Canterlot had fallen. The ancient streets were ablaze, and the many houses and shops had merely crumbled before them. Some of its former population had managed to flee the city, but they would not get far. The palace, the focus for their acts, was now a mere shattered shell of its former glory, much of its upper levels and spires torn away when his army had struck them, like the hoof of an angry god. Of the Princesses of the Day and the Night, there was no sign. From all indications they had simply ran from him, knowing in their hearts they would not have won a confrontation.
Now, he stood before his troops, his loyal subjects, basking in their rightful adulation and worship. And no wonder, given the prize he had obtained for them. He had won Equestria for the Changelings.
He allowed them to remain for some minutes, before reminding them to go about their business, rounding up any stragglers they could find, before turning toward the great bulk of the castle, allowing himself a satisfied smirk. As he made his way he stopped and turned, and saw that due to several of the outermost buildings of Canterlot being levelled, he could see all the way to Ponyville. The massive flame, now all that remained of all those cottages, huts, and trees, was glowing a truly beautiful green against the dying light of the sun. He smiled, and then continued making his way through the halls of the castle, footsteps echoing in the hallways, as he made his way around the rubble, occasionally passing a glance at the various scorch marks or smouldering metalwork scattered about the place. He passed through two oversized doors, and admired his new throne room. He glanced at the new throne, and then looked about, following with his eyes the small trail of rubble which led to the former thrones of the sisters, torn and discarded by his Changelings. Slowly, he made his way toward the throne. He'd won. He kept going over those glorious words. He'd won. He'd won. As he sat down, he wondered if perhaps he should've been more careful about whoever it was he'd eaten earlier, with the giddiness he was feeling.
There was a sudden clinking behind him, and the noise of somepony stirring in the gloom.
"My lord?" a quiet voice murmured, as he felt something brush up against him. He looked down with mild disdain at the bright pink hoof resting on his leg, which was connected to a bright pink mare, an almost flirtatious look on that face, hidden behind the sapphire blue hair. A prize of an earlier conquest, a princess. Or formerly a princess at any rate, after he and his army had been done with her city. After all that time, he still didn't trust Shining Sapphire. There was something in her eyes that didn't sit right. Still, he thought, as far as ponies went, she wasn't exactly unappealing.
"Do you require something?" another voice enquired, as he felt a pair of hooves slip around his neck. He turned, trying to savour the look of annoyance on Sapphire's face as he turned around. He was mildly amused by the sight he saw, of the audacious grin on the second mare. She was not quite as attractive as the other, all things considered, but there was that roguish charm she had. A royal blue muzzle inched close toward his face. And closer, and closer...
~~~~~
Whisper Wind jolted violently, and then quickly repressed the urge to scream, or make some kind of noise, once he remembered where he was. He wasn't entirely certain if what he'd just dreamt could've been classified as a nightmare under the strictest circumstances, but if anypony were to ask he would certainly say it felt like one. He tried to resist the awful feeling clawing its way up his throat, until he became away of an odd rattling sound. He looked around, and then looked on the floor of the train carriage. It was Shining Sapphire's tiara, which had probably fallen off when he'd woken up. He focused, and light sprang from his horn, allowing him to see the inoffensive piece of metal. The tiara was slowly lifted into the air. He set it down gently beside himself and stared at it. Then, he tried looking over toward where Sapphy had been the last time he'd looked. She was still there, still looking like a Changeling, completely asleep. And then it all came flooding back, all those absolutely stupid things he'd said earli-
He looked around, trying to see if there was a clock around with which to tell the time. There wasn't. He looked out of the window. Featureless rocky landscape was all there was to be seen, with a low-hanging moon in the sky. All he knew was that meant it was either ridiculously late, or insanely early.
He tried to clear his thoughts, and then decided it was probably a good idea to return to Shining Sapphire something that was actually hers. She looked so peaceful asleep, which at least proved Wisp had been wrong about all those stupid reasons he'd come up with to avoid sleeping in the same room as her. And there he'd been worrying that all those stupid nightmares of his would've woken her up or something. And it wasn't as if that one was one of the worst. Disturbing, definitely, but not even near the worst.
He rubbed his forehead, which was suddenly feeling like it had been smacked against a tree. Soon enough, he realised he was still staring at Shining Sapphire. He tried thinking about something else, like where the trains was. From the way it was moving, he'd have guessed it was probably going through or over or around those mountains which cut off the Empire from Equestria, which probably answered the question of whether there were any Changelings about after all. Unless they were just as confused by what was going on with him and Sapphy as he was. Not that he could blame them.
Any further rumination was cut off by a sudden rumble from his stomach. Slowly, he got up and moved toward the door leading to the other carriages, and presumably the dining cart, where there was hopefully some food. At the door, he stopped, and turned to look at Shining Sapphire. He made his way over toward her, gently kissing her forehead. If she felt it, she gave no indication otherwise.
*****
There was the familiar warmth of sunlight on her cheeks. Slowly, blearily, she opened her eyes and yawned, before wincing. The summer sunlight was so bright it felt like it was going straight through her eyelids.
'Turn off the sun, auntie' she thought to herself, before trying to move one of her wings in front of her face, to see if that would make a difference. There was a loud buzz, and she felt her heart sink, as she realised what that meant. She was still on that darn train, only now it was morning. She looked across to the other window, but there was no sign of Wisp.
She tried to ignore the unpleasant feelings, before she noticed the tiara sitting a short distance away from her, just out of the range of her legs. She focused on the tiara, waiting to see if her magic had sufficiently recovered. There was a mild hum, and it slowly lifted into the air. She smiled slightly at the sign that her magic was already back, as she settled the tiara on her head. Then she noticed the fact that the train had apparently stopped somewhere. Had Wisp already woken up and gone to examine why? From the way she felt, she couldn't have been asleep for more than five hours, and from where the sun was hanging, it wasn't even six o'clock, so that meant the train probably hadn't even gotten halfway to Canterlot. She shook her head. Pondering could wait for later. At the moment what she needed was a good strong pot of coffee. But before that, it was probably an idea to see whether her magic had recovered enough to make herself look l-
"CHANGELING!" she heard somepony shriek. She turned to see a lime-green mare staring at her in shock. Before she could say anything, the mare turned and fled.
'Well that's just dandy' she noted grimly.
*****
"Again, very sorry about that" the guard in front of her said. The terrified mare had quickly attracted the attention of the Crystal Empire's finest, who had practically torn apart the carriage walls in their entrance, only to find a dishevelled looking mare in desperate need of coffee. What had followed was several seconds of muted whisperings, before sending the still-terrified mare on her way, followed by the guards apologising profusely for that,
"It's all right, really" she said calmly, "just a simple misunderstanding."
The guard, or rather the last one left in the carriage, just nodded. "Well, ma'am, just wanted to make sure there were no more, ah, 'misunderstandings'."
Shining Sapphire stared at the guard for a moment, trying not to look amused. "Well..." she managed, "thank you, anyway."
"Don't thank us" the guard said, "his highness informed us something like this was likely to happen."
"He did?" she asked, genuinely taken aback. The guard nodded, but before he could say anything the door opened, and another guard entered, a unicorn carrying a small plastic cup.
"Miss?" he said awkwardly, "His Highness said you'd probably be need some coffee about now, but they were out, closest they had was tea."
She stared at the plastic container for a moment. Wisp had actually asked guards to fetch her some early morning coffee all of a sudden? Or early morning tea, at any rate. Suddenly it occurred to her, and she looked at the first guard.
"And where's he gotten to, anyway?"
"Not sure, miss." the guard said, but he did ask us to pass along a message."
"Which was?"
"That he's okay, and that he had to go somewhere and 'think about things', and that you shouldn't worry about him."
"Oh" was all she could say to that. Suddenly the door opened, and a new guard walked in, a plastic cup floating beside him.
"Excuse me, ma'am, but his highness suggested you'd probably want some coffee when you woke up" he then looked uncertain, "but apparently they were out of coffee. All they had was tea."
She stared at the beverage for a moment, then took it anyway. Wisp was talking to guards, and ordering coffee for her? And where was it he was planning on going? He never went anywhere outside of Ponyville and the Empire, and the occasional visit to Canterlot, especially after that camping trip from Tartarus, so where would he have gone?
"Uh, we aren't sure ma'am" the first guard said hesitantly. She looked up.
"Did I say that out loud?" the guards nodded in the affirmative. She looked toward the tea.
"Well, thank you for the assistance" she said, "and the tea. But if that's all, I wouldn't mind being alone for a while."
"Of course" the guard said, "but you know where we are if you need anything."
She nodded, watching as the guard left, and then took a sip of the tea, if only to satisfy her curiosity. Then she gently set it down next to the window. After a few minutes it occurred to her she was staring at nothing. She could have, she reasoned, gone after Wisp, but given what had happened last night, she thought better of it. What would she do if she did? What could she say to him, after the things she'd said last night? No, if Wisp needed to think about something, perhaps it was best to let him.
She looked out of the window again. She couldn't see any signage telling her where exactly the train was, but it definitely looked familiar. It was a little village just out from the mountains leading to the Empire, and then knowledge came unbidden from the depths of her memories that the area was apparently considered a good place for family outings. Still, she thought, from here, it was a few hours to Canterlot, depending on whether one took the scenic route or not, or the weather. Actually, she wondered if perhaps the train wasn't being held up because of her.
Seconds passed, slowly. She began to regret not having brought a book. Although she probably have been unable to focus on it, instead thinking about Wisp instead.
It took her a few minutes to realise the train had in fact already started again. After the train was past the town, she decided to see if she could cast that disguise spell again. It was a long way to Canterlot, after all.
*****
There was an odd mood in the Crystal Empire. Their Highnesses had asked for every guard, for whatever reason, and asked them some really bizarre questions. Some of them had wondered if it was a test, especially with some of those questions, but they answered them all the same, and were then dismissed.
Cadance sighed, and allowed herself a slump in her throne. Perhaps, in hindsight, it had been a bad move to see whether she and Shining still felt as unnerved in the morning as they had last night. All they could tell was that two ponies bearing an incredible resemblance to their child and the pony their child was currently dating had gotten onto a train headed to Canterlot.
"So" Shining Armor said, "where did they head off to? And what was so important about whatever they were doing?"
"Spontaneous romantic desires?" Cadance suggested. Shining looked sceptical about that.
"So they'll probably be going to Canterlot, then," she tried, "Or maybe Ponyville. Or Canterlot and then Ponyville? Unless they decided to surprise us, and eloped."
"But why?" Shining Armor asked. Cadance gave this some thought.
"Something is definitely wrong" she pointed out, "although why they didn't feel it worth telling us is another question."
Shining Armor nodded. "It's a bit beyond a simple memory problem though" he said. Cadance nodded.
"So, if they had a dire problem, one they felt they couldn't trust us with, they'd go to Canterlot to get help from...?"
The two sat there, thinking. Then, Cadance's brow furrowed. Then she looked at her husband.
"Shining?" she said cautiously.
"Yeah?"
"You... did tell them about Twilight Sparkle, right?"
Shining's expression told her everything. "Huh" he finally said, before facehoofing.
"Sorry, honey" he eventually managed, "Must've forgotten."
Cadance just shook her head slightly.
"No matter" she sighed, "besides, I think we have our own problems to deal with."
Shining Armor looked confused.
"I think, Shining, we should have a talk with those Changelings."
*****
There was a roar of magic, the strain pressing against her, and then, it stopped. Slowly, Shining Sapphire opened her eyes, and looked down at her hooves. They were bright pink, and completely void of any holes. She gave her tail a swish, glancing at it. Vibrant sapphire blue, and not a single hole. She gave her wings a cursory flap. Then, the illusion gave out, and she saw chitin and holes once more. Perhaps if she had been somepony else, she might have been annoyed about this, and true enough, there was quite a lot to be annoyed about. She was stuck in a foreign body, on a train bound for the absolute center of Equestria with no idea whether anypony there would even recognise her, and even worse, Wisp had utterly vanished. However, she just ignored these thoughts, and focused on her spells. It felt remarkably like she was fourteen again, only she was in a train, and didn't have her parents helping out.
She stopped, and looked outside. The landscape was now looking amazingly smoother now. At first there had only been tiny picturesque towns or hamlets passing by in the distance, but by now the massive hills were gone, and the grass was turning amazing shades of green, and the towns began to get larger, and then sooner they were undeniably cities, that sprawled for miles in all directions, with massive towering buildings. It was an odd change from the Crystal Empire, where most buildings didn't reach above four floors. After the seventh (or thereabouts) gleaming city, she went back to focusing on her magic again. She then decided to see what other of her talents remained. Focusing on an image, she stared intently at the space in front of her. Slowly, a pink light appeared, and then grew, and grew. Slowly, it began to resolve into the shape of a pony. Indeed, aside from being solid pink, it was the spitting image of Wisp. She looked at it for a moment, and then concentrated further. The image suddenly burst with an almost-comical sounding 'pop'. She sat there, thinking about nothing in particular, feeling the feeling of her new 'wings' sitting against her body.
She wondered if this counted as an adventure. If it was, she decided she didn't like adventures, especially since she'd missed breakfast by now. She could have been sitting at home, reading a book, perhaps with Wisp to keep her company, and a nice warm cup of coffee, maybe with the odd cuddle or snuggle every now and then. Maybe other ponies enjoyed this sort of thing, her cousin for example, but not her. Definitely not her. Adventure like this could go happen to somepony else.
And then, quite suddenly, a thought came into her head, as she began to wonder about the mechanics of the Changeling's 'shapeshifting'. She gave it some thought, and an uncharacteristically sly smile crept across her face. Her horn began to glow once more, and as it did, she could've sworn she heard a buzzing sound. She stopped and looked about, and saw nothing. Shrugging, she went back to her casting.
*****
Whisper Wind sat, and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. Time seemed to have stopped working properly, as minutes crawled into seconds, and seconds stretched into infinity. He could have sworn the hands of the clock he kept staring at were almost going backward by this point.
He had considered fidgeting, but he wasn't really the pony for fidgeting. He considered humming, but that might've been rude, humming so early in the morning. He looked at the newspaper sitting next to him, and thought about reading it, but after reading it seven times already, he doubted there would be anything different about it. He was beginning to wonder if staying on the train hadn't been the better idea.
After he'd talked with those guards, told them about Sapphy and warned them about any accidents that could've occurred (not to mention suggesting fetching her some coffee when she woke up), he'd waited in the buffet car for the train to reach the next station, then simply walked off. It had been disturbingly easy, given he was much taller than he was used to, and the way ponies kept nodding, or bowing, or saying 'your highness', which still made him tense (and, he noted, a lot more than usual), not to mention the fact that some ponies were staring at him in odd ways. Even odder had been the pony at the ticket office, when he'd asked about trains to Ponyville. That young mare still had spots, along with a rather unfortunate stutter, if the way she'd responded was any indication, not to mention problems with eye contact. Still, she had valiantly overcome these minor problems and helpfully informed him as to when the next train was to arrive, which had led to him sitting on the bench, waiting. The train seemed to be taking its sweet time.
Seconds passed, second by second by second by second by second. In the distance, birds began chirping.
Somepony coughed.
Wisp gave in and lifted up the newspaper again.
*****
Shining Sapphire hadn't been to Canterlot many times in her life. In fact, the grand total of her visits stretched only into the lowest double digits at best. Oh, true there were the occasional visits to her grand-aunts, or her grandparents, or her aunt, but most of those had been when she was very, very little, but it seemed most of the time Canterlot was too far, and perhaps too expensive, to visit. Occasionally her parents would talk about it, and their eyes would go all distant, and their voices become very faint, and they'd probably sigh a few times. But then, to them, it was home, it was where they'd grown up, and met, and fallen in love, and married. To her, it might as well have been another country. Which, of course, it was. It was foreign, and weird, and filled with sights she didn't normally see, like mountains, actual mountains that loomed over everything, or all those tightly packed buildings, or the guards who wore gold or dark blue and looked exactly the same, right down to the expressions (even if her parents said there were actually nice).
However, that said, and with her lack of knowledge regarding the usual mores and attributes of the city established, she was reasonably certain as the train approached that something wasn't right. Perhaps that was something to do with those clouds hanging over the city. Dark and ominously purple clouds that seemed to cover every inch of the sky, which meant only one thing: there was rainstorm scheduled.
She'd never been in a rainstorm before. The Crystal Empire's weather ponies didn't really go in for that sort of thing. They usually preferred the occasional shower, though most of the time the weather remained reasonably warm and cool, with the odd cloud thereabouts. Although, what with being a shut-in bookworm, she never really noticed the weather much anyhow. But she was very certain she didn't really want to get caught in a rainstorm.
Eventually, the train slowly came to a halt in the station. Shining Sapphire stopped to double-check her illusion. Everything seemed adequately pink, her tiara was safely set up her head. However, she made a note to try and make her way to aunt Twilie's place as quickly as possible, since with her magic levels as they were, she figured she had somewhere between fifteen and twenty minutes to get there.
She stopped at the door. She could do this. It was only a crowd of complete strangers, who were going about their business, and weren't likely to bother talking to her. With a glacial level of motion, she opened the door, and gingerly stepped onto the platform. She noted she didn't feel as nervous as she most likely should have, but nopony seemed to be staring at her. Nopony seemed to notice her at all, and if they had, they weren't making any noise about it. Unsure of how to feel about that, she decided to start moving. She managed to make it a few steps before she started smelling some really strange sensations, like at the marketplace back home, but much stronger. She winced, and when she opened her eyes, she looked about. Some ponies were now staring at her, and some weren't, but they all had one thing in common. Each was glowing in a bright array of colours. She stood there for a moment, trying to feel as calm as possible, when she felt a hoof on her shoulder.
"Your highness?" somepony asked, "are you alright?"
She opened her eyes again to see a young guardpony looking at her. From the look of it, the pony was worried slightly. She tried to smile reassuringly.
"Yes, yes, I just..." she laughed nervously, "fell asleep on the train, and there's this nasty crick in my neck."
The guard didn't look reassured, but nodded all the same. Then she realised what the guard had said.
"Wait, you recognised me? You know who I am?"
The guard looked confused now. "Not personally, your highness, but I do know who you are. Princess Shining Sapphire of the Crystal Empire, right?"
She stared at the mare for a moment, trying to work out what that meant. Was this mare shielded from what had happened? Had it only affected the Empire, or just not reached Canterlot y-
"Your highness?" the armoured mare asked cautiously. Shining Sapphire blinked, as her queries vanished into the ether.
"Sorry, lost in thought for a moment there" she smiled, "just didn't expect anypony down here to know who I am."
"Ah, got it" the guard nodded, "I wouldn't worry about that, though."
Behind her, Shining Sapphire heard a sudden crashing sound, and two ponies arguing with each other. The guard's gaze turned toward it, then back to Shining Sapphire.
"Sorry, ma'am, I should probably deal with that. Enjoy your stay in Canterlot."
Shining Sapphire began walking off when she heard the mare cough.
"By the way, your highness, watch out for the broken glass. We haven't been able to clear it all up yet."
She looked toward the now visible street. There did seem to be a few piles of broken glass about
"How'd that happen?" she inquired. The guard shuffled, glancing back and forth.
"I'm not allowed to say, ma'am" she stated sheepishly. "Anyway, have a nice day."
And with that, she rushed off toward the two arguing ponies, who stood there for a moment wondering what she'd just seen. Then she shook her head, and turned around again. No broken glass was going to stop her. No squall would forestall her. She had made it to Canterlot. She was so close she could practically taste victory. Or perhaps, that was just the craving for coffee. Or, perhaps the feelings of ponies she happened to be walking past.
As she made her way through the streets of Canterlot, she became aware of two things. The first was that there was a lot of broken windows about, and that she hadn't yet seen any that weren't broken, and the second was that it was beginning to rain. Actually, it was more like it was beginning to rain. She stopped, and her horn glowed. A bright pink light formed above her head, and with some careful shaping and moulding, she had herself a bright pink glowing umbrella, which while looking a bit odd did certainly keep the rain away. With the minor inconvenience of being soaked through dealt with, she continued onward, quickening her pace as she walked past brightly emblazoned shops and stores, all of which seemed to be going sans windows that morning.
And then she realised it couldn't have been any later than nine o'clock. And she hadn't had a full night's sleep. And she was staring to think about Wisp again. And she really needed some coffee. She started going faster.
Eventually the number of stores began to thin out, then they disappeared altogether, replaced by tiny little flats and houses, and then much larger, grander houses, some of which even had front gardens, or even gates. And then, soon enough, she stopped.
In front of her stood a medium-sized house, which for Canterlot meant that it had more than two floors, and probably a large basement, and that it had been around for a very long time. She looked at the name on the mailbox, and smiled. She had reached her destination, the house of her grandparents and great-grandparents, and so forth, the house that her father had grown up in, and now the house that belonged to her aunt, Twilight Sparkle. She smiled triumphantly, and passed through the gate, making her way to the front door. She knocked on it.
There was silence, save the rain pounding against anything unfortunate enough to get in its way.
She knocked again, slightly harder this time. Still nothing happened. She frowned. Surely her aunt would have been up by now. Then she looked to the side, and saw a small raised section of the wall, wherein there was a doorbell. She pressed it. There was the muffled sound of ringing coming from inside.
Shining Sapphire sat there, ignoring the butterflies in her stomach. She was feeling remarkably excited all of a sudden, even though there wasn't anything to be excited about. True, there was the fact that it was her aunt, but all the same, she was here because of an alarming situation, and feeling excited about it was probably not the right reaction.
Above the sound of the rain, she was now certain she could hear somepony saying something. And they didn't sound especially happy. And from the sound of it, they wanted her to know that, especially if the heavy hooffalls she could hear were any indication. Still, she couldn't stop grinning.
There was the sound of locks unlocking, and the door slowly swung open.
Shining Sapphire's smile, upon seeing who was standing there, didn't vanish, not exactly, not in as many words, but it did certainly shift a little. This might have been because the pony looking at her was not her aunt, Princess Twilight Sparkle. Oh, most assuredly it was a mare, and her first name was Twilight, and she was by all accounts an alicorn, but she definitely wasn't Twilight Sparkle. Instead, staring at Shining Sapphire with a look of increasingly manic cheerfulness was a distinctly royal blue coloured mare, who then proceeded to leap at Shining Sapphire and practically choke her with an enthusiastic hug.
"SAPPHY!" her cousin, one Twilight Twinkle, declared.
Shining Sapphire found herself unable to respond, partially due to surprise, but also because there was a teenaged alicorn crushing the life out of her.