They're EVERYWHERE!

Finale: 1/3

Invisible again, 156 finds herself inside a well-lit underground tunnel ending in a T-section in the middle of which stands a closed door with two strange-looking changelings, one by each side. To her infiltrator eyes, there are dozens of tiny inconsistencies between her idea of a hive warrior and the duo, and yet they definitely are changelings, albeit even more different than those whom she saw in 387's last memory. Their carapace isn't as smooth, it's dark green instead of pitch black, their eyes look like pony ones, they have two antennae instead of a horn on top of their heads and, most of all, they're in the middle of a lively chat instead of standing and properly watching their surroundings.

Tantabus is nowhere to be found and her hive link to 387 keeps pointing at one of the door guards.

"-with Starbright now working alongside unicorns in Withering Marshes," he says, "They're suffering serious headaches after having to dry out such a big stretch of land day after day."

"It's always great to see one of ours find their place these days. Canterlot has been a bit... inhospitable lately," the other changeling shakes his head.

"Wistful takes it up with the council of nobles each time he's in Canterlot," 387 frowns, "but every time the newspapers publish another 'anonymous story' about anything bad happening to anypony within the same postcode where somepony even saw a changeling that week, it gets worse. Honestly, I wish Princess Celestia would put her hoof down regarding this nonsense and at least force the papers to do some investigating instead of just blindly printing any nonsense they can get their hooves on, but I can already see the headlines about her suppressing free speech due to changeling influence on the throne," he rolls his eyes, "Basic damn fact-checking, seriously."

"Yellow journalism," the other changeling shakes his head, "The worst enemy of the truth. Speaking of newspapers, any news about Quiet Whisper? All I've been getting down in the south for the past three months were the usual reports about zebra unrest overseas. The flow of terrified refugees to take care of was never ending with less and less love to get from the ponies..."

"She just finished a fantastic piece regarding corruption in Cloudsdale. Obviously, there was a lot of pushback, but her sourcing was impeccable and the pegasi have this tendency to solve issues of corrupt city officials in a rather definitive manner. Think defenestration, but with broken wings, a boulder tied around one's neck, in front of their family, and from the height of a cloud. A lot of time to think about one's shady deals on the way down," 387 snickers, "I'm not big on this level of brutality but I have to admit that it sends a message."

"Makes me think we could use a little bit of cleaning up oursel-" the other guard opens his mouth to say something more but is interrupted by a female changeling figure soundlessly appearing from the tunnel bend ahead. She has long, flowing, grey mane, and her white eyes are locked on the door. Both 387 and the other give her a friendly nod.

She's nervous.

"Hello, Misty."

"Twinkleshine, Merryweather," she nods back at both of them, "Is my father in?"

"Yes, he is," Merryweather nods towards the door and lets Misty inside before closing it and...

...locking the door behind her.

"What was that for?" 387, or Twinkleshine, raises an eyebrow.

"Give them some time," Merryweather shrugs, and the timber of his voice tells 156 immediately that there's more and that 387 wouldn't like it, "Misty spent the last year visiting changelings all around Equestria to see how we were doing while Wistful was doing politics in Canterlot with nobility. As I was saying, perhaps it's time for us to have a chat about corruption of leadership."