“We can’t just sit on our hooves and wait! This cannot be the end of our species!” A changeling on the right called out.
“We wouldn’t be in this situation if it wasn’t for your betrayal!” Someone in the back section angrily hissed.
A voice shouted up from the back of the left side, “It was the Queen who betrayed us!”
For the eighth time that day, the entire room burst into a hundred different arguments, each one screaming at each other, not listening to what the other was saying. The room had been divided into three sections, and the divisions were far from equal.
“I say we fly out and burn them all!” Came a yell from the right.
“We need to bait them in, where we have the advantage!” Another yelled, this time from the left side of the room.
“You would have us sit and wait for our deaths!”
“You would have us rush out and die by the thousands!”
At the front of the largest group, the left partition, General Aphid pounded the ground with her right hoof three times, calling for attention. “The time for isolation has come to an end! The Masquerade cannot be unbroken! The ponies cannot be defeated in battle, not while their Princess still walks amongst them. The time has come for the changelings to seek allies. For if we are to conquer Equestria, we need strength from outside of the hive!”
Opposite from her, General Labrum shook his head, “There is room only for one species in this world. We saw what happened when Saint Phasmatodea attempted to make an alliance with a rogue faction from within Equestria; when it came time to draw knives, the ponies were nowhere to be seen, and their alicorn leader was defeated by six ponies! Changelings can only rely on ourselves, as we have for tens of thousands of years! This is how Panar wove it to be! We will have war, us against the world! Panar wills it!”
“Panar wills it!” The right partition behind him yelled.
‘Two bickering halves of unequal size, united in their hatred of me and worship of my dead son. Things would have been so much simpler if he hadn’t vaporized. Now I don’t even have time to resurrect him.’
Queen Chrysalis shook her head slowly as the two sides began yelling at each other again. On her left, the Lodgers took up the majority of the room. On her right, the Moderates were grouped up, only half the size of the Lodgers. And in the back of the room, where Queen Chrysalis sat on her throne, the Loyalists were half the size of the Moderates. That meant the Reformists coalition outnumbered the Loyalists six to one.
General Labrum was not finished, “This war was inevitable! Panar has woven it to be thus, and thus it will be done! We will not give up! We will never surrender!”
Queen Chrysalis rolled her remaining eye. Despite Labrum’s posturing, no one was arguing against him. That was for the simple fact that none of the three factions even wanted to stop fighting against Equestria. The real division was when it came to how to fight them.
Aphid sneered, “You want to fight so badly, go on then! Charge right at the ponies, noling will stop you!”
“The Fourth Hive must act as one, or we will perish. When we fight as less than that, the ponies will divide and conquer, just as they did in Canterlot!”
“Then shut your damned muzzle and think for once in your Panar-forsaken life! We cannot win alone!”
“Relying on non-changelings is what killed Saint Phasmatodea!”
Once more, the room went wild with arguments as the respective leaders went back to yelling at each other. Hooffights even started breaking out between the two factions. The air was abuzz with changelings as the two factions started infighting again.
‘Enough of this. The day drones alone dictate the fate of the hive is the day after I’m dead.’
Queen Chrysalis held up a hoof. Her most loyal supporter looked at her upon seeing the motion, then turned to face the crowd.
“SILEEEEENCE!” High Marshal Pharynx yelled from the base of the throne. The fighting and yelling stopped at an instant, with some changelings freezing mid-punch to stare at Pharynx.
He gave a half bow to Queen Chrysalis, giving her the room.
Queen Chrysalis rose slowly from the Mythril Throne. Two changeling drones from the Eleventh Legion stopped checking her scarred up wounds and backed up from her. Standing high above the crowd, Queen Chrysalis spoke loudly, her voice carrying across the throne room.
“The War For The Sun is not yet at an end. None argue against this. Though The Promised Day has taught us many lessons, one of the most important that was imparted was that Equestria is mortal. We are not cowards. We are not prey. In the face of a setback, we do not give up and pretend nothing happened. We lick our wounds, and then we plan once more.
“Sure, we could try to wait them out. A war of attrition. But that is a war they would win. We have only a single generation of ponies, and no ability to grow food to sustain more if we let them out of the pods. Further, waiting gives them time to test the functions of the anti-magic field. No, we must take the fight to the ponies.”
Queen Chrysalis looked towards General Aphid, “Seeking allies that we can use but not rely on would be ideal. However, before that can be accomplished, we must break the blockade the ponies have put around the Badlands. No one goes through that line of defense unseen. We cannot go through or around them. Their defenses form a perimeter around the entirety of the Badlands. All they need to do is see us coming and send off a signal to their masters in Canterlot. We cannot go above them. Pegasi patrols hold the skies above their defenses. That means we must go under them.”
Murmurs and whispers started and then quickly grew in volume. Queen Chrysalis continued while she still had the room’s attention.
“There is but one route out of the hive still. We must work slowly. We must work carefully. I myself shall lead the effort, once I have taken the time to heal. We shall map our way out, burning a holy crusade under the hooves of the ponies who think us trapped. The war is not yet over. We must unseal the Underhive!”
General Aphid and Labrum looked at each other. After a moment, Labrum nodded slowly. Thirty more seconds later, and Aphid gave a single nod herself.
“All in favor of unsealing the Underhive?” She called for a vote.
“Aye!” The room cheered.
“All against?”
“Nay!” A couple changelings in her own factions yelled, as well as a few in the Moderates.
“The Aye’s have it. The Underhive shall be unsealed, and efforts to map out a route to Equestria shall begin at once!”
‘The right words, in the right ears, at the right time. You may think you have stripped my power over the Fourth Hive, nymphs, but I have been ruling for centuries. I am the Fourth Hive!’
I slowly ran a hoof along the length of the wooden desk.
This was the final matter of the business. Five days of working to find all of Count Double Dealings’ assets, organize them, sell or incorporate them, and use the newly acquired funds for our own organization. We would not be keeping anything long term outside of contacts. Buildings and land were sold off. Bank accounts and vaults were emptied. Employees in his various businesses let go.
I had stayed up long after the sun had arisen during the day the Count died. I also used up as much love as we could safely harvest, and put it all towards interrogating each pony. It still took the better part of three days to get through each one. Coverup efforts would likely take the entirety of the month.
As for the Count and his assets, that wouldn’t take as long.
I had left the matter of visiting his estate disguised as him to another changeling. That pony still made my blood boil, though I couldn’t find out why. Disguising myself as him just made me want to zap my own reflection. But that was all handled, and with the funds the Family had space to grow. Amongst a few purchases of property in the periphery of the Big Apple was the small office space I was currently in. Several rooms, each now being taken up by a changeling and their work stations, and one large office on the second floor, the only one with a view. This building was to become the nervecenter of the Fifth Hive here in Manehattan.
I sat down in my pleather chair and smiled.
“Hail to the King.”
“You done yet?’
“... Yes Coxa, I’m done.”
“Good, because we got shit to do.”
“Alright, what’s the situation?’
Coxa deposited a few folders on my new desk. He pointed to the one on top, which I opened first. It contained brief descriptive documents of properties, written by one or two changelings. There weren’t photos, but there were sketches and blueprints.
“Two apartment complexes. Thalamus got them cheap, so we finally have habitation for the changelings.”
“Perfect. Current residents?”
Coxa shook his head, “One of them has some. The other was being renovated when the owners foreclosed, so we got it empty. And before you ask, yes, we did hire a company to finish the renovations.”
“So it will be a while before it’s available?”
“Yes.”
“Alright, move what changelings we can into the occupied building. Make sure they understand that there are ponies within the building, so disguises need to be worn.”
“Sounds good. Next order of business, warehouses. The warehouse currently being used to house those ponies hasn’t been sold yet for obvious reasons, making it the last of the Count’s assets besides his personal estate itself.”
His personal estate was a large mansion over in… some city. I didn’t really care, and I wasn’t the one who went to visit it.
“Have we purchased any new warehouses?”
“Not yet.”
I nodded, “Let’s get on that. Preferably have them close to the main one. Once we have at least one purchased, I want that warehouse modified to be as secure as possible. That’s where we’ll store the ponies.”
“Sure thing, boss. I’ll put together a team and have them be the dedicated engineers and construction workers or whatever. I’ll first check out the guys and girls who modified the carts, they seemed to know their way around tools.”
“I like it. Good thinking. Any progress on speakeasies?”
“Thalamus has a location for the first one, here in Manehattan.” He pointed to the second folder.
I opened it up and examined its contents.
“Basement. One large room, several back rooms, including a kitchen. This sounds perfect. What was– ah here we go, formerly a night club by the name of Last Chance. Ah. We’ll need to clean the place up and completely change the decor, then.”
“You got something already in mind?”
“As a matter of fact, I do.”
Art deco, open stage, a bar, the whole shebang.
“When did you become an expert on pony interior design?”
I set the folder down, “... Another time. Not now.”
“What?”
“Not now. I’ll explain later. To both you and Thorax.”
Coxa squinted at me, “Uh… okay?”
“Listen, just don’t worry about it. What’s next?”
“I’ve put together a report on our current operations, in exactly the way you outlined. Next folder on the pile.”
I picked up the folder, flipped it open, and smiled.
“FASB compliant. Oh, I love it, Coxa.”
“What?”
“I like it.”
I looked over the Balance Sheet first.
“Yeah you better like it, it was a pain in the ass to learn. Why do we even have to do it this way?”
“... Makes it harder to fuck up, makes it easier to read, and because I said so.”
“Is this how ponies do it?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“If not, then they eventually will. Probably.”
“And you know this, how?”
“Same reason I know some things about interior decoration.”
“So you’re going to explain that too?”
“Yes, yes.”
I picked up the Income Statement.
“We’re spending a lot of bits. No loans, though.”
“Of course not. You know just how much documentation you need to apply for one of those. Cash only.”
“Cash only… Wow, that’s a lot of bits.”
“Yeah, but look at the incomes up at the top.”
“Are we really making that much?”
“Vanhoover is now in the network. Most major cities, outside of the Southern ones, Canterlot, Las Pegasus, and Cloudsdale are now buying salt from us. Give it a month, and all of Equestria will be begging us for booze. It’s getting to the point where we’re going to have to visit small towns just to find consistent suppliers.”
“Do it, just don’t get caught. Huh. I honestly didn’t expect there to be a supply issue.”
“You got any strange ideas that will somehow fix it?”
“... Look around for ponies that have been recently put out of a job. Specifically, find the brewers that the Prohibition has unemployed. It might be in our interest to get into production, as well. We’ll be distributing for the most part, but if we can establish a vertical monopoly, we’ll be taking dives into pools filled with bits. We’ll have so much money, we’ll have no idea what to do with it. I’ll put together the rough ideas of this final phase of expansion. For now, keep doing these miracles.”
“Sure thing. Hey, I’m taking one of the apartments that are available.”
“Hmm? Oh, sure, go ahead. You definitely deserve it.”
He smiled, “Glad to hear there’s no argument. Are you taking one, too?”
“No. I’ll stay with the rest of the drones until the housing crisis is solved.”
“That’s… admirable. Stupid, but admirable.”
“I’ll basically live in this office, anyways. Besides, being near everyone else will help both of us. They can voice any concerns or ideas they have, and I can be there to listen to them. I’m not exactly holding court or anything, so this is how they’ll get their voice.”
“... You sure you’re Chrysalis’s son?”
“No one else has stepped forward to claim me. Maybe they’re afraid I’ll kill them, like I did Eucharis?”
“Ha! That’s dark, I love it. But anyways, next order of business.”
The second to last folder was rather thin.
“Weapons. Armor. Hmm… It’s expensive to hire blacksmiths for these.”
“I’m telling you upfront, it’s going to be cheaper and safer to get the raw materials, rather than hiring some pony to make these, or try to get our hooves on guards’ gear. We already have some lings with metalworking experience.”
“Forgers, from the hive? That’s a stroke of luck.”
“The best were in the Praetorians. These were some of the lings that made the bulk of the Legion’s helmets and armor and whatnot. Still, better than nothing. The experience will be extremely helpful in the longrun, too.”
I nodded, “I agree. When we have the spare funds, do it. I think it’s time we establish a Legion or two of our own. Especially when we finish getting into contact with the West Coast exiles.”
“A new Legion?” Coxa asked.
“We’re going to need to defend ourselves. That means training in both anti-Equestrian tactics, as well as anti-changeling tactics.”
He sighed, “That’s a tall order. Definitely going to require a lot of training. A new Legion it is. I’m sure Froghopper will be happy to hear he gets to be part of the military again.”
“You know what, that’s a good idea. Make sure he’s in the new Legion. He’s shit at scouting.”
“That wasn’t his fault and you know it.”
“... I’m still mad.”
Coxa wrote some notes, “I’ll put him in charge of training scouts. Despite your opinion on his skills, he's actually pretty good at doing it. You got a name for this new Legion?”
“The Thirteenth Legion, The Red Right Hoof. No, you’re not supposed to get the reference.”
“I figured. Last order of business.”
I picked up the last folder, and opened it up. It had few details, but what it did have…
“Coxa.”
“Phasma.”
“What am I looking at?”
“An archeological digsite, way down south in the jungles.”
“That’s not what I’m looking at.”
“It is. That photo right there is the main thing of interest to the archeologists. I found this information while trawling around for anything of interest in the news. Then I put on a disguise and got the information directly from the associated university. You wanted magical artifacts? Here’s your best chance.”
I exhaled, “You’re saying this is the real deal?”
“As best as I can tell.”
I flipped through the pages. Photos, sketches, diagrams, descriptions, the folder had it all. Coxa had sourced it from Manehattan University’s offices, apparently.
Coxa spoke while I read, “The southern jungles are still hot. The E.U.P. have hunkered down in the nearby border of the Badlands, so the expedition team will have to be small. Maybe ten changelings max. I’ll be too busy here running the entire operation. I’d say you’d be too busy to go, but judging by that picture, you’re going to have to be there.”
“You think I’m going to be a glorified can opener?”
“That’s one fucking hell of a can, Phasma.”
“... Yes. Yes it is.”
I tossed the folder down onto my desk. The photograph slid out of its pocket slightly. It was a black and white picture of an old temple, overgrown and in the middle of the jungle. Right at the base was a massive sealed door. There were a series of symbols along the edge, and I could make out a few. However, the one that interested me the most was the largest one, which sat in the center of the door.
Right on the middle of the door was the changeling symbol for Command, a three pointed crown.
“Which one is it?” I wondered. Then I spied one of the symbols along the edges, “Sacrifice. That was the symbol for the Third. I remember seeing it on the covers of a few of the books that were recovered and sitting in the Fourth’s Vault.”
“I said it was one hell of a can. Was I wrong?”
“The Third Hive… No Coxa, you were not wrong.”