//------------------------------//
// Chapter 40 - Shattered Illusions 
// Story: Second Chances, Many Changes 
// by ASGeek2012 
//------------------------------//

A gray pallor settles over a town which appears as if somepony took Ponyville and New York City and mixed them in a blender. I turn a corner and see the boutique. I turn another corner, and the Empire State Building looms over me. I run, and I nearly collide with the front door of Sugarcube Corner. I dash back the other way, and I find myself outside one of the entrances to Central Park.

But the distorted landscape is far less strange than its inhabitants.

They are fashioned like living chess pieces, gesticulating with hands or hooves, depending on species, yet remaining firmly planted to their round bases. The ground is a patchwork of white and black squares that constantly warp and twist. Sometimes I'm allowed to traverse them along their lines, sometimes diagonally, the rules changing with no rhyme or reason. Sometimes the inhabitants slide along these paths as well, usually to block my way out.

And all the while, I hear a familiar, sinister laughter.

I know it's a dream. All my dreams are lucid or semi-lucid anymore, but that gives me no more control over them. If I had any sort of control, I would start appearing as a pony in them.

"Rachel!"

I whirl around. Michelle gestures to me from an alleyway before disappearing within. Is she real, or just something my mind conjured? Is this another attempt to communicate with me?

I dash for the alleyway. A chess piece fashioned like Lyra slides into my path, but I dodge around her, only to be confronted with a Bon Bon piece. I finally get past them and duck between two buildings, a thatched-roof abode on the right and a brick building on the left. Michelle stops at the end of the alleyway and turns to face me, smiling.

"Michelle, what's going on?" I demand. "Do you want to talk to me?"

Michelle giggles. "Of course not. I want to beat you."

I stagger back. "Wh-what??"

Her voice changes. "And now I have." Her body twists to match. "Tisk, tisk, I had such high hopes for you," says Discord.

I utter a frightened yelp and spin around to flee the alley. My heart leaps into my throat when I see another enormous chess piece blocking the way. This one is shaped like Princess Luna, her rear legs frozen in the base, her fore-legs reared up, her teeth bared.

"Game over, Candy," Discord says.

The Luna chess piece turns its head and looks past me. "I beg to differ." Her pedestal shatters as she effortlessly breaks free. A beam of magic erupts from her horn, and Discord explodes into thousands of tiny sparks. "Checkmate."

I swallow hard. "P-Princess? Is that you? The REAL you?"

Luna approaches me. "Yes, it is me. Discord was merely a phantom, but I am not. I wish you to come with me."

"Come with you? But this is a dream, right?"

Luna smiles. "Yes, but I am capable of connecting dreams to one another. I have a vision I need to share." She turns her head, and a door materializes in the brick wall. "Please, follow me."

Bemused, I walk with her, and we stand in the star-filled void I recognize from a previous encounter. To my surprise, Twilight is here. "Hello, Candy," she says as she steps up to me. "Princess Luna visited me first, but when she told me of her vision, I thought you might want to see as well."

"What is it?"

Luna steps forward. "I have found the ruins of Starswirl's lab. It is where I stand right now. I cannot take you there in body, but I can share with you in the dreamscape what my senses behold." She pauses. "But I do warn you. I have found something which may be disturbing."

My heart flutters.

"You can choose to refuse and let Twilight summarize for--"

I shake my head. "No. If it has anything to do with the pendant or my friend, I want to see."

Luna nods once. "Then I will delay no further."

My surroundings shimmer, and I stand in a field of dirt and scrub under the starry vault of the heavens. The moon glows brightly overhead, casting a silvery radiance upon the landscape. Luna turns and raises a hoof. "There."

A great wall rises up, riddled with cracks, edges jagged and crumbling. Beyond it, a broken and listing tower is visible mainly by the stars it blots out. Ruins twist and run in odd lines that cast deep and sinister shadows, and I try not to shiver. Twilight lights her horn, but it does nothing to dispel the gloom.

"Neither of you are truly here," says Luna. "Therefore, your magic will not work. Allow me."

Her horn lights. Now the wall resolves itself to the individual stones, and I see openings, some intentional, some obviously not. Crushed and broken detritus litters the ground.

Twilight steps further into the light. "Somepony cut this place to pieces with powerful magic."

"Likely to break into its hidden chambers," says Luna. "However, some were caused by explosions from within. Starswirl likely left traps for the unwary, and, well, Chrysalis is not known for her subtlety."

"But she somehow caught on and managed to find and retrieve his journals intact."

"Why didn't Starswirl just destroy them if he really didn't want anypony to find them?" I ask.

"Because Starswirl didn't believe in destroying knowledge," Twilight says. "Even knowledge he thought was dangerous. He would hide it, or protect it, or find a pony he could trust with it, but he would never destroy it." She looks to Luna. "Is there anything left at all?"

Luna gestures to us to follow, and we fall into step with her as she trots along the outer wall. "Of the ruins themselves, very little past what you can see," Luna explains. She finds a gap in the ruined wall and leads us through. "Except for this."

We step into what was once a large, round chamber. Only the floor is intact and hints at its original shape. Inscribed upon it are large runes. Are they faintly glowing, or it is simply a trick of the light?

Luna extends her wings and hovers. "Were you truly here, Twilight, you would need to do as I am, and Candy would need to stay clear. These runes still hold ancient magic. It would be unwise to tread upon them."

Twilight steps forward with near reverence. "Some very powerful magic was practiced here," she murmurs in a tone of both awe and trepidation.

"Using your techniques, I confirmed that the same controlled resonance of changeling magic you detected in the pendant also resides here."

"Then I was right. He intentionally incorporated it into the matrix." Twilight pauses. Her face is shadowed, so it is hard for me to tell what expression she wears, but her voice alone is dark enough for me to guess. "This confirms some of my conclusions about the pendant."

I whirl around to face her. "What is it? What did you find out?"

"I'm sorry, but not now," Twilight replies. "This is neither the time nor the place, but come to my castle later in the day, and I may have something to show you."

With great difficulty, I quell an eagerness that is mixed with almost equal parts fear.

"I will be interested if your conclusions are at all affected by what I am about to show you," says Luna in a somber voice. She glides out of the chamber, coming to rest on her hooves in a rectangular room whose walls are nearly intact, save for a fallen pillar.

I step inside and freeze, my heart skipping a beat. A chill radiates down my spine. Twilight comes to an abrupt stop and gasps.

Before us lies a shining stone sarcophagus.

"Oh, no," says Twilight in a barely audible voice. "I-is it ...?"

Luna lowers her horn and brings her light to it. Words are intricately carved into the lid, the shapes very fluid and only vaguely resembling cursive Equestrian.

Twilight sighs and settles on her haunches as she stares. "Oh, dear ..."

"Wh-what is it?" I stammer. "Why can't I read it?"

"Candy, I'm sorry," says Twilight in a distracted voice. "It's written in an older dialect of archaic Equestrian, used mostly for ceremonial purposes. I'll read it aloud." She takes a deep breath and continues in a heavy voice. "Here lies Far Seer, the greatest of friends who deserved more than my failure and false hope. With his indomitable spirit of morality and fairness, he is, by far, a better wizard than I will ever be. May he forgive me for my foolishness." Twilight swallows. "Starswirl must have carved this."

"It does bear his flair for calligraphy," Luna says.

I look from one pony to the other. I have no idea how to react. We knew something happened to Far Seer, but what does this mean?

Twilight rises to her hooves. "Princess Luna, is there any way to tell how he died?"

"Not without a full magical forensics team," says Luna. "This pony has laid here for many centuries. I detect no obvious dark enchantments or curses, but even those may fade with time."

"Do you think Starswirl k-killed him?" I ask.

"I fear we must leave ourselves open to the poss--"

"No," Twilight declares.

Luna approaches her. "Twilight, I know how you feel about Starswirl, but we no longer know what his state of mind was."

"I know, but ... it just doesn't feel right." Twilight pauses. "I've researched Far Seer's travels and shared what I found with Zecora. I told her what I had told Candy, that he supposedly had an interest in unusual magicks. She noticed he visited the ancestral lands of the zebras. They were known largely as 'medicine ponies' back then, offering treatments for unusual ailments. Yet his known magical specialties were conjuration and divination. Why would he be interested in medicine?"

Luna pauses. "Unless ... it was for himself?"

"What if he were looking for a cure for a disease that afflicted him? Maybe what he had foreseen in his last entry was not some terrible act by Starswirl, but his own impending death despite his efforts. Starswirl's interest in the nature of life and spirit had already been sparked by the loss of so many of his friends that the impending loss of Far Seer may have pushed him into doing this."

I give her an incredulous look. "Are you saying he created the pendant to save his friend from dying? That's it??" I know how callous that may have sounded, but I am already barely keeping my emotions at bay.

"It is certainly a more palatable idea than some of the alternatives," says Luna. "But does Far Seer make mention of his illness in his journal?"

Twilight sighs. "That's the problem with my theory. He doesn't. Not a single word."

Luna steps up to Twilight. "I fear I must bring to your attention the runes from the chamber."

Twilight frowns. "Yes, I saw them."

"We must consider all possibilities."

"What is it?" I demand.

Twilight turns and steps into the chamber again. "I've used the term 'magical energy,' but that's really a generic term. There are many forms of magic."

"Well, yeah, I know that! Each of the three pony tribes has a different form of magic. And there are alicorns. And what Zecora does."

"Yes, but there are still many more that we have yet to understand. Life is sometimes said to be a form of magic. And these runes ..." Twilight sweeps a hoof. "... suggest that this chamber could've been used to find a means to convert one form into another."

I look back to the room with the sarcophagus. "What does that mean?"

"It means Chrysalis, thankfully, solved only part of the equation," Twilight explains. "She learned how to manipulate the pendant to channel a particular form of magical energy, but not how to convert one to the other." Twilight frowns. "Which is something I fear Sevfivtoo may have figured out, and may be why she wants Cherry's spirit to complete her Ascension."

Despite being a mere projection in this landscape, my legs feel weak. Sevfivtoo does indeed want to kill Michelle a second time, and in a way far more heinous than simply destroying her mortal body. Luna wraps her wing around me and draws me close. "I am sorry, Candy Swirl," she says in a soft voice. "Perhaps we should not have brought you here."

I shake my head. "No, it's better that I know," I say in a quavering voice.

Twilight steps over to us. "I think we've seen enough. Princess Luna, thank you for doing this, even as unpleasant as some of our discoveries have been."

I clench my hands into fists. I feel as if a rug has been pulled out from under me. Did Starswirl really try to create the pendant to save a dying friend, or was Far Seer just a convenient pawn, and Starswirl had regrets only after the fact?

Luna's squeezes her wing around me gently. "If it helps any, at no time in his life did Starswirl ever display ill intent. Whatever the explanation is for what he did, I am hopeful that it will be something that can be forgiven."

As nice a sentiment as it is, it does little to comfort me, as I have every doubt that I would ever be able to forgive Starswirl, whatever his intent, for as long as I lived.





I burst out of the boutique and galloped hard for the castle sometime later that morning. I had tried to wait for Twilight to summon me, but I simply couldn't focus. I nearly had a shouting match with Rarity over something as trivial as the choice of thread for some hemline work. That was when she kicked me out of the boutique.

Well, okay, I'm exaggerating. She suggested I get some fresh air to clear my head, but it was obvious she didn't want me around sharp implements like scissors or needles for a while.

I had every intention of camping out in the castle until Twilight was ready to see me. I had finished nearly all the books she had lent me and could use some more reading material.

Candy, we need to talk.

I skidded to a stop, very nearly plowing my muzzle into the ground. My head whipped around until I realized where the "voice" had originated. I clenched my teeth and muttered in a low voice, "Not now."

I implore thee, please, allow me to manifest.

I looked around. Most ponies trotted past minding their own business. A few nodded at me and smiled in greeting. In the distance, Lyra and Bon Bon were engaged in what looked like a heated discussion. Lyra's gaze found me and lingered for a moment.

I turned away, ducking my head as I murmured, "I'm kinda out in public right now."

Please, find an unobserved area.

I rolled my eyes. "Are you kidding me??"

A pony stopped and turned his head. "Huh?"

"Er, nothing. Sorry."

The stallion nodded, smiled, and went on his way.

I glanced backwards. Bon Bon headed off alone. When the stream of ponies that were Ponyville's equivalent of rush-hour traffic thinned a bit, I spotted Lyra trotting in my general direction. Was she looking for me? I didn't want to deal with her in any case. Likely she was going to berate me more for suspecting her of being a changeling.

"I swear, Cherry, you just lucked out," I muttered before dashing away. I ducked down a less busy street and found a narrow alley. I shivered briefly as it reminded me of my dream. I trotted down the alley towards the end and glanced back behind me before saying, "Fine, manifest, and make it quick."

My horn glowed, and Michelle materialized before me. Despite my head of steam, my heart lurched at the sight. "What do you want?" I said in a tone not nearly as combative as perhaps I had original intended.

"I saw some of thy dreams last night," Michelle said. "I did not see everything, as I suspect Princess Luna blocked me."

"And I don't like you peeking at them, either!" I snapped. I sighed and lowered my voice when she gave me a hurt look. "I mean, I'm grateful that you helped me when Sevfivtoo had screwed with my head, but you don't have that excuse now."

"Candy, I know what thou art planning."

I raised an eyebrow. "You do? Then enlighten me, because I don't know what to do next."

"I speak of Princess Twilight's continued research into the pendant."

My heart raced. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Please, do not do this."

"Why not? If you won't admit anything, why do I have to?"

Michelle turned away, bowing her head slightly. "Princess Twilight will not stop until she completely understands the pendant."

"You got that right," I said.

"But thou dost not need to hear the answer."

I ground my teeth. Should I tell her that I knew what Sevfivtoo wanted of her? Would she reveal a connection between that and what she intended to do with all that energy? Or was that what she feared Twilight had already discovered? "Why do you want to keep me in the dark? Why don't you want me to know the truth? You keep spouting off about how you don't want to hurt me. Don't you get it? You're hurting me more by not telling me!"

Michelle remained silent.

I stepped up to her. "You don't want me going to Twilight? Fine. Then tell me what I want to know. What are you planning to do? Because right now, Cherry, it looks like you're doing everything to help Sevfivtoo!"

Michelle's head snapped towards me. She gave me a stricken look.

My throat tightened, but I forced the words through. "I-I don't want to believe that. But ... what else could you possibly do with the energy Twilight gave you except give it to that changeling?"

Michelle's eyes glistened. Could a ghost cry? Or was it just a trick, just a means to gain sympathy? Yet it was my own resolve that threatened to shatter as the words I had not wanted to voice tumbled from my mouth. "Are you even who you appear to be? Are you really the spirit of my friend? O-or are you something Starswirl conjured up? Or are you really Far Seer?" I stomped a hoof. "Who are you?!"

Michelle lowered her gaze. A single tear trickled down her cheek. "I am thy friend."

"No, you're not," I said in a shaky voice. "Because friendship doesn't work like this, a-and the real you would know that."

My heart thundered into the silence. Michelle stood absolutely still for what seemed like forever. Finally, she lifted her gaze to mine. "I stopped being the real me when Sevfivtoo killed me." She lifted her arms. "This is not living. This is existing."

"Then why did you say otherwise?!" I cried.

Michelle sighed. "Because I was foolish. Because I wanted to give thee hope. I fell into the same trap that Starswirl had with his friend Far Seer. All I did was cause both of us pain."

"It doesn't have to be like this! Just let Twilight--!"

"She cannot," said Michelle. "And thou art going to learn the hard way. I cannot protect thee anymore. Maybe I never should have. I sheltered thee far too much back on our world."

Tears welled up in my eyes despite using all my will to stop them. I squeezed my eyes shut in one last doomed effort. I had actually wanted her to be an impostor. I could have dealt with that better than the truth.

"I am going to destroy Sevfivtoo," said Michelle in a voice that might as well have been a million miles away. "But I am not going to survive the attempt."

I fell to my haunches and resisted the urge to clamp my fore-hooves over my ears. Somehow, I held onto a shred of rationality through the growing maelstrom of emotion to frame one last question to her. "H-how ... how are you going to--?"

"I suspect Twilight knoweth how and will tell thee if thou art insistent on knowing."

I raised my head. "How can you talk about your own death so casually?!"

"I am already d--"

"Stop saying that!" I swallowed hard and rose to my hooves. "No, I'm not letting you do this. Not when there's a chance you can live again."

Michelle looked away. "Candy, if no such chance had ever existed, wouldst thou condemn me to this non-life for all eternity?"

I uttered a quavering sigh and lowered my gaze. "D-don't ask me things like that."

"I must. I cannot coddle thee any longer. What wouldst thou do?"

My eyes misted, but I did not cry again. "I-I ... I couldn't do anything to end your existence, and don't ever ask me to!"

"But wouldst thou stop me if I chose to end it?"

"Could I actually stop you?" I said in a bitter voice. "Why even ask me? Why didn't you just project yourself and do as you please right now?"

Michelle fell silent for a long moment, and I nearly screamed at her. Even after everything she had finally admitted to me, she still held something back. She glanced at my pendant before finally speaking, "I did not think it fair to thee."

"Oh, right, now you start thinking about that, huh?"

"Dost thou think I take the idea of ending my existence lightly? All I ever wanted to do is protect thee. I cannot stand the idea of Sevfivtoo harming thee. If I can stop that, I will feel my death had meaning. But I need thee to realize this as well. I need thee to understand I do this only for what is best for both of us."

I had no response. I could keep railing as to how much she meant to me, and how much she was hurting me by wishing for her own death a second time, but was I simply too focused on myself? Was I failing to consider her feelings? Had she been right all along that I had to finally let go? Was she really dead, and all I was doing was propping up a memory and pretending it was real?

"You're asking me to agree to w-watch you die again," I said in a low voice. "I can't do that. Maybe somepony more mature than me can, but ... I-I can't."

Tears trickled down Michelle's face. "Thou w-wilt not need to watch."

"That doesn't help." I shuddered as I remembered making the sacrificial move in the chess game. "It will still feel like I did it, like I helped you to--"

Michelle suddenly gasped and vanished.

"Wait, no, come back! This isn't over! You--"

My heart froze as I heard a clop of a hoof behind me. I nearly stumbled as I spun around, swallowing hard as I saw Lyra standing at the end of the alleyway, her mouth open, her pupils having shrunk to points.

I wiped my eyes, took a deep breath, and trotted forward. "Uh, hi. Um ... nice day, isn't it?"

Lyra's gaze darted from side to side. "Candy? Wh-who were you just talking to?"

"Huh? I wasn't talking to anypony."

"No, I distinctly heard you," said Lyra. "And then when I looked into the alley, I thought I caught a glimpse of somepony ... or something else ... standing in front of you."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I snapped. "And are you following me?"

"No, I'm not!" Lyra said. "Um ... I mean ... I did want to talk to you about something." Her gaze flicked over to where Michelle had stood. "I really could've sworn I saw--"

"I'm sorry, Lyra, I don't mean to be rude, but I don't have time for this," I said as I trotted past her. "Fine. I was talking, but I was talking to myself. I like to work out things in my head that way and didn't want to look weird in front of everypony."

Lyra cast a lingering gaze down the alley before turning back to me. "Well, okay, I guess that makes sense. But will you have time later to--"

"Maybe," I said before galloping away.





"You're just in time, Candy," Twilight said with a faint smile, her horn glowing.

I stepped fully inside her lab as she levitated a rectangular wooden block onto a small pedestal. Other pedestals held a potted daisy, a potted tulip, and a pot filled with soil but no plant.

"Howdy, Candy," came an unexpected drawl from another part of the chamber.

I turned my head. "Oh, um, hello, Applejack."

"I asked her to attend this demonstration so she could help confirm something for me," Twilight said. "Now, Candy, how much do you know about transformation spells?"

"You mean other than being subjected to one?" I said, raising a fore-hoof briefly. "Beyond that, not much."

"Transformation spells represent complex magic," said Twilight as she stepped up to the wooden block. Her horn glowed, and a beam of light from it struck the block. It was now spherical. "Changing just the shape is easier than ..." She zapped it again. It became a glass orb. "... changing the material. Somewhere in the middle is ..." Another zap, and I drew back a step when the orb sprouted legs and ran about in a circle. "... animating matter. But please note that this object is no more alive than the pedestal it sits upon." She zapped it one more time, and it was again a wooden block.

"Um, okay, I get it so far," I said, trying not to sound impatient.

Twilight stepped over to the plants. "Living things can be transformed as well, but only into other living things. Even a being that appears to have been changed into an inanimate object still retains its life and spirit. Another consideration: all living things have what is called a 'morphic resonance.' Simply put, it's what decides the nature of a living being. Transformation spells have to overcome that to operate properly." She pointed a hoof to the daisy. "I used a weak transformation spell on this two days ago and turned it into a tulip. Just this morning it turned back into a daisy as its morphic resonance reasserted itself. In general, the more dissimilar a being's modified shape is from its morphic resonance, the faster it will change back."

"So, do I have one of those things, too?" I asked.

"Yes, of course."

"Then why haven't I spontaneously turned back into my old form?"

"That's due to chaos magic," said Twilight. "It has the ability to permanently modify a morphic resonance. Thus things Discord transforms stay transformed unless he decides to change them back, or his magic is neutralized somehow. That's why fighting him was so terribly difficult." She stepped over to the tulip. "But that leads me into a discussion of changeling magic, and what Starswirl did with it."

I nodded quickly.

"Changelings can assert a different morphic resonance at will," said Twilight. "It's how they shapeshift, and why it's tricky to detect them. They're limited in what creatures they can imitate, but Starswirl altered the magic." She pointed a hoof at the tulip. "Two days ago, I cast a spell on this utilizing Starswirl's research. This used to be a daisy. But thanks to the infusion of some altered changeling magic, its morphic resonance has been modified. It's now a tulip permanently."

Applejack stepped up. "But I've seen ya do that kinda stuff already that lasted fer a long while."

"Yes, but it's still an enchantment. It can be dispelled." She indicated the tulip again. "This is permanent. There's no lingering magic to dispel. It would take another transformation spell to change it back. Also, it wasn't quite what Starswirl was going for." She stepped back to the wooden block and levitated it onto the soil of the empty pot. "What he was going for was this."

Her horn blazed. A brilliant beam of light enveloped the block. She clenched her teeth and trembled slightly as the block slowly morphed. My eyes widened, and I heard Applejack gasp as the glow faded. Sitting neatly rooted into the soil of the pot was a daisy.

"Great Celestia ..." Applejack murmured.

"The wooden block is technically organic matter," said Twilight, sounding winded. "But not alive. Starswirl intended to use a combination of changeling magic and magic energy conversion to create life from non-life."

"And you did it?" I cried excitedly. "You actually did it?!"

Twilight held up a hoof. "Applejack, can you examine this flower for me?"

Applejack was already staring in amazement at it. "Well, sure, but what do ya want me ta tell ya about it?"

"Not so much you as what your earth pony magic tells you."

Applejack trotted up to it. She tilted her head slightly, one eyebrow raised. She touched a hoof to the soil, then the blossom itself. "Huh. That's weird."

"What's weird about it?" I snapped. "It's a flower! What more is there to--"

Twilight touched a hoof to my shoulder.

"I don't know how ta word it, sugarcube," said Applejack. "Somethin' jus' feels kinda ... off about it. It don't feel -- whoa!"

In the space of a few seconds, the petals shriveled, turned black, and fell. The stem and leaves followed, everything dissolving into a black, gelatinous mess.

My heart dropped into my stomach.

"What in tarnation?" Applejack said.

Twilight sighed. "That's how every experiment I've tried has ended. I can get it to last longer by infusing more magic, or by using organic material that is closer to living, and the result looks perfectly fine to my magical senses to the very moment it withers. I thought maybe I missed something, but you just confirmed that it's just not working."

"So jus' what was Starswirl tryin' ta do?" Applejack asked.

"I believe his intent was to use the pendant to capture a spirit from what was likely a dying body, fashion a new body via a transformation spell, then project the spirit into that body," Twilight explained. "Except he never got the middle part working."

I stepped up to the failed experiment. "Y-you can fix this, right? You can figure out what Starswirl did wrong?"

Twilight stepped next to me. "I'm not sure I can. The fact that everything looked correct down to the last variable, and I still failed means there's something fundamental about life and spirit that I don't yet understand. This isn't a matter of whether I should create life, but whether it's even possible in the first place."

I swallowed hard. "But if you k-keep at it ..."

"Candy, I don't know where the problem is!" said Twilight in an exasperated voice. "Is the changeling magic failing to impart the morphic resonance properly? Is the energy conversion failing to generate adequate life magic? Is there some other binding force needed to maintain life? I just don't know, and I don't think Starswirl knew, either. In fact, this is further than he ever got. It could take me years to figure out how to make it work."

"Wait a sec," said Applejack. "Ya said this here was the only part he never got right?"

Twilight's expression darkened. "Yes." She pointed to the tulip. "The very same research allowed me to do this, to permanently alter the shape of a living thing. It has limitations. It cannot permanently change a plant into a pony or vice versa as the resonances are too dissimilar. But it can change a pony to look like another pony."

"An' what about the last part? About projectin' spirits?"

"Yes, the pendant is fully capable of doing that right now."

Applejack frowned. "An' what happens if a spirit is projected inta a pony that's already got one? Like any of us standin' here?"

"It depends," said Twilight. "If the pony doesn't have the magical strength to fend it off, the original spirit is displaced or destroyed."

My stomach twisted. "I-is that what Cherry is planning? To p-project herself into Sevfivoo and--"

"Sevfivtoo is too powerful to allow her spirit to be displaced," said Twilight. "What I believe she's intending to do is let Sevfivtoo try to absorb her spirit energy, then channel the horded magical energy in the pendant through her spirit and into Sevfivtoo, literally tearing the changeling apart from within."

Applejack shuddered. "Is that what she was tryin' ta do in the White Tail Woods??"

"Yes, but she likely underestimated how powerful Sevfivtoo was and had to abort the attempt. Or Sevfivtoo had started luring the Crusaders, and Cherry realized there was too much danger of them being hurt."

I trembled as I barely held off tears. "W-we can't let Cherry do this."

"Of course we ain't!" Applejack declared. "Mebbe I don't understand everythin' about how this all works, but if there's any chance she's alive, we ain't lettin' her throw that away."

I wanted to believe that protecting her was the right thing to do despite seeing my hope of granting her a new life shattered like so much glass. But was I doing this for her or for me? Was I simply deceiving myself with another illusion?

These were questions only I could answer, and I had the uneasy feeling that time was running out.