Shining Sapphire's opinions on her cousin, one Twilight Twinkle, could be summarised thusly: she was complicated. She did love her, and she owed her little cousin more than she could ever measure, since it was, however inadvertently, her actions that allowed Shining Sapphire and Wisp to meet. However, it was Twinkie's crush on Wisp that led to her getting brutally injured by a demented Nightmare. But she was her only cousin, even if she was slightly terrifying sometimes. Perhaps it was her near-total inability to lie, or her odd desire to become an adventurer, perhaps it was the noticeable cynicism she'd developed in her teenaged years, or the way she and Twilight Sparkle seemed to always be in a state of low-key hostility with one another. She was never entirely certain whether to hug her cousin or feel terrified for her. What she was sure was that at that very moment, she would have liked nothing better than for her cousin to perhaps relax her vice-like grip around her neck.
She tried expressing this in as concise a fashion as possible, given her sudden inability to speak, and evidently Twilight Twinkle recognised this, as she let go of her cousin's neck and stepped back, an unguarded smile on her face. There was an odd smell to the mare's breath that she didn't recognise, and very visible bags under her eyes, which were, she regrettably noticed, rather bloodshot, and seemed to have trouble focusing.
For a moment, both ponies stared at one another. Shining Sapphire didn't know exactly what to say, especially considering the sheer number of topics between the two that were now probably forbidden.
"It's good to see you" Twinkle said. Shining Sapphire just nodded.
"Twinkie."
"Come on then, don't just stand there" the young mare grinned, "come on in."
Shining Sapphire did so, dispelling her umbrella construct as she did. A few droplets of water briefly hung in the air, then splashed onto the small carpet in front of the door as she entered. She looked about. She honestly couldn't remember at that point when she'd last set hoof in the house, which definitely meant it had been too long. It still didn't look like the sort of house dwelt in by a Princess, even if that Princess was Twilight Sparkle.
"Make yourself at home" Twinkle continued, "I'm just gonna head over to the kitchen. You want anything?" she added, almost as an afterthought.
Shining Sapphire considered this for a moment. "I think right now I could really go for some coffee right now."
Twilight Twinkle's smile briefly flickered, and she turned and headed into a small room. A few seconds later she walked past Shining Sapphire, muttering about going the wrong way under her breath. She stopped and looked at Shining Sapphire.
"Sit down" she said, motioning toward the adjacent living room, "you don't need to stand around in the hallway looking slightly pathetic."
Shining Sapphire just watched as Twilight Twinkle disappeared again. After a few seconds she heard a variety of rattling noises, and one or two other noises, followed by a satisfied sounding sigh. Then Twilight Twinkle reappeared, looking slightly better than she had, and completely without coffee.
"Sorry about that" she said, "I was planning to sleep in this morning."
Shining Sapphire just tilted her head, and then it seemed to occur to Twinkle what she was doing that for.
"Sorry" she said, "coffee's sort of completely banned in this house. Just to be on the safe side."
Shining Sapphire drew a blank on that statement, until she remembered something Twinkie had said the last time they'd been together, something about too much coffee, no sleep, a few obligations, and Twinkle being not-exactly arrested by the entire Canterlot guard. Apparently her cousin did not react well to coffee. Then, she noticed the mare was staring at her.
"I'm guessing this isn't a social visit. You didn't just happen to be passing through with Wisp and decide to drop by."
"No" Shining Sapphire said, "sorry."
Twinkle's expression flickered slightly.
"Never get to just hang out anymore" the royal blue mare muttered. "Always some mess."
"Actually, Twinkie, I was wondering... is aunt Twilie up yet?"
Twinkie's sudden change of expression was far from reassuring, as Shining Sapphire looked around the hallway, finding it difficult to look at the mare.
"I'd have thought she'd probably have heard us by now, or at least wondered what's going on."
"What do you need mom for?" Twinkle asked. Shining Sapphire bit her lip. Twinkle was, unfortunately in this case, an observant pony, and was probably already getting suspicious as to what was going on.
She sighed. "It's... well, perhaps I should show you first."
She lifted a hoof, "but once I show you, before you do anything else, just let me explain first, okay?"
"Okay" the younger pony said, now eyeing her suspiciously. Shining Sapphire focused, and then the illusion just sloughed off of her. Twilight Twinkle stared at her, first in alarm, then mild horror, then suspicion, then finally outright confusion. Her mouth opened. Her mouth closed. She mouth opened again. Her mouth closed again. This repeated itself for some time.
"That's... new" she eventually got out. Shining Sapphire grinned, despite being right in front of a mare who, even though she was younger and smaller than her (even if not by much), was still very much capable of blasting her straight out (and through) the front door. She quickly tried to explain her predicament. Then she realised that it would've been quicker to sum up her situation. She did so. Her cousin just listened, not even reacting in the slightest.
"I see..." Twilight Twinkle said once she was finished. She walked over toward Shining Sapphire and prodded her with a hoof. She stared at Shining Sapphire.
"Twinkie, I can assure you that it's still me, if that helps" she said cautiously. Twilight Twinkle nodded.
"So, you and Wisp just woke up with your species swapped" she said slowly, "and nopony seems to realise what's going on. And since you don't have the ability to fix whatever's been done, you've travelled all the way here you're hoping mom can help you out with this... this" she said, staring at Shining Sapphire like she was about to explode.
"Yes" Shining Sapphire managed. There was an odd look in Twinkle's orange eyes that she wasn't liking.
"That's it?" Twinkle asked, sounding confused more than anything, "nothing else? Ominous messages, dire warnings, immanent end of the world scenarios?"
"No." Twinkle stared blankly at her for some time, before she spoke again, sounding mildly confused.
"Alright then."
"Twinkie" Shining Sapphire said, trying to sound as polite as possible, "I know this is completely insane, that is why I would like aunt Twilight to fix this as quickly as possible."
Twinkle coughed nervously, her wings fluttering.
"Well..." she said sheepishly. "I'm afraid that's going to be a problem, you see..."
*****
Many, many, many miles away from Canterlot, there was a beach. It had fine white sands, brilliantly blue waters, impressive nearby cliffs, and was perfectly suited for the magnificent evening sunset. The nearby bar even had just the right shade to garish lighting ratio for true relaxation. All seagulls were carefully shoed away by the local resort staff. In short, the perfect place to get away and relax. It was one of the world's most exclusive resorts, which in part was because it was a resort that had, originally at least, been intended for the sole comfort of Princess Celestia herself. And in the whole time she'd known of it, she had used it a grand total of never. Of course, she still found uses for it, especially since, just to throw an example out of nowhere, it made a wonderful site for honeymooning.
At that moment, two ponies were sitting on the beach. One of them, a purple-furred mare, just lay there, a book she'd been reading now closed, as she breathed gently in and out, having fallen asleep some time ago. The other, a blue-furred stallion, was also completely asleep, having fallen asleep about the same time. The mare was lying more-or-less on top of the stallion, one of her forelegs streached out over his chest. Both of them had utterly content smiles on their faces.
*****
"SHE'S ON VACATION?!" Shining Sapphire asked. Or, far more accurately, hollered. After shaking her head, and refocusing her gaze, Twilight Twinkle nodded groggily.
"She was supposed to be on vacation a month ago" she pointed out, "but then stuff happened, and she had to delay a while. So, yes, she is currently on vacation."
The young mare scuffed a hoof against the floor, "and I may have sort of promised not to bother her."
Several tense seconds passed, before her cousin felt the need to add to that. "Sorry. I promised I wouldn't call on her, even if it's an emergency."
At this, Shining Sapphire felt something inside her snap, and she groaned in frustration, as her legs just decided to give out, causing her to collapse into an undignified heap.
"Hey" Twinkle said, placing a hoof on her shoulder, "no need for that. Mom's got that big analysing thing in the basement. I can always go fire it up, see if that might help."
Shining Sapphire looked at her and smiled. "Okay" she managed. Then Twinkle shrugged.
"Of course, I have no idea if I can get it to work" she said, before looking annoyed with herself, "but I'll definitely try."
"Maybe I can help" Shining Sapphire offered. Twinkle's smile flickered.
"I don't know" she said, cautiously, her eyes darting to behind Shining Sapphire, "I'm reasonably certain I can do this on my own. I mean, I've watch mom handle that thing often enough, so figuring out the basics should be simple."
For a moment both mares stood there, staring one another down. Finally Shining Sapphire sagged. "Okay, okay, fine."
"It might take a while, though" Twinkle said cautiously, "I'm not sure mom's used it recently."
"I'm fine with waiting" Shining Sapphire said, though she wasn't absolutely sure about that. Time on her own would probably mean she'd start thinking about Wisp again. Her eyes darted toward the staircase, which led upstairs to the small library.
"I think I'll see if there's not something to read in the library" she suggested. For a moment, Twinkle looked hesitant.
"Okay then" she said, though her enthusiasm suddenly seemed to have evaporated. She turned away, as Shining Sapphire began making her way up the stairs, when suddenly a thought occurred to her.
"Hey, Twinkie?"
"Yeah?" the mare grunted.
"Just out of curiosity, how come every window in the city seems to be broken?"
"I..." her cousin paused, "am not actually allowed to say. Sorry, Sapphy."
"Okay then" she said, as Twinkle walked off. She slowly made her way up the stairs, ignoring the occasional ache from her back right leg. She stopped on the landing, trying to remember which door led to the house's library, or drawing room, or study, or whichever one it was aunt Twilie used for it. She looked about, and decided to choose one at random. She opened the door to find... chaos.
Well, highly organised chaos, at any rate. Books and papers were scattered about in odd stacks around the room, a desk on the far side of the room was covered in bits of paper, and several photos of unusual ponies, almost all of them stallions with increasingly ludicrous fashion-sense, and then photos of other ponies, including one of a pony she'd seen during the visit to Ponyville. Doo something, if she remembered correctly. Then it clicked.
For years, Twilight Twinkle had expressed what could have politely been called opinions of the legendary Star-Swirl the Bearded, holding him responsible for Twilight Sparkle becoming an alicorn, and therefore for some of the less pleasant parts of her life. And then, one month ago, that had all changed. She claimed she'd met him, repeatedly, and that he was an inexplicably likeable time-travelling maniac. Shining Sapphire wasn't entirely certain about any of that, but Twinkle certainly seemed sure about what she'd witnessed. Then she looked about the room, and saw there was in fact a bed, recently used by the look of it, not to mention several bookcases. If she had to guess, she'd have hazarded that the room she was in was the library, or had been, up until somepony had adapted it for their own use.
Then she turned again. She found herself staring at a picture. Or at least somepony's attempt at a picture. It was of a filly, or at least she presumed it was a filly, with... amazingly bright blue eyes. Clearly whoever drew it had been extremely focused on those. Then she saw the horn, that jagged, pointy horn, and she realised what she was seeing. Back when they had last met, after Twinkle hold told everypony present of her grand adventures in time and space, she had confided to her cousin of something horrible. She had been attacked by some manner of plant which dwelled within the Everfree Forest, which had somehow shown for her all her fantasies, including what would have happened had she managed to romance Wisp, which had eventually resulted in marriage and a foal. Twinkle had claimed she couldn't remember much about that dream, and that later she'd removed what little had remained, so how, she wondered, was she able to draw such a picture. Especially since the last time Sapphy had checked, Twinkle had no artistic leanings of any kind. Slowly, she turned away from it, since staring at it felt like she was seeing something she wasn't meant to, like staring into another pony's soul. She found herself staring at the bed again. Now that she thought about it, she did feel somewhat tired, even after however long it was she'd been on the train. And her back leg was beginning to ache. Perhaps a little sit down was in order. She looked over toward one of the bookcases, examining them to see if there was anything worth reading. There was an awful lot of fiction books, some complicated sounding scientific journals, a few books on Equestrian history, and one or two that didn't fit in anywhere at all. She chose a random book on herpetology, and began trying to read it.
She hadn't even gotten to the title page when she heard a small buzzing noise. She looked around, but then it seemed to have gone.
A few minutes beyond that, she had somehow managed to fall asleep again.
*****
Wisp stirred, shifting slightly in the warm sunlight. Then, he suddenly realised his eyes were shut, and more importantly, he'd fallen asleep. In an instant, he bolted upright, ignoring the flash of pain in his head that followed, chiding himself for falling asleep. The train, as it turned out, was one that went to Ponyville via the 'scenic route' which meant it took several times longer to get there, which probably explained why he'd fallen asleep again. He rubbed the side of his head with a hoof and winced for a moment. He sat on the train seat, trying to figure out how long he'd been out for. He looked out of the train, and saw that it was beginning to approach Ponyville. He stretched, and blinked a few times. Spending all that time sitting still with only his thoughts for company wasn't helping his already terrible mood. He sighed, and looked out of the window, waiting for the train to reach the platform.
Once it did, he set off, walking through the center of Ponyville, enjoying the feeling of warm summer sunlight pouring onto his back. And he began to notice things that felt different. He wasn't catching odd sensations of other ponies moods, he wasn't having to expend magic on looking like everypony else. Sure, there were ponies staring at him, just as there had all day, but then he was slightly taller than usual. And had wings and a horn as well, as he kept forgetting, but it wasn't that unusual, was it?
He kept walking, ignoring the slightly sick feeling in his stomach, as he made his way past the small restaurants, heading towards the outskirts of town, past the farthest edges of the apple orchards. A plum-coated pony with a blonde mane working on some trees turned to look at him and frowned.
"Whisper Wind?" the pony uttered, jolting Wisp out of his train of thought. "Y'back again?"
"For now" he said. The pony just nodded.
"'kay."
"How's things?" Wisp asked. The pony shrugged.
"Fine."
"Good to know" he smiled. He kept going.
"Hey" the pony called out. He stopped and turned around. The farmpony was staring at him with a confused look.
"'thought you were a pegasus."
"Not right now" he said. The pony just raised an eyebrow to this.
"'kay then." And with that, Lil MacIntosh went back to work.
Wisp continued onward, soon reaching the small cottage on the absolute edge of the Everfree. He slowly approached the cottage, and then ducked. A carrot sailed through the air where his head had been seconds ago. He turned to glower at the rabbit that had thrown it, but said nothing. He quickly found the spare key, opened the door and stepped in. A few small animals looked up at him with general disinterest at best, before getting on with whatever they were doing. He made his way to the nearest chair and sat down, sighing as he did, and tried to relax and gather his thoughts.
Or at least, that's what he'd been intending to do. Unfortunately there was a shocked gasp, and the sensation of something heavy hitting the back of his head. Just before he passed out he could've sworn he heard several rabbits cheering. His last thoughts before everything went dark were wondering if that was even possible.
*****
There was an odd stench, assaulting her nose. It was hardly an offensive stench, as far as stench went. It wasn't like somepony had dragged a terrified skunk under her nose, but to Shining Sapphire's nose, whatever it was just smelled wrong. She woke up, to see whatever it was that she was being forced to sense.
It was a cup of tea. She reared back from it, and was startled to hear the slightly pathetic squeak underneath her hooves.
"Watch it!" snapped the voice of her cousin. Suddenly she found one of her hooves being lifted, and something small and blue-grey and fuzzy was quickly removed from underneath her, lifted over toward Twilight Twinkle, who examined the item carefully, between glowering at her with the sort of intensity usually reserved for those who injured animals. It took her a second to realise what she'd stood on was an old donkey doll, one that looked like it had seen far better days.
"Was it necessary to wake me up with... tea?" she asked, staring at the drink as if it were some kind of poison. Twilight Twinkle shrugged.
"I figured you didn't want to sleep in all day" she responded, "I mean, it is almost half past twelve."
"Half past twelve?!" Shining Sapphire repeated. "Why didn't yo-"
"I did" her cousin cut in, "about ten minutes after I went poking around in the basement I came up here and found you like this. I tried waking you, but you were out like a light."
"No kidding" Shining Sapphire murmured. Then she saw the look on Twinkle's face. The mare was staring intently at her, and it was making her feel increasingly nervous.
"What is it?" she asked. The mare shrugged.
"Well, I was a bit concerned when my older cousin shows up on my doorstep so early in the morning, unannounced, without even so much as a letter, but then after she'd fallen asleep on my bed... I got to thinking" there was a noticeable amount of irritation in her voice at that, and she stopped for a moment.
"What's happened between you and Wisp?" she asked. Shining Sapphire stared at her hooves.
"I..." she said. "I'm not really sure on that one."
"You're not?" Twinkle asked. "That might be a first, you not being sure about something."
"Last night I... might have scared him, or just been really stupid and..." she buried her face in her hooves, "I don't even know right now. Nothing about this is making any sense at all."
There was a slow slurping sound from Twinkle drinking the tea.
"And we weren't exactly... I mean, he seems to be hiding things from me, and-"
She stopped and buried her face in her hooves.
"I really don't know, Twinkie. I think I might actually be in the middle of some kind of breakdown. I think I might be going a little bit mad. None of this is making any sense."
She felt a hoof on her chin, and found herself staring eye to eye with her cousin, who was apparently inspecting her.
"No" Twinkle said eventually, "you don't look like you're having a breakdown. I'd put this one down to just having a bad day."
"A bad day?" she repeated incredulously. Twinkle nodded.
"Everypony has them. You, me, Luna, even your parents, strange as it is to believe. We all have them."
She stared at her cousin for uncounted minutes, before shaking her head. "Maybe you're right. But then, I'm not used to this sort of thing. It's your domain, not mine."
Twilight Twinkle looked intrigued. "What's 'my sort of thing'?" she asked.
"Adventures, and madness, and excitement and... and... and really wild things" she felt her ears droop, "I'm just an academic, after all."
Twinkle stared at her cousin for a moment, before frowning. "What exactly happened to you two, then?" she asked.
Sapphy waved a dismissive hoof. "It's not that important."
"Oh, yes it is" her cousin said quickly. Sapphy stared at her, and saw from the look on her cousin's face that the mare wasn't going to give up easily, or (as was far more likely given what she knew of her) at all. She sighed, and then quickly recounted what had happened. Twinkle's expression didn't change in the slightest throughout her story. For several moments after she finished the mare sat there, not offering any opinion on Shining Sapphire's tale, just calmly drinking from her tea.
"I... see" she eventually said. "Do you think he's upset at you?"
Shining Sapphire gave this some thought. "I... no."
"Do you think he won't ever want to see you again?"
"No" she said, with a bit more confidence.
"Do you still want to be with him?"
"Yes."
"Okay then" Twinkle said. "But then why are you here, and he isn't?"
"Because" Shining Sapphire said, "he said he needed to think about something, and if he needs to think about something, then fine. If he feels he needs to think about it in Ponyville, fine. And if he needs to be on his own to do it, then that's fine too. That's his choice, and I won't stop him, or harangue him about it."
Twinkle raised an eyebrow, possibly because of her use of the word 'harangue' in cold blood. "How do you know he's in Ponyville?" she asked. Shining Sapphire just stared levelly at her.
"Because I know him. And because, let's face it, it's Wisp. Where else would he go?"
Twinkle just nodded to this. Shining Sapphire then frowned, as a thought occurred to her.
"By the way, why is your mom on vacation, anyway? I mean, I thought she'd just been on vacation, just last month, just before..." she shuffled, "you know, everything."
Twinkle's expression changed, and she sighed, putting down the cup of tea on the nearest surface, which was in fact on the other side of the room. She shifted on her chair.
"She was" Twinkle said, her voice leaden, "and then the exact day she went on vacation, somepony had to get caught in an accident with time-travel. And then dad came back, and then I came back, looking slightly younger and with wings, and so she had to deal with all of that, and then there was all sorts of complicated legal stuffs and such, and eventually she decided not to bother being on vacation at all."
"I see..." Shining Sapphire said, but then Twinkle shook her head.
"Not done yet. You see, a few weeks later, it turned out mom wasn't getting any sleep. Some kind of night terrors, bad enough the house sometimes shook. And you know what mom can be like when there's something wrong. Took days of me and dad to convince her just to go see somepony, anypony."
There was something about the way Twinkle had said that last sentence that concerned Shining Sapphire, an odd amount of bitterness seeping into it, probably without Twinkle having even noticed. "At which point Celestia steps in, recommends her to some place somewhere. Well," she said, "I mean she sort of insisted mom go."
"And what happened next?" Sapphy asked. Twinkle just gave her what was usually referred to as a Look. Shining Sapphire shook her head.
"Don't know why I bothered asking that" she murmured. Then she looked at the massive piles of books lying about the room.
"So, if auntie's on vacation, then-?"
"What's all this?" Twinkle asked, motioning toward the books, suddenly looking annoyed, though Sapphy could've sworn she saw a small hint of a smirk buried in there somewhere. "Well, some of it is my own research on... stuff, and some of it is because I agreed to help mom with some of her projects. Right now I'm having to go over all the records there are on Star-Swirl the Bearded, because ever since I met that 'Doctor', mom wanted to triple-check all the known facts on him, and anypony who's met him."
She stopped, and then sighed, taking another swig of her tea. "At least, I'm supposed to be doing that, but for one reason or another, I keep getting distracted."
"I'm a distraction?" Shining Sapphire asked, playfully. Twinkle stared at her for a moment, and then shook her head.
"You're more of a distraction from the distraction" she grinned, then stopped, and then rubbed a hoof against her chin thoughtfully. "Or maybe..."
"And that's it? You've been spending all month just sitting indoors, trying to study Star-Swirl and not succeeding?"
Twinkle's smile vanished, and for a time she said nothing. Her gaze flittered about the room, she shuffled her hooves, and generally looked like she was in all likelihood holding back a massive rant.
"No" she stated, "but that's what I've been spending most of the last week doing."
"And you've not been doing anything else?" Shining Sapphire asked.
"Well," Twinkle shuffled, "I have been trying to keep out of trouble. And I keep meaning to learn how to fly, but so far? No luck. Mom did offer to hire a tutor, but..."
"But what?"
Twinkle shook her head. "The Wonderbolts are on tour, so she can't call in any favours with their captain, meaning she had to go for the next best option."
"Which was?"
Twinkle's expression turned grim. "Rainbow Dash."
Shining Sapphire blinked in confusion. "You and Wisp keep implying something's wrong with Rainbow Dash. Why is that?"
"Because, while Rainbow Dash is most assuredly an excellent teacher, there is a bit of a flaw in her teaching methods."
Sapphy raised an eyebrow. "Which is?"
"Rainbow Dash, for all her good points as a teacher, seems to believe it's not a good workout until you can't breath, much less stand up properly, and that to push yourself to anything less than your limits is a disservice."
There was a sudden silence. "Still, most of the ponies she taught have gone on to enjoy highly successful careers, make of that what you will."
Shining Sapphire stared at Twinkle, waiting for her to say more. "So that's it?" she asked, when Twinkle said nothing else. "You haven't done anything else? Not tried to make some new friends, or met somepony?"
Twinkle scoffed. "I haven't really had time to do anything else."
She stared at Sapphy for a moment, before seeing the look of disbelief on the mare's face. "Hey, you know how it is. You suddenly get your new lease on life and it's all happy ever afters, and moving on with your life, and then the days just sort of blur together and you've settled into a routine without realising it."
Sapphy stared at her hooves, trying not to think about any certain changelings. "I do know how that feels" she reluctantly agreed.
"Hay, the closest I've come to making new friends is my weekly appointments with Luna, and that's only because it's either her or get a psychiatrist who charges by the hour, and can't help you watch all your nightmares for from the front row seats."
Shining Sapphire however, didn't hear whatever her cousin had said, for her attention was now being drawn to an odd-looking book. The reason for the oddity was because in contrast to the general disorganised mess of the room, this book was set on a small stand, on its own. Indeed, everything around it seemed to have been moved away. She stared at the cover, which looked amazingly unassuming. It was a completely featureless dark brown cover, the words evidently having faded with sheer age. And there was something about it that was just... tantalising, pulling her closer, and closer, and cl-
A royal blue hoof suddenly stopped her from advancing, and suddenly it was like somepony had removed a pair of ear-muffs from her. Twinkle was staring intently at her.
"Don't touch the book" she cautioned. Shining Sapphire stared at it. For some reason, the urge to say it couldn't have been that dangerous, but she knew, even from knowledge of her aunt's exploits alone, how ridiculous that statement was.
"What's wrong with it?" she asked, edging backwards. Now she could suddenly feel it. There was an odd metallic taste in the air around the book, one she couldn't put her hoof on. Twinkle just shook her head.
"Well, for one thing, when I brought that book back with me from the past, it was at least half that size, and it was a collection of fairy tales. I haven't dared look inside since."
Shining Sapphire felt her blood freeze, as she remembered what Twinkle had told her had become of the Nightmare that had tried to kill her. As it had turned out, it had survived being blasted with the Crystal Heart's energies, however barely, and had lain dormant in Twinkle for several months, until re-emerging and going on a violent rampage, until being removed from Twinkle, and sealed inside a storybook. The one she was staring at right at that moment.
She took several steps back, only to suddenly feel her back right leg tense up. She yelped in pain. Twinkle was staring at her, and more specifically her back leg. She didn't look surprised, or even confused. Actually, she looked slightly annoyed.
"What's happened to your leg?" she asked. Shining Sapphire just bit down on her lip.
"I..." she started, and then she saw the calm look on Twinkle's face as the mare came closer.
"You were walking oddly just after the Changeling invasion" she noted, "at the time, I didn't mention anything, because I figured after all the hardship, the last thing anypony needed was more drama. Then, this morning, when you were standing in the doorway under your glowing pink umbrella, you were finding it difficult to stand still, shifting your weight from one leg to another."
Shining Sapphire blinked. That was news to her. But then, she noted, it was so like Twinkie to notice something like that.
"So, I'm guessing your back leg didn't heal properly, and for whatever reason, and I'm thinking it was something to do with not wanting to upset your parents, you didn't mention anything. Am I right?"
Shining Sapphire stared glumly at nothing. From where she was sitting, she could see Twinkle had covered up the picture of her could-have-been child. Twinkle was staring intently at her, waiting for an answer.
"Yeah" she whispered, "you're right. You're always right."
Twinkle just shook her head. "If only that were true."
Suddenly, Twilight Twinkle began to smile. Her horn glowed brightly, and a small beam of light shot forth from her horn, striking Shining Sapphire's leg. There was a strange tingling sensation throughout it, and then... nothing. No pain, no aches, no... no nothing. After a few seconds she stood up, cautiously. She felt nothing at all, save the feel of a hoof making contact with the carpet. She stared blankly at Twinkle.
"It's me, remember?" she said triumphantly, on seeing Sapphy's expression. "I may not be able to fix a broken relationship, but a broken bone? I can fix that."
Her smile vanished, "just be a bit careful. The leg might go dead after a while. Watch out for that."
"But..." Shining Sapphire stuttered, "how did-?"
"Oh, come on, Sapphy!" Twinkle grinned, "what did you think it was? Some vastly complicated medical thing that would take a swarm of surgeons to fix?"
Shining Sapphire paused, as she went over every reason she'd given for not going to see a doctor about her leg. Suddenly, and despite their having seemed sensible at the time, they sounded like so much nonsense.
"I think somepony's been reading far too many medical textbooks" Twinkle declared. Shining Sapphire stared at her. Twinkle stared back. After a few seconds Twinkle stared grinning again, which then made Shining Sapphire grin.
"Thanks" she smiled. Twinkle just bowed her head.
"Anything for her highness." To that, Shining Sapphire jabbed her with a hoof. Then she saw Twinkle's smile receding.
"Now then, let's go see about getting this... Changeling nonsense checked out before something else distracts us."
At those words, Shining Sapphire remembered what she'd been thinking of on the train to Canterlot. She grinned, and focused her magic.
"Just one problem" she announced, and waited for Twinkle to turn around.
"Ta-da!" she proclaimed, once the flames died down. Twilight Twinkle stared at Twilight Twinkle for a moment, her jaw shifting slightly, and then she shrugged.
"Meh" she declared, "I've seen better."
"When, exactly?" inquired Shining Sapphire. Suddenly, Twinkle went quiet, and she made her way towards the door. Shining Sapphire followed after her, wondering when she could have, since in her little tale of time-travel she'd never mentioned being around Changelings long enough for them to imitate her, or meddled with a cloning pool, or that temporal paradox spell she'd heard so much about, before decided to file that away for later.
*****
Wisp slowly opened his eyes, and then, realising he was not about to be sacrificed by a horde of pony-eating rabbits, wondered what had happened. He slowly sat up, and then felt a sharp jab with a hoof in the side.
"You jerk!" somepony squeaked. He turned to look at the glowering pink-maned filly staring daggers at him. "You scared me!"
"Hello, Minty" he said calmly, "how's your mom?"
"Oh," the filly grinned, all her irritation forgotten, "she's fine. I'mma big sister now!"
"That's nice" Wisp groaned. "I'm guessing that was you who hit me."
"You scared me!" Minty Pie repeated, "I thought you were a burglar, or a cocka... um..." the filly stopped, and scratched her head, "Cockatrixie?"
"Cockatrice, I think" Wisp said.
"Yeah, that. You should've said who you were!" she pouted. Wisp decided to ignore the fact that he'd been knocked out by a filly, even if she was a Pie.
"Guessing you're here doing the chores" he said, to which the filly nodded, grinning slightly. Then she looked confused.
"How come you're here? Miss Fluttershy said you had moved out, and then she just started looking all sad, like Banana did."
The filly leaned in closer, trying to look as threatening as possible. "You hurt big sis's feelings" she said. Wisp just looked down at his hooves.
"Needed somewhere to be. Somewhere to think. Preferably somewhere where fillies don't kick me in the back of the head."
"I didn't kick you in the back of the head" Minty said defensively, "I just-... oops."
Wisp just grinned. "Nice save."
Minty stuck her tongue out at him, then tilted her head. "But really, how come you're here?"
Wisp just sighed. "I had stuff I needed to think about, I guess. And this is my home, anyway."
"Did you hurt somepony else's feelings?" Minty asked innocently, "like that pretty mare you were with?"
Her eyes darted toward Wisp's horn and she frowned. "And when did you have a horn? Weren't you a pegasus a month ago?"
"Sort of," Wisp started, before he realised that might have been the wrong thing to say, especially once Minty gasped in horror.
"Whatever you're about to say I did, I didn't" he quickly got out, "I just... needed to think about some things, and the only place I could do it was here."
Minty stared at him suspiciously for a while, then she suddenly switched to the familiar toothy grin of the Pies.
"Okey-dokey-lokey" she smiled.
Wisp sighed, and allowed himself to collapse into a heap as she hopped away toward the stairs. This idea of his was looking more and more like the wrong decision by the minute.
Then, quite suddenly, the door clicked open, and a pony stepped in. Then the pony stopped, and stared at him. Her jaw fell open slightly. Wisp, despite his low mood, couldn't help but smile.
"Hi, mom" he said weakly.
*****
"Are you sure you know how this thing works?" Shining Sapphire (now looking more like a Changeling again) asked, trying to look at the odd bowl on her head. Twilight Twinkle gave her a serious Look.
"I think I do" she said, with as much haughtiness as she could manage, which as it turned out wasn't much. "Probably. I mean, I've been plugged into it enough times I should know the basics."
She sighed, and looked back toward her cousin, "Unfortunately this thing just didn't come with easily labelled controls, or a several hundred page manual, so... just sit still and don't move."
"Okay" Shining Sapphire said. After a few seconds of listening to Twinkle trying to get the machine to work, she started thinking about Wisp. She hadn't been trying to, but it seemed at the moment that all possible thoughts ended up leading to him, which was going to prove irritating quickly. She sighed.
"No sighing either" Twinkle stated.
"Why?"
"Because" Twinkle said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "you're sighing because you miss Wisp, right?
"Yes."
"Even though you two haven't broken up or anything, and are just by all accounts having an incident induced rough-patch, which you will sort out at the nearest opportunity?"
"Yes."
"Then don't sigh. Otherwise you'll start singing. And I'll have to hurt somepony."
Shining Sapphire rolled her eyes. "I am allowed to worry about my coltfriend" she said. Twinkle pretended to be interested in a panel.
"It's just... I am worried about him" she whispered, "he's been acting so strangely the last few weeks. Like he's hiding something from me. I mean, it's not like he can't talk to me. But he won't. He spends almost all of his time on his own"
She looked up toward the ceiling, as she found herself thinking of the night before, and then a horrific thought came to mind. "Sometimes I wonder if I've ever even seen the real Wisp, or if it's all just disguises."
"There's one way to check" Twinkle finally said, glancing over toward her cousin, "the real Wisp would probably have scars from those Timberwolves."
"True, true" she nodded. "Of course," she added, "I've never heard him sing, either, but that's not exactly reason to be suspicious."
There was no response from her cousin, she turned to look at the mare, who was just staring at her like she'd grown a second head. Shining Sapphire just smiled back at her.
"Sorry" she said, "here you are trying to help me, and all I can do is go on about Wisp."
Twinkle looked at her again, and there was something in those bright orange eyes of hers for a moment, and the flicker of a smile on her face, before she went back to fiddling with the controls. Every few minutes the mare muttered something under her breath.
"Okay, I think that should be it" she said, as she flicked a random switch. After a few seconds there was a small whirring noise, followed by an odd clank. Then the machine began making a wide variety of noises.
"It's meant to do that, I presume?" Sappy asked. Twinkle just nodded.
"Let's hope so."
The two ponies stood there, as the machine made a variety of incredibly loud noises, before finally there was a small 'ding'. Shining Sapphire looked over toward Twinkle.
"Well?"
Her cousin just stared at the machine. Shining Sapphire was certain she could smell something beginning to burn. "Not sure yet" she murmured, "I think that was it warming up."
There was a complete absence of noise from the machine. Twilight Twinkle glowered at the machine, then turned to look at Sapphy's incredulous look. "Hey, gimme a break. This thing's over twenty-three years old, and it's been sitting in a basement for most of those years. The fact it works at all is a small miracle."
She stared at the machine for a moment, before she turned around and gave the machine a small kick, at which point it began making a whole new variety of noises.
"Did that help?" Shining Sapphire asked. Twinkle just nodded.
"Hurt yourself?"
"... yes" Twinkle said, through gritted teeth.
Shining Sapphire slouched as the machine continued on with whatever odd task it was performing. After a few seconds she started thinking about Wisp, and sighed wistfully.
"No sighing!" Twinkle chided.
"Sorry" Shining Sapphire quickly said, "I can't help it."
Twinkle said nothing to that, merely staring at the reams of paper pouring out from one end of the machine. Then she stared at Shining Sapphire.
"Just out of curiosity, by the way, how did this happen?"
Shining Sapphire blinked. "Pardon?"
"How did you and Wisp end up being all... 'changeling-y'? I mean, if mom were here she'd be rushing about, yelling that this was impossible, even though... y'know, it's happened."
"I..." Shining Sapphire stopped. "I'm not really certain. And I thought, perhaps, it was just a trick of perception, you know, making Wisp unable to perform whatever spells he needed to change shape, making me think my teeth were actually fangs, things like that, but..."
"But what?"
She shook her head. "Then I started seeing what ponies were feeling, which is utterly impossible, unless you somehow were able to rewrite biology."
"Which, unless you're a chaos spreading maniac, is outright impossible" Twinkle finished, then looked up at her. "So, who could do that, then?"
Shining Sapphire blinked. What an odd question ask. She stared at Twinkle. "Does it really matter who did it?" she asked, "I mean, it could've been anypony but-"
Twinkle was staring at her with what looked like concern. "What?" she asked.
"You really don't know what you just said, do you?" Twinkle said, quietly.
"I know what I said" she scoffed, "and it... it..."
A sudden feeling of horror was beginning to creep through her. Twinkle's horn glowed brightly, and then she took a step away from Shining Sapphire.
"Sapphy" she said, in an alarmingly calm tone, "please, tell me again what happened yesterday and the day before."
"I tried to talk Wisp into sleeping in the same bed as me, I succeeded, we had dinner, we felt tired, we retired for the night, and then... and..."
She blinked. "We must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I remember, I was waking up next to Wisp."
Twinkle just nodded. "You've been feeling unusually tired today, right?"
Shining Sapphire nodded slowly. "Yes, but... that's just because I haven't had any coffee for two days, right?"
Twinkle didn't respond for a while, before she finally said "No, but it probably hasn't helped any. Neither has your disruption to your regular sleeping patterns. Well, at least, I assume you have a sleeping pattern, and don't just fall asleep on an as-needed basis."
Shining Sapphire stared intently at her cousin, feeling like she one cryptic sentence away from running for the hills. "Twinkie, what's wrong. With. Me?"
Twilight Twinkle bit her lip. She 'hmm'd' and 'hahhed' and looked about awkwardly. Then she sighed, and looked straight at Shining Sapphire.
"Well, for starters, from what I can tell, you have been drugged."
There was a sudden near-silence, save the noises of the scanner. "With a sleeping potion."
"Oh" Shining Sapphire said. "That's it?"
"That's why you keep falling asleep. Because," and all of a sudden she actually started grinning, "whoever did this, in addition to being dumb enough to actually do this to you and Wisp, also apparently wasn't very good with measurements, because they used way too much."
For a few moments Shining Sapphire just stared at her younger cousin, who was shaking her head. Then Twinkle's smile vanished.
"Also? You've been under a pretty nasty brainwashing spell" she said, so quickly it took Shining Sapphire a few seconds to realise and react to it.
"I've WHAT?" she gritted her teeth, if only because she wasn't certain how to feel at that point. Somepony had snuck into her room, and managed to brainwash her, and Wisp most likely, and she'd not noticed?
"How?" she asked, incredulous, "I mean... mom and dad made sure that I was brainwash proof! Dad even taught me all the stuff he knew."
"And that's why you didn't suspect a thing?" Twinkle asked, staring at the machine, "because you thought you were immune?"
"Well..." Shining Sapphire stopped. "I guess" she said weakly.
"I did say it was a nasty one" Twinkle sighed, "and there could be any number of reasons why you didn't notice. Unfortunately since we don't have the pony who first cast it on you, we won't know what it was for. You'll have to ask them" she sighed again.
Shining Sapphire just felt her legs give out. This was too much, this was all too much. She just wanted to be at home, with her books, in her library, in her comfy chair with Wisp, and her parents, and if at all possible, with her sanity. That was all she wanted.
'Is that too much to ask?' she thought. Then she felt a hoof tap on her head.
"Stop that" Twinkle scolded. She glowered at her.
"No, I'm having this one" she hissed, "I've had a really bad day, today and yesterday. Wisp's walked off, I'm stuck looking like a Changeling, your mom isn't here to help me, I haven't had any coffee for two whole days now, and I'm feeling really-"
There was a sudden abnormally loud rumbling from her stomach. "Hungry?" she asked, staring at her stomach, then back to Twinkle, who looked like she was fighting the urge to laugh.
"Is it alright if I just go mad right now?" she murmured, "or can it wait 'till later?"
"Well" Twinkle said, "I think the machine's got enough data on you to analyse now, but it'll probably need a while to run properly. So, yeah. Lunch might be a brilliant idea. Except..." she trailed off. Sapphy leapt to her hooves.
"No! No 'except'! No buts, ifs or anything! I-"
There was a sudden ringing sound. Twilight suddenly looked genuinely confused.
"Huh" she said, turning to look toward the basement door. "Pretty sure they're early."
"Who?" Shining Sapphire asked, "who is 'early'?"
Twinkle grinned nervously. "Well, I said I'd been on my own all week, right?"
"Yes. You did."
"Of course, even after the..." she paused, and made a show of trying to think of the right words, "lengthy conversations mom and me have been having," her expression suddenly shifted, "about a lot of things, she still doesn't like the idea of leaving me on my own again. You know, she seems convinced I might just... vanish or do something crazy like time-travel again."
"Will you?"
"Not if I can help it" she muttered darkly, "but, anyway, not the point, the point is, mom might have asked someponies to 'check in' on me while she's on vacation, make sure I haven't had any wild parties, or gotten into fights with any Blasphemous Horrors What Pony Was Not Meant to See, or something like that, so..." Shining Sapphire stuck a hoof in her mouth.
"Twinkie, please, no dramatics. Who is it that's at the door?"
Twinkle uttered a series of muffled noises. Shining Sapphire blinked.
"Wait, did you just say-"
She retracted the hoof.
"Yeah" Twinkle said, an alarming smile spreading across her face. "Granma Velvet and Granpa Night Light."
Suddenly her horn glowed, there was a loud 'bloink' sound, and then there was empty space instead of an alicorn, as Shining Sapphire stood there, unmoving.
'Oh, right' some part of her mind that was still working thought, 'she can teleport now.'
*****
The clock ticked slowly, as two ponies just sat there, as they had for several minutes now.
"When you're ready" Fluttershy said gently. Wisp tried to say something. The words died in his throat. He tried again. And again. Eventually, Fluttershy just shook her head, and stood up. She made her way toward the kitchen, and Wisp heard the sound of dishes being moved about.
"Mom?" he asked, causing the mare to turn back toward him, "what are you doing?"
She paused, and then gently set down the bowl she had been carrying. "Making you some lunch" she smiled. "And don't say you're not hungry, because we both know that's not true."
"I'm not feeling hungry" Wisp murmured. Fluttershy just looked at him.
"Sweetie, I know you might not want to eat, but believe me, it'll make you feel better."
"But I-" he started. Fluttershy was still just... looking at him.
"And before you ask how I can tell you aren't feeling 'okay', remember: I am your mother. I can tell you're feeling miserable."
Wisp stared down at his hooves. "Miserable isn't how I'd describe myself right now."
"Then what is it?" Fluttershy asked, "because I doubt that you came all the way home after a month just because you were feeling homesick."
Wisp sighed. "I was meaning to write, mom, but... I... forgot."
"I honestly don't mind" she said, quietly staring at nothing, "you've been busy, after all. I honestly wasn't expecting mail from you for a while."
"No, mom, I..." Wisp sighed again, but with an undercurrent of exasperation. Fluttershy just shook her head, and he could've sworn he heard her chuckle.
"Wisp, it's alright for you to forget about your silly old mother and focus more on your own life, at this point. You are nearly twenty-one at this point. You're supposed to be leaving the nest and spreading your wings, and enjoying life."
"Yeah" Wisp said. Suddenly, Fluttershy stopped dead in her tracks.
"What happened?" she asked, the same way she had done when he was younger and had something that had really been bothering him, like one of those nightmares about burning down Ponyville, or leading a swarm of Changelings across the world, or the ones where it was just him, alone in the dark with nothing but her demented cackling everywhere.
"It..." he stopped, and saw the look on Flutter- his mother's face. He couldn't lie to her, couldn't not tell her the truth, especially since she'd just figure out he was lying and get upset.
"It's about what happened. About her. About Shining Sapphire."
"What about her?" Fluttershy asked, quietly. "Wisp, dear, what happened?"
He took in a deep breath. This was it. This was his moment of truth.
"I love her."
*****
"Grandma!" Shining Sapphire heard Twilight Twinkle exclaim from upstairs, "Grandpa!"
"Hello, Twilight Twinkle" she heard her grandmother say, followed by what sounded like a hug, "how's my granddaughter?"
"Oh, you know, same as always."
"It can't be that bad, surely" Night Light said.
"Well, it might be a little bit better than usual" Twinkle responded. "How're you two?"
"Same as always" she heard Grandma Velvet repeat.
"Oh, by the way" she heard Twinkle say, her voice sounding slightly different now, "you'll never guess who showed up this morning."
"Who?" Night Light asked. Shining Sapphire winced. She couldn't see her grandparents looking like a Changeling. She looked about the room, but since it was Twilight Sparkle's basement, there weren't really any good places for a pony her size to hide. And then she wondered why she had to hide. It wasn't as if her grandparents would freak out, was it? Or possibly indulge in the family madness and assume Twinkle had been brainwashed?
"Oh," she heard Twinkle said, sound disappointed, "come on, granddad. Guess."
"Twinkie, we're too old for guessing games" grandma Velvet said, somehow managing to suddenly sound far older than she did, which given the fact that she wasn't exactly that old anyway was all the more impressive, and she could've sworn there was some mirth in her voice, "just tell us."
"Fine, fine, but brace yourselves."
There was a dramatic pause, probably involving her grandparents exchanging concerned glances. "It's Sapphy!"
There were two simultaneous gasps. "Really?" grandpa Night Light exclaimed, "Shining Sapphire is here? Right now?"
"Oh yeah" she heard Twinkle chortle, "although by now she's probably trying to hide."
"She's not planning to surprise us, is she?" Twilight Velvet deadpanned.
"No," Twinkle said instantly, "more the opposite."
"What's she hiding for?" Night Light asked.
"She's always hiding away" Twilight Velvet said, "remember the last time we visited Shiny and Cadence? She barely said hello."
Shining Sapphire stopped, trying to remember the last time her grandparents had visited. That sounded like her, alright. She did tend to spend all day in her room reading. But it was important reading, wasn't it? The acquisition of knowledge was important. Okay, yes, she was a bit like aunt Twilie during her more... 'shut-in' phases, but surely sooner or later something was supposed to happen that shook her out of it, right?
Like a Nightmare attacking her, she found herself thinking, or meeting a nice colt and going out with him. That one was sort of self-explanatory. Going out. And all she did was sit indoors and read. She like reading, though. She was good at it. She always was. Like her parents used to say, she was usually more knowledgeable than her tutors, which is why they had to have aunt Twilie send them a recommended reading list especially for her. And they'd looked so confused when her Cutie Mark hadn't been a book or something along those lines.
And then she remembered how she'd met Twinkie. She'd been sitting in her room studying when Twinkie had first visited, and hadn't even bothered to leave her room for ten minutes and go say hello. Twinkie had only stumbled upon her because she'd wandered off (while being lectured about wandering off from her mother, no less).
She blinked, and found her vision was getting all blurry. She was actually crying. But even if she didn't usually show she cared... they knew she did, didn't they?
Suddenly, she felt a lot smaller than she should have. She looked about the room. The whole place was too exposed, and they'd find her. Then she looked down at her hooves, and had an idea. She was in the body of a Changeling, after all.
A few seconds later, her grandparents appeared, slowly making their way down the stairs.
"Are you sure she's down here?" she heard her grandfather say. "I can't see her."
"She should be there" Twinkle's voice came from somewhere upstairs, "she was the last time I checked, and I would've noticed if she'd gone somewhere.
She heard their hoofsteps continuing down the stairs.
"You know" she heard Twilight Velvet say, "I may be getting old, but I remember when I was young, and horror stories were proper horror stories, not the wishy-washy tragic monster nonsense young fillies read these days, and some of the things in those horror stories have managed to stick with me, despite some very spirited efforts."
"Mmm-hmm" she heard grandpa Night Light say. "Of course, what I'm really curious about is two things. For one, why is our other granddaughter hanging to the ceiling?"
"And why, exactly did she think we wouldn't notice her there?" Twilight Velvet finished. Slowly, Shining Sapphire opened her eyes. Then she tried smiling.
"Come on down from there, dear."
"Yes'm."
She tried to detach herself and float gracefully to the ground, but instead only managed to drop more like a stone.
"Ow" she mumbled, before getting to her hooves and hugging both ponies.
"Goodness" she heard her grandfather wince, "careful now, we aren't as young as we once were."
"Sorry" she said instantly, "I just... wanted to show you I cared."
Her grandparents shared glances, somehow managing in the way only two ponies who'd been together for a very long time could to instantly share a wealth of information in seconds.
"Honey" her grandmother smiled, "we know you care. You don't need to prove that to us."
"But I do?" Twinkle called out from upstairs, before adding, "lunch might be a while, by the way."
Shining Sapphire was certain her cousin had probably muttered something under her breath after that.
"Gives us plenty of time to talk then" Twilight Velvet smiled.
"Indeed" Night Light grinned, "after all, hearing from our daughter in-law about how wonderful you are is lovely, but we'd much rather hear about you from... well, you."
"Like why you look like a Changeling" Twilight Velvet said, before turning to Night Light. "One of us had to point it out, dear."
Shining Sapphire just smiled, before a small handkerchief wiped away her tears, before being gently folded back up again by her grandmother, who smiled warmly at her.
*****
After Wisp's initial outburst, Fluttershy had just simply stared at him expectantly. He, meanwhile, had just sat there, looking down at his hooves. His silence wasn't because of any difficulty of telling Fluttershy, the one pony he really felt he could be honest with, but more because she was his mother, and as far as he was concerned, always would be, regardless of tiny little unimportant bits of trivia like the truth.
"Windy" she said, quietly, "I don't understand what the problem is. And I can't try to help you with whatever it is that's bothering you if you don't tell me."
"Sorry" he mumbled, "I'm just... I'm just trying to figure out how to explain it, because..."
He groaned in frustration. "I love her. I love Shining Sapphire. That's the problem, mom. I love her."
He sighed, and then collapsed back into the sofa he was sitting on. "And, because I love her, when she asked me to move into her house, or palace, I didn't hesitate. Well, hesitate, for me."
Fluttershy said nothing to that.
"And it wasn't... I mean, even before she... before Chrysalis had me abducted, I didn't want to be prince of the changelings, or king, or queen or whatever damn thing they want to-" he stopped, realising what he'd just done, and turned to look sheepishly at Fluttershy.
"Sorry" he quickly muttered. Fluttershy just shook her head.
"Sweetie, I'm not going to yell at you for a mild cuss."
"You're not?" Wisp asked in astonishment.
"No" Fluttershy said, smiling innocently, "though I would like it if you tried not to do it again."
Wisp found his mind helpfully coming up with suggestions as to what would happen if he did. There was something about that good-natured smile of hers that seemed far more terrifying than even the threat of being hunted down by the entirety of the Twilight family for upsetting Shining Sapphire. After all, the worst they could really do was kill him. Fluttershy wouldn't have had to.
"You were saying?" she said. He just nodded.
"Yeah, I didn't want to be a prince of anything. Not Changelings, or ponies, and I go and fall in love with a Princess. Which, let's face it, was always going to happen. She's a Princess of a former Empire, I'm the Changeling royalty raised by a former hero of Equestria. And if that wasn't guaranteed to make us fall in love, I don't know what is."
He sighed again, and sat up. "So, I fall in love with a beautiful, wonderful, genius of a mare, and she asked me to move in with her, and I just say yes. And it wasn't that, you know, I hadn't thought about the fact that, yeah, I'd have to be a prince, or prince consort, or whatever it is they call Shining Armor, and live in a castle and be a prince and do, basically, everything I never wanted to be, it's just..."
He stopped, and looked out of the window, at the vast expanses of the Everfree Forest itself. He thought about what he was about to say, and everything he had said already. For some reason he never quite understood, he smiled.
"I just didn't care. I didn't think about the consequences of what I was doing because I was with her. Because... she was hurt, really badly, by a Nightmare that had possessed Twilight Twinkle, and... I don't know the whole story, but it sounded like that was supposed to be it for her, but she woke up, just to save me. She loves me, and I love her. And..."
He suddenly sniffed, "because of me she got turned into a Changeling and I acted like a freaking idiot. But I do know I want to be with her, even if it means those idiot Changelings following me everywhere, and the weird servants they have doing everything for me, and the fact that she loves me so much it actually hurts to look at her sometimes."
He sighed, but this time it was more contentedly than he'd felt in a long time, like some weight had fallen from his back. "She's worth it, mom."
Fluttershy just stared, her eyes quavering slightly. She began to smile slowly, and then-
"What a load of sappy mush!" declared Minty Pie, before the filly turned to Fluttershy and smiled. "the chicken coops are clean now, auntie Fluttershy."
"Oh" Fluttershy said, before coughing in an desperate attempt to recover, "yes. Good, Minty. Good work."
"Thanks" the filly smiled.
"Anyway" Fluttershy said, pointing a hoof at Wisp, "before you go rushing off to make some big romantic gesture in order to get Shining Sapphire to 'forgive' you," she muttered something Wisp couldn't catch under her breath, "lunch."
"But, m-"
"No 'buts', you!" she said firmly, before turning to Minty. "And you, no criticising heartfelt speeches."
"It was mushy" the filly muttered, "even mom would think so."
Wisp shrugged. "I'm completely fine with mushy."
Minty just stared at him blankly. "And Banana said you were boring."
*****
Before discussion could have turned to what Shining Sapphire had been getting up to, the mare had decided she was not going to go one more millisecond without any caffeine, and that was why she vowed to go get some.
"There's a coffee shop just two blocks away" Twinkle had said, once she'd made sure her cousin would not be persuaded from her course.
"That's helpful" Shining Sapphire remarked. Twilight Twinkle had rolled her eyes and quickly filled Shining Sapphire in on where it was. The mare blinked, then frowned, then turned to the hallway to fetch her notebook. She stared at the coatrack hanging there, and frowned further.
"Twinkie?" she asked.
"Yeah?"
"Where did you put my saddlebag?"
There was a disquieting pause. "Your what?"
"My saddlebag. That thing I had with me when I came here. It had my notes in it. And some other things."
There was a lengthy pause. "No, you didn't."
"I did."
"I'm telling you, you didn't."
Shining Sapphire stared at the coatrack. She was sure she'd had her saddlebag. It had been with her on the train, and she was sure she'd put it on wh-
"Oh" she said slowly, "that. IDIOT!"
"Who, honey?" asked Night Light.
"I think she means her coltfriend" Twilight Velvet said, to which Night Light merely went "ah".
Shining Sapphire shook her head. Wisp must have either taken the bag by accident and not noticed, or taken it on purpose as an excuse for them to see each other once more, for whatever reason. She sighed, which quickly turned into an exasperated hiss. She'd been too long without sweet, sweet coffee. She focused her magic, reassumed her disguise once more, and then made her way out into the streets, determined to find coffee at any cost.
A few minutes later, Twilight Twinkle came into the sitting room, and asked her grandparents to watch the cooking while she checked the machine's analysis. She quickly made her way into the basement, and stared at the read-out. While she was the daughter of Twilight Sparkle, she didn't usually have her mother's tendency toward being thorough. Nonetheless she checked the results again, and again.
"Ohhhhh, sweet Luna" she whispered. "That's bad."
*****
It had been a gruelling search for Princess Cadance and Shining Armor, but eventually they'd found four of the five Changelings, all five of them just sitting calmly in one of the many, many drawing rooms the Crystal Palace had. When they'd seen the two ponies coming, they had almost looked... well, resigned, as a matter of fact.
Then, Cadance had slowly lifted her crown off her head, and their expression turned into outright terror. Shining Armor, for his part, looked shocked.
"Now then," Cadance said sweetly, "what I am about to say, I am going to say not as a Princess, but as a mother. And I am going to ask once, and only once."
Her expression turned to blazing hot fury as she moved closer to the Changelings.
"What. Has. Happened. To. My. Daughter?!"
*****
"But it doesn't make any sense!" Twilight Twinkle said, pacing up and down the hallway, her wings occasionally flapping, "you can't just rewrite a pony's biology like that, even with the strongest magic available. Even with mom it was because there was already potential in her for alicorn-hood. I mean, if it was just Wisp it'd make sense because a Changeling would probably have to hold a form, makes sense they'd have to be able to hold it even when they're asleep, otherwise their cover would be blown in an instant."
She shook her head as she kept marching up and down, her grandparents exchanging increasingly concerned Looks.
"Oh" she gasped, before slapping a hoof against her forehead, "no, no no no no. If you had months, maybe, just maybe you could try, convince a pony they are supposed to be one thing, but... No. I'm missing something here, something impor-..."
She facehoofed. "Changelings. Of course, the damn Changelings. Nopony suspected them because they saved Wisp's life, but he doesn't wanna be king! And he's only half-Changeling anyhow, so he's probably no good to them. But if you forced the decision, made it so something happened that he had to be king..."
She bit her lip, and began pacing again. "Not getting everything, still missing something. AHA!" she yelled, startling both grandparents, "the BRAINWASHING SPELL!"
"Not so loud, dear" Night Light suggested.
"If somepony tried to use it on Shining Sapphire, but she's trained to resist them, and after being abducted and nearly killed Wisp's probably more paranoid than anything, probably hears them coming. Of course, the sleeping potion! Neither of them are able to fight back, something goes wrong. Sapphy's connection to the Crystal Heart, it reacts somehow because she's in distress, maybe tries to absorb the Changeling's spell and diffuse it, but it's connected to everypony in the city and..."
She suddenly gasped. "No! No! No way, that's... no, it's just stupid, but... no..." she groaned, "No! Now that stupid idea's stuck in my head!"
She snorted and headed for the door, "I've gotta get Sapphy, and tell h-"
She stopped, her mouth just hanging open as she saw the sight waiting on the other side of the door, her expression one of total disbelief, as the dark blue mare standing in front of her smile awkwardly.
"Good afternoon, Twilight Twinkle" Princess Luna said, "I apologise for troubling you, b-"
"No" Twinkle said firmly, "Not now. Whatever it is, it c-"
"It cannot. Your presence is required for a matter of the utmost urgency."
"I don't care!"
Princess Luna's horn began to glow, even as Twilight Twinkle yelled at her to stop. There was a bright flash, and both ponies were gone. Seconds passed.
Night Light hummed. Twilight Velvet raised an eyebrow.
"Something the matter, dear?"
"How far is Canterlot Castle?" he asked. Twilight Velvet shrugged.
"From here? About a mile, mile and a half, thirty minutes depending on the traffic and the weather. Why?"
"Well," Night Light shrugged, as his horn lit up, dragging the front door of the house closed, "I figured it'd probably not take little Twinkle more than a minute, half a minute tops to get back here if she tried."
"Unless Princess Celestia's got all those barriers up."
"Ah, yes. Forgotten about those."
"But she can fly, and that building isn't exactly short on windows."
"True, true."
There were a few seconds as both ponies sat there, before Twilight Velvet shrugged.
"Must've been pretty important for Princess Luna to be up so early" she noted. "And Shining Sapphire's been gone an awful long time just for coffee. I hope she's alright."
*****
The Changelings had quickly huddled together, whispering toward one another, before the one that had been labelled Impulse stepped forward.
"We don't know, Your Highness" he said quietly.
"You don't know" Cadance repeated.
"But..." Impulse said cautiously, "we can explain what exactly happened, and then go and... retrieve her for you?"
"I think you explaining what the hay is going on would be a tremendous idea" she said. "Don't you think so, Shining?"
"Definitely."
The big Changeling, Rock, tapped Impulse on the shoulder and whispered something to him. Impulse whispered back.
"I'm waiting" Cadance said. The Changelings looked alarmed.
"Of course, but..." Impulse coughed nervously, "first I would like to say, on behalf of my kin, you have been generous hosts."
"Patience running very thin" Shining Armor stated.
"Sorry" Impulse quickly said, "it is just... we have... not been entirely truthful with you about certain..." he looked towards the others, "'facts' about ourselves."
He grinned the nervous grin of a being that didn't expect to see the next day.
"You see, as you ponies say, it's like this..."
*****
Wisp stared down at the empty plate, then over toward Fluttershy, who smiled sweetly.
"Feeling better?" she asked. He just nodded, then looked up at Fluttershy, who just smiled.
"I think that may be the first time you've ever rushed to eat your lunch to get outside" she said, sighing slightly. Wisp quickly took this as tacit acceptance to leave, and practically leapt off the chair. He was halfway to the door when he stopped, and walked back over toward Fluttershy, giving her one last hug.
"I'll write to you if it works out" he said.
"You really don't have to" Fluttershy said.
"I know, but I don't want you worrying about me."
"I'm your mother" Fluttershy said, "I will always worry about you. Even if you have foals, I'll be worrying about you."
Wisp stopped, and smiled awkwardly. "I don't think Sapphy and I are up to foals yet. We haven't even talked about marriage yet."
"Thought you were already married" Minty Pie muttered. Wisp ignored her, gave Fluttershy one last hug, then stopped when he saw the saddlebag sitting on its own.
"Huh" he stated, "almost forgot this."
He looked at the bag, with the buckle styled after Shining Sapphire's Cutie Mark, and smiled at it. Then, he shook his head.
"Alright then, no more distractions. I am going to go to Canterlot, find Shining Sapphire, and tell her exactly how I feel about her."
He opened the door, and then stared in confusion at the sight in front of him.
Part of him shut down. Part of him went straight into blind panic. Another still just noted that it wasn't the sort of thing one usually saw, that of Princess Celestia standing in front of somepony's front door, holding in her magic what looked amazingly like a thermos.
"Hello" she said warmly. "Whisper Wind, wasn't it?"
Wisp wasn't certain whether he nodded or not, but he was definitely sure the string of noises he made wasn't actually any language.
"Don't worry" Princess Celestia smiled. "That's what the tea's for."
*****
Several minutes ago.
Shining Sapphire wasn't lost. Not exactly. She knew she was probably heading in the right direction for a coffee house, if she remembered the instructions from Twilight Twinkle correctly. After all, at only two blocks away from her house, it couldn't have been that difficult to find. Of course, there was the problem that she was feeling slightly enervated, although she was willing to chalk that up to lack of sleep and / or caffeine, and the slightly more worrying problem of the buzzing noise, only now it sounded... actually, it sounded less like buzzing, but from the way it was going it sounded almost exactly like music. She shook her head. Coffee waited for no mare.
She continued walking onward, the thought of the sweet solution driving her onward. She also made a note, for when she returned to the Crystal Empire, to perhaps maybe just a little bit start to gradually not drink so much coffee after lunchtime.
She stopped, and looked about. There wasn't any sign of a coffee shop anywhere about, and she was beginning to feel slightly dizzy. Perhaps it was the altitude, she reasoned. Even though she'd been to Canterlot before and never had any problems then.
She looked up. A guard was approaching. She tried to catch his attention, only to stop and realise she had no idea how to actually do that.
"Um" she said, "excuse me?"
The guard stopped and looked at her. She tried not to look away.
"You wouldn't know the way to the nearest coffee shop, would you? I mean, I'm not really used to this city, you see, and..." she laughed, "I might be a bit lost."
"Of course, Your Highness" the guard said, "just this way."
"Thanks" she said. "You have no idea how much this means to me."
Then she stopped, and noticed three other guards had somehow appeared without her noticing. She looked toward the first guard. He actually looked... sorry? Why?
Then she realised.
"This is a trap, isn't it?" she sighed. The guard nodded.
"We do apologise, your highness. All things being equal, we'd rather not do this. But we have no choice..."
She readied herself for whatever spells might be thrown her way. The guard's horns glowed a vivid green, and then a strange energy washed over her. She tried fighting it, but it seemed... so difficult... like trying to put a foothold in treacle, not that she'd ever even touched treacle before, and everything was getting so fuzzy and...
Shining Sapphire, her mind worn down by four Changelings casting on her at one, dropped over. The four Changelings exchanged glances, and then reluctantly lifted her up. Then, with a mild shimmer, they vanished from sight.
*****
Shining Sapphire blearily opened her eyes, wondering what was causing that odd noise, and why her head hurt so much, and how long had she been out, if it was so dark?
Then she remembered why her head hurt so much, and realised that noise was the same noise that had been in her head for the last several hours, and now it sounded like... somepony singing. And singing sadly, now she noted it.
And the reason it was so dark was because... she looked about. She couldn't see anything, so she lit up her horn, and glanced at her hooves. She wished she hadn't.
They were wrapped in a strange green goo, which had solidified around her hooves. A good blast of magic by all accounts would have freed her, but then she saw what the goo was keeping her held to. It looked, and felt, remarkably like stone. She looked about. In the dim light she was certain she could see more stone.
And, she now realised, the reason her head was hurting wasn't just because of the Changelings zapping her mind. It was because they'd decided, just for giggles, to put her upside down.
Then, the noise stopped. Something stirred in the gloom, and she heard the sound of hooves tapping against stone.
"My, my," a voice said. A low, almost sultry voice, "what luck this is."
She recognised that voice, sure enough. Just as she recognised the bright green eyes that suddenly lit up against the light of her horn, just as she recognised the jagged horn, and the greasy blue mane, and that horrible smile.
"What a lovely piece of luck this is" Chrysalis, the Changeling Queen, smiled, in the sort of way usually saved for things in dark alleys, "just the pony I wanted to see."
She felt a chitinous hoof brush against her, and tried not to flinch.
"Because, Shining Sapphire, I very much want to have a little..." the grin grew wider.
"Heart-to-heart talk with you..."