//------------------------------//
// 29. ... well? 
// Story: Rebirth of the Damned 
// by Borsuq 
//------------------------------//

Matthias wondered how did he get roped into this.
It didn't take him long to heal everypony in the hospital. Like the guard have said, there weren't many who got hurt, and their wounds in most cases weren't serious. It would have taken him even less time if it wasn't for those two annoying doctors. Matt has made a mental note to never allow the two of them to meet Pinkie Pie, which he was sure would cause a Cataclysm.
After he was done treating ponies, he went back into the castle, wanting to clean himself. On his way there, he bumped into Shining Armor, who asked him to became one of his groomscolts.
"I would be honored." he immediatly replied, surprised, but then added: "But have you run this by your Best Mare?"
"Yes, well, after she calmed down." Shining Armor said, chuckling nervously. "She's still pretty angry at you, but I would've guessed that you're used to it by now. Her friends told me how she practically tortured you when you pulled some joke on her."
"Don't remind me." Matt told him, shuddering despite his light tone.
"So... Why did you kiss the Changeling's Queen?"
Matthias looked at him coldly.
"I believe your the last pony who can judge me on this matter."
"I'm not judging you, I'm just asking." Shining replied, although he did blush a bit.
"Like I said, it was part of my strategy." Matt said as they entered the castle. "She managed to grab me with her magic, so I seduced her, and when we kissed, I bit her tongue off - and mine as well, but that's not important - and the pain forced her to release me. I had no idea it would have so angered your sister, though."
"Yeah, I was a bit shocked too." admitted captain. "But I guess that's understandable, since she turned everypony against her."
After that they went their separate ways.
And that is how he ended up here, after getting himself thoroughly cleaned, standing near Twilight, Spike, and two other groomscolts, wearing the attire that Rarity somehow managed to make for him in time. He noticed that the Best Mare tried to not look at him, but when she did, she did so with such a look that he immediately turned away.
He found out that it wasn't easy, however, as he once again glanced at Twilight. She looked so beautiful in her purple dress and with that wreath on her head that she kept catching his eye. It was hard for him to know that she was so mad at him, and even harder to remember that she wasn't the one he wanted. 
He turned his attention toward the door as the music played and the birds started singing. The door opened and the flower fillies - Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo - came through, throwing flowers.
"Here comes the bride."
Princess Cadance, wearing a beautiful dress, has walked to the altar, with few of Fluttershy's bird holding her train. As Matthias watched her march on the walkway (that he himself has walked on barely few hours ago), he wondered how come the ponies didn't had any traditions like Saber Arch. It would've been appropriate to have it on the wedding of the Captain of the Royal Guard. Matt decided to ask somepony about it later.
"Seriously, though." he heard Twilight say to Shining Armor. "I get why the Queen of the Changelings wanted to be with you, but how did you get someone as amazing as Cadance to marry you?"
"I told her she wouldn't just be gaining a husband, she'd be getting a pretty great sister, too."
"Kiss flank." Matthias muttered, and both Twilight and Shining Armor glanced at him, although the groom was amused.
He glanced at the bridesmaids, who were also looking beautiful. He half frowned, half smiled as he saw that Applejack had taken the advantage from the fact that Rarity had to wipe a tear with a tissue, and put her hat back on. The cowpony noticed his gaze and smirked.
"Well, at least the others seem to put that whole 'kissed the bug' thing behind them." Matt thought as Applejack looked back at Rarity, to make sure she wasn't looking.
Cadance had joined them finally at the altar.
"Mares and gentlecolts," started Princess Celestia when everypony was ready, "we are gathered here today to celebrate the union of the real Princess Mi Amore Cadenza..."
"Princess Cadance is fine." interrupted her the bride, smiling uncomfortably.
Celestia smiled warmly at her niece before she continued:
"The union of Princess Cadance and Shining Armor. The strength of their commitment is clear. The power of their love, undeniable."
"I'll say." commented Matt as he recalled the purple light that repelled all the changelings away from Canterlot. There were few feats done by mortals on Azeroth that could top that.
"May we have the rings please?" asked Celestia, glancing at Spike.
Spike presented to her the pillow he's been holding that had the rings on it. A gold glow appeared around them as they were wrapped in Celestia's magic and lifted through the the air towards the couple.
"I now pronounce you mare and colt." she said as she put the wedding ring on their horns.	
Matthias joined everypony in the hall in the cheering as the newly-wedds stepped out to a balcony to wave to a huge crowd of even louder cheering ponies.
"This is your victory as much as theirs." he heard Princess Celestia say to Twilight after a while. He turned his head so that he could hear better. "You persisted in the face of doubt, and your actions led to your being able to bring the real Princess Cadance back to us. Learning to trust your instincts is a valuable lesson to learn."
"Sure, don't mind the pony that fought with an army of changelings and with their queen." Matt coughed.
"You mean 'fought with an army of changelings and made out with their queen', right?" Twilight replied, shooting him another glare.
"I'm not having this argument with you." Matthias sighed as everypony chuckled. He shrugged and added: "Still, you deserve some extra points for managing to put together the wedding again in such short time, so I will admit you were the better one today."
As he said that, he bowed his head to Twilight respectfully. His comment, along with the gesture, seemed to calm her. At any case, it made her stop glaring at him. Matt noticed that Celestia gave him a pleased smile.
They all turned their attention to Cadance and Shing Armor as they shared their first kiss as a married couple. It was a kiss that spoke of love and devotion, clearly the opposite of the one Matthias has shared with Chrysalis.
"Rainbow Dash, that's your cue." whispered Celestia to the cyan mare.
Matt glanced at her, confused. For a heartbeat, Rainbow seemed to share this confusion, but soon her eyes went wide as if she remembered something. Smirking, she flew quickly through the window, leaving her dress behind.
"Oh right, she was supposed to do some "sonic rainboom" or something." Matthias thought as he trotted over to the said window.
His jaw dropped as he beheld the seven-colored spectacle.
"Did she just..." he started to ask, with his voice shaking, but then decided not to.
"I'm never going to get used to this world." he thought as he facehoofed himself.





"Mossst of the ssswarm isss accounted for, Your Highnesss." said the changeling. "There are but few who haven't reported back to the hive."
"How many are wounded?" asked Chrysalis.
"Many." he simply replied.
The queen frowned and gave him the signal to leave. The changeling bowed and flew away from the royal chamber.
"How could this all go so wrong?" Chrysalis pondered as she was left alone with her guards.
Along with every changeling, she was blasted away from Canterlot, right to the very borders of Equestria. Every fiber of her being urged her to go back and attack again, but her subjects were wounded and beaten. Knowing her first duty was to them, Chrysalis ordered the retreat back to Dread Wastes.
"How could this all go so wrong?!" she thought again. Chrysalis was sure that she would have cried if she could do that in her true form.
The Queen of Changelings face turned into an angry frown as she answered her own question.
It was because of Matthias.
"If it wasn't for him, we would have won!" Chrysalis thought angrily as she rose from her throne and started pacing back and forth. Her guards shook as they felt her hatred. "Because of him, my subjects were hurt! Because of him, they are wounded! Because of him, now our larvae are starving!"
Contrary to what most ponies thought, the changelings weren't like bees and ants. She wasn't the mother of any of her subjects, and they weren't sterile and divided into castes. While they weren't exactly working like ponies families, they still cared for each other.
Chrysalis calmed a bit as she considered going to the incubation and nursery chambers, to comfort the eggs and larvae, but decided to do that later. Her main concert was making sure that every changeling that took a part in the attack was safe, and there were still few that were missing. Chrysalis had a mental contact with all her subjects, and could tell where the conscious ones were. She already instructed few changelings that were still full of energy and not wounded to go get them, noticing that most of those that haven't returned had injured their wings. 
But there were still those that haven't answered her mental summons.
She knew they were alive. If they died, she would have felt it. She hoped they would wake up soon and contact her.
"It's all you fault, Matthias!" she once again grew angry. That strange pony with his strange powers caused her more pain and humiliation that any other being. He...
... he healed her horn.
Chrysalis stopped her pacing as she pondered on it.
"Why did he heal me?" she thought. It was the first time a pony showed her some form of kindness since... since...
Again, pain shook her. Cursing her inability to remember, she frowned.
"Why did I do it?" she wondered. They had never any lack of love to feed on - until now - and yet she ordered her subjects to attack the city she knew was well prepared for such threats.
All because of the dream she had over a month ago.
"Assume this form." she ordered one of her guards as she showed his mind a part of her dream. "Act like him."
The guard's eyes flickered with surprise, but didn't question her. They never did. Chrysalis knew they would have jumped into the fire if she ordered them to. Not that she ever would.
She looked at her guard as the green flames shot. Now, in front of her, cowered in fear an odd looking young colt, barely in his teen years of life.
"Please, help me." he pleaded, extending his hoof towards her. Suddenly, he shook as if somepony strucked him. "Save me, please. Make it stop. MAKE IT STOP!!!"
The last sentence was a scream much louder than any colt should be able to utter.
Chrysalis stared at the the young pony, who was as strange as Matthias, and not just because of his unique look.
He was strange to her because she cared about him.
"It's just a pony." she thought, not understanding. "I shouldn't care for him in the slightest. Why then, as I hear his cry of pain, I feel as though my heart was being shredded to pieces?"





In the forgotten caves beneath Canterlot, much deeper than Princess Cadance was imprisoned by Changeling's Queen and were she sent Twilight Sparkle, at the very bottom of it, six unicorns gathered.
Five of them were enclosed by shadows, protecting their identity.
"The changelings have failed." one of them said, its voice enchanted so that it wouldn't gave away anything about the pony, including gender.
"We knew that their attack on Canterlot would fail." reminded one of the others.
"But we hoped that they would kill Celestia! How are we supppose to operate when she still lives?"
"Perhaps it's a good thing, actually?" interjected the third one. "Think about it. If Celestia had died, there would be chaos across the whole of Equestria. Luna would be on alert for every strange occurrence in the land. We would be found out quickly."
"I agree." rasped a voice belonging to the sixth pony, the one who didn't use magic to conceal his identity. He didn't need to. He couldn't leave this place.
Not looking like this.
"I, for one, am not surprised that their queen didn't kill Celestia." he continued. A cruel smile, which made his face look even more terrifying, appeared on his lips as he said: "After all, once a failure, always a failure."
He took a moment to ponder at his own words, then shook his head.
"Either way, it matters not. We've got what we wanted. As expected, the changelings proved to be a great distraction. I'm  pleased to officially announce that Phase One of the Eclipsed Eye Plan is complete."
He paused as the other ponies murmured their excitement.
"Now is the time to begin Phase Two. But which one of you..."
"I will do it." said one unicorn, they same one who said that Celestia surviving the battle was a good thing. "I will need some time, though."
"It's settled, then." replied the not concealed one, clearly the leader of the group. "I trust you will regulary report about your progress. You may all leave."
The unicorns teleported themselves out. One lingered a bit and exchanged glances with its leader. Then, it too disappeared.
The leader of the group stared in front of himself, thinking about all that happened.
"Soon..." he muttered to himself, "everything will be restored to its rightful place. The true power... the power that was supposed to be mine will finally belong to me."
He started chuckling, at first silently, but as his voice grew louder, and louder, and louder, and soon loud as an avalanche, the unicorn's maniacal laugher echoed through the caves.
"To think that after all this time, Project Eclipse would turn out to be a success!" he laughed, not caring if somepony could hear him.
And nopony did.





Matthias looked with everypony else in the courtyard as the newly-wed started dancing.
"Hello, everypony. Did I miss anything?" he heard somepony ask and turned his head to the right.
The pony that just flew in could only be Princess Luna. Like Celestia, she emanated godlike beauty, but unlike her sister's, hers had a darker tone to it. Her coat had the color of cobalt blue, her mane and tail - flowing like Celestia's - looked like a night full of stars. She was a bit shorter than her older sister, but that didn't made her any less royal or beautiful.
Matt frowned.
"It is about time I tell them this."





Twilight nodded to Pinkie Pie, signaling her to start.
Pinkie reacted with the usual for her enthusiasm and run over to the mixer with gigantic speakers connected to it.
"Let's get this party started!" she shouted while pulling Vinyl Scratch, or, as she preferred to go by, DJ Pon-3 from under the mixer and together they started playing the music.
Pinkie threw Twilight the microphone, which she catched with her magic and started singing:

Love is in bloom
A beautiful bride, a handsome groom,
Two hearts becoming one
A bond that cannot be undone because

Love is in bloom
A beautiful bride, a handsome groom
I said love is in bloom
You're starting a life and making room
For us (For us, For us....)

Your special day
We celebrate now, the pony way
Your friends are all right here
Won't let these moments disappear because

Love is in bloom
A beautiful bride, a handsome groom
I said love is in bloom
You're starting a life and making room
For us, (For us... For us...Aah...)

"What, did you think you're the only one who can sing, mister?" she thought as she finished, happy that her spell that made the echo worked, and looked around for Matt...
... only to realise that he was gone.
Twilight's anger toward him, that had been quenched, was now renewed.





Matthias glanced as Twilight started singing. He suddenly realised it was the first time he heard her sing. Her voice was simply beautiful.
"Oh, for Light sake, get a hold of yourself! She can't be that perfect that you have to constantly think that everything about her is beautiful!" he thought, rolling his eyes.
Nevertheless, he regretted that he wouldn't hear the entire song.
"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna." he said as he approached them, bowing.
"Ah, you must be Matthias Lehner." said the Princess of the Night. "It's a pleasure to meet you at last."
"Likewise, Princess." Matthias replied, bowing once more. "I'm afraid, however, that the pleasantries will have to wait. I have something important to talk about with the two of you in private, Your Highnesses." glancing at Twilight and the others, he added, regretfully: "Right now, if you would be so kind."
The two sister exchanged surprised glances. Luckily, both of them nodded.
"Very well." said Celestia and her horn glowed.
Matthias blinked as he suddenly found himself in a large room. He could hear through the window noises coming from the courtyard, so he knew he had to be in the castle.
"Those are my private chambers." answered his unasked question Celestia as she closed the window. "Nopony has access here exept me, my sister, and few of the castle's staff. We don't have to worry about anypony overhearing us."
"Thank you for allowing me to speak to the two of you here, Princess." Matt said, bowing once again.
Knowing this was Celestia's private chamber, he immediately stopped himself from glancing around and concentrated on the two Princesses instead.
"What is it that you wanted to talk to us about?" asked him Luna.
Matthias noticed that her cutie mark was a crescent moon on a dark purple background.
"What I wanted to talk to you is about something I realised as I fought with the Queen of the Changelings."
He stopped and took a deep breath, closing his eyes.
"Well, here goes." he thought, opening them after a second.
"The changelings, or at least their ancestors, came from my world."