//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Is a Plan B really worth it? // by Elmaster48 //------------------------------// Today was a peaceful day in the equestrian navy dock at Canterlot, security was in high alert for a robbery at the headquarters of the royal guard. The documents stolen were all related to the last member remaining of the Storm King Lieutenants, so by protocol all ships had to be fueled and ready for to respond to an attack. … In spite of that the mood was extremely relaxed, this was Canterlot and not some outpost at the border, maybe the forces of the Storm King managed to attack the capital before but know they were sure that wouldn’t happen again… yeah it was more grounded in arrogance than in reality. A certain trio of villains at least wanted to believe that, surely didn’t come this far just to get shot at. ¨so, all of us have our timers set?¨ Said Cozy Glow to her two companions, they were carrying small toy watches, maybe not the most advanced piece of technology for infiltration, but it was all they had. ¨ready!¨ Said Crysalis and Tirek, all of them set their watch to sound at a specific time. Ready or not they would do this. Cozy Glow and Tirek entered the base, specifically the cargo area. They used the different boxes and containers as cover and tried to make as less noise as possible. Chrysalis meanwhile took the form of a female mechanic, she simply went in and moved some boxes or pretended to repair some cable. With that even if anypony saw her, wouldn’t think much of it, just another new mechanic. They had a deadline of 20 minutes. Tirek and Cozy Glow approached the ship, they sometimes throw a rock to move the attention away from workers or climb over some platforms. If this place was truly in high alert they would had been spotted by now. The two of them quickly took a stair that went right into one of the ships, the ship under dock 2. Judging by the mechanics entering and exiting this ship was probably receiving maintenance, maybe wasn’t in the best conditions to flight… but they got too far already. Meanwhile Chrysalis continue walking into a cabin that controlled the anchors that avoid accident like an airship flying away… She quickly found the cabin. To her luck there was only one worker there, looks like she had the easy part. Now they had 15 minutes. Cozy Glow would attract the workers by doing a small sound, once they turn a corner Tirek would knock them out, then the filly would tie up and gag the poor worker. It was more easy set that done, Tirek had to know where to punch to avoid causing far too much noise. And Cozy Glow was running out of places to hide the gagged victims. Meanwhile Chrysalis kept an eye on her watch, she didn’t wanted to be inside the cabin for too long. One would say that she had the easy part… but some of the workers were beginning to suspect that she wasn’t one of the new workers, regardless the time would be soon to do her part. Now they had 5 minutes. Tirek and Cozy Glow finally managed to take down all of the workers inside the ship. It was a complete hassle and they really didn’t want to do something like this again. They stayed on the bridge, crouched so nopony see them from the outside. Meanwhile Chrysalis finally entered the cabin. There she found a lonely worker who seemed really stressed. ¨hey there¨ said chrysalis. ¨go away, I’m trying to figure out a problem¨ the worker wasn’t in the mood for chitchat. Chrysalis approached the worker ¨maybe I can help¨ The worker nodded ¨then help me trying to contact the lazy guys of the second ship. For some reason I don’t receive any update from them, probably got lazy but I think this radio got broke¨ Chrysalis opened the panel… and started putting wires in random places, she wasn’t afraid to admit that she was no mechanic and never imagine than a radio had so many pieces. While chrysalis did a disaster of the poor radio the worker continued organizing with the rest of the ships. 3 minute remaining. In that final minute Tirek and Cozy Glow were ready. Soon they would soon start the craziest thing they had done… in this day, just in that week they really have done a lot of crazy stuff. And finally, the toy watch started to sound, Tirek pull his arm up trying to wave. If Crysalis did her part that would mean that the anchor you finally get removed and they could start moving. Meanwhile in those final minutes Crysalis got up, she walked straight into the worker. ¨you know, I wish one day to get into a post like this one day, can you teach me a little?¨ The worker was reluctant, at least until she started paying attention to those green eyes of her. Between that and her smile he felt like he couldn’t refuse. It wouldn’t take too much time either. The worker Shown Chrysalis different parts of the table, and explain to her about how nowadays with a simple button he could release a ship from its anchor, before it was a long and complicated process but engineering got a far away from all of those complications. ¨thank you sir, maybe I can give you something in return¨ she then gave a kiss to the worker, he was now glad that he didn’t quit this job. Unfortunately that moment got interrupted by the sound of a toy watch… that was Chrysalis cue. ¨what is that sound?¨ asked the worker. ¨the end of your career¨ right after saying that Chrysalis knocked out the poor worker. She quickly put her attention on the bridge of ship 2. She was hoping that everything went alright for her companions… then she saw a hand, the hand of Tirek. That was her cue, she push the button that released the ship and took the form of a pegasus. She quickly flew away to that ship and prepared for action. Admiral Warm Breeze was a proud member of the equestrian navy, he was disappointed that the navy never got the same level of admiration than the royal guard. But was still hopeful that one day equestria would see his ship as more than a tourist attraction. Still, he wasn’t angry at the lack of action. Peacetime is war preferable that any conflict, and he was hopeful than Princess Twilight would lead them to a bright future. Still, for now the admiral for now just had to sit and relax… that’s when an alarm go off, it was at the port. He recognized that alarm, is the one that sounds when somepony fails to anchor the ship properly and started fly off, Needless to say that all what he had to do was to board that ship and get it back in place. When he got close to the dock where the ship was supposed to be he couldn’t avoid hearing the screams of the workers and soldiers below, that wasn’t a ship that was flying off for an accident… it was a robbery. His suspicious got confirmed when a pegasus flied into his ship and quickly got into his bridge. ¨Admiral, that ship is getting robbed!¨ The Admiral maintained his composure and asked specific question. ¨did the guards or other workers tried to board that ship? There is any kidnapped crewpony?¨ The pegasus took a few seconds to breathe, then he answered ¨they tried, but the robbers started to throw overboard the crewponies and mechanics. The guards and personnel put priority on saving instead of trying to board that ship¨ The admiral was ready to give quite a lot of medals for heroism once this is over. ¨Sir, do we pursue?¨ asked a crewmember. The Admiral nodded and ordered his ship to chase after the stolen ship, they would either board it or destroy it. The stolen ship was fast, but it had clear malfunctions so it wouldn’t go too far… that’s when he could see black clouds approaching Canterlot. Everypony in the capital of Equestria remember those clouds, every member of the equestrian navy knew what it meant. ¨The Storm King forces¨ Said the admiral, it was clear who was responsible for this. Now he had a choice, he could continue chasing the stolen airship… or could try to fight off the Storm King forces. ¨We have to fight off those monsters, we can’t let them reach Canterlot¨ The Admiral and his fleet diverted course and went directly to fight the forces of the Storm King, he expected an entire fleet… instead it was just a hot air balloon that had strapped a mechanism to expel a lot of smoke. He just got outsmarted, now the only thing he could do was pray to Celestia so they would be able to defeat wherever plan those monsters are planning. Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow were surprised, they thought that the fleet of the Prince Deceiver was small, they were under the impression that he had way more troops hidden elsewhere, if anything that made them respect him even more. ¨so now after this we are going to get the final piece of the artifact¨ Tirek reminded the group. ¨yeah, we will steal the other pieces from him once we get him¨ Chrysalis was still convinced that the correct path was to keep the artifact for themselves. ¨or you know, we could have a powerful ally that could help us take down Twilight and her dumb friends easily¨ Cozy Glow suggested. ¨he sure has a lot of power. I can respect that¨ Tirek for once was agreeing with the filly. ¨looks like we are going to make the choice betray him or not once we get to that point¨ Chrysalis couldn’t ignore the power that griffon had. After some hours of travel they finally got to the place where they agreed to drop the ship, they found a camp where it was the Prince Deceiver army and some of his ship, including his own personal flagship. Once they anchored the ship Cozy Glow and Tirek quickly got out and went to the camp, only Chrysalis remained to watch over the two Soldiers who got up the ship, she follow them to the room where the magic generator was located. One of the soldiers look at the generator in amazement ¨now I see why the Storm King wanted to take over equestria, these ponies have some serious stuff¨ But the other one wasn’t ¨true, but looks like this thing need some preparation before is safe for our boss is able to operate this thing safely, go an call the others to take care of this.¨ after that the other guard left the room, leaving the changeling and the guard alone. Chrysalis took a good eye to the machine, then to the room to see if there was any damage to the room then asked ¨what do you mean by safe? You mean we could had blown up?¨ The soldier shook his head ¨I don’t mean that, I mean that these ponies put a lot measures to ensure that these generators aren’t temper with. If anything that make it impossible to simply destroy one of these ships, take the generator from the wreckage and repair it¨ Chrysalis frowned ¨that explains why the Prince didn’t simply intercepted one of these ships. How long it would take to prepare this thing?¨ The soldier gave a good eye to the generator ¨I worked with magical machinery like this before, so I think a couple of days¨ Chrysalis then asked ¨the generators are going to be transported to the base right? This place doesn’t look hidden enough to spend a couple of days working on a stolen ship¨ The soldier nodded ¨you are right, we are getting this thing out of here and install it on the ship of our boss. I don’t know why, but he have us the order to give you a feast in celebration of this victory. You surely made an impression on him¨ Then the former queen left the room to let the guard work on removing the generator from the ship. Crysalis went over to the camp and saw Tirek and Cozy Glow having a feast, the food ranged from cheap candy to exotic dishes and they were enjoying each and every part of it. It was a good reward for succeeding such a dangerous mission. Her companions would enjoy their free meal, but Chrysalis didn’t have interest on any of that junk. She wanted to hunt love from some creature, so she went into the forest. She spend on the woods for quite a while, but she sense that somecreature was stalking her. She quickly hissed at wharever was following her. It was the Prince Deceiver himself, quite impressed with the choice of the former queen to go and hunt instead of enjoying a feast that many would envy. ¨you are quite interesting for a queen, not what anycreature would expect¨ The griffon said to the changeling. Chrysalis raised an eyebrow ¨and what do you mean by that exactly?¨ ¨your kingdom rejected you, betrayed you. But you still hold to your ideals instead of bowing to them and seek their acceptance. You want the hive back¨ The prince said. ¨and I need to get it back soon¨ Chrysalis added. ¨Why the rush exactly?¨ the Prince asked. The former queen answered ¨not so long ago I saw the most disgusting thing I ever seen in my entire life. A changeling and a pony… in love.¨ The prince asked ¨do ponies and changelings are able to conceive?¨ The former queen glare made the griffon stood back a little afraid, just realizing now that he just touched a nerve. Chrysalis was able to calm herself and avoided attacking the griffon in anger ¨not an answer that I want to know. What I know is that ponies are having more and more influence over the changelings, if ponies had it their way probably my race would even lose the ability to change form¨ The Prince Deceiver, having too regained his composure and no longer afraid, got close to chrysalis and said ¨you have a lot of determination, I know that you will be able to take back the hive. I know also that in the future I will need to rely on you and your race.¨ Chrysalis hissed ¨I’m not going to take back the hive, just to give it to you¨ The prince not intimidated by the former queen this time, simply approached her and clarified ¨I want allies, not slaves or vassals. I will have plenty of those and I want a true ally in case a rebellion happens, I can do the same for you and help you to take back your hive. That and deal with any future rebellion on your end¨ Chrysalis chuckled ¨you are proposing we have a future together then¨ The prince smiled ¨unlike your current companions. Their days are numbered and soon will be forgotten¨ Chrysalis quickly pick up on what she was proposing ¨you want me to betray them?¨ ¨just think about it, your alliance is temporary at best. I can offer something more permanent¨ said the Prince, while flying away to his ship that was waiting for him. She noticed how ornate was that ship, a demonstration of his wealth and how much authority he had. Chrysalis was left alone to consider her new options.