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// The Plan 
// Story: The Rescue 
// by Diamond Sparkle 
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Celestia nodded sadly. In some ways Princess Aurora is a lot like me when I was ruling Equestria, although she seems a lot harsher then me. I tried not to let anypony starve even when times were hard whilst she does not seem to care. But I was just as intolerant of any opposition, and not just Discord ended up sealed in stone. Almost every statue in the castle gardens was once a traitor or a dissident of some kind. You don't rule for a thousand years without facing some opposition after all. "Princess," she said politely, "I thank you for your suggestion, and I ask for ten days to gather together those who would rather hang in a Changeling cocoon then live a life of poverty and hardship in the real world." The immortal alicorn smiled.

"Your wish is granted and you have my permission. It is better to let troublemakers out of the country then wait until they infect the masses within," said the Queen. And it was then that Celestia came up with an idea. She bowed to the Princess and left the royal palace and found a rather unhappy Trixie waiting for her. When they were safely out of earshot she said to her "The Princess has told me that anypony who is having a really bad time can go into the Changeling's country and offer themselves up as food. Now, between ourselves, I have an...idea. A very treasonous idea. If I 	was to persuade the Changelings to seek revenge, and you were to spell-break the force field....well, there are many earth ponies who would join with them to bring Aurora down."

Trixie shuddered. "That's high treason. I could be turned to stone for it. And what if the changelings prove to be much worse then the Princess? Princess Aurora may have her faults, but she's ruled for a thousand years and ruled quite well. And have you thought of this...who will move the sun and moon across the sky? Everlasting night would first kill the crops and then starve everypony. Those who were able to stomach eating...meat would last a while but they too would run out of food in the long term. Everlasting day would not be quite so bad;I suppose the pegusai could arrange a cloud cover to allow enough light in for plants to be grown whilst not allowing enough to make it be too hot. It's not as if the Changeling Queen has the power to move the moon and sun."

"What if...what if Equestria in fact orbits the sun, and the Moon orbits Equestria, because of the scientific force of gravity, instead of them being moved around by the magic of an alicorn? What if Princess Aurora is only pretending to move the sun around so that everypony will worship her? Have you thought of that?"

Trixie stared at her. "Heresy! Don't worry, I won't report you, but how do you expect anypony to beleave that? How can you possibly prove it? Even if you could, you would become a wanted mare very quickly."

"I can't," Celestia said sadly. "But many earth ponies would love the Changelings if they took power and made some reforms. And the love they got would feed the Changelings enough that they would not have to attack ponies to get it. Ponies and Changelings can live together, I am sure of it. Now, here is what I want you to do..."

*****
Ten days later a surprisingly large group of ponies had gathered together to make the journey to the Changeling Hives, the vast majority both earth ponies and perfectly willing to go. Here and there were a few pegusai or unicorns who had trouble in their lives and thought a new *life* in a Changeling pod was the way to go, or had been captured by the Changelings before and then rescued by the Royal Equestrian Army. On the Princess's orders, disabled ponies who were blind or could not walk, or who were thought mentally ill, had been added willingly or otherwise. The Princess herself was flown in her sky-chariot  to meet them with a larger then normal escort of Royal Guards..

"My little ponies..." Princess Aurora glared angrily at them, and her voice had nothing of her normal warmth. "Some of you are lazy and cannot be bothered to work....others clearly don't like my rule. Still others are disabled and as far as I am concerned, useless. Most of you are perfectly willing to leave, others are being deported on my orders. I will be rid of you, the Changelings will be fed and perhaps in time will be less of a threat because of that, and you can live lives of luxury in your Changeling pods. Everybody wins.  I will open a gate in the border for you to leave, and then you can go. Most of you want to go anyway but those who refuse will be expelled from my lands by force. Goodbye, and also, good riddance." Her horn glowed and a  portal opened in the forcefield, and the willing and the deportees trotted or were forced through it. When the last one had gone through, it was closed behind them.

Celestia felt much warmer, the land they were in was scrub land, and clearly no pegusai controlled the weather here. Like the Everfree Forest, the weather was left to run wild.Nearby, a large dust devil blew past them, and specks were seen in the air. Specks that rapidly grew and turned into changelings, circled above them in the air, and then dwindled again. "Those are the scouts,they'll tell the nearest Hive that we're here,and then we can expect a lot of Changeling attention, but they should be fine with us when we explain we don't mind being made into their food," Celestia told them. Either way things should work out, either I'll be an alicorn again or I'll be able to get my revenge on Princess Aurora for her ill treatment of the earth ponies.