The Crystal Guard struggled as they kept the infernal spirit trapped under themselves as they struggled in the street. Shining Armor circled back, making his way through the panicking crowds as he went back to help the poor mare that the creature had set fire to. Approaching the location of the body, Shining dreaded reaching the mare, if only to discover a small pile of ashes.
'Stupid, mother-bucking pyromania-' Shining thought menacingly, wishing doom on the spirit.
Shining Armor's brain stopped working, as soon as he spied the body of the mare. Lying in the street, was a quadrupedal creature, covered from head-to-hoof in dark chitin.
"Changelings." Shining breathed silently, hurriedly looking up and down the street to make sure there were no witnesses.
Quickly gathering the still-smoldering body of the changeling in his magic, Shining disguised the body with a cloaking spell, and quickly took off towards the castle, galloping as fast as he could.
Chrysalis could simply not believe her own eyes as she stared down at the reflective pool beneath her hooves, jaw agape. The spirit...the infernal spirit...
'Can it really tell the difference between ponies and changelings?' she wondered 'It never displayed such a feat before...'
The spirit now had a bigger role in the survival of her hive than she'd originally thought. If it could distinguish changelings from the real thing, then things could go from bad to worse in the blink of an eye, if it decided to turn against her.
Chrysalis wondered how it was remotely possible that the creature could tell the difference between pony and changeling, in retrospect, she probably should've spent more time learning about it before sending it ahead to the Crystal Empire.
The queen was shaken out of her thoughts as an Elite entered the room, spear in hoof.
"Your Highness?" she asked, bowing.
"Permission to speak." she replied.
"We've got...another visitor..." she replied, somewhat hesitant.
"Put it in a cocoon with the others." she ordered, rolling her eyes.
"It's not a pony, Highness..."
Chrysalis thought back to the event she just witnessed, and glanced back at the soldier.
"Detain it, not in a cocoon; if this means what I think it does, and I pray to The Queen that it doesn't, we may have our hooves full."
Cadance stared down at the charred body of the changeling, not believing what her husband had told her.
"I...I just can't...believe it..." Cadance said breathlessly, not sure she wanted to accept the evidence before her.
"What does this mean for the Empire, if there're more of them out there?" Shining asked, afraid of the possibility that there were more changelings inside the Empire.
"Shining, we can't let this out," Cadance said firmly "if word spreads that changelings are hiding among the Crystal Ponies, there could be chaos! Riots! Dozens and dozens of complaints! Felonies!"
"Cadance!" Shining shouted, placing a hoof on his wife's shoulder "Calm down! There's still the possibility that there was only one."
Shining didn't believe his own words, he said what he could to get his wife to stop hyperventillating.
"As much as I don't like it...maybe we should keep him here in the Empire..." Shining suggested, almost not wanting to believe the words that just fell out of his muzzle.
"That's...both a good and a bad idea..." Cadance admitted, her breathing having slowed significantly.
Shining's ears fell flat against this head, weighing the options given to them.