Now that she was here, none of this struck Twilight as being a particularly good idea. None of it. It was already a long stretch to think that trying to talk with the Sultan would achieve something, but to do it in a shaky disguise seemed unnecessarily dangerous. Perhaps that was a thought she should follow up on.

Mayfly, of course, looked the part. As a changeling her disguise couldn't have been more perfect, even if she went with her favoured colours of a white coat, and pale blue mane and tail, with similarly blue eyes. Nightmare too looked perfect as a very light grey and lilac maned mare. She had kept her eye colour though.

Then there was Twilight and Trixie, who appeared as taller versions of themselves. It did kind of work for Trixie, if you ignored the horn on her head, but Twilight still managed to look like herself to an uncanny degree, even without her horn or wings.

"That's just pathetic," was Nightmare's opinion of the both of them. "A Saddle Arabian with a horn is going to stick right out, literally, and you, Twilight, look like you spent an unfortunate amount of time being tortured in a rack. You won't be convincing anypony, either of you."

"What do you suggest then?" Twilight asked, blowing her mane out of her eyes, its length being a side effect of the spell she'd found to transform herself and Trixie into Saddle Arabians. She'd never thought she'd say this, but her sensible, straight cut fringe was betraying her.

"That you learn to transform like a true alicorn."

"You mean like you," Twilight deadpanned.

"You say that like I'm not great at transformations," Nightmare sniffed. "You'd think I have to be, considering the amount of time I spend hiding in disguise."

"And what about those of us that aren't alicorns?" Trixie asked, holding up a hoof like she were asking teacher a question.

"What about you?" Nightmare asked back innocently, hiding a grin.

"Don't be a jackass. How am I supposed to disguise myself if I'm not an alicorn?"

"With magic, obviously. And don't call me a jackass. I'm really not the kind of pony you call things like that."

Trixie grumbled loudly and walked away, kicking a few rocks and staring hard at the city of Ammare in the distance as Nightmare took on a role she'd never thought she would, that of being a teacher.

"You're aware of how transformation spells work, yes? Basically they're a specialised form of magical affliction, forcing your body to change in a way unnatural to its typical form."

"And you're already talking a load rubbish," Twilight sighed, "but I'll humour you for now. Although, perhaps instead of me standing here cringing at everything you get wrong, how about you tell me how you transform instead? Then I'll tell you how I can't do that, and then we can go about our day."

"And why can't you do it? You think this power is unique to me? Both Luna and Celestia can do it, although Celestia doesn't out of some refusal to be deceptive, or anypony but herself, or some other hippy crap reason. The point is, if we can do it, you can."

"Still doesn't help me though," Trixie muttered.

Nightmare shushed Trixie, "The adults are talking."

"Shove it up your ass, bootleg Luna."

"I'll help you with your disguise as soon as I can," Twilight offered as Nightmare stared daggers at Trixie, a slight twitch promising retribution if Trixie didn't fuck off really soon. "That being as soon as Nightmare gets on and tells me in an at least vaguely straightforward manner whatever it is that she's trying to tell me."

Nightmare rolled her eyes, "I'm about to reveal the secret to alicorn transformation, and this is the appreciation I get. Not sure I want to now."

"They stole the idea from changelings," Mayfly told them while Nightmare faked a sigh. "Changelings aren't very good at other magic, but are very malleable. Turns out that alicorns are sort of the same, but with using lots of magic to make the change, instead of natural ability."

Nightmare squinted suspiciously at Mayfly, "How do you know that?"

"Anything with a high magic to physical matter ratio can do it. But changelings did it first. Don't think I can't tell what you're doing when you transform," Mayfly said back to Nightmare.

"Okay, fine, but I bet you don't know exactly how you're doing it, which is why my sister and I-" Nightmare blinked at her slip, "I mean Celestia and Luna, can do things you can't."

"Such as turn your form into a ethereal puff of magic?" Twilight asked, sensing where that was going since it was Nightmare speaking.

"Exactly. You, as an alicorn, are magical enough to overpower your physical form to become anything you want. You want a wafty mane, go for it. You want to be taller than Celestia, the world is your low ceilinged oyster. You want to spend your days as a hybrid, biped, freak of nature pony minotaur thing, you're a weirdo, but you could do it.

Twilight removed her current disguise, returning back to what she'd spent the last three to four years looking like after sprouting wings. Apparently that was optional though, and she could in fact be anything she wanted to, so why-

"You're bullshitting me," Twilight realised. "If you can be anything you want, why be like you are most of the time? Why accept the changes that happened to you after you and Luna met in the dreamscape?"

"Because it's good to be yourself?" Nightmare said slowly, not sure what Twilight was getting at. "Not even a changeling can permanently transform themself, Twilight. Sometimes you need to spend time as what you truly are, so when I'm being me, that's because I want to be, and even need to be. Wait, were you about to accuse me of liking being myself?"

"I wouldn't exactly call it an accusation."

"You'd be right if you were though. I do like being me. Unfortunately the world doesn't seem to see it that way. Anyway, what I was going to say is that your- what do we call it? Second soul? -that thing, gets in the way by permanently trying to return yourself to your proper alicorn form, so it takes effort to maintain your transformation, which is why you can't stay permanently transformed. Kind of annoying, but rather useful if you accidentally turn yourself into a puddle of non-sentient goo."

"So there is a limitation."

"Not a huge one, but yes. It doesn't take a lot of effort of keep the transformation, but you will run out of steam, especially if you're using magic on other things as well. Anyway, that's enough talk, give it a try."

"What do you mean? You haven't told me how to do anything!"

"But I thought you'd gather from this that it's intuitive! Was that not obvious?"

Twilight held in a groan. Actually she held in a lot of things, but a groan was the first on the list. To think that she thought Nightmare was actually going to teach her how to do it. "Can't you at least give me a rundown on how you do it?"

"Well, I picture in my mind what I want to be... then I become it." Nightmare smiled helplessly, "Was that helpful? Please say it was."

"I really doubt she deserves to be told that," said Trixie.

"And she won't be." Twilight looked sideways at Nightmare as the mare pouted, then put her thoughts back into what she was doing. If she understood the point of this, her body was basically putty that could be moulded according to her magic. Or maybe that was the wrong way to take it, as the images in her head of her squeezing herself painfully into new shapes suggested.

"Y'know what? Screw it. I'm good at shrinking and invisibility spells, so that's what we'll do." Twilight pointed at Nightmare and Mayfly, "You two are going to have to take point on this. Try not to mess it up."

"Uh, what?"

"How's your Saddlan?"

"Better than yours."

"Good." Twilight patted Nightmare on the leg. She had been aiming for the top of her head, but that was currently out of range. "You're probably going to need it."

"I fail to see how bringing me is actually going to increase your chances," Mayfly whispered to Nightmare as they made their way into the city. She almost looked up to see if Twilight was still shadowing them, but since she was invisible, trying to spot her was pointless. "If anything I lower your chances."

"And don't I know it. Now shush, do you want to look like you don't belong here? I thought changelings were good at blending in?"

"Queen Chrysalis never let me perform infiltrations. She thought I'd mess them up. I suspect she might have been right."

"Oh, great, just what we need right now. Perhaps you should do your best to stay quiet and follow my lead. Any chance you could transform yourself into having no tongue? Just so there's no slip ups?"

"I'm not removing my tongue!"

"Just a thought," Nightmare sighed.

"Will you two stop arguing?" the voice of Twilight said from just above them, making them both jump. "At least try to act like you're meant to be here!"

"And you should shush since you're not supposed to be here at all," Nightmare said back. "Now be gone, djinn, before I taghalab you back to the alsuwq."

"Why are you taghalabing me back to the marketplace?"

"Marketplace? I thought I said ancestors! Oh, wait, no, that's aslaf. Hah, alsuwq, what was I thinking?"

"Twilight, this is not getting any less of a terrible idea," Trixie whispered loudly. "You seriously need to rethink this!"

"It'll be fine," Nightmare scoffed. "Besides, we're almost there, and you're going to have other concerns soon."

"Such as?"

Nightmare turned a sharp left, dragging Mayfly with her. Twilight tried to follow, but failed to register the bridge going over the street before hitting it. Nightmare smirked at the puff of dust that suddenly erupted from the street, and at the groans that accompanied it, then carried on their way to the Sultan's palace before Twilight could do anything to stop her.

As ever, there were two guards at the outer entrance to the palace, keeping a watchful eye for trouble, in whatever form it came as. That also included Nightmare and Mayfly, and only got worse as Nightmare tried to say that they wished to meet the Sultan, which took more a's than should feasibly fit in a sentence.

"Natamanaa 'an naraa Alsultan."

When the guards asked why, Nightmare was unable to answer why, with both language and reasoning being a barrier. She couldn't simply say that they wanted to talk to him about fighting Faust. She supposed that she would simply have to lie, and hope the guards bought it.

"Laqad saraq alhurras jz'ana min ukhti," she said as confidently. That confidence slowly died as they both looked at Mayfly, and her rather blank smile, then asked if it was her brain that was stolen. That stumped Nightmare for a moment as she ran back over what she'd said and worked out she'd said that guards had stolen part of her sister.

"Laqad 'akhadh alhurras jz'ana min ukhti," she corrected quickly. That was definitely what she needed to say, ha ha...

"Saddlan isn't your first language, is it?" the guard on the left asked. "That, or you really are accusing some of our number of a most heinous crime."

Nightmare winced, "Was it that obvious?"

"Accusing guards of 'taking part of your sister,' yeah, it was a little obvious. Besides, she doesn't look like much of a victim."

Nightmare had meant to say that the guards had taken something from her sister, not what that implied. Still, it was too late now, so she had to go on with the lie. "Uh, I meant soldiers, Mareitanian ones, and she's drugged up to the eyeballs. This also happened in Equestria, which is why we fled, and also why my Saddlan sucks, and hers is non-existent."

"They don't teach languages where I went to school," Mayfly mumbled.

The guard nodded slowly, "So you're from Equestria, huh? Couldn't the authorities there have done something about it?"

"The Mareitanians are untouchable, but the Sultan is now their ally, so I was hoping he could intervene on our behalf." Nightmare really hoped they would be let in soon, because this had suddenly got a lot more serious than she'd intended.

"I'm sure he'd love to, but the Sultan is very busy right now. Perhaps I could take you to someone that could help instead?"

Nightmare hid her grimace, since it was actually the Sultan she needed to see, but felt her ability to argue about this had already been lost, so accepted the offer.

It was only a few minutes later that she came to realise her mistake in doing so when she and Mayfly were directed into a cell at the point of a spear.

Nightmare hung her head in defeat. "Shit."

"This is entirely your fault."

"I'd liked to have seen you do better."

"I think I'd struggle to do worse."

That at least, Nightmare had to admit was true.

Twilight sat on the edge of a minaret, a hoof massaging her eyes, because one, her head hurt after flying into a bridge, and two, because Nightmare had gotten herself and Mayfly led straight to the palace dungeon. What Nightmare had done to make that happen she had no idea, save for a surety that it was probably pretty dumb.

"So what the heck are we supposed to do now?" Trixie asked into Twilight's ear, the shrunken mare holding onto Twilight's mane for support.

Twilight shrugged at the question. She was starting to wonder if they'd have been just as well off trying to see the Sultan as they were. It hardly seemed like the Mareitanians had a presence here, so unless the Sultan really had sided with Faust, she doubted anything particularly bad would have happened.

"You're doing that thinking silently thing again. You know I can't hear you when you do that."

"I was thinking you should shush while I try to make a plan."

"And I think you should chill and let Nightmare do her thing. They're eventually going to question the two of them, and that means that whatever Nightmare wants will get back to the right ponies. All we have to do is hope Nightmare doesn't do something dumb before then."

Trixie, to some degree, had a point. Twilight didn't particularly want to test that point since the Saddle Arabians might not ask their questions very nicely. Besides the possible issue of their disguises not holding up under torture if things went that far, Nightmare was sure to violently object to said torture, and those ponies probably had no idea they were holding an alicorn. Admittedly, there was a certain level of sadistic glee in imagining how they'd find out what she was, but since she was meant to be a secret, it definitely shouldn't be allowed to go that far.

"We have to get them out," Twilight said after a moment of thought. "Or at least we have to get to the Sultan to explain the situation first."

"Or maybe we can find them and keep an eye on them while we work out what's happening. Ooh! Or! Or... we do both! You go track down the Sultan, and I'll keep an eye on Nightmare and Mayfly. That should double our chances of success."

"I'm not sure I agree with your maths, but I don't disagree with your plan, much to my surprise. The invisibility spell should hold while we're apart, so there shouldn't be any problems there."

"Not that I can't do invisibility myself these days," Trixie said slowly.

"Exactly! So, yeah, let's go do that." Twilight leant forward, pushing off the minaret into a dive, then pulling up as Trixie screamed in her ear.

"You fucking psycho! I was barely holding on!"

Twilight giggled, knowing full well that she would never have let Trixie fall, then sped on for the short flight to palace. She looped around the entire building, trying to work out the best place to drop Trixie off, and eventually spotted it in the form of several barred windows set low to the ground.

"Alright, keep an eye on them for now, but don't do anything until it looks like it could turn bad, okay?"

"Sure, just- Hey!" Trixie shouted as Twilight took off again, "You can't leave me this size! Twilight! Twiiiiilight! Ffffffuuuuu-argh!" Trixie looked up at a tall blade of grass and growled, "I'm going to kill her. Twice!"

Trixie turned about on the spot, trying to work out what the heck she was supposed to do now, being the size of a kitten and all. She still had her magic, but the powers of growing and shrinking had evaded her for now.

"Screw it, I'll just find the two morons and get this over with."

A quick trot carried her over the few meters to the nearest barred window, the first in the row. It was empty upon inspection, as was the second, while the third contained a stick thin old stallion, cackling about a cave of wonders. Trixie ignored him and moved onto the forth, sticking her head in to find an argument under way.

"I'm just saying that trying to speak a language you don't know well makes you look more suspicious. It makes you look like you're trying too hard to fit in, which automatically makes you stand out. Adding to that a direct request to see the Sultan, and yeah, I'm not surprised we're here."

"Okay, you've told me this three times now. I don't remember disagreeing with it the first time, so why tell me twice more?"

"In the hopes you'd remember it." Mayfly sniffled sullenly while Nightmare pressed her head against the bars of their cell. "How do you know these languages anyway?"

"I honestly don't know. Sure I'd pick up some from experience, but I don't remember knowing as much as I do. I suppose I've just picked up more than I thought, or it's a useful side effect of being me."

"On top of the less useful ones, like your planning ability," said a third voice from above them.

Nightmare sighed into the bars of the cell, "It has the nasally whine of Trixie, and the slight cabbage-y odour of Trixie-"

"Trixie doesn't smell of cabbages!"

"-But I know that voice couldn't possible be Trixie's, because Trixie isn't here."

"Then prepare to be astounded, because Trixie is indeed here!"

"Where?" Mayfly enquired, searching about the cell. "Can smell you, but can't see you."

"I'm in the window, but I'm tiny and invisible, so you probably won't be seeing me at all." There was a noise that sounded distinctly like a rat making itself comfortable, "So, what went wrong?"

"Nothing went wrong," Nightmare growled in the direction Trixie was in. "This was my plan all along. Could you not tell from how successful it was?"

"Ah, then there's no point in me trying to bust you out then?"

Nightmare started to laugh, "I really don't think we need your help to do that. Both of us can still shape shift, and my magic hasn't been inhibited, so we're absolutely fine. Thanks for the concern though. Now where's Twilight if you're here?"

"Seeking an alternative means of completing the mission."

Nightmare rolled her eyes, "Really? Tsk, I ask you, where's the trust? The only reason we're still here is because I thought I'd see how far we could take this."

"I figured." Trixie leant back and made herself as comfortable as she could on the stone sill, her hooves crossed behind her head. "That's why I wasn't going to break you out. Not yet at least."

"So why are you here?"

"Observation."

"Sooo... you pretty much came to take the piss."

"Nnnn-yeah, pretty much. Try not to disappoint me."

"What if this does go bad?" Mayfly asked, a hint of genuine worry in her voice. "I'm not sure this one wouldn't break under torture. I'm not sure this one could stay disguised either."

"Oh please," Nightmare scoffed, "I doubt there's any torture these feeble mortals could come up with that could break me.

Trixie snickered at Nightmare, "False bravado much? Even alicorns feel pain."

"But we don't fear death, or losing bits, so we have little to gain by talking."

"Keep telling yourself that when you're being water boarded."

Nightmare turned a suspicious eye in Trixie's direction, not expecting to hear of such a thing from her. "How do you even know what that is?"

"Fleur told us." Trixie shuddered, "The worst part is we never even asked. Poor mare."

Nightmare grit her teeth and growled under her breath, "A thousand years on the moon couldn't break me. A few hours of waterboarding isn't going to come close."

"Really? A stiff lecture is enough to get my lip trembling."

"Then you're exactly as feeble as you're trying to make yourself sound. Now silence yourself, I think there's somepony coming."

Trixie obeyed, begrudgingly, but it was for the best as hoofsteps started to echo through the dungeon. Less than a minute later a single pony walked up to the cell, a pink mare with a long blue mane and tail, wearing the traditional garb of the Saddle Arabians. She stopped in front of the cell and eyed the two occupants for a moment before speaking.

"The guards that apprehended you tell me you're from Equestria. Is that true?"

"It is," Nightmare said comfortably, easily recognising the mare as Amira, the former ambassador to Equestria, and supposedly in on the deception they were pulling concerning Saddle Arabia's allegiance. "We come bearing a message from the Princess of Books and Wanton Slaughter, that-"

"From who?"

Nightmare sighed internally, "From Princess Twilight? Twilight Sparkle? The Princess of being too smart for her own good, and of saying she doesn't want to hurt anyone, then killing dozens in battle? Do I have to go on? Because I have quite a few to get through if I have to."

Amira made her face, nightmare's point well received. "No, I think I know who you mean. What's the message?"

"The message..." Nightmare poked her nose through the bars and looked around conspiratorially, "...is for the Sultan, so how about you take us to go see him?"

"And I'm supposed to simply take your word at this? I don't think so. Do you perhaps have some proof of your claim? Maybe a token of some kind?"

Nightmare winced, and only got a shrug from Mayfly when she glanced in the changeling's direction. She merely assumed unhelpfulness from Trixie, then thought about what to do to fix this. She did the first thing that popped into her head. She turned into Luna.

"Would this do?"

Twilight waited until it had grown a little darker before exploring any further around the vast palace. She assumed that the best place to catch the Sultan alone would be his bedroom, and had spent quite a bit of time narrowing her choices down to just a few rooms.

The smell of food wafting from either the kitchens or dining room informed her that the evening meal was under way, so she hoped that her patience would soon be rewarded by the Sultan retiring for the night. Then she could finally get in there and see where his loyalties truly lay. With any luck they were where she thought they were, but luck was a fickle thing at best these days.

More time passed, and Twilight's patience was rewarded with a glimpse of the Sultan trotting through his palace towards one of the rooms that Twilight has elected to maybe be his, and was gratified to find that her first choice was in fact the best one as he entered the room.

Using the curtains to conceal herself, despite being invisible, Twilight waited for the best moment, then froze as she heard a distinctly feminine giggling. It quickly passed, but Twilight worried that the Sultan wasn't alone, so waited more. When there were no more sounds, Twilight decided that the time was right, and entered the room, tiptoeing over the floor towards where the Sultan was sat in front of a dresser, leaning back on his hooves, his head raised with his eyes closed. Twilight found the pose odd, but persevered nonetheless.

"Ahem, excuse me, Your Majesty?" she said, ending the invisibility spell just in time for the Sultan to shout and fall backwards, revealing his sizable penis stuck in the mouth of a pretty young mare crouched under the dresser, who jerked her head up in surprise, unfortunately smacking it on the under side of the dresser, and even more unfortunately, biting down as she did.

Twilight flattened her ears as the Sultan howled and fell off his seat, and quickly averted her eyes from parts of his personage as she erected a bubble of silence to stop him getting the attention of the guards. That proved most fortunate because the mare scrabbled out from under the dresser and started calling for the guards quite loudly.

"Will you please stop shouting?" Twilight pleaded quietly. "I-I didn't mean to do this!" Twilight gasped and averted her gaze even more as the Sultan rolled towards her, confronting her with his length, and the circle of teeth marks three quarters of the way up it. An impressive distance considering... nothing that Twilight needed to consider as she tried to purge her brain of all her unnecessarily lewd thoughts. "Oh gosh, uh... could you- Could you put that away?"

"I can't turn it on and off like a switch!" the Sultan yelled at Twilight. "Fuck this hurts! What are you doing here anyway?!"

"I'm sorry! I thought you were alone! If I'd known you had... company, I would've waited!"

"Waited for what?" the mare asked, her expression becoming increasingly freaked out. "Do you know this mare?" she asked the Sultan.

Batal flopped a hoof towards Twilight, "Dearest, meet Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria, and currently major invader of personal space. Twilight Sparkle, meet Sallima, my third wife."

"Uh, hi," Twilight said to the blue on blue mare, holding out a hoof to shake, only to get a blank stare in return. "Right. Look, I am so, so sorry about this. Are- Are you- Are you badly hurt?"

Batal narrowed his eyes at Twilight, then sat up some to look at his wife. "Are you alright, my dear?"

"I-I-I- Yes! Yes I'm okay. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bite you, but she shocked me, and I banged my head and-"

"Yes, I know, it's alright. Please, pull yourself together." Batal flopped back onto the floor and groaned, "Desert winds, Twilight, what are you doing here?"

"I certainly didn't come here to interrupt that! I thought you were alone."

"Yes, we are all aware of what just happened! Some of us intimately so. What I want to know was why you were sneaking into my chambers in the first place!"

"Looking for you," Twilight said sheepishly. "I wasn't sure what welcome I would get if I came to see you the normal way, so I thought I'd catch you in private. Clearly that wasn't my best idea, considering how caught in private you ended up being."

Batal groaned loudly, "Again with the referencing of what just happened. We know. I know. Now why were you looking for me specifically?"

"Sh-should I call the guards?" Sallima quavered.

"No dear, Twilight is, despite appearances, a friend."

Twilight was surprised at how relieved she was to hear that. "That's good to hear, because-"

The door slammed open, cutting off Twilight as a guard dashed into the Sultan's chambers. "Your Majesty! Changelings have infiltrated the-" The guard skidded to a stop and drew his weapon, pointing it at Twilight. "Burning sands, they're everywhere!"

"Oh, this is so not good," Twilight squeaked, backing off a few steps.

"Lower you weapon," the Sultan barked. "That is no changeling."

"How can you be certain, Your Majesty? She'd be in disguise if she was!"

"I'm pretty sure I wouldn't disguise myself as one of the four princesses of Equestria if I was seriously trying to sneak in here," Twilight said dryly. "I'd probably go for something more subtle, like a minotaur, or a rampaging dragon."

The guard flapped his chops, then looked to his Sultan. "Sire, we have two changelings in the dungeons, and can prove what they are. One of them transformed right in front of Grand Vizier Amira!"

Batal turned a suspicious look onto Twilight, "Now that is something to think about. Did you bring changelings into my palace?"

"Only one, but I have the strangest feeling she's not the one causing problems."

The amount of steel being pointed at her was enough to even give Nightmare pause, and she'd taken to brushing her rear against the back wall of the cell to stay out of range of it. That wasn't to say she was totally concerned, but multiple stab wounds did tend to slow you down.

"This is all one big misunderstanding. I'm not a changeling! Transforming isn't an ability exclusive to changelings! I am Princess Luna!"

"Silence, scum," one of the guards growled.

"And now with the insults."

"How about you sit down and wait for Twilight to sort this out?" Mayfly whispered to Nightmare. "Aggravating them and getting yourself killed would be far from helpful."

"So about as helpful as you and Trixie have been so far."

"You're not big into accepting blame, are you?" Trixie said, still invisible as she sat in the window, not caring that her voice was only adding to the confusion. "You just had to transform in front of a pony. You couldn't wait for a better solution to come up first, oh no."

"Will you shut up? Please? Your whining is hurting my ears."

"Maybe next time you'll exercise a little patience."

"I could demolish this room right now, with you inside it." Nightmare flinched as the weapons pointed at her got a little closer. "I'm not going to, but I could. I also enjoy how I haven't been inhibited as yet, but I'm sure that's just a small oversight on the part of all these lovely little guards."

"I'm sure that didn't sound like a threat in the slightest," Trixie laughed. "You really are determined to make this worse for yourself."

Nightmare silently acknowledged that she should maybe keep quiet now, before she ran out of blade free room to stand in. She was loathe to think it, let alone say it, but she hoped Twilight saved them soon.

Her silent prayer was answered a couple of minutes later as the Sultan walked in, utilising a curious gait that involved keeping his back legs spread further apart than they needed to be. Twilight followed right after him, her eyes meeting Nightmare's with amused disappointment, but also concern, which Nightmare had to assume was to do with her current choice of image.

"Stand down," Batal ordered, with the guards reluctantly obeying a few seconds later. "Princess Luna, are you harmed?"

"Only my pride, and my dignity, and maybe my sense of self importance as well. Nothing important."

"Very good." Batal waved to the guard holding the keys, "Let them out."

"Let them out? Forgive my bluntness, my Sultan, but both Princess Luna and Princess Twilight are both wanted by the Lady Faust. Should we not be apprehending them, rather than letting them out?"

Batal looked the guard in the eyes, making him swallow nervously. "Whose palace is this, in whose country?"

"Yours, my Sultan."

"And whom do you serve?"

"You, my Sultan."

"Correct. So if Lady Faust were here, would you obey me, or her?"

"If it meant my life, her."

Batal nodded and sighed through his nose, knowing that the guard spoke true. If Faust was here, he'd be obeying her wishes as well, so he could hardly blame others for thinking that way. They had every right to fear Faust, even if she hadn't given them a direct reason to do so.

"In her absence though, I do believe you obey me, so when I say to open that cell, I expect you to do it."

The guard nodded shakily, and spun through the keys in his hooves until he found the right one and unlocked the cell. Nightmare strode past him, somehow towering over him despite being a whole head shorter. Mayfly gave him a little smile instead, and stood meekly by Nightmare as the dark mare huffed in indignation.

"Is there somewhere quiet we can talk now that we're no longer held prisoner?"

The Sultan gave what he thought was Luna a half bow, "Of course, Princess Luna. Please, follow me."

Twilight reached out with her magic as they all started to file out, and found the still shrunken and invisible Trixie in the window of the cell. She quickly teleported Trixie to herself, feeling relieved as she felt the tiny mare's weight on her back.

"This was hilarious," Trixie whispered into Twilight's ear. "We should definitely do this again."

Twilight ignored her as she followed after Batal. He led them out of the dungeons and towards the private meeting rooms he kept near the throne room. Another quick order forced the guards that had followed them the entire way to disperse, finally leaving them alone to do what they'd meant to the entire time.

"Why is nothing ever simple when you mares are around?" Batal asked, wholly rhetorically as there was no answer he'd ever accept. "Couldn't you have sent a letter or something, instead of sneaking into my palace in the most farcical manner conceivable?"

"In my defence," Nightmare started, "that guard had very little reason to arrest us in the first place. I didn't realise that asking to see you was such a crime."

Batal groaned and sat in his chair, then grunted and subtly readjusted the way he sat. "You need to have an appointment usually, so two strangers asking to see me would be fairly suspicious, especially so late in the day."

"Well I know that now."

"So which one of you is the actual changeling?"

"There's no changelings here!" Mayfly squeaked, her breath catching in her chest.

"Said the changeling." Twilight gave Mayfly a reassuring smile, "It's alright, he knows. You can show him."

It took Mayfly a moment of nervous glances at the other occupants in the room, then reluctantly transformed back into her usual form. She swallowed, then leant back as Batal leaned forwards, despite there being several meters between them.

"I was under the impression that changelings were black, and had holes in their legs."

"Most do," Twilight confirmed, "but we've made a bit of a discovery where if a changeling gives love instead of stealing it, they become like Mayfly here."

"Fascinating. I imagine the Queen of the changelings is quite pleased with this."

Twilight burst out laughing, then stopped as she felt a little ashamed. "Quite the opposite actually, and she'd probably kill Mayfly here given the chance. Unfortunately for her, if she wishes to keep up our allegiance she can't touch Mayfly. Even if she doesn't, Mayfly is well protected."

"I see. Since when are you allied with the changelings?"

"Since after we last saw you, I think?" Twilight shrugged at Batal, "It's all a bit of a blur these days. Since our exit from here was convincing enough to make us wonder, allying with the changelings seemed like a good idea."

"Ah, yes. It appears my acting must've been pretty good to have fooled you as well. I can assure you that what we agreed on is still on the table, and is even stronger now than before considering Faust's actions both here and in Zebrica."

"You know about that?"

Batal nodded, "I found out only yesterday, and while I am glad I never had to fight Faust, I am disgusted that I'm forced to ally with a being that could murder an entire city. I'm just glad you were there to soften the blow, as it were."

"I tried. I wish I could've stopped it completely."

"Oh come on, you already died doing what you did."

Batal pursed his lips and blinked as the voice appeared to come from Twilight, but wasn't her voice, was addressed to her, and Twilight had her mouth shut as it was said. "Is there someone else here I should know about? The voice did sound familiar though..."

"One moment." Twilight returned Trixie to her proper size, and lifted the invisibility spell. "I'm sure you remember Trixie."

"She is quite hard to forget."

Trixie sank in her seat and pouted at the Sultan. "Thanks. Nice to see you too."

Twilight patted Trixie on the back, then leaned forwards to crossed her legs on the table. "Perhaps we should focus on business since I doubt we have all that much time to sit here and talk. You said Faust was up to something here in Saddle Arabia?"

"Not up to something, per se, but she demands supplies for her troops, demands that I send more of my soldiers to aid her, and has fulfilled none of what she promised us concerning the return of those taken by the Storm King. She barely treats her allies better than her enemies, and if it weren't for the fate of my soldiers already in Equestria, and the fear of her doing here what she did to Zanzebra, I would have ended our alliance already. To put it simply, she has us over a barrel."

"Good grief," said Nightmare. "How does such a pony demand loyalty if she gives nothing to deserve it? I almost feel like asking her for lessons." Nightmare shrugged as Twilight raised an eyebrow at her, "What?" Then she remembered she was supposed to be Luna, and wisely kept her mouth shut.

"So you're definitely on our side then?" Trixie asked.

"Where Faust is concerned, yes. Past that, we shall have to see. I think it's also past time you told me why you're all here. I very much doubt you came all this way to risk finding out whose side I'm on."

"That was just part one of the plan," said Twilight, a faint laugh coming out with her words. "Once we knew for certain where your loyalties were, we were going to invite you to a summit in Zebrica to discuss the invasion of Equestria."

"A summit? In Zebrica? With Griffons?" Batal regarded Twilight for several long seconds, "And the zebras agreed to this?"

"No, because we haven't asked, but we figured it was a good place on neutral ground where Faust probably hasn't got any eyes or ears. We also hoped having the summit there might be the last push needed to get the zebras on board." Twilight tapped her hooves together on the table, "We'll be asking them soon."

"I suggest you do. There is one small pro-"

"Sire!" Amira shouted as she smashed the door open, sprinting into the audience chamber. "The guards tell me you released the change... ling..." She blinked at all the ponies in the room, not realising that Mayfly was in fact a changeling. "Uh, did I miss something?"

"It was just the one changeling," Batal said cheerfully, "and she doesn't seem particularly threatening. Now please, shut the door and come join us."

"Wait, what? There's no-" Amira cocked her head at Mayfly, "That's a changeling? But I thought..."

Nightmare held out a hoof towards Amira, "Hi, I'm Princess Luna. I believe we met briefly when you screamed at me for being a changeling? Although I am fairly certain we've met before that."

Amira's face went flat, and she sat down beside the Sultan. "In my defence, you could have been a changeling, and the fact that one of you was only supports that."

"Yes, but you were wrong, so there."

"So," Twilight said brightly, "I hear you've been promoted to Grand Vizier! Congratulations."

"I'd rather have kept my old position," Amira said bitterly, giving the complete opposite reaction to what Twilight was expecting.

"It's for your protection," Batal said, sounding like it was far from the first time he'd had to explain that. "You know I don't want you anywhere near Faust. You can have your old job back once she's gone. Besides, you can still do your old job. The princesses were telling me that they're planning a summit for their alliance in Zebrica to discuss the invasion of Equestria. I'd like you to go and represent us."

Twilight raised her head in mild surprise, "You aren't coming yourself?"

"Too risky," Batal told her, shaking his head. "If Faust caught wind of me going to Zebrica, she'd know something was up. Amira however, she can pass considerably more unnoticed. Is that a problem?"

"No, not at all. As long as she's there that's fine."

Amira looked around the others, her brow creased with confusion. "So, wait, you're telling me that this entire thing with you all coming here, doing all of this, was simply to ask us to come to a summit in Zebrica?"

"We enjoy overkill," Nightmare purred.

"Apparently so. Well, I suppose all that's left is for me to say it'd be a delight and an honour to represent Saddle Arabia at this summit. When is it?"

"We'll let you know," said Twilight, adding that they'd send a simple message with the details. "We still have to clear it with the zebras first, so it could take a week or two to set up."

"And if the zebras refuse?"

"As I said, I'll let you know."

"Of course," Amira sighed. "Very well, I'll begin making preparations for my departure. I would suggest you do the same before the wrong ponies find out you're here."

"Agreed," said Twilight, even though it felt like she was being told to go away. "There is one thing before we do go though. Do you know any good blacksmiths? Or something along those lines at least? I have something that I'd like to have made, and I'll pay good money for it, and for you to bring it to the summit with you."

Author's Notes:

Sleep is for the weak, the sensible, and the well rested. The fuck do I keep doing this to myself? Lol