The day had been just perfect.
Queen Chrysalis had Canterlot under lockdown, her horde of changelings outnumbered all the resistance the city could muster, and they had suffered minimal casualties. Meanwhile, the Royal Guard was fighting on two fronts: they were trying to calm down all the panic amongst the civilians, but they also had to suppress her army as well. Celestia was locked up, and so were the Princess' six troublesome little subjects that seemed so determined to reach the Elements of Harmony. Everything had gone right, and she reminisced on the glory of her infiltration by breaking into song.
Everypony had fallen for her deception, except for Twilight. But she couldn't have ever guessed that a changeling, the Queen of the hive, could be the culprit of Twilight's suspicions. That little filly was locked up anyways, and it wasn't like anypony would listen to her would after how much she had defamed Cadance's good name. Sure, she wasn't sure how Twilight had managed to escape and spill the beans with the real Cadance, but the two were too late anyways.
Everything she wanted was right in front of her. Attacking Equestria at it's core, deceiving everypony, invading the city, check. The capital of the most harmonious, joyous, loving nation in the world, all the precious love her species could have dreamed of. Eventually, more changeling armies would come and join the fight. Resistance would be futile. The nation would be surrounded, and conquered from the inside out in an unstoppable, devastating two-front attack.
And then, everything had gone very, very wrong.
It all started when Cadance woke up Shining Armor from his hypnotized state. It was too late for them to have any significance in repelling her horde. She didn't have any reason to believe they could do anything, and her victory was assured.
Or so she thought.
Twilight had suggested for Shining Armor to perform the same shield spell that he'd used to suppress the changelings for a while. She saw no point in that, because after all, her horde was already inside Canterlot. What use was it to put the shield back up? They wouldn't accomplish anything but ensure that the ponies of the city were trapped with her horde. She doubted that Cadance could do anything about it either. After all, neither of them were in any fighting condition. It would be a miracle if the two could even activate the spell in the first place.
Unfortunately, she was wrong. In hindsight, she could have stopped it. She could have called upon her subjects to attack the pair. She could have dealt with the two herself.
Her own arrogance had blinded her.
Apparently, reactivating the shield from inside the city would push the changelings away, everything they'd left behind, and reset everything they had done. It wasn't setting it up outside the city. They weren't aiming to put up a new shield. They were going to wipe away all her efforts, all her soldiers. Like a brick wall, it pushed away her changelings, her hopes, and her dreams.
And now? Scattered throughout the land, they were scarcely a threat. The average changeling army relied on mass numbers. There were some specialized units that would do otherwise, and they had a few, but in general, hunting them down would be a trivial task for Equestria. Confused and lacking superiors, the common drone would be easily picked apart by a populace that was now very aware of their existence, capabilities, and weaknesses.
The force under her immediate command was once an imposing sight. Their numbers darkened the sky and spelled doom for anyone that dared stand against it. It radiated the glory of her hive, and was a force to be reckoned. And none of that was left. The Equestria she envisioned would have been a beautiful place for her race.
She exhaled heavily, turned her head, and spat. Which was followed by a curse. For the first time in several hours, it was enough to get a few heads to turn towards her direction. The queen had mostly kept to herself, just giving a few choice words once in a while. Once in a while, a drone would occasionally stop by and question if she was alright. Her eyes, which were now more lifeless than ever, would quickly glare at anyone who dared disturb her.
She wallowed for days after her defeat, crying profusely and bemoaning her defeat and mistakes to anyone who would listen. Within a few days, she had her fill and was mostly silent in her misery. Her dreams were a bipolar mess. In some, she emerged from the conquest of Canterlot victorious, completely vanquishing the enemy. In others, she was forced to relive the last moments where everything went wrong, over, and over again. There were a few dreams where nothing went right. In one, she was outed by Twilight the moment that mare came the Canterlot, seeing right through her disguise. In another, half her changelings died of spontaneous combustion. Sometimes, those dreams hurt less than the ones where she relived her defeat She could at least take solace in the fact that her invasion wasn't such a blundering failure and that they had at least done better.
Her thoughts had ranged from vivid fantasies of immensely satisfying retribution to fanciful thoughts of theoretical scenarios, calculated battle plans, and victories snatched from the jaws of defeat. These were less productive than she liked to admit.
One day, she found the resolve to fight on. Her self-righteousness had reignited, taking over her previous self-pity. She no longer wanted to dwell on her mistakes. She had been robbed a nation that was rightfully hers, and she was going to get it back.
"We need to regroup our ranks," she said.
The two changelings which had voluntarily stepped up for sentry duty, both quickly turned their heads towards her. Their helmets fell off in the process. They fumbled around and put their helmets back on.
"What?" they asked.
She glared icily at the two.
"I mean, yes?" they corrected themselves, realizing they may have just offended their queen.
She gritted her teeth before replying, "You heard what I said. Round up all the changelings you can find. The second apatrol to stumbles upon us, we're dead. Just a single stallion needs to get away to reveal our position.
And it was true. Only two changelings were within a hundred meters of her landing position, and if how far she went was a good estimate of how far away they were repelled, then a quarter of her force would be around the Everfree Forest. And that would be make up a fairly substantial force. This wasn't nearly enough to take Equestria, especially now that it was on high alert, but it would make for an excellent start. There were around two dozen changelings camping around her so far. And there were probably several hundred in the Everfree at least.
And who knew? Not everypony in Equestria would be completely happy with the way things were run in Equestria. There were outcasts as well. Her scouts had told her that there was a central river in Equestria that was full of fishing boats, trading ships, and a few could be griffon sea raiders. Equestria was not at war with them, but raids did happen occasionally. While it was probably a foolish hope, there was a chance they could fight alongside the changelings.
She turned her head to the two sentries, which had hesitated, perhaps for too long. And many other changelings around her had turned heads from their tasks. Part of the reason why these changelings didn't shy away from rendezvousing with the Queen was because none of them had any better ideas about what they would do now. Their discovery that she was initially mopey, and then taciturn, gave them the impression that she wasn't going to do anything. For most of them, it was a surprising development, but one that wouldn't negatively effect Chrysalis.
"I want every able-bodied changeling in this camp searching for our comrades."
"B-but you'll be unprotected!"
"We'll be doomed if we just sit here. We need extra forces."