//------------------------------//
// Lots of Yelling (un-edited) 
// Story: A Change of Pace 
// by Votederpycausemufins 
//------------------------------//

	The dungeon door slammed open. Many of the ponies looked up to see who it was. Most were expecting to see the new changeling queen, but were surprised to see Cicada. The started to whisper, but Cicada quickly silenced them. She kept walking towards a cell with a purple figure in it.
“Twilight… We need to talk.” 
Many of the ponies shrunk back in their cells at the alicorn’s name. Sparkle was looking away and answered without trying to make eye contact. “So the new queen finally turned the tables.”
“I wouldn’t say new, but I guess I was replaced for a short time.” Cicada answered back.
Sparkle turned to look at the changeling. At first she was shocked, but then grew angry. “No wonder you called me Twilight. No one else ever does. Anyway, how did you even find your way back here. Did you finally find out what dark magic spell to use with your changeling portals? I actually should applaud you for actually using one.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Though it’s good to know how to get Spike back home, I actually used the same portal as you.”
“WHAT?!” Sparkle yelled. “If you had, you would be dead by now!”
“Well you seemed to like me earlier.” Cicada answered, changing into Fireworks again.
“I thought you made a law against anything like that!” Sparkle growled.
“No, I removed that law. But all the changelings still think of it as a law, which is why no one does it.”
Sparkle was silent for a while. Staying silent even as Cicada opened the cell and brought her out. The two left to go to the cell area which had higher security. They entered the first one and Cicada was about to slightly push her in when she noticed a large red area on the floor. 
“What’s that?” Cicada said, looking at the spot.
Sparkle started to smile evilly. “Oh yes. That is fairly recent. You know, your sister was the last one in here, and that wasn’t there when she first came in.”
In the blink of an eye, Cicada had Sparkle against the wall, one of her legs on the empress’ neck. “What in Tartarus did you do to her?!”
“Oh, nothing directly to her, but you may want to ask what happened to that changeling that came to ‘save her’ after she tried to find you.”
Cicada’s horn lit up. “What did you do to Locust?!”
“Oh, was that his name? Emphasis on was.”
Cicada blasted Sparkle and headed for the door before the alicorn could recover. “I can’t believe I thought of you as a friend once, Sparkle!”
The door slammed and Twilight’s eyes widened. She started to cry before her violet eyes turned golden and her tears evaporated. Sparkle clenched her teeth before yelling as loud as she possibly could, reaching all the way to the occupants of the normal dungeon. 



Cicada quickly made her way back to Nettle, Spike and Lila. Without giving them a chance to speak, she asked Nettle where a full bathroom was that she could be left alone in. He told her about one near the bedroom her sister was in and the queen quickly made a portal there. She looked at the different doors in the hall before finding the bathroom and entering it. 
She locked the door behind her and started to run a bath in the large tub there. Before the bottom of the tub had a full layer of water, someling knocked on the door.
“What is it?” Cicada asked, trying to sound nicer that she felt right then.
“Sorry to bother you ma’am, but there is something I would like to discuss. is it possible for me to ask you through the door?”
Cicada sighed before accepting the proposal, but only once the bath was fully run so it would be easier for the two of them to talk with each other. Cicada chose to only fill it most of the way, leaving the tap on a low flow so she could still talk to the changeling at the door while the tub filled the rest of the way.
“So, who is talking?” Cicada asked.
“Oh, sorry, I thought we were still going to wait. My name is Leaftier. I was one of the guards searching for pony colonies still in Equestria. My team recently found another group in the forest nearby.” The changeling answered.
“I remember you.” Cicada commented. “You only recently were made head of your own team. You’re currently the only female field leader since we pulled many of the leaders for my own team.”
“Yes, that is me. I was wondering what we should do with them. Your orders were to send them either to the far north, but since they’re so close, we could just put them in the dungeons, though we are running low on room down there.”
Cicada was confused. She never ordered something like that. And she couldn’t think of anyling who would. She shut the water of and got out of the bathtub. She quickly grabbed a robe and went to the door.
“Who ordered that?” Cicada asked as she fumbled with the lock.
“Well you did. Shortly after reclaiming the castle and Equestria.”
Finally, the door opened. Cicada looked at Leaftier, and the leader looked at the queen. Her eyes widened, and then she corrected herself. “Make that your sister.”
“Find an area to make a large pony colony. We’ll send all the ponies there and figure out who is good and who is not. In the meantime, I’m going to see if Nymph really decided that, because I know my sister, and I can’t think of any reason why she would decide to do that.”
Leaf nodded, but asked if Cicada wanted to finish her bath first. Cicada looked at the steam over the warm water, and gave a nod.
“Fine, but while I do that, I want you to find a way to keep anyling from coming to this hallway unless they absolutely have to, because if something goes wrong, I don’t want anyling hurt from our argument.”
Leaftier quickly nodded. The two sisters didn’t argue much, but no one wanted to be around the few times they did. The changeling quickly made a portal that she could barely fit into and traveled to another part of the castle. 
Cicada closed the door after the guard left and then grabbed a large bath bomb Sparkle had left and threw it in the water. It quickly made the tub filled with a navy color and was filled with sparkles. The queen dipped herself in as she thought about what could have really happened. She stared into the water for a while before she thought she saw eyes in the water. Cicada almost jumped out when she saw them but relaxed when the quickly went away. She waved it off as her reflection and that she just saw her eyes, and that the differences she saw was just from the odd color from the water and it moving around.
When the queen finished up, she quickly drained the tub. She thought she saw her reflection again, but when she tried to see it, the rest of the water drained out and the bathtub was fully empty. 
As Cicada left the bathroom, she couldn’t help feeling those weren’t her eyes she saw. but if they weren’t hers, she must just be imagining them. She thought about it for a few more seconds before she suddenly heard Leaf again.
{Anyling on level three near hallway seven should exit the area unless it is of the utmost importance they stay there. Those who must stay there should remember to be cautious at all times while near there.}
Cicada turned and looked around for the source of Leaf’s voice. Finally, she saw a speaker in the corner of the room. Leaftier must have found the control room for the speakers and broadcast from that place. Not wanting Nymph to leave if from hearing that, the queen went straight for the bedroom her sister was in.



Upon entering the room Cicada saw that Nymph was asleep, most likely from crying herself to exhaustion. Cicada carefully shook her sister awake. She quickly created a small portal back to the bathroom and retrieved a glass of water for her sister.
Nymph reluctantly woke up, but quickly took the drink. She quickly gulped it down and rested for a few seconds before asking Cicada why she came back in there.
“Well, first of all, I wanted to see how you were doing.”
“Eh, I’m tired. I guess that comes from crying yourself to sleep. I’m still so sorry about what happened.” Nymph apologised.
“Don’t worry. It’s not like it hasn’t happened already.” Nymph glared at her sister. “Okay, fine, nothing exactly like this happened, but I did get put in the dungeon back in the other Equestria.”
Nymph questioned Cicada about what happened there, but the queen wouldn’t answer. “First, I want to know what you know about sending the ponies to the north. The far north. I know many of them were fine with Sparkle and supported her, but not all of them. There were a whole ton escaped changeling slaves talked about that wanted Sparkle out of the throne just as much as us.”
Before answering, Nymph noticed something. “You’re not calling her Twilight anymore?”
“No, I’m not. We can talk about it later, but I want to hear your answer first.”
“About sending the ponies north? Yeah, I ordered that once we got Equestria back.” Nymph answered easily.
Cicada was surprised by the answer. “Why… would you do that?!”
“You were gone, and we’ve been at war with ponies for years now. Too many have died to them!” Nymph exclaimed.
“And all the most important ones died to one pony, who many hated having as a leader.”
“Oh, so it was only Sparkle who did anything wrong?”
“No! I’m not saying that! But not all ponies were to blame. We’ve put changelings in jail which goes to show all of a species are not going to be the same.”
“The ponies betrayed some of their own kind!” Nymph retorted.
Cicada shook her head. “No, Thestrals have always seen themselves as separate, much like how Hippogriffs separate themselves from griffons.”
“She killed Locust!”
“I KNOW!” Cicada yelled.
Nymph took a step back at her sister’s exclamation. “You think that one changeling matters more than a whole species. Maybe I should have taken you out on missions more often. You could have learned that they are so much like us! Instead, you stayed home and thought as them only as monsters, when maybe you were making yourself into one! What if Twilight were a hero? What if Pinkie was a friend? What if Fluttershy was kind? What if Rarity and Applejack were there to help? Even I would prefer Rainbow Dash OVER YOU!”
The two sisters started at each other. Nymph looked like she was on the verge of tears while Cicada looked like she was about to tear her sister to shreds. Then, Nymph lost it. 
“I have been alone for years! You always leave! Everyone leaves! I never met Dad, Mom was gone too soon, even Selena was killed by them! Then I finally had someling and he was taken away too!”
“You don’t think that ever happened to me too? You were the only one I had and I was always away. I got to know the ones we loved before they were gone and I was too broken hearted to lose another. You can name only one not in our family that you mourn, but I have six. And it was only four before I left.”
Nymph tensed up. “You never told me! Who were they? How did the last two go?”
“One was you, though I might have actually lose you long before today. The other was a pony. I had him disguised as one of us so he would be left alone. All I know is that I haven’t seen or hear from him since I returned home, and all I can think of, is you found him, and got rid of him.”
Nymph’s face paled. She remembered the pony she was talking about. “Is that why Grub was sick? Because he was actually…?”
“Yes! And though he was really a pony, he was a changeling at heart. There was no reason to harm him, much like the rest of the ponies you’ve punished for doing nothing.”
Nymph tried to say more to answer to Cicada, but the queen wouldn’t listen. She couldn’t believe what her sister had done, and couldn’t tell how long before she could forgive her.