Gloomy, damp, and cold; the weather that clung to Canterlot’s skies foretold of an oncoming storm, the first of many such storms that brought snow and heralded winter. Snow had not yet fallen onto the Golden City, the gold and marble crown of Equestria’s civilization, and so ponies, gryphons, and other assorted races still hurried about doing their usual duties. The city had seen an influx of workers after the recent Changeling invasion. Craft-workers forming an exotic potpourri that helped display the country’s acceptance of others.
However, not all were accepted. Some ponies moved through the crowds on a mission: counter espionage. The Changelings had managed to hit ponies where it hurt the most, and now the streets were regularly patrolled by vigilantes with magic nullification stones –runestones enchanted with the ability to nullify magic in an area around those carrying them. Their purpose: to catch Changelings.
Even three years later, ponies were still wary.
A mother and daughter strolled amicably into the market district, each looking about at the wares on display. The mother smiled down at her daughter and led her on, walking towards a nearby vegetable stand.
“Vanessa, fancy seeing you here today,” the vendor called, waving them over, “With all the mess going on since the invasion, I’d have thought you’d be up to your withers in work!”
The white unicorn smiled and brushed her long pink mane from her eyes with her magic, “That was years ago, though with the recent news I sort of am, Pickle, but even a correspondence therapist needs time off.” She replied, picking out a couple of vegetables from the cart. “After all, if I don’t go out and do the shopping neither Echo nor Pale will eat, and I can’t have that.”
Pickle nodded, turning his happy smile on the silvery-grey pegasus filly who cowered from him slightly. “Of course, and how is young Canvas, not getting that pretty orange mane into trouble are we?”
Vanessa cut in with a chortle, “My little girl would never misbehave for mommy, would she sweetie?”
Pale shook her head vigorously, “Nu-uh!”
“That’s my girl,” her mother crooned, leaning down and kissing her forehead gently.
“Terrible business, that Changeling stuff;” Pickle said as he looked through Vanessa’s choices and counted what she would owe him, “It’s the only thing that anypony will talk about these days. I mean, the invasion was one thing, but for some to come out and reveal themselves? That’s just asking for trouble.”
Vanessa shrugged, “Honesty is a virtue of Harmony, Mr Pickle; for them to reveal themselves is an incredibly brave thing. Why, some of my Changeling clients have even told me that it goes against some ‘ancient laws’ that are basically hardwired into their heads.” She shook her head and placed the twenty bits he charged her onto the stand’s top. “I’m not one to pick a side, but in this case I would simply say that ponies are overreacting to their presence.”
“Overreacting to an invasion, Vanessa?”
Vanessa tutted at him, “No, no; that there are Changelings amongst us. I mean, there are Gryphons in most towns in Equestria, but we don’t even think twice about their dietary needs or strange customs. They’re just another ordinary citizen to us, despite all of the conflicts that Equestria has had with them in the past; the minute that these other citizens can magically disguise themselves and we get all in a tizzy; it’s like that thing that happened down in Trottingham, that pony-made robot that was found to be hiding amongst them. Sure, some were upset, but from what I can tell of my clients from that town, she’s been a model citizen.”
“I remember daddy saying something about some Changelings doing some thingie with the Princesses.” Pale Canvas piped up from Vanessa’s knees. “I think he called it a… non-aggregation pack or something.”
Vanessa nodded with a smile, “’Non-Aggression Pact’, sweetie. It means that they are more or less our friends, and yes; that was in the newspaper this morning too. Changeling Queens Crawli and Peanut I believe they were called. Took their sweet time, if you ask me; could have gotten past all this mess if they’d come forward three years ago…”
Pickle sniggered. “Queen Peanut?”
“Oh, like your name is any better, mister Pickle Stew.” Vanessa returned snippily.
“Vanessa is a weird one, too, you know.” He pointed out, getting an irritated glare from the mare.
“If you must know, my name is from the Vanessa Cardui, otherwise known as the Painted Lady butterfly.” She said with her nose turned up dramatically, “My parents clearly thought I was ladylike even at birth.”
“Or that you would like paint.” Pickle retorted with a cheeky grin. “Anyway, how’s Echo Point taking all of it? I would assume that he doesn’t like the increased shifts he has to take.”
Vanessa placed another bit onto the counter and levitated a piece of celery to her daughter, who began eating it quietly, ears turned up towards them in interest. “Ah, well, you know the Night Guard, ‘Onward into the Night’ and all that. We’re not thrilled that he spends most of his nights at the castle now, but it helps to put food on the table and keeps us safe. Has done for twelve years now, and I couldn’t be any more proud of him.”
Pickle shrugged his shoulders, looking through another pony’s chosen groceries before speaking again. “Twenty five Bits; I suppose that’s a good way to look at it, and twelve years? Has it already been so long? How old does Canvas turn this year?”
“Nine in a month or so,” Vanessa replied with a smile.
“Nine already, how time flies! When do you think she’ll get her cutie-mark?”
“I don’t really care when she gets it, she’ll make me proud no matter what. Why, are you worried about her being a late bloomer?”
Pickle shook his head, “No, no, my sister didn’t get hers until she turned fifteen. Mushrooms, by the way; you’ll find her stall farther into the marketplace.”
Vanessa grinned wolfishly, “Well, stars forbid I support a different family for once, Mr Pickle.” She said, before shivering for a second as a queer feeling washed over her and the smile on his face vanished with the wind. She blinked at him confusedly, “… is something the matter, Mr Pickle?”
He backed away from her, almost putting his flank against the wall behind him, “Wh-what h-have you done w-with Vanessa?!”
Another owlish blink met him, “What are you talking about, I’m right here. We were just talking about your sister, in fact.”
Vanessa felt her daughter tap her leg, and she looked down at her, “One second, honey, mommy’s-“
Her pupils shrank to pinpricks.
Where her previously grey and orange pegasus daughter now cowered was a black and silver changeling filly with a curiously gnarled horn and bat-like wings, and beside her a black, holed hoof. She slowly and deliberately picked up the young changeling, putting her onto her back and took a shaky step away from the stand.
“I’m still me, Pickle, please; I’m still me!” She said to the stand owner now staring at her in shock. The crowd around her fell silent as she all but cowered in her spot. One pony, standing nearby with a runestone around his neck, stared at the pair before his shout cut through the silent market like a beacon in the night.
“Changelings!”
Vanessa’s hooves thundered against the paved roads of Canterlot, pushing her with all her strength to get away from the ponies chasing her. Her daughter now clung to her neck, sat upon her withers as they pounded through the streets. Terrified tears streamed from their faces, and harmful magic bolts snarled past their ears as they frantically tried to get away.
Home: that was their destination. Another two corners and they would reach their safehaven, the quaint little home that they shared with Echo Point. Angry shouts met their ears from behind them, the pair turned the last corner, and Vanessa’s hooves skidded as a bolt of magic struck her side, bursting violently and spearing through her hide. She tumbled to a stop outside their door, and with a pained cry she lurched up the step, wrenching the door open with her magic and forcing herself and her daughter into the building.
The door slammed shut behind her, the locks bolting closed. She breathed heavy, pained breaths, her eyes barely focusing as she struggled to drag herself through the house.
“Daddy!”
A door deeper in the house wrenched open, and a thestral came thundering out to meet them. He stopped a foot from them, a hoof held high and his eyes wide as saucers as he eyed the scene before him.
“Oh by Princess Luna’s moon, Vanessa; Vanessa, you’re bleeding, what happened!”
She groaned in agony as he attempted to lift her, succeeding in draping her across his back and proceeding to carry her into the bedroom he had just stormed out of. “Th-the markets, somepony had a null stone, it tore away our disguises…” She hissed, dabbing at her wounded right with a hoof. “A unicorn got a lucky hit… on our way home.” She groaned as a cough wracked her body, “It hurts, Echo…” Her magic lit up and a quill and diary levitated from the bedside cabinet, flipping open and starting to write. “Let me… I need to write this down, need to get this down, can’t let this go… forgotten in history…”
The front door slammed heavily, and angry voices could be heard outside. “Echo Point, open up, this is Dark Wing!”
Echo grabbed a towel from near the bed and pressed it to his wife’s wound, staining the fabric green in moments. “Oh, honey… honey this is bad; you need a doctor, I don’t have any medic training, and my first aid won’t help with this… Hold on, alright? You need to hold on.”
Vanessa chuckled, groaning a little afterward, “Echo,” she muttered, putting a hoof to his cheek, “you… you wouldn’t leave me now, would you?”
“No, never; I just need to send word through gem-coms and they’ll be right here.”
Another slam at the front door was joined with the sounds of splintering wood. “Daddy, I’m scared.”
Echo shook his head, having forgotten that his daughter was with them, and gave his wife a worried look, one that she returned. “She… comes first, Echo.” Vanessa said, “It’s not safe here for her.”
Echo nodded and knelt down to his daughter, “Sweetie, remember what daddy said about the Princesses? About how they’re kind, and wise, and gentle and how they would never turn away somepony who wants help?” He waited for her to nod her head before swallowing nervously and continuing, “Sweetie, I know you’re scared, but I need you to fly to the castle for me and ask for Princess Celestia or Luna. Can you do that?”
She went to nod her head and paused, “But… what about mommy?”
“She’ll be fine, sweetie, the Princess will come here and help if you tell her what’s happening. Go out the back and fly to the castle. Don’t stop for anything, okay?”
The filly nodded, and he shooed her off, watching her run out of the room and listening to her bolt through the house and slam out the back door. With a sigh, he turned to his wife, who had grown deathly still during the time he spent talking with their daughter. “She’s off, sweetie.”
“That’s… good…” Vanessa replied sluggishly, “I’m… so tired, Echo…”
The stallion sidled around the bed and took her hoof in his, sitting down and looking into his wife’s eyes. “I know, sweetie, I know.”
Her breathing slowed, “I’m scared…” She whispered, “I… I don’t want to…”
Echo sobbed, leaning up and kissing his wife’s forehead as she lay motionless on the bed. Tears snaked through the fur on his cheeks, dripping and coming to rest on her face. With a gentle hoof, he slid her eyes shut and settled her head on her pillow. He turned, taking her diary and quill from where they lay on the floor beside him, scrawling in a barely-legible script at the bottom of the current page her last words before closing it and tucking it under her pillow. The bedroom door shut behind him almost reverentially as he left the room.
“Goodbye butterfly, my Painted Lady…”
With slow, deliberate, heavy steps he walked through the house to the front door, taking his armour off the stand behind it and sliding it on. The door had been partially knocked off of its hinges, and only the locks held it in place as he opened it and tossed it aside.
A fellow thestral stood just outside the door, dozens of ponies behind him, and they balked at the green blood that covered parts of his torso and legs.
“Geez, Echo,”
“Who shot her?” Echo growled with his voice rumbling in rage, making ponies cower back from him. His furious, tear stained face glared out at the gathered ponies with utter contempt, “Who murdered my wife?!”
“If you mean the changeling impersonating your wife,” a unicorn near the front started, “then I did. Got it right in the gut, too, shouldn’t be able to get far-”
Echo’s hoof cut him off, smashing the stallion’s nose and sending him to the ground out cold. Contemptuously Echo followed up by spitting on the stallion’s unconscious form. He turned and stepped back up to the door, shoving the other thestral aside. “’In sickness and in health, death cannot part my heart’, the oath to the mare I loved that I spoke on the day of our wedding… ‘From those which crawl through the day and night to destroy harmony’, I swore oath to Equestria and to my family to protect them from those that would do them harm. Now I am the line in the sand, if you want my wife and daughter, then you mules will have to go through me,” He snarled, turning and defiantly barring their way with his wings spread, “I’ll show you the fury of a husband to a murdered wife! So bring it on!”
“Princess, I apologize for the interruption but I have an urgent missive from CL0PTech, priority line and classified Maroon Silver, it arrived via Dragonfire Candle.” Raven, Celestia’s aide said as she stepped across the throne room. The pony who had been talking to the Princess gave the aide an angry glance, but one glare from the Princess’s guards unruffled his fur; it was most unbecoming to be so angered in the presence of her majesty, and would not help his cause. “Whatever it is must be vitally important.”
Celestia sighed and took the scroll from her unicorn aide, unrolling it and starting to read through the contents. Slowly, as she read, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped, and the scroll re-rolled and was tucked unceremoniously into Celestia’s mane. “I apologize for the inconvenience, my little pony, but an urgent matter has just been brought to my attention that I cannot ignore. If you would like, please dictate your issue to my aide and she will have it brought to me. Raven, please cancel court for the day, and have a consignment of guards ready at the front gates in ten minutes.”
Raven nodded, stepping to one side as Celestia hurried past her gracefully and out of the room through the side door that Raven herself had only just entered through.
Celestia’s pace quickened to a hastened trot, a pace to match her rushing thoughts. Soon enough she slammed open the door to her sister’s suite, jostling the lunar diarch from where she sat with a book in her hooves, a coffee table before her covered in tomes and scrolls haphazardly strewn about.
“Sister, what is the meaning of this? A powerful nightmare managed to elude me last night and I’m trying to figure out why I could not get into it, I do not have time for-”
Celestia didn’t respond, merely fishing the scroll from her mane and thrusting it under Luna’s nose. “Read, now.”
Luna blinked in confusion before taking the scroll and unrolling it to read. “Ah, a message from that project within CL0PTech, Model Slip, I see; it’s been a whi-“ Her voice cut off as she read through the letter, and her breathing audibly hitched when she reached the part that had most worried her sister. “S-sister is this… is this true?”
“I see no reason to disbelieve Model Slip, Luna; you know as well as I do that he would not lie on such a grand scale; he has even gotten Phony Paige involved. I do not doubt at all the veracity of this.”
Luna nodded, rolling up the scroll and tapping it to her forehead. “This… this opens up implications that I do not wish to fathom, sister. Can you imagine what the Hives will say? They could take this as an act of open hostility!” She shuddered before shaking her head. “I will have the guard searched for those who might have known Echo Point; while I am familiar with every guard in the Night Guard, I do not know them all personally.”
Celestia nodded. “I am about to lead some guards to the residence in question; are you able to manage the castle in my absence?”
Luna nodded, staring at the scroll in her magic distantly. “Yes, of course, be safe, sister.”
Celestia nodded and, after giving Luna an embrace, strolled out of the room.
*
Ponies had watched Princess Celestia and her entourage of guards as they strolled purposefully through the streets, coming to a halt out front a house that looked not dissimilar to every other house on its street. With a wave of her wing, Celestia’s guards stormed the premises, slamming the front door off of its hinges with surprising ease and moving through the house.
Eventually one returned with his ears pinned to his scalp. “Princess, the house is… empty.” He said.
“There is nopony here?” She asked worriedly, “Did we get the wrong address..?”
“No, princess,” the guard replied, “the individuals we are looking for are inside.”
Celestia stared at him for a moment before her ears, too, met her scalp. “Oh, I see.” She muttered, before stepping forward, “I am entering the premises, I… I must see this for myself; I can only imagine how bad it must…”
It was as grim a sight as Celestia thought it might be. A thestral stallion lay in the lounge, the first room in the house, sprawled across the floor. Even from the door she could see the numerous injuries that he had sustained. His armour, still on his body, was broken and dented. Dried blood streaked down his muzzle from his nose and all across the rest of his face, as unrecognizable as it was. He looked like he’d been the focal point of a yak herd tantrum.
This stallion had been the victim of a prolonged and vicious attack, and had paid the ultimate price for it.
The room was in utter disarray; furniture was upturned and broken, walls had holes smashed into them, and a large scorch mark showed where a fire had been deliberately lit but failed to take hold of the building. With a sigh she continued farther into the house, to where another guard stood watch outside of a room.
“How bad is it, corporal?”
The mare sighed and shook her head.
Celestia nodded and entered the room, magically sealing her senses from the taste and smell of death that permeated the air. Slowly, carefully, she stepped through the master bedroom and sat alongside the bed, gazing sadly at the queen that lay still upon it.
She sat in mournful silence for a few moments, head bowed in respect for the individuals that had been brutally murdered in their own house. With a sigh she gazed across the body of the changeling on the bed, stopping only at her head, where her pillow was oddly ruffled. Her magic reached below and carefully recovered the diary that lay hidden beneath.
She opened it to the last entry and read, interrupted when a sergeant stepped into the room.
“Grisly business, your highness; a guard battered to death in his own home, and a dead changeling queen in his bed. I can only imagine what went on here.”
“’A stallion in the trade market removed our disguises with a disruption rune today, and we barely made it home. A magical blast from our pursuers has hit me, piercing deep into my body, and I can feel myself bleeding out. My husband has made attempts to stem the flow, but I can already feel it’s not going to be enough. He’s sent our daughter to the castle to fetch the princesses, and I hope she is safe.’” Celestia read out loud to him, her eyes snapping up to his to see his discomfort, “There is more, ‘my wife has died, and as she loved to record her history, I feel it remiss to not include her final words;’”
The sergeant sighed, “What are they?”
“’I’m scared... I don’t want to…’.” She quoted, “It is signed ‘Echo Point’.”
He nodded, “I see.” He muttered, before looking across the changeling on the bed as Celestia flipped back through the book. “Princess, we know nothing about a Silver hive; the Orange and Violet hives have non-aggression pacts with us, the Teal hive is rogue, as we know, but we have never encountered Silver changelings.”
Celestia stopped at a passage in the book and read through it, “’I am the last of my hive, the last Silver queen; Chrysalis, that murderous bitch, attacked us during the night and murdered every royal she could find, commandeering our drones for her own bloated forces and killing those who would not follow her. I have travelled east from our now empty home on the coast to Canterlot. I only hope I can find work here before starvation claims me, and my hive is lost to the ravages of time.’” She read out, anger entering her voice, “From what I can recall, Sergeant, the Changelings that attacked Canterlot have committed this act of wanton genocide on multiple hives, if what Queen Peanut told us during negotiations is true. This… Silver hive is but the latest victim in a long line.”
“Princess,” a corporal called from the hallway, “you are needed out front the premises; there is a situation that requires your attention.”
With a sad sigh and a final glance at the corpse on the bed, Celestia slid the diary into her mane and moved back through the house, finally emerging back into the street. Where before the street had been bare, now there was a throng of ponies all milling about. They bowed respectfully to her as she approached.
“What is going on here?” she asked, turning to the corporal that had come to fetch her.
“These ponies came asking if we were investigating the family that lived here.” He replied.
Nodding, Celestia turned her attention back on the crowd, “We are investigating their deaths and situation concerning their filly, yes; would you happen to know anything, my little ponies?”
The stallion at the front, who Celestia now noticed had a black eye and bruised jawline, nodded, “We discovered that the traitor who lived here was harbouring a Changeling queen, and we dealt with him accordingly.”
“I see,” Celestia said, her voice flat and neutral, “and who was it that shot the queen?”
A shaky hoof rose amongst the crowd, and Celestia nodded to the corporal beside her.
“Arrest that stallion.” She ordered, not moving an inch as the corporal rushed to do her command and restrained him. Her eyes narrowed as she surveyed the crowd, now noticing bruises, black eyes, and limps amongst them, “And who amongst you took it upon yourselves to ‘deal’ with the stallion that lived here?” She asked with fire in her tone and her mane moving in a far less serene manner than usual. When nopony lifted their hoof, she growled menacingly, “My little ponies, it is simple. You either come forward to reveal yourselves, or I arrest all of you and have my guard figure it out over the next few days while you languish in the dungeons;” She snarled, “Now, I will ask again: Who amongst you took it upon themselves to beat a stallion to death in his own home?”
“Thirty five ponies,” Celestia sighed, sat next to her sister in her private suite, sipping at tea in a mug large enough to be easily called a stein in her magic, “Eight of whom were royal guards off duty, and another three who have since been found in the Celestial Canterlot Hospital suffering from serious injuries. I find it hard to fathom that they thought they were in the right. Murder of a husband and wife, one the second to last of her hive and the other a member of a vulnerably endangered species; it’s not something that I ever imagined Equestria would be responsible for.”
“By the reports from the interrogations, sister, Echo Point managed to hold them off for half an hour before their numbers managed to overwhelm him.” Luna said, lowering the mound of paper that she held in her magic, “Despite how horrid the circumstances are, that is something that should be commended.”
Celestia nodded grimly, “He fought tooth and hoof, like any husband and father would. Captain Starhammer has posthumously promoted him to captain.”
An appreciative hum rumbled from the younger diarch, “And what of the foal, and CL0PTech?” Luna asked.
“I ventured to the facility myself whilst you were busy with the nobles, and though I have not talked with the foal, as she was asleep at the time, I cast the strongest pain-killing and healing spells I know on her before leaving her in the capable hooves of Model Slip and his handler. I have already seen fit to punish those responsible for her maiming and that were hiding her from us.” Celestia replied tersely, “And the guards who broke her wing and nearly paralyzed her with a spear to the back of her neck before hoofing her to CL0PTech without report have been dishonourably discharged and imprisoned. Two further guards were arrested attempting to take the foal ‘into custody’ from CL0PTech under my orders only to admit that they were going to sell her to the highest bidder. Missives to Queens Peanut and Crawli have been sent; I do not expect them to let this slide, Luna. This is a disaster.”
Luna nodded stiffly, placing the stack of paper she held on her sister’s coffee table. “At least now I know why I could not access those nightmares I found last night;” she sighed, “a queen’s mind is a powerful thing, even one as young which CL0PTech hold; her unconscious mental blockades alone are formidable, though not especially so knowing what she is now. Whatever happened to that last pair?”
“Currently one is in traction with two broken legs and multiple other injuries, and the other is under medical watch for blunt force trauma; Model Slip was… quite forceful in keeping them from her. If you feel you need to oversee things involving this queen, sister, feel free; I do remember how much you like to personally manage matters relating to foals.”
Luna huffed; “I suppose I should,” She mumbled, “I already have primary reign over her carer, Model Slip, I suppose I might as well oversee her future personally…” She sighed and rose to her hooves, “I will arrange a state funeral for them… first, however, there is some business I must attend to; if you’ll excuse me, sister.”
Celestia nodded, waving a hoof to her sister as she sipped her tea. “Of course, Luna; if I don't see you sooner, we shall meet up at dinner.”
*
With heavy hooves, Luna entered the lunar guard barracks, waving off the guards at the door with her wing dismissively. They were as she knew her nocturnal guardians would be, sleeping in their bunks restfully. At least, those who weren’t at home with their family; those mares and stallions were allowed their home life when off duty, their bunk reserved should they need it. That one of these bunks would remain empty for the foreseeable future made her teeth grit angrily, though her temper was muted somewhat by one particular mare she could see sleeping as messily as possible –spread out across the bed with her wings splayed out, blanket tangled around her stomach and flanks, snoring unabashedly.
She was certain she saw a window rattle with one particularly loud snore.
The lunar diarch cleared her throat, stamped a hoof upon the floor, and belted out a hurricane of a command that did shake the windows and nearly blew the nearest beds over; “Lunar guard, to attention!”
While the Royal Canterlot Voice had fallen far out of use, Luna’s had not yet become weakened from disuse, and the guardsponies jolted out of bed as if electrocuted, stumbling to the ground to evade their princess’s possible wrath. Wary eyes peeped over the bunks at her for a few moments before she cleared her throat, expression stony and expectant. Hurriedly, the ponies in the hall moved to the foot of their respective bed and stood proud before her.
She eyed them sternly for a moment before sighing; “We are here on matter most dire, this day; no time for jovialities, I’m afraid, and none of you will be getting any sleep until I get the answers I want.” She shifted uncomfortably in place before continuing, “This morning, one of our own was beaten to death in his own home;” she held up a hoof to stem the gasps and growing outrage amongst the ponies present, “to make matters worse, those apprehended for this outrage admitted to having been let into the house by another night guard.” Her eyes flashed angrily, and the ponies before her gaped at her. “So I shall make it simple, my little ponies; either the guilty party comes forth to face justice for his crime, justice for allowing one of his own be beaten to death, or none of you sleep until I get my stallion.”
“What could possibly have been cause enough to…?” One mare mumbled slack-jawed.
“Protecting his family,” Luna stated bluntly. “He died to save his kin, one of whom has been severely injured as a result.”
“Echo married that-” a stallion near the far end of the hall blurted before falling silent.
Luna was in front of him in an instant.
“Name and rank, stallion,” Luna demanded.
“C-corporal Dark Wing, your highness,” he stammered.
“Corporal, while your curiosity about your fellow guards’ family life is none of your business, I find myself curious;” her eyes, now stony and hiding barely controlled fury, “I don’t recall announcing the identity of your fallen comrade, or the specific relation of those that he was protecting. It could have been any of your fellow guards, any of their families, so tell us, for we’re keen to know; how do you know it was Echo Point?”
“I-I… He… you…”
Luna all but snarled as she bore down upon him, “It’s simple, Corporal, tell me before I simply pull it from your head.”
The stallion cowered for a moment before shouting up at her, “He was guarding a changeling! A changeling he called his wife! What do you want, these monsters to run rampant through our streets unchecked?! She’d corrupted his moon-blessed mind to force him to love her, he even assaulted civilians!”
“He defended his home and family, Dark Wing!” The loud-snoring mare shouted at him.
“A home and family in magic only, Chestnut!”
Luna’s wings fanned wide and her magic pulsed through the room, silencing the arguing ponies. “Any mind control magic that had been upon him would have faded the moment her injuries became life-threatening, it is too taxing on a body desperate to recover to keep such sorcery going when that energy could be used for self-preservation.” She snapped before huffing down at Dark Wing angrily, “He fought almost three dozen ponies to the death after her passing; we know, we have his last written words written in her memoirs, the dying words of his wife.
“He was stark-raving sane when he fought back, Corporal.” She hissed, “Pity he had to know betrayal as well as heartbreak in his last moments.”
Magic surrounded the corporal, and he was lifted effortlessly to bob along behind the princess, “The Solar Guard shall deal with you.” She snapped before throwing him, unceremoniously, out into the hall. “Guards, detain that stallion, he is wanted for court marshal.” She waited a moment for the ponies outside the door to grab the dazed stallion before closing the door and sighing.
“Princess, are you alright..?” Chestnut asked worriedly, her ears drooping sympathetically.
Luna shook her head, “No, my dear, I am not. This, of everything that must take place now, is the easy part.” She said in a breath, “I shall need two guards, polished and ready, this afternoon. Volunteers, please; this shall not be a pleasant task that I ask of you to accompany me for.”
“What task, highness?”
She breathed a shuddered breath before clearing her throat, “I… I must award our highest accolade, yet the most dreaded of them all, the posthumous Moonlit Spear,” she said, to which the gathered ponies flinched, “and arrange a state funeral for the deceased couple. I want you all present for that, though I doubt I could keep you away. Now: volunteers?”
Everypony stepped forward.
Sitting in one of her more lavish meeting rooms, Celestia sipped at a cup of tea to hide her nerves as she stewed in the furious glares of the mares she had summoned. The conversation this last hour had not been fun, and she needed desperately to recoup her frayed patience to keep going. Guards around the room, her own guards, had been shuffling ashamedly at the admittances that Celestia had aired.
Somepony who was basically a VIP had died on their watch, betrayed by some of their own. Shame was the lightest word for what they felt.
Crawli, the orange-shelled changeling queen, inhaled sharply, “And now you see why we were so reluctant to come forth and reveal ourselves to your ponies in any sense, princess. You cannot even guarantee the safety of your own civilians; how are we to entrust you with the safety of our changelings?”
Any rebuttal that Celestia would speak was cut off by the door to the room slamming open as her sister stormed in, a haunted look about her eyes as she closed the door with as much force as she had opened it before moving through the room and raiding a liquor cabinet in a far corner. She took a long, long draught before heaving a sigh.
“Ah, the other sister deigns to bless us with her presence now that she is not busy with pointless frivolities; perhaps she will have answers for-”
Luna’s glare cut Crawli off, making her cringe in her seat like a foal being scolded. Her lips pulled back in a growl before she took another swig of her bottle. “I have been busy, Queen Crawli; foals do not visit themselves with news that will scar them for the rest of their lives, or present themselves a medal for the simple fact that their parents will never come home.” She huffed and looked away, letting the beleaguered queen relax somewhat, “We have received already the words that haunt us for this tragedy.”
“If I might, Princess Luna, what might they have been?” the violet queen, Peanut, asked with morbid curiosity.
Luna paused, bottle nearly to her lips, and stared into the middle distance with a gaunt, haunted expression before replying, “’I don’t want a medal, I want my daddy.’.” She ignored the guards who shuddered, heads turned away.
Queen Peanut sighed, “I see,” she muttered, “And where is the foal currently?”
“Currently she is being kept in CL0PTech’s Research and Development division, sub-basement twenty one, under the watchful eye and care of Doctor Sewn Breath and one of our more… unusual citizens, Model Slip.” Celestia said calmly. “We’ve already had one of our most skilled magical and surgical healers tend to her.”
“She will receive whatever support Equestria can give her; no expense spared, we owe her that much.” Luna added as she stared out a window overlooking Canterlot itself. She shook her head sadly, “No, we owe her much more than that. This blunder is inexcusable, unconscionable; we will make announcements tomorrow. This… witch hunt has gone on long enough. That our ponies still hold enough fear toward your kind is most unsettling. Not even the gryphons met such hostility.”
“Your ponies are afraid of that which they do not understand; a reasonable fear,” Peanut stated in a tone attempting to be diplomatic and failing, “however they have let that fear get the better of them, and must be taught the errors of their ways. Our changelings are not safe on Canterlot’s streets, this has shown us.”
“What are you suggesting, Peanut, that we either go back into hiding or simply allow these ponies to cut us up and examine us?!”
Peanut shook her head viciously, “Nothing of the sort, Crawli; don’t go putting words in my mouth if you’re going to make them so vile.” She huffed in reply. “No, what I am suggesting is that we allow this… CL0PTech to study some of our drones and royals in an open and safe environment; let them get the information they need to ensure that ponies won’t go hunting us in the streets. Let them learn so that they won’t be so afraid of what goes bump in the night.” She smiled to Luna sadly, “No offence, Princess.”
Luna’s head shook before she took another swig, “None taken.” She said. “I’m not even sure I am allowed to feel offence after today…”
“Enough of this self-flagellation, Princess,” Peanut said firmly, “mistakes have been made, but now we have a chance to learn from them and grow closer as friends and allies as a result. A silver lining, no matter how dark the cloud, is still something positive to cling to.”
“On our side, we shall organize a small envoy of changelings to send here for your study, while you organize a place in which they can both feel safe and be observed,” Crawli said, “We, also, shall organize a time and date for us to meet the foal you have in protective custody. I, for one, would certainly like to talk with her. We cannot replace the family she has lost, but perhaps we can become her friends and allies at the very least.”
Celestia nodded, “Of course, your highnesses.”
Peanut smiled a little and levitated her own cup to her lips, “For now, I suggest we enjoy the hospitality that our hosts have so graciously offered us, Crawli. Why, I think I can see those chocolate crème biscuits you like so much…”
Her interest piqued, the orange-shelled queen’s attention turned to the platter and she plucked a biscuit from the carefully arranged assortment, all but shoving it into her mouth before chewing and deflating with a sigh, her aggression mollified. Celestia chortled amusedly.
“If you like them that much, Queen Crawli, I’m certain we could arrange something.”
“Like a trade deal?” Crawli asked warily, “What would we even offer Equestria?”
Celestia leaned forward eagerly, a knowing smile on her face, “And that, my dear, is where negotiations come in.”
*
Down deep within CL0PTech’s depths, buried beneath the earth of Canter Mountain, a lone changeling hugged closer to the cold metallic body of her guardian, who hugged back as best he could.
He nuzzled into her shaven mane as they lay together on a couch. “It’s alright, Miss Canvas, you can sleep.” He said, his voice vibrating in a curious manner.
The filly nodded a little, eyes closed and her weight resting against him. She flinched a little as a new wave of pain lanced through her from her amputated leg, but she did seem to be attempting to sleep.
“Is your voice module giving you trouble again, Model? Do you want me to look at it?” a red coated unicorn mare asked softly from nearby, pouring some coffee into a mug. She flipped her purple mane from her face before walking over, “If it fails again we’ll have to see about replacing it, it’s too much hassle to keep repairing a faulty unit.”
He shrugged for what he could, sighing softly, “Perhaps,” he buzzed, “for now, Breath, it’s not the most important thing in the room;” he again nuzzled into the changeling’s short mane, smiling as she drifted off into an uneasy sleep, “there we go, there’s the rest she needs. After everything that has happened to her these last two days, it’s nice to see her sleeping peacefully.”
With a wistful sigh, Breath nodded. “I suppose all we can do is give her the best foalhood we can.” She leaned down and softly nuzzled the foal herself, “Sleep well, Pale Canvas; may Luna keep you safe from the horrors of your own mind.”
Model Slip nodded gently, “I find myself looking forward to seeing her future with us, Breath; is that normal?”
She smiled broadly, “Oh yes, Model, that’s quite normal indeed.”
