“EXPLAIN YOURSELF!!” “Duke Cobalt, I assure you, all measures were taken to insure the security of the mine-” “And yet here we are, Duke Pipe Glass. I’ve said it before but none would listen – Only a unicorn can be trusted to lead the Department of Magic and Mysteries.” “No one cares about your opinion regarding matters such as this, Aurora. So why don’t you leave the big stuff to the members of this council who can actually protect this nation and you go back to your classrooms and continue poisoning our nations’ youth with your petty tribalistic ideals.” “I resent that, Firestorm!” “Someone in this room leaked the classified location of the energem mine and I demand they step forward and ANSWER FOR THIS OUTRAGE!!”
“Fillies and gentlecolts, please, order! Please!” Fancy Pants stood in the middle, trying to assuage the dukes and duchesses of the council.
Celestia had called the meeting of the council to the Royal Conference Room, a large room in the castle, a carpeted floor, with four angled antique tables, each with three of the dukes and duchesses sitting in attendance, twelve in all, on large comfortable chairs. Above was a large domed skylight window with four pillars holding up the roof, each pillar set behind each table directly behind the councilors. Behind each of the pillars stood a guard, present but unseen to ease discussions and deliberations made between the councilors.
At the back of the room, set opposite the door, was a throne where sat Celestia with Cadance standing at her side and a guard with familiarly vivid opal eyes on the other.
“Fancy Pants seems a bit… overwhelmed,” whispered Cadance to her aunt as they took in the show of squabbling politicians.
When Celestia had called for the meeting, Fancy Pants had shown up to volunteer his services as a speaker. A quick test by Thorax confirmed he was legitimate and even though they assured him he did not have to, what with his wife being due soon, Fancy Pants was determined.
“If you are volunteering to assist him in mediating the council, please, be my guest,” Celestia whispered back to her niece, but then she whispered to the guard beside her, “Well? Do you sense anything?”
“Not so far...” the guard whispered back. “Changelings can sense each other but some are better at hiding themselves than others, even from other changelings. I hope this doesn’t go on for much longer, the tensions in here are leaving a bad taste in my mouth…”
Cadance stepped forward, “Council of the Aristocracy, may I speak?”
“Princess Cadanza,” Fancy Pants bowed and stepped aside with a subtle look of relief, “the floor is yours.”
The dukes and duchesses calmed a little and watched as Cadance proceeded forward to stand in the center where all would see her. Taking a deep breath, Cadance began.
“I hear your worries, your frustrations, but the longer you argue the longer our true enemy has to conspire against our nation. Duke Cobalt Banks, you are correct that this breach in security must be resolved and we must assemble a strike force to reclaim the mine from the changelings. But for now, the security of our nation and our citizens takes priority.”
“What would you propose, Princess Cadance?” asked Firestorm the Duke of Defense and Security.
“The Crystal Empire can serve as a place of refuge as well as relief and aid should the worst come to pass,” Cadance answered.
“Correct me if I am mistaken, Princess Cadance,” interrupted Treaty Ink, the Duchess of Foreign Affairs, “but is not the Crystal Empire independent from Equestria?”
“I agree!” added Breadbasket, the Duchess of Agriculture and Nutrition, “You and your husband may be royalty of Equestria, but you’ve made it clear that your empire is merely a neighbor within our borders, after you declined my invitation to your farmers into the Galloping Grains Historical Agriculture society! So what gives you the right to come here and lecture us about running our nation?”
It seemed Breadbasket’s less-than-savory words opened the floodgates as the dukes and duchesses stood up from their seats and starting getting into each others’ faces in the middle of the floor, Cadance backing out nervously.
“How dare you speak to the princess in that tone!” “We of Cloudsdale are independent but we remember where our loyalties lies!” “Equestria should be able to stand on its own hooves.” “Your ‘Historical Agriculture’ group is a joke!” “WHICH OF YOU COWARDS BETRAYED US?!”
Fancy Pants tried to speak over the arguing to smooth it all over, Cadance looking apologetically towards her aunt, who sighed.
“Enough.”
All flinched and looked towards the princess of the sun as she suddenly radiated a harsh and sweltering light that quickly died away as Celestia stood up. In response, the councilors, all suddenly a little sweaty, returned to their seats as Celestia stepped forward with a look most cross.
“I called for this meeting to discuss the breach in our security and of an enemy that for all we know could be on its way here and now to war against us. But here I find a battle in my own palace! Ponies have died already! One of our princes has been taken captive, and instead of deliberating on a solution, planning a counter-strategy, or even a discussing a rescue you squabble and point hooves at each other over what is ultimately insignificant next to the matters that truly take precedence!
“…I call this meeting adjourned. We shall reconvene later to allow cooler heads to prevail.”
The look on Celestia’s face told the councilors she was in no mood for any more arguments of any kind, and so they retreated from her seething splendor. A few muttering to each other as they passed each other by out the door, and once they were all gone, Celestia sighed and slumped into her throne, appearances be damned, as Cadance and the guard who was actually Thorax stood before her with looks of concern.
“Now you see what I put up with,” sighed Celestia wearily, “The Aristocracy began with ponies noble and dedicated truly to protecting and serving our nation and its citizens. But… as generations have gone by some of their houses have not always yielded successors with Equestria’s best interests at heart…”
“Ugh, I’m glad they’re gone…” Thorax stifled a gagged burp, his disguise vanishing to reveal his true form. “All those mixed and riled emotions are gonna give me gas, I’m sure of it…”
Cadance and Celestia couldn’t help but have a small chuckle before Celestia asked, “So then, Thorax, what do you think? Could you sense any changelings among the council?”
“Well, I managed to get a taste of each one’s emotions, Your Highness,” Thorax responded, shaking off an unpleasant curdling in his stomach, “but… I’m sorry. I don’t think any of the councilors have been replaced by a changeling spy!”
“But if none of the Aristocracy has been replaced,” Cadance shared a worried look with Celestia, “who could the spy have disguised themselves as to gain the information of the mine?”
Celestia sighed, “It’s possible the spy disguised themselves as a guard, less conspicuous but still present to hear sensitive information during the meetings! Thorax, any chance you sensed anything strange about the guards?”
“Mm-mm, I made sure to look at everyone who was here for the meeting,” replied Thorax, “if there was a changeling spy here before, they’re probably gone by now.”
“That does make sense,” Cadance concurred, “after all, when Thorax was discovered we all assumed he was the spy. It’s possible the real spy overheard what happened and left then and there.”
“Then we’re back to square one,” Celestia groaned, “we don’t know who this spy is or whether or not they’re even still here!”
“Well, I think we should keep looking,” Thorax advised, “it’s better to be safe than sorry. If the spy is still here and we stop looking just because we think they’ve left they’ll keep spying on us for the Hive.”
“I agree, it is safer to be absolutely certain,” added Cadance, the two of them looking to Celestia.
The princess of the sun sighed, and looked to her new changeling friend, “Thorax, I request that you search for the spy. I cannot order you to, as I am not your ruler. I am asking this of you, as a friend, and perhaps the start of something that could mean something special between our two peoples.”
Realizing what Celestia was saying, Thorax was uncertain. He’d come to help Equestria against his own kind in order to protect his sister from becoming a slave like he had been. Fate had smiled upon him by how his link to the Hive Mind had been severed but what point was there to being free if the one changeling he’d ever cared about could not be free alongside him? And what about the rest of their kind? Should they remain enslaved to a collective consciousness that sought domination at the expense of individuality?
It was the memory of Elytra smiling and laughing as she’d played with their new friends in the garden that made up his mind.
“I’ll do it, for Elytra and for my new friends.”
“Thank you, Thorax,” Celestia was relieved, “You have my permission to do this as you would. My only condition is that you are discrete and handle this investigation quickly and quietly.”
Thorax nodded and resumed his disguise as a guard, a pegasus with a dark coat matching his true form’s exoskeleton, and making for the door.
“And Thorax?”
Thorax looked back to Celestia, “Be careful.”
Thorax smiled, touched by her concern, and proceeded out the doors.
Thorax had disguised himself as a server when several of the dukes and duchesses had retired to a castle lounge, obviously to discuss behind closed doors the meeting, and had ordered room service. Disguised as a pegasus, he used his wings to carry a tray of glasses of champagne to several of the councilors, eavesdropping as he did so.
“This absolutely blows…” commented Showstopper, the Duchess of Media and Entertainment, as she accepted a glass from Thorax and gave him a small smile and whispered ‘thank you’.
“I told them over and over again, that mine needed far more security than they gave it,” growled Cobalt Banks, the Duke of Energy and Resources as he paced back and forth.
“Banks, please, don’t start again…” groaned Lightning Wing, the Duke of Weather, as he downed his glass in one gulp.
“I wonder if there’s a chance I might be able to get my hooves on a changeling,” mused aloud Mareston Burner, the Duchess of Science and Innovation, “such a specimen would make for a fine research subject…”
Thorax was uncomfortable, not just by Burner’s words, but also by the mixed feelings in the lounge room. Granted the more placid emotions weren’t nearly as bad as they’d been in the conference room, they still simmered with anxiety, frustration, some anger here and there, and that repugnant taste of self-interest at the expense of others. Still, there were a few more likeable emotions, like concern, compassion, a determination to protect others.
Wait… what emotion was that he just sensed? It was worry, but it was a kind of worry Thorax had felt for a long time now. The cold and sometimes gut-twisting worry of getting caught, of being discovered, of what would happen like Thorax had went through after he fell for Sombra’s Eye of Truth trap.
Without realizing it he followed the emotion to its source and found Aurora Boreala, the Duchess of Education, sitting apart from her fellow councilors. She had a coat of arctic blue, her autumn red mane was in a voluminous style, she wore a mare’s business suit of cherry red, expensive-looking earrings of rubies hung from her ears, and her eyes rose pink were narrowed yet staring into nothing. She was sitting in a plush armchair, her rear legs crossed but one of her hooves fidgeting impatiently or as though she had something on her mind.
She then looked up and regarded Thorax (in her eyes, a nameless pegasus server) and crossly asked, “What are you looking at?”
“Oh! Uh- Excuse me, madam- Uh… champagne?” Thorax stuttered while holding out the platter with three more glasses, only to yelp as Aurora knocked the platter out of his wing, the glasses spilling and shattering on the floor.
All eyes turned in their direction as Aurora snapped at Thorax, “I don’t sip that cheap drivel! Now get out of my way, you uncultured brute!”
Thorax scrambled aside as Aurora stormed out of the lounge, and for a few moments nopony said anything until Showstopper huffed, “What crawled up her tailpipe and died?”
Thorax looked at the mess and then the dukes and duchesses, “Uh, sorry, I-I’ll just-”
“Heh-heh don’t let Boreala get to ya, kid,” Lightning chuckled, waving off Thorax’s worry, “Aurora’s always been such a huge snob. If you ask me, it makes the unicorns look bad!"
“To be honest,” spoke up Treaty Ink, the Duchess of Foreign Affairs, “I blame that horrid aunt of hers. Aurora had such promise when she was younger, but then her parents both died and her aunt stepped in as the new duchess of Education and raised Aurora herself. Not ideally, mind you…”
“Um, I… have to look into something,” Thorax quickly excused himself as he inched towards the door, “but I’ll have someone come and clean this mess up. Thank you!”
And he slipped out, closing the door behind him and assuming the form of a guard. He looked around and barely noticed Aurora’s tail slip around a corner. He hurried after her but quietly, not wanting to alert her.
Thorax wasn’t sure why but Aurora was hiding something and was just as afraid of discovery as he’d been only yesterday. He followed Aurora to the guest wing of the castle, and aside a couple close calls she never once suspected someone was on her tail.
Finally, she came to what must have been her private suite in the castle. Thorax peered around the corner of the hallway and watched her go in. He quickly tiptoed over but his ears caught the unmistakable sounds of a door locking.
“Oh great…” Thorax muttered as he began to puzzle out the situation. He couldn’t just break in, Aurora would raise a ruckus and he might blow his cover… when he noticed the door’s frame had a window over it. Even better, it was open!
He flapped his feathery wings to rise up but saw that his current body was too thick around the barrel to fit. He peered in and saw Aurora step through another door. He looked down the hallways and was glad to see no one, and lowered his disguise, returning to his smaller and more lithe changeling form. Very carefully, so as not to make any noise, Thorax slipped through the window and flittered down as quietly as possible.
He went over to the door and was glad to see Aurora had left it open a crack. Peering through, he saw it was to the suite’s bathroom and Aurora… she was levitating out four small black objects that Thorax couldn’t get a better look at as Aurora laid them on the bathroom counter next to the sink… when all of a sudden!
A beam of green light bridged between those objects, which rose up on some kind of web and shot a beam into the bathroom mirror… revealing a changeling wearing Hive Armor!
Thorax had to stifle a gasp as Aurora spoke, “This is going too far, Thorn! It was bad enough you and your ilk took the energem mine, but pony-napping a prince of Equestria?!”
“Ah, Aurora, and how is my favorite little spy…?” answered the changeling in the mirror called Thorn.
“Doing well, I hope?”
“Don’t change the subject, you backstabbing leech!” Aurora shrieked as she began to pace along the mirror’s length. “The princess just called a meeting to discuss the ‘breach in security’. If they haven’t already, they’ll begin investigating to find the one who blabbed the mine’s location – Me! This has to end.”
“And it will, in good time, my dear Aurora,” Thorn snickered, relishing the look on Aurora’s face.
“Once we’re done with our prisoners, I give you my word they will be returned no worse for wear… the prince however! I think we’ll hold onto him a little longer.”
“THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE!!” screamed Aurora, “I need Prince Midnight back along with the prisoners you’ve taken! You had no right to capture him in the first place!”
"Are you really in any position to demand such a thing?" Thorn questioned as his eyes narrowed dangerously, "Let's not forget whose hooks are in whom, here. You've gotten yourself into this little mess, and I expect you'll deal with the circumstances as they are.
“Although… we miiiiiggghhht consider returning the prince along with the rest of the prisoners, if…”
“If what?!” demanded Aurora, knowing for sure she was gonna have some grays in the morning.
“Well, it seems there’s a changeling in Canterlot right now,” Thorn spoke, sounding serious for the first time. “Now granted, we pulled all our operatives out of the city months ago! After all, once we had you to be our eyes and ears on the inside there was no point continuing to risk exposure.
“But early today, we sensed the presence of a changeling and were able to pinpoint its location in Canterlot. There should be no changelings in the city at all now, but then this one just appeared there from out of nowhere. So here’s the deal, Aurora – Find this changeling and bring it to us outside the city. Use the scarabs to signal us when you’ve arrived at the rendezvous site.”
“How am I supposed to find a changeling in Canterlot when I’m trying not to be associated to your kind?!” Aurora gaped at Thorn, this task he was giving her was next-to-impossible!
“Oh you’re a smart filly, Aurora,” Thorn sneered as his image and voice began to fade away. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out…”
Aurora found herself looking at her own crestfallen face in the mirror as the scarab devices fell and clattered upon the bathroom floor. Thorax could sense her despair, he fear, her worries, as she slumped into a sobbing heap on the floor, curling up into a fetal position.
I gotta get back to the others! He thought as he backed up, not noticing the gueridon table-
*Bump/Cla-thud*
“Huh?!” Aurora scrambled to her hooves, wiping her tears away and hurried into her suite, looking around to see if anypony was in there with her. She saw only her suite’s furniture, the four-poster bed, the armchair and coffee table, the buzzer for room service, the gueridon table with the vase on it-
Wait… was that always there? Aurora looked at the vase, which was roughly the size of a foal. It was black with vivid opal blue markings outlining the shapes of a pattern of leaves. She reached it and gave it a touch, feeling the soft and smooth firmness of ceramic, and sighed.
“I’m starting to lose it…” she muttered, “…I’m starting to lose everything.”
She gathered herself and took a deep breath before leaving the suite.
…
…
…
The vase was suddenly engulfed in vivid blue flame-like mana as Thorax fell over, breaking the table, and sighing in relief at that close call.
A half hour later, Aurora had decided to head home, and the sight of her children welcoming her and giving her hugs and kisses were something she sorely needed now. Stepping into the entry hall, she started making for the castle doors, outside awaited her personal carriage, ready to take her home.
“Excuse me, Duchess Boreala?”
Groaning inwardly, she turned to see a pegasus guard approaching her.
“…Yes?” Aurora kept her irritation reined in, hoping this wouldn’t delay her.
“Princess Cadance would like to discuss something with you, concerning study aids and more current text books for the schools in the Crystal Empire,” the guard explained.
“Sir, I am just about to go home, my carriage is waiting,” Aurora maintained her temper but there was an edge in her voice.
“So please pass my apologies on to Princess Cadance, but it will have to wait-”
“Duchess, I’m sorry, but this is not a request,” the guard said firmly, “the princess isn’t asking for your time…”
The guard’s tone vexed Aurora, the nerve of this brute with wings! But… she supposed she couldn’t blame him for following orders, and apparently Princess Cadance wouldn’t be taking no for an answer.
Must be the pegasus in her, ugh… she thought with a deep sigh.
“Fine… Lead the way.”
The guard nodded and gestured with his head for her to follow. Aurora followed at a distance, not wanting to smell this upstart’s stinky wing pits or be too close to his rear end in case he ripped one. The one time she’d been too close to a pegasus’s tailgate was her first and hopefully only experience of why pegasi have the most rancid farts.
She was so irritated she didn’t notice the door where the guard was leading her. He held it open and said, “After you, madam.”
“Hmph,” she responded but at least he had decent manners. For a brute.
But then she noticed where she had been led to, the castle home theater. The auditorium was dark, with the only one light shining, right down directly from above the ceiling situated to the space between the silver screen and the front row of seats.
“Is this some kind of a joke?!” Aurora turned to face the guard-
*Click*
-and heard the sound of a door locking, and the guard turning to face her with a stone face.
“Guard, what are you doing?” Aurora asked as though she were coming down on an unruly student.
“Dealing with a problem…” the guard answered cryptically.
“Open that door and tell me where Princess Cadance is,” ordered Aurora suddenly feeling on edge as the guard began to approach her.
“Princess Cadance didn’t summon you, duchess,” the guard said with a soft voice, approaching Aurora as she backed away into the light and the space between the front row and the silver screen.
“It’s just you and me…”
“What is the meaning of this?” Aurora was beginning to feel afraid. “Explain yourself!”
“Commander’s decided you’re a loose end, pony…” the guard let out a disturbing hiss and then – To Aurora’s screaming horror! – the guard was engulfed briefly in a soft blue flame-like mana that fell away to reveal a changeling!
“And so he’s sent me to take your place!”
“Wha- No! this can’t be happening!” Aurora cried out, backing up against the silver screen and wall of concrete behind it, trapped!
“Nothing personal, duchess,” the changeling hissed with a sneer, “but don’t worry – I’ll take good care of your kids!”
“NO! PLEASE! Whatever you want, I’ll do it!” Aurora fell over, scrambling back, holding up a foreleg defensively. “I have access to more useful information, I-I can give you names of ponies you can use or manipulate! WE HAD AN AGREEMENT!!!”
The changeling tilted his head in a mocking way as a syrupy drool dribbled from his hissing mouth, “An agreement…?”
“Yes! Commander Thorn swore to keep my indiscretions secret as long as I spied for him, that was the deal!!”
…
…
…
Aurora waited for the changeling to say something, the silence getting to her… when the changeling looked towards the darkened seats, “Did you get all that?”
An icy terror gripped Aurora in the chest as lights came on and she felt her whole world come crashing down as she saw several seats filled. With some of the bearers of Harmony, several guards, and most of the princes and princesses, all of them were looking upon Aurora with a variety of different looks.
She saw disgust, she saw anger, contempt, but then she saw Princess Celestia’s face and in her eyes she saw a sadness and a deep disappointment.
With a disheartened sigh, Celestia ordered, “Seize her.”
AAAAUUUGGGHHH-HA-HA-HAAAA!!! screamed Twinken as he ducked and dodged multiple dream-changelings while Rainbow Dash was having the time of her line putting the smack down.
C’mon, Twinken, throw a few! There’s plenty to go around! Rainbow laughed triumphantly, grunting and punching, and kicking, and sending one dream-changeling flying with a haymaker.
I’m a colt! I’m too small to fight these things! whined Twinken as he belly-slid under a changeling, causing the one had been chasing him to crash into the one he’d slid under.
But then his words gave Twinken an idea – He managed to find a clear spot while the dream-changelings turned their attention on Rainbow Dash.
Earlier, Luna had begun Twinken’s instruction in the art of Dream-Walking. It was a lot more complicated than just popping into somepony’s dreams and making it all better if they were having nightmares. A dream was a metaphysical plane where the reality was shaped by the will, the imagination, and even the fears of the dreamer.
A Dream-Walker was something of a wild card thrown into the scenario. When a Dream-Walker entered somepony’s dream they had to apply their desires and intentions with a strong-enough will and mental discipline in order to bend the dreamer’s dream to the Dream-Walker’s own will. But the dream belonged to the dreamer, not the Dream-Walker, so the dreamer’s own will, their imagination and fears, they were the foundation of the dream and as such would adhere to the dreamer’s mind first. It was not so much a battle of wills but a battle between a conscious mind and a subconscious mind, and the subconscious was a mysterious and sometimes unpredictable part of a mind.
Since he was only a beginner, Twinken didn’t have the mental fortitude to shape another’s dream to his own will. But in the Dreamscape or even in another’s dream he could apply this power upon himself!
C’mon, c’mon! Uh, dragon? No, too big… Buffalooooonnnoo, not very graceful, Twinken considered, Ooh! A minotaur!
He concentrated, ignoring all that was happening around him as he willed his dream-self to… shapeshift!
Shapeshifting in real life was much more difficult but in dreams there was no limit except your own doubts. A soft red and electric indigo light shined as Rainbow Dash and the dream-changelings looked to its source as a small silhouette grew bigger, one horn vanishing while two more took its place, a long bovine tail lengthening… and as the light dimmed, Rainbow got a clear look at Twinken.
Pph! …Uh! EhHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHhahhaa!!! Rainbow keeled over in gut-bursting laughter, as did the dream-changelings when they saw Twinken.
What?! What’re yooooouuuuu laughing at? Twinken was confused until he realized he wasn’t standing on two legs like a minotaur. He was still on all fours. Then he shuffled and yelped as he felt something sway around his nether regions and he looked between his legs and panicked as he realized, I’M A COOOWW!!!
Embarrassed and having had enough, Twinken willed the way out to appear and dove through it, though Rainbow’s laughing still echoed in his head.
“AAAUUGGHH!!! Oh!!” Twinken grunted as he landed on the floor, and quickly looked himself over, sighing in relief to see he was his normal unicorn colt self. Looking around, he saw he was in his room.
Or rather an image of his room projected onto the Dreamscape, and what he had come out of resembled a photo album. He looked at it and saw the picture he’d seen earlier, of Rainbow going hoof to hoof with a swarm of changelings.
Other pictures showed friends and family in all kinds of scenarios, some silly, some fun, some weird.
“Soooo, how did it go?”
Twinken startled and turned around to see Luna lying in the dream-image of his bed, looking at one of his books.
“You know, you have quite an interesting taste of literature for a colt your age.”
“…Were you watching?” Twinken asked, morosely.
“Yes, not bad for a first solo try,” Luna assured, Twinken scoffing, “Oh come now, Twinken, I know you didn’t technically succeed but I wouldn’t have called it an… udder failure.”
The look Twinken glared at Luna made her shrink back a little and chuckle nervously before clearing her throat, “Sorry, that… that was in poor taste.”
“Rainbow Dash has a really weird idea of ‘sweet dreams’,” Twinken grumbled as he closed the album of dreams. Recalling the feeling of something fleshy and bulbous hanging around a very private place on his body caused Twinken to shudder at the memory of the udder.
“I saw the changelings in the picture and… I dunno, I thought it was Midnight’s dream!”
“You’re looking at this the wrong way, Twinken,” Luna explained, “Instead of looking for changelings in dreams, look for something you believe Midnight would dream about!”
“What do you mean?” Twinken looked at Luna, a little more attentive.
“Your perspective of the Dreamscape manifested as your bedroom and the dreams you seek as pictures in that photo album,” Luna elaborated, “to give you a sense of ease and calm. Dreams, especially good dreams, are the same way.
“I know we can’t be certain of whatever it is he is dreaming of, but consider what you believe your brother would dream about, of things that would make him happy or what he would find calming. I wish I could take you to his dream myself, but the surest chance of success you have of entering Midnight’s dream is if you find it on your own.”
Sighing, Twinken opened the album again, looking at the pictures that were actually dreams of ponies. He placed a hoof over one and closed his eyes, letting his senses get a feel… and he knew almost at once that this photo was the dream of Dinky!
A blush warmed Twinken’s face as he felt tempted to enter, but his heart felt too flittery at the idea.
"Twinken! Luna! Wake up!"
Twinken’s ears perked at the distant voice as he turned around to Luna, “What was that?”
Luna looked up and around, “Oh it appears Twilight is calling for us to wake up. I’m afraid we’re going to have end things here, for now, Twinken. Twilight wouldn’t be waking us up unless it was important.”
“So, then what do we-” Twinken tried to ask, but Luna interrupted.
“Oh it’s easy, Twinken, all you have to do is… wake up!”
“…you okay? Wake up!”
“Mmm… Twinken groaned as he was propped up by somepony and his eyes creaked open to see it was, “Twilight…?”
“Welcome back, you two,” Twilight smiled at him and then Luna, who was already standing up and stretching her cricks out.
“And Twinken, you… Well, you look a bit different now.”
“Huh? Whattya mean?” Twinken asked and he was answered by a hoofheld mirror in his face… and he saw what Twilight meant.
“Huh! Weird…”
He reached up to his ears, which now had little tufts of fur at the tips and when he opened his mouth he noticed he had little fangs! Twinken was bewildered by these changes made to his body, Luna stepping up beside him as she explained, “Your lunar pony heritage has been brought to the surface, and made itself known physically as well as magically.
“I hope you’re… not upset.”
“Nuh-uh,” Twinken gave Luna an accepting smile, “I think it’s actually… kinda cool. Besides, it’s all to help Midnight.”
“Speaking of, I’m sorry for interrupting… whatever it was you two were doing, but something’s happened,” Twilight spoke up.
“We need to head back to see the others.”
“Then let’s be off,” Luna declared as she led the way out of Twilight’s tower, with Twilight and Twinken following close behind.