"Fleur! Darling!" Misty Dew trotted up in a prancing gait, leaning in to lightly kiss the cheeks of her friend. "When did you get back from Baltimare? Didn't you have a big shoot there?"

Fleur Dis Lee ruffled herself and half-lounged on the chair she was sitting on. "Oh, you know how it is, camera had a faulty lens and they insisted it had to be that one. Ugh, some ponies can be sooo horrible." It was a lie, it was all a lie. Bright Flash looked at the mare before her.

The silver-maned and white-coated unicorn slipped down in the seat opposite her best friend. "And where did you get those?" She gestured to Bright's side, where one wing showed. "Let me guess, they wanted you to have a full Cadance thing going?" She flagged down a waiter, gesturing to the other mare's coffee.

An alarm bell rang in Bright's head, she had thought wings would be cute and would give her a little advantage. "You wouldn't believe! I could go on and on about how terrible it was, but tell me about you, any stallion got your eye?" She leaned heavily on the innate sense all 'lings had when disguised as a particular pony.

"Ugh, I chased Blueblood for a while, did you know he is just as much of a bore up close as he seems from afar?" Misty waved her hoof. "The donkey got caught looking in the mirror while changing one night, spent three hours in there!"

"Had a stallion like that myself once. Horrible-" just as the waiter arrived Bright carefully knocked his flank, the hot coffee he carried spilled to one side–away from the mares–and the milk splashed right onto Misty. "Oh, oh no! Quick, come on, let's get that clean!" Bright stood up and led the mare to the bathroom.

"That terrible colt, ugh I just had my coat done today!" Misty was so distracted by the stain of milk soaking her fur that she didn't realize there was a flash of green until her pupils narrowed as she stared into her best friend's eyes.

"Gotcha. Now Misty, what would you like in a stallion?" Bright's words were laced with honey, she wasn't the best at disguises, she wasn't the best with pony lore. What she had up her hole-filled sleeve, was magic.

Misty relaxed, it was easy to relax with her friend Fleur this close. "Oh somepony hunky, but… I was always partial to wings. Big wings, striking mane…" It was hard to talk, when she opened her snout it felt like there was treacle all through her mouth. "He needs a white coat… bright mane…"

The flash of green, flames pouring from around Bright, filled the room and had Misty relax and smile more, green was nice. The mare's eyes widened when they settled on the white coated orange maned stallion standing across from her.

"Well hello there, my name's Bright Bolt." Bright gave the best smile he could, pushing a little bit more power into his new cover story.

Her mind awash in green magic, Misty saw nothing wrong with meeting the stallion of her dreams in the mare's room. "M-M-Misty… you are cute…"

"For you? Misty, I would be anything." Bright leaned forward and kissed the mare, feeling the raw flood of power pour from her. He loved his job.

Misty's mind cleared a little. "Ugh, that little colt, look what he did, Bright." She was using her magic combined with some hoof-towels to get the patch clean again.

"Come on. Forget this place, Misty." Bright gave the mare the most gentle of nips on the shoulder.

Jumping a little at the nip, Misty spun on the stallion she couldn't take her eyes off. "What… where are we going?" She felt like she was being swept off her hooves, something any mare dreamed of.

"To get your coat redone, this won't stand." Bright held the door closed a moment, giving the mare one more flash of power, and a kiss, before opening it. "Come on babe, we definitely aren't coming back here."

Dropped Ball checked his list. Bright Flash would have herself worming into the high-society, Gilt Wings would be working into the guard, and he hoped Straight Horn would get the pegasi couriers under her hoof. Lifting up a quill in his mouth, he began to scribe a letter, using the cypher he and Sneaky had worked on.

Arget-tay traited-infilay, ot-gay oh-nay esults-ray et-yay.

Smiling, proud of his incredible intellect, the changeling stallion folded up the letter and slipped a stamp on it. Just as he was about to head out to post it there was a knock at his door. Listening carefully, he heard the pattern that Straight Horn had been told to use. "Come in, Straight."

A pegasus opened the door and entered. She turned and closed the door behind herself before talking. "This," she pulled a letter from a satchel at her side, "just came in from the Crystal Empire."

Taking the letter carefully, Dropped looked at the mare with a glare. "You copied the original, right?"

"What do you take me for, Droppy, of course I copied it. Had to deliver it to Celestia herself. No ponies want to do the long flights, getting the messages from the Crystal Enwire will be easy." Straight flicked her feathery wings in annoyance.

Dropped opened the duplicated letter.

Dear Princess Celestia. Auntie! This is insufferable, the couch you sent up is so uncomfortable I cannot bear to lay on it, and Shiny nearly put his back out when he fell asleep on it! Weather is terrible, too, I hate to have to keep reinforcing the Crystal Heart's weather spell anytime I want it not soggy and ugh Shining just keeps moping about, I even thought getting some female guards would get a little spring in his step but you know what? You know what he has done? He has trained them to be guards! All I want is my stallion acting the part and he is all 'duty and fealty'. It wouldn't kill him to totally check another mare out every now and again, it doesn't hurt and at least then I would know he is still...

He couldn't stand reading another word of it. "What in the name of our Queen is this? Is this pink nag really what beat us?" Dropped screwed up the letter and threw it into the fireplace. "Check them from now on, anything like… this, just ignore it."

"I DID read it, you stopped reading before she gave her report about having caught a changeling and 'dealt' with it, didn't you?" Straight reached out and pulled the letter out of the cold fireplace. "Really, Droppy, she wrote two pages of mind-numbing drivel to hide her real intentions."

Dropped Ball grabbed up the letter and started skimming.

Found a changeling, poor fool just walked up to the Crystal Heart, unable to stop drinking from it. It is so full of energy it is like gems to a dragon. Don't worry, problem is dealt with, got rid of them in Galloping Gorge, as usual.

His jaw hit the table, Dropped tossed his letter into the fire this time, getting fresh paper to write on. "Uh, good work Straight…"

"Yeah yeah, blah blah. For the Queen and all that. I have a date tonight and I am going to suck that stallion dry!" Straight turned and left the room, leaving a blushing changeling watching her plot as she departed.

Careful read through the report and smiled. "I was right." He levitated the letter across his desk and over to where Cadance was lounging by the fireplace. "See?"

Reading the letter, Cadance's face drew into a slight frown. "Finding out my letters are being opened and read is something to smile about?" She flicked her magic, throwing the letter into the fire behind her.

"Of course it is, Your-" Careful froze, the look he got from Cadance shut down his use of the title. "Cadance… it means we know how we don't send important things, and if we keep feeding them tasty little tidbits they will focus on that as their information source."

Her eyes going wide, Cadance laughed and grinned herself. "That… how do you come up with this, Careful?" She lifted a wing up to rub her chin. "We could also use it, in an emergency, to send false information."

"Now you are thinking. This isn't our loss, this is our gain. And now you have to visit Canterlot to tell Princess Celestia she has some… rats, in her kitchen." Careful disliked giving away his fellows, but in the few days since he had joined his new Queens in their castle, he had gained a new perspective. "They will expect to lose one or two, if we uncover one, it will be a grand thing and won't jeopardize the false information we give."

"I don't like it, what if they are hurting ponies?" Cadance's frown returned. "What would changelings do when infiltrating in this way?"

Careful sent his thoughts into his memory. "I had one group, the best in the hive at this. I bet Dropped and his mares are in there. If that is the case, the only one to really watch out for will be Bright Flash. She shares Chrysalis' power with magic and minds." Cadance shuddered at the warning. "So, we will mark and catch her. Oh, now there is an idea, I wonder if you could break her bond to the hive in the same way as with me?"

"Would… would that work? How would she behave?" Cadance blinked at this. "We would need to take Shiny too."

The door to the big study opened and closed and the stallion in question clomped in. Levitating a ream of papers at his side, he spotted his wife and trotted toward her, floating the papers to Careful. "There you are, and you look warm too."

Cadance watched her stallion strut toward her, the words she had seen Careful write in that letter had made her cringe at the time, now she realized how funny they were. "Oh no, you're wet! Dry off before you-" she didn't get any further, Shining had wrapped his snow-damp forelegs around her and pressed in. The stallion's thick coat of fur hid his warmth and he kissed his wife soundly.

At his desk, Careful had worked as hard as he could to ignore the royal couple, but when they kissed for a second time he couldn't hold back any longer and set the notes down and basked in the love. The world faded around him, Careful Steps was adrift in a sea of delight. No 'ling in history had ever been fed as well and he totally didn't care. Food was not something to worry about anymore, only his hive.

Something in the drone alerted him that the feed of love was tapering and he opened his eyes. "Uh…" Careful blinked, both Cadance and Shining looked down at him with grins on their snouts.

A pink hoof reached up and pressed against Careful's nose. "Boop! Sorry, couldn't resist it. We spoke and think next week would be good to put this plan into action. We can show off some of the new guards in Canterlot, too." Cadance particularly liked that some of the mares were shaping up well.

Careful watched the two walk, side by side, from his office. "My queens…" The 'ling sounded half in love himself. His eyes drifted and he squinted. "Cotton wool?" He got up and trotted over toward his fireplace. Plucking up almost six big wads of the stuff, he sniffed at them before tossing them in the fire. "Changeling…" The scent was both familiar and not, it wasn't just changeling, it was Shining Armor too.

Bright Flash settled into bed, beside his mare. "You awake Misty?" He nuzzled at her neck, getting sleepy sighs and a pouting snout lifting at last to stop him.

"I am now," Misty yawned, "what do you want, Bright?" She opened her eyes, taking in the big, goofily-smiling stallion. Her heart beat faster, she had never fallen for a pony quite this fast before.

"Want to go up to the palace and take a look around? I bet I can get us into that cooler of cakes everypony thinks Celestia has." Bright didn't need to flash the mare, he had learned just how taken for him she was and how much she liked games.

Misty's attention was on her coltfriend now. "Go on…" She leaned up and nibbled along his wing.

"Oh you know what that does to me…" Bright hated to admit it, but this mare's love was a touch addictive and a little too good. He bent over her and started kissing her snout, pushing her down and to her back so she had to leave his wing alone. "Buck the palace..."