The polished stone of Canterlot's streets branched out as great veins, connecting the city in a series of forked walkways. Extravagant shops framed the walkways, shops that built off each other as seemingly endless buildings. Crammed in-between were ponies, mostly aristocratic unicorns, who colored the street with dazzling outfits, their snouts inclined and their nostrils flared.

For Thorax, it was a sight seen from a modest distance. The wide girth surrounding him was both maintained and obvious. He watched ponies pass by, met their fleeting, uncertain glances for but a moment before they averted away again. Hooves hurried from him upon growing too close for comfort, and hushed whispers fell on his ears and folded them.

Thorax swallowed. His eyes shifted to his charge, still dutifully following him. Surrounded by foul faces though they were, the changelings' attention had long since been harnessed by Canterlot's splendors. The half-dozen drones trotted along with springs in their steps, the shining whites of their eyes darting from feature to feature. The elegance of the capital was a modern marvel compared to their homely hive, and it fueled their enthusiasm like gas on a fire.

Thrumming rang in his ears as a supper bell, and Thorax tried to enjoy the warming of his body.

"Everyling still doing alright?" he asked, lowering his head to the drones' height as he walked. "If any of you guys want to wait with those nice guard ponies we met by the gate while I look for Twilight, that's totally fine."

A few eyes were torn from the city's charm and soured.

"We're not nymphs, Papa Thorax, you don't need to dote on us," the pink drone, Xenica, replied. To punctuate her critique, an artisan pony wearing a particularly massive hat trotted by. As she turned to the drones, so too did the snake-like feather in her chapeau, and a bug pony from the party's rear leapt into his friend's hooves with a gasp. "We are capable adults who can look after ourselves."

"Do you not hear this, Thorax?" Her wings blurring against her ladybug carapace, Apidae's chirps drowned out those of her peers. She coaxed her king's attention with a smile. "Do you not feel it? I know you worry about us, but now is not a time you have to. We're enjoying the city, just like you wanted."

Hope sprouted in Thorax's face before wilting. Again he looked to the passing crowds. "I'm glad you guys are enjoying the sights, I just thought it might be better for us to find somewhere less...crowded, and enjoy the city from there. Somewhere quiet and safe, maybe, where I can find all of you once I fetch Twilight?"

The alpha tapped the tips of his hooves together. His sheepish grin drew naught but frowns, especially from a certain grape changeling.

"Is Princess Twilight not giving us a city tour? We shouldn't explore too much or we'll leave her nothing to show us," said Xenica. "Besides, I don't think it's too crowded, here. The ponies here are quite generous in giving us plenty of personal space."

"Xenny, I think they're avoiding us," hissed Apidae. She and her violet companion glanced to Thorax, who, before the crowd's judgemental eyes looked a timid nymph without a parent's legs to hide behind. "That's what Thorax is upset about, I think. You know how allergic he is to confrontation."

"Oh," mumbled Xenica. "Sorry, the only other time I've been around non-crystal ponies was on a rail bus, and they all behaved this way, too."

"We'll stay by your side, Thorax," Apidae encouraged, fluttering along the alpha's side and offering him a reassuring hoof. "No sense in splitting up, only to come back together, later. Besides, I don't think Princess Twilight would want us to run around looking for her, do you? Don't you think she'd want us to take everything in at our own pace? Let's just focus on enjoying ourselves, right now."

Gently lifted from the muck of his anxiety, Thorax shot a gentle smile. With a hoof he patted the bumblebee changeling atop her head and garnished a grin.

"As usual, you're absolutely right, Apidae," said Thorax. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't let myself get so flustered by our initial response. I knew what it was going to be. Change comes with time, and we're here to help make that happen. How about this - the castle looks to be right around the corner, let's make our way there. I know you guys really wanted to see the castle, right?"

A few yips and cheers accompanied his rhetoric, as did a few excited wings buzz to the air. Thorax breathed a sigh. With any luck he'd hold a reign on their attention for the entire visit, hive help him.

"Thorax, if you want to make the ponies more friendly, let's just cuddle and show them that we're nice, now," broached Calor, trotting up from behind the deer-esque changeling and wrapping hooves about his flank. "Most of these ponies look like they could use hugs, themselves."

"Forever my optimist," Thorax chuckled, his teal aura plucking the changeling from his hindquarters. Calor's hooves touched stone again, and he tripped in regaining his own balance. "I don't think now's the best time for that, Calor, we'd just get in somepony's way. We should keep moving and get off of these streets. Twilight told me the castle grounds have tons of fresh grass and plants - huge, lush gardens, in fact. If nothing else it should be easier for her to spot us, there."

As the imposing castle drew nearer, the hustle and bustle filling the bug pony's senses grew dull. Immaculate stone paths ruled over by high society shoppers were left behind in favor of sprawling grass, perfectly edged hedges and rather impressive stone sculptures.

Thorax peered through his drones. Their excitement had dulled with the crowds, but not their sense of wonder. Adoring sighs and gasps soothed his ears, aimed at the variety of plants, statues, fountains and other decorative features of the Canterlot Gardens. Thorax blinked, and he lost them. Off they went in a variety of directions to more closely examine their finds.

"How much water is even in this statue's bucket?"

Thorax first turned and found Cimex, a lime changeling with amber eyes, crawling, like a spider along the underside of a cobblestone bucket held by a nameless, bipedal pony. Upon reaching the endless froth of water springing from the opening, his tongue extended eagerly.

"Look how happy these ones are!", chimed Apidae, a short ways past the fountain. She fluttered around a narrow statue featuring young foals stacked upon each other in play. "I don't think I've seen any ponies this happy, before. What do you think, Thorax?"

Planting his flank in a sea of wavy grass, Thorax sighed contently. His mindfulness cued him into the sounds of Calor and Xenica running around the sizable labyrinth just past the statue garden, while the remainder of his party indecisively flew about overhead, pointing out far-away statues not visible from the ground.

The alpha hummed to himself, taking in the rare tranquility. His lids closed and his heart slowed, the soft rustling of leaves and grass harmonizing with the shrill chirps of his drones, which seemed so muffled and far away in his lulled state. But even out of his sight and earshot, the changelings were never truly very far. A signal pulsed as a heat in his chest, and it told Thorax all he needed to know. He could feel their glee, feel their adoration for the expansive greenery and stone in which they played.

A thought graced his mind and brought him pause. It was not a sad thought, yet it drew a tear. It was not a tangible thought, yet it brought him joy. It was the way the changelings explored the garden with a nymph-like enthusiasm, the way they so readily greeted this historical landmark with such fascination. It was a subtle scene, but entirely alien to the last time he had set hoof in this city, under such different circumstances.

Thorax sniffed away his sentimentalities. Somehow, someway, he knew they'd be okay. Be it through political commitments, social reassurances or cuddling a few dozen drones before a crowd, they'd most certainly be okay.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'THERE ARE NO GUARDS ACCOMPANYING THEM'!? IS THIS A JOKE!? DO YOU TAKE ME FOR A FOAL!?"

The voice rippled like distant thunder, bringing every changeling equal alarm. With their large eyes and ears now at attention, all heads turned to the castle's southernmost structure, a spiraling tower, tucked behind the rest of the castle's bulk. The sudden silence only begged for a second outburst, and so not a changeling spoke.

Sure enough, the outrage continued, albeit far more contained to whatever chamber it came from.

"Do not waste both of our time with your excuses, lieutenant, just go and find them! Please!"

More silence. The changelings cast nervous glances to one another, and Thorax stood from his spot.

"I wonder who that was," murmured Xenica, eyeing the now still and silent tower. "Wouldn't want to be that lieutenant pony right about now, though."

"I don't know who was yelling, but I bet you it was about us," said Apidae, trotting ahead of the pack to get a closer look. Curious gazes encouraged her as she went, trotting right up to a sealed, golden gate separating the gardens from the castle's immediate courtyards. Lucious, creeping vines wound up and down the shimmering bars, camouflaging even the lock and handle from view. There, the ladybug changeling peered through the foliage, craning her neck to find the greatest vantage point.

"Well, what do you see, Dae?" probed Calor.

"The tower has a balcony and a door," she replied. "I think the balcony is open, but there's nopony on it right now."

"Just fly over, Apidae," Cimex chided, buzzing his wings and making for the top of the stone wall. But a firm 'no' caused him a quick retreat, as did the group's attention shift once again.

"Please stay here, guys," said Thorax, trotting up to the forgotten gate, himself. "Whoever is up there sounds pretty agitated, and they certainly don't need half a dozen changelings peeking in on them."

"You're going then, Thorax?" affirmed Calor, cocking a brow. "Do you have any idea who that was?"

With barely a hum, Thorax ascended the wall and came to rest atop it. After examining the new area with a sweep of his head, he turned again to his gawking followers. He smiled something almost conniving.

"Well, to my knowledge there are only four ponies who can talk to guards like that. I like to think I know at least three of them pretty well, and that voice didn't belong to any of them. Narrows it down quite a bit, don't you think?"

The alpha hopped from his perch, and six pairs of expectant orbs now watched him through the gate's shroud of green foliage.

"For goodness sake, shall I don clown shoes too if I'm to run this circus any further, today?"

Casting off her frustrations with her words, Equestria's lunar princess trotted about the royal lounge, enveloping various objects in a deep blue aura and commanding them to follow her as she went. Fabrics, half-finished tapestries, sewing needles, pin cushions and the like all swirled in a chaos above her head.

Luna sighed, and the levitated mass of items seemed to sag in the air and sigh with her. What a shamble this had become. Discord, the dog, himself would be proud of Celestia's handiwork, today. Once again was dear sister out in the light of her sun, tending to the populace's needs with the new museum's final touches. And once again, she was here, left to wonder how in Equestria she was to get any of the castle's decor finished when the guard ponies could scarcely even do their job.

Now she had loose changelings to contend with. The thought tensed her, but not from fear of vampiric bug ponies praying upon the populace. Quite the opposite, in fact. King Thorax and his entourage, though admittedly adorable, came off as rather meek to her during the celebration dinner.

Luna huffed. The stuck up aristocrats of Canterlot were hardly a brawling bunch, but give them enough incentive and the vampony mobs of 937 B.B could very well rear their ugly heads once more. She refused to see the changelings chased from Canterlot on her watch.

The alicorn turned her head to empty space in a moment of thought, and her eyes narrowed. By the heavens, and where was Twilight Sparkle in all of this? Had she not been asked to appear in Canterlot before the king's arrival? Was she held up? If so, by what? What if that thing turned out to be some new problem to throw atop the already burning pile?

The lounge doors thundered open, and Luna trotted from the room, a cape of fabric trailing behind her.

"Somepony would do well to fetch me a cider," she told the walls.

Thorax groaned in a note of disappointment when the room's far doors closed promptly upon his inspection.

"...well, who is it, Thorax?"

The bug monarch daintily landed upon the half moon balcony, ignoring the impatient calls of his spectators. He raised a hoof, only to retract it again. He grimaced. Snooping around the castle uninvited would surely garnish more harm than good, right? He was a guest, but as of yet, had not even met with his hosts.

All the same, that mane was unmistakable. Perhaps the moon princess knew where Twilight was, or, at the very least, could give them some guidance on which place might be best to wait for her.

Thorax took off from the balcony and returned to his pack. The aged gate had grown a series of multicolored hooves, gripping its bars as tight as the vines.

"Change of plans, everyling," Thorax announced through the bars. "I'm pretty sure that was Princess Luna. I just missed her, so let's head around the front of the castle and greet her, there. She might know where Twilight is, plus it'll be good to let her know we're here."

The findings were a lit match to the drones' excitement. They pranced and stamped their hooves in a brief display, before sieging the wall and clamoring around Thorax. The poor alpha quickly found himself being guided along the grass, two pairs of hooves pushing his flank from behind while two more beckoned him to move faster from in front.

Cimex put all of his no longer fanged teeth on display. "Or she'll give us a tour of the castle!" he squeaked. "Thorax, ask her to give us a tour of the royal pony castle!"

"Ooh, yeah, Thorax!", came the harmony of Calor and Xenica in reply. Like forest sprites they buzzed around the alpha changeling's head, gripping their own heads as if they might explode from such a suggestion.

"I don't want to impose on her if she's busy, guys," said Thorax, little more than a stiff, pastel gargoyle being pushed across the lawn. "I'm sure she has a lot going on. Please remember, there's a new attraction opening in the city, today. I wouldn't be surprised if she has responsibilities relating to that. We have to be mindful that we're not her only priority."

As the moose changeling talked, eyes full of lackluster rolled in response. Hooves just out of Thorax's view repeatedly flicked their ends as to mock his jabbering, and bug ponies struggled to contain their snickering.

"Your majesty, I know you wished to not be disturbed, but the consultation line has grown upset, and-"

A sudden silence. Cyan irises snapped to attention, and the galaxy shifted with the moon princess's steps. Her mouth curled to a guard pegasus now struggling against her river of flowing fabric. Around the walls it slithered, endless shades of blue and indigo begging for her to call upon them.

But now an ugly white and gold palette stained her mosaic. Luna frowned.

Regurgitated from his silky fate, the guard pony hit the floor with a crash, his armor clanging off the walls.

"Look, 'Sure Point', was it?"

The guard pony looked up from shinning black shoes. He pressed his cheek to the floor in what little he could accomplish from a nod. Luna sighed.

"The consultation line can make do with waiting a bit longer," Luna outlined with a tone of frost, turning again to the flowing tapestries. "I set aside three hours this morning to deal with the whims and wishes of the populace, already. Right now, I have greater concerns - we all do. The changeling convoy has already arrived in the city, and heaven knows where they're at, in partial thanks to your fool of a superior. To make matters worse, my sister is detained at the museum site, while Princess Twilight remains missing in action, herself."

Luna began to pace the room, her storm of thoughts escaping to open air.

"I will lead the search for the changelings myself, if I have to, but I am on the brink of finishing the castle's decor in celebration of their visit," she explained, tapping an uncertain hoof to her chin as she continued to scan slight color variations. "I have but one tapestry left to select, the most important one of all, destined for the royal dining room's walls. I know this seems trivial, but the castle must be ready for tonight. Following their city tour with Princess Twilight, and their museum visit with my sister, the changelings will be our guests of honor here at the castle, where we'll be hosting a private dinner for King Thorax and his company. Do you follow, Sure Point?"

"Yes, your majesty. But I-"

"I take solace in the fact that the changelings are within the city's walls, and are thus out of any true danger," the lunar monarch continued, her verbalized thoughts treading dangerously close to her royal volume. "All the same, the very reason for their visit is linked to their continual work, snuffing out the stigma surrounding their species. Our city is perhaps the greatest concentration of that stigma. Warranted? Perhaps, but now, horrifically outdated."

"Your highness, I actually came to report that-"

"That the aristocracy's impatience puts foals to shame, yes, I know," Luna drolled, at last selecting a brilliant Egyptian blue. With a life of its own it soared from its sibling tapestries and flew about the princess in a series of concealing turns, before coming to a gentle standstill in the air by her side. "Let them know that I have finished my tasks, and that, once the changelings have been located, I may be able to entertain them a bit yet before tonight's dinner."

"That's just it, your highness," Sure Point babbled, getting to his hooves at last and brushing his mirrored armor of dust. "The consultation line is upset, but it isn't over the continued wait. In fact, they've proven to be rather patient, today, what with knowledge of the museum's opening."

"It's...what? Explain yourself. What has the line to grumble and fuss over, then?"

"It's the changelings, mam," Sure Point spilled out, continuing on, but at once erecting a hard look from the co-monarch. "Just appeared, they did, out of nowhere. King Thorax and half a dozen of his kin. They politely joined the line to see you by the front door, but things have begun to...turn ugly. N-no physical harm has come to them, of course, we would not allow it, but stopping words is a different matter. I had to inform you at once."

Her irises sharpening to an edge, Luna's teeth unearthed in a spark of anger. The aerial pond of tapestries fell in an instant, and by the time they touched the floor, the pair had left the room.

"Take me to them," the princess growled. A chill ran up her company's spine.

"Do you have no tact, changeling? Returning to a city so ravaged by your kind not once, but twice?"

Adrenaline raced through him, but Thorax had froze. Standing before his charge, he faced each new battering with an unflinching resolve. But as daggers continued to pierce that resolve, beads of sweat erupted from his brow. Every so often his watchful eye searched behind him. The drones seemed as unsure of the situation as him, rooted to their spots and moving only in their timid glances.

"I have a cousin, merely ten years old, he is," a platinum mare with vibrant teal hair spoke up, taking a step forward. She scoffed to the guard pegasus standing just before the changelings, returning his scowl before once again casting her flippant anger upon Thorax. "Care to wager on how many visits to the therapist it took for him to cope with the trauma brought upon him from being encased in slime? The nightmares of hissing changeling faces that he still swears to see from his closet once a moon?"

"You can't judge us based on what happened when Queen Chrysalis was in power!"

Thorax felt his heart leap. He turned, and he was not alone in doing so, towards the meekest changeling of his group. A light grey drone, barely an adult as of the past summer, named Clyepus.

"You have no idea what it was like," the drone challenged, braving a few steps past his peers and joining his king by his side. "There was never food, there was never warmth, there was never friendship. And if you complained or stepped out of line you were banished, or worse."

"Better traitors than monsters, why not revolt?" a stallion tossed from the crowd. "One lunatic dictator against hundreds of her soldiers? Spare us, if you were so miserable then why was she allowed to rule for so long? Part of you must have enjoyed preying upon ponies."

"Chrysalis's methods were all we knew, before Thorax!"

Thorax felt his attention pulled yet again. The familiar azure shell too stepped forward, but it held a look unlike anything Thorax had yet seen from him. A curled lip and narrowed stare were unnerving, coming from Calor.

"Thorax," the platinum mare from before spat. Again she attempted to advance, but the guard pegasi's wings flared in warning. "And what have you to say on the matter, Thorax? Let your drones do your work for you, do you? Sounds awfully similar to the old queen, if you ask me."

"Don't you dare compare Thorax to Chrysalis! He is nothing like her!"

Calor was joined by the rest of his pack in an instant, before Thorax could scarcely hope to breathe. A wall of bodies they created, as if on instinct, in front of their king. Mirroring the pegasus before them, their gossamer wings flared from their shells, as did their heads lower to the stone path. A hushed silence befall the clearing for a long, tense moment. When next words touched the air, even the guard pegasus had taken surprise in the changelings.

"...look at you, you act the same even now," the mare said insipidly, turning on her hoof and whisking her mane from her eyes. "All that's changed is your colors, and your willingness to speak instead of hiss. The princesses may trust you, but there is no looking back, not for those of us who suffered the blunt of your invasions. Once an undesirable, always an undesirable."

"Choose your words carefully, aristocrat, or you risk falling to the likes of a mere hypocrite."

The world froze, and the resulting chill sapped heat from every temper until only a cold sweat remained. All eyes cast upon the castle's front door, and there found a scowl to chase all evils to the ends of Equestria. With rigid form and an unblinking expression, the lunar co-monarch stepped down the castle steps with a god-given purpose.

"P-princess Luna, you're here," was all the mare was allowed, before she was descended upon.

"Tell me what you see before you," Luna said flatly, cornering the mare in the middle of the square. "Do you see a princess? A leader who holds only the best interests of her subjects in her mind and her heart?"

Raising a nervous hoof, the platinum mare forced a hideous smile, wrought with growing unease. "Why of course, your majesty, why would we ever expect anything less of-"

"How curious it is, then, that you neglect to remember a time when your princess sought to starve out the sun, and rule over her subjects with an iron hoof," Luna cooed in flawless interruption, arresting the rest of the observing crowd with her gaze. "Neglect to recall that an undesirable such as she was chained to the moon for a millennia for her lust of conquest, but was still bestowed the gift of a second chance, and ultimately grew into the princess you now see before you, because of it."

"I...I didn't mean to-"

"You meant every word," Luna rebutted, taking her time in locking eyes with the frantic mare. "Now, are your feelings completely unfounded? Do I not feel for those of us who suffered greatly from the changeling attacks under the former queen? Don't be foolish. Even today I draw guilt for not being within the city on that day, for not being able to help protect ponies like yourself, like your cousin, like my own sister, from harm."

The crowd fidgeted, a field of dried grass ready to snap and bend. Luna's look did not soften.

"But dare you stand again before a creature trying so hard to change and throw dirt in their eyes, know that we will have fiercer words. The changelings venture far from their home today with nothing but earnest to forge a bond with ponies that the former queen was too selfish to even attempt. Until you've a new reason to doubt them, you would do well to respect them."

When again her attention visited each face, retreating hoofsteps began to assault the street. In a matter of moments, the palace's modest, empty courtyard sat before the princess, while marveled eyes praised her from behind.

"...terribly sorry about that, King Thorax," Luna said at last, turning to offer a tone and smile far warmer than what had just transpired. With an outstretched hoof she walked forward, and two monarchs met, personally, for the very first time. "I must apologize on our lieutenant's behalf as well, seeing as he's probably still out there, searching for you. It pains me to think that if we'd simply escorted you, as intended, none of this would have happened."

With a heavy sigh, Thorax closed his eyes, and a newfound wave of pleasant tingling filled him from hoof to horn. He needn't even turn to know that his changelings' attitudes had rebounded, too, no worse for wear. Reflecting Luna's smile, he met her hoof and gave a nonchalant shake of his head.

"You know, for better or worse, I was sorta expecting something like this to happen from the getgo," he admitted with a weak chuckle. "I'm just thankful you came along when you did. Lingering prejudices aside, we were actually looking for you."

The princess shot up her brows. "You were looking for me? Whatever for?"

"We kinda heard you from the castle's statue garden, a little bit ago," Thorax explained, nodding in the relevant direction. "We wound up there because we were looking for a nice, relaxing place to wait for Twilight. We also thought you might know where she is."

"At least we accomplished the first part, right?", Apidae interjected, giving a courteous bow to the blue alicorn upon her notice. "We haven't found Princess Twilight yet, but we've never even seen statuses like those from your gardens, your majesty!"

"I love the ones that shoot water!", Cimex added, taking to the air for the first time since they'd left the grassy grounds. "I bet you could solve Equestria's water shortages with magic statues like that one, your highness!"

Luna laughed - a hearty, genuine laugh to dispel the last of her rigid composure.

"Well, I'm not so sure about that, colorful one, but I am glad that you all found your way to the palace," she expressed. With a flick of her eyes she commanded her guards to return inside, and so the door now held open for the eight of them. "And I wish I could be more help, but if you cannot locate Twilight, that makes two of us. Let's head inside for now, shall we? Dear sister's sun is particularly oppressive, today. You didn't hear this from me, but I believe it's to encourage traffic for the new, fully air-conditioned museum."

Author's Notes: