Far to the south, across rivers and ranges, a creature driven mad with thoughts of vengeance waited. Sitting in the palace that had once belonged to the Matriarch of Felinia, Queen Chrysalis stared over the realm she had taken over a year ago.
The place had once been much like Equestria, if a poorer prize. The Felinia who had lived here had had homes, farms, shops and schools. Now the fields and trees sat rotting; its pools and rivers were choked with ash and mud; the hills were blasted and hole-ridden; the piles of spoil thrown up as the Changelings burrowed to make hives sat fire-blasted and poison-stained in great rows like some obscene graveyard; and the buildings sat in ruins, coated with Changeling secretions. The catlike Felinia had been reduced to useless husks floating in their cocoon prisons, all their emotions drained and good only to be cast out and left to rot.
They had to have more. Since time immemorial the Changeling Hives had moved from country to country, nation to nation, absorbing love and emotions. They had stayed hidden as they did it, and for centuries they had been nothing more than the stuff of legends to frighten schoolponies with.
Yet that was no longer possible. Across Equus, patterns had been noticed: ponies, minotaurs or gryphons behaving oddly; villages mysteriously vanishing. Modern technology and magic was quickly making it impossible for the Changelings to move around unnoticed.
That was why she, Chrysalis, 763rd Queen of the Hives, had chosen to attack Equestria. The place was defenceless and had more love than any other nation the Changelings had ever encountered. So much, in fact, that if they had taken it and subdued the ponies, the Changelings could have stayed there for centuries, gorging on love until they were too powerful for the rest of Equus to even contemplate attacking.
With the love she had absorbed from Shining Armor in her disguise as Cadance, she had overpowered Celestia and taken Canterlot. From there, Equestria would have been hers. But she had underestimated the power of Cadance and Shining Armor’s love for each other, and their love of Equestria. If the love the Changelings slowly absorbed from their prey was the water of life, then Cadance and Shining Armor had struck her with a fire hose, and the Changeling Hive, a hundred thousand strong, had been cast from Canterlot far to the south.
The Felinia Matriarchy had been nothing compared to Equestria, yet she’d hoped that it would sustain the Hive for a decade or so. Yet it was not to be: The Hive had been so terribly weakened by its defeat that it had no choice but to gorge itself on the Felinia, and if she did not find a new source of emotions soon, her brood would again begin to starve.
She heard the report open behind her. It will be pretended that she said, “Make your report,” instead of fluttering her spiracles just so and rubbing her forelegs exactly thus.
The Changeling officer removed his helmet. “My Queen, it is as you feared. In six months, the last vestiges of love in the Kingdom will be exhausted. The Hive is still weak. Only a third of us are strong enough to fly for any length of time, and not one of us has the power to take another creature’s form.”
Chrysalis spun round, horrified. A thick cloud of pheromones suddenly surrounded her. “What?!”
The officer took a step backwards, hesitant. “It is true. We cannot infiltrate our prey.”
Chrysalis paced the room, fuming. “If we cannot disguise, we cannot infiltrate. If we cannot fly, we cannot surprise. Then we have only one choice: Assault.”
“A war?” whispered the officer.
“Yes. We must take something and regain our strength from them before we move on to Equestria.”
“We are still to attack Equestria?” asked the officer uncertainly.
Chrysalis rounded on him. “Why do you even ask?! That miserable pile of friendship is the only place that can sustain us! We have to gather the strength to take it with a single blow: Any attempt at a piecemeal invasion and we would be repulsed by Celestia or the Elements of Harmony! We will gather strength off a weak target, and use that to strike Equestria.”
“My Queen, Equestria is a sleeping giant. It may have no army right now, but if we show that we are still able to attack others, that may convince Celestia that it is time to build one and face us before we have absorbed the strength we need.”
“It is risky, I know, yet if we are to survive we have no other choice. In any case, I have a target in mind that we should succeed in overrunning quickly. We can absorb their love faster than Celestia can build an army from nothing.”
“Who do you have in mind, My Queen?”
Chrysalis crossed to the wall. A huge map showing all territories south of the Macintosh Hills and Appleloosan Mountains hung there. “We hold Froud Valley and territory south of the Forest of Leota,” she said. “If we go south, we run the risk of interfering with the Dragon nesting grounds. If we go north, we butt against Equestria. If we go west, that will take us into Buffalo territory, which is sure to provoke Celestia.
“We strike east, at the Lynxes.”