Seven ponies stood before the currently empty throne in Canterlot castle; Princesses Celestia, Luna and Cadance, along with Solar Guard Captain Shining Armor and Lunar Guard Captain Vladimir Vespertilio. Beside the two captains stood their executive officers.

Celestia addressed the group. “You all know why we’re here, recently our city came under attack by a previously unknown species called changelings, and the queen replaced my niece, Princess Cadance and brought down the shield meant to protect us. Now we must decide on our response.”

“Your highness,” Vladimir addressed with a bow. “There are stories stemming all the way back to the ancient thestral colony, well before the formation of Equestria, that detail such creatures. Perhaps research into the ancient literature could provide some information on the species?”

Celestia nodded in agreement, but it was Luna who answered. “Very well, Captain. I will have some of our scholars look into it.”

Vladimir nodded, but he shuffled on his hooves, looking as if there was something else he wanted to say, but was unsure how to say it.

“Is there something more, Captain?” Celestia asked.

“Yes, there is. You see there are some… disturbing rumors going around the city, and even has started to leak into the rest of Equestria. Some of the guards who fought against the changelings in the castle claim that they witnessed your student, Twilight Sparkle, turn into one of… them. What I want to know is… is it true?”

Celestia inwardly cursed, she had hoped that information would stay between them a little while longer; now she would need to make a public statement before the rumors got out of control.

“Yes Captain, it's true,” Celestia sighed. “However, I must iterate that I do not believe she had anything to do with the attack, and was taken very much against her will. Her rescue is one of the things we must discuss.”

“Discuss? There’s nothing to discuss!” Shining Armor’s XO, Commander Broad Sword, suddenly blurted out. “These creatures have made a declaration of war on Equestria, we should assault their hideout, and burn their chitin clad flanks off the face of Equus.”

“Commander, that is enough!” Shining Armor barked.

Princess Celestia gave Broad Sword a hard disapproving glare. “We are not monsters, Commander. And may I remind you that in reality the changelings didn’t kill a single pony throughout their entire ‘invasion’. While they may have acted hostile against us, under the circumstances I will not commit to any hard military action until we have more information to go on.”

Broad Sword went to say something else, but the glares of everypony around him stopped the words ever forming. “My apologies, I spoke out of line.”

Luna continued the discussion. “Now, we know that the hive is located in the Badlands, though knowing exactly where in the region is another matter. A diplomatic team is currently off the table, so I recommend sending in a small three pony recon team into the Badlands to scout out for the hive.

Shining Armor stepped forward, “I volunteer for this mission your highness. Changeling or no changeling, that’s my sister out there and I will find her.”

Vlad nodded in agreement, “I also volunteer. You will need the best for such a mission. No rookie could survive the hardships of the Badlands, and I have the added bonus of being able to see in the dark. Our XOs can lead the Royal Guard in our absence, we trained them well enough.”

“I agree with Captain Vespertilio,” Shining added. “The commanders have proven themselves capable over the years, and should be able to lead effectively enough without us.”

Luna nodded. “Which leaves only the third member in question.”

The group mused for a few moments before Celestia spoke. “I suggest we assign an experienced soldier, somepony from the EUP military with experience in recon and tracking. If I recall correctly, Sergeant Longshot of the 4th Cavalry, would make a good choice.” The closest thing to a smile graced Celestia’s face for the first time of the day, as she remembered how she met the Sergeant. “And as an earth pony, he will complement the group nicely.”

“Good idea,” Cadance said. “With the unrest down in Canterlot, we can hardly spare any more guards than we have to. On the other hoof, the military is seldom used these days. Aside from the occasional monster attack, or rogue griffon raiding party it spends all its time training, so its soldiers should be readily available.”

Vladimir chuckled, “Yes, well that’s the thing; we haven’t had a major fight since the Griffon Expansion Wars, shortly before the fall of Nightmare Moon - no offense intended your highness,” Vladimir quickly added.

“None taken, Captain,” Luna reassured. “I will have this Sergeant Longshot re-assigned at once, anything else?”

“Only what the guard should do in the meantime,” Shining added. “There could be more of these infiltrations all around Equestria.”

Broad Sword spoke up. “I recommend we have the Canterlot Royal Guard, and the City Guard forces of other towns begin investigations into any and all possible changeling infiltrations, or weird cases. We can’t have threats such as these walking around Equestria freely. As for the towns without any major policing force, we can assign some EUP regiments to take control of these towns and perform their own investigations.”

Celestia pondered this for a few moments, before answering. “I agree, the Royal Guard and City forces will begin investigations, however I will not install martial law onto the smaller towns like Ponyville.”

“Then, your highness, how shall we investigate these towns? We can hardly spare any guards from Canterlot.”

“We can’t, at least not until things have calmed down a little. When that has happened, we will be able to spare a few platoons to perform investigations. The smaller settlements are not likely to have been targeted, unless they have strategic value. I also want to reiterate that all discovered changelings shall be captured, not killed, or unnecessarily harmed. Is that understood?”

“Yes, your highness!” Both commanders saluted the Solar Princess.

‘The fool is too soft, how are the guard supposed to get anything done if she coddles the population to such a degree?’ Broad Sword mused to himself. 'No matter, it won't interfere with my plans.'

“That is all, you are dismissed.”

The next day, Fort Harmony, just south of Manehatten

Fort Harmony was currently home to the 4th Earth-Pony Cavalry, the 5th Pegasi Rangers, and 1st Royal Engineers, along with a few Wonderbolts that were giving the Rangers a special training session in advanced aerial combat. The EUP personnel wore silver combat armour. It looked the same as the gold and blue of the Solar and Lunar Guard, but was far more durable.

The base was alive today. With the recent event is Canterlot, every base was on high alert, and the reservists had been called in. This meant that the base was slightly over stocked with troops. The sound of drills being run, the stomping of hooves on tarmac, and the Drill Sergeant's shouting filled the air. Or as Sergeant Longshot called it, music to his ears.

Longshot, a light brown earth pony with a short black mane, was currently enjoying a free slot in his timetable, and he walked across the base with a scoped crossbow was slung over his back. He had chosen to pay a visit to his pal in the Engineer Core, Solid Sapper. While he claimed that he had gone to the motor pool to see his friend, that wasn’t the whole truth.

The real reason was he wanted to gawk at the new toys the base had received. Meeting up with Solid, he was taken to look at one of the new helicopters that had recently been assigned to a select few bases around Equestria. Currently, only two were requisitioned to Fort Harmony. It was a long slender craft with two large open bay doors just behind the cockpit, out of which could be fitted two large repeater crossbow turrets. Longshot was a stallion who prided himself on accuracy, especially at range, but the idea of using a weapon that big still made him feel like a foal in a candy store.

His tour of the ‘bird’ was cut short as an armoured pony clanked up behind him. “Sergeant Longshot; of the 4th Earth Pony Cavalry?” a voice called out.

Longshot turned to see a Solar Guard Pegasus mare.

He was surprised to see a royal this far from Canterlot, but when he caught sight of the single bar on her shoulder it stalled any questions. “That’s me ma’am,” he reported as he threw a salute. "What can I do for you?”

“You’re being reassigned, orders from Princess Luna herself,” the guard produced Longshot’s reassignment orders with the royal seal embellished on it.

“Re-assigned? Bloody hell, we haven’t pissed somepony off and started a war have we?” Longshot joked.

The guard raised an eyebrow at Longshot’s language, but chose to ignore it.

“Negative. All I know is you will be under the joint command of Captains Shining Armor and Vladimir Vespertilio, for a special mission into the Badlands. The details of this mission are on a need to know basis, and you will be briefed further on your arrival in Canterlot, and introduction to the princesses.”

Longshot’s lower jaw hit the ground. “The princesses are organizing this mission directly? I suppose I should feel honoured, when do I leave?”

“Immediately, I am to accompany you on the friendship express back to Canterlot.”

Longshot chuckled. “I know a quicker way.” *TINK TINK TINK* - He lightly tapped on the helicopter behind him.

“That… would work; we’ll speak to the base commander and have it cleared with air traffic control.”

“Awesome, I’ve always wanted to fly in one of these beauties; they need to see some use anyway.”

Solid just shook his head and wore a bemused expression. “Just don’t let him near the controls, and please, try and bring it back in one piece.”

The two left the helicopter behind as they trotted in the direction of air traffic control.

“So, do you know anything at all about what this mission entails?” Longshot questioned.

“It is, as I said, a very need to know mission. And I, for some reason, am not considered important enough to need to know!” the Lieutenant growled out.

“Ah.”

She chuckled slightly at his response. “Ah indeed, however, I do have a theory.”

“Go on.”

“Well, if I had to take a wild guess? The Inclusion of Captain Armor would likely suggest it has something to do with the fact that, well, his sister, and Princess Celestia’s personal protégé, turned out to be a changeling.”

“Wait… what?!”

“I know! I’m probably not supposed to say anything until the Princess’ formal announcement tomorrow, but yeah, there it is.”

“Damn, what the hell went down up there? Something tells me that the situation is hardly black and white though.”

“What do you mean, Sergeant?”

“Um, nevermind. I will find out the truth of the matter soon enough anyway,” Longshot said, pondering on this new information. He probably would’ve given the mare the inside scoop later, but she never told him her name.

Canterlot

Commander Broad Sword sat just outside the barracks speaking to one of his subordinates. He had assigned the only guards he knew he could trust to his unit. Currently, the Commander was conversing with another guard, a grey unicorn.

“How many now?” Broad Sword asked.

“Including us, thirty two overall have pledged to our cause. Around sixteen are actual guards while the rest are volunteers we are going to kit-up and give basic training.”

“Good, I know of a large cave near the Everfree Forest where we can set up shop; it’s both out the way and hidden enough that nopony should stumble across us by accident. Have the others outside of our unit, including the volunteers, meet there.”

“OK that leaves… eleven of us here, that's including us, while the other twenty one will go to the cave until they have further orders.”

A great rumbling sound suddenly graced their ears. It started far away, and then went right over them. Catching their attention, they looked up for the source and spotted an object flying through the sky over Canterlot.

“What they hay is that?”

“That, is a ‘helicopter’. A flying carriage for earth ponies and unicorns. On board would likely be the princesses’ latest pawn, Sergeant Longshot, arriving for his ever so ‘important’ mission.” Broad Sword sighed. “They would have us drinking tea with those monsters rather than dealing with the actual threat they pose!”

“Speaking of monsters, Private Monroe reported that a local pizza delivery pony has been acting weird, and may not be who he says he is.” The guard smirked while levitating a report towards Broad Sword.

“Huh, nice work.”

“What are your orders sir?”

“We know where he lives, discreetly gather the others. Tonight we will make sure his filth is cleansed from our streets, one insect at a time.”

The guard saluted before marching off to carry out his misguided orders.

Broad Sword went over the report one last time, before looking up to see the helicopter come in for a landing on the other side of the castle. “While the cat’s away, the mice shall play.”

Author's Notes:

Will Longshot find his true love? Will Broad Sword become a real boy? And will Celestia ever find the elusive cake of destiny?

Find out next time on: Change!