//------------------------------// // Meanwhile, Back on Earth ... // Story: I Am Twilight Sparkle // by Mike the Red //------------------------------// Brenda, Xaviera and her two kids went back in the house to clean themselves up. I didn't know this, but It turned out that we had been gone for nearly three weeks. Amazingly enough, no one had entered the house, even though the mailbox was stuffed to overflowing and a couple issues of the local weekly newspaper were laying at the door. The car was still in the driveway as well, though it would be just a matter of a week or so before it was to be repossessed. There didn't appear to be any traces of the green slimy residue inside the house. After they got cleaned up and put on fresh clothes, Brenda went into the basement to see the chunk of gold still on the floor. Once again she took the small saw to cut off several pieces of gold, this time to pay off the car and a large amount against the home mortgage. For good measure, she made sure to take about twenty pounds of gold with her this time to ensure she'd have enough money to pay off all the bills. She called her oldest daughter Katrina to drive her around again and took Xaviera and her kids with her, just to be on the safe side. ------------------------------- Chrysalis and her army commanders finalized their strategy, intending to start with the most populous countries first, but when they found that the richer countries offered a higher quality food source, they had changed their plans. Being able to assume human form, the changelings made swift progress in attaining their goal, the Queen highly amused by their efficiency and the pathetic resistance mustered by those humans who recognized the peril they were in only when it was too late. The changeling army was able to infiltrate military installations with ridiculous ease, taking full control of the entire spectrum of American military operations. This would serve the changelings with the ultimate array of bases from which to conquer the entire planet. Using the information at their disposal, it was just a small matter of invading the national capital and replacing every governmental official, every senator and representative, as well as the President himself. Once they had succeeded in this endeavor, Chrysalis assumed the role of President. Confident they would not receive any further meaningful resistance, the changelings then dropped their disguises, revealing their true terror. Chrysalis gave a speech on national TV, initially disguised as the President. About half a minute into the speech, the Queen revealed her true form. Panic ensued in the media room as this occurred, causing her to cackle in glee. "Ladies, Gentlemen, Citizens of Earth! I am your new master now! My army and I have taken complete control of all your military bases, which now belong to US! You will all become our slaves and your life force is that which will sustain us FOREVER!! Do not even think of trying to stop us! We can take on ANY appearance!" she exclaimed gleefully. To illustrate her point, she adopted several different disguises before returning to her standard appearance as the Queen. "Our objective is not to kill you -- that would be counterproductive -- what we intend to do with you is slowly drain you of your love, but not so swiftly as to cause you to die. You will all come to accept this fate, just as surely as Celestia raises the Sun in the morning and lowers it in the evening. Considering the way you humans reproduce with such speed and efficiency, you will sustain us easily for at least the next five centuries!" At this point, the entire media room was empty, save for a few changeling army commanders who served as an attache to the Queen. The cameras kept running until the power source was cut off. The Queen trotted to the Oval Office, resuming her disguise as the President. The First Lady was still unaware that her husband had been removed and replaced, but was about to find that out the hard way, as were her children. The changelings had no qualms about hurting anyone or assimilating them into their hive, regardless of who they were or how old or young they were or how important they happened to be. -------------------------- Brenda was thrilled to receive nearly a hundred thousand dollars for all the gold she took and sold, giving Katrina a good ten thousand of it. She went around to the various places we owed money to and paid off all our outstanding debts. There was enough money left over for her to go to a car dealership and buy a crew cab truck, something she had been longing for, even though she had no license. I had been the one to drive her around wherever she had needed to go, but I was still in Ponyville at the moment, recovering from injuries I had sustained while in the changeling hive. I would have liked to have seen the faces of the bank officials when Brenda paid off the mortgage in full! Even though Brenda, Xaviera, Samantha and Tanisha had been rescued from the clutches of the changelings, they were in danger, though they didn't know this at the time. The Queen had been busy with her plans of conquest, but remembered a certain pony and four others associated with the pony who disappeared from her hive. She had plans to retrieve them and re-assimilate them into the hive, not to mention teach them a lesson not to mess with her. She found that having her army soldiers disguise themselves as authority figures proved to be wonderfully efficient, which is how she managed to track down my wife and her kids. Though I didn't know it at the time, they ended up being captured again. Brenda pleaded with them to let her go, offering them fifty pounds of gold if they released her and her kids. Their captors simply laughed at her.