That same morning, Everfree Forest
Close to Ponyville's Outskirts
Dragonfly's Hive
Dragonfly sat in his temporary throne room looking over some possible plans for the hive. He and his Changelings had arrived in this long abandoned mine late last night and had slept in a stable room and had started stabilizing the rest this morning. The mine itself went pretty deep below ground but a number of rooms and tunnels had collapsed a long time ago, it would take some time to clear and stabilize the rest of the mine.
Dragonfly set aside the plans and picked up a small light green crystal he wore around his neck, he looked at it for a few minutes then closed his eyes while lightning up his horn. Images began to past by in his mind like a roll of film till it stopped on a select group of images.
Images of a slightly happier time, before the invasion.
In the first image was a Royal Changeling a good head taller then Chrysalis and far more pretty. While her carapace was the standard black her eyes and wings were red while her back plate was silver, much like his own. Her very long mane and tail however were the real eye catchers; they were a mix of red, gold, blue and silver. The pattern was like that of Celestria's only it didn't wave like her's did.
This was Nebula sheen, better known as Empress Nebula, the now ex-leader of the Changeling Hives as a whole, and Dragonfly's mother.
If anyone was watching him right now they would see the corners of his closed eyes tear up and the tears would begin falling down his face.
The next image was a Thestral stallion with an ash gray coat, bright yellow eyes and dark blue webbed mane, tail and wings. His cutie-mark was a pair of midnight black crossed sabers.
This stallion was, as surprising as it was, Dragonfly's father, Black Saber.
The two had met a long time ago when Nebula was taking some time off from leading the Changelings. She had meet Black Saber at the cafe in Ponyville and had lunch together. After that the two eventually started dating until Neula had to return to the hives, she had come clean with him on what she was and why she couldn't say with him, she loved him that much.
To her surprise Black Saber told her he had known she was a Changeling since the day they met, and that he loved her too. When Nebula asked how he knew, he simply said "You may be able to hide you appearance but you can't hide your sent."
Black Saber had told her the Thestrals had known about the Changelings since Black Death had first seen them long ago, but every Thestral that had tried to bring them up to command before the invasion just were waved off do to racism towards Thestrals. With Princess Luna's return the racism had lessened but the only pace one could find Thestrals outside of their homeland besides the Night Guard was Ponyville because of the locals open and friendly demeanor.
Which was why Nebula had chosen Ponyville as her vacation spot, the positive emotions in the air alone could easy fed quite a few hives for a very long time without even having to take any from the Ponies there at all, which was why Dragonfly had followed his mothers hoofsteps and had set up his hive near Ponyville.
His Gathers would only go into town late at night to avoid any Ponies, better to not be seen and use the night to their advantage if needed, at least for now.
Nebula and Black Saber eventually had a child in secret, him.
However the other Royals had somehow found out about the whole thing and went after them. In the end, Black Saber had vanished and was believed to be dead, Dragonfly didn't believe so because they never found his body. They did find the four Royals his had killed, and that was a feet to be respected as Royals weren't so easy to kill. All they found of Black Saber was his crystal necklace Nebula had given him which Dragonfly now wore around his neck.
Nebula had fled into exile, unfortunately she had no choice but to leave her son behind but the other Royals weren't able to kill him because if there was one thing his parents had taught him, it was how to fight. So the Royals left him alone for the most part.
Then the invasion came up, Dragonfly had been against the plan right from the get go. Chrysalis had taken over the other hive by this point and, instead of putting him down the Royals placed him into a cocoon saying they would deal with him later.
And ironically I'm the only Royal left in Equestria as far as we know. Good thing I had loyal Changelings unlike the others.
While he was stuck with the hives he had gathered a small hive of Changelings of his own for one reason or another, the primary one was that he treated them better then the other Royals.
Being kind to them helped me in more ways then one
Seeker had served his mother as an advisor before she had fled, now he served him which Dragonfly was thankful for as while his was a very capable fighter in his own right he had little to no political experience, which Seeker had plenty of.
Rhino was a Soldier Breed that had had enough of his Royal's yakdung and joined Dragonfly as a Commander.
Darter and Spotter had joined after their Royal had punished them for something they never did and couldn't take the abuse any more.
The other Changelings had joined for the same reasons among others. It was a small hive but it was enough for now. Besides Dragonfly had reason to believe that the other breeds of Changelings that Chrysalis had exiled after Nebula had fled would seek his hive out and join up, only time would tell.
He came out of his trance only to let out a yelp of surprise and nearly jump out of his carapace as Seeker was standing in front of him almost touching noses.
"What the hay Seeker? Are you trying to give me a heart attack!
Seeker pulled back and stood there holding a hoof to his mouth trying not to laugh, finally he said "Sorry Dragonfly I couldn't resist. Anyway the Drones are making good progress. I'm guessing you were going over you're memory crystal again?"
"Yes, I deeply miss them."
"You know they could be dead by this point, then again they both could very well still be alive."
"I know Seeker but I still have hope. Anyway good to hear the work is progressing nicely."
"Indeed, how's your project coming along?"
"Better then I thought, worse than I hoped."
Dragonfly had been trying to create a self-replicating love source using Changeling crystals. So far he'd had... limited success. He'd made the storage crystals hold more and last much longer but that was about it.
"At least you made some progress. That's better than nothing."
"Ya..." Dragonfly said sighing and looking at the floor.
"Dragonfly? What's wrong? You alright?"
"Ya it's just... I have the HUGE task of rebuilding our kind and you know as well as I that a lot of Changelings wouldn't trust me after what the other Royals did to them. I just feel like I wouldn't be a good leader."
"Prince Dragonfly you listen to me! You are a good leader, if you were a bad leader we wouldn't be sitting here discussing this now. You are much kinder that the other Royals, proof of that is while their Changelings turned on them, yours recovered you and brought you to safety to free you from you're prison. You eight, slept, fought, and bleed alongside you're hive. You shared you're small love rations with them despite going to bed with a half-full stomach."
Seeker spoke in a firm yet gentle tone. He paused and took in a breath.
"You were also against the invasion from the get go, you even told me once that if you had been calling the shots the whole invasion never would have happened. You never once hit you Changelings when they made a mistake, you only spoke in a gentle yet firm tone. Even now you made sure they each had a space to call their own before you even thought about you're own. I know you feel that the weigh of the fate of our entire species rests on you shoulders but you are not alone in this."
Seeker thumped a hoof against his chest.
"You have us, you hive. Every. Last. One. Of them with you every step of the way. I served you're mother for years, I knew you're father well and I will say this; you might not be as good as a leader as you're mother, you might be as good, you might be even better, only time will tell that tale. But I know that both you're mother and father would be proud of you."
Dragonfly looked stunned for a minute but then a huge smile spread across his face.
"Thanks Seeker, I needed to hear that."
"I made a promise to Nebula I would help you out when you needed it, and I fully intent to keep that promise."
Any further talk was interrupted as both Rhino and Spotter suddenly charged into the room shouting, "DRAGONFLY! SEEKER!"
"What?/What?"
Both started speaking at the same time but either Dragonfly or Seeker could make out what it was. Dragonfly's horn lit up and to globs of green magic appeared around their mouths.
"Now I'm going to let go of you're mouths, and when I do, I want you to calmly tell us what you need to tell us, understand?"
The two nodded and the magic around their mouths disappeared. They both then said;
"Timber Wolves headed to Ponyville!"
"WHAT?!" Dragonfly shouted then said. "Gather some fighters and stop those wolves! If Ponyville is lost then we are done for! Call on the hive mind if you need help."
"YES SIR!" They both saluted and rushed out of the room. Dragonfly turned to Seeker.
"Where's my battle axe?"
"It right beside you where you always keep it." He said pointing at Dragonfly's right.
Dragonfly looked down next to him and, sure enough, there it was. He picked it up.
"Seeker I'm going to get some more fighters and wait until ether they need help or the wolves are gone. You stay here and await further notice."
"Got it sir."
Dragonfly took off down the tunnel. I hope we're not to late to save anypony