‮Hindsight is a bitch. I mean, we’ve all had moments like this one, haven’t we? You prepare and plan and plot for months on end, getting every last detail down pat, and it’s only when something you couldn’t possibly have predicted happens and ruins everything that the little voice in the back of your head starts saying “You know what we could have done?” and “You really should have seen that coming.” It’s not fair, and it’s not right, but hindsight doesn’t care about that. Hindsight is a bitch, and it’ll bitch about how dumb you’ve been whether you want it to or not.

‮But seriously, a love-powered explosion? “Absolutely ridiculous” doesn’t even begin to cut it. Love doesn’t explode. It tastes like Pumpkin Spice Latte, and gives you gas if you eat it too fast, but it doesn’t violently and discriminately throw an entire species halfway across a country. Sure, we changelings get plenty of energy from it, but ponies get plenty of energy from hay burgers and you don’t expect those to start practicing the hammer throw.

‮Still, it’s a long flight to the Badlands, even with the speed we’re going at. Just enough time to get some real, good, strong regret going.

‮In hindsight, it might have been wise to seek negotiations with Celestia instead, and find a way to integrate our societies. In hindsight, invading Stalliongrad in winter was not the greatest decision in military history, but that didn’t stop four million ponies going along with it. At the end of the day, the problem really lies in the fact that bad ideas don’t always seem like bad ideas at the time. Kidnapping and impersonating a Princess seemed quite clever, actually. Really, really clever. Probably the cleverest idea I’ve ever had.

‮So why didn’t the voice in the back of my head (that is, at this second, kindly reminding me how dumb an idea this entire invasion was) tell me quite how wrong I was sooner? Surely it would have saved us both a lot of hassle had we never gone through with the invasion in the first place and, who knows, maybe I wouldn’t be about to crash back-first into a hoodo—

‮Ouch.

‮Oh, that hurts. Ow. Okay, come on. Shake it off, stretch a little. Oh, my head. This is more painful than that time Elytra dug too deep and collapsed half the workers into the throne room…

‮Where was I?

‮The problem with hindsight is that it doesn’t come soon enough. It’s like that one friend who is always late to the party, then berates you for running out of Pumpkin Spice Latte before she got there. Sure, you could plan around that happening, but why should you? It’s not your fault if they show up late. And besides, if you bought more Pumpkin Spice Latte, it would probably still all be gone before they showed up. You can never have enough Pumpkin Spice Latte.

‮You could always just not invite hindsight to the party, but I’m starting to suspect that hindsight is also the sort of friend who would gatecrash a party. Late, of course. And still complain about the lack of latte. In fact, now I think about it, I don’t think hindsight actually does get invited, ever.

‮Wow. Hindsight really is a bitch.