> A Queen's Perspective - Correspondence
>  by gerandakis
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> On matters of Sirens and Friendships
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Queen Twilight,

missing you already, and I hope you'll be back soon. Things are definitely looking up for me here at Canterlot High. But I know I still have a lot to learn about friendship. Hope you don't mind if I write to you for advice when I need it.

Your friend, Sunset Shimmer.





Dear Sunset Shimmer,

Of course I don't mind, were friends, if you need advice, don't hesitate to ask. Sorry I couldn't answer you sooner but after being away for three days, I had some things to catch up on. It took me a week but I'm back on top of things, so I'm writing you now.
By the way, how are the sirens doing? have you had a chance to talk to them yet? 

Looking forward to hearing from you,

your friend, Twilight Sparkle.





Dear Queen Twilight,

A week?! It has barely been a day back here, the differential must be fluctuating quite heavily.
We haven't had a chance to talk to them yet since it's Sunday right now but we'll get on that tomorrow. Let me know how things are going in Equestria.

Your friend Sunset Shimmer.





Dear Sunset,

Are you sure? If so, then we seem to have strong differential on our hooves (or hands in your case) this time. That means the differential is fluctuating! Now that I think about it, the differential between my two visits was about 1:2 and between my first visit and your own arrival it was about 1:3. Given what little data we have so far this time the differential seems to be closer to 1:12 or 1:13. With this kind of differential between us I'm almost glad that I have a life expectancy of around a thousand years.
Anyways, given my calculations it should still be Sunday by the time you read this. So let me know when you have talked to the sirens. Also, if you don't mind, I'd like to know what the girls think of this temporal differential.
Have a nice day. Hoping to hear from you soon,

your friend, Twilight Sparkle





Dear Twilight,

You bet it’s still Sunday, I just finished breakfast, it's been barely half an hour since I wrote to you. This kind of differential is really weird. But sure, I'll let you know once we talk to them. I'll be seeing the girls later, so I can tell them about this time differential thing then. I'll write again soon.

Your Friend Sunset.





Dear Twilight,

I've talked to the girls today. They think this differential is really weird. Well, except Pinkie, but I don't think anything is ever weird to her. We talked about the Dazzlings. We'll try talking to them during lunch break tomorrow. If they still come to the school, that is. There isn't much we can do otherwise. I'll write back then.
Until then, take care.

Your friend, Sunset.





Dear Twilight,

We just talked to the sirens. Sonata was open to the idea of friendship, Adagio said she'd give it a chance. Aria was being grumpy and refused to talk to us, but Sonata said that's normal for her. We'll give her time.
The rest of the school don't like them all too much (No surprise there), but I'll make sure they get the same chance I got, they said they still can't sing.
On another note: The girls asked how their counterparts are doing. If you know anything, I'll give it on to them.
Hoping to hear from you soon,

your friend Sunset.





Dear Sunset,

Glad to hear they're giving it a chance. As for my Ponyville friends: Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie are doing fine but there really isn't much out of the ordinary. Rainbow is currently training to be a Wonderbolt. She'll soon be one officially, if what Princess Luna told me is correct. She's always been more of an expert on the military than Celestia and she gets all the gossip.
Please don't tell this to the Sirens, but I'm working on fixing their pendants. I've restored the gems, but the enchantments are another issue. I'll rebuild them from the ground up to no longer be based on dark magic, that should also alleviate the effects they have on people.
It's actually quite refreshing to have a little magical side project to work on after dealing with engineering for so long.
I'll keep you posted.

Your friend Twilight.





Dear Twilight,

you should have seen Rainbow's face, when I read out your message. The Wonderbolts actually exist here too. They're a stunt flying squad but they're not part of the military over here. It's always been Rainbow's dream to one day be one of them. She won't admit it, but she's obviously jealous of your Rainbow.
Let me know how that develops.

Your friend Sunset Shimmer.





Dear Sunset,

I just got word from Rainbow. She's now officially a Wonderbolt, she'll head off for training in a few days but for now she's celebrating. I've neglected to mention to her that I already knew about it.
The pendants are throwing me for a loop here. I don't have much time to work on them so I don't know too much yet. But what I do know is remarkable. Can you believe the pendants are using an asymmetric spell matrix? I know I'll have my fun trying to figure that out.

Hoping you have fun too,

Twilight.





Dear Twilight,

trust me, I will have fun telling that to Rainbow.
Also: An asymmetric spell matrix? Good luck with that. I was never all that good with spell creation anyway. At least you won't have to worry about words for an enchantment.

Your friend Sunset.





Dear Twilight,

I was right. Rainbow's reaction was hilarious, it was good that the seat across from her was free though. In retrospect maybe I shouldn't have told her while she was drinking something.
I think the sirens are starting to warm up to us. Aria is still being grumpy about everything, but Adagio is getting nicer every day and Sonata is practically already one of us. That being said, I dread the day when Adagio and Rainbow start pranking together, those two together are more mischievous than this school can handle. I just hope Pinkie doesn’t get involved.
Good luck with the enchanting, and let me know if anything important happens.

Sunset.





Dear Sunset Shimmer,

I know it's been a while since I last wrote to you, but there simply wasn't much to tell over the last few months. A few minor skirmishes between other queens, but nothing that would affect us in the long run. But now there is.
I just finished the enchantments on the siren's pendants. It's now based on the same harmonic magic we have on your side of the portal. They will now likely get their power from friendship as well. As a side effect of the new enchantment they also look a bit different.
That aside we learned today that one of the other queens is planning to attack Queen Kreesus.
To give you a bit of context on that, Kreesus and Cadista have been friends and allies for centuries. If Kreesus needed our help we'd come to help her immediately. But I can tell you now, she won't. You see, Kreesus has two hives, one for peace time, and one for war. She may look a bit vulnerable in her peace time hive, but she isn't. Her war time hive is between the peaks of high mountains and with access to a leyline. I suspect I won't have to explain to you why that is a brilliant tactical position.
I'll let you know how that goes. And again: please don't tell the sirens about the pendants.

Your friend, Twilight Sparkle.





Dear Twilight,

don't worry about it. I know it must have been months on your end, but is was barely more than a week over here. Glad to hear you got that enchantment working. I won't tell the sirens anything about it.
On that topic, the sirens are much more pleasant to be around now. Even Aria is part of the group now, she's still a little grumpy but I guess that's just how she is. Adagio is a bit special, she has that wisdom of age, much like Celestia does, (Princess, not Principal) But she also has more of a dirty mind than the rest of us put together. Sonata is actually a lot like Pinkie, she just doesn't break reality. Quite as often.
The only thing that bothers them is that they still can't sing at all. But I guess your surprise for them should serve to fix that.

Your Friend, Sunset.





Dear Sunset,

glad to hear the sirens are embracing friendship.
The assault on Kreesus went about as well as I expected. That is it utterly failed. Turns out it's not a good idea to try flying or teleporting in a manastorm, especially since none of the other queens knows as much about teleportation as I do. So this other queen completely failed on her attack and Kreesus annexed some of her land as payment.
On other news, I'm working on a way for us to talk properly, without having to use the portal. I can't promise anything yet, but I'll let you know when I figured it out.

Twilight.





Dear Twilight,

today was a strange day at CHS. You remember Photo Finish? The one who tried to sabotage you and the girls at the Battle of the Bands. She was all over the school today making Photos of students everywhere. Turns out Vice-Principal Luna sent her out to take photographs for the yearbook. I guess she didn't expect her to be so intrusive about it.
I'll let you know if anything else interesting happens.

Sunset.





Dear Sunset,

yes, I remember her, she's ... unique. I actually know her in Equestria as well, she's a rather famous fashion photographer over here, she's been friends with Rarity for a few years now. Once she tried making a model out of Fluttershy. That went about as well as you'd expect. I hope Luna reeled her back in soon enough.

Twilight.

P.S.: Have you heard Haycartes?
> Interlude - Haycartes' Method
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was an early Saturday evening on Sweet Apple Acres and the girls had set up camp in one of the barns. Throughout most of the year, the Apple Family would use it to store their produce but given it was early summer, just before the start of the harvest season, it was practically empty. A knock at the door prompted the girls to look up from setting up their sleeping bags in preparation for the sleepover they were going to have. Applejack, being the host, saw fit to stand up and walk over to the doors. When she opened them, three more girls were revealed.

No three weeks earlier these three had been attempting to mind-control the entire student body of their school at the Battle of the Bands, now they were invited to their sleepover. That was only a small sign of how completely these three had changed.

"There ya'll are!" Applejack exclaimed as she recognized them, "Been wonderin' what took ya'll so long."

"Adagio got lost." Aria grumbled in her usual grumpy fashion. Well perhaps 'completely' is a strong word.

"Well, it's not that hard to do around all these trees, and you know I was never good with directions."

Ignoring the two Sonata dashed into the barn and embraced Pinkie in a tackle-hug. Pinkie hugged her back and all others, even Aria, giggled at the goofy grins the two were sporting.

"Well Sunset," Rarity spoke up, turning to her fiery haired friend, "now that we’re all here, would you mind telling us what this surprise of yours is all about? You only said it had something to do with Twilight."

Sunset gave a small chuckle. "Well, it's more Twilight's surprise than mine, I'm just helping. Okay then everyone, gather around."

Following her request all the girls took their seats on the cushions Applejack had laid out in a semicircle, according to Sunset's instructions. Sunset reached into her backpack and pulled out a small collapsible lectern and the journal she used to stay in contact with Queen Twilight. She set the lectern down and opened the book to the latest page. Quickly producing a pen from her backpack, she wrote a single sentence in the journal.

'We're ready.'

Her work completed, she set the book down on the lectern and took a seat on the only cushion left vacant by the others.

For a moment nothing happened. Then a glowing point of purple formed in the middle of the page. When it stopped glowing it remained there as a small dot of ink. Soon however, the dot expanded into numerous lines that quickly formed a coherent image. After only a few seconds, a drawing of a stylized equine being with reptilian eyes, a curved horn and large gossamer wings was visible on the page.

Suddenly the girls, save for Sunset, recoiled as the drawing started moving. It looked around and finally began speaking with a very familiar voice.

"Hey girls. Good to see you all again."

Applejack was the first to recover from her shock. "Twilight? Is that you?"

"Who else would it be?"

Rarity seemed quite enamored with the animated drawing before here. "Just how are you doing that, darling?"

"I modified a bookwalking spell to work with the journals and adjust for the temporal differential. Good thing I have some experience with time spells."

At that Sunset seemed surprised. "Wait. You do?"

"Oh yes, I mentioned I had time-traveled before, didn’t I? Well, there was that one time I created a causal loop with one of Starswirl's time spells."

"You did what?"

"I can explain later. Need I remind you that we're on a time limit?"

"Right, right, possession spells take a lot of power and simultaneously manipulating time probably doesn't help either."

At that Fluttershy seemed slightly worried. "Did you say possession?"

Sunset turned to her. "Well yes, technically she is possessing the journal, I can explain in more detail later"

"Well for now it'll be a more direct way to talk until I come over the inevitable next time someone is affected by Equestrian magic and tries to take over the world. Er ... No offense."

"None taken." Sunset, Adagio, Aria and Sonata replied, rolling their eyes in various stages of exasperation.

"You hear that a lot, don't you?"

"Yep." Sunset replied immediately.

"We hear it more and more." Adagio elaborated.

"You'll get used to it." Sunset pointed out.

There was a moment of awkward silence before Rarity decided to intervene.

"Say, darling are you still connected to that hivemind of yours?"

Choosing to go along with the the rather jarring change in topic to avoid the awkward silence, the equine drawing smiled at Rarity "I am, but the temporal differential makes listening to it a bit draining."

"Oh? How so?"

"Well the hivemind sends entire messages as one psychic pulse so I can still understand what's being said, but I do receive twelve times as many of them as usual."

"I can see how that would be exhausting."

"It is. Still, at least I managed to compensate for the differential. Good thing I have some experience with time-spells."

Sunset became inquisitive at that. "Yeah. How exactly did you create a causal loop?"

The drawing in the journal grew a sheepish smile and scratched the back of it's head with a hoof. "Yeah, that one time I created a causal loop by traveling back in time. Getting a visit from a future version of myself. To this day one of the weirdest thing to ever happen to me."

"Okay. I'll need more details on that later."

"Sure, I can tell you the story later."

For some time the girls happily chatted, Twilight seeming interested about what had happened at CHS in the meantime, despite the fact that, on this side of the portal, it had been barely over two weeks since her departure. Her friends seemed interested to know what had happened at the hive and how her kids were faring. Even the sirens were listening carefully and asking a question here and there.

As the conversations continued however the three seemed to gradually fall silent, assuming more contemplative expressions. This didn't go unnoticed and after a few minutes Twilight addressed the three.

"Are you girls allright?"

The sirens were silent for a moment, exchanging glances. After a few seconds it was Adagio who spoke what was on all of their minds. "Don't worry about us, it's just, seeing you all here, so happy together. It gets you thinking. What would you have done it we had succeeded? If you hadn't managed to stop us?"

At that all the girls assumed uncomfortable expressions. All except two. Sunset maintained an even expression and Twilight grew a mischievous smile. "In that case, I would have seen myself forced to enact Plan B."

At those words Sunset's expression changed, matching Twilight's in mischievousness. All the other girls however, including the sirens, seemed confused. Finally it was Rarity who spoke up.

"Uh, darling, what exactly is 'Plan B'?"

Sunset turned to Twilight, giving her a quick smirk before turning to the others to watch their reactions as Twilight went to explain.

"In this specific case, take control of their minds, find the source of their power, take it away and use my psychic abilities to nullify the mind-control on the students."

For a moment there was a stunned silence, then Rainbow spoke up.

"Right, that's a thing you can do. I keep forgetting about that."

"Well I only use it if I have to, mind-control isn't really my style." Twilight admitted.

"Say Sunset, why ain't ya'll surprised by all this?" Applejack turned to the still smirking girl.

"Oh well, I asked her that exact same question after the whole Fall-Formal incident. My reaction was about the same as yours."

At that, the tension in the room was finally released and the girls descended into laughter.

Once more, the girls talked for several minutes. After some time however, Sunset's schooled eyes started to see the characteristic signs of casting exhaustion in the little drawing they had been talking too. I'm talking to a drawing. Yup, my life is weird. After some more minutes the others too noticed Twilight's growing weariness.

"Are you alright, darling?" Rarity finally asked, concern clear on her face.

"I'm fine, this spell is just a bit tiring to keep up. I'll need to refine it further."

"Aww, are you saying you gotta leave?" Pinkie asked with a sad frown.

"I'm afraid I can't stay much longer, no."

One by one the girls said their goodbyes. Finally Twilight turned to the sirens one last time.

"Goodbye to you three as well. I'll bring along something for you next time I come to visit." She gave a smile before adding "As more than a drawing in a book I mean."

The sirens wanted to ask more but before they could the drawing stopped moving and started to retreat back into the single point of ink it had come from before, finally, it winked out of existence with a soft shimmer of purple.

Sunset grabbed the booked and took a long look at the place were the queen's image had vanished. Yeah. My life is weird. But I wouldn't have it any other way. With a satisfied smile she clasped the book shut and packed it and the lectern back into her pocket, before turning around to join her friends in their sleepover activities.
> Of Magic and Alchemy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Queen Twilight,

I really enjoyed what we did tonight. The girls all had fun at the sleepover and Rarity, Fluttershy and Sonata independently asked me to tell you that you make 'an adorable drawing'. Seriously, they all used those exact words.
Anyways, I wanted to ask about that whole 'causal loop' thing you mentioned, what exactly happened there?
Hoping you're alright and there weren't any side effects to your transdimensional bookwalking,

Sunset Shimmer





Dear Sunset,

No side effects I could see at least.
But to answering your question:

This happened before I became a changeling. It started about three months before the wedding-incident that kicked off that whole chain of events. Back in those days I was into scheduling. And I mean really into it. I was scheduling everything! I even scheduled my panic attacks.
That night I was panicking because I had made a schedule for the next month but hadn't left any room to make a schedule for the month after. So I was basically up all night trying to reorganize my schedule to fit it in. It was about sunrise when there was suddenly magic happening in the middle of the room, and then suddenly there was a duplicate of me. She said she was from next Tuesday morning. She was a complete mess. Scars, messy hair, an eyepatch, torn black clothing, you get the idea.
She tried to tell me something but I kept interrupting her with questions. Eventually she managed to stop me but before she could tell me what she wanted the spell ran out and she was sucked back into the future.
Basically what happened afterwards was that I freaked out thinking there was some big disaster happening soon. I tried all I could but in the process I started becoming just like her, the scar from a papercut when a scroll hit me in the face. A bandage from when a flowerpot hit me on the head. The eyepatch when I hurt my eye trying to monitor everything and using a telescope during the day.
I took all of those to mean that I had failed to avert the disaster. In the end I thought the only way to save everything was to stop time. So I snuck into the Canterlot Archives in the night before Tuesday with Spike and Pinkie (that's where the black clothing came from) when a guard spotted us in front of the Starswirl the Bearded Wing, I freaked out completely, but he just happily greeted me and unlocked the door for us. So we went to searching. We didn't find anything and shortly after sunrise Celestia walks in a wishes me a 'happy Tuesday' (Is that just something she does and I never realized? When I came over to get my crown back, your side's Celestia wished the students a 'happy Thursday').
So eventually I figured out that I just shouldn't worry about the future so much. At that moment Pinkie pops in and shows me a scroll for a spell to travel back in time for a few moments. Guess what I used that for.

What Future-Twilight was trying to tell me was not to worry about the future so much. Unfortunately I didn't realize that until after I was back from the past.

Anyways, that's how I went back in time and created a causal loop.

Hoping you enjoyed the story,

Your friend Twilight Sparkle.





Dear Twilight,

I most certainly did. So you actually traveled through time. Cool.
Say, did I tell you about TV? Because that causal loop reminds me of something I've seen in a TV-series. They called it a Pogo-Paradox, a causal loop in which an act of time travel to prevent an event instead causes it.
Anyways, what does time travel feel like?

Let me know if anything happens,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

mainly it feels really weird. It's powerful magic, of course, so to the caster it first of all feels exhausting, it has the other typical side effects of that too. A static charge in the air, that weird taste in your mouth. I guess you know what that feels like. Other than that it's mainly confusing, the equine mind isn't really designed to comprehend time travel.
That aside I'm getting kind of excited, it's only a few more days before my first clutch enters their chrysalides. From then on it's only two months until the first of my children will be fully grown. I wonder what genders they will choose.

Hoping all is well on your end,

your friend Twilight





Dear Twilight,

hold on what?! What do you mean 'choose a gender'? How can they choose that? I feel like I'm missing some context here. Anyways give them my congratualtions, and best wishes from me and the girls.
That aside, I guess I should have expected it to feel like that. By the way, people here know that taste too, and they have a name for it, they call it ozone. It's something to do with the air changing when large amounts of energy travel through it.

All is well here, for the moment at least, hoping your end is fine too,

Sunset Shimmer





Dear Sunset,

I guess some explanations are in order, huh? Changelings, especially queens, are experts in the field of alchemy. We can use alchemy to change ourselves to a great degree. One of the easiest changes to make is changing a drone's gender. (I'm saying a drone's gender for two reasons. Of course queens are female by default and that can't really change. But altering drones and altering queens are also two entirely separate fields of alchemy.) But I don't really feel comfortable making that choice for my children, so most of them are female for now.
I guess this would be a good time to go into the lifecycle of a drone. From the moment an egg starts incubation, it takes three years and three months for a drone to fully mature. One month for the egg to hatch, three years of gradual maturation as a nymph and 2 months of rapid maturation in a chrysalis before the drone hatches for the second time, this time fully grown.
Now the decision I've made is to let my children choose their gender when they'd be undergoing an alchemical change anyway, so during their development from a nymph to a fully grown drone. From what they told me so far (they still have a few days after all) Aegis wants to stay female but the other three are switching to male.
I'm researching a few other things. For example, I'm thinking about making specialized strands for various professions. Not unheard of to be honest, but other queens mainly use different strands for their soldiers and keep the rest of their drones relatively universal.

Give my greetings to the girls, and tell them the 'Future first squad of Queen Twilight's Jevruun Vruningee' as they call themselves say thank you,

Twilight Sparkle





Dear Twilight,

that's good to know. And that's also really adorable, and really sweet of them.
What kind of variants are you working on? Do you plan a farming variant? If you did it would be great if you could manage to give them some form of earth pony magic, that could really help with their work. The girls find it really weird that your children can decide their gender. Hay, I'm used to magic and I find it weird.

Anyways have fun with your children growing up,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

thanks for your suggestion. I did some research and giving a strand limited earth pony magic may actually be possible. It may take me quite a while to work it out, but it would be definitely worth it.
That being said, I'm writing you from the bridge of the S.G.E.V. Ashes of the Phoenix. This airship was designed as a last ditch evacuation vessel but mom is having it refurbished and giving it to me as a colony ship. That's an immense gift, the Phoenix is the largest ship Stripped Gear has. I can hardly believe she's giving her to me.
I know the girls wanting to become Queen's Guard may seem cute now but they'll start military training in less than two months now. That's not even five days on your end.

I'll let you know if anything interesting happens on my end.

Your friend, Twilight.





Dear Twilight,

I had an interesting experience today. I tried analyzing how the girls' magic works over here.
That was not a good idea. At the end of the day I've been buried under spectral apples, shot with balloons and butterflies (not at once), entangled in wires and literally splashed with rainbow paint out of a computer screen. Not to mention that I still have no idea how magic works over here. This was not a productive day.
That being said, congratulations on getting a colony ship, I guess that'll come in handy in founding a hive.

Wishing you the best when magic is inevitably on the loose again,

Sunset Shimmer.





Dear Sunset,

you just had to jinx it, didn't you? I'm writing you from aboard the Deception I'm headed for Ponyville with a few squads of my brothers and sisters. A few hours ago we got word from Canterlot. Celestia and Luna have vanished, and Ponyville is being invaded by some weird vines from the Everfree forest. But we already knew something was wrong before that. The sun and moon being high in the sky at the same time when no eclipse is scheduled is a pretty big giveaway.
Hoping we can figure this out,

Twilight Sparkle
> Vines, Comics and other Oddities
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Sunset Shimmer,

turns out it was once more time for one of Equestria's major crises. This time Discord was to blame (again). Admittedly what happened today was apparently caused by something he did more than a millenia ago so I suppose we can't really blame him. But I guess I should tell you what actually happened.
It was all to do with the vines I told you about, as well as the Tree of Harmony. Turns out the Tree of Harmony, in a cave beneath the Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree Forest, is the origin of the Elements of Harmony. When Discord took over the first time, Celestia and Luna took the Elements from the Tree and used them against Discord.
But Discord planted what he called 'Plunderseeds' while he was messing with the Princesses. He thought they would capture Celestia and Luna and cause enough chaos to give him the power to escape his prison. The Tree of Harmony is the reason that didn't work. Even without the Elements it had enough power to not only contain the wild magic of the Everfree but also stop the Plunderseeds from sprouting. Until now.
After being without the Elements for so long the tree could no longer contain them. They grew into the Plundervines and started by capturing Celestia and Luna (that's why it was day and night at once) before growing all throughout the forest and then into Ponyville.
When we arrived I had the queen's guard help the townsfolk in containing the vines, while I worked with the other Element Bearers to figure out what was going on. With all that was going on it wasn't hard to figure out it was Discord, so we summoned him. He denied everything, of course, but he pointed us to Zecora, turns out with the vines the forest was to wild even for her to live in.
She happened to have a potion that could help. It needed alicorn magic to activate, good thing changelings can mimic magical signatures and queens have enough power to mimic alicorns. After I activated it, it allowed me to look into the past.
Let's just say the experience was rather intense. The first time it showed me the original rise of Nightmare Moon. The second time it showed me the first defeat of Discord. (If you want,I can tell you in detail how both of those happened when I next visit) And then it showed me Celestia and Luna getting the Elements from the Tree.
That's how I realized we needed to give the elements back to the Tree. Only problem being that the Tree was deep in the Everfree Forest and right at the source of these vines. Good thing that we could take a Shuttle to the ravine that led to the Tree of Harmony.
It was a bit messy towards the end but we managed to get the Elements back where they belonged.
The Tree released a wave of magic that destroyed the vines and that fixed everything.
I'll stay here for another day or two, then I'll head back to Stripped Gear.

Keeping you posted as requested,

Twilight Sparkle





Dear Twilight,

wow, that was quite the tale. I hope Discord doesn't have any more buried surprises waiting for you. But if you had to give the Elements back to the tree, what will you use as a crown now?

Hoping you'll be alright without it,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

I'm not sure yet, normally royals grow their crowns during their protoqueen phase. I assume the element was the reason I didn't grow one back then. I don't know if I'll grow one now but I guess if my head starts itching soon I'll know for sure.

I'll let you know what happens,

Twilight





Dear Sunset,

given the rather distracting itch I'm currently experiencing, I think it's safe to say that I am growing a crown.

Just letting you know,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

changeling queens grow their crowns? Is it just me or is that extremely weird? I'm glad you'll have a crown again, just don't scratch it too much.

Wishing you strength to withstand the itch,

Sunset.





Dear Sunset,

don't you start too, the caretakers are already telling me not to scratch it at least once an hour.
That aside, yes we grow them, and yes, it is, indeed, weird.

I'll let you know once it's done growing or if anything else happens,

Twilight





Dear Sunset,

I just got word from Roseluck back in Ponyville. It seems the CMC were out once more, I told you about the Equestria Games when I visited, didn't I? Well it seems, they were having a contest among the foals in Ponyville's school.
Ponyville may be a small town but given the many world shaking events that took place in and around town it was considered important enough to have it's own team.
The school was holding a contest with the help of Rainbow and a representative of the EGPC for a team of foals to carry the Ponyville Flag.
Of course the Crusaders (funny thing they still call themselves that over in your world despite the fact that cutie marks don't exist there) would participate and of course Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon (are they just as obnoxious on your side?) would get in their way by trying to mess with Scootaloo's confidence by telling her that she couldn't represent Pegasi because she can't fly yet.
Well, Rainbow was having none of that and had a talk with Scootaloo about it. They got everything fixed and the Crusaders won, so they'll be carrying the Ponyville Flag into the arena at the games.
Cadista and I are currently talking with the EGPC about having some of our drones participate as well.
In other news, my crown has nearly fully grown in now. I suspect it'll be a few more days before I'll be able to take it off.
I'll be glad when the time comes, it feels weird to be going about the hive wearing a crown.

Hoping you're doing fine at CHS,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

hold on, take it off? You mean to say you grow a crown but once it's fully grown you can take it off? Changeling physiology is weird.
That aside, glad to hear the CMC are doing well on your end. To answer your question, yes, Diamond and Silver are obnoxious here too and that sounds exactly like something they would do if, y'know, cutie marks were a thing here.
Quick question: What is the EGPC?

When did you say your children would hatch again?

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

Yes, once the crown is fully grown I'll be able to take it off. The EGPC is the Equestria Games Planning Committee. I actually met the representative once, back when she came to see if the Crystal Empire was fit to host the games, her name is Harshwhinny, a curious mare that one, didn't exactly help that we confused her for somepony else and gave our premium tour to a random tourist.
Aegis and the others will hatch slightly more than two weeks from now.

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

Harshwhinny? As in Miss Nagitha Harshwinny? Well I guess we've found another parallel then. She's the history teacher here at CHS. I hope you can deal with her better than I can, she really doesn't like me.

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

yes, that's her. Funny thing.

Anyways I should get to sleep, I'll be leaving the Hive tomorrow, I'm visiting a comic book convention with Spike, so I'll meet him in Whinnieapolis.

I'll tell you if anything interesting happens there,

Twilight





Dear Sunset,

well this was an adventurous day. Spike surprised me by bringing all the girls along to the convention, we had an interesting day there. But an even more interesting night.
Turns out one of the comics Spike bought was enchanted. It sucked all of us into the story as the main characters and we couldn't get out until we defeated the main villain.
It ended up being rather fun. What was less fun was explaining that to the hive afterwards. Turns out being sucked into a comic is a bit of a hindrance for your hivemind-connection. That was an interesting discussion.

Hoping you had a less crazy day,

Twilight.





Dear Twilight,

you were pulled into a comic book? Which one? What happened? I need details, please, or I won't have a moment of peace from Rainbow until I get them from you.

Hoping you can save me from the chromatic menace,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

let's see what we can do.

Well the comic was an issue of 'The Power Ponies'. We took the places of the protagonists. I was Masked Matter-Horn, Pinkie was Fili-Second, AJ was Mistress Mare-Velous, Rarity was Radiance, Rainbow was Zap, Fluttershy was Saddle Rager and Spike was Hum-Drum.
We went up against the Mane-iac who captured us using a hairspray based petrification beam. (Comic-Book-Logic I swear ...) Spike managed to disable the system they used to reapply it (it only lasted one minute) and Fluttershy got angry when Mane-iac hit a fly that was on the scope of whatever doomsday weapon she was trying to use (I think she said something about ar-mane-geddon ...).
Once Fluttershy defeated her, we came back out of the comic.

That's the general idea of what happened,

Twilight.
> Vampires, Fashion and Games to Come
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Twilight,

you should have seen Rainbow's face. I didn't need changeling empathy to know that she was so jealous you and your friends got to do that. She loves those comics. Some things are weird, of course, like the comic being called 'Power Ponies' on this side as well, despite the heroines clearly being human. I could go into details about Rainbow gushing about this but you know how she can get so I don't suppose I really have to.

Enjoy your stay in Ponyville,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

turns out my stay in Ponyville wasn't as relaxing as I hoped. The morning after we returned AJ discovered an infestation of Vampire Fruitbats in her orchards. Fluttershy wanted to build a Sanctuary for them. Oh how I wish we'd have listened to her to begin with.
Basically what happened was that we had Fluttershy use her Stare (can your Fluttershy do that to? I know there isn't much in terms of magic beyond the portal, but your Pinkie has the same reality bending powers so I won't rule it out.) to hold the bats in place. Then I used magic to try and stop the bats' hunger for fruit, so they wouldn't eat the whole orchard.
It seemed to work, but the next morning the apples had been eaten anyway.
It took us some time to find out but apparently my magic had traveled along Fluttershy's stare and transferred the fruitbat traits onto her. 
It was a rather intriguing transformation, really. Red eyes, leathery wings, fangs, large bat ears, the whole program. It took some effort to catch her, but once we had it was only a matter of reversing the spell.
In the end we did build a sanctuary anyway.

I'm now on the way back home, It'll be less than two weeks before Aegis and her brothers (still feels weird to say that) hatch.

Take good care of CHS,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

oh yes, our Fluttershy can do that too, the Stare is pretty much the only thing that can keep the Crusaders in line when they get one of their ideas. So are you saying, pony-Fluttershy effectively turned into a vampony a few days ago? Because I got a text from Fluttershy (the local one) this morning saying she couldn't sleep tonight and really could go for some apples.
It could just be coincidence but maybe the two worlds are more closely connected than we first assumed.

Just hypothesizing here, don't mind my ramblings,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

true it may just be coincidence, but it may be more than that. Without a powerful source of arcane magic (the harmonic magic you brought over likely wouldn't work) the effects likely couldn't manifest properly so all your Fluttershy felt was a sudden hunger for apples and a bit of insomnia.
Let me know if there is something else that you think may be affected by the Equestrian side of the portal,

Twilight





Dear Sunset,

I have adult children. Aegis, Intel, Ferrum and Riposte hatched a few hours ago. I'll give them a few days to acclimate to adult life, then we'll head out to Manehattan. Rarity managed to get into the Manehattan Fashion Week. The other girls will be there too and this is an excellent chance to show my first adult children around an Equestrian city.

I'll let you know how things go there,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

congratulations. Both to you and your kids. Still kinda hard to believe that you have adult kids, I mean you're basically as old as I am and you have not only kids, but adult kids. Kinda hard to wrap your head around. I texted the girls. They send their congratulations as well.

Good luck in Manehatten, don't get lost.

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

thank you for your well wishes. I know it must be even more confusing to you and the girls, since you get the sped-up version of everything that happens here on top of changelings growing up faster. (how long has it been for you? a month?)
In other news: The fashion world is ruthless. Today Rarity had her Fashion Week contest. She invented a new kind of fabric especially for it. Another designer named Suri Polomare saw it and, generous mare that she is, Rarity gave her some of the fabric. Said designer then turned that into a whole line and submitted it before Rarity did hers so it would look like Rarity had copied her.
Only flaw in her plan was that she couldn't resist gloating, and that Rarity is a far superior designer. She made a fantastic new line from the things we had in our hotel suites.
In the end she won the contest anyway and she'd have left it at that.
Aegis wasn't having it though. She and a young mare named Coco Pommel worked together to reveal Suri for the fraud she was. The fashion world did not take kindly to that. Let's just say Suri won't be taking part in any Manehattan contest any time soon.
Rarity ended up befriending Coco and perhaps she'll even employ her one day.

Lesson learned: Don't mess with my kids, or their friends.

Take care Sunset,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

I agree, not messing with your kids sounds like a good idea, so does not messing with you actually, I can only guess at the kind of magical power a changeling queen studied under Celestia would have.
That designer, I can't help but feel I've heard her name before, I'll ask Rarity tomorrow.

Take good care of your kids,

Sunset.





Dear Twilight,

I was right. I asked Rarity about Suri Polomare and she is in fact a somewhat known aspiring fashion designer over in Crystal City. I warned her to be careful around Suri, just in case she is anything like her counterpart.
Speaking of Crystal City. Today Principal Celestia announced that our school would be hosting the Friendship Games a month from now. It's a competition happening every four years between CHS and Crystal Prep Academy over in the City.
We'll see how that goes.

Sunset.





Dear Sunset,

Friendship games, huh? Sounds interesting, I'll have to see if I can manage to attend. Say, is it just me or does Crystal City and Crystal Prep sound suspiciously like a counterpart to the Crystal Empire? What kind of friendship are they about? Between students? Between Schools?
Anyway, I got a letter from Pinkie Pie today, turns out she may or may not be a distant cousin of the Apple family. They went on a bit of a road trip together. Another cousin of the Apple Family, Goldie Delicious seems to be some kind of family historian. Turns out the same smudge Spike found on the scroll that first tipped them off, was also on the records Goldie had. Some ponies really don't care much for their work it seems, one does not copy ink smudges.
In the end they decided that it didn't really matter because they were so close friends, they would treat each other like family anyway.
Did something like that happen on your side as well? Did the humans actually manage to copy their records properly?

Take care, and good luck with your games,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

as it turns out, the answer to most of your questions is 'Yes'. It does sound a lot like the Crystal Empire and Pinkie did indeed go on a roadtrip with AJ today. However, no they couldn't find any conclusive evidence here either.
As far as I understand it CHS and CPA have a rather long-standing rivalry and no one really remembers why the event is called Friendship games. But with all the magic here now, we shall see if we can't remind them.
Well, it's still a month till then, we'll see what the girls get up to in the meantime.

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

today I got a letter from my friends. They spent the day together at Rainbow Falls. The qualifications for the Equestria Games Aerial Relay were held there. I knew that beforehoof of course, some of mine and mother's drones were there as well, after all. The EGPC approved of having mother's drones and mine compete in the games as well. (they did forbid them from disguising in the competition. Not sure why, as an illusion doesn't affect performance but maybe they think we actually shapeshift) Rainbow had a blast catching up with Brass Excursor, he was her guide throughout the first few weeks of her stay in Stripped Gear. He spent most of that time chasing after her, but they became friends anyway.
That aside, the Wonderbolts (competing for Cloudsdale, obviously) apparently tried to get Rainbow to fly with them. Not sure what they were trying to accomplish with that. She may be a Wonderbolt but she still lives in Ponyville. Not sure why they thought getting the Element of Loyalty to abandon her home team had any chance of success at all. I guess sometimes ponies just don't think things through.
It seems the evening was as fun as the day. The girls had a wild party and, if Rarity's hornwriting is any indication, got terribly drunk. (the first half of the letter is written by somepony who is clearly not in full control of their magic, and the second half by somepony who is trying to use magic with a terrible headache)
From what I could deduce Pinkie vanished at some point and even she can't remember what happened that night.
In the end Ponyville, Cloudsdale, and both teams from SG ended up qualifying so all is well. We're preparing a party for both our teams when they return.
It seems we'll both be partaking in games of some form rather soon. Good luck with yours,

Twilight
> Pies, Styles and Crusaders
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Twilight,

I have a suspicion of what might have happened with Pinkie that night, but if I'm right we'll know for sure soon enough.
Either way, give my congratulations to all your teams, the Equestria Games are a big event.
Amusingly it should still be almost a year for you until the Games take place and only about a month for me until the Friendship Games happen yet yours will happen sooner than mine. This differential is really messing with my head.

Take care,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

let me give you a piece of advice, if your Pinkie ever comes across someone named Cheese Sandwich, run!
Or at least that's what I got out of Rose's latest report from Ponyville. It seems this Cheese Sandwich is another party planner. And apparently he has something called a Party Howitzer. It seems he and Pinkie got into a sort of party planning contest. Needless to say things got out of hoof. Fast. I'm not entirely sure how they managed to reign the situation back in but given that there is no mountain of confetti I can see from Stripped Gear, I assume Ponyville is still intact, more or less.

Hoping you can stop your Pinkie if she ever runs across a Cheese Sandwich,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

thank you for the warning. A Cheese Sandwich actually came to town today, thanks to your warning I managed to keep a close eye on the two and deescalate before they got too far, they're actually friends now. I suspect if I hadn't had your warning I wouldn't have seen the signs in time.

Once more, thank you,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

I suddenly think I know what your suspicion was, and if it actually was that she had found a stallion and, you know, did what a mare and a stallion tend to do when they are drunk and alone, then you were indeed correct it would seem. Pinkie just sent a letter, she is pregnant. And no, she still can't remember who the father is, but knowing Pinkie that won't stop her.

Hoping this is one of the things your world won't mirror anytime soon,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

you guessed correctly, that was my assumption. So in less than a year your Pinkie will have a foal of her own, huh? Give her my congratulations.
I can put your concerns to rest, so far I have seen no indication of my Pinkie mirroring this development. I assume your Pinkie can handle foals as well as mine can children. Then again if she can't I'm sure you can give her some pointers, you have some experience on the topic, I seem to recall.

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

given what the letter I just got from Rarity and Applejack said, today was one of those days that always make me wonder if I'm the normal one in my circle of friends. And I'm a changeling queen.
It seems today’s events were caused by a visiting fashion scout? style guide? what exactly do you call that?
Anyway, his name was Trenderhoof, he makes reviews of things he considers stylish and quite a few ponies apparently follow those reviews. It seems he visited Ponyville and found inspiration at Sweet Apple Acres, including a massive crush on Applejack as it seems.
Now given what he does, of course he is the kind of pony whose approval Rarity would want. But he kept ignoring her. This lead to Applejack mimicking Rarity's high society style while Rarity was mimicking AJ's 'simple ways'. In the end neither one got what they wanted and they decided that Trenderhoof was only one pony and his opinions about them weren't really something they needed to worry about. I think the way they put it was that trends come and go, but friendship is forever.

A good thing to learn from these events, I suppose,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

I think those kinds of people are called Style Scouts. Given everything I know, I can absolutely see that happen here as well. I'll keep my eyes peeled. Maybe this Trenderhoof exists here too. Other than that, nothing much has happened here but it's only been two days since we've last written.

Take care,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

somehow I keep forgetting about this differential. That aside, I got a letter from Fluttershy today. It sounds like she joined the Ponytones. She had some stagefright issues at first but it seems everything worked out in the end. Something similar might happen on your end, but definitely not like it did here. (Poison Joke was involved.)
In other news, the CMCs are coming to Stripped Gear. They'll be here in two days to see the hive and meet my kids.

I can't wait to see their reactions,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

what exactly is Poison Joke? The name sounds vaguely familiar but I can't place it.
Hoping you have fun with the CMCs,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

Poison joke is a plant that grows in the Everfree Forest and the sole reason for all the warnings to stay away from blue things while in there. A few hours after contact with this flower its innate magic plays some kind of trick or joke on you. It's effects vary greatly from pony to pony and unless you've been affected before there is no way to know how it would affect you.
I've seen effects from altering a ponies voice, to inhibiting innate racial magic in various ways. Trust me on this, walking around the Everfree without access to your magic is not a fun experience.

Be glad you don't have to deal with that plant on your side of the portal,

Twilight





Dear Sunset,

it's been a fun three weeks with the CMCs at the hive. I don't even want to know where they managed to get tree sap in Stripped Gear, there are no trees in the hive and they promised they didn't go out into the Jungle (No they were not lying, I checked. How you ask? Pinkie Promise. I'd elaborate but given you have a Pinkie of your own, I doubt that's neccesaiy).
Anyway, I think they really seem to enjoy our engineering, especially Applebloom, Scootaloo did spend quite some time watching the drones on their flight training regimen Rainbow put together. But I'm especially proud of Sweetie Belle, I've been helping her practice her magic. When she came here she could barely manage basic telekinesis, now she can actually maintain a shield barrier strong enough to withstand a few simple mana bolts or a shot from a pistol, only one mind you, but still quite impressive.
I'll be accompanying them back to Ponyville and spending some time there, Pinkie wants to introduce us to her sister. If she is anything like she is over in your world, the girls are in for a surprise.

Take good care,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

first of all, yes I am familiar with the Pinkie Promise, but that aside:
Are you serious?! Sweetie Belle blocked a shot from a Pistol?! I know your family line was good with shields so you could probably give her a few pointers, but still. I'm also specifically choosing to ignore the fact that you were willing to have one of your drones point a gun anywhere near a twelve year old.
Sincerely hoping you didn't point the gun at her,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

No of course I didn't point it at her, I'm not insane. I showed her how to invert the polarity on her shield and had her fire the gun from inside the shield. And, yes, that means she can now create a rather powerful shield barrier and handle a gun. This is not a twelve year old you want to cross.
That aside, The girls were happy to have the CMCs back and meeting Maud was rather fun. Of course none of the girls had any idea I already knew Maud from your side of the mirror. I basically had a small copy of me in a linkscape giggling uncontrollably all the time, so I could keep a straight face in the material world. The girls' faces were priceless.

Give my greetings to the Maud on your side,

Twilight
> Inspired Mysteries
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Sunset,

the last two days in Ponyville have been eventful it seems, I've decided to stay here for a few weeks before returning to the hive.
Yesterday I've been told there was a bit of a problem with AJ and Applebloom. The Apples agreed that she was old and responsible enough to be at home alone for a few hours while the others were out on business. But AJ had second thoughts, she came rushing back home worrying about Applebloom. Of course there was no problem, but she freaked out anyway. In the end Applebloom got the other two crusaders to cover for her (it might have helped I gave Sweetie Belle a pendant that can mimic changeling disguise magic. It needs a unicorn's magic to work and it will only work for a few minutes at a time. It's still very much an early prototype, a proof of concept really.) and went out to do AJ's delivery for her.
Once she figured that out, AJ came running after AB, just in time to save her from a chimera. They ended up making the delivery together. They both learned a valuable lesson, If AB had listened to AJ she wouldn't have gotten in danger, but if a AJ hadn't gotten so neurotic about everything (Yes I know this is the pot calling the kettle black, I'm working on it!), AB wouldn't have had a reason to go against her to begin with.
And that's only what they learned, for a few days now Rarity was working on a collection of costumes for Sapphire Shores (do you have a version of her as well?) but she took the time to make costumes for a play Sweetie had written (she may not be the best playwright yet but she certainly has potential) but Sweetie got angry because she felt the costumes overshadowed everything else, so she tried to sabotage the costumes for Sapphire Shores.
She ended up changing her mind (not sure why but given she mentioned something about Princess Luna I assume dreams had something to do with it.) and the Crusaders ended up following Rarity to Manehattan and managed to fix everything before Rarity could show it to Sapphire Shores.

So, like I said, an eventful few days here, I'll be heading back to the hive next week and from what they said Rarity and Rainbow want to come along and visit.

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

that's a lot of things happening in a short time, especially considering that for me that wouldn't even be four hours. I know Sapphire Shores is a popular musician over here as well. Things have been calm here, no signs that these events were somehow mirrored on this end, I hope you have fun showing Rarity around the hive, I'd really like to see it for myself actually, it sounds really impressive, maybe we can arrange something at some point, but preferably after the Games are over, the school is getting pretty heavily into the spirit of things.

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

we're now on the train back south. But before we left two familiar faces showed up in Ponyville, the brothers Flim and Flam, I think AJ mentioned something happening with them and her bass, so I assume they exist on your side as well. In any case in Equestria these two are a pair of charlatans.
This time the two were trying to sell a 'medical tonic' (also known as mixed fruit juice) that supposedly could heal anything. Granny Smith got her hooves on some of it and suddenly she could swim again. (Of course she could swim all the time, she had only convinced herself that she couldn't) This lead to Applejack not actively speaking out against the brothers' trickery and of course they immediately capitalized on that.
At some point it got so far that Granny Smith was about to jump into a bucket of water from a ten meter tower. At that point AJ stepped in and exposed the brothers for their trickery.

We'll see what Rarity thinks of the hive,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

yes, they exist here as well, and they aren't any better, though sometimes I think it's not their fault alone. So many of their cons wouldn't work if people weren't so gullible. I can't really say that anything they did over here managed to escalate that far though.

Make sure Rarity and Rainbow stay safe in the jungle (I've heard the horror stories about that place),

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

it turns out Rainbow has a very unique way of learning. Yesterday I had her learn for a test on combat maneuvers and military strategy for the Wonderbolts. It's necessary for her to get a promotion and lead small squads. We tried a bunch of different strategies but in the end we took a short flight across the hive and I realized that she remembered everything we flew over on the way. She catalogues and memorizes everything she sees while flying. From there, getting her to learn all she needed to know was only a matter of sending a few requests out over the hivemind and taking her for another flight across the hive. Rarity is busy at the hive (last I checked she was rushing across one of the larger Plazas and shouting 'Inspirratioon!' every few seconds) and Rainbow will be off to Cloudsdale soon to take the test. Meanwhile I'll be visiting Queen Kreesus' hive to have a look into her archives.
I don't think I've mentioned it to you before but I'm researching the history of our people. You see, the general accepted history states that the Ebony Castle (the place where the Summit of the Queens happens) was the first changeling hive. From what I found so far though, I think it was the first hive in the Jungle, but the Jungle isn't actually our ancestral home.

I'll let you know if I find out more,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

that's a really intriguing way to learn, too bad that the Rainbow Dash on this end almost certainly doesn't learn in this way.
So wait, no one remembers what actually happened when your kind first arrived in the jungles? Given that was only a few millennia ago ('only a few millennia', not a sentence you hear often) and seeing the life expectancy of the average changeling queen that's actually rather strange. Now this may just be old demon-me speaking, but that screams cover-up if you ask me.

Hoping you find out what actually happened,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

I know, right? Now I don't have much contact to the other queens but both mother and Queen Kreesus never seem too interested in our origins when I bring it up. They might know something but that really doesn't sound like them.
Anyway, today I got a letter from Princess Luna, she was watching over the Rainbow Falls Trade Exchange yesterday. Turns out Rainbow and Fluttershy nearly got into some trouble when trying to trade for a signed first edition of 'Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Statue'. Basically the trader wanted a certain animal, but wanted it trained, so Rainbow nearly traded Fluttershy of for the time it would take her to train the animal (mind you, it's Fluttershy so it would probably take her half an hour) and of course Fluttershy was too nice to tell Rainbow that that is all kinds of not okay. At all. In the end they managed to convince the trader to call of the trade so all is well.
What I found in Kreesus' archives matches what I've found elsewhere. Nothing specific just general talk of things like coming to the plateau (the place where the Ebony Castle is today).

I'll tell you as soon as I find out more,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

I've always found this trade exchange to be a rather silly affair, sure its tradition but that alone doesn't make a practice worth practicing. Trades like that one and others were the exact reason we introduced currency in the first place. But enough of me ranting about economics, this mystery is getting interesting.
Do you know if any of the other queens show interest in the matter of your past? If anything you'd probably find a hint about where the changelings come from in the Ebony Castle, have you looked there yet?

I'll let you know if I think of anything else,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

that does seem like the most reasonable course of action. There are a few problems though. Outside of summits the Ebony Castle is closed off to anyone but the Home Guard (the drones that maintain the Ebony Castle) and full queens who have their authorisation. I haven't secured the rights to my crown yet so I can't go there and mother has apparently done something to upset the previous captain of the Home Guard and they are holding a grudge and refusing her requests. As for the other queens, the only other one that cares about our past is Queen Polybia and she really only cares about the dogmatic scriptures her mother wrote about the first mother.
That aside, Spike visited today and brought along something for Rarity, a book he, apparently, found in the Castle of the Two Sisters.
The book contained a dark magic spell that basically started possessing Rarity. It was called 'Inspiration Manifestation' and it did exactly what it sounds like. She basically went on a fashion rampage throughout Stripped Gear until Spike remembered the last bit of the incantation "Only when true words are spoken will you finally be set free". He basically went up to her and told her that she was going way overboard and not actually improving anything. That finally broke the spell.
It took mother, myself and a dozen of the new magus strain I helped mother develop the entire day to clean up all the dark magic (since it was dark magic we couldn't just use void stones to nullify the lingering effects).
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a young dragon to chew out,

Twilight
> Wargames
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Twilight,

a fashion rampage using ancient dark magic? Somehow that sounds exactly like the kind of thing that would happen to us, doesn't it? Now I have two major questions. One: What was Spike thinking? A sinister sounding spell from an ancient book? Maybe show that to an expert for ancient magic first. Especially when there are not one but two such experts nearby. And Two: Why was that book in the castle of the two sisters to begin with? What exactly did Celestia and Luna get up to, to have such a book stashed in their castle?
That being said, I'm glad you got the matter cleared up and the dark magic cleaned up. Wishing you and your team good luck at the Equestria Games (those should be happening soon, right?)

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

those are happening rather soon yes, in fact mother and myself are currently on the Deception with our teams on the way to the Crystal Empire.
Now to answer your questions. Spike wasn't thinking at all, not with his head anyway. And Celestia and Luna say they kept that book in the castle to keep it out of the wrong hooves and simply forgot about it after the whole Nightmare Moon debacle. Now whether you choose to believe them or not is your decision.
I'll let you know how the games went once I know,

Twilight





Dear Sunset,

well the games are over and we're on the way back home. Spike had an interesting time. Not sure if I ever told you that, but he has a bit of hero status in the Crystal Empire because, while I found the Crystal Heart and Cadence brought it in position and got the crystal ponies to activate it, it was Spike who got the Heart from me and past King Sombra to Cadence.
Because of that he was offered the chance to ignite the fire and officially open the games. Unfortunately he had a bad case of stagefright and couldn't get his fire to work, so I cheated a bit and ignited it with a subtle bit of magic. For some reason he saw that as evidence that he could ignite fires with his mind. (Yeah, not sure what gave him that idea) After a while I took him aside to tell him what had actually happened. (he was going around trying to set things on fire with his mind, which obviously didn't work. He was embarrassing himself, not to mention that trying to set things on fire all the time is not a healthy state of mind, especially for a creature with actual fire breath.) He then managed to convince Miss Harshwhinny to let him sing the anthem of the winning team after the Aerial Relay.
Speaking of the Aerial Relay, Mom's excursor team managed to come in third behind Cloudsdale (a.k.a. the Wonderbolts) and Ponyville (a.k.a. Rainbow's team). My own kids managed fifth place after the team from Griffonia in fourth and before the team from Manehattan in sixth.
Back to the topic of Spike, turns out he can't sing. At all. Unfortunately this time I really had no way to subtly help him, especially as they had put a dampening spell on every magic user in attendance to prevent interference with the contests. (Obviously they didn't need that for the opening ceremony.)
That safety measure came back to bite them later. Specifically during the Ice Archery competition. One of the contestants miss-fired and the arrow struck a stray cloud, I take it you can imagine what happened to the cloud. Anyway it came crashing down towards part of the stands. Now some pegasi, griffins and even a few of mine and mothers drones came in to slow it down, but they couldn't stop it. There was not enough time to cut the suppression spell either and mine and mother's psychic abilities were nowhere near strong enough to help. But then Spike came in, just yelled for everypony to get out of the way then breathed out a massive flame and vaporized the thing.
So yeah, that was how the day was saved at the Equestria Games. Of course Spike was being all humble about it, but I don't think the crystal ponies care much. 'Spike the brave and glorious' (yeah, they actually call him that. Every time. It loses its novelty fast) saved them again. I hope it doesn't end up getting to his head.

Good luck with your own games when they come around,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

I'm impressed, vaporising an entire frozen cloud, I didn't know his fire was that powerful. Give my congratulations to all the teams you have access to. (the ones that know of me that is.) It'll still be another two weeks, roughly, before the Friendship Games start over here. When there are so many teams from beyond Equestria, why do they still call it the Equestria games anyway?

Take care, it feels like it's time for some big bad again soon,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

are you an oracle or something? How do you keep doing that?
I'm currently aboard the Deception with a detachment of Queen's Guard. A little over an hour ago we got word from Princess Celestia that a being known as Tirek has apparently escaped from Tartarus a few years ago (Remember when I told you about my experience with time travel? One of the things we fixed was brining Cerberus back to Tartarus. Yes, I literally went to Tartarus and back. It was a stressful week) and has been laying low ever since, It seems he now managed to gather enough of his strength to regain some of his original power. Namely the ability to drain Magic from Ponies, he can only affect unicorns for now but it's likely only a matter of time before he can draw the innate magic from pegasi and earth ponies as well. The Princesses are sending Discord to catch him but requested we come as a back-up plan.
I only hope that won't be neccessary,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

I don't know how I keep doing that, I just get a feeling like that on occasion. Good Luck in dealing with him.

Hoping to hear from you soon.

Your worried friend,

Sunset Shimmer





Dear Sunset,

you can relax now, all is well. Tirek is back in Tartarus.

This was an exciting few days. Tirek Managed to convince Discord to join him and betray us. Turns out we needed a backup plan afterall.
I met with the princesses in Canterlot. They told me that Tirek was after alicorn magic and that they needed to get rid of theirs. We had a bit of a discussion but long story short, they ended up giving their combined magic to me for safekeeping. Now If I was an alicorn myself I could have probably handled it, but being a changeling queen meant I could only hold about half of it for any significant amount of time. I had to distribute the rest of it among the drones on the Deception. Once Tirek reached the Princesses, he, from what I've been told, threw a bit of a temper tantrum and went searching for their magic after throwing them in Tartarus.
Now of course he had a bit of trouble with that seeing as it was aboard an invisible airship. My meeting with the princesses was in the early evening, but the real meaning of the power I was keeping didn't come up until early the next morning. I had Celestia's and Luna's magic, I had to do their daily jobs. I tell you, moving the sun and moon is a lot harder than they make it look, though in retrospect, trying to move both of them at once probably didn't help.
In the meantime, I sent my first squad of Queen's Guard to Ponyville to find my friends, I had them take along a box of voidstones to set up a trap in Whitetail Woods.
Then came the scary part. Tirek was still trying to find the alicorn magic and tearing apart Equestria in the process. So we had to buy time for my kids and my friends to set up the trap. And so it came that we went up against him, powered up with nearly all the pony magic in Equestria, with the Deception, a heavily armored and armed warship, protected by a shield made with the expertise of my family-line (we are experts at shields and many of our special talents even revolve around that, we know some secrets about shields that even the princesses don't know) and backed up by the entire alicorn magic of Equestria, truly an epic battle. As it turns out, Tirek is good at stealing magic, but not so much at using it, his repertoire consisted mainly of a beam to attack and a shield to block our attacks. He also lost Discord's support some time during the night. From what he told me later, Discord apparently got tired of listening to Tirek talk to himself about himself. It was relatively easy to fight him to a stalemate and slowly lure him towards Whitetail Woods.
Once my friends sprung the trap, the battle was over pretty quickly. Like, really quickly. It seems containing that much magic is rather difficult in a null magic field, they used a prototype voidstone booster Ratchet and I developed. Improves the range of the voidstones, which was very helpful because Tirek grew proportionately to the amount of magic he stole.
Turns out having that much magic funneled into such a powerful attack spell right before being disrupted by an amplified null magic field and having a gigantic amount of magic escape you to return to its rightful owners on top of shrinking from the size of a medium to large Canterlot house to that of an average stallion in about two seconds really messes you up. From all I could tell he'll be out like a light for a few more days.
After that it was easy to open up a portal into Tartarus and bring the Princesses back home. Getting all of their magic back to the correct Princesses was a bit more complicated but also manageable.
Fluttershy and Rainbow gave Discord a stern talking to about why friends shouldn't betray each other. Now he knows not to incur the wrath of Fluttershy. I almost feel sorry for him.
So in conclusion: Equestria is safe once more and Tirek is back in Tartarus where he belongs (Cerberus was oh so happy to have him back).
I hope you didn't worry too much,

Twilight
> Panicked Lines and Sweet S.M.I.L.E.s
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Queen Twilight,

this is Rarity. I'm afraid Sunset did worry too much. She's still a bit shellshocked. Fluttershy is taking care of her, so don't worry. She started calming down after we told her what you wrote. She'll write back herself once she feels up to it.
If your Fluttershy is anything like ours, then I understand why you feel sorry for this 'Discord' character.

Hoping no more such disaster scenarios pop up anytime soon,

Rarity





Dear Twilight,

don't scare me like that. When I got your message, I sent out a group text to the girls and curled up on my bed. I hate knowing there is some big, apocalyptic event going on and not being able to do anything about it.
So now that my freakout is dealt with, let me analyze all the things that happened. You held the alicorn magic of Celestia, Luna and Cadence for a while and then half of it for over a day? Wow. I mean, I knew that changeling queens are powerful and you're good with magic but ... wow.
You raised the sun? Wow. Oh and Lowered the moon. At the same time. Impressive. And you figured out how to do so on the spot.
Now onto this Tirek. He absorbed all the pony magic in Equestria and you managed to hold him off? Wow. Really shows just how powerful alicorns really are. But why didn't he try to drain the magic from your shields? Or from the engines of your ship? (I seem to recall something about those being magical)
I hope Discord learned his lesson. Betraying Equestria never works out in the end. (I know I learned that).
I had some encounters with voidstones myself when I was Celestia’s student, I know that can't have been pleasant. (Back when I was Celestia's student some lowlifes tried to foalnap me. I won't go into details, let's just say that Celestia was none too pleased.)
I agree with Rarity, let's hope something like this doesn't happen again anytime soon,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

apparently he couldn't drain magic from within a spell matrix. He seemed to absorb magical potential not the actual magical energies. I'm not sure how that works just yet, I'll check the logs on the shipmounted manascopes once we're home.
The engines do indeed use an artificial form of pegasi magic to keep the ships aloft, but the magic is generated directly in the manasteam engines and immediately integrated into the spell-matrix to keep the ship aloft, before that the energy exists only as steam and pressure. I assume that's why he couldn't drain it. I don't think it was for a lack of trying.
Lowlifes tried to foalnap you too? They never learn do they? I might have to ask Celestia about this.

Sorry for scaring you,

Twilight





Dear Sunset,

just a quick follow up. I asked Celestia about the whole foalnapping thing. It seems you weren't the first one either. Apparently that happened to her last seven protegés before us aswell. Might be why she insisted on keeping a locator beacon on us at all times, now that I think about it. Given the tone in her letter (Being technically her social equal and an important figure in an allied nation is doing wonders to get her to drop the royal mask, she usually just does that around Luna and Cadence), I assume that by now she just finds it bothersome. If I recall correctly, when she rescued me she simply teleported me back to the castle, put a facsimile of me in my place and showed me the spell to remotely control it. Not sure why, maybe just so I could watch the fireworks. She wasn't all too pleased then either.

Hoping you are well,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

seriously? Nine times? With nine consecutive students? The really don't learn do they? Kinda reminds me of what you told me about your return to Canterlot after your rebirth. Only then you were not only a longstanding friend of the Princess but also technically a foreign dignitary. But really, the message of 'Don't mess with Celestia' shouldn't be too hard to get, should it? Even I knew better than to try that. But I do recall watching the fireworks myself. She doesn't fight often, but when she does, Celestia is brutally effective. Might have something to do with her centuries of experience.

Take care and don't get in any more world-ending scenarios, okay?

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

I just got a letter from Rainbow. After what happened with Tirek, she's been promoted, she can now command a squad. Tomorrow she'll start on a tour of duty. I'll admit I'm a bit worried for her. She'll spend a week at 'the Line' and that's not exactly a safe place to be. Oh well, I suppose she is military, that's not generally the safest profession anyway and I know she's well trained, but I can't help but worry either way.

I hope she'll be safe,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

The Line, huh? I've heard the tales. The chaos spawn are dangerous critters. I sure don't envy her. Tell her the girls and I are wishing her good luck, I've told them about it, Rarity nearly fainted.

Stay safe, both you and Rainbow,

Sunset





Dear Twilight,

things went rather weird today. This afternoon CHS held the competitions to determine the students who would participate in the games. Now I think you mentioned something about knowing Lyra and Sweetie Drops in your world. They went a bit overboard in competing for the team, mainly against one another. Not really neccessiry seeing how they both qualified in the end.
The other competitors for CHS are Flash Sentry, Ditzy Hooves, Sandalwood and Micro Chips as well as the girls and yours truly. Adagio decided her and her sisters having so many centuries of life experience would give them an unfair advantage so they didn’t try to get on the team. We'll see where things go from here, it's still two more weeks to the games.

Hope you're well,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

indeed I do know them, in fact Lyra was a classmate of mine at Celestia's school. 'Sweetie Drops' however is a bit of a special case. I know a mare that's obviously her Equestrian version but she calls herself Bon Bon. Now I would ask her about it but that might be difficult without mentioning your world and the Mirror.

I'll let you know if I find something about her,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

that is actually rather odd. As far as I've seen, things that happen in Equestria, are either mirrored here or they're not. A discrepancy like that is a bit strange. Maybe that's just a thing that happens, both names are synonymous with each other.

I'll let you know if I can think of an explanation,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

I've found the answer. I remembered something Celestia was once talking to herself about. (She tried to hide it, but before Luna came back, she was rather lonely.) She mentioned a 'Sweetie Drops' then. So I wrote her a letter asking about it.
Her answer was not what I expected. She said I could tell you this, but please don't give this information to anyone else.
Celestia, until ten years or so ago, had a secret agency called the Secret Monster Intelligence League of Equestria (or S.M.I.L.E. for short). After some incident involving a bugbear the agency was shuttered. And all agents became 'dormant assets' as she called it. Basically, they went into deep cover all across Equestria. Sweetie Drops chose to go undercover in Ponyville and 'Bon Bon' is the name of her cover identity.
Like I said, not what I expected. I guess all that means is that your Sweetie Drops isn't a secret agent.

Take care,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

really? S.M.I.L.E.? Are you sure Celestia was running that agency and not Pinkie? It really sounds like they came up with the acronym first and worked backwards from there. Oh well, I suppose that solves that mystery.
I'll make sure no one else finds out about this,

Sunset
> Setting things in Motion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Twilight,

the Friendship Games are really getting into everyone's heads right now. It sounds like today Flash, Micro and Sandal got into a bit of a weird place. They had Luna asking them to design a banner to welcome the students from CPA.
From what Flash told us they got into a bit of a spat and started painting over one another. Then Luna came in and started talking about their work 'flowing together harmoniously'. Not what they planned, but whatever works I guess. Too bad that they got stuck making more of the banners then.
Flash seemed rather tired when he told us. Not surprising after painting banners all afternoon, I guess

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

it really sounds like everyone is getting in the mood for the games. I just hope that rivalry thing doesn't get in the way. But that does sound like Luna, sometimes she doesn't quite understand things. Of course she's a princess (or a vice-principal on your side) so few ever try to correct her. Too bad really, she's usually very reasonable about it.

Take care,

Twilight





Dear Sunset,

I just got a letter from Rainbow. She came back from The Line yesterday. Unfortunately things didn't go too well. It sounds like her squad came across a chaos spawn called a lava hound. (It's exactly what it sounds like.) She and one recruit got away with some burns and bruises. The rest of her squad were less fortunate.
I know it's hard, I've lost a few of my children before, industrial accidents mainly. Only a few so far, luckily, but it still hurts. Now I know they weren't Rainbow's kids, but they were her squadmates and her friends.I think what's really getting to her though is that they were under her command, her responsibility. Too bad she can't hold a Day of Mourning for them. She wrote that she'll have some leave after her tour of duty is done and she'll come visit the hive, I'll be able to talk to her face to face then.
Until then, who knows. I'll see if I can't find some other way to help her, maybe I'll try getting in touch with Spitfire. She's bound to have some experience on the subject.

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

that's horrible, I hope she's doing okay. Give her condolences from me and the girls. They took it rather hard as well. (Rarity and Fluttershy actually fainted this time, and the rest of us didn't do much better. I've never seen Pinkie that down before.) That being said, what exactly is a Day of Mourning? I don't think you ever mentioned that.

Best wishes, to you and Rainbow,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

thank you for your well wishes. It really means a lot.
To answer your question, the day of mourning is a tradition Queen Yumia started. For now I could handle grieving for every drone I lost, but when the time comes that the first of my children die from old age, I'd pretty much be grieving constantly and, callous as it may sound, a queen can't afford to get bogged down like that. Hence we save our grief for the Day of Mourning. The ceremony takes several hours and is held in a linkscape, a recreation of The Gateway, the mythical way into the Silver City (the changeling equivalent of Elysium). Essentially it's a ceremonial sendoff to the Silver City.
It's a sad event but it's surprisingly therapeutic. Few things provide as much catharsis to a grieving mother as a grieving hivemind. I would explain it if I could, but I can't. The feeling is beyond comparison.

Again, thank you, all of you,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

I'd say I understand, but I really don't and I don't think I ever will. But that's okay, I suppose. Nothing that can be done about it.
Anyways the tension before the games has risen further. Now it's affecting the girls as well. Pinkie and Rainbow got up to some mischief today. I guess they were still a bit shaken after yesterday's ... revelation. I really can't think of any other reason for them to think that spying on CPA's PE practice was even a remotely good idea.
Apparently most of what happened there consisted of Pinkie very much not being stealthy but not being noticed, probably by virtue of being Pinkie Pie. It all ended with Rainbow getting so annoyed that she yelled something along the lines of "IT MEANS BEING QUIET!", which, of course, got everyone's attention.
After that they made a rather quick exit, at least from what they told me.
At this point I really just want these games to finally happen. Sure I'm looking forward to them too, but recently everyone has been going a bit loopy.

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

I don't think I'll be teaching that technique to any of my spies. (Sure we're going the Equestrian way most of the time, but a changeling hive without spies is a rather absurd concept. And even Equestria has secret agencies.) I really hope everyone calms down after the games are over.
In other news, Rainbow finished her tour of duty and arrived yesterday. She also brought along a letter from Spitfire. Apparently she sat Rainbow down and had a talk with her. She seems better. I don't know what Spitfire told her, the letter didn't say, and I sure won't ask her. At any rate, I hope she can get over it.

Twilight





Dear Sunset,

well, the day has come, a few hours ago the S.G.C.V. Ashes of the Phoenix launched.
Now there's still a few shakedown cruises and fine calibrations to do, but it won't be long before she is fully ready to do her job.
Mother has notified the home guard to call in a Summit to decide over the right to my crown and a few days from now Rarity will arrive here as well. Assuming everything goes to plan, I'll set out to found my own hive very soon.

I'll keep you updated,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

congratulations, I was wondering when that ship would be ready. Sounds like things are coming together for you. After what you told me I'm still kinda worried about the whole summit thing, I trust those other queens about as far as I can throw them. (without using telekinesis, that is).
Give my greetings to Rainbow and to Rarity when she arrives,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

well, it's happened. We just got a letter from Ponyville. Pinkie has a foal.
More specifically a colt. She named him Pie Slice. Spike sent the letter personally.
Meanwhile things are moving along in the jungle. The Homeguard has announced that Queen Silandrus set the Summit to be held five days from now. I'll agree with you, things are coming together. The Phoenix is tested, calibrated and loaded up, a flying hive that I can take straight to the summit and beyond. We have plans and back-up plans in place. Rarity and Rainbow love the Phoenix. (In fact, Rarity's first reaction to the Phoenix was not unlike her first reaction to Stripped gear, if a little more subdued)
I'm actually getting rather excited about it,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

give my congratulations to Pinkie, she was rather quick, wasn't she? Then again, it's Pinkie Pie, what do I expect?
The girls and I give our congratulations to Pinkie and wish you good luck for the Summit.

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

well, it's done. I am now an officially recognized Queen. Of course the other queens managed to attach a stipulation to that. They voted to give me my queen status immediately and give me the mission to find our original homeland and bring back artefacts. For that purpose, We'll begin our expedition into the Ebony Castle tomorrow. Let's hope we find those archives.
The moment I came back aboard the Phoenix I basically landed in the middle of a party.
Now there is one thing that the other queens don't know, they would of course assume that me going out on my own to found my own hive would mean that I'd separate my half of the hivemind from mother's. That is not the case but neither one of us really sees any reason to correct the others on that little misconception.

Your now officially crowned friend,

Queen Twilight Sparkle





Dear Twilight,

that's wonderful. Congratulations from all of us. Now I'm very intrigued what you'll find in that castle.
Hoping all goes well on your expedition,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

I'll try to keep my emotions in check for this letter.
In short, this could have gone better. As it turns out, rather than an archive, the Ebony Castle has something called the Chamber of Chitin. This place had some extreme defensive measures. First of all, a pure blooded changeling couldn't even see the chamber, my children and I only could because we are hybrids. To the home guard and to Ratchet the chamber was entirely invisible until we managed to nullify that specific enchantment.
The problematic part was that the real security system was a brain imprint in a crystal, made of an ancient queen named Tia'vil'yet. First she tried to take control of my children and myself. I was fully immune and it seems intelligent drones are rather difficult to dominate, especially 20 at once. But she was able to paralyze them so I had no other choice but to temporarily make them psychically deaf. That way neither me nor her could control them.
At first she thought I was being stupid, but, again, she failed to adjust for intelligent drones. Unfortunately she could easily control the Home guard. The whole thing turned into a battle. In the end I managed to short out her barriers using a bullet as a conduit (the chamber was older than the techniques to combine physical and magical wards into one.) and knock her off of the pedestal that was feeding her from a leyline, thus breaking her hold on the home guard.
I lost four of my children in that battle and quite a few more were injured, Including Captain Thoran of the Home Guard, apparently Aegis thought shooting him in the leg with a pistol was included in 'non-lethal' means to subdue them.
But we did find some things. It seems many of the records in the chamber were kept on chitin plates. (Hence the name, I'd assume.) One of those records spoke of some interesting things. A 'lone spire' with 'crystal caves', 'equid' 'sun worshipers' appearing after a 'sudden cold' ... All that leads me to one conclusion, and it is amusingly ironic.
We'll see if you draw the same conclusion,

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

I'm sorry for your loss, I would say more on that, but the fact of the matter is that I can't. I have no idea what it's like.
Now to your findings. Call me crazy but equid sun worshippers after a sudden cold, that sounds a lot like the story of Hearth’s Warming Eve to me. And crystal caves in a lone spire. If that isn't a description of Canterlot, I don't know what is.
I can see the irony. And again, I'm sorry,

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

yes that was my conclusion as well. In fact, in the time it took your answer to arrive we have departed the jungles and held the Day of Mourning. We'll arrive in Canterlot airspace around noon today. I just hope we won't give too many ponies in Canterlot flashbacks of the invasion four years ago. We'll see what we can find in the mines below the city.

Twilight





Dear Twilight,

say, did something happen to Rainbow on your end? Because during first term Rainbow on our end suddenly started turning purple for no discernible reason. It stopped after her head was purple but we have no idea of how that happened.
Did anything happen on your end?

Sunset





Dear Sunset,

this is highly fascinating. this could mean our worlds really are more closely connected than we thought. Yes, these changes were caused this side of the mirror. Aegis found a circlet that apparently managed to take a template of her. After Rainbow put it on, she started changing to match the template. Once we figured out what was happening, I took the circlet off her and the changes stopped immediately. On this end, Rainbow is now partially a changeling. We have no way to revert these changes in the immediate future, so I'm afraid both Rainbows will have to live with this for a while,

Twilight