Though the team was showing little regret over the fates of Acid, Leech, and Poison, they were less than thrilled by the food restrictions, and Brutus and Morpheus outright protested the decision, calling it unfair and unnecessary, even potentially harmful to the mission. Their protesting was short-lived, though; it was a simple matter of implying that I would relay their grievances to Chrysalis. They didn’t say a word since.
The mention of no chance of egg-producing privilege in the future for the entire team was met with similar enthusiasm, except by Banshee, who had already earned that privilege twice before and whose nymphs were currently old enough to be somewhere through military training. Whether or not they actually were there, Banshee didn’t know; as was the norm among changelings, she’d never met her nymphs or learned about their lives; she didn’t even know their names. In all likelihood, at least some of them were still alive and contributing to the hive in one way or another, and though Chrysalis would have gladly smashed the eggs of any of us as punishment for what had happened, even she wouldn’t go as far as to kill the already-hatched nymphs for the sins of their parents… at least I hoped so.
Having caught Grim’s jealous stare at Banshee’s mention of her offspring, I intercepted her after the announcements, before she could disappear somewhere.
“I saw the way you looked at Banshee a minute ago,” I got to the point.
“So?”
“Are you going to have a problem being on the same team with her?”
“With all due respect, Sir, what do you care?”
“I don’t care about your feelings, or anyling else’s for that matter, but we’re on one of the most important missions in changeling history, and I need to know if any issues you may have with your teammates are going to interfere with that mission!”
“I don’t have any issues with Banshee, Sir!”
“Maybe not right this second, but that jealous look you gave her hasn’t convinced me!”
“Okay, so maybe I am jealous! It’s not like I’m the only one on the team who has a reason to after Chrysalis forbade all of us to ever lay eggs!”
“Except that noling else is showing it!”
She rolled her eyes. “What would you do about it, anyway?”
“We’re still early enough into the preparations that I can assign you a different role.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“Are you sure? You wouldn’t be the first drone to lose control over themselves and do something foolish at the worst possible moment!”
“I’m not Leech or Thorax, Sir! I’m more disciplined than you think!”
“Like you’ve been showing ever since that conversation with Chrysalis?”
“It’s helping me get it out of my mind so I won’t dwell on it later when it might actually interfere with my performance like you’re worried it might.”
I glared at her for a minute.
“Okay, have it your way. But don’t come to me begging for a team reassignment later, because neither you nor the drone I swap you with will have the time to perfect the new role and I won’t stall deployment indefinitely until you do!”
“I know that,” she retorted and left.
I still wasn’t sure leaving her on the team with Banshee would be the right decision, but then again, maybe Grim had been right. I couldn’t know for sure that she was the only one jealous of Banshee and her children, or the most jealous one. I could just as easily make things worse by reassigning roles! And I’d gotten to know Grim during all these months of having her on my team; I was inclined to believe her when she said she could separate her personal wishes from the mission at hoof. I would still keep an eye on her just in case, though.
Though it had killed the initial mission-eagerness and some team members’ hopes, the punishment had at the very least been a sobering moment for the whole group, and they moved on diligently with the preparations from that point on, avoiding further conflict that could escalate into a repeat of Acid’s fate.
Several days later, the Zebrica team arrived to take over the roles that had been left vacant by the uncalled-for incident. Having arrived only a day after Psycho’s team had dragged the Leech and Poison away from Foal Mountain, they had been welcomed with mixed feelings: some couldn’t get their minds off the punishment awaiting the two drones, some were glad to have gotten rid of them, and though a few from each side were completely indifferent to the newcomers, the rest had taken it upon themselves to make the consequences of any mistake very clear to them, even before I’d gotten around to doing so. Ordinarily, I would have been proud of such a display of discipline, but the price paid for that discipline had left a bitter taste in my mouth. Chrysalis may have decided against blaming me for the incident, but I was still the team leader; I should have noticed signs of potential trouble and done something to snip it in the bud! But I hadn’t, and one of my subordinates had died needlessly, and two more were about to pay the same price for my mistake if they hadn’t already!
I didn’t deserve to be First Commander again, not after this, even if I ignored that one time I’d already forfeited my rank by saving Thorax from my own team!
Pushing that thought aside and assuming the stance of a stern and confident commander, I briefed the newcomers and assigned them their roles. Cutter and Sting were happy enough about getting to replace famous ponies, even if the roles were somewhat more demanding than some of the others, but Plague showed clear dissatisfaction for drawing the role of a yet-to-be-born foal, though without making a scene. All three got to work immediately without further questions.
A couple of months later, our preparations were still in full swing, and no more incidents had occurred to hinder our progress and provoke Chrysalis’ wrath. For once, she and I were both satisfied with how the preparations were going, and once I was fairly sure the team members could be sent into the field with little likelihood of being detected due to uncharacteristic behavior, she agreed it was time to send me part of the support teams. They weren’t going to replace anypony so their presence hadn’t been necessary in the early stages, but now that the next stage of preparations was about to begin, we were going to need their assistance if wanted to pull this off. Until deployment, they would have two main tasks: one, to analyze pony security systems and strategies and find any and every weakness we could take advantage of, and two, to help us keep up-to-date with the current events in Equestria without the risk of the main team getting captured in the process. Both tasks were going to take time.
The first wave of support drones arrived a few days later. I hadn’t expected to find one of the lowly drones, one I didn’t hold in high regard, assigned as their leader!
“Locust?” I exclaimed in disbelief after they’d landed at our campsite, then quickly composed myself. “Aren’t you supposed to be tending to the communicators back in the hive?”
“I got promoted! Elytra is in charge of the communicators now!”
“Who’s Elytra?”
“She just completed basic training recently. You wouldn’t know her.”
“And whose wise idea was to send you of all drones?”
“Oh come on, Pharynx, I know you’ve been isolated from the world lately, but even you know what’s going on with our troops! That fiasco in Manehattan left us seriously short on deployable soldiers, and the failures of your own teams didn’t help any! It’s a wonder Psycho didn’t have to resort to sending out soldiers who are supposed to protect the hive itself! But,” he continued with a smug grin, “at least your mess-ups have brought me a chance to shine in the field like a proper changeling!”
“Emphasis on ‘like a proper’, of course,” I matched his smug grin with my own.
“You’re just jealous that I’m moving up in the hierarchy and you’re not!”
“Jealous? I’m still way up higher than you!”
“Not for much longer if you keep failing like that!”
Then he closed his eyes and flicked out a mocking tongue.
Forgotten the lesson already, Locust? Looks like you need a reminder!
Balancing on rear legs, I reached out and slammed his mouth shut over his tongue full-force with my forehooves. He yelped and recoiled, clutching his snout as he fell onto his rump.
The whole campsite burst out laughing. Even Grim, who was still mostly sulking over her undestined eggs, couldn’t hold back a snicker! Locust groaned, recognizing defeat.
“You do realize that the only reason why you’re part of this mission now is that Psycho and Chrysalis are short on actual soldiers for the time being?” I barked at him.
He gave a feeble nod.
“In that case I suggest you check your attitude because you’re this close to being sent back to the hive in ten separate healing cocoons and I don’t care if I get punished for putting you in them!”
He gulped and nodded again, whispering something that might have been a barely audible yessir. I could see in his eyes that he knew I’d meant every word!
I turned to the others.
“Don’t you have work to do?” I shot at the group that had been here since before.
They left to their tasks without a word. Ignoring Locust, I approached the new arrivals, who then introduced themselves to me, and I got the impression they were going to take their job seriously, even if they didn’t have a lot of field experience. Locust must have gotten the lead role purely thanks to longer active service, I decided; any one of the other drones would have been a better choice!
I assigned Locust, Mantis, Thorn, and Gallow to find out everything there was to be found about the security in Canterlot Castle, and Thunder, Gossamer, and Nemesis to do the same in Ponyville. Phantom, Scar, and Viscera were already on the way to the Crystal Empire, and hadn’t even bothered making a stop here.
I heard from Phantom two days later.
“Sir, we’ve been trying to get to the Crystal Empire,” he said, “but it’s not going to be as easy as we expected.”
“Explain!”
“A snowstorm is raging all around us. We got in as far as we could, but the gusts of wind are so strong they keep throwing us around! We’ve tried walking, flying, weighing ourselves down with rocks, transforming into indigenous wildlife… it’s no use! I sent Viscera to check the last train station we’d passed on our way in and she said all the trains have been cancelled in this weather until further notice, so we can’t even use that! We’ll have to wait until the storm dies down a little - if it’s going to die down, because we can’t see it happening any time soon - or someling will get injured if not killed!”
“The hunters I’d sent there to find Thorax said nothing about such weather, soldier!”
“I understand, Sir, but I’m not exaggerating! They must have gone in and out under better conditions!”
Wonderful, I groaned inwardly. Chrysalis was going to love another setback! But, it sounded like we didn’t have a choice.
“Alright,” I relented. “Abort mission and get to Foal Mountain. I’ll find you something to do until the storm calms down.”
They were here by the end of the next day - I’d explained the situation to Chrysalis in the meantime, and she’d been less than pleased, but had to agree there was little else to be done - and I assigned them to assist the other two teams until further notice. They spent the night in the camp and were out by dawn.
Nearly another month had passed before the weather around the Crystal Empire cleared enough to let my team go in, but once it had, I wasted no time in pulling them from their substitute assignments and deploying them to the original one. This time, they reported safe arrival, and were going to begin investigating first thing in the morning.
I breathed a sigh of relief. The mission was finally back on track, and would hopefully stay there!