Half an hour later, Matthias was still laughing as he approached the exit from the forest. He didn’t give Zecora enough credit when it came to her wisdom. Her joke - for he read from her face that it was meant as such - managed to completely snap him out of the memory he relived after consuming her brew.
“‘I’ve had better’...” he repeated once again, chuckling. He wasn’t as arrogant as to assume that she was lying in that regard, of course, but her words continued to amuse him.
He finally managed to calm himself and glanced at the sky. It was still night, but if the position of the moon was of any indication, it would soon end. Matthias sighed, knowing he had too much to prepare for to go now to sleep, as much as he wanted to.
“Light, give me strength.” he prayed as he prepared to head off to the Abbey, but then he stopped.
He looked around. The entrance of the Everfree Forest was, as usual, completely open and unguarded. No warning signs prevent ponies from entering it and putting themselves in danger.
The paladin closed his eyes, the feeling of wrongness coming from the forest magnified. When he opened them, he knew what to do.
The filly laughed as she crouched on her chamber’s floor. He wasn’t under the bed, either. “That sneaky colt,” she thought, not angry at all, but simply happy. “Where did he hide?”
Her eyes, which darted across the room, stopped at the closet, where she kept all her dresses. Grinning, the filly crept closer to it, trying her best to not make any sound. Finally, when she stood just a step away from it, she gripped the handle of it and swung it open.
“HA-” she shouted, but her proclamation of victory was cut short when something slammed into her, tackling her unto the carpeted floor.
The filly gave an ‘eek’ of surprise, but once she looked at her assailant, she burst into laughter. The colt she was playing hide-and-seek with was standing over her, his lips curved in a grin that matched the one she had a moment ago.
“Found you!” she told her friend in the pauses between giggles.
“Na-ah!” the colt replied, smirking. “I found you!”
“Silly, I was the one searching, remember?”
“Um… nope, not ringing a bell.”
The filly frowned. “We made it clear before we started and why would you hid if you were supposed to…” she stopped once she’d realized that he was still chuckling. She giggled and said: “You’re so silly.”
“No, you are.”
“You are.”
“You are.”
“You are!”
“You are!”
They continued this exchange for a bit longer, both realizing how stupid they both sounded and not caring in the slightest. The colt continued to stand over her through this whole “argument”, and after a moment, the filly came to realize that his face was just a few inches away.
She felt her body go stiff. It was like in all those fairy tale… kinda. She didn’t recall a part about hide-and-seek there… or about how fast one’s heart can bit while looking into deep, ruby eyes, or when feeling a warm breath of a colt on your cheek…
“You’re a silly pony,” the filly whispered weakly, feeling strangely hot. Her body quivered in anticipation at what was going to happen.
For a moment, the colt’s expression changed from playful into… a worried one? The filly couldn’t tell, for in the next second it changed into the sunny face he bore when he wasn’t brooding.
“Yeah,” he said, also lowering his voice. He leaned a bit closer, “but so are you, silly pony.”
The filly wouldn’t be surprised if her heart would have popped out at this point. She was surprised the colt couldn’t feel it; he was practically lying on her. And… his lips were… so close to hers… Surrendering to the magic of the moment, she moved those few inches closer…
“Tia?”
Celestia woke up with a start. She raised her head and found herself looking straight into her sister’s eyes.
“Oh, hi Luna,” the Princess said, wiping the sleep out on her own. “I didn’t oversleep, did I?”
“No Sister, we have a few more minutes before the day will have to begin,” Luna told her, sitting down on one of the pillows next to her bed, as she readied herself to stand up. “It’s not like you to sleep for so long, though. Had a pleasant dream?”
“You didn’t look?” Celestia asked her sister.
She waited for her answer in… what, fear? No, it wasn’t that… what was it, this odd feeling of shame, as if she was a little filly and eaten the last cookie or something? It wasn’t as if she wanted to keep this away from her own sister, it was just… she never got a chance to bring it up, and…
Celestia stopped her inner monolog just in time to her Luna say: “Of course not, my sister, I respect your privacy. But, you had such a beautiful smile on your face while you slept, that I didn’t want to wake you up. I came in here a while ago, you know.”
“I see… Well, thank you for letting me enjoy that dream some more, but I need to prepare.” Celestia told the younger alicorn, as she rose from her bed and strode towards her bathroom. Luna, like a shadow, followed her, either planning on filling her in on the night’s developments, or simply to help her out with her morning ritual.
“What was it about?”
Or pester her about her dream, which was an option too.
“About simpler times,” she told her truthfully, not planning on revealing anything else, especially if Luna planned to continue questioning her.
“It’s been a while since I dreamed about you,” she thought as looked at her reflection in the mirror, grabbing her toothbrush in with a magical grip. The bathtub was already filled with hot water, prepared by her maids, so she didn’t need to worry about that. “I wonder… did seeing Arthas and Twilight awaken these old memories, these old feelings?”
Celestia rolled her eyes. She should have been more adamant when she spoke with Twilight. Not outright convince her to court Arthas, of course, she was a free mare, but to at least admit to herself how she felt.
“I at least had an excuse of being so young. But I cannot help but wonder… if I knew back then what I was feeling, and said it to you, would that make a difference?
Could I have stopped you?”
“I am terribly sorry that we couldn’t have this meeting earlier, Sir Lightbringer,” Mayor Mare said, as her secretary brought both of them coffee. For good or bad, she was concentrating on adding sugar to hers, so she didn’t see Matthias roll his eyes. “Between the Summer Harvest Parade, preparing for Nightmare Night and not to mention the ‘Pink Incident’, I’ve been extremely busy.”
“That’s alright, I was prepared for such possibility,” Matthias replied, drinking his coffee in hopes of clearing his mind out of the bits of sleepiness.
He was in the town hall, the mayor’s office, to be precise. When he got back to the Everfree Abbey he was left with enough time to wake up everypony, remind them of their orders, wash up, and don his armor. The changelings weren’t exactly thrilled with the idea of revealing their presence to Ponyville (Nymph in particular). They were even less thrilled, however, with the idea of traveling to the Crystal Empire, though they didn’t voice any protest once Matthias told them to disguise themselves as ponies for now (unlike Nymph, Wind Reaver had opted for the form of a dark green pegasus). Al’ar, on the other hoof, didn’t want to listen to his plea of guarding the Abbey while they were away. Matthias tried to reason with him, but by then he was starting to run a bit late, so he asked Storm Clash to get Fluttershy and have her talk with him. It didn’t escape his notice as he did so that the pegasus stallion seemed as unhappy as the changelings with the new assignment, but he didn’t have time to question him.
He managed to get into the town hall just three minutes before the scheduled meeting was supposed to start, letting him go over his plan for the last time before he would propose it to the mayor during this talk.
“But isn’t it a bit early to start preparing for Nightmare Night?” he asked, both to have some semblance of a casual conversation, as well as being genuinely curious. “It’s still over a month away.”
“Indeed, but I preferred to avoid another… surprise, like the last year. I spend many days sending letters to Princess Luna in regards to how her visit will go this time.”
“Ah, I see. Did you manage to plan everything?”
“No, there are still some details left. I think once this new event - Princess Celestia arriving with two delegates from Saddle Arabia, in case you haven’t heard, sir - is over, I might need to request an audience with Princess Luna. But enough about that, I’m on a busy schedule, and I’d imagine you are as well, Sir Lightbringer.”
“I couldn’t agree more, ma’am,” Matthias sighed. “I need to travel to Crystal Empire today… also, the Princesses asked me to inform the citizens of Ponyville about a certain matter. Would it be okay if I’d do that after your speech today?”
“Um… right, of course,” Mayor stammered, a bit taken back. “What would this matter be about, if I might ask?”
“In short, the Princesses wanted me to introduce a two… new residents of Ponyville to town,” he said. He could mention they were changelings, of course, but the paladin didn’t want the mayor to be distracted with a vision of two love-eating parasites attacking the townsfolk by the time of her speech.
“Oh, I wasn’t aware of any new residents!” she brightened up. “But why did the Princesses asked you to introduce them? Usually, such things are dealt with by Pinkie Pie,” the mayor added with a chuckle.
“Yes, and I suspect that we might expect one of her parties to be around the corner… not literally, I hope, we really don’t have the time for it today.”
Mayor Mare opened her mouth to speak, but she trailed off as they both heard a strange cacophony of sounds from somewhere within the town hall, some of them squeaky, some wheezy, and all noisy, as if somepony was moving around many objects at once.
The two ponies exchanged a glance, both recalling Matthias words, before they simultaneously shook their heads and said. “No,” That was just too random, even for Pinkie Pie, to be true.
“So,” Mayor Mare cleared her throat, probably wanting to return to the purpose of this meeting, “If I understood correctly, you wanted to talk with me about lending the town hall for the school play about Hearth’s Warming Season, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Now, as I already told Cheerilee, the town hall doesn’t have the funds for allowing the foals to have their play here. I know, I know, just lending the space for a few hours doesn’t sound costly, but all the extra bills we had over the years had started to pile up.”
“Extra bills?” Matthias asked, now feeling a bit curious. He had a good grasp on certain events that transpired in Ponyville prior to his arrival here (and personally he found that a lot of what the citizens perceived as ‘the horror’ to be worlds better than what he was dealing with at the time), but somehow he never thought about how it all must have damaged the town’s budget.
“Yes,” the mayor said, pulling out a clipboard from a drawer under her desk. “A repair of town hall’s windows, broken by Nightmare Moon; the whole town stopping doing their jobs for a full hour to run around apparently that created a massive hole in the income; treatment of eleven ponies suffering from food poisoning; a sanitary inspection on the market due to one of the senior citizens claiming she saw a rat among the merchants’ food; a restock of water supply; cleaning of the dragon’s smoke; the repair of the whole town after the parasprite attack; Discord; another whole hour of everypony going ‘AWOL’; a dragon’s rampage; the repair of the town hall; moving back a house - no idea how that happened by the way, you would think it’s impossible to drag a house over fifty meters away without any reliable witnesses - to its place; placing Ponyville in the state of emergency after Twilight Sparkle had received a warning from the future about something bad that was going to happen; and of course the newest one, the Pink Incident.” Mayor Mare took her eyes of her list and corrected her glasses while looking at Matthias with a raised eyebrow. “You know, sir, practically all those events are related to your close friends in one way or another.” she added, giving him the clipboard
“And I’m sure they all feel awfully sorry about any problems they may have caused,” the paladin replied, a bit unsettled as he looked over those numbers.
“To be honest, most of the towns’ mayors I know would try to charge them with the payments, despite them saving Equestria multiple times,” she sighed. “But considering everything they’ve done for this town it would be just unfair. I am especially thankful for Twilight’s assistance with Winter Wrap up; ever since she came to live here we’ve been able to get everything done on time - which, of course, saved a lot of our funds. But still, taken into the account everything else, we had some losses. In order to balance the budget this year, I had to cut the most trivial expense; the school’s play.”
“I will admit, that is the best course of action,” Matthias said, giving her back her list. “But I think I might have a better solution, if you would allow me to explain.”
“Of course, Sir Lightbringer, I’m all ears,” Mayor Mare replied, leaning back in her chair.
“As I understand, every year fillies and colts from Ponyville Schoolhouse would present a play for their families here in the town hall.”
“That’s right.”
“Now, humor me on this one, ma’am,” Matthias said, leaning closer and tapping his hooves under his chin. “Why not have the town hall opened for everypony else as well, while having those outside of the foals’ families pay a minimal fee, and use the profit to fill the hole in the budget?”
Mayor Mare’s eyes widened in surprise, “Well, yes, that would be a perfect solution, but slightly unrealistic. While I am sure Ponyville School’s students would make their play quite… adorable, but most of the town’s citizens wouldn’t pay to see a foal’s play. Canterlot isn’t that far away, and the pageant there is always of the best class.”
“Oh, I think there would be quite the number of ponies that would want to watch it. Do you remember, Miss Mayor, that I expect to have more initiates in the Abbey within few weeks?”
“Well, yes, of course,” she stuttered, a bit put off by the change of subject. “How do you plan to recruit them, though? I heard that misters Guard Shield and Storm Clash were royal guards that the Princess picked, while Mister Tucker and Miss Serenity were chosen by you.”
“Princess Celestia had the royal guard’s recruitment center to provide information about the possibility of learning the ways of the paladin instead. Similarly, the medicine academies have pamphlets about the Light’s powers to heal the wounded, although they also warn about the Orders more strength-requiring duties.”
“Ah, I see. But what does it have to do with the pageant?”
“To put it bluntly; I will order everypony from the Order to go,” Matthias said with a corner of his mouth curving in half-smile.
This time, Mayor Mare reacted with her jaw dropping. “Um… isn’t that… abuse of power?”
“Oh, not at all,” the paladin assured her. “You see, the Hearths Warming Eve pageant proves how harmony and friendship are better than discord and hatred, which is something every paladin must know by heart. In light of that, it’s perfectly understandable for me to make them go to the local play, even if it is a school play.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” the mayor admitted with a sage nod.
“Also, bear in mind that when the citizens of Ponyville will see - let’s say - about forty ponies coming to the pageant, they would get curious and also come.”
“Yes, that would be what would happen. But I’m still concerned with the quality of the acting…”
“I’m sure Miss Cheerilee will make sure they will practice extra hard. Also… I may have a good acting tutor for them…”
“Although, I somehow doubt it that the colts’ and fillies’ parents would be thrilled with the idea of a changeling teaching their foals. Also, I’m not really sure if this would work… I would have to ask Nymph, I guess.”
As he pondered that, Mayor Mare was also deep in thought. She checked her list of expenses one more time before she turned to Matthias, her face a bit brighter. “I suppose it’s worth the shot,” she said, smiling, “I’ll admit that I felt bad informing Cheerilee that their pageant wouldn’t happen this year. If there is even the slightest possibility that we can avoid canceling it, I will gladly take it. Please tell Cheerilee that they will have the town hall available this year like always, and inform her about your plan.”
“Thank you, Miss Mayor,” Matthias replied, bowing. “I will inform Miss Cheerilee about your decision as soon as I can. The students should start practicing already.”
“Oh, yes, certainly. I do hope it would be a great show.” Mayor Mare agreed. “Now then, if that’s all, I must go over today’s speech, so…”
“Of course,” The paladin rose and started backing towards the exit. “I’m sure the citizens of Ponyville will be grateful to know about Princess’ visit.”
“But about their new neighbors, probably not.” he added in his mind.
“Hi girls,” Twilight greeted her friends as she and Spike joined them in front of the town’s hall, where the mayor was supposed to make her announcement about Princess Celestia and Saddle Arabia’s delegates… after which it would be followed up by Matt introducing the changelings into Ponyville.
“What could possibly go wrong?” the lavender unicorn thought, glancing around if there weren’t any tomatoes within crowd’s reach. “No tomatoes… but there are always rocks. Oh great…”
“Good morning,” Rarity replied, turning away from her conversation with Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie.
“Where’s Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, wondering if one of her critters was hurt; that was usually the only reason for her running late.
“Ah saw her flyin’ from ‘er cottage with Storm Clash,” Applejack replied. “Ah reckon Matt wanted ‘er to talk some sense with that flamin’ bird or somethin’. Ah would have checked the Abbey, but Ah didn’t want mah sister and cous’ follow me there.” she added with a glance at Cutie Mark Crusaders, who were sitting near the edge of the crowd.
“Applejack, are you trying to limit their interactions with Nymph?” Twilight asked, as she squinted her eyes.
“Limit their interactions with a love-eatin’ bug? Gee, let me think about that one, Twi…”
The unicorn rolled eyes hearing her friend’s sarcastic reply, “I thought you would be more open-minded to them. Spike told me you went to talk with them yesterday when Matt and I were with the Princesses.”
“Well, yes, those little demons wouldn’t stop pestering us until we let them speak with Nymph,” Rarity explained. Despite her annoyed tone of voice, her eyes sparkled with affection when she looked at her sister and her friends. “And, I must admit, that perhaps we were too judgemental at the beginning of our acquaintanceship. Nymph seemed to me to be honest in her enthusiasm with the girls. When we entered, she changed into that younger form of her pony look they told us about. She was a bit shy when talking to us, though, especially Applejack.”
“Well, if what Wind Reaver said was true, then her sensitivity is on a whole other level than even Fluttershy’s.” Twilight said, thinking back to what the male changeling told them.
I can sense a disgust from those two, and hatred from your royal guards, simply over the fact that we are, in their eyes, some oversized parasites. Some changelings deal with such emotions worse than others.
“That’s what we needed: another Fluttershy,” Rainbow snorted. Everypony looked at her sternly, making her cough and say: “Anyway, Pinkie and I went to Wind Reaver to apologize for what I said, so we’re cool.”
“That’s good to hear. So, what do you think of him?”
“He basically told me he’s crazy,” when Twilight again glared at her, Rainbow exclaimed: “He did!”
“I suppose that’s understandable, given his situation,” Rarity said. “I feel such pity for his love! And to think, he risked his life coming here for her sake, it’s so romantic!”
“Foalnapped four foals.” Applejack snorted. “Eeyup, romantic.”
“All's fair in love and war, Applejack.”
“Come on, AJ, the girls had fun being kidnapped!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “And you heard Princess Celestia, they are our guests now! We have to love and tolerate them!”
“More like just tolerate them, ‘cause they’ll steal all that love…”
Twilight was about to chastise her, but she had noticed a group of ponies approaching. Storm Clash, Serenity, Sound Wave and Cherry Bomb, wearing their respective armors, escorting a unicorn which she recognized as Nymph and a greenish pegasus she guessed to be Wind Reaver. Fluttershy trotted along with them, talking with Nymph but keeping her distance. The pegasus noticed Twilight and the others, said something to the group, and flew towards them.
“Sorry for being late. Mattie had a problem asking Al’ar to guard the Abbey, so he sent for me to do it.”
“That’s okay, Fluttershy, the mayor hadn’t started her speech yet,” Twilight calmed her. She glanced at the changelings, then looked back at Fluttershy and asked: “So what do you think about them?”
“Oh, I, um… I think Nymph is a nice po- um, changeling,” the shy pegasus confessed, glancing uncomfortably at Applejack as she said so. “Wind Reaver, thought, seems a bit… scary, even when he looks like a pony. He… kind of reminds me of Mattie when we first met him.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, confused.
“Well, it was hard to tell when he was a changeling, but as a pony he has this empty eyes staring ahead, even when he is smiling.”
It took a moment for Twilight to recall that was how more or less Matt was when he came to Equestria. “Heh, we really had helped you, huh?” she thought, not being able to even remember when was the last time when he looked at her with anything but happiness.
Although, the way he now looked at them all was definitely off. As Twilight buried herself momentarily in memories, her gaze traveled through crowd, and by accident she spotted Matt, deep in a conversation with Cheerilee. As if sensing her gaze, he turned his head after a second. He looked at her with tired eyes, and had dark bags under them. In his hoof he held a plastic cup, probably with coffee.
“I told him to get some sleep!” Twilight groaned in her head. “Stupid stallion!”
It seemed that his conversation with Cheerilee was nearing its end by that time, as soon Matt began to make his way towards them.
“Did you sleep well?” the unicorn asked him with a hint of venom in her voice.
“Why, yes I did,” Matt replied, pausing to throw the plastic cup into the trash can. “I mean, not yesterday, but the three days ago I had a wonderful sleep in Northville.”
“Why didn’tya go sleep?”
“I had some documents to read,” the stallion yawned.
Twilight noticed something strange when he did that. There was some sort of lace around his neck, most of it hidden beneath his armor, that she was certain she had never seen before. Out of curiosity -and still a bit ticked off at the stallion for not listening to her advice- she reached out to it with her magic and pulled it out.
She gasped when she saw what it was, and heard a few of her friends do the same. It was a necklace adorned with beautiful golden feathers, and a few strange beads between them that looked to be zebra-made.
“What is that?” she asked, staring at it.
“A breach of personal space?” Matt asked in return, making her blush and take a step back. The paladin sighed and said: “It’s a necklace Zecora gave me.”
“Why would she… wait a minute. Zecora? When did you see her?” Twilight asked sternly.
“Um… a few hours ago?” Matt replied, now he taking a step back. “I needed her help with something, and since it was already late I figured I might as well give up on sleeping.”
“... You’re nuts.” Twilight finally told him after a brief silence.
“Everypony, can I get your attention?”
Twilight turned towards the source of the sound. Mayor Mare was at the podium, talking to the crowd. She hadn’t even noticed when the mayor had go up there. The unicorn turned back to Matt, but to her irritation, he had used this chance to get away.
“I had a few more insults for you, mister.” Twilight fought, briefly watching him as he talked to the changelings and their escort, before the all moved a bit closer to the podium.
“You were probably wondering why I wanted to see you all here.” Mayor Mare began speaking when everypony finally had calmed down. Twilight (a bit reluctantly) shifted her attention to her. “Well, everypony, the reason for that is that I wanted to inform you all that Princess Celestia will grace our town with a visit in just two days!” Her words caused more than a few ponies to shout out happily or stomp. Once the crowd was again silent, the mayor continued: “Her Majesty will be coming back from Saddle Arabia, in the company of two delegates, and they will stop her on their way to Canterlot. And since it never hurt to amaze our south neighbors even further, Princess Celestia had asked her student, our town’s Twilight Sparkle, to perform a magic act in honor of their visit.”
Twilight did her best to look dignified and not at all embarrassed when those from the crowd around them looked her way. She somewhat succeeded - she felt herself blush a bit.
“So we can be sure this will be an eventful evening.” Mayor Mare had finished. “Now, though, Sir Lightbringer had also wanted to inform Ponyville of something, so I give the stage to him.”
She stepped back as Matt jumped atop the podium from the side and began to trot to the center. He was followed by his paladins and the changelings in disguise. At the sight of him, a lot of ponies began cheering, and Twilight was amazed to see how unfazed her friend was by their attention. Same definitely couldn’t be said about his companions; only Wind Reaver looked as much indifferent. Serenity and Storm appeared nervous, although the stallion a bit less, no doubt due to his past as the royal guard, and poor Nymph looked as if she wished the ground would swallow her.
Twilight gazed at the crowd, then back at them. She caught Matt gaze for a brief moment, and saw the same worry in his eyes that she felt; ponies of Ponyville could react badly to what they would soon see. And while Twilight could understand that perfectly, she had already gotten past her hatred (although if it was Chrysalis up there, she would have probably joined the crowd), and was beginning to like those two.
She nodded to Matt, letting him know that if things went south he would have her help. Twilight was well aware that he would probably be able to deal with whatever Ponyville would throw at him (possibly quite literally), but that didn’t mean she would just stand by.
Matt winked at her and turned to address the crowd. A few of them were still cheering, so he held up a hoof for silence
“My fellow citizens of Ponyville,” he started, giving them a relaxed smile, “I’m happy to see you welcome me here on this speech stand so warmly, especially after our Order’s mission in Northville. To those of you who are glad to just have us around, I’m afraid I have some bad news. By the order of our beloved Princesses, we’re leaving today again, but hopefully we should be back by the time Princess Celestia will arrive, to see Lady Twilight’s magic act.”
He paused, although Twilight wasn’t sure why he did that: because he needed to catch his breath; to let those few disappointed ponies (mostly mares, as she’d noticed with a pang of hostility) voice whine quietly; or because he was startled by the angry glare Twilight had gave him.
The unicorn rolled her eyes. “‘Startled’? Who am I kidding; he’s more likely to be amused… especially given the distance between us…”
“The reason for us leaving is tied with the news the Princesses had asked me to share with you. My fellow ponies, I am pleased to inform you that Equestria might be on a brink of a great change, a change that, if everypony gives it a chance, will make all our lives better.”
“He’s good,” Twilight thought, a bit surprised how quickly he managed to put together this speech. She made a few of them herself, and she couldn’t remember ponies paying her this much attention as they did to Matt, even if they were all confused.
“Although, such as with all changes; it won’t come easy for us. In such times more than ever we will need to have faith in the Light’s love and forgiveness, and show it ourselves to those who once harmed us, as the Princesses did, or me and Twilight Sparkle.” he looked at the two changelings and nodded.
Both of them exchanged a glance, before they took a step forward. Even from where she stood, Twilight could see a sweat on Nymph’s forehead. With a protection spell at the back of her head in case the mass of ponies would turn violent, she watched as green flames flashed around the changelings, dispelling their disguise.
As she predicted, everypony began screeching and trying to back away, while a few more braver ones began to shout with outrage and point angrily at Nymph - whom had her ears dropped and she cringed - and Wind Reaver - who in contrast stood motionlessly, studying the crowd - demanding to chase them out of town or have them thrown in jail.
“What are those things doing in Ponyville!?”
“Why have you brought them here?! Are you mad?!”
“Oh, no… He’s a changeling!!!”
“Lock them up somewhere and throw away the key!”
“Banish them to Everfree Forest!”
“Break their wings!”
“Ya should all be ashamed of yarself!!!”
The chastising voice that managed to shush all that yapping wasn’t Matt’s, but Apple Bloom’s. She and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders jumped into the podium, and stood between the changelings and everypony, shooting daggers with their eyes.
“How can y’all say such horrible things just because they’re different?” Apple Bloom asked them, and somehow being scolded by a small filly made everypony calm down. “Haven’t we’ve gotten over this already with Zecora?!”
“They came here trying to make peace with ponies, and this is how you welcome them?!” Sweetie Belle added in a high-pitched voice.
“Princess Celestia herself welcomed them as guests of Equestria,” Scootaloo said, pointing her hoof at the two changelings, then at the ponies. “What would she think if she saw you behaving like this?!”
“If that’s how all ponies react at the sight of ‘em, it’s no wonder changelings never came to us in peace before!” Babs Seed said with her Manehatten accent, making the ponies that recognized it to take her words more seriously.
Twilight wasn’t sure if she should chuckle at the sight or be impressed; the four fillies’ words made everypony exchange confused, and more importantly, ashamed looks the more they talked.
Matt, on the other hoof, had no such problems in deciding how to react; he chuckled warmly, gazing at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “The young ones are blessed to not have the grudges of their elders,” he said, raising his voice. “I am happy for your support, for myself, our guests, and Their Majesties’ wishes; however, I will ask you to remember that those ponies do have their reasons to mistrust the changelings.” Turning to the crowd, he continued: “I had my reservations as well before I agreed to trust them, but I honestly believe they stride for peace, and the Light teaches us that all beings that seek peace are even in Its eyes,” Matt paused, and Twilight saw how his eyes darted from pony to pony, losing their sternness. “A couple of months back, you all saw me quite brutally deal with a bunch of dragon punks soon after I came to Ponyville. Despite what I said then, you still gave me a chance. All I ask for you now is to do the same for them.”
Reminding Ponyville that he threatened to kill those three dragons maybe wasn’t the best move, but Twilight had to admit that it made ponies think. The Light would only know if they would think in the direction Matt hoped though.
“You will have two days to think about it,” Matt said, a tune of good humor adding flavor to his words. “As I mentioned, we will be leaving Ponyville for now. I hope you will think differently of our guest by the time we’ll return. During their stay in Ponyville, they will be either in their true shapes you see now, or the ones you saw before.”
He nodded to the changelings once more, and Nymph changed back into her unicorn form, sighing with relief.
“Poor Nymph.” Twilight thought, her mistrust of the changelings from the yesterday all but forgotten. “I can’t imagine what she must have felt when she sensed all those ponies’ emotions.”
“‘The young ones are blessed to not have the grudges of the elders’,” Rainbow Dash mocked five minutes later, as they joined Matt’s group as they headed towards the train station. “Do you have any idea how cheesy that sounded?”
“Not really, as I grew up listening to something similar from a bishop once a week,” Matt replied, shrugging, then in a lower voice so that just the six mares around him would hear him he added: “And on that note, I’m pretty sure that a lot of paladins of the Silver Hand were probably rolling in their graves, given everything.”
Twilight gave a tired sigh detecting the hint of self-loathing. Perhaps one day in the future, her friend would stop living in his past, but for now there was nothing more to do. In fact, given his character and what little she knew about Matt’s previous life, she was actually amazed that he hadn’t gone insane.
She shifted her attention to Apple Bloom, who was glaring at her sister as if daring her to say something about their display earlier. When Applejack finally looked at her and opened her mouth, Apple Bloom said:
“So? Let’s hear it. ‘It was wrong to defend the changelings from ponies’, right?”
Applejack, however, after making a surprised pause, just sighed and rolled her eyes. “Nope. Ah just wanted to say that Ah am mighty proud of y’all for stickin’ up for ya friend like that.”
“Oh…” her sister replied, shocked but pleased.
“Even if Ah do kinda wish ya were a bit more selective…” Applejack muttered quietly, again gaining glares from the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
Suppressing a giggle, Twilight turned her attention to Matt again.
“Say hello to Shining Armor and Cadance from me,” Twilight told him. “If it wasn’t for the fact that I need to prepare, I wouldn’t mind joining you. After all, you might need some help with my brother.”
“I’m sure I will manage to talk things out with him and Cadance,” Matt dismissed her worry. “How are you preparations, by the way?” he asked in a lowered voice, so that the others, busy talking between themselves, wouldn’t notice.
“I have an idea on what I am going to show them,” Twilight said, not planning to reveal anything else. Changing the subject, she noticed: “Rainbow’s painful jabs aside, you did a great job out there on the stand. You spoke like a true leader.”
“Well, you would know something about that, wouldn’t you?”
Matt’s comment made her raise an eyebrow in confusion. “What do you mean? I’m not a leader or anything…”
“Leading ponies into the Everfree Forest to confront an evil spirit, uniting them against the spirit of chaos,” he began counting quietly, “organising Winter Wrap Up two years straight - looking forward to this year’s, by the way, I hate winter - ‘disaster-proofing Equestria’... the list goes on. Face it Twilight, you’re a leader,” he winked at her, making the blush that already started to cover her face grow even redder. “One that I would happily follow.”