//------------------------------//
// Epilogue: The Streets of Canterlot 
// Story: He never had so sweet a Changeling 
// by Gabriel LaVedier 
//------------------------------//

	“It's been a long time since I've been back here...” Vanilla muttered as he cautiously strolled up the streets of Canterlot. He had left the grand terraces intending never to return. Yet, he was back, and he was not alone. “This seems like more danger than is necessary. We were perfectly happy down at the base...”
“But I will feel better doing this,” Double whispered. She was back in her disguise as the black unicorn Dee Dee, wrapped tightly in a long, concealing hooded cloak. She was pressing close against Vanilla, directing him to shadowed and sparsely populated areas.
Both had been walking for a long while, taking a very circuitous route through the great city. They had used only hoof-paths up from the base of the mountain through lower communities and through the lowest, historical districts of the bottom terrace. From there, they had gone up, terrace by terrace, seeking emptiness and darkness, hiding when it seemed prudent and dodging every constable they encountered.
“We could take the trams, you know, they service all the terraces, between and within...” Vanilla noted.
“Too risky. They could be searching passengers or have some kind of magical scanner. I'm certain they must have instituted defenses against my kind,” Double said, casting her gaze about with great fear.
“I haven't seen anything that is very different from before. You said that the invasion was a very bad failure for the Changelings. Maybe they no longer think of them as a threat,” Vanilla said.
Double huffed and looked down. “I know I should feel insulted but honestly, Changelings couldn't be a threat like we were anymore. And I'm not even really much of one anymore,” she said, shuffling along more slowly.
As the two slunk their way along they were suddenly confronted by a Changeling, walking along looking cheerful. She happened to turn and look at the two, tilting her head as she regarded the two of them. “Well hello there!” She said, buzzing her wings a little bit. “Why are you wearing that form?”
Vanilla and Double both went still, looking at one another in shock. “You... you're not in disguise. You're walking around in daylight. Did she... did the Queen win somehow?” Double asked, her Changeling form revealed with a flash of green fire.
“'The Queen'?” The other Changeling asked curiously. “What a silly thing to ask. The Queen has been gone since that day, and she's not coming back, not now. Where did you come from?”
“I... was living in a small house at the base of this mountain,” Double replied. “After the invasion I was hurt. And he...” She pressed in against Vanilla, “He helped me.”
The other Changeling got a mushy look on her face and giggled softly. “How cute! Does that mean that neither of you saw any of the news? Don't you have a radio?”
“I, uh... cut myself off form the world there,” Vanilla quickly answered. “I had gone there to escape the headache of Canterlot. Now we're back because... she thought we needed to see the Princesses and beg for her life.”
“Oh no no! After the invasion failed, and especially after Marianne... you probably don't know about her either. She was captured and held in Canterlot. She and her guard fell in love and they became a big, important symbol. The Princesses declared that any Changeling could come forward and become a citizen of Canterlot as long as they renounced loyalty to Chrysalis and the swarm, and promised to obey the laws of the land. You can imagine... a lot of us took the offer. Actually, I think all of us did, even the ones not in the invasion, everyling.”
The revelation knocked Vanilla and Double silent for a moment, the information twisting slowly through their disbelieving minds. Double was the first able to speak, a hole hoof coming out mechanically. “D-double Dealing, former Worker, Harvester and Love-Bearer, Third Wave.”
The other shook the offered hoof and smiled. “Shrouding Mist, former Worker, Siege 'Ling, First Wave. The shield assault groups didn't interact much with the harvesters.” Shrouding looked to Vanilla and grinned. “And who's your coltfriend there?”
Vanilla held out his hoof, a blush lightly tinting his cheeks. “Vanilla Torte. Uh... pastry chef.”
Shrouding nodded as she shook Vanilla's hoof. “I guess a lot of Changelings met ponies after the invasion.” She turned to Double and looked at her legs. “How far are you through Chrysalis' Curse?”
Double held up a leg and looked through one of the holes. “Is that what it's called? I went through to the end, with Chrysalis yelling at me for finding love.”
Shrouding laughed a bit. “Yes. Everyling with someone to love has to deal with the yelling. They make a party out of it now, with friends coming around to make fun of Chrysalis' image. I don't think that's what she wanted.”
Double gave a short chuckle at the thought of ponies and Changelings gathered around mocking the stern and bombastic image of Chrysalis. “I never knew... so I don't need to beg for my life. What do I need to do? Do I surrender to a constable or something?”
“No, no. You have somepony here to give an account of where you were and what you did after the invasion. It's all really just a quick trip to the Ministry of Inter-Sentient Affairs. You pick up a form applying for refugee status and they lead you through the rest. I'm guessing you have a home and a job,” Shrouding said.
“Neither of us need to work, but yes, she has a very beautiful home,” Vanilla said, with a bit of pride.
“Are you married? They accept alias marriages as legal as long as you get your Changeling name appended to the marriage documents,” Shrouding said, winking at the pair.
“Oh not yet. He's still too afraid,” Double said, some of her old attitude coming back.
“Now who was the 'ling that wanted to sneak up on hoof to the palace, and wanted to avoid the trams just in case they had Changeling-detecting security magic?” Vanilla rhetorically asked, giving Double a cheeky smile.
“It was a reasonable worry at the time,” Double snapped, buzzing her wings indignantly beneath her cloak. She put a smile on her face and looked at Shrouded. “Where do we find an office?”
“The Ministry has an office for smaller matters like this on the fourth terrace, you can't miss it. Just ask a constable when you arrive and they'll direct you to the right place,” Shrouding said, pointing up the street to the next terrace.
“Well, it's not begging the Princesses. This sort of takes a little drama out of your story,” Vanilla said, allowing himself a good laugh.
A blush burned on Double's cheeks as she began walking towards the indicated terrace. “As long as it gets done. I'm sick of being cooped up in that house.”
“It's not all bad, is it?” Vanilla asked, somewhat seductively, making Shrouded laugh and wave a hoof as she walked away.
The blush on Double's cheeks deepened, and she walked a little bit faster. “I'm not having this conversation with you in public! It's good... very good. We can leave it at that. Let's just move on to the building.”
As Shrouded had said, once they arrived at the fourth terrace the first constable they found directed them straight to a large, official-looking white marble building. The front of it was marked, Ministry Offices, Inter-Sentient Affairs and Community Relations. Inside the front door was a clean, orderly office space with polished stone floors, wood panels halfway up the walls, with plaster above that, and decorative chandeliers providing extra light beyond the ceiling lights and windows. Rows of desks with busy ponies, and others, stood behind a large counter with many windows, all staffed by friendly looking pony folks. The central feeder line was short, mostly filled with Diamond Dogs and a few Changelings.
It wasn't but a few minutes before Vanilla and Double were facing down a chipper-looking pegasus mare, with a pale blue coat and puffy white mane. “Hello there folks. Applying for an addendum to a marriage document?”
Double stepped up to the window and replied, “Oh, no. I need... I guess it's... a refugee form?”
Comprehension crossed the blue mare's face and she swiftly extracted a few papers from around her. “Brand new Changeling. You missed the first wave but, better late than never. Welcome to Equestria, and we hope you enjoy your new home. Fill out all the forms marked 'Changeling.' Your coltfriend just needs to fill out the supplemental form. Are you living together currently?”
Vanilla coughed into a hoof and looked a little sheepish. “Yes. We live together. She has been with me for over five months, though no one knows she's a Changeling.”
“Found after the invasion I take it. Welcome back to Canterlot, we're glad you chose to be civil and kind this time,” the mare chirped, giving a big and sincere smile. “Please have a seat and fill in the forms at your leisure, then return here with your forms to begin the process.”
Vanilla and Double were given pens and directed to a lounge-type area with cushions and low tables made for writing. The forms were flipped through and the single supplemental form given over to Vanilla. “Is this how ponies work?” Double inquired, as she started filling in her small collection of papers.
“Welcome to Equestria,” Vanilla said with a short laugh. “Ponies love order and precision. The more orderly and precise, the fewer errors, and the fewer who suffer. We want peace, plenty and prosperity. It's been working for well over a thousand years. But the price of all the wonderful security is this. Forms. You get used to it. Documentation protects all sides.”
“The swarm was so much simpler. You squabbled for a while and either had a fight, gave up, or Chrysalis decided based on her whims. I think that should have been a clue things were not quite right,” Double said, tilting her head as she read over the forms. “They certainly have a lot of options. Low-cost or no-cost shoes, food, job services, education. Do we need anything?”
“Check off any boxes marked, 'relocation' or 'wedding planning',” Vanilla said, with a blush and a smile.
Double stopped her writing mid-word, looking over at Vanilla, who had gone back to filling in his form. “This is about the most unromantic situation for a marriage proposal,” she said, with a dark blush.
“Not for a pony it isn't. It's appropriate. We're going to need it. And... I think we both knew it was coming. I just needed the right time to say that we're also moving,” Vanilla said, sitting back after he finished filling in his sheet.
“Moving? Moving where? I like that place. There are so many good memories... and bad ones... but the food alone...” Double said, glancing up several times while trying to focus on the form.
“I can keep it, maybe have it as a vacation home. It's nice to have a little place just for a getaway. But I want to come back to Canterlot. You reignited my passion for cooking, made it actually special and put me in touch with what I had lost. I can be a chef again. I could even be one for myself. Maybe with a competent, eager-to-learn sous chef. We could have a great business. And be wonderful together,” Vanilla said, leaning back with a dreamy look on his face.
Double scratched out a few more lines of text, then flipped back to a prior sheet to add a check mark. “Changelings don't have dreams. Didn't have dreams. I'm guessing every new one to come here does now. And I've got one too. Let's go get these back. We need to start looking for a house.”