“I still don't understand why I have to attend this thing.”

“Well I simply don't understand why you wouldn't, this is the Grand Galloping Gala we're talking about! Everyone wants to attend, why, some ponies are wait listed for years, and we now have tickets courtesy of the Princess herself! Oh I can't wait to get there, and-”

“Be ignored by ponies who think that they're better than you because of how inbred they've kept themselves.”

Rarity gave me a sour look, but chose not to comment since we'd already had this argument multiple times, in fact I'd had similar arguments with all of the element bearers when they tried to convince me that going to the Gala was something that I should look forward to. Of them all, Spike had been the only one who agreed with me, but as far as he was concerned the food was going to be worth the hassle.

Even worse, I couldn't pull the 'I know what's going to happen' card since I never watched the Gala episode, I only had my own understanding of such events to go on, and that wasn't enough to convince anyone.

I shook my head at Rarity's expression and turned to look out of the window of the carriage I was sharing with Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow. I could hear laughter coming from Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Spike's carriage in front of us. No doubt they were having a good time.

Applejack spoke up, “Now listen here, I understand you don't want ta go to this, but you are, so ya might as well buck up and make the best of it.”

I turned back to the group, Rarity and Applejack were turned towards me, while Rainbow was passed out on her seat, mumbling about the wonderbolts.

I sighed, “Look, I'm sorry I'm being such a wet blanket, but even if I wanted to go to this thing I'd still resent being told that I have to attend, I mean”, I pulled a letter out of my suit pocket, “look at this, Celestia didn't even tell me why I needed to be at the gala, just that my presence was 'politely but firmly desired', and she barely gave me a weeks notice!” I turned to Rarity, “Thanks for rushing me a suit by the way, the clothes you've made for me are probably the most comfortable I've ever worn, and I would have hated to have had someone else rush me a suit.”

Rarity waved me off, “Think nothing of it, but if you do want to show your gratitude, perhaps you could at least try to be positive about this?”

I sighed and shot Applejack and Rarity a wry smile, “I suppose your right, this does give me a chance to at least try and talk to the Princesses about some projects that I think they'd be interested in”, I gestured to my satchel, which I had insisted on bringing with me much to Rarity's frustration, “so there is that.”

Applejack gave me a wide smile, “That's the spirit! See, this won't be so bad.”

I shook my head, “I hope you're right, but we'll see.”

Rarity simply glared at the satchel and muttered under her breath.

I was standing around at the back of the ballroom sulking when I heard a mildly familiar voice, “Aaron! There you are, I had been wondering if you had actually chosen to attend.”

I turned to see Princess Luna making her way through the crowd. As she came closer I bowed.

Luna snorted and waved her hoof dismissively, “Please don't. There are enough of these so called nobles falling over themselves to placate me already. It's almost funny when you consider the things they say about me behind closed doors.” Luna shook the sour expression from her face, “But that is no matter. You are a friend of the elements, and I would much prefer to remain on more familiar terms with the individuals who saved me from my Nightmare.”

I stood up, “With all due respect, that was them, not me.”

Luna nodded, “Be that as it may, my decision stands. My sister and I would much prefer to be on good terms with the only representative of your species should contact eventually be made.”

I blinked, “I'd be lying if I said I wasn't honored by your regard, though I suppose you have more reason for seeking me out than to inform me of my privileged position?”

Luna let out a bark of laughter, drawing the attention of several nearby nobles, who quickly turned away when they saw who they were about to pass judgment on.

“Can I not seek you out for the simple pleasure of candid conversation? After all if what the elements have told me about your opinions of the Gala are to be believed, you certainly don't dance around the issue like the rest of these stuck up sods.”

Several of the nobles nearby stiffened, but said nothing.

Luna leaned in closely and whispered, “There are privileges of being considered out of date you know.”

I had to stifle a snort of laughter when I realized that Luna was deliberately antagonizing the nobles for entertainment.

With a sigh Luna leaned back and the grin fell from her face, “Unfortunately you are correct, there is another matter that we need to speak with you about in private. My sister and I that is, she will join us as soon as she is able, but in the mean time she has asked me to bring you to one of our meeting rooms.”

I shrugged, “That works for me, I wasn't really enjoying myself anyway, and this gives me the chance to run some projects by you that you and your sister might be interested in.”

Luna began to lead me through the crowd to one of the blocked off hallways, “Oh? And what projects might those be?”

“So you see, if you were to build a room with this circle inscribed on the floor, anyone who knew how to activate it would be able to cause the rapid decay of magic into waste energy, effectively allowing you to safely destroy dangerous enchantments and other such magical anomolies.”

Luna looked down at my notes, “This is brilliant, but I do have one question. I must admit that I've been using my position as guardian of dreams to look into some of the things you have taught Twilight Sparkle, and from what I have gleaned I had gathered that your alchemy could only effect physical matter, how can it effect magic?”

I nodded in acknowledgment of her question, “Normally that's true, but while I've been teaching Twilight alchemy, she's been returning the favor by teaching me magical theory, I can't use it, but it's still fascinating. It was during one of these lessons that Twilight noticed that one of her enchantments actually got warped when she activated a circle she'd been practicing with. We're not sure why yet, but it seems that Alchemy, at least to a degree, treats magic as another type of matter. It doesn't allow for the casting of spells, but already existing magical fields, such as those generated by enchantments, can be affected.”

Luna nodded as her horn lit up. In a flash there was a duplicate copy of my notes floating above her, with another flash they were gone.

“I will find someone to work on building this as soon as possible, the potential usefulness of actually being able to destroy the enchantments on dangerous artifacts is to great to ignore, but for now, I believe my sister is ready to speak with you.”

“I never could sneak up on you sister.”

I jumped and spun around to find Celestia standing in the room with us, the door already closed behind her, “How do you do that! You're a six foot tall horse for crying out loud!”

Celestia grinned, “Centuries of practice.” The grin fell from her face, “Unfortunately we have something important to discuss. Do you remember the request you made when you first arrived?”

I raised an eyebrow, “It's been a while.”

“About Cadance.”

My eyes widened, but before I could speak Celestia continued.

“Lately there have been times when she would act slightly off, but even under scrutiny it wasn't anything to worry about, but last week something very strange occurred. My niece was scheduled to make a diplomatic trip to Zebrica, but roughly an hour after she had been scheduled to leave she sought me out with a letter which stated that the Zebricans had decided to send a delegation to us instead. Unfortunately we cannot tell how authentic the letter is as correspondence between Zebrica and Equestria can take weeks to arrive, but that's not the issue.”

Luna spoke up, “Ever since you mentioned to us that something might be awry I've had an agent in place among Cadance's personal guard, and he sent me a report just before he boarded Cadance's airship confirming that they were on their way to Zebrica.”

Celestia picked back up, “Needless to say, the Cadance who is mingling with the nobles here is an impost er, so now we need to know, what do you know about this?”

I bit my lip as I thought about what I wanted to say, “Alright, what do you know about changelings?”

“Princess Celestia has unfortunately been waylaid your highness, but she assures me she will be along soon, so if you would please take a seat in here I will return to my post.”

As Princess Cadance walked into the room I was waiting for her in she had her head turned back to the guard who had brought her here, “Thank you, though I don't suppose she mentioned why she wanted to see me?”

“No, your highness.”

Cadance sighed, “I see. Thank you again.”

With a shake of her head Cadance closed the door and turned to face the room and myself. I stood from my seat and bowed.

Cadance smiled gently at me, “Hello, I don't believe I've seen you around the castle before, though I do remember my aunts talking about some kind of bipedal creature living in Ponyville, is that you?”

I guess being able to detect emotions would keep her from being easily snuck up on.

I stood up, “Yes, it is. My name is Aaron Arthas, and it's a pleasure to meet you your majesty.”

Cadance blushed and waved her hoof at me, “Please, my aunts and I are princesses, not queens, 'your highness' is more appropriate.”

I grinned, “I didn't finish your majesty, Queen Chrysalis, mare of the vermilion flame, leader of the swarm, she who-”

Princess Cadance shook her head, “I don't know what you're talking about, but your clearly confused, I'm Princess-”

“Luna knows that the real Cadance is on her way to Zebrica, and so does Celestia.”

Cadance frowned, “I'm sorry but you must be feeling sick, let me call a guard-”

“The Princesses have warded the door, you're trapped in here with me. Face it Chrysalis, you've been out maneuvered.”

Cadance glared at me, “Even if what you said were true, why would you want to be locked in here with me?”

I sat back down and grinned, “Well for starters I just really wanted to meet you, and other than that I figured that now would be a good time to negotiate, though I have to ask, please take off your disguise, I'd much rather speak to the real you rather than the Disney horse.”

Cadance stared at me for a moment, but complied. With a wave of green flame Princess Cadance disappeared, and Chrysalis stood in her place.

Queen Chrysalis was probably about as different from a pony as one could get without losing the basic equine shape. Her body was covered in matte black chitin armor, and her mane and tail were made of a light green gossamer substance. Her wings were more akin to those of a beetle, and her wings, tail, mane, and body were all riddled with holes. Topping her forehead was a jagged black horn that further increased her already impressive height of at least six feet tall. When she spoke her voice buzzed in a way that sounded like several voices layered together, it honestly sent a bit of a shiver down my spine.

Queen Chrysalis glared at me, “What exactly is stopping me from killing you right now?”

I shot a smug look her way, “The fact that the Princesses have placed a charm on me, and if anything happens to me they'll come in horns blazing ready to take out the threat to their kingdom that you represent. The only reason that we're talking right now is because I asked them to allow me a chance to negotiate with you.”

Chrysalis sneered, “And why should I negotiate, my plan-”

“Fails. Though in all honesty it's not your fault per-se, you had no way of knowing that Twilight and Cadance already had a ready-made identification system in place.”

Chrysalis looked taken aback for a moment, but quickly recovered, “And how could you possibly know anything about my plan, or how it would turn out.”

I sighed, I figured I'd have to give this explanation again, but that didn't make it less tedious, “I'm not exactly local, in fact I got ripped from my home dimension and deposited here by a couple of gods with gambling problems. In my world there is a kind of entertainment instance that follows the events of this one, though we see it as pure fiction. The wedding invasion was one of the events covered, how else do you think I knew to warn the Princesses of your impersonating Cadance in the first place?”

The frown didn't leave Chrysalis' face, but at least now she looked more thoughtful, “Assuming that's true, why would you want to negotiate with me, if you know my species, and myself specifically, are a threat, that we are 'villains', why wouldn't you just remove us?”

“Would you be a villain to the changelings? You're trying to survive, and besides”, I grinned, “I'm actually fond of the changelings.”

Chrysalis blinked, the hostility slipping from her face, “You're not lying, I can't feel any disgust or fear from you.”

“Oh I'm so glad you're an empavore, that makes this so much easier.”

A neutral expression fell over Chrysalis' face, “Be that as it may, what would my people stand to gain from these negotiations?”

I shrugged, “Freedom to live openly? The ability to feed freely and not have to worry constantly about being discovered and killed? The chance to grow as a culture? Take your pick.”

“And what about Equestria, why would they want to ally with parasites”

This time I frowned, “You're not parasites. You don't actually harm the ones you feed off of, at least not if you aren't trying to.”

“And how exactly do you know that?”

“There's no mention of you in any equestrian legends. If your feeding process was harmful, even if you were never discovered legends would have popped up about something that sucks the emotions out of a pony and leaves them as a husk.”

Chrysalis looked like she had bitten into something sour, “So a lack of information was information in itself. I didn't expect to see the day when an Equestrian other than the Princesses themselves would figure that out.”

I smiled, “Well I'm not exactly Equestrian, am I? As for your question about what Equestria gains, your people have the potential to be the perfect actors, therapists, teachers, or any other job that changing appearance or being able to read emotions would provide you an advantage with. But that's not what I believe Equestria would gain the most from. The raw military potential of your people is virtually limitless. Not only is there the obvious asset to information gathering you'd provide, but with the right placement you could influence decisions of rival armies, or even more devastatingly you could purposefully allow for your own discovery within their ranks, paving the way to a witch hunt that would cause their army, and even their nation, to rip itself apart. In return you'd gain military might that you don't have, your people excel in espionage, but not necessarily in a protracted conflict, correct?”

Chrysalis stared at me for a moment, then laughed, “Oh you I like, let's talk.”

I grinned, "Alri-"

We were interrupted by a large crash that reverberated through the castle.

I stood up with a sigh, "I guess we'll have to save the rest of this until after whatever crisis is happening is dealt with."

Author's Note

Another chapter in a reasonable amount of time! I'll try and keep up these quicker updates, but with my last year of university beginning to loom, I can't make any promises. Anyway, please feel free to comment,

Also another hint, Pierce is the last name of the author whose books are the source of the thing that killed Trixie, her first name starts with a T.