The five friends, plus Twilight Sparkle and Spike, were still gathered around the blue cocoon. Surrounded by various books, Twilight stood a yard away from the cocoon, still on a continuous notetaking spree. Twilight filled page after page with drawing, diagrams, and detailed descriptions. Spike handed her blank pages with one claw, and collected filled up page after filled up page with the other. Soon he had a pretty haft stack of papers in his right claw, struggling to keep the stack balanced as he kept his wings flapping to keep hovering at eye level with Twilight.
"I understand you all are worried about Ocellus," Twilight said to the group while still taking notes, "So I'll still allow you all to stay. But I don't think it would do any harm for you all to go to class."
"We're not leaving Ocellus," Sandbar said with uncharacteristic defiance.
Gallus nodded determinedly and said, "You got that right. You'd really think we'd risk sitting in a classroom when Ocellus finally busts out of that thing?"
"Yeah! We are not gonna miss seeing that!" Smolder said with a slight touch of eagerness.
Silverstream was more nervous that she'd ever been in her life. "I just hope she's okay in there," she squeaked out.
Yona tapped Spike on the tail and said, "Changeling King come soon, right?"
Spike shrugged awkwardly, as he was still holding the stack of notes, and he said, "I sent Thorax the letter, and he sent a letter right back, although it wasn't as much as a letter as a short note. 'Don't worry. Leave her be. I'll be there soon.' That's all he wrote."
Yona still frowned nervously for a moment, then she gasped and said with a smile, "It's soon!"
"Huh?" Spike asked.
"Thorax say he be here soon! It's soon!" Yona cheered, and she pointed up at the sky.
Everycreature looked up and saw the King of the Changelings buzzing through the sky straight towards them. Thorax landed a few feet away, and his attention was immediately captured by the cocoon.
"Thorax! You got here so quickly!" Twilight said in relief, and she used her magic to grab the stack of pages from Spike. She held them up in front of Thorax and said ,"I gathered as much information as I could. We should be able to figure this out soon."
Thorax didn't respond to Twilight, and he looked right over the stack of papers. He nudged the stack out of the way as he walked right up to the cocoon. He sighed and looked upon it with a mixture of nostalgia and pride.
"I didn't think it would happen so quickly," Thorax mused, then he turned to Twilight and said, "Your School of Friendship works, Twilight. Don't let anycreature tell you otherwise."
Twilight blinked, and she said, "Oh, well, thanks. . .but-."
Throax then looked at Ocellus' friends and said, "You all were amazing too. You were just the friends she needed."
Smolder huffed and said, "Okay, no disrespect mister Changeling King, but seriously, what are you talking about? What happened to Ocellus!"
Thorax nodded understandingly and said, "Yeah, I get that this all seems very strange."
"No kidding," Gallus remarked with a roll of his eyes.
"I got a bit of the story in the letter Twilight wrote," Thorax said, "But I think I should get it directly from you."
Sandbar was the first to step up and speak. "Ocellus had been working really hard on this research paper, but the wind blew the pages away, so we all split up and grabbed them."
Silverstream then jumped in, "So we gave her the pages back, and she got so happy, and then her heart starting glowing, and then there was a flash, and she was that cocoon thingy!"
Thorax nodded slowly and said, "Okay. Did she say anything in particular?"
Smolder answered, "Right before she went into that thing, she was like 'my friends', and that was it."
Thorax then turned to cocoon, stepped a little closer, and gently rested his right forehoof against it. He stood there with his eyes closed for a moment, then he opened his eyes and took his hoof away. "Did any of you touch it?" he asked the five young creatures, and they all replied with no. Thorax then backed away from the cocoon and said, "Okay then. Any of you, go ahead and touch the cocoon."
No one moved at first, they mostly just looked at each other nervously. Eventually, Sandbar nodded to himself, and he boldly walked over to the cocoon and gently put his right forehoof on it.
Everycreature watched with baited breath, waiting to see what would happen.
After nearly a moment of silence, Sandbar looked nervously at the cocoon and said, "Is something supposed to happen?"
"Hmm," was all Thorax said.
This only made Sandbar more nervous, and he gazed longingly at the cocoon and said, "Is something wrong? Will Ocellus ever-?"
Sandbar was suddenly cut off when a light shined from within the cocoon. It startled him so much that he took his hoof away, and the light promptly went out.
"What?" Sandbar gasped.
Looking excited, Thorax eagerly asked the Earth Pony, "What were you thinking about?"
Confused, Sandbar replied, "I was just thinking that. . . I wanted my friend back."
Thorax smiled as he had a moment of realization. "Of course! It was obvious! All of you, gather around the cocoon and touch it. And while you do, keep thinking about Ocellus. Think of all the times you had together, and the times you will have together after this."
Silverstream quickly stood beside Sandbar and placed her right talon onto the cocoon. "That's easy! I'd do anything to help a friend of mine!"
The cocoon began to glow with blue light once again, and as the rest of the creatures came in close and touched it, the light grew even brighter.
Sandbar stood watching the light, dazzled by it's color and brightness.
"Ahem!" Gallus said loudly, looking at Sandbar in annoyance.
"What?" Sandbar asked, only to realize in the very next second that he had taken his hoof away. Sandbar smiled sheepishly and said, "Oh. . . right."
Sandbar touched his hoof to the surface of the cocoon, and the light reached maximum power, forcing everyone to close their eyes and look away once again. There was the sound of something cracking, and then the sound of something shattering, and then the light was gone.
When everyone opened their eyes and looked, everyone but Thorax was utterly shocked by what they saw. Where the cocoon once was, there stood a Changeling an inch or two taller than she was before she had entered the cocoon. Her once arctic blue body was now light turquoise in color, and her horn was twice as long. The color of her wings had remained the same, but what really grabbed everyone's attention was her beautiful sky-blue mane and tail. Then she opened her eyes, and everyone marveled at the blue-green pupils she now possessed. In a way, she was reminiscent of a small, gentle, and beautiful version of Chrysalis.
"Wha-?" she breathed out, her voice still the same as always. Her eyes darted around at her friends who were still gathered in a circle around her. Then she noticed Thorax standing nearby and said, "King Thorax? What's going on? What's happening to. . . me. . ." Her voice trailed off as she felt her new mane brush against her shoulders. She lifted a hoof to touch it, and her pupils shrank in shock as she moved the long hair so she could see it. "Why do I have hair?!" she gasped.
Thorax approached her, and the other five stepped away to give the tow Changelings some room. "Ocellus," Thorax said gently, "You were always the most intelligent Changeling, always ready to learn, and wanting to learn. And believe it or not, you had a lot of magic within you as well. I could just feel it. I honestly didn't know what to do next, until Twilight told me about her Friendship School. It was all so clear. Friendship is the most powerful source of magic in existence, and you were well equipped to learn about it. I noticed how shy you were, but that only made me even more sure that you needed to come here."
Thorax cracked a smile and continued, "And when you pretty much defied literally everyone so you could stay with your new friends, that settled it. The friendship you shared with them truly was the key to unlocking your potential. . ."
Thorax then bowed low and declared, ". . . as the very first Changeling Princess."