As Midnight listened to the changelings story, he grew more and more shocked hearing all of the information. After hearing the final parts of the story he was literally shaking. Not in fear, but worry. Once he had mulled over the information, he and the changeling teleported into the throne room where constructions was taking place to repair the damage that the castle had taken in the recent bombing attack. The little insect pony stayed close to the Alicorn as they walked toward Celestia. Many of the guards and members of the construction crew giving him disapproving looks as he passed by.

"Tia, we need to have another meeting. Can you get Cadence, Armor, and Luna together and meet me in the Garden?" Midnight asked as he spoke quietly into her ear.

"Yes, but what does it pertain to? Has our newest citizen divulged other information?" She smiled warmly to the changeling.

"C-citizen?" It asked as he looked rather shocked.

"Yes my dear, If you are willing to be a friend rather than a foe, you are welcome to be a citizen of Equestria." She smiled giving a soft giggle.

The changeling sat down on its haunches quietly as its solid colored eyes began to moisten a little. Pulling its hooves up to it's face and giving a soft whimper as the tears began to flow from hearing this and feeling the love radiating from all around him. It stopped though giving a gasp as it was pulled into a hug by Celestia, her wings wrapping warmly around it. The young changeling cried quietly into Celestia's chest as it pressed its face harder into her. After a few minutes the little one had cried itself to sleep. Celestia smiled down to it as she levitated it slowly up and onto her back, resting it between her wings as she began to trot alongside Midnight as they made way toward the garden.

After locating the remaining members of the royal court, they had all made way into the royal gardens of the castle to speak. During the trip though the changeling had awoken to find itself resting comfortably on Celestia's back. It couldn't help but smile as her ethereal mane waved about and around it. Giving a light giggle it pressed its hooves up and through her mane playfully before they had reached the gardens.

"I'm glad we could get together again so quickly after our last little encounter." Midnight chuckled. "But before we start, I want to let everypony know that this little changeling is on our side now, and has agreed to give us every bit of information she knows."

The changeling as well as everypony else looked to Midnight questionably at the mention of the word 'she'. After a quick explanation they had all agreed to refer to the changeling as a she. But no name has been given to her as of yet.

"As you know from the reports from earlier, it appeared that our newest enemy was the Changeling Queen Chrysalis. However, upon befriending out guest here." Midnight smiled down to the changeling who smiled back happily. "She has let me know that our enemy is not actually Chrysalis, but the daughter of Discord himself.

The group sat in stunned silence as they mulled over the new information. Cadence being the first to speak up.

"Little one, I don't understand though how you could get mixed up with miss Ball, could you explain that situation?" She asked while cocking her head in confusion.

"I would rather not, as it is a painful story, but I will since you are the first friends I have had since my hatching." It smiled nervously.

"I don't mean to interrupt, but that was something else I was wondering about, how old are you exactly?" Midnight asked as he thought of how quickly she had warmed up to him and even her little playful antics with Celestia's mane.

"Um...... I think I am around ten years old. Why?" She said only to get a shocked expression from everyone, more so from Midnight as his eyes began to water.

"I'm........ sorry." He spoke softly as he brought the changeling into a loving hug. Whispering sorry over and over into her ear.
"I never intended on hurting a child. Yet I did.......... Can you ever forgive me?" He asked while looking to the young one.

"If I hadn't forgiven you already, I wouldn't be here." She smiled as she hugged him warmly around the neck.

After a few minutes of daaawwwwwww, the two separated as the young changeling began her story.

"It wasn't long ago when I left the hive on a mission to locate new sources of love to feed my colony. On my journey I had run into a pony in the middle of the Everfree forest that was crying next to a large stone statue. I transformed in the guise of a stallion and made my way to her to try and comfort her in order to at least give me some form of nourishment so that I could continue my quest. What followed next, was unexpected."

(Shortly after Midnight's fight with Flame)

"Are you ok miss?" The stallion asked as he neared the purple-ish pony the bore a small beanie atop its head.

"Leave me changeling, I do not want to be bothered by the likes of your species." She snorted back causing the stallion to stare in shock for a moment before he changed back into a changeling.

"How did you know I was a changeling?" It hissed back while taking a defensive stance.

"I am the daughter of Discord. Screwball the great! I will not be fooled by any guise from your insectoid race." She snarled back as she hugged the stone statue in front of her.

"Why are you crying and hugging that statue?" the changeling asked as she stared unblinking at Screwball.

"This is my father, Discord. He was changed to stone by an evil clone of a pony we once thought to be a friend. But he turned out to be far more evil than I had expected. He imprisoned my father as this tacky statue. Even with what little power I have left I cannot break him free from his stone prison." She cried. "Daddy.......... please don't leave me again." She cried as she slowly fell into a slumped position in front of the statue.

"I..... am sorry to hear about your father." The changeling said quietly as it walked up to Screwballs side and took a seat as it gazed up to the draconequus.

"How could a changeling feel sorrow?" She snorted as she looked to the changeling with a glare.

"I am still young, our emotions are beaten from us before we are allowed to leave the colony to find food. I have feigned being emotionless for some time in order to keep my sanity. My queen does not want any of her minions to express emotion and to follow her command without question. I may be her fledgling, but that does not mean she is my mother. I never even knew my father, so I can understand how you feel about wanting your father back. It's because I have no family. Just fellow minions of the hive." It sighed as it looked to the ground. The changeling stopped though as it felt something new. A feeling that only it has experienced once before. It looked up to Screwball who was smiling softly to it before wrapping it in a hug. After a few seconds the changeling gave a satisfied burp before being released.

"If you want, you can be my sister, or brother, because I can't really tell what gender you are." Screwball giggled softly looking the changeling up and down.

"I guess being a little sister wouldn't be so bad." She laughed softly which sounded more like a pausing hiss sound.

"Do you think you could help me return my father to normal? I would love you forever if you did." She smiled widely.

The changelings eyes widened at the comment. Being loved forever meant a never ending food supply. And she had never truly experienced this type of love before. It was far more filling than what her mother had given her in the past. She gave a bright smile and nodded to Screwball who only brought her into another hug once again.

"After that I don't really remember much other than what was in that folder I had given you from before. I was always helping miss Ball but never really paying attention to what was going on around me since she was always keeping me fed. As of late however, I have noticed a steady decline in her love toward me as her sister. I began to grow more and more hungry, at several points I was starving. Then miss Ball asked me to copy the form of a pony she had killed that had taken her picture, then return the camera when that pony I was disguised as, was rescued. She said that the camera was rigged to harm anything organic and not withing its blast radius, except for me. After seeing your throne room so badly damaged, I can only take a guess that she was lying to me to get rid of me."

The changeling sat there as her head lowered and she began to cry softly, but stopped as Midnight and the rest of the group pulled together in a large group hug.

*BUUUUUURP*

"Scuse me....." The changeling said giving a slight pink tint to her cheeks from blushing, causing the rest of the ponies around her to laugh softly.

"So then little one. Now that we know the relative story of what's going on and part of what we are up against. I think getting things in order will be needed before the war begins. I will work with Armor and the Guard on training for the time being. Tia, contact the other nations to advise them of what is going on so that they can be prepared to face the threat as well. Luna, I need some of your night guard to do some espionage once we find out where Miss Ball is. Cadence................" He trailed off. "Sorry, but I have no clue what your specialty is or what you can do." He chuckled only to get a facehoof from Cadence.

"I will work alongside my sisters and where needed. I can pass information back and forth between everypony as well to keep them up to speed." She smirked.

"Great idea. Now then......" Midnight stopped as he looked down to his new little friend who gave him a gentle nudge, and a sad expression.

"What about me? Can I help?" She asked.

"For the moment you need to stay safe in case Miss Ball decides to try and find you. That place would be by my side." He smiled as he lifted her onto his back and rested her between his wings. She gave a contented smiled as she rested quietly there.

"Alright everypony, let's get to our tasks." He gave a determined grin as he nodded to Shining Armor, he giving one in return as they left to their designated tasks.

Celestia, with the help of a few members of her court, began writing letters to fellow nations describing the details of the impending war. Although she was not in good terms with the griffon nation due to their king deciding that world domination was the best choice, she sent a letter to them anyway detailing the information she had gathered. A reply was sent back to her with the following.

Princess Celestia,

Due to our previous bad experiences with each other, you still find it within your good nature to let our nation know about the impending war from an unknown enemy. Although I would like to say 'thank you' for this information, I cannot. We have already been sent a warning from the attacking party that if we ally ourselves with any other nation, attacks would begin immediately. With it being winter and our food stores depleting rapidly. We cannot survive a head on attack and win against any offending nation. As much as we would like to be your allies in this fight, we must decline.

The princess' sat there looking sadly at the letter, giving a soft sigh as they let it fall to the table in front of them.

"Tia, maybe we should consider letting a few hunting parties into the Everfree. Many of the predators that take up shelter within the forest are hibernating at this time while many of the prey they hunt have moved south for the winter to continue grazing." Luna said looking worried.

"I am afraid you are correct dear sister. But having them hunting in our forests will be a sign of becoming ally's in this fight, and we do not want them to be wiped out due to our aid. I fear that we may need to have a hunting party dispatched to gather the required 'meat' for the griffon nation for winter. But I only know of one pony that can do such a task without being scarred for life from killing another living creature." She sighed while rubbing her temples in thought.

"Do you think he will do it? Even after the griffon king held you hostage?" Luna asked feeling the worry build in the pit of her stomach.

"We can only hope." She sighed as she sent the last of the letters in a magical vapor into the sky toward it's intended target.

"Seriously? You want me to go south to hunt for creatures and then teleport the meat to the Griffon kingdom?" Midnight sat there in shock. He had been in Equestria over a year now and this was the first time he had been asked to willing kill something in order to aid another party, much less one that had done several offenses to the kingdom of Equestria.

"I am sorry to have asked you Midnight my dear. But if this war is going to be hard on all of the nations involved, we must aid each other as best as we can in secret, or fear having these other nations attacked before they are ready to defend themselves." Celestia sighed feeling a pang of guilt about sending her fiance to kill to aid a country that wasn't really an ally.

"Tia, as much as I dislike this idea, I can understand your point of view. We don't know what we will be up against, so we will need every ally we can get. I'll go hunting for you, I already know what the griffon nation will and will not eat, and I have the perfect idea to keep them happily fed without causing massive depopulation to our forest's wildlife." He smiled slightly.

"Really? But how can you do that and keep an entire nation of omnivores fed properly with a healthy diet of 'meat'." She gave a disgusted expression at the word.

Midnight smirked as he began to talk to the sun and lunar ponies about his plan. It would be a long shot but he knew what to do.