"Order. Quiet in the courts."
The sound of the gavel echoed throughout the large chamber, causing the cacophony of voices to fall into a dull hum. The twin brothers looked down at the assembled parties from their raised desks, daring any to raise their voice. Once they were satisfied with the level of noise they turned their attention to the two chitinous individuals seated far below them.
"We have yet to come to a decision for your transgressions. Your crimes are numerous and heavy." The white brother spoke first, glaring with contempt at the figures before him, his red eyes seeming to pierce their exoskeleton and into their minds. Unfazed by the open act of hostility, one of the Changelings stepped forward and addressed the judges,
"Everything we did was for our survival, so that we may continue to exist. We are slowly starving; there are very little emotions in the Badlands, let alone love. Our queen sort to bring about change, somewhere we could live and gather as much love as we wanted. Canterlot was a prime location." The Changeling noticed the twin's subtle reaction when he said 'queen', the sudden rigidness they both took on. Even the black twin, who was known for his sympathetic and relaxed nature, was sitting up straighter and looked more stern. Bugger, the Changeling thought.
"Your queen," The white twin spat, "Is little more than an overgrown cicada. It appears that she feeds you hubris as well as love. As for your pitiful attempts to hide behind the plea of survival, that was attempted nearly 5 moons ago."
"You have yet to explain why you had chosen Canterlot, the current home and seat of power of The Sisters. There are many places between your 'Badlands' and Canterlot; surely they are a better choice." The black twin now weighed in, his voice was soft and kind but it still carried an edge to it.
The Changeling knew he had annoyed the twins with the mention of a queen. They were kings and they only answered to their queen, the queen that everybody here answered to, even Chrysalis. The Changeling looked at the massive figure behind the twins; she appeared to be asleep, embedded in a large tree, forever presiding over the courts of Seelie and Unseelie, Queen Giavita.
For another queen to exist is unthinkable.
"Those towns, while closer, could not provide enough to feed us. We had to look elsewhere, the brood was going larger and we needed to feed. Canterlot provided the best option, especially due to the royal wedding."
"Which brings us to another point, why impersonate a princess?"
***
Faint Wisp sighed and turned away from the spectacle. While it was rare that both the Seelie and Unseelie courts came together, this farce had been going on close to seven months. The courts were, if nothing else, thorough. She was lucky to be in Hollow Shades and working for the Wisp representatives in the court, even luckier to be present at a united court. However, for the past months the courts had done nothing but go around in circles, never addressing the crux of the issue.
Her mother and younger brother had been so proud when she was chosen to be trained to become a representative for their race. She was going to be interacting with Changelings, Breezies, Sea Ponies and all manner of well respected and revered ponies. She had been ecstatic, it had been her dream to become a representative, and she even liked to think that her cutie mark represented that, a shining lantern. She quickly found out however that being a representative meant keeping your mouth shut, your head down, out of everybody else's way and, for the love of Giavita, don't draw attention to yourself. So, here she was, listening to a Changeling try to explain why attacking Canterlot and revealing that Changelings existed was such a good idea. She sighed again as she looked over at the Sea Ponies, they too looked bored by the whole procedure, so did just about everybody. Why don't they just ask the question everybody wants to ask?
Why don't they?
Because they're scared of the answer, nobody wants to hear it.
Why don't you ask?
Because it’s not my place.
Ask, you will be heard. Faint blinked, it took her a while to realize that the voice responding didn't sound like her own. She often debated and argued in her head, it’s perfectly natural, she hoped. This voice however, didn't sound like her usual snarky, sarcastic inner voice, this sounded...motherly. It was calming, soft and understanding, yet strong and willful. The voice was becoming more forceful now.
Ask.
It's not my place.
Ask!
No.
ASK!
"NO!" She surprised herself at how loud she was, even more surprising was that she had said it out loud, drawing attention to herself. She looked up at where the twin brothers Auber and Orbon, the ruler of the Unseelie and Seelie respectively sat. Every eye was now focused on her. Even the Changeling that was speaking had stopped to stare at her. Faint turned bright red, she had broken one of the cardinal rules of the Courts, 'never interrupt another pony'. It was one of the few golden rules, put in place to ensure that everybody had a fair say and that one argument wouldn't override another. She had gone and broken it. She felt the colour drain from her coat as she became the center of attention.
Ask, the voice whispered. Auber glared at Faint, his face displaying barely contained his anger, his butterfly-like wings twitching every so often as pure rage seethed through his very being. Orbon stared at the mare more shocked than angry, but anyone who had attended Seelie knew that just by the subtle twitching of his moth-like wings and the unyielding stare he was now giving Faint meant that he too was just as angry as his brother. It was just that shock had won the battle of emotions first.
"What is the meaning of this interruption?" Auber spat the word out like he had 'queen' showing his obvious distaste.
"Well? What is it?" Orbon said finally, his anger evident in his voice.
ASK, the voice urged yet again. Faint took a deep breath, closed her eyes and tried to sort out the chaos that was her current thought process. Exhaling, she opened her eyes and looked at the twins, "I wish to direct a question."
Pandemonium broke out, everyone started talking at once. The Púca demanded an explanation, the Sea Ponies demanded that they too be allowed to ask a question, the Breezies demanded that the rules be upheld and Faint be executed, the entire court was in disarray. Only the Changelings and the wins remained silent. Both twins looked shocked, as if someone had shoved mashed potato in their ears and then run away. The Changelings whispered quickly between one another before turning to the twins.
"We wish to allow it."
"What?" Auber and Orbon asked in unison.
"We, the Changelings, wish to permit the assistant of the Wisps to direct a question to this hearing." The Changeling repeated again.
Then as suddenly as the chaos had started, it stopped. All eyes were on the twins, awaiting their verdict. The court held its collective breath. Orbon was the first to recover, "Ask your question little one. Be warned though, the question you ask also holds your fate." All eyes turned once again to Faint, still holding their breath.
"I direct my question to the just and righteous Kings, Auber and Orbon. My question is this: What now?"
The twins blinked, "We're sorry?" They asked in unison.
"What happens now? Despite what has happened, the world knows that the Changelings are real. It wouldn't be too long before others start to question what other creatures exist. We've spent years carefully weaving ourselves as fables, while a few may be exposed from time-to-time, never before has one of us blatantly shouted out 'We exist!'. So my question to you great kings is: Where do we go from here? What is our next step?" Faint finally breathed a sigh of relief at finally getting that off her chest. See, I told you they would listen, my child. It was a good few minutes before either twin blinked, there were a few more minutes before one even said something.
"We, we shall continue with our discussion. Once we have an understanding of the proper motivations and reasoning behind the incident, then we can formulate a proper response." Orbon gained more and more of his former confidence with each word. Auber still looked shocked that someone would dare interrupt another and even worse, be allowed to ask it. Orbon turned his attention once again to the Changelings, "Now, please continue with-"
NO
The voice rang out through every body present; it seemed to echo through the wood, ground and air. It was a voice that was not spoken but rather felt in every being. The day had started off routinely for the twins but had suddenly descended into one of surprises and rule breaking. They didn't like either very much. This new surprise was one that they could have done without, the colour from their coats faded to pure white, it seemed to make no difference for Auber but it was amusing to watch Orbon's coat go from black to bright white. Both of them slowly turned to face the carved alicorn behind them.
"Y-your majesty?" Auber stuttered. The court froze; no-one could ever remember hearing the queen talk. Auber and Orbon had been around since the world was new and even then could only remember a few rare times when the queen, their mother, had ever spoken. The last time had been more than a millennia ago and only to announce Nightmare Moon's rise and banishment. Never before had Giavita intervened in a court session.
THE YOUNG ONE IS CORRECT. HOW WE PROCEED FROM HERE IS PARAMOUNT.
Slowly the closed eyes of the embedded alicorn opened and focused on Faint. Faint felt a quickening of her heart as she realized something, THAT'S who I was hearing in my head?
Correct child, came the response. Faint almost lived up to her name in that instant, but caught herself just in time.
"Your majesty, how should we proceed, we have been revealed, and there is nothing we can do."
ONLY ONE OF US HAS BEEN SHOWN
"She's right, only the Changelings have revealed themselves, the rest of us have not." Orbon reasoned. He turned to his brother, "We need to determine what the rest of the world knows and if they suspect of more than just the Changelings existing." Auber nodded his head. If they suspect that only Changelings exist and not the greater whole then we would be safe, Auber concluded.
"Depending on the findings we could have someone discourage further research into our kind." Auber said out loud.
LITTLE ONE, Giavita's wooden eyes fell upon Faint, WOULD YOU TAKE IT UPON YOURSELF TO UNDERTAKE THIS ENDEAVOR?
"Yes." Faint squeaked. She was being addressed directly by the queen herself! Faint found herself torn between utter elation and total terror. The alicorn's head appeared to nod in acceptance of Faint's answer. The queen's eyes turned back to the twins, SO IT SHALL BE. Closing her eyes the queen returned to her original position as if nothing had happened. Auber's gavel rang out snapping everyone out of their stupor.
"Next order of business..."
The two Wisp representatives stared open mouthed at Faint and what had just transpired. Faint smiled faintly at them before finally blacking out.
A few months later Faint found herself standing on the path leading out of the Everfree Forest and into Ponyville.