> Rival Chitin
>  by PactOfSkyranger
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Explanations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

First off, let’s tackle Elytra’s backstory.
Elytra Necros is an artificial changeling monarch (concept from Braggart and the Bug) who has lived in Equestria peacefully, either as himself or the mysterious Torpor Trance. Born Ellis Robins (and he has another name I plan to reveal in the far future of this story, one he didn’t know about,) he has some questions about his birth, but he doesn’t let these rule him.

One Thousand Years ago, he took the form of Eternal Twilight (design and name from Saphroneth’s MLP Time Loops) and exiled both princesses, taking Celestia’s form in an agreed compromise known as the Millenial Falsity. From this, Elytra took willing love for Celestia into his hive. To the day the series begins, only one pony has actually legitimately found him out: Moondancer, who Elytra has installed as his regent should something unexpected pop up or should Elytra take a trip somewhere he cannot effectively govern the hive.

Elytra’s hive is split up into seven tiers: the Ordinary, the Trusted, the Husks, the Broken, the Vectors, the Eyes, and Elytra’s Honor Guard. Another unofficial tier, the Sensors, concerns Elytra’s human contacts.

HONOR GUARD
This tier is only bestowed to six of Elytra’s changelings: Toraxia, Paryniax, Ryxias, Sylkia, Arthroa, and Flitterwing. If you want to know what these changelings look like, follow these steps.
1. Look at the story Sexy Changes.
2. Look at Reclamation: Bolstering Ranks. I will have it on this site soon, but for now, you can see it here: https://www.deviantart.com/unitedas1/art/Reclamation-Bolstering-Ranks-829186070
3. Look at the snippet Download.Mane6, which is fourth from the bottom.
4. Imagine them as normal quadrupedal changelings in that same appearance.
5. Yes, that’s them.

TRUSTED
The Trusted are Elytra’s main few changelings; Pupa, Roach, D’v, Gossamer, and his main stand-in, Aracha. (Aracha is introduced in Chapter 3.)

ORDINARY
Ordinary changelings in the Necrosian Hive are the second-largest tier of the hive, handling most of the day-to-day operation.

HUSKED
Husked changelings consist of a special biomantically engineered changeling type similar to A: Royals in Friendship Bling and Changing Things, and B: Recarn’s nymphs from Forever a Changeling, known as Husklings. Husklings have full autonomy by themselves, but their minds are usually incapable of storing any memories, placing them into the Archive. This is because a Huskling is meant to act as a redundancy for if Elytra, his Honor Guard, or any of his friends are gravely injured and in immediate danger of dying, or “ceasing vital, aural, and mental functions.” They are equipped with the same kind of hollow fangs as a Recarnian changeling for if they need to save a pony or creature, but are also equipped with hive mind receptors that allow a changeling on Elytra’s “amplitude” to transfer their consciousness and form into them. Because of this, and the fact that changelings are only marginally better armoured than a pony, Husklings are split into three kinds: the Sleepers, the Hidden, and the Royals.

Royals are engineered to have Elytra’s innate physical traits. More on that in a moment.
Hidden are made for urban transfers, and tend to be generic background ponies. They are also the usual medium of the Recarn Method.
Sleepers are Husklings made from half of the “ceased” changeling carapaces.

BROKEN
The Broken are completely subservient changelings created from creatures that were converted, then psionically crushed to have no semblance of their own lives. This usually happens to the changelings that commit crimes by the Hive’s laws, but Bolstering Ranks’ first snippet (the Conversion Bureau one) will tell you that it also happens to anyone that breaks “rules of engagement” in a conflict Elytra has chosen to oversee. It is a crime to Break a changeling without good reason.

VECTORS
Anyone who’s read Back to the Swarm can tell you what a vector changeling looks like and is. Vectors act as the medical backbone of changelings, carrying the changeling medical mutagen Necrosia (which is humanely made with the other half of the “ceased” carapaces) wherever it is needed. For reasons in this book and another that might not pass approval here (Obelisk and Anti-Villainy, which segued into MIMF through Twivine Travels,) Elytra is not short on Necrosia, but does not use it due to the Necrosian Hive’s laws.

EYES
The Eyes are everywhere. They are the main surveillance network of Elytra’s hive, and their influence stretches... farther than you’d think. After all, a changeling, as Ocellus demonstrated, can be anywhere, anyone, and anything it wishes... Of course, the Eyes are never explicitly mentioned in the story, since their whole purpose is to slip through detection and collect information.

SENSORS
The Sensors will be covered in Chapter 2. They are a magical surveillance network consisting of Sci-Twi and my other OC, Astartes Cinch, Abacus’ nephew and the son of a certain miss Megan... Anything concerning Equestrian Magic goes through them to Elytra through codenames, such as Sci-Twi’s own highly wordy codename of Sufficiently Advanced Technology Is Indistinguishable From Magic (SATIIFM.)

LAWS
You are not allowed to replace an innocent creature, save for with royal approval.
You are not allowed to convert any creature into a changeling with the use of Necrosia, magic, or any other medium, save for with royal approval or good reason.
You are not allowed to Break an innocent changeling, save for with royal approval.
Royal Approval must be claimed directly from King Elytra Necros, or in his absence, Regent Moondancer or Honor Guard Toraxia.
You must bring your reason before the appropriate ponies/changelings to claim innocence on grounds of having a good reason.

HOW CHANGELINGS WORK IN THIS WORLD
Different changeling hives are determined by their Amplitude, the Frequency being their individual psionic identifier.
A changeling has three different types of energy: Psionic, Magical, and of course, Emotional. Emotional energy such as Love is the most common means of using changeling abilities.
A sufficient sustained dose of Love Energy can rewire a changeling to the offering Amplitude. (Idea from Shining Chitin)
Magical energy and Love Energy can be used to retune or disable objects containing an invasive Amplitude.
Changelings can use special talents with sufficient effort.
-Heart’s Artifice creates a dense but light crystal with different names depending on the emotion used that can be shaped into all sorts of things. Being derived from Love, Amoritite, the most common, is an antithesis to love-averse things such as Umbrum and their Atapriax, or Umbrum Crystal, that they produce,mirroring how the Crystal Heart’s light and love is anathema to umbrum entities such as Sombra and Rabia. Amoritite is also a good binding crystal for harmonic energy, which is how a blade of it can house a sliver of the Elements of Harmony‘s power. Elytra, with love to go around (mainly from his tenure as Celestia and his tendency to drink himself silly with love poison,) has quite a bit of skill with this.
-Biomancy is a magical changeling science of fleshcraft. Theoretically, it can create a clone of a pony, and in some worlds (looking at you, Nation of Love,) the talent has been used to create a sort of Matrix, with “pony” things sentient enough to feel love, but only just so. However, Elytra’s experiments in changeling constructs such as illusion pods violate less ethical constraints than the Omnifaria Love Factory, since the tests are consensual and involve no form of imprisonment (really, the pods are meant to be a sort of changeling virtual reality/game streaming device that harvests love.) Elytra is much less practiced in biomancy than Heart’s Artifice.
Every changeling in this world can digest love poison, but it will render them unconscious while the poison is converting the artificial infatuation into love energy.

ELYTRA’S OWN ABILITIES
As I mentioned before, Elytra is skilled in shaping things from love energy, and a good amount less skilled in making a Pony Matrix, the Biological Clock, or cloning ponies. (After all, his biggest feat of biological engineering used a foot-powered glass chamber to save the minds of the Mane 6.) He is, however, well skilled in sword craft, which brings me to his innate physique.

Elytra’s physique is that of a changeling monarch (think male Chrysalis,) and though he doesn’t use the more intimate parts of this physique as implied by other worlds (FAMILY STORY,) he does have a unique ability; his hooves contain clawed hands and feet, and he can actually call these out with a thought, which ties into his use of swordplay when friendship is not an option.
He prefers his Heart Blade, a mix between a short sword and a katana, and as I previously stated, a sword made of Amoritite like this can easily contain the power of the Elements of Harmony, giving the sword a unique smart function on par with... well, I don’t think you want to talk of Nintendo and Phillips’ retaliatory lovechildren against Sony’s exclusive rights to the Nintendo/Sony PlayStation’s games. Suffice to say, the sword will pass through an innocent pony with nothing but a tickle, but it will innately burn away at magical corruption such as a Nightmare Self or dark/evil entities such as an Umbrum. The sword has a sort of mind of its own, and can see the truth about its target, but it will never hurt an innocent creature (and for those asking, three things; someone who is blindly following along with evil entities is classed as innocent, Sonata Dusk is innocent enough to me that she is classed as innocent, and, due to the comic influences of this series, Discord is classed as Innocent in lieu of Cosmos.)
Elytra becoming a monarch has something to do with his family, but... no spoilers. What I can say is that he has hardened his mind, and the minds of his changelings, against mental assaults and magic. This makes them enter a sort of standby mode while the mental magic is worked out of their system. Sort of like an emergency shutdown. The standby removes their disguises and pulses their position to the rest of the hive. This will be important to remember later because of Discord.
As a counter point, Elytra has practiced ordinary pony hypnosis alongside Changeling hypnosis, and uses them as a sort of entertainment and tactical strategy.
However, Elytra and changelings do have one weakness; their colloquial vulnerability to Love Poison. You know, that stuff the Crusaders brewed up? A changeling digests it like the hardest cider, and imbibing enough will knock them out while the potion is worked through their system. On the plus side, it introduces artificial love energy into the supply, which for the Necrosian Hive is a communal trust that any changeling can draw from.
Elytra, like any changeling, knows how to pretend to be somepony, and he has had one thousand years of practice as Celestia, though these years were offset by body sharing with Celestia.
As compensation for the banishment, Elytra invoked two known variances of the Princesses: Sun Surfer Celestia from the MLP Loops, and Gamer Luna. As a response, Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker are less crazy, and Luna has worked through some of her angst at ruling the time of day everypony slept through, despite her efforts to garner interest.

CHANGES TO THE TIMELINE
Elytra, as Celestia, was motherly and moderately supportive to Sunset, but still stern enough that things went about ordinary.
Celestia and Luna were both banished, but Elytra took Celestia’s role through the Millenial Falsity. Celestia saw what he did, heard what he did, and contributed input for courts.
Sci-Twi, with Astartes, has gathered copious knowledge on how magical energy works, but she is about canon levels in her own research come Equestria Girls.
Twilight and her friends, due to Elytra, know what a changeling is. Due to Elytra’s plans, however, they will have no idea about Chrysalis.
Elytra has installed contingencies for the events of the splinter timelines in Cutie Re-Mark.
Starlight and Sunburst learning of each other’s current states due to D’v and Gossamer.
Elytra and Gossamer were leaders of music groups.
If you’ve read all of Bolstering Ranks, then you know of how Elytra sacrificed all of his hive’s love energy at a point 20 years before the story in a universe similar to The Broken Bond. He still hasn’t recovered all that energy.
> Timeline of Elytra’s hive and the Sensors, v2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

BTS: Before the Story
1007: Elytra acquires his first subjects and becomes a full-fledged changeling monarch. He bears witness to Cosmos being sealed away, as well as Discord.
1007-1001: Elytra grows his power, adapts his changelings to be able to process love poison, and creates the first Husklings. Elytra vacations to Abyssinia and meets the Harborian Hive, whose queen, Harborage, teaches him the art of Heart's Artifice. Panthera is conquered in late 1001, and Harborage is rushed to the Necrosian Hive for treatment, which arrives a moment too late. The Harborians are annexed/given sanctuary by the Necrosians, eventually becoming the Necris Harborians.
1000: Elytra interferes with the fight between Celestia and Nightmare Moon, demands the Diarchs create the first "Symbol of the Two Sisters" eclipse, and seals them away, though not without striking a deal with Celestia and granting the two gifts to entertain them. The Millenial Falsity begins.
998: Elytra from the future gives Snowdrop an age crystal that keeps her young until she can reunite with Luna.

Pre-Twilight
20: Elytra sacrifices the Necrosian Trust to the Flutter Valley Sisters in an instance of The Broken Bond in exchange for Starlight Glimmer’s horn.
Before 11: The Sunset Shimmer Gala Disaster happens when Sunset throws an entire case of kanab into a fire. Elytra narrowly avoids a sexual scandal that would shake Canterlot.
11: Sunset Shimmer becomes curious about the Crystal Mirror, eventually being removed as Royal Protege and escaping to the human world with an enchanted crystal pocket mirror, thinly veiled stories of the past, and a song whose true lyrics are known by heart alone.

Immediate lead-up
Before 10: Twilight becomes Celestia’s personal student (and earns her Cutie Mark) thanks to an unexplained blast of color, which, unknown to most, has also affected five other specific ponies and allowed them to discover their Cutie Marks at the same time. The day is christened the Day of Destiny.
Alternate: The Day of Divergence happens when Rainbow Dash fails to produce the Rainboom. Twilight gives up on her dreams of attending CSGU, and Elytra and Celestia prepare contingencies for the splinter timelines that occur, mainly the Sombraverse and Changelingverse.
10 The first of Elytra’s changelings awaken.
Some point in between: Moondancer discovers Elytra and the Millenial Falsity, and is named Elytra’s regent.
3: The last of Elytra’s changelings awaken.
One month before 0: Elytra replaces the human Twilight for a week, founds the Sensors with her and Astartes, and leaves them to monitor fluctuations of Equestrian Magic.

?: Elytra and one of his changelings, Gossamer, start up music careers as earth ponies Forest Stagg and Butterfly Orchid respectively. Their music, in the groups known as the Stag Beetles and the Orchid Mantids, inspires Coloratura, and by association, Applejack finds her own appreciation for the group.
?: Elytra and Gossamer end their music careers as Forest Stagg and Butterfly Orchid by dropping their disguises while performing the Chipmunks/Chippettes’ International Music Awards mix. (Fitting, right? Born This Way, Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now, and Firework.) Despite the stigma, Coloratura reveres the Stag Beetles and Orchid Mantids for their willingness to just be who they really are, even if they are changelings.
?: As Celestia, Elytra confronts Chrysalis after the Fall of Trot. The encounter leaves Chrysalis and her changelings permanently scarred with holes riddling their bodies.

Season 1
0: The Millenial Falsity comes to its close. Elytra aligns the stars to break the seal on the Diarchs, and Twilight awakens the Elements. The residual magic from both Nightmare Forms mixes into a single filly, Zoravespre, who Falak adopts.

Snowdrop, the blind pegasus who created the first snowflake as a filly, finally reunites with Princess Luna. Luna is surprised to see her, but overjoyed she got to live to see Luna return.

Elytra’s Trusted subtly alter the destinies of Cozy Glow, Sunburst, Starlight Glimmer, and Tempest Shadow.

Side-plane: The Lunaverse manifests.

Cutoff point
> Me and the Snowdrop
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

So you know how I was born, right? King Elytra? Synthetic changeling monarch?

Well, I wasn't totally locked to equine shape. My hands had clawed fingers, and they could retract to leave flat hooves.

Heck, my bone structure could reconfigure into a bipedal form, anthro or human! Synth for life.

Well, after that, plus finding out that Fal made it so that we can influence the narrative by saying things, I decided to do three things.

First, I made a legend in an iteration of Fourth Equestria about a changeling king who created his own identity as a hypnotist and received love for it. This was before Nightmare Moon, and that “iteration” is where our story finds its anchor.

The second thing I did was sing Lullaby for a Princess to Luna, then threaten to shroud the land in eternal twilight by setting a thick cloud cover aflame.

That, I did while looking like Eternal Twilight, and demanded Luna and Celestia set the sun and moon into an eclipse, at which point I exiled them with the Elements and took command of Equestria as Celestia for the thousand years while allowing them to resume the celestial axis.

The last thing I did was take command of the kingdom under Celestia's image and fudge the truth to the world, keeping things “canon,” as nit picky variant notifiers would say, and the adoration kept me alive for the thousand years of exile. (Give or take that messy business with the eldritch versions of Ponyland’s Flutter Valley Sisters.) Snowdrop, Luna's friend, was visited each night by Luna in her dreams, consoling her.

I gave them a promise that on the thousandth year, the exile would break and they would see each other again. I gave them each something to do in the mean time: Celestia got a magic diamond surfboard that could ride the prominences of the sun as waves, and Luna got a game system and a progressive theatre of games AND MLP canon.

I also struck a deal with Celestia; she could control my body on the condition that she could reveal nothing of the charade we had set.

This was our secret. This was our Millenial Falsity.

And it was pretty airtight.



At long last, the day came; the thousandth Summer Sun Festival. I gave it the unofficial name of the Day of Eclipse to honor the historically unsaid parts, but to all Equestria, it was always and forevermore the Summer Sun Celebration.

Of course, Daybreaker and Nightmare had gone a little stir crazy, only having so much to do, so it was up to Twilight, who I had taken as student on the fateful Day of Destiny (That’s what I called that fateful day where the six all got their Cutie Marks,) to gather the Elements.

Nothing was different. I assumed my form as Celestia, and Twilight's letter appeared in front of me. I quickly wrote the evidence that would end the charade and set in motion the events. (Not to mention setting the time-delay spell to align the stars and break the seal.)

Dear Twilight Sparkle,
I know the day is coming, but I tell you this in all confidence: Mere study will not stop Nightmare Moon, nor will it stop another.

I require you to stop reading books. You must seize the highest power of Equestria in order to stop the Diarchs; not just the Elements of Harmony, but the Magic of Friendship itself.

That said, I have a confession to make...

I hitched my breath for a moment, the thought of revealing myself still giving me a few goosebumps, but continued writing nonetheless.

I'm not the real Celestia Dawnschild. The real Celestia, I imprisoned on the sun, just as I did Luna with the moon. My real name is Elytra Necros, king of the Necrosian Changelings. I took the form of Eternal Twilight, an Infinitan alicorn born of your own mind, and threatened the sky with blazing clouds unless the diarchs created an eclipse.

I then proceeded to banish them BOTH with the Elements of Harmony, at which point the gems turned to orbs of stone and Magic vanished. To protect the kingdom, Celestia and I devised the Millenial Falsity; I would assume Celestia's visage and role, the willing adoration sustaining me all these years, and we even devised a way to communicate with each other and for Celestia to project her consciousness into my disguised carapace, so in a way, you were still being mentored by Celestia.

I chuckled a bit at that, before sighing and continuing.

I know you have long been confused by the reason we celebrated the Day of Destiny since your acceptance as my student. The reason is simple; that is when you and five other ponies received your cutie marks due to a singular event; a Sonic Rainboom. I am sending you to oversee preparations for the Day of Eclipse, otherwise known as the Summer Sun Celebration, in Ponyville. Your task:

STOP READING BOOKS AND MAKE SOME FRIENDS, FOR THE LOVE OF FAUST!

Still, I have arranged for you to stay in the Golden Oaks Library, since I know you still and will always love your reading.

I am also stepping down as ruler to clear the way for the rightful rulers of Equestria. I will be going as well and watching you, but you'll never see me coming... at least not as me, specifically. Your lesser task is to find the ponies capable of embodying the other Elements: Generosity, Honesty, Laughter, Kindness, and Loyalty. From there, the spark of every heart will do the rest. I have a feeling those other five ponies (which includes the one who produced the Rainboom) are going to be very interesting.

TL;DR: My dearest, most faithful student Twilight, you know that I value your diligence and that I trust you completely, but you simply must stop reading those dusty old books! My dear Twilight, there is more to a young pony’s life than studying, so I’m sending you to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in this year’s location; Ponyville, and I have an even more essential task for you to complete; Make some friends.

Truly speaking as me this time, King Elytra.

P.S: Don't hurt Luna. Snowdrop has really been looking forward to the day she could reunite with her friend.

P.P.S: The elements have a longer shelf life if you DON'T use them for banishing. Petrifying a being of chaos is morally ambiguous, but it isn't banishing, so they'll still be active.

P.P.P.S: Your foalsitter has had eyes on your brother.

P.S the fourth: The Crystal Empire's "banishment" is growing weak.

P.S very important: The Gala is always horrible. Also, you won't have the Elements forever. Thank/blame Discord for that.

P.S this is a long list of postscripts: The library I arranged for you to stay in is most likely going to be destroyed by a mad centaur from Tartarus if you ever become an alicorn. I am not even kidding.

P.S vindication: I gave Celestia an enchanted surfboard to surf the prominences, and I gave Luna two things; a promise she'll see Snowdrop again, and a portable game console pack with lots of games and an infinite power source.

I thought for a moment, then added,

P.S the final: I'm going to find a very special mirror, and if it's not been thirty moons, I am going to dig out Celestia’s correspondence book with Sunset Shimmer (your very ambitious predecessor,) confess myself in short terms, build a charger for the portal, get out of dodge, and slap her on the back of the head.

I then sent the letter back, and her cry of confusion reached all the way back to the throne room. I then dismissed my disguise, dug out the mirror, and placed my hand on it. It didn't work. I dug out the book, wrote Wrong Celly. I'm a changeling. Sorry it had to be this way. in it, built the charger, and went through.



Sunset felt the book buzz, opened it, and saw a message.

Wrong Celly. I'm a changeling. Sorry it had to be this way.

"What," was her simple response, before a clawed hand smacked into the back of her head and absconded with a mix between mad trolling laughter and a buzz.

What was that?, Wallflower Blush gaped.



Okay, now to be nopony nopony knows already.

I made and went through a portal to Ponyville, shifted into my old familiar form of Torpor Trance, an earth pony with a telltale gold watch and spiral cutie mark, as well as eyes that sparked with rings of color that fluctuated when I concentrated, and donned Torpor's trademark spiral opal medallion and glasses.

I walked out, sending a letter to Moondancer that detailed the exact reason Twilight couldn't make it to the party (and sending Spike's freshly repaired gift with it,) and couldn't keep a prance out of my step.

Moondancer had her scientific magic models, sure, everypony knows that, but what you don't know which applies is she could use them to so great an effect, she actually was the first pony to know what I was! Apparently, a model about pony arcane wavelengths gave her a bit more notice of my inevitable flicker of green.

The one thing I can’t entirely nail in a body-share situation is the magic aura, you see. Tends to flicker when the other pony in the link feeds me the right things to say. I usually assume nopony will notice, and nopony seems to.

Anyway, I was finally going to step down as the acting leader of Equestria, and she would be my first friend through that. What better friend than the first one to see through my ruse? (And no, I don’t mean that in certain contexts of “Changeling Courtship,” we’re actually pretty decent friends by pony standards.)

After all, with ONE THOUSAND BUCKING YEARS of being the big authority figure of Celestia, I needed an ordinary friend.



It was around the time Twilight and Moondancer had their salt lick experiment, you see. It was amazing how similar the two of them looked before all the growing.

"Now, now, my little ponies," I said in Celestia's motherly tone, "while I do find Lemon's head being stuck in an Erlenmare flask funny," I continued as I levitated the two things apart, "I believe you need to focus."

Moondancer was the only one who seemed to gape at me, and asked me to step out of the class.

The moment we were out of sight and earshot, she snapped, "I noticed something about your horn's aura, it seemed to flicker between Celestia's yellow and a green shade."

My face remained stoic, but I was surprised on one thing. "How were you the only one able to notice it, though? I mean, I haven't got any illusion spells to hide it from anypony." Moondancer was surprised she was the only one, and demanded some modicum of explanation. "I'll tell you in the gardens after I raise the moon," I said.




(3rd Person POV)




True to form, Moondancer saw Celestia in the garden. She chose to observe what Celestia did, when suddenly, green fire engulfed her and an insectoid black pony with a flowing blue mane, a pointed horn, and gossamer transluscent wings, the pony(?) beginning to sing to seemingly nopony.

Fate had been cruel, and order unkind
It was I who sent them away...
The blame fell to both, and both vilified
The harmony's silent today...

Now into the stillness I bring them a song
And we shall their company keep
'Till their tired eyes, and my lullabies
Have carried us all into sleep...

"Moondancer, come out. It's time you knew the story I've kept with me...," the creature said in a warm voice almost like Celestia, but deeper. More like a... Solaris. At that, the filly froze for a moment, but realized the creature meant no harm, and walked to the figure in front of her as it continued...

Once did the pony who shines like the sun
look out on the kingdom and sigh
She smiled and said, "Surely there is nopony
so lovely and so well beloved as I!"
So great was her reign, so brilliant her glory
that long was the shadow she cast,
Which fell upon Luna, young sister she loved
And grew only darker as days and nights passed...
Soon did Celestia notice that others
did not give young Luna her due
And neither had she loved her as she deserved;
She watched as the nightmare's reality grew...
But such is the way of the limelight; it sweetly takes hold of the mind of its host
And foolish Celestia did naught to stop the destruction of Luna, who needed her most
Lullay, diarchs, goodnight sisters divine
Rest now in light's warm embrace
Bear up this lullaby, winds of the earth
through cloud and through sky and through space...
Carry to Luna the peace of the night
And bring Celly's sorrow in kind...
Luna, you're loved so much more than you know
Strifes far from your minds, end the fight...

And remember the clouds of twilight...

"As a changeling,” the creature - the fake Celestia, Moondancer realized - explained, “I was able to take up my own villainous identity, Eternal Twilight, and threatened both of them with blazing clouds of a dusk eternal if they didn't create an eclipse as a concession. They complied, and I banished them both to the respective celestial bodies.” It winked. “With a present for each, of course." It then continued.

The years now before me, fearful and unknown
But with her great visage, I face them on my own...
Now those thousand winters, Snowdrop's seen them pass
I fear them, revere them, comfort that young lass...

Moondancer took up the song, understanding just what it was he was singing about.

May all their dreams be sweet tonight
Safe on beds of sun-and-moon's light
And know not of sadness, pain, or care
And when we dream, we'll fly away and meet them there
Sleep...
Sleep...
"Sleep..." they sung together as the moon, bearing Luna's visage, set below the horizon and Celestia's sun, marked with a silhouette of the mare that seemed to mirror the Mare in the Moon that was only visible for a second, rose into the sky.

Moondancer then remembered why she was called here. "What are you?," she asked the creature, who shook his head, for it was surprisingly a he, and said, "I am King Elytra Necros, a synthetic changeling monarch, and before you ask, I have been doing this in Celestia's name for the entire time between the banishment and the future return. Even struck a deal with Celly that, using a spell, she can control my body-in-her-form on the condition that she do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to ruin the illusion that Celestia was never banished to the sun. Technically, this is a big concession on my part, as I'm the only one who can actually reveal this. It's a secret to everypony, just between us, 'kay?"

He held up his hoof, and Moondancer took it, awed at the firmness of the black chitin. devoid of any holes unlike the changelings that belonged to another “hive” led by someling named “Queen Chrysalis.” He would later explain this was both to denote him not being one of her changelings, and because he was the one who shot those holes into her at the invasion of Trot.

"Still can't believe she tricked that dragon into freeing her from the volcano...," he muttered, before launching into the origin of the first changelings, of which Chrysalis’ hive was apparently part of.

"Accounts through the multiverse vary, from flutter ponies devastated by a maelstrom or sacrificed to stop the Hydian Smooze to Chrysalis being tricked by King Sombra, but the common account, and the one applying in this particular world, is this; Once upon a time, there was a swamp below a cemetery. One day, a rotten acorn fell to this swamp and quickly grew into a gnarled tree that would devour all that came into the waters of the swamp, be they simple insects or the bones of those that had fallen into the swamp before. Eventually, however, Starswirl the Bearded came upon this swamp and, sensing its malevolence, dubbed it the Probably Magic Swamp. He hammered a sign into the gnarled tree with his magic and soon after departed, oblivious to what he had unleashed. For the tree had developed a fissure, and it is from that breach that the Changelings, and Chrysalis, burst forth."

He then relaxed and said, "Of course, that's just the natural-born's story. Synthetic changelings are made and unmade from an exposure to liquidated changeling essence known as Necrosia, and injections are by far the more time-effective method the way into the fold. We're stronger, but all the memories makes us wildcards, so Chryssi, or more favorably moral for her a changeling impersonating her - yes, it happened in one world - would elect to suppress their freedom. Being a monarch from conversion? Happy surprise; means no changeling can shackle me and I'm top of the roost. Of course, conversion of others is a nearly forbidden topic, and I don't deal with any nymphs, thankfully."

Moondancer blushed embarrassedly, thinking of how it must be to identify as male and suddenly be charged-




(1st Person, Elytra)




[b)AHEM! Personal matters, this is a family show's fanfic! Anyway, Moondancer's embarrassment was allayed by my discussion of the fact that the transfer of love can rewire a changeling's hive mind “Amplitude,” and we QUICKLY moved from that topic.

Okay, long story short, I gave Moondancer a lot of knowledge on changelings and how to make a derivative spell of changeling magic, and we became fast friends. Now, can we finally get to the meat of the tale? This is hard enough to transcribe into its own direction away from Kid and Filly without going into changeling flank-bumping!



Anyway, Moondancer met me at Sugarcube Corner.

I had made sure there would be no court, and Moondancer had decided to move her party from the west castle courtyard to the library with Pinkie. (Though I did contribute a fair amount of, well, PORTALING THE WHOLE PARTY.)

So that’s good; Moondancer knew about what Twilight was doing here, and the two didn’t drift apart too much!

Moondancer had seen me as Torpor Trance before, and Pinkie had been commissioned for his party, so really, Twilight's party would be the only thing left on the list. We kept the party's move a secret, and I had written a secret message to Yearling about a certain set of magic jewels. As Celestia, I found one of the stars and knew not to wear it, so I set her up another adventure.

Dear Daring Do,
It has come to my attention that a grave threat looms in the darkness. The gem I have sent with this letter is no ordinary bauble; it is one of the six Stars of Andalusia, gems that fell from the sky perhaps years ago.

If these gems are found and brought together by six ponies strong enough to embody the spirit sealed within them, it will spell the return of the Terror from the Stars herself, Discord's crazy ex-girlfriend and doer of things worse than anything he ever did; Cosmos. I appreciate if “A.K Yearling” needs time, being assailed by Caballeron, Ahuizotl and the like, but this threat took the Elements, King Aspen, the Abyssinian King, Queen Novo, and even Discord to seal away! I can't say much here, but the other gems lay...

In the forest where no pony dares to tread...
In the kingdom lost to a cruel king...
In a shadowy desert airship town south of all Equestria...
In the eyries of the Griffons...

Oh yes, and there was one in a necklace at a flea market in Ponyville. Note that you're going to have to wait for the empire, and I don't know when the flea market will have the necklace. If you hear a voice from the gems telling you to find the rest, immediately disregard the urge to adorn yourself with it, lock it away somewhere that dampens its magic, and then resume looking for the gems.

Yours, a concerned pony named Torpor Trance.

I idly swung my medallion, contemplating how me and my small hive of “failed infiltrators” to my hive were going to do this. I fed them with the love I had stored from the years, and me and Moondancer had taken to co-leading, despite her being adamant about not being converted. When Twilight spotted us, she insisted we come along. Moondancer explained who my disguise was, and we set off for Sweet Apple Acres.



"Oh, I have a cousin, Crystal Love, over in the badlands," I fabricated.

"That must be interesting," Twilight pressed.

"Oh, yeah," I said, "especially since she's been working in a place that blocks almost all magic."

"Well, what does she do?"

"She works in... shall we say, espionage and outsourced work. She's the leader of a huge network of nearly undetectable spies called Chrysalis, and while he has less operatives than her, my other cousin mainly receives them from her.”

Not a total lie; Chrysalis had sent a fair few drones to try and get me out of the picture. Of course, having plentiful love shared by all, a little force-feed a la Shining Chitin rewired their Amplitude from her... to me.

“She isn't the most ethical boss, you see, but my cousin? He once boasted he could rule Equestria for a millenium and nopony would notice it unless he told them!"

Twilight raised an eyebrow at that, but we were already at the farm and meeting Applejack.

And her family, most of whom were in town for the festival. I could notice a faint whiff of love from the food. "You really made this with love, huh, Apples?"

A resounding "Right!," sang through the farm, to which I shouted, "That's what I love to see in food!"

I leeched the love from the food as I ate it, adding it to the common trust of the Necrosian Changelings, and we left to see Rainbow Dash and Rarity.



"Okay, that is kind of funny, though it might be schadenfreude," I said as Twilight's mane poofed up.

She opened her mouth to point out I was poofy too, but after a stand passed between us, I shifted back to my ordinary clean-pressed self. Twilight was speechless, but quickly shook it off and introduced herself, while Moondancer didn’t seem to care about her poofy mane. (The nature of the stand is unknown.) Rainbow Dash then proceeded to voice her dream of joining the Wonderbolts, Twilight pointing out they wouldn’t admit a lazy sky-clearer.

“Hey, I could clear this sky in ten seconds flat!,” she retorted, following with a demonstration when Twilight pressed the subject.

“What’d I say? Ten. Seconds. Flat. I’d never leave Ponyville hangin’.” I showed the clock. Sure enough, it was ten seconds on the dot. “Haha, you should see the look on your face!,” she said while gliding about lazily. “Ha, you’re a laugh, Twilight Sparkle! I can’t wait to hang out some more!”

She then looked at me, shocked that I had turned into a duplicate behind Twilight’s back. I put a hoof to our muzzles, shifted back, and followed Twilight to meet Rarity.



”...no, no, no- Oh, goodness no!,” Rarity said, not noticing us as Spike became instantly smitten and began to groom himself.

“How are my spines? Are they straight?,” he asked Twilight, who just rolled her eyes and greeted Rarity.

“Just a moment, please! I’m in the zone, as ‘twere. Ah, yes,” Rarity said as she tied a sparkling red ribbon around the post, “sparkle always does the trick, does it not? Why, Rarity, you ARE a talent. Now, um,” she continued as she turned to Twilight, “how can I help you-whoa-ha-ha-oh! Oh my stars, DARLING! Whatever happened to your coiffure?”

Twilight dismissed the issue, but Rarity whisked us off to the Carousel Boutique, where while she was fitting Moondancer and Twilight, I perused some of the stallion’s formalwear and used my shape shifting to see how I would look in it while she tightened Twilight’s dress, pausing and smiling when she professed her dream of living in Canterlot. I contacted Celestia, but concerningly found nothing of the link between us. I shrugged and just winged it.

“Be that as it may, miss Rarity,” I said in a perfect imitation of Celestia’s voice, “I do not assume you, or even I, to know of the many mistreatments, racists, snobs, and less-than-proud parts of Canterlot.”

Twilight looked about, Moondancer smiled, and Rarity looked distraught, before focusing on the emeralds she had put on the dresses and resolving to replace them with rubies. Twilight left the dress, Moondancer following me as I went after her.



The birds seemed to know something was wrong with me.

Even though I got Twilight to be quiet, they pecked at me and somehow even sprained my neck before Fluttershy told them off.

“Okay, that hurt.” I opened a portal and gave a signal to my Vector, and it slipped through to give me a small shot of necrosia before retreating. Fluttershy and Twilight didn’t notice the small cracks of my neck fixing itself, Fluttershy taking interest in Spike as I shape shifted into Ember, my forehooves drawing their claws as I took my bipedal posture. Fluttershy squeaked at the sight of her, but when Twilight zapped me into the brush, I just left it there and played dumb.

“Did you see that dragoness?,” I asked in a flawless tone. “She wasn’t as big as the Dragon Lord, but she definitely had some tone.” Fluttershy just nodded and Twilight rolled her eyes, the three of us chatting all the way to the library, at which point I took her to the side, guided her and Moondancer into a gap in the party, and waited.



”Surprise!,” we all cried out as Twilight groaned, being accosted by Pinkie.

After things settled down, I yelled so people could hear me, “Who wants to play Elements and Nightmares with me? Let’s see, I’ll be the nightmare, and how about the Elements be... Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, aaaaand...” I turned to Twilight. “You! Okay, the six of you enter a forest, when suddenly, you are accosted by...”

I went behind a pillar and shifted into the form I had not used since the Falsity began, the “wicked” mare of the Time Betwixt Sun And Moon...

“The dastardly Eternal Twilight! You must reach the castle before her and her vile drake blot out the sun and moon alike in clouds of fire! Ahahahahaahahahaaa!”

Lord, it felt good to stretch these wings. The laugh was convincing enough, but Twilight just trotted up the stairs to bed.

Unfazed, I turned to the others. “Forgive her, she’s been like this the whole day because some special ponies are coming down from the stars tonight for the Celebration and she feels like all her magic knowledge is going to save us from their eeeeeviiiiillllll schemes!”

The party laughed, me giving a knowing wink to Moondancer and a suspiciously foreshadowing wink to the other ponies I chose for the game. “Now, if Moondancer will take Twilight’s place, we’ll start the game up again. First, Moondancer falls from a cliff, and Applejack, you take hold of her and tell her to let go despite the danger of the precipice?”

Applejack, confusedly, replied yes, and I said, “No sooner does she fall than Rainbow and Fluttershy catch her. Next...”



I watched as the stars converged, the moon losing its trademark mare, and felt the sun go a similar way. Pinkie’s comment on my vanishing act was punctuated by Luna, or Nightmare Moon, slinking down in a plume of blue fog-

Wait...

IS THAT A PILLAR OF FIRE?!

”Get back, everypony!,” I shouted as the pillar and the fog coalesced into the forms of Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker. I realized this was why Celestia had severed her link.

Twilight was confused about Daybreaker, a pure white mare with glowing slit orange eyes and a blazing mane of pure fire, while the two of them argued and vied for the crowds attention.

A tick of annoyance appeared on my head, and I used my rehearsed Eternal Twilight RCV to cut the tensions that were forming. “DO YOU WISH US TO SEAL YOU IN THE ECLIPSE AGAIN?!”

At this, the two turned to my form, which had once again shifted into the form of Eternal Twilight, black and purple, a wan light (that’s what it says on the seventh chapter of my Codex) emanating from me as my eyes flared, but this time, the mares seemed confident, and as it turned out, they kept up.

“Why, Luna? I gave you your trivial games, your sister as a partner to play with!” Nightmare Moon simply said, “WHY, THEN, WAS JUNG 5 REGAL ONLY FOR THE PLAYKIOSK 4?,” she retorted. “I don’t know why Equan Games hates putting main series Jung games on other consoles!”

Daybreaker said, “You always said we needed a trial for the Chosen Six, didn’t you, Eternal?!,” at which I said, “Well, I don’t think she was expecting you too, Princess!” At this, Daybreaker paused briefly, blazing up into the sky to place her sun in an eclipse with the moon, before both sisters retired to the towers of the ancient castle.

Twilight blinked the firelight from her eyes, asking what was next from me.

“Now? You play Elements and Nightmares for real. Me? Well-“

FWOOM

I was cut off by suddenly appearing in a dungeon cell in the ruins. I sighed, shrugged, changed my appearance to look dishevelled, and summoned my scrying glass.




(3rd Person)




Twilight finally understood some more of Elytra’s message.

Not only that, she understood that Torpor Trance, the stallion with a talent for hypnosis and eerily accurate disguises, was Elytra himself.

She knew she would have to bring five ponies with her to combat Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon.

Daybreaker... She was the other Elytra hinted at, she was-

“Girls,” Twilight said, “I think that Daybreaker mare was the real Celestia!”

She explained the letter, choosing the same five other ponies he did to accompany her through the Everfree, and set out towards the castle.




(1st Person, Elytra)




”That’s the way,” I said as I returned to my Chronicle. Finally, I knew how to defeat the wicked embodiment of malice! My thoughts were interrupted by Celestia, still as Daybreaker, walking in and asking to see the book. When she laid eyes upon her counterpart locking away the star, she nodded approvingly, yet she was surprised when she learned that Discord wasn’t entirely responsible for the age of strife he created. I shrugged and turned back to my scrying glass.




(3rd Person)




Luna had made a convincing fear illusion. Laughter, on their hoof, said it meant little.

Rainbow Dash’s loyalty was something to behold as she resisted the chance at fame for the sake of her friends.

Finally they were in the castle, and Twilight stood before the orbs, which lay smashed at her hooves.

Luckily, Twilight had figured out who was which, and spelled it out as Daybreaker sped into the chamber, the two of them struck by the prismatic beam of energy!

When it was all said and done, Celestia and Luna lay before them, Luna much younger from the purge of her corruption while Celestia was about the age Elytra had portrayed her as before the situation arose.

”And so, fate hath dealt its hand to you six,” he said behind them, clapping as his front hooves had turned to clawed extremities.

A look of shock played onto his face, however, when a filly with a mane that seemed to be a mix between a fire and Nightmare Moons flowing mane of stars concealing a horn, a coat and wings of fiery orange and heterochromic orange and turquoise slit eyes, appeared curled up and asleep from the dust.

Her appearance, shocking, did not shock anyone so that they did not realize this was a fully sentient aggregation of the magic of both Nightmares.

“Zoravespre,” Elytra called her, and Twilight recognized it incorporated a Cattlan word for dusk and a Crowatian word for dawn. “Zora or Ves for short. I want to give her something that ensures she won’t have to follow the paths of her predecessors.”

He trusted the filly’s care to all eight of the others there, saying he would act as a guiding light to her when they were busier, and put an amulet around her neck, depicting a pair of alicorns, one shaped from mithril and obsidian with a sapphire mane inset, the other a brilliant platinum with a fiery topaz inset.

The moment it went around Zora's neck, the magic of the air shifted back to the state everypony only just realized it had left.




(1st Person, Elytra)




I showed my true form to the Mane 6, bowing to Celestia as my service in the Millenial Falsity was finally over, and turned back into Torpor Trance.

"Now, if you will all excuse me,” I said, “I have some changeling agents to check on real quick." As I walked out, however, I turned back to Luna and said, "Snowdrop's been waiting for you, Luna. She accompanied me to Ponyville, but elected to stay in Sugarcube Corner because of, well, you know. Go to her."

Once I was out of the chamber, I extended my link to D'v, Gossamer, Pupa, and Roach, a quartet of changelings I had set to administer... assorted measures to four particular ponies.

I also wrote in my personal journal and my "personal journal" to document the events of tonight and yesterday.




(1st Person, D'v)




I had watched Starlight Glimmer build her society from the ground up, and feeling the link to King Elytra probing me to act, I set to work, disguising myself as an ordinary unicorn with a dragonfly cutie mark. I walked up to the town hall, pretended to be interested in forfeiting my Cutie Mark, and Starlight brought out her stick.

She cast her spell... but received no result. An artificial cutie mark, you see, is no brand that the parameters of Starlight’s “mark removal” spell could ever hope to clasp in her staff’s “enchantment.”

"What the...? How is this possible?," she ruminated, as the fabricated cutie mark refused to budge, even as she got even more frustrated and brought me deeper down to the cave with the other marks.

I schooled my muzzle into a look of confusion, but I was grinning inside.

Eventually, Starlight revealed she hadn't forfeit her own cutie mark and that I should try the unmarking spell on HER, and I smiled.

"Jackpot," I said, throwing the stick with all my might at the wall before Starlight could process what I said, the flash of light it produced giving me just enough time to change into Sunburst.

"Starlight?," I asked her. "What were you doing?" Starlight was surprised at "Sunburst's" sudden presence, but she quickly pulled me into a hug that was resentful, sad, and happy at the same time. “Sunburst, I'm so glad you're here!"

Oh, I could taste the platonic love from her... Oh, D’vorah Necros, what do you think you’re doing?! Focus!

She asked me why I was here, to which I said, "What? Can't a friend check on his friend after all this time?"

I pushed the record button on a hidden wireless microphone and audio recorder as Starlight told "Sunburst" everything about her plans, how the staff was a ruse and that she was the real source of the spell, and that was why she couldn't truly unmark herself and had to hide her mark behind makeup, and that "some upstart unicorn with a dragonfly cutie mark" had sabotaged her plans to equalize everyone because "I" had left her to become an important wizard.

I feigned Sunburst sighing in regret, before starting to speak. "Starlight, I have three things to say to you. One, you were always the more powerful spellcaster of us. Me, it turns out I wasn't all that good at practical application."

Starlight seemed visibly shocked that I just aired "my" embarrassing past. "Two, I think I'll be interested in what you said to me, seeing as Gossamer caught me and did the exact same confessional."

"What? Sunburst," she said confusedly, "what are you-?"

"And third, you realize the entire village has been listening to our little confession like Reole listening to Cornello?" I split into a trollish grin as I dropped my disguise, a very Cornello-like “Wait, WHAT?!,” coming from her as I explained.

"We had authorization to bend the rules set out by my King concerning impersonation of an actual pony, and it was worth it. Two whole days worth of love added to the common trust, and your whole scheme toppled by a FAKE cutie mark! I promise though, you will receive the other side... oh, about now."

I shut off the recorder, which flashed yellow and had its tape swapped with Gossamer's. I hit play, and Starlight heard Sunburst's own confession.




(Sunburst’s Confession, transcribed in a less script-y format for the approval of the site)




*recording start tone*
"Starlight, I didn't expect you to visit! How have you been?"

"Uh, fine, Sunburst, just fine. I was searching for who I was in comparison to a great and powerful wizard like you."

"Actually, Starlight, can I tell you something?"

“Hm? What is it?”

“I didn’t actually become a powerful wizard. It turns out my strength is in theoretical and analytical application.”

“What?”

“I can tell you the best spell to use in a situation, have a whole library of spells in fact, but I’m actually not that good at casting spells.”

“What about that time in Sire’s Hollow? You levitated all those books back into the shelf, and that’s what got you your cutie mark!”

“One instinctual surge does not a wizard make. I don’t know why, but I don’t have that much talent in casting more complex spells.”

“So you didn’t get to be the powerful wizard like I thought?”

“Starlight, I freely admit this; you were always the more powerful spellcaster. I just needed to show you the Arcania weave of a spell in a book, and you took to it like a Diamond Dog to gems! I could mop up a spill, but you, you could clean a kitchen with the same spell!”

“Heh, yeah, I remember that. It’s really a shame you, uh, we, fell out of contact. You knew everything there was to know about magic though; I would think that would give you SOME place in Celestia’s school!”

“True, I knew everything there was to know about magic, knew just the spell to use, and I was always there to help you back then, but you were the practical one, and I was the theoretical one. It really is a shame we didn’t both get our cutie marks at the same time.”

“Yeah, it really is. Especially with what I ended up doing.”

“What DID you end up doing after, Starlight?”

“Oh, you know, hating cutie marks for breaking us apart, making a village where I stole them from anypony that wanted to live equally, you know, typical things, right?”

“Uh, no, not really. We really should have kept in touch.”

“Yeah.” *shifts back* “You should have.”

“Wait, what the-?”

“Oh, my fellow changeling caught her, had her unknowingly confess her misdeeds to her little village at the end of the tracks, just southwest of Rainbow Falls... even recorded the conversation. All while they looked just. Like. You.”

“Like you did to me... How DO changelings do such a convincing impression anyway?”

That isn’t the point right now, Sunburst. If I’m right, D’v should be finishing up right about now, which means that we can wrap this up.”

*recording end tone*




(End Recording)




At that point, Starlight realized that Sunburst regretted leaving her behind as much as she now regretted the lack of communication. “Uh, I guess I should thank you? For something?”

I waved a hoof. “Eh, don’t worry about it. He’s right though, you could probably modify Starswirl’s time spell or the Crystal Mirror if you had the proper motivation. Hay, why not compound Fiducia Compelus, Cogerio, and Persuadere into a hypnosis spell all your own? You have the talent for it.”

At this, Starlight smiled in a compound of wicked and grateful.

I whacked her lightly with a newspaper. “Don’t get too many ideas that you did, do, will do in the future. We aren’t even in the fifth season yet!”

Starlight looked confused, but I waved my hoof again and flew off. Now, Gossamer’s side.




(1st Person, Gossamer)




Receiving Elytra’s signal, I closed on Sunburst’s house and knocked on his door after disguising myself.

“Who is it?,” he said when he saw me at the door, to which I just said in a chipper voice, “Oh, Sunburst, don’t tell me you don’t recognize your colthood friend Starlight Glimmer!” 

At this, his eyes widened, and he invited me in, smiling. As we sat down for tea, I pushed the record button on my recording device, and he asked me how I was.

I just said I was searching for who I was in comparison to a great and powerful wizard like him.

“Actually, Starlight,” he said, “can I tell you something?”

I asked what it was, and he began to spill how he wasn’t able to pass the practical examination, being considerably less able to cast complex spells.

I feigned surprise, luring him to continue, when he said the words that would make this tape for D’v.

“It really is a shame we didn’t both get our cutie marks at the same time.”

I told him what Starlight ended up doing, and when he said they really should have kept in touch, I revealed myself, revealing the plot the two of us were involved in, and when I stopped the recording, it was enveloped in a turquoise light to reveal the tape D’v made, which I inserted and played.




(Starlight’s Confession, transcribed in a less script-y format for the approval of the site)




*recording start tone*
"Well, you have to admit, it has been a long time since we've seen each other, Sunburst. Why didn't you write?"

"I suppose I was busy, and didn't have the time. Either way, this visit is about what you've been up to! How are you?"

"Well, after you left, Sunburst, I grew to hate cutie marks, to think that it drove us apart to be different."

"Hate cutie marks? That's a bit extreme, to hate destiny and what we're best at!"

"I don't know why it didn't occur to me to apply to the school as soon as I got mine, but either way, I wanted to make ponies equal... by any means."

"Starlight, is that what this was about? We should have kept in better touch then!"

"Yeah... we should have. Anyway, I eventually met Double Diamond and passed off that stick over there," (looks to the stick and the broken wall) "as a magical artifact that could REMOVE the mark from somepony's flank."

"REMOVE A CUTIE MARK?!" (breathes heavily) "Okay, okay, I'm cool. So how did it go?"

"Well, since the real magic of the 'Staff of Sameness' was my own, I used makeup to hide my own mark under the same equal sign I had given Double, and then I faced a problem; how was I going to do it to the rest of Our Town? Luckily, I met this gray mare with a lavender mane. She didn't speak or express much, but she pointed me in the direction of this rock wall, right here, powerful enough to hold ALL of those cutie marks!"

"Doesn't seem to hold them now, does it?"

"You can thank the... previous guest for that, some upstart unicorn with a dragonfly cutie mark. His cutie mark just wouldn't come off, and when I asked him to try it on me and handed him the staff, he said something, sounded like 'Jackpot,' and tossed it at the wall! Now all the cutie marks, all the work I've done, is GONE because of him!"

"How did he keep his cutie mark when nopony else could?"

"I don't know! And now he's vanished, and the worst part is that this whole scheme to equalize Equestria all happened because of a string of events that started when you left me behind in Sire's Hollow to became a super-important wizard!"

"When you really think of it, though, equalizing the Princesses would probably end with the whole of Equus either a blasted heath or a frozen waste depending on the side, right?"

"Oh, yeah, that seems like a good point, but STILL!"

A sigh, from “Sunburst.”

"Starlight, I have three things I want to say to you. One, you were always the more powerful spellcaster of us. Me, it turns out I wasn't all that good at practical application."

"Wait, Sunburst, what are you talking about?"

"Two, I think I'll be interested in what you said to me, seeing as Gossamer caught me and did the exact same confessional."

"What? Sunburst, what are you-?"

"And third, you realize the entire village has been listening to our confession like Reole listening to Cornello?"

"Wait, WHAT?!"

“We had authorization to bend the rules set out by my King concerning impersonation of an actual pony, and it was worth it."

"You're a CHANGELING?!"

"Two whole days worth of love added to the common trust, and your whole scheme toppled by a FAKE cutie mark!"

"YOU! You were the unicorn!"

"Yep, guilty as charged. I promise though, you will receive the other side... oh, about now."
*recording end tone*




(End Recording)




When the tape ended, Sunburst marvelled at how D’v was able to characterize him as well as I did Starlight.

I waved a hoof. “We’re changelings. We were made to blend in. As for how we knew how you acted, well, not only were we watching you until we received the green light, our boss was apparently a human in a world where you were a TV show before he was inexplicably converted into a changeling monarch when he consented to a shot of Necrosia. I say inexplicably because Necrosia doesn’t usually turn you into anything other than a drone. Plus he replaced Celestia for a thousand years.”

Sunburst was awestruck at Elytra’s feats, so I just said, “It isn’t just anypony that modifies, modified, will modify, the Relic Reconstitution spell with a Crystalling, Somnambula’s Weather Abjuration, and Fledging’s Forebearance to not only save a long-lost empire in the north from a sentient storm of snow and ice, but curb the power flux of an Alicorn foal!”

At that, Sunburst was impressed at how he was able to organize such a powerful combination in the future. “It’s like you said yourself; you know just the spells to use in a situation, even the modifications to make it work for a powerful and ancient artifact powered by said empire’s light and love for thousands of years!”

Sunburst brightened up, and I laid a chitinous hoof on his back. “You don’t give yourself enough credit sometimes, Sunburst. You’re more of a wizard than you think.”

He gave a small smile, and I fluttered off.




(1st Person, Roach)




I came to a cavern where a young maroon foal lay injured, a package in my saddlebag. I gave her a dose of pony medicine, bandaging her wounds from the Ursa, and opened the package.

Inside was a perfectly cut maroon crystal. The colour, the shape, the groove, everything matched up to the broken horn laying on the floor of the cave.

I levitated the crystal horn to her head, her expression surprised as I told her to hold still, and it snapped into place and fused to her horn with a satisfying whoosh of power.

“Thank you,” the little foal said. “Who are you, though? How did you have that new horn for me? How did you even know I had been injured?”

I chuckled. “My boss figured out that you would have left Equestria because of your horn if I hadn't repaired it. You got to be a cool military general, but you struck a bargain with the wrong guy, a backstabbing... I don’t know what to call him that’s safe for you to hear, called the Storm King, after you took a gem he was interested in. He betrayed you after you held up your end and provided him with the magic of four alicorns, not including a certain innate magic of course, and you took a petrification spell, in the form of a nifty unblockable powerful artifact called an Obsidian Orb, for one of them and her five friends when he was about to use it on them as a last resort. He smashed on the ground, and she restored you, the other three alicorns, and everypony else in the kingdom. And your name while you were in his service was Tempest Shadow.”

She was just catatonic for a minute there. “As for how...”




(flashback)




”Roach,” the King said to me, “take this horn. It’s made of a special synthetic horn crystal that can fuse to existing broken horns. When I give you the signal, go into the Ursa cave I’m stationing you at and find the maroon unicorn foal with the broken horn. Use this to fix her horn. I can’t stand to see somepony disabled in such a way, you see. It’s like if one of us couldn’t disguise because his elytra were broken; it’s a part of who we are, denied to us! Either way, tell little Fizzlepop Berrytwist everything that would have happened if her horn wasn’t restored, so she knows.”




(end)




”Wait,” she said, “your name is actually Roach?”

“Well, I am a changeling,” I replied, “but that’s actually kind of a codename. Gossamer and D’v, those two had their actual names, and Pupa’s just a nymph right now, possibly as a sort of sympathy, but me and her, our names were meant to symbolize our roles. A cockroach just gets back up, no matter how hard you squash it, and you did your best to cope with what you lost before you encountered you-know-who in the desert.”

Tempest nodded.

“Pupa, on the other hand, she was meant to deter one of the most dastardly villains that the show this story is based on has ever seen.”

“Let me guess,” she said, “a different changeling monarch?”

I shook my head. “Worse, in some ways. A little peach pegasus filly who misunderstands the proper ways of friendship, but clearly sees the power and process of the inherent magic of the emotion, and her name is Cozy Glow.”

Tempest just looked at me with a blank look.

“Oh yeah, and she was pen pals with a magic-sucking centaur from Tartarus named Tirek. I’m serious, if it wasn’t for the Tree of Harmony’s intervention, she would have actually won. The only ones who could stop her were either stuck in the magic bubble created by six powerful magic artifacts from the different races of Equestria, stuck in Tartarus, or tied in a closet.”

Tempest was impressed at how one filly could do so much damage, but she definitely knew that if Grogar was real, he would be worse.

“Oh,” I said, “he is debatably real. Even resurrected a villain so he could either fall in line or serve as an example that an alliance was the way to go. Spoiler, Sombra didn’t play nice and got obliterated, even after he destroyed the Elements.”

Tempest was shocked for a moment there, but she shook it off and went back to her friends Spring Rain and Glitter Drops.

I smiled. “Job done. I may have said too much though.”




(1st Person, Pupa)




Cozy Glow was... complicated.

I gave her a simple test; I told her that inside a box lay a powerful magic, and that if she resisted opening it for one whole hour, she would learn something important.

(The “powerful magic” was a Vector with orders to inject a dose into whoever opened the box.)

Surprisingly, and somewhat luckily, she didn’t even touch the box.

I told her the lesson was that the Magic of Friendship, the REAL Magic of Friendship, wasn’t something you could amass; it was something that was built on mutual trust, care, and of course, the approximations of the five base Elements of Harmony.

Cozy understood, especially when I gave her an “estimate” of where her current-future thinking that friendship was just power, power that she could accrue with a few empty platitudes, would get her by season 8.

(That is, locked up next to her then-future penpal, the centaur Tirek, until she was put under the fierce and more evil company of “Grogar the Ram.” She was shocked to find he was debatably more than a foals’ tale, and even more so when she heard that today was when Luna, as Nightmare Moon, escaped the moon. And I exposed the reality of certain other things she thought foals’ tales, like Discord and Windigos. And Cosmos.)

I also gave her a read through of Tirek’s life before he was locked up. By the end of it, I had a Pinkie Promise she wouldn’t try anything of the sort, and I revealed what was in the box after I painfully fell down the stairs sliding down in a wagon.

”Ow ooh yowch dow owie oh-ho-ho fudgenuts! Cozy,” I said, “could you get me the box? Don’t open it though.”

Cozy carefully brought the box down, and I opened it, the Vector jabbing my hoof with its tail and releasing its sweet relieving necrosia into me.

“Ahhh. You know, Cozy,” I explained, “if anypony else got jabbed with this liquid, they’d probably be sporting black chitin and a mind highly susceptible to manipulation. Changelings though? Made from us, heals us, makes synthetic versions of us, turns them back, necrosia does a lot for a changeling.”

Cozy was impressed at the versatility, but asked why it was there.

I shrugged and said, “That was the test and the consequence. Or at least, a modified version of it. In the brainstorming it was my king, Elytra, who gave you the box and the hour of temptation. If you opened it in that concept, you would have instantly had your mind bent to the whims of the swarm. The final version, though? I would have just gotten an hour to make you do what I wanted.”

Cozy was grateful for that much, and the two of us enjoyed an ordinary playdate nonetheless.




(1st Person, ????????)




I received a message from Elytra through our mutual possession.

Project Eclipse completed. Chocolate Rain and Snob Fest up coming.
Requesting updates on all MEEs.

I smirked. Elytra knew his codephrases. “Project Eclipse“ was the thousandth Summer Sun celebration, “Chocolate Rain” was Discord’s accidental release, and “Snob Fest” was the Gala.

I then set to work, busying myself writing down my updates on the situation on my side of the mirror.

Prodigal: no significant change, other than you slapping her upside the head.
Ruby Triad: tensions between Cheesepuff and Grape rising. Blueberry’s craving for tacos has somehow escalated. DDT prepared.
Plundermistress: Practice of chloromancy proceeding. Gem Dust worries moderate.
Accretion: Aunt is serious as ever. SATIIFM studies proceeding swimmingly, though initial relations between you and her are still strained.
Mist Droplet: Stone usage limited to embarrassing greetings.
Personal: Light Rainbow has written down the next part of her adventures in First Equestria, or Ponyland. As for me, I have balanced well.

Me and Elytra have known each other a... relatively long time.

First, he took an interest in my aunt’s school. He said it was the slimmest pickings he had in a while, and I was with him on that.

I introduced myself, and then he heard I was related to Megan Williams. He asked her to write down her adventures, and he showed us both what he was.

Of course, he took Twilight’s form when he was in Crystal Prep.

Oh, you’re probably wondering who I am. 

Well, my name is Astartes Cinch. I know, it sounds like Megan is the aunt and Abacus is my mom, but really, people called my mom a nut for her Ponyland adventures, so I didn’t really use the Williams name much as a child.

I was due to start high school in two, three years, but I didn’t want people saying I got into CP because of my aunt, so I’m actually going to be enrolled in Canterlot High.

I suppose I should detail how we met, but that will have to be for later.
[hf]

(1st Person, Elytra)

[hf]
I received a joint sense of accomplishment from my four changeling agents, a little insurety mixed in with Roach because he was afraid he spilled too much information to Fizzlepop Berrytwist, and my book buzzed with Astartes’ reply to my debrief.

I swung my medallion back and forth in front of the muzzle of Moondancer, whose heavy eyelids showed she was nearly under my spell.

Of course, I only hypnotize those who consent.

Aside that, Celestia and Twilight had given me a room in the Library, which honored me to no end. I couldn’t help but sing in that moment.

There’s a lot of little things I have to do with the time
There’s a lot of little things I gotta try
Just a pack of punchy plunges other ponies all take
That had ruling-pony passed me right by

Nopony knows me like the nine of you here
No ponies are a better confidant
Nopony is truer than the ones you are
Nopony else that I could want!

I can’t saunter on a sojourn with the guards and the court
Wouldn’t throw the throne down on the beach
With them back, I am absconding, with the six of you for bonding
And these episodes are either pall or peach!

Nopony knows me like the ones I’ve trusted
No ponies were a better confidant
Nobody is truer than the ones they are
Nobody else that I could want

There’s a lot of little things you have to give for a spin
There’s a lot of little things I want to see
But just being with you girls here and resting my hooves
Is just enough adventure for me

Nopony knows you like your best friends
No ponies are a better confidant
Nopony is truer than the ones right here
Few ponies else here I could want

I can venture on adventures when events will permit
With my hive, I track a checklist in your sleep
Life with you is like a hill, though the plot holes are a pill
When they’re making smaller problems just so steep!

After I finished singing and moving the crystal arch that served as the gateway to the subspace that held my small hive to an out of the way place in Ponyville, Snowdrop hugged Luna for so long, a heartfelt reunion after the two had spent so long apart that seemed like it would stretch just as long.

Of course, there were things to explain...



Luna turned to me, not once letting go of the ice-blue mare in front of her. "To hold Snowdrop in our hands, even after so long, and still have her look so young, not a single changeling guise upon the one in our hooves... 'tis truly miraculous! Tell me, Elytra," she asked me, "how is such a thing possible?"

Snowdrop and I shared a look, and I said, "It's thanks to that pendant. Its crystal contains a self-sustaining age spell that kicked in when she was in her golden years and keeps her that exact age."

Luna tilted her head. "I had not heard that somepony had perfected an age spell. Perhaps we could reverse engineer this crystal to recreate the effect?"

I shook my head. "The spell crystal is from the future, apparently. Not to mention this specific rune sequence links directly to Snowdrop's essence, and has safeguards to prevent everypony clamoring over the 'Amulet of Agelessness' or whatever Daring Do name you would come up with. If anyone tries to remove it, not only will Snowdrop go catatonic, eventually her body will turn to dust faster than Oisin did when he left Tir Na Nog. Then all that would be left of her is her soul bound to the amulet."

Luna seemed to be skeptical. "The only time spell we are aware of only allows for stable time loops consisting of no more than a week."

I shrugged as I twirled my pendulum. "Future stuff. Apparently, Snowdrop saw me from the future coming from a rip in time and space, 'I' gave her the pendant, 'I' left, and by the time I come back the future Elytra is gone, the rune sequence has attuned to Snowdrop, and the wrinkles melted right off her. It confused her too."

It was true enough; the age spell and the improved time spell hadn't been invented yet, but both had a common root: Starlight Glimmer. It was her magic that created the rune sequence, shown by the turquoise glow of the runes, and I knew she could (and in fact had) engineer the time spell to take her back to the Day of Destiny. Apparently, tearing down her ingrained vendetta on Cutie Marks by getting her and Sunburst back into contact allowed her to focus less time on tyrannical Cutie Mark hating and more time on the two advancing the cause of magic, especially the Time Portal Spell and the Age Spell.

Snowdrop's nod eased Luna's skepticism, and the matter was left aside.



I was surprised when a letter inexplicably appeared out of nowhere and told me about a big gathering in another dimension, but I shrugged it off, opened a portal, and went off.

The things I saw in True’s Equestria Girls world were... interesting. Everyone was there; Nyx and True, Falak Disc himself, an actually-not-psychotic iteration of Cosmos, some Shadowbound kid named Shaduna or Shade Reaver, some guy with a Tectonium robot quadsuit in a tectonium truffle-shaped thing that must have been bigger on the inside, and a whole contingent of people that were nowhere to be found in any Equestria, but instead were from all over the multiverse.

After sweet freeze-dry pepperoni and crackers (and gumballs made from magic energy) were had, we all said our goodbyes and went back to our respective worlds.
> Elytra’s Lullaby
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fate had been cruel, and order unkind
It was I who sent them away...
The blame fell to both, and both vilified
The harmony's silent today...
Now into the stillness I bring them a song
And we will their company keep
'Till their tired eyes, and my lullabies
Have carried us all into sleep...

Once did the pony who shines like the sun
look out on the kingdom and sigh
She smiled and said, "Surely there is nopony
so lovely and so well beloved as I!"
So great was her reign, so brilliant her glory
that long was the shadow she cast,
Which fell upon Luna, young sister she loved
And grew only darker as days and nights passed...

Lullay, diarchs, goodnight sisters divine
Rest now in light's warm embrace
Bear up this lullaby, winds of the earth
through cloud and through sky and through space...
Carry to Luna the peace of the night
And bring Celly's sorrow in kind...
Luna, you're loved so much more than you know
Remember these clouds of wan light...

Soon did Celestia notice that others
did not give young Luna her due
And neither had she loved her as she deserved;
She watched as the nightmare's reality grew...
But such is the way of the limelight; it sweetly takes hold of the mind of its host
And foolish Celestia did naught to stop
the destruction of Luna, who needed her most

Lullay, diarchs, goodnight sisters divine
Rest now in light's warm embrace
Bear up this lullaby, winds of the earth
through cloud and through sky and through space...
Carry to Luna the peace of the night
And bring Celly's sorrow in kind...
Luna, you're loved so much more than you know
Strifes far from your minds, end the fight...

And remember the clouds of twilight...

The years now before me, fearful and unknown
But with her great visage, I face them on my own...
Now those thousand winters, Snowdrop's seen them pass
I fear them, revere them, comfort that young lass...
(Moondancer takes up the song.)
May all their dreams be sweet tonight
Safe on beds of sun-and-moon's light
And know not of sadness, pain, or care
And when we dream, we'll fly away and meet them there
Sleep...
Sleep...
Sleep...
> Astartes (Update.)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


(1st Person, Elytra)

Well, what can I say about Astartes?

Our relationship didn’t start out entirely mutual. In fact, it started on a day I did something that basically amounted to a diet.

I replaced Sci-Twi for a week.

In Crystal Prep. The austere anathema of love, overt admiration, and any positivity.

Don’t worry, any of my changelings can do most of a celestial manipulation. The remaining piece was taken up by Moondancer, and a pint of love from the common trust.

Now, you may be confused about the fact I spent a week there when the portal only opens for three days, and I only mentioned building the charger last chapter.

Well, this charger was only meant to function twice, and only for me; once at the beginning, and once at the end. The more recent charger, I buried the schematics in a hidden book in Twilight’s library basement and disassembled. Now, back to the story.

The reason this booster was so limited in passenger and use was that it required a projection of the accretion disk of the portal, amplified and directed by the correspondence book and agitated by my own changeling portal spell.

...Okay, you want simpler terms?

Basically, I brought the portal out of the mirror for a split second and charged it with the magic in Celestia’s book, which is linked to Sunset’s even across the dimensional horizon, then quickly replaced the portal into the mirror while leaving the charge, substituted one made of my own magic into the singularity, then hopped through before the portal remembered it was a changeling portal and wasn’t meant to access another dimension. Synth for the win, yo.

Don’t worry, I left Cricket, the assigned changeling, and Moondancer a note.




(3rd Person, Moondancer’s Room)




Moondancer awoke to the sound of a changeling’s quiet (or as quiet as it could be) chitter, the changeling in question holding a letter in his hoof.

Moondancer cracked it open, and was surprised when it read,

Moondancer,
I have accessed a powerful magic artifact that was used to banish things entirely from this dimension and gone through it.

You and this changeling (his name is Cricket) are in charge of the sun and moon for the week, and I have provided you a suite in the castle.

Also enclosed in this letter are seven pints of love to provide Cricket a bit of extra strength (I WILL be checking to see if any additional love is missing on return,) as well as detailed notes on the celestial manipulation spell.

With trust and friendship,
”Celestia”

Her eyes widened as she put on her glasses and rushed to the castle with Cricket following after.




(1st Person, Elytra)




Anyway, I popped out of the portal and happened to notice somebody.

Since the bug wings and, well, equine stature (for some reason, unlike other changelings, I don’t automatically adopt a human visage, only getting clothes when I shift manually, but it’s okay,) would be offputting, I concentrated and tensed my muscles.

Shnk.

My clawed fingertips came out, my hooves and fetlocks shifting into a pair of arms and legs while my wings were tucked under my elytra and my bones shifted.

When I was fully upright, the magic fully saw right to give me a simple pair of black shorts and a blue shirt with thin green stripes, Torpor Trance’s gold watch and spiral cutie mark emblazoned on the shirt and the side of the shorts.

I looked around, looking for someone to test my innate shifting on, when who should appear but a certain lavender-skinned girl with indigo hair with a purple and pink streak done up in a bun, wearing glasses and walking her purple and green dog. I used a brief disguise to hide my horn and “accidentally” bumped into her.

“Oh!,” she exclaimed. “I’m sorry, I was just, uh...”

I held up a hand (not clawed, of course.) “It’s fine. Tell me, what’s your name, young lady?”

Twilight stammered a bit before she finally said, “Twilight Sparkle.”

Jackpot, I thought as I asked her for a chat at her house about what she did currently and if she had a hobby.



Twilight met me in the basement, telling me she was Abacus Cinch’s prized student, the best in Crystal Preparatory.

“Cool,” I said in my best amazed impression. “I just do impressions for a living. Got a talent for doing them to the tiniest detail, even on somepo-SomeONE I just met.”

“Oh, really?,” she asked me interestedly, not seeming to notice my slip. “Show me.”

I told her not to look at me while I was doing my “impression,” and she turned away, giving me the precise opportunity to jab her neck with the special chemical in my pointer finger, a potent tranquilizer, before shifting into her shape.

I told her she could look then, and as she first laid eyes on me, I said, “Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,” in the exact cadence as the ends of her letters.

She seemed delighted, though as she began to ask for more, the chemical took effect and she slumped over in her chair. I imagine she was a little scared at what was happening to her, frantically thinking I had stuck her with some sort of poison.

“Don’t worry,” I said with a sincere tone to her in her last conscious moments, “it’s just a sleeping injection. Besides, it’ll be like you were never gone to begin with.”

I then dragged her into a sleeping bag I had packed (they never ask why I pack two? Jeez,) zipped it up, and left to take her life for a spin.




(Day 1)




The atmosphere around the school was stale, especially to someone who can taste emotions on the air.

I acted like Twilight would, grateful for shift instinctual knowledge, and was concentrating on something simple when I was interrupted by bumping into a boy who looked strangely... similar to the head of this reputable school, Abacus Cinch.

The skin was a shade darker and there was a peach stripe in his lighter hair, but other than that he looked just like Principal Cinch as a boy.

I cleared my throat. “Good afternoon.” He seemed surprised I was so social, as if he had only been here today.

“Uh... do you have any relation to an Abacus Cinch? You look a lot like her,” I pointed out.

He nodded and said. “Yes, she’s my aunt. Although while I take after her in looks, my mom Megan is where I get my interests from.”

“Oh, uh, fascinating,” I said in the human Twilight’s typical shyness, cultivated by the hostile if not uncaring environment of this school. “Uh, what would those interests happen to be?”

“Oh, you know,” he said, “horseback, cryptoquantology, writing, adventure, magic, simple things. You?”

I fidgeted a bit to really sell it. “Well, mainly science, achievement, and studies into odd phenomena. Are you interested in CPA?”

He shook his head. “What? No, I’m enrolling in,” he looked from side to side and whispered, “Canterlot High.”

I chuckled. “Well, it has a good curriculum, can’t blame you, but have you heard of the bully problems?” He shook his head.

“Well, from what I hear, this girl Sunset Shimmer just appeared out of nowhere one day, and she’s ruled the school since. Other than that, it isn’t too bad.”

He quirked an eyebrow, to which I quickly said, “Want to see my laboratory?”

He perked up, and the two of us went to spend the rest of the free period there, him following me and me following Twilight’s memories of where the laboratory was.



I focused the equipment on four places; Twilight’s house, Canterlot High, Camp Everfree, and a diner somewhere.

“Why those points specifically?,” Astartes asked, to which I replied, “Call it a hunch.”

Instantly we saw at least some result; a minor magic surge from Canterlot High.

“Fascinating,” Astartes said. “I’ll investigate on site.”

“No, Astartes,” I said. “I don’t think your aunt would want you or me, in these CPA uniforms, coming from the city, tarnishing the school’s reputation by snooping around our rivals on a hunch and a singular datapoint of things that would sound crazy to put in the explanation.“

“You have a valid point, Twilight,” he said as I wrote in the book,

Minor surge, Canterlot High, day 1. Most likely suspect is the elusively forgettable girl codenamed Mist Droplet.

My thoughts were interrupted by Astartes calling to attention a huge surge from the diner! I recorded the data down, saying to Astartes that Twilight just had the idea to monitor these areas, and secretly used my telekinesis to levitate the pen and write,

Medium surge, location codenamed “Sirens’ Rocks,” day 1. Most likely suspect is the three girls codenamed Ruby Triad.

We then broke off for “my” classes, Astartes promising to mark down all the readings.



At lunch, I met with the other five main Shadowbolts.

“You seem a bit paler than your usual complexion,” Sugarcoat said as Sunny Flare pushed me.

“Oh, it’s just something from an experiment I was running yesterday,” I replied, which they bought.

They all noticed I sat with a practiced cadence, and even my shyness seemed rehearsed, but I waved off their concerns as just “going through the motions.”

They seemed to buy that too, but I saw a calculating look on Sugarcoat and Sour Sweet’s faces as they walked off.

Lemon Zest, of course, just banged her head to hard rock the whole time.



After school, I took the readings from Astartes and began to mark them down.

Three surges, one medium, two minor, Camp Everfree, day 1. Most likely suspect is the lead counselor, codenamed Plundermistress. Medium surge is cause for some small concern, as it shows a larger output of Energy E from Items LOE-1 to 7, especially 1 to 5.

Two surges, both minor, Canterlot High, day 1. Most likely suspect is Mist Droplet. Item FF is fortunately being restricted to small memories. No output assumed from Prodigal.

After arriving back in Twilight’s house, sat down in Twilight’s room, where I had moved her sleeping bag For a moment, the two of us just stared at each other.

After a while, I broke the silence. “You know, you’ve been quiet, so I might as well tell you my plan.”

This seemed to intrigue Twilight. “What kind of plan would a Judas, or Pod Person, or whatever you really are, have that wasn’t the typical kind of body snatcher plot?,” she asked.

I smirked, appreciating the old movie references, before answering, “I am keeping a journal of three points of much later interest for you for this week, and recording readings for you under coded names. I met a nice boy, and he shares the interest he thinks you have. He’ll be my lookout while ‘you’ go to all your classes and do your best.”

Twilight, and Spike, who stayed to comfort her this day, just laid down in their bag to rest while I got into Twilight’s bed, shifted away my manifested version of her glasses, and went to bed, though not before saying, “And it’s ‘changeling,’ Twi.”




(Day 2)




Twilight graduated from “tied in a sleeping bag” to “reading in the closet” after concerns of temperature arose and I had moved her.

I had given her a listening device so she was allayed of concern that she would be missing lessons, so she waved to me as I walked to Crystal Prep.
————————
Astartes met me, his look somewhat skeptical as we entered the lab. I wondered, did he suspect me?

The first reading we got jolted those prospective thoughts out of our heads.

It was highly surprising and concerning when I got a look at it, so I quickly got out my pen and book and wrote it down.

MAJOR SURGE, Sirens’ Rocks, day 2. Most likely suspect is Ruby Triad. Highly concerning, as it means an especially extraordinary harvest of conflict and possibly Energy E to energize Items RR-1 to 3. Hopefully, concerns of a Scenario DoD-RT are unfounded.

Astartes was confused. “What’s ‘Scenario DoD-RT?,“ he asked.

I assured him it was nothing, though I still had very high levels of concern, flipping to the very first page (I had started on the second) and writing a foreword in.

I, Twilight Sparkle, have only partial responsibility for this book.

The rest goes to a skilled EE, a shapeshifter that feeds on positive emotions, who tried to take my place. He is currently detained and answering questions I have about the readings, consenting to not use Energy E under any circumstance.

He has assured me that all coded terms in this book divulge little to no information about the dimension/area codenamed Beyond the Looking Glass, where most events originate from.

Any coincidental real phenomena with the dates in this book are pure circumstance.

Astartes was busy looking at the screen, his call to attention about a minor surge from Canterlot High preceding a minor surge for the diner. I sighed and wrote.

Minor surge, Canterlot High, day 2. Most likely suspect is Mist Droplet.

Minor surge, Sirens’ Rocks, day 2. Most likely and hoped-for suspect is Ruby Triad. Such would allay my considerable concerns about Scenario DoD-RT, which involves high amounts of mental subjugation for the world.




(1st Person, Astartes)




Well, while Twilight went to classes, I decided to start a fourth inquiry in my own journal, centred around Crystal Prep. I was surprised to see a consistent blip of magic energy moving through the halls, so I wrote down some things.

Entry 1.
I don’t know why Twilight wants those documentations of this odd sort of surges, but I found a few moments to centre a spare tracer array’s readings on the academy.

Imagine my surprise when a blip appeared right off the bat! It seems to be moving to Twilight’s classes, like clockwork.

Odd... It’s a shame I don’t have any way to tell her that. I don’t think she’d be happy with my independent investigation, though, so I shouldn’t show these entries to her.

Luckily, I set the tracing program to tell me when a surge pops up on the other three sites AND I slaved the other two tracers to my phone so I can continue to provide information on the surges and consistently track the “Among,” as I have decided to call it. Wait...

It’s coming to the lab now, Twilight’s free period... I have to cut this entry short until I find a free moment.

“Hey, Astartes,” Twilight said as she came in.

I handed her the latest three surges, one minor from each area her investigation was monitoring, and she thanked me in such a sincere tone.

When the day was over, Twilight slaved the three main tracers to her phone, and I opened mine. To my shock, the Among was heading the same way as Twilight.

I was getting a fair bit frustrated, as I had no idea how the Among could just... head where she’s going without me seeing it outside of the sensor! Is it invisible? Or...? Hmm...

My suspicions piqued, I followed her to her window, wary of her parents, and opened the fifth tracer. Sure enough, the Among was in Twilight’s room. I used my directional mic to listen in.

What I heard proved my suspicions.




(1st Person, Elytra)




I got back in, shifting back to me and letting Twilight out once I was sure everyone was asleep and the door was closed.

“Interesting day?,” Twilight said to me, and I groaned, which switched to moaning as I nibbled on Twilight’s confused appreciation for what I was doing.

“Oh, you have no idea how much it takes to keep up a disguise!,” I said. “And I signed up for a week of writing the almanac of weird things.”

Twilight shook her head, chuckling, and said, “I just can’t believe you can do that so flawlessly, just step into someone’s life.”

I chuckled sheepishly and said, “To tell the truth, I outlawed replacing living people in my hive, save for in situations specifically approved by me or, if I am absent, my Honor Guard or regent. I still pride myself on my abilities, though; they’re a part of me.”

Twilight rolled her eyes smiling and said, “Do most changelings have classes on how to imitate someone?”

“To tell the truth,” I answered, “the only real experience I’ve had in it was ruling the country Beyond the Looking Glass and, well, you.”

Twilight was surprised at how experienced I was with such a low sampling, and even more when I said, “Of course, I have been playing that princess for around a millennium, and still youthful! I don’t look a day over sweet 16!”

She stared in awe, then shyly asked, “Hey, um... do you think I could see what you usually look like? You have a few differences from how I saw you when we met. I don’t even know your name!”

It was then I realized my muzzle and horn had come back, along with the fangs in my mouth as I touched them with my tongue.

I laughed. “Sure, Twi. Just so you know, how I’ll look at the end of it is how I usually look Beyond the Looking Glass.”

I shifted back into my equine shape in a wash of blue and green flame, bones reshaping to quadrupedal with muffled cracks and clawed fingers retracting, flashing my fangs in a smile and fluttering my wings. “I can’t tell you my name so easily, though I usually go by the original moniker of Torpor Trance. I’ll tell you tomorrow. Promise. It’s nice to meet you without all the other veils between us, though, Twilight Sparkle.”

She stared for a moment before asking, “Can I... pet you, your majesty?”

I was surprised, but smiled and said, “Yes, Twilight. And don’t worry about formality, please. I don’t exactly have any changelings here with me to call subjects.”

As Twilight stroked my elytra, my blue Fluttershy-style mane, and brushed my tail, I could feel the affection rolling off of her freely, and snapped it up as a pink mist. “Oh, thank you,” I said. “That affection coming off you is by far the one most decent meal I’ve had in this dimension... other than the sandwiches your mother packs, but those don’t really fill as much as this.”

Twilight blinked. “You can... sense my affection? Consume my affection?”

I nodded. “Pretty much every one of my kind is an emotivore, and hives like mine and the Chrysalians are best attuned to eating positive emotions like love, friendship, and camaraderie.”

At the end of our petting session, I curled up in the closet after shifting back into Twilight and said, “Hopefully I can pull off five more days of this flawed-flank plan.”

“Hopefully,” Twilight answered as we both drifted off to sleep.




(1st Person, Astartes)




I was so shocked, only my fatigue jarred me. The Among and Twilight were one and the same?! Incredible!

I wrote frantically in my journal about this revelation, not believing a single word I was writing.

Entry 2
Twilight is the Among! I can’t believe it!

The real Twilight seems to be not just unharmed, but on good terms with it, though...

I’ll keep quiet about this to both our parents. After all, who would believe me?

The Among doesn’t seem to mean any harm. All it seems to do other than mimicking Twilight is recording the data; I heard it, or rather him, writing while I watched the screen with those two surges. If I can find what he wrote in that time frame, maybe I can discern more of his motives.

What a week it will be... No one is going to believe this isn’t fiction, but I suppose that’s what he wants to happen. After all, it seems like a critically-acclaimed TV show at this point.

Kind of like Invader Lim, now that I think about it. Or since he can shape shift, maybe Glen 10 would be a better comparison?

Or maybe Our Petite Horse: Equan Girls? Judging by the shape, he definitely fits the Shiftling species of the main series...

I suppose instead of the Among, I’ll call him the Shiftling. Actually, that sounds too campy. Imagine it, a real Shiftling... maybe Changeling, like the Fae creature that replaces children? Yeah, that sounds easier to believe.

It’s getting late... “Twilight’s” actions tomorrow will be monitored, just like we monitor the surges.

I closed the book and, under cover of night, returned to the home of my mother, a wonderful woman with tales of fantastical lands and talking... ponies...

Well, I thought, my mother Megan certainly sounds a lot less crazy now, with this Beyond the Looking Glass place...




(Day 3)




I noticed “Twilight” was a little fuller coloured than usual. I thought of what he said to Twilight last night.

”Pretty much every one of my kind is an emotivore...“

“...eating positive emotions like love, friendship, and camaraderie...”

From that, I deduced the reason he was paler yesterday was because of Crystal Prep’s cold atmosphere, the emotional clime housing nothing but obsession with achievement.

When he stepped to the computer to check the data on the surges in more detail, I slipped over to his book and read the first page, which painted the picture that he was either building up for a twist or not planning to say he, as Twilight, was the “cooperative EE.”

He turned to the book as I returned to the computer, wrote in the latest minor surge from Camp Everfree as I wrote in the surge data from the house last night into my journal, and left.

He followed Twilight’s apparent routine to the letter, acted just like her. In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that there was no real difference between him and her.

My musings were interrupted by the alarm on my phone denoting a major surge from Camp Everfree, which he also seemed to receive, even though I couldn’t hear a thing from his phone.




(1st Person, Elytra)




When I heard the alarm on my phone, which I had tuned to a frequency only changelings could hear, I was thankful it was free period at just that moment.

“Astartes, what’s the location?,” I asked.

“Camp Everfree,” Astartes told me, and I wrote down the surge.

MAJOR SURGE,Camp Everfree, day 3. Most likely suspect is Plundermistress.

Concern is mainly unfounded, as Plundermistress’ motives stem from defending Camp Everfree from development.

It may most likely result in an abnormal wooden dome of blackberry thorns reinforced with Energy E, however, if LOE 6-7 have been added to the other 5.

Hopefully someone will make a fundraiser for the camp, and soon.

I happened to notice Astartes’ journal, but paid it no mind. Everypony has secrets, after all. The lunch bell rang, and we broke for lunch.



Astartes seemed to give me weird looks when I wasn’t looking, or at least when he thought I wasn’t looking.

When school cut out, I decided to mess with him for a bit and led him to an alley instead of just heading straight home like I usually did.

When I was out of his sight, I turned into him and bumped into him.

His reaction was odd, though. he just smirked and said, “So, you wanted to surprise me by turning into me?”

The two of us looked at each other before I turned back into Sci-Twi in a flare of green. “Your journal has observations of me, doesn’t it.”

“Yep,” he answered. “Four more days of incidents to record?”

“Yep,” I answered in turn, and we both said together, “Bring it on.”

I incorporated his journal entries and data into the book, and we both spent a nice two more days together, meeting in Sugarcube Corner on the weekends. I introduced myself as Elytra to both him and Twilight, gave him a special enchanted book similar to Sunset’s, and we’ve kept in touch to the day.

Okay, time for the next day.




(Day 4)




This day, Abacus pried Astartes from the lab for a talk.

I only caught that she didn’t approve of his choice to go to CHS, and that Astartes not only hated the oppressive atmosphere of the academy’s “reputation,” which he implied was built with the extortion of her prized students, but he didn’t want to get into a school “just because my aunt is the principal! And that goes double for you thinking you can control my life!”

I congratulated him for sticking up to her, and we documented the next surges together in what constituted silence.

Entry 3.
Elytra, the changeling that replaced Twilight for the week, has informed me of his plans to kickstart Twilight’s research into phenomena that will occur in the not-too-distant future.

The plan was to do it by documenting a week of surges of “Energy E,” which he has confided to me to be forms of magic from “Beyond the Looking Glass.”

In return, I confided that my mother was Megan Williams, and that she spoke of a magical land of ponies.

He wasn’t insulting about what others perceived as some form of childhood delirium, and even convinced me, and I her, to write down the adventures she had, as he has somewhat confirmed they were real in some sense.

In his words, “Well, Ponyland is one magical land. I may live in another one entirely, but even I know of the Rainbows of Light and Dark, witchweed potions, the Hydian Smooze, and witches that steal the youth from foals. First Equestria, you may be obscure now, but you pack as much adventure as Fourth Equestria.”

Concerning the phenomena, he has confided that they all stem from Beyond the Looking Glass in some way. The Ruby Triad were a trio of conflict-rousing creatures banished here long ago by the legendary Pillars on his side...

Minor surge, Sirens’ Rocks, day 4. Most likely suspect is Ruby Triad.

...especially their leader, who is to only be referred to by his Element; Sorcery. Mist Droplet dug up a stone buried by Sorcery’s apprentice...

Minor surge, Canterlot High, day 4. Most likely suspect is Mist Droplet.

...who was pursuing a memory-erasing sorceress using said stone, and doing a very good job to to recording his steps. As for Plundermistress...

Minor surge, Camp Everfree, day 4. Most likely suspect is Plundermistress. It appears things have calmed down, though minor caution is advised.

...a stray wisp of Energy E in the nearby rock quarry created seven crystals, almost like the Elements for this side, which are codenamed Items LOE-1 to 7.

There’s also Prodigal, a student of Elytra’s under his “Millenial Falsity” disguise of Princess Celestia (if there is a sequel, it will most likely be about the comparison of counterparts between here and Beyond the Looking Glass) who ran away through the Looking Glass itself and became the biggest bully on Canterlot High but has no magic of her own, Gem Dust, Plundermistress’ brother and fellow counselor, named for his cover story of “Gaea Everfree’s” trail of gem dust to signify her return (interestingly, Gaea does apparently exist in some worlds,) and surprisingly, my aunt and Twilight are in under the joint codename of Accretion; Aunt Cinch only being Aunt while Twilight gets the exceedingly long codename of Sufficiently Advanced Technology Is Indistinguishable From Magic, or SATIIFM (sa-tee-fum) for short.

Mom is Light Rainbow, possibly due to her locket (it was faint, but a sweeping scan actually showed trace magic in her locket, lending credence to the confirmation that it is actually the Rainbow Of Light locket from her stories,) and the individual members of Ruby Triad are codenamed Cheesepuff (the hair is puffy and orange,) Grape (purely on colour,) and Blueberry (again, purely on colour.)

Most sapient life Beyond the Looking Glass is apparently equine in shape, though I have heard tales of anthropomorphic cats, griffons, minotaurs, and an odd mishmash creature of pure chaos called a draconequus.




(Day 5)




Entry 4
The last day of the school week, and Elytra just snapped in the lunchroom!

He may not have turned back into what amounts to an anthropomorphic form for him (he is apparently capable of shifting his body back and forth from this state, due to being unique among changelings,) but after he was pushed down by our strongest person, he did something really unexpected.

He got out his “Torpor Trance” pendulum. (I am led to understand he only gets it out for consenting customers for his hypnosis service, or when he is REALLY ticked off.)

In a few short moments, he had the guy entirely under his thrall and blocking the entrance.

He summoned a small rabbit sized changeling creature from somewhere (possibly Beyond the Looking Glass) and once he was stung by it and it left, his injuries seemed to heal.

He partially undid the disguise to freak the Shadowbolts out, and explained that he had “been STAR-VING for some good love for the five days of the school week! You’ll have your real Twilight back in three days, I just have to compile the data with Astartes’ entries and we’ll have the draft of a book of weird things that happened this week and nobody knows how.”

Needless to say, everyone was shocked except me, since I actually knew about this.



Well, after that, I brought the real Twilight (and Spike) over to the Shadowbolts.

Abacus, shocked that she had apparently been talking to an odd creature, said, “What are your plans?”

I chuckled. “Just gathering some data, building some bridges for Twilight. Don’t worry, Principal Cinch,” I said to her, “I don’t think anybody is going to believe this more than you. Either way, I know things, and that’s why I can get it precisely correct the first time. One of those things happens to be that Beyond the Looking Glass, Daring Do is closer to the real life than anypony thinks. Now then, the postscript.”

I then got out the book, and wrote on the last page.

If you’ve read this entire book, then you’ve come to the truth.

I, Elytra, the EE “Twilight” was talking about, am the actual narrator of most of the data entries.

I interspersed the journal entries of Astartes Cinch, my newest friend in this world and my stalwart assistant, with my own data sheets when the two of us came clean about that fact that he knew, which was at the point that I had been Twilight for three whole days. I have a feeling they’ll add some intrigue to this book.

Of course, I can make one prediction of a surge for you.

Medium surge, Canterlot High, day 7. Most likely suspect... Me! That’s when I head back through the Looking Glass!

Twilight’s phone is actually the one with most of the data collection slaved to it, so she took over most of the writing for the weekend.

Oh, yeah. And by now, if you've seen any of these events, you've probably suspected that it isn't actual coincidence.

The truth... will be in our next book, Across The Boundary: A Study Of Parallels Between Our World And The Other. It's another pseudo-scientific journal detailing how similar beings across two worlds can have subtle differences (and it'll be packed with some of our personal data on the matter.)

I shut the book to prepare it for the next writings, the ones that would be Astartes and Twilight’s, and smiled as I wrote the title I had come up with.

The title, in bright gold, read,


It Came From the Statue Looking Glass:
One Week of Data Collected About Odd Phenomena From A World Beyond Our Own

By Twilight Sparkle and Astartes Cinch


In smaller lettering under the author names, I put,


and Elytra Necros





(Weekend Days)




Twilight sipped a hot cocoa as I munched on a cupcake, and Astartes wrote down more facts about changelings.

“So, Elytra, What was that creature you pulled out of nothingness?,” Twilight asked me. 

I answered, “It’s a Vector. They were originally made to be covert infiltrate-and-inject units, but we mainly just use them for medical needs. The Necrosia they carry is as ethically sourced as possible, made from shed carapace instead of actual changelings, and as you saw in the cafeteria, it’s a potent medicine for changelings.”

“And, hypothetically,” Twilight asked, “what if you used it on someone who was injured, but not a changeling?”

I tensed up, dreading this question, before relaxing and saying, “I wasn’t always a changeling. It’s apparently sheer luck I’m a monarch, especially in the way I am. And like I said, the Vectors were made to inject entire cities with necrosia...”

I put down my cup of tea, “and turn them into more changelings.”

Twilight gasped as I continued. “Changelings that were stronger, but needed to be controlled by other changelings because they kept their memories. Conveniently and luckily, it can also do the opposite, but I made it illegal within my hive to convert in the first place without my approval, and mine alone. Most of my hive had their minds rewired to mine from another, one with less strict policies and monarchic corruption like love hoarding.”

Twilight and Astartes were horrified at the truth of Necrosia, but they nodded and pat me on the back when I said it was illegal in my hive to convert ponies.

“So, um,” Twilight started, “if the monarch is responsible for growing the hive,” she tensed, “does that mean-“

I slammed a hand over her mouth and yelled, ”OKAY MOVING ON NO I DO NOT OVIPOSIT OR FLANK BUMP THANK YOU THIS IS A FAMILY STORY.”



Finally, it came time to go.

Twilight and I had filled all seven chapters of the book with all kinds of things related to the topic; stories about the codenamed individuals, the rest of the surges that plagued the days, journal entries from Astartes, and finally, when it came time to go, I told Twilight, “Things will get more interesting eventually, especially after ‘Destiny Scramble’. After that, you’ll be getting some bigger surges due to the leak of magic after “Project Elementa.”

I turned to Astartes. “Keep in touch with that ‘special book,’ okay, Astartes? I’ll call you when ‘Project Eclipse’ is done; that’s when things begin for the other Twilight, and it also means I get to get off the throne Beyond the Looking Glass.”

“Other Twilight?,” Sci-Twi asked, to which I replied, “Counterparts!”

I then repeated the portal procedure and left for Equestria.




(1st Person, Astartes)




Sure enough, Twilight’s scanner picked up the magic, and she...

Well, she didn’t need to write it down, since it was there in the postscript.

She did add a special thanks to him alongside it, though.

What the next days would bring us, we didn’t know, but at least it wouldn’t be boring.




(1st Person, Elytra)




Meanwhile, I thanked Moondancer and Cricket for taking my duties for the week, and checking the trust, I commended Cricket for sticking to the seven pints.

I then ate a pint myself after my week in Crystal Prep. We shared a laugh as I showed them my “writer’s” first edition of It Came From The Statue Looking Glass, and we had a nice time of it.

And in three weeks, I would reveal myself to Equestria and Project Eclipse would be completed.

Next up to cover is... Ugh. The Gala ticket fiasco.