• Published 31st Jul 2018
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A Queen's Perspective - Friendship Games - gerandakis



The actions of her counterpart prompt Queen Twilight Sparkle to visit her friends at CHS once more.

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Stories beyond the Pages

Emerging from the swirling vortex of the portal, Queen Twilight took a short moment to get her bearings.

She stood on the small pedestal of the crystal mirror. The chamber where the mirror was situated was located deep within the heart of the Phoenix, sitting in line with the main engine room further to the back and the bridge all the way at the front. The room itself had a tall ceiling since it spanned over two decks of the ship. There were doors to her left and right leading to the lower of the two decks and stairs on the opposite side of the room lead up onto a raised platform.

The two flights of stairs curved around in a manner that reminded her of an old manor house. On the platform itself, overlooking the lower level and the portal and before a door leading to the upper of the two decks, sat the Gatekeeper, the machine she had designed together with Ratchet. The crystal cluster at it's back still shot a bright beam of magenta into the horseshoe shaped structure above the mirror itself.

Stepping down from the pedestal, Twilight looked up to the engineer that stood watch at the Gatekeeper's control console. <Mirrored, shut it down for now, I'll go fetch the Journal. It's time we gave our little project a proper test.> Mirrored Veil was the head of the small team of engineers that knew how to operate the Gatekeeper. All of them had been personally picked and instructed for the job by Ratchet himself.

<As you wish, my Queen.> Mirrored lit up his horn and pulled a large lever on the far left of the console. The beam hitting the portal dimmed and thinned until it faded entirely and the portal itself went from being a swirling vortex back to being a simple mirror, if a rather impressive one.

Trotting up one of the staircases leading up to the platform, Twilight made to leave. She gave a glance at the gleaming gemstone embedded into the front of the Gatekeeper. The machine was spooling down at this point, the small wisps of steam that constantly came of it grew ever fewer in number. Twilight walked past Mirrored Veil and though the door behind him, leaving via the upper one of the two decks that held the portal chamber.

A few minutes of leisurely walking through the numerous hallways and rooms of her hive ship brought Twilight to her personal chambers. She took several moments to look out of the window, gazing upon the city that was once her home. Canterlot lay there, gleaming in the midday sun, a masterpiece of art and craftsponyship, to rival the masterwork of technology and engineering that now floated above it in lazy circles. She smiled nostalgically as she remembered her foalhood in this city, but those thoughts lead to thoughts of her mother which shattered her tranquil mood. Shaking her head, she banished the thoughts for the time being and refocused on the task at hoof.

Stepping up to the expansive shelf, she took out one book in particular. Leatherbound yet light the magical tome floated to her in the glow of her magic. She then turned to another, smaller, shelf that wasn't meant for books. The journal before her was joined by three small, flat boxes of polished wood from trees native to the Cresnox Jungle. She looked them over, the brass clasps and hinges, the polished wooden surfaces, the inlays in the shape of three symbols. A brilliant cut gemstone overtop a treble clef, a five pointed star overlaying a quarter pause and a single, elaborate note overlaying a heart. Finally she let her gaze wander over the three names engraved beneath the symbols, Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk.

She chuckled lightly, thinking back at some of her more artistic children getting a little carried away with these. Then she grabbed a pair of saddlebags from a third shelf, packed the journal and the boxes in one and filled various odds and ends into the other. Finally she was satisfied and placed them on her back before making her way back to the portal chamber.


As she arrived Mirrored Veil, who had sat himself down near the Gatekeeper, quickly got up. <Do you have everything, my Queen?>

<I do. Let's test this thing, shall we?>

<As you wish.> Mirrored walked up to the console and tweaked a few levers and dials before, once more, moving the large lever on the left upwards. Wisps if steam and soft hissing noises came from the machine before a thin beam of magenta, much finer and dimmer than the one that had kept open the portal earlier, shot out from the crystal cluster. Just like before the beam hit the upper part of the mirror frame. Unlike the last time however there was no large swirling vortex. For a moment it looked like nothing would happen, then a small point of glowing magenta formed in the center of the mirror, wisps of light spiraling and spinning around it.

Twilight trotted up to the portal and lit her horn, using both her eyes and her magic to scan the portal. After a few moments of silent observation, she turned away from the portal, satisfied it would do its job. The conduit mode was one of her new modifications to the Gatekeeper. It should serve to keep the portal open just far enough to let the hive mind through, but not so far that anything else could traverse it. In retrospect, leaving the portal wide open the last time she'd visited had been terribly careless.

Twilight then walked back towards the platform, but rather than walk up one of the stairs to get there, she walked between both of them, to a small alcove directly beneath the Gatekeeper. There sat a brass ring, runes carved along it's inside, mounted to the sides of the small alcove. In it's center sat a brass lectern attached to the wall behind it. She smiled as she gazed upon the result of her research into improving upon the spellwork of an ancient unicorn. Combining an arcane portal with her interdimensional adaption of Haycartes' bookwalking technique was one of her most complicated feats of magic to date. She turned to a control console to her right and moved a few levers. Crystal arrays surrounding the ring whirred to life and began softly glowing. Pulses of light came from the runes engraved in the ring as the machine was idling. Smiling as her creation sprung to life, Twilight reached into her saddlebag and pulled out the journal. She then grabbed a nearby quill, opened the journal to its newest page and wrote a single line.

'We're ready here, what about you?'


Sunset shimmer had just arrived at the barn as the book in her bag began vibrating. It just so happened that her flat was on the opposite side of town from the apple farm, hence she arrived last. She took the book out of her bag and looked over the message.

With a smile she walked over to a crate, greeting her friends in the process. She pulled the same collapsible lectern out of her bag she had used last time.

"Everyone ready?"

The others looked among each other at that. Finally Applejack spoke up.

"Uhh ... ready fer what exactly?"

"Well, I'm not entirely sure myself, but if my guess is correct, we may want to step back a little." The others were slightly taken aback by that, especially Twilight, but nodded nonetheless.

Smiling, Sunset opened the journal again and, just like last time wrote a single word.

'Ready.'

She then placed the book in the lectern and stepped back to join her friends.

For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, then, four points of ink appeared in a magenta glow. each only a short distance away from the corner of the free page next to the one Queen Twilight and Sunset had been writing on. Lines flowed from them, connecting them into the four corners of a rectangular frame. Another four lines then flowed inwards from the corners, spiraling towards the center. The moment they reached it and touched together, there was a flash of light.

When the girls could see again, there was a shimmering vortex of magenta light sitting in the ink-drawn frame.

For a moment it simply sat there, swirling, then it began glowing, brighter and brighter, until wisps of magenta began flowing out of it, very few at first but then more and more until a veritable stream of magenta was flowing out of the small portal. As they came flowing out of the portal, the lights began assembling before it into a vaguely equine shape.

After about ten seconds, the portal stopped spewing out more wisps, and the ones that were still floating about joined into the shape before the portal. The glowing equine shape then gave off a gleaming flash of light, before the glow faded.

Before them stood Queen Twilight Sparkle. In her natural shape. She looked around, looked herself over and finally turned back to the portal, still swirling in the book behind her. Her smooth, curved horn lit up with a gentle magenta glow with occasional flashes of orange, and she stared intently at the portal. After a few seconds, she gave a pleased smile. "Looks like everything went to plan. Wonderful. Hi girls."

That finally snapped the others out of their awe-induced stupor. Sunset, having seen portal magic before, was the first to recover. She ran up to Twilight and hugged her tightly. It was a rather awkward hug given that the changeling queen was about the size of a fully grown horse of this world, if with somewhat different proportions.

The others soon managed to recover as well and managed to enclose Queen Twilight in a massive group hug. The only one who was still staring incredulously, was the Twilight of this world.

Queen Twilight, noticing that, gave her a warm, almost motherly, smile. "Don't worry, I don't bite." She turned to Sunset. "What about the sirens? Can they come?"

It was Rainbow that answered. "I managed to catch Aria. She'll find the others and get them here, but they'll be a while." She looked Twilight over and smirked. "So this is how you look back in horse land, huh? Neat."

Queen Twilight rolled her eyes. "Yes, Dash, this is my natural form."

Once the group hug dissolved, Applejack rushed off, saying something about being right back and Apple Family hospitality. The others settled on various cushions save for Fluttershy who had now gone from hugging the sole changeling queen in the room to petting her, and said queen herself, who was hence a bit distracted and too big for the cushions anyway.

Letting the animal lover do her thing – she had to admit that it was quite pleasant – Queen Twilight turned to her counterpart. "So Twilight, it would seem some explanations are in order. But first let me ask, how much did they already tell you?"

The prospect of learning about things she never even knew existed, pushed away what little fear Twilight still had. "Well, Rarity and Fluttershy told me about Equestria, that it's a land inhabited by ponies and abundant with magic, that the sun and the moon are moved magically instead of moving on their own, that there are three tribes of ponies with different abilities, that both you and Sunset come from there and that almost everyone here has a counterpart over there, which is what I assume the two of us are."

The queen gave a gentle smile and an approving nod. "Good, it seems you got the basic rundown of the Ponies and Equestria, I guess that leaves it to me to explain changelings."

They were interrupted by Applejack returning, holding a large blanket under one arm. "Here, now you can sit down like everyone else, can't just have ya keep standin' an' I don't want you liyin' on the floor."

Queen Twilight gratefully sat down on the blanket as Applejack laid it down on the floor. "Thank you. It's good to know you share your counterpart's sense for the Apple Family's hospitality."

She settled on the blanket, comfortably lying down so she was no longer towering over everyone else in the barn. Once she was comfortable, she turned to Twilight. "Now, where was I? Ah right, changelings."

"Well I was once a pony, a unicorn to be exact, personal student to Princess Celestia. -"

"You mean Principal Celestia."

"No, Twilight, I mean Princess Celestia, beyond the mirror, the counterpart of Principal Celestia here is the ruler of Equestria, a being of practically unmatched power, several thousand years old and with control over the sun."

"Uhh, ..."

"Yeah, I know. Now to get back to the point. At some point I found an old legend, the legend of Nightmare Moon, of another pony that once ruled alongside Celestia, nearly matched her in age and power and controlled the Moon before she was corrupted by her jealousy of Celestia and tried to take over, forcing Celestia to banish her to the Moon, using a set of six ancient artifacts called the Elements of Harmony. Unfortunately, it seemed like the thousand years of her banishment were running out and she would soon return."

The changeling Queen kept explaining. The discovery of the Elements, the purification of Nightmare Moon, the second Rise and Fall of Discord. Then finally she came to the wedding. Explaining ponykind's first official introduction to changelings, the defeat of Chrysalis and her invading force, the offer made by Queen Cadista and Twilight's choice to visit her hive.

Twilight was listening in rapt attention and the other six, though knowing the tales, took careful note of everything she said regardless, as she kept mentioning details to the stories that they were unfamiliar with.

"Unfortunately, on our way through the Jungle, our caravan was attacked. That was the first time someone made an attempt on my life."

Twilight looked at her in horror. "Okay, I don't know what I find the most worrying, the fact that someone made an attempt on your life to begin with, the words 'the first time' or the fact that you're so casual about it."

"The Jungles are a hostile place, you get used to it. Anyways, the attackers killed the changelings guarding and guiding the caravan and the royal guard elite defending me. They left me mortally wounded and with the venom of a ghast spider in my veins. The venom on it's own is not too dangerous, painful, but not lethal on it's own. The problematic thing is that it suppresses any form of magical healing. Save one.

"Once a team from Queen Cadista's hive reached me, they brought me back there and the queen made me an offer. You see, there is a form of magic that is exclusive to changelings, especially queens, something called Alchemy. It basically amounts to a magical form of genetic engineering. The pinnacle of alchemy is a process called rebirth, and it was the only way to get around the venom and save my life. The only catch was that I would be turned into a changeling in the process.

"Well, the decision was easy really. I wasn't planning on dying anytime soon. And I had come there to learn about changelings. What better way to do that than to become one. So I agreed."

The others, even those who had heard the story before, looked rather mortified at that pragmatic statement.

"When I woke up I had retrograde amnesia. I still had the memories of my old life, I just couldn't access them for the time being. It took me a few weeks to regain them, that gave me enough time to rebuild my life from the ground up, as a changeling.

"Now after some time to get my bearings and get properly introduced into the hivemind, Mother and I had to visit the Summit of the Queens to discuss how to punish Chrysalis for her transgressions. The other queens weren't exactly happy with her showing changelings off to the world. After the summit was over, I came along with the next trade caravan, to Equestria.

"In Ponyville I was reintroduced first to my friends, then to the population at large. That was when we found out that the Element of Magic still recognized me as it's bearer."

She let out a weary sigh. "Then came Canterlot. That was the second time someone made an attempt on my life. Let's just say, the princess was not amused. I believe her exact words were 'Twilight, would you be so kind as to show me who here isn't going to be executed for treason?'."

Many of the others looked a bit scared after hearing of that reaction, but Sunset interjected, "Well they did just try to kill someone who was not only a personal friend of the Princess but also technically a foreign diplomat. That alone qualifies as high treason."

"Well anyway, there are some more things that happened, but Sunset can get you caught up on those."

The girl in question nodded. "I'll make sure of that, but I suppose it's time to explain my theory to you. In short I think the reason for the physical changes you're experiencing is that, when you opened that little device of yours, you were touched by Equestrian magic, that caused you to more closely mirror what happened to your counterpart in Equestria."

Queen Twilight thought about the matter, "Yes, that makes sense, it could explain some of the discrepancies we found."

Sunset was about to answer, launching into a discussion about magic on the spot, but was interrupted as in that moment, there was a knock on the door.