Nightmare Night. Such a... distasteful holiday, I mused. Luna found some kind of irony with the day (or night, rather) to actually enjoy it. I think she simply enjoyed the fact that it was held during the night and that it was a Halloween rip-off. The origin of it left much to be desired, to be honest.
After we had restricted Platinum’s access in the dream realm to our shared dream, our ponies celebrated the day the nightmares stopped. How did they do that? Well... they did so by demonizing Celestia’s puppeteer (I shouldn’t have been surprised by it, but for some reason I was). And, by doing so, they did the same thing for my sister as well.
Unintentional or not, my sister’s name was being spoken of in hushed whispers and it broke my heart to see it happen. She didn't deserve their mockery, but what could I do? My ponies' minds were already made up, and as much as I wanted to, I couldn't force them to speak nicely of her when they associated her with 'Nightmare Dream'. If I did that, they would also start to question whether or not Platinum was real and that she possessed her. Such things were pretty much unheard of in pony history, not to mention what Platinum did to extend her life prior to possessing my sister. It wouldn't be hard to jump to the conclusion that everything was just made up by us since Platinum was 'technically' supposed to be dead long before she could have done what she did.
Already, wild conspiracies were circulating around us not being the benevolent princesses we claimed to be, I didn't want to worry about that, as well. And all of this was happening because of the seed Platinum planted in their heads, too. Acting like a dictator now would play right into her hooves.
It wasn’t just the adults that treated my twin like she is a monster, though. No, it was sadly not limited to adults only. Even little foals, in their ignorance of how... hurtful... it was to see them fear my sister like that, told each other stories about how Nightmare Dream would come down from the moon for one night only in the year to 'gobble them up' if they weren’t in disguise and offer her sweets as a tribute. It was ridiculous, but try to tell that to little foals, I thought with a roll of my eyes.
I wanted to stomp this little ‘holiday’ out of existence, I really did, but my hooves were tied. It painted my sister in a bad picture, and should she return and find out about this day... I just know she will blame herself. Well, the holiday isn’t actually about my sister (more like the monster that replaced her), but she would still feel guilty for falling into Platinum’s hooves.
Then, there were also the rumors that Celestia had willingly associated herself with Platinum, which was just ridiculous. Just one more reason why I despised this day so much.
Celestia was the last pony that would ever be in cohorts with that cockroach, seriously. Sometimes I wonder how gullible my ponies are that they would believe something like that.
If this continues for much longer, I would have to resort to more... drastic measures to keep the good name of my twin clear of anything in relation to Platinum. If I had to, I would erase every mention of my sister from history so that our little ponies wouldn’t fear her as much as that monster once she returns. She doesn’t deserve any of that. Both the fear and erasure from history. Only myths would remain in that case and I hoped my sister wouldn’t come to resent me for it.
I sighed and looked into the mirror with tired eyes. Five years without Celestia... it showed. Both Luna and I were exhausted, and not only because of the sorrowful sex, the angry sex, the gentle sex, the sexy vampire sex, the... okay, that’s enough of that, Summer. There was a meeting waiting for me with the generals of our military.
It was high time we put some order into that and combined all three forces into a unified front. Luna already had a name picked out for it, and as always, it was utterly unimaginative. I think she does it on purpose because I know she is the most creative pony alive, but getting her to admit it is another thing entirely.
Our special agents would, of course, remain outside the military and the thestrals that wanted to serve us within the military would become their own division. Plausible deniability or whatever Luna told me was her reason for establishing the Special Pony Operating Thestral Taskforce. I wasn’t in the mood to argue with her and I decidedly ignored the meaning of that acronym in German. It was ridiculous and pretty much the only reason why Luna wanted to call it like that.
Philomena trilled behind me and I rolled my eyes. “Yes, yes, I’m going already, don’t be so pushy.”
That bird, I swear. I had no idea where she learned that type of language. At least my darling hasn’t started using the same language or I would have strangled Celestia’s pet phoenix. Legendary immortal fire bird or not, there surely was a way to get her to stay dead permanently.
Trotting down the hallways of our castle, I had to marvel at how much the former mansion had changed. The hallways still had a high ceiling, but I found it added more to the majestic feel. The ‘mansion’ had been large already and could have been mistaken for a small palace, but now? It was absolutely massive. Nowhere near what the Crystal Empire’s centerpiece had been like, but it was a close second in my opinion.
The castle was made primarily out of white marble, as was the case for most of the rest of Canterlot. The roofs of the grand towers and the main part of the castle were a royal purple and decorated with gold. I might have thought it a bit excessive at first, but I quickly came to like the look of it (and it’s not like gold was considered to be expensive in Equestria, it just looked shiny enough in the nobility’s eyes for them to insist on it... and when faced with the other option of gemstones everywhere, I sure as hell won't complain about it).
Our new castle looked almost magical in comparison to our old one (kind of like it was out of a fantasy book or a fairy tale). While our old castle looked like a facsimile of what I imagined Hogwarts Castle must have looked like from the books, our new castle... looked like it could have come straight out of a Disney movie.
I was especially proud to say that it was also 'very' safe. Well, at least as much as we could secure it with our spellwork. Our magic practically oozed from the stones the castle was built with. It would take one very powerful unicorn to even put a hole through the glass of our tall windows.
As I opened the door to the large, rounded conference room (it was more like an auditorium), I was greeted by the chatter of hundreds of ponies talking among themselves. Each one of them was in uniform, wearing it proudly. My sister was already in here and it seems she has been waiting for me so that we could begin.
I gave her an apologetic smile and saw Luna roll her eyes at me and my ‘punctuality’. She cleared her throat and shuffled the papers in front of her around and the room grew silent in anticipation. “As you might know, our nation needs a better answer to external threats,” she began, letting her gaze wander around the room for a moment. Our ponies were starting to mutter again and Luna clopped her hoof twice on the table, stopping their chatter. “For that reason, Summer and I will combine the Equestrian Forces of the Earthponies, the Unicorns, and the Pegasi to the EUP. Henceforth every unit shall consist of at least one of each tribe to better deal with enemy attacks through the combined strength that each tribe possesses.”
“What of the thestrals?” one general asked. I believe his name was Nightshade. Luna smirked slightly beside me and I prepared myself for what was to come. It wouldn’t do to start giggling because she named them S.P.O.T.T., after all.
“The thestrals will belong to a specialized part of the military that will henceforth operate under covert operations outside of Equestria should the need arise for such a mission. The Special Pony Operation Thestral Taskforce will deny any and all involvement with the Equestrian structure of command,” Luna explained, fidgeting in her seat with glee. I think I might have snorted in amusement despite my best efforts.
She really needs to hang out less with the dignitary from Germaneigh if that is the first thing she comes up with for a name. I should have known that, after she learned German, she would use it for joking around...
“And what will happen to those secret agents of yours, Your Highnesses?” Nightshade asked skeptically. He was giving us a confused look as we did our best to not burst out giggling while a few of the other generals were rolling their eyes good-naturedly. Not that any of them were going to say something to us about it, most of them knew we were prone to act a bit immature from time to time. “Aren’t they already doing that?”
“Yes and they will continue to do so,” I answered as I got my giddy feelings to calm down from almost giving me away. Luna owes me one for this, I swear. “They will mainly operate within the borders of Equestria. Thus, the need for a new task force that can... ahem... do the dirty work, as they say. Aside from the combined military, there will, of course, be other departments like the navy and (hopefully) an aerial special strike team. I’d rather not take any chances with the griffons' new 'Emperor', general.”
A pegasus in the back raised a hoof in a salute before he spoke up, his voice rough and scratchy. “Ma’am, my flock would gladly take up the challenge,” he told me and I smiled slightly at the stallion. I was quite familiar with him and his 'crew'. He was a firecracker through and through.
The way he keeps getting into tight situations and always comes through is truly awe-inspiring. General Firefly would do nicely, I mused. That he pretty much considered his unit his family was also a very nice bonus. Now more than ever do we need loyalty to stand strong among the ideals of ponykind.
The meeting took up the majority of the day after we got the main announcement out of the way. It was a lot of work, but we got all the details worked out in the end.
There were a few more divisions made within the military for more specialized tasks and such, like the disaster relief division that would train themselves specifically to help out our allies in times of need after a major catastrophe. They would also be deployed within Equestria, should the need arise, of course.
Aside from that, the rest of the day was spent finalizing the official documents for the military divisions and their sub-divisions, so on and so forth. There wouldn’t actually be any 'official' documents for the... ugh, S.P.O.T.T. division. Damnit, Luna, I can’t even think about that without wanting to grin about it. To name it ‘taunt’ of all things, it’s like she wanted to piss off every other nation.
General Firefly had come up with a name for his unit, as well. Our aerial strike force would henceforth be named the Wonderbolts. Let’s see if they will live up to their fancy name, then. Hopefully, they could pack as much of a punch as they could fly in hazardous conditions. I knew his ponies were fast and extremely agile at their speeds, surely they could fight as well as they fly.
As Luna and I were walking down the hall from our office towards the exit that would lead us to the massive garden we now called our own for a bit of relaxation, we felt a... disturbance, I suppose would be the best word for it. The best I could describe it as was a vague sense that we had almost forgotten. It felt like one of Starswirl’s old mirror portals had opened, one of his mirrors that opened only under special conditions.
Luna gave me an apprehensive look and I raised a brow at her, silently asking her if we should investigate or ignore it. My sister started to slowly smile at me and I couldn’t hide my own excited grin. This was perfect, a nice distraction from the stress of our daily routine.
Like little curious fillies, we were at the door to the storage room where the remaining mirrors of Starswirl’s experiments were kept safely away from wandering ponies. An adventure was just the thing we needed to get our minds off of things for a little while.
We quickly searched the mirrors until we found the one that was active, and, seeing that we had no further duties for this day besides coming back in time to bring about a new dawn, we stepped through the mirror. Like on our side of the mirror, it was currently night outside and I could still feel my connection to the sun through the mirror. Even more surprising, though, I could feel a connection on this side as well. Although... it felt different.
“Is this... Canterlot?” Luna asked me and I nodded, not having expected to end up in a different Equestria that was in our own time. The first few tests we had done with Starswirl were, now that I think about it, most likely different timelines of Equestria. They had felt like our own world, at least.
“Well, let’s go find ourselves, then!” I giggled, happily trotting forward with a skip in my step. My sister let out an amused snort, probably trying to imagine what our alternative selves’ reaction would be. She followed me without hesitation, and soon enough, we found somepony. Or should I say, someone?
One of the two patrolling guards almost dropped his spear as soon as he spotted us. “What in the world is going on here..? There are horses... wearing jewelry... in the castle...” he muttered, staring at us with total confusion. Oh! And he was decidedly human in appearance. I winced as he ran away to presumably get one of ‘us’ to deal with this 'strange occurrence' while the other one didn’t let us out of his sight, his sword pointing at us while he held his shield defensively in front of himself. If I had to be honest? I didn’t blame them for reacting like this.
“Sister..?” Luna asked me in a whisper and I turned my head towards her with a questioning look. “Why didn’t the mirror transform us into humans if this world is populated primarily by them?”
“I... I don’t know,” I answered with a shrug. “Maybe Starswirl hadn’t integrated the transformation effect into the mirror we went through?”
“What do we do?” she asked me, whispering urgently. “You haven’t completed that transformation spell, have you?”
“Uhm... no. I actually forgot all about that after Discord and... you know...”
“Great...” Luna muttered and shortly after our conversation petered out, we were greeted by an even more unexpected sight. Before us stood this world's version of my sister in the fancy dress I had last seen her in while looking like a human. But this wasn't Luna. Not at all.
“...L-Luna?” Celestia whispered, looking like she just saw a ghost. I suppose that was as close as it got because it was very much our own reaction to her. Tears fell freely from our eyes before Tia teleported over to us, immediately falling down to her knees so that she could hug Luna.
My sister gasped before awkwardly enveloping the sobbing woman in her forehooves and gently patting her back. Lulu gave me a helpless gaze, but I was rooted to the spot in paralyzed shock. “I... I’m not your Luna, sister...”
Tia didn't let go of her grasp at that, too upset and shaken by finding us here. “I-I k-know...” she said while gasping profusely between sobs. The calming words my sister whispered to the alternate version of my twin were helping her calm down, though, even if only slightly. “That m-much i-is... is pretty obvious, don’t you think?”
Luna giggled softly, nodding her head. “Yes, it would seem so. Only if your Luna hasn’t been turned into a pony without your knowledge?”
Celestia let out a watery laugh, wiping away her tears with trembling arms. “No, that hasn’t happened, and... I wouldn’t know either way.”
My sister gave her a concerned look, looking at me out of the corner of her eyes in an effort to get me to say something, anything to make this situation less... awkward. Celestia noticed her looking at me and she followed her gaze, putting me in the spotlight.
“And... you are me, then?” Tia asked, confusing the living daylights out of me. “At least, I think so. The hair color is all wrong, though. Or is it mane? I like the look of it, don’t get me wrong, it is a bit more... mature than my own hair. Not that I would change my look because of that.”
I blinked as my thoughts screeched to a halt. “Uhm... what..?” I whispered, at a complete loss for what to say in response to that. Doesn’t she recognize me? Do I not exist here? By the twin suns, that was like a slap to the face for me. Was I an anomaly? Was I... not supposed to exist?
“Tia?” Luna whispered quietly as I sunk deeper into denial. My (not so much) twin turned back to Luna and my sister was looking at her in a confused stupor. “That is Summer, don’t you recognize your own twin?”
“My... twin?” Celestia said in a baffled whisper. “I don’t have a twin, Luna. Your world must be a lot more different than mine, aside from the whole... pony thing.”
“So... Mom never got me here, huh?” I laughed in a depressed way and I had to sit down lest my weak legs gave out underneath me. “That... that puts so much into perspective. I'm a mistake, an error in the system. I... I'm not supposed to exist.”
Before I could fall further into existential dread, Luna hugged me fiercely. “Don’t you dare to think like that, Sunny,” Luna told me and I let out a sad sigh. The joy of reuniting with Celestia (even if she was another version of my beloved and not my Tia) had quickly drained itself out of me with the world-altering truth I've come across. “Tia, are you sure Summer never existed here? I mean, what if... what if she... I can’t believe I’m going to suggest this, but... what if she died during childbirth?”
“I...” Celestia hesitated, rubbing her arm in a guarded fashion. “I never knew my mother, Luna. Neither of us has ever seen her, the only things we do know about her are from Sunfire and Moonlight... our, well, surrogate parents. They’re... gone.”
That stunned both me and Luna into speechlessness. Had Lunar Sky and Argent Star never existed here, either? What else was different, aside from this Celestia and her Luna growing up with surrogate parents? I mean... I could guess one more difference and I was pretty sure it meant that the woman currently on the moon in this version of Equestria was my only remaining wife. Were Tia and Luna even married here?
Celestia let out a humorless chuckle as she saw our expressions. “I suppose you had parents, actual parents, there for you?”
“That’s... yeah,” I nodded, trying to get a grip on my erratic emotions. I nuzzled Luna in appreciation for the hug and got back on my hooves. They still trembled ever so slightly, but I could deal with it. “Perhaps we should relocate to somewhere a bit more comfortable for this?”
“Yes, that would be for the best, it seems,” Celestia agreed. With us following after her, we soon found ourselves in a familiar room that somehow managed to look unfamiliar at the same time.
It was Celestia’s study and the furniture here was actually made to fit humans (duh). Like our own study, this room had a cozy fireplace and (instead of a big fluffy pillow) a nice sprawling couch. There were, of course, dozens of tomes and scrolls scattered on shelves and a large desk made of mahogany.
Tia led us over to the couch and brought over a tea set with her magic as Luna and I snuggled up against each other. She gave us a confused glance at how close we were but seemed to chalk it up to us being ponies. So, I guess I was right about my assumption, then.
It was... weird. Knowing that Celestia and Luna of this Equestria weren’t together, that is. It almost felt alien to me that there were versions of us that weren’t romantically involved (that is to say if there were other versions of me... it was, sadly, still up for debate).
Celestia took a dainty sip from her tea and gathered her thoughts for a few seconds before she turned back to us. “I think we should compare what else is different between our respective realities. Learn what similarities there are, and so on.”
“Very well,” I nodded, being careful of Luna’s horn as I rested my head on top of hers with another loving nuzzle. “Should I begin, then? Seeing that I’m the... anomaly, I suppose. You must be so confused about this, right?”
“Please,” Celestia said, making a gesture with her hand that I suppose was meant as a ‘go-ahead’ motion. My, I really seem to be forgetting a lot about human body language in my old age.
“I was the second born of Lunar Sky, my mother, and Argent Star, my father. Celestia, my Celestia that is, was born a few minutes ahead of me and our mother named us after the twin suns, the Heavenly Sun for my twin, Celestia Sol, and the Summer Sun for me, Summer Sol.
“Our father died not long after the first incursion of the icy spirits feeding on the hatred between the three pony tribes. Luna had been born six years after Tia and I first saw the suns’ light, only for Dad to die shortly afterward. She never got to know him as much as my twin and I did and... it changed our mother.”
Celestia listened quietly, raising an eyebrow as I told her about the twin suns of our reality and it wasn’t difficult to make the assumption that this world only had one sun like Azeroth (or Earth, for that matter), explaining the feeling I had of my connection to the sun here.
“I’m sorry to hear you lost your father at such a young age,” Celestia whispered and I smiled softly back at her. “Luna and I lost Sunfire and Moonlight, too. Not at an early age, though.”
I chuckled mirthlessly, feeling reminded that even in alternate worlds we had to go through hardships I wouldn’t wish on anypony else. Well, except for Platinum, of course. “It seems we are destined to lose loved ones, aren’t we?”
She nodded at me, her gaze full of pain and sorrow. For her, it must be especially hard to be completely alone like that. Celestia didn’t even have her Luna with her or another version of myself to comfort herself with.
Luna hummed and I let her go on with the story instead of me. “After a few years of quietly living together on our little farm (I still miss those days, by the way), the eternal winter returned because the three warring tribes brought the wendigos back due to their negative emotions, and shortly after that, our Equestria came to be with the three tribes establishing a truce between them.”
“An interesting history,” Celestia said before a slight frown started to appear on her face. “Much more peaceful than ours. I envy you. Our nation was founded after one of the two deities"—my ear twitched at the way she said that (I was pretty sure there was some resentment in that statement...)—" blessed the humans of this realm with magic. Her brother, though, only sought the destruction of everything she worked to create. It ultimately led to a cataclysmic war and she had to seal him away while also sealing herself away to maintain the prison holding him.
“Sunfire and Moonlight were her champions... they died for her. They died fighting a monster that defiled their bodies and raised them into undeath to fight for the cause of their master. To fight against us. Without her having made them her champions, they wouldn’t have had to go through that. Moonlight and Sunfire were a thousand times the parents that she was supposed to be. She abandoned them and us in turn...”
Luna and I watched her press her fingernails tightly into her palms and I felt my ears splay back against my head. I could feel her hatred for the unjust fate from where Luna and I rested on the couch and all I wanted to do was make her pain go away.
She was right, what befell her family was a thousand times worse than what happened to my own. I didn’t even want to entertain the idea of having to fight the undead versions of my own parents because some megalomaniacal monster decided to use them against us.
We continued to chat for much of the night about this and that. Luna and I told her of our difficulties with our version of Equestria (a lot of it was pretty similar but still very different from Celestia’s world). Celestia and her Luna were fierce warriors, trained from a very young age just like our mom taught us. The only difference was that our mom focused more on the subtler ways while they learned the art of war on a large scale. They could fight entire armies much more efficiently than Luna and I could have ever hoped to even emulate.
They, too, had their own enchanted weapons, although they gave them up due to a prophecy of their own. Somepony, or rather, someone will rise to fight the darkness that threatens their world and these saviors would be wielding the weapons that Moonlight and Sunfire had wielded in the past and passed on to Celestia and Luna. To be honest, this darkness sounded a lot like what Hope and her siblings had battled against.
Could it be that its influence wasn’t unique to our Equestria? It was a dark thought, indeed. To think that the corruption of similar beings to the Devourer of Life and Death could have sought out other realities, too... it was terrifying.
“If you ever need our help, you only need to ask,” I said, standing beside the portal back home. Celestia smiled as we embraced one last time and I gave her a bright smile back. “Or if you simply want to visit and spend a day off, you know where to find us.”
“Thank you, Summer,” Celestia answered, humming giddily as she was probably screaming like a little child in her head at hugging an alicorn in real life. “And the same offer is true for you, too. Do come by again, won’t you?”
“Of course, Tia,” I nodded.
“And... if you need help against Platinum...” she began and I nodded, not needing to hear more to know that she would come running if we asked it of her. “It still baffles me that such a kind and generous woman turned out to be such a vile monster in your universe.”
“Believe me, had we known that she was behind so many crimes in our world...” I muttered, not able to keep the tiny growl out of my voice. “I would have devoured her soul as soon as we met her. I had hoped she would grow out of it, but I was sadly mistaken in that belief.”
“Were I in your position, I don’t think I could have done anything less than that,” Celestia agreed, slowly stroking a hand through my hair with a mournful hum. "You are a good... pony, Summer. Don't let anything ever change that, okay?"
"Okay," I said, giving her one last squeeze before facing the mirror to go through it and get ready to raise the suns as soon as I was back home.
“...Summer?”
I stopped just shy of entering the mirror and turned my head back to her with an inquisitive brow raised. “Yes?”
“Are you and Luna...” Celestia began and shuffled awkwardly where she stood. She looked almost afraid to voice her thoughts.
I smiled softly, not actually needing to hear her say it out loud to ask me if I was 'together-together' with my own sister. “Yes, Tia. We are. Does that make you uncomfortable?”
“I...” she said, hesitantly looking me into my eyes with her own pale magenta ones. “I want to say no, but I won’t judge. I don’t see my Luna in that way. As long as both of you are happy, I’ll support you.”
“I’m glad you don’t fault us for feeling like this, Celestia,” I told her, relieved that the alternate version of my twin wasn’t utterly disgusted with me. “If I could be so curious, I have a question of my own.”
“Ask me, I’ll do my best to give you an answer.”
“Do you remember living a previous life?” I asked and hoped to see that little sparkle of recognition in her eyes, at least some hint that she had shared a similar experience as I did with my Celestia and Luna.
Instead of seeing what I hoped to see, I only saw confusion in her eyes and I knew then and there that I wouldn’t find what I searched for. Either she didn’t remember her time as Catherine, or she has never lived as Catherine before her life as Celestia began. I stepped through the mirror as she was about to ask me what this was about, not feeling up to the task of explaining myself to her.
Sometimes, knowing you were a reborn soul was something that made you stand out and gave you the feeling of not actually belonging. Of course, that was a silly notion, but one can’t just dictate their feelings about matters like this. I knew that I belonged here in Equestria, there was no doubt about that in my mind, but it didn’t change that I sometimes wanted another pony (or human, as the case might be) to talk to about this and not have them look at me like I was crazy. Luna filled that role nicely most of the time, but sometimes all I wanted was somepony unrelated to me with an unbiased opinion.
Well, there are more important things to focus on, anyway. As much as I wanted to go to sleep right now (we did stay up the whole night, after all), a new day was about to begin and there was still a ton of work that needed to be done. A nation doesn’t rule itself, and then there was also the fact that we needed to pay extra attention to our military over the next couple of weeks, months, possibly even years.
Luna had her horn already lit up and I followed suit after her. Together, we guided the celestial bodies over the horizon and made our way to the throne room. The little distraction had proven to be a nice refresher of the dreary daily routine, but now we had to return to our duties.
As much as I had hoped to avoid conflict with the griffons, their new head of state wasn’t all that bright in the head. It took multiple attempts at a peace treaty and many, many battles with massive losses before I got fed up and had him dethroned after he had laid siege to the bordering villages of our nation, slaughtering our little ponies regardless of their age, eating them like cattle.
That bird didn’t know when to stop and he even thought he could try to poison Luna and me in an attempt to assassinate us. If we hadn’t been paranoid about him trying something like that and didn’t have our agents there to tell us of his stupid attempt, we could have spent a few years in alicorn hibernation to recover. Years we couldn’t afford to spend while he looked for every opportunity he could to go to war with us.
I was unable to understand why somecreatures had to be so lustful for conflict and bloodshed. I wanted to chalk it up to him being of a predatory nature, but that would have been an insult to predators. He was simply a fool that sought glory in the most unethical ways possible.
Hmph. It served him a lesson, then. War is not kind and I wasn’t going to be kind to him, either. His screams as I drove my sword through his wretched body, calling me a demon (what can I say, I do look like one as Fallen Star), begging for mercy, and crying for his mommy, were almost like music to my ears. They would have been music to my ears if I hadn’t despised that I needed to go to such lengths with an idiot that shouldn’t ever have been put on the throne, that is.
Sometimes a ruler must do what a ruler must. Even if it meant dealing with a pest by myself. I would have sent S.P.O.T.T. without going myself, but it was actually better to show the griffons that I wouldn’t let them trample on us like that. I didn’t enjoy doing it (okay, maybe a little bit), and the fact that many of the griffons cheered my name for liberating them from a tyrant wasn’t what I wanted to hear, either.
Dethroning a ruler always left behind a mess. A mess I had to correct, even though it was the better alternative. There was actually a griffon noble house that would, hopefully, make for a better royal family. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the House of Eagletalon was still around (despite the atrocious treatment they went through with the old government for trying to incite a revolution) and they were as righteous and just as I knew their ancestor had been. Greta would have been proud to see her descendants bring about a new, more peaceful age for the griffons.
It was a headache to deal with all the paperwork, though. That is what it always boils down to in the end, isn’t it? Paperwork, paperwork, and even more paperwork. I was debating what was worse, killing the bastard calling himself the ‘Immortal’ God-Emperor of the Griffons myself or the paperwork of establishing a new, worthy ruler.
The loss of life wasn’t worth it, it never was. Why, oh why, does war have to exist even here on Equis? All of our little ponies that gave their life would be remembered, that much I made sure of. Even the griffons that had to throw their lives away for an uncaring tyrant.
I had sworn to myself to not become the War Princess of Equestria, but like so many promises I had made to myself, I broke even that one. Had there been a way to avoid war altogether, I would have taken it with open hooves without hesitation. Alas, in that aspect, the now former head of state was too paranoid to fall for the same tricks we had used against King Gregor. I mean, he was wise to be so paranoid of us, but it was an absolute pain in my flank dealing with the fallout of what war brought with itself.
A fallout that we were much more prepared to deal with than in our youth. Grieving ponies were still as much of a heartbreaking sight as ever, though. My heart went out to each and every one of my ponies, as it always did. Every lost life felt like a stab in my gut and the pain only lessened marginally as the years continued to pass.
And for once, I couldn’t wait for them to pass even faster, just so I got closer to the day my sister would be released from her prison and we could enact vengeance on Platinum for all that she had done. It had been utterly foolish of me to grant her kindness the first time I met her, giving her the chance to redeem herself a hundred times over and over again, but she never learned from her mistakes. It was like she was incapable of bettering herself at all, even continuing to hold onto her twisted hatred while being a nuisance in the dream realm for us.
Never had I thought I would actually want to enact vengeance upon somepony with all parts of my soul screaming at me to make her pay a thousandfold for every transgression she had committed.
I knew better now. I knew with perfect clarity that kindness and generosity were only ideals one should strive to aspire to, not to live out zealously in a foolish attempt of setting a better example for the rest of ponykind.
There were ponies that deserved my kindness and generosity, and then there were ponies that deserved nothing more than to burn.
Time was a fickle thing, though, as I agonizingly learned. Some days would just pass by in the blink of an eye, while other days dragged on at a painfully slow pace. Sometimes, a year feels like a hundred, especially when conflict looms on the horizon...
Once more I found myself confronted with the question of whether or not Equestria was in need of its War Princess or the kind and gentle beacon of hope I could be if I embraced my bleeding heart again.
“Do we have any news about the city-state of Trot? Anything new, that is?” Luna asked as we found ourselves back in the war room of our castle. Ponies were hurrying every which way with reports and missives, and if I didn’t know better, I would have thought Discord broke free from his prison. This was total and utter chaos.
One of our generals cleared his throat, speaking with a rough voice and one of our assistants brought a scroll over for him. “They expelled the invading force and erected a shield over the city, Your Highness. Emperor Incitatus insists that everything is, and I quote, ‘in control, no need to interfere, it’s a matter between me and my Snookums’.”
Snookums? What a... weird... pet name to give to your loved one. It’s no wonder that he was under siege if he called his estranged ‘fiancé’ such ridiculous things. I would probably give Luna a hard time as well if she called me that.
“From what we know so far, that seems like the understatement of the century,” Luna snorted and I couldn't help myself from agreeing with her sentiment. Emperor Incitatus wasn’t exactly... fully there. That would be the kindest description I could give him, I suppose. He has one of the biggest, narcissistic egos I have ever seen and that was saying a lot. “Is there anything else that we know of these invaders besides ‘black bugs’?”
“The report says they supposedly mimic ponies,” General Firefly answered. “They appear like insectoid ponies in their natural form and use some sort of magic that disguises them as any regular pony. They can’t be told apart from the real pony, whether it be earthpony, unicorn, or pegasus.”
“What are their motivations?” I asked, scowling. There was no way they just went around destroying cities without wanting anything out of it.
Now that I was thinking about it, there had been extremely vague rumors of black pony-like creatures floating around since before Discord turned the world upside down. Since we had more information now, I suppose the disappearance of Timbucktu was most likely caused by these insect ponies, as well.
Ugh. I really had hoped I wouldn't get dragged back into acting as Equestria's War Princess again.
“We have no information on their motivations or any demands, really, Your Highness,” General Firefly answered. “Emperor Incitatus refused to mention anything of the sort to your agents.”
“Apparently the leader of these invaders posed as his fiancé,” General Nightshade grunted, looking bored out of his mind. “Can’t we just storm in there and make him answer?”
Luna gave the stallion one of her patented frowns. “Know your place, General,” she admonished him. “If we were to invade his home, how would that reflect on us? This isn’t something we can handle with force.”
“T’was just an idea,” he muttered, rolling his eyes. I let out a suffering sigh and went on with the meeting, instead. We shouldn’t have made him the General of S.P.O.T.T., he wanted to solve everything with force nowadays. Can’t blame his mindset, though, after what the old griffon 'god-emperor' pulled.
“Perhaps we should take a dozen or so EUP soldiers with us to make sure these invaders won’t be coming back to try again?” I suggested, raising a questioning brow. “And we can bring in the disaster relief division to make sure everything is in order, just in case. A friendly mission of support, if you will.”
“As good a suggestion as any I've heard today,” Luna sighed. “We might as well go with that, then. I'd rather not find out that they got invaded again, somehow. Their Emperor isn’t the brightest and I know of a dozen ways to get into a secured city, anyway.”
None of them legal, I added silently within my mind.
So, a few days later, Luna and I were on our way to see if Emperor Incitatus needed help with anything, only to find out that the city had gone up in flames, instead. To be honest, it was not that surprising, once we saw the Trojan Horse likeness of the Emperor fallen down within the city limits. His love for himself proved to be his downfall, in the end. I wondered how far his stupidity actually reached if he thought it a good idea to accept a ‘gift’ like that after having been invaded recently.
How typical. Why couldn’t he have simply asked us for help from the very beginning? Then all of this could have been avoided. It’s clear he wasn’t fit to rule if this is how he behaves, endangering his subjects like that. It didn’t look like the fight had been going on for too long, at least. They were still trying to evacuate the citizens to safety in all of the chaos.
Luna pointed to the side and I saw what could have only been the leader of these invaders. And said leader was draining the life out of Emperor Incitatus. Feeling a sense of urgency, Luna and I told the rest of the pegasi with us to aid the ponies in their time of need while we separated ourselves from them to go deal with the imminent threat to the life of the Emperor. The pink stallion didn’t look very good because of what he was being subjected to.
This greed for the essence of what made a pony a pony cannot be condoned any longer and I felt the embers of my alicorn magic burn hotter and hotter as my fiery aura spiraled out of control. The only thing on my mind right now was the primal need to set things on fire and destroy, destroy, destroy! Rage wanted to drown my mind in a fury of emotions and I struggled to contain those tempestuous emotions within me.
My body was glowing brightly with heat and flames followed my wake as my hooves touched the ground behind this villain that dared use such vile magic. My sister’s body was half frozen over in thick icy crystals and our auras negated each other’s more destructive effect on the environment. I was glad that she had the foresight to increase the output of her aura or I would have caused serious damage to everypony near us.
“Surrender at once, fiend,” I growled, feeling the dark desires of my other half flare up within me, almost making me shift to Fallen Star on the spot then and there. Depending on how this went, I might even indulge myself...
No! No. Ugh. For fuck's sake, Summer, get a grip on yourself. I’m sure this... whatever it was, wasn’t too far gone. No need... no need to get hungry...
“And if I don’t?” the insectoid pony asked me, the faceted glass of her helmet almost managed to hide her eyes completely from view. The voice of... her? She sounded like a female, but I could be mistaken. The voice of the pony before us sounded like it was multi-layered as if more than one pony was speaking at the same time. It was as strange as it was... alluring, I had to say. Damnit, Summer, this was an insect for goodness sake! That's gross!
...but she does look kinda sexy, to be honest. The armor wasn't doing her(?) any favors and her mane could use a bath or two, but otherwise? The insect wings were the only 'truly' buggy thing about her. Her chitin wasn't overly shiny or anything. And she didn't have mandibles, so there was that...
No. No, no, no. The bug pony queen(?) is an enemy, Summer! Stop checking her out, for twin suns' sake!
Luna snorted out a puff of cold, misty air that faded quickly away before she pointed her sword at our opponent. Clearly, my sister wasn't a fan of her answer, either. “Then you will face our wrath, monster,” my sister told her in no uncertain terms. “We are in no mood to be forgiving of such actions. Tell us why you invade and destroy city after city!”
The being in front of us laughed, licking her lips while showing off her fangs. “Emotions, Princess. You ponies have such succulent emotions, I could gorge myself on them all day long. I wonder what an alicorn tastes like...”
Drawing forth more power into my horn than it could comfortably hold, I sent out my magic in a devastating attack with an enraged whinny as she gave Luna a hungry look and I felt an overwhelming sense of protectiveness over what was mine flood me to my core.
Snorting angrily, my wild eyes tried to find my foe within the rubble and smoke my attack left behind. Mine. Luna was mine, none will touch her. She is my Moon. Mine. An icy hoof touched me and I whipped around, ready to blast my foe into oblivion again. Luna stared back at me with a tiny smile and I felt myself calm down considerably.
“Sister...” I whispered, my voice altered to the raunchy voice of Fallen Star. It was fading back to my usual tone, though. “I... Oh, dear. I didn’t mean to use so much force... I... I’m so sorry, I... "—my breath hitched at the sight of the sheer destruction I've wrought—"By the twin suns, what have I done?”
My sister nuzzled me comfortingly. She didn't put any blame on me, nor was she disappointed in my lack of control, but... it still felt like she thought differently about me. As if she pitied me. “Let’s round up these... insects and seal them away somewhere safe,” Luna said and I let her guide me gently as we began searching for the one I had possibly obliterated. I felt... utterly disgusted at myself. I... just why did I react so strongly?! “I don’t think Tartarus will serve well enough as a prison for a being that feeds on emotions. As much as I think she deserves it, I don't want her to get any ideas.”
“You might be right,” I muttered, a numb feeling overcoming me as I beheld what I had done. The path of destruction I caused traveled through the whole city and I winced at what I had carelessly brought about in my rage. I... I needed to stop myself from getting so angry again, this couldn’t go on further like that. Ever since Tia... ever since my twin was lost to us, I was much easier to anger. I’m sure my decision with the old griffon ruler could have been avoided if I had been thinking a bit more clearly and not let my emotions get the better of me. I could have found a better way. I could have avoided so much death...
All of this hatred that was running rampant through me... it burned so brightly in my chest, I wondered whether or not it would ever go away completely. Recently, I have been acting too much like a harbinger of death, haven’t I? This... this needs to stop, I told myself, horrified. This wasn’t me.
Luna and I found the leader quite a distance away from where she originally stood in front of us and... I sighed sadly as I beheld the damage I had done to her. There were literally holes blown through her legs and wings that she had shielded herself with and her mane and tail were in tatters. This wasn’t what I had wanted to do. What I had done was... was cruel and unnecessary.
Just how far have I forsaken my ideals? What happened to always being forgiving and kind? Where was my generosity when I needed to show it most? What have I become? All this time I had deluded myself, insisting that I never abandoned my ideals... but it was clear to me now that I had done so. I was so pathetic. A disgrace.
A little nefarious thought in the back of my mind told me that I was turning into a monster, that I shouldn’t be trusted by anypony, anymore. I quashed that thought ruthlessly where it was and reminded myself that I was still kind and generous to my ponies, that they did not need to fear me turning into a mockery of myself. I couldn’t let myself fall like that and leave Luna all alone while she would be forced to deal with me like we dealt with Platinum.
I was no monster. I repeated that thought over and over again in my head, bringing forth every memory of me doing something good for my ponies. I might lash out when somepony was threatened (or something really annoyed me), but that did not mean I was a monster. I mean... everypony has a bad day every once in a while, I wasn’t exempt from that. I'm not a bad pony... I'm not.
Still, this anger... these violent tendencies have to stop. I couldn’t solve everything by throwing excessive force at it and then hope it would survive so that I won’t have to feel bad. Now that I think about it, either Nightshade was rubbing off on me or I've been rubbing off on Nightshade...
I didn’t want it to be the latter case. I didn’t want to be a bad role model. I didn’t want to be this monster I fear I would become if I did nothing against these feelings, these urges.
I'm not a bad pony. I can't be. I have to lead by example and make up for my mistakes. I am a princess, first and foremost, and that means I cannot allow myself to be so wrathful. I must reconnect to my ideals, my virtues.
I'm not beyond redemption...
“What will we do with her?” I asked in a low whisper, not trusting my voice to show any hint of anger in it if I were to speak normally. Without the helmet, it was pretty clear that she was a 'she'. And judging by the crown on her head, she was probably the ruler of these insect-like ponies and not merely a general as I had first thought. I looked the... queen? Insects have queens, right? I looked the queen in front of us over with a sad gaze, my eyes lingering on the deformed horn where previously an almost blade-like horn was. In a way... it looked more pretty like this...
Luna let out a thoughtful hum at my question and shrugged. “Well, Tartarus is out, how about... a deep hole?” she said and I already had an idea that fit that description. But then again, it would be a cruelty to put her and her subjects there, wouldn’t it?
If we had no other option, that inactive volcano we visited on that island with the black sand and green lake would be a perfectly isolated place to hold her and her kin there. If she couldn't be reasoned with... would I be in the right to put her there?
“I... Luna, would it be atrocious of me to suggest a volcano?” I whispered and my sister gave me a surprised look. I avoided her eyes and instead looked at what I had done to their queen. Another failure on my part. A victim just as much as the ponies living in this city. I could have reached a hoof out to her in friendship and taught her better. Now, though? Now she would undoubtedly hate me. And I deserved every bit of that emotion, I told that to myself with self-hatred.
“Summer, this?” Luna began and motioned with her hoof at the beaten queen. “This was what she had coming for her. She wipes out entire cities, sister. A volcano is the kindest hole we could put her in for everything she has done!”
“I feel like it would be a mistake, though,” I muttered. “She will hate us, swear vengeance, and then what? Will this cycle never end? We’re making too many enemies that want our heads, sister. Discord, Sombra, Tirek... Platinum... now her? We can’t just always shove our mistakes away like this.”
“Mistakes?” Luna snorted, incredulous. “Sister, they are the ones that chose the wrong path to follow, not us! They are on the wrong side here!”
“But we could have shown them a better way,” I argued back weakly, a feeling of agony in my chest. “Maybe my bleeding heart is showing itself again... if it hasn’t already shriveled into a black husk...”
Luna nuzzled me softly, a sadness in her eyes that told me I wasn’t beyond redemption, and I smiled gratefully at her. I could always trust her to lift me up. “She needs to learn her lesson, though, Sunny. A time-out in a volcano will give her plenty to think about. Reforming the villain only ever happens in fairy tales, sister.”
I hung my head at that. She does have a point there, I guess. If there's one thing life has taught me, it's that the universe never gives me what I wanted. But still... “For how long will we seal her away?” I asked while a feeling of unease began to spread within my stomach at the thought of actually considering this. Every part of my being screamed at me to not go through with this. To give her that chance. To become her friend and stop this senseless cycle of hatred that I've gotten myself trapped in. That’s it, isn’t it? This cycle of hatred... it would continue if she started to hate me because of what I had done to her. She would hate me and swear vengeance as long as I didn't try to make it up to her. I... “I don’t want her to hate me.”
Luna blinked before an impish grin spread on her muzzle. “Is... is that infatuation I hear in your voice?” she teased me and I whinnied in shock.
“What?! No!” I denied her accusation fiercely while my muzzle burned with embarrassment. “There's no way! Have you looked at her?! She is an insect! A bug!”
“And we are ponies,” Luna shrugged nonchalantly. I stared at her slack-jawed. Was... was she actually for real? She wasn't even disgusted by the thought in any way? Why was she even entertaining this ridiculous idea of mine (not that I was actually entertaining it myself, nope, nuh-uh, no way)? “If you like her, you don’t have to lie to yourself, Summer. I mean, if she truly is able to change her shape?”
I let out a choked gasp, sputtering in... in what? Indignation? Disgust? ...Arousal? “Luna!”
“What?” my sister asked, giving me an innocent look that I knew hid some not-so-innocent thoughts.
“Why are you even... I mean...” I stuttered, searching for words in confusion and... whatever else this jumbled mess of emotions within me was. “Aren’t you... jealous? Why..? I don’t understand, Luna.”
“I would have been, a century ago,” Luna said. “A century ago, I wouldn’t have thought I would be married to my sisters. A century and a half ago and I would have laughed at you for even suggesting anything like this could have happened to us. A century and a half ago, I never thought we would live as ponies in a primarily polyamorous society.”
“So... what does this mean? For us and her?” I asked, squirming slightly as I actually looked her over without focusing on the injuries that I inflicted on her. “She is an insect, Lulu...”
“And we are ponies,” Luna shot back, repeating herself with a roll of her eyes. “Are you actually fishing for my permission..? Summer, I swear, you’re so squeamish sometimes. She doesn’t even look that bad.”
“I’m not fishing for permission!” I blurted out. Luna snickered at me and I pouted. “You’re being mean to me...”
“I’m not!” she denied, though the tongue sticking out from behind her lips told a different story.
“You are,” I rebuked, poking her with a hoof. “You totally are. You’re making fun of me and I don’t like it. I don’t understand how you can even consider... with her... it’s icky.”
My sister snorted as I pouted back at her. “Sunny, you would have said the same thing about ponies back then on Earth,” Luna chided me. “And we don’t exactly look... horsey, I suppose. Just look at her and tell me she has that creepy-crawly vibe. From where I stand, she looks just like us only without the fur, different wings, and that green shiny shell thing. She doesn’t even have faceted eyes, you dolt. Your irrational fear of insects is getting out of hoof if her appearance is triggering it.”
“...” I sighed and shuffled around with my hooves while fidgeting with my wings. I glanced at Luna and the... bug-pony... and back at Luna, biting my lip in thought.
She... wasn’t wrong about her looking nothing like an actual insect, but some similarities were still there that made me feel uneasy. The chitin didn’t look overly insect-like, it had a more matt appearance that rather resembled leather. Thankfully, she didn’t have mandibles or I’m sure I would have put way more power into my attack with the actual intent of killing her until only a smear remained.
I suppose I could rationalize her green shiny shell on her back as looking similar to what a paint job on a car would have looked like on Earth (at least, I think so... the memory was a bit vague by now, to be honest). The hair of her mane and tail looked kind of silk-like, so I don’t think I’m going to have many problems with that.
So, what was my problem? If I could actually look past her subtle similarities with insects and the differences with ponies, why was I still so against this? Luna had no problem with her as it seems, something I wouldn’t have expected from her of all ponies.
Was it that slightly guilty feeling in me that I couldn’t explain? Why was I even feeling guilty about liking this... Ugh, we really need a name for her species, don't we? There was no rational reason to actually be against it if Luna approved of adding her to our herd. But... that’s it, isn’t it? One member of our herd couldn’t give her approval, could she? Celestia wasn’t here to approve and it was making me feel guilty if I were to go behind her back with such a decision.
I wanted to open my mouth and argue further with Luna, but my sister beat me to it. “And if you think Tia wouldn’t go for a pony that supposedly has the ability to shapeshift, think again.”
It was like Luna had read my mind and I felt my heart warm at the thought that she could read me so easily. She had a point there, Celestia would have been the first one to beg us to add her to the herd. If only to satisfy her perverted nature.
I really miss Tia...
“So, we don’t put her in the deepest hole we can find?” I asked in uncertainty, my eyes pleading with my sister to tell me that we won’t make an enemy out of this... pony. That’s what she is and I just have to believe it more. I need to get over my fear of insects, it's in no way rational.
Luna was right, I need to stop letting it control my feelings and the best way to get over an irrational fear was to confront it. In a safe environment. Without being forced into it. Where I could run away and hide in a corner, shivering in fear...
No. Summer, stop. Don’t be ridiculous now. You're being way too dramatic again. Everything is going to work out fine... as long as she doesn't skewer me on her horn as soon as she wakes up, that is.
“That’s the question now, isn’t it?” Luna answered, throwing me out of my disturbed and guilty thoughts. “We don’t know how she will react if we put her into that volcano and we don’t know what she will do if we take her back with us to Canterlot. She still needs to be punished for her transgressions, but would that also make her hate us? You tell me what to do here, Sunny. Volcano or Canterlot?”
Looking at the unconscious queen, I remembered that hungry gaze in her eyes through the lenses of her helmet. What if she only did this because nopony ever loved her? Not in the right way, at least. How do the emotions she eats taste if they weren’t for her in the first place? Do they even satisfy her need for sustenance? Has she ever tried being in love a chance instead of taking it?
“Canterlot,” I whispered and Luna smiled. “You can keep her asleep, right? I don’t want her to flee before we get her somewhere safe in our home. Somewhere comfortable, most importantly. It wouldn’t do to put her in the dungeon, she would never trust us then.”
“What about the rest of her... hive? Her subjects?” Luna inquired and I hummed. What to do with the rest of them, indeed. Keep them asleep and under guard? Or... put a little faith in them and hope they won’t abuse it?
For us to gain their trust, and most importantly their queen's trust, we have to make sure they have the option to leave peacefully. If their queen doesn't want to accept our apology and our attempt at making things right between us, then we can't treat them as prisoners, either. It will only prove to her that we are the 'villains', instead.
Still, her subjects can't just do as they please, either. “Let’s... I want to say give them the benefit of the doubt, but I fear they will try something reckless for their queen. I don’t think it is a good idea to give them too much freedom right now, it depends on how this goes with her...” I answered, worriedly biting my lip. I have been doing that a lot recently, I should probably stop with that. "Keep them asleep until we have had a chance to talk with her. If she wants to leave, we will let her. S.P.O.T.T. can keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't continue with her previous path."
My sister hummed before nodding. “Being cautious is probably the best approach, sister. And she does have to learn to behave,” she said. “Very well. Let us return to Canterlot then and leave our soldiers to their duty. They will ensure the city of Trot will recover from this.”
They probably have to recover from what 'I' did, instead of what these insectoid ponies have done. One thing I will never forgive myself for, I guess.
Luna picked up the unconscious queen in her levitation and took to the sky on her wings. I followed after her with an apprehensive and anxious flap, and together, we rounded up the remaining invaders, putting them to sleep as well. They weren’t that many and it made me feel like they were struggling to get by. Some of them even looked frail and sickly, further giving me the impression that they weren’t arbitrarily going around draining ponies of their essence.
For a race that relied on emotions for their sustenance, going around invading cities and the like seemed like a stupendously stupid idea. In the short term, it might work somewhat, but even then it was a foolish thing to do. You were just as likely to lose your subjects by doing it that way as you would provide for them. I dearly hoped we could bring them away from this destructive path and show them a better way. They didn’t deserve this fate. As much as I wanted to say they do deserve it for hurting our ponies, I didn’t want them to suffer, either.
Could I ever fault them for wanting to survive, even if they went about it the wrong way?
We put most of them in secured guest rooms once we got back to Canterlot, they shouldn’t be able to cause a ruckus in those should they somehow wake up from Luna’s influence. Their queen was with us in our own chambers, there was no other place where it was safer within our castle.
There were a few healers there with us should she wake up in pain from what I did to her. It didn’t seem like the holes in her limbs actually hurt her as they weren’t irritated or bleeding in any way, but it was better to make sure she wasn’t negatively affected by this. Her race seemed sturdy enough that they could take a fair bit of punishment (much like me and my sister). Or perhaps it was only the case of her being able to withstand such injuries and the rest of her subjects were closer to how an injury of that magnitude would have affected our own ponies.
Luna nodded towards me and I mentally prepared myself as much as I could for how the queen would react once my sister woke her up from unconsciousness. My sister then placed her horn on the forehead of our... 'guest'. I suppose that would be the best way to view her as for the time being. An unwilling guest that was in no way a temporary prisoner of war... nopes. Nuh-uh. Definitely not.
I watched as the slit eyes of our... mhh, I don’t want to call her our prisoner, damnit. Anyway, our guest opened her eyes and stared at us in confusion and at her surroundings. Her behavior was extremely guarded and I could tell that she was incredibly weakened. I felt a bit of concern for her as she tried to shuffle away from us on the bed (especially from me) before searching for an escape.
“It’s okay, we won’t hurt you,” I said and winced as she gave her limbs a horrified look. “Not any further, at least. I’m sorry for... for doing that to you. Does it hurt?”
“N-no... I don't think so...” the queen whispered, her voice shaking slightly which sounded... I don’t know, it sounded incredibly alien. Like it was buzzing, I guess. “Am I... am I your prisoner now?”
“For the time being, you are our guest,” Luna answered sternly and the queen looked away forlornly. My sister made it abundantly clear with her tone that that could change at any moment depending on how our talk goes. “We will see to your recovery first before making a decision on that. It depends entirely on whether or not we could trust you to not repeat what you have done to Emperor Incitatus. You must understand that we can’t simply let you go and continue on like that. Be glad we didn’t seal you away in a volcano.”
“A volcano?” she laughed deprecatingly. “Don’t you pony princesses turn your enemies to stone or something?”
“That... that was one time,” I muttered, embarrassed. “He deserved it, though. Please, don’t think we are heartless monsters that go around turning everypony to stone just because they have done something bad.”
“Could have fooled me...” she shot back and I heard her hiss at one of our healers as he was about to get closer to her to examine her wings. I motioned for them to stay away from her and give her her space. It’s the least we could do for her. “So, what now?”
“Now we search for a solution to your plight,” I answered and her eyes turned to me as she raised a brow. “But first, could we learn your name? I’m sure you know ours already.”
“Who doesn’t,” she snorted. “My name is Queen Chrysalis. What do you mean by ‘search for a solution to my plight’? There is nothing that needs to be fixed. And if this”—she gestured to her holes—” is any indication of how you ponies handle problems, I don’t want your ‘help’.”
My ears wilted at the bitter tone in her voice and I gave her a sad and ashamed look. “I’m truly sorry, I didn’t mean to... no, I did do this on purpose, but I didn’t intend for the outcome to be so... gruesome. I’m very protective of my sister, and when you looked at her with such primal hunger, I suppose I snapped and put too much power into my attack.”
“Yeah, right,” Chrysalis growled, turning away from me. “Apology not accepted, pony. Go tell that to someling that will actually believe your lies. Too much power, my flanks.”
Luna frowned as I let out a sad sigh, fighting off a few tears. Chrysalis hated me, that much was obvious. Why had I even entertained the small glimmer of hope that it wouldn’t turn out like this? It was foolish of me. I had no idea how I could possibly make up for my mistake and it crushed my heart to see her like this. I deserved every bit of her resentment and then some...
“You don’t have the right to talk to my sister like that,” Luna snapped at her while opening her wings wide in a threatening manner. My sister stalked into Chrysalis’ line of sight, her legs tense. The glare she gave her was as frosty as it was intense. “You have done much worse to our ponies, haven’t you? Perhaps you should rethink your standpoint and stop being so haughty. My sister was the one that wanted to offer you mercy even after what you have done to so many of our ponies. Even now, she wants nothing more than to make it up to you.”
“I don’t need your pity, stupid pony,” Chrysalis snarled. “And I don’t need to let myself be berated by a stuck-up princess. Certainly not by a pair of them that can’t stay out of my business. Leave me alone, let me starve in a prison cell for all I care.”
“You don’t have to,” I whispered and I could see the apprehension in her as she heard my voice and the concern in it. “Please, what can I do to make it up to you?”
“Give me back my freedom and forget you ever saw me,” Chrysalis spat. “My hive needs me and I can’t entertain a pair of prissy princesses’ notion of ‘righteousness’.”
“Sorry to burst your bubble, but you won’t be leaving so that you can go back to terrorizing our ponies,” Luna said sternly. “And neither are we prissy princesses with 'delusions of righteousness'. You are in no condition to leave, half of your subjects are starving. We will be taking care of them from now on. You are clearly not thinking straight.”
My eyes widened as Luna made that declaration. We would do what now..? That's not what we originally agreed on! We can't just take her people away from her!
Chrysalis bristled at that, her wings buzzing angrily. “Tch! That’s rich of you to say,” she growled. “Take away my hive? How typical of you ponies. You discriminate against anything that doesn’t fit your view. How was I supposed to get food for my hive when all you do is run away screaming that a monster is coming for them? Or better yet, blast us to smithereens! Fuck you, you prissy shit!”
“Perhaps if you wouldn’t drain them completely of their essence, they wouldn’t run away!” Luna shot back, snorting angrily. “You go around attacking our ponies left and right, it’s no wonder they get frightened of you, you insolent brat!”
“I'll show you 'insolent brat', you fucking...” Chrysalis snarled and I had enough of the spat between them. I tugged harshly at the ears of both Chrysalis and my own sister with a quick burst of my magic while giving them an unamused look.
“Stop!” I shouted, stomping my hoof to the ground, causing the room to shake a little bit. Instead of continuing their fight, they glared at each other while I breathed in and out in a calming manner. Hopefully, I can still salvage this situation. “What is this about discrimination by our ponies?”
Chrysalis sneered at me before chuckling darkly. “Are you really that ignorant?” she asked mockingly. “Your 'perfect' little ponies are bigots, Princess Summer. They shun anything that isn’t one of their own. My hive can’t get enough food, what we gather is barely enough to get by, and you know why that is? Ponies fear us simply because we are different. Going around draining ponies was the only way to avoid total extinction for my species, so don’t lecture me about morals when we are forced into this position!”
“Is... is that truly how desperate you have become to survive?” I asked, feeling horrified. I hated it when I was right. Chrysalis did the only thing that came into her mind to save her subjects. “I’m so sorry that you and your hive had to resort to this. I didn't know...”
“You aren’t telling the whole story,” Luna remarked, giving the queen a narrow-eyed look. “Tell us, you and your... what is your species called?”
“Changelings,” Chrysalis muttered.
My sister hummed curiously in surprise. “Interesting name,” Luna mused and I agreed. Wasn’t there a myth about those back on Earth? One that didn’t paint them in the greatest light? “Tell us, you and your changelings, have you ever tried to go about it the peaceful way? You are clearly capable of blending into society, why not use that ability to its best effect?”
“Why bother?” Chrysalis retorted glumly. “I have seen what you ponies have done with the griffons. You don’t hesitate when you want to get rid of a problem. What would you have done had you found us posing as someone's loved one? Most ponies assume we replace the pony they fell in love with, so I can already guess what their reaction is going to be. If one of you had found us in an important position, as well? I can only imagine the fallout of that.”
“That...” I began before I faltered. She was right, as much as I hated to admit it to myself. “I suppose we don’t have the best track record of solving our problems, especially with the griffons, but that doesn’t mean we don’t try to find peaceful solutions,” I told her, hoping she would believe me. I mean, I would have definitely tried to find out whether or not they were acting with malicious intentions before jumping to conclusions... not that I had the best track record, so far.
Chrysalis grumbled under her breath and I was momentarily confused as she started to laugh. “So, you just go around stuffing them full of drugs so they get more compliant with 'your' viewpoints, and when that doesn’t work anymore, you get rid of them?” she spat. “That’s what you’re going to do with me, isn’t it? You're going to make me your loyal pet.”
“No!” I denied, wilting under her smoldering gaze. “No, we won’t. I promise you're going to be treated as our equal until you are well enough to leave if that is what you truly wish to do. We won’t keep you or your subjects.” Luna frowned next to me, but I decided to ignore her. Her being vindictive right now wasn’t helping things and provoking each other would only lead to more hurtful words. "Believe me, I’m not proud of what we had done to King Gregor, and if it could have been avoided, I would have taken that chance without an ounce of hesitation. As for dethroning a tyrant that forces his subjects to die for them? Excuse me, but that bastard had it coming for him. The abuse the griffons had to suffer under his rule was too much for us to ignore.” That, and he started it. It’s a petty argument, I know, but what were we supposed to do? At least Chrysalis didn’t seem to want to argue that point with me.
“While we could have dealt with it better, Summer isn’t the monster you think her to be,” Luna sighed. “What have our ponies done to you that you are so mistrustful of us?”
“Besides hunting us? Those stupid bats of yours treat us as delicacies. What choice did we have other than to resort to more aggressive methods?” Chrysalis asked and I gave her a horrified look. Our ponies have done what?! “Have you ever felt like you were going to die of starvation?”
“Please, let us help you,” I whispered while shame and worry flooded my entire being. “I don’t want to see you suffer any longer. Believe me when I say we had absolutely no knowledge of this. I'll see to it that this behavior is going to be punished accordingly.”
“Again with the pity,” she growled before standing up on unsteady legs. “Give me a reason why I should trust you. Why you won’t stab me in the back.”
Luna told the healers to leave the room and used her magic to put a soundproof bubble around us for good measure. It was probably overkill, seeing that our room was already sound-proofed, but it made me feel safer and more comfortable about what we were going to tell her. Luna gave me a nod while Chrysalis gave us a curious, if apprehensive, look.
“Because I want to give you a chance,” I answered, smiling slightly to show her I was being entirely genuine with what I was going to propose to her. “Not only for your species but you in particular. I’m sorry if I’m going to sound a bit forward here, but... would you be against the idea of joining our herd?”
Chrysalis blinked at that. “A... herd?” she asked, sitting down in confusion and disbelief. “What? I didn't mishear you, right? Aren’t you two sisters?”
“Well, yes...” I told her while rubbing my foreleg awkwardly with a hoof. “You don’t have to answer and I would understand if it makes you uncomfortable. Just, please, give it a thought?”
“Why would you even give me a chance after everything I have done to your ponies?” Chrysalis shot back, narrowing her eyes in mistrust. At least, I think it was mistrust. She seemed to think it was utterly outlandish that somepony could actually love her. “I’m not even a pony, doesn’t that disgust you?”
“Not for the reasons you would think,” I answered in a mutter. “We don’t have anything against you based on your race if that is what you are concerned about. It's just... I have had an irrational fear of insects since I have been little and... I hope that with your ability to shapeshift, I might get used to, well... you. I’m sorry, it’s stupid and you must think I’m an idiot.”
“No, I... I understand,” Chrysalis whispered. “At least you’re honest with it. I... I guess I should be honest with you, too. I've been using the way we've been treated in the past to justify my actions and not feel bad about hurting others because of that. I've become addicted to taking love from racist assholes, so... I guess I acted like a monster on purpose. I wouldn’t blame you if you hated me for it. I would hate me, too, if I were in your position.”
“Oh...” I said, not knowing what to say to that. So, she tried to deceive us into giving her sympathy even though she insisted she didn’t want to be pitied? That... it did hurt a little, but I would get over it. It wasn’t like I hadn’t lied my flanks off in the past to get what I wanted (mainly my mother's cookies but also to avoid hurting a pony's feelings). “Thanks for being open about that? This is going to take a while, isn’t it? Building trust between us, that is.”
“It’s hard being honest with others if all they see is a monster, even with yourself,” Chrysalis muttered and I wanted to hug her and tell her I didn’t see her like that, but the way she sat there, I don’t think she would have appreciated any kind of contact. “And this damn hunger is driving me up walls. Sometimes literally.”
She chuckled and I wondered if she actually meant that. What would it be like to be able to walk on walls? I mean, maybe I could rework my gravity spell so that it actually lets me set a direction gravity pulls me toward instead of just increasing the pull...
“If you want to give us a chance, I’m sure we could find a solution to that,” Luna told her and Chrysalis gave me and Lulu a cautious look. “Have you ever been given love freely? Without having to take it by force? Without it being directed at somepony else?”
“...no,” she admitted, looking thoughtful. “Would that... would that help? Make me full? I... I would like to give this a chance if I won’t ever have to feel like this again, please! I would do anything for that! And... maybe this will actually work out between us? You seem like you are actually genuine about this, much as it surprises me.”
“As long as you don’t mind us being sisters?” I smiled, a tiny bit of hope flaring up in me. “And please understand that we won’t instantly love you with all of our hearts. Let’s get to know each other more first and go on a few dates. The rest will happen on its own.”
Chrysalis tilted her head as she scrunched up her muzzle. “You ponies have weird views on incest,” she said with an indifferent shrug. “Changelings don’t care either way, as long as plenty of love and more comes our way. You don’t have to worry about that, I was just... surprised the rulers of Equestria were, you know, together.”
“We don’t make it a habit of telling everypony,” I said while fidgeting awkwardly. “So, I take it that's a yes?”
“Yes,” Chrysalis nodded, a small and genuine smile starting to appear on her muzzle. “I understand that it might take a while for you to actually love me like that and I also understand that it might be a difficult path ahead with our differences, as well as your need to learn how to overcome your irrational fears. I’ll try to be patient just like I have no doubt you will have to be patient about me and my own flaws.”
“Don’t think you’re the only one with those,” I smiled gently, despite feeling a pang of shame rise up within me. “I have more than I would like to admit. Sometimes I lash out when I really don’t want to, a portion of which you have regrettably already been subjected to. I’m so sorry for what I’ve done to you...”
“I would lie if I said it doesn’t bother me and that I’m not... 'scared' of that part of you, but then again, I must admit that I also have the same problem,” Chrysalis admitted, looking down in shame herself, and I gave her a surprised look. Okay, maybe not entirely surprised, considering how we met. She must have her own anger issues, then. Nopony could just go around destroying cities like that and not have something like that weighing them down. Especially since she used the injustices she had to face to justify her own actions. “And here I always thought the Princesses of Equestria were flawless... I suppose everypony has their dark sides.”
“Oh, you haven’t even seen those yet,” Luna chuckled darkly and I giggled as Chrysalis looked on in awe as my sister’s eyes flashed briefly to those of Nightmare Moon’s. “Believe me when I tell you that you have a lot to learn about us. Just as we have much to learn about you, no doubt.”
"Wow, I... uh... I didn’t expect that,” Chrysalis stuttered, and much to Luna’s and my own surprise, she blushed a dark green while her tail swished behind her. It seems she likes slit eyes quite a lot. Or dark and mysterious mares. “What else is there to know about you? Any more surprises? I won't lie, that... that fucking turned me on.”
Ahem... uh... alrighty, then. A bit forward, aren't we? I guess I can't blame her, we did just spring this whole herd thing out of the blue on her. Turnabout is fair play.
Instead of commenting on her 'preferences', I gave my sister a questioning look and she shrugged back at me. I frowned unhappily before nudging her expectantly, silently telling her to decide whether or not we should tell Chrysalis about our... most closely kept secrets, such as our origin. She let out a suffering sigh, rolling her eyes as I chickened out of making that decision. “There is one thing that you might probably think us crazy for, but I assure you it is the complete truth.”
Chrysalis raised a brow in curiosity and what I suppose was skepticism. “And that would be?”
Luna shifted on her hooves before giving me one last, uncertain look. “Summer, are you sure we should tell her?” she asked and I simply nodded timidly. If we really want to do this, then we have to do this in the right way, and we could only do 'that' if we didn’t hide such big parts of ourselves from the one we sought to add to our herd. “Fine. You are such a foal, you know that? You owe me a month’s worth of cookies for this, sister. Okay, let’s see... how to say this without sounding too crazy...”
I pouted at my sister. “Lulu, just tell her,” I said with a nervous frown while fidgeting with my wings. My heart was hammering in my chest and I think I was actually excited for somepony else to know about this. Somepony unrelated to my family. Well... not yet, at least.
My sister opened her mouth before I noticed an odd glee in her eyes. “We’re reborn, Summer was born a male in her past life, and...” she blurted out and I quickly used my magic to silence her as my muzzle was alight with embarrassment.
“Not that part!” I whined and Luna knew that, as soon as she looked into my eyes, she wouldn’t be getting any cookies from me for telling Chrysalis about the male thing. For the love of my sun, I wished I could just forget that part entirely.
“Uh... what?” Chrysalis asked, at a loss for words as my sister mumbled incoherently at me to let her lips go with my magic. I gave Luna a warning glare and let her slowly go, smiling sheepishly at Chrysalis as I tried to think of some explanation to tell her that would make Luna’s blunder sound like a joke.
Who am I kidding, that won’t ever work. Besides, Chrysalis should know about it if she was to join our herd. No big secrets, after all.
Ugh. This is going to be a pain in the flank to explain. So... to make things short and painless (mostly for me), I rattled off everything that led up to our reincarnation and told her to forget that I had ever been a male human in my previous life. Luna was laughing her flanks off and I swore to myself she wouldn’t be getting any cookies from me for the next decade or so.
Eventually, we came to the parts about our history that Chrysalis knew about and she began to explain how she came to be. Apparently, there was a magical acorn that started to grow into a tree within a cavern after a squirrel threw it away in disgust. I had no idea how she knew how the tree came into being and simply decided to ignore it. She was quite good at storytelling, I had to give it to her.
Then, she got lewd about it, saying how Mother Nature (the tree) and Starswirl the Bearded had a brief fling with each other (Starswirl ‘penetrated’ the tree with a ‘fierce thrust’ of his ‘nail’ using a ‘wild swing’ of his ‘hammer’ and thus ‘pierced’ dear mommy so that ‘she’ later gave birth to Chrysalis and her hive), which basically meant Starswirl was her daddy. Yeah... I think I haven’t ever craved Luna’s moonshine as much as I have at that moment in particular.
There was more to it than that, though. It seems whatever underground lake the acorn grew in was of a magical nature and it used a fly, a unicorn’s horn (apparently a pony had died in that cavern), and the bones of the deceased pony to create a template for Chrysalis’ species. At least, those are the ones she's aware of, she also had the suspicion she might be part termite, but she wasn't so sure about that.
Her lonely 'birth' with nopony to take care of her and show her right from wrong meant she had to figure the world out all on her own without anypony there to guide her. She told us that only her instincts were her teacher and hunger was her motivator. A hunger that had almost driven her hive to extinction. She basically stumbled upon the ability to change her appearance with her unique magic that only changelings could use, saving what was left of her hive and ushering in her more deceptive nature (while also going on a warpath with bigoted pony states, go figure).
Changelings were the ultimate infiltrators. They could literally become anything they wanted to be. They also... technically didn’t have a singular biological sex and were (more or less) hermaphroditic in their base form. The only exception being that they can't reproduce in the conventional sense of the word (aside from Chrysalis, that is).
I mean... sure, they can still have offspring, but it's a bit more complicated than 'lay an egg and be done with it'. For one thing, Chrysalis was the only one that could lay fertilized eggs if she so chose to. She is, in that regard, like a queen bee, I think. The rest of her subjects were unable to produce 'female' variations of their species. Female variations as in 'able to lay unfertilized eggs'. Even if they do try to get them fertilized (and they have tried, according to her), it simply doesn't happen. Chrysalis called it her 'Queen's Authority', which was basically her admitting she had no idea why she was the only one that could do it.
I... uh... I really didn’t need to know she could do that. Seriously, it was giving me shivers and I had no idea how I should have felt about her laying thousands of eggs with each yearly cycle (for some reason, pony reproductive habits still applied to her in that regard). Without her, her species would die out entirely, so I tried to get over my squeamishness for her sake. We needed to make absolutely certain she was safe. I wouldn’t let her and her hive die out.
I was thankful that she could withstand the full brunt of my alicorn magic or I would have already been drowning myself in Luna’s moonshine in guilt and sorrow. Sure, I felt more than guilty enough about that already, but nowhere near what I would have felt knowing I erased an entire species from the face of Equis without giving them a chance to change for the better.
“So, what now?” Chrysalis asked once the lull in our conversation started to drag on uncomfortably. “How are we going to do this going forward?”
“We still need to decide how to further integrate you and your hive into our society,” Luna answered, rubbing her chin with a hoof in thoughtful contemplation. “You can also shapeshift into a pony that doesn’t actually exist, am I correct?”
“That would be a lot more difficult without a template to mimic, but yes,” Chrysalis nodded. “Should we look a certain way? To ease my hive into society?”
“I would like to say that wouldn’t be necessary, but if ponies truly fear your appearance so much, it would probably be for the best if we let them get used to the idea of your existence slowly,” Luna sighed. “It might take a while for that to happen, but I promise we will do our best to make it happen as fast as possible. Summer has her ways to be convincing if she needs to be.”
“You know I don’t like using that ability of mine,” I said while my ears pressed themselves to the back of my head. “My stare might intimidate the nobility enough that they won’t make a fuss about this, but I can’t go around Equestria and use it on everypony.”
“The nobility is probably the only faction we need to worry about, anyway,” Luna muttered and she kinda had a point there. If the nobility was on our side with this, the rest of Equestria shouldn’t take too long to come around, afterward. “Besides, it can’t hurt to have a ponified version of yourself, Chrysalis. What do you think, Summer?”
“A pony with a dark coat isn’t exactly all that common, but I think that our ponies would be more at ease if they knew for certain that their neighbor wasn’t secretly a changeling in disguise,” I answered, shrugging helplessly. "Maybe... no, a thestral would be really insensitive to you. Can you do a partial transformation? If you can, then looking like a unicorn with insect wings might be the best option."
“Hmm. I do like the idea of still resembling myself,” Chrysalis agreed, and then green flames began to envelop her form. An instant later, a dark mare with a black coat (not unlike the one of Nightmare Moon) was in front of me and Luna. Chrysalis’ mane and tail were a lot thicker in volume than what it regularly appeared as in her base form. She had decided to stick with her fangs and slit eyes, although they looked softer and less threatening in this form. One thing that made her stand out from us, though, was that her fur was a bit longer and... 'fluffy', I guess would be the best word to describe it. It wasn’t shaggy in the slightest, and if I had a comparison right next to her, she would have looked like a big cat. She appeared in her altered form similar to us (just with dragonfly wings instead) and one could have mistaken her for Nightmare’s twin sister, to be honest.
I couldn’t help the blush from appearing on my muzzle, blazing brightly for her to see and I think she enjoyed seeing me so flustered, as well. Damnit, please don’t let her turn out to be a massive tease like Celestia...
“It seems my sister certainly approves,” Luna snickered and I pouted back at her. I could see her approving of Chrysalis just as much, if not more so. She did still look like herself and I felt like I wasn’t talking to a mask while she was like that, so that was a nice bonus. Both her natural form and this ponified form felt like 'Chrysalis' on a fundamental level and that was the most important thing for me. This way, I could hopefully overcome my fear of insects if she could just change into this if I started to panic and whatnot. Eventually, I would hopefully not have to rely on this crutch, it wouldn’t be fair to her otherwise.
“Thank you, I do like how the fur feels like this,” Chrysalis commented while rubbing a hoof over herself. Much to my eternal embarrassment, my wings shot out unintentionally at how sensually she made it look. She smirked at my reaction and I felt like dying as Luna began to roar with laughter. “Like what you see, Princess Summer~?”
“Please, just Summer,” I answered as I tried to get back control of my wings, flustered. Damn her for looking so sexy. And for being fully aware of it, making the most sensual moves she could possibly do just to rile me up. I guess a species dependent on love and other emotions would have way fewer inhibitions in regard to things like that. Or none at all, as I would later find out, much to my own chagrin (and that of our castle staff).
Chrysalis gave me a mischievous smirk. “Whatever you say... Princess,” she said, completely unbothered by the glower I sent toward her. She was definitely doing it on purpose, the little minx. The very, very sexy little minx... Damnit, mind out of the gutter, Summer. “Though I would like to have another form to fall back on. Any ideas?”
“I suppose I might have one that you could use. It’s not of a pony that exists, at least not in the sense you would think of. The form I’m thinking of was originally from a dream I had. As you are aware now, due to the circumstances of our reincarnation, I wasn’t certain that my twin was Catherine, and I... dreamt about what she would have looked like,” I began, giving up on getting my stubborn wings to comply with me and Chrysalis wasn’t doing me any favors in getting them under control anytime soon. Both Luna and Chrysalis gave me curious looks, and by the way they were smiling, they clearly knew it wasn’t an entirely 'innocent' dream that I had. “And uh... you know... stuff happened.”
“So... you had sex with her?” my sister giggled and I groaned. Leave it to her to come to that conclusion before anything else. Not that it was that much of a stretch...
“No, we didn’t have sex. By ‘stuff happened’ I meant that the dream got... kinda weird before we could get to that,” I muttered, slightly grumpy. “And why are you always assuming I only dream of sex? You’re being mean to me...”
“Because you mostly do,” Luna shrugged and I pouted. Damn it. Stupid dream princess. “And with us dreaming together now, I get to see every raunchy bit of it, all the time.”
“S-shut up,” I shot back and Luna began to laugh again while Chrysalis was now giggling, too. I just knew they were going to team up on me to tease me whenever it was possible now. Suns forbid what would happen once Celestia gets to know Chrysalis...
“Okay, our naughty princess had a wet dream, fooling around with her dream wife. What I want to know is: how did she look?” Chrysalis asked and I fidgeted with my hooves. All of a sudden, I didn't think this was a smart idea to bring up, in the first place. Why did I open my damn mouth..?!
Sighing, I muttered the description out, barely above a whisper, and Chrysalis used her magic a moment later to change into the shape I described to her. Though, she had done a few changes to make it more her own instead of copy-pasting it.
“Like this?” she asked, and sure enough, there she was as my wet dream brought to life (there's no use in denying it any further, is there?).
I nodded shyly, eying her up and down. Her chocolaty mane flowed like a river in an ethereal breeze like Luna’s and my own mane, although I could see it pulse slightly with other colors every once in a while. It looked very much like her mood affected the colors of her mane. The pastel colors were blending back and forth from a soft red back to the chocolaty brown it started from. She decided to stick with the slightly longer fur, now beige in color, and her eyes were still the emerald ones of her original form, dancing with mirth as I ogled her with poorly disguised desire. Not that I’m going to act on it without getting to know her better first.
Ugh, now I'm horny. That's what I get for telling her about my fantasies... stupid Summer.
Anyway! The primary feathers on her wings had a slightly faded effect, transitioning from beige to a faint brown color with the barest hint of a coppery, orange tone to it. Her horn was just as long as Luna’s and mine and on her flanks was the depiction of a stylized outline of a ‘thorny’ heart I knew all too well. It was the tattoo and chosen emblem Catherine had on her arm back on Earth, something that oddly made much more sense for Chrysalis.
Chrysalis was dependent on emotions, mainly the feelings of the heart. Chief among those was love, and what better way to depict her ability to consume emotions than the Cutie Mark she now had? She could have been mistaken as our cousin or long-lost sister like that. Aside from that, her voice sounded slightly deeper than mine but still managed to resemble it quite closely.
Luna licked her lips with half-lidded eyes. “Mhh. Me like,” she commented while Chrysalis was looking at herself, as well. Although, it seems she lingered on her new Cutie Mark with surprised eyes. Luna noticed her baffled expression before I did, giving the queen a nudge with her hoof. “Everything okay? Do you not like yourself like this? If this is about pretending to be Summer's wet dream come to life, then...”
“No, that’s not it,” Chrysalis interrupted my sister as she turned her head back around. “I didn’t put that mark there.”
“You didn’t?” Luna asked and I raised a brow at that. Why wouldn’t she want that mark on her flanks? I mean, I could understand not wanting it because it originally belonged to Tia, but that doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. It suited her.
Chrysalis shook her head and with a quick burst of flame, she was back in her natural form... only the Cutie Mark stayed with her and her hair still moved in the ethereal breeze. That was... unexpected. “That never happened before. How do I get rid of it?”
“Why would you want to get rid of it?” I asked, feeling alarmed. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like without my Cutie Mark and I felt horrified that she would want to have it gone. “Liz, that’s like... ripping out your soul! Like... I don’t know, denying a part of yourself! That’s terrible!”
Chrysalis blinked. “What?” she asked in that slightly ignorant tone that told her she had no idea what I was talking about. “That thing is a pony thing. I don’t like it. And what's up with that 'Liz' thing? Are you giving me a nickname already?”
“Well, technically you are two-thirds pony,” Luna said. “It shouldn’t be that surprising to you that you could get a Cutie Mark. So... if you have a Cutie Mark now, how did you get it when you didn’t even want to put it there?”
“Obviously it has something to do with her changeling nature, Lulu,” I commented dryly. Luna rolled her eyes at that and Chrysalis looked like she wanted to snap at me for being a smartflank. “What do you think, Liz?”
“Again with that ridiculous nickname,” she grumbled. “How should I know? You’re the pretty pony princess here, not me.”
“How can you not know what you did to get your Cutie Mark?” I asked, bewildered. That was... so incredibly sad. Getting your Cutie Mark and not knowing how and why you got it was the worst thing that could happen to a pony!
“World domination? Never starving again?” she snarked. “There you have it, now stop pestering me about it. You ponies and your all-important Cutie Mark obsession is nauseatingly disgusting. Why are they even so important to you?”
“But... but...” I stammered and Luna put a wing over my back reassuringly. Chrysalis had a lot to learn, it seems.
We continued our discussion well into the night and it didn’t stop with that day. No... it took an abysmally long time for her to get used to the idea of having a Cutie Mark and not having to hunt for love anymore. Despite her... slightly (overly dramatic) behavior that was sometimes a bit off-putting to deal with, we started to grow closer together. She wasn’t that bad once you got to know her. She even had her own particular brand of snarky humor that made me giggle quite often. I think she started doing it more to hear me laugh, she always had that smug, satisfied grin on her muzzle when she did. And to be honest, if you ignored her overly flirtatious manners and slightly megalomaniacal tendencies, she was quite charming to be around.
Eventually, I even started to get used to her going au naturel in her changeling form and we found out what her special talent was. No, it wasn’t world domination, much to her disappointment and displeasure.
It was actually empathy. She got her Cutie Mark because, as she first assumed her alternate disguise, she did that out of a sense of empathy towards me. She unlocked her very potential by looking past my transgressions and by accepting the help I so desperately wanted to give to her and her hive.
The first time she felt absolutely full, she started to get that urge Luna and I normally felt when it was time to raise and lower the celestial bodies during dawn and dusk. Instead of doing what we do, though, Liz (I really love that nickname, by the way) brought about an end to her hive’s starvation, feeding them all at once. She almost overexerted her magic to the breaking point right then and there and needed to recharge her energy (or her ‘love storage’, as she called it). That was the first time we got intimate with her.
And by my sun, she was an absolute beast in the bed. Having a changeling for a lover was... it was unlike anything I could have compared it to. Just having her feed on me as I climaxed felt like my nerves wanted to explode in pleasure. Naturally, she took a lot of pride in that, glowing like she just scored the jackpot.
I happily snuggled her after we were done with one of the most mind-blowing sex I ever had. Luna was even purring against my back from being thoroughly satisfied and Liz was humming in that happy way when one felt they were almost full to the brim with food.
This moment could have only been better if Tia had been here with us and I couldn’t wait to introduce Liz to her. They would get along swimmingly, I just knew it. Our little ponies were coming around to the idea of changelings, too, and for once, I felt everything would work out in the end.
Her behavior could do with a bit less smugness, though. And fewer anger issues, but she wasn’t the only one with those in our little herd.
Only some odd thousand years left until Tia is finally free... Platinum won’t see her defeat coming, I was certain of that. I'll do everything in my power to make it happen. Just wait, Bitchface. Just wait...