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// 3 - Farewell 
// Story: Wild and free 
// by Damaged 
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Cadance had left Shining Armor to take care of Wild, while she took care of the morning's court. Her focus never wavered, not where her ponies were concerned. "Queen! Queen!" A high-pitched voice chittered as a buzzing sound was heard coming from the door. "Ice-cream is the best thing ever!" Wild was not far behind the echo of her voice as the changeling foal flew into the room and up to the low dais Cadance sat on.

The mare and stallion who were presenting their case halted, bright smiles splitting both their faces. "Wild Heart." Cadance caught the filly on her third loop around her. The slippery filly squirmed until she was on her back in the princess' grip. "I am a little busy, can you wait until after these ponies?"

Wild stopped her gyrations and tilted her head back so she could look at the couple, albeit upside down. "Hi!" She waved a hoof and giggled. 

Any hope Cadance had of getting the pair to continue was lost when the mare, a crystal earth pony, got closer and clopped a hoof to Wild's. "And who is this little angel?"

"I'm Wild Heart!" Wild slipped from Cadance's grip to land astride the mare's shoulders, hugging her neck. "Queen Cadance told me not to eat ponies, so I had ice-cream instead!"

"Eat… ponies?" The crystalline mare looked a little worried but relaxed again when Wild seemed to act just like any other rambunctious foal. "Now imagine that, ponies made of ice-cream!"

Cadance was lost, she couldn't keep up with the foal and she knew it. At the door an oddly out of breath Shining stuck his head in, looking around. "There she is!"

The stallion made his way to the front of the room and glared at Wild for about as long as it took his heart to melt. "I couldn't keep up, she was… Wild, how do you fly that fast?"

Wild looked up from atop the mare. "With wings!" She buzzed her little insectile wings cutely, arching her back and lifting up off the mare to start to weave a figure eight between Cadance and Shining. 

It was Shining Armor's turn to catch her. "You can't just fly in here like this, Cadie needs to look after the empire." He held the filly on her back and tickled her to drive home the point. Wild giggled and squirmed but couldn't break free of this pony's grip. 

"There is a problem with the hive?" Wild paused mid-tickle, looking worriedly up at Cadance.

The princess could see real worry in the look the tiny changeling gave and leaned down to kiss Wild's little forehead. "No, but it takes work to make sure there isn't."

This seemed to placate the worry on the filly and she squirmed in Shining's powerful grip and managed to kiss Cadance on the nose, giggling furiously.

"Please…" Cadance looked to Shining and got a smile of understanding from the stallion.

"Come on, mighty vanquisher of ice-cream, lets find some adventure!" Shining galloped from the room, showing he wasn't really all that worn out. Cadance realized she owed that stallion for the day of peace.





"And then she just curled up." Shining's voice was quiet, the filly snuggled against his side as they lay together on the big bed.

Cadance leaned in and rubbed noses with him in delight. "Well, you certainly seem to be handling things well." She didn't climb on the bed herself, she couldn't bring herself to even try and wake the little sleeping changeling.

"She's not any real trouble, she just pretends. Did you see her with that cranky old mare today? I have never seen her back down from an argument and she wouldn't have been in your court if she didn't have a good one prepared." Shining's eyes traced over Cadance, a part of him suddenly wishing there weren't a sleeping foal in the room.

Cadance did everything she could to ignore Shining's looks. This was part of his reward for being such a good boy. Her magic reached down and rubbed her own sides, thoughts playing back to hearing about Penny carrying a foal. There was an ache there and, ready as she was, she thought that Wild Heart gave each of them a very hoofy little way to experience parenthood before it was thrust upon them. "Shiny, how long do you think before we could-"

"Have our own?" Shining finished her thought. "I think the idea of our own little one has us both a little worked up, I don't suppose you know of anypony…"

There was a knock at the door and Cadance's eyes danced. She trotted over and opened it with her magic. "Princess, I was wondering if you would be able to look over-" It was Articulate Equation, the empire's eminent law-smith and one of the main clerks for the treasury.

"Ah, Articulate, just so, I could check these over but…" Cadance looked over and saw Shining bump Wild, the filly suddenly stirring and looking around. "Oh drat, looks like Wild woke up, if only somepony could look after her for the night, I could read through these documents…"

"Well I might-"

Shining was quick on the uptake, his magic passing a tired filly over to the earth pony mathematician. "She is already fed, she will probably be a little boisterous for a few hours then will hopefully pass out, thanks!" 

Standing outside the royal chambers, Articulate felt the weight of the sleepy filly on his back. He had no clue how the changeling had come to be in royal couple's care, but now, for the night at least, she seemed to be in his.

Inside, neither Cadance nor Shining looked at the documents at all.





"And how long are we going to be looking after her?" Perfect Poise, Articulate's marefriend, sounded upset. She had, apparently, planned an evening together for them.

"I don't… one night?" Art stood with the filly, fast asleep on his back. It was oddly nice to know there was a little life that relied on him for nothing except for comfort.

Perfect noticed his expression and broke from her tirade. "We just can't win. But that is okay, I bet Cadance won't even look at those papers before tomorrow."

Art jerked a little, the filly on his back rousing and lifting her forehooves to stretch. 

"She won't?" The stallion looked a little surprised at both females.

"Hi…" Wild sounded sleepy still and lifted her hooves toward the bed she could clearly see. "Who are you?"

Perfect lifted the little bundle from Art's back, pulling her over toward the bed. "I am Perfect Poise, me and Art here are going to look after you while Princess Cadance does some important… work." The last word was spoken while bouncing her eyebrows at Articulate.

The filly yawned widely, nuzzling in against Perfect and squirming until she was set down beside the mare on the bed. Art was in real shock now, this was the most relaxed he had ever seen Perfect, even when it was just the two of them she always seemed at least a little on edge. He decided it was probably the best chance he was going to get to take advantage of this situation and climbed up on the bed himself, shedding his little saddlebag.

"What is your name?" Art settled down as the yawning filly seemed to snug between them. "I am," she yawned widely, showing off the sharp teeth her kind were known for, "Wild. Goodnight."

Art and Perfect blinked at the little filly, then looked to each other. They each saw in their friend a new side, a side that soon had them both settling heads down on pillows and sleeping, lest they wake the foal.





Wild had done it. She had gotten free of her minders for the day and, with the addition of a cute little woolen knitted outfit, was playing in the snow. Rolling around and pouncing into the soft drifts, she soon had some other foals find her. 

"Hi! I'm Lemon Sweets, who... are you?" One little filly had stepped up, her eyes darting around at the snow as the changeling seemed to have disappeared under the white surface.

The foal waited a few moments before turning back to her friends. The sneak attack of the hidden changeling was ruined by her attempt at a roar, sounding much more squeak-like.

Landing on the other filly, both of them giggling, Wild lifted her head and flared her wings. "I am queen of this snow! Nopony can defeat me!"

This, of course, sparked a hail of snowballs being tossed around.

Panting and puffing, the foals held a pitched battle with a group of them rushing to declare themselves as Wild's drones, throwing snow back at the 'food' at the behest of their little queen. 

To the side, a puffing stallion in guard uniform slumped. "Found you at last…" Sharp Pike was really panting. It hadn't actually been an order by his princess, but it didn't need to be. The filly was getting passed around and, over time, it had become a duty that needed to be carried out. 

That the princess herself had announced an impending foal had not shocked anypony, the love the royal couple shared was truly something special.

"Oh, he finally found me." Wild was mostly buried under a mass of snow, her eyes having caught sight of Sharp. "The queen must retire!" She proclaimed, getting another soft snowball as she squirmed free of the white bank.

A chorus of laments, by the 'drones', at having lost their hive and their queen rose as she buzzed her wings and flew over to the guard. "Hi not-queen Sharp." She landed beside him, leaning against the stallion's big legs.

"Really gave me the slip this time, how long were you out here for?" Sharp reached a hoof down and rubbed the adorable little filly's ears.

"Nearly all day!" She looked out at the other foals, regretting having given up so early, but a deal was a deal. Queen Cadance had made her promise that if she did get found by her minder there would be no silliness. She pondered if using a magical collar to tether the stallion while she ran would be 'silly'. While she was still trying to remember how to use that trick, she was lifted up and set on Sharp's back. "Woo! Pony ride!"

Sharp trotted, hooves lifting high enough that it could almost be a prance. All Wild Heart's minders had discovered just how terrible an idea it was to struggle against the adorable changeling.

He carried her back to the palace and started taking her up to where he knew Cadance would be waiting. The court for the day would almost be at an end and it would be time for the princess to have some time with Wild. As he stepped in, however, something very odd was already in the room. 

Cadance looked past the odd-looking bipedal changeling. "Here she is now."

"Daddy!" Wild leaped off Sharp's back and flew as fast as she could at the new figure. Sharp gasped when he saw the changeling-like creature seemed to be short a whole limb. The other, however, wrapped around the foal and hugged her close.

"Wild. Discord tells me you have been keeping well?" The odd pony looked at Sharp and there was an odd sense in the stallion. Like attracted like. Each gave a nod to the other, recognizing a soldier. 

The capricious spirit of chaos was lounging on his own little recreation of Cadance's own dais. "She has been a delight, I am sure." Discord twirled an umbrella in a drink he was sipping.

Sally turned to Cadance, smiling at the brightly colored mare. "Your kindness to my daughter speaks well of you." The changeling satyr, wearing oddly light clothing gave a deep nod of her head to Cadance. "You gave my foal a home, treated her as your own, I can see." 

"She did daddy!" Wild snuggled into Sally's arm. "They were really nice but be careful not to drink, she is really strong!"

Cadance grinned and wanted to reach out to the filly and give her one more hug. It was fortunate that Wild wished the same. Like a missile she flew at Cadance, wrapping her forelegs around the alicorn's neck. "I am going to miss you, Wild Heart. If you ever wish to visit again, I am sure Discord will be kind enough to help you get here."

Sally snorted. "Our hive grows by the week, in time we may end up trading."

The princess of love gave the squirming filly a last kiss on the head nosed at her ear. "Go back to your daddy." She lifted her voice as the little filly raced over to kiss Sharp on the cheek and return to her father. "Your hive has ponies?"

The question was loaded. "I am not going to answer that." Sally looked at Cadance, directly in the eyes, then away. "Discord, please take us home."

"Oh and things were just about to get interesting… oh well." There was a pop as both changelings were gone.

Cadance was left with a frown, she didn't even know what direction their hive was from here, although she assumed at least somewhere to the south.