Kormac shifted around in his spot on the ballroom floor and cracked an eye open to see the sun just barely beginning to rise. Despite his place on the marble tiles, Kormac was very comfortable and for a moment wondered why he was awake. A jolt to his side however reminded him and he smiled at the childish female voice crying out for him to wake up.
"Big brother! Big brother! Wake up!" Kormac grinned and shifted to his back while the little nymph was in the air and caught her before she could hit his chest. Alva only giggled at her brother's fast reflexes as he lifted her up high.
"Good morning little flower." He said with a smile. "Now what's so important that you had to wake me up?"
"You said you'd show me around Canterlot castle." She stated matter-of-factly.
Kormac chuckled warmly. Despite their situation, Alva had maintained an unbreakable spirit of adventure; and when she heard that they would be staying in the castle, she was beyond the moon with excitement and had wanted to explore every nook and cranny of the castle. She only went to bed when Kormac had promised that she would get to explore later. Apparently, later translated into before-Celestia-finished-raising-the-sun.
"As I recall, I promised that you would get the chance to explore later, not in the morning." He gently chided and Alva wilted a little. "Remember that this is Celestia and Luna's castle. I'll have to ask them permission before we can go anywhere."
Alva perked up a little. "And they'll say yes, right?"
'I certainly hope so.' He thought as he set her on the floor and got up into a sitting position. "Celestia and Luna are kind, benevolent rulers." He said out loud. "I have no doubt they'll let you explore. For now, I'd like you to stay near Eerika."
Alva gave him an absolutely adorable salute. "Yes sir big brother." She said.
Kormac laughed and ruffled her on the head. "That's my girl." He said affectionately. At that moment a request came to him through the Hivelink. The request itself was garbled, but he recognized that it came from the queens and, after thinking about it for a bit, he managed to deduce that he was being summoned to their side. "At ease soldier. Duty calls."
"Okay." Alva said as she dropped her salute and hugged him. "I love you big bro."
Kormac hugged her back. "I love you too." As the little nymph ran off to find Eerika, Kormac followed the guidance of the Hivelink towards his queens.
✴✴✴✴✴✴
Twilight and her friends were with the Princesses, Shining Armor and Cadence on a balcony with a view of the front gate, where a large crowd of ponies had gathered demanding to know what was going on. Amongst them, Celestia saw ponies from the press. Privately she was very thankful that this entire thing happened months after the knee jerk reaction that had followed the Invasion. That didn't mean that there wouldn't be any problems with what was coming next, but at least things wouldn't be worse.
Before they could be spotted by the crowd, Celestia and Luna directed the group back into the study, drawing the curtains to protect the group from prying eyes. It was then that a knock sounded and Celestia opened the door to reveal the form of Kormac.
"You sent for me, your highnesses?" He asked.
"Yes Commander." Celestia answered. "I advised Twilight to call you so that you might tell us a few things about changelings."
"Very well." Kormac nodded and walked in. As he entered the room however, the others gasped in surprise and Kormac gave them a quizzical look.
"Is there something the matter?" He asked.
"Your eyes!" Rainbow Dash blurted out as she gestured at him. "They're different! Almost normal!" It was true. From his previous position they hadn't noticed that his eyes weren't the solid blue common of changelings. Instead, there was a normal clear blue iris with a slitted pupil.
Kormac's expression went from confusion to realization. "Ah, you must mean my second eyelid."
"Second eyelid?" Rainbow asked curiously.
Kormac nodded before he began to explain. "Due to our subterranean nature, changelings possess the sharpest night vision known. In darkness, we are capable of picking out a hundred details. The tradeoff however is that our eyes tend to be extremely sensitive, particularly in direct sunlight." At this point one of the eyelids in question slipped down over his right eye. "Our second eyelids protect our eyes from direct sunlight amongst other things." Kormac then lifted his hoof up and tapped it against the eyelid which made a sound much like if one tapped against thick glass.
"Like natural sunglasses and goggles rolled into one." Rainbow observed with interest in her voice. Kormac nodded.
"That is SO COOL!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Do I have a second eyelid too?"
"All changelings possess a second eyelid." Kormac answered, seeming unfazed by Pinkie's outburst as his second eyelid slid upwards once more. "Even royals, though they have little use for it since their eyes are already well adjusted to both light and dark. But that doesn't mean their eyes are completely invulnerable."
Almost immediately, Pinkie slid her eyelids down, revealing that they were bright yellow instead of blue. The others followed her example and began sliding their eyelids up and down experimentally. Rarity's eyelids were purple, Fluttershy's were teal, Applejack's were orange, Twilight's were magenta and Rainbow Dash's were red. For a time, Kormac watched them experiment before clearing his throat to get their attention.
"Begging your pardon your highnesses, but it has occurred to me that aside from Queen Twilight Sparkle, I do not know your names."
The ponies and former ponies blinked. "He's right." Applejack said. "With everythin' that's been goin' on, we ain't never introduced ourselves. Ah'm Applejack, but ya'll don't need ta add that 'queen' stuff."
"I'm Rarity. Sorry for not introducing myself earlier. It was not very ladylike of me. And this is Fluttershy." The queen in question waved shyly.
"Name's Rainbow Dash." Rainbow puffed up a little, but before she could go on about her accomplishments she was interrupted by a certain pink changeling.
"And I'm PINKIE PIE!" She announced then stuck her hoof out to him. "Nice to meet you!"
Kormac hesitated before bumping his hoof against hers. "Nice to meet you too." He said before bring his hoof to his chin in thought. "Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle." He'd heard those particular names before. "You wouldn't happen to be the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, would you?" He asked as he pointed at them.
Rainbow Dash preened a little. "What gave us away Macky?"
Kormac's hoof dropped to the ground. "All hives know about the Elements of Harmony." He answered. "All with different reactions. Our hive respects the Elements since you have saved us all from Nightmare Moon and Discord. And reforming the Spirit of Chaos is in our eyes no small task."
Rainbow preened a little more before Kormac's sentence fully registered. "Wait a sec. You said hives, as in plural."
Kormac nodded. "Yes I did."
"So wait, there's more to Chrysalis' queendom than what we've seen?" Rainbow asked.
"No. Why would you...?" Kormac halted mid question as a thought occurred to him. "Wait, did you think Chrysalis was the queen over all changelings?" They all nodded. Kormac blinked then snorted. The next thing they knew, the commander had dissolved into laughter. "Pftthahaha! Chrysalis queen of all changelings! I'm sorry, but the idea of one queen ruling over changelingkind is just hilarious!" His laughter quickly began to fade. "But in hindsight I should've seen that coming. Ponies know so very little about us and it's not hard to imagine that when our queen showed up at the wedding you must've assumed she was queen of all changelings."
The others gawked in horror as the implications of what he'd just said sank in. "I suppose you'll want me to explain?" Kormac asked redundantly.
"Yes please." Fluttershy answered quietly.
"Very well then. As you've already guessed there are oth-" he started before he was suddenly cut off by Twilight.
"WAIT!" Her shout made them all jump back in surprise. Twilight blushed and turned to Celestia. "Sorry, but before we get started I'd like my number one assistant here to take notes. If I'm going to be queen, I need Spike here too."
Celestia smiled warmly. "Of course Twilight. I wouldn't dream of you launching this endeavor without an extra claw."
"Begging your pardon, but who is Spike?" Kormac asked. Celestia only smiled as her horn glowed with golden magic. In an instant a basket appeared floating in the air with a snoring baby dragon inside.
✴✴✴✴ An Hour later ✴✴✴✴
After waking Spike up and filling him in on the situation, they were now sitting comfortably with their attention focused on Kormac. Spike sat near Twilight, equally focused on the Commander with quill and paper in claw. Kormac cleared his throat and began.
"Alrighty then. Let's get started. As I've implied there are multiple hives, each ruled by a single queen. And each hive controls territory. Queens can of course fight other queens to expand territory. Queen Chrysalis had a sizable chunk of choice land as part of her territory; not to mention her hive, now yours of course, was one of the largest." Kormac paused before continuing. "Now that I think of it, it's fortunate that this subject was brought up sooner rather than later."
"Why's that?" Applejack asked.
"Whenever a queen's heir takes the throne, she must prove herself to the other queens. Queen Chrysalis for example, had to make no less than ten new spells beneficial to changelingkind, along with enforcing her borders before she finally proved herself. Plus, considering the current circumstances, the other queens might be a little harder on you."
"And what happens if we don't prove ourselves?" Twilight asked.
"The other queens would attack mercilessly till they destroyed you and your hive." Kormac said casually. There was a snap as Spike suddenly found his pen broken. The others just stood there frozen.
"I imagine they already at least have an inkling as to what happened." Kormac continued explaining. "It was no secret that Chrysalis was dying and since she had no heir, the other queens were poised to take her land and hive the second she passed on. They've probably already found out that we abandoned our hive and since changelings like to keep an eye on other nations, they already know that we're here. But since you have yet to make an official announcement, they will not know that there is a new queen or queens in this case."
"Which brings us to a new problem." Celestia interjected.
"Indeed." Luna added grimly. "Since thou hast all but announced thy presence to the population of Canterlot, if not the entirety of Equestria, we now have a mob knocking on our gates demanding answers."
Celestia nodded. "We shall have to tell them why you are here of course." She trailed off as she looked at six frozen queens adjacent to her.
"I do not believe that course of action to be wise at this moment." Kormac stated. "They have only been queens for a day and will need to adjust to their new life and duties. I am even beginning to regret telling them what I did on changeling politics as they appear to be broken." Cadence hid a snort of amusement at Kormac's attempt to inject humor into the situation.
"I was just entertaining the same thoughts." Luna commented before smiling. "And you are right. I do believe they have shut down to process what you have told us. Tell us, are there any other changeling secrets with similar results?"
"I do believe there are. But it might be prudent to reveal them one at a time."
"And it would be wise to buy you time to reveal them." Celestia added then smiled. "And we shall buy you that time. Luna..."
The Lunar princess nodded and the two vanished in twin flashes of light.
✴✴✴✴✴✴
Celestia and Luna reappeared outside the gate surrounded by a number of the Royal Guard to keep the mob from charging straight towards them when they appeared.
"Princess Celestia! Princess Luna! You're both alright!" Somepony called out and the crowd began to calm down a little.
Princess Celestia smiled gently. "Yes we are. And we thank you for your concern on our behalf. So, what may we do for you?"
"Your Majesties, why are the changelings in Canterlot castle?" Celestia recognized the pony that asked the question as Silver Pen, a unicorn reporter from the Canterlot Times. Silver was a good direct pony that had always written honest articles.
"Due to circumstances beyond our control, these changelings have now found themselves without a home." Luna explained. "And so we have invited them into ours."
The loud protests at Luna's answer and one question floated over to the princesses. "And how do you know this isn't an invasion?"
"I can assure you that there is nothing to fear from these changelings." Celestia said calmly. "However, the situation is more complex then that. Rest assured that we shall reveal all at a later date." The crowd still didn't seem convinced. "Until that time the changelings will be under guard and shall not leave the castle without permission."
They still didn't like it, but the crowd began to disperse and for a second Celestia locked her gaze with Silver Pen. When her sister had returned, his articles had been very helpful in adjusting the public to her sister. Celestia hoped that Silver would provide a similar service to her student and her friends. While Silver Pen didn't know what was going on, he understood the gaze that Celestia sent him and conveyed that he would do his best to her.
✴✴✴✴✴✴
After a few minutes, Celestia and Luna returned to the study. As she entered, she saw that the new queens, while no longer frozen in shock, were still troubled by the recent revelations. Glancing at the clock, she saw how late it was and decided a change in subject was in order.
"It's getting a little late in the day and as I recall you haven't eaten for a while." She said brightly. "Why don't we journey to the dinning room for breakfast."
The girls turned to look at her and, in a quiet voice, Applejack summed up their feelings. "If'n it's all tha' same ta you princess, Ah don't think any of us have much of an appetite any more."