Shining woke first, still a very pink and very familiar mare. She tried to climb out of the tangle of bedding she had somehow ended up in and realized that wings were something that would take more getting used to. "I wish I could-" For just a heartbeat she thought of how good it would be not to be this shape and, to her shock, her form was restored.

"Cady?" Shining nuzzled his wife. "Cady, I think I worked out how to get out of disguise." He bounced a little on the bed. "Cady!"

"Shining Armor, I don't care if you are a queen, a princess, a prince, or even King Sombra returned, you know the rules about- Wait, you worked it out?" Cadance rolled over, her bleary eyes picking out Shining—back as half-changeling—bouncing in place. "Okay, studly husband, you have some guides in here," she pointed with a hoof toward photos of the two of them, "make with the white stallion everypony wants to see."

The gasp of excitement that Shining gave was accompanied by furious scrambling in the bedclothes as he tried to get free. Making it to their dressing table, Shining stared at the four photos there. On each side was a single portrait of each of them. He picked up his own with his hoof—he didn't fully trust his magic with things as precious as this—and looked at it. "So many things I didn't realize I had. My mane looks a little unkempt."

"Shining, your mane took two hours of work by a stylist to look that neat, could it use some more effort? I guess so. But you are my stallion, or mare," Cadance's snout quirked, "and I would have you no other way than you intend to be."

Leaving off on his examination of the photos, Shining turned to look at Cadance, his heart practically melting all over again. She seemed so much more now, he could see her form, how her muscles moved in the most amazing of ways. He studied her wings, each feather—and fighting the urge to run over and preen them for her, probably badly—and he also saw a new aspect. Cadance radiated love like a furnace, but it was nowhere so hot than from where he was standing—as the focus of it, Shining felt amazing.

Cadance tilted her head a little, just looking at her husband as he studied her. "The way you are looking at me, I can't but wonder if you are studying me to shift again." It was half a joke, she really didn't mind having her stallion as a softer pony to snuggle, even if it had been a little odd that she had sex with herself.

"Falling in love all over again. Cadance? Can I get you to do something for me?" Shining felt like he was drowning in his own love for her.

"Silly pony, of course I will do anything for you."

"Pinch me, this has to be a dream." Shining actually jumped a little as she did pinch him. "Huh, nope, I am just the luckiest stallion in all the world." It was just about the cheesiest thing Shining could say, not that he cared—it was correct.

"I should come over there and bop you for that… or lift my tail again." Cadance's eyes danced with the naughty words. "Can't decide which yet, why don't we shirk our duties and go out for breakfast today?"

"But we… and now…" Shining tried to fish for a reason why they couldn't have the morning off. "Well, with Careful back at work, and with Gilt handling the guard… should we invite Rarity and Twily?" Cadance shook her head firmly. "Probably a good idea. Let me get changed…" The grin Shining wore was a testament to how long he had apparently been planning to use the joke. He didn't even duck the pillow thrown at him.

Cadance watched Shining a few moments, then decided he could handle things himself. Rolling from her own side of the bed, she trotted for the en suite. "So how does it work? Does it use much… 'oomph,' love, or whatever it is you use?" She stepped down into the huge sunken bath. "If there was something I could ever thank Sombra for, it would be this bath." She slipped down into the water, letting herself submerge all the way down to her neck.

A green glow came from the bedroom, the early morning light doing nothing to disguise the burn of changeling magic. She turned to make sure she could see her husband when he invariably came to show off.

"Look Cady!" Shining Armor strutted into the bathroom, looking not just his old self, but immaculate as he hadn't been even at his wedding. His mane was neat, fetlocks trimmed to perfection. He stood in place and tilted his head, "Hey, sexy mare."

Her heart jumping in her chest, Cadance didn't know whether to laugh at the obviously cheesy line, or swoon that Shining had gone to such effort. "Get your plot in here you vain stallion." She splashed a wing in the water, leaving it slightly extended as an obvious invitation.

Shining strutted forward, showing off how much work he had put into the little changes. "It was a bit harder than just going with something directly, but I think it was worth it." By the looks he caught his wife giving him, Shining knew it was worth it. He slid down into the water and glided through it toward Cadance, his snout reaching out for the offered wing. "You know I love doing this." And with that, he started straightening her feathers for her, getting each one neat and mated to its fellows.

"I know, of course I know." She leaned aside and nuzzled Shining's cheek. "Where are we going to go for breakfast? There is that lovely little coffee shop I heard Rarity talk about the other day." Cadance would have preened her other wing, to speed things up. This is a reward, of sorts. My Shiny needs his... Cadance's thoughts melted as Shining reached the base of her wing and nibbled along the actual limb itself.

Having avoided this particular spot the previous night, Shining wondered—as he completely unhinged his wife's focus—just how good this would feel done to him. "Cady, next time we play, can you try doing this to me?" He gave the spot a nibble again, just to make sure she knew what he meant.

" 'Next time'?" Cadance struggled to keep her mind straight through the extra attention, but with such a delicious subject she couldn't help it. "Is my stallion telling me he wants to play naughty games as a princess again?"

Shining couldn't hold back a blush. "It goes against everything I was led to believe a stallion should think and feel, but it was fun, a lot of fun. Maybe next time I won't try to look quite so much like my darling wife, but when you… it gave me a new perspective." Shining had to fight back all the years of "you are a stallion, act like it" that he had learned not just in school, but also the military. "So yes, my naughty and delicious wife, I think I would like to play games with you again." He circled around Cadance, fighting to resist the urge to just mount and take her right there.

Cadance half expected to be mounted, for her husband to prove his masculinity and have "proper sex"—she almost let out a sigh of disappointment when he didn't, honestly—but felt his cheek brush her cutie mark as he narrowed in on her other wing. "You constantly surprise me, Shining Armor. You are not the stallion you appear to be, which I think suits you more now." She angled her wing so that he had to lift his snout a little higher and then caught Shining with a kiss.

Pushing in closer, Shining deepened the kiss and felt power pour between them. His disguise fell away, everything that might have come between him and Cadance felt powerless. Pushing his tongue forward, he felt Cadance pull back a little. "What's wrong?"

"Look, love. Stick your tongue out again." Cadance was giggling under her words, her magic reaching out the moment she saw what she expected. "Gotcha. Now, look at this, love." She held up the tip of Shining's tongue, and pulled, and pulled.

When his tongue was about a foot out of his mouth, and still not straining, Shining tried to laugh around it. "Awight, awight! Wet wo!" Shining jerked his tongue back. "Okay, so now I can't stop thinking about how long it is. When were-" He froze, realizing he was talking to his wife's plot. "Oh, maybe we will have to skip breakfast altogether?"

"Where are the queens?" Gilt looked around the throne room one more time before her head came back to look directly at Careful. "I felt those… bursts… last night, and a few earlier…"

"Relax, sister." Careful smiled at the other drone. "They are out having a romantic breakfast. Queen Shining has taken to his magic quite well indeed, he looked perfect." He grinned a little wider. "I am sure they will be back by mid-morning."

Gilt sighed. "I have the Crystal Guard doing their morning duties, on watch, but I wanted to show them off to Shining." She had to fight the urge to pout.

"Showing off? You don't need to, Sister, he wouldn't have put you in that position if he didn't trust you to do it. And I would have told him to drop you down if I didn't." Careful glanced down at the ledger he had been working through. "You will likely have a small rush of new recruits, mostly mares, earth ponies. Keep an eye out for any non-natives."

"You think there will be a spy or two?" Gilt perked right back up, intrigued by her brother's notion. "Who would be trying to get a spy into the guard?"

"Who wouldn't?" Careful plucked out a scrap of paper and started marking names. "Princess Celestia, she suspects our queens, she would be stupid if she didn't—and that mare is anything but stupid." He made a little scribble. "Princess Luna, she is the more underhoofed of the diararchs, if her sister isn't looking, and she knows about this, she will send a spy, likely one we won't catch." He drew a little moon symbol on the paper. "And then there is old bugg-butt," his next drawing was a caricature of a changeling queen, "she will want to get a 'ling in here, to find out what is going on. I could bet she already has one in the city."

"Okay, that is-"

"And then there are other little groups, although they are of less concern. The nobles of Canterlot might do something for instance, if they think their leaders are not. The Yaks will likely send a delegation to investigate what our relationship with Equestria has become… but you shouldn't have to worry about that, beyond security." Careful had a cute picture of two yaks kissing, dressed in full battle-gear.

Gilt blinked. "We have that many enemies?" She looked at the drawings and snorted in laughter.

"Not enemies, not apart from stink-egg the queen of the worst hive ever—that is her new official title—the rest are mostly just interested in finding out what is going on, that our queens are not being evil-"

"As if either could. Queen Shining almost cried when one soldier lost their footing and twisted an ankle. And Queen Cadance…" Gilt stared off into nothing, remembering the waves of love that the mare put out. "No, neither of them could ever really be evil, not like… what was it, 'stink-egg the queen of the worst hive ever.' "

Careful gave a little sigh and nodded. "But they remember what 'she' did, how she almost destroyed everything they had built up and worked on." He actually trembled with anger. "She almost destroyed the bond that our queens have…"

"Yeah, let's not let that happen again. So, what do I do?" Gilt looked at her clever hive-brother.

"Oh, that is an easy one. Anyling from… ahem, 'her,' will be a 'ling, so just have a squad of guard escort them near the crystal heart. Trust me on this, it is not the 'wonderful source of food' she said it would be." Careful trembled a little at the thought that the device that would suck a changeling dry was right under the castle itself. "As for the others, they are of less concern, but look for anypony that doesn't fit the types I mentioned. Unicorns, pegasi, particularly from out of town."

"Easiest to leave those to you. Anypony who matches that I will just send up here to help with 'administrative duties.' " Gilt had to dodge the paper wad tossed at her. "Hey, you said yourself, I am not the mare for this." Still laughing, she trotted away.

The changeling got halfway across the throne room when a voice called out, "Oh, there you are Darling. Just the mare I was looking for."

One of the Element Bearers! Gilt spun, her salute snapping into place. "Element Bearer Rarity, ma'am, what can I do for you?" Her heart raced, if she hadn't had so much time around Twilight Sparkle recently she would be running screaming.

"Oh no, it is what I am to do for you. In all this excitement you were overlooked! It is a tragedy most unbecomming. I was just speaking to Twilight about it and we decided that it wouldn't do." Rarity flicked her mane and gestured to a staircase leading up. "Come on, it won't take but an hour or two."

It was impossible, Gilt was trapped by the canny unicorn who seemed completely oblivious to how much work she had to do. "Wait, sorry to-" Gilt froze, the look she was given by Rarity brooked no excuses.

"Darling, I understand you have important work, you are Captain of the Royal Crystal Guard. But look at you, you have no armor, no insignia, you are merely a changeling going out to order these ponies around."

Gilt's mind shuddered to a halt, derailed from the previous line of thinking. She stared at Rarity in shock.

"If you think any of those soldiers will follow you simply because Shining Armor said so… well, you would be right, but they would be doing it because of him, not because of you. Come on, you will be able to run around and get your new armor dirty once we have fitted it to you." Rarity practically pranced off, leaving the changeling to scramble after her inelegantly.

Author's Notes:

Rarity, busy working on patterns and designs for armor, looked up at the intrusion. "Darling, what is... oh, a question for me?" She read the card offered. "Well, that is a high honor, I am sure I absolutely could never entreaty to claim such a right from... 'Queen,' Cadance. But if either were to ask, it would be remiss of me not to offer the best of advice. Not that I think 'Prince,' " Rarity's eyes flashed with devilment, "Shining Armor would need such."

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

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.

Support me on atreon

Join me on Discord. Please use your FimFic name as an alias. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the coal mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder
A.P.O.N.I.
Mephia
Nils

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Daremo
Vutava
Boulder