Canterlot Castle

Three days after Equestrian arrival at the Crystal Empire

Celestia rubbed her forehead with a wingtip, a throbbing head ache pulsing through her skull. Another group of changelings, the largest at sixteen had been captured outside of Manehattan in the early hours of the morning, a patrol of guards spotting them before they were able to sneak into the city. The capture of the group had moved the total number of changelings being held prisoner to sixty-six, with more showing up every day.

She looked at the table beside her throne, a roll of parchment seated on it, the proposal of the nobility regarding the problem. Celestia unfurled the roll with her magic, levitating the proposal up towards her face. Her brows dipped as she read the words written upon it, the recommendation to have any changeling captured in Equestria put down was accompanied by the signatures of almost every influential member of the court with the exception of only two.

Celestia actually felt a small pity for the changelings, she knew that they were not inherently evil but never less they were a threat to the safety and happiness of her subjects, something she just could not allow. She sighed, levitating a quill dipped in ink over towards the bottom of the parchment, hovering over the line were she would place her own signature to approve the measure

“Excuse me Princess, Princess Cadence and Captain Shining Armour have returned from the Crystal Empire” Celestia looked up from the parchment at the Guard who had just entered the throne room

“Back already, I hope everything went well?” she inquired

“It does not seem so, your Highness” the Guard answered “Princess Cadence appears to have been attacked and Captain Armour seems a bit upset, I assume regarding his wife”

Celestia frowned, who would attack Cadence? The only possibility Celestia could think of would be Sombra, but surly he would have achieved more than just beating her a little. Also un-explained was why the group had returned so quickly.

“Show them in immediately!”

The guard nodded and exited back through the doors, Cadence and Shining Armour entering the room. Cadence was scowling, her nose was bandaged over, a few spots of red showing up on the white fabric. Shining Armour also looked injured, a large purple bruise covering the side of his face almost the size of a hoof. Celestia, upon seeing their injuries rushed off of her throne over towards her niece, Celestia nuzzling the pink alicorn.

“Cadence, what happened, why are you back so early and what attacked you?”

“It was a Changeling Auntie, the Crystal Empire has been taken over by a Monster and he’s letting changelings run amok around the city!”

“What?” Celestia asked, halting the nuzzling as she raised her head, looking at the pair “What about Sombra, did he never return or is the Monster in league with him?”

Shining decided that he better speak up before things got too out of hoof, trying to ignore the large bruise on the side of his face, courtesy of his wife after he told her that it was her own fault that she got attacked. Not the best idea he had ever come up with

“Actually Princess he’s not a Monster, he’s a creature called a ‘Human’ and he saved the Empire by defeating Sombra”

At his words Cadence shot him a glare, but Celestia motioned for the Captain to continue

“His name is Nigel Chalmers and he’s apparently not from this planet. I will admit that at first he seems to be quite intimidating but he’s not really that bad once you get to know him”

Cadence at this point snapped

“Shining!” she yelled, Celestia watching the arguing couple in alarm

‘I’m just going to stand over here’ she thought as she backed away a few steps

“That Thing put me in the stocks and threw vegetables at me! How can you defend him over your own wife, me Shining, how can you defend him and not me!?”

“Because you acted like a Foal, Cadence, and you still are acting like one!”

Celestia and Cadence both looked at Shining in shock, the Captain’s face a bright red shade of anger

“The first thing you did when you arrived in a different Empire was attack somepony, granted it was a changeling but that still doesn’t change the fact that you assaulted a subject of the Emperor! You’re lucky he only put you in the stocks for four hours, he could have imprisoned you or even had you executed! And if it weren’t bad enough already, what do you do when you're released? You go and insult one of his advisors right in front of him, in front of the creature that turned SOMBRA INTO A RUG!”

“What’s this about turning Sombra into a rug?” Celestia asked, her question going unnoticed as Cadence responded

“Well, at least I didn’t sit down and eat dessert with the dictator that stole the Empire from us! You were sitting down shoving food into your face while I was suffering outside! We still don’t know how the Monster is controlling the minds of my subje-“

“He’s not controlling them Cadence!” Shining interrupted “Have you even considered that maybe the fact that he saved them from Sombra might have something to do with why they follow him!? And as for them being your Subjects I highly doubt that after what you did in front of them! The Crystal ponies don’t seem to mind about living with Changelings at all, maybe you would've seen this if you hadn’t just rushed in like an excited child! We could have had war declared between us and the Crystal Empire and nopony wants that!”

Shining stopped, his chest heaving as his lungs re-filled with air as Cadence looked at him with a hurt expression

“I’m going to bed, don’t bother coming up” she stated in a flat voice, turning around and leaving the throne room.

Shining watched her leave, knowing that it was probably for the best. He knew that Cadence sometimes got over-emotional, the problem worsening after the Wedding fiasco but he had found that sometimes she just needed some time alone. Shining looked over towards the Princess, the alicorn’s face locked in an expression of motherly concern

“Don’t worry about it Princess” Shining began “Cadence just needs some time to herself, the journey has caused some tension, that’s all” he sat down on the floor, eyes looking at his front hooves

Celestia walked over towards her guard Captain, putting a white wing across his back as she joined him

“You can talk to me if you want Shining, obviously the situation is bothering both you and Cadence”

“Well, it’s just that I think that we had a chance at dealing with the Changeling problem once and for all, but with Cadence the way she is currently I don’t think it will happen” he responded

Celesta glanced over towards the table at the side of her throne, the parchment she was going to sign forgotten in the commotion

I was actually just about to approve the measures that Blueblood suggested Shining, but if you have another idea then I’d like to hear it”

Celestia noticed that Shining Armour scowled briefly at the mention of the Prince, the two stallions never got along at all

“Emperor Chalmers is willing to make a deal, Princess” he said as he looked up at her “in return for financial and developmental assistance with the Crystal Empire he would be willing to incorporate any Changelings we find into the Empire, the Crystal Heart appears to be able to feed them with no loss in power”

Celestia was intrigued with this “You said that the Crystal ponies do not mind living with Changelings?”

“It’s true Princess” Shining replied “There is currently only a small number in the city but from what I observed they are widely-liked by the ponies. I will admit that their leader, the Changeling that attacked Cadence, is fairly aggressive but if the deal works out it we may never have to deal with Changeling attacks again”

“Why are you pushing this Captain, out of all Equestrians I would have expected you to despise the Changelings after what their Queen did to you and Cadence?”

Shining deflated a little at the mention of Queen Chrysalis

“I do still hate her Princess, I just don’t think that every Changeling should suffer for her mistakes, after all, Sombra was from Equestria and while the Crystal ponies’ opinion of us may be low at the moment I don’t think we’re downright hated”

“Well I for one think it is quite a promising idea Shining” Celestia said as she lifted herself up, levitating the proposal over in her magic, giving it one final read before placing it in a nearby waste basket “I think it would be a good idea to discuss this plan in court tomorrow with the nobles as I think it could prove to be a much better alterative”

Shining watched as the Princess made to leave the room, no doubt in preparation tto lower the Sun. Celestia stopped right as she was about to leave

“One more thing Shining”

“Yes Princess?” Shining replied

“If you weren’t attacked in the Crystal Empire, then how did you get that bruise?”

“Oh,” answered Shining, rubbing the sore spot with a hoof

“I, uh… walked into a door Princess”

_____________________________________________________________________________

It had been a productive few days for Nigel, the rebuilding of the Empire really coming along nicely. Work was being done on upgrading the school, the building having been abandoned during Sombra’s reign. The Hospital was also being upgraded, Nigel writing down all he knew about medicine, a fair amount due to the fact that he had been trained in battlefield surgery as part of his job. While his knowledge was limited to humans and some of the more common humanoid species that existed as the UIP the Crystal ponies had been learning rather fast, a few doctors already making leaps in the field of medicine.

Nigel was currently standing in a field outside of the city observing one-hundred Crystal guards practicing, the soldiers being instructed by Captain Strategy. Of particular note was the three changelings accompanying the ponies, the three having requested to join the guard saying that they had some prior training. While the Changelings were currently un-armoured, due to the fact that the suits of Crystal armour did not fit their frames they did have the advantage of being able to perform basic magic, with the strongest one capable of firing green bolts of energy from its horn.

Nigel was not surprised by the existence of magic as he had fought alongside a number of battle psionics back in the UIP. Firing green blasts of energy is nothing compared to ripping an entire enemy squad to chunks purely with the power of your mind.

The number of Crystal Guards now numbered at one-hundred and forty one, one-hundred and two stallions and thirty-nine mares. The changelings had been included in this as when Nigel had gathered all of the Changelings together and asked what they would prefer to be addressed as they had all answered saying that Stallions and mares would work fine, as it helped with integration.

Regarding integration it had continued smoothly despite the incident involving the Equestrians, the Crystal ponies actually drawing the Changelings closer instead of pushing them away, much to Nigel’s relief. The fact that both species were getting along well eliminated many problems he had anticipated when he gave the Changelings citizenships.

Nigel observed as the Captain lectured two rookies regarding weapon technique, demonstrating with his sword how to target the weak points of an opponent’s body. Nigel was satisfied about how the training was proceeding, the Crystal guards who were already trained before the arrival of Sombra proving to be decent with their weapons. He was a little concerned about the technical level of the Empire’s military but he had managed to find out from his conversation with Shining Armour that the surrounding Civilizations had around the same level of advancement.

Nigel was a bit puzzled about how an empire that had been gone for one-thousand years could still possess a decent level of Military progress but at the same time he was pleased. He had already begun to draw up some plans, nothing fancy or anything that would upset the balance of power so much that it would draw attention. Replacing spears with pole-arms, constructing Ballista and Trebuchets, instructions for the fabrication of steel (the Empire had generous mineral deposits) for weapons as well as armour for the changelings and last but not least a plan to surround the city with walls interspersed with mini-fortresses.

Nigel however knew that the first priority would be the re-formation of the military, after all walls are useless without a force of trained soldiers. He was not preparing for conquest at this point, he just knew from experience that the empire with the best army tends to get what it wants.

Over on the far side of the field the three changelings were practicing their magic abilities, the most experienced teaching the other two about how to fire energy bursts, their target being a snow stuffed sack hanging from the rope. Nigel watched as one of the trainees managed to release a shot, the green energy missing the sack and hitting a snow bank behind it. Despite the poor accuracy the lead changeling praised the novice, the other trainee upon seeing his fellow achieve the goal soon followed up with his own shot, all three changelings cheering as the shot hit the sack and punched a hole in it.

The training continued for a few more hours, only stopping when the sun started to dip in the sky. The guards and the Emperor all walked back to the city, soldier and ruler alike sharing jokes and stories as they departed, the field already pre-pared for the next session and the many more which would no-doubt follow.