//------------------------------// // Chapter 24 // Story: Crown of Winter // by CartoonNerd12 //------------------------------// As Gem, Screwy, and Moth Ball headed back to the castle, the cousins hung back while the changeling was far ahead of them. "Gem… I'm sorry…" "As I recall, you already apologized to me." "Well, I want to say it again, because I've done you a great wrong." "I forgave you for that, Screwy. All I want now is Seam." "I promise you, the moment we get back, I'll tell him how it was all my doing and how hard you fought back." "I did?" her eyes widened in amazement. "You did… I almost couldn't complete the spell because your subconscious wouldn't allow it. My guess is because you were starting to love, I was able to surpass it. But had you had undying love for Seam, I wouldn't have been able to get through. Love has always triumphed over spells and curses. Look at our Grandpa and Cousin Cadence." "So… if my love for him had been stronger…" "It's like I said, you were starting to love. You got a ways to go to reach our parents' level of love." "And what about you?" "What do you mean?" Gem smirked, "Screwy, for the last couple of days, you have been giving Mothy multiple glances." "What's that got to do with anything?!" "Screw Ball, you can't fool me. I have been in love, so I know what you're feeling toward Moth Ball. And with the two of you having the word 'ball' at the end of your names, I can't help but think he's more than a match for you!" "As in a rival?" "No! Love match!" Her eyes widened and looked toward the changeling. He may be in disguise, but she had memorized every feature of his true self. His eyes… hair… his muscles… She thought with shock, What am I thinking?! "Screwy… The day I met Seam, I felt a connection. Surely, you felt the something like that with Moth Ball?" The Princess of Chaos looked back to when she first saw him. Granted, she pounced on him to the floor, but as she kept staring at him, she felt distracted by his pleading eyes. Then when Zecora reassured them he was good and he told them he felt different from the rest of the changelings, she found a connection. With every moment spent with him since, the connection grew stronger. They had so much in common aside from their names. Both of them had a villain for a parent, though hers was more of an ex-con while his was still a menace to society. But they tried not to follow in their parents' footsteps and repeat their mistakes. They felt different from others as ponies were frightened or uneasy of them. They could be freaks together. Her eyes widened at this revelation and stared at her cousin, who smiled. "…So I spent the last twenty-five years on the run so that Duke Zephyr Breeze couldn't force me to marry him. I've been lucky so far. Even with that bounty over my head, I have not once been caught!" "Have you ever thought of returning to Canterlot?" Cotton asked. "And have my mother turn me over to the stallion I was promised to? No, thank you!" Dignity said, "Remember what we told you? None of this should have happened. You were never supposed to run away from a colt you didn't love. Instead, you were supposed to marry the stallion you loved and have a son." "I want to believe you, but it's a little hard to swallow all at once." "Look, you saved us, so we owe you one. I take it you're getting tired of being on the run a lot." She sighed, "It's true. I was able to hide with the Buffalo tribe in Appleloosa, and in Griffonstone, my old friend Gilda was able to take me in for a while until the other griffins heard about the bounty. I had to get out as quick as possible. I've been just everywhere else in Equestria and I'm running out of places to hide." "What about Dragon Town?" Cotton questioned. "Dragon Town? I didn't think ponies were allowed in there." Jewel said, "They are and you're in luck. We have friends who can hide you out there." She took the lead, "Follow us." Rainbow gave a small smile and followed them. That night in Canterlot castle, after everyone went to sleep, Screw Ball snuck into Moth Ball's room. He was sleeping until she shook him awake. "Huh?" he drowsily said and saw her. "Screw Ball? Is something wrong?" "Come on. I want to show you something." He was confused, but gave in as she led him outside to the moonlit gardens. She explained, "My parents did this with me when I was little." She waved her hoof and fireflies began to gather around her. After she whispered something to them, they went up and started putting on a light show, becoming different shapes and figures. Moth Ball was in awe of the whole thing. Screwy reminisced, "I remember Mom would gather the fireflies and Dad would spell them so he could ask them to make stuff like this and spell stuff out. Most of it was mushy stuff to my mother. I will admit, I admired their love, but I was also jealous… knowing I could never have that, too…" She thought, Until now… Moth Ball asked, "How did your parents fall in love? I know here they didn't, but where you came from…" She smiled, "That's a long story…" She told the tale from their first meeting to their wedding. She was hesitant to tell him how his mother kidnapped her mom and her aunts, but that was part of the story as bad as it was. "Whoa…" was all he could say. She nodded, "It is a bit much, but it all turned all right in the end until this moment…" She gave a sigh, "Our parents' lives were perfect until we had to go and ruin it for them. We acted so horrible to them… we didn't know what we had until we lost it…" "As bad a mistake as it was, I doubt your parents had a perfect life." "It sure seemed like it was… A perfectly perfect life… My parents were happy, in love… now…" Tears welled in her eyes as she hung her head. To her surprise, though, she felt a hoof lifting her chin and had her facing him. Moth Ball wiped her tears away. "It's going to be okay. You and your cousins will find those mirror shards and fix this timeline." She bit her lip as a thought suddenly occurred to her. "Moth Ball, there's something you should know… In my timeline, your mother is imprisoned in her own castle and I… I don't even know if you exist…" He stood silent for a moment and then he finally spoke, "So… there's a chance I won't be around if you fix the timeline?" "It's awful, I know… but we have to fix it. There's no way around it." "But there's also a chance I could still exist?" "I say you got a 50/50 chance, and I really hope one of those 50's allows you to exist in my timeline." "You said you met my mother once. How did you?" "Again, that's a long story…" She told him all about the time the darkness covered all of Equestria. "But… you never saw me?" "I don't see how we could. All we had was that peep hole and your mother was hogging the view." That made him chuckle. "That's Mom, all right. Always the center of attention…" "Mothy- uh, Moth Ball…" "It's okay, you can call me Mothy. Just make sure it's only you, though who does…?" He slightly blushed. This made her smile, "And you can call me Screwy if you like." "Screwy… I like that." "Anyway, Mothy, I don't want to fix the timeline knowing we would lose a good friend because of it…" His eyes widened, "I'm… your friend?" "Of course, you are!" She secretly thought, Though I want to be more than friends with you… I just hope you don't want to friend-zone me for long… Moth Ball was touched. He never had a friend before unless he counted Zecora, but their relationship was more like that of a mentor and student. This time, he had someone who was his age, had much in common with, and could hold an actual conversation with without the rhymes. He ended up staring at her. How was it possible that this halfling knew how to make him so happy? Everything felt so right when he was by her side. He felt the thumping again and touched his chest. She noticed the worry on his face, "What's wrong?" "Oh, it's just something I had when I was young. It's nothing." "Something's wrong with your heart?" "Heart? I don't have a heart." "I don't think so…" She cupped his face and moved his head to her chest. There he felt the thumps just like in his body. He slowly looked up. "You mean… I really do have a heart?" "Yes. I heard it when you comforted me when we saw my father in stone… You truly thought you didn't have a heart before?" "I thought the thumping was some sort of condition because when I asked my mother about it, she was confused." "Probably because she never had a heart herself." "All changelings don't have hearts. How I got one is beyond me." "I remember you telling Aunt Twilight about a royal changeling having to control the Hive. Is that what you are? You are the queen's son, thus making you a prince." "There are two types of changelings. The royal changeling is what my mother and I are, and regular changelings are the ones that are part of the Hive and Mother's army, which the queen gives birth to for herself. A royal changeling… well, it requires another creature's DNA." "So… you have a father?" "I did. I don't know who he is, but Mother tells me he's not important since I was created and that's all that matters." "Do you think you could ever find him?" "I doubt it. It was such a long time ago and Mother doesn't remember her… ex-lovers?" She quickly said, "Perhaps we should move on to something else." "That's good enough for me. So is it my turn to ask a question?" "Go ahead." "Aside from having powers and being a princess from a different timeline, what is it you do?" "Well, I sing and dance. I read comic books and sometimes romance novels, only if they're good like The Survival Sports, The Picking, and Dusk. I help my mom keep track of the animals in our castle gardens. I hang out with my cousins, but lately… we haven't hung out much… Ever since the proclamation, we were seeing less and less of each other… It wasn't until the time-travel stuff happened that we actually got to see and talk to each other again." "I know how that feels… In the Hive, there are over thousands of changelings, but hardly any of them would talk to me…" "So what is it you do?" "Lately? Well, I mostly help Zecora with her potions and luckily, I have a great sense of smell. I can tell the difference between a bad ingredient and a good ingredient so that the ponies she helps get the best treatment. Before that, when I lived in the Hive, I practiced transformations per Mother's orders. Because in the Hive we train, we don't play around." "How awful! At least you can have fun now. Hey! We should play something tomorrow!" "Like what?" "Don't worry, I'll think of something. Now, I'm curious about that great sense of smell of yours. If you have that, what do I smell like?" He took a sniff of her mane, causing her to blush while containing her giggles. "Smells like… cotton candy, fresh flowers, and… chocolate." "So basically, a lot of sweet stuff…" She hung her head, "I have got to be the most awful pony in the world…" "Why do you say that?" "Because…" she sighed, "I-I hypnotized one of my best friends and closest cousins… and I made her break up with the colt she loved…" "Gemstone…" "Yes." "But why?" "I was jealous of her having somepony to love. As a matter of fact, I was jealous of all my cousins for having someone. I didn't know Jewel had someone all along, but once I found out, my jealousy further consumed me…" "But that has changed… hasn't it?" She nodded her head. "I know, because I can feel it. Your feelings toward me have grown." Her eyes widened, "You knew?" "Changelings can sense when a pony is falling in love. But I was careful to not feed on your love by accident." "You could never do that…" "How do you know that for sure?" "Because when I look into your eyes, I can tell you're not evil… You could never hurt any of us…" "I don't want to… I really don't want to…" She took his hoof, "Moth Ball, you know my feelings, but I don't know yours… Could you feel the same way I do to you?" He pondered on this and softly said, "I know what love is, but I don't know how to express it… And the thing is… I want to express it… to you…" She leaned in and kissed his cheek, taking him completely by surprise. She softly replied, "Maybe I can teach you…"