//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: Helping Hand 
// Story: Magical Mistakes - Twilight the Changeling 
// by ThePrinceOfTheNorth 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 2

"Some pain is so great that even death will stay his grasp"
-John Winter, Prince of Solstice

Twilight awoke to the bright sunlight shining through cracked stained glass windows and the smell of freshly cooked eggs. For a moment she thought the whole affair about her becoming a Changeling was a dream.

Then the pain in almost every part of her body returned.

I noticed her enter the foaltal position and ran over to her, casting a spell to reduce the pain. She looked up at me with curious, fearful eyes. "T-thank y-y-you."

"It's the least I can do for a fellow monarch, Twilight," I said as I returned to the stove. You wouldn't believe the stuff they left behind in the castle, besides all the traps and secret passageways.

Twilight sat up abruptly, "How do you know my name? And who are you? And what are you? And where.."

I put a hand to the changeling's mouth, "You're rambling, Twilight. You look starved, come have something to eat. Don't worry, I've put a spell on you that will allow you to gain the nutirents from food for awhile."

"There are spells like that," asked Twilight in wonder.

"Indeed there are," I said, "Though most only exist in books only found in Solstice. Now, to answer your questions. A, I know your name because I'm a Prince, and a member of the Council of Equus, like you. B, I am Prince John Winter of the Kindgdom of Solstice, and it is a pleasure to meet you. C, I am an Equusian human, born at the very dawn of time itself. Does that clear everything up?"

Twilight thought for a moment, "Wouldn't that mean you're older than Celestia?"

"Indeed it would," I said with a laugh, "And indeed it does!"

Twilight managed to laugh a little before trying, but horribly failing, to get up. I went over to help her, deciding she wasn't used to her new legs just yet. "Thank you, Winter."

"It's no trouble at all," I said, "Really, I have limitless magical reserves. I could literlally lift Canterlot if the mood took me, and put it right back without a scratch."

Twilight was at a loss for words. Surely nopony could be that powerful, right? Then again, Winter wasn't a pony, and was older than Celestia. There was one thing that was still pulling at the back of her mind, though. "How did you know I was actually Twilight Sparkle?"

I put helped her onto an old stool at the dinner table. "Well, I can detect overuse of magic and use of magic in ways that it's not supposed to be used. Also, I tend to be an excellent judge of character."

Twilight nodded as she used her magic to begin eating, which was suprising because of the trauma her jorn had just went through. Then again, she'd had power to rival Celestia's long before she was an alicorn, so that made it all pretty self-explanitory. In that moment I also remembered anothet thing.

"Twilight, I have to head back to Solstice to do some research on if there is a spell to change you back, as I do recall one but cannot quite remember it," I said, "Though I'll be away, I've made sure you aren't alone here, that would be very heartless of me. Instead, my wife and two very good friends of mine will keep you company, and I wold like to think you know all three of them."

As I finished, the sound of shoed hoofbeats could be heard coming through the halls. "Ah, that's them now, I do believe."

Twilight remembered the empathy sensors and made her first attempt at using them, which was a success. She could feel the emotions of four distinct beings, one strong and close while the other three were growing stonger as they approached. None were afraid or apprehensive, which cnfirmed they were Winter's expected arrivals.

A few minutes later, the three ponies came into the kitchen. First was Princess Luna, who galloped to Winter and gave him a big hug. She'd been worried about him, and Twilight knew this with her empathy sense. She summarized that Luna and Winter were married. Next came Midnight Blue, a high-class pony from Canterlot. She owned a Salon that did spa treatments, hair dressing and she also did portraits of those who wanted one, which was a bonus to have a Spa and Salon in the same place as well. She nodded at Twilight, sho nodded back. The last pony to enter the room chilled Twilight to her very bones. Nightmare Moon walked in and smiled at Twilight. It took her a second to realize it wasn't a smile that wanted to hurt her, but a loving one, that was genuinely worried about her.

So, a Princess, a mare with almost limitless talent, and a demonic godess were to keep her company. The first two were fine but Nighmare Moon made her uncomfortable. I noticed her apprehension to Nightmare Moon.

"Twilight, don't worry," I said, "She hasn't been evil in nearly seven hundred fifty years."

"Then why did she try to cause the Eternal Night, then," Twilight asked.

"For appearances," I said, "The legend still needed to appear to come true. And I needed the Elements of Harmony to seperate Nightmare Moon and Luna. Nightmare Moon was sent into the Winter Spire, and given a new body by using very powerful and complex magic."

Nightmare Moon approached Twilight. "Twilight Sparkle, I am sorry for the misunderstanding when we first met, but I am not really like that, and have not been for centuries. I promise."

Twilight realized that Nightmare Moon was being sincere, and was telling the truth because of her empathy vision, which she finally decided to turn off. "Apology accepted."

A smile crept across Nightmare Moon's face, and she gave Twilight a quick hug, being careful not to hit Twiight's injured hoof.

Nightmare Moon began talking with Luna and Winter, leaving only Midnight Blue and her. She waved Midnight over, and she made her way to Twilight.

About when she was halfway between where she'd been standing and where she was now, Twilight noticed the holes in her legs. She also noticed that her horn was pointed, but still very smooth, and that her pupils were more dragon-like in nature. Midnight Blue was a Changeling.

Twilight squeeked in fear as she fell, causing Midnight to jump back in response. "She's a changeling," exclaimed Twilight, "A real one!"

"And, what about it," I said, "I know she's done your hair about a thousand times already. I truth, there was never a Midnight Blue the Unicorn or Alicorn. Instead, there was Midnight Blue the Changeling. She disguised herself by maing minor changes to her appearance, purely cosmetic, and she had alicorn wings when she was a changeling."

"So she's a changeling Queen," said Twilight, confused.

"No. She actually has some pony DNA for reasons yet unknown," I said, "I suspect this is why hives don't have Drone A mate wth Drone B, but instead the queen. This seems to always happen when two drones mate and fertilize, creating a hybrids that cannot reproduce."

"It sounds like there's something else," Twilight said questioningly.

"Indeed there is," I replied, "Midnigth Blue is a product of the mating and fertilization of two of these hybrids, giving her the bonus of a normal pony's digestive system. Instead of eating love, she eats regular food. She is the most pony-like Changeling I know to have ever existed. She is also immortal, which is another curiosity."

Twilight nodded as she took this all in. If she understood it correctly, Midnight Blue was a changeling with more similarities to an Alicorn than a Changeling, incuding a magical aura that was a dark blue, even darker than Luna's aura.

"Alright then," I said, "I must be off before the Inquisition arrives in Ponyville. They will probably quarantine Ponyville and a arge part of the Everfree Forest. I'll have my guards at the Winter Tower set up a barrier here to protect the castle."

"It has that kind of reach," asked Twilight. As the Winter Tower was Solstician technology, she knew only small bits of information about it. It was supposedly a large tower that housed a giant focus crystal, a gem that absorbed and compressed magical energies for storage. It was made as a solution for a long-forgotten war, and it was extremely powerful, but not much else.

"Indeed it does," I said, "My people merged magic and technology to a fine art that even the most scatterbrained of ponies can understand. I say this with Derpy in mind, just so you know."

Twilight nodded quietly. While she woudn't open voice it, Derpy was probably one of the more unintelligent ponies that she knew.

"Well, I'll be off then," I said making my way to the exit, "Do take care of her you three, it would break my heart to lose such a brilliant pony." And truthfully, it would.