“So what’s your real name, Orange Pip?” Diane grinned at the older queen. “Your changeling name?”
“I don’t know, to be honest. I was imprinted to replace the colt of a wealthy Manehatten family.” Pip admitted, “I didn’t even realize I was a changeling and not a pony until I got my cutie mark and was forced to assume my true form. My pony… parents… had been captured by changelings while exploring the wastelands with their infant son. They escaped, and they thought they had rescued their son. That was a changeling trick. What they had really brought back was me. The fives pips is a very specific message in the Orange family. It means you are marked as a traitor.”
“You look familiar…” Diane turned on Picture Perfect and gave her coat a long sniff. “You smell familiar too.” Diane opened her lethal jaws and ran her tongue along Pic’s blushing cheek. “And I’ve definitely tasted that flavor of fear. Who are you? Really? Don’t be afraid to drop names.”
“Pho-Photo Plate. I guess it’s not surprising that you would recognize me. You live with my sister.” Picture shuffled away.
“Heh, funny, Carrot never mentioned you.” Diane laughed coldly. “But then, you two have a family that rival’s mine and Z’s. Listen up girls, these are your new big sisters. Photo here is the big sister of Z’s big sister Carrot Plate. And Orange Pip… no, her hive name is Moth until and unless she names herself… Moth is truly one of us, hatched from the same egg that hatched our mother.”
Suddenly all eyes were on the older Queen, “I… Thank you, your majesty. I was a discarded piece of some long forgotten scheme. You’ve given me a place to belong.”
“I’m giving you a chance. One chance, Moth, one shot.” Diane’s voice echoed grimly. “One chance, one shot, that’s all any of us ever got.”
“If it’s all the same… your majesty,” Picture stammered nervously. “I prefer not no use my birth name.”
“Nopony can name you in in the Shadow hive.” The small queen gave a warm and somewhat terrifying smile. “What do you want your name to be?”
“Well, since I ran away, I’ve always gone by Picture Perfect.” Pic smiled back.
“No way!” Pinkie 13’s disembodied smile bobbed in. “Okay, we get it, you’re pretty. But I am not calling you that, like, ever! From now on your name is Sketch!”
“Thirteen, she can name herself what she wants.” Diane gave her sister a warning glare.
“It’s okay, I kind of like the name Sketch.” The yellow unicorn smiled. “It actually describes what I do very well.”
Sketch felt a nuzzle out of nowhere from the nearly invisible Thirteen. “Moth and Sketch! Hey! This means there’s 13 of us again!”
“Fourteen” Diane corrected. "Our next move is to Break out Z.”
“That would explain why we’ve been walking to the hive.” Moth nodded. “And I hate to bring this up, because I know it has to be a painful subject, but with the Unspoken Prince… gone…”
“Be careful how you say the next words out of your mouth.” Diane hissed.
“Well… your sister has an offspring to care for, your majesty.” The nervous changeling continued. “And we are… for lack of better words, at war.”
“She’s right Diane, Darling.” Sweet Shift cut in soothingly. “Remember the tragedy of the last invasion. We both know that Fast Change is not holding Z prisoner. We simply cannot subject our niece to these conditions.”
“Grr, dammit Moth, don’t make yourself more trouble than you're worth.” Diane growled.
“I wouldn’t be much of an adviser if I didn’t give advise, your majesty.” The older changeling chuckled.
“Okay, it’s back to playing ‘Canterlot Wedding’, then.” Diane nodded. “The game works like this. You and our sisters are the elements of Destruction. You get to be Twilight Sparkle, Moth. The game is to root out the evil changelings in Decanter. You were raised by ponies, so you’ll probably have a harder time spotting changelings than the the rest, but don’t worry, they're good at it. You’ve got five sisters with you now, you better have five when you come back or a really good place to hide.”
“But… there’s eight of us…” Sketch flinched nervously.
“Yeah, but me and you are gonna take a walk up the hill for some ‘sisterly bonding’. Noone had his leaders planted all through the noble houses. They all flocked to Chrysalis when he died, and now they think they can just hide their crimes behind the bitch queens schemes.” The little queen explained. “I have reason to take them out even if they weren’t wearing faces that make it even more fun. But they are.”
“Are you saying we’re going to kill them?” The yellow unicorn looked uncertain.
“Remember Day Shift? The changeling whose murder we were investigating?” Moth nuzzled into her beloved. “These are the ones responsible for that. They're the one’s ones responsible for the attack in Baltimare. They won’t see justice any other way. When Chrysalis IS eventually defeated, they’ll go on masquerading as if they were hapless tools in her schemes.”
“And they’ll just do it again.” Diane agreed with an angry nod. “You can’t just run away and let them keep getting away with it. Because they’ll just keep hurting ponies. Just like Iam Noone, just like Stormy Night, and just like your father. Carrot was at the University when the attack happened. She’s been missing ever since. She was never my favorite pony, but she was part of Train Wreck’s herd, and that means she was my sister. And I plan to have my revenge. If you can’t avenge your own sister then you have no place in our hive, Sketch.”
“Carrot?” The yellow unicorn choked back a sob. “Please… there has to be some mistake.”
“Come on or run away.” Diane started walking and Sketch fell in line behind her. “The rest of you, follow Moth and show her the ropes. We’ll meet back at the hive later. And you can both meet the rest of the shifts.”