//------------------------------// // Second in Command // Story: The Definition of Harmony // by Gladi Writes //------------------------------// Twilight was flung backwards by the blast unleashed by her changeling adversary. She had not expected such power, this changeling was different from the others she had encountered. Leaping up on two legs she saw the changeling take flight and make for the sky. Twilight had to find out what creature’s mission was, if the changelings were planning another invasion it could end in disaster with Celestia away in Baltimare. Did they know? Twilight squinted up at the figure receding into the sky and fired a half dozen magic bolts in it’s direction. They all missed, Twilight’s marksmareship left much to be desired. Soon she found herself drained, and unable to continue firing. She realized that by letting her guard down the changeling must have been able to somehow steal her magical energy. To be exploited like this, drained of energy like she was just a spigot of magic. Like she was just a thing. Slamming her forehooves into the dirt Twilight once more called for the guard. With a fire in her eyes she boomed her call. “Guards!” Watching the changeling intently she was pleased to see the gleam of two pegasi on patrol spotting it. The took pursuit just as two unicorn guards came up on Twilight. “Princess!” They galloped to a halt beside her, breathless. “Raise the alarm! There’s a changeling in Canterlot!” Twilight ordered them. The pair looked at each other, unsure. “Raise the alarm!” Twilight shouted at them. “That’s an order!” The pair saluted and galloped off. Twilight looked back at the sky and saw the changeling still being pursued by the two pegasi dart into the city. Twilight sped towards the city herself, she couldn’t let that thing get away. Running past a few pedestrians in the park she slid around a bush and lined up with the street the changeling had flown down. Ahead of her Twilight saw a few guards racing down the street in pursuit of the distant figure, the pegasi gaining on it. Pedestrians had cleared the street and cowered on the sidewalk. Taking a moment to catch her breath Twilight galloped forward and opened her wings. She couldn’t fly very well, but she could boost herself forward. Twilight gave herself a solid push with a flap of her wings and shot forwards, gliding over the street. Landing again she sprinted and jumped again, repeating this flying leap to overtake the guards on the ground. They tripped over themselves and fell to the ground, one of them exclaiming “Princess?!” at the sight. Twilight allowed herself to smile as she soared over them, taking another leap a few feet away. Her smile faded quickly as she looked up and saw the changeling dart into the palace itself. Her eyes flew open as her mind ran wild with all the potential things a changeling could do in the palace. With Celestia gone it was her responsibility to protect it, and protect it she would. Twilight’s eyes blazed with light as a spark of magic flew out of her alicorn creating a bubble that consumed her form, and she vanished. Only to pop back into existence a few feet away. Surprised, and still carried forward by the momentum retained through the teleportation, Twilight tumbled through the air flapping her wings feebly in confusion. The ground was coming up fast, Twilight shielded her face with her forelimbs and braced for impact, wings still uselessly fluttering as she fell forward. A shocked scream heralded her hitting the ground with an audible crack as she landed on her back and slid a few meters along the street. Twilight grimaced as she righted herself, a searing pain arcing through her back. Looking herself over she groaned as she saw her wings. They weren’t permanently damaged, but she wouldn’t be flying for a while. The two guards she had soared over earlier came upon her as she lay on the ground. “Princess!” One of them exclaimed, skidding to a stop and bending to help her. “I’m fine, save the palace!” Twilight ordered. The guards did as ordered after a slight moments hesitation. They knew as well as she did the chaos a changeling loose in the palace could cause. Ancient tomes of magic, Royal Guard patrol schedules, the information locked in the palace could bring down Equestria in the wrong hands. The Changeling Hive was most certainly the wrong hands. Twilight would just have to protect the people without wings, as she always had. Putting the pain behind she galloped forward after the guards towards the palace gates. She would not allow the palace to be infiltrated. She wo-- As she galloped forward her thought was cut off as the changeling flew out of a window and flew over her head. Twilight dove out of the way as a barrage of bolts followed it. “Be careful with those!” Twilight shouted upwards. The two pegasi peered out the window looking for their target. In the confusion it appeared he slipped away. The two pegasi turned their heads inside, and then leapt backwards out of the window. They barely managed to right themselves to a hover outside so hasty was their exit. “My room!” A familiar voice shouted from within. The pegasi wisely chose to avoid the rest of her wrath, and flew off in the general direction of the changeling. Out the window popped a mare with curled locks of purple hair. She looked up and down the street for someone to either blame for, or fix, her trashed guestroom. Twilight came out into the street and shouted up at her. “Rarity! Are you alright?” Rarity looked down and noticed her friend, her angry gaze softened and then she looked over her friend agast. “Twilight, you’re injured!” She shouted down worriedly. “Nevermind me Rarity, I’m fine!” Twilight shouted back. “But dear, your wings!” Rarity returned. “I’ve been fine without them before, We’ve got to find that Changeling!” Twilight turned to gallop away down the street, but slammed her head into the armour of a guard instead. “Princess! My apologies!” The guard said, backing up and extended a hoof. Twilight recognized him as Captain Pike, who had replaced her brother after he had moved to the Crystal Empire. “Where’s the changeling?” Twilight asked, not missing a beat. “It escaped over the cliff, I could arrange for a scouting party b-” Twilight motioned with a hoof to stop him. “No, there’s far too much ground to cover.” She said, massaging her forehead with her hoof. “I failed to protect the city, what sort of princess am I?” Twilight lamented. She pawed at the ground with and stared at the stones in the road. Around her the citizens started to come out of their hiding spots. A crowd soon started to form around Twilight and the Captain. “You did not Princess, you discovered the infiltrator, which is more than I could probably do. Chrysalis will hear of another defeat.” Pike argued. He extended a hoof and raised Twilights chin, giving her a warm smile. Twilight had a brainstorm, and her eyes flashed open. She turned to face the crowd and her voice boomed with regal authority. She knew exactly how to make Celestia proud of her now, and prove to everyone she was just in her station. “Citizens of Canterlot, once again Chrysalis has tried to undermine the city. Once again, she was defeated. I will ensure that this pattern ends. Today will be the last defeat of Queen Chrysalis!” “Hear Hear!” Rarity shouted from behind the group. “Hear Hear!” A green unicorn shouted. The crowd stamped their hooves in approval of the short speech, and then Twilight turned to Captain Pike. “How many guards can you spare?” She asked. Pike put his hoof to his chin and considered this for a moment. “Depends on the mission, but probably a hundred. I can have them formed up within the hour.” He replied. “Good, have them meet at the train station. We’re going south.” Twilight looked back out at the crowd, Rarity behind them. It was time for her and her friends to do what they did best. It was time to save Equestria, repair harmony, and spread the magic of friendship. Away to the south, past the Badlands and the independent states around it the Changeling Hive stood in a forested valley. Isolated from most of the world due to mutual distrust and it’s location, the Hive was an entirely self sufficient state. A few thousand changelings lived here, with a thousand more operating a grand spy network across the known world. The workers carried on their ceaseless actively keeping the other castes, the warriors and the leaders, sustained as the sun went down. The low sun caused the spiral structures of the Hive to cast eerie shadows across the valley, but for Eta-Eta it only reminded him of how peaceful his home was. Looking over the hive from his office balcony high in the fortress he spotted a figure approaching in the distance. Nobody was due back today, Eta-Eta cocked his head back to look at the calendar pinned to the wall to check this. No matter, it was probably just a scout reporting some trivial fact. Perhaps the Griffons had finally decided on a new High King. Whatever the report, Eta-Eta had other things to tend to. Eta-Eta was not like the others. His eyes proved this. Unlike the other changelings his eyes were not of the solid blue of the leaders, nor the pale gray of the warriors or the green of the workers. His eyes had a deep red iris, set in the blue of the leaders. He was bred to act as an intermediary between the Queen and the leader caste, tasked with ensuring the smooth operation of the hive and that her whims were carried out. If Chrysalis was the brain of the Hive, then Eta-Eta was the spine. Taking a seat at his desk, which was covered with the odds and ends of reports and assignments, he picked up the newest report to read it. Apparently the Griffon Kingdoms were close to imploding over the debate of who should be their new king, but this wasn’t anything new. Otherwise the rest of the documents painted the portrait of a calm continent, there were no holes for the hive to exploit at the moment. Born without the ability to produce their own magic, they forever sought out others to siphon it from. The Hive was ever looking for holes to exploit in it’s neighbors to this end. It would be so much simpler if the other nations would just negotiate, perhaps trade, but it was not to be. Hundreds of years of mutual distrust between the other races and the shapeshifting magic siphoning changelings had ensured that there was no way to contact the others even if the Hive had wanted to. The Queen most certainly did not. As he went over the reports Eta-Eta heard a faint knocking at the door. “It’s unlocked.” He said, not looking up from his work. The door creaked open slowly and a battered looking leader changeling entered. His blue eyes betrayed his fear. “Eta-Gamma, you’re back early.” Eta-Eta said, looking up from the reports. Eta-Gamma looked at the floor, seemingly enthralled by the carpet. “Yes sir, home early.” He said. “So you failed then?” Eta-Eta asked. “I did sir, I blew my cover and barely made it out.” Eta Gamma said, looking up at his superior with an expression of rue. “I failed” “Chrysalis will not be happy to hear this.” Eta-Eta said, rising from his seat to approach his comrade. “You look like you barely made it out, Take some leave and then report back,” Eta-Eta said as he looked over Eta-Gamma. His comrade looked like he had gone through a rock tumbler. “Yes sir.” Eta-Gamma said. His ears perked up a slight bit. “Don’t think you’re getting off easy Eta-Gamma. Latrine duty for a month and probation for a month more. Dismissed.” Eta-Eta ordered. Eta-Gamma nodded and left, leaving the door open as he departed down the hallway. Eta-Eta sighed. He had known this mission would probably end in a failure, but orders were orders. The Queen knew as well as he did the magic of the ponies that lived in Equestria was far stronger than any of the other nations within their reach, this made them their prime target. It was also this fact that made them such a tough nut to crack. Months ago they had finally gotten their first infiltrator into the court of Princess Celestia since the ill-fated invasion, but her sister- Luna- quickly discovered and ran off the infiltrator. The intelligence gathered was meant to go towards this mission, but it was a failure. It was back to the start for their plans. Eta-Eta did not envy reporting this to the Queen, but it was his duty. The failures of his subordinates were his own failures. He had failed, and he was duty bound to report it. Gathering up a few assignments needing her signature, Eta-Eta departed for the throne room to meet with the Queen. Arriving at the doors to the throne room the two warriors that stood guard saluted and opened the doors for Eta-Eta. He strode in to find Chrysalis reading. She sat on the throne of stone in the middle of the unadorned room. Behind the Queen a window opened to give a panorama of the Hive and the forested valley beyond. Evening twilight streaming in as the sun set in the distance. “Good Evening Eta-Eta, I trust the day has been good to us?” She said, putting the book on a small table beside the throne. “What have you to report?” The doors closed behind Eta-Eta, no escape now. “Your Highness.” Eta-Eta bowed. “The Griffons are close to anarchy, and the diamond dogs have been run out of the badlands by the Equestrian Royal Guard.” He said, producing a series of documents. “The Equestrian Royal Guard, always a pain in my side. It’s good to see they don’t play favourites. Tell me then, what of the operative in Canterlot?” She asked as she took the documents. “A failure, your highness,” Eta-Eta said regretfully. Chrysalis looked up from the documents she was skimming through and scowled down at him. “It took months to gather the intelligence to insert an operative! Months!” She got up from the throne, tossing the documents aside as she started ranting. “Now we’ll have to start over, and their guard will be on alert!” She walked behind the throne to the window, seething with anger. “How is it that they keep defeating us, time and time again?” She lamented into the sky, Gesturing to the distance with a holed hoof. “Eta-Eta you try my patience with this, You know full well we need Equestria, our magic is fading.” Her voice took on a more somber tone as she turned to face him. She sighed, and her anger seemed to dissipate. “What of the Griffons?” “Splintered, but it’s yet to be seen what will come of the leadership struggle. There’s enough chaos to insert an operative easy enough, but it would be impossible to make any meaningful insertion without knowing more.” Eta-Eta explained. “So then Equestria remains our best hope, they’ll fall in time.” She returned to her seat on the throne. “They’ll fall to us.” She added. “Of course, your highness. I suggest we raid one of the local nations in the meantime,” Eta-Eta suggested. “Agreed, make it so. Don’t spend too many resources on this however, and keep your guard up against any reprisals from Equestria,” Chrysalis ordered. Eta-Eta bowed. “It will be done your Highness.” He turned to leave but was stopped when Chrysalis spoke behind him. “Eta-Eta, remember your purpose,” She said. “The harmony of the hive depends on it.” “As always, your highness,” Eta-Eta looked back and said before departing. Once in the hallway the two door guards closed the doors behind him. They stood as statues beside the door, their eyes a glassy blue. Eta-Eta took a moment to look at them. Their mission in life was the simpler one, they only ever had to follow their orders. If they failed, it was the fault of the ones who led them. Eta-Eta was charged with leading those who led the warriors, in the end every success and every failure was as his own. It was a responsibility he was born and raised specifically to carry. This was his purpose. The ponies had cutie marks, the changelings had castes. The ponies seemed to have a strange caste system too, often naming their children a name applicable to their later role in life. This would have to be investigated further. Done pondering this Eta-Eta walked down the hallway to his quarters. As the effective second in command of the hive his quarters were separate from the leader barracks outside. It was important he be close to Chrysalis at all times to hear and relay her orders. It was a somewhat lonely life, but it was his. Chrysalis was friendly enough purported you had no bad news, or were a different species. Opening the door to his quarters Eta-Eta stepped inside and shut it again. It was a utilitarian room- he spend most of his time in his office anyway. This was solely for sleep, and that’s what he was here to do. Today had been a long day, and tomorrow would probably be longer as he planned the raids ordered by the Queen. Flopping down on his bed his insectoid brain clicked off and the spine of the hive went to sleep. He didn’t sleep for long.