The party was in full swing in Twilight’s castle when I arrived after making sure my daughters were safe at home. Sonata had already arrived ahead of me and I noticed her running around with the two Pie family members. I noticed Twilight’s guards running around the place though it looked as if they were working at cross purposes, most likely from a combination of Twilight’s orders and from the party ponies. I made a quick stop by the refreshments table since I hadn’t had anything to eat for a while before I started my search for Twilight.
I found her in the mirror room pacing in front of it looking a bit frazzled. She was muttering something that I couldn’t hear while occasionally reaching out to tap on the mirror itself. Since her hoof wasn’t passing through it I could only assume that it was closed again for the next month meaning we were stuck with Pinkie for that time unless I wanted to risk forcing it open and causing damage. “I’m surprised that you are wasting time here while those two are running about right now. Your guards are severely outmatched right now and are in a state of chaos trying to do too much at once.”
Twilight turns to look at me while she continues to pace. “What do you mean by wasting time? I’m trying to figure out how to get this thing to open again so that Pinkie Pie isn’t stuck here for the next month. Can you believe she actually planned it so that the portal would close after she got here? She said she wanted to see what it was like to be a pony for a while.”
It had been a while since I’d seen Twilight panic like this but this was an area that she was best kept from. “Twilight is this really necessary? You know that trying to get Pinkie to do something she doesn’t want to is nearly impossible so I doubt you’ll be able to get her to agree with being sent back early. Besides, it was already enough of a hassle getting this thing fixed so that it didn’t cause crazy things to happen when it opens like it should.”
Twilight stops her pacing and drops to the ground in front of the mirror while looking into it. “I know you put a lot of work into correcting the problems it was having, but I just can’t help but worry that something will go wrong and Pinkie will be trapped here or thrown out of time. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to her and it doesn’t help that she looks like our Pinkie either. When she looked human it was easy to keep the two separated but with her looking like that now?”
I could see a bit of where she was coming from as it was rather jarring to see Pinkie Pie again without it being the one I knew. Her concerns about problems with the portal were a bit less probable though as it had been stable for this long after I had worked on it so it was unlikely something would happen this time. I also doubt Pinkie would come through if something was going wrong what with her supernatural senses. “While the portal messing up again is a possibility, it would take something messing with the two worlds to have a drastic effect again; such as trying to force it open to send something through. Besides, shouldn’t you be worrying more about the fact that she is sacrificing a month of her time to come and visit two friends she hasn’t seen in a long while yet only one of them are with her right now?”
While the reassurance about the portal does little to calm her down, my mention of her wanting to visit a friend but them not spending time with her actually gets through. “I guess I didn’t really think of it like that. I was so worried about what could go wrong that I didn’t take the time to think about why she even came. It really is nice to see her again though it would have been nice to have had a bit of warning so I could have prepared for it. The town definitely is not ready for her and Surprise working together; they’re barely ready for even one of them. We should probably go and make sure they aren’t causing too much trouble.”
It was a bit of a relief to have gotten her calmed down again but as we stepped out into the room with the party I noticed her eye starting to twitch as Pinkie flew by while riding atop one of the pegasus guards. “It’s fine Twilight, it’s just Pinkie being Pinkie, you’ve dealt with her before and this is nothing different. It isn’t like there are two of them now when my guards have enough trouble with one.”
I roll my eyes as Twilight starts breaking down again and begins looking even worse as Surprise rides by on an earth pony. I notice that Sonata is watching the two with interest while throwing occasional glances at the nearby guards who were starting to back away while Sunset was nearby with a wing planted over her face. In an attempt to stall things from getting too out of control I come up with a quick plan of action. “Twilight, you had better go and catch Pinkie while I round up Surprise before we meet back at Sunset Shimmer. Your guards stand no chance calming those two down and I’d rather not wait until they really get going.”
I could see Twilight wavering a bit so I decide to give her some real incentive to get this done. “I guess we could wait until after they get into the coffee before trying to stop them. I’m pretty sure I saw somebody carrying a pot of it around earlier though I may be wrong and it was something much stronger than that.”
Her eyes widened in fear at the possibility of either of the two getting ahold of coffee or something even stronger. I was actually a bit worried myself even if I was the one to cause the incident that gave us knowledge of what would happen. “Good idea, I’ll go and get Pinkie Pie while you deal with the other one before the town is destroyed by either of them.”
I smirk as Twilight rushes off after Pinkie Pie while I make my way towards Surprise casually. I mentally went through a list of ideas on how to get and keep her attention. With how she’s acting just asking for her may barely be enough to get her to come along but I doubt it will work with how wound up she seems. I’d rather not try to use brute force with my magic to get her to follow but I might be able to succeed with a bit of bait.
I look over what is on the refreshments table and decide on one of the chewiest items available and tie a string around it. I then remove the head of a spear that is unattended in the corner and wrap the other and of the string to create a simple fishing pole. I was about to dangle it in front of Surprise when I noticed that someone had brought out a chocolate fondue fountain and smile as I dip the chewy treat into it before going on with the plan.
Needless to say the plan worked rather well as I made my way back to Sunset Shimmer with Surprise hanging from the pole, chewing on the treat on it. I made sure that Sunset was doing well after her little abduction before waiting on Twilight to return with her quarry. They returned much sooner than I expected, but I raised an eyebrow at the amount of whipped cream covering Twilight but she interrupted me before I could say anything. “Don’t ask, just don’t.”
I hadn’t planned on it, though it had been a long while since I had seen Twilight caught up in that kind of incident. Of course I also avoided saying anything as both Pinkie and Surprised somehow managed to clean her of in seconds with their tongues to which she just shuddered. I had long given up on figuring how they did that so instead made sure to never be in that situation which Twilight seemed to have not gotten the hang of yet.
I didn’t participate much in the resulting conversation much, as I didn’t know this Pinkie that well, but I did throw in my two bits occasionally since I knew the others. It was mostly a time for them to catch up with each other since they hadn’t talked together for a long time. Twilight was reserved at first, but it didn’t take long for them to draw her out of her shell again. It was nice seeing her open up to others more and Surprise and Pinkie even managed to draw a few others in as well.
Sunset also looked a bit happier at seeing Pinkie again though she seemed embarrassed whenever the pink mare brought up her current stature. Her friends on the other side knew of her predicament but this was the first time any of them had seen it since she still had her more adult stature in their world. She didn’t appreciate me letting that slip to Fluttershy in some of our correspondence as she was the liaison for any kitsune on that side that wanted to return to Equestria.
It turned out that there actually were a few of my kind on that world that had been banished or lost there long ago when the portal from New Sionnach shut down. There was a small encampment of them in one of the countries across the sea which was where the original portal from there was located. As this world was rather populated the town they had set up was only inhabited by kitsune so they could blend in with the locals. They were devastated to hear that the Lord and Lady were lost, but the chance to return home was too good for many to pass up.
The logistics of getting them as well as their belongings was a major pain, especially when the portal was only open for a twenty-four hour period once a month. Twilight’s organizational skills helped smooth the process some, but there was still a lot of time required as there were over two hundred of them over there, some even with kits of their owns. Finding them was a real blessing as it meant there are likely to be more on other worlds and the few we had that were specialized in portal magic were tasked to try and find them.
I was pulled from my thoughts of the last couple years by a voice I wasn’t expecting to hear and was at the edge of my hearing so the others wouldn’t have noticed. “See? I told you I had it right this time Derpy, you should know how hard it is to remember if it’s three spins then two cranks or three cranks and two spins.” I look across the room to see a familiar pair of earth pony and pegasus that really shouldn’t be around still. My catching sight of them doesn’t go unnoticed as the brown stallion looks up and stops as his eyes meet mine.
He looks worried as my eyes don’t leave his and he looks prepared to bolt before I nod at him. I then lightly jerk my head towards Twilight before rolling my eyes which causes him to relax and nod back. Seeing as there is no reason to cause a ruckus over spotting him I turn away and focus back on the group I am with, letting him and Derpy go back to what they were doing unobserved.
I tried to focus on the conversation with the others again but I noticed a pony standing nearby trying not to be noticed though she looked as if she wanted to interrupt. I hadn’t expected to see Velour again so soon, especially at a party in Twilight’s home. Her attention was focused solely on Twilight so she didn’t notice that I was watching her yet, though I wasn’t the only one to see her as a certain pink pony popped up in front of her.
“You look familiar but I’m sure I’ve never met you before so who are you huh huh huh?” In usual Pinkie style she completely ignored any concept of personal space as she got right up in Velour’s face, scaring her a bit with her sudden appearance. Of course this also got the attention of everyone else which caused her to flinch back even more.
“Well hello there, did you want to speak with us about something?” Velour looked as if she was about to bolt when Twilight started speaking, but she caught me looking reassuringly at her and calmed a bit.
She took a deep breath to calm herself before she attempted to speak, though her nervousness was still evident. “P-p-princess? I-i-i was wondering if I could speak with you about something rather personal and important according to Flarenza. I don’t really want to mention it around the other ponies though.” Seeing the worry on her face Twilight nodded and directed her to a nearby room, though she was looking a bit confused by the request.
I was glad to finally see that she was taking my advice, probably due to another princess already finding out on accident, but her timing could have been a bit better. After having finally gotten her to get out of her research mode and talking with her friends, she was probably about to go right back into it again. An idea came to mind shortly before we heard Twilight’s yell of “WHAT!” sounded out of the room. “Why don’t you three go and show Pinkie where Spike is currently living? I’m sure she’d like to see him as he is now instead of as a dog. There are a few chariots around back you can use to get there quickly and I know Surprise has experience with them.”
Pinkie was already bouncing out of the room when I mentioned Spike and the others soon followed, though Sunset glared at me for a moment before heading out herself. With them occupied for a while I turned my attention back to the door the other two went through. Entering the room I found that it was a small study and Twilight was bouncing around the few bookshelves in there while Velour was trembling in the center of the room in her natural form. I caught a bit of what Twilight was saying and I sighed.
“This is just so incredible! I never thought that changelings could look so different from each other since only the queen ever looked different. I mean this could completely change how we view changelings in the future. We need to- Why did is suddenly get so dark in here?” She tries looking around in confusion after I placed a bucket over her head to interrupt her little tirade. After a moment she realizes what happened and removes the object before turning to glare at me.
I don’t say anything as I look over at the changeling and she follows my gaze to see the terrified figure in the center of the room. Her ears go flat as she realizes that she was terrifying Velour in her attempt to learn more about her. I wonder for a moment at what she expected to find in her books anyways when there was so little on the race anyways. I settle down by the changeling and drape a couple tails over her to try and calm her down some. “Well it’s not the worst that I’ve seen her acting but this is pretty much on par with what I told you to expect from her. Notice that she doesn’t even care much about what you are just what she can learn. Now if she can just focus on actually talking to you instead of ignoring you…”
I trail off and look over at the princess who is blushing at us at having lost control yet again. It was actually a bit refreshing to see her starting to get back to her old self again though it would be nice if her maturity kicked in a bit more often at the same time. “I guess I did go a little overboard when she told me what she was. I was worried a bit at first but I didn’t expect her to look like, well, that. If she didn’t say anything I would have never expected that she was a changeling in the first place.”
I look down at Velour, who was looking at the princess in shock, as I shake my head at how unfounded her fears were. “That is something I’ve been curious about myself, especially after learning about some tales that Celestia knows about flutterponies that supposedly look similar to her. You may want to go and ask her about that later but maybe you should actually calmly ask Velour here a few questions.” Twilight looks as if she wants to bolt off and interrogate Celestia about those stories but on seeing the changeling’s eyes start to widen again she composes herself and sits down on a nearby chair.
“Right, I guess that would be a good idea before anything else wouldn’t it. She’s obviously not like the others considering how she looks and with you vouching for her.” I interrupt her for a moment to add to that information.
“Surprise also knew about her for a while, she’s been at her home often enough with my daughters and you know how reliable that family is when it comes to judging others.” She looks a bit put off about being one of the last ones to learn about the new changeling but she just sighs and continues.
“Right, well with that in mind, the first thing I have to ask about are your parents. I can’t help but wonder who they are since you look so different from all the other changelings I’ve seen before.” I had been wondering this myself but it never felt right to push her about it. She looks a bit nervous as she glances between us before she sighs and looks at her hooves.
“They wouldn’t like it if I told you too much about them but I’ll tell you what I can I guess. My father was a pony while my mother was a changeling, though she looked much like the others you’ve seen before. Mom didn’t know why I look like I do, but she guessed that because I never stole love from others my body didn’t develop in the same way. In fact as I was growing up her own body was changing since Daddy was there by his own choice and really did love her. I’m not sure how much more she has changed since I had been living on my own for a few years now, though they didn’t live that far away so I should have visited more.” That last bit was muttered almost too quietly for me to hear but my superior hearing was barely able to catch it.
Twilight didn’t hear it though and she just continued on as if it wasn’t said. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to but would you mind telling us their names? It would be nice to know just on the off-chance that something happens but I wouldn’t mind learning how a match between a pony and changeling happened. I’m sure Cadence would also love to know as well not only because of her own experiences with changelings but her dealings with all things love related.”
Velour opened her mouth to say something but she paused as if something occurred to her at that moment. “Um, I was going to say that I probably shouldn’t tell you their names but I really don’t know what they are. I only ever had to call them Mom and Dad so I never really needed to know what they were. The only thing I ever heard them use were nicknames that they had for each other, my Dad’s being Butters and my Mom’s was Chrissy.”
It takes a moment for the name to register but one thing immediately jumps to mind and my eyes jump up to Twilight’s who looks back in shock. I think she also reached the same possible conclusion that I did as it immediately brings to mind an old acquaintance of ours.