//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Cold Fire 
// by blackcat 
//------------------------------//

One does not simply trot into Maredor. Mostly because the only place worth trotting to is a hidden, fortified valley nestled between volcanic mountains that were themselves in the middle of a barren wasteland. A shame because said valley was really quite vibrant and beautiful, if you didn't mind all the changelings that (until recently) where the main reason no one trotted out. 

"King Thorax? Sir?" 

The changeling King turned from his view of the sun setting over the jet black Tryptic mountain. "Just Thorax, please." Thorax said as he walked towards the round table his advisers, the leaders of the Royal Guilds that were responsible for running the Changeling Kingdom, were gathered around. "What where you saying Micro?" 

Microchips, a relatively small and thin lavender Reformed changeling in charge of the beetles used for long distance communications, adjusted his glasses before replying. "Right uh, Thorax sir. Just that we're all set up to broadcast the Crystal Fair to the entire Changeling Kingdom. We just need to set up in the Crystal Empire and the little fella's will do the rest."

"Finally the Hive will have entertainment that isn't fire and/or stabbing based!" Thorax joked. "It will be good for the whole Collective to see changelings and ponies celebrate together, especially the freshly hatched pupae." He then frowned. "How are they? Will they be awake by then?" 

Gloriosa, an Unreformed changeling and the Chief Caretaker of Younglings, sighed. "They are late yes. The blast that Reformed you must have frightened them and delayed their metamorphosis, but it's nothing to worry about. You'll be the first informed when they start hatching. Trust me sir, I've got this." She smiled nervously as Thorax looked about to question further. 

"Are you sure I ..."

"The Hive is stable and no longer decaying, sir." Gloriosa's clutch-sibling, and fellow Unreformed, Timber piped up. "The only recent problem of any note is that the poison stores have begun leaking into the water." 

"What? Why didn't you lead with that?!" Thorax cried in shock.

The Head of the Architects Guild shrugged. "It's not like they can hurt us, and the swarm might appreciate the added flavor." Changelings, due to their unique physiology were immune to most normal poisons and diseases. The changelings intentionally put their toxin stores and labs near the water supplies, so they could be unleashed on any invaders as an act of spite.

"What if some ponies arrive?!" Thorax shrieked as he started pacing in a panic. "I was going to invite my friends over after the Fair, maybe try to set-up an embassy with Princess Celestia! I don't know everything about being a good friend, but I definitely know it means not feeding them poison!" He pointed a hoof at Timber "Start fixing it at once!" He yelled well trying not to hyper-ventilate.   

Timber looked at his hole riddled feet in shame "I'm sorry sir. I wasn't thinking about them. That must be why I haven't changed yet." He look up sadly and added "I should stay behind and oversee the cleanup, I'm not worthy to join you. Not after foalnapping the Imperial family."

Thorax snapped out of his panic and wrapped a comforting leg around Timber. "No! Don't think like that. Your all worthy of whatever you wish to be! I know they won't hold what Chrysalis made you do against you. They didn't with me. In fact, I just know Sunburst would love to meet you! You have so much to share with each other." Thorax flashed him his best hope inspiring smile. 

"Sunburst? I punched him in the muzzle and shoved him in a slime pod." Timber deadpanned. 

But Thorax didn't falter. "If their is one thing I believe, it's that you can come back from even the worst first impression. Queen Chrysalis gave everyling a terrible reputation, but us being seen taking part in the single biggest event of the Crystal pony calendar? With the ponies we hurt the most treating us as normal friends and not vicious monsters? That will be seen in every paper from Canterlot to Zanzebra!" He paused for breath before continuing what had become a speech. "It will help convince our neighbors that this isn't some elaborate trick. Convince the renegades, maybe even Chrysalis herself, that it's safe to trust me and come home. And with more contact and friendships with the ponies we can restart the Reformation, until we all have been changed for the better!" Thorax finished to the clapping hooves of his inner circle.

"He's getting better at the speeches." The Captain of the Guard whispered to the scientific adviser.

"Totally. It's more inspiring than the speeches are." Sandalwood, a yellow and green Reformed, agreed.

Despite his speech those three facts still worried him deeply. Every nation except Equestria and the Crystal Empire, thought this was all a plot to have them lower their guard and that the ponies were being played for fools. Because he was so compliant and desperate to please while being from a race of natural liars every offer to prove his good will was just seen as bait for a trap. When changelings left to try and make friends, they were often turned away or placed under such heavy watch that they couldn't get anything done, even in parts of Equestria. Their immediate neighbors, long the main victims of the swarm, still just attacked on sight. 

Not helping was that most of the Swarms spies refused to obey his orders to reveal themselves and apologize to their victims. Promising to negotiate if they were arrested, instead of sending assassins to free them like Chrysalis would have, was taken as a betrayal and they had simply fled instead. Some had returned home but most remained in hiding, further infuriated that he had no intention of using the information they risked their lives obtaining. Explaining that the sudden disappearances were not his fault was seen as either proof he was no different from Chrysalis (or even her in disguise) or that he had no control over the changelings and there was no point talking with him. 

They weren't the only changelings not to trust him. Fearing they would be sold out to his new allies many of the hunters and officers responsible for attacks on Equestria had gone into hiding. He hadn't ordered search parties so as to avoid confirming their fear, hoping they would soon return on their own, after seeing that the ponies didn't want revenge, and that he truly cared for all changelings. They had not. The Myrmidons, the swarms elite shock troops, and the Adopted, the changelings who had been recruited not born, had attempted their own coup and now sat in prison. 

A contingent of Chrysalis loyalists had taken over the Queen's personal section of the Hive's archival sector, the famed Library of Secrets, proclaiming that they wouldn't let the Queen's "wisdom" come to harm. All attempts to talk them down had failed, even providing them with food to prove his good intent hadn't moved them, they insisted that the act meant they were trying to assuage their guilt over betraying their mother and hoping to earn mercy from Chrysalis when she returned. They spent all day singing the many anthems that glorified the queen and her ways. She Watches Over Us, Old Green Eyes, One Will, Hard Shells Hard Hearts, Best Are The Fires That Scream, The World is Food. The remaining archivists responded by trying to drown them out with what few changeling songs that weren't about war, misery and deception. United As One, Love Ends The Cold, Old Green Eyes (the song could be interpreted to be mocking it's subject), We Can't Die, Love Eternal alongside various pony tunes filling the normally peaceful archives with noise.

Hundreds of changelings had simply gone missing, not reporting to work or patrol groups not returning. The only common factor in the desertions that anyling could find was that their coworkers and neighbors reported sensing feelings of ennui and frustration in them. The most mysterious of the disappearances was a group of the hive's best doctors and saboteurs. They had suddenly left under a Cobalt Guard escort two days before the Queens overthrow and hadn't been heard from since. Noling knew why, just that they had taken supplies from the lab of Sunny Flare, the Queen's favorite scientist, so it must have been at her request to somehow help the team in Ponyville. Whatever was going on was apparently vital as the Queen had sworn all who knew the reasoning to secrecy until her "favorite children" returned, promising a grand feast on their new prisoners when they did, acting unusually coy and giddy the whole while. Those so sworn had fled the hive on the first day of Thorax's rule.

Flare's pack in Ponyville and the one in Canterlot, who combined made up of some of the Swarm's very best (and his clutch-mate Kevin for some reason), had both gone rouge, not surprising since the leaders were the Queen's second in command and her favored apprentice. Only Gloriosa's unit in the Crystal Empire had came back or responded with something other than insults.

The sudden stop of the Reformation days into his reign was what truly kept him up at nights. Only about 10-15% of the population had changed, and he suspected some of them were faking. To his great horror sharing love between changelings did not actually create enough new love for all of them live off of, and they still needed an outside source to supplement it. Which made the near total lack of foreign trust an even deeper wound.

But he had no doubt that they would persevere and emerge all the better in the end. It had looked dark at points in his redemption too. The more walked down this road, the easier it would be to follow.

"If that's everything for today?" He looked around the room and saw noling had anything to add. "Than this meeting is adjourned. Remember, tell everyling that anyling who wants to join us in the Crystal Empire tomorrow can! We leave at first light!"  He shouted as they all left. 

Gloriosa was the first to leave the former throne room and enter the halls of the Hive. Thorax's first order, after repairing the damage he had caused, was for a kingdom-wide beautification campaign. Streamers lined the sides of the stairs and pillars, flowers pots were placed wherever there was enough room and sun, and the walls were practically coated in colorful pictures and decorations. At first most of these had been portraits of Thorax, he quickly ordered them taken down out of embarrassment. Replaced by posters with slogans such as: "Don't just copy others, improve yourself!" "Ask permission before you set someone on fire" "You can change for the better!" "Ponies are friends, not food!" "Peace through Tolerance" "Don't bite people!" "She cannot hurt you anymore" "Out of the shadows and into the light of Friendship"

With the days work ending, the changelings mingling in the hallways engaged in idle conversation: 

"You were right. Shiftball really is better without all the broken limbs!" "I've been thinking about starting a collection. Stamps maybe?" "Why hasn't he appointed a new Imperator yet?" "Wait, has he appointed anyling to anything?" "The next party is going to be great! I hear Sludge-Viper is mixing the acid pool!" "I love his huge antlers, they really command respect. Don't you agree?" "We coat the walls in paper and then not burn it? What's the point then?" " I should find that little filly and give her doll back." "The foreling says that, thanks to my suggestion, changesteel production has gone up almost 3%!"

As she walked downward she took a route trough the more decayed sectors of the Hive. Counterintuitively the areas farthest from the Hungering Throne's destruction where in the worst shape because the griffin's share of the repair effort had been focused closer to the throne room before their decay was noticed. The Hive had gone from having a single power source and control center, to multiple scattered nerve clusters that each had to be feed separately. The few workers qualified to control and maintain them were stretched thin, and couldn't bring all sectors up to the same standard yet.  

She held no fear walking through the Hive's analog to the bad side of town. To attack one of the changelings responsible for raising the younglings was an unthinkable sacrilege punishable by brutal public execution. Presuming they lived to see a trial that is, Caretakers were expected to defend their charges to the death and as such were highly skilled warriors as well as educators and healers. To attack the leader of the Caretakers, the de-facto third-in-command of the entire changeling government, was even more suicidal. It was nearly impossible to rise that high with out being an expert hunter with dozen of victories to your name.

"Not unless you use some nonsensical pony magic to dethrone the founder of said government of course." She thought. "Should add that to the civics course."

The walls didn't shift half as much any more, even in the best cases. But in the decayed sections the doors often opened and closed slowly, if at all. The floors were less firm, even watery in far too many spots. It needed the "ponyfying' effort the most but the residents wanted it the least, destroying the decorations and carving graffiti onto the spongy walls. Mostly drawings of the former Queen's crown or Thorax with some combination of stink lines, a stuck out tongue, X-eyes and sharp things impaling him. 

The words accompanying them made their feelings plain: "Soft-shelled wimp" "Bring back Chrysalis" "Wheres the love?" "Deceive and Destroy!" "Hes a pony not a ling, a pawn not a king" "Wheres mommy?" "A noose for the moose" "Ponies are prey!" One patch in particular caught Gloriosa's eye. A carved picture of Chrysalis' glaring, snarling face, over the words "She still watches us. She will return!" Across from it, made with less steady hooves in response:"were sorry! Please come back" "We don't want him!" 

She smiled at her work and its reception before moving on.

The Changeling Collective was less a nation, and more one giant spy network and war machine. Thorax dismantling both, as well as the gladiator arenas, torture pits, and the Hunger Stone mine, left countless changelings with nothing to do with their lives. Even many actors were temporarily out of work since most changeling plays were training for infiltration and so advocated lying and paranoia. A lot of the work that remained seemed to exist simply because Thorax hadn't outlawed it yet. So they just milled about awaiting clearer orders than "Be yourself and make friends." 

Changelings where creatures of simple pleasures, their main forms of entertainment had been watching things burn, fighting or stealing from each other, torturing things, and sharing stories about lying to or attacking prey. Thorax had banned, restricted or discouraged all of these in some form, not that this stopped them, and now the Hive's small prison (Chrysalis had favored swift brutal punishments, so it was only built to hold prisoners until a trial or their limb grew back. In fact long-term imprisonment was once one of the harshest sentences, as it included being on a starvation ration as a prelude to execution.), and several of the old "pantries" were full. They could be set free after a sincere apology or a "kindness course", but most lied and returned to old habits. This left punishment a bad combination of harsh, humiliating, common, and harmless.  

With little to do and the love reserves and local wildlife dwindling, many had cocooned themselves in the sleeping chambers to hibernate until the promised new era of prey just giving them love finally came.

Gloriosa eventually moved under and out of the Royal Hive to an underground river, one of many that spider-webbed through Maredor, illuminated by seemingly random growths of glowing fungus. After making sure she was alone, she took a sip of the water to check the taste (changelings had a weak sense of taste, but strychnine and basilisk venom were hard to miss). Her thirst and curiosity sated, she followed the river upstream for several miles and then knocked on a nondescript wall. It opened to the most secure and hidden site in the entire Changeling Kingdom, perhaps the world: The Changeling Nursery Hive.

As the door was sealed behind her a dozen guards, culled from the best of the Swarm, sealed it behind her and an aide flew to her side. "The pupae? Have they begun hatc-" "Yes! Break free! LIVE!" "Never mind." Gloriosa dismissed the aide as she flew towards the sound. 

"Be strong little ones! I believe in you!" 

Through the giant complex of brood pits, maternity wards, class rooms, training facilities and everything needed to support them. A youngling would spend the first decade of their life contained within these walls, seeing daylight only rarely and under strictly controlled circumstances, protected from all threats great and small. Not that changelings believed there were small threats to their young. Past countless guards that relentlessly patrolled the complex alert for breaches from within and without. The Nursery needed to be almost as hard to get out of as it was to enter in order to prevent the nymphs, driven by an innate fear born curiosity and talent for stealth, from escaping. 

"Your life begins today! Embrace it!"

Normally at this hour the hive wouldn't be this active, but the hatching pupae kept the caretakers busy and their siblings awake. 

"You created this cocoon! You can destroy it just as easily!" 

The room she was headed for had looked completely empty mere hours ago, the pupae naturally camouflaged into the walls, but was now a flurry of activity. As the last nymphs hatched, the others run around enjoying their larger bodies and new limbs, the caretakers trying to inspect and clean them. In the center of this maelstrom, watched over by an armored Changeling officer standing at rigid and stone-faced attention, sat the Grand Matriarch of the Hive, the Supreme Shogun of the Swarm, the Dark Queen of Maredor. She who toppled dynasties and ended empires, the dread Black Horse spreading famine and oppression to the four corners of the globe. Once and future ruler of the Changeling race, decrowned but unconquered, beaten but unbroken.

Queen Chrysalis, giggling as a nymph pawed and sniffed at her leg holes, amazed he could no longer fit inside them. Gloriosa walked to her Queen carefully and bowed. "Your Majesty? I bring news." The Queen turned to her, no sign that the dozens of ravenous younglings that had fed on her tonight fazed her, a feat that never stopped impressing Gloriosa. "The wannabe king and his most deluded followers leave at dawn. They still suspect nothing." 

Chrysalis turned her attention back to the young drones. "Then I leave tonight, after the little ones are all asleep." 

Gloriosa jumped to her hooves. "Why leave? The Hive's a powder keg waiting for a match! If you just knock on the front door, they'll give you his head before you've even finished wiping your hooves!" She pleaded. She was proud to serve her queen, like a proper changeling should, but why did it have to involve waiting so long? 

"Little ones! Come here! I want you to tell you all a little story!" Chrysalis suddenly shouted, and then glanced at Gloriosa. "All of my little ones." Gloriosa gulped and sat down, you did not disobey even the most minor seeming royal order. Not if you didn't like eating your own wings.

"Did you know we weren't always a Collective children?" The Queen started her tale. "That we once hunted each other almost as much as our prey? It's true! Horrible, but true! Even when our ancient enemies covered the north in a Great Frost, did they join forces to fight back? No! They bickered and waited for someling else to do it! I had to end it, with the help of...of noling!" She held her chest in pain and suppressed a cough before continuing. "Af- 'cough' after the Thaw did they come together and work to prevent it from happening again? No! They used the new resources to wage war on each other! Hundreds of changelings fought and died in pointless battles with each other, until two great armies remained, with everyling else cowering and picking up the scraps. 

"After I had become what you see before you-" The crowd lit up with questions at that, even from the adults. Chrysalis almost never spoke of her life before queenhood. "Yes, yes. Hard to believe I know, but I was once like you. A teeny-tiny little egg laid in a warm, damp, dark pit. "She sighed at the memories of her foalhood. "Unlike you unfortunately, I was the only one of my clutch to live trough pupation. Sadly back then, even half an egg clutch surviving to adulthood was incredibly lucky. Now? One nymph in a whole brood not seeing its final molt is a rare tragedy." Gloriosa and her servants beamed with pride at that, while the nymphs tried to count each other to see if anyling was missing. "It was slaying the Windigos that eventually lead to my becoming...more." Equal parts pride and sorrow filled her voice.

"After that painful but enlightening event, I set out to unite our people, gathering a small army of followers and my first born, at first I tried to act as a neutral party in peace talks. But their leaders refused to even tolerate the existence of the other. So fed up, I formed the plan I am still most proud of. I went to each of them and convinced them that in talking to the other, I had seen how evil they were." She made an aside to the younglings. "A little tip children: Sometimes add a little truth to your lies, it helps more than you would think." Chrysalis rose to her hooves, as she continued her story. "I told the fools that in my failed peace efforts I had found the others headquarters. Right here in Maredor!" She added a dramatic flourish at that.

"I had my own forces lie in wait here, so that when they sent scouts to confirm my claim, it looked like there was at least something of value. When the first swarm arrived, my army fled to an underground redoubt, and I directed my supposed ally's search far away from it." Her voice started rising as she neared the climax. "Soon, the other came and began the largest changeling-on-changeling battle in history! It was brutal, fangs sank into soft joints and Fluxfire blasts carved through chitin shells! When the elite of each swarm meet, we struck! Aiming to decapitate the twin beasts. Had they stopped fighting each other for even a single minute, we would have been overwhelmed by their superior numbers and experience, It was still close, painfully close. But in the end righteous passion triumphed over cold hatred, as it is always destined to."   

"Over the bodies, I commanded a stop to the fighting. To all fighting! That from that day forward no changeling would kill another, that we would all move with a single purpose. I declared this our homeland where we would be forever safe, no more would our young be raised in sewers, or be hunted like vermin! I decreed that the redoubt would be the seed of a towering fortress that would inspire awe and fear in all who saw it! I vowed to make all other peoples of this world see us, not as pests and scavengers, but as equals! And someday, someday soon as their betters in every way!" 

"They joined our new Collective and soon we brought all the other changelings into the fold. A single powerful Kingdom, spread throughout the world's shadows, united by one unbending will! Mine! But your fool sibling, Thorax seeks to undo all that, reducing us back to scattered, vulnerable bands begging for scraps in dark alleys, well he performs tricks for the pony Princesses!" The crowd, which had grown substantially, hissed in disgust and outrage. "Do not fear, my children, mother has a plan! To bring back our misled kin! To restore fear in the hearts of our enemies! To prevent the ponies from ever harming us again!"

The (soundproofed) Nursery Hive rang with cries of: "All Hail Glorious Chrysalis!"  

As the cheers died down and everyling returned to work, Chrysalis led Gloriosa and the officer, Colonel Chainbreaker, out towards the Chief Caretakers office, as the nymphs started to play fight with each other. "That was my greatest triumph, can you guess what one of my greatest mistakes was?" 

"Not sending an assassin after Thorax?" Gloriosa snarked.

Chrysalis stopped and lowered her head to Gloriosa's eye level and spoke in her voice. "Please calm down master. Removing him will just put them on alert and risk the whole plan. We can take out Thorax when the time comes, a sick bumble-puppy could! There's no need to send Indigo, we need her in Ponyville. Don't worry, I've got this!" 

Gloriosa giggled nervously under her queens stare."Heh heh. He ah, he had great marks in evasion. It-it's not my fault! I was busy with Cadence and Shining Armor! Violet Blurr is our best scout, she and Pixel Pizzaz should have caught him!" She begged, suddenly aware that after the coming victory Chrysalis would be in a position to start administering punishments again. And very eager.

"Stop whimpering! It's beneath you." The Queen snapped. "Your loyalty in the face of this crisis outweighs any part you had in it. And noling deserves hearing Thorax blather day after day." She shuddered at the thought, before returning to their walk. Gloriosa staying carefully behind her. As a member of the Queen's Court she had seen her sometimes lure those who had displeased her into a false sense of security before lashing out. It was always hilarious, unless it was her of course.

"Back to my point, my mistake was executing so much of my former rivals leadership after the battle. The remainder retreated to strongholds that took us many years and lives to root out. It cost us so many skilled generals, administrators and spy masters, never mind the soldiers they took with them, that took generations to fully replace. Even within my own ranks, I suffered dozens of coups and rebellions from loyalists to those dead causes. In the end, it all held us back and extended the war with Baabylon for decades. I would prefer to avoid another purge, if at all possible."

They entered the office of the Chief Caretaker, whose duties Chrysalis had mostly been performing since her dethroning, with Gloriosa acting as her main agent in the Collective. Gloriosa had gone to great pains to keep Thorax away from the Nursery, only allowing him in once for a tour and planning session to revamp changeling education to be more like the pony's. Reminiscing about his nymphhood, when Gloriosa was one of the few caretakers that had any patience with him, they came up with dozens of ways to remove Chrysalis' influence. Naturally not a single one had been implemented and Gloriosa, revolted at his compliments, had vowed to be less coddling with her charges the minute he was out of earshot.

"I can kill Thorax in his sleep tonight. But if I don't kill his dream too, then it will become my nightmare for a century or more! To fully restore order, I must discredit this nonsense. After that it won't really matter if he lives or dies."

"Let him live?! After what he's done? There's no torture the selfish vulture doesn't deserve!" Gloriosa cried in outrage.

Chrysalis shrugged. "Depends on if he sees reason or not. If so, it would be the nail in coffin for this friends with ponies rot. He would be good bait for any would be resurgents too. But we'll figure out how best to burn that bridge when we come to it." She waved her hoof dismissively, a black beetle climbed to the end of that hoof. When the Queen focused on it, Its pincers glowed green and clicked. 

After half a minute came a voice: "My Liege?" 

Chrysalis smiled at the voice of her second-in-command, her most faithful and pitiless agent. It comforted her immensely that Cinch and much of the Collective's elite was still on her side. "Cinch, we begin. Are you all ready?" 

Cinch began her report. "At last. Sire we are-"

"Tanned, rested and ready!" A second, far less mature voice interrupted. "When we cut loose, they'll be count'en stars! It'll be murder on the-"

"Enough you overgrown grub!" Cinch snapped before a third voice chimed in:

"They'll be blown away by our performance. I promise you!" She vowed dramatically.

A fourth: "I'll bring you their ashes, master! Just ask!" She pleaded.

"They can try running but they'll just die tired!" Another bragged.

"You can rest, I'm the best, Lemon Zest!" The next one laughed at her own rhyme. 

"We will destroy them utterly, sir." A rapid but calm statement of fact. "The ponies have only fought rabble and traitors, we represent the Swarms true warrior elite."

"It's ready for field tests mistress." One added eagerly. "I look forward to seeing if the results scale when used on something other than swamp rats. The screams in particular."

"Oh, to see the looks on their faces," The next started sweetly, before growling. "when I rip'em to shreds!" 

"I guess? Sure!" The first male voice offered uncertainly.

"So turn up the heat till they fry!" Another female voice sang.

As this continued, each servant trying to impress on their master their unbending loyalty and unsurpassed skill, Chrysalis and Gloriosa shared bemused looks. "They never seem to completely grow up do they, sir?" Chrysalis just chuckled and lightly shook her head.

"SILENCE!" The Imperator bellowed. "Ahem, as I was saying. We are as prepared as possible, sire. I have fed and drilled this force to the pinnacle of Changeling fitness. Our enemy has been carefully and thoroughly reconnoitered without a single hint of our presence slipping. Worry not my liege, in all my years of service to you, from lowly swarmling to Grand Strategist, I have never failed you. I certainly have no plans to start at this critical juncture." 

"I should hope not, Abacus." Chrysalis replied solemnly. "The stakes are too high for any of us to fail. To lose is to see your siblings suffer under Thorax's misrule, our enemies destroy our home, and any survivors reduced to ponykinds pets, like the sheep or the crystal ponies. But to win? We would not just restore our power. But stamp it onto the sky itself! Under a brilliant green sun, we will wipe away all my failures, and end Equestria once and for all!"

"I won't fail you, Glorious Chrysalis!" "Swarm and Slaughter! Conquer and Consume!" "Revenge is a kiss, this time I won't miss!" "Burn! Burn it all!" "By your will." "We rule the day! We'll bury them beneath our feet of clay!" "Break their minds and drink their blood! Their delicious, delicious blood." "With mechanical efficiency!" "No more cowering, just killing!" "With you, we shall stand forever free!" "We shall win through, no matter the cost!" "A new world order! Ours!" "I've been a goodling mommy! When this is over can I have pet pony?"

"Yes, yes, Thank you. Your loyalty and enthusiasm is inspiring in this trying time. You will all be held up as an example for us all for generations to come. It's a shame so many of you are at the pinnacle of your chosen careers, even after I replace the upper ranks, I can't give you the rewards that feel appropriate for the hardships you've endured."

"To serve you is reward enough!"

"Brown-muzzling Adopted. Er, not that there's anything wrong with that, ma'am." Fwaazap! "Gah! My face!"

"It's lucky you have two then, isn't it Sour Sweet!" 

Chrysalis rolled her eyes at the voices of her two squabbling lackeys. She generally overlooked a great deal of infighting as long as it didn't cause any major injuries or death. "On the subject of ranks. Imperator Cinch?"

"My Liege?" She was confused, she already held the highest rank a mortal Changeling could hope to achieve. The just reward for a lifetime of meticulous analysis, ruthless manipulation and unflinching obedience. 

"Abacus Cinch of Brood 980-A. On behalf of the Changeling Collective, I Queen Chrysalis the Brightest Burning, hereby relieve you of your duties and responsibilities as Imperator. I am proud to have had you serve as my right forehoof and we are all honored to have benefited from your talents and service. You have served us all with distinction and loyalty, let none doubt your ability and dedication to the betterment of all Changelingkind. May your prey be ever bountiful and your enemies foolhardy." Chrysalis recited almost absently, having performed this ritual more than a hundred times over her long life. 

Abacus Cinch sputtered in shock. "Hissk?! I served you loyally for nearly a century! I have turned more than two dozen packs into a coherent strike force in the middle of enemy territory! I gave you regular reports! Properly formatted and encrypted! Why this? Why now?"

"Perhaps it's because of the lack of discipline your charges have displayed tonight. From personal experience it is hard to respect a changeling that needs glasses and a bow." Chainbreaker offered smugly, his voice best compared to cold gravel. He and Cinch had been assigned to replace the Royal Sisters, him Luna and her Celestia. Naturally the two terse perfectionists had gotten along like water and fire.

"How dare you. How dare you! I should crack you open and strangle you with your own nerve cord for such an insult! These eyes have seen more enemies fall to my arrows since attaching these glasses to my head than you have even seen in your entire life!"

"Yeah! Back off Chainbreaker! "Gloriosa rushed to the defense of her fellow Caretaker if only because she was, barely, the more pleasant of the two. "Have you seen the Fire Swamp? I have, back before the big Ponywood operation. Had to flee into it when an Everfree recon went wrong. Muck as high as your shoulders, the ground randomly bursts into flame, beasts in every shadow and a village full of loud, simpleminded yokel ponies. How can anyling focus in such a paradise?" She smiled at the pleasant memories, back when she could implicitly trust her follow changeling to not betray their entire species at the moment of triumph. The swamp ponies still had nightmares of that fortnight.

"Was that an attempt to help me or him? I knew I should have nominated Shadow Raker instead."

"That lazy flank-kisser? I'm twice the changeling he is and you know it, you old bug!" Gloriosa shot back.

"Enough! We have an empire to reclaim and you are sniping at each other like unicorn nobles!"

Chrysalis slammed her hooves down, knocking the tele-beetle on her hoof off and onto the desk. They were not given enough respect from their masters, considering how vital the near instant and undetectable method of communication was to the Changeling Shadow Empire. Blamed for every miscommunication and disposed of when their use ran out. They could end this conspiracy instantly by transmitting their scheming to Thorax or anyling loyal to him, a number that included the few that were kind to them. They could even lead them right to her and all her loyalists. Instead they did the opposite, helping her find and coordinate her followers.

The reason was simple and it wasn't Chrysalis' promise to improve their living chambers or feed them all the gold in Cantorlot. Their unique abilities required a metal based diet. Particularly copper and gold, the metals most nations used as  currency. How would the ponies react to a swarm of creatures that ate the lifeblood of their economy? That were under the care of a leader that would do anything to mimic and please them? A leader that had no use for the planet spanning spy network they enabled and could replace them with telegraphs the ponies could sell him?

Changelings used love rations and favors as currency and preferred to build with the slime they secreted from their leg-holes. They only made heavy use of two metals: the distinctive blue changeling steel, an alloy of aluminium and Maredor Black Iron, which depending on how you looked at it was either carbon rich iron or iron rich carbon. Either way it was only useful as a solid filler material and weight for the otherwise slime based construction they used. Unappealing meals even without the brutal retribution the changelings would have provided for the attempt. The changelings had domesticated them precisely because a metal eater could only hurt their enemies more then themselves. It made them the only beings the beetles themselves could trust.

Under Chrysalis they were tools in a culture that disdained the concept of tool use but they were invaluable tools, well fed and safe from predators. They lived more that five times longer than their ancestors/cousins, the hoard scourge beetles, did in the Dragonlands. That retirement was having their love drained and their innards squeezed into the gruel pot was, to their near hive mind, a more than acceptable trade. Under Thorax they had no such certainty and a dangerously high chance to lose everything.

So the upended tele-beetle dutifully maintained the link as Chrysalis glared at it as a surrogate for the changeling at the other end.

"What is the function of my Imperators, Abacus?" She growled. To aid their shapeshifting changelings had near perfect memory recall, so their ruler shouldn't have to repeat herself or explain the obvious. The fact she kept having to infuriated her to no end.

Cinch, now "merely" a general and senior member of the Queens inner circle, answered. "'To be the Queen where the Queen is not.' I don't see how... Oh yes, yes, I see. I apologize for my reaction. It's just that... I have no excuse, my liege." She than muttered to her self. "I miss my office... and my abacus.

Chrysalis turned to Chainbreaker "As for you colonel." She telekinetically lifted him so that they were face-to face, faint wisps of steam escaping from her mouth. "Would you like to explain yourself? Why is one of my finest military minds showing such disrespect for his superiors? Well Chainbreaker?" 

The drone in her grip showed little hint of the fear he currently felt. He had faced charging centaur knights and the infamous Minotaur Gladiator Corps without flinching, once at the same time. But then the worst they could do was kill him, Chrysalis was far, far more creative. He had no desire to test whatever she had planned for Thorax.

"Superiors?" The protocol for this scenario was to grovel shamelessly, but Chainbreaker preferred to know what he was apologizing for. Especially if he could use that information to not apologize at all. 

"You presumed to know my motivations and worse you presumed wrong. I expect better of you, colonel." She dropped him  suddenly and spoke to the finally upright tele-beetle. "I expect better from all of you. Whatever disputes you have with each other are meaningless next to the existential danger Thorax has placed us in. Petty bickering and shortsighted position jockeying was what doomed the old Council of Shadows during the Long Winter. Simply because it is the opposite of Thorax's bleeding heart foolishness does not make it wise."

"A good point, master. Thorax's only real ideas are mindlessly mimic the ponies and do the opposite of what you would do. It's only a matter of time before he makes us buy our love and living quarters with shiny rocks like the stupid ponies. The question is if they would have his ugly face or Celestia's on them." Gloriosa chuckled to herself. It hadn't taken long for the courtlings to learn how to manipulate Thorax, just imply it was something Chrysalis would never do and presto! Instant royal support. At least it helped stop him from looking into why the Nursery Hive was more isolated from the rest of the Kingdom than normal. 

What do you mean the Nursery seems to be on lockdown, sir? You must be imagining it, you always were such a dreamer! Everyling's just so happy to not be preparing the younglings for the cruel, threat-filled world we live in, that we just don't want to leave! Just trust me! You do trust me, right? Chrysalis wouldn't leave the future of our people in the hooves of someling provably lying to her, and you wouldn't want to be like her would you? What's that? You'll drop the subject? Good clown! Sorry, slip of the tongue, I mean King.  

Chrysalis continued. "We may be in exile but we are still civilized changelings, are we not? Bring any complaints to Sugarcoat or her subordinate Siegies. Do not waste my precious time and risk our salvation with nonsense like feeding order and who insulted who. The Cobalt Guard are the ones that ensure justice and order prevail in the Collective. Their judgement is final. That has not and never will change. We must be a black diamond, unbreakable and inscrutable, pointed straight at our foe's heart."

The aforementioned Guardslings saluted with loud clangs as their armored forehooves impacted the thick metal plates fused to their chests. "The First are the Last!"

"Are there any more interruptions, children?" She looked at the two changelings in the room with her and the now upright tele-beetle that connected her to the ones that weren't. When all she heard was an awkward cough she continued. "This is purely temporary, Abacus, when all of this is over I will reappoint you. Think of it this way, you will be the first changeling to be appointed Imperator twice in more than five hundred years. In the mean time this leaves a vacancy at the top. Gloriosa?"

Chrysalis walked around the desk so she was in font of Gloriosa, who bowed deeply. "By law I can not leave the Heartland with out leaving an Imperator to rule in my stead." She started muttering in annoyance. "Of course those same laws say I have to consult my advisers before appointing or dismissing an Imperator, but most of them have committed treason and their Guilds have chosen not to kill and replace them as the law also requires. The sniveling cowards. So, you know, extenuating circumstances and all."

The Queen placed her hoof on her faithful follower's shoulder. "Our Great Swarm moves with one, all-consuming will. Seeing all, consuming all, being all! We touch all lands and devour all dreams. But one mind alone can not rule so many bodies even united under one will. It cannot be in all places, hear all things or be awake all hours. So it is that I must empower some to rule where I can not. To lead us without hesitation or question. Gloriosa of Brood 1024-A, you have risen above the Many with your power, cunning and dedication. I am honored to reward that hard work with the right to speak with my voice and all the responsibilities and privileges that go with it. Rise Imperator Gloriosa! Rise and lead us to triumph!"

There was a round a clapping and cheering at this. "How marvelous, deary!" "I envy you. Such faith from the master." "Normally I'd break out the champagne, but all we have here is stolen moonshine." "You have been given a great honor." "Yeah! Whoo-ho! Go whoever you are! You're the best!" "By fang and fire, we shall conquer and consume!" "Lets burn something! Wait, what's the clapping for? Did I miss something?" "Harumph! Enjoy it while you have it." "Gloriosa! Gloriosa! Gloriosa!" "Suppose there are worse lings for the job." "Party time! Party time!" "Good for you! Rearranging deck chairs on the Bit-tanic."

Despite the cheering Chrysalis stared grimly at Gloriosa, who was beaming with pride at her temporary promotion as she rose and saluted, hoof over her heart. "Be aware, I am not doing this to just fulfill a legal technicality. If the worst happens and I fall, you will be Queen and I want as few problems with that as possible."

There was an uproar at the thought. "Have you no faith in me mother?" "I will take a thousand ponies with me before I see such a hell!" "But we can't lose, we're the good guys!" "I do not fail!" "We will spend our lives well if we must, that has not changed." "We've brought whole cities to ruin! And still had time to get a soft shoe in! We can pillage a village, no problem...age." "Don't you go doubting us now sir! We'll pull though! We're changelings!" "So a blaze of glory then? Always figured that's how I'd go out." "Perish the thought! Painfully!" "At least I'll die doing what I love, ripping and tearing and biting and..." "Then... then what hope is there?" 

"It's the worst case scenario, relax children. A good leader prepares for every possibility, and all the shattered armies and fallen kingdoms prove I'm a very good leader." Her visage darkened. "This wretched affair at least has had three positives: It has shown me who the truly loyal and intelligent are, it has shaken off the rust and complacency from the centuries of success and finally hammered home that the ponies are beyond help. That I can lead them to water but not make them drink, no matter what or how hard I try." 

"Their leaders resisted my advice, even in pony guise, no matter how often I was proven right. All my attempts to conquer them have failed because I assumed they would see the futility of resisting me, would see the benefits of being my vassals. Time and time again they prove my faith in them foolish! In their stubborn tantrums they hit upon an impossible stroke of luck that wins the day. Then the truly galling part, they actually think they earned their miracle and don't need to do anything more!" It wasn't the defeats that made her angry at the ponies, it was the lack of work they put into them, performing some miracle trick rather than through brilliant scheming, raw strength and skill or sheer bloody attrition. That they never seemed to put any real effort into preventing her attacks was just adding insult to injury.

"No! This time there will be nothing left to chance. Unlike them, I win through cleverness not luck! I always have!" She levitated over a pot made of hardened slime filled with sheets of rubbery paper, also made from slime. They looked blank but under carefully tuned magic auras the writing could be revealed and manipulated, a single sheet could contain a bookshelf worth of text. "This contains all the notes and contingencies I have made and collected since my exile. It may well be my final gift to you, use it well." 

Contained on the papers where notes on thousands upon thousands of changelings. Next to each name was an assessment of their loyalty and ability. How eagerly they had embraced Thorax's ideas or resisted his rule, how talented, clever or brave they were. Whether they had earned reward, leniency or pain. The loudly loyal like Dark Deed and Montage were to be reward and trusted. Those who seemed more interested in going on with life without care for who their ruler was, like Generals Obsidian Blade and Shadow Strike, were to be demoted and humiliated for their blindness and apathy. Some traitors could be given second chances, others were marked for death to prevent a counter-counter revolution. 

Detailed reports on nearly every nation and all the major factions and leaders within. How each government, political faction and prominent figure would react to her coming acts and how they would react to each others reactions and the reactions to those reactions and so on with decreasing certainly for nearly a decade. Who would work together and who would see opportunity at the others expense. The preferences and blind spots of each leader and how to exploit them. Who could be manipulated and how. Which leaders should be replaced, framed for crimes or assassinated and the likely reactions to it.

Maps and charts of the surrounding lands, some listed population centers and calculated how much love could be extracted from each. Others highlighted the sites and potential sites of changeling safe houses and outposts, all the places they could muster and prepare in secrecy and safety. Others the current positions and makeup of their rival armies and their likely movements, based on stolen documents and inferences of their commander's personalities. How best to impersonate or provoke their forces for maximum effect. The strengths of each force and how to avoid or nullify them and the weaknesses to exploit. 

Various plans that Chrysalis had been scheming before her overthrow and her assessment on their viability in light of recent events. The grandest was marked as a worst case scenario, if defeat seemed inevitable she was to take as many changelings as possible and flee across the ocean to the Zebra Lands. A large hive complex had been build under Mt. Kilimarejaro that could be used as a backup capitol, from there they were to secretly replace the zebra leadership and eventually create a fake zebra alicorn to rule over them. A force of left behind changelings would lure their foes into the Heartland and then activate the dormant volcanoes of the Maredor Mountains to wipe out them out. While a second force would free as many inmates in Tartarus as possible, something they had already proven able to do before the Canterlot Assault, to wreak havoc. Then the rebuilt Changeling Empire and their puppets could deal with whatever was left standing at their leisure.   

A dizzyingly complex set of equations, Abacus Cinch's masterwork. She firmly, almost religiously, believed that everything could be reduced to perfect, unfeeling math. Every action, every emotion, every life. Her life's work was to prove that fleshlings were nothing but automatons filled with food and to find the variables needed to perfectly control them. By reducing their lives to predictable and controllable equations, infiltration and manipulation could be made into larva's play. The ambitious work was not complete but if it was even close than the results would be world shattering. The notes on testing were mixed but leaned positive.

Scientific/magical theorems and mechanical diagrams, mostly from the brilliant if machine obsessed Flare or stolen from Princesses Twilight and Celestia with a few that Queen Chrysalis had been working on herself over the centuries. Solving Starfall's Mana Flow Paradox seemed to have been a focus of hers, as was the process of transforming non-changelings into changelings. The end goal of that particular project was to change halflings, hybrid changelings, into full changelings. Something that was actually far harder than changing non-changelings as the other half developed a resistance to changeling magic and became all but impossible to alter permanently. 

Changelings had always had a dismissive attitude towards machinery, preferring to hone their many innate talents rather than use even simple tools. Why chisel stone when the slime you excreted was easier to shape and far more versatile? Why weigh an army down carrying weapons when it already had fangs and horns? They of course studied their enemies technology to better infiltrate and undermine them, that was just good sense but it was rare for them to use more than a few stolen novelties but when something was embraced it was adapted and refined to perfection.

All the papers were written in Changeling except one, A political treatise entitled After Hearth's Warming: Princess Celestia and the Illusion of Harmony, to be copied and spread through out Equestria to undermine it's government. It argued that Equestria had abandoned it's founding principles and that Celestia had proven herself dangerously complacent, cowardly and inept. That she couldn't fix any of the lands problems because she neither realized they existed nor understood what would be needed to fix them, surrounded as she was by ponies that profited from those same flaws. That for all her "wisdom" she had never seen a crisis coming no matter how obvious the signs had been and after one hard choice, the banishment of her sister, refused to make another. That the Tribes where no more unified than they where before the Long Winter. After all, how could they be when the elite of one tribe dominated their supposedly united capital? When more than half of the pegasi lived above and apart from their kin? When the earth ponies, nearly half the population, were almost wholly absent from the uppermost ranks of the government and military? It called for a revolution to correct this and form a government with the self sacrificing ethos of the Unicorn Archmage-ister's Circle, the discipline of the Pegasus Stratocracy and the fervor of the Earth Pony Revolution. The goal, never stated but obvious to a changeling, was to remake Equestria in the image of the Changeling Collective, a ruthless technocratic dictatorship where nothing, not even family, existed outside the state.

It also pointed out that their flag was stupid looking and despretely needed to be replaced.

Combined with a hastily written autobiography of her experiences and a long list of advice and rules of hoof, it was all you needed to rule an evil empire of shapeshifting, emotion-eating sadists and violent pyromaniacs and more importantly  dominate the world with it. 

"I should also give you your badges of office but all the spares are in Storage Sector 4." Chrysalis muttered absently. SS 4, Celebratory & Ceremonial Items, was one of the better guarded areas of the Hive, mostly to keep the pyromaniacal changelings from getting into the fireworks. Thorax had decreed that they celebrate a number of pony holidays in addition to their own, ensuring that it was always crawling with workers preparing for the next party as well. It simply wasn't worth exposing the conspiracy just to steal a set of ceremonial armor, a black iron circlet, an obsolete crystal ball or a sealing stamp before any of it would actually be useful to them. "If you feel the need, I suppose you could borrow Cinch's. If they are still in her office that is. And you want to see how long you can hold your breath."

"Has anyling been in my office?! If anyling has damaged my things I will peel their plates off and reattach them inside out!" Chrysalis sighed at Cinch's second unprofessional outburst of the night, she had managed to keep her from worrying about her belongings since her exile. Her materialism was unbecoming of any changeling nevermind one of the most elite of their ranks.

A changeling could be said to truly own one thing, the trophies and awards they had collected. Abacus Cinch, a compulsive overachiever, had turned her personal quarters and office into a monument to her greatest victories. Even limited as it was to her most impressive and sentimental trophies, it was an awe inspiring display of changeling cunning, bravery and martial prowess. Non-changelings though would have found how many atrocities one changeling claimed credit for disturbing. 

Gloriosa looked up from skimming the papers. "No, not to my knowledge. Thorax thinks all changelings will embrace his stupid way of thinking, even you, you of all changelings! Ha! The rest are smarter and know what you would do to them, Thorax or not." 

She couldn't help but laugh at the impossible image of Abacus Cinch acting like one of Thorax's followers. Cinch was nearly the ideal changeling a sneaky, efficient, versatile and remorseless killer. Why would she throw away a lifetime of work for empty promises of peace and the dubious at best math (As the Hives former math instructor, that detail of the rebellion offended Cinch the most.) of love sharing? 

Gloriosa was, by changeling standards, kindhearted and her clutch-brother Timber had earned a reputation as a pessimistic 
whiner. Their rapid embrace by Thorax made sense. Although Gloriosa struggled to grasp the connection between thinking training younglings to imitate inanimate objects should involve less strangling and letting prey walk about their homeland unmolested. One was a valid concern, the other suicidal madness.

"Ha! It's good to hear the Many have not taken complete leave of their senses. Hope still burns eternal!" Cinch exclaimed with relief. Bones were so brittle and difficult to pose after all, how vertebrates lived with them she would never understand. 

"I hate to have to dampen the cheer but I want this clear, Abacus. If I fall and you live, you are to serve Gloriosa with all the dedication you have shown me. That goes for the rest of you as well. Am I clear?"

"By your will!"

"My liege? No disrespect meant, to either you or Gloriosa, but I have nearly a century of experience on her. In far more fields as well. If anyling must attempt to fill your horseshoes surely it should be me?" Cinch questioned carefully, she had received only a light reprimand for her earlier outburst, Chrysalis would not be so forgiving twice in one night.

"Simple, she is young and you are not. If the Collective must have mortal monarchs than it is best the change of hooves happen as far apart as possible for stability's sake. Morale will likely be low even if we win. Our neighbors have not exploited the weaknesses Thorax has created yet because they still fear I command the swarm. If I fall striking at Celestia, this illusion will disappear and they will launch the invasions they are preparing. Can you imagine If we lost our second true leader in the middle of it? With the idiot pretender possibly alive and preaching surrender?"

"Another reason we should kill him now! Drag him down here and beat him to death in front of the larva as an example!" Gloriosa stamped her hoof. "Noling can match his talent for spewing nonsense but someling can easily replace him for the few days the plan needs." Gloriosa paused in thought for a moment. "I'm thinking Cheerful Lie will do wonderfully."

"Where was this blood thirst when I was Chief Caretaker?" Cinch questioned, than laughed heartily. "I like it! Very good choice with Cheerful Lie as well, exactly who I would pick for such an operation." 

"The ponies threaten our home, the one place we are truly safe! Truly free! How can I say nothing when doom is barreling down on us and noling seems to care? How can I be calm while the runt of the brood is held up as a role model? Everyday he is hailed as some great hero for driving off our mother! Everyday I have to watch as he stumbles about without a clue! He says a time of endless love is just around the corner but Chrysalis had already achieved that when he destroyed the Throne!" 

Gloriosa started pacing, enjoying the long overdue chance to vent her frustrations. "And for what? Freedom? Freedom from a full meal? Freedom from our mothers wisdom? She builds nearly everything we have and they want to throw it all away because some stupid dragon says she's mean? They're our prey of course they think we're mean! Why should we care what they think? We aren't ponies! Noling has ever given me a good reason to rebel in our moment of triumph. We had all of Equestria to feast on and they threw it away for scraps! No! The promise of scraps! Madness! Sheer madness!"

She looked as close to crying as a species without tear ducts could be. Her emotions a churning mix of fear, rage and desperation. "Be yourself he says, while he turns us into THEM! Do they have shells? No! Do they have sparks? No! Do they eat souls? No! So why are we destroying ourselves to be like them? None of this makes sense!" Her breathing grew erratic and ragged as multiple changelings gathered at the door, sensing her distress. "I leave to proudly serve the swarm and everyling goes completely mad! Up is down and hot is cold! Next we'll be hugging windigos!"  

Just as Gloriosa neared a complete break down Chrysalis hugged her, drawing the smaller changeling to her chest. "Calm down my pretty little fire lily." She cooed, stroking the back of her head as her emotions returned to a more controlled state. "Calm down, mother is here. Mother has a plan, It will all be back to normal soon." Chrysalis kissed her subject on the spot between horn and eyes. "Better, little one?"

Gloriosa nodded. "Yes, I just needed to let it out. Thank you, mother. It's just so hard to lie to them with my own voice. Everyday I have to treat my own kin like fleshlings and everyday I have to act like the one responsible is worthy of respect!" One of changelingkinds oldest traditions was to always be honest when undisguised. So deeply ingrained was this rule that it was often applied to non-changelings. Although that might have just been gloating. 

"Your passion is one of the reasons you are being entrusted with this responsibility, but don't let it control you. A wild fire is beautiful but burns out quickly."

"Thank you, Majesty. I will live up to your trust, I promise!"

"You still have faith in her after that display? It's unbecoming of a changeling, never mind a leader." Chainbreaker sneered. Changelings should behave like they looked. A living obsidian knife, harsh and unyielding.

"I do. As it seems do they." Chrysalis pointed behind him.

"Grr-hiss"  Chainbreaker turned to see a dozen changelings glaring at him, hunched and ready to fight for their chief's honor. The colonel glanced between them and his Queen, weighing his odds and her willingness to come to his aid. 

"A ringing endorsement. I retract my objection." First rule of changeling warfare: never start a fight you can't win or escape from. The changelings surrounding him did not react to his statement, only after Gloriosa waved them off did they reluctantly back down.

"Will there be any further swipes at your superiors Chainbreaker? That is rather unbecoming of a leader don't you think?" 

"I am merely attempting to maintain the dignity of command, master." He bowed as he said this. He was willing to spar with his near equals but not his unquestioned master. Insubordination to the crown was only barely tolerated before Thorax's Mutiny, it was certainly not going to be wise after.

"It is maintained, good job. You may cease now." The Queens sardonic tone was laced with threat. The words: 'I do not want to hear of this again, or else.' went unspoken but were plainly heard.

"Is everyling finally clear on their place?" There was a round of muttered agreement and salutes. "Good. You all have your orders. You know the plan. You know the stakes. Do. Not. Fail." She waved her hoof. "Sleep well tonight for tomorrow we go to war! Dismissed!"

"Deceive and destroy! Conquer and consume!" They cried in unison.

As everyling left she turned to the desk and conjured an image of her foes. Equestria's four Princesses, the Element Bearers, the Crystal Imperial Household, the Spirit of Disharmony, Thorax and his fellow lead traitors, and of course HER. She could feel her insides grow cold at the sight of her smiling. She was going to enjoy making sure Starlight Glimmer never smiled again. "As for you lot..." She raised her hoof so that its shadow fell over the image of them laughing in triumph. "Savor the daylight. Things are about to get rather dark."

STOMP