It wasn't a fast process to get the armor back on and straight again, but Shining cheated and used his magic whenever possible. By the time he had the helmet back on, his little sister and his guard were still chatting away, both now surrounded by books floating in various colors of magic. "Uh, sorry to cut in, Twily, Gilt." he lifted a covered hoof and rubbed behind his head. "Would you like to come out with us and have lunch?"

Gilt froze, her brain spinning with calculations and theories of magic. "Oh, uh…" She suddenly blushed. "Yes my Queen." A flash of green restored her "guard" form and had a surprised Twilight suddenly inspecting her.

"Oh wow! Can you do that again, slower?" Twilight not only didn't register what her brother had asked, but she was completely distracted by magic study that it took Cadance's blue magic wrapping around her and lifting her away from her new friend to get her attention.

"Why don't you come back to the Crystal Empire with us? Have a holiday and you can study with Gilt all you wish." Cadance set Twilight back down on her hooves. "But right now I want to have lunch with the best sister in the whole of Equestria."

Twilight's brain didn't make the connection immediately, but seeing a wide grin in her BBBFF's snout made her think through the way Cadance had spoken. "Sister?" She blinked, her eyes going wide as saucers. A loud POMF sound got everypony's attention, but it was Twilight, so excited that she teleported five feet to Cadance to hug her. "Of course we can have lunch, let me just clean this up!" A burst of magic issued forth, flooding the room and hitting all the books not presently on shelves. Not only did every book fly onto a shelf, but they did so to the correct spots too. "Done!"

In awe of her new friend, Gilt was trying to run the maths needed to make a spell that did that much telekinesis at once. "How did you do that?" She walked up to one shelf, checking a book that had returned to exactly the right spot.

"That is Twilight's Twist-sort." Twilight wore a proud grin.

"You made a spell?" Gilt looked at the mare with astonishment. "That is even more amazing! How did you do that?"

Shining looked over at his wife and got a droll expression back. "Hey, don't look at me, she's your sister too." The wave of love Shining got from Cadance made him grin wide and step over to her to kiss her.

Taking the offering, Cadance looked back at the two magic "geeks" and sighed. "We are going now, we need our guard to lead the way." She rolled her eyes to Shining and they both shared a giggle.

"Oh… uh… sorry Twilight." Gilt had to start trotting to get to the door before her queens.

"What are you apologizing for?" Twilight moved to keep up with the changeling. "Besides, I think I will take my sister," the unicorn got a warm tingle out of saying the word, "up on her deal. I have to document all these changes to my brother."

"You should see my-" Gilt cut short and coughed. "You should see my Princess' notes, she has been keeping a journal and everything. Every little detail, everything." Marching out the front door of the library, Gilt stepped out into the sun and gave a happy sigh. "Such a lovely day. Where are we going, Your Highnesses?"

"Twily would never forgive us if we didn't go to the Hayburger." Shining's armor made a few little clanking sounds as he walked, leading him to look down and adjust the straps on the leg-guards. "Ever since she found out about burgers I couldn't keep her away. 'BBBFF, I wan bewgar!' " he gave a credible "foal Twilight" impression, even with his deeper voice; which is what tipped him off to something. "Cady, my voice can go higher."

"So I heard." Cadance opened her pack and got out the scroll she had been using for the day. Like a shot a magenta unicorn was at her side. "You can read my notes when we get back home; my home. Today is for nice relaxing conversations with family."

Twilight's ears dipped a little and the sight almost broke Cadance's heart. "Alright, but I get to measure Shining completely when we get there," Twilight was already trying to gauge if her brother was any taller. Her mind raced trying to remember how big Chrysalis was.

Cadance spread her wing over Twilight's shoulders. "I had the best inspiration for taking notes, can you guess who it was?" Giving the mare a little squeeze with her wing, Cadance looked down at Twilight.

Giggling, Twilight nonetheless leaned into "pegasus hug" she was given. "I'm not a filly anymore Cadance, I am so happy to hear you kept reliable notes, though. All too often when something magical happens things could be fixed if only somepony noted the pattern the magic left in the air, or the smell the spell gave off when cast."

"I know you're not a filly, you saved all Equestria right before my eyes, and again twice before that." Cadance drew her wing back. "Aren't you going to ask?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Ask about?" Twilight stopped, along with Shining and Cadance, while Gilt opened the door and inspected the fast-food store for danger. "Wait, if Shining is…" Stopping to look around, Twilight returned her gaze to Cadance. "If he is doing the thing he is doing. Where does Gilt fit in to this? And why did she call you both 'queen'?"

"Very good questions, can you do a spell that makes everypony else unable to hear us?" Cadance started walking into the store.

"She can, you wouldn't believe how late she used to stay up, using a spell nopony her age should be able to cast, reading." Shining wore a big grin for his sister. Twilight rolled her eyes at him.

"An official visit by a princess!" The shout from inside heralded a few ponies behind the counter running into each other, most falling down. Finally, one managed to stand upright and looked dead ahead. "Can I take your order?"

Twilight's face lit up, she loved those words.

Careful strode with purpose from the train station toward the Crystal Empire's palace. Normally his choice would have been some shape small, common. Earth ponies were good for that, or crystal ponies here.

"Commander Shining Armor!" The bark of a trained soldier met his ear and Careful turned his naked head to look at the two Royal Guardsponies. "Shine, Dancing," he knew the guards quite well, having spent more than one day allocating their pay, "at ease. Anything to report?"

"Nothing unusual sir, we are doing as you suggested, trying to gather up visitors and escorting them to see the Crystal Heart; none have acted strange."

Careful froze at that, wondering when his queen had gotten that smart. "Good, good. Anything else?"

The tip of one spear, couched at Dancing's side, tilted forward. "Don't try to get away, we know our commander better than we know our fillyfriends. Walk ahead of us, towards the castle. Somepony there will know what to do with a changeling spy."

"Alright. Just… I won't run, or fly. I'll do what you say." Careful's heart fluttered a little as he marched toward the huge spire. Of Nimbus there was no sight. His hooves led him to one of the doors, and he was guided in.

"Gleaming? We have a situation." Dancing marched up alongside Careful. The guardstallion looked around before giving a nod. "We caught a changeling." The pride in the stallion was almost enough for Careful to feed off. "Impersonating our Commander!"

"Atrocious!" Gleaming Shine had appropriated a table in the main hall, to one side. With a bearer of an Element of Harmony present—and vouching for her—the mare's standing had gone up in leaps and bounds. She raised up to her full, impressive height. "What is your name, changeling?"

"Step, ma'am." Careful gave Gleaming a look he hoped would remind her who he was. Then a memory came to him and he lifted a hoof and bopped himself on the forehead.

"Step." Gleaming eyed Careful, wondering if it might have been Careful's second name. "I think I can take this from here. Shine, Dancing, great work, the Commander will hear of this." There was only one way for her to know and she didn't want anything revealed before the other guard.

The words were clearly dismissal, but neither stallion was willing to back down. Dancing opened his snout first, of the pair. "With due respect, Private, I believe all prisoners are to be kept in the cells, with anti-magic protection on them at all times, until the Princess or Commander return."

"Those are the rules." Gleaming saw the slightest of nods from the changeling and knew it was Careful, nopony would want to show her that they agreed. "Escort them to the cells, ensure they have a proper guard detail. With luck our leaders will be back before they starve to death." Gleaming hard the two stallions suddenly look worried.

"Ma'am?" Shine looked at the big unicorn mare with a little worry, when something messed up without your commander present it was always better to pass the fall to somepony else; it was only due courtesy that you called them "sir" or "ma'am."

"They are a changeling, as you said, and likely on the edge of death if I remember what they were like when they invaded Canterlot." Gleaming hadn't been a guard at the time, but she was in the city when the changelings invaded; it was what made her want to be a guard and protect ponies. "I could organize some 'food' for them, if you think it would be okay?"

"Yes Ma'am! Certainly Ma'am! You can be fully responsible for their feeding." Dancing caught on quick, nodding to the mare he leveled his spear back at Careful. "Come on, you. Let's get you into a nice uncomfortable cell."

Gleaming watched the two lead the changeling that the Princess and Guard Captain both trusted. "I need more authority if I am going to be in on all this…"

"Where is Careful?" Nimbus stormed into the main hall, looking around once before locking her eyes on Gleaming. "Where did those big oafs take him?"

"Why did he come back disguised as Shining Armor? The two guards must have caught him out so easily." Gleaming hung her head. "You will be able to visit him, even spend some time with him. I convinced them that he needs special 'food'."

"Food but not release? He is-" Nimbus halted her speech, spotting the two guards reentering the hall. "I will take the prisoner his food."

Gleaming stared in shock at the mare, she had completely switched from fury to subservience. "Good, see that it stays well fed. If they die of hunger in there, it will be my fault… and yours."

When the two guards had left again, Nimbus almost slumped in place. "They didn't hurt him, I hope?" She was surprised when Gleaming gestured to where the guards had come from. "What, now?"

"Let me see how far I can push this. We could always play our trump card." Gleaming grinned and started walking with Nimbus Cloud to the cells. If he needs to be out immediately, we ask Rarity to come and talk nicely to them."

"Rarity? She is just a seamstress though…" Nimbus followed along.

"I dare you to call her that when she is around." Gleaming led the way up into the old prison cells that King Sombra had made good use of. "Guard?"

An old stallion poked his head out, spotted Gleaming and laughed. "Leavin' me alone up here for months, then somepony brings in a changeling and suddenly I am busy! On the left there."

"We need to enter his cell, the magic restrictions need to be lifted." Gleaming pointed a hoof at Nimbus. "She is going to be their meal."

Nimbus soon found herself in the cell with an undisguised Careful. Nimbus glared at the changeling, full of anger. "Who's fault is this? Shining? Yours?" She stepped right up to Careful and kissed the drone soundly.

"I'll wait outside." Gleaming blushed at the affection and left the two alone in the cell.

"Ain't you going to close the door? How'll you know which of em is comin' out?" The old guard squinted at Gleaming. "How's I know you aren't the changeling?"

"Look at them if you want. She is feeding it right now." Gleaming clomped her hooves out to the guard station. "Anypony else in here at the moment?"

"Nah, just our buggy visitor." The old guard plucked up the cards he had been playing with. "You play?"

Author's Notes:

Cadance blinked. "Excited? I am not really excited for it. I am excited to see my husband embrace what life gives him and while the best case in all this would be for Twilight to come up with some way to turn him back, I don't think it will stop short of my Shiny being a lot shinier. I wonder if you can use wax on changeling chitin?"

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and I they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, I They will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! I They will pick one question per chapter.

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