Chapter 6
Pre-Wedding Jitters
Once Chrysalis was settled in her own role once again, Twilight thought it best to check on her brother. It was an awkward silence between them. He’d told the servants to leave, making it just the two of them.
“You know Twily,” he said finally, “Some of the things you said growing up finally make sense.” He looked at the full body mirror as Twilight straightened the crest on his chest. “You’d ask some of the strangest things, but I always passed it off as you being curious. Just part of your lust for knowledge. I guess…that’s what you wanted me to think.”
Twilight just nodded at first, not really sure how to respond outside of that. “I…you were the one pony I trusted most growing up,” she told him, “I thought I never needed any other friends, because I had you. Now the girls are my friends.”
“Now or always?” he wondered aloud.
“Not always actually,” Twilight told him honestly, much to his surprise. “I mean, sure we’ve always known each other, but we weren’t always friends. Just…I don’t really know what you’d call it.”
Shining finally looked at her directly. “Why can’t you tell me what the endgame is here?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Twilight sighed. “I almost didn’t believe it myself when Chryssi told me.” Twilight gave him a reassuring smile. “I’ll tell you everything when I can gather the proper proof. Okay?”
Shining was beginning to need more than that. “Can you at least tell me what’s going to happen to Canterlot?” he asked desperately, “I need something here Twilight.”
Twilight hangs her head and looks away sadly. “I...I can’t.”
“Why not?!” he demands, stamping his hoof angrily. Twilight flinches at the outburst. “Twilight, I love you dearly, but you’re asking me to let you commit treason! I have to know what’s going to happen, and I have to know why!”
Twilight shies away from him. “Shiny, I...I really, really want to tell you, but I just can’t.”
Shining looks at her sadly. “Why not?” he begs, “Why can’t you tell me?”
Twilight sighs heavily. “It’s…” She couldn’t tell him the whole truth. “...I’m trying to protect you.”
“Protect me?” he parrots.
Shining was about to question further when Rarity trotted in on them. “Ready to go yet? It’s not polite to keep a lady waiting you know, especially a princess,” the white changeling in disguise scolded.
Shining had been so caught up in his conversation he almost forgot he was going to see Cadence before everything had a chance to go down. “Yeah, let’s go.” As he follows her he briefly stops Twilight at the door. “We’ll talk afterwards,” he tells her before continue.
Twilight stands back for a moment with a heavy heart. “Shining...if only you knew.”
***
Cadence was furious. It was bad enough knowing that she was locked up as barely more than a prisoner of war (albeit still treated like the princess she was), but now she was locked up on her own wedding day!
A knock came. “WHAT?!” she shrieked.
“I’ve heard of pre-wedding jitters, but this is ridiculous,” came a nervous joke.
Cadence looked at the door in disbelief. It has to be a trick. It just has to be. She opened the door slowly and Shining Armor bounded over to her and hugged her.
“It’s so good to see you finally!” he said happily. He backed up and gave a quick once over. “You’re not hurt are you?” he asked with the expected concern. After failing to find a hair out of place he looked at the room he’d stepped into. “How is it you can get taken prisoner and still have a fancier bedroom than I could ever dream of?”
“Focus, Shining,” Rarity chastised from the door, flicking her white mane out of her eyes. “Honestly, I think the stress is starting to break you.”
“I’m in a hole in the ground!” he argued, “Of course the stress is getting to me!” He turned back to Cadence, who was still in shock, and hugged her again. “I’m so glad you’re safe, Cadence.”
A thought popped into her head: If it was really him... “Shining calls me by my full name when a royal is present,” she stated, seeing Twilight at the door, trying to stay out of sight.
Shining looked at her oddly. “No I don’t,” he said in confusion, “Celestia gets on me about that all the time, remember?”
She leaped at him. “It is you!” she cried happily. She leaned back in his hooves with her eyes widened suddenly, a panic overtaking her. “Did you find out what’s going on?” She gasped. “They’re not locking you up too are they?!”
“Yes to the first, no to the second,” he answered hesitantly. Cadence didn’t know how to respond to that other than asking “why”. “To be honest, I’d rather side with my sister,” he answered softly, “I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here, but I do trust her. Not only that, but what I need to know most of all is that my family is safe in all this.” He smiled at her. “Just because we’re not married yet, doesn’t mean I don’t consider you family.”
She smirked. “Only you would say something that corny.” He laughed. After taking a moment to think, Cadence had to ask, “What exactly is going to happen today, Twilight?” Twilight froze outside the door. “Yes, I can still see you over there,” the princess confirmed.
Twilight gulped, still not ready to know what Cadence thought of the real her.
Shining groans. “I’ve been trying to get that answer from her since I confronted them.” He rubs the back of his neck. “She’s been pretty stubborn about it.”
“Oh, captain Armor,” Rarity chided, Cadence gasping as she realized who the other changeling really was, “You really couldn’t imagine what’s going on here. Rest assured we’ve already secured our primary goal. Everything from here is merely going to be icing on the cake as Pinkie would say.”
“Rarity?!” Cadence looked at Shining, who just nodded nervously.
“Yeah, all six of them actually,” he admitted, “I only found out today too. Turned out Spike has been helping Twilight hide her true self the whole time.”
Twilight, still creeping closer to bolting by the second, felt that urge spike all the faster.
Finally Cadence had enough and decided to confront her. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?” she asked sadly, “Twilight?” The young queen’s wings started buzzing. “Are you afraid of me?” Twilight shook her head slowly once. “Then why?”
“I was afraid,” she admitted.
“But you just said—” Cadence started, but Twilight quickly cut her off.
“I was afraid you’d hate me,” she sobbed. Tears streamed down her eyes. “You’ve always been with me, just like Shining, and mom and dad.” She sniffled. “You were always like my big sister.”
“You’ll have to forgive the tears,” Rarity cut in, “Changelings are largely in tune with all emotions around them, making us natural at empathy, but the drawback is that some of us can’t cut ourselves off from that easily. This can give a changeling mood swings from time to time, as well as make them over emotional at other times.” She looked at Twilight’s slowly collapsing form with a touch of pity. “Twilight is one such case. She’s highly emotional at times, and I can’t begin to imagine what she’s going through right now.”
“We don’t want to do this, but we can’t come up with a better plan,” she insisted.
“You’re reinforcing negative stereotypes!” Cadence argued, “If this is your plan it’s a horrible one! They’ll never accept you like this!”
Twilight looked up at her sadly, but with an off look in her eyes. “They?” she repeated hopefully.
“Oh just come here and hug me already,” Cadence said finally.
Twilight scampered across the floor and huddled into the alicorn’s hooves. “I’m scared Cadence. So much is going to happen and I’m terrified of it all,” she sobbed.
“If you explain yourself I’m sure the citizens of Canterlot will understand,” Cadence reasoned.
“I don’t doubt that,” Twilight admitted, “I...I’m afraid she’s going to hate me.”
“Why?” the princess asked in confusion, knowing she was referring to Celestia, “I have faith Celestia would put her care for you and your friends above any prejudice she may have against changelings. She’d listen to you, I’m sure of it. Whatever you’re trying to get or do, I’m sure she’d help you.”
“We don’t want Celestia to help us,” Rarity stated firmly, and a bit coldly, “I love Celestia as much as any other Equestrian, but we cannot have her interfering with our plans. She can’t be trusted to follow our wishes or plan of action.” The young mare sighed in dismay. “This is so clustered, and it would be hard to explain without the book as proof.”
“Book?” the couple parroted in curious unison.
“Rarity!” Twilight yells in frustration of the slip up.
Rarity’s ears splay back. “Um...sorry.”
“Twily?” Shining speaks up.
Twilight groans. “It’s the only proof we have that what we’re trying to do is true. Changelings have kept it safe for years.” Twilight took a couple breaths to calm herself a bit before continuing. “It’s…well, two books really.” She quickly slaps a hoof over her mouth.
“Twilight!” Rarity scolds.
It was Twilights turn to splay her ears back and apologize. “Sorry.” She sighs heavily, trying to get rid of the nervousness. “The second is a record book, sort of a history book too. Changelings have written in it over the years to keep a record of our history for a little over the last millennia.”
“What’s the first book Twilight?” Cadence asked firmly.
Twilight tried to think of the best way to explain it without actually telling them what was going on. In the end she couldn’t think of a satisfactory answer. “I can’t tell you,” she says finally.
“Twilight, why are you so desperate to keep us in the dark?!” Cadence demanded, a sad tone in her voice. “Don’t you...don’t you trust us?”
Twilight’s heart sank. “I-I do, but…”
“She told me she was trying to protect me earlier,” Shining tells his fiance. Cadence and Shining give Twilight a curious look. “Twilight, protect us from what?” he asks.
“That is a very good question, and I would love to answer it,” Rainbow yelled as she zipped through door, “Unfortunately for you pretty boy, it’s just about show time.”
“Have we so little time, Rainbow?” Rarity asked in surprise.
Rainbow landed with a thud and started pushing Shining Armor out the door. “I know it’s hard to tell time down here, but yeah. We’re about out of time and I’ve given you as much as I can. Now let’s move it!”
“Hold on a minute!” Cadence slammed the door shut and put her own lock on it. “Exactly how is this going to play out?” she asked seriously with an eyebrow raised. “Am I really meant to sit here, while what was supposed to be my wedding day is just ruined and associated with a terrible memory forever, and not even told why?”
Rainbow backed up and started prancing about anxiously.
“I don’t like this either, princess,” Rarity told her with a sigh, “But we really don’t have the time and for once I actually agree with Rainbow on the necessity to make a great big scene.”
“Yeah, yeah, big scene, worse than the Gala. Can we hurry this up?!” Rainbow was practically jumping out of her skin with how much she was twitching.
Twilight opened a drawer on the dresser, half emptied a small sachet of calming herbs and passed it to the blue-eyed changeling. Rainbow started breathing into it like it was a paper bag, the lingering scent of the calming herbs working wonders on her nerves. Finally after a large amount of quick huffs [that was frankly starting to worry the other ponies in the room] she slowed down and her wings stopped twitching.
“Hoo…I’m good,” she said finally. She looked at the herbs and then the bag. “I will say I’m a bit tempted to ask if this stuff is legal though.”
“They are very strong calming herbs,” Twilight stated firmly, “I got them from Zecora, and I can assure you they are perfectly legal.” Rainbow just nodded.
Cadence raised an eyebrow at the leaves. “Just curious, but why is that in my room?”
Twilight gave Cadence a sheepish smile. “Well, I honestly thought you’d need it today.” She took on a more serious face suddenly. “Do not eat those. They are toxic and you will get sick.”
“Duly noted, but on to more pressing matters,” Rarity urged while fumbling at Cadence’s magic lock, “We really must be going. We’ve already made it a personal promise to each other and you that we will see your wedding done right.”
Cadence strengthened her lock despite Rarity’s best efforts to crack it open. Magic locks were a curious thing. Like real locks they could be forced open, though only by magical means. Otherwise they work on a tumbler, or code system, and either method can be made more intricate on the fly by the original caster. “Twilight, I’m begging you. Tell us the truth,” Cadence pleads.
“I…have you ever wondered why changeling’s chose Equestria to live in?” Twilight asked out of nowhere.
Cadence and Shining Armor exchanged confused glances, neither one of them coming up with a viable answer. The fact that changelings did in fact live in Equestria was a scarcely acknowledged fact. So much so that nopony ever bothered to question it.
“What if I told you it was familiarity? Because Equestria reminded us of our real home?” Twilight asked the two.
“Real home?” Shining parroted.
“But you told me that it’s unknown where changeling’s originated,” Cadence reminded the young queen.
“True,” Twilight said with a small nod as she left the princess’ embrace, choosing to trot about the room as she spoke, “There is one truth I didn’t really mention though. Changeling’s have existed for thousands of years, granted not nearly as long as the other races of pony, but still pretty long.”
“So what’s your point?” Cadence asked without a clue.
Shining however picked up on it very quickly. “But the first sightings of changelings in Equestria only happened roughly between twelve and thirteen centuries ago,” the captain thought aloud, “So they had to have lived somewhere else first.” He looked at his sister, who smiled sadly knowing he’d already come to the logical conclusion. “Something Celestia did caused the changelings to lose their home. Is that right?”
Twilight hung head slightly. “Luna was involved too, and they still don’t know the entire consequences of what they did, but yes, you’re right.”
Cadence gaped in shock while Shining’s ears drooped sadly.
“Now you begin to fully understand our position in this attack. This is why we can’t afford to have the celestial sisters involved,” Rarity explained, “That book we mentioned is from the ancestral home, but we don’t actually have it. It’s here, somewhere in the castle, and we need it to stop what’s going to come. History cannot be allowed to repeat.”
“Twily,” Shining says softly, “Is something coming? Something dangerous? If there is, please tell us. We can help you.”
Twilight quivers. “N-no. You...you should stay where it’s safe...we’re leaving after the invasion.”
Cadence and Shining Armor gape at her. “What?!”
“The invasion isn’t a takeover,” Twilight explains, “It’s a distraction. We need Celestia and Luna’s focus somewhere else while we execute our true plan.”
“What kind of logic is that?!” Shining demands, “You need to distract them by drawing attention to yourselves?! That’s insane!”
“Believe me, we know how it sounds, but we have a plan,” Rarity explains, finally giving up on the lock and conceding to Cadence’s will, “It’s hard to explain, but we need Celestia and Luna focused on protecting Equestria completely. They won’t have time to notice what we’re really up to.”
‘Twilight, let’s just assume that all this goes the way you want it to,” Shining challenged, “You want Celestia and Luna distracted? How are you going to keep her from tracking you down afterwards?”
“We have a freaking plan! Geez!” Rainbow snaps, her nerves getting worse by the moment.
“Cadence, please. We’ve tried to keep you in the dark because we don’t want you to wind up getting hurt,” Twilight begged, “Changelings have been waiting over a millennia for this. This isn’t your fight. Let us go, I’m begging you.”
Cadence softens seeing the desperation in the mares in front of her. “Twilight, I…”
“Cadence.” Shining Armor put a hoof on her shoulder. “I don’t like this either. This day was supposed to be ours, and ours alone.” A sad smile betrayed him, not hiding his grief in the least. “We will get married, I promise you that. Today though, Twilight and her friends have to do what they feel is right.”
“We swear, nopony needs to get hurt,” Twilight promises, “The swarm can take care of the guards through non-violent means.” Her eyes begged desperately with the princess, whose resolve weakened more and more by the second.
Shining squeezes her shoulder slightly. “Please, Cadence.”
“Shining I…what about you?” she asked, “How do you intend to get out of this unscathed?”
“Shining is supposed to play vegetable during the invasion,” Rainbow explained, “You come in afterwards and ‘cure him’ and he gets off scott free.”
“Then you and I can have a real wedding,” Shining finished. Cadence shrank a bit, but she didn’t falter. “I can’t let Twilight face this alone.”
“Big brother…”
“I…” Cadence submitted. “Oh alright, but promise me one thing,” she bargained. The four of them nodded. “Don’t get hurt.”
Twilight and Shining pulled her into a tight hug. “I promise everything will be fine,” Shining whispers in her ear.
“If not a little chaotic for a bit,” Twilight adds honestly, “But it’ll pass soon enough. Promise.”
Cadence squeezed back for a moment before pushing them towards the door. “Go do what you have to then. And be careful!”
The four of them nodded and rushed out the door as soon as the lock was removed. As the three of them ran, Rainbow flying, Rainbow looked down at Twilight. “Can you promise me something too, Twi?”
“Um, sure,” Twilight responded oddly, “Though I’m not sure if this is the best time.”
“Promise me you’ll get some of those calming herbs for Pinkie…” After a moment she added, “And yourself.”
Shining raised an eyebrow in thought. “It would be good for your panic attacks.”
Twilight groaned, “Fine, I’ll get some for my panic attacks.”
“And Pinkie?” Rainbow repeated.
“And Pinkie, yes. Now let’s hurry!”
4054277
Story updates the very second you comment. I am now laughing at the irony.
We'll it's about time
4054284 hilarous!
I'm still of the opinion that this is not going to end the way they hope it will. There are just too many spots where this plan can go horribly wrong.
Still don't trust them
Oh it soo awsome! And the nex pice is only missing the end ya said right? So if ya need help just pm so. My offer still stands at aiding you should ya need it.
Yay! This story isn't dead!
Very nice work, although it could use some more editing. There were a lot of places where you slipped into present tense, and I also noticed a few other issues. I have copied everything I noticed here, although I may have missed something. Let me know if any of these are confusing you because there are too many for me to go through individually.
I like the story's concept, but so far it's been six chapters of just folks talking. That's starting to get a bit frustrating. Also, this latest chapter has a ton of problems with verb tenses and punctuation.
4054284
Twilight could try Explain it better.
What she do is flag flag ops.
to make equestria army paranoia therefore spread their force thin .
Twilight is also try to Man Be-hide man or this In-case The Changeling behide the Changeling.
Plans never survive real situations. its almost a fact.
4054672
Pretty much, yeah.
An interesting little thing to read, and here's hoping for chapter 7 to wham episode us in what happens next. But certainly a little laugh with twilight and rarity here.
I have a feeling this will end very badly.
Well this is an interesting turn of events. I can't wait for the next chapter. Don't keep us waiting too long.
the princess know and they have planned for the plan
Twilight knows this and has counterplanned their plan for the plan
Which Luna has accounted for
All in accordance with the true master of plans...Gummy
Yanno what the two most consistent tropes in storytelling are?
1. If the author is keeping the plans secret from the readers, it's defined to fail.
2. Refusing to trust someone you have every reason to trust with something important ALWAYS bites you in the ass and takes a meaty chunk out while it's at it.
There's a third one but it seems kind of whiny to mention it since you've worked to hard to build suspense:
3. When the plan is revealed, it's obvious that it should never have been hidden.
4054672 This coming from the guy where nearly every one of his plans worked exactly the why he wanted them, even ones where he was able to guess how someone would react to what he was saying and therefore was able to record a conversation in advance.
I like where this is going. I'm going to take a bet that the "plan" doesn't go as planned. Don't let us down!
Nice work btw, I like the plot&concept.
It LIVES! Will read in the morning.
4055390
To be fair, I had mystic powers.
Nice to see this is still alive.
Speculation about what Celestia and Luna's goof was, plus the reason for the invasion: The crystal ponies are either not the only inhabitants of the Crystal Empire... or what well-fed changelings used to look like. The whole invasion is just a shell-game to force Equestria to ignore the return of the empire, and thus letting the changelings reclaim it, and thus the heart, unopposed.
4055297 Secret plans fail, huh?
4055297 Yeah, I can see that this plan is going to go Pear shaped. I'll have to check back to see if she says, "Nothing can go wrong", or "Its fool proof" to see if she sealed her own fate.
4055954 When a secret plan is set up in this specific way, yes. All the tropes work together like interlocking cogs in a machine: if you have a plan that supposed will work but tell the audience nothing about it, that you deliberately hide from characters that should be told about it, that you hide from characters with the power to increase its chance of success for <insert reason here>, failure has a high chance because it's extremly dramatic to have a "why didn't you tell me?" moment as everything becomes sackcloth and ashes.
4056367 Indeed it's gonna go pear-shaped; any plan that you need to hide from those who can make it work is a plan that's heading for the rocks. It's heavily implied that whatever the Princesses did to the changelings, they weren't aware of it and didn't do it deliberately. Logic would suggest that if they were made aware, they'd want to undo it.
Also, I've rarely if ever been able to adequately suspend my disbelief when someone simply accepts assurances that it's best for them to be kept ignorant, even though they're supposedly trusted. But that's only because I'm so very much not that way; it's a totally personal thing.
I hope the solar tyrant will understand soon.
Woven in lies, it seems that this
morality will be judged white.
The deceptive creatures from shadow will surely
extinguish the flame of idiocy;
engulfing the light.
Awaiting further releases.
4056504
Indeed. No offence to you, DO2012, but it is implied here that whatever happens would force the princesses to take action as soon as they are aware of it. It apparently looks so bad that rulers who forgive everyone, whatever species they are or what atrocities they may have committed, will not stand for it.
In other words: "It's easier to ask forgiveness then permission."
Me, I think they are going to release Sombra and the Crystal Empire, for they need Heart energy.
I am also very happy that you are letting off the pony-bashing--you even gave the changelings a weaker version of the empathy vulnerability that the OC from our joint story had, Allee.
So far, I kept being reminded of the Twilight Saga. Supernatural creatures who have all the powers and immunities of legends but none of the drawbacks, attack civilians without explanation, and then whine how they are tragic and misunderstood.
Ouch, that last part sounds kind of hard, but since you can not even determine whether that sentence was about vampires or changelings, I think I am correct.
I especially liked the part where Cadence confirms her husband's authenticity. The plan is moving forward, and I am looking forward to the scenes where the Royal Sisters are confronted with the truth.
One question, if I may? Why was Cadence not kept in suspended animation, instead of suffering imprisonment? If you had told us that they had kept her in a nutritious cocoon, like the ones that were implied canon changelings would deploy to feed, then no one would have batted an eyelash at it.
Except if they knew that Shining would call the bluff, and it's all been a deception up to this part. So far there is no proof that changelings, legendary masters of deception, are not playing them all for fools and this story end with
static.fjcdn.com/pictures/The+Changeling+Swarm..+Another+great+piece+of+art+by+http+ziom05.deviantart.com+FOR_f4acec_4487770.jpg
4056714 +1
Also, another thing I would say that I haven't said before is that whatever the changelings are planning here, it's being implied that it must sound so bad that they're concerned that telling Cadence and Shining Armor, who are essentially family to Twilight and love her unconditionally and trust her, would interfere if they knew what was going to be done. Your intentions must be pretty horrifying-looking and horrifying-sounding if the expected result of family being given all the facts is that the family would interfere. People usually react badly from not knowing a key fact; knowing all the facts and still reacting badly implies that the facts look bad.
Also, just from a storytelling and writing point of view, the entire "character is about to tell another character something but is interrupted out of thin air" is expected... but when you chain it together multiple times, it doesn't read as natural events, it reads as "the author is inventing any excuse he can think of to keep the readers in the dark"... and you really don't want the readers to get the feeling that the author is just toying with them.
4056851
Good point, and same for the interruptions. This could be either a writing issue, or a deliberate ruse: the changelings want to make it seem like Twilight wants to reveal it, but has no opportunity to do so.
Though this might just be us over thinking it. You know, there was a story where I congratulated the author for writing the most masterful manipulative Tyrantlestia who made Twilight train DBZ style out of "free will", while all evidence pointed out that Celestia had it all planned.
example: teaching her the teleportation spell in the highest tower of the castle, and then leaving the room. Of course she managed to "slip through the wards" and fall to her doom. Then she was "saved" by Celly's confidante Fleur de Lis who introduces Twi to her son who in turn introduces her to wargames and teaches her strategy. A few years later and Twi can lift 200 times her weight, outsmart tactical geniuses, and take bullets to the face.
The author of Celestia's Tiny Student was surprised that his story could be interpreted that way. For him, it was all just a very long string of unfortunate events that merely caused Twilight to entrust her entire well being to Celestia, shaped her personality to Celestia's wishes, and made her the perfect supersoldier that could redeem Nightmare. Turned out, Celly really was mellowed out because of centuries of peace and eventually broke down because she failed her student time and time again.
STOP SWITCHING FROM PAST TENSE TO FUTURE TENSE! IT'S FUCKING ANNOYING!
Past tense version:
Future tense
PLEASE, JUST PICK ONE!
Alright, other then that the chapter was good.
Keep up the good work thanks
This needs to be broken up. You cannot have more than one character speaking in a single paragraph.
Get rid of either "going" or "trying".
And as was mentioned by others, you do have a bad habit of switching between tenses. You're really good at writing present tense as well as past, but you need to learn to choose one or the other and stick with it throughout the story.
4058800
Yeah, before I submitted this chapter I rearranged and deleted a good chuck of it since I felt like it flowed about as well as a boat through a river a bricks and tree sap (exaggeration of course). That first problem was because of the few times I moved one part of the story to a later part. That second part was because I went and rewrote several lines so they felt more natural and in character.
I'll fix those now, thanks. Really gotta go over those past/present tense issues too. I contribute those mistakes to writing the damn thing too late at night.
4056913 Of course we're overthinking all of this... that's the entire point of us chattering about the motives and practices of characters not our own in the comment section of this story. :)
I suppose we have no control over how other people see our work. There are authors I wish understood that... and I hope that one day, I'll get people having this sort of discussion over my work but thus far, people don't care enough.
In addition to the tense issues noted below, you've got three uses of "changeling's," the singular possessive, when you mean "changelings," the plural. Remember, apostrophes are only used with possessives (except "its") and contractions (including "it's.") Also, you used "A millennia" which is
wrong wrongwrong one of my larger pet peeves. The singular is "millennium."Aside from that, excellently built tension and great character interaction. Eagerly looking forward to more.
You keep switching between present and past tense. Dont try writing in present tense, I've never seen it work. Other than that, great story.
Dumb question:
How is Twilight related to Shing Armor and the parents? How can she be a changeling and her/his parents aren't?
Nice chapter as always
Hope you update more often in the future
4059974
Uhm, I kind of want to apologize for my harsh sentence. It's your story and I should have faith that it will all make sense in the end.
At first I thought that the changelings wanted to reemerge the Crystal Empire, but the princesses would applaud that. Then I thought that they needed to drain the princesses, but I realized that they might have agreed to that, especially if they can take some precautions. Then I thought of mass-draining the populace, like a DBZ Spirit Bomb, but then I realized with some good PR and precautions, this might fly as well. My current theory is that they need egg-cells from the princesses. Or just drain Discord, I dunno
4062971
Ah, that age old question that everyone has been asking since I brought it up in the first place. Explained in the next chapter.
4063136
Don't worry about it. (but for the record, my characters aren't played by people with the emotional acting range of a cactus )
As for speculations about the plot, I won't confirm or deny anything, but I will tell you to keep in mind this is an AU story and I have already changed parts of existing canon for the purposes of the story. Who's to say there aren't other things that are a bit different that I haven't revealed yet? Or something I've added? Think outside the box, Fren.
4063204
Hmm, if it's AU, then for all we know, changelings are what's keeping the wendigos out, or need to recharge the Elements of Harmony.
Or maybe Equestria is a pocket dimension created by ponies, and the changelings were accidentally zapped into it ("the princess made us lose our home"), and now they want to return but Sparkle's family would miss her too much and try to keep her.
Or maybe they want to put a subliminal message into the sun so it radiates love?
Wait, I know: Chrysalis is Celly's father And Discord the mother, though he went by the name of Eris back then.
See, I can think outside the box
4063333
Okay, you got a bit silly there at the end. But now that you...
abbieisaninjaa.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/gru_lightbulb.png
4063378
Oh my, what have I unleashed
Hey, you know me. I'm still sad that we never got to the war part of our campaign. I've been doing a little one with Laurent, but you know that: the Temple of Elemental Evil.
I kind of miss Tatsurou
4063425
Well, it's not like Tatsurou is hard to get a hold of. He's online as much as I am.
Those calming herbs will have no effect on Pinkie. Trust me, they won't.
Glad to see this back. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
4064836
I read that last part Deus teacup.
teacup of the gods lol
4063182 Okay, wasn't sure if it was mentioned anymore
4063333 uh-oh someone was too creative again... Last time this happened I learned green is not a creative color.