Twilight Sparkle was alone in her rooms in Canterlot Castle. The chambers were lavishly decorated and much larger than the rooms she had had when she was just a filly learning magic from Princess Celestia. Her ascention to royalty had changed more than giving her a pair of wings.
Not that she was acting any differently from the unicorn that she had been at that moment. Her focus was entirely consumed by her favorite pastime - reading. Thoroughly distracted, she did not notice the figure creeping up behind her.
"And how is Equestria's newest pony Princess today?" Discord asked right next to Twilight's ear.
"Ahhh!" Twilight screamed and whipped around to face the irritating creature that was now, technically, her friend. "Discord! What are you doing in my room! Haven't you ever heard of knocking?"
Discord just laughed. He might have vowed to only use his powers for good, but he hadn't stopped being a prankster. Even if his pranks tended to be much more tame these days he still derived a great deal of enjoyment from them.
"Oh come on now Twilight. Is that any way to greet a friend that you haven't seen for months?" He teased.
Twilight continued to glare at him. "It is when he sneaks into a girls bedroom without warning her. I could have been getting dressed or something!"
Discord raised an eyebrow. "And that would be worse that seeing you wearing... what you usually wear?" He asked, gesturing a claw at her naked form. "And you ponies think I'm weird."
"Ugh," Twilight raised a hoof to her forehead. Without looking up she asked, "Discord... what do you want?"
"Oh, don't be like that Twilight. You know you love me." Discord smirked at her and glided closer. "After all, you wouldn't have sent me that invitation to your coronation if you didn't." He said in a low tone.
Twilight immediately looked guilty. She cast a glance at his smiling face and for an instant she worried he was about to do something horrible to her.
"Uh..." Twilight began, but Discord cut her off.
"Unfortunately, I was just too busy with that job Celestia gave me to attend." He stated cheerfully as he slid through the air away from Twilight.
"Um... right." Twilight gratefully grasped at the safer topic of conversation. "What were you doing anyway? Celestia never told me."
"Really?" Discord replied with mock surprise. "How very odd. She only asked me to make the Changelings extinct."
"She... what?" Twilight gaped, not really believing what she had just heard.
"Oh yes." Discord smiled. "Apparently she was rather upset by that whole invasion thing and wanted me to make sure that they would never again menace her little ponies."
Twilight simply stared at him with an open mouth. Ignoring her shock, Discord blithely continued. "I have to say I never thought that working for Celestia would be so much fun. Being good always seemed so boring before."
"Good!" Twilight spluttered "You think destroying an entire species is good?!"
Discord seemed surprised. "Well, Celestia said it was, and she has much more experience at being good than I do."
Twilight narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "You're lying." She stated.
"I assure you, every word I have spoken..." Discord began.
"You're lying!" Twilight shouted at him. "Celestia wouldn't do that! She wouldn't just... just kill them all!"
"Wow. Touchy aren't we?" Discord responded. "But surely you agree that Equestria is safer now that the changelings are gone?"
"That's... that's not the point..." Twilight replied, feeling off balance.
"So you do agree. And surely you agree that Celestia would do whatever it takes to protect Equestria?" Discord continued.
"I... that's not... she..." Twilight stuttered.
"And didn't you once say that the changelings were vile pony sized insects whose very existence causes misery to all sentient creatures wherever they go, and that the world would be better off without them?" Discord added with a raised eyebrow.
Twilight stared at Discord for a long moment, her mouth gaping in horror. Then she blinked, closed her mouth, and turned and fled from the room.
Twilight galloped through the corridors of Canterlot Castle, her thoughts racing even more than her body.
It's a trick. It has to be a trick. This is Discord we are dealing with. But he never outright lied before and he seemed so confident that the changelings were dead. He kept talking about them in the past tense...
No. They can't really be dead. Celestia would never allow it. Even if they did invade us and abduct ponies for food. Celestia wouldn't commit genocide. Surely not all the changelings were evil. Surely...
...He seemed so sure. So confident that they were gone. He was practically bragging...
Changelings have children, right? So even if all the adults were horrible monsters Celestia would have spared the children, right?
...Discord said they were extinct now. Would he have really done it? Even when he first escaped he never actually killed anypony.
...He might have if Celestia really told him to. I don't think he properly understands being good yet, and he might have been afraid we would turn him to stone again if he disobeyed...
Would I have turned him to stone again? Well... maybe. If Celestia didn't tell me what she had told him to do, if she just said that he was refusing to do the right thing, I probably would have used the elements on him.
...She never did tell me what she wanted him to do...
...Why didn't she tell me?...
"Can I help you, Princess?" A worried voice asked.
With a start, Twilight realized she had stopped moving. How long had she been standing there, staring at nothing? She looked to the source of the voice and found a nervous earth pony in a maid's uniform.
"Uh, no I'm... actually yes. Do you know where I can find Princess Celestia?" Twilight responded.
"Uh, the Princess... Princess Celestia I mean, is with a, um, guest in the eastern Tea Room, I think..." the nervous maid stuttered.
"Thanks." Twilight replied and moved on. She knew the castle. The Eastern Tea Room wasn't far. Soon she would be able to ask Celestia directly about this.
The thought wasn't as comforting as she had hoped.
You're overreacting Twilight. Again. Discord was just being Discord, and Celestia probably had some innocent reason for not telling you what he was up to. You know Celestia. She would never condone genocide, even if they were horrible creatures. After all, she didn't kill Discord... Although that might just be because he is pretty much impossible to kill... and she didn't kill Sombra... but being turned into a living shadow doesn't sound like much fun either... she did banish her sister to the moon for a thousand years, but that was to protect Equestria.
...But the changelings were a menace to Equestria too, weren't they? They could have come back. They might already have been infiltrating us again. How would we know?
Celestia would want to protect us. Is that why she decided to rehabilitate Discord? Was she planning this from the start?
The door to the Tea Room was in front of her. Twilight took a moment to steady her nerves. Then, with a deep breath, she opened the door and burst in.
Princess Celestia sat a a small table, positioned so that she was facing the door that Twilight had entered. Absently, Twilight noted that there was another pony at the table, seated with his(her?) back to the door, but her attention was focused on the Princess of the Sun.
"Princess Celestia!" Twilight called out.
Celestia seemed surprised but remained polite. "Princess Twilight." She replied with a slight non of her head. "Is something the matter?"
Twilight opened her mouth to explain, searching for the words to accuse her mentor...
...And suddenly all her fears and worries seemed ridiculous. This was Princess Celestia! There was simply no chance that the kind and loving mare that had guided her all of her life would condone, let alone command, mass murder.
"I... It's nothing." Twilight responded awkwardly. She felt horribly embarrassed and foolish. She shouldn't have let Discord get to her like that.
That response caused Celestia to raise her eyebrows. "It certainly didn't seem like nothing. Come now, what was it that upset you so?"
"It's... just something that Discord said." Twilight answered with a small shake of her head. "I shouldn't have paid any attention..."
Celestia frowned. "Oh? And just what has Discord been saying about me?" Her voice dropping in pitch.
Reluctant as she was to say the vile words, Twilight could not avoid answering a direct question. "He said that, um... that you told him to wipe out the changelings."
"What?" Celestia's cry of astonishment was exactly the response Twilight had subconsciously hoped for. A sense of relief washed through the young purple Alicorn. She felt herself relax as her fears faded,
"Um, yes. And he said that that he had done it. That the Changelings... were..." At this point Twilight finally noticed the identity of Celestia's guest. Seated opposite of the Princess of the Sun, and wearing a rather alarmed expression, was Queen Chrysalis.
"...extinct?" Twilight finished in an uncertain tone.
"Exti... Oh!" Celestia laughed. "Well, I suppose that is one way of putting it."
"...What?" Twilight said in confusion. She looked back at Chrysalis who was now scowling at the elder Princess. How could Changelings be extinct when she was right there?
Details began to sink in. The mare was still recognizably Chrysalis, but she had been visibly altered. Her horn was no longer crooked and her body was no longer filled with holes. The biggest difference, however, was to her wings. Her fly-like appendages had been replaced with a pair of large green butterfly wings.
With a cackle, Discord appeared out of the teapot like a deranged genie. "Hahaha! Oh princess, I totally got you! You really thought... Hahahahaha!"
"Discord! What is going on?" Twilight glared at the hysterical draconequus.
"What happened was that I asked Discord to help the Changelings." Celestia explained.
"Help! Ha!" Chrysalis scoffed.
"The Changelings were caught in a very unfortunate position. As creatures that feed off love they were biologically required to harm other sentient creatures to survive. This made them enemies with practically every other living creature." Celestia gave a small sigh. "They are... were creatures of subtlety and deception, yet they invaded Canterlot with an overt show of force. They were clearly desperate, so I decided to help them."
"You make it sound so noble." Chrysalis sneered. "You just wanted to stop us from kidnapping any of your citizens."
"That too." Celestia replied calmly.
Discord stopped sniggering long enough to make his own contribution. "Celestia asked me to change them so that they don't have to feed off love anymore. So I did. Do you like the new look? We're calling them Flutterponies."
"We most certainly are not!" Chrysalis protested.
"Now Chrysie, don't you know how it works?" Discord teased the former Changeling. "The one that creates a new species get to pick the name."
"There is no way I am going let a giant buffoon choose the name for my people." Chrysalis snapped.
"Ignore him Chrysalis. We do." Celestia interjected. "Most of the time." She added with a glance at Twilight.
Twilight felt herself blushing, and immediately redirected her embarrassment into anger. "Discord, you told me that you killed them!"
"I did no such thing!" Discord replied with feigned hurt. "I said that I made Changelings extinct, and they are. There are only Flutterponies now."
"Stop calling us that." Chrysalis groused.
"That was a very mean trick. You shouldn't do that to your friends." Twilight glared at the Lord of Chaos.
Discord shrugged. "I had to get back at you for failing to invite me to your coronation somehow. It was this, or drop you into a giant bowl of tapioca pudding."
Twilight's frown deepened but she didn't respond.
"I think what Twilight is trying to say is..." Celestia paused with a twinkle in her eyes.
"...Next time, go with the pudding."