//------------------------------// // Third Chapter // Story: Horse of Cards // by Midnight Ice Cream //------------------------------// Third Chapter Simplicity is sublime Your Majesty, it shouldn’t take a genius to do my work today This chapter occurs the evening following the last chapter Lieutenant Sunshine Earthheart: 1st Regiment of Royal Unicorn Guards The night truly is a wonderful time to be walking around Canterlot. The moon certainly has an otherworldly feel about it, very beautiful. The other thing I enjoy is just how quiet it is, only the thestrals are up, and they’re on guard duty. One can hear the river from miles away, strange isn’t it? How that river is so much louder at night. I take a comfortable seat overlooking the hills, one can scarcely see how the mountains blend into the sky, but it is possible to tell the black from the dark blue. I’ve chosen a lovely position, right on the outskirts of the city, if anypony can see me they won’t be able to hear me. In the worst case scenario I’ll be caught chatting with a pony in the middle of the night. I sigh in annoyance as I hear hoofsteps heading towards me. I take it this will be said pony. “Lovely night Mr Overwood.” “Indeed Mr Earthheart.” “Might I ask an irrelevant question?” Overwood, now in the form of a smart looking white unicorn stallion, sits beside me. “Anything old chap," he speaks in a mock Canterlot accent, before reverting to his seemingly natural southern one. “Do changelings have the same perception of beauty?” “How do you mean?” “Look at these mountains, do you find them beautiful? This city? What do you think?” “The mountains are always beautiful, one sees majesty. Canterlot I suppose has a beauty about it. It is the capital of a rotting empire that we’re in the process of slowly destroying. But still, like a beached whale it has a majesty about it.” “So what strikes a changeling as beautiful?” “Love. Love is our food source and what we thrive on. Most of the time changelings are just everywhere, we use any means necessary to get it. You go to any brothel I can guarantee there’s going to be a desperate rogue changeling there. Hell there was a case way back when, when one of us went to a wedding in changeling form because he was so desperate to be fed, and didn’t have the energy for a disguise.” “What happened to him?” “Now that’s a long story, I’d gladly relay it to you another time.” “You have me curious though.” “I believe after getting fed during the wedding, he joined a brothel as a female.” He says. “So you can change sexes?” “We don’t have a sex Sunshine, we suit ourselves to a pony’s desires. You can go a long way by sleeping with ponies. It’s an excellent food source.” Oh believe me ponies can do the same thing. “I can sense you’d rather get to business, I shan’t keep you. What is the word from Her Majesty?” I ask, I’d rather not waste any more time on smalltalk. “She wants to meet you. She’s offering you more money than before, and would like you to map out the invasion properly.” I smile. “Of course I’ll meet her. However I’m not going to walk into the hive. I’m not going to have my memory removed.” “She thought of that.” “Then how, pray tell, do we communicate?” “Changelings can change Earthheart.” “Isn’t Her Majesty limited to being an Alicorn though?” “That isn’t a problem.” I hear hoofsteps behind me, and turn around to see Queen Chrysalis standing there in the form of Princess Luna. I’ll admit, I’m impressed. There’s no way anypony would find it suspicious at all. Unless of course Her Highness Princess Luna went outside at the same time, but what is life without risks? If that happens I can always betray Chrysalis and I’d not lose anything. I turn to face the changeling queen and give her a little bow. “An honour to meet you Your Majesty.” “Enough pony formalities, that’s for your people not mine.” “As you wish Majesty. But before I offer the full details of my plan, I’d like to clarify my conditions.” “Naturally.” “Like I said, I will be paid seven chests of of bits, in gold, for my services. I will be given freedom and immunity from the changelings if you win, as will my friend Wellbridge. Oh and you needn’t pay me if you lose, just don’t hunt me down.” “Of course. Is there anything else?” I wonder how much money it’d be worth? I suppose she doesn’t want to haggle. If I could be bothered I would, but seven chests is plenty. “To my shame, my demands are incredibly cheap.” I wonder if I could have got ten? Even twenty, how much gold does she even have? “Well, if you prove yourself well, we may wish to use you again. A pony can profit from being pragmatic.” “Your Majesty, with all due respect do not mistake this for a show of loyalty. That would be silly of you. It is merely pragmatism, mixed in with a degree of cynicism, and a lot of selfishness. You easily have the potential to win this battle, all I can do is make it easier for you, and give you the plan before you figure it out. In return I get to live in relative comfort. What I am doing is saving myself, not joining your side. If by some miracle the ponies win on that day, I will have heroically fought for them. But if we fail, I will be well off enough for that not to affect me. Either way I don’t lose. So I may as well be neutral eh?” “You’d make a good changeling.” “Perhaps, ironically a changeling would be more loyal. I don’t imagine your children betray you do they Majesty?” “This is true, I should say you remind me of myself.” “I thank you Majesty. I’ve always respected your pragmatism.” “And thank you Mr Earthheart, I’m learning to respect yours.” “Shall we get to business?” “Alright.” “Now, the most important thing to remember here is the element of surprise. If you take too long then failure is inevitable. I believe I am correct in assuming that your magical abilities are enough to defeat any one pony?” “You’d be correct there. Naturally I’d need to power up, but leave that to me. It’s risky, but I can make a raid, I wouldn’t normally play it so aggressively, but it’s all or nothing now. There’s a village, we can feed on it, it might give us just enough. We have to rush a bit to make sure we’re not caught but that shouldn´t be a problem. It should give me just enough power for the main offensive… Therefore if I manage my power properly then they will be defeated easily “Good. But I also take it that faced with more than one alicorn at the same time, you would certainly get beaten?” “Also true.” “Well the first part of your plan is to make it impossible for the elements of harmony to work. Therefore the first stage of your plan should be to capture the zebra train. You should then infiltrate it, and replace every zebra with one of yours. I have received intelligence that they are going to send gifts of exotic animals for our zoo. After the negotiations, there will be a party to celebrate friendship between Zebraland and Equestria. This is when you start the second stage, you must get someone to lure Fluttershy into the train station as the party goes along with the promise of exotic animals. This will render the elements of harmony useless. The rest should all be done very, very quickly. During the party the princesses will all be present and divided, I can arrange that with security. You must rush at them to defeat them one at a time before they can react. You could also spike the drinks, however they might catch on to that. I believe it is a matter of getting each princess in a different room, and defeating them all within a minute.” “I agree, the less suspicion there is the better. If we raise any alarms to begin with we’re screwed.” “It could also be prudent to confuse everypony by using changeling decoys. If they don’t know who they’re targeting it could make things very difficult. If you hide as an alicorn, it’ll be difficult for you to be targeted causing confusion among the ranks. Not everypony will be fooled of course, but it will cause confusion. This isn’t without risk of course, but it’s easily doable.” “True. I think it’s also important that we have a good guard at the train station.” “Indeed, knowing Shining Armor he’ll come down as soon as he knows what’s happening. So making it impossible to leave Canterlot is paramount. I take it you have enough in your army to do such a thing. All you need to do is send a small detachment of changelings to destroy the rail lines. Their mission will be to blow several holes on the line to waste as much of their time as possible. . Nopony will notice when there’s a battle going on in Canterlot, and it’ll easily give you a few hours.” “Of course. Why would I attempt it otherwise. “Does my plan satisfy you then Majesty?” “Indeed it does.” “Oh, I’d like to apologise in advance if I kill any of your lot. If you don’t mind, could you ask your changelings to stun me, rather than kill? I can’t afford not to fight you on the off chance we win.” “Of course. That seems like a fair enough deal.” “Well then Your Majesty, I will see you at the party.” “Adieu my dear Mr Earthheart.” “Goodbye Majesty.” Well I rather enjoyed that, didn’t you? I find these changelings rather fascinating, and amusing creatures. But of course, parasitic barbarians the lot of them, still, I believe one could civilise them. Oh, are you judging me again? Kindly stop, I’ve already told you that my motivations for this treason are entirely pure, and I will demonstrate why. Anyway, as much as I enjoyed this little meeting of ours, I must now leave as Chrysalis has, and get myself some sleep. Tomorrow will hardly be pleasant, I’m getting far too old for such late nights. Alas duty first my dear reader, duty first. Goodnight.