//------------------------------// // (We Wish You) A Changeling-y Merry Hearth's Warming // Story: A Changeling-y Merry Hearth's Warming! // by Meridian Prime //------------------------------// Two stallions sat in silence, staring out the window of their train car. The dreary scenery did nothing to lift the tension that suffused the atmosphere of the room, but there was little else to take their attention. After a while, one of them spoke. “Next time? No changelings.” The other blinked. A moment passed, and then he responded hesitantly. “Right.” There was silence. The other shifted slightly, then opened his mouth. “You have to admit Flim, Chrysalis was pretty cute-” “Stop.” The changeling hive had just about managed to lose the trail of the Equestrian Royal Guard for the time being, although many of its members could not help but feel their current situation was a little undignified. Hiding in a barn just seemed a little passé. Still, it gave their many hungover members time to recuperate a little. And one of their few sober ones time to plan. Pharynx sidled up carefully behind the queen, and coughed loudly. With a little jump, Chrysalis whipped around, eyes narrowing as she saw who it was. “Yes? What is it, Foreign?” Pharynx put on his best poker face—a pretty darn good one if you asked him. “I just wanted to give you the plans you wrote up last night, your majesty.” Chrysalis squinted at him. “...Plans?” “Yes, your majesty. Plans for taking over Equestria.” He brought out a sheaf of papers from behind his back, holding them up for her to see. They were very detailed plans. Diagrams outlining Equestria’s power structures sat side-by-side with in depth descriptions of attack formations, and notes on the possible location of the legendary First Hive, whose ultimate defense was said to be an anti-magic field that even the alicorns could not circumvent. Chrysalis frowned. “This… doesn’t look like my writing.” Had Pharynx been mammalian, a bead of sweat might have begun dribbling down the back of his neck. Instead he simply shrugged awkwardly. “You were quite intoxicated last night, my queen,” he said stiffly, “but clearly you are as brilliant under the influence as you are sober.” “Hmm yes, quite,” the queen said, eyes now glued to the plan, “infiltrate the government, replace all bearers and Princesses through stealth… there’s something to this!” She grinned evilly. “Now at last, we can get revenge on those pesky princesses! You did well to bring this to me, Phalanx.” Close enough, he thought, close enough. The changeling hive’s other sober member had used the time for a very different set of plans. For the entire flight away from what he had mentally dubbed as the ‘Party Hive’[1], Thorax had been unable to get the image of the Crystal Empire’s sovereigns out of his head. He had seen them before, of course, but this time there was something different about them, or about Cadance specifically. Because Thorax recognised the look on her face. He had seen it all too many times in his own reflection. It was the look of someone who was thoroughly done. With life, the universe and everything. And Thorax could not help but feel that a leader who understood, who knew the pain of being surrounded by stupidity? That might be a leader worth following. He supposed Shining Armour made some good eye-candy too—never hurt to have a little of that. Perhaps, once the hive arrived at its next destination, it might be time to part ways. Make way for new lands—more crystalline ones. “You’re really too good to me, Cady.” Princess Cadance rolled her eyes as she patted her husband gently on the head. They were in their bedroom in the Crystal Empire, Flurry Heart was asleep, and she had finally been able to make her bone-headed stallion understand that he needed to stop chasing the changeling queen with moves he had found in his Neighponese manga. Now all she needed was some sweet, sweet sleep, and she might start to believe there was some good in the world again. “Hey, dear wife of mine?” Cadance blinked. Shining Armour’s previously sheepish tone had changed to something far more… seductive. Klaxons rang in her brain, as she slowly turned to look at him. Shining was lying on his side on their bed, head propped up in one hoof, a smirk adorning his annoyingly handsome face. “I was thinking,” he began in a low voice, “I haven’t done anything to thank you for putting up with me all this time.” The smirk widened. “So why doesn’t my knight in shining armour,” his eyebrows waggled as the smirk grew ever wider, “have a night with Shining Armour?” That was the last Shining saw of his wife that night as, with a yelp, he was unceremoniously tossed straight out the door. She still wasn’t sure how she’d discovered the location of the long lost First Hive, but Chrysalis had decided not to question her genius. It was big, it looked like her horn, and most importantly it kept that idiot Shining Armour far away. All solid points in its favour, in her book. She had declared Hearth’s Warming to officially be yet another entry on the long list of ‘stupid pony things’ upon their arrival in the new hive, and all evidence of its existence had been destroyed. All that is, with one glaring exception. As the hive settled down for the night all around her, the changeling queen quietly poked her head out of her door. After a quick look left and right confirmed that noling was nearby, she pulled her head back in, shut the door, and darted over to her bed. With one last look around, she reached under the imposing, black slab, felt around with her hoof, and brought it back out again with her precious prize clutched in its grasp. A red and white, now well worn and faded, bobbled Santa hat. With a happy chirp, she brought it up to her face, closing her eyes and nuzzling it slightly. Then, with an air of great satisfaction, she carefully put it on. Giving herself a quick glance in the mirror, she beamed at her reflection, and finally went to bed. [1] An apt name, as it turned out—the second annual Changeling Hive Hearth’s Warming Party, and all those after it, would be held there upon King Thorax off-hoofedly mentioning the existence of a Party Hive to one Pinkamina Diane Pie many years later.