Wolf In Pony's Clothing

by Ardashir

Epilogue: Canterlot

Epilogue: Canterlot

A very odd procession made its way into the Sun Palace. A small herd of frightened and wary ponies, oddly so given that they were entering the castle of their Princesses. Onlookers might not have noticed anything very special about them, aside from the bulging saddlebags they bore, bags that occasionally squirmed, and the fact that every single one of them had golden eyes, very unusual among ponies. A few of Luna’s Night Guards accompanied them, blinking as the mid-afternoon sun came through their smoked-glass goggles.

All save for three in the lead. Prince Blueblood stumbled along. Filth stained his fetlocks and sides, and he reeked of an odor all too familiar to anypony that ever had to pass an open sewer or deal with a backed-up toilet. He seemed to be staring at nothing in particular, though he flinched away whenever one of the mares behind him got too close.

“I was in a sewer,” he moaned in a very small voice, like a foal told they were going to the dentist. “And I stink.”

The two mares behind him just shared a long-suffering look and rolled their eyes. The long-legged, black-coated unicorn with mane and tail and eyes of gold shook her head.

“Has that drone always been like this?” She looked at the pony beside her. “I am surprised you and your sister keep him around, even if he is descended from Princess Platinum.”

“He hath his uses,” Her Immortal Highness Princess Luna responded. “He actually does help the new branch of the Navy, the airships, with their mapping, thus his cutie mark. And while he speaks little of it, he follows the old fashion of the nobility in being charitable.” She snorted and added, “When he is not pursuing mares, that is. Of all the old customs that have gone by the wayside – and come back in fashion and been cast aside again, according to my sister’s student and the histories I have read – the one wherein high-ranking stallions kept harems of mares, only to leave all to their first-born colt, is best gone.” By now they were passing through one of the lesser gates of the palace, the old Moon Gate that faced westwards. Luna sighed as she passed through the doors and into the shade beyond. Darkness gathered around the Princess of Night, shading her. Her guards looked happier as well, stretching their batlike wings.

The ponies who entered with her showed the greatest change, however. They were all enveloped in golden fire before they changed back into gold-trimmed ebon Changelings. The ones bearing saddlebags set them down carefully and opened them. Smiles crossed their chitinous muzzles as the nymphlings stuck their heads out, peering around with wide eyes at the silver-trimmed obsidian walls that surrounded them. Blueblood looked ready to recoil, but a warning glance from his aunt kept him standing still. Vespid smiled down on her young as the nursery-keepers began feeding them, offering more than enough love that they’d harvested on their trip through Canterlot, but she frowned when she looked around at the large chamber they stood in.

“Is this of sufficient size for thy Hive?” When Vespid didn’t respond, Luna said, “We could find a larger room, if so needed.”

“It is not that,” Vespid said. She flew up off the ground and looked around the chamber, her wings buzzing. It was two stories tall, with slender pillars and decorated with paintings and scenes of the night sky. She dropped back down by Luna, her brow furrowing. “It is only that my Hive lived in those old tunnels since before the Nightmare was banished, when Canterlot itself was but a mountain village for unicorn nobles. And stealth, caution, have always been the Changeling way.”

“’Til Chrysalis,” Luna said. Vespid nodded unhappily.

“Until Chrysalis,” she said. “But now we are in the Palace itself. For how long?” She gave Luna a meaningful look. “Many ponies still fear us. After the events of the Wedding, maybe they have good reason. Can we stay here forever?”

“You will not need to,” Luna said and smiled. “Thy Hive will be granted the use of one of the old palaces and estates, and both Celestia and I will have our most trusted Night and Day Guards keeping an eye on it. And the noble owner of said estate will also be under our orders to see to the good health and privacy of thee and thine. And rest assured, it will indeed be a fine palace, will it not, Nephew?”

“Huh? What?” Blueblood looked away from the mirror he’d been mournfully staring in as he examined the damage to his carefully-kept coat. He quickly nodded at Luna and Vespid. “Oh, yes, Aunt Luna, I’m sure you’ll choose somepony trustworthy to keep an eye on the bu – on them.” He added quickly as Vespid buzzed her wings in annoyance at his poorly chosen words. Blueblood said, “I’m sure that somepony like Fancy Pants will do, even if he’s not a real noble, had to buy his title…”

“It will indeed be a noble of the finest thoroughbred line, that of the old Unicornian Royal Herd,” Luna said to Blueblood, a smile quirking at her lips as his eyes widened. She idly examined one silver-clad forehoof. “Thy family Palace and thy herd’s Estate in the Ravine, My Mortal Nephew.”

Luna waited for her Night Guards to pull Blueblood back up from the floor and make sure he could still stand before she continued “Now, Thy MORTAL Highness, should not a reigning Queen,” she nodded at Vespid, “be offered less than the very best hospitality my sister and I may offer? And besides, as Queen Vespid herself hath said, she and thee have already met and gotten on quite well.”

Blueblood looked at Vespid in shock. Vespid showed her fangs as she smiled back at him and batted nonexistent eyelashes.

Blueblood sank unconscious to the floor.

Comments

[Nightmare Wolf]

Blueblood got what he deserved, excellent!
Wouldn't mansion, even this big, be too small for the whole growing swarm? Wouldn't it be better to upgrade original hive, add official entrance etc.?

[ThePrinceOfTheNorth]

Blueblood+Changeling Queen=*Faint*