SEP 16 Saturday.

POV Cadance.

I comb out my mane while slowly humming a quiet tune and going through some notes I made last night. I really got worked up, again.

I ignore Shining as he slowly gets out of bed, he casts a spell to check the time before bolting up and quickly getting his armor on. I giggle a bit but leave him be, he's late enough as it is, that may be my fault though as I decided to let him sleep in after last night. He moves over to peck me on the cheek quickly. "Love you."

I smile down at him. "Love you too my knight." I watch him walk away with a slight limp and flip another page. These plans are a bit much, I find that sometimes I can be overzealous when it comes to things like this. I do enjoy making theories and helping ponies get closer, but at times I make some plans that are better left unused.

I look over some of the rough plans I made last night and scratch a few of them out, some are simply not very well thought out. I flip to another page and look over a list of names, I've been trying to find their little getaway for a while now, but Aunty was right in wishing me luck.

Shade is better hidden than I thought he would be, although I really should have seen it coming from him. I am mostly looking out of curiosity, and I have no intention of ruining such a place for either of them. If nothing else because they both seem to care a great deal about it and Aunty smiles so much when she comes back from there.

I'm not entirely sure how to approach this or accomplish that though, it really depends on where they go. If it's a small town or city then Aunty would be under a disguise and I'd have to do the same, but if it's more isolated I could be more overt about things.

My goal is still the same, I want them to get closer. They are good for each other but no matter how much I want to just shout at them to kiss, this needs a delicate touch. I need information about how they interact, and another part of me really wants to know where they slink off to.

A small part of me also has my pride on the line, Shade challenged me to find this place and I know he will hold that over me if I fail, and we can't have that. I chuckle a bit and scratch out another far too-extreme idea from my book. This one is just ridiculous, how would I even get them to dance again so soon? Shade maybe, but Aunty would see right through it.

To be fair to myself I've already gotten a large step forward by just getting Shade to think about it, which will have to be enough for now. I nod and close the book before putting it away. Love much like wine takes time, in all its forms its best I let this ferment for a while longer.

I stand up and head towards the doors of my personal chambers. Enough of feeling silly over my excited ideas, I have work to do.

POV shift Shade

I move a few notes to the side and start to categorize them, something I started doing last night.

After the testing and all the talking, I spent last night feeding Entropy and myself some food that was brought to my room, and going through all my notes. I've learned a few interesting things about Changelings and a few things that I could leverage to our advantage.

First and foremost is the fact we seemingly made an amazing food source that is incredibly easy to gather in large amounts. The gems are a slight problem, but for something so important it will need a lot of protections and failsafe's. I sit there for a while before checking the time, I stretch after half finishing my notes and pack everything away in my saddlebags.

I have a meeting to get to after all. I stand up and whistle to Entropy as she sleeps splayed out on the bed. "You can sleep in my Shadow Girl, but I need to go." She turns her head to me and slips into a shadow without even standing up. I laugh at her laziness and move towards the door.

Once I'm out of the room I turn to the guard that I sensed standing outside my room for the last few hours, "I'm ready." I say bluntly and the mare nods before turning to lead me. Last night I got a note from Celestia with dinner saying she'd be busy this morning so we'd meet a bit later in the day.

So a guard brought me breakfast and said they would be waiting until it was time to meet, I feel a little bad they stood guard for three hours but it can't be helped. I really should learn the layout of the palace more, maybe she has a map? Actually no, I really hope she doesn't, that would be one hell of a security risk and a bad trope.

After a few minutes of walking, with me paying more attention to my surroundings than normal I'm led to Celestia's bedroom doors. It's a bit odd being left here of all places, but her room always has a nice feel to it so I'm not complaining. I swear one of the guards gives me a smirk as I approach, but it is gone before I get close to them.

I just hold in my emotions and open the door before quickly closing it behind me. I sigh and close my eyes for a moment, "I assume the tests had some complications with a reaction like that? Well, not everything can be so smooth. Good morning, I hope you slept well." I open my eyes and turn to Celestia as she lies on her bed reading some ever-present paperwork with a calm smile.

I chuckle a bit and shake my head before moving a bit closer to her, I lay down on the floor and look up at her. "Actually no, the tests went better than predicted, far better. Here, more work for you." I smirk as she takes a stack of papers I pass to her. It has all the things we learned last night and all the information for the Love Gatherer.

She looks torn between curiosity and slight disdain at the idea of more work. "I got some free time and decided to spend it with a friend, of course they bring more work." She says without any real heat. She does skim through the pages a bit before putting them to the side. "Meticulous as always, congrats on the success. So, what is actually bothering you?" She asks in a relaxed tone while shifting from the bed to join me on the floor.

I notice the signs of her trying to be comforting and understanding and wave her off. "Nothing really, I'm just tired of the staff staring, that dance is looking less and less worth it." I joke but keep a relaxed smile on my face. "Either way, we have a lot to talk about and my feelings aren't high on that list." I use a slightly more serious tone to get us on track.

She looks amused while bringing a tea set to the floor with us, seemingly happy to relax with me on the carpeted floor. "They will stop eventually, ironically enough you'll get fewer stares if you are around more often." I'm not sure if I agree, but she's the expert. "I suppose we do, but first I have an important question." I decided to take the tea set from her and make our tea for this meeting.

She sees my actions and lets me take the set, I perk up my ears to listen while continuing my small task. "I know you can help in this situation, that much is obvious. So, I want you to keep in mind my question while I explain what's been happening and give me an answer when I'm done." Her tone is more firm than before, demanding attention.

I look back up to her with my full attention. "How involved do you want to be in this? This will be messy and complicated, so you will likely need to decide how much you wish to be involved in everything before it truly starts." She takes a cup of tea I poured as I think about her words.

I take a sip of tea. "To what degree? Say I decide to get fully involved? Would I have some responsibility to see it though? Can it be changed at some point?" I'm willing to get my hooves very dirty, but if I have expectations of me that will change my diction. "Is the situation really that involved already?" I added after a moment.

She smiles at me with a tilt of her head. "I'm happy to have you step back whenever needed, we have the luxury of other ponies being able to fill any role you take or even a team. I will admit this is very important though, so I think you would at least have to see it through in some role to the end, even if your role changes." Her tone is relaxed but holds an undeniable authority to it.

I lapse into silence while scratching my chin with a hoof. I don't think I fear responsibility all that much, maybe those diplomatic meetings have done me some good on that front. I do worry about my actions though, protecting certain parts of the timeline might seem odd to others.

Then again, this entire event is going to happen with or without me and will affect many MANY things. But I knew that was a possibility a long time ago, the same time I revealed Changelings to Celestia. With all that said, I think it's best if I get really involved in this.

That way I at least have some form of control over everything and can try to protect a few very specific things if they come up, I doubt they will though. I drink some more tea as Entropy leaves Celestia's shadow and sits on top of her head. "Hello sleepy head, found a nice place to sit?" I ask a bit amused and Celestia looks up as Entropy leans on Celestia's horn.

Entropy bobs her head happily. "Yes, comfy. Dress?" She asks and I roll my eyes a bit before passing the small band to her, she's already showing it off to others as an excited filly. "Dress!" She caws happily and takes it from me as I hold it in front of her with space magic.

Celestia giggles a bit at her antics and picks Entropy up in her magic before placing Entropy in between her forehooves. "Oh? You have a dress?" She asks and Entropy hops onto her legs away from Celestia before attaching the band to her leg and activating it. Celestia smiles widely at the crow and pets her, "Well now, a beautiful dress indeed." She says thoroughly amused.

Entropy melts into the hoof and I drink some more tea before bringing out my chess set. "I'll keep it in mind. So what is the situation? Last I heard the war was going well for the new queen." I get us back on the topic while picking Entropy up to sit on my head. She raises a brow at that, "What? Do you want her talons scratching your horn on accident? Accidents happen."

She does an odd mix of a chuckle and a grimace. "No, I would rather not." She makes the first move of yet another game. "We've learned a lot more about the situation, and it is... An absolute mess that needs to be very delicately dealt with." She frowns a bit, something she doesn't do often.

"The war has gotten more active again. When we started interacting with them more it caused the attention of Queen Chrysalis to be split at a critical time, it gave Cascadia time to recover and regroup." She uses Cascadia's name with clear disdain. That information by itself already shows I may have fucked this up badly.

I've just prolonged a war and it's probably caused a lot of deaths. Celestia notices my mood quickly and gives me a reassuring smile, "This is not your fault." She states, and I open my muzzle to argue she stops me with a hoof. "Shade, this is NOT your fault." Her words hold a wisdom and kind firmness to them.

She lowers her head to look at me on the same level. "Many choices look foolish or regretful in hindsight, I know that all too well, so take my advice." Her tone holds its own regret for a passing moment. "Nopony knows how things will turn out, the future is uncertain, and things could have gone much worse if you did nothing." Her words ring both true and hollow.

For anypony else that would be true, but I know better. Then again do I? There isn't anything saying the wedding would have gone well, but is that better than a literal war? I don't know. I take a deep breath and nod a bit. I'll think about this later when I have some alone time.

She smiles wider and moves her head back to give me space and move another chess piece. "Good, and if you have any doubts, as your friend I expect to be informed. Or you'll quickly find out my Niece is not the only one with access to large amounts of glitter." I chuckle a bit and nod again still silent.

She sips her tea before continuing. "The war is by far our biggest problem, it's now clear that it doesn't have firm sides, and is more a mix across nearly every large city in Equestria. Combine that with the small pockets of hiveless Changelings who could support one side of the other, and it gets complicated." The more I hear the worse it seems, but I keep listening as it's important.

She moves another piece with a focused look. "We've made contact with Queen Chrysalis, only through messengers, but they have proven to be somewhat reasonable. Much more so than the other, who tried to attack our envoy on sight." I see that rare look of anger in her eyes.

She sighs a bit and looks somewhat wary. "Honesty? Dealing with this race has proven very difficult, you'd think the large factions would be less suspicious and more willing to speak, no. In fact, they are so isolated that it took a long time to make any progress at all." She vents a little of her frustration to me.

I have questions but those can wait until she's done. "We have had successes in interacting and allying with small hiveless groups, that too is slow though. They reach your level of paranoia about being found in any way, it seems to be ingrained into who they are culturally."

I nod. "Well, when you are a race evolved to stay unseen it's probably not so easy to change after who knows how long. But the idea of a new food source is a very tempting thing from what I've seen, maybe enough to pull them into the light." I point out the new advantage we have and commit her words to memory. "So what is the actual goal for us?"

She smiles in agreement. "Long-term is integrating them fully, and coexistence with the hives, probably Queen Chrysalis as they have proven able to actually negotiate willingly." I don't trust Chrysalis, at all. But I can agree she seems more reasonable than the other queen. "Short term is to end this war before more are hurt, not a simple task I know."

I saw that coming, but she’s right it's far from an easy goal to achieve. "That is going to be messy, I can't see a peace treaty of any kind working with how hostile one side already is, and backing the other side may just put ponies in the crossfire of the war. To be honest our current situation is a blessing and a curse, it may be a war but it is contained." I offer what little advice I can.

She nods. "Exactly. Both sides know we know about them, any move to support one or the other may result in retaliation. But now we have a less direct path, we have something they want. Trade is much harder to disrupt on a large scale, even during a war."

"This will bring up problems, many problems. But the situation is not good as it is, and it needs to change in some way. So, for now, we're focusing on making more firm contact with Queen Chrysalis, that is our best option." She pauses to let me add my thoughts into the conversation.

I shrug a bit. "Hmm, negotiation is not my specialty. But, I guess you could start collecting love on such a wide scale that it can't really be stopped without them revealing themselves. Let them make the first move? That's still dangerous though and will leave retaliation as a likely possibility." I can't really see her full point here.

She tilts her head and smirks slightly. "Yes, it would be a flimsy shield, but a shield nonetheless. We don't want to reveal their existence yet, not until this war is over, trade is the only advantage we have as it is. Even if there is retaliation it will take time and effort, effort they can't spare easily."

She looks more, resigned. "We could use that time to win over the Hiveless Changelings and hopefully make a deal with Queen Chrysalis. Retaliation is very likely though, we may even get involved in this war fully, as loathe as I am to consider that." I really thought she'd try something less confrontational or more neutral.

I raise a brow realizing I'm missing something. I see a mix of sadness and anger in her eyes, "I'm sure you remember when we first met Miss. Cricket, yes?" I nod. "I did not want to bring it up at the time, and I hope you can forgive me for leaving you a bit in the dark." She lowers her head a bit and my stomach drops a bit.

She takes a breath and shows a profound sadness, almost defeated in a way. "The final option for feeding Changelings, you do you remember it?" I slowly nod again but stop halfway. "Yes, ponies have been, taken." My brows tighten up. :No, OH FUCK NO!: I feel my anger rise but crush it down to prevent an outburst, she doesn't need that right now.

I stand up and ignore everything else to give her a quick hug. She smiles a bit at that and lets me do so before pulling away and sitting down again. "How many, and how long?" I ask with a quiet fury to my tone. I may not know these ponies, but to take somepony from their home when there are other options? Despicable.

She nods again. "Thank you, Shade. For a long time, before you even found them we noticed ponies going missing. Never very many, but still, it's why it took so long to really notice. And, it's still happening." I again see that small spark of anger, the look that reminds me just how scary she can be.

I sigh and move a piece, losing the game. "Do you know for sure if both sides are doing it? Or just one?" I use a much more sober tone.

She frowns. "Yes and no. Some we have confirmed to be Cascadia from the Changelings you captured, but it's no guarantee the other hasn't as well. We are still looking though, I can promise you that. For now, though, it seems less likely Queen Chrysalis would do something like that with them willingly interacting with us and actively winning this war."

"Not without some extreme arrogance or foolishness at least. We have no guarantee, but no evidence to say they are doing it." She seems just as uncertain and angry as me though.

I drain my tea and pour more. "Then we're facing active aggression, that can't stand, the longer it does the more likely it is that they try something worse." I pull out some paper. "The status quo is not viable, we need to change things and end this quickly. Which means, war." I say with a somber look.

She stays silent for a long moment. "Maybe, but peace is not impossible. And direct war is an absolute last resort, it would be happening inside our cities and homes, it would be from within." She looks, resigned. "But that is an extreme best discussed later, we need more information and we haven't even started fully talking to Queen Chrysalis, and that comes first."

I nod and pass over a few short notes, she raises a brow. "You're right, we don't have enough information and the situation is actively dangerous. We are in the middle of this mess. It's time to plan, and that is something I might be able to help with." The paper I passed has a few simple ideas and thoughts on the information.

Celestia smiles at me in an almost sad way. "Yes, that seems best... Thank you again, Shade, for listening." The mood is a bit higher and I smile up at her. This is probably something that's been stressing and worrying her, not that she'd let others see that.

"No problem, the situation is a mess but we will get through it all. War never changes, but it always ends." I add some philosophy to up the mood. She raises a brow against my foreign saying but nods with a small smile.

"Maybe so, but it always comes again. Remember my question, we still have some time so think about it thoroughly. Now, let’s see what madness you've come up with." She takes a lighter tone and the mood relaxes again. I sip some tea while staring at the chess board, yet another loss.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :D
Current year is 995

Ok first. I realized that I may have shown Cadance being a little too much in the meddling department. Now I wanted to back-peddle that a bit, but I didn't want her to just write it off. So I tried to pass it off as Cadance being excited and a bit, in the mood for Shining.

I think we all have those times when we make a bunch of plans and thoughts for different things, only to look at those plans the next day and question what the fuck we were thinking. I'm not sure I passed it off like that, but I tried.

I tried to show that the Changeling situation is a fucking mess. Equestria is in a difficult position and while it could win a war, the cost would be very close to home. And let's not forget that Changelings would be great at guerrilla warfare.

I'm starting to realize I signed myself up to write a war, fuck. Welp, like all things I'll just write and see where that gets me. Welcome to the fantasy pony Vietnam arc. JK

Also, I'm on the fence about containing this in another chapter, we are three deep already, tell me what you think if you're willing.