A horse of a different color

"Changelings, my queen!" Golden Harvest wailed, galloping down the hallway towards the throne room. "We have changelings in Dream Castle!"

Queen Rosaline looked up from the paperwork North Pole and Minuette were showing her, and looked down at her terrified subject in shock. "What? Did you say Changelings?"

"The new Pegasus! They're changelings! I saw them!" The earth pony whinnied. "I was the only one who was through their disguises!"

"WHAT?!?" Minuette shrieked, seething with anger. Everypony knew how much Minuette hated Changelings with an all-consuming passion. Queen Chrysalis had brainwashed her into a crazy bridesmaid by at Princess Cadence's wedding, and Minuette had never forgotten it! "My queen, if those brutes have infiltrated Dream Castle, they have to be hunted down and destroyed!"

Cherry Jubilee came galloping in after Golden Harvest, running in between the queen and her friend. "Pay her ramblin' no mind, yer haighness! She's simply stressed over losin her eyes an' all!" She spun around to face her friend. "Let's get out o' here, Carrot Tawp! Before ya embarrass yerself further!"

"I'm not so sure, my good Miss Jubilee." North Pole looked thoughtful. "I've heard stories of the jewel eyes being able to see through certain mystical illusions and disguises... and Shadowvale and his stallions have been suspicious ever since they first arrived here."

Minuette looked to one of the guards in the throne room. "I want Dream Castle put on lockdown! Send out teams of guards to locate each of the thirteen Pegasus Lord Shadowvale brought with him! And have each team take a Twinkle eyed pony with them to root out the hidden changelings!"

"My queen, I have a further solution to help us with this 'shadowy' problem." Chancellor Pole spoke up.

"Really?" Rosaline gestured towards him with her hoof. "Please explain."

"Among the experiments Luna's scientists developed at the Tambelon labs, there was a red elixir the unicorn scientists created. This elixir can inoculate a pony against a Changeling's ability to feed off their love, making the pony immune to the shape-shifter's powers."

"Yes, I know what he is talking about!" Minuette exclaimed. "We have dozens of canisters of the stuff that they sent from Tambelon

"A sort of an anti-changeling serum.... I see." The queen nodded. "Minuette, have every pony in the castle report to the clinic immediately for a red elixir vaccination!"

"At once, my queen!" Minuette bowed, as ponies in the throne room immediately set about their tasks.

...

"All right, all of you... one at a time!" Nurse Redhart called out to the large assembly of Ponies. "Please form an orderly line, and we'll get to you as soon as possible!"

Thousands of ponies from all over the castle had come, answering the summons to get vaccinated. When word of the possible changeling infestation had spread, every equine had rushed to do everything possible to keep their families safe from being kidnapped and replaced, or simply drained.

"Can you believe it dear? Changelings in the castle!" Sassaflash told Caramel, as she waited in the line. "I knew we couldn't trust those shifty Pegasus when they first arrived here!"

"They won't be here for long, Sass!" Caramel replied smugly. "Once there's nopony to feed on, they'll soon move on to greener pastures!"

It was at that point, that Noteworthy came trotting up in line to get his shot.

"U-um Nurse Redheart?" He sputtered out nervously. "I-it's so good to see you again!"

"Huh? Oh, Noteworthy, isn't it?" Nurse Redheart asked, recognizing him from Ponyville. "Don't be nervous, this will only hurt a little bit!"

"No, that's not what I-YEOUCH!" The pony yelped in pain,as she stuck his needle in his hoof.

"Awww don't be such a big baby!" She teased the stallion. "Next!"

...

"Order up!" Inky Pie yelled. "Waiter! Get that bowl of hay soup out to table six, on the double!"

"Right Away, Miss Pie!" The stumbling stallion whinnied, grabbing the tray, and rushing it out to the table.

Despite his being spoiled, and totally unaccustomed to physical work, the kitchen staff found Prince Blueblood made an excellent waiter and server for the castle's dining hall. His refined manners made him poplar with the customers, and finally gave the prince something to do. Currently, all the gossip in the hall centered on the news that changelings had infiltrated the castle, and everypony was looking around at the others with suspicious glances.

"Here you go, table six!" Blueblood exclaimed, putting the piping hot bowl of soup down. "Fresh hot piping bowl of- why, Miss Shores!"

The prince was surprised to see the pony of pop sitting there, waiting for her order of soup. It had been another pony from the previous shift who had taken the order, so to find the famous equine at the table was quite a shock!

"'bout time that food got here!" Sapphire snorted impatiently. "I've been waitin' for over an hour! Heck, you're not even the pony I ordered it from!"

"I am terribly sorry, Miss Shores!" Blueblood apologized profusely. "But this whole changeling hysteria has gotten things all in an uproar-!"

He gently placed her bowl of soup on the table. But when he went to set down her iced tea, the prince accidentally knocked her fork off the table.

"Oh, let me get that for you." He muttered, levitating the fork back up from the floor. But the spoiled klutz fumbled, sending the floating fork flying straight at Sapphire Shore's head...

...knocking her tiny hat clean off.

"My word!" Blueblood whinnied in shock, spying what had been underneath the hat. "Is that a... unicorn horn?"

"AHHHHHH!" Sapphire Shores shrieked, running out of the dining hall. The eyes of all the ponies in the room turned towards where Blueblood was still standing, dumbstruck.

"Miss Shores is... a unicorn?" The prince said in shock.

"That can't be Sapphire Shores!" Apple Cobbler exclaimed from the kitchen. "No way she's really a unicorn!"

"That's gotta be a changeling!" Cherry Cola exclaimed. "After her, everypony!"

"Changeling? Aieeeeeeeeeee!" Every pony in the dining hall went galloping out in fright, leaving the place empty.

"Well, there goes the afternoon dinner rush!" Apple Cobbler quipped.

"Ohhhhh, Blueblood!" Inky Pie sighed, putting her hoof against her forehead. "Cant you do anything right?"

.....

"Ah'm sorry ah didn't believe ya 'bout the changelings, Carrot Tawp!" Cherry Jubilee whinnied, as the two mares worked in their garden. "Ah shoulda takin' yer words more seriously!"

"It's all right, Cherry!" Golden Harvest replied with a laugh. "If I had heard another pony say that, I would've thought she was crazy, too!"

It was while they were pulling out some plants in the vegetable section, that the two of them saw a panicking changeling screaming and running across the far side of the garden. A squad of Dream Valley troops, accompanied by a twinkle-eyed mare, sweeped behind him. The unicorns paralyzed the pleading changeling, and carted him away.

"Say, Carrot Tawp, why didn't y'all join the search?" Cherry Jubilee asked. "Ya'll do have the eyes for it, aftah all."

"The queen told me to take a break after all that I have been through." Golden Harvest shook her mane. "Still, I'd do anything I could to help hunt those foul devils down!"

"Still, it is kind of a shame!" Cherry said with a sigh. "The stallion Pegasus were kinda cute fellers! Ah wuz thikin a' askin one o' them out before all this happened!"

"Well, let me tell you one thing, Cherry." Golden Harvest told her, pulling one of her carrots out of the ground. "You'd never catch me being friends with one of those slimy creatures, let alone dating one! You can be sure of that!"

....

"Shadowvale! There's anti-Changeling hysteria running through the castle!" Mayfly hissed, galloping back into the tower room the changelings had been given. "You were right! The Twinkle eyed ponies can see us!"

"And the queen is using that ability to hunt us down!" Thornspike agreed, trotting in after her. "What are we going to do, Shadowvale?"

"Now just calm down, you two!" their leader snapped back. "The other twelve have already been nabbed throughout the castle, even though they were in disguise! We need to-"

"What you need to do, is come with us!" North Pole, Minuette, and Carrot top trotted up to the door, backed by two unicorn guards. "The queen would like a word with you!"

Thornspike immediately charged at North Pole, but was sent flying by a telekenetic blast from his horn. Mayfly leaped at Minuette, but was slammed into the wall by a magical blast. Before anypony else could move, though, the queen came trotting into the room.

"All right all of you, that's enough!"

"But-" Minuette protested.

"I said ENOUGH!" The queen roared, casing everypony else to fall silent. "Thank You, now, let's deal with this matter, shall we?"

"Do your worst!" Shadowvale snorted, as the queen approached him. "I regret nothing for trying to save my race!"

"If you cooperate, I may not do anything to you, or your troops." Rosaline whinnied.

"What do you mean?" The Changeling leader asked suspiciously. "Ponykind seeks only to destroy us!"

"You have so far done us no harm, and have only benefited from the medical supplies and the nurse you have brought here." The queen cocked her head. "I see no reason you could not stay in Dream Valley, and work for us."

"YOUR MAJESTY!" Minuette scoffed, looking at her queen incredulously. "Surely you don't mean to..."

"There's nothing left for us here now!" Shadowvale pointed out, shifting back to his normal form. "You're little cure has made it so we can no longer feed off your subjects emotions! Even if you let us go and we agreed to work for you, we'd starve if we remained here!"

Queen Rosaline motioned to one of her guards standing outside the doorway, and he brought a beaker of the foul smelling, noxious red liquid. "Drink it." She ordered Shadowvale.

"Are you mad?!?" He snorted in anger. "That's the very substance that is designed to block our abilities! Who knows what it will-"

"She ordered you to drink it! So, drink it!" Minuette roared, as she and North Pole pointed their glowing horns at the clan Masquerade leader threateningly. "NOW!"

"As you wish..." He replied bitterly, taking the beaker from the guard, and downing it in one gulp. "Agh, that stuff is most foul!" He coughed and gagged.

"Any minute now..." Pole whispered to himself.

A crackle of energy shot through the changelings body, and he morphed into his black Pegasus form. "Hey! I didn't do that!"

"How is your appetite for stealing pony's love now?" The queen asked.

He looked up in the air for a second. "It's... gone! It feels like I've had a full meal! As if I don't even have to steal love!"

"And your shape shifting abilities?" Chancellor Pole asked him curiously.

Shadowvale morphed into the chancellor. "Fully functional! You ponies have cured me of my hunger!"

"It appears, my queen, that the cure worked on the changelings as predicted." North Pole commented. "Giving them the base form of ponies, and negating their hunger for emotional vampirism."

"But unlike ponies, you'll need regular doses of the elixir to survive." Rosaline continued. "For now that you can no longer feed on emotions, you'll withier and die without the elixir!"

"Creating a chemical dependency to keep them in line! While keeping their shape shifting talents for our use!" Minuette thought to herself. "Well played, my queen!"

"You took us in when nopony else would, gave us a second chance at survival even after we deceived you... and now, you've found a way to remove our need to always find love to steal!" Shadowvale bowed to the queen gratefully. "If going without the need to feed means eternal servitude to your royal line, and a monthly dose of that vile sludge... we are at your service, my queen!"

The satisfied monarch looked back up at North Pole and Minuette. "Sooo... what do you say we turn our new shape-shifting spies loose on my dear aunty Celestia's court, hmmm?"

Both the chancellor, and the lady in waiting, flashed dark smiles at the thought of what was in store for the alicorn princess...