His hooves in socks, Shining Armor slid across the marble floor of his bedroom. Cadance was visiting his sister and her aunties, leaving him all alone in the Crystal Empire. Shiney had pulled his old keytar out of storage, jamming out a tune that sounded very much like a song mimed by Tom Canter in Risky Business, but was assured by the Crystal Empire Legal Department (Fr. Guild of Lawyers and Vamponies) to be distinct enough to get past the censors.

“Still love that old time trot and roll!” he sang at the top of his lungs.

It was legally distinct from the original, but not even the Crystal Empire Department of Yay-Sayers would dare condone the bad attempt at modified lyrics.

He would have prefered his old favorite ‘Pretty Pink Mares,’ but that song had become somewhat less acceptable in the preceding twenty years. The Crystal Empire Legal Department had warned him against singing it again, after his last run-in with the Crystal Empire Police Department.

Being Prince-Consort to Cadance left Shining Armor with a lot of free time. His only duty was taking care of the Crystal Empire sports teams, something he’d begged Cadance for not long before the Equestrian Games. He was well aware of the lack of power he had in the Empire; but he had a hot wife who never aged, and few responsibilities. He was having way too much fun to care.

A knock at the door interrupted the rocking stallion. He carefully laid the keytar on the bed and slipped the socks off his hooves; the last thing he wanted was for one of his servants seeing him dancing about in his wife’s socks…

Again.

“Your Highness,” the guard stallion said as Shining Armor opened the door. “There has been a security incident.”

“So tell the Captain of the Guard,” Shining Armor huffed; he was still smarting over not being allowed to resume his Captaincy in the returned Empire.

“I did, Your Highness,” the nervous guard replied. “But the… prisoner is asking for you. The Captain told me to inform you right away.”

Peleides breathed in the crisp, cool air as she stepped off the train. While the Crystal Empire’s magic kept the cold of the frozen north away, the wind still held a slight chill. The changeling realised there might have been a reason ponies wore clothes.

Before disembarking she had shifted into her pegasus guise again, this time replacing the four-diamond cutie mark with a small blue butterfly. Peleides chuckled to herself; these ponies were amazingly trusting. She could hardly believe she had made it all the way from the badlands to the Crystal Empire with no trouble at all.

How did Mother lose to these ponies?

She cantered down the main street; all roads led to the Crystal Palace. The strange ponies around her waved as they walked past. Most unusually there were few unicorns or pegasi around; those that were mostly made up the guard. The citizenry were mostly curious earth ponies with strange reflective properties. She had heard of these crystal ponies; they were a relatively new thing. Or was it a relatively old thing?

Peleides cantered up the stairs to the entrance to the Crystal Palace, smiling sweetly at the guards as she passed by. A light, pretty chime echoed throughout the entrance hall as she stepped through, and an old moustachioed stallion trotted towards her.

“H-Hello young miss,” he stammered. “H-Here for a tour of the castle?”

N-No you s-stammering m-moron!

“No, sir,” she replied politely. “I’m here to seek audience with Prince Shining Armor.”

“O-Of c-course, this way.” The stallion escorted her to a side room, and instructed two of the guards to escort her to ‘Waiting Room C.’

The stone-faced stallions silently escorted her to the lavishly furnished waiting room. She sat upon the antique divan situated below a stained glass window. The divan was covered with hoof-stitched silk-brocade cushions that felt exceptionally soft to the touch. Crystal vases sat atop hardwood side tables around the room with all manner of pretty flowers tastefully arranged in them. A crystal chandelier above her sat dormant, unneeded but still beautiful in the soft daylight illuminating the room.

All in all, this was the sort of reception she expected. A royal welcome. Now if only the other royal would hurry up! She had been waiting a whole three minutes already.

“So…” Peleides decided to strike up a conversation with the guards stationed at the door. “Umm… how long have you stallions been guards?”

Silence.

“What should I see while I am here?” she asked. It was strange— normally changeling guards would not shut up. These two pony guards were as unsettlingly quiet as goliath beetles. She shifted uncomfortably under their gaze. “Alright, good talk.”

After a few more minutes, an armored pegasus stallion with a bright orange coat and blue mane strode into the room. “You wished to meet our Prince? What is your name, pegasus?”

“Peleides, Sir,” she answered politely, not liking the way the stallion was glaring at her.

A pair of unicorn guards entered the room behind him, levitating a pair of shackles.

“Strange name for a pegasus,” one guard commented.

“Sounds more like a bug name to me,” the other replied.

“Peleides, you are under arrest on suspicion of being a changeling. If you do not submit peacefully, we are authorised to use force.”

Peleides looked to the guards advancing, then to the beautiful stained glass window, before looking back to the guards.

“Oh… chit!”

“Peleides Blue Morphos! You might be a Princess,” the teacher-drone barked, “but you will pay attention in my class. A strong vocabulary will help you blend in with ponies.”

“Uuuuugh!” Peleides moaned into her desk.

“If you are so bored, maybe you can tell me the meaning of the word ‘defenestration’?”

“Defenestration, the act of throwing somepony out the window,” Peleides droned from memory. “It was coined around the time of the Canterlot revolts, when Duke Silverblood of Canterlot and his family were thrown from the windows of their estates by the angry public.”

“Very good, Peleides,” the teacher praised her, surprise in her voice.

“It’s just such a stupid word, why would ponies have a word for something so specific? It can’t be that common an occurrence that they need a word for it—”

The stained glass shards showered the ground as the falling pegasus twisted in the air. The wings weren’t overly functional, not like her proper gossamer wings. These things were just for passing as a pony.

“Chit chit chit chit chit chit!” Peleides screamed as she fell, landing heavily on a forehoof. “Chit chit chit chit chit!”

Peleides awkwardly galloped through the grounds, favoring her sore fetlock. Blasts of multicoloured magics burst around her as she ran, the guards hot on her heels firing spells at her as she fled.

“Chit chit chit chit chit chit!” she screamed as she rounded a corner. She was dreadfully lost, unable to find a place to escape. A blast of cornflower blue magic struck her from behind, and her body went numb. “Chiiiiiiiii—”

Peleides blacked out when her jaw connected with the ground.

Shining Armor watched the interrogation through a one-way window. The changeling was still in her pegasus disguise. Sitting in with the changeling was the captain of the Crystal Empire Royal Guard, Flash Sentry.

“Looks like you have a fan,” Vice-Captain Winter Kiss laughed as she stood next to Shining Armor, peering through the glass. “She’s even got your mane!”

Shining Armor grimaced, staring at the bug, unseen to her. He enjoyed grimacing, it was a very ‘cop’ thing to do. You couldn’t grimace as a Prince-Consort, else ponies would start screaming you were the next King Sombra.

Captain Sentry did not seem to be having a lot of luck with the changeling though; she was being very uncooperative.

“This is uncomfortable! I demand a better room!” Peleides whined, “I’m a princess!”

“It’s an interrogation room! It’s not supposed to be comfortable.” Captain Flash Sentry slammed his hoof on the table. “What was your plan, changeling?”

“I want these things off!” She motioned to the steel manacles still clamped over her hooves. “They hurt.”

“They’re not coming off!” Flash Sentry groaned. “Now… What. Was. Your. Plan?”

“I won’t talk to anypony except Shining Armor!” Peleides rebuffed.

“That is Prince Shining Armor, bug!”

“And that’s Princess Bu— Peleides to you… commoner!”

“I wonder if Blueblood ever had any changeling kids?” Vice-Captain Winter Kiss laughed, watching her very frustrated captain through the glass. “She certainly sounds like one of his.”

“He’s been with enough mares,” Shining Armor responded, shaking his head. “I could believe there might have been a bug amongst them.”

The door to the interrogation room opened, with Flash Sentry stepping through.

“Can we just hang her, please?” Flash Sentry sighed, closing the door behind him. Vice-Captain Winter gasped at his joke; even as serious as a changeling attempting to infiltrate the palace was, capital punishment was illegal in both Equestria and the Crystal Empire. “She refuses to talk to anyone, Your Highness. She won’t even drop that damned disguise.”

Shining Armor grinned. His sister had taught him a spell for stripping changelings of their disguises, something that took a lot of skill and power. But skill and power were things his family was well known for. “Captain, I want as many of your unicorn guards as we can fit in the room in there. Order them ready to stun, should the bug make any moves. If she wants to talk to me, she can talk to me.”

“Your Highness, I must protest!” Flash Sentry argued. “We can not allow—”

“That is an order, Captain.” Finally, Shining Armor could do some old fashioned cop work.

Shining Armor strode purposefully into the interrogation room.

“You demand to see me, bug?” He suppressed a smile as the mare cowered a little under his gaze. “You have a lot of nerve after what your Queen put my wife and I through! Drop your disguise.”

Peleides looked around the room, she was crowded on all sides by menacing looking guards. This had not gone the way she had planned, she wasn’t prepared for this.

“Ummm, could some of the guards leave fir—”

Peleides screamed as a bolt of magic hit her right in the chest. Her disguise melted away in an instant, revealing a black carapace, gossamer wings, and a very unique mane. It was one Shining Armor was very familiar with— sapphire blue with a cerulean and dark blue streak through it.

“No…” Shining Armor gasped, almost tripping as he stepped back.

“Ummm, hi… Dad.”