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Chapter 11,799 words
Chapter 21,752 words

Chapter 2

"Bright Spark, would you join me for breakfast?"

Bright blinked, and then nodded enthusiastically before lifting his plate and moving over to a new table with his captain. Shining Armor looked better today, he thought- yesterday the drill seemed to have worn him out, but this morning he was as calm as a millpond.

"What can I do for you, sir?" Bright asked around a mouthful of oatmeal.

Shining sliced his apple in half with his magic and took a thoughtful bite.

"You graduated from the Crystal Academy in the top five percent of your year, correct?" Shining asked, his eyes steady on Bright.

"Yes. But I was actually in the top five students overall in my year," Bright explained, continuing in response to Shining's raised eyebrow. "I specialised in Magical Theory and that means you have to be good at Mathematics and Physics as well. And I took a Philosophy and Equestrian Literature minor as a way to, y'know, unwind, and I was good at that too. I don't want to brag, but while it's correct I'm in the top five percent, that's one in twenty ponies. It's only, y'know, pretty smart. I wanted you to have the full picture."

"And the full picture is?" Shining asked, his expression unchanging.

"I'm really smart," Bright beamed.

"Good," Shining said, smiling for the first time that morning. "I am removing you from your standard duties and putting you on a special assignment."

"Changeling detection?" Bright asked, and Shining Armor seemed to freeze up. "I figured since you had the drill yesterday, is all. You don't waste anypony's time, so you must be worried about changelings to run that drill. And I'm guessing we missed whatever evidence you'd planted in the market. Am I right?"

Shining took a deep breath and leaned forwards over the table.

"Yes. For the most part. But I need you to focus on the queen, Bright Spark. Find me a way to know- to know for absolute certain- whether a changeling queen is in the city, or has been in recent days."

Shining slid a pass across the table.

"This gets you into every part of the library. Every restricted section- it's all open to you. Just keep your eyes on the prize, Bright. I expect results."

Bright took the pass in his forehooves with an expression of glee.

"This is- wow. Thank you, Captain. I won't let you down."

"I'm very glad to hear that," Shining Armor said, and Bright Spark felt like he really meant it.

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HRH Princess Twilight Sparkle

Twily

Twilight,

Tell me a spell to detect changelings and don't come up to visit or anything because everything is fine and I don't want to risk exposing a princess of the realm and my only sister to a changeling queen who probably isn't real and did I mention that everything was fine?

Shining snorted in exhaustion and crumpled up the letter. Seven attempts in and he still hadn't come up with a way to ask Twilight for help that wouldn't make her come running as soon as she read it. That would put her at risk and that was unacceptable. And she'd have questions that he'd have to answer about things he didn't want to relive.

Shining twirled the paperweight on his inbox and thought. There was only one other pony he could write to who would understand, even if the reply would take some time to get back to him. He picked his quill back up, and fetched a new piece of parchment.

Cadance,

Sorry in advance, this isn't much of a love note. I miss you a whole lot. I found the letter you left for me today, I think. I'm not doing so well. The queen again, the dream again. I've exploded our bathroom a bit but it's nothing that can't be fixed by the time you come home. I can't tell what's going on and I need you back here.

Please respond with the date by which you can return? I want to be sure that it's you I'm talking to. I need to see you face to face.

Your loving husband
Shining Armor

Shining sealed the envelope and put it in his outgoing mail pile, before reaching for his inbox and picking up another report that needed his attention. Getting lost in work would be the-

INCIDENT: No-one's ever tasted like you. And I know you want me back. I know it. I can make you know it too.

Shining ignited the report in reflex, concentrating quiet fire on the crumpling embers until it was nothing but ash. He dropped it into the bin and grimaced at his handiwork.

His face fell.

"That was evidence, you idiot!" he said to himself.
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while there is ample evidence of the existence of changelings, there exists uncertainty in even the strongest changeling detection spells; the changeling adapts quickly to new magical influences. However, if a simple preliminary test is required, many options are available;

Bright Spark groaned.

He closed the motheaten tome, levitating it on top of a pile of equally hefty textbooks, dissertations, examinations and reports on changelings. They were all in complete agreement; absolute certainty from a changeling detection spell was impossible.

Bright Spark got on his hooves and took a quick trot around the library, waking himself up. He always did his best thinking on the move- something about being in motion made ideas flow easier, he thought to himself. So changelings could not be definitively detected by a spell designed to detect changelings.

"Like lie detection spells," Bright Spark said as he turned the corner into the History section.

There was something to that; a changeling was essentially a liar, and half their job was catching liars. But there wasn't a spell you could cast that made a pony tell the truth. You just had to ask questions, establish inconsistencies. Press them on the timelines over and over. Find the little parts that didn't add up. Perhaps-

"Spark!"

Bright Spark snapped to attention entirely on reflex. Shining Armor trotted up to him and snorted.

"What's going on, Spark? I thought you'd be busy researching."

"I am, sir. Just taking a quick walk to freshen up- I think we've got to come at this from a different angle than ponies have used in the past."

"Explain." Shining Armor's voice was flat.

"There's no spell that's ever existed that can certainly identify a changeling, sir. Not the way most ponies think of, anyhow. But I think there's a way we can use the complexity of their transformations against them; it's hard to transform, from what I've read, and most changelings take shortcuts. If we did things like pour soot on a pony and blow it away, their hair would react a certain way; changelings would have to recreate fur perfectly to mimic it. Their breathing, their teeth, their horns- I think there's a way to combine a lot of simple spells to find inconsistencies."

Shining Armor rubbed his jaw.

"That's interesting," he said. "I'd like you to work on that. But push the envelope in the shedding department too, Spark. Perhaps we can't locate a changeling, but like you said, little things add up. They must shed scales or chitin, must leave parts of themselves behind that don't keep up the change, yes?"

Bright Spark nodded slowly. It made sense that there'd be a forensic trail, but knowing where to start was difficult without-

"Are there any changeling husks or body fluids I could examine, sir? Or something enchanted with changeling magic?"

"Your archive pass gets you access to everything we have, Spark. Ask a librarian if you're unsure." Shining Armor glanced toward the shelves, as though something had caught his eye.

Bright Spark nodded, saluted and set off towards the main desk, leaving the captain to his thoughts.

Shining Armor levitated the book out of the stacks and stared at it. The cover read:

The Palace Remembers; The Crystal History Of The Empire.

How could he have forgotten? When most ponies here thought of crystal memory, they thought of the Testimonials, the recorded voices of ponies past embedded into crystals no bigger than thimbles. But that was just a specialized case; all crystals remembered the events around them. In the past he knew there'd been a changeling invasion of the Crystal Empire, long ago, and if he could make the palace remember-

Yes, thought Shining. This is how we find her.

He stalked along the shelves, pulling out histories and muttering about crystal theory. When he left, his saddlebags were bulging.

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Long past he should have been asleep, Shining flicked through the pages of one of the crystal theory textbooks.

The delicacy of the matrix can be preserved by applying Burning Sand's Modified Stasis spell at the standard intervals. Failure to preserve the matrix does not render the memory faulty on the first viewing, but on subsequent viewings the memory may be found to be corrupted or inaccurate.

"Ugh," Shining muttered. Burning Sand's spells never sat right with him; they were exhausting things to cast, and he was already tired. Shining shook his head, closed the book and trudged over to his bed; this would have to wait for tomorrow. He slipped into the covers, and squeezed his red-rimmed eyes shut, but his brain didn't quieten; his thoughts were a half-asleep tangle of fear and fury, only calming when he heard his wife shift behind him. He felt her warm breath on the back of his neck, her hoof on his side, and in the familiar comfort of her presence he found rest.

When he woke up, there was nothing and nopony there. Just the lingering scent of a perfume he'd asked her to stop wearing, and a strange, long imprint on her side of the bed.

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