* * * * *
One month after the wedding of Princess Cadence and Captain Shining Armor...
* * * * *
“Hey Iron! Congratulations on the promotion big guy!” A pegasus in a suit of padded training armor greeted the disguised changeling as he crossed the citadel's main yard.
Protonus snorted. “That's Lieutenant Iron Shield to you, private. Now get back to work before the drill sergeant alters your cutie mark.”
The trainee in question blushed, then snapped a salute, before heading back over to the training ring. It was only a few moments before that colt was leaping about, dodging projectile streams of magically augmented sticky tree sap.
Pointedly, Protonus turned his head from the training and marched into the keep. The training was a close approximation for a changeling's 'glue spit' ability, the key to Chrysalis' army's swift victory over the guard during the wedding.
Why he'd given the ponies the means to combat the one thing in the battle that had let his kind win was a matter of sheer necessity. He needed to live off base, and non-com officers weren't allowed to do that. The reason? The council now demanded far more in the way of reports from him than his mother, queen Elytria, ever had on her own. The consensus amid the queens council was simple, get him a private residence, and he'd be able to report to them directly on a daily basis, if need be.
His arguments that he didn't gather enough power to send messages on even as much as a bi-weekly basis fell on deaf ears (though Queen Elytria, at least, tried to argue for some leniency on his behalf). He was ordered to acquire private lodging, and the rest would be seen to.
The problem he then faced was proving himself valuable enough to the guard to earn a promotion. The only expedient way to earn accolades was simple: Help them feel more prepared for changelings.
And so, Protonus had delved into his early childhood history lessons, and introduced the modern ponies to a lost training method designed to simulate changeling 'glue spit' as it was currently referred to by the soldiers of Canterlot. A technique designed millenia ago, in the last 'great purge'.
The last time the races of the world had tried to exterminate his own.
As soon as he'd been promoted, he took his not inconsiderable savings from his years working as a guard and purchased a house in the lower residential quarter, the lowest ring of structures on the nearly vertical city. A team of changelings, from a number of different hives, had been sent to meet with him and then began work on a hidden project, beginning in the basement of Protonus' new house, and working all the way down through the crystal encrusted cavernous bowels of Canterlot mountain. A relay system of enchanted crystal balls were ensconced in hidden recesses in the stone walls of the caverns, working down to the very base, where a magical transmitter lay, obscured from the magical senses of the potent unicorns, and even the Alicorns who resided within the city, by the cavern's natural resonance. This took more magical power than the old system had used, but it meant he didn't have to find an excuse to leave the city. If necessary, he could just pop into his own house whenever need be, and deliver a report. However, this left him with one real problem.
Where to get the extra power.
As it stood, Protonus couldn't use the system more than once every two weeks, and that was going on energy estimates from how he'd harvest the much fainter energies of an admiring public. At the moment, he'd managed to get his queen to placate the others on the council, with a promise that he would use the new system the instant anything of grave importance came up. But it still didn't exactly satisfy some of the more paranoid queens.
Protonus was rounding a corner in the corridors of the keep when something collided with him. He held his ground as easily as if he'd been hit with nothing more than a strong breeze, but the other pony fell backwards, and a large pile of documents that had been held in a magical aura suddenly exploded outwards as the caster was startled, papers scattering everywhere.
“Ack! Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry, I didn’t mean to... oh no!”
Protonus blinked as the storm of paper dispersed, revealing a unicorn mare, average height and build, with a peppermint pink coat, and a short, faintly curly mane she kept in a simple, loose ended 'ponytail', her mane and her tail were mint green with a few white highlights. Her green eyes flashed around as documents fluttered down to the ground, and she flailed at them with her hooves to catch them, her horn sparking but there was too many of them to catch all at once.
“Oh no, no, no, no! Augh! I just got all this organized!” The poor mare whimpered, looking around at the huge mess she'd just made of the hallway.
Protonus looked at her for a few heartbeats, then, without a word, he stooped and, using his feathered pegasus wings with the dexterity of a gryphon's claw, began to pick up the papers, one by one.
“Oh! T-thank you sir, I didn't want to impose...” the mare said.
“It's alright. I should've been paying more attention to where I was going, miss...?”
“Minty. Or Mint Breeze if you want to be formal.” The pink and green unicorn mare said, hurrying to help gather up all her papers.
“Pleasure to meet you miss Breeze. Lieutenant Iron Shield.” he said, then spared a glance at her haunch. A peppermint candy, complete with wrapper. “You work in confectionary?” he asked.
Mint breeze gave a short laugh. “I wish. My talent's in candy making, but it's not nearly good enough to make it here in Canterlot, not with all the world renowned artisans here in the city hoping for royal favor. And my parents are both jewelers, hah, talk about the apple rolling away from the tree huh?”
“Really?” he said, raising an eye ridge, picking up the last document in his half of the mini disaster zone. He spared a glance at the thing; an incident report, signed by... captain Shining Armor? He blinked, then checked the date, several weeks ago, just before he'd left on his honeymoon.
“Yes, really. I just work in the secretarial pool.” she said, gathering up the last of the papers. “It gets me a roof over my head. Sure, I’d like to make money making and selling candies, but it's just not feasible. Hence why I'm here, filing. Today, I'm clearing out old documents from my boss's office and transferring them down to records.”
“Do you make candies at all?” he asked.
“All the time, even if it's only a hobby. I even have a little garden in the backyard where I grow some little plants I use.”
“You have any on you?” he asked.
Minty blinked. “Uh... is there some kinda rule against carrying candies around on base or something? 'cause, honestly, they never mentioned during orientation...”
He let out a snort of laughter. “Oh, no no no! Nothing like that. I was just wondering if I could try one.”
Mint Breeze blinked. “You... want to try one of my candies?”
“I did just say that, yes.”
Minty blinked once or twice more, then giggled. “Oh! Well uh, in that case... I keep a few in my desk drawer for when my sweet tooth acts up... which is like, all the time...”
“Well then, may I try one?”
She smiled at him, and Protonus nearly gasped as he felt a short burst of real, personalized affection radiate from her to him. “I don't see why not.” Minty said,walking past him. “First though, I need to get these things down to the archives.”
Protonus turned and followed her, keeping the stack of papers on his back, held between his wings, a faint smile playing at the edges of his lips.
* * * * *
Present Day
* * * * *
Cadence sat at the table in the kitchen of the house she shared with Shining Armor. Her eyes were red from crying, and her throat was a little raw. But she still gave an earnest smile as a teacup, filled with steaming hot water, a bag of calming herbal tea steeping within, was levitated over in a pale blue aura and placed down before of her.
“Thanks Blueblood. I appreciate this.” she said as the unicorn sat down across from her.
“It's just hot water and a teabag, Cadence.” he said, blushing.
She smiled a little broader at that. “It's from you, it means something.”
Blueblood closed his eyes and shook his head, chuckling. “I suppose I'm not particularly known for my generous nature, am I?”
“You're changing that, though. I'm honestly impressed.” Cadence said.
“Change seems to be the word lately.” Blueblood said, glancing out the window, and up towards the palace, not that he could see anything, mind. It was dark out, and the light from the candles inside was bright enough that the window looked like a faded mirror, their view of the outside obscured. He couldn't even see the lights from the palace.
“Things are certainly different.” Cadence admitted. She used her magic to move the teabag around in the hot water idly.
Blueblood looked at her for a long moment. “You know, Cadence... you surprise me.”
“Hmm?” Cadence said, lifting her gaze from the teacup.
“You and Shining Armor. Honestly, after what you two went through, I'm surprised you aren't the emotional wreck, and he's the one acting normal.”
Cadence narrowed her eyes slightly, her ears flicking. “What's that supposed to mean?”
Blueblood looked down at the table. “Well... I mean it's just... after what you went through, I’d expect you to be having nightmares, jumping at shadows, having flashbacks, that kind of thing. But you're not. Shining... he's paranoid, but with good reason, he's a military type, but he wasn't aware anything was going on till it was practically over. He came to his senses seconds before you two cast the changelings out. Is your... mental fortitude another part of being an alicorn?” he asked.
Cadence stared at him for a moment, processing what he'd just said, before she shook her head. “I'm not that tough.” she said.
“But you've carried yourself so well all this time, I've heard even hardened soldiers can become unbalanced after an experience like that.”
Cadence raised an eyeridge. “How do you know that?”
“Erm...” Blueblood fidgeted, then said, weakly “I heard about it from some of the guards...?”
Cadence frowned at him. “Blueblood, the last time there was a real war in Equestria was decades ago.
Blueblood looked like he wanted to come up with another excuse, but finally just snorted. “My mother scared me off any notions of joining the military when I was a colt with horror stories. Graphic, detailed horror stories, complete with bibliographies, of which, the references came from the last grypho-equestrian war. Happy?” he grumbled.
Cadence blinked.
Blueblood snorted. “My question stands.”
Cadence stared at him for a moment, then looked back down at the tea. It'd finished steeping, she levitated the teabag out of the water, squeezed it out, then simultaneously opening the cupboard with the trash in it, tossed the used teabag in.
“I did have nightmares.” she admitted.
“When?” Blueblood asked.
“After the wedding. For a week they wouldn't stop. I kept seeing Chrysalis, laughing at me, dragging shining away from me, and my hooves were stuck to the ground... usually in green slime, or I'm stuck in the crystal caverns, and chrysalis's face is on all the walls, laughing at me as I'm running, trying to find a way out...”
“And they just stopped?” Blueblood asked. Usually soldiers who went through horrific experiences were plagued by these things for years, if not the rest of their lives. A week though...?
“No. Somepony helped me.” Cadence admitted.
“Shining?” Blueblood guessed.
“No.” She replied, then looked up and met Blueblood's confused gaze. “Aunt Luna.”
“Auntie Luna? But... you were off in the Gallopagos islands, weren't you?”
Cadence smiled. “Blueblood, aunt Luna is a dreamwalker. She goes into the dreams of others, like a guardian. If some pony is having nightmares repeatedly, she goes into them and helps that pony confront the fear and defeat it.” She said, then took a sip of her tea.
Blueblood blinked, his ears flicking this way and that as he processed the concept of another pony walking into one of his dreams.
“Ok, ok...” he finally said. “Still though, you were really far away at the time, how did she know-”
“Blueblood,” Cadence interrupted him, laying a hoof atop his on the table. “We keep calling her 'aunt' even though she and Celestia are both centuries, if not millenia, older than we are. But still, we are related. By blood. It wouldn't have mattered how far away I was. She sensed I was troubled, and came to me. And helped me work past my fear.”
“That simple?” Blueblood said, looking mystified.
Cadence blushed.“Well... no, not really. It was only two weeks ago that aunt Luna last showed up in a dream of mine-” Cadence was suddenly cut off by the telephone in the next room ringing.
Both Cadence and Blueblood snapped their heads over to look towards the ringing.
“Who could that be at this hour?” Blueblood wondered.
Cadence said nothing, simply getting to all four hooves and walking into the next room. A moment later, Blueblood stood and followed her.
Cadence picked the phone up in her pale blue aura. “Hello? Oh! Shining!” she said, her ears perked up. “Is everything ok?” she asked. She was silent for a moment, then her ears drooped. “Oh... oh, I... I understand. Goodnight...” She placed the phone back down on the receiver.
“What happened?” Blueblood asked.
“He's staying at the palace tonight.” she said.
“Did he say why?”
“Something about what Twilight wants to do tomorrow, but...” her head and neck drooped down close to the floor.
“Cadence, cousin.” Blueblood said, walking over and bringing his head down to the same level as hers to nuzzle her briefly. “Don't worry about a thing. I've got an idea how to help ease your poor husband's mind.”
“Really?” Cadence asked, looking up at him.
He smiled. “Quite, however, if you'll excuse me, I've got something to do and not a lot of time to do it... especially if I want to get any sleep in what remains of tonight.” He nudged her head up, then neck nuzzled her for a brief moment. “Goodnight cousin.” he said.
Cadence couldn't help but smile. Blueblood, promising to help her, with this? She never thought she'd hear him offer. “Thank you Bluey.”
* * * * *
Dawn in Canterlot was -with rare exception- a glorious thing to behold. The pinks and golds played on the alabaster and gold towers, creating a breathtaking atmosphere in the early light.
In the north tower, a black and orange figure stirred with a groan as the light of dawn worked it's way through the occupant's eyelids, before he turned over away from the window and pulled the covers up over his eyes. A headache buzzed inside his skull, the same one that had been there the entire previous day, and had begun the evening before. He'd hoped that having a few decent meals would make it go away -and admittedly, they had helped slightly, but this headache was persistent. It also seemed to be sapping his strength, he knew he should probably get up, but his limbs just felt so heavy...
* * * * *
Princess Luna walked into her bedchamber, the shutters were closed, the blinds were drawn, and the only light in the chamber came from a single candle the princess herself carried in a telekinetic aura, which she set down upon the nightstand next to her empress sized bed. She then stepped out of the silver hoofguards she wore, and then levitated the ebony tiara and peytral of her regalia off, before setting all the pieces on her vanity. She then went into the bath chamber to brush her teeth.
After completing her pre-slumber ablutions, Luna settled down into her grand bed, blew out the candle, and pulled the bedcurtains closed about her, then settled her head down onto her pillow, and fell smoothly into slumber.
There was a twofold reason why Luna slept during the daylight hours. First, her duties of running the kigndom were at night, and second, her duty as guardian of the dreamworld was something she usually did while conscious and awake. Though, sometimes splitting her consciousness between the real world and the one of dreams could be difficult to manage. She blushed again as she thought of how panicked the royal treasurer had been when she'd apparently grown glassy eyed in the middle of her meeting with him last week. Then his irritation when she explained the situation.
This morn, however, as she drifted off to sleep and found herself in her own personal dreamworld, she felt something rather odd. The pull of another dream realm not far from her, and it was not that of one of her nightguards. She could sense them all, bedding down in their barracks in the lower levels of the palace. She gave them leave to dream their own dreams, unless of course one was afflicted by a dream terror. She expected all others to be rising at this hour, especially as, even in this era with it's much more active nightlife, few stayed up all the way to dawn and slept during the day outside of herself and her guard.
No, this one came from one of the towers, not far from where she lay in slumber at all. Had she been awake, she could have flown to it and found the dreamer with a few wingbeats. She examined the sensation and found it had a peculiar feel, but while peculiar still slightly familiar. It felt like the dreams of another species, and yet strangely ponylike at the same time. She'd come to know how other species dreamworlds felt over the centuries. She'd peeked in on the dreams of gryphons, minotaurs, Diamond dogs... and even on a few occasions, dragons. This one felt like none of those species.
“The ambassador?” Luna thought to herself.
Abandoning the half formed dreamscape her subconscious had barely begun to put together for her, Luna's spirit launched into the ether. The physical world had no meaning here, there was only flows of thought and power. She spread her wings, but there really was no point, sheer will moved her through the space between minds.
The green fire of changeling magic showed her the border of the ambassador's dreamscape as she approached. She laid a hoof on it's side, the 'flame' moved and flickered, yet to her touch it seemed solid... or perhaps, liquid, as with the impact the 'surface' rippled.
With a smile, Luna's dream body became a deep blue sparkling mist, and she passed through.
* * * * *
Protonus was awoken that morning by the ringing of an alarm clock. He reached over with a pure white foreleg, and tapped the thing on the top, turning the ringing off before he sat up. He then rolled his tongue around a somewhat parched mouth before he slipped out of bed and walked into the bathroom to brush his teeth.
Ever since that chance meeting in the halls of the citadel keep, Protonus had been having to take extra care of his teeth. All the candies he'd started packing away would've rotted them -even the real ones under the transformation- if he hadn't.
After brushing his teeth, Protonus went to the den of his little house and began doing pushups. The other drawback to having a fillyfriend who had an undeniable talent in making candy. Changelings were supposed to have a more difficult time putting on weight, but after a routine checkup up at base told him he'd gained ten pounds, he'd gone home and transformed into his real form in the privacy of his bathroom and checked himself in the mirror.
His formerly sleek carapaced form was sporting a noticeable paunch in the belly.
“Not my fault... she pours so much... love into each... batch of candies...” he grunted between situps. This wasn't exactly literal, he couldn't get any kind of power from her creations, but he could simply tell each time he popped one of her sweets into his mouth, that this was something that she truly loved to do. And it showed.
Of course, that wasn't to say Mint Breeze was a slouch with other kinds of cooking. She'd cooked dinner for the two of them a few nights ago, and between the energy she radiated at him and the amount of food he packed away, he felt like he was about ready to explode by the time he'd headed home. The poor filly, being awkwardly talented in a town full of master craftsponies and the daughter of ponies who's only claim to fame was the fact that they worked for a famous jeweler -famous enough that Celestia sent her sister to them for her new regalia after her return from the moon- she'd been so... so convinced no-pony wanted anything to do with her, so she'd settled for doing menial clerical work for the guard, rather than nurture her talent.
After one taste of those candies though, Protonus couldn't help but encourage her.
The overwhelming surge of affection he got from Minty whenever he pushed her to better herself in what she loved doing, it filled him with energy. He felt as full of vigor as he'd been since the last time he'd been home to the hive and shared in the communal energy stores.
And yet... for all that, there was something... different, about what he got from his new fillyfriend. He felt differently every time he was with her, feeling her love energy radiate through to his core, filling him up. The thought that he, himself, had made this happen with her, and not some other male that he was stepping into the hooves of...
His stomach rumbled. He shook his head. All this thought of love and food was making him hungry.
Half an hour later, after a breakfast of a mushroom omlette the disguised changeling walked out his front door, gave his transfigured blue furry mane a shake out, then trotted up the road. One of the benefits of being a ranked officer, he had a free choice in his schedule. Afternoon shift gave him plenty of time to meet with Minty, and even wander the city if he wanted. Because in addition to protecting the populace as part of his cover identity, his mission was to keep a hoof on the pulse of public opinion.
In particular, opinions about changelings.
The months since the wedding hadn't been particularly easy on the disguised changeling's nerves. The day of the wedding, after his healing by the drones from the hive of queen Carapace, he'd slipped back into Canterlot to find it strangely jubilant, a palpable sense of relief (particularly for him, one couldn't be a psionivore without having at least rudimentary empathic senses) suffused the entire city. As far as the ponies were concerned, in that moment, the changelings were gone, their city and kingdom were safe, and it was time to finally celebrate the wedding of the real princess of love to the captain of the guard.
Sadly, time had eroded those good feelings. The military had tried to search for evidence of what had happened to the invaders from Chrysalis' hive, but came up empty handed. Protonus himself was actually rather surprised, as was his queen when he'd reported this intelligence back to her.
'Iron Shield' waved to a passing foal who was trotting alongside his mother, probably on his way to school that morning. The dyed coloration of a royal guard made them easily identifiable, even out of their armor. He could feel the admiration for his position radiating off the little foal, clear across the street, like he was standing near a hearth fire. The energy tingled as it worked it's way through his essence where it would automatically be processed into raw mana. A nice little charge, but still nothing compared to what true passion and a deep personal connection could do.
The disguised changeling trotted down the road, transfigured feathery white wings tucked at his sides, he noticed the general air of the adults of the city that walked the streets was... rather distracted. Besides the little foal he'd met just outside his house, he got very few friendly waves, everypony seemed to be in close, quiet conversation.
His minor empathic sense was giving him strange signals. Oddly, the focus was not on him, whereas it had been of late. The guard themselves had been regarded with far less than the usual respect from most adult ponies. Their inability to ward off, even when amassed in full strength, an invasion of decidedly mortal foes had the public viewing them rather askance. Nightmare Moon, Discord, those two were deities run amok, there wasn't anything anypony could have expected the royal guard to do about either of them, especially after reports spread on what had happened to Celestia's escort during the fateful summer sun celebration two years ago. But the changelings?
The guard had been mocked, openly, by numerous members of the aristocracy and quite a few members of the media for how utterly useless they had been when, for the first time in the past decade, an actual threat -that by all conceivable means they could have fought back against- totally overpowered them. Citing the 'element of surprise' and 'unexpected abilities' cards as reasons why the guard had been taken out so quickly were dismissed as excuses. Even his own contributions weren't quite enough to help alleviate these feelings amongst the citizenry.
Working closely with ponies on the guard force, Protonus was able to read their emotions in regard to the situation. It ranged from depression and self loathing at their failure, to a seething rage, and not only directed at the invaders who had shown them up, but at the nobility who rather than support them, berated them. Practicing how to prance around while avoiding getting stuck to the ground by tree sap seemed to do little for morale. Some even commented that that was little more than window dressing on the utter incompetence of the guard as a whole, even if Protonus himself knew just how dangerous this simple lesson could be for his own kind.
In the end, though, Protonus' mission here was to find unrest in pony society.
He'd found it in the last place he'd hoped it would rear its ugly head.
The military.
“Can you believe it?” An earth pony mare in a maids dress was saying to a gaggle of other ponies outside of a bakery as he walked past.
“I know, so long without a peep and now suddenly the princess proclaims that there's one in the palace, and that we shouldn't be concerned?” a stallion in servants clothes.
“I wonder what it looks like, there wasn't a photo in any of the papers.” A pegasus stallion in a courier's uniform with a satchel over his neck mused.
“You can be sure that we'll see a special edition once the creature pokes it's head out long enough for the press to take a snapshot. Not that anypony would want to, one of those ghastly things attacked me that day, and it was utterly horrendous! Empty, glassy eyes and no fur at all!” another mare said.
He paused, then picked up his pace to a canter, heading for the nearest newspaper kiosk. Tossing a few bits down he snatched up one of the papers at random, and read the headline on the front page.
His brain momentarily didn't want to process what he was reading.
The headline read: A Changeling in Canterlot.
“Crazy stuff, ain't it?” the kiosk owner said, leaning over the narrow countertop.
Protonus nodded dumbly.
* * * * *
Shining Armor sat at his desk early that morning, glaring at the newspaper on it's surface.
Luna had gone ahead with the plan to announce the presence of the changeling 'ambassador' in Canterlot. According to the papers, she'd gone on to explain to the reporters that the changeling's mission here was peaceful, that no-pony should feel alarmed or threatened by his presence, and that if he should be seen in the streets of Canterlot (presumably under heavy guard) he was not to be accosted, berated, or attacked.
His morning thus far was little more than a string of requests for further information on the 'ambassador' from both officials in and around Canterlot, and every media outlet in the city.
He expected it to be worse tomorrow.
Shining looked up from the short pile of paperwork on his desk when a gray and white unicorn in guard armor burst in, the door swinging over to bash into the wall. He looked angry, and the unicorn at the secretary's desk Shining could just see behind the fuming stallion looked alarmed.
“You knew!” Lieutenant Swift Strike spat. “You son of a basilisk! You knew, and you didn't tell me!”
“S-sir Strike! The captain-” the pink and pale green unicorn mare stammered.
“It's ok Minty, I want to talk to the lieutenant anyway.” Shining said, giving her a gentle look.
Mint Breeze glanced at the gray and white unicorn for a second, then sat back down, pointedly turning back to her work.
Using his magic to swing the door closed, Shining fixed his subordinate with a hard look. “Lieutenant, you will adjust your attitude and address me properly, or I will have you scrubbing out the recruit barracks restrooms for a month.” Shining said. He shared the lieutenant's sentiment, but he couldn't have the attitude.
With a snort, the battlemage drew himself up to full height and threw a very, very stiff salute. “Sir, if you wouldn't mind, could you please tell me why an enemy of the kingdom is currently sitting in a guest suite in the palace, sir?”
'Been asking myself the same question.' Shining thought to himself. “The official story was published in the newspaper today, Lieutenant, did you not read it?”
“Sir, I did read that, sir.”
“Good, because all the answers were right there. He's officially an ambassador on a peaceful mission here in Canterlot.”
“But sir-” Swift started to say, but was cut off by a raised hoof from the captain.
“His behavior has been unusual for something saying it's an envoy, and princess Luna has tasked me with keeping an eye on him. Princess Celestia wants us to learn as much about him and his race as we can, and my sister has been brought in as an expert and a researcher to that end. I have been further tasked with security on that end. I'm not about to let us get caught unaware again, lieutenant.”
Swift strike snorted, then nodded. “As you say, sir.”
Shining gave a half smile. “As it stands, I need some volunteers for some special duty today, lieutenant.”
One of Swift's eyeridges raised. “Sir?”
“How'd you like to personally escort our 'ambassador'?”
Both eyes widened. “Sir?”
“My sister wants to take the ambassador down to the hospital to use some full body scanning equipment they have later today. I need a few good stallions on hand to keep him from wandering off. Stallions I know I can rely to watch him like a hawk.”
Swift Strike grinned. “I think I can find a few of those, sir.”
* * * * *
Twilight Sparkle, flanked by the juvenile dragon Spike, approached the base of the stairs leading to the north tower. Spike carried a collection of scrolls and a couple of quills, while Twilight levitated along her book of changeling notes. Shining Armor was arranging security for their trip across town today, but he'd sent her a message explicitly telling her not to go near Ambassador Maxillus alone. She'd rolled her eyes at this, but agreed, if only to let him rest easier.
“So what's this changeling like Twilight?” Spike asked.
“Hard to say.” Twilight said. “Yesterday was the first time I met him, and that's hardly enough time for me to get a full picture of the stallion... goodness, are male changelings even called stallions?” she asked nopony in particular. “Spike, make a note: Ask what titles each gender of changeling has.”
“Got it.” The young purple and green dragon said, scribbling onto the scroll in his claws.
Twilight rounded a corner as they arrived at the base of the stairs leading up the tower, and paused so suddenly that spike walked into her rump, smashing the paper he was writing on between his face and twilight's tail, before he fell onto his back. “Oof! Twilight, why'd you stop!”
Twilight was looking ahead and didn't respond. Spike, grumbling as he picked himself up and looked at the smudged, still wet ink on the parchment before wiping his face with a paw and coming away with a few streaks of ink. He groaned, then walked around the unicorn mare to see what the problem was.
Standing at the base of the stairs, arguing with a pair of guards, was a white unicorn stallion with a black mane and tail in servant's dress, his horn glowing a faintly grayish white as he levitated a pair of brown paper bags full of... what appeared to be groceries. A two toned gray Gryphon with a rather impressive mustache sticking off his beak -Spike marveled at the incredibly manly facial hair for several heartbeats- who was wearing a red cloth around his neck and a chef's hat.
“Gustav Le'Grand!” Twilight finally said.
“Who?” Spike asked.
“That gryphon, I've met him before.” Twilight said, then started walking towards the group, coming within hearing range.
“Really, I must insist.” the servant unicorn was saying.
“He's not one of the usual servants, and we haven't had any orders come allowing you access.” the guard on the left of the stairwell said.
“Ambassador Maxillus has no embassy staff, you cannot seriously intend to deny him his basic needs!” the servant unicorn exclaimed.
“Last I checked, he doesn't have an embassy either.” The other guard grumbled.
“He's an ambassador in a foreign land, the fact that he does not have his own building allotted him for the purpose does not change the fact that he needs a staff, servants, a cook, guards even! Do you know what his grace Blueblood had to go through to convince Ambassador Swift-Talon to loan us his personal chef for this?” The servant unicorn gestured at the admittedly annoyed looking gryphon with a hoof.
“Uhm, excuse me, sirs?” Twilight said, gathering the attention of every pony -and gryphon- present. “What's going on?”
The unicorn's eyes raised slightly and his mouth set in a neutral line. “Ah, the lady Twilight Sparkle, a pleasure to meet you. Perhaps you would be kind enough to assist?”
“Maybe if I know what's happening.” Twilight walked up. “Hello Gustav, I didn't know you worked for the gryphon ambassador.”
The gray gryphon twirled one half of his mustache between two talons idly. “Oui, My homeland calls for my services, and I answer, Madame Sparkle.”
“Geeze, Gilda sounded like she came off the streets of Manehattan, this guy sounds like he's from Prance...” Spike commented.
“Spike!” Twilight exclaimed.
Thankfully, the gryphon chef merely chuckled at this. “It is alright, madame Sparkle. Zee Gryphon kingdoms, we are a very large and diverse place, little dragon. Zhere are many languages and dialects, just as here in your Equestria.” The gryphon explained.
“Really?” Spike asked, one eyeridge raised.
“Oui, sometimes more zan one in a single kingdom, if zey are large enough. I assume zis 'Gilda' came from one of our coastal regions. My family hails from a province deeper in zee mainland.” Gustav said.
“That is fascinating!” Twilight said, taking down a quick note, plucking a piece of parchment and a spare quill from Spike's supplies.
The more vocal of the two guards cleared his throat. “I'm sure this is very interesting, Lady Sparkle, but seriously, can you just make them leave? They've got no clearance, so it doesn't matter what deal the prince made with ambassador Swift-Talon, we can't let him pass.” The guard said.
“What deal?” Twilight asked.
“His Grace, Prince Blueblood, spoke with Ambassador Swift-Talon early this morning,” The servant unicorn said. “He discussed the fact that ambassador Maxillus, having no personal staff for his embassy, and trust me, good sir,” He said, looking at the guard with a hard expression. “that is exactly what the tower he has been delegated to is. It has all the amenities, including a full kitchen and servant's quarters behind a few doors. All he lacks is a staff that can see to his particular needs. One of which is a chef that understands how to prepare meals for an omnivore.”
Twilight's eyes widened. “So Blueblood got the gryphon ambassador to loan Maxillus one of his staff! Wow, that's... that's really generous!”
“Whoah, whoah whoah! Omnivore!?” The guard on the left said, his stoic expression changing to one of confusion, then mounting horror. “Is that...?” he gestured at the levitating brown paper bags with a shaking hoof.
“Yes, meat, harvested according to the guidelines of equestria's carnivore food preparation regulations.” the unicorn servant said.
The shaken guard started to turn green and held his hoof over his mouth to stifle the sound of a retch, backing away from the parcel as though it were carrying plague.
“Oh don't be like that, it's not like he has any choice in what his species has to eat to survive.” Twilight said.
The other guard, who had remained impassive even as the other one suffered a minor panic attack, rolled his eyes. “As nice a gesture as that is, I've got no orders, so I can't let them pass, Miss Sparkle.”
“Not to worry.” Twilight said, shooting a smirk to her assistant. “Spike, take a note please.”
* * * * *
A wisp of smoke flew into the throne room just as Celestia was sitting down to start going over paperwork that morning, her assistant, a white unicorn with her mane styled into a 'beehive' jerked backwards in surprise at the appearance of a scroll.
“A little early in the morning for a friendship report.” Celestia said, raising an eyeridge. She unfurled the paper with her magic. It was a short letter, and she scanned it in a moment. Her eyes widened in surprise, before she smiled.
“My goodness, that's some initiative my nephew's showing.” Celestia said, pulling out a fresh sheet of very official paper and writing something down on it, before rolling it up,putting a red wax seal on it, and teleporting it away with another surge of golden magic through her horn.
The princess turned back to her assistant. “Now, where were we?”
* * * * *
The guards stoically kept their mouths shut as they marched up the stairs, leading Twilight, Spike, Gustave Le'grand, and the servant unicorn -whom Twilight had come to learn was named Prim- to the door below the main suite. Prim and Gustave stopped while one of the guards unlocked the servant's quarters with a key, allowing gustave and prim to enter, along with the bags of special groceries. Twilight meanwhile progressed up to the top of the tower.
At the main door, one of the guards held out his wing to gently block her. “Allow us, Ma'am.”
Twilight snorted in irritation at the guard, but stepped back, waiting while they entered first. A moment later they beckoned her and spike in. However, the foyer of the suite was empty, aside from the party that had just entered.
“Ambassador?” Twilight called out without raising her voice particularly high. “Ambassador Maxillus? Hello?”
* * * * *
“Ambassador Maxillus, hello?” the querying voice penetrated through the hazy dream that the changeling had been having and jarred him back to consciousness, his eyes blinked open.
“Nnnngh...” he groaned as the brightness of the room, bathed in the light of mid-morning assaulted his retinas.
“Ambassador maxillus, are you- oh!” The voice of Shining Armor's sister from the previous day, he was dimly aware, became sharply louder as she stepped into the room. “Oh, I’m terribly sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Nngf...” he grunted, bringing his hooves up to rub at his temples, attempting to banish the headache with a massage, a fruitless gesture.
“Are... are you alright?” She asked.
“My appologies, miss Sparkle... this blasted headache doesn't seem to want to go away.”
“Well, it's a good thing we're going to a hospital today then, isn't it?” a new, immature male's voice piped up.
“What...?” Maxillus said, blinking. His vision finally cleared and he saw another being alongside Twilight Sparkle.... At least, the only one other than the two guards that were with her. He couldn't imagine either of them having a voice like that. He blinked to clear the blurryness from his vision. Then, he saw the only creature in the room that he could feaseably envision having had such a voice.
A tiny dragon.
* * * * *
The changeling noble stared at Spike in abject confusion for a span of a quarter of a minute before he finally found his voice.
“Wh... who is that?” he asked.
Spike snorted. “Name's Spike the dragon, number one assistant to the most powerful unicorn in equestria.” The little purple and green scaled creature said, puffing his chest out.
“Assistant?” Maxillus said, blinking, and finally sliding out of bed, his four hooves landing with a dull thud in the plush carpet. “He wasn't with you yesterday.”
“He stayed up really late the night before, so I let him relax yesterday.” Twilight said, reaching over with a hoof to rub the little dragon's back. “He is only a baby dragon, and needs his rest.”
“Aw geeze Twilight, do you have to be like that in front of everypony?” Spike huffed.
Twilight giggled. “Calm down Spike. The ambassador understands that young creatures need their rest if they want to grow up right.” Twilight said, smiling before she turned back to Maxillus...
And paused, the expression on the noble changeling's face was one of depression and longing. His eyes held a far-away look to them as well.
“Ambassador... are you alright?” she asked.
The ambassador blinked as he seemed to return to them. “Oh, I'm sorry, miss Twilight. Just... you reminded me of something.”
“What?” she asked.
The changeling paused, before he let out a sigh.
“Home. Family.” he said.
Twilight blinked once, before her face broke into a warm smile. “Would you like to tell me about them?”
“Soon, perhaps... now, what was this about a hospital?” he asked.
“I'll tell you over breakfast.” she said, sniffing the air as the first wisps of scent of gryphonic cooking began to waft in through the window.
Maxillus caught the scent too, and his stomach rumbled.
“Sounds delicious.” he smiled, then winced. “But first... I don't suppose you could send for some aspirin?”
Twilight snorted a chuckle. “I think that can be arranged.