"Good morning, Captain!"
The Captain of the Guard nodded towards the overladen porter who'd greeted him without breaking stride. Patrol duty was, technically, beneath him, but the good mares and colts of the guard- his guard- walked at least one patrol a month, no matter their rank. He'd started the tradition and he hadn't had to order a single pony under his command to carry it on. They'd all volunteered.
"Hi there, Captain!"
The young voice greeted him as he turned onto the main street, striding towards the market, and he acknowledged it with another nod and a wink. He could hear coltish hoofbeats behind him in a stacatto attempt to copy his steady march, and smiled to himself. It wasn't so long ago he'd been that colt, following the guard as they walked their patrol. The hoofbeats trailed off as he reached the Crystal Market, a throng of ponies crowded together as they bought and borrowed and studiously avoided even the appearance of theft, at least until the Captain of the Guard was out of earshot. Many merchants and shoppers greeted him with nods and waves, and a few spoke to him directly.
"Hey there, boss! Strawberries today?"
"Howdy, mister guard captain!"
"Hello, my sweetness."
His young wife's voice was a thing of beauty, delicate and musical. It brought half a smile to his lips until he remembered that the bearer of the voice, the beautiful and composed Princess Cadance, was half a world away in Canterlot.
She'd never use that greeting. He'd made her promise.
Captain Shining Armor froze.
"Oh, do I have your attention now?"
Again, his wife's voice lilted over the crowd. He couldn't see who was speaking; not that it would do him any good even if he had a full description. That voice meant it could only be one pony. One thing, he corrected himself.
"Chrysalis."
"That's not what you used to call me. You used to call me all sorts of things, but you never called me by that name."
Shining's pinpoint pupils darted across the crowd, desperate to identify the speaker, even for a fraction of a second. She couldn't be here. She couldn't be! His sister had found Chrysalis, imprisoned her far beyond Equestria's borders. This was likely some sleeper cell of simple changelings, some agent provocateur left to disrupt the Crystal Empire.
Shining Armor took a deep breath and with a grunt of effort projected a shield around the entire market. Satisfied that it was stable, his horn shone again, amplifying his voice over the worried hubbub.
"Citizens! Please remain calm- you are absolutely safe. The guard are performing an unscheduled changeling security drill. The area of the market has been temporarily sealed- shortly; two exits will be established at the North and South edges of the plaza, where you will be free to leave after a simple changeling detection spell has been cast on you. I apologise personally for the inconvenience, but drills like this are the only way we can ensure good practice in the case of any real danger. The Crystal Empire thanks you for your patience."
The raised voices of the ponies surrounding him dropped into a generalised grumbling. Shining Armour closed his eyes.
"Well that's going to put my customers into just the right sort of-" at his 12 o'clock, ten yards away.
"-don't cry, sweetie, it's just the guard keeping you nice and safe-" 4 o'clock, three yards-
"-I'd wanted this sort of intrusion in my day I'd have stayed in Canterlot-" -7 o'clock, six yards-
"-oh, my sweetness, you don't think this is going to help, do you?"
Her voice was impossible to find. He couldn't tell from which direction she was speaking, how far away; and there was no telling what she looked like. Captain Shining Armor did not think of himself as a foolish pony. He knew the smart thing to do, the clever thing, was to leave, to run the checkpoints, to tighten the net and catch her. He breathed in, and very carefully did not raze the market and all the ponies within it to the bucking ground. He breathed out.
Shining turned and left to the north, to create the portals he needed in the shield and liase with his guard. He tried to ignore the delicate giggle that followed him all the way there, but couldn't quite shake it off.
"Damnation," he muttered under his breath.
It had taken five hours of staffing the checkpoints, running countless changeling detection spells, before the area he'd sealed off this morning had emptied. They hadn't had a single positive result. No pony in that shield had been identified as a changeling. Not that that necessarily meant anything; the spell could have been outdated, or inefficient at identifying a queen, or subject to some arcane counter-ritual he didn't know. The only plus side was that he could at least tell his officers that the 'drill' had been a complete success.
"Bright Spark?" He called over one of his lieutenants, a young, gangling crystal unicorn. Bright Spark trotted up eagerly and removed his helmet.
"Sir? I believe we've cleared the entire area, but I've got a squad in the shield now doing a sweep for anypony hiding from us. I'll let you know as soon as it's done." Bright Spark grinned. Shining was pleased- the unicorn wasn't a traditional pick for promotion, being both younger and substantially less physically intimidating than most ponies his rank, but his eye for procedural detail was impeccable. Most ponies wouldn't have thought to instigate a final sweep before calling the job done.
"Good work, Bright. Everypony did well today; this was a big win for us."
Bright beamed at him. Shining did his best to smile back.
The voice started again that evening.
Shining entered his quarters, took off his armour, smiled at the picture of his wife, blinked the fatigue out of his eyes, opened the bathroom-
The bathroom was locked from the inside.
"Hello, sweetness." This time the voice was deeper, more resonant. Chrysalis' true voice.
"No," Shining whispered, charging his horn.
"Wait!" Chrysalis shouted. "You don't have to fight me. I'm not here to fight."
"I know exactly what you're here for."
Shining fired the blast he'd been holding, obliterating the door and the bulk of the bathroom beyond. He charged his horn again and stepped into the wreckage of the room, but there was no sign of the changeling queen. No escape route she could have taken. She was just gone, as though she was never there.
The palace guard had mobilised as soon as they'd heard the blast, and while they'd accepted his story of fatigue and poorly controlled magical backlash from lowering the shield as an explanation, he could tell it didn't sit quite right with all of them. In future, Shining thought to himself, I need to hold off on the big guns. I need to make sure.
After everypony had left, he poured himself a glass of bourbon, holding it firmly with his telekinesis, and stepped back into the ruined bathroom. Threaded through the debris were the shards of a mirror; a thousand broken Shinings looked back at him with tired eyes. Shining chuckled to himself.
"At ease, boys." He left the bathroom, poured the bourbon away, and tried to get to sleep. This was just fatigue, he told himself. Just like the last time. Cadance will be home soon, and you can talk it through with her then. It makes sense to have these little- these episodes, is what she'd called them. Nothing special; just something to watch out for.
Shining drifted into an unsettled sleep.
"It isn't the same with anyone else." The whisper was right in Shining's ear, and at first he ignored it.
"I know it's like that for you too. We were good together. I made you very happy. And you were very... sweet."
Shining turned his head to see Chrysalis towering over him, standing above him on the bed. He tried to shout, to wake someone, to call the guard, but his voice came out as a desperate squeak.
"Who were you going to wake?" Chrysalis moved off the bed, letting Shining sit up- his wife was asleep next to him, his sister and her friends snoozing on the floor, Celestia and Luna both dozing on the sofa, tangled up in each other's wings.
"It's just you and me, sugar heart. It's only ever just you and me. I don't think we could wake them if we tried." Chrysalis burned with green fire until she was Cadance, smirking and predatory.
"Do you want to try, sweetness? You know it's the very best cure for a headache. And you always liked me in this dress." Shining tried to scream no, to shout no, but he still couldn't speak.
"I'm going to take that as a yes." The thing that looked like Cadance opened her mouth wide, too wide, and inside was Chrysalis again; she reached forward, and bit his horn so hard it splintered and he gasped
"Gah! Aaaah! Sun and bucking stars!" Shining jolted awake, cursing and grabbing his horn in his forehooves. It was still intact, still fine. The phantom pain from his dream echoed through it. Shining gritted his teeth, rolled out of bed and tried to take a deep breath. It took a long time before he produced anything other than a ragged gasp.
As he dressed for breakfast, he spotted a note on his wife's dressing table- he must have missed it before. He smiled to himself. Cadance.
No-one's ever loved me quite like you, it read. I bet I miss you! Cadance
It was her hornwriting. He was sure it was her hornwriting and it was just the sort of thing she'd say. She left him little notes like this all the time. He had, he told himself, no reason to distrust it.
He folded it back up, very carefully, and put it back on the dresser, and went for breakfast as though everything was absolutely fine.
"Bright Spark, would you join me for breakfast?"
Bright blinked, and then nodded enthusiastically before lifting his plate and moving over to a new table with his captain. Shining Armor looked better today, he thought- yesterday the drill seemed to have worn him out, but this morning he was as calm as a millpond.
"What can I do for you, sir?" Bright asked around a mouthful of oatmeal.
Shining sliced his apple in half with his magic and took a thoughtful bite.
"You graduated from the Crystal Academy in the top five percent of your year, correct?" Shining asked, his eyes steady on Bright.
"Yes. But I was actually in the top five students overall in my year," Bright explained, continuing in response to Shining's raised eyebrow. "I specialised in Magical Theory and that means you have to be good at Mathematics and Physics as well. And I took a Philosophy and Equestrian Literature minor as a way to, y'know, unwind, and I was good at that too. I don't want to brag, but while it's correct I'm in the top five percent, that's one in twenty ponies. It's only, y'know, pretty smart. I wanted you to have the full picture."
"And the full picture is?" Shining asked, his expression unchanging.
"I'm really smart," Bright beamed.
"Good," Shining said, smiling for the first time that morning. "I am removing you from your standard duties and putting you on a special assignment."
"Changeling detection?" Bright asked, and Shining Armor seemed to freeze up. "I figured since you had the drill yesterday, is all. You don't waste anypony's time, so you must be worried about changelings to run that drill. And I'm guessing we missed whatever evidence you'd planted in the market. Am I right?"
Shining took a deep breath and leaned forwards over the table.
"Yes. For the most part. But I need you to focus on the queen, Bright Spark. Find me a way to know- to know for absolute certain- whether a changeling queen is in the city, or has been in recent days."
Shining slid a pass across the table.
"This gets you into every part of the library. Every restricted section- it's all open to you. Just keep your eyes on the prize, Bright. I expect results."
Bright took the pass in his forehooves with an expression of glee.
"This is- wow. Thank you, Captain. I won't let you down."
"I'm very glad to hear that," Shining Armor said, and Bright Spark felt like he really meant it.
HRH Princess Twilight Sparkle
Twily
Twilight,
Tell me a spell to detect changelings and don't come up to visit or anything because everything is fine and I don't want to risk exposing a princess of the realm and my only sister to a changeling queen who probably isn't real and did I mention that everything was fine?
Shining snorted in exhaustion and crumpled up the letter. Seven attempts in and he still hadn't come up with a way to ask Twilight for help that wouldn't make her come running as soon as she read it. That would put her at risk and that was unacceptable. And she'd have questions that he'd have to answer about things he didn't want to relive.
Shining twirled the paperweight on his inbox and thought. There was only one other pony he could write to who would understand, even if the reply would take some time to get back to him. He picked his quill back up, and fetched a new piece of parchment.
Cadance,
Sorry in advance, this isn't much of a love note. I miss you a whole lot. I found the letter you left for me today, I think. I'm not doing so well. The queen again, the dream again. I've exploded our bathroom a bit but it's nothing that can't be fixed by the time you come home. I can't tell what's going on and I need you back here.
Please respond with the date by which you can return? I want to be sure that it's you I'm talking to. I need to see you face to face.
Your loving husband
Shining Armor
Shining sealed the envelope and put it in his outgoing mail pile, before reaching for his inbox and picking up another report that needed his attention. Getting lost in work would be the-
INCIDENT: No-one's ever tasted like you. And I know you want me back. I know it. I can make you know it too.
Shining ignited the report in reflex, concentrating quiet fire on the crumpling embers until it was nothing but ash. He dropped it into the bin and grimaced at his handiwork.
His face fell.
"That was evidence, you idiot!" he said to himself.
while there is ample evidence of the existence of changelings, there exists uncertainty in even the strongest changeling detection spells; the changeling adapts quickly to new magical influences. However, if a simple preliminary test is required, many options are available;
Bright Spark groaned.
He closed the motheaten tome, levitating it on top of a pile of equally hefty textbooks, dissertations, examinations and reports on changelings. They were all in complete agreement; absolute certainty from a changeling detection spell was impossible.
Bright Spark got on his hooves and took a quick trot around the library, waking himself up. He always did his best thinking on the move- something about being in motion made ideas flow easier, he thought to himself. So changelings could not be definitively detected by a spell designed to detect changelings.
"Like lie detection spells," Bright Spark said as he turned the corner into the History section.
There was something to that; a changeling was essentially a liar, and half their job was catching liars. But there wasn't a spell you could cast that made a pony tell the truth. You just had to ask questions, establish inconsistencies. Press them on the timelines over and over. Find the little parts that didn't add up. Perhaps-
"Spark!"
Bright Spark snapped to attention entirely on reflex. Shining Armor trotted up to him and snorted.
"What's going on, Spark? I thought you'd be busy researching."
"I am, sir. Just taking a quick walk to freshen up- I think we've got to come at this from a different angle than ponies have used in the past."
"Explain." Shining Armor's voice was flat.
"There's no spell that's ever existed that can certainly identify a changeling, sir. Not the way most ponies think of, anyhow. But I think there's a way we can use the complexity of their transformations against them; it's hard to transform, from what I've read, and most changelings take shortcuts. If we did things like pour soot on a pony and blow it away, their hair would react a certain way; changelings would have to recreate fur perfectly to mimic it. Their breathing, their teeth, their horns- I think there's a way to combine a lot of simple spells to find inconsistencies."
Shining Armor rubbed his jaw.
"That's interesting," he said. "I'd like you to work on that. But push the envelope in the shedding department too, Spark. Perhaps we can't locate a changeling, but like you said, little things add up. They must shed scales or chitin, must leave parts of themselves behind that don't keep up the change, yes?"
Bright Spark nodded slowly. It made sense that there'd be a forensic trail, but knowing where to start was difficult without-
"Are there any changeling husks or body fluids I could examine, sir? Or something enchanted with changeling magic?"
"Your archive pass gets you access to everything we have, Spark. Ask a librarian if you're unsure." Shining Armor glanced toward the shelves, as though something had caught his eye.
Bright Spark nodded, saluted and set off towards the main desk, leaving the captain to his thoughts.
Shining Armor levitated the book out of the stacks and stared at it. The cover read:
The Palace Remembers; The Crystal History Of The Empire.
How could he have forgotten? When most ponies here thought of crystal memory, they thought of the Testimonials, the recorded voices of ponies past embedded into crystals no bigger than thimbles. But that was just a specialized case; all crystals remembered the events around them. In the past he knew there'd been a changeling invasion of the Crystal Empire, long ago, and if he could make the palace remember-
Yes, thought Shining. This is how we find her.
He stalked along the shelves, pulling out histories and muttering about crystal theory. When he left, his saddlebags were bulging.
Long past he should have been asleep, Shining flicked through the pages of one of the crystal theory textbooks.
The delicacy of the matrix can be preserved by applying Burning Sand's Modified Stasis spell at the standard intervals. Failure to preserve the matrix does not render the memory faulty on the first viewing, but on subsequent viewings the memory may be found to be corrupted or inaccurate.
"Ugh," Shining muttered. Burning Sand's spells never sat right with him; they were exhausting things to cast, and he was already tired. Shining shook his head, closed the book and trudged over to his bed; this would have to wait for tomorrow. He slipped into the covers, and squeezed his red-rimmed eyes shut, but his brain didn't quieten; his thoughts were a half-asleep tangle of fear and fury, only calming when he heard his wife shift behind him. He felt her warm breath on the back of his neck, her hoof on his side, and in the familiar comfort of her presence he found rest.
When he woke up, there was nothing and nopony there. Just the lingering scent of a perfume he'd asked her to stop wearing, and a strange, long imprint on her side of the bed.
