//------------------------------//
// Weary Soldier Just Have To Talk Or Think Sometimes 
// Story: Harmony's Parallel 
// by Xutiepops 
//------------------------------//

The chariot ride back to Ponyville was mostly silent. The princesses sat in the chariot with Laughter, Honesty, Spike, and Generosity. Flash and Loyalty flew the chariot while Magic and Kindness flew beside it. All of them had too much on their minds to formulate any conversation. 
Magic was more than confused, she was concerned, and worried? She didn't know. She tried to make sense of things but she just couldn't. Loyalty was confused by the whole situation. They didn't win, and she was covered in bruises and aches. They were just changelings, right?
Honesty and Flash had their respective reasons for guilt. Everyone tried to make sense of anything, tried to even think properly over the situation. Everyone was also paranoid, terrified the seven would come after them after they discovered the princesses absence. 
But as they tiredly landed in Ponyville, they assumed they were safe for at least the night. As Flash and Loyalty unhooked themselves, Magic spoke, "Let's get the princesses to the castle and go from there." She sounded so tired. The four on the chariot hopped off as Loyalty and Flash re-hooked themselves and ran the princesses over to the castle. 
"Thank you for saving us. All of you," Celestia spoke, her voice sounded just as tired as she looked. No one responded, still unable to say anything properly. But at least they could think now. 
And by the time they got inside the castle, they decided they could speak properly. Perfect timing. 
They let the princesses sit in the thrones, along with Loyalty, Spike, Honesty, and Generosity. Spike was the first to talk, deciding his comedic-like attitude could work as a great starter. He held one of his feet in his claws. "Ow! I can't believe I ran that much!" 
Generosity smiled weakly at him. "You helped us tremendously Spike! I don't know how we would've faired with that dragon still available." He felt on top of the world. 
"Yeah!" Laughter said happily. "There's no way we could've gotten the princesses out with a dragon on the loose! So, what'd ya do? Just run him around?" She seemed so curious, she really wasn't. She was extremely tired, but she knew it made him feel better about himself, so she played along. 
He smiled back at her, feeling like he was a really useful part of the plan. It was a different feeling for him, he was never really useful before. "Yeah! Then I ran out of the castle like we planned!" He had a huge grin on his face, his teeth showing through. Some of them couldn't even look at him, seeing the monstrous teenager instead. 
Kindness' face took a look of worry. She pointed at the princesses, "Are you two okay? You look... hurt..." She seemed so worried, and the two couldn't help but smile at her. 
Celestia nodded. "It hurt. A lot. But the initial pain is over, now all we have to do it wait for it all to heal." She smiled sweetly and reassuringly at the group. Loyalty flew over to the two, looking at their state. 
She was completely mortified and furious. "What happened to your wings!?" She exclaimed. She didn't even need an answer when she started for the door. Light blue magic slammed them shut. Loyalty looked to Generosity with a look of pure fury. "What'd you do that for?"
"To stop you from doing something rash!" Generosity yelled at her, slamming a hoof on the table. "We all want to... do something to those jerks for hurting the princesses like this!" 
Loyalty flew in her face, as she often did when she was angry. "So why not go there now when they're weak?" 
"We'll be killed!" She yelled, seemingly even more furious than the pegasus in her face. Everyone went silent at her outburst. Loyalty just backed away slightly, horrified. She accepted defeat and flew down into her throne. They all waited for Generosity to continue. 
"D-do you see what they did to the princesses?" Generosity asked, voice shaking with anger. "Did you see what they did to Flash, you? Or Twilight!?"
Loyalty opened her mouth to speak, but Generosity cut her off. "Imagine what they'll do with a dragon and they're probably furious with the princesses taken!" 
"Do you think they'd...k-kill us?" Fluttershy asked timidly, hoping they'd stop arguing. Generosity sighed. 
"With what they did to the princesses... yes I actually think they would," she spoke quietly. Generosity looked to Magic and saw the mare with her head hung. "Do you think they would?" 
Magic looked up at all of them, her cold stare giving all of them a chill down their spines. She seemed void of anything, like she couldn't feel a thing. "They're monsters," she said bluntly. "Of course they would. And with magic like that... who knows what they could do." 
Laughter bounced in front of her. "Yeah! What kinda magic was that?" She sat down on her hind legs and moved her hooves up and down, in a motion meant to be spooky. "It seemed all... electrified!" 
"It was a simple high charge of magic," Luna stated, putting all attention on her. "Magic is a chemical reaction, so, too much of it would bother the particles in the air enough to make it seem electric. It's an effect, it isn't actually electrified." 
Honesty pointed at Magic. "Well, Twi's ain't never done nothin' like that before. Why'd it work for her?" She stared intently at the princesses, hoping she could make sense of it all.
"Twilight has not had her own magic reach such an emotional push to force that much of it," Celestia explained. 
Laughter bounced up on the table standing at the center of it. "What about when she fought Tirek and had all that magic? It wasn't electric then!" She was leaning so far forward she fell on her face, but she still looked up at the Princesses. 
"Emotion makes magic stronger. Besides, her own magic wasn't a large portion of the magic at the time," Luna answered, finding some comfort in the adorable silliness of Laughter.
Luna looked to Loyalty and took in the state she was in, her whole midsection was covered in bruises. Her cheek was swollen, her mane was ruffled, and her wings seemed much smaller, as if she lost some feathers. She seemed a lot quieter, as if she was thinking intently. "You got pretty hurt yourself in that fight, are you all right?"
Loyalty nodded. "Oh yeah, hurts a bit more now than then, but I'm gonna blame adrenaline for that," she smiled childishly. Luna was sure it hurt a lot more than she made it out to be, but she decided to let her look strong. She also assumed the mare needed a good nights rest- and she meant a good nights rest.
Luna smiled up at them all, "Thank you all again for helping us. I'm very grateful for it." She put her hoof to her chest, as if she meant it from the heart. She looked up at all of them with a smile, extremely grateful to have not just subjects, but friends like them all. She looked back to Loyalty, "How was your battle with yourself? If you don't mind me asking." 
Loyalty smiled brashly. "Don't mind. It was more annoying than challenging. She was easy enough to lead on at least," she leaned back in the seat. Her eyes shut as she hooves went behind her head. "She wouldn't leave me alone, she just wanted to keep fighting. What a weirdo." Luna just chuckled at her conclusion. 
Kindness smiled at her friend sweetly. Her hoof on her chest, taking every word from the heart. "Thank you for everything. She almost seemed just as dangerous as the d-dragon." She visually swallowed at just the thought of the dragon.
Laughter laid on her back on the table, her limbs spread out. "Yeah! Guess we guessed right with priority, huh?" 
Kindness giggled with her hoof to her mouth. "Hehe, I guess we did. It really helped." The two exchanged smiles of pride. Even if they didn't do a lot, they helped the princesses, and that was enough for them to feel a success. 
"Yes, even if we didn't stop them, we got what's important," Generosity spoke happily. She looked to the princesses and smiled, she was reassured and prideful. Even if she didn't do a lot, they won. And they got the princesses to safety, that was all that mattered. That was the plan if the enemy was too strong. Nothing went awry, it all worked out. And she was more than grateful. 
Magic and Flash still weren't able to speak. They could only think. And they couldn't stop thinking. They couldn't help it, too much was on their minds to help it. 
Flash thought the first time was just a mistake, a mix up. He tried to tell himself it wasn't his fault. But when he took Magic away from Twilight, he still only saw Twilight. She looked like she was in so much pain, and he just wanted to help her. Even if Magic looked the exact same, he wanted to help Twilight. Not the mare he needed to help.
He tried to think of an excuse, a reason to make him believe it wasn't his fault. The only idea he got was a love spell, like the one Chrysalis pulled on Shining. But that didn't make any sense. He had never ran into Magic before and she would've been obvious about it. So it was all him. And he hated it. 
He couldn't make any sense of it. How could he suddenly like the enemy's Twilight? And for what reason? They looked the same, they... were the same. And Twilight had a worse attitude than Magic, so why like the former? He just felt guilty. More guilty than he had ever been in his entire life. 
He tried to mentally repair some of the damage by looking at Magic and admiring her instead. But like before, she just looked bland. Then he tried to blame it on the blank stare, but even when she smiled slightly, he still only saw something bland. 
While Flash was having a mental breakdown and a mental war at the same time, Magic was trying to make sense of her emotions, then she had her thoughts to work on. She was confused, confused as to why the enemy took a shot for her, confused as to why the electric strings showed up around the mare when she was hit. From Celestia's description, that shouldn't have worked that way. 
But every time she tried to make sense of it, those eyes would appear at the front of her mind. Those violet eyes that shook in those few seconds, it seemingly went on for forever. They looked so sad, so scared, so regretful. She felt so bad for her, that's why she couldn't look away. 
That's what she told herself, she knew the reason she couldn't look away was because of how mortified she was. The mare reminded her so much of her, just a scared, confused girl put into power that she couldn't handle. She couldn't handle it, and she didn't have friends to pick her back up. So she depended on herself, Magic figured that out. 
She was concerned, worried, and she had so many questions. She could've thought them over further, but Honesty's voice just cut through her thoughts. "Hey! You two are kinda quiet. We should celebrate... sorta," Honesty said with a wavering smile. 
"Uh.. j-just thinking... that's all. It's nothing," Flash said nervously, hating all the eyes on him. It felt like they all knew, and he was so scared. He could even see Magic staring at him out of the corner of his eye, his spine was as straight as a board. 
Magic raised an eyebrow in curiousity. Why is he so anxious? She thought. "What about you, Twi?" Honesty asked, taking her from her thoughts again. Magic's head whirled to her. 
"Huh? Oh..." Magic started... wondering if she should tell them. She hung her head, deciding. She sighed and picked up her head, a determined confusion on her face. "Uh. I'm just thinking. That mare... she protected me. I was just trying to figure out how I feel about it." 
"Yeah that was strange," Honesty said, leaning back in her throne. 
"What happened?" Loyalty asked. 
"Their Twilight jumped in front of our Twi and took a magic orby thing for her," Honesty explained quickly. Loyalty nodded. 
Generosity leaned forward, placing a hoof on the table, she looked to Magic. "So... you know why she did it?" 
Magic thought it over and looked to the ground in a realization. Her eyebrows turned up and she slowly looked up at each of them, shaking her head. She looked back at the floor, "No. I have no idea why she did it." 
"Well, it's still a good thing she did, right?" Kindness asked timidly. Magic simply smiled at her and nodded.
Laughter smiled happily again, clapping her hooves together and sitting on her hind legs. "Well, we all got lucky. I don't know how none of them noticed us!" 
"One of them did," Celestia said bluntly, startling everyone in the room. She just stared down at the table, too ashamed to look them in the eyes. 
"They did!?" Fluttershy exclaimed, putting her hoof to her chest. She exchanged terrified looks with everypony else. They all looked back to the princess, their eyebrows turned up in worry. Frowns sat on each of their faces, she sighed. 
She pointed at Honesty, "Their Applejack noticed, but she didn't say anything. I don't think she plans to either." Luna nodded. 
"She was the kindest of them, she wouldn't be a serious threat. Do not worry, you've done enough today," Luna smiled sweetly. 
Everyone visually relaxed with a sigh and a fall of their shoulders. Their mouths formed up into smiles of comfort. Celestia didn't like the mare at all, but she liked her better than the rest of them. 
Honesty stated what everyone in the room was questioning. "So... they're not changelings, huh?" Her question got more silence than it did response. 
Loyalty looked to the princesses, "Did you two ever see them... ya know... change back?" The two shook their heads. That just put everyone back to thinking. "They kept saying stuff like they lived in a different world, right?"
Laughter slammed her hooves on the table. "Yeah! They said 'Daybreaker', and that Chrissy's army died! They genuinely had no idea what a changeling was." 
Generosity rolled her eyes and crossed her hooves, "It must've been an act!" 
Loyalty rubbed the back of her neck, "Uh... Their me did kinda say something about me being strong in this world. Maybe Pinkie's right."
"But there's no way, right?" Generosity asked with a nervous smile. 
Laughter jumped up from her laid down position. "A mirror made Twilight have two legs! Who knows what other kinds of worlds there are!"
"That wasn't an act for just you all, they always seemed like they weren't from here," Luna said, her head hung in a determined thought. "They even asked us questions like how many princesses there are and what the Elements of Harmony are."
Kindness tapped her hooves together. "A-and changelings can't take form of things that don't exist, right?" she chirped. Once all the attention was on her, she looked away nervously. "J-just cause their Rainbow had a-a Shadowbolts suit, and their Applejack had a, uh, a shirt like Flim and Flams." 
"And Spike hasn't grown up yet, they couldn't change the colors of a dragons scales," Celestia thought out loud. Everyone thought in silence for a while. 
"So... they're from a different world? That still doesn't make any sense," Honesty said to cut through the silence. 
"How so?" Magic asked. 
"Why're they here if they're from a different world?" Honesty said bluntly. Everyone just fell into a silence of thought again. Loyalty leaned back in her throne, a pounding behind her eyes as she squeezed them shut. She just wished everything was done like how it usually was. 
She didn't want to think. So, she didn't. She crossed her hooves and tried to relax the migraine in her skull. She guessed thinking about it would cause stress, and she didn't think stress was good for body aches, or migraines.
"They aren't that nice," Spike started, fumbling with his claws as he stared at them. "Uh, their Twilight did seem kinda... crazy." 
Laughter dragged herself across the table until she was in front of Spike. "So? They all seemed loco!" 
Loyalty rolled her eyes and groaned. "Tell me about it! That Rainbow was psycho! It's like she wanted to get hurt or something." She sunk back into her throne and shut her eyes again. "We'll never understand those weirdos." 
"Like how our world runs on, uh, harmony and peace... what if their world doesn't?" Spike asked, leaving everyone to think again, but Laughter still stared at Spike, creeping him out. He was going to say something, but she bounced up with a thought.
"We should have names for them!" She stood on the table and turned in a circle as she spoke. All she got back were annoyed glances. She pouted angrily. "What's the point to understand why their here!? That doesn't tell us anything. We need to figure out their abilities! And that could help us name them!" 
Generosity stared up at her with a thoughtful smile, even if Laughter was turned the other way. "Yes, sounds like a splendid idea. And it makes conversing about them easier!" Laughter turned to her with a bounce. The pink mare crouched down with a giddy smile. Generosity smiled back. 
Honesty raised an eyebrow, "So, uh, where do ya wanna start?"
Laughter turned to her with a bounce, once again. She smiled. "I have no idea!" 
"Twilight is Electricity," Magic deadpanned, everyone staring at her. "It just seemed like the obvious option." 
"It's good!" Laughter smiled with a bounce. "So Electricity! Ooooh! It sounds great!" She plopped down on the table with her hoof to her chin in thought. "I guess we should come up with our own names, huh?" 
"I think you and Fluttershy should," Generosity stated elegantly. She smiled, "I mean, all of us know a different one better than we know ourselves." 
Laughter bounced up with a smile. "Oki! So.... Their Pinkie is gonna be Sadness! She looked so sad." 
"Maybe Pity would work better?" Luna suggested with a smile. Laughter and Generosity smiled at her. Laughter nodded in agreement, Luna's smile mirroring her own. 	
"Their Applejack is Tricks. That scum of a mare deserves such a word," Celestia stepped in just as Magic did, coldly and bluntly. Her powering voice meant that no one would go against it. Even if everyone was concerned, Honesty smiled and leaned back. 
"Controlling," Loyalty stated bluntly, her punkish tone the brightest part of her. She seemed so tried, but no one else noticed. Of course they wouldn't, but that's how she learned to push through it. 
"Vanity, that mare did nothing but worry about herself!" Generosity huffed rudely. "I can't believe I would ever be like that!" She grouched. Honesty just chuckled at her.
They all stared at Kindness, saying as she was the only one who hasn't answered. She cowered behind her mane under the spotlight. "H-how about C-Cruel? She didn't h-help at all... and she just l-looked mean." 
Laughter bounced down next to her and wrapped her front leg around her with a smile. "Cool! So we have Electricity, Tricks, Cruel, Pity, Vanity, Controlling, and the big, scary dragon! Wow! They all sound pretty evil, huh?" She giggled.
Everyone sat in silence, just processing everything. The silence lasted a bit, almost as if everyone forgot what they were doing. The first noise in a bit was Spike's snoring. 
Magic looked down at her baby dragon with a comforted smile. She sighed in relief and contained Spike in her magic. "I think we should all get some rest. Flash and the princesses can stay here. All of you can too if you want." Flash jumped at hearing her say his name. 
All her friends nodded with a smile. Loyalty smirked happily, "You got enough room for all of us?" Every pony in the room laughed, a new relaxed atmosphere taking over. Everyone smiled weakly. 
Magic walked out of the room with Spike in hand. Every one followed silently. They were all a bit more relaxed, but they were still slightly on edge. 
And they knew that wouldn't go away until they safely had Canterlot back and their new enemy gone.