//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Interview with a Changeling // by Obsidian Ink //------------------------------// Four o'clock in the afternoon, The shadows were already starting to grow longer in Canterlot. The darkness cast by the tall towers creeping over the land like long claws. The streets were filled with nobleponies on their way to cafes and house parties for tea. A quartet of rank and file guards, their saddlebags bulging out to their sides filled with what appeared to be large books, struggling to keep up with the prince-captain, Shining Armor. In between all of them, still carrying a moderatly sized stack of books, was a young purple and green dragon whelp. Shining Armor, with his sister, Twilight Sparkle headed up this procession. The young unicorn mare was speaking at him animatedly, drawing attention from everypony they passed on the streets, however, curiosity turned to concern when they saw the rather deep scowl Shining armor's face was set in. “... could practically do a thesis on this! Can you imagine? Professor Twilight Sparkle! I'd get to teach in a university!” Twilight said, giggling excitedly as she pranced along at Shining's side as he marched forward. “Uh-huh.” was Shining's only reply. “I mean, it'd fit perfectly with the work I've been doing in Ponyville. Did you know I finally categorized my friendship studies? It's sociology! Silly me, I read books on the subject for three years straight as Celestia's student and I don't recognize it for what it is when I'm in up to my eyeballs in 'friendship' research! Talk about being too close to the issue to see it.” “Uh-huh.” Shining replied again. “I seriously can't wait to sit down and talk to this ambassador! I mean I get to delve into a culture we've only just discovered actually exists, and isn't some ancient myth! I can't wait to meet him, seriously.” Twilight continued. “Uh-huh-wait WHAT!?” Shining exclaimed, coming to a sudden stop, eyes going wide as dinner plates. Twilight paused and looked back at him. “What's the matter Shining?” “I... I thought Celestia was just calling you here as an expert...” he said dumbly. “Well of course I'm the expert. I've collected every tidbit of data I could find from all over Equestria. Really stretched my stipend ordering this stuff in.” she said, nodding at the bulging saddlebags on the soldiers and the stack in Spike's arms. Shining glanced about, spotting an alleyway between a cafe and a boutique that looked pretty empty, he put one hoof around his sister's withers and dragged her along into it, gesturing briefly to his men to keep the entryway covered. “Hey! Shining, let go! Shining!” Twilight whined. Shining dragged her until they were pretty far into the alley, and things seemed quiet. Once he was satisfied no-pony could hear them, he let her go and rounded on her. “Geeze, what was that for?” Twilight said, shaking her mane out. “Twiley, sis, please, PLEASE tell me you're not planning on being in the same room as that... that changeling!” Shining nearly begged her. Twilight tossed her mane to straighten it out again. “Of course I am, how else would I find out anything?” “B-but all those books you brought! I thought...” Shining said, lifting one hoof to point back at the guards covering the alley's entrance. “I brought a lot of books here, true, but even these don't tell me that much about changelings as a whole.” she admitted. Shining goggled at this. “Those things don't tell you much? The heck is in those things? They're huge! And there's so many of them!” “They're collections of ancient travel journals, stories, myths and legends. Each one has only a few entries talking about Changelings... sadly, it's about all I could find on the subject. If I'd had time I would've transcribed everything down into one very thin book. It'd be a short read, trust me.” she explained with a little grin. Shining pressed his hoof to his temple. * * * * * Celestia found herself sitting on her throne looking down at the ambassador from the griffin kingdom. An argumentative, prideful, and conflict seeking species, their kind and her little ponies had clashed a number of times in the past, but there had been a stable peace for at least two generations now, enough so that a small number of griffins even now resided within Equestria... relatively peacefully. There was even a number of Griffin consuls in the various cities where griffins lived. However, this was the first time she'd ever personally met with this particular ambassador. And she had to wonder how the griffin had gotten the job as peace-talker with her country. Marshal Gerald Swift-Talon was as grizzled a veteran as you could imagine. A patch covered his left eye, which she had been briefly informed had been lost in an old battle, he had one missing talon on his right hand... the middle one, his tail was permanently kinked from an old injury... and he was practically covered in scars. A less likely candidate for calm discourse she couldn't have imagined. “Thank you for meeting with me Princess, I know you said you had business come up this morning.” The griffin said in his gruff voice. “Quite, though my schedule has opened up again, due to... unforeseen circumstances.” Celestia explained vaguely. He grinned. “I'm told you had a bit of a ruckus with that 'envoy' earlier, princess. Might that be the reason?” Gerald said. Celestia momentarily wondered how he'd found that out. The only ones around had been her guard, Cadence, Blueblood and his servants. Still, he knew, no use denying it. “Oh, that. Nothing more than a bit of confusion really.” The princess giggled, trying to gloss over the incident. “Which ended with him being slammed into a bookcase by your nephew, I hear.” Gerald pressed. Celestia took a deep breath, she'd figure out his sources later. “Those who did not need to know were not informed of Ambassador Maxillus' arrival. When my niece saw him, she... well, she shrieked. I had just managed to get her to calm down when my nephew burst in, he tried to play hero and attacked the ambassador. Thankfully without resulting in permanent harm.” Gerald chuckled. “Brave, but hasty. If he wishes to be a warrior, he needs to learn restraint.” Celestia blinked. Blueblood a warrior? There was a concept she never thought she'd hear. “To my point, however.” Gerald said, before taking swallow from a glass of water. “I come from my homeland, sent by my king to speak to you of the new weapon you ponies now possess.” “Weapon, ambassador?” Celestia asked. The general ran his talons through the feathers on his neck. “The one you deployed when... mmm... ambassador Maximus you said his name was?” “Maxillus.” Celstia corrected. “Right.” Gerald said. “The one you used when his people attacked, rather than your usual signature defense, the elements?” Celestia sighed. “That... Ambassador, that was a spell cast in desperation, it's not like it was planned!” she said. “Planned or not, princess, you now have the recipe for a mind bogglingly powerful spell. One that no other species can hope to match.” he chuckled. “True love turned into a force of destruction, it chills me to my bones, princess.” Princess celestia smothered the urgh to let out an exasperated sigh. “I've already had delegations from the Minotaurs talk to me about this, and even the diamond dogs approached me to beg leniency from our new 'love bomb' as thy so charmingly called it.” Celestia shook her head. “My little ponies and I are not vengeful, Ambassador, even if one of their queens decided to-” Celestia was cut off as the great doors to the hall swung open and hit the walls with a heavy bang. “Princess! I need to talk to you!” Celestia lifted her gaze to see Captain Armor stomping down the red carpet towards her throne. The general twisted his body around and snapped his head over to look towards the door with his good eye. Shining came stomping up so ferociously that even the grizzled Griffin stood and sidestepped to get out of his way. “What the buck are you thinking, calling my little sister up here just to stick her in with that monster!?” Celestia's eyes went wide, and her jaw dropped. “Shining Armor!” she said, aghast. “I will not have you speaking that way of an honored guest!” “That 'honored guest' wasn't even showing his real form till Blueblood disrupted his spell! He and his whole kind are a race of liars.” Celestia slammed her golden shod hoof down so hard the marble under the red carped cracked. “CAPTAIN ARMOR!” Celestia shouted, falling into the 'royal canterlot voice', which she hadn't used in nearly eight hundred years. “YOU WILL CEASE SPEAKING OF THE AMBASSADOR IN THIS WAY, OR I WILL HAVE YOU DRUMMED OUT OF THE GUARD AT ONCE!” You could hear a pin drop in the audience hall for well over a minute after that. Shining Armor was staring at her, jaw agape, as were all her other guards, her hoofmaidens, and her Majordomo. Ambassador Swift-Talon, meanwhile had one eye-brow raised. Finally, Celestia had composed herself and spoke again. “Captain Armor, I dearly hope that outburst was not fueled by some sort of specism.” Shining's brain worked at rainboom speeds to try to come up with an answer to that. Luna's warning about keeping rational came back to him, and he worked from there. “Princess Celestia... I'm... still not entirely convinced that Maxillus isn't a security risk. And I'd much rather not have my sister be left alone with him. I mean...” It suddenly clicked in his head. “I mean, he's male, Twilight's female. What if that makes her susceptible to his kind's spell? He could coerce her... if he has any plans to do something underhanded, the way Crysalis did to me, and my sister is a VERY powerful young mare...” Celestia actually thought about this for a moment. “As I cannot say you are wrong on any of those counts, Captain, I'll let your previous outburst slide. If you are that worried about Twilight, then you may assign a small guard detail to her while she is conducting research.” she then actually gave a wry grin. “Though I am fairly certain your sister doesn't have a special somepony for him to take the form of to begin with.” Shining blinked, then chuckled, though it sounded forced. “You've uh... got a point there princess, I guess. But still, we don't know a lot about changelings. I can't just throw her into the manticore's den like this!” Celestia let out a small sigh through her nostrils. “I understand you are concerned, Shining. This is your sister. However, I might remind you that she and her friends took down several score changelings during the invasion before being overpowered. I'm certain she can handle herself against a single changeling.” “But...” Celestia looked thoughtful. “If you are still concerned for your sister's sake, Shining, perhaps you should sit in on her sessions with the ambassador. You could learn about him and his people alongside her, and protect her at the same time.” Shining's eyes went wide and he started to stammer. “Ah-well, about that, I have duties, I can't just play bodyguard.” Celestia's expression changed from neutral, to a slight frown, which, to anyone in the service, knew this to be a sign of something very serious. “Shining Armor, the greatest bane to tolerance and forgiveness is an unwillingness to learn. You are the captain of my guard, and a prince now, besides. It would be most... disappointing, to find out you posses this... flaw.” Shining gulped. “Ah... I... I...” “Yes, captain?” Celestia asked, tilting both her ears towards him. “I... I guess I could... sit in on Twiley.... my sister's talks with... with the ambassador.” He stumbled over his own tongue as he tried to appease the princess. Celestia nodded. “Thank you captain.” Shining bowed quickly, then turned around and trotted out as fast as he dared. “Oh, and captain!” Celestia called out after him. Shining flinched. “Y... yes, your majesty?” he asked, looking back. She smiled warmly. “Please tell Twilight she's welcome to join us at dinner with the rest of the royal family.” Shining bowed briefly, then hurried out. The Gryphon ambassador rubbed the underside of his eagle beak in thought as he watched the retreating form of the unicorn. * * * * * Shining opened the door to the palace library with a push of his fore hoof. Twilight was standing at a book stand, a single quill levitating in front of her, jotting down notes while she also held a cloud of open books floating around her, all held firmly in her magenta colored magical aura. Holding up multiple objects with magic simultaneously was a basic skill for unicorns, holding them up for as long as she could, while also finely manipulating one or more in different ways the way she did was a rare feat, and just another reason Shining was so proud of her. Watching for a second, he couldn't help but smile. “Shining! Hey man, been a while.” Spike 's voice called out. Shining looked up to see the dragon was standing at the top of a very tall ladder, pulling select books out of a high shelf. “Spike! Hey lil' dude, how ya been?” he called back, then tilted his head, looking at him closely. “You're looking a little taller than I remember.” “Oh, you noticed?” Spike said, flexing an arm. “Twilight figures that if I build a hoard very, very slowly I probably won't end up turning into a three hundred foot tall monster in a day and wreck the town again. I've got a little treasure chest back at home to fill with gems for hoarding, and not eating... really hard not to go dipping in there every time I get hungry.” “Figure there's got to be a reason those teenagers at the dragon gathering were only a few times larger than spike here, and not all behemoths.” Twilight said, looking over her shoulder at her big brother. “That... that's great, that's just great spike. Really.” Shining said, focusing on his sister. “Twily, sis, can we talk?” he asked, coming over to her. He peered at what she was writing. “Can it wait? I'm making some condensed notes. Can't go into an important meeting with a huge pile of books now, can I?” She smirked at him. “I... I suppose not.” Shining said, tapping his hoof against the marble floor a few times. “Look, Twily, about this whole business Celestia has you here for...” Shining pawed at the marble floor. “Yes?” Twilight asked, her eyes still focused on copying down passages from books that hovered past her head onto the blank parchment in front of her. “Are you sure you're ok with this?” He asked, coming closer, and lowering his voice. “I mean... you'll be talking to a changeling.” “Yeah, that's kinda the point.” she snarked. Shining facehoofed. “Ugh. Twily, that's not what I meant.” Twilight turned and looked at him with an expression... that he couldn't read. “And what did you mean, Shining?” she asked. “I'm... I-it's just...” He stumbled over his own tongue. “This is more of what had you spooked in the street earlier, isn't it?” Twilight said, stepping forward, her books and quill setting down behind her. Shining lowered his head. “That obvious, huh?” “You're my big brother. It's obvious to me.” she said, stepping closer. “C'mon, tell me what's wrong.” Shining sighed. “It's just... I feel like the princess is putting you in danger.” Twilight raised an eye ridge. “What, by having me sit down and talk to someone?” “Yes!” Shining snapped, then groaned. “Look, I’m having enough of a migrane trying to keep Canterlot and the princesses safe, and now Celestia's got you up here and wants you sitting in there with... with him! I don't know if he can be trusted, if any of his kind can be trusted, and she's putting my little baby sister in there with a member of a species that's made my entire guard look like a bunch of foals!” “If you're so worried about some kind of subterfuge, why don't you put your shield up?” Twilight asked. Chining snorted in irritation. “Celestia hasn't asked me to, and it doesn't look like she's going to either. Probably worried it'd make us look 'inhospitable' or something.” he grumbled. Twilight cocked her head quizzically. “What's stopping you from just putting it up?” “Doing that without an official proclamation in advance would put every pony in Canterlot into a panic. I can't just go and do it without authorization!” Twilight nodded. “Makes sense. I know if I saw Ponyville get suddenly enveloped in a shield I’d think something was really wrong.” Shining sighed. “Yeah, so... I’m on edge for a lot of reasons right now.” “Well, really I shouldn’t be your big worry. I can handle myself. I mean, it's just one changeling, and this one hasn't even been feeding much lately, I mean, if Blueblood can knock him for a loop, I've got nothing to worry about, right?” she giggled. “Where'd you hear about that?” Shining asked. “Celestia told me in her letter.” Twilight grinned. “Quite a shock huh? I remember back in the academy, Blueblood barely got down Levitation. He wanted a 'servant' to do it for him. Can you imagine? Being so lazy you want somepony else to do your magic for you!” Twilight laughed. Shining gave a wry grin and shook his head. “Blueblood's something else alright.” Twilight giggled. “Yeah, well, in any case, I’m pretty sure I can handle our ambassador if he does try anything... not so nice. Satisfied?” she asked. “I guess so... unless of course you found a coltfriend in the last few months that you haven’t told me about.” Twilight blushed. “Shining! Why would you...” she snapped at him, then paused. “Oh, right, changeling.” “And a male one at that.” Shining shook his head. “Since you didn't send me any letters telling me you'd found one I’m assuming you haven’t... but then we haven't exactly been keeping each other up on what we've been doing, so...” Twilight looked sheepish. “Yeah, sorry about that...” she shook her head. “If you're wondering, no, I haven't seen her making googly eyes at any stallions lately, unless you count the covers of those trashy romance novels she reads.” Spike said, walking past the two of them with a stack of books in his claws. “SPIKE!” Twilight yelled at the young drake, blushing furiously under her thin facial fur. “I swear, half the colts on those things look like Blueblood on steroids.” Spike continued, dumping the pile of tomes on the table. “Spike...” Twilight growled dangerously. Spike suddenly donned a look of comically exaggerated deep thought. “Though maybe that's the reason she's been giving that white and blonde bodybuilder pegasus the occasional glance-” he was saying, right before a book bounced off his scaly head. “Huh, he really is a few inches taller.” Shining mused with a grin as he watched the fleeing -and laughing- dragon work harder than he remembered he used to to dodge a hail of small objects that his sister was launching at him. Once Spike had disappeared into the stacks Shining turned to a panting, blushing Twilight. “Got a thing for beefy blondes, then?” Shining grinned, poking Twilight with a forehoof. “Shining, I'm going to cast a month long spell of silencing on you if you don't SHUT UP!” she threatened. Shining held up a hoof defensively. “Whoah! Ease up there Twily, I'm just kidding.” he said, grinning broadly at her. Twilight snorted, an annoyed look on her face as she turned to the stack of books spike had placed down before she'd sent him packing. Shining shook his head. “Well... anyway. Celestia wants me in there with you during the interrogation so-” Twilight's head jerked around to look at him so fast Shining was surprised he didn't hear her neck crack. “Shining!” Shining blinked. “What? What'd I say?” Twilight facehoofed. “Nnngh! Shining, this isn't a criminal investigation! I’m here to learn about his culture, not grill him about some wrongdoing!” “Sorry, sorry! I'm.. not used to this kinda stuff, you know?” Twilight sighed through her nostrils. “Yeah, I guess you wouldn't be.” she turned back around. After a moment's uncomfortable silence, Shining cleared his throat and spoke again. “Anyway... Celestia told me that you've got an open invitation to have dinner with her tonight. We could catch up?” “That sounds wonderful, but I'm not really hungry and I've got a lot of work to do for tomorrow.” She said before glancing briefly over her shoulder at him. “Tell Celestia I'll join her, and the rest of you, for dinner tomorrow evening.” “I'll let her know. Good night Twilight.” Shining said as he trotted over to the library's entrance. When he got there, he paused and looked back at the fuchsia mare and a grin crept across his muzzle. “Hey Twily?” he called out to her. “Yes Shining?” she replied, looking at him over her shoulder. “How was the train ride?” he laughed, then ducked out of the room just in time to avoid a projectile book and a string of invectives.