//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: The Flower Blooms Twice // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// Celestia stared blankly at the spectacle before her, her mind racing. This...this is impossible! she thought silently. Apple Bloom representing the Changelings? Wait, that's the Royal Crown, only the Queen wears it...Apple Bloom, Queen of the Changelings? She shuddered inwardly. Even if that were possible, what a nightmare that could be, especially with what they just said. However, this is plainly impossible. Since this obviously can't be real, how do I explain it? She quickly ran down the possibilities. Discord? No, since he became reformed, he wouldn't put this many ponies in danger for a prank, and before he was reformed he lacked the foresight to set up a joke that took more than a day from initialization to punch line. She mentally ticked Discord off her list of suspects. Luna? It might well be a dream prank and none of this is real. That smirk and suppressed laughter she's got on her face points that way. She pinched herself with her magic. Ouch! Okay, not a dream. Luna never mastered making dreams feel that real. She ticked Luna off the list. It's not in the style of any of the old foes our parents faced, so it won't be them, and none of the more recent threats - political and otherwise - have the resources to pull this off except Chrysalis. Chrysalis herself wouldn't do a prank like this. She'd never let anyone but herself wear the royal crown for real...unless I'm in a Changeling cocoon, and this is all just some mental delusion conjured up by Changeling magic and my own thoughts to keep me entertained. She thought about that for a time. Yes, that seems reasonable. She began to calm down. Everypony is behaving much as I would expect them to, which fits with my memories, slowly taking me from the intense energy I felt during the invasion down to relaxed energy, making me lower my guard so they can claim my mind. She stopped. But that doesn't explain the wards. I'd never come up with that from my own head, and Chrysalis would certainly never want to give me the impression that Luna could fight her if there was any truth to it... Which means... Celestia gulped. Which means that somehow, this is all...real. But...it doesn't make any sense! "Are ya alright, Princess?" Apple Bloom spoke up. "You look kinda...glaze-eyed." Celestia blinked. "Quite alright, my little pony," she replied without thinking. "This is just a lot to take in." Although the Changelings stirred in irritation at her calling Apple Bloom 'my little pony', but Apple Bloom herself smiled. "Yeah, I can imagine this came as somethin' of a shock." She chuckled. "I mean, I only learned I was a Changeling five days ago, and now this happens." She shook her head. "But I'm glad yer here so we can resolve everything." She turned to High General Coin. "Could you let Pinkie know to bring the snacks in?" Before anyone could say anything, Pinkie popped in out of nowhere, hopping out of Luna's flowing mane. "Oh boy!" she said happily, tossing decorations up around the pavilion as she spread sweet treats across the table. "This is so awesome! I've never catered a Peace Party before!" Twilight chuckled. "Bet you've never catered a War Party, either." Pinkie paused. "No, I did that once." Twilight blinked. "What? When?" "I don't like talking about it," Pinkie said bluntly. She finished decorating and serving the sweet treats, then turned to leave. Pausing at the door, she pulled a strangely configured helmet out of her mane, staring at it as she sighed sadly. "Sleep well, Lenny," she said quietly, before sticking the helmet back into her mane and bouncing away happily. Everyone stared after her for a time. Then Celestia glanced around at the decorations. Streamers were decorated with circles with a vertical line through them and two half diagonal lines pointing in the same direction. Banners read 'Give Peace a Chance', 'Make Love Not War', and 'You Gotta Share'. Celestia turned back to Apple Bloom. "So...peace party?" "Eeyup!" Apple Bloom said happily. "Then I take it you are asking for our surrender?" "Now why would I wanna do that?" Celestia stared at the Changeling filly before her. "Well, what do you want, then?" "What else?" Apple Bloom said happily. "To make peace!" "If that is all you wanted," Celestia said angrily, "then why did you say you would raze Canterlot to rubble and sow the land with salt?" Twilight, Cadance, and Shining Armor gasped at this assertion. "For drama!" Apple Bloom said happily. The adult ponies all stared at her. "Drama?" Luna asked archly. "Uh huh!" Apple Bloom nodded. "See, I kinda screwed up the drama when I first started the fight with Chrysalis, and she wouldn't give me a do over. So I knew I'd need to get it right the first time for the peace talks, so I looked through Twilight's books to find the most dramatic negotiation lines and used them. And that one sounded really dramatic!" She grinned happily. "Was a bit confused about it, though. How can you raise something downward? Sound like something only Discord could do. And salt don't grow on trees...does it?" The crown slipped down over her eyes, and she pushed it back onto her forehead. Twilight flat eyed. "Apple Bloom...it means to burn a city to the ground and render the land infertile, so nothing will ever grow there. In essence, render the land unusable for anything by destroying all trace of life." Apple Bloom looked like she'd just been told Fluttershy blamed her for kicking a puppy. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" she said to Celestia and Luna. "I'd have never said to say that if I'd known what it meant! I just wanted to be dramatic, I never wanted to threaten or hurt anypony!" Her eyes watered as she stared up at the Diarchs. "Please don't hate me?" Celestia sighed resignedly. And now it all makes far too much sense...and feels far too real. Why me? She managed to smile at Apple Bloom. "It's quite all right, Apple Bloom. It's still your first week as royalty. It's understandable you might make a few political faux pas, and coming into power in the middle of a war has certainly made those errors larger than anticipated, but it's nothing that can't be smoothed over if everypony's willing to be understanding." She turned to her sister. "Right Luna?" "I don't know," Luna said with a smile. "All things considered, I rather like her approach." "EH?" everypony else yelled in shock. Luna's grin widened. "Think about it. She basically said, 'Live in peace or rest in peace'. Sounds quite the slogan for an international political campaign. Why can't we use it, Tia?" Celestia spluttered. "Luna! We can't threaten a sovereign nation! It would lead to world war! We have to handle things carefully. That's why we have politicians and diplomats." Luna sighed. "Politics. There's a reason, methinks, the other definition would be 'numerous blood sucking parasites'." Twilight, Cadance, and Shining Armor all suppressed snickers. Celestia gave them a look of long suffering. "Please don't encourage her." The three CMC all tilted their heads in identical gestures. "I don't get it," they said simultaneously. The crown once more slipped over Apple Bloom's eyes. Celestia suppressed a chuckle of her own. "Never mind," she said calmly. "Now, about this peace you wanted to discuss. I assume you have a plan for it?" Apple Bloom pushed her crown back up. "Umm...not exactly." Everyone stared at her. Twilight spoke up. "You called a peace conference without an agenda?" she said, shocked. "Well, I know what I want ta happen," Apple Bloom said grumpily. "I just didn't know how ta make it happen. I knew that if I just asked for peace outta the blue, everypony woulda suspected some kinda trick or something, so I needed everypony to relax first. So I called the meeting without letting anypony know what it was about." Luna blinked. "Then that bit at the beginning, when your General was very formal, and then you and your friends proclaimed your standard Cutie Mark Crusade pronouncement...that was to get everyone to relax?" Apple Bloom nodded. "That's why I tried to make everything up to that point as dramatic as possible." Sweetie Belle spoke up. "My idea. I figured the dichotomy of the scenario would be so jarring to everypony as to cause them to completely reassess the situation, and the ridiculousness of the conjunction of formality and childish innocence would cause an amused reaction. Pinkie Pie says nothing helps ponies relax as much as laughter after all." Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Egghead," she muttered under her breath. "Featherbrain," Sweetie replied, prompting Scootaloo to stick her tongue out at her, which Sweetie returned in kind. For some reason, this caused Twilight to break into a fit of indulgent giggles. Luna smiled at Apple Bloom. "Well, with the exception of my sister, it seemed to have worked well. But pray tell, what would you have done if it hadn't worked?" "This!" Scootaloo said happily, picking up her cupcake and pelting Luna right in the face with it. There was silence in the pavilion as Luna blinked for a time. Then Luna grinned, and several pastries levitated in blue magical auras. "Uh oh!" Scootaloo said as she raced around the room to dodge the sudden barrage of pastry. In the process, Twilight, Cadance, and Shining were all hit by stray shots. They began to retaliate, hurling pastries around at each other. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom energetically joined in. Celestia blinked. "Really, is this the way royalty should be beha-" Her words were interrupted as a pie struck her right in the side of her face. As filling dripped off her chin, she smiled. "As Rarity would say," she began, levitating the sum total of the remainder of the unflung pastry into the air, "it. Is. ON!" ------- Ten minutes later... The ponies inside the pavilion struggled to clear their eyes of pastry. The entire pavilion and everything - and everyone - in it was completely coated in various forms of cake, pie, and custard. Apparently, Pinkie had popped in every time ammunition had started to run out, restocking the table. However, one thing was sure. As the CMC had hoped, everypony was completely relaxed and at ease with each other. Celestia was the first to clear her eyes. Grabbing a clean handkerchief out of the air, she proceeded to wipe the fillies faces as the other royals cleaned themselves off. "So, Your Majesty," she said, a smile on her face. "Now that we've dealt with refreshments, perhaps we can get to the meat of the issues?" Apple Bloom smiled. "All right." Everyone settled at the table. "As I was saying, I know what I'd like to happen, but I've no idea how to make it happen. I'm hoping all of ya could help me figure it out." "How refreshingly frank," Luna said happily. "A political meeting that begins with what is actually desired, and then figures out the diplomatic double talk to get it done. How enjoyably unique!" "Luna," Celestia said warningly. Luna had never had much patience for modern political discourse. Admittedly, Celestia wasn't that fond of it either, but she at least understood its necessity. "Alright, Apple Bloom. What do you want?" "Peace between the Changelings and Equestria, leading into a full-fledged alliance." Cadance chuckled. "Well, you certainly don't do anything half way, do you?" She marveled at how far the filly she'd first met as her flower filly at her wedding had grown and changed. "How could that possibly work?" Apple Bloom smiled. "Always before, the reason Changelings had to use the sneaky methods of acquiring love to feed the hive was because sources were so restrictive. With the return of the Crystal Empire, however, that's no longer the case. 30 Changelings living secretly in the Empire's central city near the palace were able to leech enough love off the standard flares from the Crystal Heart to keep the entire swarm fed. One even got in close enough to do a study of the Heart, and found that such feeding neither reduced the artifact's output nor put any additional strain on its structural integrity. It's almost like harmless feeding of Changelings was one of the functions its designer had in mind." She stood up, starting to pace as she continued to explain. "In addition, nopony noticed any reduction in the Crystal Heart's effect on the citizenry or environment from the gradual leeching. Those thirty could remain perfectly hidden and never be discovered and feed the entire swarm. However, that would only prevent starvation." She sat back down. "However, with starvation prevented, other methods of acquiring love can be taken. Stealing love gives less strength to a Changeling then love given freely, as my battle with Chrysalis noticeably demonstrated." She chuckled, remembering. "However, acquiring freely given love takes an investment of time and effort that Changelings on the verge of starvation can't afford to make. With starvation no longer an issue, however..." Celestia's eyes widened. "You want to find a way to completely integrate the Changelings with Equestria?" Apple Bloom nodded. "Yup! If Cadance is okay with those 30 or so Changelings living as productive citizens in the Crystal Empire, then the rest of the swarm can feel free to take the time to integrate, make friends, form bonds, and earn the love they need to survive. Beyond that, freely given love doesn't drain ponies when fed on the way stolen love does." She slumped downward. "But...I'm not sure how ta make all that happen..." Celestia blinked, shocked. Although the plan wasn't completely developed, Apple Bloom - in the first week of ruling a mighty country - had found a way to solve all her subjects problems and form an alliance with a powerful neighbor that would prove long term beneficial for all involved, if it could be made to work. As far as starts to rulership, that was a start for the history books. Cadance smiled. "Well, while it makes me a little nervous, I see no reason why I shouldn't let the Changelings that have made my Kingdom their home remain and continue to be productive citizens." She chuckled. "I'm sure I can come up with some way to spin the invasion so that my little ponies can take it easily." "Just say there was a change in leadership!" Sweetie Belle spoke up. "Kind of like when you took the throne away from Sombra. Pretty much the same situation, actually, except without the MacGuffin." "The what?" Scootaloo asked. "The Crystal Heart." "But that's not a muffin!" "Not muffin, MacGuffin. It's a magical artifact that works as a plot device." "You're a-" "Flirt later please," Twilight interrupted the two feuding fillies. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both stared at Twilight in shock. "Flirt?" they asked simultaneously. They then stared at each other. "EWWW!" they said together, turning away and making gagging sounds. Cadance leaned over to Twilight. "Too early to stick a hoof in," she whispered, "so leave it alone. Trust me, this is my area of expertise, after all." Celestia chose to ignore this byplay for the moment. "Hmm...actually, I think I can work with something like that as well. Equestrian history is rife with formerly hated enemies being freed from evil or despotic warlords, only to discover that the races and countries themselves had no choice in the matter. If we make use of that - and the nature of the Changelings as a hive mind that need the Queen to function - then I think we can overcome much of the negative publicity." Luna nodded, smiling. "Especially seeing as how the new Queen still considers herself an Equestrian." "But she can't really be a subject if she rules over her own country," Twilight piped up. "Wouldn't that constitute a conflict of loyalties?" As the more experienced royals began debating the exact details of the new peace, Apple Bloom turned to High General Coin. Do ya think you could take over from here? I don't think I could stay awake for this much diplo-talk. Coin nodded. Get some rest, Queen Apple Bloom. I will handle this meeting from here. Smiling, Apple Bloom let her head rest on the table as everypony talked. Her crown once more slipped over her eyes, but this time, she didn't fix it. Instead, she let the darkness over her eyes lull her into an easy sleep, the quiet hum of the hive lulling her like a lullaby as she sank into slumber.