Shining Armor paced nervously in the moonlight in front of the cave. It had been almost fifteen minutes and Princess Luna still hadn’t come out. The two Crystal scouts were barely whispering to each other and Shadow Stealth was leaning against the mountain, keeping one eye on the cave and the other on Shining Armor. Shining glanced at the cave for what seemed like the millionth time and seeing nothing he turned to the moon to make sure it was still moving. He turned around and Shadow Stealth appeared a few feet in front of him. Shining jumped a little and Shadow cocked his head very slightly.
“You alright, Captain?”
Shining Armor shook his head and spoke slightly nervously “Yes, yes, I’m fine. It’s just been a while since Princess Luna went in there.”
“The princess knows what she’s doing, it’ll be okay. Besides, you and I were the fastest unicorns in the Guard. The second that flare comes out, we’ll be in there before the changelings can blink.” Shadow smirked and Shining laughed.
“Yeah, I guess that’s true, I’ve just got to stop worrying about it, the princess will be fine.” He took a deep breath and smiled “So are you still going out with Leaf?”
“Yeah, we just had our two year anniversary last week. The long distance thing is pretty hard to deal with at times, but we visit each other whenever we can and we find ways to make it work.” Shadow smiled and rubbed his pale grey mane with his hoof.
“You know, if you want I could give you some more leave time. I am the prince of the Crystal Empire after all.” Shining laughed and Shadow lightly punched his shoulder.
“Nah, I’ll be…You know what? That’d actually be nice, thanks Captain.” Shining Armor smiled but straightened up when he heard something coming out of the cave. All four stallions turned towards the mouth of the cave and tensed up just in case it wasn’t the Princess of Night coming out.
“Fear not, brave stallions. It is indeed I.” Luna smiled as she exited the cave and the ponies relaxed until they saw Beguiling Cloak walking close behind her. Beguiling Cloak sensed their fear and started to back away, until Luna spoke again in a reassuring tone “Come forward, changelings, I will protect you from harm. Shining Armor?”
“Y-yes, Luna?” Shining looked suspiciously at the increasing group of changelings behind the princess.
“This is Beguiling Cloak.” Luna pointed to the changeling beside her “He is the leader of this band of refugees, and we have come to the decision that for the moment, the changelings will stay in the nearby village until a more permanent home can be made for them.”
Shining shook his head slightly in shock “The village? Are you sure that’s wise, Luna?”
Luna raised an eyebrow “Do you object, Shining Armor?” Her voice had only a hint of an edge of firmness as she spoke.
Beguiling Cloak swallowed a lump in his throat and took a few steps forward “Most noble Prince Shining Armor, please forgive us for the pain we caused in the Canterlot Failure. We are running from the Tyrant Queen, and only ask a little peace.” Shining raised his eyebrow but he saw the earnestness in the changeling’s eyes and heard the sincerity in its voice.
Shining nodded reluctantly “If we want to get to the village before sunrise, we had better get moving now. Sight! Reflection!” The crystal guards stood at attention in front of him “Head to the village as fast as you can and get some sort of housing set up for the changelings.”
“Yes, Your Highness!” The guards ran off and Shining turned to Shadow Stealth.
“Shadow, I need you to help me keep the group together.”
“You got it, Captain!” Shadow walked to the back of the group and stood silently, a few of the changelings shying away from him.
Luna nodded and turned towards Beguiling Cloak “We must depart now.” Beguiling nodded and chattered to the changelings who immediately started walking, following Shining Armor, Luna, and their leader.
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“It is an honor to meet with you, Beguiling Cloak.” Cadence smiled and bowed her head slightly “I am sure we will be able to come to an agreement.”
“We offer many thanks to you, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and to you as well, Prince Shining Armor for allowing us to remain in your kingdom.” Shining Armor nodded slightly stiffly and the changeling sitting beside Beguiling Cloak chattered in his ear.
“What does your companion say?” Luna smiled slightly at the changelings.
“She wishes to know if the protection offered by kind Princess Luna of the Night will be observed even if she does not remain with us.”
Cadence and Shining looked at each other for a second before Luna said slightly firmly “Of course it will be. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Prince Shining Armor will make sure that none of the changelings come to harm in the Crystal Empire.” She raised her eyebrow at the ponies next to her.
Both changelings smiled and chattered happily and Beguiling Cloak spoke “That makes us very happy, we thank you very much for that, noble rulers.”
“It’s,” Shining cleared his throat “Nothing.” His brow was slightly furrowed and his eyes were harsh.
Cadence nervously smiled “We will, of course, consider any requests you may have very seriously. What requests do you have?”
“We only wish peace. The Queen has become an evil tyrant, which is why we ran from Her. We only want freedom. We do not wish harm on anybody, and only ask that we could live here in the Crystal Empire.” The changeling next to him chattered and he nodded “We do not even ask to live with your Crystal Ponies or within your cities. If we could only have a small village to ourselves where we could live in peace you would have our eternal gratitude.”
“What about food? The last time I checked, changelings feed off of the emotions of ponies. How do you expect to survive and do no harm to anypony?” Shining’s voice was harsh and both of the mares glared at him.
The changelings looked at each other nervously and Beguiling Cloak cleared his throat before speaking again “We…We do feed on emotions, and we have fed off ponies in the past, but that is not the way it is supposed to be. Before the Queen’s heart turned to cruelty, we fed on the emotions of our fellow changelings in the Hive as well as regular food. After the Canterlot Failure, the Queen brought pain and torture to the Hive, and all of us felt nothing but fear and anger. That is why we…” He turned his head away “We came here, to the Crystal Empire, and sent the healthy among us to the village to collect emotion. Our hearts are still filled with fear, and the ones who were injured as we fled are too weak to give any positive emotions to the others.” Shining Armor’s glare hardened and Cadence’s face grew slightly worried. Beguiling Cloak raised his legs and said nervously “Please do not be angry with us, we were very careful not to harm any of the Crystal Ponies. The positive emotions that surrounded the ponies were what we gathered, not the emotions of any specific pony.”
“Why didn’t you just feed on your fear? That seemed to be your goal in Canterlot.” Shining crossed his hooves in front of him.
“Prince Shining Armor, kindly hold your tongue until you regain control your emotions.” Luna’s voice was firm and she glared at Shining.
“It is poison.” Both changelings hung their heads as the ponies looked at them with slightly surprised expressions.
“What do you mean?” Cadence’s voice had a hint of concern for the changelings.
“Fear. Anger. Hate. They are all poison to us, even when they are our own. We have told Princess Luna some of the horrors that plagued the Hive after the Canterlot Failure. They were caused by the fear and hate within us. We can feed on any emotion but each one has different effects on us. Happiness, love, gratitude, and positive emotions such as those nourish us and make us stronger, Princess Luna has seen how those emotions can heal our wounds, but hate, anger, fear, sorrow, those and other negative emotions do nothing but drain us or even kill us.”
Shining raised his eyebrow and actually looked concerned as he spoke “Really? Hate and anger…Kill you?”
Beguiling Cloak nodded and Cadence asked “Then why did you invade Canterlot? The Queen didn’t really expect the entire population to be happy, did she?”
The changeling beside Beguiling chattered for a moment and he spoke quietly “We knew you would hate us. We did not want to invade. We tried to convince her to stop but she…She would not listen to us; she thought her mind-control spells would work on every living thing in Equestria, and forced us to invade. Please forgive us…” The changelings turned away and hung their heads.
The three ponies looked at each other and Cadence walked around the table and put her hoof on Beguiling Cloak’s shoulder. He twitched at the touch but she smiled and spoke kindly “Of course we forgive you. Right, Shining?” Shining opened and closed his mouth a few times before stiffly nodding once.
Luna raised an eyebrow and looked at the dimly lit eastern horizon before turning towards the changelings “Perhaps it would be best for all of us to get some rest.” She rose from her seat and bowed her head slightly “Shall we reconvene this evening?”
The changelings looked at each other and Beguiling Cloak nodded “Of course, we would be happy to. Thank you so much for letting us speak with you.” Both changelings rose and bowed low to the royal ponies before nervously taking a few steps towards the door. Cadence smiled and used her magic to open it and the changelings left to rejoin the rest of the refugees.
Cadence yawned and said “I think it’s time for me to get some sleep too. The carriage ride here wasn’t the least comfortable ride I’ve ever had, but it came close.” She laughed and walked out the door.
Shining got up and walked towards the door but Luna stepped in front of him “Shining Armor, could I have a word?”
Shining nodded nervously “Of course Luna, what is it?”
“I only want to know whether or not you are willing to behave like a Prince.” Luna raised her eyebrow and looked firmly at the stallion in front of her.
“What do you mean?”
“A ruler cannot let personal grievances affect decisions while dealing with other races. If Celestia and I had done so, there would be no griffons left in this world. The changelings are no different.”
“But you know what they did in Canterlot! You know what they did to my Cadence, and to me! Not to mention Twily. How can I let them live in the kingdom you gave to me to protect?” All of the anger and hate Shining Armor had been holding in began to spill out in his voice.
Luna’s face grew softer and her voice was quiet “Shining Armor, I do not ask you to forget your grievances against Queen Chrysalis, but we both heard Beguiling Cloak. It was not the choice of the changelings to invade, it was hers. It was her spell that took over your mind; she was the one who imprisoned Cadence and Twilight Sparkle, not the changelings.”
Shining turned his head away slightly “So?”
“They are not responsible for Chrysalis’s actions against you, Equestria, or anypony. Would you condemn all ponies because of what I did when I was consumed by Nightmare Moon?”
Shining shook his head and took a step back “Well, no, of course not! But that isn’t the same thing at all!”
“You are right. It is not the same thing, but only because I was stopped by Celestia. Chrysalis had no one to stop her before she began.”
Luna turned towards the door and Shining’s voice fell “But…”
Luna opened the door and turned her head towards Shining “A race should not be condemned because a ruler’s heart turns to ruin. Remember that, Shining Armor.”
Luna shut the door and walked to the guest room prepared for her by the mayor of the small village, trying hard not to think about Aecorum or Celestia, as she had ever since she got off the train. Years of rule and diplomatic affairs had trained her to focus her mind on the matter at hoof, but now that she was alone, her mind wandered back to what really bothered her.
When Luna got to her room she settled down in the provided bed and sighed. Aecorum was always so good at diplomacy…But…What if I am wrong? What if…What if Aecorum was just a fantasy? That cannot be…Can it? Celestia would not lie to me, but I know that my memories are real. Right? I just don’t know anymore… Those and similar thoughts twisted through her mind as she drifted off to sleep in the morning sun.