//------------------------------// // 31- Dolos // Story: Changing Expectations // by KKSlider //------------------------------// I rested the head of God Splitter on my back as I walked to my study. The handle was dragging on the ground, and if it were made of metal I would suspect that it would be making a satisfying trail of sparks. Or, realistically speaking, an awful grinding noise. ‘No way in hell I’ll be any good at fighting at this rate; my best hope is to scare the enemies away. Let’s hope the self-touted Princess of Love is just as shit at fighting. If she is receiving self-defense lessons from the monarch who has ruled for millennia, I’m doomed.’ I threw open my study door and parked my hammer up against my desk. I was about to go to my desk and collapse from exhaustion when I had an idea. ‘Chrysalis is probably in her study right now…’ I meandered down the hall and knocked on her closed door. “Enter.” I took the invitation and opened the door. I leaned against the door frame, “Queen Chrysalis?” “Prince Phasma,” she responded without looking up from a book she was reading. ‘Look at Ms Fancy Pants, with her printed books ‘n shit.’ Too tired to beat around the bush, I got to the meat of the matter. “Who’s my father?” “I already addressed that subject.” “I don’t really remember what you said.” She looked up. “I said to put it out of your mind.” I sighed. ‘Really going to stonewall me on this? Fine, let’s see if I can bait an answer.’ “It’s a pony, isn’t it?” Her eyes narrowed. “Was it just some nobody you ran into in a tavern? Could you even–” “Prince Phasma, you overstep your boundaries. I have said that they do not matter, and so they do not.” “By asking who my father is? You know, the word in the hive is that you ate my father. I can’t imagine how you would go about eating an entire pony. I mean, you–” She stood up from her desk. “Prince Phasmatodea. Do not test me.” ‘Still dodging the question.’ I shrugged, “I just want to know who my father is.” “We changelings are above such emotional weaknesses such as familial attachments. You are loyal to the hive, and I am its Queen. Remember that.” “W–… I just… If my own mother is the Queen herself, I just thought that maybe my father was someone important, too. I apologize, I’ll go bug Eucharis with–” “You will not approach anyone else with this line of questioning, either. You are now severely behind schedule with your personal training. My gift– as well as my patience– can only cover so much. Return to your duties.” ‘Damn it all, no answer. Why is it such a big deal that she keeps my father’s identity from me? He must be someone important, if he was a nobody then she would simply say so.’ “Yes, Queen Chrysalis.” ‘Someone important. Why else would she be so insistent on their identity not being important? Is some Equestrian Duke my dad or something? I can imagine the problems that knowledge would cause, knowing that I was sired by the enemy and ‘prey.’ Would definitely explain why she wants it to be a secret.’ “Just… one more question? Not related to that subject at all.” “Make it quick.” “Is there a reason why the Promised Day happens on the solstice, and not any later?” “Yes.” “May I–” “You are dismissed, Phasma.” I took the subtle cue to leave. ‘Ain’t no rest for the wicked.’ It is now four months until the Promised Day. Working all day, working out all afternoon, then staying up late establishing a new world order was exhausting business, but I had no other choice. Progress was not being made with my personal training, but at this point that’s expected. Very little news on Tarsus. Apparently, he was on missions in Equestria, but will be back this week. Thankfully, progress was being made on the subterfuge front. Warrior Lodges had been established in every legion barring the first two. I simply did not have enough contacts in either, nor enough trust in their respective leaders, to make the secret organizations. Chrysalis was none the wiser when it came to the Warrior Lodges. Whether she knew and kept it a secret, or the trust my subordinates put in those they invited to the meetings was well founded, the end result was the same. The First Fang bounced around between the meetings. They, along with a few other changelings loyal to myself, kept conversation topics pertinent to my revolutionary agenda. Nothing outright yet, just following along with the broader strokes I detailed in our meeting after the vault heist. Names, tactics, and so on. The First Fang also promotes a close, fraternal relationship between the members. Trusting the soldiers and commanders with your life is a big deal, after all. They also kept an ear out for potential turncoats. Or turncoat-turncoats, as these Lodges will soon start their real purpose; there will be questions concerning Chrysalis’s rule. Today would be the first day of those, starting with the Lodge within the Third Legion, which was under my command. The boys and girls had decided on the nickname “Equestria’s Lament,” on account of the fact that my Line Legion was the one dedicating to landing the first and fatal blow to Equestria: the siege of Canterlot. Next week I will go over the invasion plans with each of the Captains and Generals of the Swarm. This week I will create an important contingency that might save lives. Tonight, I plant the seeds of revolution. I entered the abandoned hab block that the Third Legion used for its Warrior Lodge meetings. No ling had seen me come all this way down, of course. I may be hastening this plot, but I can’t afford to get caught. However, there’s always the chance that a changeling loyal to Chrysalis is present tonight. ‘Chrysalis will simply murder me if she finds out. Oh well, sitting around doing nothing is worse than taking this chance.’ I arrived at the entrance to the Lodge, and a ling was standing guard. “I have an invitation.” “Moozart never died,” the guard said gruffly. “He simply became music. As nice as your attention to security is, my appearance should be enough to verify who I am.” The changeling stepped aside, letting me enter. Inside, changelings were standing around in a loose circle. There was a chorus of laughs, I must have missed a pretty good joke to get that great of a response. “Good evening, gentlelings. It seems I was the last to arrive.” I nodded to Coxa as I took a spot next to him. “As usual. I was just telling the fellas here that… ah, nevermind.” I raised an eyebrow. ‘A joke at my expense, no doubt.’ “Uh huh. Well in any case, I call to order this fifth meeting of The Equestria’s Lament Lodge. Does anyone have any announcements to make?” A Colonel piped up, “Some folks over in the Twelfth, Hive’s Finest, have come up with some hive-gel material that they believe can be used as armor to reduce injuries.” “That… sounds like something that would have been invented a long time ago. Like, centuries, if not millennia.” “It was. Apparently it’s used in hive construction on parts that need to be strong and light. We’ve never used it in armor before because the Swarm has never really been in open combat, and it has no anti-magic properties. It’s very inferior to the current mixture used to make Praetorian armor, but it’s better than nothing.” ‘Looks like establishing that experimental legion is already paying dividends.’ “Interesting. Tell them to bring the subject up to me during the day, and I’ll see about mass producing armor before the invasion. We should be able to produce at the very least helmets for all the lings, provided the process for making the gel is cheap enough.” When no one added anything else to say, I started with the topic I wanted to cover. “My fellow changelings, we are four months away from The Promised Day, and yet no closer to an answer as to why it must happen so soon. Whatever reason Queen Chrysalis has to keep the invasion on that date, she refuses to impart that knowledge to me.” Some lings present started to whisper to one another. “I’m sure she has a good reason. She is, after all, very interested in this whole invasion going as smoothly as possible. However, whatever that reason may be, she refuses to tell a soul about it. Not even her second in command, myself.” Now the Lodge members’ whispers rose in volume. “–our one chance at feeding–” “–faith in the Queen. She’s never steered us wrong before–” “–long as there’s a plan, everything will be fine, right?” “So what do we do?” Lacewing asked, her voice barely audible through the rising volume. “We must have faith in the hive,” I all but yelled. My loud voice seemed to quiet the room. “The Queen has a plan. Or rather, I have come up with one on her orders. Soon the generals will be read into the specifics, rather than the general points that they were given. I will ensure that the hive survives this conflict.” A Lodge member– Sergeant What's-his-name– asked, “What’s the plan?” I scuffed a hoof on the ground. ‘I’ve been ordered to keep only those in the need to know informed, but why bother follow that rule? This is a great chance to create trust between me and the Lodge.’ “The plan is confidential at the moment, but… I don’t see the harm in telling you guys. Just keep it a secret, yeah?” I cleared my throat, “So. The invasion will have three main pushes. One through the center, one to the East Coast, and one to the West Coast. Respectively, the three main objectives are Canterlot, Manehattan, and Las Pegasus.” Changelings nodded, already knowing the broad strokes of the plan. “The Third ‘Equestria’s Lament,’ heard those guys were pretty good, will be taking out Canterlot with the aid of The Praetorians, much of The First Infiltrator Legion, the Sixth Legion ‘Panar’s Hammer,’ the Ninth ‘Will of The Nine,’ the Tenth ‘Underhive Scarabs,’ and of course division attachments from the Eleventh ‘Chosen Conquerors’ and Twelfth ‘Hive’s Finest.’ “The Colonels will receive orders on what targets to hit, ranging from VIPs to securing designated districts. Queen Chrysalis and I will take out Princess Celestia and Princess Cadence, respectively. With stun spells primarily being used, the majority of casualties are going to be concentrated in the Equestrian Royal Guard, where taking prisoners is more difficult. Any questions?” “What will happen after?” A voice from the crowd asked. “After Canterlot and the princesses are securely within our control, the Legion and its attached forces will move out, leaving behind a sizable contingent of the Chosen Conquerors. From Canterlot, we will push north and spread out, securing settlements and forts between the other two prongs of the invasion. With Canterlot taken out, resistance will be sporadic and unorganized. Once everything is within our control... I’ll make sure none of us go hungry again!” That got a round of cheers and I swallowed before I started to drool from the thought. ‘All that love! Though I do hope Thorax comes up with an alternative to feeding sooner rather than later, as I suspect podding the majority of the pony population is going to have disastrous long-term effects on our controlled territory. Still, it’s us or them.’ “We just have to hope that launching the invasion so soon won't ruin our one single chance. But Chrysalis has got to have a good reason, yeah? Coxa, how’s the training going along with the Legions?” Coxa rolled a hoof, “Ehh, we could definitely use more time, but it’s probably doable with the amount we can fit in within the time frame we have.” “Probably doable. Those are the odds Chrysalis wants to go on.” One of the members shook their head. “I wouldn’t risk our chance on ‘probably.’” “We don’t have a choice. She won’t budge and what the Queen says, goes.” “Another impossible deadline,” came a grumble. I couldn’t pinpoint its source and that just worked more in my favor. “As long as we all stick together, we can figure this out. We Lodge members will do what we can for each other on the battlefield, agreed?” A couple nods. I sighed. “Onto our next topic then. Once Equestria has fallen, I think the broods will become defunct. They were established to maintain the hive’s internal ration structure, but with ample food supply, that shouldn’t be an issue.” That got a lot more nods. I continued, “The Queen should have no issue when holding the hive back in that regard.” ‘Looks like it’s commonly accepted that the broods are a bad thing. Good. Just need to keep suggesting good things while questioning Chrysalis, whether or not she was planning on doing those things anyways.’