//------------------------------//
// 111- Laverna 
// Story: Changing Expectations 
// by KKSlider 
//------------------------------//

The changeling guard saluted from his station by the door as I approached. Nodding to him, I entered the room he stood watch over.

The small room felt crowded with four of us in there. With myself, two changeling guards, and a pony tied up, the former storage closet was packed like a can of sardines. The room itself was in a sorry state, being part of a rundown building on the bad side of town where no pony walks without a purpose.

“Anything?” I asked as I entered.

The changeling stepped back from the hunched over pony, “No, sir.”

The unicorn looked up, her mane, wet with sweat, drooped over half of her face. The eye that was uncovered stared at me with malice. Though for all her hard looks, we all could taste the fear that lurked underneath that loathsome desire to… kill us, I suppose.

She was a dark orange pony, with a mud-brown hairdo that had seen better days. Her Mark was a sunrise. If I cared, I could probably guess her name from that.

“Take a break,” I told the changeling.

He bowed and left the room. The changeling sitting in the back was still there, and just as silent as she always was. I stood before the unicorn, looking down on her. She craned her head up to stare right back at me.

“You know who I am,” I stated, not asked.

“Prince Phasmatodea,” she said with a low voice.

‘Prince. Interesting… At least that means that Daring Do’s report has been covered up. Or, worst case, its spread is delayed. Good.’

“You know what I want.”

She snarled, “I’ll never betray my sisters!”

I smiled, “You will. By crook or by hook, there is only one way this ends. I will get the patrol routes for Manehattan. You will be placed back into a pod. Then, once the war is over, you will be let free… Probably. We’ll see how negotiations pan out.”

“Lies from the Prince of Dread! I was there in Canterlot, I saw your work. If you win the war, Equestria will cease to exist. I won’t give you anything!”

“What you believe is irrelevant. I am giving you the chance to spare yourself from being potentially crippled for life. Take it and spare me your pride, pony. I said there was only one way that this meeting of ours ends, and I meant it.

“The only way this ends,” she mocked me, “is with my hoof up your plot!”

I raised my eyebrows. The unicorn struggled briefly with her bindings, but slumped with an angry snort.

“Tell me pony, are you familiar with Mind Magic?”

Her spike in fear was the answer to that question.

I continued, “You know what happens next. You will tell me the patrol route, willingly or not. Now, I have been informed that mind magic carries its risks. If you wish to avoid permanent damage, you will come forth with the routes. Otherwise….”

The pony snarled, putting her anger above all other emotions.

“I’ll never betray Equestria! You vermin will end everything if we don’t stop you!”

“The hard way it is, then. Just remember, I asked you to avoid this.”

The unicorn sneered at me, baring her teeth. I was about to start casting the mind control spell when I… didn’t.

‘... Is this action excusable? Cadence, if she found out, would never approve. But despite that, do I need this information? Well, no. We’ve done well enough with our own scouting. This will just make my life easier, and safer. It isn’t a necessary move. If I desire to keep the ponies’ trust, then I should work to do just that.’

As much as I thought it would be better to do otherwise, I turned away from the unicorn and made my way to the door.

“What’s the matter, insect? All bark and no bite?” The pony spat at me.

‘... But there’s nothing wrong with fucking with them and freaking them around, right?’

“It’s already over, pony. Do not worry, I’ll put that information to good use. You can throw her back in with the others. We’re done here.”

The anger I felt behind me was satisfying, “You little rat!” She screamed, “Get back here so I can squish you like the bug you are! You’ll never win, you hear me? Never! The Princesses will defeat you! Harmony always wins out in the end!”

I snorted, “I suppose it does.”

‘But don’t expect me to understand it.’

I shut the door behind me. The changeling who had just left was staring at me, confused.

“Your Majesty? That was… quick?”

I shook my head, “No mind control. And we’re not torturing them, so put her back where you got her.”

“Your Majesty? Don’t we need this information?”

“No. We want it. That’s the difference that matters in the end. Just… put her back. I’ll figure something out, don’t worry. Worst case scenario, we create fallback complexes to evacuate to if our main places are compromised.”

He bowed, “As you command, My King.”

“We have to fight as bloodless as possible,” I told him as I walked away, heading for this dump’s exit.

‘You happy, Cadence? I shot myself in the hoof for you. No mind control, just like you wanted. But I swear, if this costs lives in the end, then I’m taking the gloves off.’

Once out in the street of the rundown industrial neighborhood our little hidey-hole was in, I walked in the rough direction of the main offices. I would have to make a couple of detours and stops first, but I needed to talk to Coxa as soon as possible.





Coxa placed this week’s report before me.

“As you can see, even with the loss of the convoys, we’re still making more bits than we know what to do with. We’ve been funneling the bits through Count Double Dealing’s accounts, laundering them as much as possible. Even so, we’re quickly blowing past our ability to launder them that way. We’ve started investing in business opportunities across the East Coast to get rid of as many bits as possible while still putting them towards generating a profit. I’ve had to pull more and more changelings to assist me in putting everything down on paper. Our network of assets has grown to a ridiculous level–”

“Forget cleaning the money,” I ordered him while knife-handing. Knife-hoofing. Close enough.

“Uh, what? Won’t that send the Equestrian Tax Agency after us?”

“They don’t matter. What matters is Division-P and their ability to nail us to the fucking wall. We need to be mobile. We need to spend bits on getting alternate fallback locations for the Fifth Hive. As much as I hate to admit it, getting caught here is a death sentence. We need somewhere where we can defend– against a siege, if the worst comes to pass. Somewhere with a number of secret exits we can use to evacuate if needed. We’ll have to keep its location a secret from the majority of the Fifth Hive; Daybreaker has captives already. We have to operate under the assumption that all information they held is now in Division-P’s hooves. We should also prepare for more changelings to be captured. We need fallback locations, safe houses, contingencies, and plans.”

“I’ll get Thalamus to find some.”

“As soon as possible, Coxa. And remind him to keep his lid shut about it. When he has the locations picked out, get as small of a team that we can get away with for setting them up. Mark them down somewhere, and make sure none of them are ever sent out of the Fifth Hive. They will be unexpendable, in every meaning of the word.”

Coxa wrote down some notes on a notepad, “Sure thing, boss. What do we do about deliveries?”

“Hmm?”

“Deliveries. I imagine that if we’re doing this, you’ll want to change how those are handled, too, right?”

“Oh. Yes, great thinking Coxa. We’ll need more security on them. A shadow team for each convoy. If the carts get hit, then the shadow team can counter ambush.”

“That’s going to slow them down considerably. Moving stealthily through any terrain at all is slow, and we’ve relied on expediency to get out of any suspicious circumstances so far.”

I tapped my chin, “Where have all the teams been ambushed so far?”

“Uh… From the reports we’ve seen the ponies print in the papers, it’s right at the edge of town usually.”

“You think we can keep the team with the carts in between civilization, but have them disembark when they get close to towns?”

“That should speed it up more than just having them shadowed all the time.”

“Alright, do that. Sacrifice a bit of safety for speed. Worst case scenario, order them to ditch the carts and hoof it. A ling is worth more than any bit can buy. These are our people, I do not want them risking their life more than they have to. That doesn’t mean getting out of Dodge whenever they get a bad feeling, though.”

Coxa waved me away, “Yeah, yeah. I got it. Don’t worry Phasma, I’ll make sure they’ve got a good plan in place for when shit goes south.”

“Thank you. Any reports concerning Division-P?”

Coxa hesitated, “That depends. Are you in a good mood?”

‘This can’t be good.’

“Not really?”

Coxa nervously shuffled, “Okay, then. Best get this over with. Another group got hit. This time, it was right here, in Manehattan.”

I glanced behind me and out the window. The city loomed, a distant concrete jungle.

“Why didn’t you lead with this?”

“I wanted to give the good news first. The changelings… two of them died. Took out an Inquisitor, but three more were captured.”

I rose from my chair, “We need to ambush their captors before they leave the city!”

“Captain Katydid is already on the job, boss. Given what you did back in the Third Hive, I also wanted to delay you as much as possible. I wanted to keep you here, so you don’t go charging out there and doing something stupid like revealing yourself.”

“Two changelings are dead, Coxa! That can’t go unanswered!” I hissed.

Coxa walked up to my desk and reached over, tapping my hoof with one of his one, “And it won’t, Phasma. We’re handling it, trust us. Look, the ponies don’t know about your survival, so it’s important to keep that ace up our sleeve as long as possible, right? Plus, if you go gallivanting about, eventually you’re going to attract attention. Very bad attention. The kind of attention that has both a horn and wings, you know?”

“We have two weeks until the Grand Galloping Gala. How many changelings will die before then, Coxa?”

He cringed, “We’ll be rescuing more than we lose, but… it’s not looking good.”

‘Maybe I do need to get those patrol routes. It wouldn’t have been in time to save the changelings today, but next time…’

“Coxa, you will also have to warn Thorax and Double Diamond. Diamond has visited the Hive a few times, so his identity is known to us. He might not be safe anymore. Get him somewhere else to stay in Manehattan, or if needed, out of the city.”

He wrote down more notes, “I’ll get it handled. Okay, that should be everything. I’ll go speak with Thalamus right now.”

“Thank you, Coxa.”

“I’m just doing my duty,” he shrugged. “You should take the rest of the day off, Phasma. I’ll handle the aftermath of Katydid’s strike against Division-P. Just take a walk, or whatever ponies do when they are not working. Visit a museum, maybe? I think I remember you mentioning visiting one recently…”

I rubbed my eyes, “You want me to visit a museum? Right now?”

“Just go take the day off. Please?”

‘Jeez, Coxa never says please. He really wants me out for the day.’

“You’re not doing something stupid like planning a surprise party, are you?”

“What? No. You’re just taking this really hard, and you told us that you need to watch your emotions and make sure you don’t get too frustrated. So go and take the day off. Besides, I don’t know when your birthday is.”

I sighed, “Alright, fine. I'll try to take my mind off this, I guess.”

“That’s the spirit! Go get drunk or something. Oh! One last bit of good news, Phasma. Aprocrita, Tegmen, and Apidae all revealed themselves to their pony companions. Apidae had to… leave town, but the other two were accepted! With three interspecies relationships, we might just bring in enough love to stop harvesting from the podded ponies!”

“Wow, they really bring in that much?”

“Based on how many lings Thorax feeds with his relationship, yes. The logistics look very good for this solution that he found. It would be unfeasible if a significant portion were required to be in an interspecies relationship, after all. We would basically start dying out.”

‘That’s no small miracle. Great, now I have to find something I enjoy to spend the rest of the day doing. No videogames, but maybe I should pay Double Diamond a visit. I should find out more about his engineer family and their electronics business, or whatever it was. The sooner videogames get invented, the better.’





Princess Cadence checked that the coast was clear before returning her attention to the pegasus before her.

“Okay Nimble Hoof, you know what to do?”

The stallion nodded, “Yes, Princess. Keep Pencil Push distracted for as long as possible.”

Cadence grinned, then frowned. “I am sorry to ask this of you. Nopony should abuse their feelings for one another. And for the last time, please, call me Cadence.”

Nimble smiled, “It’s okay, Princess. To be honest, I’m just shocked Push is even interested in a guy like me…”

“Chin up, Nimble. You’re a cute stallion; any mare worth her salt would be at least interested in getting to know you better. So try to make the most of this for me, okay?”

“Okay, Princess! But, uh…” He trailed off.

“Yes?”

Nimble looked down, “Lunch or dinner?”

“Hmm,” Cadence tapped her chin, though she already knew the answer. “Lunch. It’s more casual and feels less confrontational. Push will like that more than a dinner date immediately.”

Nimble smiled again, “Thank you, Princess, for the advice and even telling me about how she feels…”

‘Such a cute smile. It makes me wish Shiny were here right now. Alas, it’s time to get to work.’

“Just keep smiling for me, Nimble? You have such a wonderful smile, it’s a shame it's not on display more often. And of course, keep her with you and distracted. If you can sneak off and find a closet–”

“Princess! We’re not high schoolers!” Nimble yelled, face and ears growing more and more red by the second.

Cadence giggled, “I know dear, I’m just teasing. Now go! I’ll send Pencil your way!”

Nimble Hoof nodded again and sauntered off down the hallway, with a spring in his step. The sight made Cadence snort softly. Then, she went down the other way, toward Lord Artful Acumen’s office.

Sitting behind her desk in front of the Lord’s office, his secretary Pencil Push was filling out a crossword puzzle on today’s paper. When she heard Cadence approaching, Push set the papers down and smiled.

“Good afternoon, Princess. I’m afraid if you’re looking for Lord Acumen, he’s out for the day.”

Cadence shook her head, “Oh no, I just bought donuts for everypony. They’re in the break room. I figured I should tell you before everypony else gets to them first.”

“Oh! Thanks for the heads up, Princess! Don’t mind if I do!” Pencil said as she left her desk and headed towards the break room.

“Enjoy!” Cadence called out after her, before turning her attention to Acumen’s door.

‘Let’s see what we’re dealing with,’ Cadence thought to herself as she scanned the ornate wooden door. She had to mentally refrain from whistling when her scan returned 11 instances of security spells layered over each other across the door.

Producing her set of lockpicks and rakes, she positioned them within the door’s keyhole. Once in place, she magically disabled the security spells over the lock and began picking it, carefully and slowly raising each tumbler.

‘You may have hired an expert to secure your office, Acumen, but I have a rather embarrassing hobby. One that Auntie Celestia found so humorous that she made me take seriously.’

With a click, the lock turned and the door cracked open.

“Yes!” Cadence whispered as she slipped inside and closed the door behind her.

‘Oh Celestia, thank you for your mandatory lock-picking lessons! I promise I will use them for good from now on! Especially since I don’t have to break into the Principal’s office anymore to change my grades.’

With only the light from the door’s window illuminating the room, Cadence had to wait a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dark office. It seemed standard enough, with a desk, chairs, filing cabinets, and of course a fully stocked minifridge, likely filled with bottles of wine or something equally bad. Cadence slinked around the room and sat down on Acumen’s chair. The drawers of his desk were locked as well. This time, with different security spells, ones that Cadence didn’t recognize and therefore couldn’t break into.

Cadence felt around the underside of the desk as she scanned the rest of the drawers. If the lock was protected, then she might just have to rip the entire drawer out to get inside. It wasn’t like her intrusion wouldn’t have been detected in some way. She always had to account for some undetectable alarm or security spell that logged access, or a clue she left behind, or the fact that she was planning on stealing reams of classified folders with no intention of replacing them.

Being honest, it was probably that last fact that would clue Acumen in on the fact that somepony had broken into his office.

Just when she was about to give up and break open the drawers, her right forehoof found a metal key, tucked up and behind a support beam on the underside of the desk. Doing a little jig in the seat, Cadence unlocked the set of drawers on the right side and began rifling through them.

‘Battle reports, no… R&D reports– definitely taking that one… personal schedule, no… bottle of whiskey, no… report from Locksdale Prison? Phasma will want that one. Missive from Daybreaker? Yoink!’

Finished with the right drawers, she moved on to the left ones.

‘Special spells against changelings? Yep, that’s coming with me. Budget reports, no longer needed… Autopsy reports? I… no, I don’t want to look at that. Last files are unlabeled.’

Cadence put the unlabeled folders on top of the desk, next to her pile that she was taking with her. She opened the first and quickly scanned through it.

‘So they did try to make explosive collars! Those no-good, rotten, horseapple eaters!’

With little time wasted, she closed the folder and put it back in the drawer she got it from, and began skimming the next.

‘Dead Hoof Protocol? Sounds important enough.’

Placing it on the to-take pile, Cadence moved onto the last folder from the drawer. Seeing that it was plans, schematics, and proofs-of-concepts for some sort of defensive enchanted necklace, she placed it back in the drawer and began covering her tracks. That being, closing the drawers, returning the key, and getting out before Pencil Push had a chance to return.

Levitating her pile of folders next to her as she made her escape, Cadence wondered what the consequences for this would be. Odds are that they would guess that she was involved, so she’d better get rid of these as soon as possible. She had already planned to hoof a few of them off to news agencies that would be very interested in learning that Division-P was evil. The rest... 

‘The thestrals are loyal to Luna, right? Maybe these are better served in their hooves than anypony else’s.’

Returning the smiles and greetings of ponies that she passed by, Cadence decided to drop off the folders somewhere secret first before trying to meet the thestrals. The quicker they left view, the better