//------------------------------// // A New Day Dawns // Story: Once Bitten // by Damaged //------------------------------// It cost Thorax a little part of her sanity to have to wait for Chrysalis to leave the room and reach a safe distance down the hall. Chirping her wings, she rushed out to the bedroom and pulled Sweetie belle into a tight hug. "It's alright. Just relax, and breathe deeply." Her chirping continued until she felt Sweetie Belle relax against her, dropping her disguise. "Well, that hath blown it. We appear to have run into a problem. I had hoped that my sister and I would be able to slip into the ceremony instead of our doubles, but I think Sunset would be in trouble if I were to attempt to switch." Luna shot one look at Sweetie Belle, and gave her a wink to show she hadn't taken offense at the antics during the visit. Thorax followed Luna's words, but kept hugging the distraught nymph to her. "Are you okay?" When Sweetie nodded, now well doused in Thorax's pheromones, the young queen turned to the Princess. "A fair judgment. But that gives us another advantage. They won't expect there to be even one alicorn princess to put up a fight." As she said the last word, Thorax watched Luna's eyes flare with excitement. "We must see to our sister." Luna, charged with excitement at the prospect of actually doing something, was halfway to the door before anypony said anything. "Wait!" Thorax realized that the word meant little to an alicorn who was set on a course. "Everybuggy, come on." Realizing that although she might be a queen, a princess in motion out ranked her completely. Falling in behind Luna, each of the changelings flashed with fire and assumed the part of an honor guard. They followed the Princess of the Night all the way back to Princess Celestia's rooms. Luna eyed Flash Sentry, then turned to her "guards" and raised an eyebrow. "Is this one with you?" "No, Your Highness." Flash Sentry bowed to Luna. "Just a Royal Guard doing his duty. Princess Celestia's attackers will have a hard fight if they wish to attack tonight." Turning her gaze down then back up, Luna took in the stallion's stance and ready devotion. "You are a good pony, Flash Sentry." The name bubbled up from her memory, but she liked the effect it had on the stallion when she used it. Thorax gave a sigh when Princess Luna finally entered the rooms, and slipped in after her. Laying on the bed, surrounded by nymphs, Princess Celestia slept calmly. One of Celestia's eyes opened at the intrusion on her bedchambers, but seeing her sister only drew her worried expression into a smile. "Your Highnesses. We need to get our sleep for tomorrow. I fear that if we try to do too much tonight we will be at a major disadvantage come dawn." Luna was burning with energy, and despite the sense of Thorax's argument, she knew sleep would be hard for her to find. "I'll keep watch on this side of the door." Leaving nothing to be debated, Luna turned and stepped up to the door. Sunset Shimmer was resting among her former hive-mates. A large guest suite was the changeling barracks, and she cautiously took a spot on the floor of the room. Settling on the floor, she seemed to close her eyes for just a moment before a black hoof was shaking her awake again. "Our Queen said you have to take the throne today. The wedding will be in two hours." The drone turned and walked away, leaving Sunset to groan and make an unhappy chittering sound. Inhaling a deep breath, Sunset let it out and realized that the command Chrysalis had given her was faded. Even without Thorax's presence, she felt herself somewhat resistant to the other queen. Using a flash of fire to neaten her mane and prepare Luna's form for the day ahead, she mentally promised to apologize to Luna for whoever she was likely to insult with her ignorance of the court. The guards all snapped to attention as Sunset strode into the throne room, and to her keen eyes she could see that there wasn't a single changeling among them. "They must all be preparing for the wedding…" "Your Highness?" Long Dive ruffled his leathery wings as he approached the mare he thought was his princess. "With the wedding today, you don't have to hold court." He wasn't sure how, but Long sensed something was a little off with "Luna." Sunset was prepared to blow the stallion off and do as she wished, but something caused her to narrow her eyes at Long Dive. "Have I not always held you to the strictest confidence?" The stallion stiffened visibly, snapping a tight nod. "My suspicions about the Royal Guard…" "You have found proof?" The words tumbled from Long Dive's snout before he could think straight. Finding a large percentage of the royal guard acting odd, with no history in any census of their members, had been his own idea. "Guards! Bar the doors!" Sunset barely managed the Royal Canterlot Voice, but despite that the Royal Guards carried out her will. "Luna is safe, I am here working with friends to help undo what… what some of our kin are attempting." Long stared in shock as his princess burned in green fire, revealing a monstrous pony in her wake. "What… what is going on?!" He took some worried steps back. "Princess Luna is safe. I am taking her place until we can root out all the infiltrators Queen Chrysalis sent here." Sunset scanned around the room, reading the expressions of each guard—none showed the kind of shock she was hunting for. "You all know there are new guards wandering around. You don't know them because they are not ponies at all. I am taking a big risk revealing myself to you, but I detest lying." "The wedding…?" Mind racing around in circles, Long heard the guardsponies move up to his back. "This is all a ruse. Princess Cadance, Shining Armor, they could be impersonating anypony!" "Queen Chrysalis has been disguised as Shining Armor. Princess Cadance is probably being mind-controlled by her. The good news is, they don't know my friends and I are here. One at a time, swap out with other guards and head to Princess Celestia's chambers. Let her explain things." Sunset used her magic and retook Luna's form. "For Equestria." A dozen hooves slammed against chests. Shining yawned widely as she woke. A gentle hoof reached down and brushed against her squinting eyes—a big white hoof. "Princess Celestia!" Her squeak of shock earned her a soft chuckle from the Princess. "Today is the day." "Today is a big day." Celestia flicked her mane a little, catching sight of her sister chatting with a tired Flash Sentry. "Shall we start it?" The moment Shining's little hoof touched hers, Celestia lit her horn and worked grand magic. The moon dipped down and the sun rose high into the morning sky. With the light of the day streaming through the window, other changelings were waking up. Thorax sat up from where she was laying on the far side of the bed. Huddled between her and Princess Celestia was a small swarm of nymphs. Giving a soft chirp, she began to wake them. "Come on, my swarm, time to save Equestria." Scootaloo jerked her head up and, eyes wide, pumped a hoof in the air. "Yeah! We'll show 'em what a bunch of nymphs can do!" Her exclamation and jostling of the bed stirred the other nymphs awake. Several yawned, flashing their prominent fangs. "Come on everyling!" "Dibs on being Sweetie Belle." Sweetie Belle was on her back, staring up at the ceiling. "It's going to be so fun to find those bad bugs that attacked us and give them what-for." She thrust her little hooves up a few times, showing off her skills. "You three can go as yourselves." Apple Blossom stretched and bent her chitinous body in ways that would make a contortionist scratch their head. "That just means we can be Princess Celestia's Royal Guard!" All the Cutie Mark Crusaders, including Vinyl and Shining, shoved their hooves in and formed a circle. "For Cadance." Shining Armor lifted her hoof first. "For Apples!" Apple Bloom joined Shining's hoof with her own. "For the adventure!" Scootaloo's voice was no less excited. "What? It will be awesome when we win!" "For our friends." Buzzaloo grinned across at Shining. "For our sisters." Adore Belle put her hoof in, and her other foreleg around Sweetie Belle. "For all our sisters." Cuddling her twin back, Sweetie Belle put her little black hoof in. "Ours sisters is a pretty good one…" Apple Blossom gave her fellow Crusaders a lopsided grin. "So I'm gonna say that too." Vinyl was the last of the little group who hadn't said anything. She sat up as straight as she could. "For Equestria." Her hoof met with the others'. "Yeah! Cutie Mark Crusaders, Saviors of Equestria!" Somehow, all of them knew the right line to shout at once. "Are they always like this?" Thorax looked to Princess Celestia. "I figured they were kinda…" Her brain started to unravel a little, and she was surprised by how calmly she had been talking to Sunset's former mentor. "This is awkward." "What do you mean?" Celestia slipped from the bed and stretched her wings. "You know Sunset was turned into a changeling." Thorax waited for Princess Celestia, who had suddenly stiffened at the name of her student, to nod. "When a pony is turned into a changeling, the parasite inside becomes a duplicate of the pony. The process is, I am told, very efficient. But that leaves me remembering years spent learning from you, discovering the wonder of magic with you…" Celestia put the clues together. "You are Sunset's duplicate." So many urges rushed around in Celestia's head, but the first was to ask the most important question. "Did she give up on me, or was… was coercion used?" "No coercion." Thorax sat back on the floor and ran back to the memories, nearly the last Sunset and her shared. "I was meeting with Te Amo… or she was…" Thorax scrunched her snout up a little in consternation. "That was Chrysalis. She was circling your city like a shark. We… Sunset… had just worked on the calculus involved in firing a heavy spell around the curvature of Equus, when it all went to Tartarus." "That was the last time Sunset seemed herself." Celestia mused on the situation. "Was it really a changeling since then?" At Thorax's nod, Celestia let out a sob of relief. "All the things she said, all the things I said back…" "They weren't to her. That day Queen Chrysalis foalnapped us and sent a drone in to take our place. She put me into Sunset, and…" Thorax had barely a moment before Princess Celestia wrapped her up in huge white forelegs. Thorax remembered the pain as if it had been caused to her, and hugged back. The two of them sat together for a few minutes, ignoring the waking up changelings around them. "A changeling queen can control everybuggy immediately around them with a… a cloud of pheromones. Chrysalis uses hers like a scalpel. She slices at a pony's sense of self so that the only bonds they have left are to her and the swarm. "I am an anomaly. If Chrysalis knew I was growing into a queen, she would have had me killed. I started learning about what I could do while training nymphs. The first few groups went well, right up until our queen came to visit. So I worked harder and harder, and then Shining Armor came along." Thorax had a warm, tingly feeling of happiness remembering each encounter with Shining. "She is simply amazing. She helped me get through to Sunset and free her mind, and even helped us escape from the hive." Celestia let go of Thorax and leaned back to look at her. "He was a wonder stallion, and mare, before this. There is nothing about Shining Armor, or Vinyl Scratch, that would lead me to believe they will ever be anything but outstanding. You should probably try to organize your hive, Queen Thorax, lest it wage war on Chrysalis' hive without you."