The long, forlorn note of a war horn echoed throughout the valley leading up to the Storm King’s fortress, shaking dust from the crags and jagged spires on either side. A dark horde of storm creatures had formed a defensive line up ahead in the valley, the remnants of his empire in service of whoever had seen fit to take control in the power vacuum resulting from his defeat.
Twilight watched from atop a rocky tor in the middle of the valley, which rose from the dry riverbed of gravel and sparse grass like the bow of a sunken ship at a gentle incline, granting her a near-panoramic view of the soon-to-be battlefield.
The clouds hung thick and heavy over the shadowy fortress itself, but the skies remained clear all around it, and the sun shone with almost cheerful intensity and warmth. Changelings, yaks and ponies of every tribe garbed in azure plate barding of the Crystal Empire marched to the lively beat of drums, flowing around Twilight’s rocky perch like an army of ants.
Suddenly, the drums ceased, and the imperial legion came to a halt with the crunch of gravel, forming a line that seemed to stretch from one side of the valley to the other. Their crystal armour and the tips of their spears gleamed in the sun whilst their banners waved in the gentle breeze. Not one of the soldiers said a word.
“Glorious, isn’t it?” said Cadance.
Twilight turned to her right with an incredulous question forming on the tip of her tongue, but she snapped her mouth shut when she saw that it wasn’t Cadance.
The mare in question was nearly as tall as Twilight, though a bit slimmer at the hips. Her light pink coat had the shine of lavish care, and her purple and blue curls almost reached her shoulders, faintly sparkling and waving with innate magic. She wore an intricate tiara of shimmering crystal, and she carried herself with all the noble poise of a princess surveying all that she owned before her.
Then, Twilight looked into her opal eyes and instantly recognised her niece. “Flurry Heart? You’re all grown up! What’s going on here?”
Flurry Heart ignored her. She didn’t even show any sign of having heard her.
“It is indeed glorious, Your Highness,” said a smooth, oily voice from behind Twilight.
Twilight spun around and leapt out of the way just in time to avoid bumping muzzles with the changeling trotting up to her. He was tall and lanky, with black, holey chitin, a long, jagged horn and diaphanous wings of dark violet hues. The rest of him drastically deviated from typical changeling traits; he had long, magenta hair which he’d tied up into a slick ponytail, his teal eyes had actual pupils – though of the slit variety, and he wore a variant of Crystal Empire armour which had ornate runes etched into the plating, minus the helmet. He also had a sheathed sword attached to his barding.
Another changeling came after him and stood by Flurry’s other side. She was about the same height as Twilight, and she had a colour scheme that was identical to the male changeling’s, in addition to wearing similar armour. Unlike him, however, she had her mane done up as a spiky pixie-cut and kept her tail cropped short. She also had piercings – all the piercings. Twilight never would’ve dreamed of seeing a changeling who wanted to add more holes to their body, but there she was, staring at an arsenal of studs and rings inserted into practically every available stretch of soft tissue in the changeling’s ears, brows, lips and even the base of her wings.
Twilight frowned. These couldn’t be their offspring, could they?
Flurry regarded the newcomers with a smile. “Exsanguinatus, Asphyxia. My most trusted captains. Is everyone in position for the final assault?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. Yup. Definitely their kids…
“Everything is in order, Your Highness. Just say the word, and we’ll flatten the lot of them,” said Asphyxia with a bloodthirsty grin. Her scratchy voice sounded like she ate razor blades for breakfast.
“As she said,” Exsanguinatus affirmed with a slow nod. “I look forward to savouring our victory in the fabled halls of the Storm King’s palace. I also hope his personal library is better stocked than the one in the previous fort we captured…”
“Ooh, this is so exciting. I can’t wait!” cried Flurry Heart as she pulled the two of them close for a group hug. They glowed and almost seemed to visibly swell with power in her embrace, and upon releasing them, Flurry rubbed her hooves together and grinned menacingly at the Storm King’s army as she cried, “Go forth, and show them what we’re made of! Soon, the last of these barbarians will fall to the might and harmony of the Crystal Empire, and all will kneel before us as besties!”
Asphyxia drew her sword with blue magic, pointed it forward and bellowed, “March, sons and daughters of the Crystal Empire! For the Empress!”
Exsanguinatus then took his war horn and blew out a long, booming note that reverberated across the valley.
In spite of herself, Twilight felt her heart swell with restless courage and determination as the soldiers marched forward with brisk and heavy steps, filling the air with the thunderous staccato of hooves and clanking armour. She even had to swallow the furious battle cry working its way up her throat and force herself to refrain from joining the assault as the twins brandished their weapons and flitted away to lead the charge from the air.
Meanwhile, Flurry Heart, Empress of the Crystal Empire watched from her vantage point with a smirk on her muzzle and murmured, “That’ll teach you barbarians to petrify Mom and Auntie Celestia and Luna…”
Twilight opened her mouth to protest the disproportionate retaliation, but her vision swam and clouded up before she could utter a word. Shadows darkened the world, and the sounds of clashing steel and magic dulled to a distant murmur. She took one last look at the blurry silhouette of her niece, and then gasped like a drowning mare as the darkness swallowed her whole.
* * *
“Flurry Heart!”
Twilight sat bolt-upright in bed with her wings flared out.
Her niece was gone.
She flung her blanket off and scrambled to the edge of her bed as she frantically parsed the lingering images in her mind. She had to find Cadance and Shining, to let them know that Flurry Heart was in danger all the way south in the Storm King’s lands. She—
Wait a minute…
Twilight froze in mid-stride towards the door and frowned as she swept her gaze across the room. A shaft of pale moonlight shone in through the half-open window, reflecting from the marble floor and onto the smooth walls. The clock hanging on the wall ticked away steadily, and its hands glowed with soft, green light against the deep indigo dimness of the room. Three in the morning.
She was in one of the guest rooms of the palace.
“S’mthing th’matter, Twi?” Spike murmured as he stirred in his cot.
Maybe?
Twilight trotted over to the window and gazed out as if she might find the answer staring back at her from the streets of Canterlot, far below.
“It... I think it was just a dream,” she said as she hesitantly crawled back into bed.
“Oh, all right.” Spike yawned and blinked owlishly at her. “You feeling okay?”
“Yeah. I think so.”
“Right. I’ma go back to sleep, ’kay?”
Twilight nodded, but she couldn’t stop gazing out the window even as she tucked herself back under the covers. Logically speaking, it really couldn’t have been anything other than a dream. Flurry Heart wasn’t even old enough to go to school yet, let alone sit on the throne! But the image of her niece and the twin changelings was practically seared into her mind, and she could recall them with stunning clarity, right down to the intricate patterns on their armour and their speeches word for word. None of her dreams had ever possessed that degree of detail…
Unless it was a vision of sorts.
She vaguely recalled Celestia and Luna mentioning that they’d witnessed Tirek’s escape from Tartarus through their dreams. But that’d been about something that was happening in the present, not the far future…
Twilight bit her lip as she forced her eyes shut and willed herself to stillness.
She flattened her ears when Spike snored softly.
Worse still, her brain decided there and then to conduct a review of events leading up to her feverish dream.
Two days. Two days had passed since Tempest’s and Pharynx’s altercation in the training yard. Twilight herself had been discharged with little fuss after the first night, but she’d found little to do in any official capacity in Canterlot, what with the parade being postponed on account of their injuries and the loss of nearly three quarters of their stockpile of fireworks. That’d left her with marking assignments – conveniently teleported all the way from Ponyville – and delegating duties to Starlight and the others to compensate for her delayed return to the school.
Apart from a brief farewell and get-well-soon after getting discharged, she hadn’t really taken the time to see how they were doing.
She peeped at the clock and suppressed a groan when she found that only four minutes had passed since her rude awakening. The pile of unmarked papers on the dresser taunted her with unresolved academic and grammatical errors, perfectly in tandem with the niggling unease of what she’d seen in her dream. And despite her silent pleas, the gears of her brain kept ramping up in speed, and it soon got uncomfortably warm and humid beneath the blanket.
Oh, fine!
Twilight yanked the covers off and tottered a little in the dark before she found the mental balance necessary to teleport. She did so, taking care to use a slightly more intricate spell matrix to minimise sound and residue as the world collapsed around her.
She popped back into physical space with barely a puff of smoke in the infirmary, right outside the observation window and—
Oh.
Twilight was at the observation window, all right.
Just not on the correct side of it.
The regular ceiling lights had been switched off to let the patients sleep, but somepony had placed a nightlight crystal on the table between Tempest’s and Pharynx’s beds. It filled the room with a cool, dim, bluish-white light that gave the room a near-dreamlike atmosphere.
Whatever the hypothesis for her slightly miscalculated interspatial triangulation, it instantly blew away into the deepest recesses of her mind when she realised that only one of the two beds was occupied. Neither of the patients was missing, though.
Tempest and Pharynx had shed most of their bandages, braces and resinous casts, sporting only a smattering of bruises, scabs and discoloured patches of burnt coat. Which was good. Astounding, even, considering the severity of their initial injuries.
But one particular detail commanded the majority of Twilight’s attention.
Tempest and Pharynx were spooning. And Tempest was the small spoon.
The battle-scarred unicorn looked uncharacteristically peaceful in her sleep, with the barest hints of a genuine smile on her muzzle instead of a brooding scowl or disdainful sneer. The imposing pegasus stallion at her back had wrapped his forelegs around her barrel and rested his muzzle on the back of her neck. His wings also covered her midsection like a fluffy blanket.
Then, Twilight could’ve sworn she heard glass shatter when she saw the horn poking out of his dark blue, streaked forelock.
The stallion was an alicorn. A purple alicorn. With a starburst cutie mark exactly like hers.
What the hay?
Pharynx. It had to be Pharynx in disguise.
But… why?
Her eye twitched as she appraised him from horn to hoof. He had apparently transformed into an amalgamation of Shining Armour’s physique, Tempest’s stature and Twilight’s colours and manestyle, resulting in a male Twilight – Guylight Sparkle? – that made her heart flutter and her stomach churn at the same time. She didn’t know how long she spent standing there stumped like a procrastinator in an exam hall, desperately trying to keep her stiffening wings from flaring out.
“Never took you for a creeper, boss,” Tempest murmured.
Twilight squeaked and flattened her wings to her sides. “Sorry!”
Seconds passed. Five, ten, maybe more whilst she fidgeted on the spot with a stiff grin plastered to her face, acutely aware of every bead of sweat forming under her coat. The temperature of her cheeks and ears was rapidly climbing, too.
Without getting up or even opening her eyes, Tempest growled, “If you aren’t going to join in or tell us to stop, please get out.”
“Oh, right!” Twilight clumsily spun around and tottered towards the door. “Sorry, didn’t mean to butt in like this. Guess I’m not fully awake yet. But it was so… unexpected! I mean, how could I ever expect to walk in on my own guard snuggling with stallion-me? Ha-ha! Crazy, right?”
She stopped halfway to the door and squinted at Pharynx.
“It is stallion-me, right? I mean, I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I’m starting to get a teensy little bit suspicious that you might have a thing for me, which is getting a little weird. Actually, it’s very weird, because I don’t think I’ve ever known anypony who’d had a thing for me. Ever.” She then shook her head and marched stiffly towards the exit. “Oh gosh, I don’t-know-how-to-feel-about-this-so-I’ll-just-stop-talking-now-and—”
“I think we broke her,” Pharynx whispered. “Should we do something about it?”
Yikes, he even sounds like Shining Armour…
“Nope! Don’t want to be a friendship problem!” she cried as she plodded away. “Leaving now!”
Tempest sighed. “I’ve changed my mind, boss. Please stay.”
Twilight froze with a hoof pressed on the door handle. Slowly, she turned whilst hearing the bed creak under their combined weight and movement, until she saw Pharynx clambering back onto his own bed whilst Tempest sat on her haunches and gestured with a hoof towards the visitor’s chair. The room’s proper lights then flickered on, temporarily stinging her eyes whilst she obediently trotted over to take a seat.
She shifted uneasily on her rump and stroked her tail, feeling very much like that time she’d had to face her teacher after getting an abysmal B-minus in a test. Tempest had an awful case of bed-mane, but apart from that, she only looked mildly irritated instead of furious as one might expect from her intrusion. Pharynx, on the other hoof, was looking at Tempest the same way Shining or Spike did at the last pancake on the table, and he at least had the grace to act very interested in a spot of dirt on the sheets when he realised Twilight was watching him.
“You both look good—Well!—I mean, you look well.” She gave them a sheepish grin and gestured vaguely with a hoof. “You know, considering what happened…”
Tempest gingerly massaged her belly and grimaced. “With all the healing potions they’ve been pumping into us, I certainly hope so.”
“All that love helps, too,” Pharynx added.
Twilight stared at him, involuntarily cataloguing the differences between them whilst her self-consciousness nagged about how she could stand to improve in a few areas that he seemed to excel at. He certainly could pull off a smug, bad-colt attitude that she couldn’t ever picture on herself, certainly not without that chiselled physique and slightly unkempt mane. He looked like the kind of stallion who’d go out with several mares at once after having been expressly forbidden to do so by the parents of all parties involved…
“Pharynx, quit it,” Tempest intoned with narrowed eyes.
“Okay, okay, I got it. No more messing the princess.” Guylight Sparkle sniggered and transformed into Pharynx with a whoosh of green fire. “Was tasty while it lasted, though.”
“Yup, I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.” Twilight shook her head and then swept her gaze back and forth between them on their respective beds. Thankfully, Pharynx was no longer quite so distracting in his normal form, which allowed her mind to get back onto some semblance of a normal track. “So… what was that all about?”
Tempest shrugged. “It’s exactly what it looks like.”
“No, I get that. But why, you know…” Twilight pointed a feather at Pharynx and swept it from horn to hoof. “That? Of all the forms he could’ve taken, why a stallion version of me?”
She didn’t get an answer immediately. The silence between them stretched as Tempest appraised her, almost like a parent trying to decide whether it was time to talk about the birds and the bees. Which was more than a little patronising, if that was the case. Twilight was pretty sure she knew far more about courtship and reproduction that the average pony; she’d even memorised all the statistics, charts and diagrams!
“You mares thirsty?” Pharynx suddenly asked. He then hopped off his bed and trotted towards a large table at the far end of the room, which had an assortment of pots and jugs on top of it. “I’ll get something to warm us up.”
Tempest watched him go, then turned to her and asked, “Permission to speak freely, Princess Twilight?”
“You’re my friend. You don’t need my permission to be honest.”
“Wrong. You’re also my superior, but that’s beside the point.” Tempest averted her eyes and worked her jaw as if she had something of questionable taste in her mouth. She then rubbed the back of her neck and added, “The point is that… I like you. Some of you.”
When Pharynx coughed loudly from the other side of the room, Tempest shot him an annoyed look and cleared her throat. “Okay, a lot of you. Unfortunately, you’re missing some essential equipment that would seal the deal for me.”
Stars above, what the hay?
“I… I didn’t know. It never occurred to me.” Twilight felt her temperature rapidly rising and fluttered her wings to offload excess heat. “You, you actually like, like me? In that special somepony kind of way?”
Tempest shook her head. “Let me make this absolutely clear, boss. I like your body. Most of it, anyway.”
“Oh.” Twilight felt her ears droop, though she had no idea whether to feel relieved or mildly affronted. She could just imagine Rarity getting red and huffy on her behalf, all the same.
“Yes, I’m shallow like that. There’s nothing wrong with you, Twilight. It’s just that, personality-wise, you’re just not my type.” Tempest then tilted her head towards Pharynx. “On the other hoof, since he and I find each other very tolerable company, stuck in here with next to nothing to do, and with him needing a top-up and me wanting to explore a fantasy…”
When Twilight glanced at Pharynx, he grinned over his shoulder and said, “She’s got good taste.”
“I’m sorry you had to see that. You have my word that we’ll never do that agai—”
“No, no, it’s okay!” Twilight waved her forelegs and chuckled nervously. “You’re both consenting adults and what you do in private is none of my business. After all, even Princess Celestia says that there’s no wrong way to fantasize!”
Tempest blinked. “Huh. She actually said that?”
“Among other things…” Twilight mumbled.
“So, why exactly did you drop by?” Tempest’s brow suddenly creased into that severe, militant expression that promised a very thorough dressing down if one gave the wrong answer. “There any reason it had to be in the middle of the night? And by teleporting, no less.”
“Umm…”
Twilight bit her lip as she weighed the pros and cons of telling her about that dream. The more she thought about it, the sillier it seemed. Surely it couldn’t have been more than a feverish dream brought on by the stress of recent events, right?
Before she could answer, Pharynx bought her a little more time by trotting back with a tray fully loaded with steaming mugs of – she discreetly sniffed – hot chocolate. A small part of her felt disappointed that it wasn’t coffee, but she reminded herself not to complain about gifts.
After cooling down her mug with a quick spell, she took one long pull and practically swooned when the creamy, chocolatey sweetness flowed smoothly over her tongue and down her parched throat, before finally soothing her belly with its warmth. Ooh, yeah. That’s the stuff!
“Oh wow, this is really good!” she said as she stuck her muzzle into the mug and inhaled deeply through her nostrils. “Where’d you learn to—”
“You can thank Thorax for that, so don’t mention it,” Pharynx huffed with a dismissive wave of his hoof. “Seriously, don’t mention it. Ever. I swear, you spend even a little time around him and you’d pick up the most frivolous pony skills…”
Twilight then caught Tempest’s pointed look over the rim of her mug. She cleared her throat and said, “Right. Visits. The reason I came to visit is because… well, this is going to sound a little silly, but I had a very vivid dream about you and Pharynx having children.”
Tempest raised an eyebrow. “You dreamed about our… foals?”
“Are foals the right term for pony-changeling hybrids?” Twilight tapped her chin and frowned. “Maybe nymphs would be more accurate, but if they’re already adults when I saw them, then I guess it doesn’t matter what we call the—”
“Focus, boss.”
“Right!” Twilight filed the taxonomic question away for later and nodded. “Anyway, I didn’t just dream about you and Pharynx having hybrid children; they also kind of went around conquering our neighbouring lands on behalf of the Crystal Empire. And they were best friends with Empress Flurry Heart. Weird, huh?”
Tempest and Pharynx shared a look.
Then, Tempest carefully set her mug down on the bedside table and asked him, “Is that even possible?”
“Nah. Ponies and changelings cannot crossbreed.” He shook of his head. “The only exception is that male ponies might sometimes fertilise a queen’s eggs, but that always results in pure changeling grubs. There’s no mixing of genes, ever.”
“Also, it can’t have been your first time having weirdly specific dreams, right? You’re stressed out, and it’s our fault that the joint exercise got postponed in such a spectacular way right in your lap. I’d be surprised if you didn’t dream about us.”
“Yeah, but—wait a minute.” Twilight slowly turned to frown at Pharynx. “Your history claims that changelings and ponies cannot crossbreed. But you guys have never tested it with a reformed changeling, have you?”
Pharynx opened his mouth, paused for several seconds, then lowered his gaze and muttered, “That’s actually a good point. I don’t know if we’ve changed that much, but… yeah, it’s possible. A little. Maybe. I have no idea.”
“I don’t see how this should be a concern, anyway,” Tempest said.
“Well, if I hadn’t intruded, would you two have…” – Twilight bumped her hooves together and grinned sheepishly – “you know… escalated things?”
“What, you mean fertilising eggs?” Pharynx cocked an eye ridge, then tilted his head towards Tempest. “With her?”
Twilight nodded timidly, feeling her cheeks burn.
“First off, getting a little personal there, don’t you think?” Tempest said with a wry grin. She then jabbed a hoof at Pharynx. “Secondly, this bug, though he’s admittedly very easy on the eyes, still has a long way to go before he gets close to ploughing my field. We’re barely at the point of forming a relationship, but since you’re so concerned, I’ll have to inform you that it’s… on the table. You have my word that I’ll put an end to it the moment it starts conflicting with my duties, though.”
“No, no!” Twilight hastily waved a hoof. “Please, I don’t want to get in the way of your friendship, even less so if you both want to take this further and make it something special.”
Tempest sat up straighter and shook her head. “Duty comes first. Always.”
“Twilight, you’re her leader. Just command her to keep both,” Pharynx growled. “I don’t see why you ponies like to compromise so much when you can have it all. Changelings are way smarter about this. Even Chrysalis would agree.”
“But—”
“Butt is right! If you need to get her to obey, just wiggle yours at her and stretch those wings a bit.” Pharynx waggled his eye ridges and gave a toothy grin. “I have it on reliable intelligence that it makes her very compliant.”
“I, umm…” Twilight glanced at Tempest and shrank back a little. “Ha-ha, good one!”
Tempest wore a thin smile tightly stretched over a stiff jaw as she leered at Pharynx and said, “Better watch what you say, for you are crunchy and I know where your chitin is thinnest.”
“That’s why I’ll always be extra fluffy for you.” Pharynx vanished with a burst of green fire, and a grinning male Twilight sat in his place with his wings outstretched. He then puffed up and stroked down the luxuriant tuft of fuzz on his chest whilst his tongue hung out as if he was licking an invisible cone of ice cream.
Tempest’s cheeks instantly shifted a couple of shades closer towards the red spectrum, but to her credit, she remained silent and unmoving whilst she glowered at him. Twilight, on the other hoof, nearly choked down an extra-large bolus of air along with her hot chocolate.
Whilst she sputtered and coughed to clear her pipes, Pharynx leaned close to deliver a conspiratorial whisper, “See? It totally works. You should try that sometime!”
By then, Tempest had sufficiently recovered that her smile carried a hint of iciness when she said, “You know, the disciplinary issues in your hive don’t look all that surprising anymore. Also, that’s enough of you exploiting my boss’ personal image and self-esteem. Stand down, or I’ll break something the moment she leaves us.”
“So long as I get to squeeze you first, it’ll be totally worth it.” He reverted to his changeling form, but his grin didn’t falter.
“I… I think I should be going,” Twilight murmured as she set her empty mug onto the table and rose from her seat to take a couple of hesitant steps backwards. “Lovely hot chocolate, Pharynx, thank you. And forget about my dream; it’s probably nothing to worry about – just me getting way too worked up over something that has a really, really low probability of happening. I need to get back to bed, anyway.”
“Do you need an escort back to your room?” Tempest asked as she swung her hind legs over the edge of the bed. “I can get somepony to—”
“It’s fine. I’m awake enough to teleport properly now, and I know this palace like the underside of my hoof,” Twilight said with a dismissive wave of her wing.
Then inspiration struck, and she drew herself up to full height, stiffening her posture and lifting her chin to mimic Princess Luna when she was feeling particularly imperious and continued, “At ease, Tempest. Focus on resting so that you’re ready for duty when they discharge you. Also, you have my blessing as the Princess of Friendship to pursue a relationship with Pharynx. We’ll work out the details if any difficulties pop up from that, and I expect you to at least try to make it work before rejecting it for duty’s sake.”
Tempest had watched throughout that delivery with eyebrows raised and her head tilted slightly, as if seeing her in a new light. A couple of seconds after that, she sighed, leaned back against her pillows and saluted Twilight with a resigned smile. “Yes, ma’am. Duly noted.”
Pharynx chuckled and buzzed his wings agreeably. “Hey, not bad. Wish I could get Thorax to be like that a little more often…”
Twilight waved at them with a wing as her horn flared to life, filling the room with purple light. She then smiled and said, “Goodnight. I’ll see you two in the morning.”
In a flash, she popped back into her bedroom and promptly collapsed into bed. Even with all her thoughts swirling around in her head, it didn’t take very long for sleep to come with its siren call, and she freely surrendered to it with a sigh.
And when the first rays of the morning sun drew her out of slumber, she had a rather hazy recollection of cuddling with a very rugged, warm and fuzzy stallion. Said stallion had a dark purple coat and a broken horn. She’d called him Typhoon Shade or something similar and asked him to be her special somepony.
Her heart fluttered and her stomach twisted at the notion, because she had no idea whether it was simply a male version of Tempest or Pharynx disguised as such.
Twilight buried her head in her pillow and groaned.
I swear, Cadance, you’d better not have put Luna up to this, or I’m really going to develop a complex by the end of the week!
Snarky changeling plus potential "friends with benefits" equals hilarious shenanigans.
Oh, wow.
Why did the future kids have holes, though?
Great work! Loved this chapter!
I can’t tell if Tempest and Pharynx are acting as they really would if told that somebody had a vision of their kids. I was fully expecting them to accuse Twilight of making it up just as some kind of experiment to see if it was possible.
When Twilight asked if Changelings and ponies could breed, I was expecting Pharynx to not know. Mainly because such children would reveal the changelings, so would be unallowed to keep the secret of their existence. And Pharynx would likely have had that stance before as well.
Honestly, this chapter feels like it was written to force the characters together instead of let them grow like the last two chapters did.
What's with everyone writing future Flurry as a warlord all of a sudden? I mean, I like that interpretation, but it just seems strange that everyone is writing her like that.
Glorious
I'm surprised she didn't go to Luna first.
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Well, it *kinda* seems as though they might've gone back to the dark side.
However, given "they shall kneel before us as besties," I'm thinking Twi's just gotta lay off the Chineighse before bed.
9635341
Changelings are still changelings. They didn't change species. They just 'completed' themselves. Those two apparently don't GIVE love. Lack of sharing love (possibly just between changelings) is why they stay black-chitin and rot-looking. So if they're the only changeling hybrids there, and they're brother and sister, let us imagine that they don't share love between themselves because they're bratty siblings to one another.
Or, because they're afraid of becoming colorful - that seems like a VERY Tempest and Pharynx concern. So they're probably purposefully not sending each other love energy just to look 'dark and edgy'.
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Alternatively, given the piercings and their parents, they might just have given themselves holes because they're dumb teens and think it looks cool.
I smell a herd in formation
I liked this chapter a lot. But if I tell you why in detail I can predict with perfect clarity that things will escalate beyond reason.
So let’s just leave it at me liking this chapter a lot, especially for the bits with Flurry and changelings. And that I’m following this fic now.
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Personal thought is that, as shown in the first chapter, the "newling" form might not be ideal for combat. It can create its own love and so a changeling doesn't have to worry about starving anymore while in it, but the fangs are much shorter/nonexistent, and without the holes it can't secret changeling ooze. Note that for the first part of the fight against Tempest, Pharynx got his butt handed to him until he started shapeshifting, and then when he returned to his oldling form he was better able to keep up with Tempest physically even when not shapeshifted, coming across as faster and stronger.
So the oldling form might now be adopted as a "battle" form.
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They are changelings. It's very possible they just changed to look more like the unreformed changelings because it looked cool and intimidating, the latter probably of practical use since, in Twi's dream, they were Flurry Heart's most trusted captains.
Fun fact, in Brazil Shining Armor is voiced by the same guy that voiced Goku, so yeah. 20% cooler and all that
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That's....a very good way of putting it tbh. Was wondering why it felt rather abrupt.
One mentally scarred Twilight for the win.
It returns.
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For edgy teens, the choice between rainbow reindeer and love vampire is a no-brainer, especially if they can achieve it just by being big ol' meanies.
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Hmm, I maintain that it's not all that bad, because it's only known to happen with queens, and seldom at that. My headcanon is queens do not do a lot of gathering, so it would be an exceedingly rare occurrence. Or we could just chalk it up to unreliable narrator, in that Pharynx is simply repeating a changeling myth.
Okay, fair enough. I'll try to keep the puppet strings from showing in the next chapter.
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Aside from GaPJaxie, is there anyone else is writing warlord Flurry Heart?
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Okay, now I'm getting nervous about having this story scrutinised to the same degree that you did a certain other series.
I'll have to ask you to temper your expectations, though, because this is mainly about Tempest and Pharynx, not Flurry Heart and their kids.
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I don't think it is counted as mental scarring. Just facing a not-unpleasant possibility you never considered and thus was unprepared.
9635875
From what I've seen, Flurry is written in three ways: a child, getting shipped, or learning to fight. It seems to be a recurring theme.
9635875
I’ve thought about it and think I can explain why I feel this chapter is forced compared to the first two. Mainly, it’s due to the dream sequence, and the conveying of exposition.
Firstly, the amount of detail within it is narratively pointless to this fic. The focus of your story is around two individuals with a “give no quarter” mentality forming a long lasting intimate relationship, which only works when compromise appears. That is the central conflict built in the first two chapters. The dream does not follow this. You bring up questions of who they are fighting, why they’re fighting as the Empire, and what happened to their parents and the princesses. Furthermore, this is obviously happening decades into the future.
Due to the timeframe and the focus of your fic, the dream simply brings up questions that are, by the nature of good storytelling, going to be impossible to answer without completely derailing the story you’ve begun to build. Honestly you could have Twilight have a hazy dream describing the image of possible children, and her natural curiosity would demand she follow it up ASAP.
Second, Pharynx and Tempest’s exposition about kids (and gender bent Twi) are rather long winded for them. The possibility of kids reads like “and this is why it hasn’t happened before” instead of Pharynx stating they don’t know and don’t care yet. Tempest also uncharacteristically beats around the bush to say “I like the image of a male you, not you specifically” so it feels more like you’re giving a ship tease for Twilight X Tempest.
You’re previous chapter handled exposition expertly when Tempest and Pharynx were describing their past. They played off each other instead of dryly stuff that happened.
I say all this because I really love your writing style and how you are building up a nice unconventional romance, and I don’t want to see you fall into the pitfalls of writing.
9635875
Well, since it was directly brought up...
The scrutiny I've brought to the Third Wheel series comes from a...complicated place. I don't usually apply it to most fics I read, and I certainly don't want you to have any trepidation that I'd do the same thing here. It'd take a long time to unpack my feelings about that series and why I'm so critical of it, but basically, unless Twilight, Pharynx, or Tempest are gonna kill each other or someone else, or unless you're gonna reveal that Cadance is mind controlling any/all of them and forcing them to bend to her will, or unless some OC is gonna come along and invalidate any/all of them and their canon achievements, then there's nothing to worry about.
Without meaning to denigrate or deride this fic at all, the Third Wheel series is a SERIOUS story that presents itself in a SERIOUS way that I feel demands SERIOUS examination. This on the other hand is a romantic comedy. It doesn't make the same demands by its nature. There's completely different standards being applied, a lot fewer missteps that can be made, and the pitfalls that do lie ahead aren't remotely as deep.
You seem to have a pretty good grasp on all three of our primary characters from canon, your Cadance is adorably manipulative without being creepy (and she's actually active and doing something, anything to affect her world, and so is Twilight, so we're already better off than their counterpart characters from A Foreign Education onwards), and Tempest is reminding me of Darkness from KonoSuba. Except that she can actually hit whatever she aims at. We're in a good place and you'd have to be actively trying to ruin it to arouse any kind of ire from me.
I didn't expect Flurry or the edgy teenlings to be in this fic much, don't worry. Nevertheless, a Flurry acting out of a desire to avenge her family, marching to war but with the intent of becoming friends even with her current enemies after the war's over, and having changelings under her banner and hugging changelings, is...uplifting for me right now. So even if none of them show up again, I still appreciate even this brief glimpse into an alternate future where everything isn't genocide and death. I'm not opposed to having war in pony fics by any means, I just want the ponies to still be, y'know, ponies, and everything that entails.
9636054
War... war never changes. But ponies do. :V
Surprised she didn’t try for a more subtle approach. “Hey Tempest, what would you name theoretical changeling hybrid children if you had them? One boy, one girl.”
Exsanguinatus and Asphyxia... What, were Spiked Collar and Black Eyeliner already taken?
Flurry learned entirely the wrong lessons from her aunt's School of Friendship.
Well. Something you'd like to share with the rest of the class, Tempest?
Twilight, same question.
Probably the closest he'll ever come to complimenting Twilight.
This only raises further questions.
And that last dream... Yeah, Twilight is going to have words with her fellow princesses.
9636101
A wise man once said war never changes. But he is dead now. Eaten by a dragon in war.
Dammit, this is getting better every chapter. To think I almost skipped it completely.
I love how you could almost end the story on any given chapter with the words "And that's how I met you mother" XD
I am so here for future friendship warlord Flurry with her changeling best friends Exsanguinatus and Asphyxia.
9636036
I'll try to keep that in mind. Thanks for the feedback.
9636434
I'd considered something like that, but I decided that it would be too definitive if Tempest gave the same names and not very relevant if they weren't.
9636899
Probably stumbled upon Cosy Glow's personal notes.
9638574
I didn’t think she would give any names, just question if Twi was fully sane/awake.
9638597
Ooh, yeah, that's a good one.
9638574
Just to be clear, I did like how you wrote the dream sequence. It’s only problem was that it didn’t fit with the rest of the fic.
It’s like having a section of Lord of the Rings appear in a Modern Rom-com. It just wouldn’t fit no matter how good the section was.
Ouch! I cut myself on all that edge!
For the Emperor!!!!!!
I... would not be the least bit surprised.
This story is excellent. Looking forward to moar.
9646369
Cool. Thanks for the review!
And here I thought Chapter 1 was going to be it. It got BETTER.
Wait a second, is Asphyxia named after Tempest’s favorite...uh...”dance” position?!
Girl probably has issues...no wonder she’s edgy.
9663502
Man I could see that.
"Hey temepst? Wanna kiss and punch goals in the face?"
"Sure!! That's my favorite pastime!" (^^)
Both punch a goal together.
9664460
Sir, I direct you here for how Tempest treats foals.
This is good. Interesting ship, and well executed.
9653973
At least your brain doesn't immediately gravitate to the White Devil herself, Takamachi Nanoha. She will befriend you into the nearest hospital, and then bring you get well balloons.
They make a cute couple.
Pharynx blames Thorax because he now has to use condoms. Thorax, for Celestia’s sake, man.