"Our dealings in the past have been strictly… business." Caballeron looked at the odd little group of ponies with him. Two changelings, one a little filly; a pegasus that seemed to have a temper as mercurial as the storms she champions; and the sometimes villain in what seems like a life spent playing catch up with a mare who was, a hero. "But this is not business, a filly was in danger and despite what many think of my actions, I would never stand back when that is the case."

Caballeron wasn't the only pony in a quandary, Rainbow Dash was still trying to reconcile the stallion sitting with her, eating at the Hayburger, as being the same stallion who would fight so viciously for trinkets and treasures. "I just don't get you, what were you even doing here in the first place?"

"He was after me." Please was barely grazing over her food, grabbing a fry here and there. "To try to give him," she gestured to Caballeron with a hoof, "the slip, Daring and I disguised as each other. Sorry Caballeron, she probably has the Idol of Marshes now."

The stallion gave a rueful smile. "To be perfectly honest, I haven't found a buyer for it yet. Not everything is inherently valuable… in bits." Caballeron couldn't help but admire the mare, the strength it had taken for her to have not only survived, but helped tip him off that something was wrong.

Please had a moment, an epiphany. Her crest flew up in surprise and she blinked. She stared at the doctor and reached out with her power to just feel. If her crest wasn't already sticking up it would go up further, she felt intrigue, a little confusion, and affection.

"What I don't get, is what was he doing this for? Why didn't he just come out and tell us he was a changeling, some ponies are into them." Rainbow Dash, blunt as a hammer with her words, completely failed to see how that might not be completely appropriate or that she herself had a part-changeling wife.

Cuddle looked up from the Hayburger corn-nuggets she was practically inhaling. "Duh, he is an idiot. He thought ponies hated changelings."

"Not been around many bigger towns, have you, squirt?" Rainbow ruffled the filly's crest and couldn't resist putting a wing around her. When Cuddle looked up and shook her head, Dash continued. "Prince Gel and Princess Twilight went to the hive themselves, trapped and beat Queen Chrysalis. They brought the changelings from that hive into Canterlot. There was some other stuff with another hive…"

"Real hives?" Cuddle's eyes were huge, like saucers. "With queens to tell them what to do?"

"It was like that. From what I hear now, the new Queen, Twisty, is a lot more friendly and lets her drones do what they want." Rainbow Dash was oddly comfortable chatting with the filly, not only did Cuddle seem quite bright for her size, she was also a filly, and it sparked that new side of Dash she had been investigating. "We do things a bit different here in Ponyville. Gel is a prince, a real prince. But then my wife, Muffins—she was the big gray mare who chased after that guy—she is a bit of a special case. She was just a pegasus, got tangled up with a few things, then some more things."

"She is really pretty, her horn is huge!" Cuddle looked up at Rainbow and then tilted her head. "You are a nice pony." The changeling filly leaned in, resting her head against Dash's side.

The pegasus didn't know what else to do, she just held the filly close, gave her something warm to cling to, not realizing for a second that the adorable little drone had tasted something she liked in her.

Please, despite the disruption of seeing Rainbow Dash and Cuddle bonding, still had a problem to deal with. "I know all that, I wasn't going to tell him of course, not until I was free." She grinned. "Mare has to have her secrets, and while he thought I was interested and useful, he wasn't doing something worse than turning me into a changeling."

"A pretty changeling." Caballeron said the words before he realized it and froze. His eyes stared into Please's and even the odd greenish-blush the mare had seemed cute to him. "I should probably go." He tried to get up but as he did Please rose too.

"Me too, we should probably go to the castle and see what happened when they caught Slice." Please's heart thudded in her chest, it wasn't just a hidden feeling the stallion had, what was going on?

"'We'?" Caballeron blinked a few times, something wasn't quite right, he was giving Please Do a chance to just walk away, but she wasn't taking it. "My dear, I was planning on leaving, there is nothing else for me here…"

The pause hung pregnant, both Caballeron and Please looked at each other.

"I am a knight, I don't know how much weight that carries, but I think I can order you to both go up to the castle and talk to Twi." Rainbow Dash looked down, catching soft noises coming from Cuddle. "I'll just chill here, she looks like she could use some rest."

"She can order us?" Caballeron looked to the changeling at his side. Please shrugged. "Maybe she can." He started to walk slowly for the exit, giving the mare beside him a look that he couldn't completely keep neutral.

Trotting to catch up, Please was actually happier about all this now, she could move easier now she had that thick shell off. The biggest benefit she had seen so far, to being a changeling, was that feeling of emotions around her. Please left the Hayburger and moved up beside Caballeron. She looked to the stallion and had another gentle taste. Definite interest, a lot of curiosity, something hotter than just interest, too.

Gel disgorged the drone, ejecting the changeling from himself felt more than a little odd, normally he had much more welcome guests.

"What are you?" Slice landed on his plot and looked up in terror at the creature that now resembled a very large changeling. "Are you a queen?"

A voice from the side snapped the drone's attention around to what he could identify as an alicorn. "No," Twilight stepped up to her husband's side, glad she could get close now he wasn't… struggling, "he is a changeling prince and my husband. What exactly were you doing to those other changelings?"

The metal bars of Slice's cell closed and a click sounded. "Doesn't really matter now, you are going to squish me, so go ahead."

"Squish you? I don't even know what you did yet." Gel formed up a nice pegasus-type wing and set it over his wife's back. "But last I saw there was a filly yelling for me to catch you, and then you tried to disguise as a friend, causing her distress."

"I don't get it, why would you work for them, if you are even a changeling? Why haven't they squished you?" Slice glared sullenly at Gel. "I knew I shouldn't have come here."

"We don't squash Gel, or any changelings." Twilight flicked her own wings, being comforted was not what she needed now, she was in 'Princess' mode. "Changelings are ponies, just like unicorns and pegasi. The accord in Canterlot made all changelings who were willing to abide by the law, legal citizens."

"Psst, you broke the law with that disguise." Gel gave his wife a little smile. "So, are you going to explain yourself or do we have to wait for your captives to tell us and then only make a decision with their side of things?"

"I could fill in some of it, Your Highnesses." Fleur strode into the 'real' dungeon, her eyes flicking to the trapped changeling just once, then back to her own flank. She still looked like herself, but had to fight the panic-inducing urge to check all over. "These changelings are more of a lone breed. From what our records about them reveal, they lost their queen nearly a thousand years ago… you can probably guess what cataclysmic event might have been behind it." The mare gave Twilight a droll look.

"How are they still around, if their queen died?" Gel, blunt about nearly everything until he could understand it, put Fleur on edge. She took a step back from him, disguising her action as turning to face the prisoner.

"They evolved, they changed. We only found out exactly how they reproduce only a few years ago. I have been hunting them ever since." Fleur smiled at the changeling. "They are ravenous, compared to most changelings. A pony could sustain several changelings on her own, but these? They eat enough for ten."

"Each one is a queen?" Twilight lifted a hoof, having detected a little coolness from Fleur to her husband, she tried to forestall him talking.

"Not exactly. The extra love goes into an extremely rapid-growing shell. Most changelings could go their whole lives and never shed unless their shell is damaged; these shed their shells every third month, or thereabouts. But it isn't just the thickness, their shells harbor magic, a lot of it." Fleur examined the drone from across the room. "He shed in the last few weeks, if anypony approaches his shell it will trap them, bind them up inside itself, and turn them into a changeling like him."

Fleur expected the gasps from both ponies, and was not disappointed. "Where… where would it be?" Twilight looked to the unicorn beside her for more guidance in this.

"Too late. Don't worry about my shell, it is burnt out." Slice wore a sneer. "I already trapped Daring Do in it, she is a changeling now. We will live on!"

A hoof raced forward and slammed into the bars of the cell, rattling them in a way that was worrying even to the drone. "And this is why I promised Princess Luna I would hunt you, hunt all of you!" Fleur's anger wasn't oft to rise, but Slice's attitude sure got it from her. "You know what we do with changelings like you?" Of course, Fleur had timed it perfectly. The mare knew well that rattling the bars would cause something to scurry out. She drove her hoof down on the little beetle. Turning back to Gel and Twilight, she felt her anger overpowering her terror at the stallion having seen her earlier. "Your Highnesses, I think we should leave him to ponder his short future, while we find the poor mare he defiled."

Twilight guessed the mare's ploy, she had quickly read a book on interrogation techniques before coming down—Fleur was bad-cop. "I would like to try to help him… but if Princess Luna ordered this I can't go against her. Gel, let's go."

Looking surprised at first the severe display from the unicorn, then his wife's capitulation, Gel knew something was up. Not wanting to try his own luck at guessing his role in this charade, he just turned with Twilight and followed Fleur out. With the door closed behind him, he gestured at the stairs leading up to the castle-proper. "If we feel any different out here, he will know you two are planning something."

Fleur blinked at the warning. "You're right…" Her first assessment of the changeling was being redone as she walked, she wasn't sure she would like him, but maybe she could respect him. At least he didn't break the ruse she had built. "Breaking them to telling us everything isn't essential, but I want to know the full story of the filly that was there. Was this Daring Do pregnant?"

"It wasn't Daring." Please strode up to the two royals, her awareness of the big changeling prince sparking a warm feeling again. "Your Highnesses, I am Daring's sister, Please Do." Caballeron was impressed with Please's poise before royalty, he stepped up beside her. "Oh, and this is-"

"Caballeron, Doctor Caballeron." Twilight cut in, glaring at the stallion. "First, did you do anything to help that changeling?" Her wings gestured down toward the basement they had just come from.

"No!" Please found, in her shock, that her voice strayed into a slight chitter when she was startled. "He isn't the straightest feather in the wing, but he saved us." The taste of some pride came to Please, pride and more than a little happiness. She realized he was looking back at her and they both turned their attention forward again.

"Us? He had a foal trapped as well, are they yours?" Twilight didn't give her husband a moment, it was like old times when she was the only royal around. She gave him a look and saw only respect on his face; damn him, she thought, he is quite happy with it.

"She explained her tale to me. He turned her mom first, then the mare didn't realize it when her filly stumbled into her first discarded shell. Things turned bad, the ponies found out they were changelings and she gave herself up, got him to promise to protect Cuddle." Please couldn't stop tears from coming as she told the story.

"Baltimare, about two years ago." Fleur Dis Lee shook her head. "I was too late there, nopony really meant to do it, but there was a mob, and mobs can get ugly." A wing spread over her back, Fleur twitched from the contact at first, but saw it was Twilight's. "How is she taking this?"

"Rainbow Dash has her well in hoof." Please smiled, the memory of the pegasus cuddling the little filly springing up, complete with the taste Rainbow gave off. "Question is, what about me?"

Author's Note

Please developing a little more. She got plunged into darkness before we really got to know her too well, now that she carries the chitin, let's get under her shell a little.

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