//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Interview with a Changeling // by Obsidian Ink //------------------------------// Celestia, her niece and her nephew sat in a half circle in her study as the servants were busy repairing the bookshelf, and performing damage control on Celestia's books and personal belongings. Maxillus, still stunned from being walloped by Blueblood's spell, sat out in the hallway under guard, still in his newly revealed true form. Cadence was almost shaking as she spoke. “Aunt Celestia... what's going on? You said he was here to make peace, and then...” “I'm sorry about all this Cadence, I should have made sure you knew about this. I know it's a shock, but we're trying to make thing better.” Celestia said, stroking Cadence's back with her wing. “Auntie Celestia, I know you're about harmony and all that but if what I’m hearing is right our little changeling friend has been wearing a disguise since he showed up! That he was making himself look like another changeling is bizarre, but still highly suspect.” Blueblood said. “I know what it seems like, nephew, but this opportunity is too great to be destroyed so easily.” Celestia said, standing up to her full height, and walking out the door. “Auntie, you can't be serious! He's been lying since he got here!” Blueblood exclaimed. Celestia shot a look back at him that made him close his mouth with a snap, and then gulp. Celestia sighed. “He appeared as a changeling to us from the moment he appeared at our gates. Now, he appears to be a slightly different kind of changeling. If he was trying to be subversive, it's not much of a disguise, Nephew. I will hear from him an explanation before I decide.” Tentatively, Cadence got to her hooves and followed her aunt. Shaking his head, Blueblood followed as well. The Guards nodded as Celestia approached, and stepped aside at a gesture from her wings. “Maxillus.” Celestia said. The Changeling lifted his orange maned head to look up at her from where he lay on the marble floor. “You have my apologies for my Nephew's unwarranted attack on you, he was merely reacting to his cousin's scream.” “I understand, your majesty.” Maxillus said, nodding his head. “However.. there remains the matter of your... transformation.” Celestia continued, and Maxillus averted his eyes. “Please explain why you appeared to us as a different form of changeling than you truly are.” The changeling sighed. “When one hive sends a delegation to another, and are visiting a stronger hive, the delegation always assumes the form of drones when within the territory of the greater power.” Celestia tilted her head. “Why, exactly?” “To appear less threatening.” “I thought one was more likely to win concessions from a stronger position in negotiations.” Blueblood commented. “If we are on equal footing, we show our strength, if we know one of us is definitively in the weaker position, we appease by taking a more harmless form. You ponies have a spell that can destroy us, if you wished. You are the stronger party, so I came as a drone, and not... as you see me now.” Maxillus explained. Celestia nodded, then turned around to her niece and nephew. “There, you see? Just a cultural misunderstanding.” “Likely story.” Blueblood mumbled under his breath. Celestia shook her head. “More than you'd think. I've seen wars caused by one side not knowing the ways of the other. Like that little debacle recently down in Appleoosa.” Celestia explained. Blueblood snorted. “A land dispute is one thing, the buffalo made their grievance known and negotiations broke down. This thing's kind made an underhanded attack on us with no provocation whatsoever, and-” Cadence suddenly perked up. “Buffalo in Appleoosa? Wasn't Twilight down there when that happened?” Celestia nodded. “Indeed she was, she sent me a lovely friendship report detailing the importance of sharing, understanding and...” Celestia ground to a halt, her eyes going wide, before a smile creeped across her muzzle. “In any event, I have some thinking to do on this matter, and some experts to consult. Ambassador Maxillus, again I apologize but our meeting must be postponed. Guards,” She said, causing the pegasi in gold armor to snap to attention. “Please escort the ambassador back to his accommodations.” Maxillus got to his hooves a little shakily, but followed along with the guards as they began to move off back to the tower. “Oh, and Ambassador,” Celestia called after him. “Please refrain from disguising yourself in any way while you're here... it may be changeling etiquette, but it's not how ponies do things.” Maxillus glanced back and nodded. “I understand your majesty.” he said, before continuing on with his escort. Celestia watched the guards escort him off, then sighed. “Well, it looks like I have some extra work to do. I'll see you both later.” she said, nodding at her niece and nephew before teleporting off. “Celestia wait, I-!” Cadence said just a hair after her aunt was gone. “Cousin, are you alright?” Blueblood said, stepping up next to her. Cadence shook her head. “I'm sorry Bluey...” she said, using an old foalhood nickname. “I completely forgot, I came to ask Celestia where Shining was and never got to ask.” she chuckled, though there was little mirth in it. Blueblood smiled and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Well, then, as I think I need to speak with your husband as well, allow me to aid you, cousin.” Cadence blinked. “Really? Oh, thank you Blueblood, I really appreciate it.” “Oh, pish! It's nothing Cadence.” * * * * * Shining Armor, captain of the Canterlot guard, had spent most of the morning conked out in a borrowed bunk bed in the palace guard barracks. Now that he'd woken, and properly bathed, he was down in the guards mess hall having the first meal he'd had since dinner the previous evening. As he was working his way through a large lettuce, cheese and tomato hero, the door to the mostly empty mess hall opened, and in stepped two ponies he'd never expected to see down here. The Duke of Canterlot, and the princess of love, his wife. “Shining! There you are!” Cadence called out, her face perking up into a smile at the sight of him. She cantered over quickly, while Blueblood snorted, an indulgent smile on his face as he trotted over more sedately. “Oh, hey honey. What brings you down here?” Shining asked. “Looking for you, silly.” she said, then looked at the table before him. A bowl of salad, a bowl of Asparagus soup, and a huge sandwich levitating infront of his muzzle. “Hungry much?” “I kinda never got to have breakfast this morning.” he said, taking a bite. “Can we sit down?” Cadence asked. “Go right ahead.” Shining said, gesturing with a hoof. Cadence smiled and immediately sat down on the bench opposite her husband. Blueblood snorted, levitated a napkin over to wipe down a spot on the bench next to Cadence before he sat down himself. Shining rolled his eyes at that. Typical Blueblood, 'upper class' through and through. “So, we met your little changeling friend.” Blueblood said, just as Cadence was about to open her mouth. Shining froze in the middle of reaching to take another bite of his sandwich. “You did? When? I thought I gave my guards orders to keep him contained.” “It was during his meeting with Celestia-” Blueblood began. “It was my fault, Shining.” Cadence broke in. “I was looking for you, but couldn't find you, with the way you've been acting, and having to leave in the middle of the night last night I got worried, so I thought I’d ask My aunt. Only I wasn't expecting to find a changeling there with her, and then I screamed, and Celestia had to calm me down rather forcibly, and then-” “Wait, what? Are you okay Cadence, did he do anything to you?” Shining asked, suddenly highly concerned. “No, nothing. I just... was surprised to see a changeling, really. He was being a perfect gentle-stallion, but then...” Cadence trailed of and looked at Blueblood. The white unicorn stallion sighed. “I heard her scream and came 'charging in to the rescue'. Let that shape shifter have it too, with the old arcane horn burst.” Blueblood tapped his horn gently with a forehoof. “My teachers say I'm doing quite well with that combat spell.” Blueblood said. “You? You blasted him?” Shining asked, blinking incredulously. Blueblood using combat magic? That was one he never thought he'd hear. “Yes, well, after I knocked him into a bookcase, Aunt Celestia gave me a scolding. Thing is, my spell did more than just knock him about.” Blueblood leaned over the table. “Apparently, he's been shapeshifted since he got here.” “What!?” Shining snapped. “Oh, quite. Once we dug him out of the pile of books we could all see him for what he really was. Looked like a male version of Crysalis, Only about your height and build. Slitted, bright orange eyes, and long, dirty looking ragged orange hair. Ugh, so uncouth.” Blueblood sounded like he wanted to gag describing it. Shining stared forward blankly for a minute before he gritted his teeth. “That lying, scheming little-” “Shining, wait! It's not like that, he was just following some weird changeling formal protocol!” Cadence interrupted. “Protocol?” Shining asked, his head spinning by this point. “Something about the weaker party in negotiations appearing non-threatening physically, to reflect how non-threatening they are at the conference table. I don't know. After she heard his explanation, auntie Celestia called it a 'cultural misunderstanding'.” Blueblood said, waving a hoof dismissively. “Cultural misunderstanding...?” Shining said incredulously. “And she believed him!? He's been deceiving us since the instant he got here, he's revealed as a liar right infront of her, and she calls it a misunderstanding!” “Auntie Celestia is known to be highly... forgiving, Cousin-in-law.” Blueblood said. “Some of my own ancestors even have criticized her for being so.” Shining nodded, Luna's words the previous evening coming back to him. “Shining, please, there's no reason to suspect him. He's from a different species. We all work differently. We need to accept and tolerate our differences to work together.” Shining facehoofed. His beloved wife could be so infuriatingly naive sometimes. * * * * Luna flew through her beautiful night sky, the air was warm and smelled of spring, the stars twinkled and her moon shone full. But she only had eyes for the pegasus stallion who flitted before her. A marvel of his species, fully muscled and with great, broad wings, every feather a glossy raven black, matched by his gleaming coat as his hide moved over his glorious musculature, the stallion danced through the air before her, playing hard to get as Luna flew after him, the two of them laughing giddily as they danced through the air. Finally, after an interminable amount of teasing, the stallion allowed her to catch him, and she chased him to the ground, where they tussled and pranced about each other before coming in close to nuzzle at each others necks and drink in each others scent... * * * * Bang-bang-bang! The 'gentle' knock of a armored hoof on a wooden door ripped Luna from her favorite dream with all the subtlety of one of those new construction backhoes. “Uuuugh... what?” she called out. The door creaked open. “A thousand pardons, Your majesty.” one of her personal guard said, bowing. “But Captain Armor insists he must speak to you, urgently.” Luna sighed. “Send him in.” * * * * “A cultural misunderstanding! I can't believe her! Their true nature's staring her in the face and she lets him off the hook after a paper thin lie like that!” Shining ranted as he paced back and forth in front of Luna’s bed. The night princess sat up against her pillows, her thin summer blanket still covering her hind legs and waist. “Captain, calm thyself.” she said, frowning. “Why are thou so sure 'tis a lie?” “Oh not you too princess!” Shining snapped. “You weren't even there and you're taken in just the same as her!” “Neither were thou, captain, and I am not agreeing with either you or my sister.” Shining blinked. “You're not?” “No. I am remaining objective.” she said, fixing him with a hard look. “Thine problem is corroboration.” “Excuse me?” Shining said. “Surely thou knowest this word? 'Tis used in thine work regularly.” Luna said. Shining blushed. “Oh, yeah, sure... I just wasn't expecting....” Luna sighed. “Thou cannot know if Maxillus was telling the truth or not about this because culture is subjective. Thou need a reliable expert on changeling culture, of which, thou does not have available. Maxillus may be lying about why he was disguising his true form, or he may not. Thou cannot know.” Shining groaned. “So what am I supposed to do!? What if he starts doing... things like this, but keeps claiming it's 'his culture' or something!?” he snorted. “If this isn't actually 'culture' and he's just using that as a cover, he could get away with who knows what!” Luna snorted. “Captain, calm thyself. You may not have one available, but I have not exhausted all of mine own resources yet. I shall see what may be done.” Shining relaxed visibly as soon as she said that. “Thank you princess, that means a lot... heh, I guess I did kinda lose my cool.” “See you keep thine head temperate. Thou will need it, I should think. Now if that is all, thou should return to thine duties, captain. I must get back to sleep in what remains of my sister's day if I am to pursue this matter come sunset.” “Ah, right, sorry, princess Luna.” Shining bowed. “Tis alright, I am glad to be of assistance. 'Tis a trying time for all concerned.” she said, settling back under her covers. “Good day, captain.” “And to you, Princess.” He said, quietly exiting the room. As soon as he was out of the room one of the day guard came cantering up the hall and stopped before him, snapping a smart salute. “Sir, Princess Celestia would like to speak with you in the audience hall, sir!” Shining nodded. “I think I know what this is about. Thanks private.” * * * * “Ah! Shining Armor, there you are.” Celestia said as Shining entered. “Here as you requested, Princess.” Shining said, throwing a salute. “No need for that, Shining. You're a prince now, remember?” Celestia said with an indulgent smile. “Habit, your majesty.” Shining replied with a grin. Celestia giggled. “In any case, Shining, since we know next to nothing about changelings or their culture, and differences to ours are at the heart of the matters between us, I've decided to call in a specialist to study them as much as is possible with only one representative here. It's short notice, but I'd like you to be there at the train station to meet and escort her to the palace in two hours.” Shining bowed. “Of course, your majesty.” he said, which made Celestia smile and shake her head slightly. “Will there be anything else?” “No, that is all Captain. Thank you.” * * * * Spruced up and in full court plate, Shining stood with a quartet of pegasi flanking him in the canterlot train station as the train rolled in. “I really hope this 'expert' isn't some snooty old professor. Had to deal with enough of those back in college.” one of the privates commented. “Or some genius who thinks everypony else is some kind of dimwit. Escorted one of those once. Got on my nerves so bad I wanted to either smack them or gallop in the opposite direction.” another guard said. “Cut the chatter fellas.” Shining said as the train's passengers started to disembark. There was a long flow of the crowd as ponies got on and off the train. Families, business ponies, nobles on holiday. It was so mundane and normal that it actually started to soothe Shining's mind just to watch. He even smiled when he saw one a middleclass unicorn family with two young foals getting on the train with a picnic basket. Then he noticed a unidentifiable shape moving along inside one of the train cars, which materialized into a slowly plodding mass of books and bags that attempted to exit the car and got wedged in. “Oh come on... rrrrgh!” the mass strained and groaned before it burst through and spilled out of it's carrier's... claws? “Whoah!” With a crash and clatter, a load of books, bags, and other items went scattering across the platform... revealing a familiar purple baby dragon who'd tripped and fallen on his face and lost his luggage. “Spike!? What're you doing here?” Shining exclaimed. “Spike! I told you to be careful!” came a familiar feminine voice as a young purple unicorn mare emerged from the traincar. “Oh, hey Shining! Glad you could make it. I just got Celestia's letter and had to run to catch the train.” Shining Armor's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “TWILY!?”