Dawn's new day.

As Celestia ran through the halls towards Dawn’s room all of the guards along the way began to panic. Celestia, guardian of the Sun and Moon, Princess of Equestria never ran, power trot sure, but never run, unless it was an emergency.

“Princess is everything alright?” One guard finally had the courage to ask while running along side her.

“Fine. Now, I need to speak with my student. So you’re dismissed.” She nearly shouted the order, scaring the guard.

None of them were quite convinced however so continued to stay on high alert.

For the second time in one night my door was flung open and this time I was jolted awake.

“Dawn. Where is she?” I rubbed my eyes as Celestia stared me down from my doorway. I looked over at my nightstand’s clock. Not even thirty minutes.

“Who?” I asked like a child trying to weasel out of being punished. I didn’t know where my confidence came from but was rolling with it.

“Dawn.” She took a few steps forward and practically growled. “I’m not playing young colt. I saw you talking with Feather Duster, who is a changeling, in this very room.”

“Tia, she loves you.” Her angry scowl broke as she noticed how she looked while stomping past my mirror. This isn’t us.Isn’t it?

She took a deep breath. “I know. I’m not mad I just need to talk with her.” Celestia rubbed her muzzle to calm down. She knew her mask was cracking from all her pent up emotions.

“Princess is everything alright?” Twilight showed up after hearing the commotion. She looked a bit frightened with guards running back and forth behind her as if the castle was under attack.

“Ye… no Twilight but I’m working on making things better.” Celestia forced a smile and looked back my way. “Dawn I know what she is and have no intention of harming her. I, I do still care for her. Can you tell me where she is?”

Twilight looks confused while, after a moments hesitation, I give Celestia a nod and light my horn. “I put a tracking mark on her since I didn’t fully trust her. Looks like she’s in the Crystal caves. I’ll come with you.” I hop out of bed.

“No. I must do this alone.” Celestia hardly finished speaking before she lit her horn and teleported out of the room.

“Dawn what’s going on with the princess and why do you have wings!?” Twilight yelled the second part while rushing to my side. I also noticed a few guards were in my room and had seen everything even if they didn’t understand it all. Buck.

Celestia quickly lit her horn when the light from her teleport dissipated into the night. She had arrived at one of the entrances of the crystal caverns and spread her wings to fly the rest of the way.

How could our student track her when these caves block external magic, not even we can scan them from outside let alone teleport into them.Not important right now. Let’s just Find our mare.

Celestia was no athlete but flew as quickly as she could until she eventually reached a wall and had to flare her wings to keep from hitting it. “Is this a house?”

The wall wasn’t made of stone or the surrounding material. It instead looked like the exterior of a modern home complete with front door and windows. The area that made up the front yard was illuminated by the crystal walls pulling in ambient magic.

Under normal circumstances Celestia would have appreciated such beauty.

Well aren’t you going to break in?Perhaps we should just knock.

Imago panicked when she heard a knock on her front door. At first she thought one of the nymphs were playing around but a quick ping on the hive mind told her they were all sleeping peacefully nearby.

When she heard the knocking again she tentatively decided to check. “Um, who is it?” She had donned her generic earth pony persona of a gem collector. When there was no answer but another knock she slowly opened the door and her jaw hit the floor. “Pri~princess celestia what an unbelievable surprise. What can I, Gem Cutter, do for you?”

It wasn’t her best disguise but she hoped the fake paperwork of cave ownership sitting in her kitchen was enough.

“Feather, or whatever your real name is, you can drop the act. I learned everything while scrying on Dawn. Just so you don’t think he told me.” Celestia spoke as calmly as she could.

Imago bowed her head and undid her disguise. “Princess I really didn’t want you to find out this way.” She began to cry as she knew it was over. “I know ponies fear us but…” Imago was surprised to find herself pulled into a hug instead of blasted on the spot. Her chest is so fluffy.

“How about we start with names. I’m Celestia, Princess of Equestria. What’s yours?” Celestia looked at the few creatures, outside of dragons, that could match her in hight.

“Imago.” Imago sniffed. “Princess of the Canterlot hive and hopefully still the mare friend of Princess Celestia.” She gave a fang filled smile as her chitin glistened in the crystal light. It’s nice to finally not have to look down on somepony.Her fangs are quite attractive.

“Well Imago. Can I come in?” Celestia smiled as she was led inside. The two had a lot to talk about tonight.

“What do you mean you don’t know where the Princess is?” I was currently being interrogated like a criminal by one of the unicorn night guards and I was getting sick of it.

“ I told you I don’t know! ” I flared my wings and a few of the guards took a step back from the young alicorn yelling at them. Twilight had moved behind me and was tearing up from all the confusion.

“What’s going on here?” Cadence’s voice cut through the chatter easily as she stepped into the room then she spotted me, no longer hiding my wings. “Dawn why don’t you start.”

“But princess.” The night guard started but was cut off by a flourish of her wing.

“Prince Dawn will speak first.” I cringed a bit when Cadence doubled down on what everypony could already see.

I took a deep breath and began explaining without giving too much away. “Celestia…”

“Princess Celestia.” The guard interrupted but quickly shut his mouth when Cadence and I shot him a look.

“Celestia.” I pointedly started. “Found out some disturbing news regarding her mare friend and needed to find her quickly. I was the last to see Feather so she asked me if I knew where she might be. Once I told her Celestia teleported off to go find her.”

“So it’s a matter of love and not a national emergency?” Cadence sighed in relief as did most of the guard.

“Probably. I mean no one would want to see the princess with a broken heart.” I shrugged. Or a changeling invasion this early.

“Very true but.” She turned to the growing crowd. “Guards let everypony know it was just a personal matter and not an attack.”

“Mam what about..?” A guard motioned in my general direction.

“Yes, well, this news wasn’t supposed to come out quite yet so please keep it quiet as best you can.” The guards gave their acknowledgments and dispersed. Cadence then lowered herself onto her stomach and looked at Twilight. “Are you ok Twilie? It looks like there’s been a lot of excitement tonight.”

Tell me about it. Fun, right?

Twilight nodded and mumbled the word alicorn a few times.

Cadence just nodded back. “I’m sure Dawn will explain in the morning. Come along.”

Once again I was alone after Cadence led Twilight back to her own room. Before I got comfortable however I put a shield spell on my door and disabled the scrying spells I hadn’t know about before. I didn’t even bother hiding my wings as I lay back down on the bed.

Celestia nuzzled up close with Imago on her couch. The two had been talking well into the night and it was almost time for Celestia to raise the sun. “Have you really been living in Canterlot that long?”

Imago nodded and blushed. “It hasn’t been easy, your ponies have almost caught on a few times.”

“I almost wish I had known sooner. It is nice being able to talk to another pony, excuse me, creature, who has actually lived through so much history.” Celestia hummed. Their talk had been going decent so far, after a rocky start and some angry kissing in the middle the two had decided to continue dating.

“You can stick with pony, changeling or ‘ling’ is technically the most accurate but we are still equines, even if most hives deny, it or you can say ‘somebuggy’ if you want to get casual.” Imago was basking in the love that was being freely exchanged between them even if it was still tainted with a bit of misplaced trust. Trust is something we can work on.

“Imago, I know I already asked this but you truly wish no harm upon my little ponies?” Celestia asked in her professional voice.

“Never. Most hives I knew of work and live alongside ponies. Only a few of the misguided changelings actually want to harm them. I already explained how I left such a hive and came here to start my own.” Imago tapped her forehooves together.

“You did, and regarding that. Was what you told Dawn true?” Celestia lowered her head a bit. “Is Alicia my daughter?”

“In biological and magical terms. Yes. It was our mutual love that made her possible even if I can’t fully explain how. Not even Changelings fully understand our biology.” Imago laughed a bit. “Some hives think we came from a magical tree, others think we came from a fallen alicorn and others think it was from some brave dumb stallion mating with a monster.”

Celestia covered her mouth with a hoof. “Well I would love to meet her.” She then sighed. “I don’t know how my little ponies will react when they find out about you and us.”

Imago flinched. “Celestia we probably shouldn’t tell them. Changelings hide for a reason. While I love you and hold nothing against ponies in general they are not always the most accepting of other creatures.”

Celestia couldn’t deny this fact even with how hard she had been trying. “Very well. However I hope you keep working in the castle and keeping me company and we will need to explain things to my niece and a few others.”

Imago accepted and they decided breakfast at the castle would be a fine place to break the news.