When Careful got his senses back, he jerked his head up. "That… that wasn't terrible…" He looked around his room, something was off.

Nimbus' wing reached up and hooked over the changeling's head. "I hope it wasn't, I am going out on a limb and saying something happened?" She rubbed her cheek against the oddly hard shoulder of her lover.

"No, I meant…" Careful leaned down and kissed the mare, his fangs surprising the pegasus by how careful he was with them. "I need to go, my hive needs me." Disentangling wings and legs proved a little harder than the 'ling expected, particularly when their owner was not actively helping.

"A stallion married to his job. Mother warned me about ponies like you, Careful St-" Nimbus was making a joke but caught a look from Careful and froze.

"Don't use that name, not all of it. Just call me Careful." The drone leaned in and kissed the mare's pouting lips. "And don't pout, you are cuter when you are smiling." What was he doing, he wasn't meant to be seducing a mare… or being seduced by one.

"Then don't give me a reason to pout. Go, save the empire. But come back when you are done, we are not finished, Careful stallion." Nimbus had started out with putting changeling in the 'minus' column of Careful's score, but after the time they had just had it had definitely proven not to be a minus and could even drift to positive. "Cute plot…" Her last words went unheard by Careful, but she smiled anyway.

Careful reached the royal couple's door just as a guard was about to knock on it. "Please don't!" He trotted up. "Shining had some upsetting news for the princess, I am sure they will be fine come morning." The guard looked unimpressed. "Okay, how about I go in and rouse them?"

"That would do." The guard stood stiffly. "Her Highness needs to review and sign these documents."

It was the last thing he wanted to do, but using his horn, Careful lightly probed the room, sensing two ponies somewhat awake. Opening the door just enough for himself, he slipped inside. Two heads were looking at him. "Forgive me-"

"You are forgiven, Careful. You told us, didn't you?" Cadance cut in on his apology. "I thought it a jest, a bad one. What do they want?"

"Forms, something about an orphanage?" Careful's eyes flicked as he brought back the memory of the pages as the guard had flicked them. "Do you want to sign them?" As he asked, Careful's unicorn form melted in green fire, replaced by a stunningly beautiful, pink alicorn.

"Check them, Careful. You probably know more of the situation." Cadance leaned in, snuggling her snout down against Shining's neck. "Will it hurt, Careful?"

"I don't know, I just… never has a queen used this, that I can remember. I hope not." Careful looked back at the couple and, renewed by the love that even now flowed from them like a bubbling brook, turned for the door and opened it. "What is this? I thought I had left instructions with Careful to not let-" The door closed behind the disguised changeling.

"If Chrysalis hadn't been such a… a…" Cadance stopped. "I don't have a bad enough word for her. But if she hadn't been, I could really have welcomed the changelings."

Shining looked up at his wife, about to open his mouth and make an off-the-cuff remark, when his tongue touched a fang and he was reminded all over again what was happening. "Please, just hold me, Cady."

"Ugh, those… those…" Careful raged as she walked into her bedroom. "Can you believe they tried to slip in a tax break with an orphanage contract? A TAX BREAK!" Her wings flared and Careful realized that there was a pegasus on the bed laughing at her. "What?"

"Oh, just trying to imagine how I had ever not seen through your disguise, your highness…" The mock fealty in Nimbus' tone had Careful giving her a curtsey. "Oh, getting favors from the Princess, how grand am I?"

"Quite grand indeed." The false Cadance strode forward until she was at the edge of the bed before the fire came and she lost not only stature but became a different pony entirely. "I hate paperwork."

"But you are good at it." Nimbus leaned up and nibbled the unicorn's shoulders. "Go on, grow them out, I want you as an alicorn this time." The pegasus nipped a little harder and got a startled laugh from Careful.

"I am good at it, I only do it for my queens." Careful focused on the change, bringing his unicorn self out and adding the wings to it as he did. When he opened his eyes again, he saw a very big grin on Nimbus' snout. "What?"

"When I introduce you to my mom, I have to have you just like this, trust me!" With that, the pegasus was having no more words, but Nimbus did laugh when she bowled him over onto his back.

Cadance began her day as if her husband wasn't turning into a changeling. Nope, that was something to deal with later, after she had breakfast and didn't have her neck matted with dry tears. "Dibs on the tub!" She rolled off the bed, using a wing to balance and then stumbled into the bathroom.

A bath for a pony was a problem only when it came to get dry, but unicorns had a simple little spell to summon the dry desert winds. Stepping from the bathroom after her ablutions, the pink alicorn spotted her husband doing something odd. "What… what are… are those corks?"

Shining lifted his head, his pink magic winking out as he was caught. Relief flooded him just as quickly. "Yeah… sorry about the cotton wool, but it just isn't cutting it now." He turned back to his left foreleg, pushing the fur aside to reveal the hole, then pushing another cork into one end of it.

"Does that feel strange?" Cadance repeated her little mantra about Shining being perfectly fine, in her head at least. She started the morning procedures required to make an alicorn look perfect. "I wish I had Auntie's mane… maybe I will end up with something like that?"

With the last cork in, Shining got up and head into the bathroom. "They feel a little odd, but I don't really want to have to tell anypony why they can see light through my legs." Shining got into the shower, letting the hot water wash away the sweat his coat had collected during a rough night of sleep. "What was it Careful wanted last night?"

"Oh, probably nothing, that stallion works entirely too hard but… I can't say he isn't useful. Did you see what he did?" Cadance was working the brush through her mane, cringing a little at each knot.

"He pull his 'I am the Princess' thing again? Don't you worry about that?" Shining was working his mane, getting the suds into it deeply.

"I might worry except he writes reports about each time he does it, detailing everything that happened. That drone is a better princess than I am, sometimes." Cadance set the brush down and started work on her eyelashes.

Shining stepped from the water and shut down the jets. Bracing himself, he used his magic to blow himself dry and stepped out of the bathroom. He spotted his wife, primping herself just right. He lost track of more than just his words. A boop on his nose startled the stallion out of his daze. "I'm awake!"

"Of course you are, Shining Armor, don't you dare stop looking at me like that, no matter what you become." Cadance kissed her husband on the nose.

"You mean that… it's hard to take that in, but maybe if you keep saying it…" Shining leaned against Cadance, rubbing his cheek against hers. "Cadance, Princess of Love, Empress of all she can see, will you stay married to this oaf?"

"Only if this gloriously handsome stallion, who stole my heart with his kindness and determination, will stay married to me." Cadance kissed Shining and time seemed to break for both of them, the two trapped in a kiss and snuggle that had everything to do with renewing the fire of love that burned between them.

The banging noise finally overwhelmed their ability to ignore the world and Cadance sighed, breaking the kiss. "The world is surely collapsing again, although your sister is probably taking care of that, I will go and see what has happened locally now." She gave her husband one more kiss and turned to the door, looking immaculate. "Yes?"

"Your Highness, Court starts in an hour. You did ask us to remind you, if you were still in your room…" The mare at the door blushed a little, seeing Cadance looking perfect, and over her shoulder, Shining Armor still looking a little rumpled.

"I did, thank you. Recruit?" Cadance got an eager nod. "Glad to have you guarding us. Escort us." She looked back, to see Shining trotting out, his mane a mess. "Come here…"

Shining grinned, he did this on purpose. His wife's touch, even her magic, made him tingle with happiness. "But Cadance…" The wheedling tone was so fake he got a snort of a laugh from the guard. Nonetheless, Cadance styled her husband's mane into a semblance of order. "What's for breakfast?"

"Sir, the usual fare, juice, some salad, and a special today, porridge." The guard turned and led the couple to the quieter dining area, off from the main one.

"Thank you." Cadance smiled to the guard and stepped into the dining room, only to groan. "Really Careful? Ambushing us at…" Cadance trailed off, something was different about the 'ling today. "Okay, first thing, you talk, we eat. What happened last night?"

"Those two nobles tried to slip a tax break in with the forms, I was not going to sign until I read it all." Careful practically basked in the reaffirmed love from the couple. "I found it and tore the pages up before them. The orphanage will go ahead, of course."

Cadance ate what was set before her, half-listening to the changeling talk about tax adjustments and how a well-timed purchase and sale could do… something. Then it came to her.

Careful had been rattling off tax law, a wide smile on his snout that he couldn't banish. "Y… Your Highness?" He looked worriedly at Cadance, she looked at him like he imagined a hungry tiger looked at a rabbit.

"I know a secret." Cadance giggled like a filly. "Shiny, do you want to know a secret?"

Shining had been wolfing down food and looked to his wife, seeing her in the most terrible of moods he had ever seen her in. He groaned and shook his head. "Newp." His reply was hasty, his mouth still half-full of salad.

"Aww, but Shiny, this is something really, really important." Cadance turned, looking right at Careful. "You see, whenever I looked at our little friend here, before today, he was like a little vortex, a swirling sink for the love and happiness around him." She lifted a hoof, using her magic to make an illusion of a spiral, with Careful at the center.

"Cady, it is too early for this… what is going on?" Shining hated to have to ask, because he knew his wife would draw this out, worse still, he knew either himself or Careful was the target.

Careful looked up at Shining, the stallion was giving him a look now that he couldn't quite interpret.
"Careful…" Cadance's voice brought instant relief to Shining.

"You poor guy, you should probably run." Shining reached a hoof over, trying to mock-restrain his wife, as if giving Careful his chance at freedom.

Looking between the two ponies as if they had gone mad, Careful shook his head. "What is going on? What are you doing? Why should I run?"

"She knows-" Shining tried to cover Cadance's snout with his hoof but it was too late.

"Careful has a special somepony!" Cadance crowed the sing-song words at the top of her lungs, half a continent away, random changelings felt a little smile creep onto their snouts for no reason. "Who is she?" The Princess of Love was in her element, nopony was safe.

Author's Notes:

Yeah yea, some humor slips in, because damn it, Cadance is a nice mare, a smart pony, and can't resist it when she sees love. I imagine Shining sees her like a shark, when they sense blood, their eyes roll back, their jaws distend and grab!

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