//------------------------------// // Spreading the Word // Story: The Odd One // by theOwtcast //------------------------------// By the time I’d washed the remains of healing slime off myself and tracked down Cadance to be given the protection of her modified spell that would hopefully be more effective than the original version, Sunburst had already dislodged my cocoon from the ceiling and taken it somewhere, along with most of the healing slime that had oozed onto the floor while we talked. A bit of mess still remained and I helped him clean it up. He was curious about the process of building the cocoon so I described it to him, and he grimaced a little but did his best to hide it. I got the impression that he’d originally planned to ask more questions, but he must have decided this was plenty enough for one day. Eventually I was left alone again, and my eyes searched the room for ideas on what to do now that I was back among the living. They stopped on the far end of the room, on the little green object on the window sill. It was the cutting of my flower! How could I have forgotten about it? I examined it closer. The leaf looked pretty much the same as I remembered it, but its cocoon had turned a brownish-white hue while I was sleeping encased in my own. My heart skipped a beat; what was going on? The cocoon shouldn’t have looked anything like that! I opened it hurriedly and a wave of relief washed over me as strong roots revealed themselves as the source of the unusual color! It hadn’t been the cocoon itself, it had been the roots inside it! My experiment had worked! Okay, now I had to plant the new flower. But where? I’d never discussed the details with anypony! I didn’t mind keeping it in my room a little longer, but I still needed some soil or it’d have to get a bigger cocoon. But could it grow into a fully-developed plant while in a cocoon? I decided to pay a visit to Emerald Leaf. “Hey, you’ve recovered!” he exclaimed with a grin as soon as he saw me. “You heard?” “Of course I’ve heard! The whole town knows Flurry was sick, and Shining dropped in one day to buy some roses for Cadance to try to cheer her up, and he mentioned you were the collateral victim. Did you really cocoon yourself?” “Yes.” “I wouldn’t have the guts, but it’s probably normal to you, so…” He gave a noncommittal shrug. “Anyway, what can I do for you today?” “I came to see if you have any flowerpots and soil. Something to plant the buttercup cutting in.” “You actually did that thing and it grew?” “Yes!” “Well I’ll be damned! Are you sure you never posed as a gardener?” “I never posed as anything.” “Ah, yes, you said so. Been a disappointment to your queen, huh?” “That’s an understatement! Unless you consider me a punching bag, in which case I did pretty good.” He bit his lip awkwardly. “Okay, let’s see… flowerpots… Do you have any preference for a particular color?” “I didn’t get that far into thinking about it,” I admitted. “Which colors do you have?” He showed me a few. “That one,” I pointed to a light purple one, similar to Spike’s scales. “And some planting soil?” “Yes, please.” He grabbed a relatively small bag from the pile behind him and passed it to me. “Anything else?” “No, I think that’s it. Unless you’d recommend something?” “Well, you could buy some fertilizer, but that’s more useful to farmers. Your flower should grow just fine either way.” “Hmm. I can buy fertilizer later if I decide I need it, right?” “Sure!” “Then it’ll be just this.” “Forty-five bits, please!” I paid for my stuff and left. Time to give the little flower a proper home! Back in my room, I filled the flowerpot with the soil I’d bought, placed the little plant in the center, and added the remaining soil over the roots. Now, to find a good place to put it… The window looked promising; it would provide plenty of light that the flower needed, and it looked nice already! I couldn’t wait to see the fully-grown plant adorning my window! Now I just had to dispose of the empty bag of soil. I’d forgotten to ask Emerald if he needed it back! Maybe somepony else would know? I’d barely set hoof into the hallway when I heard familiar babbling from the direction of the stairwell. “Flurry?” I asked. “Is that you?” A cloud of pink mist tackled me and latched into a hug. I let go of the soil bag and returned the hug. “I know, I know, I missed you too,” I murmured. “I hear you’re feeling better?” “She is,” Cadance replied, joining us. “We were just about to have dinner. Would you like to join us?” “Sure! I need to make up for the time I wasn’t around to play with Flurry!” She squealed some more and sat on my back, and I carried her to the dining room. The days went back to routine after that. I returned to foalsitting duty, and thought Flurry and I had both recovered from crystal flu, the memories of it still lingered fresh in my mind and I often caught myself wondering if one of us might contract it again if not careful enough. Luckily, either there was nothing left to contract it from, or Cadance’s spells were holding this time and working as intended. I continued painting again, too. The last set of sketches I’d made were proving themselves very useful, but there were still details I had to fill from memory, and when that too failed on a couple of occasions, I resorted to imagination. I hadn’t wanted that for this set of paintings, but Fine Line had assured me it was alright; after all, who was to say that the scene depicted had actually looked a certain way or that it had existed at all? And who was to say that I couldn’t improve a scene by adding or removing something? And how was I to know that it hadn’t looked exactly that way at a different point in time? The reasoning made sense, so I followed it, and though my skill could still use a bit of work, I was overall pretty satisfied with the result. As for studying with Sunburst, though we weren’t going to end it just yet, we’d agreed that it wasn’t such a high priority anymore now that I’d made more friends and gotten pretty used to living in pony society. We were therefore continuing with our duties and hobbies and only meeting once or twice a week for a study session. In the meantime, I was still mostly following Sunburst’s literary recommendations, sometimes looking them up in the library myself, sometimes borrowing them from Sunburst, and sometimes yielding to a moment of inspiration when we were in the library together. Everything was back to normal. Except for one thing: the snowstorm was still keeping the railways closed. I was still cut off from my Ponyville friends with no way to exchange letters! So, with the shortage of new letters from my friends, I’d taken to re-reading their old ones to fill that gap. I’d gathered up a fair amount by now, most of them from Spike, but most of the others had written to me at some point too: Princess Twilight to inquire about various things that my letters to Spike had hinted at but not described in detail, mostly related to my process of adjustment to pony society and to Sunburst’s lessons, but also about changelings and our way of life; Pinkie Pie to tell me things about ponies living in Ponyville, and Rainbow Dash to discuss Daring Do books. There were also a few letters from Applejack, mostly related to my visit to Appleloosa, and one or two from Braeburn and Little Strongheart. Rarity had only written the one that came with the coat, and though one or two of Spike’s letters had mentioned Fluttershy having things she wanted to ask me, I had yet to receive any letters from her. She struck me as pretty shy, so that was probably the main reason why she hadn’t written yet. Unless she was scared of me? She hadn’t seemed so except for the first few minutes of knowing me, but for all I knew, that fear could have kicked in later… Maybe I should write to her? But how to go about it knowing so little about her? Did we have any mutual point of interest? With so little to go on, I decided to pay special attention to any hint in any of the letters that would help me approach Fluttershy. I believed we could be friends, and there had to be a foundation on which we could build that friendship; I just had to find it! But nothing I could go on presented itself as I read and re-read the letters! Was I going to have to ask the others for advice? But how to do it without making it look like I was more interested in Fluttershy than in any of the others? I read on and still found nothing. Eventually I reached the end of the pile and was no wiser on how to start a conversation with Fluttershy than I’d been in the beginning! Though, now that I’d gone through the last few letters, the matter of Fluttershy kind of fell into the background as I was reminded of the events that had transpired shortly before the snowstorm left the Crystal Empire isolated from the rest of the world, namely Shining Armor’s change of heart about me and the punishment he was supposed to receive for the way he’d treated me. Cadence hadn’t made any attempts to discuss that with me in a while and I must have assumed the matter was either settled without anypony informing me, or forgotten. I wanted it to be forgotten so I wouldn’t feel guilty for Shining’s predicament, but knowing Cadance and Sunburst, they probably would have told me what the verdict was… unless they both assumed the other one had already done it? But how would I know? I didn’t want to ask questions in case they’d actually forgotten and this reminded them! Could I ask somepony close enough to them to be expected to know? Would Berry or one of my former guard escorts be of any help? It turned out pretty soon that I didn’t have to go looking for any of them; Cadence and Shining came to find me. “I hope we’re not disturbing?” Shining asked as he and Cadance sat down next to me on a bench in Sapphire Street, where I’d gone to sketch the statue of Princess Amore in an attempt to clear my head. “Sure,” I said and moved the pencils to make room for them. “So… we’ve been thinking…” he continued. “Yes?” “About my punishment for the way I treated you… I know a lot has been going on lately, but have you had the time to give it any thoughts yet?” I hung my head and sighed. “I was hoping you’d forget about that,” I admitted. “We didn’t,” Cadance said. “We just waited for your decision.” “I think you already know my decision, Princess.” “You said you wanted to let it go. But that was when we first told you about it, and we can’t let it go even if you want to. It wouldn’t be fair!” “Fair? No offense, Princess, but asking me to approve of punishing someone is pretty much the same as asking me to hate them, and I can’t do that! I don’t want to hate anyone! Not only that, but I’ve spent my entire life refusing to hurt others - it’s as good as an oath I’d made to myself - and now you’re asking me to break that oath! It doesn’t even matter that the punishment wouldn’t cause any physical pain; I just can’t do it!” I took a couple of deep breaths. “Starlight has a theory that I’m afraid of becoming like Chrysalis if I allow myself to condone punishment even if it’s justified. Maybe she’s right. And maybe she’s right in assuming that I can’t be like Chrysalis no matter what I do. I don’t know. All I know is that doing what you want me to do goes against everything I’ve ever wanted and hoped for. If you want to disregard my input, that’s your choice, but I’m not going to change my mind just because somepony thinks I should… even if that somepony is a leader of a country or the first friend I ever had.” “Spike wrote to you about it too?” Shining asked. “He did. He said he thought… you…” “Yes?” “...nothing…” “Tell me.” “No, really, nothing!” “Nothing my hoof! Do I have to dig through your letters to find out?” “Um…” “Tell me!” I swallowed a lump in my throat. “He said… you deserved it...” I whispered. “Hm.” He frowned, then closed his eyes and sighed. “He’s right. I wish he weren’t, but if he can see it from half the world away, then you should too, Thorax.” “So I could convince myself to punish you?” “Yes.” “I can’t even convince myself to want to punish Chrysalis, and what you’ve done doesn’t even come close to a fraction of what she’s done to me! It’s so much worse that I can’t even begin to compare it!” “So, in other words,” Cadence interjected, “you’re not going to change your mind no matter how long we wait for it to happen?” “That’s right, Princess. Were it my decision alone, I’d forgive Shining and never regret it, and that’s my final word on the matter.” She sighed. “I wish you felt differently about it,” she said with a poorly-suppressed hint of anguish in her voice. “It would have made things much easier to decide and to bear. Please understand that, as the ruling princess of this land, I can’t let Shining’s behavior slide no matter how much I hate the idea of punishing my own husband.” “If you want, I can try to pretend to approve-” “Don’t. I want you to be true to yourself and unafraid of speaking your mind regardless of whether or not I agree with you!” “So do I,” Shining added. “We may be the leaders of a country, but that doesn’t make us infallible, or we wouldn’t be needing this discussion.” “I suppose you’re right,” I said after a moment, “but that’s not making me feel better about the whole thing. Princess Cadance, if punishment is inevitable, can it at least be something mild?” “I’ll try to arrange that within reasonable levels,” she promised. “And I’ll keep you informed.” With that, they both got off the bench, excused themselves to discuss the matter, and left me to my sketching. Cadance came into my room the next morning while I was sifting through the sketches I’d made on that snowy morning just before Flurry had gotten sick, wondering which one of them I wanted to use as a template for my next painting. “Good morning, Thorax!” she said. “Slept well?” “I have, Princess! How can I help you?” “I’m not here to make demands. I came to inform you on Shining’s verdict as I promised yesterday.” I bit my lip and set down the sketches. “Oh. Um. What did you decide?” Did I want to know? “His punishment consists of several elements, but in the light of your stance on the matter, I made every one of those elements as mild as I could. Firstly, I suspended his status as the Captain of the Royal Guard for one month, starting today. Lieutenant Sabre will fill in as the acting captain during that time. Shining will still be a Royal Guard but will temporarily hold the rank of corporal and will be assigned to night shifts wherever Sabre sees fit to put him. I talked to her, and she’s considering border patrol or jail cells. After the month is up, unless something happens that forces me to prolong his suspension, he’ll resume his rank as Captain, but with a couple of restrictions. He may not conduct interrogations without at least one more guard present in the room to witness the procedure and intervene if necessary, and he may no longer imprison or otherwise discipline anyone on his decision alone, except in emergencies such as somepony’s life being threatened. I’ll have to approve of his decisions first, or if I’m absent or indisposed, a committee of five members will be asked to do that instead, and they’ll be selected based on criteria that I won’t bore you with. If he acted in an emergency, then I or the committee will decide on further course of action at the soonest convenience. This will last for as long as I deem it necessary but not shorter than six months. Next, he is to attend anger management classes. I also promised him that, if he ever again harms you willingly in any way, I'll divorce him, expel him from the Royal Guard, banish him from the Crystal Empire, and forbid him from ever seeing Flurry again, which is what I almost did before he came around, no matter how much I didn’t like it. Lastly, he is to remove the changeling-proofing spells from any and all weapons that still have it. He’s actually doing that now.” “Huh. I get the logic behind most of it, but why remove the protection from weapons? Aren’t we trying to make sure the changelings can’t use them if Chrysalis decides to invade?” “We debated this and came to the conclusion that the spells probably won’t matter if that happens. Chrysalis will have supplied her troops with weapons of their own so they won’t need to steal ours and risk their lives to get to them, and if we see them coming, there’s enough unicorns here that they should be able to changeling-proof everything again in time.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “We’re doing it for you… so that, if all the aforementioned measures still fail and you’re left with no other choice, you can use one of those weapons yourself.” I stared at her wide-eyed. Had I heard that right? “Princess, forgive me if I’m being rude, but… did you just give me permission to kill Shining if he loses control over himself?” “I hope it’ll never come to that, and he assured me I have nothing to worry about… but yes, it’s the last resort. I don’t like the idea of losing my husband before his time and Flurry growing up without a father, but if the worse comes to worst… I don’t expect anyone to sacrifice themselves to please someone’s whims or delusions, and that includes you. Ponies recognize self-defense, so don’t worry, you won’t be held accountable if you’re left with no other choice.” “And Shining is okay with that?” I asked after a moment of awkward silence. “He’s the one who suggested it, Thorax. I tried to dissuade him for his own sake and for the sake of everypony in case the changelings attack us again… but part of me knew it wouldn’t be fair to you in spite of all that. So I relented.” For what seemed like forever, I didn’t know what to tell her. She was willing to lose her husband for my sake? What had I ever done to deserve that dubious privilege? I took a closer look at her and realized her eyes were swollen and bloodshot. Had she been crying? It was because of the decisions she’d had to make, wasn’t it? “Princess,” I said, “for what it’s worth, I don’t think I could bring myself to kill Shining under any circumstances, not even to save my own life.” “I know,” she sighed. “That’s probably the main reason why I agreed to it without more convincing. But I still thought it fair for you to have that option, and if you ever do use it… I’ll take solace in knowing that you didn’t do it lightly.” “That’s an understatement. I’d probably end up killing myself too if things play out that way!” “Don’t. Come to me instead, or to Sunburst, or to any of your other friends, and we’ll do our best to help you cope with it. Your life is too valuable to all of us, so don’t throw it away in a fit of despair! Can you promise me that?” I considered it for a moment. “I’ll try,” I said. “But what about Shining? Isn’t his life valuable too?” “It is, and seeing how he feels about what he’s done to you, I’m pretty sure I can trust him not to repeat his mistakes and put you in a situation with only one gruesome way out… but I also don’t want you to pay the price of me being wrong. Neither does Shining in case he’s wrong about himself.” “And there’s no way to talk you out of it?” “No, but do realize this is only a precaution. We really don’t think it’s likely that you have anything to worry about!” I said nothing. “I have to go back to the throne room now. Will you be okay?” “I think so…” I wasn’t so sure. She nodded. “If you need anything, or anypony to talk to…” “Thank you.” When she was gone, I took the sketches in my hooves again and kept sifting through them, this time half-heartedly and not really seeing any of them. I wasn’t in the mood for painting anymore. How would I be? Shining was getting punished against my wishes! Why had they even asked for my input in the first place if they’d had no intention of heeding it? Not only that, but I’d been given permission to kill Shining if he went at me again! So what was the purpose of his punishment if they still expected me to have to defend myself from him? Was it really as unlikely as Cadance had claimed? And what was the point of telling me I’d be spared if I had to do it? She knew I still hadn’t forgiven myself for Soothing Dusk, and she was alive and recovering; how did she expect me to live with the knowledge I’d ended somepony? How was I supposed to forgive myself for that?! I felt bad enough about it just by thinking about it even though the situation was purely hypothetical! There was a knock on my door again. “Yes,” I said automatically, not really wanting to talk to whoever was on the other side, and quietly enough that I wasn’t sure if they’d even heard me. I hoped they hadn’t. Cadance opened the door, but didn’t come in. “I forgot to tell you,” she said. “The snowstorm is letting up, and the railways should be open tomorrow again. If you want to write to Ponyville, they’ll be able to receive your letters now.” That got my attention. “Really? Thanks! I’ll get right to it!” She chuckled. “I thought as much. Well, I won’t delay you!” I may have lost the will to paint for now, but these news reignited my desire to write to Spike and the others; they were sure to make me feel better! I sat at the table, pulled a stack of papers to myself, grabbed a stylus in my mouth, and went to unburden my soul. Dear Spike, dear everypony, I’ve just been told that the storm is ending and we won’t be cut off from the world for much longer and couldn’t wait to start writing to you again! I’ve missed you all so much! How are things in Ponyville? Had any adventures? You must tell me everything! Your last letters arrived just before the railways closed, and I wanted to write back right away, but it was already too late by then. Let me begin with what I wanted to tell you then. Spike, I appreciate your stance on the matter of Shining, but I can’t bring myself to want retribution. Starlight, you’ve guessed pretty accurately why I don’t want to punish him. I never thought you’d understand me so well after spending so little time with me! And Rarity, thank you so much for the coat! It’s so beautiful and warm and fits me perfectly! I love it! Now, one of the big things that happened in the meantime - just today, actually - is that Cadance passed judgment on Shining. She demoted him to the rank of corporal for a month and restricted his authority for another six months, or for longer if she deems it necessary. I suppose it could have been worse, but I made it clear on several occasions that I didn’t want him punished at all and she did it anyway! Why did she ask for my opinion if she was going to ignore it? Also, remember those changeling-proofing spells he placed on everything and then removed from most things when he decided to start trusting me? The spells only remained on weapons and now he’s removing that too, and they explained it as giving me a chance to fight back if he relapses into his old behavior even though they say they find it unlikely that he will and admit they can’t imagine me actually using the weapons. Allegedly it was Shining’s idea and only a precaution, but I’m confused. I don’t know whether to believe them or to think they’re testing me for some reason. You’ve known them longer. Can you make any sense of their behavior? Do I have a reason to be worried? Please be honest! On a lighter note, I’ve started to grow a new flower. Remember the one I told you about earlier? The one I brought with me from Vanhoover? I used its leaf to grow this new one and it seems to have worked! My painting skills are improving, too. I made some sketches of the snowy outskirts of the Crystal Empire when the storm was starting and even painted a couple of the scenes later! Would you like one? I can send you some! Inspiration struck me when Cadance and Shining took Flurry and me to play there. That’s also when I wore the coat for the first time and it did wonders against the weather, and even remained dry after an intense snowball fight! Unfortunately, Flurry got sick with crystal flu the next day and ended up missing most of the fun, and I got sick too a few days later, but we’ve both recovered. I’m still foalsitting her from time to time and she can be challenging sometimes, but we’re getting along really well otherwise. Are any of you coming to the Crystal Empire anytime soon? I’d love to see you again! Your friend, Thorax I set the stylus down and read what I’d written, just in case I’d forgotten to mention something. I couldn’t think of anything, but now that the storm was ending and I could keep in touch with Ponyville again, it didn’t matter; I could always mention something I’d forgotten in one of the next letters if it became relevant! I was itching to go to the post office right away to send the letter, but decided to postpone it in case something else happened later today that I’d want to write about. In the end, nothing out of the ordinary happened for the rest of the day. Writing the letter had restored some of the spirits I’d lost upon hearing Shining’s verdict, so in spite of my expectations immediately afterwards, I was able to continue painting for the rest of the day as intended. The only downside to it was that I’d lost track of time, and by the time the painting was finished, the post office had already closed, leaving me no choice but to send the letter first thing in the morning and hope it wouldn’t be too late for the first train out. I was in luck. The postmare informed me that the mail accumulated during the storm hadn’t gone out yet and agreed to add my letter to the pile that was about to be taken to the train station. I thanked her profusely and promised to return the favor at the first opportunity! Now, to wait for their reply. It was usually a few days, but the storm hadn’t yet ended altogether, so there was no telling whether or not mail would be delayed for any length of time. But when I returned to my room that same afternoon after a day of foalsitting, a thick letter was already waiting on my table. The address on the envelope matched Spike’s claw-writing perfectly! How had they replied already? I started to wonder if faster mail delivery had been invented in the meantime when the postal mark caught my eye: it bore yesterday’s date. This wasn’t a reply! They’d written to me as soon as they heard about the storm ending just like I’d written to them! I bit through the envelope and pulled out a stack of papers. Dear Thorax, Boy am I glad that the storm is ending and we can finally hear from you! How have things been over there? Made any new friends? And please tell me Shining got what he deserved! Nopony treats my friends like that and gets away with it! Yes, I’m still mad at him, in case it isn’t obvious. Dragons can hold a grudge for a long time, and though living with ponies has dulled that trait in me, it still exists and I draw the line when it comes to hurting others. You have no idea how many times Twilight had to physically stop me from boarding the train to the Crystal Empire with flames coming out of my ears ever since he first started acting like that! I didn’t want to tell you that, but I guess the long separation has taken its toll and now I have the urge to unload everything that I haven’t told you before. Don’t mind me; I calmed down a little when Shining started behaving himself, but I really want to see him put in his place! Okay, enough of that for now. It’s probably already settled anyway. (It is settled, isn’t it?) We’ve all been busy since the last letter we sent you, and since everypony wanted to share their thoughts with you personally, I won’t repeat what they’ll probably tell you. They’re writing to you right now, and when they’re done, we’ll put everything in the same envelope and send it like that. Personally, I’ve been making inquiries in the Dragon Lands about how likely they’d be to accept a changeling as a friend… okay, their idea of friendship isn’t even close to how ponies understand the term, and it would be better described as ‘not-enemy’ than a friend… Anyway, most of them ridicule the idea of changelings being anything but ‘annoying pests’, but then again, they also ridicule the idea of me being a dragon, so I doubt we’ll get anywhere trying to convince them. The new Dragon Lord, however, is a slightly different story. She’s a little more open to the idea of friendship the way we see it than an average dragon, but though she didn’t outright reject the idea of befriending a changeling, I got the impression she’s pretty skeptical about the whole thing. But I think she’s the most likely out of any of them to give you a chance, so don’t lose hope yet! I’m pretty sure I can win her over eventually! It just might take a while. You weren’t planning on travelling to the Dragon Lands anytime soon, were you? I know this sounds pretty pessimistic, but the others have better news, as you’ll read in a moment. Unless you’ve read their parts of the letter first? Write back soon! Okay, you probably already have, but in case you haven’t, we’ll be expecting your letter eagerly! Your friend, Spike His report on the progress with finding friends for me wasn’t very encouraging, but his letter brought a tear to my eye and a smile to my lips regardless. Just knowing that they were still trying meant more than I’d expected! I moved on to the other letters. Dear Thorax, I hope the days spent separated from the rest of the world due to the storm haven’t been too hard for you. If I know Cadance at all, she would have done everything in her power to help you get through this challenge. Has she passed judgment to my brother yet? Please accept my sincerest apologies for his behavior! It was my duty, both as the Princess of Friendship and as his immediate family, to help him understand the errors of his ways, and I fear that I’ve failed at that task despite my efforts! Can you forgive me? I’ve tried to compensate for that failure by spreading good word about you to other ponies. Here, I’ve been somewhat more successful. The ponies in Ponyville remain overall skeptical about the idea of a friendly changeling, but since it is me spreading that idea and they know and trust me, most of them have been willing to give me the benefit of the doubt. Mind you, there are still ponies who wouldn’t hear of it and ponies who aren’t sure what to think, and until I’ve convinced them, it probably won’t be entirely safe for you to visit us undisguised. There are also a few whose reaction puzzles me. One of them is Zecora, a zebra who lives in the Everfree Forest. She told me once shortly after the invasion of Canterlot that her home village was destroyed in a changeling invasion, and most of the villagers killed or captured, when she was just a little filly. Her parents sadly didn’t survive the attack and she narrowly escaped herself. Knowing this, I breached the subject to her gently, expecting her to get upset and scold me for being so gullible, but instead, she got lost in thought and wouldn’t tell me why. It was almost as if she’d met you already, but she flat out denied it. I don’t suppose you have any theories? I also mentioned you to a few ponies in Canterlot. Don’t worry, I chose them carefully! Two of them are my parents, who were unsure what to think of you because of what Shining Armor had told them, but now that he’s changed his mind, Mom and Dad are okay with meeting you. So are a half-dozen of my friends that I went to Celestia’s school with. Their names are Moondancer, Minuette, Lyra Heartstrings (she lives with her marefriend in Ponyville now but visits Canterlot often), Twinkleshine, and Lemon Hearts, if you ever need to look for them before I introduce you to them officially. Lastly, I discussed you with Princess Celestia, who has already been receiving regular updates about you from Cadance. She seems to be taking an interest in you, and in a good way! That is all from me for now. How have you been, and how are Cadance and Flurry? Give my love to them! Hoping to hear from you again soon, Your friend, Twilight Sparkle Okay, that was unexpected. Ponies from Canterlot willing to give me a chance? I’d never thought I’d see the day! The next piece of paper launched a flurry of confetti in my face. Hi there, my super-duper changeling friend! I’m so excited to write to you again after all this time and to expect your letter! Are you excited to hear from us? (Or is it ‘read from us’? Stupid grammar or whatever!) Oh, come on, what kind of a question is that? Of course you are! You’re our friend and we haven’t seen you for soooooooo long thanks to that nasty storm… but hey, it’s over now, so everything is superific again! Did you have fun in the snow? Ooh, I bet you went skiing and ice-skating and had crazy awesome snowball fights and built the BIGGEST SNOWPONY EVER!!! And you must have met everypony and I mean everypony there is in the Crystal Empire and made bestestest friends with all of them! Right? Right???!!! I hope Shining wasn’t too much of a party-pooper, but if he was, tell me and I’ll sort him out pronto! Where was I? Oh! I visited my mom and dad and sisters at the rock farm the other day and they’re super excited to meet you! It definitely didn’t take hours and hours and hours of convincing and they absotutelylutely didn’t say anything I wouldn’t want to repeat so it doesn’t make you sad and get you to start crying and thinking there’s no way you can ever go there in the entire eternity of forever, nosiree! Daddy even said, ‘Pinkamena, if you think you can trust this creature, we’ll see if we can do the same’, and I said, ‘Whippeeeee!’ and see? You’re already bestest friends forever and they’ll probably invite you there any day now! Except they don’t have your address, so they’ll have to tell me to tell you that you’re invited, and I will tell you and bring you there and we’ll have a smasherific, unforgettable, dance-till-you-drop, biggest party ever! Gotta go find more balloons! Oh. Almost forgot: what’s your favorite cake? Do changelings even eat cakes? Oh silly me, I’ll make a love-flavored cupcake just for you! Easy-peasy! Pinkie Pie Wow. How much energy did that pony have? She’d outdone all of her previous letters combined! I took a moment to recover from the written outburst and moved on to the next letter. Howdy there, partner! How have y’all been doin’ in that snowstorm? The crystal ponies are used to it but y’all must have been in one heck of a pickle! Good thing Rarity sent y’all that fancy coat, ain’t it? Y’all must be wonderin’ what’s been goin’ on in the rest of the world. Truth be told, not much more than on any summer day, just the same ol’ usual stuff as far as this corner of the apple farm is concerned. That’s not to say we’ve been lazier than an overfed pig when it comes to findin’ y’all some friends! The Apples have relatives all over Equestria and we’ve been talkin’ to them ‘bout y’all and sendin’ letters to those livin’ too far away to visit. Some of them have yet to write back, but most are pleased as punch that a changeling can be good and some say they’d like to meet y’all! Yes, even the branch of the family that lives closer to Canterlot than an apple can fall from the tree, if y’all believe it! Twi and the others have made some progress too, but they’ll tell y’all more about it. Betcha y’all will be comin’ here for a visit any day now if nothin’ throws a rotten apple in that barrel of cider! Yours truly, Applejack P.S. Braeburn and Little Strongheart say hi! Her accent transferred to paper always made me chuckle. It was kind of adorable, I had to admit! Thorax, darling, It’s such a relief to know that this dreadful storm is finally over and we can hear from you again! Was it so very cold? Has the coat I sent you been a match for the weather? Do tell me if something wasn’t right! I have yet to meet a fashion conundrum I couldn’t fix! You might be interested to know that I took the liberty to expand my network of potential allies for you by telling your amazing story to my friends and associates in Manehattan and Canterlot. Don’t be alarmed! You’re most certainly not in danger of retribution; I chose very carefully whom to speak to! I must admit that I expected the Manehattanites to be a little more open to the idea, but not to worry! Everypony with any sense eventually agreed that a changeling can be friendly and wouldn’t mind meeting you! Admittedly, there were a few who wouldn’t hear of it, but don’t let that discourage you! There have only been a couple of them and I know they’ll dance to a different tune when they see all the others accept you into their circles! A good reputation is everything over there, and you already have it with the ponies whose reputation carries the most weight! Which reminds me: did the coat fit? Can I use the same measurements for the tuxedo I promised you? You’ll need it when you start getting invitations to all the high-society events, and I want it to fit perfectly! Do write back, dear. Perhaps we can hope for your visit anytime soon, too? Love, Rarity Okay, the answer to that was already on its way, though I doubted any high-society invitations would be coming my way anytime soon. I read on. Hiya Thorax! Was the snowstorm awesome or what? I bet you won every snowball fight there was to be won! Wish I could have been there to challenge you! Or would you have preferred a race through the storm clouds? That would have ended predictably, though, so maybe we should stick to snowball fights if you want to have any chance of winning it. Not that I totally wouldn’t beat you in that too! Okay, we can discuss winter adventures later. You wanted friends, right? I think I can get you a few from Cloudsdale if you’re interested. Can changelings walk on clouds? It’d be good to know for finding a place for you guys to hang out. And, the Wonderbolts are interested in you. They say one of the Academy dropouts is a Royal Guard over there. The name’s Sentinel. You mentioned somepony like that once or twice, didn’t you? Mind asking her why she left the Academy? Or better yet, can I come ask her? Seriously though, we’ve got to meet again soon. I wanna challenge you to a race! Land or air, doesn’t matter to me! Rainbow Dash A race? No way would I win! They might as well unleash Chrysalis to chase me and I’d still lose! Okay, moving on... Hello. I’ve wanted to write to you for a while now but wasn’t sure if you’d have the time to read my letter. Can you spare a moment for this one, please? I hope at least you’ll want to read it? Please don’t be mad at me if you don’t! Um, it’s okay if you don’t, just throw it away and forget it existed! I won’t take offense! Okay… Assuming you do want to read my letter and have the time, I’d like to tell you that I have a few friends who didn’t run away in fear when I mentioned you to them. A few of them don’t live in Ponyville, but if you’re interested, I can try to arrange for you to meet them. The other girls have their own candidates, too, so I’m sure you’ll find somepony friendly even if none of the ones I can bring you work out. I can offer you plenty of animal friends, though! I’ve talked to them and I’m pretty sure they’ll give you a chance. You might have to be patient with the more timid ones, if that isn’t too difficult for you. Can changelings understand animal language? It’d help you befriend them but isn’t a requirement. Again, please forgive me if you didn’t want this letter. Kind regards, Fluttershy Gee, and I’d thought I was the timid one! Though, truth be told, I probably wasn’t very far from this. There was only one letter remaining. Dear Thorax, As Spike and Twilight (if not the other girls too) must have said in their letters as well, I hope the matter of Shining Armor is settled by now, and hopefully in a way you’re okay with. If it isn’t and you need to talk about it, I’m listening, whether you need advice, emotional support, or simply someone to vent to. I’ve been in touch with ponies from my old village, the one I mentioned in my last letter to you. It hasn’t been easy reaching out to them as I still have lingering fears that they’ll chase me away and tell me to never come back, even though they forgave me and are acting as if I’d done nothing wrong. I feared telling them about you might become the grain of oat that tips the scale and they finally decide that they don’t want to have anything to do with me anymore now that I’m conspiring with a member of an infamous, despised species, but for some inexplicable reason, it didn’t happen. They were a little cautious at first, yes, but they accepted the idea quickly. Part of me is glad it turned out that way, but another part thinks it happened too quickly. Their cutie marks may have been restored a long time ago, but could I have damaged them beyond that in unexpected ways? Could my magic have brainwashed them into believing and accepting everything I tell them unconditionally and irrevocably? I want their acceptance of you to be genuine but I don’t know if it is and it’s driving me crazy! Will you be able to tell if it’s genuine? I have one more friend I’d like to talk to about you, but she’s a travelling performer with no fixed address and getting in touch with her can be problematic, so I can’t promise anything until she passes through Ponyville again. It shouldn’t be longer than a month or two if I remember her schedule correctly. You can wait that long, can’t you? The others will have covered everything of interest in their own letters so I won’t repeat their statements. Nothing much has happened, really, except for a few ponies who have just moved in to Ponyville recently. They seem decent enough from what I’ve seen of them, but I don’t know much about them yet, and I don’t think any of us have gotten around to trying to find out how they’d feel about you. But enough about Ponyville. How are you? Did you survive the storm? I hope it wasn’t too bad! Did anything interesting happen in the meantime? And how’s Sunburst? Has he recovered yet? Hope to see you again soon, Your friend, Starlight Glimmer I read all the letters again, savoring every word and every bit of the love aura that permeated the paper, then set them down and wondered where to begin. It was wonderful to hear from them again, and learning how busy they’d been to get the whole world to accept me as a friend blew my mind! If only half of it was true, it felt like we were really making progress! Maybe there was something to hope for on the matter after all! But they hadn’t simply sent their reports; they also wanted to know how I was doing. I’d already written to them about some of it and they were going to read it soon, but there were also a few things I’d neglected to mention. I grabbed the stylus and the stack of papers again and started writing another letter.