“Aww!”
Rose couldn’t get enough of how cute Monty and Pacifica were, sleeping in one bed.
“Come on now, wake up sleepyheads or you’ll miss the morning!”
Monty was shuffling uneasily in bed
“Fffive more minutes please…”
“All right, but no more than five, all right?”
Monty grunted.
Rose took that as a yes and went downstairs to prepare to go out with the kids.
It was so nice to have somepony else in the house, it would get so lonely sometimes, and Rose always wanted to have a family…
Maybe she should start looking for a special somepony again.
Rose looked in the mirror.
She was a bit pudgy, especially her butt.
Some stallions like to have something to grab on.
She was just past her prime.
Some gentlecolts prefer a mare who knows what she’s doing, and she had some experience already… that is until she found out that a family would be out of the question…
Rose sighed, let’s be real here, Changelings want a mare that can have kids, that’s why she could never find anything serious out there, only an occasional one night of fun… but that’s going to change now that she’s taking care of those kids, Stallions go crazy for a mare with a golden heart and she had one to boot.
“Stallions, here I come- oh wait”
Rose just realised that she won’t be able to… persuade stallions she’d bring home when the kids are around.
This was going to be tough but she’ll pull through.
A mare does have her needs after all.
Little hoofsteps announced Pacifica and Monty who were ready to take on what today had to offer.
“Morning Aunt Rose!”
Monty hugged his aunt, he loved to hug but he never got to do that too often at home so he was making the most of it while he could.
Rose blushed with pride for a moment, then remembered what they had to do.
“Come on now children, let’s have breakfast, are you ready?”
“Yeah!” replied Monty.
“Washed your face?”
“Yep”
“Brushed your teeth?”
Rose got him there.
“Uuuuhhh… yeah?”
“Nice try, go and brush your teeth, we’ll wait here for you all right?”
“Do I have to?”
“Do you have somepony you like?”
Monty’s face was splashed with crimson.
He was so cute! Puppy love, rose could see it bright as day.
“Well then you’d want to look nice for her wouldn’t you? You never know when you might see her again”
Monty ran upstairs.
“Now, it’s just the two of us fillies left”
“…”
“So, what do you want to talk about, want to talk about mare stuff?” Rose's eyes sparkled with interest and gossip
Pacifica could tell that Rose was trying really hard to get Pacifica to like her.
“Why are you so nice to us?”
It was Pacifica knew that when somepony is nice to somepony else, they usually expect something in return, something Uncle Dis taught her when she was little.
“What do you want from us”
“Want from you? I don’t want anything from you, why would I want something from you?”
“When somepony is so nice like you are they want something in return”
“Oh, dear…”
Rose’s heart cracked, this filly must have had a very tough time before she came here to be thinking like that.
“Not everypony is a big bad timberwolf you know; sometimes you get a good fairy, like me!”
Rose Made a cute pose.
Seeing an adult mare do such a childish pose caused Pacifica to burst into laughter… that’s just what she needed.
Monty came downstairs, all ready.
The family went down for breakfast.
Once again, Pacifica didn’t want to eat but this time she didn’t stop Monty from feeding, not after what he told her yesterday.
“Oh, don’t be silly Pacifica, you need to eat, or you’ll never heal, you don’t want to have scars now do you?”
“…”
“Come on now, do it for Aunt Rose”
Pacifica began considering the options, she was at her limit already, she didn’t eat for a solid few days and it was true what aunt Rose said, she does need to eat, especially now of all times in order to get better and to be able to resume her search for uncle Discord.
There wasn’t much of a choice, if she wanted to find uncle, she had to bite the bullet and eat.
It had been two days since Monty and Pacifica first visited the town and they managed to get accustomed fast, the days were slow despite everypony working at the town, there were no other changelings their age to talk to or to play with.
Because of that, Monty would often succumb to boredom and wanted to play with Pacifica who had been purposefully evading him recently… She’d either suddenly have to go the little filly’s room or she’d be away, eating… and she was eating a lot in these past few days.
Pacifica had been busy lately with figuring out a way to send a message to uncle Discord and let him know where she is and that she is looking for him, plus the kiss… she didn’t know what to do about it, what she was starting to feel, was new to her and she didn’t know how to deal with it yet so she’d do everything she could, not to be with Monty.
The two changelings would spend most of their days doing what they wanted; only occasionally helping Aunt Rose at work.
Life seemed to have a time of its own here; the only link with the rest of the world was the newspaper that came from outside informing them of the Equestria’s allied forces cracking down on Changeling activities.
Monty really wanted some time with Pacifica, he kinda liked her and he wanted to see everything she did… Monty was also figuring out this new feeling.
Today it was Pacifica’s turn to help out in the store during the afternoon and Monty took that chance to see her, this time she won’t be able to get away, it’s like she was purposefully evading him!
“Pacifica”
“!!!”
Pacifica turned her back on him, pretending to be incredibly busy with stocking items that were already stocked behind the counter.
“Pacifica!”
“…”
Monty grabbed Pacifica firmly and made her look at him.
Pacifica tried to wriggle out, but he was too strong.
“Pacifica… I want to play with you”
“Not now”
Pacifica was still trying to wriggle out.
“Ok then, later”
“Maybe”
“Why?”
“…”
“Do you hate me?”
“No”
Monty let Pacifica go.
“Please don’t hate me, I… I really like you”
Pacifica looked at the young stallion
“I don’t hate you”
“So we can play later?”
“Not really… I… I have something I need to do”
“What?”
Pacifica overcame her shyness decided to let Monty in on her plan; they were travelling together after all.
“I found a way to call my uncle and make him come here”
“How?”
“Chaos magic”
“Chaos magic?”
“He can sense when somepony uses chaos magic so that’s what we have to do”
“But I don’t know how to do chaos magic”
“I do”
Being raised by the god of chaos himself had its advantages, her uncle taught her a thing or two and she learned a few other things from looking at him do his thing.
There was only one problem.
Chaos magic required a tremendous amount of energy which is why Pacifica’s been eating a little extra these days and she wasn’t sure if she’d even manage, doing a little magic won’t get herself noticed, she will have to pull off the biggest magic show she ever had, she knew her uncle well and knew that he won’t be able to pass off this opportunity for fun, he’ll have to come and visit.
“How are you going to do this?”
“Normally”
“Like how?”
“Like I’ll go outside and start using magic”
“But we’ll get into trouble! Our aunt-“
“She’s not our aunt, Monty”
“But-“
Pacifica liked Rose but unfortunately that was the truth and they had their priorities.
“If you help me, nopony will find out and we won’t be in trouble”
“I don’t know…”
This was pointless, Pacifica thought he manned up but apparently he was as flabby and passive as always.
“All right, I’ll help”
“We’ll do it tomorrow”
Monty nodded.
Rose just noticed Mark and Pacifica talking.
“What’s that you’re talking about dearies?”
The parts for the machine had finally arrived, these past few days have been an exceptional pain in the flank for Mark, not only he had to wait for the parts and sit idly by but Discord hadn’t shown up yet as well…
The panic attacks on Mark had subsided, that was a good sign, this means that his body had rested and that Pacifica was doing much better, if only he could talk to her somehow…
Time was running out, Mark had heard from Celestia that things were happening, the commander of the royal guards and Queen Chrysalis were working around the clock on simmering down the uprising.
Far out on the east wing of the castle, Cadence, Shining and Chrysalis were being updated on the most recent news.
“Maretropolis is already overtaken” began Chrysalis.
“That’s impossible; we have our guards scouting every inch of the place as we speak” Stated Armour.
“The guards are long gone”
“Chrysalis I can assure you that my sourc-“
“I also have my sources Armour, being queen has its privileges, it seems that the changeling rebels use corruption to their advantage”
Cadence didn’t like that, it wasn’t cricket.
“That’s low, even for them”
“All’s fair in love and war my dear” Jabbed Chrysalis.
“In that case what do we do?” asked Armour, he was the commander of the royal guards and the army but he never dealt with anything on such a grand scale before.
“There isn’t much to do; we are playing on their terms and because of that, they will have their way in a matter of weeks”
“It’s hopeless then?”
“I didn’t say that, we can still change things, if we want to have the upper hand we need to have them playing on our terms” retorted Chrysalis
Amour and Cadence were confused.
“how exactly are we going to do that?” asked Cadence.
“What’s the one thing we have and they don’t?”
“You don’t mean the elements of harmony-” suggested Armour but was interrupted by the queen.
“PSCH! The elements of harmony! A kingdom that relies on a single asset cannot succeed”
“Then what?”
“An army”
“But we’re utilising our army already and it isn’t yielding results”
“That’s because you’re not using it as an army”
Armour got what Chrysalis was implying.
“No, I refuse, there must be another way”
“What is she talking about Shining?” asked Cadence.
“She’s suggesting that we start a war”
Cadence gasped.
“No!”
“I am merely proposing that we prepare for war”
“Equestria hasn’t had a war in millennia! And besides whom are we going to strike at? The changeling rebels are hiding everywhere!” stated Armour
“Showing the rebels the consequences of their actions may persuade them to come out of hiding and mobilise”
“And then what? We start a war?” Cadence continued
“That will not be necessary, when they mobilise, we will be watching for any mass migrations of ponies, we will find them, after that, we shall infiltrate and gather intel on the rebels… plans, size, methods, everything and when we do, we will be able to shatter the structure at its base”
“And what if they don’t mobilise but stay hidden?”
“They will not”
“How can you be so certain of that?” asked Armour.
“From what we have managed to gather so far, we know that only a small fraction of the group consists of specialised individuals, however most of these rebels are simple foalk who are driven by fear and anger… they want to see us fall down, hard and want to see us suffer and when they’ll see the opportunity to do so personally, they will not be able to resist the urge”
“I don’t understand” said Cadence.
Armour began to explain the tactic to his wife.
“What Chrysalis is trying to say is that most of the rebels are angry, that’s what made them rebel in the first place so we use their anger and provoke them with an army to come out and fight and if they want to do that they will have to come together and make an army, when they do, we will find a way to break them apart from within before they strike… a powerful albeit risky tactic”
Cadence was impressed at Chrysalis, even at a time like this she manages to find a way prevent war.
Chrysalis looked at an admiring Cadence.
“Watch and learn my dear, a queen has to know these kinds of things”