The changelings of Canterlot felt the shift in the city, they felt it and were unhappy about it. When ponies felt anger and rage they were not feeling love and when they weren't feeling love they weren't tasty.

Sliver marched out into the lobby where she heard the sound of something breaking. She found her little pet restraining Cherry Stripe with his magic. She didn't reach out for the mare at first, instead reaching to taste her pet. "What is happening?"

"She went crazy, then something happened to the ponies outside and they are crazy too. Mistress Sliv, what should we do?" Blueblood was fighting back the rage with only one thing, the fact that he had already surrendered that side of himself to another.

"We go to the castle, and remember pet, while I am disguised I am not your mistress." Sliver shifted, becoming a nondescript unicorn.

Cherry hated both the ponies in the room, she wanted to-. There was suddenly a pair of cream-colored lips pressing to her own, the pony Sliver had disguised as kissing her, eyes open. An ache of lust filled her, desire for the mare pushing all that anger away.

Sliver felt Cherry's will fall easily to her desires, she felt that horrid anger tossed aside by the lust her particular hive could induce.

"I… thank you Sliver." Cherry leaned forward and stole a second kiss, the touch of their lips sparking all kinds of good places. "What is causing this?"

"I don't know, but I can't go seducing everypony in Canterlot." Sliver looked like that option hadn't been completely ruled out, however.

"The princesses were all going to the Crystal Empire today, they won't be here to help…" Prince Blueblood trembled a little, reaching a hoof up to his collar centered his world, let him smile again. "Which means I need to at least keep the city intact enough that they can save it. Come on."

Cherry felt her libido yanking at her chain, pulling her toward her changeling friend. Another of her mares trotted out, looking between the three of them. "What's going on?" The words were full of worry and Cherry managed to smile to the drone.

"Relax, keep the place safe, we have to go save the city." Cherry had always wanted to say that, to actually mean it. The words brought a smile and a nod from the drone who turned back around and trotted back into a room.

"I am glad somepony is confident. Okay, Prince Blueblood, let's go." Sliver moved up beside the big stallion, showing how much smaller than normal she was.

"Of course, my lady." Blueblood bowed to the disguised drone and opened the front door. There were ponies arguing everywhere, some even resorting to violence, although it seemed they at least restricted themselves to blunt force. Pushing his magic out, Blueblood created a sphere big enough for himself and his companions.

They made their way carefully to the castle to find all the guards tied up! "Okay, clearly somepony is thinking clearly." Prince Blueblood looked around at the struggling royal guards. He had his shield down now things appeared quiet, but the sudden flood of small bodies dragged him down.

"Wait!" Sliver called, her form flicking back to her changeling self. All the larvae stopped as they spotted one of their own species. "These two are alright, we are here to help."

Two adult changelings came out from behind an old tapestry. "Oh thank the queen, we were running out of rope!"

Blueblood recognized the mares assigned to oversee the little drones and smiled. "Have you considered using pods?" Everypony froze at the idea. It was oddly compelling.

"But there wouldn't be enough pods in the hive for the whole city." Sliver stepped up and leaned against the big stallion. She realized too late she was still in her changeling shell and felt the big pony practically melt against her. Calling her fire, she became a unicorn again.

Blueblood knew they were the same mare, but Sliver… no, Mistress Sliv's command bound up his emotions. Then he realized something most delightful. Leaning down, the big stallion nibbled gently at one of Sliver's ears. He was distracted by her, and that wasn't good for Canterlot. "Right then, let's get a plan together. Sliver can break the anger with pleasure and lust, could the other changeling trick work as well?"

"Of course!" Clicks lifted a hoof in triumph. She turned to her friend and coworker. "Squishy, you can do the eye-thing." The other drone nodded. "That guard there, tell him to relax and reject the anger."

Squishy grinned and trotted over. She wasn't particularly great with her power, mainly because she so rarely used it. Reaching out and tasting the bound stallion first, finding that hate and anger, she looked into his eyes and put power into her gaze. "Calm down, you don't want to feel angry, your princesses are counting on you."

Brash Words froze as the eyes of the mare looked deep into his mind, their green glow sunk into him and he smiled. "Don't want to feel angry…" His voice was a drone, which made him giggle a bit, droning what the drone had said. "Thank you." He struggled a little more in the ropes before the nice mare who had first tied him up now untied him.

"I hope this is only happening here…" Blueblood reached out a hoof to help up the guard once his bonds were loosened.

"Is Princess Twilight in?" Muffins was a little confused by the reception she had gotten, confused and angry.

"No, go away!" Starry glared at the door, her magic and that of Twinkle holding it closed. Why won't she just go away!

Muffins knew she was getting nowhere here and she could feel the magic on the door. "Okay, I'm going." She turned and took to her wings, eyes scanning over Ponyville for somepony who might be able to help. Everywhere she looked ponies were arguing, except…

The late/early train had delivered Octavia and Vinyl back home. They had slept most of the trip snuggled together, songs playing in their dreams. So wrapped up in each other were they that neither noticed the dilemma going on around them until Muffins landed right in front of them.

"Hey, Princess Muffins." Vinyl gave Octavia one last kiss on the cheek. "How's things?"

The shock on the alicorn's face made the DJ and her mate actually look around. They were nearby Sweetie's shop and could hear pots and pans being thrown around within. "What in the world…" Octavia trotted for the house and opened the door. Inside, Sweetie was hurling pots and pans at Lyra, each clanging off the wall behind the unicorn.

"That the best you can do?" Lyra's voice was full of anger as she shouted, earning her a large kettle she barely managed to dodge.

"STOP!" Muffins stepped in and had a saucepan clang off her shoulder. "I said stop." Her voice had lowered but she grabbed both feuding mares in her magic and brought them into the open. "Something really wrong is happening and we need to find out what."

"She started it!" Both Lyra and Sweetie yelled together.

Then something occurred to Muffins. She spun around and looked at Octavia and Vinyl. "Whatever it is, isn't affecting you!"

"Or you." Vinyl stepped up and looked at Lyra. "Maybe our bond with the tree?"

"Could be. And it is affecting me, I just… I can feel it inside and I think I can keep it at bay." Muffins returned her attention to the mares. "As the Princess of Friendship herself would say, let's do an experiment. We take them to your tree, get one to eat a fruit, and see if it fixes them."

Lyra sat on her plot in the bubble holding her in the air. "I hate fruit."

"Me too!" Sweetie mimicked the pose.

The day was not going well. Twilight had been trying to babysit with Pinkie Pie. Much as her friend lacked any magic, apart from Pinkie Sense, she was an amazing babysitter.

Twilight let her magic part as Cadance plucked Flurry out and away from her new best friend. The results would be terrifying. Flurry burst into wailing and there was an odd trembling from the force of the newest alicorn's tears. The Crystal Heart paused a moment and then began to run with cracks. It shook and then to the horror of everypony, it broke.

The windigo felt when the protection of the city broke. Its storm of anger and rage spread in, the phantom spirit following along with it. The snack it was having previously turned suddenly into a feast as the full force of its presence was felt.

A sudden flare of colors broke the creature's attention away from the town as what looked like a rainbow hit it in the flank. "You think you got what it takes?" Rainbow Dash had never done something like that before, the anger inside her was channeling into her ego. She had actually kicked into that rainboom, firing it off with the same boost she put into cloud-herding.

The windigo threw more of its power at the annoying pony. It threw anger first, which only seemed to earn it more attacks. It threw chilling weather, which the pony kicked away with ease.

Rainbow Dash was so glad she had been doing the endurance training, she was well past the point where she would normally be running out of steam. Below, she saw as Celestia and Luna began lancing away at the angry clouds, fighting a losing battle.

"Why are you attacking us?" Rainbow didn't relent for long, throwing her all into yet another rainboom that shattered the clouds nearby.

More changelings had arrived and nearly all the royal guard were freed. When Steady Shield was freed of the anger, he blinked in surprise. He could feel the enchantment the changeling had put on him, he could feel exactly what it was making him do and not do. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Thank you."

Befuddle smiled at the happy pony. She was being very careful of his wording, making sure to not slip anything untoward past them. Messing with pony minds was both delicate and a great responsibility. "You're welcome!" On an impulse she leaned in and kissed the handsome guard, getting his eyes to snap wide open.

Steady was shocked at the kiss but it was… nice. He kissed the happy changeling back before drawing away from her with an odd longing. "After this is… sorry," the stallion blushed like a colt, "what is your name?"

"Befuddle Mindtwist." Befuddle was so proud of her name. When she was just a little nymph she had searched so hard for a good one. "Pleased to meet you but… I have more to work on." She saw the stallion's features fall with the realization that she was busy. "I don't… you just looked so sad and serious, I don't kiss every stallion I meet!"

"Oh? Well, I will track you down when this is all done with. Until then, Lady Mindtwist." Steady bowed and used his horn to lift one of her hooves up to kiss it. Unlike some of his friends, he had not a single issue with changelings, they were just another pony.

Befuddle blushed now, her eyes wide at the courtly stallion's attentions. "I should go. What I was going to say was, I don't kiss every stallion I meet," she paused as she turned, to look over her shoulder, "just the cute ones."

Steady was left watching the mare's plot depart, his mind sent into a bit of a spin by how nice she had seemed. He heard his name called and turned to see Prince Blueblood trotting toward him. An Under-Captain wasn't the highest of ranks, it was sure, but it was high enough he had a special order from his Princess. "My Prince!" Steady stepped up and lifted a hoof to bash his chest.

Blueblood relaxed measurably. He lifted his off-hoof to repeat the gesture, seeing the guardspony grin. "My first thought was stuffing the biggest troublemakers into pods, bespell the rest to make them at least stop fighting and then wait for the princesses to come and make a rainbow, or something."

"Pods are a good idea but… I hear they are a little... personal, inside." Steady gestured to a doorway and started trotting toward it, his prince at his side. "Also, there aren't a lot of them around, I didn't think?"

"Alas, that plan had run into that problem. So we are left merely guarding the changelings who can work their magic on minds, letting them work their magic on everypony we can pin down for them." Blueblood gave a sigh. "This could be even less liked, oddly, than merely stuffing everypony into pods."

"It itches a little, in the back of my head." Steady reached his hoof up to rub the spot. "You get the same thing?"

The prince gave a half-grin that looked to conceal much. "I have other ways of resisting this… before you ask, they won't work for others."

"Oh, well, it won't be all bad at least." Steady Shield puffed out his chest and smiled. "That changeling mare who put her spell on me, put a spell on me." He nudged the emergency ruler of Canterlot and got a grin back. Blueblood was certainly not immune to the charms of shape-shifters.

Author's Note

Well, did I just add a new potential couple to investigate in future? Maybe... maybe...

Prince Blueblood, your time to shine is here!

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