- with Queen Chrysalis, and your relationship with her is as you say, then I must take the opposite stance: Equestria’s relations with all Changelings may be even more recoverable than I thought just minutes ago.”

All Changelings? -including… Chrysalis?” We knew Twilight couldn’t help, at least then, but speak the name with some remaining contempt, but she then looked at Us, sorrow in her eyes, “-but what you said: without her no… Pinkie- no… you.” She let out a shaking sigh, and her eyes silently begged for forgiveness. “Maybe we would’ve found another Bearer of Laughter… maybe… not,” Princess Celestia’s eyes widened, and She shivered, barely discernable; a telling sign (to Changelings, since We’re apparently the only creatures who can read the Princ-oof!) She could not see another potential Bearer of Laughter—at least not in Ponyville. “-but even worse than that… we might not have learned the truth about Changelings, and just went on with the spell I augmented with Blood Magic, kill- no, worse than that: slaughtering innocents. Thousands of innocents…” She stepped up to Us and nuzzled one before finishing. “I- I, as a pony, have to admit that even though she did do something so evil as invade Canterlot, if she raised Changelings who grew up to be as amazing as you eight, and even more than just you, then she can’t be… all that horrible.”

“-an’ if Queen Chrysalis still cares about you, even after you left, that only makes ’er more ehquine in mah books!” Applejack grinned in a wide enough way to show her teeth; her words stirred in Our memories her Cutie Mark story, which involved her leaving her family and farm for a time before returning to nothing but love.

“This also brings up the possibility of saving those starving nymphs’ lives…” When the Princess brought this up, Fluttershy brightened at such a prospect—later, she would turn out to be the only pony Chrysalis entrusted to watch over her nymphs whenever she had to leave them for one reason or another, as well as to assign other ponies to nymphsit if both of them were busy. “Which means time yet remains of the essence. I hope that I will have your help in contacting Queen Chrysalis about this?” She asked, to which We instantly nodded—as desensitized (compared to you ponies) that We are to death, We’d still, of course, prefer to avoid it and prevent it where We could and can.

“Time out! Time out!” Rainbow Dash flew forward, pushing Twilight behind her, taking a position between Us and her and leveling Us with a scrutinizing eye. “You said you wouldn’t use the Elements against the queen, but then what happened in Canterlot?”

Having expecting this question, so We were ready with Our answer. “Well, the first thing on Our Mind, of course, was keeping up appearances.” “Yeap. Even though she managed to defeat Princess Celestia, We knew Chrysalis wasn’t unbeatable, so We were mostly hoping that somepony else would be able to figure out something.” “-without Us having to point out her weaknesses, of course!” “As for the Elements, We also knew it was pretty much impossible for Us to fight Our way through Chrysalis’s army, as built as it had been.” “-but when those Changelings transformed into all of you, that’s when We decided We had to fight-” “-not just for appearances, but to warn them that you were all… ah, to put it from a Changeling perspective, Our prey, and that We wouldn’t allow any Changeling to imponyate you.” “-though We don’t think of you as nothing but Our prey, of course! That’s just how those other Changelings would have interpreted Our actions.” We break into nervous chuckling, but Twilight quickly cut over Us after shoving Rainbow aside in turn.

“You don’t have to worry about us thinking anything like that of you. That was already proven by Princess Cadance and Shining Armor’s Love-powered spell, after all!” She flung her forehooves up in a very Pinkie-esque gesture.

“Right.” “Sorry.” “We’re still not use to not needing to worry about-… about…” “-appearances.” “-deception.” “-suspicion.” Three of Us fill in the trailed off sentence at the same time.

“That’s okay. I’m sure you’ll get better with time.” Fluttershy suddenly spoke up, and the others nodded at her words. “-and once you do, I’m just as sure you’ll think of it as a relief that you don’t have to lie to your friends any more.” We all teared up a bit, and there’s more nuzzling all around, but there had already been so many heartfelt moments at that point that everyone’s tear ducts and emotions were feeling a bit worn.

We trotted on even more briskly then, but the sound of running water had Rarity perk her ears up. “Ah-ha! Do you hear that?” (Of course We did long before her, since Our hearing is so much better than pon-ow! Why again?! Ow!) “Water! Now you can all wash up before we get back to Ponyville!” she said as she pointed towards those of Us covered with dirt, the one of Us covered with blood, and finally, with a little hesitation, Princess Celesta.

Looking down at one of her own legs and seeing how it was so dirty that it resembled a certain enthusiastic admirer of Luna, She only smiled. “Yes, a quick bath sounds like a good idea, lest I actually appear in public in such a disheveled and undignified state.” Rarity gapped with horror at the way the Princess implied that Rarity had implied Princess Celestia was in anyway undignified, no matter the reason, but the Princess quickly relieved Rarity of her worry with a laugh, and then We made Our way to find this river.

Thankfully, it did not possess a swift current, and in fact looked quite familiar. “Hey!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, “I think I know where we are now! I wonder if that water dragon is around…” She flew up a little ways, looking up and down the river, but apparently having seen nothing, soon shot down into the river with a splash.

“He’s a serpent, Rainbow—not even remotely related to dragons, no matter what they look like.” Twilight corrected in an automatic-sounding way after shielding herself from the wave of water.

“Whatever you say, Twi.” Rainbow shrugged and laid on her back when she resurfaced, gliding along the water with her wings. “I still think ‘water dragon’ sounds cooler, though.”

We chuckled at Rainbow’s “argument” as We, even those of Us not dirty, stepped more carefully into the water along with the Princess, who kept her regalia on to clean it as well. Whereas the Princess used Her magic to bring water up from the river to wash Herself, she watched as We instead did as Changelings do: scrubbed each other, which We were not surprised to learn made the ponies a little squeamish, particularly when We, without the slightest waver or sign of embarrassment, cleaned myselves around the hindlegs as well. There is not much of an idea of “sexuality” among Changelings and therefore no stigma around touching other’s… “tools of the trade” you might say, since only a queen can actually lay eggs and the vast majority of Changelings do not see the enjoyment in recreational activities, much less participate in them… (-and now that i see you’re all squirming, nice and uncomfortable, let’s go on!)

Eventually, as We worked at the stubborn dried blood that clung to one of Our carapace, another one of Us looked at a hoof smeared mostly with blood, but also with a streak of liquid that shimmered without the Sun having to hit it, before turning to the Princess. “Princess Celestia, when you made the Blood Promise-… Can you actually… die?” The water that She had been levitating fell back into the river, and the wing She had been holding out to wash slowly contracted back against Her side; everypony else, now waiting on the shore (except for Rainbow, who was drying herself by flying in quick little circles) perked up.

“I… believe I have already answered this question, at least in implication, but to put it simply and plainly: yes. -or at least I am forced to believe so.” She sighed as She pulled another trickle of water up to Her wing. “The Blood Promise, as I said, will not hold if one—or more—of the conditions are impossible, and as the ‘promise’ of relinquishing one’s life if the promised conditions are unfulfilled is itself a condition, and I have made other Blood Promises before successfully, I can only conclude that, yes, I can die… or at least be killed, since I don’t seem to be dying of old age, so there is no need to worry that I might ‘be gone’ anytime soon.” Then She smiled serenely, comfortingly, towards the shore—particularly to Twilight, who visibly relaxed.

The rest of the time at the river was largely uneventful, minus the envious looks We received from Rarity and Rainbow Dash when they saw how the water glided smoothly off Our chitin, wings, and fins instead of remaining soaked as their fur, hair, and feathers would. “At least we know more or less where we are now; Ponyville is just a little further that way!” Twilight pointed and We set off once the Princess had been Rainblow Dried, and Twilight herself let out a little burst of envy (which went unnoticed by any non-Changeli-argh!) at seeing how Princess Celestia’s mane remained one-hundred percent unruffled and perfect.

As We neared the edge of the forest, seeing how the light of the Sun brightened suddenly in the distance, the ponies sped up (even Princess Celestia, though a bit more elegantly), along with one of Us who transformed into Pinkie Pie and started to bound along in the fashion We had invented for that disguise, while the rest of Us stopped and watched them rush ahead of Us, feeling a little tug of sorrow and Our own envy flow through the Mind. Just before they burst out into the open, however, they stopped and looked around them (perhaps noticing the sudden lack of Our buzzing wings among them) then looked back to see the seven of Us remaining behind, then looked at the Pinkie beside them, who tilted her head, then back to the seven, who were then making Our way into the thick brush of the forest that would hide Us, but Rainbow was hovering before Us again in the next instant, asking, “Hey! Where are you all going?”

We looked between myselves as the other ponies came back to Us. “We’re… hiding.” “-of course…?” “What else would We be doing?” “We can’t just walk out into Ponyville like this.” “We still don’t know how the other ponies will feel about their- the Princess declaring peace with Changelings. We don’t want to-… uhm…” “-incite panic?” “-make everypony think Princess Celestia and the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony have all been replaced by Changelings.” “-create the impression that Changelings are attacking Equestria again?”

As We explained that in spite of what happened in that canyon between Us and Princess Celestia and the other Bearers hadn’t changed anything out there about the general opinion of Changelings—which amounted to “capture on sight, but kill if there’s no other choice”—they deflated, and they found it their turn to glance between themselves, only now with worry and sorrow as instead they considered Our position… except for Princess Celestia. “Perhaps…” She began as She lowered Her head to Our level. “However, this is the kind of change that must happen rapidly, before any more severe, irreversible mistakes are made. Of course I will not force any of you if you are not comfortable, but if you think you are up to walking into Ponyville without a disguise—all of you—I think that would be best. I only ask that before you make your decision to please take into account that I still consider you my little ponies, and even though you are not ponies on the outside, I will still do everything I can to protect the ponies you are on the inside.”

You might think We had to think long and hard about this, debating back and forth, but it was and is as the other of Us (who’s done cleaning the classroom now, but is talking with Twilight) said: We believed and believe in Princess Celestia completely, so in answer We stepped out of the foliage We had crawled halfway into and the one Pinkie Pie let the disguise burn away. After We stepped out from under the strange (even to Changelings) canopy of the Everfree Forest, We had one request before entering Ponyville itself: “Princess, if you don’t think it would cause too much trouble-…” We paused, but Princess Celestia’s smile widened slightly to invite Us to go on. “-before you make any official public announcement, could We stop by the hospital first?”

Princess Celestia—(i have wondered if it is what We are that caused Her that day to be so open with Her emotions than We have ever seen or heard Her being before or since…)—looked down at Us with an expression of curious bewilderment. Before She could ask, We decided to explain. “There is someone there who We think would like to be there when it happens.” “-be there, at your side, Princess, without her disguise.”

The Princess at this, turned slightly more grim as She stopped walking to look at the sky as She thought over Her answer, and only after about a whole minute in thought does She bring Her head back down with the smile replaced. “If it is as important to her as you say, then for her I think we should at least try.”

Then, as We continued onward, but still a ways from Ponyville yet, Twilight, who had become lost in thought, murmured, “…‘her’…?” before turning to Us. “You described this Changeling at the hospital as a ‘her’, but… you never told us what you are. -your genders, that is.” Then she began to scrutinize Us over as swiftly as she could, trying to look for anything that might indicate who was what—seeing her puzzling over Us, We decided to wait until she gave up. Of course, she found nothing, not even when she dared (with a blush) the quickest of glances towards the obvious spot.

We all chuckled when she slumped into her defeat, so We answered before she could wallow too long. “Actually, with Changelings, the gender ratio is kind’a switched from ponies.” “There are more males than females.” “So… six of Us are what you could call ‘stallions’-” “-in the absence of any better terminology.”

That got them to all stop for a moment, except one: Our perfect partner in crime. “Six of you, huh?” We nodded to Rainbow Dash’s question. “So, that’s one for each of us, including the Princess.” With that, she flew forward and turned around, the better to see the others’ reactions.

Twilight, by the way she just stopped, one leg suspended off the ground, hit a screeching mental halt. Fluttershy, strangely, let out a-… what can only really be described as a “baa” (maybe she’s part sheep? Distantly, if… but still) as she not only froze, but tilted over, rolling onto her back, and Rarity would have fainted right alongside her if one of Us hadn’t caught her (We knew she would have gone more than ballistic if she had to stand in front of Ponyville with Princess Celestia with her coat less than presentable). Lastly, Applejack and the Princess took the joke in stride, and laughed with the rest of Us; the others recovered, if not recomposed, quickly enough, and then We were heading onwards again, some still chuckling and some still blushing.

Soon enough, though the dreaded moment came and wiped away Our thoughts of amusement or embarrassment. Entering Ponyville, then, for Us, when all We had ever done Our whole lives until that moment was hide, it was-… We shivered, Our wings buzzed nervously, and We looked all around frantically as We felt the need to get out of sight before anypony could see, but before We could bolt away, a soft brush of Princess Celestia’s wing across one of Our backs—which We all felt through Our Mind—calmed Us again. Still, She could not stop Our hearts from being stung when that inevitable cry, filled with fear, hit the air. “Changelings!” “The Changelings got Princess Celestia!” “-and Twilight Sparkle, too!”

The Princess, i think, understood that this situation required a more delicate, precise approach than just calling out “Wait!” or “Stop!” or “Halt!” and did nothing. The panic that followed left the streets empty in record time (quite a feat for a town that nearly meets its doom every other week, making the ponies of Ponyville already amongst the quickest in Equestria at reacting to danger) except for two who had been left behind who had rushed to the edge of town instead. “Is this… what it looks like to me, Vinyl?” Octavia turned to Vinyl Scratch (otherwise, “known in the industry” as DJ PON-3) to whom she then continued asking, voice growing more excited, “This is what I think it is, right? Please, tell me this is it!” Vaguely, We noted that someponies’ curiosity at this outburst had gotten the better of their fear and now peeked out their windows.

“Ehrrrr,” was all Vinyl said, even when Octavia reared up, grabbed Vinyl’s face between both forehooves, turned Vinyl around to face her, and stared into Vinyl’s eyes, muzzles touching. Octavia only pulled back when We—the other Bearers confused to various degrees, and Princess Celestia having a gleam of curiosity and a guess at what’s happening in Her eyes—stepped up to them. “I… think so?” Vinyl finally managed to say in a half-question that was directed at Us.

-but it was Twilight who spoke next. “Are you saying that one of-” Octavia grinned and started nodding. “-one of you-… one of you are are-?”

Octavia seemed to quickly lose her patience, but she didn’t stop smiling as she rolled her eyes and said in a faux mocking tone, “Yes, Twilight Sparkle. Honestly, I thought by now everypony had figured out that Vinyl Scratch is a vampire… even if ‘she’ isn’t the type of vampire they usually think of.” Octavia laughed as Twilight continued gapping and mouthing some words she was unable to vocalize as she pointed a forehoof at Vinyl, who grinned sheepishly from behind Their shades; Octavia, ignoring this, put a hoof over Vinyl’s withers and said into Their ears, “Go ahead. It’s safe now. Right?” She directed the question at Princess Celestia, who nodded, but Vinyl didn’t release the disguise right away. Instead, They lifted up Their signature lenses behind Their horn with a little light blue magic and looked the Princess square in the eyes for a long moment, during which Octavia gave Them a peck on the side of Their muzzle.

Slowly, Vinyl started to smile, then with a burst of green flames—which didn’t so much as startle Octavia, who kept her leg draped over Vinyl even as they partially engulfed her—the Changeling revealed Theirself with the apparently real purple shades still behind Their horn. Octavia gave her lover (Octavia insists that everyone refer to Them like this, so as not to give anyone the wrong impression about Their relationship) another kiss on the side of Their muzzle, which Vinyl returned—to Our surprise, Rarity wavered, swooning not from disgust, but happiness (and maybe a bit from the idea of “forbidden love”, but she’d never admit that)—after which they started forward, towards Us, but Twilight called out of the blue, “Hold it!” making everyone but the Princess jump. “Vinyl Scratch’s magic is blue, not green! It’s a light blue that you-! … -just… demonstrated?” She started out with pointing an accusatory hoof that made Vinyl flinch, but it lowered slightly when the obvious question came to her.

Princess Celestia, with a laugh in Her eyes that She was determined to keep to Herself for Her student’s sake, stepped forward and lowered Twilight’s hoof the rest of the way to the ground with a touch of Her own hoof. “I believe I can answer this, and, Twilight, you should be aware that once I speak the answer it will sound obvious only in hindsight; do not worry yourself because of this, and remember it still has yet to be even half a day since I declared peace. I- Nopony can ask or expect you to set aside reservations and the tendency to be suspicious so quickly.” Twilight nodded slowly and offered Vinyl an apologetic smile, to which They smiled in return, and They nodded Their understanding. “Now, as for the magic, certain classes of magic, such as Dark Magic, Blood Magic and, I suspect, Changeling Magic, causes the aura of the caster’s magic to temporarily change. A Changeling may yet have an aura yet different from that of Changeling Magic when it uses Unicorn Magic; alternatively, if Changelings usually have this green aura, well, usually a unicorn’s aura is similar to the color of that unicorn’s eyes, but there are exceptions here as well, so I would not think it impossible for some Changelings to also have an aura outside their norm.”

“Oh…” Twilight had been steadily cowed as Princess Celestia explained Her (correct) theo- hypothesis(-! By the Sun Princess’s great eclipsing plot, think before you speak! Twilight would kill Us for using ‘theory’ as a synonym for ‘hypothesis’! -or at least give us a really long, detailed, boring lecture.” “She’ll kill you if she hears you call the Princess’s plot ‘eclipsing’!”… “Sorry.” “Anyway), but after a moment, as she started to rise from her submissive posture, she stopped. “Speaking of magic-…” She raised herself to stand straight slowly as she dragged out the word. “-which on of you is the Bearer? -The Bearer of the Element of Laughter? I mean, it would be good to know for the next time we need to use them.” To herself, in a pseudo-whisper, she added, “I can’t believe I didn’t think of asking that until just now!”

Meanwhile, We were looking between myselves in confusion. “Who-?” “-is the Bearer?” “-of Laughter?” “Well, i’m pretty sure it’s all of Us who’s ‘the Bearer’-” “-since i was the one who wielded it against Nightmare Moon…” “-and i’m the one who used it against Discord!”

Even Princess Celestia pulled Her head back in surprise, but it was Twilight who went on. “Two… of you? -but how is the possible? Each Element chose a Bearer. One! -and I know each of you have a separate personality-”—We, and even the Changeling that had been Vinyl, grinned in appreciation of this—“-even though… I can’t tell who’s who because you all look the same to me… but-! -how can you all represent Laughter like this?! Though even if you can answer that, there can still only be one Bearer! -or at least…” Twilight started shrinking in on herself, going so far to lower herself to ground so she could pull and push at her face with her forehooves—a dangerous sign. “-that’s what I thought… how the Elements worked?”

The Princess looked like She was going to speak, but one of Us (who wasn’t paying attention to Her) answered first. “Well, i see two possibilities here: One, the Elements are not bound to one and only one Bearer, or two, the Bearer isn’t ‘one of Us’ but ‘all of Us’—that is: ‘Our Mind’. -or, ah, three-…” The one of Us chuckled awkwardly here. “-it could be both, i suppose.” The only thing that greeted this explanation was Twilight blinking blankly. “Well, that’s just what i thought; i mean, We don’t really know how the Elements of Harmony really work… right?”

At the question, Twilight sighed and stood, losing the glint of insanity in her eyes. “No, you’re right. I was just making assumptions when the data pool was way too small from which to draw any definitive conclusions.” She gave the one of Us who had offered her the explanations a quick hug. “Thank you for… drawing me out of that little freak-.” She stopped and a look of exaltation slowly overtook her, making the rest of Us (plus Octavia, Vinyl, and some of the pony onlookers behind their windows) to worry. “Magic! Of course!” Naturally, none of Us had any idea as to what she was talking about until she revealed her ingenious segue. “If Changeling Magic is a class of magic, and not-!… Then that would make-! Changelings and-!”

“Twilight…” We cut her off, “You’re doing that thing again.” “That thing where you aren’t really explaining anything.”

“Sorry.” She apologized while chuckling awkward apologetic chuckles. “What I’m getting at is that this aura discrepancy—if the Princess is correct—reveals that Changeling Magic is a class of magic, like Blood Magic, which means-…” She paused dramatically, but i’m sure you’ve already figured it out like We did then, and We gasped before Twilight announced her th-(rk!) hypothesis. “-if a unicorn studied hard enough, then it shouldn’t be impossible for a pony to learn how to cast Changeling spells!”

She looked up at Princess Celestia for confirmation, or any kind of comment on her proposition. “Yes, indeed.” She inclined Her head in a small nod. “If the nature of Changeling Magic is how I just supposed, then I would not rule out the possibility until you, my faithful student, prove such a thing impossible.” The Princess’s smile grew when She saw how Her implied invitation for Twilight to study Changeling Magic had Twilight’s eyes sparkling (ha! Good one!). “Now, however, I think we should make haste for the Ponyville hospital. Perhaps a simple, unassuming, unaggressive stroll through town will go some ways towards alleviating the townsponies’ fears? You two-” She directed to Octavia and Vinyl. “-are welcome to join us, as are the other Changelings who… ah, make up ‘The Mind’ of Vinyl Scratch?” She half-questioned Her own phrase, but Vinyl nodded, and as We made Our way (finally) into Ponyville proper, three more Changelings joined Us—each one was greeted by Octavia with a kiss too… involved to be anything remotely platonic. (Octavia is as good as any Changeling at putting on a mask: She acted and acts like any Canterlotian, but on the inside-” “—inside the bedroom!—“ “-she’s a machine! Four stallions every-!” “Okay…! On with the story!)

We do not know if Our “simple, unassuming, unaggressive stroll” had any effect, never mind the one the Princess hoped for, as everywhere was empty and still except for the windows where ponies watched Us and ducked away out of sight when they noticed one of Us looking at them. So for a long time nothing happened until We were in sight of the hospital, and at that last turn Princess Celestia held out a foreleg. “Wait…” She ordered before pointing up to the sky where a wing of pegasi guards were descending towards Us, one of them carrying a unicorn guard. Once they were close enough, and We saw (with no little worry) that they held their weapons ready, Princess Celestia gave Her order to Her guards, “Hold! Do not attack!”

The pegasi hovered and looked between themselves for a moment at this order from the apparent Celestia (they flew far enough apart that they could not hit each other with the spears they held in their mouths as they did this), and We could see the quandary they silently pondered: If this was, indeed, the Princess Celestia, then they couldn’t afford to disobey. However, if She was not a Changeling Herself, then what was She doing in the apparently amicable company of Changelings?! Ponies then only knew one surefire test to check if somepony is a Changeling, but that would involve attacking who was, potentially the real Princess Celestia! With a sigh, they landed before Us and the unicorn stepped forward with their answer. “Princess—if you are Princess Celestia—I’m sorry, but we have to know… and you know there’s only one way to be one-hundred percent certain…”

Princess Celestia only smiled down at the unicorn that could have been mistaken for any of his fellow guards (and ponies think not being able to tell Us apart is in any way unusual). “I agree. In fact, I would have had to insist if you neglected this duty, so I hold only pride and respect towards you for being able to confront me like this.” The unicorn’s ears perked at this, and We could see that there was something like a… an understanding-hope hybrid that this Alicorn before him is, indeed, Princess Celestia, at least until it hit him that if he’s right, then he’s about to strike the Princess of the Sun with a spell that had to be strong enough to knock Her out! He gulped, steeled himself, then let out a burst of orange magic that had enough force to knock Her back into rearing up on Her hindlegs.

Some of Us rushed forward to catch Her as She started to tilt to one side, and the guards crouched before rushing forward “to their Princess’s aid” as they no doubt thought, but Twilight, who had been ready for this, solidified her already half-conjured shield spell; the guards let out cries of alarm when their spears stuck the pinkish shield of magic that now trapped them (Equestria’s military really leaves something to be desired, doesn’t it? First Canterlot and then that. It’s a good thing you all have Us Changelings—ha! I was ready for your attack that time!—as allies now, isn’t it?). Princess Celestia must have had some kind of instinctual response to their yells, because She began to wake way quicker than anyone expected—even the unicorn who cast the spell stopped trying to break through the barrier to gape in surprise.

Almost instantly, Princess Celestia (perhaps this had something to do with Her “Alicornliness”?) was able to stand on Her own, and We pulled away. “Thank you, my little Changelings, for making sure I didn’t get dirty again.” We couldn’t help but chuckle at the effect Her words had on Her guards—none of Us would have been surprised if any of them had dislocated their jaw so severely they had to be taken to the hospital, but such wasn’t the case (-sadly! Gak! What?! It would’ve been fun-ngerk!). “Twilight, I believe you can let down the shield now,” She instructed, and as Twilight did so, Princess Celestia stepped slightly forward and to the side to be partially in front of Us and the Vinyl Changelings in an obviously protective move that the guards couldn’t fail to notice. “My guards…” She inclined Her head respectfully. “Thank you, as well, but these Changelings are now under my protection, and by extension the protection of Equestria. I will explain soon enough, but for now I would like you to gather all the residents of Ponyville before town hall. I will explain then, but before that I have some business to attend to in the hospital.”

For just a moment the guards looked like they wanted to speak up, but a small twitch in Princess Celestia’s expression had them salute and fly (or run) off to perform the duty assigned to them. From there, Our short walk from the intersection to the hospital was uninterrupted, except now some ponies were brave enough to actually step out their doors to watch Us from there, having apparently seen that Princess Celestia hadn’t been captured by Changelings and imponyated after all—We did Our best to be friendly, waving as We flew along, but that only earned Us, at worst, fleeing back into their homes and, at best, a tilted head from them, and no matter what each reaction earned a little surge of sympathy from the ponies walking with Us when they saw how Our friendliness was greeted (or rather not greeted). We were actually encouraged, though, by how… not “positive”, but… by how nonaggressive and not angry the ponies were.

Predictably, but a little disappointingly, We found the reception desk of the hospital unstaffed… along with everything else, but as the automatic doors slid shut behind the last of Us, there was a whimper, just audible, and there was only one place it could have come from—one place large enough to hide a pony in that room. The Princess stepped up to the reception desk with a little cough and tapped the wood with a golden-shoed forehoof, earning a squeak from the hidden pony. “Excuse me, we would like to see…”

“Ah, right, We hadn’t said yet, had We?” We ask rhetorically. “That would be- i mean, We would like to see a patient. Her name is Screw Loose.”

The pony started inching up, revealing herself to be Nurse Redheart, and hers eyes stayed on Princess Celestia as she asked, “Screw? The one with-?” She stopped when she finally looked away from the Princess and froze upon seeing Us—i suppose that facing a dozen Changelings would have been above simple fright for a pony back then.

We decide to push on and hopefully startle her back into movement. “Yes, Screw.” “Yes, the one in your psych ward suffering from M-S.I.I.” “Mind-Separation Induced Insanity.” “We’re here to give her the thing she’s been waiting for ever since she left her old Mind.” “-a… cure.” Poor Nurse Redheart—she’s so kind that We didn’t like the idea of inadvertently giving her a heart attack; not that We liked the idea of giving anypony else heart attacks-! -but Redheart-… You’d have to know her to understand, i guess—only turned more and more confused until Our very last word catches her attention.

Less and less reluctant, Nurse Redheart eventually stood tall and straight, staring with such intensity at the one of Us who had spoken the word “cure” that We started to cower a bit in turn. “You better be telling to truth, now. You don’t just throw around the word ‘cure’ in a hospital.” We nodded—We knew the true identity of Screw Loose (as you’re probably suspecting now), after all, so We had no fear that Our “cure” would not work. Still, the nurse glanced at Princess Celestia for some sign, and She nodded, so Redheart turned to a hallway. “Please follow me, then, and I’ll take you to her.”

Unfortunately for Nurse Redheart, the psych ward was far out of the way, so she had many long halls through which to lead Us, past many windows and windowed doors on the other side of which there were many fearful, staring eyes, but they didn’t concern Us so much as how Redheart felt the need to constantly glance back at Us. Almost inevitably, she missed a turn because of this, and when she realized it, she turned, gulping back her fear. “Uhm…” was all she was able to say as she waved jerkily towards the hall she should have taken. Catching her meaning, We stepped back to give her room to continue leading Us; after that, she looked back at Us a lot less, and Our hope in Princess Celestia’s plan grew.

Finally, They came upon My room as the saviors I had been waiting for for-… for I don’t remember how many years—I wasn’t exactly in any fit state to count them. What was going through My mind—My mind in which I was alone—before They came inside or when They came inside doesn’t matter… The only thing that matters is what happened after the burst of green light that brought to Me the sudden realization that I shouldn’t be barking. “-barking isn’t what ponies—or Changelings—do-” “-or growling-”

I shook My head as clarity came to Me slowly, and when I stopped, the first thing My eyes fell upon was one of the few things I had come to realize that I love, even through My madness. She gasped, put her hoof up to her mouth, and said something, but My thoughts were too busy aligning with the Mind I had been pulled into to understand her. After all, I had been so long without a Mind that I had become more accustomed to being without one than with. For a long time we just stared at each other, I blinking like a cave creature thrust into open sunlight and she crying silently, hoof frozen over her muzzle. “Nurse… Redheart?” I finally spoke, “What-?”

That was it: My speaking in rational, understandable Equestrian threw her over the edge and spurred her into motion- into rushing forward and more jumping on Me than hugging Me, though she had kept a firm grip on My neck even as we landed on the floor. “Screw… Oh, Screw, you said my name! You never said my name before! You never even spoke, but you always understood everything I said, didn’t you!? I knew there was somepony inside of you, trapped! I knew you weren’t a waste of time, like-! Oh, forget them!” The entire time she was nuzzling Me nonstop as she spoke, and she didn’t seem to mind I was too shocked still to return the affection.

As Nurse Redheart started reining herself in, letting Me go, My senses had finally and fully righted themselves. “-a mind?- -wait!- -no!- -I don’t want this!-” I was so unused to having a Mind then that I wasn’t able to control what thoughts were to be in the Mind and which were mine and mine alone. I stood up and leveled a glare at the Changelings who had forced their Mind on Me- whose thoughts I could feel as I hadn’t felt for uncountable years. “You seven—eight?—eight-! -I told you before I didn’t want this! I don’t care that I can’t think rationally and that I can’t control myself without a Mind! I hate it! I. Hate. Having a Mind! I don’t want anything to do with Changelings! I want-!… I want to be a pony! I wish I had been born a-!”

“Screw…?” Nurse Redheart’s tender, soft, caring voice, as quiet as it was, stopped My ranting instantly. “Screw, are you saying-? Did you just say-…?” She couldn’t get the question out, but I knew what she was asking, of course.

I nodded. “Yes, I’m a-” I growled, but Redheart was so accustomed to Me doing such things it didn’t phase her. “I’m a… Changeling.” I wanted to bark out that word—curse it—but instead it came out with a whimper and column of green flames to reveal the body that had never felt like it belonged to Me. I didn’t want to know Nurse Redheart’s reaction, so I swiveled back around to the eight, intent on continuing to chew Them out, but instead I let out a scream of horror and terror and fear for My life, and jumped back next to Redheart. “P-P-Pr-Princess Celestia!” I cried out in vain warning, pointing to where She then stood in the door, then I frantically looked around even though I knew this room: There was no way out. Whimpering, I squeezed My eyes shut, determinedly not listening to the Mind—expecting to feel nothing but pain and cries for help that would be swiftly silenced—and lay down, awaiting My own judgment.

Even as I was determinedly laying prone, I couldn’t help but jump when I felt something touch My head; I had expected to be done away with by a wave of magic that would crush the body I hated so much against the wall, not to be actually touched. Then, through the thick fogs of dread, I finally heard something pulling Me out. “Screw… Screw… It’s okay… It’s okay…” Nurse Redheart, the only one who fed Me with her love since I left My old Mind and was dragged to the hospital and as the only one towards whom I acted somewhat acceptable when I had been without a Mind, was stroking Me with one of her forehooves, slowly and gently, from the top of My head at the start of the spined fins on the back of every Changeling’s neck, down them to the hardest plate of a Changeling’s body—on their back—then back up and on and on and on, and she brought Me back to reality again.

With deep steadying breaths, each one coming out less shaky than the last, I took in the Princess Celestia in the doorway. “-is she a Changeling?-” I asked the Mind. “-no-” “-it really is okay, too-” “-We know how you hate being a Changeling-” “-how We have to lie and hurt and foalnap…-” “-but that’s over-” “Over?” I asked aloud. “It’s over?”

Princess Celestia, with the intelligence of millennia, must have figured out that we had communicated in the Mind, for as She nodded, She said, “Yes. I may not be able to transform you into a pony (fully and permanently or otherwise), but I can do the next best thing: make peace with Changelings so that you don’t have to resort to the deceitful tactics, which is what I assume is what you really hate so much.” It was My turn to nod at that, then the grin broke out on My face, and I squeezed Nurse Redheart so hard that the instant I jumped away from fear that I’d hurt her, but she pulled Me back, squeezing Me just as hard in return and nuzzling Me.

- - - -

Sometimes, I still envy you ponies like I did before—when I was in the psych ward, and even before that- long before that, really—but other times… now that I mostly don’t feel ashamed to be part of a Mind (and Nurse Redheart convinced Me it's for the best), I pity you ponies about how you can’t so intimately understand another’s thoughts and feelings. How I wish I could share with you that palpable joy, bliss, elation, rapture-!… Such words are so meaningless when I put them next to what I felt when that which I’d always wished for but never hoped for finally came and saved Me from the infinite darkness I had locked Myself inside of when I wanted to live a life as something I could only copy but never be…

… … … …

Oh! Did Princess Celestia set the Sun early?! No!? We’re sorry!

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