The Changelings Have a King

by Jade Ring

Chapter 17: The Night of the Memorial, Part I - Two Students

The next two days passed with agonizing slowness.

Word spread throughout Equestria about the Changeling invasion, the attack on Ponyville, and the murder of a head of state. Donations and offerings of sympathy came from the four corners of the kingdom and beyond.

In an act of solidarity, it was decided that the memorial service for those who had fallen in Canterlot and the memorial for the ponies of Ponyville would happen on the same day. Twin bonfires would be lit in an act of remembrance and unity.

Foreign dignitaries and heads of state began to arrive in Canterlot the next day. One of the last to arrive was the Empress Cadance, her face hidden by a black veil and her little son carried by an attending nanny as they found their rooms in Canterlot Castle.

In Ponyville, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were met at the train station by Crescendo, who had volunteered to give them the unhappy news about Applebloom, and Scootaloo's parents. They had heard about the death of Spike thanks to his status as assistant to Princess Twilight Sparkle, but had heard nothing of Applebloom's fate. Sweetie Belle's magically enhanced and hysterical screams shattered the few remaining windows in buildings near the train station even as her father tried desperately to calm her. Scootaloo managed to keep her resolve, her sorrow betrayed only by the trembling of her knees and her softly falling tears as she held Bubble Burst and Pepperdance close to her. As destroyed as she was about Applebloom's death, she gave silent thanks to Celestia that her parents had made it out unscathed.

A volunteer crew led by Caramel Apple watched over the bodies of the fallen where they lay in Town Hall until the cemetery could be fully restored and ready to receive them. Already there were whispers of converting the field where the battle had begun into a permanent memorial site.

The orphans, as the collective of former Changelings had taken to being called, were housed with anypony willing to take them in. There were some grumblings, some hostile whispers, but in the end they were taken care of. Most of the younger pegasus ponies were graciously welcomed into the Cloudsdale Home for Wayward Pegasi. Inquiries were made across Equestria seeking the parents of those colts and fillies who had been snatched and converted by the Changeling horde. The adults were taken into custody by the Royal Guards and transported to Canterlot to be questioned and ultimately released.

Diamond Tiara Rich was also taken into custody after documentation was found in her father's office that strongly implied that he had previous knowledge of the attack. After almost a day of tense interrogation, she was released, found totally innocent of her father's misdeeds, but the damage had already been done in the court of public opinion. The teenage earth pony returned from Canterlot to find her family manor vandalized. Magical graffiti burned violently bright on her door; COLLABORATOR.

Rarity retreated into Carousel Boutique, refusing to see anypony save for her daughter. The Cake Twins fought bitterly against being taken from Lyra and Bon Bon Heartstrings.

The Apple Family buried Applebloom in the old orchard in a small, private ceremony. A fourth headstone joined those belonging to Jack, Beatrice, and Granny Smith Apple.

Finally, on the appointed night, the twin bonfires were lit.

In Canterlot, Shining Armor was interred in a great marble tomb in the castle's Memorial Gardens with full military honors. A statue, shockingly flawless given its rapid production, stood at eternal attention over where his casket would lay for all time. His black-clad sons and veil draped widows used their magic to bear him into his final resting place as Captain Golden Haze herself played 'Taps' on the ceremonial bugle, tears streaming down her face.

Night Light and Twilight Velvet, the prince's parents, held each other and wept silently.

Princess Celestia watched, her face a stoic mask; a symbol of strength and resolve for all of Equestria.

Of Princess Twilight Sparkle, there was no sign.

In Ponyville, after the traditional Speaking of the Names, Spike was granted the honor of being the first to be buried. Rarity, draped in a gown the color of a starless night, sat silently beside his casket as pony after pony came by to pay their respects. Light from enchanted candles glinted off her one piece of jewelry; a heart-shaped ruby set in a chain around her slim neck.

Crescendo, Dimmy, Sweetie Belle, and Rarity herself acted as pall-bearers. Their magic carried the boxed dragon across the way and into a newly dug grave in the center of the cemetery. Crescendo delivered the eulogy, his words fading seamlessly halfway through the speech into a song of loss and sadness that reduced the sizable crowd to tear-soaked wrecks. Rarity managed to hold herself together until the dirt began to fall and then spirited herself away back to her boutique.

Of Princess Twilight Sparkle, there was no sign.

After the first funerals, casks of wine and cider were broken into and had their contents spilled into waiting glasses. Toasts were made and stories were told.

In Ponyville and Canterlot, those left behind began to find their way towards the path of living once again.

High above the twin bonfires, hiding in the clouds, hovered a solitary hot air balloon.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Twilight's magic refilled her glass with blood-red wine and she raised it in a toast to Canterlot. "Good-bye Shining Armor. I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you. You were the best big brother anypony could have asked for." She drained the glass in a gulp and hastily refilled it. She held it aloft again, this time towards Ponyville. "Good-bye Spike. I'm sorry I let you down as well. I'm sorry I never apologized for all those years of treating you like an indentured servant." She drained the glass again and refilled it a third time. She stared into the liquid and watched as one of her tears fell into it. She saw the flash of a stray bolt of heat lightning and smelled the resulting ozone. "And a toast to Twilight Sparkle." She sniffled. "She lost two brothers in the space of an hour and wasn't able to save either of them." She elected to just sip from the glass this time and found a chuckle somewhere inside her. "What I wouldn't give for that time travel spell right about now."

"I'm rather glad you don't, actually."

Twilight turned to find that she wasn't as alone in the balloon's basket as she'd originally believed. A unicorn stallion stood before her, his coat and mane a deep black. An hourglass cutie-mark emblazoned on his flank broke the infinite darkness of him only slightly. He smiled at her gently, his silver eyes kind and concerned.

A raven was perched on his back, preening itself absentmindedly.

"Who are you?" She asked carefully, eying the bottle of wine. She had only just started drinking, far too early to be hallucinating.

"Nevermore!" The raven cawed.

"Hush, Lenore." The unicorn clicked his tongue at the bird and looked back at the alicorn. "But she's right. My name is Nevermore... and I have waited a very long time to meet you, Princess Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight narrowed her eyes. "How did you get up here?"

Nevermore winked. "You think you're the only student of a princess who learned the teleportation spell?"

"Student?" Twilight relaxed somewhat. "You're from the School?"

"You could say that." Nevermore sat down and motioned at the bottle of wine. "Planning on drinking that all yourself?"

Twilight briefly considered. She had no idea who this pony was or how he had come to be in her balloon. But something about him seemed to allay her suspicions.

Besides, it was terribly unhealthy to drink alone.

She shrugged and conjured a second glass. She sat down opposite her strange visitor and watched him carefully. "Why are you here?" She asked as she filled both glasses and floated one over. "Come to see the Princess of Friendship drown her sorrows?"

Nevermore nodded in thanks as his own magic took the glass. "I wish I could tell you that I'm only here to share your wine and trade stories of your departed brothers. I'm sad to say I'm here on rather serious business."

"Do tell."

"Indeed I shall. But first, a toast." He raised the glass. "To Spike the Brave and Shining Armor the Defender. May their names echo through the centuries."

Twilight clinked her glass against his and drank.

Nevermore sipped his own wine briefly before raising it for his pet to dip her beak in. "Twilight... may I call you Twilight?"

She waved him off as she refilled her glass.

"Twilight... you heard me say that I'm glad you don't have access to any time travel spells. Do you know why?"

She shrugged.

"Because you would be able to undo all the hard work my Guild has done." He inhaled deeply before draining the glass and looking back at her. "You see, I'm a member of an organization dedicated to the defense of the Timelines. For the past few years, we have dedicated ourselves to this one and this one alone because somepony... something... has been manipulating it to send it towards a terrible calamity that will cause it to cease to exist. To counteract this future, we have been manipulating events and removing certain ponies to morph the flow of the Timeline in the hope that we will be able to stop this monster that seeks to destroy everything that ever is, was, or shall be."

Twilight stared at him with emotionless eyes. "So you're an insane pony. Wonderful."

He looked at her, unamused. "I can prove it to you."

"How?"

He swirled the last few drops of wine in his glass. "I can tell you something that nopony else could possibly know."

Twilight smirked and made to refill her glass. "Go ahead." She chuckled. "Let me guess; you know about some embarrassing incident from my school days? That won't prove much. I'm pretty sure Lyra told the whole school about that time she caught me making out with my pillow..."

Nevermore set his glass aside. "I know that two days ago you were tricked into allowing something sinister to steal an artifact of untapped power."

Twilight's glass shattered as her jaw dropped. "How did you...?"

"We've taken to calling him the Emissary of Shadows. He's been popping up here and there, meddling with our efforts to shift the Timeline. It would appear that whoever or whatever our adversary is, he is not working alone." Nevermore sighed. "What I wouldn't give to know who that pest really is."

"Nevermore!" Lenore cawed once again.

"Hush, Lenore." The unicorn chuckled. "Blasted birds are supposed to be intelligent. This one just keeps repeating my name."

Twilight was still staring at him. "So... you really can travel through time?"

He nodded.

Twilight swallowed. "Can you...?"

"No." Nevermore sighed, knowing that she would be asking this exact question. "I'm sorry to tell you that these events must remain as they are."

"I'm not asking you to change everything!" Twilight jumped to her hooves. "But if you could take me back, then I could warn myself! I could stay in Ponyville and be there when the Changelings attacked! I could save Spike! I could stop the Changelings there! And then Shining Armor..."

"What if I told you yes?" Nevermore held out a hoof. "But on the sole condition that you could only save one? Who would you choose?"

Twilight sat down again. "...what?"

""Who would you save; Spike or Shining Armor? What about the Cakes? Why not one of them? I'm sure Pound or Pumpkin would love to know how you reached that decision. Why not Cheerilee? Why should generations of Ponyville's children be denied her teaching?" He raised his eyebrows. "What about Applebloom?"

Twilight's head sunk. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I learned a long time ago that changing events that are set in stone can be disastrous, and nothing is more set in stone than death. That seems to be the one thing that Timelines simply refuse to budge on. If a pony is meant to die, then they have to die." Nevermore sighed. "It kills me that my Guild's manipulations may have led to any of these deaths, Twilight. I will never truly know who would have lived or died during these events had we left everything alone." He took a deep, steadying breath and looked at her with new determination. "But we do these things for the greater good. And, in the end, I have to have faith that we're doing the right thing."

Tears ran down Twilight's face. "But I could help them. I could help all of them."

"You can't tell yourself that, Twilight." Nevermore crossed the basket and sat beside her. "Believe me, You will drive yourself crazy."

Twilight sniffled and wiped her eyes. "I know. It just hurts." A sob wracked her chest. "It hurts so bad!"

Nevermore wrapped a foreleg around her shoulders and held the Princess of Friendship as she cried.

"At... at least the worst is over, right?" She tried to recover from the latest crying fit. "Now we can rebuild and..." She looked and saw the dark look on Nevermore's face. "What is it?"

Nevermore blinked slowly. "You asked me why I told you everything I did. Let me ask you this; why do you think I've told you everything I have? Why would I reveal the Guild's existence to you? Why would I tell you about all of our plans and manipulations?"

The answer hit Twilight like a bolt of lightning. "Because... because I'm one of the ponies you're removing from the Timeline?"

Nevermore hesitated... then nodded.

Twilight pulled away from Nevermore and pushed him away from her. "But why? And why do you think I would willingly leave for anything at this point? I'm sure you and this 'Guild' mean well, but I already let my friends down once. I already lost my brothers, for pony's sake! Why in the wide, wide world of Equestria would I leave now? Now, when they need me the most?" She gestured at him. "Because you just told me 'it's for the best?'"

"No. Because the worst isn't over, Twilight." Nevermore stood as he looked at her sadly. "A dark cloud comes for Ponyville in her darkest hour. Your friends are about to be tested by a struggle unlike any they've faced before. This is only the beginning. The only way they can emerge victorious is if they grow stronger. And, sadly, they can't get stronger with you around."

Twilight stared at him. "What's going to happen?"

"I can't tell y..."

"WHAT?!" She snapped at him. Magic crackled at the tip of her horn. "WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN?!"

Nevermore made no move to defend himself. "Four of your friends remain in Ponyville. Each has been touched by this disaster and each will be tested by what comes next. Rarity has lost her love, but must decide if her loss will consume her. Fluttershy must confront the source of the latent darkness in her very being. Rainbow Dash must face the strongest enemy of them all; herself. And Applejack..." Nevermore spared a look to Ponyville. "Applejack must come to terms with her destiny. She must face her trial by fire and be reborn as the leader she was always meant to be." The unicorn looked back the princess. "And none of them will be able to overcome their tests if they have you to fall back on. A storm is coming, Twilight... but you will not be here to see it."

Twilight scoffed. "That's ridiculous. I'm not going anywhere."

Nevermore's horn lit with magic. "I had a feeling you would be wary. That's why I have someone on stand-by who might be able to convince you."

Twilight looked away as a bright light erupted from Nevermore's horn. Again she smelled lightning and finally understood how Nevermore had arrived on her balloon. "I seriously doubt you have anypony who could convince me to abandon my friends in the time of their greatest need."

"He's right, Twilight."

Twilight's breath fled her lungs at the sound of the pony's voice. She spun and stared in amazement. "That... that's not possible. You..."

"...were removed." Nevermore finished for her. He smiled at the newly arrived pony. "And not permanently. Both of you will be returned to this Timeline when the time is right."

Twilight was still gaping at the pony. "But... but... how?"

"It's kind of a long story." The pony smiled gently. "But I promise you I'll tell you the whole thing if you come with us." The pony sighed and looked at Ponyville. "It hurts me too, Twilight. Knowing that we can't be there for them. But Nevermore's right; it has to be this way." The pony winked at her. "You know if there's anypony you could trust, it's me."

Twilight stood on shaky hooves. Her magic grabbed the wine bottle and she drained it in several long pulls.

Nevermore stared, more amazed than anything.

The other pony couldn't help but giggle.

"Nevermore!" Quoth the raven.

"Yes I know, Lenore. We're going." The unicorn looked at the princess who was again looking towards Ponyville. "Aren't we?"

Twilight sighed, closed her eyes... and nodded. "For the best, right?" She muttered.

"Splendid." Nevermore began casting the spell once again. "Now, brace yourself; the first time tends to be a bit, uh, wobbly."

Twilight said nothing. She felt a foreleg encircle hers and looked at the other pony now standing beside her. She smiled as the tears came again. "It really is you, isn't it? I can... I can feel it."

The mare smiled at her friend. "The one and only."

Twilight pulled her first friend into a bear hug, breathing in the smell of her mane. It smelled of pure sugar, just as it had always smelled. The mare returned the hug just as tightly.

As the dome of the Time Spell lowered onto the three ponies and one bird, Twilight's whispered one sentence into the mare's ear. The sentence echoed in the empty hot balloon basket as the transport floated off into the night, now unmanned and at the mercy of the winds of fate.

"I missed you so much... Pinkie Pie."

Comments

[Vic Fontaine]

Wait-- wha- How?

[Sabin]

well son of a bitch.....

[Yami Vizzini]

...Oh jeez, where was Scootaloo all this time? (I suppose Sweetie was at school, none the wiser.)

Fluttershy must confront the source of the latent darkness in her very being.

Being abandoned? Neither we nor she know much else about her "source"....

So now something is trying to destroy the timeline, beyond an impersonal domino effect from one saved foal... either Nevermore's actions somehow enabled this thing, or it manipulated him from the beginning? Well, at least Twilight isn't hanging around, she can't very well blow everything up.

I should have known we hadn't seen the last of the Pink One. This on top of Belial implying there was something different about her- something that genuinely should have led to her early death... well, all will be revealed someday, no doubt. And I'm guessing Rainbow and the others similarly needed to do without her in order to strengthen themselves for the storms to come?

[Flisky]

Celestia damned time travel.

Well played!

[Jade Ring]

7504642

And I'm guessing Rainbow and the others similarly needed to do without her in order to strengthen themselves for the storms to come?

Correctamundo. We must be broken before we can be rebuilt.

[Aatxe360]

Terrible Plot Device. Pinkie Pie both dying and being removed from the timeline is non sequitur. And Twilight just disappearing will have the others calling for a large search that will be disruptive in this phase of rebuilding.

[Jade Ring]

7504808 The Pinkie situation has such an obvious answer, I'm genuinely surprised that no one has even guessed it yet. I hesitate being cryptic (and I will gladly PM you the answer if you'd like) but believe me; Pinkie Pie did indeed die... And then she was removed.

As to the Twilight situation, I don't think there'll be a search. Don't you think the Guild would have taken that into consideration?

[Yami Vizzini]

7504805
7505157 Which would makes sense only if Pinkie did die but- on her own- didn't stay dead....

[Triforce of Doom]

*gets to the end*
SON OF A- Really should have guessed before the name drop happened. Nice foreshadowing with the casket.