//------------------------------// // XX: Much Ado About Changelings // Story: The Changeling Trials // by PastCat //------------------------------// True to Queen Maricopa’s prediction, two days after Princess Luna met the queen, she found that a petition had been left on her desk. Or, more accurately, two versions of the same petition had landed on her desk. She reached for the simpler-looking one first. It read: To Princess Luna, My name is Quick Chance, and I am the manager and producer for Spear Shaker’s Travelling Players. I am writing to inform you of the anticipated arrival of our remaining cast and crew to verify the changelings’ identities. Their names are listed as follows: Maricopa Elytra, Queen, actress and handler Feathers on the Wind, male, actor Dragonfly, female, actor and makeup artist Trailblazer, female, actor Goldenscale, male, actor Red Flier, male, actor Ochre Stone, female, actor and prop design Maelstrom, female, actor and costumes Ruby Shoes, female, actor Ice Rose, female, actor Twister, male, actor and props Bounder, male (nymph), apprentice actor I will be arriving within a few days accompanied by our playwright and the remaining members of our company. I will send another message upon our arrival so that we may have a pass for night court. Your servant, Quick Chance Luna nodded in understanding. Quick Chance indeed seemed to match what Maricopa had said about the mare. The letter was very businesslike and organized. Twilight Sparkle would have approved. The princess of the night then turned her attention to the other letter. This had different mouth writing. Despite having the signature blots of the writer being an earth pony or pegasus, the writing was a much more florid and old fashioned style. Luna smiled to herself; ponies normally did not write with such ornate flourishes any more. This was something she had been missing since her exile. The style of the letter was much the same, with the same old style. Its contents were more or less the same as Quick Chance’s. Luna began to read: To her most luminescent majesty, Princess Luna, bearer of the moon and guardian of the night. Salutations! I am the great writer of dramatic performance, Spear Shaker. I have been the trunk from whence all the reknown of our company derives, and thus when the branches were stripped away by your fine royal guard, I saw the need to humbly request their return. I shall be attending thy Night Court within a few days’ time and hope that my companions might be restor’d to me and mine. My stage manager will be accompanying me on this quest. Your most humble servant, Spear Shaker, writer for the Travelling Players Luna chuckled. If this pony wrote plays half as dramatically as her addressed her, he was a talented playwright indeed. He certainly had a flair for that style. Eclipse looked at the giggling princess questioningly. Luna passed the second note over to her secretary. Soon the ebon unicorn was laughing just as hard as her principal. “Oh my.” She gasped. “I have not read anything so pompous sounding since the Great and Powerful Trixie performed in my home town a few years ago. At least he does not write in third person!” Luna was regaining her composure as well. “As long as he does not refer to himself thus and give himself a title like that magician, all will go well. If he calls himself ‘the talented and amazing Spear Shaker’ every other phrase, it will be difficult indeed to take him seriously. At least his stage manager seems to have a solid core of sense. Trunk of the tree, indeed.” The pair lost their composure again and dissolved into fits of giggles. ~~ True to their words, both Quick Chance and Spear Shaker arrived in Canterlot within a couple of days. Quick Chance sent word to the palace of where the pair and their fellow performers were lodging in the city. Luna sent a pass and an invitation to night court and alerted her guards as to these new petitioners. Sure enough, a pair of ponies were shown into the throne room. Luna sized them up as they walked down the carpet toward her throne. It was obvious which pony was which. The stallion did not walk; he strutted, like a rooster showing off for his flock of hens. He was a tall, long legged earth pony stallion with a royal purple coat and golden mane and tail that was in an elaborate braided style. His cutie mark was an open scroll with a feather pen. In contrast, the small grey pegasus keeping pace with him was drab. Her brown mane and tail were cut in a short style that could only be charitably described as ‘cute’. Even her cutie mark was a fairly generic trifecta of intertwined horseshoes of various shades of gray and brown. Her shorter stride was quick and businesslike, with a no-nonsense tempo. As the pair approached the throne, the stallion gave the princess one of the most florid and over-done bows she had seen in a very long while. The mare gave a simpler, more modern bow. Luna raised them both to their feet. “So tell me of your changeling companions, Mr. Shaker and Ms. Chance. How did they come into your company and what do they do for you?” To no surprise of Luna’s, Spear Shaker opened. “Your majesty, the changelings are the most important piece of the company. They are the heart and soul, for without them we are only a body. There is naught but form, without substance; we are a mold, but with neither wax nor metal to be shaped. It is for the best that we all pull together, as we are weaker in separate. Thus, I humbly request that the changelings be returned to us. The survival of our company depends upon them being among us.” He probably would have continued on this diatribe, but Quick Chance cut him off early. “Your majesty, Queen Maricopa and her hive are more than actors to us. They are more like family and friends. Shaker is right; we have gained some renown, or at least notoriety, for having an all changeling cast, but our fame does not depend on them. What we do not care for is the heavy hoofed method by which they were absconded with from our traveling camp. If it is at all possible, we could use compensation not only for that but also for the cost of having to come after them. We had to cancel a couple of important gigs in San Franciscolt because of this.” Luna nodded in understanding. “You will receive compensation for transportation to Canterlot, as written in my changeling amnesty decree. However there is not much I can do with some of the other.” Spear Shaker spoke again. “Verily, your majesty, there is but one option that we have not yet broached to you. Mayhaps we might perform here in Canterlot, for you and your sister and whatever ponies are at court for this holiday season. After all, we have been in rehearsals these last several months for a production of a few Hearth’s Warming themed shows including the traditional pageant. Thus we could give some performances here that would benefit both you, as a member of the audience, as well as both our pony and changeling cast and crew members. The changelings could dine upon the aether and the rest of us would have the byline of having performed for royalty to add to our repertoire.” Quick Chance looked startled at the suggestion. “But Shaker, we do not have all the props for any of our shows here with us. They are all back at the wagon station near ‘ciscolt.” The stallion waved his hoof at the mare. “Mere details, my dear. For Hearth’s Warming, the royal theater has a great many props and scenery that has been reused for many years. As far as set pieces for A Hearth’s Warming Carol and Once Upon A Winter, I can trust you to take care of the details.” The pegasus mare rolled her eyes. Her earth pony companion did not notice. Luna watched the byplay with interest. This idea intrigued her and, like the Changeling Artists’ Guild, tickled her artistic streak. “I shall speak to my sister.” She found herself saying. Spear Shaker looked ecstatic. Quick Chance looked a combination of apprehensive and completely horrified. Luna guessed that she was the one who would have to deal with all of those “details” that Spear Shaker had referred to. “If we do not have another professional group that is scheduled to perform for us at that time, I will make arrangements with the manager of the royal theater to allow your crew access to whatever props and costumes are needed.” “And our changeling actors?” Quick Chance interrupted sharply. “Your actors will of course be released into your custody, however I would like to speak with Maricopa some more. For as long as you care to stay, I will allow you and your company members to stay with your changelings as long as you all can stand to share quarters.” Privately, Luna doubted that would last very long, but seeing as they were all used to traveling together there was still some hope. “The royal treasury also has enough to cover the cost of transporting your wagons here to Canterlot from San Franciscolt. Please send me reports of your progress with regards to the upcoming performances.” The pair bowed again. Princess Luna sensed a great deal of relief in Quick Chance’s simple but graceful bow. In Spear Shaker’s bow, Luna recognized the flourishes of a real show pony. It was not the oily feel she had gotten from seeing Flim and Flam when they had come to court even after their petitions being denied; rather this had echoes of the courtly behavior of a millennia ago with the foppish nobles who provided so much fodder for jesters’ mockery. The odd pair left as quickly as they had arrived, with Spear Shaker’s strut and Quick Chance’s short stride intact. Luna turned to the desk beside the throne and penned a short note to her sister that told her of her idea. As she left the throne room at the close of Night Court, she slipped the note under her sister’s bedroom door. Celestia was supposed to be asleep. This could wait until morning. Luna wondered if her sister would let it lie. This was, after all, more involved than the princess of the night had been with any of the other changelings in her charge for the past few months. Oh Tia, but this is about more than one changeling. This feels bigger than even a dozen changelings. Sure enough, when Luna met her sister for their celestial duties early in the morning, Celestia had the note in her magical aura’s grasp. As Luna lowered the moon, her sister said with a raised eyebrow “I hope you know what you are doing, Lulu.” As Luna stepped aside to let Celestia take her place, she replied. “I really think I do this time, Tia. This is about more than just whether some writer of plays gets his actors back. I have been thinking that we need to reach out to changelings more than we have been. It seems to me that all this round up has done is scare the changeling communities here in Equestria into going underground. Recall that there is a changeling community in Trottingham that is connected to that university professor. No doubt there are similar enclaves of changelings in many of our major cities. Some of them are just clusters of independent individuals, but others may be hives like Maricopa’s. Because they are here, we ought to learn as much as we can about them so that we can meet their needs as well as we meet the needs of the other non-pony species in Equestria. If all goes well, perhaps this acting troupe can become a resident theater troupe in Canterlot. That way we would have both a friendly hive and a friendly colony in the area that we could turn to if we need information about how to deal with outsider changelings. Just think, Tia. We have learned so much from the individual changelings that were unfortunate enough to be brought to us, but I think we have only scratched the surface of their numbers here.” “What about Chrysalis?” “That is what I mean. We need an insider’s view of changeling politics so we can deal with queens like Chrysalis more effectively. Cadence will not be living in Canterlot forever, you know. She and Shining Armor will find their own place soon enough. By keeping some changelings close, we can keep their insight in order to improve our defenses against hostile outsiders.” “You think it may come to that, Luna?” The princess of the night nodded seriously. Celestia had been fortunate to lead a largely peaceful Equestria in Luna’s absence, but Queen Chrysalis’s invasion had shaken that peace. It had been appalling to both princesses how woefully underprepared the Royal Guard had been to combat such intrusions. That had probably been a large part of why the guard had gone after undercover changelings with such zeal; they were trying to repair that sagging reputation. Luna was not sure their efforts to save face had been at all successful. Luna realized she had won her point when Celestia sighed and murmured “I just hope you know what you are doing, little sister.” Luna answered with a sigh of her own. “So do I, Tia. So do I.”