This story is a sequel to The Stranger Among Friends
Changelings have lived in Equestria for a long time, and have survived by staying hidden and keeping their existence a secret.
Meeting Driftwood of Portside forced Princess Twilight Sparkle to begin recognizing her stance on changelings, and how that stance informs and influences her decisions as the Princess of Friendship. When she returns from Hoofington, she discovers that there are changelings secretly living in Ponyville, and that they've been living there almost as long as she has.
More than deciding how she should react to some of her closest friends keeping secrets from her for fear of how she may react, she must confront herself and her beliefs. The presence of changelings in Ponyville will challenge not only her as a pony, but as a Princess as well, and her decisions and actions will reach far beyond the borders of Ponyville when the time comes.
Huh, usually it's Bonbon who's the changeling.
I like this change of pace
Well... that happened
Also very good chapter
As someone so very invested in Twilight, it hurts to see her being like this. It's understandable, and it's necessary for character growth, but it hurts.
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Keep reading. More things are going to happen.
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If you want to get very technical, it's not my fault, but that isn't the point; this story is only happening at all because of Twilight (also, this was a bit less silly than quesadillas). I prefer to write stories that don't have explicitly sad endings, so keep that in the back of your mind.
Oof.
Ooh boy I'm loving this
Just read all 3 of the story's in this series and I really really liked the first story right up until the guards showed up. Once they came into the story everything afterwards felt like it was forced to happen. All the natural feeling interactions of Rarity and Driftwood were replaced with happenstance leading to predictable cliche story points.
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Perhaps so, but alas, this is what the story demand. I'm sorry to hear you didn't enjoy them as much as we both would have liked, but thank you for giving them a read all the same. Although there has been no announcement, I've decided to expand on the Strangerverse with some additional stories that will not follow the characters seen so far (ideally, this will include a rewrite of A Matter of Interest), so keep an eye opened if that might interest you.
The trilogy ends to become a Tetralogy.
I like that you put the extra bit in there showing that even though Twilight REALLY wants to, she can't just get over it, it's hard, and it sucks, but it takes time and constant effort.
Solid story, thanks for sharing it.
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Really, you can thank nightwalker for that. Originally, Twilight was straight up accepting and even friendly with Driftwood and everything, and this would have made for a much more boring story.
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it!
Racist.
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Heh, when enough straws finally broke a back.
Good job Twilight, your situational awareness has... Not improved. Seriously, a group of ponies were assaulting town members and your first thought is "that changeling must be impersonating that town member! Grah!Macho!Demand!"
BonBon deserves a true social justice warrior award. The actual social justice, not the mess that exists today.
Also, Holy flip Twilight, we know it's hard to case prejudices but good grief this is some deeply racist crud you're holding for some reason. And to think you were the catalyst for the acceptance of Zecora!
Hehe BonBon ain't having none of their crud, seems Lyra is the Earth anchor for the pair.
Twilight isn't broken, just traumatized. She needs therapy, and even though Driftwood is really good at what he does, it's probably not enough...
Interesting, so Chrysalis was stolen into a cult.
Poor Lyra. Perhaps Driftwood was on to something when he insinuated that the state of being for changelings is guilt...
Heh, and the Earth pony version would be "stand your ground"?
Dash was funny. Though perhaps her Canterlot impression should be better served in a class. 😏
Well it's not like he didn't outright say he wanted Dash's help with Twilight. Just because he immediately swept into a tangent to hook her prideful side doesn't negate the stated purpose and intent of the conversation.
🎶 you try your best but it's not quite there, you kick a hoof and say it's just not fair!
Come on Twilight, you know you want to say it. "how many ponies I thought i knew are actually changelings?"
Then follow with the required, "does it matter that they are?"
Yeah, forgiveness would seem rather silly to someone who can feel the other's shame, but the more important aspect is the acknowledgement thereof.
It's quite odd Twilight is doing all these conversations privately. Is she afraid her other friends will interrupt her?
Good. Was kinda hoping Twilight would do something like this. It's perhaps too early to outright say "changelings welcome", but the undertone is clear enough.
It's been fun! Really good that Twilight has flaws and recognizes them while trying to improve. It can be hard to do well, and here we think it's done pretty well indeed.
Twilight shouldn't have to be handling the crooks so directly, something she'll be too afraid to ask Celestia to train her how to delegate. That lesson is for another time....
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Something I have not spent a lot of time on in the Strangerverse is determining exactly how the Equestrian government works, beyond that it is a triarchy (the Crystal Empire is a separate political and national entity) with republican institutions (the provinces are represented to the Crown by the Senate). In short, I never figured out what the Princesses actually do.
Here, Twilight has to handle this mess because multiple provinces are involved, so the Crown must coordinate efforts between each of the relevant Sheriff's Guilds,; while it's the Mariner's Guild that is investigating the piracy, that is actually the purview of the Royal Navy, so the Crown handles that again; handling desertion from a provincial militia is that militia's responsibility, but sending agents after them would violate the martial sovereignty of the provinces they have to cross. The only organization empowered to cross between jurisdictions like that (outside of war) without needing a writ is the Royal Guard, so that again falls to the Crown to handle.
Lastly, Twilight's popularity across Equestria is still relatively low (Luna's is not much better), so partly the exercise is so she can demonstrate that she can handle complex responsibilities to improve her image. (This piece, I know, has never entered the story and it's purely supplemental)
Really, I wish I had more time and energy to devote to this universe.
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Yeah, perhaps she just doesn't have the ponies available to distribute work around. Oh well. Gotta be the hidden hero sometimes. 😇
local bug horse gets hate crimed in front of home
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Many seem to forget that twilight is a magnus who have no problem locking ponies up in basement and use mind magic.