//------------------------------//
// The Unexpected Meeting 
// Story: The Fractured Unity 
// by Time Reaper 
//------------------------------//

Canterlot Castle has been a very hard place to live in for the last couple weeks. Ever since a group of ponies from Ponyville were kidnapped, the princesses has been in a very tense mood, making it very hard to get closer to any of them. For the common pony who didn't follow much of the news, while it would be understandable that either Princess Celestia, Luna or Cadence would feel bad for a group of ponies disappearing, especially after the disaster at the Canterlot Wedding. But, for those who held enough knowledge, fear was what filled the city once it was figured out that not only common ponies for a town very close to Canterlot disappeared, but also that all the Elements of Harmony disappeared along them.

Even more so, those who knew how well connected was the Element of Magic, also known as Twilight Sparkle, to the royal family were more than aware of how touchy was that theme for Princess Celestia. It didn't matter whether or not the foalnapper was a changeling or a pony, once they met Princess Celestia, it would desire to never be born the rest of its life.

As the Canterlot officials were trying to manage all the information they could gather, from witnesses, testimonies, to even deep search squadrons in the vicinity around Ponyville,  they couldn't ignore the indirect pressure put unto them by their princess of the sun, who would react very harshly whenever her faithful student was mentioned and, everyday that passed without any new knowledge regarding her whereabouts, was another day where everything around Princess Celestia would get hotter and hotter as much as she tried to remain calm and collected.

The other princesses weren't as bad, but they weren't fine by any mean. Princess Luna was very patient and careful in the investigations, but rumors said that she would get in a constant arguments with her sister regarding how to proceed once they could manage to find the elements, and Princess Cadence was probably an emotional train wreck, as she was imagining her beloved sister in law to be suffering the same tortures she suffered under Chrysalis. Shining Armor had very hard moments trying to calm Cadence.

Speaking of which...

Some would argue that the one more collected and efficient was the General Shining Armor, since he was making sure that no false lead filtered on the search and that a proper investigation was being made, but anyone who looked at his eyes and knew him well enough would tell how worried he was about the current predicament.

All this tension was something that would've created a chaos among the equestrian society, had the disappearance lasted a month or so but, thankfully, something was found by the third week of investigations, and that something was exactly what was needed to find the Elements of Harmony.

Which is why we shouldn't be surprised to find the top heads of the equestrian government, compromised of Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence, General Shining Armor along the heads of the Royal Guard discussing the current lead.

"Let me see if I understand this, General Shining Armor" -. Said an impatient Princess Celestia. - "Your current lead is a solitary pony that frequents the White Tail Woods?" - After seeing him nodding, she continued. - "Please explain yourself, my sister would like to hear this well."

The General of the Royal Guard took a better look at what was researched so far, and proceeded.

"Right, your Highness. After the disappearance of the Elements of Harmony was done, and we were informed by the dragon Spike through his flame mail, we went to investigate the events prior to the banishment of the many ponies taken away in Ponyville, around thirty, and we managed to gather that they were all gathered in a party to celebrate the coming of a new pony who was visiting the place, said pony was among those who disappeared in Ponyville.

It took us a while to gather the intelligence, but, after days of asking in the surrounding towns if they've seen any of the missing ponies, we managed to find a link. The one pony everypony managed to see, was a pony that fitted the characteristics of the pony that visited Ponyville before the innocent civilians went missing."

Shining Armor then passed a series of drawings to the princesses, which showed the rough sketch of a very young mare, with a brown coat and black mane moving around the shops and cities.

"This pony, who isn't know by anypony we've ever met, has been moving through many towns in Equestria but she never takes a train or any common system of transportation, in fact, it was hard to detect when she was entering or leaving a town" -. This brought the attention of Princess Celestia but that wasn't all Shining found out about the mysterious pony. - "After a very through attempt of spying, we noticed a patter of her buying multiple cleaning tools, along with various types of teas, vitamins and other supplements that are good for health but not something that would managed to give you a healthy diet. In the end, after tracking her movements from town to town, we managed to find her leaving Canterlot and moving in the direction to the White Tail Woods.

After following her for a while, we managed to see that she was hiding inside a cave that we've been watching ever since, with only her moving in and out of the cave until a few days ago, where we managed to see the cave being visited by a changeling."

This brought the attention of all the princesses, who quickly looked at the drawings being shared by Shining and saw that she shared some features like Chrysalis, but her chitin was more bronze-like and her mane was also dyed on a different color.

"As you may have noticed, she follows the features of what, we know, belongs to a changeling like Chrysalis but we still don't know who she is or what is her connection with the already mentioned pony. As we're speaking, the cave it's still being watched and all we need is your approval to start operations to enter and see what we can find inside that cave."

Princess Celestia and Luna looked at each other for a while before looking at Cadence, after analyzing their personal emotional states, and a little conversation between them with very quiet voices, they made the order.

"General Shining Armor" -. Said Princess Celestia in a tone that showed complete authority on what was going to happen. - "Prepare your troops to move into that cave as you, Princess Luna and myself will go along with you while Princess Cadence will remain here to keep order, we'll inform you if we need reinforcements. Is that understood?"

Seeing no problem with it, Shining Armor accepted the order and started to mobilize his troops, no more than 50 well trained soldiers, along two princesses and himself. Completely ready to storm in there and fight any changeling and any queen they could encounter.

It took them a while to mobilize such regiment but, in the end, they managed to reach the cave in Whitr Tail Woods, along the soldiers making the vigilance. It was close to night time, the sun quickly asking to its lady to move it so it could end its dance, and the soldiers were preparing themselves, to enter and charge against anything they could encounter in there, once the intelligence confirmed them that the mare in question was inside.

Celestia was eager to save her faithful student, she could still remember her failure at the wedding and how Cadence remained as Chrysalis' prisoner for an unforgivable amount of time. She would not repeat that mistake again, she would rescue Twilight, the elements and all the inhabitants of Ponyville kidnapped, showing the changelings that Equestria was a kingdom with a monarch ready to defend its citizens from any threat.

As the moon started to rise and begun its proper dance, the princess of the sun, followed by the princess of the night, entered into the cave, expecting the worse to face them. As they got closer to the cave, they could see how the entrance was very well cared, not a single spider web, moss was lacking and the rocks were carved as if to make traversing through there easy. It was clear that, whoever was behind this was preparing this cave to inhabit many drones ready to mobilize, but they needed to be careful before making any rushed assertion. They were yet to find its queen and soldiers.

Luna started to use her magic to detect any type of spells surrounding the cave's entrance but, to her surprise, she found none. Celestia used her magic to see how many entities she could detect and, to her surprise, she found almost none. As the princesses got around their bafflement, they gave the order so Shining Armor and a small squadron could enter into the cave. The squadron quickly covered the right places, and prepared for the assault, as the ladies of the night and day entered the cave to search for their ponies.

Once Celestia entered into the cave, she noticed that it begun dark, impossible to see without a light spell but, the more inti the cave they got, the more they would notice a small, bluish light, starting to illuminate the cave, probably from the moss, and its intensity grew the deeper they went.

As they went by, Luna took notice of the glow and saw how it was moving in very specific patterns. From specific lines on ethe well, pointing towards one direction, to the roof with unnatural amounts of moss; this was clearly showing that the light was magically generated to create a natural light for those who entered.

That was worrying, if the cave reacted to any visitors, then the one residing in there was very likely realizing that there were intruders in the cave. They had to move quickly and, that, they did by increasing their pace inside of the mysterious cave. Only 50mt inside and 10mt down traversed in less than 10 minutes but that felt like an eternity for the equestrians, hoping to be able to defeat whatever kind of army was waiting for them.

In a matter of seconds, they found something that was so normal but, seeing it here, it felt so odd that they wondered what was the intention behind it: a wooden door.

As the door was analyzed, having no spell in it, they noticed that it was well carved, being decorated with a changeling in the lower part but having an unknown, large, changeling queen in the upper side, with a golden like knob to open, no key needed, said door.

It didn't take the princesses too much time to enter but, once again, what they found was baffling; for they found no army, no complex labyrinth or anything of the sort. Instead, all they found was what, to any normal eye, would look like a very normal house with a normal table in what could be considered the dining room with four chairs surrounding the table. A small stove that was boiling a tea kettle, three doors in each wall and some paintings decorated with nice viewpoints of Equestria, such as Canterlot's mountain, the White Tail Woods, the Celestial Sea, among others.

Princess Celestia looked at her sister, both of them trying to find a solution for this riddle but having no answer in there. They decided to move carefully around the house and hoping that their intrusion wasn't noticed yet. 

Celestia went to a door to the right and opened it, just to find a closet holding a broom and other cleaning items, much to her chagrin. Luna went to a door on the left and only found very fine pottery, after taking a closer look to it she noticed that this was pottery made centuries ago. Both princesses closed their respective doors and went to the middle door, all of this time being followed by Shining Armor and his soldiers, and saw that it lead to a long hallway that went quite far away and there were multiple doors on each side of the hallway.

All the ponies in there decided to repeat the previous pattern, opening each door after scanning them and check if they had a trap of some sorts. The first doors were simple ones, a couple bedrooms, a bathroom, etc. But the fifth door to the left was the one that contained what Celestia was searching for, a large room containing multiple ponies encapsulated inside purple cocoons.

When Celestia saw this, she felt both anger at the monster that held captive her little ponies, and relief for finally being able to rescue them. She quickly moved to the first cocoon on the first row and saw Twilight Sparkle sleeping peacefully, as if nothing wrong was happening, with her friends being trapped in other cocoons beside her.

It didn't take the equestrians too much time to begin cracking the cocoons, releasing the ponies and waking them up. They started by coughing and releasing the mysterious wax inside their lungs. Their coats were sticky although the wax was easy to remove. The guards were entering into the room, releasing the other ponies, with Shining Armor staying close to his little sister when, without notice, they heard the door opening once more and saw, to their shock, the young mare of brown coat and black mane described by Shining Armor looking at them as if she had been found out.

How long they were looking at each other was a mystery in itself but the first one in reacting was the young mare, who quickly shut down the door and started to ran away as princess Celestia, followed by Luna, gave chase against her. It wasn't a hard chase, they got to the small room with the kettle already boiling and demanding to be fed with a herb of some kind to make delicious tea.

Once they got into that room, Celestia quickly used her telekinesis to lock the door and, with the help of her sister, cornered the mysterious mare, who looked more like a terrified foal than a dangerous criminal who kidnapped a sizable part of Ponyville. Celestia wasn't going to be fooled by her appearance or her sobs and talked to her with the same tone and determination she had back then when she faced Chrysalis.

"You've been cornered, reveal yourself, changeling, and face the consequences of your actions!" 

The young mare looked at Celestia for a brief second before closing her eyes in fear, flames surrounding her body, and reveal her true form, a shining white changeling queen with a forming crown and her slit eyes starting to form. Celestia almost gasped at the realization that, she, was probably going to interrogate a queen going through puberty, but she wouldn't falter, after all, she may be acting.

"Now, tell me who you are and why you captured so many ponies!" - She said with her imposing figure and powerful tone of voice, very close to hit the levels of the Canterlot Voice.

The queen faltered, she looked as if she wasn't sure if it was a good idea to reveal the information but, as Luna and Shining Armor surrounded her, it looked like she had no other option.

"My name is Queen Diamantis" -. She said in her pubescent voice, clearly showing how young she were, as her eyes were trying to find a way out. - "I came here to Ponyville to form a new hive for myself, so I captured the ponies to add them into my ranks."

Celestia felt anger raising on her but Luna caught her up in that moment by speaking first with a commanding tone of voice.

"You dare to come here and take ponies for yourself!? Who are you to decide which ponies you can take and which not? They're individuals with personal lives, you cannot take them away and add them to your hive!"

That reminded them of something important.

"Where are the rest of your changelings?" - Said Celestia in a careful tone. - "Order them to surrender or else we cannot guarantee their safety."

Diamantis looked at the princesses with worry and, for some reason, she started to blush before revealing more information, although in a very low tone of voice.

"I have no more drones, I'm all by myself."

For a brief moment, the royals surrounding her went in shock, but they quickly recovered, with Shining Armor being the first one to respond.

"Impossible, you're never alone. Where are the rest of changelings under your command!?"

His voice was stalwart and hid no emotion but the queen's rebuttal made it very clear for them that there was more in this story than they thought.

"I have no more drones! I... left my hive alone, I'm too young to birth drones, I wasn't trained to be a queen..." - she then blushed. - "I haven't even found a mate yet. My plan was to make those equestrians into part of my hive so I could start right now instead of waiting until I had the proper age to mate."

Celestia was now looking at her sister with the same question going through their faces, why was this young queen acting so brashly? 

"Why then?" - Asked Celestia, worry starting to enter into her voice. - "Why did you run from your hive now instead of waiting? Did you not realize how bad of an idea this was?"

The queen's sudden outburst threw them all around a loop as she screamed with desperation in her voice and tears starting to for in her eyes.

"Of course I know! Do you really think I wanted to leave behind my beloved mother!? No! I wanted to stay with her in our hive until I was in the age to properly rule! I wanted none of this! I've never been in touch with equestrians! I've never been outside of my hive's territory for that matter! I was forced to leave her! I was forced to make a new hive! I am forced to take ponies or else I won't be recognized as a queen and now I have to do all of this for them!"

In that moment, her eyes widen, as if she had just revealed something that shouldn't have been said. Celestia quickly realized this and acted upon this.

"Who forced you to leave? What happened to your mother? Why you won't be recognized unless you kidnap ponies? Who told you to come here and kidnap our little ponies as if you were the ruler of this land?"

Diamantis looked at Princess Celestia with extreme doubt in her eyes, it was as if she was a pawn and saying too much would mean her death. Celestia wasn't sure what was going on right now, but she was aware that they were all entering into something bigger and she was going to pressure her as needed as possible to find out who were the threats against Equestria.

Surprisingly though, it wasn't Diamantis who spoke next, neither it was Princess Luna or Shining Armor. The next voice speaking was a foreign one, female, with an almost dry tone but that hid away an emotional storm, it felt confident and ready for whatever it would come and the fact that it was coming from the door leading outside the cave, followed with her response, started to send bad vibes to Celestia.

"Well, while I cannot answer for the first three questions, I certainly can answer the last one."

The princesses turned around and saw another two changeling queens, the one in the back held a bronze carapace, fitting of what the reports said but the one in front was the one worrying Celestia. She had a dark blue carapace, a bluish like mane, sapphires in her crown and aquamarine eyes but the one thing that worried Celestia were the many scars surrounding her body, specially the big one on her left hind leg, a clear testament of how many battles she has faced, and her eyes were showing that she was ready to fight, should she needed to.

In that moment, Queen Diamantis's tone of voice quickly changed from a saddening rage to a scared worrying.

"Queen Valeris!" - She then knelt her head as she tried to quaver her voice and avoid, what Celestia thought was, potential murder. - "My apologies for not being able to receive you properly, I was trying to prepare things for your coming and please forgive me! I tried to keep all of this a secret!"

The blue queen Valeris remained stoic, as if nothing wrong has happened, with her eyes looking around the environment, as if she was assessing the situation first and foremost. Meanwhile, Diamantis looked behind Valeris and noticed the other queen behind her, her tone of voice now almost sounding panicking.

"Queen Fortis! My apologies for not greeting you as well! I was too worried with other problems that were taken away my concentration in your coming! I swear I was...!"

She was then interrupted by the bronze queen, who quickly dissipated her worries in her homely tone of voice which quickly made everything in Diamantis calm down.

"Do not worry, little one, I understand and I wasn't aware of the Royal Guard watching us either. I've talked with Valeris and, once this is all fixed, we'll discuss a bit more about this to tell you what's your next step to follow, alright?"

Diamantis looked at Fortis with hopes in her eyes and quickly nodded as she started to clear her eyes, details that both princesses were taking note off. As silence was taking over the small room, with the guards in the hallway already noticing the other two changeling queens, and the Elements of Harmony starting to get closer to them, as Queen Valeris was still looking around. Celestia realized that she may now be talking to a changeling of a higher position, quickly making her engage the queens as she originally planned with Diamantis.

"My name is Princess Celestia, I demand to know who are you and why you ordered this young queen to abandon her mother and foalnap the ponies in Ponyville."

The dark blue queen then looked at her, as if she didn't notice her before, and started to scrutinize her body with her sight. She then followed to do the same thing with her sister, her Captain of the Royal Guard, the Elements of Harmony, who already entered into the room, and her fellow queens. Her silence was ominous and Celestia was already wondering what was going to happen when, suddenly, the queen finally spoke.

"Diamantis" -. Her tone of voice was neutral but showing cautiousness. - "Could you please prepare a room for Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Queen Fortis and myself?" - This little demand took everybody in the room, the queens included, by surprise. - "I would like to speak to the Equestrian royalty in private in regards to the events transpiring right now, including the creation of your hive along your new drones."

Once again, everybody went in shock, Diamantis being the first one asking.

"My hive? But the equestrians have removed them from the transforming wax, how am I going to create a new hive for myself now?"

The ponies weren't sure what was more disturbing though, the fact that at least thirty ponies were trapped inside a cocoon designed to transform them into changelings or the fact that Valeris was acting as if all of this were normal.

"Those concerns are one of the reasons why we must prioritize the conversation with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Once the conversations are done, both me and Fortis will tell you what you should do next."

Now it was Princess Luna who went in rage, quickly stepping in front of Queen Valeris, and demanded an answer from her.

"And who are you to act as if this was your land? You have no right to act here neither to tell who this individuals belong to. At the very least they belong to both me and my sister for they are our subjects. What is your response to that?"

The scarred queen remained stoic, with a few signs of anger crossing through her eyes, and her response was just as calmed.

"I am Queen Valeris, ruler of Hive Hidroxia and I've come here to fix the problems surrounding Queen Diamantis, who is under the protection of Queen Fortis, in the regards of her banishment from her mother's hive and her need to form a new hive. As of now, all I'm trying to do is to fix this situation through the use of words instead of a meaningless fight, unless you think that two princesses, one captain of the royal guard, a bunch of soldiers and six elements of harmony can defeat unscathed three Changeling Queens."

The ponies were shocked at her response, for it was logical. Why to fight if we could solve this through words? Besides, who knew how much damage would come from engaging into a fight inside this small cave, with multiple innocent civilians right behind them. Besides, if those scars meant anything, it was quite clear Valeris has seen more fights than she may admit.

"And what sign can you bring us that you won't betray us?" - Said the Captain of the Royal Guard as the Elements were starting to catch up with what was going on. Valeris' response, though, remained as a sign of who were they dealing with and how important this talking was. - "Your sign is in the guards you left behind, you can check on them and see that no injury has been brought into their bodies."

Quickly realizing her intentions, Shining Armor sent a couple soldiers to check on the garrison left behind and, after waiting for a while, the soldiers returned telling how all the soldiers were unconscious but fine. At the very least they were just suffering from the effects of a sleeping spell.

And, with all of that said, the young queen Diamantis moved inside the cave and started to prepare a room for this new meeting.

In the meantime, the princesses were now seeing back their beloved ponies, happy to see them back. Ignoring the small chat being made by the two changeling queens.

"My faithful student, I'm so glad to see you back" -. Said Celestia with a warmth tone of voice as she heard the response from the student that was like a daughter to her. - "Me too, princess. I'm sorry for falling on that trap, I promise I won't fall again."

As she said this, Celestia noticed, her eyes started to have a slightly blue tone before going back to normal. Something that Celestia grew very worried about, although she wouldn't show it.

"Do not worry my faithful student, you went through something that I wouldn't wish on anypony" -. In that moment, Diamantis came back with the news of their meeting room being already done, making the Changeling Queens quickly moving to the room, with Valeris whispering something into Diamantis' ears which made her smile promptly as she took the queens to their room, quickly glancing back at the princesses and asking them to follow her. This made Celestia understand the time was up. - "And now, if you excuse me, I'm going to get into the bottom of this."

With that said, the princesses of Equestria decided to follow the young queen into the room where they were about to encounter a pivotal conversation of the likes they haven't faced in centuries.