Twilight squeezes her eyes shut, shielding them from the stinging heat and smoke – an afterimage of the flaming ruins of Fort Book nevertheless remaining seared into her mind's eye along with the pyre of collapsed bookshelves surrounding it. A hacking cough escapes her throat, the motion dislodging one of several large, partially scorched books piled on top of her. Another cough racks her tiny frame as soon as she inhales again, the smoke growing thicker, and the heat stronger, as the blaze spreads towards her. Barely managing to force herself to her hooves, she turns from the source of the stench of burning knowledge, stumbling blindly away before collapsing again after only a few steps. A firepony picks her up seemingly a split second later, blaring sirens and incomprehensible, shouting voices on all sides giving way to complete silence…

Pulling herself from her memory, Twilight wipes streaks of tears from her cheeks, sniffling and lifting her head to look over an old, now dusty, brass memorial to the books lost in the fire. Approaching hoofsteps reach her ears before a fresh wave of guilt manages to submerge her in another memory however, her heart clenching at the steps' familiar weight and cadence.

"I thought I might find you here," Celestia says, walking up from behind Twilight to stand beside her. "You haven't been sitting here all day, I hope."

"No, not that long. Just… since a little bit ago, since I woke up," Twilight replies, her eyes dropping to the floor. "Princess Celestia, I-I didn't even realize… and I'm really really sorry-"

"Twilight," Celestia states gently, interrupting her former student's apology.

Twilight hesitantly raises her eyes, redness surrounding them.

Celestia sits next to Twilight, laying a warm wing across Twilight's shoulders and smiling down at her, "You could have burnt down the entire library, and no matter what books were destroyed in the process, what would have always mattered most to me would be that you were safe. I already knew the book Luna and I had written was destroyed when I last told you that, and even if I hadn't yet realized it was gone, it would not have changed anything. While it was disappointing to me at the time that it had happened, there is no book in here, or anywhere else, that is more important to me than you are."

Twilight leans into Celestia's embrace, speaking again after a minute passes, "A-And Luna?"

Celestia places a hoof under Twilight's chin, lifting her head so she can meet Twilight's eyes, "Feels the same. And is waiting for us outside, along with Cadence, whenever you are ready."

Twilight swallows, sniffling again, "Cadence is here?"

"Indeed," Celestia replies, "and though I have kept her in the loop via messenger regarding most of what has happened, she is quite eager to see that you are safe herself, and to hear from you firsthoof what fresh insanity Ponyville has now managed to draw upon itself."

Twilight giggles, wiping the last of the tears from her eyes as a smile flickers across her face, "I can imagine, but… maybe a few more minutes?"

Celestia's billowing tail shifts to flow around Twilight, covering anything below Twilight's head not already hidden by her wing, "Of course."

Twilight sighs, allowing her eyes to close once more, this time nothing reaching her senses other than Celestia's encompassing presence. After a time however, she stands, Celestia rising as well and following her out of the library.

"Twilight!" Cadence calls out, quickly crossing the few steps separating them as soon as said alicorn exits the castle library, "Are you alright?"

Twilight meets Cadence's eyes, concern written into every bend and crease of the latter's frowning expression.

"Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake," Twilight chants after a moment, prancing in place before laying on the ground with her hooves over her eyes.

"Clap your hooves and do a little shake!" Cadence continues, a relieved smile spreading across her face as she joins in the second half of their customary greeting, the pair of them tapping each other's hooves and wiggling their hindquarters at each other.

Taking a deep breath once their greeting is complete, Cadence lets out a long sigh, "I assume you're fine then? Aunt Celestia has been keeping me up to date as far as what's been going on in Ponyville, but with vamponies and changelings and Sombra all showing up at once and Rainbow almost dying, I was still worried… "

"I am completely fine," Twilight confirms. "More than fine, in fact. Between the vamponies, the changelings, and a whole bunch of stuff Celestia and Luna told me about alicorns and the Everfree Forest earlier today, I can't wait to be able to get back and do some research! I haven't had this many new ideas and theories to investigate since… well… I don't know, actually, but it's been a long time."

Cadence glances to Celestia, the solar alicorn standing behind Twilight, "You gave her the Everfree Speech, it sounds like?"

Twilight's brow knits, "The 'Everfree Speech'?"

Celestia nods, "We did, yes."

Cadence quirks an eyebrow, "That's definitely a lot earlier than you told me."

Luna snorts, "It was not entirely by our own choice. For whatever reason, Discord decided that the night before Twilight came with me to Canterlot was a good time to prime her curiosity on the matter."

Discord weaves his way out of the library and across the floor like a snake, wrapping himself around Celestia's barrel, "And I'll have you know, I had a very good reason for bringing that up."

"That reason being… ?" Luna queries.

"No," Discord replies.

Luna blinks.

Discord waves his response aside, "Oh, sorry, I was expecting you to ask using different words, like 'and were you planning on telling us, or… ?'. So, no, I'm not. But I'm sure one of you will figure it out soon enough on your own. After all, it only took me a few days to realize it."

Celestia sighs, resting her face on a forehoof for several seconds before speaking, "In any case… although I know you would like to catch up with Twilight on everything that has occurred, Cadence, perhaps that can happen on the way to our destination?"

"Of course," Cadence replies, dipping her head. "After you, Auntie."

"And Fluttershy," Cadence asks, "I heard that she's actually a changeling?"

Twilight nods, beaming, "Yup! And not just any changeling either – she's a changeling princess!"

"And you're… okay with that?" Cadence queries.

Twilight shrugs, "I mean, I was a little miffed at first, but she's my friend because of who she is, no matter what she is. The emotion eating thing is still a little weird to think about, but… she obviously hasn't been hurting me or anypony else, and from the sound of things has mostly just been feeding on 'ambient' emotions, rather than directly draining emotions, which can definitely be harmful."

"Because of what happened to Big McIntosh," Cadence interjects.

"Well… yes," Twilight replies, faltering for an instant before her train of thought picks back up. "Though apparently, according to Fluttershy, friendship tastes like 'honeyed hazelnuts roasted over an open fire', which is both pretty awesome and utterly fascinating. She described other emotions in terms of food too, so I've been theorizing that maybe changelings have a sort of natural synesthesia whereby their emotion feeding triggers the same pathways as regular physical food does. Of course, it's also possible that she was just trying to draw a comparison that I'd be able to understand since their emotional perception is an entire sense that no other pony tribe has. It's at the top of my list of questions to ask her about." She giggles, "It's a very long list. Also included, whether or not love tastes like chocolate."

"Uh huh," Cadence replies, her smile strained. "Well… I'm… glad you're safe, at least."

In front of them, Celestia and Luna slow to a halt, Discord still coiled around Celestia's barrel as she turns to look at her younger peers, "And, not to interrupt, but we have arrived."

Stepping to the side, Luna lowers her horn, pushing it into a nondescript hole in the wall next to a wooden door – the door itself indistinguishable from any of the other doors throughout most of the castle, with the exception of its lack of a knob. Luna's magic pulses, after several seconds a deep clunk sounding from the door, faint vibrations from its unlocking able to be felt even through the castle's stone floor.

Utterly silently, the door swings inward, Celestia moving aside as well and raising a hoof, "Welcome… to our treaty room."

Cadence and Twilight walk past their elders, Cadence continuing inward while Twilight stops a few steps inside, her eyes wide, "Wow… "

White marble makes up the entirety of the room, the walls, floor, and ceiling seemingly sculpted out of a single enormous block of the stone, leaving not a single seam or crack visible anywhere. Water meanwhile flows out of a small, circular hole on either side of the doorway, a moon carved above one while a sun is carved above the other, their water following a path carved into the wall to the floor and then out across the room. Each tiny stream makes a 90 degree turn away from the other after crossing a quarter of the room's length, both continuing to the left and right for several feet before then returning to their previous direction of travel – continuing across the next half of the room prior to making another 90 degree turn, this time towards each other. The two streams then combine, together flowing across the remainder of the room and into a grated hole in front of a pair of glass doors leading to a balcony, curving floral patterns carved into the glass itself.

Within the rectangle outlined by this flowing water sits a table fit for a legend, its originally smooth, deep brown surface a few inches thick and now marred by numerous dents and stains. Figures carved into the edge facing Twilight depict the rise and fall of the Sirens, and the table itself is supported by a single foot thick enough to be a column in its own right. A ballpoint pen sits in the center of the table, below it several sheets of pristine paper along with a set of envelopes to the right and an official wax seal stamp to the left. Above the table and its letter writing supplies, a domed ceiling rises, a small, circular window to the outside carved into the dome every 45 degrees and labeled with the corresponding direction, small tick marks in the stone between each window completing a giant compass rose. Maps meanwhile take up much of the space on the walls at eye level, some showing high level views of an entire region while many more cover a much smaller region in much greater detail – several yellowed and falling apart from age, though most are new enough to have been freshly printed.

A chandelier hangs from the center of the domed ceiling, each of its many arms taking the form of a dragon's neck and head, magical fire held in each of the dragon's mouths providing all of the room's light save for what little the rays of the dying sunset manage to provide.

Celestia and Luna pause on either side of Twilight, Celestia chuckling, "It is, perhaps, a bit much, but I have found it works wonders for keeping my sanity while working through some of the more infuriating and-or inane requests from nobles and foreign dignitaries."

"By which my sister mostly means the griffons," Luna adds. "By which I mean one griffon in particular. One whom we very dearly hope is no longer wandering our castle."

Celestia shakes her head, "He is not. I tossed Ozymandias out a couple days ago. Not literally, of course, but I may end up needing to ship a few of his things back to him."

Discord's coils shift, the draconequus following the curve of Celestia's neck to rest his chin on her head, "I did offer to do it instead, but Celly refused, even though she could've told everyone it was just 'Discord being Discord' and no one would've doubted her… "

Luna rolls her eyes, "A shame you did not take Discord up on his proposal."

"You wanted to replace his wings with chicken wings and throw him out of the highest window of the tallest tower," Celestia deadpans, giving her passenger a flat look.

"The proper term is 'defenestrate'," Discord corrects, lifting his head and crossing his arms, "and it's not like I would've let him actually hit the ground. He would’ve landed safe and sound in a giant cube of jello, or maybe the world’s largest bowl of spinach."

Luna smirks, "Truly then, 'tis a shame you did not take him up on his proposal. But, lost opportunities aside, I believe it is time, Tia."

Celestia exhales sharply, but nods, "Indeed."

The Royal Sisters briskly cross to the other side of the room, both exiting through the glass doors to stand on the balcony – Celestia turning left to face west towards the setting sun while Luna faces east towards the deepening purple of the opposite horizon. A moment later, their horns glow, the air around Cadence and Twilight thrumming faintly with the magical power of their elders.

"No matter how many times you see it, it never really gets old, does it?" Cadence comments.

Twilight shakes her head, "No, it doesn't. Though it does feel a little strange now, watching them while knowing they actually came from the sun and moon. Like I wasn't quite seeing them clearly before, and now I am."

Cadence smiles, "I had the same reaction too, at first, when Celestia told me that part about herself and her sister. Though… she did leave out the part about Sombra and his undead vamponies, and Luna was still on the moon at the time. Just remember that they're still the same two ponies you've always known them to be, even if they did somehow pop into existence out of nowhere thousands of years ago on massive, orbiting balls of solid arcane energy."

Twilight laughs, "Well, when you put it like that… "

Luna pushes the balcony door open, stepping inside along with Celestia, "Did we miss something?"

"Nothing much," Cadence replies, shrugging.

Uncoiling himself from Celestia's body like a wet noodle slipping from a fork, Discord slithers to the head of the table like a snake, popping back above it wielding a gavel and wearing a judge's wig. A sounding block appears on the table, Discord solemnly whacking it with his gavel three times, "Order in the room! This letter writing session is now in… uh… session."

All four alicorn princesses gather at the table, Cadence sitting on one of the table's long sides opposite Celestia and closer to Discord while Twilight sits to her left and opposite Luna. Once seated, they turn to Discord, waiting expectantly.

Discord glances at the pen and paper in the table's center, after a split second tossing the gavel behind him, "Well, I'm bored."

Snapping his claws, he vanishes from the room, Twilight groaning and Luna rolling her eyes while Celestia giggles.

"Also," Discord says, popping into existence behind Celestia still wearing the wig, "unrelatedly, I have need of your tail."

"You know the rules of exchange," Celestia replies, smiling coyly.

Discord sighs, grabbing both of his horns and popping them off his head as though they were attached with suction cups, dropping them on the table in front of Celestia, "Yes, yes, here you go. You and your rules."

Reaching down, he effortlessly pulls Celestia's tail from her body, reattaching its base between his shoulder blades and pressing the flowing, ethereal material making up the rest of the tail along either side out to his shoulders. His preparations complete, Discord salutes, his cape billowing behind him as he disappears with another snap of his claws.

Twilight glances between Celestia and the empty space Discord used to occupy, the crease between her eyebrows slowly becoming more and more pronounced, "…what just happened?"

Celestia blushes.

"Our sister can update you on the nature of her relationship with Discord later, if she so chooses," Luna interjects smoothly. "For now though, we must focus our attention on the letter we must write to the changeling queens. We do not have the luxury of delaying it any longer."

Celestia clears her throat, pulling the writing materials towards herself with her magic, "Indeed, thank you, Luna. I believe we should start with the standard diplomatic greeting, despite the circumstances. Does anypony have any objections?"

Putting her pen to paper when none present voice their opposition, she speaks in time with her writing, "Unto her Majesty, Queen of the Hive, Our Royal Highnesses Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence, and Princess Twilight Sparkle send greetings and salutations on behalf of the nation of Equestria."

"And Prince Shining Armor," Cadence adds.

Celestia nods, inserting Shining Armor's name after his wife's, "Ah, right, of course."

"We would also like my name to be written first this time," Luna says, "as nearly always yours is written before mine."

Celestia sends Luna a flat look.

Luna folds her forelegs, "Of Equestrian royalty, we are also the one who has had the least personal contact with any changelings, and the only one who has had no previous negative contact with them. Putting my name first will set a more open and conciliatory tone, especially given the actions of our thestrals in Ponyville a couple of nights ago compared to those of the Royal Guard."

Celestia hesitates, then sighs, crossing our their names and writing them again with Luna's first, "Fair enough."

Twilight glances between the Royal Sisters, tapping her hooves together nervously, "Also, shouldn't it be 'a hive' rather than 'the hive'? There is more than one hive in Equestria, after all."

Celestia shakes her head, "That is true, but we are only addressing one queen per letter, so it is 'the hive' as in 'the hive you lead', since we don't have any more specific information available to us."

"Alright," Twilight says, glancing between them, "then should it be 'Equestrian hive' rather than just 'hive'?"

Celestia smiles, again shaking her head, "While that would be more accurate geographically speaking, we don't yet know if they think of themselves that way, or if they instead think of themselves as wholly independent and separate entities from our country. That is, of course, what we are going to require they accept during the negotiations themselves, but effectively stating as much on this letter's first line could be taken as us already assuming such acceptance is a given and further as us attempting to assert our control over them."

Luna nods, "This needs to come across as a request for an open discussion of what we want the outcome to be, not as a demand to meet so they can officially surrender their autonomy to us."

"Right, sorry," Twilight replies, wilting.

"There is nothing to apologize for," Celestia says, placing her pen on the table beside the draft of the letter. "You are learning this kind of thing for the very first time, and I am glad that you are putting enough thought into it to have suggestions of your own, rather than just waiting and watching what we do." She passes the draft to Luna, "For now, though, everypony is alright with the greeting?"

Luna reads the letter, passing it on to Twilight after several seconds, "We have no objections."

Twilight follows suit, reading the couple lines currently written and passing it on to Cadence, Cadence likewise reading it before passing it back to Celestia.

Levitating her pen, Celestia continues speaking aloud, "While you may already be aware of some or all of what has happened to prompt our writing of this letter, our current understanding of the preceding situation, as well as other, less recent events, is as follows." She pauses, glancing among the other princesses, "To the best of our knowledge, changelings are not new arrivals to Equestria. Either you, or your ancestors, have had a presence among the rest of us ponies for a very long time – since at least before the windigos appeared. However-"

"Hold on a minute," Cadence interrupts. "Since when have we known this? Nopony told me about this."

Celestia blinks, "Did I not? I could have sworn I included it in one of the messages I sent to you a couple of days ago… well, no matter. Queen Amaranth mentioned this, Cadence, stating that the windigos' invasion resulted in the loss of many of their hives as well as much of their history before that time."

"And you believed her?!" Cadence demands, aghast, "Just like that?"

"I did," Celestia replies, her expression unchanged. "Everything I have seen and heard so far indicates that Queen Chrysalis acted alone. The other queens, and their changelings, have been living among us peacefully; Fluttershy, whose accomplishments are well known; Cheerilee, who, according to everything I've ever heard about her, is one of the best teachers Ponyville has ever had; and Bon Bon, whose marefriend stayed with her, still loves her, and kept her secret even after finding out she was a changeling in the wake of the Invasion of Canterlot – a fact Bon Bon revealed out of guilt over what had happened. One of Fluttershy's parents is even a pegasus."

"As far as you know and according only to them," Cadence retorts. "No new information they've brought up, at least as far as I recall being been told, can be or has been independently verified as being true. We have only their word on all of this, and that isn't good enough for me."

Celestia frowns, "I realize that such a small sample may not be indicative of their wider activities or intentions, and that you in particular have an especially negative history with changelings, but the fact of the matter is that there has not yet been anything apparent to me that would imply any of the changelings we have spoken to were lying. If nothing else, Fluttershy is a bearer for the Element of Kindness, which should-"

"As you yourself told me, Auntie," Cadence interrupts, "the Elements promote 'harmony'. There is no reason to believe that Equestria will always be on the benefiting end of that magic, or that the changelings either haven't or won't find a way to co-opt them for their own benefit in the future. In fact, maybe they already have – one of Equestria's greatest means of defense is already dependent upon a member of changeling royalty. Not to mention that their entire species is fundamentally dedicated to mental manipulation and deception-"

"Cadence," Celestia says calmly, her words cutting through her niece's outrage with ease despite the volume of her voice remaining unchanged. "Luna and I are in agreement that this letter will state our desire to meet with the changeling queens in order to negotiate their official inclusion in Equestria as a member of one of its tribes, just as the earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns are, as the thestrals and crystal ponies are in the process of becoming, and as we hope we can one day also offer to the vamponies. So while we do very much want your input on this letter, that does not extend to changing its tone from being conciliatory to being overtly hostile. Will you be able to sign your name to such a letter?"

Cadence glares at Celestia for a long moment, abruptly turning to the remaining princess in the room, "Twilight, what do you think?"

"O-Oh," Twilight stammers, "uhhhhh… I think… um, wellll… Whether we like it or not, we don't have anything that implies they are lying either. At least, I don't think we do. So, I don't think anypony being openly hostile does any of us any good. Plus, if they did want to do something to hurt us or Equestria, they've definitely had both the time and the opportunity, especially given that at least one of their queens is disguised as somepony who is frequently in Canterlot and as part of her job would have been given access to all sorts of nobles, parts of the castle, and even all of us without any questions being asked."

Luna smiles, "Well said. We would also like to further point out that this is not a blind display of trust. If the information Queen Amaranth gave us is true, then the other queens will know there are one or more changelings already providing us with information, and as such will be less likely to attempt to deceive us themselves. Or if, on the other hoof, the information she gave us should prove false, it will at least provide us with additional leverage to have caught them in such a lie."

Cadence glances between the other princesses, leaning back after a moment, "Fine."

Celestia sighs, "Cadence, I don't want you to say you support this only because-"

"I said I am fine with it, Celestia," Cadence states curtly. "However, please change my name on the greeting to Mi Amore Cadenza."

Celestia winces, but nods, "Very well. In that case, continuing from where we left off… However, just over a week ago as of this writing, we discovered another tribe of pony whom you may be familiar with – the vamponies. Simultaneously, King Sombra was found in Ponyville, somehow still alive despite our best efforts. During the events surrounding both of these occurrences, one of Ponyville's changelings was discovered by Princess Twilight. Another was soon revealed, and later that same night a third willingly revealed herself to Princess Twilight."

She pauses, pen hovering over the letter as she looks around the table, "It was at this time that we first learned that Queen Chrysalis is not 'The' Queen of the Changelings, but rather, 'A' Queen of the Changelings, and that there are in fact eight other changeling queens, each with their own independent hive. It is our understanding that she acted alone, without the support of any other hive. It is also our understanding that these hives reside within what is recognized as Equestrian territory."

Luna leans forward, resting her elbows on the table, "We would suggest adding that Sombra has once again been dealt with, this time via imprisonment. Though that this has been done via a barrier capable of containing even one of us is perhaps best left out."

"Good idea," Celestia replies, scanning the letter and quickly jotting down the change. "Another was soon revealed following Sombra once again being defeated and imprisoned."

Ending her edit with a flourish, Celestia passes the draft of the letter on to Luna, her sister nodding once and passing it to Twilight.

Twilight reads through the draft, passing it to Cadence once finished, "You wrote, 'a queen of the changlings', rather than 'changelings'."

"Ah, good catch," Celestia replies, ignoring a snicker from her sister. "Cadence?"

Cadence skims the draft, levitating it back to Celestia after several seconds, "I have nothing to add."

"Alright," Celestia says, taking the letter in her magic and placing it in front of herself once more. "Continuing on then… While we respect that the changeling hives have not caused any trouble that we are aware of for thousands of years, and while we are also grateful for any assistance the hives may have given Equestria during that time, we do not view the current situation as a tenable one. The attempted invasion and conquest of Equestria by Queen Chrysalis demonstrates all too well why the current relationship between Equestria and the changeling hives, specifically the lack-"

"The lack of any official relationship," Cadence interjects brusquely. "Otherwise I'm sure they'll be quick to point out all sorts of instances that have been going on without us knowing it was them."

"Thank you, Cadence," Celestia states, inserting the word. "The attempted invasion and conquest of Equestria by Queen Chrysalis demonstrates all too well why the current official relationship between Equestria and the changeling hives, specifically the lack of any such relationship, is no longer acceptable, if it could ever have truly been considered acceptable in the first place. More generally, the simple fact is that we do not consider having what amounts to several completely independent, and militarily active, micronations operating within our nation of Equestria to be an acceptable state of affairs. As such, though we have no ill intentions toward any changeling and understand that Queen Chrysalis acted alone, a meeting between us and all hive queens is required in order to come to an official agreement that will be beneficial to both Equestria and the hives it hosts."

She glances at Cadence, "Objections?"

Cadence shrugs, "I am not sure saying we have no ill intentions towards any changeling is consistent with then saying we understand Chrysalis acted alone."

Celestia nods, scribbling in a few more words, "…have no ill intentions towards any changelings not involved in the Invasion of Canterlot."

"And the kidnapping of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and the brainwashing of Prince Shining Armor," Cadence adds.

Celestia looks up from the letter draft, "That is rather strongly implied by 'the Invasion of Canterlot'."

"I want it stated explicitly," Cadence states, maintaining eye contact.

After a moment, Celestia relents, inserting the additional text, "Anything else?"

Twilight raises a hoof, "It should be 'or', not 'and'."

Celestia and Cadence turn to stare at Twilight.

Twilight blinks, "What?"

Celestia scratches out and replaces the incorrect logical operators, tapping her chin with the inkless end of the pen, "Alright then… hm… "

Luna's magic surrounds the pen's tip, "May we?"

Celestia leans away from the table, her magical aura disappearing from the rest of the pen, "By all means."

Luna's magic envelopes the pen and paper, moving both to be in front of her, "In order to more quickly facilitate setting up this meeting, we would like to establish an official communication channel between ourselves and each queen, whether it be through messengers, magically directed correspondence, or any other method in which responses can be sent and received both consistently and within a reasonable time frame. Please reply to this letter via the method you would prefer to use."

Celestia's magic retakes control of the pen and paper as Luna passes them back to her, again glancing around the table, "Is there anything else anypony would like to add?"

Silence answers her question, Celestia returning her attention to the letter after several seconds, "In that case… 'Awaiting your response' for the valediction, and then our signatures."

Her horn pulses, the magical aura around the letter growing brighter as the letter's ink flows together in tiny rivulets connecting each individual character, like the letter had been written with a brush of watercolor paint rather than a pen. Words grow and shrink as the ink adjusts itself, additions growing larger and shifting to fit into the line they had been added to while anything that had been crossed out disappears entirely.

Celestia passes the letter to Luna once more after a minute of concentration, the letter now looking as though it had been cleanly written in a single pass, "So, here is the full text of the letter, and the last chance for anypony to make any suggestions."

Unto Her Majesty, Queen of the Hive,

Our Royal Highnesses, Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Prince Shining Armor, and Princess Twilight Sparkle send greetings and salutations on behalf of the nation of Equestria,

While you may already be aware of some or all of what has happened to prompt our writing of this letter, our current understanding of the preceding situation, as well as other, less recent events, is as follows.

To the best of our knowledge, changelings are not new arrivals to Equestria. Either you, or your ancestors, have had a presence among the rest of us ponies for a very long time – since at least before the windigos appeared. However, just over a week ago as of this writing, we discovered another tribe of pony whom you may be familiar with – the vamponies. Simultaneously, King Sombra was found in Ponyville, somehow still alive despite our best efforts. During the events surrounding both of these occurrences, one of Ponyville's changelings was discovered by Princess Twilight. Another was soon revealed following Sombra once again being defeated and imprisoned, and later that same night a third willingly revealed herself to Princess Twilight.

It was at this time that we first learned that Queen Chrysalis is not 'The' Queen of the
Changelings, but rather, 'A' Queen of the Changelings, and that there are in fact eight other changeling queens, each with their own independent hive. It is our understanding that she acted alone, without the support of any other hive. It is also our understanding that these hives reside within what is recognized as Equestrian territory.

While we respect that the changeling hives have not caused any trouble that we are aware of for thousands of years, and while we are also grateful for any assistance the hives may have given Equestria during that time, we do not view the current situation as a tenable one. The attempted invasion and conquest of Equestria by Queen Chrysalis demonstrates all too well why the current official relationship between Equestria and the changeling hives, specifically the lack of any such relationship, is no longer acceptable if it could ever have truly been considered acceptable in the first place. More generally, the simple fact is that we do not consider having what amounts to several completely independent, and militarily active, micronations operating within our nation of Equestria to be an acceptable state of affairs. As such, while we have no ill intentions toward any changeling not involved in the Invasion of Canterlot or the kidnapping of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza or the brainwashing of Prince Shining Armor and understand that Queen Chrysalis acted alone, a meeting between us and all hive queens is required in order to come to an official agreement that will be beneficial to both Equestria and the hives it hosts.

In order to more quickly facilitate setting up this meeting, we would like to establish an official communication channel between ourselves and each queen, whether it be through messengers, magically directed correspondence, or any other method in which responses can be sent and received both consistently and within a reasonable time frame. Please reply to this letter via the method you would prefer to use.

Awaiting your response,

Luna reads through the letter slowly, passing it on to Twilight with a nod once complete – Twilight doing the same, though her eyes narrow as she rereads the final paragraph a second time before levitating it over to Cadence. For her part, Cadence skims through the letter, pausing for a long moment at the end, though ultimately she releases a weary sigh and nods, passing the letter to Celestia.

Celestia smiles, spreading eight of the extra sheets of paper out in front of her while lifting the draft with her magic to hover over the empty sheets. Her horn pulses again, this time the text of the letter sinking through the paper to hang suspended in the air an inch beneath it, the floating sentences duplicating themselves seven times after another pulse to create eight identical copies, each slowly descending to merge with one of the waiting blank sheets below. The original draft sparks into flame an instant later, disintegrating to leave not even ash behind.

"And there we have it," Celestia says. "Now if only Shining Armor were here, we could complete the signing. I had expected him to be here by now, to be honest, especially seeing as we started much later than I originally intended."

*knockknockknock*

Luna giggles, "It would seem he is still as prompt to answer your summons as when he served in your guard, sister."

Celestia rolls her eyes, turning to the door, "Open!"

Permission given, the door noiselessly follows her command, Shining Armor stepping into the room, "Hello, everypony. I'm not too late, am I?"

Celestia shakes her head, "In fact we just finished. All that's left is for each of us to sign each copy of the letter."

Shining Armor freezes mid step, his eyes glued to Celestia's tailless hindquarters. Closing his eyes in a slow blink, he turns his focus instead to the princesses on the opposite side of the table, trotting over to stand between his wife and his sister – giving the former a nuzzle, "Awesome. It took a bit longer to wrap things up than I expected, so I was worried you were going to have completely finished before I even got here."

He turns to Twilight, "And I'm sure Cadence asked you this already, but you're okay? I know Ponyville has had tons of crazy things happen, but from what I've been hearing, what's going on now is still out of the ordinary. Changelings, vamponies, Sombra… "

Twilight embraces her brother in a quick hug, beaming when she steps away, "She did, and I'm fine. Rainbow Dash was actually the one in the most danger out of all of us, but she's fine, I'm fine, and honestly everything is going pretty well now overall."

Cadence peers over Shining's shoulder, "She's very excited about the research prospects."

"I'm sure," Shining Armor laughs. "Just… keep your guard up, alright? Sombra may be imprisoned, but the vamponies sound like they could be really dangerous if they wanted to be, and the changelings… well… "

Twilight's mood falters, her levity replaced with reproachfulness, "Shining… "

Shining Armor sighs, "I know you've known the ponies who turned out to be changelings for a few years now, and I know you probably think Cadence and I are biased, but please just keep an eye out, okay? Those three changelings may all be very nice ponies, but the rest of their hives, and their queens, may not be, and the last thing I want to get is a letter from Celestia saying you've been kidnapped and replaced."

Twilight nods, "I promise, BBBFF."

Shining Armor grins, "Thanks, LSBFF."

Luna clears her throat, "Forgive us for interrupting, but we were informed there was a 'witch hunt' in the Crystal Empire, and we are curious what has happened. Though we assume that whatever it was, it was not in keeping with its original definition in ancient times regarding the persecution of unicorns?"

Cadence rolls her eyes, Shining Armor letting out a derisive snort, "Not even close. There was an accident in an apothecary's shop, which resulted in them inhaling a bunch of fumes they really shouldn't have, and they promptly went utterly insane, deciding they were actually Sombra's reincarnation whose sole purpose was to bring misery to the whole world – starting with the crystal ponies. The rest of the crystal ponies heard 'Sombra' and immediately panicked, quickly forming a mob – torches, pitchforks, the works – meanwhile the apothecary'd been running around the city chucking potions at random, causing all sorts of other problems. Long story short, the crystal ponies are calming down, the apothecary was captured and is safely coming down off of whatever cocktail of drugs she inhaled, and the city should be cleaned up in a couple of days."

Silence engulfs the room, Twilight the first to break it, "…what?"

Luna's composure gives out a split second later, the Alicorn of the Night falling to her side in a fit of laughter.

"W-Well," Celestia states, her lips wobbling dangerously, "that is… unexpected, to… t-to… " She purses her lips, swallowing, "That is not at all what I was expecting you to say."

Shining Armor raises an eyebrow, "I was expecting you'd say that."

Cadence groans, Celestia giving him a flat look.

Shining Armor glances over the table at each of the completed letters, "Anyway, you said you've finished writing the letters?"

Celestia picks up one of Discord's horns, prodding her still gasping sister, "We have."

Shining Armor levitates one of the copies over to himself, reading through it then glancing at his wife, "And you're okay with this, Cadence?"

Cadence hesitates, then shrugs, "It is not what I would have written, were I to do it alone, but I would still rather have my name on it than not."

"Hm… " Shining Armor murmurs, considering the text before him. "Well, I guess I'm okay with it too then." He glances at the still apparently empty spot opposite Twilight, "Though I think Luna needs to be the first to sign these, seeing as her name is first on the greeting."

Celestia levitates Discord's other horn as well, both poking at Luna's exposed underbelly.

"Enough, enough," Luna protests, hauling herself to a sitting position – her breath still not fully caught as her magical aura surrounds each of the eight letters. "You shall cease poking us with Discord's horns, Tia!"

Quickly signing her name to each of the letters in an elegant, flowing script, Luna passes the small stack of paper onward, each member of the assembled royalty signing their name in the order they appear in the greeting – Celestia matching Luna's graceful signature while Cadence, Shining Armor, and Twilight use a simpler cursive. Once Twilight signs her name to the final letter, Celestia levitates the stack to herself, folding each into an envelope and stamping it shut with the Equestrian seal before sending two off in puffs of magical smoke.

"And now," she says, "to give the rest of these to our resident changeling queen."