The Play's The Thing

"This is our three tribes' fault," Applejack said listlessly. "Now the blizzard's destroyin' this land."

Twilight leapt from her chair and flung her forehooves wide. "Cut!"

The rest of us groaned and slumped down from our frozen poses as Twilight exhaled through clenched teeth, her wings ruffling out. "Applejack, you know that's not how it goes! You skipped the whole middle part! 'We three tribes, we brought this blizzard to our home by fighting and not trusting each other.' Can you please focus?"

"Yeah, you're right," Applejack said, staring at the auditorium door. "Sorry."

"Do I have to remind you how important this pageant is?" Twilight started pacing in tight circles. I stifled a sigh as we braced ourselves for the lecture again. "Everything has to be perfect —"

"I know. I —"

"— since it's the first pageant I'm officially sponsoring as a princess —"

"We know, Twilight," Rainbow Dash muttered, glancing out the window herself.

"and every single line will reflect on me personally —"

Applejack's ears flattened. "I said I'm sorry —"

"— not to mention it's Hearth's Warming Eve, and the pageant is tomorrow —"

"Twilight!" I said sharply, moving up to Applejack's side and touching a supportive hoof to her withers.

The alicorn blinked and refocused. "What?"

"Com-port-ment," I said, tilting my head just so and raising an eyebrow worthy of Celestia herself.

Guilt flashed through Twilight's eyes, and her expression immediately softened. She brought a hoof to her chest, then exhaled, extending her leg. When she continued, her voice was soft and controlled. "I'm sorry, Applejack. You didn't deserve that. I think the stress has been getting to me."

"S'alright," AJ mumbled.

"I'm glad I have Rarity to help me keep acting like a princess," Twilight said, glancing straight into my eyes for a moment, "but even more than that, I need to remember to act like a friend. So … what's wrong? You've been distracted all night."

Applejack sighed and looked at the door again. "I got a different blizzard on my mind, Twi. I oughta be out with Big Mac coverin' the zap-apples. With all the crazy weather outta the Everfree lately and Dash stretched thin managing the Hearth's Warming snow, if an unscheduled storm adds anything to tonight's three inches, it could kill half the orchard."

"Hey now," Dash said, stepping forward with her own wings ruffling up. "I'm not gonna let anything happen to Sweet Apple Acres, okay? We talked about this."

"I'm not sayin' you are, but —"

"But nothing," Dash snapped. "You totally are. I can do my job, alright?"

"It's not you I don't trust," Applejack said. "It's that dang-blasted Everfree. You've gone above the call of duty and stopped five wildstorms outta six —"

"And I will stop number seven!"

"Girls!"

We all staggered back, ears twitching, as Twilight's royal voice interrupted all conversation, thoughts, and heartbeats in the room. As her royal duties increased, she had picked up how to augment her voice with her natural alicorn magic — but as most of the town could testify, she still needed quite a bit of work on volume control.

Twilight coughed, and her lips formed the words, "Errr, sorry."

"Um," Fluttershy said as our hearing slowly recovered. "Does anypony hear that?"

I squinted and turned my head back and forth. Indeed, a siren-like wail was becoming audible in the distance. "One of the Flower Sisters, I should imagine," I muttered. "Standing under the edge of a rooftop as Twilight's voice was unleashed."

Twilight frowned. "No, the pitch is too low."

Applejack flicked her ears several times, then tilted her head. "Come ta think of it, that sounds like …"

Mayor Mare burst through the auditorium door, red-faced and out of breath. Her eyes quickly locked in on ours, and she inhaled and shouted:

"Changelings!"

We galloped through the falling snow toward Town Square, where the Hearth's Warming Eve street fair was in full swing. Strings of colored lights limned the square, giving off a cheerful glow completely at odds with the chaos underneath. Screaming ponies were scrambling for cover underneath market stalls and around corners; dashing inside the few open buildings; and pounding on the doors of the others. Every few seconds a pony would point up in the sky and shriek, and the crowd near them would shift, looking over their shoulders and abandoning their cover for a heedless stampede away from the new threat.

A few of the Royal Guards that had been assigned to Twilight's new castle were hovering above the crowd, ineffectually shouting orders. The rest had pulled out their spears and were hovering at rooftop height, pointing their weapons out into the darkness in apparently random directions. I glanced up as we approached the square, but my eyes were adjusting slowly to the snow-shrouded night and it was hard to pick anything out. At least, I noted with relief, there didn't seem to be any black figures on the ground.

That relief was short-lived as Rainbow Dash shot ahead of us in a broad arc around the square and returned with eyes wide. "Oh, thunderheads, they're everywhere up there."

"I think they're herdin' ponies into the square!" Applejack shouted as we skidded to a halt at the edge of the chaos.

"What's the plan, Twilight?" I asked.

"First, protect everypony," Her horn flared to life with the brilliance of a star. "Cover me!"

The spell she was charging threw the square into sharp relief, turning the snow around us into a patchwork of zebra-stripe shadows as the five of us leapt into position surrounding her. I glanced up past Dash's flapping wings. Everywhere I looked, there were hints of motion amid the swirling snow and flashes of reflected light from cold green eyes. The chill of the night seemed to reach inside and grip me as I crouched, readying a spell of my own to unleash at the first changeling to charge.

Ominously, none did.

Twilight's spell resolved with a firecracker bang, covering Town Square and its scores of ponies with a large lavender bubble. "Next," she said as a cheer came up from the crowd, "we do … something … about all of them."

"Such as what?" I asked, my hornbolt still charged as my eyes flicked from hovering target to hovering target.

"I'm still figuring that out."

"Rainbow power ready!" Dash said, landing at Twilight's side and hoofing the snow.

"Wait," Fluttershy said, taking a step backward and bumping flanks with Twilight. "They're not attacking."

"It might be a trap. Looks like they're waitin' for something," Applejack said through the lasso in her teeth, pushing the brim of her hat down.

Pinkie Pie gasped, and her eyes narrowed. "Like Queen Meanie," she said, pointing.

We all turned as a familiar black figure floated out of the sky toward us, gossamer wings outstretched, a smug grin on her muzzle. Dash stepped forward, teeth bared. Twilight stopped her with an outstretched leg.

"Chrysalis," Twilight said in a voice colder than the snow underhoof.

The queen landed. "Good evening, Twilight Sparkle," she purred. "I must say, the wings suit you."

"Don't even start. I'll never forgive you for what you did to Shining Armor and Cadance, but I will give you a better chance than you deserve. If you leave right now and never come back, I won't blast you where you stand."

"Leave?" Chrysalis' eyes went wide, and her fangs gleamed as her grin widened into a smirk. "Why, I'd be happy to, my dear little Element of Magic. Of course, the moment I'm too far away to control them — or, I should note, if anything were to happen to me — you might discover that a hiveful of hungry, mindless drones can do … unpleasant things to all the defenseless ponies outside your shield. I do hope that your growth spurt came along with the ability to be everywhere in town at once?"

"Why, you …" Applejack growled, teeth clenching down even harder on her rope.

Twilight's lips curled back in a snarl. "What. Do. You. Want."

The smile fell away from Chrysalis' muzzle as she stepped forward, looming over Twilight. "Believe it or not," she hissed, "the same thing you do. For me to leave this accursed land of ponies behind like a bad dream. Ever since your spoiled brat of a brother's little stunt killed every changeling in Canterlot —" Chrysalis bared her fangs, then leaned in, wingtips quivering — "and sent me limping half-broken back to my hive, I've been planning an invasion of Minotaurial Guinea. However, with my best infiltrators dead and my remaining drones hungry, I haven't got a chance. So you —" she bumped noses with Twilight, who to her credit, didn't flinch — "are going to fix what you broke when you uncovered my wedding plans."

"That's not going to happen," Twilight said flatly.

Chrysalis backed away and shrugged. "Suit yourself. Really, it's all for the best — you'll be able to build something much nicer in the ruins here."

I winced. This was going nowhere good, and we needed time to find a way out of the mess. "Twilight," I murmured, but she cut me off with a glance and a nod — apparently coming to the same conclusion.

"And what, exactly, did you expect to get out of this?" Twilight said, straightening up and speaking in clipped, level tones. "Are you blackmailing us for tribute? Because if our choice is between offering you ponies to feed on, and having ponies fed on when the town's attacked, we're going to choose the option that lets us take you down with us."

Chrysalis' muzzle spread back into its predatory smile. "Ah, now you're asking reasonable questions. There are other ways ponykind can support me than emotions. Military intelligence. Gold. Formal diplomatic recognition of my new empire. This doesn't have to end with anypony getting hurt."

"You make a good point. I think," Twilight said with deliberate slowness, "maybe we should sit down and talk this out."

I hid a wince. Smart as Twilight was, she had no poker face at all. She might as well have held out a sign saying "We're stalling."

Chrysalis shrugged easily. "That works for me." She put a hole-ridden hoof to her muzzle, as if entertaining an afterthought. "Of course, since it's getting late and the negotiations might drag on overnight, you won't mind quartering my changelings until we're done, will you? About two per house should do it."

"What?!" Applejack exploded. "Ain't no way we're gonna let 'em right into our houses where they can attack us while we're sleepin'!"

Twilight stomped, hoof crunching into the snow. "She's right. That's ridiculous."

"It's only ridiculous if you were planning on negotiating in bad faith," Chrysalis snapped. "Don't insult my intelligence by pretending not to understand the concept of an insurance policy."

I held up a hoof, mind racing. Changelings holding the entire town hostage was a setback, for certain, but buying time was too crucial. "Wait, girls. As distateful as it is to say, she is correct; we can rule out a sneak attack. She had ample opportunity to do just that before we arrived, and yet, here we are."

"Thank you," Chrysalis said. "Listen to your marshmallow."

"Of course, lodging might be more efficient if — what did you call me?!"

As I sputtered, Twilight shook her head firmly. "No deal — I see your plan. You're asking me to give every changeling here free access to a target to imitate, so you can replace the whole town before anypony realizes something's wrong."

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. "Then impose your own conditions. That's how negotiation is supposed to work, if you weren't aware. I'll even give you this one for free: All the drones will stay in their true form, and they're confined to a single room of the house, so you can enter any home at a glance and see whether I'm keeping my end of the deal. At least one pony stays in each house, too, but they can be anywhere within it."

"That doesn't stop what Twilight mentioned about replacing the town," Dash said.

"Oh, please. As if you're not going to inform your precious royal sisters what's going on here the instant my back is turned. If I did that, I'd have your entire army swarming down on me within a day. I can't fool Equestria any more — that's why I want to leave." She pointed a hoof at Twilight. "Speaking of which, another condition. No outside troop movements, and no other princesses. I have no delusions that I can stop you from telling Sunflanks and Moon Moon about this, but make clear to them that if they keep me from leaving, I'll take the town down with me."

Twilight frowned. "If you're making new conditions, then I get to add one. None of your drones will feed while you're in Ponyville. Period."

Chrysalis blinked. "Hm."

I made a strangled little noise at Twilight. That was a great idea in theory, but far too dangerous. Even if Chrysalis accepted, that would put our solution on a timetable as her drones began to starve. Twilight glanced back at me, and I did my best to shake my head discreetly. Twilight raised an eyebrow and frowned. I looked at her intently. She shook her head and turned back to Chrysalis.

"I've got to give you credit, I actually had to think about that one," Chrysalis said. "I accept — mostly because of how entertaining the look on Marshmallow's face was. Let's send everyone back to their houses and go to your home to talk this out."

"I think Twilight needs to speak with her friends first," I said levelly.

"Fine, whatever," Chrysalis said, turning around and staring into the sky at her army. They began to descend. "I'll go wait for you. … Where is this library of yours, anyway?"

"Behind the times, much? Tirek blew it up," Dash said.

Chrysalis froze. It was only for a fraction of a second, but my practiced eye caught it. Even when dealing with shapeshifters, some signals were unmistakable.

She covered it up with a snort and a toss of her head. "Then you know how I felt after the wedding. What sort of book fort is Canterlot's biggest nerd living in now?"

"Very funny," Twilight said flatly. "I'm in the Friendship Palace."

Chrysalis paused for another moment, and I found myself wishing that I knew enough to decipher whatever tells she was displaying. "That's a deal-breaker," she said. "No negotiating inside palaces. I learned enough as Cadance to know all the magical traps and spyholes they're constructed with. We can hold our talks in the new library."

"We don't have one. There's been no time to reconstruct our catalogue of the destroyed books, much less order replacements."

Chrysalis' pointedly deliberate eye-roll told me that she had regained enough control to keep me from reading any more signals off of her body language. "Alright. Then we talk in Marshmallow's house."

"Listen," Twilight said, "you can't just order us around like —"

"Actually," I cut in, "that sounds like a marvelous idea. I am certain you will find Carousel Boutique's accommodations suitably luxurious for one of your station." I studied a hoof-edge briefly. "Of course, it would be inappropriate for myself and my family to remain there and disrupt delicate negotiations. We shall find other lodging for the duration."

Chrysalis turned to stare into my eyes. I stared back, giving her my best bland I-know-something-you-don't-know smile.

"Deal," she said, smiling back just as insincerely. "I'll see you all soon."

"What was that about, Rarity?" Twilight asked as the six of us rejoined Spike in the Friendship Palace and huddled in an out-of-the-way drawing room. "You're okay with her taking over Carousel Boutique?"

"Twilight, darling," I said, reclining in the chaise longue I had insisted upon when I was helping her order the furnishings, "you are the most brilliant pony I know in the fields of both friendship and magic, but I have studied more about the nobility than any pony outside Canterlot. The intrigues of the upper classes are all about layers within layers, pretenses within pretenses, and so it is too with changelings."

"That doesn't answer my question."

I curled one side of my mouth up in an enigmatic smile.

"Hang on, Rare," Applejack interrupted. "Are you implyin' she's not actually here because she's taking over the minotaurs? 'Cause I don't know changelings, but I know honesty, and that story's fishier than the back half of a seapony."

Twilight frowned. "That's true. Even if she gets all the concessions she wants, we know her next target, and can warn them and foil her plans. It makes no sense."

"Seriously? It's obvious," Dash said. "We're the invasion. After wiping out her army at the wedding she's smarting for revenge."

"Or maybe," Fluttershy said faintly, "she's really really sorry about what she did, but she doesn't know enough about ponies to know how to apologize."

"What if she's trying to learn about us?" Spike said. "Don't negotiations usually take, like, forever? That means an awful lot of time to observe ponies."

"I bet this whole shebang's a distraction," Applejack said. "She's actually strikin' somewhere else and needs us pinned down here."

"Maybe all of those are true," Pinkie Pie said with a spooky waver in her voice.

"Fortunately," I said, studying a hoof, "the truth is far simpler than that."

Six heads swiveled toward me. "Oh?" Twilight asked.

"Changelings are consummate liars, and we cannot take her at her word on anything she says; but even the best can slip and expose themselves if taken by surprise. Did you notice, Twilight, her mistake in referring to you as the 'Element of Magic', even though the Elements of Harmony were reunited with the Tree? Clearly, she has been unable to stay informed of current events. And when you mentioned the destruction of the library …" I gave the others a significant look. "She could not wholly cover up her shock. Furthermore, she pressed for information on a new library which does not exist."

"Yer sayin' she's here to read?" Applejack asked, one eyebrow raised. "No offense, Rare, but that's silly. She could swindle her way into most any library in the world."

"Ut-ut!" I say. "But also look at her immediate reaction after being informed of her mistake. She requested to stay in the home of moi. By offering a logical assessment of her initial actions, I proved myself another pony likely to be well-educated — and she arranged to wait for us not in the place where I would be, as I explicitly denied I would be in residence, but in the place where my books would be."

The room was silent as the others digested that.

"That does kinda make sense," Twilight said. "But why is she here to read?"

"That is, indeed, the question."

Dash shook her head with a snort. "I'm not buying it. This is way too much trouble to check out a library book."

Recognition flitted across Applejack's muzzle. She blinked several times.

"Hold up," she said. "The wildstorms. If the hive's in the Everfree, she's at ground zero."

"That's right!" Twilight said. "If there's some new threat moving into the area that she doesn't know how to defend herself from …" She gasped. "Windigoes."

Fluttershy scuffed a hoof on the ground and looked away. "Everypony has been awfully tense lately."

"Like they're magnifying our normal holiday stress," I said, and glanced at Applejack. "Six storms, you say?"

"So far."

"Then we need to deal with that, like, yesterday," Dash said, her mouth flat with determination. "Or we're gonna have bigger problems than changelings in town."

"Alright, girls," Twilight said. She stood up, spreading her wings and lifting a hoof in imitation of Celestia. "We've got a lot of problems to tackle all at once, but we can do this. First of all, our password is 'Jewelbox,' and the response is 'Plundervine.' Every time we split up and get back together, make sure you exchange those, and don't let anypony overhear you. That way, we can be sure that we're really us. I did learn a spell after the wedding to break changelings' alteration enchantments, but that's no help if you can't trust me to cast it properly."

"Commendably clever," I said.

Twilight smiled for a moment, then looked around intensely. "Dash, I need you to scout the Everfree and find those windigoes."

She saluted. "I can have my best weather team ready in 15 minutes."

"Applejack, go home and cover your orchard."

"Thanks, Twi," Applejack said with obvious relief.

"Fluttershy, you should make sure all of your animals are prepared for the cold."

"They'll be fine — they know to come inside when the storms get too bad."

Twilight thought for a moment. "Then you should help Applejack. I bet she can use every hoof she can get, tonight."

"Alright."

"Pinkie Pie, you go around from house to house and make sure that Chrysalis is keeping her word and that everypony's safe and calm."

She broke into a wide grin. "I'm gonna have so many parties to throw tonight!"

"Spike, I need you to update Princess Celestia with the whole story, then stick with me so you can take notes."

"Got it." He grabbed a quill and scroll and was soon hard at work.

"And Rarity, you stick with me, too. Chrysalis …" She took a deep breath. "Will expect me to negotiate. I need you there."

My eyes flew open. "Surely you don't mean to make an honest effort at diplomacy?"

"No. The point is to stall her. But we also need to figure out what her plan is and how to stop it, and I can't do that if I have to focus on the talks."

I tapped a hoof to my chin, considering. As the broad strokes of a plan began to form and mesh, a smile slowly spread across my muzzle.

"In that case, Twilight," I said, "you may count on me."

All The World's A Stage

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Noteworthy's door creaked open. He peeked around the edge at me. His eyes shot open.

"M-miss Rarity," he said. "Sh-shouldn't you be out saving Ponyville?"

I gave him a sweet smile. "I assure you that everything is under control. However —" I heaved a dramatic sigh — "I find that these unique circumstances have left me and my family temporarily dispossessed. Might I beg a neighborly favor …?" I trailed off, tilting my head at Sweetie Belle by my side.

He processed that for a moment, then opened his door. "S-sure, you're welcome here. S-scootaloo will be happy to see Sweetie —" he lowered his voice — "b-but if you're looking to keep her away from the b-bugs, you won't have much luck here."

I glanced past him to the living room, where two hulking black figures were sitting with their back to the fire, staring at us in uncomfortable silence. They were still wearing their armor, which gleamed in the reflected light. One of them noticed my gaze and looked away with poorly feigned nonchalance.

"We're all in this together, darling," I said brightly. "I merely want Sweetie to have an element of familiarity for the holiday while I'm occupied with the resolution of this inconvenience." I walked Sweetie inside, floating her snow-covered sleepover kit in after her, and gave her a hug. She made a beeline toward the stairs and around the corner to Scootaloo's room.

That accomplished, I gave the two soldiers a cheery wave. "Happy Hearth's Warming Eve, dears." The only response that got was a brief shift of their muzzles in my direction, their blank eyes fixing me for a moment before they straightened their backs and returned their gazes to the walls.

"C-creepy, isn't it?" Noteworthy murmured. "That's all they've d-done since they got here."

I slowly nodded. I had expected as much; stronger measures would be called for.

"It is," I said. "But don't allow it to bother you; the situation is well under control."

"If you s-say so."

"I do." I smiled as I walked back outside. "I shall return later. Do pass on my best wishes to Cloud Kicker when she returns from patrol, mmmm?"

"W-will do. You take c-care of yourself."

I gave him a precise curtsey — an inclined head and a small bend of the knees. "I always do."

Next was Carousel Boutique, where Twilight and Chrysalis were sitting at a table by my crackling fireplace. Spike was fidgeting in a chair to one side. Twilight appeared to be arranging several stacks of scrolls alphabetically. Chrysalis was leaning back in her chair, idly sipping at a glass of Marelot she had undoubtedly liberated from my cabinet.

Twilight leapt to her hooves at my arrival. "Rarity! Thank goodness. Now we can get started."

"In a moment. A word in private, please, Twilight?"

"Uh, sure."

We walked upstairs to my bedroom, closed the door, and exchanged passwords. "Start without me," I said. "I have some errands to run."

Twilight's eyes shot wide. "What?! But you agreed that you would —"

"— figure out how to stop her," I interrupted firmly. "Which I will — but I'm afraid she is sufficiently skillful that I will accomplish very little while sitting across the table from her. Trust me, Twilight, when I say that you would accomplish even less. You are unquestionably the smartest pony in Equestria, but discerning her goals is a question of cunning, not intelligence. Simply stall the negotiations, as we already discussed."

"But …" Twilight's mouth opened and closed helplessly. "You said you would do that!"

"You mentioned two tasks requiring our attention," I said, opening one of my dresser drawers and taking out my makeup kit. I floated items out one by one, examining them. "I gave an ambiguous yet honest answer, and all else was assumption. To be blunt, Twilight, if you could be caught so off guard by such a simple evasion, what hope do you have of understanding a being whose entire existence is based upon lies?"

"I …" Twilight's ears drooped, and she took a long breath. "You're right. She'd outclass me. I've learned a lot about friendship since I got here, but I'm only now starting to realize how little I know about people."

I paused my work to set my makeup kit down and give her a firm hug. "Do not mistake me. It speaks well of you that you trust so wholeheartedly. I will never betray that trust, and I am proud to call you friend … but we are very different ponies, you and I. Right now, Ponyville needs me to match wits with Chrysalis in a fashion which — I pray to the stars — you might never understand."

"Fair enough." A smile passed across Twilight's face like the flicker of a candle, just as quickly extinguished. "I've still got to go down there and stall her, though."

"You'll be fine, darling. I would not be leaving if I felt that you were incapable of that task." Several tubes of lipstick, a compact, a selection of eye-pencils, and a pocket mirror went into my saddlebags. With some reluctance, I put the rest back away to clear enough room for a dog-eared paperback book. "Remember, her true purpose here is to read; stalling benefits her as well."

Twilight tensed up. "How can you say that? Her home's under attack, and these talks are keeping her from dealing with it! The longer it takes, the more upset she'll get!"

I held up a hoof. "Again, Twilight: Be wary of assumptions. Had she no reason to delay, she simply would have invaded the library to steal what she needed. It should become clearer what else she's after as we proceed." I took a dusky indigo overcoat from my closet and tugged it on.

"That … sounds logical." Twilight started pacing. "It's illogical for her not to care about the things she should care about, but when you put it that way, it kind of makes sense." She sighed. "How am I going to get us the time we need?"

I smiled. "Stalling a negotiation is so simple that it takes the most experienced diplomats to do anything but. Merely quibble over everything. Meet every one of her conditions with one of your own. Begin from impossible positions and allow yourself to be argued down to the merely unreasonable. I recommend beginning with an offer to recognize her new empire if she turns herself in to Equestria for prosecution of her war crimes."

Twilight's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. "But," she sputtered, "that's ridiculous! She'd never go for that!"

"Exactly. If you only offered suggestions you thought she would accept, it wouldn't be much of a negotiation, now, would it?" I floated several scarves off the closet shelf, held them up against my overcoat one by one, and picked a fetching aquamarine number, wrapping it around my neck and carefully folding the others back up.

"Rarity, she's got changelings in every house in Ponyville! I can't make a suggestion like that — she'll think I'm arguing in bad faith!"

"And if she attacks with them, she loses all hope of achieving her objectives." I turned to squarely face Twilight, who was on the edge of hyperventilation, and put both forehooves on her shoulders. "Trust me, Twilight. She will propose something equally unacceptable, and you will find some bizarrely insignificant point — such as the name of her empire's new currency — upon which there might be room to compromise, and from there you will slowly circle toward a plan. Any time you feel yourself getting dangerously close to consensus, merely bring up a deal-breaker which has not been previously discussed, and the process will begin anew. Repeat until it is sufficiently late that she accepts your proposal to begin with a clear head in the morning."

Twilight took several deep breaths, visibly swallowed, and nodded at me. "Okay. Okay … I can do that. But what about you? How are you going to find out her motives if you're not even here to listen to her?"

"Trust me," I said, running a brush through my mane and then putting on a snow hat that matched my overcoat, with a tilted white stripe and a few small amethysts accenting the brim. "I shall be performing my duties."

"Okay," she said uncertainly, but allowed me to lead her back downstairs.

I quietly let myself out into the silent flurries of snow as the princess and the queen began to argue. Once the door clicked shut behind me, I pulled out the pocket mirror and brought it up to my face, tilting it slightly and smiling at the reflection on its surface. Perfect.

After all, there were some secrets that it was best for a lady to keep … even from her friends.

"Good evening," I sang as Big Macintosh threw a tarp over a tree. Fluttershy caught it in midair and pulled it over a tree and down the far side, and Applejack and Apple Bloom ran around the tarp, pulling the corners taut and staking them to the ground. "How goes the orchard preservation?"

"Rarity?" Applejack said, pausing for a moment to squint at me. "What're you doing here?"

"I recalled Twilight noting you could use the assistance," I said. "After all, many hooves make light work."

We leaned in and exchanged passwords. Applejack nodded. "Well," she said, "I can't say it ain't welcome, as long as you're able to get your other work done."

I smiled. I'd carefully ensured there were no figures in the sky or on the ground following me out to Sweet Apple Acres; as far as Chrysalis was concerned, Twilight's brightest agent had focused her cunning on a task more urgent than their negotiations, and would be gone for several hours with no more clue to her whereabouts than a thin sheen of sweat upon her return. The very best move was one that allowed you to accomplish an objective while driving your opponent to distraction with an unrelated feint. "I believe I can."

We covered trees for several hours, until Applejack stepped back for a break. "So what'd you learn from the bug, anyhow?"

"Oh," I said, "absolutely nothing."

Her eyebrows shot up. "What?"

"Nothing yet, I should say." I shook some snow off my overcoat. "I am — if I might be allowed to speak for a moment without clouding my words in false modesty — a clever pony, but I am not a fraction as clever as the ruler of a race whose existence depends upon deception. Our triumph shall come via the tactical application of our strengths against the most vulnerable points of her intelligence networks, and the creative use of assets she could not possibly anticipate."

Applejack took off her hat long enough to tap it against a tree, sending a shower of snow down from its brim. "So you're playin' super-spy. Got it. Just let me know if I can help."

"I assure you," I said, "I will."

She cracked open a thermos and passed it around, and the five of us sipped some hot cider.

"Sure wish Dash was back with news," Applejack said. "It's gettin' awful late."

I checked my pocket watch. She was right — I'd let time slip away from me. "Indeed," I said. "Well past Apple Bloom's bedtime, I would wager."

"It is, at that, but I ain't complaining."

"Actually," I said, "that reminds me. I ought to be getting back to Cloud Kicker's to check on Sweetie."

Apple Bloom's eyes, tired as they were, lit up. "There's a sleepover at Scootaloo's?"

Applejack frowned. "Not with the bugs in everypony's house, there ain't."

"Awwwww! But it's Hearth's Warming Eve! Ain't the whole point of that the three tribes gettin' together?"

"Actually," I said, "I'm planning to sleep there myself. I'd be happy to keep an eye on Apple Bloom as well … and it might be good for them, with everything else going on, to be with their best friends for the holiday."

Apple Bloom wheeled on her big sister, eyes wide and lower lip quivering. "Pleeeeeease?"

"Oh, alright," Applejack sighed. "Thanks for all your help, Rare."

"I assure you it's no problem." I put a hoof around Apple Bloom's shoulder. "We've all got to do our part."

After checking in on Twilight — who had managed to sidetrack their debate entirely into a rousing argument over the economics of Minotaurial Guinea's export base, until both had agreed to sleep on it and calm down — I settled in on Cloud Kicker's couch with a thick blanket and the copy of Withering Heights that I'd taken from my room. I glanced over at the two changelings as I settled in to read. Neither appeared to have moved from their post by the fireplace. A fresh log had been added to the fire, and it snapped and crackled quietly in the background, giving the room a warm red glow.

"Aren't you going to bed?" I asked. "I'm certain you've had a long day."

They glanced at each other. One covered his mouth with a leg and coughed.

I checked my pocket mirror, nudging the curls of my mane slightly sideways before sitting up straighter and giving them a shyly coquettish smile. "Your queen went to sleep ten minutes ago, you know," I confided. "I was over at Carousel Boutique when they finished their negotiations for the night."

The two changelings exchanged glances again, their expressions indecipherable. One leaned in. The second shook its head almost imperceptibly. The first looked back away in a quick motion, and they both returned to staring at fixed points on the far wall.

Interesting, I thought. "What I mean to say is, I'd have thought that her slumber would have made you fall asleep as well."

They exchanged glances yet again. The second one eyed me suspiciously.

It was time for a calculated risk. "We know from the royal wedding that Chrysalis has mental control over you," I said. "We saw the swarm's coordinated attack. But at the same time, individual drones were taking surprising amounts of initiative when confronted with unusual situations. It seems to me that you can make your own decisions independent of the queen … which implies that you can think for yourself, and that you feel your own pain and discomfort."

No answer, of course.

I made a show of setting down my book. "It's well past bedtime, and the cold tonight is bitter indeed. Please, come take the blankets, and I'll go sleep upstairs with the foals. Nopony has to know."

The first changeling shifted its weight, bringing its hooves underneath it. The second made a sharp clicking noise. The first snapped back to attention, and froze in position.

Got you, I thought, hiding my grin with a dramatic sigh. "Suit yourself. Come wake me up if you change your mind." I rolled over, listening to the fire, and gradually sank into sleep.

Hearth's Warming morning dawned cold and sullen; at least snow was no longer falling. The changelings, at some point, had fallen asleep right where they'd stood, sprawled out by the fireplace. When I awoke, the two of them were huddled up by the embers, still clad in their armor.

The bang of the front door jolted them awake, and they scrambled upright. Cloud Kicker plodded in, eyes dark with exhaustion, and trudged upstairs without a word.

That meant Dash was also back, so I slid out from under the covers and slipped on my overcoat. After a brief touch-up, I returned to the Friendship Palace.

"Not a one," Dash said, rubbing the bags under her eyes, after the seven of us had regathered in the drawing room. "Not a single windigo. We flew overflight on the whole freakin' forest before seeing the wildstorm sweep in. We spent the rest of the night bucking it apart — and if there were any windigoes around, I guarantee you that would've brought 'em right to us. I hate to say it, Twilight, but this is plain ol' stupid Everfree weather."

"Great!" Twilight shouted, not pausing in her frantic pacing. "And now we're back to square one!"

"Com-port-ment," I sang, tilting my head reproachfully at Twilight, and she gritted her teeth and forced herself to stand still. "What's bothering you, darling?"

"Only that Princess Celestia wrote back and said she suspected Chrysalis was testing me! Testing! What if I fail? Now that there's no windigoes involved I don't even know how to pass this one!"

"Part of that is to see how you hold up under pressure," I said, "so I can guarantee you that the situation will not be improved by undue worry."

"How can you call this undue? This is very, very due! Ponyville's been invaded by changelings, today's supposed to be our Hearth's Warming pageant, and now I've got a test to take!"

Applejack put a hoof around Twilight's withers. "She's right, sugarcube. Chrysalis is makin' a mistake, tryin' to test the Princess of Friendship. You've got all your friends right by your side, and we ain't gonna let you down."

Twilight let out a slow breath, pushing her hoof away from her chest, then inhaled and did it again. "You're right," she finally said. "I'm sorry … I … thanks."

"Does this mean we were wrong about the library?" Fluttershy asked as we pulled back away from the ensuing group hug.

"I don't think so," Twilight said, clearly grateful for an intellectual distraction. "Just about what she was here to research."

"Or maybe," Pinkie Pie said, tilting forward the deerstalker hat she hadn't been wearing a few moments earlier, "what one of the changelings was here to research."

Twilight sat bolt upright. "What do you mean? Her drones are mindless extensions of herself. She made that abundantly clear in our negotiations, when I tried to start an argument about their citizenship."

"Did she now," I murmured.

"I thought so too at first," Pinkie said, "but when I was going around throwing all the Unexpected Hearth's Warming Guest parties, I asked Queen Meanie how it felt to be invited to a dozenteen parties in a row, and the changeling just gave me this confused look! So I asked every single changeling in town if they were Chrysalis, and none of them said yes." She tapped her chin. "Not even Queen Chrysalis. Remember, Twilight? She just looked confused and asked what sort of stupid question that was."

Did she now, I thought. "The changelings didn't act mindless last night, either," I added. "It appears she may not be telling you the truth about them, Twilight."

"Gee," Dash said, "isn't that a surprise."

"If the drones ain't linked to her," Applejack said, "maybe we can use that. Take 'em down house by house and get everypony safe."

Twilight paced across the room — in slow, measured steps, this time — and shook her head. "We can't afford to take the chance of attacking and being wrong. Wait until we can be sure."

"I agree," I said. "In the meantime, discretion is crucial. The more she knows of what we know, the easier it becomes for her to anticipate and counter us."

Twilight nodded, turning to me. "Then what's our immediate plan?"

"Stall her until lunchtime. Rainbow Dash needs sleep, and I need to check in on my little research project."

When I returned to Cloud Kicker's, none of the Crusaders would look at me.

"I'm sorry, Rarity," Sweetie Belle mumbled, shuffling her hooves. "We really didn't mean to burn a hole in your overcoat."

"We were just tryin' ta get the fire started back up —"

"— and we figured we could bring a burning log back from the Town Square bonfire —"

"— and I got one of mom's stew pots to hold it, but it was too hot —"

"Girls, girls," I interrupted, patting them on the heads. "No harm done. You never did get that fire restarted, did you? Take the rest of the coat and finish that up — I'd hate to think its sacrifice was in vain."

Sweetie Belle's head snapped up. She locked eyes with me, leveled a hoof, and inhaled sharply.

"And if you accuse me of being a changeling, I'll just have to tell everypony what happened that summer when our family went camping at Canter Springs."

Sweetie's face instantly reddened. "You wouldn't."

"Not when there's important work to do. Hop to it!"

I settled back in on the couch with my novel as the three of them scrambled off to take advantage of their reprieve. Sweetie Belle was right — it was quite unlike me to take such a desecration of fashion so calmly — but sometimes a plan requires sacrifices.

As the house fell into silence — Cloud Kicker was sleeping the sleep of the departed, and Noteworthy's job keeping the roads clear meant that his schedule yielded to storms rather than holidays — I pulled out my pocket mirror and eyeliner, slipped around the corner to the kitchen, and took a few moments to touch up my eyelashes. As I returned, I took a discreet sideways glance at the changelings. They were wide-eyed and shivering, and I couldn't quite tell if it was from the chill of the room or the close brush with the force of nature known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

So it was, when the trio dashed back in the door to get the fire relit — setting off the fire alarm and the ceiling sprinklers in the process, and drenching everything in the room that wasn't under my personal barrier — that I merely flipped a page and continued reading. "I'm sorry!" Sweetie wailed, tears gathering in her eyes beneath her sopping mane, lower jaw trembling.

"Ut!" I snapped, holding up a hoof. "Don't distract me, Sweetie, this is the good part."

"Sorry!"

Scootaloo poked at the drenched ashes and sighed. "Well, that didn't work."

"You know, girls," Apple Bloom said, wringing out her bow, "maybe we oughta get some help."

"Read-ing," I sang, with the cheerful tone of a snake shaking its tail. Sweetie Belle took an involuntary step backward.

"Well, we can't ask mom, she's asleep," Scootaloo said in a hushed tone that similarly brooked no argument.

The three of them turned as one toward the wet, shivering guards at the fireplace.

"'Scuse me," Apple Bloom said to Changeling Number Two. "You wanna help us light the fire?"

It glanced around wildly and leapt to its hooves. Without a word, it bolted outside, leaving the front door swinging on its hinges.

I stifled a smile. Ponies 1, invaders 0.

The Crusaders turned to Changeling Number One. "What about you?"

"Um," it started, in an oddly light voice for its bulky, ferocious form. "I really shouldn't. She might get mad."

Ponies 2, invaders 0. I flipped a page.

"But if we don't get the fire —" Scootaloo said as I lit my horn. A fresh log floated into the fireplace and burst into flames. "… Never mind."

The four of them huddled up next to the flames, wringing out their manes and brushing down their chitin, respectively. "What now?" Sweetie Belle said.

"Well, we've still gotta get our Cutie Marks," Apple Bloom said. "We've tried everything that anypony could think of …"

"Any pony," Scootaloo said, buzzing her wings in sudden excitement, sending a spray of new water around the room. "Hey, have you got any ideas for Cutie Marks?"

"What's a Cutie Mark?"

"You know. What's on your flank to tell you what you're most awesome at." Scootaloo peered around the side of the changeling, trying to pry its armor off and look underneath. "What's yours?"

It — the voice was high, but ambiguously so, not enough for me to place it as feminine — yelped and spun around. "I … uh … I don't think I have one."

"Really? But my sister says you can turn into ponies," Apple Bloom said. "What's your Cutie Mark then?"

"I … I dunno."

"That's silly. Everypony gets one as they grow up," Sweetie Belle said. "How could you not know your Cutie Mark?"

"Uh … maybe I'm not old enough yet?"

My ears perked up. I deliberately kept my eyes on the book.

"How old are you?" Scootaloo asked.

"Twelve."

I dropped my book in shock.

Fortunately, the noise was lost amid the Crusaders' voices exploding like a box of fireworks left too close to the burning log. "Oooh, awesome!" "Me too!" "You should totally join our club!" "You could be the first non-pony member!" "We could try all sorts of things to get our Marks together!" "Do you think we could get Cutie Marks in shapeshifting?" "Show us how! Show us!"

"I —"

"What's your name?" "I'm Sweetie Belle! That's Apple Bloom." "And I'm Scootaloo!"

"I, uh, Whisper Song —"

"That's a cool name! Have you ever tried singing?" "We wrote a song for our talent show once!" "Do you want us to teach it to you? You could totally get a Cutie Mark that way!" "Ooh, and we could be Cutie Mark Crusader Vocal Coaches!" "Holy moley, Scootaloo! That's brilliant! We've never tried teaching for our Marks before!"

"I, uh," the changeling stammered in an oddly subdued voice — then glanced up at the clock, and its eyes widened. "Oh, wing rot — it's 10:00. I'm sorry. I have to go, or I'm gonna be late."

"Late for what?" Sweetie asked as the changeling backed toward the door, whirled, and galloped away. I leapt up from the couch — oh, no, you don't — but when I got to the door, I froze.

The streets were full of changelings trotting toward the center of Ponyville.

I galloped as fast as my hooves would take me toward the chaos, fearing the worst. Even before I rounded the corner to Town Square, I could hear Roseluck's high-pitched shrieking, which resolved into words as I closed in: "— looked just like me, and was feeding on Daisy, and now they're going to eat us all!"

Two groups were clustered at opposite ends of the square. One was multicolored, with Roseluck shrieking in a miserable-looking Twilight Sparkle's face and a number of Royal Guards trying to hold back a crowd whose muttering was turning ugly. The other was almost entirely black, with another Roseluck cowering at the hooves of Queen Chrysalis and hundreds of chitinous soldiers in silent, ragged formation.

"Please," Twilight begged. "Just calm down. We're going to deal with this."

Chrysalis loudly cleared her throat and spread her wings. The changelings stood at attention. The pony Roseluck fainted. The square went dead silent.

"No, Twilight Sparkle," Chrysalis said with a voice as icy as the winter air. "I am going to deal with this. The swarm had quite explicit orders." She raised her voice to a shout. "I will repeat them for the benefit of the ponies, and for the stupid! I don't give a flying fewmet how hungry you are, there is to be no feeding until my negotiations are over!" She picked up the false Roseluck in her horngrip; the startled changeling flailed its legs as the light of Chrysalis' field intensified. "And if you think you can cross me on this —"

There was a sickening crack, followed by pandemonium.

As Chrysalis' field winked out, the false Roseluck hit the ground, emitting an ear-piercing shriek and holding one leg to its chest. Screaming ponies bolted, shoving and galloping in an undirected stampede away from Chrysalis. The changelings also broke ranks, scrambling away in undiluted panic and diving into cover. "You. Will. Stay!" Chrysalis screamed at them, her muzzle bleaching into a sickly gray. They froze up one by one, slowly turning around and watching her with wide eyes. The ones who had been unable to hide slunk back into formation on trembling hooves.

"Thank you," Chrysalis said, taking three swaying steps toward them and lurching to a stop with legs braced oddly wide. "You see, I don't think you understand how upset I am right now. Do you know how difficult it is to negotiate with someone who doesn't believe you'll keep your word?"

The question hung in the air, unanswered except for the broken wails of the false Roseluck and a soft sobbing from behind a pile of boxes near the changeling army. The soldiers in formation glanced at each other, many with quivering muzzles and tears brimming in their eyes.

"You don't?" Chrysalis said. "Then perhaps you should watch this time and learn." She turned back toward the injured changeling, her horn sputtering to ominous green life, and stepped forward —

— then stopped in her tracks, staring down at a yellow-and-pink figure in her way.

"No," Fluttershy said.

"Get out of —"

"No."

They locked eyes for just long enough for Chrysalis to flinch.

She stumbled backward a step, hornglow dissipating, then swiveled her head over to Twilight, her muzzle curling into a scowl. "This is not the time for games, Princess. Recall your drone."

"Fluttershy is not a puppet for me to control," Twilight said, stepping past the false Roseluck to stand next to our friend. "And neither are your changelings."

I mentally facehoofed. So much for discretion.

"They think for themselves," Twilight projected, loud enough for the changelings to hear. "They feel pain. They make their own decisions. So while you're in pony lands, you will treat them like we treat ponies — with respect." Twilight crouched into a battle stance, one hoof raised, wings flared out, as the others silently arrayed themselves at her side.

I joined them, my stomach twisting itself into knots. So much preparation wasted! So much destruction to come! Yet I couldn't afford not to back Twilight up. The only idea worse than picking a fight would have been for us to pick it halfheartedly.

"You dare?" Chrysalis said, bracing into a crouch of her own.

Twilight didn't flinch. "If you have a problem with that," she continued with a soft, Celestial finality, "you're going to have to go through us."

Chrysalis stared at us for a few tense moments — as the gray of her muzzle spread through her face, and her mane began to sag — then stood back up and gave her best imitation of an equine snort. "You are serious! Well! If it's come down to ridiculous ultimatums, then you will bring me 20,000 bits worth of large gemstones, five charged glamour amulets, and the name of Minotaurial Guinea's Minister of the Treasury. You have one hour, or I swear to you, I will wipe this town off the map." She wheeled around, stalked off into Carousel Boutique on visibly trembling legs, and slammed the door so hard it rattled windows around the square.

I stood there, stunned, as Twilight and Fluttershy shared a glance. Fluttershy nodded in silent thanks, then whirled around and galloped to the injured changeling's side. Twilight let out a long breath, her wings drooping and her legs beginning to shiver. Applejack stepped in to curl her neck comfortingly around Twilight's, and she was quickly joined by Pinkie Pie glomming her forelegs around them both. Dash hovered up above us, glaring at the shivering changelings as they shuffled awkwardly backward and dispersed to Ponyville's various houses.

Something was wrong.

Chrysalis was using a façade of feigned desperation to justify her bluster and threats, but there was no masking the genuine desperation at the root of her arrival. She would only have one chance to achieve her goals in Ponyville, and she was carefully stage-managing every public encounter to accomplish those goals. How, then, had Twilight gotten away with wrecking such a carefully prepared display? With Chrysalis' plans unable to proceed, she should have had no other choice but to attack! My mind raced through the facts …

… and suddenly, in one sickening moment, the pieces fell into place.

Underneath my warm overcoat, I felt a chill lance through my veins and grip my heart. I whirled and galloped away. "Rarity?" Twilight called from behind me as I rounded a corner and poured on the speed.

My eyes darted around the street, fixing on the dark and empty auditorium where we'd been practicing the now-forgotten pageant. Privacy — I needed privacy. My horn was already alight as I bounded up the steps, flinging the door open and slamming it behind me. I hurtled up onto the stage, skidding to a halt just shy of the curtains, and darted around the scenery stands on stage right, trotting into the backstage hallway and shouldering into a random dressing room. I fumbled my pocket mirror out of my saddlebags as my lungs burned, pried it open, and set it down on the countertop with trembling hooves. I closed my eyes, feeling tears gather, and tried to still my raging thoughts enough to focus my magic.

For a few moments, there was no noise in the room but my ragged breathing. I opened my eyes again.

In the mirror, a changeling sobbed brokenly.

By the time I heard Twilight's muffled voice calling my name from the stage, I knew what I had to do.

If We Shadows Have Offended

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"Rarity?" Twilight said as I stepped back onto stage from the wings. "A-are you okay?"

I glanced around the room. We were alone. The tightness in my throat incrementally eased; it would be simpler this way. "Jewelbox," I said.

"Oh — right. Plundervine."

I trotted over to her and gave her a wordless neckhug before taking a step back and staring into her eyes. "I'm sorry to have given you a fright, Twilight. I merely had a revelation which startled me nearly to the point of illness." I lifted a hoof to her shoulder. "There's something I must show you. Immediately."

Twilight set her jaw and nodded. "I figured it out, too," she said quietly.

I admit I might have tensed up at that. "You did?"

"It was a setup." She glanced back toward the auditorium door. "That was no disobedient drone. Chrysalis ordered her to feed. She wanted to make a very public point …" Twilight's voice dropped to just above a whisper, and her eyes turned cold above an ominously flat mouth. "She was testing me, just like Celestia said. She tortured her own drone just to see how I'd react."

Oh, Twilight, I thought. So brilliant, yet so naive.

I took a deep breath. "Twilight … I apologize in advance. This will not be pleasant … but you must see this."

I hopped down from the stage and trotted toward the exit. She quickly fell into pace beside me, giving me a curious look but remaining silent as we walked through the frozen streets to Cloud Kicker's house.

As the door swung open, I heard scrambling by the fireplace. The two changelings stood at attention, one giving us a suspicious glare, one visibly miserable. The Crusaders, thank goodness, weren't within sight.

"Whisper Song," I said, marching directly toward the suspicious one as the miserable one's eyes widened. "Stand up against the wall and don't move. Now."

The suspicious changeling glanced at Whisper, then back at me. "How did you —"

The changeling went down with a yelp as I swept its legs out from underneath it. As it tried to scramble back to its hooves, I hooked a leg around one of its fores, jerked back hard, and slammed it to the floor with a cross-pin, trapping that limb high against its side with just enough pressure to make moving a painful idea. The fight went out of it all at once. To my left, I heard Whisper Song scramble back against the wall, letting out an incoherent squeak.

"Twilight," I said, "please cast your alteration-enchantment breaker."

"Why? They're not disguised as ponies."

I looked back at her, tilting my head.

"… Oh," Twilight said as realization belatedly crept in. She stepped forward, horn glowing, then bent down and touched her horntip to the pinned changeling.

The bulky form of the guard wavered and collapsed in a swirl of green fire, leaving behind a spindly, wingless worker drone whose chitin had an uncomfortable number of holes amid dark gray mottling. It — he — was too large to be Whisper Song's age but too small for adulthood; as a pony I would have estimated him in his mid-teens. He looked back at us, wide-eyed in fear, and I could see tears pool.

Twilight drew in a ragged gasp.

"The other one is twelve," I said, releasing the teenaged changeling's leg and standing up. He scrambled to the far corner, cowering. "They are no soldiers. I would wager you every gemstone in Carousel Boutique that not a single one of them is. Virtually her entire hive attacked Canterlot, remember?"

"So Chrysalis …" Twilight's voice grew faint as she took a step back. "Threatened us with children. She broke the leg of a child."

I nodded somberly, then turned back to the cowering changeling. "Speaking of which … I'm sorry, dear. I simply couldn't take the chance that you would attempt to play the hero, or somepony might have gotten genuinely hurt."

"Just children," Twilight repeated. She swallowed, then looked up at me, a new fire in her eyes. "Let's get the others. This ends now."

Fluttershy lifted her hooves to her muzzle, eyes wide and quivering. Pinkie flinched, her mane beginning to droop.

Applejack snorted, stamping a hoof with such a resounding crack that I feared for the crystal floor. "That no-good dung-ruttin' hole-hearted cricket. I shoulda known she'd have somethin' like that up her mane."

"We should have known," Twilight said, voice flat and trembling. "I should have known. She told us that all her soldiers died in Canterlot, right to our faces."

"So what are we waiting for?" Dash said, squinting through eyes darkened by her all-nighter. "That just means they'll be pushovers. Let's go kick their flanks, save the town, and get some sleep."

Fluttershy gasped. "Rainbow Dash! How dare you! We can't go fight innocent children!"

"Children that need to feed on us to survive! They came here to eat our emotions!"

"No," Twilight said sharply. "They're not the villains here. What we're going to do is march straight to Carousel Boutique and kick Chrysalis' flank halfway to the Crystal Empire. Shining Armor can meet us in the middle and finish the job."

The others murmured agreement, nodding with dark expressions. I raised a hoof in silence.

"What is it, Rarity?" Twilight asked.

I stood up. "And then what?"

"And then we march house to house, and …" Twilight trailed off, her face paling. "Oh. Oh no."

Applejack's face likewise drained of color. "When we attack her, she orders a few hundred children to attack an' feed, and we've gotta live with turnin' them all into war criminals."

That wasn't Chrysalis' plan, I knew, but leaving the misconception uncorrected was for the best.

"I think I understand her test now," Twilight said faintly.

"Well, I don't get it," Pinkie said, tapping her chin. "We saw in the square, Queen Meanie can't —"

I hastily overtalked her. "She doesn't have to. Even if her control is slipping, all it would take is a single signal, like a hornburst firework, or a single changeling disguised as a pony and watching the Boutique."

"Well, we have to do something," Fluttershy said with uncharacteristic firmness. "If she gets what she wants and leaves with all those children, they'll grow up just like her."

"D'you think we could get her before she gets a signal out?" Applejack asked.

"We could attack the changelings before going after her."

"Dash!"

"Look, I'm just saying."

"Dash does have a point," Applejack said. "If we can knock 'em out or lock 'em up, they can't attack anypony once she gives the order."

I cleared my throat. "Girls?"

"I'm not hearing any good options," Twilight said. "I hope you've got one."

"That depends," I said, checking my pocket watch. "Chrysalis gave you an hour. Can you get everypony to Town Square within our remaining … forty-three minutes?"

Twilight did some mental math. "If we all work together. Then what?"

I looked up into the eyes of my five best friends — scared eyes, desperate for hope and answers — and almost broke down and told them everything. It would have been so easy to do. It would have eased their minds. It would have been right. And yet … and yet. The truth was fragile, and it would hurt far too many, in ways even I might not be able to predict.

I steeled myself with a breath.

"Then," I said, "I use what I've learned to take care of Chrysalis."

I snuck back to the auditorium as Twilight and the others were getting the word of our upcoming confrontation out, and returned to the dressing room, setting my pocket mirror back down.

I pulled out my compact and eye-pencils, then watched the changeling in the mirror apply make-up. The very idea seemed ridiculous — a master of subterfuge, resorting to mere parlor tricks — but any expert could tell you that sometimes there was no substitute for the unsubtle.

I tilted my head, dropped my spell, and examined my work. A little dusting of rouge on my cheeks, to enhance the glow brought out by the frost. A little extra length in my lashes, to sharpen my expressions for the audience.

The art of makeup was, when it came down to it, the art of misdirection — drawing the eye to the areas the artist wished to emphasize, and concealing truth in the shadows. Even the act of applying it is a ruse, I thought, an ironic smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. What truly mattered now was that, for a few crucial minutes, not a soul knew where I was.

I adjusted the curls of my mane and smiled at my reflection before snapping the mirror shut. Ruse or no, when so much was riding on a single final scene, there was no excuse not to deliver perfection.

When we regathered and walked to Town Square, Chrysalis was waiting — along with her "soldiers", lined up behind her in silent, huddled rows. Across the square from them, a thin white line of Royal Guards stood in front of a hastily-stacked row of boxes. Most of Ponyville stood behind them, holding garden tools and makeshift weapons.

"Look at the changelings," Fluttershy murmured. "They're freezing."

Twilight hesitated for a moment as her hoof was coming down, and broke stride to veer sideways to me. "Are you sure about this?" she whispered. "This just screams 'trap.' Chrysalis wouldn't bring them out here in this cold, against prepared defenders, unless she had a plan."

"She's not the only one," I whispered back. "Remember, Twilight … trust me."

The six of us came to a halt in the center of the square, halfway between the makeshift armies. Chrysalis walked forward with what at first appeared to be slow, stately steps — until I realized that her eyes were fixed on the ground in front of her, and she was planting each hoof before putting weight on it. There were also faint ring-shaped splotches of grey with jet-black centers marring her neck and muzzle. Up close, it was more obvious what those were — she'd found my stash of eyeliner gel and smeared on large patches of it to restore the chitin's shine and mask its lightness.

"Well?" she growled, coming to a stop a few body-lengths away. "You heard my demands. Are you going to give me what I want, or are you going to discover that I always keep my word?"

I cleared my throat delicately. Twilight glanced over at me. I nodded. She nodded.

I stepped forward with a self-satisfied smile. "You know as well as I do that they never had any intention of submitting to your ultimatum," I announced, circling to Chrysalis' side and sitting down next to her. "Which, I believe, brings us to the day's most important question."

The silence in the square was so profound that I was able to hear one of the ponies in the distance faint and crumple to the snow.

I glanced back up at my friends. All of the color had gone out of their faces, and they were staring at me with identical slack-jawed expressions.

Chrysalis broke the silence by throwing her head back with a cackle of glee. "You should see yourselves right now!" She draped a hoof over my withers, still chortling. "And what would that question be?"

I casually floated my pocket watch up in front of my muzzle, then turned my head to stare into Chrysalis' eyes, projecting from the diaphragm and enunciating every word with clear, crisp diction:

"Did you enjoy our last glass of wine?"

Her laughter died on her lips.

I brought a shoulder to her chest and roughly shoved her. She staggered sideways and lost her balance, sitting down hard in a snowbank. "You're not looking so well, Chrysalis," I said. "You expected your disease — the one you came here to research — to progress more slowly. Of course, you also expected me to betray my dearest friends."

"Kk-k-kk," she said, shoving herself back upright and immediately overbalancing and faceplanting. She bared her fangs, wheezing loudly. "You … triple-crossing … wolfspawn."

The others were still looking a little green at the gills, so I improvised. "Don't worry, I had no intention of killing her before she could stand trial for her crimes. Tincture of ironweed merely induces vertigo and suppresses magic. In her weakened state, it completed the process her illness started." I turned straight to the watching ponies and raised my voice. "She can't control them any longer. The changelings are free."

A murmur rippled through the ponies, echoed by another from the changeling ranks.

Chrysalis struggled back to her hooves. "Y-you'll regret this," she wheezed, backing away, her horn sputtering to life and spewing out a few ineffectual sparks. "Drones! Attack!"

The changelings looked around at each other. None of them moved. Chrysalis turned to face them, wings out for balance. "I said attack!"

That's when Rainbow Dash air-tackled her.

As they tumbled end-over-end, a lasso dropped in and cinched Chrysalis' hooves together. The rope jerked taut as Applejack braced and hauled. With a yelp, the queen reversed direction, skidding out from underneath Dash and across the icy square toward an abandoned market stall. She plowed through the baseboard with a crash, scattering empty crates and Hearth's Warming light-strands, and didn't get back up.

The crowd of ponies erupted into cheers and stomps as Applejack trotted over to stand guard over the unconscious form. Twilight stepped forward, spreading her wings and raising a hoof. "Dash, go give Spike the signal. As for you —" she said to the changelings, before she was interrupted by a yellow hoof touching her side.

Twilight glanced back. Fluttershy held up one hoof, then walked past Twilight and across the square. The pony crowd fell silent again as she approached the changeling in the center of the front rank, then threw her forelegs around the burly soldier in a hug. It lifted one trembling leg and returned the gesture, eyes squeezing shut and tears streaking down its cheeks.

I let out the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. It was going to be alright.

Twilight cleared her throat. "As I was going to say … as for you, we know that you're cold, and you're hungry. You've been following a leader who thought that your only way to survive was to steal. But with everypony's help, we can show you a different way." She turned to the crowd of ponies. "I know the last two days have been scary, but it should be obvious by now that the changelings she ordered into your homes were just as scared. It's time to give them a new start. Please, help us show them what the magic of friendship is truly about."

"Yay!" Pinkie said, popping up in the center of the changelings and scooping several of them into a hug of her own with a squeak like a rubber toy. "We're gonna throw you the best 'welcome to your new life free of Queen Meanie's tyranny' party ever!"

Behind me, I heard ponies erupt in cheers as they trotted forward, accompanied by the clatter of weapons dropping to the icy street. I, too, walked over toward the drones, and I couldn't keep tears from streaking down my face.

It ruined my makeup. I couldn't have cared less.

The Friendship Palace, as it turned out, did have a dungeon. I tried not to think too hard about that.

I followed Princess Celestia to the room at the end of the hallway, where a still-graying Chrysalis was lying flat on her back on a mattress. There were cold iron shackles on her hind legs, and she was covered by thick blankets. We stepped inside through no less than three force fields.

Chrysalis turned her head in my direction and scowled weakly. "Here to gloat?"

"Perhaps a bit," I said, and bowed to Celestia. "Thank you, Your Majesty."

One corner of her mouth quirked up in a knowing smile. "Just let me know when you're done," Celestia said, and nodded to the doctor and to the guards at each corner. They filed out of the room after her, leaving us alone. I heard the solid crystal cell door settle into place with a grinding whisper, and the noises from outside fell away.

I waited. I knew she'd break the silence. I was right.

Chrysalis cleared her throat. "I don't understand," she said, in a very not-sick voice.

"You never did," I said. "We could have avoided this whole charade if you had told the truth."

She laughed bitterly. "That's not what I meant, but no, we couldn't have. We're changelings. All we are is lies and schemes."

"You don't truly believe that. You would not have fought so hard to give the others a fresh start if you did."

She snorted. "What can I say? Hope is stupid. But you? I know how smart you are. You can't possibly believe that if we had walked in and told the truth, the swarm would have survived the winter."

"I confess you have the right of me … and yet, honesty has power, darling. That's why ponies like you and I fight so hard to avoid it."

Chrysalis was silent for a moment.

"What did you mean to say you didn't understand?" I asked.

She rolled over to face me, her chains scraping against the crystalline floor. "Why you helped me after your friend's ultimatum threw my plan off script. I saw the looks on their faces. You chose me over them, and I don't think I could have done it without you."

I shrugged. "I couldn't have refused once I figured it out. After all, I am — or was, before the tree reclaimed it — the Element of Generosity."

Chrysalis set an elbow on the mattress and brought a hoof up, resting her muzzle on it and giving me a penetrating stare. "But there's something more than that, isn't there?"

I felt my face flush. "I'm quite certain that I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You know what," a voice said from behind me, "I think I do."

I jumped and spun around. "Twilight?"

Her form wavered as the cloaking field dropped. Tears brimmed in the corners of her eyes. "The Princess told me there was a valuable lesson for me in this room, but all I'm seeing is a 'friend' who's been lying to me for stars know how long. I trusted you, Rarity."

"Twilight," I said urgently, "please understand that when I say 'comportment', it is a reminder that the greatest composure is required to hear the truth when your heart screams the loudest."

"Oh," she said, horn flaring to life as she lowered her head, "the truth is clear enough."

I took a step back, almost losing my balance as I stumbled against the edge of the mattress. "Twilight, please, don't be hasty —" I said as her horn touched my chest.

A tingle swept through my body. I winced, far too late to do any good, then glanced down. Nothing had changed.

Twilight's eyes widened. "W-what? But you — I thought you were —"

"A changeling in lifelong deep cover?" I said as the light of hindsight filtered in. I straightened back up and smoothed my chest coat down with a hoof. "That's patently ridiculous, Twilight. Why would you think that?"

"Everything!" she sputtered. "Your obsession with appearances! Your reason to help Chrysalis! Your crazy deductions about her!"

"Yes, and if that were true, then I would have died at the royal wedding, like every single changeling in Canterlot."

"Then what was all that about being able to leave and still do your job, if you weren't on Chrysalis' mental link?!"

I held up my pocket mirror. "Espionage. The spell on this allows me to scry through any of Carousel Boutique's mirrored surfaces; it has proven indispensable in many a high-end sale, and it's how I figured out the last crucial pieces of the truth."

"You … but …" Twilight threw up her hooves. "What is going on?"

I turned to Queen Chrysalis. "Darling, there is a time and a place for complete honesty, and I assure you that this is it."

She nodded, then looked calmly at Twilight. "Indeed, the deadliest lie is the wrong half of the truth. Princess, whatever spell you just cast to expose your friend … cast it on me."

Twilight blinked rapidly, her mental gears clearly spinning. Color drained from her muzzle. "No," she said. "Oh no. Chrysalis switched places with a drone. We've got to find her —"

"Twilight," I interrupted, "Chrysalis is dead."

Twilight stopped.

"This is why I didn't tell the truth from the start," the false queen said, glancing at me. "Everypony would have been looking for the hidden plot."

"… 'Every changeling in Canterlot,'" Twilight said quietly. "Every changeling."

The changeling laughed bitterly. "I nearly wrecked the plan five minutes in. Please cast your spell, Princess."

Twilight leaned down to the bed, her horn flaring out. In a flash of green fire, the queen's form collapsed in on itself, leaving behind an emaciated, middle-aged soldier drone with half of one wing missing and a network of gray cracks across the carapace of his back. He clenched his teeth as the ethereal flames died away, then slumped to the bed.

"Alright," Twilight said, sitting down. "Now what's going on?"

"My name is Ember," the changeling said. "I lost my wing in an accident the day before the invasion, but I was too useful to kill, so Chrysalis had me stay in the hive with the dronelings too young for the flight. When all contact with the swarm was cut off, I assembled a scouting party out of the best of us and went to figure out what happened. We found what was left of a changeling corpse over three leagues from the mountain, and pieced the clues together from rumors and newspaper reports. With a pony army closing in on the hive, I gathered the others and fled to the Everfree. We've scraped out a subsistence living since."

"Until this season's storms hit," I said. "They're not ponies, with warm blood and thick coats. They were on the verge of literally freezing to death." I glanced over at Ember. "I'd like to see how much of this I guessed. Correct me if I get anything wrong."

"Alright."

"Help from ponykind was their only chance for the survival of the hive, and they needed a permanent solution. They thought," I emphasized, "that their only bargaining chip was the leader whose body was never found. So Ember pretended to be Queen Chrysalis — then concocted a plan designed to paint her as a tyrant, and the changelings accompanying her as helpless victims. She would land in town and terrorize pony and changeling alike, and we would gradually discover her false evidence that her mental bonds with her drones were slipping and a rebellion was brewing. As we developed bonds with them and helped them cast off the shackles of tyranny, it would guarantee them a home after justice was served."

Twilight looked between us in horror. "You can't possibly believe there's anything noble here, Rarity! He's a monster! He tortured one of the children!"

"Every plan requires sacrifices," Ember said quietly.

I winced — though not for the same reason Twilight did. "His plan required him to be a monster," I said. "If you could hurt one pony to save ponykind, would you?"

"There had to have been a better way," Twilight said.

"I needed genuine shock," Ember said. "That's very difficult to fake — and if any of them had been in on my plan, somedrone would have slipped sooner or later. Not to mention, many of the older ones did believe we could threaten what we needed out of you; when I double-crossed them, they were left with no choice but to give friendship a try."

"Similarly, Twilight, I needed genuine outrage from you over what Chrysalis did," I said, touching a hoof to her shoulder. "You had to remain ignorant to play your part. You all did. If we had shown any hint of going easy on Ember after what he did to the droneling — and don't tell me you wouldn't have tried to save him, too — none of them would have believed your offer was sincere."

Twilight jerked her shoulder away. "What happened to 'honesty has power, darling'? We're your friends, Rarity. Trust is a two-way street."

I flattened my ears. "For what it's worth, Twilight, I am sorry. I trusted you to do the right thing — and I always will — but that was the one thing the situation could not afford."

"Princess," Ember said, "may I ask a question?"

Twilight looked at him through narrowed eyes. "What."

"Would you change anything about the outcome? A village of ponies and changelings celebrating their triumph over a common foe together and exploring a historic fresh start?"

"We would have gotten there a lot differently!"

"With respect, your highness, that's not what I asked."

Twilight fell silent, then turned and walked away … and one final realization clicked into place.

That's quite a lesson, Celestia, I thought, wondering — not for the first time — how much she'd figured out before I'd even exchanged a word with her. Of course the answer is 'no'. And yet, having sacrificed so much to reach this point … telling the truth now would jeopardize all that has been won.

"I …" Twilight sat down, emotions warring on her face. "I'm going to have to think about this."

I put a hoof around Twilight's withers. "Come on, darling," I said. "It's time to go. We have a holiday to celebrate."

The pageant, naturally, was a success.

I stepped to the edge of the stage, facing the audience as the tragically misguided Princess Platinum, and snuck a glance out at them as I took a bow. In the front row, clustered together on a bench, three little fillies of different tribes stomped their hooves. In their midst, a fourth dark figure clopped its forehooves together — looking a great deal smaller, and less armored, than the last time I'd seen her. Whisper Song glanced back and forth between the Crusaders, embracing them delightedly in the warm glow of her very first friendships.

A few seats away, I caught Princess Twilight Sparkle studying them, too. She glanced up at me, and as we shared a look, she chewed her lip and gave me an uncertain smile.

In time, I thought, smiling back.

After all, the morals of the show were meant for those left behind after the play was over.

Hearth Swarming Eve

by horizon

The Play's The Thing

All The World's A Stage

If We Shadows Have Offended