//------------------------------// // Ch. 7: Dishonor and Disharmony // Story: History Reimagined // by Pun System //------------------------------//     Starlight stared in shock at the mare in the air carriage with her. “You're Lightning Dust?”     The mare bit her lip and crossed one front leg over the other at the knee. “You’ve heard of me, haven’t you?” The mare laid her ears against her head as she stared out the carriage’s doorway.     “I saw what you did,” Starlight said. “I know what happened in Fillydelphia.” Lightning Dust pulled her hind legs in as she lay down on the bench and rested her head on her hooves. “I heard from Spitfire what she did to you—or, I guess, tried to do.”     Lightning sighed. “Am I gonna have to run from this my whole life?” she asked, still not making eye contact with Starlight.     Starlight perked up at Lightning’s comment. Though she didn’t understand military discipline in all its severities and intricacies, she saw in the mare seated across from her a pony with a marred past, and that she did understand. “Hey, it’s ok.”     Lightning looked up at her, but didn’t move her head or body. “I killed somepony. It’s not ok.”     “I—broke time and space,” Starlight countered. “I’ve killed a lot more than you have.”     Lightning raised first an ear, then an eyebrow, then her head. “What?”     “I’ll tell you my story if you tell me yours. How are you alive? I thought Spitfire was going to execute you.”     “She was,” Lightning began. “I got lucky. Somepony up top didn’t agree with her.”     Lightning Dust didn’t even roll over on her cot when she heard the brig’s door open. She picked up her head and raised her eyes just enough to get a good view at whoever was coming. She raised her head higher when she saw just over a half dozen ponies march silently into the brig. One of them approached and unlocked her cell. “Lightning Dust, it’s time,” said Blaze as she opened the cell door.     Lightning Dust gulped and got to her hooves. She wanted to run. She wanted to fly. She wanted to lie back down, bury her face in her hooves and cry. But she didn’t. She trudged out of the cell, her hind legs shackled together and her wings bound to her sides. In place of her Wonderbolt uniform, she wore an orange jumpsuit. The Wonderbolts escorting her wielded swords and crossbows, and were in full combat gear. Lightning hung her head, stared at the ground, and laid her ears against her head as she silently walked to the center of the column of Wonderbolts.     The column marched out to the courtyard, where Lightning saw more Wonderbolts with crossbows held in their right hooves, the other end of their weapons propped against the ground. Lightning was shoved into place in front of a brick wall and instructed to place her front hooves on two tall stacks of bricks. Lightning assumed that their purpose was to expose her belly and chest. She reluctantly spread her front legs and mounted the bricks before staring nervously at the Wonderbolts opposite her.     “Does the prisoner request to be blindfolded?” asked Soarin.     “Please,” Lightning whispered.     A piece of coarse cloth was bound around Lightning’s head just as she closed her eyes.     “Ready!” The ‘Bolts picked up their weapons and loaded them. Lightning Dust could hear her heartbeat pounding in her ears.     “Aim!” Lightning drew a deep breath—her last breath—and tried not to panic. Her every instinct told her to run, yet she knew she wouldn’t get far. She knew this was the end. A single unseen tear dampened the cloth of her blindfold.     “Loose!” The latches of a half dozen crossbows released at once, and Lightning Dust felt a gust of wind blow her mane from left to right. Then—nothing. There was no pain. There was no impact of crossbow bolt hitting flesh. Yet there was sound. Sounds of confusion. Sounds of anger. Sounds of—hooves hitting earth? More sounds followed, even more illogical than the last—somepony spitting followed by wood clacking against wood, like small sticks thrown into a pile.     The firing squad might not be killing her, but the suspense certainly was. She exhaled only to inhale and hold her breath again, waiting for her death.     “General Rainbow Dash,” Soarin began, “with all due respect—”     “‘With respect’? Is that how you would bucking execute one of your own?” she scoffed. “‘With respect.’ Is that how far the noble Wonderbolts have fallen? Release the prisoner!”     “But ma’am—”     “I said release her!” Lightning heard Rainbow stomp her hooves in frustration.     Next, she heard ponies rushing towards her, and she reflexively flinched away from the noises. Several ponies laid hold on her, and she felt herself being pulled backwards. She stumbled when her front hooves made contact with the ground, and she squinted when sunlight greeted her eyes. She felt her chains fall off and the cords around her wings go slack. She stretched her sore and aching wings, but retracted them again when two pegasi laid hooves on her. Nevertheless, she reached a hoof up to rub her folded right wing.     Lightning felt a hoof on her shoulder. It was gentler than the other guards, though that wasn’t saying much. She looked up and found herself staring into the face of General Rainbow Dash. Her racing heart skipped a beat, and for a moment she forgot how to breathe. Rainbow didn’t look particularly happy, but she also didn’t look as mad as Lightning had expected. This last detail somewhat calmed her.     “Spitfire ordered you to be put before a firing squad because you were reckless and took no heed for the lives of your fellow soldiers or the life of the Mayor.” Lightning laid her ears against her head. “Lightning, you only wanted to see the Mayor returned to friendly forces, correct?”     “Y—Yes ma’am!” she replied with tears in her eyes.     “Your heart was in the right place, but I cannot condone your methods.”     “I know, ma’am. And I’m sorry.”     “I know you are. If you weren’t, I would have let them execute you. I’m still going to pass judgment on you.” Lightning held her breath. “Dishonorable discharge.”     Lightning collapsed to the ground. “Thank you, ma’am,” she managed between her tears and her short breaths. “Thank you.”     When Lightning looked up, Rainbow smiled at her, but only for a second. “Your jumpsuit. If you leave with it, you’ll be pursued and shot at again.” Lightning unzipped and removed the jumpsuit. “There. Now get your flank off this military installation, you half-flanked civilian!”     It was the most welcome insult she’d ever been given. “Yes, ma’am!” Lightning shot up to a standing position, saluted, and took to the skies. As she flew, she cried. All at once, she was more joyful and more dejected than she had ever been. She didn't even care where she was flying to; she was just glad to be flying again.     The air carriage landed as Lightning Dust finished. With her ears against her head, she spread her wings and flew out onto the ground.     Starlight got out a moment later and began walking next to her. She could tell Lightning was ashamed just by her body language. How do you follow up a story like that? she wondered.     With a story like mine, I guess, she answered. “I'm sorry,” she began. “I'm sorry I broke time and space and put you in this position.”     “You keep saying that: ‘broke time and space.’ What do you mean?”     Starlight told Lightning Dust all about herself. She told her about Sunburst and how they fell apart, about forming her village and stealing ponies’ cutie marks. She told her about Twilight and about the months she had spent wandering about Equestria, dejected and forgotten. All the while, Lightning’s face conveyed to Starlight her emotions: confusion, skepticism, curiosity, and understanding each in turn; yet she never once interrupted.    Then Starlight explained how that she had used one of Star Swirl’s time travel spells to visit Rainbow's first Sonic Rainboom, and how she had been able to prevent it from happening. She told of Nightmare Moon, of Discord, and of Chrysalis, and how Twilight and her friends had stopped all of them. She told Lightning all about the other timelines Twilight had seen and described to her, how each threat to Equestria had either succeeded or at least had come close. When at last she got to the part where Twilight gave her the mission of fixing the timeline, she paused and waited for Lightning’s reaction.     For a while, Lightning walked on in silence, her eyes downturned and a small frown on her face. Eventually, she looked back up at Starlight. “So there's a timeline where I'm not a failure?”     “Probably a lot of them,” she answered.     “But in this one, I—”     “You've been given a second chance,” Starlight interrupted. “You don't have to let your actions dictate who you are. You are more than the sum of your actions. Hopes, dreams, passions, talents, abilities—they're all a part of you regardless of success or failure.” The pair turned the corner, and the base’s front gate came into view. Lightning stopped short and lifted one front hoof. Starlight stopped a few steps later. “Are you ready to go back?”     Lightning hesitated, so Starlight offered her a hoof. Lightning bit her lip and drew her hoof up to her chest.     Starlight took a step forward. “You don't have to do this alone.”     Lightning slowly reached her hoof out until it was on top of Starlight’s. Starlight's smile soon reflected on Lightning's face, and they began walking towards the base. “You really think they'll let me back on base?”     “You're just an ordinary postal worker. We ‘just happened’ to meet on the air carriage. And that's not even a lie. We’ll enter separately and meet up on the other side. After that, I'm pretty sure I can get you to Rainbow Dash.”     The door to a dimly-lit room in the Wonderbolt Academy opened, and a pair of changelings dragged in another pony—this one an off-white mare. The door closed and the pair got to work making a cocoon. A third changeling stepped in front of the mare and lit his horn. A stream of pink magic soon flowed from the mare's chest towards the changeling. He collected the magic in a ball in front of him while he levitated several glass vials from off a rack of empty glassware. He divided the large ball into smaller spheres, and these he placed into the vials. It took twelve vials to contain all the love extracted from the mare.     “Woah. She had a lot in her,” said one of the other two changelings.     “So did the last one you sent me. Where’d you find them?”     “They found us,” said the third.     “Together?” asked the first.     “Yeah.”     “Let's put their cocoons next to each other,” he suggested, gesturing to a fourth changeling standing by a cocoon with a stallion in it.     “Is it still just the ten of us? Four in here, one outside as the guard, and five posing as Wonderbolts?” asked the third changeling.     “We’re up to eleven, and there’s more coming. The Queen’s sending a blimp.”     The changeling’s wings buzzed excitedly. “No way!”     “Not what you’re thinking,” said the fourth changeling. “One of the small ones.”     “Oh.”     “Still,” said the second, “it’s better than nothing.”     “All for love,” said the first changeling as he distributed a full vial to each of the others. “To victory, and the Queen!”     “To the Queen!” the others cheered as they joined in the toast.     Rainbow held her head steady as Flam levitated an alchemic horn onto her head. “You are about to be modeling the newest invention to come out of our workshop—the Alchemic Horn Mark oh-six-hundred!” he said.     “We've reverse-engineered a walkie talkie, harvested the mic and speaker, and integrated them into the helmet,” said the Doctor.     “Ready to give it a try?” asked Sunburst.     “Sure.”     Sunburst levitated an apple to his hoof. “I want you to concentrate on lifting this apple.”     Rainbow paused a moment, then stared intently at the apple. Nothing happened.     “Sorry. I didn't explain that very well.” He thought for a moment. “Imagine you have a third eye in the middle of your forehead. Sometimes it helps if you close your eyes and open all three at once.”     Rainbow closed her eyes and focused. She felt energy begin to build underneath her helmet. She imagined having a third eye, and the energy collected exactly where she wanted it to. She opened her eyes, and felt a rush of energy coursing through her wings as they shot out to each side involuntarily. She heard a high-pitched “vwoom, vwoom,” sound coming from above her head and saw a magenta-colored light above her out of her peripheral vision.     “You're doing it!” exclaimed Sunburst.     “And she hasn't blown anything up yet!” said Derpy. Rainbow looked over to see a bittersweet smile on the mare’s face.     “Try lifting the apple again.”     Rainbow moved one front leg back half a step as she felt the energy on her forehead increase. A faint magenta glow flickered around the apple as it rocked back and forth in Sunburst’s hoof.     Rainbow raised her wings. She didn't know why; it just seemed the right thing to do. As she did, the apple rose as well. For a moment, she didn't even realize she’d moved them, but once she did, she experimented with raising and lowering her wings, observing the effect on the apple.     “Try moving your head,” suggested Starlight.     She did, and found it had the same effect as using her wings.     “Using your body to control your magic is fine to begin with or for an extra little push, but you want to get to the point where you can just use your mind,” said Sunburst. “But that's a little advanced for a first lesson.”     “Good job, Rainbow,” said Spike. “Just goes to show Sunburst can teach magic to just about anypony!”     “Just about,” Twilight deadpanned.     Sunburst frowned. “I'm sorry, Twilight. I don't know why your magic doesn't work right. The other Starlight said alternate Twilight was the Element of Magic. Maybe she knows how to help you.”     “It's fine. It's not like I'm jealous or anything. Jealousy is an emotion. If I were to show emotion, my magic would become unstable.”     There was a pause, then a rack of empty test tubes across the room crackled with purple energy and exploded. Twilight sighed. “I’ll see myself out.”     Twilight crossed the room and opened the door, revealing Starlight. “Hey, Twilight! Is Rainbow Dash here?”     “Rainbow—Dash—” Twilight's eye twitched as a double aura formed around her horn. She ran out the door, bumping shoulders with Starlight as she left.     “Twilight?” Starlight called after her. Confused, she entered the room. “What was that all about?”     “She's frustrated that her magic won't work,” Sunburst said. “Even non-unicorns like Rainbow Dash are surpassing her in control.”     “I asked Twilight about it. Uh, Princess Twilight, that is. She thinks it’s because Princess Celestia cast a spell on her to put her magic back in check after her entrance exam, but of course that never happened for this world’s Twilight.” Starlight looked over at Rainbow. “Are you levitating that apple?”     “Yup.”     “Oh,” said Sunburst, “you can stop now if you want.”     Rainbow moved the apple towards Sunburst. “How do I let go?”     “That's weird,” said Starlight. “That's not a problem must unicorns have. It's a sign of an exceptionally strong will.”     “Just—stop holding it,” said Sunburst.     Somepony cleared their throat outside. “Oh, right," said the Starlight who had just arrived. "Rainbow Dash, could I have a word? That is—outside.”     “Sure.” Rainbow folded her wings and trotted to the door. The magenta aura faded, and the apple fell into Sunburst’s hoof. Once outside, Rainbow closed the door. “What's up?”     “I met somepony on the air carriage,” she said with a gesture, “and after combining her story with Spitfire’s, I have a pretty good idea of what caused Spitfire to leave.”     Rainbow leaned back and raised a hoof. “Lightning Dust? You're—”     “—Equestrian Postal Service. Cloudsdale Department,” she said as she turned sideways, displaying her mailbag. “I have explicit orders to give this letter to you or Captain Shining Armor,” she said as she reached in and drew out the letter.     Rainbow took the letter and opened it. Changelings, she read. She raised her head, looked at Lightning Dust, and nodded. “Thank you.”     Lightning stepped forward. “What are we going to do about this?”     “How do you know what the letter said?”     “I—uh—” she bit her lip and dropped her gaze.     “Lightning, you flew out of Cloudsdale carrying a letter with only one word: ‘Changelings.’ ” Starlight gasped. “You knew what it said. How do I know you’re not a changeling?”     “They painted me at the front gate.”     “And her story checks out with Spitfire’s,” added Starlight. “Are there really changelings in Cloudsdale?”     Rainbow furrowed her brow and positioned herself so her metal leg was within reach of the door. “Oh, I’ll bet it does. Paint. Both of you. Now.” Starlight reached into her bag. “No. Use mine.” Rainbow tossed Starlight a jar of paint, which she caught in her magic. Rainbow watched the mares paint each other. Starlight glowed, and Lightning did not become a changeling. “Perfect. So one of you isn’t a changeling, and the other is a time traveler.”     “Actually, I'm a universe hopper.”     “Is that what the glowing means?” asked Lightning.     Rainbow ignored her question. “Lightning Dust!” The mare snapped to attention, probably out of habit. “You knew what that letter said before I told either of you what it said. Explain yourself.”     “I—I took the letter and—held it up to the light.”     Rainbow sighed. “Lightning, I really don't want to believe that what Spitfire tried to do to you was the right thing, but you've just added ‘mishandling of classified information’ to your record!”     Lightning laid her ears back and angled her head downward, but did not break eye contact. “It—it was Wonderbolt mail—I know I shouldn't have—but I did.”     “Every time you do something like this, it gets that much harder for me to defend you. I interfered on your behalf because I thought you could change. I genuinely thought you would. I believed in you.”     Lightning’s mouth fell open as she took a step backward. She looked like she was on the verge of tears.     “Dismissed.”     At Rainbow’s word, Lightning turned and galloped away.     “Lightning Dust!” Starlight called out.     “Let her go, Starlight.”     Starlight glanced between the two for a moment before sighing. “I’m sorry, Rainbow. I can’t. I empathize with her. I know what it’s like for somepony to let go—for somepony to flip a pony's world upside down, then abandon her to run off alone into a cave! I know what it’s like to have a past full of regret. And—I think I can help her. I’m going after her.”     As she turned to follow Lightning, Rainbow called out. “Wait.” Starlight paused. “Tomorrow. Council chamber. We’ll hold another emergency meeting.”     “I’ll be there.”     Lightning Dust cried into her hooves as she sat at a booth in a half-empty diner. Memories flashed unbidden before her mind’s eye, forcing her to relive her shame and humiliation. It was enough to break a mare—a confident, able-bodied, military mare whose proud heritage demanded great things of her. She would never be the mare her family expected her to be. With their expectations unmet, her dreams unrealized, and the ruins of her formerly carefully-planned life still haunting her, Lightning cried in the diner.     “You gonna order anything or not?” asked a nasally female voice.     Lightning sniffed and raised her head, staring at the blurry mare before her. “Lost my appetite,” she mumbled.     “Can't let you stay there if you don't order anything,” she said.     “She’s with me,” said a second voice. Lightning turned her head to see its owner.     “S—Starlight?” She wiped her eyes and reached for a napkin to use as a tissue, though what she really wanted to do was crawl under the table and pretend she didn’t exist.     “I’ll have a water, no lemon,” said Starlight.     “And you?”     Lightning blinked away the tears as she stared blankly at the waitress. “Got any cider?”     “Sure do.”     “I’ll have that.” The waitress left, and Starlight sat down across from Lightning. “Why are you wasting your time with me? Can’t you see everything I touch ends up a bucking disaster?”     “The time we spend helping somepony else to better themselves isn’t wasted time.”     “You think I haven’t been trying? Trying isn’t enough. I need to be better, not try better.”     “You’ve got one life to fix. I’ve got thousands. Yours is one of them.”     Lightning looked up at Starlight. “That’s impossible. Besides, my whole life is falling apart.”     “This whole world is falling apart. It fell apart a long time ago.”     “Well, there’s one thing we agree on.”     “I’ve been in a similar position as you, Lightning. I’ve hit rock bottom before. Trust me; it only gets better from here.”     Lightning’s lips trembled as she raised her head. “I—I want that to be true—but with everything I’ve seen so far—”     “Let me help you,” Starlight pleaded.     “I’d rather do this alone.”     “No. Lightning, don’t listen to your pain. You can’t do this alone.”     “I can’t do it together either,” she said with a sniff. “You’re wasting your time. Go find somepony who’s not beyond hope.”     “Look at me, Lightning.” It took a moment, but she slowly raised her head. “You are not beyond hope. This is not something you can’t overcome. For me to believe that’s true is—is for me to believe that I’m without hope. I killed Liberty Belle, not you. I killed Fluttershy and Cheerilee and Maud Pie and—and everypony who died in Fillydelphia.” Starlight dropped her gaze briefly. “I owe it to them. I owe it to you.” She reached across the table and put her hoof over Lightning’s. “I won’t give up on you. All I’m asking is that you promise to let me help.”     Lightning smiled weakly, and Starlight reciprocated. She clasped her second hoof over Starlight’s. “Thank you,” she whispered.     The waitress approached and placed the mares’ drinks on the table. “You two ready to order?”     Lightning eyed the menus still sitting between the napkin dispenser and the ketchup bottle on the window side of the table. One of them floated towards her, enveloped in a cyan aura. “Well, Lightning? Whaddya say?”     “I—I think I’m ready.”    Starlight knocked on Shining Armor’s door. A moment later, a purple aura surrounded it and swung it open. “Starlight!” he called. “Come in! Rainbow told me about Spitfire and the changelings. Sounds like you got out of there just in time.”     “Yes, sir,” she said. “I stayed in Cloudsdale long enough to grab a bite to eat, but not much longer, sir.”     Shining smiled. “You don't have to address me as a soldier.”     “But Rainbow Dash said all you military types were the same.”     “I wouldn't believe everything you hear from Rainbow Dash. Maybe we do have a stereotype. That doesn't mean there can't be exceptions.” Shining gestured toward a chair opposite his desk. “Please, have a seat.”     Starlight stepped up into the chair before settling into a sitting position. “Spitfire said Rainbow Dash called her out on her attempted execution of Lightning Dust, tried to pull rank on her, and cursed at her, all in her own office.” Shining frowned and raised a hoof to his chin. “I came to you myself because I wanted a third opinion.”     Shining thought a moment before replying. “First of all, Rainbow, Spitfire, and I are all equals. So Rainbow shouldn't have tried to pull rank.”     “But I thought Rainbow was a general.”     “She is. And Spitfire is Admiral of the Army Air Fleet. Besides that, we’re all three joint Chiefs-of-Staff. Spitfire and I are both captains, of the Wonderbolts and the Royal Guard respectively. Who told you Rainbow outranks Spitfire?”     “I heard it second-hoof from Spitfire’s account of Rainbow Dash in her office.”     “Sounds to me like Rainbow is picking and choosing titles to compare.”     “Well then why didn't Spitfire correct her on the spot? She insisted on using the title of Captain.”     “Then she was probably emphasizing jurisdiction. The Wonderbolts’ highest commanding officer is Spitfire. I can't give orders to the Army Air Fleet, Spitfire can't give orders to the Guard, Rainbow can't give orders to the Wonderbolts. That’s why we put together a plan of attack long before any battle begins.”     “So who was in the wrong?”     Shining Armor leaned forward. “What I’m about to tell you does not leave this office. Understood?” Starlight nodded. “Rainbow Dash can be—borderline obnoxious. She’s brash, bull-headed, and impatient. But she does have spirit, and she leads from the front, which inspires her troops and rallies them to her. Good kid, but rough around the edges. Spitfire is experienced and orderly, but often to a fault. She’s stubborn, and she doesn’t take criticism well.     “Spitfire was right to court-martial Lightning Dust,” he continued. “If Lightning Dust hadn't killed the Mayor, she probably could have gotten off with a lighter punishment. There are perfectly good times to invoke a firing squad; treason, for instance. While I see where Spitfire’s reasoning for the firing squad, I can’t condone her for going through with it. Rainbow Dash is just as bad in the opposite direction. She overstepped her jurisdiction and overrode Spitfire’s decision. She actually flew down and stopped the execution while it was in progress.”     “Then—they’re both in the wrong.”     “That’s what it looks like.”     Starlight hung her head for a moment, then raised it again and continued. “So what do we do now that Cloudsdale is being occupied by the changelings?”     “Rainbow and I have yet to put a plan together. She wants to leave as soon as possible. I think she went to go find Sweetie Drops.”     “Any idea when she’ll have a plan put together?”     “Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow at the meeting. Depends on how impatient she is. I'm worried she'll run off with a plan that's only half-formed.”     “Yup,” said Starlight. “Sounds like Rainbow Dash.”     Rainbow Dash rounded a corner in the command post. “Rainbow Dash!” somepony called out. She turned her head to see a Blue Changeling.     “There you are, Bon Bon!”     “I've been looking all over for you,” the pair said in unison. They exchanged troubled glances before Rainbow spoke up.     “I hope it's not more bad news.”     “I’m afraid so.”     “Great. Let's hear it.”     “I sent a few more agents to Cloudsdale when the Wonderbolts left base. One of them fell out of contact. Another brought back a report on the Wonderbolts. He said—”     “—the Wonderbolts are under attack by Green Changelings?”     Bon Bon looked at her quizzically. “Yeah. How’d you find out?”     “Somepony got a message out.”     “That might mean there’s somepony working from the inside. What’d the message say?”     “One big word. ‘Changelings.’ That’s it. Partial hoofprint in ink near the corner.”     Bon Bon raised a hoof to her chin and began pacing. “One word—a hoofprint—didn’t specify Green Changelings—Did they spill the ink?—They must have.” She stopped pacing. “The author was a Wonderbolt. They were in a hurry. Probably, their position was about to be compromised.”     “Wow. That’s a lot more information than I got out of it.”     Bon Bon smiled. “I guess it’s status quo for a special agent. Several ponies and changelings in the agency were even better than I was.”     “So, any ideas on what we’re gonna do next? Still open to suggestions.”     “Until we know what we’re up against, no. Have the Wonderbolts been captured? Replaced? Killed? Not as likely, but still possible. If so, how many?”     “Right. We can’t charge in weapons drawn if there’s Wonderbolts among the Green Changelings.”     “Well yes, there's that, but...”     “But what?”     “I wanted to try something. I want to try a war of conversion. Capture as many Greens as we can and see if we can’t convince them to join us.”     “Bon Bon, that’s—”     “Just hear me out,” she said as she lifted a hoof. “Every Green who falls on the battlefield counts as a kill. Every Green who becomes a Blue counts double, one against Chrysalis, and one for us.”     “True. But how do we know they won’t flip back? Or just fake it?”     “Remember how Applejack was acting when Chrysalis bit her?”     “Considering she killed Cheerilee and tried to kill Pinkie Pie, it’s kind of hard to forget.”     “Right. Sorry to bring that back up. Chrysalis controlled her two ways, both with a bite. The first one only influenced her will, not like the second, which dominated her will. A similar effect can be produced through a special changeling spell. If a changeling says ‘Long live,’ and then the name of a changeling monarch in Hive Tongue, that changes their base form to match that monarch.     “So saying bzzz-zt/ch-zz/ck tzz/chk would make a Green Changeling a Blue. Saying bzzz-zt/ch-zz/ck Chrysalis, which I’m obviously not going to say in Hive Tongue, would make me a Green Changeling.”     “Really? It’s that easy?”     “Yes, and no. We have to convince them that what we have is better than what Chrysalis has.”     Rainbow dropped her gaze for a moment. “I’ll think about it. But if it’s between saving my own life or saving a changeling, I’m not going to hold back.”     “I—guess that’s all I can ask of you. Don’t kill if you don’t have to.”     “I’ll try. One other thing. There’s gonna be another Council meeting tomorrow.”     “Same time?” "Same time." "See you there," she said with a smile and a wink. Rainbow smiled back. As she turned to leave, she felt her ears flatten and her cheeks grow warm. She sighed contentedly as she trotted off down the hall.     Trixie opened the doors to the Hall of the Crystal Throne and entered. She walked along the red carpet towards the throne. She bowed at the foot of the throne and waited for Sombra to address her.     “Rise, Acolyte. I trust you come bearing the Alicorn Amulet.”     “Of course, my King.” Trixie stood up and levitated the amulet out of her saddlebags.     “Yes!” King Sombra accepted the amulet with his magic and drew it to his waiting hoof. He smiled before unclasping it and putting it on over his chestpiece. The amulet fused with his armor, and his robes looked as if the wind was blowing through them. By degrees, the room became darker around the King as he rose into the air. “It has been too long since I wielded both the amulet and the crown!” There was a sound as of thunder, and the whole room went pitch black. The room shook, and Trixie dropped to her knees. She lit her horn—not with Dark Magic—but the darkness swallowed up the light.     At last, the darkness began to dissipate, and Trixie raised her head. Her first sight of her king was enough to take her breath away; she found herself kneeling in the presence of an alicorn king.     Sombra looked down and smiled when he saw the expression frozen on her face. “Now you see why the Sisters feared me.”     “Y—yes, my King.” Trixie’s fear gave way to more tender emotions—wonder, reverence, admiration, and even lov—     “Why do you stare at me like that?”     Trixie caught herself and tried to force a more neutral expression onto her face. “Like what, your Highness?”     “Like you just were a moment ago.”     It’s now or never, she told herself. She gulped. “M—my King? I—I want you to know that—that—” Come on! Say it! She took a deep breath and promised herself she would say it. “I—really admire you!”     Darnit, Trixie! What the buck? Why didn't you say it!?     King Sombra sat up a little straighter on his throne. “Thank you… Trixie.” He smiled with a special sort of off-guard smile. It was a smile that spoke of genuine, sudden pleasure. “I will… remember this.” He nodded at her, which served as her cue to depart.     “Long live the King,” she said as she rose to leave. Her cheeks were burning up with heat, and she suspected they were red as cherries.     Trixie cursed herself all the way to the door.