This was the first time Astral Quill had been to the Royal Palace. Despite living in Canterlot his whole life, he’d never particularly had an interest to see the place as he had a good enough view from the upstairs room of his apartment. In any other circumstance he might have been enjoyed the splendour of architecture that was his rulers’ castle, but right now, surrounded by guards and locked in an uncomfortable amount of chains he simply wasn’t in the mood.

“I know this looks bad guys,” said Astral, “But there has to be a reasonable explanation for this.”

“Quiet changeling scum.” growled one of the armoured ponies.

“Really? ‘Quiet scum’ has to be one of the most overused guard terms next to ‘halt’ and ‘seize him’ which have both been used in the last ten minutes,” groused Astral, “Also, not a changeling!”

His bit of cheek earned him a smack on the head.

Instead of going into the palace proper, they headed to a side entrance which seemed to lead down stairs. They entered, and after a few minutes, the atmosphere became increasingly gloomy, the painted walls had stopped a few minutes back and every surface was now an ugly grey colour. The stone passage opened up to a small office, where a desk sat and a guard was sitting there reading a book. He stood up as soon as they walked in and unlocked the gate which, Astral presumed, was where the cells were. It certainly hit him then, that he was in a bad situation. He was being hauled into jail. What would his mother say if she found out about this? He had to be the first pony in years to be thrown into the Canterlot Jail for pony’s sake!

They entered the room where a dozen cells sat next to one another on each side of the wall. A guard pulled Astral off his colleague's back and began to take off all the chains. Astral had been internally panicking so he didn’t hear it when the guard asked him to walk into the cell. And he was abruptly cut from his musings when the guard decided to throw Astral into the cell instead. He landed against the wall, on his back and looked back at the now upside-down guards.

“Hey guys, do you think that maybe we can talk about this?”

The door closed with a metallic clang and the guards left, and with them went the only hope that there was a way out. He stood up and walked to the bars.

“Could I at least have some paper and a pencil?” he called out.

“Shut up in there.” a voice called back.

“GREAT,” exclaimed Astral and banged his head against the bars in frustration, “Ow...”

Astral had been bored out of his mind before, but never had he been bored and scared for his well-being at the same time. It was an odd feeling. In his attempt to make the hours go by a bit faster he had begun to hum some songs he knew, which grew to outright singing until a guard came in to tell him to be quiet. So he just sat there counting water droplets that were falling from a crack in the stone ceiling.

Maybe this was all a prank, he had asked himself as the drops fell. He could imagine it now, in the next Canterlot Weekly ‘CHANGELING PRANKS GONE WRONG. GONE WILD’. He shook his head, that was the stupidest thing he’d heard all week. If it was a prank, they would have stopped it by now. He hoped.

“Three thousand, two hundred and twelve. Three thousand, two hundred and thirteen...”

It was another hour later when someone finally came in to see him.

“Stop counting and stand up straight, the captain is here to see you.”

Astral stood up and peered at the guard curiously, “Why would Captain Armour want to see me?”

The prison guard looked at Astral in confusion before laughing, shaking his head and poking his head out the entrance..

“Just in here sir,” Astral could hear the guard’s voice call out.

The sound of hoofsteps came from the room outside and the Captain of the Royal Guard walked through the doors. In that moment, it all made sense and yet… it didn't. As the captain stepped inside he locked eyes with Astral and frowned slightly. Astral could only gape.

“So you're the one they caught in the market today.” stated the captain.

For the pony standing in front of him, looked exactly like Astral. It was as if he was looking into a parallel universe, one where he'd become a guard instead of a writer. They had the same everything, same face, same colours he wondered if the cutiemark was the same. Though he doubted it, as he was clearly not a writer. But there were some differences, Astral noticed, the guard was obviously fit while Astral was most definitely not. And there were small scratches and scars around the captain’s body which matched the demeanor and way in which he held himself.

Astral had so many questions to ask, but instead of the obvious elephant in the room, he came out with:

“I thought that Shining Armour was the captain?”

Inside, Astral was face-hooving like there was no tomorrow. The captain looked at Astral with a raised eyebrow, “I’d have thought, that you of all creatures would know that Armour has now left and taken the role of Prince for the Crystal Empire.”

Astral stared, “The crystal what now?”

“You are pulling my leg right?” he asked, “It’s been over the papers for days, I was appointed as the new captain just recently. And this is the reason you went with my form, right?”

“No! What? I-” Astral was trying to say too many things at once so stopped for a moment, “Ok, so number one: I’m not a changeling. And number two: Why in the name of everything that is good and holy does the captain of the royal guard look like me?”

“Why do I look like you? That's something I should be asking you, changeling.” the captain smirked, he acted as if this whole event was amusing. Alas, Astral couldn’t follow the sentiment, as this was his neck on the line.

“As I said, most probably amounting to a thousand times, I am not a changeling! I'm a writer! My name is Astral Quill for Celestia's sake, I've written like five novels!”

“Astral Quill? Now that's interesting.” was the response from the Captain.

“Really? That's all you got out of that sentence?”

The guard rapped on the bars with a hoof, “You need to show some respect changeling.”

“Yeah because I should respect the ponies who locked me up for nearly no reason.” Astral growled back.

“Why you snivelling little-”

The two were almost nose to nose when the Captain rolled his eyes and pulled the guard back.

“Calm yourself guard, there’s no reason to be acting unprofessional now is there?”

“Sorry sir.”

The prison guard looked abashed, and Astral felt his exasperation beginning to ebb.

“Can you just let me go? I’d like to get back to my novel.” grumbled Astral.

“Novel? What’s it about?” asked the captain.

Astral cringed for a second, “Aheh changelings.”

The captain laughed, and Astral grumbled some more, feeling embarrassed.

“Alright, we’re not going to let you go just yet. Either you’re a changeling who is very good at acting like an idiot-”

“Hey!”

“-or you are who you say you are, but either way I need to get the Princess to come down and make sure.”

“P-princess Celestia? She's not coming here is she...”

Astral had stiffened up in fright. He loved his ruler, just like everyone else did, but he was also terrified at what would happen if somepony was to get on her bad side. If the Princess believed he was a changeling, he didn't know what she might do. Send him to the moon? Or worse, turn him to dust where he stood. He shuddered at the thought.

“No,” answered the captain, “She's in Manehatten at the moment.”

Astral gave a sigh of relief.

“But Princess Luna is, and I’ll go and get her so sit tight.” he gave a grin before walking out. The prison guard stared daggers at him before following.

Astral had gone rigid again.

Author's Note

Putting Astral into this situation is turning out to be so much fun.
I'm sort of going with the flow here, don't have the story planned, but I have a few ideas of where I want it to go. Stay tuned for more!