//------------------------------// // Cutie Mark Crusaders' Journal of the unexplained Part 5 // Story: Pinkie Pie's Fourth-Wall Breaking Variety Show // by Alex Warlorn //------------------------------// Sweetie Belle brushed the spot on her face where the wolf had licked her, blinking slowly, and then she gave him a strange look. Snow Bound stopped lolling his tongue like a happy playful puppy and peered back at her. "So. You remember." Sweetie grimaced, kneading her forehead. "I remember that we knew a whole lot of things together that I can't remember now. Like there wasn't enough room in my head to hold everything!" The wolf pup smiled faintly. "That is for the best." "But... I know you're not just a puppy," said Sweetie. "Not at all." Scootaloo hopped back a pace, wings spread uncertainly. "What?!" Apple Bloom gasped. "What are ya sayin? He's been lyin' to us?" Snow Bound growled thoughtfully. "Perhaps it is cliche to say so, but..." The wolf grew, stretching, shaking out a longer, fluffier white mane and coat, and grinding sharper, adult fangs. "The truth is complicated." Scootaloo gasped and cast her wing blades, ready to fight if he charged her, but Sweetie Belle threw up a pale green shield between them. "Wait, wait! Hear him out! I didn't say he was a bad puppy. Wolf. Something." Snow Bound stopped snarling, then huffed and laid down. "I am Blanky, the puppy you've adopted Mistress Sweetie Belle, I do not know my origins, only that I must remove what's wrong and protect you. But I am also the Blank Wolf, who became friends with Applejack, and fought by *her* side in many battles and knows my existence. Applejack fused those realities together without realizing what she was doing. This is a contradiction. Thus now that we're no longer Wolf Song, those knowledge is no longer available to me either." Scootaloo let the wing blades fade. "Well, that totally cleared everything up... not at all!" Apple Bloom trotted over to the Blank Wolf and looked him right in the eyes. The Wolf blinked back at her, tilting his head slightly. "Ah... Ah'm not mah sister, but it feels like he's bein' straight with us." She smirked. "An if he wanted to gobble us up, he coulda done that plenty of times already." Moonshine remained silent, content to watch and see how this would all play out. - Scootaloo said, "Okay, so he's not gonna eat us, but who knows what else he could do?" Sweetie Belle shook her head. "Blank and I were one pony...wolf...were-thingie...he's okay, even if...he's not what he looks like." - The view of the camera began to dip ever so slightly. There was a sound of creaking and cracking. The ground gave way a moment later, and Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle fell down through the hole of the rotted wood and loose earth, hitting solid ground less than a second later... it felt actually kinda soft, but it also stank, like Fluttershy's chicken coop and Spike's bed before laundry day (Ponies and dragons didn't normally wear clothes, but sheets and pillow cases still needed washing). Scootaloo and Blanky didn't hesitate to follow after them. Moonshine looked concerned, but not worried, "I'd keep my eyes closed if I were you." The fillies wondered for a moment what she meant, when they saw the glowing red eyes all around them, and the cackle-kaw of the cockatrices whose nest they had stumbled into. A moment later the fillies were in Apple Bloom's bedroom, looking at statues of themselves on the what-if machine. Sweetie Belle, true to her word, had taken the brief moment to assume a pretty pose being petrified. The foals felt bewildered and befuddled, and disturbed. On the what-if machine, Blanky was nuzzling the statue of Sweetie before jumping THROUGH the screen to the flesh and blood one. The foal should have felt proud for not fainting. Moonshine was sitting on the windowsill, letting in the cold night air. "Your statues will be found by Diamond Dogs in a few years, exchanged by traders and art lovers for centuries, unless you want to go and dig them up right now, turn yourselves in as your school art project, but then we might end up with an art gallery's worth of filly statues if you fail enough times...this is what my whole self truly meant by coming to a bad end...You are free to end your camera recording of the strangeness of the Everfree at any time...just go to bed, fall asleep, and that will be that." - The group looked to one another. "...Well, we did expect this tah happen..." Applebloom said, rubbing her head. "Yeah, and we respawned just fine...wait, uh, Luna?" Scootaloo asked. "We're not clones are we?" "No, to be accurate, the statues of you are alternate universe versions of yourself," Moonshine explained. "Do not worry, my sister does not do things 'half baked'." "Alright...I say we go back...but not to get the statues, at least not unless we find something to make us able to..." Sweetie Belle suggested. "Sounds fine by me..." Scootaloo said. Applebloom nodded slowly. "Yeah...let's just hope next thing we see is a little less scary..." ---- The group headed back into Everfree. Blanky remained with them, abit seemed to be riding in the filly's saddle bags. This time the group came upon what appeared to be an extinct volcano deep in Everfree, a perfectly carved tunnel in the side of it. "Huh, I don't remember seeing these before..." Entering, the group blinked when they nearly ran into a filly. She had yellow fur, with mane composed of varying shades of gray and black. While she was a blank flank, one thing that stood out was she seemed dressed identically to an illustration of Daring Do, except the green on her outfit was replaced with a navy blue. The filly blinked. "Huh? What are you three doing here?" "Uh...explorin'," Applebloom explained. "...You know us?" The filly blinked. "Uh, yeah, I visited Ponyville, remember? Daydream?" "...Not ringing a bell...I don't think we've ever met you before..." Daydream's face suddenly became one of fear. "Uh...just to check, Daring Do didn't recently have a novel where she turned out to be an author and had a clone of her made from her books and Ahuizotl was going after the Belt of Atlas, did she?" The trio blinked, looking to each other. "Uh...no...and my mentor Rainbow Dash reads all the books the day they came out, so I'd know if that's how it worked..." The filly gave a sigh of relief. "Alright, good...hmm...must be the wild magic still running through this place..." "Uh...who exactly are you?" Scootaloo asked. "And why do you look like a mini Daring Do?" Sweetie Belle asked, looking the foal over. Daydream gave a proud smirk. "Name's Daydream Do. And...well, I think this is an alternate universe, since mom warned me the wild magic in this place could cause dimensional distortions, I guess I can tell you...that, and I'm pretty sure if this was the past, you'd have told me we met when I meet you later and your sister's know..." the filly looked at Sweetie and Scootaloo's flanks. "Definitely not the past...Okay, can you girls keep a secret?" "Yeah..." "Pinkie Promise." "How do you know what that is?" Scootaloo questioned. "Mom knows Pinkie Pie." "Oh..." Scootaloo replied. "Cross our hearts, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in our eye," the Crusaders did in sync. "Alright, I'm Daring Do's daughter...and clone," Daydream Do replied, giving a smirk. "Uh...Daring Do's a fictional character..." Scootaloo remarked dryly. "In your world, maybe, not in mine," Daydream explained, then took out a perfectly proportioned whip and used it to lasso an outcropping of stone, using it to swing over a pit and land on a nearby wall, snipping a string to disable a trap before doing a backflip off the walls and landing in front of them. "But in mine, she's my mom." The trio looked to each other in confusion. "...This ain't the weirdest thing we've seen tonight..." Applebloom admitted. "So you're a clone?" Sweetie Belle asked, looking her over. "Yeah, well technically I'm a homunculus." "A what?" Scootaloo asked. "Means I'm a living pony made from magic, it's official legal jargon," the foal explained. "Anyway, I need to find my mom, we're trying to stop a villain from nabbing the remains of some ancient lava demon king that are supercharged with uber powerful magic who wants to use them to take over the world." The Crusaders did a huddle. "Can we come?" Daydream blinked. "Uh...dangerous adventure...not really the place for foals..." "You're a foal." "Yes, but I'm a foal magically born with all the skills of Daring Do." "And we're the Cutie Mark Crusaders," Scootaloo reminded. "And in this universe, we helped fight off the Changelings," she explained, showing off that she can fly. "And we've got this..." Sweetie said, showing the letter from Luna. The filly read over it and blinked. "Okay...not the weirdest thing ever...okay, but LISTEN TO ME, okay?" she asked. "These things are dangerous." - The four ponies and one wolf came to a section of floor that had a check board pattern with a scattering of seemingly random gold tiles. "Okay," Day Dream read the inscription on the wall on of the tunnel that was just gibberish to the three fillies. "It says here to 'only step on the gold tiles'-" The CMC immediately hopped, skipped, and jumped onto the golden plates. "-only if you wish to immortalized forever within these temple among its guardians." Day Dream turned form the inscription just in time to see the three fillies on the gold plates. All three immediately gained a pudgy waist line, and felt an overwhelming zenlike peace, and assumed an meditative pose without really thinking about it. Their bodies turned to solid gold as jewels formed on their foreheads and belly buttons and other spots, closing their eyes without a second thought, content to peaceful reflection. "Oh no!" Day Dream said in dismay. "I was worried about this! Why didn't you girls just stay out of this?! Don't worry! There's gotta be a way to fix this!" Day Dream felt a tap on her shoulder, she turned around, and let out a yelp like she'd seen a ghost. "Hi." A flesh and blood Scootaloo said between huffing and puffing, putting down her two friends. "We got back here as soon as we could." Blanky looked confused between the meditating golden Sweetie Belle and the new arrival. Day Dream did the same. "What-where-how-who?! HOW?!" "Remember? The letter Princess Luna gave us remember?" Apple Bloom said bringing it to bear again. "It says we start over at the farm if we come to a 'bad end.' " Sweetie Belle examined herself as a smiling golden jewel covered meditating statue. Sweetie almost felt like it was smiling at her. "I don't know if I should feel disturbed, worried, traumatized, or happy that's two for two I look good as a statue." "This has happened to you before?" Day Dream asked eye wide. - Applebloom's eyes went wide as a realization struck her. "Hold on naow," she said. "Every time we jump on these gold plates, we turn inta golden statues? And then we come back ta life, good as new, back at the Clubhouse?" "Yeah," Scoootaloo cocked an eyebrow. "And?" Applebloom grabbed her and Sweetie in a hug. "Then if Ah do this agin and agin, Ah can make lots 'o gold statues of me! An' big sis and Big Mac can sell 'em ta make sure th' family has all the bits we'll ever need! Granny can get her new hip and we'll never have ta worry 'bout losing th' farm!" Her eyes went wide as she imagined her family, living without a fear, and all thanks to her. Daydream looked at the other two fillies. "Yeah," Scootaloo scratched her head. "Her big sis is kind of a worry wart about them losing their farm, even though they're one of the most wealthy families in Ponyville." "Even though it's all in the land and property they have to pay taxes on, and not liquid cash. What?" Sweetie looked at Scoot as the pegasus blinked in surprise. "Rarity tells me this when she's talking about how to run a business." "Sure! Ah'm a work of art now, Ah'd be happy to be sold off by my own family for money to an indifferent art collector for the good of the farm." Apple Bloom felt a chill up her spine as her own voice echoed mouthless. "But first you want to rescue Daring Do and stop the revival of King Lavan. And his remains are crystal, not lava, he died being blown to bits after absorbing the magic of the heart of pony land." Said Scootaloo's voice. "Since we're now one with the temple, we can give you directions on the quickest way there, and deactivate some of the traps if you want." Finished Sweetie's voice. The fillies all looked at the motionless, smiling gold statues of themselves. Sweetie broke out into a cold sweat. - "Uh...okay, can ya, do all that stuff? Please?" Apple Bloom asked. Sure! Also ya might wanna polish me before ya sell me off. Said the gold statue of Apple Boom. - Daydream put a hoof on Applebloom's back. "I...kinda understand being disturbed here...I'm literally a clone of my mom." "They're technically alternate us's," Sweetie Belle pointed out. "...Okay, but point is, I get being freaked out, given I AM a clone," Daydream explained. "Just focus on the you you are NOW, not that there's other versions of you running around in a different fate...but don't see them as 'not real', I had nightmares hearing about some stupid incident with a Mirror Pool." "A what?" asked Sweetie Belle, cocking her head. "Hasn't happened? Then tell Twilight Sparkle NOT to use that spell from the book without checking if they're alive or not! She'll know what I mean when she gets there!" Daydream stated, looking disturbed. "Trust me..." "T-Thanks..." Applebloom said. "But point is, just think of yourselves as yourselves and them as them, trust me, it's NOT PRETTY when you think about it anyway else...trust me..." "Thanks..." said both the CMC and their oddly fine golden statues of themselves. "Welcome, now come on! Mom's in trouble." "We turned off the gold trap!" the Golden Sweetie called. "And we'll give you directions!" "Alright, thanks...and Applebloom?" Applebloom blinked. "Yeah?" "If she's OKAY being sold, fine, but don't make alternate selves or whatever JUST to do that. As a clone myself, I think you can tell my feelings on that." Applebloom pinned her ears. "...Sorry...Ah forgot." "It's fine...now come on! We've got a world to save and witty one liners to say!" - The foal ran, with statues and carvings all pointing the way, making the exciting death course, a lot less exciting in Scootaloo's opinion, but no pony asked her. - As the foals were about to enter the central chamber were the remains of King Lavan lay, ripe for the robbing and corrupting, Apple Bloom trip on a loose stone and dropped the camera and everything went back. When the graining black and white night vision camera turned on again, the foals were talking out of the volcano and shaking hooves with Day Dream and bidding her farewell. "I was SOOOO AWESOME!! I just wish Rainbow Dash was there to see!!! You got all of that on camera right Apple Bloom?" Scootaloo asked eagerly. "Uhhhhhh." Apple Bloom examined the camera looking very uncomfortable. - Suddenly, there was a cough and a whistling sound, and a weighted net fell over the four fillies! Three henchponies stepped out from behind a rocky outcropping, chucking nastily, followed by a tan stallion in a field jacket, with greasy black hair and a golden skull cutie-mark. "We meet again... little Miss Do. So good of you to recover the ruby shard for me." The trapped fillies looked at each other in confusion. "Ruby shard?" asked Daydream. Scootaloo gasped. "Is that... Dr. Caballeron?" Dr. Caballeron tisked. "Yes, yes, you may gape in awe later. Now hoof it over!" Struggling with the net a bit, Daydream pulled a journal out of a pocket. "Ruby shard, ruby shard... Not ringing a bell. Did any of you girls chance to pick up such a thing?" "Ah was kinda busy jumpin' over the flaming lava pits," grumbled Apple Bloom. Do's rival fumed, losing his patience. "Do not play stupid with me! The shard, the ruby shard of Lavan's crown! It holds the key to untold power." "Really?" asked Sweetie Belle. "What power is that exactly?" "Well, if somepony had told me... then it wouldn't be untold, now, would it?!! Honestly, I don't care... I have some very wealthy buyers lined up." Scootaloo blinked. "Hold on, I remember something like that!" Dr. Caballeron leaned closer. "Yes, yes?" "It fell in the lava with the rest of him." He froze, mouth hanging open. "I... I think I may have detected a flaw in my usually quite flawless plan..." - "Hah!" Daydream laughed. "Beaten before you even showed up! Your record as a failure is unstained, Caballeron." She fell silent as he rubbed his stubbly chin and grinned nastily. "I lost Lavan's ruby," he snatched Daydream up by the mane. "But I do have you. I can sell you to Ahuitzotl for a fortune. Not to mention the great satisfaction of ridding myself of an enemy." The CMC started to complain, trying to grab Daydream. He gave the net a kick. The fillies yelled as he said, "And I suppose these three brats can be sold for something as well. Maybe their parents can afford to ransom them back." "We ain't brats!" Apple Bloom stopped chewing on the net to yell, "Mah big sis is one o' the Elements of Harmony! An' Ah'm an Apple!" "You look more like a cherry at that size, little one," Caballeron said with a sneer. He chucked her under her chin. A moment later he howled and waved his forehoof, the imprint of Apple Bloom's teeth on his fetlock. "Ah mean mah family owns near 'bout all the apple orchards in Equestria!" Apple Bloom pointed at her friends. "An' Sweetie Belle's big sis is friends with some o' the most important ponies in Canterlot! An' Scootaloo's friends with Rainbow Dash, who did the Sonic Rainboom!" She failed to notice the light of greed appearing in Caballeron''s eyes. Daydream tried to get her attention but the doctor handed her off to one of his stooges, who clamped a hoof over her mouth. "Oh, really?" He said in tones of mock respect. Sweetie Belle gulped at the sight and tried getting her friend's attention. "Uh, Apple Bloom? Maybe this isn't smart..." "An', AN', mah friends an' Ah are friends with two o' the three Princesses! Sweetie's like a daughter ta Cadence, an' all three o' us are friends with Princess Luna!" Apple Bloom lifted her head proudly. "So what do ya think o' that?" "I think," Caballeron said, lowering his head to look her in the eyes, "that you three are worth a VERY great many bits to some important ponies!" He turned to his nearest flunky. "You! Write a letter to their sisters expressing our demands for ransom. Not too much, just a hundred thousand or so apiece. Just enough to make them wonder if they really do want these three back!" He had Daydream tossed back into the net and walked over to supervise. Daydream, Sweetie, and Scootaloo all glared at Apple Bloom. She gave a weak smile. "Uh, whoops?" "And here's another." One of the bad doctor's minions was suddenly blindsided with a flying side kick, knocking him out. Daring Do landed before them, taking a combat stance. "Messing with my daughter." "Daring Do!" Dr. Caballeron exclaimed. Scootaloo got the idea to cut the net with her wing, causing the quartet of fillies to fall to the ground with a thud. Daring do hid her gaze well. "For two reasons, one, it clops me off. And two..." Daydream promptly did mule kick backwards, nailing her captor right between the hind legs before flying out of his grip and headbutting another hard in the jaw. "-it clops HER off." Scootaloo looked to the other two. "Uh...should we help?" "I think they've probably got it covered..." Applebloom said, the two Daring Dos doing a double flying kick to a minion. "Doesn't mean we shouldn't help Daydream..." said Sweetie. - "It's just not fair!" whined Dr. Caballeron. Out of nowhere, a spotlight snapped on, focusing on him, and light orchestra music began to play. Dr. Caballeron struck a haughty pose... and broke into song! "They've foiled me again." The beaten and bruised henchponies hopped to their hooves and backed him up. "They foiled him again!" Caballeron sighed theatrically. "It was hard enough before..." "Hard enough before!" Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked pointedly at Sweetie Belle, who sank lower and laughed nervously. "Um... did I do that? Sorry..." Caballeron shook a hoof at the heavens. "But now there's not one, but two! Curse you, Do!" The henchponies posed around him, breaking into three-part harmony. "Curse you, Dooooooo!" Doctor Caballeron paused. "That was very nice. Really, you are quite talented." The henchponies puffed out their chests. "Thank yous, boss!" said one of them in a thick Manehatten accent. "We henchponies can't just be dumb muscle any more, not in today's job market." "Dat's right!" said the second henchpony, nodding vigorously. "We always gotta be ready to step up and do our part for the big villain song!" Caballeron blinked. "What are you talking about? I am no villain." The third henchpony bonked the second over the head. "Oow, owie!" cried the second. "Not there, that's where Do kicked me." Whack! "Argh... ya, that's better... Ow, ow..." Caballeron facehoofed. "Ahem!" The invisible orchestra broke into a big brassy minor-key march. "Next time, you'll see! My plans won't be a bust!" "Ha!" cried Daydream. "I think that they will!" she sang. Caballeron grinned triumphantly. "I'll get the gold and riches, and leave you in the dust!" Daring laughed and pointed. "Can you believe that swill?" Caballeron raised both forehooves to the sky. "My plans will be flawless! I'll beat you without fail!" The music froze, and slowly the spotlight moved over to Shining Armor, at the head of a whole squad of Royal Guards. "Make all the plans you want, Doctor," he sang. "Cause now you're going to jail!" "We're going to jail," sang the henchponies, nodding sadly. "They're going to jail!" sang all the royal guards. "They're going to jail!!" chorused everypony, including Sweetie, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo. The orchestra finished with a flourish, and Dr. Caballeron shouted, "Curse you, Do's!" - As Caballeron and his goons were lead away (Shining Armor ordered another detachment of guards to seek out the orchestra, just in case THEY were affiliated with the artifact thief), Daring and Daydream relaxed after the fight with the Crusaders. Scootaloo grinned at Daydream, giving her a hoof-bump. "That was AWESOME! You were all over the place, brawling right there with your mom! You were like bam! and ka-pow! and wham!" She mimed several punches and kicks with each word, causing Daydream to scoot back to avoid getting hit in the face. "Hey, don't give Mom and me all the credit! You got us all out of the net in the first place!" Daydream put in, ducking under a mimed haymaker from Scoots. "Thanks fer the save, by the way," Applebloom added. "Couldah been bad, havin' ta deal with that loumouth fer much longer....and where did that music come from, anyway?" "Maybe his heart songs just come with an orchestra? He's hammy enough that I kinda can't imagine them NOT having one." Sweetie guessed. "Or; the guy's pretty rich, if he can afford to hire all those goons and travel so much; maybe he has some musicians on standby or something?" "But then wouldn't Miss Do have to fight them, too?" Scootaloo questioned, to which Daring scoffed. "Please, I'd NEVER interrupt a musician in the middle of a performance! It's unprofessional. Besides, they're not the bad guys if they work with Caballeron. Worst thing they did was cash a paycheck with his name on it." - Applebloom blinked. "Wait, are we in your universe or are you in our universe?" the filly asked, noting they'd left the dimensional temple at the same time. The group blinked in confusion. "Good point..." The two Daring Dos thought things out. "Wait, won't we just respawn back home if we're still in their universe?" Scootaloo asked. "Then we could stay here and be friends with Daring Do at the same time!" "But what about our golden selves?" asked Applebloom asked. "Mah me wanted tah get sold for the family...it'd mean not tah." "Dang it, you're right..." "If it works that way," said Daring Do. "Then we just both need to leave out the same entrance to get back to our home worlds?" "Would make sense..." Daydream replied. The two sets of ponies each came back to the volcano and, with some help from their golden selves, made it back to the entrances they'd entered through, the CMC pulling their golden selves in a wagon, the golden Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle deciding to remain with their Applebloom. After depositing them at the clubhouse, the trio returned to their escapades in Everfree. - "Are you sure we haven't been this way before?" asked Scootaloo. She was flying through the shadowy forest ahead of them, but staying low to the ground and not straying too far from the light of Sweetie's horn. Sweetie Belle shivered. "I hope not. I don't think I want to run into any more of our past selves for a while." She paused and furrowed her brow, conjuring up a magical compass, but her face fell when the Everfree's wild magic made it spin in circles. Around the next bend, the path was cut off by dense vegetation, but Apple Bloom stepped past them, squinting. "Ah see light up ahead..." She gritted her teeth and pressed forward, using her earth pony strength to push through... and suddenly she broke into a moonlit clearing. Sweetie and Scootaloo squeezed in and rushed to her side, oohing and aahing at a ring of large stone statues, all covered in leafy vines. "This... is definitely new," said Sweetie, following the ring of statues with her eyes and counting. "Eleven, twelve... thirteen. I wonder who made these." Apple Bloom trotted up to one of the statues, grasped some of the vines in her mouth, and pulled them loose. "Ah think this one's a griffon." She nudged the statue with a hoof, and in a flash Apple Bloom herself became a little griffon with yellow fur and red feathers, with the same pink bow on her head. "Neat!" She pulled the camera out of her saddle bag and filmed the statue. Then she turned the camera towards Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo when she realized that they'd jumped back, holding each other and pointing at her in near panic. "Girls? What's the matter? Is there a bear behind me?" She reached for the camera focus, then froze, held out her talons and wiggled them, then finally turned the camera around to point at herself as she patted her face and beak. "Aaahhhh!" Apple Bloom flew back in such a panic that she actually flew! "What... How... How do Ah get down?!" - "Girls! Be careful!" Apple Griffon squawked. "Ah touched that statue and it turned me inta this, and -- Sweetie Belle! Look out!" "For what?" Sweetie said as she backed right into another statue. She gave a panicked whinny that turned into a yelp as the puff of smoke cleared to reveal a wolf puppy with a light gray coat and cotton-candy-colored tail ad fur along her back. "What?" She said and her eyes went wide at the growl in her voice. Sweetie looked at herself. "Yipe! This is awful!" Blankie stuck his head out of the saddlebag she wore and crawled out to start sniffing at her. "This is great!" He yipped. "Now I have a big sister!" Eyeing both her suddenly carnivorous friends, Scootaloo tried keeping her distance from both of them and the rest of the statues at the same time. "Hey," she said. "Maybe if you tried touching the other statues, they'll change you back to normal?" - pple Bloom tried to land her griffon body, only to tumble and skid to a stop with wings, paws, and claws splayed every which way. A single loose feather fluttered down and touched her nose. "Ow." Scootaloo zipped to her side. "This is awesome! Heh, remember that time Rainbow was a griffon for a month?" She gasped, wings spreading. "Ooh! We should all turn into things that fly! I can teach you!" Apple Bloom flopped, then compulsively preened an itchy patch of feathers, and then groomed the fur on her left flank too. "Ah just don't want to get stuck like this. Griffons don't even have cutie marks." "Hey, it's cool! It'll all reset, right? Besides, there's bound to be a statue of a pony somewhere around here." Sweetie Belle was making silly faces, trying to feel all her fangs with her tongue. "I don't have to hunt scary things and erase them now, do I?" Blanky padded in a loop around her, sniffing, which made Sweetie blush a bit. "Just a wolf," he decided. "No magic, no powers." The white wolf pup wagged his little tail. "Pony friends make good wolf friends! Applejack and you and I, we're a strong pack!" Sweetie froze. "Wait, no magic?" She patted her forehead frantically, then twisted around to look at her furry gray unmarked flank. "Oh no! Can't I even sing?" She tried and wound up howling, then clapped both paws over her muzzle in embarrassment. Blanky trotted over and bumped noses with her. "Heart magic is different. Try again." Meanwhile, Scootaloo was investigating another statue. "Maybe this one's a pony!" she muttered, trying to get a grip on the stubborn vines with teeth and hooves. "Eeegh... almost got it..." Suddenly, the vines tore loose, but Scootaloo's wing accidentally brushed the statue too. An orange and purple teenage *dragoness* grinned sheepishly, tucking a scaly tail close and blowing a puff of smoke. "Um... oops? At least I still have wings!" - "Geeze, Sweetie Belle, we should've asked one of your Changeling friends ta come along, then they could explain all this shapeshifting stuff ta us." Apple Bloom scratched herself behind one ear, and began instinctively preening her wings. She noticed what she was doing and shuddered. "Yeah," Scootaloo said, grabbing her scaly tail to look at the pointed tip. "This is worse than when we helped get rid o' all those nasties from Tartarus that attacked Ponyville." "Say," Sweetie Belle perked up with a 'woof'. "I wonder if anypony else ever touched these statues? Maybe we can find them and..." Her two friends dove on her and held her down. "Forget it!" Griffon Bloom said. "Yeah," Dragonloo shook herself. "Remember the trouble we got into earlier? Let's just look around for pony statues." The three began to do so, looking carefully at three new statues. "There's so much junk on them, I can't tell them apart," Sweetie complained. She sniffed closer at the one she was examining, some odd bipedal creature. "Sweetie, don't get too close naow, and..." Griffon Bloom winced as another flash of magic went off. "Never mind." Dragon and griffon blinked to see the very image of the Megan from the oldest old legends standing before them, save only hair that matched their Sweetie's mane. Blankie walked all around her, sniffing and whining miserably. "Okay, so now what am I -- GAH!" Sweetie looked at her hand in horror. "I'm -- a Diamond Dog?" She hurried back to the statue she'd touched earlier. "I think I'd rather be a wolf!" - Scootaloo gasped. "Wait... you're not a Diamond Dog!" The dragoness looked back and forth between her friends. "Girls, don't you remember where we've seen creatures like that before?" She pointed a talon dramatically. "You're a witch, Sweetie." Sweetie blinked down at them. "I'm... a what?" Scootaloo grinned. "A witch!" Sweetie Belle tapped her chin with her hoof-things... fingers... whatever they were. "Can I be a good witch like Draggle?" "Uh..." Apple Bloom shrugged her talons. "Ah don't see why not." "Oh, that's not so bad!" Blanky started whimpering again, though. "Aw, it's okay, boy..." Without thinking, Sweetie Belle scooped Blanky into her forehooves... no, what did minotaurs call them? Arms? And she scritched his ears, which made the wolf pup yip and wag his tail again. "Um, Sweetie?" asked Scootaloo. Apple Bloom tilted her head to one side in a twitchy bird way. "What the hay are you doing?" Sweetie Belle froze. "I... I didn't mean to! It must be a witch thing!" She dropped Blanky and lunged at the nearest statue. "Right! Wolf was definitely better! Back to wolf!" Flash! "That one's the griffon," deadpanned Apple Bloom. Blanky covered his face with a paw. - Ah! I found the pony one!" Scootaloo called, touching it...and turning into what looked like herself. However. "Uh...did that statue have fur dye?" Applebloom asked. Scootaloo blinked, looking at herself. While her mane and tail remained correct, her fur had turned pitch black for some reason. "What the..." Applebloom put a claw to her chin and then touched it. Likewise she turned back to her normal self, but her fur was pitch black. "What in the world?!" "Oh! I found another one!" Sweetie Belle called, finding another and touching it and turning back to normal...only to be glowing in the dark. "Uh..." Scootaloo seemed to find another one...which turned her into a Crystal Pony version of herself. "Okay, this is getting kind of ridiculous. What even am I?" "Oh! That one I can live with!" Sweetie Belle called, touching it and becoming a Crystal Pony version of herself. "Rarity will at least think this one's pretty..." - Scootaloo then saw a statue that resembled an alicorn. "Neat!" she said, as she touched the statue. After transforming, she noticed Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom giving her some really horrified looks. "...What?" Sweetie Belle pulled out a hoof mirror from her saddlebag. Scootaloo saw that she was indeed an alicorn. A black-coated alicorn with a bright red mane. "GAH!" Scootaloo screamed, rushing back to the pony one and changing back to the simply black version of herself. "That was HIDEOUS!" "Rarity would've fainted if she saw those colors horribly clashing like that," Sweetie Belle said. "That's gonna haunt me forever..." Apple Bloom said. - Blanky growled at the "Alicorn" statue, then whined curiously, as if he wasn't sure whether the statue needed erasing or not. Sweetie Belle started clearing away more of the tangling vines. "That's better. Ooh..." She touched her crystal hoof to another statue and became a hulking canine with huge forelimbs, wearing a vest and a gem-studded collar. Blanky started barking at her. "This one *has* to be a Diamond Dog," she said, less freaked out than she would have expected. Apple Bloom giggled. "Ah wouldn't go within a hundred paces of Rarity looking like that, if Ah was you." "No kidding!" said Scootaloo, moving to the next statue. "Buffalo? Hmm, pass... Wait, what's this?" There was a wooden sign in the midst of the statues that had been completely buried in vines before. The letters were bright but scrawled unevenly, as if a foal just learning to write had painted them. Sweetie Belle stepped up to the sign and read it aloud in her rough, growly Diamond Dog voice. "Which form will you choose to wear, knowing that you might never again find my garden here?" Apple Bloom gasped. "Girls, what if we can't find any normal pony statue, and we have to pick what we're gonna look like..." She gulped. "From now on?" Scootaloo eyed the griffon and dragon statues, obviously tempted. "Technically... we can pick whatever we want, even if we do find that normal pony statue... and if we don't like what we pick, we can just have Twilight fix us." Sweetie rubbed her chin with an oversized paw. "Can she?" - "Say, what's that one?" Scootaloo pointed at one of the few statues they had yet to touch. "Looks kinda familiar?" Cautiously, the three approached and gasped. Before them rose a statue that looked vaguely like Chrysalis as the Changeling Queen, but with just enough differences to make it obvious she was someling else. The carved gaze on her face made it look like she was gazing around at the other statues. Apple Bloom warily set one foretalon on the statue and nothing happened. "Huh?" She looked at herself. "Why didn't Ah turn inta a bug -- a Changeling?" She grinned at Sweetie's frown. "Sorry." "There's a message carved into the stone." Sweetie looked at it as her friend bent closer. "'I created this to one day share the gift of the Changelings with all ponykind,'" she read. "It doesn't say who she was, though." "Okay, so we know who made this, and why, I guess," Scootaloo said. "But what do we do about it?" - Sweetie Belle grinned toothily. "I wonder if Chryssy knew about this place. I bet she wouldn't have liked it one bit!" She struck a haughty pose and waggled a paw. "Share our greatest weapon? With the *cattle*? What utter, suicidal madness! That place must never be found!" Suddenly, the ground shifted beneath the fillies, catching them all off-guard. A patch of earth was thrust upwards, and a large changeling warrior emerged from a deep burrow. "Your know Her Majesty well, for outsiders," he chittered, shaking off loose clumps of dirt. "Quite... suspicious, yesss. Curious indeed." "Who... who are you?" shouted Scootaloo, hovering and pointing a hoof dramatically like Rainbow Dash would have done. The changeling gulped nectar from a stone jug that had been buried with him, then laughed like sandpaper rubbing together. "Who, indeed?" He "spoke" a long series of clicks and whistles. "Hmm... Cicada, to you ponies. Yes, that will serve." Suddenly, he was all business. "By Her Majesty's command, I will take one of you ponies captive for questioning. Do you have a preference? I only require one... alive." Apple Bloom gasped. "But... Chrysalis ain't even queen of the changelings any more!" "That's right!" cried Sweetie Belle. "Princess Cadence is your queen now. Just get in touch with her and you'll see!" "Unlikely," growled Cicada. "A.... convenient excuse for your trespass." He tilted his head. "Strange, that I sense no obvious deceit in your emotions... but no matter. The will of Chrysalis is not mine to question." "If we're gonna have ta fight..." Apple Bloom glanced around, then touched the buffalo statue, snorting confidently when she poofed into the strong, sturdy form. Scootaloo touched the dragon statue again, then did a loop in the air, puffing flame. "Yeah! Bring it!" Sweetie Belle waved her big Diamond Dog paws. "Wait, wait! We just made peace between changelings and ponies! Isn't there some other way?" - Sweetie Belle looked around. Counting off the statues so far. griffon wolf drakaina (that was the proper term for girl-dragon Sweetie Belle remembered) witch Night pony glow in the dark pony crystal pony 'Beacon' Dead space Alicorn Diamond Dog Buffalo just a statue, changeling. There were only two statues left, covered in vines like the others had. What could they be? She touched one. She found herself with no rear legs, but a large tail, her forehooves now had fins on them. She also saw a red jewel on the center of her body, it wasn't decoration, Sweetie instinctively knew the lion's share of her SOUL was stored in there. But in spite of being aquatic, she was somehow floating. She wasn't that stupid, what did Blanky call it? Canon-Villain-Sue? That annoying thing that had broken through into Pinkie Pie's studio and had used broken inconsistent powers that didn't make sense to try and things over for completely inane reasons? No... This felt like more... This felt... BETTER... she felt, BEAUTIFUL this way, more than that, she felt her song magic amplify a hundred fold! It was like she had been under a curse since before she was born, and now it was lifted, somewhere in the back of her mind, she now knew why her and Rarity's hooves got pruney in water while other ponies' did not. - Cicada hissed at Sweetie's new form. "So, you distract me with false words of peace and seek a more potent form for battle! Heh heh, clever nymph." As Sweetie floated there, still amazed by her new form and magic, something awoke in her... a strange hunger, like when she'd been transformed into a changeling queen, but different. "Suspicion," she breathed. Apple Bloom stamped the ground. "Are you callin' mah friend a liar!?" Sweetie shivered, a smile on her lips. "Anger..." "Enough of this," said Scootaloo. "We'll beat some sense into him!" The dragoness flew at the changeling, talons ready. But Cicada could fly too... he screeched and tangled with her in midair. Scootaloo dragged him closer to the ground, and a stampeding buffalo Apple Bloom rammed right into him... but Cicada lit his crooked horn, flinging the transformed fillies away. "I didn't wake after all those years so I could be defeated by children!" "Conflict!" Sweetie Belle could *see* it now, eerie green vapors wafting up from the combatants. They all tasted... so delicious! Sweetie spread her hooves and *sang*. "Oooooh.... Ahh!!" The green fumes were sucked away from Cicada and her friends, funneling straight into her, and new depths of power and awareness flooded into her along with them. And just like that, the fighting stopped. Cicada landed, and her friends approached, just as confused as he was. "I... I've been hasty," confessed Cicada. "Getting into a battle when there's so much I still don't know about this new time period... a poor strategy. A truce, for now?" "Truce," said Scootaloo, shaking his hoof. "I'm not sure what I was thinking either..." Apple Bloom blinked, then slowly looked up. "Sweetie? What did you *do*?" Sweetie wanted to smack her face with a hoof... she'd gobbled up everything too quick, and now they weren't angry and fighting any more, so there was nothing for her to eat. 'You could make them fight again,' whispered a dark, tempting thought. It'd be so easy... the changeling and her friends were so... small, compared to what Sweetie was now. It'd be just like using her songs, and her dark magic, and... And then Sweetie felt foolish all over again. "Sorry," she said out loud. "I'm still getting the hang of this." This new form... she was like a changeling that ate up hate instead of love... but just like changelings couldn't take all the love out of a pony without leaving just a shell that would never love again, it was bad if she ate too much hate. Sweetie grinned. She'd just have to take a little aggression and conflict out of a lot of more ponies. The ponies would be better off, she wouldn't have to make anypony fight, and she could keep feeding! Somewhere a world away, three ancient sirens wanted to scream and gnash their teeth, and they didn't even know why. - Apple Bloom looked at the 13th and final statue covered in vines. "Please please PLEASE be a 'reset us to what we were before we came here.' statue." "I wouldn't mind," Scootaloo said admiring her scales. Apple Bloom glared at her. Wondering what the 13th transformation statue was. - "I hope it is for you Apple Bloom... But I don't want it," Sweetie Belle said. "What?!" Apple Bloom said, "Sweetie! Remember the Tartarus break out? The poison joke! Being made a changeling queen? You want to put yer family through that again?" "Not the same! Oh, sorry Apple Bloom, it isn't the same, I can feel it, this is what I was MEANT to be!" - "Yeah right." Apple Bloom smirked. "Ah want to be there when ya try telling that to Rarity." "You might be surprised," said Sweetie Belle. "My sister and I were meant to be this way." The little siren gasped. "My Family! I have to share this with them! Imagine the songs that we can sing together!" Apple Bloom backed up, not so smug now. "Please, please be a pony statue!" She pulled the vines free of the last one... and thank Celestia, it *was* a pony statue, a pegasus rearing up with wings spread. The young buffalo touched it at once. "Yeah!" she cried, looking down at familiar yellow hooves. Then she froze, stepping with one forehoof, then the other. "Wait, why do Ah feel so..." She twisted around to see her flanks, and groaned at the sight of yellow-feathered wings. "Horseapples... Well, at least Scootaloo can get back to normal." "I'm not sure that I want to go back to normal either," said Scootaloo, her voice oddly loud. Apple Bloom stared at the drakaina. "Is it just mah imagination... or are ya bigger than ya were before?" Scootaloo blinked. "What? Um... maybe!" Sweetie lit her jewel and whistled a cheerful tune, summoning a huge mirror with her magic, and Scootaloo rushed right over to it, admiring herself as she stretched out and flexed her talons. "Aw, yeah... Maybe no dragon will ever be faster than Rainbow Dash, but she'll never be this strong." She flapped her wings slowly, stirring a mighty breeze in the clearing. "And check out this wingpower!" The dragoness swelled another few feet taller, nearly the size of their clubhouse. Sweetie Belle was humming and swaying back and forth, eyes closed. "Let me take the edge off that greed for you, Scootaloo." Scootaloo hissed. "But I want..." "Ah, ah! Can't have you getting *too* carried away. Mmmmm, greed..." "Can't Ah just be mahself again!" bellowed Apple Bloom. Cicada chuckled dryly. "You haven't realized?" When Apple Bloom flew over and glared at him, he continued, "I really shouldn't be revealing such secrets to ponies..." The changeling warrior smiled blissfully... Sweetie had drawn a *lot* of negative emotion out of him. "But I feel as though I can trust you. This is a training ground. Participants are rewarded for trying all of the different forms." Apple Bloom tilted her head. "Ah have to touch *all* the statues? Then what?" "Touch each of the twelve and accept its form as part of yourself," said Cicada patiently. "Then touch the thirteenth, the changeling queen, and if you've learned your lessons properly..." Apple Bloom gasped. "The art of shapechanging will be yours." - "So... accept these other forms as me too and Ah get to me again... right." Apple Bloom found herself at a loss at how to do this. - Scootaloo peered down at her uncertain friend. "Just touch all the ones you didn't touch yet, and see if you get any bright ideas." She grinned toothily. "Or you could just be a totally awesome drakaina like me and not worry about those boring other forms." "Don't be too scared to even try," said Sweetie Belle musically, hovering in the air as easily as Discord ever had. "It's okay if you're a little scared, though." She licked her chops. Apple Bloom, still a pegasus, frowned. "We need to have a talk about those new bodies you girls like so much." "Of course, anytime," said Sweetie brightly. "After you achieve your own goal." Apple Bloom sighed, and closed her eyes. Accept the other forms? What did that even mean? Somewhere in her mind, the buffalo Apple Bloom trotted forward, then snorted and nudged her encouragingly. Apple Bloom gasped, eyes flying open. "What..." She looked at the buffalo statue suspiciously. "Ah guess Ah did kind of like being a buffalo. They're more like earth ponies than I realized." She paced back towards the pegasus pony, resting a hoof on it. "And this was kinda fun, too. Ah think Ah wouldn't mind being a pegasus. Mah sister would be disappointed that Ah couldn't help with the heavy lifting no more, but Ah could help with the weather instead." In her mind, a pegasus stood next to the buffalo, now a solid form instead of a vague shadow. Apple Bloom grinned. "Ah think Ah'm getting it." She touched the griffon statue again. "Ah used to think griffons were jerks... but Ah guess the only griffon Ah knew about back then was Gilda. Then she came back and apologized, and Rainbow Dash showed us that griffons could be pretty awesome." She stretched her feline hindquarters and splayed her talons, then posed with wings spread. "Yeah, Ah could get used to this." Sweetie and Scootaloo shared curious looks, and Cicada nodded to himself, but if they thought what she was doing was dumb, then at least they kept quiet and didn't interrupt. Apple Bloom touched more statues, pausing to look at her reflection as a night pony, a glow in the dark pony, and a crystal pony. "These are just different kinds of ponies, like putting on a Nightmare Night costume. Heh, especially this one..." She touched the color-clashing Alicorn statue. "Ah don't feel like any kind of goddess, and Ah'm sure the changelings didn't make any statue that turns regular people into goddesses neither." The imaginary space in her head was getting crowded with different version of her. Apple Bloom pressed on and touched the wolf statue, but she cringed, seeing the fierce yellow and red-maned wolf in the mirror. "This one's scary!" she whimpered. "Ah wonder what Blanky thinks of it." She looked all around. "Where did that pup go? It sure is funny how he disappears all the time." Blanky peeked stealthy out from behind the wolf statue, and pawed her flank. "Can't catch me!" he barked, before scurrying off. Apple Bloom yipped! "Ah bet Ah can!" she growled, tearing off after him. She chased and pounced... he sprinted and rolled out of the way. They chased round and round before she finally pounced him, and they play-fought, pawing and snarling with mock-ferocity. "Okay, ya got me," laughed Apple Bloom. "That was fun." "Apple Bloom is a good wolf," barked Blanky, little tail wagging. Then his expression changed, and with his other voice, the deep one with the weird echo, he added, "Just as I expected. I would be proud to teach you more." "Huh?" cried Apple Bloom, but Blanky was back to acting like a playful pup... Trying to shake off the strangeness of what she'd seen... or imagined... Apple Bloom approached the remaining statues... the diamond dog, the witch, and the two that actually did worry her, considering the way her friends were behaving... the drake and the fish-pony. - Apple Bloom decided to save those two statues for last. She didn't like the sound of Sweetie's 'this is how I was meant to be' spiel. And if Scootaloo was acting this way after only a few minutes of dragon greed... Apple Bloom really respected Spike's self control a lot more. Well, best to get the disgusting and stupid one over with. She touched the diamond dog statue... and she was a moment later a burrowing semi-bipedal canin, her fur color being red and yellow. She was wearing her bow still... but none of those pocket laden jackets diamond dogs wear, but Sweetie hadn't gotten any of those dresses that witches wear either. Apple Bloom had heard Diamond Dogs were infamous for their lack of brainpower, but she had heard of diamond dog engineers, so maybe that was just a bad stereotype. What surprised her more than anything, was that she faintly felt the return of the connection she had with the earth beneath her feet she'd had all her life as an earth pony and only now realized was gone as another creature. It was rather like the connection she'd felt with the sky as a pegasus but had been too upset to dwell on. She wondered about Fluttershy... had she loved animals that dearly, or been traumatized that horribly, or both, that she ignored the calling the sky whispered in her brain. "This ain't so bad," Apple Bloom said looking at her paws, "Ah could dig the plots for the trees easy with these, just hope Ah'm not made to sleep in a dog house or nothin'. And gems, beautiful, beautiful gems, ugh." Diamond Dogs... she now realized, they weren't 'greedy' like dragons, it was gems in particular, she wasn't even sure what she'd DO with them, it was just important that she collected them. And it felt so... so right. This made Apple Bloom wonder. What instincts as an EARTH PONY had she never noticed, or never questioned? - Applebloom sighed and trotted over to the only remaining form she didn't feel like becoming. The 'witch'. Touching it she became a human version of herself. She also blinked. "Huh...this actually doesn't feel much different..." She missed the magic and senses...but she noted she was much taller. Reaching up, she used one of her new limbs to grab the branch above her. "Huh...this could be really useful pickin' those stubborn apples that don't wanna fall off. Ah could use this." "Especially if you learn good magic like draggle!" Sweetie Belle suggested. "Yeah, that'd be cool..." Applebloom said. "And their magics a lot like Zecora's..." Cicada blinked. "I feel I'm missing something here..." Applebloom sighed, looking at the remaining two statues. "Ah think..." She reached out and touched the dragon, deciding it was a better choice. However, she blinked when instead of a winged dragon that Scootaloo had become, she became a much more heavily armored yellow dragonness. While she lacked wings, her claws were much more designed for digging through dirt and her tail ended in a bone club. "What am Ah?!" Cicada chuckled. "You are an earth drakaina. While some of the statues are set to a specific breed of that species, some are not." "Oh..." the dragonness replied, feeling that link to the Earth come back. She felt an urge to go and collect diamonds. To make a horde...but she also felt something else. "Mah family...they're part of mah horde...Ah don't ever wanna let 'em go," Applebloom said, giving a smile. Scootaloo smirked. "And I feel the same about you three and Rainbow." "...Then Ah guess bein' a dragon ain't so bad. That part Ah like." There was just one left to accept...She wasn't she how she felt about it, but she touched the last statue... And instead of being a cool Siren like Sweetie, she found herself an orange sea-horse like pony with fins instead of front legs. And flopped on the ground. "Hey! No fair!" She was happy she could still breath air, but otherwise didn't find this as cool as Sweetie made it look. Sweetie Belle blinked. "That wasn't supposed to happen..." - Apple Bloom flopped around in a sudden panic. "Ah need water!" she panted. "Ah don't wanna get stuck on land and dry out and get..." Gulp. "...crispy fried. If this is a test, if doesn't seem like a very fair one." She flexed her long tail... it felt like strong, solid muscle. At least she could flop over to another statue if she had to. Cicada frowned thoughtfully. "There should be a pond." He buzzed over, glaring at the seapony statue. "I'm fairly certain that there used to be a pond. Hmm, how many centuries ago..." Apple Bloom gasped. There it was, surrounding the statue... so choked with moss and fallen leaves that she hadn't seen it at all, until now. "Eeww..." The stranded golden seapony sighed and sang, "I can't swim there, it's full of muck! Ah can't believe mah rotten luck." Scootaloo blinked. "Did she just..." Sweetie darted over, shushing her. "Since when can Apple Bloom sing that good?" she whispered, as softly as a dragon could whisper, anyway. She scratched her chin scales, and then her ear fins twitched as a gentle upbeat melody rose. "Ohhh, a heart song. That explains it." Sweetie Belle shook her head, strangely excited. "She started it with her magic. Apple Bloom has seapony magic!" Her soul gem glowed, surrounding Apple Bloom with a sparkling green glow that helped lift her upright. "Thanks!" Apple Bloom pointed with a fin, grinning. "Ah see it now," she sang. "Have a look right over there at what Ah spy! There's a canal, and a river over there that runs right by..." "At least... that's how it used to be," sang Sweetie Belle, regretfully. "The canal is full of silt, you see." Scootaloo nodded. "But maybe if we break that dam, the water will flow in again!" The drakaina's singing blasted leaves from trees and made Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle yelp. "Heh, oops..." While the heart song wandered off into a cheerful interlude, Sweetie used more of her magic to dredge out the pond, and Scootaloo dug her talons into the canal and carved a new path to the river. Soon, fresh river water came gushing in to fill up the empty pond, and Apple Bloom was finally able to dive in, spreading her fins and splashing all around. "Yeehaw!" The heart song came back for another verse, but it slowed into a minor key, and a spotlight shone down on Sweetie Belle. "I was so sure that this form, surely was the form for me. This was my birthright, I was meant to be a pony of the sea. I thought this power, was something I must tame. A creature that only could take joy in other ponies' pain." She floated lower, brushing a hoof against her soul gem. "But I'm so happy for Bloom because she's happy and my friend! I think there's much about this form, that I still don't understand..." Then Sweetie Belle realized that Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were close by, softly humming along with her verse. "H.. hey!" She blushed. "I'm doing a soliloquy here! Those are private!" But Scootaloo put a forelimb around them and pulled them all into a big group hug anyway. - So all Apple Bloom had to do now was accept herself as a seapony and touch the changeling queen statue, and she could become her earth pony self again. Cicada said, "Are you ready for the last step?" Apple Bloom said, "Give me a tick." Apple Bloom slip into the moat and peacefully began to picture herself in the ocean along with the 12 other versions of herself. - The twelfth Apple Bloom started to take form in her mind. Apple Bloom sang, coaxing her out, and her seapony self sang back to her, growing more real. They sang together, and her other self smiled, splashing her playfully. Apple Bloom grinned back. "Is everybody all set?" The herd of Apple Blooms in her head gave her various hoofs, thumbs, and talons up. "All set," she said out loud, and Sweetie Belle nodded and sang her out of the pond, hovering her over to the changeling queen statue. Apple Bloom took a deep breath, and pressed her fin against it. Golden light shimmered over the statue's surface. Cicada wasted no time in running away and diving behind a hedge, but the transformed fillies leaned closer, wondering if that was it... and then the golden light exploded outwards, filling the garden and shooting a brilliant pulse of magic through the Everfree canopy and clear into the clouds. Apple Bloom looked herself over frantically. "What the hay?! Ah don't feel any different." The features of the changeling statue shifted, and it seemed to move, addressing them! "Greetings," it spoke in a buzzing, yet musical voice. Scootaloo growled, but Sweetie put a hoof on her shoulder. "I don't sense anything alive. I think it's a recording of some kind." "If you are watching this," said the statue, "then you are to be congratulated. You have passed my test." The image of the changeling queen smiled deviously. "I feared that I had made it too difficult. Indeed, even now I wonder whether these words of mine will ever be heard, or whether they will stay locked in the spell matrix until these statues weather and crumble away and the world ends. "A test?" Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "I guess she wouldn't have been a changeling queen if she wasn't plotting something." "Hey!" cried Sweetie Belle. "Such a pity," continued the statue, ignoring them. "This results of this test will be of immense scientific interest... and possibly give hope to all of changeling-kind... but I will certainly not be around to see them. Even now, my daughters bring their armies to take my head and then turn on each other, and they must not find me here. But through you..." She seemed to look directly at Apple Bloom. "...we will know at last if the true, purified essence of a changeling can be imprinted on a pony not of our tribe... without the curse, without the hunger that so easily makes monsters of us all." The long dead changeling queen glanced over her shoulder hastily, then cleared her throat. "I should like you to contact the changeling queen of your era immediately and share these findings. Whether you wish to do this or not is irrelevant, for you see, that first explosion of light was a beacon to bring you swiftly to her attention." She smirked, a little cruelly. "My voice and will were recorded in this spell matrix by my command. So speaks Mayfly, Queen of the Changelings." And then the statue was just a statue again. Apple Bloom had just enough time to say "Um..." before another burst of magic filled the statue garden. The long-range teleport spell faded, leaving them face to face with Hercules Beetle. And Shining Armor. And Princess Cadence herself. Sweetie Belle cowered back, seeming genuinely afraid. Scootaloo moved protectively in front of her. "This cannot be," stammered Cicada, staring at Cadence. "You are no changeling." Green flames rose around him, and swiftly died like a snuffed candle. Blue flames flicked over him in their place. "But you are my Queen." The changeling warrior bowed low. Apple Bloom, meanwhile, felt a profound urge to curtsie and reveal her true self to Cadence... but what was her true self? The magic of song and the strength of the earth seemed to blend together in her... blue flames rippled over her too, and her four hooves touched the ground together... she wasn't sure *what* she'd just done, but she was her good old Earth Pony self again. "Your Majesty! Ah mean, your Highness... uh..." Princess Cadence blinked slowly, then conjured up a tea service for six, and another dragon-sized tea set. "Explain." She smiled. "Please, take your time." - So Apple Bloom explained, as did her friends, and Cicada, and Hercules Beetle in turn explained what had been going since Cicada had been buried and waiting. Apple Bloom wondered how the night was lasting so long. "I'm happy for you Apple Bloom," Cadence said, "I'm sure that this'll truly help changelings assimilate back into part of global pony society. Though I trust you know that I'll be making sure you're not abusing your new gift." "Ah gotcha." Apple Bloom said. "And as for you girls." Shining Armor said to the dragon and siren. "I hope you know that... you're kinda YOUNG to make important life changing decisions like changing your species." The orange dragon looked DOWN on Shining Armor. "I'd say I'm big enough right now." "And I'm NOT transformed! I've had a transformation REMOVED!" The white siren said. Cadence felt a headache coming on. While Shining Armor hoped he wasn't in for a fight against a DRAGON, AND a member of a type of seapony that had just three had nearly been enough to bring Equestria to their kneels. - Cadence considered, then nudged the earth pony filly. "Apple Bloom, would you walk with me, please?" Apple Bloom followed her a little ways into the woods nervously, wondering what Cadence didn't want the others to hear. It was a little hard to tell surrounded by the Everfree, but the eastern sky was growing light. Celestia must be getting ready to raise the sun. Would the end of the night be an automatic reset, now that Luna and Rota's spell was fixed? "You're being fairly mature about this," Cadence began, "so it seems safer to tell you this than not tell you." Apple Bloom blinked. "Tell me what, Princess?" "You're not like any of my little changelings. A changeling doesn't gain wind magic when they transform into a pegasus, or earth magic when they become an earth pony..." Cadence leaned close. "But it seems you do. I can sense both of those in you now, and song magic, and changeling magic as well. You haven't tried to cast unicorn spells yet, have you?" Apple Bloom could only shake her head, suddenly having an exciting but scary idea of where this was going. "Every kinda magic in one pony. Ain't that... an Alicorn?! Ah could change like my sister and Pinkie Pie?" Cadence nodded slowly, seeming very serious. "You might be able to... and I urge you not to try. You're *not* ready." "What would Ah be the Alicorn of?" mused Apple Bloom. Her gaze wandered back to her own flank, which was still as stubbornly blank as ever. "Aw, come on! What does it take?" Cadence smiled, a bit grimly. "That's one of the things that has me worried. I don't know if it's even possible to become an Alicorn without any special talent. I'll have to talk to Auntie Celestia about this, but... I just have this feeling that if you tried to become an Alicorn now, something terrible might happen." Apple Bloom kicked a rock. She was mighty tempted to turn into something that could kick bigger things around, like trees and boulders. "You say Ah'm the mature one, but Sweetie and Scootaloo already have their marks and they're having fun with their new powers right now, while Ah have to wait and wait... It ain't fair!" "No, it's not fair, young mare," Cadence chided her. "What would your brother and sister say if they were here? Would they want you to whine about it, or throw a fit, or buck up and deal with it?" Apple Bloom tried not to laugh and wound up smirking despite herself. "Deal with it..." Cadence drew her into a warm hug. "I'm sure that you could become a wonderful Alicorn, someday. What we need to do now is to help you prepare, while we have time." Apple Bloom blinked. "So, you're gonna help me find my cutie mark, and stuff?" Cadence hmmed, then transformed into a filly-sized version of herself in a red cape. "Cutie Mark Princess Crusaders?" Apple Bloom grinned from ear to ear. "Yay."