So, You Want to be a Princess?

by Meep the Changeling

Epilouge

Princess Cadence - 11/03/2018

The Nest - Badlands, Equestria

“Can you hear me, Cadie?”

Cadence groaned. The voice sounded so far away.

What’s going on?

She opened her eyes, but nothing changed. The world remained black and distant. Cadence gasped, her body felt numb and distant but also strange. Something fundamental was off and she couldn't quite tell what.

Cadence's heart skipped a beat as panic flooded through her body. For a moment she swore she felt a second heart keeping her blood flowing while the other stopped. Her panic deepened, becoming and ocean of terror.

The mare's ears drooped, making both stone and chitin creak as she tried to turn her head to find the source of the voice. “Who are you? Where am I? Why is everything dark?”

“It’s me, Cadie. Shining,” Shining said as he placed a hoof on Cadence’s side.

Cadence felt his touch and smiled as she felt their love along with his hoof. Then she frowned, her lips pulling across her teeth, making her acutely aware of a pair of fang-like canine teeth. “Good… Why can’t I see? What happened to my teeth? What's going on?”

A voice Cadence didn’t recognize cleared its throat. “You’re only half de-petrified. What’s the last thing you remember?”

Cadence groaned. Her head hurt fairly bad. “Flying away from the tower. Who are you?”

“That’s Quick Study. He works for us now,” Shining explained. “Soo… You remember Chrysalis swapping your bodies?”

Every part of Cadence's body that could move twitched as a bolt of anger raced through her. The sound of creaking and cracking stone, groaning chitin, and thrumming gossamer from a single wing “Yes! So that’s what she did! Buck! We need to get back to the palace and—”

Cadence frowned and twitched her one mobile wing again, listening to the faint buzzing sound it made. That's not feathery rustling... Oh... Oh, god no... That's right. The sudden perspective change. Did she swap our—

“I’m sorry, my Queen. We cannot,” Quick sighed, his voice carrying genuine distress. “It’s been almost half a year since the invasion. With you petrified, Chrysalis was able to convince everypony she was the real deal. Celestia did check with magic, but she has your real body, and some of her few remaining agents were able to alter records of your soul’s aura-signature. She got away with it.”

Cadence felt the mother of all curses brewing in her gut and ready to explode out of her lips. Her left eye twitched as the sightless draconic emerald orb contracted. “Mother… bucking… daughter of a—”

Shining gently placed a hoof on Cadence’s lips. “Quick! We agreed to break that to her slowly!”

“I’m sorry, Princess. But she needs to know the truth.”

Cadence pushed Shining’s hoof away from her mouth with her tongue. “Excuse me! I need to finish swearing angrily!”

“Cadie, it’s not as bad as you think!” Shining promised, his fur rustling as he moved around to her front side.

“HOW?!” Cadence demanded, bearing her fangs as her pointed ears perked, looking almost like horns as they jut forward with her rage.

“For starters, Celestia is now extremely paranoid. Security all across Equestria is stupid-tight, to the point where dispelling charms are stripping all active spells from anypony who enters any government building. Walk through the door, poof! All your magic is gone. She even found a way to make them force changelings to demorph.”

Cadence felt the air move as Quick nodded in agreement. “Chrysalis can do nothing via her normal means of subterfuge… And doesn't seem to want to. As far as we can tell, she’s decided to take on your roll entirely. I believe nearly losing everything has made her decide to… Not turn over a new leaf, but play things very slow and close to her chest. She can get the throne she wanted simply by being you after all. That was her original plan. She won, technically.”

Cadence frowned, expecting a knot to form in her stomach as anger built in her, but she had no stomach to be knotted up. Instead, a deep tingling in the back of her throat burned away as her emotions raged. “Oh yeah… She was going to pretend to be me for however long it took before this mess started, didn’t she?”

Shining nodded twice and gave Cadence a gentle kiss on the cheek. Cadence's ears twitched as she felt his affection as if it were a real tangible thing she could touch, and also something she could smell. Another layer of the strange sensation whispered in her ear, telling her that the stallion found her now smooth body quite sexy.

“That’s right," Shining said. "Her plan B doesn't work because nobody saw you doing amazing things during the invasion, and she’s no longer a changeling. She wouldn’t get the power boost. So she’s just being you. We have till she is given the Crystal Throne to sort all of this out.”

Cadence sighed. “More problems… life is always more problems… What are our assets?”

Cadence could hear the smile in Quick's voice as he spoke. “We have a decent force, my Queen. Myself, and sixty other changelings, Twilight Sparkle, the entirety of the Hay’s Angels biker gang, the nest we dug under an old castle in the badlands, and of course the Princess.”

Cadence frowned, her un-petrified wing slid down along her exoskeleton, making a sad creaking noise almost like a violin. “Which one?”

Shining paused as he tried not to laugh at his birde's wing-emote. “He means me. Changelings are weirded out by male leaders, so they started calling me Princess.”

“Also you’re still a mare most of the time,” Quick reminded with a smirk.

“Oh, buck off!” Shining grumbled. “It’s not my fault I can only be a stallion for about ten—”

Shining’s voice changed from masculine to feminine mid sentence as he reverted to Gleaming Shield once more. “— minutes. … Dang it! Once she's on her hooves again you are so fixing this!”

Quick giggled. "I thought you liked being a mare."

"I do! For short piriods, for fun. I want to be me again too."

Cadence smiled, a giggle escaping her lips before she frowned. Someone was missing from this reunion. “Where’s Harley?”

If we lost my little girl-bike I will bucking—

Cadence felt a rush of happyness come from Quick as he smiled and her synaisthima glands fully depetrified. She could feel Quick's pride, the wizard most differently took extreme joy in his arcane accomplishments. “She’s playing with some of the other sapient motorcycles I made for the Hay’s Angels as a reward for helping you, my Queen. They enjoy racing in the dunes above us.”

Cadence sighed in relief and wished she could see exactly where she was and what it was like. Knowing who we have to work with is one thing, but I realy wish I coudl see what we have. I have the feeling we have a cave. This sounds like a cave.

"Above us? Are we underground?"

Quick tapped the rock under his hooves. "Of course we are, your highness. We dug a proper nest for you. We're working on installing mana-lines to power lighting at present. Don't worry, this will all be state of the art. Far better than our nest on Earth... Just without Netflix."

Gleaming snickered. "No, we'll have Netflix. I got Twilight to smuggle the 'laptop' Princess Celestia souped up for me to the next. It's more than able to serve as a network hub."

Cadence blinked in surprise. "We will have power, and internet, in a cave?"

"Nest," Quick corrected. "We have floors, halls, rooms, furniture, we even have some carpeting! This is a planned structure made from carving out rock. It's not a cave!"

Cadence could feel the changeling's indignation. Okay, don't call it a cave. He's proud of this. It's probably nice “Okay… What’s our plan to unbuck this situation?”

Gleaming cleared her throat, prompting Cadence's ears to swivel to face her. “Our plan is to depetrify you. Once your back to normal, Quick and I are going to do what Celestia didn’t. Properly educate you as a wizard. While doing that, we make sure Chrysalis can’t do anything sneaky, and when the time's right, we get your body back and make her pay!”

Cadence’s lips pulled into a steeper smile, making some of the thin stone covering her cheeks crack and flake away. “I like that plan. It should have been the plan from day one. This whole mess would have been avoided if we just… i don’t know, left me in that pocket dimension till I learned everything.”

Cadence squirmed as small spikes of mild pain began to tingle all over her body in seemingly random spots.

Gleaming nodded. “Yeah… I said you could handle that, but Celestia was worried you’d go insane.”

“Don’t worry,” Quick said. “I can also create such dimensions and will be much less foolish in their application… Princess, we need to put her back to sleep. The pain killing spell is about to wear off.”

Cadence gulped. “Pain killing spell?”

Gleaming nodded and rubbed the back of her head with her hoof. “Y— Yeah… You’re half stone. That would hurt really bad. But Quick said he could wake you up for a little bit and I missed you a lot.”

“How soon will I be okay?”

Quick thought for a moment, tapping his hoof idly as he thought. “Another two weeks, maybe a month. Don’t worry, you’ll be up and about soon and we can begin your training for your return.”

Cadence frowned. “I— I’m still worried about her being in my body. Can somepony keep a close eye on her while I’m out?”

Gleaming gently squeezed Cadence’s left hoof, and she felt a nearly endless ocean of love, affection, and adoration flood from her special somepony. Her eyes widened in awe. "Holy-- Is this... I'm literally feeling emotions. This is crazy!"

Quick laughed. "It's not crazy, your highness. He just loves you a lot."

Cadence felt Gleaming's embarrassment as she blushed. "It's... a little weird living with emotovores... But I'll bet dating one will have perks!"

Cadence's hearts beat faster

“Don't worry, Twilight’s become her “best friend” we know almost everything she does. It will be okay. I love you, Cadence.”

Cadence smiled, content in the knowledge that one day soon she would be able to retake what was hers. We will have plenty of time this time. We can make a real plan. I’ll have real assets, and proper tools too!

“I love you too, Shiny.”

Cadence smiled and hummed contently as she drifted off into a normal and restful sleep. Her last thought not of revenge, but of snuggling up alongside Shining, or Gleaming, whichever her love was at the time, and spending the night together.

Comments

[Philosophysics]

And sequel waiting is a pain

[computerneek]

9196885
Oh absolutely.

This has been an amazing story- and I can't wait for the sequel. As a matter of fact, it's almost sad to see it end.

[shirotora]

That ending surprised me. I can't wait for the sequel.

[cosmic flash]

Nice ending. This feels like it will be a trilogy.

[The Watcher Face]

Why do you hurt me with this?

[ChaosDX1]

Not the ending I expected. Good! Points for being unpredictable without being random!

Only two complaints:
1) slap your spellchecker/autocorrect upside the head for me because it sucks.
2) After seeing the coverart I was so sure Cadence was going to say "I bucking love tiaras" and she never did! Mild disappointment!

Looking forward to the sequel!

[TheLocalCannon]

Well, hopefully my mind can settle and not leap everywhere, that ending seemed a bit knock off though, just last second body switch

[Neece]

Sorry, but Luna pile driving a Tyrannosaurus is just way too awesome. Nothing compares

Interesting, really interesting. Nice sequel bait on this epilogue, just enough questions raised. And I bet Twilight wants them for that sweet wi-fi hotspot

The body change was completely unexpected. I wonder what does equestria's royals think that happened to Shinning? And specially, how will they react when they find out they were duped

[Dark Spark]

Wow dark.

[fractalman]

9174609
the years have been VERY good for her figure.

[mishun]

Don't worry, Twilight’s become her “best friend” we know almost everything she does.

Some absolutely unexpected freak accident is going to happen with Twilight on a mission to Crystal Empire?

[Vaguely Demented]

Awesome. When I saw how much was left I had worried the ending would be rushed. Chrysalis is in for one hell of a bad day sometime in the near future.

[prism heart]

Hoping for a sequel

[Moon_Fire]

.... Oh, I can't wait for the sequel. This was so awesome that this and its sequel will be going on my Special Faves bookshelf.

[Eris Dis Harmonia]

Can't wait to see the sequel.

[smolbep]

aaaaaah

more pls... after finished with dashing through the stars

[djthomp]

I don't really quite get how "Cadence" could be playing her stolen role so perfectly that she's undetectable to Celestia and the rest of Equestria, and yet Shining, Quick, Twilight, and the rest of them are confident enough that she's fake to know that they should be running a resistance and unpetrifying "Chrysalis".

Good story, I'm just a little iffy on how the sequel hook epilogue is presenting the situation.

[Kirtai]

This was awesome. Can't wait for the sequel
Btw

As far as we can tell, she’s decided to take on your roll entirely.

Role

"I do! For short piriods, for fun. I want to be me again too."

Periods

but I realy wish I coudl see what we have.

Could

Oh, and the chapter title should be Epilogue

[drone_r0m-3]

I look forward to a sequel. Great work Meep!

[Greenhorn]

I have one question. Why didn't Chrysalis use this body-swapping spell on Celestia or Luna when she get a chance? I mean, she was able to fool everyone for half a year, right? She could even plan to kill Cadance body the instant of body swap so that Celestia wouldn't have time to counter.

And our CIA Field Operative got upgrade to Force General.

[LostArchivist]

That had better be a sequel hook. Also, that's kinda depressing.
...I know that this was meant to fit in as a sort of replacement (or at least followed/explained the canon sequences) for the original, but please don't make this mean that the increasingly frantic/stupid attempts (what, 4 or 5 now?!) to attack are actually by Cadance...!
It makes all too much sense, but that's just not fair for them.
(Simple solution: Tell Celestia to just jail the bug(ger) since the real one isn't around...)

Lastly, the chapter name is misspelled -- epilogue is the right one.

Typos:

For short piriods,

periods

wish I coudl see what we have

could

for me to the next.

nest

It's probably nice

You forgot the '.'

become her “best friend” we know almost everything

friend," and we know

[Adam Jensen]

I never asked for a sequel..
But I can't wait for it.

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

Not thrilled with this ending but will give sequel a chance.

But seriously how does Celestia not notice Shining missing

[law abiding pony]

Ugh, jumping the shark indeed. This last second mind swap was just stupid because of what follows it. For some reason, Shining and Twilight knowing about it and yet Celestia is still convinced Chrysalis is still Cadence because why the hell not? Why would they not tell Celestia and just have chrysalis arrested, and forced back? why in the world would they need to wait for the Crystal Empire?

I get it, yes this story is campy as hell, but at the end of the day, the characters still act with a decent amount of logic. (if you overlook the wild fights and focus on their strategy). This ending is extremely disappointing. I will not be looking for the sequel.

[cheetored20]

9197444
I think celestia knows but cant do anything about it.

[Meep the Changeling]

9197954 9196885 9196976 9197186 9197378 9197561 9197588 I will be doing a sequel eventually. I was getting burnt out on writing this one. It's not really my story, it's Canary in a Coal Mine's, he did commission me to do this for him after all. As it stands right now, this story is a bit longer than Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. No really, it's about 20k longer.

I have other stories I want to tell, and I really can't do more than two stories at a time. But a lot of people love this one, so I will get back to it eventually. I just need a break for a while.

9197576

Why didn't Chrysalis use this body-swapping spell on Celestia or Luna when she get a chance?

That is a good question, and one that Canary realized he didn't have an answer for. I'm just the pen on this story. The commissioner (Canary) is the person directing the story here.

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

9198326
as long as there is a sequel

[evilpoptarts]

The shift in tone at the time of the invasion really threw me off, to be honest. I don't think I'll be joining in the fun for the sequel. Things took a very hard, and very violent turn so suddenly I think I got whiplash. Not that I don't mind drama and violence if I'm expecting it. Though the lead up was far more comedic in bent, and lead me to believe the story was something it doesn't seem to be. Especially for a story lacking the violence or death tags.

[kspn]

I enjoyed the story, but I was disappointed in how it ended unfortunately.

Oh well, I cannot win them all :P

[Solid Punch]

Disappointing ending. But if the one who payed for this story wanted it like this – well, I hope at least they enjoyed it.

[Detsella Morningdew]

9198326
Yeah, this was still fun. I'm of the disposition that an update, no matter how long it takes, is measured based on quality.

The ending felt abrupt, yes, but as a "part one," it was excellent. I don't mind you taking a break from it.

And I definitely know the feeling of wanting to start new stories, but not being able to handle more than two. I started way too many, and don't want to disappoint fans of any of them. Yet I update so slow now, I probably disappoint all of them.

And still I want to start new ones.

[Saila]

"I do! For short piriods, for fun. I want to be me again too."

*periods

[Titanicgaming360]

9198390
I certainly can.
Who's up for some EXTREME AND FORCEFUL VIOLENCE?
I've got a crew in a Discord chat right now, setting up a nice little invasion plan.

Blitzkrieg, anyone?

[TheLocalCannon]

So, what’s the next writing you doing if any

[moonbutters]

Me, at the beginning:

Me at the end:

Was superb

[Meep the Changeling]

9202787 Check my user page. I've had a scifi Ive been doing at the same time as this one. That one is ongoing. I also have a small story in the works I want to finish before posting it so I can try out some writing techniques that the "post by chapter" format of this site dosnt easily allow.

[TheLocalCannon]

9202565
I’m Bain prekidnapping, so, there are twelve definitive changelings that watch over Chrysalis in some way, they ensure the soul swap spell isn’t undone. Then the fact royal guards are idiots, at least for another two years before the pillars return and Flash starts training them, around the same time Crystal Guard get into shape with security

[Titanicgaming360]

9206140
I was not expecting another Payday fan.
I'm less of a Bain and more of a MacArthur or Rommel. I strike fast and hard, but sometimes too fast. I've got a fondness for heavy guns as well, both standard artillery and specialized guns, like the PaK 36. The Flakvierling 38 was and is a brilliant design for an artillery gun. I think the Capstone FH155 in Just Cause 3 is based off it.
TL:DR
Fuck planning. Tanks, explosives, and sturmtruppen.

[TheLocalCannon]

9206682
So loud, then I shall bring in the big guns, at storage nine I set up a hidden tunnel system that leads to the big armory, alongside an actually decent drill, should it be needed, otherwise, just use the tanks and ATs down there

[Titanicgaming360]

9208849
I like this plan.
Want to join the Equestrian General Staff?

[Zurvan]

Awesome as always. I can't wait to see what you have planned next.

[TheLocalCannon]

9208916
Available for all your tactical planning needs

[Meep the Changeling]

9209478 At the moment I have this going.

TDash to the Stars

• MLP: FiM
• MLP: Comic
• Adventure
• Sci-Fi

When Dash's friends are abducted by aliens, she vows to go to the ends of the universe to get them back. Lucky for her, a new friend got her a ride...

• Sex
• Violence
• Profanity
• Alt. Universe
• Rainbow Dash
• OC

Meep the Changeling · 189k words  ·  142  7 · 2.4k views

[Zurvan]

9212884

Somehow I missed this! Time to get reading!

[TheLocalCannon]

9208916
Titanic, I’ve noticed a distinct lack of response, has your 763 been invaded? I can provide my own if you are in need of a new BO

[Titanicgaming360]

9218284
No, I'm fine. I've been a little swamped these past few weeks.

[QueenChrysalisForever]

Finally found some time to finish!!! I'm with the other commenters in that I can't wait for the sequel! Now, on to start Dash!!

[Shadow of Death]

Good stuff, I patiently await the sequel (I realize there are other priorities ATM).

[Gavier]

Cadence sighed in relief and wished she could see exactly where she was and what it was like. Knowing who we have to work with is one thing, but I realy wish I coudl see what we have. I have the feeling we have a cave. This sounds like a cave.

really wish I could

Cadence felt Gleaming's embarrassment as she blushed. "It's... a little weird living with emotovores... But I'll bet dating one will have perks!"

emotivores

Great story btw

[Tristar Paramount]

9198086
9198370

Both of these in some manner express how I felt after having finished this. Thoughts (not trying to be hurtful or overly critical, just honest):

Primarily, the story was sold as something it's not. The tags are misleading. Sex was not advertised, nor was the wild swing from comedy to death and violence. It can be really exasperating for folks who want to avoid certain themes to constantly run into them simply because of a lack of proper labeling.

If the brutal tonal shift weren't jarring enough, there are too many plot twists, too close together. While this sits on the edge of personal opinion, the story became strenuous to follow as things plodded along, and I think it was the mind swap where things finally became overloaded. Sadly by then, comedy had gotten almost completely discarded and there were no signature "geeky references" to things like Captain Ginyu. A lost opportunity.

But to be fair to the author, it was a commissioned work, so perhaps the heart and soul some writers put into fleshing out their own ideas didn't fully come into play. And even if it weren't part of the requests, the author's user id theme and frequent use of changeling "lingo" should make the ending unsurprising.

There isn't really any closure here. This world is left with so much uncleared air it could set off smoke detectors. Despite the empty feeling it leaves me with and other criticisms (and I do think this story needs retagged), I've been theory-crafting motivators, who-knows-whats, and what-happens-nexts enough to where would still like to see a sequel to tie up the loose ends.

For what it's worth, it's made me log in for the first time after some years just to comment on something, even if out of frustration.