"Okay, who is he?" Jade Wings swooped around her friend, the pair performing their normal aerial stunts together. "Come on Nimmy, I haven't seen you so distracted since I met you."

"It doesn't have to be a stallion… I got a promotion." Nimbus did a little barrel roll. "You know that part-time gig I had working for the somepony at the palace?"

Jade circled around her friend, flying directly in front of the mare and halting. "Somepony who is a stallion?" She smirked as soon as her friend looked guilty. "I knew it!" She pumped a hoof in the air.

"No, it's… okay, he is smart… I know you like 'em big, dumb, and full o' fun, but I like a stallion who can say something intelligent." Nimbus didn't realize it, but her features had relaxed and she was staring dreamily off into the clouds.

"Did you buck his brains out? 'Cause he sure did yours." Jade booped her friend on the snout and folded her wings, circling and diving toward their normal breakfast place. Checking constantly for ponies who might have right-of-way, Jade barely had to make any adjustments before she came down on the street and looked to her left.

Nimbus landed and looked to her friend. "That… he is sexy as… not a big buff stallion like… well, the type you like." The mare giggled a little at the reality of it. "But in all the right ways, he is perfect."

"So you did? Totally knew it." Jade stepped along to the cafe, finding a table for them and gesturing to the mare behind the counter. "Does this smart and perfect stallion have a name?"

"Careful." Nimbus remembered his warning about last names. "Just Careful. But anyway, so I am going to be working up there sort of full time now." She took a seat at the table just as the waitress brought out a large milkshake each for them. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome! The same?" The mare knew the two pegasi, served them every day. When both nodded she turned and trotted off to the kitchen to prepare their waffles.

"Let me guess, this Careful is your boss?" The moment Jade said it she knew it was truth. "Did you roll in the hay before or after the promotion?"

"Jade! It isn't like that!" Nimbus Cloud nearly spat out some of her milkshake. "He isn't like that. Besides… I sort of encouraged him to make the first move." She spoke the last words just before slurping on her drink, eyes scooting to the side guiltily.

Jade Wings was filled with two conflicting feelings. On one hoof she really wanted to keep poking her friend about this, on the other she was really happy her friend had seemed to find "the one." "So you made the first move? What did you do?"

"He was… distracted by something, I leaned in close and parted my lips, just a little…" Nimbus remembered that first touch of Careful's lips, soft, just like a pony's. She went back to slurping her drink until a plate of waffles was set before them.

"Thanks girls, enjoy your day." The waitress scooped up the bits the two mares had left her to cover food and was soon gone.

"So, when do I get to meet him?" Jade nibbled some of her waffle. "What are you doing today?"

"Today?" Nimbus remembered that there was a job to do before they were to head off to Canterlot. "Oh, I am probably going to be quite busy all this week. Then we are going to Canterlot for work…"

"Just started and already they have you working hard? Just make sure he is worth this." Jade gave her friend a wink.

"He is." Nimbus spared a glance up to the palace, the huge shape visible no matter where in the city you were. "He is very special."

"You know she won't stop until she finds out, right?" Shining nudged Careful. "Now she knows she will be relentless."

"Was it that cute unicorn that was at Court yesterday?" Cadance stared at the changeling's face. "No… oh, what about that very leggy pegasi from Manehatten? No?"

Careful looked around the room, ensuring no eavesdroppers were present. "Your Highness, how are you feeling?" He looked to Shining. "Any fur-loss? Odd sensation in your back? What about your mane and tail?"

Snapped from her game by the odd questions, Cadance squinted at the changeling. "Why those things?" She narrowed her eyes a fraction.

"I-I-I assume… well, that it will progress. Changelings lack fur, have fins for mane and tail, wings-" Careful was cut off by a shocked Shining.

"Wings?" It was clear that if Cadance's husband had wings, they would be standing tall right then. "This is too much, all at once…" Shining began to shake a little, right up until the wing wrapped around him.

"We need to follow your sister's example. Any problem, no matter how large, can be broken up into manageable chunks… with a list." It was clear, by the 'Twilight accent' that Cadance affected that she had heard a particular Princess of Friendship say just that. "So…" with a flash of blue magic a scroll and a quill appeared, each floating over to Careful. "Spike, make a list!"

"Who's Spike?" Careful looked to the royal couple, eyes darting between them as both struggled to keep their giggles in. "Okay okay, so, Changeling Transformation."

"Mane and tail… would he keep his hair or would it fall out and be replaced?" Cadance looked at Shining. "I know I would prefer him to keep it."

"I will put down those as two options under it." Careful made little dashes and added those. "Who is Spike, anyway?"

"Twily's… well, she raised him from an egg… he is a baby dragon." Shining sipped some crystal berry juice. "Legs. Holes in them, growing longer?"

"Changelings tend to be a little more… spindly, I would say that goes under body though, since it should happen everywhere." Cadance tapped her chin as she thought. "Oh, Fangs. Give me a look…" Shining did so, opening his mouth wide for his wife to inspect. "Ha, thought so. Make a heading of fangs, two pair."

"Wait, two pairs?" Careful was fast, dropping the list and climbing on the table to inspect Shining. "These aren't like the fangs a drone has…"

"So Shiny is going to be your queen?" Cadance had a foreleg wrapped around her beloved to soften the blow. "Remember my promise." Her lips reached up, barely whispering the words to the stallion.

Cadance knew him too well, Shining realized. She knew he would panic about the implications of that before he started to. "I remember, Cady."

The love radiating from the two almost overwhelmed Careful, he was in the strangest of situations for a changeling, having to get used to being overfed. "Let's worry about that when it comes to it." The 'ling looked up at the pair, the sense of love seeming to rise further. "It's still a bit early to tell, keep an eye out on his mane and tail."

"Wings. Shiny, you are going to get to fly!" Cadance nuzzled around her husband's jaw. "It is so awesome…"

"Well, 'ling wings work a little different, more for hovering. Okay got those down. But there is another thing that is more interesting." Careful scratched a word on the list, with a big question mark under it. "This." He turned the paper around and showed it to the couple.

"Transformation?" Shining read the word aloud. "You mean I will be able to transform, like a changeling?"

"If you practice and work hard at it… oh!" Careful scrawled some more. "Feeding is another, that will come before transforming, of course."

Peeking at the list, Cadance chewed her lip a little. "Depending on the order they come, he might be able to start transforming to hide the rest of his changes. What about now, how would he go about drinking, if he could?"

Careful looked to Shining. "Okay, close your eyes." The big stallion looked from the disguised changeling, to his wife, then back.

"Okay, now what?" Shining was focusing on trying to feel the slightest thing. Suddenly, it was like he was being stabbed, by happiness. "What is that?" His voice was loud, so loud.

"That is a rather focused spear of emotion, your own in fact." Careful relaxed the flow, letting it trickle slowly instead of sharply jabbing in. "That you can feel it at all is a good sign. Tastes good?"

"Like honey poured over sugar cane…" Shining was relaxed, it felt good to just let that flow come in. Then it stopped. "Hey!"

"You can't feed yourself with it yet, when you can I will start working to try to teach you to transform." Careful pushed his untouched plate over to Shining, who had been eying it since he had finished his own. "So keep focusing, you know how to meditate?"

Shining blushed. "I… do."

"You do?" Cadance looked at her husband with a little surprise. "When did my brave, stalliony-stallion learn how to meditate?" She looked at him for almost ten seconds. "A mare."

"We didn't do anything! She just showed me how to meditate! I was teaching her how to surf…" Shining was defensive, trying to fend off a wrath he was sure was coming. Then he stopped. "You aren't mad?"

"Shiny, if she taught you something that is helpful, there is nothing to be mad about." Cadance popped the last of her breakfast into her mouth, chewing and swallowing it. "Besides, I got you in the end." She launched herself, wrapping forelegs and wings around her husband, pulling him tight against herself. As Shining gave in to his wonderful, if cooky at times, wife, he noticed Careful bracing as if he were on a beach as a huge tsunami was about to hit.

It wasn't so bad, but then, Careful was getting used to this overabundance of love. "I will go and fend the guards and Court off for a little more. Relax." He trotted from the room, certainly not feeling hungry after the biggest breakfast of his life.

Slick Dive peered at the spinning, heart-shaped crystal from afar. He was wearing a different disguise, of course, he wore a different one every day. Every time he lay down to sleep, he could practically feel eyes crawling over him. "I am being hunted…"

"Sorry?" A mare had bumped into Slick as he was so focused. "Didn't see you there. My name's Jade."

"Sorrel Step." Slick's first name was a definition of his life, his honeyed tongue. Using a hoof he brushed up and back, flicking his mane. "And it was my fault, I was standing around gaping at the Crystal Heart."

"You should come over for a better look." Jade ruffled her wings and reached out with a hoof, curling it around Slick's shoulders. "Anypony ever tell you you look hot?" Yeah, smooth, but then Jade liked the direct approach.

It was a trap, Slick was in a trap and it was the worst kind, a bumbling random one. "Oh, uh…" There was a trickle of love and he drank at it. "Not today." He smiled outwardly as the mare seemed insistent about pulling him closer to the heart. "What does it do?"

"The Heart? It is the defense of the Empire! Whenever evil comes, all the ponies focus their love and happiness toward it and it fires out a blast, destroying the bad guys!" Jade Wings fluffed her wings again, urging her new find along. "They say that if two ponies kiss before it, it will bind them together forever."

The Heart seemed odd to Slick, though it was visible, solid, it also registered on his emotion-senses. It felt cold and hot all at once, but while the heat remained the same, the closer he got the colder it seemed. "I think I need to go…" He tried to look away from the heart, tried to find an excuse to drag the mare away to. "Ice cream! Do you want some ice cream?"

Jade followed Sorrel's look and her face lit up. "Ice cream would be wonderful." She lifted her hooves, practically prancing with the big, handsome stallion accompanying her.

Slick didn't sweat in his native form, but right then, he was in a cold, terrified sweat, some instinct inside him wanting him far far away from that crystal.

Author's Notes:

Oh ho, who is this? Two new characters introduced in one chapter? It must be madness! I am assuming anypony who has read the first incarnation of this story, knows who Slick is?

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