The Last Changeling Queen

by Atuhor Name

CH. 16 Plans and Surprises

Plans and Surprises

Spike's workroom was large. It seemed like the kind of hell you'd go to if you didn't like paperwork. Every part of the room was filled with ponies writing official-looking paperwork and collaborating around various thesauri stationed around the room.

Twilight and Naudia could tell they were thesauri, because as soon as they got in there, they heard ponies arguing over which word would be better to use. However, they didn't have much time to reflect upon this, because seconds after they stepped into the room, a knee-high ball of scales and nerves shouted something incomprehensible and latched onto Twilight's leg.

"IMSORRYTWILIGHTIDIDNTMEANTOHURTYOUWITHTHATPARTY!"

The room stopped. Everybody was looking in their direction, frozen in place, then just like in the ill-fated and halfway-completed changeling play, they began working again, as one.

"Pardon me?" was the only thing that Naudia could think of to say.

But it was clear from one glance at Spike's teary eyed face that he was going to need more than a moment to compose himself.

It took several minutes for Spike to actually calm down. The worst part for Twilight was that Spike wasn't actually crying: everything that had happened in the last few days had finally washed over him and he was emitting a pitiful wheeze-wail, helplessly clinging to Twilight's chest.

When Spike finally did calm down enough to talk, he looked ragged. His scales were dirty, some of his spines were creased, and his hands were stained with ink.

“We've *hic* we've almost run out of food down here, Twilight. I don't know what to do about it.”

“That sounds…” Then something dawned on Twilight. “Wait a second. Why are you the one having to deal with this, anyways?”

“Nobody else wanted to take responsibility.”

Twilight glared out over the ponies, who all suspiciously looked like they had just gotten back to work to look busy.

“Naudia? Do you think you could look after Spike for a moment?” Twilight was so angry that she didn't even wait for an answer, and instead walked off to find some answers.

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There was a minute where the only real sound was Spike blowing his nose, before he finally made eye contact with Naudia.

“So uhh… you and Twilight are together?”

Naudia looked away from Twilight and back at the dragon. Surprisingly, he didn't seem to be judging her at all.

“I don't think there has really been anything formal yet, we haven't even been on a date, but yes, we are together."

There wasn't really anything to say for a moment, so both of them looked over to see Twilight bawling out one of the ponies that was Spike's second in command.

"So, what’s it like being royalty?"

It took Naudia a second to realize that Spike was talking to her.

"Well, I get some special privileges, like I get access to all the O&O rulebooks before anyling else. Generally, if I ever wanted to improve myself in any way, my mother would pull strings to make it happen." Naudia put her hoof to chin in thought. "But I was also expected to be better than everyling else, and everybody else, for that matter. No excuses, no shortcuts, none of my teachers were allowed to give me an ounce of favoritism inside of schoolwork.

"’Course, that was just while I was in school. Now... now it’s stressful. I feel like I have to second guess myself a lot. Being in a relationship with Twilight, as great as it’s been, hasn't been easy for her family or mine." Naudia was thinking back to Cadance and Shining, conspicuously not thinking about talking to Twilight's parents.

"I heard you were Chrysalis's daughter. I imagine that must've been tough."

"Other than the drastically raised expectations, I thought it was great."

"'Thought'?" Spike latched onto that word rather quickly.

"Yeah, I never really knew at the time, but mother was prejudiced, heavily prejudiced, against ponies. I'm only beginning to realize it recently." Naudia glanced back at Spike and shot him a similar question. "How was it growing up with Twilight?"

"Structured."

"Is that it?"

"I don't think it would be fair to say that was it, but... but it was all very planned out, math homework at 4pm, Eqquish at 4:30, Dinner at 5. I actually learned to solve addition math problems before I learned how to read."

"Sounds tough."

"It's the kind of thing they always tell me that 'you’ll appreciate it when you’re older'." Spike said sourly.

Once again the conversation stopped entirely.

"You know, I think that armor really makes Twilight a lot more intimidating."

"Don't tell anybody, but we made it out of parchment."

Spike simply looked stupefied for a moment.

"Yes, of course. That would be the type of armor Twilight would wear."

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Numbskulls probably don't even know how to fill out a standard issue reprimand form. Twilight fumed to herself, no wonder Spike had to step in, these idiots couldn't organize a silverware drawer.

Well, said another more analytical voice in her head, they probably could, but they'd be sure to mix up the big forks with the four-tined food-stabbers.

She came back to Naudia and Spike to find nothing she was expecting. Spike was still worse for wear, but looked to be holding up better. The atmosphere wasn't nearly as awkward as she was expecting. She walked over to them to ask Spike about something, but in all the excitement, it had completely slipped her mind why she was there.

"Why are we here again?"

"We need to schedule an appointment with Luna, remember." Naudia reminded her.

"Really, you aren't here to help with our food problem?"

"Food problem? All the changelings I've seen look perfectly fine to me."

"Pony food, Naudia."

Spike and Twilight both waited for Naudia's mind to tick over.

"Oh dear. I don't know how long it would take to grow enough fungus to feed this many ponies. An operation of this scale has never even been considered possible." Naudia looked distant. “Getting this many ponies in one place to feed off of…”

"Just one thing, do you guys even know about-" Spike gestured, as if they should have already known what he was talking about.

"Know about what?"

"Well... errr Luna. Do you already know about her?"

"Yes, of course we know about Luna, she's still free right?"

"Then you haven't heard--" Instantly Spike snapped into organizing again, snapping his fingers at a nearby pony. "Quills, who is first on the list to have a meeting with Luna next?"

"That would be, uhh, F. Pants, sir."

"Good, he'll be more understanding. Bump him up the list and put Naudia and Twilight in his slot."

"But the others won't be so-"

"Deal with it. We need to get moving now, and fast."

And so it went: a baby dragon waltzing through the cave-office, gruffly ordering around ponies three times his age, with all the speed and tact of an editor-in-chief at the busiest newspaper in the world. Twilight and Naudia got a good chuckle when one of the ponies had to bend down when walking beside him, just so he could see the paper they were trying to get approved.

Eventually Spike made his way all the way around the room and had collected a small stack of papers along the way.

"All right, here is your Luna Visitation Form, very important. Don't lose your LVF. Your "Temporary Supreme High Lance General" certificate, that should get you past any security checkpoints you find, and if anybody asks, that’s your government assigned job card as well. Ration stamp card. And finally, the legal agreements to go along with them."

"'Not including, but up to, death and dismemberment by corrupted changelings.'" Twilight read aloud.

"Twilight, you're not supposed to read them. They're a temporary thing to keep people calm and stop them doing stupid things."

"Where did you come up with all of this?" Naudia asked.

"Well, we had to come up with something to keep people calm. We couldn't just say nothing, after all, 'silence is the worst policy,' so to make sure ponies don't go doing something stupid just to FIND something to do, we started assigning them stuff to do beforehand."

"So, you did listen to Celestia when she was teaching me about politics, after all."

“I'm still not prepared for all this though, Twilight. We need your help. We need it bad.”

“Why? Everything looks like it's going as well as it could.”

“We're running out of food down here Twilight, and we're stuck. It's a stalemate.”

“How can we help?”

“I don't know, but Luna seemed to think you could, so go.” Spike squinted up at the pocket-watch hung on the wall as a makeshift clock. “You have fifteen minutes to make it to the center of the chamber and meet Luna. If you hurry now you should make it.”

As they were about to leave, Spike grabbed Twilight's hoof and looked up at her, tears threatening to escape again.

“If you do go up to the surface, Twilight… Mom and Dad are still up there, just…” Caught halfway between his responsibilities and his age, Spike didn't know how to proceed. “Just do what you can, all right?”

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It turned out 15 minutes was cutting things close. Too close: they were Tardy.

In the past, Twilight had suggested to Celestia a government system based entirely around paperwork. when she was much, much younger, she actually thought that the various forms you would have to fill out on a day-to-day basis would be a good idea. Here, Twilight got a taste of what such a country would be like for a person in a rush so as not to be tardy.

It was living hell.

Granted, it kept people busy and calm in the short term, giving them PLENTY to do, with little time to think about such things as sneaking off into Canterlot.

But Twilight wanted to go back in time and slap herself for letting such an idea out into the universe.

Meanwhile, Naudia was experiencing for the first time how fast Twilight's composure could completely unravel. While it was pretty much on par with her any day there was a test, Naudia couldn't quite comprehend being so uptight about being tardy. After all, noling had complained about it back home if she had a good enough excuse.

She was, however, becoming more and more concerned that their path was taking them to the epicenter of the chamber, towards the changeling queen, and there was still no Luna in sight.

Surprisingly enough, Naudia didn't know what to think of seeing another hive's changeling queen. To the best of her knowledge, there hadn't been “another hive” anywhere in her lifetime. The best she could describe the sensation would be looking in on somebody you didn't know while they were sleeping. The gravity of there being another changeling queen was having difficulty sinking into the layers and years of being a nearly extinct species, all the stories she heard as a child muffling the impact.

And then they were there, and the sirens started.

Magical sirens started blaring from every corner of the cavern, as guards and changelings alike rushed to the edges of the chamber. The only remaining pony guards stood like statues around the changeling queen floating in the center of the cavern. All of them tensed up as the shield around the caverns retracted. It was a truly momentous event, and Twilight and Naudia couldn't help but stare as it met resistance passing over the teal hive's changelings in the cavern.

“Looks like they're getting ready for a fight... a big one.” Naudia commented.

While they were focused so much on the outside of the cavern, behind them the exhausted-looking changeling queen had finally reached the ground.

"Good morrow Twilight."

"Oh, hello Luna, I didn't see you..." Twilight turned to face the changeling queen, only to find a lack of Luna anywhere. Gradually her mind put two and two together, based on the changeling's regal stance and flowing star-like mane. "-there..."

"Ooook." Naudia edged into the conversation. "I'm going to need an explanation, and it better be one heck of a good one."

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As Luna finished her explanation as best she remembered it, Twilight and Naudia seemed in a daze.

"So let me get this straight: in order to escape Nightmare Moon, you used the moon as a proxy to transfer your soul into a changeling queen several hundred years ago."

"That's about the shape of it."

"And how have I not heard before about this splinter group of changelings that moved back into Equestria?" Naudia asked.

"Maybe your mother assumed we died in our foolish venture, or were wiped out in the badlands, or we were cursed by Nightmare Moon, and were all destroyed."

"I'm going to need quite some time to process this."

"Sadly, that is time we cannot grant, as we need you for our plan."

"And what would that be, exactly?"

"We need you to create a distraction up in Canterlot."

Twilight opened her mouth and Naudia reached out a hoof to stop her.

"Why us?"

"Hold on a moment. We haven't even gotten to the whole 'are you really Princess Luna?' part of this whole discussion yet. It wouldn't be the first time Luna was impersonated by a changeling."

Luna made a pointed glare at Naudia.

It was then that sounds of fighting began to echo in the cavern, as changelings and guards began their scheduled half hour siege again.

"I would love to have the time to discuss this with you, Twilight, but the lives of guards, changeling and pony alike depend on me keeping this discussion short."

Twilight hadn't thought of it that way.

"All right. Tell us what we need to do."

Author's Note:

I intended this to be longer and where you meet Fluttershy, however I ran out of time before my editor leaves for three weeks so it had to end like this. Next time the talk with Fluttershy will be longer than previously(more fleshed out than probably the talk with Rarity or Spike).

As usual if you need to contact me you can PM me.