“‘Blessed eventide, my princess, and may I see your sunlit face upon the morn.’ Those were the last words she said to me that night,” Celestia said as she looked at the collection of bones in front of her. She turned away; the memory was too painful. “I was the last one to see her that night as she headed home in the rain, back to her husband and foals. Nopony ever saw her again after that.” The sun alicorn looked at the rusted barding next to the skeleton, the symbol of a guardspony.
“Your majesty, I need you to confirm this,” Harmony Grass said in a quiet, understanding tone.
“Harmony, I can take care of this,” Twilight said, aware of her mentor and sister royal’s pain. “Her majesty does not need to be reminde—”
“Thank you, Twilight, but I need to do this,” Celestia cut in. “Star Song was more than just my personal guardsmare; she was a friend. I had hoped that one day she would have become captain of the guard, but….” The princess laid her horn on the weathered bones, searching for something familiar, and a second later found it; her eyes began to water with tears as she felt the last iota of her friend’s natural magic within the bones. “Welcome back, Star,” Celestia whispered sadly. “You’ve been missed. You’d have been proud of your son, Feathershine. He grew up to become captain of the guard in his day, just as I’d hoped you would have been.”
Twilight gave Harmony a look and the stallion departed the room. Twilight said, “I’m going to find Shiny and have him make the funeral arrangements. He’ll want to do so for a fallen senior guardspony.”
Celestia choked up as she voiced, “Make it for a captain of the guard. I’m giving her the post posthumously. She deserved it. She deserved so much better than this.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Celestia,” Twilight said, nuzzling the alicorn. “You would have protected her if you could have, just as you would have protected Sandalwood.”
“Which means I’ve failed my friend and I’ve failed my family,” the sun princess said in a bitter tone. “I should have been there for her. For both of them.”
“You are. We’re out searching for Sandalwood still – Pinkie’s team is in a reality we discovered last week. And as for Star Song,” Twilight said, looking at the remains, “We brought her back home.” Twilight nuzzled Celestia again and then departed the room, leaving the princess to her grief.
Celestia wasn’t sure how long she sat there, but she remembered something that Star Song had once told her: “You’re not meant to cry, Princess. The sun never rains, and the princess is ever one to smile. And I will always do whatever I can to ensure that.” At the memory, a ghost of a rictus flickered over her face; even in death Star Song still maintained her duty to her princess.
After hundreds of years, Star Song had finally returned to Equestria.
The mirror shimmered as four figures stepped clear of the event horizon, the blue shimmering pool of energy waving and burbling as the portal admitted the travelers into the room at Canterlot Castle. Once complete, the spell deactivated and the roiling surface returned to its normal state as if nothing had ever occurred, and the soft hiss of the mirror’s warping stilled, fading into silence.
“Well, here we are – the portal room. Welcome back to Equestria,” Celestia said, using a wing to point out the room. “We’ve done some redecorating since the last time you were here.”
DJ brushed her hair out of her eyes, a nervous look on her face. “Uh, I wasn’t in this room the last time; I’ve never actually been to the castle before. I…uh…did all my traveling via the portal at Twilight’s home.”
“I’d forgotten about that.” A wan look crossed Celestia’s face; under different circumstances the Princess of the Sun would have been on a more even keel, but the events of the past few weeks, especially this past week in Singapore, had undercut some of her previously unflappable nature. But the reminder of Twilight had brought those pains back to the surface. “Unfortunately, she’s been conserving strength, so…we had to shut down the portal at her home. But since we’re in Equestria, I can teleport you there.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Luna volunteered. “DJ and I need to talk anyway about making plans with Elusive, and truth be told I wanted to meet her children.”
“I wish I could as well,” Celestia replied with a nod, “but that will have to wait for later. I’ve got to check in with Cadance and see what I’ve missed in the past couple of days. I know the fallout from Fillydelphia has likely been immense.”
Mike looked at DJ. “Unfortunately, I’ve got to check in with the Embassy. I’m running several days late from when I was supposed to report in. Granted, Admiral Singh said he’d send a message giving them my status, and I’m sure our folks did as well, but better to be safe than sorry.”
The humanized pony got on her tip-toes and kissed her husband on the cheek. “You’re just afraid Dad will kick your ass for letting me get hurt.”
“Uh, I outrank him.”
“He was a Yeoman and a Chief – when have you ever known either of those to care about that?”
Mike considered that for a second. “Then, yes, I am afraid your dad will kick my ass for letting you get hurt. Probably moreso of your mom. Fortunately, I can say it wasn’t my fault.”
“They won’t listen,” she said in a sing-song tone. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure they take down whatever gallows they’re building.”
“You’re not helping, hon,” he said with a bemused smile.
“I know,” she said with a gleam in her eye. “But hurry back soon, okay? I think we should spend some time with the boys before this all goes down, and I’d like to prep them, for starters, as to why they have three sets of grandparents instead of just two.”
He embraced her. “I promise I’ll be there soon.”
“Ready to go, DJ?” Luna asked. As the earth pony nodded, Luna’s horn flickered with mystic power and the pair was gone in a flash, leaving only motes of energy behind as the sign of their transit.
That left Mike standing in the room with Celestia. “Would you care for a lift to the Embassy?” she asked.
“Well, since I have no idea where I’m going, sure, if you can spare the time.”
“For you? All the time in the world,” she replied with a soft smile. By the time the last word left her lips, she realized that was a very stupid thing to say; it could easily be misconstrued. She then remembered that it had been something that she’d always said to Argent Lance so long ago; it had been that very misinterpretation that had led to their relationship.
The two stood there for several seconds, an unspoken tension filling the room. Though Mike had let bygones be bygones, it wasn’t proving as easy for the sun alicorn, as now that she’d recalled that memory, her mind immediately filled with the events of the day before. The kiss burned itself in her mind, playing in her head repeatedly as if a video file set for constant replay. It had clearly been a heat of the moment mistake, but if so….
It felt…nice, she said to herself, a private smile coming onto her lips. She briefly lifted a forehoof off the ground, then caught herself; right now was not the time to do anything to further embarrass herself. So instead, she let the one-sided silence continue to permeate the air, adding more and more to the tension as every second continued to pass.
After a few more seconds, she realized she needed to end this and soon for a number of reasons. But in doing so, a slight twinge of guilt slipped into her soul; she had done this with countless minor dignitaries and politicians before, so why did it feel wrong now? But she forced herself to speak. “On second thought, considering the number of things that have probably piled up in my absence, I might not be the best pony to escort you there, Mike. My apologies.”
He nodded. “Hey, you’re a princess. You’re probably incredibly busy and probably just can’t take a stroll down the street. I understand.”
“I’ll ask one of the guards to escort you. It would probably be a good idea to introduce yourself to some of the ERG staff, since you might need unfettered access to the castle as necessary.”
“I really hadn’t thought of that, but you’re probably right,” Mike nodded; if there had been any tension on his end, he certainly didn’t show it, and for that she was grateful.
“Okay, follow me and we’ll find the shift captain and then send you on your way.”
“I said no,” the changeling queen standing before Chrysalis snarled. “You, more than any other changeling in existence, should be denied and rebuffed. In fact, I’m halfway tempted to kill you where you stand, Chrysalis Princess-slayer.” The other changeling queen looked nearly identical save for her colors, sickly tones of brownish-yellow that marked her swarm as a different tribe from the greenish-blues of Chrysalis’. There were thousands of them, all of them standing there against Chrysalis, and though the infamous queen was powerful, even she could not stand against a whole hive by herself. The more massive numbers had the advantage, and anychangeling could see that even if the older changeling queen used honey to bait the trap instead of a stinger, there would be no way she could win.
“Ah, but my dear Petiole,” Chrysalis cooed, “you don’t have a choice. I’m merely offering this to you out of consideration for a fellow queen, but understand this: the offer is merely a word. I will say this only one more time: you can suborn yourself and your swarm to me as a princess, or you can die. Frankly, I prefer the latter option, since I can just deal with your successor, but I promise you that if you swear allegiance to me, you might just live to a ripe old age.”
Petiole laughed bitterly. “Nochangeling’s older than you, Chryaslis. Not I, not Pupa, not Chalcid, nor any of the others. And do you know why? Because you murder your princesses as soon as they’re of no further use to you.”
“Petiole, I cannot believe that you are such an idiot and yet somehow managed to become queen of your hive,” Chrysalis countered matter-of-factly. “Princesses are usurpers to the throne. Someday one of your princesses will have your head and your throne just as you stole your mother’s. Just watch.”
“I doubt it. My princesses know they have my trust and I have their loyalty – and I got my throne after my mother fell in battle against the jaguars. And in all this, somehow you have managed to forget the Code of the Great Swarm: ‘You cannot command by the stinger, only by honey.’ That is how a true queen behaves, Chrysalis, not a murderous despot such as you.” She assumed a threatening stance, her wings buzzing angrily. “This is my only offer: turn around and leave now, or I’ll do my species – and I suspect several others – a favor and wipe you off the map.”
“Last chance, Petiole.” Chrysalis looked at the great hive behind the other queen as well as the sizable contingent of changelings, ready to strike. If Chrysalis’ guess was correct, the hive had stood for generations, at least a few hundred years. “Yield or I’ll destroy that hive of yours and everychangeling within it. And you won’t even live to see it.”
Petiole’s eyes burned with indignant rage.
In a clearing, not too far away, several pepsis and humans looked at each other with disgust. “So this is Alter-Earth, huh?” one man said, with disgust. “I’ve seen better shitholes in my time.”
“These are the lands of the Southern Continent, and the dominion of the changelings,” one pepsis, a mare, replied. “Have a care to refer to it with respect, human, or I will force you to.”
The man, a greasy looking individual with long, unkempt hair and wild eyes, laughed in the pepsis’ face. “You wouldn’t live long enough to. Now do yourself a favor and keep watching out for the signal.”
“Or, y’ know, y’ could come here ‘an give m’ pipe a l’il cleanin’,” a second man said, his hand going to his crotch. That elicited laughter from several others of the men present.
“And you’d enjoy it just long enough for her to bite it with her fangs, releasing venom into your body – oh, and you’ll eventually die, but not before your pecker falls off,” a new voice replied. Ghino, dressed in fatigues, walked into the clearing followed by several members of his own group. Turning to the first man, he said, “Honestly, where do you get these brain-dead rejects from, Eugenio?”
“These men have worked with me for years. We’re the best. That is why you hired us to do this job instead of those assholes Rickard and DeVille, right?” Eugenio Garcia, despite his name, was likely the best sniper Ireland ever had. Unfortunately for him, the Irish military didn’t care for his attitude, and the Troubles were a long-forgotten thing up in what was once Northern Ireland. So, after meeting a few like-minded misfits around the world, they went into business for themselves as hitmen for hire. They usually found themselves on the opposite side from their rivals, Rickard and DeVille, but knew the other two men and their own group well enough to know that di Tacco likely contacted them first for the job – DeVille was a cultured-fuck just like Ghino was.
“Couldn’t get a hold of them,” Ghino admitted. “Rickard’s probably off doing what he does after a job, and DeVille always lays low after he’s done something.”
“You mean like that bombing in Singapore at the beginning of the week?” Eugenio had heard some rumor about Rickard and DeVille being hired to handle something like that, but…assassinating the heads of state of a foreign country? That took some balls, enough even to impress Eugenio and his crew. “You know anything about that?”
Ghino rolled his eyes. “I take my victories where I can get them, my friend, which is why my group stays low and so does yours – and attempting to kill three alicorn rulers of a magical nation in another dimension is hardly low-profile. Wouldn’t surprise me if both of them bit off more than they can chew and are sitting in some high-security prison.”
The second man laughed again. “An’ that’s why they can’ stand a chance ‘ginst us.”
Eugenio shook his head. “They were acting the maggots, Cato. That shit don’t happen to us.” Eugenio’s right hand man, a disgraced Mountie from Alberta who only identified himself as “Catoblepas” was good because he still had enough connections and knowledge of law enforcement procedures to keep them all one step ahead of the collars. But if Cato had one weakness, it was pride, something all too easily exploitable – and something Eugenio knew to watch out for.
Ghino was about to make a statement, when Blood Armor walked into the clearing. Looking at Ghino, he asked, “Are your people ready to go?” Unlike his dealings with his mother and Nightmare Moon, there was something about the human that Blood found admirable. He couldn’t quite pin it, but it was enough to warrant the man a certain measure of respect where the pepsis prince wouldn’t bother otherwise.
“Both mine and my associates,” Ghino assured him.
“Then follow me,” he said, turning and heading back into the brush. Ghino signaled for both his and Eugenio’s contingent of men to get their gear and head down the same path.
“This had better be worth it, Ghino,” Eugenio said as he fell into place. “This place is supposed to be like Brazil, but I’ve been there and this place is way creepier.”
“Just think of them as very eccentric employers,” Ghino answered, as they walked towards Chrysalis and the army facing her.
Meanwhile, Chrysalis continued to goad Petiole. “Petiole, you’re such a stupid larvae. Perhaps I shouldn’t bother t—”
“My changelings!” Petiole snarled, “Ki—”
“That’s a cue if I ever heard one,” Eugenio said to himself, raising his rifle. In one clean sweep, he aimed and fired just as his men did the same.
Petiole never had the chance to finish her statement. There was a vibration in the air, and suddenly the changeling queen fell, dead. A second later there was a report, a crack in the air, and Blood Armor walked forward, a sinister look in his eyes. He walked in front of her, and briefly raising a hoof, he brought it down on the dead queen’s head with a sickening crunch even as a malicious grin came on his muzzle. He then raised his right foreleg and called out in a booming voice, “Execute!”
Further shots rang out, burning trails through the sky. Each sniper shot was perfect and for each shot, one of Petiole’s princesses dropped in front of the drones they led, much to the absolute terror of the drones they commanded. It was elegant and merciless; each princess watching their sisters fall just long enough to realize they would need to assume the throne, only to be killed the next second later. Down, one by one they fell, victims of practiced fire and timely intelligence.
A soft grin came on Chrysalis’ face, knowing the thousands of changelings here would now be hers to command. Turning to Ghino, she asked, “What was the term you mentioned once? Oh, ‘shock and awe’, I believe it was?”
He nodded. “Indeed, Chrysalis. But we’re not done yet. In any case, we’ve left one alive, as per your request. Furthermore, we’re targeting approximately forty drones who might want to play heroics. For those we brought something a little more effective. I’d tell you,” he said, brushing his fingers off on his fatigues, “but I want you to enjoy the surprise.”
As Blood Armor turned to approach her, she ordered, “Bring me the surviving princess.” Blood looked at four of his fellow pepsis and the group immediately took off towards their quarry.
Immediately, the forty changelings being targeted reacted, launching into the air and transforming into a collection of gryphons, dragons, pegasi and other creatures, all capable of doing more damage than the natural changeling form. Without skipping a beat, Ghino raised his hand into the air and just as quickly brought it down in a silent motion.
Plumes of smoke tore across the sky, headed towards the menagerie of winged creatures. The modified surface-to-air missiles detonated just as the transformed changelings began to their attack. Even though the 9K338 Ingla-S missiles were outdated, they were still more than a match for mere carapace and innards. The thunderous boom of the explosions almost masked the dying screams of the attackers, but the mental screeches that reverberated through the changeling hivemind were enough to cow the remaining members of the swarm; though Chrysalis and her brood weren’t quite yet attuned to them, it was reminiscent of what they’d heard after their own kind were exterminated in Fillydelphia, so they could imagine what the normal drones were experiencing.
“Interesting,” Chrysalis said, having watched the whole thing. “A very effective way of dealing with them. A bit more crude than just using magic or cutting them off from food, but effective nonetheless.”
“Always glad to please,” he said, a curious, unreadable look on his face.
Chrysalis was about to inquire, when her pepsis returned, carrying the sorry princess. She looked weak, runtlike, clearly unfit to lead and only in command of her group of drones due to her birth as a female. The changeling queen looked down at the quivering princess, enjoying the fear she engendered in this slip of a creature. “Your name,” Chryalis commanded.
“I-it’s Gaster, y-y-your majesty,” she stammered.
“I’ll explain this simply: you can yield to me and become a princess under me, or I will end you and this hive.”
“No!” Gaster begged. “Please! Spare the drones!”
“You will yield or you will die!” When no answer came instantly, Chrysalis told Ghino, “Prepare to execute every single drone here and burn down the hive!”
Ghino, in turn, looked at Eugenio. “Well, we didn’t bring enough ammo,” the second man casually admitted, “but we can get creative.”
“I yield!” a voice cried out. They all looked down at the shaking, horrified princess. “I…yield.”
“Formally,” Chryaslis cooed, enjoying the moment.
“I, Gaster, r…r-renounce my throne as sovereign of this hive and swarm and swear fealty and allegiance to you, Queen Chrysalis.”
Chrysalis accepted, placing a hoof on Gaster’s head. “I accept. Go and tell your drones that I am in charge now, and should you dare to even try to ferment dissent within the ranks, I will have your pretty little head, do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, my queen,” Gaster squealed, then turned, tail between her legs, to walk back to her drones in shame, to let them know their regime had changed and a new dynasty reigned.
“Mother,” Blood Armor whispered to Chrysalis, “I presume we’re off to attack the next hive?”
“You know me well, my son,” she responded. “Who shall we leave in charge here?”
The pepsis pondered for a second, and for the briefest span of a moment, he reminded Chrysalis of his father. “Leave Black Velvet,” he suggested. “Her temperament is somewhat…maternal and she will woo this pathetic whelp Gaster and bring this swarm under her control. And once Gaster looks up to Velvet as a foster mother….” He drew a hoof across his neck.
She looked at him with a demented sense of motherly pride. “Perfect. I’ll leave it to you to handle the details.” She turned back to Ghino. “And now there is this matter of payment that I believe I owe you.” Looking at Ghino, she said, “Pick as many changelings here as you like. They shall be yours. And as for the other matter…I will provide you with a replacement for the ‘defective one’ I gave you.”
“You are quite generous,” he said with a bow.
She smiled. “I try.” Turning to Eugenio, she said, “And for you?”
“I care not for your things. You know my price,” he said.
“Yes, that I do.” She raised a hoof, pointing at a few cases that had been brought. On cue, two pepsis opened them, revealing tons of gems. “Just as you requested, though I find this to be a paltry request.”
“Because people will pay my price for them,” he said soberly. “They don’t have to know where they came from, or even that they destabilize the market. My clients will want them for other reasons.”
“I see. Now then, we will head to the next hive, several dozen miles off. Are your men ready?”
Ghino nodded. “I’m more than sure Eugenio and his men here are up to the job.”
“If the pay’s right, we’re always willing,” the Irishman answered.
Luna and DJ appeared in the alcove of Twilight’s home, by the front door. The first thing that DJ noted was the additions that Twilight had made to her home since the last time DJ was here…which was, by the humanized pony’s admission, quite some time ago. A lot of it involved the unicorn’s travels to human-Earth: Africa, Spain, Russia, Hong Kong…Las Vegas? That was certainly unusual, as was the picture of Twi, Sweetie Belle, Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo and Lyra in front of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. With that in mind, DJ vaguely remembered Lyra mentioning something about Ponyville, Missouri and how most of the former exiled ponies still remained there after their pardons; why they chose to remain there was beyond DJ, but maybe they just preferred the location, likely reminding them of rural Equestria.
“Twilight hasn’t been the only one who’s been traveling around human-Earth,” Luna said as DJ continued to look at the pictures. “I usually take a couple of weeks off a year and just go somewhere. It’s nice to be in a place where I can be somepony average instead of a VIP.”
“Just spending time with you and your boyfriend?” DJ asked. “He’s gotta be special if he won the heart of a princess.”
The look on Luna’s face became wistful as she turned away. “He and I…are no longer together,” she admitted with a catch in her throat.
“Why? From the memory you showed me, you two were perfect. Why did you give that up?” DJ asked.
“Perhaps we’ll talk about that late—”
A gasp cut across the room. Both ponies looked up at a shell-shocked eldery yet vital human couple, both looking as though they’d seen a ghost. The woman reached out in the direction of the ponies, not daring to breathe lest this all be revealed as nothing but a dream. “Furball?” Anna whispered, hoping for a miracle.
“MOM! DAD!” DJ rushed as fast as she could on her two legs before deciding she could live with the temporary embarrassment and raced over to them in four-wheel drive, galloping across the room. Just as she reached them, she went back upright and into their arms. “I’m okay!” she cried, hugging both teary humans. “I’m fine.”
“We thought we lost you!” Matt said, glasses fogging from the tears. Holding both wife and daughter, everything was going to be okay now, he knew. Everything would be fine.
“You don’t know how much we prayed that it wasn’t you when we’d heard the news about the attack. And then when they announced the wrong name….” Anna held her daughter tight, refusing to let go. DJ would always be her little girl, no matter what.
As for DJ, tears rolled down her face as well, knowing that her stupidity would have cost her so much – not that she was going to admit it. “It almost was me. I got cut off from Mike and the others and got caught right in the blast. I would have died if it wasn’t for Luna,” she said, nodding at the alicorn.
Both of DJ’s parents looked up at the princess and thanked her profusely in as many different ways as they could express, starting with a united “Thank you for saving our little girl, your highness.”
Luna waved it off. “Please, just Luna. And it was worth it,” the night alicorn said, her own eyes getting misty from watching the joyful reunion. Looking at the trio, there was no doubt whatsoever that the Lost Foal had thrived on human-Earth. Regardless of how DJ reacted to her natural family, these two humans were most definitely DJ’s parents and the earth pony had truly had a fortunate and blessed life. Not one that the dusky alicorn or others would have expected, but maybe that didn’t make it so wrong.
“Sis?” Another human, a muscular, dark-haired man in his late twenties or early thirties walked out of the bathroom. “But the news said you’d been killed!”
DJ turned from her parents to look at the other human, smiling as tears of love continued to pour. “You know me, Sam – when have I ever done what anybody said?” She would have said more, but her younger brother bounded over to her and in one fell swoop picked the smaller being off her feet and swung her around in his embrace; she hugged him just as much to protect herself from flying off in some random direction as much as because she loved him. “What’re you doing here?” she asked as he finally set her down.
“Hey, Spike’s a bud and I hadn’t seen him in a while, and since I had vacation time coming, I was actually planning to visit him anyway. But then I heard what happened in Singapore and there was no way in hell that I wasn’t coming, especially since Mom and Dad were going to need me. Thank God that wasn’t the case.”
“No kidding,” she said, equally relieved. “How’s Honolulu?”
“Mixed bag so far, to be honest. Good in that they’re looking for experienced cops, so they were more than willing to give me that promotion and pay raise that the Winchester PD never did. But bad that I stand out like a sore thumb even with everything that Mom and Dad told me about living in Hawaii, but you know how that is.” He brought her into another hug again. “You do realize that I’m going to kick Mike’s ass now for not making sure that you were safe, don’t you?”
“Wasn’t his fault, Sam, it was mine. I did something stupid and it put me in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Well,” Sam pondered, “maybe I’ll just kick it a little bit – for general principles’ sake.”
As she let go of her brother, she asked, “Where’s Stuart and Tyler?”
“Spike has them at his cave right now, playing videogames. Uh, Mom, Dad and I, we were going to…well, we were going to have to think of how to explain your death to the boys. You have no idea how glad we are that we don’t have to do that now.”
“So am I,” she said, waving for Luna to come join them so she could introduce both sides of her family. “So am I.”
Celestia moved through the palace halls towards the Solar Throne Room, where Cadance was overseeing the day court. It would be simple: the sun princess would pop in briefly to let the romance princess know that she’d returned, then allow Cadance to finish out the court’s activities for the day as it would be unfair to the petitioners to switch in the middle of the session. While that happened, Celestia could go back to her office and get some work done to improve the lives and happiness of her subjects and possibly find a way to export that to human-Earth as well; there had been a lot of grumbling as of late that the nations of Alter-Earth were constantly taking without little to any reciprocation except for pop culture,a and while Celestia knew that wasn’t the whole story, there had to be some improvement on the issue.
It was times like this that she felt slightly envious of human monarchies, as their royals rarely if ever held court. Most of their ministries handled situations that required the everyday petitions she received, leaving the pomp and circumstance only for formal occasions and let them get to the business of running their nations in a smoother manner. But those were also constitutional monarchies, where they had a prime minister that acted as a viceroy of sorts and in some cases relegating their respective royals to mere figureheads; if she even tried to institute something like that, there would be outright rebellion amongst her ponies and they would rebel in the strangest way possible: by handing over even more authority and autonomy to their princess. No, like it or not, so long as she lived she would be a reluctant but absolute monarch, a goddess-empress in all but name and actual divinity.
As she approached the door to the Throne Room, she noticed only one ceremonial guard standing on duty, which was unusual; normally the only time a single guardspony was assigned duty was when court was not in session. Considering the time of day, it most certainly should have been, and that set off alarm bells in Celestia’s mind – had something gone wrong?
“Ah, good day, your majesty,” the guard bowed as she approached. “It’s good to see you having returned from the human world. We feared the worst when we heard the news.”
“I had the most capable of guards, never fear,” she replied. “I take it that there were no petitioners today?”
The guard briefly looked at the door. “Ah, no, your majesty – quite the contrary, to be honest, but Princess Cadance cancelled the remaining ones for the day. She had to see to his highness the Prince.”
She arched a brow; there were only two princes in the family and both of them were, pun very much intended, royal pains. “And what did said prince have to say?”
“Oh, nothing at all, your majesty,” the guard replied, a sudden look of mirth on his face. “I don’t think his highness is capable of saying much at the moment.”
Did I just hear him correctly? “Would you care to repeat that?”
The guard, suddenly realizing that wasn’t the best of answers, tried to come up with something more suitable. “My princess…I don’t think his highness will be speaking anytime soon,” he added, apparently not noticing this was just as cryptic.
Celestia blinked twice, trying to digest the strange news she’d just heard. Did something happen while she was gone? Did either of those two idiots push Cadance to the point of violence – sweet, loving Cadance, who was more placid than either of her fellow alicorns? Certainly it was out of the norm for the youngest of the trio, but Blueblood was known to push things far beyond the point of no return and his son Silver Platter had no respect for anypony save for himself. Under those circumstances, Cadance was not above justifiably losing her own temper. Plus, she’d been married to Shining Armor, so who knew what he’d taught her for her own protection – or what she’d learned on her own?
“I suppose you should see for yourself, Princess,” the guard answered, trying to keep his composure but not doing a very good job of it as he realized he was digging himself deeper and deeper. “They should be in her highness’ office right now.”
Celestia shook her head in utter confusion. I leave for a week and the whole place falls apart. Forcing a constitutional monarchy was sounding better and better each time she thought about it. Thanking the guard for his ersatz information, the sun alicorn headed off towards the palace’s northern wing, which housed the Foreign Ministry. As she departed, her exit theme was the cacophonic laughter of the guard as he finally lost it, all pretense of formality lost in the joke apparently only he knew.
A couple of minutes later, Celestia approached Cadance’s office. Already from a distance, thumps, the sounds of furniture breaking and tumultuous shouts could be heard. Strangely enough, none of the guards in the hallway seemed to even so much as lift a hoof and a couple of them were even smirking or outright chuckling. What was going on? Certainly her guards had more decorum than this, especially since these were the ceremonial guards, hoof-picked for their attention to detail and protocol. Had things become so fragile in her absence that it had all gone completely to Tartarus?
Approaching the nearest guard, she demanded, “Princess Cadance sounds as if she’s having issues and you and your fellow guardsponies are just standing here and laughing?”
The guard looked at her, trying very hard to regain her composure, but not entirely succeeding. “I’m sorry, your majesty,” the pegasus said, clamping her lips down every other sentence in a fruitless attempt to tamp down the laughter, “but her highness insisted we not interfere so she and the maids can, uh, ‘fix’ the prince’s issue.”
“Fix the issue? Fix what iss—”
WHAM! The sound of somepony slamming full-speed into the wall briefly jolted every guard present, but they shrugged it off nearly as one and immediately went back to their attempts at impassivity.
Celestia had enough of this. “Sergeant, I want that door open immediately.”
The pegasus turned to the unicorn on the other side of the door. “Type Four unlocking spell – that tends to be her highness’ preferred spell.”
“I’ll give it a shot, but I’d rather not get any, uh, stuff flung my way, if you know what I mean,” the unicorn said, lighting up his horn as he tried to remember the spell in question.
Deciding enough was enough, Celestia’s own horn blazed with the golden aura of her magic and she simply walked through the wall as if it were nothing.
“Oh, I feel sorry for the Princess,” the unicorn said, looking at the spot where she’d been a second ago.
“Yeah. You and me both.”
Once inside, the Princess of the Sun went completely slack-jawed as her niece’s office had become an effective warzone. Cadance, followed in short order by her secretary and two pegasus mares from the palace staff, were flying around the room at near-full speed, trying to catch a buzzing blur of purple as it rocketed around the room. Once in a while it would carom off a wall or knock something over and one of the maids would swerve wildly in an attempt to rescue the falling item, not always with success:
“No – nononononono, not the crystal vase!”
“No, turn left, my prince, turn left!”
“Somepony catch the reliquary before it…oh, dear….”
“He’s fast and agile, just like his father….”
Celestia’s eyes traced the path of the purple ball, but soon had the shock of four ponies on wing, bearing straight down on her at a high speed. Fortunately, with Cadance in the lead, the alicorn hit the brakes, going so far as to tear up chunks of carpet as she skidded along in her attempt to stop. The pegasi behind her did the same, the three slamming hard into the Princess of Love, sending all four spinning but not so hard the impact carried them into their liege lady.
“Um…hi, Celestia!” Cadance gasped from the bottom of the ponypile, panting and looking somewhat flustered. “I’m glad you’re back. It’s been a trying few days.”
“I can see that,” her aunt replied, looking around the disaster zone that had been the office of the Foreign Minister. “I’m guessing this didn’t have anything to do with the press conference, did it?” In response, with a beatific smile on her face, Cadance gestured towards her aunt’s back; a sudden weight had deposited itself there. Celestia turned around but couldn’t quite see; a second later and a summoned mirror at her side, she noticed the new weight and what she saw brought a sudden and broad smile to her face.
There, curled on her back and sleeping like the foal he was, a tiny pony foal dozed, completely worn out from his high-speed antics. Celestia took a good look at the foal, noting his resemblance as well as his unusual form; there was no doubting who the foal was related to and what had happened both in manner of birth and how he ended up at the castle. She turned to look at Cadance and the ancient alicorn felt a fierce pride for her niece. In spite of what it had meant for her husband, Cadance had kept her vow and claimed the foal as the son of her and Shining Armor, making him her own.
In fact, now that she’d seen the sleeping foal on her back, Celestia now understood the hurricane of a mess: although uncommon, some ponies at birth briefly had their adult strength levels and instinctively used them before they faded away a few weeks later. Considering the raw magic power in his father’s lineage and the full wingpower of a changeling from…the other side, this young foal must have clearly given the guards, palace staff and his newfound mother quite a show during the past few days.
“I see you kept your promise to Shining Armor, Cadance,” Celestia said softly, reaching over to nuzzle the younger alicorn. “He’s absolutely beautiful.”
“He’s got his aunt’s colors and his father’s features,” Cadance whispered back, the love in her voice clear and unmistakable. “Your majesty, I present to you my son, Prince Dusk Shine.”
“Dusk Shine…it fits,” Celestia said, recalling a conversation she once had with Twilight Velvet. “I know he’ll turn out as good natured as the prince his father was and not like the other two in Canterlot.”
“Blueblood already knows about him,” Cadance said, a worried tone creeping into her voice. “If he chooses to make an issue of Duskie’s parentage, we’ll have another scandal on our hooves.”
“Let him try. As you’ve said, Dusk is your son now and Shining Armor could not be faulted for what happened to him – and his foal is most definitely blameless for his birth. Should Blueblood or his family decide to make an issue of it, I promise you it will be dealt with swiftly.”
Cadance smiled; her aunt was, as always, kind and understanding. “Thank you,” she said, nuzzling the older alicorn. In seeming agreement with his mother and great-to-the-nth-power aunt, Dusk opened his mouth briefly to yawn before shifting on Celestia’s back and settling back to sleep once more.
“Well, I think I’d best give you a report.” Turning to the pegasi, she said, “Strawberry Swirl, Sparkledance, Ribbonswift, I apologize for the difficulties in assisting me with my son. If you could please locate three others to clean my office while I tender my report to her majesty, it would be greatly appreciated. After that, take the rest of the week off with my thanks.” The three maids exhaustedly tried to protest, but Cadance insisted and the trio wearily complied; they’d definitely need the sleep anyway.
“Well, now that that’s done, shall we head to your office for the report?”
Celestia grinned. “My private chambers; something tells me you need some time to unwind and I think I’m due for a nap with my young nephew here,” she said with a wink. With that, the two alicorns walked off towards Celestia’s residential wing of the palace, walking slowly and carefully so as to not disturb the sun princess’ precious cargo.
Despite the curse sapping her strength and power, Twilight was still a pony of considerable magical force. And in the quarantine portion of the hospital, while her sisters slept, a wide smile crept onto her face. Despite her concentration to keep the curse at bay, despite her exhaustion from holding up the spells blocking the curse from spreading outwards like a plague, she’d felt something in the fabric of reality change subtly but inexorably, and that simple fact brought a loving smile to her lips.
“Rarity,” the archmagus unicorn spoke, her voice hoarse from speaking for the first time in weeks. “She’s here. She’s back. I know she is. I can feel it.” Getting off her bed in the quarantine area and looking at the window a distance away, she could just make out the top of her own home from here. That domicile now contained a new, temporary resident, one Twilight wished to wrap her arms around and hold out of love. Unaware of Twilight’s emotions, Rarity never stirred or even so much as moved a muscle, but Twilight knew it was only a matter of time. The lavender unicorn smiled to herself; even though she and her sisters were down, they were not out – not so long as Twilight Sparkle still drew breath.
It was a shame, Twilight knew, that Rarity couldn’t see the look on her face. It was infectious, wonderful – magical. It was a smile born of love, adoration, devotion and care, a mare’s love for her eldest niece, the human-raised pony reaching out to Twilight first of all. In Twilight’s mind it marked her as special, loved. In some ways, it made the unicorn mage feel as though she were a mother and DJ her foal.
“If the Lonely Spire won’t go to the dragon,” she said, her voice just above a whisper, even as she held that bright grin on her face. She knew humans had a similar phrase: if the mountain won’t come to Mohammed…. When she was younger, despite her passion for reading, she never really quite understood the subtle nuances of the phrase. It was illogical; how could anypony get a mountain to move to them? Only Celestia had that kind of power and it was so inconvenient even for her that the sun alicorn just found it simpler to either be whisked off in a chariot or fly under her own wingpower to the Lonely Spire.
But now, she understood the true meaning of the phrase. Funny that it took years, decades even, to truly comprehend what so many others discerned within minutes. Oh, the words themselves, the simple concept made sense. But it was the metaphor, the sense of the immovable object drawn inexorably towards the irresistible force, that eluded her.
Until today.
Twilight, for the first time since the attack, felt hope. The daughter of her heart, the young filly she’d literally ripped realities apart to find, had finally started to face her destiny.
DJ had returned to Equestria.
“DJ? I…is that…is that really you?” Cinnamon gasped as she saw the earth pony standing there. DJ had less than a picosecond to attempt a response before she was glomped by a cinnamon-brown feathery blur. “Oh, my, I thought – I mean, I heard – they said that you – I really can’t believe that you’re…. Is it really you?”
Lying on the floor as a result of the glomping pegasus, a bemused smile came over the older mare’s face. “What, Cinnamon, can’t tell it’s me?” DJ would have said more, save she suddenly felt hot tears splashing her face.
“Don’t do that again!” Cinnamon sobbed, peals of worry and joy pouring free. “Do you know how much I worried? How much we all worried?”
The pegasus was gently lifted off her cousin by a silver aurora of augury from the moon alicorn. “I wouldn’t worry much, Cinnamon,” Luna said as she floated the pony back to her feet. “Your cousin is much stronger than that, though I think she’d appreciate some space right now.”
“Oh! I’m…I’m sorry, DJ! I…kinda got ahead of myself.”
“No problem,” she grumbled good-naturedly as she picked herself off the floor. “So what brings you here?”
“Um…” she started, blushing and turning to and fro like a bashful little girl being approached for the first time, “I…uh…I offered to hlptchyrkds.”
“Sorry?”
From his place on the couch, Matt supplied, “Cinnamon’s been helping to teach the children since we’ve been…somewhat otherwise occupied.” DJ’s father didn’t have to clarify as to what he meant. “But she’s been invaluable, helping us with the kids.”
Anna nodded. “Lord knows, if we didn’t have your cousin here to help, furball, I don’t know what we’d have done.”
Cinnamon turned a brighter shade of red than normal. “It…was nothing, really. I was glad to help.”
Luna put a comforting wing around her niece. “You should consider going into teaching, Cinnamon. It sounds like you have the aptitude for it and might be what your cutie mark’s for.”
“You really think so, Aunt Luna?”
Luna nodded. “But regardless, I’m glad you’re here. I could use a little help on a slight problem I’m having; namely, how I can set up dinner between DJ and Elusive.”
“Oh, that shouldn’t be a problem at all,” Cinnamon commented. “We went out to dinner last time I was home and he and Butter were wonderful to talk to.”
“That’s the problem: should we have her join them? She’s an absolute delight to have around, but with her being near-term, I wouldn’t want to have dinner fall through because Butter needed to head to the hospital for delivery. Yet at the same time, DJ might feel extremely uncomfortable having dinner at Elusive’s place in Ponyville, for obvious reasons.” She turned to DJ to explain. “Your brother lives in your mother’s old home – the Carousel Boutique – back in Ponyville, though Rarity’s actual boutique has been moved to a storefront closer to downtown.”
“Well, what about Cloudsdale?” Cinnmon suggested. “There’s a nice restaurant that I know there, it’s close to a hospital in case something happens to Butter and it’s not Canterlot or Ponyville, so DJ won’t have concerns about running into any unexpected relatives. Plus, I don’t think Elusive has ever been to Cloudsdale, so it should be neutral ground for both of them.”
“Plus, I can create the spells necessary for her and Mike and transport them there. That’s a wonderful idea, Cinnamon!”
She nodded. “I’ll take care of the reservations then, if that’s all right with you.”
Meanwhile, DJ looked at them both. “Cloudsdale. What’s that?”
Luna looked at her oddly. “Didn’t anypony tell you about Cloudsdale when you were last here?”
The humanized pony shrugged. “If someone did, I don’t recall. I had other things on my mind at the time.”
“Quite understandable,” the dusky alicorn replied. “Cloudsdale is Equestria’s third largest city, about fifty or so miles south of Ponyville. It’s mainly a pegasus city, and it’s a mile up from sea level.”
“Okay, so it’s like Denver, then. That’s gonna be a bit difficult, since people have to adjust to that kind of elevation and Denver’s significantly higher than most places, not to mention the fact that Mike and I have been living at about sea level for about the last decade or so.”
“Well, it’s not exactly like Denver,” Cinnamon pointed out. “Remember, it’s a pegasus city, so…it’s made of clouds.”
A pin could have been heard dropping in the uncomfortable moment of silence the followed. “Clouds.” DJ was clearly nonplussed. “As in condensation given physical form? Atmospheric screens of water vapor? That crap that Rickie Lee Jones was droning on in that drug-tripped haze in that song by the Orb? What planet are we on again, Bespin?” For her outburst she was rewarded with a bunch of blank stares; she chose to ignore that and continued. “So you’re telling me that there’s a city made of clouds?”
“It’s pegasus magic,” Cinnamon explained. “Pegasi can control clouds as if they’re concrete objects – it’s how pegasi make the weather in Equestria.”
“But don’t worry, I can place a spell on you and Mike so you can travel around Cloudsdale safely,” Luna supplied. “Plus, Cloudsdale is beautiful at night and it’s an experience like no other.”
“Um…how do you deal with aircraft and the like?” DJ wondered. “Aircraft fly through clouds.”
“Oh, that’s easy: there’s a five-mile perimeter around cloud cities like Cloudsdale, Cirrusburg, Windham and the like. Plus, there aren’t many airports and airfields in Equestria right now and while that is changing, the flight perimeters will remain in place for safety reasons. In any case, you’ll be completely safe with the spell on.”
“You sure?” Luna merely gave DJ a lidded glance. “Look, Luna, it’s not that I don’t trust you or anything….”
“That’s a first.”
“Oh, ha, ha, ha, Luna – seriously. It’s just…well, we humans aren’t exactly built for that kind of stuff,” DJ pointed out. “Or earth ponies if you’re going to beleaguer that point.”
“I knew what you meant. The spell will help you to walk on clouds, but not fly, so you’ll have to be careful not to step off the edges. Plus, since no aircraft are allowed near, you’ll have to take a non-mechanical flight there. There’s an aerodrome at the east end of Cloudsdale, and that’s close enough to downtown. I can see if we still have one of the old chariots and have a pair of guards escort you up there.”
“Well, your sons should be back soon, so I’d better go get prepared for the afternoon lessons,” Cinnamon said. “I’ll be in the library if anypony needs me.”
“In that case, I’d best be headed to Elusive’s place to inform him of the news.”
DJ, however, was still disconcerted by the idea of walking on water vapor. “Um, don’t I get to make any suggestions and/or opinions?”
“Sure,” Luna replied, grinning evilly. “You get to be the one to tell your husband. Ta-taa!” With that there was a huge burst of light and the moon alicorn vanished.
“Oh, is this going to be fun,” DJ said, sarcastically. She looked at her parents, but since they were otherwise occupied with something else, she thought about rustling up Spike, but he was with the boys at the moment. It looked like she was going to have to explain this on her own. Yeah, no problem, DJ. You can explain this to Mike, easily: after all, he is married to an alien and has alien hybrid children, how much weirder could this get?
She sighed. Life was never easy when it came to her.
As the last of Khalid’s fighters took to the air, Nightmare Moon, resplendent in her human form, snapped the neck of the last guard in her hands. “That should do it.”
At her side, in the shape of a wolf, Twilight Sunburn growled, threatening the guard she had underneath her. She suddenly stopped in fear as a blast of red energy vaporized his head in a shower of blood. The wolf turned to look at Nightmare Moon, the look in her eyes horrorstruck. “Why did you do that? I had him ready to run!”
“Ghino was right: you are weak,” Nightmare Moon said. “I’d kill you now, but I think that pleasure should be saved for Chrysalis. But that doesn’t mean I can’t hurt you, little one.” Nightmare Moon shifted to her natural form and then forced Twilight to do the same as the former cooed, “And unless you do exactly as I demand, I can assure you I will hurt you.” Flapping her ebon wings, she lifted off into the air, the pepsis soon joining her.
“Destroy that oil tank,” Nightmare commanded. “That should set off a large enough fire.”
“But that’ll….” Twilight shut up, fearing for her safety even as she was torn inside. She’d told those she’d let escape to run away to the safety of the building there. At the time, she thought it was far enough away from Nightmare Moon to prevent her predations and would let them get to safety. But she was wrong.
Nightmare Moon looked at her, eyes blazing with ruby fire.
Sadly, Twilight turned and charged her horn with orange fire. A blast of energy ripped from it, tearing into the oil tank. The resulting explosion as the oil cooked off shook the immediate surroundings as flames burned against the nighttime sky. Reinforcements arriving to counterattack the invading forces immediately turned their attention to the burning fuel facilities, to put them out before it was too late.
“Oh, and one last thing to add to the whole parade.” Nightmare Moon’s horn glowed a sickly color of yellow, and suddenly at the end of the tarmac were the flags of the United States and Equestria. A reasonable man would see them and realize it was nothing more than a plant, but the forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran were anything but. With that, Nightmare Moon turned and rushed off into the sky, the smaller pepsis fluttering her wings at high speed in order to keep up.
A distance away from the base, however, someone – or rather somepony – had seen part of it. “Alhambra, this is Sierra Bravo Six. Can you read me, over?”
“This is Alhambra. Go ahead.”
“We’re gonna have to pull out of this one. Looks like someone beat us to it. Sierra Alpha, what’s your sit, over?”
“We were just about to ask you the same thing, Bravo,” a voice responded. “Think someone else is playing in the sandbox?”
“Cut the chatter. RTB. Alhambra, out.”
Holding the radio in his forehooves, an earth pony looked at his commanding officer. “Skipper, they’re telling us to return to base.”
“About damn time.” A slate-blue pegasus in desert camo leaned against the berm, continuing to watch the conflagration in the distance. “But someone hit them.”
“Mossad, maybe?”
“I dunno. Not too familiar with how the Israelis play things, Tailwind.” He reached into a pocket and pulled out a map. “In the meanwhile, gather up the troops and have them head south via the backup route. We’ll meet up with the SEALs at the rendezvous point and the ship’ll send out boats to come get our flanks.”
“Roger that,” Tailwind said. “I’ll be right back with the guys.” Ignoring his subordinate’s comment, CAPT Rumble, REN, continued to watch the supposed top-secret activities of Omidiyeh Air Base and the soon-to-be-classified fire that was engulfing it. A month ago the Iranian military, which under the current regime was more unstable than usual, claimed to have built a new type of ICBM that was not only capable of hitting anywhere in the US but also bursting through the Indian Ocean Air Portal to hit cities in Equestria as well. While at first the threat was completely dismissed as laughable, when the CIA could not confirm any goings-on at the base due to a potential block, the block was believed to have been a magic protective barrier. With that, CENTCOM had decided to send in a secret mission of SEALs and due to the magic, asked the REN if they would contribute members of their own naval special forces unit, the Seaponies. Between the two teams, it was decided, they were certain to find out what was going on there.
Well, they confirmed three things, alright: the first was that there had been a magic barrier present, but it was gone now and there was no indicator as to who or what had placed it. The second was that the base was a sham, and there was nothing there but an “elite” – to use the word in all possible sarcasm – squadron of Quahar-313 stealth fighters, the state-of-the-art Iranian fighter that was said to be more than a match for the average unarmored pegasus carrying a potato gun. The last thing was that the airbase was on fire and that a squadron of Q-313s had scrambled from the location. Was this the first salvo in a potential civil war for the country or something else?
Picking up the radio Tailwind had left, he contacted the ship. “Alhambra, this is Sierra Bravo Six Actual. Need you to trace some bogies. Q-313s outbound from the base about five minutes ago, headed due west, over.”
“This is Alhambra. We’ve got nothing on radar or quantum, but we’ll keep looking. In the meanwhile, you guys better get out of there stat. Just picked up signals that the locals are peeking around the base – they found both American and Equestriani flags at the end of the runway and there’s some fingerpointing going on.”
“Roger that,” Rumble said, confused. “Have the SEALs meet us at recon point two and we’ll get going.”
“Best of luck. Alhambra out. Maintain river city from this point on.” In the distance, Rumble heard the sound of an all-terrain vehicle start heading in their direction. They needed to get out of there, and now. Fortunately, he noted his troops heading toward them and with the precision borne from hours of training, the group of ponies started to take off, headed towards the rendezvous location twelve miles southeast by the shore.
“He’s an adorable little foal. You should be very proud of him,” Celestia told Cadance, “though raising him won’t be easy.” The newborn foal was currently asleep on a pillow next to his mother, while the sun alicorn poured cups of tea for herself and her counterpart.
“I thought so,” Cadance said with a nod. “I was hoping to visit Dream Valley within the next few days to see if Imago would be able to give me any advice.”
“Dream Valley?” Celestia asked.
“Yes. The day after we left the flutters petitioned to have the Lands Ministry rename Ghastly Gorge as Dream Valley. I approved it as soon as I got back, but I haven’t had time to issue an official proclamation yet.”
“Then we should plan to make the public announcement about the flutters very soon; I believe you already had that in mind, didn’t you?”
“I did, admittedly, but after what happened in Fillydelphia, I’ve had some cause to rethink it. The loss is still very raw, and based on the lambasting I got from both the press and Prince Birdbrain, I stepped in it hard in regards to the way the whole situation was botched. And that’s just the press; the public is understandably more aghast, especially both the surviving refugees and in particular those who’ve lost loved ones.” Cadance didn’t have to add that Minty and her family were now considered amongst those lost.
“I know. How’s…how’s everypony taking the news?”
“I don’t know if the flutters are aware of it.” Cadance sighed. “Maybe it would be better to have Maggie travel here and we can make the pronouncement with her at your side? That should defuse some of the fears.”
“Actually, I was referring to our family.”
“I know; I was hoping you’d indulge me the sidetrack. Truthfully? I don’t think it’s had time to really sink in yet aside from maybe Fluttershy, Pinkie and Sweetie, since they were in Filly just before we turned it into a firepit. And then we got swamped with the info regarding the attack on us and what happened to DJ – she’s okay, right?”
“She’s fine; the news made a huge mistake,” Celestia explained. “But the loss of Fillydelphia makes it all the more important that we notify the public about the flutters, especially while they’re still a protectorate under the Crown. They may someday want to formally establish their own nation in the badlands, and it’s better to publicly show that Imago and company are on our side instead of being the typical changeling brood.”
“Then there’s something else I think we need to discuss: the need for an envoy between the flutters and the Crown. And if we catch him soon enough, it should make things a lot easier.”
Celestia arched a brow. “I take it there’s something that I need to be made aware of?”
Cadance nodded. “Let’s just say that nearly losing all her biological family isn’t the only wound to the heart that Sweetie’s taken in the past week.”
Leaving the small town of Shetland Valley, nestled at the edge of Ghastly Gorge, a pony walked towards a checkpoint, heading towards what might be his future. His mind was a stew of emotions at the moment: here he was, in love with a mare he’d spent his life with and he was now walking towards another mare, not only one young enough to be his own daughter, but one he’d fathered a daughter on…and one who wasn’t even a pony to begin with.
I love Sweetie, he thought to himself, walking along through the trees that lined the edge of the small base on its way to the checkpoint. I’m not sure how I feel about Maggie, but…I have a daughter now. No matter what, I can’t deny that. And it wasn’t as though I was cheating on Sweetie; we weren’t together during that period, but…. The image in his mind of her giving him her engagement bracelet and vanishing, her last kiss, telling him she’d always love him forever, and her eyes, filled with love and the pain of betrayal….
What do I do?
He pushed the thoughts aside as he finally reached the small checkpoint that separated the main portion of the valley from the Gorge proper. As he arrived, there was a small contingent of soldiers standing by the checkpoint, all heavily armed as if they were expecting war to break out at any moment. Considering what the flutters were and what had happened in Fillydelphia, the hairs on the back of Pip’s head stood on end. Finally, as he arrived, the guards put their guns at the ready as one called out, “Halt – this is a restricted area by authorization of the Crown.”
Pip pulled his ID from his saddlepacks, showing it to the sergeant. “Easy, troops. I’m here on informal business. Mind telling me what the party favors are for? This is supposed to be a protectorate checkpoint, not a firebase,” he pointed out.
The sergeant who issued the challenge returned Pip’s ID and saluted. “Sorry, Colonel. Sgt. Haymaker, 117th Infantry, Able Company. Orders from Major Fleetfoot; there’s been a change in plans and we’re to contain the changelings and make sure they don’t attack us, though after Filly I’d rather kill every single one of those bucking bugs.”
Pip looked at the soldier with a curious glance. “What changelings, Sergeant?”
Haymaker was adamant. “The rust-colored ones down there, sir! Dunno why nopony ever did anything about them before, but they’ve got to be more dangerous than the ones that attacked Canterlot decades ago. I’ll bet they were even responsible for the attack on Filly itself!”
The older stallion rolled his eyes. “Three things, Sergeant: one, were you even alive yet when the attack on Canterlot occurred? I’m going to take an educated guess and say no. Two, I was there at Fillydelphia and trust me, what I faced was run-of-the-mill typical parasite changelings, nothing else. And three, do you know the difference between a changeling and a flutter?”
“A flutter, sir? What’s that?”
“Let me ask you this, then: do you think zebras and mules are threats to the safety of the realm just because they’ve got the same common equine ancestors as we do?”
“Well, obviously not, sir, bu—”
Pip cut him off with a, “Then why are you going to blame the flutters for being descended from the same stock as changelings? May as well blame butterflies.” He then turned to the others. “Who’s been stationed here longest?”
“That’d be me, sir,” a female corporal, a unicorn, spoke up. “Corporal Sweetpine, sir. Over three years now, almost time to rotate to another unit.”
“Okay, Corporal,” Pip asked, “in your expert opinion, in any of those three years, have you ever been attacked by any of the flutters?”
“Um, no, but….” Sweetpine nervously tapped her forehooves together as if clapping.
“But?”
“Well, this is going to sound strange, sir, but…one of them brought me lunch, once. Was rather nice about it, too. Didn’t stick around long enough to see my reaction and I didn’t eat it afterwards, but…it was as if it was being nice.” Sweetpine recalled the memory. “It was a daisy salad sandwich. Actually, kinda my favorite, but I didn’t think it was safe to eat.”
“Why not?” Pip asked.
She looked at him oddly. “Well, what if it was poisoned or drugged? Or ensorcelled with some sort of nasty magic?”
Pip looked at her sadly. “And you’re a unicorn, right? Correct me if I’m wrong, but unicorns in the military are supposed to be trained in at least level six spells, which include magic and poison detection spells, right?” When she looked at him with a glance that indicated she’d never thought of that, he knew he’d hit home. “So you rebuffed kindness when offered, and instead of checking to see if the flutter in question might be friendly, decided to keep treating them as an enemy?”
“But sir, those things destroyed Filly!” Haymaker interjected before Sweetpine could say anything further.
Pip shook his head. “Everypony, let me explain something to you all, and I want it to be expressly clear: those flutters aren’t a threat to anypony. In fact, the reason this base is here and what you’re all supposed to be doing is protecting them from misunderstandings like the ones you made! The flutters are a protectorate under the Crown and this is supposed to be a protective point for their sanctuary, not a watchtower for a prison!” He scowled as he looked at them all. “Here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to head down to the bottom of the gorge and within an hour, I want Major Fleetfoot to report to me down there, got it?”
“The major’s not here, sir,” the sergeant replied. “He’s enroute to Canterlot to have EQMILCOM order an airstrike on the canyon.”
Thankfully, Goldengrape’s going to laugh at that one, Pip groaned inwardly. “I want you to get on the radio and order him back immediately. Then I want you to call General Goldengrape’s office and issue a hold on any such orders, override priority Foxtrot-Sierra-Echo-Kilo-Three.”
Haymaker’s eyes went wide. “Colonel, that’s a Knight code! You don’t have that authority!”
“No, but I know the mare who does,” Pip snarled. “Lady Knight Fluttershy is a friend of mine and I don’t think she’ll object to me abusing her authority in order to prevent murder. Now get those orders done now sergeant and I expect to see Fleetfoot down in the canyon floor in an hour, do I make myself clear?”
In response, the sergeant drew his sidearm and pointed it at Pip’s head. “Sir, as the senior enlisted present, I must refuse – you’re off-duty, out of line and abusing your authority. You don’t have command, and frankly, I agree with the major – whatever’s down there is a bug and it’s time we did some bug squashing! You will stand down now, Colonel, or I will have you placed under arrest.”
Pip turned to face the sergeant, gun in his face. “Sergeant, I don’t think you seem to understand what you’re doing. I am a Destrier and in case you forgot what that means, it means I’m REA Special Forces. And in case you forgot what that means, it means that if you don’t point that gun somewhere else, I will rip off your damn hoof then break your spine a second later…and I don’t have to break a sweat doing it. Then I’ll have what’s left of your plot court-martialed.”
“Private Briarpatch, Private Sagebrush, take the colonel into custody – something must be wrong with him. We can’t let the Major’s sacred duty be stopped!”
“Sacred duty, Sergeant? Do you even hear yourself?” Pip warned. “Now take that gun away or you’ll be shitting bullets once I shove it down your throat.”
“I gave you an order, privates!” Haymaker snarled.
The response was the click of another sidearm. Haymaker looked out of the corner of his eye to see Corporal Sweetpine holding her gun to Haymaker’s head. “Hay, this is wrong – sacred duty? What’s so sacred about bombing from afar? We’re the Army, not the button-pushin’ Air Force! Furthermore, look at the Colonel! He’s not panicked, he’s pissed – does that look the response of someone out of their mind to you?”
“Privates, arrest Corp—”
“Privates, I am countermanding that authority under section 113 of the EMCDJ and Army Regulation 1126.D36.” In a softer tone, she said, “We’ve no idea what’s down there, ponies – do we really want to kill somepony who might be innocent just because Haymaker’s from Filly?” To Haymaker, she said, “Hay, we don’t know if your family’s alive or not, but…this ain’t right. This just ain’t right.”
“If my family dies because you went soft, Pine, I’ll kill you myself!” he snarled.
“This is your last warning, Sergeant Haymaker,” Pip said in an ominous tone.
“You asked for it, traitor!” Haymaker screeched as he pulled the trigger. The bullet went off with a bang, and at that range, it had no chance of missing…
…had Pip been in that space to be hit. Instead, he stepped back and went upright, the bullet carving a harmless path through air. As he did, Pip slammed his left forehoof, like a fist, straight into the barrel of the sergeant, then across the face with his right, stunning him. He slapped the sergeant’s gunhoof right at the fetlock, causing him to drop it, then reached out and grabbed the gun before it hit the ground. As the sergeant hit the ground, he heard the telltale click of a hammer being cocked and ready for action.
“Let that be a lesson to you, Sergeant – I don’t need to be faster than the bullet; I just need to be faster than your trigger hoofspace muscle.” Turning briefly to Sweetpine, he said, “Thanks for the assist.”
“Haymaker’s been weirding several of us out lately, to be honest. I suspect the Major left him in charge simply because he has the same sympathies as Haymaker, you know, the ‘Kill ‘Em All and Let Luna Sort ‘Em Out’ type. I feel for the stallion; his family hasn’t been heard of since contact with Filly was lost – but too far is too far. He probably needs some psychological attention, not to be given a gun and a place where he could do harm.”
“Then let’s make sure that doesn’t happen. Privates, take him into custo—”
Sweetpine cut him off. “With all due respect, sir, you’re off-duty and thus don’t have that authority.” Flashing him a knowing grin, she said, “Privates, take the sergeant into custody and then one of you get on the horn and issue that priority order, stat. Then contact the next squad and tell them the situation, and that I want Corporal Trenchdigger’s unit to report early.”
“Good work, Corporal,” Pip said, smiling and giving Haymaker’s sidearm to her.
“Just another day in green, sir,” she grinned, accepting the weapon.
“I love the idea!” Elusive exclaimed as he sat at the table, drinking a cup of mocha. Across from him, Luna was already burning the metaphorical midnight oil and she was probably going to need a nap soon. But she had to admit, her nephew’s enthusiasm was infectious.
“So you’ll do it?”
“Aunt Luna, even if I didn’t want to do it – which I can certainly assure you that I do – it’s such a brilliant idea that it would be absolutely discourteous of me to turn this down. I truly owe both you and Cinnamon for this.”
“No thanks necessary,” Luna said with a smile, punctuating it with a sip of her own coffee. “But will Butter want to do it?” she asked. “She’s very close to term now, isn’t she?”
“I think she will. She’s been very supportive of me and I wouldn’t want anything less than to have my love alongside me during this triumphal moment. She also expressed a desire to meet DJ as well, and I think now would be as good a time as any. I presume Cinnamon has found a restaurant near a hospital should the need arise?”
“Cloudsdale West Hospital is about two blocks northeast of the restaurant. Cinnamon’s very familiar with the location and says that should something arise, we can have Butter there within moments. Plus, I’ll be having dinner nearby as well, so if necessary I can teleport her to the Royal Infirmary. I won’t let anything happen to her, I promise.”
“I know you won’t,” he said solemnly. “Though, if I may confess, as we’re getting closer to this I’m quite nervous. My memories of my sister are vague, but I remember her being exceedingly angry and hurt. Will she take it out on me because of her trials with our mother? Will she supplant her brutal feud with our sister on me? Will she hate me? Will she love me? Will she even accept me? I have to confess, I had the opportunity to talk to a friend of hers in Japan a few weeks ago and she described DJ as a wonderful but very quote, unquote ‘human’ individual.”
“For what it’s worth, I think you’re underestimating her. We patched up our own relationship in Singapore and bear in mind that just before she was caught in the attack, both of us were screaming at each other – though I wonder where she picked up the ability to shout in the Royal Canterlot Voice. But now she considers everything with me water under the bridge now and I was, in her mind, an antagonist, yet now she’s showing an affectionate side I didn’t think existed. But as for you, Elusive? You’re a blank slate to her, so you should have no problems with her. And I can assure you she’s just as nervous.”
He suddenly grew quiet. After a few seconds, he admitted, “Call me a foal, but even though I didn’t grow up with her, I think I need her right now. Our parents are on the verge of death and our sister and her family are missing and likely dead. And though I have a wonderful life, a beautiful and loving wife and the most supportive extended family a stallion could ever ask for, I find myself needing the embrace of a mare…no, a woman…that I’ve never really known.”
Luna nodded in understanding. “When I was exiled for a thousand years, I cried out for love and the only thing that claimed to love me back was that monster,” the dusky alicorn replied, her voice a whisper of guilt and shame. “I was….terrible things happened to me, Elusive, things that should not happen to any being, things I wasn’t able to tell Celestia until years later. And through all that time, I needed the love of a sister whose last vision I saw was grievously wounded and in tears. When I saw her again, I thought she would hate me, spurn me and exile me again – for a time, I was even jealous of Twilight and Cadance, as I assumed both of them were meant to take my place in her heart. But it was a stupid thought, a foal’s thought.
“You two need each other right now, more than you realize. You two may very well see something terrible come to pass, and if it comes to that, it will be more important than ever that you bridge the gap between you both – and I’m sure you will. But should it come to that point – and even if it never does – know that you have a family that loves you both and will always be there for you.” She grinned as she added, “No matter how sneaky you get or how much of a harridelle your sister can be.”
Elusive nodded, returning the smile. “If that’s the case, I learned it from some of the best. What time are we all scheduled to meet?”
“I would like you and Butter to be there at 8:15 for the reservation; it’s under your name. That way you’ll have a chance to ensure Butter is comfortable and that there are any last-second issues that you’ll need to attend to. I’ll have both DJ and her husband show up at 8:30. I trust there won’t be any issues that she’s married to a human?”
“I know plenty of mares who are married to men; I also know a couple of stallion/women couples and one or two same-sex relationships. My business couldn’t do as well as it has if I let prejudices get in the way, not that I have any. I promise I won’t have any problem with DJ or her husband; from what I’ve been told by Aunt Twilight and Aunt Sweetie, he seems to be quite the soldier and gentleman much as Uncle Shining or Father.”
She nodded. “I should get going so you have a chance to talk to Butter without me being in the way. Besides, I probably could do with some sleep after all the running around I’ve done.”
“You’re welcome to use the guestroom, if you’d like. As it is, you’ll have to cast the spell on the both of us so we’ll be able to attend, as well as showing us the location of the restaurant.”
She sighed. I knew I’d forget something; I can’t be in two places at once and Cinnamon can’t cast spells. Fortunately, she knew somepony who was also familiar with Cloudsdale and could take care of the necessary spells. She willed her phone into existence, then tapped out an email to send off to the pony in question. She would happily accommodate her niece and nephew in this hour of need, Luna figured. The mare in question was just that generous a soul.
The moment she heard the familiar ringtone assigned to Luna, Sweetie Belle turned over and wanted to remain alone in her bed. The room still had his scent from the days he’d stayed over, from those nights together, a life now carved out of her heart. Though Twilight, like Celestia, was comfortable in her celibacy, it wasn’t really something that Sweetie ever wanted for herself, but now she found that the fate of the apprentice was doomed to be a repeat of the master, just as the master mirrored that of her own.
Picking up her phone, she noticed it was an email and quickly read it; what she saw brought the briefest of smiles to her face. DJ was finally back in Equestria, at Twilight’s home, and was planning to meet Elusive tonight, but needed her help. The plan was apparently for the two to meet in Cloudsdale and Luna and Cinnamon needed Sweetie to transport DJ and Mike to the cloud city since they’d be taking care of Elusive and Butter’s transportation. Luna understood that Sweetie was under a lot of heartbreak at the moment and probably wanted to be alone – Fluttershy had told Cinnamon who in turn had informed Luna – but the family needed her.
Crawling out of bed, Sweetie sighed. She knew it wouldn’t do a bit of good to ignore the edict of her princess…which she knew it wasn’t one. But from her sister royal, a request from family it was, and considering it was for the surviving members of Rarity’s foals, well, Rarity was her older sister…at least from a biological standpoint. Besides, with the sudden change in her relationship status, the chances of having foals of her own were now remote and having a reunion between DJ and Elusive was an aunt’s dreams come true.
She went to the closet to pick out something suitable for the dinner; while clothing in Equestria was still a rather formal thing, dinner tonight at least would allow that much, as well as setting DJ’s all-too-human taboos at ease.
His tent set up, Ghino zipped it shut as he entered. It was a rather spacious yurt, conjured up by Chrysalis’ magic; admittedly, he could have roughed it outside with his troops, but as the leader of his men he was entitled to a few extras. He knew that outside, Eugenio was scoffing at that – the man couldn’t understand the meaning of culture even if you threw yogurt in his face – but Ghino needed his creature comforts. He certainly felt he’d earned it.
At the moment, he’d finished going over tomorrow’s attack plans with Eugenio, Blood Armor and Chrysalis. They’d assault the hives of Queens Spiracle, Coxa and Trochanter. They could probably hit the first two hives the same way they hit all the others, but Trochanter’s, Chrysalis assured him, would be the hardest target yet: for one, they lived in strange hives along the seaside cliffs that reminded Ghino of paper wasps’ nests. Second, they were considered to be a heretical swarm even for changelings, since they subsisted on hope and paradoxically they lived a hermetic life in order to continue giving hope to the penguin tribes that were their nearest neighboring species, causing a symbiotic situation.
It was decided they’d get some rest now then move during the evening, so they could be in position at dawn’s first light in order to add that extra oomph to their threat of Spiracle’s hives. Chrysalis had agreed and her forces had bedded down for the day; Eugenio, his forces and the rest of Ghino’s own had also done so, but with armed guards – employer or not, the Irishman had a huge distrust for the emotional parasites that the changelings were.
He was just about to crawl into bed, when the tent unzipped and a pepsis mare let herself in. Her deep blue coloring was alluring and her purple and black mane and tail blended well and had some sort of scallop-like cuts at the end vice the usual changeling holes. Her gray wings, unlike those of her siblings, weren’t shredded but were well-kept and almost intact save for the same scallops at the end. Her graphite-hued eyes reflected desire and her tail swished seductively. “I thought we’d take this time to get to know each other,” she said.
“Do I know you?” Ghino asked.
“Not yet, but you will. You see, you are my new master, as Mother decreed. And I am…well, let’s just say I’m whatever you want me to be –whatever you desire me to be,” she said, lifting her tail and placing it on her back. She walked up to him and instinctively began to remove his clothing with her teeth. “And I’m sure you desire me to be whatever suits you most, master.” With an effort, she pushed him gently on the bed and kissed him.
“What is your name?” he asked.
“Whatever you want it to be,” she breathed. “But we’ll discuss that later. For now? I think we should…familiarize ourselves with each other. We can introduce ourselves once we’re completely spent.”
Comforted that the situation with Haymaker and the checkpoint was now dealt with, Pip started down the Cliffside path, headed into the gorge below. As he passed the two giant boulders that had been moved into the pathway to obscure vision as to what could be seen down the road into the defile, what he saw was nothing short of amazing. The last time he’d been here was when he was first time she’d set up camp down here. Ghastly Gorge had been a dangerous place filled with hazards, from quarry eels to thick brambles of briar and packs of vicious shadowhaunts. But that seemed to be all in the past now, replaced by a very bright and changed future.
What he now saw, as he descended towards the valley floor, was nothing less than a pristine farming community. He hadn’t expected to see fields of vegetables or orchards – those were almost trees, if he recognized them correctly. The giant bores where the quarry eels once resided were now dripping with a golden, glistening fluid that had a familiar, cloying scent; the flutters had turned the holes into honey factories. The drones, already physical adults though he remembered them being just nymphs when he left – flittered to and fro, tending to various needs, acting like a true society of intelligent creatures, not the ravenous monsters that they shared a common genetic heritage with.
Then he saw the houses, and it made him laugh. The intel reports he’d seen regarding changeling domiciles were all the same: the swarms lived together in giant sickly green hives, a titanic condominium complex through which the queen would completely dominate her brood. But for flutters, it was far different. At first glance, they looked like hives, dozens of them. But that was where the comparisons ended. Where changeling hives were that acidic green color, flutter bungalows – because that was what they looked like – were warm earth tones. And as he got closer, it was only the roofs of said bungalows that looked like hives; the bottom portions actually looked like normal homes.
And lastly were the flutters themselves. While it was clear they weren’t ponies, they certainly didn’t look much like changelings, either. Wings and bodies were whole, unmarked by the pocks, pits and holes of their corrupted kin. Manes, tails, saddle carapaces and gossamer wings were all a variety of colors, truly marking each one as an individual. And though they seemed to move with a single purpose as befitting an arthopodesque species, they also had enough individualism that one drone performing the same task as another wasn’t doing it in a copy-and-paste, rote action.
“It’s a beautiful place, isn’t it, our Dream Valley,” a voice suddenly said from behind Pip. “A place where our own swarm can live in peace, away from ponies’ accusations of being evil changelings and from changelings who are actually evil.”
“Yup, sure is a beautiful place,” Pip responded, relaxing. Normally, being a Destrier, his instincts instantly put him on the alert, but he was in friendly territory now – best to act it.
“Unfortunately, mister, you’re not allowed to be down here in the Valley – what ponykind calls Ghastly Gorge, though as you can see, it doesn’t fit that name any longer.” There was an eager cheer in the speaker’s voice, a boyish charm of a stallion just recently having left colthood. That made sense; in order to protect their queen, the first brood always grew from newly-hatched to full-size adults in about five years, which made for a very abbreviated foalhood – or nymphhood, in this case. Any successive broods Maggie would have would grow up normally. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave, though I don’t mean you any harm. Just the rules of the Equestriani Crown, and since we’re a protectorate, even we’ve gotta follow those rules.”
“Well,” Pip chuckled, “fortunately, I’m a special case. And by the way, who are you?”
The speaker said in a note of pride, “Name’s Peppercorn. I’m the town sheriff – not that there’s any kind of trouble amongst our kind – and Queen Imago’s right-hoof drone.”
“Isn’t that usually the job of a princess?”
“Well, yeah, admittedly, but we only have one, and her highness Princess Rosedust’s a bit on the young side, so it’s a real honor for her majesty to have me do the job, even if only until the princess grows up.” A sudden thought came on the speaker’s mind. “You know, you’re a little too knowledgeable about flutter and changeling procedures. I think I’d better take a look at you.”
The flutter walked around, and when Pip saw him, he was mildly surprised. Not by the look; being a drone, he was essentially a male clone of the queen, and this bore in Peppercorn’s appearance as well: aside from gender, the main differences in Peppercorn’s appearance were a shorter mane in his individual accent color of dark gray instead of his mother’s red, his clear cyan eyes, and the rusty red of his exoskeleton vice his mother’s tan. But it was the most important detail that caught Pip’s attention: Peppercorn was wearing a neckerchief, just as Pip was doing right now, and there was only one way the young drone could have known about that.
But it was the drone whose eyes went wide in surprise. “Pop?” he asked, as if not believing what he was seeing.
The word wormed its way into Pip’s heart, beat off all oncomers and immediately set up a fortress. A wide, lazy smile broke onto the stallion’s face, and his eyes went a little misty. No words came to his mind, so instead he stood there, grinning like a fool, as if it would say everything that needed to be said.
It did. Peppercorn launched himself into a hug, nuzzling his “father” at the same time and buzzing a cheerful tone. “Pop! We thought we’d never see you again! Why haven’t you come back before?”
Pip instinctively reached up and mussed his “son’s” mane. No, not “son”, son, sans quotation marks, Pip realized. Regardless of genes, he was raised to be mine – they all were. “Well, I’m here now.”
“You back for good this time?” Unbridled hope shone in the drone’s eyes. Another difference between the flutters and changelings; the formers’ eyes were closer to mammals and therefore easier to read.
Pip sighed; was he? Was this home now? He had so much to work through with Maggie; now that he had a daughter – scratch that, foals – it made things that much more challenging. Plus, the end of his relationship with Sweetie Belle…he wasn’t sure if there was an end to it, or of how to proceed from this point. “We’ll see. Duty calls, you know.”
“Yeah, Mom said you’re a really important pony up there.”
“I guess,” he said; he was a Destrier and they didn’t have to prove anything, so it was common for them not to need to brag. “Anyway, where’s your Mom?”
“She’s at the castle right now. It’s early in the morning, so she’s probably spending time with Rosie,” Peppercorn said. “C’mon, I’ll show you around while we get everypony ready.” Peppercorn waved to two of his fellow drones, bidding them to come over. “Hey, Cardamom! Oregano! Get your flanks over here!”
“Yeah, yeah, keep your horn on, Peppercorn, we’re coming, we’r…hey, is that Pop?” At the sudden notice of the stallion the lazy flight of the two drones became a pair of rockets as they immediately moved in front of the head drone. “Oh, wow! It is Pop! You’re back!” Cardamom chirped, as his fellow drone buzzed happily.
“Yeah. I’m taking him to see Mom and Rosie now. What I need you to do is to round up every drone and have them meet in the central hall in an hour, okay? That should be enough time for me to show Pop around a bit and then take him down to see Mom.”
“You got it!” Oregano shouted, as both drones raced in opposite directions to get the attention of their brethren. Meanwhile, Peppercorn’s enthusiasm was becoming infectious, as heads suddenly popped up, noticing the very distinctive stallion walking alongside the seniormost male flutter.
As they walked through the valley towards Dream Castle, dozens of flutters were staring at Peppercorn and Pip, as if celebrities were in their midst. There was a buzz, both metaphorical and literal, about the pair as they passed through town. By the time they reached the gates of the small palace, half the town was walking behind them.
“Looks like everypony’s here to welcome you back, my love,” Imago said as she approached the doorway to the palace, looking at Pip with love in her eyes. The moment he crossed the doorway into the palace proper, the flutter queen rushed to him, collapsing into his forelegs as she delivered a series of romantic kisses and nuzzled him tenderly. As she kissed him once more, the assembled flutters began to cheer, as Imago looked at her husband, a blush coming to her cheeks. “I’ve missed you so, my Pip.”
“I’m…glad to be back,” he said, the hesitancy clear in his voice.
“Not yet you’re not,” she told him, “because I can see you’re still conflicted about your issues with Sweetie Belle. Well, allow me to free your mind from that and heal your heart, and then I’ll help you with mending hers, as she will sorely need it.” She kissed him again, and then turned to face her children. “Now, I understand Peppercorn said that you all planned to meet in an hour in the meeting hall regarding your father, but you all still have chores to finish.”
“Awwwwww….” A few dozen grumbles voiced in the background as the flutter drones finally caught the message their mother had given. They thinned out to go back to their duties briefly, and as Peppercorn promised that they’d get to talk to him later, he gave a farewell wave to his parents, leaving them at the entrance to the palace.
“Things have changed here,” he said, looking around. “It’s beautiful, Maggie.”
“If it is, it’s only because my heart has let them be so,” she said with a soft smile. “I wanted you and a family, not conquest and an army. And now I’ve got exactly what I want and I’m never letting go.” This time it was Pip who offered the kiss, which she took greedily, and after a few more seconds’ worth of displays of affection, Pip smiled, looking at her with all his heart.
“So, where’s Rosie?” Pip asked, wondering where the perpetually hyper filly was.
“The palace staff is watching over her at the moment, but you’ll get to see her later, I promise,” she said, swatting him playfully with one of her gossamer wings. “I can guarantee she’ll be more than happy to see you, my love.” She started steering him towards the upstairs areas of the castle, the pair walking up the spiral stairs.
As he walked beside her, he had two feelings hit him simultaneously: one, none of the flutters had objected to his return; in fact, they all seemed to accept it with nothing less than absolute jubilation, as if something precious lost to them had been found. The second was that of pure, unbridled love: he felt loved and wanted, and for the first time in a while, Pip almost felt as if he was right where he needed to be.
Almost.
Mike arrived from reporting in with the Embassy; the military attaché, an Army brigadier general, understood Mike’s situation and pretty much informed him that the only time he would actually be “needed” was if there were any questions the REN had that might require someone with naval expertise. Other than to check in once a day as per regulations, he was free to enjoy his six months of unofficial leave. DJ was grateful for that, as she knew she was going to need him more than ever…
…starting off with when the boys were done with their classes with Cinnamon. The moment they saw her they raced over and buried her in hugs, followed closely by their father. In the corner of her eye she could see Spike and Sam talking; the ponified dragon had done so much for her and she’d have to thank him for everything as soon as she had the chance. Finally, Cinnamon walked out of the library, a scholarly smile on her face as she looked at the kids’ schoolwork; maybe Luna was right that the pegasus was a natural teacher. After all, she had no idea what her cutie mark meant, and not all cutie marks were clear-cut indicators as to what their owner’s special talent was.
DJ embraced both her kids and her husband, holding them as close as she could, cherishing the moment and chastising herself for nearly losing it. Her anger had nearly done her in and if that had happened, she would have missed out on simple moments such as these. “God, I love you guys, you know that?” Her eyes threatened to start tearing again and she felt both overjoyed by that and a bit embarrassed; it seemed as of late there were far too many tears, whether good, bad or other.
“Mom, something wrong?” Stuart asked as he looked at her. As always, she was proud of him; even at such a young age he was smart and perceptive – far more so than she’d been his age, that was for sure.
“I’m okay, sweetie,” she said, wiping her eyes. “You remember that I’m not human, right? Well, we came to Equestria because I have to meet my original family.”
“You’re meeting your real parents?” he asked.
Mike then bent down and looked at his older son. “Stuart, I want you to understand something: your grandparents are your mother’s real parents. Just because she started life a little different than you or me doesn’t mean that they love her any less than we love you. It just means that your mother had different parents before she ended up with her real ones.”
“Where’d you hear about those words?” DJ asked. She wasn’t the least bit offended by her son’s innocent statement, but something like adoption seemed a bit too weighty to discuss for a kid his age.
“Well, our teacher was talking about adoption the other day in class and she told us she was adopted and that her real parents were from Haiti and her adopted parents were from Montana.”
“Well, that just means her real parents are in Montana and her old ones are from Haiti,” DJ explained, never having thought she’d have to clarify the complexities of her birth and adoption to her kids so soon. Thankfully, both of them knew she wasn’t like “normal” mothers, though Mike and DJ had both never used that term around the boys, and Tyler was too young to understand any of this so she could explain it better when he was older. “Sometimes people say it differently but they mean the same things I do, I’m sure.”
A sudden look crossed his face as if something was bothering him. A second later he asked, “Mom…are you leaving us?” At Stuart’s words, Tyler noticed something was amiss and looked at his parents as well.
DJ instinctively hugged them both. “Of course not, not in a million years, kiddo. Why would you even think that?”
“Well, we had a girl in my class, Lindsey Davis, who had to leave because she had to go live with her other Mom and Dad and never came back.” He looked at her with worry in his eyes. “I don’t want you to leave!”
The look on her own face was one of gentle love. She caressed his cheek, looking into his eyes. “That’s never going to happen, I promise. Just like your grandparents were always there for me, your dad and I will always be there for you, got that?” DJ and Mike briefly looked at each other and both had the same thoughts: the events of two decades ago might not have allowed this moment to ever occur.
She then remembered she needed to talk to Mike. “Kids, why don’t you go watch a movie with your grandparents, okay? Your dad and I have to talk about something for a couple of minutes.” They nodded eagerly and shuffled off to their parents, who were talking to Cinnamon and Spike at the moment. After a couple of seconds, Spike had the idea for them to all head off to the local movie theatre instead of just watching a video in the den. After quickly telling DJ and Mike their plans, everyone said a quick goodbye and decided to head off to the movie theater. Cinnamon said she’d meet them up in Cloudsdale and then departed with the others.
As Spike transported the bunch via a teleportation spell, DJ watched the motes of magic left behind as the spell completed. Knowing his wife was being pensive, Mike opted to lighten the mood by cracking, “You know, that’s not half bad for a guy who lives in a cave.”
“Oh, be nice,” DJ chuckled. “Sam’s actually staying at Spike’s place and said the ‘cave’ is actually pretty nice, a kinda sorta all hobbited up McMansion. Spike just calls it a cave because it used to actually be one before he spiffed it up. There’s apparently even a pathway from the northwestern end of Canterlot that ponies can use for deliveries and visits when they have to.”
“Guess we’ll have to have a BBQ at his place while we’re here,” he commented. “And now that the small talk is done, you want to tell me what’s bothering you this time? I’m sure Stuart didn’t mean to—”
“No, it’s not that,” she said, getting on her tiptoes and kissing him quickly. “I know he didn’t mean any harm and I’m sure the way other adoptees refer to their birth parents can be confusing; there’s certainly no real set standard. But to me Mom and Dad have always been just Mom and Dad, you know that. I’ve never thought of them as my quote unquote ‘real’ parents, because for the first fifteen years of my life, they were my only parents.”
Mike nodded. “I can’t count the number of times you’ve said that, hon. I certainly understand.”
“I know, I’m preaching to the choir.” He moved to embrace her, but she pushed him aside gently, not out of anything negative but as an indicator that she had something on her mind that she wanted to deal with herself. “Up until the day when…the…when those guards t-tried to kidnap and r…no, they….” She trailed off, giving him a forlorn look; Mike knew this time she wanted the embrace and happily complied.
“Go ahead, hon,” he said, leading her to the couch. “I’m listening.”
“It’s just…how to I explain all this? I’m still coming to grips with it after twenty years. Yeah, maybe I should have dealt with it ages ago, but I didn’t think that it would ever come to this. For most of my life, it’s just been Sam. Now, I’ve got a younger brother I’m about to meet and a younger sister that I’m going to have to deal with sooner or later and that’s if Minty has gotten over her hatred of me – I sure as hell haven’t. And I wouldn’t even know how to explain Rarity and Silversteel to the boys, and considering Rarity’s attitude and bigotry, I’m not sure I’d even want them to see you much less them. I mean, I can just picture it now: ‘Oh, my daughter’s been fucking a monkey for the past two decades, and oh, how charming – she spawned some halfbreeds. How sweet.’”
“Well, she’d be wrong,” Mike pointed out. “We did agree to abstain until marriage, so that’s what, just nine years?” At that, DJ laughed and Mike smiled inwardly, things weren’t as bad as it first seemed. “But in all seriousness, though, love,” he continued, “I think you should at least try. Be the woman I know you are and show our kids what’s right. Yes, you’re never going to call Rarity or Silversteel your parents, but Rarity apparently does want to see you again, so maybe things have changed.”
“Well, since we’re on the topic of seeing someone again, we’re going to be meeting with Elusive tonight.”
“That was quick.”
DJ nodded. “Luna thought it’d be a good idea and I think so as well.” She looked nervous as she added, “She and Cinnamon are arranging the whole thing. From what I understand, Twilight and Sweetie have had a lot of influence in his life, so he’s somewhat more of a positive person and that he really, genuinely wants to meet me.”
“Well, that’s a good thing, right?”
She gave her husband a weak smile. “Just keep thinking that, Sailor Boy. By the way, we’re having dinner tonight in Cloudsdale.”
“Cloudsdale. That’s an interesting name,” he mused. “I think I’ve heard of it before, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.”
“Pegasus city. About a mile above the ground. Made of clouds,” she recited off-handedly.
“Oh, that’s right – I recall Tw…oh.” A sudden realization dawned on him. “Can they actually do that?”
“Apparently it’s perfectly normal for them to do so. Personally I don’t get it either, but then again I’m supposed to be some sort of super-strong master of agrimancy and geomancy and I don’t get that either. Besides, I wasn’t about to ask for a demonstration lest I see it and have my brain short-circuit as a result.” She stretched, then let her head fall into his lap. “So Luna will be back later to cast a spell on us to let us walk on the clouds.”
“Well, I always knew being with you made me feel sky high,” he joked, “but now I guess we’re getting literal.” He reached into his back pocket, pulling out his cellphone. “I probably should send an email to Ron, and ask him to find out if walking on clouds qualifies me for flight pay or something.”
In turn, DJ grabbed his phone and set it down on the coffee table. She looked up at him and said, “I love you.”
“What brought that on? Not that I mind hearing you say that, hon, but that kinda came out of left field.”
She reached up to caress his face. “You go through so much trouble and almost all of it is my fault in some way or other. You’re probably sick of me by now.”
“No, but I am sick of you beating yourself up at times – it does get old after a while,” he said, running his hands through her hair. “Besides, marriage is a two-way street, and you’ve put up with enough of my crap over the years. How many birthdays, Christmases, and anniversaries have I missed because I’ve been on deployment or TAD?”
“Yes, but we both agreed to this life together. You love being in the Navy and I couldn’t hold you back if I tried.”
“Yes you could have, hon, but you don’t,” he said, “and I love you for being able to put up with that. You handle the kids by yourself, you deal with the bills, the various commands’ spouses associations and your writing career all while I’m away. How many speaking engagements, book tours and so forth and so on have you missed or cut short because I had to take off on another six-month deployment? You’ve given up just as much for me as I have for you, so this marriage is hardly one-sided.”
“Mike, you don’t have to lie to me. I know I’m a bitch and can be catty, that I have so many issues that I should probably just get subscriptions instead, that I need you more than you need me. You’ve been dragged to whole other realities because or me, not just once, but twice – hell, we’re here now. You’ve had to fight for me, more than any other man has had to deal with for his true love and that’s not hyperbole. And yet you did it all for me.”
He smiled, and traced a line down her muzzle. “Yes I did, and I would do it again if I had to – and that should say everything there is about our lives together, DJ. I can’t say that in my life that I’ve ever come across such as beautiful soul as yours, never in my life. You know I’ve never cared about who you are or how you look or what you are. You remember the day I first told you that, right?”
“Yeah, and I’m more than sure the kids got a Halloween surprise that time.”
“Well, I meant it that day, strained arms and all and I mean it now: I love you for your heart, your soul. You’re the most generous person I know.”
She nickered, rolling her eyes. “Yeah, right.”
“Okay, who wrote that short story to raise charity funds for that earthquake in Nagasaki last year? And then drove the spouses’ club up the wall to start a second fundraiser. And then insisted we donate our tax refund to the relief fund? And that’s just one example. I could go as far back as to when you were taking Erica’s schoolwork to the hospital everyday she was there so she could keep up. Or the day we first met – you had to go volunteer at a blood drive where you couldn’t even donate because no one knew what you were. Or more recently when my parents were both sick just after Chaz and Hope’s wedding. I was in Bahrain and Shelby had to fly to Milan for her job – we weren’t even married yet and you proved to my parents the person you were, even though they both knew you by then.”
“But I—”
“—was just doing what you thought was right. Yes, I know and I love you for that, DJ. You do things instinctively that others can’t even comprehend,” he said, gently rubbing her cheek. The two looked at each other for the longest time, drinking in each other’s presence as if it were the greatest intoxicant in the world.
Walking into the house and seeing the two kiss ripped a new wound into Sweetie Belle’s heart. She knew it wasn’t their fault and on any other day she’d be glad her oldest niece had found a special somepony that she could call her own for two decades now. But Sweetie had been with Pip for much longer even if on and off and now everything had just gone to pieces so painfully. The unicorn’s heart ached and she turned away just as much to give them privacy as to balm the holes bored right into her heart.
She waited until they stopped kissing before coughing slightly to get their attention. “Hi, Sweetie!” DJ called out, waving from her position. “Don’t mind us, we’re just making out on my aunt’s couch like two teenagers. Fun times.”
The white unicorn gave her niece a bemused smile. “Obviously,” she drolled. “Now I believe you owe me a hug. I heard that something happened to you in Singapore. You care to explain that?” she asked as DJ got up from the couch to hug her aunt.
“Yeah, I nearly died, not that it’s a big deal or anything,” she cracked, which stopped as soon as she saw the heartbroken look on the older mare’s face. “Look, I’m okay. I promise.”
“Don’t mind her, she’s just being DJ as usual,” Mike joked as he gave the unicorn mage a hug as well. “Good to see you, Sweetie.”
“Good to see you as well, Mike. Glad to see you could make it.” Turning back to DJ, she continued. “But Luna told me about it. Honestly, I’m rather disappointed in you, but….”
“But?”
“Well, the first part is that I’m glad you’re okay. But the second part is that you’re willing to meet with Elusive, and that makes me very proud of you. Almost proud enough to forget that you humiliated one of your other aunts in public not too long ago.”
“Look, I apologized and we made up,” DJ replied. She shook her head in the way that indicated that if it had been anyone who had said that other than someone she deeply loved and respected, the humanized pony would have blown up right then and there.
“I know. Luna told me about that, too, and I’m glad you did that. Now if I can get you to agree to making up with Rarity and Silver, things should be perfect.”
DJ wisely kept her mouth shut about that. “So what are you doing here?” the earth pony asked. “That is, not that I mind; after all, you’re as precious to me as the lily fields of Caltera in the azure grace of a midsummer’s day.”
When Sweetie looked at DJ curiously, Mike replied, “DJ tries out lines from her works every once in a while. I’ll bet that’s a line that Orphea probably said to Arreone, right?”
The authoress grinned softly. “Well, actually, it was Chervon was going to say to his little sister before h—” DJ suddenly found herself unable to speak.
Sweetie gave her a slightly embarrassed look and released the spell. “I didn’t want you to spoil it for me. I….well, I…okay, I’ve been reading your works and got hooked,” she said as slight embarrassment became full-force blushing.
“If you’d like, I can make you a PDF of The Stars Shine Brighter from my master file. And if I knew you read them, I would’ve added you to the Beta Buzzards list. And if you have to ask what that is, you really don’t want to know.” A second later, she blurted, “Okay, it’s my pre-readers list, but it’s filled with beta buzzards, people who pre-read the whole thing but never offer suggestions or the like.”
“You should know better than that. Put me and Twilight on there and….” Sweetie Belle trailed off, feeling guilty; she hadn’t gone to see Twilight since her return from Fillydelphia. Granted, a lot of it was just trying to avoid everyone asking her about what happened between her and Pip, but Twilight would never do that to her. Plus, whether she liked it or not, there was also Rarity’s position to consider.
DJ managed to catch that much. “She’ll pull through,” the earth pony said, hugging her aunt again. “This is Twilight we’re talking about. I can’t imagine that she wouldn’t.”
“I wish I could say I was as confident,” Sweetie answered. “None of the mages have been able to figure out what it is and even Celestia and Luna are stumped. Whatever Nightmare Moon hit them with was something we’ve never seen before and while Twilight’s been able to keep it at bay, it’s only a matter of time.” The look in Sweetie’s eyes was one of heartbreak and DJ reached out to embrace Sweetie once more.
“Well, I don’t know if you’re aware, but Mike and I were waiting for Luna to get back,” DJ replied. “We’re meeting Elusive for dinner in Cloudsdale tonight.”
She nodded happily. “I know: who do you think will be taking care of the spell and the transportation? Even Luna can’t be in two places at once, and the other alicorns have their hooves full catching up with statecraft, so you’ll just have to rely on my gentle ministrations.”
“The best kind,” Mike said with a smile. “I’m guessing that’s why you brought clothing for the trip?”
“Even I like to look my best,” she responded, “as Luna, Cinnamon and I will be having dinner nearby, just in case. As for you two, nothing too fancy: something like date night.”
“I think I can arrange that,” DJ responded. Mike merely nodded assent.
“Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get the Cloudwalking spell ready. Granted, we’ve still got several hours left to go before we depart, but I want to make sure that I get it right.”
“Why, is there a problem with the spell?”
“No, actually it’s more stable and safer than the Gossamer Wings spell, but it takes a bit more preparation. You might not know this, but the first time Twilight and Rarity went to Cloudsdale, Rarity insisted on the Gossamer Wings spell instead of just Cloudwalking. Unfortunately for her, she let her vanity get the best of her and plunged off the side of Cloudsdale. Had it not been for Rainbow’s intervention, you probably never would have been born.” She paused for a second before continuing with, “And don’t let that color your opinions about Rarity, DJ. It happened when she was in her early twenties and we all do stupid things at that age.”
“Anything we can help you with?” DJ offered.
“No, I just need to read over everything to make sure that I’ve got it down pat. You two go cause trouble like teenage foals do – after all, like the saying says, ‘Equestria is for lovers.’”