//------------------------------// // 30- Aequitas // Story: Changing Expectations // by KKSlider //------------------------------// Cataglyphis stifled a yawn as he stood in at parade rest. ‘Not supposed to be here. I’m just a lichen grower, I belong in the Greencave not the training yard.’ His sergeant was having the squad running drills. “Alright grubs!” Sergeant Apidae belted out, “To wrap up the day: urban fighting. This here’s a house. A pony house. Filled with ponies.” He pointed to a door behind him on the back of the training room. “The boys in the Eleventh filled it with ‘ponies’ just for us. Breach and clear it, as you were trained to!” The ten changelings started to take their places by the door, only to be hurried along by the Sergeant. “C’mon grubs! This is war, no time for a picnic! MOVE IT!” With a bit more pep in their step, the changelings formed to columns on either side of the door. The first changeling on the left of the door nodded, and kicked the door open. The first changeling on the right leaned in and quick-casted a flash spell. The squad rushed into the room, tackling hive-gel cutouts of ponies to the ground, casting stun spells first. They quickly spat their gel excretions on the bottom of the cutouts, as if binding each target to the floor. Unicorn cutouts got an additional shot to the horn and pegasus cutouts got one to the base of the wings. They then cleared the small building room by room, all five of them. Kick the door open, flash spell, then rush in and stun every pony they see. Then, subdue them. Move onto the next room. ‘This sure is a massive house, do ponies really have this much space?’ Cataglyphis thought idly. “Clear!” Called the group that moved into the last room. With the building clear, the squad exited the training area and returned to parade rest in front of Sergeant Apidae. “Three minutes two seconds. Not bad, but next time some boys from the Fifth will be playing defenders. You can take down a cutout, but can you take down an enemy unicorn casting spells? Well you’d better, or I swear by Panar I’ll have you running laps from now till the Promised Day! Dismissed!” The changelings broke formation and slowly walked to the exits. They did not groan as they did so, that was quickly proven to be a bad idea by the eager Sergeant. “Hey Cata!” Cataglyphis turned his head and saw Lacewing headed towards him. “Hey Lace, got no one else to bug?” “Not really.” “Uh, right. You headed to the Greencave, too?” She smiled, “Course I am, silly! We both work there.” “What– oh yeah, you work in fungi! How’s that working out for ya?” They turned onto the main hallway and started to make their way down to the Greencave. Cataglyphis remembered that Lacewing can’t fly, so he led the way to the stairs. “Oh it’s alright, not much to complain about. My friends have a hard time finding the time to come all the way down to my work to hang out, though.” ‘Hang out? What?’ “Who are you friends with that can just skip their duties to talk? They guards on patrol or something?” “Sorta. So, you got those Sarcodons and Hydnellums I wanted?” “Yeah. I’ll give them to you when we’re down there–” “Yes!” “Okay then. Alright I’ll ask: why are you so excited about these fungi?” “Because I was having problems getting my hooves on blue and green paint.” “You can make paint out of– no, that makes sense. What I want to know is, what are you painting with? And painting on?” “I got some stuff during the expedition. Not much, but Coxa says he can get some more canvas somehow.” “Friend of yours?” “Yeah.” Their conversation was interrupted by a small guard procession moving through the main hallway. Cataglyphis and Lacewing moved to the side, and bowed when they saw who the guards– Praetorians– were escorting. With a bowed head, Cataglyphis could only see the young Prince from his hooves to his neck. ‘Lotta orange there.’ Cataglyphis thought back to the last time he saw the Prince: the ceremony where Chrysalis hoofed over the entire Swarm to the near-stranger. He’d heard about him wandering the halls, especially now with the Swarm being reformed, but he’d never personally seen– “Hiya Prince Phasma!” Cataglyphis’s eyes darted to his companion next to him. “Lace,” he hissed, “What are you doing?” “Oh. Hello there, Lacewing. Wish we could talk, but we can’t. Later?” ‘W-wait, what’s going on?’ “Kay.” And with that strange exchange, the Prince and his two orange Praetorians moved on. Once they rounded the nearest bend, Cataglyphis pressed his snout up against Lacewing’s. “What’s the big idea here, Lace? You can’t just talk to a Prince like that! You could've gotten put on recycling duty! Or worse!” Lacewing pushed him away before saying, “Naw, Phasma wouldn’t do that.” “Phasma? You’re on a short name basis with the High Marshal Prince of the hive?” Lacewing started walking away, “Yeah. He’s a nice ‘ling once you get to know him, even if he seems a bit cold in public.” “A bit cold?” Cataglyphis echoed. He trotted to catch up with Lacewing. “Lace! He executed a changeling for having a pony book!” “That’s just a fake rumor. Phasma says a changeling must have overheard a test the Queen gave him and spread that rumor. He’s not as, uh, scary, as his mother.” “You expect me to believe that?” “Look, if you don’t believe me, ask him for yourself.” “Ask–” “Shh,” Lacewing shushed Cataglyphis as they ducked into an empty side hallway. “Tonight. Cold Storage A3. Prince Phasma will be there, and any ling can talk to him themselves. Tell the changeling at the door ‘Have violent ends.’ Don’t tell anyone the code or about this.” “Why would the Prince be talking to changelings in a cold storage room?” “Because… Because he wants to listen to us and hear what we have to say. Just… trust me, okay?” “I’ll believe it when I see it.” “Good enough,” Lacewing said, and went back into the main hallway to the Greencave. ‘Yeah right, talking with changelings my carapace! Like any ling related to Queen Chrysalis is going to care about us drones!’ I trotted into the room as Oest closed the door behind me. Looking around the cold storage, I saw Coxa, Lacewing, Thorax, Praetorian Weevil, Generals Aphid and Labrum, as well as three changelings I didn’t recognize. ‘Coxa’s, Lacewing’s, and Thorax’s plus ones. Hopefully their judgement is sound. I’ll introduce the lodges to the Specialist Legions’ Captains after the lodges in the three Line Legions are established. Should be very easy, given their small size.’ “Good evening everyone. What will be discussed tonight does not leave this room. You understand of course, half-true rumors will do great damage to our progress towards the Promised Day.” The changelings outside of the First Fang exchanged nervous glances at that. “We’re not going to be talking about things that are… against the law, are we, My Prince?” A changeling next to Lacewing asked. “Of course not. This is simply a trial run of seeing if there’s a way to promote the free exchange of ideas within the Legions. The Legions were created to be something new, and I’m certain you all will have some better ideas of how to exactly use your strengths.” Labrum spoke up next, “So this is for suggesting ideas both to the commanding officers of the Legions, as well as yourself, Your Highness?” “That’s right. And please, call me Phasma. While this meeting is in session, there are no titles or ranks; we leave those at the door.” Aphid rubbed his chin, “You’re really pushing this whole experimenting thing, huh?” I shrugged, “We’re doing something never done before. No idea is a bad idea. At least, suggesting them isn’t. Let’s start with introductions. I am Phasma, the Prince and High Marshal, here to listen to what you have to say.” The First Fang each introduced themselves. Coxa as my steward, Thorax and Oestridae as my Praetorians, and Lacewing as a Greencave grower. After their four introductions, the rest of the changelings spoke in order. “General Aphid, commander of the Fourth Legion.” “General Labrum of the Fifth Legion.” ‘My loyal apprentices. Come to the dark side.’ “Praetorian Weevil, First Legion.” ‘Loyal to whomever will bail his ass out of trouble, probably. Luckily, I can do just that.’ “Cataglyphis, Fifth Legion and Greencave grower.” ‘Lacewing’s plus one. Funny that, he’s here with his boss’s boss, as well as his boss’s boss’s boss. Unless he’s not a squad lead, then there’s an extra boss layer on each of those.’ “Aleyro, Eleventh Legion and love extractor.” ‘Must be Coxa’s plus one. Figures, the extractors and the organizers must interact with each other a lot.’ “Corporal Ventricle, Third Legion and Scribe.” ‘By process of elimination, that’s Thorax’s plus one. Was Thorax a scribe? I can’t remember what his job was prior to that shitty transportation gig.’ “So. Now that we all know who’s who, does anyone have something to start us off?” Labrum scoffed, “Well, you could push back the Promised Day. Four and a half months isn’t enough time to train our lings for combat and other roles.” I shook my head. “I don’t think that will be possible. I’ll attempt to convince Queen Chrysalis to delay the invasion, but she seems set on the summer solstice. And once she sets her fangs into something…” “She ain’t letting go till the beasts dead and rotten,” Weevil finished. “So the training. Has my provided exercises shown merit?” “Yes, My P– err, Phasma,” Aphid replied. “My talks with the First Infiltrator Legion has shown that they not only love the idea, but have taken to training each one of their operatives in the urban fighting modules you’ve… provided. I’ve also taken the liberty of training my Legion in it as well.” “That’s a good idea. The East Coast is quite urbanized, the training should prove quite useful.” Cataglyphis took this opportunity to speak up, “Wait, that training was your idea, Pr– Phasma?” I nodded. “But you’ve never even seen a pony building before. How did you come up with an idea that the Infiltrators hadn’t come up with in their centuries of existence?” I avoided the whole never seen a building thing, “Infiltrators don’t go ‘loud’ when taking out targets. They prefer being quiet at all times, but I guess they want to be prepared, just in case.” ‘It’s not even an original idea, it's just a human SWAT tactic. But there’s no need to reveal that fact.’ I continued, “Just goes to show, some fresh perspective is desperately needed in the hive.” “Can you change the names of the Legions?” We all looked at Weevil. “What? The Third Line Legion is actually the Fifth Legion. How does that make any sense?” "He’s got a point," Thorax mumbled. “The Legions are ordered in terms of hierarchy, with actual designation following that. Besides, most soldiers will just refer to their units as the 501st or the 403rd, and so on. But you offer a great segue into a topic I want to cover. I’ve left room for a common designation for each legion, but I wanted to get those names from you all.” “Oh, is that what that space is for on the establishment forms?” Aphid asked. “Yes. I kept it on only a few forms so we don’t go through a mountain of paperwork just to add a nickname to each Legion.” I shivered at that mental image. Coxa also looked uncomfortable at the idea of redoing all the paperwork, despite most of it being done before he took the steward position. Labrum and Aphid looked deep in thought, so I offered my idea. “That can always wait for meetings like this within your own Legions. However, since you two are the commanding officers, I will leave that decision up to you. Ventricle, I’ll hear your suggestion with everyone else’s at the Third Legion’s meeting. “Though, we can’t nickname the Praetorians. Those bucketheads are rather locked in when it comes to their name,” I said while pointing to Weevil, Thorax, and Oestridae. “Now, does anyone have anything they want to ask?” “Is it true that Queen Chrysalis ate your dad?” Ventricle asked. I balked. “She did what?!” Thorax fainted while Coxa and Lacewing were brought to tears from laughter.