Inside the dining hall sat seven mares around a large dining table. At the one end was Princess Twilight Sparkle, newest of the four alicorns of Equestria and the proclaimed "Princess of Friendship". With her at the moment were her five friends who made up the Element Bearers, ponies who were tasked to bear the Elements of Harmony, artifacts that were responsible for maintaining order in their world, and in desperate times, could be used as a weapon to rid the world of whatever evil plagued it.
Also sitting with them was Starlight Glimmer, lilac unicorn that recently joined the group. She has once been the leader of a secluded village and a villain against the six. Now, she was learning the error of her ways and how to be friends with other ponies again.
The table the mares were seated at had a total of nine chairs, of which two were currently free. This chair was at the end of the table opposite Princess Twilight.
"What is taking her so long?" came the annoyed, raspy voice of Rainbow Dash complained.
"Calm yer wings down, sugarcube" spoke Applejack, her voice carrying an accent she shared with many other farm ponies. "I'm sure whatever is keepin' Princess Cadance is mighty important."
"Yeah Dashie!" came the rather excited voice of Pinkie Pie. "She'll be here soon!"
Rainbow Dash let out a huff as she slumped back into her chair and crossed her front hooves over her barrel, clearly displeased with having to wait on Princess Cadance and whatever duties she had to perform.
"You shouldn't be rude" Fluttershy's soft voice chided. "The princess invited us up here to thanks us for our help with the crystalling, so we should show our gratitude."
"I know, Fluttershy!" Rainbow said in exasperation. "You girls all know how bad I am with waiting!"
"Why Rainbow Dash!" came more chiding, this time coming from the very posh sounding voice of Rarity. "I simply cannot believe your behavior! Princess Cadance invites us to spend time here in the Crystal Empire, one of the most beautiful places in our whole world, and you begrudge her just because she is fulfilling her duties as a princess?"
"Well, no," Rainbow replies, a bit of shame in her voice, "but I..."
"Tut, tut, tut," Rarity scolds, "I do not wish to hear your excuses about being impatient. If Princess Cadance were here at this very moment, what do you think she would have to say about your behavior?"
Rainbow had no immediate answer, and after a few more moments, realized she could not put one together. Hanging her head, she offered apologies.
"I'm sorry everypony" she addressed the group. "I'm just so used to moving around all the time that I forget that sometimes I gotta sit still for more than a minute."
"It's okay" answered one of the last two mares in the room yet to speak. Princess Twilight Sparkle sat at one end of the large table with a worried look on her face. She attempted to follow along with the current conversation over Rainbow's impatience, but was distracted by the proverbial splinter in her mind. The only silent mare in the group picked up on it rather quickly.
"What's wrong, Twilight?" Starlight asked the princess. "You don't seem like you're too with it today."
Twilight looks to Starlight for a moment and then shakes her head. "Sorry" she tells her. "It's just that I have this feeling that something big has happened and nopony around here is saying anything."
Applejack, the mare with the southern accent, chimes in. "Nopony is sayin' anythang?"
"Yeah" Twilight answers Applejack, then turns to address Rarity. "Doesn't it seem weird to you that there isn't any gossip going around at all? Not even any comments about Flurry Heart?"
Rarity thinks on this for a moment before answering. "It is a bit strange," she admits, "but that doesn't mean something is wrong. Maybe dear Flurry was being pestered by reporter ponies and Princess Cadance has decided to keep her out of the spotlight?"
"That's possible," Twilight also concedes, "but that's not exactly what I'm talking about. I mean that there's no gossip at all. No news of my brother and his position as royal guard captain, no rumors of whether or not he and Cadance will attend the next Grand Galloping Gala, no criticisms about policies that Cadance may have enacted. There isn't even any discussion about something as simple as the weather!"
Fluttershy begins to look worried. "You don't think King Sombra came back, do you?"
"If he did, he would've revealed himself by now" Twilight answers. "Truth be told, I think it could be something else."
"I know you're gettin' some kind of awful feelin'," Applejack concedes, "but that don't mean anything bad happened. Let's just wait until Cadance gets here and then we can ask her about what the hay seems to be goin' on."
Twilight considers it for a moment and agrees. "Okay, we'll talk to her when she gets here."
"In the meantime," Pinkie interjects, "I think we should all have a snack!" The mare finishes the sentence by reaching into her mane and producing a platter of cupcakes with pink and blue frosting. Each mare takes a few cupcake and begins to chow down. As they finish their cupcakes, the door to the dining room opens and Princess Cadance walks in.
"I apologize for making you all wait" Cadance addresses the group. "I'm afraid I had a situation pop up that required my immediate attention."
"That's quite alright, your highness," Rarity chimed in, "and I must thank you for inviting all of us to come visit the Crystal Empire again so soon after the Crystalling."
"Yes, well," Cadance says with a blush, "let's hope this time you can all just enjoy yourselves and not have to worry about some event that could result in the destruction of the empire or Equestria as a whole."
As Cadance finishes the sentence, Pinkie gives her a stern look, then reaches into her mane and produces a block of wood, then taking her other hoof and striking it loudly three times before putting it back.
"Anyway," Cadance continues, "There is something I have to tell you, and I know for a fact that all of you are going to have, at best, a hard time believing it."
"And what is this hard to believe thing?" Rarity asked.
Cadance took a breath before she began speaking again. "A couple of days after the seven of you left for home from the Crystalling, a lone changeling showed up in the empire."
There were gasps all around the table. After the initial moment of shock, scowls adorned the faces of six of the mares, their memories of the changelings during the royal wedding fresh in their minds again. Starlight, having only second hoof knowledge of them, wore only a concerned look. Cadance continued speaking.
"Yes, I know. The appearance of a changeling in our empire had put us on edge and fearful of another attack. Neither my husband or myself wanted a repeat of what happened during our wedding. However, this changeling wasn't discovered or revealed because of a failed disguise. He approached the empire without a disguise and surrendered to the guards."
That remark earned puzzled looks from all seven mares. Twilight took the moment to question her sister in law. "You're telling me that a lone changeling came here to the Crystal Empire without disguise and surrendered. Why?"
"Well, it's kind of complicated" Cadance admits. "He requested an audience with us, which we agreed to, more out of morbid curiosity than an actual desire to speak with him. During that audience, however, he made a plea for us to allow him to stay here and learn about friendship."
"Y'all let him stay so he could learn about friendship?" Applejack questioned.
Cadance nodded. "We were suspicious at first, but then he told us something that neither Shining or I expected."
"What was that?" Twilight then asked.
Cadance took a breath before explaining. "He said that he saw all six of you. It was during the invasion in Canterlot."
All six mares gasped upon hearing that revelation. Starlight didn't react as strongly, but did look a bit concerned by the others reactions. Cadance continued.
"I know what all of you are thinking, but he didn't want any part of that-"
"Then why was he there?!" Rainbow Dash interrupted, greatly upset by the new revelation.
"According to him," Cadance continues, "changelings don't have much choice when it comes to orders from the queen. She told him to go to Canterlot, so he had to go."
"And do what exactly?!" Twilight called out. "Fight the guards?! Destroy buildings?! Prey on the innocent?!"
"He hasn't done anything like that" Cadance answered calmly. "In fact, he kept commenting on how wonderful he thought the city was and how he thought everything his queen had told him about ponies was wrong."
That remark had caught Twilight off guard. "Really?"
"Yes, really" Cadance confirmed. "He liked Canterlot and didn't want to harm the city or the ponies there, but trying to fight back against his swarm would've ended with him having to endure the queen's wrath, so he did the only thing he really could and stayed out of the fighting."
"It was while he was avoid the conflict that he saw all six of you as you were attempting to get the elements from the vault. Apparently you got into a big tussle in a plaza somewhere near the vault?"
"We did" Twilight answered. "I can't remember ever being so scared before. When they bombarded the city and surrounded us, I wasn't sure whether or not we'd escape the scuffle, but we did, and then we ended up captured anyways."
"Well, he was just as scared. Seeing everything that was happening and not having any real way of intervening had upset him. That's why he swore that from that day forward, he would find a better way."
"A better way to what?" Rainbow said sarcastically. "Feed on us?"
Cadance didn't say anything for a moment. While she didn't like the attitude being expressed, it wasn't without reason. At the end of the day, changelings still fed on the emotions of ponies, and that wasn't a thought ponies were comfortable with.
"I will concede that Thorax was led here to the Crystal Empire by his instincts to feed, but since he has been here, he's done everything he can to demonstrate the sincerity of his words about wanting friendship." Cadance then turns to Twilight and tells her something she wasn't expecting. "Twilight, your own brother has even looked past his own misconceptions and conceded that he doesn't think of Thorax as an enemy anymore."
"What?" Twilight says in shock, most certainly not expecting to hear that her brother was okay with a changeling living with him.
"Yes, but getting back on topic, the changeling's request to stay here wasn't granted without there being certain... caveats" Cadance responds, then produces a small piece of metal. It's hexagonal in shape, and one side features an emblem of a small insect shrouded in flame, and the other side blank.
"He wasn't allowed to leave the castle until recently" Cadance continues. "That was because we were developing this. It's an ID badge that's magically bound to him. He cannot have his taken and used by another changeling; it would cause them great pain and the guard checking it would know it wasn't him."
"Wait!" Twilight interjects. "You're letting him walk free around the empire?!"
"He is still under the supervision of a guard, but we no longer consider it necessary to restrict his movements" Cadance explains. "Besides, having allowed him to do so has given him the chance to actually make friends with the ponies here in the Crystal Empire."
"He's actually made friends?" Rarity says with surprise in her voice.
Cadance nods. "Admittedly, most in the empire were suspicious of him, especially on account of what they learned happened at our wedding, but they've slowly been warming up to him. I would say that there aren't many ponies in the empire that either distrust him or outright hate him because of what he is."
"To get back to the topic at hoof, he believes that friendship is the answer to the problems changelings face, and seeing all of you working together in that fight inspired him to go against the wishes of his queen. I can understand if you aren't comfortable with this idea, but this changeling looks up to all of you and, well, he'd like to meet all of you."
Twilight and her six friends were silent as they reflected on what they were told. A changeling drone, motivated by watching them fight during the attempted takeover of Equestria, was motivated to pursue friendship and harmony as a way to solve the problems plaguing his people, wished to meet them because he saw them as his personal heroes.
"Cadance," Twilight finally speaks, "could we have a moment to discuss this among ourselves, please?"
The princess looks at Twilight for a moment and gives a nod. "Of course" she responds. "I'll just be outside. Let me know when you've all made a decision." With that said, she stands up and leaves the dining hall.