//------------------------------// // 24- The Hierophant (V) & The High Priestess (II) // Story: Approaching Apotheosis // by KKSlider //------------------------------// Coxa stood in front of the witness stand. At his beckoning, I placed a hoof over my heart. “Do you, King Phasmatodea ‘The Comet’ of the Fifth Hive, Pontiff and Champion of the Hive Eternal, swear by the Goddess Panarthropo to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?” “I swear.” Coxa nodded once before returning to his seat, “You may question the witness, Chrysalis.” The former-queen stepped out from her little podium and walked towards me, halting before my guards. I placed both hooves on the edge of the wooden witness stand, watching her every movement. Chrysalis, despite her time in a cell, was looking as… as much herself as ever. A part of me wished something about her would be lesser for spending so much time in the dark. “Phasma,” She addressed me. “What is our relationship?” “You laid my egg,” I returned calmly. “I meant our familial relationship, as well as professional.” I rolled my eyes, “You are my biological mother, and was my boss and ruler while I lived in the Fourth Hive.” “When did we first meet?” I scoffed, “Seriously?” Chrysalis just smiled, “Unless our three judges here have any objections, you will answer my questions.” I felt an eyebrow twitch, “We met when I hatched. You were there on that first day.” “You remember hatching?” “I do.” Chrysalis feigned surprise, half-turning away from me and looking at the crowd of ponies, “Changelings don’t have memories of their time as larva. Ponies don’t remember their time as newborn foals.” “I remember everything,” I said. “You know this. You took special interest in me because of this. You know the reason why I remember.” “Of course I do. But why don’t you illuminate the public? Say it for the court? You were intelligent from the very first moment you hatched– curiosity, potential, and calmness that no larva could possess. How?” “I have something of an old soul,” I joked. “Without the sarcasm,” she said, waiving a dismissive tone. “Reincarnation. Despite hatching a year ago, I am far older than that.” “Reincarnation,” she repeated, slowly pacing back and forth in front of me. “Let’s keep that in mind. What do you remember from your time as a larva?” I sighed, “You took me from the broodmothers and watched over me personally. To tutor and train me.” “Yes, I did. I took no small amount of time from my busy schedule to tend to your… needs and growth. What was our early relationship like?” I shrugged again, “You pushed me to learn a lot very quickly. There was no resting, no relaxing, no taking things slow. From my larva stage, through nymph stage, and finally adult, I was under constant time constraints and strict expectations. Failure was not tolerated.” “How was the rest of your life, outside of our interactions?” I cast my memory a year back, “... I was isolated. It was months until I spoke with someling that wasn’t you or Eucharis. Or Katydid.” “Who is Eucharis? Or Katydid?” I glared at her, “... Chamberlain Eucharis, your second in command of the Fourth Hive. He took over a lot of the training as I reached adulthood mere months after hatching. Captain Katydid, current commander of the changeling Swarm and a friend of mine. He was just a lowly officer when you dragged him from whatever duties he had to train me in magic.” Chrysalis sighed dramatically, “So. A reincarnated prince. Taught everything by his mother and mother’s aide. Now that you have some… experience outside of my Hive, would you say that anything I taught you was… malevolent? Evil?” I blinked, “... Yes.” Chrysalis turned back to me, “What exactly?” I sat back, thinking, “You mean aside from the whole caste-based society that I was to rule? Your hatred of Celestia and ponies was a frequent underpinning of many lessons from what I recall.” “I do not hate ponies!” She hissed. “I just consider them…” “Prey,” I finished. “As you say,” Chrysalis said quietly. “Is that inaccurate?” “People are more than mere biology,” I shot back. “Through cooperation, they are not prey; they are symbiotes. Allies. Friends.” “Did you know this at the time? Did you believe this? Did you have proof?” I shrugged, “I knew the facts, and could only guess beyond that. We need ponies to survive. They didn’t know we exist, and we had been keeping it that way for generations beyond count.” “Moving on,” Chrysalis rolled a hoof, “what else did I teach you?” “To be a ruthless ruler,” I shot back. “I remember having to watch you render judgment on a changeling drone who was caught in possession of a book. You told them the punishment was death, but said you were ‘mercifully’ granting them over a year's worth of punishment detail. Cleaning the acid recycling vats, if I recall correctly. A dangerous, filthy job. I remember… being tested on this, having to explain your judgment.” ‘I remember part of me agreeing with that. I… was–’ “And did you agree with the judgment at the time?” Chrysalis asked. “You would never have accepted any other answer.” She shook her head, “Answer the question, King Phasma.” “For the most part, no! Sentencing someone–” “So you partially agreed with me?” Chrysalis interrupted. “I…” I halted. But when the silence forced me to continue, “... A bit.” “Why? I thought this was an evil act?” I crossed my forelegs, “I was… not in a good place at the time.” “What do you mean by that?” I snarled at her, “You know damn well what I mean! You isolated me! You controlled everything I was taught! You were constantly putting me under pressure to succeed! You used love like a drug, forcing me to constantly work for it like an addict in need for another hit! And to top it all off, I was just murdered!” “Enough!” The loud voice silenced the room. Cadance, the one who had yelled, spoke again, “You will have to control yourself, Phasma. If you need a break, ask for it, but you must control yourself.” Slowly, I realized that I was standing. Not only that, the witness stand had a crack running across it– starting where both my hooves were embedded into the woodwork. My guards were hunched over, each in a defensive posture around me. I withdrew my hooves from the damaged stand, wrapping them around me as the guards relaxed back to their regular posture. “Murdered?” Chrysalis whispered. “I was murdered,” I repeated, forcing calmness into my voice. “For no reason at all. Murdered in an alleyway! It was… I was shot in the chest by a… weapon. Fiercely hot sensation in my chest. Then growing coldness as I bled out. I felt my heart stop beating. I felt… scared. Confused. It hurt… It took longer than you would think to die. You have no idea what it was like. None of you!” There was a pause. Chrysalis was just standing there, staring at me. The quiet murmur of the crowd whispering to each other was eventually interrupted by Elder Vigilance. “Are you finished with your questioning, Chrysalis?” The older mare asked, gesturing to me. Chrysalis blinked, “... For now.” As she silently stalked back to her podium, Cadance turned towards me, “Phasma. Do you need a break?” “... I don’t know,” I said quietly, running a hoof over the cracked wooden surface in front of me. “N-no. Ask your questions.” ‘It’s important to keep the momentum up. While every pony in the room is listening, while we have their undivided attention… It’s important…’ No flash camera or radio mic was allowed in the courtroom. However, there were enough newsponies packed into the crowd that every major city would have their own version of a headline article about the trial within hours of each trial session ending. What was being said here would spread to every corner of the country by nightfall. “Phasma,” Coxa’s voice pulled me back to the present. “With consideration to how ponies are and what your past life was like, was life in the Fourth Hive good?” “No.” “Was your quality of life worse?” I nodded, “Absolutely. Everyone was hungry. There’s no such thing as luxuries. And there were the drones themselves…” “Did you not like changelings?” Coxa pressed. “No! No. It wasn’t like that. You just… couldn’t really trust others much in the Fourth Hive. Anyone could report you. Anyone could betray you.” “Did you make many friends?” Cadance asked. “No, I didn’t. During my Infiltrator class, I made a hooffull. Coxa, Lacewing, Thorax, Oestridae, and T-Tarsus. You can count Katydid as a friend, but beyond them, there was no one I could completely trust.” “You are the first changeling we are hearing from,” Vigilance pointed out. “I would like to hear what life was like for the average changeling… drone. You said everypony was hungry?” “Everyone was hungry,” I repeated. “The changeling species had been on ever-increasingly strict rationing for generations. We were running lower and lower on love.” Vigilance leaned forward, “And these drones could not trust anyling but their closest friends and family?” “No. Aside from the occasional sibling, most changelings had no idea who their family was,” I clarified. “You could trust your closest friends, but noling else.” “Changelings don’t know their families?” Vigilance asked, frowning and tilting her head in confusion. “No. Eggs are separated from their parents and raised communally.” “Why?” Vigilance asked. “Yes or no questions only,” Cadance reminded her fellow judge. Vigilance grumbled but continued on, “Was this system… beneficial?” I shrugged, “Maybe? It certainly allowed more indoctrination and opportunities to enforce loyalty to the throne.” “Was this a long-standing tradition?” “Y- No? Yes and no?” I sighed, “It was established by Chrysalis a few centuries ago.” “These drones,” Cadance stepped in, “did they face similar training as you? High expectations and constant lessons?” I shook my head, “No. That was just me.” Cadance switched gears, “Did Chrysalis know about your past life? How it ended?” “No,” I said quietly. “I kept that secret.” “If you did not have Chrysalis in the room with you, would you have given that drone with the book a different sentencing?” I paused, “.... No. Chrysalis would have found out.” “And if she didn’t find out, would you have given a different sentence?” I scowled, “Yes. It was just a book…” “But you agreed with her sentencing?” Cadance asked. “Y- only a little bit. I…” “Was the sentencing too harsh in your opinion?” “Of course!” Cadance nodded, “But you still supported some part of her sentencing?”. “I th-think so…” I said slowly. “There was so much going on, I didn’t– I didn’t have much time to think about anything.” Then Coxa switched the questioning entirely, “Was Chrysalis the largest influence on you during these first months?” “Yes.” “Was Eucharis the second largest influence?” “Yes,” I repeated. “Were any of his lessons and morals different from Chrysalis’s?” “No,” I shook my head. “He touted every bit of propaganda and entirely supported everything she did.” “Your past life,” Vigilance prefaced, “were you a changeling?” “No.” “Pony?” “No.” “You weren’t anything from this world, were you?” Coxa asked. I slowly shook my head, “N-no. I was a human. A bipedal primate from the planet Earth. It’s… pretty much Equus, but we’re alone on our world.” “So suddenly being a changeling was…. disorientating?” Coxa prompted. “Extremely, yes,” I agreed. “And your morals as a human,” Coxa continued, “are they comparable to a changeling’s?” “Yes?” I said slowly. “Are they comparable to a pony’s sense of morals?” I shook my head, “No. Ponies are often kinder than humans.” “Do you know why that’s the case?” Cadance asked. I shrugged, “Sure? Equus is more peaceful than Earth. Or at least, Equestria is. No wars, no real droughts or famines to worry about, corruption seems to be lower…” Cadance leaned forward, “And did this different set of morals help you consider Chrysalis’s actions to be tyrannical?” “Yes. I had an outside perspective.” The pink princess continued, “So you went from being a human, to being murdered, to suddenly finding yourself a changeling, while isolated and influenced by Chrysalis and her close second in command Eucharis, while they used information and access to food to control you and keep you on a strict and brutal learning and training program?” “.. That’s correct, yes. And once those lessons ended, I was immediately put in charge of the Swarm.” The three judges of the tribunal shared a look and nodded to each other. “Then our cross-examination ends for now,” Cadance declared. “We will be adjourning for an hour-long break.” I sighed and wearily rubbed my face, looking at the ground. Slowly, I rose from my seat and stood on shaky legs. Around the room, ponies and changelings were filing out of the room, conversing quietly, or standing guard if they were on-duty guards. I froze and looked up, feeling Chrysalis’s eyes bore into me. She was sitting behind her podium and giving me a blank stare. Her eyes met my own and I turned away, heading for one of the doors at the corner of the room furthest away from the main entrance. My Red Right Hoof guards stayed in formation around me as I left. Thorax and Luna flew down from the dias, meeting me at the door and walking with me out. Luna reached over and grabbed one of my forehooves, holding it while smiling. “You are doing good, Phasma. I question the wisdom of giving in and being questioned now, but regardless, you are doing a good job.” “Thanks, Luna,” I said, leaning over to nuzzle her. “Yeah, Phas,” Thorax agreed. “You’re doing great! It means a lot to everyling that you can just take to the stand and call her out like that! Now where’s my nuzzle?” “Aren’t you supposed to be mad at me for trying to assassinate Tarsus?” I asked quietly, heading into the nearest sitting room and flopping down onto an obscenely luxurious sofa. Luna sat next to me, still holding my hoof, while Thorax sat down in a chair opposite of us. “I… still am,” Thorax said stiffly. “You know my demands about that. But this… I’m not abandoning you when you need friends the most.” I smiled, “... Thanks, Thorax.” “I worked too hard to stop you from being a sociopathic tyrant to lose all my progress.” I stopped smiling, “Thanks, Thorax.” “I’m not joking.” “You’re overreacting,” I said, giving Luna an appreciative smile for being with me. Thorax sighed, “We have to look out for each other. And you’ve made it quite clear that you need the most looking-out-for by far.” “Thought you said you were taking a break from me,” I pointed out. “... I’m supporting you for the trial. Then I’m going to Manehattan for a month with Double Diamond.” I took in his words, “... Fine. That’s… fine.” ‘We can survive without him for that long. He deserves a break with his coltfriend. He can… have his space. He’ll be back. It’s just a month.’ Coxa cleared his throat, “After your lessons, when Chrysalis started withdrawing from your daily life, what happened next?” “I was put in a class to learn basic Infiltration skills, but when that ended, she made me Champion of the Hive Eternal and High Marshall of the Swarm. It was pretty sudden.” Vigilance pitched in, “Is this when Chrysalis commanded you to invade Equestria?” “Yes. It was right before she made me High Marshall. She said the changelings fought the ponies in ancient times, and we lost. But now we will fight and win. Things would be different, I guess; Equestria may have had the Elements of Harmony, but we had the element of surprise. Chrysalis told me to lead the invasion of Equestria and to defeat… Princess Cadance.” Cadance asked the next question, “So were you trained to be a military leader and to fight me?” “N-no,” I said, scratching my head. “She just… expected me to do those things– to figure it out on my own. Overnight, I went from having a tight leash around my neck to being thrown into the deep end and expected to sink or swim. Noling knew how to fight an open war, so it just… the responsibility went to me.” “Did Chrysalis tell you how the invasion was to be handled?” Cadance continued. “No. Yes. Both? She had some overall demands, but that was all.” Coxa prompted, “Such as the treatment of ponies?” I shrugged, “Yeah. Sort of. She demanded that love be harvested. We had only one way of doing that and securing the captured lands: podding ponies.” “Did you try alternative methods?” Vigilance asked. I once again ran a hoof over the cracked wood, “Sort of. There were no other known methods to gather love. After reforming the entire structure of the changeling Swarm, a specific Legion was created to handle the podding of ponies. In the months before the invasion, I had them try to find other methods. I was too busy to look for alternatives myself. There was so much to do, and only so few hours in the day.” “What else was Chrysalis involved?” I slowly sighed, trying hard to remember, “Not much. She was to fight Celestia, we were to pod the ponies. Beyond that, I was expected to do all the heavy lifting and planning. Oh, she did give me a deadline for the invasion: the summer solstice. Which gave me only a hooffull of months to get everything planned and moving.” “Did you have other duties?” Coxa asked. “Not really. Aside from completely reorganizing the changeling military all by myself, that is. There really wasn’t much of a structure before I came into power; there was no need for any forward thinking with the Swarm, for there was never any need to fight in formations or anything like that. There was only some organized clearing of the Underhive tunnels closest to the Hive generations back.” “Were you still isolated from other changelings?” Cadance asked next. “No, of course not,” I shook my head. “I had my small group of friends from the Infiltrator class, and now I was building an entirely new leadership for the Swarm. Not friends, but… acquaintances. I met with the common drones, spoke with them, learned about them, and led them.” “How did you lead them?” Vigilance asked me. “How did you treat them? What did you speak with them about?” I shrugged, “Like… people? Chrysalis taught me to be an aloof tyrant, to enforce my will through strength and a caustic sense of nobility. In public, I, of course, retained an element of this. But behind closed doors, I spoke with the changelings and talked with them heart to heart. They spoke, and I listened. I picked my generals for the skills and strengths, not because they brown-nosed. I heard the plights of the drones, and planned to fix it all.” “Is this when you broke faith with Chrysalis?” Cadance wondered. “It is,” I confirmed, shifting in my seat as the former-queen watched with a blank expression from her stand. “I sowed the seeds of revolution at this point. Hiding it all under the cover of reforming the changeling Swarm from bottom to top, I gave the drones a place to talk with each other without fear and hate. From there, their woes all wove the same tale; if I wanted to end the death and fear that gripped out species, then not only would I have to solve the hunger crisis, but I would have to remove the queen at the heart of everything.” Cadance nodded once, “The hunger crisis. Let us address that. What were your goals for the invasion?” “To conquer Equestria, and by extension feed the changeling race forever more,” I answered. “Did you find any alternative?” Vigilance asked. “No,” I said simply. “Chrysalis announced that our entire species would be dead of starvation before the year was out. Before that, even. I saw what was left of our stockpiles; we would have all been dead before the leaves changed colors and fell from their branches. The clock had run out. It was invasion or death, Feast or famine, conquerors or corpses.” “Phasma,” Cadance addressed me. “Did you ever try to convince Chrysalis? Work with her? Get her to seek less absolute terms of control?” “No,” I snapped. “What came after the fall of Equestria no longer mattered. I had no idea what Chrysalis planned, save for one thing: she never intended for me to survive.” “That’s a lie!” Chrysalis growled, features twisting in anger. “Hush,” Cadance admonished her. “Would you care to explain, Phasma?” “There was a… misunderstanding, I guess,” I said slowly, drawing out the pause. “I discovered something horrifying- so terrifying that drove the revolution forward, no matter the cost. If doing everything I could for the drones wasn’t enough motivation, I now had a fate worse than death weighing me down. For during my time in the Fourth Hive, I broke into the most secure location in the entire hive. The Vault, our locked library of all history ever recorded of our species. What was left of it, anyways. The majority of knowledge it held had to do with the Fourth Hive, with very little remaining of the previous hives. I recall finding some records on love extraction, but the methods were far more brutal and lethal than merely podding ponies, so that was ultimately a bust. “The records also spoke of other changeling royals before me. Siblings, aunts and uncles, and so on. Each and every one of them was dead– that was obvious by the fact that Chrysalis and I were the only living royals around. But many fates of these changeling royals simply listed… ‘reprocessing,’ I believe it was. It would take another infiltration of the Vault to uncover just what horrors lay behind such an ominous word.” Vigilance leaned forward in her seat, “Go on. What did you find?” Slowly, I turned to face Chrysalis as I told the next part of the story. Her anger from before had fled and for the first time ever, I saw a different emotion playing across her eyes. ‘Shame? Regret? Sadness? Too little too late, Mother Dearest.’ “I found where my egg was created. I found the fates of my siblings who had passed away centuries before. I found Chrysalis’s laboratory, where she conducted her fleshmancy experiments and rituals. Science melded with arcane arts were turned towards unhatched eggs, and… my siblings. A few had not passed away at all, but yet lived. Left on the cusp of death, their broken, shattered, and disfigured bodies had been stuffed into vats and their skulls cracked open. She… Chrysalis lobotomized them. Sections of their brains were excised, others overgrown. She cultivated them like crops, manipulating their minds to create a Weave for the Fourth Hive– which the changelings all used to retrieve and store information. None of us knew the cost of our collective library. None of us knew of the Princes and Princesses of the Hive Eternal, trapped within their bodies, unable to scream, cry, move, or even blink. Pluck from the release of death and damned eternally… And, revealed at last, was one empty vat. One tank awaiting its occupant. There was only one conclusion I could draw that would leave me prepared for all potential eventualities; either Chrysalis had to die, or I had to before she could turn against me.” The throne room descended into a cacophony of ponies reacting to the horrible news. However, all of my attention was on the former queen sitting before me. She was slowly shaking her head from side to side, not bothering to hide her sorrow. “It was not meant for you,” she told me silently over the Weave. “How could I see it any other way?” I shot back. Chrysalis looked down at the floor beneath her hooves. “... You couldn’t. You made a wise assumption. A very wise one.” “... You made the exact same assumption, didn’t you?” I wondered aloud after Cadance had gotten the courtroom under control. Heads turned my way, confusion mingling with horror and anger in the emotional melting pot around us. “I did,” Chrysalis replied, raising her head to meet my stare. “Phasma, you are on the witness stand,” Cadance said. “Not Chrysalis. We are asking you questions here, you may ask Chrysalis any questions you have at a later time.” I ignored her, “What happened, Chrysalis?” Chrysalis sat up straight, “Queen Spheradae, my mother, had gone mad. My siblings had been Ascended before I was hatched, and I found them just as you had. I found one vat left empty and I made the same connection you did. So I killed her, just as you tried to kill me.” “You didn’t destroy that lab? You didn’t free your siblings?!” I hissed angrily. “I didn’t know!” She yelled, stamping a hoof down. “How could I?! Nothing could repair the damage! Not even necromancy brought any changes! They were husks to the world, so I used them the only way I could!” “Chrysalis! Phasma!” Cadance growled. “Enough! There is obviously much you two need to discuss, but this is neither the time nor place. As pertinent as this information is, there are rules and regulations to this tribunal.” “Coulda fooled me,” my equine ears picked up Celestia muttering. “Chrysalis,” Cadance turned to the accused. “If you wish to plead your case directly, you can take the stand yourself. Do you wish to do that?” The green royal bared her teeth in a snarl, “... No! I… I want to cross examine the witness.” Cadance turned back to her fellow judges, who silently considered the motion. “Seems as good of a point as any to switch,” Coxa said. “Agreed,” Vigilance grunted. Cadance sighed and faced Chrysalis, “Very well. You may ask Phasma questions directly.” The former tyrant approached me from her podium in the center of the court. Whereas before she stalked, prowled, or otherwise approached with planning and malicious intent, Chrysalis was now subdued. Calm, even. “Phasma,” she began, “let’s talk about the need for the invasion. We’ve heard from so many ponies about what happened, but why did it happen?” “We were starving,” I said, ear flicking in annoyance at answering the repeated requisition. “Did you, as Prince of the Fourth Hive, see or feel the effects of starvation yourself?” I scoffed, “Of course! I may have been given a generous diet of pure love to begin with, but I distinctly recall you cutting off the tap while I was still a nymph. I was put on a rationing system– albeit a more generous one than the drones endured. And, of course, I saw everyone else starving, too.” Chrysalis motioned for me to continue, “You are the first changeling to speak to this… court. Tell everyling here what it was like. What did you see specifically?” I frowned, “... It’s hard to summarize it. Far more often than not, it was an unsaid pressure. The hunger wasn’t like someone in front of you, talking to you, pushing you around, hurting you. It was like an observer– or a weight on your shoulders. It tainted everything in the Hive. Everyling focused on their duties foremost. Everyling was just that much quicker to anger and mistrust. Everyling lived in austere living conditions that to this day shape the way they see the world. No one had… possessions. Not many of them, at least. No beds, no books, no games, no art, no treats or snacks or anything else food-related, no…” I shook my head, “It would be quicker to list what we did have. The Greencave, that being the place where all things organic were grown or farmed within the Fourth Hive, supplied what little it could. Namely various mosses, lichens, mushrooms, and other vegetation used to dilute the food rations and help cover up the negative effects of starvation. If a ling was clever, he or she could trade for some things. A tool here, some shroombeer there, a small statute or simple jewelry for themselves or someling they wanted to woo. But for the most part, there was duty and not much else.” “If no one had any possessions, why didn’t they make them?” Chrysalis asked. “Why weren’t there any wood carvers, tailors, farmers, blacksmiths, and so on?” Scoffing, I answered, “There were few craftslings because we couldn’t spare them. Or we just outright lacked the resources. Most lings were duty related to some essential function of keeping us all alive. And we didn’t have many farmers because there was no point. Changelings can eat food but we need love to survive.” Chrysalis nodded, pacing slowly, “And the only way to get it was from ponies?” “We could get it from any sapient species. The ponies were the closest and most numerous.” “How did the changelings gather love? That is, before the invasion.” I crossed my forelegs, “Infiltrators. Rarely, a pony was… foalnapped. Taken from their life and secreted away to the Hive. Dead to the world and used for food for the rest of their life, that was the only consistent and constant source of food. Otherwise, the Infiltrators harvested love themselves.” “And how did they do that?” I suppressed a groan. It was annoying explaining these things to the person who had taught me all about them. It was like I was enduring one of her horrid tests all over again. “... They infiltrated. Hence the name.” “Can you briefly describe the process? Make sure everypony here knows just what an Infiltrator is, what they do, and why?” “The ‘why’ I already answered,” I said, gritting my teeth. “They had to gather love for the Hive. Without it, we would starve. As for how, they would travel from town to town, city to city, sticking to the peripheries and disguising themselves as ponies. Sometimes they would have to foalnap someone, put them in a pod, and live out their life for a brief time. The pony would not remember their absence, and the Infiltrator would harvest love from their family during their time with them.” “Why didn’t the Infiltrators do this instead of foalnapping ponies?” Chrysalis asked, looking out over the gathered crowd watching us. “It’s slower,” I explained. “An Infiltrator gathering love is limited by the time it takes to learn of their target and/or about the ponies around them, the time it takes to slowly siphon love while masquerading as a pony, the time it takes to carefully leave the area without raising suspicions, and the time it takes to get that love all the way back to the Hive. Podded ponies supply love as quickly as the pony takes to recover from the last feeding. And before you ask, yes, that is much quicker.” “How many changelings were Infiltrators?” I scowled even more, “I don’t know. To this day, I still don’t know. The Fourth Hive struggled when it came to anything resembling organization, census information, and anything else that keeps track of the people that make up our race. The Infiltrators were shrouded in secrecy. Only you and the leader of the Infiltrators, the Intelligencer, know any real details about their number or organization.” Chrysalis swept a hoof across the room, “And this Invasion of Equestria was going to change the entire starvation crisis?” “We would have more podded ponies than we knew what to do with, yes,” I said slowly. She smiled, “You’ve talked, both in public and in private, about my rule. What I’ve done, what I haven’t done, what I should’ve done. So, Phasma, I leave the question to you; if you were in complete control of the Fourth Hive, how would you have solved the imminent starvation of our species?” I blinked in surprise, tilting my head slightly to the side. “I… uh… I would have deployed more Infiltrators to begin with.” “Yes, these Infiltrators which you know so little about,” Chrysalis snickered. “Tell me, how long does it take to train a single Infiltrator?” “Decades–” “Did we have decades?” Chrysalis cut me off. “You certainly did,” I snapped back. “We’ve been starving for generations! You could have employed as many Infiltrators as you wanted!” Chrysalis smiled even wider, “Do you know that for certain?” “What?” She stepped towards me, “What limits the amount of Infiltrators the Hive has?” “I don’t know,” I grunted. “You never told me. As far as I can tell, we’ve kept the number of Infiltrators limited to keep our species a secret. The Masquerade Protocol. It’s the most sacred and long-lived rule any civilization of Equus– or my homeworld– has ever followed. Ever.” “Why was staying a secret so important?” Chrysalis pressed. “Because we didn’t have the ability to defend ourselves. Not against any real kingdom. We only defeated Equestria due to speed and an overwhelming element of surprise! Mostly the surprise part. If we were exposed, even a single duchy within Equestria could have stomped us out!” “But you would have risked breaking this Masquerade Protocol?” I nodded, “If it was that or starvation, yes.” “Did you approve of the Invasion of Equestria at all?” I shrugged, “I guess? As a last resort, it was our species’ best hope for survival.” “As you said, that was predicated on the element of surprise. If more Infiltrators could have been deployed, and one of these rookies exposed the Hive, what would happen then?” “It would have been over for us,” I admitted. “No element of surprise means no invasion.” “Do you still support sending out more Infiltrators?” She asked. I nodded slowly, “The risk would still be better than the risk we faced with the Invasion. The only reason why our species still exists is because the ponies are willing to understand and forgive us, and because they are not desperate enough to crush any threat with lethal force.” “Would you have changed anything about the invasion itself?” Shaking my head, I told the court, “No. I planned it myself. We had to go all in, and we had no better way of dealing with ponies captured. We couldn’t just take a town or two– anything less than ending Equestria would mean the kingdom would simply turn its attention to us and end the Fourth Hive.” The green royal turned to face the three judges, “So you are weighing two great risks against each other. Would you say it’s a matter of opinion on which risk was greater?” “I suppose so, yes. I would still go with more Infiltrators.” Chrysalis spun on her hooves, walking right up to me. The Red Right Hoof soldiers interposed themselves, standing between me and the much taller-than-them former-queen. “What if there was something else limiting the creation of Infiltrators?” She asked. “Something you don’t know about?” ‘What are you playing at?’ “How am I supposed to answer that question?” I asked. Chrysalis leaned forward, “What if there was only a finite number of Infiltrators that could be properly trained? What if we had been sending out the max number for centuries? Would you have sent out regular changeling drones?” “No,” I said immediately. “We would be exposed within weeks. Days, even. I would have gone with the invasion.” “... What if I said that each Infiltrator has to be molded by hoof? What if each one required the presence of several Weaves to impart in years the knowledge and skills of generations that would normally require decades– maybe even centuries to learn?” Before I could answer, Cadance jumped in, “Chrysalis, that is speculation. If you wish to prove that point, you will have to provide evidence, material or witness.” ‘Is… is that the true purpose of the Fourth Hive’s synthetic Weave? It was meant to brain-wash drones with the skills required to be a perfect spy, and storing other information was just secondary? If so, why didn’t I know about it or notice what was taking up the majority of the Weave? Why didn’t anyone but Chrysalis and the Infiltrators?’ As much as I hated it, the magical thingy that had been a part of my soul and mind since the day I had hatched was something I knew little about. Weaves were… strange. Alien. Mysterious. Creepy. The reading material I found on them during my time in the Vault was… sparse. I was looking for other things at the time, anyway. I didn’t like thinking about what I didn’t know about my own mind. It sent shivers up and down my spine. But Chrysalis did know a lot about Weaves. And she asked her next question, “Then hypothetically, Phasma, if you couldn’t make any more Infiltrators, would you have done anything differently than what I did?” I quickly jerked my head towards Luna, “I was making a deal with Nightmare Moon, it would have spared us from whatever nightmare the ponies would go through under our total occupation. I would have worked with the ponies as much as I could!” “Did that alliance work out?” Chrysalis said, still smiling. “.... No,” I answered quietly. “And was that option available to me?” “No, Nightmare Moon only approached me.” Chrysalis slowly turned and headed towards her little podium, “Then I ask again; if you could not make any more Infiltrators, and only had the options I had at the time, would you have done anything differently regarding the starvation crisis?” “.... No,” I said, unsure of my answer. “Aside from what happened after we had won the invasion, that is.” “Do you even know what my plans were for that?” Chrysalis chuckled, sitting down. “I thought I did.” Chrysalis ignored me and addressed the panel of judges, “I have no more questions at this time. Instead, I would like to call up my next witness!” “We’re not done asking Phasma questions,” Coxa shook his head. “Besides, it is not your turn to call up a witness.” “You should have also requested witnesses in advance,” Cadance sighed, shaking her head. “But we will continue to humor your request. When it is your turn to call a witness, who will you be calling?” “Intelligencer Ocelli!” Chrysalis declared proudfully. Then she faltered, “No, wait. She’s dead. Ah! I know! That Infiltrator who was so close to Phasma. The one who tried to convince us not to invade a second time. What was her name….?” Coxa sighed, “You mean Cricket?” “That’s the one!” Chrysalis cheered, banging her stand. “I call up Cricket!” Cadance looked to me, and then to Coxa. Coxa answered for me, “She’s up in Nisir. It will take some time to retrieve her.” Cadance nodded once, “Perfect. Send the order once we convene for the day. Cricket can testify before the tribunal when she arrives in Canterlot in a few days. I trust there is no issue with that?” She asked, looking over to me. I shook my head, still mulling over what Chrysalis was trying to state as fact. ‘If there was no way to get more Infiltrators, then I would still go with the invasion. I’d have to. Everything or nothing, that was the plan. And given how hostile Earth can be, fearing the risks we feared wasn’t just… rampant paranoia, there was a genuine risk of us dying out. Or becoming slaves. Or… who knows.’ “Good,” Cadance said, interrupting my thoughts. “In that case… I believe we should convene for the day. In favor?” The other two judges voiced their agreement, and Cadance continued, “Then we will convene tomorrow to continue the questioning of the current witness, King Phasmatodea.” Tracing the broken shards of wood of my podium one more time, I sighed inwardly. I expected to be furious by now. Not listless and lost. 'But that still means she’s a cruel, callous monster who ruled with an iron hoof.’