In The Doghouse

Swiftly moving through the sky the sky-carriage touched down on the long strip of dirt within the castle walls that served as a runway for creatures of flight and flying vehicles. The two pegasi in front that flew the construction of high quality wood and light metal stopped, digging their armored hooves into the ground and fanning large, white wings out to the side. The carriage jostled and swayed a bit before becoming still. A moment passed and the rectangular door on the side creaked open.

Princess Mi Amore Cadenza stepped out into the strong noon light, a paragon gracing the world with her presence. Lithe, slender legs moved at a rapid pace, her immaculate pink, blue and yellow mane briefly billowing in a soft wind. Her pink fur matched well with the gold of her regalia, four slippers of shining metal and a simple tiara. She was the picture of perfection, if walking a bit hurriedly. One would assume she had just been late for tea if they saw her on the streets.

They couldn’t be more wrong, however. On the inside the alicorn’s mind was a maelstrom of worry and fear, the emotions raging through her body from the tip of her horn and twisting in a macabre dance in her stomach, which at the moment felt like hot lead had settled in the bottom. Four days, four days and no sign of Twilight Sparkle. Her sister-in-law up and disappeared overnight, no sign of a struggle, no evidence of foul play, and just after the changeling invasion. Cadence gave an angry snort. If those parasites had anything to do with Twilight’s absence they would pay dearly.

Across the open courtyard and field of grass Cadence walked to a side entrance stamped against the brilliant white of the castle. Two guards stood at attention on either side, both unicorns, not garbed in golden armor, but in the harsh, grey, enchanted steel that served as protection during times of war or national emergencies. One stepped forward as she approached.

“Milady, we’re required to perform a scan to determine whether you’re a changeling or have recently come in contact with any strange or dangerous magics recently. I hope you understand.” His voice was cold and official.

I don’t have time for this you ass.

“That’s perfectly all right, sir,” the princess spoke with a fake smile, the one reserved for spoilt nobles and brownnosers.

With a nod both sparked their horns with a cheerful red aura, the magic washing over her, snaking into her body and making the mare shiver. The spell was designed to detect any form of magic that one wouldn’t normally find in a pony. It scanned magic both innate and active, giving a profile that could be used to determine anything from species to ancestry. After what happened with the changelings and Twilight, Cadence really couldn’t blame them for the massive increase in security, even if it hindered and angered the princess.

A few seconds passed and both were finished. They gave stiff bows. “You may proceed, Princess.”

Cadence didn’t bother with a reply, just a tiny nod before she walked through the door and into the castle itself. A long hallway, spotless and brilliant from countless scrubbings by lemon-scented cleaning products, stretched s few hundred feet in both directions. The princess turned right, ignoring the bows and greetings of servants. Twists and turns soon lead to a tall oak door, the grains ancient and smooth. Cadence grasped it with telekinesis and opened it.

Inside sat Princess Celestia, a round table in front of her. Two teacups and saucers were laid out, along with a jade teapot, a wisp of steam rising from the spout. A bowl filled to the brim with sugar cubes was between the two cups. Celestia turned and gazed at her niece.

“I take it you received my message, judging from the tension in your shoulders and that scowl on your face. Tell me, did you wear it on the entire walk here?”

Cadence shook her head. “No, I faked a smile the entire time. Now tell me, why haven’t you been interrogating the changeling you found?”

Celestia motioned to the chair opposite from her with a hoof. “Sit down and have a cup of tea, then we’ll talk. Most ponies wouldn’t notice, but you’re tired. You haven’t slept much, have you?”

“No, I haven’t,” Cadence admitted. It was true; the stress of Twilight’s disappearance had stolen sleep from her. She would simply lie in bed, tossing and fidgeting in the sheets or staring at the ceiling, worse-case scenarios running about in her mind. Having a twenty-four hour guard detail assigned to her hotel room hadn’t helped, either.

Reluctantly the mare sat down on the velvet chair, Celestia gently levitating the teapot and pouring a stream of steaming brown liquid into Cadence’s cup. A faint smell of peaches reached her nose.

“How many cubes?”

“Huh?” Cadence asked, looking up from the tea. “Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention. What was it?”

“How many cubes? Of sugar, I mean.”

“Oh. Three, I guess.”

Celestia dropped three of the pure white cubes into the tea and gave it a small swirl with her magic, the sugar crystals dissolving away. She smiled at Cadence. “Three cubes. You usually go for one. You even told me once that you don’t like your food or drink too sweet.”

“Well today’s different. I’m in the mood for change.” Cadence suppressed the urge to shout at the monarch. Celestia was very old and very crafty, and there was always a reason behind her words, even if one would be hard pressed to find it. The chatter could be a way to distract Cadence from her worries. Many a time she had come to Celestia with a problem or question, and the other alicorn had weaseled her way out with words and left Cadence to deal with it herself.

“Change, hmm. There’s been quite a lot of that, recently. Your marriage, for one.”

“And Twilight’s disappearance. Don’t forget about that change.” Cadence almost smiled at the twitch of muscles on her aunt’s face, an almost imperceptible tick that telegraphed when Celestia felt a strong emotion. Equestria’s reigning princess could wear a poker face that most couldn’t read, but Cadence had grown familiar with her mannerisms. She lifted the teacup with her blue magic and took a sip. It was that tea, the one Celestia only broke out during celebrations, or when something serious needed to be discussed. The flavor was fruity, but hard to place, and the pink alicorn had yet to figure out what the tea actually was. It might not even be tea, for all she knew.

A hint of a frown crossed Celestia’s muzzle. “Yes. Not all change is good, I’m afraid. Speaking of change, or in this case, changelings, I want to speak to you about the one we’ve found.”

“I’m half-parts curious and angry over why you told me you haven’t been interrogating the thing. Is it just refusing to speak, or is it something else?”

Celestia gazed out the window to her left, the view of a courtyard and part of Canterlot visible. It always seemed beautiful to her, to see how the city had grown over the past few centuries. Now it was dull and morose, mourning for its savior. She sighed.

“He has spoken, and we’ve learned a few things.” She paused.

“Well? What have you learned?” Cadence asked impatiently, voice laced with irritation.

“His name is 7483B. He was hatched on January seventeenth. He’s eight years old. He likes playing hoofball with his friends 7477C and 7485B. He hopes to be a Praetorian someday, which is their equivalent of our Royal Guard. And he likes chocolate chip cookies.”

Celestia observed the confusion on Cadence’s face as she processed all the information. Cadence mumbled the statements over to herself before giving her aunt an incredulous look.

“That sounds like something a foal would say.”

“Very astute. He is indeed a foal. Or a grub, as the changelings call their young ones. I left him in one of the rooms we use to house foals and gave him some toys. Last I saw of him he was coloring a picture of some trees. He’s quite adept at art, I must say.”

Celestia took a long sip of her tea, eyes closed in enjoyment of the taste. A bit of steam wafted into her nose and she gave an inaudible sigh of pleasure. It was always a joy to drink a nice cup of tea.

Cadence was far from content, however. “So let me get this straight. You managed to capture a changeling, but it happens to be a foal. But does it know anything of importance?”

“Well,” Celestia replied, setting her cup back down onto the saucer, “The changelings were assured of their victory, because they planted various hideouts around Equestria, filled with grubs. They assumed that after they took Canterlot the rest of the nation would fall easily, so they moved the grubs to places where there would be large supplies of food. Ponies, in this case.

“However, Chrysalis lost, so the caretakers up and fled with the grubs, only 7483B was left behind on accident. A bit sad, really.”

“Okay,” Cadence said, “I get why you can’t interrogate the changeling. He’s a foal and we likely won’t get anything useful from him. But why did you send for me specifically? Your message said you wouldn’t question the changeling until I arrived, but that’s a lie, isn’t it? I’m not here to help with the search, I’m not here to comfort my husband, I’m here because of the changeling. So why?”

Celestia paused for a minute or so, gazing idly out the window while Cadence grew even more impatient. Finally the white alicorn turned and gave Cadence a stern, hard look.

“Now you can say no to this request, but I want you to promise that you won’t freak out or become hysterical. Can you do that?” asked Celestia.

Cadence narrowed her eyes. “This isn’t going to be something unreasonable, is it?”

Celestia smiled and shook her head. “Oh, no. It isn’t unreasonable at all.”

“Fine. I promise not to freak out. Now what is it?”

“Nothing much. I just want you to take care of 7483B, teach him about Equestrian society and how pony values. That sort of stuff.”

A silence of genuinely epic proportions filled the room, the kind of silence that nobody would ever want to encounter. Cadence’s left eye twitched and her face went through several contortions that didn’t seem possible. Her cheeks became red and she could hear the pounding of her own heart, beating an angry staccato.

“Now, Cadence, you promised that you wouldn’t freak out, so please, don’t. Besides, unbridled fury is quite unbecoming of a princess. So take another sip of your tea and calm down-’’

Celestia was cut off by Cadence lifting the top from the teapot and, in one fell swoop of magic, creating a funnel that sent all the tea directly into the face of the most powerful being in Equestria. Her pure white coat was stained a light brown, and the steaming liquid dripped off her face and neck, forming a puddle on the floor. Celestia, despite her favorite tea being magicked all over her, retained the same serene, dignified mask she always did. Well, as dignified as someone can look covered in scalding leaf juice.

“That was completely uncalled for.”

“Uncalled for!” Cadence screeched. “You want to know what’s uncalled for? Asking me to take care of a changeling after what those bugs did to me and Shining! Or did you forget the part where they locked me up in a cave for a month, all the while that bitch of a queen slept with my husband? Hmm? Did you forget that? Because I sure didn’t!”

Cadence had gotten off her chair and stood up, legs spread wide and wings fanned out. She was panting heavily, her eyes glowing with an angry fire. Celestia simply looked down at her niece with nary a hint of emotion. Her horn glowed with a golden aura and the tea covering her body and the floor began turning to steam, hissing as it evaporated. In a few seconds she was completely clean.

“Cadence, I know that you’re upset.”

“Damn right I’m upset!”

Celestia continued. “And you have every right to be. But let me make this clear to you: you will not act like a petulant, spoiled brat in my presence. If you do then I will treat you like one.”

A wide, wooden paddle materialized in a flash of light, held aloft by magic. “I seem to remember just one occasion when I had to spank you, and I don’t wish to do so again. But mark my words, I will if you continue to act this way. Now sit down and listen to what I have to say.”

The last bit was spoken with authority, the kind that came from over a millennium of dealing with politics. Reluctantly Cadence slinked back to the chair and sat down, crossing her forelegs and glowering at the table.

“There now, isn’t that better?” Celestia asked with a smile.

“I know that you hate the changelings, so tell me, what do you think we should do with 7483B? Lock him in a jail cell?”

“I don’t think we should put him in a cell! I mean, you told me yourself that he was a foal, so I guess just keep him secured somewhere and give him back to the changelings, whenever you find them.”

“So you hate changelings,” Celestia said, “But you don’t hate him. Is that what you’re saying?”

“Well, yeah. I guess.”

Celestia leaned back and gave Cadence a level glare. “But he’s a changeling. You hate changelings. Ergo, you hate him.”

“I, well, no. I don’t hate him, but…” Cadence trailed off. She silently cursed to herself. Once again Celestia had used the pink mare’s own words against her. Cadence couldn’t tell what her aunt was getting at.

“Tell me, Cadence,” Celestia said, drinking the last of what little tea was left in her cup, “If one member of a species does something evil, does that make the entire species evil?”

“No, but I don’t see what that has to do with this situation.”

“It has everything to do with this situation, Cadence. So if several members of a species does something evil, does that make them evil?”

“No, it doesn’t.”

“So if an army of that species does something evil, does that make that species evil?”

“Again, no, and I think I know what it is you’re trying to do here. You’re going to say that just because we were invaded by the changelings, doesn’t mean we should hate them, right?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying, Cadence. I remember when the griffons invaded five-hundred years ago. Even after we won and received reparations and extra territory, ponies still had a strong hatred for griffons for nearly a century, and it took massive amounts of effort to curb that. Today the griffons and ponies are allies, despite the conflict. Besides, I recall Chrysalis saying that she was providing food for her subjects. While we don’t know the circumstances behind that, and we would have helped if the changelings had asked, she may have viewed it as the only option.

“Chrysalis must be punished, I agree, but we shouldn’t hate the changelings as a race. According to 7483B Chrysalis has been their queen for over a century, and it may have been her propaganda over the years that caused the war. She may have been power hungry, or there could have been another reason.

“I also ask you to think about this: if I commanded my ponies to raise an army and invade some foreign land some would be against it, but many would rise up and throw their lives away for me. Combined with the right propaganda, I could have hundreds of thousands of troops ready to annihilate an entire race.”

Cadence gave a defeated sigh. “I’ll concede that the war was caused by their queen, but why do you want me to take care of the changeling? Surely others are more qualified?”

“I chose you, Cadence, because even now you still hold hatred in your heart towards the changelings, and hatred leads down roads that should never be traveled. Forcing you to take care of 7483B will help you put aside your hatred. Think of it like pulling an infected tooth. You experience a brief, sharp pain, but it stops the infection from spreading. This won’t just help you, but hopefully the rest of Equestria. If they see the Princess of Love, who was harmed the most by the changelings, put aside hatred and care for one, this may help foster relations with the changelings in the future, and hopefully lead to a peaceful coexistence.”

Cadence mulled over the words of her aunt. Whenever she thought of the changelings, she felt anger, burning like a fire in her chest, along with fear crawling up her spine like a spider of ice. Her emotions were telling her to say no, to scream even more at Celestia for suggesting such a thing, to grab a flyswatter and some bug spray. On the other hoof the logical side of her mind was telling her to agree, that it made sense for the ruler of a nation to suggest such a thing.

“Fine, I’ll do it.”

A smile the size of a mile leapt onto Celestia’s face. “Thank you, Cadence. I’ll take you to meet him tomorrow.”

“Why tomorrow?”

Celestia gave a mischievous smirk. “Because you’re exhausted and need rest. Also both you and your husband could use some stress relief, so I’ve added in some time for that.”

Had Cadence been drinking tea she would have spewed it all over the table. “A-aunt Celestia! Don’t say that!” A bright red blush crept onto the pink mare’s cheeks.

“Why ever not? Is it not common for married couples to have sex?”

“I don’t want to talk about this stuff with my aunt! It’s weird!”

“It isn’t weird. Sex is a natural and beautiful thing. Why I remember once when I-“

Celestia was cut off as Cadence gave a brief goodbye and rushed from the room, nearly tearing the door off the hinges in an attempt to get out.

“Ask the guards where Shining’s room is! They’ll take you to him! Hope you get lucky!”

“Shut up, Aunt Celly!”