• Published 29th Apr 2019
  • 1,571 Views, 280 Comments

Piece of Parchment - Metemponychosis



A lost letter from the past sends Princesses Cadance and Twilight, and friends, on an adventure.

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Queen Mother

It was a beautiful airship, but not one of the typical zeppelins that flew all over Equestria. This one was a modern fast magical flying ship. It had a sleek design with a shallow draught, and thin beam typical of its kind held aloft by twin magic induction engines mounted on its short aft swan style wings and tail. Finally, it had a single mast, holding its main sail and three fore staysails.

Simply put it was a very fast airship built for speed and maneuverability, designed to transport dignitaries on important diplomatic travels and Twilight was very proud of it. Its crystalized metal hull made with crystal pony magic and then enchanted by the best spellcasters in the field was light purple while it’s sails where a soft shade of pink catching the wind and fueling the engines with magical energies as the wind itself also propelled the craft forward. On its bow its registration and name read ‘HHS 0004 - Magic of Friendship’ hoofpainted in black cursive letters.

Since its small size couldn’t hold Cadance’s and Shinning’s escort they went back to the Crystal Empire leaving their protection to Twilight’s personal guards. Which also couldn’t fit because Twilight’s friends decided they wanted a ride too. So, their protection was on the hooves of the airship’s pegasus crewponies, and one unicorn.

While its small crew worked its magical systems and sails, Twilight and her guests leisurely appreciated the view as the ship sailed through the air at a high, but still comfortable altitude. It was a little cold, but that was a part of the experience. She stood on the ship’s bow with her hoof over her eyes and her gold and amethyst royal regalia shinning under the sun while she watched the horizon next to her ship’s captain.

He was a dark-blue pegasus with short-cut mane and tail and a tricorn hat and a stereotypically gruff voice. “We should arrive in two days’ time, your highness. Winds being good. But when she’s charged, we’ll drop the sails and get her to full speed.”

“Good job, captain!” She grinned proudly as she turned to her friends all over the main deck.

Having been joined by Twilight’s other close friends, the ship was somewhat crowded. But as Twilight could attest to, looking at Rarity wearing sunglasses, a blue scarf and a large white bonnet in the wind, it was hard keeping her friends off the vessel as soon as it’s left its airdock.

Pinkie hopped across the deck, Rainbow talked to two of the pegasus crewponies, probably bragging about something while they listened as intently as a pair of fans, Fluttershy held as tight as she could to the mast while Applejack comforted her, Spike spoke to another crewpony who ponied the wheel, Starlight Glimmer held to the railing, looking around, and Cadance was coming to Twilight, accompanied by Shining Armor and her maid, who pushed Flurry Heart’s baby carriage.

“Twily… When did you buy an airship?!” He was still half-dazed after his wife’s healing spell for his airsickness. “It’s amazing! What is its range? Maximum speed?”

“Never mind that!” Cadance was exasperated next to him. “Where did you get the money to pay for one of these?!”

“Well, they’re a bit of a novelty yet and most vendors will ask for an eye and a leg, but they’re not that expensive if you look for the right vendor, in the right city. Las Pegasus is the best. And actually, I used Royal Treasury money.”

Cadance blinked a couple of times. “How did you get Princess Celestia to agree?!”

“Well…” Twilight smiled as though she had found the secret to the universe. “I found out she had ordered her old ship revitalized and modernized.”

Cadance took a few seconds to process that. “Princess Celestia has an airship?! Her?! She didn’t want a mirror! We had to convince her!”

Shining nodded enthusiastically. “It’s probably the Break of Dawn. It’s the hundred and four-gun first-rate ship of the line she sailed on the Second Griffon War. It is in the Manehattan War Museum. Or, likely, was.”

The pink alicorn had a very annoyed look on her face. “Shining, Common Equestrian. I don’t speak ‘nerd’.”

Twilight giggled. “It’s basically an oversized monstrosity with a lot of big guns. I suppose she’s going to have the guns removed and decks renovated to turn the ship into a luxury liner of sorts.”

A ship like that, Shining thought would probably turn into a flying palace. With its gundecks removed, the artisans could do all sorts of cool things with the interior space. After they reinforced the structure, they could put a pool on its deck, a giant bedroom, many guestrooms, probably a game room, a bar, probably an armory for the Princess’ guards and crewponies…

Cadance however, was quickly becoming angry. “Don’t tell me that Luna has an airship too!”

“She sure does. The Mare Serenitatis.” Twilight answered. “A frigate from the same time. And she’s probably doing the same. Though hers will be a lot smaller and faster. Luna doesn’t like drawing too much attention, you know.”

Meanwhile, Shining Armor was far, far away… On a sunny day swimming on the deck pool of his own airship ‘The Emperor’ while Cadance sunbathed by the edge and Flurry Heart played with colorful building blocks next to her. The ship flew easily through the white cottony clouds of Central Equestria, lazily orbiting around the capital. Calm winds and a nice weather for sailing… Flying… Whatever.

“How come I’m the only one that doesn’t have an airship?!” The angry pink princess complained, and Flurry Heart waved her little hooves angrily. She wanted one too!

Cadance, as efficient as she was with the Crystal Empire’s finances couldn’t afford one. It’s true that the Crystal Empire didn’t go so well in that department and that Princesses Celestia and Luna had access to ludicrous amounts of resources in the form of ponypower, expertise and pure money… But Princess Celestia was worse than Cadance’s old matron from her days in the old orphanage. How in Tartarus did she decide that she wanted a flying ship? Where would she go with it? Did she plan to throw the next Grand Galloping Gala in it or something?

For pony’s sake! Celestia poured a lot of money into social events but has been wearing the same crown since… Cadance didn’t know… Since the universe decided it wanted to exist? She was probably that old, anyways!

“Well, your highness.” Rarity casually trotted over to them. “Yours is a representative position. You need impressive… Powers of representation.”

“Ah ha…” Cadance paid attention. That is probably what convinced the old alicorn to invest in such a ship. She probably wanted to throw events in it and use it to draw rich ponies to charity events. That made sense to Cadance.

“Well…” Rarity went on gesticulating with her hooves. “Some less reputable news sources have mentioned that Princess Celestia may have second intentions with that ship. You see they say she gave their consort a particularly exclusive smoking pipe. Then, some say Luna gave him a personalized armor. Following that Celestia gave him a new set of personalized and enchanted sword and pistols. Then, supposedly Princess Luna gave him a new finely cut and enchanted cloak. That is what prompted Princess Celestia to refurbish the old ship as an airship… Supposedly. If you know what I mean.”

“Their new boyfriend sure did the princesses a lot of good, huh?” Rainbow elbowed at Pinkie who giggled at that.

“Oh, we’re so getting one of these!” The pink princess hit the wooden floor hard with a hoof. “Shining?”

The water caressed his coat and the warm sun made him feel like he could simply lay there forever floating on his back with sunglasses on and a soft breeze. It almost didn’t bother him when a shadow disturbed his sunbathing and he removed his glasses staring up at Princesses Celestia and Luna lacking their royal jewelry and smiling very pleasantly.

“May we join you, captain?” The white one said.

“Shinning!!” Cadance yelled his attention back to the real world.

He yelped and looked at his wife and giggling sister and white coated friend back on Twilight’s ship’s deck. “What?”

“I said, we’re going to buy an airship!” Cadance said with a frown. “What is with the creepy smile?”

***

The crowded quarters under the ship’s deck didn’t bother the close group of friends. With some patience, goodwill, common sense and tasty supplies provided by the Pink Party Pony herself they were able to keep a good mood throughout the trip until the end of the second day when they approached their destination. In the meantime Twilight and Cadance filled the others up on their mission and its importance.

Flying fast Twilight’s airship quickly approached the aptly named Changeling Rock: a big, jagged rock formation the changelings have magically carved their home into, the legends say before the time of Equestria. But Twilight and Cadance knew that it was not true. The changelings used to live in an abandoned pony city which name had been lost to the time. The changelings, though, called it City of Queens. At least that was how its name translated to Common Equestrian from their weird chittering language.

They called it that because it was like a meeting hub for all the queens of the Changeling Swarm as well as home to the first changeling ever. Of course, at the time they called themselves ‘mothers’ instead of ‘queens’, and the first one titled herself ‘Mother of Mothers’, and all the changeling broods lived in peace meeting in the city to share knowledge and wisdom as well as to pay tribute to the Mother of Mothers which was, of course in the form of Love. But while this story appealed to Cadance’s motherly fee-fees Twilight suspected that the whole story might’ve been romanticized a little. Or a lot.

Beyond that, the legend was indeed older than Equestria, the Three Tribes or recorded pony history and slipped into myth. Which was not exactly a sign of accuracy, but Twilight managed to track the original story.

It went that a pony lived in that town and that she was the most beautiful pony to ever exist. A pony of unknown name and race that used to say that her beauty was beyond even the beauty of the starry night sky. Not a very smart thing to say in Twilight’s opinion, but such were ponies in these stories. Apparently, she had many suitors, but she was in love with herself and wouldn’t accept court by any stallion or mare claiming that her beauty was too far beyond theirs or any gift they could ever offer to her. And since she wasn’t testing fate enough already not even if the night made itself into flesh and courted her, she would accept it.

It was said that she was a descendant of some goddess of love, and that would, supposedly explain her unnatural beauty and all the admiration that she received from all that laid eyes on her. Of course, one night the Night itself did came down to the world to see for itself the legendary beauty of that pony.

Princess Luna must’ve loved this story…

Regardless, the story went that on such night the pony pranced through the golden oat fields which surrounded the city under the moonlight until she came upon a great and wondrous creature like nothing she had ever seen before. Staring at it was impossible, and it looked like a force of nature given flesh rather than a normal creature. Its body was made of a dim blue light, which emanated from her dark coat as dark as the void between the stars and looking at it was staring at infinity itself. Her mane was a sprawling starlit sky of the most beautiful night ever and her horn was as dark as obsidian, but her eyes shone with the eerie moonlight. The creature was tall and looked down at the pony with its open wings, and they were as if the creature carried the night itself with it.

The pony had indeed never seen anything like it, and she could not tear her eyes from the ghostly lights that stared at her at the same time she felt like her soul was made colder by its stare. It was not something a mortal was meant to see. Whatever that would mean… Twilight would’ve preferred Ponytone color codes.

Anyway, the creature spoke, and her voice was as if a distant storm approached. “Thy beauty is, indeed, unknown amongst the mortals. I would share mine resting place in the skies aboven with such consort as fair as thee.”

“Beautiful and terrifying you are, Night-Made-Flesh.” The pony answered. “But of my great beauty, greater than that of the starry skies you will not boast yourself for I shall not share it with any creature less fair than me.”

“Black is thy heart, foolish mortal. No more beautiful thing than mine night there is. I curse thee, then to suffer for eternity until death takest thee. Thy beauty I shall take, and thy heart shall never know the solace of reciprocal love ever hungered for that which you cannot ever have.”

And that, the legend goes, was how the changelings were born. She called herself Farfalla, Mother of Mothers. Herself and her descendants ‘ever taking semblance to the beauty of others, but never of their own, ever feeding on the love directed at others, but never at themselves. Ever feared and shunned, always hungry and scared of the ones that had all they couldn’t have.’

Ponies fled the town and who knows how in Equestria she reproduced (Twilight imagined nightly ponynappings), but she turned the town into her nest.

It remained until Mother Farfalla had spent her spirit and wished that death would end her suffering. Well, Chrysalis, The Queen Chrysalis, supposedly obliged. And then she killed all of her brood-mother sisters, uniting all the broods under her through conquest erasing their distinctiveness, drowning in blood any lineage that would not serve her purposes or changeling of any age or profession that would not bow to her and call her Queen of the Changelings.

After all, since ponies were stupid and gods were petty why not wrap it all up with matricide, sororicide and ethnical cleansing, with a pinch of tyranny and egomania?

While Cadance simply accepted the legend, Twilight always felt that it either was simply a cautionary tale against narcissism to the point she was convinced the pony’s original name was ‘Narcissus’, or it was one of those stories grammas told about the changelings and what horrible creatures they were.

Then she learned that Princess Celestia might have known Mother Farfalla and the event that drove Chrysalis to commit matricide was the Changeling Swarm being banished from the lands of Central Equestria driven to the Badlands where they would starve. But that is unknown and Princess Celestia would not talk about this dismissing it as an old mare’s tale.

Yeah… Twilight had heard that one before… But good luck getting that old immovable object of a pony to talk about anything she didn’t want to! Still, while the more incautious of ponies could think that the princess actually did believe that ponies believed her ‘old mare’s tale’ excuse Twilight knew her old teacher, friend and eternal mentor much better. Princess Celestia was very old, and ponies tended to forget that. What ponies impersonally treated as legends, were very much painful and personal memories for her. ‘It’s just an old mare’s tale’ was the old mare’s way of politely saying ‘do not presume you have the experience and knowledge to talk to me about this, you impudent piece of uneducated mediocrity’.

Or something of the sort… It would be unlikely that Celestia would say something like that in reality. That legend had a tendency of leaving Twilight in a sour mood. The point is that Celestia’s reluctance to talk about it lent some credence to the idea. At least in Twilight’s head. Still, since the only two ponies in Equestria old enough to know for sure wouldn’t talk about it, Twilight had no way of knowing.

Once she was done Chrysalis supposedly moved her swarm to the Changeling Rock and there they remained until present day protected by the queen’s magic and their own capacity for counterintelligence. It was only after ponies had figured out how to detect their magic that they ceased to plant misinformation and threaten anyone that wasn’t them. Ponies shared the information about the changeling magic and that negated their biggest advantage in the field of intelligence. That is when they became much more reluctant to leave their nest, and eventually this story concluded with the Heartmend Treaty being signed in Canterlot.

But Twilight felt she had already wasted too much time on the past, so she directed her attention to the nicer present, and the big rock in front of her airship.

Seen from afar the rock simply looked like a large black collection of spires reflecting the light from the evening sun, but as the airship flew closer, they could see all the particular details. It showed windows, bridges, balconies for standing leisurely and to use as landing pads, open spaces and several changelings, the new colorful half-pony, half-bug denizens of the Swarm as they flew around their home eventually staring at the approaching airship.

Not only they could see the changelings were flying all over, but they were carrying buckets and all sorts of painting tools such as assorted brushes and rolls. They were painting the black obsidian walls of the Rock in colorful, fluorescent flowery designs accompanied by images of the sun, the moon, stars, and hearts. The rock’s sullener colors clashed but that didn’t seem to bother the Changelings. Not to mention that they didn’t seem to have many accomplished artists among them.

“What are they doing to the Changeling Rock?” Starlight Glimmer stared at their work and then at the others next to her in the railings.

“Thorax said they’re getting it ready to receive the new brood!” Spike looked with a weird expression at the whole thing. “But, uh… It’s not that bad, but it looks weird.”

“Changelings have a dreadful sense of aesthetics…” Rarity grumbled unimpressed next to him and Twilight giggled next to her.

“It’s not that bad, and the important thing is that they’re happy, now. And multiplying.”

“So… They’re friends now?” Pinkie asked. “They don’t eat pony love anymore?”

“Well, they do…” Twilight started insecurely. “But… Uh…”

“We barely know a thing about changelings…” Cadance told Pinkie. “They’ve opened up a little since the treaty was signed.”

Then the princess’ ears folded back, and she barely contained her frustration. “To which meetings I was never invited, but I know something bad had happened and that is why they came to us.”

Twilight frowned a little looking at the black rock. “In the treaty Princess Celestia assured them that they would get all the help they needed as long as there was peace and the new changelings could thrive. Anyway, it appears that since they became well-fed, they changed and started looking like that. Or something…”

“That’s not shady at all…” Cadance still felt a little angry at being left out of the whole thing, since she now considered the queen almost a friend. “The Princesses and Chrysalis dealt with the whole thing behind closed doors, the Senate was ‘notified’, the changelings got support in the form of ‘love and acceptance’, my healing spell, representation on the Senate, and recognition of the Swarm as part of the confederacy and, in return they must stop aggression towards all races and Chrysalis was to make some changes to the Swarm. Seems to me they got a lot and still didn’t really give anything after a couple of years.”

As Cadance talked Twilight’s eyebrow raised a bit because to her it looked like Princess Celestia had just annexed the Swarm and the Senate could suck it if they didn’t like it. Still no one complained. She wondered if it was because everyone was afraid of the problems the griffons had brewing since back then or… Something. It always amused Twilight when Princess Celestia pulled these maneuvers that should make representatives and leaders throw a fit but blew past in the wind as if nothing had ever happened.

“So… How exactly did the problem with the changelings get fixed?” Starlight Glimmer’s voice brought Twilight out of her thoughts again.

Twilight looked at Cadance, who smiled proudly as talking about it immediately improved her mood. “Love magic, of course! The queen could generate new eggs and then all she needed was a male donor.”

The white stallion next to her shivered and Cadance had one of the creepiest smiles ever seen by ponykind. “I believe Princess Celestia’s words were ‘one perfect example of diligence and duty, a physique due of none but the best examples of the race and a sharp psyche, fit for an exemplar soldier’.”

“Oh my…” Rarity couldn’t contain her giggling. “I think the princess was actually courting you, Shinning Armor.”

When more giggling followed, the white unicorn couldn’t find a place to hide his face. “Please, stop.”

“So… Uh…” Applejack looked at the others and talked in her accent. “Are we gonna have new queens? Or something?”

“I don’t have a clue.” Twilight shook her head. “Changelings are being pretty secretive about it all.”

“Well, I would be too if my mom was married to my brother and… Nnnngh…” There wasn’t a hair in Rainbow’s coat that didn’t stand up and the others chuckled.

“Rainbow Dash, changelings are different. You can’t judge them like you would a pony. They clearly don’t think about it like that, and their brothers aren’t defined like that.” Fluttershy looked interested, having forgotten her fear of heights and holding onto the railing, maybe even excited. “Maybe we’ll learn something about it here?”

“We can certainly try!” Twilight grinned happily. “I don’t think it would hurt to ask, they are preparing for a new brood, after all!”

Then the captain called to them from the wheel. “We’re landing! Hold on tightly!”

Crewponies maneuvered the vessel around the large rock formation and softly parked it hovering a few hooves off the ground then quickly deployed a ladder from its side. As the ponies disembarked Shining Armor carried the briefcase with the document on his back and Cadance took Flurry Heart with her. A couple of changelings approached casually and then promptly bowed before the princesses. An awkward moment later the changelings happily greeted them.

“Princess Twilight! Princess Cadance! Welcome to the Changeling Rock!” The first said in a soft male voice.

“Can we help you?!” The second had an excited female voice as her legs seemed unable to remain still beneath her. “We’re so excited you’re here! Did you come to see the new brood?”

“They’re not ready yet!” The male was now as excited as his friend. “But we sure can show you all the new decorations and nursery!”

“We need to see some of your historical records from the Age of the Royal Sisters if you still have them.” No need for too many details right now, Cadance thought… The whole research is already awkward enough.

“We appreciate the help!” Twilight thanked them looking at the pair. And after a second she added excitedly. “But we wouldn’t mind learning more about the new brood either!”

Cadance simply smiled and rolled her eyes discreetly.

Meanwhile, the male changeling had a bit of a confused look with his hoof under his chin as he looked at Twilight and then at his companion, and after a couple of seconds she finally talked also looking somewhat confused. “Well. I don’t have a clue about our historical archives. You’d need to talk to the king and queen.”

The queen? Twilight immediately felt something was wrong… First of all, Chrysalis as far as she knew wasn’t supposed to be queen regnant. Second, she could clearly remember that Thorax was supposed to the new leader of the changelings and Chrysalis shouldn’t have the authority to ‘let them’ do anything.

She took a careful look at both changelings while Cadance still talked cheerfully with them. Maybe they let her retain some authority out of respect? Feeling her ‘princess duties’ tingling, she felt like she should talk to Thorax about it before leaving. Preferably without Chrysalis nearby. On another note Twilight didn’t think they’d keep her around just for reproduction… It would be wrong.

“We can take you to them, though!” The male finally said happily and pointing towards their home with a hoof.

“Lead the way, then!” Cadance giggled starting after the changelings.

As the group followed up the large stair access to the Changeling Rock more changelings flew down or trotted outside to look at the visitors and the Magic of Friendship’s crewponies remained with the vessel as well as the royal couple’s maid.

Once inside the Changeling Rock became a labyrinth of corridors, nooks and crannies, high and low ceilings for no apparent reason, and every now and then a particularly conspicuous room or lounge area, even a corridor that seemed to go a long way. Bioluminescent goo inside of crystal-like containers embedded on the walls provided a milky-white light inside the large rocky structure where the natural sunlight wouldn’t reach and the air became a little too hot and humid for the tastes of the ponies, but nopony was about to complain. This was the changelings’ home after all.

While most ponies in the group simply followed the others around Fluttershy and Twilight seemed particularly excited and curious. Even if she felt something might be wrong Twilight could empathize with Fluttershy’s curiosity, and certainly fell to her own.

Along the way they met more and more of the colorful changelings preparing their home for the festivities and being generally friendly, but as they climbed the winding labyrinthian corridors they soon came to a large rocky door guarded by a couple of changelings that had kept their black chitinous carapace instead of looking colorful.

Immediately Twilight went back to her initial feeling that something was wrong, and they also seemed to have kept their demeanor, because holding their spears they stared at the newcomers with less than happy excitement. Most importantly Twilight and Cadance immediately identified all sorts of protective spells cast over those doors and their weapons.

“What the flaming hell is this?” The guard on the left said, not giving them time to ask why they looked different. “Everyling knows this area is prohibited to all but the Queen’s Guard!”

Twilight, Cadance and friends stared at each other and the colorful changeling female was about to talk when Rainbow Dash flew to the front of the group. “Hey! You can’t talk to us like that! These are both Princesses of Equestria and you can’t keep them from going anywhere they want.”

The changeling soldier wasn’t very impressed as he pushed the pegasus with the butt of his spear. “Back off, lady!”

“Oh! How rude!” Rarity complained angrily.

“Now, now. There is no need for that.” The female changeling stepped in between the two and spoke softly. “These nice ponies simply need access to the queen or the king so that they can look at some of our old records.”

The changeling on the right spoke then. “The king is inside, and you can’t get past this door.”

“Fuckin’ peasants.” The first one added with ostensive lack of patience.

Twilight Sparkle was a very nice and respecting pony, but she could not stand this sort of behavior from her fellow ponies or from changelings. Especially when one of them used such words to refer to the nicer changelings in his hive. That is why she craned her neck and flared her wings in an impressive display of feathers and ‘princessdom’.

“I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle and Bearer of The Element of Magic. This is an important endeavor of archeological research, and you’re being stubborn just because you can! This would be much easier if you just stopped being so mean and let us pass or even simply called the king. We just need to look at some old pieces of parchment and there is no need for this rudeness!”

Even if she never liked pulling rank reminding others that she was indeed a princess usually ended this sort of trouble with problematic statesponies and officials that insisted on creating problems where none needed be. It was a very fair use of her position and her right. Her friends also knew that and paid close attention to it. Though not for the reasons Twilight thought.

The changeling, however, was cleverer than most problematic statesponies and officials and Twilight lacked Celestia’s impressive size and gravitas.

“Lady…” He said stoically. “I don’t give a rat’s behind if you’re the Princess of Friendship or the Princess of the Mighty Rainbow Cannon. This here door ain’t opening for your royal hindquarters and you ain’t going in!”

Of course, it was always amusing when Twilight did try to pull her rank and it backfired like that, but she preferred to think she didn’t hear somepony snorting.

Still, she let out a frustrated cry and meant to insist, when Cadance joined her but with a different strategy that usually worked with officials of other jurisdictions. “Well, I’ve come all the way from the Crystal Empire just to see some documents. It’s really important: I have found a document that’s unheard of and that may change the history of Equestria. I am sure the Queen and King would appreciate cooperation as much as Princess Celestia, especially when our research is done, and we would thank all those who helped us.”

Cadance, for all her niceness, had learned very early that names opened doors. Especially Princess Celestia’s name.

But, also unfortunately for her, the changeling didn’t care she had come all the way from the Crystal Empire, nor did he care about history or that she had dropped Celestia’s name. “With all due respect, Your Highnesses… What part of ‘prohibited’ are you having trouble comprehending?”

They were ready to unleash another round of reasons why they should be allowed further, with added, if unappreciated support from the newest princess on Cadance’s back when the doors opened and none other than the king’s ‘brother’ came out, also clad in his black carapace. “What is all this racket?”

“Pharynx!” Twilight held on to the opportunity. “Can we talk to Thorax? Please?! They won’t let us past the door! We only need a few minutes of access to your archives and we’ll be gone!”

“No. You can’t.” He said bluntly.

Cadance’s hoof met her face and Twilight’s wings fell back into their place and she sighed. “I give up.”

“Hey, Pharynx. Can I talk to you? From one Captain of the Guard to another?” Shinning Armor came up from the group and magically tossed a Bit that tinkled on the floor between them. “Oh, look. A Bit.”

The two of them huddled down together over the shiny coin and talked in hushed voices. Both changeling soldiers remained stoically by the door, actively disinterested while the two colorful ones simply waited with curious expectations. Twilight and Cadance looked at one another with raised eyebrows and the rest of the group drew closer to the two princesses. Maybe trying to listen in but it wasn’t possible.

“Alright, fine.” Pharynx finally stood up with Shining Armor, who grabbed his coin back. “But only the two alicorns. Xipho, show them to the Queen’s Spawning Pool. They’ll find Thorax there. Just make sure they don’t bother the queen. I really don’t want to hear from this, understand?”

“Yessir.” The annoying changeling said with a salute. At least he did a good job of not showing how little he cared.

Pharynx then went off followed by Shining Armor who left the briefcase with Cadance. “Good luck, hon. Come along Spike, we’re going to see the new recreation facilities.”

“Cool!” He waved goodbye to his friends as he followed the pony and the changeling. “See you guys later then.”

“Wait. Wait! What? What the hay just happened here?!” Cadance held the briefcase in her magic and looked confused at the changelings standing by the door, Shining Armor going away and Twilight who looked each way and another, also trying to understand what had happened when Xipho called them impatiently from the other side of the now open door.

“You two ponies coming or what?”

“And what are we supposed to do?” Rainbow Dash pointed at her and friends, all sonorously complaining that they’d been left behind.

“You can wait in the airship, I suppose.” Xipho shrugged going his way. “Or you can see the new decorations. It’s not my problem, really.”

“Hum…” Fluttershy moved her hoof around in a demure way. “I’d really like to see the new changelings… If it’s not a problem. I am a sort of specialist in different species.”

“Whatever… Fine.” Xipho thought she looked harmless enough, anyway.

***

Going up long corridors and stairs Twilight and Cadance didn’t look very friendly and Fluttershy kept to herself while the changeling led them through a rather simple design of climbing areas and redundant passages. Cadance carried the briefcase under her wing and her baby on her back, right next to Twilight. They came through what seemed to be resting areas or lounges with large windows to the outside which provided lighting in these much narrower and darker corridors. The magical illumination was much dimmer and ponies wondered more than a few times if they had already passed the place they were.

Another thing that drew their attention was that the colorful ‘new changelings’ were nowhere to be seen now and they only saw the black carapaces they already knew. This picked at Twilight’s curiosity even more and somewhat at her sensibilities that something was not exactly right, but she thought it was better to keep this in mind and worry about it later. This changeling that led them around the place seemed like he wouldn’t be very useful anyway.

But every now and then they came to open doors beyond which changelings were working in construction and that enticed Twilight’s ever some more.

“What are they doing?” She stopped for a while to look at changelings using picks to break up the rock and shaping it into round corners with their magic.

“We’re building nurseries.” Xipho said, uninterested.

“Oh?” Cadance asked, following him with Flurry Heart on her back as the baby looked around curiously. “To receive the new changelings?”

“No...” That changeling had a talent for speaking in the most uninterested tone possible and still sound condescending. It was annoying Twilight out of her mind. “We’re going to put the old changelings the nurseries.”

Cadance certainly didn’t like the way he talked to them, but something more important was on her mind. “Wasn’t the nursery in the lower levels? I seem to distinctively remember that, from when I visited it with Shinning Armor.”

“Yes…” Xipho answered. “But we’re building new ones. The old ones were converted into the Queen’s Laboratory.”

Something in the way he spoke made Twilight think that he dropped that last bit of information intentionally, just to make them curious. And it worked: she had no idea Chrysalis would have uses for any sort of laboratories. Or that she should be doing anything other than helping Thorax rule the changelings, for that matter.

“Hum… Wasn’t Queen Chrysalis put on some sort of probation?” She asked Cadance, who looked as confused as she was. “For that matter what sort of laboratory would Chrysalis use, and for what?”

“Ma’am, my job is guarding doors and chaperoning nosy ponies around. Not to mention, it’s not like you ponies would understand the Queen’s magic anyways…”

Twilight and Cadance had had just about had enough of his bad behavior. They didn’t need talking to each other to know they’d both discuss his demeanor with his queen and king. Even if the queen shouldn’t be queen regnant anyways. Fluttershy however wanted nothing more than to see the new changelings. Flurry Heart was simply getting bored and wondered why her mother hadn’t left her on the airship with her maid and her toys.

Not long after they arrived at the top of the spiraling corridors and reached a larger double black wood door flanked by two particularly big black changelings each armed with a long, double-bladed and curved sword they held point down to the floor with their magic. Twilight didn’t remember seeing those before. These changelings were as big as Cadance and once again their magic senses flared up!

As they arrived the two guards looked at the princesses then at Xipho who walked in front of them, but they did their best not to look friendly. Still, before either could say anything, they heard a loud crashing noise and a bang from the other side. A loud and very, very angry female voice yelled. It didn’t seem to be Chrysalis, though. It was softer, even in anger.

“This is all your fault! Yes! Yes, it is! Now get out of my sight before I miss it again!” Someone seemed to talk with a much more controlled and apologetical tone, but they couldn’t make it out. “You can’t see her now! Go get the cursed maids before I regret all of this! YES! NOW!”

The three princesses and pegasus simply stopped and their ears moved around as they listened to more shouts and apologetic words before another crash that scared them enough to flare their wings and make them jump backwards. The door opened to a dark room and Thorax came running out of it looking both scared witless and worried out of his mind.

“Come with me! We have to find the eggmaids! Oh! Hi Twilight! Can’t talk! Bye!” He said tapdancing nervously where he stood and then ran past the visitors and down the corridor.

“Oh, there is the king.” Xipho suddenly had a smile. “And there he went.”

The two guards looked at each other and galloped after their king, leaving the ponies with Xipho.

“Can’t we talk to Chrysalis?” Twilight asked sheepishly. “We only want permission to peruse the archives. All she has to say is one ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and we’ll be gone, out of her mane forever.”

Xipho regarded the three ponies and baby for a couple of seconds. Did he really want to deal with this? If he said that they can’t, he’d have to deal with them. If he said that they can go inside, then they would cease to be his problem and would become someling else’s problem. They’d be ‘her’ problem, and that in his head was a bonus. It was settled them.

“In you go.” He gave them his best pleasant smile. “You’ll see a nice changeling in there. Just talk to her and she’ll set you straight. Alright?”

For some reason, Twilight thought that, considering the way he’s been behaving, she ought to do the exact opposite. But then the records were just within hoof’s reach. Not to mention that something is going on in this changeling nest and she ought to find out what it is. And also, another thing dawned on her mind: the Changeling Queen was laying her eggs. It was never, ever observed. She even had Fluttershy with her. It is a conjunction of almost impossible factors! There was no way she’d get this chance ever again!

For an instant she admonished herself over her overactive curiosity, but it was quickly overshadowed by that ominous feeling that something was wrong. It was her duty as a princess to seek out such problems in Equestria as much as it was her duty to protect her lands from monsters and yearly supervillains. Finally, there was the scholar inside Twilight that despaired at the notion of ignoring new and exciting knowledge.

For another instant she stared at her friends… Fluttershy was a fellow protector of Equestria, as much as Cadance who also was a fellow Princess and student of all that was Harmony and Magic.

Finally, she was sure Flurry Heart could use an example of proper ‘princessing’. Or, something…

“Thank you, sir.” She chirped happily and both Cadance and Fluttershy stared at her, completely surprised. Flurry Heart though was unimpressed. She could see Twilight was in the mood to do something she might regret later. In her short life she already had learned that imagination, plans and reality were things that didn’t really go together.

“Are you sure this is a good idea, Twilight?” Fluttershy slowly asked her internally trying to understand if Twilight had a plan, or something.

“Sure!” Twilight smiled excitedly. “Chrysalis is our friend, isn’t she? She’ll understand!”

“She is?” Cadance was even more confused than Fluttershy. Sure she did think of the queen like that, but she wasn’t sure it was reciprocal.

“Sure, she is! Shinny fathered the last brood, didn’t he?” Twilight smiled.

“Well… Sure… But… Hum…” Cadance spoke slowly, trying to figure out what was going through Twilight’s head. Flurry even puled at her mane, but it was to no avail. “I suppose… He did!”

“See? We’re practically family!” Twilight smiled a huge grin, and her left ear flapped. “Think of all the things we could learn about the changelings!”

Flurry Heart facehoofed.

Cadance looked at Fluttershy, who seemed sheepishly excited. Maybe she understood what Twilight had in mind. “Alright. I suppose it’s going to be fine.”

Flurry facehoofed again.

And even if they decided against going in Xipho was gone anyway when Cadance looked around for him. Finally, she had to hurry after Twilight and Fluttershy through the open door.

Once they were past the door they squealed when it closed, and before the they could react further a strong gust of wind blew at them from nowhere and a big crystal in the ceiling shone fiercely, bathing them with a harsh white light. Again, they cried in surprise squirming and flapping wings in mild panic.

“What was that?” Cadance looked over herself and her heavily breathing foal.

“Cleansing spell!” Twilight was just as surprised, as another door opened, and they saw themselves staring into a clinically clean room and that quickly silenced them.

The polished obsidian shone like a mirror, and besides a door on the other side there was only a single large cushion made to look like a flower and sitting on that cushion was a very strange changeling. She looked like one of the ‘new changelings’, but was all white and silvery, with thin, translucent green wings, like a cape.

She had her back turned to the three ponies and her mane was the purest white Twilight had ever seen outside of Celestia’s coat. The changeling carefully looked at five floating images in front of her. The sight alone piqued even more Twilight’s curiosity and she approached closely followed by the other two and the disgruntled baby.

Twilight craned her neck staring at the floating images the changeling was looking at… Whatever she was looking at. Some graphs and some symbols, element names such as chlorine, sodium, oxygen… Questions popped in her head faster than she could process what she was looking at.

“Hello?” She said in the softest and friendliest voice she could muster, but the changeling shrieked loudly and caused the three ponies to retreat a couple of steps. When the changeling turned around heaving deep breaths they could see her wide shocked blue eyes and a pretty ornament on her forehead: a delicate spiraled and horned snake made of silver and held in place with by a thin chain around her delicate horn.

The group stared at the changeling, and she stared at them. Until she finally managed to gather her wits and breath. “What in the… Who… How! Who let you in?!”

She shrieked half-panicked and Twilight laughed awkwardly taking another step back. “His name was Xipho. Said we could see the queen.”

The changeling apparently could only communicate by half-panicked shrieks. “NOLING CAN SEE THE QUEEN!! Not you, not anyone. Not even the King!”

“Well… Hum… Can she give us permission to use the Archives?” Twilight asked tentatively. She knew she also wanted to snoop around at the queen and her hatchery. Maybe figuring out something about what was going on but, also in her mind she had equated the idea of the queen generating eggs that to Celestia raising the sun every morning and Luna bringing the night every evening. She knew she could barely contemplate how that must be important to the changelings. And that was why she thought it ought to be studied and witnessed. Even revered. Finally, everything could be connected.

“NO! You don’t understand!” However, before the changeling could say anything more one of the five floating images flashed red and she let out a frustrated grunt.

“Stay here! I’ll be right back! Don’t touch anything, and for the love of the Queen do not, under no circumstances go through that door!” She shrieked as she pointed a simple door past the images.

And with that she galloped out in a hurry out the door they had come in.

Leaving them alone.

With the door they must never go through.

For a few instants, Twilight thought about how funny it was that the most forbidden things were also the most interesting to the curious minds. A short flash to her childhood made her grimace and reminded her that it was also the over-curious that met the switch most often.

Regardless, the door was right there! Why did fate have to be so cruel after tempting her with a mystery and showing her the way so bluntly?

Cadance and Fluttershy stared curiously at her as she breathed in and out, calmly recomposing her wits. She didn’t have to snoop past that door! She had these curious magical image-thingies the changeling was looking at. Meanwhile Flurry Heart understood how Twilight must’ve been feeling. Certain impulses were hard to resist. Such as raiding the cookie jar before dinner.

Ignorant to the baby’s empathy, Twilight approached the magical images, as did the others and Fluttershy’s soft voice called to her. “Are they magic?”

“They are.” Cadance confirmed, looking over to them. “Twilight?”

“These are simple illusions coupled with divination spells.” The purple one lighted up her horn and looked around. “The casinos in Las Pegasus are using this sort of thing to monitor gaming tables for cheaters. But these are much more sophisticated, and I’ve never seen anything like them before.”

“Why do they need this sort of thing?” The other princess looked back at her. “And can you understand anything?”

If there was one thing Twilight didn’t think she’d be doing that day was deciphering changeling writing. Sure, she understood almost all languages spoken and/or written in her time, and several ancient ones, but she was encountering symbols and words she didn’t understand mixed with things she did, all seemingly belonging to the semantics and morphology of the changeling written language. It was like the changelings had created a jargon of words for things the ponies didn’t yet know. And it both titillated and worried her.

Her heart pounded in her chest and her breath quickened. Numbers, element symbols, beeping sounds, oscillating bar graphs… It was maddening that she understood some, but not enough to piece together whatever that was. She felt as though understanding was just outside of her reach and it frustrated her beyond reason.

Then she squeaked in surprise as another of the magical images started flashing yellow, making a beeping sound. It showed several graphs, one of which seemed to peak above the others, but the names under the bars made no sense to her. Twilight leaned closer, and tentatively, her right hoof approached the flashing image and touched it, as she tried to understand what the things it was showing meant.

Her hoof barely touched it.

It blinked once.

And the Door-They-Must-Not-Pass opened.

The princess shrieked quietly, as quietly as one should do when trying to steal cookies from the jar. “Oh no! I did something I shouldn’t!”

Nothing but a dark room beyond the door, as they approached it, Twilight in front, followed by Fluttershy, softly whinnying, and Cadance, grimacing like she was about to see a monster past the door. Finally, Twilight spoke softly. “Maybe we should see if something broke…?”

“You’re just curious, Twilight.” Cadance said in a semi-accusatory way, even though she was just as curious and as likely to go snoop around. Both ignorant to Flurry Heart’s desperate attempts to draw their attention.

True, Twilight was curious. But she felt compelled to investigate whatever the changelings were doing. She also was intruding. Maybe abusing her position to sate her curiosity. And she had her niece in tow!

In that moment when she almost decided against going in it occurred to her that maybe the reason why some changelings looked like their old selves might be hidden in there. It occurred to her that Chrysalis could be hiding something from Princess Celestia, and if that had anything to do with the way the changelings looked. It could be something dangerous… Their research be damned, this was a priority.

“We have to see…” She stared at Cadance.

“Maybe, we should wait for King Thorax?” Fluttershy trembled a little.

“Chrysalis could be hiding something.” Twilight added. “The black changelings should have turned into the colorful ones, shouldn't they?”

Cadance frowned a little at that. “Well, now that you mention it…”

“Not to mention that if there is nothing wrong, she can simply let us see the archives and we can move on with our research.”