//------------------------------//
// Interlude: Wearing Emotions On Your Sleeve 
// Story: The Moon Shall Rise From Hell's Ashes 
// by TundraStanza 
//------------------------------//


Interlude: Wearing Emotions On Your Sleeve


---{Chrysalis, Third-Person POV}

All right, so she made a slight miscalculation... a few educated guesses that turned out to be wrong.  She lost a few of the more diligent workers.  Those could always be replaced.  There was nothing to worry about there.

Wait... Was her neck joint still loosely crooked?  She thought she'd fixed that.

Well, no matter.  She had waited patiently for about five hundred years before her first attack against Canterlot.  She was patient enough to wait another five hundred.  It wasn't like Equestria found every single changeling within its borders.  There were still plenty of outlets where love was pouring in.

Several drones pinged.  One of the Recon was checking in ahead of schedule.  She allowed a moment to slide a hoof down her face.

For holes' sake! I don't have the patience to deal with this right now, she thought in the one private corner of her mind.

She sighed before forcing a neutral frustration to cover her fatigued irritation.  If she didn't show the one speck of competence in this hive, then who would?  Certainly not the mindless drones.  But she digressed as she turned to face the opening to her chamber with as close a look to disinterest as possible.  The buzzing of one of her subject's wings quickly grew in volume as they came into view.

"Rancid," addressed Queen Chrysalis, "I've already explained how you're supposed to do your job on nine separate occasions. I can't be bothered to hold your tail for you everywhere you go."

"What?" asked the subordinate in confusion. "Oh. No, it's not that. I have news, Your Majesty!"

The queen raised the patch of skin where her eyebrow would be. "Really? Well, then spit it out. What's so important that it couldn't have waited until tonight's usual report?"

"Luna has been spotted on carriage, en route to Pit Stop."

Pit Stop? Surely the maggot had developed a sense of humor. No one went to Pit Stop unless they wished to discuss mutual terms. Aside from love being channeled one way, the changelings and ponies had nothing to gain from each other. But there was something else that was bothering Chrysalis.

"Who is Luna?" she inquired.

Rancid's eyes suddenly widened. Clearly, she hadn't anticipated such a question. "Uh... the younger princess that rules Equestria. You know? The one that moves the moon?"

"There's a third princess now?" Chrysalis blinked twice. That can't be right. As far as I could tell, the only princesses of Equestria were Celestia and Mi Amore Cadenza. Where did this 'Luna' come from?

Now it was Rancid's turn to lift skin in lieu of an eyebrow. "Are you feeling okay, Queen Chrysalis? Equestria's had four princesses for the past few moons now."

Chrysalis stared straight at her scout with scrutiny. "You're kidding. You're kidding, right?"

"Not remotely, Your Highness." Rancid shook her head. "Celestia is the oldest and guides the sun through the day. Luna guides the moon and dreams by night. Cadance (the one you took the guise of) is charged with the Crystal Empire in the Arctic North. Lastly, Twilight Sparkle was crowned most recently."

The queen's face went through surprise, anger, confusion, and bafflement. But no matter how she twisted herself, she could not sense the littlest hint of anything amiss with her subject's emotions to suggest falsehood or any kind of joke.

"By Cypris, you're not kidding," muttered Chrysalis. "How in the world do you know something that I don't?"

Rancid shrugged. "I guess I was fortunate enough to be tasked with seeing the outside world."

Chrysalis cleared her throat. "Well, I suppose somebody needs to go find out what Luna wants."

Rancid patted a hoof against her chest. "I'll send word to the battalion drones at once."

"Wait, Rancid." Chrysalis motioned for her subject to stop. "I have another idea."

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