“You’re going to have to speak to a psychiatrist, Phasma. This isn’t up for debate.”
I threw my hooves up, “Who told Division-P which button to press against me, hmm? That wasn’t exactly common knowledge!”
Cadance shook her head, “Nopony knows. It may have been just a coincidence–”
“I have every reason to assume otherwise,” I interrupted.
Cadance walked forward, approaching me slowly. She reached out and placed a hoof on my knee.
“Look, Phasma, Luna has brought me up to date on your fears. If your current pony isn’t working out, I’m sure Celestia and I can find a new one: a pony who is thoroughly vetted and couldn’t have spilled your secrets. How does that sound?”
I crossed my forelegs, “... I guess, sure.”
Her hoof dropped to the floor as a smile raised the corners of her mouth.
“I’m keeping her though,” Celestia said quietly. “You may not trust her, but I do.”
“Next time you are feeling this way,” Cadance redirected the conversation, “please bring your grievances to me. Are you okay with doing that?”
“Yeah, yeah. Sure, Cadance, I’ll do that.”
“We’re here for you,” she continued. “I want you to feel comfortable with opening up to me–”
“I get it, I get it!” I waved her off, chuckling. “Sheesh! Get any more mushy on me and I’d mistake you for mashed potatoes.”
“Same goes for you,” Cadance said, elbowing Luna. “If you need to voice any concerns about your therapy, I’m sure I can help iron out the kinks.”
“My therapy is going along very well,” Luna said curtly.
‘Yet you still follow me around like your moon follows Equus.’
Instead of making my snide remark, I reached out and took Luna’s hoof. She smiled at the gesture, offering me a burst of love.
“Indeed,” she continued, “I believe that I am making progress. It is… not easy to talk about what happened– or rather, what did not happen, but it is a comfortable place to vent.”
“What about you, auntie Celestia?” Cadance asked. “Since I am checking up on these two, might as well see how you are doing.”
Celestia smiled, but being an empath I could taste her hatred and grief, “It is going well. Thank you, Cadance.”
“Celestia…” I warned her.
She looked at me, confused. Then, she frowned, shook her head, and took a sip from her drink.
“It is… going. I do not know if I am able to say more.”
Cadance gave Celestia a reassuring hug, “That’s all that we can ask for, auntie. But I’m sure you’ve had this exact conversation many times.”
“I can’t remember,” Celestia shrugged. “It’s been a very, very long time since anything this catastrophic happened.”
“One might say it was a thousand years ago,” Luna said quietly.
As I gave her hoof another squeeze, reminding her of my presence, Celestia put on another smile, “It was longer than–”
“Don’t,” I ordered her.
“What do you want me to say?” Celestia asked, smile vanishing. “That it wasn’t easy? How can I say that compared to what my sister went through?”
“You can start by not comparing wounds,” Cadance said, chin on Celestia’s shoulder. “It does nopony any favors. We all hurt in our own ways, and the depth of other wounds does not make our own vanish.”
Celestia glanced at me, “... It is not easy. I close my eyes, and I see the friends I have lost. I wish I was stronger. I wish I had stopped their deaths from happening. I wish I had stopped the attack on Phasma’s life from happening. I wish I never failed my sister. I have enough wishes to strike each and every star from the sky– but none of them matter. The reality is that I have failed time and time again. But you are right, Cadance. It does me no good to wallow in pain and ignore myself. I… We are all broken ponies. Each of us commands the lives of more souls than we could count, yet we are more hopelessly flawed than any of them.”
“We have each other,” Luna told her sister. “None of us are alone. Not any more, and never again. This time is different, for this time we each have help.”
Celestia smiled, and this time there was no deception.
The Fifth Hive was in a perpetual state of construction.
This was a simple reflection of our new status and rise through Equestrian circles, and was just as thematically present in my throne room. Deep within the Crystal Caves, in our Fifth Hive’s new Hive, the nexus of my empire was being quite literally carved into the stone.
Today, the Fifth Hive received its newest batch of decorations, and my station became even more cemented in. Two dozen banners had arrived, each hoof-tailored, dyed, embroidered, inspected, and approved to my liking. Eight of them hung from the newly-carved rafters of my throne room, draping down a third of the way to the floor, four on each side and equally spaced. There was one more pair outside the doors to my throne room, and the final two hung on either side of the Fifth Hive’s surface entrance in Canterlot’s outer district. The new standards of the Fifth Hive declared ownership of the Crystal Caves for any and all to see, proudly displaying my personal heraldry of a simplistic orange phoenix firebird on a vertically-split field of blue and green.
Adopting the phoenix as my heraldry was a no-brainer, and casting it in my color was equally the correct choice. As for the colors green and blue, it served both as a reminder of the world I left behind– and eventually the new one I found myself on, once ponies and changelings got to see its majesty from orbit– in addition to representing the green magic and blue eyes of the changeling species. It represented them just as much as it represented me.
And now, I sat upon my crystal throne, wearing my green Adamantium crown with its pristine orange jewel, looking out over the fire-lit and enchanted-gem-lit throne room. The Red Right Hoof stood at attention on either side of me, spaced throughout the room and the chambers beyond to safeguard us all.
‘I’ve come a long way from being crowned in a bar in Hooferville.’
There were a lot of Red Right Hoof guards today. The throne room had almost as much security as the Equestrians’ palace did during the trial. While this was certainly going to be noticed by the changelings of today’s topic, it was security I was not going to forgo. The majority of the First Fang and the Fifth Hive’s leadership was present tonight to bear witness to the Infiltrators swearing their loyalty, and above all else, giving a goddess damned explanation for who and what they were.
By my side, Luna sat on an equally-high throne. She was as inseparable as she has ever been since the assassination attempt, albeit this time she had genuine cause to be present. While this was nominally a Fifth Hive business that was about to be conducted, Luna was invited to bear witness and voice her opinion– and that of Equestria’s. The only other pony present, Bray Call, was at my other side, helping me with any and all documents I needed to go over.
Beyond us was the First Fang, that being just Coxa and Lacewing. Thorax was gone, still, and Pharynx’s position was honored by a second empty chair. He was still far from a real member of the First Fang, though.
Finally, lining the back of the throne room was the rest of the Fifth Hive’s leadership. Everyling notable from the Swarm and the Fifth Hive’s leadership positions was present tonight: Captain Katydid, General Labrum, Froghopper, Thalamus, Thrips, representatives from each of the Lodges, a drone representing Thorax–which was a surprise, especially considering I don’t recall ever meeting the drone, and a few other drones from Lacewing’s and Coxa’s cabinets.
The doors to the throne room were pushed open. A small procession of drones filed in three abreast, walking out of march step despite their little formation. At the head of the column was the drone chosen by them to speak for all the drones filing in.
Cricket eyed the banners as she passed them. Undoubtedly, she was drinking in all the new details that had come into being since her exile. While some details had unfortunate connotations, such as the massive amount of security present while I greeted my supposedly-loyal Infiltrators, or the fact that the higher dias of the Fifth Hive consisted of me surrounded by ponies and noling else, I had to let go of the finer details. Business and practicality came first.
Cricket and the Infiltrators came to a stop before us. The drones fanned out behind Cricket, forming a semi-circle behind her. Cricket bowed and the rest followed suit, their noses touching the cold stone floor. In total, something like a hundred Infiltrators were here and bowing. There were at least four hundred more that Lace kept track of.
We couldn’t recall everyone, as we still needed them to safely gather love for the Hive, so this ceremony would have to be repeated a few times.
“Your Majesty,” Cricket greeted. “I am here as requested, as are many of the Infiltrators of the Hive Eternal.”
“Cricket,” I nodded to her, “Rise. All of you, rise. Do you speak with the authority of the Infiltrators?”
She and her ilk rose from their bows, “That is for you to decide, My King.”
“Is it?” I questioned. “Last I checked, noling outside of Chrysalis herself really understands your order. I will ask again, and you will provide some clarity with your answer; do you represent the Infiltrators?”
Cricket hesitated, “... I have been voted in to represent us all. What few could vote, at least. With your permission, I can speak for the rest.”
‘So, our efforts to keep the Infiltrators separated and too busy to coordinate any sort of cohesive action was a success. I’ll have to thank Lace later for organizing that.’
“You know why you are all here,” I said. “The Fifth Hive needs to know that we can trust you. All of you Infiltrators. You have proven yourselves to be the illusive spies that the Hive Eternal has needed to survive, but with the founding of the Fifth, your allegiances must be made crystal clear.”
“We are loyal to the Hive Eternal,” Cricket said, pressing a hoof to her chest. “As Pontiff, you are the leader of the Hive Eternal. We are loyal to you.”
“When the Fourth Hive still existed, who was to say that Chrysalis was the pontiff?” I questioned.
Lace pawed at the ground, “... Our conditioning prevents us from having a say in that. We just… we follow the royal we have been exposed to the most.”
“So you follow the royal you’ve been around the most, not the Pontiff.” I raised an eyebrow. “Why lie to us?”
“We’re supposed to follow the Pontiff,” Cricket said, ducking her head, “but in reality… it seems that being around you eroded Chrysalis’s hold on us enough for us to have a choice.”
I tapped the arm of my throne in thought, “... That would mean creating offspring as a royal comes with a lot of risks to the stability of the realm.”
“We are always loyal to the Hive Eternal,” she added. “Starting a civil war would destabilize the Hive Eternal, therefore we cannot influence anyling to start an insurrection. In fact, we’re trained to stamp out insurrection. You were unique, as the Fifth Hive was physically separated from the Fourth Hive. If you were still within the old spires, we would have to sit out on the sidelines– or actively fight against you.”
“Explain to the court what you told me. Tell us how Infiltrators are made, Cricket.”
She cleared her throat, “In addition to all the field work, classroom training, and practice we get, Infiltrators are subjected to intensive conditioning from the Weave. The… synthetic Weave of the Fourth Hive was used to instill skills and knowledge that would normally take decades to learn. An Infiltrator absorbed this knowledge in a month, followed by further conditioning at the two week, one month, three months, five months, seven m–”
“I think we get the idea,” I put up a hoof to stop her. “So now that the Fourth’s Weave was… put to rest, there can be no more new Infiltrators?”
Several of the Infiltrators shared worried glances.
“... The skills are within your Weave, all is not lost,” Cricket said slowly. “The process of accessing those skills and core memories is… slower. Much slower. But it is possible.”
I rubbed my eyes, “And I suppose no one here has any idea how to do that?”
Coxa chuckled, “I’m certain that only Chrysalis knows how to do that.”
An idea occurred to me, “Coxa, arrange to have the Vault’s contents moved over here to the Crystal Caves. Set it up as a library, save for the rare and precious volumes. We’ll have to set up a system for keeping close track of those.”
“It’s all rare and precious tomes,” Lacewing said. “It’s not like Chrysalis kept a library of mass-printed books, it’s almost all one-of-a-kind volumes written by her or changeling aides.”
“Then start copying them,” I ordered them. “This is all besides the point. We know next to nothing about making Infiltrators. We’ll have to get that information from Chrysalis… Cricket, from what you’ve explained, your loyalties should be split. How can I know that all of you are willing to swear fealty to me? To the Fifth?”
“The Fourth is no more,” she shrugged. “It’s rather simple. The Great Weaver intervened directly. Your victory was ordained by the Nine Halls, noling will ever side against you. Not unless you start doing a lot of stupid things really quickly, and even then I think changelings would only lock you up.”
“Mother Dearest had plenty of hardcore supporters,” I countered.
“Had. Past tense. They are… neutralists, if anything. Certainly not waving flags with your face around, but you won’t experience any open rebellion from anyling.”
Coxa leaned towards the gathered Infiltrators, “Which just leaves you lot. Noling outside your order truly understands how you think.”
“... Or within our order,” Cricket said quietly. “I’m sorry, I cannot offer more. We could choose, and we have chosen you, King Phasma. Your path leads the Hive Eternal to the greatest future. This is a fact, not an opinion.”
“Hard to take a perfidious liar at her word,” Lace countered. “We had an Infiltrator on the First Fang. Look how that turned out. A bloody civil war and our friend Oestridae dead.”
Several members of the Order of Oestridae solemnly touched the metal clasp holding their cyan cloaks around their forms.
“Indeed,” Cricket nodded. “And as I have told you all in the past, I am deeply sorry for your loss. We have all lost friends. The welp made his choice, he sided with the old guard. The brands in his mind were still raw and he lacked the wisdom that comes with age and experience.”
“New Infiltrators are fiercely loyal, then?” I asked.
Cricket nodded again, “Loyalty is the first thing that is instilled.”
“This practice smells of fowl sorceries,” Luna remarked. “It would be wise to discontinue that aspect.”
“Do we know if we can even modify the process?” I questioned. “A task for later. Cricket, you withheld all this information from me. How can I know that I have your full loyalty?”
Her gaze fell to the ground as she thought, rising up to meet mine a few moments later, “... I chose you. When the Fourth Hive arrived in Canterlot, they contacted all of us. The council in charge was being influenced by Chrysalis in a myriad of ways. I could have easily sided with her. Instead, I spoke to the Fifth Hive’s defense. I was confronted by Chrysalis directly, and I did not budge.”
“Can we confirm this?” I asked the other changelings present.
“Here,” Bray Call said, levitating over a packet of papers. “Transcript from the interrogation.”
“Thanks, Bray,” I smiled, taking the papers.
“... Page forty-two,” she offered helpfully.
Flipping to the page, I skimmed through and read aloud the words, “... The entire Parliament unanimously voted to continue the war, said Councilor Midge… Then you told them, ‘We've formed a mutually beneficial pact with the ponies. We can end the war peacefully.’” I skimmed through more, but shook my head slowly, “I am seeing no affirmation of loyalty, Cricket. You remained carefully neutral during this deposition.”
“You think that wasn’t enough of a statement?” Cricket asked. “If I was lying about being loyal to you, wouldn’t I have supported the invasion?”
“She also identified with the Fifth Hive,” Luna noted. “She said, ‘we have found a way,’ not they have found a way.”
“They could be playing a long game,” Lace suggested.
“They could be doing exactly what they claimed: staying neutral,” Coxa countered his marefriend. “If leaning towards the winning team…”
“They are too great of an asset to ignore,” Katydid noted. “They are our kinds’ greatest asset outside of the royals themselves.”
“Their value cannot be understated,” Thalamus said, eliciting murmurs of consent from the bureaucrats present.
“... Maybe we should maintain the status quo?” Lace suggested. “Keep them at leg’s length where we can see them clearly?”
I shook my head, “We cannot risk the machinations of a fifth column within our kingdom. Our mettle will be tested again, and soon. We must stand united.”
‘Cricket has been very vocal about supporting me– from the very beginning of the Fifth Hive, in fact. She was, admittedly, one of its architects. But to think that she is of the same ilk as that turncoat bastard… There’s gotta be something, some gotcha that proves once and for all that we can trust them. They are too skillful at being manipulative to take them at their word…’
“What do you think, Luna?” I turned to my better half. “They have been trained to say and do exactly what is needed to maintain their secret identities. By that fact, we cannot trust their word. How would you figure this out?”
General Labrum chuckled, “We could use those loyalty exposures, or whatever.”
Luna shot the General a glare, “I am sure you can guess what equestria's position on mind control is. You are already treading in dangerous waters with the Element Bearers following your ordered assassination attempt of the one you have passed judgment on, Phasma. Do not make things worse.”
“So how would you deal with them?” I pressed.
“Actions speak louder than words,” Luna smiled. “Aside from the former member of the First Fang, have there been any other betrayals?”
“No Lodge invited an Infiltrator into their ranks,” Labrum explained. “As per the King's orders at the time. We didn't give them a chance to betray us.”
Luna dipped her head in acknowledgement, “What about the Infiltrators within the Fifth Hive? Cricket was not the only one, was she not?”
“There were a number of us,” Cricket revealed. “Many of us found it easier to slip away from the war front, rather than make a fighting retreat.”
“And yet, there was no sabotage within the Fifth Hive,” Luna said. “They have shown you nothing but support, if limited and from the sidelines. I say they have proven themselves worthy of trust.”
I sat back in my throne, rubbing my chin, “Hmmm. Let's put accepting the Infiltrators to a vote. Coxa, Lace?”
“Aye,” Coxa said.
“... I abstain,” Lace said.
I looked towards the other changelings, “What says the Swarm? The Lodges? The Order?”
“Aye,” Captain Katydid answered.
“Nay,” General Labrum shook her head. “The Lodges will never trust them fully. We can adapt to survive without them.”
Captain Nicro nodded thoughtfully, “Aye. With her miracles, Panarthropo has already spoken: extend an olive branch to those we considered enemies.”
There was a cascade of whispers and quiet agreements from his comment. With a deep breath in, I took Luna’s words to heart, and with a long exhale, I casted out the doubts.
“... Aye,” I announced. “And with that, the ayes have it. The Infiltrators shall be sworn in to the Fifth Hive and reaffirm their loyalties. But! No longer shall one of their order be their mouthpiece. Henceforth, the Intelligencer, the leader of the Infiltrators, shall be a changeling uninitiated into the Infiltrator ranks. They will be an outside observer, a carefully trusted individual to wield our most deadliest blade.”
“As you command, My King,” Cricket bowed
“Lace, you are already in charge of monitoring the Infiltrators and using them. Will you become the first official Intelligencer of the Fifth Hive?”
“Sure,” Lace said casually.
Slowly rising from my throne, I stepped past the cordon of guards, towards the Infiltrators. Four chaplains moved with me, but I stopped them with a raised hoof. It would be important to be amongst the Infiltrators without a guard- a sign of trust, that when I ask for their oaths, I would consider and accept them fairly.
“Cricket. Do you know the ritual for accepting the oath of an Infiltrator?”
The smaller drone looked up at me and shook her head.
“Not without the brands that enforce loyalty. The knowledge of these rituals are within you, My King. You must use your Weave. The words are there, and are yours to shape, if you but command them.”
I closed my eyes and searched my inner mind. The space inside my head where I first heard the skittering and scratching of a thousand insects, where the words of this world rang like echoes of a grand bell, where I continued to feel the ebb and pull of changelings nearby. I pulled on it as if I was taking part in the First Lesson, over a year ago. It was there. Words, actions, meanings, gestures, and spells all designed for a purpose I could not glean. It was like staring out a window into the rain and seeing a pattern in the droplets coursing down the glass that should not be there. I knitted it all together, cut out the spells, and rewove the ritual.
Then, I opened my eyes.
“Kneel,” I commanded.
The words echoed throughout the chamber in a mimicry of the cry across my Weave. At once, every Infiltrator kneeled. In perfect synchronicity, the Infiltrator’s knees hit the red carpet that led up to my throne. My orange elytra lifted from my back and my large insectoid wings buzzed loudly, lifting me off the floor. Hover just above the ground, I lifted my forelegs and spread them wide, pointing my hoof upwards, as if presenting the world to these changelings.
“Infiltrators of the Hive Eternal: I, King Phasmatodea of the Fifth Hive, Pontiff of the Hive Eternal, by the grace and guidance of The Great Weaver Panarthropo, architect of the Grand Tapestry, command you to listen and obey. By my words, know your Order. By my orders, know your Will. By my will, know your Command. As it is woven, so it shall be.”
“As it is woven, so it shall be!” Each and every one of them echoed.
“You are the spear of the Hive Eternal. You are the scalpel whose precision is boundless. You are the agents of the oldest hierarchy in The Great Tapestry. As your forebearers have served, as your offspring shall, so too will you obey the commands and edicts set forth. As it is woven, so it shall be.”
“As it is woven, so it shall be!”
“I name thee Infiltrators of the Hive Eternal. The Masquerade Protocol is no more, but your subterfuge shall remain undetected. Never shall you reveal yourselves: not for a soul, not for your own. Upon your shoulders, I place the greatest burden: the survival of the Hive Eternal. As it is woven, so it shall be.”
“As it is woven, so it shall be!”
“You will never again terrorize the loyal servants of the Hive Eternal,” I commanded, threading the words into the ancient ritual. “No enemies within shall be your concerns, only enemies without. Your skills will never be turned against fellow changelings. Your reports never upon anyling but each other and those defaced by the Hive Eternal. You are a weapon of the people. As it is woven, so it shall be.”
“As it is woven, so it shall be!”
I lowered myself down to the ground, letting my wings settle on my back but keeping my large elytra splayed to either side. I walked up to Cricket and pressed my right foreleg against her forehead.
“Arise, Infiltrator Cricket, daughter of the Fifth Hive.”
Cricket rose to her hooves, looking up at me with undisguised pride. I turned from her and stepped before the next Infiltrator in line, and commanded them to arise, fetching their name from the Weave. One by one, each and every single Infiltrator was addressed by name and welcomed into the Fifth Hive.
When I had worked through every single changeling drone, I stalked through their ranks, striding through the middle of their formation and turning back towards them once I reached the front.
“Be welcome, brothers and sisters all. Let no doubt be cast on your allegiance, let no hatred set us apart. These words were once secluded in secrecy, held for millennia from the ears of outsiders. Your Order shall hide no longer. As I have spoken, so it shall be.”
I turned my back to the Infiltrators and strode back to my throne, where the rest of my friends, underlings, and hierarchy sat and stood at attention. Taking my seat, I looked out over my royal court, packed full of changelings– and the two ponies at either side of me.
I gave a single nod to Bray Call, who smiled and addressed the room, “All hail King Phasma!”
“All hail King Phasma!” The changelings cheered.