Chapter XIV
“Why did they want to kill the Demon?”
Queen Titania’s gaze swept over the young changelings, their small eyes wide as they snuggled closer to the very confused-looking promethean. His reaction was understandable; he had been so enthralled by the Queen’s tale that he hadn’t even glanced towards the little ones when they had crept in to listen. He probably would have continued to not notice had little Shell kept quiet.
She smiled at them, the sight of her children bringing her joy despite the danger of their current circumstances. “They told us that a person they called the Oracle sent them.” The promethean’s eyes snapped back up at her words, just in time to see the Queen’s magic weave itself to show a tall promethean, wreathed in power and smoke, whose eyes seemed to blaze with a holy light. Behind her was another, wrapped in chains, clearly in agony. “They said that a spirit called Gaea had been crying out to the Oracle, seeking her help, as well as the help of her people. The Oracle told them that The Demon was stealing her, to what end, they did not know. Only that they needed to stop him before he finished.”
“Gaea…” the promethean muttered to himself, but did not otherwise interrupt.
“In her wisdom, the Oracle summoned the greatest of the Demigods to her side. Many were called, but so few heeded her words,” the queen said, shaking her head sadly. “Those that did come were given great gifts; weapons and armor, blessed by a spirit that the prometheans called the Titan Themis. But none of these gifts were as great, or as mighty, as the very Throne of Themis that they carried through that gate.” The magic changed again, showing the prometheans as they came through the portal. In the vanguard were four of their mightiest, bearing on their backs a huge throne.
The promethean and the little ones all gasped in recognition, as they should have, for the chair was none other than the one that sat in Titania’s throne room.
As soon as the magic showed the throne entering the hive, the chaos caused by the Demon calmed. The walls of the hive changed from pudding to stone again, and the hapless changelings under the Demon’s thrall fell to the ground in pain and confusion. One tried to get up, only to be stopped by a booted foot to its throat, and a sword at its side. “The Oracle had not informed her warriors of the Demon’s tyranny, only that an end must be brought to him. When they first stepped through that gate, they assumed us soldiers of the Enemy, not realizing until almost too late that that was not the case.”
Before the soldier created by the queen’s magic killed the small changeling under his boot, someone grabbed the sword, staying the promethean’s hand. The promethean that stopped the soldier stood head and shoulders above the rest, looking more like a bear than a promethean. In his hand was a mighty spear, and on his helmet was a large, colorful plume. With that one hand he not only stopped the killing blow, but forced the other soldier off the still confused changeling, his mouth giving out orders in a loud, barking voice.
Or at least, that’s the impression the magic was giving. The facsimile’s words were actually only quiet murmurs, echoey and indistinct, to give the impression that the speaker was very far away; or, rather, that the speaker lived a very long time ago.
“His name was Markos, and he led the Demigods who were sent to destroy the Demon,” Titania said as Markos began directing his troops. They ran every which way, setting up camp, securing the area, but more importantly, they began helping the changelings. “Though we did not share a language, nor did we possess the marvel that is the translation spell at the time, he instantly recognized us as innocent, and set his men to help us, rather than kill us.”
“What happen to them?” the promethean in front of her asked, his eyes never leaving the magic for an instant.
“Markos was very wise, and felt that to charge the Demon without knowing anything about it was folly.” The magic shifted again, showing the soldiers conversing with the changelings, helping them rebuild their hive, and even playing with them. “They stayed with us for a time, teaching us a portion of their language, so that they might have a better understanding of what they faced. But once we were able to communicate all that we knew of the enemy, they sallied forth from the hive, fully intent on ending the evil one.”
The promethean’s head cocked to the side, a question clearly written there. “If this creature have power like say, how they hope bring it down?”
Titania bowed her head, then turned away, the magic around her shifting to reveal the warriors charging into battle. “Their weapons were blessed by the Spirit of Themis. While I do not know who that is, or what god she was, her effects were palpable. Her gift… protected the warriors, kept them from insanity, and stopped the Demon’s magic from affecting them. To a much lesser extent, it had the same power as the throne, but with one major difference.”
“What wath that?” Little Shell asked, his face filled with equal parts wonder and horror as he removed the hoof from his mouth.
“It did not stop the Demon’s magic from affecting the world around them.” Titania’s magic collected in front of her, then split off to each of the coffins, forming a promethean over each one. One was drowning in a sea of gelatin, while another was shown sweating to death in a desert, while yet another was buried as custard rained from the sky. Each scene was different from the last, each horrifying in its own way. “The Demon was quick to notice this, and took advantage of it: some he buried under a mountain of custard until they suffocated. Others, he flooded out with pudding, while still more he trapped in mazes, forcing them to wander until they died of thirst. He did not seem to want to kill them at first. He would taunt them, tell them that all they needed to do to survive was to take off their armor, but none of them took the demon's offer. Fifty strong left this hive to fight the Demon, none returned to tell the tale.”
The promethean rose to his feet, then gestured towards the coffins. “Then how they get here? And how demon defeated? Also, why not take throne with, if so powerful? They could need that!”
Titania smiled sadly, then let her magic gather back in front of her, changing to show the changelings and the prometheans making preparations. “The prometheans did not take everything with them. They left spare weapons and armor, each an artifact blessed with the power of Themis. There were not many, but there were enough to arm a few of my people. When Markos’ soldiers left, Queen Titania the First armed her own soldiers with these weapons, to join the battle and bring the Demon to his knees.” The magic changed again to show the carnage, as well a small group of changelings overlooking it. “Her soldiers were quick to understand that even if they had brought the throne with them, it was a fool’s errand to try and stop the Demon. So they instead watched, and waited, and collected the bodies of the fallen as they each made their sacrifice.”
“Yes, but why leave throne behind?” the promethean asked, clearly frustrated. “Even if not do anything, they still He Who Knows. They still would get any edge that they can!”
Titania just smiled at that, then let her magic change to the next part of the story. It showed Markos again, and he seemed to be talking to the old changeling queen. “Before he left, Markos gave Queen Titania the First some important instructions. He told us to protect the throne, but more importantly, to protect the portal.” All the magic she had released gathered itself until it turned into a single object: a mirror. It was beautifully crafted, framed in purple in the shape of a horseshoe, and topped with a silhouette of a pony. “Markos thought he would fail, but he did not leave without a contingency. He told us that the portal would open itself every thirty moons, according to his moon. He promised that if the Oracle could summon more heroes, she would send them.”
The promethean looked around pointedly at the coffins, then back to the Queen. “I take it that never happen.”
She lowered her head in sorrow. “My people stood guard over the mirror for a very long time. We would venture forth out of our hive for food from time to time, but until the Demon’s reign was brought to an end, we were essentially prisoners inside our own home.” She frowned, her magic changing into more changelings standing in front of the portal, which they quickly entered. “Once, Queen Titania the Second sent forth an expedition through the mirror, intent on finding out what happened to her allies. Those that returned spoke of a place where the power of magic was rapidly waning. Where the very sun left horrible disfigurements on those who braved its light for too long. The survivors of the expedition... did not last long.”
The promethean’s face turned down into a frown as he watched the little mini changelings come back through the portal, then die from exposure. The children around him all gasped in terror, but the alien seemed more worried than terrified. “I… not think that right. Our sun should be normal…” he whispered to himself.
Queen Titania chose to ignore him in favor of not losing the momentum of her story. “As time went on, we fell into despair, until one day, the mirror disappeared entirely.”
The promethean looked like he was about to cry at those words. “You mean that the only way home is-”
“Do not misunderstand me,” Titania said with a wave of her hoof, instantly filling the alien with hope again. The magic changed, showing a shadowy figure approaching the mirror. “The portal wasn’t destroyed, but stolen, as were several pieces of armor left by the prometheans. We had grown lax in our vigil, and thought that no help would ever come from your world.”
Little Shell removed a hoof from his mouth for a little bit. “Who took the portal, Mommy?”
“We do not know who took the portal, sweetie,” Queen Titania said with a smile, both answering the question, and rephrasing it for the promethean in the room. “We do know what happened soon after, however. Once the portal was gone, we thought all was lost. We assumed that the Demon’s reign would continue uncontested for eternity.” Her magic twisted itself once again, showing the Demon on his rampage, laughing maniacally to the heavens as it created hell on earth. It stopped, however, when two glowing figures appeared in front of it, crowned in glory, and wielding the Elements of Harmony.
The Demon didn’t even seem perturbed. Instead, it was laughing at what seemed to it to be a foolhardy endeavor.
The two alicorns were not amused in the slightest, though, and as the energies of Harmony began to swirl around the two, their countenances only became more serious.
“We were not there when it happened, but Celestia and Luna were. Many cycles after the portal was stolen, they appeared, as if from nowhere, and cast down the Demon with naught but a flick of their horns.” A rainbow shot out of the two regal alicorns, striking the Demon and imprisoning it in stone, still laughing as if the universe had told the greatest joke of all time.
“...Just how old are Sun, Moon?” the promethean muttered under his breath.
“Far older than their mortal coils would indicate, but that is beside the point,” Queen Titania said as the magic shattered, turning the whole room to mist. The younglings around the Promethean ‘ooh’ed’ and ‘ahh’ed’ as they realized that their mother had reached a portion of the tale they had never heard before. “The new alicorn princesses brought peace and freedom to the land, allowing us changelings to leave our prison and walk among them once again. My story would end there, had it not been the appearance of a strange unicorn bearing the face of one who had died long before the Demon’s reign.”
Out of the mist stepped a unicorn wearing a hat and cloak covered in bells, while on his back rested a large set of saddlebags. He approached a group of changelings who also appeared from the mist, quickly taking off the pack and presenting it to them, their worried faces only becoming confused as they accepted his gift.
“He came asking for our forgiveness, saying that it was he who stole the promethean armor and the Mirror of Gaea. He came to return in part what he had took, but he was unable to return the mirror. It was-” Titania started to explain, but stopped short as one of her sons rushed in, out of breath and clearly distressed. “What is it, Aeropus?”
“My Queen,” he said, trying to gulp down air as he cut a ragged salute. “We have spotted a large group of thestral soldiers protecting a chariot headed this way.”
Fear suddenly gripped the Queen’s heart, her eyes darting to the confused looking Promethean. This is too soon! I haven't even begun to win him over to our side!
Regardless of how prepared she was, though, she was out of time. “I will go to meet them.” She turned back to the promethean, an apology in her eyes. “I am sorry, I cannot ask you to speak for us without having heard my full tale, Promethean. I would ask you to stay here while I try to speak with the Princess of the Moon.” She started to move past him and the younglings that surrounded him, her hooves feeling as heavy as her heart as she moved closer to her doom. “I will attempt to plead with her, and to get her to see that she has an assassin in her-”
“I will go.”
Titania stopped in her tracks, her eyes looking at the promethean in pure amazement. “You what?
“I will go. And don't call 'Promethean,’ please,” the alien said as he straightened his somewhat shredded shirt. “My name is Defender of People. At least, that what friends here call me.” The wounded promethean swept past the stunned-looking children and stood in front of the queen, his face an inscrutable mask. “I not quite believe you when say you not enemy of pony, but you at least not deserve death. At least, they do not deserve death,” he said as he waved towards the children behind him.
Little Shell pulled his hoof out of his mouth, hope in his small eyes as he looked up at the imposing promethean. “You mean that-”
“I mean that I talk, nothing more. I not have power over Moon, but I think she will listen,” Defender told the little one with a smile. He then looked back up, his eyes searching for the queen’s. “Besides, your mother not finish story. I love to hear end.”
Queen Titania started to bow to the promethean, but stopped when something occurred to her. Her eyes darted to Defender, then to Shell, then back to Defender again. Did he just…
The promethean raised an eyebrow curiously at her. “What?”
The Queen just shook her head, then finished her bow. “Nothing… just, thank you. Thank you so much.”
“No thank yet, we not out of forest still,” he said as he moved towards the doorway. “Besides, something tell this is only beginning…”
* * *
“Sir, we’ve found a second entrance.”
Shining Armor looked up at the unicorn lieutenant, her salute sharp as she and her partner slowly faded into view. “Good work, Shadowheart. Where is it?”
“It’s to the north, a small cabin sitting roughly right on top of the falls.”
Shining Armor smiled at that, then signaled the rest of his troops to form up around him. “Okay, colts, we got our way in. Remember that our objective is the ~human.~ Don’t get bogged down with any unnecessary fighting, and keep your eyes open for anypony else the 'lings might have ponynapped. Let's move!”
The small, elite force of fifteen quickly crept forward, Shadowheart’s horn glowing as she cast a muffling spell upon the party. Shining’s troops all had an almost… eager quality about them as they made their way towards the Changeling stronghold, but he could hardly blame them. After all, they were about to get a little payback for the disgrace that these dirty shapeshifters had given them.
This wasn't a full-scale assault, though. As much as Shining Armor wanted to pay them back for crashing his wedding in full, he was enough of a professional to know when to be discrete.
There was plenty of time for revenge later.
The troop stopped once they reached the hut, their sharp eyes studying every minute aspect, especially the ‘completely normal’ pony sitting on the porch, whittling at a block of wood with the knife in his magic. “Are you certain this is the place?” Shining whispered to Shadowheart.
“I’m certain, My Prince. That hut could barely accommodate a single pony, yet I saw twenty enter, and never leave.”
Shining nodded, but did not say anything; he was too busy thinking about how to go about this. They managed to get pretty close without the changeling at the door noticing. It would be a simple matter to send Shadowheart to incapacitate it, but something about this didn’t seem right. “This is too easy. Shadowheart, I want you to get behind the changeling, but don’t take him out. Be ready to if he tries to call out for help, but don’t do anything until then. I’ll give you twenty seconds to get into position.”
“What’s your plan, Armor?” Captain Breeze asked as the lieutenant disappeared from view.
Shining Armor gave the captain a wry smile and a wink. “I’m going to try and talk with it. At the very least, we’ll need a guide once we get inside. We have no idea what we’re dealing with.”
Captain Breeze gave his prince a grim nod, then waved the rest of the ponies down. “We’ll wait for your order then, Armor.”
Shining Armor quietly counted under his breath, giving Shadowheart enough time to get into place. Once he was certain she was ready, he took a bold step out of the bushes and towards the unsuspecting 'pony’.
At that exact moment, several things happened at once. Years later, after Shining Armor had had time to sit and think about everything, and had heard every side of the story imaginable, he would still claim that he had no clue what had happened.
The instant the Changeling on the porch saw the prince, he dropped his disguise. Shining Armor immediately noticed that this one was different from the ones that attacked Canterlot, but that didn't matter to him. At least, he didn't think it mattered until the Changeling, instead of attacking or calling out for help, fell into a low, low bow. “We surrender!” he called out as he groveled in front of Shining Armor.
If that was the only thing that had happened, the prince would have easily been able to cope. But sadly for him, it was not.
At the exact moment Shining Armor stepped out into the clearing, another troop of solar guards stepped out from the forest exactly opposite from where Shining Armor and his troops had been hiding. While this group looked just as surprised to see the prince as the prince was to see them, they were far more numerous than the little troop that Shining had brought with him. The apparent leader was a stallion that Shining recognized, though Shining Armor was positive that it wasn't him.
After all, Shining Armor was pretty certain that there was only one Shining Armor.
The two stallions just stood there for a long moment, staring at each other from across the way, all while the Changeling at the real Shining's hooves glanced back and forth between the two of them.
Finally, the phony scratched the back of his head with his hoof, a look of embarrassment on his face. “Well, this is awkward…”
Then all hell broke loose.
Alright. So good chapter. But since the last one was a good while ago. It would be great to have a little recap in the author's notes at the start? Just so I'm not lost again cause I really enjoyed this story
Understatement, much?
Drama and Revelations and heroic countenance and then...
WAT
Loved it, when can we expect more?
B-but...but muh baconhair! Y U DO DIS!
You know, instead of making the mirror be different, you could have simply had the mirror that's used in your story be what Starswirl based his own creation on?
For a second I'd forgot there was more than one faction of changelings.
Ha, i wonder how this will play out.
Out of curiosity, why did you elect to omit her from this story?
i shouldn't even be surprised by your cliffhangers anymore, it seems you have them down the a fine art now.
8151510
heh, im not gong to lie, im not a fine of sunset shimmer and the EQG universe, but you did get a giggle out of me with "bacon hair".
so far so good, i love it :D
Ok so let me see if I got everything.
Back in the time of Greek legends the gods and such did in fact exist. Oracle of Delphi was tasked by gaea or gaia however you want to spell it to assemble a troop of mighty warriors to do equestria a solid and vanquish discord. They traveled there using the mirror which was created by gaia and armed with weapons and armor blessed by the titaness of law and order Themis to wreck discord like a blastiose wrecks a charizard. The plan fails because fucking discord (like most rational beings) doesn't care to fight fair.
Now the interesting part. After the quest the mirror still works and can take people from equestria to earth and vice versa. Problem is that the magic on earth is disappearing and it would seem that our world is bombarded with WAY more UV radiation that equestria is, killing most who attempt to reestablish contact and presumably making the few who make it back succumb to the injuries or cancer.
My greatest question at the moment: what happened to the magic? As far as I can see the possibilities are as follows:
1. Earth had magic at the start of its existence but steadily or exponentially declined as time went on.
2. The was a surge of Magic that allowed the gods to manifest during the Greek age of myth but quickly dissipated.
3. Something came and suppressed the magic of Earth for reasons unknown. Why this was done we can only speculate and how is completely unknown and completely undetectable.
If it is the third I do wonder if the magic is being suppressed or siphoned away and why such an experiment would be made. Suppressing magic is understandable as a weapon but to do it for thousands of years? Nope. Which means that if it's suppression then it was to actively keep humans out of the intergalactic scene indefinitely or some jack off forgot to turn on the lights when they left.
Looking forward to the next and even more the explanation of what the fudge is going on.
8151866
Remember when this was just a simple story about Earth and Horse Planet caught in the middle of a war between two interstellar superpowers?
I kind of miss that story.
8151897
We still haven't tossed the Gryphons and Dragons into the fray... Not sure about the Zebra and Yak however. Mmm, then again, the Dragons would probably ignore it all as long as no one bothered their hordes.
8151897
Pepperidge farm remembers
More seriously, I think this is a textbook case of "gambit pileup" with players from three different worlds. Eventually keeping tract of what is going on (or worse, predicting how it will all end) becomes a mental exercise in itself.
Imagine Defender trying to explain the "simple plot" of the Trilogy
8151866 I believe your 'greatest question' was answered in this chapter...
Gaia, the earth mother, she from whom all life flows... was being stolen, as in an ongoing process. Then after the mission to stop the theft fails folks notice that the amount of magic is decreasing, until none remains. Now didn't the snakes mention that the planet Equus was emitting a powerful magic field which was responsible for all the magical creatures there? Because Gaia is literally the spirit of planet Earth.
Part of what made Discord so powerful was probably having stolen the Earth's magic.
Oh, now I see. You actually missed that part... that would explain it.
Well it looks like Shining Armor will get his revenge against the right bugs.
Well now, thats QUITE the tale there...... I too would love to hear how it ends.
8151464 Apologies, i forgot how long ago that was. Basically, Chrysalis's bugs tried to get Alex, failed, and he instead got picked up by Titania's bugs. Titania revealed that they met ancient greeks before, and this is her telling him how that went down.
8152354 thank you my good man
8151510 8151552 8151814 I have elected to remove her because of several reasons. One, the whole earth mirrors equestria thing and vise-versa doesn't work with this story. Two, with how my story is set up, if she stepped through the portal, she would have died from radiation poisoning not long after stepping through. Three, I really didn't want to deal with dopplegangers.
8152388 It would have been simple multiverse theory if you had included it. Not a big thing. Heck, it'd mostly be just something to gloss over for the most part. But, your call in the end.
8152388 Then why not just have her as an ordinary runaway? You know, without the whole world hopping aspect? I've seen stories that used Sunset without any alternate dimension shenanigans before, and they pulled it off rather well.
Though by now you've probably already made up your mind on the matter, so... yeah...
8152416 She still exists, but she never went to Earth, because again, that would have killed her.
8151866 8152047 Nobody Nick Particular is right, the Greeks weren't saving them out of the kindness of their hearts. They were saving them because the spirit of the earth was being stolen. As for the Greek gods having actually existed, not... exactly. The Greek gods tie in to how magic works, and how the imagination ties into magic. The only hint I'm giving you is something that Luna told Alex. Specifically, why she was mucking around in his dreams.
8151897 8152000 I apologize for over-complicating things. To tell the truth, this story has kinda ran away with me. When I finally do get to editing and cutting this story for large scale print, I'm going to be cutting out quite a bit that just overly bloats it. Whole characters are probably going to get cut, just saying.
8152420 Oooooh, that clears things up... or muddies them further, depending on how you you look at it. See, usually when characters are "removed" from a story, that means they simply aren't there. So now that you've said she does exist in the world of the story, people are going to be breathing down your neck to include her in the narrative somehow.
While I'd usually adopt a wait and see approach on issues such as these, it might be easier for you to make it perfectly clear whether she will or won't be a part of the story at all, simply to get ahead of things before they spiral any further out of control.
8152477 I don't intend to include her. Maybe as a cameo at most, but that's about it.
8152442
Basically the Sandman: Gods are dreams who make it to reality and get themselves empowered by human faith. Right?
8152498 Again, not exacly. You'll see as time wears on, but you're really, really close.
This is an AU, so the Equestria Girls' mirror works differently than the one in the show.
I, uh... I'm starting to grow very upset at the mention of that universe at all. Why even include it...? Why ruin a good thing. Not to sound like a shit, but man I hated that movie.
8152738 Don't worry, it wasn't my favorite, either. The mirror in this story, again, has nothing to do with the one in EG. The only things they have in common are as follows:
They both lead to AN earth.
They share their appearance.
They're both located in the Crystal Empire.
That's it. They literally have no other similarities. As to why I included it? Well, it's actually a plot point I've been working up to for a while now. You can see hints of it throughout my story, starting from chapter one of What I've Become. The mirror itself just presents a useful way of tying everything together without having to make up a portal from whole cloth.
Can't wait to see Shining Armor shenanigans
8152753 Yeah, I always find myself having to modify canon for that mirror. So many things are wrong with it.
Although I think that Author's Note would be better placed at the end, after you have given the context. I didn't hate EQG (It's still not a favorite), but it gets readers into the wrong sort of thinking.
Your description allows people to recognize it, and the way you have it working clearly points to a different canon. I think most people would be fine with it.
Read the chapter earlier this morning, and after taking the time think it over I have found my proper response to it,
I think this sums it up quite nicely.Don't you think?
8152753 Thank heaven. You had me so freakin' worried. Like crazy worried, hehe.
Way to cut the queen's story short. It was just getting to the beast part!
At least Alex has more incentive to keep her alive
So, the second changeling hive found out where Alex is as well. Awkward for sure. That is certainly going to be one hell of a confusing fight.
Thank God. While opinions on the movies are varied it does kinda ruin HiE flics.
I do like the call backs to the show such as the throne and the mirror. I especially like how the events revolving around them play out differently then in the show, giving them more importance and history.
So then where is Gaea now? Is the state of the apparent brokenness of the Equestrian sun related to how radioactive Earth's is, and why there's no Magic on Earth? Hmmm...
Keep going! ;)
So there is more to this lore about the humans who first visited Equestria, eh? Interesting. I hope to learn more about it from Queen Titania.
8152983 At first, when I saw it was a pepe le pew clip, I was thinking that you thought it stunk.
Then I watched the clip, and I lol'ed.
8153543
Nice to see you appreciated the reference. I think I might start using the clip on stories that take a while to update then just tease us with cliffhangers.
Not that I have a right to complain since I've left my own hanging for a few years now.
For convinience let say she became a mercenary, a mage for hire or something like that and since she didn't cross the mirror she is in her 30s. She was about 14 when she rebelled then spent 60 moon on the other side thus turning 19 around the time she stole the crown. While she was gone 240 moons passed in equestria if she stayed she would have been 34. Why twenty years? because you have to put in Twillight's time as a pupil, 6 years at least, plus the time for the topic of Sunset to become old news about 7 years (this one is empirical based on my father reaction to 9/11 rememberance day. By the end of Bush tenure he was saying "they still talking about that?") then you put Sunburst in the middle to sponge up the mess Sunset left. And since he didn't make it big and he is the student Celestia had just before to Twillight, the question about previous student never came up.
So... Chrysalis's changelings (or some as of yet unnamed changeling faction) were trying to impersonate Celestia's forces to the Titania hive.
This was likely either with the intention to, through subterfuge, kidnap the "Promethean" for their own ends, or incite a war between the real Equestrians and Titania through a false flag operation in an attempt to undermine Titania's hive and/or distract the Equestrians from spies that may or may not have been sent by them in order to assassinate certain someones, OR to opportunistically outright attack Titania after sneaking close under guise of being royal guards.
That is all assuming of course, that changelings lack a way to sense other changelings. Given the previous chapters with the changeling POV, I would say they can't since the major give away for the OTHER changeling spy (the one sent to assassinate our beloved human) was the sheer amount of hate he was giving off and not some other tell besides obvious emotional incongruity.
... I realize I do not have a way with words...
8154059 You can go ahead and say that, but for sure she did NOT go through that mirror. She wouldn't have lasted long.
8154534 It was Chrysalis's forces, just throwing that out there.
8152442
Magically manifested gestalts of human imagination?
"flirt" indeed
Corrections offered without malice.
possess
take off
8154827 oh I just had a headcannon mutation while reading an other fic. The sunset we see in the movies IS humanworld sunset who got trough the portal very young and there is an older equestrian equivalent of her somewhere in Equestria who never directecly seen Celestia. Thus go along with no Equestia girl plothole I imagine the sirens didn't survive their journey anyway. No human Sunset or Twillight. No camp everfree.
8151866
maybe magic fields on earth are like the seasons and right now it is winter, like on that other fic, and since astral bodies have a different awareness of time what only last a few months from a planet perspective has lasted a couple thousand years for its inhabitants
8152388
just a quick suggestion about the mirror, the location it connects to changes based on how close it is to the throne?
WE HAVE A CHAPTER FOLKS!!!!! REJOICE, FOR OUR SAVIOR HAS RETURNED WITH NEWS FROM THE MULTIVERSE!!!! PRAISE BE!!!!