//------------------------------//
// Chapter Thirty Four : Friendship is an Alliance (II) 
// Story: This Platinum Crown 
// by Capn_Chryssalid 
//------------------------------//

- - -
(34)

Friendship is an Alliance (II)

- - -
Two days earlier
- - -

“Do you really have to go?”

“Aw, is somepony going to miss me?” Shining Armor held Twilight at forelegs’ length, beaming at his baby sister. “Don’t worry, I’ll see you soon. At the wedding, if not before!”

Twilight’s smile seemed to fade at that reminder.

“I know,” she said and dove in to hug him tightly a second time. “Just be careful, okay?”

“I’m always careful!” he objected but let her hug him to her heart’s content. The train wouldn’t be leaving for a little while yet. He felt her face rub into his chest and realized she was… crying?

“Twilie,” he said, wrapping a leg between them to try and angle her face up. “What’s wrong?”

She shook her head, rather uncomfortably scratching him with her horn in the process.

“Twilie?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” she blurted out and immediately seemed to correct herself, “I mean, maybe – maybe I… I don’t know…”

He sighed, giving her a little time to work it out for herself. There were ponies coming and going all throughout the station, saying goodbyes or laughing as they prepared to board the train to Canterlot. Shining was more fortunate than most. He’d be in the first class car, as befitted a knight and a Captain of the Guard. There was nothing much to take with him. He could afford to let Twilight take her time saying goodbye. She usually wasn’t this… strangely emotional, though. Or maybe she was, but at least she wasn’t teary-eyed about it.

“I’m sorry about your friends,” she muttered, and he had barely overheard her.

“Gale Force and Arrow Head?” he asked and schooled his features. “Yeah. They were good ponies.”

“Did you know them long?” Twilight asked, finally extricating herself from him.

Shining nodded. “Sure. I’ve known them since…! Since…” He blinked, then, as he tried to recall how long he had known his two faithful fellow Royal Guards. It had seemed like years, but that would mean they had met in the Academy. Gale Force and Arrow Head? They’d come from the guard company that was billed to defend Cadance. They were Cadance’s guards. He couldn’t have known them for that long?

“Actually I’m not sure,” he admitted, a look of confusion darkening his expression. “Maybe it was only a few months? But that can’t be right. It… it just…”

He shook his head to dispel the strange doubts and uncomfortable thoughts.

“I need to get back to Cadance,” he said, “she’ll remember.”

“I don’t want you to go,” Twilight said, fixing him with a demanding look. “Why don’t you stay here until the wedding? We… I can clean out a room, or, Euporie and Eunomie can move somewhere else and…!”

“Twilie!” Shining reached out to tousle her mane, like he had when they were young. “I have to see my wife-to-be. She’ll be glad I won’t have to go to Prance, I guess. Don’t expect her to thank Blueblood for it, though. But you’ll see me soon enough!”

“I… I…” Twilight appeared to struggle with something, and again, he waited patiently for her. Shining waited, and waited, and Twilight kept her eyes firmly on her hooves, refusing to speak.

“I’ll miss you,” she finally said, and it was almost drowned out by the train’s whistle, warning all passengers to begin boarding. “I’ll miss you!” she said again. “I have something I want to tell you… but I can’t! I can’t!”

“You can tell me anything, Twilie,” Shining reminded her, craning down to try and look her in the eyes again. “What is it?”

“I can’t tell you,” she repeated. “I just can’t. I wish I could.”

The train started to puff behind him as ponies hurried to board.

“You can tell me before the wedding,” he told her, placing a hoof on her shoulder and giving her a little shake. “Okay? Tell me then.”

“…I’ll try,” Twilight answered, finally looking up at him again, with tears still brimming in her eyes. “Until then, take care of yourself. Please?”

“I don’t see how much harm can come to the Captain of the Guard in the heart of Canterlot,” he joked and quickly kissed her on the forehead. “You’re the one in the town that gets attacked by monsters.”

Twilight slowly shook her head as he trotted off and into the train.

“No,” she whispered, “you’re the one surrounded by monsters… and you don’t even know it.” She stamped a hoof on the station’s black and white tile, suddenly angry at the slowly retreating train. “Bear with it, big brother. We’ll save you. I’ll save you. I promise.”

- - -

Queen Chrysalis stretched languidly as she strolled away from her bed and her spent fiancé. Shining Armor was a wonderful pony. No changeling could ask for a more loving host. Like no other creature she had ever known, at the end of every night, he left her feeling well and truly satiated. He was distinctly less impressive as a physical lover, but after a changeling queen had discovered the thrill that came from bodily dominating and sowing despair in another living being…? Well, few things could compare to that glorious sensation, and Shining was sadly not the sort to take the abuse, even from the mare he loved more than life itself. His poor little pony mind was far too clouded by preconceived notions of what was right and wrong.

“Is my bath ready?” she asked one of the Sparkle family servants, and the meek little creature scurried to do her bidding. The Queen was not what most ponies would consider decent – still smelling and looking of lovemaking – but she hardly cared. Their opinions were increasingly irrelevant.

“Everything is as you asked, m-my Lady,” the brown little earth pony stammered, likely scandalized by the appearance of what she believed to be the fair Princess of Love, fresh from the Guard Captain’s bed. The stupid creature.

“Then begone,” Chrysalis demanded. Shining Armor had given her all the love she could drain. She was full. There was no point being around ponies anymore.

Settling into the porcelain bath tub, Chrysalis sighed in pleasure. The water was bubbling and hot, wisps of steam rising to tantalize her senses as she slipped in, deeper and deeper. The sensation of the hot water shifting between the holes in her legs and into every crevasse of her body was a true delight. Relaxing and waiting in the tub, she turned her thoughts to the future.

One pony… even Shining Armor… wouldn’t be enough to satiate her forever. It was well known that a changeling, impersonating a parent for example, could drain the love from multiple children and even a spouse all at the same time. The effect was cumulative. There was no biological necessity to drain a single lover. Alpha Brass was spent and loveless, as nutritious as a lump of charcoal, but there were surely other stallions with his suitably flexible proclivities.

Or, actually, what was to say it had to be another pony?

Impersonating certain other creatures, like dragons or minotaurs, was out of the question for her and had been since her second molting, but there was no rule that she had to seduce and enslave only pony lovers. Once Equestria began to come apart, like a rotting fruit, she could take the time to capture and break any number of creatures to her will. Shining Armor would object, but by then his mind would be mush anyway, fit only to worship her and nod in mindless approval.

A minotaur lover… now, that presented certain possibilities. In time, a whole harem of creatures could be bent to her ever-increasing power. They would be enough to keep her both entertained and satiated for a century. Chrysalis sighed in pleasure at the thought, sinking a little deeper into the sinfully comfortable bathtub.

As for ponykind as a whole, they were probably too useful to just use up and throw away. Yes, the swarm could and would feast when they took Canterlot, but after the feast there would have to be some careful husbandry. Ponies didn’t grow on trees, after all! The most pliable and affectionate of the bunch would need to be separated from the rest – those that would be put in pods and culled – for breeding purposes.

It would be dangerous having too large a pony population, though, especially when it came to the unicorns and pegasus ponies. Those two groups would probably have to be exterminated. After that… it would be a delicate balancing act, but once the minds of the remaining little ponies were broken and their society lay in shambles, they could return to their roots as fodder and food for the ever-expanding swarm.

Chrysalis closed her eyes at the sound of approaching hoofsteps.

“What news do you bring me?” she asked, knowing the changeling who had approached her. It was one of her ‘royal guards,’ though she had adjusted her disguise to impersonate the servant girl from before. She opened one eye, noting the teeth and the eyes. Yes... it was her guard.

“My Queen,” the changeling said, bowing her head. “We have received word from one of the other Hives.”

“And?” Chrysalis inquired, unconcerned. She stretched out a foreleg and lathered it with a small hoof-sponge.

“The Inkanyamba Swarm has tasted of my Queen’s royal jelly, inhaled her mighty presence, and pledged themselves to the new Homeland.”

“As I knew they would,” Chrysalis replied with an amused titter. “The Inkanyamba have always hungered. They knew of the feast to come just as they know the taste and smell of a True Changeling Queen.”

She finished cleaning one leg and moved to the next.

“Brass thought himself so clever, warning the other Swarms of my presence… trying to set them against me.” She laughed again, shaking her head at the obvious ploy. “Use changelings to harass changelings? Was that his thought? He has failed to understand us yet again.”

“My Queen,” the changeling warned, “we have yet to hear from the great and ancient Ichchadhari Nagin Swarm…”

“I have the great beasts of the Zilant and the terrible Nidhogg from beneath The Tree. The Q'uq'umatz and Ramidreju shall swarm with us as well. Even the Aida-Weddo have submitted to cross the great sea to join in the feast. All know that this Equestria shall be our new Nehushtan… my great realm. My Biscione from which we shall swarm without fear and blacken the skies.”

“As my Queen is destined.”

Chrysalis smiled, glad that her favored children knew just what to say to please her.

Even if all the Ichchadhari Nagin Swarm did not come to her, a few would understand her great power and come to their senses. All the changelings of the Ichchadhari Nagin were ancient creatures, changelings from an age past who fed on dragons and other monsters, turning themselves sterile in the process. They were a slowly dying Swarm. If there was truly wisdom left in them, they would see the opportunity presented them and join in the greatest swarming in changeling history.

When Equestria was no more, her realm of Biscione – a realm united under a single Swarm and a Single Queen – would fear no other creature. All the enemies and ancient predators of changelings would be hunted down and exterminated. All other thinking creatures capable of love would be harvested. It would be a true paradise, with herself as both architect and all-powerful Queen.

Glorious!

“My Queen… there is another matter…”

“Which is?”

“Princess Celestia is drafting a letter to Lord Yama in Neighpon,” the lesser changeling stated.

“As expected,” Chrysalis replied, clean and relaxed in the hot bath. “She is concerned about the growing hostility regarding Lady Yumi and wishes to help resolve the differences between her noble houses.”

“I have a team in place,” the other changeling said, simply. “What skin shall they wear?”

Chrysalis ‘hmm’ed and lifted a leg out of the water, watching the steam rise from the limb. “Have them wear the skin and colors of Yama’s ponies. Stage an incident.”

It was sad news, hearing how her changelings had lost Lady Yumi. It would be very hard to find anything to stick to Alpha Brass now. It was tempting to try and frame him for the altercation she was fomenting between Canterlot and Neighpon. Surely, with Yumi loose and un-replaced, Brass would be courting the Neighponese. He would be playing some sort of game between them and Canterlot.

“The one in charge of this,” Chrysalis went on to say. “Have her wear the skin of one of Brass’s ponies. Make sure at least one or two survivors are able to implicate him in this.”

“Yes, my Queen.”

Chrysalis expected her subordinate to leave, then, the matter settled. Yet she remained by the side of the bathtub, waiting patiently for permission to speak. Chrysalis sighed. “There is more?” 

“My Queen,” she changeling said, bowing her head. “Lord Brass is already in Canterlot.”

“What?” Chrysalis surged out of the water until her upper half emerged, steaming and trickling water from the black chitin of her true form. She hissed, bearing a mouth full of sharp teeth. “Of course he would be rushing into the limelight now of all times! I should have known! ‘A true friend stabs you in the front!’ He’s here to try his hoof at preserving the peace.”

“Your orders, my Queen?” the changeling asked again.

“If the butterfly is emerging from his safe little cocoon, then why don’t we show him our spider web?” Chrysalis chuckled, shifting back into Cadance. “Kill him.”

“Kill him?” the changeling sounded almost shocked. “Are you sure…?”

“He’s no longer necessary,” Chrysalis reasoned, slowly lowering herself into the warm water again. “Kill him… and Canterlot and Neighpon will blame one another for the death of their would-be peacemaker. Use poison again if you have to. It will further inflame things.”

The changeling bowed and slowly backed away. “As my Queen wills.”

Chrysalis tried to relax like she had before, but it was increasingly proving difficult.

‘Exposing yourself like this was a mistake, Brass. A mistake you will regret. If you’d stayed in your little garden, then I would have made your end relatively painless… you could have even lived to see Equestria consumed. I would have loved to taste your despair.” She growled and slid further down until only her eyes, horn, and ears stuck out above the water, wreathed in steam. “Now I won’t get that chance. I hope you’re satisfied; you’ve ruined my good mood!’

- - -

Fluttershy didn’t like to see any animal suffer.

Suffering, sadly, was a part of the lives of many animals, especially wild ones. They got sick because ponies weren’t around to cure them; they hurt one another fighting over females to mate with, and they killed one another for food. A fly caught in a spider’s web – caught in a spider’s embrace – still felt pain, though not really in the way a pony did. Fluttershy hated to see it, even as she accepted that sometimes pain was a part of life. Foalbirth could be painful, after all, but it produced life.

“Please drink this,” she pleaded, holding up the ewer of water to the pony’s lips.

Gale Force drank, greedily swallowing a few mouthfuls. The stallion’s eyes opened wide, pleading. His hooves strained against the cords that bound him to the floor and Fluttershy hastily backed away. He looked so much like a pony, but she knew… She knew what he was…

“Please,” the pegasus Royal Guard groaned, as Fluttershy brought water to the more sedate – and glowering – Arrow Head. “Let us go, Miss Fluttershy. You can’t keep us here like this.”

Arrow Head drank from the ewer in Fluttershy’s hooves and growled when it was gone.

They had been smuggled away and kept in a dark room with colored drapes over the walls and hanging from the ceiling. It was impossible to tell where they were. There was no barred gate or locked door to be seen, but the ropes binding their wings to their torsos and fastening their forelegs together still made escape a practical impossibility. They weren’t trained to escape capture. If it came down to it, it would be suicide before they revealed more than they already had. The Queen would demand no less.

Except they were already exposed! Suicide would just provide bodies for the enemy to parade around and study. They had been gifted with a runic charm to self-immolate in the event of capture and compromise, but by the time she had woken up, the changeling that was Gale Force had found the inscribed spell deactivated! Nopony was supposed to be able to do that!

Nopony except that bastard Alpha Brass… who had given them the spells in the first place!

Damn him, and damn these mares.

“What are you doing with us?” Gale Force asked, sensing Fluttershy’s inherent compassion. She could taste it, like butter on bread. It wasn’t enough to be true sustenance, and it was so close to affection that it almost hurt. “You have to let us go. You can’t keep us tied up like this.”

The timid pegasus fiddled with the ewer of water in her hooves.

“S-sorry,” she muttered and ran off, disappearing behind the drapes.

An hour after she had left, Arrow Head finally spoke up.

“Trying to gain her pity is a mistake,” the other changeling argued. “We need to make her angry. If she gets angry, it may give us an opening to escape.”

“That’s Fluttershy, you idiot,” Gale Force snapped. “Of all the ponies you want to ‘get angry’ you pick her? We need to earn her trust. Get her to loosen these ropes. Then…”

“Then?” Arrow Head asked, glancing over at her.

“You know what then,” Gale Force said, resolute.

It must have been half a day or more before the Element of Kindness came back. It was food this time. She always fed them… but never really fed them. Shining Armor had loved his subordinates and fellow guards. At first, when she had been told that she would be feeding on the Queen’s lovemeal, Gale Force had been confused. How much love did this pony have, to feed not just the Queen but two other changelings? Following the would-be Prince around, the both of them had discovered that Shining’s love of his fellow guards had been plenty to sustain them. It had been effortless to just soak it all in.

Now, it felt like days since she had fed.

“I made, um, carrots Juliette with some rigatoni and peas,” Fluttershy said, holding out two paper plates and generous portions of food. It would probably have been a good meal… for a damned pony. She didn’t give them a fork or a knife, of course. She held up the plate so they could eat like so many earth ponies did at work or when in a hurry, right from the plate or the bag.

Gale Force ate some of the food, if only to try and endear herself to the sickeningly sweet mare.

Arrow Head looked like she wanted to spit the food out in the pony’s face, but ate some as well. It would mostly pass right through their bodies. Changelings couldn’t digest without a lovemeal. Damn it. They were wasting away here. The Queen had to be told. The Queen had to be warned!

“Miss Fluttershy.” She tried to reason with the mare again or at least to appeal to her nature. “I know you don’t want to do this. This isn’t you. Whoever is making you do this… don’t listen to her…! Set us free, please! Please!”

Fluttershy lowered her eyes and shook her head, resisting the words.

“You have to--”

“Have to what?” another voice interrupted, and a lavender mare trotted into the makeshift cell. She had a black cloak on, but the hood revealed her true identity. Gale Force knew this mare. She, as a he, had gone with her when she met Alpha Brass. It was Twilight Sparkle. And it must have been Twilight Sparkle who nullified their immolation fail-safe.

“This is a mistake,” Gale Force warned.

“A big mistake,” Arrow Head chimed in, seeing a potential opportunity.

“Is it?” Twilight wondered, placing a comforting and supportive hoof on Fluttershy’s side and whispering something into her ear. Gale Force strained to try and overhear them, but couldn’t.

“Listen,” Gale Force said, trying not to pull too obviously against her ropes. “I know what this looks like! I know what you must think. But… but we really are Royal Guards. The… abilities you may know about… they’re a magical spell cast on us by the Princesses to help us do our job!”

“We’re like spies,” Arrow Head spoke up again. “Spies for the Princess.”

“Like how Luna’s Guard look different?” Gale Force continued, hoping the mare would believe her. “We’re the same thing. Celestia’s – Her Highnesses – secret guards! Just ask her about us! She’ll confirm it!’

Twilight trotted up between the two changelings, unafraid of getting close to them.

“You’d like that,” she stated, seriously, but her frown said more than her words. “I have a direct line to the Princess now that Spike is back. Maybe I should tell her.”

“You should,” Arrow Head insisted, and Gale Force winced. She was playing it too damn hard. Push too hard and the target will bounce back in the wrong direction.

“I should?” Twilight asked, and Arrow Head – that idiot – nodded eagerly.

“Alert the Princess and her Royal Guard?” Twilight asked, and only then did Arrow Head realize what a grub she was being.

“Celestia will…”

“Princess Celestia,” Twilight corrected, and whatever patience she had for the game seemed to evaporate in an instant. “I watched my brother leave for Canterlot. I watched him go… knowing I was sending him back to your Queen, this Chrysalis…! I wanted to tell him not to go, but I didn’t, because I know what would happen if he knew, and I know what will happen if Princess Celestia knows.”

She pointed a hoof at Arrow Head, poking him in the forehead.

“You’ll run,” she said, anger bleeding into her voice. “Maybe you’ll kill the real Cadance, too. The first sign of real danger and you’ll all start hiding from us. You’ll go back into the shadows, and every death you cause then and after will be on me… because I turned on the light that sent all the roaches scurrying.”

Anger. She was angry and upset, with them and with herself. Gale Force could taste it in the air.

Maybe Arrow Head was right.

But she tried her approach, one last time. “We’re on the Princess’s side. We’re working for her.”

“Which was why you attacked Fluttershy in the forest,” Twilight reasoned.

Shit.

What was there to even say after that?

Shit!

Their cover was blown. Everything was blown! The Queen had to be warned!

“I’ll talk,” Gale Force said, to Arrow Head’s brief confusion. “I’ll talk. What do you want to know?”

Twilight shook her head again.

“You’re not really going to talk,” she said, spearing the changeling with eyes that all but challenged her to reveal her true form or say just one more word. “You’re trying to get me to do something that will tip off your Queen. What? Were you going to suggest I contact somepony? Research some sort of spell? Why not ask me to trip over a wire and set off a trap?”

Double shit.

There were half a dozen ways to alerts the Queen in case of capture. There were changelings watching for anypony doing suspicious research; anypony going to certain places captured changelings would tell them to go; doing things captured changelings would tell them to do. Manipulating these stupid ponies was supposed to be easy.

Triple shit!

“I’m not going to ask either of you anything tonight,” Twilight told them, biting her lower lip in distaste and forcing herself to finish her statement. “Not tonight. I just wanted to see you and say a few things.”

“If we’re your enemies, then you should just kill us,” Arrow Head blurted out. “We won’t talk.”

“You can’t torture us into cooperating,” Gale Force warned as well. “It won’t work.”

“I’m not going to torture you,” Twilight assured them with a disgusted look. “We’re ponies, not monsters. You’ll have water and food – the same food Fluttershy makes for herself, and she’s one of the best cooks I know! You won’t be separated or kept alone. You can talk all you like and keep each other company.”

“What’s the point?” Gale Force felt she had to ask. “Why bother?”

“You might have heard ponies talk about ‘love and tolerate?’” Twilight Sparkle asked them. “It goes back to an old saying. While you’re here, we’ll tolerate you… but we won’t love you. How long before you show us who you really are? If you go a week eating what Fluttershy eats, and if you’re the same as you are now, then maybe I’ll imagine that you’re telling the truth.”

A week.

A week without a lovemeal?

Arrow Head looked over at her with desperation. She knew it, too. They’d never be able to hold their forms like this for a week without some sort of lovemeal. The pegasus was never around long enough to drain her, and her fleeting moments of kindness only made the loveless hours more unbearable. If they didn’t find a way to warp her mind – something that usually took hours to days – then they’d lose the ability to change shape entirely! They’d starve and become powerless.

Not saying another word to them, Twilight Sparkle unclipped her cloak’s clasp. She pressed it against Arrow Head’s collar, and it discharged some sort of illusionary magic. Gale Force watched, perplexed, as her fellow changeling’s form rippled and struggled to accommodate the magic. Arrow Head tried to shake the clasp off her chest, but Twilight kept it pressed firmly down with her hoof. Her appearance – that of the Royal Guard, Arrow Head – softened, becoming feminine, but then it tried to revert back to normal. The two illusionary magics were at war with one another, one unicorn sorcery and the other changeling camouflage. 

“What are you doing?” Gale Force finally found her voice and demanded to know. When Twilight said nothing, she all but yelled, “What are you doing to her?!”

Twilight removed the clasp from Arrow Head and returned it to her cloak.

“Did you know,” she asked with a smirk, “that when you combine red and green light… you get yellow? And that red light and blue light gives you magenta? Rarity knew it as ‘color theory,’ but did you know that contradictory illusionary magic spells can have a similar effect?”

Arrow Head surged against her ropes, trying to reach the unicorn, but to little avail.

Gale Force was too stunned to even try. This mare… had a way to unmask them?

“Such an interesting magical theory,” Twilight went on to tell them, gently patting the clasp. “Sometime soon, I’ll show the rest of the changelings what I’ve shown you… but I think I’ll make it a surprise. You do like surprises, don’t you?”

She had to die.

Some-ling had to stop her!!

“You’re leaving already?” Fluttershy asked as the two changelings stewed, speechless.

Twilight passed by her, taking a deep breath before slipping behind a drape and out of sight.

“Rarity and I have an appointment to keep.”

- - -

“Is there something in the water in this town?” Sand Dune asked, recoiling from the three other mares. “Or are you ponies simply that crazy?”

“I actually wondered much the same,” Antimony considered.

“I did, too,” Twilight confessed. “But then, the first pony I met here was Pinkie Pie.”

“Ladies,” Rarity said, raising a hoof and drawing their eyes to her. “Having lived here the longest, I can assure you: it takes a dash of insanity to really appreciate life here in Ponyville. Call it local flavor.”

“Local flavor?” Sand Dune repeated, still incredulous at what had been proposed. “Local flavor involves a scheme to bodily harm a Prince of Equestria? That is less ‘local flavor’ and more ‘high treason.’ In fact, it is treason of the sort that Lady Yumi of Neighpon has been so recently accused!”

She took another step away from the mad mares.

“And now you,” she said, pointing to Rarity, “are asking me to court that same accusation? Perhaps you asked Yumi the same thing, to aid you in this or that? I need only look at the company you keep to suspect!” Sand Dune pointed at the other non-local, the Baroness from Prance. “You.”

“Me?” Antimony inquired innocently. “Mayhap you wish to resume our duel from before?”

“Oh, I am very sorely tempted!” Sand Dune hissed. 

“Ladies!” Rarity snapped, raising her voice. “Ladies, please.”

The pleading tone, ripe with honest conviction, froze the two before they could literally lock horns. Antimony averted her eyes towards the secluded reflecting pool they had met by, Twilight shuffled nervously at all the angry energy in the air, and Sand Dune reined in her temper. This was not at all the evening she had expected. There was far more talking and far less danger and conspiracy, though that could change at any minute given the proposal she had been offered.

“You tell a tall tale,” Sand Dune addressed their ostensible host. “How can I believe you? How can you believe yourself? This talk of… of some monstrous creature in the guise of the Prince?”

Rarity felt the other mares present all watch her for her response, even Twilight, who she had worked so closely with. Twilight Sparkle had admitted to having a part in fleshing out this insane theory, if it could even be called that, but it had been Rarity who supposedly put the screws to it and deemed it true. It all hinged on her. How could she be so sure?

“I don’t know if any of you will really understand me,” Rarity admitted, sad and earnest at once, “but I will try and tell you, anyway. I know, because I know my Prince. Not just my Prince, but my Blueblood. I know him. I know his touch, I know his kiss, I know how he speaks, how he picks at his food, how he says things with his eyes that he never would with his voice. I know what makes him angry and what calms him. I know the embarrassing behavior he indulges in, just to get a reaction out of others. I know what he whispers in the morning, when he wakes up… gasping because of some terrible dream.”

She bit her lip and shook her head fiercely.

“How could I not know?” Rarity demanded of them. “I listen to him! What he says, how he eats, the ways he…” She blushed hotly and took a deep breath. “A thousand small things are screaming to me, telling me that the Blueblood in there–” She pointed back at the manor. “–is not the stallion I love.”

“Perhaps you simply do not know him as well as you think you do,” Sand Dune challenged, though the sheer intensity of the former seamstress’s conviction now made her wonder.

“Is he one of these shape-shifters?” Rarity asked, looking from Sand Dune to Antimony and finally to Twilight. “I can’t say with total certainty. All I know is that he is not my Blueblood. That is all the reason I need to investigate.”

“I’m with Rarity,” Twilight quickly said. “She knows him better than anyone. For my part, he didn’t know things that he should have known, things we talked about before Yumi’s poisoning attempt. I’d ask more, but it would give me away. There’s no pony better able to judge this than Rarity. I’d bet my life on that.”

The Baroness smiled thankfully at her friend and confidant. “Twilight…”

“And you?” Sand Dune asked the other mare, as yet unspoken for.

“A pony I had thought I could trust recently tried to cut my eyes out while I slept,” Antimony stated with blunt honesty. Rarity and Twilight both cringed at the image concocted by their imaginations.

“Was it that thug that followed you around?” Sand Dune asked, nonplused.

“Her name is Gewitter, and no, it was not.” Antimony let her chew on that for a second before adding, “Gewitter is my bodyguard and my friend, Sand Dune. She saved my life, so I’d ask you to watch what you say about her.”

Sand Dune could hardly believe her ears. Her bodyguard and friend?

Since when did a mare like her have friends?

“I regret giving offense,” Sand Dune said, in the most simultaneously cordial and frosty tone she could manage through the shock.

“As I have both eyes, the attempt clearly failed,” Antimony concluded, simply. “I was about to extract more information from the assassin when she violently expired.”

“You killed her? I’m not surprised.”

“She was still breathing when I captured her eyes with my own,” Antimony elaborated. She didn’t need to describe what that meant when anypony or anything made contact with her eyes, conduits for the same magic that normally flowed through a pony’s horn. Sand Dune knew it all too well.

“Unfortunately,” she continued, after a pause. “The thing erupted in magical flame before I could mesmerize it. Once the blaze was put out, no trace of the creature remained. Even the teeth were destroyed. Proper identification was impossible.”

“We need your help,” Rarity picked up where the other Baroness left off. “You can do it, can’t you? You can do what Lady Antimony here described?”

Sand Dune frowned, but nodded, seeing little point in denying it.

“Yes,” she answered.

“Can you show us?” Twilight asked. She had a very curious look in her eyes. Sort of like… wonder?

Sand Dune considered her situation and the madness before her. These three mares. They were insane. No sane pony would consider going along with this! It had to be part of some elaborate setup! Yet… if they were telling the truth…? One question remained before she even began to play along.

“You say you could tell because you know Blueblood,” she said.

“I do,” Rarity insisted.

“Then why are you the first to see through this sort of deception?” Sand Dune asked, smirking as she found a flaw in the reasoning of the three mares and their crazy cover story. “Surely some other pony must have noticed their true love acting out of sorts? Is the one here simply not trying hard enough to pass muster?”

Rarity lowered her eyes for a moment, in thought, but just as quickly raised them. “No. That isn’t it.”

“Then what?” Sand Dune demanded. “How do you explain it?”

“Blueblood has been reorganizing his household, shuffling staff around… He has even shunned Light Touch and... another mare,” Rarity explained, “Servants we are both very fond of. He isn’t doing this simply out of spite or to tip others off. He blames it on the poisoning, that he needs new servants and new guards who will be more effective or more alert. I believe it to be part of an agenda. He is rushing to do these things now, while he can still claim to be working out of concern for his security.”

Rarity pursed her lips and tried to put it another way.

“I know what it means to be on an impossible deadline,” she said, “I know what it is like to think you have to cut corners and to rush a product to get it out on time. That is what this reminds me of. That is why it struck me as clearly as it has.”

Sand Dune sighed but couldn’t come up with anything more to say. Sure, it would be easy to just deny it further, or to question how relevant some dressmaker’s experience was to this insane hypothetical. It gave her the impression of a rush? These were affairs of state, not a hasty stitch on a dress! At the same time, this Rarity seemed convinced and more than that, she sounded genuinely desperate for help.

And… and Sand Dune found herself wanting to help her.

“And how do you know I am not one of these shape-shifters?” she asked, and her eyes darted over to Antimony. “How do I know none of you are?”

Twilight Sparkle answered her worry by tapping the clasp on her cloak. “You noticed the spell on these right away. You know what it does, but it isn’t just to disguise members of our group. Attempting to place a contradictory illusion on a changeling leads to distortion. In this case, a gender-swapping illusion is so universal that it will interfere with any changing illusion that has a gender at all… which is all of them, since all changeling disguises have a gender component.”

“So she claims,” Antimony added. “I have yet to see it in action, myself.”

“If Twilight says it works then it works,” Rarity assured them.

“Merciful Princesses,” the Bitalian noblemare bemoaned her sorry state. “You’re driving me crazy, too. Alright. Alright! I’ll show you what you want.”

“Yes!” Twilight cooed, excitedly clopping her hooves together like a filly at the theater. “Yes! Yes! Yes! I’ve been hoping to see this! I can’t wait!”

“You won’t see it,” Sand Dune promised. “Lady Rarity, if you would, think of a number. Any number at all will do. Count down from twenty and then speak it aloud.”

Rarity licked her lips – probably anxiously wondering if the magic involved something being cast on her. Her hooves shifted in place, and she nodded slowly. “Alright. Whenever you want to do this, darling, I’m ready.”

Sand Dune sighed before Rarity could even start counting down.

“You didn’t pick a number,” she stated and Rarity’s eyes widened, guiltily. “You picked a color, and an unimaginative one, too. Indigo. Then, when I told you to pick a number, you said five hundred and sixty three and two fifths. You then said that it was the price of a dress you sold to an unnamed client. You described it as a ‘racy black bedroom outfit with a saddle and too many frills.’”

During the description, the mare’s eyes had gone from guilty – at trying to cheat by picking a color – to shocked and then, finally, indignant with a touch of awe. Twilight Sparkle, on the other hoof, looked very frustrated. She had been concentrating to try and see the magic being cast. Antimony appeared disinterested, watching with half-lidded eyes as was her usual.

“You read my mind!” Rarity exclaimed, still a bit awed.

“Nothing of the sort,” Sand Dune assured her with the shake of her hoof. “You said everything I described in a version of the future that only occurred to me, personally.”

“So that was the ‘Ciclo di Tempo’ spell?” Twilight Sparkle asked, inquisitively inspecting Sand Dune’s horn for any lingering magic. “Aww! I didn’t see anything! I really wanted to compare it to Starswirl’s Past Tense spell!”

“You told them?” Sand Dune snarled at Antimony, growing even angrier at the mare.

“If I didn’t, they wouldn’t have asked,” the arrogant Prench witch stated.

“Ciclo di Tempo, Clessidra Congelati and Uovo di Tempo,” Twilight recited, trotting around Dune. “The three spell theories, inspired by Starswirl himself and perfected by the alicorn who founded the Quartz clan in Bitaly. Don’t blame Antimony entirely. I looked them up, too.”

“The three techniques are a secret of my family,” Sand Dune told her, holding out a hoof to put a stop to Twilight’s pacing.

“But you’re famous for using the Clessidra Congelati,” Twilight replied. “It isn’t really much of a secret anymore, is it?”

Sand Dune gritted her teeth at the reminder. Her use of the Clessidra Congelati had made the rounds of Canterlot’s nobility, rather spoiling the secret of the spellwork... especially her limitations with it. It was regrettable, but it also wasn’t like she had a choice at the time.

“You should have been more careful with your family secrets,” Antimony pointedly added.

“I saved twelve ponies from that fire, including two foals,” Sand Dune replied, glaring at her old enemy. “Even if there was another way to have done it, I was there, I had the power to help, and so I helped. I don’t regret it. Those foals are in alive now because of me.”

“If you had a more diverse repertoire of spells, you could have used one of them instead,” Antimony refused to just let the topic go. She glanced over at Rarity, who was about to intervene again between them. “But… it was a good deed; I do not question that. Except every noblemare in Equestria has heard the rumors of you stopping time because of it and for how long before you collapsed.”

“Is that what you did here, stopping time? You did something, obviously, manipulating time, but... could you explain it, please?” Rarity asked, and it was clearly as much to defuse the situation as to clear up the spell they would all be relying on.

“Here,” Sand Dune explained, using a spark of magic to cut two lines in the dirt where all four mares could see them. “Your friend mentioned Starswirl’s Past Tense spell, and as you must have heard, my family keeps Equestria’s First Hourglass, brought over from the Old Kingdom. Starswirl provided much of the foundation for our family spells, but we took them further still.”

She marked the two lines with points, A, B, C, D.

“Starswirl’s Past Tense, cast at point C, allows a pony to travel back to point A.” She drew an arc, connecting C to A. “However, this does not and cannot alter B or any event that occurs between A and C, because these events B are a precondition for C to occur. This creates a special event called a pre-destination loop. In other words, the past cannot be altered from the future.”

“The Time Cycle spell is different.” Sand Dune marked A on the second line. “I cast the spell at A, not at C, creating an anchor point. Or ‘saved point’ in time. I then progress normally through time, past B to C. At C, I recall to the anchor point at A, circumventing the pre-destination paradox.” She created a circle around B to C and then back to A. “The events of B leading up to C still occur, and can be observed, but only by me. This is why I say it is a time experienced only by myself.”

“You get around being unable to change the past by never really leaving the past!” Twilight exclaimed, and she did it with a high pitched filly’s squee of delight, a happy sound that seemed a tad inappropriate given the circumstances. She used her magic to make other lines that branched off from point A but remained within the circle bound by the diameter A and C. She marked the new lines, where they intersected with the far side of the circle with more C points, but called them C2, C3, C4, and so on.

“You create an altered timeline that branches from A, because the one causing the alteration does not exist in the future. You remove yourself from time! The Cycle isn’t what the world experiences, it is what you experience!” The town librarian was positively giddy. “You bend the rules without breaking them! Just like Princess Celestia always says…!”

“Remarkable. So you can actually do it,” Rarity said, not entirely following the technical explanation. “You can experience or… observe a future event and then return to the past… or the present, or whatever you call it?”

“Practically speaking,” Sand Dune answered with a grin. “To one observing the observer, it seems as if nothing has happened, because it has yet to happen. This is why there was nothing for Miss Sparkle here to observe.”

“I can’t say I really understand it all…” Rarity admitted. “But to have an ability like that is simply incredible!”

“It is impressive,” Antimony agreed, narrowing her eyes at her old rival. “But it does not make her invincible. You also forget; one pony has observed the observer.”

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten,” Sand Dune replied, and daggers flew between the regal noblemares. “Your tricks won’t work on me a second time.”

“We are not here to fight,” Rarity interrupted and actually placed a hoof on Antimony’s chest to push her back a step. “Please remember that, both of you.” She took a step back herself to give them all room. “I, for one, am convinced. Shall we be on our way, then?”

“This is still treason,” Sand Dune warned.

“It is only treason if we’re wrong,” Rarity assured her and brought her hood over her mane. The glamour spell activated, disguising her with a stallion’s form. “Stay close to me. There are wards throughout the area.”

The three unicorn mares followed her.

- - -

Blueblood opened her eyes to the sensation of lips teasing her ear.

Vision returning, she saw a face lean in close, planting a kiss on her cheek, blue eyes fluttering behind thick lashes. Rarity. Had she finally come around? Ever since the actual Prince had been replaced, she had been somewhat standoffish. The lack of physical intimacy wasn’t a concern, really. Like virtually all changelings, the current Blueblood who had been Pixie Dust was effectively gender neutral. She was whatever her masquerade called on her to be, though being in a large stallion’s body still felt strange after being a mare for so long.

What mattered, really, was the affection from a partner. Physical intimacy was just a means of cultivating that; a drone had no real sex drive otherwise. Inhaling, she detected notes of anxiety in mixed in with the Baroness’s love. It was a pleasant fragrance that tickled the taste buds.

“This is a pleasant surprise,” she murmured in Blueblood’s voice, freeing her hooves to run one through the mare’s mane.

“Mmm,” Rarity purred, kissing the base of the changeling’s neck. “I’m sorry if I’ve seemed cold the last few days…”

“We’ve all been out of sorts lately,” Blueblood replied.

Rarity sucked in a breath and, without warning, straddled him, pressing down on the changeling’s chest with her hooves. She threw back her mane and leaned in to gently rub their horns together. The fragrance of her affection changed, just a little, the ratio of love to anxiety changing more to the latter than the former. The former Pixie Dust realized it must have been her lack of initiative: Blueblood must have been more aggressive or assertive in bed. It was making his lover nervous. She placed his hooves on her flanks and heard Rarity gasp in surprise.

“Do you remember,” Rarity whispered, “the morning after the Gala?”

Of course not. Stupid pony.

“Of course I do,” Blueblood whispered back. “Why do you ask?”

“You said something to me,” Rarity insisted, their horns still locked together in an intimate embrace. “Tell me you remember.”

“I said I did.” Blueblood silenced her by capturing her lips. Hopefully it would be enough to convince the silly mare to drop this line of questioning. Rarity pushed away after a second, breathing heavily. There was a look of worry on her face.

“I love you, my Princess,” the fake Prince assured her, and she smiled. Appeased. Good.

She lifted a leg and rolled off the bed.

“Rarity?”

She ignored her name and sauntered over to the window curtains, delicate silken drapes clinging to her as she ran a hoof along them. The bright moonlight from outside captured her naked outline against the window as she beckoned him over. Grinning, Blueblood rolled off the bed. So, she wanted to make love by the window, did she? That could be arranged.

Rarity had her back to the window, and as Blueblood came to her, she held out a hoof to gently interpose between them. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and she shook her head. It was a curious gesture now, here. There was something in her smell, too. And now the room! What--

“You said ‘you’re here,’” Rarity reminded her. “You said, ‘you’re still here.’ I was a little insulted at first, but then I saw how relieved you were. I never forgot those words and neither did you.”

Blueblood spun, saw three other shapes in the room, surrounding her…!

“You’re not here anymore.” Rarity’s last words were punctuated by a blow to the back of the head.

Blueblood hit the floor with little more than a grunt.

- - -

“I thought you said he would change when you knocked him out?” Sand Dune asked, deceptively calm given the circumstances.

“I thought he would!” Rarity cried, holding the hoof she had karate-chopped the Prince with close to her chest, like the deadly weapon it was. Deadly fashion weapon, perhaps.

“Hit him again,” Antimony suggested with a smile, only to notice the other mares glaring at her. “What? It couldn’t hurt at this point.”

“Let me think a second,” Twilight said, chewing her lower lip and ducking down to examine the changeling. Or, the pony they had assumed to be a changeling. She placed her magical clasp onto Blueblood’s shoulder and his form wavered and rippled, struggling between male and female. It was certainly a suspicious reaction to the magic, but hardly proof that he was some shape-shifting monster.

“You know,” Sand Dune mused aloud after a little chuckle, “for some reason, this whole thing reminds me of a story I read once. It was about this crazy, jealous nurse who ended up killing her Prince rather than sharing him with his wife…”

Rarity gasped in delight. “You read Red Horseshoe Diaries, too? That was in the Lost Palace Loves edition!”

“Desperate Measures was her name!”

“And the Prince was Prince Stalwart!”

“I hated that story,” a third voice interrupted the Ponyville and Bitalian mares.

Twilight glanced up at the three other unicorns, incredulous. “Am I the only one here who doesn’t read that junk?”

The three mares in question shrugged, all at once. Twilight groaned and stood back up.

“I don’t know what’s wrong,” she admitted. “His natural disguise is stronger than the others. I can’t get it to dissipate.”

Then, without warning, she gave the downed Prince another kick to the head.

“Twilight! Was that really--”

Rarity might have said more, except Blueblood’s body began to contort amid a spray of green sparks!

The stallion’s muscular frame vanished, shrinking before their very eyes. The alabaster white coat flaked away, like paper burning at the touch of a match head. Golden locks of mane and well-groomed tail turned to sickly green membrane. The smooth, luxurious coat became a bed of hard, black chitin. There were curious holes grown in the legs, a pattern of green scales along the underside, and a twist in the crooked ebony horn.

Sand Dune clamped a hoof over her mouth to keep from crying out.

“Huh,” was all Antimony said.

“Kicking him again worked!” Twilight laughed nervously. “Wow. I’m actually sort of surprised.”

Rarity shuddered. “I think I need a bath,” she whined and took in the sight of what had been her Prince moments before. Her whole body shook with a tremor, and she amended her previous statement to: “A long, hot bath. Scalding, really.”

“You… you could have let me sleep with that creature,” Sand Dune realized, finding her voice again. She recoiled and stared at Rarity, realizing what the mare had meant when she had said to ‘remember your words.’ “I wouldn’t have known. You could have…”

“I could have,” Rarity agreed. “But how could I ever look you in the eye again after doing that to you? How could I ever ask you to trust me after betraying your trust?”

The four mares stood over the changeling that had pretended to be their Prince.

“Oh, Blueblood….” Rarity muttered, hanging her head.

“What are you going to do when I reset things?” Sand Dune asked, more gently than she had spoken before. “You aren’t going to spend the night with this… thing… are you?”

“Heavens no!” Rarity gasped, turning a shade of green at the mere thought.

“Then what…?”

“Oh, I’ll think of something.”

- - -

The Royal Guard’s eye twitched in aggravation. “Merciful Princesses, what are those clucking hens up to?”

“The better question is why His Grace would care enough to send us to watch them,” the second guard grumbled.

Both stood erect and unwavering before the entrance of the botanical garden, out of earshot of their quarry but able to watch them well enough. Four mares had all but taken over the greenhouse to host their little tea party, a parade of sweets and artisans from town shuffled in hour after hour to serve them. Currently, they were munching on a cavalcade of strawberry confections. Even the Baroness’s nasty little furball of a cat was being indulged.

“They’ve spent an hour now looking at feathers,” the first guard muttered. “Feathers.”

The second just grunted. Feathers.

“At least it wasn’t more shoes.”

“Ugh.”

Mares. Go figure.

The effete feathermonger, if that was even a real job, had been brought in from Canterlot, and he had brought with him a selection of all colors and sizes. Why any mare would pay for feathers was something of a mystery in and of itself, really. Given the feather seller’s extravagant attire, though, business on his end was clearly booming. That or he just didn’t want to look anything but his perfumed best when meeting two Baronesses and a Countess, all likely to be future Duchesses, and on top of that the Princess’ personal apprentice.

“We’re probably here to keep an eye on the Prench mare,” the second guard reasoned. “She and Lady Rarity did duel before, and she’s come by unannounced.”

“So did the pretty Bitalian mare. But look. They seem awfully chummy from here,” the first guard noted, eyebrow rising just a fraction as the Ponyville Baroness placed one of the long, blue and gold feathers and placed it in the other mare’s mane. “But if His Grace says to watch…”

“We’ll watch,” the second finished.

Not that they were happy about it.

- - -

“Delightful!” Rarity exclaimed, crowning her former opponent’s newly assembled wreathe of flowers and feathers with a great blue plume with glittering gold along the edges. “You look wonderful, darling!”

“I must see!” Antimony beckoned one of the feathermonger’s assistants over. “Mirror! A mirror!”

Smiling at the sight of herself, the Baroness of Mareseilles pranced around in a circle, taking a look at herself from all angles. Watching her, laughing and seated on fluffy throw pillows, Sand Dune eagerly waited for her own ensemble to take shape. Twilight, on the other hoof, plucked a strawberry and cream cake the size of a large bit coin and bit down on it with obvious relish.

“You look stunning, madam,” the feathermonger gushed, throwing open another case of feathers for the ladies’ perusal. He pursed his thin lips together and used a sparkly magical field to levitate out another ‘crowning’ feather of swirling white and pink, fantastic little stalks of down erupting from the base of the shaft.

Opalescence mewed as she batted one of the stray ostrich feathers on the floor.

Soon enough – though likely not soon enough for the two guards that had been assigned to watch them – all four mares had their fanciful crowns, and the pleased feathermonger bowed repeatedly before taking his leave, several hundred bits richer for the trip. Surrounded on all sides by fabrics and sweet foods and now cases of imported feathers from the other sides of two oceans, the four mares appeared to luxuriate in their decadence and excess. A pony brought in a tray of coffee served in gold-engraved demitasse cups before also making an exit, dismissed by Rarity’s lazily waving hoof.

“Ladies,” she said, taking particular delight in a blushing Twilight’s mane full of starry lilacs and cerise tinted paradise feathers. The sputtering, bookish unicorn had been mortified to be included in their little game of dress-up. It was an expensive charade, to be sure, but it had been worth it just to see how Twilight had more difficulty dealing with three other mares dolling her up than she did with organizing potentially treasonous plots against the crown.

“Ladies,” Rarity repeated, “perhaps now is a good time to discuss that matter?”

“Agreed,” Antimony stated, growing serious again. Of course, she did it while breezily buckling on a new set of lily pink hoof-shoes and gloves, sending somewhat mixed signals.

“And I was having such fun, too,” Sand Dune lamented with a soft, accepting sigh. “Very well.” She turned to the Prench Baroness. “Go ahead… I’ll show you what happened, but be quick about it. Before I change my mind.”

Antimony waited until the three other unicorns all had their eyes on her.

Her own eyes, kept half-lidded, slowly opened wide, revealing the entire iris. All three were instantly ensnared, but she focused on Sand Dune first. She was the only one with a working memory of what had happened last night. To all the rest, it had played out with Rarity seducing the Prince and leading him to the window while the rest watched, concealed by a potent shadow-cloaking spell. What had happened after that... well!

Rarity definitely scored points for kinky creativity.

That was certainly one way to dissuade an amorous stallion!

Sand Dune’s memories of the night were different than Antimony’s own, just as she had expected and just as they all had hoped. Rather than just describe them, however, they would be shared with everypony, as if they had all come back with Sand Dune from her personal time loop. The recollection was presented like a treat on a platter – only those memories and nothing more – and, acting in good faith, Antimony did not use her mesmeric effect to try for anything more than that. Secretly aiding Rarity during the festival’s pollen attack had been a spur-of-the-moment decision. Antimony wondered privately if she would have been humored as she had been without it.

After a few seconds, and all as one, the four mares relived that one small part of the night through Sand Dune’s eyes. It was like watching a private recording of the event. The Prince. The dressmaker’s karate chop. The absurd conversation. The second kick to the Prince’s hard head. Then… the truth.

The bloody truth.

“So…” Antimony closed her eyes, breaking the connection between them. When she opened them again, they were half-lidded and safe to see with. “There you have it.”

“There you have it,” Sand Dune agreed.

“So he was a…” Twilight almost said what they all thought. Changeling. The Prince of Equestria was a changeling.

All three mares turned to one of their number for a lead, the one who had gathered them, the one who had trusted them with the secret, and the one who had made the decision to move against the false Prince. A Baroness, a Countess and the Princess’s apprentice, three of the most powerful mares in Equestria and likely the world, all turned to take their lead from a seamstress from Ponyville.

Rarity reached up to nervously adjust a feather in her mane.

She took a moment to properly devise a response. “I said before that, living in Ponyville, a mare needs to be a little crazy. I believe I can trust you ladies, so let me tell you what I think we need to do next. I must also warn you: it is a little crazy, even by Ponyville standards.”

“And I should warn you,” Antimony added, before Rarity could finish. “Even if I am on your side with this… it doesn’t change my own goals. I won’t hoof over control of my family to anypony else. I won’t forget the injustices suffered by Arsenic, my great forebear. Canterlot will belong to the Terre Rare.”

Rarity noticed both Sand Dune’s frown and Twilight’s uncomfortable cough at that.

“There needs to be a Canterlot for your family to claim it,” Rarity reminded her.

“Too true,” Antimony relented.

“I’d sooner attend a Diamond Dog’s coronation than see you wear that crown, Antimony,” Sand Dune told them, but shook her head at how bitter she sounded. “But our history together has to take a back seat. There’s no point in being the richest family in Equestria if there is no Equestria, now is there? You’ll have my support, Rarity.”

The fashionista smiled thankfully at the Bitalian noblemare. “And your final condition from before?”

Sand Dune didn’t respond at once, but when she did, it was with an resigned huff.

“Withdrawn,” she said.

“And I’m behind you, one hundred percent,” Twilight chimed in, smiling warmly and infectiously. Soon, despite everything, all four mares were smiling along with her. Rarity extended her hoof, and a moment later, Twilight, Sand Dune and Antimony all touched their hooves to hers.

“Friends?” Rarity dared to ask.

Sand Dune and Antimony glared at each other for a moment but still smiled.

“Yes, perhaps.”

“Maybe.”

Rarity’s smile was radiant, her eyes sparkling with excitement and delight.

“First, we need to gather intelligence,” Sand Dune suggested, as their hooves came apart. “How many of these changelings are there? Can they take on the forms and powers of non-ponies? Who among us has already been replaced?”

“We also need a means of exposing them,” Antimony chimed in. “Twilight Sparkle’s clasp seems effective in disrupting their innate magic, but we cannot produce and distribute thousands of them. Even if we could, doing so would only tip them off. I have no doubt they could devise a countermeasure if given time and sufficient warning.” She smirked at Rarity and adjusted one of the feathers in her mane. “I would rather not underestimate another opponent.”

“I’ll gladly share what I know about the changelings, but I think Antimony is right,” Twilight said, crossing her forelegs and conscientiously chewing her lower lip. “We need to hit them all at once. I’m… I mean, this is the same strategy the forty-seventh Blueblood used during the Griffin Civil War. He lured the entire rebel army into a single decisive engagement by feigning a rout. After the war, the noted author A.T. Ponee, in his work, ‘The Influence of Magical Power on Great States’ goes on to postulate that the outcome of wars hinges on singular decisive battles centered on a conflict between opposing magical forces.”

“We need to gather the changelings together and hit them all at once,” Rarity summarized and both Sand Dune and Antimony nodded in agreement.

“They will be swarming in unison only once,” Twilight went on to warn them. “That will be the attack on Canterlot. It will be our only opportunity.”

“By the brightest stars, they would dare to attack Canterlot itself?” Sand Dune hissed. She looked, if only briefly, genuinely upset in a way that could not be disguised beneath her normally pleasant demeanor. She asked, again, but more quietly, “They dare to attack the Princesses?”

“They must have some way to neutralize Princess Celestia and Princess Luna,” Antimony reasoned, thinking tactically about the prospects of attacking Equestria’s capitol city and gleaming jewel. “Or they imagine they have a way to counter them. Taking several hundred hostages would be my route…”

All three mares stared at her suggestion in mute shock.

“Don’t give me that look,” Antimony complained and shrugged, helplessly. “It is a move that embraces low cunning and that takes advantage of others’ good nature. I would not do it myself, but then I would not raise a hoof against the Princesses either! I am merely playing Discord’s Advocate.”

“We will be relying on you to help us understand what it would take to actually attack the city,” Rarity said after a few moments. She offered the Baroness an understanding smile. “Twilight is well-read, but you are the only mare here with any actual experience with… this sort of fighting.”

“Taking a city like Canterlot is no easy feat,” Antimony reminded them, relaxing slightly at Rarity’s spoken support. “No matter what this false Prince does to weaken the Duchy, the Princess’ Royal Guard will be present. They will fight.”

“They will fight, yes, against the enemy and amongst one another,” Sand Dune lamented. She had already sworn to send her own young brother, Sand Storm, to ‘grow into a stallion’ among the prestigious Royal Guard.

Rarity knew Blueblood and Shining Armor, like untold numbers of other young, noble-born colts, had been sent to the Guard to grow up and learn to be chivalrous stallions. They weren’t just the crème of the crop of Equestria; they were her future Dukes and Barons and Knights. They were somepony’s brother, somepony’s son… and the changelings had already infiltrated them.

When the swarm descended on the city, it would chaos and impossible to tell friend from foe.

“We need to amplify the spell. We cannot save Canterlot without revealing her enemies,” Rarity told them, and the four unicorn mares were in unspoken agreement.

“I’ve looked into this problem,” Twilight said, anxiously brushing her left foreleg with her right hoof. “There is a way to enhance the gender-swap-illusion spell… a pentaverbum. A five-alliteration ritual and incantation…”

“Nopony can do a five-alliteration spell,” Antimony stated. “Nopony since Arsenic...’s Era. Even my best is still only a Four.”

“I’m the same,” Sand Dune admitted, and the two political and magical rivals briefly locked glances. Both just as quickly put their differences aside and focused on Twilight. “A five-alliteration spell… ponies can’t do those anymore.”

“It can be done,” Twilight told them, her expression resolute. “Without an amplifier, verbal or physical, there is literally no other way to cover an entire city with a single spell.”

“A physical amplifier?” Sand Dune asked. “What sort of magic would…?”

“The Crystal Empire had an amplifier that could cover a city,” Antimony answered, to Twilight’s surprise. She had already opened her mouth, likely to say the same thing. “It turned ponies into crystal ponies. Thousands of them all at once, and it could sustain the magical projection for more than a year between recharges.”

“Yeah… I was about to say that. But The Heart is a lost artifact.” Twilight shook her head. “How - how did you know that? I’d never heard any concise details on how it worked until… just recently.”

“My brother’s ponies have been scouring Equestria and the Northern Wastes for the Crystal Heart for years,” Antimony went on to tell them. The way she said ‘brother’ it may as well have been a curse. “If they haven’t found it by now, then I doubt we will.”

“Then we’ll find a way,” Twilight insisted.

Antimony’s half-lidded eyes drifted to Rarity and then to Sand Dune. Finally, they settled on the other Terre Rare unicorn present. “Twilight Sparkle. There may be a way… one way… but I will not share it outside the family.”

“Are we really supposed to trust you when you insist on keeping secrets?” Sand Dune immediately pounced on the offer.

“We will all have our secrets we do not share. All four of us,” Antimony snapped. “Do not pretend we are so different, Sand Dune.”

“Having some secrets does not make us enemies,” Rarity insisted, playing peacemaker among the four. Twilight was silent, already lost in thought as to what Antimony could be speaking of. Rarity held out a sympathetic hoof. “Please, Sand Dune. What will hold us together is respecting one another’s boundaries.”

Sand Dune seemed tempted to argue but nodded in acquiescence. “Perhaps… you are right.”

“Thank you,” Rarity said, inclining her head in a graceful bow. “Now, ladies, even if we have a way to reveal the changelings, we will also need a way to defeat them.”

“An army could do it,” Antimony suggested.

“An army could,” Twilight agreed.

“The Terre Rare can mobilize more than five thousand ponies for war,” the Baroness promised. “Eight thousand if we draw on our Germane reserves and border guards.”

The other three mares listening held their breaths at the declaration. Five thousand ponies was the largest fighting force in Equestria without a shadow of a doubt. Sand Dune raised a hoof to her lips as she considered what, if anything, she could promise to contribute from Bitaly. It was possible that, between them, they could gather together almost ten thousand fighting stallions and mares. Such an army had not been seen since the era of Discord, Nightmare Moon, and Starcaller.

“Logistically,” Antimony went on to say, “Half of that would be the most anypony could march into such mountainous territory. Guards run on fodder and water. We can forage and pack supplies for an army, but clean water is more of a problem. Pegasi can’t just gather it out of thin air. I could do more with control of the railroads, but… the more ponies either of us gather, the more resources we marshal, the clearer our aims become. A hundred ponies are easier to conceal than a thousand.”

The four mares were silent for a few seconds as that settled in.

“Except Neighpon and Canterlot,” Rarity realized. “That fake Prince has mentioned calling up his guard. I think he means to march them west, towards Neighpon.” She smiled, slyly. “Isn’t that an aggressive enough move to provoke our neighbors to the north?”

Antimony’s grin was anything but friendly. In fact, it was downright predatory. “It is. My father and I already called up two thousand troops before I even came here. With three thousand, I can fit Canterlot with a noose. No problem.”

“I don’t really like that description, but it is the most obvious solution to the problem,” Twilight agreed, again, with the Terre Rare mare.  “Reveal the changelings and then sweep through the city, house by house and street by street if you have to.”

“And what of Canterlot itself?” Rarity asked, concerned. “If it becomes a battlefield, what will be left?”

Antimony shrugged. “The foundations, at least.”

Rarity frowned at the ruthless noblemare. “There must be a better way.”

“Not everything can be solved with a magical rainbow,” Antimony argued. “Feel free to explore other options, but if the time comes, I will put my faith in piercing steel, crushing hooves, and glowing horns.”

“If there is an alternative, then we should make every effort to explore it,” Twilight said, and Sand Dune nodded in agreement.

“Anything that brings harm to Canterlot brings harm to Equestria as a whole,” the Bitalian Countess reminded them. “For my part, I will provide the aid I can, both magical and financial. My family is rather adept at creative accounting.”

“You mean your family smuggles and cheats with books,” Antimony growled.

“Nonsense!” Sand Dune scoffed. “The government, by definition, does not ‘smuggle.’ And our banking practices are overseen by the Crown, the same as yours.”

“It will take all four of us to pull this off,” Rarity reminded them, but despite the squabbling, she smiled, touched by newfound confidence. “So, ladies, I say our next order of business as four friends and allies is to name our little conspiracy.”

“I’ve got it!” Twilight clopped a hoof on the floor as a name came to her. “We should be the ‘Fantastic Four!’”

“…”

“What? Is it taken?”

Sand Dune coughed politely into her hoof. “How about the ‘Sisterhood of Evil Unicorns.’”

“Why would we call ourselves ‘evil?’”

“To confuse our enemies, of course.”

“In that case, with confusion as our goal, I suggest we call ourselves ‘The Hand.’ Or the X-Mares?”

“That’s even more confusing!”

“What on Equestria is an X-Mare anyway?”

“Ladies, please, what do you think about The League of Extraordinary Gentlemares?”

“NO.”

“No.”

“Nay.”

“Aww.”

- - -

Hey there, Runt.

I’m real sorry I have to write this instead of telling you face to face. That Rainbow Bitch and I had our fun and I’m sort of a mess right now. It was really great! But I’m not in a good spot and I don’t think I can keep teaching you. That kind of pisses me off, since I made you a promise and I don’t go back on my promises. The next part of the training I had planned involved throwing you off a cliff, too, which I think you’d really have liked! Maybe I’d have used a cloud instead. Not as many good cliffsides around here. It worked great for all those griffins back on The Roc.

Oh well.

Keep using the motion wheel and practicing with the water. I told you before, didn’t I? Your wings are very narrow and your feathers are stiff and slim. When you do fly, you’ll be fast. I wouldn’t try and get too much altitude or cruise for hours on end, but I bet you’ll have some good sprinting wings. I want to fight you when you grow up, so keep practicing and get strong. Strong enough to kill me, if you think you can!

If I’m not dead, I’ll try and drop in on you again sooner rather than later, so don’t slack off.

Oh, and don’t tell Rainbow Bitch about this letter.

Ritter

“What’s that?”

“Nothin,’” Scootaloo said, slipping the note into her schoolbag.

Apple Bloom didn’t pry. “We’re meeting up with Sweetie Belle an’ Rarity at mah house tomorrow. Don’t forget!”

“I won’t!” she promised. “You want to get some crusading in after school?”

“Sure!” Apple Bloom replied, giggling at the prospect of another chance to get their cutie marks. “You wanna tell Sweetie? We can meet at the clubhouse right after school.”

“Can it be an hour after school?” Scootaloo asked and saw the confusion on Apple Bloom’s face. “I’ve just got something to do first.”

Apple Bloom nodded and picked up her pace, trotting back to Cheerilee’s classroom.

“Stupid training wheels,” Scootaloo muttered, and luckily nopony was around to overhear her. An hour a day wasn’t too bad. As long as nopony saw.

‘Sooner rather than later, huh?’ she thought, shaking her head in dismay. ‘I wonder what she meant by not in a good spot? Then again, do I really want to even guess what she’s doing right now? Probably something gross or violent. Or both.’

- - -

Doctor Stable Condition groaned from where he lay, sprawled out on the bed. The mattress had half slipped off the boxspring, and hoof-fulls of stuffing had been ripped free from it, leaving it an almost unsalvageable mess. Of the four posts that had once affixed the corners of the bed, one was broken outright and the other bent. Medical tools and clothes were strewn around the room with equal carelessness, medical tape hanging like a spiderweb from the bed to the windows to the dresser.

“You’re leaving? Now?” The licensed professional of the Caramel clan gaped, straining against the white cloth that tied his forehooves to the post of the bed. A strand of the same hung over his horn, partly obscuring his seafoam eyes.

“You can’t leave now!” he yelled. “I’m still tied up!”

And his legs hurt, too. In fact, his whole body felt like well-chewed taffy. Some more well-chewed than others.

“Sorry, handsome! No time to waste!” His patient tossed one of his white scrubs lab coat over her back, punching holes in it with her wings in one smooth movement. He glared at her back.

She shouldn’t even be up and moving!

Well… never mind all that stuff last night…

“I don’t recommend flying for at least a week!” he called out as she trotted over to the window, lifting it with a gray hoof. Her lime green tail whipped back and forth in excitement.

“Yeah, sure. Thanks again, doc,” Ritterkreuz said, glancing back at him with a feral grin. “I needed that.”

She probably didn’t mean the stitches or emergency medical care.

“Aren’t you gonna leave your number?” he asked, still straining against the bedpost.

“Nope!”

Without another word, she jumped out of the window, dropping out of sight.

“Ugggh!” Doctor Stable fell back into what was left of his bed. Closing his eyes and trying not to think about how he had ended up in this unexpected condition, he did for a moment consider just what – if anything – he would brag about to the other Caramels later. Could a pony be both incredibly lucky and painfully unlucky at the same time?

Then again, this was probably the most unprofessional thing he had ever done in his entire life. Perhaps it was best not to talk too much about it, even to family. Yes, nopony had to know…

“Hey! Check it out! I told you somepony was home!”

Doctor Stable slowly turned to see a pink mane, and a certain pink pony, peeking over the lip of the open window. Pinkie Pie smiled disarmingly, cheeks all but mashing her eyes closed. The town Doctor stuttered, trying to explain himself, when a second mare also appeared. This one poked her head in from the top of the window, defying gravity and common sense both. His eyes widened. That wild blue mane…? Oh, Princesses.

“You’re right, somepony is home,” Euporie agreed, and whistled. “Looking good, Doc. Fun night?”

“Were you playing doctor or something?” Pinkie Pie asked, looking around the room with such an innocent look it was hard to tell if she was being sarcastic or not. She then glanced up at Euporie. “And I think you mean, ‘what’s up, doc?’ Right?”

“Uggh…!” Doctor Stable mumbled, staring at the two crazy mares. “Look, I, um...”

“Oh! Oh! So! I brought Euporie over to apologize for the other night! The party!” Pinkie Pie explained and tilted her head cutely to the side. “Do you want some help or something?”

The back of Doctor Stable’s head hit the wood behind the bedpost with a dull thud.

- - -

“Whats’a matter, Porie?” Pinkie Pie asked, stuffing her face with food. “You don’t like bloomin’ onions?”

Euporie’s eyebrows twitched in the first few impulses that could eventually develop into a frown. The two mares were hardly alone in the restaurant having lunch, all deep friend and comfort food, but the last few days had left the unicorn feeling rather careworn. This whole matter should have been done with and put in the past. How long did this pink pony plan to prologue her pain?

“I don’t mind the onion, Pinkie,” Euporie said as she dipped a curl into a wafer of ketchup.

“Then what’s wrong?” Pinkie asked, munching noisily on another slice of the onion covered by a dollop of mayonnaise, honey mustard, and hot sauce.

Euporie ate her onion curl and considered just how rude she could afford to be at the moment.

“How many parties have you taken me to over the last few days?” she asked.

“Hmm!” Pinkie thought aloud, tapping her cheek with her hoof. “Two birthday parties, one welcome home party, and one baby shower! One. Two. Three. Four. Only four!”

“It was a rhetorical question,” Euporie grumbled.

“You weren’t having a lot of fun at any of them,” Pinkie observed, nibbling on a long strip of fried onion.

“Why would I have fun at some little filly’s birthday party?”

“That’s why I kept trying!”

“…What?”

“You didn’t have fun at the first party,” she explained, and for a moment, Euporie was the one who felt lectured to. “So…! I tried a different party and then a different one when that didn’t work and then another birthday party – because I love birthday parties – but with more adult ponies. You didn’t have fun there, either! But I needed to see.”

“So I’ve been wasting my time at these pathetic excuses for parties for no reason?” Euporie asked, slowly, her ire rising like mercury in a thermometer. “Or just to sate your curiosity?”

“No!” Pinkie protested. “You’ve got me all wrong, Porie!”

The noblemare held up a hoof for her to be silent.

“Do you know what I think?” she asked and answered herself without missing a beat. “You made me apologize to all those ponies from my party, and I went along with it, and I think you thought that, along the way, you’d take me to these stupid parties.”

Euporie gestured out to the restaurant window in the general direction of the town and the townsponies. “And at these parties, I’d see how little ponies are having fun with their little lives, playing foals’ games and that I’d learn from them or some nonsense like that. Or maybe seeing them would – what? – give me some sort of epiphany so that I would repent my naughty ways?”

Rather than deny it right off the bat, Pinkie closed her eyes and crossed her legs over her chest. Her lower lip stuck out as she tilted her head to the left and right, ‘hmm’ing and hawing. Her head lolled back, mouth open as she stared up at the ceiling.

“Was that what my plan was?” she wondered aloud. “I can’t remember.”

Euporie’s face smacked into the table.

“What do you mean you can’t remember!?” she roared, reaching across the table to grab the other mare’s mane, yanking it violently forward. “Don’t you have a plan or something?!”

“I’m not good with plans,” Pinkie Pie admitted, her eyes turning dewy and wide. Euporie sighed and let her surprisingly stretchy mane-curl go, and Pinkie bounced back to her former position like a spring.

“Just know that it wouldn’t have worked,” she stated, angrily grabbing another fried slice of the blooming onion. “It isn’t that I’ve never been to those sorts of parties. It isn’t like I don’t know any better. I know. I just don’t care. I make my own parties, and I make them my way… because I know what every party really wants to be like.”

Pinkie flicked her mane, and it sprung back to normal.

“I liked your party,” she admitted, rather to Euporie’s surprise. Pinkie Pie seemed to notice her surprise at her statement. “Aside from the very end.”

“The end was the most important part,” Euporie countered.

“I thought you said it was just the icing on the cake?” Pinkie asked, rolling her eyes in thought.

Euporie leveled a glare at the pink pony. “…You have an oddly specific memory.”

“I know! It’s so weird!”

The noblemare dipped her onion strip in the ketchup again and slowly nibbled away at it. Pinkie looked, for just a moment, like she was also about to go back to eating when her hoof paused over the onion. Retracting it, she instead took a rather long draught from her drink and sat still, as if in thought. Her brows were drawn partly down, giving her less of an angry expression and more one of abject confusion and bewilderment.

“Hey, Porie?”

“Yeah?”

“Why’d you really do that to Pokey?” she asked, looking across the table. “It could have been anypony, but you picked Pokey, the one pony I was with. I’ve been thinking… thinking a lot about that night and about you. If you’d done that to anypony else, I… I don’t think I… I think I might have just kept laughing at him.”

Euporie frowned at the question. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t asked herself that, too.

“It had to be him,” she said, considering the question herself for a few long seconds. “I guess I… saw it as a challenge. It had to be your special somepony you laughed at.”

“I like Pokey,” Pinkie said, and Euporie shook her head at how foalish the other mare sounded. Like she was a filly with a crush on some cute colt. She was a grown mare.

“You mean you love him,” Euporie corrected her.

Pinkie shook her head, her mane bouncing wildly. “I don’t know! Maybe? I just know I like him a lot and that what you almost did could have hurt that. I’m actually sort of angry at you for that.”

“You should be,” Euporie said with a savage grin. “I’d be angry at me, too!”

Pinkie Pie glanced down at her glass of soda-pop and then back up at Euporie. It was as if she had made some sort of decision, but she didn’t give voice to it right away. She reached up to exaggeratedly scratch the side of her head. After a few seconds, she nodded to herself and slammed a hoof on the table, though not too loudly, just enough to signify she had come to some sort of conclusion.

“You said before what you thought about what I was doing, right?” she asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Euporie replied, raising an eyebrow at the odd question.

“Well!” Pinkie Pie replied, “I’ve been thinking a lot about you, well, you and butterscotch. Is there scotch in butterscotch? I tried mixing whiskey and butter and it didn’t taste anything like it should have!”

“…” It was hard to even formulate a response. “What?”

“The mystery of butterscotch… how does it work?” Pinkie shook her head with a ‘glglglg’ sound. “But I was thinking about that and you, kind of in parallel. And like I said, I’ve been thinking a lot about your party and about all these parties I took you to. I guess I did sort of drag you along, even though we were just supposed to apologize to all the ponies who went to your special party.”

“Thinking about that and asking Twilight about your sister then made me think about my sisters!” Pinkie prattled on, to her guest’s growing befuddlement. “Did you know I have sisters?”

Pinkie didn’t wait for Euporie to answer.

“There’s Inkie, and then there’s Blinkie!” she said with a happy smile. “Inkie is the really serious one, so I guess she’s a little like your sister! She’s the oldest. Then there’s Blinkie, and she likes to goof off sometimes and watch clouds but only when nopony is looking, and then there’s me, Pinkie!”

The happy, almost self-congratulatory statement tapered off as Pinkie’s voice became oddly serious.

“I’m… I’m not like my sisters,” she admitted, struggling with the words a little. “Mean ponies used to say I was adopted or… or that…” She took a breath and forced herself to go on. “It doesn’t matter what they used to say. I wasn’t a stupid filly. I thought stuff like that, too. I mean, I’m so pink and everypony else is so… gray, even Granny Pie. It was a super-super—”

“Superficial,” Euporie guessed.

“Superficial, yeah!” Pinkie Pie smiled for a second but only a second. “It was only skin deep, and Mommy and Daddy Pie said not to worry.” Her smile cracked the surface again. “‘I was in labor with you for eighteen hours, Pinkamena Diane Pie! You’re definitely one of ours!’ That’s what Mommy Pie used to say. And anyway, I didn’t mind the color after a while; I even really liked looking different!”

“The problem was…” She hesitated again and snapped up one of the onion rings to chew on. “Inkie and Blinkie were hard-working ponies, and I… wasn’t really. Our personalities were as different as our colors. Even though we were all a family and all sisters, sometimes… sometimes it didn’t feel like we were related at all. Nothing made me sadder than thinking that, and sometimes the thoughts just wouldn’t go away. It was…”

She chewed on the onion string a little longer and swallowed.

“It was lonely,” Pinkie Pie admitted. “It was really lonely.”

Euporie, despite dismissing the earlier rambling, found she had been listening intently to the story. So much so that she was waiting, with bated breath, for Pinkie to say more. There had to be more to it, didn’t there?

“And?” she finally pressed.

Pinkie shook her head. “When I got my cutie mark, it wasn’t just me throwing a party and making ponies happy. I was happy, too. I was happy because I realized that there was a little me in them, and a little them in me. I felt like I fit in and… I wasn’t lonely anymore.”

Euporie ground her teeth together, and the more seconds ticked by after Pinkie finished her story, the angrier she became. Sparks started to fly from her horn, and the table began to tremble, then the floor and then the entire restaurant. She heard worried ponies start to mutter nervously at the seething unicorn, but only one worked up the courage to approach and whisper something in her ear, a plea to calm down and, if at all possible, not bring the building down on their heads, please?

A long, slow breath served to rein in her magic.

She waved the other pony off, her eyes never leaving Pinkie Pie.

“So,” Euporie finally said, “Is that it? You think I’m lonely? You’re wrong. Your story has nothing to do with me.”

Pinkie Pie blinked, innocently. “I never said it did. Did I?” She scratched her head again, obliviously. “I can’t remember.”

Euporie’s left eye twitched, and she growled.

“Be that way then,” she said. “Play dumb all you like.”

“Playing dumb doesn’t sound fun,” Pinkie argued, somehow totally serious. “Why would anypony pretend to be dumb?”

Euporie’s hooves gestured right at the pink mare. “You’re doing it again?”

“Doing what?”

“Playing dumb!”

“Huh?”

“AAARGH!”

- - -

The two party mares stood at the crossroads. Despite the altercation earlier, Pinkie Pie and Euporie had left the restaurant together, and better, they had left the restaurant itself intact! It was a minor miracle, really.

“I’m done with apologies,” Euporie stated after a long silence that hung over the pair. “I did what I said I’d do – what Eunomie made me do – so… this is where we part ways.”

Pinkie Pie sucked in a breath of fresh air and the smell of the town marketplace nearby. “I don’t think so.”

Euporie glared at the pink mare. “Eh?”

“You did the apologies and stuff, like you promised, but I haven’t gotten you to really smile yet,” Pinkie explained. “That means this isn’t over.”

“It is,” Euporie insisted, starting to trot away back to the library. She paused, though, and looked over her shoulder, trying to score one last Parthian shot. “If you bump into me again in Canterlot… I won’t make any guarantees about your safety. I might just kill you.”

“I’ll file your invitations under the ‘special friend’ category,” Pinkie promised, waving and smiling in the face of the threat.

“Lunatic,” Euporie hissed, heading for what passed for home. She never had found out what the crazy mare planned to do with the Flim Flam brothers. It was another damned loose end to tie up.

‘I was happy, too. I was happy because I realized that there was a little me in them, and a little them in me. I felt like I fit in and… I wasn’t lonely anymore.’

Her lips drew back in a snarl.

“Pinkie Pie,” she whispered. “I’ll make you regret those words.”

- - -

The assassin came at night, as assassins often do.

“You’re not a changeling,” Alpha Brass stated, still seated at the desk in the center of the castle bedroom. A crackling fire danced and popped in the maw of one of the Palace’s many ornate mantlepieces. This one featured two struggling dragons, long necks entwined around facets of reflective glass, their mouths pointed downward. The fire, along with a few flickering candles, lit the room in a mellow orange glow.

“A what?” the assassin asked, pressing the tip of the dagger into his throat.

Brass finished signing his name to the letter on the table and put the quill down in an inkwell.

“A changeling,” he repeated.

“Shut up,” the assassin demanded. The voice was female, slightly higher than normal. Young. He had yet to see her face. “Don’t yell for help… or I’ll stab you. Don’t make any quick moves, and don’t light up your horn… or I’ll stab you. Understand? Nod if you do.”

The Equestrian Marquis nodded, even though doing so threatened to drive the dagger’s point through his skin. It puckered the surface but didn’t quite pierce. Yet. He heard drawers open. From this distance, it had to be magic. The mare was a fellow unicorn, then.

A bottle of scotch, single malt, landed on his desk.

Alongside it was a tiny, crystal clear vial. Unlabeled.

The mare opened the glass cap of the flask-shaped whiskey bottle and promptly ruined the entire batch by pouring in the poison. Brass frowned at the waste. Still, it would give the impression that the bottle itself had been poisoned beforehoof and thus lay suspicion that the bottle had been planted in the room.

“Which poison did she choose for me?” he asked, and the dagger pressed a little harder. He flinched away so it wouldn’t draw blood.

“I said shut up,” the assassin whispered, strident and hurried in her task.

Brass closed his eyes and sighed, resigned to what was to come.

This mare was no changeling. She did not even know of the changelings. She was either a dupe, or, more likely, she was ensnared by one of her family or friends being replaced. She was taking pains not to let the condemned stallion see her eyes, and it was difficult to tell just from her voice. It was also possible she was a professional doing a job, but Brass knew most of the very few ponies in Equestria who voluntarily took on this sort of work. She was not one he knew.

Chrysalis. She always did make such blunt, forward moves.

Instead of dwelling on such a sad topic, Alpha Brass decided to think back on his meeting with the Princess. Celestia had been radiant as always, even as she drew out giving him permission to speak, forcing him to follow meekly while she wandered around her garden inspecting plants and playing with her pet phoenix. Twilight had clearly spoken to her of many things.

Celestia had known about his and Twilight’s upcoming engagement. She had deduced the plan to seize control of the Terre Rare main branch. Her only real question had been if he was “using” her dear apprentice in some way and what traction he thought he had that could help bring about peace between Canterlot and Neighpon.

-

“As Marquis of the Frontier, I am also Custodian of the Seas, and over the years, I have cultivated good relations with the duchies that rely on oceangoing trade, especially Neighpon. It has always been my policy to streamline commerce and encourage interaction with other races, equine or otherwise. This is a policy you know has paid off. Equestria is colonizing and expanding for the first time in generations, especially in reclaiming Scandaneighvia near the Old Kingdoms and in the newly equiformed Appleoosa region…”

Celestia nodded, motioning for him to get to the point.

He cleared his throat. “Neighpon possesses the country’s largest fleet of ships and conducts all her trade over the sea. Lord Yama is a friend of mine. More than that, he also knows that he needs me. I am the only pony in Equestria that can strangle his duchy without casting a single spell.” Seeing Celestia start to frown, he smiled and raised a hoof. “Please, I only state what is true. It was this need to cooperate, to benefit from one another, which has brought the two of us together. It was the foundation of our friendship.”

“I have heard whispers that you assisted Lady Yumi in getting to Ponyville,” the Princess revealed, probably to see how he would react. He had to know what she knew at least a little already.

“I did,” he admitted with a resigned sigh. “She wished to surprise the new duchy with a pas d’arms. As a favor, I helped her get to the town in secret and provided some other support. This ultimately makes me responsible for allowing the situation to develop such that, I fear, things nearly became a near-tragedy with my sister.”

“Oh?” Celestia asked, her expression betraying none of her surprise at his words. He already suspected she knew that it was Chalice who had killed Master Shigure in the Everfree Forest. Chalice who was sister to Alpha Brass. How did he intend to negotiate with Lord Yama after that?

“Chalice is still Terre Rare,” Brass said with a sad ‘hmm.’ “She has not forgotten what it would mean for the family to have the Prince in our debt. She acted rashly in following his orders and in believing it would curry her favor. Had she succeeded, I know both the Prince and my sister would have regretted their actions. I only hope than an apology from me, on her behalf, will mean something to Lord Yama and that we can fall back on our many years of friendship and goodwill. I may be the only one who can make amends for all this.”

Celestia sat back on her haunches, examining the pony before her.

“Go on,” she told him. “What about my nephew?”

“At first glance, I have little traction with him,” Brass went on to say, “However, if he were to know about my arrangement and my engagement with Twilight Sparkle…”

Celestia could see it. Brass announcing an engagement with Twilight would instantly upset the order of things within the Terre Rare. It would fit Blueblood to back this new power-play within the rival family. If the choice was to have a Terre Rare house run by either Twilight or Cruciger, Blueblood would literally have to pick Twilight. This would make Brass a natural ally and one he could not ignore or snub.

“I trust you are not stringing my apprentice along as part of some grand political gambit,” Celestia spoke softly but with just the faintest implied threat. “Twilight Sparkle is very dear to me. As much as I would champion you seeking peace in this, I would not and will not see it take place at the expense of her happiness.”

Brass lowered his eyes deferentially. “You misjudge me, Princess.”

“Do I?”

“It has always been my intention to make peace between the Terre Rare and the Bluebloods, not between the Bluebloods and the Neighponese Garlands,” he explained and raised his eyes again to meet hers. “In this case, one simply leads to the other. Twilight shares my desire to end this family feud…”

He smiled, and it was a bright, boyish, crooked smile. “I will make her happy, I promise you. She is a lovely mare and, if I must be honest, I have always had a soft spot for diligent, studious ponies. After Olive Branch, I think Twilight will be like a soothing balm. It will be… almost like starting over.”

The Princess was a hard one to read, but she knew of Twinkling Star Light, his mother, and her rather legendary love of knowledge and research. She had been at the ceremony when he had married the much older Olive Branch and had even asked if he wanted some way to get out of it. She knew he had not been in a loving relationship.

Princess Celestia pinned him with a look but, ultimately, she nodded. Just once.

“There is a political angle to it, yes,” he conceded. “But I believe we are compatible. If our union also brings harmony to Equestria, then isn’t that all the better?”

“Do this and treat Twilight as she deserves to be treated,” Celestia told him, gracefully holding out a foreleg as her phoenix preened burning feathers in its wings. “And you will have my favor, Alpha Brass.”

-

And now Chrysalis thought to poison him and, he suspected, pin the blame on Neighpon. It wasn’t an artless move – calling it that would be too unkind – but it was as subtle as a brick to the face. The fact that she hadn’t sent a changeling to do the job showed her fear and her desperation. Indoctrinated ponies would be her most valuable and deniable asset. The changeling responsible for the mind control would slip away whether the pony succeeded or failed.

With him dead, not only did Chrysalis imagine she would have free reign over the attack on Canterlot, but she could send Canterlot’s defenders away to protect the city against Neighpon, leaving it even more vulnerable. No other noble of note and stately name would pick up the cause if he died. They would perceive the venture as all too caustic and all too risky. The burdens would all fall on the Princess herself, further distracting her before the wedding.

“Drink!” the assassin demanded, presenting him with a glass of poisoned scotch. The dagger pressed into his throat. “Now! And don’t try anything funny. Just drink.”

Alpha Brass reached for the glass and sighed.

What a waste of life this would be. But, perhaps, some good could come of it.

- - -

The Royal Guards came at the sound of screams, bursting in through the door. Alpha Brass kept his back to them, quill returned to paper as he wrote another letter by candlelight. Behind him, one of the castle maids screamed and convulsed, a bloody froth dribbling out of her mouth as she kicked and bucked at some invisible terror. Her eyes were bloodshot and blind to the rest of the world.

The poison had been Devil’s Trumpet and Henbane.

Chrysalis had not intended for him to have a gentle or dignified death. How like her. Hemlock would have been his choice for anypony he respected enough to poison.

“My Lord!” One of his own guardponies pushed past the stallions of the Royal Guard. The Amazonian earth pony mare paid no mind to the poisoned mare on the floor and rushed to bow beside him.

“You may wish to take away that poor mare,” he said, addressing the Royal Guards. “She’s been rather grievously poisoned. And send in somepony to take away the rug, if you please.”

Snapping out of their shocked state, the Guards quickly went to work, securing the room, identifying the bottle of now-deadly whiskey and the tiny vial of pure poison and otherwise recalling the professionalism for which most of Equestria lauded them. Other guards dragged away the screaming, delusional maid. She flailed wildly against them, her mind lost to the feverish toxins coursing through her veins. Her veins and his, really. There were already well-trained guards calling for activated charcoal and anti-toxin potions.

It would be nice if they could save her.

He had been careful to only drink a tiny sip of the poison, which meant she could still survive.

“My Lord?” his guardsmare asked again.

He floated a scroll to her.

“I believe this is the one responsible,” he said, softly. “The changeling. Find her. Verify it. Then follow her trail to the others. When you are done, and if at all possible, being the creature to me. I will send my friend, the little Queen-to-be, a message in blood and tears.”

“I understand,” the Amazonian mare replied and immediately turned to leave.

Left alone again, Alpha Brass dipped the quill in the inkwell and stared into the fire beneath the mantelpiece. What had happened to the maid was his doing, of course. He had not come to Canterlot simply to serve as intermediary between Neighpon and Canterlot. He had not come simply to meet with Twilight and set the stone rolling on their engagement… to be seen together before they made their announcement and their challenge to the rest of his family.

He had come to Canterlot to flush out the game and to play the part of irresistible bait.

The game was now flushed, the arrow buried deep, and the shadowy chase was on.

“I should not enjoy this as much as I do,” he muttered to himself, a smile parting his lips at the promise of what was to come. “But we all have our vices.”

He returned to writing his letter.

Things were moving nicely; all that was left was for Cadance to be ready by her Wedding Day.

- - -

Antimony, Twilight soon learned, had come to town in a personal train carriage inconspicuously carried along with the normal traffic of the Friendship Express. Ponyville was a part of the extended Canterlot Line, but Antimony must have brushed a few hooves to have her ride discretely attached during a layover somewhere in Prance. She had come in on the day of the Art Festival… and helped Rarity during the pollen attack, by and large without being noticed. Compared to her first trip to Ponyville, the Baroness was being incredibly cautious.

Nearly having her eyes gouged out in her sleep may have played a part in that.

Walking towards the train yard and Antimony’s personal traincar, Twilight found herself with a great deal of time to ponder Antimony’s earlier words. She had said that there may have been some means of spell amplification – like the legendary Crystal Heart – but that it was a family secret. Or maybe it involved a family secret somehow.

The main branch Terre Rare, Twilight had come to realize, had a great many secrets. Fluttershy had told her about what Chalice had done in the Everfree, and Alpha Brass had displayed a number of esoteric and remarkable magics. Even Eunomie, though not a Terre Rare by blood, had very impressive contract-magic of a sort Twilight had not encountered before. She also thought hard on the torc still in her library. Alpha Brass had told her that his mother had studied and possibly restored it, years ago. It was amazing that the Terre Rare had artifacts of this sort in their possession… and it was equally amazing to think of the pioneering research Lady Star Light must have done! But if they had magic like that, then what else was in their hooves and in their most secret books and scrolls?

Deep in thought, Twilight saw Antimony’s personal traincar up ahead, currently unhitched to any of the nearby trains. It was very subdued, appearing as neither a richly adorned personal car nor a utilitarian passenger car. The windows were large, but tinted for privacy, and reinforced by ironwork. There was wooden trim and a wooden façade, but it was of sturdy metal construction. It was stylish in a way, but it probably wouldn’t be winning any fashion awards. On the other hoof, it looked like it could take a beating before somepony broke inside.

Two guards stood at attention near the door in Terre Rare crimson dolmans.

“What is this all about?” Twilight asked as they approached. The two guards – one was the tough-looking pegasus mare from her last visit, the other was a tall and grim-faced Germane stallion with a beard – saluted their Baroness. 

“I know you are in collusion with my brother,” Antimony stated, nodding to her guards.

“C-collusion?” Twilight stuttered, laughing nervously. “We’re just friends!”

Antimony paused to glare at her, all the while keeping her eyes lidded. “Whenever a mare says ‘we’re just friends’ with that sort of voice, it usually means she and the other pony aren’t just friends.”

Twilight sucked in her cheeks and pouted sourly at being seen through so easily.

“Is this going to be a problem?” she asked.

“Yes. It is,” Antimony insisted. “It will be a problem in time. If you stand by my brother, he will inevitably use you against me. But…” The Baroness closed her eyes and let out a weary sigh. “I will not let this interfere with our attempts to save Canterlot.”

“I’m glad,” Twilight replied, not sure what else to say. She and Brass were both committed to replacing the current main branch of the family with her own.

“As for what I wanted to tell you…” Antimony opened the door.

“HI!”

“WA-AAA!” The noblemare screeched, falling back on her rump as a pink blur bounced out of the door. Pinkie Pie released the prone mare from her hug and started pronking and bouncing gleefully in a circle around her and Twilight both.

“Monee’s back and Twi’s here! Monee’s back and Twi’s here! Monee’s back and Twi’s here!”

“Yes, quite,” Antimony grumbled, clutching her chest as she staggered to her hooves. “Gewitter, did you know…?”

“Forgive me.” The pegasus bodyguard lowered her head in a bow. “I thought it would be a pleasant surprise. Shall I toss her back into the train station?”

“Oh boy!” Pinkie suddenly appeared behind the burly mare, still smiling happily. “I love being thrown around!”

“Another time,” Antimony promised. Twilight simply shook her head.

“Come inside,” the Baroness insisted, leading the way. The train car was divided into two sections, one for Antimony herself and a smaller bunk in the back for her guards. Inside the main cabin, Twilight could see all the amenities that were disguised by the utilitarian appearance of the car on the outside. Antimony had a wooden desk, two shelves of books along the walls, a door to an antechamber that had to be a washroom, a small, ornate table, and several comfortable-looking chairs…

And, of course, Pinkie had added to the décor in her own way, splashing multicolored streamers and balloons liberally around the cabin. A banner read: ‘Welcome Back Monee’ in flowery capital letters. The desk supported, in addition to papers, scrolls, inkwells, and other necessary materials, a large three-layered tray of sweets.

“I know you like more subdued parties, so I made this one super somber. See?” Pinkie asked, pointing to a three balloons among the dozen in the room. “Only three pink ones! That’s as somber as I can get.” Her face turned instantly staid and resolute. “Seriously. That’s as somber as I get.”

“I appreciate it,” Antimony told her with a small smile. She reached for one of the small chocolate treats on the tray and took a minute bite. “Pinkie Pie, I am about to tell Twilight something. I can trust you with a secret, right?”

“Can you trust me with a secret, she asks!” Pinkie made a production of laughing at the question. “Oh ho ho. Ha ha ha.”

“Nopony keeps a secret better than Pinkie Pie,” Twilight spoke from personal experience. “Forever.”

“Forever,” Pinkie promised.

“Very well then.” Antimony floated the chocolate confection into a napkin while she spoke. “Twilight Sparkle. If you wish to cast a five-alliteration spell, there is one living mare who can teach you to do so… aside from the Princesses, and it will be suspicious to broach this subject with them.”

“Who?” Twilight asked, cautiously. “You said no pony since Arsenic…”

Antimony slowly closed her eyes. “Yes. No pony since Arsenic, and our great, great grandmother, Lady Arsenic… still lives.”