The Last Changeling Queen

by Atuhor Name

CH. 04 Escalation

Escalation

Luna was in the presence of friends.

This may not sound like an unusual occurrence, but for the Lunar diarch, friends were hard to come by. Outside of Ponyville, most of the ponies she came into contact with were nobles, servants, or her guards. The nobles had lost something since her day, in her opinion--tact. They were polite as punch in person, but as soon as they thought she was out of earshot (they did not know Luna's ears could shoot farther than most), she could feel, and often hear, the rumor mill turning.

The servants didn't live in constant fear of Nightmare Moon anymore, but it was easy to see them step carefully, even now, around the Princess of the Night, as if they were afraid she was about to explode back into Nightmare Moon the second her tea was too cold. Their rumors were much less widespread, less harsh, but their actions were no less disheartening.

The Night Guard were professional, terse, and polite to a T, but that's all they were. Luna trusted them with her life, but she wouldn't trust even her guard captain to hold up a decent conversation. Inevitably, they faded into the background. The thestrals naturally faded from anypony’s awareness, and indeed their view, quickly. That was what they were trained for; that was what they were best at. So, after a few too many awkwardly one sided conversations, Luna left the Night Guard to stand where they were comfortable, stock still and on alert. Luna hated to think of them as furniture, but it was hard when they slid in so easily between the grandfather clock and leather chair in her study.

So when Luna met friends, she held onto them as tightly as she could. This is the kind of thinking that led her to volunteer to head up the changeling prison camp. Which was a fortunate turn of events for all involved, because she still liked their company and they practically worshiped her.

It wasn't an ideal solution, but it worked. The camp was loose, nopony tried to escape, and no prisoners were mistreated. Luna had to drop her open door policy after a bit because she was flooded with would-be visitors and handmade gifts, which the changelings made with whatever they had to hand.

Now she took appointments and it was doing wonders for her self-esteem. Luna was even in talks with Celestia for hiring out changelings to replace her day-to-day servants. In fact, the changeling guards who stayed with her in the castle were there with her now instead of her normal guards. Standing out, talking back, it was like a breath of fresh air compared to the stagnant mediocrity of tradition.

Luna was stopped mid-contemplation, however, when Celestia burst into the room with a hastiness and lack of decorum not often seen.

"Luna-" Celestia stopped mid-sentence, glaring at the changeling standing in the corner of the room, as if it were on guard, Celestia thought.

“Luna, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask your guard to leave the room.” The word guard was spoken in a diplomatic tone, as if to say ‘guard, oh yes he’s a guard, but he’s not one of our guards.’

Mattar looked somewhat taken aback at this, but a nod from the Moon Princess was enough to make him leave the room.

Luna turned back from watching Mattar leave to find Celestia casting a spell on the entire room.

"Sister, what is the meaning of this? Surely nothing could be so-"

"Twilight has been compromised."

"I'm sorry, what?" Luna's demeanor changed instantly into her court face, unreadable and focused.

"Sometime during her time with that changeling queen, Twilight was turned to their side."

"Surely, sister, you jest. Twilight checked out clean from the first moment getting back. She even brought home the Changeling Queen single-hoofed."

"Well that changeling queen got something by us. Twilight just broke down completely after her friends threw her a surprise 'happy you defeated the changeling queen’ party. " Celestia said the word queen with all manner of disrespect intended, deliberately saying it with a lowercase Q every time.

"That can't be all the evidence you have. That could just be stress. You told me yourself that she requested to be taken off the expedition into the changeling hive."

"She broke down crying and babbling about how she betrayed Naudia."

Unconsciously Luna brought a hoof up to her mouth. "Oh dear."

"Yes. So I've got doctors re-running all those tests on her mind, and I've got even more of them examining her for any chemical means of control."

"So why are you here? What do you want me to do?" Luna asked.

Celestia sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. Everything seemed to be going so fast for her. She didn't have the time to slow down that she desperately needed at the moment.

"I need you to do a deep dreamwalk on Twilight."

Luna simply stared at Celestia, completely at a loss for words. Eventually, Luna collected her wits and closed her mouth.

"But you, especially you of all ponies, know how dangerous that is."

"Nevertheless, Luna, I am asking you to do it.”

Luna looked very much like she wanted to say no.

“Twilight helped you when you were in the grasp of Nightmare Moon. She needs your help now.”

“Very well...” Luna said, but her demeanor still said no. “But only after all other options available to us have been exhausted.”

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Mattar left the meeting between the Princesses in a state of unease. While his loyalty to Princess Luna was firm, it was entirely secondary to protecting his Queen. And if things came down to the line, he would side with Naudia every time, no matter what. It was at least partially personal: he wanted to have kids someday, and to his knowledge, Naudia was the only Changeling Queen in existence.

"You look worried, is there something wrong?"

Mattar looked to the side of the door where Kiri, Luna's other changeling guard was standing.

"Celestia just shooed me out of the room like I was a spy."

"Well yes, Mattar, but they are heads of state. There is a whole range of things they could be talking about in there. She just as easily could have shooed out one of her own guards."

"You know you don't believe that. You've seen the way she looks at us. We're less than dirt to her."

Unfortunately, Kiri didn't have a chance to answer. She appeared to have frozen in place. Mattar looked around frantically and... everything seemed to have frozen in place. Flags stopped mid-billow, and pegasi hung motionless in the air.

Frantically looking around, trying to figure out if he had gone mad or not, Mattar didn't notice the strange figure until it was almost right in front of him. It stood there in an unnaturally motionless way, such that it became hard to notice among all the other unnaturally motionless things.

Then it spoke.

"Mattar."

Mattar nearly jumped out of his skin as it turned its head to him.

"Do you want to save your Queen?"

"Wh- who are you?"

"I am very important, but that's not why I'm here." It held out a key on a chain in one strange five-fingered appendage. "I'm here to help you save somebody very important to you."

Mattar shuddered, the thing spoke unnaturally, it moved unnaturally, it looked at him unnaturally. If there was some creature in the badlands more unpleasant than it was, Mattar had never fought it.

"I am here to help you save your Queen, Mattar."

"Why should I trust you?"

"You can't. But you can trust yourself. You know something is wrong here, and you know she's in danger. And you cannot know what Celestia has planned, but I do. And I can tell you this: Celestia will have a new statue in her sculpture gardens by the end of the week."

It idly dangled the iron key on its chain.

"Unless you decide to do something about it."

Mattar was silent for a time.

"What do you want from me?"

"From you? Nothing. I only expect you to do what you think is right. And decide where your loyalties lie."

Mattar was silent once again.

"Ah, well. I'll just leave this here and let you think on it for a bit. Not too long, though: I hear Celestia is ordering an increase in the security around the dungeon. And this prison camp. Something about unrest among the prisoners... and all that."

And then the thing was gone, the key lying on the ground, foreboding, as everything started to move again. Mattar looked up and noticed for the first time that there were several large holes in security around the camp. Pegasi guards not paying attention at their posts, major blocks in the field of view of guards who were, and a complete lack of a magic suppressor on his horn.

The key didn’t even jangle on its chain when he picked it up.

----------------

It was a dungeon, a fairytale dungeon, barred by a thick wooden door, with bars at roughly face height for a pony. Nearly bare, the cell was made of stone and had just the barest amenities, a very shallow washbasin, and what could charitably be called a toilet.

None of this much mattered to Naudia as she sat on the lumpy straw mattress hung on the tasteless, and frankly stereotypical, stone wall.

She had been idly whittling away the time in between visits from the guards doing precisely nothing.

Nothing at all.

Out in the desert, she had played her last card, thrown it away so that Twilight could be safe from suspicion. Naudia had no regrets now. Twilight was safe with her friends, and that was all that mattered now.

Hours, minutes, or seconds later, it mattered very little which, she heard hoofsteps outside her cell.

A dull clink of soft, weighty metal.

The Princess had come to visit her once again.

She did not look forward to visits from the Princess. They were always punctuated with glares of suspicion, and tasted of a kind of lowburn hatred and stubbornness. Naudia had tried to be as patient as possible with Celestia, but her continued suspicion had evolved into what Naudia could only call prejudice, in spite of, or perhaps because of, her cooperation. Naudia couldn't quite be sure.

"Get up." The Celestial ruler’s voice was cold as the winter sun.

Knowing she would be lifted up if she didn't comply, Naudia rolled off the bed and came to the door, noting how Celestia flinched backwards as she did.

"What is-" Naudia began but was cut off.

"What have you done to Twilight Sparkle?"

"I'm sorry?" Naudia dropped her carefree attitude, now completely paying attention to Celestia.

"What. Have. You. Done. To Twilight?" Celestia asked, her voice a picture of menace.

"Did something happen to her?" A genuine hint of worry crept into her voice.

"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed that even you would stoop that low. Now I will ask you one last time."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Naudia burst in, now seriously agitated, now that something had happened to Twilight.

"Don't play dumb with me. You will tell me how to reverse any and all magic you have cast on her immediately."

"But... but I haven't cast any magic on her!"

Celestia merely glared at Naudia, letting out a frustrated sigh.

"Very well then. Your trial is tomorrow, and I will be presiding over it. You have until then to change your mind."

Celestia left the unveiled threat hanging in the air as she turned and left the dungeon, each hoofstep echoing in Naudia's mind.

Naudia looked up at the magic suppressor on her horn for a long moment. She had put it on as an act of good faith, a metaphorical white flag to any that saw her, to show any and all precisely what her intentions were.

It’s just a shame she never included a way to allow herself to unlock it.