Bini balanced a stack of books on her back and used her magic to levitate a few scrolls as maids, guards, and assistants of all kinds galloped past her with wedding supplies. The Royal Canterlot Wedding was in less than a week and the entire castle was being set up. Bini glanced briefly outside to the shield surrounding Chanterlot to protect the ponies from an anonymous tip that a threat was looming.
She gasped as she felt the weight of the books being lifted from her back. She looked in alarm behind her, expecting to see them scattered onto the floor but instead was met with Chocolate Shadow moving to balance them on her own back with a smile.
"Hello, Miss. Filters! Did you have a good sleep?" She asked. Bini shrugged and rolled up her scrolls with her magic.
"Well, I took another all-nighter. The commotion from this...Wedding is driving me insane." She admitted with an angry sigh and rubbed the dark circles under her eyes. Then adjusted her scarf before continuing to trot down the corridor. Chocolate nodded in agreement and follow her carefully.
"Have you spoken to Prince Blueblood recently?" Chocolate asked. Bini raised an eyebrow towards her in interest.
"Blueblood? No. Why?" She asked.
"Well, there have been rumors that he spoke to both Princess Celestia and Luna to banish you from the castle during solar and Lunar court yesterday." Chocolate said with concern. Bini shrugged it off and seemed unconcerned by the news.
"Yeah, I heard that too. I am honestly not that concerned." Bini said. "The chances of Celestia or Luna actually considering that request is ridiculous. I...Errr...We have been doing a great job since the summit."
"What if he starts a protest?"
"A protest? There is no way he hates me that much to actually waste his time with a protest." Bini said. "Well, now that I think about it...He doesn't actually do much."
"If you get fired, will I lose my job?" Chocolate asked. Bini shook her head with a "no." But she honestly didn't know the answer. Then Bini watched as the stuffy Alicorn known for Love held her head high as she strutted down the corridor. How the Princess, know for "Love" can be so rude to others, she will never know.
They mumbled greetings to her with a bow as she looked at them as if they were trash, then continued on and headed out the nearest door to a bridge connecting two of the towers where Shining Armour and Twilight Sparkle stood arguing.
"Come on, Chocolate. We have to get these back to the Library." Bini interrupted Chocolate's daydream about being an alicorn and gestured her down the hall. "At this rate, we won't make it back there until the wedding."
Then suddenly another door burst open and Arone came galloping out, he used his magic to grab Bini, who yelled in alarm and galloped off with her. Leaving a very confused Chocolate Shadow.
---
Arone opened up a supply closet and shoved Bini in, then trotted in behind her and closed the door. Temporarily leaving them in darkness until Bini lit up the small closet with her magic and glared at him. He locked the door and looked back at her with fear.
"We have a problem."
"We sure do!" BIni barked. "What the hay was that? I am busy! You can-"
"Listen to me!" Arone snapped with irritation. "My Queen is trying to take over Canterlot and we need to stop her!"
"Your Queen...What the-What is that supposed to mean."
Arone overlooked the fact that Bini had read a paragraph about a theory on how Changelings are evil and didn't actually know anything about them. It was stupid on Bini's part and Arone's. He sighed and used his magic to make a bug like pony appear with bug pony minions surrounding her.
"In a changeling hive there is a Queen, much like a Princess, she rules the hive and ordered us to do things that will benefit us in the long run. For example, we need love as ponies need food. So, the queen orders us to infiltrate villages as normal ponies to make sure we feed and don't starve to death." Arone explained was the queen ordered the minions to the nearby village and showed some of the minions turning into ponies. "Before I left the hive, we were dangerously close to starving to death. In these modern times with records being kept on everypony, a changeling can't just entire a town, village or even city without suspicion unless of course, they kidnap a pony and impersonate them."
Bini narrowed her eyes at him and moved a bit closer to look into his eyes.
"Are you telling me that you kidnapped the real Arone-"
"NO! Of course not! I made this disguise all on my own and for your information, my name really is Arone. Anyway, when a changeling impersonates a pony who doesn't have green eyes, sometimes their eyes flash green because it takes up a lot of magic to wear a disguise and it flickers sometimes. The more love a changeling has, the stronger they are."
"I don't understand. Why are you telling me this now?"
"Because Princess Cadence is a changeling."
Bini snickered and covered her mouth as Arone revealed his suspicion. Arone rolled his eyes.
"I am being serious! I saw her eyes flash green a few days ago!" He snapped. Bini cleared her throat with a smirk and nodded for him to continue. "I checked the history of Cadence. She was known to be very nice and kind. Along with having blue magic. Not green. Changelings use green magic even when they are a pony. This is why I have green magic."
"OK. I admit that is intriguing evidence." Bini said. Before taking a moment of silence to consider the situation. "That doesn't mean I completely believe it. I don't exactly trust you at the moment."
"If you cared about our friendship at all! You are going to help me reveal that a changeling is impersonating Cadence to everypony!"
"Ugh. I am busy, Arone. I know it may surprise you but I have a job! Yes, I did care about our friendship but that was in the past. What you are asking me to do is insane! Especially because you are talking about your own species! How could you betray them like that?"
"Equestria is my home now. I left my hive for a reason." Arone snapped. "Please, please help me!"
Bini sighed.
"I have work to do." She mumbled. Then started to open the door when Arone blocked her path.
"I am sorry, Bini. But if you don't help me. I will tell Celestia you read the journals."
"I can not believe you are blackmailing me right now! How we ever became friends, I will never know!" She barked back with genuine hurt and anger. "Fine! I will help you with your stupid theory. I doubt a queen would be as dumb as to impersonate a figure as popular as an Alicorn but OK! Fine!"
Arone nodded and opened the door. Allowing a very anger unicorn to march out, shouting curses in her wake as she trotted down the corridor.
---
Celestia watched Cadence and Shining Armour walking in the Royal Garden. Spending some much-needed quality time together. She stood on her balcony overlooking them with suspicion. Cadence was the type of pony, who, when under stress still treated ponies with the respect they deserved. This is why it was so troubling for Celestia to believe that she was being cold and rude to Twilight, her friends, and generally everypony else because of the wedding plans.
When Cadence's parents died. She stayed with Celestia in the castle for a few months while family relatives were being located to place her in a more suitable home. During this time, Cadence followed her everywhere. She almost considered Cadence like a daughter. Why was she acting this way?
It is true that she hadn't seen her in quite a while. She had been on a mission of importance near the badlands. Before she left they had a long lunch together. She was the same bright and happy filly she had always been. Then, upon her return a few months back she had grown distant, cold, and rude. The wedding had just been announced a few weeks after she came back...What had happened to her in the badlands?
"Princess?"
Celestia turned to see Arone with a weak smile and a very unhappy unicorn. Bini Filters beside him. She had known they had a falling out and Bini refused to talk with him except for small conversations she couldn't figure her way out of. She had tried to repair the friendship by finding the book she had read about the changelings and put her fear aside but not one of the books had anything about them. She had pressured Arone to tell her what book she had read and he refused to tell. Becoming nervous and sweaty. The thought had briefly crossed her mind that she went against orders and read Starswirl's journals but...No. Bini wanted to keep her job so badly that she was willing to do anything anypony asked her to do around the castle, even if that did mean she complained a bit.
"Arone! Bini!" She said with a cheerful tone, walking towards them. Then she remembered that she gave Arone the day off because tomorrow she had ordered him to help Cadence with the wedding preparations to relieve some stress for her, and the following days after until the wedding. "Didn't I give you the day off, Arone?"
Arone gulped and nodded when Bini gave him a sideways glance with a raised eyebrow.
"Um, yes, Princess. Actually, I have a special request involving my duties for tomorrow." He said. Celestia nodded for him to continue. He gestured to Bini, who looked more and more agitated as the silence went on. "Can Bini help me with the planning? I know that Twilight Sparkle came to me earlier and requested she does the checklist since she is head of the planning for this wonderful occasion so I moved to set up the ballroom for the main wedding.'
Celestia had heard a rumor about Twilight, very vocally, begging Arone for his position.
"Of course. The servants and guards could use all the help they could get!" She agreed.
"Thank you, Princess," Arone said with a bow from both ponies, then they rushed out. Celestia could hear the muffled voices of an argument starting once they shut the door. She looked back over her balcony as the coupe faded out of view. Maybe it was really just the stress of the wedding getting to her. Ponies change.
---
The next day, Arone had to wake up Bini earlier than usual to begin the day. She was very vocal about how much she hated it. She swung her double doors open and was met with her two assistants. Rocky Snow, a former guard. And Chocolate Shadow was giving her neutral expressions that hinted at disaster.
"What happened?" Bini asked in a dull tone as if she didn't have a care in the world and bit into her breakfast that consisted of a cookie from last night's dessert with Hot Chocolate. Chocolate gulped and elbowed Rocky to speak. He ran a hoof through his mane but other than that acting like he was on duty for the guards again.
"There have been several books about Pre-Equestrian history that have gone missing from the "Box."
Bini gasped and Arone looked at them in confusion. He looked between the three ponies who stood in silence before speaking.
"OK, is anypony going to explain to me what the "Box" is?" He asked. Chocolate nodded and turned silty to show a box covered in a blanket with chains wrapped around it and a sturdy lock attaching it all together. Bini frantically brought it over to her and then galloped into her room. She started ripping her desk apart to find something as the rest of the group trotted in after her.
"The Box is where we put books that have been brought to the Library because of the dangerous information it contains. Or in Bini's case, she read one of the books and tossed the entire collection in the box mere hours after reading the very piece of information she wasn't supposed to!" Chocolate explained, directing the last part towards Bini and managed to dodge a flying sketchbook before Bini grabbed a scroll and a key.
She galloped over to the box and inserted the key. It opened after a little jiggling was required and she yanked off the chains, ripped off the blanket to reveal a large beaten up black metal box with a seal from the Royal Guards Army. She opened the box to fifteen old books. There was a spell place on the box to allow it to be bigger on the inside than the outside so there were fifteen books stashed away.
Bini pulled them all out and roughly dropped them to the floor before checking each title of the books and reviewing her list.
"Be careful!" Rocky Snow demanded as he started to pick them up with care but his efforts were in vain as Bini started to float the books around her and started rereading the titles and list.
"No, no, no, no, no! They are gone! GONE!" She yelled.
"W-What's gone?" Chocolate asked. Moving to look over her shoulder.
"Legends and truths of Equestria. Starswirl's Journal 11, and The Effects of Dark Corruption and More!" Bini said before her eyes rolled to the back of her head and for the first time in her life. She fainted. Flat out fainted.
"Those were...Oddly specific titles." Arone pointed out to ease the tension.
---End of Chapter Fifteen---