> In a Name
>  by Detectivefish
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue: How He Got There
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Some years ago)
Rain would've been good. Rain would've been nice. Rain would've been appropriate. Maybe some wind and thunder on the side as well. That was how this sort of thing was supposed to go, wasn't it? 'It was a dark and stormy night'. But no, instead of violent gusts of wind, it was actually incredibly calm and pleasant, if just slightly warmer than it could've been. Above, some clouds floated freely through the dark purple sky, minding their own business.

None of this was improving what was already an incredibly foul mood, as she carefully made her way through the dark forest. For the hundredth time she wondered if perhaps it wouldn't have been quicker to just go through the town. No, it would have been quicker, and easier to make her way, but if somepony saw her and what she was carrying, or worse, if it woke up, her plans... well, it wasn't actually a plan yet. Plans had a bit more substance to them. This was more of a seed, the beginning of a plan, with all the potential to go disastrously wrong. Anyway, whatever it was she was up to, if she did get discovered so late in the day, everything she'd been up to would have been sunk.

Actually, now that'd she given it some thought, wind and rain wouldn't have been helpful at the moment, but she couldn't help but find something about the banal pleasantry she was mired in was ticking her off. Not that she was the picture of cheerful sunniness on her best days.

Any further internal monologues were cut off by a sudden cracking noise. Reflexively, she crouched low, trying to remain as hidden as possible. Then she heard the sudden mumbling from the bundle tied to her stomach. She gritted her teeth, and looked up, hoping she could see whatever had made that noise so she could spread her bad mood around a bit. Her eyes met with a small red and white creature of distinctly canine build, a fox if she had to guess, staring straight at her with mild curiosity. A fox. She'd panicked over a fox. And what was worse, her passenger had woken up ahead of schedule. The fox just slunk away, and she could only stare in outrage at it, before swearing violently under her breath. It had just been one thing after another these last few months. Although technically she had only herself to blame for her current course of action, ignoring her own better judgement in favour of petty gratification. And yes, at the time it had very rewarding, it did mean she was now traipsing through a forest in the middle of the night, miles from friendly territory, carrying a new-born, her new-born no less. And just because she hadn't been stupid enough to do this, she hadn't bothered informing her subjects about any of this. She had been meaning to think up a plausible lie for when she returned, but so far she hadn't even thought up anything, and all she could think about was the damned weather (or the lack thereof).

Still, she told herself, it wasn't that far to her destination now.

Slowly, she steeled herself and stood up again, ignoring the small noises from the little bundle. Her pace quickened now. After an interminable amount of time, of mud, and sticks, and bushes, and well-disguised stones, she reached a small clearing, indeed, an incredibly convenient one. It was just perfect. A wide open space, with some suddenly moonlight to make things even easier. She looked at a small gap in the bushes on one side of the clearing, and saw the faint outlines of a dirt path, which soon vanished into the darkness, though she could have sworn she could see some distant lights. That meant a house. That was good. She was in the right area, then, which meant it was time.

After a few deep breaths, she focused her magic. Her horn glowed bright green, lighting up the whole clearing, and then the small bundle came loose, wrapped in her aura. She set it down as gently as possible, which unfortunately meant looking at it. Or, more accurately, him. As she did, she felt a small pang of something in her stomach, although that could just have been hunger, she hadn't eaten a proper meal in hours.

And of course it just had to have his eyes, so bright and blue and beautiful, just to make this slightly more difficult for her.
It took her a few seconds to realise she was nuzzling the tiny little face with a hoof. It definitely wasn't hunger, she realised. This felt more like... Hesitation? Regret? She wasn't liking the taste. She kept staring at those eyes, which were now staring back at her.

Perhaps it wasn't too late, she thought. Perhaps... perhaps...
No.

She wrenched her hoof away, eliciting a small coo from the tiny form in front of her. This idea could work. It would work. All it needed was time.
Slowly, she took several steps away, and then, when she realised she was still staring, turned away from him. Her horn glowed bright green, and she vanished from sight.


*****


A short distance away, on the absolute edge of the forest, which the locals knew (and feared) as the Everfree, there sat a cottage. And while this cottage looked small and unimportant, it was home to one of the most important ponies in all of Equestria, along with a not-inconsiderable amount of animals.

Inside, the cottage's owner, a bright yellow pegasus, was sleeping gently, enjoying a pleasant dream that revolved entirely around sitting at a table and having a meal without anypony talking to her, or crashing into the table, or jumping over the table, or performing random acts of magic on the table that caused it to come alive and instantly develop a thirst for pony-blood. It was entirely possible that in this dream there was an incredibly enjoyable cup of hot chocolate involved as well. And then, just as she was really beginning to relax, she was woken.

Years of experience meant that Fluttershy could in fact go from being fully asleep to being fully awake in an instant, though it did take the rest of her a minute to catch up. She saw the angry face of a white rabbit glowering right in front of her. She knew what that expression meant, sure enough. It meant that somewhere, there was a Problem, and since she was the pony of the house it was now her problem. She opened her mouth, and was about to ask what it was, when she realised she was hearing something beyond the angry thumping of Angel's foot against her bed, which certainly explained why the rabbit was currently wearing a set of ear-muffs.
"Where's that coming from?" she asked, to which the small rabbit jerked a paw in the direction of the window.

Fluttershy frowned, and slipped out of her bed, pausing briefly to remove the bed-robe she was wearing. Her wings unfurled slightly as she set out of the room, while Angel calmly made his way back toward his bed, feeling mildly satisfied that the problem was about to be solved.

Fluttershy gently closed her front door behind her, and then listened, hoping to get an idea of where the noise was coming from. It was then she realised in horror what the noise was. It was a foal crying. And from the sound of it, it was coming from inside the Everfree Forest.

Instantly, she rushed into the forest, all her normal rules about saying completely clear of the forest forgotten.
Fluttershy, it had to be said, was not an unkind pony. This was a given, considering she had been the bearer of the Element of Kindness, and the first pony to ever be friends with Discord. However, even kindness wasn't going to help anypony if she found out this foal had been left in the Everfree Forest on purpose.

She found the noise coming from a small bundle sitting in the middle of a very familiar clearing not too far inside the forest. Suddenly all suspicion about why it was there, or thoughts of retribution evaporated as she moved cautiously toward the bundle.
"It's okay" she said soothingly, as she approached, "Don't worry little one, there's no need to cry. Nop-"

The reason she stopped was because she was now right next to the bundle, and could see the tiny face which was now staring at her, two amazingly bright blue eyes staring at her curiously. That wasn't the problem. The problem happened to be the charcoal grey skin, and the tiny, twisted stub of horn jutting out from the foal's forehead. It was a changeling.

Taken by surprise, she let out a brief squeak of terror, and leapt backward. Then, nothing happened. She relaxed slightly. Nothing continued to happen. Nothing leapt out of the bushes to eat her, or cocoon her, or drag her off to some subterranean cave and cocoon her and then eat her, so she approached closer to the bundle, even as part of her screamed at her to run. It was a changeling after all.
But, as she liked to tell herself, she was not the mare that had been, that Fluttershy would have already high-tailed it and just hid under her bed for a few hours by now, and that wasn't her. There was a small tearing sound, and she saw that the changeling had somehow gotten an incredibly tiny hoof (or at least she hoped that was a hoof) free. She felt conflicted. It was a changeling, yes, and this could have been part of some incredibly elaborate trap. Or, on the other hoof, perhaps it was just a foal, and the worst it could do was cry, which was not a long-term survival strategy in the Everfree Forest at any time of day, much less in the middle of the night.

That was that, she decided. Being terrified could wait for later. Slowly, she took care to lift the bundle, at which point the reason, or at least one reason, that the foal had been crying was now abundantly clear. The stench was truly overpowering, even to somepony who had spent years cleaning up after animals.

Once the foal was safely lifted up, she turned and carried it as fast as she could out of the Everfree, back to her cottage. She quickly set down the foal, and then turned and locked the door, just in case something decided to follow her from the forest. She turned around to see Angel sitting on the sofa near the changeling, his gaze shifting from the foal to Fluttershy and back, and not changing at all from the look of disapproval.
"It's okay" Fluttershy said to the foal, "You'll be safe now. I'll look after you."

She found herself unable to say much else, especially since now the smell from the infant was taking advantage of the opportunity to spread.
"Now then" she said sheepishly, "Let's see about getting you cleaned up."

She began quickly looking about for anything that would help her in her endeavour, though it quickly occurred to her that she had no idea how to look after a changeling, even for one night, and she wasn't entirely certain if she could look after it for more than that. She shook her head, and made a note to send Angel to fetch her friends. She looked at the nearest clock, and decided to contact them in the morning, since she doubted her friends would really want to be woken up for a changeling foal at the late hour of half past midnight.
A few minutes later, as she was removing the bundle from the changeling, a thought occurred to her.

"You probably need a name" she mused, "But what?"
The changeling, now free from the bundle, was taking advantage of his (at least she assumed it was a he) newfound freedom to poke Angel with his hoof, though it quickly retreated when the rabbit glared at him, and had now moved on to chasing what he would later discover was his tail. Fluttershy had also noted that unlike most changelings, this one seemed to have an actual mane, in an unusual golden-brown color.

She rubbed a hoof against her chin as she wracked her brains for a good name for a changeling foal.
"How about... 'Whisper Wind'?" she suggested. Both the foal and Angel stared blankly at her, then, in an unusual move, toward each other, before Angel just shook his head with what looked like a disappointed air. The changeling just began sniffing at the cushion behind him.

"You know what, never mind" Fluttershy sighed, "A name isn't that important right now. And I can come up with something better in the morning."
Then she broke out in a yawn, "But right now, I think it's time everypony went to bed."

As it turned out, she wouldn't come up with a better name.
> Where We Lay Our Scene
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The years passed. Fluttershy raised the Changeling as her own, and by some utterly bizarre quirk of probability, he grew up to be completely and utterly normal. In Ponyville. He never displayed any unusual tendencies, never came up with ludicrously complicated means of solving simple problems, and never had any desire to go on adventures (Especially not after a bad camping trip gone hideously wrong).

In fact, he seemed perfectly content to grow up (and he did certainly grow, and became very tall, and by more than one account, particularly easy on the eyes) to be nothing more than a quiet, unassuming pony, which caused poor Fluttershy no small amount of concern.
The only possible dampener on his childhood were the frequent nightmares he had about leading hordes of changelings across Equestria, feeding on its subjects, and crushing all who dared stand against him underneath an iron hoof.
(But he never spoke about those.)

And in all likelihood, had he been anypony else, that would have been that. He would have simply grown up, gone to university, graduated, married, moved to a big city and gotten a desk job for a prestigious accounting firm, or something similar. Though not necessarily in that order.

But he was a changeling, and not just any changeling, but changeling royalty. So naturally, because there were rules for this sort of thing, he had to meet her. Shining Sapphire. lesser Princess of the Crystal Empire, daughter of Princess Cadance and Shining Armor, noted bookworm, caffeine addict, and minor shut-in.

In total defiance of narrative convention, they did not fall in love at first sight, as one would've expected, though perhaps that was because they were both young at the time. Indeed, it was years before anything actually occurred between the two, in the form of a very long period of correspondence. And even then, it took their attending a suspiciously convenient dance before either pony actually realised they had Those Kinds of feelings for one another.

Of course, even once they realised this, there were a few problems remaining. The first was that Shining Sapphire's cousin (who was, incidentally, the pony who'd introduced them to each other) had begun to harbour a not-exactly-unnoticeable crush upon Whisper Wind, or as she tended to call him, 'Wisp'. The second was the phenomenal distance between Ponyville and the Crystal Empire, which made casual weekend visits incredibly difficult, especially with the high prices of train tickets. The third was the more serious one: Wisp's fear that the changelings would soon come for him, and force him into a life he wanted no part of.

Discussion was had, and while the first problem had no easy solution, the solution for the other two came quickly: Shining Sapphire suggested Wisp move to the Crystal Empire, which could defend against the changelings. Wisp briefly raised concerns about being near Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, both of whom would have had valid reasons not to trust a changeling.
And then it turned out Cadance had absolutely no problem with her daughter being in a relationship with a changeling whatsoever. Indeed, if anything, she was perhaps a bit too encouraging.

At which point the changelings abducted Whisper Wind in order to force him into a life he wanted no part of.
From there, the situation deteriorated rapidly, especially once Shining Sapphire's cousin became involved, resulting in both ponies being terribly injured, and an attempted invasion of the Crystal Empire.

But it all worked out in the end. Except, of course, for the changelings, who saw fit to abandon their queen when the invasion failed, and Shining Sapphire's cousin.

Once everything settled, Wisp realised it was probably an idea to contact Fluttershy and let her know that he was in fact still alive, given that the last she'd seen of him was when several changelings had burst into her house looking for him, and dragged him off into the night. At the mention of going to Ponyville, Shining Sapphire instantly 'volunteered' to go with him.
After more discussion, both young ponies decided to wait a few days first to recover.

So, a few days after the impromptu family reunion, the two young lovers set off to Ponyville. However, the trip southward proved amazingly unromantic because of the continued presence of Shining Sapphire's cousin, who seemed to have shaken her interest in Wisp by that point, and that of five changelings, who had rescued Wisp from nearly almost certain death, and deemed themselves his bodyguards, regardless of what Wisp's opinion on this was.

Shining Sapphire, meanwhile, had started becoming slowly concerned about the potential reaction of Fluttershy to the events her son had been through.
Upon arriving in Ponyville the two ponies quickly made their way to Fluttershy and broke the news to her. Fluttershy's reaction was to be incapable of speech for several minutes, before subjecting both ponies to an incredibly strong hug.

For the next few days, Shining Sapphire began looking about Ponyville, not having much experience with the town and wanting to explore it, despite her coltfriend pointing out (repeatedly) that despite the best efforts of some of the more enthusiastic locals, Ponyville was not renowned for being very large or very scenic, unless of course one liked apple orchards and slightly ominous forests, before eventually packing up what little things Wisp actually had.

Their departure from Ponyville went surprisingly smoothly, with only two derailments: first was Fluttershy suddenly breaking out in tears, and after that, having to avoid member of the infamous Pie clan, who had somehow learnt that Wisp was about leave, and were determined to throw him what they had dubbed a 'see-you-later' party.
It was several minutes before Fluttershy finally managed to convince her son to stop hugging her and saying 'goodbye' and get onto the train.

After their entirely uneventful return to the Crystal Empire, the two ponies found the days, and then the weeks just seeming to fly by, completely free of any unusual events, or distractions or disasters. Not even an interfering parent. But then, very quickly, a tiny flaw presented itself.

For whatever reason, Whisper Wind declined to share a bedroom with Shining Sapphire. He did not explain why, he just didn't. At first, Shining Sapphire was willing to accept this, but then, after a few days began to feel increasingly worried about this decision. She made it her mission to coax an explanation out of him. After a few days, he finally admitted why he'd been acting that way, that he'd felt uncertain about sharing a room with her. She had quickly and calmly pointed out there wasn't any reason to be concerned. Her parents had no opposition to their being together, and he knew that. After several moments, he finally agreed to share a room with her, to which she had teasingly replied he had to at least see where he was sleeping first.

His reaction to the room, which was several times larger than the small room he'd had in Fluttershy's cottage, was simply thus:
"It's not as pink as I thought it would be. Not as frilly either."

And so that night, almost exactly one month after the failed Changeling invasion, the two ponies found themselves finally sharing the same room. Their romance had overcome all other obstacles, and now they were free to do whatever they wished.
At which point they fell asleep almost instantly.
(It is entirely possible one of them had their hooves around the other.)


*****

There was a harsh buzzing noise, which seemed to fill the air and scrape at the nerves. Reluctantly, Shining Sapphire found herself being woken from the pleasant dream she'd been having. Her irritation was forgotten when she saw the sight directly in front of her, that of a golden-brown pony lying next to her, quietly breathing in and out. She did feel a momentary glimmer of annoyance, since his eyes were closed, and those were truly among his best features (not that she kept a list of her boyfriend's best features of course), but this was quickly replaced by joy and satisfaction that the events of last night hadn't actually been a cruel dream. Then she remembered the buzzing noise, which was in fact her alarm clock.

With great effort, the young princess slowly turned over, ignoring the odd wince or aching muscle, so that she was now facing in the general direction of her bed-side table. She raised a hoof, then brought it down upon the table. She missed the alarm-clock by some distance. She tried again, and after a few more tries eventually managed to get the alarm clock, as the buzzing stopped with a resounding click.

Her valiant quest fulfilled, the triumphant princess turned back over again to admire her strangely still slumbering beau, which was proving slightly difficult due to the low lighting in the room. She briefly considered just opening the curtains, but then decided not to. Her eyes would likely adjust in a moment.

Then, a though slithered into her mind, one managing to do the work of several cups of coffee. She remembered why the alarm clock had been going. For whatever reason, the staff who worked at the Crystal Palace operated on a strictly maintained schedule, and foremost on this schedule was making sure that she was up in the morning, and prepared to face the day. And while she was usually an early riser (especially compared to a certain other pony she knew), being dragged out of one's bed to have their mane practically assaulted took a lot of the fun out of getting up, especially when one had a mane like hers, which happened to have inherited much of its qualities from her father's, in that it was mostly bright blue (sapphire blue, in fact, hence how she had her name) and that it was amazingly difficult to brush. And the staff refused to let her wander the castle looking, in their words, 'like she'd been dragged through a bush'. Not that Shining Sapphire had a tendency to rush through bushes anyway, she spent most of her time in any one of the castle libraries. She had even tried, when she was younger, complaining about this barbaric assault on her mane to her mother, which in hindsight was a mistake, for her mother had just smiled, and talked politely, and made rational arguments explaining why she needed to nearly have her scalp torn clean off in the morning. Shining Sapphire had long held that her using her best 'mom voice' had been cheating of the worst kind.
And that was why she had carefully arranged things so that her alarm clock went off before they reached her room, giving her a chance to escape to the safety of one of the libraries.

It was also beginning to occur to her that she should perhaps have warned Wisp about this, since she doubted those Changeling bodyguards of his had let anypony into the guest room he'd been staying in, and she'd been so driven to get him simply to agree to stay in her room, she hadn't had time to discuss anything else. Slowly, she tried to nudge him gently with a hoof to wake him up. For some reason her leg felt oddly stiff. Then there was a sudden knocking at the door.
"Your highness" a voice called out, "Are you decent?"

Shining Sapphire sighed. Too late to escape, she thought. Her horn glowed, and with a slight click the lights turned on. She nudged Wisp, eliciting a small mumble from him as he stirred. Then she turned toward the door.
"Just a moment" she called out, as her eyes turned toward the bedside table again, looking for her tiara. Which she noticed wasn't there. She frowned. It had been there last night, she knew, because she remembered taking it off before going to bed, though her recollection got distinctly fuzzy afterward. She rubbed some sleep out of her eyes, and checked again. Her alarm-clock was still there, with all the dents that somehow did not stop it from fulfilling its infernal duty, her old glasses (which she hadn't needed in years), and the book she'd been trying to read yesterday, to no success, but no tiara was there to be seen. It wasn't as if she had any real opinion on it, or even needed it, but if she'd lost it again, she'd be in trouble with her parents. She slid off the bed, wondering if perhaps it had somehow wound up underneath the bed. There was a sharp stab of pain from her back right leg as she set it down on the ground. She winced as the pain began to die down, a friendly reminder that even after the excitement of the last month her still hadn't healed completely from the incident with the Nightmare. She tried to put her thoughts about that day out of her mind, even as she found her mind treacherously going over those events in her mind. Her train of thought was mercifully interrupted when the door opened, two ponies marching in with grim expressions on their faces, heading straight towards the still not-entirely awake Wisp. Shining Sapphire blinked in confusion, wondering if perhaps they were availing themselves of a chance to practice their craft on him, without the threat of Changelings appearing out of nowhere, though from the looks of it, they were going to be disappointed, since Wisp's mane actually looked pretty good already. And now that she'd thought about it, she was beginning to wonder where those Changelings had gotten to, since from what she'd seen of them, they weren't about to let their prince's mane be groomed by anypony. Suddenly, she heard one of the mares say something.

"What happened to your crown?" Shining Sapphire shuffled nervously, trying to think of the best way to say she didn't know, before the mare continued, only she was facing Wisp as she did, "You haven't 'misplaced' it again, have you?"
Shining Sapphire paused, wondering why the mare had said that to Wisp, especially as if she was familiar with his habits. Then she saw one of them looking down at the floor, before frowning.

"Oh. There it is" she announced, lifting the familiar looking object up and placing it on Wisp's head. Shining Sapphire frowned, wondering what it had been doing on Wisp's side of the bed at all. She was also feeling more than a little bit alarmed as to a number of things, not least the reason as to why her mouth felt so strange all of a sudden, and why she felt so sore all over. Then something occurred to her. She slowly looked down at her hooves. Her jaw suddenly felt incredibly slack. Slowly, she lifted a trembling hoof up to stare at it. She waved it back and forth, and nothing changed. She blinked, and by that point it had become alarmingly clear that she wasn't hallucinating, or dreaming.

Instead of bright pink fur, instead there was what looked amazingly like charcoal-grey chitin, with several holes scattered about the cannon. As she stared, she became alarming aware of a buzzing noise that sounded amazingly like it was coming from the middle of her back.
After a few minutes she placed the hoof back onto the ground, and moved over toward the nearest mirror in the room. She was fairly certain her jaw dropped even further at the sight.

Staring back at her was a full-grown changeling, but with her eyes, and her mane (which looked like it had been a long time since it had been washed). In her still-open mouth she could see four prominent fangs. With some effort, she wrenched her eyes away from the sight, and toward her forehead, and the large, jagged horn jutting out from it. She gingerly placed a hoof against it, only to instantly flinch back when she touched it.
"What?" she squeaked. As she did, the two servants had finished their attempts upon Wisp's mane, and departed, leaving the two ponies standing there. A horrible, horrible silence descended upon the room, as they stared at one another. Then Shining Sapphire took a deep breath.

There were perhaps some ponies somewhere, who upon finding out on waking up that they had inexplicably changed species, would marvel at the sheer capacity of reality for surprise, grin and dive right into the madness.
For all her curiosity and inquisitiveness, Shining Sapphire was not one of those ponies. Which is why she chose to scream instead.
"WHAT THE-?"
> Something Rotten
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After the initial panicked outburst, Shining Sapphire attempted to remain calm. And to her credit, she managed to remain so for more than a few seconds, before the panic reasserted itself, causing her to rush out of her bedroom in the general direction of one of the castle's libraries as fast as possible, up until her back leg started hurting again, at which point she slowed to a brisk walk.
A few seconds after this, Whisper Wind slowly began to follow her.

The nearest of the libraries in the castle was located a solid few minutes walk from Shining Sapphire's bedroom, which was chiefly so that she had an actual excuse to get out of her bedroom once in a while, or alternatively so that she could actually go to bed. At the moment, however, the chance to think about things wasn't helping, though the fact that her mind was going at a hundred miles an hour did prevent her from running away with any ridiculous ideas, as so often happened with what her cousin glibly referred to as 'the family madness'.

Soon, she reached the doors to her library, and felt calmness wash over her as she entered, her gaze settling upon the many shelves of her domain. There were old books, and new books, special books, rare books, books that had been gifts, or birthday presents (Many of which tended to be doubles of books she'd already acquired), and all of them were hers, carefully arranged and stored in the most logical fashion she knew of, and a great many of them looked well-read.
"Okay" she said, as she marched towards a small desk kept in the middle of room, "Okay, okay, okay, Sapphy, dear, first things first, calm ourselves."

She sat on a small chair, and began trying to get her breathing under control. After a few seconds she stopped, and smiled cautiously.
"Okay, feeling slightly calmer now. So then, time to figure out what exactly has happened, so, let's start with a basic objective analysis. Through means unknown, I appear to have become a Changeling overnight."
Her smiled vanished. "This is completely impossible!"

She sat there, staring at nothing in particular. "Okay, now that we've established that, we can start figuring 
She raised a forehoof, and tapped it against her front leg. She frowned at the mildly disconcerting sound it made. "I look like a Changeling, I feel like a Changeling."

She stopped as she felt a small stab of pain in her mouth. "Certainly hurts when my tongue catches on these fangs."
She tried to get a good look at the wings on her back, and tried giving them an experimental flap. There was a quick buzzing sound.
"Wings seem real, don't seem to be connected by bone."

She looked toward her tail, then moved her eyes forward, trying to get a view of her mane. "Note that tail and mane appear to retain usual colouration, albeit with same gaps present on cannon and wings. Skin feels like chitin, eyes remain the same colour, voice definitely seems to be untouched."
She closed her eyes, and feeling slightly nervous, began breathing again. "This is completely impossible" she frowned. She jolted slightly as the door to the library opened, and then relaxed when she saw Wisp slink in. He made his way to the chair next to hers, and then crumbled onto it, before falling still.

She considered trying to talk to him, but then shook her head. Her horn glowed, and several books were wrapped in her aura, and brought over toward the desk.
"Now let's see if there's anything that matches this" she said, before feeling the need to add, "Though I doubt it."

She lifted one book and began to flip through it, "I suppose," she mused, "this could just be some prank of Disco-"
"It's not Discord" Wisp stated. She turned to look at him.

"You sound very sure about that."
Wisp adjusted himself so that he was now sitting on the chair. It made him look incredibly tall, and it meant she could get a good, focused look on his current appearance, which looks almost entirely like his default disguise. Same golden-brown fur, same golden-brown mane and tail, same amazingly bright blue eyes. The only real difference was some extra muscles and a few inches extra, plus the visible horn, since Wisp usually preferred disguising himself as a pegasus. Not that she was going to argue about those chances.

"I am sure" he said, "Because if Discord had done this, he'd have bragged about it by now, to our faces. Or laughed."
Shining Sapphire considered this for a moment, "Good point."
"So who did do this to us?" he asked. Shining Sapphire frowned.

"Does it matter? All that matters is figuring out how to un-do this. Working out who did it can wait 'till we've fixed this mess."
She didn't notice the expression on Wisp's face since by that point she'd already turned back to the book. "Which is going to be impossible. I mean, I know pretty much every kind of magical ailment, and I can't for the life of me recall a single thing that matches this right now."

Then a horrible burst of recognition flared in her mind, and she adjusted herself to glance at her flank. It was completely blank. She gasped, even as she started questioning what that meant. Did it mean that her magic had been altered, her usual strengths and skills altered? Did it mean anything at all? Then another thought occurred to her. She looked back toward Wisp.

"Wisp, honey?" she said, as sweetly as she could manage, and tried to fight down the rising urge to blush furiously, "Can I see your..."
She coughed, to which he looked confused, "Your flank" she managed.
He briefly looked confused, before shifting and revealing his flank. Shining Sapphire stared at the sight for a moment, before getting off of the chair and heading toward one of the shelves.

"What is it?" Wisp asked, since he was taking every care not to look at it.
"I'm... not sure" Shining Sapphire said, "Well, that is, I have a reasonable guess, but I want to double-check."

She stopped and turned to look at him. "You could always check for yourself" she pointed out. Wisp shook his head. Shining Sapphire went back to looking at her shelves, and finally found a book that looked useful. She frowned as she stared at the book's title, Professor Snail's Guide to Insects, Arachnids and Arthropods. She knew every single one of her books, and she'd never seen that one before. Someone had put new books in her library, without telling her. Somepony had re-arranged her library. And there were new books, just when something like this had to happen, meaning she couldn't read them then and there.

She tried to get rid of those thoughts, and flipped open the book as she turned and made her way back to the desk. After a few hundred pages she saw something that looked promising, and set the book down. She began glancing up, looking from the page to Wisp's flank, and nodded.
"Behold your Cutie Mark" she said. Wisp looked, then glanced at her.

"It's upside down" he pointed out. She turned the book around, and he looked confused.
"The 'Monarch butterfly'?" he asked, glancing toward his flank, where there was indeed a singular orange butterfly. Shining Sapphire saw the subtle look of relief on his face, and as she closed the book again could've sworn she heard him mutter something about crowns.

"Anyway" Shining Sapphire said slowly, "Back to working this o-"
She stopped, mainly because of a sudden stinging sensation in her eyes. She wrenched her eyes shut, but as soon as she had, the pain had stopped. Tentatively, she opened her eyes, and was met with an alarming sight. Everything looked washed out, or faded, save Wisp, who was a bright kaleidoscope of colour. Bright yellows, blue, pink and a tiny smattering of green seemed to shift endlessly, making him look like some kind of highly-localised pony-aurora. She blinked, and then slowly realised what was happening.

During the time she and Wisp had been corresponding with one another, so long ago, she'd asked him about all manner of Changeling biology. She still remembered feeling the need to bathe for several hours after hearing him describe moulting, but the most curious one was a unique form of vision they had. Since Wisp hadn't exactly been raised by Changelings, most of what he described had been guesswork, but it seemed that they had a way of telling what emotions their prey was feeling at any given time, though describing how that worked had been a stumbling point for the colt, who'd simply said that it was 'sort of like taste mixed with scent'.
Shining Sapphire, being as she was a rational and scientifically minded pony, had set out attempting to determine how such a thing was possible, before eventually having to give up on that pursuit. At one point she'd even wondered if perhaps he'd just been flippant, especially once he mentioned that using it near members of the Pie Clan had a tendency to give him headaches, along with a tendency to giggle for no reason, or inability to walk in a straight line.

And now she was staring such a bizarre concept right in the face (so to speak), and was finding it more than a little disturbing, especially since she had already built some nice, cosy assumptions about what had happened, and this was proving them all completely wrong.
"What is it?" Wisp asked. She looked up at him.

"I seem to be experience this... emotion-vision... thing you told me about" she said, before adding, "And I can't seem to turn it off. Any advice?"
Wisp just looked momentarily confused, before sheepishly saying "Sorry, it's been a long time since I've actually had to think about it. It usually takes concentration."

"Right" Shining Sapphire said, "'course it does. Pretty sure I asked you that already."
And in the manner of all beings anywhere ever, when asked to concentrate, she suddenly found it difficult to focus on anything at all. A horrible silence descended upon the room.
"So...." Wisp finally spoke up, "What has happened to us?"

Shining Sapphire paused for a moment. "I..." she said, "Well, I had just assumed that somepony had made it so that I look like a Changeling and you look like a pony, but... I think we can lay that theory to rest."
Wisp just nodded numbly. "Okay then."

Shining Sapphire tried smiling, "I'm sorry. I'm not entirely certain what has happened yet."
She could have sworn that she then saw Wisp's mouth curve slightly, and pattern of colours changed slightly. As far as he knew, he wasn't a Changeling anymore, and he was already enjoying it. And given the events of the last few months, she couldn't honestly hold it against him, but something about it made her feel unnerved.

"I'll try and work out what's been done, Wisp, but this is just..." she groaned with frustration, "I just need time, and no interrupt-"
"My queen?" somepony said in her ear. She practically leapt out of her skin, then turned to glower at the source of the voice, only to see a Changeling standing there, looking nervous. Fortunately, she recognised which one it was. After all, she'd been the one to name them.

It had been a few days after the return from Ponyville, and Shining Sapphire had taken it upon herself to name Wisp's would-be bodyguards, since trying to tell them apart had already managed to get old. Of course, this quickly proved problematic, since they were Changelings, and not really known for individuality. They didn't talk to anypony, they didn't eat with everypony else, they didn't seem to have hobbies, or interest. Nonetheless, she'd taken to the task with some enthusiasm. After a few days, a few noticeable quirks became apparent. One of them seemed particularly excitable, almost comically clumsy, so she decided to name that one 'Impulse'. For the most physically imposing and quiet, the name 'Rock' had seemed fitting, and then for the next she choose the name 'Windsheer', but after the fourth she found herself stumped, so she turned to Wisp to name the fifth Changeling. After a few seconds thought, he dubbed him 'Angel Eyes'. Shining Sapphire had questioned Wisp about this, but he'd defended himself by saying the name seemed 'right'. Shining Sapphire found herself reluctantly agreeing. This was why she managed to recognise the Changeling in front of her as Impulse. The fact that he was looking incredibly skittish helped.

"Apologies for startling you royalty," he said, "but we felt your alarm and wondered if you required aid."
She shook her head, "No, no, Impulse, but thanks for the-"
She turned to look at him. "Wait, 'We'?" she asked.

There were four shimmers, and she noticed Wisp stepping closer to her as the four other Changelings appeared. She could've sworn she felt concern from them, though they still seemed to have their usual ambivalence.
"That explains that" she muttered. Then she turned to Wisp. His ears were twitching.

"What is it?" she asked. He tilted his head.
"I think somepony's coming" he murmured. Shining Sapphire frowned, this was getting ridiculous. Was the entire Crystal Empire going to try and fit into the room? Then the door opened, and she heard the sound of the Changelings vanishing. She turned to look, and saw they weren't just turning invisible, they were actually leaving. And she could've sworn they looked... afraid. Then she turned to see who it was who'd entered the room. Her eyes were assaulted by a flood of warm and alarmingly pink light that washed over the room, and she winced. Of all the ponies in all the world, the one who had to walk in at that very moment was her mother.

"Good morning, you two" Princess Cadance smiled, as she made her way across the room toward the two ponies, evidently not noticing the wincing Changeling in front of her.
"Doing some early studying?" she asked Wisp, who just stared unblinking at her. She chuckled.

"How about some breakfast first?" she suggested, "And before you try reasoning your way out of this, remember the last time we had this conversation? Breakfast, downstairs."
She finally seemed to notice Shining Sapphire, and it changed subtly. "Five minutes."

And then she turned and walked out of the room, stopping only briefly to glance at Shining Sapphire, a troubled expression passing across her face for a moment, before she closed the door behind her. Once she was gone, Wisp turned to look at Shining Sapphire, who was now blinking rapidly in the hopes of making the spots go away.
"Yeah" he said gently, "Staring at her with that one isn't the best idea."

"Noted" she said quietly, before groaning, "That felt like my eyes had been doused with sugar. Sugar and honey."
Wisp just sat down next to her, "It could have been worse" he said distantly, "the first time mine kicked in, it was..."

He shuffled, "It wasn't pleasant."
"Were you staring at Pinkie Pie, perchance?" she asked.

"No."
She waited a moment to see if he was going to add anything extra to that, but he simply remained silent. She sighed, and rubbed her eyes again. Then she stopped.

"Oh, this seems to have worn off. Almost convenient, I suppose."
She looked toward Wisp and smiled weakly.

"So," Wisp said, "What do we do now?"
For a few seconds she stared at her hooves. Then she tried to look at anything else. "I'm not sure right now. I mean, my mom, and the maids and those Changelings didn't seem surprised to see me looking like... well, like this, so..."

"Oh" Wisp uttered, to which she nodded glumly.
"Yeah. 'Oh'."

She sighed, then looked back to Wisp. "I'll try and figure this out, Wisp, I swear, but... first we need to figure out what's been done to us, and whether we can reverse it."
Then, in the sudden silence, there was a deep rumbling from her stomach.

"But, like my mother said, breakfast first."
Then she glanced around the room, "Although... let's see if I can't... make myself more presentable."

Her horn glowed, and then bright green flames appeared, and wrapped around her for but a brief moment. She turned to look at Wisp, who had a startled expression on his face.
"Wasn't sure if that would even work" she said bashfully, "But I'm guessing it has, right?"

Wisp just remained unblinking. "It has worked right?" she said cautiously, "I don't just look like a bright pink Changeling queen, do I?"
Wisp slowly shook his head. "No" he managed, "It worked."

She smiled, and decided not to dwell on the fact that she had just managed to cast a spell she had no experience with on the first try.
"Alright. Let's go get that breakfast" she said, before tilting her head, "Although, since we've no idea what might happen, it would be best if we act... casual."

Neither pony said anything as they headed out of the library, but the unspoken agreement in their eyes was that this was likely to be unbelievably awkward.


*****


As it turned out, just making their way to the breakfast hall was awkward. This might have been because neither pony had any idea how casual they were supposed to act, and therefore found themselves following the age-old traditions of acting casual, such as walking very stiffly, smiling like they were unhinged maniacs (which, given they way they were feeling, wasn't much of a stretch at that moment), glancing suspiciously at everypony who walked past, and speaking louder than was necessary. On the way, no less than fourteen ponies addressed Wisp as 'highness', while utterly ignoring Shining Sapphire, save one young mare who quickly ran off covering her face afterward.

Things did not improve on reaching the breakfast hall.
Mealtimes in the Crystal Empire were a complicated affair. Up until the overthrow of Sombra, whatever meals had been served were amazingly simple (and despite the fact that some of the ponies that had worked under him were still alive, an utter mystery), and when the empire had caught up with modern society, the chefs who lived there had been amazed to learn what techniques there were available, means they'd never considered in their wildest dreams, and they refused to squander this opportunity, despite the fact that neither Shining Armor or Princess Cadance were especially interested in what would have been deemed 'fancy' meals (Indeed both preferred more modest meals, though Shining Armor would most likely have been comfortable eating military rations again). However, after a long and incredibly fraught discussion, an agreement was made that while lunch and dinner would be the province of the kitchen staff, breakfast and tea were entirely the Royal Family's choice.

This didn't have anything to do with why the meal was awkward, but it certainly didn't help improve the mood of the young royals. Since neither were certain whether they were supposed to act differently, they simple chose their choice of breakfast and sat down, not saying anything or making eye contact. After a few minutes of utter silence, Cadance looked over toward the two ponies.

"You two are being incredibly quiet" she noted, her voice causing both ponies, who were deep in their own private thoughts, to jump. "Is everything alright?"
Wisp just mumbled something, while Shining Sapphire just started eating faster. Shining Armor decided to weigh in, and looked toward Wisp.

"So, what have you two got planned for today then?" he asked, before smiling, "Let me guess, same as usual?"
"Same as usual" Shining Sapphire found herself saying automatically, before she caught herself and stopped, and then continued eating, trying to keep her face hidden, trying not to look at her father. The rest of the meal continued in silence. When they finished, Shining Sapphire and Wisp looked at each other, then quickly hurried out of the room. As the door clicked shut, Cadance looked toward Shining Armor, who just looked confused. She raised an eyebrow. Shining Armor raised an eyebrow back at her. Cadance raised another eyebrow, at which point Shining Armor drew a blank. Cadance tilted her head toward the door.

"What?" Shining Armor asked. Cadance just stared at him.
"Something is wrong with those two" she pointed out. Shining Armor nodded.

"Yeah, I got that bit" he said, "they sure weren't their usual sunny selves, that's for sure."
The two sat there for a moment, before looking toward the other. The seconds stretched out, as they looked into the other's eyes, and they came to a conclusion, the only problem being that neither wanted to be the one who said it.
"Well," Shining Armor said, "I don't think it's because of... well, that."

"No," Cadance said immediately, "definitely not."
"Which does raise the question of what it could be."

"Well, why don't you just try talking to him?" she asked, "he is your son after all."
Shining Armor shifted uncomfortably. "I dunno. Whatever it is that is bothering him, him might not wanna talk about it."

He tapped a hoof against the table, then looked at Cadance again. "You know how he gets when he's nervous."
Cadance nodded slowly, "I know, I know. But, on the other hoof, it might perhaps be easier for him to talk about this with his father."
Shining nodded, "Gotcha."

He walked over toward Cadance and kissed her on the cheek, "for luck. Just in case I don't make it back."
She batted at him with a hoof, trying not to smirk. As he walked out of the room she sat there, not paying any mind to the staff as they moved in to clean up the table. She had a lingering sense that something didn't feel right, but couldn't put a hoof on it.

"So, what now?" Wisp asked as the two ponies walked through the corridor. Shining Sapphire stopped, and then shook her head.
"Well... we try and figure out what's been done to us, and how to fix it."

"Question, why can't we just see a professional, you know, a doctor or something?"
Shining Sapphire shook her head, "this isn't a medical problem. You see a doctor when you've... broken a leg, or a nasty disease. This is..."

She frowned, "I have no idea what this is. So I don't think a doctor would be much help."
Wisp just nodded, "Alright then."

"And I would like to see if there's anything that can help us figure out what's be-" she suddenly yelped.
"What is it?" Wisp asked, as her expression shifted to exasperation.

"Bit my tongue" she said darkly, "Itth these teefh. Don't theem to want to thapethitht properly."
She looked at the expression on his face, and her eyes narrowed. She lifted a hoof, and after a few seconds said, "Don't you laugh."

"I wasn't going to laugh" Wisp said, his expression stone-like, "I do know what its like to have teething problems."
"Yeth" Shining Sapphire said, "Thorgot about that. Thorry."

"Fortunately," Wisp continued, "most ponies just assumed I was wearing false teeth."
He facehoofed, "Nothing more bizarre than being given 'pointers' by the Pies on how to misbehave."

"Also? Why don't we just tell your parents about this?" he asked. Shining Sapphire's face scrunched up, and then her wings twitched.
"Well, if we got my parents involved..." she trailed off, and glanced nervously about the corridor, "if this is deliberate, if somepony's doing this on purpose, then maybe..."

She trailed off, "let's just keep this to ourselves for now."
Then she saw Wisp's eyes focus on something. "What is it?"

He nodded, and she turned, to see Shining Armor approaching slowly. She began to wonder if reality had some manner of grudge against her.
"Hey," he said akwardly, apparently wincing, "you two okay?"

She tried smiling, unaware of the fact that her new fangs were showing, "Yes, yes. Fine. Perfectly okay."
Shining Armor nodded, and then motioned toward Wisp, "is it okay if I borrow your boyfriend for a moment?"

She looked toward Wisp, who was burying a barely-controlled look of distress.
"I guess" Wisp said hesitantly. Shining Sapphire just bit down on her lip at the look on both their faces.

"I'll be in the library" she said, before correcting herself with, "well, a library, at any rate."
She walked off, taking one last look at Wisp before she rounding a corner. The former Changeling looked at Shining Armor, and then shuffled, his wings flapping briefly.

"So," he said slowly, "what was it you wanted to talk about?"
Shining Armor bit down on his lip and looked about awkwardly, "stuff, I guess" he said. The two stood there, shuffling awkwardly.
"Hey, wanna walk outside? It's a really nice morning. Far too nice to be wasted inside."


*****

Despite what she'd said, Shining Sapphire hadn't immediately headed to a library. Instead, she made her way back to her bedroom, and more importantly, the adjoining bathroom, where she proceeded to wash her hair, because otherwise the incredibly greasy feeling was going to drive her mad.

After drying it, she made her way to the nearest library and got down to work. Well, that had been the plan, at any rate.
She frowned as she stared at the book in front of her, as she tried to focus on its contents, which was proving annoyling difficult. Her mind, now free of any distractions, was making good use of the opportunity and racing at a mile a minute. She sighed, and buried her head in her hooves. Nothing was making any sense whatsoever. From what she knew, from what she thought she'd known, there was no way any of this could have been happening, and she wasn't even sure about what had happened.

She wasn't aware of it, but she'd begun to let out a low moan. Then she was aware of a gently feel of a hoof on her shoulder. Slowly, she looked up, to see a bright pink hoof. She looked further up, to see her mother, looking concerned.
"Are you feeling okay?" she asked. Shining Sapphire just blinked, not knowing whether to smile or scream or just snap completely.

"I'm having a... really off day" she mumbled. Cadance sat down and tilted her head.
"Nothing's happened between you two, has it?" she asked. Shining Sapphire paused, wondering why she'd ask such a thing, after all, all she'd done this morning was wake up, and then last ni-

She felt her blood freeze, even as her cheeks turned an impressive magenta colour, and she found it difficult to breath.
"No!" she managed to choke out, "Nothing happened. Nothing at all, nothing between the two of us."

It then occurred to her, inbetween trying to will her memory into oblivion, that she had in fact shapeshifted to look like she normally did, but for all she knew, at the moment that would have meant she'd look like she was...
She tried not to look at Cadance as her cheeks managed to get redder still.

"Well, alright then," Cadance said, though she sounded unconvinced. Shining Sapphire tried smiling, but somewhere between thought and deed it got slightly confused, and she looked more like she'd been kicked incredibly hard. It faltered even further when Cadance smiled back.

"But you know, if you do need to talk to somepony, about anything, anything at all, you know you can talk to me, don't you?" she said calmly. Shining Sapphire nodded. She did want to talk, she wanted to tell her absolutely everything she could, but for she had no idea where to even begin, or how her mother would react. Oh, she knew she'd be believed, that much she knew, but beyond that, she had no idea what would happen. Especially since it had been a whole month since the Nightmare's visit.
"Yeah" she said quietly, "I know."

She looked up, to see an oddly faraway look on Cadance's face. "I do know what it's like, that feeling" she said, her voice sounding worryingly far-away, "that one you get when you're a long way from home. And your friends. And your family."
"Home's where the heart is" Shining Sapphire mumbled. "Everypony knows that."

Cadance just smiled again, and this time Shining Sapphire smiled back properly. "So it is" she said.
She sighed, and then almost instantly afterward her smile returned, "Well then, if you're feeling alright, I'll let you get back to what you were doing. Just thought I'd check up on you, see if you were okay."

"Thanks, m-" Shining Sapphire caught her just in time.
"Thanks" she mumbled. Cadance's smile grew slightly. Then Shining Sapphire saw a worrying look in her eyes.

"What is it?" she asked.
"Oh, I've... just had this odd feeling all morning" Cadance said, sounding mildly puzzled with what she was saying, "distracted, probably, but that's probably because one of the kitchen staff didn't make it in this morning, and nopony's seen him since last night, especially since it would normally take being turned to stone to keep one of them from coming in to work."

She looked down at her hooves for a moment, then back to Shining Sapphire, "Anyhow, never mind my rambling. If you're okay, I'll just go. But you know where me and my husband are if you need us."
Shining Sapphire nodded, before Cadance walked out of the room, closing the door behind her, her mind feeling more unfocused than before. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to laugh or scream or cry or all three, or just chase after her mother and ask her to help. Then, she felt an odd sensation across her cheek. She lifted a hoof, and looked. A tear.

She looked at the book in front of her, then, with utmost care she closed it and returned it to its proper place on the shelf, before marching out of the room, her face set with determination.


*****


Some time later, and a pony slunk through the streets of the Crystal Empire, ignoring all the ponies who tried to bid him 'good morning' or say hello, or bow, or curtsy. This pony made their way to the great library itself, and made their way inside, ignoring the cheerful greetings of the librarians, who immediately began wondering if something was dreadfully wrong with the pony. He stopped, and looked about, nopony daring to ask what he was up to. Then he made his way through the library, until eventually coming upon a small stack of books hidden in a corner. Slowly, he approached it, then lifted a hoof and knocked gently on it.

"Yes?" a voice called out from the fortress.
"It's me" Whisper Wind announced. The books were wrapped in a glow of energy, and moved aside, allowing him entrance. Inside was a small desk, with Shining Sapphire sitting at it with the most forlorn expression possible, though it vanished when she saw his.
"What happened?" she asked. Wisp sat there for a moment, his expression shifting every few seconds, before he finally spoke.

"Shining Armor and I had..." he paused, "a conversation."
Shining Sapphire raised an eyebrow at this. "And?"

Wisp began slouching. "It was a conversation I didn't want to have, and never wish to repeat, or even think of, again."
"Oh" Shining Sapphire said. A new silence produced itself.

"By the way" Wisp said after some time, "my name is now apparently..."
He rolled his eyes, "I can barely bring myself to say it. It's... 'Shimmering Stretto'."

Shining Sapphire's mouth twitched furiously, and she stared up at the ceiling, trying to think of the technique used to make it so that she didn't laugh.
"I see" she eventually said. "Makes sense."

"How so?" Wisp asked.
"Well, it's a musical term, so it'd fit with my mother's name, and a stretto is, if I recall correctly, something to do with the imitation of a subject, when the imitation starts before the subject has finished. I could explain in more depth if you'd like."

"Please don't."
Shining Sapphire sighed. "Could've been worse" she smiled, "I nearly got named 'Shining Satz'. That's Griffon for 'set', by the way. It means 'a musical term which in and of itself makes complete sense.'"

Her smiled flickered, "my mane saved me from that one. Well, mostly."
"Mom really wanted to name me after a musical term" she said quietly. She then went back to reading her book. Then, almost as suddenly, she stopped, and seemed to become suddenly stiff as she turned to look at Wisp.

"Wisp, honey, what did you say he called you?"
Wisp felt a sudden pang of fear, even as he tried to remember the name. "Shimmering Stretto?"

There was a terrifying look in Shining Sapphire's eyes. "I see" she said, her voice alarmingly low, in a way Wisp had never heard before.
"Well. That makes things simple. So very simple."

Her horn glowed, and the books began to start moving about. Wisp blinked.
"How does that make things simple?" suddenly she stared at him with an alarmingly intense stare.

"Because" she said, beginning to smile again, albeit in the way usually found on creatures approaching tasty morsels in the middle of the jungle, "my dear Wisp, there is no. Way. That my mother or father would ever, ever name any child of theirs... Shimmer, or any variation thereof!"
For a moment, Wisp watched as she began striding off, and considered asking her what exactly she meant by that, but then he noticed he was in a library, filled with books, and from the look on Shining Sapphire's face it wasn't a good idea to press further.

"So, what does that mean?" he asked, and she turned back toward him with an alarming look on her face.
"It means I know what's been done" she said, her voice incredibly low. "It mean somebody's been messing with somepony's head, which is why my mom and dad think that you are their son, and that they would actually call you that."

She turned again, and started marching toward the palace, "And what's better" she announced, "is that I know exactly what to do about this!"
"What?" Wisp asked, to which she stopped dead, nearly causing him to collide with her. "What are you going to do?"

"Well, the thing is, nopony in the Crystal Empire should be able to do something like this, and it follows that nopony in the Crystal Empire could undo it."
"But," Wisp said cautiously, "we still don't know who did this."

"And it still doesn't matter" she said instantly, "because I know who we have to go see to get this fixed!"
She stared at Wisp for a moment, evidently expecting him to supply an answer. He shrugged.

"Who?"
She rolled her eyes and smiled, "think about it, sweetie, come on. Who has the greatest magical knowledge anywhere?"

"Princess Celestia?" he asked. Shining Sapphire shook her head.
"Not her."

"Really? Because she only has lifetimes worth of experience and knowledge, second only to none, after all, and you have carte blanche to visit her whenever you want."
Shining Sapphire looked thoughtful for a moment. "True" she finally said, "yes, she is one of the smartest ponies alive, and yes, I could conceivably visit her whenever I wished, but Wisp, darling, the thing is..."

She looked about, then motioned for him to move in closer. "The thing is," she whispered, "she is also my grand-aunt, which seems to give her license to spend most of the time I'd spend with her rambling whatever nonsense comes into her head. Now, don't get me wrong, I am all for sagely wisdom of the ages, or long circuitous monologues, but if there is one thing I never, ever wish to experience again, it is a lecture from my beloved grand-aunt on the history of tea-cups."
Wisp blinked, taken aback by those last words. "Tea-cups?" he repeated. Shining Sapphire nodded.

"Indeed. Tea-cups. Do not ask, for the sheer tedium might tear your mind to shreds."
"I thought you were all for learning new things" he said. Shining Sapphire shook her head, and started walking toward the palace again.

"I am. But I draw the line at tea-cups."
She glanced at Wisp, and looked almost embarrassed. "Don't tell anypony. I'm supposed to like tea, being royalty and all."

"You prefer coffee" Wisp said, to which she nodded.
"Which means I'm probably supposed to not like tea, then" Wisp said.

"Do you?" she asked cautiously. Wisp shrugged.
"Mom tried, once or twice, to gauge my interest in it, but... for some reason her ten year old son didn't really take to it. Maybe it was because I'm a Changeling, and therefore just have different tastebuds. Or maybe, just maybe, it was the bear sitting near me."

"The bear" Shining Sapphire repeated, "that was... not what I was expecting you to say."
"Actually, as it turned out, he was a very nice bear" Wisp said absent-mindedly. "Nicer than most of the rabbits, in fact."

He smiled briefly. "So, then, if it isn't Princess Celestia, who? Princess Luna?"
Shining Sapphire looked momentarily startled. "Forgotten about her" she mumbled sheepishly, "But I will justify that on the grounds that she would act grand-auntishly as well, though perhaps not to the same extent as Aunt Celestia. Plus, I've had even less contact with her than I have with Celestia. And my encounters with Princess Celestia don't measure into the double digits, so I doubt I could just walk up to her and ask for a sudden favour."

"So," Wisp said, feeling a slight portent of doom at his words, "if we aren't seeing Princess Celestia, or Princess Luna, then I suppose the next most powerful magic-wielder would be..."
He stopped, and saw the wide grin on Shining Sapphire's face.

"Yep" the mare grinned, "Aunt Twilie."
"Of course" Wisp said.

The two quickly made their way to the palace, and then to Shining Sapphire's bedroom. She looked under the bed, and dragged out a small bag.
"I wonder..." she said, "should I make some notes, to help aunt Twilie with this, or should I just try and explain when we get there?"

She shrugged, "might as well have the notes, it'll give me something to do on the way down. Now then," she clapped her hooves together, and rushed toward the bathroom, emerging with a small bag, and a towel. Wisp stared at the items.
"Basics" she said, "toothbrush, towel. After all, the train to Canterlot, assuming we get the next available one would get there..."

"Late" Wisp supplied. "Very late, assuming we don't wait a while and catch a later one, and arrive there so late it'd be morning."
"Assuming" she said. For a few seconds both ponies sat there, staring at one another.

"You're being quiet" Shining Sapphire noted. Wisp nodded.
"Just thinking," he said, "about stuff."

She nodded. "Yeah. Actually, I'm getting a bit concerned. I mean, there's no way it can be this easy for us. There's no way we can just... make our way downstairs, walk to the train station, get on a train and just go to Canterlot and get aunt Twilie to solve this, and be back by tomorrow afternoon, is there?"
"Probably not, no" Wisp said glumly.

The two ponies stood there, and then Shining Sapphire smiled slightly.
"Bet you ten bits something goes wrong on that way."

"It might not" Wisp suggested. "Maybe all the bad luck will move on to somepony else."
After a few seconds, both of them burst out in uncontrollable laughter, until they found it difficult to stand. However, they did feel slightly better about their chances once they were done.
> Complications
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

And so did the two young royals set out on their quest to restore themselves to normality, or the nearest possible approximation. This quest managed to last a grand total of seven minutes and fifty-three seconds before it encounter a complication, in the form of a set of guards standing in front of the main door of the Crystal Palace. One of the guards looked toward the two.
"Sorry, your highness" the pony said, "I mean, highnesses. Can't let you outside."

Shining Sapphire turned to look at Wisp, who then looked back toward the guards.
"Why not?" he asked, "Especially considering you let us in not twenty minutes ago."

"Security reasons, your highness" the guard said automatically. "Apparently nopony's allowed out of the city on top of that."
"And why, exactly?" Shining Sapphire spoke up. The guard just shrugged, before something apparently occurred to him.

"And, by the way, we're supposed to tell you two t' go talk to Their Highnesses 'at your earliest possible convenience'."
"And are they anywhere in particular?" Shining Sapphire asked.


*****


As it turned out, they happened to be sitting in the throne room. Shining Sapphire and Wisp slowly approached the two, and then stopped, looking at one another. A few silent seconds passed as they tried to communicate non-verbally the fact that neither felt up to talking to Shining Sapphire's parents at that particular morning.
"Hey, you two" Shining Armor called out, utterly shattering the silence.

"Hey" Shining Sapphire responded weakly, before nudging Wisp with a hoof. He looked back at her, and could've sworn that there was something unusual about the way she was smiling at that moment.
"What's up?" the colt asked nervously. Cadance slowly rolled up the parchment she'd been working on, and slowly moved it toward an attendant, who then walked out of the room. After a few seconds she began smiling again.

"Well, we didn't want you two to worry, we just felt that, after the" she coughed, her smile flickering, "after what happened last month, some caution was required. But you two are both mature ponies, so we decided it was best to tell you."
After a few seconds Shining Armor joined in, "Especially since you'd probably find out anyway."

"We've had a bit of a concern that there may just be some other changelings about in the city, and possibly some outside the city as well, so right now we're just double-checking everything."
Wisp looked hesitant, "by other Changelings, I'm guessing you don't mean-"

"We don't mean the ones who were already here" Shining Armor said, briefly looking toward Shining Sapphire, "No."
"So," Shining Sapphire said quietly, "assuming that there are different Changelings running around the city, or outside it as the case may be, what are you going to do if you find them?"

Both Cadance and Shining Armor looked uncertain. "Well," Shining Armor said slowly, "that depends. I mean, after last month, they probably aren't feeling very scrappy, but at the same time..."
For a few moments he looked hesitant, before Cadance spoke up.

"We don't want a repeat of last month's events, so right now we have ponies checking the city, and the wastes outside, to see if any Changelings might be residing there, and it may take a while."
"How long, exactly?" Shining Sapphire asked. Cadance looked toward Shining Armor.

"A couple of hours, maybe more" he said, "maybe a lot more. The better part of a day perhaps."
Shining Sapphire sighed. She'd been dreading that part, which admittedly was standard procedure, especially since her dad believed in being amazingly thorough in checking, and expected anypony working under him to do the same. Then she noticed the curious expression on Cadance's face.

"What's wrong?" she asked. Shining Sapphire shook her head.
"Nothing, nothing" she said, looking over toward Wisp momentarily, "it's just... we... sort of had something we wanted to do today."

She resisted the urge to facehoof for actually saying that, as she saw Cadance raise an eyebrow before turning to look at Shining Armor. From the look on Wisp's face, he had similar sentiments.
"I see" Cadance said, in the manner of a parent who thought they were being subtle, as her gaze flitted between Wisp and Shining Sapphire.

"Well" she said diplomatically, "we'll try and sort all of this out as quickly as possible."
Shining Sapphire fought down the urge to sigh again. "'kay" she said wearily. She couldn't really blame them for doing what they were doing, and began wondering if this was some attempt of theirs to make up for what had happened with the Changelings previously, and with the Nightmare before that, even if this incredibly over-protective for them. And then she realised she'd begun thinking about the Nightmare incident again, and found her mind slipping back to that day, and then to the feeling of waking up in that hospital, especially the smell, and the distant noises of fighting.

She winced, trying to force herself not to think of the memories. Then she opened her eyes and noticed her mother was practically on top of her, a completely worried look on her face.
"What is it?" Cadance asked gently. She fought down the memories, and forced a smile out.

"Nothing" she blurted, "I just... just thinking about something."
She looked over toward Wisp, who just looked slightly helpless, and then back to her parents, who looked... actually, she could've sworn they looked terrified.

"I think I'll just go and get some fresh air" she managed to get out, before turning and heading toward the nearest door as fast as her legs could carry her. Unfortunately, she only made it a few feet away from the door before her legs just decided to give out, resulting in her collapsing in an entirely undignified fashion, and incidentally biting her tongue once more. Time seemed to just stretch out as she lay there, breathing in and out. Then, she was vaguely aware of the feeling of somepony's legs moving around hers. She tried unfolding and looking at whoever it was, and smiled warmly at Wisp.

"Hey" she managed.
"What was that?" Wisp asked. She just paused, and then sniffed slightly.

"Nothing" she said, and then she saw the disbelief on his face, "really, it was nothing."
"It didn't look like nothing" he simply said. Shining Sapphire just looked glumly at the floor.

"I don't want to talk about it" she said coldly, before seeing the look on Wisp's face.
"Don't, Wisp, and don't look at me like that."
For a few seconds more there was utter quiet before she felt the need to say something. "Besides," she mumbled, "you don't tell me absolutely everything."

For an instant, there was an odd look on his face before he finally just gave a half-hearted shrug, and she could've sworn he felt tense. "Not anything you'd really want to know" he muttered.
"Well then" she said, "this is some relationship then, where we don't tell each other anything."

Both ponies just stared at the floor, before Shining Sapphire slowly stood up, before gently nuzzling Wisp, and smiling, to which he gave a small smile back.
"Now what?" Wisp asked, "I mean, they've got everypony in the city guard looking for Changelings, but not 'our' Changelings, so what are they going to do?"

Shining Sapphire sighed, and gently rubbed her forehead.
"Standard operating procedure would be security sweeps for a while" she said quietly, "No pony in or out of the city, for any reason, unless absolutely necessary, or by approval of the captain of the guard or from my mom and dad."

"And I get the feeling they probably won't give that approval for what they likely think is just some sort of romantic outing" Wisp suggested. Shining Sapphire blinked for a moment.
"Romantic outing?" she asked. Wisp shrugged.

"I think that was the impression they got from what you said. And who can blame them? That is what young ponies tend to do, isn't it?"
"You're never that romantic" Shining Sapphire pointed out, to which Wisp just nodded.

"True" he said quietly, "true. But your idea of fun is reading."
"You never complained before" Shining Sapphire said, trying to look offended.

"And I'm not actually complaining now. I was just..." he shuffled, "noting it."
The two ponies stood there quietly, neither able to meet the other's gaze.

"So... security checks" Wisp said awkwardly. Shining Sapphire sighed.
"Well, they will probably relax, after a few hours, if we're lucky, so we'll have to wait a while to get our train."

"We could wait and see if this... curse, or hex, or whatever it is wears off on its own" Wisp said dryly. Shining Sapphire just shook her head.
"I'm pretty sure whoever did this didn't plan for it to wear off on its own, dear."

"Probably not" Wisp frowned. "Can't get that lucky, can we?"
"No" Shining Sapphire said, before motioning to Wisp. "Come on. We need to go check those train times."

"But... we're not allowed out of the castle" he pointed out. Shining Sapphire then did something that caused him to take a step back. She grinned, though she looked slightly more manic than she probably intended.

"Oh, don't worry about that" she said calmly.


*****

The imposing front doors of the Crystal Palace slid open, without even the faintest creak, or groan. After a few seconds, a bright pink pony stepped out cautiously into the warm summer sun, then stopped when she saw the group of guards in front of her.
"Oh", she said cheerfully, before waving, "Hi, captain Sentry."

The orange pegasus just gave a curt nod. "Ma'am."
Shining Sapphire's eyes passed over the gather of guards behind him, then focused on the captain. "Would I presume these guards are here to prevent my coltfriend and me from going anywhere we are not supposed to?"

"Not at all" the captain responded, "well... sort'a. Her Highness did... suggest that if you decided there was somewhere you really needed to go in the city that we were to escort you there."
"I see" Shining Sapphire smiled brightly, "but there is no need to worry about my intended destination. I am merely taking a pre-lunch constitutional."

"If you say so" the guard smiled back, "though I am wondering if this walk would take you anywhere near the city's train station."
Shining Sapphire's smile vanished. "She warned you about that, didn't she?"
He nodded.

"Well," Shining Sapphire said, "as you may have noticed, my coltfriend is not present, and you have no need to worry, since I am not planning to go anywhere at present."
"That's very kind of you to reassure us" Flash Sentry said, "though be that as it may, we are under orders to follow you."
He suddenly frowned and put a hoof to his chin. "At least, I think we are. Princess Cadance didn't exactly say we were to follow you."

He shrugged, "still, maybe I'm just forgetting. Been doing that all day. Forgot to put my helmet on earlier."
"And your armour" another guard helpfully supplied, at which point Flash Sentry's grin turned into a frown, while Shining Sapphire resisted the urge to giggle. However, she did find it reassuring that Flash Sentry's personality had in no way been affected in any form whatsoever.

"Anyway" Flash Sentry said tensely, "do enjoy your walk, your highness."
"That I shall" Shining Sapphire beamed.


*****


Wisp sat in front of the doors of the Crystal Palace, waiting, and growing slightly more tense by the second, not least because several ponies had passed by and asked him what was wrong, or tried to make idle chit-chat, and he wasn't feeling especially conversational. Eventually, the doors opened soundlessly, and he could've sworn he saw Shining Sapphire saying goodbye to somepony. Once the door was closed she turned to face him, her smile dropping a little.

"Captain Sentry" she said, "definitely a good pony, but when it comes to anything outside his job he's... well, sort of all hock."
Wisp just tilted his head. "He's the bright orange one, right?"
Shining Sapphire nodded, to which Wisp just looked quizzical.

"You know, he does sort of remind me of a younger, off-brand version of your dad."
Shining Sapphire blinked for a few seconds, then stared at Wisp like he'd just suggested fish could fly. "You really think so?"

Wisp nodded, to which Shining Sapphire looked alarmed. "Actually, now that you mention it..."
"And I'm sure I recall something your cousin said once about him and Princess Twilight Sparkle."

Shining Sapphire's expression became stone-like. "I have no comment on the matter" she said icily.
"Shall we-?"

"Move on? Let's."
"So," Wisp asked, "what's the plan?"

Shining Sapphire rubbed a hoof on her head, "Well, unfortunately we will have to wait for several hours, probably until around dinnertime, before getting a train, which means it'll be a sleeper train."
"Okay" Wisp said. She stared at him.

"Really?"
He nodded. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know" she said, "maybe because of what I spent most of the last week trying to get you to do?"
"Oh" Wisp intoned. "Yes, right. Sharing a room together."

"Carriage, more likely" Shining Sapphire pointed out. "You're really okay with this?"
"Yeah, I just..." he looked around the hall way for a moment, "I was just making a mountain out of a molehill, I guess."

Shining Sapphire smiled, "alright, then."
The two stood there for several seconds.

"Now what do we do?" Wisp asked. Shining Sapphire scuffed a hoof against the floor.
"Find something to do for the next eight hours or so."

As it turned out, aside from ridiculously overprepared lunch, and a dinner that looked like a bunch of innocent vegetables that had been set upon by a gang of artistically minded chefs, finding something to occupy the next eight hours proved difficult for both ponies, especially since Wisp seemed to develop an odd unwillingness to talk.
Eventually however, after what felt like much longer than eight hours, the two ponies felt ready to go. As they did, though, Shining Sapphire looked about.

"How do I summon those Changelings?" she asked, to which Wisp just shrugged.
"Don't look at me" he said, before his voice went worryingly low, "they usually just turn up whenever they want."

"Your highness" a voice said, and she turned to see four of the Changelings trying to look-
She stopped, and then counted the number of Changelings, before frowning.

"Shouldn't there be five of you?" she asked. "Where'd Angel Eyes get to?"
Impulse's wings flitted, and she could've sworn he almost looked bashful.

"We don't know" he said, "we haven't seem him for... some time."
"That's unlike him" she noted, "Isn't it?"

Windsheer shook his head, though she decided not to ask further.
"Well, anyway," she glanced toward Wisp, "we're just... heading out for a while, and we probably won't be back until if not tomorrow, then very late the day after, okay? I was just going to ask if you fi-... well, you four at the moment, I guess, if you could remain here and just..."

"Behave" Wisp supplied. Strangely, the Changelings actually looked like they were listening.
"Yes. Behave" Shining Sapphire said. She turned to look at Wisp, and smiled.

"Alright, let's go."
She was just at the door, when she stopped and turned around. "And no following us, got it?

The Changelings looked vaguely hesitant, but they nodded.
"Okay then" she smiled, "Thanks for that."

As she and Wisp made their way to the nearest staircase, she felt slightly troubled that they had agreed so easily, but she decided not to dwell on it.
The two ponies made their way to the front door, only to find it was still being guarded. Wisp looked to Shining Sapphire, who didn't look remotely surprised.

"Plan B then" she said. With that, she turned, Wisp following her. Her path went through several of the major reception halls of the castle, until eventually arriving at the small wooden door that led to the kitchens.
"You're being unusual quiet" Shining Sapphire noted to Wisp, as they approached the door. He just shrugged.

"Thinking about stuff" he muttered, "that's all."
"Penny for your thoughts" she said. Wisp just shook his head.

"Nothing important."
Shining Sapphire opened the door in front of her, and stepped through into the kitchens. It was the first time Wisp had seen them, and he had to admit, they looked exactly like the kitchens of a massive palace would have. A variety of stoves, and tables, and alarmingly easily accessible knives, peelers, grates, and things he didn't even know what they were for, in a space that looked almost exactly the same size as the main dancing halls.

And they were completely empty.
"Strange" Shining Sapphire noted, glancing back and forth, "there should be somepony here. There's always somepony here."
She turned to look at Wisp, "the head chef hates leaving this place unattended" she explained, as she began moving through the room, navigating around massive tables which looked completely pristine, save for the large knife-marks in the woodworks, and the occasional sauce-burn.

"Just in case anything should happen, he says. Like, just for example, my dad trying to make a few sandwichs in the middle of the night."
She just shook her head at the thought, and then kept moving. The two moved between rows of stoves, as Wisp privately wondered what chefs needed so much equipment, unless they had plans on feeding the entire Crystal Empire.
Soon enough they reached the other side of the room, wherein there was another door. Wisp stared at it, then at Shining Sapphire.
"Did your parents have this put in?" he asked, "Or was it always there?"

"I think it was always there" Shining Sapphire said, "Why?"
"Well, because that just doesn't fit in with the castle, or the" he paused, and tried to think of a good euphemism that didn't involve cussing, "mind-set of its previous owner."

Shining Sapphire just looked at the door. "Only a bit. Just because he was a horrible, insane, paranoid nutcase doesn't mean he wanted any contact with his serving staff, I guess. Or they didn't want contact with him. Or both. Now then..."
She opened the door, and the two ponies stepped out in the mild evening gloom (which wasn't helped by the fact that they were in the castle's shadow), to find two guards standing there. One looked at the other with a triumphantly smug expression, as Shining Sapphire facehoofed.

"Evening, your highness" the smug guard said.
"Evening" Wisp said wearily. Then the second guard revealed a small scroll, and unfurled it.

"We have here a message here from Their Highnesses Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and Shining Armor, to be read unto you in the event you emerged from this door" guard number two said.
The first guard coughed, and began to read.


"Dear Prince Shimmering Stretto.
C'mon.
Give us a little credit.
Love, your parents,
Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and Shining Armor."


With that the guards carefully rolled up the parchment.
"Sorry, your highness" the second said. Wisp looked toward Shining Sapphire, expecting her to look annoyed, or frustrated. Instead, she seemed alarmingly serene.

"That's okay" he said.
"Worth a try" Shining Sapphire stated, before turning around and heading back inside. Wisp followed after her and closed the door. Once he had, she let out a frustrated groan.

"See, that's the problem with the guard. Everypony always thinks, 'oh, look, Princess Cadance hired a boy band, they'll trip over themselves the minute they're asked to do something', forgetting who her aunt is! And then, oh look, mom and dad didn't just hire the pretty ponies, they hired smart as well."
For a few seconds Wisp just stared, expecting her mane to burst into flames, or for her to suggest something dangerously insane.

"So... now what?" he asked. Shining Sapphire just began moving again. He followed. She made her way out of the kitchens, then, began a strange winding path through the castle, until eventually arriving at a completely non-descript corridor. She looked around, and then sidled over toward the wall, and tapped it with a hoof. Wisp just observed, hesitant to say anything at all.
"Where is it?" he heard her mutter. She shook her head, and stalked off, Wisp following her to another corridor, where she began tapping on the wall again. This continued for several minutes, until she tapped her hoof against one wall, and there was a slightly different, hollow sound. She smiled, and looked up toward one of the light fittings. Her horn glowed, and then the light moved downward slightly. There was an incredibly loud 'click' sound, and the part of the wall she'd tapped suddenly began to slide backward, then vanishing, revealing a long, dark stairway. Then several small lights that alternated between bright blue and pink lit up. Shining Sapphire turned to look at Wisp.

"Come on" she said, motioning for him to follow. The two began walking, down, and down, and down, and down. Then, after a while, it went up again, until Shining Sapphire stopped, and lifted a hoof toward something. There was another click, and there was a sudden burst of light. The two ponies stepped out into what turned out to be an alleyway. Wisp turned to stare as a piece of brick wall slid into place, covering up the exit way completely. He raised a hoof to inspect it, and couldn't feel the slightest seam.

"What?" he asked, not expecting a satisfying answer.
"Every good castle has at least one or two hidden passages" Shining Sapphire said. "Apparently grand-aunt Celly doesn't feel safe in a room that doesn't have a secret exit strategy."

She grinned, though in the light, Wisp could've sworn she was actually wincing.
"You okay?" he asked. She just nodded.

"Yeah, just... out of breath" she said hurriedly, "lot of stairs. And I think I just stepped on a stone or something."
Wisp decided not to say anything as she made her way out of the amazingly clean, and definitely stone-free, alleyway.

"Come on, you," she called out, "Almost there."
He quickly trotted up to her, glancing back at the alleyway, then to Shining Sapphire.

"How long has that thing been there?" he asked, as Shining Sapphire looked about cautiously, "and more to the point, how do you know it's there? I mean, you don't really leave your library."
"Oh, well" she said matter-of-factly, "to answer your first question, some of them were there when mom and dad 'moved in', although they had to 'remodel' a few of them. They had this really poorly designed one where you could only see the exit for ten minutes every fifty years. That had to go."

"I'm guessing whoever paid for that one never caught on, then."
"And as for your second, my parents told me about some of them, 'just in case.'"

Both ponies stopped dead, and stared at each other, if only to confirm what they'd just head. Shining Sapphire clamped a hoof over her mouth, which muffled the series of squeaks from her, before she suddenly bolted in the direction of the train station.
Wisp noted something odd about her gait as he followed, but he paid it very little mind, so busy as he was trying to burn the fact he'd just heard her speaking with her father's voice out of his head.


*****


As it turned out, the train station was almost crawling with guards. They didn't actually seem to be blocking anypony's access, just standing around occupying space on the platform. Then, when they saw Shining Sapphire striding through the area, they suddenly leapt into action, surrounding her and Wisp.
"Your highness" one guard said, "is something the matter?"

Wisp noticed the guards were all looking at him. "No, nothing's the matter. We just want to get on the train."
The pony looked about cautiously. "Your highness, we do have standing orders to make sure you do not get on that train."

"Orders" Wisp stated. The guard nodded.
"Yes sir. From the Princess herself, if it helps" he added awkwardly.

"It doesn't."
"We really need to get on that train" Shining Sapphire spoke up. The guard tried to suppress a wince.

"It's just... well, we have reports that there are Changelings out there, and given what happened previously..." he shuffled, "if you board this train, we cannot necessarily guarantee the safety of everypony on-board if there are Changelings."
"If there are" Wisp repeated.

"Yes, your highness, if there are Changelings."
"And are there?" Wisp asked. The guard tried not to shrug.

"We don't know. And searching the entirety of the frozen wastes would be... difficult, which is why we're guarding this train."
Wisp and Shining Sapphire exchanged glances. The captain looked about at the ponies eyeing the scene cautiously. This wasn't fair, he thought, for anypony, least of all himself.

"Look" he said, calmly, "Your Highnesses, we can stand here for as long as we like, but I cannot let you on that train."
Shining Sapphire stared levelly at him.
"'Let'?" she repeated, "we do need to get on that train."

The guard bit down in order to stop himself suggesting that whatever it was could've waited perhaps a day or two.
"I know this isn't fair" the mare continued, "but we have business to attend to, and it cannot wait, not for a day, or an hour, or a minute. We could order you to let us on-board, but we aren't. All I'm going to do is ask."

The guard sighed, and then fell silent for the longest time.
"If it helps" Wisp spoke up, "we'd probably find a way past you sooner or later."

The guard sighed, then looked to the other guards. He suddenly had a vision of being called before Their Highness, who would talk quietly, and politely, and be disappointed, or worse upset.
"I..." he whispered, "fine. Fine."

Shining Sapphire nodded, and smiled sympathetically, as the other guards stepped aside for the two young ponies. Once they were out of sight, the guard let loose a mighty sigh.
Still, he reasoned, with time, Their Highnesses would probably forgive him.


*****


Shining Sapphire and Wisp made their way into the rearmost carriage of the train, noting several other ponies nervously making their way out of the carriage as they did. Shining Sapphire looked about at the almost-completely empty carriage, and then made her way toward one of the overly-large seats which, with some careful work, could be turned into a bed.
"Do you want the window seat?" Wisp asked. She nodded, and then awkwardly clambered onto the seat, instead of just jumping onto it. Once she settled down she looked about the carriage.

"Guess this means we've got the whole place to ourselves" she noted.
"Makes sense" Wisp said as he stored away their bag, "Nopony really wants to know what a princeling and his young lady get up to in privacy, after all."

Shining Sapphire nodded, "and it means I can finally do this..."
Her horn glowed, and then her whole body changed. Soft pink fur was replaced by chitin, the soft lines of her face became ever-so-slightly harder, her features noticeably more ragged. She shuddered for a moment, then yelped, glancing toward her back legs. Wisp just stared at her as she breathed deeply.

"Holding that spell for several hours" she whispered, "or, trying to, at any rate."
She placed a leg against her horn, but quickly withdrew it. "Felt like my horn was going to tear itself out of my head."

"Learning to hold a form is always difficult" Wisp said quietly, as he sat next to her, allowing her the chance to lean on him, "not that I had any choice, or anypony to help me learn how to do it. My mom, she did try, she asked for help from Princess Twilight Sparkle, and any other magical authority she could trust, but... none of them were really knowledgeable enough to help."
"That can't have been fun" Shining Sapphire observed. Wisp just nodded.

"It... had its moments" he said, looking down at his hooves.
An almost playful grin appeared on Shining Sapphire's face. "I'm going to guess that's how you and cousin Twinkie met. I can see it now: Twilight Sparkle gets a call for help from one of her oldest and dearest friends, and decides to bring her daughter along with, since she's heard Fluttershy has a child as well, and they might get on."

Wisp said nothing to that, and there was an odd look on his face. Shining Sapphire tried to adjust herself to look at him, earning herself only a quizzical eyebrow.
"What is it?" she asked. Wisp stared at her, unblinking.

"Just... thinking" he stated. "You managed to hold that spell from before breakfast to now, with no previous experience with it."
"I watched you and those other Changelings perform it before" she stated casually.

"And in all that time, you barely showed any discomfort, even though it was hurting you? Didn't you ever consider just... dispelling it?"
Shining Sapphire looked uncomfortable, "not really. I had things I needed to do, and I don't even know if I can do it successfully again anyway. Besides, my parents have managed to keep spells going for days at a time."

"True" Wisp said, "but you parents were slightly older than we are right now when they did that, and more experienced, and those kinda were completely different circumstances. Your father for example, had expertise and years of training on his side, and..." his expression turned sour, "well, we all know how that one worked out. Meanwhile, your mother is a full-fledged alicorn, trained by Princess Celestia herself. And even she required rest, if I remember correctly. Several days worth, once she was done."
He looked down to see she was glaring at him with such intensity he was slightly surprised he hadn't burst into flames yet, "not that you're a slouch" he said cautiously, "but... well, y'know..."

"I'm aware of that" she said coldly, before sighing, and slumping against him some more. After a few seconds he began stroking her mane. There was utter silence, which was shattered by the sound of a whistle blowing somewhere, followed by the train slowly beginning to move. Soon small houses and shops began to pass by the windows, and shortly thereafter the small fields and hills outside the city, then almost instantly after that the beginning of the snow-covered lands between the Empire and Equestria.
After a few minutes, Wisp spoke up again.
"There is... something else" he said reluctantly. Shining Sapphire tensed up.

"Last night" he said, "we fell asleep really quickly, didn't we?"
Shining Sapphire stared blankly for a few seconds. "Hey, yeah" she said, "we did. That's weird. I remember... what did we do last night?"
"Well" Wisp said, trying to remember, "there was dinner, and then you reminded me I promised to share a bed with you that night, and then... I think I just wandered about for a while, then made my way to your room, and you were there."

Shining Sapphire's cheeks began to turn red, and she tried sitting up.
"Yes" she continued, "that's right, you did. And then we talked for a while, and then we... we must've just passed out. That's really weird. I mean, I never fall asleep that easily. Never. And I-"

Wisp saw her eyes staring slightly above his forehead.
"You've still got my tiara on" she noted, before raising an eyebrow. "Any reason for that?"

"You didn't say anything" Wisp said, suddenly feeling the presence of the small tiara on his head. Shining Sapphire's eyes darted toward the wall for a moment, then back to the tiara. Her horn glowed, and then nothing happened, save a few sparks jolting from her horn.
"Uh-oh."

"'Uh-oh'?" Wisp asked. Both ponies shared the same expression, realising the trademark signs of being magically drained.
"How drained are you?" he asked. Shining Sapphire bit down on her lip.

"Not in any dramatic or life-threatening fashion" she said, "but I think that even the most basic spells are out of the question for the time being. A couple of hours, at the least."
She suddenly looked nervous, "which, on a train going through the major population center of Equestria, might just be a bit of a problem very quickly."

She quickly looked out of the window. "And I don't really fancy our chances of having to walk."
Wisp stared at her. "What about flying?" he asked. She suddenly jolted.

"Yes, flying. That's what I meant. Flying."
He looked at Shining Sapphire, who just smiled nervously, though the smile almost instantaneously vanished.

"Sapphy, what's wrong with your leg?"
"It's-" she started.

"It's not nothing" he interrupted, "I know it's not nothing. You've been having trouble walking all day. I might have noticed a few times" he said on seeing the look on her face. "Over the last month" he added.
Her wings buzzed pathetically, startling both ponies.

"Sapphy. You can tell me. If there's anything I can do, I... please."
For a few minute she sat there, shuffling and shifting and looking wretched. Then she sighed.

"It happened when that... thing that had possessed Twinkie attacked me. Her first shot sent me flying, right into mom's throne, which broke my right wing and back leg, so in addition to having to fight a crazed monster with all of my cousin's magic, who was already physically stronger than me, I had to try and ignore that, even though I could barely make myself move, and... well, you know the rest of that story" she mumbled. For a while there was utter silence as the train just continued onward.
"And then, after the invasion, after I woke up, everything seemed fine, but... my leg started hurting whenever I put too much weight on it. Which was fine at first because, well, I don't really go anywhere, I just stay in one of the libraries all day long, and I thought if I just waited it'd wear off. Not that'd I mind going somewhere" she said hurriedly, "but the pain didn't go away. And it hasn't exactly gotten worse, it just hasn't gone away yet."

She paused again, and when she turned back to look at Wisp he noted she was fighting back tears. "And I didn't say anything because my mom and dad would get worried and upset and I didn't want to say anything after what happened with you and your birth mom and Twinkie and everything between us was going so well and I thought it would pass and it hasn't and now all this has happened and I just- I can't, I... I just can't, Wisp. Nothing's making any sense right now and I wanna scream but I can't and my parents look at me and it's like they don't even know me and I don't even know why this is happening and-"
She trailed off and then just curled into as tight a ball as she could manage, trying to ignore the alien feel of the chitin, all cold and smooth as it was, until she felt warm and soft fur brushing against her.

"I'm sorry" she managed, "I have literally no idea where that came from."
"I know this is going to sound... well, it's going sound kinda hypocritical coming from me, but... you are allowed to feel, y'know" Wisp said.

"I know" she sighed, "I know. I know I know. I know I know I know I know. But..." she shuddered, "It just sounds so selfish of me, complaining about something like this.
"And" she added, "it's not like it's anywhere near the end of the world, is it? And we can fix this."

"We will" Wisp said, before nuzzling her neck. For some reason she found herself grinning, which then quickly turned into a smile.
"Well," he then said, "I really mean you'll figure out a way to fix it, while I stand around, try not to touch anything and look pretty."

She suddenly laughed, and then found herself unable to stop. After a few seconds Wisp joined in, the two continuing their laughter for some time. Once they stopped she stared at Wisp.
"Honey?"

"Yes?"
"How come you haven't been reacting to any of this? I mean, really, you don't even look panicked?"

Wisp shrugged. "Lots of reasons."
"Would any of them involve being a rock-solid pillar of support for a certain distressed princess?" she smirked.

There was a lengthy and discouraging pause before he finally answered "Yes."
"But also" he added, "because of the way my life has gone, waking up one morning to find myself a flesh-and-blood pony doesn't really make a dent."

There was another lengthy pause, which seemed determined to out-do the previous one.
"That and the fact that you freaked out first, and Shimmering Stretto didn't want to get accused of imitation."

"Were you trying to be funny there?" Shining Sapphire asked. He shrugged.
"Trying, possibly. Waiting to hear from the judges on the succeeding front."

"Points for the effort" she deadpanned, "but the execution faltered."
"Noted."

"Anyway" he said defensively, "you looked like you were having one of those spurts of madness you and your cousin keep mentioning."
"Yeah" she nodded, "probably was at a few points."
She sighed, and then went silent, trying to adjust her position to get the best possible view out of the window, watching the ice and snow whip past, occasionally trying to catch a glimpse of one of the old cities buried under the ice, which even without going at the cautious speeds the train was going at would have been difficult, what with the lack of light, and the weather conditions. She decided to go over what she knew about the buried cities in her head. After a while, it occurred to her that her eyelids were feeling very heavy, likely because she hadn't had any coffee, what with the general excitement of the day, and strangely, she didn't really care much, especially since Whisper was so warm, and cosy, and fuzzy, and yet, certain parts of him were incredibly firm. She began to wonder when he'd had time to build up muscles when she realised he'd tensed up.

"What is it?" she asked.
"Do you hear that?" Wisp responded. She was about to ask what, then she heard, very distantly, a horrific squealing noise. She slowly sat up, and looked out of the window.

"That's odd" she noted, "we've stopped. In the middle of nowhere."
She turned to look at Wisp. "Does this train usually stop in the middle of nowhere?"

Wisp shook his head. "Sleeper trains do, I am told, tend to take longer stops than some trains, but generally there tend to be stations where they stop. Although" he said cautiously, "it could just be a simple problem of ice on the lines."
"Right" Shining Sapphire said, "ice on the lines. After all, you'd expect those in an environment like this."

"Even though, if I remember correctly, both the train and the tracks have been enchanted to prevent ice from building up."
"Repeatedly" Shining Sapphire intoned, before looking cautiously around the carriage.

"Of course," Wisp said, slightly louder than was really necessary, "it is conceivably possible that those spells and enchantment all just happened to fail today. At the same time" he gulped.
"Yeah" Shining Sapphire nodded, "and I'm certain somepony will be along in a moment to tell us..."

She stopped dead, and looked down at her legs, then back up at Wisp.
"Wisp!" she yelled, before shaking him, "I still look like a Changeling!"

Wisp gave this some thought, about what the guard were likely to do if they found their 'prince' in an otherwise empty carriage, in a train stuck in the middle of nowhere, with what looked like a Changeling Queen, and didn't like the conclusion that lead to. And from the way she was still shaking him, neither did Sapphy.
"Okay, no need to panic" she said, "after all, we've probably got a few minutes until they get here, and then we'll..." she trailed off.

"They, uh, they wouldn't throw us off the train, would they?" Wisp asked. Shining Sapphire stared at him, and he noted her mane seemed to have become slightly dishevelled all of a sudden, a few noticeable strands out of place.
"No," she said eventually, then she said it again, more confidently, "no. Not until we reach the next stop, at any rate."

She shifted about, then looked around.
"Wisp? Where's the bag?"

Wisp's horn glowed, as he lifted the bag down and opened it. "Notepad?" he asked. She nodded.
"There are means by which a pony can determine if somepony's been brainwashed, right?" Wisp asked, "you know, by Changeling magic."

"Oh, sure there are" Shining Sapphire said, "I wouldn't worry about that. I just wanted to get started on my notes for aunt Twilie while we're waiting."


*****


A few minutes later, and the carriage door slowly swung open, after which a guard pony cautiously stepped into the room. She wasn't entirely certain what she was going to see. She had been told there were two royals in the carriage, which she presumed made it the royal carriage by default (even though she'd seen the royal carriage, and that was magnificent and huge and didn't look exactly like all the other ones) and whatever two young royals got up to in private was their own business. She just didn't want to be accused of killing some sort of mood, and be sentenced to cleaning the barrack toilets, or scrubbing armour for a month, or whatever punishment was assigned to killers of royal moods.
She coughed nervously.

"Your Highness?"
"Hey" a voice said. She looked, to see the prince just sitting on one of the beds, next to what looked amazingly like a full-grown changeling who was currently scribbling furiously into a notepad, occasionally muttering to herself.

"I know how this looks" the prince said cautiously, before pausing, "actually, if I'm honest, I don't actually know how this looks, but there is a perfectly innocent explanation."
"That's okay" the guard said quickly, briefly glancing at the Changeling, who didn't seem to have noticed her at all. The prince was staring blankly at her, and she felt the sudden need to explain her statement.

"We were all informed about the situation between you and her highness" she said, nodding toward the Changeling. The prince looked confused.
"You... were?" he asked, which struck her as odd. Surely their highnesses would have told him, or he told them, or somepony told somepony. He was staring at her.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked. Then, she remembered what she was supposed to be there for.
"Oh, yes sir" she said, "the train has stopped because of an icing problem with the rails, but at the moment, the opinion of the driver, the engineer and the lieutenant is that this is just an accident, and that nopony is to worry."

The prince looked relieved, "Okay, thanks for that" he said.
"Sir" the pony said, before turning and heading out of the carriage as quick as was possible. Later, when she went off shift, she made her way immediately to the dining cart, and proceeded to get blink drunk, in a desperate attempt to destroy whichever braincells had dared suggest the prince was actually pretty good-looking. By all accounts, she definitely succeeded.


*****


Shining Sapphire checked, and then double-checked the page, and satisfied with her work, continued onwards. After some time, she began to wonder when the guard was going to get there. She looked up. Wisp was sitting next to her.
"The guard's been and seen" she said. Wisp nodded, and she turned to her paperwork.

"You could have said" she suggested. Wisp looked tremendously guilty.
"I did try, sort of" he muttered, "but from the way that guard looked, I think probably it's for the best I didn't."

"Why?" Shining Sapphire asked.
"I think that guard was expecting us to be... well..." Wisp's cheeks turned bright red. Shining Sapphire gasped in horror.

"On a train? With the door unlocked?"
Wisp muttered something under his breath. "Still" he said, "gone now, and I think the train should probably be starting any minute now."
The two ponies sat there, the only noise the howl of the winds outside, and the occasional wet splat of huge chunks of snow hitting the windows, which made both ponies incredibly glad the carriage was enchanted to retain heat.

After several long, silent minutes, the train jolted, and began moving.
"One less problem then" Sapphy said, before looking back at her notes, "Anyway, back to thinking."

She went back to writing down her notes, occasionally stopping to look up at Wisp. Eventually she looked back up again, worried by the distant look on Wisp's face. She set a hoof on his shoulder.
"Hey" she said gently, ignoring the slight twitch he'd had when she'd touched him, "What is it?"

"Nothing" he said immediately.
"C'mon, dear" she stressed, "don't 'nothing' me. If something's bothering you, you can tell me."

Wisp shifted his weight, and then looked toward the door, then back to her. "I was just thinking" he said, and something about the way he said it made Shining Sapphire feel nervous.
"Yeah?"

"When we fix this... this whatever it is, I was just wondering... if maybe..."
He went silent, and then briefly glowered, which was then replaced with a resigned look. What he said next made Shining Sapphire's stomach twist.

"If we could make it so I don't have to be a Changeling anymore."
For several horrible seconds there was only the sound of the train rocking back and forth.

"I don't want to be a Changeling anymore" he said. Shining Sapphire stared at him.
"I don't" he added, before sighing. "It's just... it's just... ever since what happened with my re- with Chrysalis, those Changelings have been waiting for me to do something, to do anything, and I... I don't want to be that pony. They look at me like they expect me to perform miracles."

He stared down at his hooves. "I don't want to be that pony. I don't want to be some amazing Changeling prince. I just want to be me. I just..." he stared at Shining Sapphire, his bright blue eyes practically trembling. Then Shining Sapphire realised that was because he was trembling.

"I just want to be Whisper Wind. With his life, and his family, and his stupid name and what few friends I actually have..."
Shining Sapphire slowly got up and enveloped him. "Sweetie" she said, though she found herself at a loss for words beyond that.
"I just want to be me" he whispered, "not a prince, or a king, just... me."

Shining Sapphire held him slightly tighter, hoping desperately as she did that he didn't feel the need to continue. A horrible, horrible silence filled the carriage.
"Shouldn't have said that" he muttered.

"No, you probably shouldn't have" Shining Sapphire found herself saying eventually, "but you did. And... well, after everything that's happened..."
She sighed, "this hasn't exactly been a normal day."

"No" Wisp said, "it hasn't."
She leaned out again, and smiled gently at him. He smiled back. Then she went back to hugging him, enjoying the warm feeling of his fur. Later on, neither of them was exactly certain as to who did what first, but they were certain that she had been nuzzling him, and that he had kissed her first, and that she had definitely kissed back, but beyond that it had apparently been automatic, up until she'd realised what they were doing.

"Sorry" she said, much louder than was necessary, repeatedly, until she just curled up into a ball again, remaining completely still for some time, until her cheeks finally cooled down at least. Once she did, she looked up, to see Wisp just staring blankly out of the window on the other side of the carriage. From the looks of things, they were going past a cliff.
"I'm sorry" she said, even if she wasn't absolutely sure what for at that point, though if she had to guess, it was because it was better than absolute silence.

"I just... it just... I don't..."
She stopped, and tried to ignore the fact that her heart felt like it was pounding louder than the train was.

"It's just everything. I have no idea how this could have happened, and I have idea if I'm actually doing the right thing about it, and... then there's me. And you. And us."
Wisp just remained as still as a statue, not even blinking, while the most recent awkward silence seemed determined to outdo all its forebears.

"I mean, everything was going fine, and then you got abducted and I got hospitalised and then... I'd swear we've just been going backwards since then, and you... you've been distant, and keeping things from me, and I know you probably have your reasons, but... it... it's just..."
Suddenly, Wisp turned to look at her with a speed best described as glacial.

"Do you want to get married?" he asked, his voice sounding both quiet and furiously loud at the same time. Shining Sapphire just blinked. She tried to say something, or indeed anything, but stumbled over the words.
"I, ah... I... I guess?" she managed. Wisp turned away again.

"But not... not right away, not right now, I mean, we're not even in our mid-twenties, and there's still a lot of things I wouldn't mind doing before then. If I ever stop sitting around in the libraries, reading all those books of mine. Yes, I do want marry you, but... someday."
"Someday" Wisp repeated. "And what would this wedding be like? Would it just be a small private affair, with family and friends, or more like your parents?"

"I..." Shining Sapphire stopped, "I hadn't really given that any thought" she mumbled.
"And who'd marry us? Your mother? Or perhaps Princess Celestia herself?"

He slowly moved again. "I don't really want to be anypony's spectacle" he said coldly. "A wedding, at least I always assumed at any rate, a wedding isn't about how grand or romantic it seems, but a way of proving out love for one another."
Shining Sapphire frowned at that. "Hey! I woke up from a coma when you were nearly killed by your birth mom! I fought her off, remember, just to protect you! I didn't have to! I was terrified out of my damn mind and had no idea what I was supposed to do, and I still did it! Doesn't that prove I love you?!"

She stopped, and looked down at her hooves. "I don't think I've ever sworn before" she muttered quietly, "or felt angry like this. Day of firsts."
She looked at him again, "And don't you dare say you don't love me too, because I know you love me. Even if I don't have this stupid Changeling... emotion vision thing of yours, I know you love me, and you know that as well."

She sighed, suddenly feeling more tired than she had in a very long time. "Look, we'll go to Canterlot, we'll get this nonsense fixed, and then, if you feel that there are any problems in this relationship, then I promise, we will talk about them."
"But..." she continued, "maybe for now, it... it might just be best if we d-don't saying anything, okay?"
And with that, she slowly turned back toward her notebook, and began going over her notes again. After a few minutes, she realised her hooves were shaking.


*****


Meanwhile, a few hundred miles away, back in the Crystal Empire, Cadance and Shining Armor were taking advantage of the cool summer evening to relax in one of the palace's many, many drawing rooms, specifically one of the ones with a nice view of the city, and the brilliant orange colour that the city was turning as the sun set. The two were quietly sitting down on a sofa, reading, when Cadance suddenly looked around, then slid off the sofa.

"Honey?" Shining Armor asked, "what is it?"
Cadance turned to look at him, a puzzled expression on her face.

"Something's wrong" she said.
Shining Armor got off the sofa. He didn't bother asking if she was sure, he never needed to. If she said something was wrong, then something was definitely wrong. If he bothered questioning that, he wouldn't have been Shining Armor. And if she knew what it was, then she would have said. She sighed.

"I can't tell what it is, but something's been wrong all day. Something... not quite right. Haven't you been feeling it?"
Shining Armor instantly opened his mouth to say he hadn't, and then stopped when he realised that wasn't true. Something had been stuck in the back of his mind all day, and he hadn't noticed.
"Yeah" he said quietly, "but... I guess I figured the kids were having problems."

He shook his head. "Not kids, shouldn't call them kids. They aren't kids anymore, haven't really been for a while."
He sighed wistfully, then looked at Cadance, who was smiling at him.

"That's not the only thing bothering you" he stated. Cadance just shifted on her hooves, before shaking her head.
"It isn't. I've been having this small headache all day, and I am very sure it's just a headache" she said before he could say anything. Then her expression shifted.

"And I am very certain something just happened to... to..." she suddenly looked confused, which then moved to alarm. Shining Armor recognised the first part. As a pony whose talent was maintaining and strengthening the bonds of love between ponies, Cadance had always been sensitive to heartbreak, in a more literal fashion than most. She could feel it, and the stronger the feelings, the more it hurt. In an instant he was right next to her.

"Shiney" she asked, a very noticeable amount of concern in her voice, "what's our child's name?"
Shining blinked, feeling a small but rapidly growing amount of dread.

"Shimmering Stretto?" he said, though he didn't sound or feel entirely certain about that. Cadance's expression shifted to cast-iron determination.
"Something's definitely wrong."
> Vice by Action Dignified
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Canterlot had fallen. The ancient streets were ablaze, and the many houses and shops had merely crumbled before them. Some of its former population had managed to flee the city, but they would not get far. The palace, the focus for their acts, was now a mere shattered shell of its former glory, much of its upper levels and spires torn away when his army had struck them, like the hoof of an angry god. Of the Princesses of the Day and the Night, there was no sign. From all indications they had simply ran from him, knowing in their hearts they would not have won a confrontation.

Now, he stood before his troops, his loyal subjects, basking in their rightful adulation and worship. And no wonder, given the prize he had obtained for them. He had won Equestria for the Changelings.

He allowed them to remain for some minutes, before reminding them to go about their business, rounding up any stragglers they could find, before turning toward the great bulk of the castle, allowing himself a satisfied smirk. As he made his way he stopped and turned, and saw that due to several of the outermost buildings of Canterlot being levelled, he could see all the way to Ponyville. The massive flame, now all that remained of all those cottages, huts, and trees, was glowing a truly beautiful green against the dying light of the sun. He smiled, and then continued making his way through the halls of the castle, footsteps echoing in the hallways, as he made his way around the rubble, occasionally passing a glance at the various scorch marks or smouldering metalwork scattered about the place. He passed through two oversized doors, and admired his new throne room. He glanced at the new throne, and then looked about, following with his eyes the small trail of rubble which led to the former thrones of the sisters, torn and discarded by his Changelings. Slowly, he made his way toward the throne. He'd won. He kept going over those glorious words. He'd won. He'd won. As he sat down, he wondered if perhaps he should've been more careful about whoever it was he'd eaten earlier, with the giddiness he was feeling.

There was a sudden clinking behind him, and the noise of somepony stirring in the gloom.
"My lord?" a quiet voice murmured, as he felt something brush up against him. He looked down with mild disdain at the bright pink hoof resting on his leg, which was connected to a bright pink mare, an almost flirtatious look on that face, hidden behind the sapphire blue hair. A prize of an earlier conquest, a princess. Or formerly a princess at any rate, after he and his army had been done with her city. After all that time, he still didn't trust Shining Sapphire. There was something in her eyes that didn't sit right. Still, he thought, as far as ponies went, she wasn't exactly unappealing.

"Do you require something?" another voice enquired, as he felt a pair of hooves slip around his neck. He turned, trying to savour the look of annoyance on Sapphire's face as he turned around. He was mildly amused by the sight he saw, of the audacious grin on the second mare. She was not quite as attractive as the other, all things considered, but there was that roguish charm she had. A royal blue muzzle inched close toward his face. And closer, and closer...


~~~~~


Whisper Wind jolted violently, and then quickly repressed the urge to scream, or make some kind of noise, once he remembered where he was. He wasn't entirely certain if what he'd just dreamt could've been classified as a nightmare under the strictest circumstances, but if anypony were to ask he would certainly say it felt like one. He tried to resist the awful feeling clawing its way up his throat, until he became away of an odd rattling sound. He looked around, and then looked on the floor of the train carriage. It was Shining Sapphire's tiara, which had probably fallen off when he'd woken up. He focused, and light sprang from his horn, allowing him to see the inoffensive piece of metal. The tiara was slowly lifted into the air. He set it down gently beside himself and stared at it. Then, he tried looking over toward where Sapphy had been the last time he'd looked. She was still there, still looking like a Changeling, completely asleep. And then it all came flooding back, all those absolutely stupid things he'd said earli-

He looked around, trying to see if there was a clock around with which to tell the time. There wasn't. He looked out of the window. Featureless rocky landscape was all there was to be seen, with a low-hanging moon in the sky. All he knew was that meant it was either ridiculously late, or insanely early.

He tried to clear his thoughts, and then decided it was probably a good idea to return to Shining Sapphire something that was actually hers. She looked so peaceful asleep, which at least proved Wisp had been wrong about all those stupid reasons he'd come up with to avoid sleeping in the same room as her. And there he'd been worrying that all those stupid nightmares of his would've woken her up or something. And it wasn't as if that one was one of the worst. Disturbing, definitely, but not even near the worst.

He rubbed his forehead, which was suddenly feeling like it had been smacked against a tree. Soon enough, he realised he was still staring at Shining Sapphire. He tried thinking about something else, like where the trains was. From the way it was moving, he'd have guessed it was probably going through or over or around those mountains which cut off the Empire from Equestria, which probably answered the question of whether there were any Changelings about after all. Unless they were just as confused by what was going on with him and Sapphy as he was. Not that he could blame them.

Any further rumination was cut off by a sudden rumble from his stomach. Slowly, he got up and moved toward the door leading to the other carriages, and presumably the dining cart, where there was hopefully some food. At the door, he stopped, and turned to look at Shining Sapphire. He made his way over toward her, gently kissing her forehead. If she felt it, she gave no indication otherwise.


*****


There was the familiar warmth of sunlight on her cheeks. Slowly, blearily, she opened her eyes and yawned, before wincing. The summer sunlight was so bright it felt like it was going straight through her eyelids.
'Turn off the sun, auntie' she thought to herself, before trying to move one of her wings in front of her face, to see if that would make a difference. There was a loud buzz, and she felt her heart sink, as she realised what that meant. She was still on that darn train, only now it was morning. She looked across to the other window, but there was no sign of Wisp.

She tried to ignore the unpleasant feelings, before she noticed the tiara sitting a short distance away from her, just out of the range of her legs. She focused on the tiara, waiting to see if her magic had sufficiently recovered. There was a mild hum, and it slowly lifted into the air. She smiled slightly at the sign that her magic was already back, as she settled the tiara on her head. Then she noticed the fact that the train had apparently stopped somewhere. Had Wisp already woken up and gone to examine why? From the way she felt, she couldn't have been asleep for more than five hours, and from where the sun was hanging, it wasn't even six o'clock, so that meant the train probably hadn't even gotten halfway to Canterlot. She shook her head. Pondering could wait for later. At the moment what she needed was a good strong pot of coffee. But before that, it was probably an idea to see whether her magic had recovered enough to make herself look l-

"CHANGELING!" she heard somepony shriek. She turned to see a lime-green mare staring at her in shock. Before she could say anything, the mare turned and fled.
'Well that's just dandy' she noted grimly.


*****


"Again, very sorry about that" the guard in front of her said. The terrified mare had quickly attracted the attention of the Crystal Empire's finest, who had practically torn apart the carriage walls in their entrance, only to find a dishevelled looking mare in desperate need of coffee. What had followed was several seconds of muted whisperings, before sending the still-terrified mare on her way, followed by the guards apologising profusely for that,

"It's all right, really" she said calmly, "just a simple misunderstanding."
The guard, or rather the last one left in the carriage, just nodded. "Well, ma'am, just wanted to make sure there were no more, ah, 'misunderstandings'."

Shining Sapphire stared at the guard for a moment, trying not to look amused. "Well..." she managed, "thank you, anyway."
"Don't thank us" the guard said, "his highness informed us something like this was likely to happen."

"He did?" she asked, genuinely taken aback. The guard nodded, but before he could say anything the door opened, and another guard entered, a unicorn carrying a small plastic cup.
"Miss?" he said awkwardly, "His Highness said you'd probably be need some coffee about now, but they were out, closest they had was tea."

She stared at the plastic container for a moment. Wisp had actually asked guards to fetch her some early morning coffee all of a sudden? Or early morning tea, at any rate. Suddenly it occurred to her, and she looked at the first guard.
"And where's he gotten to, anyway?"

"Not sure, miss." the guard said, but he did ask us to pass along a message."
"Which was?"

"That he's okay, and that he had to go somewhere and 'think about things', and that you shouldn't worry about him."
"Oh" was all she could say to that. Suddenly the door opened, and a new guard walked in, a plastic cup floating beside him.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but his highness suggested you'd probably want some coffee when you woke up" he then looked uncertain, "but apparently they were out of coffee. All they had was tea."
She stared at the beverage for a moment, then took it anyway. Wisp was talking to guards, and ordering coffee for her? And where was it he was planning on going? He never went anywhere outside of Ponyville and the Empire, and the occasional visit to Canterlot, especially after that camping trip from Tartarus, so where would he have gone?

"Uh, we aren't sure ma'am" the first guard said hesitantly. She looked up.
"Did I say that out loud?" the guards nodded in the affirmative. She looked toward the tea.

"Well, thank you for the assistance" she said, "and the tea. But if that's all, I wouldn't mind being alone for a while."
"Of course" the guard said, "but you know where we are if you need anything."

She nodded, watching as the guard left, and then took a sip of the tea, if only to satisfy her curiosity. Then she gently set it down next to the window. After a few minutes it occurred to her she was staring at nothing. She could have, she reasoned, gone after Wisp, but given what had happened last night, she thought better of it. What would she do if she did? What could she say to him, after the things she'd said last night? No, if Wisp needed to think about something, perhaps it was best to let him.

She looked out of the window again. She couldn't see any signage telling her where exactly the train was, but it definitely looked familiar. It was a little village just out from the mountains leading to the Empire, and then knowledge came unbidden from the depths of her memories that the area was apparently considered a good place for family outings. Still, she thought, from here, it was a few hours to Canterlot, depending on whether one took the scenic route or not, or the weather. Actually, she wondered if perhaps the train wasn't being held up because of her.

Seconds passed, slowly. She began to regret not having brought a book. Although she probably have been unable to focus on it, instead thinking about Wisp instead.
It took her a few minutes to realise the train had in fact already started again. After the train was past the town, she decided to see if she could cast that disguise spell again. It was a long way to Canterlot, after all.


*****


There was an odd mood in the Crystal Empire. Their Highnesses had asked for every guard, for whatever reason, and asked them some really bizarre questions. Some of them had wondered if it was a test, especially with some of those questions, but they answered them all the same, and were then dismissed.
Cadance sighed, and allowed herself a slump in her throne. Perhaps, in hindsight, it had been a bad move to see whether she and Shining still felt as unnerved in the morning as they had last night. All they could tell was that two ponies bearing an incredible resemblance to their child and the pony their child was currently dating had gotten onto a train headed to Canterlot.

"So" Shining Armor said, "where did they head off to? And what was so important about whatever they were doing?"
"Spontaneous romantic desires?" Cadance suggested. Shining looked sceptical about that.

"So they'll probably be going to Canterlot, then," she tried, "Or maybe Ponyville. Or Canterlot and then Ponyville? Unless they decided to surprise us, and eloped."
"But why?" Shining Armor asked. Cadance gave this some thought.

"Something is definitely wrong" she pointed out, "although why they didn't feel it worth telling us is another question."
Shining Armor nodded. "It's a bit beyond a simple memory problem though" he said. Cadance nodded.

"So, if they had a dire problem, one they felt they couldn't trust us with, they'd go to Canterlot to get help from...?"
The two sat there, thinking. Then, Cadance's brow furrowed. Then she looked at her husband.

"Shining?" she said cautiously.
"Yeah?"

"You... did tell them about Twilight Sparkle, right?"
Shining's expression told her everything. "Huh" he finally said, before facehoofing.

"Sorry, honey" he eventually managed, "Must've forgotten."
Cadance just shook her head slightly.

"No matter" she sighed, "besides, I think we have our own problems to deal with."
Shining Armor looked confused.
"I think, Shining, we should have a talk with those Changelings."


*****


There was a roar of magic, the strain pressing against her, and then, it stopped. Slowly, Shining Sapphire opened her eyes, and looked down at her hooves. They were bright pink, and completely void of any holes. She gave her tail a swish, glancing at it. Vibrant sapphire blue, and not a single hole. She gave her wings a cursory flap. Then, the illusion gave out, and she saw chitin and holes once more. Perhaps if she had been somepony else, she might have been annoyed about this, and true enough, there was quite a lot to be annoyed about. She was stuck in a foreign body, on a train bound for the absolute center of Equestria with no idea whether anypony there would even recognise her, and even worse, Wisp had utterly vanished. However, she just ignored these thoughts, and focused on her spells. It felt remarkably like she was fourteen again, only she was in a train, and didn't have her parents helping out.
She stopped, and looked outside. The landscape was now looking amazingly smoother now. At first there had only been tiny picturesque towns or hamlets passing by in the distance, but by now the massive hills were gone, and the grass was turning amazing shades of green, and the towns began to get larger, and then sooner they were undeniably cities, that sprawled for miles in all directions, with massive towering buildings. It was an odd change from the Crystal Empire, where most buildings didn't reach above four floors. After the seventh (or thereabouts) gleaming city, she went back to focusing on her magic again. She then decided to see what other of her talents remained. Focusing on an image, she stared intently at the space in front of her. Slowly, a pink light appeared, and then grew, and grew. Slowly, it began to resolve into the shape of a pony. Indeed, aside from being solid pink, it was the spitting image of Wisp. She looked at it for a moment, and then concentrated further. The image suddenly burst with an almost-comical sounding 'pop'. She sat there, thinking about nothing in particular, feeling the feeling of her new 'wings' sitting against her body.

She wondered if this counted as an adventure. If it was, she decided she didn't like adventures, especially since she'd missed breakfast by now. She could have been sitting at home, reading a book, perhaps with Wisp to keep her company, and a nice warm cup of coffee, maybe with the odd cuddle or snuggle every now and then. Maybe other ponies enjoyed this sort of thing, her cousin for example, but not her. Definitely not her. Adventure like this could go happen to somepony else.
And then, quite suddenly, a thought came into her head, as she began to wonder about the mechanics of the Changeling's 'shapeshifting'. She gave it some thought, and an uncharacteristically sly smile crept across her face. Her horn began to glow once more, and as it did, she could've sworn she heard a buzzing sound. She stopped and looked about, and saw nothing. Shrugging, she went back to her casting.


*****


Whisper Wind sat, and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. Time seemed to have stopped working properly, as minutes crawled into seconds, and seconds stretched into infinity. He could have sworn the hands of the clock he kept staring at were almost going backward by this point.
He had considered fidgeting, but he wasn't really the pony for fidgeting. He considered humming, but that might've been rude, humming so early in the morning. He looked at the newspaper sitting next to him, and thought about reading it, but after reading it seven times already, he doubted there would be anything different about it. He was beginning to wonder if staying on the train hadn't been the better idea.

After he'd talked with those guards, told them about Sapphy and warned them about any accidents that could've occurred (not to mention suggesting fetching her some coffee when she woke up), he'd waited in the buffet car for the train to reach the next station, then simply walked off. It had been disturbingly easy, given he was much taller than he was used to, and the way ponies kept nodding, or bowing, or saying 'your highness', which still made him tense (and, he noted, a lot more than usual), not to mention the fact that some ponies were staring at him in odd ways. Even odder had been the pony at the ticket office, when he'd asked about trains to Ponyville. That young mare still had spots, along with a rather unfortunate stutter, if the way she'd responded was any indication, not to mention problems with eye contact. Still, she had valiantly overcome these minor problems and helpfully informed him as to when the next train was to arrive, which had led to him sitting on the bench, waiting. The train seemed to be taking its sweet time.

Seconds passed, second by second by second by second by second. In the distance, birds began chirping.

Somepony coughed.

Wisp gave in and lifted up the newspaper again.


*****


Shining Sapphire hadn't been to Canterlot many times in her life. In fact, the grand total of her visits stretched only into the lowest double digits at best. Oh, true there were the occasional visits to her grand-aunts, or her grandparents, or her aunt, but most of those had been when she was very, very little, but it seemed most of the time Canterlot was too far, and perhaps too expensive, to visit. Occasionally her parents would talk about it, and their eyes would go all distant, and their voices become very faint, and they'd probably sigh a few times. But then, to them, it was home, it was where they'd grown up, and met, and fallen in love, and married. To her, it might as well have been another country. Which, of course, it was. It was foreign, and weird, and filled with sights she didn't normally see, like mountains, actual mountains that loomed over everything, or all those tightly packed buildings, or the guards who wore gold or dark blue and looked exactly the same, right down to the expressions (even if her parents said there were actually nice).
However, that said, and with her lack of knowledge regarding the usual mores and attributes of the city established, she was reasonably certain as the train approached that something wasn't right. Perhaps that was something to do with those clouds hanging over the city. Dark and ominously purple clouds that seemed to cover every inch of the sky, which meant only one thing: there was rainstorm scheduled.

She'd never been in a rainstorm before. The Crystal Empire's weather ponies didn't really go in for that sort of thing. They usually preferred the occasional shower, though most of the time the weather remained reasonably warm and cool, with the odd cloud thereabouts. Although, what with being a shut-in bookworm, she never really noticed the weather much anyhow. But she was very certain she didn't really want to get caught in a rainstorm.

Eventually, the train slowly came to a halt in the station. Shining Sapphire stopped to double-check her illusion. Everything seemed adequately pink, her tiara was safely set up her head. However, she made a note to try and make her way to aunt Twilie's place as quickly as possible, since with her magic levels as they were, she figured she had somewhere between fifteen and twenty minutes to get there.

She stopped at the door. She could do this. It was only a crowd of complete strangers, who were going about their business, and weren't likely to bother talking to her. With a glacial level of motion, she opened the door, and gingerly stepped onto the platform. She noted she didn't feel as nervous as she most likely should have, but nopony seemed to be staring at her. Nopony seemed to notice her at all, and if they had, they weren't making any noise about it. Unsure of how to feel about that, she decided to start moving. She managed to make it a few steps before she started smelling some really strange sensations, like at the marketplace back home, but much stronger. She winced, and when she opened her eyes, she looked about. Some ponies were now staring at her, and some weren't, but they all had one thing in common. Each was glowing in a bright array of colours. She stood there for a moment, trying to feel as calm as possible, when she felt a hoof on her shoulder.

"Your highness?" somepony asked, "are you alright?"
She opened her eyes again to see a young guardpony looking at her. From the look of it, the pony was worried slightly. She tried to smile reassuringly.

"Yes, yes, I just..." she laughed nervously, "fell asleep on the train, and there's this nasty crick in my neck."
The guard didn't look reassured, but nodded all the same. Then she realised what the guard had said.

"Wait, you recognised me? You know who I am?"
The guard looked confused now. "Not personally, your highness, but I do know who you are. Princess Shining Sapphire of the Crystal Empire, right?"

She stared at the mare for a moment, trying to work out what that meant. Was this mare shielded from what had happened? Had it only affected the Empire, or just not reached Canterlot y-
"Your highness?" the armoured mare asked cautiously. Shining Sapphire blinked, as her queries vanished into the ether.

"Sorry, lost in thought for a moment there" she smiled, "just didn't expect anypony down here to know who I am."
"Ah, got it" the guard nodded, "I wouldn't worry about that, though."

Behind her, Shining Sapphire heard a sudden crashing sound, and two ponies arguing with each other. The guard's gaze turned toward it, then back to Shining Sapphire.
"Sorry, ma'am, I should probably deal with that. Enjoy your stay in Canterlot."

Shining Sapphire began walking off when she heard the mare cough.
"By the way, your highness, watch out for the broken glass. We haven't been able to clear it all up yet."

She looked toward the now visible street. There did seem to be a few piles of broken glass about
"How'd that happen?" she inquired. The guard shuffled, glancing back and forth.

"I'm not allowed to say, ma'am" she stated sheepishly. "Anyway, have a nice day."
And with that, she rushed off toward the two arguing ponies, who stood there for a moment wondering what she'd just seen. Then she shook her head, and turned around again. No broken glass was going to stop her. No squall would forestall her. She had made it to Canterlot. She was so close she could practically taste victory. Or perhaps, that was just the craving for coffee. Or, perhaps the feelings of ponies she happened to be walking past.

As she made her way through the streets of Canterlot, she became aware of two things. The first was that there was a lot of broken windows about, and that she hadn't yet seen any that weren't broken, and the second was that it was beginning to rain. Actually, it was more like it was beginning to rain. She stopped, and her horn glowed. A bright pink light formed above her head, and with some careful shaping and moulding, she had herself a bright pink glowing umbrella, which while looking a bit odd did certainly keep the rain away. With the minor inconvenience of being soaked through dealt with, she continued onward, quickening her pace as she walked past brightly emblazoned shops and stores, all of which seemed to be going sans windows that morning.
And then she realised it couldn't have been any later than nine o'clock. And she hadn't had a full night's sleep. And she was staring to think about Wisp again. And she really needed some coffee. She started going faster.

Eventually the number of stores began to thin out, then they disappeared altogether, replaced by tiny little flats and houses, and then much larger, grander houses, some of which even had front gardens, or even gates. And then, soon enough, she stopped.
In front of her stood a medium-sized house, which for Canterlot meant that it had more than two floors, and probably a large basement, and that it had been around for a very long time. She looked at the name on the mailbox, and smiled. She had reached her destination, the house of her grandparents and great-grandparents, and so forth, the house that her father had grown up in, and now the house that belonged to her aunt, Twilight Sparkle. She smiled triumphantly, and passed through the gate, making her way to the front door. She knocked on it.

There was silence, save the rain pounding against anything unfortunate enough to get in its way.
She knocked again, slightly harder this time. Still nothing happened. She frowned. Surely her aunt would have been up by now. Then she looked to the side, and saw a small raised section of the wall, wherein there was a doorbell. She pressed it. There was the muffled sound of ringing coming from inside.

Shining Sapphire sat there, ignoring the butterflies in her stomach. She was feeling remarkably excited all of a sudden, even though there wasn't anything to be excited about. True, there was the fact that it was her aunt, but all the same, she was here because of an alarming situation, and feeling excited about it was probably not the right reaction.
Above the sound of the rain, she was now certain she could hear somepony saying something. And they didn't sound especially happy. And from the sound of it, they wanted her to know that, especially if the heavy hooffalls she could hear were any indication. Still, she couldn't stop grinning.

There was the sound of locks unlocking, and the door slowly swung open.

Shining Sapphire's smile, upon seeing who was standing there, didn't vanish, not exactly, not in as many words, but it did certainly shift a little. This might have been because the pony looking at her was not her aunt, Princess Twilight Sparkle. Oh, most assuredly it was a mare, and her first name was Twilight, and she was by all accounts an alicorn, but she definitely wasn't Twilight Sparkle. Instead, staring at Shining Sapphire with a look of increasingly manic cheerfulness was a distinctly royal blue coloured mare, who then proceeded to leap at Shining Sapphire and practically choke her with an enthusiastic hug.

"SAPPHY!" her cousin, one Twilight Twinkle, declared.
Shining Sapphire found herself unable to respond, partially due to surprise, but also because there was a teenaged alicorn crushing the life out of her.
> Jests at Scars
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shining Sapphire's opinions on her cousin, one Twilight Twinkle, could be summarised thusly: she was complicated. She did love her, and she owed her little cousin more than she could ever measure, since it was, however inadvertently, her actions that allowed Shining Sapphire and Wisp to meet. However, it was Twinkie's crush on Wisp that led to her getting brutally injured by a demented Nightmare. But she was her only cousin, even if she was slightly terrifying sometimes. Perhaps it was her near-total inability to lie, or her odd desire to become an adventurer, perhaps it was the noticeable cynicism she'd developed in her teenaged years, or the way she and Twilight Sparkle seemed to always be in a state of low-key hostility with one another. She was never entirely certain whether to hug her cousin or feel terrified for her. What she was sure was that at that very moment, she would have liked nothing better than for her cousin to perhaps relax her vice-like grip around her neck.

She tried expressing this in as concise a fashion as possible, given her sudden inability to speak, and evidently Twilight Twinkle recognised this, as she let go of her cousin's neck and stepped back, an unguarded smile on her face. There was an odd smell to the mare's breath that she didn't recognise, and very visible bags under her eyes, which were, she regrettably noticed, rather bloodshot, and seemed to have trouble focusing.
For a moment, both ponies stared at one another. Shining Sapphire didn't know exactly what to say, especially considering the sheer number of topics between the two that were now probably forbidden.
"It's good to see you" Twinkle said. Shining Sapphire just nodded.

"Twinkie."
"Come on then, don't just stand there" the young mare grinned, "come on in."

Shining Sapphire did so, dispelling her umbrella construct as she did. A few droplets of water briefly hung in the air, then splashed onto the small carpet in front of the door as she entered. She looked about. She honestly couldn't remember at that point when she'd last set hoof in the house, which definitely meant it had been too long. It still didn't look like the sort of house dwelt in by a Princess, even if that Princess was Twilight Sparkle.
"Make yourself at home" Twinkle continued, "I'm just gonna head over to the kitchen. You want anything?" she added, almost as an afterthought.

Shining Sapphire considered this for a moment. "I think right now I could really go for some coffee right now."
Twilight Twinkle's smile briefly flickered, and she turned and headed into a small room. A few seconds later she walked past Shining Sapphire, muttering about going the wrong way under her breath. She stopped and looked at Shining Sapphire.

"Sit down" she said, motioning toward the adjacent living room, "you don't need to stand around in the hallway looking slightly pathetic."
Shining Sapphire just watched as Twilight Twinkle disappeared again. After a few seconds she heard a variety of rattling noises, and one or two other noises, followed by a satisfied sounding sigh. Then Twilight Twinkle reappeared, looking slightly better than she had, and completely without coffee.

"Sorry about that" she said, "I was planning to sleep in this morning."
Shining Sapphire just tilted her head, and then it seemed to occur to Twinkle what she was doing that for.

"Sorry" she said, "coffee's sort of completely banned in this house. Just to be on the safe side."
Shining Sapphire drew a blank on that statement, until she remembered something Twinkie had said the last time they'd been together, something about too much coffee, no sleep, a few obligations, and Twinkle being not-exactly arrested by the entire Canterlot guard. Apparently her cousin did not react well to coffee. Then, she noticed the mare was staring at her.

"I'm guessing this isn't a social visit. You didn't just happen to be passing through with Wisp and decide to drop by."
"No" Shining Sapphire said, "sorry."

Twinkle's expression flickered slightly.
"Never get to just hang out anymore" the royal blue mare muttered. "Always some mess."

"Actually, Twinkie, I was wondering... is aunt Twilie up yet?"
Twinkie's sudden change of expression was far from reassuring, as Shining Sapphire looked around the hallway, finding it difficult to look at the mare.

"I'd have thought she'd probably have heard us by now, or at least wondered what's going on."
"What do you need mom for?" Twinkle asked. Shining Sapphire bit her lip. Twinkle was, unfortunately in this case, an observant pony, and was probably already getting suspicious as to what was going on.

She sighed. "It's... well, perhaps I should show you first."
She lifted a hoof, "but once I show you, before you do anything else, just let me explain first, okay?"

"Okay" the younger pony said, now eyeing her suspiciously. Shining Sapphire focused, and then the illusion just sloughed off of her. Twilight Twinkle stared at her, first in alarm, then mild horror, then suspicion, then finally outright confusion. Her mouth opened. Her mouth closed. She mouth opened again. Her mouth closed again. This repeated itself for some time.

"That's... new" she eventually got out. Shining Sapphire grinned, despite being right in front of a mare who, even though she was younger and smaller than her (even if not by much), was still very much capable of blasting her straight out (and through) the front door. She quickly tried to explain her predicament. Then she realised that it would've been quicker to sum up her situation. She did so. Her cousin just listened, not even reacting in the slightest.
"I see..." Twilight Twinkle said once she was finished. She walked over toward Shining Sapphire and prodded her with a hoof. She stared at Shining Sapphire.

"Twinkie, I can assure you that it's still me, if that helps" she said cautiously. Twilight Twinkle nodded.
"So, you and Wisp just woke up with your species swapped" she said slowly, "and nopony seems to realise what's going on. And since you don't have the ability to fix whatever's been done, you've travelled all the way here you're hoping mom can help you out with this... this" she said, staring at Shining Sapphire like she was about to explode.

"Yes" Shining Sapphire managed. There was an odd look in Twinkle's orange eyes that she wasn't liking.
"That's it?" Twinkle asked, sounding confused more than anything, "nothing else? Ominous messages, dire warnings, immanent end of the world scenarios?"

"No." Twinkle stared blankly at her for some time, before she spoke again, sounding mildly confused.
"Alright then."
"Twinkie" Shining Sapphire said, trying to sound as polite as possible, "I know this is completely insane, that is why I would like aunt Twilight to fix this as quickly as possible."

Twinkle coughed nervously, her wings fluttering.
"Well..." she said sheepishly. "I'm afraid that's going to be a problem, you see..."


*****


Many, many, many miles away from Canterlot, there was a beach. It had fine white sands, brilliantly blue waters, impressive nearby cliffs, and was perfectly suited for the magnificent evening sunset. The nearby bar even had just the right shade to garish lighting ratio for true relaxation. All seagulls were carefully shoed away by the local resort staff. In short, the perfect place to get away and relax. It was one of the world's most exclusive resorts, which in part was because it was a resort that had, originally at least, been intended for the sole comfort of Princess Celestia herself. And in the whole time she'd known of it, she had used it a grand total of never. Of course, she still found uses for it, especially since, just to throw an example out of nowhere, it made a wonderful site for honeymooning.

At that moment, two ponies were sitting on the beach. One of them, a purple-furred mare, just lay there, a book she'd been reading now closed, as she breathed gently in and out, having fallen asleep some time ago. The other, a blue-furred stallion, was also completely asleep, having fallen asleep about the same time. The mare was lying more-or-less on top of the stallion, one of her forelegs streached out over his chest. Both of them had utterly content smiles on their faces.


*****


"SHE'S ON VACATION?!" Shining Sapphire asked. Or, far more accurately, hollered. After shaking her head, and refocusing her gaze, Twilight Twinkle nodded groggily.
"She was supposed to be on vacation a month ago" she pointed out, "but then stuff happened, and she had to delay a while. So, yes, she is currently on vacation."

The young mare scuffed a hoof against the floor, "and I may have sort of promised not to bother her."
Several tense seconds passed, before her cousin felt the need to add to that. "Sorry. I promised I wouldn't call on her, even if it's an emergency."

At this, Shining Sapphire felt something inside her snap, and she groaned in frustration, as her legs just decided to give out, causing her to collapse into an undignified heap.
"Hey" Twinkle said, placing a hoof on her shoulder, "no need for that. Mom's got that big analysing thing in the basement. I can always go fire it up, see if that might help."

Shining Sapphire looked at her and smiled. "Okay" she managed. Then Twinkle shrugged.
"Of course, I have no idea if I can get it to work" she said, before looking annoyed with herself, "but I'll definitely try."

"Maybe I can help" Shining Sapphire offered. Twinkle's smile flickered.
"I don't know" she said, cautiously, her eyes darting to behind Shining Sapphire, "I'm reasonably certain I can do this on my own. I mean, I've watch mom handle that thing often enough, so figuring out the basics should be simple."

For a moment both mares stood there, staring one another down. Finally Shining Sapphire sagged. "Okay, okay, fine."
"It might take a while, though" Twinkle said cautiously, "I'm not sure mom's used it recently."

"I'm fine with waiting" Shining Sapphire said, though she wasn't absolutely sure about that. Time on her own would probably mean she'd start thinking about Wisp again. Her eyes darted toward the staircase, which led upstairs to the small library.
"I think I'll see if there's not something to read in the library" she suggested. For a moment, Twinkle looked hesitant.

"Okay then" she said, though her enthusiasm suddenly seemed to have evaporated. She turned away, as Shining Sapphire began making her way up the stairs, when suddenly a thought occurred to her.
"Hey, Twinkie?"

"Yeah?" the mare grunted.
"Just out of curiosity, how come every window in the city seems to be broken?"

"I..." her cousin paused, "am not actually allowed to say. Sorry, Sapphy."
"Okay then" she said, as Twinkle walked off. She slowly made her way up the stairs, ignoring the occasional ache from her back right leg. She stopped on the landing, trying to remember which door led to the house's library, or drawing room, or study, or whichever one it was aunt Twilie used for it. She looked about, and decided to choose one at random. She opened the door to find... chaos.
Well, highly organised chaos, at any rate. Books and papers were scattered about in odd stacks around the room, a desk on the far side of the room was covered in bits of paper, and several photos of unusual ponies, almost all of them stallions with increasingly ludicrous fashion-sense, and then photos of other ponies, including one of a pony she'd seen during the visit to Ponyville. Doo something, if she remembered correctly. Then it clicked.

For years, Twilight Twinkle had expressed what could have politely been called opinions of the legendary Star-Swirl the Bearded, holding him responsible for Twilight Sparkle becoming an alicorn, and therefore for some of the less pleasant parts of her life. And then, one month ago, that had all changed. She claimed she'd met him, repeatedly, and that he was an inexplicably likeable time-travelling maniac. Shining Sapphire wasn't entirely certain about any of that, but Twinkle certainly seemed sure about what she'd witnessed. Then she looked about the room, and saw there was in fact a bed, recently used by the look of it, not to mention several bookcases. If she had to guess, she'd have hazarded that the room she was in was the library, or had been, up until somepony had adapted it for their own use. 

Then she turned again. She found herself staring at a picture. Or at least somepony's attempt at a picture. It was of a filly, or at least she presumed it was a filly, with... amazingly bright blue eyes. Clearly whoever drew it had been extremely focused on those. Then she saw the horn, that jagged, pointy horn, and she realised what she was seeing. Back when they had last met, after Twinkle hold told everypony present of her grand adventures in time and space, she had confided to her cousin of something horrible. She had been attacked by some manner of plant which dwelled within the Everfree Forest, which had somehow shown for her all her fantasies, including what would have happened had she managed to romance Wisp, which had eventually resulted in marriage and a foal. Twinkle had claimed she couldn't remember much about that dream, and that later she'd removed what little had remained, so how, she wondered, was she able to draw such a picture. Especially since the last time Sapphy had checked, Twinkle had no artistic leanings of any kind. Slowly, she turned away from it, since staring at it felt like she was seeing something she wasn't meant to, like staring into another pony's soul. She found herself staring at the bed again. Now that she thought about it, she did feel somewhat tired, even after however long it was she'd been on the train. And her back leg was beginning to ache. Perhaps a little sit down was in order. She looked over toward one of the bookcases, examining them to see if there was anything worth reading. There was an awful lot of fiction books, some complicated sounding scientific journals, a few books on Equestrian history, and one or two that didn't fit in anywhere at all. She chose a random book on herpetology, and began trying to read it.

She hadn't even gotten to the title page when she heard a small buzzing noise. She looked around, but then it seemed to have gone.

A few minutes beyond that, she had somehow managed to fall asleep again.


*****


Wisp stirred, shifting slightly in the warm sunlight. Then, he suddenly realised his eyes were shut, and more importantly, he'd fallen asleep. In an instant, he bolted upright, ignoring the flash of pain in his head that followed, chiding himself for falling asleep. The train, as it turned out, was one that went to Ponyville via the 'scenic route' which meant it took several times longer to get there, which probably explained why he'd fallen asleep again. He rubbed the side of his head with a hoof and winced for a moment. He sat on the train seat, trying to figure out how long he'd been out for. He looked out of the train, and saw that it was beginning to approach Ponyville. He stretched, and blinked a few times. Spending all that time sitting still with only his thoughts for company wasn't helping his already terrible mood. He sighed, and looked out of the window, waiting for the train to reach the platform.

Once it did, he set off, walking through the center of Ponyville, enjoying the feeling of warm summer sunlight pouring onto his back. And he began to notice things that felt different. He wasn't catching odd sensations of other ponies moods, he wasn't having to expend magic on looking like everypony else. Sure, there were ponies staring at him, just as there had all day, but then he was slightly taller than usual. And had wings and a horn as well, as he kept forgetting, but it wasn't that unusual, was it?

He kept walking, ignoring the slightly sick feeling in his stomach, as he made his way past the small restaurants, heading towards the outskirts of town, past the farthest edges of the apple orchards. A plum-coated pony with a blonde mane working on some trees turned to look at him and frowned.

"Whisper Wind?" the pony uttered, jolting Wisp out of his train of thought. "Y'back again?"
"For now" he said. The pony just nodded.

"'kay."
"How's things?" Wisp asked. The pony shrugged.

"Fine."
"Good to know" he smiled. He kept going.

"Hey" the pony called out. He stopped and turned around. The farmpony was staring at him with a confused look.
"'thought you were a pegasus."

"Not right now" he said. The pony just raised an eyebrow to this.
"'kay then." And with that, Lil MacIntosh went back to work.

Wisp continued onward, soon reaching the small cottage on the absolute edge of the Everfree. He slowly approached the cottage, and then ducked. A carrot sailed through the air where his head had been seconds ago. He turned to glower at the rabbit that had thrown it, but said nothing. He quickly found the spare key, opened the door and stepped in. A few small animals looked up at him with general disinterest at best, before getting on with whatever they were doing. He made his way to the nearest chair and sat down, sighing as he did, and tried to relax and gather his thoughts.

Or at least, that's what he'd been intending to do. Unfortunately there was a shocked gasp, and the sensation of something heavy hitting the back of his head. Just before he passed out he could've sworn he heard several rabbits cheering. His last thoughts before everything went dark were wondering if that was even possible.


*****


There was an odd stench, assaulting her nose. It was hardly an offensive stench, as far as stench went. It wasn't like somepony had dragged a terrified skunk under her nose, but to Shining Sapphire's nose, whatever it was just smelled wrong. She woke up, to see whatever it was that she was being forced to sense.

It was a cup of tea. She reared back from it, and was startled to hear the slightly pathetic squeak underneath her hooves.
"Watch it!" snapped the voice of her cousin. Suddenly she found one of her hooves being lifted, and something small and blue-grey and fuzzy was quickly removed from underneath her, lifted over toward Twilight Twinkle, who examined the item carefully, between glowering at her with the sort of intensity usually reserved for those who injured animals. It took her a second to realise what she'd stood on was an old donkey doll, one that looked like it had seen far better days.

"Was it necessary to wake me up with... tea?" she asked, staring at the drink as if it were some kind of poison. Twilight Twinkle shrugged.
"I figured you didn't want to sleep in all day" she responded, "I mean, it is almost half past twelve."

"Half past twelve?!" Shining Sapphire repeated. "Why didn't yo-"
"I did" her cousin cut in, "about ten minutes after I went poking around in the basement I came up here and found you like this. I tried waking you, but you were out like a light."

"No kidding" Shining Sapphire murmured. Then she saw the look on Twinkle's face. The mare was staring intently at her, and it was making her feel increasingly nervous.
"What is it?" she asked. The mare shrugged.

"Well, I was a bit concerned when my older cousin shows up on my doorstep so early in the morning, unannounced, without even so much as a letter, but then after she'd fallen asleep on my bed... I got to thinking" there was a noticeable amount of irritation in her voice at that, and she stopped for a moment.
"What's happened between you and Wisp?" she asked. Shining Sapphire stared at her hooves.

"I..." she said. "I'm not really sure on that one."
"You're not?" Twinkle asked. "That might be a first, you not being sure about something."

"Last night I... might have scared him, or just been really stupid and..." she buried her face in her hooves, "I don't even know right now. Nothing about this is making any sense at all."
There was a slow slurping sound from Twinkle drinking the tea.

"And we weren't exactly... I mean, he seems to be hiding things from me, and-"
She stopped and buried her face in her hooves.

"I really don't know, Twinkie. I think I might actually be in the middle of some kind of breakdown. I think I might be going a little bit mad. None of this is making any sense."
She felt a hoof on her chin, and found herself staring eye to eye with her cousin, who was apparently inspecting her.

"No" Twinkle said eventually, "you don't look like you're having a breakdown. I'd put this one down to just having a bad day."

"A bad day?" she repeated incredulously. Twinkle nodded.
"Everypony has them. You, me, Luna, even your parents, strange as it is to believe. We all have them."

She stared at her cousin for uncounted minutes, before shaking her head. "Maybe you're right. But then, I'm not used to this sort of thing. It's your domain, not mine."

Twilight Twinkle looked intrigued. "What's 'my sort of thing'?" she asked.
"Adventures, and madness, and excitement and... and... and really wild things" she felt her ears droop, "I'm just an academic, after all."

Twinkle stared at her cousin for a moment, before frowning. "What exactly happened to you two, then?" she asked.
Sapphy waved a dismissive hoof. "It's not that important."

"Oh, yes it is" her cousin said quickly. Sapphy stared at her, and saw from the look on her cousin's face that the mare wasn't going to give up easily, or (as was far more likely given what she knew of her) at all. She sighed, and then quickly recounted what had happened. Twinkle's expression didn't change in the slightest throughout her story. For several moments after she finished the mare sat there, not offering any opinion on Shining Sapphire's tale, just calmly drinking from her tea.
"I... see" she eventually said. "Do you think he's upset at you?"

Shining Sapphire gave this some thought. "I... no."
"Do you think he won't ever want to see you again?"

"No" she said, with a bit more confidence.
"Do you still want to be with him?"

"Yes."
"Okay then" Twinkle said. "But then why are you here, and he isn't?"

"Because" Shining Sapphire said, "he said he needed to think about something, and if he needs to think about something, then fine. If he feels he needs to think about it in Ponyville, fine. And if he needs to be on his own to do it, then that's fine too. That's his choice, and I won't stop him, or harangue him about it."
Twinkle raised an eyebrow, possibly because of her use of the word 'harangue' in cold blood. "How do you know he's in Ponyville?" she asked. Shining Sapphire just stared levelly at her.

"Because I know him. And because, let's face it, it's Wisp. Where else would he go?"
Twinkle just nodded to this. Shining Sapphire then frowned, as a thought occurred to her.

"By the way, why is your mom on vacation, anyway? I mean, I thought she'd just been on vacation, just last month, just before..." she shuffled, "you know, everything."
Twinkle's expression changed, and she sighed, putting down the cup of tea on the nearest surface, which was in fact on the other side of the room. She shifted on her chair.

"She was" Twinkle said, her voice leaden, "and then the exact day she went on vacation, somepony had to get caught in an accident with time-travel. And then dad came back, and then I came back, looking slightly younger and with wings, and so she had to deal with all of that, and then there was all sorts of complicated legal stuffs and such, and eventually she decided not to bother being on vacation at all."
"I see..." Shining Sapphire said, but then Twinkle shook her head.

"Not done yet. You see, a few weeks later, it turned out mom wasn't getting any sleep. Some kind of night terrors, bad enough the house sometimes shook. And you know what mom can be like when there's something wrong. Took days of me and dad to convince her just to go see somepony, anypony."

There was something about the way Twinkle had said that last sentence that concerned Shining Sapphire, an odd amount of bitterness seeping into it, probably without Twinkle having even noticed. "At which point Celestia steps in, recommends her to some place somewhere. Well," she said, "I mean she sort of insisted mom go."

"And what happened next?" Sapphy asked. Twinkle just gave her what was usually referred to as a Look. Shining Sapphire shook her head.
"Don't know why I bothered asking that" she murmured. Then she looked at the massive piles of books lying about the room.

"So, if auntie's on vacation, then-?"

"What's all this?" Twinkle asked, motioning toward the books, suddenly looking annoyed, though Sapphy could've sworn she saw a small hint of a smirk buried in there somewhere. "Well, some of it is my own research on... stuff, and some of it is because I agreed to help mom with some of her projects. Right now I'm having to go over all the records there are on Star-Swirl the Bearded, because ever since I met that 'Doctor', mom wanted to triple-check all the known facts on him, and anypony who's met him."

She stopped, and then sighed, taking another swig of her tea. "At least, I'm supposed to be doing that, but for one reason or another, I keep getting distracted."
"I'm a distraction?" Shining Sapphire asked, playfully. Twinkle stared at her for a moment, and then shook her head.

"You're more of a distraction from the distraction" she grinned, then stopped, and then rubbed a hoof against her chin thoughtfully. "Or maybe..."
"And that's it? You've been spending all month just sitting indoors, trying to study Star-Swirl and not succeeding?"

Twinkle's smile vanished, and for a time she said nothing. Her gaze flittered about the room, she shuffled her hooves, and generally looked like she was in all likelihood holding back a massive rant.
"No" she stated, "but that's what I've been spending most of the last week doing."

"And you've not been doing anything else?" Shining Sapphire asked.
"Well," Twinkle shuffled, "I have been trying to keep out of trouble. And I keep meaning to learn how to fly, but so far? No luck. Mom did offer to hire a tutor, but..."

"But what?"
Twinkle shook her head. "The Wonderbolts are on tour, so she can't call in any favours with their captain, meaning she had to go for the next best option."

"Which was?"
Twinkle's expression turned grim. "Rainbow Dash."

Shining Sapphire blinked in confusion. "You and Wisp keep implying something's wrong with Rainbow Dash. Why is that?"
"Because, while Rainbow Dash is most assuredly an excellent teacher, there is a bit of a flaw in her teaching methods."

Sapphy raised an eyebrow. "Which is?"
"Rainbow Dash, for all her good points as a teacher, seems to believe it's not a good workout until you can't breath, much less stand up properly, and that to push yourself to anything less than your limits is a disservice."

There was a sudden silence. "Still, most of the ponies she taught have gone on to enjoy highly successful careers, make of that what you will."

Shining Sapphire stared at Twinkle, waiting for her to say more. "So that's it?" she asked, when Twinkle said nothing else. "You haven't done anything else? Not tried to make some new friends, or met somepony?"

Twinkle scoffed. "I haven't really had time to do anything else."
She stared at Sapphy for a moment, before seeing the look of disbelief on the mare's face. "Hey, you know how it is. You suddenly get your new lease on life and it's all happy ever afters, and moving on with your life, and then the days just sort of blur together and you've settled into a routine without realising it."

Sapphy stared at her hooves, trying not to think about any certain changelings. "I do know how that feels" she reluctantly agreed.
"Hay, the closest I've come to making new friends is my weekly appointments with Luna, and that's only because it's either her or get a psychiatrist who charges by the hour, and can't help you watch all your nightmares for from the front row seats."

Shining Sapphire however, didn't hear whatever her cousin had said, for her attention was now being drawn to an odd-looking book. The reason for the oddity was because in contrast to the general disorganised mess of the room, this book was set on a small stand, on its own. Indeed, everything around it seemed to have been moved away. She stared at the cover, which looked amazingly unassuming. It was a completely featureless dark brown cover, the words evidently having faded with sheer age. And there was something about it that was just... tantalising, pulling her closer, and closer, and cl-

A royal blue hoof suddenly stopped her from advancing, and suddenly it was like somepony had removed a pair of ear-muffs from her. Twinkle was staring intently at her.
"Don't touch the book" she cautioned. Shining Sapphire stared at it. For some reason, the urge to say it couldn't have been that dangerous, but she knew, even from knowledge of her aunt's exploits alone, how ridiculous that statement was.

"What's wrong with it?" she asked, edging backwards. Now she could suddenly feel it. There was an odd metallic taste in the air around the book, one she couldn't put her hoof on. Twinkle just shook her head.
"Well, for one thing, when I brought that book back with me from the past, it was at least half that size, and it was a collection of fairy tales. I haven't dared look inside since."

Shining Sapphire felt her blood freeze, as she remembered what Twinkle had told her had become of the Nightmare that had tried to kill her. As it had turned out, it had survived being blasted with the Crystal Heart's energies, however barely, and had lain dormant in Twinkle for several months, until re-emerging and going on a violent rampage, until being removed from Twinkle, and sealed inside a storybook. The one she was staring at right at that moment.
She took several steps back, only to suddenly feel her back right leg tense up. She yelped in pain. Twinkle was staring at her, and more specifically her back leg. She didn't look surprised, or even confused. Actually, she looked slightly annoyed.

"What's happened to your leg?" she asked. Shining Sapphire just bit down on her lip.
"I..." she started, and then she saw the calm look on Twinkle's face as the mare came closer.

"You were walking oddly just after the Changeling invasion" she noted, "at the time, I didn't mention anything, because I figured after all the hardship, the last thing anypony needed was more drama. Then, this morning, when you were standing in the doorway under your glowing pink umbrella, you were finding it difficult to stand still, shifting your weight from one leg to another."
Shining Sapphire blinked. That was news to her. But then, she noted, it was so like Twinkie to notice something like that.

"So, I'm guessing your back leg didn't heal properly, and for whatever reason, and I'm thinking it was something to do with not wanting to upset your parents, you didn't mention anything. Am I right?"
Shining Sapphire stared glumly at nothing. From where she was sitting, she could see Twinkle had covered up the picture of her could-have-been child. Twinkle was staring intently at her, waiting for an answer.

"Yeah" she whispered, "you're right. You're always right."
Twinkle just shook her head. "If only that were true."

Suddenly, Twilight Twinkle began to smile. Her horn glowed brightly, and a small beam of light shot forth from her horn, striking Shining Sapphire's leg. There was a strange tingling sensation throughout it, and then... nothing. No pain, no aches, no... no nothing. After a few seconds she stood up, cautiously. She felt nothing at all, save the feel of a hoof making contact with the carpet. She stared blankly at Twinkle.

"It's me, remember?" she said triumphantly, on seeing Sapphy's expression. "I may not be able to fix a broken relationship, but a broken bone? I can fix that."
Her smile vanished, "just be a bit careful. The leg might go dead after a while. Watch out for that."

"But..." Shining Sapphire stuttered, "how did-?"
"Oh, come on, Sapphy!" Twinkle grinned, "what did you think it was? Some vastly complicated medical thing that would take a swarm of surgeons to fix?"

Shining Sapphire paused, as she went over every reason she'd given for not going to see a doctor about her leg. Suddenly, and despite their having seemed sensible at the time, they sounded like so much nonsense.
"I think somepony's been reading far too many medical textbooks" Twinkle declared. Shining Sapphire stared at her. Twinkle stared back. After a few seconds Twinkle stared grinning again, which then made Shining Sapphire grin.

"Thanks" she smiled. Twinkle just bowed her head.
"Anything for her highness." To that, Shining Sapphire jabbed her with a hoof. Then she saw Twinkle's smile receding.

"Now then, let's go see about getting this... Changeling nonsense checked out before something else distracts us."
At those words, Shining Sapphire remembered what she'd been thinking of on the train to Canterlot. She grinned, and focused her magic.

"Just one problem" she announced, and waited for Twinkle to turn around.
"Ta-da!" she proclaimed, once the flames died down. Twilight Twinkle stared at Twilight Twinkle for a moment, her jaw shifting slightly, and then she shrugged.

"Meh" she declared, "I've seen better."
"When, exactly?" inquired Shining Sapphire. Suddenly, Twinkle went quiet, and she made her way towards the door. Shining Sapphire followed after her, wondering when she could have, since in her little tale of time-travel she'd never mentioned being around Changelings long enough for them to imitate her, or meddled with a cloning pool, or that temporal paradox spell she'd heard so much about, before decided to file that away for later.


*****


Wisp slowly opened his eyes, and then, realising he was not about to be sacrificed by a horde of pony-eating rabbits, wondered what had happened. He slowly sat up, and then felt a sharp jab with a hoof in the side.
"You jerk!" somepony squeaked. He turned to look at the glowering pink-maned filly staring daggers at him. "You scared me!"

"Hello, Minty" he said calmly, "how's your mom?"
"Oh," the filly grinned, all her irritation forgotten, "she's fine. I'mma big sister now!"

"That's nice" Wisp groaned. "I'm guessing that was you who hit me."
"You scared me!" Minty Pie repeated, "I thought you were a burglar, or a cocka... um..." the filly stopped, and scratched her head, "Cockatrixie?"

"Cockatrice, I think" Wisp said.
"Yeah, that. You should've said who you were!" she pouted. Wisp decided to ignore the fact that he'd been knocked out by a filly, even if she was a Pie.

"Guessing you're here doing the chores" he said, to which the filly nodded, grinning slightly. Then she looked confused.
"How come you're here? Miss Fluttershy said you had moved out, and then she just started looking all sad, like Banana did."

The filly leaned in closer, trying to look as threatening as possible. "You hurt big sis's feelings" she said. Wisp just looked down at his hooves.
"Needed somewhere to be. Somewhere to think. Preferably somewhere where fillies don't kick me in the back of the head."

"I didn't kick you in the back of the head" Minty said defensively, "I just-... oops."
Wisp just grinned. "Nice save."

Minty stuck her tongue out at him, then tilted her head. "But really, how come you're here?"
Wisp just sighed. "I had stuff I needed to think about, I guess. And this is my home, anyway."

"Did you hurt somepony else's feelings?" Minty asked innocently, "like that pretty mare you were with?"
Her eyes darted toward Wisp's horn and she frowned. "And when did you have a horn? Weren't you a pegasus a month ago?"

"Sort of," Wisp started, before he realised that might have been the wrong thing to say, especially once Minty gasped in horror.
"Whatever you're about to say I did, I didn't" he quickly got out, "I just... needed to think about some things, and the only place I could do it was here."

Minty stared at him suspiciously for a while, then she suddenly switched to the familiar toothy grin of the Pies.
"Okey-dokey-lokey" she smiled.
Wisp sighed, and allowed himself to collapse into a heap as she hopped away toward the stairs. This idea of his was looking more and more like the wrong decision by the minute.

Then, quite suddenly, the door clicked open, and a pony stepped in. Then the pony stopped, and stared at him. Her jaw fell open slightly. Wisp, despite his low mood, couldn't help but smile.
"Hi, mom" he said weakly.


*****


"Are you sure you know how this thing works?" Shining Sapphire (now looking more like a Changeling again) asked, trying to look at the odd bowl on her head. Twilight Twinkle gave her a serious Look.
"I think I do" she said, with as much haughtiness as she could manage, which as it turned out wasn't much. "Probably. I mean, I've been plugged into it enough times I should know the basics."

She sighed, and looked back toward her cousin, "Unfortunately this thing just didn't come with easily labelled controls, or a several hundred page manual, so... just sit still and don't move."
"Okay" Shining Sapphire said. After a few seconds of listening to Twinkle trying to get the machine to work, she started thinking about Wisp. She hadn't been trying to, but it seemed at the moment that all possible thoughts ended up leading to him, which was going to prove irritating quickly. She sighed.

"No sighing either" Twinkle stated.
"Why?"

"Because" Twinkle said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "you're sighing because you miss Wisp, right?
"Yes."

"Even though you two haven't broken up or anything, and are just by all accounts having an incident induced rough-patch, which you will sort out at the nearest opportunity?"
"Yes."

"Then don't sigh. Otherwise you'll start singing. And I'll have to hurt somepony."
Shining Sapphire rolled her eyes. "I am allowed to worry about my coltfriend" she said. Twinkle pretended to be interested in a panel.

"It's just... I am worried about him" she whispered, "he's been acting so strangely the last few weeks. Like he's hiding something from me. I mean, it's not like he can't talk to me. But he won't. He spends almost all of his time on his own"
She looked up toward the ceiling, as she found herself thinking of the night before, and then a horrific thought came to mind. "Sometimes I wonder if I've ever even seen the real Wisp, or if it's all just disguises."

"There's one way to check" Twinkle finally said, glancing over toward her cousin, "the real Wisp would probably have scars from those Timberwolves."
"True, true" she nodded. "Of course," she added, "I've never heard him sing, either, but that's not exactly reason to be suspicious."

There was no response from her cousin, she turned to look at the mare, who was just staring at her like she'd grown a second head. Shining Sapphire just smiled back at her.

"Sorry" she said, "here you are trying to help me, and all I can do is go on about Wisp."
Twinkle looked at her again, and there was something in those bright orange eyes of hers for a moment, and the flicker of a smile on her face, before she went back to fiddling with the controls. Every few minutes the mare muttered something under her breath.

"Okay, I think that should be it" she said, as she flicked a random switch. After a few seconds there was a small whirring noise, followed by an odd clank. Then the machine began making a wide variety of noises.
"It's meant to do that, I presume?" Sappy asked. Twinkle just nodded.

"Let's hope so."
The two ponies stood there, as the machine made a variety of incredibly loud noises, before finally there was a small 'ding'. Shining Sapphire looked over toward Twinkle.

"Well?"
Her cousin just stared at the machine. Shining Sapphire was certain she could smell something beginning to burn. "Not sure yet" she murmured, "I think that was it warming up."

There was a complete absence of noise from the machine. Twilight Twinkle glowered at the machine, then turned to look at Sapphy's incredulous look. "Hey, gimme a break. This thing's over twenty-three years old, and it's been sitting in a basement for most of those years. The fact it works at all is a small miracle."
She stared at the machine for a moment, before she turned around and gave the machine a small kick, at which point it began making a whole new variety of noises.

"Did that help?" Shining Sapphire asked. Twinkle just nodded.
"Hurt yourself?"

"... yes" Twinkle said, through gritted teeth.
Shining Sapphire slouched as the machine continued on with whatever odd task it was performing. After a few seconds she started thinking about Wisp, and sighed wistfully.

"No sighing!" Twinkle chided.
"Sorry" Shining Sapphire quickly said, "I can't help it."

Twinkle said nothing to that, merely staring at the reams of paper pouring out from one end of the machine. Then she stared at Shining Sapphire.
"Just out of curiosity, by the way, how did this happen?"

Shining Sapphire blinked. "Pardon?"
"How did you and Wisp end up being all... 'changeling-y'? I mean, if mom were here she'd be rushing about, yelling that this was impossible, even though... y'know, it's happened."

"I..." Shining Sapphire stopped. "I'm not really certain. And I thought, perhaps, it was just a trick of perception, you know, making Wisp unable to perform whatever spells he needed to change shape, making me think my teeth were actually fangs, things like that, but..."
"But what?"

She shook her head. "Then I started seeing what ponies were feeling, which is utterly impossible, unless you somehow were able to rewrite biology."
"Which, unless you're a chaos spreading maniac, is outright impossible" Twinkle finished, then looked up at her. "So, who could do that, then?"

Shining Sapphire blinked. What an odd question ask. She stared at Twinkle. "Does it really matter who did it?" she asked, "I mean, it could've been anypony but-"
Twinkle was staring at her with what looked like concern. "What?" she asked.

"You really don't know what you just said, do you?" Twinkle said, quietly.
"I know what I said" she scoffed, "and it... it..."

A sudden feeling of horror was beginning to creep through her. Twinkle's horn glowed brightly, and then she took a step away from Shining Sapphire.
"Sapphy" she said, in an alarmingly calm tone, "please, tell me again what happened yesterday and the day before."

"I tried to talk Wisp into sleeping in the same bed as me, I succeeded, we had dinner, we felt tired, we retired for the night, and then... and..."
She blinked. "We must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I remember, I was waking up next to Wisp."

Twinkle just nodded. "You've been feeling unusually tired today, right?"
Shining Sapphire nodded slowly. "Yes, but... that's just because I haven't had any coffee for two days, right?"

Twinkle didn't respond for a while, before she finally said "No, but it probably hasn't helped any. Neither has your disruption to your regular sleeping patterns. Well, at least, I assume you have a sleeping pattern, and don't just fall asleep on an as-needed basis."
Shining Sapphire stared intently at her cousin, feeling like she one cryptic sentence away from running for the hills. "Twinkie, what's wrong. With. Me?"

Twilight Twinkle bit her lip. She 'hmm'd' and 'hahhed' and looked about awkwardly. Then she sighed, and looked straight at Shining Sapphire.
"Well, for starters, from what I can tell, you have been drugged."

There was a sudden near-silence, save the noises of the scanner. "With a sleeping potion."
"Oh" Shining Sapphire said. "That's it?"

"That's why you keep falling asleep. Because," and all of a sudden she actually started grinning, "whoever did this, in addition to being dumb enough to actually do this to you and Wisp, also apparently wasn't very good with measurements, because they used way too much."
For a few moments Shining Sapphire just stared at her younger cousin, who was shaking her head. Then Twinkle's smile vanished.

"Also? You've been under a pretty nasty brainwashing spell" she said, so quickly it took Shining Sapphire a few seconds to realise and react to it.
"I've WHAT?" she gritted her teeth, if only because she wasn't certain how to feel at that point. Somepony had snuck into her room, and managed to brainwash her, and Wisp most likely, and she'd not noticed?

"How?" she asked, incredulous, "I mean... mom and dad made sure that I was brainwash proof! Dad even taught me all the stuff he knew."
"And that's why you didn't suspect a thing?" Twinkle asked, staring at the machine, "because you thought you were immune?"

"Well..." Shining Sapphire stopped. "I guess" she said weakly.
"I did say it was a nasty one" Twinkle sighed, "and there could be any number of reasons why you didn't notice. Unfortunately since we don't have the pony who first cast it on you, we won't know what it was for. You'll have to ask them" she sighed again.

Shining Sapphire just felt her legs give out. This was too much, this was all too much. She just wanted to be at home, with her books, in her library, in her comfy chair with Wisp, and her parents, and if at all possible, with her sanity. That was all she wanted.
'Is that too much to ask?' she thought. Then she felt a hoof tap on her head.

"Stop that" Twinkle scolded. She glowered at her.
"No, I'm having this one" she hissed, "I've had a really bad day, today and yesterday. Wisp's walked off, I'm stuck looking like a Changeling, your mom isn't here to help me, I haven't had any coffee for two whole days now, and I'm feeling really-"

There was a sudden abnormally loud rumbling from her stomach. "Hungry?" she asked, staring at her stomach, then back to Twinkle, who looked like she was fighting the urge to laugh.
"Is it alright if I just go mad right now?" she murmured, "or can it wait 'till later?"

"Well" Twinkle said, "I think the machine's got enough data on you to analyse now, but it'll probably need a while to run properly. So, yeah. Lunch might be a brilliant idea. Except..." she trailed off. Sapphy leapt to her hooves.
"No! No 'except'! No buts, ifs or anything! I-"

There was a sudden ringing sound. Twilight suddenly looked genuinely confused.
"Huh" she said, turning to look toward the basement door. "Pretty sure they're early."

"Who?" Shining Sapphire asked, "who is 'early'?"
Twinkle grinned nervously. "Well, I said I'd been on my own all week, right?"

"Yes. You did."
"Of course, even after the..." she paused, and made a show of trying to think of the right words, "lengthy conversations mom and me have been having," her expression suddenly shifted, "about a lot of things, she still doesn't like the idea of leaving me on my own again. You know, she seems convinced I might just... vanish or do something crazy like time-travel again."

"Will you?"
"Not if I can help it" she muttered darkly, "but, anyway, not the point, the point is, mom might have asked someponies to 'check in' on me while she's on vacation, make sure I haven't had any wild parties, or gotten into fights with any Blasphemous Horrors What Pony Was Not Meant to See, or something like that, so..." Shining Sapphire stuck a hoof in her mouth.

"Twinkie, please, no dramatics. Who is it that's at the door?"
Twinkle uttered a series of muffled noises. Shining Sapphire blinked.

"Wait, did you just say-"
She retracted the hoof.

"Yeah" Twinkle said, an alarming smile spreading across her face. "Granma Velvet and Granpa Night Light."
Suddenly her horn glowed, there was a loud 'bloink' sound, and then there was empty space instead of an alicorn, as Shining Sapphire stood there, unmoving.

'Oh, right' some part of her mind that was still working thought, 'she can teleport now.'


*****


The clock ticked slowly, as two ponies just sat there, as they had for several minutes now.
"When you're ready" Fluttershy said gently. Wisp tried to say something. The words died in his throat. He tried again. And again. Eventually, Fluttershy just shook her head, and stood up. She made her way toward the kitchen, and Wisp heard the sound of dishes being moved about.

"Mom?" he asked, causing the mare to turn back toward him, "what are you doing?"
She paused, and then gently set down the bowl she had been carrying. "Making you some lunch" she smiled. "And don't say you're not hungry, because we both know that's not true."

"I'm not feeling hungry" Wisp murmured. Fluttershy just looked at him.
"Sweetie, I know you might not want to eat, but believe me, it'll make you feel better."

"But I-" he started. Fluttershy was still just... looking at him.
"And before you ask how I can tell you aren't feeling 'okay', remember: I am your mother. I can tell you're feeling miserable."

Wisp stared down at his hooves. "Miserable isn't how I'd describe myself right now."
"Then what is it?" Fluttershy asked, "because I doubt that you came all the way home after a month just because you were feeling homesick."

Wisp sighed. "I was meaning to write, mom, but... I... forgot."
"I honestly don't mind" she said, quietly staring at nothing, "you've been busy, after all. I honestly wasn't expecting mail from you for a while."

"No, mom, I..." Wisp sighed again, but with an undercurrent of exasperation. Fluttershy just shook her head, and he could've sworn he heard her chuckle.
"Wisp, it's alright for you to forget about your silly old mother and focus more on your own life, at this point. You are nearly twenty-one at this point. You're supposed to be leaving the nest and spreading your wings, and enjoying life."

"Yeah" Wisp said. Suddenly, Fluttershy stopped dead in her tracks.
"What happened?" she asked, the same way she had done when he was younger and had something that had really been bothering him, like one of those nightmares about burning down Ponyville, or leading a swarm of Changelings across the world, or the ones where it was just him, alone in the dark with nothing but her demented cackling everywhere.

"It..." he stopped, and saw the look on Flutter- his mother's face. He couldn't lie to her, couldn't not tell her the truth, especially since she'd just figure out he was lying and get upset.
"It's about what happened. About her. About Shining Sapphire."

"What about her?" Fluttershy asked, quietly. "Wisp, dear, what happened?"
He took in a deep breath. This was it. This was his moment of truth.

"I love her."


*****


"Grandma!" Shining Sapphire heard Twilight Twinkle exclaim from upstairs, "Grandpa!"
"Hello, Twilight Twinkle" she heard her grandmother say, followed by what sounded like a hug, "how's my granddaughter?"

"Oh, you know, same as always."
"It can't be that bad, surely" Night Light said.

"Well, it might be a little bit better than usual" Twinkle responded. "How're you two?"
"Same as always" she heard Grandma Velvet repeat.

"Oh, by the way" she heard Twinkle say, her voice sounding slightly different now, "you'll never guess who showed up this morning."
"Who?" Night Light asked. Shining Sapphire winced. She couldn't see her grandparents looking like a Changeling. She looked about the room, but since it was Twilight Sparkle's basement, there weren't really any good places for a pony her size to hide. And then she wondered why she had to hide. It wasn't as if her grandparents would freak out, was it? Or possibly indulge in the family madness and assume Twinkle had been brainwashed?

"Oh," she heard Twinkle said, sound disappointed, "come on, granddad. Guess."
"Twinkie, we're too old for guessing games" grandma Velvet said, somehow managing to suddenly sound far older than she did, which given the fact that she wasn't exactly that old anyway was all the more impressive, and she could've sworn there was some mirth in her voice, "just tell us."

"Fine, fine, but brace yourselves."
There was a dramatic pause, probably involving her grandparents exchanging concerned glances. "It's Sapphy!"

There were two simultaneous gasps. "Really?" grandpa Night Light exclaimed, "Shining Sapphire is here? Right now?"
"Oh yeah" she heard Twinkle chortle, "although by now she's probably trying to hide."

"She's not planning to surprise us, is she?" Twilight Velvet deadpanned.
"No," Twinkle said instantly, "more the opposite."

"What's she hiding for?" Night Light asked.
"She's always hiding away" Twilight Velvet said, "remember the last time we visited Shiny and Cadence? She barely said hello."
Shining Sapphire stopped, trying to remember the last time her grandparents had visited. That sounded like her, alright. She did tend to spend all day in her room reading. But it was important reading, wasn't it? The acquisition of knowledge was important. Okay, yes, she was a bit like aunt Twilie during her more... 'shut-in' phases, but surely sooner or later something was supposed to happen that shook her out of it, right?

Like a Nightmare attacking her, she found herself thinking, or meeting a nice colt and going out with him. That one was sort of self-explanatory. Going out. And all she did was sit indoors and read. She like reading, though. She was good at it. She always was. Like her parents used to say, she was usually more knowledgeable than her tutors, which is why they had to have aunt Twilie send them a recommended reading list especially for her. And they'd looked so confused when her Cutie Mark hadn't been a book or something along those lines.

And then she remembered how she'd met Twinkie. She'd been sitting in her room studying when Twinkie had first visited, and hadn't even bothered to leave her room for ten minutes and go say hello. Twinkie had only stumbled upon her because she'd wandered off (while being lectured about wandering off from her mother, no less).
She blinked, and found her vision was getting all blurry. She was actually crying. But even if she didn't usually show she cared... they knew she did, didn't they?

Suddenly, she felt a lot smaller than she should have. She looked about the room. The whole place was too exposed, and they'd find her. Then she looked down at her hooves, and had an idea. She was in the body of a Changeling, after all.
A few seconds later, her grandparents appeared, slowly making their way down the stairs.

"Are you sure she's down here?" she heard her grandfather say. "I can't see her."
"She should be there" Twinkle's voice came from somewhere upstairs, "she was the last time I checked, and I would've noticed if she'd gone somewhere.

She heard their hoofsteps continuing down the stairs.
"You know" she heard Twilight Velvet say, "I may be getting old, but I remember when I was young, and horror stories were proper horror stories, not the wishy-washy tragic monster nonsense young fillies read these days, and some of the things in those horror stories have managed to stick with me, despite some very spirited efforts."

"Mmm-hmm" she heard grandpa Night Light say. "Of course, what I'm really curious about is two things. For one, why is our other granddaughter hanging to the ceiling?"
"And why, exactly did she think we wouldn't notice her there?" Twilight Velvet finished. Slowly, Shining Sapphire opened her eyes. Then she tried smiling.

"Come on down from there, dear."
"Yes'm."
She tried to detach herself and float gracefully to the ground, but instead only managed to drop more like a stone.

"Ow" she mumbled, before getting to her hooves and hugging both ponies.
"Goodness" she heard her grandfather wince, "careful now, we aren't as young as we once were."

"Sorry" she said instantly, "I just... wanted to show you I cared."
Her grandparents shared glances, somehow managing in the way only two ponies who'd been together for a very long time could to instantly share a wealth of information in seconds.

"Honey" her grandmother smiled, "we know you care. You don't need to prove that to us."
"But I do?" Twinkle called out from upstairs, before adding, "lunch might be a while, by the way."

Shining Sapphire was certain her cousin had probably muttered something under her breath after that.
"Gives us plenty of time to talk then" Twilight Velvet smiled.

"Indeed" Night Light grinned, "after all, hearing from our daughter in-law about how wonderful you are is lovely, but we'd much rather hear about you from... well, you."
"Like why you look like a Changeling" Twilight Velvet said, before turning to Night Light. "One of us had to point it out, dear."

Shining Sapphire just smiled, before a small handkerchief wiped away her tears, before being gently folded back up again by her grandmother, who smiled warmly at her.


*****


After Wisp's initial outburst, Fluttershy had just simply stared at him expectantly. He, meanwhile, had just sat there, looking down at his hooves. His silence wasn't because of any difficulty of telling Fluttershy, the one pony he really felt he could be honest with, but more because she was his mother, and as far as he was concerned, always would be, regardless of tiny little unimportant bits of trivia like the truth.
"Windy" she said, quietly, "I don't understand what the problem is. And I can't try to help you with whatever it is that's bothering you if you don't tell me."

"Sorry" he mumbled, "I'm just... I'm just trying to figure out how to explain it, because..."
He groaned in frustration. "I love her. I love Shining Sapphire. That's the problem, mom. I love her."

He sighed, and then collapsed back into the sofa he was sitting on. "And, because I love her, when she asked me to move into her house, or palace, I didn't hesitate. Well, hesitate, for me."
Fluttershy said nothing to that.

"And it wasn't... I mean, even before she... before Chrysalis had me abducted, I didn't want to be prince of the changelings, or king, or queen or whatever damn thing they want to-" he stopped, realising what he'd just done, and turned to look sheepishly at Fluttershy.
"Sorry" he quickly muttered. Fluttershy just shook her head.

"Sweetie, I'm not going to yell at you for a mild cuss."
"You're not?" Wisp asked in astonishment.

"No" Fluttershy said, smiling innocently, "though I would like it if you tried not to do it again."
Wisp found his mind helpfully coming up with suggestions as to what would happen if he did. There was something about that good-natured smile of hers that seemed far more terrifying than even the threat of being hunted down by the entirety of the Twilight family for upsetting Shining Sapphire. After all, the worst they could really do was kill him. Fluttershy wouldn't have had to.

"You were saying?" she said. He just nodded.
"Yeah, I didn't want to be a prince of anything. Not Changelings, or ponies, and I go and fall in love with a Princess. Which, let's face it, was always going to happen. She's a Princess of a former Empire, I'm the Changeling royalty raised by a former hero of Equestria. And if that wasn't guaranteed to make us fall in love, I don't know what is."

He sighed again, and sat up. "So, I fall in love with a beautiful, wonderful, genius of a mare, and she asked me to move in with her, and I just say yes. And it wasn't that, you know, I hadn't thought about the fact that, yeah, I'd have to be a prince, or prince consort, or whatever it is they call Shining Armor, and live in a castle and be a prince and do, basically, everything I never wanted to be, it's just..."
He stopped, and looked out of the window, at the vast expanses of the Everfree Forest itself. He thought about what he was about to say, and everything he had said already. For some reason he never quite understood, he smiled.

"I just didn't care. I didn't think about the consequences of what I was doing because I was with her. Because... she was hurt, really badly, by a Nightmare that had possessed Twilight Twinkle, and... I don't know the whole story, but it sounded like that was supposed to be it for her, but she woke up, just to save me. She loves me, and I love her. And..."
He suddenly sniffed, "because of me she got turned into a Changeling and I acted like a freaking idiot. But I do know I want to be with her, even if it means those idiot Changelings following me everywhere, and the weird servants they have doing everything for me, and the fact that she loves me so much it actually hurts to look at her sometimes."

He sighed, but this time it was more contentedly than he'd felt in a long time, like some weight had fallen from his back. "She's worth it, mom."
Fluttershy just stared, her eyes quavering slightly. She began to smile slowly, and then-

"What a load of sappy mush!" declared Minty Pie, before the filly turned to Fluttershy and smiled. "the chicken coops are clean now, auntie Fluttershy."
"Oh" Fluttershy said, before coughing in an desperate attempt to recover, "yes. Good, Minty. Good work."

"Thanks" the filly smiled.
"Anyway" Fluttershy said, pointing a hoof at Wisp, "before you go rushing off to make some big romantic gesture in order to get Shining Sapphire to 'forgive' you," she muttered something Wisp couldn't catch under her breath, "lunch."

"But, m-"
"No 'buts', you!" she said firmly, before turning to Minty. "And you, no criticising heartfelt speeches."

"It was mushy" the filly muttered, "even mom would think so."
Wisp shrugged. "I'm completely fine with mushy."

Minty just stared at him blankly. "And Banana said you were boring."


*****

Before discussion could have turned to what Shining Sapphire had been getting up to, the mare had decided she was not going to go one more millisecond without any caffeine, and that was why she vowed to go get some.
"There's a coffee shop just two blocks away" Twinkle had said, once she'd made sure her cousin would not be persuaded from her course.

"That's helpful" Shining Sapphire remarked. Twilight Twinkle had rolled her eyes and quickly filled Shining Sapphire in on where it was. The mare blinked, then frowned, then turned to the hallway to fetch her notebook. She stared at the coatrack hanging there, and frowned further.

"Twinkie?" she asked.
"Yeah?"

"Where did you put my saddlebag?"
There was a disquieting pause. "Your what?"

"My saddlebag. That thing I had with me when I came here. It had my notes in it. And some other things."
There was a lengthy pause. "No, you didn't."

"I did."
"I'm telling you, you didn't."

Shining Sapphire stared at the coatrack. She was sure she'd had her saddlebag. It had been with her on the train, and she was sure she'd put it on wh-
"Oh" she said slowly, "that. IDIOT!"

"Who, honey?" asked Night Light.
"I think she means her coltfriend" Twilight Velvet said, to which Night Light merely went "ah".

Shining Sapphire shook her head. Wisp must have either taken the bag by accident and not noticed, or taken it on purpose as an excuse for them to see each other once more, for whatever reason. She sighed, which quickly turned into an exasperated hiss. She'd been too long without sweet, sweet coffee. She focused her magic, reassumed her disguise once more, and then made her way out into the streets, determined to find coffee at any cost.

A few minutes later, Twilight Twinkle came into the sitting room, and asked her grandparents to watch the cooking while she checked the machine's analysis. She quickly made her way into the basement, and stared at the read-out. While she was the daughter of Twilight Sparkle, she didn't usually have her mother's tendency toward being thorough. Nonetheless she checked the results again, and again.
"Ohhhhh, sweet Luna" she whispered. "That's bad."


*****

It had been a gruelling search for Princess Cadance and Shining Armor, but eventually they'd found four of the five Changelings, all five of them just sitting calmly in one of the many, many drawing rooms the Crystal Palace had. When they'd seen the two ponies coming, they had almost looked... well, resigned, as a matter of fact.

Then, Cadance had slowly lifted her crown off her head, and their expression turned into outright terror. Shining Armor, for his part, looked shocked.
"Now then," Cadance said sweetly, "what I am about to say, I am going to say not as a Princess, but as a mother. And I am going to ask once, and only once."

Her expression turned to blazing hot fury as she moved closer to the Changelings.

"What. Has. Happened. To. My. Daughter?!"


*****

"But it doesn't make any sense!" Twilight Twinkle said, pacing up and down the hallway, her wings occasionally flapping, "you can't just rewrite a pony's biology like that, even with the strongest magic available. Even with mom it was because there was already potential in her for alicorn-hood. I mean, if it was just Wisp it'd make sense because a Changeling would probably have to hold a form, makes sense they'd have to be able to hold it even when they're asleep, otherwise their cover would be blown in an instant."

She shook her head as she kept marching up and down, her grandparents exchanging increasingly concerned Looks.
"Oh" she gasped, before slapping a hoof against her forehead, "no, no no no no. If you had months, maybe, just maybe you could try, convince a pony they are supposed to be one thing, but... No. I'm missing something here, something impor-..."

She facehoofed. "Changelings. Of course, the damn Changelings. Nopony suspected them because they saved Wisp's life, but he doesn't wanna be king! And he's only half-Changeling anyhow, so he's probably no good to them. But if you forced the decision, made it so something happened that he had to be king..."

She bit her lip, and began pacing again. "Not getting everything, still missing something. AHA!" she yelled, startling both grandparents, "the BRAINWASHING SPELL!"
"Not so loud, dear" Night Light suggested.

"If somepony tried to use it on Shining Sapphire, but she's trained to resist them, and after being abducted and nearly killed Wisp's probably more paranoid than anything, probably hears them coming. Of course, the sleeping potion! Neither of them are able to fight back, something goes wrong. Sapphy's connection to the Crystal Heart, it reacts somehow because she's in distress, maybe tries to absorb the Changeling's spell and diffuse it, but it's connected to everypony in the city and..."

She suddenly gasped. "No! No! No way, that's... no, it's just stupid, but... no..." she groaned, "No! Now that stupid idea's stuck in my head!"
She snorted and headed for the door, "I've gotta get Sapphy, and tell h-"

She stopped, her mouth just hanging open as she saw the sight waiting on the other side of the door, her expression one of total disbelief, as the dark blue mare standing in front of her smile awkwardly.
"Good afternoon, Twilight Twinkle" Princess Luna said, "I apologise for troubling you, b-"

"No" Twinkle said firmly, "Not now. Whatever it is, it c-"
"It cannot. Your presence is required for a matter of the utmost urgency."

"I don't care!"
Princess Luna's horn began to glow, even as Twilight Twinkle yelled at her to stop. There was a bright flash, and both ponies were gone. Seconds passed.

Night Light hummed. Twilight Velvet raised an eyebrow.
"Something the matter, dear?"

"How far is Canterlot Castle?" he asked. Twilight Velvet shrugged.
"From here? About a mile, mile and a half, thirty minutes depending on the traffic and the weather. Why?"

"Well," Night Light shrugged, as his horn lit up, dragging the front door of the house closed, "I figured it'd probably not take little Twinkle more than a minute, half a minute tops to get back here if she tried."
"Unless Princess Celestia's got all those barriers up."

"Ah, yes. Forgotten about those."
"But she can fly, and that building isn't exactly short on windows."

"True, true."
There were a few seconds as both ponies sat there, before Twilight Velvet shrugged.

"Must've been pretty important for Princess Luna to be up so early" she noted. "And Shining Sapphire's been gone an awful long time just for coffee. I hope she's alright."


*****


The Changelings had quickly huddled together, whispering toward one another, before the one that had been labelled Impulse stepped forward.
"We don't know, Your Highness" he said quietly.

"You don't know" Cadance repeated.
"But..." Impulse said cautiously, "we can explain what exactly happened, and then go and... retrieve her for you?"

"I think you explaining what the hay is going on would be a tremendous idea" she said. "Don't you think so, Shining?"
"Definitely."
The big Changeling, Rock, tapped Impulse on the shoulder and whispered something to him. Impulse whispered back.

"I'm waiting" Cadance said. The Changelings looked alarmed.
"Of course, but..." Impulse coughed nervously, "first I would like to say, on behalf of my kin, you have been generous hosts."

"Patience running very thin" Shining Armor stated.
"Sorry" Impulse quickly said, "it is just... we have... not been entirely truthful with you about certain..." he looked towards the others, "'facts' about ourselves."

He grinned the nervous grin of a being that didn't expect to see the next day.
"You see, as you ponies say, it's like this..."


*****


Wisp stared down at the empty plate, then over toward Fluttershy, who smiled sweetly.
"Feeling better?" she asked. He just nodded, then looked up at Fluttershy, who just smiled.

"I think that may be the first time you've ever rushed to eat your lunch to get outside" she said, sighing slightly. Wisp quickly took this as tacit acceptance to leave, and practically leapt off the chair. He was halfway to the door when he stopped, and walked back over toward Fluttershy, giving her one last hug.
"I'll write to you if it works out" he said.

"You really don't have to" Fluttershy said.
"I know, but I don't want you worrying about me."

"I'm your mother" Fluttershy said, "I will always worry about you. Even if you have foals, I'll be worrying about you."
Wisp stopped, and smiled awkwardly. "I don't think Sapphy and I are up to foals yet. We haven't even talked about marriage yet."

"Thought you were already married" Minty Pie muttered. Wisp ignored her, gave Fluttershy one last hug, then stopped when he saw the saddlebag sitting on its own.
"Huh" he stated, "almost forgot this."

He looked at the bag, with the buckle styled after Shining Sapphire's Cutie Mark, and smiled at it. Then, he shook his head.
"Alright then, no more distractions. I am going to go to Canterlot, find Shining Sapphire, and tell her exactly how I feel about her."

He opened the door, and then stared in confusion at the sight in front of him.
Part of him shut down. Part of him went straight into blind panic. Another still just noted that it wasn't the sort of thing one usually saw, that of Princess Celestia standing in front of somepony's front door, holding in her magic what looked amazingly like a thermos.

"Hello" she said warmly. "Whisper Wind, wasn't it?"
Wisp wasn't certain whether he nodded or not, but he was definitely sure the string of noises he made wasn't actually any language.

"Don't worry" Princess Celestia smiled. "That's what the tea's for."


*****


Several minutes ago.
Shining Sapphire wasn't lost. Not exactly. She knew she was probably heading in the right direction for a coffee house, if she remembered the instructions from Twilight Twinkle correctly. After all, at only two blocks away from her house, it couldn't have been that difficult to find. Of course, there was the problem that she was feeling slightly enervated, although she was willing to chalk that up to lack of sleep and / or caffeine, and the slightly more worrying problem of the buzzing noise, only now it sounded... actually, it sounded less like buzzing, but from the way it was going it sounded almost exactly like music. She shook her head. Coffee waited for no mare.
She continued walking onward, the thought of the sweet solution driving her onward. She also made a note, for when she returned to the Crystal Empire, to perhaps maybe just a little bit start to gradually not drink so much coffee after lunchtime.

She stopped, and looked about. There wasn't any sign of a coffee shop anywhere about, and she was beginning to feel slightly dizzy. Perhaps it was the altitude, she reasoned. Even though she'd been to Canterlot before and never had any problems then.
She looked up. A guard was approaching. She tried to catch his attention, only to stop and realise she had no idea how to actually do that.

"Um" she said, "excuse me?"
The guard stopped and looked at her. She tried not to look away.

"You wouldn't know the way to the nearest coffee shop, would you? I mean, I'm not really used to this city, you see, and..." she laughed, "I might be a bit lost."
"Of course, Your Highness" the guard said, "just this way."

"Thanks" she said. "You have no idea how much this means to me."
Then she stopped, and noticed three other guards had somehow appeared without her noticing. She looked toward the first guard. He actually looked... sorry? Why?

Then she realised.
"This is a trap, isn't it?" she sighed. The guard nodded.

"We do apologise, your highness. All things being equal, we'd rather not do this. But we have no choice..."
She readied herself for whatever spells might be thrown her way. The guard's horns glowed a vivid green, and then a strange energy washed over her. She tried fighting it, but it seemed... so difficult... like trying to put a foothold in treacle, not that she'd ever even touched treacle before, and everything was getting so fuzzy and...

Shining Sapphire, her mind worn down by four Changelings casting on her at one, dropped over. The four Changelings exchanged glances, and then reluctantly lifted her up. Then, with a mild shimmer, they vanished from sight.


*****


Shining Sapphire blearily opened her eyes, wondering what was causing that odd noise, and why her head hurt so much, and how long had she been out, if it was so dark?
Then she remembered why her head hurt so much, and realised that noise was the same noise that had been in her head for the last several hours, and now it sounded like... somepony singing. And singing sadly, now she noted it.

And the reason it was so dark was because... she looked about. She couldn't see anything, so she lit up her horn, and glanced at her hooves. She wished she hadn't.
They were wrapped in a strange green goo, which had solidified around her hooves. A good blast of magic by all accounts would have freed her, but then she saw what the goo was keeping her held to. It looked, and felt, remarkably like stone. She looked about. In the dim light she was certain she could see more stone.

And, she now realised, the reason her head was hurting wasn't just because of the Changelings zapping her mind. It was because they'd decided, just for giggles, to put her upside down.
Then, the noise stopped. Something stirred in the gloom, and she heard the sound of hooves tapping against stone.

"My, my," a voice said. A low, almost sultry voice, "what luck this is."
She recognised that voice, sure enough. Just as she recognised the bright green eyes that suddenly lit up against the light of her horn, just as she recognised the jagged horn, and the greasy blue mane, and that horrible smile.

"What a lovely piece of luck this is" Chrysalis, the Changeling Queen, smiled, in the sort of way usually saved for things in dark alleys, "just the pony I wanted to see."
She felt a chitinous hoof brush against her, and tried not to flinch.

"Because, Shining Sapphire, I very much want to have a little..." the grin grew wider.
"Heart-to-heart talk with you..."
> No Better Word Than This
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whisper Wind found himself staring blankly, as his mind tried to catch up on what was happening. He'd just vowed to go find Shining Sapphire and try and apologise for what he did, so naturally Princess Celestia had just randomly appeared on his mother's front doorstep, with the offering of tea. Of course, considering he was supposed to be a Changeling currently stuck in the form of a pony, this was probably supposed to seem utterly ordinary and normal. But somewhere between Princess of the Day, and 'carrying tea', his mind has just totally disconnected, and was now wondering if she was going to address him as a 'highness'.

Hence why he was still having problems speaking in anything but sentence fragments. He paused, and tried saying something again.
"Princess Celestia?" he asked, "is there some specific reason you happen to be standing there with a small supply of tea with you."

"Yes" she said instantly, "I was wondering if you had time to talk about something."
Wisp blinked. "I..." he managed. "Actually, right now, there is this thing I need to do" he said awkwardly.

"I'm afraid I must insist" she said calmly. Wisp's blood froze, finely honed survival instincts suddenly blaring away. He looked up at the princess of the day.
"I suppose" he managed, "I can free up a few minutes time for you, your highness."

He stepped aside, allowing Princess Celestia into the cottage. Since his mother raised no objection, he assumed she had no problem.
"Do you... want me to see if there are any cups around, for the tea?" he asked, awkwardly. Princess Celestia just stared at the thermos.
"Oh, the tea's not for me" she said, "but I suppose that having a cup might help."

Wisp turned and moved toward the kitchen. Then a thought occurred to him, and he stopped to turn and look at Her Highness. "What is it that's so important you felt the need to travel all the way here just to talk to me about?"
Celestia's expression didn't change. "It's about you, Whisper Wind. A friend of yours informs me that you and my grand-niece have been having some unfortunate problems lately."

Much to his surprise, Wisp didn't have to guess as to who that could've been. It had to be Twilight Twinkle, since they had been going to Canterlot, where she lived (or at least spent much of her time), unless at some point in the last month she'd taken up residence in the Ponyville library full-time.
"You could put it like that" Wisp muttered, "though I'm working on the assumption that for my part, most of these problems are self-inflicted."

Then he saw something truly alarming. Princess Celestia looked worried. Suddenly he began wondering just how bad the situation had to be for that to happen, or if it was just because she couldn't stand the thought of somepony, much less her niece, having relationship problems.
"Of course, due to unfortunate circumstances, she has been regrettably... 'called away', but she asked that I assist you with an important problem."

Wisp blinked, trying to determine what he'd just heard. "Twilight Twinkle" he said slowly, "asked you, Princess Celestia, to help Shining Sapphire and me with our 'problem'?"
Princess Celestia just nodded. "Yes."

"And you agreed?"
"Yes."
"Just like that?"

Princess Celestia just nodded. Wisp stared at her, expecting her to suddenly grin madly, or turn out to be Twilight Twinkle playing some manner of joke, or for dozens of Pies to suddenly appear and reveal it was a massive prank. He glanced about uncertainly.
"Why?" he asked, before remembering who he was talking to. "I-if you don't mind me asking."

He could've sworn there was an odd look in Princess Celestia's eyes at that moment.
"Because she asked. And because I have wanted to meet you for a while. I don't often get to meet princes very often, much less Changeling princes."

Wisp's mood soured. There it was. What it always seemed to come down to. Then he realised what she'd said.
"How do you know I'm a Changeling?" he asked. Princess Celestia just grinned.

"I have my ways."
"My mother told you, didn't she?" he sighed. Princess Celestia nodded.

"Hold on" a voice declared, and both ponies turned to look at Minty Pie, who had just been staring at the sight of a Princess sitting down in Fluttershy's house like she was just a friend visiting for tea, and was now marching over toward Wisp.
"You are a Changeling? You? You're a Changeling prince?"

Wisp just nodded at the intense glare he was getting from the ten year-old, who then suddenly looked confused.
"Huh" she opined, "and Banana said you were boring."

There was a gentle cough from Fluttershy, "Minty, I just remembered I need to fix up the chicken hutches. I don't suppose you'd be willing to help, would you?"
The filly just looked toward Fluttershy, then back to Wisp, and frowned. "'kay" she muttered, before both ponies walked out of the cottage.

"So then," Princess Celestia said, "I think perhaps we should get down to business."


*****


"Well?" Cadance asked, looking at the four Changelings in front of her. The manic one, Impulse, had stated he was going to explain everything, and then had fallen utterly silent. By now her mood was rapidly approaching angry.
"Sorry" Impulse said, "but I think maybe our... leader might explain better."

There was an annoyed sigh from Shining Armor. "Look" he snapped, "just explain what's been going on, and stop dancing around the issue."
"I'm not trying to" the Changeling said, "I'm just not the best at explaining what's happened. He is, but..."

He paused, and looked hesitantly toward the other four, then back to Cadance and Shining Armor.
"It started a month ago," he said, "after we saved our Prince's life by brining him here. We had presumed he would try and gather together the rest of our people, and lead them. But he wanted no part of it. He would not admit his heritage. And we began to despair. And then..."

"What?" Shining Armor asked. The Changelings exchanged glances, or rather they glared at Impulse, who just stared at Cadance and Shining Armor.
"Two days ago our... our 'leader' revealed he had a plan. But he would not tell us what his plan was."

"But it involved our thinking your prince was our son?" Cadance guessed. Impulse looked hesitant, his wings buzzing.
"... apparently" he said, "but the only one who knows every detail is our boss."

"And where is he, anyhow?" Shining Armor asked. Impulse looked over toward the other Changelings, who were still glowering, then the turned back toward Cadance and Shining Armor. He frowned.
"Excuse us for a moment" he said, before walking over toward the other Changelings. They quickly huddled together and began whispering among one another. Cadance turned to Shining Armor.

"This is getting ridiculous" she frowned. Shining Armor nodded.
"I'm guessing it's too late for us to terrify them into telling us, huh?" he said wearily. At this, Cadance raised an eyebrow, then turned toward the other Changelings. She marched over toward them. As one they turned to look at her.

"Let's make this clear. I am getting extremely annoyed. Cut out your nonsense and tell me what you know!"
The Changelings quickly huddled together, then shared an extremely embarrassed look. One of them coughed.
"Yes, Your Highness" he said. "Our senior is currently 'recuperating' and due to security reasons" he glared at Impulse, "we felt it was best to keep him concealed."

That was it. Shining Armor, already sharing his wife's exasperation, felt something snap.
"NOW!" Shining Armor roared.

"Yessiryourhighnesssir!" Windsheer said, even throwing in a salute, before walking over towards the door, "right this way."
As the four Changelings walked through the castle corridors, Cadance and Shining Armor following after them, they briefly exchanged the briefest of smiles. Finally, somepony, royalty no less, just telling them what to do.

Shining, meanwhile, just looked at Cadance, who had a pained expression on her face. He nudged her, getting a worried smile back.
"Sorry" she whispered, "just worrying about Sapphy."
"Hey, c'mon. You know her. She's smart, and knows how to look after herself. She'll be fine."
The two ponies stopped, as Shining facehoofed. "I shouldn't have said" he sighed.


*****


Shining Sapphire would have kicked herself if her legs were free, and she were actually capable of doing so. After waking up turned into a Changeling, after managing to badly damage her relationship with Wisp, after travelling all across Equestria in order to talk to her aunt who wasn't even there, and causing herself no small amount of embarrassment in the process, she'd assumed that would have been it, that from there things were going to improve. Now, hanging from the ceiling of a cave, she realised what a hopelessly optimistic assessment that was. Right in front of her stood one of the worst ponies she could possibly have been in front of. A mare who had hurt her father, her mother, her lover, and humiliated her aunt and invaded her home. And a pony whom, the last time they'd met, she'd somehow managed to best in combat, though she was willing to admit that was mostly due to having somehow absorbed the energy of the Crystal Heart, and some adrenalin.
Needless to say, she wasn't expecting things to go the same way this time, though she did have a slim chance for survival, because she knew that Chrysalis was definitely a talker. All she had to do was make her start.

Currently, the mare was circling her, glowering what almost looked like motherly disapproval, light coming from Shining Sapphire's horn barely revealing her face in an already dark cave.
"Interesting" she murmured, "very interesting."

"What?" Shining Sapphire asked. "What's so 'interesting'?"
"You don't seem to be angry at me" Chrysalis noted. "Oh, you're afraid, that I can see, but angry? Not in the slightest. Not even mildly indignant. Strange."

Shining Sapphire blinked. That was a curious thing to say.
"Why would I hate you?" she asked. Chrysalis stared at her in amazement.

"Do you not love my son? Did I not attempt to kill him? Did I not attempt to kill you? And of course, the time I first met your parents, let's not forget about that. Surely you should be angry, that I did all these things."
If she could've shrugged, Shining Sapphire would have. "I don't really feel hate for you. My parents never really mentioned you, or the things you did. My cousin did" at length, she noted to herself, but then cousin Twinkie had always been alarmingly focused on her parent's wedding fiasco, "but I don't really think my parents even gave you a second thought. I don't know how they feel about you. And I was raised better than to hate others."

"Better?" Chrysalis spat.
"I don't hate you" Shining Sapphire said, noting the alarming glint in the Queen's eyes, "as much as I probably should, I don't. It... it diminishes me. I am lessened by it."

Chrysalis stared at her, her mouth contorting into a rictus of fury, and she turned away. "BEHOLD!" she declared, "Behold, the glorious Shining Sapphire! Virtuous, noble, pure to a fault!"
She whipped around and leaned in close to Shining Sapphire, her breath smelling remarkably unpleasant. "Were you always this sanctimonious, or was it something you had to work at?!"

Shining Sapphire stared unflinchingly at Chrysalis. "You realise, of course," she said calmly, "if you were to kill me, or even hurt me, my family would probably hunt you to the ends of the earth. And I think your son would lead the charge on that one."
Chrysalis's mouth twitched violently, and she leaned out again, sighing. "I don't doubt it. I've seen his heart. He loves you. Truly. It'd be inspiring, were it not so pathetically clichéd. The foundling prince, falling in love with the sheltered bookworm. Your love-struck puppy of a cousin barely stood a chance. True love" she spat again.

Shining Sapphire looked down (or, more accurately, up) at her hooves. She didn't reckon her chances of escaping from those any time soon, not with at least one Changeling Queen nearby. But on the plus side, she was definitely talking, all she had to do know was avoid the dreaded monologue. Or more singing.
Chrysalis turned away, moving off into the gloom. Shining Sapphire heard another sigh.

"I didn't really plan to have" and there was the oddest pause before she said the next word, "him, but... oh, his sire was just so charming, and... well. Much sport had at his making, as they say. And I wonder, if perhaps I had taken the time to raise him, what would he have become. But instead, I decided to leave him near that wretched Ponyville, to learn about their ways, and how best to avoid all those other fiascos with your kind. Perhaps... if I'd gone to him, explained things... maybe we could've been happy"
This sounded like the beginning of a monologue to her, Shining Sapphire thought. And if his father was apparently 'charming', that definitely scratched out some of the theories she and Wisp had been bandying about his origins.

"So, you left him by Fluttershy's house on purpose?" Shining Sapphire asked, before catching and chiding herself for interrupting the monologue.
"Yes" Chrysalis said, "although that was mainly because she possessed the appropriate emotional balance necessary, and because it saved having to learn any new names. That, and I surmised she'd be unwilling to move away from her little cottage and her animals, while having the necessary kindness for him to feed on."

There was a pause, punctated by what sounded like a hoof tapping on something. "But, despite certain vows, I kept tabs on my little pony, watching him grow, and... squander all the opportunities of his heritage. Helping those moronic apple farmers, or those ridiculous bakers. He cared about you ponies. And all the while he chose to hide what he was, wrapping himself in the trappings of a dull, boring, ordinary pony. I was terrified he was planning to get a job as a doctor, or worse, an accountant!"
Shining Sapphire was certain she heard a horrified shudder. "And then he met you. I suppose it is some form of irony that he would fall in love with you."

She blinked. That didn't sound like irony, to her. Situational irony, perhaps, but not irony proper. If anything, it seemed fitting. Maybe even appropriate.
"I HATE IRONY!" Chrysalis suddenly bellowed. After a few seconds, there was another sigh, and she saw a pair of bright green eyes stalking at the edge of the gloom.

"So, my dear child meets you, and nothing happens. At first, but then he went and got himself hurt by those ugly beasts, hurt so bad that I felt his pain and terror from half a world away. My own child, so badly injured and I could do nothing."
The eyes looked down toward the ground, then suddenly, they squinted. "And if he had been injured fighting them, that would have been something. It would have been an act worthy of a Changeling King. But no. He was running from them. We are Changelings. We do not run from trees! So when I saw his injured condition, I vowed I would do what I could to make my child strong."

Chrysalis stepped back into the dim light. "But he rejected my attempts to nurture him. He instead chose to seek solace from her. From that pathetic, simpering, whimpering cowardly pegasus. He called her 'mother'. I AM HIS MOTHER! ME! AND NO OTHER!"
Shining Sapphire truly wished at that moment, more than anything, she had some manner of handkerchief. She also hoped, that if rescuing herself wasn't an option, that somepony came to heroically save her soon.
Chrysalis calmed again. "However, I would not be daunted. But it was becoming clear that my son needed... persuasion. Alas, he rarely went anywhere alone, and those peculiar pink-maned ponies proved confoundingly difficult to predict. Some of them seemed almost able to anticipate my every action."

She gritted her teeth. "And of course, he began dreaming of you. And he fell in love with you. And that was when I realised I had to act, I had to do something, or else lose him forever."
She looked about uncertainly. "I will admit my plan lacked finesse. But desperate times called for desperate measures. I had him brought to me, so that I could illustrate to him my displeasure with his path in life. I asked him, one last time, pleaded, begged, that he renounce his diseased delusions of ponydom."

Suddenly her eyes began to water. "He refused. He refused emphatically. He even tried to flee us, though that naturally didn't work. But when we dragged him back..."
She stared ahead, her eyes quivering now. "No mother should have to stomach being called such things by their child."
She lifted a hoof and brushed away the smallest tear, and suddenly her tone went cold. "Needless to say, I reacted poorly. I admit now that trying to kill him was... a mistake. But..."

She stared at Shining Sapphire, and shook her head.
"It wasn't as easy as it sounds, of course. You see, there are rules that even I must obey. Indeed, since I am Queen, I must act to a higher standard. Foremost of all the laws of the Changelings, we must never harm another. Of course, as my dear boy was so insistent about, he was only half-Changeling, so I dared presume my subjects would not object to my disciplining him. He proved remarkably intolerant to learning his lesson."

And then, quite suddenly, she began to smile. "Of course, some of my subjects, it seemed, did object to my reaction. And that, I must admit, is one of the most curious parts of this tale. I can understand why my son, tainted by ponies as he is, would fall for you. I can see why he must have felt he was being heroic in resisting his birthright. What I cannot understand is how exactly he was saved by the Changelings he was saved by. Would you like to know why?"
She smiled an unhinged smile at Shining Sapphire, who quickly realised she wasn't being rhetorical. She was actually asking her a question.

"Yes?" she said, to which Chrysalis's grin grew.


*****


The four Changelings had finally made their way to one of the numerous identical guest suites of the castle. They had filed inside and then stood around the bed, looking at the form sprawled out on it. Cadance walked over to the prone Angel Eyes, and frowned.
"He looks exhausted" she noted, then turned to the others. "What happened to him?"

"We don't know, precisely" the big one, Rock, if she remembered correctly, stated. "Yesterday morning he seemed fine, but around about the time you were eating your breakfast, he just collapsed."
Cadance's horn glowed, as she did some basic checks. "I'm not certain if this actually applies to Changelings, but if he were a pony, I'd say he's overexerted his magic."

She frowned in concern, and looked toward Shining Armor. Instantly, he realised what she was about to say, and turned to leave the room.
"Now then," Cadance said, "I think perhaps some transparency might be in order. You five have, so far, been well-behaved. You haven't caused any trouble until now, so I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I do need to now absolutely everything that's been done."

Impulse grinned nervously, "very well" he said, in the manner of a foal who'd been caught sticking their hoof in a cookie jar.
"When we arrived in this empire, it was under false pretenses. We are not what we claimed to be."
Cadance raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."


*****

"I know all of my Changelings" Chrysalis whispered, "from the lowliest pupa to the most stalwart worker, every one of them is seared onto my soul. I know everything about them, which is why I find what happened to Wisp so strange."

She leaned in closer towards Shining Sapphire, her voice getting lower and lower. "Somehow, and I've no idea how, my son was somehow saved by the five worst Changelings there are."


*****

"We're scavengers" Rock said glumly. "In basic terms, that's as lowly a position as a Changeling gets. We're the dregs, if you like. We're sent out to drain emotions from injured animals, or the lost, and the weak, and the helpless, the tiniest morsels, rather than get in the way of the actual workers."
Cadance stared at them, at their downcast and hangdog expressions. "So, is that why he" she pointed a hoof at Impulse, "is so odd?"

"No" the fourth Changeling, whose name she couldn't recall, stated. "He's just been sampling some of your pony foodstuffs, and has taken a shine to what you call 'candy'."
Cadance blinked, taken aback by what that statement implied. "Are you saying then, that he's just... on a sugar-rush?"

"Yes" Rock sighed. Impulse just grinned madly.
For a moment, Cadance found herself wondering what would happen if the Changeling ever discovered alcohol, and suddenly had a vision of a large chunk of the city in flames, and a Changeling dancing in the ruins, singing about the buttocks, or worse, hedgehogs.

"Any other dramatic revelations you wish to share?" she asked. Impulse raised a hoof.
"Windsheer's wings twitch if he lies."

"Liar!" snapped his comrade, even as his wings buzzed furiously.
"Of course," Cadance said, "you still haven't actually explain what happened to my daughter and Whisper Wind."

There was a sudden noise from the bed, as Angel Eyes stirred. He blinked slowly, and then froze when he saw Cadance staring at him. His eyes darted toward the other Changelings, then back to Cadance, before he looked about awkwardly.

"Oh" he uttered.


*****

"I am honestly not certain how those bumbling oafs managed to escape all the way to your Empire" Chrysalis muttered, staring off into the middle distance, "but they did. And what fortuitousness it was that they did. I had been contemplating how to do such a thing for a long time, but I worried that perhaps the way was blocked for Changelings. Perhaps a foolish concern, but given what had happened with previous dealings with your kind, I was hoping to avoid any ridiculous last minute surprises."
Her expression turned dark. "And look how that went. Oh, I had everything worked out. My Changelings were to swarm over the city, find my son, make sure your parents kept away from one another so they couldn't wipe us away just by kissing again."

She frowned, and stalked off into the darkness. "And somehow it all managed to go wrong. Somehow you, a child, with no knowledge of how to fight, no expertise, no skill, terrified out of your mind, you managed to defeat me!"
Shining Sapphire looked about, trying to see where Chrysalis was in the darkness. After a few seconds, a thought came to her. She focused, trying to determine how to utilise some of the gifts of her Changeling form. Suddenly, there a strange stinging sensation in her eyes, and she saw the form of Chrysalis, an outline of almost pure red against the darkness of the cave.

"Which" Chrysalis sighed, "brings us to now. My Changelings have decided that I am too unstable, too dangerous, to rule properly. The Crystal Empire was just one failure too many. All I have left are my small retinue. The merest fraction of my Changelings, the rest all scattered and divided to the farthest corners of the land, with me unable to do anything about it, condemned to exile for my actions. All because you ponies corrupted my son, with your delusions and your ridiculous notions."
Shining Sapphire could have sworn she heard what sounded like a sniff. "I can hear them, you know. I can feel their confusion. They are so lost, and scared. They need someone to look after them. To guide them. To rule them."

She then stopped, and gave off an angry snort, and then moved in toward Shining Sapphire, fangs glinting in the small amount of light. And then, she began to smile.
"Fortunately, I have thought of a way to... change his mid" she grinned. "and the best part of it is that I need to do but one simple thing."
She turned around, and disappeared into the gloom again, leaving Shining Sapphire to just hang from the ceiling.

'Well' she thought to herself, as she felt her blood chill, 'so far so good on the get her talking front. Escaping, not so much.'
There was the sound of hoofsteps echoing, and she saw Chrysalis approaching, her horn glowing an unpleasant green colour, as her magic held aloft... something. It was difficult to tell what with the darkness, but what she could make out didn't seem pleasant.

"I suppose at some point you are expecting me to reveal to you some great secret of Changeling-kind" Chrysalis said, with an apathetic air, "of our history, and how we came to be, or something along those lines."
"And are you?" Shining Sapphire asked. Chrysalis just laughed derisively.

"No. Don't be absurd."
She looked toward the object she was holding aloft, "but I am going to tell you about this. This is a crown. Where it comes from is not important, what is important however, is what I've done to it. Would you like to know what that is?"

Shining Sapphire said nothing, just staring at it. Chrysalis's smile returned.
"You see, I realise that my son would rather waste his time on pointless endeavours, pretending to be something he will never be, rather than accepting what he should be. So I will simply have to force him to accept his birthright."

"With a mouldy old crown?" Shining Sapphire asked.
"It's not the crown that's important" Chrysalis smiled, "but what it will do. You see, I have placed upon it a very special piece of magic, one that will gather together my scattered Changelings. And I am going to give it to you."

Shining Sapphire stared at Chrysalis's face, and the manic expression she had. "And then?"
"I'll let you go, back to your little castle and your books and your disgustingly affectionate parents, of course." Shining Sapphire tensed.
"And then what?"

Chrysalis just chortled. "Well, my dear Changelings will sense the magic weaved throughout it, and follow you. And since the only way you could possibly have acquired this crown is through disposing of me, that would mean dear little Whisper Wind" her smiled twitched violently at the name, "would have to choose between remaining a nothing, letting you spend the rest of your life running from vengeful Changelings, or accepting his birth right, and becoming what he was born to be."
Shining Sapphire stared at the manic grin on Chrysalis's face, as the mare began to laugh triumphantly.

"Putting aside how ridiculous your plan is," Shining Sapphire said, "there's one incredibly large detail you don't know about."
"Do tell" Chrysalis said. Shining Sapphire blinked. Perhaps it was because her blood was now rushing to her head, but she couldn't help but smile as she tried focusing on a very specific spell. Green flames wrapped around her, and quickly enough, she was back to looking like a Changeling.

"Ta-da" she deadpanned. Chrysalis stared blankly for a moment, her mouth twitching slightly. Slowly, she walked over toward Shining Sapphire, and lifted a hoof, prodding the mare in the face. When she did, her gaze hardened, and she turned away. Shining Sapphire could've sworn she heard growling.

"YOU IDIOTS!" she bellowed to the darkness, "YOU CAPTURED THE WRONG PONY!"
She muttered several foul things under her breath before whipping back around to look at Shining Sapphire.

"What is this, anyway? A distraction? A game? What's your name, your real name?" she hissed.
"Shining Sapphire. Daughter of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor. Heir to the Crystal Empire and its territories."

Chrysalis glared at her. "Are you telling me... you've been a Changeling all this time?"
"No, actually" Shining Sapphire said, now finding herself unable to stop grinning for whatever reason, "just since yesterday morning."

"But-" Chrysalis sputtered, "you- I- it-..."
That caused Shining Sapphire to pause. Chrysalis seemed genuinely confused as to what was going on.

"Actually," she said, "I thought you'd had some part in this."
Chrysalis stopped, and stared at Shining Sapphire. Slowly, her frown vanished. She began to smirk, which quickly turned into a manic grin. She began to laugh even louder and longer than she had before.

Shining Sapphire felt her stomach drop. That meant that...
If her hooves had been free, she would've probably have passed up the opportunity to escape to facehoof.


*****


"So..." Cadance said, "what exactly was it you did?"
The Changeling known as Angel Eyes shifted uncomfortably, occasionally glancing toward his fellow Changelings. Shining Armor had returned with some restoratives, after which point the Changeling had noticeably improved, although he still seemed jittery.
"I realised His Highness was unwilling to act on our behalf, so... I simply decided to force the issue, on my own, so that therefore my kin would not share the burden of my deeds."

"Force the issue?" Cadance asked.
"His Highness preferred to spend his time disguised as a regular pony, rather than admit to his heritage. I had a plan to temporarily disable his ability to change shape, then use some magic to alter his mindset toward his heritage. However, there was a complication, in the form of your daughter. So I attempted a simple solution to that."

"Which was?" Shining Armor asked.
"Sleeping potions, mixed in with their meals. However, that required examining both of their routines, which took some time. Eventually, I... replaced one of the kitchen workers, allowing me to alter their meals with nopony being the wiser."

Cadance gasped. "So it was because of you that one of the kitchen staff was injured."
"Yes" Angel Eyes said, solemnly, before looking, if Cadance had to put a hoof on it, embarrassed. "But, in my attempt to lace their meals, I may have used too much of the sleeping draught."

"Which would explain why those two went to bed so early" Shining Armor said. Angel Eyes nodded.
"That was when I acted. Unfortunately, even overdosed with sleeping potion His Highness proved a remarkably light sleeper. They woke, and attacked me mid-casting. My spells ran wild, and knocked both ponies unconscious. From there, I decided to await their wakening and try a different strategy, but..."

He looked about, and shook his head. "I am not exactly certain what I did, or how exactly it went wrong, but whatever I did, by daybreak, Shining Sapphire had become a Changeling, or at least possessed much in the way of Changeling physiology. Of course, by then I realised I had... overexerted myself."
"But, hold on" Shining Armor spoke up, "that makes no sense!"

Cadance turned to look at her husband, "Shiney, do you remember that time your sister told us about when she and her friends had tried to remove some fruit bats, and ended up turning..." she paused, "Fluttershy, I think it was, into some sort of pony-bat fusion?"
Shining Armor stared blankly for a moment, then a light dawned on him. "Oh, yeah" he muttered. Then he looked over at the Changelings.

"But that still doesn't explain why everypony in the empire believed that Whisper Wind was our son."
"Well," Angel Eyes said, rubbing a hoof against his chin, "that I can't explain. Although if I had to guess? That Crystal Heart thing."

"I don't see how that'd work" Shining Armor said, looking over toward Cadance. "Honey? What is it?"
"Just thinking" Cadance said, "Sapphy managed to use the Crystal Heart's power to defend herself when she was attacked, and then to fight the Changeling Queen. Maybe she is still, somehow, connected to it. And if it's connected to everypony in the empire..."

She stopped, and hummed. "Although frankly I think that's far beyond the Heart's capacities."
"Speaking for myself" Angel Eyes said, "I'd rather think I simply fouled up royally."

"No kidding" Shining Armor frowned.
Cadance looked over toward the other Changelings, who were still looking terrified, then to Angel Eyes, who just stared at his hooves. "I apologise for my actions, but I ask that whatever punishment I receive, my fellows be spared."

For some time, Cadance just stared coolly at him.
"I'm not going to punish you" she eventually said, to which the Changelings looked relieved. "However" she added, "I am going to insist that you go find my daughter, and Whisper Wind, and apologise to them."

The Changelings exchanged glances, and quickly gathered together into a huddle. Occasionaly one of them looked up at the Royal couple, before Angel Eyes finally spoke up.
"If that is your judgement, we shall accept it."

"Alright then" Cadance said, before suddenly her smile vanished, "but let me be clear, you just used up every possible chance you had. If you return, and something like this happens again, I will be very, very upset."
"Yes your highness" the Changeling said, the colour seeming to drain from his cheeks. "We'll just be going, then. Right now."

As one, the five Changelings rushed out of the room, their hooves clattering along the corridors. Shining Armor walked over toward Cadance, who sighed wearily.
"Long day" she murmured. Shining just nodded.

"And it's not even two o'clock yet" he said. Cadance grimaced, leaning in towards Shining Armor, who suddenly blinked in confusion.
"Honey?" he asked.

"Yes, dear?"
"When did those Changelings get so... verbal?"

There was a long period of uninterrupted silence as both ponies stared in silence, trying to determine the answer. Finally Cadance spoke up.
"I think we need a vacation."


*****

Chrysalis looked at Shining Sapphire, utterly laughed out, an usual look on her face.
"That's definitely a new one for me" she said, inbetween ragged bursts of breath.

"Now then," she frowned, "back to business."
"It won't work, you know" Shining Sapphire said. Chrysalis stared at her.

"Do tell."
"Wouldn't you like to know why?" Shining Sapphire asked. The Changeling Queen just shrugged.

"Because I know Wisp. I know him better than you do. I might even say I know him better than he knows himself, but that's because he has so little faith in himself. But I know he can be more than he is now. I have faith in him, I believe in him. That's what you don't seem to get. I love him. And he loves me."
"How wonderful for you" Chrysalis deadpanned. Then, Shining Sapphire did something that surprised even her. She laughed again.

"You still don't understand. Of course you don't. I wouldn't expect you to. You have no idea what love is."
"Is there a point to this?" Chrysalis asked.

"Yes. The point is, you are a fool."
The mare stopped dead in her path. Slowly, her face was overtaken by a look of confusion.

"I think," she hissed, "I would not say such things if I were you."
"But you're not me" Shining Sapphire continued, "one month ago, I was nearly killed. And Wisp was nearly killed. But we survived because of what we had. Because of the thing that even now, you still don't understand. The very reason you couldn't hold on to Wisp, and never could. Love."

"I would not say such things if I were you" Chrysalis repeated, her voice calm as the eye of the storm.
"Your plan will fail. Wisp and I are joined by the bonds of love. And you cannot break that. Not with a thousand spells. And you cannot destroy that, not with a thousand Changelings."

Chrysalis began bearing down on her, as she continued, getting louder as she went. "And when I say you are a fool, it is because you are the most witless worm there has ever been because you will never learn this fact!"
Chrysalis skipped straight past anger, past fury, to the white hot calm of purest insane rage. "I would not say such things if I were you."

She loomed over Shining Sapphire, and then stopped. "Let's see what we can do about that" she hissed.
Her horn glowed, and suddenly it was like a streak of red hot fire was lancing through her mind.


*****

It had been several minutes now since Wisp and Princess Celestia had sat down, and yet the stallion still couldn't get used to the fact that he was having tea with Princess Celestia. More so because most of that time had just been spent talking about absolutely nothing in particular, like the weather, or what the Crystal Empire was like, but he still found it incredibly surreal to be talking to a Princess, even after the last month in Princess Cadance's castle, but that was different, because she didn't tend to act like how he'd expected, although given most of the times he'd seen her she'd been near Sapphy, there was probably a reason for that.

And, he had to note, the tea was actually kinda good. The only problem was that he had a strange feeling in his stomach.
"You know," Princess Celestia said, "I had actually wanted to meet you for quite some time."

"You... did?" Wisp asked, startled out of his train of thought. She nodded.
"Well, I say 'meet'. We did meet before, in a way, when you were very little."

Wisp found himself drawing a blank. "I'm sorry, your highness, I don't remember that."
"I wouldn't expect you to. If I had to guess, you weren't much more than a few days old at the time."

Wisp just nodded. "You see, Fluttershy had just found you, and asked some of her friends for assistance. I believe it was Twilight Sparkle's decision that I should have been informed about your presence."
"Mom never mentioned that" Wisp said, feeling slightly grateful she had decided to give the two ponies privacy, and even more grateful that she'd taken Minty Pie with her.

She just stared thoughtfully at her cup of tea for a moment. "Princess Luna said you were something of a curiosity to her. She said sometimes your dreams were blocked from her, and that, I would have to say, is an unusual thing."
"Probably because my birth mother didn't want anypony snooping in on her idea of bedtime stories" Wisp muttered darkly. He looked up at Princess Celestia, who was just smiling in a genial sense, almost, if he had to say, like a grandparent. He looked down at his tea and sighed.

"I'm sorry, your highness" he said, "but you said Twilight Twinkle had told you there was a problem, and yet here we are, drinking tea and chatting like there's nothing wrong."
Princess Celestia paused, and then gently set down her tea. She looked like she was wrestling with something.

"The reason I chose that specific blend of tea" she said, "was because it has a calming effect. I apologise, Whisper Wind, I just didn't want to rush in and startle you. That was why I did this, in an attempt to help you feel more relaxed."
"Well, considering you are the grand-aunt of the mare I'm going out with, and, y'know, sovereign of a whole nation, while I'm the son of a pony who kidnapped your pet phoenix, not to mention with the day I've been having, relaxation was always going to be a stretch."

He sighed, and took another drink of the tea. He suddenly noticed he'd started feeling really unusual. Then he saw the look on Princess Celestia's face.
"You see, Whisper Wind, Twilight Twinkle believes that whatever has been done to you, your body is fighting off."

"Okay" Wisp managed.
"However-" Princess Celestia stopped as the door opened again, and Fluttershy stepped in alongside Minty, a few noticeable chicken-feathers sticking out of their manes.

"However," Princess Celestia repeated, "she believes that whatever magic was used on you is going to be expelled from your body in a more forceful manner than usual."
"Forceful?" Wisp asked. "Hold on, you mean... what, I'm going to explode?"

There was a horrified gasp from Fluttershy, as Princess Celestia shook her head. "No, not explode, though..." she looked troubled.
"Is it going to hurt?" Wisp asked. She said nothing, which he decided to take as an affirmative.

"I think I can probably survive a little bit of pain" he said half-heartedly, "I know I've survived a lot of pain."
"Bearing in mind" Princess Celestia said, "I am only working on a conjecture at this point. For all I know the most that might happen is you'll sneeze violently and that'll be that."

Three ponies stared blankly at her. "Thought that is being incredibly optimistic, I admit."
Wisp sat there for a moment, noting the odd feeling spreading along his extremities. He looked toward Fluttershy, who looked terrified for him, and Minty, who just looked confused. He looked toward Princess Celestia, and sighed.

"Don't you have some sort of magic that can tell what might happen?" he asked. She nodded, and her horn glowed briefly. She suddenly looked more worried.
"Oh, dear" she said quietly.

"Is it bad?" Wisp asked. She didn't answer.
"It's bad" he muttered. He took one last swig of the tea, and then cracked a brief grin. "You know, that is actually really good tea."
He stood up, and made his way towards the door. He stepped out into the warm summer sunlight, stretching his wings slightly as he moved down the small path away from the cottage. Princess Celestia slowly followed him. A good distance away from the house he stopped, and stood.

"So... now I just wait?" he asked. Princess Celestia nodded. At the look on her face, he felt slightly less calmer.
"You know" he said quietly, "I did suggest just waiting it out. It feels weird being proven right."

There was silence, save the distant sounds of birds chirping.
"Why am I being so grim about this?" he asked, not expecting a reply, "I mean, it's only going to sting a bit, then once I recover I can go find Shining Sapphire, right?"

Princess Celestia nodded. "Because you don't know what to expect?" she suggested.
"Story of my life, I suppose" Wisp sighed.

There was another moment of silence, and Wisp frowned.
"Actually, what is the worst that could happen h-"

He didn't finish, mainly because quite suddenly his hooves, mane, horn and tail all started bursting with bright green flames, which wrapped around him, and then quickly spread out.
> Wherefore Art Thou So Pony?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Almost immediately after the flames began to roar, there was a gasp from Fluttershy, who rushed over toward the column of fire, before stopping, wincing as the heat stung at her eyes, before backing away. She looked toward Princess Celestia, who simply returned the look, both ponies saying nothing.

After a while the bright green flames that surrounded Wisp slowly began to dim, then faded out completely. Left there was a full-grown Changeling, holes dotted about the cannon of the incredibly long legs, the twisted, equally be-holed horn, and the translucent wings glinting in the sunlight, and finally a golden-brown mane and tail, both of which were abnormally long, the only bright colours on an otherwise charcoal grey body, outside of three noticeable scars running along the right-hoof side of Whisper Wind's body, just passing by the wing. For a long time, there was silence as Princess Celestia just stared. Had there been somepony there who was an expert in analysing the nuances and subtleties of her expressions, they might have suggested she actually looked surprised. Then, in a loud clear voice did Whisper Wind speak.

"Ow!" Whisper Wind stated. "Buck!"

Princess Celestia didn't react at all to that, but she could practically feel Fluttershy's shocked glare, as the now former pony performed a quick self-examination, looking almost but not completely satisfied with what was there. Fluttershy coughed imperiously, to which Whisper Wind just looked bashful.
"Sorry, mom" the Changeling said quickly. Before Fluttershy could say anything in response, Whisper Wind grimaced.

"That hurt more than I was expecting" Whisper Wind stated, before suddenly looking concerned. Slowly, bright blue eyes turned to look at Princess Celestia.
"Am I-?" the changeling asked. Princess Celestia nodded, to which the changeling's eyes darted about rapidly.

"Just a moment" she said.

In an instant flames wrapped around the pony's form once more, fading to reveal a golden brown pegasus stallion. After a few seconds, he sighed, then started blinking.

"And it all comes rushing back" he said, before turning to Princess Celestia. "Could you step back a bit, Your Highness?"
She did so, at which point Wisp looked far more relaxed. "That's slightly better" he said, before adding, "sorry, your emotions are a bit strong. Or perhaps my Changeling half feels it has to make up for lost time."

For a few moment, he said nothing, merely looking up into the sky, then sighed once more.
"You know, for a while there, I almost thought it would work out, that I could've stayed like this" he stopped, and shook his head. "Doesn't matter now, does it? I'm not a pony. I never was a pony, and I'll never be a pony."

"Then what are you?" Princess Celestia asked. Whisper Wind's ear twitched.
"Pardon?"

Princess Celestia was staring at him, "if you aren't a pony, who and what would you want to be?"
There was the barest pause before he answered.

"Whisper Wind, son of Fluttershy. Not royalty, not a Changeling. Not anypony important, or special. Just another pegasus. Just me." He pawed at the ground absent-mindedly.
"But you are in a relationship with my grand-niece" Celestia said, "and the last time I checked, she was a Princess."

Wisp nodded. "Can't help who you fall in love with."
Princess Celestia's expression didn't change in the slightest, as she looked toward Fluttershy, who had made her way over toward Wisp, and was now eyeing her son with concern.

"I'm alright" he said, trying to sound reassuring and, from Fluttershy's expression, failing.
"If you say so" she said quietly.

"And it seems to me, the last time I checked," Princess Celestia continued, "your mother is mayor of Ponyville. And the former bearer of the Element of Kindess. And a former model. And the first pony to become friends with Discord."
"You can stop any time you like" Wisp interrupted, his voice terse. Silence reasserted itself once more.

"You're right though" he said, "I would like to be a normal pony, but it doesn't mean I am. "
"Does it matter?" she asked. For several seconds, Wisp said nothing, his brow furrowing, before he shook his head.

"I am Whisper Wind, of Ponyville" he stated. "My mother is Fluttershy, and as far as I'm concerned, nothing can change that."
There was a pause, "and I love Shining Sapphire. Even though she is a princess, who lives in a castle. And... being with her would likely mean being as close to royalty as makes no difference."

He sighed again, this time sounding angrier than before.
For a few seconds, Princess Celestia stared almost impassively toward the Changeling. "Do you know" she said, "I don't actually like tea very much."

Wisp nodded. "So I've heard."
Princess Celestia raised an eyebrow to this, before continuing. "I don't hate it. I'm not exactly crazy about it, it just is. I can take it or leave it. But ponies expect me to drink tea, and so I do, because it is one small thing in my life. Like tedious paperwork, or the gala."
Wisp just nodded, remembering Shining Sapphire's miniature burst from the day before.

"And while these small things can, sometimes, be more trouble than they are worth, they don't automatically detract from the value of everything else. I accept that there are parts of being a Princess I do not enjoy, and never will, because there are other parts that are so much better, so much more important that one or two tiny troubles."
"So" she said, beginning to smile, "is she worth it?"

Wisp nodded, slowly at first, but then more confidently. "Yes. Of course she's worth it. She's worth Tartarus" he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Suddenly, Princess Celestia just smiled, and suddenly Wisp could have sworn everything seemed to have gotten just a little bit brighter.
Wisp blinked, and then smiled slightly. "It's weird, I'm never usually this talkative about anything. Ever."

He sighed. "I usually just keep it all bottled up. Which might, I suppose, explain last night's meltdown."
There was a pause as he briefly shifted, and apparently felt the need to continue. "I mean, I keep pretty much everything to myself, because... because I was afraid. Afraid that if somepony found out what I am and who I am, they'd..." he trailed off.

"Which doesn't hold much water when everypony either already knew, or just didn't care" he said, a small amount of what sounded like bitterness slipping into his voice.
"Anyway" he said, matter-of-factly, "I think that's probably enough speechifying and whining and not doing what I said I was going to do. It's time I went and made up for some lost time."

He smiled warmly at Princess Celestia. "Thanks for the tea, your highness, and the help."
"That's quite alright" she said in return, "just be sure to give Shining Sapphire my love when you see her."

"I'll do that" he nodded, tensing and crouching slightly in preparation for taking off, before looking toward his back, and facehoofing. "Saddlebag" he murmured, rushing off toward the cottage, stopping briefly to hug Fluttershy, and then again once he had the saddlebag. He slowly tensed himself, and then took off into the air, soaring away in the direction of Canterlot.

A few seconds later he turned around, heading straight back toward Princess Celestia. He hovered a few feet away from her, and looked incredibly nervous.
"Actually, before I go, Your Highness, can I just ask for a favour?"

Princess Celestia looked momentarily surprised. "Ask away" she said. Wisp drifted slightly closer, whispering into her ear. Slowly she began to smile slowly.
"I'll... see what I can do" she said, looking for all the world like she was trying not to smirk. Wisp smiled back.

"Thanks, again."
He glanced back toward Canterlot. "Anyway. Gotta go. She's waiting for me."

And with that, Whisper Wind took off in the direction of Canterlot, rapidly becoming a dot in the distance. After a few seconds Fluttershy spoke.
"You know" she observed, "I've never seen him fly quite so fast in his entire life."

"Really?" Princess Celestia asked.
"Rainbow Dash did offer to tutor him in flying when he was younger" she noted, before smiling, "and he thought I never noticed him coming back from school late, and all those baths he kept taking, or that fact that Rainbow Dash was in town."

"You know" Celestia said, "I had a similar experience with Cadance when she was that age, always thinking I'd never noticed her sneaking out on dates with Shining Armor,"
The two ponies chuckled, Celestia shaking her head at the memories. "Well, I should probably be getting back to Canterlot, before somepony needs me. It was a pleasure seeing you, as always."

"Likewise" the mare smiled, as Princess Celestia's horn glowed, before she vanished an instant later. Fluttershy turned around to see Minty Pie still standing in her front doorway, mouth unhinged in a fashion that, had she not been one of Pinkie Pie's children, might have had Fluttershy worried. She walked over toward the filly.
"Minty?" she asked cautiously. A Pie with their mouth hanging open could have reacted in any fashion. Conversely, the problem with a Pie was that they could react in any fashion. So Fluttershy was both surprised and not surprised by Minty's reaction.

"Banana said he was boring!" the filly said, insistently.
Fluttershy gently wrapped a wing around the young mare. "Come on" she said, "I think perhaps we could both do with something to drink."

"'kay" Minty Pie nodded, vaguely aware somepony was speaking to her.


*****


Whisper Wind soared toward Equestria at phenomenal speeds. Not ludicrously fast, and definitely not Rainbow Dash-fast, but definitely somewhere above very fast. Of course, even at the speeds he was going at, it was still going to take time to get to Canterlot, and therefore he found himself thinking about things, about how he was going to talk to Shining Sapphire, and how he actually felt... pretty good, for a pony who had just seven minutes before suffered an uncontrolled magical burst. In fact, all his usual concerns and fears just didn't seem to matter as much. He was beginning to wonder if his brain had been scrambled from the sudden shock of going from pony to changeling in an instant, or because of (accidently) absorbing some emotions from Princess Celestia, or perhaps the tea had just been that relaxing. Or maybe all of them at once.

Either way, he felt good about things, for the first time in what felt like a very long time.
Suddenly, he stopped, quickly remembering to flap his wings to stay airborn, as he facehoofed.

Something was obviously wrong.


*****


Shining Sapphire was not one for cussing. Perhaps this was to do with the fact that her parents would have disapproved of such a thing, or because outside of the events of yesterday, she'd never had cause to do so. However, if ever there was cause to cuss, then randomly bursting into flames, while feeling like she was being torn apart and put back together again would definitely be as good a reason as any.
"Ow" she murmured, rubbing a hoof against the side of her head. Then she blinked. She stared, and while she was still in an incredibly dark cave, there was somehow just enough light for her to see a bright pink hoof in front of her face. She looked down. She wasn't hanging from the ceiling anymore. Her legs were free. She looked again at her hoof, and then got the sudden feeling to check her teeth, slowly running her tongue over them. No sharp fangs were there to be felt. She felt a momentary surge of triumph. She was a flesh-and-blood pony again! Perhaps, she reasoned, Wisp had managed to do something.

Then she heard the low groan from somewhere in the darkness.
"What the hay was that?" she heard Chrysalis groan. Then she felt a pair of hooves slam her against a wall.

"You!" Chrysalis growled. "Nice try, but you aren't escaping so easily. Now, hold still..."
The mare's horn glowed sickly green again. In an instant, Shining Sapphire tried to think of some means to get the mare off her. She doubted levitating her would work, and she didn't have any form of combat spells, and with the way the queen's horn was glowing, she doubted she had the time to cast anything like that anyway. She needed something quick, something simple, somethi-

She smiled. Chrysalis stopped casting, and blinked.
"What exactly is it you're smiling about?" she asked. Shining Sapphire looked into her eyes.

"Oh, well" she said, trying to sound as calm as possible, "just thinking about something, is all. You see, if I had kidnapped a pony, brought her to goodness knows where and was preparing to brainwash the heck out of her so that she went along with my ludicrous plan, I'd make sure she couldn't cast anything."
Chrysalis just grinned right back at her, "this may surprise you, but I do know a few things about what you can do, and the last time I checked, you had practically no combat magic worth a damn."

"True" Shining Sapphire smiled nervously, "I'm not a fighter, or an adventurer like my cousin. I'm a scholar, at best. Heck, even my parents were surprised when my Cutie Mark wasn't a book, or book-related. But my point is, like all bookworms, I have on occasion stayed up long past my bedtime, reading under the bedcovers."
"Your point?" Chrysalis asked, her voice dripping with apathy.

"Well," Shining Sapphire said, calmly, "that little illumination spell I was just casting? I can make it brighter."
At that, she focused, and there was a massive blast of intense light. Chrysalis flinched, drawing her hooves back, which Shining Sapphire took as her chance to rush past the mare, her horn still glowing slightly, until she came to what appeared to be a door.

"For the love of-" she heard Chrysalis mutter, "someone get her!"
"Wow" Shining Sapphire called out brightly, "have you ever considered writing for theatre?"

She quickly tried opening the door, and to her joy found that it was not locked, but on the other side there was a corridor that was entirely pitch black. She stopped to review her situation. She was still in an incredibly poorly lit place, with no idea where she was or how to get to somewhere safer, and she hoped more well lit. Then she heard the angry buzzing sound, and remembered she was in a cave or a building designed to feel like a cave, but which apparently had a 'retinue' of Changelings in it. She wasn't sure how much Changelings there had to be to count as a retinue, but she was fairly certain she didn't want to know at that point. She began running, noting that the floor didn't exactly feel very cave-like. She stopped again, once she was aware the buzzing sound had stopped slightly. All she had to do was work out where she was. If she had to guess, she probably wasn't too far away from anywhere, unless the Changelings actually did live in a wasteland, as Wisp had said. Unless, she noted, they'd moved since then, which she supposed was possible.

Then she heard the sound of movement, and began running again. As she did, light started appearing around her, like lamps being turned on, but the light they provided wasn't actually enough to see where she was going. She looked ahead. She was almost in at the end of a corridor. She skidded to a halt, just managing to stop before she slammed into the wall. She looked about, and then saw it hadn't been a dead end, but there had been another corner. Hearing a skittering noise from somewhere in the darkness, she decided to keep going.


*****


Wisp made his way through the streets of Canterlot, glancing back-and-forth as he tried to determine which house was Twilight Sparkle's. He knew the general look of the building from her description of it, but he couldn't recall where exactly it was. He frowned, but continued onward, until he saw two ponies looking about, apparently concerned. He decided to try asking them.

"Excuse me" he said, trying to get their attention. One of them, a mare, turned around to glance at him.
"Yes?" she asked, her voice sounding weirdly familiar for some reason.

"I was wondering if you knew where Twilight Sparkle's house is" he said. The mare stared at him for some time, then glanced to the dark blue pony next to her. To Wisp's eyes it looked almost like they were engaged in some unspoken conversation. Actually, now that Wisp thought about it, the mare looked amazingly like Twilight Sparkle, just older, and without wings.

"It's just there's somepony there I need to talk to. Or apologise. Or apologise and then talk with."
"So" the mare said, "I suppose that'd make you this 'Whisper Wind' we've been hearing about, then."

"Yes'm" Wisp said, "that's me."
"I thought you'd be shorter, all things considered" the mare smirked, before it vanished. "But if you're looking for Shining Sapphire, she's not there. She's disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Wisp repeated. Twilight Velvet (if he remembered her name right) nodded.
"Went out to go coffee a while ago, and didn't come back."

She shifted, "Twinkie was about to go find her, but then she got summoned to the castle."
"And that was at least half an hour ago, I'm guessing" Wisp said. The mare looked at him suspiciously.

"Yes, actually" she frowned, "how did you know?"
"Because a short while ago Princess Celestia just appeared on my mother's doorstep saying Twilight Twinkle had asked her to 'help' me with a problem."

"She was talking about something that was bothering Sapphy" Night Light (Wisp was certain that was his name) spoke up, "who, I can't help but note, looked amazingly like a Changeling earlier. Why is that?"
"I'm not sure" Wisp sighed, "she's the brains of the relationship. If there is a relationship anymore."

He facehoofed again. "Sorry" he said, on seeing the slightly alarmed expressions on Twilight Velvet and Night Light's faces, "I said I was going to stop whining, and there I go whining again."
"Why would you not think you two are in a relationship?" Night Light asked.

"I might have done something incredibly stupid things" Wisp muttered.
"Like taking her saddlebag?" Twilight Velvet said. He looked at her, and noticed the amused grin she had, then looked over toward his saddlebag.

"Yes" he said awkwardly, "like... exactly, taking her saddlebag."
"Son" Night Light said calmly, placing a hoof on Wisp's shoulder, "I wouldn't worry about it. Sapphy didn't seem angry at you for whatever it was you did, or thought you did" he mumbled.

"Oh" Wisp said. "Okay, then."
He frowned, and looked about. He was certain he could hear a buzzing noise. He knew the noise. It was usually a noise that followed his waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, the noise of Changelings communicating with one another. But it sounded faint, distant, somehow, but he was certain that it sounded... annoyed.

"What is it?" he heard Twilight Velvet ask. He blinked.
"I'm not sure... but..." he trailed off. Then he looked about.

"I think, though, I have an idea where Sapphy might be."
At this, Twilight Velvet raised an eyebrow. "Alright then, I suppose if you know what you're doing, we'll just... toddle off and leave everything to you, then."

Wisp stared at the mare for a moment, his mind struggling to understand how the mare in front of him could possibly have been the mother of Twilight Sparkle. However, he did see the resemblance to Twilight Twinkle. Perhaps it was the annoyed look on her face.
"It was nice meeting you" he said, "hope we do it again."

Twilight Velvet just sighed irritably, then smiled, "yes. Nice meeting you. Hope everything works out with you two."
"A pleasure" Night Light just said, as the two ponies turned away. Wisp just stood there, and frowned. For a moment, he tried to think of a way to figure out where Shining Sapphire was. Then the thought occurred to him. Reluctantly, he focused, blocking out all other noise, until the only sound he could hear was the distant buzz of the Changeling swarm, the noise he'd spent his entire life trying to block out. It sounded so distant, now. Perhaps, he reasoned, it was fitting. The minute he stopped fussing about such things, it disappeared. There was probably a word for that.

Slowly, he flapped his wings, taking to the air again. When he was suitably high enough over Canterlot, he turned this way and that way, until he seemed sure as to which direction to go in. Then he set off as fast as he could.


*****


Shining Sapphire stopped to catch her breath, after several minutes of corridors, more corridors, and the odd staircase. Now, she saw where she was. It looked like a massive hallway, one that was far better lit than anywhere else she'd been yet. And now that her eyes were adjusting, it looked incredibly ornate, especially for the Changelings. Columns, and bannisters, and a massive set of stairs, and odd shafts of light. It looked almost like something that belonged in a castle. She looked about, suddenly feeling the need to go slowly, and get a good look at it all. She had, once or twice in her youth, tried reading about architecture. It hadn't been as fascinating as, say, entomology, but it had its moments. However, she still couldn't tell what style the Changelings, if they were the ones who'd built it, had used. A part of her felt a sudden desire to go ask somepony if they knew anything, and that it wasn't going to stop until it got answers. She tried to force it down. Getting out of the building with her mind intact sounded so much more lucrative to her at that moment. She looked about, hoping to see a giant door of some kind. She saw arches, more bannisters, what looked like a candelabra, and then... she smiled, as she saw what was indeed a door. She cautiously made her way over toward it. She was just barely there when she heard a loud slamming noise. Quickly she dimmed the light from her horn, and tried to find somewhere small and out of the way. There were a few quick buzzes. Changelings were in the hall with her. She tried shuffling away from the door, without attracting any attention. She quickly found a small spot of the room, behind a column, and tried to think.

'Okay, Changelings have followed me. Great. Which means there's no way I can open that door without them noticing me, and mostly likely swarming over me. Wonderful. Of course, I can't panic about this, because then they'll just find me anyhow. Which means I've got to not feel anything.'
She sat there, hearing the sound of the Changelings walking about, slowly at that, as she tried not to feel anything. It took her a few seconds to realise that wasn't working in the slightest, especially since in order not to feel she had to think about nothing, and her mind kept thinking of Wisp, hoping that whatever he was doing, he was okay.


*****


Wisp found his wings beginning to ache. No wonder, really, considering he barely used them for more than a minute at a time, and he'd been flying now for much longer than that. He ignored the aching, and the stinging of the wind in his eyes, pushing himself further onward, going as fast as possible.

It was a universally recognised fact of science that regardless of things like wing-power, weight, aerodynamics and the laws of physics themselves that there was absolutely nothing faster than a pony fuelled by their own determination. However, scientists were still unsure as to the effect of love on a pony's speed. The cynical sorts most likely would have argued that the speed of a pony fuelled by love would most likely be going at the speed of 'not fast enough'.


*****


Shining Sapphire shook her head, trying not to feel anything again. She sat there, hearing the sound of a hoof tapping.
"Oh, Shining Sapphire" the familiar voice of Chrysalis called out, "where are you?"

Shining Sapphire felt her wings tense up.
"Come now, Shining Sapphire" Chrysalis said, sounding almost... maternal. Shining Sapphire felt something twist in her stomach, which had the unfortunate side-effect of reminding her she had skipped breakfast, and now lunch.

"Come on out, dear. Don't be so shy. If there is a problem here, why don't we talk about it?"
She frowned. Did Chrysalis honestly expect her to do that? Surely she wasn't that mad?

"I admit, I... over-reacted, earlier. A lot of things were said that, in hindsight, shouldn't have been, and I got.. swept up in my memories."
Shining Sapphire resisted the urge to roll her eyes, as she felt her tension grow. Chrysalis was building up to something, she knew it. But what?

"We don't have to be enemies, Shining Sapphire. We both just want what's best for dear Wisp. We both know he'll never achieve anything by... hiding?"
Shining Sapphire felt something rising in her throat, even as she found herself wondering when Chrysalis had ever considered Wisp's opinions. Then she realised what Chrysalis had said. She looked about. Several pairs of bright blue eyes were clearly fixed on her, the Changelings they belonged to were just staring at her, silently, with the exact same blank expression. She walked out, and sighed. Even in the mild gloom, Chrysalis's fangs were glinting in the darkness from the top of the large stairway.

"What a clever girl" Chrysalis smiled. "But really, what did you think running would solve?"
Shining Sapphire stopped in front of the stairway, and glanced up at Chrysalis, her eyes not blinking. Slowly, Chrysalis began making her way down toward her, step by step.

"This is our castle, after all. And we know every inch of it" she grinned, slowing her pace as she neared the young alicorn, whose expression hadn't changed in the slightest. She frowned.
"But, then," she sighed, "I suppose my child had to get it from somepony, and he certainly didn't get it from that spineless mare from Ponyville."

Shining Sapphire offered no opinion on this, which gave Chrysalis pause. She stared at the mare for a moment. Then, Shining Sapphire dissipated, turning into a light smattering of bright pink fragments. Chrysalis's jaw dropped, and she glanced about wildly.
"Don't just stand there!" she roared at the Changelings, "find her!"

The real Shining Sapphire, meanwhile, shook her head, as her horn dimmed again. She hadn't been expecting her construct to work as well as it had, even with some extra spells thrown in to make it look more like her. But it managed to do its job successfully, allowing her to slip past the Changelings. Of course, she noted, she still had the problem of escaping from wherever it was she was, especially since that had looked tremendously like the front door. She looked about. She was in yet another featureless corridor. Then and there she made a vow, that if she ever had a castle of her own, she was going to ask the designer to add some variety to the hallways, rather than just reusing the same design over and over again.

She frowned. Thinking about interior design wasn't going to help her escape. She sat down, and pondered, staring at the wall, and staring. Then, an idea came to her, along with something her cousin had once said.
'If there's no way out, make one.'

Her horn glowed, and in seconds a construct of a large sledgehammer appeared. She looked over at the wall, and smiled, pulling the hammer back. It took several blows, but finally the stonework cracked, and collapsed. There was a sudden burst of warm, welcoming light, and a gentle waft of air. She made her way over toward the edge and looked out. There was a vast expanse of nothing. She looked down. There was a very long drop, which apparently ended in what was most likely shallow water. She frowned. The Changelings had likely heard her little 'renovation', and were hurrying toward her. She took several steps back, braced herself, and rushed forward, then leapt, her wings unfolding as she did. She quickly began flying as fast as she could, not looking back for an instant.
It took her several minutes to realise she couldn't hear anything following after her. Strangely, she didn't feel at all comforted by this.


*****


Wisp soared through the lazy afternoon air, trying to ignore the fact that he was in fact beginning to slow down considerably after what was now at least an hour of continuous flying, though he wasn't entirely sure how long it'd been, as he'd been distracted by what to say to Shining Sapphire on the way. He had considered stopping, even if only for a few minutes, but the way his wings were feeling at the moment, if he did, it was likely he wasn't going to be able to get back into the air again. And the noise of the Changelings was so loud now. If he had to put a hoof on it, they sounded furious about something. That and he hadn't seen any signs of civilisation for some time. So he kept going, trying to think of something, anything other than the fact that his wings were really beginning to hurt. It proved difficult, but he continued onward.

After some time, he was certain he could see something. Perhaps it was the heat, or the strain, but he was certain he could see a bright pink and blue something coming in the exact direction he was headed. As he got closer, he tried slowing down a bit more in order to get a better look, only to realise the problem that raised, as the ground beneath him got closer. He braced himself, but his crumpled landing still hurt. Slowly, he tried to unfurl himself from the heap he'd become, only to see the pink and blue blur was now approaching him. As it got closer, he found himself beginning to smile uncontrollably, as the mare landed gracefully in front of him. She was smiling widely as well.
After a few seconds both ponies were hugging one another. He was fairly certain Shining Sapphire was kissing him.

"I was just coming to find you" Wisp said, now trying to get his breath back, partly from the fact that he was genuinely exhausted, and from the fact that Shining Sapphire had put a bit too much effort into her hug. Shining Sapphire just smiled at him, mercifully deciding not to point out what he meant by that.
"I was worried about you" she said. Wisp blinked, as she hugged him further.

"I... think I'm supposed to say that" he pointed out. Shining Sapphire leaned back, her face locked in contemplation.
"Doesn't sound right to me" she said, dabbing at a tear as she did, "are you sure about that?"

Wisp stared at her for a moment, before she giggled. He looked down at his hooves, trying to steel himself. He'd been going over what to say to Shining Sapphire, and now he wasn't even sure how to say it.
"What is it?" she asked. He blinked, and then tried to smile warmly.

"There's something I need to say" he started, "something I should've said ages ago."
"What?" Shining Sapphire blinked.

"I love you" he said. She stared at him, with all the air of somepony who'd just been told rain was wet and that hay was edible.
"I love you" he repeated, "and I know you're going to say it doesn't need said, but it does to me. I love you, and I'm sorry for what I did this morning. It was stupid, and..."

He groaned, "I shouldn't have run off like that. I am sorry, and I know I can't make up for it, but, I just... I'm sorry."
Shining Sapphire's wings flapped for a moment, her smile having slowly receded. "Wisp" she said quietly, dabbing a hoof against the ground, "I..."

She sighed, "I know. I do want to be mad at you for what happened this morning, but I'm not going to be. You had every right to be alarmed by what'd happened to us, just as much as me. And since this whole nonsense seems to have worn off on its own, I should probably be apologising as well."
Wisp just shook his head. "No. I can't accept that. You had far more to deal with that I did, being thrown into a completely alien body, having to see your parents not recognising you as their daughter."

He sighed, "what I was concerned with wasn't important."
The two ponies stood there for a time, utter silence between the two of them. Shining Sapphire shifted occasionally.

"Well," she eventually got out, "I don't think we just stand around here."
She glanced behind herself, "because otherwise we might have some unwanted quests for our little conversation."

She stared at Wisp, and smiled uneasily. "Don't get me wrong, I am upset with you, but that apology does go a little bit of a way toward making up for it."
She sighed, "although if you really want my complete forgiveness, you might have to work for it."

Wisp nodded, smiling. "Got it."
"So..." he asked, "what exactly happened to you? I mean, I did sort of kind of run into your grandparents, they said you'd gone out for coffee, then vanished."

Shining Sapphire shook her head. "Some Changelings showed up and zapped me. The next thing I know, I'm in this dungeon slash cave thing, with who else but your m-... with Chrysalis."
She facehoofed, "three guesses what she did next."

"She started mono-" Wisp guessed.
"She starts monologuing!" Shining Sapphire nodded, "about you! About your entire life! I almost expected her to get out baby photos at one point."

"My mom doesn't really have baby photos of me" Wisp noted. "But I think miss Pinkie has some stashed somewhere, knowing her."
Shining Sapphire stared at him for a moment. "Anyway, I figured I'd get her talking, then escape, but that sort of failed. I figured perhaps somepony would show up in the nick of time and we'd escape, but no, instead I just sort of randomly..."

She trailed off. "I don't even know what happened."
"Your biology was 'reasserting' itself" Wisp said, "at least I think that's what Princess Celestia said."

"When?" Shining Sapphire blinked.
"She came to my mom's house, with tea. We just sort of talked about stuff. Apparently Twilight Twinkle asked her for help, before going off somewhere for some reason."

Shining Sapphire frowned. "That explains why she didn't show up to perform some manner of daring rescue, I suppose. I hope she's okay" she added.
"So, how did you escape an entire bunch of Changelings on your own?" Wisp asked. Shining Sapphire shook her head.

"I don't think there was that many. And from the way the ones who captured me were acting, I'd swear... I don't know. From the way she was speaking, most of the other Changelings don't want anything to do with her. I don't think they even consider her their queen anymore."
Wisp felt his stomach drop at her change of expression. "And, much as I am loathe to admit it, she might have had a point with some of the things she said. You could probably be doing more for the Changelings than... whatever it is you've been doing for the last month."

Wisp found himself sighing. "I know" he said. "I should. She does have a point, insane though she is. There are a lot of things I could stand to improve about myself, especially when it comes to my fellow Changelings."
He stared straight ahead, "but if those other Changelings want to find me, they'll know where I am. But I'm not going anywhere near her."

The two ponies stared at one another for a few minutes, before there was a sudden gargling noise from Shining Sapphire's stomach. "Well," she said, "this conversation has been brilliant, but I think perhaps we should be moving on. I definitely need something to eat soon. And if I don't get any caffeine quickly, I might become capable of anything."

She smiled, "then we can go home."
Wisp nodded, "home" he smiled, "I like the sound of that."

Suddenly Shining Sapphire looked shocked. "Wow. What did grand-aunt Celly say to you?" she asked. Wisp just shook his head, as he slowly tried standing up. From the way his muscles were aching, he was going to be sore come the next day.
"Not much," he said, casually, "not much. She just helped me with a few things I'd been thinking about."

"That was nice of her" Shining Sapphire said, glancing at Wisp, who shook his head.
"Home, then?" she nodded.

"Home" Wisp grinned. Then his smile faltered. "Unfortunately we'll have to walk. My wings... aren't going to be much use for a while."
"At least it'll give us plenty of time to talk."

As the two began slowly walking in what they assumed was the nearest town, Wisp leaning on Shining Sapphire, a thought occurred to her.
"So, once we get home, and tell my parents about this, what're we going to do next?"

"Pretend the last two days didn't happen?" Wisp suggested. She looked at him with concern.
"Must've been quite the conversation" she said. Wisp shrugged.

"I figure either this has really happened, or there's a chance I've just gone completely insane, in which case I'm just going to run with it."
There was another pause. "I think, perhaps" Shining Sapphire stated, "we should probably talk about some things."

"A lot of things" Wisp agreed. "A lot of things."

> A Blooming Peace This Day Brings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The walk back toward civilisation took some time for the young ponies. It took several hours of walking before they found themselves coming upon a small town, and while there, quickly checked for a nearby restaurant. Shining Sapphire's first order of business on entering was to enquire as to the status of coffee. Wisp felt some alarm at the noticeable twitch in her eyes when she was told there was none. However, the princess quickly gathered herself together, accepting the absence of coffee as calmly as she could. The two youngsters sat down at a small table. After a few minutes, Shining Sapphire spoke.

"So," she said, idly nudging a pepper shaker, "are you going to explain now, or later?"
Wisp sat there for a moment, staring at the table, before responding, "explain what?"

"Well" Shining Sapphire said, "for one thing, why you suddenly are acting so... different."
Wisp stared at her for a moment, and then shifted in his seat. "I..."

He stopped, and frowned. He had been trying to think of something to say about that, but all of a sudden the words just seemed to have vanished. "For the last month, I've been worried about things. About me, about changelings, and us. And I guess, maybe because of Princess Celestia, or that tea, I don't know, I just decided that perhaps, maybe, I was sick of it."
Shining Sapphire raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Wisp decided to take that as a cue to continue.

"The reason I was acting so weird when you asked me to share a room with you was because" he stopped, mulling over what he was about to say, "because I have been having nightmares. Not always, but I do wake up in the middle of the night more than I'd really like. And I didn't want to..."

He gritted his teeth, "I didn't want you to worry about me, I guess."
"What sort of nightmares?" she asked gently.

"The usual. Changelings swarming everywhere, blood red skies, diabolical laughter, Ponyville burning to the ground, that sort of thing."
Shining Sapphire's eyes had gone increasingly wide as he spoke, before he continued.
"Of course, they're not always like that" he paused, "sometimes there's singing as well."

If he had been intending to joke, and he wasn't about to say he was, but if he had, the fact that she wasn't smiling would have been upsetting. Of course, as far as Wisp was concerned, her not smiling was upsetting anyway.
"How long have you had these nightmares?" she finally asked. Wisp shrugged.

"Years and years and years" he said, casually, trying not to react at her aghast expression. "After a while they just got annoying rather than anything else."
She blinked, staring straight at him with the most forlorn expression. Wisp just felt his cheeks beginning to warm mildly. Before she could say anything, a pony arrived with their lunches, placing them before the two ponies, smiling merrily as she bade them to enjoy their meal. Shining Sapphire shifted on her seat, before smiling faintly at Wisp.

"You could have just said" she whispered. Wisp looked down toward his meal and grimaced. She wasn't upset because he'd been hiding things from her, but just because of the fact that it had happened. Which, he noted, was entirely like her.
"I know."

The two slowly began eating their meals, occasionally glancing at the other, once or twice smiling nervously, but for the most part, they just eat in silence. As he did, Wisp became slowly aware that he wasn't feeling entirely hungry. It didn't take him very long to determine why that was, as he looked over toward Shining Sapphire. After a few seconds she looked up and smiled at him again, before going back to her eating. After a few seconds more she noticed he wasn't eating and looked back up again.
"What is it?" she asked. He simply shrugged.

"Not feeling that hungry."
Her eyes moved toward the half-eaten sandwich in front of him, then back to him, but she said nothing. After a few seconds of sitting there and waiting for her to say something, he spoke.

"So, once we're finished here, what then?"
Shining Sapphire paused, then took a deep breath. "I guess we'll go back to Canterlot. We can stay with Twinkie for the night."
"Assuming she's there" Wisp cut in.

"Assuming" Shining Sapphire nodded, "then we can head back to the Empire."
She resumed eating, both ponies clearly thinking the same thing, that getting back required nothing getting in the way. Soon enough, Shining Sapphire finished, and the two ponies paid for their meal and left, heading toward the nearest train station. Which, as it transpired was in the next town over. As the two walked along the dirt road, Wisp noticed Shining Sapphire's brow furrowing.

"What is it?" he asked, in-between glancing about cautiously. She just smiled slightly.
"I was just wondering about something. If everypony thought our lives had been switched, what did they think my name was?"

"Buttercup" Wisp said instantly. Shining Sapphire raised an eyebrow. Wisp glanced at her, and realised she was expecting an answer.
"My mom said that if I" he paused for a moment, an exasperated look passing across his face as he did, "if I'd been a filly, she'd have called me that, instead of 'Whisper Wind'."

"Well" Shining Sapphire said slowly, "it's not that bad a name."
"I like my name, thank you very much" Wisp sniffed. "Besides, buttercups are weeds. And poisonous weeds at that."

"I'm aware of that" Shining Sapphire retorted, before smiling again. "Buttercup."
Wisp blinked. "Please tell me you aren't going to start calling me that" he groaned. Shining Sapphire looked astonished.

"What a great idea" she smiled, which only grew when she saw Wisp's horrified expression. "I'm just kidding, dear."
"If you say so" Wisp muttered, at which point she gently shoved him.

"Seems like your good mood's wearing off" she noted. Wisp just nodded.
"Seems like it. Or maybe it's because I'm far too emotionally fragile to withstand being called Buttercup at length."

He stopped and placed a hoof against his forehead. "Alas, that I am undone by playful taunting from my marefriend."
"Knock it off" Shining Sapphire sighed.

"Or what?"
"Or..." she stalled, before frowning, "I'll recite the history of the Crystal Empire at you. Followed by the entirety of the Unabridged Laws of Equestria."

Wisp stared at her, before finally shrugging. "Sounds nice" he said calmly.
"You're not supposed to enjoy it!" she gasped. Wisp just stared at her.

"I've always listened before" he said calmly. Shining Sapphire stopped, rubbing a contemplative hoof against her chin.
"True, true."

She shook her head, and started walking again, Wisp following alongside her. After about half an hour's worth of walking, they reached the next town, and found their way to the nearest train station. A train arrived some fourteen minutes after they stepped onto the platform, and they quickly made their way on-board, Shining Sapphire taking the window seat again. Both ponies said nothing at that point, but both were finding it annoyingly difficult not to think about the events of the night before. As the train left the station, Shining Sapphire leaned in toward Wisp, who suddenly grunted.

"What is it?" she asked. Wisp shook his head.
"It's just..." he started, "you're leaning kinda heavily on me, and it hurt a little."

He looked toward her. "Bearing in mind I did fly an incredibly long way without a break."
Shining Sapphire considered this, then just smiled. "You could always lean on me" she suggested. Wisp did so, albeit in a manner that from the outside would have looked amazingly awkward.

Then he could sworn he saw her smile, and felt the need to ask why.
"Why are you smiling?"

She just continued smiling as she answered. "It's just... I like seeing you like this. Happy. Cheerful. You have a nice smile, honey."
"I do?" he asked, feeling a sudden pang of self-consciousness.
"Of course you do."

He gave this some thought for a while. "Alright then."
"But" she suddenly added, "I am a bit... annoyed, I suppose, that we needed all of this insanity just to be honest with each other."

She sighed, her smile decreasing slightly. "Still, even then, at least it's all worked out so far."
"Presuming nothing crazy happens on the way back home" Wisp pointed out. Then he felt her shift slightly. He recognised the general mood coming from her.

"What's bothering you?" he asked, seeing the exasperated look on her face.
"It's just something that occurred to me, is all" she said, frowning slightly as she did, "Twinkie said somepony had brainwashed us. I'm guessing that's why we can't recall how we got species-swapped."

"Species-swapped" Wisp said, "not bad."
"I inherited my dad's gift for technical jargon" the young princess deadpanned. "Anyway, I think we should probably ask somepony, like Twinkie, to help with breaking the brainwashing spell."

"What happened with your aunt?" Wisp asked. Shining Sapphire quickly explained in as much detail as she could.
"Ah" was Wisp's response to that. "So, Twilight Twinkle then. Or Princess Celestia or Luna."

He felt a slight nervous pang from Sapphy again. "You know they'd help" he pointed out, "even if you weren't related to them, they'd help."
"I know" Shining Sapphire sighed, "but I would also like to reassure my grandparents that I'm okay."

"Good point."
"And perhaps, just perhaps, I might be able to get a cup of coffee from somewhere on the way."

After a few silent seconds, a question occurred to Wisp.
"What did Chrysalis actually want with you, anyway?" he asked. Shining Sapphire just bit her lip.

"She wanted me to help her with some ludicrous scheme to force you to accept kingship. She was waving a crown about, saying that it would draw changelings toward it, and that they'd hunt after me if I had it, and somehow this would make you have to be king in order to save me."
There was a sudden silence between the two ponies, the sort of silence that gave skilled silence artisans pause, before Wisp finally gave his opinion.

"That is the most ridiculous plan I've ever heard of."
"She seemed pretty confident it would work" Sapphy shrugged.

"From the way I've heard she seemed pretty confident just invading Canterlot would work. Doesn't mean it did" Wisp muttered darkly. Shining Sapphire paused.
"Perhaps. Maybe she just finally went mad."

"That would imply she had sanity to begin with."
"Stop it" Shining Sapphire said, "please."

"Sorry" Wisp sighed, "but considering everything she's done, not just what she's done to me, I'm not feeling particularly disposed toward her."
He felt her shifting underneath him, and he didn't need to be looking directly at her to know she was, even if only in a small sense, upset with his current attitude.

"Sorry" he said. Shining Sapphire said nothing to that, as she looked out toward the bright green landscape of the Equestrian countryside. He could tell by her current expression that she had started thinking about something, and in all likelihood it was the same thing he was thinking about, which was chiefly why the changelings had seen reason to chase after them. It didn't make sense. And there was something else in her expression. Curiosity. She had mentioned some manner of castle, which he couldn't recall from his time as a 'guest' of his fellows, which raised the question as to how they'd found it.


*****


It was late in the afternoon as the train finally arrived at Canterlot station. The two young ponies disembarked, trying to draw as little attention to themselves as possible, which considering they were a Princess and an abnormally tall pegasus proved surprisingly easy. Shining Sapphire strode through the streets, turning this way and that. She knew where she was going, and Wisp was content to follow, which was why he was surprised when she suddenly stopped dead, causing him to bump into her. She looked about the street, sniffing.

"I know that smell" she announced, sniffing again. Then, an almost predatory smile overcame her face, and she galloped off. Wisp quickly hurried after her. Her random path took her through several twists and turns, until Wisp found her at what appeared to be an ordinary coffee shop, save for one noticeable sign in the front window, which proclaimed to all the word that the shop was, in the owner's own words the 'proud caterer to Her Royal Highness, Princess Luna'. Inside, Shining Sapphire was testing out a sudden and unique theory in the proud Equestrian tradition of queuing, to whit that any line with a noticeably jittering princess tends to move at abnormally fast speeds. Wisp just watched as the line she was in quickly vanished, leaving her, now suddenly seeming to be a lot taller than she usually looked, standing over the poor pony (a young colt, if Wisp was any judge, though the pony's proportions, and the fact that there was several inches of Shining Sapphire blocking his view, made this difficult to determine).

"Coffee" she intoned, in an alarmingly chilling fashion, especially since she was still sounding pleasant about it. Several ponies nearby was haphazardly gulping down their beveradges, or fleeing. Wisp decided not to question this.
Quickly, a container of coffee was handed toward Shining Sapphire, who examined it. To Wisp's eyes, it looked abnormally large. He walked over toward the mare as she began drinking it. There were several audible whimpers from the reluctant audience, as she kept drinking, and drinking, and drinking.

"Sapphy?" he asked. The noise of drinking stopped. Her eyes opened and focused on him with an alarming intensity, as she slowly raised a hoof. The message was clear, so he said nothing. After a few seconds, she resumed her drinking. There was the sound of a pony falling to the ground. Wisp found himself wondering if this was some bizarre sport that Canterlotians played, one to which only they knew the rules. Finally, the drinking stopped. Shining Sapphire lowered the cup, and stared at it, her expression neutral. There was the definite sound of somepony's teeth chattering. She turned toward the pony next to the cash register, and then, slowly, her mouth began to curve upward, revealing her teeth, as the room seemed to grow slightly brighter.

"Thank you" she said, her voice sugary sweet. She turned to Wisp, still smiling. "Come on, dear."
At this, she turned toward the door, and looked alarmed. "Is there something wrong?" she asked, on seeing the ponies staring at her with a mixture of fear and amazement.

"No" somepony squeaked. She didn't look convinced, and turned to look at Wisp, who just decided to simply resort to one of the oldest tactics in the books. He shrugged.
"Beats me" he said. Shining Sapphire didn't look entirely satisfied with that answer, but headed toward the door anyway. Wisp stayed, and turned to look at the assembled crowd, shaking his head.

Canterlot ponies, he decided, were just weird.


*****


Shining Sapphire looked like she was about to start glowing, or singing. Wisp honestly expected her to start the later, and if the behaviour of Canterlot ponies were anything to go by, she would likely have the entire city singing along with her without even trying. She was just in an incredibly good mood, the sort that spread from pony to pony at ludicrous speeds. And he would quite gladly have admitted he didn't mind one bit.

She didn't sing. She just continued onward merrily toward the house of the Twilights, and knocked on the door. For a short time there was no response, and then the door opened. Twilight Velvet was on the other side, and she smiled.
"Grandma" Shining Sapphire said, hugging the elderly mare, who briefly objected.

"Sorry" Sapphy said sheepishly, as the two ponies entered the room, "just glad to see you."
"That's okay" her grandmother said cautiously, "just try to be a little bit more careful with me in the future."

Shining Sapphire glanced about the hallway, "hey, is Twinkie back yet?"
Her grandmother shook her head. "No, sorry."

Wisp, meanwhile, was taking the opportunity to finally remove the saddlebags, placing them in a small heap by the wall, as Shining Sapphire sighed.
"I suppose we can wait for her, then" she smiled. She and Wisp then stared at one another, before she suddenly grinned, and began making her way up the stairs. Twilight Velvet just shook her head, and made her way into the adjacent sitting room. After a few seconds she reappeared, carrying a book alongside her, still smiling.

"I don't think aunt Twilie will mind me borrowing one of her books" she said, once she reached the bottom of the stairs.
"So, what do we do now?" Wisp asked. She looked at him, then back to the book, and shrugged.

"We'll wait a while. If Twinkie doesn't show up, then we'll go ask Princess Celestia for help."
With that, she headed over toward the nearest sofa. Wisp followed after, sitting down next to her.

"What are you reading?" he asked. Shining Sapphire jolted from the sudden noise, and turned to look at him.
"Just a book I found upstairs in the library" she said. "That's all."

Wisp just nodded. "Is it interesting?" he asked. She looked at him, as if he'd just learnt rain was wet, then she went back to reading. Seconds passed, seconds which stretched into minutes. Then, Wisp heard something. A faint noise on the edge of hearing. His ears twitched as he looked around. He stood up, and tried to figure out where the noise came from. Then, the front door opened, and a certain royal blue coloured somepony walked through it, until a pair of bright orange eyes saw Wisp, and stopped dead.

"Wisp?" the startled Twilight Twinkle asked. Despite her alarm, she was beginning to smile. Before either pony could say anything, a bright pink blur zoomed past Wisp's head. There were a few seconds of muffled noises before Twilight Twinkle got her cousin off of her, although Shining Sapphire did take the opportunity to brush the mare's mane, before a hoof batted her leg away. Wisp couldn't help but notice parts of her fur looked noticeably singed, and she looked incredibly tired.

"You've got rubble in your mane" Shining Sapphire stated, sounding almost like a fussing parent as she did. Twilight Twinkle just closed her eyes for a moment.
"Yeah, probably got rubble elsewhere as well. The little idiot dropped a whole building on me" she muttered darkly, before sighing, "so if you don't mind, Sapphy, I wouldn't mind a chance to clean it off."

"Right" she smiled, "sorry."
Twinkle nodded, and turned toward the stairs, then stopped and turned back toward the two ponies, smiling as she did. "Guessing everything's worked out, then?" she said. There was an odd edge to her voice, irritation and relief in the same breath. Wisp didn't need to think very hard to guess why, if she'd known about their predicament.

"Great" she sighed, "just... great."
For a moment she stood there, eyes moving between the two ponies before she relaxed. "Well then, if that's that, I guess I'll go wash up."

"Twinkie" Shining Sapphire coughed as the mare was halfway up the stairs, "you remember the brainwashing spell you told me about?"
The mare turned to look at her, then nodded. "Yes, got it. Just... give me half an hour, then I'll see what I can do."
She resumed walking again, before she stopped and looked at both ponies, shaking her head. Wisp could've sworn he heard her mutter something under her breath as she went. He turned to look at Shining Sapphire, who just looked relieved. Wisp however, just shuffled nervously. This might have been because he noticed the way she'd been glancing at him. Even after everything that'd happened, she still had a crush on him.


*****


Some time later, a slightly damp-looking Twilight Twinkle reappeared, occasionally stretching herself.
"Hello, dear" Twilight Velvet said, not looking up from the newspaper she was reading. "What did Princess Luna want anyway?"

"Nothing much" Twinkle sighed, "just a temporal paradox, dramatic violation from space-time, and some awkwardness with mom."
Night Light stared at the young mare, blinking in confusion, "and when did the collapsing building come into it?"

"That was later on. Would've been nicer if somepony had started by dropping several tons worth of building on me, but we can't get what we want."
Shining Sapphire coughed lightly, and Twinkle turned to look at her, a sardonic grin briefly crossing her face. "Yeah, okay, Sapphy. One magic fix-it coming up."

Her horn lit up, and she advanced toward the mare. There was a brief feeling in Sapphy's mind, like something connecting with her, and then she heard a small noise from Twinkle.
"What is it?" she asked, and was aware that the feeling had vanished. Twinkle was staring at her with concern.

"There's a second brain-washing spell going through your head" she noted, "or... half of one at any rate."
She tilted her head, "what have you been up to while I was gone?"

Shining Sapphire stared at the mare, "oh, not much. I just managed to get foalnapped by some changelings while I was getting some coffee."
Twilight Twinkle gasped, as did Twilight Velvet and Night Light. "You what?"

"Not my proudest moment ever" Shining Sapphire sighed, "I'll admit that. But then the next thing I know the Changeling Queen's ranting at me, and then she tried to brainwash me into going along with this ridiculous scheme of hers"
She shifted, "she was casting the spell, and then the next thing I know there's this feeling like I was being... torn apart. And when that was done, I was a pony again. At which point I took my chance to escape."

Wisp grunted, drawing all the eyes in the room toward him. "That was probably about the same time that happened to me."
He took a deep breath before he added, "though with slightly different results."

Twilight Twinkle just raised an eyebrow. "Guess that explains that, then" she said, before turning back to Shining Sapphire. "Now then, just relax, and I'll try and do this as quickly as possible."
Her horn glowed, and Shining Sapphire felt a strange tingling feeling washing over her. Then, something like a door kicked open, and she gasped.

"What is it?" Wisp said instantly, placing a hoof on her shoulder.
"I..." she said, "I remember!"

"Remember what?" Twinkle asked.
Shining Sapphire's eyes narrowed, "I remember who did this."


~~~~~~


There was darkness. That was odd enough, considering it was mid-summer, meaning that whatever darkness usually lasted only a few hours at the most, but what was bothering Shining Sapphire was that she had just woken up, if only because she couldn't clearly remember going to sleep. She and Wisp had been talking, they'd gone into her room, and while she had been feeling unusually drowsy, she hadn't planned on going to bed immediately. From the looks of it, and from the way Wisp was gently breathing in and out in front of her, they'd both just completely fallen asleep. Deep down, she felt the smallest morsel of disappointment at that, though she wasn't completely sure why. But she never went to sleep that early, or that easily, she knew that. Something was wrong. Her hoof darted up toward just above her horn, where she felt something cold and metallic against it. Her horn glowed slightly, soliciting a small murmur from Wisp as it did. She slowly lowered the small silver tiara downward, staring at it. She hadn't even had time to take it off. Something was definitely wrong. She looked down, and felt her heart skip several beats when she saw Wisp's bright blue eyes wide open.

"Sorry" she whispered, before feeling the need to add, "go back to sleep honey."
"Time is it?" Wisp said. She turned around to look at the clock, then back to Wisp.

"Very early" she smiled, "when everypony but the insomniacs and Lunas are asleep."
Wisp didn't respond to that. He was frowning at something.

"What is it?" she asked. He slowly lifted a hoof toward her mouth, and another to his own. There was utter silence, the only noise being her clock slowly ticking, and the sound of her heartbeat.
Then, she heard it, the slow noise coming from somewhere else. She tried to focus on the noise, and realised something. It was somepony walking.

"Nopony's up and about at this time of night" she said, "not even the guards."
She felt a growing concern, and then noticed Wisp was lying on his side, his eyes shut. "Wisp?"

"Pretend to be asleep" he murmured. Despite her reservations, and her concern for this sudden serious attitude Wisp was displaying, she decided to go along with it. After a few seconds, there was silence once more, save only the clock ticking. And ticking. And ticking. And ticking.
Then, she heard a new noise. Suddenly, she found herself reacting, looking upright. Two dim blue lights were hovering in the darkest corner of the room. She sighed. It was just one of Wisp's changelings. Then she felt her stomach drop. Something was definitely wrong.

"What is it?" she said, trying to shore up whatever confidence she could trough the haze. The lights vanished for a second. Just the changeling blinking. Then, there was a sickly green glow around the Changeling's horn, and then a feeling of something smashing into her mind. She suddenly began to feel sleepier, and sleepier. The world was getting foggy, her eyelids so heavy. Then, there was the sound of noise, and a low hiss. Wisp had moved over toward the changeling, and had hit it.

"What are you doing?" he growled. Shining Sapphire frowned, and then looked down at the bed, wondering where her tiara had gone, before looking over toward the changeling. It was glancing between her and Wisp, but it didn't say anything. It-... his, she corrected herself, his horn lit up again, and she felt something wrenching into her mind. From the mild grunt she heard, Wisp probably had been zapped as well.

"I am sorry, your highness" she heard the changeling say, and she recognised which one it was in an instant. It was Angel Eyes. Why was he attacking them, she wondered.
"But you leave me no choice."

She tried summoning the necessary spells to counteract what Angel Eyes was casting, but through at that moment just focusing her thoughts was feeling like an uphill struggle, like trying to gain footing on quicksand. Then she heard another noise, and everything began clearing up. In the darkness, she could see Wisp and Angel Eyes moving about. The changeling worker's horn lit up, and a blast of magic lanced at Wisp, who seemed to convulse. Summoning her magic, she tried to summon something, anything. She was rewarded with a glowing bright pink pillow. Any other time and she would have tried casting something else, but at that moment, she decided not to question her choice, slamming the changeling across the room. She rushed over toward Wisp.

"Are you okay?" she said hurriedly, placing a hoof again his... she paused, as she felt chitin under her hooves.
"I'm fine" Wisp responded, but his voice sounded off, and much higher than usual. Indeed, it didn't sound anything like it normally did at all. She suppressed the childish assumption that perhaps Angel Eyes had simply gone for a low blow while she wasn't looking, and then ignored a sudden comment for part of her that began wondering if That Sort of Thing worked the same with changelings.

"You don't sound fine" she noted, nudging him with a hoof. It occurred to her far too late that she'd actually gone and turned her back on a changeling who seemed to have gone mad, which she was still wondering about. What possible gain did he expect to make by attacking them in her room, in the middle of the night?

She decided to ignore that feeling, as she felt magic touching her mind again. She slowly forced herself to turn, ignoring a sudden stab of pain from her back leg as she glared at Angel Eyes. Once she did, she noticed he was clearly struggling with something.
"Not..." she managed to get out, "not gonna... not gonna..."

Everything was going dark, or rather, darker. Then she heard the noise from behind her. It was a growl, from Wisp. He actually sounded furious. Even as the darkness closed in, she could've sworn she heard him say something. To her distress, it sounded like he was cussing at Angel Eyes.
Just before the darkness took her completely, she saw the changeling's horn light up again, and a strange green flame wrapping itself around Wisp. She noted that she had rarely seen him shapeshift, save for that one time. Her eyes were almost closed by that point, and noises were sounding distant, and garbled, but it sounded like Wisp was screaming, and, she noted, in an incredibly hi-


~~~~~


Five ponies shared worried looks for several moments, before Wisp finally spoke up.
"So, Angel Eyes did it" he frowned, "but... why?"

"Maybe he told you before he finished" Twilight Twinkle suggested. Wisp shrugged.
"We won't know unless you cast that spell on me."

Twinkle frowned, her gaze moving toward Shining Sapphire, then back to Wisp, then back to Shining Sapphire, then back to Wisp. She looked hesitant.
"I'm not sure if I should" she finally said. Wisp stood up to his full height, and looked toward Shining Sapphire, who now had both of her grandparents sitting next to her.

"I am" Wisp said. "My choice, Twilight."
The mare paused. Wisp frowned. "Look, even if what I remember what happened next and it's upsetting, it doesn't matter. I've still got a brainwashing spell in my head, and I'd like it gone."

He shifted on his hooves, "besides, you were willing to do it for her."
Twilight Twinkle's eyes narrowed, and her tail flicked as she glared at Wisp. He just simply stared back, waiting to see what she would say, trying to ignore the smell of something beginning to burn coming from her. Then, she took a deep breath. "Alright" she said.
Her horn glowed, and Wisp felt something washing over him like a wave. Four sets of eyes stared expectantly at him.

"Well?" Shining Sapphire asked, "do you remember anything?"
Wisp paused. Slowly, his mouth began to move, he took a breath... and then stopped.

"No. Nothing."
He looked down at his hooves. "Sorry" he mumbled. Shining Sapphire just smiled.

"It's okay, honey. We already know who did this, it's already been undone. All we have to do now is get back home, and find a way to remove the spell from the whole city."
Twilight Twinkle sighed in irritation. "I'll just go pack my stuff then."

"I don't think you'll have to" Sapphy said quickly. "My mom and dad do know that spell, after all. They can probably cast it."
Twinkle blinked for a moment. "Yes, of course" she said, "of course they can."

"Not that you're not welcome to visit anyway" Shining Sapphire pointed out. Twinkle nodded.
"Yeah, but I've still got all that work I said I'd do for mom" her eyes darted toward the stairs, before she looked like she was just remembering something, "and a few other things I should probably take care of at some point."

She sighed again, and walked over to the nearest chair, and collapsed onto it.
"So, anypony got any suggestions for the evening?" she asked.


*****


As it turned out, nopony had any general desire to do anything with their evening, so grandparents and granddaughter settled for explaining most of what had been going on, while Twilight Twinkle disappeared upstairs. Eventually, after a pleasant light dinner, Twilight Velvet and Night Light announced they were leaving, much to Shining Sapphire's disappointment.

"Sorry, dear" Night Light said, "but somepony tends to get a bit twitchy if she's away from the house for too long."
"I think" Twilight Velvet hissed into her husband's ear, "somepony is getting confused as to who gets twitchy and when."

Then, without any warning, she began smiling again, "anyway, it was lovely seeing you, Sapphy. And you, Whisper Wind."
"Likewise, Mrs Twilight" Wisp smiled, to which the mare shook her head.

"Now, now. You can call me grandma if you want" she said, glancing briefly at Shining Sapphire. "After all, you're already part of the family anyway."
Wisp suddenly found himself coughing awkwardly, as Shining Sapphire decided to stare at the ceiling. Then, with one last hug, Night Light and Twilight Velvet left, leaving Wisp and Shining Sapphire standing there, neither certain of what to say next.

"So" Shining Sapphire eventually managed, "tomorrow. We wake up bright and early, do a bit of gift shopping and then, we go home."
"Gift shopping?" Wisp asked, "when did that come up?"

Shining Sapphire stared at Wisp, before smiling, "well we do have to get my parents something. If anything, it'll probably stop them being so upset about all of this."
"Why would they be upset?" Wisp asked. Shining Sapphire blinked.

"Well, we did sort of leave the city without asking them" she said, "or telling them, so they'll probably be worried about us."
It was now Wisp's turn to stare, as he realised Shining Sapphire actually meant what she was saying. She actually thought her parents would be annoyed at her for doing what was normally a given for most ponies her age. Though he was willing to concede they probably were worried about her, at any rate.

"Alright then" he said slowly, "gift shopping."
Shining Sapphire grinned, and then headed back into the living room.


*****


The hours quickly passed, as Shining Sapphire occasionally described excerpts from the book she was reading to Wisp, until eventually the time came for them to go to sleep. They made their way up the stairs to the guest bedroom, where there was a completely untouched double bed, which Wisp noted was several sizes smaller than the one Shining Sapphire was used to. She didn't seem to notice, as she gently placed her tiara on the nightstand. Wisp slowly lay down, and then realised how small the bed was when he found himself staring into Shining Sapphire's grinning face.
"Good night" she said. He found himself smiling back.

"Good night."
With a click, the lights were out. After a few seconds, Wisp gently wrapped a hoof around Shining Sapphire. He practically felt her smile growing, as he began to feel his eyes getting heavier.


*****


There was darkness. In the darkness, he heard only the sound of hoofsteps against the floor, echoing into the distance. Hoofstep after hoofstep, until he came to the door. Slowly, the handle turned. The door swung open, revealing a room, lit only by moonlight. Outlined against the moonlight was a mare, her horn glowing, her eyes illuminated a curious bright pink by the glowing pillow hovering a short distance from her face. Slowly, his eyes turned toward the two other ponies in the room, one of who he could see the outline of, surrounded by an unpleasant green glow. The other, body suspended in mid-air as it hurtled backward, he recognised all too well. What little light there was playing off the edges of the dark chitin, glinting off those translucent wings, reflecting off of those amazingly bright blue eyes, and the golden-brown tresses that framed that familiar face.

He tried closing his eyes, ignoring the sight in front of him, and then paused. There was something moving in the frozen image. He turned, to see the tall dark blue pony watching him, as her mane wafted gently on a non-existent breeze.
"Princess Luna" Whisper Wind said. The mare nodded.

"Whisper Wind, is it not?"
"That's me" he said, staring at the mare. He coughed.

"I don't suppose, before we go any further, we could do something about... this" he said, motioning a hoof at the sight. Princess Luna nodded. Everything shimmered, and vanished. They were somewhere else, almost as dark. There were an awful lot of trees.
"The Everfree Forest" Wisp noted. He looked over toward Princess Luna, whose expression remained neutral.

"Sorry" she said, "but I can only take you into another dream. Unless you wish to go to somewhere more crowded?"
Everything shimmered again, and they were in a packed hall, filled with ponies dressed in incredibly smart suits and dressed. There was the distance sound of music.

"The Everfree would've been fine" Wisp noted, "but it doesn't exactly matter. I just wanted to ask you something."
Princess Luna raised an eyebrow. "Indeed?"

Wisp shifted. "I wanted to ask you for a favour."
For a moment, the Princess of the Moon looked at him, then the corner of her mouth began to move slightly.

"I'm listening."


*****


There was a distant tapping noise, which slowly became more and more distinct as Wisp awoke, to a brightly lit room, thanks to the summer sun shining in the sky. Slowly, he moved, and saw Twilight Twinkle standing in the doorway, staring at him.
"Yes?" he asked. She looked concerned about something.

"You've got mail" she said. Wisp frowned, and slid out of the bed. Twilight Twinkle headed along the hallway, and then down the stairs. Wisp followed her into the living room. On the coffee table there was a simple, unmarked brown-papered package.
"Completely magic free" Twinkle noted, in a cautious tone. "And the string is a nice touch."

"Indeed" Wisp said, trying not to notice Twinkle staring at him every few seconds, or the slightly irritated look she had as she did.
"No note, no nothing. Just says it's addressed to Whisper Wind, of Ponyville."

"Where?" he asked. She nodded at it, and Wisp looked. And indeed, somepony had written exactly that on the top of the package.
"There isn't a chance that this is something completely safe and innocent, is it?" Wisp asked. Twilight Twinkle stared at him.

"I highly doubt it."
"Thought so" Wisp frowned, staring at the completely unassuming package, just sitting there, on the coffee table. Perhaps, if it were somepony else, the uncertainty would eat at him, slowly erode his will, as he spent every moment wondering what could possibly reside within the box. He, however, had no such problem.

"You going to open it, or should I just take it outside and burn it?" Twinkle asked. Wisp stared at her.
"I get the feeling whoever sent this might have anticipated that" he said flatly.

"Probably."
He just turned away from the box, "I'm going back to bed" he announced.

He quickly made his way upstairs and back to the bed, and lay there, feeling uncertain about hugging Shining Sapphire any further once he was there. However, he soon felt a leg draping across his barrel anyway.
The next thing he knew he was being nudged by Shining Sapphire. He blinked.

"What time is it?" he asked. Shining Sapphire just nudged him further.
"Time to get up, Wisp" she grinned, before heading out of the room. Slowly, and with some reluctance from some suddenly aching limbs, he did. In quick succession, he headed toward the bathroom, brushed his teeth and made his way downstairs, where Shining Sapphire was preparing a small breakfast. She had an odd smile on her face, as she investigated every cupboard. She stopped when she saw Wisp.

"I'm not used to doing this" she said, sounding excited about it, "it's weird. I've slept in a whole extra half an hour from normal."
Wisp just nodded, since he was at least two hours out from his comfort zone, if the way he felt was any indication, though he was taking solace in the fact that nopony was trying to style his mane.
"Eat up" Shining Sapphire declared, "we'll have to hurry if we want to get home by at least mid-afternoon."

So the two ponies quickly had breakfast, and then made their way out into the wide streets of the Canterlot market. Every now and then Shining Sapphire examined objects, flittering from store to store with unbridled curiosity. Wisp just tried keeping an even pace, while attempting to block out the various moods he was getting from the nearby ponies.

"I'd have thought your parents would be difficult to buy gifts for" he said, as they examined their fourth bookshop. Shining Sapphire stopped and looked at Wisp like he'd just replaced his tail with an extra head.
"Why do you say that?"

"Well," Wisp said, before finding that whatever explanation he'd had thought of had vanished, "I just assumed..."
"Yes?"

"Your parents seem so happy with everything anyway. What do you get for the ponies who have everything?"
Shining Sapphire paused, apparently seriously considering this, before she raised an eyebrow, smiling widely as she did.

"Memories" she stated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Now, come on, just a few more stores."
Eventually, she seemed satisfied with a few small items she'd acquired, and began heading back toward the Twilight's house. As she did, she looked at Wisp.

"What are we going to do with that package?" she asked. Wisp stared back.
"No idea" he admitted, "though I think if it's a 'gift' from who I think it's from, then the best idea is perhaps to throw it into the darkest possible pit we can imagine, forget about it, and move on with our lives."

"Wisp" Shining Sapphire said, an oddly cold tone to her voice, "what did I mention yesterday?"
"That I should be doing more for the changelings" Wisp said, "I know. I know. It's just..."

"I know" she interrupted, "but all the same."
Wisp just nodded. "Yeah. Alright. Positive attitude. After all, it can't be something that bad, can it?"

"Let's hope not."
The two made their way back to the house, picked up the package and Sapphy's saddlebags, and prepared to leave. As they did, Twilight Twinkle reappeared in front of them.

"You didn't honestly think I was going to let you two leave without saying goodbye, did you?" she grinned.
"No" Shining Sapphire said, "it seems not."

Twinkle grinned, and then opened the door for the two ponies. "Let's go then" she said, her smile growing dangerously wild.
The three ponies made their way through the winding streets of Canterlot in silence, until they reached the train station.

"So" Twinkle said quietly, once they reached the platform, "this is goodbye, for now."
"Guess it is" Wisp said. After a few seconds Twilight Twinkle hugged Shining Sapphire, and then looked toward Wisp, and stopped.

"Look" she said calmly, "I know it's been... horribly awkward between us for the last few years, but, Wisp, you are my oldest and... best friend. I think after every ridiculous thing we've done, we can survive one friendly hug."
Wisp shuffled, looking toward Shining Sapphire. "C'mon," Twinkle said, "you won't burst into flames just from a hug."

Wisp made an overly dramatic sigh, then hugged the mare. When he pulled out, she was smiling even further.
"And you look after my cousin, 'kay?" she said, her eyes suddenly wavering slightly, "promise me?"

Wisp stared at Twilight Twinkle, then to Shining Sapphire. He felt the desire to point out that if anything, it was likely to be the other way around, before he raised a hoof.
"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

Twilight Twinkle stared at the sight for a moment, before bowing her head. "Flawless."
There was the distant noise of a train approaching, as Twinkle turned back to Sapphy.

"Say hi to aunt Cady for me" she said. Shining Sapphire nodded.
"I'll do that."

"Good to hear" Twinkle said. Then, Shining Sapphire's smile vanished.
"Twinkie" she said solemnly, "why are you acting like this is the last time we'll see each other?"

The mare tried to look innocent. "I'm not telling you" she said, brightly. Then, when her words registered wit her, she facehoofed.
"Just in case" she said quietly. "Just in case."

Shining Sapphire placed a hoof on her cousin's shoulder, as she remembered the painting she'd seen the day before. "Twinkie, you will be alright on your own, won't you?"
"I'll try and cope" Twinkle said, staring at the ground. Behind them, the train slowly ground to a halt. Then, quite curiously, there was an odd noise in the distance. Twinkle's ears began to twitch.

"What's that?" she asked. Wisp swivelled, and stared. Something was approaching Canterlot, something large and flying.
"DRAGON!" somepony yelled. There was a multitude of screams, as the platform emptied, leaving only the guards, Twinkle, Sapphy and Wisp. The royal blue mare's wings unfurled, and a small smirk appeared on her face. Then, quite curiously, the dragon slowed, and hovered over the train station. Then, a small charcoal grey shape dropped inelegantly onto the platform in front of the three ponies.

"Your highness!" the shape blurted, quickly revealing itself to be a changeling. There was a disappointed noise from Twilight Twinkle, as the changeling rushed over toward Wisp.
"You're alright."

Wisp stared at the changeling for a moment. "..." he said, once he realised he couldn't tell which one it was.
"Windsheer" Shining Sapphire helpfully supplied.

"Windsheer! What brings you here, when we told you to remain at the Empire."
The changeling's wings flickered as he looked up toward the dragon, which was hovering casually above the station, before he looked back toward Wisp.

"Her Highness... ordered us to find you, and her highness" the changeling said, slowly, and reluctantly.
"Ordered?" Shining Sapphire repeated, "my mom ordered you to do something, and you did it."
Windsheer sniffed slightly.

"Hey, quick question" Twilight Twinkle spoke up, "but why's there a dragon up there?"
Windsheer glanced about shiftily. "It is... very difficult to explain."

Suddenly, four more changelings fell onto the ground, and the dragon slowly began turning, heading away from the city.
"He was your ride, I'm guessing" Twinkle stated.

"In a sense" the changeling said, "yes."
"Which sort of sense?" Wisp asked. There was a painful pause before he responded.

"In an incredibly accurate sense, royalty."
"Well," Shining Sapphire said, "you've found us, caused a scene, scared a lot of ponies, and inadvertently outed Wisp to the population of Canterlot in the process, all for essentially nothing, since we were just about to head back to the empire anyway."

The five changelings exchanged glances, then looked toward Wisp, who by now was staring at Angel Eyes quite intently. He leaned in toward the pony.
"Do you have... any idea of what you did?" he growled, "and for what possible reason?"

"Yes" Angel Eyes responded. "I do. I did what was necessary for the good of my blood, and I make no apology for it."
Wisp snarled, feeling the magic stopping his fangs from showing fading as his control slipped. Shining Sapphire placed a hoof on his shoulder, and suddenly he stopped, and pulled back.

"When we return to the Crystal Empire" Shining Sapphire said, her voice utterly calm, "we will discuss what you did, and should we pass sentence on you, you will do as we say. Is that understood?"
Angel Eye stared at Shining Sapphire for some time, his gaze moving toward Wisp briefly, before he nodded. "As you say, my queen."

Shining Sapphire's response to this was to raise an eyebrow, before she motioned to the train carriage. "Now let's get on-board before somepony does something they'll regret."
The changelings slowly filled onto the train, as Wisp and Sapphy exchanged glances. The mare shook her head in exasperation, before turning to Twilight Twinkle.

"You sure you don't want to stay here for a few more days, or weeks?" her cousin suggested playfully.
"No" Shining Sapphire said, "if we stay here much longer, I think my mom and dad will probably invade Canterlot just to make sure I come home."

"Knowing them" Twinkle laughed, "they'd probably win."
"They probably would."

The two ponies smiled warmly, before Shining Sapphire sighed, her smile vanishing in an instant. "Be careful, Twinkie. And if at all possible, be safe."
"I'll try" the mare said.

"That's all I ask."
Then, a thought seemed to occur to the mare. "And Sapphy?"

"Yes?"
"If you and Wisp... you know, decided to make certain 'arrangements'..."

"Yes?"
"And you feel the need to invite me..."

"Yes?"
Twinkle leaned in closer, before suddenly pulling back, grinning as she did. "I'm not being your damn maid of honour."

Shining Sapphire stared at her cousin, aiming a swift kick at the mare, who just hopped out of the way. Shaking her head, Shining Sapphire got on-board the train.
"What was that all about?" Wisp asked. Shining Sapphire just gave him a Look, which he seemed to understand well enough, as she made her way toward one of the seats and sat down. As she did, she noted that aside from the five changelings, four of whom were glowering at Angel Eyes, along with her and Wisp, there was nopony else in the carriage.

'Deja vu' she thought to herself. As she sat down, she saw Wisp staring at the package intently.
"Are you going to open it?" she asked. He turned to look at her.

"I probably should" he said, "but at the same time..."
He stopped and rubbed his eyes, before looking straight at her. "You're going to suggest I should, aren't you?"

She looked at the package, and shifted. She had a suspicious feeling about the box, and whatever was in it. "Not necessarily."
Wisp shifted again. "Not until the train's moving" he said.

The two ponies stared at one another. Then, Shining Sapphire noticed something just at the edge of her vision, and turned to stare at the changeling balanced on top of the seating, an inquisitive look on his face.
"Yes?" Wisp asked. The changeling blinked.

"So, are you going to open that?" he asked.
The two ponies exchanged looks, before Shining Sapphire stared at Impulse's hooves, then at the changeling's face. He stared blankly, until she coughed, pointing a hoof at him. He just continued staring.

"Off the chair" she said. He looked down at his hooves, smiled sheepishly, and hopped off the seat. Sapphy looked at Wisp, who just shrugged.
"Don't look at me" he said. Shining Sapphire turned back toward the window, waiting for the train to start. After several minutes there was the sound of the whistle, and the train jolted, slowly beginning to move. She lay back in her seat and relaxed, watching the landscape moving past. After some time, she noticed Wisp had fallen asleep. She found herself smiling slightly at the sight, and the content look on his face.


*****


Wisp stirred, yawned, and stretched, before looking about the carriage, trying to ignore the feeling in his forelimbs. He looked over toward Shining Sapphire, who from the looks of it was beginning to fall asleep herself. He gently nudged her with a hoof.
"Hey" she smiled. Wisp smiled back.

"Are there yet?" he asked, to which Shining Sapphire grimaced.
"I'm fairly certain we're not even hallway" she said, "you've not been asleep that long."

Wisp just nodded, numbly, fighting down the urge to yawn again, before his eyes turned toward the parcel, now sitting on the floor in front of their seats. He felt his stomach twist at the sight, as he remembered what he'd agreed to do. He sighed, and focused, his magic lifting the box so that it sat between himself and Shining Sapphire. He stared at it, then into Shining Sapphire's eyes.
"Might as well get on with this, then" he frowned. He set up a hoof on top of the box, and then felt one of hers touching his. He looked up at Shining Sapphire, who just nodded. He suddenly felt like a weight was being lifted from his back. He focused on the strings. Slowly, they unfurled. He slowly removed the packaging, revealing... a plain white box. There was a sudden sigh, and Wisp turned to look at the changelings, who were staring with rapt attention. He shook his head, and turned back to the box. Slowly, carefully, with the same caution usually only shown to things that ticked, he prised open the box, and looked inside. In an instant, his mood shifted to downright horror at the sight.

Sitting there in the box was a black and green crown. If Wisp had to say, he would have said it matched exactly what he thought a changeling crown should have looked like. It even managed to look unpleasant, at least to his eyes, and there was an odd feeling about it. He looked up at Shining Sapphire, who looked alarmed, though she was rapidly moving on toward outright alarm. Wisp found himself recalling exactly what she'd told him about the day before.

"What should we do with it?" he asked. Shining Sapphire's face was one of stone-cold determination.
"Well" she said, "my first instinct would be to throw it out of the window. But..."

"But?" Wisp asked, his gaze not moving from the crown.
"I don't know if that would be such a good idea."

She stared into the box, carefully considering her next statement. "I think, perhaps, we should wait and see. If this turns out to be part of some plot, we'll deal with it."
Wisp paused, his gaze flickering, before he nodded. "Alright, then."


*****


Across Equestria, in the darker corners of the land, minds stirred, as one by one they noted a feeling, a distant sensation that enticed them closer. In essence they were like moths, being drawn like moths to a flame they could not resist, even as whatever it was moved further and further away.


*****


Some hours later, as the sun began to lazily head downward, the express train slowly halted, and stopped. Shining Sapphire practically leapt from her seat, grinning at the sight of home. She turned toward Wisp, who had calmly closed the box's lid, and handed it to Angel Eyes, glowering as he did.
"You're not off the hook yet" he said coldly, to which the changeling nodded glumly, as he took the box in his own magic, in addition to the saddlebags and Shining Sapphire's gifts. Wisp turned to look at Shining Sapphire, and smiled weakly.

"Shall we?"
He stepped over toward Shining Sapphire, who was now glancing nervously toward the door. "Yes" she smiled.

"Let's."
The two ponies slowly made their way out of the carriage, once again trying to look casual, much to the confusion of their changeling entourage, who exchanged concerned glances at the sight. As the two ponies moved through the throng, lots of ponies stared and whispered and muttered, as Shining Sapphire marched purposefully in the direction of the palace. Wisp just followed behind her. He wasn't absolutely certain as to what she'd been expecting, all things considered, but he knew from the look on Sapphy's face she was perplexed. He, meanwhile, was more concerned about the odd feeling, the odd tingling in the back of his mind. From what she'd told him, he'd been expecting an attack by changelings already, but aside from the usual five, there didn't seem to be any others around, and that worried him.

As they approached the Crystal Palace, Wisp saw somepony waiting on the front doorstep. Two ponies, actually, neither of whom looked entirely happy. And then, as they got even closer, and Wisp felt the usual side-effects of being anywhere near Princess Cadance, he noticed the five changelings disappearing.
"Shining Sapphire" Princess Cadance declared, her voice managing to carry a long way despite sounding astoundingly calm, "you have a lot of explaining to do, young lady."

Wisp stood close to Shining Sapphire, who just stared.
"Sorry, mom" she said quietly. Slowly, Princess Cadance and Shining Armor walked toward the two ponies. Wisp was certain he heard a small sniff from Sapphy. Then, the two ponies stopped.

"What happened?" Shining Armor asked gently. Shining Sapphire raised her head to look at them, her eyes quivering. Her parents just blinked, and looked at one another.
"What is it" both ponies asked at one. Shining Sapphire just blinked.

"You're... you're not mad at me?"
Her parents looked shocked by the very suggestion.

"Hey," Shining Armor said, "we're not angry at you, sweetie."
Sapphy's eyes went wide. "You're... not?"

The two ponies looked at one another, then to Wisp, who tried to communicate non-verbally that he had no idea why she was surprised about this either.
"Why in the world would you think we'd be angry at you?" Cadance said.

"Because, because we left without telling you what we were doing, even though I thought we had a good reason at the time, and... and..." she trailed off.
"Well, maybe we were worried about you" Shining Armor admitted, his glance moving toward Wisp momentarily.

"But" Cadance smiled, "we knew you'd be okay."

For a few seconds Shining Sapphire just stared at the two ponies before she began to laugh, before hugging the two ponies tightly. Wisp remained at a distance, not feeling entirely confident about approaching, and not wanting to spoil the moment in any form.

"Now then" Cadance said, once the hug was finished, "what have you two been up to?"


*****


Soon after, the four ponies found themselves in one of the many, many drawing rooms. Cadance and Shining Armor recounted what the changelings had told them, and once they were done, the two young ponies quickly tried to fill in the blanks as to what had been happening with them. Neither decided to mention the similarity to what they had done not one month previously, while Wisp made a mental note to come up with as degrading a sentence as he could managed for Angel Eyes. On the mention of the brainwashing spell, Cadance and Shining Armor suddenly reassured Shining Sapphire that they knew about that, and had taken steps towards dealing with it on learning about it. Sapphy and Wisp briefly shared a concerned look, but decided to not question the convenience, before resuming their tale.

Once they finished, there was utter quiet. For the longest time, nopony knew what to say, before Shining Sapphire spoke up.
"Well I don't know about anypony else, but I think, right now I'm just going to go lie down. On my bed. In my room."

Wisp stared blankly for a while, before quickly galloping after her. Cadance watched the two go, a small smile spreading across her face. She turned to look at Shining Armor, who smiled back.
"What?" he asked, after a few seconds. Cadance just shook her head.

"Nothing" she said, "I just..."
"Just what?"

"It's just... seeing those two so happy" she smiled, before trailing off. Shining Armor just nodded.
"Yeah. I know."

Cadance looked about the room, before standing up. "I think I'm just going to go check on something for a while" she said, absent-mindedly. Shining Armor raised an eyebrow, or at least he tried to.
"This 'something' wouldn't happen to be any sort of plans relating to certain events, would it?" he asked, walking over toward Cadance, nuzzling her, "plans maybe involving two ponies and a lot of guests, perhaps."

Cadance just smiled innocently, "I just think there's no harm in... being prepared."
The two ponies stood there for a while, before her brow furrowed. "Shining?"

"Yeah."
"Would I be right in thinking that I'm not the only pony in this castle who's been making 'plans' about those two?"

Shining Armor tried to maintain a neutral expression, and in a few seconds managed to fail completely. "Maybe?" he said.
The two ponies looked at one another for the longest time, before they smiled. "Want to compare notes?" Cadance asked.

"I thought you'd never ask."
At that, the two ponies rushed off together. Some of the palace staff who encountered them later noticed they were making some very strange giggling noises as they went.


*****


Later, as Shining Sapphire sprawled onto her bed, enjoying the full range of motion that a full king (or rather, princess) sized bed offered. There and then she made a silent vow to her bed to never take its comfort for granted again, as she smiled contentedly. She looked out of the window, seeing the cool blues and purples of the night sky. She was home, she was a pony again, she had Wisp, and all was fine. She was content. Or, almost at any rate.

A few seconds later and Wisp sat down on the bed next to her. Slowly, she brushed a leg against him, smiling as she did.
"Hey, handsome" she grinned, to which Wisp just smiled cautiously. With great effort she got up, leaning in close toward Wisp. An odd smile flickered across his face.

"Hey" he said, as she leaned closer.
"So, what now?" he asked, as she continued brushing a hoof against him.

"Well," she said, smirking as she went, "Wisp, darling, I think, perhaps, it's time we really got serious about this relationship, isn't it?"
His eyes darted about, moving from her leg up toward her face. Realisation dawned in his eyes.

"Oh" he said, his cheeks suddenly turning pink as he realised what she meant, "yes. Right."
Slowly, he began leaning in toward her. Their lips met, and slowly, the two ponies began to kiss. It was not, by any metric, a great kiss, but neither pony was really caught up in the details at that point. Then, quite suddenly, they stopped.

"What is it?" Shining Sapphire asked, as she saw the look on Wisp's face. She shuffled.
"You know," she said quietly, "we don't have to... we could just..."

Wisp's head shot up, "No, no" he said. "I do. I... I really do."
"You do?" she asked. He nodded.

"Yes. I do" he leaned in closer. "I mean, I know... I know I've been stupid about this sort of thing, but... yeah."
Shining Sapphire began to smile, and then he suddenly began to grin.

"I would marry you" he said. Suddenly, she felt like her legs were going to give out. She tried to resist the urge to collapse into an undignified grinning heap.
"I'd marry you" she said back. His eyes darted about the room, and he smirked.

"At least until I saw all the pink in this room."
"Don't joke."

"Sorry" he said quickly. He moved in closer towards her, their noses touching. "But I would marry you. I love you."
"I know" she whispered. They stared into each other's eyes, smiling uncontrollably. Then, their lips pressed together. Had either been noticing, they might have noticed the fact that one of them was beginning to cry.

After several minutes, they stopped, staring at the other.
"So..." Shining Sapphire began, "you're... you're okay, with w-what comes next?"

"I think what comes next is mandatory" he whispered.
After a few seconds they kissed again, and then again, and again.
What happened next... was between them, and them alone.

The next morning, when they were woken up, they were found with their hooves around the other, utterly contented smiles on their faces..
> Lighting up the Sky
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was another glorious summer morning in the Crystal Empire, with the sun high in the sky, which was a perfect blue, with the occasional shade dispensing cloud wafting through the sky lazily.
Inside the Crystal Palace, Cadance and Shining Armor were eating their respective breakfasts, occasionally glancing up at the other and smiling. After some minutes the door to the room creaked open, and in walked Shining Sapphire, a noticeable bounce in her step, followed shortly thereafter by Wisp, who was not bouncing, but did look almost unnaturally cheerful. The two ponies seemed unusually preoccupied with looking at one another, which meant they didn't notice Cadance raising an eyebrow at Shining Armor, and looking for all the world like she was trying not to break out in song. The two youths quickly chose a meal and sat down next to each other, occasionally glancing at the other and smiling. This didn't slow down their eating, however. Cadance looked over toward Shining Armor, while at the same time focusing all her willpower towards not breaking out in a grin, much less laughter. Shining Armor just coughed.

"So, Sapphy, what've you got planned for today?" he asked. The young mare blinked, before just simply shrugging.
"I'm not sure" she said, still smiling broadly, glancing toward Wisp.

"That's a first" Shining Armor smirked, at which point she tried to glower at him. She failed miserably, and just shook her head. Soon enough, the two ponies finished their meal and then left the room, leaving Shining Armor and Cadance staring at one another. There was a loud click as the door shut behind Shining Sapphire, before Cadance just broke out into a massive grin.

"Yes!" she declared, before catching herself, and making an attempt at looking dignified, which was not a rousing success. "I mean, good for them."
Shining Armor just stared wide-eyed, before tilting his head toward the door. "Should we start making up invitations?" he asked, "or wait a while?"

Cadance bit her lip, clearly trying not to show any sign of mirth. "We'll leave them to it, Shining. I think the last thing our daughter would want is us trying to help her."
"Guess you're right" Shining Armor said, looking over toward Cadance's meal.

"You gonna finish that toast?" he asked.


*****


Shortly thereafter, having finished his meal and Cadance's, Shining Armor left to get started on the day's activities. He was barely halfway down the hallway when he heard an incredibly quiet cough. He turned to see Whisper Wind standing a short distance behind him, the colt looking like he wanted at that moment to be anywhere but there.
"What's up?" Shining Armor asked. Wisp jolted, before trying to look at Shining Armor. He managed it for all a few seconds before his eyes moved away.

"Sorry to bother you, sir" he said nervously, "but... I was wondering if I could ask you something."
Shining Armor stared at the colt, wondering what he could possibly want to ask. Then he recalled the conversation from three days ago, when he'd presumed Whisper Wind was his son. His mind seized up in panicked embarrassment. He quickly tried to move around this. The last thing he wanted was for every conversation with his daughter's coltfriend to be tinged with embarrassment and awkwardness on both sides. Especially since he knew neither Sapphy or Cadance would stand for it.

"Ask away" he eventually managed to say. The young stallion just shifted uneasily on his hooves.
"It's just..." he said, "I just wanted..."

"Yes?" Shining Armor asked. The colt paused, and then, quite suddenly a determined look overcame his features.
"I was wondering if you could train me."

Shining Armor blinked. "You what now?" he asked. Wisp just looked about.
"You know, self-defence moves, magic, that sort of thing."

"Why?" Shining Armor found himself asking. Wisp shuffled again.
"Because after everything that's happened in the last few months" he said, "I really think I need be able to defend myself better than I have, and Sapphy said you have some experience with that sort of thing."

Shining Armor regarded the pony in front of him. He wouldn't have labelled the pony as miniscule in any sense, especially since he almost came up to his chin anyway, even without the obvious fact that the pony did have some muscles on him.
'As if I know anything about this kid' he found himself thinking. He looked at Wisp, and then nodded.

"Alright. When do you want to start?"
Wisp just smiled nervously. "Not right away, sir. I think I still need some time to heal up."

"Next week, then?" he suggested. Wisp nodded.
"Thanks" he said, before hastily adding another "sir." Shining Armor just nodded back.

"It's okay, kid. And you don't need to call me 'sir', either. Makes me feel old."
"Well, what would you like me to call you?" Wisp asked.

"How about 'Shining Armor'?"
Wisp considered this. "If you insist" he said reluctantly, "but it doesn't feel right."

Shining Armor just stared at the colt. "Anything else?" he asked. Wisp paused for a moment.
"Well..." he said slowly, beginning to smile bashfully as he did, "actually, there is something..."


*****


Shining Sapphire looked up from her book to stare at the item sitting on the desk. It was still there, and still a crown. She didn't like looking at it. She didn't trust it. It was a changeling object, after all. It could've been capable of anything, and neither her, her parents or Wisp had any magic that was able of determining whether there was anything truly sinister about it. Even the fact that she and four of the five changelings were staring at it didn't do anything in the slightest to alleviate this concern, and more than anything, it was beginning to bother her, since she just wanted to read her book in peace and quiet. She did have a lot of new books to read after all, including some fascinating ones on insects, though she presumed Wisp didn't share the interest, if his reaction was any indication. Not that she could blame him. The bit about bees was admittedly disturbing, even after last night had more-or-less proved that it didn't apply to changelings. There were some things that a stallion just didn't want to learn, it seemed.

She heard the sound of the library door opening, and turned to look as Wisp entered the room. He smiled at her.
"How did it go?" she asked, as she set her book down.

"Great" Wisp said. "He agreed, and we're starting next week."
"That's good to hear" she smiled, before adding, "it's nice to see you two getting along."

"What's that mean?" Wisp asked. She just looked at him.
"What? It's not like you two were exactly best friends before, was it?"

Wisp paused for a moment. "No" he finally said, "but we weren't exactly enemies either."
Shining Sapphire just smiled brightly, "all the more reason for you two to be getting on, then, isn't it?"

"Yes" Wisp eventually said, "but I think it's traditional in this sort of thing for at least one of the parents to disapprove of me."
Shining Sapphire just stared at Wisp for a moment, before shaking her head. "My parents wouldn't do that" she stated, confidently. Wisp didn't respond to that, just glancing toward the crown sitting on the table.

"Has it done anything?" he asked. Shining Sapphire shook her head.
"No. It's just sat there, not doing anything. Or at least not anything that I could tell" she added hastily.

She glanced at it, then back to Wisp. "I hope if it is going to do something it hurries up and does it already. The suspense is incredibly distracting."
Wisp didn't seem to share her opinion. "I just hope it doesn't do anything."

"Do you really think Chrysalis would send this to us, and not lay in some nasty trap while she did?"
"No" Wisp said instantly, "I don't."

He sighed, and looked toward Shining Sapphire. "Not that I don't think she's above sending something that doesn't do anything, in order to get a perverse giggle from our going mad over it."
He moved in closer toward it. "Or maybe it's enchanted so that the minute I put it on my head, I'll burst into flames. Or... worse."

"Worse?" Shining Sapphire asked, before suddenly reconsidering. "Actually, no, don't tell me. I don't want to know what worse is."
"I wasn't going to" Wisp said. Then he looked about.

"Well," he said, in an unusually bright tone, "I think I'm just going to go outside for a walk. Would you like to join me?" he asked. Shining Sapphire looked at him, then to her book, then to the smile on Wisp's face.
"I think," she said, "I think I'm going to pass on this one, dear."

"Okay then" Wisp shrugged, heading toward the door. Shining Sapphire went back to her book. Then, quite suddenly Wisp returned and kissed her, grinning madly before he rushed out of the door, leaving Shining Sapphire staring after him. One of the changelings rolled his eyes at the sight. Shining Sapphire stared at the door for several seconds after he was gone, before she suddenly felt unusually warm and uncomfortable, and shifted in her seat, before she went back to her book.


*****


The hours passed, as hours have been known to do. Wisp briefly reappeared around lunchtime, then disappeared again to do something. Shining Sapphire felt a brief glimpse of concern about this, but she decided it was best not to worry about what Wisp was doing. When she was halfway through her second book of the day, just a while after dinner, he reappeared, an odd look on his face.
"Hey" he said, calmly. She looked about her library uncertainly, wondering what he was doing.

"'Hey' yourself" she replied. Wisp just stood there, as still as a statue.
"What is it?" she asked. Wisp just smirked briefly, then scratched the back of his head.

"It..." he started, "I have something I want to show you."
She stared at him for a moment, before going back to her book. "Honey, if you want to entice me, you'll have to do better than 'something'."

"No," Wisp said, "it's... it's not really something I can explain. I do have to show it to you"
She looked at Wisp, and his bright blue eyes, and then smiled. "Alright" she said, walking over toward him.

"Lead on." He paused, and then smiled nervously.
"You'll have to keep your eyes closed until we get there." She stared at him with the most un-amused expression she could manage.

"Seriously, Wisp?" she asked incredulously. His face was practically the picture of seriousness.
"Alright then" she said. "This must be pretty important if you feel you have to put this much effort into secrecy."

Wisp said nothing to that, as she closed her eyes, allowing him to lead her out of the library. As she did, she began to ponder as to what it could've been that he was up to, and then, an idea came to her. It was ridiculous, and unlikely, she knew, but it was an incredibly alluring idea all the same.


*****


Several minutes of walking later, and Shining Sapphire was beginning to wonder what possible revelation could've been worth so much suspense. She wasn't entirely certain where she was, but she knew there had been a flight of stairs not too long ago, and now her curiosity was threatening to overwhelm her. There was the sound of a door being opened, and the feeling of a draft wafting past her.
"Okay," Wisp announced a few steps later. "We're here."

She opened her eyes, uncertain as to what she would be seeing. She saw a view of the Crystal Empire, with the sun dipping behind the horizon, casting everything in sight in wonderful golden-orange colours. She blinked, and turned to Wisp.
"I'm going to need some help on this one" she said, "what am I supposed to be seeing?"

"Wait for it" was all Wisp said, as he looked up at the sky. Slowly, she turned to look. There was nothing but the sky, without so much as a cloud to be seen.
"Wisp? What's going on?"

"Wait for it" he repeated. She looked around, and waited. And waited. The sun set, and everything turned to dark blues and purples. She turned to look at Wisp, who looked slightly embarrassed.
"Sorry" he said sheepishly, "I might have jumped ahead a bit. I didn't want you to miss it, though."

"Miss what?" Shining Sapphire found herself asking. Wisp pointed a hoof skyward.
"Well, that, for one thing."

She swivelled, and looked. Up against the night sky was a single star. She turned to look at Wisp, then back to the star. She waited. After a few seconds another star appeared, and another, and another. And slowly, one by one, she saw a familiar pattern forming in the arrangement of the stars, one she knew very well indeed.
It was her Cutie Mark.

"Surprise" Wisp smiled. She tried to say something, but for whatever reason couldn't find the right words. She stared at Wisp, who was grinning excitedly.
"Why? How? Who?" she sputtered, before stopping, trying to collect her thoughts. After that, she paused, not trusting herself to do anything more than blurt sentence fragments.

"Explain" she stated. Wisp bowed his head.
"Easy. Just before I went looking for you the other day, I asked Princess Celestia to ask Princess Luna to arrange a meeting with me, and then the next time I fell asleep we met, we talked for a bit, and I asked her for a small favour."

"You asked her to make a constellation in the shape of my Cutie Mark" Shining Sapphire finished, staring at the sight, as some part of her wasn't convinced it was real. Several more were asking what Equestria's astronomers were going to make of it.
"Okay, that's... that's beautiful," she added, "but why? And why did she agree to do this?"

"She agreed to help because I asked nicely" Wisp explained, as he made his way over toward her, "and as for the why... well, actually, the 'why' is this: to distract you."
"Distract me?" Shining Sapphire asked, "distract me from what, exactly?"

Wisp walked over toward the balcony, and looked downward. "From that."
Her curiosity piqued, she walked over toward the balcony, and looked down, just to see what was so impressive he needed Princess Luna's assistance to distract her. Her jaw dropped at the sight. A huge crowd of ponies had gathered in one of the streets, and even from her current height, she could see what they were doing. Slowly, the crowd rippled, and revealed massive placards which slowly revealed a single message. She turned to look at Wisp, who was smiling bashfully.

"I kinda figured I owed you a ridiculously huge romantic gesture" he mumbled. "So I decided to ask about the city, asked a few ponies for some assistance. They were actually pretty willing to help out."
He looked out over the crowd again, and scratched his head. "Although I don't recall asking this many ponies though."

Shining Sapphire just alternated between staring at Wisp and the crowd of ponies. After a few seconds she resolutely closed her jaw, and stared at Wisp, who just shuffled nervously.
"I wasn't really sure if now was the best time to do this" Wisp said, slowly, "but after the last few days, after last night, after everything, I'm pretty sure now might be the only time."

Shining Sapphire blinked, as she felt a rising mix of terror and joy. She was fairly certain she could tell what Wisp was going to say. Some part of her wanted very much to stop him, but for whatever reason she could only stand there and listen to what he was saying.
"Shining Sapphire," he said, "will y-"

In an instant, she found herself somehow going from standing still to leaping on him and hugging him. There was a surprised noise from the pony as she did so, before she began kissing him. Down below, she was fairly certain she heard the crowd roar, and then felt the distinctive feeling of the Crystal Heart's magic washing over her.
"Wisp" she said, ignoring the lump in her front, "I... I..."

She released her grip, and coughed, trying to fight down the urge to grin manically. "I think I said the other day, did I not, that I didn't want to get married right away."
Wisp opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off. "And furthermore, you were somewhat vocal on how you didn't want to get married either."

Wisp paused for a moment. "I was in a terrible mood at the time" he said quietly, before looking at Shining Sapphire, "and I am allowed to change my mind, aren't I?"
"Yes" Sapphy admitted, deciding not to point out that it had only been three days since he'd said it. "But... are you sure you want to get married? In front of all kinds of ponies? Being a spectacle?"

Wisp twitched slightly at those words, and he turned to stare up the sky. The constellation of Shining Sapphire's Cutie Mark was already being disassembled by Princess Luna, now that its purpose was done.
"Do you?" he asked. Shining Sapphire paused.

"I..." she managed. "I think I stand by what I said the other day, that I don't want to get married right away. But..."
She stared down at the crowd below, then to Wisp. "Then again..." she murmured, "we have been seeing one another for several years now..."

Then she saw Wisp fighting down a smirk, and jabbed him with a hoof.
"Ow" he deadpanned.

"But you aren't answering my question" she said, "are you doing this because it's what you think would make me happy?"
"Would it?"

She stared blankly for a moment, before shuffling. "It... it might. It just might."
She brushed up against him, "but we don't need to be married to be happy, you know."

"We don't?" Wisp asked, almost sounding genuinely surprised.
"We don't" she smiled warmly, before shifting, "though I think we probably should be before we think about having kids."

Quite suddenly, Wisp paled. His eyes shrank, and his entire body tensed. Then he fell over.
"Wisp?" she asked in alarm, as he just stared into the night sky, not responding at all. She briefly wondered about shaking him, but then decided it would probably have been more bother than to just let him lie. After a few minutes he blinked, and slowly began to move again.

"Sorry" he said quietly, "not sure where that came from."
Shining Sapphire raised an eyebrow, trying not to grin. "If that's how you react to the idea of kids" she started, before realising she wasn't sure where to go with that sentence. Wisp just blinked.

"It startled me, is all" he said. Shining Sapphire gave him a Look which managed to convey just how much she believed him, before she started smiling again.
"Up you get" she said, trying to help him to his hooves. The two stood there for a moment, looking at the other and smiling occasionally. It soon occurred to them that not only was it getting dark, it was also beginning to get incredibly cold.

"Shall we go inside?" Wisp said after a few seconds.
"Yes" Shining Sapphire shivered, "let's."

The two turned, and headed indoors. As they did, Shining Sapphire leaned in toward Wisp. Then she noticed he had stopped.
"What is it?" she asked, seeing Wisp beginning to frown. He turned his head back toward the night sky, a pained expression on his face.
"They're here" he said.


*****

Elsewhere in the palace, and four changelings looked at one another apprehensively, before slowly making their way toward the nearest window.

In an entirely different part of the castle, in the small room that had been designated their bedroom, and was now serving as a makeshift dungeon, their fifth suddenly began to smile joyously.


*****


It started simply enough. One changeling had just randomly appeared in the sky above the city, and it had taken a while to notice it against the dark of the night. Once they noticed it, the inhabitants of the Crystal Empire had felt concerned, but not truly alarmed, since one changeling could've been easily dealt with by the proper authorities. Then there was another, then another, then more, then much more, and before anypony knew it there were what looked like hundreds of changelings hovering over the Empire.

And of course that was the point at which everypony panicked, running for cover. Some ponies even bother to declare that it wasn't fair, the changelings had already tried invading the month before, and why had they come back?
For a time, the changelings hovered in the sky, before gently settling upon the ground in front of the castle. Slowly, and cautiously, several guards surrounded them, pointing all manner of unfriendly pieces of metal at them, though the changelings seemed unconcerned by this. After a few minutes, the doors of the palace opened, and Princess Cadance emerged, making her way towards the changelings.

"What's going on here?" she asked. The changelings just stared at her. She could've sworn some of them looked apprehensive, or nervous, but she disregarded this. From behind her, she heard the sound of hoofsteps, and turned to see her daughter and her colfriend approaching. They stopped in front of her, Shining Sapphire smiling sheepishly as she did. Wisp just nodded cautiously, his attention drawn towards the mass of changelings standing nearby.
"Hi, mom" Sapphy said, in-between attempts to catch her breath. Cadance just smiled.

"Sapphy, I'm assuming these changelings are here because of that crown you mentioned yesterday."
Sapphy shuffled on her hooves. "Maybe" she said, a nervous smile passing across her face, although there was something else about her mood that Cadance could help but notice, especially about the way she was looking at Wisp. The younger mare nudged him to get his attention. He jolted and turned to look at her.

"You've got a plan, right?" Sapphy asked. Wisp just shook his head.
"Heck no" he said. Cadance resisted the urge to facehoof, as Wisp just looked at the changelings again. Slowly, he stepped forward, one hoof in front of the other, until he reached the nearest changeling, and stared at it.

"Your highness" the changeling said, its voice surprisingly clear and eloquent, before bowing. Then all the other changelings began bowing as well. There was utter silence.
Wisp's face went pale, then paler still. His entire body tensed up, and there was an incredibly loud gulp from the golden-brown pony. He looked back toward Shining Sapphire, and slowly began to smile. But then his smile contorted, and he began to make odd noises, and then, quite suddenly, collapsed.

There was a concerned gasp from both mares. Shining Sapphire rushed over toward him. Cadance just stared at the changelings in front of her, some of whom were eying her daughter with suspicion.
"Is he-" she asked. Sapphy just nodded.

"He's alright. He's breathing" she said, sighing with relief, before she looked between the changelings and her mother.
"So" she said awkwardly, "what now?"

"What now?" Cadance repeated, "good question."
She sighed. "I mean, what are you supposed to do with several hundred changelings?"

Shining Sapphire bit her lip, then, when the answer proved elusive, looked down towards the still form of Whisper Wind, who just groaned slightly.