When the story was over, Cadence told Double she could leave.
Double went back to her duties. She tended the grubs. She instructed guards in how to restrain changeling prisoners. At night, she slept alone in her dungeon cell. The jailor didn’t bother locking the door anymore, but she declined his offer of a bed.
If there were any repercussions of her dalliance with Princess Cadence, she didn’t see them. Nopony treated her any differently, and when she passed Shining Armor in the hall several days later, he acknowledged her politely but didn’t stop to talk.
Three weeks passed this way.
Then, one morning, as Double walked toward the grubs' nursery, she saw that the castle was being prepared for guests. Crystal ponies were cleaning the windows, polishing the halls, and putting fresh candles the sconces. And when she arrived at the nursery up the hall, the grubs weren’t there.
A servant directed her to the royal suite.
There, Double found Cadence playing with the grubs—with the help of a few servants. “Is their drool supposed to burn?” she was asking, just as Double walked in.
“Yes. It’s acidic,” Double said. “I know it doesn’t burn that bad, but don’t ignore it or the hairs on your leg will fall off like Shining’s did.”
“Good to know.” Cadence handed the grub she was playing with off to one of the crystal ponies, and then took a cloth to wipe the drool off her leg. “I’ve made my decision about what to do with them. I thought you’d want to know. I’ll be keeping them.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No,” Cadence lifted a hoof. “No, actually, don’t be. Shining and I had a few long talks, and I think this is a good thing.”
She needed a moment to find her words, mulling them over as she wiped away the last of the drool. “We’ll be keeping one with us—Cheval. Shining and I do want Flurry to grow up with siblings if she can. It’ll be good for her to have a sister. The other five will be adopted by crystal pony families of note.”
“That’s… different. From how you felt before.” Double’s wings buzzed, and she tilted her head to one side. “What made you change your mind?”
“Shining, and I and the general staff were having a long talk about the war. About the facts, and your story. And we were trying to decide what we learned—what’s the lesson, so that this never happens again.”
Finishing with the rag, Cadence lifted her head to Double. “One officer said, the lesson is the importance of air support. Once the changelings had control over the sky, we were finished. Another officer said, the lesson is the importance of counter-intelligence. The infiltrator caste ran rings around us. If we’d been able to prevent your sabotage, we would have won.”
With a hoof, she gestured back at the bedroom. “Shining said that the lesson was that we needed closer integration with Equestria. More unicorns, more pegasi, that our forces are too crystal-pony heavy. It makes them susceptible to spells or powers that crystal ponies can’t counteract.”
Double’s eyes narrowed. “This sounds like a discussion you would have had some time ago.”
“We did. We had it after the war. But I am their princess, so I decided we were going to have it again. Because I didn’t like any of those answers. I came up with a different one.” She pointed at Double with a hoof. “I said, the lesson is that you understood us, and we didn’t understand you. You knew our weaknesses, and we didn’t know yours.”
“The weaknesses of changelings in combat have already been extensively documented.” Double’s ears folded back, and her tone turned wary. “Shapeshifting consumes enough magical energy that we’re susceptible to exhaustion. We can’t wear armor easily. Things like that.”
“Your weakness has nothing to do with combat. Ours didn’t either. Our weakness was overconfidence. We believed we could defeat you without assistance, and let ourselves be lured into a trap.” Cadence let out a long breath. “Your weakness is that Queen Amaryllis doesn’t understand that you’re people.”
Double didn’t say anything, and so Cadence went on. “You’re slavishly loyal. Nearly always, she can trust you to obey her every whim. But in any situation where you have your own desires, your own needs, she trips over her own hooves. She couldn’t stop her hive from reforming under her. She didn’t know why saying ‘sorry’ like she did would hurt. And she didn’t understand why we’d react badly to children being given as gifts.”
Double snorted. “If you’re planning to foment a rebellion, I don’t see that going well for you.”
“I’m not. I’m planning to accede to her demands, to adopt little Cheval as my daughter, and to keep the other five around the palace.” Cadence picked Cheval up off the floor with her magic. The grub chittered as Cadence stroked its back. “Because I think Amaryllis believes that this little grub will grow up to be her unquestioning servant. That she’s a sleeper agent, and in twenty years she’ll give the hive an indirect claim to the throne.”
“It’s a good plan.” Double shrugged.
“No,” Cadence said softly. “It isn’t. Because Cheval is going to grow up with parents who love her, in a home where she doesn’t have to fight to survive, where she can learn and explore the world and think for herself.”
Placing the grub on the floor, Cadence nudged her towards a collection of blocks. “I even changed my mind about her university plan. I said I’d help her. I’ll give her all the support she wants. So every changeling can read and write and understand the broader world. A world where Amaryllis isn’t the beginning and the end and the center.”
“If you think that will break up the hive, you’re a fool,” Double snapped. “The idea that education defeats tyranny is the fantasy of cowards. She will always be their queen.”
“I know she will.” Cadence smiled gently. “But they won’t be like you. They won’t know or remember the life you had. You’ll be the last generation of your kind. The last infiltrators.”
Double stood in silence for several long seconds. She stared at Cadence unblinking.
“Good,” she said.
“And I have some things for you.” Cadence gestured, and a servant brought her a box. Opening it revealed three scrolls. Cadence levitated out the first one, and placed it at Double’s hooves. “This is a blanket pardon, for any acts you committed prior to your reformation. I know it hurts to talk, but I want you to be able to talk with others about what happened. Ponies or your own kind.”
“It’s a piece of paper,” Double muttered.
“Mmmhmm.” Cadence produced the second scroll, and laid it next to the first. “This is a pardon specifically for the acts you committed while assisting Light’s vandalism, including assault. I’m not giving you another one of these. Assault another guard and you’re going to jail.”
“Generous.”
Cadence removed the third and final scroll from the box, and placed it with the others. “This is part of a number of letters I exchanged with Amaryllis. In it, she agrees to do me a favor in return for our ongoing cooperation.”
“Is this the letter where you asked her to summon me?”
“No.” Cadence pursed her lips. “This is the letter where I ask her to release you from your oath of loyalty. She agrees she will, the next time she visits. Of course, she doesn’t have to. If you don’t want that.”
Double stared down at the third scroll. She let out a bark that was almost a laugh, and her wings buzzed violently against her sides. “Is this a joke?” she demanded. “I’m an infiltrator. I’ll always be an infiltrator. I can’t be released from that oath.”
“Mmmm.” Cadence brushed back her mane. “After you left the hive, you could have gone anywhere in the world. Why go to art school, of all places?”
Double sneered. “Art students are easy.”
Cadence ignored the barb. “I asked Light about your work. She said you heavily favored landscapes. Specifically, she said you have a... serene style. Beautiful fields, quiet towns, gentle forests. She said it was a joy to watch you paint, and that your work felt like a place a pony could fall asleep. Like a dream.”
Double said nothing.
“The reason Amaryllis’s offer is in writing is so you can claim it later. It doesn’t expire. If you’re not ready now, keep it, and come back to me if you feel differently.” Cadence passed the empty box over to Double, giving her something to carry the scrolls inside. “I’m not kicking you out of the palace. You can stay here as long as you want. I am kicking you out of your cell. You’d make a gifted servant or courtier, but I won’t have you as a prisoner.”
“This is a mistake,” Double said, her voice tight. “You’re being too generous. We’ve had a handful of conversations, and you’re overlooking dozens of murders.”
“I’m not overlooking anything.” Cadence shook her head. “But since this whole affair started, it seemed like every time I showed mercy, I came to regret it. I felt like I was trapped. Helpless. And the reason I was helpless was I didn’t have the strength to be merciless. I thought that being a good pony made me weak.”
A new smile appeared on her face as she said, “And that was foolish. Goodness is what makes Equestria strong. It’s what made me an alicorn. I’ve made many, many mistakes as a ruler, but showing kindness wasn’t one of them.”
“And what about…” She stared at the floor. “You and Shining?”
“What about us? Our marriage was never in danger. We were both extremely stressed, and jealous, and angry. But I know he loves me and I know I love him.” She chuckled. “He’ll be standing down as the head of our armed forces. To focus full time on his role as a diplomat. It was his idea.”
“Who’s replacing him?”
“A crystal pony named Harmony Shield. But Pharynx will be advising us heavily.” She shrugged. “I talked to Thorax, and I think the changelings might be better at war than us.”
“And…” Double raised her head. “That’s it? There’s nothing… else?”
“There’s always something else. But for now at least, it really is that simple.” Cadence’s smile brightened. “Would you stay? At least for a while. I need to learn how to care for Cheval myself, if you won’t be around.”
“I’ll…” Double needed a few seconds to find her thoughts. Then, she nodded. “I’ll stay for a little while, at least. But I think I want to go back to Canterlot. If I can. I don’t like the Crystal Empire. Too many places that I know bodies are buried.”
“Okay.” Cadence nodded slowly. “Will you be okay in Canterlot? Do you have somewhere to go?”
Double knocked three times on Light’s door. When it swung open, Double stood reared on her hind legs, forelegs spread wide for a hug. “Hey, roomie.”
“What the…” Light pulled back, momentarily staggered. A kaleidoscope of emotions rushed across her face in quick succession: shock, happiness, uncertainty and anger. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Well, I can smell that you’re over me. No more lingering unhealthy attachment. So, you know,” she poked Light with a hoof, “I thought I’d come back and hang around.”
“You can’t just,” Light’s face twisted up into a mask of outrage. “You can’t just leave me crying in the street and then waltz back into my life like nothing happened.” Her voice rose to a shout. “And what are you doing in your natural form? I thought there was a warrant for your arrest.”
“Oh, yeah.” Double gestured back at her saddlebags. “I got that taken care of. Cadence gave me a full royal pardon.”
Light’s jaw moved without sound. For a few moments, she was so angry she actually struggled to form words. Incredulous, she finally asked: “How’d you manage that?”
“Well…” Double thought it over, tapping her chin in a theatrical fashion. “It’s a long story, but the short version is: I slept with her.”
Light’s scream of outrage echoed far through the halls of the dorm, and she slammed the door in Double’s face.