After waiting for far too long in the dark, both physically and mentally, the top of the cart suddenly opened without warning.
Burst and I shook from the sound, but tried to stay as still as possible; there were pies on top of us, and a blanket between us and them, so we should still appear as if we were part of the expected apple pie delivery.
There was more concern when the pies were lifted off us, one at a time, until none remained.
Finally, then, the blanket was grabbed by purple magic and lifted off us - folded in mid-air - and put to the side.
I looked up at Twilight Sparkle's face and horn overhead. She silently grabbed a hold of me with her magic and raised an eyebrow at me.
There were no voices from any of the ponies, everything was done wordlessly.
Going by the worried expression on Twilight's face, I gave a silent nod in return to keep the quiet in place.
I was instantly hoisted up out of the gap in the cart's cover and moved to the ground beside it. Once I stood on my own four hooves again, Twilight's magic let go of me and she turned her attention to my sibling still in the cart.
I looked around myself; we were in the palace courtyard, off to the side of one of the main structures. Applejack stood watching Twilight and the cart to my left, Meadowsweet stood on my right and was looking in the direction the path we were on veered off to, and Camellia was watching me in front of me.
Camellia motioned for me to remain quiet, and I gave a quick nod to her and took a few steps toward her to give Twilight room to put Burst on the ground.
I looked back in time to see my sibling get pulled out of the cart rear-end first, then placed on the spot I had stood moments before.
I gave a quick glance to her right side in an effort to see the notorious bruise she had complained about before, but nothing was visible at first glance.
Twilight put the blanket back in the cart, closed it up, and then hovered the pies off it and placed a number of them on Applejack's back.
The Earthpony checked the pies over to make sure they were still in one piece, then gave a nod to Twilight.
The princess finally turned to face Burst and me, that same difficult look on her face I had seen on her before as she was hovering over us.
"It's a shame we can't all just go up to the princesses together," she whispered to us. "Once Applejack and I are in the palace, we'll raise our voices and draw most of the attention away from the courtyard."
"Ah, so that's why we're being quiet right now," I realised.
"We only have a few moments to spare before the guards will patrol past here again," Meadowsweet knew. "We must go."
"No time like the present," Applejack decided, walking off toward a door set in the wall near us. "Are ya comin' Twilight?"
"Pearl, I want to officially invite you to come visit me in Ponville once this is all over. I'd like to talk at length with you about you-know-what," Twilight suggested.
"I've got a standing invitation from Pinkie Pie and Starlight Glimmer to visit Ponyville about a year from now," I pointed out. "Is that early enough for you, princess?"
Twilight gave a slow nod. "Yes, well, I'd like to talk before that if possible, but you're most welcome in a year's time."
She quickly turned to join Applejack before the Earthpony disappeared into the royal kitchens without her, leaving us with Camellia and Meadowsweet.
"So," Camellia started, glancing over at a very worried-looking Meadowsweet. "How about Meadowsweet takes point since she knows where the entry to the dungeons is, you two come up behind her side-by-side, and I'll follow while using my magic to surround you two so it appears as if you're kept in place by it?"
"Sounds good," I agreed. "Don't put too much pressure on Burst's right side; she's got a bruise."
"Hey, I told you that in confidence," Burst protested. "What happens in the cart, stays in the cart."
The unicorn blinked at that. "What exactly happened in the cart?"
"Oh, nothing," I spoke conspiratorially. "As Oval said; what happens in the cart stays in the cart."
"If you say it like that she's going to think something weird happened," Burst grumbled. "We just made some jokes to pass the time."
"Exactly," I decided with a wink. "Just jokes. Nothing else. We weren't plotting the downfall of pony society or something."
Meadowsweet shivered and gave a glance back at overhearing me. "I'm having a hard enough time keeping myself from calling out for the guards already. Don't do that."
"Yeah, I get it's a joke now. Well played," Camellia chuckled. Her horn started to glow and she enveloped Burst and me in her magic, then started to nudge us with it to walk up behind Meadowsweet, Burst to my left. "Fall in line, you evil, evil Changelings, you."
"Yes ma'am," I answered, lowering my gaze to the back of Meadowsweet's hooves. "We'll just look lost and defeated for now."
"As you should," Meadowsweet decided. "Think about how awful it must have felt to be captured by a couple of ponies who saw through your disguises as the princess Twilight Sparkle and Applejack."
"You do know there's an anti-transformation magic field in place, right?" Oval remarked, but lowered her own head to start looking the part as well.
"Yes, well, I'm an Earthpony. Magic is Camellia's domain," Meadowsweet pointed out.
"You just used some strong anti-magic potion mixed in with the apple pies, obviously," Camellia spoke from behind us. "That's why we don't have any on us to share with the guards we'll encounter. We had to leave them with the cart. Some of them might go there to secure them if we use that kind of an excuse. They'd want to study such a potion to be able to counter it, I'd think."
"Sounds about right," I agreed, but then focused on feeling miserable so I could keep the act up.
Meadowsweet set in motion and Burst and I started to follow even without Camellia's magic nudging us forward. Soon enough our little group was on its way to the dungeons, even as the guards recovered from their shift change.
We soon realised just how brief of a shift change it must have been as a group of patrolling guards rounded the corner up ahead of us and instantly realised something was off about us.
"Halt!" the leader of the group of four called out, and they rushed toward us.
Burst and myself kept quiet, staring down at the ground, but Meadowsweet snorted.
"Halt? What do you mean 'halt'? We've captured a pair of Changelings and now we're bringing them into the dungeons. Why would we halt until they're safely behind bars? Are you trying to free them? Are you Changelings as well? If they could appear as a princess, they could be any of you!" she spoke in a flurry of paranoia.
The guards stopped charging toward us and instead slowed their pace and gave a few concerned glances at one another.
"They posed as a princess?" the leader repeated.
"That's what I said; we came here with princess Twilight Sparkle and Applejack to deliver some apple pies to the princesses. Just ask the guard at the gate. We didn't know they were Changelings! We're not letting them out of our sight until they're locked away," Meadowsweet orated again.
Camellia agreed. "Exactly; I'm holding onto these two so they can't change into somepony else and try to make a run for it."
"Yes, well," the leader of the group started, but his voice sort of trailed off into nothing.
Meanwhile Meadowsweet had kept her pace, and we were forced to follow, so he was coming up on my right. I just lowered my head some more and hoped I looked downtrodden enough to keep the act going.
Our little group of four parted the group of four guards as we passed them by, and I could just sense the confusion and frustration in them. Meadowsweet was keeping up her part of the act very well, Camellia kept us in lockstep with her, and it was clearly enough to keep the guards from poking holes in our story.
As we passed them by, the guard who had spoken before had to get the last word in and called out after us; "The dungeon is already overflowing as it is, but I'm sure the dungeon master can squeeze them in there with the rest of the pests."
It was a snide comment, not at all like how I knew the ponies from the show. Then again; the Tantabus had taken hold of the ponies' psyches and they were simply lashing out from a point of insecurity. They had to cling to a feeling of superiority over us Changelings just to stay sane.
I considered if this was not true for my own world; people with insecurities hitting down on the weaker in society just to feel good about themselves so they wouldn't succumb to their own fears?
Maybe I could do some good as a therapist if I ever came out of this; being able to take on the appearance of someone from their past whom they might need to settle arguments with or such could be a helpful tool.
No use thinking about it now; I had to look hopeless, downtrodden, defeated. I dragged my hooves to try and stay away from where Meadowsweet was taking me, gave some quick glances around as if searching for a way to escape.
Camellia tightened her hold on me and forced me to walk forward at a quicker pace again. My sore leg stung a bit from the prompting, but I positioned it better on the next step so it wouldn't be burdened as much by it.
I considered just how close I had come to actually being in this situation for real; had I not ended up in our little group of Blaze, Breeze, and Burst, I would have been offloaded into the general waiting area, starved by our Queen, and then set upon the city proper as an actual invasion force.
The whole idea of going feral from not consuming energy was scary; losing control of yourself because you were simply too hungry to think straight?
Meadowsweet turned a corner and pushed a door open, leading us into the palace. The cool outside air made way for a warmer one, candlelight illuminating the hallway we ended up in.
She led us past another set of guards who looked as surprised as the first to see our little group, but Meadowsweet and Camellia managed to hold up the same excuse as before and pointed out my hurt leg as evidence that Meadowsweet managed to overcome me with great effort.
I made sure to limp extra for show as we were given passage by them, the dungeon being a short distance up ahead and down a flight of stairs.
So far so good; none of the guards had any interest in following after us. They thought they had the place secured and a pair of ponies were obviously enough to keep a pair of Changelings in check. Camellia's magic definitely held up under scrutiny and Oval and myself looked like we had lost all will to fight.
All was good in the guards' minds; the captives had no hope to escape.
By ourselves; no, we wouldn't. Burst and I were stuck in this place now, and were soon to be reunited with our family already stuck in the dungeon.
If our plan succeeded however; we would have a small army of Changelings who hopefully had their ability to take on disguises back again, and could make our way out of Canterlot with the princesses directing attention away from us by tackling the problems caused by the Tantabus.
I had to hold onto that sliver of hope that Twilight Sparkle would manage to do her part, just like she had many times in the show. She would figure things out. And her success would trickle down to aid us.
Hopefully before any of the Changelings down here in the dungeon turned feral to the point of being unable to calm down.