Chapter 3
Twilight Sparkle sat half exhausted in front of king Sombra's statue.
"Maybe I should try to sever the links with the books while I pierce the shield protecting the statue?" she said panting and frowning.
"Or maybe you should just take a break?" suggested Spike, who was sitting on a nearby pile of books.
"I think the little dragon is right, miss Sparkle," said 'Green Cloud' from the top of a bookshelf, where she was reading a scroll.
Cadence, due to her position as queen of the Empire, was currently unable to join the search for useful laws or edicts.
Twilight fixed her gaze on her, thinking back at the discussion she had with her brother after lunch.
---
"Twi, can we talk a little?" asked Shining Armor placing a hoof on her sister shoulder, sure of being out both of his wife hearing range and the pegasus'.
"Sure Shining, what is it?"
"What do you think about Cadence friend?"
"She seems a nice mare, why?"
"Well, she showed up right after my barrier registered a changeling entering the city and Cadence never mentioned her to me, nor I remember seeing her at the wedding."
"Now that you mention it, I don't remember her either..." said Spike nodding.
"You want me to shoot a changeling revealing spell at her?" she asked with a conspiring look.
"No: if I'm proved wrong Cadence will be outright mad at me. I have duties to attend, but you can keep an eye on her since you both will be in the library."
---
"Yes, I guess you two are right," sighed Twilight lowering her head.
"Ah-ah! I found it!" beamed the pegasus jumping in the air.
"Uhm, miss Cloud, can I ask what have you found?" asked Twilight shyly.
The pegasus glided down to the floor, landed with grace in front of the unicorn and started explaining with a smile:
"I confirmed my suspicions: we're not sisters-in-law!" said the pegasus with a triumphant smile.
"Well, of course you and I aren't."
"What? No, I was talking of me and Ca- I mean, my friend Rainbow Cascade. Due to certain unfortunate circumstances we ended up being married to the same stallion, an error that we want to rectify as soon as possible, of course," explained the black mare, hoping that her slip went unnoticed.
Luckily for her, the unicorn was too stupefied to notice.
"I pity the guy," said Spike nodding.
"This scroll here says that this Sombra guy had-wow, quite the playcolt uh?-fifteen wives and that they were concubines, not sisters-in-law!" continued 'Green Cloud'.
"No, that's another thing: I'm pretty sure that sisters-in-law is the right term," corrected Twilight.
"Wait, how does this solve the problem?" asked Spike scratching the top of his head.
"Well, it doesn't, but I was curious," mumbled the pegasus.
"Anyway, miss Cloud, the easiest way to solve the problem is divorce," suggested the unicorn with a matter-of-fact tone.
"I know, but our husband isn't aware of the story, and we wanted to solve this without him noticing," said the black mare with a sigh.
"May I ask why?" asked the lavender mare.
"We totally see him jumping down a tall building if he knew..." said the pegasus shaking her head.
The three of them returned to their respective activity, passing the rest of the afternoon without anything noteworthy.
---
The small changeling paced back and forth behind the dusty, old, red velvet curtains of the only auditorium in the hive.
More than half the changeling population was able to attend the event, the others would soon hear the good news too.
She took another calming breath and closed her eyes. She was nervous, but she thought it was normal since it was her first speech.
"Your majesty, it's almost time," said the changeling on duty of raising the curtain.
"I'm ready," said Ashley putting in place a strand of grey hair "Open the curtain."
She stepped with slow but determined pace towards the podium and took place behind it, a small set of steps was added in order to let her be visible since the podium was taller than her.
The audience roared its approval at her apparition.
"My loyal subjects, my children, today I bring you a good news!" she said aloud in order to be heard by everypony "We are in a difficult situation, that's undeniable, but we can still rise from our ashes to get what is ours!"
The statement gained mixed reactions from the crowd.
"Queen Chrysalis knew this very well and so she launched her offensive in Canterlot, but she was defeated because she messed up with her disguise."
The crowd morale was dropping at the mention of the wedding.
"After that disaster we cannot hope anymore to get the ponies to love us, so we shall resort to more drastical measures: if they fear us, then they'll discover that it's not enough!"
The audience was getting infervorated by the speech.
"We shall march on the Crystal Empire, a promised land in which love fills the air, and conquer it! The changelings shall never face starvation again!"
The crowd roared its approval with force. For several minutes, Ashley had to wait to complete her speech.
"In less than a week I will reach maturity, and then we will launch our offensive!"
The audience exploded with enthusiasm, cheering for their queen.
In the rear of the crowd, a single changeling with four purple lines on each leg, was still in disbelief at what he had just heard, his right eye wide in stupor while the left was forced closed by a deep vertical scar.
"This is going to be a problem," he muttered to himself, massaging his temples with his forehoofs "This queen is even more of a war bringer than Chrysalis, I must stop this madness before our race is lost."
He slowly left the auditorium and trotted away, shaping a plan in his mind.
---
The throne room was a large square with the massive doors in one corner and the two regal seats in the opposite, a soft velvet carpet of an indefinable shade of purple, which Shining had baptized 'darker than Twily coat but lighter than the darker stripe in her mane', connecting the two extremes. There were many windows on each of the four walls, and a smaller one behind the thrones, giving access to the wide balcony that towered over the city main plaza.
In this room, the royal couple was holding court.
"For the last time miss Shine, there is no chance that your closet is haunted by king Sombra, and the inspection proved my point," said an exasperated Shining Armor massaging his head with a hoof to the white mare with blonde mane in front of him.
In another part of the city, a certain closet laughed in a maniacal way.
"But -" tried to protest Light Shine.
"No buts. For your peace of mind I'll send a guard with you, but I don't want to hear about this anymore, understood? You're now dismissed."
The mare left, muttering to herself.
"Is there anyone else?" asked Cadence to a nearby page.
"No, your majesty," answered the colt with a bow.
"Very well. You can leave dear."
The page bowed again and left the room.
"I can't believe that mare... Talking about something else, sweetheart, you never mentioned your friend to me before," said the white unicorn looking at his wife.
"Didn't I? Oh dear..." said the alicorn taking time to build up something "We met years ago, before meeting you."
"She can't be much older than Twi, my age at max."
"Oh, I assure you she is older than you," she said with a giggle "Anyway, we met in Canterlot, at a wedding of a noble."
"And you are absolutely sure that she is who she says?"
"Don't worry honey, even if she was a changeling, I'm sure that I'm totally safe in the palace with you," she said hugging him.
"I couldn't stop Chrysalis," stated him hanging his head.
"We have already talked about this: you were under mind control, it's not your fault!"
"But if Twi didn't show up..."
"Then your main problem would be her wrath for not being invited," said the pink mare laughing.
---
The day flew by, and so the evening. When nighttime arrived, however, a bit of chaos came to disrupt the peaceful time: Shining Armor, concerned about the safety of both the Empire and its inhabitants, suggested that the two guests would sleep together, providing the rogue changeling as explanation and hoping for his sister's support in this last attempt to uncover something fishy about the black pegasus.
Needless to say, Twilight and 'Green Cloud' weren't very pleased with the idea of sleeping together: the first still had doubts on the pegaus, her main concern was her privacy, while the last knew that her disguise won't be up once she fell asleep.
And of course, the two mares made themselves sure to express their concerns. Animatedly.
"Look, either this or with one of my guards. You choose," half shouted the white unicorn at a certain point.
The idea didn't sound appealing to the girls, who, without another word, retired themselves in their chamber.
"I cannot believe my brother... Ah, the nerve!" said the purple mare once the door was shut, still keeping her voice low in order not to wake the sleeping dragon on her back.
"You can view it from his point of view, but maybe it's better to just forget and go to sleep," suggested 'Green Cloud' wisely.
In that moment the two of them noticed the room.
It was mainly similar to the royal chambers, less luxurious of course, but with one striking feature: there was just one large bed.
"Man, this is going to be awkward," muttered at the same time the two ponies.
Chrysalis frantically searched for a solution darting her eyes around the room.
"I guess there's no helping it," sighed Twilight tucking herself and Spike under the blankets.
The pegasus sighed in defeat, then took place on the other side of the bed, hoping not to be discovered.
"Good night, miss Sparkle,"
"Good night to you, miss Cloud, and call me Twilight," answered the unicorn stifling a yawn.
"Call me Green," said the other with a hint of sorrow in her voice, hoping she would actually have the opportunity to be called that.
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Hmm that promise more awkwardness
Ok, I do not get it, so Shinning Armor to protect Cadence, himself and empire, he made possible changeling sleep with his sister, HOW DENSE IS HE ?
It is not like his sister, who he already hurt on the wedding, who saved his wife and helped to defeat changelings and then helped with wedding, who saved empire from Sombra and at the same time saved Cadence and Shinning Armor and her friends from slavery, deserve to not be send into dangers once in a while.
Shinning, you are a dumbass.
I agree. Shining is a dumbass.
But that last scene. I k ow how that is. When I was younger when a friend came oven I always had to share my bed with them.
Rofl, I hope 'Sombra the haunted closet' shows up more! that was Bucking brilliant.
1958616 1959014
Yeah, I have a pretty low opinion of dear Shiny, did you notice?
1959182
Probably it will appear again later
Yes you do. But I think it's well warranted. Ever since the season two finally I've felt his reasons for not telling Twilight about getting married were dumb as hell. Oh sorry I was too busy! Screw that! He could took a second and wrote a quick letter and sent it.
1964144
Well, I do not like Shinning Armor because he start as OP Unicorn ( screw 2 Alicorn princesses and hundreds of Unicorn Guards, lets make 1 Unicorn hold shield to defend entire city again entire invasion forces for weeks ).
And the way how he act, how he yelled at his sister ( mind control or not, his words were his own ), and I agree his reason for not sending Twilight letter was bad, and what kind of brother is he to let his sister fight supreme dangers and not even send any guards to help her out.
In my opinion Shinning Armor power and character need a bit rebalancing, with Cadence it is more easy to make her less OP even if she is Alicorn, and giving her nice character development is not hard, even if her backstory seems to be weird, considering that she was smaller when she was taking care of Twilight, do this mean she was born 30 years ago, anyway Shinning is just to good material to screw up.
You know that rant makes him seem like a stereotypical overpowered OC. And I think Twilight forgave him way to easy. And I agree mind control is no excuse.
And I agree with that one guy..... I want more Sombra haunting closets. ALL THE CLOSETS!
Sombra enchanted all the closets in the Crystal Empire to be haunted as long as he isn't there so everypony would still fear him!
1971097
Maybe, maybe not mwahahahah
You named your new changeling queen Ashley? I'm sorry but that just breaks my immersion entirely. It doesn't fit with the setting at all.
Well, there's a reason Derpibooru has a 'Shining Armor is a god damn moron' tag.