> For science - Book three
>  by Znegil
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1 The day after
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I awoke from a good night of sleep. Twilight’s body pushed against mine and she held me tight, too tight. I looked at her, she was sweating and shaking, I also heard her mumbling in her sleep. “No. No… Stop!”

It was obvious she was having a nightmare. I tried to wake her as gently as possible, I kissed her eyes and softly stroked her mane.
“Twilight, wake up. Everything is fine, don’t be afraid.”, I whispered to her. I continued this way, increasing my volume every time I said it. After the third time, she opened her eyes and looked around confused. She focused on me and drew me into a deep long kiss.

“Thank Celestia, you're alright.”, she said after our lips parted.

“What's the matter?”, I asked her. “What did you dream about?”

She looked down and tears started to fill her eyes. “I dreamt about yesterday, Chrysalis had poisoned us all and…” She gulped and tears started to flow. “She hurt you and there was nothing I was able to do to stop her… all I could do was watch.”

I lifted her head to look into her purple eyes and kissed her muzzle. “Everything is fine now and that's not how things had happened, she didn’t hurt me.” I used my fingers to wipe away her tears. “I know you feel guilty for not being able to help, I feel it through our connection. But the magic I used yesterday… it felt like the biggest part of it came from you… I think I borrowed your magic somehow.”

She looked at me in surprise. “Really? That's quite interesting. We have to look into this later. Maybe this is possible because of our special connection.”

“I guessed the same. We should try to verify this when we are back in Ponyville.”

“Still, I feel bad for not being able to protect you.”, she said and her mood darkened again.

“There is no reason for you to feel that way.”, I responded softly to her. “You are the love of my life and you bring sunshine to my heart every time I look at you. Please don’t be gloomy about things nopony could have changed.” My hand wandered down her back and reached her rump. “I guess I have to occupy your mind with something else.”, I said smiling while I grabbed it hard, just the way she liked it.

She moaned a bit and started to rub her body against mine. “But she could have done terrible things to you.”

“I don’t think she is cruel, she had her motives for doing what she did.”, I answered while my breathing intensified. “Even back in Nightshade’s tower, all she did was knock me out. If she had been ‘pure evil’, she could have killed me back then, but she didn’t. Everypony has their reasons for doing things.”

“But still…”

I sealed her mouth with a kiss and made sure her mind wasn’t able to think straight for the next half hour.

…

The wedding reception had been delayed for a day, so we would celebrate the married couple tonight. Therefore the castle was full of activity as I walked through it, a lot of things had to be rearranged. I had quite a fulfilling lunch because they served us all the food items from yesterday that would spoil until tonight. I was on my way to Chrysalis' room, so I could talk to her about what had happened at the wedding. Even though I hadn’t much of a choice last night, I felt guilty for what I did.

I was surprised to find grim looking guards in front of her room. I was used to seeing these guards in a happy and friendly mood, even while fulfilling their duties. But considering what their prisoner tried to do and their helplessness, I shouldn’t have expected any other reaction. I stepped in front of the door and they nodded in silent agreement.

*Knock Knock*

“Yes, come in.”, I heard a voice from inside the room. I pushed down the door handle and enter the room, Chrysalis looked a bit confused when she recognized me. It was a strange feeling standing before her, the creature who has been my biggest enemy only hours ago.

“Hi.”, I greeted her.

“Hello.”, she replied.

There was a long silent pause because we both didn’t know what to say.

“Well, this is awkward.”, the Changeling Princess remarked after some moments.

“Yeah, I know.”, I replied with a sigh.

“Would you really have killed me?”, she suddenly asked out of the blue.

This very direct question surprised me. I thought about avoiding it to have a better opportunity of pressuring her in the future.

I decided lying wasn't a good base for this new relationship… but of course I wouldn’t blindly trust our ex-enemy either.

“No, I was just faking an attack. If you had reacted in fear, there would have been a better chance for me to bargain for that antidote. I'm so very sorry for what happened to Lavender.”

“Good, then my judgment isn't totally off.”, she replied. “My magic couldn't read your feelings as easy as it normally does with ponies, it had been pretty hazy. I know it wasn't your intent to hurt Lavender.”

She took a deep breath before she continued: “Look, let me first tell you this, the princesses gave me permission this morning to contact Queen Lycosa through the hive-mind, our leader. I explained to her what I had done and she was MAD. I don’t think I ever heard someone scream this loud using the hive-mind connection, it felt like my head was about to burst. But after I had endured her screaming, I was able to forward Celestia’s hopes and suggestions for finding a peaceful way of living together and both races benefiting from it. After half an hour she was mostly on board with it and instructed me to respond to all questions as truthful as possible.”

“Can you still connect to the hive mind with this clamp attached?”, I wanted to know and looked at the surprisingly beautiful clamp attached to her horn. If I hadn’t known about its function, I would have seen it as jewelry.

“No, like my other abilities that require magic, this clamp suppresses it. It will be some time before I can report to her.”

“Changelings can magically read ponies emotions?”, I asked going back to what she had said before.

“Changelings can’t, but I or other şahzadə can.”, she answered and looked into my confused face.

She sighed. “You must have noticed my appearance differs from other changelings. I’m not just a bigger version of these, I’m a şahzadə, a princess or a ‘noble changeling’. Not only is the process of laying şahzadə eggs vastly different to normal eggs, I also have a lot of different abilities. One of those abilities is sensing feelings in others.”

This reminded me of the bond I had with Twilight and peaked my interest a bit.
“Do you sense these feelings all the time or do you have to concentrate on a pony?”, I asked.

“Oh, that would be terrible, so much useless information. No, I have to concentrate on the pony. But even now with my magic suppressed, I can get a broad picture of someone's strong feelings, by smelling their sweat. This is something that all changelings can do, but it's only good for strong and broad feelings at very close range. I only use this ability when my magic could be detected or when I disguise as an earth pony or such.”

“Wait, if you disguised as an earth pony you can’t use your magic?”, I asked.

She looked at me surprised. “Sometimes I forget you’re not from this world. Why do you think horns glow when we use magic? The horn amplifies our magic. The bigger the horn the stronger the effect. I could technically use magic while in earth pony or pegasi form, but it’s so much harder to do, it isn’t worth it. Even changing form is harder when I’m disguised as a non-horned creature, and we need very little magic to change our form. I’m surprised you have been able to use this huge amount of magic.”

“I think no one was more baffled about that than myself.”, I answered and thought back to yesterday. I decided not to tell her my suspicion that most of that magic belonged to Twilight.

“So you could smell when I get angry or sad?”, I asked fascinated by the idea.

“Well… a pony closeby… yes. I know these things by experience. You smell quite different, so I have to learn to categorize your emotions to your odor.”

I was quite impressed by her abilities and knew Twilight would be in research heaven writing all this interesting stuff down.

“You will have a lot of opportunities to ask me more about myself and my race.”, she told me. “But right now, could you help me, so I can visit Lavender? I tried to ask the guards about it, but they just ignored me.”

I decided it would be a good move to grant her a wish which wasn’t hard for me to fulfill, everything would be easier if we had a good standing. I looked at the magic suppressing clamp again. ‘There wasn’t much trouble she could cause without magic, right?’, I thought to myself.

“I know where the castle hospital is, I can bring you there.”, I told her. Her mood was brightened instantly as she followed me towards the door.

I opened it and talked to one of the guards. “I want to escort Chrysalis to the hospital so she can visit her injured marefriend, could you please ask Celestia if she is allowed to.”

There was just silent angry mumbling in return. I didn’t like the way they looked at their prisoner, but I also understood why they felt this way. I started to get impatient and decided I wasn’t going to have any of this today.

“Well, I could go to her myself and asked her instead.”, I continued. “And while I’m there I could mention what a wonderful help you are… what was your name again?” At the end my tone had gone quite hostile.

He stared at me for a few more seconds, then he started to walk off. “Wait here.”

…

He came back ten minutes later, his mood had darkened even more.

“You’re free to take her there.”, he hissed. “But Princess Celestia reminds you never to take your sight of her and she has to be back within one hour. She is dangerous.”

“Thank you so much, good sir, but unlike the palace guards I have defeated her before.”, I replied with a slight bow as we passed him and left this part of the castle.

“I had not expected you could be this way.”, Chrysalis told me with a grin.

I was a bit surprised myself, I usually was much more polite.
> 2 Happy pain
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

We walked through the castle towards the hospital, as we crossed one of the yards connecting different parts of the castle. Many ponies turned their head to stare at Chrysalis as we walked by, normally I was the one ponies stared at. I looked down at the fine layer of snow that had fallen and was covering the ground.

“I always loved snow.”, I said while we walked over the white powdery substance. “Somehow it’s strange to experience something so familiar to me, but in a whole different world.”

“I’m not very fond of snow.”, Chrysalis commented. “Since we haven't any fur to protect us, our skin loses warmth quickly when we touch cold stuff like snow.”

I looked at her and concentrated on her skin. The first time I had seen her I had mistaken it for a chitin-like substance, like a bug would have, but on a closer look it was different, softer and duller than chitin.

“Would it be okay for you if I touch your skin?”, I asked her.

“Sure, go ahead.”, she answered and held one of her front hooves next to me with an amused smile.

I used my hand to brush along its surface, it felt like warm leather. ”It’s surprisingly soft and warm.”, I told her while my hand moved further reaching one of the holes in her hoof. Carefully I touched the inside of it and noticed it was covered in exactly the same skin.

“It’s considered very rude to stick anything inside our holes without permission.”, Chrysalis commented.

I quickly removed my hand from her body. “Sorry, I didn’t want to offend you.”

“No problem, you didn’t know about that.”, she replied. “The green shell on my back is much harder and acts like a shield.” She made a gesture with her hoof that seems to suggest she was okay with me touching it too.

I got closer again and laid my hand on her green back, this was much more how I had expected her skin to be, hard and a bit cold. I even knocked on it and felt it would be able to withstand quite some force.

“Wow, that’s really sturdy.”, I commented. I traced my hand along it and reached the belt-like thing wrapping around her belly starting from her back-shield, it had the same color as her hair. “What is this part?”, I asked while I run my fingers over it and poked it a bit.

Suddenly it twitched under my touch and she started giggling really loud and out of control.

“Sorry.”, I quickly excused myself and drew back my hand, I was a worried I touched another ‘rude-to-touch’ zone. Everypony in sight of us was straight up staring at us now.

It took her a few seconds to regain her composure. She didn’t look mad but smiled instead.

“This part is some extra protection for my heart and other critical organs. It’s only got a şahzadə name, it’s called ‘kəmər’. It’s not as hard as my back-shield but can absorb quite some force too… and for some reason, I’m quite ticklish there.”

It had felt strange to see the creature I had fought against just hours ago giggle like a little schoolgirl, but it also made me smile.

She continued walking and I got back to her side.

“I guess this gives me the right to search for your ticklish spots someday.”, she said and turned her head towards me, giving me a sly grin.

“I guess.”, I answered smiling.

‘She doesn’t seem so different anymore.’, I thought to myself. ‘But I should stay cautious.’

…

We entered the hospital and asked for Lavender’s room. We moved silently through two corridors until we reached the room we had been told.

‘I should show some trust in her to gain her trust in return.’

“Do you want to have some time with her alone first?”, I asked her.

“Sure… but wasn't that the one thing I shouldn't be allowed, to be without supervision?”, she asked back surprised.

“For what reason should you try to run?”, I commented. “Take your time. I will be waiting here until you get me.”

“Thanks.” She knocked and entered the room, I only heard a bit of Lavender’s voice before the door closed again.

…

It had been about twenty minutes before Chrysalis opened the door again and signaled me to enter. I found Lavender lying in bed, her body bandaged where I had wounded her.

“Hey…”, I started bashfully. “I’m so so sorry for what has happened, it wasn’t my intent to hurt anypony.”

“It’s okay.”, she answered with a weak but warm voice. “If I hadn’t jumped before you, this all hadn’t happened. Chryssi already told me about your motives.”

“Chryssi?”, I replied in a mix of surprise and amusement. I saw the Changelings princess face which made it pretty clear I shouldn’t think about using this name.

“Well anyway.”, I changed the subject. “I’m so happy you will be better soon and I hope you can visit us in Ponyville, you can stay with us in the library as long as you like.”

“The library?”, Lavender asked.

“Stella lives with her marefriend inside a big tree house which also is a library.”, Chrysalis explained to her.

“Have you been in it before?”, I asked her.

“Of course, I had been inside all publicly accessible buildings of Ponyville and Canterlot in preparation of what I had planned… and a few not accessible buildings.”, she told me with a smug grin.

“Well, I guess your abilities make you the perfect spy. I can’t wait to learn more about them.”

Lavender moved a bit on her bed and used her magic to drink a glass of water. “Even though Chryssi told me she had been herself around me, apart from the appearance, there are many things I have to learn about her as well.”, she said and grabbed her hoof. “And I’m looking forward to it.”

The unicorn mare leaned towards her marefriend and pursed her lips, Chrysalis was very happy to obey her wish and kissed her.

“I still have to get used to her fangs.”, Lavender continued smiling. “My parents are quite liberal. But I think it will be an interesting challenge to introduce them my marefriend.”

She started laughing but instantly her face distorted in pain. “I guess it's still a few days before I can laugh again.”, she explained.
> 3 Soft
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As our time ran out, we said our goodbyes so I could bring ‘Chryssi’ back to her room. She looked much calmer on our way back.

“It's interesting to see you two interact with each other. From what I had been told by Celestia I had expected a fearsome beast, but I see a cuddly teddy bear.”, I told her smiling.

She blushed a bit, which was a nice contrast to her dark color. “Celestia only met me in battle, I'm fierce when I fight for the changeling race… that doesn't mean I don't like to have more tender moments.” She never stopped walking while she told me this and kept staring straight ahead, avoiding looking at me. “It's not like Celestia looked kind while we battled, her face back then would bring foals nightmares.”

We walked on for a few more minutes until we reached her room. We passed the guards and entered.

After the doors had closed I was finally able to ask her what had been on my mind for some time now: “If you're ‘not so bad’, then why the attack on Canterlot, why not living like all the time before?”

She sighed and looked out of the window. “I guess Celestia told you we are gathering love from ponies?”

“More or less.”, I answered. “How do you do it?”

“There isn't much to it, it's our natural ability. We can absorb positive feelings from other beings, the closer we are the more we can gather. Love is the strongest feeling we can feed on or store inside us.” She sat down on the bed before she continued. “There are different methods to gather enough so we can bring it back to the hive. Being close to lovers is a possible way, but since it's difficult to get really close to them it is one of the slower ways. It is much quicker to replace someone in a relationship or make someone fall in love with your disguise, this way you can gather the love skin to skin and you're full in a few days. I gathered so much from Lavender on our visit.”

“So you can still feed with this clamp attached?”, I asked.

“Yes, it seems it only suppresses the active use of magic, I can feed just fine. I have often been disguised as an earth pony, so doing usual stuff without magic isn’t a problem for me.”

“What does this have to do with the attack on Canterlot?”, I inquired.

She took a deep breath and looked towards the window again. She looked somehow different… smaller and more vulnerable.

“When you gather love there are many things that can go wrong and you may be forced to come back to the hive with no or very little food. Also, there is a limited number of changelings working as ‘gatherers’ because there are many other things that have to be done in the hive and being a gatherer isn’t without risk. This means there isn't a steady amount of food for the hive, it fluctuates greatly.”

She shifted her position in bed to lay on her back and she stared at the ceiling. “You know, every şahzadə has a part of the hive to reign, in my case about eighty changelings. They are the whole range of every job, gender, and age. Now imagine things going badly and there is barely any food left. Imagine the queen tells you: ‘You have to choose fifteen of them to die so the others can live.’”

She used her hooves to cover her face. “You have to kill fifteen of those who trust in you and who you care for. How do you choose? Do you spare the young ones? But the adults can go and gather love, so they can improve the situation.”

I saw tears run down the sides of her face. “How do you choose and how can you explain it to everyone? But you have to do it…” The rest was inaudible because of her crying.

I was shocked to see her this way and didn’t know what to do. I sat on the bed next to her and laid my hand on one of her hind legs. “I’m sorry to hear this.”

I must have surprised her because she winced when I touched her, but she relaxed and calmed down again within seconds. She used her hooves to wipe her eyes.

“Sorry, you weren't supposed to see me like this.”, she said while she got into a sitting position. “But this is the worst memory of my life…”

She calmed herself down even more by taking some deep calm breaths. “Anyway, I decided never to make this decision again and taking control over Canterlot was my solution for this.”

We sat next to each other in silence for a moment.

“Don’t take what just happened for weakness.”, she finally said. “I could still punch you through a wall if I wanted to.”

“I would never think caring for others is a weakness.”, I replied. “Quite the opposite. It makes you stronger if you fight for others you care about.”

She looked at me surprised for a moment but quickly turned away from me.

“I think you should leave!”, she shouted. “I want to be alone right now.”

I got up from the bed and walked towards the door.

“Well, I have a reception to attend anyway.”, I told her. “I’m glad I was able to get to know you a bit better, see you soon.”

She just huffed in reply.

I left the room, closing the door behind me and passing the guards. I was heading towards Twilight’s room, so we could get dressed for the reception.

‘This went waaay different than I had expected.’, I thought. ‘She is much more human than I thought.’
> 4 Party
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I walked into our shared room and found Twilight laying on the bed reading a book, she looked up to me when I entered. “Welcome back, my love.”, she greeted me.

I sat next to her and softly kissed her neck. She hummed happily and drew me into bed with her. We cuddled up and enjoyed each other's body heat for a while.

“How went things with Chrysalis?”, she finally asked after a while.

“Much better than I had expected.”, I replied. “She isn’t always comfortable showing it, but there is a softer side to her. She can be very caring towards her subjects and to Lavender as well.”

Twilight's face showed some disbelief so I started to explain to her what had happened while I had been with ‘Chryssi’. Her face was horrified when she heard about the part where Chrysalis had to decide with of her subjects would survive.

We laid next to each other in silence after I had ended my story and she gripped me even tighter.

“I had no idea how hard the changelings have it.”, she whispered after a while.

“I can kind of understand her decisions.”, I added. “I’m not sure what I would have done in her situation.”

“Well attacking Canterlot is an extreme decision, why didn’t they just ask for help?”, my marefriend asked.

“Maybe they feared their weakness could be exploited… I don’t know. But they didn’t kill or seriously hurt anypony when they tried to take Canterlot, maybe… maybe…” I sighed. “You know, let’s switch the subject. We should start to get ready for the reception, it should start soon.”

“Please don’t be too trusting towards her, we can’t know if they have some hidden agenda.”, Twilight reminded me. She looked to the window. “It looked like we are still pretty early, I guess we have still at least an hour before anything will start in the palace garden. Let’s use the time for more cuddles and kisses.”, she told me with a grin.

I was more than happy to agree, I drew her close and started to nibble on the tip of her ear.

…

We entered the garden and looked for our friends among the hundreds of ponies. Twilight was in a white dress with blue accents, while I was wearing a light blue long sleeved dress with black tights underneath it. I was happy Rarity had found the time to make these, there was still a thin layer of snow covering the ground and I had no fur to protect me from the cold.

Because of my size, I had a good view of the whole crowd and a certain pink party pony stood out well enough. As we got closer we found the rest of the Elements of Harmony next to her accompanied by Luna and Thunderlane.
“Hey, y’ all.”, I shouted in my best AJ impersonation.

They all smiled, the biggest grin coming from the farm pony itself.

“So nice to see you here darling.”, Applejack replied in her best high-society voice. “It is always a pleasure to have you around.”

There was a lot of laughing and a ton of confused looks around us. Thunderlane seemed to be a bit on edge, it looked like he worked very hard to impress Rarity with his manners.

We had a little chat with everypony and found out this reception was already the sixth date of our newest couple and Rarity beamed with happiness. I was so glad to see her this way, she had tried to hide it, but I had noticed she had been pretty down around all these happy couples lately.

We excused ourselves so we could search for Cadence and Shining Armor. After only a few moments we found them next to the presents table where ponies gratulated them and handed over the many things they had brought. We took our spot at the end of the line and waited for our turn.

I checked our surroundings while we waited, saw all these happy ponies, the lovely decorations and smelled the food we would be eating soon. I started to imagine our own wedding again and I was really looking forward to it, I drew Twilight closer to me so our bodies touched and brushed with my fingers through her mane which made her sigh happily.

“How comes you are in this lovey-dovey mood right now?”, Twilight asked after a while. “Not that I’m complaining.”

“How couldn’t I feel this way with all this love and happiness around me.”, I explained. “Everypony is so full of joy and love right now, I think for Chrysalis this place must shine brightly as the sun.”

“I would be happier if you would avoid mentioning her name around me.”, I heard Cadence voice in front of me. I found we had reached the front of the line without noticing. I looked at the pink princess, she showed a happy face but I heard the slight anger in her voice and her body seemed tense.

“I’m so sorry Cadence, it is understandable you feel this way.”, I replied. I thought about mentioning something to defend what Chrysalis did and why she did it, but it didn’t seem wise right now. I decided to quickly change the topic instead.
“Finally I have the opportunity to gratulate both of you for forging your bond. You look so happy together and this dress is simply stunning.”

I got the intended reaction as Cadence body seemed to relax and her smile got more honest.

“Thank you.”, she said in a melodic voice. “We’re so happy you can attend our reception.”
She put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder and addressed her in special. “Thank you so much Twily for organizing everything, apart from the incident everything went perfectly.”

My marefriend showed a slight blush as she replied. “You know how much I love organizing things, it was so much fun for me to do this for my sister-in-law.”

I told them about our gift, the recordings we had made of their wedding with the holographic recorder we had worked on. “This way you will be able to relive this moment again any time you want to.”, I concluded my explanation.

Both were very happy and thanks us, Cadence having tears in her eyes.

I noticed how many ponies waited in line behind us. “I think we should give others the chance to gratulate you as well.”, I said while I politely pushed Twilight a little forward. “See you all later.”

We searched for our table and once we were seated the rest of our friends quickly joined us. With all of us united this sure should be a fun night.

-----O_O-----

It was quiet in the Everfree Forest, night had just fallen.

A few birds got startled as a blue portal opened in the same place the first one had opened a few weeks ago. A flying autonomous drone emerged from the opening and hovered on the spot as the portal closed behind it. It began to rotate to record its surroundings, flying in small circles. One of the small birds got curious and approached the strange object, it got zapped by an electrical charge from the drone and fell stunned to the ground.

The drone lowered itself down to the helpless creature and used its blades hidden inside to dissect and analyze its body. It seemed like every other creature around had fallen absolutely silent while the blood started to drench the ground.
> 5 Train
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I awoke the next day in our Canterlot suite cuddled up with my marefriend. There was a slight hangover reminding me of the fun we had last night, maybe it was a mistake trying to keep up with the amount of wine Luna consumed. It had been a wonderful night with all of our friends and lots of happy moments. After a few hours, even Celestia had been able to join us.

I looked out of the window, the sun was surprisingly high, it seemed like we had slept through the morning and lunch was right around the corner. My hand brushed through Twilight’s mane and I kissed her soft fur-covered cheeks.

“Morning Honey.”, I whispered.

She was humming happily as she stretched her limbs and slowly opened her eyes. Instead of answering me, she drew me into a deep kiss.

“That was one of the best nights I ever had.”, she said after our lips had parted. “It was so much fun to be with all our friends.”

“It was.”, I replied. “And it seems to be noon soon, so we can skip breakfast and have lunch instead.”

Surprised she looked towards the window. “No wonder I feel so well rested.”

…

We were on our way to Chrysalis room after we had fished our breakfast/lunch. Twilight had a light salad, while I had gone all out on grilled veggies and pasta.

“Maybe I overdid it…”, I mumbled while I patted my belly.

“You were shoveling like crazy, I was afraid you would eat the plate as well.”, Twilight remarked with some disgust in her voice.

“I skipped a meal, you don’t want me to starve, don’t you?”, I replied giving her a sad look.

My marefriend sighed and rolled her eyes. “Sometimes you behave like Dashie. You have enough energy reserve to go awhile.” She poked my hips which had gained a bit extra mass over the last weeks.

“Well, maybe we have to burn more energy together, we wasted to much time sleeping lately.”, I told her with a lewd grin.

“I’m always open to that idea.”, she answered while we took the last corner.

“Oh get a room you two!”, Chrysalis shouted grinning standing in front of her room, the two guards on her side.
Twily blushed while we approached her, I myself was just a bit surprised.

“Changelings have excellent hearing.”, she explained. “Far better than ponies.”

I thought about it for a moment. “I think it does make sense, you are a kind of predator after all.”

The changeling princess showed a big grin, revealing her fangs.

“Don’t you have anything you want to take with you to Ponyville?”, I asked her after seeing nothing next to her.

“No, I have read all the books I got and I’m pretty sure where we go isn’t any shortage of new ones. Lavender told me she will visit me within the next two days, so nutrition isn’t a problem either.” She came towards us and turned around to the guards. “Thanks for guarding me and giving me a pretty good time here.”

The guards looked surprised by this sudden praise and fumbled a bit for words.

“Just stay out of trouble.”, one of them finally replied.

We left this part of the castle and walked towards the main gate.

“I’m a bit surprised you are this friendly towards your guards.”, Twilight remarked.

“Their job wasn’t only to hinder me leaving but to protect me from others as well who would attack ‘the strange evil creature’. Also, they only followed their orders. I see no reason for ill feelings towards them and I didn’t smell any hate from them.”

My marefriend stops walking and looked confused. “You didn’t smell any hate from them?”

“Oh, sorry. I guess I forgot to tell you she can smell general feeling from ponies when she is close to them.”, I explained.

Her purple eyes widened and she had problems standing still. “Wow, that’s so interesting, it will be so much fun studying your race. What do I smell of now?”

Chrysalis approached her and began to sniff. “Curiosity and excitement.”

“I think everypony could see that right now even without special powers.”, I said laughing.

…

We were in luck as we arrived at the train station half an hour later, a train destined to Ponyville was just waiting for departure. We quickly entered one of the wagons in front and walked through the train searching for a spot with few ponies, we didn't want to unsettle others with our special company.

As we entered the second wagon we heard a familiar voice.

“Hello darlings, so nice to meet you here.”, the white unicorn greeted us surrounded by the CMC.

“Hi Rarity.”, Twilight responded. “Would it be okay for us to accompany you?”

“I insist you do so.”, she replied. “Why wouldn't it be?”

Instead of answering Twilight took a side-glance to Chrysalis.

“Oh pish-posh.” Rarity used her magic to levitate the front page of a newspaper nearby before us.

Next to a surprisingly accurate drawing of our changeling companion, I read the following text out loud: “Princess Celestia announces: There is a new race among us, Changelings. One of them will live with us so we can study and get to know each other. The changeling is under the personal protection of the princess and shall be treated like one of us, because she is.”

The rest of the article was describing smaller details so I stopped reading.

“Wow, I’m impressed.”, Chrysalis stated while she sat opposite to the crusaders which stared at her wide-eyed.

We all took a seat while the train started to move.

“You look so cool!”, Scootaloo suddenly shouted. “Can I touch your horn?”

Sweetie Belle used a hoof to hit her side. “You should know from biology from school… horns are private”, she muttered towards her.

Scootaloo started to blush immediately.

Chrysalis showed a big grin. “It’s okay if you touch it gently.”

She bowed her head down so she was able to reach it and after a little hesitation the little crusader carefully examined it with her front hoofs.

“It is huge!”, she commented. “It’s bigger than my head. What is that clamp for?”

Chrysalis slowly raised her head again. “It prevents me from using magic.”

Rarity’s happy smile turned into a frown. “Oh my, I don’t what to imagine how that would feel, we unicorns get so dependent on our magic.”

“Well I can’t say it feels nice to be restrained like this, but I’m used to do things without magic since have been disguised many times as something else than a unicorn.”

“Hmmm… I see.”, Rarity responded staring at the clamp. “At least it looks pretty… maybe I should think about something like this for my new collection.”

“We saw the two of you fighting at the wedding.”, Applebloom changed the subject. “Since we weren’t allowed to have wine we could see everything.”

“From our hideout behind the curtains.”, Sweetie Bell added.

“Just like a hero vs. supervillain fight from a comic book!”, Scootaloo shouted fired up again. “The way you two used your abilities against each other until…” She fell silent while Chrysalis and myself tensed up.

There was silence for a few moments before anypony spoke again.

“How is she?”, Sweetie Belle asked.

“We are lucky Celestia was there to heal her.”, I explained. “She will be ready to leave the hospital any day now.”

I could see the relief in all of their faces.

“Well, the fangs are cool too.”, Scootaloo stated after a while and ‘Chryssi’ used a big smile to show them off.

This perked up the white filly again. “Ohh, I saw in a magazine there is a way to get fake ones permanently attached, maybe someday we can…”

“NO!”, Rarity interrupted with a stern look.

“Awwwww…”, all the crusaders moaned.

I pictured it in my head and smiled. ‘Cutie mark crusaders vampires’  
> 6 Home again
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

At last, we arrived in Ponyville and left the train. The news about Chrysalis must have reached the ponies here as well, but there were a lot of nervous looks and many ponies tried to keep their distance to us. Our ways separated after a few minutes and we waved the others goodbye.

We had nearly reached the library when the changeling princess got tackled by a pink blur.

Despite being much smaller than her, Pinkie had her in a bear-hug and it looked like she was squeezing every bit of air out of her.

“My Pinkie sense was right, somepony new is here.”, she announced.

Just as I wanted to stop her to prevent Chrysalis from suffocating, she let go of her with a puzzled look on her face.

“That's strange… You feel familiar, like I have hugged you before…”, she rambled.

Chrysalis needed a few more breaths before she was able to respond. “Do you remember the unicorn mare ‘Abstrudo Turquoisewings’?”

Pinkie’s looked at her in surprise. “Abstrudo? You have been Abstrudo?” Her mood dropped a bit. “You never wanted to play with me.”

“Maybe because I was spying here to gather information? You made it a lot harder to do when you always randomly popped out of nowhere and asked me to play with you.”

Pinkie looked blurry-eyed for a moment.

“Wait, does that mean you had been without permission in Twilight's bedroom that one night?”, the pink pony asked.

“What???”, Twilight asked surprised, but was ignored.

“Well of course! You startled me so much I nearly had screamed. I was sure my cover was blown until you whispered if I wanted to play hide and seek.”

There was a short silence until Pinkie spoke up again. “Do you want to play hide and seek now?”

“No, I don't!”, Chrysalis shouted.

I laid my hand on Pinkie’s back to get her attention, she gave me a sad look.

“You should give her some time to get accustomed to her new situation, I'm sure she will play with you someday in the future.”, I told her.

That lightened the party pony’s mood a bit, while Chrysalis looked at me as if I had suggested to ban her to the moon.

“In a way, she is new in town.”, I continued. “What would you suggest to introduce her to everypony.”

I got the expected reaction from Pinkie, her eyes lit up and a big grin formed on her face. “A Party?!”, she asked eagerly.
“That sounds like a great idea, can you organize one for tomorrow?”, I asked while petting her head.

Her head moved so fast up and down it looked like a blur and a second later, just a pink dusk cloud was left in front of me, slowly dissolving while smelling like cotton candy.

“What did you do in my bedroom at night?”, Twilight asked as we walked into the library.

“Gathering information.”, was the reply featuring a big grin.

Twilight opened her mouth several times to say something, but it seemed she was unsure what to ask… or maybe afraid of the answer she would receive.

“I'm going upstairs and unpack our stuff.”, she said instead and walked up to our room.

“You really should be more open to her, we are all here to help with the changeling situation.”, I scolded our guest.

Her ears dropped to the side and she sighed. “I know, but it isn't so easy.”

“Why not?”, I asked. “You have been pretty open to me.”

She sat down on the living room couch and looked at the ceiling. “That's because you're not a pony. For many many decades, I only learned and knew to ‘never trust a pony and never give away any information about our race’. It's not easy to overcome this.”

'Many many decades?', I thought. 'How old is she actually?'
I decided to shelve this question until we knew each other a bit better, I was afraid it could be rude to ask.

Chrysalis was browsing book titles in the library shelves.

“Okay, let's go upstairs so I can show you your room.”, I finally told her. “It's the same room I used when I arrived at this world.”

We moved up the stairs but I stopped midway. “About Twilight…”, I started.

“I will tell her I'm sorry and try to be more open to her.”, she interrupted me.

I gave her a warm smile. “Thanks.”

We continue our way and I showed her the room she would be staying. After a moment she decided to go to our room to speak to my marefriend while I waited, we both agreed it would make a better impression if she did this without me.

…

I had been at the market for some ingredients and now I was preparing dinner. Chrysalis was reading in the library while Twilight was working on a list of possible questions we could ask her tomorrow. We had decided to wait until the next day before we started with the changeling research… Well, I thought it would be a good idea to give our guests a moment to get accustomed to her new home and I was able to convince Twilight.

The door swung open and Spike came in. “Hey, you are finally back, I didn't… Wo… Woah!”

“Hey Spike, this is our new friend…”, I started.

“And research project!”, my marefriend shouted.

I sighed. “Hey Spike, meet our new friend and research project Chrysalis.”

Unsure the little dragon carefully closed the distance. “Welcome to Ponyville… you don't eat dragons, don't you?”

A big grin started to spread on the changeling’s face but I gave her a stern look and shook my head.

She rolled her eyes. “No, I don't get any nutrition from normal food, I can only feed on emotions.”

“But she can eat just for the enjoyment of the taste.”, I added. “I'm making curry tonight and she will try some as well.”

“I'm sure I would taste awful.”, Spike tried to convince Chrysalis.
> 7 Love
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The curry I had prepared supposed to be enough for two days, but somehow we went through it in this one dinner. Everypony took a second and third bowl, even Chrysalis who was fascinated by its taste. 

Expect our guest we all were absolutely full, Spike looked more like a ball then a dragon. We decided to go to bed early and wished each other a good night while we went to our rooms. Chrysalis stayed a little bit longer to browse the library for interesting books. 

We fell in our bed seconds after we had entered our room. Twilight used her magic to ignite the little wood stove we had installed a few days ago and soon the nice dry heat of a burning fire spread through the room. I stripped my clothes and cuddled up against Twilight's furry body. 

“I'm still surprised how well your fur isolates you from the winter's cold, it's not that thick.”, I said brushing through my marefriend’s purple fur. 

“When it gets really cold we use winter clothing as well, but right now it isn’t that bad.”, Twily answered. She started smiling and ran her hooves over my body. “If that stove can guarantee you are naked in bed with me, it was well worth the investment.”

I started to quietly moan and to squirm under her touch. “Somepony is eager today.”, I muttered under my breath and kissed her. 

“Well, you wanted to have more active fun in our bedroom to burn a few calories, remember?”, she answered with a lewd grin and cast the bubble of silence so we wouldn't disturb the whole neighborhood again.  

“That fine for me.”, I replied and kissed my way down her body.

…

We both laid on our backs, breathing heavy, our bodies glistening with sweat. Even with some distance between us I felt the heat radiating from her body. 

“That must have been quite some calories.”, I said laughing after my heart stop racing and my breathing had normalized. “We should have a quick shower together before we go to sleep.”

Twilight, still out of breath just nodded. I searched for my big towel and wrapped myself in it, while her horn started glowing for a brief moment as she removed the bubble of silence. 

We both froze in place as we heard a strange sound. It sounded like a kitten's purr… if the kitten was 60 feet tall… or like a grizzly imitating a kitten.

“What is that sound?”, Twilight whispered to me. 

“How should I know?”, I whispered back. “But it seems to be right outside our room.”

Carefully I inched towards the door, Twilight right behind me. I laid my hand on the doorknob and slowly opened it. 

My eyes widened in surprise as I saw the source of the strange sound. 

Chrysalis laid on her back in the middle of the floor, her eyes closed and a huge grin on her face. She was still emitting that deep purr and now I knew it's source it felt more calming than frightening. 

I coughed to make us known. She instantly opened her eyes and looked at us surprised with an apologetic smile.

“So, you came for a bedtime snack?”, I asked. I wasn't angry at her, I knew she only used her natural ability to gain energy and there wasn't any harm in that. But I had to admit it felt a bit strange to know our activities in the last half hour had been the source for it. 

She got to her feet and scanned my body in my makeshift toga a bit longer than I was comfortable with before she answered. “Sorry, but that nice dinner really left me with some appetite and suddenly this huge amount of love beams from your room… I just couldn't resist.”

“You really shouldn't feed on ponies without asking them first!”, Twilight shouted to my surprise, I felt her anger through our connection. 

“I should have come in asking you for permission while you were having sex?”, Chrysalis asked, looking a bit confused. 

Shame mixed in with my marefriend’s anger. “That’s… that's not what I meant!”

“I'm not taking anything away from you.”, our guest replied. “You are emitting these feelings and they would just dissolve into nothing if I didn't absorb them.”

“It's still an infiltration in our privacy!”, Twilight shouted back, her body was shaking. 

I laid my hand on Twilight's back in an attempt to calm her down a bit. “I think you should just go to your room now, I have to talk to Twilight for a bit.”

Chrysalis looked at both of us for a while before she moved towards her room, mumbling something unintelligible. 

“She is just…”, Twilight started. 

Thanks to her light pony body I was able to pick her up using my arm and my stump and planted a quick kiss on her lips. 

“Let's go to the bathroom first and we try to calm down a bit before we're having a discussion.”, I told her while I carefully carried her down the stairs. 

Twilight just huffed in return. 

We entered the bathroom but my marefriend decided not to look at me but to stare at the wall instead. I slowly put her on the ground and used my fingers to brush through her mane. 

“Do you remember what I told you about trees when I explained chemistry to you?” She kept staring at the wall, but her ears twitched. As she didn't answer I decided to continue: “To create energy reserves the trees take what we exhale and produce oxygen as a byproduct. Are we angry at the trees for using something that had been a part of us to gain energy?” 

“No…”, she muttered. 

“I think it isn't so different what the changelings are…”, I tried to continue but stopped when Twilight turned her head and stared angrily at me. 

“Why must you be so calm and logic when I get emotional for once?!”, she shouted. 

I was confused but started to understand. Sometimes when you're angry you don't want someone to explain the situation, you just want some sympathy for the way you feel. 

I sat down on the ground so I could see my marefriend eye to eye. “I'm sorry. I understand it was strange and felt like an intrusion into our most private moment. I shouldn't have lectured you right now.”

Tears streamed down her face as she jumped into my arms embracing me. “I know it's stupid, but I feared she could take away your love for me.”, she cried. 

I held her tight and kissed her. “There isn't a thing in the universe that could make me stop loving you. I'll be with you for the rest of my life.” 

We held to each other for a few more minutes with little kisses in between. 

Finally we both were relaxed again and breathed in unison. I felt in peace, and one with my partner. 

“I know you're right.”, Twilight said in a calm voice. “She doesn't take anything from us. Our love is like the sun, shining bright and lasting forever.”

I felt so close to her right now and speaking of our undying love made me want to ask her the ultimate question… but the scenario didn't feel appropriate for it. Instead, I wiped the tears from her beautiful eyes and kissed her deep and long as we felt our shared love through our connection. 

“Let's get cleaned up.”, I said. “I want to cuddle the most beautiful pony in my sleep.” 

With a smile she tugged my towel to the ground and pulled me into the shower.
> 8 Morning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I awoke to the sun shining through our window. I felt Twilight's fur against my skin and her slow breathing while she was still asleep. It was one of those wonderful moments I had thought to never have again after I had lost my first love. I smiled while I watched her sleep for a few more minutes.

As she finally opened her eyes, she looked straight into mine.

“Hey my love, what are you looking at?”, she asked smiling.

“Only the most beautiful thing in the universe.”, I replied and gave her a sweet little kiss.

It brought a slight blush to her cheeks and she gave me a playful shove. “Sweet-talker.”

“You know I mean it.”, I replied.

Suddenly her eyes started to sparkle in excitement. “Oohh, today we can work on the paper about the changeling race.”

I smiled at her eagerness to learn new things all the time, one of the many things I loved about her.

“There is so much we can research.”, I replied. “The changelings, chemistry, my ‘borrowing’ of your magic, how I did that magic blade…”

I decided to stop as I felt her growing arousal through our connection, if I would continue there was a good chance we wouldn't leave our bedroom until noon. Not that I was opposed to this idea, but we had a lot of stuff to do. I quickly dressed up while Twilight had an insane grin on her face and was drooling. “Yeees, so much research…”

I moved out of her reach towards the door. “Let's have a quick breakfast then, so we can start early with our research.”, I said in an attempt to focus her mind.

She slowly returned to her normal self and wiped her muzzle. “Yes, let's do that.” She looked a bit ashamed for how she had reacted.

As we walked down to the kitchen, we found Chrysalis already sitting in the library reading. Twilight stopped mid-step, staring at her. She took a deep breath and approached her.

“Good morning. I'm sorry for overreacting yesterday.”, she apologized.

Our guest looked up from the book she was reading. “Well, I think it's understandable, normally ponies don't see me feed on them.”

There was a moment of silence between us.

“Sooo… what does this mean for future situations like that?”, Chrysalis finally asked.

“I believe you can absorb all emotions you come across, it's like you said, you don't take anything away from anypony.”, Twilight replied to her. “But it might be helpful to explain to others what you do and ask them first. There is no need to make ponies mad at you without reason.”

Chrysalis thought about it for a moment. “I think that's good advice.”, she replied nodding. “I don't really need to feed on others since I receive more than enough from Lavender, but it would be good to explain to everypony what exactly my ability is. I guess I will tell them at ‘the party’ what I do to nourish myself.”

I smiled as I noticed she pronounced ‘party’ the same way others would pronounce ‘funeral’. It wasn't surprising Pinkie had a hard time getting close to her.

“Well, we should have breakfast so we can start learning more about your race afterward.”, I suggested because I smelled fresh buns. Spike must have been up early and got us some stuff from the bakery.

“If you don't mind, since I don't gain anything from it, I would like to continue reading.”, Chrysalis told us.

“How long can you go without feeding?”, I asked curiously.

She looked up from her book again. “I can store quite a lot, much more than a normal changeling. When I'm full I can go a week without feeding, of course depending on my activities.”

Twilight who had been halfway to the breakfast table came running back with a scroll and quill levitating next to her.
“Hey, don't start without me.”, she complained.

I laughed at my nerdy marefriend.
“It was just a simple question because I was curious. Let's eat first and do the changeling research without tummy rumbles.”

I lead her back to the table while I saw a little smile from our guest out of the corner of my eye.

…

I had just finished my extensive breakfast when there was a knock on the door. I stood up and walked over to see who would visit us this early in the morning. To my surprise, I found Lyra before me as I opened the door.

“Morning boss.”, she greeted me smiling. “Are we doing research today?”

“How do you even know I'm back from Canterlot?”, I asked.

“Oh come on.”, she replied grinning. “You don't really blend into a crowd, and neither does she.” Lyra pointed towards Chrysalis.

It was quite obvious now that I thought about it, of course our arrival must have been the talk of the town.

“Well, we were just about to start learning about Chrysalis body and abilities, so you are free to join us. Or would you like to do some routine experiments for our chemistry research?”

“I’m staying with you, this sounds way more interesting.”, she answered and I could see the excitement on her face.

I raised my voice a bit to address our test-subject as well: “Let’s go over to our lab to learn more about you. We have the right equipment there if we need to take any samples.”

She looked up from her book and raised an eyebrow when I mentioned to take samples.

“Should I worry?”, she asked with a grin.

It was clear to see she wasn’t the slightest bit worried but was just playing with me, but I answered anyway to set the right tone for the others as well.

“We won’t do anything you don’t agree to, I want this all to happen on a friendly basis.”

She seemed a bit surprised by my friendly tone. She laid the book on a small table next to her and followed us to the lab.
> 9 Horny
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

We all stood in the smaller room of my lab surrounding Chrysalis. Lyra and I were a bit uncomfortable putting our guest in such a spotlight, while Twilight was so excited she had a little Pinkie-bounce in her steps.

“Well, how do we start?”, I asked more to myself than to the others.

My marefriend showed a big grin waving some papers around. “Yesterday I made a list for the best sequence to examine her body and abilities.”

“Of course you did, honey.”, I replied and was actually glad she did.

“We start from the top of her head and work our way to her lower back.”, she explained. “So let's start with your horn, it's shape is very unusual, does it look like this for all the changeling princesses?”

I immediately noticed how Chrysalis mood dropped and her body tensed up.

“Maybe we should start with something else.”, I suggested.

“But my list…”, Twilight protested and suddenly looked like she was about to cry.

Chrysalis coughed to get our attention. “It's okay, we can talk about it. It isn't one of my favorite topics by far, but I will explain it to you.”

She took a deep breath before she continued. “The shape of my horn is unusual amongst şahzadə as well.”

There were confused looks from the others who hadn't heard this strange sounding word before.

“A şahzadə is a ‘noble changeling’, the princesses and the queen. We have some unique abilities and are much larger than a normal changeling. The word itself is from our ancient language, which isn't used in daily life anymore. The only exceptions are funerals and things there is no word for in the common language of Equestria.”

She waited for a few seconds to let it sink in before she touched her horn and continued. “The horn of a şahzadə looks very much like Celestia's horn, apart from the dark color. Size and form are nearly identical. My horn is some kind of birth-defect, I looked different from the other princesses. Being different is something very undesirable within the changeling race, we can change ourselves in all kinds of things to disguise us, but every changeling should be the same, uniform, replaceable.”

She sat down on a nearby chair and we did the same, I think we all felt there was a longer story in this. Chrysalis waited a moment before she continued.

“I have been told after I had hatched the queen and one of the nurses had a discussion if I should be killed for being different…
I heard they discussed for about ten minutes before the queen decided to let me live. But you shouldn’t assume she did it because I was her daughter, I was just one of many and easily replaced, she never had such emotions towards me. She let me live because she was curious how the horn would affect me. As she had said back then ‘If she can’t perform like the others I can kill her later anyway.’ “

I looked around and saw the others horrified expressions. Ponies generally supported diversity, their cutie marks were even a symbol of that, so they were absolutely shocked to hear this.
It didn’t shock me the same way as them. I knew back in my world there were thousands of babies killed every year, just because they were born a girl.

Chrysalis noticed their reaction but decided to just continue in her story.

“As I grew up, all my siblings, big and small, made sure I never forget that I was different. They all looked down on me for not being like them.” She looked up at the ceiling and her eyes seemed a little hazy. “Get to of the way, Crooked!... You can't do anything, Crooked!... Why don't you just die, Crooked!”

She quickly wiped her eyes and continued talking before anyone of us was able to say a thing… not that I had any idea how to respond to something like that.

“I noticed pretty soon I was different from them in more than just how I looked, my feelings and personality were different as well. I was curious about new things and felt pity for others changelings who came back injured from fights to protect our hive. I quickly learned not to show these feelings, my siblings had enough hate for me just for looking different, it would have made things only worse.”

She traced the shape of her horn with her hoof. “The shape of my horn made it difficult for me to cast spells, but I made up for it by training every free moment… until my abilities surpassed my stuck-up siblings. Of course they hated me even more for that, but I didn't care anymore… I had found a way to prove I wasn't worthless. And if my plan to conquer Canterlot had succeeded, I even could have dethroned my mother and take her place instead… none of them would have been able to look down on me ever again…”

She blinked a few times and looked like she only remembered where she was right now. “Sorry, I guess I digressed a bit, but that's the story of my horn.”

“Now I almost wish you had succeeded in Canterlot.”, Lyra said and surprised us.

“Lyra!”, Twilight complained.

“I see what Lyra means by that.”, I told her. “What she told us right now combined with her explanation about starving changelings helps me to understand why she made the decisions she made. I’m not saying it was right what she did, but I understand it.”

“I guess…”, my marefriend mumbled while I got a very surprised look from Chrysalis, which turned into a warm smile after a moment.

I decided it would be best to go on. “What’s the next point on your list, Twilight?”

She quickly refocused on our task and levitated the papers in front of her again. “Her crown-thingy.”

We all focused our attention on the crown like shape on top of her head.

I stood up and came close to her to get a better look.

“Would it be okay if I touch it?”, I asked while I extended my hand towards it.

“No, you can’t touch it!”, she replied surprisingly harsh, her face reddened while she moved her head out of reach.

I looked at her surprised from her reaction and took my hand back.

“The beads at the end are highly sensitive to touch.”, she explained in a calmer voice but her face now in a scarlet color. “It’s a… very private thing to do…”

My face gained some color as well as I understood what I almost had done.

“Oh… sorry… I had no idea…”, I stuttered. “Well… I guess we learned something here… Twilight write that down… in an appropriate wording.”

Twilight looked at both of us with a confused look. “I’m don't understand what we are talking about.”

I wasn’t sure how to word it in the best way to explain it.

“It’s the same thing as when Stella licks your horn.”, Lyra explained it to Twilight in her typical direct way.

“Lyra!”, Twilight shouted.
> 10 Body
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took Twilight a few moments to calm down. She still wasn't comfortable speaking about sexual things in front of others, but that's just how she was and it always looked so cute when she was bashful. 

I looked at my marefriend’s list for the next item so I could get her out of this situation.
“Is there something special about your ears?”, I asked Chrysalis.

“Well, you already know I have far superior hearing compared to all of you. Aside from this fact they aren't different from the ones ponies have.”

I checked the list again while Twilight was writing down the notes about what we learned. “Fine, what about your eyes?”, I asked.

“My eyesight is about the same as ponies have, but I can also see very well in the dark. Like you have said before, I am a predator.” She used a big grin to show off her fangs.

I just smiled at her boasting, she didn’t feel that threatening anymore, more like a teenage boy who tried to pretend how strong and though he was. I knew she was much stronger than me, but I also knew she was hiding a soft heart.

“Funny you show off your fangs like this, because they are next on the list.”, I told her. I hesitated, something was wrong. I looked at the list again. “Wait… Twilight, shouldn’t her nostrils or sense of smell be next on the list? I don’t see them anywhere on there.”

Twilight stared at the list and her eyes widened. “Oh no. Oh NO! I forgot to put them on the list!”

“It's not a problem, we just write it at the end.”, I tried to calm her down.

“No, that’s not good enough.”, she replied. “What if Celestia asks me for my notes and sees this chaos?!”

“Why should she do that, you will give her the finished paper. There is no reason why she would ask for your notes.”

“I can’t risk that, I will write a new list. Don't continue without me!”, she shouted and stormed out of the lab.

I just sighed, I had got used to her perfectionism.

“Lyra, could you please follow her to make sure she doesn’t use a whole day doing it. She should just write it down again.”, I asked my lab assistant.

“Sure Boss.”, she replied and went after her.

“And stop calling me boss, just use my name!”, I shouted after the aquamarine mare. 

When I turn towards Chrysalis again I found her smiling.

“These two can be the source of quite some chaos around here.”, she commented.

“Well, everyone has times when they cause some chaos for their friends. I as well wasn’t easy to handle after I had lost my hand.”

“How so?”, she asked with a curious look.

This wasn't something I liked to talk about, but considering what Chrysalis had told us about her it would be unfair not to tell her about this in return. I sighed and unlocked my prosthesis. I slid it off and looked at my stump, it was still strange to see how my arm just ended there. 

“After I had lost my hand, I acted like it wasn't a big deal and I could handle it just fine. I buried my anger and tried to adjust to the new situation. But everypony treated me like I was helpless and couldn't do anything on my own… it made me mad. All this anger grew inside me until I snapped over another little mistake I made because of my missing hand. I screamed at Twilight and ran out of the library.”

I sighed. Just thinking about that day brought up so many feelings again. 

“I was angry about the situation, angry at myself for screaming at Twilight who only wanted to help, and furious because of this ugly useless stomp. I loathed this stump and hit it with full force against a tree nearby.”

I hit the palm of my hand with the stump to visualize it, producing a loud clap. 

“The wound was still fresh and incredible pain went through my body. I ignored the pain as much as possible and hit the tree again.”

I closed my eyes. 

*Clap*

“My wound had opened again and blood started to flow from it.”

*Clap*

*Clap*

“I saw the world through a red haze of pain, barely able to stay conscious while I kept hitting the tree.”

*Clap*

*Clap*

Something held on to my stomp, keeping it from continuing. I opened my eyes and saw Chrysalis had stood up and was holding on to it, a deeply worried look on her face. 

“Sorry…”, I excused for my behavior. ”I got lost in that feeling again.”

I slowly removed my stomp from her grip and took a few deep breaths. 

“Well, Rainbow Dash stopped me about the same point you did and I don't want to imagine what had happened if she hadn't insisted following me.”

We stared at my stomp. 

“Stupid useless thing…”, I mumbled. 

“You had a magic blade emerge from it to stop me, I wouldn't call that useless.”, Chrysalis commented in a strange effort to cheer me up. 

I just harrumphed in return and kept staring at my missing hand. 

“Something like a magic blade from your arm never happened before?”, she asked. 

“No, I just had some random effects before, some levitation and telekinesis, I wasn't able to control it.”, I replied. 

“A blade was helpful in your situation, but it is just a random shape… you could try something else.”

“Like what?”, I asked confused. 

“A hand?”, she suggested. 

I think my brain stopped working for a moment and I just looked at her blinking. 
“I… you…”, I stuttered. “You think something like this is possible?” 

“I change my shape all the time.”, she replied. “I don't see how a hand should be much more difficult than a magical blade able to pierce my shield.”

I looked back and forth between her and my stump. “But the amount of power I would need to uphold it…” 

She sat down in her chair again and touched the clamp on her horn for a brief moment. “I don't know how you are using magic, I can only tell you about myself. When I tried a new spell it always was very hard for me, but with practice, it became second nature to do it without using much energy.”

“You really think I could do that?”, I asked.

“I don't know. I'm a changeling and you're a human. But you don't use your hand for 98% of the time anyway, so I thought you could just blink it.”

“Blink it?”, I inquired. I had no idea what she meant by that. 

“It's a term I use for giving myself a body part for just a brief moment, long enough to do a task. Like when I'm disguised as an earth pony… I go somewhere where nopony sees me and let a horn appear just long enough to cast a spell.”

It all sounded so good and logical, the warm feeling of hope started to spread through my body. 

“How do I do it?”, I jumped up from my chair and asked her eagerly. 

“I don't know how it works for you, it was just a suggestion.”, she replied while leaning back to get more distance between us. 

“How do you learn a new spell?”, I kept asking getting awfully close to her again.

She looked a bit panicked as she replied. “I try to visualize the result and force it into existence.” 

I sat back in my chair and stared at the end of my stump. I tried to calm down and focus. I remembered how it used to look, I tried to see my hand where it was missing. 

For seconds nothing happened but I kept trying. I focused all my power at this one point of my body… 

For a brief moment, a glowing blue hand appeared and vanished instantly. I was grinding my teeth, refusing to give up. The hand reappeared but was flickering, I felt it would dissolve any moment. I just wanted to keep it around longer and my mind searched for a source of power to do it, just like when I had used the blade… and I found something nearby and tapped into it. 

The hand lid up bright and stabilized… glowing light green. 

“What are you doing?!”, Chrysalis screamed, she was confused and frightened while her horn was glowing brightly. 

In that moment Twilight and Lyra opened the door to the lab. 

“Sweet Celestia!”
> 11 Green
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I stared at my glowing green hand, I was able to move it naturally just like I used to do…

“... Stella!”

Someone was calling me, but I had a hard time concentrating on anything other than my new hand. I looked up and met Twilight's face, she looked deeply worried.

“Stop this right now, Stella!”, she shouted.

“But I have a hand…”, I mumbled.

“Please!”, she begged me, looking into my eyes.

I looked around and saw Chrysalis frightened face and her glowing horn, I began to understand what I was doing… but still, it was incredibly hard to let go of my magical source, because I didn’t want to give up my hand.

With a heavy heart, I cut the connection and saw my hand turn to blue again for a brief moment before it dissolved.

I was confused and different feelings fought inside me to get the upper hand.

“I’m so sorry.”, I said and started to cry. I turned towards Chrysalis and fell to my knees. “I’m so so sorry for what I did… but I had a hand…”

Normally I wasn’t that emotional but I just I couldn't stop crying, not only because of what I had done but I also felt like I had lost my hand for the second time. Twilight put her hoof around me and tried to calm me down.

After a few moments, my head was raised by a black hoof and Chrysalis face came into my field of view.

“It’s okay now, you didn’t hurt me in any way.”, she said in a soft voice. “You just surprised me… and frightened me a tiny little bit. I won’t hold it against you.”

I surprised her once more as I threw my arms around her and cried into her mane. She just let it happen and after a moment she even put a hoof around me.

My body wasn’t used to using magic and such emotional outbreaks, it had drained enormous amounts of energy from my body. After a few more minutes of crying, I wasn’t able to stay awake any longer and I fell into a deep slumber.

…

When I opened my eyes again I found myself in bed, Twilight was next to me reading a book.

“Hey honey, feeling better?”, she asked.

I tried to remember what had happened and groaned as I finally remembered.

“I have made a total fool of myself.”, I said and covered my eyes with my hand.

“No, you haven’t.”, Twilight replied and pushed my hand aside so she was able to look into my eyes. “We all make mistakes and it isn’t wrong to show your feelings. You don't have to be the strong one in our relationship all the time, maybe I want to play that part sometimes too.”, she smiled and kissed me much more forceful than usual as to prove her point. It lasted for a very pleasant minute before she continued to speak to me.

“You have been overwhelmed by what magic can do, it can be confusing at first. I read a lot about similar cases, mostly with magical artifacts involved, confusion is one of the better possible side effects recorded.”

“But it has happened to me before.”, I remarked.

“Yes, but in an emergency situation after which you fell into a deep slumber. I felt your strong mixture of different feelings through our connection this time. It had been the reason I came back earlier to see what happened.”
She kissed my lips again, softly this time.
“Welcome to the club of magic users.”, she told me with a smile.

“What about Chrysalis?”, I asked. ”I stole her magic to make my hand appear.”

I brought up my stump to look at it and touched its end, it looked the same as ever.

“Let’s say you borrowed some of it for a while.”, she rephrased my sentence. “She was incredibly understanding and was very worried about your health as well, I was quite touched by her reaction. ”

“How long was I asleep?”, I asked since the light looked so gloomy.

“The whole day.”, she replied. “Don’t worry, your body will get used to using magic.”

I looked at my stomp again. “Do you think I will be able to let the hand reappear?”

She gave me a warm smile. “Chrysalis told me you were able to make it appear for a fraction of a second before you tapped into her power. If you already made it so far, with practice you will be able to do that ‘blinking’ thing she mentioned, maybe even for longer time spans. When I started to use magic it was a difficult task just to turn a single page of my book, practice makes perfect.”

It was very reassuring to hear this from my marefriend.

I suddenly remembered something.

“You said it is already evening, isn't Chrysalis welcome party tonight?”, I asked her.

“Yes, but we have still an hour before it begins, you can take your time getting ready.”

“Will Lavender come too?”

Twilight shook her head. “We received a letter today, telling us the doctors ordered her to stay one more day. She will arrive tomorrow afternoon.”

“How has ‘Chryssi’ reacted to this?”, I asked while I started to undress.

“She seemed fine with it, she wants her to be healthy first and foremost.”

I choose comfortable warm clothing since there still was snow outside…
I really should talk to Rarity again, I needed more winter clothes.

I remembered something. “Wait, shouldn't Chrysalis dress up as well? I remember her telling me she isn't comfortable in the cold since she got no fur.”

We went down the stairs and talked to our guest about it.

She looked confused at first but nodded after a moment.

“I completely forgot about that.”, she admitted. “I’m so used to change my appearance at will so clothing wasn't an issue.”

“When we got to Ponyville it had been a nice sunny day despite the snow.”, I told her. “But now, with the sun already set, it will get very chilly.”

“This is a problem indeed, I lose body heat very fast in cold conditions. Is there something from your wardrobe you could give me?”, she addressed Twilight.

Twilight looked uncomfortable answering. “You are so much bigger than me, you wouldn't fit in any of them.”

We stared at each other, thinking of a quick solution.

“I have an idea!”, I shouted. “Give me fifteen minutes.”

I ran up the stairs again and into Chrysalis guest room, I opened the closet where we stored our warm winter blankets and pulled a dark blue out of it. I got my basic sewing kit and some scissors and brought all of it down to the living room table.

They looked at me curiously.

“What are you doing with this?”, my marefriend asked.

“I’m making a simple snuggle blanket with sleeves, I did one of these when I was in college.”

I used the scissors to cut into the sides of front part of the blanket and sewed some buttons to them so they formed very simple sleeves, the whole things was finished within minutes. I threw it over Chrysalis back and closed the buttons around her front legs. I stepped back a bit to see how the finished thing looked.

“Well… it’s very functional and it doesn’t look that bad…”, I carefully described my creation.

Twilight tilted her head to the side and sighed while looking at it. “You know Rarity will probably kill us for this, right?”
> 12 Feathers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

We walked through the snow towards town hall where Pinkie had prepared the party. It must have been below freezing and little clouds of vapor appeared every time we exhaled. 

“How is the improvised clothing working so far?”, I asked Chrysalis. 

“Quite good.”, she replied. “My head and neck are freezing but the rest of my body is surprisingly cozy.”

We kept walking through the white powdery Ponyville. After a few more minutes I heard some humming from Twilight, it sounded a lot like a Christmas Tune. It was a simple melody, so I just joined in after a moment, humming along. When she noticed what I was doing she turned her head towards me and smiled but kept on humming. 

“Right, it's just about two weeks until ‘Hearth's Warming Eve’.”, Chrysalis remarked. 

“It should be your favorite holiday since it's all about love.”, Twilight commented. 

“Oh yes, it is.”, the changeling princess agreed. “Every town is so overflowing with love, gathering is a breeze. In fact, it's so much it's hard not to absorb more even after you're already full. I tend to gain around six pounds to my true changeling form when I'm near large amounts of ponies on Hearth's Warming Eve, it takes me forever to lose that weight again.”

I heard a giggle from Twilight and I laughed as well. 

“There is nothing funny about that.”, Chrysalis complained. “You know how much I need to train to get into shape again?!”

“Sorry about that.”, I replied. “It was just so unexpected to hear the ‘changeling warrior princess’ worry about her figure.”

She blushed and muttered: “I don't see what that has to do with anything…” 

“I'm pretty sure you and Lavender can do some things together to burn off this extra energy.”, I said with a lewd smile. 

I received a kick from my marefriend for this, but Chrysalis was nodding to herself. “I think you're right, that's a great idea.”, she agreed smiling. 

We continued our way through town and I noticed some ponies had already put up their holiday decorations. This all looked quite familiar to the little town I grew up… well apart from the talking ponies of course. I couldn't wait to see how our shared holiday here would turn out and made a mental note to get a present for Twilight soon. 

… 

We arrived at town hall pretty much on time. Through the windows I could see there were already a huge number of ponies inside and more were coming from all sides, walking towards the hall. 

“As to be expected from Pinkie, I looks like nearly everyone in Ponyville will attend.”, Twilight pointed out. 

“Let's go in and wait there for a few more minutes, then you can introduce yourself to everypony.”, I said and walked to the door with them. 

Suddenly I noticed Chrysalis wasn't with us anymore. I turned around and saw her standing back a few feet looking quite nervous. 

“What’s the matter?”, I asked and walked back to her.

“I’m not sure I can do this…”, she whispered subdued. “To be in front of this many ponies without my disguise… it feels so wrong to me, decades of training and blending in are telling me not to do this.”

“There is no reason to fear them. They have been very welcoming to this strange bipedal creature. “, I told her pointing at myself.

“I… I don’t fear any of them.”, she replied and straightened her posture. “It just goes against my instincts to be outnumbered like this without my disguise.”

“Outnumbered… sounds like your warrior instincts to me.”, I told her. “But these ponies are not your enemy, believe me. I’m looking much more alien to them then you do. Of course, some of them will fear you for how you look and will keep their distance, it was the same for me, but the more they got to know me this number diminished.”

She took a few deep breaths. “I know all you said is true. Let me have just a few moments to calm down and convince myself.”

She closed her eyes. While other ponies passed us, many looking curious at our changeling guest, it was quite visible how she slowly relaxed. 

“Hi there!”, a high pitched voice shouted next to us. It made Chrysalis jump and she got into a defensive stance.

“I told you not to appear out of nowhere.”, Chrysalis shouted at Pinkie.

“But I just walked out of town hall.”, she answered with a confused look but her mood lightened up pretty much instantly. “I came out to tell you it's almost time to introduce yourself to Ponyville, come on in.”

“I was just about to.”, Chrysalis replied and straightened her pose again. She tried her best to look unaffected by everything she had worried before. She took another deep breath and walked towards the entrance of town hall, Pinkie following her in her typical bouncy way.

“Let's try to stay close to her.”, I told Twilight and we followed them swiftly. 

Pinkie led the guest of honor towards a lectern on a podium in the front of the hall, many heads curiously turned as they passed.

“Oh no! What a crime against fashion.”, we heard from the pony we had expected it from. She turned around and spotted us in the crowd. “Why haven't you visited my shop?”, she addressed us in an accusing tone, sounding like we had killed somepony. 

We ducked down and tried to blend in with the crowd. We reached the first row and found some free seats there. I saw Pinkie was talking to Chrysalis who was slowly nodding while she took off her makeshift clothing. 

“Honey, is Pinkie Pie coaching Chrysalis what to say?”, Twilight asked me looking a bit panicked. 

“It looks like it…”, I replied. “Suddenly I wished we had talked to her about what she should say.”

I thought about going to her, but in that moment Pinkie started to speak out loud, focusing everypony’s attention on her and the changeling standing next to her. 

“Hello everypony! Thank you all for coming tonight so we can welcome our newest friend.” She pushed Chrysalis in front of her. 

The guest of honor just stared at the crowd for about ten seconds before she finally started to speak. 

“Hi, my name is Chrysalis and I'm a changeling.”

“Hi, Chrysalis!”, about half the crowd shouted back and the changeling suddenly wasn't visible anymore. 

A moment later she reappeared from behind the lectern. 

“I dropped something… found it.” She coughed and continued. “I want to tell you about me and my race today, so you don't have to be afraid of us.”

She looked at Pinkie for a moment who showed an encouraging smile. 

“We don't eat ponies.” 

I instantly facepalmed. How could anyone have thought something like that? But as I looked around to see everypony's reaction I found some of them actually looked relieved to hear that, Lily, Daisy, and Rose in special. I also saw a few ponies were late and entered silently, Fluttershy and Dashie were among them. 

Chrysalis continued: “We gain power and nourishment from positive emotions of advanced races like ponies, zebras and so on. Love it by far the most powerful source for us. We are able to absorb this energy just by being close to the creature having these feelings. None of you is losing anything when we do this, if we don't absorb it, it just dissolves anyway. 
We change our forms and appearance to blend in and stay hidden, but we want to get to know each other now, so we can find a way to live together without hiding. If there are any questions left, you can come to me and ask them within the next few hours or whenever you see me in the future.”

There was the stomping sound ponies used as applause and Chrysalis stepped down from the podium looking very relieved.

“That was much better than I had expected.”, I addressed Twilight who nodded in agreement. 

Since there were instantly a lot of ponies surrounding Chrysalis to ask their questions, I decided to go the other way to greet Fluttershy and Dashie to see how they were doing.

It took me a while but I made it all the way to them without getting to close to Rarity, they still stood near the entrance and looked a bit nervous. They were wearing simple but beautiful dresses that matched together quite perfectly, the work of Rarity for sure. 

“Hey, my friends.”, I greeted them. Smiling they bumped their hooves with me, then I noticed something special. 

“Wow, you are wearing each other's feathers in your mane, that looks so cute.”

The whole room became quiet in an instant while both of them blushed. 
I was confused and looked around, unsure what had happened. 

“Could somepony tell me why everypony is looking this way? Did I say something wrong?” 

“The feather-thing means we are engaged.”, Rainbow told me surprisingly bashful. “I asked her yesterday."

I felt so happy for them… but in addition I felt a huge wave of happiness from the ponies behind me, I almost felt high from it… or maybe I was only imagining things. 

I drew the two into a firm hug and kissed their cheeks. “I'm so so happy for you, you are such a great couple.”

“Without you, I may never had brought up the courage to confess my feelings to her.”, Fluttershy whispered to me. "I would like you to be my best mare.”

I was confused for a short moment but I quickly realized it's meaning from the context. “I gladly accept.”, I replied. 

I noticed a line of ponies who wanted to congratulate the couple on their decision was quickly forming behind me. 

“We have to talk more about this later.”, I said.

“Sure, maybe you could visit us for tea tomorrow.”, Fluttershy suggested.

“I’m looking forward to it.”, I replied and made room for others to speak with them. 

I passed Twilight on my way back, she was standing in line to get to her friends so she could give them her best wishes too. I brushed my fingers through her mane and gave her a little kiss. I still was in an extremely good mood and I knew exactly what I would give her as present now… I needed to visit the jewelry within the next few days. I pointed towards Chrysalis as I continued my way, she nodded.

As I arrived next to the guest of honor there were just a few ponies left talking to her, it looked like our friend's announcement had given her a bit more space. I stood close enough so I was able to hear the easy everyday questions she got asked, nothing I didn’t know already and some ponies just wanted to chat with this unfamiliar creature. Although she did her best to smile and be polite to everyone, I felt how tense and nervous she was, she relaxed a little bit as she noticed I was back.

I just waited close to her in case she needed any help.
> 13 Fire
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The party had been a lot of fun, it was almost midnight when we walked home together.

“That wasn't so bad, wasn't it?”, I asked Chrysalis who had been awfully quiet since we had left town hall. 

She had been in deep thought, so it took her a moment to process I said something. 

“Yeah… it went surprisingly well. Despite being without disguise they had been very welcoming and even supportive, no pony even questioned our method of feeding.”, she replied. “Makes me wonder what had happened if we had tried this approach years ago.”

“Well, not all communities are as welcoming as here in Ponyville.”, Twilight explained. “The ponies of Canterlot and other bigger cities are a bit harder to win over.”

She didn't respond to that as we continued our way through the snow. 

After a few minutes she spoke up again: “I guess I have an appointment with Rarity tomorrow morning, she did insist on making new clothing for me.”

“That was to be expected.”, I said grinning. “She would go crazy if you walked around in this makeshift thing much longer. I have to visit her anyway for more winter clothing, we can go together tomorrow.”

“Somepony would have to accompany me anyway, it’s not like you would have me walk around Ponyville on my own.”, she said in a perfectly calm and rational tone… but I felt she was a bit hurt even though she knew the reasons.

We all were aware of the rules Celestia had laid upon to us, so there wasn’t much we could respond with.

After a minute of silently walking through the white and quiet Ponyville I had made up my mind. “I guess we could ask Celestia in our next letter to give you a bit more freedom, you have been very cooperative and I have no reason to believe you would misuse our trust.”

Twilight and Chrysalis both came to a halt and looked at me surprised.

“I… I guess we could ask her.”, my marefriend carefully replied.

“Thank you.”, Chrysalis addressed me after a moment in a very warm tone.

…

As we entered the library both of them softly bumped their hooves against the side of the door to get the snowy remains out of the underside of their hooves. Much to our surprise, we found Spike was sitting in one of the library chairs reading his newest comic book.

“Spike!”, Twilight shouted. “You should have been in bed hours ago.”

He winced at the sudden shout and jumped to his little legs. “Sorry Twilight, this comic was so exciting I had a hard time putting it down and…”

“Hush! To bed right now.”, she cut him off. She practically pushed him into the little room he was sleeping in since we needed more privacy in our bedroom. We heard muffled voices as she continued scolding him.

“I’m really thankful for all you did for me so far.”, Chrysalis suddenly addressed me. “Without you, I wouldn’t be in this relatively good position, especially with Lavender. Even if I had conquered Canterlot, I doubt I had any chance to be with her in such a relationship as we are now.”

“There is no need to thank me for that.”, I replied to her.

“But I don’t understand why you did it.”, she immediately continued.

I was a bit surprised by this. “Is it hard to believe I just like helping others?”

“No… yes… we were enemies… I have such a hard time reading you. I’m used to knowing what others are feeling, at least a little bit… I don’t even know how your feelings smell.”, she answered and looked a bit frustrated.

‘It’s an ability she used all her life to judge what others think of her and how to deal with them in the best way.’, I thought. ‘It must be like seeing others and suddenly encountering a blackness without any real shape.’  

“Okay, go ahead and smell me.”, I told her.

She looked at me surprised. “What?” 

“If it helps you to trust me more, go ahead and learn how my feelings smell. I'm feeling very happy right now, because of the party, what you said and other things a well.”

She slowly closed the distance to me, it looked like she wasn't sure if I really meant it. 

“Don't be shy. Come and smell my happiness.”

‘That's a sentence I had never expected to say.’, I thought to myself smiling. 

“If you say so…” She went the rest of the way and started sniffing along my neck. Her muzzle rubbing along my skin made me giggle. 

“That's pretty close…”, I remarked between the giggles.

“If I get this rare chance I want to have the best results.”, she answered without taking her muzzle away from me and it made me giggle even more. 

As I was able to notice my surroundings a bit better again, I suddenly froze up. 

“There is a new spicy smell emerging, what's that?”, Chrysalis asked me still sniffing my neck.

“That's a bit of shame you're noticing, with fear rising quickly.”, I whispered. I could not take the eyes off Twilight and her angry look. I noticed how this situation must look to her. 

“What in Tartarus are you doing!”, she shouted. 

Chrysalis immediately moved away from me and stared at Twilight as well. 

“Honey, it isn't what it looked like…”, I started to defend myself as I felt incredible amounts of jealousy and anger through our connection. 

“WHAT WERE YOU DOING?!”, Twilight screamed and used her magic to throw a large book at us. I just tried to protect my head from the impact… 

The book hit a green barrier with a muffled ‘Thump’. 

“AND STOP TAPPING INTO HER MAGIC, YOU ARE MY MAREFRIEND, DAMMIT!”, she screamed and it looked like there were actual flames surrounding her body. 

I immediately dropped the barrier. 

“No… that was by instinct… it just was the nearest source, I guess… please hear me out.”, I stuttered. “I love you and would never betray your love.”.

“It's true.”, Chrysalis agreed and looked quite scared. “I was only trying to smell her feelings. You can use a truth spell on me if you want.”

The flames surrounding her body disappeared but she still looked less than convinced. 

“Think about it.”, I continued. “If there had been any romantic feelings you would have felt them through our connection.”

“What connection?”, Chrysalis asked but I hushed her. 

Twilight thought about that for a moment before I felt her anger fade and it got replaced by regret. She fell to the ground, her body weakened by this magical surge. 

“I shouldn't have doubted you.”, she whispered while I ran up to her and held her in my arms. “But there is nothing more important to me than your love…”

“No, it’s all my fault.”, I tried to calm her down. “I should have thought about how this would look and told you about it before doing it.” I slowly brushed through her mane. She had been tired before, so after this eventful day she was slowly drifting into slumber. 

“It's all okay.”, I told her in a calming tone. “It was a crazy day, but we can rest now and let it all go.”

Within only a few more moments her breathing slowed down and she had fallen asleep.
I looked at the wooden floor where she had stood before and saw four burn marks on it. 

"You can feel each other's emotions through some connection?", Chrysalis whispered in my ear.

"Let me get her into bed and I will explain it to you.", I whispered back and slowly stood up holding Twilight in my arms. Only now I realized Spike was standing in his doorway looking worried.

"Is everything alright?", he asked.

"Everything is fine.", I silently replied. "We just had a little misunderstanding and she is tired now. Go back to sleep."

He nodded and went back to his room.

I carried Twilight up the stairs, Chrysalis trailing behind me. She opened the door for me and I softly put my marefriend onto our bed. After I had tucked her in we left the room and sat down in the library again.

It took me a moment to gather my thoughts but she just sat next to me and waited until I was ready to tell her. 

"Back in my world, I already was able to feel strong emotions from the person I had a special bond with, but in a very limited way.”, I finally started to explain. “When she died I withdrew myself from social interaction with others... I was afraid of getting hurt again.”

I looked at the ceiling and took a few deep breaths to prevent myself from crying. Chrysalis leaned in close to me. 

*Sniff* *Sniff*

“Sadness.”, I whispered to her. “That's sadness you're smelling. It hurts to remember her… but it would hurt even more to forget her.”

Again I took a moment before I continued. “But then I visited this world and something impossible happened, I fell in love again.” 

I felt this warm feeling rush through my body, filling me completely and I heard a silent little purr from ‘Chryssi’. 

“It didn't take long for me to notice a connection again, weak at first but after we gave in to our feelings it was crystal clear to me. This connection is much stronger than what I had experienced before, I believe the magic of this world is to blame for that.”

We just sat next to each other for a while, I was exhausted from everything that had happened today and closed my eyes for a moment. 

“How does it feel when you sense her feelings?”, she asked after more than a minute. “Do they have a ‘taste’”? 

I tried to pin down how it felt. 

“No… they feel like my own, but… not. Somehow weaker… muffled.”

I looked at her, a creature that had been able to sense feelings for many decades, somehow I expected she had an explanation for all of this. But she just looked at me while nodding slowly. 

“Have you sensed the feelings of others as well?”, she asked resting her head on one of her front-hooves. 

“No.”, I answered almost automatically, it felt like a betrayal to Twilight if I sensed others feelings as well… but I thought about it a little longer. “Maybe.”

Chrysalis looked to be surprised by this answer, she scooted closer with her chair and looked directly at me. “Tell me about it.”

“It happened for the first time shortly after I had arrived in Equestria, I had visited Fluttershy to bring her a little present. She told me we were friends and I… felt an enormous amount of friendship beaming from her. It felt so nice and warm, I became so very happy from it… but it was too much, I felt overwhelmed. After a few moments the feeling faded and everything felt normal again.”

“Go on.”, she encouraged me after I had been silent for a few seconds. 

“I think in some cases I feel a few emotions from others as well and I believe these feelings sometimes influence my own mood, I don't like it.”

“Is there an example you could give me?”, she asked. 

“Remember when I was very harsh towards the palace guards?” She nodded in reply. “I think I felt their anger towards you and what you've done and that made me angry as well.”

She leaned back in her chair and we sat in silence for a minute or two. 

“I'm not sure who of us is the more interesting test object for Twilight to learn about.”, she finally told me. “I think we should go to sleep right now, I need a fresh mind to think about all of this. Tomorrow you should tell your marefriend what you've told me tonight, there is no need to tell her we have talked about it first.”

With these words she disappeared into her room. 

--------O_O---------

The little clearing in the Everfree Forest was shunned by all animals after what had happened days ago. It was misleadingly quiet as the portal opened again and it's blue glow illuminated the area.

Another flying drone appeared from the opening, much bigger than the last one. It quickly flew upwards, it was higher than the trees before the portal closed again. The drone started to scan the wider area around the clearing, it would gather all data necessary to proceed to phase two.
> 14 Emotions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As I opened my eyes Twilight was already looking at me smiling.

“Morning my love.”, she greeted me with a kiss. “Let’s hope we have a normal day for a change.”

“I actually have something interesting to tell you.”, I replied and got a curious look by her. “I believe I can sometimes sense others feelings as well.”

“You do?”, she was excited instantly.”When? How? Tell me everything about it!”

I smiled at this sight, I loved seeing her like this, so full of energy.

“Well, you do know how we talked about these strong feelings of friendship back when I visited Fluttershy after I had…”

I told her all the stuff I told Chrysalis yesterday but followed her suggestion not to notice I had talked to her first.

…

“That is so fascinating. There are so many experiments we can do to learn more about this.”, Twilight told me in a slightly high pitched voice while she was bouncing on the spot in a Pinkie-like manner.

“I think we should have breakfast first.”, I replied with a warm smile.

“Sure, sure, but after that we can…”

“Don’t forget we haven’t finished our list with Chrysalis abilities.”, I reminded her. “And there is chemistry, my ‘magic’ hand…”

“So much to learn, so much to learn…”, she repeated with a huge smile on her face.

“But first I will visit Rarity with Chrysalis after breakfast, we urgently need more winter clothing.”, I told her. “You know, with so much different stuff to research… it would be great to have a list or a time schedule organizing all of it.”

I felt an arousal through our connection as if I had proposed to make love for the next hour. 

‘She really LOVES to organize complicated stuff.’, I thought to myself. 

“I will start doing it right now.”, she answered and looked like she was about to drool. 

“After we had a proper breakfast together.”, I said and literally had to drag her towards the breakfast table. 

“But I want to start right away.”, she complained and tried to escape my grip. 

I already regretted mentioning this before breakfast. I saw Chrysalis coming down the stairs as well, smiling at our behavior. 

“Well, I can't stop you if you really want to start right now.”, I said and let go of her. “I guess this a good opportunity to show our guest the family album your parents have sent me, you looked sooo cute as a filly.”

“Oh, I would love to see this.”, Chryssi said grinning as she reached us. 

“You wouldn't dare…”

“You know I'm only joking, right.”, I told her with a warm smile. “I won't show such things against your will and I don't want to pressure you doing anything. But please let's have breakfast together before you start, you need the energy and you will totally forget anything around you once you start making this list.”

“Fine, fine. I know you're right.”, she gave in and followed us to the breakfast table. 

Spike had already been diligent, there was a huge array of breakfast items on the table. Pancakes, waffles, fruit, oatmeal, apple and orange juice… I felt he was feeling a bit guilty, probably for staying up late and what happened afterward, that’s why he made so much food for us. He… wait… I could feel his guilt, this wasn’t an assumption, I could actually feel it. I wasn’t sure what had activated my ability or how to focus it. At the same time I understood this gave me a new kind of responsibility, I couldn’t just tell everyone else how Spike felt right now.

“Wow Spike.”, She addressed him. “You don't have to prepare us so much stuff for us, one item would have been enough.”

“I just felt like it today, maybe it’s the holiday spirit.”, he answered while he avoided looking directly at her but instead concentrated on getting the fresh bread out of the oven.

“Or maybe you're hoping to get a bigger present this way.”, Twilight speculated smiling.

“Wow, a bigger book.”, he mumbled, I only heard it because I stood right next to him.

…


Chrysalis and I were on our way to Rarity’s boutique, I was quite stuffed because I had insisted on eating something of every item Spike had prepared for us. Chrysalis had only sampled some of the food for its taste and wore the makeshift thing I had made to keep her warm. 

“I felt Spike’s guilt earlier, but I don’t know how I did it.”, I told her while we walked along a nearly empty path.

She looked at me surprised and took some time before answering me.

“Without using the magic of someone else, your own magic is still pretty weak and the amount of energy needed for a spell is based on the proximity to the target.”, she mused.
“Based on how you used magic so far… I guess it happened because you wanted to know how he felt, he was close to you and this kind of magic doesn’t seem to use much energy from you. I guess noticing feelings is pretty easy for you, just like shapeshifting is for me… well, without this clamp on my horn it is.”

I was impressed by her analysis of what had happened, it sounded quite possible to me.

“But how do I control this ability?”, I asked.

Again we walked silently next to each other while she thought about a response. We had nearly reached the boutique when she finally replied.

“I believe you should actively try to use it next to others, if you do it often enough you will get the hang of it. Once you can activate it willingly you should also be able to keep it from happening by accident.”

I thought about it for a moment. “This too makes a lot of sense, I'm really surprised by all that good advice you're giving.”

“Well if you live as long as me you learn a lot of stuff, no big deal.”, she replied. 

I wondered... I felt it would be okay to ask now.
“How old exactly are you?” 

“What do you think how old I am?”, she asked smiling. 

“I'm not falling for this trap.”, I answered. “I have no point of reference I could use to guess your age.”

“Ohhh, you're no fun.”, she replied and blew a raspberry. 

It was nice to see her joking around a bit, it felt like she was warming up to me. 
“I am 204 years old.”, she told me. “That's young for a changeling princess, we can get up to 1200 years.”

I was very impressed to hear that. “Wow, that's such a long time… doesn't life become boring after such a huge time span?”

She chuckled. “Well if I stayed in one place maybe, but I meet new individuals and situations all the time while gathering.”

“But now that you have lavender and the need to gather might go away this might change.”

She stopped walking and looked perplexed. 

“I haven't thought about that yet.”, she replied after a moment. “I guess since ponies lifespans are unfortunately short, I will have a happy fascinating time with Lavender and… afterward there will be other interesting things I can find or do in this world.”

My stomach formed to a knot as I heard what she had just said. “What do you mean by ‘unfortunately short lifespan’?”, I asked. 

She looked at me surprised; others tend to forget I lack much of the common knowledge of this world.

“Only around a century.”, she said with a sad voice. “I wished Lavender could accompany me for all my life.”

I had been really scared for a moment, I had imagined something like a few decades from the tone she had used. 

I saw the door of the Boutique slide open and Rarity appeared in the doorframe. 
“Good morning my dears. I saw you two through the window, come on in. I can't wait to put her into something decent.”, she said looking at Chrysalis.
> 15 Dresses
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As we entered the boutique, the first thing that caught my attention was a new mannequin standing in the room.

“You got a human-shaped display dummy just for my stuff?”, I asked surprised.

“Darling, how can I do fitting clothing for you without one?”, Rarity replied. “I have ordered it from the local carpenter from the measurements I took from you.”

It was fully dressed in a very pretty dark blue winter outfit with orange highlights. I stepped closer to look at it in detail.

“This is just one of three outfits I have made for you.”, she explained. “I’m starting getting used to this unfamiliar shape, the magazine you brought me is still a huge source of inspiration for me.”

While I was mesmerized by this wonderful outfit, she turned to Chrysalis. “Your outfit had been a real challenge for me.”, she addressed her. “I never had a client who had a black and green color scheme, so I decided to go white and use the green color as a connecting element.”

I looked up and saw the white dress with a dark green outline and some other green elements as well.

“I have put extra warm fabric underneath it to keep you warm.”, she continued while showing it to her in detail. It looked stunning, if she added a veil it would look like a wedding dress.

“It looks absolutely astonishing.”, Chrysalis agreed excited. “I can’t wait to see Lavender’s look if I wear this at her arrival in Ponyville.”

Rarity smiled hearing this praise. “Well, first I have to take your measurements, then you can try it on to see how well I have guessed.”
She then turned toward me. “Stella, you can go to the big dressing room in the back, I put the other two dresses there and some new lingerie as well. Please try if everything fits you, or else I can make a few quick changes.”

I nodded. After carefully undressing the mannequin, I took everything to the room she had shown me. As I left, I saw how Rarity tried to get Chrysalis as fast as she could out of her improvised clothing, she looked like it almost gave her physical pain to look at it. 

The ‘big changing room’ had a very interesting feel, there were old mannequins standing along its sides together with some old furniture, even the rooms smell felt antique. In the middle stood two chairs and a little table with my clothing spread across it. I laid the dress I had brought in with me next to the others and started to undress. 

… 

I had tried the first two dresses, both perfect fits and beautiful to look at when I decided to try the new lingerie next. 

I was just bare naked facing the door, when Chrysalis decided to walk into the dressing room, her new winter dress over her back. She immediately scanned my body. 

“Well do you mind?!”, I shouted. 

“Do I mind what?”, she asked not taking her eyes off me. 

“I'm nude here.”, I replied and tried to cover myself at least a bit using my hand and my prosthesis. 

“Like I am nearly all the time.”, she answered. “I don't see any problem here.”

“You… wait… you're misunderstanding me on purpose.”

She couldn't hold it in any longer and started to laugh. “Sorry, this opportunity was just too good to get a better look at your body. I'm used to learning very fast how everypony looks in case I have to shapeshift into their appearance, you hiding your body made me curious. Shall I leave the room?”

I thought about it for a moment. I hadn't been very prudish back on earth, I have changed many times together with some of my female friends. Chrysalis was female as well… in a way and now she had seen pretty much everything of me anyway. 

I took the hands down. “No, it's okay. Just don't stare too much, it makes me feel weird.”

I saw and felt how surprised she was by my decision, she had problems coming up with a reply. 

After a few seconds, I decided to at least turn around while I started to try the first of the new lingerie. 

“Thanks, for showing me this side as well.”, I heard her say while she giggled. 

The whole situation was so absurd I had to giggle a bit myself.

Suddenly I felt huge arousal aimed towards me. I hadn't expected Chrysalis would feel… wait… she wasn't the source of this feeling… it was located above me. I looked at the ceiling and for a short moment I thought I had seen a ruby colored eye. I had a pretty good idea who it belonged to. 

I quickly put on the new lingerie and walked up to the window. I pulled the curtains to the side, opened the window and looked up. Sure enough, I saw a streak of a rainbow-colored tail hanging over the edge of the roof. 

I was really angry at her for doing this, feeling her arousal only intensified my anger. To her misfortune, pony-ceilings were quite low compared to my body, so I grabbed her tail and dragged her down the roof and through the open window. She was able to use her wings to break her fall, so she didn’t hit the ground too hard.

She looked at me with a mixture of surprise and fear.

“I… I was just chillin’ on the roof for a bit, why…”, she started but got interrupted by me.

“You drilled a hole in Rarity’s roof to watch me naked!”, I screamed.

“I… as you told me yesterday you would try new stuff here this morning, I started to imagine how you utters would…”

“I wonder how Fluttershy will react to this? How do you think she will feel?”, I asked her.

There was an incredible amount of fear emitting from her, if I hadn’t been so angry right now, I would have a hard time not to get influenced by it myself.

“No! No, please! Don’t tell her about this. Please.”, she begged sitting on her knees, her front hooves pressed together in a pleading manner.

“I don’t see where your point is.”, Chrysalis commented from behind me. “How is she seeing you like this different than me seeing you like this?”

I was still fuming and not in the mood for long explanations, so instead I just showed her. I pulled up my bra and swayed my upper body from side to side.

Rainbow’s mood instantly changed. Her mouth was half open, her tongue came out in front as if in an attempt to lick my breasts, and her eyes had a dreamy look.

*Drip* *Drip* *Drip*

Within just seconds her nether region started to produce a little puddle on the floor.

I used the bra to cover my breasts again and turned towards Chrysalis. “See?”, I asked her.

“Okay, I understand your reaction.”, she replied. “I did use a sexy body many times to lure ponies so I could feed on them… but their looks were always directed to my disguise, not my own body… and I tried not to think too much about it. If somepony would now sexualize my body against my will, I would probably kick their teeth in.”

It calmed me a little to hear she understood how I felt. I took a deep breath and turned towards Rainbow again. She was holding her hooves in front of her mouth, she seemed worried I would indeed kick in her teeth. 

“Dashie, listen.”, I started calmer than I would have a few seconds ago. “This is your last chance, if anything like this happens again I will not hesitate to tell Fluttershy everything about it. You have a beautiful mare who wants to spend the rest of her life with you, don't waste this opportunity.”

She bowed deep in front of me with tears in her eyes. “I'm so sorry. Please forgive me for what I have done. I will stay true to Fluttershy.”

“I try to believe you and if nothing like this happens in the future you are forgiven.”, I replied. “Let's not talk about it ever again. I see you this afternoon for tea with your fiancée.”

Rainbow bowed a last time before me and flew out of the window. 

“Now this was an interesting event.”, Chrysalis commented. 

Rarity came running through the door, her face was a mix of anger and confusion. She had a pincushion attached to one of her hooves, it looked she had worked on a dress while we were changing. 

“What is all this racket about? And why is the floor wet?”
> 16 Appearance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What is all this racket about? And why is the floor wet?”, Rarity asked after she had stormed into the room. 

I quickly decided not to tell her the embarrassing story of what had happened and searched for a possible explanation I could tell Rarity. 

“Rainbow had crashed through the open window…”, I began. That wasn't so bad for a start, I had heard she did something like this before… but my mind was blank when I searched for a possible explanation for the wet floor. 

Seconds passed while I started to sweat, I totally forgot how bad I was at this. 

Chrysalis decided to come to the rescue.
“She had flown through a rain cloud before and was absolutely drenched when she impacted here, maybe it was part of the reason she had lost control.”

Even though Rarity smiled at us and acted normal, I felt her skepticism. 

‘Wow, reading others feelings is getting second nature to me.’, I thought. 

“Well, I'm glad nothing bad happened.”, Rarity replied and didn't ask more into the issue. 

“All the clothing you crafted is perfect, like always.”, I decided to steer the conversation in another direction. “I still in awe you're better in this than any designer from the world I came from.”

Flattery still worked on her without fail, she instantly relaxed and showed a little blush. 

“Oh thank you, I'm only doing my best for my customers.”

…

We walked out the boutique with all our new clothing in a saddle bag Rarity had lent us and Chrysalis was wearing right now. 

“You're so much better in coming up with this stuff.”, I told her once we had some distance to the boutique. 

“Well, I'm not proud of being a good liar, but decades of playing the roles of fake characters makes it easy to lie…”, she replied. “... until you don't even know how the truth feels like.” 

She had only whispered the last part, I barely had heard it. We walked for a moment in silence. 

“It must be hard always to be someone else and never to show your true self.”, I finally addressed her.

“You get used to it… in a way.”, she replied. “It was better not to show anyone this hideous sight anyway.”

Surprised I stopped walking. “Are you really thinking of yourself this way?”

Her head lowered nearly to the ground and I felt her shame. 

“Of course, what would you think if every time someone sees your true self by accident they scream in horror?”, she replied, her voice trembling. 

“You know Lavender love you deeply.”, I tried to reason with her. 

“I think she loves me despite how horrible I look. ”, she answered and walked on. 

I grabbed her by her tail. “No!” 

She looked at me in surprise, her eyes were reddened. 

“That's just not true.”, I continued and closed the distance to her. “They scream because you are nothing they have expected or seen before, not because you're ugly.”

She tried to look away but I held her head with my hand and prosthesis, I wanted her to see my eyes while I said it. “You look different, but also very pretty and there is an elegance to your appearance.”

Her face had become hot pink and her cheeks felt like they were burning in my hands. 

“You're… just saying that…”, she stuttered and tried to get her head out of my grip… but not as hard as she could have. 

Instead of replying right away, my hand wandered up her horn.

“What are you doing?”, she whispered confused. 

After a few seconds, I was able to remove the magic-blocking clamp from her horn. 

“Read my feelings.”, I told her. “You are a very beautiful looking… mare. And I'm sure Lavender and I ain't the only ones thinking this way.”

Never before had I seen her this insecure, her body was shaking but I also felt so much happiness from her. 

“I… I need a moment to calm down…”, she said and took a few steps away from me next to a building. I heard heavy breathing and she wiped her eyes a few times.

I took her about a minute before she was ready to face me again. 

“Thank you for your kind words.”, she said with a warm and gentle smile. “It feels good to finally have a friend and to talk about things troubling me.”

I felt her friendship towards me… I really should learn soon how NOT to use this ability all the time, it felt like an unfair advantage to me. 

She took another few deep breaths.
“I think you should attach the thing to my horn again before we move on.”

“Right, let's do that.”

…

“I have finished the list!”, a happy Twilight screamed towards us the moment we entered the library. 

“Great. I knew I could rely on you for this task.”, I praised her. “Let's hear it.”

She showed a content smile and opened the scroll on the table before her. 

“First we will complete the research of Chrysalis' body and abilities as well as the changeling's culture… I
I hate to leave anything unfinished. 
Next, we will look into Stella's newfound ability to sense everypony's feelings followed by her ability to borrow magic. 
When all these tasks are completed we will continue to research ‘Equestrian chemistry’.”

She was bursting with energy, ready to take on any task ahead. She pointed towards Chrysalis shouting: “Are you ready to have all your body's secrets revealed?!” 

Chrysalis stroke a seductive pose and answered in a sexy voice: “I'm not sure you're ready to handle these…”

Twilight shrieked back, blushing furiously. “I… I… didn't…”

After a few moments she released Twilight from this situation while she was laughing hard. “Relax, I'm only teasing you.”

“I… knew that…”, my marefriend replied not very convincing, Chrysalis clearly had caught her off guard. 

I smiled at their nonsense, it did show how much our guest started to open up to us.
> 17 Tongue-twister
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We only have about two hours before we have to pick up Lavender at the train station, so let's start right away.”, I told them. “Where is the revised list?”

“I've got it right here.”, Twilight was happy to announce. 

That moment the front door was opened with so much force it slammed loudly against the wall. 

“Sorry for being late…”, Lyra shouted out of breath. “... I got home so late from the party and was a little tipsy… I overslept.”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “That's okay Lyra, but next time try not to destroy the door.”

“Oh, sorry for that as well, I try to be more careful next time.”

Chrysalis coughed to gain some attention. “Speaking of being sorry…”, she began and paused for a moment to take a deep breath. “I'm really sorry for what I have done to you… you know the whole taking your place stuff. And please tell Bon-Bon as well that I'm sorry for what happened.”

Chrysalis gazed at the ground where her hoof was drawing circles while we all looked at her surprised. 

Lyra seemed unsure how to respond to her so a few seconds of uncomfortable silence passed before she replied. 

“I guess nopony was hurt. You would have got us out of this… stuff eventually?”, she asked her. 

“Well of course.”, Chrysalis replied. “The stasis goo is only temporary. I would have come for you to let you go… after I wiped your memory of course.”

“In that case, I guess I can forgive you.”, said my aquamarine lab assistant. 

“Since you bring it up, what is this ‘stasis goo’?”, I asked her. 

“It’s one of the different substances I can produce with the glands inside my mouth, it can…”

“No!”, Twilight interrupted. “I put much time and work into this new list, we will continue with your sense of smell and we WILL stay in order!”

Even without sensing here feeling I would have known it was best to play along. 

“Sooo, Chrysalis…”, I continued. “Please tell us about your sense of smell.”

She needed a moment to recover before she answered, Twilight's outburst had surprised her. 

“Similar to my hearing, it is far above average and as you know I can also smell feelings when I'm not able to use my magic.”

Twilight scribbled all new information on a scroll while we talked. 

“Well, that should finally bring us to your mouth.”, I stated. “From what you teased I understand you can produce different substances inside your mouth?”

“That's true.”, she replied. “There are multiple…”

Spike came running into the room. “Twilight! Twilight!” 

“What now?!”, my marefriend shouted. I felt she was eager to finally learn everything and write her paper about the changeling race, she wasn't happy about more delays. 

Spike flinched from this response. “A letter came back from Princess Celestia.”, he silently replied. 

“Twilight, honey. Please calm down a bit. ”, I told her and put my hand on her shoulder. I felt some of the tension left her body. 

“Sorry Spike.”, she excused herself. “You know how high-strung I am when I learn about new stuff, I didn't want to scream at you.”

“I know. It isn't a big deal.”, Spike answered, but I felt he was hurt.
“Here's the letter.”

He gave her the scroll and quickly left the room. Twilight immediately unrolled and read it. Her face didn't show any reaction but I felt uncertainty through our connection. She wordlessly handed me the scroll so I could read it myself. 

‘Dear Twilight. 
It is wonderful to hear Chrysalis is coming along with everypony so far and I'm looking forward to all the things you can learn about her and her race. 
I trust your and Stella's judgment, you can decide when to remove the magic-blocking clamp.

Princess Celestia’

I thought that was wonderful news, but from my marefriend’s reaction, I knew she wasn't so sure about the situation. What should I do? 

“Let's go to the other room to talk for a moment.”, I addressed Twilight. 

“Is something wrong?”, Chrysalis asked worriedly. 

“No, quite the opposite, no reason to worry. I just need a moment to talk to Twilight about our next steps.”, I replied. 

We walked into the next room and I closed the door. 

“I know you want to remove it right away, but I'm not so sure about that.”, my marefriend started as soon as the door was closed behind us. “I'm not sure I can protect you if she...”

I put a finger on her lips. “I know you still don't fully trust her, but I really feel like I can. Additionally, I think I could feel animosity from her if she really had evil intentions.”, I brushed my fingers through her mane, it always helped to calm her down a bit. “Let's just take it off.”

She smiled at me. “At the beginning of our relationship I thought I would be the calm and logical one of us, I guess I was wrong.”

“But there are many other things I love about you.”, I replied and kissed her softly, she was humming happily. 

… 

A few minutes later we entered the library again. 

“We have the permission of Princess Celestia to remove the magic-blocking clamp.”, Twilight announced. We had decided she would tell Chrysalis, I thought it would strengthen their bond a bit. 

“That is indeed great news.”, Chrysalis said happily. “It's so much easier to use magic for most of the stuff.”

She came closer and bent down her head so Twilight had a good look on the clamp. My marefriend stared at it for a few moments and didn't do a thing, only when I poked her flank a bit she finally started to use her magic on the gold jewelry and within seconds she had detached it. 

“Thank you.”, our changeling-guest said in a warm voice as she lifted her head. I knew she couldn't have missed Twilight's hesitation but she didn't let it show, she just seemed happy to use her magic again. 

“You're welcome.”, Twily replied evading to look at her directly, instead she brought up her list again. “Let's finally get to the incredible things you can do with your mouth.”

Chrysalis showed a big lewd grin. “Are we still talking about the goo I can produce or are you talking about other things...”

Twilight’s face was bright red. “The goo stuff!”, she interrupted. 

“Don't you want to know about the other possibilities as well? You know, my tongue is thinner than the one of a pony, but it's twice as long and I have total control over it.”

My marefriend’s face disappeared behind the scroll, I was surprised it didn't burst into flames by the amount of heat her face emitted. “I write down the fact about your tongue, but please stick to the goo part.”

She was having so much fun teasing uptight Twily.
> 18 Test subject
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So do you want to start with the fangs or the goo producing glands?”, Chrysalis asked us.

“What's special about your fangs?”, Twilight asked.

“They are very similar to snake fangs, there is a little hole at their end that is connected to the area above them where the sleeping poison is produced.”

She opened her mouth wide to show off her fangs. I stepped closer to look at them in detail, up close they looked pretty menacing. She was sniffing.

“Is this fear or excitement I'm smelling?”, she asked with a grin that showed off her fangs even more.

“Let's say they look pretty dangerous up close.”, I replied. “You got your magic back, shouldn't you know how I feel?”

“Well, I would have to use an active spell for that, and I don't want to scare you by using magic right away.”, she said and took a step back.
“Besides, I think I'm fine without knowing exactly what my… friends are thinking.”

I was a bit surprised by that, but I knew very well what she meant. “Yeah, I feel the same way. I hope to get more control over my ability soon to give my friends their privacy back.”

“Do all creatures react the same way to your sleeping poison?”, Twilight continued to ask and chased away the gloomy feelings I suddenly felt.

“Yeeees… normally I can calculate the time before my victim falls asleep pretty exact by the estimated body weight and where I bite them. The only exception are dragons, which scales are too thick to bite through… and Stella.”

“What's the difference in Stella's reaction?”, Lyra asked.

“It had taken much longer than I had expected, she should have been asleep at least twice as fast.”

“Have you taken into account that she is much heavier than a pony the same size?”, Twilight asked.

“Hey!”, I complained.

“It's just a fact you have mentioned before.”, Twily defended herself. “You told me many times how incredible light our bodies are.”

Chrysalis smiled. “Yes, I have used a spell on her before to figure out her weight, I don't like unknown variables in my plan. I knew she was pretty heavy, but it doesn't explain her much-delayed reaction.”

I was huffing. “Firstly, I'm not heavy. My weight is exactly within the average weight of all humans in Equestria.”

“That's just cheating.”, my marefriend complained.

I ignored her objection and felt pretty good with this loophole I had discovered.
“Secondly…”, I continued. “It should be expected my body would react differently since I'm from another world.”

“That brings me to the different goo’s I can produce.”, Chrysalis told us.
“I can show and tell you about all of them and their effect on all creatures… except for their possible effect on Stella. ”

She had a huge grin on her face and I knew exactly why, she exploited Twilight's love for tests.

“A test series!”, my marefriend shouted with sparkling eyes. “We have to find out how Stella reacts to these.”

“Waa… Wait a minute.”, I tried to calm her down. “These could be harmful to me.”

“No need to worry.”, Chrysalis told us with a victorious grin. “Now that I have my magic back, I can neutralize any of my produced substances instantly if you feel any negative influence.”

“That sounds perfect.”, Twilight stated.

All of her skepticism towards Chrysalis seemed to be gone, wiped away by her love for science and experiments.

“You can't be serious?!”, I shouted.

“Pleeeaaase.”, Twilight begged. “This way I can link the ‘human’ paper I wrote about you to the ‘changeling’ paper. I always dreamed about cross-referencing different kinds of research I did.”

“One of my additional abilities as a Şahzadə is: I can make my goo taste anything I want to, so it can blend in with food or drinks better. I can make it taste like strawberries for you.”

Twilight begged me with big eyes. “See, it will taste like strawberries.”

She used her best puppy-dog-eyes but this time that wouldn't work on me.

…

We sat in my lab and there was a row of filled vials with different colored goo before me. I couldn't believe I was actually doing this… the things I did for my marefriend.

I was able to convince Chrysalis to ‘fill’ these vessels in the next room so I would not see her spitting the goo into them. It hadn't helped much since I could imagine pretty much how it must have looked.

With a smug grin Chrysalis handed me the first vial filled with some green stuff.

“This is the stasis goo you have seen before, all changelings can produce it. It can be used to immobilize a victim by gluing it to the ground, or if it covers the whole body and the respiratory tract of the victim they fall into a deep slumber. This isn't much different from hibernation, the heart and breathing rate massively drops. It's the state you have found Lyra in. Air can pass this goo very easily so the victim won't suffocate. It dissolves within a week if it isn't replenished… I made it taste like apples for you.”

I held it between thumb and index finger and stared at it. Twilight sat next to me watching me closely a scroll and quill ready to write down anything she noticed. Lyra wasn't far away either and seemed just happy with something interesting to happen, she didn't take her eyes off me so she wouldn't miss a detail.

I closed my eyes and took a sip of the sample… it did indeed taste like applesauce.

“I feel quite cold”, I said after a few seconds.

“Are you sure you aren't sleepy?”, Chrysalis asked confused.

I waited for another minute.

“No, I'm not sleepy at all. It feels like I was sitting outside in the snow.”, I explained to them.

“That's strange.”, Chrysalis stated. “Aside from changelings every other creature sleeps within moments after consuming some of this.”

“What's the reaction of changelings to it?”, Lyra asked.

“There is no reaction or else we would fall asleep while making it.”

“Fascinating…”, Twilight wrote everything down.

Chrysalis horn lid up and the cold feeling went away. She handed me the next vial containing a blue liquid. “This one we call ‘whisperer’ and can only be produced by Şahzadə. It makes the victim open to suggestions… like a mild form of hypnosis. I removed all taste from this.”

“I guess that's quite handy when trying to feed on ponies.”, my marefriend commented.

She gave a lewd smile and answered: “After this, it's usually enough to suggest a ‘private place to get to know each other’ followed by some bedroom-eyes. Works for mares and stallions.”

“And then… you have sex with them?”, Lyra asked, her voice was shaking.

“No, usually not. It's enough to cuddle with them for a while and if necessary take the form of someone they are really in love with… but it's not like I hadn't before if I'm really into them.”

“Did we…”, Lyra wasn't able to finish the sentence.

“No, I just used Bon Bon’s form to cuddle a bit with you, that produced enough energy to keep me going for nearly a week.”, she replied in a surprisingly soft voice. “You got pretty grabby towards my butt, but I was able to calm you down a bit.”

Lyra showed a slight blush. “Yeah, that sounds like me. Thank you… for telling me… and not doing more.”

“You're welcome… I guess.”, Chrysalis clearly was unsure how to reply to that.

I looked at the blue liquid inside the vail again. I was a bit hesitant to try this because of the suggested effect, but I reminded myself that Twilight and Lyra would stop her is she tried something crazy with me… well Twilight would, if it was something funny I had my doubts about Lyra.

Carefully I took a few sips from the vial, it was an odd experience since there really wasn't any flavor to this. I tried to sense if there was any change.

After about a minute Chrysalis spoke up.
“I'm sure you're pretty thirsty, maybe we should go to the library and drink something.”

“No, I'm good. We should just get this over with.”, I replied.

Chrysalis looked surprised. “I had expected this would work on you. Guess there is no effect.”

“Nothing I notice so far.”, I said. “Let's wait a bit longer just to be sure”

After five more minutes there was still nothing I noticed. Chrysalis used her magic to neutralize it just in case so we wouldn't get cross-reactions with the next sample.

There was only one vial left, it contained a red goo that almost looked like it was glowing.

“This last thing is something crucial to our race and it can be produced by every changeling. We put some of our stored energy into this goo, that's why it's referred to as ‘love juice’... not to be confused with… well you know. It is used to feed our babies and to heal wounded changelings.” Chrysalis paused to show a big grin.
“Other creatures than changelings get pretty sick from drinking it, but on the plus side, I made this taste like strawberries for you.”

She used her magic to let the vial levitate in front of me.

“Are you ready to try my love juice?”, she asked smiling.

I heard a snicker from Lyra, while Twilight looked up from her scroll and didn't seem to understand why my assistant was laughing.

I just rolled my eyes and drank up the whole thing.

There was a warmth spreading through my body from the moment the strawberry flavored goo went down my throat. I paused for a few more moments, waiting for the sickening effect, but it never arrived.

“I must say this feels pretty amazing, warm and cozy. Like a hot bath while there is snow outside.”, I told them. “I don’t feel any negative effects.”

While Twilight immediately wrote everything down, Chrysalis looked downright shocked from my statement.

“A warmth that spreads through your whole body?”, she asked with a strange look on her face.

“Yeah, exactly. How do you know?”, I replied.

She pulled my arm close to her.

“What's the matter?”, I asked. “Why do you *AAAHH*!”

She had used one of her fangs to give my arm a cut.

“Are you crazy?!”, I shouted. “What was that about?”

She didn't reply but instead held onto my arm and watched it closely. I followed her gaze and to my surprise I saw the cut heal within a few seconds.

“What… what is happening?”, I stuttered.

“What you described sounded exactly like a changelings reaction on the ‘love juice’.”, Chrysalis explained. “I wondered if it had the same healing effect as well.”

“Wasn't there a less painful way to find it out?”, I complained.

“Don't be a baby. It was just a little cut and I wanted to know for sure right now.”

Twilight was writing so fast I was sure her quill would catch fire at any moment.

“Are these all the things you can produce?”, Lyra asked in an attempt to disarm the situation.

Chrysalis slowly turned towards her.
“No, there is also a kind of goo we use to build stuff, but after first contact with air it hardens within very little time, it would kill her if she tried to drink that. It gets nearly as hard as amber.”

As she turned back she got a glimpse of the clock on the lab wall. “I guess we have to end this for now. I don't have much time to get ready to pick up Lavender and I want to look my best when she sees me again. Let's continue with the rest of my body next time.”

"Ok, let's do it that way.", I replied. "I have to get into some new clothes as well. Would it be okay if we all have lunch at the restaurant together after picking her up?"

"Sure, let's do this.", Chrysalis answered and left the room.

Twilight had finally finished writing and was drooling with shining eyes. “Celestia will love my next letter…”
> 19 Pick up
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was putting on fresh clothes while Twilight was hastily writing a letter to her mentor. I had decided to send Lyra home since my plan for the rest of the day was too packed to do any more research today. She happily ran off to tell Bon Bon about the cool stuff she had seen today.

After I was dressed, I sat in one of the libraries chairs and practiced the ‘blinking’ of my hand. I followed Chrysalis’ advice not to strain myself too much and let my hand appear only for fractions of a second and waited a minute before each new try. Like with my ability to sense others feelings, I felt it was getting much easier to let my hand appear. Without Chrysalis’ borrowed magic it almost looked natural in color, though a bit more on the orange side.

“Hey Stella. Can I have your opinion?”

I looked up from the stump of my arm and saw Chrysalis standing before me, dressed in the beautiful white dress Rarity had made for her.

“How do I look?”, she asked and looked as unsure of herself as a kid on prom night.

For the first time since I had met her she had put some serious work into the way she looked. Her usually wild mane and tail were carefully combed and she had applied some dark green eyeshadow.

“Wow. You look absolutely smashing.”, I told her the truth and saw a little blush on her cheeks. “Is this real eyeshadow or did you just use your ability to change your appearance?”

“All you see is real, I have promised Lavender to show her the real me and I'm sticking to that.”

“Where did you find makeup on such short notice?”, I asked surprised.

“Twilight was so kind to lend me the unused makeup-set her mother had gifted her.”, she replied. “Do I really look okay this way? I never had to pretty up my natural form.”

“You look more than okay, you look really beautiful this way.”, I told her. “I'm sure Lavender will be stunned seeing you like this.”

Hearing this brought a smile to her face which made her look even more lovely.

“Can we please go right now?”, she asked and trotted nervously on the spot.

I didn't need my ability to know how excited she was to meet her marefriend again.

Thinking about my ability… I noticed I hadn't used my ability without wanting it for a while now. I was happy to get more control over it because it felt wrong to feel others emotions just like that.

“Sure.”, I told her. “Twilight should be here any minute, she just went off to Spike, so he would send her letter.”

Only a moment after I had finished Twilight came running up the stairs.

“Okay, everything is done. We can… wow, you look amazing!”

“Thank you so much.”, the nervous changeling replied with glowing cheeks. “Let's go.”

…

We were on our way to the train station when we noticed a familiar couple pulling a cart together through the snow, it looked a bit odd since Luna was much bigger than Applejack. She wasn't wearing her tiara or any of her usual attire and her coat looked surprisingly dusty.

“Hey y’all!”, Luna greeted us with a huge smile.

“It ain't funny if you're doing it on purpose.”, Applejack complained.

“That's not what you said last night when we… Mmmmffff.”

Applejack’s hoof was just a blur as she shoved an apple in Luna's mouth.

“... we picked apples.”, AJ continued with a fake smile. “That's what we do here with or apples… we pick ‘em.”

Luna had chewed down the one in her mouth and gave her marefriend a little kiss on her cheek. “She is so adorable when she is bashful.”, she said. “I was helping her all day yesterday and this morning at the marketplace. It's nice to do something completely different from my normal routine.”

“Can we please move on? I think the train will arrive soon.”, Chrysalis complained.

Luna looked at her in surprise, she only now seemed to have noticed her. I guess with all the snow around us her white dress had a bit of a camouflage effect.

“Hello Chrysalis.”, she addressed her surprisingly warm. “Why are you in such a hurry?”

“I just hate it to be late.”, she gave a very brief answer.

“Her marefriend is on the train.”, I explained.

“Oh I see, I have heard about them.”, Luna replied. “Well go ahead, lovers shouldn’t be parted, right AJ?”

Luna pulled her into a kiss and Applejack pulled her stetson down to shield them from our looks.

“Well, that sounds like you're busy.”, I said smiling. “Guess we go on to the station then.”

“Finally…”, commented Chrysalis and trotted ahead.

…

Despite her worries, we arrived at the train station about five minutes before the train entered the station. She was looking around to see from which train car her marefriend would emerge, it was easy for her because like me she was much bigger than the other ponies around us.

“Chryssi!”, Lavender shouted as she came out of the train car right next to her. Without hesitation, Chrysalis ran to her and put her into a firm hug.

“Careful now, I'm still healing.”, the pearl colored mare with the lavender mane reminded her.

The hug got visibly softer than before. “Sorry, I just missed you so much.”

It took nearly a minute before she released her.

“This dress really suits you.”, Lavender commented. “You look so beautiful today.”

Chrysalis replied with a passionate kiss. I felt their love beaming as bright as the sun, I felt warm just by being close to it.

Once she gave Lavender a bit of space again I decided to say hello as well.

“Hi, I'm glad to see you're feeling better, we are so happy to have you here.”

“Thank you for having me stay at your place.”, she addressed us. “Could you be so kind and take my luggage? It isn't heavy, but I'm not yet comfortable to use magic over extended periods of time again.”

Before I was able to take it Twilight already had used her magic and it floated next to her. “Of course, I take it.”

“Have you eaten yet?”, I asked. “We had planned to go to a restaurant together.”

“That sounds lovely. Please lead the way.”
> 20 Shared pleasure
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since it was too cold to eat outside, we all sat down at a table inside of 'The Dancing Butterfly', the restaurant only a few houses away from the library. We all found something on the menu we liked and placed our orders.

As soon as the waiter had disappeared Twilight asked away.
“Would it be okay for you if I asked a few questions about your relationship?”, she addressed Lavender.

I quickly intervened. “Are this just normal curious questions, or are you trying to sneak things for your changeling research paper into our lunch?”

“Maybe a bit of both.”, she silently admitted. 

“You shouldn’t…”, I was about to scold her when I got interrupted my Lavender.

“It’s okay, I don’t mind you asking me but I may not answering some questions.”

“That’s great.” Twilight produced a scroll and quill out of nowhere which made me sigh and give our guests an apologetic smile.

“First question: How did the two of you meet and did you at any time suspect she wasn’t a pony?”, my marefriend started.

Lavender showed a warm smile. “Okay, I tell you about that. Chryssi, if anything sounds wrong from your point of view, just chime in.”

She leaned back in her chair for a moment. “Where to begin…”

The waiter brought our drinks and she took a sip of her ice-tea.

“I hadn’t been in a relationship for nearly a year when I decided to have a relaxing day in the park. I was reading a book in the sun and had no idea a changeling princess had selected me as her food-source.”, she showed a smile towards her marefriend.

“I prefer ‘energy-source’.”, Chrysalis told us. “Food-source sounds like I wanted to eat you.”

“Anyway…”, Lavender continued. “Suddenly this beautiful mare with a black coat and dark blue mane and tail walked up to me and introduced herself as 'Night Star'. She seemed incredibly nervous and it took me some time before I understood she wanted a date with me. We kissed after our second date in the same park we had met and within no time we were in a relationship.”

Her happy mood suddenly darkened. “Then after two weeks of happiness, she told me she had to visit her sick father in another city but would be back soon…” I saw Chrysalis was uncomfortably shifting in her chair.
“But she never came back.”

Chrysalis held her hoof. “You know I'm so so sorry about what happened back then, I know I can't make it up but…”

“Hush my love.”, Lavender interrupted her. “We talked through this before. I have forgiven you for what happened and I'm happy we can have a new and honest relationship now.”

“So you never noticed she wasn't a pony?”, Twilight repeated the second part of her question. “Ouch! Why have you kicked me?”

“Because you can be such a dimwit when you just concentrate on your research.”, I responded.
“Don't keep on digging if you know it is a hurtful topic, ask something else. Plus the answer was in her story anyway even without stating it explicitly.”

It took her a second to switch out of her research-mode. “I'm sorry.”, she said towards the couple with her head bowed, I promise to be more sensitive from now on.”

“It's okay, I know you haven't done it on purpose.”, Lavender responded. “But answering these questions makes me tired, so I will one answer one more.”

Twilight brought out another scroll and scanned it top to bottom in search of the best question. 

‘How many had she prepared’, I thought surprised. Then after a moment of thinking about it. ‘Well it's Twilight, of course she has made a whole catalog of questions.’ 

After a moment she had made her decision. “How does it feel to be in a relationship with a species so different from your own?”

Lavender showed a smile that turned into a giggle after a few moments. “I could ask you the same question.”, she told Twilight. 

My marefriend looked flabbergasted for a moment. “I really tend to forget how different we are.”, she finally stated. 

“Well, there you have your answer.”, Lavender replied with a warm smile. 

Twilight looked at her in surprise from this simple yet elegant answer. 

That's when the waiter arrived with our meals and we started to dig in… except for Twilight who scribbled down something on her scroll. 

… 

I had enjoyed my meal and felt full and content but my thoughts were still circling around Chrysalis’ and Lavender’s relationship. 

“Say Chrysalis, are there relationships between changelings?”, I asked. 

“Not in the same way you would describe one.”, she replied and seemed to be a bit evasive.

“What do you mean by that?”, I continued to inquire. 

She pushed her chair a bit away from the table and took a few deep breaths before she answered. 

“By now you may have figured out that normal changelings don't feel love, or else there would be no reason for us to steal it so desperately from other races to feed us. The only way they feel something from it is when they consume it.”

She waited a few seconds to let us take in this news before she continued. 

“Without the concept of love changeling relationships are only about sharing chores, having someone to talk to and having a reliable and easy accessible sexual partner.”

“But you do love Lavender, right?”, Twilight asked.

“Of course I do.”, Chrysalis replied instantly. “But I'm a şahzadə, not a normal changeling. In contrast to them, I can feel love and get pregnant.”

Twilight and I needed a moment to process this but Lavender had a curious question instead. 

“How exactly does your pregnancy work? You hinted something about eggs when you visited me. Would it be possible for us… to have a baby?”

“If I want to I can produce up to 20 eggs per week that can all be fertilized at once and I can decide if they become changeling or şahzadə.”, Chrysalis started. “Our bodies are highly adaptable, if I want to I can get pregnant from any male of any kind.”

"So something like a male dog…”, the pearl colored mare carefully asked. 

“Would be enough to fertilize my eggs.”, her marefriend continued for her and Lavender had a very interested look on her face.

“Wait, where is this conversation going?”, I asked in disbelief while my imagination showed me pictures I didn't want to see. 

“I'm just asking out of curiosity.”, Lavender defended herself, but somehow it didn't sound very convincing. 

“After a week I would push the eggs out and they hatch after another 20 days.”, Chrysalis continued. “After about five years, changelings are big enough to work in their allocated position, princesses after about ten years."

Twilight wrote this all down, her eyes almost glowing from all these fascinating facts.

… 

On our way to the library, Lavender greeted Rose who was walking by. 

“Have you visited Ponyville before?”, I asked her. 

“Yes, I visited Ponyville a couple of times during different festivals, but I know Rose from the Canterlot flower market where we buy the plants for our shops.”

“What about your flower shop?”, I asked. “Is it closed until you are fully recovered? Don't you lose a lot of money this way?”

She shook her head. “Celestia made sure I wouldn't be negatively affected by what happened. She bought the flowers from my shop for the decoration of the castle and gave me enough bits so I can take a pause from working for at least a month.”

We entered the library and showed her the room she would be sharing with Chrysalis during her stay.

“It's amazing how normal the inside of a tree can look.”, she commented. 

“Yeah, I was quite surprised as well when I saw it for the first time.”, I replied.”Take your time unpacking, you and your marefriend can spend the rest of the day the way you want, we don't have any more research today. If you have a question for me in particular, I will be here for one more hour before I visit friends for tea.”

“Thank you so kindly for having me here.”, she replied before we left their room to went to our own.

“She seems very nice and quite smart.”, my marefriend commented once we closed the door behind us.

“I think so as well.”, I agreed. “Last time I visited her…”

“YEEEESSSS! THAT'S INCREDIBLE!” 

We got interrupted by Lavender’s voice.

“Maybe we should have told them the walls of the library ain't very thick.”, I thought out loud. “Then they…”

“YOU'RE SO DEEP! AHHHH! DON'T MOVE SO MUCH!” 

We looked at each other, our faces were burning while a series of moans echoed through the library. 

“I DIDN'T KNOW YOUR BODY COULD… AHHHHHHH!” 

“I wonder how she uses the possibilities of her body…”, my marefriend mused and moved towards the door. 

“No, you won't.”, I told her and held on to one of her hind legs. “Cast a bubble of silence around their room and leave them be. Wait… make it big enough it covers our room as well, I know now how I want to use the rest of the time before I visit Fluttershy.”, I told her with a lewd smile. 

“But if we are in the bubble as well we can still hear them.”, she reminded me. 

“Yes, I know.”, I replied still grinning.

She swallowed and cast the spell I ask her to do. Only a second later I threw her onto our bed.
> 21 Inner beauty
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was in an extremely good mood as I walked down the stairs from our room, which wasn't surprising considering what Twilight and I had done up there. To my surprise, I found Chrysalis just leaving the kitchen with a large glass of milk.

“Lavender is very thirsty.”, she told me when she noticed my questioning look. “She isn't yet used to have so much physical activity again.” She showed a big grin.

“About that…”, I stopped her. “You should talk to Twilight, she can show you her ‘bubble of silence’ spell. We wouldn't want to disturb our neighbors.”

“So you heard her? I expected as much, she is quite loud.”, she replied. Her grin widened even more. “Were you aroused from hearing it?”

“What? I… No!”, I stammered. How could she just ask me something like this?

She came close and sniffed. “You're lying.”, she told me and looked quite happy.

“Wait, you can't yet know how I smell when I'm lying.”, I replied defective.

“I do know now.”, she answered laughing. “Twilight was quite loud as well.”

I hadn't realized that they would be able to hear us as well since we had been in the same bubble. I guess my horny mind had been distracted by other stuff.

“Okay, you got me.”, I admitted. “But you don’t have to be so blunt about it.”

Her laughing transformed into a sigh.”Believe me, if you lived as long as me, there is nothing more boring than polite talk.You had every possible polite conversation for at least twenty or a hundred times, sometimes it’s too much and I have to say something unexpected, something new. At least I have been able to play different characters over time, I don’t understand how Celestia does it. Being princess of Equestria for more than a thousand years, she must be bored out of her mind.”

I had never thought about it this way…

“Now please excuse me.”, she continued. “I have to get my marefriend rehydrated again so I can make her scream a bit more.” she stuck out her long tongue, formed it into a ‘w’-shape and turned it from side to side.”

“I have to say that does look quite impressive.”, I said and was actually in awe of her display of tongue control.

“Well, there must be some advantage for her for being in a relationship with a monster.”, she said and moved on.

I grabbed the only thing still within my reach, her tail, which instantly stopped her.

“No!”, I addressed her. “Don't refer to yourself this way ever again, not even as a joke. There was a time some ponies called me this, not to my face but I know they did. If you don't stop, others won't stop calling you that either.”

There was a moment of silence between us and she didn't turn towards me when she replied: “I understand what you're trying to tell me… thank you.”

I let go of her and she slowly walked up the stairs to her room.

I was surprised how easily I was still triggered by being different. I tried to chase away these thoughts but had a hard time doing so. I missed having other people around and it was strange to exist in a world that was made for ponies.

I sighed. There was no reason to think about things that couldn't be changed anyway. I opened a drawer and took a pretty large amount of bits from the ones Celestia had sent to me. I had decided there was enough time to take a little detour before visiting Fluttershy and Dashie.

I opened the door and stepped into the sun of a beautiful winter day, with Rarity's new winter clothing it was even more fun to walk through the snow.

I was only a dozen feet away when I heard Twilight shout: “What?! Oh no!”

I stopped and felt into our connection. Panic but no sign of pain or despair. I waited for a few more seconds to see if she would call out for me, but nothing happened.

‘I'm pretty sure she only noticed she forgot to double check one of her lists.’, I thought to myself and moved on.

…

The little bell of the jewelry rang as I entered. The pony behind the counter looked at me surprised, I did notice he was one of the few who hadn't been on my welcome party back then.

“H… Hello. How may I help you?”, he asked.

“I'm looking for wedding rings.”, I told him. It felt strange to say it out loud.

He looked as if I had asked him to swallow a goldfish. “For you?”, he asked very politely but to my dismay, I felt his disgust as I had unconsciously used my ability.

I felt anger rise inside me but decided to push it away. This was, of course, the only jewelry in Ponyville and it would be difficult to get rings elsewhere on such short notice.

I switched off my ability and put on my best fake smile. “Yes, for me and a unicorn mare.”

He was silent for a moment.

“Do you have bits?”, he finally asked.

“Yes, plenty.”, I replied and put a big purse on the counter.

He sighed after a few more moments of silence.

“And where are you planning to wear your ring?”, he asked while he scanned my body.

“On this finger.”, I replied and showed it to him up close.

“Sweet Celestia… these things are tiny.”
He used a little piece of yarn to measure the size of it.

“Very well.”, he stated after writing it down on a note. “Just look around. Any ring you can see here can be changed in size to fit for a unicorn’s horn or… your special needs.”

I started to look at the neatly arranged rows of rings in their displays, looking for something Twilight or I would like. I preferred simple jewelry and found a golden ring with three tiny diamonds in no time, but to find the perfect ring for Twilight was a much harder task.

I had looked through rows and rows of rings when one caught my eye that was… different than the others. I took it out and inspected it in detail. All the other rings jewels were perfect in color but this one… I looked closer. It had a white gem but there was some purple in the middle of it that looked like a shooting star to me and reminded me of the pendant I had gifted Twilight shortly after we met.

“This one is quite cheap because of its color imperfection. It's the work of my apprentice, she couldn't ruin much with it. I wouldn't advise to use it as a wedding ring.”

“No.”, I replied. “It's perfect.”
> 22 Turning point
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As I knocked on the door of Fluttershy's cottage, I heard sudden hectic movements on the other side.

After a few seconds Fluttershy opened up but her mane was in such disarray.

“Oh hi, Stella.”, she greeted me out of breath.

“Hi Fluttershy. Sorry if I'm interrupting anything.”, I said with a smile and saw Dashie sitting on the couch also breathing hard and… well her mane always was messy. “Hi Rainbow.”, I added.

“Oh no… *pant* you didn't interrupt anything.”, Fluttershy explained. “Maybe we had expected you a bit later today, but please come in.”

Smiling I entered her house and took a seat on another chair, since the large sofa Dashie sat on looked… moist.

“Have you two already decided when the wedding will be?”, I asked them, partly to distract myself from the pictures of Rainbow and Fluttershy my mind showed me right now.

“Shortly after spring is here.”, the yellow pegasus answered while she sat next to her marefriend and started to comb her mane. “All my animal friends want to help with the ceremony.”

“I'm sure that will look incredibly cute.”, I told them. “I guess that means we won't start any preparations in the near future, there is still a lot of time left.”

“Yeah, there is no need to hurry right now.”, Fluttershy responded.  “Oh no. I promised you we would have tea, I'm sorry.”

Before I was able to stop her she already ran off into the kitchen.

“How you’re doing Rainbow?”, I asked. “I don’t see you practicing much lately.”

“I’m great. I had never imagined being in a relationship would make me that happy.”, she answered. “But don’t worry, I’m getting plenty of physical workouts so I won’t lose my form. Getting into the Wonderbolts is still one of my main targets, but it isn’t my only one now.”

Fluttershy came back with three teacups and sugar cubes on a tray and placed everything on the living room table.

“It will take a few minutes for the water to boil.”, she explained and returned to her spot next to her marefriend.

“Do you have any idea how your wedding dresses should look like?”, I asked. “I bet Rarity was all over you after your announcement.”

There was a cute giggle from Fluttershy before she answered. “Indeed. She was so excited about the opportunity to make wedding dresses and had tons of ideas. But since I dream for years about being together with Dashie I already have very specific plans for how they should look like.”

“Still hard for me to understand how dense I had been not to notice that…”, Rainbow mused.

“Well, you know how shy I am… it’s not like I had shown it.”, the yellow mare explained. “But I’m very thankful for you helping me being more assertive now.”

“Oh? She does?”, I asked surprised.

“Of course.”, Dashie said and kissed her cheek. “I want to know what she thinks, how she feels and what she likes, especially when we’re having… when we’re doing things together. I don’t want her to agree to something just because I want it.”

And again I was quite impressed with Rainbow, at times she was able to act so maturely.

“And in return, she helps me to calm down when I'm hot-headed again.”, she continued with a huge grin.

We all started laughing at her honest words.

“You two really complete each other.”, I told them after our laughter had died down. “Speaking of completing each other… I have a favor to ask as well.”

I got curious looks from them while I thought about the best way to say it.

“I ordered wedding rings on my way here…”, I finally decided to say.

Fluttershy's eyes widened, she jumped out of her seat and flew towards me. I was so confused by the sight of her flying, I didn't react as she tackled me into a hug and the chair fell over backward.

“I'm so so happy for both of you. I'm sure Twilight will love it. Ohhh, I know… we can have a double wedding, this way the preparations together are easier and more fun.”

“I… well maybe… I guess…”, I stammered. I was wondering what had got into her all the sudden.

“And this way not everyone will be focused on me.”, she whispered into my ear.

‘Ah, now I see.’

Rainbow helped us to get back on our feet. She was giggling and clearly amused to see this impulsive side of her marefriend.

“When do you plan to ask Twilight?”, she inquired.

“I plan to give it to her as a Hearth's Warming Eve present.”, I told them. “As soon as she opens it, I will go down on my knees and ask her.”

“Ohhhh, that's so cute.”, Fluttershy commented.

“How was your proposal?”, I asked them in return.

Fluttershy's face immediately got crimson red and even Dashie got reddish cheeks.

“Is it okay to tell her?”, the blue pegasus asked her marefriend.

She nodded in return. “But you must tell her.”

Dashie looked like she had expected that answer. “How's the best way to say this…”

Patiently I waited for her to find the right words.

“When we just had… fun together…”, she started. “I tend to get a tiny bit mushy.”

“She becomes a total romantic.”, Fluttershy added.

“Hey, you said you wanted me to tell her.”, Rainbow complained.

“Well I have to put some things into context.”, her marefriend replied in her soft voice. “How can she understand if she doesn't know how soft you can get.”

“Well, I wouldn't call it soft…”, Dashie tried to save some face.

“Soft as a baby bunny.”, Fluttershy interrupted.

Rainbow shook her colorful mane around. “Okay, okay. So I get romantic after I climaxed, big deal. I admit it, but you can't tell anypony.”

“My lips are sealed.”, I responded smiling, the thought of mushy Dash was just too funny.

She just harrumphed in reply.
“... anyway. One time I may have said something like ‘You are everything for me, I never want to wake up without you again. I want to share the rest of my life with you and nobody but you.’”

I was able to feel the heat from her cheeks all the way to where I was sitting.
“In response, my surprised shy marefriend asked if I had ‘just asked her THE question’.”, Dashie continued. “I had been a bit confused by that, but as I recalled what I had said I found it could be seen that way. So jokingly I replied ‘Nahhh, but if I came one more time I might.’ Only a second later Fluttershy looked like a predator which had cornered its prey and she came towards me with a fire in her eyes.”

“There's no way I could have looked like a predator.”, Fluttershy complained with a little pouty face.

“Like a manticore ready to eat me… which she did in a way.”, Rainbow mused.

This made her marefriend blush so hard, her whole body started to look like Pinkie’s.

“Well, long story short, only minutes later I was on my knees begging her to marry me.”, Dash closed her story and looked embarrassed as well.

“Wow…”, was all I was able to say at first. It took a few moments to let it all sink in.

“That's definitely something different.”, I finally continued. “It's kind of cute in its own way.”

We heard the teapot whistle and Fluttershy used this opportunity to flee from the room.

…

I was on my way back to the library after a relaxing afternoon at Fluttershy's cottage. As I came closer to our home I decided to listen into our connection again and to my surprise, I found her still in a state of slight panic. I wondered what caused this long-lasting reaction while I opened the door and looked for my marefriend. I found her messing with silverware on our dining table.

“Princess Celestia will be here for dinner within an hour.”, Twilight shouted. “She wants to check on how Chrysalis is doing.”

“Ah, now I see…”

…

A little white bunny was hopping across the small cleaning of the Everfree Forest. It knew it always had to be alert in this forest, but this clearing had been surprisingly free from any predators since a few days, so I had become its favorite spot to find clover leaves.

It had just found a bunch of them and was munching happily. Maybe it had noticed the faint blue glow behind it if it hadn't been so distracted by all these juicy clover leaves.

It didn’t understand what happened when bullets of a silenced AK-47 ripped its body apart and a cloud of blood erupted from its body.

Three heavy armored soldiers stood next to the open portal, one of them lowered his weapon and picked up a handset from the ground which cable went through the portal.

“Central Command, can you hear us?”, he asked and waited for a moment to receive an answer.

“Yes, the area is secure and our weapons seem to work normally. We are ready for phase three.”
> 23 A special dinner
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Everything looks great, relax.”, I tried to calm down Twilight who was checking the positioning of the silverware for the third time since I had come back.

“Everything has to be perfect…”, she argued. “That's why…”

“Everything IS perfect.”, I replied to her. “We still have an hour before the princess arrives, how is the food coming along?”

She looked at me blank faced. “Food…”

“The food for the dinner with Celestia. Don’t tell me you have been re-arranging silverware all afternoon but we don’t have any food to serve?!”

“Well… I…”, she tried to answer while tears started to form and I felt her despair.

I took a few deep breaths and drew her into a hug. “It's okay, we can do this, but we have to stay calm and avoid to panic. Can you do this for me, my love?”

She silently nodded in reply.

I brushed through her mane. “Good. Let’s check what we have to do and who will do it. Let’s make a list.”

As I had expected the sentence ‘Let’s make a list’ helped her focus again. Quickly a scroll and quill appeared and she was ready to write.

“Where is Spike?”, I asked.

“Gem-hunting with Rarity”, Twilight replied.

‘Well, there goes a big part of our work resources’, I thought.

“Have you told Chrysalis and Lavender about dinner with the princess?”, I asked her.

“Not yet, I wanted to do that once the silverware was perfect…”, she answered but her voice got very quiet towards the end.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose.
“Fine, fine… Here is what we still need to do, write it down.
We need food!
We need to tell Chrysalis and her marefriend what's happening.
We need to clean the living room.
We should put away the rest of the books laying around our home.
The dining table is perfect, we won't touch it.”

She quickly wrote everything down, the simple act of writing a list seemed to have calmed her down a lot.

“Here's my plan.”, I continued. “One hour is not enough time to shop for ingredients and make a nice meal, so I will order at 'the Dancing Butterfly' instead and bring the stuff over. You tell our houseguests about all that and they can help you do the rest from our list, please let Lavender do only light stuff since she is still recovering. Does that sound good?”

“You're so good at organizing.”, she replied with flushed cheeks and I felt her arousal through our connection.

I would have liked to react the way she wanted, but there wasn’t time for that right now. “Okay, I’m off to the restaurant to order a nice menu for us.”
With these words I left the library, leaving a disappointed Twilight behind, I would take care of her needs later tonight.

…

About one hour later I returned with several covered trays of food, two unicorn mares from the restaurant were helping me transporting all of it, once again I was thankful this restaurant was so close to our home.

As I entered I instantly noticed how clean the whole library looked, apparently the others had put a lot of work into it. The unicorns left after I had given them a tip.
Twilight and Lavender helped me to arrange the trays on the table, we left the trays covered so the food would stay warm until the princess arrived.

“Where is Chrysalis?”, I asked them.

“She's in the kitchen preparing a dessert for later.”, Lavender replied.

I was quite curious about that and was on my way to the kitchen to see what she was doing when there was a knock on the door. I peeked at the clock… of course, the princess was right on time as always.

Twilight opened the door while Lavender and I waited in the living room to greet her.

“Hello you all, it's so nice to see you again.”, Celestia addressed us as she entered.

We all replied to her equally polite and Chrysalis left the kitchen just a moment later to greet the princess as well.

We all sat around the table and begun our meal.

“This looks delicious.”, Celestia commented as I took the lids off the plates.

“Your visit had been a bit on short notice, so we had decided to order in the restaurant nearby instead of cooking ourselves.”, I replied.

“Sorry for not informing you a day earlier, but it's quite hard to plan for a bit of free time in my schedule.”, the princess explained.
“So as an ambassador canceled his appointment I had to take this opportunity to visit you and see how everything is going.”

“You're always welcome and your visits are never a bother.”, Twilight hurried to tell her.

Celestia gave her a warm smile. “Thank you so much. So how is the research coming along.”, she asked.

“Excellent.”, Twilight replied. “Chrysalis is so open and helpful to us, the changelings are a fascinating race.”

“That's so good to hear.”, the princess said while smiling toward our ‘test subject’ and using her magic to fill her plate with different food items. Chrysalis moved uneasy in her chair, she clearly was uncomfortable around the princess, which wasn't surprising considering what she had tried to pull in Canterlot.

We all filled our plates and started to dig in.

…

“How is the ‘blinking’ of your hand coming along?”, the princess asked me after she had finished eating.

I used my ‘magic hand’ to quickly pick up the salt and sat in down a few inches to my right, my hand disappeared right afterward.

“Better and better.”, I explained. “I'm able to let it appear for about a second now without really straining myself. I hope with continued training I can extend this to a much longer time.”

She nodded. “Really impressive. I hadn't expected something like this. You sure are one of the oddest creatures I have ever met in my life.” She smiled at me as if she just found a gem within a pile of rocks.

‘Wow, that's something coming from someone with her lifespan.’, I thought to myself… which reminded me of something Chrysalis had told me before, I wondered…

“When was the last time you had sex?”, I asked Celestia.

Twilight choked on the potato she was just eating, as she spat it out it missed the princess head only by an inch.

My marefriend looked at me as if I had just murdered somepony. Chrysalis showed an amused grin while Lavender’s face was pure surprise. Celestia meanwhile showed a gently smiling poker face, I was sure she had used it in many negotiations with other countries before.

“What makes you ask this question?”, she asked without any noticeable emotion in her voice.

I briefly tried to use my ability to read her emotions but found myself completely blocked. ‘Of course, she would be prepared when being in a room with the changeling princess.’, I thought.

“It's something Chrysalis told me earlier today.”, I honestly replied. “She said you must be bored out of your mind for being a princess for thousand years and only having polite conversations, so I asked myself what question no pony ever would ask you.”

She kept up the smiling poker face for a few more seconds before there was a sad desperate sigh coming from her.

“I had never expected a changeling would be the one creature understanding me.”, she told us. “It is tiresome to always uphold the facade of the perfect princess no matter how I feel at any day.”

“Then why keeping it up?”, I asked. “You should be able to do whatever you want.”

“It's not that easy.”, she replied. “It calms my subjects to have a leader who looks perfect and without fail, it gives us a better position against other countries as well. Two hundred years ago I used a curse word in public after badly hurting my knee, Equestria had been in turmoil for days.”

“Well, we're not your typical subjects and I believe we all are willing to keep a little secret for you.”, I said and looked around, I saw everypony nodding in agreement. “How about you being just Celestia for the rest of your visit, without the whole princess stuff?”

“You're all sure about that?”, she asked surprisingly insecure.

“Yes. Just relax and be yourself for once.”, I replied. Twilight was the only one who looked a bit uneasy.

Finally, she used her magic to remove her crown and golden yoke, then she kicked off the fancy golden horseshoes one by one. She leaned back in her chair and let out a deep sigh.

“This feels really nice for a change. Do you have some wine?”, she asked after a few moments.

“Sure, just a moment.”, I stood up and walked to the kitchen. I felt a strange mix of curiosity and fear coming from my marefriend. I guessed she was excited to discover this new side of the pony she idolized so much but feared what she would discover.

I found a selection of four wines in our kitchen and couldn't really decide which would meet Celestia's taste, so I decided to bring them all in a little basket.

“I wasn't sure which wine you would like, so I brought a selection.”, I explained to the white alicorn.

“I don't care much, I just want to get drunk for once.”, came the surprising answer from her.

She instantly used her magic to open one of the bottles and poured herself a drink. Chrysalis opened one of the other bottles and filled all of our glasses.

Celestia downed half her glass immediately and seemed to be in a state of total bliss.

Chrysalis disappeared into the kitchen for a moment and came back with a tray of her secret dessert, she put it on the table between us.

We all stared at what she had made. It looked like glass bonbons, something was in the middle of them.

“Is this actual glass?”, I asked confused. I hadn't seen anything even remotely close to what was in front of me right now.

“It's sugar.”, Chrysalis explained to us. “If you heat up sugar to the right temperature it will look like glass once it's cooled down. It's a changeling delicacy, I just exchanged the love goo in the middle with applesauce.”

“They look incredibly complicated to make.”, Lavender stated after picking one up and looking at it up close.

“Yeah… but in my two years working as a sugar baker in the hive we made a lot of these, so I have a lot of experience.”

Now every one of us had picked up one, they really looked one of their kind.

“How do we eat these?”, I asked a bit confused. “Won't we get hurt just biting into them?”

“You bite into them very slowly.”, Chrysalis explained. “There will be a crunching sensation but your saliva will instantly start to dissolve the thin sugar layer.”

I carefully tried it, it was a strange feeling but even the sugar tasted like apples. We all ate our sweet treats and enjoyed them a lot… except for Celestia who was just staring at hers.

“It's not poisoned.”, Chrysalis stated after a few more moments.

“Oh yes, I'm pretty sure of that since we all randomly took them from the plate.”, the princess replied. “Pretty sure…”

“I eat yours if you don't want to.”, I suggested.

“No… no, it's fine. I eat my own after waiting just a bit longer.”, Celestia stated.
“Why did you work as a sugar baker for two years?”, she addressed Chrysalis.

"A princesses and possible future queen of the hive has to know exactly what her subjects do, so every princess works two years in every possible job. All jobs combined that's 34 years. Teacher, Guard, Special Forces, Construction worker, blacksmith, gravedigger, sugar baker and many more.”

“That sounds surprising interesting and useful…”, Celestia mused. “Maybe we should set some time aside to learn our subjects professions as well, it would certainly be very interesting and I'm pretty sure Luna would love that as well.”

After watching all of us closely one last time she took a bite of the sweet as well.

“This is indeed something special… maybe you can show me someday how you do it.”

“Gladly.”, Chrysalis responded, her face full of surprise.

“Now back to the question that made all of this possible…”, Celestia continued.

“Which question?”, I asked slightly confused.

“Your sex question.”, she replied.

Twilight sudden jumped from her chair.
“I think I have to finish a report.”, she told us red-headed and stormed out of the room.

Celestia groaned. “See? That's the typical reaction when I fail to stay in my role.” She took another sip of wine.
“Well anyway… It has been about two months.”

I was surprised, I had expected something in the realm of years.

The princess continued:
“Since ponies would freak out if I had known sexual activities I use my magic to change my appearance every few months and go to town to search for some fun. I'm usually a unicorn mare searching for a stallion but I had tried all kinds of combinations over the years.”

“So you had been a stallion as well?”, I asked smiling.

“ALL possible combinations.”, she explained. “It's hard enough to keep things at least a bit different after all this time.”

“Well, Stella would be quite different to anything you had before.”, Chrysalis suggested grinning.

“Indeed she is…”, the princess mused, her gaze wandering over my body made me nervous and I began to shift uncomfortably in my chair.

Suddenly Chrysalis started laughing. We turned our heads toward her in confusion, curious what she found so funny in this situation.

After a few more moments she was able to explain. “You change your appearance to get love and sex from ponies, you sound like a changeling.”, she told Celestia still smiling.

“Did you have sex with somepony we know?”, Lavender asked very slowly.

“No!”, Celestia answered immediately… and much too fast to be true.

I was curious about that, but at this moment the front door was kicked open with so much force I was surprised it didn't just explode as it hit the wall.

A scary looking mad Fluttershy stormed into the room got close to me and addressed me right away. “HOW DARE YOU TO KILL A HELPLESS LITTLE BUNNY?” She had a fire in her eyes I had never expected to see.

A little robin was flying after her tweeting something.

I was so confused by all of this.
“I didn't kill anything, I swear!”, I replied while the others looked at me confused as well.

Fluttershy was listening to something the robin was telling her.

“What do you mean by ‘not this Stella’?”, the yellow pegasus asked bewildered. “There is only…”

The robin interrupted with a longer explanation.

“Three Stella’s with firesticks?”, she repeated in disbelief.

“I believe the bird is using ‘Stella’ as a proxy for ‘human’...”, I explained and felt cold as the room started to slowly spin around me.
> 24 Getting serious
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I felt cold as the room slowly started to spin around me… I went down on one knee so I wouldn't fall. Twilight had came down from her room after all this chaos and screaming, she addressed me with a concerned voice… but I wasn't able to understand her.

This new development was too much for me. How was it possible for soldiers to arrive in Equestria? I noticed a lot of my friends were talking to me but I had to concentrate on this one thing first, there had to be something I didn't take into account about the portal…

Only two people had access to the data from the portal, Dr. Caput and I…

Dr. Caput…

“... I decided to look into the data log for the portals today and found these strange one-minute openings in constant intervals. I came here to watch the next opening…”

“... I decided to look into the data log for the portals today…”

“... look into the data log…”

A shiver ran down my spine…

‘Fuck! He must have downloaded the data to his office computer to review it, I haven't erased the data there.’, I finally realized and groaned.

“... la… Stella! What happened?”, Twilight shouted at me, her face an inch in front of mine.

“I haven't erased all the data from the portal back then, I made a terrible mistake.”, I finally answered.

As my head finally stopped spinning I carefully got back up and stood in front of Celestia.

“We must kill these soldiers immediately and destroy the portal or all inhabitants of this world may die!”, I declared.

The princess looked at me with a mixture of anger and disgust. “Nopony will be killed just because you say so. There is no way I attack another race without talking to them first, maybe we can reason with them.”

“But these are trained soldiers who prepare an invasion of your world, every minute wasted makes them stronger! Every moment we wait will increase the risk of ponies dying!”, I shouted at her.

She used her magic to pick me up and sat me on one of the chairs, this way I wasn't eye to eye with her anymore but instead she towered over me.

“These are my subjects and I won't start a war without trying diplomacy! I will go back to Canterlot and put together a team of my best negotiators!”

The amount of power flowing through her body was visible to us as yellow sparks rushed over her body. Never before had I seen Celestia angry and never before had I been so afraid of anypony as in this moment when she shouted at me. Only seconds later her magical grip on me disappeared as she teleported away.

We all sat together in silence, it seemed none of us knew how to react to this.

“... well, she has been the ruler of Equestria for more than a thousand years, she should know what's best…”, Twilight was finally able to say.

“Maybe we all should go to bed early…”, Lavender suggested.

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea.”, Twilight replied and used her magic to clear the table and brought everything to the kitchen.

I didn’t say anything and my mind was racing.

“Are you okay?”, Chrysalis asked me after another minute of silence.

This acted as a catalyst because it forced me into making a decision.
“Yeah... but I need some time to think about all of this, so I’ll spend a few hours in the lab. Is this okay for you Twilight?”

I was fuming inside and I knew she felt it through our connection.

“Sure honey.”, she replied with a slightly worried face as I passed her and exited the library.

…

I was using the electric generator to isolate Twilonium when Chrysalis entered the lab.

“Hey friend.”, she greeted me to my surprise.

“Hey.”, I just replied and concentrated on the chemical process again.

“I would ask you how you're feeling, but your anger, hate, and fear are beaming brightly like the sun.”, she said quietly as she closed the distance until she stood directly behind me.

For a moment a thought about denying it, but I knew how useless it would be. So instead of denying my feelings, I decided to let them out.

“I don't care what Celestia says, these soldiers are preparing an invasion and the extinction of every sentient creature in this world! There is no way I let them hurt or kill the ones I love!”, I screamed as I turned towards her.

She didn't seem the slightest bit surprised by my outburst, instead she laid a hoof on my shoulder and drew me close to her.

“So what are you planning to do?”, she asked. “And could you use the help of a changeling princess doing it?”

“You would act against Celestia's orders?”, I asked.

“You know best what humans are capable of, so I trust your judgment.”, she replied in a most severe tone. “After all this time I finally found true love, I will do anything to protect her.”

I drew her into a hug.
At first she was surprised, but just a moment later she hugged me back.

“It's not much of a plan so far.”, I whispered into her ear. “A spoonful of this stuff I'm extracting right now is enough to blow up this lab if it's ignited… I will extract half a bottle of this and use it to make sure the portal on the other side will be destroyed and I don't care what it takes to do it.”

I felt a slight shudder go through her body as I said this with a voice as cold as ice.

“Maybe that's not the best time to say it, but I never killed anypony.”, she whispered into my ear. “I always was able to get what I wanted using my magic, seduction and in a worst case scenario my sleeping poison.”

I felt her front legs hugging me stronger than before… I felt her fear.

“I don't want to kill anyone either, I hope there is a way to trick these soldiers.”, I replied still whispering. “But I don't think there is anything I wouldn't do to protect Twilight, this world, and anyone I love.”

She just nodded in reply.
> 25 Just the two of us
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It would take a few hours to get enough Twilonium, so I decided to do something else while we waited. After a few minutes Chrysalis noticed and walked over to where I was sitting. 

“What you're doing?”, she asked.

It was hard for me to say it out loud because of its implications. I took a few deep breaths before I answered.

“I’m writing a letter to Twilight… in case I don’t make it back to her.”, I whispered just loud enough for her to hear.

“Oh…”, she just replied. There was a full minute of silence between us and I stared down at my papers, I didn’t dare to look at her.

“Can I borrow a few pieces of paper as well?”, she silently asked.

“Sure.”, I answered and offered her a few, once again I avoided looking at her directly.

She took them and sat down at a table a few feet away from mine. I felt guilty for accepting her help…
Of course, my chances of succeeding were far better with her helping me, but the possibility of her dying while we tried to close the portal troubled my conscience.

I looked down at what I had written so far.
‘Dear Twilight,
I hope you never have to read this but I wanted to tell you one last time how much I love you.
Chrysalis and I will go to the portal and we attempt to close it forever. I’m sorry for doing this against Celestia's will and without your knowledge, but the possibility of you or my friends dying because of what I have brought to this world is more than I can bear.’

Tears started to run down my face as I continued the letter. 

‘Well, if you read this…’ A tear fell on the paper and blurred the last word I wrote, I used my sleeve to clean it up and quickly wiped my eyes. 

‘I guess I must have died. I'm sorry for leaving you alone. I just hope I was able to close the portal to save you and this world. I'm so sorry, please forgive me.

Love you forever
Stella’ 

I turned the letter upside down and pushed it away from me while I buried my head in my arms. I just wanted to stop thinking for a few minutes. 

But after only a few seconds something dawned on me. Twilight must have felt all this sadness through our connection and surely was worried now. 

I lifted my head and looked over to Chrysalis. 

“Chryssi, I need a favor right now. Could you please use a sleeping spell on our marefriends and Spike? I fear they soon will check on us if we're alright and I can't face them now, I don't think I could hold back my feelings.”

She just nodded, put down her quill and walked to the door. She had just exited the lab when I heard Twilight's voice. 

“Hey Chrysalis, how is Stella doing? I wondered if you noticed anything…”

*Thud*

After a moment Chrysalis’ head appeared at the door. 
“I will bring her to your bed and take care of the rest.”

“Thank you.”, was all I was able to reply. 

… 

The Twilonium production was complete and I carefully closed the lid of the bottle I had filled it into. I had also brought some liquor I used to flambé before and was explaining the concept of a molotov cocktail to Chrysalis.

“... opposite to a standard molotov cocktail, the flame has no access to the inner bottle here. The bottle will be closed tight and the burning cloth it only attached to the bottle, the bottle breaks and the Twilonium gets ignited. I think it’s our best chance to use it in an effective way.”, I closed my explanation.

“So we only have one chance.”, she stated. 

“Yeah, that's correct.”, I answered and looked at the colorful bottle in my hand, I had glued the cloth to its lid. “Could you use this sleep spell against the soldiers as well?” 

“I could, but only one at a time. I need line of sight to their heads and I need a few seconds to cast each spell. Twilight wasn't surprised to see my horn glow, we both use our magic all the time for little stuff, but I'm afraid for these soldiers it would only be a brightly lit target.”

“Yeah, I guess you're right about that…”, I replied and thought about other approaches to our problem. “Can you turn into a human?” 

She smiled. “That shouldn't be a problem, but it's been quite a while since I had been bipedal.”

Her horn lit up for a few moments and suddenly a perfect copy of myself stood before me, to say it felt weird would be a huge understatement. She had problems keeping her balance and held on to me. 

“Your big udders are throwing off my balance.”, she complained. 

“They're not that big!”, I replied, it had been more a reflex than a complaint.
“That shouldn't be a problem if you would be copying a soldier, I have hardly seen any women amongst them.”

“Well in that case…”, she mumbled and suddenly her breasts were gone. This was an even weirder sight to me and without thinking about it I touched my own to check if they still were there. 

“That much better.”, she continued and took a few shaky steps but soon got more confident.

“Practice a few more minutes.”, I addressed Chrysalis-Me while I carefully packed the Twilonium into my backpack, together with some other stuff. I placed my letter next to the one of Chrysalis on one of the tables and watched her practice to look natural.

…

It was long after midnight as we silently moved through Ponyville towards the Everfree Forest. I felt the same mix of feelings from Chryssi as I felt myself, fear and determination.
Since I had enough Twilonium in my backpack to erase the whole town I moved very carefully. I still didn’t know enough about this element to be sure it wouldn’t explode for some other reason than I was aware so far.
For that reason, I felt relieved when we had left Ponyville far behind us.
> 26 Blood
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

We stood in front of the Everfree Forest, a place dangerous enough by itself at night, we had to be very careful or we wouldn't even reach our target. 

“Don't worry too much.”, Chrysalis addressed me after reading my expression. “You know I have excellent hearing and night vision, I should be able to spot all possible treats long before they reach us.”

She sounded quite cheerful, but I knew it was just a facade to calm me down. Of course it didn't work, but nonetheless I was thankful for her trying. 

With a bad feeling I entered the forest and we moved as silently as possible. 

… 

I constantly looked around and tried to spot anything dangerous while I very carefully watched the ground as well so I wouldn't step on anything making noise. It was incredibly exhausting to be in this high-alert state all the time. 

Suddenly Chrysalis held on to me and pushed me to the ground, where I laid on my back. She climbed on top of me and after a green flame washed over her body… I was in almost complete darkness. 
It took a few seconds before my eyes adjusted to the new conditions. 
To my surprise, I found Chrysalis head was only inches in front of mine, but the rest of her body looked like a gray irregular formed tent that was covering me.
“What is happening?”, I whispered into her ear as quiet as possible. 

“We are a rock, so stop talking.”, she whispered back. 

We laid like this for another minute before I heard heavy steps. Whatever it was, it quickly got closer and I heard a deep unsettling growl. Chrysalis looked deeply worried and sweat was slowly dripping from her chin into my face. 

It took a few more minutes before the creature's noise got quiet enough so it seemed safe to assume it had walked away. 

“What in hell was that?”, I asked. “It sounded huge.”

She changed her form back before she answered. “An Ursa.”
She looked around. “And since the trees are still standing, it looks like it was an Ursa Minor.”

She looked into my confused face and sighed. “Do you know what a bear is?”, she asked. 

I nodded in reply. 

“Now imagine a bear as big as a house.”

“Things like this exist in the Everfree Forest?”, I asked in disbelief. 

“Yeah, and things worse than that. That's why nopony walks into this forest at night.”

“Thanks for covering me.”, I addressed her. 

She looked surprised. “No need to thank me, we're working towards the same goal, I protect you as you would do for me.” She showed a big grin. “And Twilight would kill me if I wouldn't bring you back in one piece.”

…

We moved with extreme caution as we got close to the clearing where the portal had been and I expected it to be in the same spot this time. 
We both had binoculars from Twilight seemingly endless supply of useful stuff down in the library's basement. She had mentioned these when she told me how she had tried to make sense of Pinkie Pie’s antics and had followed her all day. 
We made sure to always hide behind bushes and Chrysalis had changed her body color to a camouflage pattern of various shades of green, even from only a few feet away I sometimes had problems seeing her.

After twenty minutes of slowly crawling towards the clearing, we finally spotted them. We saw three… no, four soldiers. Two of them were standing guard while the other two were working on fortifying the clearing. 

So far they had erected something that looked like a small room around the portal with big, probably bulletproof windows. Additionally, there was a conveyor belt coming through the portal ending inside that room. One of these soldiers was standing next to it right now and took different parts from it while another was working on a huge half-finished turret about fifty feet away from the portal. 

“We have to observe everything they're doing and come up with a plan.”, I whispered towards my green spotted friend. 

“What is that thing they're building?”, she asked. 

“The machine guns they are wearing are extremely deadly.”, I explained. “But if their guns fire marble sized projectiles, then this thing fires bowling-ball sized ones instead.”

Of course, this was a bad and not very accurate comparison, but I wanted to give her a rough estimate of what such a turret would be capable of.
Never before had I seen her this afraid as in this moment when she realized that. 

“We have to stop them before they have completed this thing.”, she stated. 

“First we have to carefully watch them and make a plan, we only have one shot and can't afford to rush our attack.”, I replied. 

… 

The sun was just about to rise and the forest was in some weird twilight which gave everything a grayish tone. 
We had watched the soldiers for nearly an hour and had a pretty good understanding of how they worked together. I had used the time to create a plan, it was quite risky but it gave us the best chance to actually destroy the portal. 

I was just about to tell Chrysalis my plan when I heard somepony shout from the other side of the clearing. 

“We're coming in peace and represent the citizen of Equestria, please accept our humble offering to talk about your arrival.”

Three unicorns, a mare, and two stallions slowly approached the clearing, one of them was waving a white flag. 

One of the guarding soldiers raised his machine gun almost casually and opened fire upon the flag-carrying pony, he died in less than a second within this spray of bullets. 

Chrysalis body moved towards the enemies but I read her feelings and held on to her. 

“We have to help them.”, she whispered towards me in an almost pleading tone. 

“No, we can't waste our one chance to surprise them, destroying the portal is our single priority.”, I whispered in her ear while I held her tight and tears ran down my face. “Whatever it will take, protecting this world is more important than any of our lives.”

“We're coming in peace!”, I heard one of the ponies cry, their fear was so strong it washed over me like a tidal wave. Both of the remaining ponies used their magic to form a shield in front of them.

The two soldiers opened fire again and the magic shields weren't able to withstand their deadly force for more than a few seconds before they collapsed, both must have been dead before their bodies hit the ground.

We stared at this horrible bloody display, showing us the attackers intentions ever so clear. I felt my friend’s body shake, felt her mixture of fear, disgust, and fury. I was just able to keep myself from vomiting. 

One of the soldiers addressed the others, Chrysalis told me what she had heard with her incredible hearing ability:
“Inform Central Command what has happened, tell them our first turret will be functional within an hour. In addition, we advise to start phase three immediately and send at least a battalion of elite soldiers within the same time frame.”
> 27 The only way
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“How many soldiers are a battalion?”, Chrysalis asked me.

“A battalion can be anything between 300 and 800 soldiers.”, I replied in a grim tone.

She stared at me in horror. “The whole of Canterlot has only eighty-two guards, this is an insane number.”

“Why do you know the exact number of guards in Canter… never mind.” I took a few deep breaths and concentrated on what was important.
“We can't allow any other soldiers to arrive here, my plan won't work with much more soldiers. This means we have to attack right now and can't wait much longer.”

“So what's the plan?”, she asked.

I closed my eyes and once again I ran the scenario in my head and tried to consider every possibility.

“It's very risky, but I think it's our best chance to destroy the portal.”, I began. “It all depends on your shapeshifting ability. How well have you seen the soldier who brings the pieces to the turret?”

“I think good enough to fool the other soldiers, he has his face partly covered, that should help a bit.”

“Okay, when he brings new parts to the turret, he usually stays there for a few minutes and helps the other soldier building complex parts. That is the tiny time window when you can disguise as him and approach the soldier guarding on the opposite side of the turret. They can't know there are shapeshifters in this world, so they shouldn't be suspicious about tiny details.”

I pointed towards the small room around the portal. “All you have to do is get inside this room. It's constructed as an emergency retreat, the door isn't locked but there should be some big panic button to lock it from the inside. Once you're in there, lock the door and you should be safe, the guards are way too close to the door to try this without locking it. Immediately ignite the Molotov with the Twilonium and throw it at an angle through the portal so it won't land on the conveyor belt on the other side.”

I took another deep breath before I told her the next part. “I'm not totally sure what will happen next…”

“What do you mean by that?”, Chrysalis asked concerned.

“I don't know how fast the portal will collapse once the device on the other side is destroyed, so I don't know how much of the explosion will reach our side…”, I explained.

She was silent for a very long moment before she replied to this.
“What is your best guess?”

“At least the shockwave will come through, so you shouldn't stand in front of the portal when the Molotov explodes, immediately jump to the side once you threw it. The door is right in front of the portal’s exit… it was designed to protect from any dangers coming from the outside, not to withstand the shockwave of an enormous explosion from the inside. I'm quite sure it will be the point of failure and will be blown open, releasing nearly all of the forces to the outside of the room.”

“How sure are you?”, a concerned Chrysalis asked me.

“About ninety percent…”, a silently replied.

“What happens if it doesn't?”, she inquired.

“Do you have any shielding magic?”, I asked her.

“We changelings are all about disguise and surprise, not about direct combat.”,she replied. “I have the one I tried to use against you, it's enough to hold back a pony or two or to protect me against some magic, not to withstand a giant explosion.”

“Or maybe an additional fireball.”, I added with a dry throat.

She looked at me for a long time.

“Since I throw the Molotov immediately after I entered the room, wouldn't it be better not to close the door then?”, she asked.

“Can you use a fire spell without your horn?”, I asked back.

“A fire spell is quite basic, I can do one without my horn.”

“Well, in that case, it would indeed be better to leave it open, I leave this decision to you.”

“What happens after the explosion is over?”, she asked. “I guess either way the door won't be able to close properly afterward.”

“My plan is to wait at the edge of the clearing on the side of the back-wall. Once the explosion has occurred all the soldiers should run towards the door to… kill you. I will use this moment to run towards you, tap into your magic and shield you from them. Together we then run into the woods where you use your shapeshifting ability to hide us from them.”

“This part of the plan doesn't sound as reliable as the first part of the plan.”, she stated.

“Yeah, you're right about that.”, I admitted. “I'm sure we can destroy the portal this way, I'm far less sure we will get away with it.”

Another long moment of silence between us.

“What was your plan if I hadn't accompanied you?”, she asked.

“To use a small amount of Twilonium as a distraction, then run for it to get close enough to throw the Molotov through the portal… and I hadn't expected this room around it.”

“You would have died in this attempt for sure.”, she commented in a very calm tone, but I felt a wave of sadness from her.

“Yes, but I would have had a chance to destroy the portal while doing it.”

“Well, compared to that we have a great plan now.”, she replied with a small smile. “Let’s do it, time is running out.”

“Are you sure?”, I asked. “This is your last chance of turning back.”

“Don’t be stupid, like I would leave you alone now.”, she replied.

With a sigh, I took the Molotov out of my backpack and used the alcohol to drench the cloth.

“Stella…”

“What is it?”, I asked.

“How many humans do you think this thing will kill when I throw it through the portal?”, she asked me just loud enough for me to understand.

I just stared at her for a moment, unsure what I should tell her.

“The portal-ring on the other side is in a small room of a similar size to the one before us, but it was built to be able to withstand the temperatures in the center of a sun for the fraction of a second, just in case a portal would end up in one. So if we’re fast enough there shouldn’t be anyone inside it and the explosion is contained within it.”, I told her… even though it wasn’t true.

An explosion like this was something completely different from ‘just heat’, sure the solid construction of the portal room should absorb some force, but it was highly unlikely it was able to withstand this giant explosion. This shouldn’t trouble her, it was my fault Equestria was in danger, I had to live with the consequences… and I feared she would hesitate to throw the Molotov.

“Well, we should get into position then, there isn’t much time left to do it.”, Chrysalis whispered to me while she took the Molotov, our eyes met for a long time before I let go of it.

I nodded and we both got into our positions.

…

I waited behind a bush watching the soldier Chrysalis was about to replace. He just got additional parts from the conveyor belt and was about to leave the room, it would be only a few more seconds before Chrysalis would start our dangerous plan. My heart was beating so hard I feared the soldiers would somehow notice it.

The changeling princess emerged from the woods as a perfect copy of our selected soldier and headed straight towards the room. As expected the soldier on the rooms backside noticed her… I was holding my breath.

He looked a bit puzzled and as she got closer he addressed her. “What did you do over there?”

She stopped and hesitated for just a second.
“I went for a pee.”

The soldier just nodded and kept scanning the treeline.

I was so thankful for her being a professional liar.

She went on to walk towards the room until she nearly reached it, only then did she walk to the other side where the door was located. Just as she reached the door I noticed the soldier she copied was coming back right away, he didn’t help to build this time. He and Chrysalis noticed each other right the next moment.

“What in hell…”, he shouted and raised his weapon, but she had used this little moment to open the door, slip into the room, and shutting the door behind her.

Instead of shooting at her, he ran towards the door, confirming my guess the windows were bullet-proof.

Chrysalis wasted no time, still disguised as the soldier following her, she took out the Molotov and ignited it with her magic. She lobbed it through the portal while she jumped to the side as much as possible. Her pursuer had just opened the door and lifted his machine gun again as the shockwave of the explosion lifted him from his feet and ripped his body into more pieces than I was able to count on my one hand. Just a fraction of a second later a beam of fire did burst through the portal, igniting the flying pieces on their way across the clearing before the portal suddenly disappeared.

The soldier in front of my position ran towards the door and I ran after him, hoping he wouldn't notice me, thanks to all this chaos. My heart was pounding like crazy, I knew the next few seconds could mean the death of both of us.

I reached the back of the room as two soldiers started to open fire through the open door. Chrysalis who had dropped the disguise pressed herself against the side of the room and was just out of reach at the moment, but the soldiers started circling to the side and would be able to shoot her within seconds. I concentrated as well as it was possible for me at this moment and tapped into her magic, it felt strangely foreign as it rushed through my body.
Just in time, I was able to produce a shield in front of the room's entrance, protecting her from the deadly bullets.

“The portal is destroyed and can't be opened again, stop fighting and we can find a peaceful solution!”, I shouted while Chrysalis used the cover to exit the room and joined me behind it. Bullets continued to hit the shield while they went on circling the room until they were only fifteen feet away from us. One of them was reloading his magazine while the other kept on shooting.

I groaned from the incredible strain this put on me, I knew the shield wouldn't last much longer. The picture of our marefriends sobbing before our dead bodies appeared before me…
We had saved Equestria but brought eternal pain to the ones we loved…

I held on to my friend's body to prevent me from falling.

“NO! I WON'T LET THAT HAPPEN!”, I screamed.

My body trembled as my vision turned red and I channeled every bit of hate towards the soldiers attacking us. Flames suddenly covered my magic shield and I pushed it towards them. I heard their screams as it touched them and they fell to the ground, but I didn't stop… I pushed it down on them as hard as I could until I didn't hear them screaming anymore.

I smelled their burning flesh as I fell down on my knees and the magic dissolved…

I was breathing hard, this had brought me to the limit of what I was capable of. Without Chrysalis holding on to me I would have fallen to the ground, I was too weak to stand on my own.

It took a few seconds before I was able to say something. “Looks like we made it against all odds. I wasn't sure we would… AAARGH!”

Incredible pain paralyzed me as the blade of a huge army knife went through my body and appeared in front of my chest.

‘Of course… there had been four soldiers…’, I thought regretfully.

While I screamed in pain, Chrysalis let out a cry of disbelief, anger, and pain; never before had I heard something as primal as this. Her magic transformed her hoof into a blade which she stabbed into the soldier's throat, she jumped onto him an continued stabbing bis body with her other front hoof which had transformed as well. The soldier's blade had been pulled out of me as the soldier fell backward and I rolled to my side.

Seconds later the blood covered changeling entered my field of view again, tears streaming down her face.

I slowly rolled on my back and tasted blood in my mouth as I tried to speak. “Please tell Twilight… *cough* I'm sorry.”

She pressed against my wound trying to stop the bleeding in any way, but blood continued to exit my body on both sides.
“I have no magical power left to help you!”, she cried.

“It's okay…”, I whispered. “At least we were able to destroy the portal…”

My vision started to get blurry.

“I wished I *cough* had more time to get to *cough* know you better…”

“No, I won't let you go! Stay with me!”, she shouted.

I forced a weak smile. “I'm sorry…”

One last time I remembered the wonderful life I had with Twilight in this world and how much I loved her, it brought a warm feeling to me that reduced the pain a tiny bit.

Chrysalis kissed me.

I was surprised, I hadn't expected she would…

I wasn't able to breathe anymore as she pressed goo down my throat, I tried to use the little energy I had left to break free, but she held me in place as I slowly suffocated.

The last thing I saw was her green glowing eyes.
> 28 Black and white
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Darkness…

Strange, I felt my breathing.

I didn’t believe in some kind of afterlife, so why was I breathing? Could I be still alive?

I slowly open my eyes, an action I did a million times before, but this time it was very taxing and I had barely enough strength to keep them open.

It took a while before I could make out details. After a few seconds, I realized I was in Canterlot palace, in the bedroom we usually used when we visited the
princesses. I slowly turned my head to the right and found Twilight's smiling, yet slightly worried, face.

“Hey honey, I'm so glad to have you back.”, she whispered to me and softly kissed my lips. “You had been asleep for a whole day.”

I still felt incredibly tired and decided to just nod as a response. The pale moonlight illuminated the room and only a small lamp on the bedside table spread additional light. I remembered what had happened and my hand slowly wandered towards my chest, but I felt nothing unusual there, just smooth skin.

“Chrysalis has saved you with her regenerative ‘Love Juice’.”, my marefriend explained whispering. “I was told she was barely breathing when they found you.”

I had a lot of questions about all of this but was too weak to ask them now, so instead I gathered some strength and whispered: “Why are we whispering?”

Twilight used her hoof to lift my head a bit. I saw Chrysalis on a chair next to the end of my bed, her head rested on the bed, sleeping peacefully.

“After she had received some energy from Lavender she immediately came to sit here. She told me it was just because ‘she hadn't anything better to do at the moment’, but she was clearly worried about you and how your body would react to this amount of her love-filled goo.”

I showed a weak smile; when I had met Chrysalis for the first time I hadn't expected she would help me to protect Equestria and save my life, I had to thank her for all of this… later. I was way too tired right now and failed to keep my eyes open any longer.

“There is one other thing I should tell you…”, Twilight started but I never heard the end of it, I was already asleep again.

…

It was daytime when I opened my eyes again. I felt stronger than last time but decided it would be wise to avoid sudden movements for now. I looked around and found Chrysalis sitting on the same chair she had been last time, Twilight was nowhere to be seen.

“How you're feeling?”, she asked me. “Twilight just went off to eat something.”

“Surprisingly good.”, I answered. “Thanks to my hero and savior.”

She chuckled. “I've been called a lot of things, but no one ever called me this before.”

“Well, I would be dead without you.”, I stated. “But how exactly did you do it?”

“I thought you had already guessed I used the ‘love juice’ which helped you heal in our little experiment a few days ago.”, she told me.

“Yeah, I figured that much.”, I replied. “But you said you had no magical energy left, and in your case that equals love.”

“That's true.”, she admitted. “But you thought of Twilight and your time together when you assumed you were about to die. I took this energy and directly transformed it into the regenerative goo I forced down your throat… I was really scared it wouldn't work.”

I took me a moment to reply to that.
“Twilight told me they found you barely breathing next to me.”

“I had no time for second-guessing, I just decided to give you everything I got, if I hadn't and it hadn't been enough…”, she didn't finish the sentence but instead wrapped her hooves around me.

“Thank you for everything you did for me.”, I whispered into her ear and we stayed like this for a moment.

When she finally let go of me, she wiped some tears from her eyes; she coughed and looked bashful.

“I think you look quite unique this way.”, she changed the subject. “There could have been way worse side-effects than this.”

“What are you talking about?”, I asked confused.

“Twilight didn't tell you?”, she asked surprised.

I remembered my marefriend tried to tell me something before I fell asleep last time. So far, I hadn't moved to save the little energy I had, but now I had the urge to jump out of my bed and find a mirror.

Again I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down.

“Tell me immediately what's wrong with me.”, I pressed through clenched teeth.

Chrysalis looked unsure what to do.
“I think it would be easier to show you.”, she said after a moment and went to the bathroom next door.

I heard something break and a few seconds later my changeling friend appeared with a huge mirror she was carrying with her magic. The mirror was a bit bent and pieces of the bathroom wall were still attached to one of its screws. She held it above me, so I was able to see myself without moving.

I was surprised and confused by my reflection.

Palm-sized black irregular shapes covered parts of my pale skin. I slowly moved my arm to pull back the blanket. Chrysalis noticed what I was trying to do and helped me with her magic.

My whole body looked the same way.

“I look like a cow!”, I shouted surprisingly loud. “And I… WAIT, ARE THEY MOVING?”

“Yes, but only very slowly, it's hard to notice at a quick glance.”, she told me in a way as if I had slightly messed up my eyeliner.

I stared at my reflection and didn't know what to say.

“I never saw anything like it, but this could be only a temporary side-effect, maybe it's gone in a day or so.”, she tried to calm me down.

I watched one of the blobs slowly wander under the lingerie I was wearing, reaching my right breast. I shivered at this sight. Chrysalis must have thought I was freezing, she covered my body with the blanket again and put the mirror to the ground.

“It really doesn't look bad, just… unusual.”, she continued in her efforts to cheer me up. “Even before you looked unusual to everypony, so it's not such a big change.”

Once again I tried my best to calm down. All of this craziness was eating away the little energy I had right now.

‘So what if I look like a cow?’, I thought. ‘It beats being dead any day.’ 

I slowly pulled my right arm from under the sheets and looked at it.

‘I look hideous…’, I thought as I inspected my spotted arm and stump.

“Why didn't my hand grew back if your ‘love juice’ has regenerative abilities?”, I asked Chrysalis and showed a big yawn, I had trouble keeping my eyes open.

“Sorry, it doesn't work this way.”, she replied. “It can only heal very recent wounds. For a changeling, serious wounds have to be treated within an hour or the ‘love juice’ has no effect.”

“We should put more research into this stuff.”, I said while yawning again. “Maybe there is a way to change this stuff to help ponies as well. I really think…”, I mumbled while I fell asleep again.
> 29 Shapes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I opened my eyes and felt surprisingly normal. The morning sun warmed my body through the window and I noticed Twilight was sleeping next to me, her front hooves wrapped around my neck. Carefully I freed myself from her embrace and sat on the side of the bed, my feet gently touched the ground.

I slowly shifted my position to put more and more weight on my feet until I was standing upright while I still held on to the frame of the bed. My feet felt a bit shaky but that had to be expected after being in bed for such a long time. I waited a few more seconds before I carefully walked towards the bathroom, not only because I had to pee, but also to check my appearance in the huge bathroom mirrors.

Since I was only in my lingerie I had a very good view of my whole body… it looked so strange... these black slowly wandering blobs, which covered parts of my body, creeped me out. I touched one of them but it didn’t felt any different than the rest of my skin. I used a finger and pressed down hard on it to see if I was able to keep it from moving. It was unimpressed by my attempt and kept on moving in the same direction, within a minute it had completely left the spot where I pressed down.

I moved closer towards the mirrors to observe one of these blobs in detail.

It seemed the outer shape of this black thing was constantly shifting, never keeping the same shape.

“What is this?”, I mumbled. “I wonder…?”

Suddenly it changed its shape in a different way, it got longer, thinner, and somewhat crooked, I looked around and saw all of them were changing the same way.

“What?? What is happening?”

I concentrated on the same blob again as is continued to shift its form, it started to look like a little snake… a thought I immediately banned from my mind.

“I wonder…?”

I was absolutely perplexed when it reached its final form.

“?”

On my right cheek, there was a perfect black question mark, my whole body was covered in black question marks.

‘Great’, I thought. ‘Instead of looking like a cow, I look like a comic-book villain. I wonder…?’

I paused.

“I wonder…?”, I repeated out loud.

I tried to imagine they would form an ‘A’ instead.

Nothing happened for a while and I was about to give up when the question marks slowly changed again, it took about another minute but finally, my whole body was covered in ‘A’s.

“Yay.”, I mumbled sarcastically. “From being the Riddler to being alphabet soup.”

I wanted to experiment more but I suddenly remembered there was another reason why I went to the bathroom. I sat on the toilet and thought about this new development while I felt the pleasant pressure release in my lower body. I still thought it was creepy to have this stuff crawl all over my body, but at least it had some interesting properties.

After I was finished I looked into the mirror again and found they had transformed into blobs again. Slowly I walked back to our bed and sat next to Twilight.

She was sleeping peacefully and I watched her cute little belly move while she was breathing. I softly caressed her purple fur.

After a few minutes, she slowly opened her eyes.

“Honey, you should still stay in bed for today.”, she told me. “The doctor said she would check on you later.”

“I'm feeling fine.”, I replied. “I don't think you have to worry so much about me.”

“After all that's happened?”, she asked in disbelief. “I won't take my eyes off you for a moment. Just stay in bed for another day and let the doctor check on you.”

I couldn't resist her worried look for more than a few seconds.

“Fine, I do as you say.”

I laid next to her and she carefully wrapped her hooves around me, it was nice to feel her body heat again. I decided to keep my new findings a secret for a few days until I had a better grasp of how it all worked, right now I had no desire to be her test-subject again.

…

The doctor, who arrived later this afternoon looked strangely familiar, but then I remembered Nurse Redheart had told me her mother was working in Canterlot for the princesses.

After a thorough check-up she finally addressed me. “You seem to be surprisingly healthy considering what you have been through. Also, I can't find any negative influence from your… ‘condition’ right now, but we don't have any experience with something like that.”

She continued after a short pause: “If by tomorrow morning we don't see anything strange I'm willing to let you go home so you can celebrate Hearth's Warming Eve together.”

“Thank you so much!”, Twilight replied happily.

I was shocked Hearth's Warming Eve was right around the corner, how should I get Twilight's present before our celebration?

Once the doctor had left the room I addressed my marefriend. “Could you bring me something to eat? I'm pretty starved and since I'm not allowed to leave the bed today…”

“Sure honey.”, she replied and kissed me tenderly. “It won't take long, I will be back soon.”

Just as she was about to leave I added something. “Could you first ask Chrysalis to visit me again, I want to talk to her about everything that happened.”

“Sure, I asked her.”

…

Chrysalis entered only minutes later and sat down on the side of my bed.

“Twilight told me you wanted to talk about what had happened, I thought we already did.”, she started the conversation.

“You’re right, but I couldn't tell her the true reason.”, I replied.

She looked at me with a mixture of surprise and curiosity.

“Could you please go to Ponyville today to get my Hearth's Warming Eve present for Twilight from the shop.”, I begged her.

“It’s already pretty late, I would need to fly there to make it in time. You could just give it to her afterward, after all that’s happened…”

“Please!”, I interrupted her. “It’s very important for me to give it to her at Hearth's Warming Eve.”

She looked surprised about my serious tone. “Well… since it’s so important to you… What is it I should pick up?”

I paused for a moment, it felt strange to say it out loud just like this. “Wedding rings from the Jeweler.”

She just stared at me for a while… then she blinked… and blinked again…

“You’re going to ask her THE question?”, she was finally able to ask.

I nodded in response.

“Okay, I guess it can’t get much more important than this.”, she stated with a smile and started to stretch her wings. “But will they even hand them to me? I don’t think I look very trustworthy.”

“They are already paid, you just need to pick them up. I think it would be the easiest solution if you just enter the shop looking like me.”

A huge grin showed on her face. “It's still strange to be asked to use my abilities. With or without your new skin features?”

“Your choice, I don’t care.”

Chryssi winked at me and without further hesitation, she jumped through the open window and immediately opened her wings to glide away from the castle.
> 30 Reflections
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke up because Twilight’s fur tickled my nose. Nearly her whole body was wrapped around my head and I was breathing onto her belly. I carefully tickled her side until she let go of me and turned to the other side while giggling silently.

Only a few seconds later her breathing slowed down and her body relaxed while she entered dreamland again. I watched her cute little body for a little while before I stood up and stretched my muscles, it looked like my body was completely recovered.

‘Well… not completely.’, I thought as my eyes fell on the stump where my right forearm just abruptly ended. Nearly without any effort, my magical hand appeared for around two seconds, it had become second nature to me. I wondered how long I could force it to be active. I went to the bathroom so I wouldn’t disturb my marefriend in her sleep.

After a few deep breaths to calm me down and to focus, on my command the magic hand appeared.

‘1...2...3...4…”, I counted in my head while I felt it was getting harder to keep my hand from disappearing by each second.

‘5...6...7...8…’, while I struggled to keep it up, I suddenly focused on the mirror…
There was this strange creature looking back at me, black blobs wandered over its body while it was illuminated by its glowing blue claw…

“Monster…”, I addressed my reflection.

My breathing got fast and irregular. I forgot to count on while the black blobs started to form horns on my head and it looked like they were even escaping my body to form actual horns.

I smashed my magical hand into the mirror causing it to burst into thousands of pieces while my hand disappeared.

I was breathing hard while tears ran down my face.

Twilight appeared only a moment later.

“Stella, what happened?”, she asked concerned and used her magic to get the mirror shards off the floor so she was able to reach me.

“What am I? I'm not sure anymore.”, I whispered while she put her hooves around me.

“You're my wonderful marefriend.”, she replied. “A beautiful human woman who…”

“This is not what a human looks like!”, I interrupted her screaming, pushing her away from me.

I looked into the smashed mirror which showed my shattered reflection. There were no horns but I could easily make out the blobs wandering over my body. My glowing hand reappeared, pointing at my reflection.

“This is no human!”, I shouted.

“I don't care what you are.”, Twilight replied crying. “You are a kind and wonderful individual which has sacrificed so much to keep this world safe. I love you as you are, isn't that all that matters?”

I fell down on my knees sobbing.

“I'm so confused…”

Twilight drew me into a hug again and I felt her love for me through our connection, its warmth started to spread in my body.

“I love you the way you are.”, she repeated. “I will always love you.”

I slowly started to calm down. After a minute I hesitantly kissed her, but within a short time my kisses got more demanding. I wanted to feel her love, I needed it right now.

I picked her up and carried her into the next room where I fell onto the bed with her. I needed to feel her, to taste her…

She happily gave in to my desires and without the chance of putting up a bubble of silence, I was pretty sure half of canterlot castle must have heard our shared screams of ecstasy.

…

“I'm sorry for earlier… what I did in the bathroom.”, I whispered to her half an hour later as we laid next to each other and I felt both of our hearts were still racing.
“I feel lost again… I was the only human in this world, which was hard enough from time to time, but I was still part of mankind… part of others I had met in my life before.”

I took a few deep breaths and pulled her even closer to me. “Now I don't even feel human anymore, my own body feels alien to me.”

Twilight stretched her body a bit so she was able to give me a long and deep kiss. “I understand you feel confused about all that has happened to your body.”, she addressed me while she used her front hoof to stroke my cheek. “I have never heard of someone's body to go through so much change, I could only imagine how confused I would be if I suddenly… grew wings or something like that.”

Again she changed position, she was laying on my chest now, looking deep into my eyes. “Whatever happens, I will love you forever, there is nothing that could change that.” She sealed her words with another deep and passionate kiss.

“Thank you so much for being with me.”, I whispered to her with tears in my eyes.
“There was a time when I thought I could never love again; then I met you and my love for you grew so much stronger than anything I had experienced before.”

At this moment I wished Chrysalis had already given me the rings but I hadn't met her yet since she flew off. Instead, I pulled Twilight closer and we exchanged a very long series of tender loving kisses.

…

The doctor had finished her checkup and packed away her instruments.

“I'm really amazed by the great condition of your body.”, she addressed me. “I can't find any trace of the fatal wounds that had been reported to me by your changeling friend and the blobs wandering the surface of your body don't seem to have any negative impact on you… so far. I don't see why I should prevent you from having a wonderful Hearth's Warming Eve together.”

Both of us exhaled audibly, we had decided not to tell her about my breakdown this morning. Also, I hadn't told even Twilight about what I had believed to see in the mirror and the behavior of the blobs. I just wanted to have a nice holiday with her and to finally give her my “present”.

“Well, let's catch the next train home then.”, Twilight told me. “Chrysalis has sent me a letter, she is already at the library preparing for the holiday with her marefriend. They will be in charge of the whole event in our home, we can just relax and have a good time.”

I felt she wasn't happy about not being able to plan and organize it herself since it was her greatest joy doing stuff like that. I understood she wanted to concentrate on me instead and I was happy about her decision, I really needed her right now.
> 31 Please shut up
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

We exited the train in Ponyville after an enjoyable ride through the snowy Equestria. The town was beautifully decorated for the occasion, it was very colorful with many candy canes and golden stars. 

Everypony I saw on our way to the library was beaming with joy and holiday spirit… it was a bit too much, it looked like some holiday special on TV, but it got me in an excellent mood nonetheless. 

“I have to… go somewhere before returning home, please go ahead and I will meet you in the library.”, Twilight told me. 

I decided not to ask any questions since I suspected this was about her present to me.

I continued my stroll through the white and shining Ponyville until I heard a familiar voice. 

“Hey boss!”

I turned around and looked into Lyra’s smiling face. 

“I told you not to call me that.”, I scolded her playfully while I used my hand to mess up her mane. 

“I heard my boss is a hero who saved Equestria.”, she continued unimpressed by my attempts to confuse her. 

“I only did what I had to do to keep my friends safe.”, I responded. “Chrysalis did most of the work, I wouldn't stand before you without the things she did.”

“That may be the case, but I still want to thank you for what you did.”, she told me and drew me into a long and warm hug.
“Thank you for protecting everything I love.”, she whispered and tears started to soak my winter jacket. 

I wasn't used to seeing her this emotional, so I just slowly ran my hand through her mane and tried to ignore the strange looks we got from passing ponies. 

It took less than a minute until she was back to her happy self. 

“Lavender has invited me to your Hearth's Warming Eve celebration while I was working in the lab, Bon Bon will come as well.”, she said smiling while looking up to me after she had wiped her eyes. 

“That does sound lovely.”, I answered while I carefully freed myself from her grip. “I'm looking forward to it.” 

“I still have a few preparations to complete, see you later.”, she proclaimed and Pinkie-bounced away from me. I smiled at the lovely antics of my assistant and friend. 

After a few more minutes I arrived at the library which was beautifully decorated as well. There were a lot of flowers involved, and I guessed this was Lavender’s work. 

When I entered the library I was surprised to find Twilight ordering Spike around. I had expected her to arrive after me. 

“Faster Spike, we don't have much time. Get this stuff done so we can move on to the next point of the list!”, she shouted. 

“Relax honey.”, I addressed her and walked up to my marefriend. “You know Lavender and Chrysalis want to do all the preparations so we can relax.”

She froze on the spot and slowly turned around. 

“Oh, you're here already?”, she replied and looked nervous, her eyes darted from side to side. 

Once again her words confused me, I should have arrived here before her, but maybe she had used her teleportation spell. 

I just grabbed her and drew her close, running my fingers through her mane. 

“I think I have to go to the kitchen right now, there is something I really need to do right now.”, she stuttered and looked panicked. 

I didn't know where all of her chaotic behavior came from, but I knew something that always calmed her down. 
“Just relax honey…”, I addressed her once again before I drew her into a deep and loving kiss. 

Something was off… 

Her whole body had gone stiff and… she smelled strange.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw how the front door was opened and Twilight walked in… WAIT WHAT? 

“Surprise!”, she shouted. “I bring Pinkie’s seasonal cinnamon rolls…”

‘Twilight’ struggled to get out of my grip and brought a few feet between us. 

“I just wanted to pull a little prank on Spike.”, she tried to defend herself. “This wasn't supposed to happen.”

Cinnamon-Twilight was fuming, magical energy was running across her body and she looked like she was ready to kill her doppelganger.

I tried to get between them but my marefriend already shot a blast of magical energy towards Chrysalis, which she only barely was able to dodge. The magical projectile impacted the bookshelf behind her, igniting a whole row of books. 

Without pause she fired a second blast, this time her doppelganger could bring up a shield that was able to defect the magic missile to the right, impacting into another bookshelf. 

I tackled my marefriend and tapped into her magic to form a shield bubble around us.

“Stop shooting or you will rost us.”, I told her. “Try to calm down, this was just a prank that went wrong.”

Instead of continuing to use her magic, she kicked, bit, and screamed. Never before had I seen her in such rage, I felt this fire through our connection. 

“Would you please drop the disguise and leave the room, you're not helping right now!”, I shouted towards Chrysalis while I endured a series of kicks. 

She quickly did like I said while Spike started to extinguish the fires. 

I just held on to her and tried to ignore the pain while she continued to kick and bite. 

It took a few more moments before her screaming shifted into crying and she stopped struggling. 

I felt this was the right moment to address her again: “Honey, I really wasn't…”

A well-placed kick on my forehead knocked me out. 

… 

Slowly I opened my eyes and saw a blurry Chrysalis above me.

“Welcome back.”, she said while my eyes started to focus again. “I can't tell you how sorry I am about everything that happened, it was so stupid to do that.”

She used a wet towel on the swollen parts of my body, which were quite a lot. 

“Where is Twilight?”, I asked and felt my lower lip was swollen as well. 

“We don't know, she ran out of the library while I was hiding in the kitchen and Spike extinguished the burning books.”

I stood up, a little to fast, I nearly lost consciousness again. Chrysalis held on to my shoulder to support me. 

“I have to find her.”, I stated. “But first you have to get me something…”

…

Since I had no idea where she was hiding I used our connection to find her. It wasn't precise and took me forever to decide which way I felt her presence to be stronger. What I felt through our connection wasn't encouraging either, it was a mixture of sadness and self-hatred. 

After half an hour of slowly walking towards where I felt her, I found her sitting in front of a small lake outside of Ponyville; she was easy to spot since her colors were a strong contrast to the snow around her. 

Because of the crunching snow, she noticed me while I was still far away, but she only briefly looked my way before she turned towards the water again. 

“Hey, my love.”, I softly addressed my marefriend as I had reached her.

“I'm sorry for what I did…”, she whispered without looking my way. “I was so afraid…”

I carefully put my arm around her. 
“Afraid of what?”, I asked. 

“Afraid of losing you…”, she replied. “Just like Applejack I never imagined to find someone to love, but now that I found you I'm so scared you might lose interest in me and find somepony else…”

I turned her face towards me. “That will never…”

“Oh no, your beautiful face is all swollen”, she interrupted me. “I'm so sorry for…”

I put a finger on her lips, silencing her. 
“That's not important right now and I'm not angry because of it.” I took a deep breath. 
“I will never lose interest in you, I love you more than anything. There is nopony else I rather would be together and there never will be.”

The scenery started to tint orange as the sun was setting and reflected beautifully in the lake before us. 

I took a little box out of my back pocket. 

“I wanted to give this to you at our Hearth's Warming Eve celebration, but I feel this is the best moment to give it to you.”

Nervously I held the box in front of her, I felt my whole body shake. 

She stared at it for a long time, unsure what to make of this. Finally, she extended her hoof to take it, my heart was racing, it felt like it wanted to burst out of my body any second. 

She stared at me. 

“Sweet Celestia! The blobs on your body have formed little hearts, that's amazing. I have never expected they could do something like… Mmmpppff..”

I had tapped into her magic to fuel my magic hand and pressed it onto her mouth to keep her from continuing.

“Please shut up, darling.”, I told her as softly as possible. “I know they react when I'm having strong feelings and I even have limited control over them, but this moment is too important for me right now. Please, please ignore this for now.”

“Wmmmpf hammmpft ymmmf tmmmpf mmpf?”, she asked through my hand. 

“Because you would have just tried to instantly analyze it and I needed some time to just relax after all that has happened, plus the doc would probably not have allowed us to celebrate Hearth's Warming Eve in Ponyville together.”

I removed my hand and made it disappear, I still held the box in front of her. 

“Now would you please, please open my Hearth's Warming Eve present for you.”, I begged her. 

I felt her curiosity as she reached out for it, at the same time I was sure she had no idea how important it was. 

She took the box and lifted its top with her magic. 

She stared inside for a moment, then the lid fell to the ground and she sat down in the snow, her body shaking but not from the cold. 

“Are these… are these…”, she stuttered. 
Instead of answering I took the larger ring out of the box and carefully put it on her horn. 

“Twilight Sparkle…”, I began, my voice was shaking. “Would you like to marry this stupid, crazy women?”

She squinted at the ring around her horn, tears ran down her cheeks. After a few seconds, she was finally able to move again. 

She took the other ring with her magic and put it on my finger. 
“More than anything else!”, she shouted happily and made us tumble to the ground when she jumped up to hug me. 

Laying in the grass in front of the golden lake, we kissed for minutes while Celestia's sun slowly disappeared.
> 32 Presents
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Look what I got! Look what I got!”, Twilight shouted happily as she stormed into the library pointing towards her horn, I entered behind her in a much calmer pace. 

Lavender, Chrysalis, Lyra and Bon Bon were sitting next to a tree decorated in green, red and gold while Spike came from the kitchen carrying a plate of cookies.
They all were quite surprised by my marefriend’s ambush-like appearance, but after a few seconds, Lyra was the first one to speak up: “You're getting married?! That's so awesome!” 

Congratulations from everyone else followed swiftly except Chrysalis who was unnaturally quiet. 

“I'm so sorry for my stupid prank before, I shouldn't have done that.”, she finally excused to us. 

Twilight didn't even seem to notice while she was bouncing happily on the spot. 

“It's okay, I know you didn't want to have the outcome that happened.”, I replied. “Sometimes things just spiral out of control.”

I looked over to my grinning fiancée. 

“Isn't there something you want to apologize for as well?”, I asked her since she didn't react at all. 

She stopped bouncing and looked confused for a moment. 

“Oh, right. I'm sorry that I tried to kill you, good thing you ducked my attack or else you would have likely been disintegrated.”, she told Chryssi in her super happy voice and was still grinning… which had a very creepy effect. 

“... Okay.”, was all Chrysalis was able to reply after some seconds, I felt her emotions, the shock that Twilight actually had wanted her to die a few hours before. 

“Well with this out of our way, let's celebrate Hearth's Warming Eve… and our engagement.”, I resolved the situation and pushed my fiancée towards the tree.

….

We had such a nice time together and exchanged stories from when we were little and how we experienced the holidays back then. It felt good to be with friends and all their positive emotions had a huge impact on me, I noticed Chrysalis was silently purring from time to time. I was surprised no one was mentioning the black blobs on my skin, but I guessed Chryssi had told them before. 

“Can we exchange presents now?”, Lyra asked impatiently.

“After dinner.”, Lavender replied to her. “We don't want all this great food go for waste.”

Our changeling friend entered the kitchen and exited it only moments later with several plates levitating behind her. We sat down at the beautifully decorated table and I checked out all the different meals. There were some items that looked quite foreign to me, I guessed these had been made by Chrysalis, but everything smelled incredible. 

Lyra reached for a golden-brown potato casserole, but Bon Bon pinned down her hoof. 

“We want to thank you all for inviting us to you Hearth's Warming Eve celebration.”, Bon Bon addressed us. “It's been a while since we celebrated with so many nice friends.”

It warmed my heart to hear this… this celebration put me in a surprisingly nostalgic mood. “It a pleasure to have you here.”, I replied. “But I really have to thank Lavender and Chrysalis for preparing such a wonderful event. I'm happy to call you all my friends.”

“It was a pleasure preparing this for all of us.”, Lavender spoke up. “Considering what you did for us, the least we could…”

“Could we please start eating? I'm about to starve.”, Lyra interrupted and received a death-glare from her marefriend. 

I just laughed. “Right, let's eat while it's still hot.”

… 

After some quiet minutes where everypony was enjoying the delicious food in front of us, I decided to be a bit more adventurous and tried something of the strange things Chrysalis had made. I cut off a slice and put it on my plate. The outer part looked like red jelly while there was a strange blue foam in the middle.

While I carefully inspected its texture with my fork, I noticed my changeling friend was watching me with a huge grin. 
Determined not to show how unsure I felt about it, I carved off a big piece and ate it. It was a strange but delicious mix of flavors I couldn't quite identify… I ate everything on my plate within seconds. 

“What is this made from?”, I asked curiously. 

Still smiling she replied: “Believe me, you'll enjoy it more if I don't tell you.”

Because of this ominous answer of her my brain went wild with possible ideas what she could have done, but only a moment later I realized that this had been her intention. I decided not to worry about it and ignored my fears, instead I sliced myself another portion and went on eating it while she looked at me in surprise. 

It only took a few more minutes before Lyra got fidgety again. “Can we exchange our presents now?”, she asked. 

‘She sometimes really behaves like a spoiled child’, I thought. I looked to Spike who patiently sat in his chair and waited. Since everypony seemed to have finished their meals I decided to give in. 

“Sure, let's do that. I already have given mine but I'm interested to see what you have for each other.”

She started jumping in joy and hopped around her marefriend. “Can I have mine first?” 

Bon Bon rolled her eyes and trotted over to her saddlebags. She came back with a beautiful wrapped medium sized present and presented it to Lyra. 

She didn't waste any time and ripped off the paper to see what's underneath. Her eyes started glistening as she held up a large book. 

“The special extended edition of Featherstone’s ‘Myths and Legends’!”, she shouted happily and hug-tackled Bon Bon. “Thank you so much, honey! Where did you find it?”

“When I visited the ‘sugar and sweets’-fair this summer, I talked to some of my colleagues about it. I asked them to look out for it when they would return home and one of them did find it in Vanhoover and mailed it to me.”

“Thank you sooooooo much.”, Lyra told her before she drew her into a loving kiss. 

My assistant then used her magic to levitate her present to Bon Bon in front of her. It wasn't as nicely wrapped than the one she had received, but I don't think anypony would have expected her to invest so much time for just the presentation. 

“For you, my love.”, she addressed her marefriend while she was hugging the book she had received. 

Bon Bon took it out of the golden magic aura and carefully unwrapped it. She opened the lid of the box she found underneath… and immediately slammed it on top of the box only a second later. Her face turned hot pink and I felt the shame that was radiating from her. 

“Don't you like it? Would you like it to be another color?”, Lyra asked concerned. 

“I do like it very much.”, the earth pony replied with a shy smile. “I just think you should have given this to me at home… privately.”

“Oooohhh…”, Lyra finally started to understand, like always she had difficulties understanding what made others uncomfortable. 

Twilight filled the following silence by giving Spike his present. “Here, for my number one assistant.”

Spike did his best to hide the disappointment he felt when he looked at the clearly book-shaped present. He unwrapped it and stared at the book he found inside. 

“80 Tips to improve your organizing.”, he read out loud. 

“It's the special edition with additional spreadsheets at the end.”, Twilight explained with honest excitement. 

“Open it, I put a special bookmark inside.”, I added. 

Spike looked inside and he instantly showed a huge grin. 

“A coupon for ten mega-monster sundaes at Sugarcube Corner! Thank you so much.”

“And it has a beautiful table of contents…”, Twilight mumbled clearly disappointed about his reaction. 

Meanwhile, Chrysalis was unpacking her present from Lavender. 

“What is this?”, I asked when she unrolled some strange equipment from a pouch. 

“Professional clay sculpting equipment.”, Chryssi explained. “It's one of my favorite hobbies, I love how I can shape it in every form I can imagine… just like I can do with my own body. Thank you, my love.”

She offered Lavender a present in return and looked surprisingly nervous while doing it. 

After she had opened it we all stared at… a strange mostly oval… golden thingy. 

“What is it?”, Lavender put all our thoughts into words while she turned it with her magic to look at it from all sides. 
“These are the gilded remains of the egg I've hatched from.”, her marefriend explained. “It's a tradition that every changeling receives their egg once they are old enough to work in their designated role. It's a reminder where we came from and what we have become since we have hatched.”

“That's a very personal and unique gift.”, Lavender replied while she looked about 70% sure to be happy about it. 

“Also a very potent magical poison can be produced from such an egg which is extremely effective against the one who has hatched from it… so please keep it in a very safe place.”, Chryssi added nervously. 

“Thank you so much for trusting me with something this important.”, her marefriend told her before drawing her into a long kiss. Spike really wasn't happy about all this kissing but decided to concentrate on his coupons instead. 

“So at last, there is my present for you.”, Twilight announced. “Of course nothing can compare to the ring and the promise you've given to me, nevertheless I have something special for you as well. But you have to follow me outside to see it.”

Surprised and quite curious I followed her to the back door while she levitated my coat and scarf towards me. We all stepped outside in the snowy space between the library and my lab. Since the two buildings blocked out a big part of Ponyville's lights, we had an excellent view of the night sky. 

“Your present is up there.”, Twilight pointed to the sky and smiled.

I searched the sky but saw nothing but stars, confused I looked at my marefriend again. 

Twily chuckled. “Let me explain. You know Luna arranges the night sky, it looks different every night. But there are a few stars with a fixed position which shine in their spots while all the rest changes. Luna has put them there so we can remember certain important figures in our history.”

Twilight's horn started to glow and she used her magic like an oversized laser-pointer. “For example these two…”, she drew a circle around two bright, light blue stars. “These are to remember the princesses parents.”

She circled a silver star. “This one is for Star Swirl the Bearded, a unicorn with immense magical ability and power.”

She circled a slightly orange star a bit further west. “And this is for remembering Stella, the hero of Equestria. She gave everything to protect this world, even against her own race.”

I looked at her in surprise, it was hard to believe they really did that for me. 

“How?”, was all I could ask. 

“Well since you told me your name means star, I got this idea and talked to Luna about it. With all the things you did for this world, she immediately agreed. Now the star ‘Stella - Protector of Equestria’ will be up there until the end of time, the star maps have already been updated.”

I embraced her and cried for minutes.
> 33 Visiting friends
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As I woke up the day after Hearth's Warming Eve, I had a huge grin on my face. This was in part because of the wonderful evening we all have had together, my beautiful purple marefriend and fiancee who had her hooves wrapped around my waist made for the rest. 

I softly stroked her mane and she was humming happily because of it. After a few minutes, I carefully slipped out of her embrace; her hooves searched around for something to grab on but she relaxed when she found our pillow and wrapped herself around it. 

I sneaked to the window and looked over the snow-covered Ponyville while Celestia's sun was just rising above the horizon. The streets were surprisingly empty, normally at this time there were already a few ponies crowding the narrow streets, but I guessed everypony was sleeping in because of yesterday's holiday. 

‘Not the worst place to end up.’, I thought smiling. Things had turned out far better than I had ever expected, even though I had to make some sacrifices along the way. 

Silently I went down to the kitchen and started to mix some batter for pancakes, it was the least I could do after what our friends had prepared yesterday. 

Since I had pretty good control of my magical hand by now, preparing the pancakes for all of us had been a breeze and in no time the first few were out of the pan. Lured by the smell everypony slowly shuffled into the room, like a horde of pancake-zombies. 

“My favorite food made by my favorite mare.”, Twilight remarked grinning before she kissed me. 

… 

I had decided to visit Fluttershy and Dashie this afternoon. Since they already had known about my planned proposal, I thought it would be best to inform them first how it went. 

Fluttershy's cottage seemed so peacefully in the snowy landscape, at the same time it looked very warm and inviting. After walking through the snow for such a long time I couldn't wait to get inside and having one of her hot and tasty teas. 

*Knock Knock*

It wasn't surprising to see Rainbow opening the door for me, but she looked quite surprised when she saw me. 

“What happened? You look like a cow.”, she commented bluntly. 

“I will explain to both of you in a minute, as soon as I got some nice tea to warm…”

“Wait…”, she interrupted me. “Does that mean you're udders produce milk now? Can I maybe try a little? I could…”

“RAINBOW!!!” Fluttershy had screamed so loud, some snow from her roof came down in a little avalanche, I was able to evade it just in time. 

“Let her in and behave yourself!”, the yellow pegasus rebuked her marefriend and slapped her rear hard. 

Dashie was a bit startled and quickly made room for me to enter. I was surprised Fluttershy had her under such control. 

I made a short explanation on how I ended up with my new skin features before I got to the reason I visited them in the first place. 

“... and she said yes!”, I ended my story. 

“Amazing! Congrats!”, Dashie shouted. 

Fluttershy got so excited she hovered a few feet above the ground. “That's wonderful news. We have so much preparation to do before our wedding.”

“We're planning for spring, right?”, I asked. 

“Yes, I want to be surrounded by flowers and my lovely animal friends.”, Fluttershy explained. 

“Sounds good to me.”, I replied. “Is there something Twilight and I should do right now?” 

The yellow pegasus thought about this for a moment. “We have plenty of time for most of the things, but we already talked to Rarity about our wedding dresses, so maybe you should do that as well. I'm sure she will find a way to make all of our ideas into something harmonious.”

“And you should tell Pinkie as well so she can plan an even bigger party.”, Rainbow added. 

… 

It was late afternoon when I knocked on the door of Rarity's Boutique. 

“Come in, the door is open!”, she shouted. 

I entered the shop and found Rarity was working on a dress on one of the display dummies. 

“Welcome to the Carousel Boutique, where everything is…”, she started and turned to face me. 

“Aaahhh!” 

*Thud*

She fainted on the spot. 

I carefully picked her up and put her on a nearby couch. I softly patted her cheek to wake her. 

“What… where…”, she slowly came to her senses and jump a little as she opened her eyes and saw me. 
“Oh darling, what has happened to your face?” 

“Is it that bad?”, I asked. 

She hesitated for a few seconds. 

“Of course not.”, she answered with a fake smile. “It's just a bit unusual and I haven't seen anything like this before.”

Once again I explained the black blobs roaming my skin, after this story I finally was able to talk about much happier news. 

“I asked Twilight to marry me and she said ‘Yes’.”, I told her. 

“That's wonderful news, I'm so happy for both of you. After all you have been through, you deserve to have some happy moments together, I'm looking forward to this wonderful occasion.”

“We're planning to have a double wedding with Dashie and Fluttershy and were hoping you could design our dresses as well.”

Her eyes lit up as she heard this.
“Oh yes! That's a great idea, I will find some great ways to make your dresses compliment each other. There are some designs I saw in the fashion magazine you have brought me that would be suitable for something like this. Come with me, I show you what I mean and we can make some rough sketches…”

…

Just before I was able to knock on the door of Ponyville’s particular passionate pink party pony Pinkie Pie’s, it swung open and she bounced into me. 

“Hihi. You look funny today.”, she commented as she looked up to me and grinned.

I very much preferred her reaction over Rarity's. 

“Hi Pinkie. Well, that has to be my look from now on, it's a side effect of the way Chrysalis saved me when I was about to die.”

She looked worried, so I stroked her candy cotton mane for a moment. 

“But that's not why I came to visit you.”, I continued. “We have to make Rainbow and Fluttershy's wedding party a bit bigger than planned because I will marry Twilight on this day as well.”

Her grin got so wide I expected it to pop off her face any moment. 

“A-SUPER-DUPER-DOUBLE-WEDDING-PARTY!!”, she shouted and began to bounce so high she nearly reached the roof.

I waited a few seconds until she reached my level again. “Well, I guess all of Ponyville knows about it now.”, I remarked smiling. “Could you tell us how many bits you will need for everything?”

She immediately stopped bouncing. “That's my present for you, I never take bits for throwing a party.”

“Never? But you're preparing parties all the time, where do you get all the money to do this?”

“That's the first time someone asked me about it.”, she replied and started to look away from me. 

“Well… what's the answer?”, I inquired. 

“I… I… have to prepare another party right now.”, she said and started to run away fast enough to leave a pink trail behind her.
“We talk about the party’s details another time!”, she shouted from afar. 

I was used to her being strange, but her behavior today was well beyond that. 

‘Fine, at least all needed for the preparations know about it now.’, I thought smiling. 

Spring couldn't come fast enough.
> 34 The best day ever
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dashie and I were pacing the little room next to city hall, waiting for the ceremony to begin. Once again I checked myself in the mirror, Rarity had done incredible work. 
Her first suggestion had been a partly transparent dress, but I hadn't been comfortable with this idea. Within the last few months I got used to the black blobs roaming my body and gained even more control over them, but I didn't like the idea to highlight them even more. 

So instead my dress was silky white with silver embroidery, pearls, and little diamond shards. My hair was braided in a very complex but beautiful way and little clear crystals had been woven into it, I sparkled with every little movement.

Rainbow’s dress was even more breathtaking. She always had emphasized how cool and unique her dress should be, and Rarity had topped all expectations.

The basic color of her dress was white as well, but she had gone all out with the rainbow theme. There was a strand of every color of her mane connected to the back of her dress, where the hair hit the fabric a trail of the same color continued along the dress, it gave the impression her mane was incredibly long. At the end of these trails, they then transformed into embroidery which looked like colorful explosions. All of this constrained her head movement a bit, but not by much.

We were of course totally clueless how our brides would look like, I was sure Rarity would have killed us if we had tried to peek in any way. 

“How long do we have to wait?”, Dashie groaned while she was pacing the little room. 

“I'm sure it will start soon, let's try to calm down a bit.”, I tried to soothe her. 

“I'm not nervous, you're nervous!”, she shouted back. It was clear she regretted it instantly. “Sorry… I guess this really gets the best of me. I'm a little bit worried I may mess up something during the ceremony, all of our friends are here as well as our families, I wouldn't…” She stopped herself from continuing and gave me an apologetic look.

It took me a few seconds to understand why she acted like this. “It's okay.”, I replied when I finally understood. “Of course it would have been nice if my parents were here to get to know my bride and to attend the ceremony.”

I sat down on one of the chairs and took a few deep breaths. “I guess I never told you I had been married before. I was married to another woman, Viola. It hadn't been common in my world back then to have same-sex marriages, but my parents always had been happy for me and supported us, so I know it would have been the same here.”

“Even though she is a totally different species?”, she asked and I immediately felt her regret for asking it. 

I started to laugh… which totally flabbergasted her. 

“It seems we still have some time before the ceremony starts, so let me tell you a little story from my past.”, I told her. 

She sat down on a chair next to mine, careful not to mess up her dress. 

“My parents always wanted me to be happy, they always tried their best support me in any way.”, I started to explain. “Once when I was little, I asked my dad… 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Dad, will I be married as well when I'm grown up?” 

“That's up to you sweetheart. I'm sure you will find someone who loves you the way you are and we will be happy as long as you are happy.”

I thought about this for a moment. 

“What if I want to marry a crocodile?”, I asked. 

He laughed for a while before he was able to answer. 

“I guess it will be the happiest crocodile the world has ever seen. We just want someone… or something to love you as much as we do. We will always be happy for you if this is the case… even if it is a crocodile.”

“What about an elephant?”

“It could help me to move a few heavy things, and you would look pretty cool while riding in into the chapel…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“It always had been a funny family anecdote from this day on.”, I explained.”I often brought it up again to asked them about different animals I was fascinated by.”

I took a short moment to sort my feelings and took a few deep breaths. 

“Then when he accompanied me on my way to the altar, he whispered to me:
‘I think Viola is much prettier than a crocodile, but you know I would have walked with you this way to become Ms. Crocodile as well.’
I had a hard time to contain my laughter back then… 

So long story short, even though they are not around today, I'm sure they would love Twilight because I do.”

Dashie stood up and walked to a box of handkerchiefs, she did her best to hide her face from me. 

“I'm just sweating a bit…”, she mumbled. 
“From the eyes?”, I asked with a smug grin. 

“Oh shut up.”, she replied and playfully tossed the box towards me. I used my magic hand to catch it midair and put it on the chair to my right. 

The door opened just enough to let Pinkie’s head through. 

“Hey girls, it's time to start. Come on out.”, she told us. 

We followed her into the main room which was filled to the brim with our friends and everypony we knew. Under the eyes of all of them, we walked to the front where Celestia was awaiting us, just like we had done in rehearsal. I noticed the families of Dashie, Fluttershy and Twilight in the front row. Despite what I had told Rainbow a few minutes before, I felt some sadness when my eyes swept across them.

But I also saw a few changelings sitting among the ponies, thanks to our work with Chryssi their race had started to live peacefully among the others in Equestria. I noticed Chrysalis was sitting next to Luna, waving to me with one hoof while the other held on tight to Lavender. 

As we reached the front we turned around and waited for our brides to appear, we both had decided early on we would give them this moment. 

I was breathing hard when the music started to play and we all stared at the main entrance of town hall. 

After a few seconds which felt like forever the doors finally swung open to reveal our brides. 

Twilight's dress was a mixture of white and a very dark purple, layered on top of each other with golden lines dividing the colors. Her hair was wonderfully braided with golden ribbons and there was a little veil partly covering her eyes. 

Green was the dominant color in Fluttershy's dress, complemented by some white and yellow. Dozens of breathtaking flowers were perfectly integrated into her dress and the whole things looked like it flew down her slender body. Her pink hair, while containing flowers as well, was open and provided a beautiful contrast to the dress, a large veil covered her face, shielding her from all the admiring stares.

My vision went blurry as happy tears filled my eyes while we watched them slowly approach us. The only thing I was able to focus on was Twilight and it felt like forever until she finally stood next to me. 

Celestia started the ceremony and said… something, her voice sounded like she was a mile away while I focused on Twilight's wonderful appearance; her partly hidden eyes under the veil and her beautiful smile which warmed my heart. I felt incredible happiness while the same feeling beamed back at me through our connection and time lost all meaning. I felt like I was floating in a… 

“... ella? Stella?”, slowly Celestia's voice found its way through my clouded mind. 

I blinked and focused on her. “Yes?”, I asked confused. 

“Do you want to marry Twilight Sparkle?”, she repeated with a warm smile. 

“More than anything.”, I replied. 

“Very well. And you Twilight, do you want to…”

“Yes! Yes! Yes!”, she shouted. 

Celestia giggled. “I think it's clear to see for everypony that you are meant for each other.”, she addressed us together with Rainbow and Fluttershy, only now I remembered them again. 

“Shall you be united from now on until the end of time.”, she ended the ceremony. 

I used my magic hand to take her ring from a silk pillow next to us and carefully put it over her horn while she used her magic to put mine on the ring finger of my left hand. 

I quickly looked over to our two friends checking if they were ready as well. After a nod from Dashie, we both lifted our bridges veils and kissed them. 

Thunderous applause roared through city hall accompanied from the cheers of our friends and family. 

… 

I woke up next to my lovely wife and flashes of yesterday's party appeared in my mind. Pinkie had really outdone herself, the food had been excellent, we had a lot of fun with the games she had prepared and the music was filled with stuff I had never heard before in Equestria.
Celestia and Luna had a dance-off at one time to something I only could describe as the Equestria version of Hip Hop.
Fluttershy who had a bit too much cider decided to sing karaoke to one of her favorite songs and stunned me with her beautiful voice.
Dashie nearly toppled the cake when she cut of the first piece, only thanks to the magic of multiple unicorns it was saved.
Chryssi had fought hard for our bridal bouquet when Twilight threw it, she tackled Rarity to get it. 

And I danced… danced so much with my lovely bride.

In an attempt to wake up my beautiful purple wife I softly started to kiss her, as I would do every day of our life from now on. She opened her eyes and looked straight into mine.

I felt at home.