You WHAT?
Naudia sat stunned for a second, unable to process what she had just found out.
“You... know Cadance?” Naudia's mouth repeated, but her mind appeared to be elsewhere.
Unfortunately, Twilight hadn't picked up on that, because she was still measuring out Cadance from the far side of Naudia.
Cadance had tried to do the Sunshine dance with Twilight, hindered by the fact that she was sitting in a field of changelings, with a changeling queen in between them. Twilight only cringed and didn't reciprocate.
“Twily, what's wrong?” Shining asked.
“I'm sorry, Shining. I don't know who I can trust right now.” Twilight's eyes fell as she clutched at the enchanted key for dear life. “I don't know if I can trust you.”
Cadance and Shining resisted the urge to walk over and hug Twilight. Once again, Naudia was in the way, and neither of them could bring themselves to get any closer to the stunned changeling. So, they sat for a moment, staring, trying to think of what to do.
She looked different from Chrysalis.
A month of better feeding than she had had in her entire life was beginning to show. Her legs were still as thin and hole-filled as before, but they looked more filled out than Chrysalis's had, the holes having shown no signs of closing up. Her hair, while still maintaining the holes motif, looked much less like the rats’ nest that her mother sported. Her face, while remaining the same shape, had filled out a bit and you could no longer see the bones in her cheeks so clearly. Her barrel was where most of the changes seemed to be taking effect: her backplate emanated a faint glow and didn't look scuffed up. What appeared to be a brand new delicate insectoid wing had finished regrowing out of her back.
Overall, the changes were subtle, but Cadance now had an appreciation of the unhealthy state that Chrysalis had been in during the invasion.
Eventually, they tried to walk around the changeling queen, only for Twilight to move more and keep Naudia between herself and them. This process repeated several times.
“Twilight, we need to talk. Please stop acting like a child.”
“I will act like anything if it keeps me out of that cell for a second longer.”
Both Shining and Cadance cringed at that.
The changelings, meanwhile, were able to put two and two together, judging the situation by the ties between Naudia and Twilight. Either assuming Twilight was either a mind-controlled pony, or something else, they sprang into action. With their guards down, Shining and Cadance were restrained by changelings in short order. Mattar took it upon himself to get a death grip on Shining’s head.
“We know you were telling the truth about Naudia, Twilight!” Cadance shouted, before anything further could happen.
The clearing went silent for a long moment.
“You're lying about that. Celestia told you to say that to put me off my guard.”
“No, no, no!” Cadance said, trying to gesture despite the grip the changelings had on her legs. “Before you left I tested your connection to Naudia, and it was completely genuine. I was literally explaining that to Celestia when the alarm wards on the dungeon went off.”
“Well then what happened to the sun? What happened to Canterlot?”
“We don't know,” Shining said. “Celestia sent us to find you after the city was attacked by corporeal nightmares...”
“She thought that her presence would unnecessarily agitate you after everything that happened, and… things weren't going well in the city when we left.” Cadance was pleading at this point.
“I'm going to assume what happened to the sun is an indication of how things are going in Canterlot.” Twilight said darkly, her mind working ahead of her mouth.
Twilight's face looked conflicted, on the one hand she wanted to believe Cadance and her brother, but on the other, her new-found survival instinct was screaming at her, showing a perfect recollection of the cell wall that she knew better than anypony ever should.
“I need a moment to think on this.”
“You don't trust us, Twilight?” Shining looked hurt.
“Let her go. I can understand why she doesn't quite trust us.” One of the changelings with a sense of dramatics moved Cadance's hoof over to Shining's shoulder to comfort him. Unfortunately it was her hind leg, and it had a bad angle, so it ended up awkwardly poking him in the shoulder.
Meanwhile Twilight was sitting and thinking, and would continue to do so for several minutes.
----------------
The wheels were spinning in Naudia's head. Her thoughts at the moment were almost completely broken, as a menagerie of “ponies aren't as bad as you thought they were” fought with the old ways her mother had taught her.
But one thought spoke out above the rest. One hunch overpowered the rest of the bunch and brought to bear something that neither side could argue with.
“I have the Princess of Love under my power.”
Naudia hadn't realized she said the last thing out loud until she saw the shocked expressions on the changelings around her. Naudia got up and walked over to the restrained couple.
“All right.” Naudia said, with a tone of finality. “I've been taught my entire life to hate you. Every one of my ancestors has been taught their entire lives that you are an affront to everything we stand for.”
Naudia seemed to loom dangerously in the dim red light.
“So I'm going to do something even my mother wouldn't have done.” Cadance could have sworn she saw a glint of green fire in her eyes. And the changelings holding her down shuffled their hooves nervously, the rest of the clearing merely looked on in silent anticipation.
“Release them.”
Once again every changeling in the entire clearing stopped; even Naudia did, to a certain extent.
“I'm sorry my queen, but could you repeat that?” One could be forgiven for thinking changelings had a true hivemind, as Mattar spoke for every changeling in the clearing.
“I ordered you to release them.” Still no changeling moved to obey her order.
“I appear to have developed a curious mental disorder where it sounds like you've been asking us to release the Princess of Love.”
This led to other changelings in the clearing saying things like:
“Could you do that cleany ear motion for me? I don't think I'm hearing quite right.”
“I haven't fallen into an alternate dimension have I? Just curious is the sky normally red like this?”
“I've never heard the voices actually try to imitate the Queen before. They're doing a lot better job than they usually do.”
“Great! I knew the entire universe would go wrong one of these days.”
And similar things to that effect passed their way outward from the clearing to the changelings present.
“Could I ask why you're asking us to let her go?” Mattar said.
“That goes for me too!” Shining piped up.
“I've come to the conclusion that things are so bad that helping ponies is inevitable.”
“So bad?” Mattar shouted monumentally, forgetting and letting go of Shining Armor's head. “How can things be so bad? We've ALL escaped Canterlot, we have three VERY important ponies from Equestria under our power and we can basically ransom them for literally anything we want at this point.”
“When's the last time you last looked up, Mattar?” Naudia asked.
“Around the time the sky turned red?” Mattar said, trying to determine where this was going.
“Did you see what happened when the sun moved out from behind the moon?”
“No, my Queen.”
“That was when the sun burnt out, Mattar.”
Silence, as Mattar looked like a scolded schoolchild.
“You see, Mattar,” Naudia sighed. “This is why I'm in politics and you're a guard.”
Everybody, and everypony, in the clearing were still entirely stopped and trying to process the monumental revelation.
“Don't get me wrong, Cadance. I still hate you and everything you stand for. But I'm willing to put up with a 'working relationship' for the sake of my girlfriend. And kinda secondarily, to save the world from turning into an icy wasteland.”
That got some of the changelings working again, one of whom helpfully asked: “OK, just for clarification here, do you mean 'girlfriend'?” The changeling said exaggeratedly, holding her hooves up and making air quotes. “Or do you actually mean, really, seriously… girlfriend?”
“The one without any air quotes.”
Mattar quickly convened with as many nearby changelings as possible.
Shining woke up from the revelation sooner than Cadance did, noticing that every changeling previously holding him down had inexplicably left to huddle together and talk.
“So uhh... What now?”
“Right now, we wait for them to digest the pile of revelations that's just been dumped on them.” Naudia suddenly gave him an intense gaze she'd inherited from her mother. “And you and I are going to have a talk about what’s going to happen now that we're working on the same side.”
Shining, not wanting to be outdone in glares, replied back with a quip of his own.
“Then it’s a trade then: I'll tell you what I know about Canterlot, and YOU tell me the intentions you have with my sister.”
----------------
With Naudia and Shining having moved off to talk to one another, Cadance decided to get a word or two in with Twilight.
Twilight shrugged away when Cadance put a hoof on her shoulder.
Cadance opted to wait patiently and give Twilight some space.
“So… Celestia sent you here?”
“That's what I said.”
“You have all of the changelings with you. The royal guards would notice if they all broke out. So what does this mean?” Twilight collected herself and turned to Naudia, refusing to look at Cadance. “Are they under duress? How did you get them to come with you?”
“We made a deal. They find you and Naudia, and they get amnesty.”
Twilight actually cocked her head and turned to look at Cadance at that.
“That couldn't have been easy for you. What changed your mind about them?”
Cadance breathed in deep before she answered. “I'd like to lie to you, Twilight. It would be so easy to say that your love for Naudia is so pure that it convinced me. That I believe everything is fine and I approve of your choice.
“But I don't. I know you aren't lying. But I can only look out there and see jailors. Jailors with sneering faces, that stole me away from my husband on what should have been the most joyous day of my life.” Her face was calm. The only thing that betrayed the foul mix of hatred and fear that swirled in her mind was the steadily deeper hole her hoof was working into the dirt.
“When I told Celestia that your love for Naudia was pure, I wasn't entirely thinking about the situation. I just had to get you out of that cell. I had to see you smile again.
“I'm not sure if I was thinking I could get used to the idea of little Twily loving a changeling, or if I just didn't care at all, but it’s clear to me that this is a problem for me now.”
“So despite what you say, you still don't believe me?”
“When I close my eyes, Twilight, I can see it. I can see the pureness of it. It is an untainted connection of those who have just fallen in love, gilded by adversity and strife. With my eyes closed, it feels like the link I'd imagine between those in a great and tragic love story.
“But with my eyes open, I just can't see it. All I can see is my little Twily falling into a trap, and being taken away by the same jailors that got me.”
Twilight opened her mouth, fishing for something intelligent to say, and failed.
“Well… maybe if you got to know them better!” Twilight perked up.
Cadance gave her a look, unperking Twilight faster than the words “pop quiz.”
“That's exactly the problem, Twilight. I'm pretty sure I know them well enough already.”
----------------
“What is Twilight's favorite movie?” Shining demanded instantly, grilling Naudia with hard questions.
Naudia's mouth flopped open like a fish. “I have no idea.”
“OK, then, what do you do for a living?”
“I'm the leader of the changeling swarm.”
An unpleasant truth brought up to his face made his face scrunch up in annoyance.
No: Cadance says their love is pure. I have to trust Twilight's judgment. Shining made a show of glaring at her before asking his next question.
“What is her favorite type of candy?”
Another blank.
The questions kept going, with Shining getting more and more desperate, until he finally reached “What is her favorite brand of toothpaste?”
“Barnyard Bargains Generic?” Naudia attempted to guess, so she miiight get one of the questions right.
“OK. This clearly isn't working out, so let’s try something else.” Shining threw his hooves up in frustration. “What was your first date with Twilight?”
Instantly Naudia perked up at a happy memory.
“OOH! Well you see we sat in her library and we studied pre-Gryphonic War Equestrian history! And Twilight and I had a half an hour debate on the ethics of-”
It is important to note that a great deal more was said at this point. So much that in an effort to save both your time and sanity I will cut out this very, very dry reading.
“-And when I woke up, I had ink all over my face!”
Shining sat there, staring, only his years of training as a soldier keeping him awake.
“OK, lemme get this absolutely clear. And I want you to answer in the most concise and clear way that you possibly can. With EXTRA emphasis on ‘concise’.” Shining said, looking slightly dazed. “You consider your first date with Twilight to be the time you sat down and debated 'A torrid account of Equestrian history' with her for an entire evening.”
“Yes!”
“You aren't part of some kind of changeling cloning program are you?”
Naudia merely cocked her head at this.
“What does cloning mean?”
“If I hear any more technical explanations in the next five minutes, from either me or you, I think I might go mad.” Shining replied back.
“I'll accept that.” Naudia said. “But it’s my turn to ask questions now. What happened to Canterlot?”
“It was overrun by nightmares.” Shining looked uncomfortable. “Actual physical nightmares.”
“So what was happening to Twilight wasn't an isolated case.”
“And what was happening to Twilight? Did you cause it?” Shining said on instinct, his 'psycho father-in-law' mode snapping on again like somebody flipped a switch.
“OK, first of all, get out of my face.” Shining backed up and looked a little shamefaced for getting all up in her face. “Second: no, as much as we can control dreams, actually manifesting them is beyond any changeling's power.”
“Then how else do you explain what happened to Twilight?” Shining demanded.
“I found the residue of a nightmare floating behind Twilight's head-”
“And how did you know what that even looked like?”
“Wasn't I supposed to be asking questions here? I thought this was supposed to be tit for tat, equals, not a police interrogation.” Naudia glared at Shining who, again, backed down. “ANYWAY: I found something floating behind Twilight's head that she couldn't feel. I touched it and received a vision.” Shining looked like he wanted to interrupt again but restrained himself. “After conferring with her, I reasoned it to be the nightmare she had last night, but in physical form.”
“So these nightmares are coming from ponies, and it sounds like they have a sort of intermediate state before they manifest.”
“Do you have any idea what’s manifesting them, then?” Naudia asked.
“I heard one of the other guards say that Celestia was talking about Nightmare Moon. That seems to be the most likely thing I can think of.” Shining replied.
It was at that point that Mattar finally came out of the huddle of changelings, stacked four high at this point, looking like he'd come to a conclusion.
“We have come to a conclusion.” Mattar declared. “We would like one of the unicorns to check if Naudia is a changeling.”
“Why would we want to do that? We already know that she's a changeling.” Shining pointed out.
“The only conclusion we can come to is that Naudia has been replaced by some other changeling. That's the only possible explanation.”
Shining looked from the changelings, then back to the changeling queen, who looked quite irate.
“Are you su-”
“Yes.” Shining was cut off by both the changelings and Naudia.
“Your vote of 'no confidence' has been noted, Mattar.” Naudia growled giving him that look with a hint of green fire in her eyes that queens were never taught, but learned on their own. “And I'll have you know that I already explained why I was releasing her.”
Mattar shuffled his hooves, having forgotten that amongst the other monumental revelations shot rapid fire into his brain. Suddenly being chosen as the speaker for the rest of the changelings didn't seem like the best idea. Accusing a changeling queen of being replaced did not win you any friends, and laying a false accusation put your fate in the hands of the accused.
It should be noted that changelings never developed forms of capital punishment, simply turning the accused out into the badlands alone was enough.
“Well if you're both in agreement on this, the spell is very simple to cast.” Shining looked Naudia in the eye. “Are you ready?”
Naudia gave one barely concealed glare at Mattar before nodding.
Shining's horn lit up. The spell was cast, cascading down Naudia's body.
No effect.
“Try it again. Maybe the spell didn't work quite right.” Mattar said, the rest of his face having frozen in abject terror.
Again the spell was cast and nothing happened. Immediately every changeling panicked at once.
“It wasn't the voices this time! Why couldn't it have been the voices!?”
“It was an omen, this is the end! THIS IS THE END!”
“BOO YOUR MAGIC SHOW SUCKS!”
And so on and so forth.
This chaos went on for a good fifteen seconds before suddenly, and out of nowhere, all the changelings immediately stopped what they were doing and clutched their hooves onto their heads at once. Shining, Cadance and Twilight all looked over to Naudia, who appeared to be concentrating very hard.
“LOOK AT YOU!” Naudia bellowed, her voice magically amplified into a full Royal Canterlot Voice. “Children, short sighted, all of you.” Naudia pointed at a random changeling in the crowd.
“YOU.” The changeling attempted to slide back into the crowd, but Naudia's horn lit up and she was pulled head first out of the crowd and directly in front of Naudia. “Tell me. What did I tell you was happening to the sun not five minutes ago?”
The changeling's voice could barely be heard.
“Having a little trouble remembering? Well I'll fill it in for you, and I'll say it nice and loud, so you won't forget it.” Naudia took a deep breath and her horn glowed brighter.
“THE SUN BURNT OUT.” Naudia said with such volume that the changeling in question was flipped over and fell into the crowd again.
“And what do I hear you complaining about during this time of crisis?”
The changelings murmured something that wasn't really quite intelligible, but Naudia didn't care. She was already onto the next part of her rant.
“Children’s stories, fairy tales. Are you so blind? So deaf? In a time of global crisis, when EVERYTHING is being threatened, and not just our lives, but our livelihoods, are at stake.” Naudia pointed an accusatory hoof at the crowd, who shrank away from it as if it was about to go off. “And yet you put that aside for mere stories, grudges against a pony you've never known.
“There may have been a time when the Princess of Love,” Naudia managed to keep most of the malice out of her voice, “was our enemy. When she represented all that we stand against. But now, she needs our help just as much as we need hers, to stand against a greater evil.
“There is an unknown power out there, festering, building itself up in the heart of Canterlot. Something so powerful that it can extinguish the sun and hold the moon within its grasp like it was a mere toy.” Naudia put on a grave expression and spoke in a normal voice that nevertheless carried to the farthest changeling. “Now, more than ever, we must lay down our grievances, lest we lay down our lives instead.
“The icy grip of despair has cast itself over Equestria. We shall descend upon Canterlot and free it from this shadow's grasp! Grateful, the ponies of Canterlot will love us in return! And from there we shall never know hunger again!!”
----------------
As Naudia stepped down from her metaphorical soapbox, and the changelings shuffled about decided who was still too injured to make the trip to Canterlot and who would stay with them, Cadance came up to Naudia.
“That was… touching?” she posited.
Naudia made a face like she just stepped in manure.
“We aren't friends, Cadance. You are the epitome of everything changelings have hated about ponies for the past 1200 years.”
“Then why did you make that speech then?”
“For her.” Naudia said, pointing at Twilight, before brushing off Cadance and walking off to join the aforementioned pony.
Twilight looked more awake, and her hair was certainly messier than the last time they'd talked. Halfway there, Naudia stopped. There, kneeling behind Twilight, completely unnoticed by anypony and everyling, was the thing that Naudia had made a deal with. Even Twilight didn't seem to notice it, as it leaned down next to her ear and spoke just loudly enough so that Naudia could hear.
“Twist the knife, aim for the heart.”