Cadence walked along the corridor of her crystal castle to she and her husband's shared room, worrying about her husband.
'Shiny is quite absent-minded recently.' Cadence thought while walking. 'Maybe he has some trouble.'
"Shiny, you there?" Cadence shoved the door open. "We need a talk, you seems-"
Then Cadence saw the worst scene she could ever imagine: her shiny is cuddling with her worst nightmare--queen Chrysalis.
"Hi, Shiny, wake up, how can you do this with this monster? She is not even in disguise." Cadence is shocked to see her husband so weak in mental defense. She rushed to the pair on her bed and tried to save the victim.
Chrysalis didn't move much even Cadence shoved using all her strength. "You fed her too much to confront. We need a serious talk after this." Cadence's voice twisted as the strength she used.
"Easy, my child." Chrysalis chirped, padded the love princess on head. "Check the line between us. We are true love."
"What?" Cadence squeaked in shock as she feel so. She stopped shoving and turned her head to her Shiny, feared to hear the answer.
"Sorry, it is true, but I can-" Shiny said in a sorry tone before being interrupted.
"How can you do this to me? We have a child, remember? What will she think when she grows up? What will the public think? What will my friends-"
"Wait, honey. I may live longer than you thought. But I can explain. I can fix-"
"I don't want your explanation. Actually I don't know what I want now. I'm going to take Flurry Heart with me to visit my aunts." Cadence's tear started to swirl because being betrayed in love as the love princess is too unbelievable.
"Well, at least we also have a child to deal with." Chrysalis nuzzled Shiny and cut in.
"Oh, I will give you two my blessing. And I wander who this poor guy is." Cadence shouted with sarcasm.
"I'm sorry I don't have a chance to teach you manners." Chrysalis says plainly and pointed a hoof to Cadence. "I'm afraid, the poor guy you mentioned is you, my child."
"Ha-ha, you can't be serious. Please, stop this, this joke has gone too far." Cadence laughed with tears hysterically. "Please stop."
"Don't do that, Chrysalis. She needs more time." Shiny Armor scolded. "Either as my daughter or as my wife."
"Well, mom was a queen so mom is poor at comforting ponies."
"This is not true, please, don't play with me." Cadence was still suffering from a mental breakdown, sobbing on the carpet.
"But it is true, several days ago I lost most of my drones." Chrysalis continued. "The hive mind has never been this empty and quiet. But without the noises, I found a faint connection I missed for so long--You."
"I don't believe in you, prove it." Cadence shouted, voice twisted.
"Stop this, darling. I will fix it-" Shiny says.
Chrysalis didn't response but close her eyes and lighten her horn.
Cadence suddenly inhaled deeply, feeling the sense she never experienced. "What... what is that?"
"The call of the hive. To be specific, with the help of that glimmer friend of yours, this call is mostly from me." Chrysalis said with a sign.
"Sorry?" Cadence shortly forgot her sorrow and indulged herself in this feeling of hive mind.
"No need to. It was my duty to lead my subjects out of the starvation. At least they are not starving now." Chrysalis muddled a bit to shade her embarrassment." The purpose I chased for thousands of years is solved now, but they are no longer changelings nor are they in hive mind."
"It can't be, how can I not be blasted away by Shiny's shield and how am I not changed as most of the changelings did as I shared love all along my life."
"I had a check with Shiny, his shield blasting used at your wedding is designed for individuals with hostile intention. As all the changelings are connected to the hive mind. We changelings are all hostile and all been blasted away while your connection is too weak to be identified." Chrysalis stated. "As your second questions. I assume you might will never understand what sharing love is as a changeling. You are not sharing love, well at least as a changeling."
Cadence shakes her head to shake off the freak feeling of hive mind and pronounced. "Well I admit I might have part of changeling blood running in my veins. But how did you know my Shiny is yours?"
"Well, you are the princess of love. Don't you believe in love instinct?" Chrysalis retorted, annoyed by the suspicion of her affection.
"Ha, you are bluffing." Cadence found the situation have possibilities to save. "Why didn't you recognize him when you imposed me during my wedding preparation?"
"Well, I thought you were dead, both of you. And I didn't believe he can live so long without getting old even the name and the appearance said otherwise. So I mind-controlled him the moment I replaced my child then his soul was too twisted for me to recognize." Chrysalis stated flatly. "Until now. He didn't change much comparing to... Well, I can't quite remember the time."
"Honey, it is true. I thought both of you were dead, too." Shiny tried to easy the confliction. "And I assumed the changeling hive just changed another queen so I didn't think much even after the wedding."
"Several days ago." Chrysalis continued with joy in her voice. "I traveled along the connection of my half-blood daughter as an ex-queen with her mission accomplished, calm my soul was, finally having decided to do something personal. Surprise I found--you and him. When Shiny asked my identity tentatively, old memory flashed back, and I found my shiny."
"Emotions really change appearance, right? I didn't recognize you when you were... err... in Canterlot." Shiny said. "Fury and greedy, but now, peace and love, like my old love bug."
"So, let's sum up, we both thought the other half and the child were dead. And we both live along with the tragedy for a long time. And the child was raised by locals and then Celestia."
"How did you two get together?" Cadence couldn't resist her urge of her special talent.
"It is kind of cliché, we kind of have an adventure together and then we fell in love." Shiny Armor said.
"Then the tragedy happened as we both thought the other was dead. And I changed a lot after that and become a true changeling queen you saw in your wedding." Chrysalis said while rub her lover's cheek. "Now the burden is relieved and I changed to the true me."
"I can sense love when I was a pegasus because I am half-changeling?" Cadence still can't quite accept what had happened.
"It seems yes." Chrysalis said while rounded her frontlegs around Shiny and they both eyed Cadence, hoping she can accept the truth.
"But, but, how did you appear in my high school, Shiny?" Cadence urged Shiny without realizing she is more like seeking answers than questioning the reality.
"You know, experiencing the life or something." Shiny said in a sad tone. "I would never expect that I would fall in love with my own daughter and have a baby."
"Does my aunts know this things?" Cadence asked, fear that she might be cheated for a long time.
"Well, at least partly." Shiny answers. "Princess Celestia knew that I have lived for a long time. But I think she does not know you are my daughter."
"Oh, ponyfeathers. How can a father marry his own daughter? What you have done, Shiny!" Cadence lamented as she stomped her hoof. "I don't know how to deal with our relationship now. Flurry heart will be ashamed when she grows up and finds out the truth. And what will the public think about us."
"It is actually not that bad if you had witnessed thousands years of history, my daughter." Chrysalis interrupted. "Thousands years ago, marrying one's own daughter is quite common. It went like this: A noble married a pretty mare and give birth to a pretty daughter. These nobles always couldn't resist their pretty attractive daughter and they just married them. But when the daughter give birth to another daughter. Those nobles were always too old to start another route. But these won't exist among us. Shiny can do lots of routes. The most important thing is, there are no actual report on the offsprings of incests suffering from disease or malformed body parts, unlike other species. So, it is really ok for Shiny to do this."
Shining Armor changed to an embarrassed expression and tended to say something before being interrupted.
"No, stop. Listen Shiny." Cadence threated. "If you do this to Flurry Heart, I WILL smash your balls-"
"Don't be sorry, Shiny. I will protect your balls. You can do whatever you want." Chrysalis interrupted with her hoof swirling on the bed. "Another thing is quite common among old nobles, they always married their pretty sister when they inherited their title. In our case, that might be Twilight Sparkle. What do you think, Shiny?"
"No!" Shiny and Cadence chorused.