Chapters "Okay Shining, just relax, this doesn't mean anything." The stallion was lying to himself and he knew it. When two of his teeth had fallen out and made way for slowly growing-in fangs, well, he learned to smile with his lips closed a lot more.
Shining Armor brushed his fetlock fur aside again and looked at the hole through his leg.
"Are you okay, Shiny?" Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. Empress of the Crystal Empire. Defeater of the changeling army. Wife to Shining Armor. "You look half in a panic." She trotted over to her mate and spread a wing over his withers.
"Oh, it's nothing…" Shining managed to keep his resolve for nearly a full four seconds, a record. "I am turning into a changeling!"
Cadance narrowed her eyes and looked at her husband. The manic attitude was certainly him. As was, not being able to keep a secret from her. "What do you mean?"
Shining was crying, tears pouring down his cheeks. It took nearly ten minutes of hugging and reassuring snuggles from his wife before he could get it together enough to continue. Then he showed her, smiling and pulling his lips back. "Fwangs!"
"I can see those, not common, but a few ponies have a little thestral in their line, nothing too much to worry about." Cadance was a little surprised, not that she showed it. It was important, when Shining was in this much of a fugue, not to show weakness. "Anything else?"
Shining held up his hoof, rolling to his back in front of his wife. It was impossible not to snort at the big stallion squirming like a foal but then he held his hoof up, between Cadance and the window. She saw a glint of sunlight where there really shouldn't be one. "See!"
Cadance jerked forward, grabbing his hoof in her own, forsaking her magic to hold him steady as any pegasus would. "What…" Folding back the fur, she found it. "A hole…"
"I told you!" Shining tugged his hoof back and curled into a sobbing ball.
Deep breath one. Deep breath two. Cadance got to five before she opened her eyes and reached a hoof down to her mate. "Shiny, get up."
Shining's manic state was intruded on by Cadance's hoof and words, he reached up and took hold and was pulled up and suddenly wrapped in two of the most amazing wings he knew. He sobbed against his love, sobbed until the tears finally stopped. Then he sobbed a little more.
"I'm done…" It wasn't just an admission of his lack of ability to cry anymore tears, it was an admission of his role as her husband, as her consort, and as a member of society, all finished. "Nopony will accept me."
"I do." Cadance squeezed her stallion with her wings. "I said those words before Celestia, at your side, and I say them again. I accept you Shining Armor, through sickness, health, and even turning into a changeling."
Neither slept well that night, each waking from tortured dreams to find the other clinging to them tightly, stuck in their own mental hell. When neither could deny the grip their aunty's element was taking on the world any longer, they got up. "So you are turning into a changeling. You are growing fangs." Cadance floated a notepad over and started writing things down. A particular mare had taught her that if anything can be written down into a list, it could be dealt with. "Getting holes in your legs. What is next? Changelings have odd fin-like tails and manes." It was a new column, the things that would happen. "Eyes turn to either those green slit ones like Her, or maybe blue like other changelings. Oh, there is the feeding on love thing… I can help you there."
Shining wasn't sure what to do with his wife. She was being logical and… funny. "But I am turning into a-" A pink hoof landed in Shining's mouth, confusing him for a moment as he made a few gagged noises around it.
"I got that, see, it is at the top of the list." Cadance gestured with her quill to where it said, 'Shining Armor is becoming a changeling'. "Now, where was I. Oh yes, wings."
Watching as his wife took notes that Shining was sure his sister would be proud of, the stallion felt an odd tingle in his back left leg. He knew the tingle, it was what he felt before he found… the hole.
"Shiny, please stop jiggling. We need to calculate a rate at which you are changing… what are you doing?" Cadance watched as Shining twisted and contorted, turning around chasing his back leg only to finally catch it in his mouth and inspect it with his hooves. "Another one?"
Shining nodded to Cadance, losing his grip on his leg and kicking himself in the nose. "Awr!" It hurt enough, but a bang on the nose always left him talking funny.
"Oh yes, and changelings have those odd horns." Cadance wrote more on the list. "Now, remembering back, most changelings had three to four holes, and they were big holes. These are just tiny. How long did it take to grow?"
"I just… well, about a week." Shining looked down at his chest, this was terrible, his wife knew he had kept a secret from her for a week! His worry was cut short at a tight hug by his own personal Princess of Love.
"You are getting better at that. Could that be a mental influence?" Cadance started writing more things down.
It took nearly a full week for the stallion to feel another of the holes open, but the problem was the ones already there were growing. "I can't believe I didn't think about this!" Shining turned side to side, wearing some very well-made half-plate armor. It was trimmed in gold and pink, an odd combination but then his wife was the Princess of Love.
"Hides your legs well." Cadance inspected her mate, the armor covered him from the neck down, mostly in hefty brocade leather, but important bits were covered in heavy plates of steel. "And looks quite dashing, too." She leaned forward and kissed Shining.
"I still can't believe this is happening, look at these!" Shining opened his mouth, tipping his head back a bit to show Cadance the now longer fangs.
Cadance shivered a little at those. "Wait a moment." Blue magic wrapped around Shining's head, holding him steady while Cadance looked into his mouth. What was worse, he felt one of his teeth start to wobble, one of his bottom teeth. "Just as I thought! You aren't turning into a drone!" Cadance let go of her husband.
"I'm not?" Shining took a step back, a little uncertain at Cadance's delight.
"No, Shiny, you are turning into a queen!" Cadance giggled and lifted a hoof to her snout to try to suppress any further, more serious, laughter.
Author's Note
What is this? Poor Shining, what is he going to do? Will turning into a queen give him amazing powers? Will it leave him making bad plans to take over kingdoms he has no chance of winning with? Only time will tell!
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Chrysalis rubbed her hooves together with glee. "And you intercepted the message?"
"Of course, my queen." The changeling drone held out a scribbled note. "I copied it of course, pilfering the original would have your agents caught quicker than a pony wandering into our hive."
Reading the letter, the queen froze. "It speaks nothing of him! This can't be, the poison should have reached his magical center by now, it should be turning him into a changeling!" Bringing one forehoof down, she narrowly missed her spymaster, not by choice. "And why do our agents in that damn icy fortress keep going missing?"
The princess stood, her snout an inch from the changeling drone's own. The changeling trembled, shaking like a leaf.
"Now, drink." Cadance booped Slick on the nose. "Come on, you know you need to, just a little…"
Slick tried to keep his calm, but it was impossible. "My queen! A drone should not feed from his queen!" But she smelled so good, his senses were soaked in the sweetest love he had ever sensed in his life.
"You can't win." Another changeling, Careful Steps, told him from one side. "She is a queen unlike any before, she loves all her drones." A look of devotion settled on the changeling whose voice was so full of temptation. "Go on, just a little sip, I bet she smells good. She always smells good."
"I do, don't I?" Cadance smiled over to her 'helper'. "Now, come on," then she felt it, the first tender touch of a changeling feeding, "there you are, now, drink deep."
Love poured over Slick, his mind was bombarded by adoration and desire for more. His queen loved him so much it filled him in moments and he felt love pour down all over him. This time it wasn't a hoof that touched his nose, but a kiss from Cadance, Princess of Love.
"Good colt, there you are. Now, why don't you tell me everything you know about the naughty queen who doesn't share her love at all?" Cadance had learned quickly how to spot the changelings among her ponies, and learned just as fast that the poor dears were only doing what Chrysalis said because they were starving. Starving for the thing she had in abundance.
"She must be squishing them, my queen. From the moment they go missing we get no word back and worse, it seems like each one captured tells her everything. She must be doing vile things to get them to talk!" Spymaster Sneaky shook his head.
"Then send more, we must know if Shining Armor is becoming one of us. It would be perfect, to steal him back from that evil harpy, he loved me more than her, I tell you." Chrysalis stomped a hoof so hard it broke the rock under her with a crack like thunder.
"As my queen wishes." Sneaky withdrew, he knew when it was a good time to leave an angry and brooding queen. Particularly one capable of having him squished without notice or investigation.
"Yes, I can see it now, he will start to notice the change and hide it from his horrible wife. He will learn the ways of a changeling. Cunning, lying, ruthlessness… he will have to slink away from her, leaving…" the words twisted in Chrysalis' mouth, "Cadance, leaving her to wonder what she did wrong. Oh yes, this day is going to be perfect."
"Cady!" Shining whined a little as he called his wife's name. "I need help with this, please?"
Cadance marched into their bedroom, then another Cadance, and finally a third. "What dear?" All three of them spoke it together, in perfect synchronization.
It was impossible to tell them apart, Shining knew. The changelings that were sent to the Empire were usually the very best at disguise. "Well, whoever wants to help, I can't get this cravat right!" He gestured to the dress outfit he was trying to get on.
Two of the Cadances stepped froward, each looking to the other with a grin before taking a side. "Now where would you be without us?" Shining didn't care that at least one of them was a drone, they were all better at this than he was.
"Without you? Probably married to me still." A fourth Cadance walked in, smiling at seeing two of her doppelgangers helping her husband. "And likely needing twice as much help. But you are here and you are being good… aren't you?"
"Yes my queen!" Three voices snapped, green fire flowing around the first three Cadances to reveal they were changelings.
"Thanks…" Shining finished off tying his cravat properly. "So what news from the newest drone?" He hated these events, but at least the clothing let him hide his… problems. Long hose were in this month.
"Apparently old queen fuddy duddy knows what is going on, she is trying to get information about you. So I had some fake letters given to her, nothing too amazing. Let's keep her in the dark a little longer, I want to see her squirm." Cadance giggled to offset her almost-meanness.
Abruptly, one of the drones shifted themselves with burning green fire to resemble his old queen. Then they started to twist and shimmy around, grinning and looking at Cadance.
The giggle increased, then she started to laugh. Shining couldn't stop himself either, catching the joke and almost messing up his clothes.
"What do you mean its growing in green?" Shining tried to turn only for his wife's magic to hold his head steady. "Like, all green?" Panic started to enter Shining's voice.
"No, not all green, but you have some new tufts of it here and there. We can keep it covered. How goes the efforts on shape-shifting?" Cadance had a brush and a little tub of paste out, smearing it into the stallion's mane as she brushed it.
"I can't…" Shining's memories shunted back to his weekly meeting with Careful. No matter what he had done he hadn't been able to summon the green fire. "But he says there is a spark of energy in me, we just need to ignite it."
"I am sure there is… oh, another one." Cadance smeared some more of the magical dye into her husband's hair. The best bit was it smelled really good. "And what of the holes, are they growing according to the plan?"
"Yeah, pretty much exactly according to it… how did you work that out so well?" Shining almost melted, having his mane brushed was just about the best thing to do to get his knees to go weak.
"Oh, I got your sister to help. Such a clever girl." Cadance kept working, having to start all over in calming down the now upset stallion.
Shining shook. "Twilight knows?"
Author's Note
Oh dear, poor Chrysalis really should try living outside, she is kept so completely in the dark!
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The goggles were the most intimidating bit, Shining had worked out. "Why does there need to be straps?" The stallion flexed against the restraints, finding that short of magic he wouldn't be getting out of this until his sister was done with him.
"Oh? Those are to protect the machine, if you move it would mean I need to recalibrate and that takes far too long." Twilight floated her scroll over, ticking off 'bind subject down tight' off the list. "Now, Spike! Throw the switch!"
The little dragon saluted, standing on a stool so he could reach the lever on the side of the huge contraption that looked to be aimed at Shining Armor's head. "Right away, Twilight!" He had to jump the last little bit, to grab hold of the knife-switch, using all his strength and bracing his feet on each side of it to pull it down.
Electricity arced across the contacts on the switch as the dragon turned the contraption on. Shining looked up to see spiraling arcs of electricity racing around the huge, glass-ringed and tapering conductor.
The reflection off of Twilight's goggles gave the mare the look of the maddest of mad scientists. She adjusted a dial on the side of the machine with her magic, heralding a rising whine coming from the cabinet.
Shining wanted to close his eyes but didn't dare look away as the brilliant white-blue flash of power had him seeing stars and black dots. "Twily?"
"Success!" Twilight lifted a hoof in victory. "Spike, turn it off!"
Spike spat into his palms, this was the bit he always had trouble with. More flashes started going off, strobing right before Shining's vision and leaving the poor stallion dazed.
Twilight dashed over and reached up with her magic, shutting down the machine herself and saving her brother from what would have been the worst headache in the history of forever. Although, as it was, his vision was filled with black and purple blotches, the one that started talking to him, he assumed, was Twilight.
"We did it, BBBFF!" Twilight dashed back to her machine, watching as it disgorged a picture that showed a perfect outline of a pony head, with all kinds of squishy bits inside it. "Oh wow, look at this!"
She held the picture up to Shining Armor's nose. "Look, there are changes in this squiggly bit, and your horn is starting to change, right down here, see?" Twilight had neglected to untie her brother, not to mention offer him some eye drops so he might one day see again.
"Twilight Sparkle, what have you done to my Shiny?" Cadance stepped in, her magic reaching for the restraints and undoing them, only to have a picture shoved suddenly in her face.
"But look, he is changing more, inside!" Twilight stared up at Cadance, the goggles hiding the manic stare she had.
"Cady?" Shining managed to squirm free of the last of the bindings and realized he couldn't see but, somehow, knew he was looking right at his wife. A silly-happy smile covered his lips. "I survived?"
Cadance wrapped her husband in a soft wing, hugging him. She felt the slight, butterfly-feet feel of changeling feeding, but it was coming from close. Cadance got a hint that it was her husband and focused on him, pouring her love of, her desire for, and her complete devotion to Shining Armor into feeling.
Blinking, Shining felt like he was staring at the sun. The surrounding wing burned with heat, a heat his body wanted, needed. "Cady? What… what is happening? Are you okay?"
"Shh dear, just relax. Your sister seems to have helped trigger a new change. You can feel the warmth?" Cadance felt her dear husband nod against her side, his eyes furiously blinking away at the blotches of color. "Then you can feed, like a changeling. Maybe that will mean you can shape-shift soon?"
"If my hypothesis is correct, then if the subject is feeding and stocking up changeling energy, it should be able to shape-shift shortly, yes." Twilight had her notes out and was reading from them. "Err, he… my brother…" It was hard to marry her love of science with her love for her present subject in his normal disguise as her brother.
A hoof lifted up, a big white one, with little holes in it. It wrapped around the lab-coated pony's withers and pulled her into the hug. "Twily, never change." Shining had felt his sister by that new feeling, it was amazing. But the most amazing part was Cadance.
Shining rubbed his leg again. "So I should picture it, just like how I want to look?" He was trying to focus on the words of Careful Steps.
"Yes, build the image, put into it only what you want to look like, your nature will take care of the other bits. Now you have that picture in your mind?" The drone was patient, taking time out of his day to help his new queen's mate was not the most fun thing, but it certainly beat the 'honors' his old queen gave out.
The image Shining built in his mind was of himself. Strong, with whole legs, no slightly dark horn and certainly no fangs. He knew the image so well since it was him only a scant few months ago.
"Now, bring up all that energy inside, that you felt when our queen feeds us. Let it flow over you, let it free." Careful drew his own power out, demonstrating. As the flames started to pour from his hooves up, he felt a call within the stallion. Victory.
Shining's eyes flew open, he watched as the fire poured past them and felt the searing, delightful heat of his change. Gone were the holes, gone was the odd horn color. Opening his mouth he found only flat, normal pony teeth. He jumped into the air and clicked his hooves together before diving on the changeling and hugging what he hadn't realized was a perfect copy of his own wife.
"Why, Shining, what will Cadance do if she catches us like this?" Careful booped Shining on the nose, as he had caught his queen do to the stallion.
"I think I would congratulate a good teacher and a wonderful student. Come here, my Shiny." Cadance's command was undermined as she dashed to her husband, as eager as Shining was to hug. "I knew you could do it."
Shining pressed in tight to Cadance, feeling a wing pull around him, then another. "I… I really am a changeling now, aren't I?"
"Of course you are, silly. You are the cutest changeling in all Equestria, clever too." Cadance kissed her special somepony.
Poor Careful never made it to the door. Other changelings, for the rest of the day, would tell cautionary tales about being in the same room with the queen, when she and her husband were close. The drone was flopped on his side, gazing with glazed-over eyes at the pair. His mouth worked but no sound came out. Bliss claimed him in its tight embrace.
Author's Note
Twilight, you really are the most adorkably awesome mad scientist ever. Please, never change.
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Shining looked at his reflection. It was the real him, not the disguise he wore.
"Your legs are changing faster, and your horn." Cadance nuzzled against the stallion's cheek. "Time to get ready, though. We need to go and visit Twilight and her friends today. Did you send word to the Cakes in Ponyville to get them to make something special?"
Breathing a sigh of relief, Shining nodded. "Of course." The buds of where his wings would grow in itched on his back and he tried to reach up with a hoof to rub them.
"Don't scratch those, Careful said if you damage your wings as they grow in then they won't be usable until after your first full moult." Cadance reached up and gently rubbed the balding patch just between the two wing buds.
Shining practically melted at the attention, falling to his belly before the might of the Empress. "I also booked us the Friendship Express, that should get us there with a little less… fanfare."
"Oh, that will be perfect. Of course She knows we are going, I made sure the old annoyance got a leak. I am sure she will send a small bevy of changelings to try to monitor us." Cadance almost purred, her first steps as a leader had been unsure, but she had taken to the role with much vim.
Chrysalis had her eyes closed and was resting on her little nest. The glorified goop-mound was surprisingly comfortable, just as she remembered Him being.
"Shining Armor, are you awake?" Chrysalis looked down at the mind-controlled pony. She got the slightest of nods from him. "Good, you will relax, this is not going to hurt at all."
"… not going to hurt…" Shining's voice was a monotone as he stared off at the wall. He couldn't think one thing himself right now, his queen had commanded him not to.
"This day is going to be truly perfect, and if it isn't, if just the slightest thing goes wrong… I will not lose you." Chrysalis held up the ball of goop. The stuff would taste terrible, as well she knew, but inside was the smallest drop of the pure essence of a changeling. Poison to normal ponies, with the right flick of magic at the right time it would change from deadly drug to mutagen.
"Here, Shining, this is a nice big… uh, muffin." Chrysalis was briefly at a loss as to what to call it, pony food was not her strong point. What predator ever kept track of the food of its food?
In the green glow of Shining's eyes, the pile of slime on the dark, hole-filled hoof looked like the most delicious thing ever, and his Cady was hoofing it right to his mouth. Shining opened wide and gulped it down whole.
"Perfect, so very perfect." Chrysalis petted the unicorn on the head.
Jerking awake, the changeling queen was angry, she felt tears in the corner of her slitted eyes. "No, it won't do just to send drones. I need to see him. My Shining Armor. My King."
A pillar of flame poured out from Chrysalis, her own magic surging just as mighty as ever. She thought first to assume a pony and infiltrate herself, but there was the problem. All her drones that got near that horrid alicorn just went missing.
She would catch two ponies with one pod.
When the fire receded, a changeling drone stood in the queens place. "Ugh, I feel so small and…" Chrysalis almost spat at how miniscule she felt like this.
"What are you doing in the Queen's Quarters?" Sneaky, the hive's spymaster, had caught his queen in the most perfect of disguises. "Get out of here before she catches you!"
Chrysalis was about to reprimand the drone before her but realized this could be better and better. Not even her own drones would know she had infiltrated the ponies. "My queen gave me orders. I am to join in the infiltration of Ponyville during the royal visit there."
Sneaky raised a non-existent eyebrow. "She did, did she? We will see about this." The drone turned and stormed out of the room.
Dashing over to her desk, what was little more than a pile of goop with some harder goop on top, Chrysalis quickly scrawled a note, explaining her absence. "Perfect."
Trotting out of the room, she felt the smaller body move around her, it wasn't perfect, really, but a clever changeling like herself learned to improvise.
"Yes My Queen!" A half dozen voices chorused out.
"No, I am a princess, not a queen." Cadance was trying again. This little game never went well. "Even when you are in your normal changeling shapes, you must address me as princess, not queen."
"Yes Queen princess!" The voices sounded serious, deadly serious.
"Just princess, please?" Cadance was halfway slumped to the floor.
"Yes Queen Just Princess!"
"Give up, love." Shining leaned in and kissed his wife. "They are too used to their ways. It isn't like anypony is going to see them outside of their disguises. Are they?" The last two words the stallion directed to his fellow changelings. And he did think of them as fellows, there was an odd connection he couldn't fathom. But it was there.
"Yes, My Prince!"
"Just Shining is fine, guys." Shining had a wing draped over him by Cadance as the princess realized that she wasn't the only pony they did this to.
"Yes, Prince Just Shining!" Although this time the perfect synchronization was broken by a tiny giggle at the back of the gaggle of changelings, though none would break ranks and tattle, or so it seemed by their steely resolve.
Shining let his disguise drop in a flow of fire and there were a few gasps now from the changelings and all of them bowed deeply. "My Queen." A few of them murmured the honorific and it appeared to hit Shining right in his ego.
"Guys, please stop playing games." Shining marched over to them and did what he could to get them to stand back up, but as soon as he left one to work on another the first would drop to their belly again. "Oh get up!"
As a group, every drone did and they gazed up at Shining, every blue eye locked on the green mane that now had very little of the blue hair still in it.
"Are you going to behave on this trip or will I have to tell Queen Cadance to leave you all here?" It was an empty threat, they needed the changelings to help root out any more of their kind that would be lurking in Ponyville.
So many fearful little black faces looked up at Shining that he instantly repented his harsh threat and immediately felt like taking the whole group out for ice cream. The stallion shook his head. "Then behave."
"Yes, My Queen!" The voices were strong and united.
Cadance just giggled.
Author's Note
The funny transition between the very pony-centric spell/grammar checker on my Libreoffice and the one in Firefox is quite comical. I for one am eagerly awaiting the first clever-clogs who can get Parsey McParseface to work as a grammar checker so I can introduce it to pony words.
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Shining dropped back from the rest of the group to the poor pink mare. "Lucky we came when we did, huh? I'm guessing you saw the scroll we sent to Mr. and Mrs. Cake?" When he saw the worry on Pinkie Pie's face, he stopped. "Hey, I'm impressed you've been able to keep our secret this long!"
"So you're gonna tell Twilight now?" Pinkie Pie looked relieved and seemed ready to dash forward.
Lifting a hoof to gently block the earth-pony's path, Shining shook his head. "You're gonna have to wait just a little bit longer. We have something special planned. It'll be worth it, I promise."
"It'd better be." Pinkie didn't look impressed with the promise and Shining smiled a little more.
"What about if I made it more worth your while, how about I promise to tell you an amazing secret that nopony in Ponyville knows… except Twilight?" Shining flashed his smile that had won nations into allies.
A new secret intrigued Pinkie enough that she almost forgot about the old one. Almost. "Okay, but it better be a good one!"
"Okay, the morning went well. You have Pinkie under wraps?" Cadance looked at Shining. She had to admire how the slight shift in the stallion's perspective, thanks to his new species, was aiding in all sorts of ways.
"Piece of cake. She was all ready to blurt it out then and there, I promised to tell her a new and better secret if she didn't." Shining felt a brush at his side and looked to see Flash Sentry. "Oh, hay Flash… what are you doing here?"
Chrysalis stood proud in her double disguise. "I got orders to-" She froze, Cadance was looking at her and tilting her head. A slight pulse of fear ran through the queen.
"Give it up." Cadance gave a sigh and reached out a hoof to the changeling's shoulder, pouring love out. "Oh don't look so terrified, we aren't going to hurt you. What is your name?"
The gig was up so quick that Chrysalis didn't know what hit her. She was reeling from the wave of food sent her way but she couldn't help but slurp it up; love freely given was the most delicious. "Um, Chitin."
Shining was at the changeling's side. "Drop the disguise, let's get a look at you." There was command in the stallion's voice unlike Chrysalis had ever heard in another before, it was all she could do to only drop the first disguise, revealing the drone shape she had chosen. "There, see? Not so terrible are we, Chitin? I bet all kinds of nasty stories have been said about us. Some drones even expected we would hurt them."
"My Queens!" Careful trotted in, wearing his usual 'royal guard' disguise. "Who are you?" He tilted his head at the strange drone. "My Queen, who is this?"
"She said her name was Chitin." Cadance replied, checking the last of the decorations. The Cakes had, thankfully, left them in the main room to finish the preparations. "The latest drone in our hive."
"I don't recognize her, what part of the hive were you from?" Careful lived up to his name, walking around the other drone.
Chrysalis' mind ran fast, she wasn't even sure which drone this was, why did they call the princess 'queen'? "The nursery, I took care of young drones…" It was as good an answer as she could formulate, she really hadn't been ready for this situation.
"Very well, I guess. I didn't spend any time down there myself." Careful turned to Shining. "My Queen, happy to report your sister and her friends are on their way here now."
Shining reached out a blue hoof and gave the drone a pat on the shoulder. "Good work, Careful. Now take Chitin here and hide."
Saluting, Careful turned on the other drone who was now looking at him in shock. "What? Don't you recognize our new queen? Move!" He yelled at Chrysalis and she jumped a little. Her nerves had to be because she was in this new shape. It had to be.
"And now we have another announcement." Cadance looked out over Twilight's friends. "This is another big one but I think we are going to need to ask that you keep this a bit more of a secret."
Pinkie glared at Shining. Trotting over to him, she looked up at the stallion right in the eyes. "This better not be the one you promised!"
"Uh, yes?" Shining was pushed up against the wall by the mare, her shaking hoof waggling at his nose.
"You were going to tell me anyway, how does this count?" Pinkie deflated though, he hadn't told her he wouldn't tell anypony else. "Okay, before you tell the others, tell me."
It was only fair. Shining leaned down toward the mare's ear and whispered softly. "Pinkie Pie, I am turning into a changeling."
The pink pony froze, every muscle going stiff. "What?" The word was spoken so loudly it could likely be heard in Canterlot.
Shining took a deep breath and let his disguise drop. Green fire poured around him, revealing his bald, black, and holey hooves, the now crooked black horn on his head and the green streaks through his mane and tail. "Tada!"
"It's a changeling!" Rarity squealed and reared back from the revealed Shining. "Twilight!" She spun to her friend. "Uh, Twilight? Why aren't you doing anything?"
Twilight smiled and trotted over to take the opposite side to the one Cadance was on as each put a wing over the half-transformed pony. "Because this is my brother." Twilight smiled and squeezed Shining a little more. "My BBBFF. And LSBFF don't attack their BBBFF."
Thankfully somepony had positioned a couch beside Rarity because the mare fainted clean away and landed on it.
"There is a bit more, Chrysalis did this to him and she seems to be trying to find out more about what is happening. Only her drones like us better than her." Cadance clopped her hoof three times and the Cakes, who had been at the party the whole time, flashed with green fire and revealed themselves to be changelings.
One changeling, peeking her head in from the kitchen, had clearly heard everything. Chrysalis didn't know why, but hearing that her drones had just walked away from her actually hurt her. The problem was, she was bloated and full on love freely given by Cadance, which made it quite hard to be really angry.
Author's Note
I mean, it's impossible to be angry when you have a belly full of chocolate and caramel fudge ice-cream. Well, unless you are lactose intolerant.
We at last get a full description of all the changes to our piebald prince.
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Chrysalis was about as uncomfortable, while at the same time cozy, as a changeling queen with an arch-enemy could be. She squirmed a little, her small body pressed between Cadance and Shining Armor. They were lying with their backs to her, but there was a constant resonance of love and happiness pouring from them.
It was decidedly impossible to think dire and evil thoughts about a pony when they were force-feeding you love, she knew this well. Lacking any other recourse, apart from revealing herself and getting thrown to the badlands again, she tucked her snout in against Shining's back, at least consoling herself with the scent of the stallion she lo- No, she wouldn't even think that in her own head.
Cadance had a wing wrapped around the little changeling that was now snuggled in against her chest. "Little Chitin, I may not be your mother, but trust that I won't mistreat you like that mean ol' queen." It was worse for her this time, Cadance mused. Impending motherhood must be affecting her perception of the changelings.
Little blue eyes opened and Cadance kissed the snout of the drone. There was an instant look of the most delighted satisfaction on Chitin's features before terror engulfed the changeling. "What happened? Where am I? What…" Love. Thick, sweet, delicious love. It practically drowned the drone in their favorite food. Chrysalis shook her head, trying to clear the cobwebs of sleep.
"You are safe, relax." Cadance told the drone to do the one thing she really couldn't.
"My Queen!" Careful trotted in and saw the little drone snuggled against the mare. He couldn't help but smile, remembering when she had washed away his bonds to the old hive with the same method.
"Careful?" Cadance looked over at the suddenly day-dreaming drone.
"Oh, yes My Queen! I wish to report two more drones captured, both report that there were no others sent." Careful eyed the drone who looked, strangely enough, to be trying to get away from the Queen's hold.
Shining flopped sideways out of the strange bed, hitting the ground so firmly that his disguise failed. "What?" He scrambled and got his hooves under him, insectile wings spreading and buzzing a little on his back as he looked at the bed that had betrayed him.
"She seems to like you better." Cadance let go of the drone in her arms and watched with a grin as the changeling flew to her husband and grabbed on to his neck. "A lot better…"
Chrysalis had never been so happy in her life. She nuzzled against Shining Armor's thinning fur, she stuffed her snout into his mane and inhaled, smelling changeling and pony both. She was so happy that when her brain finally managed to get her attention she missed what it was complaining about. A well fed changeling could grow lax and she well knew it.
"I think you overfed her." Shining used his magic, his bright green and entirely love-fueled magic, to pluck the drone from his neck and settle her properly on his back. "Oh, my wings!"
The buzzing in the room got louder as the former unicorn worked new muscles and rose a few inches off the ground with a happy cry.
The fact that he landed sideways, slamming down onto the bed and breaking it didn't speak well for his landing technique. "My Queen!" Careful ran the short distance at a gallop to make sure Shining was okay.
Chrysalis' brain yelled at her again, but her heart was so fixated on the one thing she had loved as much in life as power, that she didn't want to listen to it. With sleep keeping her wits slow, she could admit that she did love him.
"I'm okay!" Shining got legs and wings all in order, lifting the little drone that had been riding on his back clear. "Are you okay, Chitin?" The only reply he got from the besotted drone was when all four of her legs latched on and she hugged his neck tight again. "I take that as a yes."
"Flying lessons. You have a pegasus for a wife… former pegasus, and it looks like landing is the same for those wings as for feathered ones." Cadance booped her husband on the nose. "Besides, with all those diplomatic events shifted around, we have some time."
"Yes Cady." Shining smiled up to his wife. She looked every bit both Princess and Empress, but then to the stallion she loved, she always looked so. "We are going to need to interview each of the new drones. We can do that on the train." Cadance nodded, watching the squirming drone, amused at her antics to keep a grip despite Shining trying to climb back out of bed. "Chitin, do you think you can wait here for us?"
Chrysalis let herself be detached from Shining by his own magic and she looked up at him, nodding.
"Good, we won't be long. I swear, Chrysalis sends her own drones in with so little preparation it almost breaks my heart. What does she think of the poor things?" Hearing the words from Shining's own mouth made Chrysalis reel as if struck, but the royal couple didn't notice.
When the two royals left, Chrysalis could finally breathe right again. Having that much love in the room was overwhelming to any changeling. Then she realized she had lost something, some feeling. Every changeling can sense their hive, the core of their being magically linked to the mass that was the rest of them. For Chrysalis, that had always been so much stronger because she was the central figure of the hive.
But it was gone.
She thrashed in the bed in her disguise, everything felt wrong! She cried and then she felt it, fain, an echo of what she thought she had lost. But this wasn't the link of a queen to her hive. This was the link of one lone changeling drone to a hive dominated by two queens.
It got worse for Chrysalis, as the warning her head had been screaming at her all morning finally got through to her. Shining didn't have the head or tail fins of a changeling drone, nor the single upper fangs. He had green hair in his mane and bottom fangs.
"He is a queen…" The dread queen of the changelings, reduced to a drone and bonded to a new hive, sat for long enough to realize the further implications. "She is a queen…" There were two queens in this hive, and one of them, the most amazing source of love in all Equestria, was her hated enemy.
Then why did her full belly feel so good and her heart beat faster just thinking about her?
"She knows." Cadance looked back at the doors to their room. "She knows but I don't think she knows we know she knows."
Shining smiled and leaned over, nuzzling his wife under the green glow of his magic. "She probably doesn't even know that we know, let alone know that she knows." He lifted a hole-filled black hoof and booped Cadance on the nose. "Let's go and bring them in, I doubt they will need to be drugged to sleep with love, though."
Author's Note
Ah, but does she know that she knows that he knows that she knows that he thinks he knows that she knows?
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Shining strode around openly, without a disguise. The castle guards had accepted him the first time he had barked an order at them. The castle servants had shrugged, half of them were changelings now anyway and they got on quite well with the shape-changers.
But today he had a mission. "Okay, Shiny, now just make some pegasus wings and we can get started." Cadance gestured to the insectile wings on her husband's back. "While I am sure they are perfectly fine, I can't teach you to fly with those."
Changing came easy for him and Shining thought of the first thing that came to mind when 'flying' was the target. His form shrank in stature, his black horn faded and with a burn of green fire a sky-blue mare was standing there, looking shocked and surprised.
"You even got her cutie mark right. Well, I guess this is fine, at the very least Rainbow Dash certainly has all the bits needed to fly well." Cadance was grinning from ear to ear at her blushing husband.
"Of course I do, I am the greatest flier in all Equestria!" Shining said it without thinking, the magic of his changeling side even pulling in the pegasus' mannerisms. Two blue hooves flew up to Shining's mouth in shock. "I… I sound like me… like… her!" It took real effort not to talk using first person about the target of his disguise, it seemed.
Cadance's eyes flashed wide, her sharp mind quickly working out just the same. A scroll appeared, one Shining recognized as her latest for taking notes. "Well, 'the greatest flier', let's see you take off and glide down there." She pointed off the edge of the balcony they were on and Shining's normal slight vertigo didn't kick in. The quill resumed scratching again.
Confidence swelled in Shining, he felt amazing, like he could do anything. Without thinking he spread his wings and jumped off the balcony. Inhaling all the scents coming to him on the breeze, he found his eyes scanning everywhere, noting everything around him. Including the alicorn winging along beside him. "This is awesome!"
Without even thinking about it, Shining had done a tight vertical loop and was still beside Cadance. "Showboating?" Cadance grinned though and gestured to the edge of town with a hoof. "How about you show me what that body can-" She didn't get to finish, there was a flash of multiple colors and Shining was gone.
It was the best feeling in the world and Shining suddenly wanted to fly back to Ponyville and challenge Rainbow Dash to a race. He did another loop when he reached the edge of town, ending up hovering and waiting for his wife to catch up. It didn't take long, but although Cadance was an experienced flier and pegasus before she got her horn, Shining's present body was the peak of speed, so far as ponies went.
"Alright, you can fly, at least in this form. Let's go over rules." Cadance noted the sigh from the pegasus. "Rules are there so we don't hurt anypony, or get hurt ourselves. I only suggested this flight because there was nopony else in the air."
"Aw man, rules are…" Shining froze, his brain quickly finding all the rules. His mouth began at the start. "Signal with forehooves when banking more sharply than quarter of a clock. Kick back hooves when-"
"Really? That too?" Cadance wanted to throw something into the air in exasperation but had nothing to hoof. An apple suddenly appeared and she threw it off into the forest. "Okay, let's go back." She was alone again and, seconds later, a thunderous crash was heard and an expanding circle of color was radiating out from where her husband, in the borrowed shape of Rainbow Dash, performed one of the most amazing feats of flying ever. "Show off…"
Shining was hovering, just above the balcony they started from. For some reason it didn't feel right to settle down to the ground when he had wings like this. Eventually his wife appeared and landed just below him. "So, how'd I do?" He had both forehooves crossed, looking supremely confident.
"Land and turn back." Cadance was almost fuming, although a slow flight across her city had helped calm her down.
Shining did just as commanded by his empress and wife… the same pony in most husband's minds. Fire rolled over him and he felt his size and shape alter as he became both half-changeling and half-unicorn all over again. Being a stallion again was a minor thing, he honestly hadn't felt 'wrong' in that form. Apparently there was more than a little mental adjustment when taking on a specific pony's shape.
"Now, those flight rules again please." Cadance summoned her scroll and a quill, already writing things down.
"Uh, sign with your forehooves when turning sharp. Signal with your back when you need to stop suddenly…" Shining had a hard time remembering them and worse, they were fading as he recited them. "Then, uh…"
"Right, so the knowledge you gain is temporary to the form you choose. Good to know and very handy if we have another problem with the plumbing; no need to call Canterlot for special services anymore." Cadance beamed in delight. "Maybe we could start our own side business, hiring out changelings to do work?"
"So I still need to learn the rules, don't I?" Shining's ears tucked back, rules rules rules. He had been forced to memorize the Guard's Rulebook, this, it seemed, was going to be another one of those things. "Oh, maybe I can get Twili to come and help teach me, I bet she had to learn them."
Cadance's face lit up at this idea. "Your sister is, without a doubt, the most amazing student of the world in existence, if anypony can teach you this it is her."
"My Queens!" A voice called from just inside the room the balcony was attached to.
Shining couldn't begrudge them calling him their queen, after all, it seemed more an honorific. He had been worried at first that he might not be able to maintain his duties, so to speak. "Wait, who are you?" The stallion squinted and walked in to examine his drone.
"Oh, uh… Well…" The drone scuffed a hoof, looking suddenly tiny.
"Careful!" Cadance bellowed the word once and there was the buzz of wings as a changeling quickly appeared and then froze. "You have some explaining."
"They started showing up…" Careful trotted over to the other drone, stepping between them and his apparently angry queens. "I wanted to integrate them quickly they… they already seem bonded to our hive."
"Bonded? What do you mean?" Shining deliberately stepped around Careful and stood over the other changeling. He leaned down and plucked them up in his hooves and hugged them close. There was a surprised and delighted chirp from the drone. Being cuddled by a queen was just about the best thing a drone could get.
"When you sleep with a drone close to you, when you give them so much love it… it breaks ties and reforges them. It bonds them to you two, it makes them part of your hive." Careful relaxed at seeing his Queen being tender to the new drone. "When she arrived she… she is already part of us. I am not sure how, or why."
Cadance looked to Shining, seeing the stallion come to the same assumption. "There are going to be more coming, a lot more." She took a deep breath and let it out. "If, for example, we did this… bonding, to a queen…"
"Then all that queen's drones would be pulled along, their bond as queen would shatter and they would be remade as a drone." Careful looked confused, he was bright for a changeling, but not quite as fast as his Queens.
Author's Note
Exposition? A little, but I needed to, to show why what is happening is happening. Do I use it as much as modern cinema? Oh Glob no!
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"So changelings have special talents too?" Shining looked to Careful, then to the new drone who was shaking like a leaf. "What's your name?"
"Slink, My Queen." Shining had long since gotten used to being called queen, so just nodded to the drone. Getting used to that was almost the fifth most scary thing that had happened so far. The head of the changeling snapped to the side and a beatific expression flooded their features. "My Queen!"
Shining turned his head to the side to see Cadance walking in. She turned heads for a whole new reason now and the stallion couldn't disagree.
"What is going on? I heard another group of drones arrived, is this one of them?" Cadance trotted over to the little changeling her husband had been seeing to, a pink wing curled around the suddenly giggling Slink.
Shining gestured with a black hoof. "Just finding that out myself. Slink, why did you come forward." The words failed to draw the drone's attention away from his wife and Shining had to trot over, closer, and repeat his question. "Why did you come to see me, Slink?"
"Slink is uniquely and amazingly gifted with numbers and sorting, organization runs like ichor in her veins." Careful was fighting every changeling urge to get closer to his queens, if he got as near to them as Slink was he would be doomed to incomprehensible snuggling, just like the little drone. "I think she wanted to help you."
"Help us? Well, it would be useful having another mind focused on this, but how would she-" Shining was cut off as the little drone, her instincts fighting with her mind and losing as she slipped out of the embrace of her two Queens.
"My Queen, I could… please don't come closer…" Slink backed away another step, knowing that if she got trapped by one of those pink wings she wouldn't have the willpower to get free a second time. "I need to help the hive. There are more coming."
"How many?" Cadance folded her wings down at her side but had to struggle with the urge to go and cuddle the drone more. She contemplated a moment on how much more cuddly she had grown during her pregnancy. Most of the changelings didn't mind.
"There was, as of the time I left, nearly five hundred and seventy-three changelings in the hive." Slink's eyelids batted briefly while she recalled the numbers. "I estimate nearly eighty percent will survive the trip-"
"Survive? That is unacceptable!" Shining's hoof came down on the floor. "Where will they be? We need to go and help them… what?" He stopped at the look Cadance gave him, there was a wide grin and… he cheated and leaned on his new changeling senses. Love. Complete and total love.
"You surely don't need to use that to find out I love you?" Cadance had felt the touch of his changeling power, she leaned into her husband. A hoof rubbed along the line, just below his cutie mark where the change was happening. "Seeing you demand to take care of your hive, it was gorgeous."
Fighting free of his wife's coddling, Shining looked to Slink. "How do we go about increasing that percentage?"
Slink's whole manner changed. She had been hoping that their queens were, as the others said, were nice. But this showed care for drones that weren't even technically their hive yet. "You have nearly twenty fighter drones here, along with a dozen infiltrators, send them. The infiltrators can cover the work of your fighters and they can reduce the probability of loss per drone by nearly sixty percent." Shining blinked at the numbers. "That would mean over ninety percent of them will make it."
"And if we send a troop of royal guard, too?" Shining watched the drone's eyes widen further. "What will it take to make that number one hundred?"
"My Queen!" Slink shivered with the intensity of her Queen's question. "I will find out as quickly as I can!"
The train was at least three times longer than any the railway had dealt with before. They had to hook up multiple steam engines to pull it all, but when a princess made a little request, ponies got things done.
Shining and Cadance sat in one of the cars, the train almost completely empty and their carriage certainly was, apart from them. And the drone they both knew as Chitin.
Chrysalis was shaking, she had no idea why the two had sent all the other changelings to prepare in the back-half of the train, but here she was. "My Queens," the words rolled off her tongue far too easily, to Shining she would say them freely, but Cadance still had to work for them, "if you don't have further need of me, I wi-"
"Quiet, please." Cadance looked at the drone, trying to imagine how hard it was for the deposed queen to live in it, to keep in hiding. "You know what we are doing?"
Her mind raced. Chrysalis had been trying to divine the intent of this, but outright asking questions led to a drone being remembered for such. She shook her head, remembering the command. Then she mentally kicked herself for following the command of Cadance.
"It seems we have accidentally bonded an entire changeling hive." Cadance looked out the window, but could see 'Chitin's reaction in the glass. Clearly the queen hadn't realized what a danger she had put her whole hive in. "That is why your numbers have been swelling, the nearest changelings were rushing to join us."
Chrysalis trembled in shock. She reached out toward 'her hive' and felt only the beating presence of the two other occupants of the carriage, with a distant tug of the other drones on the train. Had she really lost her own hive?
"Stop it, Cady." Shining marched up beside the drone that he knew to be Chrysalis. He put one black leg around her and pulled the smaller changeling in against his side.
Cadance sighed and turned back, to see her husband protecting the mare that had hurt him the most. "I thought I could be angry at you, I really wanted to. For his sake." Cadance gestured to her husband. "I steeled my heart, Chrysalis-"
"YOU KNOW?" Chrysalis burned with fire, intending to become her full form but… it only sort of worked. She was certainly bigger than other drones, but she lacked the full stature she had, she lacked her mane, her tail; the mare now sported fins instead of hair. She struggled and fought against the sensation and found, at least, her mane and tail return.
Cadance walked all the way over and reached a hoof out to the mare who had worked so very hard to ruin her wedding and steal her husband. "I did. You feed so much stronger than the others, silly."
A wing draped around Chrysalis and she wanted to fight it, to hate it. She failed on both counts. "I love him…" She looked up at Shining and felt that love burn as bright as ever. A choice came to the changeling, she could keep fighting, possibly regain her stature, or she could take a gamble.
Squeezing the deposed queen, Cadance beamed. "All the changelings in our hive love him." She got a startled look from Chrysalis. "Let's go save your drones."
Chrysalis shook. She needed to make a decision and it would be a life-changing one. The time she had spent in the castle, under the 'care' of Shining and Cadance, had been the best time in her life. Food was plenty, her own drones around her didn't once hesitate to help her, support her, as she got used to her smaller body and the new feelings it brought.
The decision was made easily. Chrysalis' head and heart were both sick of fighting and struggling and the whole reason for her invasion of Canterlot was being solved by the two ponies before her. "Your drones, My Queen." It still felt hard to say, but it was easier now she realized how completely she had been both bested and accepted.
Author's Note
Dang, them feels. I get a little teary when I write about redemption, particularly like this. Cadance is best princess, and possibly best queen.
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"I have got to be crazy. This doesn't make sense but…" Chrysalis sighed as she thought of the two, her Queens. "They beat me, fair and square, at my own game." She looked out at the tracks flowing away behind the train.
Careful stepped out onto the back step of the caboose with Chrysalis. "They told me." He reached a leg up and over the former queen's shoulders.
"Was I a bad queen?" Chrysalis knew she hadn't been. She had raised the hive too big and they had to invade Canterlot just to try to feed them.
"You were terrible." Careful felt assured enough in his new position that he could afford the truth. "But you loved us, you cared for us. You even faced down Princess Celestia for us." He gave the other changeling a squeeze.
Chrysalis didn't want any more words. She looked at her rule from a new way, that of the fellow drone at her side. She smiled, the expression feeling so much better than the smirk or scowl she used to wear all the time.
"It's gone!" Shining kept turning around in circles, then swapping directions. "Cady, it's gone!"
"Did you try looking under the pillow?" Cadance's droll tone was enough of a sobering blow to Shining's ego that he at least stopped turning in circles. "Okay, you calm again?" The stallion nodded. "Okay, so your cutie mark is gone, no big deal, changelings don't have them."
He was dumbfounded. "It's not that easy!" Without thinking, he lifted the pillow his wife had gestured to earlier and immediately felt stupid for doing it. "Everypony will know I am a monster." A wing curled around his side and without thinking about it Shining leaned into Cadance.
"Shh, you aren't a monster, and if anything your cutie mark is more important now. You have a lot more ponies to protect." Cadance felt the train start to slow. "So, get your disguise on and let's go and save our hive."
The kiss on Shining's cheek did as much to buoy his spirits as the words did. Calling the fire, he felt his form adjust and looking just like his old self again, he couldn't help but feel a little… odd. This wasn't him.
"My Queens." Chrysalis looked around, there were hundreds of drones. She wasn't even aware there were this many changelings in her hive before but the proof was right before her. "Not all of them will be able to disguise."
Shining had changed again, making himself into a pegasus version of himself. Wings were perfect for giving the hugs the changelings needed. "What do you mean?"
"She is right, most of us can do sort-of pony shapes, though." The voice came from under Shining's wing and he lifted it a little to see a drone snuggled under it. He would have to fight not to smile at the adorable changeling, so he didn't.
"I am your-" Chrysalis cut short, her brain catching up to her tongue. But when the drone stuck their tongue out at her she lost her cool. Rushing forward, fury burning in her veins, she almost made contact with the other changeling before she froze and just looked up. Shining Armor's nose was a mere inch from her own and the former queen of changelings blushed.
"You need a hug too?" Shining's words bit more sharply than the drone's had, Chrysalis felt tears start to come. The words were a final reminder that she was no longer queen of the hive. Warmth wrapped her, it clung to her with soft, feathery down. "It's okay, Chrysalis, nopony expects you to fully turn around in just a few days."
A second pressure touched Chrysalis' other side and she saw it was the taunting drone. Under Shining's wing, Chrysalis bawled harder and harder, letting out years of suppressed pain.
"So how are we going to get you all back?" Shining looked to the little drone but got a shrug back. Of course, he shouldn't be asking that kind of question of them.
"The train of course." Cadance spread her wings and gestured with a hoof to the stationary train in the distance. "Everypony-"
"Ling!" a drone shouted, catching the princess off guard.
"Sorry, everyling." Cadance looked around at the faces and noticed a lot of smiles on them already. "Everyling, please make your way to the train with whatever disguise you can manage. It doesn't have to be perfect, we just have to get you back to the Crystal Empire."
"My Queen, we… we don't have much energy, some won't-" One changeling was cut short as Cadance turned to Shining and leaned in to kiss him.
Over five hundred little voices gave a collective sigh as a wave of love rolled out, swamping them.
Chrysalis had lost her spot under Shining's wing, but right then she didn't care so much, she was gazing at her queens with adoring eyes. "Love is the better choice…"
Celestia strode through the streets of the Crystal Empire, on her way to the castle. Luna was at her side and both looked a little out of sorts. In the open, changelings were going about daily lives, beside the citizens of the city.
"It's not right." Luna glanced at one drone, apparently selling some crystal apples. "This is worse than we thought, my sister."
"Bestill your anger, Luna." Celestia tried to keep her eyes forward. It was hard to keep her full focus in the presence of creatures that had defeated her so soundly. The missive had been clear, however, there was to be no fighting the changelings.
"Announcing Princess Celestia and Princess Luna!" A crystal pony guard had announced the two and the royal sisters strode forward into the impressive throne room. The sight that greeted them had both narrow their eyes. Chatting casually with the changelings and courtiers of the Crystal Empire, was Chrysalis.
"Auntie Celestia, Auntie Luna." Cadance smiled and managed to draw their attention from the former changeling queen to herself. "It is a delight to see you in my much-restored empire." There was enough emphasis on 'my' that Celestia got the hint, clear as day.
"We heard a rumor of a train load of changelings charging through Equestria, stopping for nopony." Celestia looked at Cadance and realized at once she had wrought too well.
"You have to understand, Auntie, some of our changelings were starving, we simply couldn't risk them to-" Cadance was playing her game until Luna dropped a solid hoof on the flagstone.
"What is going on, niece?" Luna's eyes glared at the changelings around until they fell on a scraggly one that strode up and sat in the empty throne beside Cadance. "What… what is the meaning of this?"
A flash of green fire took Shining and restored his form, or at least the one Luna knew better. "Auntie." Shining took the seat he had been reluctant to take. "As you can see, we are a little attached to our new citizens."
Author's Note
Emotions have a way of getting out, particularly when you don't want them to. Lucky Chrysalis has a wing to hide under now.
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"Celestia and Luna both narrowed their eyes at the stallion but they got a cool smile in return." Careful got to the bottom of the page and cleared his throat. "I stopped when they flew out."
"So I did good?" Shining looked to his wife. He knew she was better at these kinds of things than he, particularly at reading the other princesses.
"Shiny, you did perfect." Cadance slid a wing around the changeling at her side. "Now, we let them simmer for a while, they are likely very upset to not have their hooves on the pulse this time, can you imagine when auntie talks to Twilight about it?"
Shining joined his wife in giggling, the odd mouth cutlery he now sported not impeding his eventual laughter at all.
Twilight looked over to Spike. "You don't have to come to this, Spike, it will be a boring meeting." She pulled out a checklist she had made, of issues she needed to touch base with, the checklist's number one item was, of course, to secure more paper for future checklists.
"Twilight." Celestia smiled and welcomed the purple alicorn in herself. "It has been too long, how is the castle-life treating you?"
No matter how many times Twilight spent 'as a peer' of Celestia's, she would never, ever, get used to talking to her as one. "Very well, thank you Princess Celestia." She trotted into the room, finding Luna and the new captain of the royal guard. The bright smile on her lips faltered a little. "Where are Shining and Cadance?"
Celestia's eyes narrowed and she looked at Twilight with eyes that dearly wished they could dig all the way through the mare's head to get at her knowledge. "They are what we must discuss. I trust you heard about the… changeling express incident?"
"When they rescued all the changelings and gave them a new home in the Crystal Empire? The news is slow, to Ponyville, but that kind of thing does travel." Twilight found a nice divan and climbed up onto it.
"Well that was just the beginning, it seems." Celestia was doing all the talking but Luna was doing all the fuming. "When we approached them about it there were some… charades. Cadance had a changeling disguise as Shining."
Twilight sipped from a cup of tea. "Oh, why would she do that? Last I heard he could disguise on his own." Twilight got half another sip when she realized what she had let slip. "Err, I mean, not that he needs-"
"Twilight Sparkle, why didn't you tell us your brother was turning into a changeling?" Luna filled in for her sister, whose mouth appeared to be moving but no sounds were coming out.
"He was embarrassed, he wasn't sure how everypony would react. But most of all, because he asked me." Twilight was unsure what she had done wrong, but something told her she really shouldn't giggle at the face her mentor was pulling. Luna stopped and really thought about it. She could certainly empathize with the stallion for looking like a monster, a fair chunk of Equestria still considered her some kind of monster, although a tame one. "How was he looking? Last I saw of him he still had most of his fur, although his letters tell me there isn't a lot left."
The Princess of the Night relaxed from her anger, she let it go and took a deep, slow breath. "He seems a lot more forward than he was in the past. We assume this new… aspect, has strengthened his character in that regard. As for how he looks, he looks very much like a stallion version of Chrysalis herself, which was a little startling." Luna mused back on their meeting, she hadn't seen past her own shock at the apparent betrayal, but now she might have to return and apologize.
Celestia had regained her poise and closed her mouth. "In the future, Princess Twilight, could you please keep us appraised of foreign leaders if they are becoming shape-changers?" The white alicorn actually saw the humor of her request and a wry smile was on her snout. "Or any such things, really."
"But it was my brother, and he asked nicely." Twilight didn't like the implications of the conversation. "If you are going to ask me to spy on my brother, well, I don't think that is very friendly."
"And then she finally relented. We think our sister needed to vent." Luna sat beside Twilight, having decided on joining her peer in visiting the Crystal Empire. "But enough of that, how are your new citizens settling in? We had such trouble getting our thestrals integrated."
Shining, now looking every bit the changeling, smiled and showed off the fangs that had reached their full and impressive size. What was odder for the dark alicorn was the changelings, openly undisguised, serving them and apparently fitting in amazingly well in the city and castle.
"It was touch and go for a while, but when everypony realized there was no need to fear them, that they just wanted what everypony wants, things calmed down." Cadance sampled some cake Twilight had brought with her. Celestia herself was said to order cake from Sugarcube Corner in Ponyville.
"And just what does everypony want?" Luna was genuinely interested in what answer the pair would give.
"To love, to be loved. To have the freedom to do both of those things. To not have to worry about being pushed around while doing it all." Shining tried some cake too, and although he really didn't need food, it was a 'bad habit'. Or so Careful had told him.
"Don't forget friendship!" Twilight smiled to her BBBFF. "Friendship is-"
Twilight was interrupted by a changeling bringing her another slice of cake. "Friendship is tasty." Nopony was immune to the giggles that resulted, particularly not Chrysalis, who had served the mare she thought once to be her enemy, but now… now she was the sister of her queen. And tasty.
Author's Note
A giggle at the end, and a warm sentiment both. Still a bit open, but no story is ever fully told. There are beginnings, there are ends. This chapter could be both.
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