Twilight is looking to hire guards for her castle. Derpy is looking for a new job. Lightning Dust is trying to find a way forward after her falling out with the Wonderbolts, and Flare Warden is just trying to get a position far far away from her brother.

Immense thanks to Fylifa for countless hours of editing and proofreading.
Cover art by Anchorxx

This story is a sequel to Winds of Change

Changelings have always been a secretive race, shrouded in mystery and keeping to themselves, staying unnoticed and in the shadows, feeding where they could and avoiding discovery at all costs. When Chrysalis made peace with Celestia, the veil of secrecy and subterfuge was shattered, and thanks to Twilight's efforts, the other changeling queens can no longer remain hidden.

Of course, Twilight is more than happy to leave the tricky diplomacy to Celestia. She's having a hard enough time dealing with her own amorous changeling queen and her new personal pegasus guard competing with her.

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Cover work done by the talented Jazzy. You can find his works here and his stream here.

Editing work provided by Snoodude and MisterGunpowder.

Wastelands. Dystopias. Playgrounds for megalomaniacal villains. Each time Starlight forced her into a new world, it was just another variation of Tartarus that she was glad to leave behind and forget about. Unfortunately, thanks to over thirty timeline jumps, Starswirl's spell has gotten worn and frayed, forcing her to stop in this latest world to repair it. Fortunately, things seem relatively peaceful. Unfortunately, Twilight soon finds out the reason for that peace is...complicated.

The she-demon was laughed off as a hoax. The giant alicorn in the sky firing lasers was dismissed as a clever prank. Despite all the weirdness going on at Canterlot High, the scientific community at large has mostly ignored them, and that's suited the Rainbooms just fine.

Unfortunately, they've failed to account for one important outlier. Twilight Sparkle. The other Twilight Sparkle that is...

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With thanks to MisterGunpowder for proofreading and editing.

When logic and reasoning fail to make a dent in her phobia of snakes, Twilight turns to the one pony who knows more about fear than anypony alive. Fortunately she's happy to help. Unfortunately, Discord is also happy to help in his own way. Now Fluttershy is caught in between a unicorn more frightened than herself and a draconequus all too willing to make things worse.

With thanks to MisterGunpowder for proofreading and editing.

Failing once in her attempt to take Canterlot and failing again in her attempt to take down Twilight, one would think Chrysalis would have cut her losses and let things be, but the queen has once again appeared, this time in broad daylight with no disguise and no army. Her weapon of choice? Diplomacy.

Now Twilight is having to deal with the changeling queen, but surely putting up with her antics will be worth the knowledge she's willing to provide about her mysterious race and the potential undiscovered agents still within their midst...right?

Takes place before Magical Mystery Cure and diverges from there.

With thanks to MisterGunpowder for proofreading and editing.

Revision History:

05/09/2015: Chapter 1 updated with millions of little corrections.
05/20/2015: Chapter 2 revised and edited with another million small and large corrections.
06/12/2015: Chapter 3 given a thorough editing and revision.
06/23/2015: Chapter 4 taken to the gutter and edited twice to be sure.
07/14/2015: Chapter 5 thoroughly brutalized with the editing stick.
08/03/2016: Chapter 6 finally edited. Yes, I'm still alive, dammit.
09/29/2016: Chapter 7 fell out of the editing tree and hit every editing branch on the way down.
10/26/2016: Chapter 8 has emerged from the editing emergency room.
11/17/2016: Chapter 9 found and edited. No casualties reported.
11/30/2016: Chapter 10 treated for whiplash after lightning fast editing.
12/22/2016: Chapter 11 edited. Chrysalis shot first.
01/17/2017: Epilogue edited. Time to hit the cider.