Ponies were talking around him, but Shining was focused. "Cady…"

"We got them, Shiny." Cadance smiled at the groggy-drunk changeling drones that sprawled out before them. "Not as many as Slick said, though."

"I can feel them." Shining turned to his wife. "Cady! I can feel them all over the city!" His panic raised a notch and he started glancing around. Shining's eyes fixed on a form at the far end of the long street, lying on the ground. His hooves flashed as he broke into a gallop.

"Your Majesty." Slick staggered to his hooves and looked at Cadance with adoration in his eyes. This feels better than nearly everything else… "Your Majesty, I was trying to warn you when you got here, over half the drones were out on missions." He pointed to Straight Horn. "Like her, in the Royal Guard."

"There was a mare in the Royal Guard?" Flash Sentry's shock disturbed even him.

Cadance forsook any proselytizing toward Flash and focused on Slick Dive. "Do you know where they all are?" When Slick shook his head, Cadance almost said a bad word. "So there are nearly twenty changelings in the city now bound to our hive, and they are likely confused, love-drunk, and undisguised?"

"That will cause a panic." Flash turned to his squad—minus the imposter, of course—and straightened up. "You two guard the visiting prince and princess, I'll be back as fast as I can." He spread his wings and gave Princess Cadance a smirk.

Knowing what was coming, Cadance shielded her eyes from the cloud of dust Flash Sentry's launch kicked up. "Stallions, always showing off." Cadance shook her head before turning her attention on Shining.

Trotting back to the warehouse with the giddy drone in his magic, Shining Armor felt a little of his panic ease. "There's more, Cady. I can feel them…" Shining looked around, that prickling sensation coming from all over the city.

"Your Highness," Careful bowed deeply to Shining, "close your eyes and focus." He waited until Shining Armor had followed his directions, or at least until he had followed the first. "Feel the strength of them. You have to focus on the not-so-strong ones, and discard the strongest."

Shining had spent weeks training to shape-shift with Careful, relaxing and being guided by the drone's voice was second nature. He sifted through the prickly sources of tension in his head, and felt one as being stronger than the rest. "Got it."

"Lead us to them." Careful moved as Shining moved, watching his queen take a few steps, then break into a canter. Soon enough they had left the worried Royal Guards behind; along with Cadance.

Following the thread Careful had helped him find, Shining felt as if he were the Friendship Express and the thread was a rail. His ears pricked at the sounds from just around the next corner.

"Careful! It's a changeling!"

"Get back, it could bite you!"

Shining rounded the corner and saw the drone on the ground, and being harassed by two Royal Guards. Marching up with his chest puffed out, Shining took a moment to glance to Careful.

"Stand back! Stand back for the Prince!" Careful was bigger than he usually preferred, having chosen a large-barreled unicorn stallion as his disguise on the run. "We are collecting all changelings in the city."

"Captain Shining Armor!" One of the Royal Guards snapped to attention immediately, then nudged the other. "Sorry, sir, we didn't realize there was an operation going on in Canterlot."

Shining was about to take control of the situation that Careful had set up, when he found a spear-point leveled towards him. "What is this?" He was careful not to use his magic, just lifting a hoof to gesture at the spear.

"How do we know they aren't changelings?" The second Gaurdspony nodded to Shining and Careful. "Points, we might be getting 'had.' "

"Private Shimmersphere!" Shining Armor lifted his voice to full parade-ground volume. "ATTENTION!" The spear pulled back, pointed to the sky. "Good work, soldier, but you just pointed your spear at a visiting Prince!" He pointed to Points Made. "Corporal Points, how would you resolve this situation without causing a major diplomatic incident?"

"Sir! I would beg the dignitary's forgiveness and offer any and all efforts to repay the slight on their honor, sir!" Points Made hadn't heard Shining's full voice unleashed since his training, and the former Captain certainly hadn't lost any intensity. "And speaking as the Private's commanding officer, sir, I offer all apologies and we put ourselves at your disposal." His hooves clacked on the pavement as his stance stiffened further.

"I give that a solid pass." Shining turned back to Shimmersphere. "You still have a lot to learn, I will be having words with Princess Celestia about your performance." And recommend him for extra training. A clever stallion. "You can both assist me by escorting this changeling to the Castle, let them know there are going to be more coming in. They are to be given a cozy cell and left to their own devices."

Careful leaned up and whispered to Shining. "Don't forget, my queen, we don't want any slipping away once they come to."

"Of course." Shining leaned forward, his snout close to the ears of both the Royal Guardsponies. "The anti-disguise training will be needed." Both stallions stiffened at his words, but saluted.

When the two guards trotted off, carrying the changeling with them, Careful gave a sigh. "Well played, Your Majesty." Careful loved using the title he felt was proper for his queen.

Shining was more than a little disturbed by how easy it was to spin the lies, but it got the job done. I am a changeling now, after all. The moment the thought hit him, Shining froze up. I really am. I am not a unicorn. I am a changeling. He opened his senses and reached out into the world; he felt Cadance. And she still loves me. I am the luckiest changeling on Equus. "I wish I didn't have to lie—that I could tell them all—that they would still treat me like that if they knew."

Careful looked to his queen with a little worry. "Give it time, Your Majesty. Once changelings are accepted, then we can all walk in the light. Besides, all the important ponies know." He winked to Shining's look of shock. "It's true. Your family, your wife, and your hive; they all know."

Focusing his mind, Shining felt for the next target. "They're moving…" Shining could tell both direction and distance, which was all he needed to know. "Heading to Canterlot Castle. Must have been picked up by guards."

"Shimmersphere was smart, just not wise." Careful broke into a trot at Shining's side as the Prince began off in a new direction. "Another?"

Straight Horn started to get her wits back. She felt odd—as if she had been force fed love for hours and then run over by a train. Something pinged in her head, a sense she hadn't expected to feel here in Canterlot: her queen was near. Looking around, she spotted pink legs and tracked them upwards with her eyes.

"Hello. You are Bright and Gilt's friend, aren't you?" Cadance smiled at the changeling, ignoring their look of shock and panic. "Relax, nopony is going to hurt you; you are safer than you know."

"I really don't think I am." Straight looked left and right, her mind racing to evaluate the best way to get away from one of the two ponies that had repelled the entire changeling swarm. "So… squishing now, or squishing later?"

"No squishing. Shining would never let me hear the end of it if one of you got squished." Cadance turned her eyes to Slick Dive for just a moment, but it was all Straight needed to try her escape. Wrapping a deep blue bubble around herself and the changelings, Cadance sighed. "Can you speak some sense to her, Slick?"

"Your Imperial Majesty." Slick Dive bowed deeply, his eyes flickering with mirth. "Straight, hive-sister," where her name didn't get her attention, the title did, "please show some decorum before one of our queens."

After a moment of scrabbling at the shield, Straight turned and squinted at Slick. "You were in on this." In a moment of anger she was about to launch herself at her hive-brother, when she realized that her hive was close, the center of it right before her. She blinked and walked up to Cadance. Each step made the love sloughing off the alicorn seem stronger, and soon Straight was fighting with every breath not to be overwhelmed by the power. "Not squished?"

"Not squished? Of course not squished. I am not Chrysalis; haven't you heard about the laws we passed in the Crystal Empire? You will be coming with us, but you are free once we reach there." Cadance had had enough of the talk of squishing. "But why would you? I offer you as much love as you want, for as long as you want it, and a hive where you aren't at risk of being squished."

"But Queen Chrysalis will find us!" Dropped Ball struggled to his hooves. "She is mighty, and she will hunt us down and squish us all!"

"No she won't." Gleaming Shine's voice startled all the changelings, and earned her a smile from Cadance. "If you come to the Crystal Empire, you will be under my protection, and the protection of all the Royal Crystal Guard. You pretended to be in Princess Celestia's Guard, why not stand with us and protect your queens?" She had picked up the lingo various changelings used in reference to Shining and Cadance, and figured it couldn't hurt.

"Queens?" Dropped looked from Gleaming to Cadance, then to Slick Dive. "What do they mean, 'queens'?" He rubbed his wings together, chirping his annoyance with the situation.

"Don't you feel it?" Slick Dive buzzed his wings and trotted around Cadance, closing his eyes and still maintaining his distance from her. "Queen Cadance promised me this—promised me a safe home to live in. I was scared at first, really scared." The chirp his wings gave was reassurance: safety, hive.

"He's right…" Straight Horn looked at Cadance. I don't know how they did it, or why, but I can't feel Chrysalis' hive anymore. I am bound here, to her. Despite herself, the prospect seemed a step up. When no one seemed to cut in on her mental examination of the situation, Straight Horn bowed down. "My queen." Joy filled her, it flooded her, but it wasn't hers. She looked at Cadance in wonder, never for a second realizing that a queen could show so much love.

Slick giggled and booped Straight Horn on the nose. "Someling realized!" He giggled more and realized he was horribly over-full of love. It felt too good to be upset about. "Isn't it aweshum?"

Straight looked at Slick, blinking in surprise. "You're drunk." The problem with the accusation was, she felt her own mind turning a little squishy, and giggled. Freezing, she gasped in surprise. "This is your fault!" She pointed at Cadance with a hoof. "This is too much love!"

Cadance looked at the seriously-delivered accusation, watching as the changeling's stony look broke into a giggle then laugh, before falling down and rolling on her back. "And is not being hungry so very terrible?" Cadance reached a hoof down and couldn't resist rubbing Straight's belly—which earned more giggles.

"Yesh!" Straight Horn went limp at the gentle belly-rub, the touch of her queen and primary source of love paralyzing her with bliss. "So gooooood…" She trailed the word out and closed her eyes.

Not stopping her rubbing, Cadance looked to Gleaming. "I like this method better than squishing. For a start, it is a lot cuter." She couldn't stop smiling, even with the other changelings staring at the odd behavior.

"I will never know what it is like. Being threatened every time you do something wrong would be terrible. How would we get any of our recruits through training if we squished every one that failed at something?" Gleaming looked at the other curious changelings. "You can come closer, Empress Cadance doesn't bite."

" 'Empress'?" Cadance glared for a second. "You know that isn't how this works. I am a princess first and foremost."

"But an empress out-ranks a queen." Gleaming winked to Slick Dive. "Besides, he said it first, Your Imperial Majesty."

"I bet Princess Celestia doesn't get this." Waving a hoof to indicate Gleaming's explanation, Cadance dispelled her shield and revealed Princess Celestia herself just outside. "Your Highness." She bowed her head, but glared to the sides—at Gleaming and Slick. "We found the changeling nest; however it seems there might be a few that slipped away. Prince Shining Armor is gathering them up."

Celestia smiled warmly, for the first time since all the mess started she actually had a feeling of safety—strange given her present company. "Yes. Flash Sentry reported what happened, and our small Royal Guard jail is filled to bursting with confused changelings. Please see to them as soon as possible. As one head of state to another," her phrasing earned a gasp from the guards, although Celestia was pleased to see Cadance hadn't, "you have done Equestria a great favor today."

"Thank you, Princess." Cadance gave a bow. "Let me find my husband and we can empty your cells of our citizens."

Trixie rode the train again. She both disliked and loved it. Of course it meant she didn't have to pull her wagon, but it also meant she didn't get to smell the air, and take her time. "If only Trixie weren't quite so rushed, she would definitely like to walk this path one day." Her hooves itched, if only to walk around.

Rising to her hooves, Trixie took a step before the train gave a shunt, the big locomotive changing its relentless power from pulling, to slowing. Looking out the window to the side nearest her, Trixie watched as a little town appeared in the distance. "This is silly. Princess Twilight…" the name still stung a little to say, "knows what Trixie is now—her friends too. But," Trixie levitated her hat up, planting it firmly on her head, "that is why the Great and Powerful Trixie was chosen."

The train slowed further, stopping at last beside an old station midway between Canterlot and Ponyville. Stepping down from the train, Trixie watched as her wagon was unloaded from the train. "Careful with that. The Great and Powerful Trixie will not have her goods jostled!"

Two burly unicorns gave the showmare a wave that she returned once she realized her wagon was intact.

"The show must go on."

Author's Notes:

Queen Shining Armo~~~ *crash* GET BACK HERE YOU SNEAKY LI *clears throat*

Prince Shining Armor: "Are you excited to introduce yourself to the newest members of your hive?"

Shining nodded. "I look forward to helping them recover from a life spent under a leader who cares about nopony so much as herself." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I only had a short sample of her attention," he let his disguise drop, "but I like to think I am an example for them to follow."

Celestia: If changelings are proved to be able to live alongside ponies in the Crystal Empire, will you consider to welcome changelings in Canterlot?

"There is the problem of feeding them. Princess Cadance of the Crystal Empire is uniquely suited, it seems, for making her realm open to them." Celestia closed her eyes in thought. "But if they could live without hurting Equestrians, they will be welcome."

Celestia : how do you think the reaction will be if shining armor get found out with the populace?

"More for me?" Celestia brightened quite a bit, giving a little chuckle. "Shining Armor was a resourceful and keen-minded stallion when he was a unicorn. Now that he is a changeling, and is co-ruler of an empire, he has bloomed into quite a statespony. I am sure he could talk his way out of a locked chest if given the right incentive."

Chrysalis: how rusty are your infiltration skills?
&
Queen Chrysalis, why do you not withdraw, lay eggs to rebuild your numbers and bide your time to try again?

The throne room of the changeling hive is empty. A note rests on the mighty throne.

Gone to find the ponies who killed my children.

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

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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