Ponies of two Worlds

by Golden Paw

Confessions of the heart

The Swarm grew in size as it devoured its way relentlessly forward. Ponies scattered left, right and even straight up for those who had wings. The only ones who stood their ground were Princess Luna and Night Blade.

"Your majesty, you should let us handle this," Blade advised, but Luna felt the joy of the unexpected, the mystery and above all the challenge.

"We can tell that these are no normal pests my good knight. They have been created with a single purpose we fear, else why would they become so aggressive just when our royal self had arrived?" Luna spread her wings and with a powerful 'thwump’ took to the air. As one the swarm rose into the air to follow her, confirming Luna’s suspicions.

Those guards with wings did their best to follow Luna as she soared up and away. The ‘enchanted’ parasprites in hot pursuit, Night Blade fought to keep up and called out to his charge.

"Good thinking your highness, in the air there will be less to feed on," Night Blade yelled.

Luna allowed herself a small grin at this comment, she may have been out of the loop for a few years, but her mind was still sharp as ever.

"One will draw these pesky vermin up and around enough to gather the whole swarm. Then we will place a barrier prison around them," Luna called back and felt the thrill and excitement fill her, "Thou had best make sure that none of those foul shape shifters are unaccounted for,” Luna’s eyes sparkled and she took on a savage grin, “We can handle these."

Night Blade nodded before dropping back and Luna allowed her focus to fix fully on the billowing swarm. They reached out for her, their multi-faceted eyes alive with hunger but Luna drove herself upwards. The darkened docks dropped away and she savoured the simple joy of flight.

The swarm bulged and stretched as it sought to follow her, but despite their efforts she easily left them behind. Diving and swooping, Luna goaded the parasprites and all the while drank in the rush of power tingling in her soul. It had been too long since she’d opposed a threat, and though this swarm was a minor annoyance compared to other terrors she’d faced down Luna still enjoyed the thrill.

All too soon the foe was where she wanted it, their astonishing replication curtailed in the air and their ravenous hunger denied it was a simple thing for Luna to coax them into the tight, confused huddle far above the buildings and onlookers below.

Luna was elated and a little bemused by the changelings plan, if they had meant to cause trouble then the plan had certainly backfired. Now Luna could use this little skirmish to further win the hearts of her subjects, proving to them she was an able protector and one worthy of their admiration.

Striking her most regal pose Luna summoned the spell she planned to bind the parasprites and with a little grin unleashed her magic to form a dark and shimmering prison about them, "Huzza it is done!, now to cast these back from whence they......."

Luna had hardly begun to celebrate when to her astonishment the parasprites simply continued flying towards her as if the binding barrier was no more hindrance than smoke. Luna hovered in mute astonishment, that was some of her cleverest magic, the fiery hordes of Tatarus had been held at bay by such a spell and yet these tiny vermin flitted through it without even slowing.

Luna quickly recovered, her moment of shock allowing the hungry host to close the distance and she only narrowly avoided them by diving steeply downwards.

---

"Right fillies and colts, the princess is dealing with the parasprites, now it's time for us to finish our jobs," Night Blade called out, "Twilight protocols when you’re ready!"

Applejack gave Shadow a lost look and he quickly explained, "Well I am sure you can guess where the name comes from, it's the plan for use when suspected changelings are involved. Put simply we need to check every pony is who they claim to be, starting with the unicorns."

As if following Shadow’s commentary all the unicorn guards gathered together and what looked to be an intricate dance began to unfold before Applejack. They formed two lines and bowed to each other, each lighting their horns and touching it to their opposite number. A faint glow moved across the ponies before fading. They would then all shuffle clockwise so that they were with another partner and the process of magic was repeated.

"They are casting a ‘dispel’ on each other, which should remove any enchantment or disguise. They then switch partners a few of times through the rotation so that even if a few are changelings faking the test they shouldn't be able to pair every time up to fool it," Shadow explained.

Once it was established that none of the unicorns present were changelings they then formed into teams of three, each went into separate huddles before breaking off and checking all the other kinds of pony one at a time. As these were checked then they would then again form a triad with a single unicorn to every other pair.

Once these ponies were 'verified' they were also formed into teams of three. It was complex but very thorough. Like a safety chain spreading out amongst the guard, ensuring that all could trust whom they were working with. Applejack couldn't help but chuckle, this procedure had Twilight written all over it and she could see why it was named after her purple unicorn friend.

"You then stick with your team until the crisis is over, it isn’t foolproof but it's the best we could come up with without more invasive tests," Night Dew finished up and Applejack saw a shudder pass through her fellows.

All guards present were verified by the time Luna had finished luring the swarm of parasprites into one seething mass high above them and Applejack thought she caught a smile of satisfaction from her. There was a flash from Luna’s horn before a dark blue sphere, deeper in shade than even the surrounding night sky came into being about the seething mass.

“Erm, is that meant ter happen?” Applejack asked slowly as Luna was quickly forced into a dive. Shadow, Dew, Swift and Blade all glanced skyward to see what Applejack had meant and their expressions said it all.

Luna’s speeding form raced towards them and Applejack heard her cry out with a surprising amount of gusto considering her spell had just utterly failed, "It seems one has underestimated our foe! We will not make the same mistake once again!" She pulled up and away, the parasprites in close pursuit.

"It does her good to get out and do something other than brood and move the moon," Night Dew commented with a smile.

Applejack felt her coat stand on end as Luna, with a feral grin, summoned a black storm cloud over the swarm which began losing lightning bolts at the pests, but to every pony's dismay it seemed to have the same impact as her barrier had. Luna snorted and drew on more of her magic, this time plucking fallen parts of the partially ruined warehouse before flinging them at the swarm. These were promptly eaten and the only effect was more parasprites being birthed into the mass.

Applejack felt the drain of background magic, a tugging of the spirit as Luna’s eyes glowed with an inner light and the buildings all around began to tremble.

"'Get out and about,' may not be the best phrase Miss Dew,” Blade commented, “If this gets any bigger it could start to cause some serious damage to Canterlot. I fear that may have been the changeling's plan all along. Our princess does tend to take things a little too far when excited," Blade added as several tiles fell off the nearby roofs before being sucked into the gathering vortex above.

"What's next then Sgt.? Shadow asked, voicing what every pony was thinking.

"Well when we had parasprites at Ponyville, Pinkie lured em all off with music?" Applejack told the waiting ponies, "If Luna can keep em busy till we can get together a band or summit then maybe we can do the same thing here?"

"I don't think so Miss Applejack, what if they just keep chasing Luna?” Night Dew said despondently. “What if these changelings can make more of them? We really need to find a way to stop them if they ever try again."

"Well we could always force the big bugs that made em to tell us how to stop them?" Swift Star added.

"And just how do you plan on making them talk Miss Swift?" Night Blade asked with solemnity. As one they turned to Applejack, who then shared a brief glance with Shadow and felt the blush mirrored on her own face, "Well we have to work with what we have I guess, you two may just be our best chance of stopping this thing," Night Blade purred with a grin.

"We second the motion!" Luna called as she swept past still keeping the swarm busy. "For Canterlot, for Equestria and mostly so one can cease flying in circles!" Luna’s doppler voice echoed back to them, swiftly followed by the hoard of hungry mouths in close pursuit.

---

The pair of trapped changelings had finally calmed down. The Night Guards had neatly swapped and checked the unicorns maintaining their magical prison during the Twilight protocol. The bigger of the two overheard what was going on outside the magical sphere and smiled to itself.

The two changelings conversed with one another in their confinement, changeling speech was all clicks and chittering and all the pony guards heard was an insect like buzzing. "Well 'Squelp', it seems that the night princess has found our little 'pets', not quite in the way we had planned but this could still work to our advantage."

The smaller drone just shook his head and rolled his multi-faceted eyes. "I've had enough of your plans 'Urahk', look where they led us this time. If we're lucky they will just kill us, it's bad enough that we get banished from the hive, now you had to go and ruin this new home for us too!"

"Oh shut it Squelp, I've never steered us wrong so far have I, have a little faith?" Urahk snapped back with a hiss.

Squelp actually laughed at that one, "You mean apart from that whole 'failed taking over Canterlot plan' you cooked up for the queen to try and get back in her good books? We both know that went sooooo well."

Urahk glared at Squelp as the smaller bug went on, "Or when we crawled back to the hive to plead for mercy when she banished us for being abominations? Who ever heard of a changeling that is made ill by love?"

"How was I supposed to know that pink alicorn pony had that much love in her? I mean she isn’t even a full blooded royal alicorn is she? The queen defeated the other white one with no trouble and everything was going to plan. It's not my fault her majesty chose that moment to monologue and let the blue and white unicorn be reunited with his sweetheart," Urahk snipped back with a flash of fangs.

"Yeah, yeah I’ve heard the whole story far too many times Urahk. It's all the queens fault of course...." Squelp said in a fed up way. "And another thing, we're stuck here because of you! I said we should have joined the rest of the swarm assaulting the barrier, but no! You had to be the 'clever one' and sneak in under the city!" Squelp was getting angry again and to his annoyance Urahk licked his lips.

"It's not my fault when that love shield flared up and threw back the queen and the rest of the swarm while we were stuck down and caves; getting flattened by it instead!" Urahk whined at Squelp attempting to fire his temper further, but it was of little use. Since the pair had been blasted with so much magic from Cadence and Shining Armour's supercharged spell neither changeling had been able to feed on love like regular changelings.

In fact the close proximity of any good feelings now made them both feel violently ill. On the plus side it seemed to have allowed them to sneak back into Canterlot despite the ponies’ new defences. No pony was looking for a changeling who could only feed on hate and anger, an oddity not seen before in Equestria. Neither insect understood how or why, but they seemed to be stuck with this 'love sickness' permanently.

The other main side effect of the event was they now craved negative emotions instead of love. Had they been in a state of mind to ponder it, they would have probably reasoned that they had been over-saturated with the positive force of the spell. It was like when a pony hyperventilates and takes in too much air. They had been smothered by the love in the spell and their power to absorb their normal food stuffs burnt out.

Now they counted it fortunate that they hated each other so much otherwise they would have both starved in Canterlot with all these happy ponies about. That's why they had searched the city for the most disgruntled equines they could and stoked their hate of Luna and her guard, a monster’s got to eat after all.

"Well I think more than just your eye has been broken, I think your mind got flattened too!" Squelp hissed back. That was another problem, you could only hurl insults and abuse at each other for so long before you became numb to it. Getting a response that could fill their hunger was getting harder and harder to attain from each other.

Yes the two damaged changelings hated each other, but they had also sucked each other dry in that regard. That's why Squelp had agreed to this crazy plan in the first place. If they could cause the night alicorn to be angry and become hated again then they would have food enough for months.

Urahk bashed Squelp over the head to shut him up as he saw another group of ponies coming. He could feel the anger and confusion coming off them.

"How many times do I have to tell you that don’t work anymore or I would have bashed your head in long ago," Squelp complained.

"Shut it, that officer one is coming again, play this right and we could get out of here." Urahk told his whinging companion.

The bat pony in charge came up to the barrier prison and glared at the two creatures inside, "I know you can understand me, what you did do to those parasprites?"

Urahk rose to his hooves, came up to the edge of the magical wall and fixed him with a cold stare from his one good eye, "What's in it for us bat boy? Why would we want to help your kind anyway?" Urahk said, in the mocking tone of his green unicorn disguise.

"I was hoping you would be in the mood for a deal, tell you what. Give us the information we want and we will just banish you from Equestria, back to your hive or whatever," Blade replied levely and Urahk felt a squirm of unease. The bat pony wasn't angry, in fact it was full of a kind of strange calm.

"Really?” escaped Squelp's hopeful reply before Urahk could shut him up.

"Of course not," Night Blade grinned as only a bat pony could, "But we could make your stay in our prison much more horrible if you cooperate." By the look of his companions, this wasn’t what they were expecting by the way they all looked at Blade in horror.

Urahk just snorted at that and licked his fangs, "The way I see it, we're the only ones who can stop our little pets. So you’re not in much of a position to demand anything from us." Blade grinned, but to his annoyance felt no ire in the bat pony before him, just that same smug calm. The changeling pressed on, rubbing a hoof on its scarred chest carapace as if polishing it. Urahk then studied his fore leg in pretend disinterest of Night Blade's proposal.

"Well I tried to be nasty about the whole thing, but you leave me no choice." Night Blade said, "Oh Shadow would you come here please?"

Both Urahk and Squelp each felt the rising bile in their thorax, the warm sticky feeling that they would normally crave was pouring off Shadow and it was all they could do not to wretch. Urahk was trying his best to keep his face from grimacing, but the nausea continued to build inside.

"Silly larvae, we're changelings, We can taste the affection coming off your friend, are you planning to feed us to death or something?" Urahk was sweating despite his brave words.

"Well it looks to me that you could do with a good meal, you're both pretty beat up," The wicked smile on Blade’s lips grew wider and Urahk tried his best to subtly swallow the bile in his throat.

At another motion of Blade’s hoof a pegasus trotted into view, "Now Swift here, reckons she saw you two going crazy when we brought Shadow and Applejack together before. She reckons you must be starving. But I think that would be mighty hard for your types as Canterlot is full of caring ponies to feed on. No disrespect to my good soldier, but It looked like you were trying to get as far as possible away from the love birds."

Urahk and Squelp both began to tremble at this, as Shadow heard even the mention of the mare who had won his heart both changelings felt his heart quicken. "Now we're not prisoners of war or anything. You can't go about being so nice as to feed us like that. In fact I insist on being punished for our crimes as the monsters we are. Bring on Horn screws and hot brands," Urahk demanded with the sweat now pouring down his face.

This was clearly turning out to be the oddest interrogation any of those present had heard, "Can't do that now, we’re all respectable ponies here. We have rules and have to stick to them. Swift, please go get our guest, we need to make sure these two are taken care of properly," Night Blade ordered, his smile never wavering.

Both the changelings felt it coming, it was like a tidal wave of sweet apple saurce as the orange earth pony came into view. The worst bit was she wasn't even fully certain about how she felt. All the confused excitement which only added to Urahk and Squelp's discomfort.

"Now now, that's close enough lady!" Squelp almost shouted. "There is no need to treat us so nice! Please!"

"Then tell us how to stop the parasprites," Night Blade asked in a sweet tone.

"I will never talk!" Urahk said bravely but there was a definite tremor in his voice now and he was turning an interesting shade of green.

Blade’s eyes twinkled, "Look boys we have two ponies here, very much in love, and we're not afraid to use em, so stop all this trotting in circles and tell us what we want,"

Night Dew, who catching onto Blade's game, smiled sweetly. Both Shadow and Applejack blushed even more.

"Well I'er like Shadow n all but that may be taking things a bit too far too fast," Applejack mumbled and Urahk covered his mouth, fearing his insides were about to be splashed all over their prison. She was still uncertain, bouncy tingly and... Urahk felt his stomach spasm.

He desperately tried to focus on Squelp who was dry heaving at the opposite side of the magical prison, but the fluttering in both Shadow and Applejack's hearts was overpowering. Shadow stared longingly Applejacks big green, nervous eyes as if trying to read the truth within and Urahk nearly choked as Shadow’s soul sang like a nightingale.

"No no, we won't tell you.
It's my master plan and I won't have it fail now," Urahk muttered almost like a mantra, trying desperately to block out the waves of affection pouring off the pair.

Applejack looked deeply into Shadow's eyes and Urahk doubled up in pain, he could almost hear her thoughts: Applejack thought she knew her heart, but there was always that little voice in the back of her head saying it could never work. She saw the pain in Shadow's slitted eyes and she was almost brought to tears. But what if it didn't work out? Wouldn't that just lead to more pain? She had lost loved ones before and didn't want to open her heart fully like that again.

"Applejack, if you.....I won't force anything like this..." Shadow said in a quiet voice.

“Curse you both! Urahk screamed before finally losing what was left of his stomach’s contents.

"Know that I love you more than I can say, but if you would be happier without me, or even with someone else then I understand," Shadow said with finality and Urahk joined Squelp on the floor, both of them shaking uncontrollably. The noble gesture of sacrifice it was too much!

---

The sounds of the two changelings thrashing about on the floor was loud and unpleasant but the world seemed to fade away for Applejack, she knew deep down that this was the time to make a choice. If she wanted she could keep hiding her heart away for fear of loss once again. Losing her mum and dad had been a wound that had never fully healed. Could she voluntarily let another pony in and risk losing them too?

"Shadow I, I...." Was all Applejack could say it was all becoming too much for her as her eyes rimmed with tears despite setting her jaw, determined not to break down.

Shadow seeing her pain and indecision put a hoof up to her mouth and gently shook his head with tears in his eyes," I understand, it was great but I won't be the cause of more hurt."

Applejack was taken aback, why did the world have to force this upon her? It simply wasn’t fair, why did she have to make a choice now? Couldn’t she….. Then she saw Shadow turn away, his head low and his whole demeanor broken. Applejack raised a hoof then lowered it slowly, the fears and worries that had been plaguing her for months choking her voice before she could call out to Shadow and stop him.

"As thy Princess I order thee to stop being a scared whelp and kiss thy husband to be or by the heavens we shall smite thee and all thy works! Thy trees shall burn and thy land shall become barren! This be a royal command and I place you under a hallowed quest to follow thy heart! Go get him thou foalish filly!" Princess Luna's royal Canterlot voice echoed across the city and caused several nearby windows to splinter then shatter. It reverberated off the mountain side and caused a number of small avalanches from the heights above.

Applejack froze, her head and her heart straining with each other. Her world focused on one point, or to be more precise one pony and before her mind could get in the way she galloped forward. Bursting through a cloud of doubt and fear she grasped the surprised Shadow Guard around his middle. Applejack then forced the stunned stallion round to look her right in the eyes before whispering the words she’d not dared even think of for so many years.

Shadow’s pupils shrank in amazement before going wide enough to fill the whole whites of his eyes. A huge smile flowed over his muzzle and he embraced Applejack before lifting her off the ground. His wings spread and beating slowly the pair almost drifted lazily into the air as they kissed.

Several of the onlookers wiped tears from their eyes and the changelings both keeled over in their bubble prison and begged for mercy. Screaming that they would do anything the ponies asked, only take the happy couple away before the changelings wretched up their insides.

Eventually Night Blade nodded with approval, "Right Shadow I think that's enough we have what we needed. Um Shadow? SHADOW! We wanted them to talk, not kill them! Swift get them down! Get up there Night Dew and pull them apart!" Night Blade called out but every pony was slow to act, the moment was just too powerful and too beautiful.

---

“So they bewitched the parasprites to go for my crown?” Luna asked with some surprise and Blade saluted.

“Yes your Highness, is seems they could only enchant the parasprites to crave a non-living object. I’m afraid that was the only way to let them revert back to their normal annoying selves.”

“But how come my spells had no effect on them? How could they be enchanted when practically immune to magic?” Luna asked, her expression thoughtful.

“It appears the changelings have done their homework your highness, they applied their mind altering powers to cast a variation of what I have been led to understand is called a ‘want it need it’ spell upon the very food they raised the parasprites on. That gave them the insatiable desire for your crown your Majesty.”

“And the magic immunity?” Luna prompted.

“The nature of the food gave them that your Highness, A peculiar zebra herb which has certain magic resistant properties. If that were to be concentrated then, well you get the idea.” Blade explained and Luna nodded as the pieces fell into place.

Blade’s face fell, “Ingenious in it’s own way, but could only have been possible because there are still some ponies willing to….”

Blade explained only for Luna to raise a hoof, “Yes, yes I know some still oppose my return.” Night Blade feared Luna would break down again, but to his delight she simply took a calming breath and straightened her back, “I know I will never win the approval of all my subjects, even Celestia never managed such a feat but if this whole experience has taught me anything then it’s better to worry about your own actions, not what everypony else thinks about you.”

Luna looked to the tellingly empty box on her desk, the impression of where a crown would normally be, prominent to all, “I never really liked it all that much, you know,” Luna added in a thoughtful manner.

“Your Highness?” Blade asked uncertainly.

“The crown itself I mean, a lump of metal at the end of the day and I’m sure Canterlot’s artisans can fashon me a new one with admirable speed,” Luna explained in a pensive tone. It was the meaning behind the crown that Luna had always coveted: To be respected, admired and seen as something of value, especially when compared with Celestia.

Luna had been so obsessed with chasing the ‘ideal’ that ponies loved so much that she’d….well that was behind her now. The plot played on Luna’s weaknesses, she could see that now. Pulling at her own insecurities of the past.

Luna felt the grin returning, “That many still disapprove of my return is quite frankly, their problem, not mine good Sir Knight. I have paid for my crimes and we look to the future now.”

Blade smiled in return and before Luna moved to more current matters, “What of the changelings?”

Blade’s smile faded, “Urahk and Squelp have both been taken to the Canterlot dungeons your Highness. They claim to have been banished from the hive and are seen as aberrations by their fellow changelings.”

Luna raised an eyebrow as Blade explained, “I don’t understand it fully myself your Majesty, but it seems that when ‘Princess Cadence’ and ‘Shining Armour’ thwarted the changelings attack on Canterlot there were some unintended side effects for the changelings trapped by the blast.”

“I see,” Luna replied, tapping her hoof on her muzzle, Blade’s face was unreadable as Luna continued to ponder the new problem, “It’s not going to be an easy problem to solve, but keeping them in the prisons with other disgruntled inmates may be the only way to feed them until we come up with a better plan.”

“There are very few criminals in Canterlot who remained stubbornly unrepentant of their crimes your Highness, will it be enough to sustain them? Should we even try?” Blade asked with a look of disgust.

“Well we both know a little about being seen as monsters don’t we?” Luna added with a glint in her eye. “I believe they could with proper precautions actually be useful, their talents for sniffing out unrest and bad feeling could come in very handy.”

It was thin ice, Luna understood that. The fine line between monitoring Canterlot’s safety and full blown spying on their ponies was a difficult moral obstacle of course; but if Celestia could succeed in ‘Discord, the God of Chaos’, being redeemed then it wasn’t such a long shot in hoping they could help a pair of altered changelings find some positive role in their society?

She sighed, “Have them continue their stay in the dungeons for now, maybe have them sit in on a few interrogations and such to see if they can help investigations? Also see what they can teach us about changeling culture and customs.” Luna nodded to herself, “It’s not the best result for them, but until we come up with something better that will have to do.”

“As you command Princess,” Blade saluted dutifully.

Luna then turned to happier business, “I understand that Shadow and Applejack have set a date for their wedding? It seems that little skirmish was just what they needed to move things along nicely.”

“Indeed they have your Highness and the preparations are already underway,” Night Blade confirmed before smiling, “Shadow has asked if you could preside over the ceremony.”

Luna’s smile grew so wide that it threatened to bisect her cheeks, “I know, it’s been some time since I’ve done one. What prey tell are the customs for such an event these days?”

“I er…” Night Blade began.

“It can’t be all that different I’m sure, please make the arrangements good Sir Knight for the lores and customs of the relevant groups to be brought to me,” Luna commanded before taking a deep sigh of contentment and closing her eyes, “I wonder if they still do the whole thing with the dowries and such? I would imagine it would be hard for Shadow to muster that kind of money.”

“I think that particular tradition fell out of favour….” Blade tried but Luna was only half listening. She was going to officiate for a wedding! Her soul sung with joy and she quickly imagined all the happy ponies. This was going to be beautiful.

Author's Note:

Nice to be able to see the happy pair finally get together. It was a long road for em and I am glad they got there. Another chapter that I really liked writing and after a few tricky moments I think I got something that worked. I don't really know if changelings work like that but it made sense to me and gave a comical chance for A.J and Shadow to have to admit how they felt. Any how on with the Finale!