//------------------------------//
// The end 
// Story: Shining Chitin 
// by Damaged 
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"Celestia and Luna both narrowed their eyes at the stallion but they got a cool smile in return." Careful got to the bottom of the page and cleared his throat. "I stopped when they flew out."

"So I did good?" Shining looked to his wife. He knew she was better at these kinds of things than he, particularly at reading the other princesses.

"Shiny, you did perfect." Cadance slid a wing around the changeling at her side. "Now, we let them simmer for a while, they are likely very upset to not have their hooves on the pulse this time, can you imagine when auntie talks to Twilight about it?"

Shining joined his wife in giggling, the odd mouth cutlery he now sported not impeding his eventual laughter at all.





Twilight looked over to Spike. "You don't have to come to this, Spike, it will be a boring meeting." She pulled out a checklist she had made, of issues she needed to touch base with, the checklist's number one item was, of course, to secure more paper for future checklists.

"Twilight." Celestia smiled and welcomed the purple alicorn in herself. "It has been too long, how is the castle-life treating you?"

No matter how many times Twilight spent 'as a peer' of Celestia's, she would never, ever, get used to talking to her as one. "Very well, thank you Princess Celestia." She trotted into the room, finding Luna and the new captain of the royal guard. The bright smile on her lips faltered a little. "Where are Shining and Cadance?"

Celestia's eyes narrowed and she looked at Twilight with eyes that dearly wished they could dig all the way through the mare's head to get at her knowledge. "They are what we must discuss. I trust you heard about the… changeling express incident?"

"When they rescued all the changelings and gave them a new home in the Crystal Empire? The news is slow, to Ponyville, but that kind of thing does travel." Twilight found a nice divan and climbed up onto it.

"Well that was just the beginning, it seems." Celestia was doing all the talking but Luna was doing all the fuming. "When we approached them about it there were some… charades. Cadance had a changeling disguise as Shining."

Twilight sipped from a cup of tea. "Oh, why would she do that? Last I heard he could disguise on his own." Twilight got half another sip when she realized what she had let slip. "Err, I mean, not that he needs-"

"Twilight Sparkle, why didn't you tell us your brother was turning into a changeling?" Luna filled in for her sister, whose mouth appeared to be moving but no sounds were coming out.

"He was embarrassed, he wasn't sure how everypony would react. But most of all, because he asked me." Twilight was unsure what she had done wrong, but something told her she really shouldn't giggle at the face her mentor was pulling. Luna stopped and really thought about it. She could certainly empathize with the stallion for looking like a monster, a fair chunk of Equestria still considered her some kind of monster, although a tame one. "How was he looking? Last I saw of him he still had most of his fur, although his letters tell me there isn't a lot left."

The Princess of the Night relaxed from her anger, she let it go and took a deep, slow breath. "He seems a lot more forward than he was in the past. We assume this new… aspect, has strengthened his character in that regard. As for how he looks, he looks very much like a stallion version of Chrysalis herself, which was a little startling." Luna mused back on their meeting, she hadn't seen past her own shock at the apparent betrayal, but now she might have to return and apologize. 

Celestia had regained her poise and closed her mouth. "In the future, Princess Twilight, could you please keep us appraised of foreign leaders if they are becoming shape-changers?" The white alicorn actually saw the humor of her request and a wry smile was on her snout. "Or any such things, really."

"But it was my brother, and he asked nicely." Twilight didn't like the implications of the conversation. "If you are going to ask me to spy on my brother, well, I don't think that is very friendly."





"And then she finally relented. We think our sister needed to vent." Luna sat beside Twilight, having decided on joining her peer in visiting the Crystal Empire. "But enough of that, how are your new citizens settling in? We had such trouble getting our thestrals integrated."

Shining, now looking every bit the changeling, smiled and showed off the fangs that had reached their full and impressive size. What was odder for the dark alicorn was the changelings, openly undisguised, serving them and apparently fitting in amazingly well in the city and castle. 

"It was touch and go for a while, but when everypony realized there was no need to fear them, that they just wanted what everypony wants, things calmed down." Cadance sampled some cake Twilight had brought with her. Celestia herself was said to order cake from Sugarcube Corner in Ponyville.

"And just what does everypony want?" Luna was genuinely interested in what answer the pair would give.

"To love, to be loved. To have the freedom to do both of those things. To not have to worry about being pushed around while doing it all." Shining tried some cake too, and although he really didn't need food, it was a 'bad habit'. Or so Careful had told him.

"Don't forget friendship!" Twilight smiled to her BBBFF. "Friendship is-"

Twilight was interrupted by a changeling bringing her another slice of cake. "Friendship is tasty." Nopony was immune to the giggles that resulted, particularly not Chrysalis, who had served the mare she thought once to be her enemy, but now… now she was the sister of her queen. And tasty.