//------------------------------//
// Chapter Thirty-One: Reformation 
// Story: STAR WARS / FiM: Realms of the Heavens 
// by Tathem_Relag 
//------------------------------//

Canterlot Castle
7:42 P.M.

Seventy-four naked humans were assembled in one of the castle’s many large chambers. Most had their hands tied behind their backs, though some were missing one or more limbs and were allowed to simply mill about. Under heavy guard, of course. Even the crippled ones had made it perfectly clear that they had no intentions of being well-behaved during their internment. A few, upon the opening of their cells, had tried to fight through the guards and escape – with absolutely no success.
They had all lost weight, their once-pronounced musculatures fading away. The oatmeal, apples, and salads they had been fed didn’t seem to have done much more than stave off starvation. A veterinarian had been brought in, and she had recommended supplementing their diet with meat. The fish seemed to help a little, but without knowledge of the humans’ normal diets, nothing more could be done for them. The humans, in a shocking display of disregard for their own lives, had steadfastly refused to give up that information. When they spoke, it was only to hurl abuse at the guards.
The ponies, for their part, only interacted with their prisoners at feeding times. They were just glad that the humans had started willingly eating after the first week. At first, the humans had to be force-fed, as they refused to so much as touch what they called “an insultingly karking obvious attempt at giving us truth serum,” whatever that was. They had eventually given up when their attempts proved utterly futile – human jaw muscles weren’t as strong as the telekinetic grip of a unicorn.
The room’s doors creaked open, admitting the Royal Sisters and the Element-Bearers. Twilight took in the looks of hatred in the humans’ dark eyes. They disturbed her to no end. Luna had given a brief overview of the clones’ memories, and Twilight now imagined the humans wearing these same expressions under their emotionless helmets as they both committed and experienced countless atrocities.
One of them glared directly at her. “Hello, Princess Murderer,” he sneered. “Enjoying the show, you blasted psychopath?”
She grimaced. Even though she knew he wasn’t in his right mind, his accusations still hurt. The thought that she might be a bad pony, that she might even have done something that justified her being totally condemned as evil, paralyzed her for an imperceptibly brief instant.
“So, what’s with all this?” a second clone asked. “You deciding which of us get the ‘honor’ of serving in your harems and which of us get thrown to the nexu?”
“What’re we doing here for, then?” a legless trooper retorted.
“Hey, you think it’d be because they’d actually find us satisfying? Naw, it’s a power thing, and you guys are even more powerless than the rest of us.”
“You guys are sick,” a fourth human growled. Twilight briefly thought that he might not be quite as crazy as his colleagues, but his next words dashed those hopes. “What they’re really gonna do is, they’ll pull one of us out at random, torture him to death in front of the rest of us, and keep picking new ‘demonstration assistants’ ’til they either kill all of us or get it through their thick skulls that we ain’t talking.”
“Hah! If any thought gets that far, it’ll just fall out the other side of their heads!”
“That’s enough!” Celestia snapped, ending their repulsive theorizing. “Twilight and her friends are here to help you. They –”
“We don’t want any of your karkin’ ‘help’!”
Celestia sighed. The humans were driving her to do that a lot, she noticed. Her horn glowed, and all of the humans’ jaws clenched, wrapped in a pale golden light. “Now, as I was saying, Princess Luna has discovered the horrors you have lived through. We realize now that you aren’t truly evil creatures, but instead have been twisted by your experiences. Twilight and her friends wield the Magic of Friendship, which can mend even the most broken pony. They’ll heal you, help you understand that holding on to your hate and pain can only lead to a downward spiral of misery and self-inflicted torture. I’m truly sorry we didn’t help you sooner. We couldn’t fully grasp what had shaped you into the pon– ah, people – you are now without seeing it ourselves. But I promise you, we will do everything in our power to ease your pain and help you adapt to a peaceful life. Go ahead, Twilight.” She stepped aside, though she kept their mouths sealed – she had a feeling that any words they intended to say would be less-than-polite.
As the Element-Bearers lined up, the humans did the same, forming themselves into eight rows, six with nine people in them and two with ten. The humans who couldn’t stand on their own supported themselves on those on either side of them, lifted so that their heads were on the same level as the others’. The Magic of Friendship surrounded the Element-Bearers, lifting them into the air and changing them into forms better able to channel its power. The clones stared up at them, their chins held high and fierce determination on their faces. They were then concealed by a huge blast of rainbow light. A few seconds later, the light faded and the Element-Bearers floated down to the floor, returning to their normal forms. Everypony held their breaths as the humans looked around in confusion. Had it worked? Celestia released her grip on their jaws. “How are you feeling?” There was silence for a few seconds, then one clone spoke.
“What the buck was that?”
“That,” Celestia replied, “was the Magic of Friendship. Are you feeling better now?”
“I…” He gave a hesitant smile. “Yes, I… I think I am. The pain’s still there, but it’s… it’s lesser, somehow.”
All the ponies cheered, and Twilight returned his smile. “That’s because you have friends to help you through it – friends who will always be there for you, no matter what.”
“I… I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything. You needed our help, so we gave it to you. It was just the right thing to do.”
Pinkie started bouncing. “I think this calls for a party!”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “You think everything calls for a party, Pinkie. But… yeah, I reckon this is party-worthy.”
“Yippee!”
At that moment, a guard burst into the room. “Your Majesties! The NLR is attacking the castle! They took the perimeter guards by surprise and are pushing across the courtyard! There’s too many of them! We can’t stop them!”
Celestia quickly turned to her sister. “Luna! Try to talk them down!” The Princess of the Night nodded and flew out just before another guard rushed in.
“The SE has risen in a counter-riot! There’s open warfare in the streets! The city’s burning, and with all our forces defending the castle, there’s nothing we can do about it!”
“I’ll be there at once. Twilight, you and your friends should stay here and protect the humans.”
“Oh, come on!” Rainbow protested. “If there’s a fight, I want to be out there kicking flank!”
“This isn’t a battle against the forces of evil,” Celestia admonished her. “These are ordinary ponies, driven to extremes out of fear. Harming them isn’t the way to solve this. They must be shown kindness and love, not anger and violence. Now, remain here. This shouldn’t take long.” With that, she flew off.
“Your Majesty,” the clone who had spoken before asked of Twilight, “is there anything we should do?”
It was weird, having a human address her as “Your Majesty” without any sarcasm in his voice. “No, Celestia told us to stay here, so that’s what we’re going to do. And you can just call me ‘Twilight.’”
“Of course, Your Maj– er, Twilight.”
“Oh! I almost forgot! Let’s get those ropes off of you.”
“Uh, Twilight?” Applejack asked nervously, “are ya sure that’s a good idea? I mean, they did try to kill ya, after all, and they haven’t exactly done anything to prove we can trust ’em.”
“Indeed!” Rarity concurred. “The humans that I’ve dealt with have all been quite brutish. Are we sure they’ve actually changed that much?”
“Hey! You say I’m brutish. Does that mean you don’t trust me?” Rainbow accused.
“No, of course not, darling! But your brutishness is only part of who you are. There’s quite a respectable mare in you, somewhere. I’m not so certain that’s true for the humans.”
“I don’t know if that’s a bigger insult to them, or to me.”
“I was giving you a compliment.”
“Girls! Cut it out!” Twilight scolded them. “We’re the first true friends these humans have ever seen, and what are we doing? Bickering and being distrustful. Is that really the example we want to set for them?”
The three looked down and muttered apologies. A rose-colored aura surrounded the ropes, and they fell off the humans. The clones chorused their appreciation and started rubbing their wrists.
A third guard hurried into the room. “Your Majesty! Princess Luna requests your immediate assistance!”
Twilight hesitated, torn. Celestia had told her to stay here, but if Luna needed help, she couldn’t just abandon her, could she? It only took her a moment to make up her mind. She’d have to apologize to Celestia later. She turned to her friends. “Come on, girls! We –”
Suddenly, the clones’ spokesman seized a spear out of the hooves of the closest guard and slammed it into the side of her head. The other fifty-seven clones who still had all their limbs fell on the other Element-Bearers with their hands and feet, quickly overwhelming them by way of surprise and sheer force of numbers. They then turned to the guards.
“No need to be hasty,” the newest guard said. “We’re on your side.” Waves of green fire flowed across the guards, revealing black, twisted creatures.
“What the kark?!” exclaimed one of the clones. “What in Chaos are you?!”
“Changelings,” the clone spokesman answered. “Apparently, my pony ‘friend’ has a job hunting them. Which doesn’t answer the question: why are you helping us?”
“Because your ‘Inquisitor’ held his light sword thing to our queen’s throat,” it replied, its voice now an insectoid chitter.
A ripple of laughter ran through the assembled clones. “Yeah, that would do it, alright,” their spokesman chortled. “I’m guessing this ‘riot’ is a fabrication?”
The changeling gave something resembling a chuckle. “No it’s real. Of course, we might have had something to do with it…”
“Nice. You do have a plan to get us past the rest of the guards, don’t you? Or have they all been replaced?”
“Just the ones posted in strategic locations. We’re going back down to the caves. We’ll get you your armor back, then head to the escape tunnel.”
“You dug a tunnel through Emperor-knows-how-much rock in less than a month? And without anyone noticing?”
“Just over a day, actually. And we had nothing to do with the tunnel. Apparently, you humans have been busy finding everyone who doesn’t like the ponies and getting them to work for you.”
The clones’ spokesman had no clue what the creature was referring to, but he wasn’t going to question his good fortune. “Okay, we’ve wasted enough time chatting, let’s go.”
“Hey, Colicoid!” one of his brothers called to him. “What about our wounded?”
That brought him up short. In a full retreat situation, official policy was to kill any injured troops who couldn’t keep up on their own. The entire force couldn’t be sacrificed in a futile attempt to save the wounded, and it was better to die by a quick bolt to the head and surrounded by friends than to fall into enemy hands and be tortured. Not to mention that dead men couldn’t give the enemy valuable intel. He himself had looked good friends in the eye and pulled the trigger. As the highest-ranking surviving officer from his battalion, it was his duty to give the order. But he just couldn’t make himself do it – not now, not after everything they had gone through together. “Carry them,” he ordered. “We’re all getting out of this.”





7:58 P.M.

The Royal Sisters stumbled back into the room, exhausted. The rioters had been less-than-reasonable, even when confronted by the Princesses they claimed to support. Most had, eventually, been persuaded to return to their homes and help put out the fires, but some had to be arrested. Unfortunately, the ringleaders of the groups had somehow managed to slip away.
The alicorns had taken a few steps into the room before what they saw fully registered. The Element-Bearers were lying unconscious on the ground, covered in bruises and bumps, and the humans and guardsponies were gone. The sisters quickly galloped over to the battered heroes, reviving them with their magic.
They groaned as they got to their hooves. Twilight shook her head a few times to clear it. “Ce… Celestia?”
“I’m here, Twilight. It’s okay. You’ll be alright.”
“Oh, Celestia… I’m so sorry. I… I guess the Magic of Friendship didn’t help them after all. I don’t understand. How could it fail?”
Celestia looked around at the other Element-Bearers. “On the contrary, Twilight. I think it did quite a lot of good for them.”
“You… you do? How?”
Celestia raised an eyebrow. “You’re all still alive.”