Ponyville City Hall – After the Castle theft.
There was a large crowd of restless ponies, murmurs and stories floating about and getting more and more twisted and increasingly ridiculous. Each pony would think of something he or she had ‘heard of’ before and voice how it ‘completely explained everything’ that had happened, letting fact and fiction blur together and only succeed in scaring the next pony… who would in turn cobble together his or her own version using another rumor.
The Cakes were trying to calm down the ponies around them, to no avail… could they not understand that nopony that behaved that kind with foals can be bad?
Vinyl and Octavia faced a similar problem with their neighbors. How could a pony that spoke of music like she did be a changeling spy? Would it even matter if she wasn’t a pony? Vinyl would even find it cool and, no matter how ‘refined’ she liked to act, Octavia would as well.
Lyra managed to calm down Bon-Bon, but that was it…
There was another with personal involvement, but she had done too much already. No, she couldn’t be outside right now. She may owe her current lifestyle to the other’s silence, but if she was discovered it could put the both of them in danger.
Meanwhile, Princess Luna’s patience was… strained, to say the least. The rumors had escalated already, now the ‘answer’ was a changeling that made a pact with Discord for power.
Luna took a deep breath to cool her boiling blood. This latest rumor made more sense, but the inconsistencies between the rumors and the facts made poking holes in the theory very easy. Even if she were a changeling, there was nothing the princesses could do about it unless they could identify her as one of the changelings who invaded Canterlot. Maybe not even then, there just wasn’t any ill-intent coming from her! No manipulation! Nothing like in the wedding!
Luna was sure. She heard it from the Bearers and Shining Armor; the manipulation spells made them… gloss over Chrysalis’s defects and mistakes, and made them love her and exalt her into a position where she was utterly impossible to fault –in their eyes. While Twilight’s suspicion and strong will protected her… the captain fell because he was targeted immediately, exposed constantly, and his guard had been lowered by the disguise, while the others were fooled because they did not know the real Cadence… thankfully, the exposure had been so short that finding out the truth freed them.
The princess reviewed her memories, even if she had felt no magic, just to prove to herself that the filly hadn’t somehow found the way to charm even her. Flaws were still flaws, oddities were still confusing and mildly endearing, and her words still made sense instead of being white noise that sounded pretty at the time – simultaneously disproving more mundane forms of manipulation.
‘Let’s put our past behind us… together! The three of us!’
The words resonating inside her head made her clench her teeth, a light frown being the only external sign of her immense disgust with the multitude. No doubts about it - This was a friend they were talking about! She would not be punished for crimes she didn’t commit, and certainly not because of fear from other ponies. Besides, if Luna herself had gotten a second chance, it would be hypocritical –no, downright cruel- to deny this filly.
Though that was neither here nor there, since she wasn’t a changeling.
She was waiting for the Mayor to present her, and then she’d take the stand to… what was it called? ‘Bite them out’? No… chew them out, that was it. If they were so intent in demonizing her and turning her into something unnatural, they might as well pull all the stops and say that Nightmare Moon resurrected Tirek who used the Smooze to craft a golem for the changelings to house an abomination of Discord’s magic!
As soon as that thought surfaced a chill ran down her spine, making her eyes widen as the implications hit her. Discarding the ridiculous parts… it made sense, it made a scary amount of sense. The princess of the night had to run through her knowledge of golems to make sure this wasn’t the case.
A few types of golem could regenerate from nearly anything thanks to the magic animating them. There are often issues with others due to differences in mentality… this could take- wait.
… She was forgetting something in the letter…
She isn’t a golem. Yeah… the letter did say that, outside of their abilities, her parents (and their parents, and so on) were ordinary creatures before whatever process gave them their ability –hopefully not blood magic, but what could be done if it were? Luna also remembered that she had said that, despite her own ability being the result of an enhancement before her physical development, she was every bit her parent’s biological daughter. It would be hard to make that claim when you’re an animated statue. Not to mention that she seemed like the kind to confess something like that… oh, she also said something about wishing to be a golem… something about the legality of the issue being different? Right, something about the laws that applied being different.
Not to mention one of her older friends.
“Your attention, please!” Oh, the Mayor began the public address; Luna had to focus on the matter at hoof.
“Citizens of Ponyville!” Mayor Mare waited until the eyes of the populace fell on her before continuing. She took a deep breath… Luna was unsure as to why would the mayor do- “You should be ashamed of yourselves!”
What.
“What do you think you’re doing?! Those ponies fought tooth and nail for our safety, going so far as to risk theirs, and this is how you show gratitude? By spreading vicious rumors while they cannot explain themselves? When they might not see the next dawn?”
Luna was unsure of how to proceed, after all, that was just what she wanted to do. She even told the mayor that she was disappointed in the resident-… oh.
“Princess Luna has come to give an explanation to the presence of the Royal Guard and their investigators here in Ponyville, please refrain from drawing conclusions on your own.”
With that, she turned away from the stunned crowd and trotted off, passing next to the princess of the moon.
“Thou- I mean, you have taken the words from my mouth.” Luna said, making the earth pony freeze momentarily before she caught the princess’s smile and relaxed.
“Well, I-I thought it was very rude that-…”
“Yes, thank you, but ‘tis our turn.”
Princess Luna mentally kicked herself for slipping back into the royal ‘we’, but she still had to assuage the anxieties of the gathered ponies. Taking her place and raising her hoof to quiet the (already silent) crowd, her wings flared in a mostly-unconscious gesture to increase her presence; she had to make a very conscious effort not to let out the Royal Canterlot Voice.
“Please, no questions, for we do not hold the answers!” Darn, first mistake, but at least that ‘we’ was grammatically-correct in context; it was better to just keep it up. “And we won’t have any until they recover enough to answer themselves.”
The eyes of the crowd turned from side to side, but the mayor’s words prevented them from starting any more gossip, at least right away.
“What is known is that one of them, the one called ‘Aureolus’, ran afoul of potent and complex transformation magic.” She had to resist the urge of adding ‘sloppily performed’ somewhere in there; it isn’t every day she had witnessed somepony bleeding magical energy like that – their own, from how poorly put-together their body was. She wanted a few words with whoever had cast the spell.
“The confrontation was due to an oversight of the guards themselves, who, lacking the ability to properly perceive the delicate state of the victims, proceeded to handle them too roughly and thus made themselves a menace instead of a symbol of peace and order.” If those idiots hadn’t already gotten what they deserved, she would have sent them to the hospital herself, or at least put them on latrine duty for a year.
The tips of her outstretched wings crackled with electricity as the inner storm roused by her anger threatened to spill over. She took a deep breath and kept her voice and inner magic reasonably calm, avoiding the Voice; she had to avoid the Voice…
“Our sudden visit stems from a desire for answers of our own… unfortunately; a lack of foresight and these developments might close those doors to us.”
*****
Carousel Boutique – First day.
This wasn’t what she had meant by a ‘demonstration’, but she had to admit it had its… appeal.
Rarity had asked to see a little of what Gemini had seen, she wanted something exotic from a faraway land! However, she forgot to specify what she meant by that, and thus was now holding a sword with her magic.
It was a longsword with a stunning white and gold hilt, with an emerald in the pommel and on either side of the grip, and a golden dragon coiled from pommel to rain guard as a sort of protection for the wielding claw.
She doubted that the griffons had made it, since a great deal of what they made had a tendency to eschew this kind of elegance in favor of practically, but thought it rude to inquire about her past… she’d let her reveal things at her own pace; even if that never happened, Rarity would just be there, ready to lend a hoof. Although, if –let’s say, Rainbow Dash- managed to make questions without offending, she would not deny her interest!
Still, for a weapon, it was gorgeous… as well as somewhat inspiring.
“It is rare to find something so deadly so… beautifully crafted.” Rarity said as Gem took the foreign weapon in her mouth, and then made it disappear in a shower of steel-grey lightning and sparks going outside-in.
“I know!” Gem replied cheerfully, all the while looking at some of the fabric patterns the fashionista thought would look good with her own color scheme. Slightly reminiscent of Applebloom’s, a few of the suggestions were soft greens that would compliment her hair and eyes. The problem being that she had absolutely no idea of what looked good to others, given that her tastes could produce some rather garish results on occasion; she had to ask Twilight to choose for her.
She chose a soft green with vine-like lines. Gem used her ability to call the sundress into being around her body in a crackle of green sparks, with the benefit that the hole for her tail was perfectly sized and the length was easily adjustable. At Rarity’s insistence, it was a slightly altered design more appropriate for the gradually chilling days that would follow; this new dress had long sleeves and a collar, instead of just a sleeveless square neck.
Gem turned around and was about to collect her button, but Rarity insisted on surprising her. She was almost dragged over and shoved on a dais surrounded by three full-size mirrors and told to close her eyes.
“No cheating~!” Rarity said in that little singsong voice she used whenever she was happy. Then, her delighted smile turned to a frown as soon as she looked away from the unicorn with the braided mane and tail.
Twilight was about to ask when she saw Rarity levitating the mare’s accessory over to herself, staring at it as if trying to pry the secrets of the Universe out of it.
’I get it! She’s thinking of using it!’ Sure, it was the sort of thing a young foal would use, but it was probably loaded with all kinds of sentimental value. It wouldn’t look right if worn like before, on the flank, but it was evident Gemini would prefer to display it proudly.
Rarity held a few lengths of ribbon of various shades of pink in her magical grip, holding them next to the filly’s accessory to compare the compatibility of the colors; she found the perfect one, and yet, she appeared to be dissatisfied. She looked over to where the cherry-haired pony was sitting still… this wasn’t going to be like the vast majority of her other works; this was going to be for everyday use rather than mostly show, so it had to favor practicality while retaining the sort of touch the elegant pony strove to add to everything.
A unicorn is not a unicorn without grace and beauty, after all.
With a small flash of inspiration, though one unrelated to the previous one, she prepared.
*****
Rarity gave her a simple, round sunhat, with the ribbon tied around it with a big bow behind it and the badge pinned to the side as you would a sunflower. When she was told to open her eyes, and they noticed the hat, with her smiley-faced button on it, she was beaming! It had to be seen; you’d think she was crowned princess!
Her smile, her gratitude, it was all genuine. She does not like to wear any masks on her feelings, and can see right though those of others; even her ‘cold’ side is more of an emotional pause than a true mask – a meditative, logical state of sorts. She is not the kind to dwell in the hardships of the past; instead, she uses the memories to fuel the delight she felt when something pleasant happened. When she smiles, it is a smile.
It did not stop there. If Gemini enjoyed looking nice to others, Rarity would make sure she wouldn’t have to worry about it.
It was time for makeup.
*****
Gemini’s eyelashes were very even, and it wasn’t like she was going to some high-society event; just a tiny bit of mascara and eye shadow, with a dab of blush, and Gem was marveled at her reflection.
Or so Twilight thought, but her guest’s wonder was partially thanks to her.
“Thanks again, for the cake, the bath… for everything.” Gem said.
“It’s no big deal.” Twilight replied in humility, only to be interrupted.
“No, it is. I can’t even do something like… transmute hair into hair of a different color without being accused of being a soul-stealing succubus.” Gem sighed; all that trouble only because of a paranoid fool.
‘Ah, so that is the reason she got mad when Lyra mentioned the changelings. There are many different creatures with the capacity to shape-shift, and spells that can convincingly produce the illusion of such. I guess clothes-making and changing colors qualify for whoever made those accusations.’ Twilight pondered her next course of action with those thoughts in mind.
“Gem, do you want to go to Sugarcube Corner?”