Over the next year, Thysania slowly sabotaged her queen’s plans from the inside. She couldn’t do much about the other squadrons – not yet, at least – but after taking command of her own, she waited for the next incursion to be ordered and found her drones sent to Ponyville.
About a third of the way there, she convinced her drones to take a break for the night in a nearby cave, claiming they would need their strength later on. It wasn’t a lie, technically, but they didn’t need their strength for the kind of aggressive tactics Queen Chrysalis had ordered them to use.
When all but a few drones were asleep, Thysania afforded herself the same luxury and dozed off. As expected, the moment she began dreaming she found Princess Luna sitting next to her.
“My friend, I see you are headed towards Ponyville,” the princess remarked. Thysania nodded slowly and took a moment to confirm that Luna wasn’t really there. Something about the cave wall behind her was off. In fact, Thysania and Luna were the only entities there that weren’t all blurry and indistinct. It was obviously a dream world’s imitation of the cave.
“We were sent for another incursion, my dear,” Thysania answered. “I hope to make my little changelings ignore their orders and, if we are to safely reach Ponyville, to do our things the way we used to.”
Luna giggled softly behind her hoof. “You sound more like a pony princess every year, friend,” she remarked.
“And why is that?”
“You said ‘my little changelings’. You already fit the role you’ll hopefully assume,” Luna explained. “But tell me, for the record, what is ‘the way you used to’?”
Thysania was silent for a short while as she considered how to best explain what she meant.
“Be stealthy.”
Luna nodded. “Yes?”
“Be efficient.”
“Of course,” the princess acknowledged.
“Have a plan to extract at least some love from anypony you meet.”
Luna blinked. “Any pony?”
“Any. Even you, my dear Luna. You’re not even really here in this cave with me, and yet I’ve been slowly feeding on our friendship every time we’ve met, for the last two and a half years. I thought it’d be prudent to practice the old way myself. You probably didn’t even notice I was doing so, and we’ve only met in our dreams.”
Luna giggled again, without the hoof, as she realized Thysania wasn’t joking. “I guess you won’t need any more practice than that.”
“More importantly, would you accept it if my squad and I acted this way in Ponyville?” the changeling captain asked. “You must understand, all this subterfuge will be for naught if we return to the hive empty-hooved.”
“Hmm… I suppose, if you can guarantee that no harm will come to the citizens of Ponyville, I could allow it,” Luna said in acceptance. “Of course, as their captain, I will hold you personally responsible if anypony gets hurt by the actions of the changelings under your command.”
“Of course you will. And as their captain, I accept that.”
Princess Luna turned away from her changeling friend.
“You realize, of course, that there are certain perks in store for you, should you succeed and take the throne from Chrysalis,” the moon princess said. Thysania perked her ears. “Have you noticed anything special about the queen?”
“I think so,” the captain pondered out loud as she thought of Chrysalis. With a little focus, a ghostly apparition appeared, looking just like the queen.
“She looks just like she did forty years ago,” Luna confirmed. The fake Chrysalis had some scratches on her body and a more tired and angry look in her eyes, but was otherwise virtually indistinguishable from the one who had invaded Canterlot.
“That’s what I thought you’d say,” Thysania said as she swatted the ghost in the face, causing the whole to dissolve into subconscious nothingness. She had to fly for reach, as Chrysalis was easily twice her own size and even towered above Luna. “Would those be the perks, my dear Luna? Long life, long legs?”
Luna nodded.
“I suppose such things would be nice, for a leader.”
“They are,” Luna nodded again. “I speak from personal experience.”
“Very well, then. Good night, my friend.”
Luna smiled and faded away. The next morning, Thysania woke up to find most of the taskforce already busy breaking up camp. Thysania pondered how to best break the change of plans to her changelings as she surveyed them working.
“My changelings, your attention please.”
One by one, groups of changelings stopped what they were doing and stood there, holding whatever they were carrying at the moment and waiting for their captain to speak.
“You are all familiar with our mission…”
The changelings nodded. Some of them audibly confirmed.
“Are you also familiar with how our people used to work?” Thysania asked, hoping for positive response. After a few tense moments, roughly half the taskforce indicated that they were. Their captain gave a small smile at the news.
“That’s very good. Those who know, pair up with a changeling who does not. While we continue on to our target, Ponyville, you will teach your partner of these old ways.”
One changeling in the front stuck a foreleg in the air. “Permission to speak freely, captain?”
“Granted, lieutenant. What is it?”
“Why should we know the old ways? They hardly seem relevant to an incursion.”
“Because, my dear lieutenant, this will not be an incursion. There’s been a change of plans. I intend to prove that the old ways are still a perfectly viable option. But they can only be if everyling keeps to the plan.”
There was an awful murmur among the changeling crowd. Their captain had basically told them all to betray their queen, just because the captain had something to prove. And to who, even? But then again, with all the failed incursions they’d been through – some of them ever since they first reached maturity and were drafted. Thysania cast her gaze across her changelings as they argued the new plan.
“So… stay out of sight and bask in the runoff?” the lieutenant asked, implying an overall acceptance of the plan. He was one of the changelings who claimed to know the old ways, but he wasn’t entirely certain anymore.
“Basically,” captain Thysania confirmed. “But since there’s so many of us, and we’ll arrive well before nightfall, we’ll instead all take pony form and pretend to be a group of travelers on our way through. And when I say pony form I mean somepony original.”
The lieutenant nodded in acceptance. Feeling a burst of inspiration take the place of his guilt at seriously considering betrayal, he changed into what he thought would be an adequately original pony.
“No lieutenant, an alicorn will not do,” Thysania sighed. “Especially not a red and black one. We’re supposed to not draw too much attention, after all. Now then, my changelings… transform and rise up!”
The amount of green flashes in the room would’ve been large enough to see at the mouth of the cave.