"I know we have to wait, Shiny, but I want to get this… well, over with." Cadance shifted her weight from one side to the other. They were waiting in Pony Joe's doughnut shop, casually waiting for word on when to start.

"Love, this is a timing. Let Slick do his thing. I trust him with this." Shining wished he was as calm inside as he sounded, but then Guard training helped him keep sharp in a crisis. "Joe, thanks again for putting up with us." He gestured to the four Royal Crystal Guard standing at the front door of the doughnut shop, and the four Canterlot Royal Guard matching them.

"It's nothin', uh, Your Highness." Pony Joe floated another plate of doughnuts out the door to the guards. "O'course the bill goes up to the castle." He smiled smugly.

"She's back." Fighting the urge to point at the green-tinted pegasus talking her way past the guards, Cadance smiled. "Jade, welcome back. How did it go? Did Slick see you?" Her voice filled with more and more concern as she spoke, seeing the worried look on Jade Wings' face.

"Report, Private." Shining turned to Joe, taking hold of the big cup of tea floating over, and sending it to Jade.

"Yes, sir!" Jade's emotions solidified under the command, but that didn't stop her from wrapping her wings around the cup and sipping from the soothing drink. "Sorrel… Slick Dive… found me alright. Sir, he looked terrified…"

Shining ached to grab the mare and hug her, tell her that everything would be okay. I almost hate don't want to be able to taste emotions, but I can't deny that it is helpful. Knowing is more important than not knowing. "What exactly did you tell him, and what did he reply with?"

"Just as you ordered, I told him, 'The promise will be fulfilled in half an hour, for you and all your new friends.' He told me where his 'friends' were, and to not be late. He seemed nervous and excited." Jade scrunched her snout at the heat of the tea, but drank more. "What is going to happen to him?"

"Jade," Cadance shot a glance to her husband to back off, and stole Jade's attention from Shining, "it is his turn to join our hive. Slick Dive has been working as one of Chrysalis' drones all this time, still under her influence—"

"Only very lightly." Shining took a doughnut and made every indication as to be eating it; meanwhile teleporting the sugary treat away, a mouthful at a time.

"Right. He hasn't even had a full meal, as our drones have. This is Slick's last mission here then he can come home." Cadance saw the smile grow on Jade's face, a real smile that crinkled around her eyes. I don't need to be a changeling to see she cares for him still. Is it enough to grow into full love?

"How long do we have?" Shining finished the doughnut, his practice "eating" as a changeling having paid off in spades.

"It took me ten minutes to get back here, sir. They are in a warehouse on the far side of town. Slick said he would make sure to have as many in there as possible." Jade drank the rest of the tea in a gulp. "Can… can I come too, sir?"

"He still loves you, Jade." Cadance looked at the mare and knew when her words had hit home, by the blush in Jade's cheeks. "You understand what going will mean?"

"Of course I do!" All of Jade's emotions chose then to lash out, and not a one of them asked her intellect if "yelling at a princess" was a good idea. "He loves me, I told him if he does something good with his life, if he proves himself, I will consider a date!" She froze, eyes widening at what she had said, and who she had said it to.

"I can suggest somewhere nice to eat." Cadance had to stifle a little giggle with a hoof. "He will probably appreciate having a friend there. Come on." Walking past the half-stunned Jade, Cadance fell in beside Shining. "Hopefully this…" her eyes widened as she stared ahead suddenly, "wait, can Chrysalis even broadcast love like this? If she can't, she could never get her drones back."

Shining lowered his head and pressed it to Cadance's shoulder, pushing her out of the shop. "Cady, we're not going to second guess ourselves now—it is time we did this. We can't leave Slick hanging." The mass he was pushing started to move on its own and Shining followed his wife out.

"You're right, hesitating now would only get him hurt. Careful," Cadance turned to focus on the unicorn Royal Crystal Guard nearest her, "let's move, we have our target and a time. Lieutenant Flash, you are still happy to accompany us?" Two sharp salutes met Cadance's command and question. "Slow, now. If any are still outside the nest, we don't want to startle them."

"Royal Imperial Detachment," Careful's grin stretched from ear to ear, "let's move."

"Imperial?" Shining and Cadance both looked to each other, sighed, and moved as their guards did. The path across the city was a winding one, taking no back-streets, it nonetheless had them on the same street as the warehouse in question within ten minutes.

Lining up in the street, Shining took one step and felt something out of place. The second step made him uneasy, and the third his hackles rise. One of Princess Celestia's guards is a changeling, and not one of my changelings. Shining thought about questioning the four, about demanding them to reveal themselves, but all the noise such would cause would raise the alarm. "Ready, love." Shining stepped closer, making sure their flanks and shoulders touched.

"You say that as if loving you is something I have to focus on and unleash like a weapon." Cadance broke into a prancing gait; much as she protested it, touching her Shiny made her love swell. "We should be close enough."

Shining trembled. He was in the middle of a hurricane of power, a monstrous vortex of love that had no safe spot. Every ounce was aimed at him, but he had no hope of catching it all and let the bulk of it flow over and around him.

Careful's changeling senses were overwhelmed, but he had been training for this. "Okay, we are moving in. Any changelings we find are to be brought outside. I—" He cut off when one of the Canterlot Royal Guard fell down in a rush of green fire. "I think we have our first: Straight Horn. Leave her here, let's grab as many as we can." With that, both contingents of guards entered the warehouse.

"Cady, I don't think I have really told you how much this—all of this—means to me." Shining nuzzled Cadance, stepping past the one blissed-out changeling at their hooves. "When I said 'I do' I meant it. I dedicated everything to you, to making you the happiest mare in Equestria, and beyond. I might be becoming a changeling, but you have shown me how I can keep that promise."

Lost in the moment, Cadance's heart soared. She walked after her husband, closer to the warehouse. Powerful magic was grabbing them by their fate and guiding them. As long as it is beside Shining, my Shiny, I don't care where destiny takes me.

"Mi Amore Cadenza," Shining's lips were curled up in a smile, "Princess of Love, Cadance, Cady. I love you, and I will keep loving you no matter what." Shining felt magic lift his hooves from the ground. It stripped him of his disguise and bared his chitin to the world.

"I love you, Shining Armor." Cadance leaned forward as she was lifted, matching Shining and meeting his lips. The moment she felt the warmth of Shining Armor's lips, the world turned pink.

Inside the warehouse, Careful staggered as he was stripped of his disguise, and stumbled around the already passed out nest of changelings inside; of the newly converted changelings, only Slick managed to keep standing. "M-M-My queens!" Careful's eyes stared through the wall, through solid matter as the wave of pink hit him. Smiling, Careful buzzed his wings furiously.

"What is… what is that?" Slick Dive walked up beside Careful. "I… I thought it would be scary, instead it's amazing! This… what are our queens doing?" He couldn't focus on anything else. The wave of pink sliced through the bond to his hive, cauterized the wound, and bound him to his new home. In an instant Slick Dive was hungry, full, then overfull; his body was packed with love and still more came. Can there be this much love in the world?

Unprepared, the other changelings of the nest acted as expected, passing out or squirmed around on the floor like drunkards.

"What are you looking at? Of course there was going to be changelings in their guard, they are legal citizens of the Crystal Empire. We have a job to do, Privates, now do it!" Flash Sentry's grumble failed to cause a reaction from any of the downed changelings, and in short-order he and his squad started to drag them out. The burning glow of pink was too bright to look at, Flash assumed that Cadance and Shining were doing their thing. Just like the wedding. Don't know why they are doing all this just for a few drones.

Careful's thoughts drifted back to him, he could think again, and the thought was, Where is my disguise? It took less than a moment to regain his pony form. "Slick?" He turned to the other changeling. Hivemate. His sense of the other changeling made him smile; that Slick Dive was still completely mesmerized by the love almost had his smile off the charts. "Come out when you are ready."

The moment was slowly fading, Shining knew he was way past "full" and was close to "obscenely stuffed" so far as love went.

"Uh, Sir?" Gleaming Shine had slipped back out and had to shield her eyes from the glow, but by the second it decreased until she could behold her Prince and Princess. "Sir, disguise yourself. The Guards are going to be back out in a second."

Cadance finally broke the kiss. She drew her lips back from her Shiny and knew she sent out another heavy pulse of love. "Shiny, your chitin is showing."

Flashing with green fire, Shining Armor restored his form, hiding away the changeling queen he now resembled quite closely. He wanted to look at how many of the changelings they had captured, but he didn't need to. Shining Armor felt a connection with his hive, each changeling around him twanged on his senses. His eyes were locked with Cadance, and Shining Armor was sure there was some kind of magnet that wouldn't release its grip on him. "C-C-Cady?" He waited for his wife to tilt her head a little, before leaning back in, his lips barely touching Cadance's; he whispered, "I love you."

"Love you too." Cadance's own lips brushed against Shining's mouth. She wanted to kiss him again, and keep kissing him over and over—so she did.

The world seemed a confusing place for Careful; ponies were dragging changelings out of the building then returning to find more. Slowly he regained enough focus to see his queens, and walked slowly up to them. "I… I think it worked." A gaze around revealed Dropped Ball, and nearly half a dozen less well-trained changeling infiltrators. "Straight Horn?" He walked over to where the mare lay, the first of this bunch who had been hit by Cadance's love. "Are you…" Careful trailed off when Straight merely nuzzled his hoof.

Shining nuzzled Cadance one more time. Filled beyond full with love; he felt the interconnectedness of his hive, of the gently tug and pull of every drone now bound to him. There was his core, Careful, Bright, Gilt, and now Slick. Now he could feel the drones that had been pulled from the nest; each newly bound drone a bright spec on his senses. There was more, though. Shining armor felt little pinpricks all over the city, the rest of the drones from this nest, and he knew that they were his now. He was their queen, and he would prove that he was worthy of the title.

Sneaky was bowed low, but his crest and tail were both standing on end—he knew he was his Queen's favorite right now. "My Queen, the new spy network is establishing itself now. I had them take control over the existing agents there, which meant we still had a spy in the Royal Guard. Now—" He froze, shocked by the way his queen jumped up, and by an odd tingling. "M-M-My Queen?"

"Silence!" Chrysalis opened herself, reaching for all her changelings. She felt them like a pony would feel fur. She felt her hive around her, she felt Sneaky as a prickly little sensation—close to hoof. But there was a bald patch, a bald patch where just moments ago she had felt prickles.

Watching the black drain from his Queen's face, Sneaky fell back from Chrysalis in shock and fear. He chirped in a panic when her eyes fixed on him. He was about to drop his gaze from her, until he noticed she wasn't looking at him, but through him. "My Queen?"

"They're all gone… every one…" Chrysalis' heart felt numb; she felt terrified. "I felt a tickle of love come from there, then all my little drones in Canterlot…"

"Our new nest? How?" Sneaky had gotten his name by living up to it, not by being brave, and certainly not by standing in the way when his Queen was upset; right then, however, Sneaky was confused.

"She must have squished them… squished them all." Chrysalis felt tears in her eyes and spun around quickly. With her face hidden, she let the tears flow faster. "Leave me, Sneaky. Leave me and I will find one more drone to send." A plan was forming, a plan Chrysalis had to follow through.

She waited and wept, until the prickle that was Sneaky left the room. "The hardest disguise." Chrysalis took a deep breath as she walked over to the mirror. She stared into the silvered glass, looking at the huge queen she now was. Time flowed backwards, in her mind, and she watched with her memories as the queen shrank down. She watched the queen until she was barely the size of a regular drone.

Closing her eyes, Chrysalis reached for that bare-patch, where she had lost over twenty drones all at once. "I have to stop them, stop all of this!" Her eyes snapped open, and Chrysalis stared at that image of years past. Fire poured up around her, boiling away the stately shape of a changeling queen, and leaving Chrysalis no bigger than any other drone.

"Almost." Chrysalis looked at the queen-nymph in the mirror, her wonderful mane just starting to grow, her tail a wonderful plume. Green fire coiled and wrapped around her, sealing away those last two vestiges, and adjusting her face until a pair of bright blue eyes stared back at the drone, and her mouth grinned behind the protruding fangs. "There, perfect."

Author's Notes:

Princess Luna: "Have you ever tried to enter the dreams of a Changeling? If they have a unique trait that sets them apart, you could use that to uncover spies."

"I was just thinking the same thing. I cannot enter the dreams of changelings. They might look like ponies, but their minds work differently. It is what should have tipped me off to what is happening to Shining Armor." Luna rolls her eyes. "We could have avoided almost starting a war. Hindsight is better than scrying, have no doubt."

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

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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