Twilight Sparkle was exasperated.
She had expected the violence to escalate, because that seemed typical of Queen Chrysalis to take things too far. The changeling queen had been increasingly erratic in her raiding habits and had been leaving more traumatized ponies and collateral damage in her wake. It had only gotten worse when the queen finally got wind of the reformed hive’s location.
Thorax and Pharynx had requested aid, because Chrysalis had spent her time amassing an army that easily dwarfed their own hive, which had an even smaller fraction of trained fighters. So Twilight had done what she believed would be most prudent with a true battle approaching.
She sent her astartes.
After the invasion of Canterlot, she had a healthy respect for what changelings goaded into action by Chrysalis could do, the kind of damage they could wreak. She wanted an opportunity to reform them, and had Starlight Glimmer on hoof for that very reason after her previous success with Thorax and his converts. However, to truly secure success, she needed to have Chrysalis properly restrained and given suitable incentive to cooperate, even if it was on pain of imprisonment. The most decisive means to this end was the might of Hesperos and Te’kan.
What she had not expected was reports of fatalities and returning to her castle to find Chrysalis chained in an impromptu interrogation cell in the Castle of Friendship. It had been easy to find from the fearful, buzzing tones of a panicking Chrysalis. Thankfully, she had interrupted the astartes before Hesperos had begun to pick at the changeling queen’s mental defenses.
It had taken some very careful, thoroughly exasperating explanation to the two warriors that no, there was to be no interrogation, and yes, she had very explicitly requested as little harm come to any as possible. She took their protests regarding the violence the queen’s forces had been perpetrating and that swift, decisive vengeance was in order in stride, but reminded them that was not how Equestria dealt with its adversaries.
Te’kan had stolidly stood by his actions, claiming that the peaceable changelings of Thorax’s hive needed defending, and predators such as Chrysalis’s brood were creatures worthy of no mercy while they actively trapped and harmed the others. Hesperos shrugged, generally agreeing with the Salamander while pointing out that none had been slain on the edge of his khopesh. Only the fanatical had been burned, and only those that had been immediately attacking Hesperos.
Chrysalis seethed with hate and fear, Twilight issued a longsuffering sigh, and then Twilight beckoned the astartes to follow her out of the room. Outside, a nervous Starlight waited he cue to enter and talk to the queen while Twilight continued her lecture to the astartes as they tread the halls of the castle.
Hesperos was more introspective than usual, ruminating on the sense of unease that lurked in the back of his perception.